A very unpleasant film about some very unpleasant people. Yeah, maybe Adam Sandler was effective playing against type, but I watch the closing credits asking why did I watch this? Psychopath vs psychopath. Which is okay if there’s some sense of style or humor or irony. I like noir – a lot – but I didn’t like this.

I can’t believe it took me so long to see this. All the rear projection looks hokey to the modern eye, and Ben Hecht’s script is a bit preposterous, but the cast (Grant, Bergman, Rains) carries it off with aplomb and the lighting and camera angles are jaw-dropping. Hitch was really hitting his stride here.

Hitch’s last film before leaving for the States. This costume thriller takes place on the Cornish coast, with a porcine Charles Laughton, a beautiful Maureen O’Hara, and Robert Newton, the guy who a decade later would totally own Long John Silver in Disney’s Treasure Island. Not a fave, though. Never came together for me.

I rented this because, really, it couldn’t be as bad as they say, right? And if it is, I should see it because I liked the 2000 version and, why not? Well, it’s not good, but it’s better than Cats. The script is credited solely to Elizabeth banks (her first and only) and goes heavy on the wokeness. This is the first time I’ve ever seen Kristen Stewart. I’ve heard terrible things about her acting but I thought she was pretty good. Definitely seemed to be enjoying herself, despite having to mouth horrible dialogue. Side note: She must be amazingly strong because she can’t weight more than 98 pounds, yet she manages to toss these 200+-pound thugs all over the set. Wow.

I knew going in this was a black comedy, but I was expecting something a little more inventive, maybe along the lines of You’re Next. It does have a few funny moments but, unlike You’re Next, the female lead survives via a hokey family curse and the incompetence of her pursuers rather than her own agency.

Can we be done with this now? Please? Finis? Sayonara? I can’t keep doing the deja vuing (or deja viewing).

Apple of Eden?!?!?!? When the MacGuffin makes you (literally) LOL, all is lost.

Have you seen any of Matt Damon’s other Jason Bourne films? Good. Then you don’t need to see this one. It should have been subtitled “Deja Vu.”
FF=3

I rented this Norwegian disaster film because it was touted as one of those “Great Horror Films You’ve Never Seen.” NOT! Not a horror film. Plot: maverick scientist’s warnings ignored, he’s separated from his family when the worst happens, must survive the disaster (in this case a fjord tsunami) in order to save them. (Sound familiar?)
FF=3

This film takes itself seriously. As it should, considering its subject is human trafficking. I can’t think of any fate too awful for the creeps who buy and sell human beings. But at its heart this is a revenge film, with endless chases and exhausting mano-a-mano fights. Nothing new to see here. Keep moving.

FF=3