Category Archives: 2015

2015, Adultery, Alcoholism, Depression, Drama, Flirting, Love Story, Marital Infidelity, Murder, Nothing special, Philosophic Discussions, Self-Deception, Sex Scenes, Suspense, Thought provoking, Unusual

Irrational Man (2015)

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From NetFlix:

A middle-aged professor at a small Rhode Island college edges close to his breaking point, until he finds renewed purpose in his life after embarking on an unusual relationship with one of his students.

When Joaquin Phoenix is in a film, I will at least start to watch the film. For awhile his character Abe spends a fair amount of time whining about his despairing life even after meeting his student Jill, played by Emma Stone. Indeed the “talking heads” do ramble on about philosophic theories until one day in a restaurant — oops!, no spoilers allowed. “Irrational Man” is somewhat ordinary but good enough that I had to see what happens next, especially after that day in the restaurant — oops!

Eventually you will see that the film is well named. Meantime keep the faith.

2015, Action Film, Action Hero, Amusing banter, Car Chase, Chase film, CIA, Flirting, KGB, Mild Torture, Motorcycles, Spy Versu Spy, Suspense

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015)

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From NetFlix:

With both their countries threatened by a powerful global crime cartel, the CIA’s Napoleon Solo and KGB operative Illya Kuryakin must work together in this Cold War thriller inspired by the classic 1960s TV series.

Take two young studs (Henry Cavill as Solo and Armie Hammer as Illya) , throw in two beautiful young women (Alicia Vikander as Gaby and Elizabeth Debicki as Victoria) and some good action scenes and SHAZAMM! we can have a lot of fun. Especially well-crafted was the opening action sequence. Constant competition between Solo and Illya maintains the humor. Of course, you have seen all this before (nuclear warheads, double-crosses, “who is an agent for whom”) but some mixes work better than others and this mix worked for me.

And wasn’t it a surprise to see Hugh Grant cleverly disguised as an Englishman?

Not all the acting is great.

Best of all, this film is intended to be the first of a series. Let’s hope the writers can keep the momentum moving.

2015, Acceptable Sci-Fi, Action Film, Action Hero, Cancer theme, Clever Plot, Complicated, Father-daughter relations, Mixed Martial Arts, Sci-Fi

Selfless (2015)

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From Netflix:

Facing terminal cancer, an elderly billionaire undergoes surgery that will allow his mind to be transplanted into a young man’s body. The operation is a success, but now the tycoon is learning more than he wants to about his body’s former occupant.

Finally, Ryan Reynolds plays in a decent film, rather than the duds he so often appears in. This plot is very clever. In fact, I have not seen this plot before in any sci-fi film. Clever, a little contrived, and possibly hard to follow, the plot nonetheless manages to produce a satisfying end.

In addition to Ryan Reynolds, you will recognize Ben Kingsley. But even more of a surprise is Michelle Dockery (Lady Mary Crawley of “Downton Abbey”) as Kingsley daughter. You may also recognize Mathew Goode (Henry Talbot also of “Downton Abbey”) as the villain Albright.

Enjoy 117 minutes of reasonable and a bit violent fun.

2015, Ambiguous Conclusion, Drama, Love Story, Nuclear Survivors, Psychological Drama, Religious Theme, Sex Scenes, Sexual Tension, Suspense

Z for Zachariah (2015)

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From NetFlix:

Believing she’s the lone survivor of a global catastrophe, Ann Burden soon learns she’s not the only human alive when a research scientist shows up. But as the two slowly get acquainted, their relationship is strained by the arrival of another man.

Chiwetel Ejiofor, Margot Robbie, and Chris Pine make up the entire cast of this survivor story. As you might expect the tension in the plot is the competition between the two men for possibly the only woman left in civilization. Slow conversation, slow moving events, and no action make for a calm atmosphere that is suspiciously too polite.

Without spoiling your watching, I have to at least say that to enjoy this film your must not be bothered by ambiguity.

2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, Adultery, Amusing banter, Art History, Bicycles, British Mystery Series, Clever Plot, Complicated, Crime, Detective, Dysfunctional Lives, Ethical struggles, Family Conflict, Forensics, Love Story, Marital Infidelity, Murder Investigation, Oxford University, Religious Theme, Revenge, Suspense

Inspector Lewis (2008)

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As a follow-up to the many seasons of “Inspector Morse” (the Morse actor died), you can stream 7 seasons of “Inspector Lewis” from Amazon Prime. All the episodes are worthwhile, and usually complicated. Each episode lasts approximately 90 minutes.

