michaelRokeefe

A horror comedy directed by BJ McDonnell that gives what it promises. Dave Grohl and his band The Foo Fighters face a possible problem connected to music royalties and would like to find a unique location to record their tenth and much anticipated studio album. A mansion in Encino, California is selected, not knowing of its gory and mysterious history. It seems previously an other rock band tempted to record in the mansion, only to meet their deadly demise. Grohl finds the acoustics to be perfect, but realizes he has hit a writer's block. Strange sounds and visions leads the band's leader to a hidden spot, where he finds reels of recording tape...and the material is excellent to his ear. A satanic possession takes Grohl on rock-star power trip and band members must endure his bullying while witnessing several bloody deaths.

Gory and disturbing scenes. Bad acting, sorry editing and questionable directing...but we signed up to watch a well loved rock band to have a good time while making fun of themselves.

Eric (Andrew Hollingworth) and Hayley (Becca Hirani) with young daughter Penny (Faye Goodwin) in tow move into a lake front property n hopes of a new start. Things start looking bad almost immediately. A snake skin bound book is found full of creepy drawings and disturbing photos. Sleep is disturbed by the vision of an old naked man walking about the house. And Penny has a "new friend" she has found... a burnt up, old, ugly, doll. And at one time this property was considered "too good to be true". Hayley and one of her friends (Lorena Andrea) do some investigating and discover the previous owner had gone mad killing his wife and family. It is believed this type activity may have started centuries ago. Bloody and gross, but not overly haunting.

This thriller starts with a young woman, Darby (Havana Rose Liu), a recovering addict breaking out of rehab in order to get to her mother dying of a brain aneurysm. Stealing a car and battling a snow storm on the interstate to Salt Lake City, a Highway Patrol trooper advises her to wait out a blizzard at the nearest visitor's center. The only people stranded there are a married couple and two young men, one obviously a bit mentally challenged. Darby goes outside to look for cellphone signal to get word about her mother. In the spitting snow, Darby discovers a kidnapped girl in a van belonging to one of the people inside; but who?

Directed by Damien Power succeeding in amping suspicion, anxiety and helping popcorn sales. The four suspects are aptly played by Danny Ramirez, Dennis Haysbert, Dale Dickey and David Rysdahl. Mila Harris plays the young kidnapped victim.

This one really fooled me. I had no intentions of liking this movie as well as I did. Get into a wayback machine stopping in the early 1700s. A young Comanche woman Naru (Amber Midthunder), in the Great Plains, already a trained healer, dreams of becoming a great hunter like her brother, Taabe (Dakato Beavers). While tracking deer, she witnesses lights of an alien Predator's spacecraft. When apt tribe members are attacked, maimed and killed, large unusual tracks are left behind, obviously cougars and mountain lions are not suspected attackers. When a herd of skinned bison are found, a nearby grizzly bear attacks Naru, who in turn watches the bear meet its death in a most horrid manner. Her story of the Predator discovery is going to be hard to believe. Captivating visuals and sustainable story line.

Also in the cast: Julian Black, Michelle Thrush, Stormee Kipp, Bennett Taylor and Dane DiLiergo.

How long are we expected to wait for a sequel to a legendary movie? Is it expected that as fickle as movie goers are; Top Gun:Maverick is to be gushed over as a blockbuster or be treated as a pretty good follow up. I expected more than a mediocre rehash of hunks of the most liked scenes in the original. Sure Tom Cruise is outstanding, mostly due to his work ethics and still being able to physically put his body through the rigors of making a movie.

Maverick has a disappointing rank for his years in the Navy; but of course his attitude and arrogance has pissed off numerous superior officers. He is more or less given a final chance to stay around even longer by returning to Top Gun and taking charge of training a squad of younger "best-of-the-best" to destroy an enemy uranium plant.

The flying scenes are stunning and choreographed flawlessly. The chemistry with Jennifer Connelly is smooth as magic. And the small part of Val Kilmer purely heartfelt. A very good popcorn movie. And for certain, Maverick (Cruise) still owns the sky!

