REVIEW: See For Me (2022) Stars Skyler Davenport and Jessica Parker Kennedy

Review by Jon Donnis

See For Me is a great new film that looks at how a blind person could deal with a home invasion.

Sophie (played by Skyler Davenport, who is most famous for video game voice work) is a blind former skier, who lives with her mother. For work Sophie house sits, (cat sits) luxury houses in New York.

Early on, the film gives the Sophie character extra layers, outside the obvious layer of not being able to see. (Actress Skyler Davenport is partially blind in real life), by showing that Sophie is not your innocent young girl, when you see her stealing some expensive wine with the help of a friend who guides her.

Sophies mother encourages her to download an app called "See For Me", which connects you to someone who will help you if you are in trouble as a blind person.

After arriving at a house to house sit, Sophie accidentally locks herself out, she decides to use the app for help. Sophie ends up being connected to Kelly (Jessica Parker Kennedy who you might recognise from The Flash). Kelly is a former servicewoman, so gives straightforward easy to understand instructions to help Sophie get back in the house.

With the main characters introduced, as well as an understanding of the limitations, this is where the home invasion angle starts.

Three people break in, they are after a large amount of money that is in a safe. They thought the house would be empty, so upon finding Sophie, their plans get more complicated.

What follows is a tense thriller, with Sophie getting help from Kelly, to try to get help, and then take on the burglars, with Kelly being her eyes and directing her.

There are a few semi twists pushed, will Sophie do the right thing, as well as a few things that make you think, but I won't spoil anything.

I expected a clichéd home invasion film, but was pleasantly surprised. Yes, there were a few clichéd moments, but in general the film felt original and fresh.

Any time you use a disability as the main focus of a film, you risk talking down to people with that disability, but I felt like everything was treated with respect, and Sophie was given enough layers that the being blind, wasn't what defined her character.

The Good

Well-acted, well filmed, with a simple but nicely directed story.

The Bad

The final scene of the film is very dark, while I understand that you need to even things up between characters, as a viewer some things are lost, but then I suppose that is the whole point. I think more dialog in the darker scenes would have been better.

Overall

A really good thriller. I score See For Me a solid 8/10

Review by Jon Donnis

Out Now on Amazon - https://amzn.to/3IMGosW

REVIEW: The Amityville Uprising (2022)

Review By Jon Donnis
I seem to be reviewing a lot of B movies recently, the latest one to come across my desk is The Amityville Uprising, released by Lionsgate. Not sure why Lionsgate are making and releasing B movies, they clearly don't need the small change that this film would make.

The film starts off with some terrible CGI showing a chemical blast at a military base. The general idea of the story is that this strange blast, creates a cloud of toxic acid rain. Most of the story takes place at a police station.

Now as I have mentioned before, there are Good Terrible movies and Bad Terrible movies. So where does this one fit in. Well its tough to say. The film is roughly 80 minutes long, HOWEVER, here is an awesome life hack I am going to give you right now. You can watch the entire film in 40 minutes! All you need to do is fast forward the first 40 minutes, and then start to watch from there.

I say this because the first 40 minutes is literally just people talking to each other about not very interesting things. Don't get me wrong, there is some funny one liners in there, but action wise, nothing really happens.

But the second 40 minutes of the film, it all picks up. The toxic acid rain will kill you, if it touches your skin, it will also then raise you up as a Zombie. The film is all about a few people trying to stay alive and kill zombies. Pretty standard stuff, but there are some funny one liners in there. I rarely laugh at such films, but the makers of this film realised that they had a very low budget and a crap storyline, so actually made the effort to have some funny lines, which I quite enjoyed. Throw in the fact you can see the whole film in 40 minutes, and it crosses that line into "Good Terrible".

There is also some really dumb clips from fake news broadcasts, which made me laugh, as well as a bizaree video game like feature, where upon the first time you are introduced to a character, you get a screen like below.

 

It makes no sense, but I just kinda liked it.

I also want to applaud the film makers for the ending, FINALLY we get an ending in a Zombie film that makes sense.

The Good
I enjoyed the sillyness and one liners.

The Bad
The first 40 minutes are a waste of time.

Overall
The film is stupid, but I still kinda liked it. I thought the ending was good, and the one liners made me laugh.

I score The Amityville Uprising (for a B movie), a solid 7/10

Out Now at https://amzn.to/3rdQXza

REVIEW: War of the Worlds Annihilation

Review by Jon Donnis

Streaming on Tubi TV, this is a disaster movie from the Kings of the B Movie, The Asylum.

All Asylum films are terrible, we know this, however there is good terrible, and bad terrible.

Good terrible films by The Asylum include the Sharknado franchise and The Megashark Franchise.
Bad terrible films, are pretty much everything else. Sadly, War of the Worlds Annihilation falls into the bad terrible list of films.

With that said, the film does star the one good Baldwin, in William Baldwin who plays General Skuller. 

Do I really need to even tell you what the story is? Alien invasion, robot machines, lots of dodgy dialog, terrible CGI, ridiculous gun fights, and a disappointing twist.

The Good

Some young actors, and new actors got a pay check. Good for them.

