Werewolf Game, Co-Starring the Late, Great Tony Todd

Obviously, people deeply distrust social media tech companies, if horror movie makers believe the public will accept a company that somewhat resembles Meta kidnapping innocent people to produce a life-and-death dark web survival game. If you are wondering, the evil corporate entity sounds more Meta than X, because of all the references to their AI division. Regardless, their behavior is unambiguously criminal, but apparently, they have been getting away with it for quite a while in Cara Claymore & Jacki Payne’s Werewolf Game, which releases today on VOD.

The “Judge” will explain the rules to the distressed abductees, but viewers who have played the parlor game “Mafia,” also known as “Werewolf,” already know how it works. Two lucky “contestants” are designated werewolves. The rest are villagers. During the night, the two wolves hunt the villagers. By day, the sheep try to identify their hunters, before each fatal elimination vote, resulting in a bullet to the back of the head.

Frankly, nobody (including myself) would be particularly interested in Werewolf Game were it not one of the final films starring the late, great horror legend Tony Todd. It really is a nasty, brutish piece of work. Yet, the violence is eclipsed by the impossibly bad decision-making. Perversely, the villagers constantly vote to eliminate the least dangerous players, including the homeless basket case, who could hardly get out of bed. Very little makes sense, including placing Raymond, a former IT guy with the tech company, into the game.

Of course, Todd has the perfect, malevolent voice for the Judge, but it is rather a shame he must mask up for most of the film. Arguably, the best work comes from Robert Picardo (Star Trek’s holographic doctor), who plays Bill, a former police detective, who at least tries to apply a little deductive reasoning.

Sniper: The Last Stand

Sniper overwtch missions have been a family business for Master Gunnery Sergeant Thomas Beckett (not to be confused with the archbishop) and his son Gunnery Sergeant Brandon Bishop. Business has been brisk over the course of eleven Sniper movies. The father (Tom Berenger) starred in the first three, with the son carrying the Sniper standard in the subsequent eight. Perhaps this might be Brandon Beckett’s final mission, judging from the finality of the title. If so, Beckett will surely go down shooting in Danishka Esterhazy’s Sniper: The Last Stand, which releases tomorrow on VOD.

Beckett isn’t even sure which African nation Zeke “Zero” Rosenberg, agent of G.R.I.T. (Global Response & Intelligence Team), has secretly infiltrated him into—and it is probably best for him not to know. If Americans are caught participating in the country’s civil war, it would surely lead to a diplomatic incident. Wherever they are, the government is not merely oppressive. It has become a safe haven for Kovalov, an arms dealer transparently based on Viktor Bout.

The local freedom fighters contracted G.R.I.T. to capture or kill Kovalov and his tech guru, before they finish the cutting edge WMD they have reportedly been developing. For Zero, it is not just a job. It is personal. Zero nearly had a line on Kovalov twice before, but red tape slowed him down. There will not be any bureaucrats delaying this Wild Geese-like mission.

The initial breach of Kovalov’s government compound proceeds like clockwork. Unfortunately, the arm’s dealer manages to send an S.O.S. to the regime militia. Then he activates his mysterious new pulse weapon, which eventually kills him along with half Zero’s team, through some kind of delayed effect. Instead of retreating, Beckett convinces the team remnant to stay and fend off the militia, while the resistance leader uploads all the weapon data to various intelligence services around the world. Anyone who recently downloaded the latest Windows upgrade understands how long that could take.

Screenwriter Sean Wathen’s narrative is not exactly complex, but if you enjoy VOD action movies, this one delivers bounteous servings of red meat. Frankly, all of Esterhazy’s action scenes are adrenaline-charged and cleanly choreographed. It is wall-to-wall pedal-to-the-metal action—and almost nothing else.

A Legend: Propaganda on BluRay

How many film critics are in the mood to cheer for colonialists waging war on an indigenous people? That is exactly what you get with this latest fantastical historical from China, except the cultural genocide it celebrates is still going on. In one timeline, it is the Han versus the “Hun,” a.k.a. the Xiongnu people of Xinjiang and the Eastern Steppe. The other timeline features the archeological time excavating the past. Jackie Chan appears in both—sort of. The propaganda might elude dumb Westerners unfamiliar with the region, but it is ever-present in Stanley Tong’s A Legend, which releases Tuesday on VOD and BluRay.

Technically, this is the third film in Tong’s trilogy featuring Chan as archaeologist Dr. “Jack” Fang, following the fluffy Kung Fu Yoga and the earlier, similarly blandly titled The Myth, which A Legend more greatly emulates. As in Myth, Doc Fang and his assistant Wang Jing start having dreams and visions of the Han-Xiongnu Wars, in which they were both young heroic generals for the imperialist Han. However, you might not fully realize Fang is supposed to be part of the historical action. For the flashback scenes, Chan was “de-aged” using AI, rendering him almost unrecognizable and very weird-looking. If A Legend represents the current state of Chinese AI, then America and the West are way out in front of them.

Of course, the noble generals manage to save Mengyun, a Xiongnu princess fleeing a company of fellow Xiongnu soldiers. Conveniently, she and her family pledged their loyalty to the Han conquers, which [understandably] infuriated He Boar, who also covets the princess for himself. In fact, he even killed his moderate brother and their ailing chieftain father to have her.

Apparently, these visions started with the discovery of Mengyun’s shamanic jade pendant. There definitely seems be some kind of strange time-transcending New Agey power at play. A lot of people around Fang who are also interested—maybe too interested—in a rumored cache of Xiongnu treasure.

Throughout A Legend all Xiongnu who are not part of Mengyun’s family are demonized for their barbarity. It is also rather galling to hear to listen to Chan lecture the audience on preserving archaeological treasures when the Chinese Communist occupiers have been literally razing mosques throughout Xinjiang to ground.

