Short Redhead Reel Reviews For The Week Of July 22 | Free

Rating system: (4=Don't miss, 3=Good, 2=Worth a look, 1=Forget it)

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“13 Assassins” (R) (3.5) [Sequences of bloody violence, some disturbing images, and brief nudity.] [Subtitled] [DVD and VOD only]— A riveting, tension-filled, action-packed, fast-paced remake of the 1963 Japanese film in which twelve sword-wielding samurais (Kôji Yakusho, Ikki Sawamura, Hiroki Matsukata, Seiji Rokkaku, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Yûma Ishigaki, Arata Furuta, Masataka Kubota, Sosuke Takaoka, Kôen Kondô, Ikki Namioka, and Megumi Kagurazaka) and a skilled, randy peasant (Takayuki Yamada) set out on a suicide mission to assassinate the dangerous, sadistic, evil, vicious, blood-thirsty brother (Gorô Inagaki) of the shogun and his protective henchmen (Masachika Ichimura, et al.) in May 1844 after they are hired by a high-ranking official (Mikijiro Hira).

“Anything’s Possible” (PG-13) (2.5) [Strong language, thematic material, sexual material, and brief teen drinking.] [Available July 22 on Amazon Prime Video.] — When a free-spirited, animal-loving, aspiring wildlife photographer, 17-year-old transexual high school student (Eva Reign), who lives with her protective, supportive, divorced mother (Renee Elise Goldsberry) in Pittsburgh, begins dating a charming, Muslim, wannabe artistic painter (Abubkar Ali) in Billy Porter’s coming-of-age, down-to-earth, realistic, humor-dotted, timely, 96-minute romantic comedy, it tests her relationships with her best friends (Courtnee Carter and Kelly Labor Wilson) and his best friend (Grant Reynolds) as they navigate through their senior years as classmates and parents take sides on the trans issue.

“Baby Assassins” (NR) (3) [Subtitled] [Available July 22 on Hi-YAH! and on Aug. 16 on Blu-ray™, DVD, and various digital platforms.] — Terrific combat choreography dominates Hugo Sakamoto’s entertaining, bizarre, action-packed, fast-paced, humorous, violent, 95-minute, 2021 black comedy in which two impulsive, skilled Japanese high school student graduates (Akari Takaishi and Saori Izawa) spend most of their time as hired assassins whose boss wants them to live together and to work part-time jobs when they are not killing people, and when a powerful Yakuza (Masanori Mimoto) is murdered, along with his crazy son (Satoshi Uekiya), the two reluctant roommates end up fighting for their lives after his angry daughter (Mone Akitani) and rival assassins seek revenge.

“Black Wood” (NR) (2.5) [Opens July 22 in theaters and available July 26 on various digital and VOD platforms.] — When a ruthless, maimed outlaw (Bates Wilder), his menacing gang (Stelio Savante, Casey Birdinground, and George Thomas Mansel), and a guide (Glenn Morshower) in the Old West head to the ominous Black Woods Forest in Montana to dispatch two gold prospectors (Mark Terzani and Richard Wetzel) to receive payment from a no-nonsense businesswoman (Kara Rainer) in Chris Canfield’s engaging, intriguing, violent, 98-minute film based on Indian folklore, they capture a Sioux Indian woman (Tanajsia Slaughter), whose family was earlier slaughtered by the gang, and then find themselves fighting to survive after being attacked by a terrifying and mysterious Wendigo Indian warrior (David ‘Shark’ Fralick/Joseph Brings Plenty Sr.).

“The Daphne Project” (NR) (2.5) [Opens July 22 in NYC theaters.] — When a Black social justice activist and an ambitious, aspiring theater actress (Zora Iman Crews) in the Big Apple takes over the lead role of a way off-Broadway stage production of Euripides’ “The Bacchae” in Zora Iman Crews and Alec Tibaldi’s engaging, quirky, funny, satirical, shoestring budget, 67-minute, 2021 mockdocumentary comedy, she instigates problems for the play’s director (Reed Lancaster), assistant director (April Lavalle), and actors (Jake Horowitz, Annie-Sage Whitehurst, Edward Norwood, Yael Rizowy, Geena Quintos, Austin Letorney, et al.).

