Previews and Reviews that are Z's Views
Among the Beasts has a great title, a cool poster and a trailer that has me on board! Deal me in!
Directed by: Matthew Newton
Starring: Tory Kittles, Libe Barer, Sarunas J Jackson, Jon Bass, Jim Norton
Synopsis: When a gangster’s daughter reluctantly teams with a former Marine to find her kidnapped cousin, the combat veteran must overcome his own demons in order to rescue the child.
Things Get Ugly: The Best Crime Stories of Joe R. Lansdale will be available August 15, 2023! 352 pages of Lansdale goodness. Here’s the preview…
Edgar Award winner and bestselling author Joe R. Lansdale (the Hap and Leonard series), one of America’s most essential crime writers, heads back to the dangerous woods of East Texas. In his first crime career-retrospective, including previously uncollected work, Lansdale shows exactly why critics continue to compare him to Elmore Leonard, Donald Westlake, Flannery O’Connor, and William Faulkner.
“Pulpy, blackly humorous, compulsively readable, and somehow both wildly surreal and down-to-earth. Lansdale is a national fucking treasure.”
―Christa Faust, author of Money ShotIn the 1950s, a young small-town projectionist mixes it up with a violent gang. When Mr. Bear is not alerting us to the dangers of forest fires, he lives a life of debauchery and murder. A brother and sister travel to Oklahoma to recover the dead body of their uncle. A lonely man engages in dubious acts while pining for his rubber duckie.
In this collection of nineteen unforgettable crime tales, Joe R. Lansdale brings his legendary mojo and gritty, dark humor to harrowing heists, revenge, homicide, and mayhem. No matter how they begin, things are bound to get ugly―and fast.
Pre-orders are available now.
Unstoppable (2018)
Director: Kim Min-Ho
Screenplay: Kim Min-Ho
Stars: Ma Dong-seok (Dong Lee), Song Ji-Hyo, Kim Sung-oh
Tagline: Don’t Mess With Me
The Plot…
Dong-Chul (Lee) is a soft mannered seafood salesman, trying to take his small business to the next level. Coming home from a dinner date with his wife, Ji-Soo (Ji-Hyo), they’re involved in a fender-bender. In the car that hit them is Ki-Tae. Ki-Tae is a psychotic gangster who kidnaps and sells young women to sex-trafficers.
Ka-Tie is taken with Ji-Soo. He finds out where she lives and kidnaps her. Big mistake. Dong-Chul is a former gang enforcer. He’ll do whatever it takes to get his wife back. He’ll be unstoppable.
Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…
Ma Dong-seok aka Don Lee should be a bigger celebrity in the United States. Lee doesn’t have traditional movie star good looks. He’s a big guy, but not overly muscular. Yet, he has charisma and the camera loves him. Check him out in Train to Busan or The Gangster, the Cop the Devil and you’ll see what I mean. We get glimpses of that superstar in Unstoppable but not to the same level.
Kim Sung-oh plays the villain. At times Sung-oh, in his purple suit, reminded me of The Joker. He’s good at playing crazy.
Unstoppable has a bit too much comedy for me. I was hoping for a gritty thriller. Still, Unstoppable isn’t bad and Don Lee is always good.
Unstoppable earns 3 of 5 stars.
Liam Neeson as Marlowe. This looks like it could work.
MARLOWE, a gripping noir crime thriller set in late 1930’s Los Angeles, centers around a street-wise, down on his luck detective; Philip Marlowe, played by Liam Neeson, who is hired to find the ex-lover of a glamorous heiress (Diane Kruger), daughter of a well-known movie star (Jessica Lange). The disappearance unearths a web of lies, and soon Marlowe is involved in a dangerous, deadly investigation where everyone involved has something to hide.
A serial killer terrorizes London while disgraced detective John Luther sits behind bars. Haunted by his failure to capture the cyber psychopath who now taunts him, Luther decides to break out of prison to finish the job by any means necessary.
