Thriller

GRADE: 2 out of 5 What a disappointing blu-ray for a thriller which I thought was a solid feature directorial debut for Ami Canaan Mann, the daughter of the great director Michael Mann. I was hoping the blu-ray would offer some insight as to how this first time female director would approach this story that’s [...]

GRADE: 5 out of 5 This is one dark drama that blows my mind, it is that damn good! Wrapped in a blanket of revenge and crime tale is a heart-wrenching unrequited love story and Actor Matthias Schoenaerts gives a towering performance as a man who doesn’t feel like he could fully function because of [...]

GRADE: 2 out of 5 Great performances, average movie, that’s basically what you can take away from THIN ICE, which wants to be taken seriously as a Midwestern con flick with a bit of Coens’ Fargo feel to it but the way it reveals itself at the end is so abrupt and hasty, it jams [...]

GRADE: 3 out of 5 Here we go again with Denzel mentoring a rookie by sharing some of his ground rules. SAFE HOUSE is very formulaic, it only makes you think like it’s smart and if it weren’t for the intense, unforgiving gunfights, one of the most exciting I’ve seen in cinema (Tombstone‘s gunfight still [...]

GRADE: 2 out of 5 There really is no other way to describe MAN ON A LEDGE than to simply call it Phone Booth meets The Negotiator. It’s a mildly entertaining thriller that throws originality out the window. I think it’s cute that it badly wants to be taken as a smart, edgy, heist action [...]

GRADE: 4 out of 5 At times it feels like a long episode of Man Vs. Wild but the film’s occasional detour to drama about mortality and faith and questions about what happens when you die while trying to survive through dangerous elements keeps me fixed on THE GREY. Liam Neeson is the man, it [...]

GRADE: 1 out of 5 Wow! Watching this movie once was dreadful, watching it twice made me question my sanity. THE DOUBLE may well be the poorest excuse for a spy thriller that I’ve ever seen. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still grateful to Image Entertainment for sending me the blu-ray copy but I still [...]

GRADE: 3 out of 5 CONTRABAND is, for all intents and purposes, a popcorn thriller! If he doesn’t play a boxer, you can be sure Mark Wahlberg is always good at playing two things, a crook or a cop, because we all know he stinks as a high school scientist, and so with CONTRABAND, Wahlberg [...]

GRADE: 4 out of 5 I’ve never read Stieg Larsson’s millennium novels, so I can’t say how faithful this film is to the original material, but I am a big fan of the Swedish adaptation by Danish filmmaker Niels Arden Oplev. Now, I know the fact that Hollywood is obsessed with remakes annoys the hell [...]

GRADE: 4 out of 5 APOLLO 18 is a terrifying. Perhaps the fact that I had low expectations going in kinda helps and I think this particular found footage film does for sci-fi what the first Paranormal Activity movie did for ghost or haunted house films. They’re both the type of horror that bank on [...]