Tag
Thriller
Every article tagged Thriller across the Atmosphere.
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Pretty Lethal
C4? I mean, I see at least 16. If you know anything about Pretty Lethal going in, you know that it's bound to be an absurd film. It knows that and is gleeful in its execution. A ballerina troupe is set to perform at an event in Budapest. Their flight is diverted, their bus breaks down and they trek to a hotel in — as far as they can tell — the middle of nowhere. Innocent, if irritating, protagonists meet a stereotype of eastern Europe. Pretty Lethal has the visual tone and palette of the John Wick franchise with none of the franchise's seriousness. What kind of ballerina doesn’t know how to make themselves throw up? Everyone's got a first name, a pair of ballet flats and the chemistry one might expect in an ensemble. Bones is the fearless leader, Princess is as spoiled as her name implies, Grace is preachy and high, while Zoe and Chloe are a pair of sisters with irritatingly similar names. The employees at the hotel seem hospitable until the son of a local crime boss shoots their teacher in the head. Why? She was there, mostly. Iris Apatow (as Zoe) has some expressions that are eerily like those of her mother, Leslie Mann. Chaos ensues. Fight scenes incorporate ballet; Bones ends up with a razor blade embedded in the toe of her flats (novel and effective) and numerous unnamed goons die. Because films like this are never, ever, in any way subtle, the hotel owner (played by Uma Thurman) was, in a past life, a ballerina. She lost her leg to the local crime boss and prepares for one last dance. The enemy of your enemy is your friend and this friend handles your enemy in a single, massive explosion. The best part? The girls make it to Budapest on mopeds conveniently left outside the hotel and nail their performance — toe blades, gore and all. First position!thrillerhorror
Pretty Lethal
C4? I mean, I see at least 16. If you know anything about Pretty Lethal going in, you know that it's bound to be an absurd film. It knows that and is gleeful in its execution. A ballerina troupe is set to perform at an event in Budapest. Their flight is diverted, their bus breaks down and they trek to a hotel in — as far as they can tell — the middle of nowhere. Innocent, if irritating, protagonists meet a stereotype of eastern Europe. Pretty Lethal has the visual tone and palette of the John Wick franchise with none of the franchise's seriousness. What kind of ballerina doesn’t know how to make themselves throw up? Everyone's got a first name, a pair of ballet flats and the chemistry one might expect in an ensemble. Bones is the fearless leader, Princess is as spoiled as her name implies, Grace is preachy and high, while Zoe and Chloe are a pair of sisters with irritatingly similar names. The employees at the hotel seem hospitable until the son of a local crime boss shoots their teacher in the head. Why? She was there, mostly. Iris Apatow (as Zoe) has some expressions that are eerily like those of her mother, Leslie Mann. Chaos ensues. Fight scenes incorporate ballet; Bones ends up with a razor blade embedded in the toe of her flats (novel and effective) and numerous unnamed goons die. Because films like this are never, ever, in any way subtle, the hotel owner (played by Uma Thurman) was, in a past life, a ballerina. She lost her leg to the local crime boss and prepares for one last dance. The enemy of your enemy is your friend and this friend handles your enemy in a single, massive explosion. The best part? The girls make it to Budapest on mopeds conveniently left outside the hotel and nail their performance — toe blades, gore and all. First position!thrillerhorror
The Way of the Gun
Karma? Karma's only justice without the satisfaction. I don't believe in justice. A weaving, vicious film, The Way of the Gun kicks off with a drawn-out, wildly offensive screed by Sarah Silverman (who is credited as "Raving Bitch"). Its toxic start gives way to a pair of drifters, Mr. Parker (Ryan Phillippe) and Mr. Longbaugh (Benicio del Toro) failing their way into a kidnap-for-ransom plot. The entire cast of characters ranges from the deeply flawed to the repugnant with only Juliette Lewis' Robin being worthy of redemption. There’s always free cheese in a mousetrap. Though the action in the film is entertaining and the closing shootout is excellent, The Way of the Gun shines in its slower, mid-paced development of all characters involved. There's a constant tension around Robin and her child as the kidnappers fight to get paid, hired bagmen and security chase them down to effect a messy rescue and the real father, her gynecologist (of course), drifts in and out of reach until the baby is delivered via impromptu c-section. It's a movie as violent as it is profane, one with no sense of decorum. A bloody close sees one set of bad guys walk away, cash and child in hand. The powerful couple that kicked off the whole mess learn that they're expecting a child without the aid of Robin's surrogacy. The husband shows no reaction at all and the scene cuts to black.thrillercrime