Back in Action, in Cinema Daily US

BACK IN ACTION scrupulously avoids serious issues and heavy drama, succeeding as light entertainment. Diaz and Foxx share some appealing chemistry as a happily married couple still going strong and they look good doing their spycraft. CINEMA DAILY US review up here.

Kneel Before Zod, from DC

For Gen-X, Terence Stamp was never an “angry young man.” He was an intergalactic war criminal. Together with Sarah Douglas, and Jack O’Halloran, he formed a trio of super-villains that still makes Superman II one of the best superhero films ever (along with Superman: The Movie). He is one of the most significant super-bad guys ever, so it makes sense he gets the kind of starring villainous role enjoyed by DC stablemates like the Joker and the Penguin in Joe Casey’s Kneel Before Zod, illustrated by Dan McDaid, which is now on-sale in a bind-up tradepaperback.

This is the Dru-Zod you know, but now he is officially married to Ursa, who is also otherwise exactly like you remember her. However, silent Non is absent and unaccounted for. They still hunger for power, but do not try to reconcile Kneel Before Zod with the continuity of Superman II. With DC, there are so many timelines, pre-Crisis, post-Crisis, Golden Age, Tomorrowverse, and so on, non-obsessive fans should just accept each story on its own terms.

In this case, Zod and Ursa have indeed escaped the Phantom Zone, but they have temporarily made “peace” with the galactic authorities and the remnant of Kryptonian governance. In fact, they have built an outpost on a distant planet they christened New Kandar, with the intention of developing it as the new home for the bottled city Kandar, which Brainiac captured and placed in stasis, before the planet’s destruction.

Of course, Zod has a secret agenda, involving ambitions of conquest, so he is in no mood for his son Lor-Zod’s rebellious acting out. Conveniently, the House of Zod has a tradition of casting out their sons to fend for themselves, so it looks like his time has come. (In fact, Lor-Zpod gets his own limited series, teaming up with Sinistro’s bratty brood.) Nevertheless, Zod’s hallucinations of his old nemesis, Jor-El, cannot resist taunting him with his parental failures. Frankly, fighting the invasion of alien mercenaries who somehow got wind of his secret weapon, whatever that might be, offers him an opportunity to vent his anger.

Despite all the Kryptonian references, Kneel Before Zod reads more like science fiction-ish titles distantly set in the DC Universes, such as Adam Strange and Jack Kirby’s Fourth World. Indeed, the later issues take a wild space-faring turn. They are also unusually violent for DC, because of the graphic depictions of Zod using his powers very much in the same way Homelander does in The Boys, but with even less mercy.

Night Call, Co-Starring Romain Duris as a Bad Guy

The right to protest must always be preserved, but its always best to take a break and start fresh in the morning. All-night demonstrations are dangerous because both protesters and cops get tired, making it harder for cool heads to prevail. Indeed, an all-night BLM protest in Brussels further complicates a locksmith’s night-from-heck in director-screenwriter Michiel Blanchart’s Night Call, which opens today in theaters.

Mady Bala is not an idiot. He requires proper ID and cash payment for his late-night house-calls, but for some reason, he trusts “Claire.” After all, she perfectly describes the apartment’s interior. However, she scoots out with a package of something just before the real tenant, a white supremacist drug dealer, returns home.

Somehow, Bala kills the raging thug in self-defense, but the long-running protests convince the misguided locksmith to clean-up the crime scene instead of calling the cops. So, there he is, looking extremely guilty when druglord Yannick’s men arrive for their money, finding him instead. After some enhanced interrogation, Yannick starts to suspect Bala might be telling the truth, so he sends the poor patsy off to the dead man’s favorite sex-worker club in search of the mystery woman. Inconveniently, one of the henchmen minding him is aggressively ill-tempered and the other was in on the theft.

It seems pretty clear Blanchart sympathizes with the movement, judging from Bala’s anxieties regarding the police. Yet, ironically, the demonstrators constantly make his situation worse. In fact, the protest—which is really more of a contained riot—precipitate several of the darned things in Blanchart’s one-darned-thing-after-another storyline. There are also a handful of violent eruptions that are not exceptionally graphic, but are still shocking within the dramatic context.

Wolf Man, from Blumhouse

Traditionally, lycanthropy victims must sharpen their time-management skills. If they can secure themselves during full moons (if so inclined), they can continue functioning normally during the rest of the month. Not so for these werewolves. They turn once—permanently. Frankly, it seems fair to ask whether werewolves are still werewolves without the lunar aspect, or just contagion-based hairy monsters. Regardless, that is what we get in Leigh Whannel’s Wolf Man, which opens tomorrow in theaters.

According to the opening titles (which cry out for John Larroquette’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre narrator voice), the indigenous people of these Oregon woods long told stories of shaggy man-beasts terrorizing the region. Young Blake Lovell’s veteran father Grady took those stories seriously. After a tense sighting, he went out hunting it and never came back.

Years later, adult (sort of) Lovell is now a stay-at-home father, largely because he is unemployed. Consequently, he is much closer to his daughter Ginger than his increasingly distant journalist wife, Charlotte. When the state finally declares the missing Grady dead, Blake convinces his wife a family trip to Oregon will do them good, but we know better.

Sure enough, the Lovell family inevitably finds itself running for dear life from a hirsute figure, barely reaching crazy old Grady’s farmhouse in time to barricade themselves inside. Unfortunately, the creature drew some of Blake’s blood, which still means what it usually means. The transformation will not be immediate, but despite his efforts to fight it, the change is inevitable and irreversible.

Blumhouse’s first re-conception of a classic Universal monster, The Invisible Man (also directed by Whannel) was a clever, high-concept genre thriller that felt very fresh and contemporary. In comparison, Wolf Man is a disappointingly small film that resembles any number of low-budget VOD horror movies. Basically, the Lovells are yet another family that allow themselves to be trapped in a strange house by monsters.

