William Devane and Tommy Lee Jones star in this slow burn revenge thriller that sees the pair as former P.O.W.s of the Vietnam War finally returning home. Unfortunately, the world isn’t the way Major Charles Rane (Devane) left it. His city welcomes him back, gifting him a giant Cadillac convertible, and a hefty collection of…
Tag: thugs
TIFF 25: The Wizard of the Kremlin dir. Olivier Assayas
Director Olivier Assayas with novelist Emmanuel Carrere adapted Giuliano da Empoli’s novel that shows the machinations of political evil at work. While a work of fiction, it does tie in with actual events, and the lead character, Vadim Baranov, played by Paul Dano, seems to be more than a little similar to Vladislav Surkov. Dano…
Enter the Ninja (1981) – Menaham Golan
Enter the Ninja is dangerously bad. Coming on the tail of Chuck Norris’ The Octagon, the two films helped usher the ninja fad into the 80s. Featuring a story dreamed up by stuntman Mike Stone, who was initially cast as the main character until his acting chops didn’t make the cut – and that’s saying…
Scratch One (1967) – Micheal Crichton
Michael Crichton’s second novel, which he wrote under his pseudonym of John Lange, is a fast-paced thriller that plays on the familiar trope of mistaken identity. This time out an American lawyer, Roger Carr, finds himself mistaken for a high-profile hitman and finds himself stuck between opposing sides in an arms deal which has its…
The Equalizer (1987) – Suspicion of Innocence, and In the Money
Vincent D’Onofrio comes back for a second go-round with The Equalizer in Suspicion of Innocence. Written by Robert Eisele it first debuted on 30 September, 1987. Davey (D’Onofrio) is a mentally challenged young man who is happy with his job, he interacts well with his co-workers and likes his friend, Will (William Converse-Roberts). Things turn…
The Nice Guys (2016) – Shane Black
With the exception of The Predator, I love me some Shane Black. From the moment I first saw Lethal Weapon, I knew I had found a writer (and later a director) that I would enjoy following. Keeping in the vein of his other film, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, The Nice Guys plays with the detective…
Murder By Contract (1958) – Irving Lerner
I’ve been checking out some noir titles over the past few weeks, checking in with one of my favorite genres. This was perhaps my least favorite of the bunch. I think it could have been a little better constructed, and perhaps delved into the issues that plagued the film’s lead character, Claude (Vince Edwards). Claude…
Partners in Crime (1929) – Agatha Christie
Tommy and Tuppence, who quickly became one of my favourite creations of Agatha Christie, first introduced in The Secret Adversary, are back in this collection of short stories, that are interconnected, as the married couple take on a number of cases. A Fairy in the Flat opens the book and reveals that Tommy is working…
Hearts in Atlantis (1999) – Stephen King
I delight in digging into Stephen King books, and ones I haven’t read are becoming fewer and far between, Hearts in Atlantis, however, was one I hadn’t read before. Composed of two novellas and three short stories this is King taking on the 60s, and examines it as only King could, with an ear for…
Horror Hospital (1973) – Anthony Balch
Micheal Gough, known to a whole generation as Alfred Pennyworth in the Batman films, is the mad scientist who terrorizes in Horror Hospital, where I check in to examine the next film in DK Canada’s Monsters in the Movies books. This one is so bad that it’s actually enjoyable. Gough plays the wheel-chair bound, secret-filled…
The Mind Reels 