No Escape Room

‘No Escape Room’ is 2018 horror/mystery starring Jeni Ross (Stage Fright), Mark Ghanime (The Age of Adaline), Kathryn Davis (The Wedding Planners), and Dennis Andres (Workin’ Moms). A father (Ghanime), and daughter (Ross) go on a bonding trip by going to an escape room. They join three others at the escape room, only problem is, the escape room doesn’t want them to leave, and it has deadly consequences.

It’s interesting that this came out a year before ‘Escape Room’ did. Did ‘Escape Room’ copy the idea or is it a coincidence? ‘Escape Room’ is one of the best thriller/horrors out there, ‘No Escape Room’ not so much. It is a lot better than most of the horror/thriller movies streaming on Netflix, but it falls at okay. The Acting starts out a little cheesy but it get’s good once they get to the escape room. It hooks you in, and has you wanting to know what happens next. The middle falls flat, it’s almost like the writers didn’t know what to do once they were at the escape room. There’s random parts thrown in that have nothing to do with anything. For instance, the dad randomly goes into a painting, and is seduced by a woman coming out of a river. Doesn’t play any part into the movie whatsoever, the writers were like hell let’s throw that in there. After you get past the middle of the film it starts to get good again. In short, ‘Escape Room’ is definitely the better version of ‘No Escape Room.’ If you do want to check it out, you can currently find it on Netflix. I give it a 5.5/10

Term Life

I recently read an article saying that ‘Term Life’ is one of the best streaming movies on Netflix, that you probably haven’t seen. I haven’t seen it or even heard of it, but it has a solid cast, so I figured I would give it a shot. It’s a 2016 crime/action movie starring Vince Vaughn (Wedding Crashers), Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit), Bill Paxton (Twister), Johnathan Banks (Breaking Bad), Jordi Molla (Bad Boys II), Terrence Howard (Empire), Mike Epps (Friday After Next), and John Favreau (Iron Man). Like I said a stacked cast, right? The story is actually really good as well, a professional who plans heists (Vaughn) gets mixed up with a dirty cop (Paxton) when a heist goes wrong. The dirty cop must now tie up loose ends by killing Vaughn and going after Vaughn’s estranged daughter (Steinfeld).

Sounds good, right? Well, summed up it’s terrible. I’m not sure who’s writing these articles on the “best” streaming movies you haven’t seen but their taste is terrible. There’s a lot to unpack here, mostly it’s cheesy, very cheesy. The acting seems forced, it’s like a bad made for TV movie, not a movie staring all these good actors. Vince Vaughn and Hailee Steinfeld play father and daughter, but the chemistry between them is flat. Also what is up with Mike Epps trying to play serious roles? He’s not good at it, he’s a funny dude, he should stick with what he does best. Every time he tries to play a tough guy, serious role it’s just always bad. My suggestion is to avoid this one, I give it a 4/10.

Sightless

‘Sightless’ is a 2020 thriller, it has a small cast starring Madelaine Petsch (Polaroid), Alexander Koch (Under the Dome), and December Ensminger (True Detective). A young talented violinist (Petsch) is attacked and left blind. She is moved to a new apartment and given a caregiver (Koch) to help her adjust to her new lifestyle. However, paranoia soon sets in.

You can currently check this one out on Netflix, it starts out a little slow but about halfway through the movie, it starts to pick up, so bear with it. It’s pretty easy to guess what the twist is with basically a three person cast, I called it early in the film, but it’s still a good watch. It throws some misdirection in here and there with seeing what she thinks she is seeing, and may have you question what’s going on. I give it a 7.5/10.

Death of Me

‘Death of Me’ is a 2020 horror movie currently streaming on Netflix, starring Maggie Q (Fantasy Island), Luke Hemsworth (Hickok), Alex Essoe (Doctor Sleep), and Kat Ingkarat (Locked Up). Two Tourists (Q, and Hemsworth) vacation at an island paradise. They stop at a local bar and have a local drink only to blackout and not remember the night, they ended up videotapping the night and find out one of them killed the other when they go back and look at the footage.

