[9] I don’t generally like heist/swindle movies, but this Quentin Tarantino flick (his third, because he’s counting) based on a novel by Elmore Leonard got under my skin with its rich characters and dialogue. Pam Grier plays a flight attendant who smuggles gun money from Mexico to the States for a bad motherfucker played by, who else? Samuel L. Jackson. But when ATF agents (Michael …
[9] Director David Fincher rebounded from Alien 3 with this seemingly innocuous serial killer flick penned by Andrew Kevin Walker. We’d seen buddy cop flicks and killers with gitchy modus operandis before, but characterization and style put Se7en over the edge. It’s a deeply creepy and unsettling movie centering around a seasoned detective (Morgan Freeman) and a rookie (Brad Pitt) who are paired in pursuit …
[10] Al Pacino is Vincent Hanna of the LAPD robbery/homicide division. Robert DeNiro is Neil McCauley, the leader of a successful bank robbing team that includes his protege Chris Shiherlis, played by Val Kilmer. After a fouled-up heist puts Hanna on McCauley’s trail, Heat becomes an elaborate cat and mouse chase between a driven police lieutenant and a seasoned criminal. Even though it’s grounded in …
[9] If you think of this movie as Jaws on land, as director Steven Spielberg has suggested, it can’t quite compare to that masterpiece. The characters aren’t strong enough. But it’s still a hell of a summer event movie, delivering groundbreaking effects and well-choreographed thrills. The Michael Crichton story focuses on an island theme park where a wealthy entrepreneur (Richard Attenborough) has resurrected dinosaurs from …
[9] Here we have a horror film so classy, it won the Oscar for Best Picture. Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster each deliver career-defining performances as Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling, the central characters in author Thomas Harris’ perverse contemporary retelling of Beauty and the Beast. The screenplay balances their provocative banter with a well-constructed mystery surrounding the identity and whereabouts of a serial killer …
[9] Underwater oil drillers are forced to work with the military to recover lost nuclear warheads, but they discover far more lurking in the depths of the ocean… This unique underwater sci-fi/thriller from James Cameron (Terminator, Aliens) is an ambitious, somewhat uneven film with thinly-drawn stereotypes and a pretentious alien subplot, but you know what? I like it anyway. I really like it — in …
[10] This movie does two things extraordinarily well. It transports me and it terrifies me. Before anything scary even happens, director John Carpenter succeeds in creating an atmosphere of mystery and suspense that locks me into the film and chills me to the bone. The story features a group of men holed up in an Antarctic research station who discover an alien (the outer space …
[9] Stanley Kubrick takes on Stephen King, and while it may not be the most faithful adaptation, The Shining is a gorgeously crafted plunge into fear and insanity. Jack Nicholson and Shelly Duvall play a husband and wife who take their young son with them to the remote Overlook Hotel, where they’ll be all alone for several months working as caretakers during the winter down …
[10] Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Peter Benchley’s shark thriller is extraordinarily well made and far more sophisticated than your average monster movie. The first half is a solid scare-fest that unwinds beautifully, from the first vicious attack on a late night bathing beauty to the sensational tragedy during the town’s Fourth of July festivities. Once the people of Amnity Island have had enough the movie …
[9] Director William Friedkin (The French Connection) approached William Peter Blatty’s tale of demonic possession with seriousness and realism, striking fear in the hearts of moviegoers worldwide. Often feeling more like a documentary than a sensational horror film, The Exorcist lulls you into a false sense of security with its measured pacing, only to shock the piss out of you when the Devil tightens his …
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