Stop Me Before I Kill! (1960)
★★★
Hammer Films gives us "Hitchcock-on-a-budget" with STOP ME BEFORE I KILL! A psychological thriller about a man compelled to kill his wife every time they try to have sex. With the help of his wife's psychologist friend, they try to get to the bottom of his urge to kill.
I had fun with this. There are twists and turns but I saw them all coming. Overall, very enjoyable little film.
Dark Country (2009)
★★½
DARK COUNTRY feels much like a modern Twilight Zone episode and is an interesting directing debut for Thomas Jane.
Unfortunately, this is an unbearably boring film with not enough going on to warrant an hour and a half. I really wanted to like DARK COUNTRY, but it fell flat.
I Saw The Devil (2010)
★★★★★
Riveting, shocking, superbly acted. One of the best movies I've seen in a long time.
The Big Heat (1953)
★★★★
While I love the Film Noir genre, I've seen not nearly as many that I should have. Thankfully, I won nearly 18 Film Noir classics on DVD.
My first choice was Fritz Lang's THE BIG HEAT, and I loved every minute of it!
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
I wasn't prepared for just how good the classic thriller The Night of the Hunter is. This 1955 classic has been lovingly restored by Criterion and is available on Blu Ray. The result is a pristine black and white film that fills the screen with amazing cinematography and beautifully dark imagery.
The film's composition is a work of art in itself. The way that director Charles Laughton fills each scene visually is something a lot of new films should pay attention to and emulate. Laughton uses light and shadow in a way that can only be done with a black & white film and it really shows the power that black & white filmmaking can have.
The story is a fairly straight forward one: Harry Powell, a fake preacher (played wonderfully by Robert Mitchum), in prison for car theft learns that his soon-to-be-hanged cellmate may have a stash of money from a bank robbery. After the hanging, Powell is released from prison. He tracks down his former cellmate's family in order to find the money any way he can. This means marrying the new widow (the elegant Shelley Winters) and learning where the money is any way he can.
A dark story, wonderful performances and perfect composition, Night of the Hunter is a classic movie worth discovering and worthy of a Criterion release. If you haven't seen this, you need to.
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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)
I haven't read the books and don't know if I ever will. As a movie, though, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is a standard Thriller/Mystery held together with some tense scenes and a brilliant performance by Noomi Rapace. David Fincher is involved with the remake, and I'm positive it's not going to be as good as Niels Arden Oplev's film. Noomie Rapace has put such a stamp on the character, the American replacement will only be a caricature.
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Se7en (1995)
This remains my favorite David Fincher film. It's what put him on the map as a director for me and also showed that Brad Pitt was more than some pretty-boy actor.
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Shutter Island (2010)
A lot of expectation made Shutter Island one of those movies that a lot of people trashed after seeing it. Lets get this out of the way: Martin Scorsese is not God. With expectations managed, I really loved Shutter Island.
Shutter Island is a film adaptation of Dennis Lehane's novel. I've never read it and have no immediate plans to. With that said, I think Scorsese gets the source material and the film never falls into the normal criticisms of adapted work. I never felt like anything was missing from the narrative, and felt it was a complete and interesting story.
The story is interesting, but not mind blowing. It's not trying to be. Where Shutter Island shines is the way the story unfolds, the acting and atmosphere of the film. When it finished I immediately wanted to watch Shutter Island again. Even with some predictable unraveling of the story, I think a second viewing will actually be stronger.
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The Horseman (2008)
Let's just say, if anyone ever fucks with my daughter, I have an instruction manual in the form of The Horseman.
The Horseman is a lean and gritty revenge thriller about a man who is searching for the men responible for killing his daughter. It doesn't get any more straight forward than that. Simple plot and great exectution (no pun intended).
A powerhouse performance by Peter Marshall grounds the film and solid direction by Steven Kastrissios elevates the film from most independant features.
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Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009)
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