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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nQuite understandably, major studios didn\u2019t want to schedule any new releases for the weekend between \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d and \u201cSpider-Man: Brand New Day.\u201d I had to go down past fifth place at the domestic box office to find some also-rans that I hadn\u2019t reviewed yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEvil Dead Burn\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEvil Dead\u201d is a horror franchise that started out low-budget and shlocky in the 80\u2019s, and has grown to be trusted with more resources as its films take themselves more seriously. It sounds like a welcome form of maturity, but it isn\u2019t. The films aren\u2019t fun anymore, and \u201cEvil Dead Burn,\u201d which insists on wedging a domestic violence storyline into its gross-out horror narrative, is the least fun yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alice (Souheila Yacoub) was married to the abusive William Price (George Pullar) until he was killed by a Deadite, an evil entity that sometimes kills people, and sometimes turns them into zombies. Now she has to survive William\u2019s funeral and a dinner with the dysfunctional Price family at their dilapidated lake house. The definition of \u201csurvive\u201d goes from figurative to literal when the Deadite starts infecting various family members, forcing Alice to turn violent against the people that arguably made William violent long before the Deadite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEvil Dead Burn\u201d is just ugly, with washed-out browns and grays everywhere. The special effects are shoddy, but not in an endearing practical way like the \u201cEvil Dead\u201d of the 80\u2019s. The violence is occasionally inventive, but more often just pointlessly excessive. And the domestic violence angle just comes off as an attempt to give the film substance as a requirement, as opposed to a necessary part of the creative vision. At this point, I\u2019m ready to just let \u201cEvil Dead\u201d as a franchise burn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grade: C-<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEvil Dead Burn\u201d is rated R for strong bloody horror violence and gore, and language. Its running time is 110 minutes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Invite\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\u201cThe Invite\u201d is one of those movies that is basically just a filmed stage play. An unnecessary prologue aside, the whole thing takes place in a single apartment with four actors doing things that don\u2019t require movie magic. For a movie like this to work, it needs to be really funny or powerful. It\u2026 comes close.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Joe (Seth Rogen) and Angela (Olivia Wilde, also the film\u2019s director) are an unhappily-married couple. Their interactions with one another range from \u201csnippy\u201d to \u201chostile.\u201d They don\u2019t get a divorce ostensibly for the sake of their daughter, but it\u2019s really more about complacency and laziness. And their sex life has been nonexistant for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They invite their upstairs neighbors, Pi\u00f1a (Penelope Cruz) and Hawk (Edward Norton) over for dinner to thank them for putting up with some recent renovations, and to maybe have a word with them about the noise from their very active sex life. The new friends are willing to keep the noise down, but also willing to let Joe and Angela get in on the fun. The titular invite is to swing. Shenanigans, arguments, and all manner of awkwardness ensue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Almost all of the pieces are in place for \u201cThe Invite\u201d to work as a viewing experience. The cast is certainly funny, talented, and most of all, game. But there\u2019s one hurdle that the movie can never quite overcome, and that\u2019s that it isn\u2019t very cinematic. It\u2019s not that I\u2019m incapable of recommending a movie like this, but I need everything verbal to practically set my soul on fire. Sadly, like Joe and Angela, this movie is missing a certain spark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grade: C<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Invite\u201d is rated R for sexual material, language throughout, and drug use. Its running time is 107 minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Bob Garver Quite understandably, major studios didn\u2019t want to schedule any new releases for the weekend between \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d and \u201cSpider-Man: Brand New Day.\u201d I had to go… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDdcL2ltYWdlLTIwMjYtMDctMjdUMTc0NTU0LjMyMS53ZWJwP2ZpdD02OTElMkMxMDI0JnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiTW92aWUgUmV2aWV3ICYjODIxMTsgRXZpbCBEZWFkIEJ1cm4gYW5kIFRoZSBJbnZpdGUiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.qCiZQ4QGf5lMO6KN1hmyiqYA6kxp7CRXMOtKLo4yRXUMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDdcL2ltYWdlLTIwMjYtMDctMjdUMTc0NTU0LjMyMS53ZWJwP2ZpdD02OTElMkMxMDI0JnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiTW92aWUgUmV2aWV3IC0gRXZpbCBEZWFkIEJ1cm4gYW5kIFRoZSBJbnZpdGUiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.oUL0_jx4WL4iXWS83X4vtJYS3d4opW9IGoHsWY0iAr0MQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[13],"tags":[15248,15250,15246,15249,599,15251,15252,15247],"class_list":["post-74776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-bob-garver","tag-comedy-movies","tag-evil-dead-burn","tag-horror-movies","tag-movie-reviews","tag-olivia-wilde","tag-seth-rogen","tag-the-invite"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74780,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74776\/revisions\/74780"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}