Jeremy Butler

Have you ever wondered what the Jurassic Park franchise would have looked like if instead of a amusement park, it was a hunting preserve? Yeah, me either, but someone must have, because that is essentially the embodiment of the film Jurassic Hunt. After watching the film, I’ve come to the conclusion that some films just don’t need to be made. Especially if they are going to be done with cheesy special effects and sub-par storytelling. To put it mildly, this was not a movie for me, and if you are a fan of high-quality content, I’m pretty sure you will feel the same. I suppose the film reaches the level of a sci-fi made-for-TV movie, but other than that, I can see no higher aspirations for it. The film kind of puts you right into the thick of things; no real back story or anything like that. We are just kind of launched right into the hunt. On this type of film, I would have expected background information to be paramount.
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“By 2014, hundreds of young women had left Europe to join ISIS. Their journeys began on social media platforms where they found new friends and chose new names.”

Based on the non-fiction novel, In The Skin of a Jihadist, this film tells the story about one reporters journey to create a groundbreaking story and how she nearly lost herself in the process. Valene Kane (The Fall) plays Amy Whittaker, a freelance reporter struggling to make ends meet when she decides to investigate the recruitment of young European women by ISIS. As part of her investigation, Amy creates a fake Facebook profile of a young woman who has recently converted to Islam. Before long, she is contacted by Bilel (Shazad Latif, Star Trek: Discovery), an ISIS fighter from Syria. On the surface, he is charming and he speaks of his chosen cause with great passion and conviction.
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Not bad for a B-movie alien invasion dystopian film. That was a nice surprise, as I was all prepared to endure a bunch of cliches and basic character archetypes. However Occupation: Rainfall delivers a moderately decent movie experience. There were some obvious timing issues towards the film’s conclusion, but we’ll get into that later. Speaking of surprises, I was surprised to discover that this film is actually a direct sequel of a film that was released in 2018. Granted, there were some changes, such as Jet Tranter replacing Stephanie Jacobson as Amelia Chambers, or Amelia the human as she is referred to more frequently than by her real name. The film also features the addition of The Originals’ Daniel Gilles and Jason Isaac as a hilarious character. All in all, minus that timing issue I mentioned earlier, Occupation Rainfall delivered a surprising and overall enjoyable experience.
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“The time for apologies is behind us.”

While the dubbing of this film leaves something to be desired at times, all in all I’d categorize this as a moderately entertaining thriller. Tailgate can serve as a cautionary tale for us all regarding being careful who you cut off in traffic. You never know; that person could very well be a homicidal maniac with a penchant for using pesticide on his victims. Or at least that is what the killer in this film was all about. Granted, this antagonist doesn’t quite rise to the level of Michael Myers or say Candyman (you got me, I chose those two characters because they both have movies due out in the immediate future), there is something to be said for a killer who believes that he has the moral high ground. And to think all of this could have been resolved with a simple and well-timed apology.
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“By 2014, hundreds of young women had left Europe to join ISIS. Their journeys began on social media platforms where they found new friends and chose new names.”

Based on the non-fiction novel, In The Skin of a Jihadist, this film tells the story about one reporters journey to create a groundbreaking story and how she nearly lost herself in the process. Valene Kane (The Fall) plays Amy Whittaker, a freelance reporter struggling to make ends meet when she decides to investigate the recruitment of young European women by ISIS. As part of her investigation, Amy creates a fake Facebook profile of a young woman who has recently converted to Islam. Before long, she is contacted by Bilel (Shazad Latif, Star Trek: Discovery), an ISIS fighter from Syria.
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“How many friends did you have growing up? I just had one.”

A member of the cast has described this film as Mean Girls meets Final Destination. I don’t think I could come up with a better summation of the film if I tried. As I watched, I toyed with the idea that the film evoked Kevin Williamson-like nostalgia, but that was the best I came up with. The film is billed as a horror film, but of course there are elements that cause me to see it as more of a black comedy slasher film, like Happy Death Day. OK, that’s enough comparing it to other films; let’s talk about what Séance is. In a nutshell, Séance was a surprise for me.
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“Creeks lead to rivers. Rivers lead to towns.”