LUTHER: THE FALLEN SUN releases in select theaters on February 24 and March 10 on Netflix.
Emily the Criminal (2022)
Director: John Patton Ford
Screenplay: John Patton Ford
Stars: Aubrey Plaza, Theo Rossi, Bernardo Badillo, Megalyn Echikunwoke, Jonathan Avigdori, Victor Manso and Roman Arabia
Tagline: None.
The Plot…
Emily cannot catch a break. She works for a food catering company and barely makes enough money to stay afloat. Emily’s saddled with student debt for a degree she never completed. An aggravated assault and a DUI conviction keep her from getting better paying jobs. So when Emily gets the opportunity to make $200 for an hour’s work, she jumps at it.
The job is illegal. Using a fake credit card to purchase a big ticket item will get her a $200 kickback. Emily does the job and is good at it. So she takes another riskier gig. Before long Emily is into a relationship with Youcef (Rossi) as she learns more about this illegal business. She learns too late that Youcef’s boss, Javier (Badillo) isn’t happy with Emily’s quick advancement or her relationship with his partner. Javier has plans of his own that don’t bode well for Youcef or Emily…
Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…
What an impressive debut for John Ford Patton who wrote and directed Emily the Criminal. He was fortunate to get Aubrey Plaza and Theo Rossi to star. They have chemistry. The pair also make people who do unlikeable things likeable. I wish that Emily didn’t create so many of her own problems. The things that hold her back are all because of her bad decisions in the past. Then she compounds them with an attitude that prevents her from even getting through interviews for better positions.
I look forward to John Ford Patton’s next feature. He’s shown here that he knows how to write a crime film with a flawed (anti)hero.
Emily the Criminal earns 3 of 5 stars.
I like the looks of A Lot of Nothing. Check out the poster and trailer and see what you think.
A Lot of Nothing Playing in Theaters, On Demand, and Digital February 3rd.
Starring Y’lan Noel, Cleopatra Coleman, Justin Hartley, Shamier Anderson, and Lex Scott Davis
Directed by Mo McRae
James and Vanessa seem to be the perfect couple – happily married, successful, and comfortable. One night, their lives are rocked to the core when, after watching a tragedy play out on the evening news, they realize their neighbor was involved. In a state of shock, and with opposing viewpoints on how to address the issue, they decide to seek justice against a neighbor.
Anthony Neil Smith posted The Independent Fiction Alliance’s choices for the best books of 2022 published by small independent presses or independent writers.
To Bring My Shadow by Matt Phillips is one of them. Here’s the lowdown…
This haunting, hardboiled tale follows detective Frank “Slim Fat” Pinson and his partner as they try to unravel the vexing mystery surrounding a who-done-it drug murder in San Diego.
Frank “Slim Fat” Pinson is your regular hardboiled murder cop—hell, Frank’s a cliché. His wife is dead after jumping from a bridge and he’s a mal-practicing Catholic. He’s tough as nails. Hard as sin. Except not.
When Frank and his partner, “Skinny” Slade Ryerson, catch a cartel murder case, they’re sucked into a black hell of political corruption with ties to Santa Muerte. And Frank—a man who knows himself so well—spins into an epic crisis of faith.
The first detective novel from acclaimed pulp writer Matt Phillips introduces readers to a fascinating character of indefensible fault, immense morality, and incalculable demise.
Glass Onion (2022)
Director: Rian Johnson
Screenplay: Rian Johnson
Stars: Daniel Craig, Edward Norton, Kate Hudson, Dave Bautista, Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Dallas Roberts, Ethan Hawke, Hugh Grant, Stephen Sondheim, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Serena Williams
Tagline: A Rian Johnson Whodunit.
