Tag Archives: thriller

Movie Review: A Locksmith lives to Regret Taking that One “Night Call”

I’m of two minds about that subgenre we call the hero/heroine with “particular skills” thriller. The parade of Liam Neeson/Jason Statham/John Cena et al action pictures where this mobster, that rogue government or rogue government agency or creepy neighbor crosses … Continue reading

Posted in Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Movie Review: A Locksmith lives to Regret Taking that One “Night Call”

Netflixable? Megan Fox, robotic in her “Subservience”

Saying Megan Fox is well cast as a robotic household “helper” in “Subservience” seems kind of mean. And one really should avoid using the phrase “human sex doll” in describing her role here, or her screen career in general. “Subservience” … Continue reading

Posted in Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Netflixable? Megan Fox, robotic in her “Subservience”

Netflixable? A TSA agent is blackmailed into letting somebody’s “Carry-On” slide by

The “talking villain” is played by Jason Bateman. So as you might guess, he damned near talks us all to death. The scenario is within the realm of possibilities, but juiced and dragged-out with so many eye-rolling “Hollywood” twists that … Continue reading

Posted in Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Netflixable? A TSA agent is blackmailed into letting somebody’s “Carry-On” slide by

Classic Film Review: Hitchcock Close-ups and Cuts at their Most “Notorious”

A purloined key, handed-off and hidden, then “returned” with dire consequences, bottles of wine whose “vintage” sticker earns a lot of attention, a party’s champagne bucket, emptying steadily and suspensefully and the look of doom in a great actress’s ready-for-my-closeup … Continue reading

Posted in Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Classic Film Review: Hitchcock Close-ups and Cuts at their Most “Notorious”

Movie Review: A Clumsy Whodunit within a Whodunit stuck in a “Glass Casa”

A killer “Glass House” location and pretty much nothing else recommend “Glass Casa.” It’s a comic thriller whose clumsy structure, limp performances and forgettable dialogue do nothing to separate it from the pack of similar movies that trap a bunch … Continue reading

Posted in Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Movie Review: A Clumsy Whodunit within a Whodunit stuck in a “Glass Casa”

Movie Review: Whigham and Coon, a Hitman and his “Victim,” may never get to “Lake George”

An ex-con is arm-twisted into solving “a little problem that needs to go away” — a mobster’s ex-girlfriend — in “Lake George,” a dark, dry and funny “hit-man” thriller where the “hit-man” keeps insisting “I don’t do that kind of … Continue reading

Posted in Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Movie Review: Whigham and Coon, a Hitman and his “Victim,” may never get to “Lake George”

Classic Film Review: Hitchcock’s first take on the dainty and deadly “The Man Who Knew Too Much” (1934)

The earliest signs that the filmmaker would one day to be branded as “The Master of Suspense” in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1927 silent classic “The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog.” But it took the advent of sound, and several … Continue reading

Posted in Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Classic Film Review: Hitchcock’s first take on the dainty and deadly “The Man Who Knew Too Much” (1934)

Movie Review: A French “Robin Hood” robber enjoys “Freedom,” between heists and prison time

The ambitiously titled “Freedom” is a heist picture that makes more promises than it keeps. The latest feature from actress turned director Mélanie Laurent (“Now You See Me,” “The Flood”) sets up as a French Robin Hood tale of an … Continue reading

Posted in Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Movie Review: A French “Robin Hood” robber enjoys “Freedom,” between heists and prison time

Classic Film Review: Hitchcock becomes “Hitch” — “The 39 Steps” (1935)

While he was alive, critics had little trouble finding ways to discount Alfred Hitchcock’s genius and underrate his later decades of entertaining, bubbly and even chilling thrillers. Because that generation of reviewers remembered “The 39 Steps.” This 1935 romp of … Continue reading

Posted in Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Classic Film Review: Hitchcock becomes “Hitch” — “The 39 Steps” (1935)

Netflixable? Troubled Couple’s Children have “Vanished into the Night”

The stakes could not be higher in the thriller “Vanished into the Night.” A father, in debt and going through a divorce, loses his children to kidnappers and must reconnect with a hoodlum from his wayward youth to raise the … Continue reading

Posted in Reviews, previews, profiles and movie news | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Netflixable? Troubled Couple’s Children have “Vanished into the Night”