Tag Archives: thriller

Movie Review: Why pull the trigger when “The Old Woman with the Knife” is available?

Posted on November 4, 2025 by Roger Moore

“The Old Woman with the Knife” is a Korean variation on the World of Assassins tale, where killing for hire is a business with professionals assigned out of offices and following “rules.” It’s another story of an aged killer competing … Continue reading →

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Netflixable? Keira puts to Sea Again to Solve the Mystery of “The Woman in Cabin 10”

Posted on October 16, 2025 by Roger Moore

A novel that wears its Agatha Christie antecedents entirely too obviously becomes a Keira Knightley star vehicle in “The Woman in Cabin 10,” a film whose producers were clever enough and careless enough to cast Guy Pearce as her foil. … Continue reading →

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Classic Film Review: Hitchcock winds the “Ticking Clock” — “Sabotage”(1936)

Posted on August 26, 2025 by Roger Moore

Alfred Hitchcock polished his anecdote about how to become “The Master of Suspense” over the decades, refining his definition of “the ticking clock” thriller to the “bomb under the table” analogy he related for a TV interview very late in … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Corporate Villains Kept at Bay via “Relay”

Posted on August 22, 2025 by Roger Moore

Every thriller needs a good hook, and “Relay” has a doozy. How can you protect your anonymity and preserve your identity in the modern surveillance state, when data harvesting, phone bugging and tracing has moved from the state into the … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Damn Right “She Rides Shotgun”

Posted on July 29, 2025 by Roger Moore

“She Rides Shotgun” is a gripping A-list B-movie, a morally ambigious and illogically logical thriller for our amoral, illogical times. Based on a novel by Ben Harper, Nick Rowland’s film grabs a solid, time-proven scenario — a child, on the … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: A Ghost Story that Maybe Gives too much away with its title — “The Ruse”

Posted on May 12, 2025 by Roger Moore

You’ve got a plot that was clever enough to land veteran character actress Veronica Cartwright (“Sideways,” “Alien,” “The Birds”). Shooting and editing your film, you can’t wait to get to the third act where you can “explain” its cleverness to … Continue reading →

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Classic Film Review: A Ken Loach dip into Dickensiana — “Black Jack” (1979)

Posted on April 15, 2025 by Roger Moore

Ken Loach built his career on films of protest, depicting the oppressed of many places and many eras in their struggle against their oppressors. The Brit’s “socialist realism” was obvious from his breakthrough English working class classic “Kes,” with the … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Chinese Mob Lawyer insists “I Did It My Way”

Posted on March 10, 2025 by Roger Moore

“I Did It My Way” is a Hong Kong cops-vs-Dark Web/Drug Trade thriller that unfolds like a tragic opera, one set to the strains of Frank Sinatra’s third biggest hit. The action, emotions and sentimental turns in the plot are … Continue reading →

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Movie Review: Whatever you do, Don’t Give “Jade” a Blade

Posted on February 4, 2025 by Roger Moore

“Cool” is the lifeblood of an indie thriller. Park your tale in a novel “cool” setting. Serve up a “cool” heist/scheme/plot, preferably with epic brawls, chases or shootouts. Cast a cool heavy. But even if you ignore or narrowly miss … Continue reading →

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Classic Film Review: Accept no Substititute for this Suspsense Masterpiece — “The Wages of Fear” (1953)

Posted on January 13, 2025 by Roger Moore

Stanley Kubrick was among the most famous filmmakers to assert that if you can’t tell what’s happening in a film — the emotions and motivations of the characters and the point of it all — with the sound turned off, … Continue reading →

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