Category: mystery
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Mother! [2017] ★★★
Artistic ambition can be a bitch in this day and age. Just try to make a movie that doesn’t sound or look like your typical Hollywood film and the angry dogs will be out to get you. That’s Darren Aronofsky, from “Requiem for a Dream” to “Black Swan”, he delights in stirring controversy. I’ve had…
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IT [2017] ★★★
Movies based on Stephen King’s novels tend to range from terrific (“The Shawshank Redemption”) to just plain awful (“Cell”), but being one of his scariest and most popular stories, I approached “It” with high expectations. Filmmaker Tommy Lee Wallace had already adapted the story into a mini-series back in 1990, but the new film never…
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It Comes At Night [2017] ★★★
If you’ve seen Joel Edgerton in “Warrior” and “The Gift”, you probably know he’s an actor who means business. In “It Comes At Night”, an indie horror film that distances itself from the multiplex formula, Edgerton sinks his teeth into the complex role of a family man who keeps his family secure within a safe…
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Atomic Blonde [2017] ★★½
Sounds juicy: Charlize Theron kicking ass like there’s no tomorrow. But “Atomic Blonde”, directed by David Leitch, a former stuntman who co-directed “John Wick” (it shows), is neither the action movie of the year nor the disaster I feared. It falls somewhere in between, and for that, I have to cut the movie some slack. One…
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A Cure For Wellness [2017] ★★½
I approach every psychological movie with a combination of excitement and apprehension, and “A Cure for Wellness” is no exception: it’s a visual feast, courtesy of director Gore Verbinsky, featuring a superior performance from its leading man, Dane DeHaan. How to describe the story? I’d say it’s a cross between Martin Scorsese’s “Shutter Island” and…
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Get Out [2017] ★★★
It came out of nowhere. First time director Jordan Peele, working with a tight budget (around $5 million), has managed to craft one of the year’s most profitable horror/slasher/comedy/satirical movies ($149 million at last count). So what’s all the fuss about? On the surface, it sounds like a mix between “Guess who’s coming to dinner”…
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Listen (Ismaii) [2017] ★★★
After a series of disappointing Lebanese movies (even “Nuts” was a crushing disappointment), it’s refreshing to encounter a local movie that I can genuinely recommend. Filmmaker Philippe Aractingi (“Bosta”, “Under The Bombs”, “Heritages”), who has been making feature films for over a decade, said that he wanted to tackle something completely different this time, and…
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Allied [2016] ★★★
World War II movies have been around since…well World War II, that you start to wonder if there’s still room for more. But I have faith in director Robert Zemeckis (“Cast Away”, “Forrest Gump”) and I have nothing but admiration for Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard. They play intelligence officer Max Vatan and French Resistance fighter…
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Inferno [2016] ★★½
It’s been a decade since Ron Howard’s big screen adaptation of the controversial “The Da Vinci Code” hit theaters and was met with a negative reaction from critics and audiences alike. “Angels & Demons” followed in 2009 and despite its muddled plot, it was a much more superior film. Now the third installment (once again starring the…
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Manhattan Night [2016] ★½
You’d think a Mystery film starring Adrien Brody that looks and feels like a 1940’s film noir would be worth recommending. It isn’t. “Manhattan Night” follows Brody’s desperate search for the truth when a seductive woman asks him to investigate the unsolved murder of her filmmaker husband. As far as atmosphere goes, the movie looks…
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![10 Cloverfield Lane [2016] ★★★](https://tlkabtmovies.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/10c_1-sht_online_teaser_alt1.jpg?w=831)
10 Cloverfield Lane [2016] ★★★
I never thought I’d be reviewing a sequel to J.J Abrams’ 2008 surprise monster hit “Cloverfield”, but here we are. “10 Cloverfield Lane”, this time directed by Dan Trachtenberg has literally come out of nowhere. It was only back in January that the studio released a mysterious trailer announcing the movie. The reason? To keep…
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Child 44 [2015] ★★★
Gary Oldman and Tom Hardy are two of the best actors on the planet. So the idea of teaming them up for a tense, Stalin era thriller seems more than promising. And the story is perfectly set up: we meet Leo Demidov (Tom Hardy), a war hero turned secret policeman in the U.S.S.R. His job involves hunting down suspected…
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Fifty Shades Of Grey [2015] ★½
It was fun, admit it, to watch Sharon Stone in 1992’s “Basic Instinct”, getting Michael Douglas and the audience cross-eyed just by uncrossing her legs on a day she forgot to wear underwear. This one scene is sexier than anything you’ll see in “Fifty Shades of Grey”, the movie version of the “worldwide phenomenon” that…
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Blackhat [2015] ★★
“Blackhat” has the look of a hit. For starters, it’s a thriller directed by Michael Mann (“Heat”, “The Insider”), and audiences usually respond to his movies. They also love Chris Hemsworth, who went beyond his Thor character in 2013’s “Rush” to prove he’s got what it takes to be an A list actor. Here’s a chance to prove…
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A Most Wanted Man [2014] ★★★
Philip Seymour Hoffman was one of the best actors on the planet. For more proof, feel free to check out “A Most Wanted Man”, Anton Corbijn’s tense spy thriller, based on John le Carré’s 2008 novel, in which Hoffman gives a performance that is flawless in every detail. He plays Günther Bachmann, a German intelligence operative who…
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Left Behind [2014] ★
With horrible acting, cheesy effects and disastrous storyline, “Left Behind” reaffirms the fact that the only thing left behind is Nicolas Cage’s career. Fiasco!
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Before I Go To Sleep [2014] ★★½
This thriller starring Nicole Kidman is a psychological stunt, but a damn intriguing one. Kidman gives a solid performance as Christine Lucas, a woman who suffers from a severe case of amnesia. She wakes up every day thinking she is still in college only to be confronted in the mirror with the face of a 40-year-old. Her…
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The November Man [2014] ★½
Wanna see a spy thriller that feels like leftovers from Pierce Brosnan’s days as James Bond? If so,”The November Man” is the movie for you. Brosnan plays an ex-CIA agent named Devereaux, who is pulled back into service by his old mates for one “final” mission and winds up in the middle of some conspiracy…
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The East [2013] ★★½
If you enjoy low-key movies, you’ll probably enjoy “The East”, the latest movie from writer Brit Marling and director Zal Batmanglij. Marling also plays the main character, Sarah Moss, an ex-F.B.I. operative who finds herself recruited by Patricia Clarkson to join her top-secret private intelligence firm. Her mission? Go undercover to join an eco-terrorist group called The East,…
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The Best Offer [2013] ★★★
Art, Mystery, obsession , betrayal. That’s “The Best Offer”, a Hitchcockian film that gets in your head and stays there. Geoffrey Rush, erasing all memories of “The Pirates of the Caribbean” series, delivers yet another memorable performance as Virgil Oldman, an art auctioneer who is well-known in the art world, so much in fact that his…
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