Killer Countdown - Vanishing on 7th Street (2010)

Streaming Service: Hoopla
Movie Name/Year: Vanishing on 7th Street (2010)
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Length: 1h 32min
Rating: R
Director: Brad Anderson
Writer: Anthony Jaswinski
Actors: Hayden Christensen, John Leguizamo, Thandiwe Newton, Jacob Latimore, Taylor Groothuis, Jordan Trovillion, Larry Fessenden

IMDb Blurb: The population of Detroit has almost completely disappeared, but a few remain. As daylight disappears they realize that the Dark is coming for them.

Cat’s Point of View:
I don't remember anything about Vanishing on 7^th Street from the time-period it was released. On paper, the premise and cast would promise an amazing and thrilling experience. I am not sure that what I watched lived up to those expectations entirely, but it was interesting.

There were definitely moments that got me, though. Vanishing on 7^th Street had an eerie vibe and kept me on the edge of my seat for the most part as the shadows closed in. We're hard-wired to have this primordial unease about the dark. It's instinctive, and this movie definitely plays on that. I read something recently that I found profound in its simplicity – we're not actually afraid of the dark, but what might be IN the dark. When you add people just going poof to that, it's unnerving.

The characters in this film are clearly going through some serious trauma. Thankfully, the production team put a cast together that really sold it well. The combination of Hayden Christensen (Takers, First Kill, Ahsoka), John Leguizamo (Encanto, The Menu, Violent Night), and Thandiwe Newton (Gringo, All the Old Knives, Westworld) really sold this movie when we were looking for a #7 for our Killer Countdown. I adore all of them, and they did the best they could here with what they had to work with. I could feel their despair, fear, and desperation. This was also the film debut for Jacob Latimore (Detroit, House Party, The Chi) and he has gone on to do some really great stuff. I was really impressed with him at his age when this was filmed.

In retrospect, Larry Fessenden (The Dead Don't Die, What Doesn't Float, MaXXXine) was wasted in the bit part he had here that I don't even think had lines. But this was over a decade ago, afterall, and before he made a name for himself – especially in the horror genre. 

Brad Anderson (The Call, Stonehearst Asylum, The Silent Hour) has some really solid films under his proverbial directorial belt. I did appreciate the storytelling here, though there were some kinks that just didn't quite get worked out before the final production was released. The character development was a little lopsided, but I can't tell if that was entirely intentional. We got a lot of subtle cues about Christensen's character and even a bit of a story arc of growth for him. We have very little regarding the other primary characters besides their occupations and what they were doing immediately before the “vanishing” happened. There are so many unanswered questions – but sometimes things are just like that in life. We don't get all the answers we want, and crazy unhinged stuff happens in the world every day that defies explanation. Perhaps the point was to leave the film even more unnerving because we don't get to learn exactly what the hell was going on. It's just a bleak story.

I did have a giggle regarding Leguizamo's character's job as a projectionist at an AMC theater. That was a wonderful little nugget of nostalgia for me, hearing the film reels whir. My first real job when I was in high school and college was at my local AMC theater. I digress...

Vanishing on 7^th Street isn't going to be for everyone. If you are the type that needs some clear resolution with your stories, this movie isn't going to be satisfying for you. The ending is even more perplexing than everything else that came before it and laden with heavy symbolism. Though, if you're open to just riding along for the experience, this film does provide the prerequisite mood, ambiance, and general creepy atmosphere for a few thrills.

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 48%
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 21%
Metascore – 50%
Metacritic User Score – 4.8/10
IMDB Score – 4.9/10

Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 3/5

Movie Trailer:

The Last Days of American Crime (2020)

Streaming Service: Netflix

Movie Name/Year: The Last Days of American Crime (2020)

Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller

Length: 148 minutes

Rating: TV-MA

Production/Distribution: Radical Studios, Mandalay Pictures, Radical Pictures, Netflix

Director: Olivier Megaton

Writer: Karl Gajdusek, Rick Remender, Greg Tocchini

Actors: Neels Clasen, Edgar Ramirez, Tony Caprari, Norman Anstey, Brandon Auret, Daniel Fox, Sean Cameron Michael, Nathan Lynn, Tamer Burjaq, Jonathan Pienaar, Anna Brewster, Michael Pitt, Sharlto Copley, James Richard Marshall, Terence Maynard, Tiyler Kriel, Leandie du Randt, Patrick Bergin

Blurb from IMDb: In the not-too-distant future, as a final response to terrorism and crime, the U.S. government plans to broadcast a signal making it impossible for anyone to knowingly commit unlawful acts.

