Review: RUSHLIGHTS (2013) *** PASS ***

RUSHLIGHTS (2013) *** PASS ***

RUSHLIGHTS is a thriller directed by Antoni Stutz from a script by Antoni Stutz and Ashley Scott Meyers.  It stars: Beau Bridges, Haley Webb, Josh Henderson & Aidan Quinn.

The story: 
Two delinquent lovers from Los Angeles, find a dead body that looks exactly like the girl and decide to travel to a small town to try to claim the inheritance, only to find there are problems with the inheritance and a drug dealer from LA has followed them looking for money.

Was it good?

It was okay, which for a mystery/thriller isn't good.  The set-up with the inheritance is okay, but something I've seen before (or at least read before).  The sheriff nosing around, the problems with the inheritance...all of those were okay but they never felt like they meant anything.  The couple didn't seem desperate for money until the drug dealer comes looking for his money and he just wasn't that menacing.  In fact, he seemed more interested in sex than money, which probably would have been a more interesting story -- a girl trying to get away from an abusive drug dealing boyfriend, only to have him follow her and ruin the new life she is trying to build (one that's built on a lie and in danger of falling apart).  Here, there were lots of mysteries and little thrills.  Well acted, especially from Beau Bridges, but a story that was all surface and and no thrills.  It wasn't bad but blah, which honestly in a thriller can be worse than bad.  I wouldn't say it's a horrible waste of time, but there are just too many better things out there to watch.
*** PASS ***
Watch instead: movies I'd go with classics like Body Double, Body Heat, and Dressed to Kill.  Modern I'd go with tv shows like Person of Interest, True Detective, The Bridge and Fargo.

MISCHIEF NIGHT (2013) *** AVOID ***

MISCHIEF NIGHT (2013)

A horror movie that takes place on Mischief Night, which might be the night before Halloween but I'm not sure and the movie doesn't care.  They just like to say Mischief Night and talk about people pulling pranks, except this is a horror movie not a prank.  Although the movie would have been better as a prank.  The actors seem good and give a good effort, but they have nothing to work with in this derivative mess that tries to combine THE STRANGERS with hints of SCREAM without really getting why those movies worked.  Written/directed by Richard Schenkman from a story by Jesse Baget.  Stars: Noell Coet, Ian Bamberg, Adam C. Edwards, Stephanie Erb.

The story: Emily (Noell Coet) is a blind asthmatic girl who lost her sight after her mother died in a traffic accident.  Her father is finally going to start dating again, leaving his blind daughter alone on Mischief Night, a night when teens run around playing pranks on people.  Except Emily is visited by a mysterious man in a mask who isn't playing a prank but toying with her while killing everyone who tries to help her.

Was it good?

In parts.  The leads actress is charismatic and the movie uses suspense more than gore so there are parts of the movie when we realize the mysterious man is in the house and stalking her that have a definite creepy feel.  Unfortunately, it's about 5 minutes out of a 90 minute movie.  The rest is hack work and even worse doesn't make any sense.  For instance, her boyfriend comes over and she is panicking so he is going to hep get her to safety, but then they go into a room with her mother's stuff and suddenly they are perfectly okay just standing and talking for a while.  Yeah, there's a killer running around, her aunt might be dead, but this is a good time to go through a yearbook.

The movie might have been more interesting if it played against conventions.  The girl is blind so there's one scene where she walks past a dead body.  Wouldn't she be able to smell the body?  Or at least wouldn't it be more interesting?  What if the attacker was used to hiding in the darkness, but because she is blind she actually can tell he is there even better?  Wouldn't that be more interesting?

Even worse, as much as it rips off THE STRANGERS and SCREAM, it doesn't understand what made those movies work.  SCREAM takes the idea of a girl unsure if she is ready for sex (trust her boyfriend) and externalizes it in horror movie fashion into her not trusting if he is a killer.  THE STRANGERS takes a couple who love each other but are about to break up, then they are attacked and realize they love each other and want to be together.  See -- each of those stories took strong emotional stories and used horror to externalize them.  That's why you can build thrills and scares, because the audience has keyed into the characters from the real emotional stories.  Here there is nothing.  She has a boyfriend, and at a point it seemed like they were playing with is he cheating/is he the killer but that gets dropped and becomes nothing.  There's the stuff with her sight/blindness but that doesn't have any connection to the killers or Mischief Night.

