Rewrite this a few times

 

Assassin (2023)

Directed by Jesse Atlas this film stars Nomzarmo Mbatha, Bruce Willis, Dominic Purcell and Andy Allo. A military operation uses new technology to remote desktop into other people's bodies and carry out assassinations.

Somewhat surprisingly there is actually a lot of promise to the premise of this film although you will have seen most of the parts done better elsewhere. Sadly there are a ton of glaring plot holes that make this unwatchable. A few more drafts and I think this could have actually been a decent lat film for Bruce Willis, instead it is another forgettable direct to video effort.

1/5

Skips

 

New York, Whitehall Street (1896)

Directed by Alexandre Promio this is an early short film. People, horses and carts travel up and down a street in New York.

Unfortunately the image quality is not the best on this one, the image is clear but appears to have some missing frames. As street scenes go it is a pretty average one, lacking important land marks to set it apart. Not the best of the early Lumiere catalogue.

3/5

Moore or less forgettable

 

Maggie Moore(s) (2023)

Directed by John Slattery this film stars Jon Hamm, Tina Fey, Micah Stock and Nick Mohammed. Small town police investigate the murder of two women with the same name.

I suppose this is fine in Coen brothers knock off sort of way. There is little remarkable and a few moments rather obviously telegraphed. Probably the best thing here is the surprise inclusion of Tina Fey.

3/5

File under average

 

The File on Thelma Jordon (1950)

Directed by Robert Siodmak this film stars Barbara Stanwyck and Wendell Corey. A woman seduces a married assistant district attorney then gets into legal trouble.

It takes a while for this film to get going and the death bed confession at the end is a bit forced, otherwise this is a decent noir film. Many of the familiar genre elements are here, nothing that special. All in all there is a reason you have likely not heard of this one, it is nothing special.

3/5

Distateful

 

Drunk Wedding (2015)

Directed by Nick Weiss this film stars Nick P. Ross, J. R Ramirez, Christian Cooke, Dan Gill, Anne Gregory and Victoria Gold. A bunch of Americans travel to central America for a destination wedding.

As found footage films go I suppose it is nice to see something that is not a horror film. While there are some funny moments in this film there is just too much humour around drunk sexual assault for my taste. Probably not one I would recommend seeking out.

2/5

Time to unload

 

Dechargement d'un navire (1896)

Directed by Alexandre Promio this is an early short film. Two men sit around as others unload a ship at the harbour.

While there is not a huge amount going on here the image quality on the version I saw was impressively crisp. There is just enough to hold your attention for the minute long run time. The steam adds a nice element to proceedings.

3/5

I wanna better script

 

Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody (2022)

Directed by Kasi Lemmons this film based on real events stars Naomi Ackie, Stanley Tucci and Ashton Sanders. We follow the career of Whitney Houston.

This is one of those biopics that is more of a synopsis than a film that actually digs into the issues of the protagonist. At times it feels like this is just an excuse to show off the hit songs and not much more, the fact that the film tries to end on a positive when Whitney dies of an overdose shortly after where it leaves off is baffling to me. Decent performances, paper thin script.

2/5