THE TWO FACES OF JANUARY (2014)

Chester Macfarland (Viggo Mortensen) and his wife, Collette (Kirsten Dunst) are vacationing in Greece when they run into Rydal (Oscar Isaac), a youthful small time grifter who uses his multiple languages to scam tourists. But Chester is a big-time stock swindler who's confronted by a private detective hired by his victims to recoup their money. They get into a scuffle, the private eye is killed, and Chester enlists Rydal to get fake passports for Collette and him, drawing Rydal ever-deeper into a desperate effort to escape. Chester's no master criminal, but Mortensen, always good, imbues him with a nasty, ruthless and dangerous persona. This movie is from a Patricia Highsmith novel, and the twisty plot does her credit (as in "The Talented Mr. Ripley"). Worthwhile.

LUCKIEST GIRL ALIVE

Mile Kunis stars as Ani Fanelli, a young woman living in New York City who seems to have everything: a great job with the potential for promotion, a loving and wealthy fiancee, and the best years of her life in front of her. Until documentarian, Aaron Wickersham (Dalmar Abuzeid), reaches out to Ani about his current project which seizes to revisit her tragic past, which is the subject of his next film. Ani is a survivor of a school shooting that took place at her private school in 1999 that is loosely based on Columbine. Her perfect world begins to shatter as she's forced to confront her past and attempts to lead her current glamorized lifestyle. The story takes place both within 1999 and present day (for this setting, 2015 before the next Presidential election and plenty of Hillary fodder is here for the libs). A lot of attention is givien to anti-Second Amendment rhetoric as another survivor of this event, Dean Barton (Alex Barone), is both peddling a memoir while also pressuring Congress to enact more stringent gun-control laws. Kunis is brilliant as Ani, a woman who seems to have her life under control but with the slightest amount of push about her past, becomes unraveled. The film turns out to be much different than what is expected from the trailer, especially within the final act. 6/10

HALLOWEEN ENDS

44 years in the making, HALLOWEEN ENDS is Jamie Lee Curtis' swan song to the Laurie Strode character and it's a lovely parting between her and the franchise. Picking up 4 years after the events of HALLOWEEN (2018) and HALLOWEEN KILLS, this entry into the trilogy redeems itself after the previous mediocre offering fans were given. Refusing to be paralyzed by fear any longer, Laurie lives a more active life in Haddonfield along with her granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak). However, Laurie seems to have moved on from her most recent encounter with Michael Myers, whereas Allyson picks up the torch of playing the traumatized survivor who finds it difficult to move past it. Both JLC and Matichak should be commended for their brilliant performances respectively. The story also introduces new comer Corey Cunningham (Rohan Campbell) who has a horrific past experience of his own and he and Allyson develop a relationship based upon their own troubled past and outcast standing within the community. Not as violent as the last entry of the franchise (although it didn't need to be) and I only had 1 major issue with the plot line but other than that, this was a satisfying finale for both this new trilogy and JLC. Overall, nothing spectacular but most certainly worth your time. 6.5/10

I thought it was a massive letdown. Michael Myers is my all time favorite horror hero, but this was not a good ending. I will rewatch it at some point though lol

Other than the ending, what didn't you like about it?

I wasn't entirely on board with Halloween Ends either. Then again, I hold the original Halloween in such a high regard that any of the subsequent movies in the franchise are immediately doomed to pale in comparison.

The Hellraiser reboot wasn't good either imho. None of the discomforting and surreal atmosphere of the original and it all felt very tame.

ELVIS & NIXON (2016)

This is a somewhat fictionalized account of the famous meeting between The King (Michael Shannon) and The President (Kevin Spacey). Since no record of the meeting was made (except for the iconic photo of the pair), the dialog twixt the two was embellished. But that's all to the good because Spacey is an absolute howl as Nixon. Shannon does his best to imitate Elvis, and gets some snappy comic lines and situations where his fame opens doors and shuts threats. But, apart from the hairdo and sideburns, he doesn't even look like The King. All in all, a mildly amusing film.

I agree with you here but compared to other sequels, this trilogy IMO was the best of the franchise and nice companions to the original. Nothing will ever beat the 1978 film.