Although the Robert Lewis actor (Kevin Whately) is adequate, the real joy is the James Hathaway character (Laurence Fox). James Hathaway is a former Anglican seminarian, Oxford graduate, literary savant, moody and conflicted character, and somewhat of a delightful know-it-all. As an essential third actor we have the charming Dr. Laura Hobson (played by Clare Holman), the forensic pathologist who eventually is a love interest for Inspector Lewis.

All episodes take place in Oxford whose academic and idiosyncratic atmosphere permeates the entire series.

Indeed the plots can be intricate, but sometimes by searching the Internet you can find plot explanations.

Not a miss in the bunch!

2015, Art restitution, Art Treasures, Based on true facts, Lawyers, Nazis, Suspense

Woman in Gold (2015)

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From NetFlix:

Six decades after World War II, Jewish octogenarian Maria Altmann begins a quest to reclaim the artwork confiscated from her family by the Nazis — including a famed Gustav Klimt masterpiece.

One of my son’s favorite paintings is indeed Gustav Klimt’s “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I”. Personally most films involving good guys versus bad guys tend to get me “riled up” and adds a lot of suspense to my watching. Much of the film is true BUT! you must read the Wikipedia article which exposes some historical inaccuracies in the film. There you will note that Hubertus Czernin did most of the essential research and that he began that research before he discovered that his father had been a Nazi (who was executed by the Nazis as a traitor). Be sure to stay watching at the end of the film in order to read the follow-up pieces of historical information.

If you like thrillers, you might try “The English Assassin” by Daniel Silva. His books have an anti-Nazi mission. This particular novel is the second in the series featuring the character Gabriel Allon. Here the theme is an exposé of Switzerland as one of the major hiding places for art confiscated by the Nazi regime. In fact, at least the first three novels in the series center on some aspect of government duplicity in Nazi crimes. Austrian ugliness features heavily in one of these novels.

In this case story is almost everything. Of course, Helen Mirren is a marvelous actor. Ryan Reynolds, in my humble opinion, trades on his good looks but in reality is not much of an actor.

For you stargazers out there, look for a lot of cameo appearances: Elizabeth McGovern (Cora Crawley in “Downton Abbey”) is a judge; Charles Dance (Tywin Lannister in “Game of Thrones”) is Ryan Reynold’s boss in a law firm; Jonathan Pryce (High Sparrow in “Game of Thrones”) plays Chief Justice Rehnquist.

Not so much for the acting, and despite a few maudlin sequences, the story for me was so compelling that I will call this film a DO NOT MISS!

2015, Artificial Intelligence, Clever Plot, DO NOT MISS, Ethical struggles, Explicit sexual discussion, Nudity, Plot Twist, Psychological Drama, Quiet, Sci-Fi, Suspense, Thought provoking

Ex Machina (2015)

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From NetFlix:

After winning a chance to spend a week at his boss’s Alaskan compound, tech whiz Caleb Smith finds he’s been selected to help evaluate a sentient humanoid dubbed Ava — whose feminine wiles prove more formidable than expected.

Probably I should have guessed the surprise ending of this film. Hopefully the story will also fool you. And what a well-written, intelligent script! Science fiction stories such as this one are not only entertaining, but also thought-provoking. Do you have a soul?

Not a single of the well-chosen actors was familiar to me. Besides being American born, the actors were born in Ireland, Guatemala, Sweden, and Japan to mention a few. At first the character Nathan seems a bit rough, but his character fits, as do all the others.

Be aware that there is non-prurient female nakedness.

This film presents slow, calm, quiet, unspectacular science fiction at its best. If that appeals, then DO NOT MISS!

2015, Abduction, Amazon Prime, Bloody scenes, Child abduction and murder, Child abuse, Crude Talk, Detective, Dysfunctional Lives, Ethical struggles, Family Conflict, Father-daughter relations, Male Prostitutes, Orphans in Foster Care, Physical child abuse, Police Politics, Politicians, Prostitutes, Psychiatrists, Serial Killer, Sex Scenes, Suicide, Suspense, Violent

Bosch (2015)

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Because I am an Amazon Prime member, I could stream for free Season 1 of “Bosch”. Bosch, as you are probably aware, is the detective character who appears in many novels written by Michael Connelly.

