Thriller

The Numbers Station

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Numbers Station
  • IMDB: link

The Numbers StationDirected by Kasper Barfoed, The Numbers Station looks and feels every bit the low-budget thriller that it is. Set almost entirely in an underground bunker, the thriller somehow finds a way to make the setting feel empty and endless rather than claustrophobic. Mixed with what appears to be an extremely low budget and a circumspect screenplay that can’t find a way to make the idea of numbers stations exciting in 2013, The Numbers Station is the kind of straight-to-DVD B-movie that fizzles more than it entertains.

Our protagonist is Emerson (John Cusack), a government assassin with an acute case of conscience sent to Suffolk, England, after failing to murder a young woman (Hannah Murray) who was witness to his latest kill. Emerson’s new assignment is to protect Katherine (Malin Akerman), a cryptographer at a small numbers station used to relay encrypted codes across Western Europe. Haunted by his failure, and the death of the witness, Emerson tries to put the situation behind him, at least until the facility comes under attack by an organized group of terrorists.

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Trance

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Trance
  • IMDB: link

TranceTwo thoughts ran through my head when the end credits rolled on the latest film from director Danny Boyle. First, Rosario Dawson is one hell of a beautiful woman. Seriously, this film will be known, even more than for its train wreck of a plot, for the infinite number of screenshots of the fully nude actress which will inevitably hit the Internet in the coming months.

And second, when you get past the smoke and mirrors, the endless twists, turns, misdirection, and Dawson’s full frontal nudity, there’s not really that much to Trance. Despite a strong set-up, the script by Joe Ahearne and John Hodge eventually crumbles under the wight of its preposterous plot. Trance is simply too complicated for its own good.

The film opens with the theft of a $25 million painting from an auction house in broad daylight by a brazen group of criminals (Vincent Cassel, Danny Sapani, Wahab Sheikh, Matt Cross). Despite the best efforts of our narrator, the heroic auctioneer Simon (James McAvoy) who is injured in the heist, the crooks make off with the painting.

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Deadfall

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Deadfall
  • IMDB: link

deadfall-blu-rayAfter the robbery of an Indian casino a car wreck in the wilderness leaves one member of the crew dead and a brother and sister (Eric Bana, Olivia Wilde) on the run from the law as the snow continues to fall. Deciding to split up after killing a State Trooper who had the bad luck to find their car wreck, each make their own way in the storm.

The other major thread of the story involves a recently released convict (Charlie Hunnam) hiding from the law after killing his former boxing promoter only hours after being released. On his way to his childhood home, Jay (Hunnam) runs across a nearly frozen Liza (Wilde) and, despite not needing any other complications, saves her from the blizzard. Using her feminine wiles Liza soon has the man wrapped around her finger, but she after developing feelings for Jay has second thoughts about using him to make it to his parents’ (Kris Kristofferson, Sissy Spacek) farm near the Candian border and her eventual freedom.

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Kill For Me

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Kill For Me
  • IMDB: link

kill-for-me-dvdWould you kill for someone you just met? Kill For Me starts out as a basic thriller involving a pair of new roommates, Amanda (Katie Cassidy) and Hailey (Tracy Spiridakos), involved in some PG-13 college lesbian experimentation and the accidental killing of Amanda’s abusive ex-boyfriend (Ryan Robbins). Despite the fact the death is an open-and-shut case of self-defense, the two girls decide to hide the body. And that’s where things begin going downhill very quickly.

Kill For Me devolves into a series of twists, each more inexplicable and illogical than the last, as Hailey’s true motives become harder to discern as she goes to extreme lengths to blackmail her roommate and lover into helping Hailey seduce and kill her abusive father (Donal Logue). Given it’s ridiculous final hour the film’s only saving grace is it’s relatively short running time (95 minutes).

The only extra included on the DVD is a 13-minute behind-the-scenes featurette on the making of the film featuring cast and crew interviews from the set.

[Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, $22.99]

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The Good Doctor

/ / Home Video
  • Title: The Good Doctor
  • IMDB: link

good-doctor-dvdPeople who work in hospitals are the most awful human beings. I don’t think that’s the message screenwrieter John Enbom and director Lance Daly set out to make with The Good Doctor, but it’s the one constant theme of the entire film.

The troubles begin for first-year resident Dr. Martin Blake (Orlando Bloom), sporting a Matthew Broderick hairdo)  with a quarrelsome nurse (Taraji P. Henson) who is willing to threaten the life of a patient to prove her dominance. The ramification of her actions put him, not the nurse, in hot water with his superiors.

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