MR. HARRIGAN'S PHONE

Based upon a short story by Stephen King, the setting takes place in Harlow, Maine and follows young Craig (Colin O'Brien) and his father (Joe Tippett). Craig having recently lost his mother and his father having lost his wife, their home feels isolated even with the two residing in it. Local billionaire Mr. Harrigan (Donald Sutherland) begins to lose his vision and requests for young Craig to read to him 3 times per week from his personal library at a rate of $5-per-hour. Fast forward 5 yeas later Craig (Jaeden Martell) is now in high school when the first iPhone is released. His father purchases him one for Christmas and after winning $3,000 via a scratch off ticket, which Mr. Harrigan gives to his 4 times a year, he decides to gift Mr. Harrigan with his own iPhone. However, one day Craig arrives as usual to read to Mr. Harrigan, only to find him dead. Lonely and just having lost one of his longest and closest friends, Craig reaches out to the recently deceased Mr. Harrigan via his iPhone. Upon his arrival in high school, Craig is soon bullied and after taking one too many attacks, leaves a voicemail on Mr. Harrigan's phone asking for the bully to get his. The eerie part is the bully soon does wind up meeting his own demise and Craig begins to question if Mr. Harrigan is really dead or alive. The premise of the story is interesting enough, taking quite a bit of the runtime to establish the relationship between Craig and Mr. Harrigan and doesn't begin to pick up until around halfway through. Even when it does, and Crag's bully shows up dead, the momentum from this sequence is soon lost before briefly picking up again towards the end and then ends on a limp note. Average at best and Sutherland's and Martell's performances are satisfactory and work well together onscreen, but nothing to wow the audience. Might be worth your time if you're really interested in the subject matter; otherwise, you're not missing much if you skip it. 5.5/10

THE GREATEST LIE EVER SOLD: GEORGE FLOYD AND THE RISE OF BLM

The Daily Wire presents another hard-hitting documentary presented by Candace Owens concerning the life and death of George Floyd and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. Candace presents both sides of Floyd's life by interviewing those who knew him like his roommates, Derek Chauwin's coworkers, and impartial experts to weigh in on the tragic events of that day. In addition to Floyd's death, she also explores the finances of Black Lives Matter via their most recent tax return, finding they raised $80 million. Although, the question is then raised, where has that money gone to and how much has gone back into rebuilding black communities (and the results will astonish you). It's already wildly known that Black Lives Matter founder Patrisse Cullors has already enriched herself by buying multiple mansions in predominately white neighborhoods, while also enriching her family with well paying jobs for positions they have no background, education, or experience in doing. An eye-opening revelation for sure and I applaud the efforts of Mrs. Owens and The Daily Wire for having the courage to go against the grain and to bring a new perspective and fresh set of eyes to this story that no one wants to hear outside of the MSM narrative. Another truth burger that I'm sure will leave many choking on but facts don't care about your feelings. 6.5/10

THE GREATEST BEER RUN EVER

Based on true events, Zac Efron stars as Chickie Donohue, unemployed and living with his parents who sleeps all day and drinks all night. When a group of his friends from his Manhattan neighborhood all ship out to Vietnam, and with anti-war protests happening around the country, Chickie decides to bring a little Americana to his boys overseas in the form of 12 ounce cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. Not being taken seriously at first as Chickie has a tendency to not follow through on things he previously said he was going to. Feeling like a mockery is being made at his expense, he psyches himself up and gets on a cargo ship to do what he said he was going to do. Being the idea is so preposterous, it's hard to decipher fact from fiction but it's still an initially interesting premise. However, once the novelty wears off the film drags and I quickly lost interest thereafter. Efron is noble in his performance but the main star for me was former WWII soldier and Irish pub owner, The Colonel (played by Bill Murray). At first the film isn't preachy in its stance on war as both sides are given opportunities to state their case. Chickie is pro-troops while his sister, Christine (Ruby Ashbourne Serkis) is anti-war. But, once Efron gets a taste of action and witnesses the horrors of war up close and personal, the film then drifts into an anti-war stance that is further promoted by war correspondent Arthur Coates (Russell Crowe) whom assists Efron during his journey. A disappointing film on director Peter Farrelly's resume as he's shown he's capable of much more. 4.5/10

