Tag Archives: Daniel Baldwin

Outtakes

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Renner

by Daniel Baldwin

Artificial Intelligence has been a staple of science fiction cinema for decades. Particularly when it comes to depicting fear of A.I. gone rogue. From 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Terminator to The Matrix and Her, filmmakers have deeply explored numerous ways that A.I. can decide to make our lives miserable once it decides to have a life of its own. Robert Rippberger’s Renner is the latest addition to this subgenre.

The film centers around a man named – you guessed it (no, not Frank Stallone) – Renner, who has invented a sort of A.I. “life coach” for himself to help him navigate social interactions. Renner’s life is the cinematic equivalent of a bottle episode of television: stuck in a single location as he computer genius-es his way through life. He’s lonely, however. Enter Salenus, the aforementioned A.I. device.

Unfortunately for Renner, Salenus not only sounds like his mother, but is also just as overbearing as her. Talk about transporting one’s mommy issues into the digital era! This is not an ideal situation for the guy, but it’s certainly a welcome one for audiences, as Salenus is voiced by none other than the great Marcia Gay Harden.

Were this Renner’s only problem, he might be all right. But it’s not, as he is developing feelings for his neighbor Jamie (Violett Beane), who lives with her sketchy brother (Taylor Gray). Are Jamie’s interactions with Renner genuine or will she only serve to further upend his hermetic existence? Given that this is a thriller, you probably already know the answer.

The best parts of the film are the performances, particularly Frankie Muniz in the titular role and the ever-undervalued Beane as his chief supporting player. The sci-fi elements and themes, while interesting, are a bit too thin and undercooked. As a result, despite Renner only being 90 minutes in length, it might have been better served as a short rather than a feature. Still, if you’re in the mood for a low budget serving of sci-fi, this might just temporarily scratch that itch.

Outtakes

A Gamble Not Worth Taking

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High Rollers

by Daniel Baldwin

Word-class thief Mason (John Travolta) is in a bit of a pickle. His girlfriend Amelia (Gina Gershon) has been kidnapped by his archrival, Salazar (Danny Pardo), as a means to force Mason into robbing a casino. Of course, Salazar has no interest in making good on a trade once the heist is complete and – given Mason’s past and present endeavors – the FBI is biting at the heels of everyone involved. Poor Mason. Can’t a master thief just exist in peace?

If the story sounds super tropey, that’s because it is, although there’s nothing wrong with that. As Roger Ebert used to say, “It’s not what a movie is about but how it’s about it.” That’s a nice way of saying that the execution matters more than the originality of the story. He’s right.

Unfortunately, High Rollers – a sequel to 2024’s Cash Out – comes up incredibly short on the execution front. Between a very thin script and deeply uninspired direction, the only thing that really holds it all together is its cast. Still, even they aren’t enough to save it.

High Rollers is the latest film from producer/director/low budget mogul Randall Emmett. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because it is one wrapped in controversy, detailed in the 2023 documentary The Randall Scandal. Long story short, Emmett has an alleged history of fostering an abusive work environment and underpaying his employees. He is also one of the driving forces behind the modern “geezer teaser” movement, where name actors are paid a nice sum for a day or two of work to cameo in an indie genre picture. The film is then be marketed on their (fading) star power, despite them barely being in it.

The good news is that unlike the numerous films Emmett made with Mel Gibson and a deteriorating Bruce Willis, High Rollers is not actually a geezer teaser. John Travolta is very much the lead of this movie, as he was in the equally-disappointing Cash Out.

While the film around him here might be notably lesser in quality than his previous classics, Travolta is still putting forth the effort. His effortless charm remains intact. It is on this front and this front alone that High Rollers can be recommended. If you’re a big Travolta fan and simply want to see your favorite actor in something new, this might give you a temporary fix. Everyone else, however, is better off steering clear.

New In Theaters

Eerie Desert Vibes

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The Buildout

by Daniel Baldwin

When The Buildout opens, a religious group known as “The Clergy” is set on establishing a home in a remote part of a desert. Vague references are made to the fact that they’ve moved around a few times in search of a place where they can find a deep spiritual connection.  Is this dusty and arid middle-of-nowhere locale what they’ve long sought? Given that this is a horror movie, the answer is undoubtedly yes, while also falling into the “Be Careful What You Wish For” category.

Our leads – Hannah Alline (Mayfair Witches) and Jenna Kanell (Terrifier) – are two friends on a road trip who make the unfortunate decision to stop in that same area for a pee break. What follows is what one might call a “vibes movie”, where mood is tantamount to plot-based events. If you can roll with that, The Buildout may just be for you.

This is the feature-length debut of writer/director Zeshaan Younus and it’s an impressive one. Shot with a small cast and crew for pennies on the dollar, it still manages to pack both an aural and a visual punch. The footage is a mix of more classic anamorphic cinematography and camcorder vlogs, giving it a distinctive feel. The sound mix is full and immersive. From a technical standpoint, it’s exactly what one hopes to be gifted when they sit down with an indie genre film: something that looks like it cost way more to make than it actually did.