Whannel builds a fair degree of tension, but the werewolf makeup underwhelms. It is also annoying to see the Grady Lovell character initially presented as yet another emotionally distant (perhaps even abusive) disciplinarian veteran, but admittedly, the film invites some sympathy for him as it reveals more of his backstory and fate. Regardless, most viewers will ask two glaringly obvious questions as the Lovells batten down grandpa’s long-empty farmhouse: why is it so clean inside and where are all his guns?

Man with No Past, Co-Starring Jon Voight

This man of mystery has a wicked case of déjà vu. Ironically, he also amnesia. He doesn’t know who or what he is, but he is weirdly drawn to people who seem to recognize him, albeit vagely. Apparently, he fights for the innocent and just against those his nemesis leads astray, in morality plays that repeat over time, in different eras, throughout James Bamford’s Man with No Past, which is now available on VOD.

Ryder is not quite sure what he is doing in our world and his visions of fighting the same cast of characters in ancient Rome, the Middle Ages, and National Socialist Germany only confuse him more. Yet, he recognizes Morgan, a pro bono attorney who works out of her god-mother Shelly’s bar, but she is too grounded for past-life déjà vu. However, Shelly can tell he is something, because she has the shine.

This time around, the Jon Voight character is Paul Sanborn, a powerful Trump-ish developer, whom the Mephistophelean Mr. Soach has once again led astray. Before, past Sanborn executed innocents in Germany and forced them into gladiatorial games in Rome, all for the sake of maintaining “order,” which is also ironic, since Soach’s name is an anagram for Chaos. This time he intends to clear his old working-class neighborhood to make way for his legacy-enshrining development. To overcome the opposition of a difficult city councilman, Soach convinces Voight to target the politician’s young daughter.

This is an oddball film that layers an unlikely metaphysical genre story over a grungy VOD action movie, sort of like Timothy Woodward Jr.’s Checkmate, but the execution is far superior, because how could it not be? There is just no sugar-coating the cheap look of the historical scenes. However, the entire cast plays it straight with the utmost earnestness.

Adam Woodward is clearly most comfortably playing strong, silent types, so a role like Ryder suits his skill set. Conversely, Marton Csokas appears almost inspired by Steven Paul’s script as he hisses, preens, and generally chews the scenery as Soach. Charlotte Weston also brings some upbeat charm playing Shelly, which often gives the moody film a welcome lift.

Lizzie Lazarus, on Screambox

If there is one ironclad law of both horror and science fiction movies, it must be the certain understanding that terrible consequences befall any attempt to infringe on death’s domain. Yet, here are Bethany and Eli, schlepping the dead body of her sister through the woods, hoping to reincarnate her once they reach a “sacred spot” on the night of the Summer Solstice. Maybe, this time it will work out for them, but do not get your hopes up, because director-screenwriter Aviv Rubinstien’s Lizzie Lazarus is a horror film, which premieres today on Screambox.

Technically, Lizzie’s death was ruled an accident, but the circumstances indicate vehicular suicide. For her sister Bethany and now ex-boyfriend Eli, that means a lot of guilt, especially since he probably became her ex right before she fatally drove away. Consequently, he agrees to help Bethany with her longshot scheme to bring Lizzie back using the old folkie magic she discovered in her stoner studies.

However, carrying a corpse through the dark woods is more taxing than either expected. They do not even mention the smell, just the weight. There are also weird noises and several potential witnesses ominously skulking about. Plus, there is the whole business of dabbling in dark magic. Yet, for Eli, Bethany’s constant babble of paranoid conspiracy theories and New Age baloney must constitute the most nightmarish aspect of the evening.

Clearly, Rubinstien holds a wicked twist in reserve to eventually spring on viewers. Even if you guess where it is headed, Lizzie Lazarus takes the audience on quite a macabre trip. This is probably the talkiest horror movie in years—maybe even ever, but all that gab pays off.

In fact, Rubinstien’s script intelligently addresses some pretty serious issues related to grief and mental health, without ever feeling exploitative. A lot of painful truths come out over the course of the night. Fortunately, Rubinstien also takes care of genre business, steadily building a sense of foreboding. The evil vibes are palpable for viewers, even if the characters cannot pick up on them.

X-Treme Riders: Fast, Furious, and Thai

Kla and his friends are drug-running stunt drivers—and they are the good guys. Unfortunately, two of their fellow drivers were fatally double-crossed by the other gang they thought they were doing business with. It turns out, Kla’s sister Fun will be the featured fighter in the MMA championship sponsored by their new nemesis. Family is a big deal in movies like this, isn’t it? There is also a lot of fast driving in Sor Sangchai’s X-Treme Riders, which releases today on VOD.

In addition to their exhibitions, the X-Treme Riders also double as the special “cabbage” truck racers, until two colorful hench-people with grenade launchers ambush their latest run, killing Bank. Their boss Krit tells them to lay low, while he quickly tracks the killers back to Jo, the big city kingpin, who is also promoting Fun’s fight. Of course, Jo is pressuring her to throw the fight, because he knows she needs money for her mother’s heart-surgery.

Poor Kla has not spoken to his ailing mother in years because she blames him for his father’s accidental death—not completely without cause. Still, Kla’s teammates and their DJ, Pat, who is also his girlfriend, are a lot like his “family.” You know how that goes. Regardless, Kla and his cronies will be driving hard, while Fun fights her heart out, or not.

It is conspicuously obvious X-Treme Riders was conceived as a Thai Fast and Furious. However, it deserves credit for its willingness to go darker. Just for starters, the X-Treme Riders are flat-out drug-runners. There is also a surprisingly high mortality rate among the major cast of characters.

Journey to America, on PBS

People forget, but no president was more supportive of immigration than Ronald Reagan—legal immigration, that is. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and his wife Callista present portraits of notable American [legal] immigrants very much in the Reaganesque tradition in Journey to America with Newt and Callista Gingrich, which airs this Tuesday night on PBS.

