Category: Z-View

In the Shadow of the Moon (2019)

Director:  Jim Mickle

Screenplay: Gregory Weidman, Geoff Tock

Stars: Boyd Holbrook, Cleopatra Coleman, Bokeem Woodbine, Michael C. Hall, Tony Craig and Rachel Keller.

Tagline: Some Crimes Defy Time

The Plot…

The year is 1988.  Three people in different locations bleed from their ears and eyes and then die.  Police officers Lockhart (Holbrook) and Maddox (Woodbine) along with Detective Holt (Hall) are assigned to the case.  Lockhart discovers similar wounds on each victim.  The trail leads Lockhart and Maddox to a suspect in the subway.  She is a young, African-American female who tells Lockhart details she shouldn’t know about his life.  She tells him the date his wife will have a baby.  She further predicts her own death.  When Lockhart attempts to arrest her, a struggle ensues.  She is thrown in front of subway car and dies.

Nine years later people begin dying after bleeding from their ears and eyes.  Lockhart, now a Detective, believes that a copy cat killer is at large.  But when he locates a suspect, he is shocked to discover it is the same woman as before.  She didn’t die and hasn’t aged.

Why are these people being killed?  Is the killer a time traveler?

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

The film has an interesting premise and starts off well enough.  Along the way I began to lose interest.  I finished the movie but just found it to be okay.

Boyd Holbrook, Cleopatra Coleman, Bokeem Woodbine deserved better.

In the Shadow of the Moon (2019) earns 2 of 5 stars.

Rolling Thunder (1977)

Director:  John Flynn

Screenplay: Paul Schrader, Heywood Gould; story by Paul Schrader

Stars: William Devane, Tommy Lee Jones, Linda Haynes, James Best, Lisa Blake Richards, Luke Askew, James Victor, Cassie Yates and Dabney Coleman.

Tagline: CHARLES RANE: EXECUTIONER! The war had turned him into a machine for murder. He had nothing to live for…except revenge

The Plot…

After seven years in a prisoner of war camp, Major Charles Rane (Devane) returns home.  The years a prisoner were brutal.  Rane was repeatedly tortured.  Adjustment to his new freedom will be difficult.  Making it worse, his son, who was a baby when Rane was captured, doesn’t remember him.  His wife now loves another man,

Although his hometown considers him a hero, Rane doesn’t feel like one.  At a ceremony honoring his return, Rane is presented with a new Cadillac and 2,555 silver dollars – one for every day he was captive, plus one for luck.  Later three lowlifes break into Rane’s house to steal the money.  They torture Rane but he refuses to tell them where he hid the cash.  Even when they force Rane’s hand into a garbage disposal, he won’t talk.

When Rane’s wife and son enter the house, the thugs threaten them.  Rane’s son tells where the silver dollars are hidden.  The thieves then shoot Rane, his wife and son.

Only Rane survives.  He awakens in a hospital,  His mangled hand had to be removed, replaced by a hook.  Rane reaches out to  Johnny Vohden (Jones), another soldier from his unit that also was a POW with him.  Rane plans to get revenge on three murderers who killed his son, wife and left him for dead.  Johnny doesn’t hesitate to join him.

Major Charles Rane has come home to war.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

I’m not a fan of the movie’s poster shown above.  It makes Rolling Thunder look like a cheap horror film.

Paul Schrader who co-wrote the film originally had Rane written as a “white-trash racist”.  He wanted Rane’s killing spree to be metaphor for Vietnam.  The rewritten screenplay takes out that aspect and makes Rane a hero.

James Best known as the bumbling Sheriff Roscoe Coltrane on The Dukes of Hazzard plays one of the three murderers.  If you only know him from The Dukes, it’s odd seeing him play a tough guy thug.  In Rolling Thunder, Best’s character always seems to be sweating.  He achieved his effect by placing ice cubes under his hat.

Rolling Thunder (1977) earns 3 of 5 stars.

The Equalizer 3 (2023)

Director:  Antoine Fuqua

Screenplay: Richard Wenk based on The Equalizer by Michael Sloan, Richard Lindheim

Stars: Denzel Washington, Dakota Fanning

Tagline: Justice knows no borders.

The Plot…

Robert McCall (Washington) finds himself in the small Italian town of Altamonte while he recovers from a gunshot wound,  McCall’s road to recovery is a slow one.  As time passes, McCall is accepted and treated with kindness by the locals.  He begins to think that Altamonte may become his new home.  McCall loves the pace and peacefulness.

When a crime boss and his gang begin to move in on the town businesses, McCall decides to get involved.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

The Equalizer 3 is the fifth teaming of Denzel Washington and director Antoine Fuqua.  Their other collaborations are Training Day (2001), The Equalizer (2014), The Magnificent Seven (2016) and The Equalizer 2 (2018).

The Equalizer 3 is the second teaming of Denzel Washington and his co-star Dakota Fanning.  They first appeared together in Man on Fire (2004).

The Equalizer 3 is a worthy follow-up to the first two films.

The Equalizer 3 (2023) earns 4 of 5 stars.