Category: Crime

“Ecco” – The Poster and Trailer are Here!

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The poster and trailer for Ecco are here.  The poster gets an “A” for effort, but falls a bit short of making me want to know more.  The trailer on the other hand does the job.  I’ll keep an eye out for Ecco.

ECCO is available on digital May 17th, 2022!

Michael is a ghost. Living in the shadows with his new family, years away from his former life as a nomadic, covert assassin. His peace and anonymity are shattered when his old employers return to bury their last surviving operative. With his truth exposed, Michael must protect his family and pursue his only chance at redemption when he hunts those behind the organization where all his sins were born.

“One Night in Bangkok” (2020) / Z-View

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One Night in Bangkok (2020)

Directors:  Wych Kaosayananda

Writer: Wych Kaosayananda

Starring:  Mark Dacascos  and Vanida Golten.

Tagline:  Six Hours. Five Hits. Who will survive?

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

One Night in Bangkok is a reworking of the 2004 film, Collateral.  This time the city is Bangkok, Tom Cruise has been replaced by Mark Dacascos and Jamie Foxx by Vanida Golten.  The story is basically the same, a hitman hires a driver for the night.  The driver comes to understand that at each stop her passenger is killing people.  The reason for the hits has changed from Collateral to ONiB, but that’s just details.

The easiest way to describe One Night in Bangkok is to call it Collateral Lite.  Dacascos and Golten are so likeable, that it’s an easy ride. If you enjoy low budget action films where you don’t have too think to hard, then you should enjoy One Night in Bangkok.  I did and for that reason I rate it 3 of 5 stars.

“Project Power” (2020) / Z-View

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Project Power (2020)

Directors:  Henry Joost & Ariel Schulman

Writer:  Mattson Tomlin

Starring:  Jamie Foxx, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Dominique Fishback, Rodrigo Santoro  and Courtney B. Vance.

Tagline:  What would you risk for 5 minutes of pure power?

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

A dangerous new drug has hit the streets of New Orleans.  Those who risk taking it either suddenly die or gain five minutes of a superpower.  The power varies from person to person.  Because of this new drug, deaths and violent crime in New Orleans is escalating.

Frank (Gordon-Levitt) is street cop working with Robin (Fishback), a small-time high school-aged dealer in an effort to follow the drug’s pipeline to it’s source.  This brings them into contact with Art (Foxx) an ex-special forces commando with the same mission.  Frank and Robin find themselves working with Art, unaware that he has an ulterior motive.

I didn’t watch Project Power sooner, because of the terrible title and the synopsis sounded silly.  My mistake.  Project Power has a dumb title, but if you accept the premise, you’ll find a story that takes itself seriously.  That combined with good acting, great action and the right amount of humor makes for an awesome movie experience.  I absolutely loved Project Power and rate it 5 of 5 stars.

“All the Old Knives” (2022) / Z-View

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All the Old Knives (2022)

Director:  Janus Metz

Writer:  Olen Steinhauer based on his book

Starring:  Chris Pine, Thandiwe Newton, Laurence Fishburne and  Jonathan Pryce.

Tagline:  None

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Eight years ago terrorists hijacked an airplane with over 200 men, women and children aboard.  A C.I.A. team came together to create a plan to save the passengers.  As negotiations with the terrorists continued it appeared that they were getting information from a mole within the C.I.A. team.  The terrorists ended up killing everyone on board the plane including themselves.

Now, new information has surfaced that there was indeed a mole feeding the terrorists intel.  Henry Pelham (Pine), a CIA operative and member of the original team is sent to interview the others to determine the mole.  He is then to terminate the traitor.  Complicating matters is that one of the main suspects is the woman (Newton) he loved and who suddenly left him after the plane tragedy.

All the Old Knives introduces the suspects while taking us through their roles in attempting to thwart the terrorists.  This allows us to try to determine the mole along with Pelham.  I’m proud to say I figured out the mole’s identity but then there was a twist which made the movie even better.   All the Old Knives rates 4 of 5 stars.

“The Last Victim” – The Poster and Trailer are Here!

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The Last Victim looks like a winner.  Deal me in.

The Last Victim follows a group of modern-day outlaws (led by Ineson), pursued by an aging sheriff (Perlman), who deal with the fallout of a crime gone wrong in the harsh landscape of the American Southwest. When a young professor (Larter) and her husband cross paths with the gang, they are drawn into a chain of vengeance where morality is ambiguous and survival is the only priority. DECAL will release The Last Victim in theaters and on VOD on May 13th.

“The Takedown” – The Poster and Trailer are Here!

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Despite the generic poster, The Takedown looks like a fun ride.  Since it is on Netflix, it’s a no-brainer to check it out.

Ousmane Diakité (Omar Sy) and François Monge (Laurent Lafitte) are two cops with very different styles, backgrounds and careers. The unlikely pair are reunited once again for a new investigation that takes them across France. What seemed to be a simple drug deal turns out to be a high scale criminal case wrapped in danger and unexpected comedy.

Watch The Takedown, only on Netflix May 6

“The Bolt Connection” – Animated Robot Noir Short!

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The Bolt Connection features stylish animation with a futuristic, noir feel.  Bravo!

After a heist that goes wrong, a frail robot who was the driver of a robot mafia ends up being in possession of some loot he shouldn’t have, a human heart. Tempted by the opportunity of being like his bosses, he grafts the heart to himself and discovers the feeling of being alive. But those brief instants of life have a price.