It might seem like a blindingly obvious point, but Prof. Susan Hanssen helpfully points out legal immigration is good, because it allows those who follow the law coming here can fully benefit from the rule of law as a recognized member of society. Conversely, illegal immigration is bad for the same reason. Indeed, all of the Gingrichs’ subjects came to America legally, duly taking citizenship over time.

This is quite a starry lineup, including Golden Age movie star Hedy Lamarr, whose contributions as an inventor and scientist are also cogently explained. In fact, the Gingrichs largely cover the same territory as Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story, but with greater economy. As you would expect from the Catholic Gingrichs, their coverage of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, the first American citizen beautified into Sainthood, is also quite strong. It also reminds potential visitors the Cabrini Shrine in upper Manhattan is lovely often overlooked attraction.

Perhaps the most controversial segment focuses on the late Henry Kissinger, reminding viewers the future Secretary of State came to America with his Jewish family, as penniless refugees from National Socialist Germany. It makes you wonder why the hard left likes to smear Kissinger (a diplomat), who happens to be Jewish, as a “war criminal,” instead of Robert McNamara, Dean Rusk, or William Rogers, but not really.

Shortlisted: A Bear Named Wojtek (short)

He served in the same unit as Menachem Begin and mathematician Julian J. Bussgang, even though he was a bear. Like Sgt. Stubby during WWI, Wojtek the bear was a soldier of rank in the so-called Anders’ Army (who were granted amnesty by the Soviets and allowed to return to the battlefield, thanks to British diplomatic pressure). They were often outnumbered and outgunned, but they had a secret weapon, who was furry but fiercely protective. Filmmaker Iain Gardner pays tribute to one of our great veteran fore-bears in the animated short film A Bear Named Wojtek, which has been shortlisted by the Academy. (Voting for nominations has been extended to tomorrow, so members still have time to watch it).

Polish soldiers discovered the orphaned Wojtek in the Iranian mountains, while they were training under the Brits. Initially, their training Sergeant Major opposed the presence of a wild animal on base, until he captured a pair of would-be saboteurs. There was no arguing with results, so he shipped out with the Anders Army to Monte Casino, where he helped carry shells to artillery positions covering the Allied advance.

This all sounds like a tall tale, but apparently, just like Sgt. Stubby’s heroics, there is official documentation to back it up. Regardless, a great story is a great story. Gardner tells it well, employing a painterly style of animation reminiscent of water color and pastel canvases.

Sakamoto Days, in Cinema Daily US

Netflix's SAKAMOTO DAYS is an endearing ode to marriage and fatherhood that also includes a lot of wild, over-the-top action. Its perfect comfort food for anime fans. CINEMA DAILY US review up here.

Oceans are the Real Continents

According to one character, the heat and humidity makes time pass slowly in the rural Cuban town of San Antonio. The nearly complete absence of economic activity does not help either. The slow speed of life somewhat appropriately gets a “slow cinema” treatment in Italian director-screenwriter Tommasso Santambrogio’s Oceans are the Real Continents, which is now playing in New York.

Alex and Edith are lovers, at least until she defects during her upcoming puppetry performance abroad. Aside from him, there isn’t much keeping her in Cuba—and he doesn’t seem to have much personality. Frank and Alain are kids, who can still amuse themselves. Yet they still dream of baseball glory in America. Milagros is a pilar of the community, but she lives in the past, constantly rereading the letters her late husband sent before he died serving as part of Cuba’s militaristic adventurism in Angola. Thanks in part to his sacrifice, Angola continues to be a one-party dictatorship, rated “unfree” by Freedom House.

This is definitely the sort of film that would have a much greater impact if some of its parts were broken down that it has in its current form. By far, the sequences featuring Milagros Llanes Martinez as her namesake are the most meaningful. There is no competition. Had her scenes been edited into a short film, it would be quite a powerful work. It is also worth noting several arrestingly composed scenes of Edith’s marionettes in performance, which might have also constituted a diverting short.

Rogue Heroes Season 2, on MGM+

Eight decades after WWII, many in the United Kingdom now question why Lt. Col. Robert Blair “Paddy” Mayne never received his nation’s highest military honor, the Victoria Cross (VC), nor has any other member of the Special Air Service (SAS), the commando unit he led throughout North Africa and Italy. In fact, no subsequent SAS commando has received the VC, which is strange, considering their valorous history. The hit show prompting these questions also offers an obvious explanation. The snobby officer class happily let the SAS fight and die on their behalf, but they never considered the highly effective but ill-disciplined unit proper soldiers. The disdain was mutual, at least it is throughout the second season of creator-writer Steven Knight’s Rogue Heroes (a.k.a. SAS Rogue Heroes), still adapted from Ben McIntyre’s nonfiction book, which premieres tomorrow on MGM+.

At the end of season one, Lt. Col. David Sterling, the co-founder of the SAS and then-Major Mayne’s commanding officer had been captured and interned in an Italian POW compound. Consequently, he has far less screentime in season two. However, Mayne more than capably picks up the slack. He also gets a new Sterling, Lt. Col. Bill Sterling, who is much more a proper officer according to the way top brass thinks. Of course, Mayne considers him an aristocratic dilettante. Nevertheless, the new Sterling is a better, more conscientious advocate for the SAS, or the SRS (Special Raiding Service), as they are temporarily renamed, than Mayne realizes.

Regardless, Montgomery and Allied command continues sending the SAS/SRS on foolhardy advance missions, paving the way for the regular army’s Italian invasion, because they keep surviving, killing many Germans and fascists in the process. Given their track record, Eve Mansour, the Algerian-born Free-French spy, who also happened to be David Sterling’s lover, hopes to rendezvous with Paddy Mayne, hoping to support his efforts and possibly glean some intel for De Gaulle regarding the expected invasion of France. Surely, the SAS (as they insist on calling themselves) will be in thick of any such operation.

