MOVIES THAT SUCK! “Tin Soldier.” / “The Ruse.” / “Breaking News in Yuba County.” / “The Girl with a Bracelet.” / “Autumn Lights.” / “Stray.”

“Tin Soldier” (2025, Hulu) action thriller. When the leader of a dangerous cult triggers a standoff with authorities, a former soldier returns to the compound he left years earlier to find his missing wife and square off against the man he used to follow.



 

       Regardless of its proven lure: Jamie Foxx. Robert De Niro, John Leguizamo, plus Scott Eastwood (Clint's son) and reliable support characters Yul Vazquez and Saïd Taghmaoui, this project by Brad Furman still qualifies as B-movie fare, with some explosions. 

        “Tin Soldier” is scattered or fragmented, acting is extraordinarily overacted (especially Mr Foxx) and simply a messy heap of genre cliches. 🎥💻📽


“The Ruse” (2024, Tubi) thriller film. A young in-home caregiver fears for her life after being assigned to a mysterious, elderly patient in a remote seaside home. 



       This little movie by a dude named Stevan Mena is supposedly scary, suspenseful, or thrilling. None of the above. Just a run-through of the genre that offers nothing new. 🎥💻📽


“Breaking News in Yuba County” (2021, Roku) black comedy thriller. Timid Sue Buttons lives in Kentucky with her husband, Karl. She wishes to be more assertive, but others constantly take advantage of her. Unbeknownst to Sue, Karl's ex-convict brother Petey has unwillingly involved him in money laundering. 


       The film stars an ensemble cast that includes Allison Janney, Mila Kunis, Awkwafina, Regina Hall, Juliette Lewis, Matthew Modine and Ellen Barkin. With the usually fine (or funny) Wanda Sykes.

       But Amanda Idoko's clumsily derivative script of a supposedly promising story, and the no-thrills, roadkill direction by Tate Taylor simply wasted those talents. 🎥💻📽


“The Girl with a Bracelet” (2019, Plex) French mystery drama, a remake of the 2018 Argentine film “The Accused.” A teenager stands trial for murdering her best friend. 



       I haven't seen “The Accused” so I can't compare. Anyhow, almost 100 percent of this movie is in the courtroom. That's it. I slept midway, then I woke, still in the courtroom. No dramatic tension at all. So I instead minded my Facebook till the closing credits. 🎥💻📽


“Autumn Lights” (2016, Tubi) American–Icelandic drama. Set in Iceland, the film is a meditative story of morality, virtue, and relationships as seen through the eyes of a foreigner in a strange land. 



       This movie is indeed “meditative,” but not the sort of minimalist, transcendent filmmaking snoozefest by Andrei Tarkovsky, Bela Tart or Terrence Malick. 

       But wait up! This movie is award-winning, at least in Europe. Critics praised writer/director Angad Aulakh. But these words from one writer sums it up, kindly: "Movies like this either wrap moviegoers in a welcome cocoon of anticipation, or they falter due to cryptic inferences that don't quite come together.” Anyways, I didn't like it, so whatever. 🎭👎🎬


“Stray” (2015, Tubi) independent psychological thriller. A woman with a mysterious past attempts to start a new life in a small town, causing concern among new friends.



 

       Nothing is “good” in this movie. The implausibly whacked script and a lazy direction (by Nena Eskridge) that simply gave us “thrift store” stereotypes. And the acting is atrocious, notably the lead Gabrielle Stone as Jennifer. 🎥💻📽


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

BASED on True Story or People: “The Lost Bus.” / “The Stanford Prison Experiment.” / “Escobar: Paradise Lost.” / “Polytechnique.” / “Miss Potter.” / “Last Days.”

Image
“The Lost Bus” (2025, Apple TV+) survival drama film directed by Paul Greengrass , who co-wrote the screenplay with Brad Ingelsby .         This movie is based on a rescue detailed in a section of Lizzie Johnson's book “Paradise: One Town's Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire” about the 2018 Camp Fire , one of the most destructive wildfires in California history, which claimed 85 lives.        Mr Greengrass’ recreation of the disaster is terrifyingly authentic. It'd seem like the film's audience is actually there with the schoolchildren and their teachers and driver, inside the bus. You can almost feel the blazing fire and the searing heat.        Plus an outstanding performance by Matthew McConaughey as the driver Kevin McKee and America Ferrera as the teacher Mary Ludwig.        Recommended weekend family viewing. 🎥💻📽 “The Stanford ...
Read more

NOSFERATU (or Dracula) movies or films inspired by Bram Stoker's 1897 novel “Dracula.”

Image
<>“Nosferatu” (2024, Amazon Prime), written and directed by Robert Eggers . Production design is haunting, photography is disturbingly sinister, sound editing kneads your spine. And, of course, Nicholas Hoult (as Thomas Hutter) expectedly delivers and Lily-Rose Depp (as Ellen Hutter) is a revelation.         Meanwhile, with the prosthetics or masks, it is hard to rate the performance of Bill Skarsgård 's titular Count Orlok but Simon McBurney (as Herr Knock otherwise known as Renfield) is chillingly hilarious although a bit exaggerated, I think. But Aaron Taylor-Johnson (as Arthur Holmwood) is miscast.        Take note that Nosferatu/Count Dracula, Jonathan Harker and Lucy Harker, Abraham Van Helsing, Lucy Westenra, Renfield, John Seward, Arthur Holmwood etcetera assumed different names in this version. 🎥👍📽 <>“Nosferatu The Vampyre” (1979, Tubi), directed and written by Werner Herzog . A remake of...
Read more

“The Alto Knights.” / “The Irish Mob.”

Image
“The Alto Knights” (2025, Max) biographical crime drama. Story: In a failed assassination attempt orchestrated by his ambitious underboss, Vito Genovese , Luciano family boss Frank Costello finds himself at a crossroads. Robert De Niro both portrays Mr Genevese and Mr Costello , which can be confusing a bit because both speak like De Niro and both talk like Mafia bosses. As is though, this is not a bad movie although nothing is really new here. But a tired retelling of what we already knew or watched in so many mob cinema tropes.         Plot: In a failed assassination attempt orchestrated by his ambitious underboss, Vito Genovese , Luciano family boss Frank Costello finds himself at a crossroads. Weary of the constant bloodshed and betrayals that define his life, Costello informs Genovese of his intention to retire and cede control of the Luciano family. However, Vito, a man consumed by ambition and paranoia, refuses to believe Costello's in...
Read more