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Point of Contact is a 2006 horror film starring Buddy Dolan (who is also the writer and producer), Mikki Padilla, and James Kyson Lee(best known for Ando in the Heroes television series). Jake McCormick (Dolan) experiences an accident in his youth resulting in him being in a coma for 12 years. Despite being clinically dead for 9 hours, Jake survives somehow and amazingly loses no muscle mass during his coma. Upon waking up from the coma unexpectedly, Jake finds he has an odd ability to "sense" people, including spirits. A year later, Jake has began a relationship with a nurse that cared for him during his coma, and still struggles with interactions with the spirit world. Ultimately, Jake begins working with a team to help those spirits.

To be blunt -- this movie is an absolute mess. According to IMDb, it was originally shot as a 60 minute pilot for a TV series, and then an additional half hour was added to make it into a feature film. As a television series, it would have been horrible. As a 90 minute film, it's somehow worse. The film opens when Jake is a youth; then there's a time jump of 12 years; then another jump of 3 months; and finally a time jump to "present day" with no indication of when that really is. The actor portraying Jake (Buddy Dolan) wears a ridiculous wig throughout the first 30-40 minutes of the movie, which is really distracting. "Present day" Jake has gone from long, thick hair (that didn't thin out or change during his time in the coma or afterwards) to a heavily thinned and receded hairline, making him almost unrecognizable as the same actor.

In addition, the movie has tons of "filler" scenes of spirits swirling around the live actors and/or flashbacks in which Jake "senses" the spirits. Unfortunately, these scenes make little sense and are never really clarified later on. There's also a nearly 2 minute scene of Jake walking through a hotel in slow motion to rock music while looking to meet a psychic book author (after being encouraged to meet her by a spirit). Sadly, the scenes with actual dialog aren't much better in terms of cohesiveness. Jake's relationship is seemingly over (with no explanation) in "present day." The scene between Jake and the author is awkward and nonsensical. And there's ultimately no ending -- the movie simply stops, which seems oddly appropriate as there was no resolution needed, given that there wasn't anything resembling a coherent storyline.

It feels as if they had enough story for about 30 minutes of film and stretched that originally to 50-60 minutes for a TV pilot, and then again to 90 minutes to make a feature film. The movie ends up being something of an incomplete puzzle -- many of the pieces are there for a story and the viewer has to try to assemble them into something sensible; but overall a few key pieces in the center are clearly missing, making for an incomprehensible image.

Out of Office is a 2022 Comedy Central exclusive film that focuses on the reality of working from home via video chats. The film begins with Eliza (Milana Vayntrub) as she interviews with a technology company via video chat, and despite having no qualifications, manages to land the job by giving the boss horrible relationship advice. The film features an ensemble cast of well-known comedic actors -- Jason Alexander and Cheri Oteri star as Eliza's parents; Ken Jeong and Jay Pharoah star as members of the new company Eliza begins working with; Leslie Jones stars as Jeong's angry wife; and Jim Rash (Community) and Oscar Nunez (who seemed to channel Michael Scott in his role) are in supporting roles. The primary story of the film revolves around Eliza's entry into the company; the awkward connections between all of the employees; as well as a healthy dose of uncomfortableness surrounding the pasts and social lives of some of the characters.

All the comedy in the film is based on the idea of the silliness and distractions that can come from working at home. While there are certainly some laugh out loud moments (typically tied to the antics of Jeong), there are also a lot of jokes that fall flat and feel overly forced. In addition, the awkward dramatic elements (which mostly feature in the last third of the film) detract from the comedy and bring the mood of the film down quite a bit, leaving a less than satisfactory ending.

Overall, the film feels like an extended pilot for a television series that may be a bit too close to The Office to really be successful. It unfortunately also struggles with its identity a bit -- it begins as a typical comedy but ends more as a dramedy.

A new virus on Earth is afflicting plant-life world-wide, ultimately threatening to destroy all life on the planet. A team of scientists racing to find a way to save humanity discover alien technology that has been buried in the planet for eons. The technology not only unlocks the ability for humanity to terraform a new planet to survive on, but provides a warp drive necessary to make the trip. A team of astronauts and scientists set out to save humankind. Unfortunately, once they begin their mission in space, they find out the alien technology may have its own plans.

Project Gemini is a Russian film, released in the US by Well Go USA on blu-ray and DVD. The premise sounds quite good, and the trailer looks solid. Sadly, the actual film simply misses the mark. Billed as a science fiction thriller, the film borrows ideas and effects from other popular sci-fi films (such as Alien), but unlike the Alien franchise, the "thrills" in Project Gemini are more the calibre of a SyFy Channel original. The film clearly isn't a low budget production as the special effects are decent. But while the effects are adequate, most everything else falls short -- the characters are quite cardboard with little depth; the twists and turns aren't that new or interesting; and the overall story just falls flat despite having a lot of promise.

Interestingly, despite being a Russian production, the US release is entirely in English, although it looks as if the actors may simply be lip syncing, because the audio and lips don't always line up perfectly (some of the listed online credits do list a separate set of actors for the main characters who are credited as providing the English voiceovers, but it's unclear how accurate that is). The blu-ray release does include a very short (3-4 minute) "Making of" featurette, but it doesn't shed a lot of light on the movie.

Overall, this should have been better, and ultimately comes off as below average sci-fi fare.