THE INFERNAL MACHINE

Guy Pearce stars as secluded writer Bruce Cogburn, who has a dark past. He released his one and only critically acclaimed novel entitled The Infernal Machine back in 1981; but a 17-year-old committed a mass shooting spree in Tennessee (similar to the one in Texas in 1966) and blamed the book as his inspiration (also similar to Mark David Chapman and Catcher in the Rye). Living in isolation in California without a TV, phone, and with a P.O. Box, Bruce begins to receive letters from a stranger, at first seeking assistance on their novel they are writing but then to the point of harassment as Cogburn begins to receive letters daily and once he closes his P.O. Box, at his residence. Confused how anyone is able to find him, Cogburn calls the telephone number left in the letters at first pleading with the writer to stop before growing impatient and threatening them with violence in order to make them stop. All of this leads to the dark past Cogburn has tried for the last 25 years to conceal. A devilish and delicious game of cat-and-mouse, the story quickly sucks the viewer into Cogburns paranoia as we are forced to follow along from his POV. The films holds up well with pacing and plot surprises but unfortunately, doesn't deliver on the finale (which is even alluded to by Cogburn himself when discussing writing a novel with his new pen pal). Outside of that, this is a great performance by Pearce and a movie that will need to be seeked out as it was only available via streaming but one in which I feels justify a viewing. 6.5/10

The Final Credits to "The Big Short," the great film about the Housing Market Collapse in 2007-2008.

Wife enjoyed this she gave it 4stars

I liked it a bit more than your 4.5…I’d give it 4stars

I am looking forward to seeing this but it’s hard to understand how and why people let this shit happen, at least we have some people who not afraid to speak truth.

Keep ‘em coming i12….we luv your reviews

Glad she enjoyed it! You didn't like it as much?

I was pulled away and did not view the entire film so not fair for me to offer a rating.
Don’t think I’ll go back to it from where I left it but ya never know.

BLACK ADAM

By this point, I shouldn't be surprised DC screwed up another one of their properties, yet here we are again. Dwayne Johnson stars as the title character, a slave who was given the power of the gods before being locked away for the last 5,000 years. Having recently been freed, Black Adam now inflicts his brand of justice upon our present-day. A big theme within the film is hero vs anti-hero and which category Black Adam falls in. Coming into the film the marketing surrounding him tells us he's an anti-hero and it's very easy to see early-on why that is. In fact, the script is flipped here where the hero would normally have to vanquish the villain, here Black Adam is going up against a group of hero's by the name of the Justice Society of America (although in the film they're known simply as the Justice Society). When you have an unestablished comic book property (unestablished to a majority of the movie going audience), Dwayne Johnson as your lead, and a former James Bond (Pierce Brosnan), this should have been a homerun on paper but turned out anything but. The film rapidly opens up with a narrator whom you're attempting to keep up with and the pacing never seems to let up too much (which is not a good thing). Ever once in a while it's important for the audience to be able to catch their breath and absorb what's being presented to them. Here, there's no time for that. The film seems crammed and rushed. Once again, the film introduces us to the Justice Society comprising of Dr. Fate (Brosnan), Hawkman (Aldis Hodge), Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo), and Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell). The issue with the group is none of the characters have any depth. We know very little about them, their background, how and why they're doing what they're doing so it's hard to invest an emotional connection with any one of them, let alone all 4. Like any comic book film nowadays the writer's attempt to inject a few doses of humor to lighten the mood but those attempts were all in vain, not just by myself but the rest of the theater I saw the film with as you could hear a pin drop after the delivery of these one-liners. There's only 2 positives I walked away from this film with: the mid-credit scene plants a huge seed that fans will be salivating to grow I'm sure (and if I'm being completely honest, I would be more excited to see that play out than this film). The second was by sheer common sense that DC took Dwayne Johnson's advice and they gave Black Adam his own film and didn't attempt to shoehorn him into SHAZAM, which was at one point a possibility. While this review isn't very flattering, I didn't hate the film. In fact, I wanted to like it. I was curious and a bit excited when the lights went down and DC unfortunately didn't deliver again and this is further proof why new leadership, which is now somewhat installed, was needed. 5.5/10

I was curious about Black Adam thanks for the review! I don't think DC will ever beat Marvel unless they get Christopher Nolan for the new Superman films.

