Imagine you’re a Chinese business and you want to enter the US market. Let’s also pretend that it’s around 2008 and the US stock market has just crashed thanks to the subprime mortgage crisis. Your country, on the other hand,…
Demon House Could Have Been The Room of Documentaries
One hundred and eleven minutes. One hundred and eleven nerve-nulling, soul-deadening minutes. That’s how long Zak Bagans felt his preposterously inept “documentary” Demon House should run. I’m not sure whether to marvel at his audacity or laugh in disbelief, as…
Gringo is a Messy but Compelling Shkreli Revenge Fantasy
There’s no way Amazon Studios could have predicted they would release Nash Edgerton’s Gringo on the same day hedge fund manager Martin Shkreli was sentenced to seven years in prison for securities fraud. Shkreli—nicknamed the “Pharma Bro”—swiftly became one of…
7 Guardians of the Tomb Movie Review: One redeeming moment can’t save this misfire
There is precisely one redeeming moment in Kimble Rendall’s 7 Guardians of the Tomb, a sci-fi horror blockbuster touting itself as the largest Chinese-Australian co-production in history. The scene comes about two-thirds of the way in after a group of…
The 15:17 to Paris Review: Clint Eastwood misfires with this bundle of ideological confusion
Three young boys play with airsoft guns in the woods, each blasting the other with tiny plastic pellets from the muzzles of toys made to look like real weapons. The three charge at each other and collapse into a pile…
Slamdance 2018 Review: The Rainbow Experiment
Throw a pebble at a window and you might not break it, but the impact will crack it and send long tendrils of damage throughout the pane. No matter how hard you might try to repair it, the glass will…
Kill Order Review: The James Mark film completely misses its mark
Kill Order cannot be a finished movie. There’s no way this wasn’t a workprint accidentally sent to the distributors in place of a final product. I understand that low-budget action filmmaking has its niche audience and that underdeveloped plots and…