One way or another, the SAS/SRS keeps rolling, but they are all not completely immune to the horrors of war, just the increasingly in/famous Paddy Mayne, who does not merely laugh in he face of death—he double-dog-dares it. There is no question Mayne is the star of season two and Jack O’Connell runs with it.

Indeed, O’Connell swaggers, snarls, and howls like a champion. You would almost think O’Connell was classically trained, given Mayne commanding bravura poetry recitations—one of the commando officer’s many eccentricities that worries Staff Sgt Jim Almonds, his designated conscience and voice of reason. That is a tough duty to draw.

It is also hard sharing the screen with O’Connell, but Corin Silva and Theo Barklem-Biggs shine developing season two’s other standout characters, Almonds and Sgt. Reg Seekings. Indeed, Barklem-Biggs would generate awards buzz in a more perfect world for the way he portrays Seekings’ PTSD (as we would call it today), as well as his righteous fury at the civilian casualties resulting from the National Socialists’ ruthlessness.

On Call, in The Epoch Times

Prime's ON CALL is tensely constructed and grabbily bingeable, viscerally capturimg the dangers of police work. The personal drama is sometimes contrived, but always hgihly watchable. EPOCH TIMES review up here.

Survive: A Pole Reversal Disaster

California would say this is a heck of a time for a disaster movie about a lack of water, but here it is. Technically, the water did not disappear. It just shifted to where all the land used to be, when the Earth’s poles reversed. Perhaps it is not as bad for a French family enjoying a sailing holiday as it is for those living in coastal lowlands—but it is still pretty bad. The next piece of good news-bad news is the anticipated reversion of the poles back to normal, which means they need to find a safe shelter for the coming deluge in Frederic Jardin’s Survive, which releases tomorrow on VOD.

Tom is German and Julia is French, but somehow, they met, married, and started raising a family in America. Even the kids are enjoying their Caribbean cruise. For teenaged Cassie, still regularly video-chatting with her boyfriend helps considerably. She is online with him when she noticed a bizarre electrical storm in the background—and then all heck breaks loose.

When everyone comes to, the boat is perched on the now dry ocean floor, which stretches out around them like the surface of the Moon (apart from some puddles remaining here and there). Eventually, they make contact with Nao, a Japanese oceanographer, who weathered the disaster in his submersible diving craft. He rather neighborly warns the parents his readings show the catastrophic event will soon reverse itself. Since his partner did not survive, he has room for two additional bodies. Of course, the couple are willing to sacrifice themselves to save their children. However, they must first contend with a vicious survivor out to plunder their food and supplies.

The post-pole-switch landscape is definitely the most impressive aspect of the film. It truly looks like an alien world. Jardin and screenwriters Alexandre Coquelle and Mathieu Oullion also devise plenty of credible challenges in traversing the rises and crevices of the formerly undersea terrain. Unfortunately, they under-deliver when it comes to the promised rabid marine creatures that only appear in the last twenty minutes or so.

There is no camp here, so do not assume anything like Land of the Lost. As the title suggests, this is all about the struggle to survive under extreme and unprecedented circumstances. However, the writing and characterization does not do justice to stunning backdrop. It is also bleakly nihilistic in the ways it depicts other survivors, which grows increasingly depressing. As a further frustration, both children often act out in irresponsible ways that are difficult to believe. True, kids are annoying, but they are usually keenly attuned to the people around them, so they should have picked up on the crisis vibes. Instead, they keep making poor decisions for the sake of advancing the plot.

Laws of Man, Co-Starring Harvey Keitel

The U.S. Marshals Service was created to enforce and protect, rather than investigate. In addition to pursuing Federal fugitives and serving warrants, they provide security for missile silos and Antarctic stations. Unfortunately, these two Marshals are no Sam Gerard (from The Fugitive). They are deeply flawed, but at least they are both military veterans (one during WWII, the other in Korea), so when the bad guys declare war on them, they know how to return fire in director-screenwriter Phil Blattenberger’s Laws of Man, which releases tomorrow in theaters and on VOD.

Frank Fenton and Tommy Morton are Marshals, but they dress like Hoover-era Feds. The abstaining Fenton also acts like a Mormon, which should help him in hardscrabble Utah, but not with their first target, the deranged criminal family of Crash Mooncalf. They try to settle matters with a hail of bullets, but instead Morton plugs the old man right between the eyes. He considers that a result, whereas the justice-minded Fenton admonishes it as a mistake. The warrant for Benjamin Bonney (never explicitly identified as a descendant of Billy the Kid, but that would make sense) will be more difficult.

Again, Fenton and Morton demonstrate tactical superiority over Bonney and his three sons (one of whom seems to be invisible), but the grizzled old killer was already way ahead of them, having quashed their warrant. Frankly, the humiliations that follow are not credible, because threatening a federal officer is never legal under any circumstances. However, it prompts some serious hardcore seething from the tightly wound Fenton. Obviously, someone is protecting Bonney and the local head of the FBI field office, Galen Armstrong seems like a likely candidate, since he practically walks around with a sign around his neck that says “bad guy.”

Nevertheless, the first forty-five minutes or so work pretty well, because of how Blattenberger shows the two Marshals working together and relating to each other. They both clearly carry a great deal of baggage, but Morton adopts a live-for-today attitude, whereas Fenton ruminates over the past—deeply and often.

Laws of Man also benefits from a colorful supporting cast, including some big names squandering in brief throwaway roles, like James Urbaniak as a gas station proprietor and Graham Greene as the fatalistic (or maybe just bored) sheriff. However, Harvey Keitel is delightful to watch chewing the scenery as Cassidy Whittaker a traveling revivalist priest, sort of in the tradition of Orange County ex-hippie Evangelicals who still retained some stoner tendencies, who were much more prevalent in the 1970s. (It is an entertaining performance, even if you don’t know what I’m talking about.)

