Thriller

Warhunt

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  • Title: Warhunt
  • IMDb: link

Set in Germany towards the end of 1945, Sergeant Brewer (Robert Knepper) and his men are sent behind enemy lines (note: we never see enemy lines in this movie) to find a crashed Allied plane with vital information Major Johnson (Mickey Rourke) doesn’t want falling into Axis hands. What they find are witches (Lou Stassen and Anna Paliga) in the Black Forest who torment and kill the soldiers, just as they do to all warriors who enter their realm to feed their own power.

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Femme Fatale

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  • Title: Femme Fatale
  • IMDb: link

Now 20 years-old, I have some definite affection for writer/director Brian De Palma‘s 2002 film even if it relies on a pair of problematic twists for its ultimate payoff, either one of which could easily turn a viewer off. Rebecca Romijn stars as a thief and con-woman who disappears with the loot after double-crossing her partners in the opening scene set during the Cannes Film Festival. She disappears into the life of a random stranger who just happens to look identical to her and whose life suddenly becomes available. The second twist involves life being a dream which is as least as fanciful as the first. Fast-forward seven years and our thief is living the good life as the wife of an American ambassador in Paris. However, a Spanish paparazzo (Antonio Banderas) taking her picture will bring dangers from the past flooding back.

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Black Site

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  • Title: Black Site
  • IMDb: link

Have you ever watched a movie where your primary reaction is feeling sorry for everyone involved in the project? I know actors need to work to pay their bills, but surely everyone here could have found something more dignified. Perhaps porn or selling autographs at a fifth-rate convention? Really anything would have been better than Black Site.

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Knock Knock

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  • Title: Knock Knock
  • IMDb: link

2015’s Knock Knock fits into the subgenre of male fantasy gone wrong having some similarities to 2006’s Hard Candy. The set-up, which could only occur on film, involves an architect (Keanu Reeves) being visited by two beautiful stranded bisexual nymphomaniacs (Ana de Armas and Lorenza Izzo) on the rainy night his wife (Ignacia Allamand) and children (Dan Baily and Megan Baily) have left for warmer climates. It’s not long before the the two young woman lose their clothing and begin making increasingly obvious advances to their host.

The first half-hour sets the scene with the pair working a little too hard to seduce the family man, while stealing glances letting us know more is a foot which becomes suddenly evident to Evan the morning after when the pair announce they have no plans on leaving and the mind games take darker and darker (and more ridiculous) turns.

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All the Old Knives

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: All the Old Knives
  • IMDb: link

Chris Pine and Thandiwe Newton star as spies and former lovers reunited eight years after a terrorist attack in Vienna. Still with the agency, Henry Pelham (Pine) is tasked with discovering whether or not an inside man helped the terrorists nearly a decade before with the obvious suspects being his former lover and her boss (Jonathan Pryce).  

The film from writer/director Olen Steinhauer attempts to be a slow-burning thriller revealing secrets and twists while poking at old wounds as Pine and Newton hash out past events over dinner. Never as thrilling as it should be, and with an odd choice to jump into extremely jarring close-ups at random intervals, All the Old Knives is really only worth noting for the performances of its two stars, as the plot, despite its attempt at shocking twists, is mainly just an excuse for the two to eat dinner while telling lies and variations of the truth.

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