Season 1 consists of 10 episodes. As is often the case, throughout the series there are three running themes: The obsessive detective work which destroys Bosch’s family life; The search for a serial killer named Renard Waits; The constant political battles taking place in the police department. Of course Bosch sleeps with one of his female colleagues, which is a no-no according to the rules.

IMDB offers the cast rundown.

Titus Welliver (who played Glenn Childs in “The Good Wife” TV series) plays Bosch, and plays him VERY WELL.

Jason Gedrick (who played George Novikov in the “Dexter” TV series) plays the serial killer Renard Waits, and plays him VERY WELL.

Those two actors steal the show. But there are a zillion other supporting actors. Thanks to the IMDB site for helping me remember that Shawn Hatosy, who played the character Johnny Stokes, also played Terry McCandless in “Reckless” and Detective Sammy Bryant in “Southland”.

TV serials featuring serial killers and lonely detectives are a dime a dozen. But some, such as “Bosch” are done very well.

2015, DO NOT MISS, Explicit sex, French, Gangs, Gay theme, Male Prostitutes, Nudity, Several languages, Suspense, Thriller, Violent

Eastern Boys (2015)

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From NetFlix:

A middle-aged Frenchman gets more than he bargained for when he cruises the Gare du Nord train station for a lover and invites an attractive young Eastern European hustler back to his apartment.

Hoping to find an interesting film, I streamed this French film from NetFlix and was rewarded because I was patient with the story’s beginning and pace.

To prevent you from being offended by some parts of the story, let me briefly explain the plot.

Daniel, a middle-aged Frenchman cruises the Gare du Nord and makes an appointment with a young male hustler Marek to come to Daniel’s apartment the next day. During that cruise we note that Marek is part of a large gang of young Eastern European boys aged 11 to 27 who also roam the train station until the police arrive.

Next day Daniel in his apartment hears a knock on his door and opens expecting to see Marek. Instead the apartment in invaded by that gang of young undocumented Russian youths lead by a near sociopath named Boss. Daniel can do nothing because his cruising of an underage boy is illegal so he stands by mutely while the gang strips his apartment bare. What is amazing in this scent is indeed the fact that Daniel just stands silently and watches.

Next day that same Marek comes to the apartment and for a price offers himself sexually to Daniel. You might be offended by the sight of a naked Daniel tenderly caressing a naked Marek and then having anal intercourse (you never see genitals in any of this) during which Marek shows no emotion.

There is less and less sex because the whole point of the story is that over time Daniel befriends Marek, learns of his tragic life in Ukrania in which Marek became an orphan, and ultimately stops sex completely and decides to adopt Marek.

But it is not that easy because Boss, the young Russian psycho is the leader of the gang. Boss holds all their official papers hostage in a locker. Daniil Vorobyov, who plays Boss, does an amazing job of acting and in fact steals the show.

No American film that I have seen could balance the maddeningly slow pace and reactions of Daniel with the suspense of his rescuing Marek. That slow pace drove me crazy as I sat on the edge of my seat rooting for Daniel and Marek.

For what little dialog there is, there are subtitles for the French. At one point Daniel trys to teach Marek some rudimentary French.

If you can get by the explicit gay sex, this is a DO NOT MISS.

2015, Abduction, Acceptable Trash, Bloody scenes, Bullying, Erotic Thriller, Marital Infidelity, Mental Illness, Nothing special, Nudity, Psychological Thriller, Sex Scenes, Stalker, Suspense, Teenagers, Violent

The Boy Next Door (2015)

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From NetFlix:

Adjusting to life without her husband, a recently separated mom is pleased when a teenage boy moves into the neighborhood and befriends her son. But before long, she becomes intimately involved with the teen — and comes to regret it.

Looking for an exciting B-movie? Looking for some sexy scenes? Looking for some exciting violence? Want to learn how to stalk someone effectively? Go no farther! Do I have a film for you!

Jennifer Lopez is the beautiful mom currently separated from her philandering but loving and remorseful husband. Ryan Guzman is the creepy, handsome nephew of the elderly next door neighbor. Ryan stalks Jennifer in very inventive and increasingly threatening ways, all of which lead to a blazing and violent conclusion. Meanwhile just keep wincing at all the stalker’s tricks.

At the time of film shooting Jennifer Lopez was 46 years old and Ryan Guzman was 28. Accepting Ryan as a high school student is a bit of a stretch. Jennifer’s parents were born in Puerto Rico and Ryan is Mexican-American.

While nothing special, this film can at least enliven the task of folding laundry.