Jan
24
Archive
Archive for the ‘Crime’ Category
Jan
23
Description:
Jigsaw has disappeared. Now aided by his new apprentice Amanda, the puppet-master behind the cruel, intricate games that have terrified a community and baffled police has once again eluded capture and vanished. While city detectives scramble to locate him, Dr. Lynn Denlon is unaware that she is about to become the latest pawn on his vicious chessboard. One night, after finishing a shift at her hospital, Lynn is kidnapped by the deranged Amanda and taken to an abandoned warehouse where she meets Jigsaw, aka: John Kramer, who’s now bedridden and on the verge of death. Lynn is told that she must keep the madman alive for as long as it takes Jeff, another of his victims, to complete a game of his own. Racing against the ticking clock of Jigsaw’s own heartbeat, Lynn and Jeff struggle to make it through each of their vicious tests, unaware that Jigsaw and Amanda have a much bigger plan for both of them…
Cast:Tobin Bell, Shawnee Smith, Angus Macfadyen, Bahar Soomekh, Donnie Wahlberg, Dina Meyer, Leigh Whannell, Costas Mandylor
Watch It Now – Saw III
Jan
22
Description:
In 1891 London, Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey, Jr.) and Dr. John Watson (Jude Law) race to prevent a human sacrifice ritual conducted by Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong). Holmes and Watson stop the sacrifice just in time and neutralize Lord Blackwood while Holmes saves Watson from a glass shard Blackwood used to kill his enemies that he barely sees until the last second, after which the police, led by Inspector Lestrade (Eddie Marsan), arrive and arrest him.
Blackwood’s execution occurs three months later, during which Holmes has become bored without a new case. Watson prepares to leave 221B Baker Street to establish his own business, and he intends to marry Mary Morstan (Kelly Reilly). Blackwood requests Holmes’ presence on the day of his execution, and warns him that three more deaths will occur after his execution that will change the very nature of their world. Blackwood is executed by hanging, and declared dead by Dr. Watson himself.
Holmes is re-acquainted with Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams). She offers him a sum of money to pursue a case of a missing red-haired midget by the name of Reordan. Holmes disguises himself to find the identity of Adler’s employer, but can only surmise that he is a professor.
Cast:Robert Downey, Jr., Jude Law, Rachel McAdams, Mark Strong
Watch It Now – Sherlock Holmes
Jan
10
Description:
Smokin’ Aces 2: Assassins’ Ball is a film being released straight to DVD on January 19, 2010 starring Vinnie Jones and Tom Berenger. The film is a prequel to Joe Carnahan’s 2007 film Smokin’ Aces.
Walter Weed (Berenger) is an unassuming desk jockey at the FBI when the Bureau uncovers a plot to assassinate him. A team of degenerate, psychotic assassins dispatched by mystery man Hal Leuco to win a huge bounty. The assassins include a resourceful beauty who has a unique method of killing her prey, a power-tool wielding psychopath and a deadly master of disguise.
Cast:Tom Berenger, Vinnie Jones, Tommy Flanagan, Michael Parks, Ernie Hudson
Watch It Now – Smokin’ Aces 2: Assassins’ Ball
Jan
03
Description:
On December 6, 1973, 14-year-old Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan) is raped and murdered by a neighbor, George Harvey (Stanley Tucci), a serial killer of young girls. Susie finds herself in ‘the in-between’ – a Heaven-like place, observing her family as they grieve for her. She also watches her killer who, having covered his tracks successfully, is preparing to murder again. Her father Jack (Mark Wahlberg) becomes obsessed with his daughter’s murder, while her mother Abigail (Rachel Weisz) moves away to numb the pain. Susie struggles to balance her desire for vengeance on Harvey and her desire to have her family recover from their loss.
Cast:Saoirse Ronan, Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon
Watch It Now – The Lovely Bones
Jan
01
Description:
Give ‘em Hell, Malone is an upcoming action/crime film directed by Russell Mulcahy and starring Thomas Jane, Ving Rhames and Elsa Pataky.
A private eye, Malone (Tom Jane of The Punisher), retrieves a case that leads him on a dangerous journey filled with women, double-crossings, and colorful characters to solve a mystery of its contents and why everyone wants him dead. Directed in the style of classic detective films, Tarantino styles, and a flavor of ‘The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly’.
Cast:Thomas Jane, Ving Rhames, Elsa Pataky
Watch It Now – Give ‘Em Hell, Malone
Dec
22
Description:
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — You don’t have to be a native Staten Islander to understand the mind-set. Just spend a few minutes answering the phone at this newspaper and you’ll hear it in the callers’ voices, their hurt feelings.
That well-known reputation as “the forgotten borough” isn’t a badge of honor. It’s actually an insult.