The Plot…
Miles Bron (Norton), one of the world’s richest men, has invited five friends to his private island. They will play a murder mystery game while staying in his mansion, the Glass Onion. His five friends are Bron’s head scientist Lionel Toussaint (Odom), Connecticut governor Claire Debella (Hahn), fashion designer Birdie Jay (Hudson), social media influencer Duke Cody (Bautista), and ousted Alpha co-founder Cassandra “Andi” Brand (Monáe).
Each guest received a special invitation that would be impossible to copy. Surprisingly, the world famous detective, Benoit Blanc (Craig) also received an invitation. He has arrived with the other guests. Bron has no idea how Blanc could have received an invite, but allows him to stay.
Before the weekend concludes there will be multiple murders and only a world class detective will be able to peel back the layers to solve them. Luckily, Benoit Blanc is there…
Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…
Glass Onion is the second film to feature Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc. Rion Johnson, creator, writer and director of both films, was upset that Netflix required Glass Onion to be titled Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. In each film, Benoit Blanc solves a complicated murder with multiple suspects. The set-up is time tested (Nero Wolfe, Charlie Chan, Columbo, etc.) and it is wonderful that Johnson continues the tradition.
Glass Onion features quirky characters with each part well cast. A special shout out to Janelle Monáe who gets the biggest opportunity to show her acting chops. She shines.
Rion Johnson has created another winner. I hope he has more Benoit Blanc whodunits in our future.
Glass Onion earns 4 of 5 stars.
Anthony Neil Smith posted The Independent Fiction Alliance’s choices for the best books of 2022 published by small independent presses or independent writers.
Canary In The Coal Mine by Charles Salzberg is one of them. Here’s the lowdown…
PI Pete Fortunato, half-Italian, half-Jewish, who suffers from anger management issues and insomnia, wakes up one morning with a bad taste in his mouth. This is never a good sign. Working out of a friend’s downtown real estate office, Fortunato, who spent a mysteriously short, forgettable stint as a cop in a small upstate New York town, lives from paycheck to paycheck. So, when a beautiful woman wants to hire him to find her husband, he doesn’t hesitate to say yes. Within a day, Fortunato finds the husband in the apartment of his client’s young, stud lover. He’s been shot once in the head. Case closed. But when his client’s check bounces, and a couple of Albanian gangsters show up outside his building and kidnap him, hoping he’ll lead them to a large sum of money supposedly stolen by the dead man, he begins to realize there’s a good chance he’s been set up to take the fall for the murder and the theft of the money.
In an attempt to get himself out of a jam, Fortunato winds up on a wild ride that takes him down to Texas where he searches for his client’s lover who he suspects has the money and holds the key to solving the murder.
Anthony Neil Smith posted The Independent Fiction Alliance’s choices for the best books of 2022 published by small independent presses or independent writers.
Below The Line by Steven Jankowski is one of them. Here’s the lowdown…
In between gigs as a Hollywood movie Teamster, self-proclaimed sailing bum Mike Millek moonlights as a freelance, armed chauffeur to the stars. When Mike arrives one night to pick up his deadbeat client, rap music producer Pays Lee, at his private jet Mike finds him freshly murdered with a satchel full of cash. Mike makes the critical decision to take what is owed him before reporting anything to the police.
More money than he ever expected, this turns out to be Mike’s biggest payday in his life, but not without consequences. Opening this Pandora’s box not only costs him his best friend’s life and leads him down a road of deception with his newly found love Molly, but thrusts them both into a dangerous conspiracy entrenched in the sordid underbelly of the Hollywood power elite.
Anthony Neil Smith posted The Independent Fiction Alliance’s choices for the best books of 2022 published by small independent presses or independent writers. This is one of them…
Midnight Drive by Kenneth Price is the first novel in the Logan Claybourne series. Here’ the lowdown…
Kenny Prince enjoyed the finer things in life – namely cocaine, strippers, and a 1976 Corvette Stingray. But Kenny wound up dead on his couch with two bullet holes in him and a QR code slapped onto the wall above his body. So now it’s up to Logan Claybourne to find who did it. Not that Logan gives a rat’s ass. He’s not a detective. He’s a repo man. And if he wants money to fund his unhinged gambling addiction, he’s going to have to find the Stingray before the police do. The mystery will take him around the cold and unforgiving streets of Edmonton, Canada’s northernmost city, where everyone seems to know Logan’s secrets and answers can only be found in the middle of the night.