This holiday fare was one of the most watched on Hallmark in 2018. I personally haven't figured that one out yet. The view scenes shot inside Graceland was a draw; but the scenes outside the mansion on the lawn were not realistic. A Chicago-based bank executive, Laurel (Kellie Pickler) is assigned a week to travel to her former hometown of Memphis, to line up a purchase of one the city's oldest family-owned banks. She reunites with a former beau Clay (Wes Brown), now a local music promoter. This film is so predictable and Miss Pickler is miscast according to age. And her singing is nothing to look forward to. However a small highlight is the bits and pieces of Elvis' own holiday music. Brown is the only proven actor in the cast. Acting and dialogue are both below average. And how many times was Pickler required to sing "Silent Night", when in actuality she released a multi-track EP from the movie. By the way, Pickler is given producer credit.

Not just good vibrations, but the very music that forever touched your inner soul and a patchwork of your life. This documentary celebrates the prolific session musicians , the Wrecking Crew, who provided backup instrumentals for countless vocalist and popular bands in the 1960s. Filmmaker Denny Tedesco, whose father, Tommy, was a member of "the crew". Dick Clark, Mickey Dolenz, Nancy Sinatra, Brian Wilson, Cher, Lou Adler and actual "Crew" members Hal Blaine, Carol Kaye and Glen Campbell reflect on these amazing musicians. This film was actually completed in 2008, but it took until 2015 to gather $200,00 to obtain musical licensing rights.

Just a few of the artists that used the work of the Wrecking Crew featured in this documentary: The Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra, The Ronettes, Sam Cooke, The Crystals, the Mamas and the Papas, The Association, Bing Crosby, Jan & Dean, Gene Pitney, Glen Campbell, The Monkees, Paul Revere & The Raiders, Petula Clark, Jimmy Webb, The Byrds, Neil Sadaka, Wayne Newton, The Righteous Brothers, Henry Mancini, Ricky Nelson, Gary Lewis & The Playboys, Dean Martin, Nancy Sinatra, The Ventures, Ray Charles, The Grass Roots and even Elvis Presley.

Directed by Bruce McDonald and written by Tony Burgess, PONTYPOOL is about a down-on-his-luck radio announcer in the small town of Pontypool, Ontario. Grant Mazzy (Stephen McHattie), a radio shock-jock on his way to work is accosted by a strange woman who keeps repeating the word "blood" and staggers away. At work, his producer Laurel-Ann as usual puts up with his persona, while his boss, Sydney, is disturbed and angered by his style. A helicopter reporter calls in a report outside a doctor's office about a riot. Grant describes this on the air in a very disjointed fashion featuring a virus and zombies causing Pontypool's tiny radio station to be attacked by irate rioters. Wild imagination causes murderous attacks and ugly suicides.

From Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman, rather disappointing, frantic and disjointed. Honestly like peeling an apple like an onion. A skeptic in the paranormal, a TV celebrity of sorts is assigned to debunk the hauntings and sightings of apparitions by three different people...a terrified night watchman, a nervously unsettled teenager and a suspected traumatized former banker. The investigator himself finding what should have been mundane to be something leaning in an incredibly dark direction ...and begins to query his own beliefs and sanity. I have to admit some good jump scares and knuckle grinding.

This psychological chiller is directed and written by Parker Finn and doesn't give up on making you feel very uneasy. Has enough to be one of the best horror flicks released in the last couple of years. Dr. Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) is a somewhat passive therapist not afraid to allow herself to be overworked. After witnessing one of her patients take their own life, Rose takes ownership of scary hallucinations, one after another, possibly caused by a demonic entity that makes its victims flash a hideous grin. Rose is confronted by her own troubled past and can't escape it. She seems to be watching a parade of expired souls leaving life more traumatic than the one before. Jump scares, chills and shivers to enjoy a good while.

