THE BLACK PHONE

 

Jeri Jacquin

Currently on Bluray from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment and on the streaming service Peacock from writer/director Scott Derrickson based on a short story by writer Joe Hill is the thriller THE BLACK PHONE.

It is 1978 on the streets of Denver, Colorado and a time of innocence. Finney (Mason Thames) and sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) are not living in that innocence. Being raised by an abusive father Terrence (Jeremy Davies), Finney is also being bullied at school. Saving him from one beating is Robin (Miguel Mora), who all the boys are afraid of. But there is someone lurking on the streets even more frightening than the school bullies.

Given the name “The Grabber” (Ethan Hawke), someone is grabbing boys off the street. One of the boys is Bruce (Tristan Pravong), then followed by Robin as Finney tries to keep it together. Yet, it is Gwen who is trying to avoid her dreams because they seem to be telling her what is happening. She tries to talk to her father about it but is met with an alcoholic’s response of derision.

Detective Wright (E. Roger Mitchell) and Detective Miller (Troy Rudeseal) want to speak with Gwen who tells them of her dreams of a man with a black van and black balloons. Met with skepticism, Gwen does not take any guff from anyone. On their way home from school, Gwen and Finney go their separate ways and the boy meets up with The Grabber.

Waking up in a basement, Finney realizes he is now another of the victims. The man wears a mask and speaks very little but lets the boy know that the telephone on the wall does not work. After he leaves, the phone rings and Finney answers it and hears a familiar voice telling him how to escape.

Each phone call brings Finney closer to knowing the truth about The Grabber and if he will ever get back to his family alive!

Thames as Finney carries the bulk of the film with courage, bravery and a belief in those who know more than he could ever imagine. This young actor gives up nothing as his character already knows fear and is clever which I loved. McGraw as Gwen is a spitfire, and she is not going to take anything from anyone (except maybe her father). Knowing her dreams are real, when Finney is taken – the gloves are off! I so adore McGraw’s performance!

Davies as Terrence is a tortured soul, and he makes sure that he is not alone in his misery. Constantly putting his pain onto his children, he refuses to listen to Gwen when she tries to express her dreams. Pravong as Bruce has a small role, but it sets the stage for what is to come for Finney. Mora as Robin is a boy who thought he could stop anyone, till he meets The Grabber. Mitchel and Rudeseal are cops who do not want anything to do with the paranormal but are running out of options!

Hawke as The Grabber is a man who thinks he is in control of every aspect of the kidnappings. There are twists and turns, moments of quiet madness and a boy who is not going to go down without a fight. Hawke’s character could never have anticipated such a boy would go up against him. The creepiness of Hawke’s performance is what makes the story nail biting.

Other cast include Rebecca Clarke as Donna, J. Gaven Wilde as Moose, Jordan White as Matty, Spencer Fitzgerald as Buzz, Brady Ryan as Matt, Jacob Moran as Billy, Brady Hepner as Vance and Banks Repeta as Griffin.

Peacock is a streaming service from NBCUniversal with thousands of hours of current hits and timeless classics, plus megahit movies and more. Iconic shows, hit movies & exclusive Originals, plus sports, news & always-on channels can be found. For more please visit www.peacocktv.com

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment has just added an amazing film to their library and making it available for us to all experience and re-experience in our own home theaters. There are films of every genre available from scary to drama to family films. For more of what they have to offer please visit www.uphe.com.

MOVIES ANYWHERE gives viewers the ability to download the Movies Anywhere App. With that you can view films by downloading or streaming to your favorite device using a Digital Code. For more information on Movies Anywhere please visit www.MoviesAnywhere.com.

Bonus Features of the Bluray include Deleted Scenes, Answering the Call: Behind the Scenes of THE BLACK PHONE, Ethan Hawke’s Evil Turn, Feature Commentary and more. Plus, SHADOWPROWLER – a Short Film by Scott Derrickson.

THE BLACK PHONE is not about gore or slash, which I so appreciate, it is about the mental anguish and then mental strength of a boy and his sister. Yes, Finney is the object of The Grabber’s game, but Gwen has an important role to play as well. The cat and mice are going at it full force and the film keeps us holding our breath.

