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Suspense / Thriller

Revelations

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 20th, 2005

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Evil sells. From the time of Adam and Eve it appears that Satan makes for great storytelling. The mini-series from NBC gets its name, obviously, from Revelations, the final book in the Bible. Combine the idea of pure evil and the end of times and you get… well, The Omen. Revelations deals more with the impending Armageddon than it actually does with the Anti-Christ. The clash of science and religion is far more important in this film than past films like The Omen. Bill Pullman is a good choice here. His portrayal of a Harvard scientist caught in the middle of this epic tale contains just the right reserved element to make him completely believable.
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Momentum

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on August 19th, 2005

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Synopsis

A gang of thieves using telekinetic powers is on the loose. They are the result of CIA experiments decades ago, but only about-to-retire Louis Gossett, Jr. (remember when he had a theatrical release career?) takes the threat seriously. He enlists a similarly powered young physics professor to infiltrate the gang. Meanwhile, FBI agent Teri Hatcher is also on the case. The poor prof is soon in over his head.

Nothing here that hasn’t been done before and better. Take Firestarter, for instance, and that movie isn’t even that good. The production is workmanlike but ho-hum, and the telekinetic drafted to fight bad guys by means of budget-conscious special effects puts me in mind of a failed TV pilot I saw back in the 70s: The Man With The Power.

Audio

The audio is a generous 5.1 (one of the few generous things about this bare-bones disc). The placement of the sound effects is good, and the sense of an environment is quite nicely done. The dialgoue is clear and undistorted. The music sounds fine, though it isn’t exactly booming.

Video

The colours are very strong, with excellent flesh tones. The blacks are deep, the contrasts fine, and the image is sharp. In other words, a very good transfer. So even if what’s on the screen isn’t really worth watching, it looks nice.

Special Features

Nothing here but a trailer for Sin City and (surprise, surprise) Desperate Housewives. The menu is basic.

Closing Thoughts

Deeply ordinary stuff. Don’t waste your time.

Special Features List

Trailers

Paranoid

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 12th, 2005

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Synopsis

Model Jessica Alba heads off to a party in the country with her current boyfriend. The house is owned by the members of a once-popular rock band, and there are creepy dolls and a deaf-mute young woman about. Alba wakes up the next morning abandoned by her boyfriend and imprisoned by the family. The only person who might be able to help her is the obscene caller who’s been causing her so much grief.

This is one of those movies that you forget even as you watch it, because almost eve…
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Target

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 7th, 2005

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Synopsis

Lately various studios have been releasing films with Gene Hackman onto DVD, films like Scarecrow and Twice in a Lifetime. And after a run in 1983’s Uncommon Valor, he teamed with Matt Dillon (The Flamingo Kid) in 1985’s Target, the proverbial Cold War spy thriller.

Directed by Arthur Penn (Bonnie and Clyde) Walter (Hackman) and Chris Lloyd (Dillon) are a father and son who don’t get along very well, as Walter wants Chris to do something with his …
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Film Noir Classic Collection Vol. 2

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on August 3rd, 2005

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Synopsis

There are two Lawrence Tierney vehicles here, and the first is the one that made his name, the 1945 Dillinger. Told in flashback for no visible reason, this chronicles Dillinger’s rise from naive and incompetent thief to ruthless, brutal gang leader, and his ultimate fall. There are some startlingly brutal scenes here, for the time, and if Tierney isn’t quite as scary as James Cagney in White Heat, he’s still plenty menacing.

He’s even scarier as an out-and-out psycho…
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Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 22nd, 2005

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Synopsis

In 1927, young Charlotte Hollis’ married lover (a young Bruce Dern) is hacked apart with a meat cleaver, and Charlotte’s blood-stained dress points to her as the murderer. There is never sufficient evidence, however, and she is never charged, but lives on as the subject of endless gossip, slowly going mad. In 1964, Charlotte (Bette Davis) is decaying as much as her house, which is about to be torn down to make way for a highway. She refuses to give up the house or her past, and, convinced th…
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Hide and Seek

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on June 24th, 2005

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Synopsis

After the suicide of his wife, psychologist De Niro takes his traumatized daughter Dakota Fanning off to a house in the woods to recover. Fanning begins to exhibit strange, hostile behaviour associated with her imaginary friend, Charlie. Then, as the violence escalates, De Niro realizes that Charlie might well be real after all.

