DAMIEN RILEY, world musician and performer

Category: Uncategorized

  • Zoombies

    “I don’t want to play with the animals anymore.” -Thea

    They can’t all be Oscar winners. They can’t all be big budget. Once in a while, they can be fun with the most minimal resources. Working with what it has, “Zoombies” is too much fun and who doesn’t want a movie like that?

    Zoombies (2016)
    Cast
    Ione Butler

    as Lizzy

    Andrew Asper

    as Gage

    LaLa Nestor

    as Thea

    Directed by
    Glenn R. Miller
    Written by
    Scotty Mullen
    Other Info

    Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
    TV-14
    1h 27min

    This film is pure fun. It doesn’t try to be “Jurassic Park” but borrows from some of its conventions. The same might be said of it borrowing from “Pet Sematary” and “The Night of the Living Dead.” How about that scene in M Night’s “The Happening” where the lion chews the zookeepers arm off? That was dime. Excellent effects. Scenes like that are mimmicked with low-budget and mixed effects. It was done on the same sort of budget those Discovery Channel dinosaur shows have. It uses canned CGI along with mediocre camera techniques to tell the story. It was funny and exciting, though it could have been funnier.

    It all takes place in a new zoo that is doing some testing before it opens to the public. It’s a good thing too because somehow a monkey has been infected with a zombie virus. What happens next is the standard action, zombie, animal film (if there is one). I don’t know but I certainly knew what was coming next. My eight year old and I had some laughs eating popcorn and watching zoo animals wreak havoc on a team of Zoo workers and volunteers. Some ideas are so silly and fun, you could entertain people with puppets.

    Don’t expect much from this film, you’ll have a chance to love it that way. I thought of funnier ways to make it but I’m no director. If the idea of animal zombies sounds funny and cool to you, this film is right up your alley. I recommend it.

  • Logan (2017)

    Logan“In the near future, a weary Logan cares for an ailing Professor X in a hide out on the Mexican border. But Logan’s attempts to hide from the world and his legacy are up-ended when a young mutant arrives, being pursued by dark forces.” -IMDB

    Cast

    Hugh Jackman Logan
    Patrick Stewart Charles
    Dafne Keen Laura
    Boyd Holbrook Pierce

    Directed by
    Written by

    James Mangold, Scott Frank

    Other Info

    Action, Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
    R
    Fri 03 Mar 2017 UTC
    137min
    IMDB Rating: 8.6

    Director James Mangold was at the helm of movies such as Girl, Interrupted (1999), Walk the Line (2005), which he also co-wrote, the 2007 remake 3:10 to Yuma (2007), and The Wolverine (2013). The range of films show he can do just about anything. Perhaps the slow drama aspects of the first hour were meant to be deep and soulful like other work he has done. Unfortunately, it felt out-of-place for me.

    So many people love this movie, I imagine I am in the minority in grading it lower. I gave this reveiw a lot of thought so don’t think I just reacted from my easy chair after getting right back from the film.

    Hugh Jackman is not much different in this film than in his other Wolverine incarnations. He does take on a pseudo-dad role which is awkward and certainly not worthy of being called a dad role in any way. This is nowhere more evident than in a scene where the “daughter” calls him “daddy.” Patrick Stewart is painful to watch. I know fans of his character Charles Xavier may appreciate what happens in this film but for me, a more passive fan, it was droll and shameful dialog for a master such as he.

    There is a mutant little girl. She has large eyes. I can’t tell you more than that, there isn’t much to tell. This little girl is part of a small gang from a Mexican hospital. They were “engineered” for a government purpose. Hmmm. Could this be for a sequel? That’s all the summary need to give really. It’s a bare bones script.

    FINAL THOUGHTS
    The best thing about this movie for me is that there will be no more Wolverine films. I can’t recommend this film, it isn’t a fraction of what it could have been. Still, staunch fans of the franchise will undoubtedly like it and add their “likes” to a sometimes misleading social media.