Kiah Roache-Turner directs and co-writes this Australian horror film. Not just a horror flick, but one of the best zombie features to come along in a long time. From the get-go, high energy action unfolds as a meteor shower pelts the Australian outback that overnight sets off a zombie apocalypse. Barry (Jay Gallagher) is a hard working mechanic that gets a call from his sister Brooke (Bianca Bradley) warning that she has been attacked by two employees at her modeling studio. They suddenly became zombies. Barry hits the road to rescue her, when his wife and young daughter in tow remove gas masks only to get infected and become zombies. Barry will be joined by two survivors as they dodge paramilitary soldiers rounding up mad scientists experimenting on the walking undead.

Solid acting and loads of graphic gore. Outstanding action displayed in an obvious low budget project. This is high octane with little time for dull moments.

Director Anthony Mann and James Stewart collaborate in this first of seven movies they made together. Stewart plays Lin McAdam, who with his saddle buddy High Spade (Millard Mitchell), are in search for one Dutch Henry Brown (Stephen McNally) to settle a personal score. Brown is found in a Dodge City, Kansas saloon, but can't fight due to Sheriff Wyatt Earp (Will Geer) taking all guns off the street in preparation for the town's Centennial shooting contest for a prized one-in-a-thousand Winchester 1873 rifle. McAdam will win the Winchester by shooting a hole in a postage stamp. When he arrives at his boarding house room, Lin is ambushed by Dutch, who steals the prized rifle and high tails it out of town with his two thugs. The Winchester will change hands several times before Lin reveals that Dutch Brown is his "black sheep" brother.

Beautiful choreography, realistic dialogue and culturally significant. The cast also includes: Dan Duryea, Shelley Winters, Steve Brodie, John McIntire and Steve Darrell. Also supporting are Rock Hudson and Tony Curtis in very small roles at the beginning of their careers. Thrilling throughout and hardly a dull moment to be found.

Michael Matthews directs this sci-fi drama. The post-apocalyptic world is not much in favor of humanity. It has been more than five years or so and most of humanity has been forced to live underground. Giant variant creatures rule the land. Joel Dawson (Dylan O'Brien), by way of iffy radio transmission, has reconnected with his high school sweetheart Aimee (Jessica Henwick) and she is believed to be about eighty miles away living in a fortified mountainous coastal colony. The spark is rekindled and no apocalypse is going to interrupt true love. Against all logic, Joel sets out to travel a land full of dangerous monsters.

Rounding out this imaginative action is Michael Rooker, Daniel Ewing, Melanie Zanetti and Damien Garvey.

Sidney Salkow directs Audie Murphy, who plays Clint Cooper, a gunslinger returning to a town that he left after an incident that killed two brothers. There is also his relationship with a schoolmarm Helen Reed (Merry Anders), he needs to walk away from. The small town holds grudges a bit too long and when it is to be the target of a throng of hoodlums, Clint returns to warn the townsfolk. His former best friend Sheriff Scotty Grant (James Best) doesn't want to put stock in the warning. The town finally puts up a barricade, while Clint is put behind bars. The action seems to come and go. This can't be considered one of Murphy's best westerns. To be exact, this one is ho-hum.

Also in the cast: Ted de Corsia, Frank Ferguson, Rex Holman and Walter Sande.

Well, Wayne Szalinski (Rick Moranis) is still tinkering and adjusting and is noe even banned by the committee of the U. S. Food and Drug Administration. Diane (Eve Gordon) pleads with her husband to get rid of his giant Tiki Man. Wayne decides not to just get rid of it, but fire up his machine and shrink it to about pocket size. Diane and her sister Patti (Robin Bartlett) decide to take a vacation and leave the kids with Wayne and his brother Gordon (Stuart Pankin). An errant billiard ball causes the brothers to become victims of the shrinking machine. Diane and Patti make a brief return home only to get shrunk themselves. Now the adults need to get the children's attention and hope for a quick rescue to normal size.

