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Grey Trace descends into a nightmare.

(2018) Science Fiction (Blumhouse) Logan Marshall-Green, Harrison Gilbertson, Melanie Vallejo, Steve Danielsen, Abby Craden (voice), Benedict Hardie, Richard Cawthorne, Christopher Kirby, Richard Anastasios, Kenny Low, Linda Cropper, Betty Gabriel, Emily Havea, Ming-Zhu Hii, Simon Maiden (voice), Stephanie Demkiw.  Directed by Leigh Whannell

 

When Grey Trace (Marshall-Green, doing his best Tom Hardy), an analogue man in a digital world, is shot and paralyzed and watches as his wife (Vallejo) is shot dead, he only wants to die. Enter bazillionaire Eron Keen (Gilbertson, doing his best Leonardo Di Caprio) who was a client of Grey’s auto restoring business, offers to set things right by implanting a spiffy new microchip in Grey’s spine, not only allowing him to walk again but giving him superhuman combat skills. Grey decides to use his new abilities to find his wife’s killers, all the while hiding his new found condition from the police detective (Gabriel, doing her best Betty Gabriel) investigating his wife’s murder.

While the plot is a mite hackneyed, this dystopian sci-fi action thriller has its own charm. Australian director Whannell – who as James Wan’s writing partner helped kickstart both the Saw and Insidious franchises – takes his cues from the Robocop franchise of Paul Verhoeven to comment on our own society, from the increasing loss of privacy to the over-reliance on technology most of us don’t understand.

Whannell does very well with the action sequences which are kinetic and fun, as well as the special effects which can be stomach-churning or glossy depending on the mood. There’s plenty of gore, enough that the sensitive should be warned, but not so much that the gore is the main component. Marshall-Green does a serviceable job in the lead and most of the cast of non-household names hits their marks well, even though most of the characters are fairly underdeveloped. For the most part this is a fun ride although it is sabotaged with a groaner of an ending.

REASONS TO GO: The effects and action sequences are well-done. There is some interesting commentary on a Big Brother-like society which with our online privacy disappearing seems to be the direction we are going in as a society..
REASONS TO STAY: The ending falls with a bit of a thud.
FAMILY VALUES: There is brutal violence and gore, some grisly images and profanity.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT:  During fight scenes, the camera follows Grey keeping him in the middle of the frame. This was done by secreting a smart phone on Marshall-Green and pairing the camera with the phone.
BEYOND THE THEATER: Amazon, Fandango Now, Google Play, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube
CRITICAL MASS: As of 11/26/18: Rotten Tomatoes: 86% positive reviews. Metacritic: 67/100.
COMPARISON SHOPPING: Robocop
FINAL RATING: 7/10
NEXT: Chasing Coral

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Unfriended: Dark Web

Your computer is watching you and no, that’s NOT a good thing.

(2018) Horror/Thriller (BH Tilt) Colin Woodell, Stephanie Nogueras, Betty Gabriel, Rebecca Rittenhouse, Andrew Lees, Connor Del Rio, Savira Mindyani, Douglas Tait, Bryan Adrian, Chelsea Alden, Alexa Mansour, Rob Welsh, Alexander Ward, Kurt Carley, Chuck Lines, Eric Watson, Maya Nalli, Ashton Smiley, Kiara Beltran. Directed by Stephen Susco

The Internet is like landing on a brand new planet; there are all kinds of places to explore, from web comics to news sites to social media. You can spend hours browsing Wikipedia, Snapchat, Spotify, Amazon, eBay, iTunes and wherever else you want to be. There are some corners of the web however that are best left unexplored.

Matias (Woodell) has a brand new laptop. Well, new to him anyway…he purloined it from the lost and found of the coffee shop he works at. He needs a new one because his current one is unreliable and slow and he can’t afford a new one. He can’t even afford a used one. He desperately needs one because quite frankly he needs to get back in the good graces of his ex-girlfriend Amaya (Nogueras) who he is almost stalker-ish obsessed over.

It’s also game night for a bunch of his millennial friends and in true tech-dependent fashion, rather than meeting up in person they get on Skype to play Cards Against Humanity (isn’t there an app for that?). His friends include cute couple Nori (Gabriel) and Serena (Rittenhouse), conspiracy junkie AJ (Del Rio), British tech guru Damon (Lees) and YouTube-famous musician Lexx (Mindyani). If these descriptions sound like stereotypical clichés, it’s mainly because they are; little thought is given to supplying any depth to any of the parts.

Editorializing aside – there’ll be plenty more of that kind of thing later – it turns out that there are some hidden files on the laptop and those files enable connection to the dark web, the semi-mythical place on the Internet where dirty deeds are done dirt cheap and nearly any perversion can be had for the asking, including murder and torture. Some of the files on the laptop show gruesome scenes of snuff and torture as well as webcam footage of a local missing girl. And the owner of the laptop now knows that someone else has it and is logged in and they want it back and not tomorrow but right freaking now. To prove how serious he is, the owner kills one of their number on camera, warning the survivors if they go to the cops he’ll kill them. And naturally, their life expectancies has just taken a turn for the worse.

I don’t really know where to start here. The acting is mostly okay – the majority of the cast has served time doing teen-oriented TV shows like Teen Wolf and The Originals. You really can’t complain about the actors because they are given so little to work with and their characters are required by the script to make some unbelievably dopey decisions in order to move the generally unrealistic plot along.

All of the action is viewed through various apps and laptop/tablet/smart phone screens, which is the trope that was used in the original Unfriended and is essentially the only connection between the two movies. This isn’t so much a sequel as part of an anthology which I can understand, but might not have been the best idea but then again, the original wasn’t all that compelling and had no characters in it that you’d want to see in another movie. Just like this one.

At least the first film had a fairly original concept but since it came out in 2015 several other movies have utilized the same or a similar gimmick. The supernatural element of the first is gone but replaced by a nearly real-world tone which goes completely out the window when we discover that the owner of the laptop utilizes a special jacket that causes cameras to malfunction, allowing him to not be seen; sort of a Harry Potter Cloak of Invisibility for the Snapchat set.

And that brings up another problem – this movie essentially has built-in obsolescence. Any relevance it might have had (the first one at least had an anti-cyber bullying message) will be lost in the very pop culture/social media consciousness of the film. What’s cool in 2018 might not necessarily be in 2020. This is a film with a shelf life which means that buyers remorse will likely set in quickly once you realize that the movie is “so 2018.”

I was mildly entertained by this one – Rittenhouse and Gabriel make an appealing couple and Gabriel is actually a decent actress who needs some roles that will let her spread her wings a little. The scares aren’t terribly scary – clearly the producers were aiming for a PG-13 – the characters aren’t memorable and the plot is riddled with clichés like Swiss cheese is with holes. In an era where strong horror films are becoming more and more available, efforts like this which seem to be cash grabs capitalizing on a popular could-be franchise film aren’t really worth your time if you’re a horror gourmet. Of course if you’re ,more of a gourmand you might find this more suitable.

REASONS TO GO: There is some nice family bonding moments.
REASONS TO STAY: The filmmakers are trying too hard to make it witty and cute.
FAMILY VALUES: There’s a fair amount of disturbing imagery, sexual references and profanity herein.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: There are two different endings in the theatrical version; also, the original title was to have been Unfriended: Game Night but the title was eventually changed to avoid confusion with the Jason Bateman comedy.
BEYOND THE THEATERS: Amazon, Fandango Now, Google Play, iTunes, Microsoft, Movies Anywhere, Vudu, YouTube
CRITICAL MASS: As of 10/26/18: Rotten Tomatoes: 57% positive reviews: Metacritic: 53/100.
COMPARISON SHOPPING: Searching
FINAL RATING: 5/10
NEXT: Six Days of Darkness Day Two

New Releases for the Week of July 20, 2018

MAMMA MIA: HERE WE GO AGAIN

(Universal) Meryl Streep, Amanda Seyfried, Lily James, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, Dominic Cooper, Christine Baranski, Cher, Julie Walters. Directed by Ol Parker

As darling Sophie has become pregnant, she is naturally curious about her mother’s experiences with pregnancy and motherhood. Given the magic of the Greek islands and the music of ABBA, breaking into song is inevitable, which in Pierce Brosnan’s case may well be a violation of the Geneva Convention.

See the trailer, clips, interviews, a video featurette and B-roll video here.
For more on the movie this is the website.
Release Formats: Standard, DBOX, Dolby, IMAX, RPX, XD
Genre: Musical
Now Playing: Wide Release
Rating: PG-13 (for some suggestive material)

The Equalizer 2

(Columbia) Denzel Washington, Bill Pullman, Melissa Leo, Pedro Pascal. Robert McCall makes a living driving a cab but it is his passion to help bring justice for those who deserve it but have been denied it. When one of his closest friends is murdered, it might be justice but there will be more than a hint of vengeance involved.

See the trailer and interviews here.
For more on the movie this is the website
Release Formats: Standard, DBOX, Dolby, IMAX, RPX
Genre: Action
Now Playing: Wide Release
Rating: R (for brutal violence throughout, language, and some drug content)

Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms

(Eleven Arts) Starring the voices of Manaka Iwami, Miyu Irino, Yuki Kaji, Hiroaki Hirata. An immortal girl befriends a mortal boy, a forbidden act among those who live forever. She will protect and nurture that friendship through the years and whatever the cost.

See the trailer here.
For more on the movie this is the website
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Animé
Now Playing: Cinemark Artegon Marketplace, Regal Pavilion Port Orange, Regal Winter Park Village
Rating: NR

Three Identical Strangers

(Neon) David Kellman, Robert Shafran, Eddy Galland, Ron Guttman. It started out as twins, separated at birth, reuniting. From there the story gets weirder. If you want to read the review, you can always check it out on the link below under Scheduled for Review but trust Cinema365 – the less you know going in, the more you’ll like the movie.

See the trailer here.
For more on the movie this is the website
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Documentary
Now Playing: AMC Disney Springs, Regal Waterford Lakes
Rating: PG-13 (for some mature thematic material)

Unfriended: Dark Web

(BH Tilt) Rebecca Rittenhouse, Betty Gabriel, Chelsea Alden, Andrew Lees. When a teen comes into the possession of a new laptop, he doesn’t realize that the previous owner has been watching him and will do anything to get the machine back. When the teen discovers some files that indicate that the laptop is connected to the Dark Web, he understands why.

See the trailer, video featurettes and a clip here.
For more on the movie this is the website
Release Formats: Standard
Genre: Horror
Now Playing: Wide Release
Rating: R (for some disturbing violence, language and sexual references)

ALSO OPENING IN ORLANDO/DAYTONA:

Broken Star
Dhadak
I Love You, Hater

ALSO OPENING IN MIAMI/FT. LAUDERDALE:

Custody
Dhadak
Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot
Eating Animals
Lover
My Story

ALSO OPENING IN TAMPA/ST. PETERSBURG:

Aatagadharaa Siva
Dhadak
My Story
Occupation
Vijetha

ALSO OPENING IN JACKSONVILLE/ST. AUGUSTINE:

Dhadak
I Love You, Hater
Lover
 

SCHEDULED FOR REVIEW:

Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot
Eating Animals
The Equalizer 2
Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again
Three Identical Strangers
Unfriended: Dark Web

FILM FESTIVALS TAKING PLACE IN FLORIDA:

Mindie Film Festival, Miami FL