Reviews by doudouce55

Regan Reilly, a private investigator, attends a reunion in England, when the body of a friend, Athena, turns up.
Unfortunately, Lady Exner's companion gets sick and Regan is given the opportunity to accompany Lady Exner on a transatlantic cruise.
Clues to Athena's crime will follow her on the Queen Guinevere boat, and she will in no time solve her friend's 10-year-old murder.

The first in the Regan Reilly Mysteries, DECKED is an easy read. (I read it in one day.)
Plain writing, good descriptions, a simple plot - good ingredients for an adventure at sea.

A funny, entertaining book.

Cordell (Freeman)'s job is to execute contracts. In the middle of an assignment, he has a car accident. His arrest by the FBI follows. His men rescue him, but the car falls in the river and is carried by the drift.
Ex-cop Ray Keene (Cusack) and his son, Chris, are hiking in the woods when they see and rescue Cordell. Ray wants to deliver Cordell to justice and does not listen to Cordell's proposal to leave him alone and travel through the woods. Cordell's men are tracking them down so that Cordell can finish his contract.

An action thriller with a lot of problems in the script and filled with clichés. A little too dramatic at times. A lot of stupid actions were written in the script. The film's music is horrendous. It looks to be a made-for-tv movie, despite the two major actors, Morgan Freeman and John Cusack, who give only decent performances, nothing out of the ordinary.

I had high hopes for this, and was disappointed.

If you're simply looking for action and/or thriller, watch this.
If you're looking for a decent script and a believable plot, don't bother.

Annie Savoy (Susan Sarandon), a groupie who has affairs with a minor-league baseball player each season, meets two men, LaLoosh (Tim Robbins) and Crash (Kevin Costner), the experienced catched assigned to LaLoosh. A comical story about baseball and sex. After all, "what else is there?"

Great roles for Sarandon, Robbins and Costner. Can't imagine anyone else playing these roles. Robbins is excellent as the dim "Nuke" LaLoosh.

Even if you don't know anything about baseball (like me), this drama is still decent, enjoyable... and pretty much a classic.

A womanizing insurance man, Hutch Rimes (Steven Weber), has affairs with his blonde employees. Ten years ago, one of the ladies, Holly (Nina Siemaszko) requests his help to kill Cotton, her abusive husband (Gregg Henry). That night, she is inadvertedly killed by Cotton, who goes to jail for her death.
Ten years later, Cotton is released and catches up with his son Jesse (Gabriel Mann).
In the meantime Hutch has had several affairs, his most recent one with Olivia Wise (Gail O'Grady) married to Dewey (Stephen Tobolowsky), who suspects the affair and wants to kill Hutch. Olivia enlists Hutch's help to kill Dewey, but will Hutch do it? Will the truth about what happened ten years ago be revealed?

An unoriginal plot, the film has *luckily* a nice twist to its ending, slightly predictable 3/4 in the movie.
Note that attention must be paid throughout as it is quite easy to miss out on critical scenes, essential to understanding the plot(s).

The best actor here is Swoosie Kurtz as Hutch's assistant; Steven Weber is decent, as are Tobolowsky, Henry and Mann. A good cast.

Obviously a tv-movie or direct-to-dvd production, it's still very enjoyable. A dramatic thriller, it also has its funny moments.

Surprisingly good for a B movie with an unoriginal plot. Worth renting once.

This is the true story of Jeffrey Wigand (Russell Crowe), a man who signed a confidentiality agreement before getting fired from a big tobacco company. Hotshot *60 minutes* producer Bergman (Al Pacino) asks Wigand to decipher some technical documents, and soon realizes there's a bigger story hiding inside Wigand.
On top of that, Wigand is recruited to testity in Mississippi for a case that claims cigarettes *are* addictive.
The *60 minutes* piece will eventually be pulled because of corporate pressure. Wigand deals with his personal dilemma, and Bergman battles the corporation.
Both men will struggle against Big Tobacco's attempts to silence them and against the CBS television network's cowardly complict preference of putting money as a higher priority over the truth.

True colors of journalism are shown throughout the film. Director Michael Mann has done a great job portraying journalistic realism. The actors are marvelous, no exception.

An emotionally intense drama which reveals the consequences of standing up for the truth.