Selina’s Point of View:

The Last Days of American Crime caught my attention initially because of the dystopian/heist hybrid-genre. I was looking forward to seeing how the two, usually very separate, genres would work together. I’m a huge fan of dystopian stories and I can usually get behind a good heist. So, I figured, it could be a great combination.

Having seen the film, I can tell you what I forgot.

In dystopian stories, world building is absolutely essential. Creators need to get their audience to understand what the unfamiliar world in the film is all about. In some cases, you even need to know how it got to that point for the story to hit right. In the Hunger Games (2012-2015), we know that the districts rebelled against the capital and the capital saw it as a failure of control, so they put a firmer strangle-hold on the districts as they moved forward. In Snowpiercer (2013), we know that there came an ice age and that humanity was condemned to live on a train in order to survive. So they were settled into the locomotive according to caste. With Tank Girl (1995), we know that a comet struck Earth causing a massive drought.

In each case of a successful dystopian story the environment and settings are the most important aspects to develop. The world in that genre is completely foreign to us, so we need to know the ‘whys.‘

Now, a heist film is the complete opposite. We don’t need to understand the world. It’s our world. We know the specifics. Thievery is illegal. Cops will be called. Stakes include jail and possible bodily harm from officers trying to apprehend the main characters. We don’t need a rehash on that. What we need is to care about the characters most of all.

What sets heist movies apart from each other is how much we care about what happens to the characters. In Ocean’s Eleven (2001), the characters are charismatic and we learn a bit about what brought them there, how they’re interwoven. In The Fast and the Furious (2001), we learn so much about the characters that we accept the undercover cop changing sides because it feels natural.

Trying to combine the two genres is difficult, because there’s NO room for error. Where a heist film could let the setting speak for itself and a dystopian story can just let the characters react to the setting, a combo of the two needs to be 100% on top of things from both areas.

I don’t really feel like this film shined in either aspect. We wound up with depthless characters because they needed to spend so much time on trying to show the setting, but they spent so much time on the way the characters interacted with each other, that they didn’t really succeed in showing us why the world was the way it was.

In the end, we wound up with a very long movie that felt like it took an eternity to get started. When it did finally get to a good part, it wasn’t enough to make me forget how long it took to get there. I mean, the actual heist and the ending was pretty well done, but I didn’t care about the characters or the setting by that time in the film. I just didn’t.

Cat’s Point of View:

Summer is knocking on the door of the Northern Hemisphere, and it’s usually the season for action blockbusters. In this crazy time, I’ve been wondering what might change with this year. Can I tell you how excited I’ve been that drive-in movies are making a comeback? My own preference is that they never really should have gone away… but I digress.

My point is that The Last Days of American Crime, as a Netflix Original, didn’t require a big screen and yet it made a solid impact as a respectable summer action movie. Here’s to hoping that this ball keeps rolling with strong releases.

This film was unsettling.

At its core, the movie was a well-executed and grimy heist flick. The cast was strong with well-known actors such as Edgar Ramírez (Point Break, Joy, Bright) and Sharlto Copley (Open Grave, Free Fire, Gringo) onboard. There were also relatively fresh faces among the key players. Anna Brewster (The Reeds, Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens, Versailles) and Michael Pitt (Seven Psychopaths, Ghost in the Shell, Run With the Hunted) were most notable among those.

There’s a little bit of everything you’d expect with an action-crime thriller – enough to keep you on the edge of your seat and wondering if the main characters are really going to make it or not.

At the same time, there’s an undercurrent of dread that amplifies everything else as a countdown clock ticks away steadily in the background.

The timing of this movie is uncanny, as the world joins sanitized hands in protest against police brutality. The Last Days of American Crime’s plot touts a signal that can inhibit people from committing acts that they know would be law-breaking. What would happen if the police force could get around that? The film does a pretty good job in illustrating how scary that actually is – if real-world actions hadn’t already given us a preview of the frightening things that could happen.

There are a few loose threads in the plot – mostly involving the nebulous references to money. If that was more adequately explained, I may have missed it. I was generally inwardly reeling from the concept of the signal and how horrifyingly bad that would be.

The perspective of a ‘good cop’ doing his best within the system was a subtle but important element in the plot as well. What happens when even a ‘good guy’ gets pushed too far in this film’s new world order? Copely was amazing bringing that element to life.