Filmmaker James DeMonaco is a native, so it shouldn’t be surprising that “Staten Island,” his directorial debut, doesn’t just come with an implicit understanding of the borough’s mind-set. The movie is also kind of all about this.
To be honest, I approached this movie with the greatest of dread, expecting yet another cheapo effort starring bit players from “The Sopranos” cashing in on the Island’s reputation as a trashy place mobbed up with heavily accented Italian-Americans who don’t know how to make an honest living.
Cast:Ethan Hawke, Vincent D’Onofrio, Seymour Cassel
Watch It Now – Staten Island
Dec
21
Description:
An anonymous flasher exposes himself to shoppers in the Forest Ridge Mall parking lot. The head of mall security, Ronnie Barnhardt (Seth Rogen), makes it his mission to apprehend the offender. He is assisted by Charles and Dennis, and the Yuen twins, in his efforts.
Ronnie’s dream girl, Brandi (Anna Faris) who works a mall make-up counter, is flashed the next day, becoming distraught over the situation. Ronnie tries to comfort her until a police officer, Detective Harrison (Ray Liotta), arrives and takes over Ronnie’s palliative role. Ronnie feels threatened by this and is upset that his boss allowed an outside person to infringe on his search for the offender.
The criminal activity at the mall continues, as a masked person is seen robbing a shoe store, causing property damage. Detective Harrison is once again called in to investigate, his efforts hindered by Ronnie, who thinks that an Iraqi shopkeeper in the mall is the thief, based only on the fact that he is Iraqi. In response, Harrison curses out Ronnie during a meeting with Ronnie’s superior, and Ronnie decides to take the steps necessary to become a real police officer.
Cast:Seth Rogen, Anna Faris, Michael Peña, Collette Wolfe
Watch It Now – Observe and Report
Dec
21
Description:
Eleven years ago, a cave-in on the north side of a mine trapped six miners. Six days later when rescue teams arrived, they found five dead miners and Harry Warden, who survived by killing the other miners with a pick-axe, in a coma. Tom Hanniger is under suspicion to have committed the crime. Finally, he is blamed for the mine disaster because he forgot to vent the methane lines.
The following year on Valentine’s Day, Warden wakes up from his coma, killing many in the process. At the abandoned mineshaft that was the site of the disaster, a party is in full swing, attended by many teens, including Axel, his girlfriend Irene, Tom Hanniger, and his girlfriend, Sarah. Sarah goes in alone and gets lost looking for Axel and Irene. She runs across a teen and a few seconds later he is stabbed in the back of his head through his eye. She is confronted by Harry Warden in full miner’s garb, carrying a bloody pick-axe, and flees for safety; Axel grabs her and they along with Irene hide from the killer. He also kills someone with a shovel by cutting her head off in half via the jaw. He eventually sees Sarah, Axel and Irene, and they run out of the mine, where they run into Tom coming in. The killer hits him with the pick axe, injuring him, while the other three run for the car and leave him behind. Tom runs back into the mine in an attempt to get away from the killer; just as he’s about to be killed, the police arrive and shoot the killer, but he makes his getaway back into the mine.
Cast:Jensen Ackles, Jaime King, Kerr Smith, Tom Atkins
Watch It Now – My Bloody Valentine 3D
Dec
20
Description:
The film begins with Monty Brogan and his friend Kostya saving a dog that he found abandoned in the street. As he drives away, the opening credits roll over shots of the Tribute in Light at the World Trade Center site. The film then cuts to the present (approximately four years have passed) and Brogan is walking the streets of New York with Doyle (the dog he saved). He goes to his old school, where he meets up with his best friend, English teacher Jacob Elinsky, and discusses a get-together at a local club planned later that evening. Elinksy then calls their mutual best friend, Wall Street trader Frank Slaughtery.
Monty then goes home to his girlfriend Naturelle and they discuss the fact that this is his last night before prison. Through a series of flashbacks, we learn that he has been busted for being a drug dealer, and he is looking at seven years in Otisville prison.
Cast:Edward Norton, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Barry Pepper, Rosario Dawson
Watch It Now – 25th Hourn
Dec
20
Description:
In a penthouse on the roof of a skyscraper overlooking Basin City, a fancy party is in progress. A woman (Marley Shelton), dressed in a red evening gown, is alone on the balcony. A man (Josh Hartnett), who is narrating, walks up behind her and offers her a cigarette. They exchange some small talk; he tells her that he sees in her eyes the “crazy calm” of someone who is tired of running, but doesn’t want to face her problems alone. He tells her that he will save her, and take her far away. They kiss, and then he shoots her. She dies in his arms. He says that he does not know who she was running from, but will “cash her check in the morning.