With a little more character development, Those Who Wish Me Dead would have been a really intriguing story. The film had a winning recipe: a script written by the man who gave us Hell Or High Water/Sicario (Taylor Sheridan), a cast that include talent like Angelina Jolie, Jon Bernthal, Nicholas Hoult, and Aidan Gillen, as well as a rifle-toting pregnant woman on horseback. What more could you ask for? If only adequate time had been spent fleshing the characters out and answering some of the questions that were posed during the film’s runtime. As it stands, the film never gets past the initial intrigue phase, because despite all the things the film did have, it’s what the film was missing that defines it.
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A story about a man so desperate to prove his importance and rub elbows with the elite that he’s willing to kill for the privilege. I can see why Christoph Waltz made this film his directorial debut. Of course, it is also great that he also chooses to act in it as well, because as this film proves, Waltz is not only a tremendous actor, but he is quite capable in as a director as well. Based on the New York Times Magazine article, “The Worst Marriage in Georgetown,” Waltz stars as Ulrich Mott, an ambitious social climber that is willing to go to great lengths to obtain the status that he believes himself deserving of.  Too bad nobody else seems to see him in the same light, that is until Vanessa Redgrave’s Elsa Brecht, his wife as well as his subsequent murder victim. Brecht, who is a quite a few years older than Mott, helps him to discover his confidence and thanks to her own standing in the political community, manages to put him in the orbit of several powerbrokers.
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I like it when films limit themselves to one or two locations. I feel like it puts more emphasis on the acting. Of course when you limit yourself in such a fashion, it is important that the acting is of great quality. Thankfully, the actors of Wildcat are up to the task and deliver sound performances, especially lead actress Georgina Campbell of Krypton fame. Wildcat is a psychological thriller that follows Khadija Young (Campbell), an ambitious journalist stationed in the Middle East who is taken captive after her convoy is ambushed. With her and a young marine the only survivors of the convoy attacked, they find themselves at the mercy of militants led by a cold and calculating leader. The film does not shy away from the ugliness of captivity, establishing the use of torture against enemy combatants from the very first scene. Our protagonist finds herself locked away in a secure room, and the first thing that happens is that her captors remove one of her fingernails. That’s how the film opened up, so you could only imagine what other horrors she was forced to face. However, the trauma is not only of the body, but of the psyche.
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“You see this bulls*%t right here? This is exactly like him … just like Ghost.”

The first sequel series in the Power universe, starring quite possibly one of the most hated characters in the original series, and that’s a long list. Fans of the original series are likely still bearing a grudge against Michael Rainey Jr.’s Tariq St. Patrick for his murder of his father, James St. Patrick, aka Ghost, at the end of the original series. However, I heard tell when it comes to his actions in this sequel series, those are the least of Tariq’s transgressions. Picking up just a few days after the conclusion of the original series, Tariq adjusts to his new life at Stansfield University, where he immediately finds his way back into the drug game in hopes of financing his mother’s trial for the murder of his father, a rap she took for him. This Starz series shows Tariq’s descent from the world of privilege into the gritty street world
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Nothing like being framed for murder to revitalize a dying relationship. Or least that is the premise that fueled this Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani-led romantic comedy. Now in recent years, both Rae’s and Nanjiani’s star powers have been on the rise, interestingly enough as a result of stellar performances in television series (Rai on Insecure, which she also produces, and Nanjiani on Silicon Valley). This has led to more theatrical roles, which have also been moderately successful. I anticipate that their stock will continue to rise, especially given Nanijiani’s induction into the MCU with his casting in the upcoming Eternals movie, and Rae is not slouching, either, with a whopping 17 projects that her name has been attached to produce. As glad as I am that these two are doing great professionally, I don’t see this Netflix-turned-home-media release doing much for either one of them.
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It is a tall order to create a compelling television series with virtually no dialog. However, Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal fills that order. Then again, what would you expect from the creator of such entertaining animated series as Dexter’s Laboratory, Samurai Jack, and Star Wars: The Clone Wars. This time around Tartakovsky tackles the prehistoric period with this series that follows a caveman and a Tyrannosaurus that were bonded by grief. As unrealistic as the pairing sounds, the themes of the series make it quality television. Normally, I’m not one for shows with minimal dialog; in this series, its absence makes the artwork and storylines resonate deeper as extra time and care was taken to convey the plot’s significance. Of particular intrigue is that fact that though the series is a work of fantasy, all the animals depicted are based on real prehistoric animals.
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Cute show, at least as far as I was concerned. My daughter is a bit of a different animal; then, of course, if it doesn’t show on Netflix or YouTube, she tends not to be all that interested. Unfortunately for my daughter, Victor & Valentino is a Cartoon Network show, so her interest in the series was nonexistent in the beginning. On the plus side, she was coming off a long punishment that included the loss of her TV privileges, so given an opportunity to watch any form of entertainment, she jumped at the chance. As I said, she wasn’t really about the show at first, but over the course of the 18 episodes, I think she started to enjoy it. Don’t let that number scare you. Each episode tends to run between 11 and 12 minutes, so you can watch the entire thing in the same span that it would take to watch a movie and a half. More on the subject: the series follows two half-brothers who are polar opposites; Victor “Vic” Calavera (who is voiced by show creator Diego Molano), an easily bored, hyperactive kid with a penchant for mischief and disregarding rules.
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“I believe that every fascist should be swindled.” 

The Last Vermeer truly was a worthwhile film experience for me, worthy of the silver screen. Granted, I doubt it would have been big at the box office domestically, but I don’t question that critics would have enjoyed just as I did. The film is based on the 2008 book The Man Who Made Vermeers by Jonathan Lopez, and tells the story of Dutch folk hero Han van Meegeren (played by Guy Pearce), an art forger who swindles millions of dollars from the Nazis. Following World War II, van Meegeren become widely known as one of the most ingenious art forgers of the 20th century, when it was revealed that he had sold a forged painting to Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. These events were revealed after a sensational trial in which he was being charged as officials believed that he had sold Dutch cultural property to the Nazis, a capital offense. Facing potential death by firing squad, Van Meegeren confessed to the less serious charge of forgery. It is estimated that Van Meegeren swindled buyers out of the equivalent of more than US $30 million, including the government of the Netherlands. But that is enough with the history lesson; let’s talk about the film.
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