In The Line Of Duty: The F.B.I. Murders
A pretty decent TV movie about the real-life 1985 Florida shoot-out that saw two FBI agents killed and a further five wounded as they attempted to take down a pair of ex-military bankrolling nutjobs with heavier firepower.
A great cast – Michael Gross (Tremors‘ Boomer and David ‘Hutch’ Soul as the bad guys, Ronny RoboCop Cox as a Fed – and thoroughly competent staging makes for an engaging watch, though the cheap score is awful. Makes a good double-bill with 44 Minutes: The North Hollywood Shoot-Out, about a similar event in California in 1997.
The Way Of The Gun
Christopher McQuarrie’s first (and only ) effort as a director after success writting The Usual Suspects; a hard-boiled tale of amoral drifters (Benicio del Toro and Ryan Phillippe) who somehow end up kidnapping the surrogate mother hired to carry the baby of a rich mob accountant. Bloodshed ensues.
There should be more Hollywood flicks like this – talky, morally questionable, with good parts for older actors and women as well as young heartthrobs. Plus it has an awesome soundtrack (Joe Kraemer) and at least three of the best action scenes in film of the 2000s. Obviously it tanked.
Traffic
Steven Soderbergh’s lens-filtered retread of the 1989 Channel 4 mini-series about drugs, the drugs trade and drugs enforcement, transplanted from Britain, Germany and Pakistan to The US and Mexico.
Some nice touches. Not perfect. Good to see Luis Guzmán in a significant role. Benicio del Torres is excellent as a Mexican federal caught between two immovable objects. Even Michael Douglas is watchable as the Drugs Czar for whom the war comes too close for comfort.
Militia
ATF field agent Dean Lois & Clark Cain and desk jockey Jennifer Flashdance Beals team up to thwart a dastardly terror plot involving anthrax, ballistic missiles and a right-wing radio shock-jock (Stacy Keach). Awful, dull, contemptible, with little or nothing to commend it. Even Frederic Forrest as a survivalist released from prison to infiltrate Federal agent into the militia movement does nothing to mitigate this Jim Wynorski-directed blancmange.
Did I mention that I’d actually paid money for this?
Chugyeokja aka The Chaser
Ex-cop turned pimp has to sprint against the clock in a race to find two of ‘his’ missing girls before their suspected abductor is released from police custody.
By turns funny, alarming, tragic and heart-stoppingly exciting, an excellent first film from Na Hong-Jin.
The Good Thief
Rather flat heist flick by Neil Jordan based on Melville’s Bob Le Flambeur, with Nick Nolte at his most grizzly as an affable American ex-pat junkie gambler in France putting together a crew to knock off Monte Carlo casino. An interesting cast (Saïd Taghmaoui, Tchéky Karyo, Nutsa Kukhianidze), but a not so interesting script.
Sherlock Holmes And The Secret Weapon
Silly Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce WW2-retooled Holmes nonsense about the Gestapo chasing after some Macguffin or other, but obviously it is good fun and brisk.
The First Great Train Robbery
Fun period crime caper with Sean Connery, Lesley-Anne Down and Donald Sutherland leading a Victorian era crew in a daring Crimean gold takedown, with wonderful Jerry Goldsmith score.
Se7en
David Fincher, rainy unnamed city, serial killer on the loose, soon-to-retire hangdog cop Morgan Freeman reluctantly passes on the reins to impetuous new detective Brad Pitt, great sound & music, slick look, fine work.
A Week In Film 