Brazen – Film Review

Posted on January 13, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter
Brazen | Netflix Media Center

Director: Monika Mitchell

Writers: Suzette Couture and Donald Martin

Starring: Alyssa Milano, Sam Page, Emilie Ullerup, David Lewis, Malachi Weir, Lossen Chambers, Matthew Finaln

Rating: ★★

Netflix’s latest thriller, Brazen, is trashy entertainment, and it knows it. There are no attempts to be anything special here out really stretch beyond a generic formula, but it’s brain dead watching, which is sometimes what you need. You’ll forget about it almost immediately after you’ve finished it, but there is a lot worse ways to spend your time.

Mystery Writer Grace Miller (Alyssa Milano) has just finished her book tour and decides to get away from everything by visiting her sister Kathleen (Emilie Ullerup). Grace ends up going on a date with her sister’s neighbour, only to return to find Kathleen had been murdered. Ending up in a plot that’s like her own books, Grace helps the police hunt down a serial killer.

The plot to this film is ridiculous and it stretches the idea of believability to the extreme. Grace is a writer, who believes that she can get inside a killer’s mind, which is why she’s the perfect ally for the police. She’s solved previous crimes with the police, coming in as a fresh pair of eyes on a case, but that’s about as much backstory as you get with her. Grace gets permission from the captain and then is pretty much in control. She’s consoling a potential victim one moment, setting up sting operations the next, and the police just go along with it. It’s silly to the point of being funny.

The acting is what you’d expect from a TV movie, nothing spectacular but they’re all doing what has to be done. The characters are equally as bland, there’s no really depth or grey areas to any of them. The closest you get to that is with Kathleen, the first victim, who by day is a schoolteacher, and by night a webcam dominatrix. Her secret isn’t exactly hidden though, with students knowing about it, along with the school’s janitor.

The killer is obvious, even before the event actually takes place. It’s not revealed until towards the end, but you’ll know who it is. This doesn’t require a detective, or an author/consultant, to figure out. The killer is a little off the first time you see him and acts strange every time they appear, it’s not a great twist.

Brazen feels like something close to a pilot for a police procedural TV series, where the twist is that there’s an author helping with cases. It’s not the worst film you could waste your time with, but it’s not going to be something you’ll be recommending to people or remembering if anyone brings it up.

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The Book of Boba Fett, Chapter 3: The Streets of Mos Espa – Review

Posted on January 13, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter
The Streets of Mos Espa' Shows the Limits of Star Wars Serialization

Director: Robert Rodriguez

Writer: Jon Favreau

Starring: Temuera Morrison, Ming-Na Wen, Matt Berry, Stephen Root, Sophie Thatcher, Jordan Bolger, Carey Jones, and Danny Trejo

Rating: ★★★★½ 

We’re three episodes into The Book of Boba Fett and the shows not messing around anymore. The first two episodes did a great job of setting the show up and adding a lot of detail to the very basic understanding we had of Tatooine and the Tusken Raiders, but now the show is really letting loose and having some fun. This episode is an absolute blast, ramping up the pace and action, and leaving on an ending that shouts that next week’s episode is going to be even better.

While the second episode was mostly flashback, this one is all set in the present day, with Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) ruling from his newly acquired palace and the impending war between different clans that want Jabba’s throne. Almost all of the episode is set in the present, apart from one small flashback that kind of caps off last week’s story. While episode two felt inconsequential to the overall story, episode three kicks things into high gear.

The episode absolutely flies by, with the credits coming around in what feels like seconds. To be fair, it’s one of the shortest episodes of live-action Star Wars so far, but it’s still fast paced and exciting all the way through. The Hutt Twins send Black Krrsantan (Carey Jones), the Wookie bounty hunter from episode two, to kill Fett, and it’s one of the best sequences in recent Star Wars. The Wookie interrupts Fett from sleeping in his tank, breaking the flashback we’re watching, and letting us know that the show and Wookie mean business. The following fight scene is excellent. Black Krrsantan is brutal, throwing Fett around the room and then taking on the newcomers who come to Fett’s aid.

There’s still a lot of lore and world building happening when the episode does slow down. There’s a plot thread about the hiked up water prices and lack of jobs in Mos Espa, which is interesting and leads to Fett hiring a new gang, with their brightly coloured, moped looking, speeders. We also get to find out a lot more about Rancors, who are a lot more gentle than what we saw in Return of the Jedi. For long time Star Wars fans, it’s exciting to find all this new information.

The Streets of Mos Espa is the best episode of Boba Fett so far. It’s thrilling the whole way through and clearly leading to even better things. Temuera Morrison is absolutely excellent as Fett, and it’s going to be a long week until Chapter Four.