It is a CGI animation film made by six students of Supinfocom Valenciennes in France during their Graduation Year. The Directors are Nicolas Lebas, Mathilde Dourdy, Maurine Lecerf, Shih-Hui Pan, Claire Cartier and Thibault Grunenberger. It’s a violent film largely inspired by Film Noir and Gangster movies.

Source: GeekTyrant.

“Frank & Penelope” – The Poster and Trailer are Here!

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Frank & Penelope may not be for everyone.  Heck, it may not be for me, but I like the poster’s design and the trailer looks like drive-in fun.  Who doesn’t like a good crime/horror mashup.  The question is: Will Frank & Penelope be good?

I’ll let you know.

While on the run from the law, Frank and his stripper girlfriend Penelope come upon a small motel and diner and decide to rest for the night. The next day, after robbing the diner, they become immersed in a hellish nightmare when the proprietor — a psychotic, cannibalistic Bible-thumper with a sadistic family — take them on a life and death journey, where escape is just a heart-pounding breath away.

CAST: Kevin Dillon, Billy Budinich, Caylee Cowan, Sean Patrick Flanery, Donna D’Errico, Johnathon Schaech, Sonya Eddy, Lin Shaye

DIRECTOR: Sean Patrick Flanery

“Find Her” – Written, directed and starring Nick McCallum – The Poster and Trailer are Here!

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I like the poster and trailer for Find Her.  Deal me in.

When an ex-cop arrives in a small town searching for answers to a murdered ranch owner and his missing daughter, it slowly becomes clear he has his own personal agenda to finding the truth.

Written, directed and starring Nick McCallum.  Also starring Richard Gunn, Anais Lilit, Stelio Savante and John James.

JACK REACHER: NO PLAN B by Lee Child and Andrew Child is Coming!

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Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novel are already best seller and with the popularity of the Reacher television series, they should sell even more.  We’ll find out this October 25th, when No Plan B, the new Jack Reacher novel premieres.

The gripping new Jack Reacher thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling authors Lee Child and Andrew Child. The plan: It’s coming Fall 2022. No Plan B.

In Gerrardsville, Colorado, two witnesses to the same tragedy give two different accounts. One guy sees a woman throw herself in front of a bus in what authorities will call a suicide. The other witness is Jack Reacher. And he sees what actually happened: A man in a gray hoodie and jeans, moving like a shadow, pushed the victim to her death—before swiftly grabbing the dead woman’s purse and strolling away.

Reacher follows the killer on foot, not knowing that he is part of something much bigger and far-reaching . . . a secret conspiracy with many moving parts, with powerful people on the take, all involved in an undertaking that leaves no room for error. If any step is compromised, the threat will have to be quickly and quietly and permanently removed.

Because when the threat is Reacher, there is No Plan B….

THE DEVIL TAKES YOU HOME by Gabino Iglesias!

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The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias is on my to-be-read list.  I’m a fan of Iglesias’ Zero Saints and love the plot of The Devil Takes You Home.  Check it out and see what you think,

From Bram Stoker, Anthony, and Locus award-nominated author, Gabino Iglesias, comes a genre-defying thriller about a father desperate to salvage what’s left of his family, even if it means a descent into violence –both supernatural and of our own terrifying world.

Buried in debt due to his young daughter’s illness, his marriage at the brink, Mario reluctantly takes a job as a hitman, surprising himself with his proclivity for violence. After tragedy destroys the life he knew, Mario agrees to one final job: hijack a cartel’s cash shipment before it reaches Mexico. Along with an old friend and a cartel-insider named Juanca, Mario sets off on the near-suicidal mission, which will leave him with either a cool $200,000 or a bullet in the skull. But the path to reward or ruin is never as straight as it seems. As the three complicated men travel through the endless landscape of Texas, across the border and back, their hidden motivations are laid bare alongside nightmarish encounters that defy explanation. One thing is certain: even if Mario makes it out alive, he won’t return the same.

The Devil Takes You Home is a panoramic odyssey for fans of S.A. Cosby’s southern noir, Blacktop Wasteland, by way of the boundary-defying storytelling of Stephen Graham Jones and Sylvia Moreno-Garcia.

Rarely Told Behind-the-Scenes Facts of the Assassination of President Kennedy!

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If you have any interest at all in the Assassination of President Kennedy, you will want to check out Ten Tales from Dallas’s Parkland Hospital, Where JFK Died by Christopher Dale at Listverse. 

Normally I would pick out my three favorite items from the list.  I won’t this time because each fact/tale of the ten is rare and interesting.  Without giving too much away, Dale’s behind-the-scenes of the Kennedy Assassination tells…

  • Why Jackie Kennedy wouldn’t immediately let the Secret Service take President Kennedy into the emergency room.
  • Why doctors performed procedures that they knew were useless and what Jackie had for them.
  • What a doctor said and immediately regretted.
  • How one of the procedures the doctors performed destroyed potential evidence.
  • Prank calls received at the hospital once it was announced that President Kennedy had died.
  • Why the Last Rites were performed even though the President had died, and how the Priest disobeyed warnings from the Secret Service
  • Why Vice President Johnson delayed an official announcement that President Kennedy had died.
  • Why local authorities struggled with Secret Service agents in an effort to take control of President Kennedy’s body.
  • What happened when President Kennedy’s suspected assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was taken to the same hospital as President Kennedy after being shot.
  • The contents of the self-serving memo released by Parkland Hospital Administrator Charles Jack “CJ” Price less than a week after the murder of President Kennedy.

Hats of to Christopher Dale!