I’m sorry to report that Alyssa Milano does not forego her long-standing ‘no nudity clause’ in Brazen — and I’m more sorry for her than for me (after all, I’ve seen Embrace of the Vampire), because that’s about the only thing that could save this mess. Milano is Grace Miller, authoress of thriller novels. Here is an excerpt from her most recent masterpiece, titled Brazen Virtue: "She did not expect to die that night. Sara Bowman was precise in everything, and dying was not on her agenda. She had no enemies that she knew of. In general, his life was quite ordinary. Yet there she was, lying in a pool of her own blood. The manner of her death violent, even deranged. Who would want to kill the ordinary Sara Bowman? And then it dawned on her. What if she wasn’t ordinary? What if she had a secret life?" It would have to be a very secret secret life indeed if not even “Sarah” herself was aware of it. It turns out that Brazen is based on a novel also called Brazen Virtue by Nora Roberts; I’m not familiar with her work, but I wouldn’t be surprised if her books opened with the phrase “It was a dark and stormy night” or some variation thereof. In addition to a purveyor of purple prose, Grace is a dispenser of clumsy exposition, like when she tells her sister Kathleen (Emilie Ullerup) that “Last I heard you were addicted to pills and you abandoned your son.” Something tells me this is not news to Kathleen, who is an English teacher at an upper-class boys’ high school: “Next week’s essay will be on Hamlet. How would Hamlet feel in our digital age? I’m pretty sure Ethan Hawke already answered this question, and the answer wasn’t very compelling (besides, a better question would be how would Romeo feel in the digital age, considering that a simple SMS would have saved him a lot of trouble). Would you believe that Kathleen herself just happens to have a double life of her own? Well, she does; her alter ego is Desiree, a web cam dominatrix. Wait, what? I guess all her customers must be naughty little boys, because for a fetish based on discipline, this is incredibly lazy. Anyway, Kathleen soon gets sent to web cam heaven, and Grace hijacks her sister’s homicide investigation, which is nominally led by Detective Ed Jennings (Sam Page) — who conveniently lives next-door to Kathleen — and his partner, Detective Ben Parker (Malachi Weier), who may be named after Spiderman’s uncle, but he looks like the lead singer in a Melvins cover band. Grace talks Ed and Ben’s boss, Captain Rivera (Alison Araya) into appointing her a “consultant” on the case (someone’s been watching too much Lucifer). Grace justifies this claiming that “I have an instinct for motive. I mean, that’s why my books are so successful. I can enter the mind of a murderer, especially those who attack women.” Ed, who is present and opposes the idea, fails to point out that Grace would be a pretty lousy writer (well, lousier) if she couldn’t freely enter the mind of a killer that she made up in the first place. Unchecked, Grace adds, “Do you know how long it took the NYPD to find the Times Square Rapist? Eight months. And I went in, studied the case, and they caught the guy three days later.” Again, it doesn’t cross Ed’s mind to call this a coincidence or suggest that the guy was caught thanks to those eight months of police work, and not Grace’s three days. The Captain, who must have found her badge in a cereal box, is sold, however; “Grace, I read your books from cover to cover as soon as I can get my hands on them. You truly are one of the most cunning profilers out there.” Thankfully, the scene ends before the brownosing becomes literal. What I don’t understand is why director Monika Mitchell — and that a woman directed this, as it were, brazen display of pseudo-feminism is most baffling — goes to such lengths to promote Grace as a prodigious detective mind when she never even comes close to determining the killer’s identity or motive (despite having “lots of ideas” about it), or why screenwriters Edithe Swensen and Donald Martin force Milano to say, with all the sincerity she can muster, that Grace’s novels are “about the exploitation of women and misogyny and patriarchy and how we do very little to protect the most vulnerable”, only to have her catch the villain by literally using her body as bait. It may contain no full-frontal nudity, but Brazen is nonetheless one of the most embarrassing movies Milano has ever been in (for what it’s worth, she’s a stone-cold MILF, though).
On the surface Henrik and Nina Christofferson are an ordinary family living happily. But they have a problem. Their daughter, Stine, a difficult 14 year old, has a habit of telling lies in class. When Stine accuses her father of sexual abuse, and is believed by seemingly eager social workers, their family is thrust into crisis. Could Henrik have done it? And when Stine prepares to return home, the ugly side of family life is exposed.
Movie Star Rating : 6.7 Read More
Residents of an enclosed neighborhood in the middle of Mexico DF are shocked by a violent crime, and for one resident in particular, young Alejandro, the drama is ratcheted up when he encounters the lone kid who escaped the event and is hiding out within the neighborhood's borders.
Movie Star Rating : 6.3 Read More
Ray, a construction worker trapped in an unhappy marriage, pursues an affair with his neighbor, Carla. Carla's husband, Greg, is a mobster who keeps large sums of drug money in their home. With this in mind, Carla comes up with a plan: She and Ray will steal Greg's money, burn down her house, convince Greg the money was lost in the fire and then run away together. Carla's scheme, however, doesn't go off as planned.
Movie Star Rating : 6.1 Read More
Shu Kubota is killed by someone with a baseball bat. A metal bat and an old toy are found at the crime scene. Detective Yoshito (Tsuyoshi Kusanagi) with the special investigation unit goes to the crime scene to investigate. There, Detective Yoshito realizes that he made the old toy about 10 years ago when he worked at the public relations divsion of the Kyoto Prefectural Police Department. Detective Yoshito decides to solve the case by himself and without the help of his partner Detective Chinami (Kaho Minami). -asianwiki
Movie Star Rating : 0 Read More
On Jan. 22, 1965, the day before the Iranian prime minister is assassinated, a car drives up to a shipwreck. Inside the wreck, a banished political prisoner has hung himself and the walls are covered in diary entries, literary quotes, and strange symbols. Fifty years later, the evidence, including intelligence tape recordings, is found in a box. The contents attest to the fact that the inspector and his colleagues were arrested, but why?
Movie Star Rating : 5.9 Read More
A conscientious tanker driver, Thanasis Papathanasis, works hard to help his sister Afroditi study medicine. He believes that in this way he will be able to marry her off so that then he can finally marry Eleni, whom he has loved for years. His efforts, however, are all in vain, as he is constantly confronted with a corrupt establishment and political situation that generate all the prevailing misfortunes: personal, social and national.
Movie Star Rating : 5.8 Read More
Diane is a well-known lawyer, divorced for three years. She loses her mobile telephone and receives a call from the person who finds it. That person is Alexandre, a charming man and the perfect gentleman. They make a connection over the phone and agree to meet up the following day. But when Alexandre arrives, there's a surprise in store when Diane discovers he is only 4' 6" tall. From that moment on, Diane tries to overcome the prejudices of society and her own fears to experience the best time of her life...
Movie Star Rating : 6 Read More
After the suicide of her only friend, Rachel has never felt more on the outside. The one person who reached out to her, Jessie, also happens to be part of the popular crowd that lives to torment outsiders like her. But Rachel has something else that separates her from the rest, a secret amazing ability to move things with her mind. Sue Snell, the only survivor of Carrie White's rampage twenty-two years ago, may hold the key to helping Rachel come to terms with her awesome, but unwanted power. But as Rachel slowly learns to trust, a terrible trap is being laid for her. And making her angry could prove to be fatal.
Movie Star Rating : 5.6 Read More
The wife of an abusive criminal finds solace in the arms of a kind regular guest in her husband's restaurant.
Movie Star Rating : 7.4 Read More
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