Psycho Killer (2026) * * *

 

Directed by:  Gavin Polone

Starring:  Georgina Campbell, James Preston Rogers, Malcolm McDowell, Logan Miller, Grace Dove

The reviews are in!  Psycho Killer is reported to have a 0% Rotten Tomatoes score, meaning every critic who has reviewed it detested it.  I don't know.  Written by Seven and 8MM screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker, Psycho Killer is a creepily effective thriller that sticks with you.  The Satanic Slasher (Rogers) is pure evil, and we root for his demise as Kansas State police officer Jane Archer (Campbell), whose trooper husband was killed by the slasher during a traffic stop, hunts him down.  The FBI is involved, sort of, but tries to warn Jane off the case.  We sense it may not just be jurisdictional. 

Jane, who is also pregnant, will not be deterred as she attempts to track and kill the slasher.  Who is he?  We hear his voice, which is very low-pitched and eerie, but we never see his face.  He wears an old-fashioned gas mask when committing his heinous crimes.  He calls himself Richard Reeves, a mass murderer who killed numerous churchgoers and attempted to blow up the church decades ago and was reported to have been killed in prison.  Is he imitating Reeves?  Idolizing him?  Paying tribute to him?  We don't know the full extent of Reeves' plan but it's awfully diabolical, as you would expect.  

Reeves is a pitiless hulk who consumes painkillers and psychotropic meds as he continues his spree.  He worships Satan and encounters like-minded Satan worshippers led by Malcolm McDowell, who uses his love of Satan to throw orgies, which offends Reeves and you know what happens when Reeves is offended.   Walker specializes in writing movies showing the dark, twisted underbelly of society.  Seven and 8MM were terrific movies partially because of the atmosphere they evoked.  Psycho Killer's atmosphere is decidedly dark and creepy, as you would expect in a movie where the Satanic Slasher is hacking victims from coast-to-coast.  I can't imagine what the critics saw.  Sure, the story is grotesquely gory in spots, but it's compelling and its effects linger.  

 

Cold Storage (2026) * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Jonny Campbell

Starring:  Joe Keery, Georgina Campbell, Liam Neeson, Lesley Manville, Sosie Bacon, Vanessa Redgrave

Cold Storage is a version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, with the snatcher being a nasty green fungus which can penetrate just about anything to attach itself to its host.  As Cold Storage opens, a scientist (Bacon) and two military operatives (Neeson and Manville) travel to Australia to find this mysterious fungus which has killed numerous people and animals.  The fungus manages to invade the hazmat suit of the doctor and soon it takes over her body, causing her to explode.  The operatives escape with the sample of the fungus, which is kept in a government lab in the middle of nowhere.

The lab is abandoned sometime later, with the fungus still stored in a vault long forgotten and a storage facility built on top of it.  One night, two employees Travis (Keery) and Naomi (Campbell) encounter strange happenings, such as a deer entering the facility, attacking them, and soon exploding.  Naomi's boyfriend also shows up to confront her about Naomi dumping him and he soon begins acting weird.  Travis and Naomi's boss also comes by with his biker friends and you know the drill by now.

Neeson also reappears after being called into duty to destroy the goo and keep it contained.  Neeson has fun with the role with the other actors understanding that Cold Storage isn't meant to be taken too seriously.  The movie itself is occasionally amusing, with lots of green goo everywhere and all of the villains getting their comeuppance, but it doesn't reach past a certain level of inspiration.  It's ninety minutes that come and go, sometimes slowly, but for those who love this type of movie, you'll get what you came for.  

His & Hers (2026) * *

 

Starring:  Jon Bernthal, Tessa Thompson, Sunita Mani, Chris Bauer, Marin Ireland, Pablo Schreiber, Poppy Liu, Rebecca Rittenhouse, Crystal R. Fox

His & Hers meanders its way through its whodunit plot with sidebars on less interesting topics, such as the relationship between estranged spouses Detective Jack Harper (Bernthal) and Anna (Thompson), a TV news reporter covering a small-town murder of a woman both knew very well.  Jack was having sex with her on the night she was murdered, and Anna knew her from their private school days, although not in the biblical sense.  Jack, of course, would become a prime suspect if it were discovered that he knew the victim intimately.  Anna has demons of her own to deal with, including the death of hers and Jack's infant daughter which causes Anna to disappear from her husband's life for a year.  

