Movie Rental Finds » Mystery

The Prisoner

wallruss — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:55:44 +0000

I haven’t been watching many movies lately because I’ve been stuck on anime and miniseries. My favorite miniseries lately is The Prisoner. It’s about a guy who wakes up in ‘the village’ where everyone thinks there is no place in the world other than that place. The protagonist, played by Jim Caviezel, has pieces of memories of another place but he doesn’t know any other name than the number he has been given. The entire community, is run by one man, number two, played by Ian McKellen. In the village everyone is a number. What unfolds over the six-part series is the prisoner trying to escape, insisting that he is from somewhere else while the leader of the village makes no small effort to convince him and others that may be like him, otherwise.

This Prisoner miniseries is a remake of sorts of a 60’s British series that is quite famous but I have never seen it. The miniseries was aired on AMC and will be aired again this month. It’s also available on Netflix. When the series starts, it was immediately clear that there was a lot more going on that was obvious. I thorough enjoyed this series and tried very hard to figure it all out as I went through it but except for a few points was unable to. That’s the mark of a good story for me. I watched the beginning of it with friends and they were quite taken with it right away. It’s too bad they didn’t make this an ongoing series. I definitely would have watched it. I give it a four out of five marks. I think you’ll enjoy it.

Blindness

wallruss — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 06:24:40 +0000

Blindness is a kind of ‘end of the world’ movie. Here the demise of mankind is their loss of site. You never really find out what causes it but you see it start and spread like any other untreatable disease. What happens next is the government’s reaction to something they can neither control nor stop but that’s not all of the story. The movie really seems to find it’s stride when it explores what happens to a specific group of blind people over time once they’re rounded up. Things become very intense and the film paints a tragic and depressing picture of what humanity might become or perhaps already is.

There are a few famililar faces in this movie. Julianne Moore plays the wife of an Eye Doctor who is played by Mark Ruffalo. Julianne’s character is somehow immune to the disease and shares that secret with her sightless husband. The disease does not discriminate so people of all kinds including, doctors, prostitutes, thieves, would-be philosophers, and children find themselves herded together and forming a forced community. It get’s really bad towards the end and parts seem to resemble ‘Lord of the Flies’.

I don’t think I liked any character in this film but that didn’t stop me from watching it through to the end. Watching humanity devolve day by day until they are little more than filthy animals held my attention surprisingly well. I give this movie a 4 out of 5 marks.

The Cat Piano

wallruss — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 09:22:37 +0000

This Animated Short has been nominated for an Oscar this year but has already received numerous awards. The Cat Piano is a noir sort of film and is described as follows, “A city of singing cats is preyed upon by a shadowy figure intent on performing a twisted feline symphony.” Want to find out more about it? Check out the official site. In the meantime watch it now while it’s still on YouTube before they lock it in a vault somewhere for posterity’s sake. Enjoy!

In The Electric Mist

wallruss — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 07:07:47 +0000

This direct-to-video movie takes place somewhere around New Orleans, Louisiana. In The Electric Mist stars Tommy Lee Jones as Cajun Deputy Dave Robicheaux. He narrates and pretty much stars in every scene of this film. A series of gruesome murders in a town plagued by the usual southern opportunists, bad people, and southern racial issues starts the ball rolling and the Cajun detective is there to make it right. There’s a lot going on the head of Tommy Lee’s character. He’s an alcoholic, a police officer, a father, a husband, and a witness to a murder when he was a kid. He’s also willing to bend the law to see that justice is done. Tommy Lee plays this complex character well. Mary Steenburgen plays his wife, Bootsie, and does a great job but Tommy Lee is in so much of this movie that she only seems important in that she helps give his character depth. John Goodman plays Julie ‘Baby Feet’ Balboni, a bad guy/businessman that has a history with Tommy Lee’s character.

This is an enjoyable movie from beginning to end. Even the slow parts contribute to the mystery and the surreal portions add an extra dimension. There are moments where you can’t tell for sure whether Tommy Lee’s character is drunk, high, or truly being visited by a Southern spirit. This is a good movie, carried very well by Tommy Lee Jones and is worth seeing. I’m more than a little surprised this film never made it to the big screen. I give it a 4 out of 5 marks.

Sleuth

wallruss — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 05:03:06 +0000

Sleuth is the story of a rich man who invites his wife’s lover over to his home in order to match wits with him and humiliate him or worse. It stars Michael Caine as the rich old guy and Jude Law as the younger man who is living with his wife. What follows is a surprisingly captivating tale of two intellectual men going at it, each one trying to show that his member is bigger than the other. There is some violence but most of it is a test of will and wits. There’s not a lot of action here. The entire story takes place at one large and rather strange home. There are very few actors and a considerable amount of dialog. This is a remake that was supposed to have added something to its predecessor.

I have to say this movie started out a bit boring and I was expecting it to be the same throughout and in a way it was but I somehow got caught up in the dialog, trying to see which of the two would end up on top. The fact is you don’t find out for sure until the end of the movie. Because of the lack of action and the rather static background, (made more so because of the tiny cast), this movie isn’t for everyone. There’s no adventure, no romance, no sex, a small amount of mystery besides who will win the exchange and while there are tense moments in the film, I’d say it’s just barely a thriller. Again, there was a lot of dialog and sometimes it seemed to get a bit mixed together and confusing. That said, the film was good enough to see once and not a total waste of my time. I give this a 3 out of 4 marks. [starreview tpl=16]

Echelon Conspiracy

wallruss — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 08:16:24 +0000

My first introduction to this direct to video movie was as a poor man’s Eagle Eye. There are a lot of similarities between that film and Echelon Conspiracy. It’s an easy comparison to make but this movie does succeed in creating its own own semi-interesting take. Shane West plays the part of the film’s protagonist, a young guy doing some tech work overseas who receives a mysterious hi-tech phone which provides him with some compelling opportunities. The movie also stars Ving Rhames and Edward Burns, the latter of which seems to show up quite frequently in low budget projects such as this.

Story wise, this film isn’t bad. It starts rather innocent and playfully then becomes a bit of a mystery, then later tries to make its way to an action thriller. All the elements are there; the love scene, the young guy getting in over his head, the espionage, the car chase, the conspiracy, and the mysterious mastermind. The trouble with this film is that it takes too long to get to the action and while entertaining, it never really gets compelling. If there’s a reason why this was never released in the theaters then that’s probably it. It just never becomes much of a thriller. You can hit pause at any part in the movie and come back the next day to pick up where you left off. You just don’t care enough about the characters and their individual plights to really invest yourself in them. I give this movie 3 out of 5 marks.