Sigh. Another thriller with a twist. Half a second of thought will probably tell you what it is, since it’s the same twist we’ve seen in just about every p…
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Man on Fire

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 2nd, 2005

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Man on Fire is a stylish thriller with excellent performances at the heart. Denzel Washington plays Creasey, an ex CIA/assassin who is too tired of the killing. Now out of the game, Creasey sticks to drinking in Mexico City. Enter Rayburn, an old buddy (played by the wonderful Christopher Walken). He has a potential job for the down and out Creasey. A string of abductions and kidnappings in the city (Mexico City is the real life kidnap capital of the world) forces a young industrialist (Marc Anthony)and h…
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House of Bamboo

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 31st, 2005

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Synopsis

This remake of The Street With No Name shifts the scene from mid-40s US to mid-50s Japan. Robert Ryan heads up a ruthless gang of ex-GIs, and uses pachinko parlours as acover for his robberies. He recruits Robert Stack into his gang, little suspecting that Stack is, infact, an undercover investigator.

Samuel Fuller’s reworking plays up the homoerotic undercurrent (which Richard Widmarknonetheless conveyed quite effectively in the original), and Robert Stack i…
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Nightmare Alley

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 30th, 2005

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Synopsis

Tyrone Power is the amoral Stan, a carny worker who will use anybody, especially women,to facilitate his climb to the top. Joan Blondell is the carnival medium who teaches him the tricksof the trade. He dumps her for Coleen Gray, and is soon a performer in the big nightclubs. Butthat isn’t enough for him, and he overreaches when he allies himself with Helen Walker, anunscrupulous psychologist who is an even smarter operator than he is.

A noir-drenched rise and fall …
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Machinist, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 29th, 2005

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Guilt’s a bitch. It can drive you down the road to insanity, and turn your life upside-down. The Machinist is an interesting story that leaves you guessing right until the end. The story moves a little slow, but the performances are impressive and the cumulative tale is well done. Watching Christian Bale portray lead character Trevor Reznik is both impressive and disturbing. Bale looks like a shell of himself; shedding an astounding 63 pounds to play this role. Bale is so thin that you can see every rib …
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Street With No Name, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on May 28th, 2005

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Synopsis

The FBI, determined to crack a gangland case involving two murders, sends undercoveragent Mark Stevens to the mean streets. Posing as a lowlife, he is recruited by sinister crime bossRichard Widmark. Stevens soon discovers that Widmark is indeed the man responsible for thekillings, but he needs concrete evidence before the FBI can move in. Meanwhile, Widmark hasan agent of his own in the ranks of the police, and Stevens’ cover may soon be blown.

The opening minutes …
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Fascination

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on May 27th, 2005

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Fascination is a potboiler without a pot. It loosely follows the plot of Hamlet. Adam Garcia plays Scott Doherty, a spoiled young artiste who sulks more than Anakin Skywalker. Scott’s father dies (played by James Naughton) under mysterious circumstances, and his wife (played by the “still a hotty” Jacqueline Bisset”) returns from a cruise with a new beau (Stuart Wilson). Scott smells something fishy, and with the help of a new stepsister/lover (Alice Evans), he tries to get to the bottom of this crime. So…
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White Noise

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 24th, 2005

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White Noise borrows much from the successful cycle of modern horror films. There is a tremendous likeness to both The Ring and FearDotCom. The use of a television screen for eerie f/x and a few shocks reminds us of the former, while the torture of the kidnapped victim in industrial and dank surroundings is taken right out of the latter. White Noise has some wonderfully disturbing moments. The atmosphere is rank with just enough possibility to be truly scary at times. Michael Keaton adds that element of respectability and believability which carries a weak script much farther than it deserves. I should also point out that the cinematography is simply brilliant.
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Hear No Evil

Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 22nd, 2005

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A cast that included Martin Sheen and Marlee Matlin made Hear No Evil appear promising. Sheen is too little used to be very effective, and Matlin’s acting is often overshadowed by a director too eager for use to experience her deafness. I always found that her strength was the power of her performance in spite of the handicap. This film goes to excessive lengths to remind us she is deaf, just in case we happen to miss the point. Often the soundtrack goes silent, apparently to portray the action from Matlin’s point of view.
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Frank Sinatra Collection

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 27th, 2005

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Synopsis

Directed by Gordon (Them!) Douglas, these three crime thrillers have Frank Sinatra doing his best hard boiled as he unravels complicated (and not always entirely comprehensible) mysteries.