Rounding out this cast of mayhem is: Bug Hall, Jake Richardson, Allison Mack, Mila Kunis and Jojo Adams. I can't say this was funny as it was just plain silly.

A few laughs here and there; but enough? On a usual day in Bikini Bottom, Plankton is always working a new plan to steal the Krabby Patty formula. And who always spoils the plan...SpongeBob. Selfish ruler of Atlantic City, King Poseidon uses up all the slime from his current sea snail. He needs the slime to keep up his appearance. Plankton nabs SpongeBob's pal, Gary, to keep him from getting in the way of stealing the patty formula. SpongeBob learns that Gary has been snail snapped and Plankton devises a plan to have Spongebob travel to Atlantic City to rescue Gary with ideas of SpongeBob never returning. Krusty Krab's customers are irate that the popular cook is absent and the restaurant is under siege. Will SpongeBob rescue Gary and make it back to cook those delicious patties? Will Bikini Bottom become a new sea snail haven?

Along with the usual character's being voiced by Tom Kenny, Bill Fagerbakke, Clancy Brown and Roger Bumpass; there will be guest voices of Snoop Dog, Tiffany Haddish, Danny Trejo and Keanu Reeves.

Wacky inventor Wayne Szalinski (Rick Moranis) is at it again. A couple of years have passed since Wayne shrunk his two kids. The Szalinskis have moved to a new neighborhood and Dian (Marcia Strassman) has blessed the family with a third child named Adam. The hapless inventor now tries his hand at tweaking his machine to make things grow. Success, the alternative machine makes objects grow in size. A two-year old Adam accidentally is zapped and electronics like TV, microwaves and lights unfortunately causes the toddler to begin to grow bigger. He manages to escape his babysitter (Keri Russell) and makes headway to the neon capital of the world...Las Vegas. The bright lights will have what effects on the child's growth and what havoc can be averted?

Silly and enjoyable as the first. The cast also features Lloyd Bridges, John Shea and Robert Oliverl.

Wayne Szalinski (Rick Moranis) toils for what seems wasted days and wasted nights trying to get his new machine to work. He has put together a miniaturization machine that is far from successful. By pure accident one day his invention actually works and Wayne, not knowingly, has shrunk both his kids and one of their friends from next door. The children are now a quarter-inch in size and must fend off the perilous jungle of their own backyard. The insects and objects in the immense new environment are not as interesting as troublesome. Wayne and his wife Diane (Marcia Strassman) and the neighbors (Matt Frewer and Kristine Sutherland) are left to worry about their children being restored to normal size. Fantasy for all ages.

A bullied and harassed 13 year-old-teen, Finney (Mason Thames), is abducted by a serial child abductor known as "The Grabber" (Ethan Hawke), who has been prowling the streets of a Denver suburb. After Finney is nabbed, he wakes up in a soundproofed basement that contains a mattress, toilet and an old disconnected black rotary phone. There is no sense in yelling for help. The Grabber, wearing a frightening mask, does bring Finney food and leaves the basement door unlocked. Before the young boy can try exiting the door...the disconnected phone begins to ring. Finney will start getting call after call from his captor's dead victims...who try to help him escape.

Hawke is stunning in the most disturbing role of his career. This is a slow burning psychological thriller.

Catherine Claire (Amanda Seyfried), a young art restorer, is forced to settle into a new life when her husband George (James Norton) lands a job teaching art history at a small college in upper New York in the Hudson Valley area. The couple along with small daughter, Fanny, moves to an old dairy farm, where Catherine is pretty much left in charge of restoring the gloomy old place into a new happy home. Catherine is less than happy suspecting her husband of attracting his students in other than education. Little Fanny is visited by a female spirit that gives the impression other spirits occupy the home. An old family Bible is found and Catherine begins to fear the home's violent history. Less than average acting and very poor ending. Could have been scarier.

