Thriller
Rod Lott
At least All Superheroes Must Die isn't like every other comic book-inspired cinematic vision that currently serve as the buttered bread to Hollywood's rumbling stomach. That alone is not enough to make for a good movie, but it's a head start.

Thriller
Rod Lott
I'm a sucker for a good cop movie, and End of Watch is a great one. Had I seen it before its home-video release, it would have made my 2012 year-end list.

Thriller
Rod Lott
Pick a revenge movie. Any revenge movie.

Thriller
Rod Lott
From 1971, Wake in Fright is a lost film recently and literally rescued from near-oblivion. While I can’t say I was familiar with it before its Drafthouse Films re-release, I’m glad it was saved. To have lost a work this good would have been a blow.

Thriller
Rod Lott
From 1954, Suddenly is the lesser-known of Frank Sinatra’s two films centered on a presidential assassination. Cry “sacrilege” if you wish, but I actually prefer it to the later, more polished, highly revered The Manchurian Candidate. Yes, Suddenly is a B-noir treatment of the same theme, but the underdog proves ridiculously effective.

Thriller
Rod Lott
César (Luis Tosar, Miami Vice) works as a concierge at an apartment building in Barcelona. He handles the door, the mail, the plumbing. Although he enjoys an amiable rapport with many of the residents, he is thoroughly unhappy.

Thriller
Rod Lott
Given the stiff competition with Abe Lincoln, mental patients and paraplegic virgins, I'm not certain Richard Gere will earn his first Oscar nomination for Arbitrage, but I think he certainly deserves to. He's present for nearly every frame of the film, and captivates — something not readily said for his past performances.

Thriller
Rod Lott
Just six days into his residency, Dr. Martin Blake (Orlando Bloom, The Three Musketeers) already has his share of minor screw-ups: His handwriting is illegible, and he prescribed penicillin for a patient who was allergic to it.

Thriller
Rod Lott
When cast in the right role, which is rarely and does not include Magic Mike, Matthew McConaughey can be an electrifying onscreen presence. His breakthrough bit in 1993′s Dazed and Confused is one of those times; Killer Joe is another.

Thriller
Rod Lott
Not to be confused with Adam Green's Frozen, snowbound terrors and all, Andrew Hyatt's The Frozen follows couple Mike (Seth David Mitchell) and Emma (Brit Morgan, True Blood’s werewolf Debbie Pelt) into the woods for a winter camping trip.

Thriller
Rod Lott
Just a decade after starring in Sleuth, Michael Caine returned to similar fare in 1982's Deathtrap. Both are crafty mysteries with a bare minimum of characters and even fewer settings, but many twists to leave viewers with spinning heads.

Thriller
Rod Lott
I should have listened to Ron Backer. In his new book, Mystery Movie Series of 1930s Hollywood, he more or less warns would-be audiences away from trying any of the early 1930s’ half-dozen movies based on Erle Stanley Gardner's Perry Mason character.

Thriller
Rod Lott
London, jazz, neon-lit nights, a posh hotel, a heist, Imogen Poots: Comes a Bright Day has so many elements I love to see in the movies, yet they add up to such a minuscule amount of pleasure. It's like pouring your favorite bubbly beverage all the way to the top of a frosty glass, only to see that once the head has subsided, you're left with so little.

Thriller
Michael Robertson
Being re-released on DVD and Blu-ray from Music Box Films is Tell No One, a genre-bending movie that manages to compound romance, drama and true-crime thriller into one muscular, fast-moving package.

Thriller
Rod Lott
So many Republicans took the news of President Obama’s re-election to such an illogical extreme, they took to Facebook and Twitter to warn the apocalypse was nigh, and you’d better grab all the guns you can. It’s almost as if they want societal collapse to happen. If they view The Day, however, they may rethink their stance, because the movie makes post-apocalyptic life look deathly boring.