I love that it is all done in the 70’s era because that is a time when kids roamed freely and did not consider consequences. Those of us who came up in that time remember the music, the freedom of riding a bike from dusk till dawn, school crushes, bell bottoms and bullies. It is not that child abductions did not happen then; it just wasn’t headline news except in the town where it was happening.

It was easy then for someone like The Grabber to get away with what he was doing. The film gives the feel of the era, the fright of the happenings and the proper mind bend from start to finish. The only issue I might raise is the vagueness of The Grabber’s story but then again, that is part of the mystery.

In the end – never talk to strangers!

BECKMAN is on the Run

 

Jeri Jacquin

Coming to DVD from writer/director Gabriel Sabloff and Universal Pictures Home Entertainment comes the story of running from it all when your name is BECKMAN.

Aaron Beckman (David A.R. White) is a reformed bad man who has taken the pulpit from PHILIP (Jeff Fahey). Thinking he made a mistake in that decision; he abruptly meets Tabitha (Brighton Shabino) who is looking for Philip. That meeting turns things around for them both and a year later the church is thriving, and college is in their future.

In the middle of it all, danger is brewing just below the happy surface. While enjoying family time, it is all interrupted by a man named Reese (William Baldwin) who claimed to have ownership over Tabitha. Deciding what to do, it is Beckman's old life that rears its talented head to make Reese and his gang pay for taking his daughter.

He makes it clear to Reese that there will be no mercy for taking away someone he loves! That is the only warning he is ever going to get as Beckman is out for one thing - revenge and it’s easy to remember how good he was at it. Especially when he discovers how far down the disgusting rabbit hole goes.

His focus is on one thing, doing what it takes to find his daughter which is made more complicated by those now after him!

White as Beckman is a one-time hit man who has changed his life around. Giving all that up he turns to being a part of the church and community. Although he has moments of doubt, it is the appearance of Tabitha that makes it all come together for him. Of course, there is always one person out there that wants to change it and White gives his character permission to make them all pay.

Sharbino as Tabitha is a young woman looking to escape a dangerous life as well. When she finds Beckman at the church, she also finds a bit of normal and a chance to perhaps have the life a teenage girl should have. When Reese tracks her down, she is once again dragged into a nightmare.

Baldwin as Reese is a man who believes everything he does is right, including kidnapping young girls for his cult. Tabitha is not the only young girl that Reese has taken but Beckman wants to make sure they are the last. Baldwin is the calm, cool and collected bad guy who does not seem phased by anything that is happening around him.

Other cast include Kira Lorsch as Janice, Danielle Moinet as isabel, Jacob Melton as Tom, Xander Bailey as Frank, Lynette DuPress as Abigail. Nobuaki Shimamoto as Terence, Kevin Downes as Dan, Anna Zielinski as Kara, Madison Mae as Wendy, David Buglione as Connor and Burt Young as Salvatore.

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment has just added an amazing film to their library and making it available for us to all experience and re-experience in our own home theaters. There are films of every genre available from scary to drama to family films. For more of what they have to offer please visit www.uphe.com.

Bonus Features include Feature Commentary with Writer/Director Gabriel Sabloff and Executive Producer and Star David A.R. White, The Making of BECKMAN: Faith and Hope Against the Storm and BECKMAN Bloopers.

BECKMAN is a total out and out seek and destroy mission from beginning to end. Trying to turn his life around was the goal and he was doing well until Reese came into their lives. Wanting the best for Tabitha, Reese enjoyed being a Dad and doing right by his community. And, as with all parents, no one is going to get away with hurting his child.

There is a lot of back and forth with flashbacks mixed in with time jumps but it all works together to tell the story. It is a very simple plot and there is certainly nothing wrong with that. It is a mixture of JOHN WICK meets TAKEN and you have an idea of where this is going to go. Prepare for the actions and everything that goes along with that as the guns go off and the chase is on.

In the end - it is a mission of vengeance!