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See for Me – Film Review

Posted on January 12, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: Randall Okita

Writers: Adam Yorke and Tommy Gushue

Starring: Skyler Davenport, Jessica Parker Kennedy, George Tchortov, Pascal Langdale, Joe Pingue, Emily Piggford, and Kim Coates

Rating: ★★★★

Sophie’s (Skyler Davenport) Olympic ambitions disappear when she is declared legally blind. Instead of going back to training with a guide that can help her down the slopes, she decides to house sit for rich people who go on holidays. When she’s looking after an expensive looking house, three men break in, causing Sophie to rely on someone’s help, through an app called ‘see for me’ that allows someone to help a blind person through a video call.

See for Me is a home invasion thriller with a twist. Sophie, despite her disability, isn’t a victim, and adapts quickly to the situation. At one point she even joins with the home invaders realising there is a high profit for doing so. The only reason she had been house sitting for rich people is because she can steal from them, and no one would expect the ‘blind girl’ to do that. Sophie isn’t a hero of the story or a villain, but somewhere in between. Her resentment to the world is shown almost straight away through the strained relationship she has with her mother, who only wants to help, but Sophie won’t accept any. Even when the homeowner of the house she’s looking after, Debra, offers help, Sophie rejects it. She doesn’t want the world to pity her and wants to be treated normally.

The characters in this film are wonderfully crafted by writers Adam Yorke and Tommy Gushue. They’re fully realised and multi-dimensional. Through brief moments of back story and exposition you get to know them completely. Sophie, who is wonderfully played by Skyler Davenport, is completely relatable and believable. When the invasion starts the tension grows and grows until the final moments, it’s heart-stopping tension at points. Because Sophie is so fully realised, you want her to succeed, when she turns the tables and strikes back you almost want to celebrate. It’s absolutely thrilling.

Before the home invasion, the first person that Sophie speaks to on the ‘See for Me’ app is patronising and awkward. Sophie is calling because she locked herself out of the house she’s looking after, and the person she gets through to her talks to her like a child. You feel the same anger that Sophie must feel and the frustration that goes along with it. The next caller, Kelly (Jessica Parker Kennedy) who also stays with Sophie for the rest of the film, is the complete opposite. She completely understands why she wants to be self-reliant and helps in anyway she can. Kelly is a gamer and soldier who has been relegated to desk duty. She uses the skills she’s developed to help Sophie survive.

When the film starts, it’s not clear what type of film it’s going to be. It almost feels like a drama about a blind girl who wants her independence. Then after talking to her friend via a video call she walks into the basement and it’s revealed that she steals from the rich, through some of the clumsiest and messy dialogue possible. All of the subtlety of the opening scenes is thrown out of the window as Cam (Keaton Kaplam) explains to Sophie that she’s been stealing from previous houses, as if she doesn’t know. He then goes on to say that he won’t help with this one, which is what leads to Sophie reliance on the ‘See for Me’ app. It’s a wobbly moment so early on in the film, because it takes you out of it completely. Thankfully, it doesn’t take long to get back on track.

Overall See for Me is an engrossing and thrilling film. It escalates the tension throughout with great characters and excellent characters. This is really worth making the time to seek out and watch. Especially for fans of thrillers.   

Signature Entertainment presents See For Me on Digital Platforms 24th January

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Insert Interesting Blog Post Title Here

Posted on January 12, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

I never know what to call these update posts. I’ll have to think about a name I can use every week and just change the date on the post title. That’s a job for this week. Anyway, I hope you’ve all had a good week, and everything’s going well.

Last Sunday was very exciting. After I put up my review for the excellent The Devil to Pay, the writers/directors Lane and Ruckus Skye retweeted my review and tweeted about it. I really loved the film and it made my day, to be honest. I highly recommend the film, and I’m excited to check out Becky that they also wrote. My mum tells me it’s great, so that’s one I’ll be watching as soon as possible.

Other than that not a lot has really happened, I’ve been walking more, determined to get in shape. My watch raised my challenge to 11,000 steps a day because I’d hit 10,000 for so many days in a row, so I’ve agreed and hit that every day this week so far. That’s going pretty well and I’m slowly loosing weight. I just need to cut back on the eating.

Onto this week, I’ve got a review for See for Me being posted later today. I really enjoyed this one, it’s a dark thriller. Similar to Don’t Breathe, but with a much more likable protagonist. Scream 5 is out this weekend. I’m very excited for this one. Scream is one of my favourite series. I re-watched the first 2 last year and need to watch 3 + 4 again this week. I didn’t write reviews for the first 2, but I’m going to try and write it for 3 + 4. Almost all of the films I’ve reviewed are from my first watch, apart from probably 4 or 5 films, and all of those have been re-releases, where I’ve focused on the Blu-ray as well. It feels like a challenge to write a review for something I’ve seen a few times, so that’s my challenge for Scream 3 + 4.

I’m still working on getting ahead on film reviews, so I can take it a little easier. It’s been going okay so far, I’ve got 2 reviews to write, that I’ve got notes for. Those will be written for tomorrow. I want to get 20 reviews written that I can put up at any point, just so I don’t miss a day. That’s my target, and I’ll be happy once I’ve gotten there.

