Tag: Crime

Mystery Date’s Plot Should Remain a Mystery

Brian McNamara, Ethan Hawke, Teri Polo, and BD Wong in Mystery Date

Mystery Date

?Directed by Jonathan Wacks?
?Written by Parker Bennett, Terry Runte?

The review:

The movie that provided the first starring roles for Ethan Hawke* and Teri Polo is not one for the history books,** though its crime is being incredibly middle of the road, not terrible. It’s one of those movies that reminds me how the 80s kept going for a bit into the 90s,*** and it fits into that action/comedy slot but sprinkles in a bit of romance. I found the plotting interesting and was wondering at some point how everything would manage to come together in the end.

The verdict: Skip

(Unless Teri Polo or Ethan Hawke completist.)

Cost: HBOMax monthly charge ($12.99)
Where watched: at home

Consider watching instead:

Further sentences:

*Hawke has some signature things he falls back on at this point in his career, like looking to the side as if in heavy thought, shaking his head, and regretfully saying something. If I follow through on my hazy plan to catch up with all of Hawke’s performances, it will be interesting to see when those tics disappear.
**It didn’t, for instance, come up when Ethan Hawke was discussing his iconic roles in this (highly recommended) video.
***Teri Polo’s hair! The hair of Ethan Hawke’s mother and friends! The boxy, flowy clothing on the men!

Hasn’t aged well:

Stalking and theft! Great ways to get the girl!
The main character uses his brother’s telescope to spy on the girl he’s too scared to talk to. He later uses information he gathers to ingratiate himself with her.
The main character steals a bag of trash from the house where the girl he likes is staying. Later, he and his brother go through the trash to learn more about her. This information is used (with a bit of fun gaslighting) to convince her to go on a date.

Questions:

  • What would have been the thing that finally had Geena Matthews saying, “Nope, this isn’t the guy for me”?
  • What did you think of the many Asian characters in this film?

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

The crazy metal band on stage at the night club is GWAR.

“Is that GWAR?” I said to myself during that very scene. This movie was interesting from a music perspective. All sorts of things one wouldn’t think would be thrown together in a movie. Songs by Sonic Youth, INXS, Seal, and Wilson Pickett. Plus GWAR. But like I said before, the 80s kept going into the 90s for a bit. There was a guitar/sax thing that was lodged deep somewhere in my psyche. Thanks to the internet, I now know that it was “Lily Was Here.” I don’t know if I ever knew the title.

Other reviews of Mystery Date:

  • Rita Kemply, Washington Post
  • (Great quote from this review: Hawke has a pleasant lackadaisicality about him, a way of sidling up to a punch line…)
  • Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Orange background with a white frame. Well, fine. Well then I'll just go over there and say, "Hi, I'm Tom and you don't know me, but I've been spying on you for a couple of months now and I am finding you very attractive in a very real, very hormonal way." And then she'll slap me silly.—Mystery Date. Read the three sentence movie review. 3SMReviews.com

Rita Hayworth is the Lady from Shanghai

Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth in The Lady from Shanghai

The Lady from Shanghai

?Directed by Orson Welles?
?Written by Sherwood King, Orson Welles?

The review:

Orson Welles does an Irish accent and takes the noir film to a bunch of sunny locals for an interesting night at the cinema.* Everyone really dug into their characters, none more so than Glenn Anders, who played his part with a sweaty dedication. There were also twists a plenty, and some dramatic visuals as befits the dude who made Citizen Kane.**

The verdict: Good

Cost: Free via TV Time app on Roku TV (But get ready to see the same commercials repeated.)
Where watched: at home

Consider also watching all of the Filmspotting 40’s Noir Marathon movies:

Further sentences:

*So much sun and fun! (But that underbelly of darkness followed them, don’t worry) I loved that we seemed to be getting location shots, rather than sound stage shots.
**”This movie is awesome!” I cackled aloud near the end.

Questions:

  • What did you think of the treatment of all the people of color who wandered through this film?
  • What are your favorite Rita Heyworth and Orson Welles movies?

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

Columbia Pictures boss Harry Cohn told Orson Welles he would never again hire one man to produce, direct and act because he could never fire him.

Also this:

In the aquarium scene, the tanks were shot separately, enlarged, and matted in to make the sea creatures appear more monstrous and loom closer to the actors.