Derivative.  Boring.  Not scary.  It's not the worse movie out there, but it's not good enough to bother watching.

*** AVOID ****

Much ado About Nothing (2012) *** AVOID ***

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (2012) *** AVOID ***

The modern retelling of the Shakespearean play.  This is the second of the no budget projects Joss WHedon has been doing (second after Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog, which is fantastic!) where he called up a bunch of actor friends (many of whom have worked with him before in Firefly, Angel or the Avengers) and filmed it in his house for a couple weeks.  Sounds pretty cool, don't it?  (It's good to be Joss!).  Directed by Joss Whedon.  Stars: Amy Acker, Alexis Denisof, Nathan Fillion, Clark Gregg, Reed Diamond, Fran Kranz, Sean Maher, and Jillian Morgese.

The story: Benedick had a one night stand with Beatrice, which went badly and now they hate each other.  So, while another marriage is being arranged, everyone connives to get the two of them together.  Also while that is happening there is a scheme to break up that marriage by making the groom think the girl has been unfaithful.

Was it good?

No.  In many ways this play is the a great early example of almost all of our romantic comedy cliches.  It has the couple that hates then falls in love, the misunderstanding that gets blown out of proportion, the evil scheme to break people up, the scheme to get people together.  Really just all the cliches we are tired of.  Which is the problem.  Even if this is the first story to use those tropes (or some of them), is it still comes off as being all those same ridiculous cliches.  At least TAMING OF THE SHREW dives into the gender wars a bit.  This just flits along consumed with its own silliness.  It would have been interested if Whedon had done a real reinvention, taking some of these cliches and turned them on their heads.  But no.  Nothing like that.

Beyond the faults of the source material, there isn't much great here.  Amy Acker (Angel, Person of Interest) and Alexis Denisof (Angel, Buffy) are very good supporting tv actor, but they just don't commend your attention as romantic leads in a movie.  The only actor who really seems to pull off his role is Nathan Fillion, who as a blustering detective steals his scenes and makes his scenes funnier than the scenes should be.  Most of the other actors do well, but rarely elevate the material.

Oddly enough, this group is much more entertaining when you see them live.  I saw them doing a panel at a comic convention and they -- the whole group, every one of them (except Fillion, he wasn't there) were funny and charming and wonderful.  Maybe it was the Shakespearean  mumble rocks they had to speak around or the contrived plot, but the movie just doesn't live up to what the director and cast showed they could do.  So if you are a fan, try youtubing the panels they did -- they're better than the movie.

***AVOID***

EVIDENCE (2013) ** AVOID ***

EVIDENCE (2013)(a review)

This is a found footage film. I'm a big fan of these when they are done right. CLOVERFIELD and BLAIR WITCH PROJECT were great. EVIDENCE is not. Written by John Swetnam. Directed by Olatunde Osunsanmi. Stars Stephen Moyer (True Blood), Radha Mitchell (Red Widow), Dale Dickey, Torrey DeVitto, Nolan Gerard Funk, Aml Ameen, Harry Lennix, Caitlin Stasey, and Svetlana Metkina.  

THE STORY: Cops find a horrible wreakage filled with dead bodies and have to sift through the camcorders of the victims to find out who was behind it all.

 Was it good?

No. The thing about found footage is that it is supposed to be more like reality tv where you feel like these characters are real people. So the best of them, even ones like CLOVERFIELD that have giant monsters, have a compelling story about the characters. CLOVERFIELD has a guy realizing that he loves a girl the day before he is going to leave for Japan. BLAIR WITCH has a group of kids getting lost and turning on each other. This movie didn't have anything. There's a few minutes of "get to know them" footage of the characters, but there isn't much to get to know. Then the horror starts and there's just a lot of screaming. Even the mystery isn't a big deal. The police have very little to do and since the event is over, there isn't anything really pushing them. Even worse, they don't seem to do much to try to solve it. In the first 70 minutes they come up with one idea. And the final reveal is pretty weak. It is a clever concept that could be interest, but they just don't do anything with it.
*** AVOID ****