Shortlisted: In the Shadow of the Cypress (short)

In Iran, there are many potential causes of PTSD. For this crusty old sea captain, it was trauma related to the Iran-Iraq War, but for others, it could just as easily be unjust imprisonment, torture, or even facial disfigurement to punish “immodesty.” Unfortunately, the old man often lashes out at his daughter, continuing the cycle of misery, but extraordinary circumstances help them think beyond their troubled relationship in Hossein Molayemi & Shirin Sobani’s wordless animated short, In the Shadow of the Cypress, which has been shortlisted by the Academy.

When the old man is not distant, he is abusive, but during those times, he is not mentally with his daughter. His mind travels back to when his ship was strafed during the war. Unfortunately, he has a constant reminder, because the slowly sinking vessel still lists in sight of their beachfront shack.

Finally, his daughter resolves to leave, but upon departing she is stunned by the sight of an enormous beached whale. Setting aside their dysfunction, they try to push and pull him back to sea, but to no avail. While she tries to comfort the great beast, he hatches a desperate but possibly cathartic rescue plan.

Kyiv Theater: An Island of Hope, OVID.tv

According to the actors based in Kyiv, Ukrainian theater overwhelmingly reflected a Russian influence, until Putin’s illegal invasion. Since then, they have increasingly looked towards the European avant-garde for inspiration. Of course, Putin does not care about culture, but it is another example of Russia’s loss of international prestige. French theater director Ariane Mnouchkine is exactly the sort of artist the Ukrainian theater world has been drawn to. To show her solidarity, Mnouchkine travels to Kviv to hold an intensive workshop, which Duccio Bellugi-Vannuccini & Thomas Briat documented in Kyiv Theater: An Island of Hope, premiering tomorrow on OVID.tv.

Throughout her residency, Mnouchkine heard drone raid sirens nearly every night, but fortunately, she never witnessed catastrophic-level destruction. Nevertheless, her traveling company staff fully understood that was a very real possibility, but they joined her anyway. Yet, throughout the workshop, both the Ukrainian and French participants deliberately avoided explicit political subjects and references. The Ukrainians had already had more than their fill.

Instead, we watch numerous improvisation exercises that often resemble out-takes from Samuel Beckett plays. Frankly, these very theatric theatrical performances are the least interesting parts of Vannuccini & Briat’s doc, but they get a majority of the screentime, in a film that clocks in a whisker shy of an hour.

Shortlisted: Maybe Elephants (short)

Fortunately for the narrator, her parents did not quite go to Mosquito Coast lengths. However, their decision, not particularly well thought out, to spend several years in Kenya was certainly disruptive. However, their three daughters had much more fun than the children in Paul Theroux’s novel. During their Kenyan interlude, they shared an experience that became the stuff of family legend. Yet, they apparently remember it very differently. Director-screenwriter Torril Kove tells her version of the tale in the 16-minute animated short film Maybe Elephants, supported by the National Film Board of Canada, which has been shortlisted by the Academy.

Hopefully, the Academy does not mind sequels in this category, because Maybe Elephants is a loose follow-up to Kove’s Me and My Moulton. The prior nominated short looked back at Kove childhood in 1960s Norway, living with two very hippy-dippy parents. They seem a bit more grounded when Maybe Elephants starts in the 1970s. Her father has comfortably settled into life as a middle-class architect. However, the narrator’s mother shows signs of discontent that perhaps even hint at a relatively mild but persistent form of depression.

Then one day, the narrator’s mother (also a trained but under-employed architect) announces she wants to move to somewhre, anywhere in Africa, to help plan and build public works. Rather archly, her daughters ask how she knows the Africans even want her help. Nevertheless, the family moves to Kenya, but it is their father who secures the three-year posting with an NGO. Arguably, the change of scenery still does them good. There is also an incident with elephants—maybe.

George A. Romero’s Resident Evil

Beyond the zombies, it is easy to understand how Umbrella, the evil pharmaceutical company in the Resident Evil video game franchise would resonate with an old-fashioned liberal like George A. Romero. Ironically, that distrust of big pharma has become more prevalent on the populist “right” in recent years. Similarly, Romero’s commentary regarding government censorship and misinformation during times of crisis probably seemed “leftwing” when he made Diary of the Dead, but it lands very differently today. If the government ever starts censoring his films, it will start with Diary. Unfortunately, fans never had the chance to see Romero’s take on the popular survival horror game, even though he scripted several drafts. Friends and insiders consider what might have been and offer their tributes to the master in Brandon Salisbury’s documentary, George A. Romero’s Resident Evil, which releases today on VOD.

Everyone at the Japanese video game company Capcom fully understood the Resident Evil game never would have existed without George Romero. He essentially launched zombie horror with Night of the Living Dead and maintained it as a subgenre with his subsequent sequels. Evidently, Romero felt the same way, so he had mixed feelings about the game (which he claimed to enjoy). Nevertheless, Capcom was eager to forge a closer association, so they hired Romero to direct the commercial for the second installment of the game (known as Biohazard in Japan).

Inevitably, the commercial caused a minor sensation in the horror world and it helped propel the new game to record-setting sales. Consequently, Capcom recommended Romero to direct the feature film adaptation. Although the surviving rough drafts of his proposed scripts are all pretty rough, fans agree they would have captured the spirit of the games much more successfully than the Paul W.S. Anderson live-action movies. However, a key executive at Constantine Films, the Germany production company, just didn’t understand the IP they bought—and eventually fired Romero, because he did.

Salisbury’s doc grows a small but growing list of films that document films that never came to be, but should have, as previously exemplified by Jodorowsky’s Dune and Henri-Georges Cluzot’s Inferno. Sadly, Romero’s Resident Evil never advanced as far as either of those non-films.