Because all of my free time is taken up with watching films, I haven’t read anything this year at all yet. That’s something I really want to change as soon as possible. I’ve got a lot of books that I want to read, but don’t spend anytime doing it. Once I’m ahead on the films I can dedicate an hour a day to reading. I spend too much time endless scrolling on social media, which is a habit I want to break.

That’s what I want to achieve this week, getting closer to my 20 reviews in advance, continue my 11,000 steps a day, and spend less time on Twitter and more time reading books. Oh and come up with a name for my update posts.

What are your plans this week? Let me know in the comments and I hope you have a fantastic week.

Thanks for reading and until next time,

Ashley

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Killing Field – Film Review

Posted on January 11, 2022 by ashleymanningwriter

Director: James Cullen Bressack

Writer: Ross Peacock

Starring: Chad Michael Murray, Bruce Willis, Swen Temmel, Zack Ward, Kate Katzman, Michael Sirow, Canyon Prince, Sarah Roemer, Sean Kanan

Rating: ★½

At one point during Killing Field David, played by Bruce Willis, asks his captors ‘why are you wasting my time? Just kill me’, which is exactly what you will ask Willis after watching his latest straight to video release. It’s almost embarrassing how far his career has fallen. It was only ten years ago that he starred in the impeccable Moonrise Kingdom, and only a few years since the pretty decent Motherless Brooklyn, and yet somehow Willis is stuck making forgettable action flicks that really aren’t worth the investment of time to watch.

After David, a detective, is shot during a shoot out in a warehouse and captured by a gang of drug dealers, it’s up to his partner, Cal (Swen Temmel), to save the day. Cal chases down two of the gang to a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere, and teams up with the owner, Eric (Chad Michael Murray), to save his partner and take down the gang.

Killing Field is incredibly bad, to the point that its mind numbing. You won’t get more than two minutes into the film without realising that you made a mistake by starting it. It starts with a shoot out in a warehouse where everyone stands very close and somehow everyone misses until Bruce Willis is shot in the stomach, then they all stop. It’s cringe inducingly hard to watch and the film doesn’t get any better than that.

The acting is atrocious, if you can even call it acting. Almost every one of the gang of villains can’t deliver a line of dialogue naturally. Not that it matters, because the script is poorly written, with speech that no one would say in real life and moments of exposition that isn’t subtle in the slightest. Kate Katzman, who plays Violet, is giving her best Harley Quinn impression, but she’s no Margot Robbie, just frustratingly annoying whenever she’s on screen.

Bruce Willis should just stop making films, as he clearly doesn’t care about even trying at this point. He’s barely in the film, getting shot in the opening moments and then spending most of the film in a chair until he gets himself free and then wins a hand-to-hand fight with one of the villains half his age, despite his stomach wound, and the pain he’s been inflicted for information. When he’s being punched in the stomach, his groans of pain are laughable. Every line of dialogue he delivers feels like he’s thought it up on the spot, slowly, and the rest of the actors must work around him. It doesn’t always make sense, especially when the villain gives the cliched, ‘we’re the same’ speech, that Willis responds to in an awkward fashion.

Eric, played by Chad Michael Murray, has recently lost his wife and daughter in a car crash, that he caused. The flashback, that starts off as a sweet scene of his wife playing with a stuffed bunny that she drops, and Eric picks up, while driving and not looking at the road, which causes the crash. It’s one of the genuinely funny moments of the film, and it’s not intentional. It’s not emotional in the slightest, because how can you feel sympathy for someone who decided to pick up a stuffed bunny on the floor of the backseat of a car, killing his family.

The only character that even feels remotely real is Ed, played by Sean Kanan. From his mutterings to himself about how he could have been a lawyer, to the way he stands up to his boss. Not only is Kanan the best actor on set, but his character also feels like the only one not made entirely out of cardboard.

The villains are so ridiculous that it destroys any hope of tension. There are so many bland characters who are just there to rack up a kill count. They don’t act like people. Somehow there is more than one occasion where instead of standing back and shooting they just run at the good guys holding the guns, before being taken down. It actually happens at one point, one after another. It’s probably because they are such poor shots that they feel they’d have a better chance if they run at their targets instead.

To be fair, the score is pretty decent, especially when it starts to lean towards the loud pulsating guitar. If you close your eyes and listen to that instead of watching the film, you’ll have a much better time.

Killing Field is a bad film and should be avoided at every opportunity. Bruce Willis will hopefully one day make another good film, but for now it seems that he just wants to make films to rival Nicolas Cage’s output for the last decade. Maybe Willis will make something as good as Pig in a few years, we can only hope.

Signature Entertainment presents Killing Field on Digital Platforms 17th January and DVD 24th January

Amazon DVD: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Killing-Michael-Murray-Roemer-Willis/dp/B09C6PC3JC/ref=tmm_dvd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1638981812&sr=8-5

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