Shameless Self Expression

John Travolta stars as socially awkward film fanatic Moose, who is especially obsessed with action star Hunter Dunbar (Devon Sawa). Unfortunately for Moose, Hunter is a grade-A jerk whose life is a mess, and who has little to no patience for his fans…especially those on the more obsessed side as Moose is. Unfortunately for Hunter, Moose doesn’t take rejection well. At all. And he knows where you live, Mr. Dunbar. Ana Golja plays Moose’s one semi-friend, a paparazzo.   If not the worst film John Travolta has ever made, this insulting 2020 thriller may at least be his most shameful in a career that already has “Look Who’s Talking Too” and “Battlefield Earth” . I probably shouldn’t have expected maturity and insight from director Fred Durst, the man who once released an album with a title that referenced brown toilet water, but this movie is depressingly awful with or without knowing about Limp Bizkit (who of course are on the soundtrack at one point).   A dreadful blen...

Somewhat unbalanced Charlotte Hollis (Bette Davis) lives alone in her family’s old mansion which is set for demolition. Stubbornly refusing to leave the estate, Charlotte enlists the aid of estranged cousin Miriam (Olivia De Havilland). However, Charlotte’s dark and violent past comes back to haunt her and an already troubled woman starts to go completely over the edge. Joseph Cotten plays long-time family friend Dr Drew Bayliss, Cecil Kellaway is a visiting newspaper journalist from England, and Agnes Moorehead plays Charlotte’s oddball but loyal housekeeper Velma. In a prologue, Victor Buono turns up as Charlotte’s overbearing father Big Sam Hollis.   The Southern Gothic cousin to “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” , this 1964 film from Robert Aldrich ( “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” , “The Flight of the Phoenix” , “The Dirty Dozen” ) is for me the far more enjoyable film. I felt a little bit of the former went a long way. The film gets off to a great, macabre start with a ...

Carey Mulligan is a 30ish woman living with her parents (Jennifer Coolidge and Clancy Brown) and living a fairly aimless existence. At night she goes to bars, gets drunk, gets picked up by men who claim to be ‘nice guys’ (Adam Brody and Christopher Mintz-Plasse among them) but nonetheless clearly target a drunk woman to try to get what they want. However, there’s a lot more to this drunk woman than meets the eye. She’s got a very dark plan, a very dark purpose, and a dark reason in her past, a past that led to her suddenly dropping out of college. Bo Burnham turns up as a slightly awkward paediatric surgeon and casual acquaintance from Mulligan’s past whom Mulligan starts to warm to. Alison Brie is another face from Mulligan’s past, Alfred Molina is a lawyer, whilst Molly Shannon plays the mother of an old friend of Mulligan’s, and Laverne Cox plays a friendly co-worker at Mulligan’s crappy job.   Boasting a topical premise that could’ve played itself out far too quickly in les...

Scott Adkins stars as Cain Burgess, a silver-toothed, foul-mouthed hard man on a revenge mission looking for the people responsible for his recent stint in London's Bellmarsh Prison, AKA ‘The Meat Grinder’. He was convicted of manslaughter, an unintended and fatal side effect of what was meant to be a simple retrieval of a package. After several years of prison hardship and bloody brawls, Cain is let out on furlough to visit his dying mum. Unfortunately, Cain arrives at the hospital about 20 minutes too late to see her. Enraged and grief-stricken, the ne’er do well Cain escapes police guard with a singular mission in mind. He heads down to a local pub where those responsible for his incarceration are about to learn the brutal trade that the former boxer has honed while in prison: Dispensing brutal violence. Craig Fairbrass is Cain’s imposing, mid-level loan shark elder brother who is his chief target of grievance, Melbourne-born Louis Mandylor is an oddly Australian-accented London...

Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot (Sir Peter Ustinov) is hired by a millionaire (Colin Blakely) to track down the monstrous actress/con woman (Dame Diana Rigg) who stole a jewel from him. This leads him to a Mediterranean hotel where the woman and other assorted guests are staying. When someone turns up dead – murder, of course – Poirot attempts to solve the mystery of whodunnit. Dame Maggie Smith is the hotel owner, a former rival of Rigg’s when they were both chorus girls. Roddy McDowall is a gossipy writer with aims of being Rigg’s biographer. James Mason and Sylvia Miles are a theatre producer and his wife. Nicholas Clay and pale-and-frail Jane Birkin play another couple, whilst Dennis Qualley plays the unfaithful Rigg’s husband.   Enjoyable 1982 Agatha Christie mystery from Guy Hamilton ( “Goldfinger” , “Live and Let Die” ) and screenwriters Anthony Shaffer ( “Sleuth” , “Frenzy” , “The Wicker Man” ) and an uncredited Barry Sandler (who co-scripted the very disappointing “The M...