  • ‘Hello, My Name is Doris’

    Hello, My Name is Doris is a dramedy about a sixty-something named Doris who gets a crush on her co-worker who is at least 20 years younger. She also has just experienced the death of her mother wh she has taken care of for years. This leaves her with time to fantasize and re-examine her hoarding issues she developed while being a caretaker.For the most part, this is a lighthearded film but there are times when the subject matter grows dark. It sets out to be
    “sing-song” so I can’t fault it for being that way most the way through. It does tackle some serious issues and I respect the wrters for that.

    Tyne Daly plays Doris’ friend which adds a lot to the film. We should all be so lucky to have such a friend at that time in our lives when the sun is starting to set. If you do see this film, and I do recommend it, I hope you enjoy the ending scene as much as I did. It is truly a creative approach to an ending and it’s done in the space of just a minute or so.

    Directed byMichael Showalter

    Produced by
    Daniel Crown
    Kevin Mann
    Riva Marker
    Jordana Mollick
    Daniela Taplin Lundberg

    Written by

    Michael Showalter
    Laura Terruso

    Starring

    Sally Field
    Max Greenfield
    Beth Behrs
    Wendi McLendon-Covey
    Stephen Root
    Elizabeth Reaser
    Natasha Lyonne
    Tyne Daly

    Running time
    90 minutes

  • The Benefactor

    This film was written and directed by Andrew Renzi who is a relative newcomer. Unfortunately we see the same sort of “bare all” ugly reality side Richard Gere gave us in Time out of Mind, and it doesn’t work as well.

    benefactor_ver3

    The Benefactor (2015)
    Cast

    Dakota Fanning, Theo James, Richard Gere

    Directed by

    Andrew Renzi

    Written by

    Andrew Renzi

    Other Info

    Drama
    Rated R
    1hr 33min
    Riley’s Rating:

    The more you know about addiction the more you know the difference between a schedule I drug and a schedule V. No addict is groping for a fix of a schedule V drug, although some kids these days are mixing them to get high. Richard Gere is showing us addiction in a very in-your-face way. He seems to be creating these roles for himself at his current age which I believe is around 60. Time Out of Mind is where I saw it recently. He is bare-boned and raw in that one suffering the effects of homelessness and early-onset Alzheimers. You can see his pain in that film, in fact, you fan smell it, even feel it as your own. It’s uncomfortable in that film as it is in The Benefactor. I’m fairly certain Mr. Gere is trying to show he’s a great actor by baring his yellow teeth, so to speak. In other words, he’s not holding back in his portrayal of character these days and he wants you to come along on the journey with him.

    The Benefactor isn’t just about addiction but rather the personality flaws and types that make people become addicted. We can say to ourselves, “He’s an addict by choice, that would never happen to me.” We say it every day about the disheveled brutish person begging for a dollar in front of Starbucks. We say it about our friend’s teen who just entered rehab. We judge and prejudge and post-judge and become disgusted when we hear about the lengths addicts go to in order to obtain a fix. This film looks at one man and who he is in a singular way. In the beginning you could argue we are meant to hate him. Middle and end,  one could argue the same.

    He’s the head of a hospital, a pushy benefactor to an unwitting twenty something Olivia, played by Dakota Fanning of many movies you can look up if you don’t already know her. He is also a general piece of shit to her fiancee, Luke, played by Theo James known for the Divergence series. Let’s visit a tiny bit of plot to see why he acts this way: Franny (Gere) was in a terrible car accident with Mia (Cheryl Hines) and Bobby (Dylan Baker) and Mia and Bobby were killed. Franny was like an uncle to Olivia and after recovering from the accident and becoming addicted to pain pills, he extends financial help and a space in his mansion-like home for Olivia and Luke to live. The trouble is, his money has strings attached and he needs a lot of attention.

    We see Franny go through withdrawals from Morphine and through many embarrassing situations where he begs for drugs from many people in the movie, including Olivia and Luke, who by the way is an oncologist doctor. Watching the film is uncomfortable to say the least. As I noted earlier in my review, Gere seems bent on showing every ugly (real?) side to the audience these days. It may be there is no better side. Whatever the reason, this film is the second in a series of films where he chooses to be ugly and in-your-face. It’s telling in fact after the final generic title flash which indicates the end that we see flashes of Gere shaving his scraggly, overgrown white beard with a razor. I actually stopped watching there because I was so on edge with what he would do to himself throughout the movie, I thought he might cut himself on purpose just to show us his true blood.

