Tag Archives: crime-mystery-thriller

Netflix Film Review “Perdida” (2018) #150WordReview #NetflixReview

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totally falls apart, our main players [are] totally incapable

A policeman carries around the pain of the mysterious and unsolved disappearance of her best friend from years before when they were on a teenage night out together. But when she finally decides to reopen the case and investigate it herself, she soon finds herself in danger.

Perdida is a mystery crime thriller with some interesting twists and turns, although you can see one of the main twists coming a mile away. Sadly, the just-about-passable acting totally falls apart, our main players totally incapable of even trying to react normally at several crucial moments; indeed, there is no reaction at all at emotional pay-offs. This weird disjunction between what is happening and the performance of the actors is vaguely confusing and certainly ruins the film’s high points.

A good story, some bizarre acting.

3/5

© 2020, 2022 Bryan A. J. Parry

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Netflix Review “Intrusion” (2021) #NetflixReview #150WordReview

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the excitement wasn’t whodunnit, but howdunnit and whydunnit

A woman (Meera, Freida Pinto) starts a new life with her husband (Henry, Logan Marshall-Green: Tom Hardy’s American doppleganger) after overcoming a bleak cancer prognosis in the dream house that he designed and built. But when they fall victim to a home invasion and robbery, Meera’s newfound sense of security is left shattered.

Intrusion plays the old “vulnerable wife, is the husband too-good-to-be-true?” angle quite well, although I could see where the film was going quite early on. None-the-less, this felt like an episode of Columbo: the excitement wasn’t so much in whodunnit, as we could guess quite early on, but howdunnit and whydunnit — although it must be said that the film didn’t quite deliver on the why.

Somewhat trite, somewhat staid, Intrusion was none-the-less capably written, effectively directed, and well acted. An entertaining Friday night flick.

3/5

© 2021 Bryan A. J. Parry

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Film Review: “The Woman in the Window” (2021) #150WordReview

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A really good movie, albeit…

Agoraphobic divorcee Anna Fox (Amy Adams) is increasingly losing touch with reality, most of her days are spent staring out of her window and spying on her neighbours. But one day she witnesses her next door neighbour, and sole friend, Jane Russell (Julianne Moore) murdered in her own house. However, when the police check it out, it turns out that her neighbour is well and alive, but is not the woman that Anna knows (Jennifer Jason Leigh).

Is Anna crazy, or is there a cover-up afoot? The Woman in the Window is a thrilling mystery crime drama. Off-kilter performances and direction with several twists.

There is a vaguely Scream-esque aspect to the final reveal, but done straight-faced. That’s not necessarily a good thing. Other aspects of the film are slightly derivative. None-the-less, the movie was well acted, logically scripted, and compellingly directed.

A really good movie, albeit one which underuses its wonderful cast.

3/5

© 2021 Bryan A. J. Parry

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Netflix Film Review “Awake” (2019) #NetflixReviews #150WordReview #AwakeMovie #Awake2019

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Please ignore the 5.0 IMDb and 14% Rotten Tomatoes scores.

A man wakes up in a hospital bed, bandaged from head to toe, and with no memory or who he is. But when our nameless protagonist (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) learns that he is a wanted serial killer, something just doesn’t sit right, and he won’t stop until he finds out who he really is and what happened to him.

Awake is a tense, fast-paced crime mystery with twists. Rookie writer Elana Zeltser makes a solid if not ground-breaking screenplay debut. The script, whilst not as clever as Memento (1999) or as taut as Taken (2008), is well-written with believable plotting and dialogue. Our leads, Meyers and Francesca Eastwood, also really sell the film, although the acting from Malik Yoba (detective Frank Ward) had a tendency to veer off into TV movie territory.

Please ignore the 5.0 IMDb and 14% Rotten Tomatoes scores. This film is much better than that. Riveting, fast-paced, not overly obvious albeit not earth-shakingly original, this is a lovely little movie to spend 92 minutes with.

3/5

© 2020 Bryan A. J. Parry

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