The Son Of No One
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- Published on Thursday, 17 May 2012 05:25
There are those movies that trigger your interest by a trailer, some time goes by and you never hear from that movie again until you walk around in your local video store and see it standing on the shelve or even laying in a bargain bin. The Son Of No One is such a movie. It's a police thriller and features a cast full of well known names like Al Pacino, Channing Tatum, Ray Liotta, Katie Holmes, Tracy Morgan, Julliette Binoche and even Ziggy from The Wire (James Ransone). So you have an all-star cast, a trailer that does good work, how could it have slipped under everybody's radar and end up in bargain bin limbo? Well the same reason as always: because it sucks.
Desperately Seeking Susan
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- Published on Sunday, 06 May 2012 18:27
Ah, the classifieds in the papers. With all the dating and sell-your-stuff sites nowadays it's hard to imagine people communicated through classifieds in the newspapers back in the day. With dating ads it's always fun to imagine who the person is behind an ad. Roberta Glass, a bored house wife, reads these ads every day and follows the communication between a Susan and a Jim. When they set up a time and a place through an ad in New York she decides to spy on them just to see who these people are in real life. Intrigued by this Roberta starts following her around even buying a jacket Susan sells to a secondhand clothing store. When she finds a key in this jacket she decides to place an ad herself to meet Susan and give her back the key. But a gangster is after Susan also and through a series of unfortunate events Roberta ends up with amnesia and is mistaken for Susan by the gangster as well as the best friend of Susan's boyfriend, a guy named Dez.
Who's That Girl
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- Published on Saturday, 28 April 2012 06:41
Who's That Girl is one of those movies that was marketed intensively during its release, most due to the theme music video by the movie's star Madonna. But this is one of those movies that I never saw on TV and also never got a world wide release on DVD. But curious as I was and in desperate need for some nostalgic throwback to the 80s I watched it just last night and caught myself humming already during the animated opening titles with the Madonna song "Commotion".
Fatal Attraction
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- Published on Thursday, 26 April 2012 18:26
One of the more famous erotic thrillers is Fatal Attraction. A movie that gave the world the term "bunny boiler" and became an advert for staying faithful to your lover. In the movie Dan Gallagher (Michael Douglas) has a one night stand with Alex Forrest (Glenn Close). Despite being aware of his marital status she wants more from him and begins to stalk him. First by calling him and appearing at his office, then by showing up at his apartment before becoming violent. Dan has to keep his mistake a secret for his wife while at the same time trying to stop Alex who wants to be with him.
Oh hit movie theme song, were art thou?
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- Published on Tuesday, 17 April 2012 19:47
With the recent passing of Whitney Houston and 100th anniversary of the Titanic, which led to its re-release in 3D, it came to me that the movie theme song as a single accompanying a movie's release is something that rarely happens nowadays. Whitney starred in The Bodyguard and the movie's theme song "I Will Always Love You" was a worldwide success. In 1997 you couldn't watch on MTV without seeing Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" every hour. The music videos for these songs almost always consisted of clips from the movie intertwined with clips of the recording artist or band in a similar setting, like Celine Dion on the Titanic set or Will Smith dancing with an alien in the "Men In Black" video. Especially in the 80s and 90s movies were released with a certified hit song as a part of the marketing campaign for a movie. This started decades earlier but apparently isn't a part of movie campaigns any more nowadays.
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
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- Published on Wednesday, 11 April 2012 20:06
It was a matter of time I guess before somebody got the idea to remake the Swedish Millennium Trilogy. But it was a surprise it was going to be so fast after the release of the original trilogy in 2009 and by David Fincher no less. A director who has become one of the most notable directors of the last two decades ever since he broke through with Seven. A lot of people, especially in countries where English is the native language will not be familiar with the original movies, but since I am it's hard not to compare it with the Swedish version but which I will try to avoid as much as possible.
The Muppets
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- Published on Sunday, 08 April 2012 07:13
Due to the heavy marketing it's impossible not be aware of a new Muppet movie being released just recently. Forgetting about the straight to video releases emphasis was put on the fact that it has been 12 years since the last theatrical Muppet movie. This movie keeps in tone with that fact and tells a story about Muppets who have been moved from spotlight a long time ago and are pretty much forgotten. This is also the first movie that builds upon the television show from the 70s and 80s rather than being a standalone story or a Muppet version of a famous book or movie.
The life & death of the Erotic Thriller
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- Published on Tuesday, 27 March 2012 19:57
About 20 years ago I was a regular customer at my local video store and they always had these catalogues for their customers with all the upcoming releases together with a synopsis of the movie's plot and a picture of the video cover. I picked up a copy on a regular basis and never threw them away. So I was just browsing some of them and when you do that you see a certain trend pretty clear; There seem to be all sorts of waves in what is popular at the moment; like all kinds of dinosaur horror movies coming out in 1993/1994 right after Jurassic Park or the tons of slashers that were released after Scream. What also grabbed my attention was that there was a steady stream of movies that would be described best as erotic thrillers, a genre that seems to have died somewhere in the late 90s. Nowadays a movie is rarely released that fits into that genre. These waves are normal and certain genres seem to go into hibernation for extended periods of time; in the late 90s it was slashers which were popular, in the 00s torture porn. Last couple of years the slasher made a moderate comeback with Scream 4 and the remakes of Halloween, Friday The 13th and A Nightmare On Elm Street so that is clearly an example of a genre that has peaks in its popularity. But the erotic thriller is a totally different story as it has seems to have died entirely. I wonder why.
South Central
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- Published on Friday, 23 March 2012 19:08
Last week I saw Single White Female which was clearly a product of its time; the early 90s when erotic thrillers were hot. Another genre which was booming at that time was the urban drama. Movies about black youths growing up in the ghetto. Do the right thing was probably the movie that proved there was an audience for these kinds of movies and in its wake came movies like Menace 2 Society, Boyz 'n The Hood and Juice. Another movie released at that time was South Central; a movie about a young black man released from prison only to find himself to be in the middle of a growing gang and thrown back into jail after he murders a rival gang leader. This second time in prison he starts to understands how history is constantly repeating and wants to be a good father to his son. Something he never had.
Joy Ride
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- Published on Friday, 23 March 2012 19:00
Joy Ride is a thriller in the vein of Duel, Breakdown, The Hitcher and The Vanishing; where on the wide deserted roads through the desert a road trip turns into a fight for life and death. In this case the person wrecking the havoc is a trucker who responded to a CB chat with Lewis (Paul Walker) pretending to be a girl. He and his brother thought it would be fun to set up a date with this trucker, who goes by the name of Rusty Nail, and have him go to the room next door of the motel they're staying only for him to find out he's put on a wild goose chase. But when the inhabitant of that room ends up in a coma with his jaw ripped off things turn out for the worst.
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