The Bad

I don't really blame the actors; they do their best with what is given to them. The story is just poor, the budget is tiny, and usually when you have these two problems, you make up for it with light hearted moments or a bit of comedy, this film has neither. 

Overall

Do not watch this rubbish. That is all

REVIEW: In the Strange Pursuit of Laura Durand (Η Αναζήτηση της Λώρα Ντουράντ)

Pre-order from Apple TV now at https://apple.co/35r8GuN

Review by Jon Donnis

In the Strange Pursuit of Laura Durand is a Greek buddy road trip film that has finally made its way to the UK, and gets a Digital Download release from 31st January'

Antonis Titsanis (played by Makis Papadimitriou) and Christos Fertakis (played by Michalis Sarantis) are two young men, down on their luck, loser type characters, no jobs, poor living conditions and really just letting life pass them by, surviving on Christos' unemployment benefits.

But from within this sad existence, they do have a common love interest. The beautiful Laura Durand, (Anna Kalaitzidou) a 1990s porn star who mysterious disappeared, one day after watching an old VHS tape and reminiscing about her career, they decide that they should solve the mystery of her disappearance and go on a mission to track her down, after they have a vision of her almost summoning them to save her.

What follows is their journey, a very weird at times journey, that mixes comedy, with drama, with full on mystery, without ever really settling on one genre.

The film even at one point goes to black and white to match the mood of the scene in a creepy old mansion, the characters heads even become enlarged and then there is a musical interlude/dance. All very weird.

At times it feels like the characters are either high on drugs, mentally ill, or part of some weird fantasy, the film cleverly never really tells you which reality is true within the confines of the film, which includes dream sequences, ghostly apparitions, and downright weird scenes. There is an element of a treasure hunt to the film, with maps and messages in a bottle, but these are never the main focus of the film, they are more like strange side effects of their journey.

The film is separated into chapters, which have various titles, a couple that come to mind are "Never Trust A Hippy" and "Memories Are Calling You To Come Back".

Do they ever find Laura Durand? Is she just a figment of their imagination? Well, I won't spoil it for you. But as with most road trip films; the journey is what is important, the detours etc, and not the destination as such.

A special shout out must be made for the soundtrack which is excellent, and at just over 90 minutes the film never really feels like it is dragging, or that a scene has been thrown in to fill time. Although this film is definitely one for the film festivals, as opposed to the mainstream, I can see it gaining cult status.

Buy the soundtrack now at https://amzn.to/33LnnIk

The Good

High quality filming and direction, the acting is believable, and although we have seen a million buddy road trip films, this one is different, which is an almost impossible achievement.

The Bad

Some of the translation from Greek to the English subtitles isn't brilliant, and I think that some of the humour in the film does not translate in general to an English audience, the nuance of the Greek language, might get lost in translation.

Overall

I benefited from speaking Greek, but I needed the subtitles too as mainland Greeks speak so fast! That said I enjoyed this film; it really is something different. 

Strong characters, a decent story, and fantastic soundtrack. 

I score In the Strange Pursuit of Laura Durand a strong 8/10

Review by Jon Donnis

In the Strange Pursuit of Laura Durand will be available on Digital Download from 31st January

Pre-order from Apple TV now at https://apple.co/35r8GuN

REVIEW: Shattered (2022) - Starring Cameron Monaghan & Lilly Krug

Review by Jon Donnis

Chris (Cameron Monaghan) is a retired tech millionaire, he wrote an app, sold it to google, and now he lives in a beautiful house with futuristic technology throughout. His wife (Sasha Luss) is divorcing him.

One late night he decides to go shopping, and meets a gorgeous blonde woman, Sky (Lilly Krug), she asks for his help in choosing some wine, her Uber cancels on her, and he ends up taking her back to his. This happens to me all the time! Really! Ok, apart from the hot blonde and I don't have a futuristic house, but the rest is spot on.

Chris and Sky start seeing each other, then one night when coming back to his car, someone is trying to break in, a scuffle ensues, and the criminal attacks Chris with a crowbar. Sky then steps in as a nurse for Chris to help him in his recovery.

From director Luis Prieto and writer David Loughery, Shattered is supposed to be your classic psychological thriller, with sex and violence thrown in. So, when Chris gets injured, and Sky starts looking after him, that is when the film starts to get going, step in John Malkovich as Ronald, who runs the residential motel that Sky lives in. A death of a roommate. Lots of twists and the film has all the ingredients to be a great psychological thriller. 

The problem is the film is quite dull to start off with, and although the film tries to be a throwback to the days of films like Basic Instinct and Fatal Attraction, the first hour just isn't very good, and by the time the film does kick into gear, it is nearly over, as it has a relatively short run time of about 90 minutes.

The acting is good, but the writing is poor, which leaves very talented actors, with a script that does not reach their level of ability.

The Good

Shattered looks great, it is filmed well, it looks professional, and the last 30 minutes are actually quite good.

The Bad

In the world of "On Demand", if you don't grab the attention of the viewer early on, you risk losing them, and they will just turn off, I fear that is what will happen with this film.

Overall

The film is ok, Sky (Lilly Krug) is great, and without spoiling anything, plays her part convincingly. I just feel like the actors deserved a better script.

I score Shattered a generous 5/10