“Forks Over Knives” (PG) (3.5) [Some thematic elements and incidental smoking.] [DVD and VOD only]— An educational, eye-opening, life-changing, 95-minute documentary that explores the benefits of a whole foods, plant-based diet through testimonials by filmmaker Lee Fulkerson and patients (Joey Aucoin, San’Dira Nation, Anthony Yen, and Evelyn Oswick) who have drastically modified their eating habits, research presented convincingly by nutritional scientist/biochemist Dr. T. Colin Campbell and former well-known surgeon Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, and interviews with vegans ultimate fighting champion Mac Danzig and firefighter and tri-athlete Rip Esselstyn, vegetarian Gene Bauer, and physicians, including Matt Lederman, John McDougall, Connie Diekman, Doug Lisle, Terry Mason, Junshi Chen, David Klurfeld, Neal Barnard, Ruth Heidrich, and Joseph Crowe.

“The Hangover Part II” (R) (3) [Pervasive language, strong sexual content, including graphic nudity, drug use, and violent images.] [DVD and VOD only]— When a dentist (Ed Helms) goes to Thailand to marry his beautiful fiancée (Jamie Chung) against the wishes of her father in this hilarious, risqué, entertaining, over-the-top, cameo-dotted (Paul Giamatti, Justin Bartha, Jeffrey Tambor, Nick Cassavetes, and Mike Tyson) comedy, he ends up tattooed and in a drug-induced fog in Bangkok with his two best friends (Bradley Cooper and Zach Galifianakis) and a drug-dealing criminal (Ken Jeong) from their past while unknowingly getting involved in an Interpol sting and searching for his missing soon-to-be nephew (Mason Lee).

“Infrared” (NR) (2.5) [Available July 22 on various digital platforms, July 29 on the Terror Channel, and Aug. 5 on Kings of Horror.] — When a charismatic, ambitious, energetic paranormal investigator (Jesse Janzen) films a pilot with his estranged sister (Leah Finity) and his production crew (Austin Blank, Robert Livings, and Randy Nundlall Jr.,) and with the help of the school’s enthusiastic caretaker/owner (Greg Sestero) for a paranormal television show called “Infrared” at a mysterious, haunted school in Sacramento, Calif., that closed twelve years earlier in Robert Livings and Randy Nundall Jr.’s creepy, suspenseful, tense, terror-punctuated, low-budget, 89-minute found-footage horror film in the vein of “The Blair Witch Project” and “Paranormal Activity,” the shoot does not go or wrap up as planned.

“Kung Fu Panda 2” (PG) (3.5) [Sequences of martial arts action and mild violence.] [DVD and VOD only]— When the evil peacock Lord Shen (voiceover by Gary Oldman) defeats two kung fu masters (voiceovers by Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dennis Haysbert) with the help of a secret weapon and ferocious wolves in his attempt to take over China in this funny, creative, fun-filled, family-oriented, star-dotted (voiceovers Dustin Hoffman, Michelle Yeoh , and Victor Garber), 3D, animated comedy, the noodle-loving panda (voiceover by Jack Black), who tries to find inner peace while searching for information about his parents after being adopted by a goose, joins forces with Tigress (voiceover by Angelina Jolie), Mantis (voiceover by Seth Rogen), Crane (voiceover by David Cross), Monkey (voiceover by Jackie Chan),and Viper (voiceover by Lucy Liu) to save China.

“Mad Bastards” (NR) (2.5) [DVD and VOD only]— While a tough, bar-fighting ex-convict (Dean Daley-Jones) travels across the Outback to meet his estranged, troubled 13-year-old son (Lucas Yedda), who leaves with his abused mother (Ngaire Pigram) and attends a camp for juvenile delinquents for setting a house fire, in this gritty, down-to-earth, emotionally charged film filled with striking scenery and memorable, upbeat music, a compassionate, no-nonsense cop (Greg Tait) tries to keep the dad in check and to help the men in his community by starting a support group.

“Made in Dagenham” (R) (3.5) [Language and brief sexuality.] [DVD and VOD only]— An inspirational, factually inspired, uplifting, star-studded (Miranda Richardson, Bob Hoskins, Rosamund Pike, and Rupert Graves) 2010 film, which is reminiscent of the 1979 film “Norma Rae,” about a feisty, courageous British machinist (Sally Hawkins) who leads her fellow 186 female workers (Geraldine James, Andrea Riseborough, et al.) on strike in 1968 at the Ford plant in Dagenham, England, to earn wages comparable wages to their 55,000 male coworkers and to gain improved working conditions.

