[8] A young boy who can see and hear dead people confides in a child psychologist who comes to believe the boy’s curse is a gift. The strength of The Sixth Sense lies most prominently in the scenes between Toni Collette and Haley Joel Osment. I’m hard-pressed to think of another on-screen mother/son relationship that is more realistic or affecting. Their final scene together, where they …
[4] Sarah Michelle Gellar (TV’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer) stars as a woman who has visions of a murder, eventually coming to realize the murderer may be coming for her, too. This supernatural thriller is okay for the first half-hour, but then it completely reveals its hand when there’s still half the movie left to endure. For all the mysterious build-up, the concept turns out to …
[7] Sam Rockwell plays a lone astronaut working at a lunar drilling station in Duncan Jones’ solid feature film debut, Moon. Moon is a story in the classic sci-fi tradition, spurred by Rockwell’s encounter with a mysterious stranger who shatters his understanding of reality. None of the concepts in Moon are especially original or groundbreaking, but Jones’ approach to the material is fresh and sure-handed, …
[6] Franka Potente (Run Lola Run) gets locked in a London subway station overnight and soon discovers she’s not alone. Someone, or something, is after her. Creep is a simple but solid indie horror thriller. It’s not terribly original, but director Christopher Smith (Triangle, Severance) is capable of building tension and conjuring some spooky atmosphere. And when the ‘monster’ is revealed, it’s not a let-down …
[8] A family tragedy reunites three men who share a traumatic childhood experience in Mystic River. Sean Penn and Tim Robbins took home richly-deserved Oscars for their performances in this Oscar-nominated best picture from the ever-reliable Clint Eastwood. Mystic River is a gripping, well-paced mystery that employs misdirection and plot twists better than any other film in recent memory. Eastwood is at his directorial best …
[5] SPOILER REVIEW: Leonardo DiCaprio stars as a U.S. Marshall sent to a hospital for the mentally insane to investigate the disappearance of one of the patients. But as the hospital tries to obscure the truth, DiCaprio’s character starts to lose his grip on reality. Martin Scorsese certainly knows how to create atmosphere and suspense, but Shutter Island suffers from a bad case of plot-twist …
[7] What appears to be a hackneyed vacation nightmare movie turns out to be a fresh thriller from reliable writer/director David Twohy (Pitch Black, Below). The script takes a cue from Scream, reaching a level of self-reference that allows it to exceed genre expectations. I often criticize movies for indulging in unnecessary plot twists, but not this time. Twohy’s twists are well conceived and executed. …
[7] Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly are at the top of their game in A Beautiful Mind, Ron Howard’s Oscar-winning biopic about John Nash, the brilliant but haunted mathematician who overcame schizophrenia and received the Nobel Prize. These are the best performances I’ve seen from Crowe and Connelly — their relationship is the glue that holds the film together. The first two-thirds of the movie …
[4] I don’t think a Psycho sequel could ever possibly work, but that doesn’t stop screenwriter Tom Holland from giving it the old college try. The script paints Norman Bates (a returning Anthony Perkins) very sympathetically — reformed, recently released, and ready to start a new life. But someone keeps playing tricks on Norman, leading him to believe his domineering mother is still alive. The …
[7] William Holden leads an ensemble cast in Billy Wilder’s adaptation of Stalag 17. The film takes place entirely in a German prisoner-of-war barrack, where the captured Americans are beginning to suspect that Holden’s pessimistic black marketeer character may be informing on them to the Germans. But Holden knows better — that there’s a German spy planted in their midst, secretly thwarting all their chances …
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