Either both of Fuze’s New York theatrical engagements happen to be plagued with the same sound problems, or the mix itself is so bad that it renders the rest of this new movie basically impossible to evaluate.

What’s a sadder indictment on the current state of affairs: David Mackenzie dropping to Saban Films, or AMC dropping to playing Saban Films, instead of where they belong at Cinema Village?

Fuze boasts Saban’s signature cost-cutting combination of an action premise without any of those costly action sequences.

And I’m not hating on Saban! I’ll be forever grateful that Cinema Village’s Saban run in the late 2010s — leading-man swan songs for the starry likes of Bruce Willis, Al Pacino, John Travolta, Morgan Freeman, and the lost-in-the-woods phase for Nicholas Cage — apexed with Brendan Fraser’s otherworldly performance in 2019’s otherwise forgettable The Poison Rose, a niche harbinger of his subsequent renaissance.

Brendan, you still owe Sam Hunter a production!

---

As for one of the lede’s potentially offending theaters, Kips Bay remains among the last Manhattan AMCs without laser projection. While probably a bleak sign for its future…some movies are an apter match for pre-laser aesthetics.

In the spirit of naming names: the other potential offender is AMC Empire. This wasn’t Fuze’s problem, but I do find scores to be too low in the mix across New York AMCs.