The best thing to be said about iNumber Number is that it leaves you wanting more. You want to see more work from director/screenwriter Donovan Marsh. You want to see more of a stellar cast, particularly lead actor S’Dumo Mtshali. You especially want to see more of South Africa as a setting for hard-nosed crime flicks. The downside to this desire for more, more, and more is that iNumber Number is not quite satisfying in itself. A good bit of the 96-minute runtime is given over to waiting for the film to hit fifth gear, only to discover that it’s more of an automatic transmission ride.
Archive for the ‘Thriller’ Category
iNumber Number (aka Avenged) Review
Posted: September 4, 2014 in 2014 Fantasy FilmFest, Action, Reviews, ThrillerTags: Donovan Marsh, Heist Movie, Presley Chweneyagae, Reservoir Dogs, S'Dumo Mtshali, South Africa, Vic Vega
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Starry Eyes Review
Posted: September 3, 2014 in 2014 Fantasy FilmFest, Horror, Reviews, ThrillerTags: Alex Essoe, Black Swan, Contracted, Dennis Widmyer, Fabianne Therese, Hollywood, Kevin Kolsch, Louis Dezseran
The beautiful young woman who goes to Hollywood and sells her soul for fame and fortune as an actress is a familiar allegory, but seldom has it been spun in quite as chilling a manner as seen in the new horror flick, Starry Eyes. Even more rare is to see a unknown in the lead role turn in such a remarkable, defining performance that she elevates the movie above mere Midnight Madness fun. Alex Essoe as Sarah Walker, the would-be thespian who discovers how far she is willing to go for success, is astonishing; it’s sweet justice of a sort for a newcomer to use such a role to establish her own claim to stardom. The directing/screenwriting team of Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer wisely piggyback on Essoe’s achievement to bring a fully realized story to the screen.
Honeymoon Review
Posted: August 31, 2014 in 2014 Fantasy FilmFest, Horror, Reviews, Science Fiction, ThrillerTags: Harry Treadaway, Leigh Janiak, Phil Graziadei, Rose Leslie, Under the Skin
Imagine the body as a vessel, an exterior shell that holds the essence of the individual. The body plus the psyche equals the being. Now, imagine an external force either filling the vessel or emptying it.
Two thought-provoking films with this concept at the center have been released this year. The first was Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin, in which Scarlett Johansson plays a predatory alien who first acquires a body and then a sense of humanity in order to attract her prey. The second is Honeymoon with Rose Leslie as a newlywed who is seemingly having the humanness drained from her. Under the Skin became something of a darling for the Art House crowd, due to Johansson’s superior, naked-in-more-ways-than-one performance and a moody, broody atmosphere that bordered on pretentiousness, but never quite crossed over. Director Leigh Janiak’s Honeymoon is less ambitious and more conventional than Glazer’s work, but remains a worthy companion piece to that film.
Séptimo (Seventh Floor) Review
Posted: August 20, 2014 in Foreign, Reviews, ThrillerTags: Belén Rueda, Buenos Aires, Patxi Amezuca, Ricardo Darín, Twin Peaks
The landmark television series Twin Peaks initially focused on the death of the young, beautiful homecoming queen Laura Palmer and the subsequent search for her killer. The creator of the series, the visionary director David Lynch, had no intention of ever solving the mystery in the course of the show, but rather planned to use the murder as the springboard for an exploration of the underside of small town America. Lynch was eventually forced by the network to reveal the killer. In doing so, Twin Peaks lost its special quality and was canceled at the end of its second season. This cautionary tale comes to mind when seeing the Spanish-Argentinian thriller, Séptimo (Seventh Floor). The build up in the first half of the film is such exquisite, stylized suspense that the viewer wants it to continue as long as possible. When an explanation appears and a resolution follows, the movie almost immediately becomes a pedestrian procedural. (more…)
The Maid’s Room Review
Posted: August 10, 2014 in Reviews, ThrillerTags: Annabella Sciorra, Bill Camp, Michael Walker, Paula Garcés, Philip Ettinger
Midway through The Maid’s Room, a middling thriller centered on the familiar question of what happens when an illegal alien witnesses illegal activities, director/screenwriter Michael Walker abandons the obvious and takes an unexpected left turn in a narrative that is painfully predictable to that point. Walker jettisons expectations and conventions and gives the viewer hope that the filmmaker may have something truly original in his pocket. Unfortunately, Walker squanders the opportunity, and the movie sputters without momentum until a complete cock-up of an ending that satisfies no one. (more…)
The Calling Review
Posted: August 2, 2014 in Drama, Reviews, ThrillerTags: Donald Sutherland, Ellen Burstyn, Inger Ash Wolfe, Movies, Susan Sarandon, Thriller, Topher Grace
Susan Sarandon is a wonderful, accomplished actress, capable of a broad range of roles, but the one thing she cannot do at this stage of her career is convincingly play the part of a small-time cop investigating a series of gruesome murders. The Calling does not fail because of the casting of Sarandon as the tin badge in a one-horse, two-detective town in eastern Canada, who steals prescription pills from crime scenes and washes them down with Jim Beam, but the glacial pace of the story gives ample time to dwell on the mistake.
