MINI MOVIE REVIEWS: Secret Affairs I Rooted For, Comedies I Did Not Laugh At

This is another round of Mini Movie Reviews. I picked these movies because of their posters. I get interesting results. Here goes…:

For More Mini Movie Reviews, check out:
MINI MOVIE REVIEWS: From Rom-Coms to Serial Killers
MINI MOVIE REVIEWS: A Bit of Drama and Some Hokey Vampires
MINI MOVIE REVIEWS: Shakespeare Gems to Icelandic Tragedies (With Some Crap Along The Way)

---

Capital Games

Take two ambitious men, one top LA advertising firm, and add a competition for the same high-ranking job. Tough ex-LAPD cop Steve Miller quit the police force to work in the calm of an office environment. Mark Richfield, the glamorous new kid in the office, soon wins favor with the big boss and co-workers causing Steve to cringe in jealousy. After a team-building exercise in the Santa Fe desert goes awry, the two men share a night of passion that leaves them both with unresolved emotions. Steve becomes torn between passionate love and passionate hatred and Mark must endure an agonizing decision that will affect his life forever.

Based on the book by G.A. Hauser, this is an enemies to lovers, gay-for-you story that’s a must watch for fans. I’m not sure which is better, the book or the movie (haven’t read the book yet) but I had a lot of fun watching this MM book come alive on screen. Some of the acting could use some work but the actor for Steve Miller pulled it off really well. Steve was the best character here.

---

Lazy Eye

Passions re-ignite and secrets revealed when a graphic designer reconnects with the great, lost love of his life for a weekend tryst at a house in the desert near Joshua Tree.

I had conflicting feelings about this. On one hand, this is a really good movie. It was well-acted, great plot, absolutely fantastic chemistry, gorgeous scenery. Then after getting my hopes up and lulling me in with feel-good feels, it pulled the rug from under my feet. Moral of the story: Sometimes we get what we need, not what we want.

---

Bite Marks

While backpacking across the country, bickering gay couple Cary and Vogel decide to speed up their trek by hitchhiking instead. That’s when fate brings them Brewster, a sexually confused trucker who picks the pair up on his way to delivering a shipment of coffins. After a few strokes of bad luck, the mismatched trio ends up lost and broken down in an abandoned junkyard. Though surviving a night of petty fights and sexual tension seems tough enough, the nightmare is only just getting started as strange noises in the back of the truck reveal the presence of five bloodthirsty vampires.

A messy trainwreck I couldn’t look away from. Partly because vampires. Partly because this has a lot of potential. The sarcastic lines and satirical humor didn’t quite had me LOLing but I could appreciate the attempt to put a twist on a tired old genre.

---

Rainbow Bridge Motel

After reserving their dream wedding package at Niagara Falls, Dean and Darren learn they’ve booked themselves in a run-down motor lodge sandwiched between two chemical plants run by some guy named Shibbawitz and a Burmese refugee family.

This one’s a real mess. It was all over the place. It was trying too hard to be PC and inclusive. It wasn’t funny at all. All in all, waste of a good concept.

---

Free Fall

In his gripping and erotic feature debut, German director Stephan Lacant chronicles the pleasures and pitfalls of a tumultuous love affair between police officer Marc (Hanno Koffler, Summer Storm) and his training partner, Kay. At first Marc brushes off his attraction to his colleague as a fluke, but his feelings become evident the more time he spends away from his pregnant girlfriend Bettina, inside motel rooms and in remote corners of the forest with Kay.

I’m pissed that the two men didn’t go riding off to the sunset. Just setting expectations here for those, like me, prefer certain kinds of endings. Still, this was a powerful movie capturing that irresistible urge to be with someone you’re not supposed to be with. It also tackles homophobia especially in the police force. I love the actors here. A must-watch if you are a fan of Summer Storm and SENSE8. A sequel please!!!

---

Hope you enjoyed this week’s Mini Movie Reviews. Have a great Saturday!