There isn't much chemistry between Anna and Jack.  Anna's rival is Lexy (Rittenhouse), the young blonde who is a fast-rising star at Anna's Atlanta news program.  Anna is also sleeping with Lexy's cameraman husband Richard (Schreiber).  Anna also deals with her ailing mother who appears to be in the early stages of dementia, while Jack lives with his alcoholic sister and his niece.  The sister also has school ties to the victim, who of course wasn't an angel.  There is a plethora of characters and subplots which overstuffs the basic murder plot premise. 

Bernthal is normally among the most magnetic of actors, and here he tries a bit too hard to give us down-home folksiness and tends to end his sentences with "yeah?" often enough for it to be noticeable.  Tessa Thompson was never an actress who did it for me.  There is something bland about her which doesn't allow us inside.  I would say maybe it's just this character, but I've noticed that about many of her performances.  

The whodunit itself contains a twist I saw coming and another I didn't.  I suppose I cared just enough to watch for the outcome, but even with six episodes, it takes a long time to get to there.  Or it just feels that way. 

EPIC: Elvis Presley in Concert * * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Baz Luhrmann

No, EPIC isn't a sequel to Baz Luhrmann's Elvis (2022), but instead of mixture of archive documentary and concert footage Luhrmann discovered during his research of Elvis.  The result reveals Elvis' love of performing and his approachability despite being the biggest musical star of his time (along with The Beatles).  Elvis wouldn't be one of those performers whose show starts at 8pm and he decides to wait until 11pm to stroll on stage.  He took performing seriously, and it showed with the energy he expended.  He wanted to show the audience something new every time.

EPIC's concert footage relies heavily on the Las Vegas shows that were the subject of the 1970 documentary: Elvis: That's the Way It Is.   We also see Elvis rehearsing the songs, giving us an intimate view of his performances.  He, his band, and backing vocalists have undeniable chemistry and they play off each other.  The epilogue tells us that Elvis performed 1,100 shows between 1969 and 1977, sometimes at three shows per day.  He missed live performances which he resumed soon after he was finished with his movie contract.  He didn't much like making movies, as we hear in archive voice footage.  They weren't the best use of his talent.  

EPIC works in the same fashion That's the Way It Is did.  It shows Elvis has an approachable, humble performer.  Did he have his moments where he was a prick?  I'm sure.  Who doesn't?  The drug abuse later took over and caused his untimely 1977 death at age 42, leaving behind a legacy that stands today as a performer who is inimitable, even though of course he has thousands of impersonators.  But there is only one true Elvis Presley.  EPIC gives us one more reason why this is correct and seeing him never gets old.  

Extract (2009) * * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Mike Judge

Starring:  Jason Bateman, Ben Affleck, Kristen Wiig, Clifton Collins, Jr. Mila Kunis, Dustin Milligan, David Koechner, Gene Simmons

Mike Judge, creator of Beavis and Butthead and terrific movie satires like Office Space, gives us an uneven and sometimes funny comedy about people who go out of their way to make things hard on themselves.  Our protagonist is the sexually frustrated owner of a bottling plant who finds himself in lust with new employee Cindy(Kunis) who is secretly involved with one of Joel's employees who was involved in a most-gruesome work-related injury.  Joel is married to Suzie (Wiig), and their marriage has devolved into routine dullness and not much sex.  

Joel's bartender friend Dean (Affleck) poses a solution to Joel's moral dilemma:  Joel doesn't want to outright cheat on Suzie, but if Suzie is seduced by a "gigolo" hired by Joel, then Joel will be free to pursue Cindy because Suzie already cheated.  It's Mike Judge-universe morality and logic writ large, with erratic results.  Joel is being wooed to sell his company, but the workers comp case may hinder that, especially with the employee's ambulance chaser attorney (Simmons) who suggests a bizarre way to have the case dropped.  It involves a door and Joel's testicles.  