Riders of Justice
Mads Mikkelson is a gift. While Riders of Justice sits comfortably within the action genre, there is so much subtly and nuance surrounding that gunfire filled core. It's a movie about the unpredictable nature of life, about family both chosen and not, about trauma, grief and loss. It's a moving film that I'd gone into expecting little more than violence. A bike is stolen in one country for a girl in another and Markus and Mathilde's lives are irrevocably changed. Otto has faced his own loss, buoyed only by his cantankerous contemporaries Lennart and Emmenthaler and now must face his own guilt over a chance encounter that left Markus grieving his wife and Mathilde her mother. Markus is physically distant, deployed in an unnamed military theater and emotionally distant upon his return. Mathilde tries to retrace her steps and events in a futile attempt to find the root of the tragedy. Otto explains as much — life is too complex, the world is too chaotic for tragedy to be attributable to one single thing. We're reminded of this as the girl is gifted Mathilde's bike, oblivious to the tragic events that ensued and rides in circles in the snow. A slow loop. Life continues and snow falls, indifferent to the world beneath it. What we find is that trauma can unite us and destroy us in turn. Otto wants answers, Lennart and Emmenthaler antagonize and care deeply for each other. Mathilde grapples with a father who wasn't there and is distant and controlling upon his return. Markus needs therapy but, instead, pursues revenge and metes out violence. His trio of accomplices are dealing with their own trauma and to varying degrees of willingness, align their own pursuits of justice with his. Lennart turns his years of therapy as a patient into an informal practice guiding Mathilde. Otto lifts Markus up at his lowest and helps him keep going. The whole thing is a beautiful, beautiful affair. It's improbable and questions are left open, but there's an undeniable warmth and love woven throughout an amalgamated family united by grief, empathy and love. The closing Christmas scene is adorable and, by my estimation, makes this one of the better modern Christmas movies.thrilleraction
Copshop
I drew ya a dick. It just got weird. Well, it's gonna get weirder. Copshop starts at a jog, lurches around and then flips over, skids, giggles and takes off at a run as soon as Toby Huss shows up. This is the best thing Huss has done outside of King of the Hill . He's deranged, he's charming, he's lackadaisical, he's vicious and he is violent. I cannot overstate how good he is in this. You're in the cop business, so that makes you a murderer. But I'm in the murder business so that just makes me a laborer. You see how that works? Huss (and his array of quips aside), Alexis Louder is superb in the leading role as Valerie Young. The rookie in over their head is a common enough archetype, but few in that mold have been as compelling. She's magnetic, relentless and tough . Grillo with the man bun? Sure — it works. Gerard Butler does his sweaty tough guy thing. Is "copshop" slang for a police station? Young taking the ambulance to chase down Butler's Viddick while they both listen to the same song? It's an open door and a fantastic ending.thrillercrime
Normal
Nothing is normal in Normal because if anything were to be normal in Normal then Normal would be a boring movie because normal is boring and Normal isn't terribly creative but it's also not boring. But that's the giveaway when you name a movie something like that. It's like Pleasantville . Something will not be pleasant there. If it's all pleasant, what's the point? Oh my god that squeaking jacket. This is like Nobody but dropped into the midwest during winter and with the yakuza thrown in. Anything with Bob Odenkirk in it is worth watching.thrillercrime
Hush
Hush is a pretty ok horror movie about Maddie. Maddie is deaf, she's an author and she lives alone in a small home in the woods. Sarah and John live nearby and seem like pretty great neighbors. They stop being good neighbors when they're stabbed to death by a guy in a mask who then terrorizes Maddie for the duration. It's more or less what you'd expect, with some wrinkles provided by Maddie's condition. The killer can hear Maddie and she has to come up with a plan to survive knowing that he can hear her. This, erm, cuts both ways when he thinks he has the drop on her and she manages to stab him in the knee. Cool stuff. I realize I'm being blithe and a bit reductive, but I don't think a movie like this needs to be taken seriously. The circumstances are serious, but not terribly believable and it's a rather rote take on the whole slasher genre. But, for a low budget and a small cast, it is pretty fun.thrillerhorror
Locke
