Archive for the ‘thriller’ Category
Author: Colin
Hail to The King, baby
Don Coscarelli, the director who brought us The Beastmaster (1982) and Phantasm (1979) is not a name that would immediately leap to mind should someone mention ‘cult classic’. Phantasm, while original and oddly engaging in its time, was hardly a cult classic. Popular, yes – and certainly better than a lot of the dross around at the end of the 70s – but I wonder how many fans of the original Phantasm have watched what is probably, nay, certainly Coscarelli’s best feature to date?
Author: James
Perchance to dream
Cinema has enjoyed a fertile (if occasionally vexed) relationship with the world of dreams – from Hitchcock’s collaboration with Salvador Dali in Spellbound (1945), to the more recent Abre Los Ojos (1997) and remake Vanilla Sky (2001), the fascination with what dreams may come, what they may mean and their relationship with what we describe as ‘reality’, has held audiences in thrall.
Author: James
Paradise lost
An initially inventive but ultimately disappointing ‘end-of-the-world’ fable. Picture the scene – it’s the run-up to Christmas on the outskirts of Las Vegas, and a motley crew is gathered in the Paradise Falls desert diner, owned by Bob Hanson (Dennis Quaid). First of all, there’s his son Jeep (Lucas Black), who has, against his dad’s wishes, devoted himself to eight-month pregnant Charlie (Adrianne Palicki). The kid’s not his, but he’s in love, and Hanson Senior doesn’t want to see his son get trapped into a dead-end existence, as he was.
Author: James
‘The great whatsit’
Definitely a film we should have reviewed a while ago – Robert Aldrich, who was one of the most subversive directors ever to come out of Hollywood, takes a run-of-the-mill Mickey Spillane-Mike Hammer yarn, and turns it into one of the most revered, referenced cult movies of all time. What’s in the box? Wouldn’t you like to know…
Author: James
Wielders of Mass Deception
Paul Greengrass’s cinematic deconstruction (and destruction) of the reasons why the US went to war in Iraq.
For me, Paul Greengrass fell from favour more than a little with his previous film, The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) – after the slick, high-pitched excitement of The Bourne Supremacy (2004), the gritty, hand-held, POV, faux-documentary approach did not sit well at all with an action franchise drawing favourable comparisons with Bond.
Author: James
Just ‘tanfastic’
Álex de la Iglesia (The Oxford Murders (2008)) manages a near-’ferpect’ blend of genres with Crimen Ferpecto (Ferpect Crime) (2004) – a much lauded, much-awarded comedy-thriller of the blackest pitch.
Rafael (Guillermo Toledo) has the world at his fingertips – a model fashion salesman, he is confident, arrogant, and is happily enjoying the women and freedom of a bachelor lifestyle. Naturally, he’s had his way with the pretty sales girls who work, er, under him, all except one – the seemingly shy, ugly-duckling Lourdes (Mónica Cervera). It’s all going great, until he is pitched against another salesman Don Antonio Fraguas (Luis Varela) for the position of floor manager.
Author: James
‘Mother is…not quite herself today’
Yes, yes, it’s me, banging on again about yet another film you’ve almost certainly seen at least 50 times already, and explaining why you really should fork out some hard-earned to watch it again at the picture house.
But ladies and gentlemen, this is Psycho (1960) we’re talking about here – do I have to try that hard to convince you?
Author: James
Not up to speed
Since his Oscar-winning The Departed (2006), Martin Scorsese, the man who can perhaps lay claim to being America’s greatest living director, has been going a little ‘experimental’, with a documentary on The Rolling Stones, Shine A Light (2008) and a Spanish short, The Key To Reserva (2007) his only cinematic output.
Author: James
Little clarity of vision
Based on the well-received Chinese film Gin gwai (Jian gui) (2002) by Oxide Pang Chun and Danny Pang, David Moreau and Xavier Palud make over the original story of Lee Sin-je’s young woman who receives a corneal transplant that restores her sight (she’s been blind since early childhood) but also gives her the unwanted ability to see ghosts, with post-op Sydney Wells (Jessica Alba) realizing that she can not only know see the spectres that share our world, but can also hear and feel them.
Author: James
Taken to the edge
Troy Kennedy-Martin’s original BBC TV series, way back in 1985, was groundbreaking, both in the darkness of its subject matter, and its willingness to take risks. Director Martin Campbell (Casino Royale (2006)), then as now, revealed an all-encompassing conspiracy lurking at the edge of everything, and the price that one man must pay to bring those responsible for the death of his daughter to book.
- 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.