Promising Young Woman (2020) Review
Carey Mulligan plays a medical school dropout who fakes being drunk to catch predatory men. The first act is a 7, the middle sags to a 4, and the third act took me by surprise. It's a 6.5, worth it…
Genre: Thriller
Momentum is the whole game. Thrillers move, with protagonists in real danger and scenes that end on a hook, and these stories compress that engine into short form.
ActionThe Jackal (1997) Review
Bruce Willis plays a cold, charming assassin who changes faces like coats, Richard Gere the IRA sniper sent to catch him, and the target is a real surprise. Critics hated it. It's an 8.5 and my favorite Jackal.
CrimeThe Day of the Jackal (2024) Review
Eddie Redmayne plays a charming assassin and Lashana Lynch the MI6 officer hunting him in this ten-episode reimagining of Forsyth's novel. A great first episode and good action, a saggy middle. It's a 7.
AdaptationColossus: The Forbin Project (1970) Review
I have watched this more times than is defensible. A film about a computer, a requirements document and a mountain, and the machine is never once broken.
CrimeStripped to Kill (1987) Review
Stripped to Kill (1987) rates 5 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Katt Shea's first film as director, made for Concorde under a brief requiring a fixed number of dance sequences, and she used the constraint to build something…
CrimeStreetwalkin’ (1985) Review
Streetwalkin' (1985) rates 5 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. A Concorde Pictures production shot in New York in about three weeks, with Melissa Leo in her first lead role eight years before her career started, and a structure…
CrimeSharky’s Machine (1981) Review
Sharky's Machine (1981) rates 7 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Burt Reynolds directed himself in an Atlanta police thriller with a jazz score, a surveillance structure and a genuinely nasty streak, and it is the best film he…
CrimeMs. 45 (1981) Review
Ms. 45 (1981) rates 7 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Abel Ferrara made a rape-revenge film with a mute protagonist, almost no dialogue and a budget of around sixty thousand dollars, and Zoe Lund's performance is better than…
ActionNighthawks (1981) Review
Nighthawks (1981) rates 7 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Stallone and Billy Dee Williams are New York decoy cops assigned to an international terrorist, and Rutger Hauer is so much better than the film around him that he…
CrimeAngel (1984) Review
Angel (1984) rates 4 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. New World Pictures built a film around the tagline about a high school honour student who works Hollywood Boulevard at night, and the premise is the problem. What is…
Crime8MM (1999) Review
8MM (1999) rates 5 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Joel Schumacher directing Andrew Kevin Walker's script about a private investigator tracing a snuff film, with Nicolas Cage restrained and Joaquin Phoenix excellent, undone by a third act that…
DramaElizabeth (1998) Review
Elizabeth (1998) rates 8 out of 10 on the rewatch scale. Shekhar Kapur made a Tudor film that behaves like a political thriller, with Cate Blanchett moving from frightened prisoner to constructed icon across two hours. She lost Best Actress…