Ivan Locke's a simple man. He pours concrete. C6, not C5. If there's a crack, it'll grow. The foundation will shift, the building could shift. But, like his concrete, he cracked. He's got a child on the way with another woman but, unlike his father, he won't abandon the child. So he drives to the hospital to witness the birth. He gets fired, his wife is distraught, his sons don't understand and he guides Donal through managing the largest concrete pour in Europe together (he's told repeatedly that it's the largest). He drives. Traffic is ok. He misses the birth, but he'll be there for the kid.thrillerdrama
The Strangers
Do you think they ever found Tamara? What if they'd had a no soliciting sign? Remember those old phone chargers that inevitably turned into a knot? Or how you used to be able to swap out batteries in your flip phone? Glenn Howerton is so effective at always playing exactly that guy. Charming, Dennis-adjacent and always a jerk on the edge of getting very angry. The Strangers is frightening, arguably even terrifying. Opening with crime statistics is a choice. The statistics are significant but it leaves no question as to what's going to happen to Kristen and James here. Unscrewing the bulb and getting them to answer the door is a terrifying first step and things simply escalate from there. The whole thing is expertly staged — the intruders silently observing Kristen in the background, the masks, the messages, the ever present threat until the bloody end. A tense, unsurprising classic.thrillerhorror
Ready or Not 2: Here I Come
Can I have a cigarette? Ready or Not 2 such a wonderful, over the top, gleeful exercise in horror, satanism and camp. The Faculty is perhaps my all time favorite movie, so seeing Elijah Wood and Shawn Hatosy back on screen together was such a treat. Throw in Sarah Michelle Gellar (hail Buffy ) and a David Cronenberg cameo? :chefkissemoji: This is not a sequel that tries to stand on its own — it opens right as Ready or Not closes. The reveal here isn't the nature of the game, it's that the game continues. It also allows it to improve upon where this all started. When I resumed this after a brief break, I accidentally started Limitless Violence off of Diabolic Messiah of the New World Order and that the two fit so perfectly is not lost on me There is so much to love here. Elijah Wood being oddly calm while administering the rules guiding a bizarre pact with the devil? Check. Samara Weaving with a distinct, horrifying, almost quavering scream that never gets old? Check. Weaving and Kathryn Newton as an incredible, reluctant leading duo? Check. Just enough people popping like balloons full of red corn syrup — until they all pop? Check. I will watch this again. I will watch the first one again. I'll watch them back to back and then I'll wait for the next one. Can we get a movie about The Lawyer? Hail Satan.thrillerhorror
Urban Legend
Do you smell something? Urban Legend occupies the same milieu as Cherry Falls and I Know What You Did Last Summer but is far closer in quality to the latter. I vaguely remember having seen this before or, at least, I believe I have. I could also be that the setting is extremely familiar. The coffee shop — Friends burned this into everyone's mind — feels so emblematic and central to the time. But, unlike Central Perk, where nothing ever goes all that wrong, what's discussed here are murders past and present. One after another. Rumored deaths, cover ups, urban legends and fixtures of the popular lack of imagination. There are house parties with misused microwaves, pop rock fatalities both real and imagined and vengeance for a wrong that the protagonist committed and fails to connect. Is this Jared Leto at his most normal? Remember when gas was right around $1? How do you not see the guy in your back seat when you reach for a tape? Does nobody look in their backseat? The puffy jacket is a good killer disguise for a college in Maine. Everyone's trying to stay warm and stay alive. An essential entry into the genre of 90s campy slashers.mysterythriller
Cherry Falls
Class dismissed! Cherry Falls is a ludicrous slasher that manages to be campy while landing oh so shy of self-parody. A serial killer is on the loose murdering high school virgins so all the high school virgins throw a sex party to exclude themselves from the list of potential victims. Which, of course, would never work because that's just a word the killer carved in their victims (only to carve the inverse in another victim who was both not a high schooler nor a virgin). Why does the reservoir in the closing scene turn red? Setting this in Cherry Falls, Virginia is really on the nose (though nothing about this movie is subtle). This isn't as good as as Scream or I Know What You Did Last Summer but it's a perfectly entertaining entry into the genre.mysterythriller
Apex
Apex is more The Most Dangerous Game than it is Vertical Limit (though the elements it shares with the latter lead to the former). This is certainly Taron Egerton's most deranged role yet (though my favorite performance by him remains She Rides Shotgun ) and Charlize Theron is unfailingly superb, with this being no exception. A talented cast manages to make this entertaining, often thrilling and not quite compelling or unique enough to justify rewatching.thrilleraction
Land of Bad