The plot is pretty basic.
A British college professor, Fluke Kelso (Daniel Craig), working in Russia investigates certain mysteries surrounding the life and death of Joseph Stalin. By chance, Kelso meets a former Stalinist bodyguard, Papu, who will lead him to the uncovering of one of the world's most dangerous and best kept secrets.

This TV movie is set in contemporary Moscow and in the town of Archangel.
It is a standard thriller based on the novel by Robert Harris (NOT Thomas Harris).

The scenery and characters played true to life. I felt I was back in Russia...
Decent directing, and good acting, and for those who like Daniel Craig, this is truly a gem to discover.
The cinematography reminds the viewer in an obvious way that it is made for television.

The plot does have some holes, but it's nevertheless an enjoyable thriller. Just don't expect Bruce Willis or Schwarzenegger type of action.

Prelude76's review actually summarizes the story rather well.

I'd like to add that I didn't expect this to be as good as it turned out to be. I expected a rather low-quality comedy (as in a B movie if not worse), but the acting, directing and dialogue was surprisingly well done.

I love Brolin, and Coogan is in fact to be discovered.
It is interesting to note that Jerry O'Connell has such a small role at the beginning that one must wonder why his name is even up here in the actors' credits. It's as though he had a leading or supporting role, he doesn't, it's merely a cameo appearance of 5 minutes if that.

Still a recommended movie for all murder/mystery/comedy lovers.

Based on James Ellroy’s book of the same name.
1940s. Los Angeles. Two cops, Bleichert aka Mr Ice (Hartnett) and Blanchard aka Mr Fire (Eckhart) investigate the brutal murder of a would-be actress, Elizabeth Short (Mia Kirschner).

Unfortunately this film just didn’t do anything right – except the the setting and costumes which were rather fine.

Being badly directed is its weakest point. Brian De Palma had all the good aspects of a great film: detectives, murder, guns, boxing match, violence, money, and women.
Then the script just went all over the place, everything was quite confusing and simply not well explained. The lack of factual detail doesn’t help and muddled the story further. The actors have difficulty mastering the year’s style and give uneasy and uncomfortable performances, even Scarlett Johansson and Hilary Swank. Having virtually no character development doesn’t help either.
The result was an imitation Film Noir.
Advertised as a crime / drama / thriller / mystery movie, it is *also* a comedy.

This is just another bad film… that bores and disappoints the viewer.

1990s. Sierra Leone. Civil War. Solomon Vandy (Hounsou) is taken away from his family to work in the diamond fields. Diamond smuggler Danny Archer (DiCaprio) ends up in prison where he overhears that Solomon has found a rare diamond and hidden it. Their quest for this diamond will bring them together. With the help of American journalist Maddy (Connelly), the two men will try to save Solomon's family.

---Having lived in Africa myself, I can tell you that most of what you see in the film is true - unfortunately. Indeed, TIA... This Is Africa.---

Wonderful script, decent acting from everyone - finally DiCaprio has a respectable role, and is actually good! -, great cinematography, my hats off to the scouting location manager.
The violence shown is rather evocative, and necessary to depict the country's situation.
Unfortunately I found the ending quite predictable.

Still a very good film that I recommend to everyone.

Based on a true story. Wannabe-FBI-agent Eric O'Neill (Ryan Philippe) enters into a power game with his newly assigned boss, Robert Hanssen, an agent who, it seems, is selling secrets to the Soviet Union.
O'Neill will have to discover the truth by becoming Hanssen's personal assistant, and by gaining his trust. He will follow him, document every single thing he does, and spy his every moves. O'Neill will be intimidated and mesmerized by Hanssen who might be seen as his mentor.

Negative comment: The make-up on everyone (particularly Chris Cooper) at times was terribly awful and badly done. Caroline Dhavernas (O'Neill's German wife, Juliana) looked old with that make-up! And she just does not have the German accent, as her English is almost perfect - she is from Quebec.

Positive comments: Well-paced. Realistic and thought-provoking. Decent script.
The acting was not bad, certainly not the actors' best performances.
Well-directed by little-known movie director Billy Ray.

BE WARNED: If you expect a car-chase or gun-packed action movie, stay away from this.
If you like spy thrillers with a hint of psychology and history, this is a recommended film.