Meanwhile, the gigolo posing as a pool boy indeed succeeds in seducing Suzie.  It would've been funnier if the gigolo only thinks he seduced Suzie but maybe seduced the neighbor.  Joel tries to call off the gigolo, who thinks he and Suzie are falling in love.  There are many moving parts in Extract, and the actors are up to the challenge, but the fault lies at the plot or screenplay level.  It's not as funny or stinging as it needs to be, but hey it's better than the overrated Idiocracy.  

The Strangers: Chapter 3 (2026) *

 

Directed by:  Renny Harlin

Starring:  Madelaine Petsch, Richard Brake, Gabriel Basso, Ema Horvath

The Strangers saga comes to a merciful end (hopefully) with Chapter 3.  The opening scenes provided a challenge for me in that I tried in vain to recall anything about Chapter 2.  Chapter 1 wasn't any great shakes, but I do recall it had at least a little suspense to it.  I gave it two stars.  The ensuing sequels don't provide much in the way of suspense.  There are a lot of killings and an attempt to display that our protagonist (Petsch) is somehow transformed into a killer herself thanks to the violence she's endured. We've seen that before too, and it isn't exactly revelatory.

Renny Harlin is a skilled director who is better than this material.  I know, I've seen examples of this.  The movie isn't shoddily made, just pointless and disengaging.  There are ample jump scares for those who go to horror movies to experience those and a lot of blood for those who to go watch that.  Those audience members will get what they came for.  

As for the rest of us, The Strangers, Chapter 3 runs only about ninety minutes and still feels like a slog.  I did admire, for what it's worth, some of creepy performances and I wished they were in the service of a better movie and series.  

Crime 101 (2026) * * *

 

Directed by:  Bart Layton

Starring:  Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Halle Berry, Monica Barbaro, Tate Donovan, Barry Keoghan, Nick Nolte

Crime 101 lends itself to comparisons to Heat and it wouldn't have it any other way.  We have a thief named Mike (Hemsworth) who does jobs with efficiency and without hurting anyone.  He is in command, knows how to perform the heist with maximum speed and effectiveness, and then disappears onto the 101 freeway.  Grizzled detective Lou Lubesnick (Ruffalo) detects a pattern and tries to convince his bosses that this thief only strikes near the 101 because of its easy access to and from the crime scenes.  

Mike works alone, except for when he retrieves his latest assignments by underworld boss Money (Nolte), and he also lives alone and we sense his need to connect to someone.  After his last attempted jewel heist goes awry, Mike wants out, and a young woman named Maya who meets Mike after rear-ending him in a traffic accident provides the catalyst to come out of his shell.  However, explaining what he does for a living is understandably not part of this change.  His apartment is sleek and stylish, but doesn't feel lived in.  There are no photos of his family.  Maybe he doesn't have one.

Lubesnick is the opposite of Mike.  He smokes, drives an old car, looks like he slept in his clothes, doesn't shave, and his wife is leaving him.  But he's smart and determined.  His superiors just want him to close cases and show little interest in his theory on the "101 robber".  They just want the cases solved.  Even the LAPD has metrics it needs to hit.   However, Mike knows he needs one more big score to retire forever, maybe even with Maya. 

I won't give away further details, but Crime 101 is Heat with a happier ending for its characters.  There is a psychotic criminal (Keoghan) who wants to take over Mike's territory because Money thinks Mike is losing his nerve, but Keoghan's character is unstable in more ways than one.  Crime 101 doesn't strike as deep a nerve as Heat, in which its characters realize they need each other in complex ways.  There were no easy payoffs and most of the people were killed or left behind.  Crime 101 does run a tad too long at 140 minutes, but we wind up caring and that's more than half the battle.  

