It’s unusual that Stephen Dorff gets top billing in “Heatstroke” when his character is really only there to supply exposition and die. He’s really only a minor plot device meant to emphasize the attitude and anger of Maisie Williams’ character Josie and how she hates her divorced dad’s new girlfriend. Dorff gives a solid performance all things considered, but “Heatstroke” mainly belongs to stars Maisie Williams and Svetlana Metkina. I’d only suggest watching “Heatstroke” if you’re a big “Game of Thrones” fan and want to see Williams out of her medieval element and in to something more contemporary. I say that since “Heatstroke” is only a mediocre thriller with barely anything above middling basic stalk and chase fodder to really keep audiences invested.
Tag Archives: Drama
The Wonder Years: The Complete Series Set (DVD)
‘In memory, everything seems to happen to music.’ – Tennessee Williams
It’s the mark of a quality television series, when it’s set in a specific period of history and still has massive appeal to just about any audience. “The Wonder Years” wasn’t just a TV drama for adults in the eighties that still hadn’t gotten over the sixties. “The Wonder Years” surpassed simple nostalgia and approached its narrative from two angles. It was a family dramedy set in the sixties that took off from “A Christmas Story” chronicling the pitfalls and highs of growing up through a young boy. It also examined the decade that much of the eighties and early nineties were still trying to come to grips with.
This included the Vietnam War, Watergate, The Draft, The Civil Rights Movement, and just the general changing social climate that jarred many folks coming out of the great depression and World War II. “The Wonder Years” chronicles the youth of Kevin Arnold, a normal suburban boy who is watching the world around him change for the better and for the worse.
Jersey Boys (2014) [Blu-ray/DVD/Digital]
Director Clint Eastwood has to work with one of the most popular stage musicals in a long time and really has no vision for bringing it to the big screen. I love Frank Valli and his music, and on film his work is still stunning. But “Jersey Boys” is only a mediocre adaptation of the stage musical. Eastwood doesn’t seem to want to give the movie a wider scale at any point, and then in the closing credits just tacks on a final number that recreates the musical. For all intents and purposes, “Jersey Boys” gives Frankie Valli a much deserved nod to his fans and legendary music, but director Clint Eastwood simply has no idea how to work it in to a dynamic biographical drama with its own unique flavor.
Omen IV: The Awakening (1991)
O,While it can be a tad silly at times, I think “Omen IV” is very underrated. What you think is just a goofy reboot with a switching of genders for the anti-Christ ends up being something so much cleverer. Asia Veira plays the cute but deadly Delia, a young girl adopted by Gene and Karen York, two attorneys that have had a tough time conceiving. While Karen begins focusing on motherhood, Gene finds himself being pushed by his coworkers toward a political career that could become very beneficial to the family.
The Walking Dead Season 4 Episode 13: Alone
One thing I keep wondering is when the survivors are going to learn never to get too comfortable. Comfort breeds complacency, and complacency gets you killed. Granted, the scene in the funeral home was terrifying, but you just don’t open a door to a safe haven. Even if you have the chance to lure in a cute little dog from out of danger. “Alone” is now less focused on the one set of characters and scattering its narrative more and more. With only three episodes left, there are bound to be a lot more questions. All in all, “Alone” is a fine if flawed episode, and much more cohesive than last week.
Omen III: The Final Conflict (1981)
One thing I never understood about Damien Thorne is his character as a whole. Is Damien pre-programmed to be evil? Did his disciples and handler have to brainwash him to believe his God is the only God? Did Damien believe this stuff? And why does he seem to fully embrace his role as the anti-Christ in the third film when in the second film, he was a young boy struggling with his urges for good and evil? What clicked in him to inspire him to continue his plan for world domination?
And once he dominated the world, what then? Is he the one who rules the world or does he hand the duties over to the dark lord of the underworld? In either case, “The Final Conflict” is the final leg of the “Omen” series, where Damien has finally risen to power. He now runs the Thorne Industries and has no one to defy him. He’s wealthy, and powerful, and now he’s making a play to campaign for ambassador. Over the course of his teens in to his adulthood, the one lone Damien is now a man with an army behind him.
Not only does he have a handler, but a league of believers, many of whom are willing to do Damien’s bidding with his flick of a brow and a smile. Sam Neill is adequate as Damien Thorne, presenting a smarmy and very smug quality to the character. I would have depicted Damien as something of an unassuming man, but Neill is able to salvage his miscasting by making Damien likable. He’s a clean cut young politician with youth on his side, and he begins taking a liking to the son of a journalist who he thinks has promise in the evil business of destroying mankind.
As the followers sight a sacred constellation, Damien realizes the second coming of Christ at hand, and now in order to prevent it, he must murder the first borns of every family in the world. Meanwhile, he persists in dodging the assassins that have made it their mission to murder Damien and end his reign of tyranny. He does this in the most bad ass methods imaginable, first posing as someone, which ends in a confusing murder of an innocent person, and then turning hunting dogs on their master, possessing them in to eating him alive. “The Final Conflict” was not the final conflict as we witnessed with “The Omen IV: The Awakening,” but for a last outing of the original trilogy, it’s a solid last adventure for Damien Thorne and his evil plan to rule the world.
Almost Human (2014) [Blu-Ray]
Sometimes shocking simplicity is all you really need to give audiences a good scare here and there. With a noticeable low budget, director Joe Begos doesn’t aspire to deliver anything more than a gruesome alien horror film while also sticking to the basics of what makes a good horror movie work. “Almost Human” is a very well made horror science fiction movie in the vein of “The Thing” and “Xtro.” It works within a limited budget and still delivers a pretty eerie and tense, albeit flawed, horror entry. If you can forgive the obvious nods and winks to films like “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” and “The Terminator,” you’re in for a good time.