The characters in Vanishing On 7th Street spend most of the time running away from shadows, a notion that initially may sound as silly as seeing people flee from the wind in The Happening, but one that, in the capable hands of director Brad Anderson, gets turned into a nicely low-key hair-raiser of a horror [...]
Read More Brad Anderson, David, DVD, Hayden Christensen, horror, Jacob Latimore, John Leguizamo, Mystery, R, Thandie Newton, thriller, Vanishing on 7th StreetWhen I walked out of the theater after seeing Black Swan for the first time, I thought to myself, “Hey, this cinema thing might still have some fresh juice in it after all.” Love it or hate it, I don’t see many people accusing this film of being stale or unoriginal. That said, though I [...]
Read More Black Swan, blu-ray, Darren Aronofsky, drama, DVD, Mila Kunis, Mystery, Natalie Portman, R, thriller, Vincent Cassel, WInona RyderAfter being betrayed by the organization who hired him, an ex-Federale launches a brutal rampage of revenge against his former bossRR Someone once said, “The difference between good pornography and bad pornography is the addition of plot.” I think it might have been Gandhi.
Read More crime, DVD, horror, Mystery, Noah, R, SawIt took a couple of viewings, but I ultimately found Salt to be the real deal when it comes to action thrillers, a most excellent assault of relentless pacing, cool stunts and ridiculous logic that not only sees star Angelina Jolie back in sexy-shooting mode, but marks a successful return to mainstream form for Australian [...]
Read More action, Angelina Jolie, blu-ray, Chiwetel Ejiofor, crime, Daniel Olybrychski, David, DVD, Kurt Wimmer, Liev Schreiber, Mystery, PG-13, Phillip Noyce, SaltWritten by M. Night Shyamalan, Devil is a film about a mixed crowd of angry everyday people who get stuck in an elevator. Catch is, one of them is the devil. The film had an interesting premise but the amateur script immediately struck me as something that Shyamalan wrote in the course of a few [...]
Read More Devil, DVD, Geoffrey Arend, horror, Jeremy, M Night Shyamalan, Mystery, PG-13, thrillerChristopher Nolan seems to be fond of magic tricks. Sure, he made a whole movie about them (The Prestige), but in his broader career he appears to relish the idea that film itself can be a playful illusion to rival any magician’s sleight-of-hand. I think his newest, the much-discussed, lauded and/or overrated Inception, is as [...]
Read More action, blu-ray, Christopher Nolan, Cillian Murphy, crime, DVD, Ellen Page, Inception, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mystery, PG-13, willAs adaptations of literary sensations go, the film version of late Swedish author Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was good, not great. A bit long, maybe, but hardly the cure for insomnia that was The Da Vinci Code. Its cinematic follow-up, The Girl Who Played with Fire, is a definite step up, [...]
Read More blu-ray, crime, David, DVD, Michael Nyqvist, Mystery, Noomi Rapace, Paolo Roberto, R, Ralph Carlsson, Stieg Larsson, The Girl Who Played With Fire, thriller, Yasmine GarbiThough this slick reboot of the horror franchise featuring razor-gloved boogeyman Freddy Krueger never even comes close to replicating the uniquely unsettling eeriness of the 1984 original, it still makes a pretty decent fright machine. Jackie Earle Haley takes over for role-originator Robert Englund in donning the familiar fedora and red and green sweater of [...]
Read More A Nightmare on Elm Street, David, DVD, horror, Jackie Earle Haley, Katie Cassidy, Mystery, R, Samuel Bayer, thrillerYou might be surprised to learn that you’ve very likely already seen the work of Argentine director Juan José Campanella. Most of his career for the past several years has been directing numerous episodes of American television series, among them House, MD, 30 Rock, and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. He has only directed [...]
Read More blu-ray, crime, Darin, drama, DVD, Guillermo Francella, Juan Jose Campanella, Mystery, R, Ricardo, romance, Soledad Villamil, The Secret In Their Eyes, willGoodness, the British certainly do hate Tony Blair… But, I’m getting ahead of myself. There have been any number of political thrillers released in the last few years, the culmination of the ‘lost years’ of America, where the Bush administration, and its allies in England, have come in for a right kicking over any number [...]
Read More blu-ray, drama, DVD, Ewan McGregor, J.D., Kim Cattrall, Mystery, Olivia Williams, PG-13, Pierce Brosnan, Roman Polanski, The Ghost Writer, thriller, Tony Blair