Viktor Taus’s Girl America

In the Communist-era Czechoslovakia, there was not much difference between the orphanages and the prisons. Emma Cerna would know, because she “served time” in both. Unfortunately, the lingering effects of her various institutionalizations cause her to continue cycles of dysfunctional behavior in Viktor Taus’s Girl America, which screens this week at Bohemian National Hall in New York.

Cerna’s mother was a party-person who could never really face reality, once she became a parent. Frankly, trouble dealing with reality runs in her family. She comes to share her older delinquent brother Mirek’s delusion their long-absent father waits for them in America (building the United States into an unrealiistic paradise in Cerna's mind). Since her mother frequently disappears on long benders, Cerna must act as a mother to her toddler brother. Eventually, the neighbors finally call social services, who separate the two siblings. Sadly, her little brother vanishes into the socialist system, never to be seen again, at least by her.

However, Cerna briefly reunites with her older brother when the authorities transfer him to her orphanage. Unfortunately, his rebelliousness and the schoolmarm-ism head mistress’s prejudices soon result in his expulsion. Nevertheless, Cerna develops sisterly feelings towards many of her fellow orphans. Somehow, the orphanage successfully places her with decent foster parents (although her step-sister is admittedly a pill), but she prefers the fantasy of her American father over a flesh-and-blood home. Inevitably, her self-destructive behavior lands her back in another state facility, of the correctional variety, where again she finds comradery with young women very much like her.

That all sounds pretty grim, which it often is. Yet, Taus’s visual approach is so wildly surreal, it sometimes makes the film rather confusing to follow. Frankly, between the bleak tone and the stylistic excesses, Girl America might be the most exhausting film of the decade.

Regardless, it is clear everyone invested their hearts and souls in this film. Klara Kitto, Julie Soucova, and Pavla Beretova are all equally and relentlessly devastating as Cerna, from childhood through adulthood. However, Tomas Sean Psenicka really stands out as a potential breakout international star for his intense, but also edgily charismatic performance as big brother Mirek.

Teen Titans: Snowblind, at Paley

KGBeast is one of DC’s most sinister villains, but his alter-ego, Anatoli Knyazev was converted into a good-guy on Arrow, because who could believe Russians might commit heinous crimes against humanity? So far, DC animated productions have been much more successful incorporating its Cold War characters and legacy, especially in Superman: Red Son. As a further case in point, the early 2000’s animated Teen Titans series offered an interesting take on Red Star in the episode “Snowblind,” which screens at the Paley Center as part of its Winter Frolic programming.

In this version of DC reality, Leonid Kovar, a.k.a. Red Star, was the lucky subject of a Soviet “super-soldier” experiment devised by the notoriously reliable Prof. Chang (a recurring villain in the animated series). Yet, much like the Hulk, the super-Soviet could not control his powers. When over-agitated, he expelled tremendous bursts of radioactive energy. Consequently, Red Star sequestered himself in an adapted bunker outside the secret military installation where he was formerly based.

Suspicious radioactive readings brought the Teen Titans to Kovar’s remote Siberian homeland. However, Red Star is not producing the energy they detected. There is something else terrorizing the local village, but they just assume it is the same radioactive devil they know.

Screenwriter Rob Hoegee does his best to play down Red Star’s Communist era origins, but they are inescapable. Indeed, Raskov, his former commander turned persecutor, bears all the worst hallmarks of the Soviet era military. However, this version of Red Star is an acutely tragic character, who is developed fairly thoroughly for a half-hour episode.

Aladdin 3477: The Jinn of Wisdom

Evidently, in 1,400 years, or so, there will still be people who believe in magic—not just Jedi and Bene Gesserit mental powers, but straight up magic. However, they will no longer spell Djinn with a “D.” Regardless, a luckless loser finds a certain lamp in director-screenwriter-editor Matt Busch’s Aladdin 3477: The Jinn of Wisdom, which is now available on VOD.

Yes, his name is Aladdin and he eventually stumbles across a lamp, but it is clear Busch was more interested in remaking Star Wars (even giving it poster-placement and a shout-out) rather than The Thief of Baghdad. Aladdin hopes to rescue a princess, which is a common element to both films, but his constant companion is a robot named Fidgi, shaped suspiciously like R2D2, but he flies very much like V.I.N.CENT in the Black Hole.

There is also a dodgy adventurer who keeps conning thieves into trying to steal the Jinn of Wisdom’s lamp from its buried tomb, but he can never successfully negotiate the inevitable “you throw me the idol, I throw you the whip” impasse. Of course, Aladdin agrees to be his next unwitting victim.

In fact, it takes about an hour before the Jinn makes his first appearance. Frankly, the first fifteen minutes are entirely devoted to Aladdin running through a Hong Kong bizarre, trying to avoid the cops and his vengeful ex. That would be Hong Kong, China, as it is identified. The United States also happens to now be part of the United States of China, so Busch certainly did his best to position the film for a Chinese distribution deal.

There are times when the film’s grungy but inventive special effects hold nostalgic charm, especially for fans of Roger Corman’s Star Wars knockoffs (like Space Raiders). However, the titular character is boorishly obnoxious, especially in his treatment Oomi, his torch-carrying protector.

The Damned: Nordic Marine Folk Horror

For fishermen, the sea provides sustenance, but what it really generated were superstitions.  The Draugur (or Draugr) was supposedly one of them. However, a fishing camp in Iceland’s frozen Westfjords are about to learn they are actually real, because Thordur Palsson’s The Damned is horror movie that opens today in theaters.

There is no going back for the crew of Eva’s fishing boat, because no ships would dare traverse the icy waters until the thaw. Unfortunately, the fishing has been so poor, they have resorted to eating their bait. Technically, the widowed Eva owns the outfit, but her burly but much older second husband Ragnar acts as the skipper, foreman, and taskmaster. She has the final word, but Eva usually defers to him, so she does so again when a ship freakishly wrecks on the reefs surrounding their bay. He insists they cannot even feed themselves, so they cannot afford to rescue more hungry mouths.