Solo Mio (2026) * *

 

Directed by:  Charles & Daniel Kinnane    

Starring:  Kevin James, Kim Coates, Jonathan Roumie, Nicole Grimaudo, Alyson Hannigan, Julee Cerda, Andrea Bocelli, Julie Ann Emery

Solo Mio is a lackluster romantic comedy in which there is no new ground covered, which isn't always a bad thing, because romantic comedies tend to follow certain ground rules and rarely deviate from them.  We're on familiar terrain in Solo Mio, in which the likable but introverted Matt (James) is left at the altar by his fiancee Heather (Emery) during their wedding in Italy.  The humiliated Matt decides to take his honeymoon trip alone, since it's already paid for and he can't receive a refund, and naturally he falls in love with a local barista who helps him to come out of his shell.  Will the fiancee return at some point to try and reconnect?  Does a bear do his business in the woods?

Since Solo Mio isn't going to win any points for originality, we have to review how it's made and the energy it brings.  Solo Mio, even with the cast trying its hardest, is flat and limp.  James is as dependable a comic actor as there is, but even he seems weighed down by the material.  There isn't a lot of chemistry between he and the kind Gia (Grimaudo, who could be Catherine Keener's twin).  They're both very nice people indeed, but they just don't click.  The other couples who are part of the honeymoon tours Matt and Heather were supposed to attend as a married couple also intervene in Matt's love life, with their entire existence centered around prodding Matt and Gia toward eternal coupledom.  

Solo Mio (which means mine alone as Gia points out) is not hefty and isn't meant to be.  But it should be more amusing and delightful than it is.  We aren't stirred by the belief that Matt and Gia belong together.  The scenery of Rome and the Tuscan countryside is gorgeous and Andrea Bocelli (who is related to Gia) drops in to play and belt out some songs (and riding a horse). It's a shame these aren't in service of a better movie.  

The Lincoln Lawyer Season 4 (2026) * * 1/2

 

Starring:  Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Neve Campbell, Becky Newton, Angus Sampson, Jazz Raycole, Cobie Smulders, Elliott Gould

The Lincoln Lawyer is still a serviceable courtroom drama series, but it won't elevate into anything greater.  That's fine.  It doesn't need to.  However, this season's case involves Michael Haller (Garcia-Rulfo) on trial for murdering a former client who was found in the back seat of his convertible at the end of last season.  Fast forward to this season, and Haller is in county jail awaiting arraignment while serving as a pro bono attorney for other prisoners.  It's a good way to keep others from messing with you. 

Meanwhile, Haller's pending trial is causing his clients to drop him and his associate/ex-wife Lorna Crane (Newton) to try and scrape for clients just to keep the practice going.  Haller is still equipped with his loyal staff which includes Lorna, investigator Cisco (Sampson), paralegal and part-time driver Izzy (Raycole), and Haller's other ex-wife Maggie (Campbell), who joins the team to defend him in court.  The quasi-family vibe here works well, and the best scenes are the courtroom ones because of the inherent drama involved as Haller tries to defend himself while also figuring out who set him up and why.

Of course, Haller gets away with legal maneuvering that doesn't seem plausible nor would a judge continue to allow it.  Garcia-Rulfo remains a solid lead, but he's not the Michael Haller from the 2011 movie.  That is Matthew McConaughey and McConaughey will continue to be the actor people think of first when The Lincoln Lawyer is mentioned, but Garcia-Rulfo is smart and slick.  Newton is also a standout as the tireless, loyal Lorna, who is married to Cisco and we scratch our heads as to why a spark plug like Lorna would be married to the monosyllabic Cisco whose hygiene is suspect, although he is quite a good investigator.

The case itself doesn't wrap up satisfactorily.  It is anti-climactic with no true stunning developments or a suspect out of left field we didn't anticipate.  Instead, the final moments hint at a crossover with Bosch, which I never saw but I heard was entertaining.  I hope I don't have to catch up on multiple Bosch seasons in order to enjoy next season's Lincoln Lawyer.  Don't make me work so hard. 