I would certainly give this one a recommendation as both an excellent cautionary tale and also good old-fashioned action entertainment. 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 0%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 24%

Metascore – 16/100

Metacritic User Score – 2.3/10

IMDB Score – 3.8/10

CinemaScore – None

Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 2/5

Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 4/5

Movie Trailer:

Otherhood (2019)

Movie Name/Year: Otherhood (2019)

Genre: Comedy

Length: 100 minutes

Rating: R

Production/Distribution: Mandalay Pictures, Welle Entertainment, Netflix

Director: Cindy Chupack

Writer: Mark Andrus, Cindy Chupack, William Sutcliffe

Actors: Angela Bassett, Patricia Arquette, Felicity Huffman, Jake Hoffman, Jake Lacy, Sinqua Walls, Heidi Gardner, Stephen Kunken, Damian Young, Afton Williamson, Frank De Julio, Becki Newton, Mario Cantone, Emily Tremaine, Molly Bernard, Tim Bagley, Kate Easton, Kelcy Griffin, Elizabeth Cappuccino, Rosanny Zayas, Samuel Li Weintraub

Blurb from IMDb: A grounded, soulful, celebratory comedy about three mothers and their adult sons. The film explores the stage after motherhood, Otherhood, when you have to redefine your relationship with your children, friends, spouse, and most importantly, yourself.

Selina’s Point of View:

I was pretty much right about what to expect from this film.

What I wrote in my Top 20 for August was spot on. Otherhood was a fun story about moms learning who they are without their kids, and their kids learning to appreciate them as independent people. There was a lot of comedy and cringe, but the dramatic scenes snuck in here and there.

I’m alright with having put it at number 19, though. Although it wasn’t a chore to watch, it wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination.

The script had some clunky moments and there were places where the exposition was a little too obvious.

Then there was the issue of starting out with a narrator but not being consistent with it. Normally, if there’s a narrator in a film, you know that person is the main character and you’ll be following their perspective. In this case, it didn’t work that way and the voice-over in the beginning just winds up feeling lazy and unnecessary.

I also had some problems with the timeline, especially at the ending. There’s an epilogue to Otherhood that really didn’t make sense. The movie would actually have been better if that part was cut out completely. It would have left a few questions unanswered, but that still would have been preferred.

In the end, it was solid enough. I don’t think anyone will be calling it their favorite, but it wasn’t bad.

Cat’s Point of View:

I’ve been slightly worried that summer has not been kind to my perception of cinema, so far. Well, everyone, I feel that we now have definitive proof that the heat hasn’t made me overly critical.

How so, you might ask? The answer is simple. After braving the sweltering summer sun in my mobile oven (i.e. a dark-colored SUV without AC in Louisiana) running errands for school supplies, a doctor’s office visit, and other mundane tasks; it is safe to say that cranky was my middle name when I got home.

Let me tell you, Otherhood made it so easy to say ‘bye Felicia’ to that bad mood and enjoy this story. The plot, centering on mom-friends with adult children trying to reconnect with aspects of their lives and relationships with their sons, was something I could really relate to. As an adult, I find that it’s easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of life. Time can pass in the blink of an eye, and sometimes it’s easy to forget to keep in contact with family – even parents.

This is something that I’ve long struggled with in my life in general. I get so tunnel-visioned sometimes or "HEY LOOK A SQUIRREL" happens, and it doesn’t occur to me to call again until stupid-o-clock or other inappropriate timing. This film was a reminder that all relationships require work and communication – whether friendships or family. One of the many things I loved about this movie was that it flowed as a narrative and called me to invest in the characters on their emotional journeys rather than feeling browbeat by the underpinning message.

Everything is easier to swallow with a liberal sprinkling of comedy, however. The poignant moments were well supported by lighter touches, which successfully kept the movie uplifting. Of course, the stellar cast was largely responsible for bringing these three intertwined stories to life.  As an example, I absolutely adored Angela Bassett’s (American Horror Story, Avengers: Endgame, 9-1-1) character. This film really played to her strengths and I could swear that they’ve paid homage to some of her earlier work here. I am fairly certain there was a throwback moment to How Stella Got Her Groove Back (1998) in there. Groove on, Ms. Bassett. Groove on.

My daughter just turned 16 this week. I’m letting this movie be one of those well-timed cosmic reminders to keep working on my relationships, lest time slips by with me on the wayside. I swear she was my ‘little girl’ just yesterday – and here we are at her Sweet Sixteen. Talk about some perspective.

I digress…

Netflix did well in nurturing this tale into being. I would encourage anyone who enjoys a good dramedy to give this one a chance. 

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – 29%

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 66%

Metascore – 37/100

Metacritic User Score – 3.6/10

IMDB Score – 6.0/10

CinemaScore – None

Trust the Dice: Selina’s Rating – 3.5/5

Trust the Dice: Cat’s Rating – 4/5

P.S. Some additional scenes and bloopers during the credits.

Movie Trailer: