Scorched (2003)

★★★
Scorched came and went so fast it passed virtually unnoticed in the public's eye. At first sight, that doesn't seem like a big deal. Receiving top billing are Alicia Silverstone and Rachael Leigh Cook, two actresses who delivered terrific performances in their respective breakout movies but have since slipped into obscurity with few successes after their initial brush with fame.

Willy's Wonderland (2021)

★★★
Good for Nicolas Cage for making oddball movies like Willy’s Wonderland. One could argue that his peak years are behind him, but… are they really? A combination of financial issues and perhaps a desire to seek out imaginative projects has led to an interesting late-career trajectory into low-profile high-concept territory. Though many of these efforts have gone straight to video and are of variable quality, there are hidden gems to be found. The path he has taken is the complete opposite of Bruce Willis, who has appeared in such a staggering number direct-to-video garbage that a rare theatrical appearance at this point would be an accident. Cage, on the other hand, still displays a passion for acting, and we can all benefit from his decision.

A Quiet Place Part II (2021)

★★★
A Quiet Place Part II picks up right where the previous film left off, carries over the strengths of that movie, and expands its world to include other survivors. It opens with a fantastic sequence that reveals the origin of the aliens and establishes how they quickly took over the planet. It leaves a few breadcrumbs behind for a potential sequel, which will hopefully delve more deeply into how the aliens got here. There are still questions that I had when it was over, but I’m confident Part III will tackle these and more when it comes around. This movie is better than the first one and shows that writer/director John Krasinski has a good idea of where to take this story.

The Raid: Redemption (2012)

★½
The Raid: Redemption is a con job. It’s like the friend who buys a new car and takes you for a spin to show it off only to have it break down on the freeway. The story involves an elite police squad in Jakarta that descends on a 15-story apartment building to arrest a drug lord, all the while contending with his henchmen the whole way up. It’s an interesting concept, but the movie emphasizes its fight scenes so much that it capsizes. The story just wasn’t developed well enough to provide any compelling reason for this risky mission. As a result, there are lots of fights, lots of deaths, lots of bullets, but it adds up to nothing.

Jawbreaker (1999)

★★
A black comedy fusion of Clueless and Heathers, Jawbreaker falls short of both. Darren Stein’s tale of high school murder and revenge isn’t nearly as clever as it thinks it is and relies on a heavy dosage of in-sync dialogue delivery and creative cutting to carry the day. It isn’t boring, and sometimes it’s amusing, but once the subterfuge wears off, all that’s left is a forgettable story of insignificant impact. Only two weeks after this movie’s release came Cruel Intentions, another twisted high school tale, but one that was much more satisfying, with an ending that worked because that movie’s villainess was fully fleshed out, while Jawbreaker’s Courtney is the result of a script run amok.

Yor, the Hunter from the Future (1983)

½ star
Riding the wave generated by the success of Conan the Barbarian, Yor, The Hunter from the Future is a film so cheesy it'll make your stomach turn from overexposure. According to the good old Internet Movie Database, this was edited down from a four-part Italian miniseries. The American version clocks in at a mighty 90 minutes, thereby reducing the amount of cheese hurled at viewers. This movie is hideous from start to finish, a film featuring insipid dialogue, poor acting and nasty makeup. The hero looks like a Ken doll come to life, while the enemies range from hairy Papa Smurfs to cheap knockoffs of Darth Vader. Actually, Yor may have provided the model for Dark Helmet in Spaceballs.

Passengers (2016)

★★★½
Passengers is exciting not just because of the action but because it carefully examines the full effect of the unenviable dilemma of its characters. Like 2004’s Open Water or the 2010 Ryan Reynolds one-man show Buried, Passengers features a small cast stranded far from help and having only limited means to survive the predicament. These movies live and die by the strength of the actors, and by that I mean their ability to convey the psychological breakdown and hopelessness of their characters. Open Water was about two scuba divers stranded in the middle of the ocean. That premise all by itself is bound to cause anxiety. Now imagine that on a whole other level, like stranding two passengers on a spaceship that still has 90 years to go to its destination. It’s a fantastic idea.

Bumblebee (2018)

★★★½
After five mind-numbing Transformers movies by Michael Bay, we finally get the movie we should have gotten right from the get-go. Bay, a good director when he isn’t trying to create large-scale spectacles, thankfully steps aside and allows someone else to take the reins, which is the best thing he could have done for this franchise. Now, under the patient and sure-handed supervision of Travis Knight, the Transformers find themselves in a movie worthy of their passionate fanbase. Bumblebee, from a script by Christina Hodson, reboots the series, erasing the Bay universe from existence and gives us a fresh take on the longtime war on Cybertron. I can’t emphasize enough how much this movie needed to happen. I don’t dislike Michael Bay. Pain & Gain and especially 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi represent Bay at his best, and the upcoming Ambulance looks promising, but he was all wrong for the Transformers. He didn’t respect the material. Knight and Hodson, on the other hand, totally get it. Their movie is hopefully a positive sign of things to come.

A Quiet Place (2018)

★★½
A Quiet Place is an effective little horror movie that offers an interesting challenge for its characters, then comes up with ways for them to negotiate that challenge that range from subtlety clever to downright ingenious. The horrifying scenario presented here could have been rife with standard fright movie set pieces, yet co-writer and director John Krasinski wants to set the tone with atmosphere and silence, and he wants us to be patient as events unfold. The result is a satisfying thriller, though imperfect, which is unfortunate.

American Siege (2022)

½ star
There might come a time for serious discussion on whether Bruce Willis tarnished his legacy. Starting in 2014, he has relentlessly (and shamelessly) churned out a number of direct-to-video movies of dreadful quality, supposedly only working for a few days at a time before moving on to the next paycheck. I’m sure it’s fun to make money by working as little as possible, but Willis doesn’t appear to be enjoying himself. In exchange for easy money, he gives us wooden performances and stilted dialogue. Nicolas Cage has also been making a lot of obscure movies lately, but he still makes interesting choices, and his performances show that he brings his “A” game no matter what. Willis looks like he’d rather be somewhere else, but here he is anyway.

Moonfall (2022)

★★★
I read somewhere that after 2012, Roland Emmerich would be finished with disaster movies. Indeed, how could he top that? He returned anyway with Independence Day: Resurgence, not only breaking that pledge but also delivering his weakest movie by far. It was not his finest hour, that’s for sure. Was he out of ideas? After every kind of disaster imaginable, what else was left for him to toss at us? An asteroid? Michael Bay hit us over the head with that one. This kind of movie is his calling card, and I suppose we’re better off with him at the helm. After trying something different, like the solid Midway, Emmerich is back, unable to stay away from the genre he knows best. One thing he hasn’t tried yet was crashing the moon into the earth, an event humans couldn’t possibly survive. Therein lies the challenge. How exactly is he going to show us such a gargantuan spectacle while sparing humanity from extinction? Leave it to Emmerich to find a way.

Her (2013)

★★★½
Spike Jonze doesn't direct many movies, but when he does he is guaranteed to give us something amazing. Even his weaker efforts (Where the Wild Things Are) have something to offer. He cut his teeth on music videos before getting his big chance to direct a feature. What a debut it was. Being John Malkovich (1999) is a masterpiece. It still resonates with me over 20 years later. It was fascinated with the thrill one could gain by temporarily escaping one’s own identity and live another life completely. Imagine being an introvert and suddenly thrust into a new body. You could behave in an entirely different manner and take risks that you wouldn’t otherwise take. Her, Jonze’s most recent movie, is along the same lines, and is his best project since that magnificent debut.