Disc Reviews

Come Play is the most recent film to be expanded to feature length following a successful short project. With the moderate success of Lights Out, it’s no big surprise that a studio would want to take a chance on Come Play, whose short film, “Larry”, worked as a prototype for the feature it would become.  This kind of thing happens quite often with genre projects, but sometimes you have to wonder is there really enough story to expand a 5-minute short into a 90-minute feature.  Using the addiction to technology and its ever-expanding AI features, there is plenty of story to be mined from this.  Recently there was the update to Child’s Play that had AI technology seeking a new best friend it would kill to have, and in that film, Chucky was able to manipulate the technology around him.  Come Play somewhat takes the same approach but instead creates a boogeyman for the age of modern tech. Then factor in that it’s a film under the Amblin umbrella, a company that is responsible for Poltergeist, ET, and numerous 80’s and 90’s genre classics … well, it’s hard to not have some raised expectations.
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“You will survive Christmas in the mountains. I promise”

Someone should have told that character about making promises that you can’t keep. In this horror film, which felt more like a dark comedy if you ask me, a newly formed blended family and their au pair find themselves doing battle with a group of evil toys. That’s right, you read correctly, I said toys, and on Christmas no less. Now, the premise of evil toys is nothing new. I for one still can’t look at a Chucky doll without internal feelings of dread; however, where those films were able to instill fear, Toys of Terror just doesn’t do it, largely due to the film’s overall pacing. It just takes too long to get off the ground. Plenty of sizzle, but by the time we get to the steak, much of the runtime has been depleted and all the intrigue has bubbled out. While it is not the horror film that I expected, there were still some elements of the film that were worthwhile despite a bit of a lackluster conclusion.
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I was very much impressed with the quality of this film. Of late the quality of horror films that I’ve reviewed have not been great, and this film helped to restore my faith in the genre. While I am past the era of these types of movies scaring the bejesus out of me, I still admire a creative story that isn’t completely predictable. There are some elements of the film that were somewhat predictable, but overall the premise and story quality kept the project from being stale. The film reminds me of what Terrence Howard said in Four Brothers: “Keep knocking on the Devil’s door long enough and sooner or later someone’s going to answer you.” Great line and sound advice, which this film appears to expand upon. While the film is probably still falls into the B- movie category, the production quality and diligent work of the cast ensures that it falls into the higher spectrum of the B-movie category. The film features Ryan Guzman (television series 9-1-1) as a priest specializing in exorcism for his many followers on social media.
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The Twilight Zone is simply one of those pop culture staples that everyone knows about even if they’ve never seen a single episode. Because of SYFY channel I’ve gotten to see the original show as well as the reboots that would follow. While I’m not as passionate about the anthology series as others, I certainly can appreciate its impact on the not just the sci-fi/horror genre but the history it’s had on television as well. I was curious about this new incarnation of The Twilight Zone, but I was less than enthusiastic about Jordan Peele being involved with the show.  As much as I’m a fan of Key & Peele, his foray into horror and sci-fi has left me more than underwhelmed. Being a fan of anthologies and with a little bit of curiosity, I went into Season 2 of The Twilight Zone with an open mind, and the result is a bit of a mixed bag.
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Well despite being typecasted, Liam Neeson delivers an entertaining film with Honest Thief. The film depicts the story of a prolific bank robber who after falling in love, decides to turn himself in exchange for a reduced sentence. A caveat of this deal is that he must also return the money he stole; all nine million dollars of it. It isn’t hard to figure out where the story goes from here. Naturally, the FBI agents assigned to the case immediately get greedy upon seeing the money and make plans to keep it for themselves. Where the film deviates is when they agents try to kill him, they are caught by their boss and forced to kill him and frame Neeson for the crime. I was prepared for the greed, but not the murder of one of their own, so that provided a decent twist, or it would have had it not been one of the big selling twist featured in all the promotional trailers for the film. Sometimes Hollywood ruins a good twist by providing too much information in the trailer. Rounding out the cast is Kate Walsh, Jai Courtney, Robert Patrick, and one of my favorite actors, Jeffrey Donovan.
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As a directorial debut, I’d rate the film as average. There’s intrigue, but it is light on explanations. The film is also a bit of a slow burn, as I was a quarter through the film before anything of substance began to happen. When it comes to the horror genre, that is a bit long to wait. The film appeared to be focused on trying to get the audience to invest in the characters in the beginning more than moving the plot along. Once things began to happen, the intrigue began to build more, and the story was able to maintain my interest. That said, I’m still confused as to the overall setup for the film. Despite its 88-minute runtime, the film had more of an indie-student-film vibe to it. It has a talented cast that included Liana Liberato (Light as a Feather) and Jake Weber (Dawn of the Dead), but with the exception of Liberato’s character, the cast is a bit one-dimensional. All in all, while intriguing, the film felt a bit underdeveloped.
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If you were hoping to see if this film would get the Nalyce stamp of approval, I must apologize, because this was one that she just flat out did not want to watch. I mean, she didn’t even want to give it a chance. In her defense, I do believe that she has aged out of this type of content. Kids, they grow up so fast. So I’m afraid you will have to rely solely on my commentary about Thomas and the Magic Railroad. In all honesty, I think Nalyce made the right call by opting out of this movie. Not only is she likely no longer in the age bracket for this type of film; the plot is so all over the place that I had trouble following it. While the film does have some familiar faces that include Alec Baldwin and Peter Fonda, there is nothing about the story that really reaches out and grabs you. The location changes so much that after a while I started to feel like a ping pong ball being knocked back and forward. Also, given that the film is a re-release (having originally been released in theaters in 2000), the low quality of the special effects are not likely to captivate a younger audience that has been spoiled with the high-definition quality that they get today. In a nutshell, this is one is probably not worth your time.
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Three-time widower Ben Cartwright (Greene) runs his famous Ponderosa Ranch with the aid of his three grown sons from three different mothers. There’s Little Joe (Landon), Adam (Roberts), and Hoss (Blocker). Set some time in the mid 1800’s, this long-running series followed the family’s many exploits. In the late 1950’s, westerns accounted for six of the top ten programs on TV. Only Gunsmoke had a longer run than Bonanza. From 1959 to 1973, Ben Cartwright and his boys rode across the small screen. Years later in syndication the series re-emerged as Ponderosa, and a handful of TV movies continued the tale into the 90’s.We never have grown tired of the genre that gave us such heroes as John Wayne and Clint Eastwood.
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It’s not uncommon for actors to want to take that leap from being in front of the camera to taking on the mantle of being director.  There are some big names who have made that transition successfully. Ben Affleck, Mel Gibson, George Clooney, Peter Berg, and Clint Eastwood are some of the bigger names that I can name off the top of my head. For The Vanished, Peter Facinelli is adding his name to that list. So how does he fare in this low-budget psychological thriller?  While I wouldn’t put him in the same league as those previously mentioned, Facinelli does show some promise, but the film’s greatest weakness is its script, which Facinelli also is credited for writing.  This is one of those instances where I just wonder if someone else took a pass at the script how much the film could have improved, because this was a frustrating film to sit through.
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