Obviously, this generates some bad karma—especially when Eva and Ragnar organize a salvage operation to scavenge supplies. In fact, it gets rather ugly when they must beat off survivors. Of course, spooky old Helga recognizes all this provides a conducive environment for vengeful draugurs. Sure enough, something seems to soon start preying on the fishing camp, killing them off one-by-one and/or driving them mad. Helga tries to protect them with traditional charms, but to no avail.

Palsson and screenwriter Jamie Hannigan serve up another generous helping of folk horror. The isolated coastal location, the washed-out color palate, and the bleak tone prompt comparisons to Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse. Yet, even though The Damned is moody in the extreme, Palsson still maintains a healthier pace, which is quite impressive.

Admittedly, Palsson relies on casting to provide much of the shorthand character development for his supporting cast, like Francis Magee as burly middle-aged Skuli, baby-faced Michael Og Lane as nervous Aron, and Rory McCann as grizzled Ragnar. Yet, that economy often serves genre films relatively well—and it works here.

DC Showcase: The Spectre

Gen Z'ers could learn a lot from Det. Jim Corrigan’s work ethic. He works his colleagues’ cases as well as his own. Plus, he is technically dead, yet he never makes any excuses. Those evil-doers will not punish themselves, but Corrigan will, as the human host for an ex-demon-turned-righteous-spirit-of-vengeance. His latest case is very Hollywood, but that won’t impress Corrigan in Joaquim Dos Santos’s DC Showcase: The Spectre. (Technically, today is Corrigan’s in-world birthday, but he isn’t very festive anymore.)

In most storylines, Corrigan was killed while on his way to celebrate his engagement. Presumably, he knew Aimee Brenner sometime before that. They were once an item, so he duly arrives at the crime scene to comfort her—and annoy below-average Lt. Brice. As a bigtime studio producer, her father, Foster Brenner had no shortage of enemies. However, several former collaborators whom Brenner cut out of his latest blockbuster were particularly vocal expressing their grievances.

Frankly, you probably wouldn’t need to be the Spectre to solve this case, but he can do it especially quickly. Essentially, the Spectre visits the accused, sort of like the Ghosts of Christmas, showing them horrific visions based on their guilty memories. The makeup artist (who maybe not coincidentally partly resembles Tom Savini) is in for a particularly rough time, because of all the macabre models and props in his studio.

The coolest thing about The Spectre is its funky 1970s vibe. It could almost pass for an animated cousin of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. The deliberately hazy look suits the murky morality of its Hollywood setting, while the soundtrack from The Track Team, Jeremy Zuckerman & Benjamin Wynn sounds very era-appropriate.

Lockerbie: A Search for the Truth, in The Epoch Times

There are conspicuous biases and an unfortunate lack of tension throughout Peacock's LOCKERBIE: A SEARCH FOR THE TRUTH. Yet, at least it provides a timely reminder of the continuing threat of state-sponsored terrorism, including violent extremist Palestinian groups, according to its driven subject, Dr. Jim Swire. EPOCH TIMES review up here.

Harbin: Anh Jung-geun’s Celebrated Mission

Harbin is the largest city in Northeastern China, but in the early 1900s, it was as Russian as Moscow. Back then, it was a major hub on the Russian-owned Chinese Eastern Railway, linking Vladivostok to Port Arthur. For the Korean resistance army, it was an advantageous area to operate, because the Imperial Japanese army had to respect the authority of the Russian government. For a future national hero in need of redemption, a Japanese state visit represents an opportunity to strike a blow for independence in Woo Min-ho’s Harbin, which opens Friday in theaters.

Anh Jung-geun fought and bled to liberate Korea. Unfortunately, as the film opens, he faces disgrace for allowing a potentially hard-fought victory to turn into a bitter defeat. The General learns the hard way that when your enemy offers to commit Seppuku, you ought to let him do so.   Instead, Anh showed Maj. Tatsuo Mori mercy, by disarming and releasing him under the current international laws of warfare. Mori repaid his kindness by wiping out Anh’s army with artillery.

Frankly, most of the resistance army’s ruling council consider Anh’s conduct foolish, bordering on outright treason. Yet, sufficient confidence remains in his loyalty to assign him a possibly game-changing mission that holds little chance of survival. Anh will lead a team tasked with assassinating Ito Hirobumi, the former Japanese Prime Minister and Resident General of Korea, who continues to act as the behind-the-scenes power broker, while he makes an official diplomatic visit to Harbin.

Yet, Anh’s misfortunes continue, when he is separated from traveling partners, Kim Sang-hyun (probably his staunchest defender) and Woo Deok-sun (his fiercest critic) on the train to Harbin. When they eventual reunite in the future Chinese Russian city, it will become clear one of them has been turned by Mori.

Compared to the similarly themed Assassination, Harbin is much more cerebral and considerably slower in pace. However, its intrigue definitely intrigues. In fact, Woo Min-ho and co-screenwriter Kim Min-seung address themes of mercy and redemption in a surprisingly thoughtful manner.

Still, Woo executes several warfighting scenes with brutal realism. In fact, the sight of Anh staggering along the Tumen River will likely become the defining image of Harbin, thanks to striking way cinematographer Hong Kyung-pyo frames these sequences. Nevertheless, Woo concentrates on recreating the paranoia and feelings of outraged impudence that tormented the underground resistance.

The Top 10’s of Cinema Daily US

Happy New Year. It is a new year, but some of the best films of 2024 will only start opening outside of New York this month. My colleagues and I at CINEMA DAILY US have posted our top 10 lists (here), which are filled with great films you should either look out for or catch up with.