[7] Fred MacMurray and Joan Crawford star as newlyweds who get roped into spying for British intelligence in Nazi Germany. The tone here is light-hearted. Despite the prospect of serious danger, Crawford and MacMurray’s characters actually enjoy trying their hand at espionage. It’s fun to watch them follow the bread crumbs and put clues together. A Franz Liszt concerto is incorporated into the mystery, as …
[7] Director Sydney Lumet (12 Angry Men, Network) takes on Agatha Christie and delivers a light-hearted soufflé of a murder mystery. I always tend to enjoy ensemble films within a claustrophobic setting, so being trapped on the Orient Express during a blizzard with Lumet’s star-studded cast was a real treat. Albert Finney headlines the venerable collection of stage and screen actors as Christie’s famous detective …
[2] Glaciers move faster than Robert Altman’s bleak post-apocalyptic drama. The ice-age backdrop is the only interesting thing about Quintet, but it’s completely irrelevant to the story line. Paul Newman plays one of the last survivors of the human race, all of whom hole up and play board games, waiting to die. One group of players ups the ante by wagering people’s lives. Something of …
[8] This film version of V.C. Andrews’ popular novel is considerably toned down, but it’s still a wonderfully creepy and sadistic melodrama. A widower takes her four children to live with their grandmother, who views them all as vile sinners. The wicked old woman (played by Nurse Ratched herself, Louise Fletcher) religiously brainwashes the mother and locks the children in a single room, where they …
[8] Imagine Twin Peaks from a child’s perspective, paired with the visual austerity of Days of Heaven, and that might give you an idea of what to expect from this odd but utterly compelling little movie. Jeremy Cooper stars as young Seth Dove, a boy whose friends die one by one while the sheriff searches for their killer. The sheriff thinks the killer is Seth’s …
[6] A British diplomat in Kenya tries to solve the mystery of his activist wife’s murder, only to get in over his head with the culprits — a pharmaceutical company that is intentionally poisoning and killing people. The first third of the film belongs to Rachel Weisz, who plays the deceased wife in a series of flashbacks. Weisz took home the Oscar for best supporting …
[5] Brian DePalma (curiously) directs this wonky sci-fi action flick about a team of astronauts sent to Mars to look for survivors after the first manned mission to the Red Planet encounters a mysterious storm. There’s also something about the giant face on Mars — you know, the one that shows up in some NASA photos? The third act of this movie takes you inside …
[7] George Clooney stars in this thriller about a lawyer who gets called in by a major corporation to “fix” a potential whistle-blower who is losing his mind the longer he keeps his secret. I never thought I would enjoy this movie because the marketing made it look so drab and dreadful, but it’s actually a solid little thriller where one wrong move or some …
[6] Morgan Freeman reprises the role of Detective Alex Cross (which he began in Kiss the Girls) for this slightly superior sequel involving the kidnapping of a senator’s daughter for ransom. At first, I was excited to see that Michael Wincott (The Crow) was playing the kidnapper — I often wonder why we don’t see more of Wincott in the movies. Unfortuantely, he’s a bit …
[6] Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd mostly succeed in saving this somewhat pedestrian thriller from Lifetime Movie territory. Freeman plays a policeman in search of a possible serial killer and Judd plays the one woman who was able to escape the killer. Together, they try to piece together her memories to find the killer and free the growing collection of young women he has collected. …
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