SICARIO: Day of the Soldado Brings Deception to Bluray

  

Jeri Jacquin

This week on Bluray/DVD and Digital from writer Taylor Sheridan, director Stefano Sollima and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is an escalation of a drug was and SICARIO: Day of the Soldado.

After a suicide bombing in Kansas City, Federal Agent Matt Graver (Josh Brolin) receives orders to find a way of stopping terrorists coming to the United States. The government suspects that the Mexican drug cartels are responsible and wants something done about it. The plan is to instigate a war between the big cartels starting with kidnapping the daughter of a kingpin.

Graver knows who he needs to help with this mission and seeks out Alejandro Gillick (Benicio del Toro). After creating a kidnapping-rescue to win the young Isabel’s (Isabela Moner) trust, her father ups the game even further by using Mexican police for a double cross on Graver, Gillick and the other soldiers. Returning fire is what also turns the game.

Isabel runs and the U.S. government is furious over the deaths of the Mexican police fearing it will cause more problems. Especially when it is discovered that the bombing suspects are not who they thought. To clean up the mess, Graver is ordered to stand down and do what is necessary to make everything that happened go away – and anyone involved.

Gillick decides he is not about to do what Graver asks and works his way to the border with Isabel. The only way they can enter is by become illegal immigrants. Unfortunately Gillick is recognized and meets his fate at the hands of a kid. Graver finds Isabel and goes against orders bringing her to the United States.

But this isn’t over – for either Graver or Gillick!

Brolin as Graver jumps right into the assignment knowing what it will take to get the job done. Given the information about the mission he proceeds by finding the best to work with. Jumping from plan to plan, things become complicated when the information shifts and the cartels are infiltrating those who are suppose to protect them. I actually enjoy Brolin in these roles; he has the straight face needed to never let his hand show. Also, when he’s done being used, he is done being used!

Del Toro as Gillick is the perfect person to call on for the mission. The problem for him is that he doesn’t like it when the plan makes a U-turn and he’s on the other side of the fight. This actor has the same abilities as Brolin in that he can be as crazy as you want him to be but there are moments when he just takes a deep breath as if to warn the person he’s talking to that it’s not wise to push him further. Taking an interest in Isabel’s welfare also puts a target on his back – literally.

Moner as Isabel is one tough teenager, when she’s in school slapping around a fellow student. The minute the bullets fly and there isn’t a moment to think, she becomes exactly what she is – a vulnerable and terrified teenage girl who can’t smart mouth her way out of trouble. Now, she sees the horror of the business her father is a part of and it isn’t pretty. As the mission escalates, she has to learn what she is capable of and who to trust. Moner does a good job in what is needed to keep her character moving forward.

Other cast include Jeffrey Donovan as Steve Forsing, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Gallo, Shea Whigham as Andy Wheeldon, Elijah Rodriguez as Miguel Hernandez, Howard Ferguson as Troy, Catherine Keener as Cynthia Foards and Mathew Modine as Secretary of Defense James Riley.

Sony Pictures Entertainment encompasses motion picture production for television, digital content and theater releases. The studios include Columbia Pictures, Screen Gems, TriStar Pictures, Sony Pictures Animation, Stage 6 Films and Sony Picture Classics. To see what is coming to theaters and to home entertainment please visit www.sonypictures.com.

The Bluray/DVD include the Special Features of From Film to Franchise: Continuing the Story, An Act of War: Making Sicario: Day of the Soldado, and The Assassin and the Soldier: The Cast and Characters.

SICARIO: Day of the Soldado is a continuation of the story that started with the 2015 film SICARIO also written by Taylor Sheridan. The film was a big hit and with Brolin, del Toro and Blunt at the helm of the story, it makes sense that this film would come to be.

This time director Sollima jumps in the director’s seat and knows exactly how to make the story come to life. Using the countryside as another character in the story, it brings a depth to the film. He is responsible for the 2012 television series A.C.A.B. and Gomorroah.

What makes this film work are the twists and turns in the plot as, like with Isabel, you aren’t always sure who to trust. The case is made that the good guys might not be so good and the bad guys can have a conscience too (as with Gillick).

From beginning to end, SICARIO: Day of the Soldado is go, go, go with not much time to catch it’s breath but I like it that way. Even when walking through the desert, I found myself waiting for the next cactus to fall.

