thriller

Kate Review: Mary Elizabeth Winstead Kicks Ass in Netflix’s Latest Thriller

Style over substance doesn’t even begin to cover the flashy but empty thrills of Kate, a Netflix original action film which plays a lot like a video game. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is Kate, a highly skilled assassin working in Japan with her long-time handler and best mate Varrick (Woody Harrelson). The two have a rule: no kids. So when an assignment in Osaka sees Kate take out a mark in front of his young daughter, she is wracked with guilt. It’s a decision that will come back to haunt her in unexpected ways. This is the second feature from director…
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Cliff Walkers: A Taut Spy Thriller Winning the Chinese Box Office

We hear a lot about the Chinese box office, but it is usually from an American perspective—e.g. how is the latest American blockbuster doing at the much-sought-after Chinese movie market? But the Chinese box office goes on with or (increasingly) without Hollywood releases, and it’s fascinating to see what the other largest box office in the world is currently interested in. Right now, it’s Cliff Walkers, the latest from Hero‘s Zhang Yimou, and—unlike many Chinese releases—the film is currently available to watch in select American cinemas. If, out of Zhang’s 40-year career, you’re only familiar with his wuxia work, such…
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Those Who Wish Me Dead Review: Angelina Jolie Thriller Never Heats Up

Based on a novel by Michael Koryta, Those Who Wish Me Dead is the second feature film directed by Taylor Sheridan, the writer and actor whose previous writing and directorial effort was Wind River with Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen. Sheridan has also penned acclaimed screenplays for both Sicario films and Hell or High Water, in addition to co-creating and writing the TV series Yellowstone. Those Who Wish Me Dead shares several common elements with all of these works, in that it is largely set in a vast rural area of the United States–in this case Montana–and it loosely follows…
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Things Heard & Seen Review: Supernatural Silliness in Netflix Thriller

A haunted house, a religious philosophy, and a horrible story of domestic abuse are at the center of this Netflix original horror-thriller, Things Heard & Seen, a movie that plays with big ideas but gets confused along the way. Amanda Seyfried stars as Catherine, a young art restorer who moves with her lecturer husband George (James Norton) to a small town and a new house when he secures a job at a local college. Isolated from her own work and friends, and now a full time mum to their young daughter Franny, Catherine grows increasingly frustrated while George appears to be…
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Bloodlands: BBC Thriller Isn’t the New Line of Duty (But Watch It Anyway)

The Bloodlands trailer first gives us police boats crossing a desolate loch, and the timbrous tones of James Nesbitt recapping a decades-old case about an assassin codenamed Goliath. Then comes the legend: “From the Executive Producer of Bodyguard and Line of Duty.” The new four-part BBC crime drama is the first from Hat Trick Mercurio, the new production company of Bodyguard and Line of Duty creator Jed Mercurio, the biggest name in UK TV thrillers and a connection well worth advertising.  A connection, in fact, you’d be mad not to advertise. Zig-zagging political thriller Bodyguard was a gargantuan hit, and here in the UK, Line of Duty is more popular…
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Link Tank: How This Weird ’80s Sci-Fi Thriller Predicted Netflix

The weirdest sci-fi thriller of the ’80s, TerrorVision, was ahead of its time with its prediction of the era of Netflix. “Like the rest of his warped nuclear family, Stanley Putterman (Gerrit Graham) can’t contain his excitement at the new satellite dish that will beam hundreds of channels into their ridiculously garish home. This is 1986, after all, an era when even cable could only offer a few dozen. But by the end of Ted Nicolaou’s ultra-kitsch monster mash, their insatiable appetite for the small screen has literally consumed them all.” Read more at Inverse. Do you want to own…
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‘The Undoing Director: ‘You Can’t Cheat a Thriller Audience’

“It’s Like playing chess,” says Susanne Bier, director of the six part glossy thriller The Undoing, a twisty mystery based on the ‘grip lit’ novel You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz. She’s talking about the delicate relationship with the audience it’s necessary to maintain when crafting a show packed with complicated characters full of secrets.   “It’s a very interesting, meticulous puzzle where you need to keep that precarious balance where you hold hands with the audience, but also hold back,” she explains. “I think the crucial thing is that you can’t cheat. There are rules about it. You…
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The Sister Ending Explained: The Paranormal Thriller’s True Horror

Warning: contains spoilers for The Sister What a sweet story. The baddie was dealt with. Poor Holly finally got closure on Elise’s disappearance, and she and loving husband Nathan had the baby they’d been trying so hard for. Yes, granted, he’s now haunted by her dead sister, but what else is new? The important thing is that it all ended well. Togetherness. Baby. Lovely. Except, hang on, what? Unlovely. There was nothing sweet about The Sister’s ending. It showed a dangerous liar getting away scot-free with – essentially – murder, and his only punishment coming from the ghost of the woman he…
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The Undoing Review (Spoiler-Free): Classy Thriller With An All-Star Cast

