Category: Crime

“Glengarry Glen Ross” (1992) written by David Mamet, directed by James Foley, starring Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alan Arkin, Ed Harris, Kevin Spacey, Jonathan Pryce and Alec Baldwin / Z-View

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Glengarry Glen Ross (1992)

Director: James Foley

Screenplay: David Mamet; based on his play Glengarry Glen Ross

Stars: Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alan Arkin, Ed Harris, Kevin Spacey, Jonathan Pryce, Bruce Altman, Jude Ciccolella and Alec Baldwin.

Tagline: Lie. Cheat. Steal. All in a day’s work.

The Plot…

Richard “Ricky” Roma, George Aaronow, Shelley “The Machine” Levene, and Dave Moss are real estate salesmen in a small office for a company that makes big promises. Despite lies and questionable tactics by all the men, sales are down.   Of late only Ricky Roma has been able to close deals.

With one week in the month left, the office manager John Williamson, says that the company is sending in Blake, their top salesman to inspire them.  Blake arrives and immediately begins talking.  Blake insults and attacks each worker’s salemenship and manhood.  Blake says that in one week, the top saleman for the office will win a car.  Second place gets a set of steak knives.  Third and fourth place winners will be fired.

And he’s serious.

Blake then leaves.  Ricky, George, Shelley, and Dave Moss are shocked.  Then angry.  Each man complains that the leads Williamson gives them are crap.  The leads have been repeatedly used.  The people on the leads have no money or no interest and have been called on several times.  Williamson doesn’t disagree.  You get what you get.  BUT, the two men show survive the month will next month get new leads.  These leads will be for the new  Glengarry development.

The Glengarry development is sweet.  It almost sells itself.  Those leads are worth their weight in gold.

Ricky is in a great position to win the car.  George, Shelley and Dave are all in danger of losing their jobs.  Each man has reason to do whatever it takes to survive.

And one will.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

Al Pacino was nominated for a 1993 Best Supporting Actor Oscar.

Jack Lemmon gives the performance of a lifetime.  Same could be said for Alec Baldwin.  Kudos also to Alan Arkin, Ed Harris, Kevin Spacey and Jonathan Pryce who more than hold their own.

Glengarry Glen Ross is a showcase for great acting.  Jack Lemmon said Glengarry Glen Ross featured the greatest acting ensemble he had ever been part of.  High praise indeed.

Glengarry Glen Ross gets my highest recommendation.

Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) rates 5 of 5 stars.

“Honey Don’t” (2025) directed by Ethan Coen, starring Margaret Qualley, Aubrey Plaza, Charlie Day and Chris Evans / Z-View

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Honey Don’t (2025)

Director: Ethan Coen

Screenplay: Ethan Coen, Tricia Cooke

Stars: Margaret Qualley, Aubrey Plaza, Chris Evans, Charlie Day, Kristen Connolly, Don Swayze, Christian Antidormi, Billy Eichner, Kinna McInroe and Gabby Beans.

Tagline: She only has two desires, and one of them is justice.

The Plot…

Honey O’Donahue learns that Mia Novotny was found stabbed to death.  Honey is a private investigator who Mia had planned to meet the following day.  When Mia called Honey she said she couldn’t go to the police and was afraid.

Obviously for good reason.

Honey is determined to find Mia’s killer.  The clues will lead to the Four-Way Temple led by Reverend Drew Devlin.  Devlin is interested in a lot more than saving souls.  Devlin also has another money-making enterprise that could have something to do with Mia’s murder.

Honey won’t rest until she finds Mia’s assassin… even if it kills her.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

I loved the film’s creative use of opening credits.

Margaret Qualley, the star of Honey Don’t, is the daughter of actress Andie MacDowell.  They look so much alike they could be twins.

The film earns an “R” rating because it doesn’t shy away during the lesbian sex scenes.

Honey Don’t (2025) rates 3 of 5 stars.

