The episodic plot centers on the character of Stan (Henry Gayle Sanders), a slaughterhouse worker mired in exhaustion, disconnected from his wife, his children, and himself. Stan and his neighbors struggle just to get by, let alone get ahead; as befits an L.A. movie, vehicular metaphors of breakdown abound. Only …
Senseless romantic action comedy about a beautiful nerd-girl who, on the rebound, unwittingly marries a CIA assassin with a $20 million bounty on his head. Katherine Heigl keeps right on cranking up the charm despite the hopeless situation and the narcissism of her co-star, Ashton Kutcher. With Tom Selleck and …
The opening is an intense, to-the-point illustration of the gangland rub-out in Hemingway's brusque short story. What follows is a blander, slacker, but carefully wrought specimen of detective fiction, as an insurance flatfoot ferrets out the whole story behind the short story. Definitive film noir score by Miklos Rozsa. With …
When top hitman Joe Flood (Dave Bautista) is diagnosed with a terminal illness, he decides to take matters into his own hands – by taking a hit out on himself. But when the very hitmen he hired also target his ex-girlfriend (Sofia Boutella), he must fend off an army of …
At the turn of the 20th century, oil brought a fortune to the Osage Nation, who became some of the richest people in the world overnight. The wealth of these Native Americans immediately attracted white interlopers, who manipulated, extorted, and stole as much Osage money as they could before resorting …
At the turn of the 20th century, oil brought a fortune to the Osage Nation, who became some of the richest people in the world overnight. The wealth of these Native Americans immediately attracted white interlopers, who manipulated, extorted, and stole as much Osage money as they could before resorting …
A train to New Delhi becomes a combat battleground as a pair of commandos faces off against an army of invading bandits. Written and directed by Nikhil Nagesh Bhat, starring Lakshya, Raghav Juyal, and Tanya Maniktala.
The narrative premise, of a foreign correspondent caught up in a country coming apart at the seams, might ring a few bells from very close-by cinema history. But the unstagy staging of crowd scenes, the vivid impressionistic detail, the fine sudden jolts of violence, the prolonged stretches of confusion and …
Before reaching their campsite, a vacationing couple make a pit stop at a convenience store. Wouldn’t you know it, the first person they come in contact with is half the team of psychos who’ll soon be their tormentors. As if this heinous happenstance were not offensive enough, Killing Ground stands …
A film noir by John Cassavetes, who, as he has little feel for atmosphere and tension and the like, is not particularly cut out for the job. But as he has much feel (and outright embraces and chummy punches on the upper arm and so forth) for actors, he enables …
A slo-eyed mortal plague (played way too convincingly by Barry Keoghan) reckons on getting even with the poised, chain-smoking cardiovascular surgeon (Colin Farrell) who killed his father on the operating table. His method: he plans on claiming the lives of the doc’s kids via a slow, surreal, and painfully lingering …
The stand-out segment has Susannah York and Beryl Reid impersonating Laurel and Hardy, before and at a frenetic costume party. Even there, director Robert Aldrich's unamused outlook is evident. Elsewhere, his humorlessness tends to inflate and overstate the original short stage play, turning it into an interminable sadomasochistic lesbian soap …
In order to hammer home its point about American morality with regard to money as manifested on the macro level by the 2008 financial crisis and on the micro level by the machinations of some truly unpleasant urban lowlifes, Killing Them Softly asks the audience to believe that the patrons …
Ultra-violent nihilistic caper film about a grungy gang of Parisian bank robbers (plus their imported American safecracker) who prepare for a big Bastille Day job by taking handfuls of drugs (interesting subjective effects with distorting lenses and in-and-out focus) and hopping nightclubs. There's not much to it, when all's said …
Imitation film noir. Director John Dahl is a sincerer flatterer than some: he's got the look, he's got the feel. There is nevertheless a going-through-the-motions quality about it. And a trace of mockery. With Joanne Whalley-Kilmer, Val Kilmer, and Michael Madsen.