Deranged. Aggressive. Exorbitant. Implausible. Unhinged. Riveting. Adrenaline pumping. Wildly entertaining. Worthwhile Unhinged. Many adjectives describe Russell Crowe’s (Boy Erased, A Beautiful Mind), although words that would not be included would be well-crafted, consistent, or coherent. It’s a diverting 90-minute escape from the cruel reality of 2020, and it’s for that reason alone that I recommend it more than I would during a typical year. Starting with the film’s first scene, director Derrick Borte (American Dreamer, London Town) shows you the world he’s created around his leading character while setting the mood for what will be a relentless ride.
Category Archives: Mystery
The Abyss (1989)
I remember the first time I saw the trailer for The Abyss on television, like it was yesterday. The film’s release date was August 9, 1989, so I do not believe it was during the Super Bowl, but it might have been. During that time, it was common to tease a trailer seven months before a release. However, I don’t believe it was during the Super Bowl because I remember the trailer being much longer than a 30 or 60-second spot that a Super Bowl advertisement traditionally commanded. The preview might have been hyped for weeks as something set to be shown as an extended trailer on a popular show. In either case, I had never been awed by a movie preview in my entire life, and that might be the best trailer for a movie I’ve ever seen on television.
Children of Men (2007)
A decade before Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity, Roma) was winning Oscars for Best Director, he directed the critically acclaimed and now cult classic Children of Men, a post-apocalyptic thriller set in 2027 Britain. In this dystopian world, it has been 18 years since the most recent human has been born. Humans have become incapable of reproducing for reasons unknown, resulting in a global fear that the extinction of our species is imminent. England is now the one remaining civilized society on the entire planet, making it a place where everyone can immigrate. The borders are strong, but people still illegally enter. Those caught are promptly placed into refugee camps. While this scenario may seem completely foreign to many of us, it should be a fear in our minds that lawlessness is entirely possible, and situations like these are already happening (though not globally) in many of our smaller countries that cannot defend themselves.
Before the Devil Knows Your’re Dead (2007)
Murphy’s Law. Everything that can go wrong will go wrong.
Sidney Lumet’s (Guilty As Sin, Dog Day Afternoon) Before the Devil Knows Your Dead is a good-old-fashioned robbery gone wrong that involves older brother Andy (Philip Seymour Hoffman – Capote, The Savages) and younger brother Hank (Sinister, Before Sunrise) fleecing the strip-mall jewelry store of their parents Charles (Albert Finney – Erin Brokovich, Tom Jones) and Nanette (Rosemary Harris – Spider-Man, Tom and Viv) on a day where neither parent was expected to be there.
Ad Astra (2019)
“To The Stars” is the Latin translation for Ad Astra, James Gray’s (The Lost City of Z, The Yards) powerfully ambitious space travel movie that features astronaut Roy McBride (Brad Pitt – By the Sea, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) going from Earth to the moon to Mars to Neptune in an attempt to stop pulse bursts that have been devastating the Earth that has taken thousands of lives are a poised to take thousands more. The perceived bursts are thought to be coming from The Lima Project, a missing exploration ship piloted by Roy’s father, Clifford (Tommy Lee Jones – The Fugitive, The Company Men), presumed destroyed decades earlier. Taking the story out of it for a second, Ad Astra is a visually stunning masterpiece that deserves a viewing on the largest screen possible. It doesn’t quite feel like you are floating in outer space (like the equally brilliant Gravity does), but it’s not that far off.