In the DVD commentary, Frank Miller explains that the victim in this story (the Customer of the title) is actually committing suicide. The unnamed woman had courted a mobster, and when she tried to break it off, he said that he would kill her in the most terrible way possible. She then used her connections to hire a hit-man (known as the Salesman) to provide her with quick death.
Cast:Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke, Clive Owen, Jessica Alba, Benicio del Toro, Brittany Murphy
Watch It Now – Sin City
Dec
20
Description:
Forced by a corrupt Chinese man to steal information off a computer, an affable IT guy – George – finds himself surrounded by violence and mayhem as he tries to get the disc with information to the crime lord. Thwarted each step of the way by ruthless killers determined to stop him, George must race against time to save his girlfriend’s life. But he soon learns that it will take more then guts to survive the day.
Cast:Roland Gaspar, Malcolm Ferreira, Nicole Smart, Shaun Myburg
Watch It Now – Slam-Bang
Dec
20
Description:
Raizo (Rain) is raised by the Ozunu Clan to become their next successor. As a child, Raizo experiences severe training under the guidance of his “father”, Lord Ozunu: he is whipped and/or cut whenever he fails and is encouraged to hurt his ninja kin for their training failures. The only kindness he ever receives is from a kunoichi (female ninja), Kiriko (Kylie Goldstein).
As they grow older, Kiriko (Anna Sawai) and Raizo developed a romantic bond, however Kiriko’s desire to leave the Ozunu clan for freedom was greater.
One stormy night, Kiriko decides to escape from the Ozunu. Kiriko encourages Raizo to join her, but he decides to stay. They kiss and she then climbs over the wall to freedom; only to be caught and brought back by her ninja kin. Branded as a traitor, Kiriko is executed (a katana through her heart) by her elder ninja brother Takeshi (Rick Yune). As a result of Kiriko’s death, Raizo begins to harbor resentment and doubt towards the Clan.
Cast:Sung Kang, Randall Duk Kim, Jonathan Chan-Pensley, Yuki Iwamoto
Watch It Now – Ninja Assassin
Dec
20
Description:
The film begins in a bar on a December night in Milwaukee, where the viewer is introduced to Willie Stokes (Billy Bob Thornton), a bitter, lonely alcoholic. Willie works the holiday seasons as a mall Santa along with his dwarf friend, Marcus (Tony Cox), who works as Santa’s elf. Every Christmas Eve, the two of them disable the security alarm after the mall closes and rob the mall safe; afterwards, Marcus returns to living with his wife (who Willie finds very ugly and annoying), Lois (Lauren Tom), while Willie goes to Miami and spends all his money on booze.
At the new mall they plan to steal from, Willie’s alcoholic rants arouse the suspicion of mall manager Bob Chipeska (John Ritter), who asks security chief Gin (Bernie Mac) to investigate. Meanwhile, Willie meets bartender Sue (Lauren Graham), and they begin a relationship. He also meets a pudgy, preteen boy, whom he nicknames the Kid (Brett Kelly), during their visit in the mall. When he leaves the bar and is confronted by a hostile man (Ajay Naidu), the Kid stops the man from beating up Willie after the guy falsely accuses Willie of being gay. A lonely, unpopular boy, the Kid lives with his senile grandmother (Cloris Leachman); his mother is dead and his father is in prison for embezzlement. After taking the Kid home to the Kid’s father’s mansion, Willie breaks into the house safe, takes all the money, “borrows” his father’s BMW, and winds up spending the money on more booze.
Cast:Billy Bob Thornton, Tony Cox, Brett Kelly, Lauren Graham
Watch It Now – Bad Santa
Dec
19
Description:
After the gangsters who killed his father come to settle a score, a teenage boy and his mother turn the tables on the killers – one Latino family’s quest for honor and revenge as the hunted become the hunters. Wilson DeLeon, Jr. is an exceptional college student with an adoring girlfriend, doting mother and a future full of promise. He has never wanted for anything, and he has never been forced to stand his ground. But when ghosts from his mother’s past come back to haunt his present, he must defend his family … and quickly turn into the strong man his father prayed he’d become. Nothing could stop Wilson’s mother, Millie, from protecting her two boys. Forced to flee her home after gangsters killed her husband, she made an oath to give her children only the best. But all that changes when an enemy from the past catches up with them. It’s finally time to take action – and now, they’re done running. Weapons at the ready, Wilson, Jr. and Millie prepare for a final showdown with the murderer who robbed him of a father and her of a husband. Now, in a battle fueled by family ties and blood feuds, it will become very clear what happens when anyone tries to come between this son and his mother.
Cast:Michael Philip Del Rio, Samuel Molina, Rick Sepulveda, Manny Perez