Tony Rome (1967) has Sinatra in Miami Beach as the titular PI, a former cop who still has plenty of connections. A simple task — returning a drunk young woman to her rich father — leads to a web of murder and blackmail as all sorts of interested parties chasing around, beating up …
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Crook, The

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 26th, 2005

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Synopsis

This is a film that delights in not being what it appears. The opening moments look like a period gangster film. Suddenly, the scene transforms into a musical. Then this turns out to be movie within the movie. And so it goes, as one scene after another turns out not to be what we thought it was. The plot has roguishly charming Jean-Louis Trintignant setting up a kidnapping scheme with two colleagues. I can’t say much more without giving away the whole plot and the strange circuit on which it…
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Enduring Love

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 24th, 2005

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Enduring Love claims to be a psychological thriller, but comes across as more of a drama then a thriller. The story moves along quite slowly and the overall tone of the film is somewhat dry. The story does take a few interesting turns, and does keep you guessing at times, the story was not suspenseful enough to keep my eyes peeled to the screen for the span of the film.

One thing I can say about this film is that the story is different than anything that I have seen before. It touches upon some od…
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Wild Things 3 – Diamonds in the Rough

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 22nd, 2005

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There are just some trilogy’s that should not be made – and the Wild Things trilogy is one of them. This is not really a trilogy per se, since each of the films carries with it the same story, with the same twists. If you have seen the first, you have basically seen each of the sequels… except the sequels are both much worse. Take out the big name actors and make a direct-to-DVD release… and you have Wild Things: Diamonds In The Rough.

I am sure you all know the story by now, but here is a brief syn…
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Suspect Zero

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on April 21st, 2005

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The Film

Suspect Zero follows the contradictory teacher/student relationship between serial killer Benjamin O’Ryan (Ben Kingsley) and FBI Agent-in-Pursuit Tom Mackelway (Aaron Eckhart, sporting as much chin as Bruce Campbell). O’Ryan is a tormented refugee of a government program to tap psychic powers for military intelligence, and Mackelway is a borderline-rogue agent, tormented by visions and headaches. Without letting slip any spoilers, the movie sees O’Ryan draw their paths together in pur…
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Crimson Rivers – Angels of the Apocalypse

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on April 2nd, 2005

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Synopsis

A monk is found walled up alive in an eccentric monastery, and Inspector Niemans (JeanReno) is on the case. Murders multiply around the country, connecting the cases worked on byNiemans and a young hotshot (Benoit Magimel, whose role is very similar to the one played byVincent Cassell in the original). The victims are all deeply religious, were all disciples of asurvivor who bears a more-than-passing resemblance to Jesus, and have the names andprofessions of the Disciples. They mur…
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Lady in a Cage

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 29th, 2005

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Synopsis

Olivia de Havilland is recovering from a broken hip, and uses a home elevator to get to thesecond floor of her very big house. One this particular sweltering day, her smothered son drivesoff, accidentally bumping a electric pole with is car, and cutting off the power to the house justas the elevator is reaching the upper floor. De Havilland is trapped in a cage, suspended a goodfifteen feet off the floor. Then a wino discovers her predicament, and helps himself to some ofhe…
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Dead End

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 13th, 2005

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Synopsis

Welcome to the Lower East Side, where the high-rise apartments of the super-rich abut thetenements on the riverside. Here Joel McCrea, a poor would-be architect, is infatuated with richgirl Wendy Barrie, while poor girl Sylvia Sidney pines for him, all the while trying to save heryounger brother from a life of crime on the streets. Into the scene strides Humphrey Bogart as awanted killer, coming home to try to reconnect with his mother and an old flame. Intersectingwith the…
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Heat

Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 11th, 2005

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I don’t remember hearing anything about Heat when it was coming out, but once I saw who was in it, I was hooked. With Al Pacino’s 8 Oscar nominations (with 1 award) and Robert DeNiro’s 6 nominations (and 2 awards), the two have had quintessential acting performances over the past 30 years, and the impact they have had on cinema speaks for itself.

The names of the characters are hardly consequential, as they are used to further storylines more than develop character. But Pacino plays a cop who is tr…
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Shadow of Fear

Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on March 6th, 2005

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Synopsis

Driving home one rainy night after losing an important deal, Matt Davis runs over a manstanding in the middle of a deserted country road. Repressing his initial impulse to call thepolice, Davis tries to cover up his crime. But then he finds out that not only are the police veryinterested in the victim, who might be involved with a local bank robbery, but that said victimmight also be his brother-in-law. Threatened with losing everything, Davis turns to sinisterlawyer James …
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