I read an article on Creepy Catalog saying this is the best current horror film to stream on Netflix, so I had to check it out. I didn’t even know there was a third Hemsworth brother until this film, he’s like the Wish version of Chris Hemsworth, sorry Luke but it’s true. Whoever on Creepy Catalog considers this the best Netflix has to stream either didn’t watch it or they don’t know good horror. It has an interesting concept, but that’s about it. It fills the rest with blood and gore, and random flashes of what they consider scary images. Random blood and gore, doesn’t make a good horror movie, it needs to have a good story and this is where this one falls flat. I would skip this one all together, I give it a 4.5/10.

The Vanished

‘The Vanished’ is a 2020 mystery/thriller starring Anne Heche (John Q), Thomas Jane (The Punisher), Alex Haydon (All the Bright Places), and John D. Hickman (The Vampire Diaries). A husband, wife, and their ten year old daughter take their rv on a camping trip to a rv park. Their ten year old daughter ends up being abducted, and the parents will go any length to get their daughter back safely.

Let me start off by saying this movie is insane, just check out the trailer. The actors aren’t big and it starts out a little cheesy but stick with it. After about 20 min in or so, then the movie gets crazy and doesn’t let up. I’m pretty good at guessing endings, and figuring out who did what. This movie I couldn’t guess it. It will have you guessing all the way up till the end, and let me tell you, it has a crazy ending in store. This is a great thriller you can find on Netflix, I give it a solid 9/10.

A California Christmas

‘A California Christmas’ is a Netflix original and is currently sitting at number 1 on their top ten, which is to be expected since it is Christmas time after all. Forewarning though, this movie has nothing whatsoever to do with Christmas other than taking place around Christmas time. It has one Christmas song which is right before the credits, so if you’re looking for a Christmas movie, look somewhere else. This is your basic romantic Hallmark channel movie. It stars Lauren Swickard (Room for Murder), Josh Swickard (Roped), Ali Afshar (American Wrestler: The Wizard), David Del Rio (Pitch Perfect), and Amanda Detmer (Final Destination). ‘A California Christmas’ is about a playboy who lives a fast and carefree lifestyle, his mom threatens to cut him off unless he can get a ranch to sell their land to her company. He poses as ranch hand to try and persuade them to sell, but quickly falls in love instead.

After watching the trailer, I didn’t have a high bar for this movie, like I mentioned earlier it just appeared to be a cheesy Hallmark movie, but being Christmas time, I figured I would give it a shot. First off the main love interests are husband and wife in real life, which is pretty cool. You can actually imagine them on a ranch somewhere spending their life together. Even though it’s not a Christmas movie, this movie surprised me. It’s actually really good. The casting is great, and you find yourself actually invested in it, and rooting for them. David Del Rio plays a great part as the comic relief. If you’re looking for a good romantic movie, I recommend this one, I give it a 8/10.

Christmas Chronicles 2

‘Christmas Chronicles 2’ is a Netflix 2020 Christmas comedy that’s the follow up to the 2018 film ‘The Christmas Chronicles’. Kurt Russell, Goldie Hawn, Darby Camp, and Judah Lewis all return from the first one. Outside of them, ‘Christmas Chronicles 2’ brings in Julian Dennison (Hunt for the Wilderpeople), Jahzir Bruno (The Witches), and Tyrese Gibson (Fast & Furious).

Belsnickel (Dennison) is a disgruntled elf who is now human, who intends to get revenge on Santa by going to the North Pole and stealing Christmas forever. He must use Kate (Camp) as his ticket to get into the north pole by tricking her.

