Category: Crime

“Cut Bank” / Z-View

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Cut Bank (2014)

Director: Matt Shakman

Screenplay: Roberto Patino

Stars:  Liam Hemsworth, Teresa Palmer, Billy Bob Thorton, Bruce Dern, John Malkovich and Michael Stuhlbarg.

The Pitch: “Do you like movies like Blood Simple and Fargo…”

Tagline: Good Folks. Bad Deeds.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Dwayne McLaren dreams of getting out of  Cut Bank, a small town with little promise.  When McLaren and his girlfriend accidentally video the murder of a postal worker, they may have stumbled on their ticket out.  The $100,000 reward money offered by the postal service would be life-changing money.

But all is not as it seems.

The postal worker was set to deliver a parcel that a man is willing to kill to get and perhaps the postal worker’s killing wasn’t a murder at all.  Who is scamming who?

Cut Bank features great cast and a story with plenty of twists.  I was surprised how good it is. Although I’ve posted the trailer below, I suggest you skip it and go straight to the movie.  (Some of the twists are given away in the trailer.  Go in cold and enjoy!)

Rating:

Little Green: An Easy Rawlins Mystery by Walter Mosley / Z-View

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Little Green: An Easy Rawlins Mystery by Walter Mosley

Hardcover: 291 pages
Publisher: Doubleday

First sentence…

“I came half-awake, dead and dreaming.”

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Still recovering from a near-fatal car accident, Easy Rawlins agrees to find a missing teenager named Evander “Little Green” Noon.  Finding Little Green is tough enough, but the real mystery is how did he come into possession of two bags of money covered in blood?  There’s also the problem of what can be done about the men out to get the money back and kill those who possess it.


Repairman Jack: Scar-Lip Redux by F. Paul Wilson and Antonio Fuso is Coming!

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F. Paul Wilson’s popular character Repairman Jack will be appearing in a 120 page graphic novel published by Dynamite Comics in 2020.  Wilson will team with artist Antonio Fuso, colorist Pippa Bowland and letterer Crank to produce Repairman Jack: Scar-Lip Redux.

Got a problem? He can fix it. He thought he’d seen the last of the Rakoshi, but one has survived. A particularly cunning and deadly Rakosh known to Jack as Scar-Lip. Now, Jack faces the fights of his life as he seeks to end the creature once and for all, before it ends him!

Source: Bleeding Cool.

Z-View: “6 Underground”

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6 Underground (2019)

Director: Michael Bay

Screenplay: Paul Wernick, Rhett Reese

Stars: Ryan Reynolds, Mélanie Laurent, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Ben Hardy, Adria Arjona,Corey Hawkins  and Dave Franco.

The Pitch: “Michael Bay wants to make an action movie.”

Tagline: They Say No One Can Save The World. Meet No One.

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Ryan Reynolds plays a billionaire who recruits folks with special talents to join his team to right wrongs throughout the world.  That’s all you really need to know other than the fact that this mission’s goal is to replace an evil dictator with his democracy-loving brother.

Think a low-budget Mission Impossible movie made with a big budget.

The star of the movie isn’t Ryan Reynolds, it’s the action scenes directed by Michael Bay.  The movie starts with a 20 minute car chase where we learn the bare bones plot and who the players are.  We’re literally off and running with cars, trucks, motorcycles and parkour.

And that’s the opening.

Before 6 Underground is done we’ll have action on roof tops, in pools, hotel rooms, boats, construction sites, the desert, and museums.  Bad guys are wiped out in bunches and I’ve never seen a movie where pedestrians are just as likely to be killed as the bad guy’s henchmen.

There are a lot of car wrecks and we all know the analogy — It was like watching a car wreck, I couldn’t look away.  Well, that’s a good analogy for 6 Underground, because the action comes so (pardon the expression) fast and furious, you’ll find yourself watching.  The movie never slows long enough to become boring before the next action scene is ramping up.  So you keep looking… watching the shoot-outs, car chases and fights until the movie ends.

6 Underground is entertaining in the way a roller-coaster is fun – it moves fast, has a few surprises and doesn’t slow down long enough to bore you.  When it’s over, you’ll probably say, it was fun but you’ll be ready to move on to the next ride.

Rating:

The Detachment by Barry Eisler / Z-View

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The Detachment (A John Rain Novel) by Barry Eisler

Paperback: 324 pages
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer

First sentence…

“I hadn’t killed anyone in almost four years.”

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

When Colonel Scott “Hort” Horton reaches out to John Rain, Rain knows things are bad.  Horton has learned of a plan to overthrow the United States government.  In order to stop the coup, Horton wants Rain to team with three other assassins and take out the three high level government officials behind the plan.

The complexity of multiple hits, coupled with the big payday offered convinces Rain to team with a former friend and two talented, but unknown killers provided by Horton.  Things go sideways and the new team is betrayed. Rain doesn’t know who he can trust.  As the clock ticks down, the four assassins must figure out who the traitor is and still find a way to effectively end the coup.

Eisler is an excellent writer with skills enhanced by his experience in a covert position for the CIA and a black belt in judo. He’s especially good at bringing out the underlying tension when a group of mercenaries are brought together under circumstances where any one (or more of them) may be secretly part of the group they are working to bring down.

