Movie Review Uncharted

Uncharted 

Directed by Ruben Fleischer

Written by Rafe Jenkins, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway

Starring Tom Holland, Mark Wahlberg, Antonio Banderas

Release Date February 18th, 2022

Uncharted stars Tom Holland as Nathan Drake and more and more I am enjoying Holland as a screen presence. Having grown weary of the quip machine action heroes that have dominated the last two decades of Hollywood action, Holland’s more cerebral and achingly emotional action hero feels refreshing. Holland’s Nathan Drake can be funny but he’s first and foremost a pro with a good head on his shoulders. He’s not flippant and doesn’t just go for the joke when one is available. Holland has an unforced charisma that makes an otherwise dreary exercise in the action genre, more entertaining than I was expecting. 

Uncharted starts fast with our hero, young adventurer, Nathan Drake, falling out of an airplane. It’s the kind of wild and wooly stunt that has made Tom Cruise one of the most entertaining action heroes in the genre. We watch as the scene is set for one of the major action set pieces in Uncharted before we flashback to how our hero got to this dangerous spot. It’s a little clichéd but, as I said, Holland makes the familiar refreshing with his performance.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review No Exit

No Exit 

Directed by Damian Power 

Written by Adrian Barrer, Gabriel Ferrari, Taylor Adams 

Starring Havana Rose Liu, Danny Ramirez

Release Date February 25th, 2022

No Exit is a nasty little thriller about an abducted girl, a former drug addict on the run, and a snowstorm that traps a disparate group of people at a roadside shelter. Directed by Damian Power, No Exit has tension and suspense but cannot sustain the excitement for the entire run time. Issues of logic and motivation come in late in the 3rd act, and a magical nail gun becomes an overpowered Deus Ex Machina in the unsatisfying conclusion. 

No Exit stars the very talented Havana Rose Liu as Darby, a reformed drug addict currently finishing out a stint at a rehab facility. The plot of No Exitkicks in when Darby manages an escape from the rehab facility. Darby has just learned that her mother is in the hospital on the brink of death and Darby is determined to reach her before she passes on. Darby’s escape is thwarted by a massive snow storm that closes the roads and forces her to take shelter and a roadside shelter.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review The Desperate Hour

The Desperate Hour 

Directed by Phillip Noyce 

Written by Chris Sparling

Starring Naomi Watts

Release Date February 25th, 2022 

Phillip Noyce’s reviled drama, Lakewood is finally getting a release under a new title, The Desperate Hour. The film which debuted as Lakewood at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2021 was met with a torrent of bad reviews before quietly creeping into the shadows and out of any possible awards contention. Now titled The Desperate Hour, the Naomi Watts led thriller is getting a limited and rather low-key theatrical release. 

The Desperate Hour is one of those movies made during the COVID-19 pandemic and needed to find ways to film without risking cast and crew-wide infections. Thus, the story centers on one character for 84 minutes alone in a forest. But that’s not what the movie is about. Instead, The Desperate Hour is about a school shooting that unfolds via an all powerful IPhone that gets reception everywhere and never runs out of a charge until it’s needed for dramatic effect.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Classic Movie Review The First Nudie Movie

The First Nudie Musical 

Directed by Mark Haggard, Bruce Kimmel

Written by Bruce Kimmel

Starring Stephen Nathan, Cindy Williams, Bruce Kimmel

Release Date March 3rd, 1976

Specialty film imprint Quiver have once again dug into the annals of 70's cinema for another unique and mostly forgotten movie, 1976’s bizarre sex comedy, The First Nudie Musical. This remarkably 1970's movie stars a pre-Laverne & Shirley Cindy Williams as Rose and Steven Nathan as her boss, adult movie producer Harry Schechter. Harry, having lost money on his most recent picture, is desperately searching for a way to freshen up the porn genre. 

With investors breathing down his neck and threatening to take his studio away, Harry suddenly has a big idea, a porno musical called Come, Come With Me. He even has the opening tune ready to go titled, The First Nudie Musical which he performs off the cuff for his money guys alongside a kickline of beautiful naked women. This is quickly explained away as a dream sequence but one that Harry was vividly illustrating to the investors as he went on.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review Death on the Nile

Death on the Nile

Directed by Kenneth Branagh

Written by Michael Green, Agatha Christie 

Starring Kenneth Branagh, Annette Bening, Gal Gadot

Release Date February 11th, 2022 

Death on the Nile is a shockingly bloated and silly mystery movie. Directed by the otherwise brilliant Kenneth Branagh, this blockbuster feels tossed off on a whim with little care to make sure the central mystery was even worthy of a movie. As gorgeous and opulent as the production design for Death on the Nile is, the beauty of the movie only serves to magnify the emptiness of the main characters, plot and dialogue of Death on the Nile. 

Death on the Nile returns Kenneth Branagh to the role of famed Detective Hercule Poirot. In flashback we see Poirot’s heroism in the trenches of World War 1. We see how Poirot’s unique mind proves to be a remarkable asset, even in the chaos of a bloody and deadly war as he outsmarts his superiors with a plan to sneak attack German soldiers and retake a strategic bridge, one essential to the future of the war. It all goes to plan until one soldier fails to heed Poirot’s warning leading to a tripwire and a deadly explosion.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review Studio 666

Studio 666

Directed by B.J McDonnell

Written by Dave Grohl, Jeff Buhler, Rebecca Hughes

Starring Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Pat Smear, Nate Mendel

Release Date February 25th, 2022 

Studio 666 walks a remarkably slim tight rope between comedy and bloody horror and manages brilliantly to stay upright. This wildly fun and playful horror movie starring the rock band, The Foo Fighters, is such a jovial delight that even when someone dies horrifically you can sense they did so with the glee of a child enjoying a theme park ride. Dave Grohl and company are having an absolute ball sending up horror tropes and playing them straight for scares at the same time and I loved every moment of it. 

Studio 666 posits our heroic rock icons, The Foo Fighters, Dave Grohl, Pat Smear, Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel, Rami Jaffee, and Chris Shiflett, struggling with their 10th career album. In a meeting with their manager, played by the otherwise toxic Jeff Garlin, they nail down a place to record the record that can provide a little inspiration. The place that the manager has in mind has a history of death. What The Foo Fighters don’t know, but we do, via an opening flashback to the 90s, is that a legendary 90s band was slaughtered by one of their members in this house.

Find my full length review at Horror.Media, linked here. 

Movie Review Asking For It

Asking for It 

Directed by Eamon O'Rourke

Written by Eamon O'Rourke 

Starring Kiersey Clemons, Vanessa Hudgens, Alexandra Shipp

Release Date March 4th, 2022

Asking for It had so much potential. The trailer promised a hardcore feminist revenge movie featuring strong and assertive female characters. The sad reality of Asking for It is that this is yet another in a growing sub-genre of shallow, pseudo-empowerment movies that mistake enacting violence and holding weapons for genuine empowerment. The feature film debut of writer-director, Eamon O’Rourke is a glib revenge fantasy that uses diversity and inclusivity as a marketing campaign more than anything else. 

Kiersey Clemons stars in Asking for It as a naïve young woman named Joey. When we meet Joey she’s working as a waitress and planning for life as an adult. Joey’s plans are derailed after she reconnects with a male friend from High School and, following a drunken night of partying, finds that she’s been sexually assaulted while mostly unconscious. This throws Joey’s life into a tailspin. She becomes deeply withdrawn from family and barely gets by at work.

Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here.