Tag: thriller

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Film Review

Defiance (dir. Edward Zwick) 2008

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A the start of the movie we are told this is a true story. Edward Zwick is the director and he made the decision to sacrifice realism for action and character development. I am sure that this has made it more interesting and exciting to watch, for it is both of these things, but it is a Hollywood version of a true story.

Defiance is an apt title given that the movie depicts a large group of Jewish refugees surviving harsh winters in the forests of Belorussia, despite the attempts of the Nazis to annihilate them. Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber and Jamie Bell are all excellent as the brothers who led the group, and the story told is both gripping and inspiring.

It was nominated for an Academy Award for the best Original Score. The script is rough and the point of view fixed, this makes some of the characters seem a little two dimensional. However, in terms of action and tension, the film works well and it held my interest right to the closing credits.

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Film Review

Traitor (dir. Jeffrey Nachmanoff) 2008

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This is a gripping spy thriller about recruiting and dispatching suicide bombers and about the enforcement agencies attempting to prevent this.

Don Cheadle is excellent as a devout Muslim, bomb expert, training suicide bombers. His internal strife keeps you guessing which side he identifies with, right through the film. Guy Pearce turns in another very nuanced performance as an American agent trying to catch him. The script is well written in that none of the major characters see the conflict in purely black and white terms even though their individual part in it is uncompromising.

The story was written by Steve Martin, better known for his comedy. It is clever and has enough twists to hold your interest until close to the end. The direction is dark and gritty, which suits the subject matter.

The ending is at odds with the rest of the film in that it ties up all the loose ends a little too nicely but, I guess, with a more realistic ending, it probably would not have been made at all.

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Film Review

The Russia House (dir. Fred Schepisi) 1990

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This is a John Le Carre novel given the Hollywood treatment. The story is as complex as you would expect from a Le Carre story, you will need your full faculties about you to decipher who is lying to whom, and the twists will keep you interested right until the end. Even the ending was unexpected given the author’s earlier stories but it is often nice to be surprised.

It was released in 1990 and is packed with big names of the time. It has Sean Connery, Michelle Pfeiffer, Roy Scheider, James Fox – it even has Ken Russell, as eccentric an actor as he was a director. Sean Connery plays a jazz loving, book publisher and is as good as I have ever seen him. Michelle Pfeiffer and Roy Scheider are excellent too, in quite complex roles.  I really enjoyed the soundtrack too, an interesting mixture of jazz and Russian influenced themes.

For me though, the real star of the movie was Russia. It was one of the earliest movies to be allowed to shoot on location in the Soviet Union. Moscow and Leningrad (St Petersburg now) look austere, monumental and beautiful.

The settings here capture a time and place perfectly; adding an extra dimension to an already vey good film.

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Film Review

Jaws (dir. Stephen Spielberg) 1975

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This was on at the BFI as part of a Spielberg retrospective. The 450 seat auditorium was full on a Friday night for a 41 year old movie. That fact alone testifies to the strength of this film.

It was my first time seeing it and I was surprised at how well it has stood the test of time. It is a thriller that delivers thrills. It is the first time that I have heard gasps from the audience in a movie theatre in a very long time, the face in the boat is a genuine, jump back in your seat, moment. The character development is good and the script is excellent, it has some very funny moments to lighten the mood. The music is possibly the most famous film score ever and it matches the action perfectly. The only part of the movie that shows its age is the shark itself, but even this is interesting to see from a history of cinema perspective.

Jaws won 3 Academy Awards; editing, score and sound. The only surprise is that it didn’t win more. It regularly appears in lists of all-time best films. Having just seen it, 41 years late, its inclusion in those lists is fully justified.

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Film Review

Money Monster (dir. Jodie Foster) 2016

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Money Monster is a gripping thriller that will keep you entertained for an hour and a half. It is a Hollywood hostage movie set in a New York television studio. It has a big name cast; George Clooney and Julia Roberts are both on top form, as an irritating TV show host and his producer. Jack O’Connell is also excellent as the hostage taker. It is directed by Jodie Foster, who does a good job subverting expectations in a genre that the audience will know well.

The script and character development are fantastic, because although all the main protagonists have flawed personalities, over the course of the film, we are given an insight to their humanity and motivation. This means that we have sympathy with all of them to some degree.

Money Monster is funny, surprising and knowing. It is also nicely subversive from Jodi Foster because all the men in the film are the brash, sensationalist types getting all the attention and the women are the ones who quietly get things done.

Don’t go to this movie expecting insights into the world of financial markets, or the effects of the 24 hour news cycle on society. Go expecting pure light entertainment, for that is what it delivers

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Books

Fatherland – Robert Harris (1992)

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Fatherland  is a murder investigation/thriller. It is set in the run up to Adolf Hitler’s 75th birthday and imagines a world where the Nazis won the second world war.

It works very well as a police procedural that escalates. It is well written and the main characters are interesting. The plot twists keep the reader engaged nicely and the story is strong enough to work without the alternate reality theme.

Setting the book in a 1964 Nazi run Europe adds an extra dimension to the book. It is not overdone, it changes some peoples motivation and skews the world’s perspective. I found the change refreshing. The book contains some fictional characters and some fictionalised versions of real characters. He envisages many of those who died or disappeared towards the end of the war as still alive and powerful after Germany won.

Fatherland is well researched and some of the scenes in the book are harrowing but it is not gory or gratuitous in any way. It was a huge best seller when it was released almost 25 years ago. I think it has stood the test of time and is still a very enjoyable read.

 

 

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Books

Finders Keepers (Stephen King) 2015

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It is hard to believe that this is Stephen King’s 55th book.

If you know his novels, then you will have a pretty good idea of what to expect in this one. It is well written, has a quick moving, good storyline and the characters and their motivation are all very believable. He has a wonderful ability to keep the reader engaged and wanting to know what happens next.

This book is in his horror, creepy, thriller style. One of my favourite things about his writing is that he manages to write horror stories without being overly gory. There is death and violence here, but it slightly less graphic in its description than is common in many novels, currently.

He also does fantasy type novels, see his Dark Tower series if you are a fan of this genre, they are pretty good.

Finders, Keepers is story driven, it probably won’t have you thinking about the meaning of life, but it will definitely keep you entertained while you read it and it will be difficult to put down once you have got to know the characters inside.

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Film Review

The Negotiator (dir. F. Gary Gray) 1998

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This is a taut thriller. It stars Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey. It didn’t do well at the box office when it was released, but it has some good visual set pieces and it has excellent performances from both lead actors, who were at the peak of their powers at that time. It has a fine cast and it is a great movie for spotting actors who went on to do other things in TV and film.

It feels dated because, although it was made in 1998, less than 20 years ago, almost the only women in the film are Jackson’s wife and J. T.Holmes’ secretary (deftly played by Siobhan Fallon Hogan). I guess, at least it shows how we have moved on in that time.

Having said that, it does what you want a thriller to do and I was involved right to the end. If you want an easy, entertaining evening in front of the TV, this will do nicely.

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Film Review

The Gift (dir. Joel Edgerton) 2015

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This is a thriller/horror genre movie, the kind that was very popular in the early 1990s.

Think “The hand that rocked the Cradle” or “Single white female”- if thats the kind of movie that you want, you will enjoy this. It feels quite up to date and it is an excellent addition to the psychological thriller canon.

My main criticism of the film would be how unpleasant all the characters are. Had it been released in the 1990s it probably would have received 5 stars but we expect even villians to have some redeeming features now.

Having said that, if you are in the mood for a creepy thriller, this film will satisfy that need very well.