Starring David Caruso, Peter Mullan, Stephen Gevedon & Josh Lucas.

A small company comprised of just a handful of workers bids and wins a project to remove asbestos from a long abandoned building. The building is an insane asylum that was closed down 20 years prior.

Gordon (Mullan) has enough on his hands already with his wife at home and a newborn baby that is leaving him sleepless. Phil and Hank (Caruso & Lucas) don’t see eye to eye as Phil thinks Hank is a liability to the job, and not to mention Hank has stolen and now lives with his ex-girlfriend. So they all have a lot on their minds, and they only have one pressure filled week to complete the job in order to receive a $10,000 bonus.

One of the guys finds some tapes in the basement where a doctor is interviewing a patient with multiple personalities. Another one of the workers finds a hidden compartment in the wall filled with old coins and pieces of gold. But there’s more to this old asylum than just the relics, and it appears to be slowly haunting the men working there. The men start acting strange in different ways as you feel the building slowly start to invade their minds in various ways.

Rating:

Moviepeeker scores Session 9 a 7.5 out of 10
Movie Released by October Films

Starring Ellen Page, Catherine Keener, Hayley McFarland, Ari Graynor & Evan Peters.

This is an extremely sad and disturbing movie, mostly because it is a true story. in 1965, Gertrude Baniszewski (Keener) agreed to care for 2 girls who’s parents were working for the carnival and needed the time without their daughters. She would do so as long as the parents sent her pay of $20 per week.

She had enough problems before the arrival of the girls. She was dealing with emotional sickness and physical sickness, and already raising 6 children of her own. Her husband had left her long ago and she had another baby with a young local man who also didn’t help her. She was emotionally and physically coming to pieces.

She starts to unravel when her eldest daughter, Paula (Gaynor), comes home from school one day and tells her that one of the girls, Sylvia (Page), was spreading bad rumors about her. She then holds Sylvia down and allows Paula to beat her to teach her a lesson. Shortly thereafter, she gets upset because the check from the girls parents didn’t arrive as scheduled. She takes both girls to her basement and beats them with a belt as punishment.

The issue with the “rumors” escalates and Gertrude again takes Sylvia to the basement for punishment, but this time leaves her down there. Not only does she physically abuse her, but she allows all the neighborhood kids to come by after school daily to abuse her as well. She is burnt with cigarettes, branded with hot metal, watered with a hose, kicked and punched - for days.

As the story plays out in live time, it also plays the court proceedings against Gertrude at the same time.

Rating:

Moviepeeker scores An American Crime an 8.0 out of 10
Movie Released by First Look International

Starring Kevin Bacon, Marcia Gay Harden & Miles Heizer.

Tom Stark (Bacon) is senior train engineer, taking on extra hours as his way of dealing with his wifes sickness. His wife, Megan (Harden) has stage 4 bone cancer and only has a short time to live. Tom’s workmates try to get him to take some time off but he would rather work than deal with his problems. While on his run that day he comes around a bend and finds something on the tracks. He immediately starts to slow down the train and apply the brakes but cannot hit the emergency brakes for fear of derailing the train. He ultimately hits a car sitting at the train crossing and kills a young woman.

His wife is set to leave without him on a trip to San Francisco, and Tom needs to remain behind for a hearing over the tragic accident. He pleads with her to wait but her mind is made up. Then comes a knock at the door, and it’s Davey Danner (Heizer), the young boy who lost his mother in the accident. Davey was there that day and escaped but was unable to help his Mom. He’s come to yell at Tom for not stopping and killing his Mom.

What could have been a nightmare turns into a blessing for all of them. Megan instantly forms a bond with Davey and Tom slowly takes a liking to the boy as well, as he reminds him of himself.

Loss of life and new love is the theme of this movie. Tom and Megan never had a child during their marriage but now have a small opportunity to experience it while Megan is still alive.

Rating:

Moviepeeker scores Rails and Ties an 8.5 out of 10
Movie Released by Malpaso Productions

Starring Gerard Butler, Maria Bello & Pierce Brosnan.

Neil and Abby Randall (Butler & Bello) live seemingly a perfect life. They have great careers, lots of money, a beautiful home and a beautiful daughter. Then when they least expect it, it all slowly starts to get taken away from them.

Their daughter gets kidnapped and the kidnapper starts to destroy their lives. He ruins Neils credit, his money, his job and is working on his wife. He wants complete control of their lives for the next 24 hours. The scariest part is that he isn’t doing this for money, he just wants to destroy their lives piece by piece and have them live a nightmare of losing everything they worked so hard for.

Pierce Brosnan and Gerard Butler are amazing in this flick. Both are desperate men willing to do anything to achieve their goals. While Brosnan plays the psycho bent on ruining lives, Butler plays the desperate husband and father who needs to save his life and that of his family. You’ll watch this fast paced flick unfold and find out why Brosnan’s character is so determined to hurt them.

Rating:

Moviepeeker scores Shattered a 7.5 out of 10
Movie Released by Butterfly Productions

Starring Edward Furlong, Jaime Pressly, Daniel Franzese, Susan Ward & Nate Parker.

Philip Markham (Furlong) was recently on a TV reality show where he was to win the love of a beautiful woman (Pressly) against other vying men. He was in love and made it to the last 2 before he was dumped on live TV. He was sure she made a mistake, and he’s going to make sure she knows that.

He takes over the home where the show took place and has his own show by finding contestants on the internet to compete for 1 million dollars on his own reality show, which of course is for his own amusement.

He holds his own competitions and has daily eliminations, and instead of going home, the losers get to die one by one.

Rating:

Moviepeeker scores Cruel World an 8.5 out of 10
Movie Released by Primetime Pictures