    This is an ok story but a strange convoluted script. Gere is meant to be hated and he is. I had no compassion for him in the little pharmacy desperate to get a refill. He screams, he cuts himself, he says mean hurtful things to olivia and her fiancee, it’s not a happy go lucky movie like Pretty Woman that’s for darned sure. He’s moved way beyond that as an artist and I think he wants you to know it. If he could have developed the other characters a bit more it might have been better. We never get the backstory on what Olivia has been doing as he was healing. Well, she’s pregnant so we know one thing she was doing. Movies with a hate-able protagonist work better when you get other perspectives. As it is, the whole movie is a camera right up Gere’s nose. That detracts from the story.

    Another problem is the script given to Gere. I don’t “buy it” when he’s trying to be tender with a kid in the cancer wing, hiding under the blanket and playing good doctor. I don’t buy it when he’s trying to be sweet with Olivia. He doesn’t strike me as an uncle or even a friend. For her to move in with him, risking her marriage and her pregnancy, it would need to be a safer place. It feels tense from the beginning. Another odd non-sequitur is the fact that Luke just up and moves in with Franny because Olivia wants to. If Luke is a doctor, couldn’t they afford their own place? Finally, by the end of the film, we hate Franny almost to the point where we want him to disappear. Yes, he’s that annoying. Still, when he wakes up, the orderly nurse escorts him to the maternity ward to see Luke and Olivia’s child? What? Based on the story I sat through for 1hr 30mins, that would not be appropriate at all. I kept expecting it to all be a dream and he’d wake up in rehab. Unfortunately, you’ll find an alternate to my expectation. There isn’t anything smart here. I think if you really love Richard Gere in movies, you may have a reason to go. You’re gonna see everything about him at 60, well, not everything. Hopefully that won’t get back to him and give him any ideas.

  • ‘Colonia’ (The Colony)

    *This review contains spoilers.

    Emma Watson ladles through this historical drama, “inspired by true events.” There are elements of cults and what they do to their members in this but it’s really about one in particular that had a truly evil leader and was eventually tried and convicted as such.

    Colonia-poster-1

    Colonia
    Cast

    Emma Watson, Daniel Brühl, Michael Nyqvist

    Directed by

    Florian Gallenberger

    Written by

    Torsten Wenzel, Florian Gallenberger

    Other Info

    Drama, History, Romance
    Rated R
    1h 50min

    I often wonder in my life’s travels how many people know what a cult is? I do. I had experience with one in college that I’ll never forget. It started with me attending their little “bible talk” and before too long they were pressuring me to move into a “shepherd” brothers house and pay part of the rent. For God, nonetheless. Before I got too involved, my Dad got wise to what I told him and explained they were a cult on campus for years. That’s when I quit going to meetings. Colonia is a true story about a cult in Chile. I think it has existed up until the early 2000’s. In the film, once you enter you can never leave. In fact, up to the time the story takes place, no one had ever escaped the cult. That’s what makes this story interesting.

    Emma Waston and Daniel Bruhl play Lena and Daniel, a Chilean Professor/activist and his English stewardess girlfriend. When a coup erupts in Chile, Daniel is captured. The activists tell her he has been exiled to the Colonia Dignidad, a world-famous frightening place where the members stay for life in a brutally neo Christian environment. Sins are punished by group slapping, to name one torture. When Lena hears her love has been taken there, she realizes her only chance to save him is to enter the cult voluntarily. She does, and a large segment of the film shows the torture she endures at the hands of this sick cult. Michael Nyqvist plays Paul Schäfer, the charismatic and frightening leader of the cult. We learn later he has impregnated, raped, and tortured thousands of members in the cult. He does a great job playing the part. I always wonder what the actor’s motivation could be for playing the part of a cult rapist. No matter, he finds it and he ends up playing this role quite well.

