A Walk Among the Tombstones (2014)

Screenwriter Scott Frank has made a career of adapting crime novels and thrillers by Elmore Leonard, Philip K. Dick, and James Lee Burke to the screen. He wrote an excellent original thriller, and made his directorial debut, with The Lookout, and now A Walk Among the Tombstones, adapted from a Lawrence Block novel, is his follow-up. Like a good crime novelist, Frank doesn't necessarily bring anything new to the genre, but he gives it a fresh presentation, telling the story with enthusiasm and skill. read more...

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Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018)

Sicario: Day of the Soldado — the follow-up to 2015's Sicario — is rather unexpected for a sequel. It's a pessimistic, grownup film, and not exactly pop entertainment. read more...

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Rage (2014)

Rage is certainly a low point in Nicolas Cage's otherwise interesting career. The actor is one of our best at coming unhinged onscreen, but director Paco Cabezas somehow keeps things somewhat muted. It feels like the dynamic, volatile actor is on auto-pilot, and the rest of the movie doesn't do much to back him up. read more...

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Prime Cut (1972)

Certainly one of the more bizarre movies made in Hollywood in the 1970s, Prime Cut stars Lee Marvin as Nick Devlin, a Chicago debt collector for hire. After the last guy was ground up into sausage, Nick gets the job of collecting money from "Mary Ann" (Gene Hackman), the vicious owner and operator of a Kansas slaughterhouse. When Nick arrives, he discovers that Mary Ann is also operating a female slave ring, and he rescues a pretty girl named "Poppy" (Sissy Spacek). Then we await the bloody showdown, but in the meantime we get a pretty good chase-and-escape scene with Nick and Poppy running through a wheat field chased by a combine, blades a-whirling. Gregory Walcott co-stars as Mary Ann's brother "Weenie," who occasionally munches on hot dogs he carries in his pocket. The movie was directed by Michael Ritchie, whose own career was pretty strange, but included The Bad News Bears (1976), Fletch (1985), and The Golden Child (1986). Kino Lorber released Prime Cut on Blu-ray in 2015, which includes only a trailer. read more...

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The Osterman Weekend (1983)

Many film directors earn reputations of being difficult, not getting along with financiers, having their work butchered, and putting up fights. Erich von Stroheim and Orson Welles come to mind; giant sized artists whose work could never be understood by those who supplied the cash. John Huston was a notorious hellraiser, so was Samuel Fuller. But the most explosive of all, the most self-destructive, had to have been Sam Peckinpah. read more...

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