Shelter (2026) * *

Directed by:  Ric Roman Waugh

Starring:  Jason Statham, Bill Nighy, Bodhi Rae Breathnach, Naomie Harris

Shelter is the latest in what seems to be the annual Jason Statham action movie dumped into theaters in mid-January.  It will attract his built-in audience, but may not necessarily bring in newbies to the fold.  I didn't dislike Shelter, but it's not anything new or special.  Statham is capable of bringing us stellar action movies like Wrath of Man and even decent ones like A Working Man, but Shelter is strictly Statham by the numbers, which means he kicks a lot of ass, shoots many others, and utters as few words as possible.  

Statham is Mike Mason, a retired (and officially dead) former MI6 assassin who is drawn out of retirement to protect himself and a young girl (Breathnach) from being hunted down by current government killers who are trying to erase him as part of a cover-up.  Mike is a man with a particular set of skills who uses them in lengthy action sequences in which you wonder how his hands aren't killing him after delivering so many punches and how his guns never seem to run out of ammo.  He also develops fatherly instincts for the young girl and emotes as best he can when speaking to her. 

I've seen movies where Statham can deliver some dimensions such as Wrath of Man, The Bank Job, and The Italian Job, and no The Bank Job is not a sequel or prequel to The Italian Job.  He's rarely called on to do so anymore, but he's certainly capable of it.  Instead, we get Shelter, which is competently made but not likely to last long in your memory more than a few hours after seeing it. 

Saturday the 14th (1981) * 1/2

 

Directed by:  Howard R. Cohen

Starring:  Richard Benjamin, Paula Prentiss, Jeffrey Tambor, Severn Darden, Kari Michaelsen, Kevin Brando

I saw Saturday the 14th recently on a B-movie channel for the first time since I saw it in theaters decades ago.  I knew it was a cheap horror comedy, and I didn't expect any Oscar-caliber production values or performances, but maybe it would be amusing and silly.  It's silly, yes, but Saturday the 14th is simply not good even with the low expectations. 

The movie barely clears 75 minutes of running time (thank goodness).  The plot is:  The clueless Hyatt family inherits a spooky house in Eerie, PA (get it?) with the parents John and Mary (real-life married couple Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss) not seeming all that concerned that supernatural goings-on are happening.  Meanwhile, Dracula (I assume that's who he is) and his wife want the house because it contains a book of evil which they want to get a hold of.  Meanwhile, Van Helsing (Darden), a supernatural exterminator, also wants the book for his own nefarious reasons.  Both want to rule the world, although I always thought Van Helsing was supposed to be a hero.   Here is a worse villain than Drac. 

I guess Saturday the 14th was meant to be a spoof, but there aren't any laughs.  There are talented actors in it who are set adrift.  Maybe they thought the project would be fun.  They try.  They really do, but the whole enterprise just doesn't work.   I even tried to view it nostalgically, hoping I could maybe enjoy it on that level.  Unfortunately, that's not the case.  

Send Help (2026) * * *

 

Directed by:  Sam Raimi

Starring:  Rachel McAdams, Dylan O'Brien

Send Help might've been pitched as Misery meets Cast Away.  Instead of one person trapped on a deserted island, there are two and one of them is the other's dickhead boss.  Linda Liddle (McAdams) is an Annie Wilkes-type in a cutthroat corporate world.  She is an accounting whiz at some big company who was promised a promotion by the CEO who soon after dies and his son takes over.  He epitomizes arrogance and cockiness and finds Linda repulsive.  Then again, she does devour tuna fish sandwiches at her desk and according to Bradley has less than desirable personal hygiene.

Bradley and his crew then take a business trip to Thailand and bring Linda along because she knows the client well.  While on board, and shortly after Bradley and his buddies were viewing Linda's Survivor audition video and laughing at it, the plane malfunctions causing it to crash into the ocean.  Linda and Bradley are the only survivors and wash up on shore of a remote island.  Linda puts her survival skills to good use, while Bradley is helpless and injured and relies on Linda to even eat or drink water.  

Because Bradley is Bradley, he grows to resent Linda because he is the boss and shouldn't be relying on Linda to save him.  But then, Bradley and Linda begin to communicate better and respect one another to a point, but Bradley and Linda show their true colors in more ways than one.  Both are not likable.  Linda at first is the more sympathetic of the two, but then we see her darker side.  The McAdams performance walks the tightrope between pathetic, resourceful, and ultimately sneaky evil.  She's very good at balancing it all and still make it plausible. 

