Very quickly The Equalizer has shown that its willing to go dark and gritty, and while there are some dark moments in The Defector, The Lock Box is even darker. The Defector was written by Heywood Gould and first debuted on 2 October, 1985. An old friend, and former agent of the USSR, Felix (Joe…
Tag: dark
The Equalizer (1985) – Pilot, and China Rain
I don’t know what the first episode of The Equalizer was that I saw, but I remember where I was, and I knew I found the concept and execution interesting, even at 14. It was grittier than a lot of the episodic television that was being broadcast at the time, a little darker, and had…
Hill Street Blues (1982) – The World According to Freedom, and Pestolozzi’s Revenge
Things get pretty dark on the Hill in The World According to Freedom, and Furillo (Daniel J. Travanti) is pissed. Written by Michael Wagner, it first aired on 7 January, 1982. A gruesome collection of murders and rapes seems to be gang motivated, and it makes Furillo and the rest of the precinct incredibly angry….
Tiff ’22: The Banshees of Inisherin
A canticle of attrition laced with verses of humour and pathos, The Banshees of Inisherin from writer-director Martin McDonagh is a perfect composition. Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson star as Padraic and Colm. They’ve been drinking mates for years until in April of 1923, Colm decides he doesn’t want to be friends with Padraic anymore….
Gerald’s Game (2017) – Mike Flanagan
Mike Flanagan delivered his first Stephen King adaptation with Gerald’s Game, and it’s a fantastic nerve-shredding examination of self, secrets, and survival. Jessie (Carla Gugino) and Gerald (Bruce Greenwood) head to their remote lake house to work on their relationship, after years of marriage things have gotten a little tired and stale, and they plan…
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) – Steven Spielberg
Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Doom was one of three movies that came along when I was a youngster that really started to cement my interest in the way films were made. And they were all thanks to movie magazines that came along at just the right time. In 1982 there was one…
Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021) – 4K Review
The infamous Snyder Cut comes to physical media this week from Warner Brothers and it is an event. After the disastrous theatrical release that saw the film taken over by Joss Whedon when director Zack Snyder had to step away for personal reasons, fans around the world lobbied Warner to release Snyder’s version of the…
The Girl Who Played With Fire (2009) – Daniel Alfredson
The second film in the Millennium Trilogy, The Girl Who Played With Fire, adapted from the novels by the late Stieg Larsson, remains just as captivating and thrilling as the first film, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Like all sequels, the statement could be made that this time it’s personal, but it’s better to…
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2009) – Niels Arden Oplev
Back in 2009 it seemed everyone was reading and talking about the late Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy. I read each one voraciously, absorbing each and every detail and loving the dark, thrilling world he created, and the fantastic character of Lisbeth Salander, a brave and powerful heroine with a sense of justice and her own…
Millennium (1997) – A Single Blade of Grass, and The Curse of Frank Black
Erin Maher and Kay Reindl deliver the first real misstep of the Millennium television series with A Single Blade of Grass. Originally airing on 24 October, 1997 the story sees Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) travelling to New York City to investigate a body discovered there, on a construction site turned archaeological site turned crime scene….
The Mind Reels 