Sort by
Listing Movies
Display Movies
Inside Man (2006)
It looked like the perfect bank robbery. But you can’t judge a crime by its cover.
Filmmaker(s): Spike Lee

When an armed, masked gang enter a Manhattan bank, lock the doors and take hostages, the detective assigned to effect their release enters negotiations preoccupied with corruption charges he is facing.

Inside Out I want to like Spike, I really do. He has a natural cinematic imagination, something you can see from the very beginning. And he is flamboyant with the camera which I appreciate when the confidence is rewarded. Plus other things. He seems to...
Published October 26, 2022
| Categorised as IMDB Comments, Twos |
Tagged: , ,
Alibi Mark (1937)
Filmmaker(s): Joseph Henabery

When an out-of-work Chicagoan travels west as a hobo on a freight train, he finds himself falsely accused of murder.

Signs of Trauma, Film as Meal Wow, what a strange film. My interest in these comments is in the qualities of introspection: where the viewer is placed in the narrative and how different layers of that stance are manipulated. The CCC, as duly described in...
Published October 2, 2022
| Categorised as New Comments, Twos |
Tagged: , ,
The Equalizer (2014)
What do you see when you look at me?
Filmmaker(s): Antoine Fuqua

McCall believes he has put his mysterious past behind him and dedicated himself to beginning a new, quiet life. But when he meets Teri, a young girl under the control of ultra-violent Russian gangsters, he can’t stand idly by – he has to help her. Armed with hidden skills that allow him to serve vengeance against anyone who would brutalize the helpless, McCall comes out of his self-imposed retirement and finds his desire for justice reawakened. If someone has a problem, if the odds are stacked against them, if they have nowhere else to turn, McCall will help. He is The Equalizer.

Tattoo Signals Standard fare: good guy is endowed with superhuman killing capability, presumably used in the past for what the Agency thought was good. In simple retirement, he is drawn by his sheer goodness into massive, efficient elimination of the bad guys. There isn’t much...
Published September 30, 2022
| Categorised as IMDB Comments, Twos |
Tagged: , ,
In Bruges (2008)
Shoot first. Sightsee later.
Filmmaker(s): Martin McDonagh

Ray and Ken, two hit men, are in Bruges, Belgium, waiting for their next mission. While they are there they have time to think and discuss their previous assignment. When the mission is revealed to Ken, it is not what he expected.

The Setup There are a lot of writerly things going on with this script. Most of them are standard devices. Almost too standard. But there is something I noticed. The spoiler here is that the story takes over by the very end and the structure...
Published September 23, 2022
| Categorised as IMDB Comments, Threes |
Tagged: , ,
Goldstone (2016)
Where worlds collide.
Filmmaker(s): Ivan Sen

Indigenous Detective Jay Swan arrives in the frontier town of Goldstone on a missing persons inquiry. What seems like a simple investigation unearths an intricate web of crime, corruption, human trafficking, and coordinated exploitation of indigenous people’s land. Jay must bury his differences with young local cop Josh, so together they can bring justice to Goldstone.

Less Lessons The shape of this is ordinary. The forces at work are familiar: big company, coopted locals, indigenous victims. It happens to be well crafted, so is better in quality than most. But it has two features that endear it, at least to me....
Published September 21, 2022
| Categorised as New Comments, Threes |
Tagged: , ,
Double Indemnity (1944)
It's love and murder at first sight!
Filmmaker(s): Billy Wilder

A rich woman and a calculating insurance agent plot to kill her unsuspecting husband after he signs a double indemnity policy. Against a backdrop of distinctly Californian settings, the partners in crime plan the perfect murder to collect the insurance, which pays double if the death is accidental.

The Match is Out Filmviewing is like most things in life: there are a few predefined roles among which it is convenient to pick. Once you define who you are in the world of cinema, it determines a lot of what you think about what...
Published September 20, 2022
| Categorised as IMDB Comments, Twos |
Tagged: , ,
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson: King of Blackmailers (1980)
Filmmaker(s): Igor Maslennikov

Mycroft Holmes hands Sherlock Holmes the case of the Master Blackmailer.

Europe in Disguise This is a Russian TV production, closely following the Conan Doyle stories. Comments that I have seen accept it as a good version, mostly on the basis of the characterisations. But I find it dreadful, and credit two influences. The first is...
Published September 19, 2022
| Categorised as New Comments, Ones |
Tagged: , ,
Zero Effect (1998)
The world's most private detective.
Filmmaker(s): Jake Kasdan

Daryl Zero is a private investigator and—along with his assistant, Steve Arlo—he solves impossible crimes and puzzles. Although Daryl's a master investigator, he doesn't know what to do with himself when he's not working; he has no social skills, writes bad music and drives Steve crazy.

Son of What There are only a few ways into a story. One of these is to embrace the narrator and carry the viewer through their eyes and the engagement of the world that gives us love. Here, Kasdan does this while referencing Holmes, where...
Published September 19, 2022
| Categorised as New Comments, Threes |
Tagged: , ,
And Then There Were None (1945)
Filmmaker(s): René Clair

Ten strangers are summoned to a remote island and while they are waiting for the mysterious host to appear, a recording levels serious accusations at each of the guests. Soon they start being murdered, one by one. As the survivors try to keep their wits, they reach a disturbing conclusion: one of them must be the killer.

Dame Agatha’s Dead Christie has been as profoundly influential in film as Shakespeare. We can’t take too lightly how often we see the effects of her experiments in tweaking the identity of the reader/ viewer. This is one of her most interesting constructions: presented quite...
Published September 18, 2022
| Categorised as IMDB Comments, Twos |
Tagged: , ,
Snatch (2000)
Stealin' stones and breakin' bones.
Filmmaker(s): Guy Ritchie

Unscrupulous boxing promoters, violent bookmakers, a Russian gangster, incompetent amateur robbers and supposedly Jewish jewelers fight to track down a priceless stolen diamond.

Style, But to What End? This kind of film superficially resembles what I really yearn for: heavy cinematic qualities in the filmmaking. I look for a harmony of vision among how the camera is managed, the edits are composed, the music punctuates the image. Snatch...
Published September 17, 2022
| Categorised as IMDB Comments, Twos |
Tagged: , ,
preloader image