Review: ‘The Hive’ comes to Cable and Digital VOD tomorrow.

THE HIVE

Albie and Penny, a young couple with a failing marriage, try to rekindle the fire by having a night out by themselves. To make matters worse, the couple returns home to armed strangers. With no help from their neighbors or law enforcement, they attempt to get evidence of the intrusion. They’re captured by the intruders and tortured for information. There’s no hope until Albie escapes and saves Penny. So hellbent on revenge, he puts their marriage on the line. Unfortunately, all help has been compromised and there’s nowhere to run.


With a flailing marriage and erratic home invaders, THE HIVE has all the elements of a solid Twilight Zone-inspired feature. But this indie is more of a buzzkill.

The Hive still 2The performances swing widely. The score, while fine on its own, doesn’t match the over-the-top portrayals of everyone beyond Penny and Albie. Even Timothy Haug and Christine Griffin give us lackluster chemistry.

The set is not a house in which two small children reside. While the script states they’ve only been in their new home for two weeks, there isn’t a single toy on the floor or family portrait on the mantle, just a couple of balls in the backyard. But, an array of greeting cards hang on shuddered closet doors. Nothing makes sense.

The plot is glaringly apparent to everyone but Albie and Penny. Once revealed an hour and ten minutes into the runtime, the fact that our invaders have to explain and then begin to bicker while the score ramps up its intensity, things get increasingly eye-roll-inducing. I think there is supposed to be some overarching social commentary, but the film lost me, somehow flipping from thriller to comedy, and I wasn’t sure if that was the film’s intent.

Despite the classic sci-fi concept, THE HIVE could have been a 15-minute short.

The Hive will hatch on Cable and Digital VOD on October 27th, including Prime Video, Vudu, Vubiquity, Cox, and Comcast.

Review: ‘Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind’

As UFO’s suddenly grace the covers of the NY Times and Washington Post in the age of “fake news” and #conspiracy memes, how can we make sense of these revelations without losing our grip on reality? “Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind” is a feature documentary presented by Dr. Steven Greer, the global authority on extraterrestrials who created the worldwide disclosure movement and routinely briefs presidents and heads of state on the ET phenomenon.

 

His previous works, Sirius and Unacknowledged, broke crowdfunding records and ignited a grassroots movement. In this film, Dr. Greer presents the most dangerous information that the architects of secrecy don’t want you to know: how forgotten spiritual knowledge holds the key to humans initiating contact with advanced ET civilizations. The film features groundbreaking video and photographic evidence and supporting interviews from prominent figures such as Adam Curry of Princeton’s PEAR Lab; legendary civil rights attorney Daniel Sheehan, and Dr. Russell Targ, who headed the CIA’s top secret remote viewing program. Their message: For thousands of people, contact has begun. This is their story.

My little brother had that famous X-Files poster on his wall as a kid. The one that Mulder displayed in his office that read ‘I Want To Believe’. I have seen things that I cannot explain, both otherworldly and perhaps alien spacecraft related in my almost 40 years on Earth. All of that being said, Close Encounters Of The Fifth Kind would be better consumed as a series. There is a lot of information thrown at you, especially on the front end. While I was immediately suspect at the use of Fox News clips 4 times in the first 15 minutes, I was genuinely intrigued by information from Dr. Greer, founder of CSETI. As a total nerd myself, I am very familiar with this organization. My issues with the doc come in the very conspiratorial terms that get thrown at the audience. Not only that but also the complete shift in tone when Dr. Greer begins to explain how we are already communicating with beings from space. The videos of sightings and contact incidents are severely undermined by a distracting electronic soundtrack. It feels like an infomercial for one of Dr. Greer’s CE-5 workshops. I should be high on peyote in a yurt in Crestone. While you can see the passion behind what Dr. Greer is trying to communicate, the editing hurts the messaging. It takes what little we are given in way of video evidence and dumbs it down to YouTube-style nuttiness that you might run across on Reddit these days. I do encourage people to make their minds up for themselves as the new information does lead you to question life as we know it.

You can watch Close Encounters Of The Fifth Kind is available to purchase digitally on today, April 7th and available to rent on April 21st. Check out the trailer below.

On Digital today April 7th and available to rent on April 21st.

Directed & Written By: Michael Mazzola

Produced by: Phillip James, Jim Martin

Starring: Dr. Steven Greer, Jeremy Piven, Daniel Sheehan, Adam Michael Curry, Joe Martino, Jan Harzan, Dr. Russell Targ

Review: ‘Battalion’ – Save Your Time & Money

Battalion

Release Date: January 9, 2018

Run Time: 1 hour 34 minutes

Reviewed By: Reel Reviews Over Brews

After a war against an enemy from another world breaks out in the South Pacific, a group of freshly recruited U.S. Marines are sent to the front lines.

Save your money and wait until Battalion ends up on the SYFY channel at 3AM one week night and even then, save your time. The acting, the graphics, the sound, and the story line were all terrible. With Unlimited Graphic Design Service available, they could have created the best graphics. The story line was hard to follow. It had potential, in the beginning, but didn’t follow through. I sure wish I could get that hour and a half back… if I could, I’d spend it on another Infinity War session! Actually, you’re even wasting your time reading this. I wish I could find one minute aspect that was worth talking about, but unfortunately there isn’t. Maybe they were going for the Sharknado plan, where it was so bad that it turns out to be good… well, they missed there too. Battalion reminded me a bit of Starship Troopers, but much, much worse. Like a high school AV class version. Hopefully you’ll take my advise and skip this one and let’s keep our fingers crossed they don’t try to make a sequel.

Reel ROB Rating: 1.5 out of 10 stars

Post Credits Scene: No

We want to thank our friends at Reel News Daily for allowing us to do this guest review!