"B" Movie Reviews

Rebecca Deniston
Aug 07, 2023
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Not great, but not too shabby, either.

Operation Mincemeat (2022)

Rebecca Deniston
·
May 14, 2022
Operation Mincemeat (2022)

We all know Netflix is going through quite the rough patch right now, and it’s not undeserved. However, they’re not completely devoid of intriguing content, and the new film, Operation Mincemeat fits that bill. Based on a true story, it’s a quiet thriller about a scheme that, had it failed, could have been a potential bloodbath for Great Britain d…

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Devil Girl From Mars (1954)

Rebecca Deniston
·
June 1, 2022
Devil Girl From Mars (1954)

Few decades did sci-fi like the 1950s, and while America seemed to have a corner on it, other countries got in on the act as well, such as the 1954 British film, Devil Girl From Mars. At first the movie has a Petrified Forest vibe, with the action taking place at the Bonnie Charlie, a country inn tucked away on the moors. Its various characters are al…

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The Deep House (2021)

Rebecca Deniston
·
July 9, 2022
The Deep House (2021)

Since YouTube has been kicking traditional broadcast media’s hiney lately, movies about YouTubers are obviously going to be a thing. Like 2021’s The Deep House, for instance. Ben and Tina are urbex YouTubers on the line of The Proper People, or at least they want to be. They’ve got a long way to go, not only with viewership numbers, but with performance…

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Look Both Ways (2022)

Rebecca Deniston
·
August 27, 2022
Look Both Ways (2022)

Oh, Netflix. Rom-coms can be great, but don’t be Lifetime, Netflix. Please don’t. That’s not a place you want to go. Fortunately, this is not the case with Look Both Ways, which kicks Lifetime’s hiney in many respects. Natalie is about to graduate from her Texas university, and to celebrate, she and her best guy friend, Gabe, decide to sleep togeth…

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The Trial of Joan of Arc (1962)

Rebecca Deniston
·
September 14, 2022
The Trial of Joan of Arc (1962)

Joan of Arc is an intriguing figure. Some, of course, think she was crazy, some think she was a witch, and many think she was called by God. I’m inclined to the latter. How Joan is portrayed in film tends to lean according to however the filmmakers view her, but in the case of

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Field of Lost Shoes (2014)

Rebecca Deniston
·
September 21, 2022
Field of Lost Shoes (2014)

Every year the Virginia Military Institute honors seventeen of its cadets who lost their lives in the Battle of New Market during the Civil War. New cadets, or “Brother Rats,” as they call each other, end their first week at the school with a recreation

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Chandu On the Magic Island (1935)

Rebecca Deniston
·
October 12, 2022
Chandu On the Magic Island (1935)

It’s no secret that Bela Lugosi is one of the most pigeonholed actors in history and Chandu On the Magic Island was one of the rare occasions when he got to play a good guy. The third installment in what was meant to be a twelve-part series, Magic Island

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Last Holiday (2006)

Rebecca Deniston
·
November 26, 2022
Last Holiday (2006)

Everyone’s gotta splurge sometimes, especially around the holidays, and 2006’s Last Holiday is about a lady going for what she thinks is her ultimate splurge. Georgia Byrd spends her life dreaming and is frugal to a fault. She pulls out coupons for Lean Cuisine at the grocery store and then goes home and cooks along to Emeril LeGasse, the products of whi…

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The Noel Diary (2022)

Rebecca Deniston
·
December 14, 2022
The Noel Diary (2022)

There are so many Christmas movies out there that when a good one pops up it stands out like a house covered in twinkle lights, and The Noel Diary fits that bill with a couple of teeny caveats. Jake Turner is a best-selling author who lives with his dog, Ava. When he finds out his mom has passed away he’s sad but not broken up, because the t…

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A Castle For Christmas (2021)

Rebecca Deniston
·
December 17, 2022
A Castle For Christmas (2021)

Sophie Brown is a best-selling author whose latest novel has sparked massive backlash because she killed off Winston, a favorite character in her Emma Gale series. We’re talking picket lines and angry faces. There’s no mention of social media in all the uproar, which is surprising, but kudos to the filmmakers for not jumping on that bandwagon.

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Mixtape (2021)

Rebecca Deniston
·
January 14, 2023
Mixtape (2021)

It’s Spokane, Washington at the end of 1999 and Beverly Moody is existing. She feels like an oddball because her parents died in a car accident when she was two and she doesn’t have any friends. She lives with her grandma Gail, who works for the post office and feeds the two of them Tuna Helper and Spam and Eggo sandwiches.