Land of Bad is more Land of Mediocre . It’s your standard “Hooah!” (is this the right service for that?) jingoistic American war film. The new guy gets hazed, captured, rescued, goes on a mission to help rescue a team member behind enemy lines, gets captured, gets tortured, escapes again, rescues some folks and then barely averts a friendly fire disaster. It’s fine, it’s forgettable and it’s saving grace is Russell Crowe’s dedicated, four times married and cantankerous “Reaper”.thrilleraction
Crimes of the Future
The Cronenberg family has made some of the most grotesque movies I've ever watched. To their credit, they're never needlessly grotesque. Crimes of the Future exists solidly within body horror, which is a subsection of horror I'm often repulsed by but can't look away from. It's eerie, atmospheric, minimally scored and bleak in its outlook. Society appears to be teetering — government offices are helpless and rundown, horrifying surgeries are performed as a public spectacle and Saul Tenser's body grows novel organ after novel organ. It's horror as art and it's an art that robs its victims of their humanity. There are morose echoes of transhumanism in Dotrice and his experiments transforming himself and others so that they can eat and survive off the plastic waste littering their high tech dystopia. Saul and Caprice exhibit their pain, Timlin and Wippet watch, Dotrice engineers a way through and Cope fights against all of it, seemingly motivated to preserve what it means to be human in a society that's quickly losing sight of what that means.scifithriller
Crime 101
I will watch and compare every single heist movie and compare it to Heat because Heat is the pinnacle of the genre. Crime 101 occupies a similar cinematic space. Davis shows shade's of Neil McCauley — a well-appointed home, a love interest that knows little about him, a professionalism and dedication to craft. Mark Ruffalo's Lou is tired (not unlike his portrayal of Tom Brandis in Task ), Halle Berry's Sharon gets swept up and becomes pivotal to the heist while Barry Keoghan plays Ormon perfectly — taught, unpredictable and with a disorganized edge that leaves you knowing he'll snap but wondering when and how. It's refreshing to see a heist film with interesting characters. Whether that's Lou as the cop who's not crooked, but dedicated and willing to take an out when presented with one. Or Sharon who's happy to screw bosses that have done as much to her and still comes out ahead. Or Davis, a crook with a code guiding his actions and the requisite humanity and vulnerability to pursue Maya. Nick Nolte? He's perfect in his role as the fence. Money, as far as character names go, is hardly creative but it makes his role and loyalty abundantly clear. Having grown up in southern California, it's a bit strange to see the landmarks chosen for this in film. Ok, yes, sure, Los Angeles is an ever present backdrop. Santa Barbara? Mugu rock? Not so much. They're picturesque but often overlooked. They're quiet places and either good hideaways or an unexpected target for a job. This is so close to perfect. Maybe it is or maybe it will be when I rewatch it in the future. It's not over reliant on chases or violence, though it will happily use either when necessary. That scene in the hotel room with the rich shit that's more concerned with his money than his fiancé? The only unbelievable part of this is the lack of any depiction of the abject misery that comes with navigating the 101 as it passes through Los Angeles.thrillercrime
Send Help
HEPL A dash of Lord of the Flies , a splash of Castaway , a douchebag nepobaby boss and the eccentric lady from planning and accounting that said boss abuses relentlessly. Oh and she's a fan of Survivor . Did they use AI in this for the CGI? It looks pretty rough, bordering on the comical when things get ludicrously gruesome. Nothing about this is worth taking seriously, but it is worth watching once. It lifts workplace dynamics and unceremoniously dumps them onto a desert island, ratchets up the tension and then concludes it all as predictably as any mediocre movie in this genre would. There is't a trope that isn't used here but it's all executed well enough not to suffer too much for it. Are they going to end up together? Killing each other? Both? One wants to be rescued, the other doesn't. Oh the tension. How could they ever possibly go back to the office after this? Linda, you've got this.thrillerhorror
War Machine
Alan Ritchson is great in these roles — particularly Reacher . There's nothing new, nothing novel, nothing terribly admirable about War Machine . 81 (Ritchson) loses his brother, he becomes an army ranger to honor his brother and encounters a killer robot in the process. He almost saved his brother and failing to do so haunts him. But he saves 7, his brother in arms, and maybe that won't haunt him or will ameliorate some of the pain. It's Independence Day without the charm or exposition and with a Transformers style robot. If you don't think too hard while you watch it it's a perfectly fun movie that you only need to see once.scifithriller
Fight or Flight
