Reviews now on YouTube! | Watch here

Larsen On Film

  • Review Library
  • Subscribe
  • Why I’m Wrong
  • About
  • Books

Tag: Thriller

In the Cut (2003)

Thriller Rated R

“…may not be pure Campion, but it’s also the sort of movie only Campion could have made.”

Cell, The (2000)

Thriller Rated R

This ambitious, inventive and visually stunning science-fiction thriller – about a child therapist (Jennifer Lopez) who enters the mind of a serial killer – never manages to justify all of the horrific images of death and torture that it shows. The movie doesn’t quite revel in them in the way that the similarly themed Seven

Secret Window (2004)

Thriller Rated PG-13

The secret of Secret Window becomes obvious fairly early, so thankfully there’s one thing more crucial to the movie: Johnny Depp. Depp has become more squirrelly as he’s aged, and as a mystery writer tormented by a mysterious stranger (John Turturro), he brings unpredictability to the screen without ever stepping outside of the story. The

Village, The (2004)

Thriller Rated PG-13

The Sixth Sense-level whopper of M. Night Shyamalan’s period picture – about a 19th-century enclave haunted by creatures in the surrounding woods – is the best thing about the film, mainly because the rest of it is rather clunky (the assured filmmaking in Signs is only occasionally on display). Perhaps Shyamalan was looking for the

Dressed to Kill (1980)

Thriller Rated R

Yet another example of Brian De Palma’s deep fear and resulting hatred of women. Dressed to Kill centers around psychiatrist Robert Elliott (Michael Caine), whose shaving razor is stolen by a troubled patient and put to gory use against various women. It’s a mystery, sort of – your first guess as to the identity of

Beach, The (2000)

Thriller Rated R

A clever cautionary tale about the dangers of a would-be Shangri-la, The Beach dangles sun, sand and skin before our eyes – and then cruelly snatches it all away. Leonardo DiCaprio puts his good looks to subversive use as Richard, a young American abroad whose sexual betrayals turn an idyllic island into paradise lost.

Assault on Precinct 13 (2005)

Thriller Rated R

At least this remake doesn’t try to pump up the B-movie elements of its 1976 source with A-list pretensions. This is exploitation material that’s happy to stay that way. Once again, an ill-equipped band of cops and criminals at a nearly abandoned precinct – it is scheduled to close the next day – are attacked

Chinatown (1974)

Thriller Rated R

“…revisited the film noir genre only to perfect it.”

Sentinel, The (2006)

Thriller Rated PG-13

The Sentinel deals in political intrigue, rumor and assassination plots, so it makes sense that the movie has the demeanor of a conspiracy theorist. Fidgety and jittery, it’s as calm and collected as a puppy trotting down the aisles of PetSmart. As a narrative, the picture is so clunky it’s hard to determine which star

Black Dahlia, The (2006)

Thriller Rated R

For a director who made a movie called Femme Fatale, Brian De Palma sure has a tough time negotiating the film-noir genre. Many of De Palma’s pictures could be called noirs, but none are as steeped in the tradition of hard-bitten detectives, double-crossing dames and thick mysteries as The Black Dahlia, based on James Ellroy’s

Recent Reviews

By the Time It Gets Dark (2016)

Drama Rated NR

“While always mesmerized, I admittedly got lost amidst the layers…”

Two Minutes Late (1952)

Drama Rated NR

“… aims to be a big-screen version of a lurid pulp crime novel.”

Xiao Wu (Pickpocket) (1997)

Drama Rated NR

“… a scrappy, neo-realist tale of societal scrounging that’s paused by poetic moments of slow cinema.”


Search Review Library

Sponsored by the following | become a sponsor



SUBSCRIBE


Sign up to receive emails

Sign up to get new reviews and updates delivered to your inbox!

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!




FOLLOW ONLINE



All rights reserved. All Content ©2024 J. Larsen
maintained by Big Ocean Studios

TOP