http://www.okgazette.com/oklahoma/articles.sec-131-1-thriller.html Long out-of-print, William Friedkin’s Cruising is back on DVD, perhaps to coincide with the director’s new memoir, in which he spends many pages bemoaning the incredible amount of controversy his cop thriller generated upon an unsuccessful theatrical release in 1980. ]]> Now that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has had three back-to-back hits this season in G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Pain & Gain and, of course, Fast & Furious 6, it's time to catch up with the one film of his this year audiences ignored: Snitch.
]]> What's going on with John Cusack? His last two films have gone straight to DVD: The Factory and now The Numbers Station.]]> You can keep Coming Home, Forrest Gump and Born on the Fourth of July, multiple Oscar winners all. For my money, the seminal disabled-Vietnam-vet film is 1977's Rolling Thunder.]]> As Simon Lam gets older, he gets better. The veteran actor has appeared in such in seminal HK action films of the 1990s as Once Upon a Time in China (opposite Jet Li) and Bullet in the Head (directed by John Woo); in the aughts, he graced audience and critical favorites Election and Ip Man. ]]> File 1965's Die! Die! My Darling! under that now-dead subgenre dubbed "Grande Dame Guignol." The Hammer Films production may lack the dueling duo of two twilight-era titans of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? and the others, but truth be told, Tallulah Bankhead is fierce enough to provide all the fire it needs.]]> Imagine waking up in a river with a nasty cut on your forehead, a gun, a bag full of millions in cash and no memory of who you are. For many, we call this Monday. For the purposes of this review, however, we call it ID:A.]]> Despite how Warner Archive has branded it, 1963’s FBI Code 98 is not — repeat: not — film noir. All film noir is crime, but not all crime is film noir. That vaulted subgenre requires darkness, whereas this feature is so light and breezy, it’s practically a recruiting tool for the federal agency. It even has its own marching music.]]> It’s not difficult to see what Martin Scorsese saw in Easy Money to lend his name to it as presenter to American audiences: a lot of himself. The 2010 Swedish film is a crime epic cast in the mold of Goodfellas or Casino, yet still its own thing. A smash as Snabba Cash in its native land, where it’s already spawned two sequels, the movie now arrives on DVD. ]]> I like In Their Skin under its international title, Replicas. Even if that makes Jeremy Power Regimbal’s directorial debut sound too sci-fi, it’s more interesting and apt.
]]> Following a half-dozen Perry Mason movies into the Warner Archive store are the half-dozen Philo Vance films that make up his Murder Case Collection. While S.S. Van Dine’s “dilettante detective” is nowhere near as well-known today as Erle Stanley Gardner’s attorney-at-law, this is the better set by bounds. ]]> No matter what you see or hear, don't move a muscle. That’s the advice one very bad man gives to the titular Sushi Girl. Particularly squeamish viewers won’t be able to adhere to such counsel, as this minor crime gem revels in the revolting.
]]> And just like that, director Frédéric Jardin leaps onto my ongoing radar for his work on Sleepless Night, a powerhouse French-language thriller. The crime film begins with action and rarely lets up during its 98-minute sprint.]]> File Compliance under “stranger than fiction.” Although not a documentary, it is based on a true story, and one so utterly outrageous that many will refuse to believe it anyway. ]]> Generating suspense from a story that is a matter of historical record is no easy thing. That was the primary challenge facing Ben Affleck and Chris Terrio, the director-star and writer, respectively, of Argo, a thriller inspired by a real-life covert operation that helped rescue six U.S. embassy workers out of Iran during the 1979 hostage crisis. ]]> Can a bad ending ruin an otherwise OK movie? In the case of The Factory, I believe it can.]]> Rent’s a bitch. And that is why, six months after her best friend went missing, Amanda (Katie Cassidy, TV’s Arrow) finally gives in to getting another roommate, Hailey (Tracy Spiridakos, TV’s Revolution). The two college students turn out to have something in common, however: abusive men.]]> Here's how I knew the Icelandic crime thriller Black’s Game was going to be great:]]> When done right, few films can provide as much enjoyment as the heist picture. South Korea's The Thieves is one of them — epic in every sense of the word: in length, in scope and in entertainment.]]> 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.]]>