The Prey can be best described as puzzling. That’s not to say that the film is complex; it’s actually remarkably simple and woefully boilerplate, so much so that every so often as you watch it, you may feel as though you’ve watched it already. The real mystery here is how the film managed to avoid being released straight on home video despite being just at the level of DTV quality. If The Prey does one thing well, it’s meet the physical demands of its numerous action scenes handsomely- you won’t be completely bored even while you experience deja vu- but it doesn’t have an original or intelligent thought in its…
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G-S-T Review…The Call
There’s a serviceable thriller to be found in The Call; in fact, you don’t even have to look very hard to find it. Even better, that thriller happens to be wrapped up in a police procedural yarn that sees the events of a crime unfold from a perspective that we’re not used to. Have you ever called 9-1-1? Have you ever thought for a second about what the person on the other end of the line does day in and day out for a living? Brad Anderson apparently has, and in The Call he anchors his story within that exact point of view. The results aren’t next-level or anything, but his approach makes…
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Off the Netflix Queue…’Headhunters’
It ain’t easy being short. Boiled away of its particulars, that’s the central theme of Morten Tyldum’s Headhunters, although “don’t involve yourself in corporate espionage” could well be the larger takeaway. After all, no good whatsoever can come from invoking the wrath of Jaime Lannister, especially a Jaime Lannister armed with nano-technology designed in service to tracking human beings. But Tyldum instills an abundance of textbook male security in his hero, one Roger Brown (Aksel Hennie), a man who lives his life under constant self-induced stress and paranoia. What does Roger have to fear? He has a high-paying job as one of Norway’s top employment recruiters, a modern domicile of impeccable…
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The Criterion Files: Sisters
Sisters: Directed by: Brian De Palma Written by: Brian De Palma, Louise Rose Starring: Margot Kidder, Jennifer Salt, William Finley, Charles Durning Cinematography: Gregory Sandor Music by: Bernard Herrmann Released: March 27, 1973 How does a film about voyeurism stand out in the oeuvre of Brian De Palma? By existing as a work of pure, interconnected, voyeuristic thrills. De Palma has been fascinated with the subject for nearly the span of his entire career, and even a cursory glance at his body of work reveals countless pictures into which voyeurism figures as a theme or motif, from obvious entries such as Blow Out, Dressed to Kill, and Body Double and…