O'Brien is a frat bro type who attempts to stretch his boundaries and perhaps turn into a grateful man who sees Linda as valuable, but then again, it's tough to not be a prick when that's who you've been all your life.  Send Help has satirical elements and some of the scenes are unnecessarily gory and blood-soaked (I think of the boar scene and the projectile vomiting later), but Send Help is quite entertaining even if you consider that we're stuck on a deserted island with these two less-than-lovable characters. 

This Is Spinal Tap (1984) * *

 

Directed by:  Rob Reiner

Starring:  Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Rob Reiner, Billy Crystal, June Chadwick, Paul Shaffer

Rob Reiner's sad and sudden death in December brought about nearly universal acclaim for his career.  He was a great actor and just as deft a director.  This Is Spinal Tap was his feature film debut in which he played documentary filmmaker Marty DiBerghi, who made a "rockumentary" about a fading British metal band whose glory days were clearly behind them but wanted to keep on rocking even if crowds were dwindling at their concerts.

As much as I hate to say it, This Is Spinal Tap is not among Reiner's best work.  It's sporadically amusing, but not a gut buster.  The humor is subtle, so much so that maybe I missed it.  There are long, droning interviews with the clueless band members, but they don't draw out many laughs.  Reiner's subsequent films like The Sure Thing, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally..., Misery, and A Few Good Men showcased his directing talents more effectively.  It was quite a stretch for Reiner, but I'd have to leave This Is Spinal Tap off of it. 

Spinal Tap pathetically attempts to remain relevant and reclaim their past glory, but a series of poor management decisions and subpar marketing have doomed Spinal Tap to a laughingstock.  One autograph session for their new album "Smell the Glove" draws zero attendees and the event organizer (Shaffer) can only lament what he thought would be a crowd-drawing spectacle.  The band's concerts contain sight gags like drummers simultaneously combusting and band members emerging from pods with bass player Derek Smalls (Shearer) stuck in one for the duration of the opening song.  

The band is unfortunately inept, not at performing necessarily, but about other aspects of the business such as marketing and interviews.  I've stated before that a British accent almost always makes someone sound more intelligent than he or she may actually be.  One could say "2 +2=6" and I'd halfway believe it.   The members of Spinal Tap push that notion to the extreme test.  But based on the movie's reputation, I expected a lot more.  Maybe this is why it took me over forty years to see it for the first time.  

Mercy (2026) * *

 

Directed by: Timur Bekmambetov

Starring:  Chris Pratt, Rebecca Ferguson, Annabelle Wallis, Kali Reis, Kylie Rogers, Chris Sullivan

Mercy sounds good on paper and for a while it leans into its whodunit premise effectively, but then it flies off the rails and becomes another in a long line of forgettable chase movies.  The movie centers on an LAPD detective who was a proponent of the new "Mercy Court" in which those accused are strapped to a chair and have 90 minutes to reduce their guilty quotient to 92% (which is considered reasonable doubt) by the AI judge who allows the defendant access to any online files, data, and assists with explaining the dizzying rules of the court. 

However, Chris Raven (Pratt) finds himself hung over and strapped to a chair accused of murdering his estranged wife Nicole (Wallis).  Raven swears he's innocent, but the evidence looks damning.  Of course, since he's the hero, we know he didn't do it, which is perfectly fine as Raven attempts to locate the real killer before his 90 minutes runs out and he's executed on the spot.  The AI judge (Ferguson) coldly provides Raven with advice, but soon maybe due to a program defect, she starts to sympathize with Raven, although it isn't made clear how or why except that the screenplay requires it.

I won't give away the ending of Mercy, except to say that it drifts into mindless action territory.  Mercy sounds like it should be a taut, clever thriller and on paper it is, but despite it's relatively short running time, Mercy starts to drag.  It's a concept that ultimately never flourishes into a film worthy of it.