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The “Briarpatch” Poster and Trailer are Here!

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I’m diggin’ everything about the poster and trailer for Briarpatch.  I hope the series is as good.

BRIARPATCH follows Allegra Dill (Dawson), a dogged investigator returning to her border-town Texas home after her sister is murdered. What begins as a search for a killer turns into an all-consuming fight to bring her corrupt hometown to its knees. The season celebrates the beloved genres represented by Thomas’ book — a stylish blend of crime and pulp fiction — while updating his sense of fun, danger and place for a new generation.

The season also stars Jay R. Ferguson (Mad Men, The Romanoffs), Brian Geraghty (Chicago P.D., Ray Donovan), and Edi Gathegi (StartUp). The first season will shoot in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The “VFW” (“Assault on Precinct 13” Meets “The Wild Bunch”) Trailer is Here!

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VFW, directed by Joe Begos and staring Stephen Lang, William Sadler, Fred Williamson, Martin Kove, Sierra McCormick and David Patrick Kelly is like something you’d see at a drive-in back in the day.  And you know how much I loved drive-ins.

VFW looks like Assault on Precinct 13 meets The Wild Bunch. That can’t be a bad thing, can it?

Jim Gillespie’s Director’s Cut of “Detox” Part of “Eye See You” Special Edition Release!

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Stallone fans are going to love this:  Eye See You is getting a special edition Blu-ray release from MVD Collector’s Brands.  What makes this release especially special is that in addition to the theatrical Eye See You release, the disc will also contain director Jim Gillespie’s cut known as Detox!

From MVD Collector’s Brands’ release (bold text is my doing)…

EYE SEE YOU – Update!

It’s with great pleasure that I am able to report that director Jim Gillespie (the guy that made “I Know What You Did Last Summer”) took time and energy to dig up and locate a copy his original cut of “Eye See You”, known as “Detox” (that’s how it’s spelled on his cut of the film). While I personally have not seen this version yet (it’s being used to author the disc right now), I’m told that it’s a “darker” and more horror-ish in tone (Fincher’s “Seven” was what I think they were going for here) version of the film, which was his original intention before the film was recut, re-titled and changed.

“Detox” is being included on this disc as a bonus feature. It is not in HD. The quality is VHS. It is in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio and had time code under the letterbox (see image for reference). We will be reformatting the image for 16 x 9 which should eliminate most (if not all) of the time code. I don’t know what the audio quality is but given the quality of the video I would say manage your expectations accordingly.

We’ve included all of the previous available bonus features and we’ve also adding a new photo gallery (see list of “final” bonus features below). I have also made the decision to create a LIMITED RUN SLIPCOVER for the first pressing (as you know we really don’t do slips for Marquee titles anymore but I’m making an exception for this one) so if you want to guarantee a slipcover, I would suggest pre-ordering this title. After street it’s hit or miss.

I’m really excited to have produced this new “Special Edition” Blu-ray release of ‘Eye See You”. I’ve always considered this to be an underrated title. In my opinion, it’s the closest thing to a horror movie Sylvester Stallone has ever done (at least up til now) and hopefully this alternative cut will finally give everyone a chance to see what director Jim Gillespie had intended.

STREET DATE = April 14, 2020

You can pre-order using this link.

SURVIVAL IS A KILLER.
A brutal serial killer is targeting cops, and detective Jake Malloy is on the warpath. But now the killer is making it personal, and this dedicated agent is twisted in an emotional nightmare. Time is running out, and so are the options, as Malloy engages in an extreme game of cat-and-mouse with a killer who won’t be stopped.

I’m on board!  Who’s with me?

Robert B. Parker’s Angel Eyes – A Spenser Novel by Ace Atkins / Z-View

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Robert B. Parker’s Angel Eyes by Ace Atkins

Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons

First sentence…

“Whoever said, ‘It never rained in Southern California lied.”

The Overview:  Beware of Spoilers…

Gabby Leggett left her wealthy Boston family and went to Hollywood to become a star.  Beautiful, talented and after making a popular commercial Gabby’s star was on the rise.

Then Gabby Leggett disappeared.

Spenser is hired by Gabby’s family to find her.   In Hollywood the suspects include 1) Gabby’s ex-lover (and her current agent), 2) a powerful womanizing movie producer, 3) a “self-help” sisterhood some would call a cult led by an ex-con scam artist and 4) Armenian gangsters.  Spenser does what he does best, irritating all suspects until his life is threatened.  Then things get even more interesting.  Gabby may or may not be dead, but many are going to die before Spenser finds out.

Ace Atkins creates another welcome Spenser tale.

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Pulp by Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips

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Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips are coming back strong with a new graphic novel titled Pulp.

Max Winters, a pulp writer in 1930s New York, finds himself drawn into a story not unlike the tales he churns out at 5 cents a word – tales of a wild west outlaw dispensing justice with a six-gun. But will Max be able to do the same, when pursued by bank robbers, Nazi spies, and enemies from his past?

One part thriller, one part meditation on a life of violence, PULP is unlike anything the award-winning team of BRUBAKER and PHILLIPS have ever done. A celebration of pulp fiction, set in a world on the brink. And another must-have hardback from one of comics most-acclaimed teams.

Pulp premieres May 26, 2020.  I cannot wait.