While the script falters a bit, Alline and Kanell are great together, which smooths over the film’s narrative deficiencies. The otherworldliness of what occurs to their characters brings to mind the early films of Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead. The Buildout might not be quite as impactful as their feature debut, Resolution, but it’s playing in similar terrain. Enough so that it makes one excited to see what Younus might conjure up next.

The Screening Room

Screening Room: You’re Cordially Invited, Companion, September 5, Hard Truths & More

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You’re Cordially Invited, Companion, September 5, Hard Truths, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Freelance, Like Father Like Son

New In Theaters, The Screening Room

Screening Room: Wolf Man, The Brutalist, Nickel Boys and Much More

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Wolf Man, The Brutalist, Nickel Boys, Unstoppable, The Room Next Door, Back In Action, Every Little Thing, Night Call

For Your Queue

In Soviet Russia, Camp Labors You

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Whiteout

by Daniel Baldwin

One fateful day at work in St. Petersburg, Russia, engineer Henry (James McDougall) finds himself in a very bad situation. Armed men enter the office where he works, take Henry and his co-workers hostage, and cart them off to a labor camp. Not exactly the kind of workplace surprise that anyone wants to have to deal with.

The captors say that everyone will be released if their company is willing to pay a ransom for them, but that’s of little concern to Henry. The more pressing concern is whether or not he can survive the camp itself. Between the grueling labor, harsh weather, violent guards, and violent campmates, this is not an environment in which one thrives. Luckily for Henry, the higher-ups need his engineering skills to repair some equipment, which gains him access to an office. What lies within that office? Keys!

After being talked into a desperate escape plan by some fellow prisoners, Henry steals said keys, allowing them to escape their confines, grab some weapons & supplies, and break out of the camp. Of course, as one of his compatriots puts it, they have now traded the prison of the gulag for the prison of the wilderness. In addition to being chased by their captors, this ragtag group must brave the terrain, the weather, and each other if they want to regain their freedom. Making matters worse, Henry isn’t exactly built for this kind of endeavor, be it physically or emotionally.

Director/co-writer Derek Barnes and star/co-writer James McDougall have put together a solid right-down-the middle survival thriller in Whiteout. There aren’t too many surprises to be had, so don’t go into it expecting to have the subgenre’s wheel reinvented. Still, there are enough moments of sharp intensity for it to be of worth to survival thriller fans. If you fall into that category, you may find something to love here. If not, Whiteout won’t move the needle for you much, but it will still entertain.

The Screening Room

Screening Room: Heretic, The Piano Lesson, Blitz, Small Things Like These, Memoir of a Snail and More

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Heretic, The Piano Lesson, Blitz, Small Things Like These, Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point, Memoir of a Snail, Okie, My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock, In the Summers, Stockholm Bloodbath

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Lock, Stockholm, and Two Empty Barrels

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Stockholm Bloodbath

by Daniel Baldwin

In 1520, Danish King Christian II (aka “Christian the Tyrant”) decided that he just had to have the crown of Sweden and would do anything necessary to snatch it for himself. Up to and including committing a barbaric mass execution that is commonly referred to as the titular “Stockholm Bloodbath”. If that sounds dark, brutal, and deathly serious, it’s because it very much was. Stockholm Bloodbath, however, is anything but serious.

Pitched more in line with bloody historical satires like Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, Jalmari Helander’s Sisu, or even Guy Ritchie’s The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, Mikael Hafstrom’s Stockholm Bloodbath attempts to take this violent slice of Swedish history and fashion a wild, zany exploitation film around it. Unfortunately, unlike those cinematic gems, Hafstrom’s work here falls short on almost every level. It’s not that Hafstrom lacks the talent to do it. The man has previously given us perfectly entertaining films like 1408 and Escape Plan. But there’s just too much off about these proceedings for that to matter.

To its credit, the film does have a good cast filled with the likes of Sophie Cookson, Claes Bang, Emily Beecham, and Ulrich Thomsen, all of whom do their best with what they are given amidst the cacophony of odd filmmaking decisions. The script is a tonal rollercoaster in the worst of ways, pitching from serious to slap-happy from scene to scene. The pacing of the edit is no better, with some sequences dragging at a snail’s pace and others blazing by faster than needed. Such cinematic hyperactivity can be an asset if you have a pitch-perfect script and a crackerjack edit. The aforementioned Tarantino and Ritchie have fashioned entire careers out of this. This has neither a masterful screenplay nor expert editing and instead feels like The Swedish Chef himself might have been at the helm for some scenes.

One can see the movie that everyone involved wanted to make, but the end result just doesn’t pass muster. Perhaps it might play better in its home country, as despite being an English-language film, it is indeed a Swedish production. For this writer, however, what should be a biting piece of violence-filled historical satire just ends up being a bad history lesson told by a chaotic storyteller who doesn’t quite know who their intended audience is or how they even want to tell their tale.