    thecolony2It’s interesting watching Watson adopt the tenets of the cult. Several times, he tests her. It takes many days before she sees Daniel alive there. She has to go on faith that he is there and that she has done the right thing coming to the site. Daniel has to pretend he’s retarded as a result of a terrible beating he receives. It’s smart because they send him to the commune since they feel every person has a purpose. There are some terrible scenes of abuse. When Lena is working in the fields the first day she says she is thirsty. One of the leaders, an especially evil one, brings her a bucket of water telling her to not drink it but rather carry it with her all day. In another case, a woman shares she is to be married. This is forbidden in the commune so the leaders subject her to a public “slapping” or beating session to the point to where she must be hospitalized. Even the man who she was supposed to be married to must deal blows on her face. It is a barbaric scene and apparently the kid of thing that went on in Colonia.

    Emma Watson plays the role barely well. I find her a little too unaffected by everything. I think she plays sheltered roles well but when it all comes down to her and her agony, she falls short. In this role, she is a bit weak that way. In a similar fashion, Daniel Bruhl is hard to relate with. I found both of their faces and delivery of dialog vanilla. These roles call for a dynamic set of emotions and neither seems to exude that. But, at the end of the day, the story itself is not all that engaging either. It was not promoted well and there is a bit of false advertising in it. You can watch the trailer or read the ads and then later in the film think to yourself, “I’ve been duped, this is not what I thought.” I like historical films and this is based on a story but it didn’t play out like a movie about cults. Instead, it was about torture and evil people. It would have been nice to see a little more on the psychology of cults and communes and a lot less of the coup material.

    paul-schafer-colonia-movie

    Years ago I had a college writing teacher who would tell the class “Focus on one thing.” I think Colonia focuses on too many things. Occasionally a film can get away with multiple items to focus on but usually, the good ones I remember have that overall focus. The one in this film should have been the Colony because that was the title. It should have started at the gate going in. The coup in Chile really has little to do with the cult stuff. It could have been portrayed quickly in the introduction. As it is you have to wait almost 1/3 of the film to get into the commune and even then, they are still building up to what’s really going on in there. The final scenes are great. You feel elated as they escape to the airport and somehow convince the pilot to fly them away, even with Chileans with assault rifle banging on the door. It’s a great ending to a so/so movie. It lost points with me in its story because it wasn’t focused enough. Furthermore, I thought Emma Watson was miscast. This role needs someone who wears their emotion on her face, blood sweat, and tears. Maybe in 20 years we’ll see that from Emma but she’s not showing it enough in this film.

  • Creature from the Black Lagoon

    Watching a horror film in black and white can hypnotize your brain to believe the creature is real and the production is modern. It’s an odd thing. What’s more, if you make the tiniest effort to examine the sets, the wardrobe, and the creatures in the feature, you just might find that the movie makers of that time (ie; 1954) put more effort into their craft than many horror movies in modern times.

    Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
    G | 1h 19min | Horror | 5 March 1954 (USA)

    A strange prehistoric beast lurks in the depths of the Amazonian jungle. A group of scientists try to capture the animal and bring it back to civilization for study.
    Director: Jack Arnold
    Writers: Harry Essex (screenplay), Arthur A. Ross (screenplay) (as Arthur Ross) | 1 more credit »
    Stars: Richard Carlson, Julie Adams, Richard Denning

    One powerful aspect of the films in this series is the music. It needed to be, to create suspense. By today’s standards, it is nothing subtle but again, after you suspend your sense of disbelief a little, and let the film hypnotize you, you don’t pay attention to what the music is doing. I love the sets in this film because they are mostly on the water and boat. Like the music, they bring the film alive.

    I have to comment on the creature suit. When he/she/it is out of water, he opens and closes his mouth like a fish. It’s effective. There were times I forgot there was an actor inside. The creature was a CREATURE and that is quite a feat for an old B&W film. Make no mistake, there are some cheesy parts that could have been made better but who’s counting?

    Like King Kong, the creature will not hurt the woman. That adds a nice element of empathy for him. Nonetheless, he is a killer and must be dealt with as such. This is a barrel of monkeys, I recommend it to all horror fans (and other genres that circle those wagons).

    7/10