Also featured in the cast: F. Murray Abraham, Charlotte Maier, Anna Sophia Heger, Jack Gore and Michael O'Keefe.

The Red Queen (Michaela Dicker) appears to tell Alice (Milla Jovovich) that she has 48 hours to find an anti-virus beneath Racoon City that can kill every zombie. The Umbrella Corporation is gathering all its forces against the total remaining survivors of the apocalypse. The Red Queen decides to upload Alice's childhood memories, granting her a background that can be used for protection. Alice is also warned that someone from Umbrella has infiltrated her own group. Alice makes it to Manhattan, warning that there actually an anti-virus (carried only by the wind), but it will take many years to cover all corners of the globe.

Alice (Milla Jovovich), four years after exiting Tokyo, the Racoon City Incident is in the past and the future lies in a newly global headquarters of the Umbrella Corporation. Alice will join an undercover group of survivors living in a prison guarded by the infected who also want to relocate. Alice finds Claire Redfield (Ali Lauter) has reappeared surviving a helicopter crash and convinces her to join a journey to Los Angeles , unaware being watched by Umbrella. The two will fly searching for a safe haven known only as Arcadia.

Alice has already been stripped of her superhuman powers by the removal of the T-virus. Alice and Claire find survivors after crashing on the roof of a correctional facility, surrounded by multi-thousands of Undead. Good cinematography and awesome zombie action.

Also featured in the cast: Shawn Roberts, Kim Coates, Fulvio Cecere and Bola Olubowale.

It is like waiting for the next blockbuster and your expectations are faintly there. The action is the glue that holds this together. The raptor chasing and dino fighting dino will fill anxious moments and for reunion sake Blue, Rexy and the dilophosaurus break up a boring script. After surviving the downfall of Isla Nubia, Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) and Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) take in Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon). At best, they try living under the radar in hopes of protecting Maisie; but the young girl feels like the world is watching her. She steps out to explore her new surroundings. Now comes Owen and Claire in searching mode. Do I need to spoil the rest?

The cast also features Laura Dern, Sam Neil, Jeff Goldblum and DeWanda Wise.

Directed and partially written by Paul Thomas Anderson, LICORICE PIZZA is about a fifteen-old San Fernando Valley high school student, Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman) having troubles juggling the fact, he was once a well known child actor. His smooth talking and embracing personality seems to be his birthright and his self-importance obviously outsized.

Gary finds himself smitten with a 25-year old photographer's assistant, Alana (Alana Haim), who is amused as intrigued with this sort of unique young suitor. Somehow his bravado and entrepreneurial hustle turns her head. She is willing to follow him into his waterbed business. This is only the beginning of a frenzied relationship.

Also featured are Bradley Cooper, Sean Penn, Skyler Gisondo and Benny Safdie. Plus there is an enviable soundtrack filled with the likes of: Sonny & Cher, The Doors, Paul McCartney, Chuck Berry, Seals and Croft, the James Gang, David Bowie and Donovan.

A Baz Luhrmann film could be nothing but over-the-top and majestic. And this biopic is not just another same old mashed mix of myth. The subject is Elvis Presley, without a lot of doubt the most iconic performer of the 20th century. Austin Butler as Elvis is brilliant. This drama explores the life and music of Elvis as seen through the eyes and complicated relationship his manager, Colonel Tom Parker played by Tom Hanks.

Parker was a user and abuser; a con-artist supreme. He was contriving and self-serving, swindling and cheating Elvis out of as much wealth as he possibly could. "My boy has to be on that stage tonight." From a pink suite to bejeweled jumpsuits; the total looks, voice and mannerisms...Butler IS Elvis.

Luhrmann does misplace Elvis tunes in times of Elvis actually recording them. Songs after his Army stint placed earlier. And my biggest complaint is having a wealth of his music, but not presenting a soundtrack full of it. What is the reasoning of the hip/hop? I can understand featuring the music that actually had some influence on Elvis being featured. I can't help but rave highly about Austin Butler. He deserves an Oscar.