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True Spirit (2023)

Rebecca Deniston
·
February 11, 2023
True Spirit (2023)

Jessica Watson is famous for sailing solo around the world on her yacht, Ella’s Pink Lady from October of 2009 until May of 2010, and her biopic, True Spirit, which is based on her book of the same title, is inspirational. Various forms of that word have been used so often in connection with Watson’s saga that it’s almost cliched, but nothing else…

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Stella Dallas (1937)

Rebecca Deniston
·
February 18, 2023
Stella Dallas (1937)

We all have those movies we know we’re supposed to like, but something about certain ones just…bugs us. Stella Dallas, while sporting great performances and sensitive direction, also contains an odd mix of sacrifice and vulgarity, only not necessarily in that order.

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Murder Mystery 2 (2023)

Rebecca Deniston
·
April 1, 2023
Murder Mystery 2 (2023)

Murder Mystery 2 and its 2019 predecessor, Murder Mystery try to be intriguing on the line of Agatha Christie or Mary Roberts Reinhart and funny on the line of the Thin Man movies, only with a wider variety of liquid imbibements. “Try” is the operative word, though. My son and I watched these movies back to back last night, and while we had a good t…

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We Have A Ghost (2023)

Rebecca Deniston
·
April 22, 2023
We Have A Ghost (2023)

Kevin Presley and his family have just moved into a rather infamous house, although they don’t know it at first. The realtor gushes about the house’s historic significance and all its potential, and since it’s a fixer-upper Kevin’s parents, Frank and Melanie jump at it. Older brother Fulton’s good with it. Kevin is

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Polite Society (2023)

Rebecca Deniston
·
May 3, 2023
Polite Society (2023)

Sometimes the gut begs us to follow. Ria Khan knows she’s going to be a stuntwoman. She also knows her sister, Lena, is going to be a great artist. Their parents, however, have other ideas, and all but set Lena up with Salim, a handsome Pakistani guy who looks like Jim Caviezel.

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Brave New Jersey (2016)

Rebecca Deniston
·
May 6, 2023
Brave New Jersey (2016)

Lullaby, New Jersey lives up to its name. It’s a quiet, sleepy place where not much happens and the minister is late to church because his alarm clock doesn’t work. It’s the day before Halloween,1938 and no one’s in a hurry for anything to change. Some people try, though. Paul Davison has supposedly invented a new milking machine that will be super effic…

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Book Club: The Next Chapter (2023)

Rebecca Deniston
·
May 17, 2023
Book Club: The Next Chapter (2023)

When we last left the ladies of the Book Club, they had just finished reading Fifty Shades of Gray and had made several important changes to their lives, which, if anyone hasn’t seen the first movie, I won’t spoil too much. Suffice it to say, The Next Chapter

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Missing (2023)

Rebecca Deniston
·
May 27, 2023
Missing (2023)

I finally got to see Missing, which is one of those rare January movies that isn’t completely disposable. Oh no, this one’s like a train wreck, and I mean that in a good way. June’s dad died of a brain tumor when she was little, she and her mom moved from San Antonio to Los Angeles, and now her mom, Grace, is going on vacay to Columbia wit…

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Barbie (2023)

Rebecca Deniston
·
July 29, 2023
Barbie (2023)

What a way to wind up July, right? I have to be honest, I was never really into Barbie when I was a kid. I had a couple of them, but I was always more of a My Little Pony girl. Ergo, I have to give credit where credit is due: Seeing Barbie was my son’s idea. My sixteen-year old son with the impish sense of humor.

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Heart of Stone (2023)

Rebecca Deniston
·
August 12, 2023
Heart of Stone (2023)

Gal Gadot, who plays Charter intelligence agent Rachel Stone, is on a race against time to find the hacker who’s trying to gain access to the Heart, a mysterious AI that can and will control everything if it falls into the wrong hands. It knows everything about everyone—passwords, contacts, work history, records of all kinds. It can make plan…

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The Last Voyage of the Demeter (2023)

Rebecca Deniston
·
August 16, 2023
The Last Voyage of the Demeter (2023)

The saga of the doomed Demeter takes up less than ten pages in Bram Stoker’s original Dracula novel, and it’s pretty bare-boned, causing the nameless narrator who presents it to chalk it up as a “mystery of the sea.” Well, Stoker’s novel may have seen it that way, but Hollywood sees it as space for a movie, which leads us to

