Blood in the Water (2016)

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Found it strange that two unemployed recent grads were able to convince the home owner that they would be able to take care of this unbelievably beautiful place. Enter Steelgood. His characterization seemed inconsistent with those of Veronica and Percy. Expecting payback from Percy made sense, though. I've paid-back myself, when younger, to someone who had helped me a lot. Jump to the end. Seems like Veronica broke into Steelgood's valise, and discovering all that money, grabbed and stowed it, replacing it with useless paper wrapped in $ 100 bills.Nice swap!Ties in to her final comment in the car where she says, "The best lies contain some truth."Like some other comments, I found the ending confusing.

How can I put this? It's terrible. Almost halfway through and NOTHING has happened. NOTHING. Look we all know where this is going. Guy and girl get an unplanned visit from an 'old friend'. He's sketchy. We get it he's vaguely Hispanic and talks black. He's sketchy. We know there's going to be a love triangle we know the two guys have a past that's going to come back to haunt one of them. We know the girl is going to get sexually involved with the sketchy guy. We know there's going to be some criminal activity with even sketchier dudes. We know the girl is going to get or almost gets raped by the even sketchier dudes. We know there's going to be a fight slash gun battle slash drowning between the first guy and the sketchy guy. We know sketchy guy is on a revenge trip. We know the cop who shows up at the beginning in a brilliant white linen suit isn't a cop. We know the guy and the girl are too dumb to know that. We know no one will ask how the sketchy guy even knew they were living there. We know that with Airbnb no one would rent out their top 5 most amazing homes in all of LA for $150,000 a week for the whole summer because their step daughter and her do nothing boyfriend should use it for free for their summer vacation in their mid 20s.And that's what we know will happen. Problem is nothing happens. SLOW burn is not a synonym. It's a style. It's a tease where you spin out a shaggy dog story in a TV series so that you can stretch 3 episodes into 13. In a movie its just wasted time and film. I can't tell you how many movies now are "the first 75 minutes are terrible but the the last 15 are good. Just make those 15 and skip the rest. Just because you call your little movie a neo noir something or other doesn't mean you can get away with awful cheesy dialog terrible direction a boilerplate script cookie cutter characters and bad acting. And why is almost every actor South African? Do they come as a package deal with the house?

Blood in the Water is a thriller about a dangerous love-triangle set in the alluring backdrop of the Hollywood Hills. The Cummings Brothers deliver a mind-warping narrative that will make you realize things are not as they seem. The introduction of the characters leaves us with many questions when we first meet a battered and bruised young couple, Percy (Alex Russel) and Veronica (Willa Holland). We then learn that they are suspected in the murder of their associate, which propels the suspenseful story forward. We're eventually introduced to Veronica's successful ex boyfriend, Freedgood (Miguel Gomez), who threatens the faithfulness of Percy and Veronica's relationship. Personally, what I liked about this film was its charming set design and striking visuals, which immerses you into the glamorous lifestyle of a multi-millionaire living in Hollywood. The film does a fantastic job at balancing the beauty of scenery with the ugliness of underground drug trade. Definitely recommend seeing this.

It's a super clean story line, that takes you on a intense building plot with an unexpected twist that won't let you down. Great build to final reveal. Not a big production type movie but shot beautifully. All the actors had great chemistry and were totally believable, but Miguel Gomez intensity really stands out. They all have a great future ahead of them. If you enjoy small budget action films that rely on actors over special effects this is the movie for you. The story pacing reminds me of Sunset Blvd as you try to untangle the potential motives animating each character. Not all is what it appears to be with every twist and turn. It clocks in at a short 1.5 hours so it's an easy and enjoyable investment to make for a very entertaining film.