Other reviews of The Lady from Shanghai:

Orange background with a white frame. Text: Personally, I don't like a girlfriend to have a husband. If she'll fool a husband, I figure she'll fool me.—The Lady From Shanghai. Read the three sentence movie review. 3SMReviews.com

Don’t Avoid Edgar G. Ulmer’s Detour

Ann Savage and Tom Neal in Detour.

Detour

?Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer?
?Written by Martin Goldsmith?

The review:

There are three reasons to watch this film and the least of the reasons is that it’s 68 minutes, so it won’t take much of your time. The other two have to do with the road trip conundrum* and the incredible performance by Ann Savage.** I can’t say I know a ton about noir, but I can say that this film is a great place to start, if you are among the noir curious.***

The verdict: Recommended

Cost: free from the Multnomah County Library (I even got the Criterion Collection version.)
Where watched: at home

Consider also watching:

Further sentences:

*Though “back in the day” is often portrayed as a time when hitchhiking was a thing that everyone did, Tom Neal’s character mentions how hard it’s been for him to get a ride.
**She doesn’t appear until the movie is nearly halfway over, but man, does she make this film work.
***And like I said, 68 minutes!

Questions:

  • What was Al Roberts first misstep?
  • How you would have navigated this particular jam?

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

The budget PRC gave director Edgar G. Ulmer for this film was so small that the 1941 Lincoln Continental V-12 convertible driven by Charles Haskell was actually Ulmer’s personal car.

Other reviews of Detour:

Orange background with a white frame. Shut up, yer makin' noises like a husband. —Detour. Read the three sentence movie review. 3SMReviews.com

The Promise of Promising Young Woman

Carey Mulligan in Promising Young Woman

Promising Young Woman

?Directed by Emerald Fennell?
?Written by Emerald Fennell?

The review:

If I tell you this movie is a revenge thriller you’ll probably get a very specific picture in your mind.* But it’s not that movie at all, it’s a candy colored confection that is funny, sweet, and can spark some incredible conversations about consent and the things we tell each other.** Carey Mulligan is a chameleon, putting off and taking off personalities, and she’s backed by a talented cast.***

The verdict: Recommended.****

Cost: $1.30 from Redbox (I waited so very patiently for the $19.99 price to drop, and then had a Redbox Coupon that saved me 50¢)
Where watched: at home

Consider also watching:

Further sentences:

*Dark, moody, angry, and either containing a ton of spattered blood throughout or at least a massive bloodbath at the end.
**Ideally things are starting to change, but this is the kind of change we need now, not eventually. Also, it will make you like a Paris Hilton song.
***Me during the opening credits: Beau Burnham is in this?!! Alison Brie! Laverne Cox! Connie Britton!
****The movie ended, the bonus features started, the bonus features ended, and I started the movie again. Then watched it for a third time the next night with Matt.

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

The title is a reference to Brock Turner, a Stanford University student who was convicted of sexual assault in 2016. Despite his conviction, he was referred to by some as a “promising young man.”

Other reviews of Promising Young Woman:

Orange background with a white frame. Text: It's every man's worst nightmare, getting accused of something like that. —Promising Young Woman. Read the three sentence movie review. 3SMReviews.com

This Gun for Hire Has A Lot of Elements.

Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Robert Preston in This Gun for Hire.

This Gun for Hire

?Directed by Frank Tuttle?
?Written by Albert Maltz, W.R. Burnett?

The review:

Well this is a delightful mishmash of oddities.* Alan Ladd plays it tough as Raven, who has no room for anyone** and is the titular gun for hire. Veronica Lake doesn’t exactly dazzle as a performer, though she does make an impression*** and when the two come together, they do capture the eye.

The verdict: Good

Cost: $3.99 via Google Play
Where watched: at home

Consider also watching:

Further sentences:

*It’s noir, there are two full music and dance numbers, there’s a spy plot, and a wealthy and weird rich guy.
**Though he does like cats.****
***Singing, dancing, and magic tricks? So many things crammed into one routine. This was my first time seeing a Veronica Lake performance. After hearing about her glamour for 40+ years, I have to say I was underwhelmed. Yes to the amazing hair. But she also looks like one of those underfed kids from Appalachia. Beauty standards. They don’t hold.
****Speaking of cats, one of them will be killed in the course of this movie. It happens off screen and didn’t bug me the way things like this usually do.

Questions:

  • Was this movie just a little too odd?
  • How did you feel about the ending?