“Dead of Winter” (2025) starring Emma Thompson / Z-View

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Dead of Winter (2025)

Director: Brian Kirk

Screenplay: Nicholas Jacobson-Larson, Dalton Leeb

Stars: Emma Thompson, Judy Greer, Marc Menchaca, Laurel Marsden and Brían F. O’Byrne.

Tagline: Wrong place. Wrong crime.

The Plot…

Barb and Karl had their first date ice fishing on Lake Hilda in Northern Minnesota decades ago when they were young.  They fell in love, were married and had a great life.  Now that Karl has passed, Barb has returned to the remote lake to spread his ashes.

It’s the dead of winter.  Lake Hilda is still a wilderness location.  No cell service.  No people.

Barb is shocked when she sees in the distance a woman with her hands bound trying to run from a man.  The man catches the woman and takes her away.  Barb follows them to a cabin.

If the woman is to survive, it will be up to Barb.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

Emma Thompson’s daughter, Gaia Wise, plays young Barb.

Dead of Winter (2025) rates 3 of 5 stars.

A VIOLENT MASTERPIECE by Jordan Harper!

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Jordan Harper’s A VIOLENT MASTERPIECE sounds like it’s going to be a banger…

This epic crime novel tells a story of Los Angeles power brokers and those at the edge — and a single shattering incident that threatens to bring it all crashing down.

Los Angeles, right now. America with its back up against the wall. This Frankenstein’s monster of crimes and lurid dreams sewn together into something like a city.

A city ready to explode: A Hollywood pedophile is arrested, and is ready to tear down the city to get his freedom. A young woman goes missing — and men in black rubber gloves who look like cops clean out her apartment in the middle of the night. And the serial killer known as the LA Ripper is on the loose, leaving tragic/graphic/brutal crime scenes in his wake. Three people trying to keep their heads above the dirty water will find themselves coming together to unite these strands into one enormous, unspeakable crime …

Jake Deal is a gonzo live-streaming nightcrawler, beaming the city’s chaos straight to his audience of blood-hungry subscribers, giving them the view from the top of the mushroom cloud — until a job he can’t refuse drags him back into his old life of Hollywood glamour, drugs, sex and sleaze. Armed with cameras and hidden mics, he’ll infiltrate private clubs, gather high-class dirt — and stumble onto a conspiracy woven into the center of LA’s most powerful men, who call themselves “The Kids in the Candy Store.”

Doug Gibson is a street lawyer, who fights for his clients against the army of cops, prosecutors and judges—he is the knife they bring to the gunfight. But when he’s hired by a Hollywood pedophile ready to sell out his friends for a chance for freedom, he’ll take on a fight bigger than he could have imagined. And when his client “commits suicide” in prison, Gibson will have to stop being a weapon — and become a warrior.

Kara Delgado works for an underground private concierge company—a make-a-wish foundation for the terminally rich. She scores drugs, makes connections, and plans multi-million dollar sex parties.She has learned the secret truth of this world: there are no rules, only prices. Her best friend Phoebe has gone missing, and Kara’s the only person who knows that Phoebe’s place was wiped clean of evidence by men in black rubber gloves. But when she begins to unravel the mystery of what happened to Phoebe, and its connection to the killer known as the LA Ripper, it will drag her into the dark heart of the city.

As Jake, Doug and Kara all investigate these crimes, they’ll encounter ketamine-addled sitcom stars, bloody riots, homeless gangsters, a killer cop on death row, secret vaults in Beverly Hills, tech-bro orgies, medical cannibals, true crime junkies, private security wet-work teams, reality shows, street takeovers, car chases, coyotes, a sadistic Tarzan, and a three day, fifty million dollar wedding, before everything is revealed and they must each make their choice about how to fight back in this violent world before the bloody, blazing conclusion.

A VIOLENT MASTERPIECE HARDCOVER

A VIOLENT MASTERPIECE PAPERBACK

A VIOLENT MASTERPIECE KINDLE

“Bronson” (2008) directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, starring Tom Hardy / Z-View

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Bronson (2008)

Director: Nicolas Winding Refn

Screenplay: Brock Norman Brock, Nicolas Winding Refn

Stars: Tom Hardy.

