Mesrine: Public Enemy #1 (Day 96)
My Opinion: 8.1 || Exciting gangster biopic dominated by Vincent Cassel as the title character. Thrilling performance. Vibrant writing and direction. Engrossing from start to finish.
Category Archive: Thriller
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Le Doulos (Day 90)
My Opinion: 7.9 || Dark, tight crime thriller that plays cat-and-mouse with our loyalties and assumptions. Not a roller-coaster so much as a slow-track ride with trick mirrors and surprising turns. Once we get… Continue reading
Lady Vengeance (Day 87)
My Opinion: 6.9 || Great visual creativity and cinematic style, but the story reaches for profundity that isn’t there. The lead character is colorful but shallow, and there’s little insight into the psychological or… Continue reading
A Hijacking (Day 85)
My Opinion: 7.9 || Riveting — succeeds as a taut thriller, intense drama, and absorbing character study. Great insights into the mechanics of piracy and negotiation, as well as a harrowing view of what… Continue reading
The Trap (Day 83)
My Opinion: 7.5 || Intelligent, gripping thriller that sets a compelling moral trap. The story is tight and the emotions are deeply felt.
Cell 211 (Day 79)
My Opinion: 6.9 || Thrilling first hour that leads to a disappointingly strained and messy second half — too many developments that smell like a screenwriter’s outline. Even with those flaws, though, it’s a… Continue reading
La Femme Nikita (Day 73)
My Opinion: 6.5 || Stylish action film that’s spawned myriad spin-offs and imitations. The last act is badly muddled, but the foundation is excellent, the thriller elements are well filmed, and it’s a mostly… Continue reading
Mesrine: Killer Instinct (Day 67)
My Opinion: 6.8 || Good gangster biopic, but the direction and acting are more interesting than the subject matter. It’s the first part of a two-film set, and has a to-be-continued ending that (unavoidably)… Continue reading
The Hidden Face (Day 61)
My Opinion: 5.9 || Flawed but diverting thriller with a clever-enough plot. As in so many thrillers, the action hinges on someone doing something brain-numbingly stupid, and the characters aren’t particularly interesting or sympathetic.… Continue reading
The Man From Nowhere (Day 52)
My Opinion: 6.5 || Sharp action thriller that efficiently hits all the genre elements. Nothing very original, but that’s okay — it’s viscerally exciting, well shot, and doesn’t hurt your head with (too much) implausibility.… Continue reading
