ZOMBIE NIGHT (2013) ** AVOID ***

ZOMBIE NIGHT (2013)

Another zombie movie.  This one directed by John Gulager (Feast 1-3, Piranha 2 - 3DD).  Written by Richard Schenkman (story), Keith Allan (screenplay).  Stars: Anthony Michael Hall (Dead Zone), Daryl Hannah (Splash, Blade Runner), Alan Ruck (Ferris Bueller's Day Off), and Shirley Jones (Patridge Family).

The story: The dead are rising!  Two family try to hide out in their homes until morning, when the effect will wear off.  However, things go bad and the families have to decide to help each other or turn on each other.

Was it good?

No.  There's nothing wrong with the basic idea, and I'm a big fan of Hall and have wtached Gulager's work since FEAST.  However, the story is just uninteresting.  There's nothing new here.  It basically is NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, but instead of strangers in one house, it is two families in separate houses.  It's a shame, because zombies are such a good way to explore humanity.  They easily could have made it a look at modern suburbs -- are neighbor's really friends?  Are they stranger?  And there was a relationship between the teens that could have played a part, but really it could have been taken out.

Watch instead: Warm Body (for a more interesting take on zombies), and classics like Night of the Living Dead (original), Return of the Living Dead

COTTAGE COUNTRY (2013) *** AVOID ***

COUNTRY COTTAGE (2013)

A horror comedy directed by Peter Wellington.  Written by Jeremy Boxen.  Stars: Malin Akerman (Watchmen), Tyler Labine (Tucker and Dale vs Evil), Dan Petronijevic, Lucy Punch.

What's the story? A couple go up to a family cabin where the man plans on proposing (Akerman and Labine).  However once they are there, his brother shows up with his slutty girlfriend and begin annoying them until, by accident, the brother kills his brother.  Then they have to cover it up by killing his girlfriend.  Except the dead brother had already invited a bunch of friends over, and then the police show up...and the guy and his grilfriend have to try harder and harder to cover up the killing.

Was it good?

No.  It wasn't horrible.  But almost all of this was stuff that has been done before, again and again.  There's nothing really new here.  Labine's other horror/comedy TUCKER AND DALE VS EVIL was a wonderful refreshing and wacky mix of horror and comedy.  This is been there-done that.  You could do worse, but unless you are a die hard Labine or Akerman fan, you could do a lot better.

See instead: TUCKER AND DALE VS EVIL, EVIL DEAD 2, HOUSE, RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD.

OUT OF THE FURNACE (2013) *** AVOID ***

OUT OF THE FURNACE (2013)

A movie about brothers and revenge.  Directed by Scott Cooper (director of Crazy Heart, which won Jeff Bridges an Oscar) from a script he co-wrote.  Stars: Christian Bale, Woody Harrelson, Casey Affleck, Forest Whitaker, Willem Dafoe, Zoe Saldana, Sam Shepard.

The story: After getting out of jail, one brother (Bale) tries to look after his younger brother (Affleck) who is in debt and getting involved in an underground fighting ring run by violent drug dealers.  When the younger brother goes missing, the older brother goes to find out what happened...

Was it good?

No.  There's nothing wrong with the concept -- in fact, it sounded pretty cool to me when I first saw the previews for it.  However, this is not an intense thriller.  This is a slow, plodding, disconnected character piece with the trappings of a thriller.  There's never any mystery and there are no interesting twists and turns.  There really aren't any thrills -- what little conflict there is always has a feeling of a result that is inevitable.  Now that alone doesn't mean it is bad.  A slow character piece can still be fascinating, but there just isn't anything fascinating here.  There's no depth, no conflict.  It's a movie that seems to want to say something but ultimately seems to have nothing to say.

Now all this isn't to say the movie is all bad.  The performances by Bale and Harrelson are solid.  They just don't have much to do.  Bale plays the tough but caring big brother.  Harrelson plays the dangerous psycho.  That's it.  No exploration of character.  There's also a bunch of other elements that never really pay off -- Bale going to jail, Bale losing the woman he loves, Bale losing his father.  Maybe all that was supposed to push him to a point of desperation with his brother, but it seems like losing your brother is already enough to make you do anything to find him, so none of that really felt like it added anything.

In the end, while some of the performances were solid, there just wasn't enough here to overcome a sloppy, plodding screenplay and a lack of character depth or theme.

*** AVOID ***

RAZE (2014) ** RENTAL ***

RAZE (2014) *** RENTAL ***

Hot chicks beating each other to death in an underground fight club.  Dicrected by Josh C. Waller.  Written by .  Stars Zoë Bell with Rachel Nichols, Tracie Thoms and a cameo by Rosario Dawson.

The story:  a woman is abducted and awakens in an underground bunker where fifty abducted women have to fight MMA style to the death or their loved ones will be killed.  Only one will survive and she will be given her freedom.

Was it good?

Kind of.  It was entertaining.  There really isn't any story -- just hot women pounding the hell out of each other -- but it seems to understand that and doesn't try to do too much.  It doesn't have the gonzo fun of the typical women's prison movie, with tawdry sex going on as well, and there isn't really any social statement here. There's also no humor.  But as a rental, where you can talk and play cards, this has some good fight sequences for background entertainment.  Still...it would have been nice if they had done a bit more, especially considering they had Zoe Bell and Rachel Nichols.  Not film worth price of admission, but for a couple buck rental, it's more solid than a lot of low budget films.

*** RENTAL ***