Tagline: The Man. The Myth. The Celebrity.

The Plot…

Since he was a small boy, Michael Peterson got into trouble.  In 1974, at the age of 19, Peterson took a sawed-off shotgun and attempted to rob a post office.  He was caught and sentenced to seven years in prison.  His mother hoped he’d be out in four.

Michael Peterson is still in prison.  Peterson’s continued savage acts of violence repeatedly added years to his sentence.  He was sent to a psychiatric hospital, but the violence continued, so he returned to regular prison.  Peterson has served over 50 years with the majority of them spent in solitary confinement.

Along the way Peterson changed his name to Charles Bronson and took pride in his notoriety.

This is his story.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

Tom Hardy met with Charles Bronson several times prior to filming.  After seeing the film, Bronson said that Hardy had his mannerisms, voice and personaity down pat.

If male frontal nudity offends you, avoid this film.

One of Bronson‘s taglines called it “A Clockwork Orange for the 21st Century“.  I agree.

Bronson (2008) rates3 of 5 stars.

“Intruder in the Dust” (1949) / Z-View

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Intruder in the Dust (1949)

Director: Clarence Brown

Screenplay: Ben Maddow; based on INTRUDER IN THE DUST by William Faulkner

Stars: David Brian, Claude Jarman Jr., Juano Hernandez, Porter Hall, Elizabeth Patterson, Charles Kemper, David Clarke, David Clarke, Elzie Emanuel, Lela Bliss and Will Geer.

Tagline: None.

The Plot…

In the 1940s in a small Southern town, Lucas Beauchamp, a man of color, is falsely arrested for the murder of a white man.  It will be up to a teenage boy, his lawyer uncle and an old woman to find the true killer before a lynch mob loses control.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

The film was shot on location in Oxford, Mississippi.  William Faulkner, who wrote the source novel grew up in Oxford.

William Faulkner won the Nobel Prize for literature for his novel INTRUDER IN THE DUST.

Intruder in the Dust (1949) rates 3 of 5 stars.

“Night of the Hunter” by Mat Peg!

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I love Mat Peg’s art.  Look at the thought put into this Night of the Hunter poster.

It’s in the style of an old time photograph.  Mitchum, the serial killer preacher has his love/hate finger tats in view.  He’s holding both his knife and the little girl he threatens with it.  She’s holding the doll that secretly carries the money Mitchum’s character is willing to kill for.  The title of the movie and stars’ names are scratched in as if with the knife.

 Brilliant.

“Assault on VA-33” (2021) starring Sean Patrick Flabery with Mark Dacascos and Michael Jai White / Z-View

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Assault on VA-33 (2021)

Director: Christopher Ray

Screenplay: Scott Thomas Reynolds

Stars: Sean Patrick Flanery, Michael Jai White, Mark Dacascos, Weston Cage, Gina Holden, Abigail Hawk, Brittany Underwood, Rachel True, Max Adler and Rob Van Dam.

Tagline: None.

The Plot…

Jason Hill plans to have lunch with his wife at the Veteran’s Affairs hospital where she works.  After lunch Jason is going to take his daughter to soccer practice.  But that all changes when terrorists take over the hospital.  They’re after a General being treated there.  With the General and several staff as hostages, the terrorists have the upper hand.

Jason manages to not get caught during the takeover.  When local police believe his call for help to be a prank, Jason realizes it’s up to him to save the day.

I think Jason’s daughter may be late to practice.  Jason to the rescue – STAT.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

Sean Patrick Flanery and Gina Holden play husband and wife in Assault on VA-33.  They also played a married couple in Saw 3D.

Pro wrestler Rob Van Dam plays the terrorist who stays in the van.  He is never shown being killed or driving away.  His character just disappears.  It would have been funny if after the credits rolled, at the very end they should him still sitting in the van.

Assault on VA-33 (2021) rates 2 of 5 stars.