Fight or Flight . Fight on Flight. Fight and Flight. Fight in Flight. JUST KILD SOMONE This movie is violent and completely, unabashedly absurd. I've loved Josh Hartnett since The Faculty and it's refreshing to see him here, committed and having a blast. From sedated combat in a first class bathroom, to toad venom-fueled chainsaw gore, Hartnett's absurd charisma makes all of this work. I saw this compared to Bullet Train but found this to be far, far more entertaining. I am fucking thrilled the ending left the door open for more entries with these characters. Hartnett and Charithra Chandran have undeniable chemistry and throwing them together in a similarly absurd setting is guaranteed to be a gore-filled, haphazard mess of the highest order. : How could I not? It's the best movie of all time.thrilleraction
Cleaner
A good, clean (neat?), action movie that clocks in at a tidy 97 minutes. There's nothing unique or special about Cleaner , but Daisy Ridley works well as a lead, Clive Owen is a welcome (albeit brief) sight and the rest of the cast does a respectable job. Ecoterrorists kidnap leadership around a fossil fuel company, Daisy is an ex-military window cleaner that goes unnoticed on the outside of the building and tense action scenes ensue. A neat little escape.thrilleraction
28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
Surreal, touching, horrifying and somehow all three at once. Yet another entry into the 28 Days/Months/Years saga that never falters, never slows down and refuses to disappoint. Ralph Fiennes is magnificent and his relationship with Samson is oddly beautiful. I can't help but wonder what Samson would have done if he was present for the assault by the Jimmys and not distracted fending off a hoard of his own. Can we get a buddy movie featuring Dr. Kelson and Samson? I know the former is dead, but frame it as a daydream. Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal, Jimmy Ink, Jimmima, Jimmy Shite — an absurdist band of traveling sociopaths. Or sadists? Sadists is a more fitting description. Kelson's portrayal of their deity is a thing of theatrical beauty soundtracked, perfectly, by Iron Maiden. Every entry into this series is a masterwork and I hope it never ends. We get a glimpse of Cillian Murphy at the end and I'll be disappointed if the next doesn't pick up right where this leaves off.thrillerhorror
Small Engine Repair
This was an odd movie — it's uneven, but it manages to work because it's uneven. The first two thirds of it is a somber tale of lifelong friends, familial dysfunction and all involved try and do what's best for Frank's daughter. When all of that falls apart utterly and completely, they're faced with a disaster of a situation engineered by Frank in an attempt at revenge. Not only do they fail to exact revenge, they end up blackmailing Crystal's tormentor as a means to salvage the situation. Still, the lead characters manage to be a bunch of — against all odds — lovable knuckleheads. Lifetime friends, they've had to reckon with their own childhood trauma to try and spare Crystal the same. They don't succeed, but they all have each other in the end.thrillercrime
The Home
Look, normally I'd say it's safe to assume that a movie like The Home is bad purely because it's a horror movie featuring Pete Davidson. But the fact that Bodies Bodies Bodies proves that this can work. He's far better in settings tilted towards the comedic, but he's perfectly fine outside of that. But this is a spectacularly bad movie. Almost — almost — beyond redemption. This was bad enough to make me want to alter the schema for ratings on this site to support an explicit zero or a poop emoji. I finished it though and while the closing scene of cartoonish violence redeems nothing, it did save the schema.mysterythriller
We Bury the Dead
It's incredibly rare for a truly compelling movie like We Bury the Dead to emerge from such a well-trodden genre. It's not the apocalypse, but in Tasmania, it feels like it is. We've seen this though, we've seen visions of the apocalypse, movies and shows covered in zombies and wanton violence. But it's so rare that we get something novel, something that isn't emerging from a respected franchise, but we do here. It's all eminently believable too. The United States accidentally deploys a new weapon near a populated but remote area. The rank incompetence necessary for that to occur is everywhere in the world we currently inhabit. Like so many movies that are a part of a genre but stand out with in it, We Bury the Dead is not strictly a zombie movie. It's a rumination on grief, loss and closure. It's about Ava's journey to say what was left unsaid when Mitch off took on a work trip in Tasmania after a personal spat. She wants to find him, she needs to find him, she does find him. But she never gets the closure she's looking for. She only gets the closure the world offers her and it is both cruel and inadequate. That last scene with Clay vomiting on Mitch's body shrouded in cloth on the way to a burial at sea? Fucking perfect. Exactly the right touch to throw some absurd humor into a harrowing film.thrillerhorror