After watching the trailer, this did not look like it would be good. Why make a second one? Because money, that’s why, that’s the driving factor to everything, and I figured that’s all that would be behind it. I was happy to be wrong, even though they wrapped up everything in the first one. This one brings a fresh new plot that makes it worth it. Of course Kurt Russell has an even bigger rock n roll scene. The run time is a little long at two hours, but it doesn’t lag much, so time isn’t an issue. In the end this is a movie the whole family will enjoy. It brings a heartfelt message across with a rebellious teen finding acceptance and love, a scared kid finding his courage, and a rebellious elf finding his way. I give it a 7/10

Alien Xmas

‘Alien Xmas’ is a 2020 Netflix children/family Christmas movie starring Keythe Farley (Mass Effect 2), Dee Bradley Baker (American Dad!), and Kaliayh Rhambo (SEAL Team). ‘Alien Xmas’ follows the story of an alien race called the Klepts, they have no joy and steal everything and anything they can. Their newest plan is to go to earth and set up a machine to turn off earth’s gravitational pull. Once it is off, all of earth’s possessions will float into space where the Klepts will steal it. They send X, the smallest of the Kelpts, to the North Pole to set up the machine, but he soon changes his ways and learns the true meaning of Christmas.

I wouldn’t necessarily call this one a movie, more of a short or a Christmas special, it’s only 42 minutes long and after credits the run time is only about 38/39 minutes. It has an old retro, old-school feel to it. The animation style is done similar to the old Christmas special ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’, and that’s pretty cool. It’s like most Christmas movies, like ‘The Grinch’, where there is a grumpy character who stays grumpy until he learns the true meaning of Christmas. We’ve seen it a million times. However, they put a unique twist on it, and bring back the old animation style. For that ‘Alien Xmas’ is a winner this holiday season that the whole family will enjoy. I give it a 7/10

Wheels of Fortune.

‘Wheels of Fortune’, not to be confused with the popular game show ‘Wheel of Fortune’, is a 2020 comedy that you can currently find on Netflix. It isn’t really popular as it’s hard to find anything online about it, reviews, etc.. It stars Matt Jones (Breaking Bad), Noureen DeWulf (Ghosts of Girlfriends Past), John Ducey (Will & Grace), and Matty Cardarople (Stranger Things). Bo Jackson (Jones) is a redneck gearhead who never met his father, after his father dies, he finds out he is left in his very wealthy father’s will. In order to collect his inheritance he must compete in a series of races to prove he’s a winner/worthy of the money.

‘Wheels of Fortune’ has it’s funny moments, and the story is original. However it’s pretty predictable, you can pretty much guess what is going to happen at every turn, which makes it an okay movie. The cast isn’t strong enough to be a great movie. Jones, DeWulf, and Cardarople are all good actors/actresses but they’ve all been side role characters up to this point. It might have been a better movie with a different cast headlining. In the end I give a 5.5/10.

Holidate

‘Holidate’ is a 2020 Netflix original romantic/comedy that’s arrived just in times for the holidays. With October over, the scary movies move over for the Christmas movies, and this is the first Christmassy one of the season. ‘Holidate’ is a pretty simple concept, a holidate is a date just for holidays only. ‘Holidate’ follows the story of Sloane and Jackson, two people who are sick of dating but don’t want to be single on the holidays. After meeting each other in the mall, they decide to be each other’s holidates. This includes all holidays, Christmas, new years, valentines day, St. Patrick’s Day etc.. ‘Holidate’ stars Emma Roberts (American Horror Story), Luke Bracey (Point Break), Kristin Chenoweth (RV), King Bach (The Babysitter), and Manish Dayal (The Resident).

I said this one is a Christmassy movie and not a Christmas movie because the fact it covers all the holidays. However our story starts with Christmas and ends with Christmas, so close enough. I’m not a big fan of rom/com, but this one looked pretty good, and I like the original concept of this movie. ‘Holidate’ follows a typical rom/com plot, the main stars don’t like each other, but then they slowly start to fall for each other, but because of some stupid reason they can’t be together. The movie even takes a shot at themselves by saying this is the basic plot of all rom/com’s, which is pretty funny. Luke Bracey is funny, he reminds me a lot of Chris Hemsworth, same accent, same sense of humor, and similar mannerisms. I’m already a fan of Emma Roberts from her roles in American Horror Story. Overall it’s not as funny as I would have hoped for, but Bracey and Roberts have a good connection and the movie works for it. It’s a good kickoff for the Christmas movie season. I give it a 7/10.