Archive for the ‘crime’ Category
Author: James
Psy-cop-ath
The latest noir effort – it’s heavy on style, light on content.
Hard-boiled novelist Jim Thompson certainly knew more than was perhaps healthy about the soft underbelly of Americana – the author of the novel on which Michael Winterbottom’s The Killer Inside Me (2010) is based also penned the novels behind Stephen Frear’s The Grifters (1990) and Sam Peckinpah’s The Getaway (1972), both of which feature more than their fair share of solidly unpleasant types.
Author: James
Let’s take a look in the dictionary…
Otilia Ilie returns…
Police, Adjective (2009) is an already well-acclaimed movie from director Corneliu Porumboiu (12:08 East of Bucharest (2006)) – it was officially selected at the New York and Toronto Film Festivals 2009 and was a double prize winner (Jury and Critics Prize) at Cannes 2009.
Author: James
Brave but corruptible
Antoine Fuqua (Training Day (2001), King Arthur (2004)) gives us his finest, writes Otilia Ilie - Brooklyn’s Finest (2009), a movie about cops, drugs, blood-letting and corruption in the Brooklyn neighbourhoods.
Author: Colin
Flat Beat
I got this movie for €5 in amongst a slew of other rare finds. I think I paid around €4.75 too much for it. Naturally, I was excited to get this critically acclaimed film for an absolute steal of a price and in the original, non-dubbed format. Joy. The only slight problem I have with the film having watched it, is that it’s just about the most boring and pointless films I have ever seen. And I mean that. I can’t think of one that comes close to this in the tedium stakes.
Author: James
Long is the way, and hard…
Picturenose is embarking on a bit of a ‘films we have always meant to review’ trip, and this really is one I should have done some time ago. The greatest murder mystery, ever? Discuss.
There are some cinematic experiences that will stay with you, period. Picture the scene – back in 1995, your faithful reviewer (who was, to be fair, already very much into film at that point) was in the process of discovering, in Cheltenham, just how bad he was at being a Häagen-Dazs Ice Cream Café manager.
Author: Colin
Fink’s a lot
Saturday afternoon, nothing worth watching on telly, so what better than to slip a silver disc into the player and enjoy an hour or two of cinematic wonder. That’s what I thought, anyway. The chosen movie (Barton Fink (1991)) divided the camp somewhat. I found it a thought-provoking, gorgeous piece of cinema. The Divine P (my good lady) thought it was ‘a bloody weird movie’. She has a point, although were I to use her critique, it wouldn’t occupy a lot of space.
Author: James
An offer you still can’t refuse…
It’s ‘re-release city’ in the UK at the moment – Francis Ford Coppola’s seminal The Godfather (1972), an adaptation of Mario Puzo’s novel, has also returned to big screens in recent weeks.
Author: James
Sinned against or sinning?
It’s definitely a film of two halves, is Revanche (2008) by writer-director Götz Spielmann (Antares (2004)).
The opening section sees likeable neer-do-well ex-con Alex (Johanes Krisch) struggling to hold it together with his beautiful prostitute girlfriend Tamara (Irina Potapenko) – although the owner Aleksander (Reljic-Bohigas) of the ‘Cinderella’ brothel in Vienna where Tamara works is offering her a flat and more upmarket clients, Alex believes that he can pull off one last bank job and flee South with his love, sorting all their financial problems out at a stroke.
Author: Colin
Something wicked this way comes…
Another outing from the seemingly ‘can’t-lose’ stable of writer-director Shane Meadows. If you enjoyed This is England (2006), and are tempted to view some of his back-catalogue, you may well heed my warning – this is a genuinely unpleasant watch.
Author: James
‘You’re a big man, but you’re in bad shape. With me, it’s a full-time job. Now behave yourself.’
Wonderful things, weekends – you have time to yourself, time to devote to paying due respect to what is simply the finest gangster film ever made. Take it away, Jack…
Mike Hodges’ seminal, Chandleresque study of society’s sickening criminal underbelly, Get Carter (1971) has endured not only as a sublime account of its time’s crimes, a marvellously grimy tale of just how far a well-dressed heavy will go to get even and a stark warning about not messing with family, but also, in much the same way as Bruce Robinson’s Withnail & I (1987), as a treasure trove of supremely quotable quotes that sum up the film’s mood and mores impeccably.
- Colin: Mike: the Matrix was utter toss. Don’t go there. Anyhow, I’m right with you on Aliens –...
- Colin: James: Why not do ten more and see if you can avoid putting the god-awful travesty that is Independence Day in...
- CD: The Day the Earth Stood Still (it’s about an alien who is Jesus…but better than ET) Soylent Green...
- James: Hello Chris, and welcome to Picturenose!
Many thanks for your comment – I thought, in fact, that... - James: Colin, good points, both on Westworld (which should really have been included, I know, I know) and otters.