Like “Don’t Breathe,” “Birdbox” and “A Quiet Place,” “See for Me,” a new thriller directed by Randall Okita, and now on VOD, finds its suspense in the loss of a sense. In this case Skyler Davenport plays Sophie, once an Olympic level Alpine skier until an accident left her visually impaired, pitted against an enemy she can’t see.
The house in question is a rambling mansion, located in the middle of nowhere, with a well-stocked wine cellar and more importantly, a secret safe filled with cash and jewels. Sophie landed the housesitting gig because she was the first one to answer the ad and despite not being able to see is able to do the job thanks to technology. An app called See for Me connects her with a remote set of eyes, in this case belonging to Kelly (Jessica Parker Kennedy), who guides here through the home. Sophie’s tenacity coupled with Kelly’s experience as a war vet and gamer, are put to the test when three very bad people break in, looking for the home’s hidden treasures. “There’s people in the house,” Sophie whispers into the app. “I heard their voices.”
“See for Me” isn’t so much a horror film, although there are some uneasy, violent moments, as it is a game of cat-and-mouse with elements that will keep you guessing throughout. Screenwriters Adam Yorke and Tommy Gushue keep the twists coming hard-and-fast, but also add in a dollop of moral ambiguity.
Sophie’s situation is complicated, she’s angry that retinitis pigmentosa took away her chance at Olympic glory, and, in need of money, isn’t afraid to bend some rules to the point of breaking. That adds a psychological layer to the character and the story that gives the story—essentially the same kind of home invasion tale we’ve seen many times before—a fresh angle to explore.
The inclusive casting of visually impaired actor Davenport, brings authenticity to the role. Even when we see the twists coming—of course she has a low battery on her phone, the lifeline to Kelly—Davenport keeps the character and the story compelling.
“See for Me” is an effective thriller that build tension as the psychological drama ramps up. We’ve seen several of these elements before, the sensory loss, the first-person shooter shtick and the home invasion angle, but director Randall Okita brings them together in a persuasive package.
The fourth and final instalment of the “Hotel Transylvania” franchise, which began in 2012, comes to Amazon Prime minus Adam Sandler, but with the addition of some monstrously heartwarming messages for kids.
When the animated action begins, Count Dracula (once voiced by Sandler, now played by Brian Hull) is on the brink of retirement. His daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez) and her husband Johnny (Andy Samberg) are poised to inherit the hotel, but Johnny senses that Dracula doesn’t want him, a human, running things. Professor Abraham Van Helsing (Jim Gaffigan) and his Monsterfication Ray offers an answer. It turns Johnny into a winged monster, but when things go sideways, the ray also transforms Dracula and his monster friends into humans. “Being a human is the worst,” Drac complains of the movie’s “Freaky Friday” twist.
“You don’t recognize me?” asks Griffin (David Spade), the invisible man, after his human reveal.
“I have literally never seen you before,” says Mavis.
Mavis, Johnny and the Drac Pack head to a place deep in the Amazon, the only place where the transformations can be reversed, in search of a cure for their situation. “If we don’t fix you guys soon,” says Mavis. “You’ll be like this forever.”
Like the other, big screen entries in the “Hotel Transylvania” series this movie is loud and frenetic. The goofy, colorful action feels like it could be from almost any other animated movie but the characters and the fun voice work (from actors like Steve Buscemi, Kathryn Hahn, Jim Gaffigan, Molly Shannon, Keegan-Michael Key and Fran Drescher) cut through the noise.
They are all unusual characters, but they’ve found their community. They accept one another, like family does. “Transformania” highlights the family feel by allowing the Drac Pack and Johnny, characters we’ve been watching for three other films, to learn what it is like to see the world through one another’s eyes. It’s a lesson in tolerance and acceptance that feels earned, no matter how outlandish the story may be.
The life lessons are wedged between a monster mash of laughs and action, some of which parents may find headache inducing, but, like Dracula, kids should be able to sink their teeth into it.
Imagine a near future where androids co-exist with people. That’s the way “Mother/Android,” the new Netflix post-apocalyptic thriller starring Chloë Grace Moretz, begins.
Human in appearance—think “The Terminator” but without the muscles—the droids are mostly support staff, serving drinks at parties and working as household help. All is hunky dory until the robots blow a gasket and turn on their human counterparts. “They’re not supposed to be able to do that!” shrieks one victim. “They are programmed not to be able to do that.”
We first meet Georgia (Moretz), a young pregnant woman, enjoying a Christmas party with her boyfriend Sam (Algee Smith) and some others when a robot waiter short circuits and attacks the partygoers. And the murderous bot isn’t alone; he’s part of an A.I. apocalypse happening across the country.
