Tag: AJ Bowen

REVIEW: Night Drive [2021]

Jared Mobarak

I didn’t realize ‘good evening’ was an admission of guilt. Russell’s (AJ Bowen) a good guy. We know because his Jount rideshare driver helps a customer by carrying her giant wreath to the door before refusing a tip with a genuine “Merry Christmas.” You kind of have to be if you’re working a thankless job on the biggest holiday of the year so you won’t go insane before igniting a killing spree. “Good” doesn’t equal “saint,” however. He’s not going to pass up a couple hundred dollars when the next…

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REVIEW: Sun Don’t Shine [2013]

Jared Mobarak

We’ve got to take a route that don’t make sense. This is what it’s like to be in over your head. The incessant talking to distract from what you’ve done and are doing. The rising frustrations as you try to reconcile your actions, justifying how you got here and where you must still go. You think love is enough—that a desire to protect someone might cleanse your soul of what that protection entails—but it will ultimately become another excuse to keep you traveling towards a conclusion without any escape. Maybe…

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REVIEW: I Trapped the Devil [2019]

Jared Mobarak

Something feels wrong. Tragedy struck some time ago and we honestly don’t need to know the details to understand how it’s affected the three characters we’re about to meet. Steve (Scott Poythress) is the one who’s hurting from it and has been ever since. Maybe his brother Matt (AJ Bowen) thought space was needed for him to heal or maybe he was just too unsure about what he could do to help alleviate his pain and/or scared about what doing so entailed, but it’s been awhile since they’ve last seen…

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REVIEW: You’re Next [2013]

Jared Mobarak

“Will you just die already? This is hard enough for me!” Disappointment that the hype surrounding director Adam Wingard and writer Simon Barrett’s film You’re Next was proving impossible to achieve set in about halfway through. I expected what many called an entertainingly fresh horror thriller with comedic flourishes, but all I saw was the usual home invasion tropes and by-the-numbers carnage courtesy of animal-masked predators and their unsuspecting, family weekend attendee prey. Then something happens to change its tone completely as attractive Aussie plus-one Erin (Sharni Vinson) rolls away…

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