Atmospheric Cursed flirts with tedium
There's a great deal to like about Sean Ellis' The Cursed, a werewolf tale set in 19th century France. Atmospheric and unique, it gets off to a rousing start in the trenches of WWI, where we see Edward Laurent (Alun Raglan) die on a makeshift operating table after being wounded in battle. However, in removing the bullets from his body, the surgeon extracts one made of silver, which elicits looks of disbelief as well as a flashback that recounts the deceased's childhood.
Seems some 30 years earlier, a group of gypsies encamped on Laurent's father's estate. Along with other self-serving neighbors, he wiped out the nomadic tribe, but not before a curse was put upon the land. Soon, the area children are experiencing nightmares and a series of grisly deaths occurred. A pathologist (Boyd Holbrook) believes a werewolf is to blame and sets out to kill it, uncovering long-held secrets in the process.
The film looks great, and the less-is-more approach in showing us the monster is quite effective in generating suspense. However, Cursed overstays its welcome, its length dulling the impact of what should be a shocking, poignant denouement. In theaters.
Bad casting dooms Marry
I've seen good movies made from worse premises than the one in Marry Me. Here it is in a nutshell – pop diva Cat Valdez (Jennifer Lopez) is set to marry her singing paramour, Bastian (Maluma), during a live concert. However, just before she steps on stage, a video drops showing him cheating on her. So, instead of marrying the young hunk, she chooses Charlie Gilbert (Owen Wilson), a middle school math teacher, from the audience to wed instead. He agrees, they exchange "I do's" and confusion ensues.
Of course, they spend the rest of the film getting to know each other, learning how to appreciate their differences and falling in love. This is par for the course for the genre, and it may have worked, were it not for the casting. Lopez and Wilson have no chemistry, the two veterans laboring to make the material work, spinning their wheels in the process. Lopez serves as one of the film's producers and as a result, there's far too much singing and dancing, which stymies the movie's momentum. In the end, Wilson is left holding the bag in this self-serving turkey. In theaters and streaming on Peacock.
Neeson stumbles through Blacklight
This year's Razzie Awards – citing the year's worst films – has a special category called "Worst Bruce Willis" performance in which the actor competes with himself to see which of his performances in the eight forgettable action movies he made is the worst.
I wouldn't be surprised if his fellow thespian, Liam Neeson, doesn't get his own category next year, as he too has given up on his career, content to appear in one lackluster flick after another. His latest, Blacklight, is one of his worst.
Neeson is Travis Block, a government agent who works off the books, rescuing fellow spies who get in too deep. Dusty Crane (Taylor Smith) is his latest target, as the younger agent is threatening to spill the beans to the media about all the nefarious missions his boss Gabriel Robinson (Aiden Quinn) has assigned him. After some resistance, Block begins to think the kid might be right and turns on his superiors. The story moves at a pedestrian pace, blandly rendered gun fights and car chases used in an effort to goose the action. A better title would have been The Somnambulist, as Neeson sleepwalks through this one. In theaters.