Jump cut to nine months later. Georgia’s baby is overdue and she and Sam, like so many others, were forced to flee from cities to the relative safety of rural military camps where electromagnetic transmitters provide protection from rampaging robots.
But it’s a losing battle. “I’m fighting a war here against an enemy that literally never sleeps,” says the camp leader.
In a last-ditch effort to find a safe place for their baby to grow up, Georgia and Sam plan to leave the United States for Korea, where the robots haven’t taken over. First though, they must traverse the dangerous No Man’s Land, the deadly wilderness between them and safe passage out of the country.
“Mother/Android” made me wonder whether a twist is still a twist if you can see it coming a mile away. No spoilers here, but as an audience we’ve seen a lot of post-apocalyptic movies in the last decade or so, and, I would guess, so has writer-director Mattson Tomlin. Much of the imagery and general idea of a folks on the run from some sort of catastrophe are familiar, and feel borrowed from other movies. The twist will be predictable to fans of the genre, adding to the movie’s generic feel.
Moretz is the best thing about “Mother/Android.” She brings a steeliness and vulnerability to Georgia’s story of resilience and survival as the movie plods around her. A third character, whose intentions are not immediately clear, appears midway (AGAIN, NO SPOILERS HERE) and spices things up a bit, but even that doesn’t get the blood pumping.
“Mother/Android” feels like the love child of “Children of Men,” “The Terminator” and “A Quiet Place” and, as such, commits the biggest sins of speculative fiction—it’s short on originality and long on derivative ideas.
Richard sits in with “Your Morning” host Anne Marie Mediwake to talk about the late Bob Saget’s dual career as America’s Dad and raunchy stand-up comic.
Situated next to the grand Pantages Theater, once the home of the Academy Awards and still one of the leading venues for live theater in Los Angeles, the Frolic Room’s store front is humble… but you can’t miss the extravagant neon sign.
Like all great bars it is an egalitarian place, a truly democratic space where, for the price of a drink, you are welcomed, whether you’re Charles Bukowski, Frank Sinatra or a just thirsty person off the street.
It’s a classic, welcoming place, the way it has always been. “If you changed the Frolic Room, I think it would ruin the business,” owner Robert Nunley says. “It works this way.”
Learn about Hollywood Boulevard’s last great dive bar HERE!
Imagine a bar with an indoor lagoon. Now imagine that it rains, indoors every half hour. It’s not just a flight of fancy, it’s the Tonga Room, a classic restaurant and tiki bar in the Fairmont San Francisco hotel. Named after the South Pacific nation of Tonga, it is an eye-popping example of high-style Tiki that has been igniting the imaginations of customers for more than seventy five years.
Designed by Metro Goldwyn Mayer’s leading set director, it is the tropical paradise Anthony Bourdain called, “the greatest place in the history of the world.”
Learn about the invention of Tiki, the California Gold Rush and the Tonga Room HERE!
On this episode of “Last Call with Richard Crouse” we visit Sardi’s, located at 234 West 44th Street, between Broadway and Eighth Avenue, in the Theater District of Manhattan, New York City. It is Broadway’s most famous restaurant, and you may recognize it as the place where Kramer falsely accepts a Tony Award on “Seinfeld,” or where Finn and Rachel met Patti LuPone in an episode of “Glee” or perhaps you know it as the place where Don Draper and Bobbie Barrett celebrated the sale of a television pilot on “Mad Men.” The walls of celebrity caricatures are iconic and unmistakable.
Listen to the whole story of the “Clubhouse to the Stars” where the Tony Awards were born HERE!
On this episode of “Last Call with Richard Crouse” we visit McSorley’s Old Ale House on Seventh Street in New York’s East Village. McSorley’s may not be New York’s oldest bar, the Bridge Café (dates to 1794), Ear Inn (circa 1817) and Chumley’s (established 1830s) all predate John McSorley’s business, but it is one of the most colourful. It’s sometimes hard to sort between the fact and fiction that swirls around the bar’s legend, but one thing is for sure, there is no arguing with their motto, “We were here before you were born.”
At the afterparty Rafe Bartholomew stops by to talk about the bar where Abraham Lincoln once had a beer and its history. Rafe’s father Bart worked there for 45 years, the family lived upstairs for a time and on the weekends he’d help his dad get the place up and running and later, in his twenties, he continued the family tradition and worked behind the bar. His book, “Two and Two: McSorley’s, My Dad, and Me,” is a great read about fathers, sons and one great bar.
Like “Don’t Breathe,” “Birdbox” and “A Quiet Place,” “See for Me,” a new thriller directed by Randall Okita, and now on VOD, finds its suspense in the loss of a sense. In this case Skyler Davenport plays Sophie, once an Olympic level Alpine skier until an accident left her visually impaired, pitted against an enemy she can’t see.