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

In Graham Greene’s novel, Raven’s psychological motivation for becoming a killer was that his mother disfigured his face. Paramount could not mess up Ladd’s handsome mug, so it was changed to his aunt disfiguring his wrist with a red hot poker.

Other reviews of This Gun for Hire:

Orange background with a white frame. Text: What's the matter? You look like you've been on a hayride with Dracula. —This Gun for Hire. Read the three sentence movie review. 3SMReviews.com

Special Film Noir Delivery: The Letter

Bette Davis in the Letter.

The Letter

?Directed by William Wyler?
?Written by Howard Koch?

The review:

From the first dramatic scene to the last, this movie is plenty of fun.* Bette Davis is both flip and overwhelmed as a woman who had to kill her neighbor when he tried to assault her.** But once a letter floats to the surface, we see the difficult choices her lawyer must make.***

The verdict: Good

Cost: $2.99 via Google Play
Where watched: at home

Further sentences:

*Death comes in both of those scenes, so we’re not talking barrel of laughs fun, but there’s something about how overwrought everything is that is so incredibly enjoyable.
**So she says.
***All leading to a very dramatic ending.
Note: This was filmed in the 1940s and is set on a rubber plantation. In terms of racist portrayals it’s not great. I’ve seen much, much worse though.

Questions:

  • What was your turning point?
  • What did you think of Victor Sen Yung’s portrayal of Ong Chi Seng?

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

The first scene that William Wyler shot was the famous opening shot in which we see Leslie shoot Geoffrey Hammond. The opening shot, which lasted two minutes on screen, took an entire day to film, and that was before even a single word of dialogue was spoken. The studio expected him to shoot at a rate of 3-4 script pages a day, but the opening shot reflected a mere paragraph on page one.

Other reviews of The Letter:

Orange background with a white frame. I don't think it's right, but I think it's expedient. Juries can sometimes be very stupid, and it's just as well not to worry them with more evidence than they can conveniently deal with.--The Letter. Read the three sentence movie review: 3SMReviews.com: The Letter

Locked Down: Observing a Pandemic from within a Pandemic

Anne Hathaway and Chiwetel Ejiofor in Locked Down

Locked Down

★Directed by Doug Liman★
★Written by Steven Knight★

The review:

This is a light affair* that might be handy to have on tap in ten to fifteen years when kids who were very young or were born after 2021 start asking questions.** It’s all there for you to point to*** and covered with a veneer of a story about a couple on their last legs as a couple. Ejiofor and Hathaway are fun to watch and there are a bunch of cameos.****

The verdict: Good

Cost: HBOMax monthly fee ($8.99) (Still living off the WW84 month)
Where watched: at home

Consider also watching:

Further sentences:

*So light that despite the fact that I’m still living in quarantine-type restrictions I could watch this without feeling traumatized and did not have feelings of “too soon!”
**This, of course, assumes that there won’t be any global pandemics in the next ten to fifteen years. Which is not an assumption I’m willing to bet on at this point and time.
***The general end-of-the-world feelings, the day drinking, the odd sense of time, the awkward Zoom calls, the abrupt job changes, the sliding into familiar bad habits, kids being stuck at home with their parents, the reevaluating of life choices.
****However, if you’ve seen this, I wish to chat about the ending. Do look me up.

Questions:

  • What will you remember most about this time?
  • Was this the exact right temperature for a movie about a quarantine released during that same quarantine?

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

The movie was shot in only 18 days in London during the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of the hectic pace of filming, stars didn’t have the time to properly prepare and for some scenes Hathaway’s and Ejiofor’s lines had to be taped to their eyeline.

Other reviews of Locked Down:

Orange background with a white frame. Being locked up is making it worse.—Locked Down. Read the three sentence movie review: 3SMReviews.com

The Last Thing He Wanted: Not Great

Anne Hathaway and Rosie Perez in The Last Thing He Wanted

The Last Thing He Wanted

Directed by Dee Rees
Written by Marco Villalobos, Dee Rees

The review:

This was the kind of subpar movie where even analyzing what went wrong didn’t make it more fun. I think ultimately, not enough was revealed to the viewer to hook them in* and what results is 110 minutes of not-quite getting it and 5 minutes at the end where things are revealed. I also found the terse speech patterns of Anne Hathaway’s character to detract from, rather than add to, the film.

