The Bayou: Movie Review

Some fun and a lot of bad ideas found in the Louisiana bayou.

Produced and filmed in England, The Bayou filmmakers took the only the two things they know about the southern US and turned it into a movie: gators and drugs. It’s not supposed to be a comedy, but it would be decidedly better if everything was played up for laughs like a horror-comedy instead of the thriller-drama that it’s supposed to be. Most jump scares are met with laughs instead of screams partly because you can’t take these characters seriously and the gators definitely become a bit far-fetched.		2025 Directed by: Taneli Mustonen, Brad Watson Screenplay by: Ashley Holberry, Gavin Cosmos Mehrtens Starring: Athena Strates, Madalena Aragão

Long Distance (AKA: Distant): Movie Review

Indie sci fi that starts fun and inventive but gets tiring and gross.

Originally called Distant, re-titled to Long Distance after finally getting released, is a sci-fi comedy/action/drama with famous people in front of and behind the camera, and one long weird and circuitous route to actually getting onto people’s screens. This was a 2020 COVID production with a screenplay by relatively new writer Spenser Cohen grabbing the attention of Hollywood directors Josh Gordon and Will Speck, who have multiple big studio comedies under their belt. Off to Hungary they go to film this small indie.		2024 Directed by: Josh Gordon, Will Speck Screenplay by: Spenser Cohen Starring: Anthony Ramos, Naomi Scott

Return to Office: Movie Review

I was not expecting Hallmark to make a clear and definitive anti-AI pro-artists statement with this movie, but here we are. Return to Office with such a cheesy title and a premise that could go wrong quickly continually surprises with how many things they get right. The first thing to get right is the casting. I love and will love Scott Michael Foster in anything and joining him is Janel Parrish who plays a somewhat uptight career woman but is increasingly more interesting.		2025 Directed by: Peter Benson Screenplay by: Steven J. Kung Starring: Janel Parrish, Scott Michael Foster