Tag: Thriller

100 Word Review – Shutter Island (2010)

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Another wonderful example of Martin Scorsese’s (The Departed, Goodfellas) attention to detail.

Set in 1954, Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) is partnered up with Chuck (Mark Ruffalo) and sent to Shutter Island, a hospital for the criminally insane, to investigate a patient’s escape.

Based on a novel by Dennis Lehane (Mystic River, Gone Baby Gone), this crime thriller will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end. Emily Mortimer, Michelle Williams, Ben Kingsley and Patricia Clarkson all co-star, each contributing brilliantly to the sense of dread and suspense present throughout. It currently sits at 194 in IMDb’s Top 250 list.

100 Word Review – Memento (2000)

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Based on a short story by his brother Jonathan, this is the earliest Christopher Nolan film to make it on to the IMDb Top 250 list. It currently places at number 45.

Guy Pearce stars as Leonard, a man with short term memory loss on the hunt for his wife’s murderer. To cope with his disability he creates a strange system to help him remember and piece the clues together.

Full of violence, heartache and confusion, the story is told through two timelines running in opposite directions making this is more of a brain teaser than Inception could ever dream to be.

100 Word Review – Coherence (2013)

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I don’t want to tell you anything about the plot of this film for fear of giving away something crucial, so instead I’m going to tell you about how this wonderful independent Sci Fi film was made.

Writer and director James Ward Byrkit spent over a year constructing the concept for this feature. The actors never saw a script. It was shot in one house over five nights. At the beginning of each shooting session each actor was given information about their character and what they should reveal.

The result is magnificent. It’s trippy, thought-provoking and just brilliant. Watch it!

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100 Word Review – Fight Club (1999)

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Knowing that I am breaking the first rule of Fight Club just writing this, proves what a great film this is.

Edward Norton plays an insomniac office worker whose life is disrupted when he meets the formidable, effortlessly cool Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt).

Helena Bonham Carter, Meat Loaf and Jared Leto make up part of the amazing supporting cast to this classic psychological thriller.

Based on the best selling novel by Chuck Palahniuk (Choke, Snuff), directed by the indisputably brilliant David Fincher (Se7en, Gone Girl); it combines paranoia, dark humour and violence and currently proudly sits at #10 of IMDb’s Top 250.

100 Word Review – Sightseers (2012)

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This film is proof that you don’t have to go far from home to create a truly twisted feature. 

In an attempt to show his girlfriend (writer Alice Lowe) the world, Chris (co-writer Steve Oram) takes her on a caravan holiday in the Lake District. But as circumstances seem to conspire against them, they deal with it the only way they can… Murder.

Dark, hilarious and full of those little frustrations that most Brits are too, well, British to confront.

Director Ben Wheatley (Kill List, A Field In England) is a master of the macabre, and one to watch for.

100 Word Review – The Cabin In The Woods (2012)

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My love of Joss Whedon is well documented and unsurprisingly this is no exception.

A group of good-looking students (Chris Hemsworth, Kristen Connolly, Jesse Williams, Fran Kranz, Anna Hutchison) decide to take a break in a remote cabin in the woods (see what they did there?) and get more than they expected.

Other members of the Whedon gang make appearances (Amy Acker, Tom Lenk) along with some other classic actors (Bradley Whitford, Richard Jenkins).

Written by Whedon and directed by Drew Goddard (Cloverfield and World War Z writer), this is more than your classic horror. It’s imaginative, creative and thrilling.

100 Word Review – Gone Girl (2014)

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Not as good as the book, in part because of Ben Affleck, this is still one of the best films I saw in 2014.

Adapted from the novel by its author, Gillian Flynn, this film about a missing wife (brilliantly portrayed by Rosamund Pike) has the suspense of the best crime thriller and the emotional gravitas of a personal drama.

Neil Patrick Harris is superb as the eerie ex, which makes it even more of a shame that Affleck couldn’t bring the depth his character needed.

Despite this it’s truly fantastic and chilling, and will leave you on edge for weeks.