Midnight Drive is the first book in the Logan Claybourne series by Kenneth Price. Set in a world of pawn shops, casinos, and hardscrabble people trying to get by, this novel peeks down the dark alleys we instinctively look away from. Questions around fate and the gears operating in the background of our lives weave through its pages while throughout the rough and tumble streets of Edmonton are tooled into a tale of high-octane crime fiction.
This is noir with a V8 engine under the hood.
So get in. Shut up. And hold on!
I like the poster and trailer for Kompromat. It’s refreshing to see that the lead isn’t a former soldier/cop/spy. Deal me in.
Based on incredible true events, Jérome Salle’s gripping new espionage thriller depicts the remarkable story of a French public servant who unwittingly finds himself in conflict with one of the modern era’s most powerful and dangerous forces: Russia’s FSB. Gilles Lellouche stars as Mathieu, a gregarious and dedicated diplomat who accepts a posting to Irkutsk as the head of Siberia’s Alliance Francaise. He hopes the change will be good for his family and struggling marriage, but before long Mathieu’s staging of cultural events and support of artistic expression sees him fall afoul of local authorities. Accused of a terrible crime, he soon realises someone has fabricated a case with Russia’s Federal Security Service – he has been framed. Arrested, imprisoned and isolated, Mathieu has nowhere to turn. Defending himself is impossible, the French authorities are helpless – it seems he has no choice: to try and escape.
Starring Gilles Lellouche, Joanna Kulig
Directed by Jérôme Salle
Resurrection (1999)
Director: Russell Mulcahy
Screenplay: Brad Mirman based on a story by Christopher Lambert, Brad Mirman
Stars: Christopher Lambert, Leland Orser, David Cronenberg, Jayne Eastwood, David Ferry, Rick Fox, Karen Glave, Rothaford Gray and Robert Joy
Tagline: Be afraid. For he is coming.
The Plot…
Detectives Prudhomme (Lambert) and Hollinsworth (Orser) are assigned a murder case. The victim’s arm was sawed off and taken. At the crime scene, they find written in blood, “He is coming”. Soon other victims are found. Each is missing a body part. The victims are all 33 years old and have biblical names (Matthew, Peter, etc.). They discover the madman is taking the parts in an effort to recreate Christ’s body. More people will die, if Prudomme and Hollinsworth don’t crack the case. But how do you catch a madman?
Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…
I watched Resurrection hoping that director, Russell Mulcahy and star, Christopher Lambert would be able to catch lightning in a bottle. The pair meshed perfectly in Highlander. Could they do it again?
The short answer is, “No.”
In Highlander, Mulcahy’s direction provided amazing camera movements, inventive scene transitions and creative framing. In Resurrection we don’t get that. Christopher Lambert was the exact right choice to play Connor MacLeod. Lambert’s character in Resurrection is so generic that anyone could have played him as long as they could run and scream… a lot.
The serial killer’s motive is insane. That should have been played up more. There was shock because of the brutality of the murders, but the movie, for the most part lacked tension. I had hoped for better, but it’s near impossible for lightning to strike in the same place twice.
Resurrection earns 2 of 5 stars.
Poker Face has a great premise. Check out the trailer. Pull up a seat. We’ll deal you in.
Poker Face is streaming January 26th on Peacock: https://pck.tv/3Vloyof
Synopsis: Poker Face is a 10-episode “mystery-of-the-week” series following Natasha Lyonne’s Charlie, who has an extraordinary ability to determine when someone is lying. She hits the road with her Plymouth Barracuda and with every stop encounters a new cast of characters and strange crimes she can’t help but solve.