The verdict: Skip

Cost: Netflix monthly fee $8.99
Where watched: at home

Consider watching instead:

Further sentences:

*Or perhaps I didn’t catch the things I was supposed to catch.

Questions:

  • Would you be interested in other films that portray women journalists?
  • Where do you think this film got off track?

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

Ben Affleck replaced Nicolas Cage.

Other reviews of The Last Thing He Wanted:

Orange background with a white frame. Text: In a perfect world we make perfect choices. In the real world we make real choices. —The Last Thing He Wanted. Read the three sentence movie review: 3SMReviews.com

The Devil All the Time Brings the Ick

Picture of Tom Holland in the film The Devil All the Time

The Devil All the Time

Directed by Antonio Campos
Written by Antonio Campos & Paulo Campos

The review:

While politicians during election season like to talk about the United States of America as a Shining City on a Hill, directors like Antonio Campos do their duty to remind audiences that the USA was born in violence and wacko religion and that reality has passed through every generation.* This was a chance for a lot of actors to work on their accents** and bring their best Midwestern Gothic, which I found they succeeded at across the board. This was one of those violent films*** where I was entranced by a lot, and also intrigued because I wasn’t sure how the stories were going to come together.****

The verdict: Good

Cost: Netflix monthly charge ($8.99)
Where watched: at home. I watched this because my “recent activity” page on Letterboxed was full of this poster. Having not heard of the film, I googled. Seeing the cast, I made plans to watch it that very night.

Consider also watching:

Further sentences:

*There’s an overarching icky feeling from the first frame of this film to the last. I enjoyed the contrast with the setting of the 1940s through the 1960s, which, when rendered in film, tends to lend itself to a peaceful nostalgia.
**There are a lot of not-from-the-US actors in this: Tom Holland (British), Robert Pattinson (British), Harry Melling***** (British), Mia Wasikowska (Australian), Bill Skarsgård (Swedish), Eliza Scanlen (Australian), Jason Clarke (Australian). In fact, of the top cast, only Riley Keough and Haley Bennett were born in the US. Sebastian Stan came to the US at age twelve by way of Austria and Romania. Donald Ray Pollock, who wrote the novel the movie is a based on and serves as the narrator, is from Ohio.
***“How is your violent film?” asked the boyfriend. “How do you know it’s violent?” I asked instead of answering. “I could hear it,” he told me. Aside from a host of people being killed, a dog is also among the murdered.
****They did come together in the end.
*****Mr. Melling seems to becoming a reliable Netflix film dude. I’ve seen him in this, The Old Guard, and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. He’s sung in two of those roles.

Questions:

  • Who was the most magnetic character?
  • Movies that feel icky. Yay or nay?

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

Real spiders were used.

(I wondered)

Other reviews of The Devil All the Time:

Murder on the Orient Express is Ensemble Fun

Picture of the cast of Murder on the Orient Express including Kenneth Branagh, Penelope Cruz, Michelle Pfeiffer, Judi Dench, Olivia Coleman and more.

Murder on the Orient Express

Directed by Kenneth Branagh
Written by Michael Green

The review:

First off, two things: 1) I congratulate myself to have made it this far in life not knowing whodunnit, thus making for a fun film experience 2) What was up with all the swooping camera stuff?* I enjoyed the ensemble cast, and though I just lambasted his directing, Branagh was great as Hercule Poirot.** The film made the most of the tight quarters and clues revealed.

The verdict: Good

Cost: $1.43 via Redbox
Where watched: at home

Consider also watching:

Further sentences:

*It looked gaudy and like the director was scared to deal with actual camera angles that would tell the story.
**I thought the mustache was very fun, but there was a lack of continuity in whether he wore his mustache guard while sleeping.

Questions:

  • Who was your favorite suspect?
  • How distracting was Johnny Depp for you?

Favorite IMDB trivia item:

Johnny Depp asked Sir Kenneth Branagh to apologize to Sir Derek Jacobi for him after filming their scene together. “Because I had to shout at him, I don’t want to shout at Derek Jacobi.”

Other reviews of Murder on the Orient Express:

Orange background with a white frame. Text: I am of an age where I know what I like and what I do not like. What I like, I enjoy enormously. What I dislike, I cannot abide. For instance, the temporary pleasantries before what is determined to be a business discussion. --Murder on the Orient Express. Read the three sentence movie review. 3SMReviews.com