Sarandon plays Detective Hazel Micallef, a back surgery survivor who lives with her mom in Port Dundas – 82-year old Ellen Burstyn, who, like the 68-year old Sarandon, is an Oscar winner. The Calling stockpiles so much underused talent that it resembles the Los Angeles Dodgers outfield. Burstyn’s big scene in the film is when she falls asleep in the living room chair, leaving Sarandon and the audience to believe for a moment that she’s fallen victim to the film’s serial killer. (more…)
Aftermath Review
Posted: July 19, 2014 in Reviews, ThrillerTags: C.J. Thomason, Edward Furlong, Fallout, Movies, Nuclear Holocaust, Randall Reeder, Thriller
They don’t make movies like Aftermath anymore. Full-scale nuclear war has fallen out of favor as a source of cinematic anxiety, reflecting the real world changes since the collapse of the Soviet Union 25 years ago. Oh, Hollywood will never swear off nukes all together, any more than they would give up Nazis. But now, it’s the suitcase device or the rogue nation warhead in the wrong hands. Get James Bond or Jack Bauer on the job, and badda bing, badda boom, all’s right in the world in a couple of hours, although there may be a teeny bit of collateral damage. (24 did nuke part of LA in season six, but it was just strip malls and warehouses; no good restaurants were lost in the filming.) (more…)
Beneath Review
Posted: June 28, 2014 in Horror, Reviews, ThrillerTags: Claustrophobia, Horror, Jeff Fahey, Kelly Noonan, Movies, Thriller, Trapped Miners
Let’s begin with a bit of clarification. We’re talking about the film Beneath, not Beneath (2013 – teens on a rowboat avoiding man-eating fish) or Beneath (2007 – car accident victim in a scary house) or Beneath The Dark (2010 – young couple checks in for motel weirdness) or Beneath The Darkness (2011 – Dennis Quaid as a creepy small-town mortician) or even What Lies Beneath (2000 – Michelle Pfeiffer losing her mind thanks to Harrison Ford).
Our Beneath is about a group of people trapped underground, but it’s not The Descent or The Cave or The Descent 2 or The Cavern or Underground or In Darkness We Fall.
And so we establish that the film in question is not the most original in either its title or its subject matter. Beneath is not half bad, but, unfortunately, it is not good enough to make a name for itself.
Cold in July Review
Posted: May 31, 2014 in Action, Reviews, ThrillerTags: Don Johnson, Jim Mickle, Michael C. Hall, Movies, Nick Damici, Sam Shepard, Thriller, Vinessa Shaw
Jim Mickle and Nick Damici.
Remember these names. Write them down if you need to. Set up a Google alert. The pattern of cinematic excellence these two have established warrants constant attention for what will come next from the duo. Cold in July, the fourth feature film film from this creative team, is a solid kick in the balls of conventional fare, a tricky, tough, violent carnival ride put together by a couple of carnies whom you just can’t trust to have followed the safety code.
Anna Review
Posted: May 30, 2014 in Horror, Reviews, ThrillerTags: Director Jorge Dorado, Horror, Mark Strong, Movies, Sci Fi, Taissa Farmiga, Thriller
Hollywood is in the business of expectations – creating and controlling them. Studios need to generate enough interest for a film to guarantee ticket sales without overhyping the movie and having it labeled a failure.
Lucky is the moviegoer who can watch a film without any preconceived notions of the product. For those fortunate few who see Anna with low-to-no expectations, the hybrid horror/science fiction/thriller provides an entertaining diversion that benefits from stylish atmosphere and a strong central performance. Director Jorge Dorado uses a steady pace and a few sleight-of-hand tricks to divert the viewer’s attention away from some significant logical gaps in the narrative. (more…)
Meet Mr. Karma 