I am on board with this thriller to bring Gillick and Graver back for a showdown because there is no way this is over – no way.

In the end – no rules this time! 

BEIRUT Tells a Deeper Story

Jeri Jacquin

In theatres from director Brad Anderson and Bleeker Street Media is a story with twists that lead to truth while in BEIRUT.

Mason Skiles (Jon Hamm) is a diplomat in Beirut keeping his finger on the pulse of what is happening around him, or so he thought. During a party, Cal Riley (Mark Pellegrino) comes to warn him that the young boy Karim, who the family has practically adopted, is going to be taken in for questioning. His older brother Abu Rajal (Hicham Ouraqa) is a Palestinian terrorist involved in the massacre at the Munich Olympics

Before that can happen, the party is terrorized as bullets fly and Karim is grabbed. In the midst of the firefight, Skiles wife Nadia (Leila Bekhti) is killed. Fast forward a few years and Skiles has reached rock bottom as a labor negotiator job he barely cares about and swimming in alcohol.

Sitting at a bar with his favorite drink, Skiles is approached to take money and a plane ticket back to Beirut to lecture at the university. Never wanting to return to Beirut again, something tells him to get aboard the plane. Once there he is met by Sandy Crowder (Rosamund Pike), Donald Gaines (Dean Norris), and Gary Ruzak (Shea Whigham) who finally tell him why he’s really there – Cal Riley has been taken and the kidnappers only want to negotiate with Skiles.

Discovering it is a grown Karim (Idir Chender) who is calling the shots and only trusts Skiles to make the exchange happen. An exchange is demanded, Riley for Karim’s brother who seems to have disappeared. Believing that it is the Israeli’s who have him, Skiles investigates and also discovers the PLO minister is keeping secrets as well.

In the middle of this is a war in a war torn country that is getting more and more out of hand by the minute. No one can be trusted and deception seems to be the order of the minute.

Crowder is trying to keep up with Skiles as he slips through the city discovering that there is more at play here than just Riley’s kidnapping. There are others in the governments involved and their seedy agenda becomes clear.

Both Skiles and Crowder are going to make the exchange happen but on their terms.

Hamm as Skiles begins as a man who seems to have the charming ability to move in a crowd and do what needs doing. Once the world he thought he knew was shattered, there didn’t seem to be any purpose to anything Skiles does. That is until Riley is taken does he slowly come out of the daze and snaps back into discovering he is the absolute right person to get the job done. Hamm’s performance is intense yet his character takes a moment to remember in the middle of rubble how all of the events came to be.

Pike as Crowder wants to believe that Skiles is right for the job and that’s the dilemma. Knowing someone is right for a job and seeing the state they are currently in means never being quite sure if they can be trusted. Pike shines as a woman who not only takes her job seriously but knows that playing the international game of cat and mouse puts her right in the middle of danger.

Chender as Karim is caught up in the what is happening in Beirut. Finding a life with Skiles as a young boy he enjoyed being with them. The moment he is taken it is clear that studying and being part of the family will quickly become a distant memory. When the time comes to trust someone, that may be the one thing Karim knows to be true about Skiles. Chender gives his character such complexity in a situation none of us could possibly understand. This is the life mixed with what was and what became of a young life.

Other cast include Dean Norris as Donald Gaines, Shea Whigham as Gary Ruzak, Douglas Hodge as Sully, Jonny Coyne as Bernard Teppler, Leila Bekhti as Nadia, Kate Fleetwood as Alice, Alon Aboutboul as Roni Niv, Sonia Okacha as Sondrine and Mohamed Zouaoui as Fahmi.

BEIRUT is a film that is a reminder of the fragile peace and intense wars in the Middle East that are waged with others calling the shots. Their agendas may seem up front but for everyone to get what they want, deals are made and deals are brokered in 1982.

The cast are quick with a storyline that is constantly in flux and never once give away which way the chase will go or how it will end. The cinematography is flawless and adds another depth to the very intense story being told.

In the end – Beirut of 1982 and the Paris of the Middle East is burning!