CLERKS III

Dante (Brian O'Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson) are back for yet another Clerks film to complete their 28-year trilogy. I never thought the original would spawn a sequel, let alone a trilogy. The sequel didn't let me down and while this didn't either, it doesn't hold up the franchise as well as the previous 2 entries. Unlike it's successors, this film scales back the jokes a little bit midway through as this is writer/director Kevin Smith's most personal film. Based upon Smith's own heart attack and near death experience, Randal suffers the same and upon surviving, is convinced by his best friend Dante to make a movie. The film is extremely meta, nostalgic, and heartfelt as scenes from both CLERKS and CLERKS II are recreated with a lot of awesome cameos along the way. My biggest grip of the film was how the story in this chapter for Becky (Rosario Dawson) was written. I understand Smith's thinking with her and Dante's storyline but I was hoping for something better and honestly, was quite surprised with the direction she would up going in. If you're a fan of the franchise and of these characters you'll want to check this out to see how it ends. It's a beautiful tribute Smith made for his friends and the fans. But again, this was my least favorite of the trilogy and felt the sequel could have been enough. Talk has been made for years about a sequel to MALLRATS and after seeing how Smith was able to go back to Clerks not once but twice, I'm more open to the Mallrats sequel now. 5.5/10

Irishman, are you checking out "The Peripheral" on Prime?

I'm not. I saw the trailer and looked too much like something I'd seen recently (READY PLAYER ONE or something similar). I saw a good review on it but I'm passing. I'm more picky on my TV shows because of the time dedication.

THE MUNSTERS

Rob Zombie's latest is a PG family friendly affair and big screen adaptation of the popular '60s show. Having never seen the show I can't say how faithful the film is to the original source material but I will say Zombie misses again as this is a complete bore. Zombie, not producing anything worthy in my opinion in the last 15 years (since his controversial HALLOWEEN reboot), substitutes vulgar dialogue and gratuitous violence for bad jokes and wooden performances. This must have been a passion project for Zombie as again, a PG film from him must have either been the studios idea or he went for something new. If it's the latter, I applaud his efforts for expanding his range, even though this does fail miserably. Perhaps the younger audience will enjoy it more than Zombie's traditional audience? I knew the reviews weren't very positive going into it but I still wanted to view it for my own curiosity and no, this is as bad as claimed. The only positive is I didn't have to waste my time, gas, and money at the theaters to see this garbage. Hopefully Zombie's next film will put him back on track but after only 2 hits in my opinion (HALLOWEEN & THE DEVIL'S REJECTS), he no longer is receiving the benefit of the doubt from me. 3/10

TERROR TRAIN (2022)

A remake of the cult classical 1980 film staring Jamie Lee Curtis, this remake is about a 95% straight, beat-for-beat duplicate. The differences were updated woke politics and diversity, adding shallow actress Robyn Alomar to take over for JLC, who couldn't hold a candle to the original scream queen, and a different spin on the killer. Besides bloodier kills, I'm honestly wondering why this was even remade in the first place? I'm sure a vast number of individuals haven't seen the original, let alone will see this as it's available only through Tubi. The first is cheesy, campy, and straight forward, which is one of the reasons I enjoy it so much. The remake offers no suspense when the killer's onboard and many of the characters are without morals whom I didn't find particularly interesting enough to see if they made it out alive or not. And once again, putting a minority actresses in the lead role to simply check a box was a mistake as Alomar's performance is laughable most of the time. And if they hired based on merit and not her skin color, then they need to go back to the casting couch because I'm sure there are better actresses out there who could have strung together a better performance. 4/10