We like to watch the affluent fall. There’s a particular kind of pleasure derived from indulging in the aspirational lives of beautiful rich people then watching it all topple – never more so than in the latest glossy drama from TV overlord David E. Kelley, creator of shows including LA Law, Ally McBeal and more recently Mr Mercedes and Big Little Lies. It’s the latter of these that The Undoing most closely resembles, not least because it shares a star in Nicole Kidman, who also executive produces. Swap the beachy idyll of Monterey, California for the glamorous bustle of New…
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Rebecca Ending Explained: Netflix Thriller With a Dark Twist

This article contains Netflix’s Rebecca spoilers. Taking on a new adaptation of a classic novel is daunting enough, but factoring in that the story was previously translated to the screen by Alfred Hitchcock, produced by David O. Selznick and starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine – a film that would win the Oscar for Best Picture – makes it a particularly bold move. As we point out in our review though, it works, and in part because Wheatley has hewn closer to the book in some respects but also added modern themes and sensibilities – particularly towards the end. You’ll…
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Rebecca Remake Trailer Promises Haunting Thriller

Every romance has a beginning, and every romance has an end… sometimes the story of each can be a killer. Such are the intimations at the heart of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, which is being handsomely brought back to the screen by director Ben Wheatley in a new Netflix production. With Lily James and Armie Hammer stepping into the roles of a newlywed couple with more secrets than kisses, and Kristin Scott Thomas taking on the role of the most menacing housekeeper eveer, there is a lot to take in with the film’s first trailer. Based on the 1938 Gothic…
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New Sci-Fi, Horror and Thriller VOD Movie Releases in August 2020

With what was supposed to be the summer movie season now just another relic of this pandemic-blasted year, and the rest of 2020’s major film releases in a continuing state of flux, it’s important to note that there has still been a fairly steady stream of new films coming out, some in limited theatrical release but others largely available via video on demand and streaming services. With that in mind, and with the customary “opening weekend” a rather fluid and ambiguous term as well, below is a rundown of films we’ve caught in the past month, along with information on…
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Line of Duty: Why You Should be Watching the Hit UK Crime Thriller

On the 22nd of July 2005, the day after a series of failed terrorist bombing attempts in the UK capital and a fortnight after fifty-two people had been killed in the London Underground bombings, a Metropolitan Police surveillance team misidentified Brazilian electrician Jean-Charles de Menezes as a fugitive terrorist and fatally shot him as he entered Stockwell Tube Station. The aftermath of de Menezes’ death, the circumstances of which were the subject of intense press speculation in the run up to a 2008 inquest that resulted in no criminal prosecution for the officers involved, caught the imagination of screenwriter Jed…
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How 7500 Reinvents The Action-Thriller

In his first feature film appearance in four years, Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars in Amazon’s 7500, a taut thriller from first-time German director Patrick Vollrath. Gordon-Levitt, who last appeared in 2016’s Snowden, stars as Tobias Ellis, a soft-spoken American co-pilot who works for a European airline alongside his flight attendant girlfriend and the mother of his child, Gökce (Aylin Tezel). After Tobias and his captain, Michael (Carlo Kitzlinger), perform a routine takeoff and their flight leaves Berlin for Paris, a group of terrorists armed with knives storm the cockpit, managing to seriously injure Michael and stab Tobias in the arm. The…
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Gareth Evans Next Movie Will be an Action Thriller set at Christmas

With Gangs of London out now in full on Sky Atlantic and Cinemax, and generating a lot of great buzz, it’s no wonder eyes are on what co-creator Gareth Evans will do next. While speculation is rife as to whether Gangs will get a second season, Evans has been working on a different project in lockdown. “I’ve been developing a film while we’ve been in post-production. All of my energy and all of my thinking has been on the film at the moment,” he says, chatting to Den of Geek on Zoom from the back garden of his house.  “Hopefully…
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Daisy Ridley Eyed to Star in Crime Thriller The Ice Beneath Her

Daisy Ridley is moving on from her star-making role as Rey in the recent Star Wars films, having permanently put away her lightsaber with this past December’s Sequel Trilogy closer, The Rise of Skywalker. Consequently, Ridley’s would-be first role after that wild franchise ride could show her in different form, as a psychological profiler in a dark crime drama. Talks have commenced with studio STX for Ridley to star in The Ice Beneath Her, an adaptation of Swedish author Camilla Grebe’s 2016 crime novel of the same name, reports Deadline. Should the deal be finalized, then Ridley would be working…
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Mark Wahlberg Sci-fi Thriller Infinite Shifts Release Date to 2021

Infinite, a sci-fi film from director Antoine Fuqua, made a major change with Mark Wahlberg as its new headliner, replacing Chris Evans. Indeed, while Avengers: Endgame was the expected, well, endgame of Evans’s tenure in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Captain America (maybe?), the actor happens to have several starring roles on his docket. Consequently, with regards to Infinite, Chris Evans—unlike Cap—didn’t want to “do this all day.” Mark Wahlberg replaced Chris Evans as the headlining star of Infinite, as Variety reported back in June 2019. Evans, who had been attached to the project since that February, dropped out due…
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