“Nope” (R) (3.5) [Some violence, bloody Images, and language throughout.] [Opens July 22 in theaters.] — After their horse trainer father (Keith David) dies in a freak accident on a horse ranch in California in Jordan Peele’s gripping, award-winning, intense, original, suspenseful, well-acted, thought-provoking, star-studded (Donna Mills, Steven Yeun, Terry Notary, and Conor Kowalski), 135-minute sci-fi thriller, his two adult children (Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer) caring for the property begin to experience strange, ominous sightings in the sky that spook the horses and then with the help of a tech savvy salesman (Brandon Perea) and a cynical documentary filmmaker (Michael Wincott) they begin to try and video record evidence of a mysterious, menacing UFO.

“Orders from Above” (NR) (3) [Available July 19 on Itunes and various digital platforms.] — Vir Srinivas’ engaging, award-winning, factually based, black-and-white, realistic, slow-paced, insightful, gut-wrenching, informative, dialogue-heavy, 87-minute, 2021 historical biographical film based on the interrogation in 1960 in which Jewish Israeli Police Captain Avner Less (Richard Cotter) interrogates notorious, remorseless, apathetic Nazi war criminal SS officer Adolf Eichmann (Peter J. Donnelly) in a valiant and tenacious attempt to get him to confess to unspeakable, horrendous, heartbreaking war crimes after he was captured in Argentina and sent to Israel to stand trial in Jerusalem for being the architect of the Final Solution during the Holocaust.

“Skies of Lebanon” (NR) (3.5) [Subtitled] [Opens July 22 in NYC’s IFC Center and July 29 in Santa Monica’s Laemmle Theaters Monica.] — After a talented, Swiss artist (Alba Rohrwacher) takes a job as an au pair in Beirut in the 1950s and quickly marries a charming, ambitious Lebanese astrophysicist (Wajdi Mouawad) whose passion is building a rocket and sending a Lebanese astronaut into space in Chloé Mazlo’s creative, arty, original, colorful, factually inspired, visually stunning, touching, well-acted, surreal, 82-minute, 2020 film that mixes live action, stop-motion animation, and paintings, she becomes close to her husband’s family (Mariah Tannoury, Hany Tamba, Odette Makhlouf, Jade Breidi, John Chelhot, Greta Zighondi, and Chloé Zighondi) while eventually raising their daughter (Isabelle Zighondi) and then finds their relationship struggling and in turmoil amidst war-torn Lebanon in the late 1970s when civil war breaks out.

“Stake Land” (NR) (3) [DVD and VOD only]— After his parents (Gregory Jones and Traci Hovel) are brutally murdered in this creative, intense, violent, futuristic horror film, an orphaned teenager (Connor Paolo) teams up with a tenacious, skilled hunter (Nick Damici) to kill cannibalistic, zombielike vampires that have infested North America and later joined in their mission by a nun (Kelly McGillis), an African-American survivor (Sean Nelson), and a teenage singer (Danielle Harris) to fight the bad guys (Michael Cerveris, et al.).

“The Tree of Life” (PG-13) (2) [Some thematic material.] [DVD and VOD only]— Stunningly gorgeous cinematography highlights this abstract, controversial, convoluted, nearly incomprehensible, albeit thought-provoking, 2009 Terrence Malick film about a businessman (Sean Penn) who searches for the meaning of life while reflecting on his life growing up as a troubled, rebellious child (Hunter McCracken/ Zack Irsik) with a stern father (Brad Pitt), an abused mother (Jessica Chastain), and two younger brothers (Laramie Eppler and Tye Sheridan) in Waco, Texas, in the 1950s.

“Welcome to the Rileys” (R) (3) [Strong sexual content, brief drug use and pervasive language involving a teenager.] [DVD and VOD only]— When a grieving Indianapolis plumbing contractor (James Gandolfini) meets a headstrong, orphaned, 16-year-old stripper (Kristen Stewart), who reminds him of the teenage daughter he lost in a car accident several years earlier, while in New Orleans for a business conference in this compelling, heartwarming, dark film, he decides to temporarily separate from his severely depressed, guilt-ridden wife (Melissa Leo) and to befriend the misguided girl, which ends up prompting his wife into action to change her life.

Wendy Schadewald is a Burnsville resident

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