The Answer (2015) – An orphaned young man who habitually tries to stay off the radar despite his brilliant analytical mind suddenly finds himself attacked and on the run (with his date — bad timing for her!) for mysterious reasons that may have something to do with his parents. And I’m not saying that it’s aliens, but it’s aliens.
It’s not a great movie, but it is a good example of a competent suspense thriller on a low budget. (Although I kept waiting for the revelation that the girlfriend, who practically throws herself at this quiet nobody, is part of the conspiracy. Spoiler: She isn’t. I guess she just likes hard-luck cases.)
The Jurassic Games (2018) – In the near future, a ratings-dominating TV show gives death row inmates a chance in ten to walk away free: Just be the only survivor of The Jurassic Games, a virtual arena which pits them against CG dinosaurs and each other.
The brilliance of this concept is that CG dinosaurs that look like CG dinosaurs are exactly what would be expected, so the inability to afford better graphics isn’t the drawback it would be in a movie in which the dinos are supposed to be real!
Beyond that, the reality TV conceit is carried off beautifully, with the host offering bon mots live before commercial breaks and such. (I wouldn’t have been surprised if that actor had actually done reality TV before.)
The supposed protagonist is a guy who’s of course wrongly convicted of murdering his wife, so he has to remain a decent guy while competing against nine sociopaths to be the last one standing, yada yada.
(This is a movie in which an identifiable shot of Vasquez Rocks would be a definite plus — filmed in Oklahoma, alas.)
Go into this with SyFy Original expectations, and you’ll be pleasantly impressed.
Stratton (2017) – A British SBS agent (that’s “Special Boat Service,” like the British version of the Navy SEALs, and yes, that’s really what it’s called) is on the tail of a disavowed Russian agent turned terrorist. It’s the warm beer version of Mission: Impossible!
I was a little confused by this one. It was a theatrical release, and the production obviously costs some bucks — location shoots in the middle of Rome and London, for-real explosions on the Thames, directed by Hollywood semi-name Simon West and starring known quantity Dominic Cooper — but the script never rises above TV-movie level. The ending is the biggest miscalculation: The terrorist has hidden his bioweapon in a modified rad double-decker bus, so the climactic chase is all about… trying to negotiate London traffic.
Abandoned movies:
Demonstone (1990) – Hey, I’ve got an idea — how about you hire a film editor that’s NOT wasted on shrooms?