Category: Mystery
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About halfway through 8 Million Ways to Die, I realized–thanks to a boom mike–my twenty year-old laserdisc was open matte, not pan and scan. The widescreen zoomed suddenly made the shots tighter and crisper, regaining Ashby’s usually calmness. I suppose I should have stopped and went back to the beginning to see if it made…
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The Silent Partner starts a little bit better than it turns out in the end, from a filmmaking standpoint. The sound design is so phenomenal in the build-up, I actually made note of it. I usually don’t make notes unless it’s something terrible and I want to make sure to bring it up. I fully…
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Watching The Lookout, I never really wondered how Joseph Gordon-Levitt was going to do. I wondered about Jeff Daniels, for instance, since Daniels spent the late 1990s working up his number of excellent performances only to fade from things I watch. Gordon-Levitt… looking over his IMDb, I’m not sure the guy’s ever been bad. He…
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As innocuous as Evil Under the Sun can get–and expecting anything else from it seems unintended–the film does have a slightly discomforting feel about it. Perhaps it’s the extraordinary level of benignity, but at times, it really does seem like Peter Ustinov (as Hercule Poirot) is going to be murdered by each and every person…
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If Steven Spielberg used to be “the kid who’d never grow up,” I always figured David Fincher would always be “the disaffected teen who never grew up,” which is why Zodiac is so surprising. It’s a mature, thoughtful work, one I wouldn’t have even associated with Fincher if I hadn’t known. It’s calm and thoughtful,…
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Starting Apartment Zero, I couldn’t remember why I’d wanted to see the film. I had a feeling it was going to be something I’d since dismissed and it was–Apartment Zero is David Koepp’s first screenwriting credit. He co-wrote the film. Koepp’s an odd person to look for, since his writing is so vanilla and indistinct,…
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Ransom is not Richard Price’s only “big Hollywood” movie (and it’s probably not his most anomalous one either), but there’s something very particular about the film. You’re watching a mix of various 1990s genres–a Mel Gibson movie, a Richard Price cop movie, and a Ron Howard movie. Except not the current Oscar-bait Ron Howard, the…
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The Seven-Ups is a fascist daydream beyond almost any cinematic compare, certainly American cinema (except maybe a Charles Bronson movie from the 1980s or something). And it’s not a cheap, 1970s exploitation picture either. Yes, to some degree it’s cheap (Roy Scheider and Tony Lo Bianco are the only two recognizable principals), but producer and…
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Harper may very well be an anachronism. I’m not quite sure how to use the word. There’s certainly something off about it. It’s based on a novel written in 1949–a detective novel in the vein of Chandler, which explains why it feels like Chandler–but then it’s filmed in 1966 and it’s not a period piece,…
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The Last of Sheila has the most constantly deceptive structure I’ve seen in a while. Watching the time code on the DVD player (and on the laserdisc and VHS players before it, and the clock for televised films even before those inventions) really changes the way one experiences a film. I’m always telling my fiancée…
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I think I figured out what makes Bruce Surtees’s 1980s photography so particular–he’s accounting for grain in film stock where there’s no significant grain (as opposed to, say, his films of the 1970s). Tightrobe has a muted cleanliness to it, which really doesn’t fit the story–cop who frequents prostitutes versus serial killer of same prostitutes.…
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The Black Windmill features Michael Caine and John Vernon shooting it out with Uzis. I’m sorry, I’m wrong. They’re shooting it out with MAC-10s. It’s an absurdity worthy of Siegel’s directorial protege Clint Eastwood–actually, Eastwood might have been paying homage to Siegel’s choice of lunacy here in Blood Work (when the serial killer happened to…
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A miscast Paul Newman (he’s a British spy posing as an Australian for a bunch of the movie) tries to take down corrupt politician James Mason. Huston’s direction dilly-dallies and lolly-gags when it’s not dawdling. The script (credited solely to Walter Hill, who swears it’s not his fault) is bad. Newman having zero chemistry with…
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Walter Matthau hated Charley Varrick. He must have been stuck in a contract or something. It’s understandable why he did, however. Matthau’s whole image is one of the likable curmudgeons. Varrick casts him as a gum-chewing (for that Matthau effect) bank robber… who doesn’t do it because he needs the money, but because crop dusting…
