Cold In July

Directed by: Jim Mickle

Written by: Nick Damici

Year Released: 2014

Sub Genre: Thriller / Murder

Cast: Michael C. Hall, Sam Sheppard, Don Johnson

During a home robbery,  a father and husband shoots and kills an intruder, who, unbeknownst to him was unarmed.

Shortly thereafter, the father of the intruder comes to town to seek revenge. He stalks the family in order to terrorize them but is quickly apprehended by police.

But after a few days of being able to rest, the father finds out the man he killed is someone completely different than who the police have identified him as leading him to unravel a highly corrupt sheriff's office.

I was feeling in the mood for some Micheal C. Hall and thankfully Netflix delivered with this nice little IFC flick.

Hall delivers a very realistic performance of a man faced with a terrifying situation and hits the roll right on the nose as he always does without error. If you don't believe me, watch a few episodes of six feet under followed by a few episodes of Dexter and try to tell me otherwise.

Most of the remaining cast were very strong in their performances which made this viewing that much more pleasurable.

With that being said, the story line took an exciting turn but unfortunately turned predictable and rushed  by the end of the film.

It's feels like a mix of Walking Tall meets Walker, Texas Ranger with a dash of Dexter to garner people's attention. There is some comedy and the acting is far superior to a lot of what IFC may offer but it sadly falls flat by the end.

The biggest problem I had was that this small town family man who happened to have killed one person by accident instantly turns into some kind of bad ass for about two minutes and then reverts back to a useless tit. It's honestly upsetting and, once again, really aid's in the demise of greatness it had initially started with.

Conclusion:

I would suggest this only for the first 3/4 of the movie as the remainder is predictable and better left to the imagination. And only because of that first 3/4 of the film.

5 out of 10.

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Finders Keepers (2014)

Following a divorce, a woman and her daughter make the move to a new city where they purchase a house with a history. Inside the vents of the home, the little girl finds a doll that was once owned by one of the previous tenants which she becomes quickly and violently attached too.

Directed by Alexander Yellen. Written by Peter Sullivan and starring Jaime Pressly, Kylie Rogers and a brief appearance by Tobin Bell.

Now, first thing I have to make mention too is the fact that the two lead actors in the film are found near the bottom of the call sheet on IMDB and the lead spot going to one Steve Austin who acts as a garbage man for about twelve seconds in the film. Seriously?

A ridiculous excuse for a movie, made for television or otherwise. The acting was incredibly poor by all counts and this includes Tobin Bell who was doing a fair job considering how much camera time he actual had and then came his death scene. Just a purely laughable performance when he fell over and died.

Jaime Pressly who I personally believe cannot act to begin with is overbearingly bad. Half the time her accent is fully present and then all of a sudden it disappears making this even harder to watch.

And don't get me started on the little girl. It was basically watching a typical kid lose their mind over not being able to get a cookie. There was nothing evil about it next to the fact that she murdered my ears. I don't want to be too harsh on her as she is young and just learning how to do these things, but come on, the director couldn't take an extra 5 minutes to try to make those scenes a little bit more realistic? I would have even taken a voice over in post in this case!

The story line seems like it's trying to be far more complicated than it actually is and tried to accomplish this by filling the story with plot holes.

This has been one of those films that I would not ever suggest to anybody. It is a waste of time and not worth even considering. Typically the Netflix ratings are wrong but I have to come close to agreeing with them on this one. 1 out of 10!

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Tusk (2014)

After finding a delightfully amusing posting on craigslist involving a man with a special request seeking a roommate. Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier decided to build a story out of it for fun on an episode of their ever popular podcast entitled "SModcast".

What happened instead was the creation of a genius screenplay that fully involved the fan's of the show. Kevin Smith simply asked his audience, if you want to see it tweet #WalrusYes if not then #WalrusNo. Plain and simple.

And of course the answer was an overwhelming #WalrusYes!

Starring Michael Parks, Justin Long, Genesis Rodriguez, Haley Joel Osment and Johnny Depp.

Wallace is the lead podcaster on the NOT-SEE Podcast and goes to great lengths to find crazy, unusual and hilarious stories that he can learn about and return home to record his findings while explaining them to his co-host Teddy. After making his way to a city in Manitoba, his lead story goes cold but quickly finds a replacement story that could either make his career or break his soul.

First off, I have to make mention to all the easter eggs in the film for fans of the different podcasts the SModcast radio network have to offer. If you are a fan of either SModcast or Hollywood Babble-ON you will be rolling around in tears laughing.

Now that I got that out of the way, I have to compliment Kevin Smith on the dialogue scene's between Wallace and Howard. They just seemed so natural and sucked me in right away, Park and Long definitely brought both their roles to life and kept me wanting more!

The costume was also something that I was shocked and amazed by but absolutely loved it, it was exactly what it should have been, grotesque, realistic and still capable of showing of Long's emotions even under all the rubber layers and makeup.

And finally, being Canadian and French (no I do not have the Lapointe accent) I could not stop laughing when Johnny Depp's character, Guy Lapointe, came into the film. He was absolutely hilarious throughout his entire time on film.

I was looking forward to this one since I first heard it on the podcast and could not get over not being able to see it in theatre as I did not have a showing anywhere near me. But I held my breath, caught the trailer minutes after it was released online and once again awaited patiently for it to show here in Canada.

I loved every aspect of it's originality and how he pulled this off was even more amazing which makes me appreciate the film more than I probably would have otherwise so I can not give this film anything lower than a 9 out of 10.

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