THE GOOD NURSE

2 Oscar winners go toe-to-toe to tell this tragic, based on true events story. Jessica Chastain stars as nurse Amy Loughren, an empathetic and well-mannered nurse who sees the humanity in her patients and goes above-and-beyond for them, even sometimes at her own risk with her supervisor. Dealing with a medical condition of her own and with her hospital's budget tighter than a pair of Chinese finger cuffs, Charlie Cullen (Eddie Redmayne) is hired to assist with the hospitals workload. Having bounced around quite a bit in his line of work (about 9 hospitals within the previous 7 years), Charlie seems too good to be true. A well attentive nurse who quickly befriends Amy and her 2 young daughters, although not everything is quite as it seems. A few patients pass under mysterious circumstances and when the police are called to investigate, Charlie becomes the chief suspect. Upon looking into his background and questioning why he's bounced around from hospital to hospital, it becomes clear the pattern of mysterious deaths at Amy's hospital have been following Charlie around everywhere he's worked. Wonderful performances by both Chastain and Redmayne playing overworked and probably underpaid nurses who work the night shift. Amy never sees her girls, who mean the world to her, due to her work schedule and is in need of a surgical procedure but is not eligible for health care benefits until she's completed her first year of work, which, when we pick her up, is still 4 grueling months away. It's an interesting story that is all the more tragic that a nurse was capable of such heinous crimes and the fact, again, this is based on a true story. Netflix actually puts out a great film (I'm not much of a fan of Netflix movies) and this is most definitely worth a view. 7.5/10

ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (2022)

Another remake of the classic tale which I'm sure you're already familiar with: set during World War I, 4 German friends enlist for military service to gain notoriety and respect once they've helped conquer the French and return home. Being young, naive, and believing the propaganda they've been fed, the friends believe they'll march in Paris within a matter of weeks and swiftly return home to a king's welcome. However, they soon realize war isn't as glamours as they were lead to believe, nor will a quick victory be obtained. Dealing with the physical, emotional, and psychological effects of war, the friends soon just try to survive to make it home alive. This rendition is completely in French and German which I appreciated (in fact, I believe it's submitted from Germany for consideration in the Best Foreign Film at next year's Oscars). Beautiful cinematography and sets, the story wastes little time in putting our 4 young lads right in the thick of it. With a runtime approaching 2 hours and 30 minutes, it can drag at times. If you're a fan of this story or of war films in general, this'll satisfy your itch for more of the same. 6/10

TERRIFIER 2

Picking up 1 year after the events of the original film, the story follows Art the Clown, who now targets a family consisting of Sienna (Lauren LaVera), Johnathan (Elliott Fullam), and Barbara (Sarah Voigt) who are grieving the recent passing of their father/husband. Being a sequel within the horror genre, the body count is higher and more gory, however, I honestly preferred the original to this sequel which has been getting a lot of love upon its release. LaVera delivers a strong performance as the damaged but heroine Sienna while David Howard Thornton as Art the Clown delivers yet another brilliant performance as the mute, psychopathic killer. Another low budget gem from writer and director Damien Leone, I'm eagerly anticipating a third and possibly final entry into this franchise. 7/10

RUN SWEETHEART RUN

This film follows pre-law intern Cherie (Ella Balinska) who unexpectedly takes over for her boss on a dinner meeting with a client, Ethan (Pilou Asbæk) after a scheduling conflict with his wedding anniversary. Upon meeting Ethan, Cherie is smitten by the well-mannered and wealthy individual. Until she's talked into coming into his place for a nightcap after a wonderful evening. After being attacked, Cherie is on the run for her life and Ethan can "smell" her and her blood, which attracts him to her. Being that Cherie has been violently and bloodily assaulted (and the fact she's on her monthly period), it doesn't take much for Ethan to "pick up her scent." This is a bait-and-switch film as it begins innocent enough before going full woke in the third act with themes of misogyny, racism, and other leftists tropes in order to gain brownie points with the audience. Not the mention the film centers around violence that isn't shown on screen in order to "protect the viewers" and not "further capitalize on male on female violence," which it obviously does. For those of us who are too well educated and immune to such virtual signaling, the film plays out as a bore with no substance other than faux victimhood. 4/10

Who ever Slew Auntie Roo?....Shelley Winters scares an orphan brother...& sister into a lot of shit ...as she is a supposedly a magician..then they renegade as a "Hansel & Gretel"..good stuff 4 mid nite fluff...I'm sure I 12 can put into a better synopsis..