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Gran Turismo (2023)

Rebecca Deniston
·
September 2, 2023
Gran Turismo (2023)

The idea of Grand Turismo giving players legit race training isn’t too far-fetched. After all, Air Force pilots train with flight simulators. I’ve never played Gran Turismo myself, but I watched my husband play it and later my son. After an hour or so of seeing cars race around and crash into anything and everything while the same t…

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Blue Beetle (2023)

Rebecca Deniston
·
September 6, 2023
Blue Beetle (2023)

Jaime Reyes has just graduated from Gotham Law University and is on his way home to his (fictional) hometown, Palmera City in the Florida Keys. He’s overjoyed to see his family, but the reunion is somewhat overshadowed when he finds out that their autoshop business has gone belly-up after his dad’s heart attack and the landlord has tripled the rent …

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My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 (2023)

Rebecca Deniston
·
September 13, 2023
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 (2023)

Toula and the gang are back and they’re going to Greece! I have been waiting all year for this movie. The first Wedding is one of my favorites and a little personal because it came out a few months before my husband and I got married, so a lot of the humor was pretty on the nose for us. The second

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The Creator (2023)

Rebecca Deniston
·
October 4, 2023
The Creator (2023)

There’s been plenty of anticipation for The Creator, Gareth Edwards’ first directorial credit in seven years. The publicity surrounding it looks vaguely Star Wars-y, of course, and seeing as Edwards is best known for directing Rogue One, this is no small obstacle. However, he exceeds expectations, albeit with a few missteps.

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Five Nights At Freddy's (2023)

Rebecca Deniston
·
November 1, 2023
Five Nights At Freddy's (2023)

I’ve never played Five Nights At Freddy’s although it doesn’t seem too hard to get into. Whenever I’ve said it looks like it’s set in a really twisted 80s-era Chuck E. Cheeze, whoever’s listening invariably says, “That’s exactly what it is.” OK. Cool.

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What Happens Later (2023)

Rebecca Deniston
·
November 4, 2023
What Happens Later (2023)

Who among us hasn’t wanted closure with an ex or time to catch up with an old friend? What Happens Later tackles that rare but not unheard of possibility. Based on the Steve Dietz play, Shooting Star, the film shows ex-lovers Willa Davis and Bill Davis meeting up at a Midwestern regional airport, and, improbably, they eventually are the only two peo…

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Love At First Sight (2023)

Rebecca Deniston
·
December 16, 2023
Love At First Sight (2023)

Ah, Netflix, how you toy with us. Love At First Sight is a two-hour meet-cute that is surprisingly enjoyable in a confectionary sort of way. Completely implausible? Yep. Completely watchable? Yep. Completely forgettable? The jury’s still out on that one.

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I.S.S. (2024)

Rebecca Deniston
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Jan 24
I.S.S. (2024)

Ever hear of the Arch Oboler play, Night Of the Auk? It’s based on his 1945 radio drama, Rocket From Manhattan, in which a group of astronauts in the year 2000 are on their way back from the first successful moon landing. In the midst of celebrating their big accomplishment, they’re shocked beyond belief to learn that nuclear war has brok…

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Argylle (2024)

Rebecca Deniston
·
Feb 3
Argylle (2024)

Argylle is one of the movies from my wishlist. I’ve been seeing the trailers for months, and we all know the dangers of dangling carrots: They tend to raise expectations. Did Argylle live up to the hype? Put it this way: It wasn’t what I was expecting, and in some ways it was even better.

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Bob Marley: One Love (2024)

Rebecca Deniston
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Feb 21
Bob Marley: One Love (2024)

Next to Kurt Cobain, Counting Crows and country music, Bob Marley was pretty popular at my high school. We didn’t have any rastafari, although some people wore Marley T-shirts. I remember one guy in my chemistry class, Brad, who wore rasta wear every single day. The rest of us just listened to the music. Marley was always there, a symbol …

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Ordinary Angels (2024)

Rebecca Deniston
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Feb 28
Ordinary Angels (2024)

Ordinary Angels is based on the true story of the Schmitt family of Louisville, Kentucky. In 1994 the city banded together to save the life of then-five-year old Michelle Schmitt, who suffered from biliary atresia and needed a liver transplant. Ed Schmitt is a widower, broke, without health insurance, and desperate to save his daughter. T…

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