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Mini Reviews (September 2017)

Little Evil

Little Evil (September 21/17)

Rarely (if ever) as hilarious as its premise, Little Evil follows Adam Scott’s Gary as he becomes convinced that his new wife’s (Evangeline Lilly's Samantha) son is, in fact, the Antichrist. It’s a fantastic setup that’s employed to consistently underwhelming effect by writer/director Eli Craig, as the filmmaker delivers a sitcom-level atmosphere that’s riddled with ineffective elements - with, especially, the almost total lack of laughs ranking high on the movie’s laundry list of deficiencies. It doesn’t help, either, that many of the (admittedly talented) performers have been wedged into one-note, one-dimensional characters, with this vibe especially prominent in the case of Lilly’s eye-rollingly air-headed, oblivious Samantha (ie it’s just too much to take after a certain point). Craig attempts to juice the proceedings by placing a number of familiar faces in supporting roles, including Chris D’Elia, Kyle Bornheimer, and Donald Faison, and yet it’s perhaps not surprising to discover that each and every one of these genuinely talented figures is entirely unable to make a notable impact. The movie’s final stretch stands as a small improvement over what came before, to be fair, and there’s little doubt that the action-packed conclusion is far more exciting than one might’ve anticipated - with the improved atmosphere ultimately arriving far too late to compensate for a nigh disastrous opening hour.

out of

© David Nusair