By Bob Garver Poster credit IMDB Did you know that getting stranded on a deserted island has a way of shaking up social hierarchies? I suppose that was a big part of the plot for recent Best Picture Oscar nominee “Triangle of Sadness.” As well as the literary classic “Lord of the Flies.” And it’s represented on television in everything from “Survivor” to “Lost” to “Gilligan’s Island.” And it was at the center of a play I did in high school called “The Admirable Crichton,” whe

By Bob Garver Poster credit IMDB “Mercy” was the  #1 movie at the box office on a weekend where the weather showed little in the way of mercy to much of the country. Hope you’re all safe out there. As if the weather weren’t enough of a disadvantage, “Mercy” is saddled with one of the stupidest cinematic premises I’ve ever seen. It takes place in a dystopian future where murder trials take the form of “Mercy trials,” suspects being strapped unsupervised to a chair in a tech-fi

By: Bob Garver Poster credit IMDB Audiences largely left last June’s zombie threequel “28 Years Later” thinking the same thing, “That was a good movie, but what the heck was up with that ending?” They were referring to the last-minute saving of young protagonist Spike (Alfie Williams) from a hoard of Infected by a gang of blonde-wigged, tracksuit-wearing ruffians led by long-missing earlier character Jimmy (Jack O’Connell). The tone of the sequence was one of stylized action,

By: Bob Garver Poster credit IMDB             It’s time once again for that magical set of releases on the cinematic calendar: January Horror! Unable to get a Halloween release, unable to compete in blockbuster season, and unable to dominate a random weekend anywhere else on the calendar, January Horror movies are released at a time when their biggest competition is leftover holiday blockbusters and awards-season darlings. Studios are banking on audiences not wanting movies t