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Exceeding entertaining comedic crime thriller about Josh Hartnett getting stuck between warring New York crime bosses Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley. The cast–also including Lucy Liu, Bruce Willis, and Stanley Tucci–is enough to make it watchable but the film’s got an excellent script (by Jason Smilovic) and direction from McGuigan. Great lead performance from Hartnett,…
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Stupefyingly bad “steamy,” “sexy” thriller about San Francisco DA David Caruso getting involved in the shenanigans related to old pal Chazz Palminteri and old flame Linda Fiorentino. Fiorentino married Palminteri instead of Caruso, adding to the angst. Lousy script by Joe Eszterhas, lousy direction by Friedkin–the film utterly wastes its three leads, though–at best–it only…
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Ostensible mystery thriller (written by Arthur Miller) about renowned private investigator Nick Nolte taking Debra Winger’s case, even though she doesn’t give him any information about the case. It’s not exactly predictable but if Nolte’s so good, he really should piece things together based on the clues we get. There’s romance at some point, but…
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Exasperatingly over-stylized adaptation of the Frank Miller comic has a bunch of good performances and a bunch of bad ones. The three stories–which are cut together in the regular version, separate in this extended version–range in quality big-time. As “Hard R” film noir… it comes off more like PULP FICTION with CW Network actors. Clive…
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Decent, albeit predictable thriller about Val Kilmer waking up with amnesia and surrounded by shady characters. Plus he’s got a wife (Neve Campbell) he can’t remember; she doesn’t like the waitress, played by Amy Smart, who’s been helping Kilmer out. Definitely needs a better title–there are no horizons, no one’s blind–but strong performances from everyone,…
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Should be good (or at least better) disaster thriller about news reporter Jane Fonda and her rugged cameraman (Michael Douglas, who also produced, in a risible performance) happening upon an nuclear power plant “event” coverup involving plant supervisor Jack Lemmon. Great supporting performance from Wilford Brimley, waste of both Lemmon and Fonda’s time. Director Bridges…
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Dreadful thriller has poor old me millionaire Michael Douglas getting the ultimate birthday gift from estranged brother Sean Penn: a live action role-playing game, just one with femme fatales (Deborah Kara Unger–or is she), killer clowns (or is it), and inevitable car chases. Lousy performance from Douglas. Good one from Penn but it’s not enough.…
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Middling (at best), “handsome,” Oscar-bait adaptation of James Ellroy corrupt cops novel set in early fifties L.A.. Good performance from Russell Crowe and a great one from Kevin Spacey can’t make up for ineffective lead Guy Pearce, risibily bad Kim Basinger turn as femme fatale, or director Hanson and Brian Helgeland’s disjointed script. It also…
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Gentle, deliberate dramatic mystery/thriller (reuniting director Yates with BREAKING AWAY writer Steve Tesich) has custodian William Hurt lying about witnessing a crime so he can cozy up with TV reporter Sigourney Weaver, who he’s got a major crush on. Excellent performance from Hurt, sometimes excellent, sometimes not performance from Weaver. Not quite successful but a…
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Sylvester Stallone’s a small town sheriff taking on dirty New York cops after internal affairs guy Robert De Niro inspires him to be a better cop. Beautifully made, some wonderful performances, but it doesn’t quite come together. The director’s cut adds thirteen minutes of not significant enough to make a difference side plots. DVD.Continue reading…
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Should be good, but isn’t thriller has blind musician Madeleine Stowe getting a cornea transplant, only to have someone target all the recipients of the donor’s organs. Aidan Quinn and James Remar are cops, Peter Friedman is the doctor. All of them are romantically interested in Stowe, maybe dangerously. Great performance from Stowe can’t save…
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Superlative mystery drama about L.A. private investigator Gene Hackman going to Florida on a case (to avoid his crumbling marriage to Susan Clark) and getting mixed up with stunt men, smuggling, and Jennifer Warren. Young Melanie Griffith is the missing person in the initial case. Exceptional performances from Hackman and Warren. Clark’s real good too.…
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Beautifully written (by Richard Price) mystery has Al Pacino as a bachelor cop who tries to catch a killer who picks his victims through a dating service. Ellen Barkin is the date who becomes more than part of the job. Phenomenal performances from Pacino, Barkin, and John Goodman; great use of the New York City…
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