Category Archives: Crime

Jun 26 2023
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Building, Crime, Television, TV series, Uncategorized, United Kingdom

Waco: American Apocalypse.

Another week, another slice of Netflix mayhem, this series says a lot about the power of cults and how disturbed, megalomaniac manipulators make it to the top in these organisations.

A docu of a pre-digital age, the vintage nature of analogue broadcasting and videotape puts it in another century, which it is, but it’s no less contentious because of it. By default, one of its major concerns is the news media’s obsession with and reaction to havoc, co-dependent symbiotic twins. The Second Amendment is surprisingly given little focus, nor is just how this fits into any broader narrative of Carnage Americana.

Decent enough as a basic history lesson.

Waco, more like WACKOS (plural).

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Jun 24 2023
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Art, Crime, United States

Hannibal – blimey.

I think I’d wander into the spurious were I to declare Hannibal the best TV show ever made, but for its sheer entertaining unpredictability, the majesty of its visuals, and the simply captivating Mads Mikkelsen, it’s up there and not quite such a ludicrous statement.

In many a show I have moaned like a wee bitch about constant switching allegiances and a deus ex machina chucked in the mix every other episode, but with Hannibal it’s like this from the off so never feels desperate. You’re living in a world of absolute loons here and it’s a perverse pleasure to be exposed to the nether regions of the human experience.

It’s as flawlessly engrossing as anything I can think of in recent years, and even the dialogue exchanges are cutting edge; I found myself googling just exactly what the fuck the characters are alluding to in their psychobabble exchanges, but it’s never pretentious in the way they do it. The show defines world-building.

What a treat.

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Jun 12 2023
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Art, Cinema, Crime, Film, Movie, Movies, Uncategorized

Ripley’s Game (2002).

This is the John Malkovich Show.

He is so perfect as Ripley, camp and creepy and always funny, you almost wish he could de-age a wee bit in 1999 and play the eponymous nutjob in The Talented Mr Ripley, which is a belter in its own right.

This film is just great, a thriller which is amusing, and a proper character piece. It’s about how little innocuous things lead to grand dramas, and how petty acts have far-reaching consequences. And how Ray Winstone really should not have an earring.

A riot of a movie.

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May 22 2023
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Cinema, Crime, Film, Movie, Movies, Uncategorized

Red Sparrow (2018).

Riotously entertaining if totally ludicrous and unnecessarily graphic in its violence and shagging. This is preoccupied with sleazy old men and delectable items of the flesh plucked to seduce them. It’s awkward to watch and I suppose that’s the point of the honey trap premise, which is apparently a widely-practised tactic by intelligence services.

There is nothing complicated here and it doesn’t really matter what city the characters are in. I don’t think I can recall a spy thriller with such a nonchalance as to its locations, which are without distinction.

But whatever, it’s just high trash with a cast who seem to know what it is.

Enjoyable hokum. 

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May 15 2023
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Art, Cinema, Construction, Crime, Film, Uncategorized, United States

Bugsy (1991).

Warren Beatty was/is a movie star powerhouse, combining glamour looks and supreme acting talent, a 2 in 1. His notorious obsession with control over projects is confusing here, as he didn’t direct this. Anyway, he is magnetic as always, charming and unnerving and frequently hilarious. From his tantrums to his child-like enthusiasm and naïveté, he is totally credible. I suppose that’s acting.

An impressive movie if not quite great, its best attributes are the pacing and the fact it trusts its audience. There are none of the usual biopic pitfalls of the lengthy exposition which explains everything, and the schematic insertion of historical facts for the audience.

A glossy borderline melodrama which does it just the right way. Worth a watch for Beatty.

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May 08 2023
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Architecture, Art, Cinema, Crime, Film, Movie, Movies, Uncategorized, United States

That poster.

Whiplash (2014) is a cracking movie, eh. I would say … draining. It promotes a bit of an American Dream fallacy, though, namely that hard work = success. Nonsense. I could work like a sheep dog for 19 hours a day for seven years trying to fathom how the Tim Robbins character managed to escape Shawshank State Penitentiary yet perfectly place the poster (from the assembly point of the tunnel he dug) back on the cell wall … and still have no answers.

It makes no sense.

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Apr 24 2023
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Cinema, Crime, Film, Movie, Movies, Uncategorized, United States

Red Dragon (2002). Shame.

This was pathetic from the very first second, the opening a superhero movie-style newspaper headlines montage to make up for the lack of a well-written exposition.

It’s so dull, the script going like this:

Character one: “Something is happening.”

Character two: “What is happening?”

Character one proceeds to explain what is happening and then reeling off a line with a time and date of an event in order to segue to the next scene.

What else? No one in it appears to be affected by anything that happens to them in a case of ordinarily excellent actors phoning it in. It is so badly edited, cut to the max in desperation yet still dull. Framing is without purpose. Music is better suited to a two-hour sequence shot of a pigeon napping. This movie is an abomination. 

Watch Manhunter (1986) instead.

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Apr 20 2023
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Cinema, Crime, Film, Hitchcock, Movie, Movies, Uncategorized, United States

A Perfect Murder (1998).

I must confess, I loved this.

It is unabashed glossy trash of the highest order, with Douglas at his peak of sleaze. It’s how I image Gordon Gekko would be in his private affairs. I didn’t care much for the machinations of the plot, but merely for the level of smug on display, though David Suchet’s detective seems to think it’s an actual Cannes-worthy art piece he’s in.

I’ve never seen the Hitchcock one. A new quest.

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Mar 09 2023
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Crime, Film, TV, TV series, Uncategorized, United Kingdom, United States

Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street.

A surprise.

If you wish to see a labyrinth of corporate greed which the financial lay person (me being one of them) can almost understand, then this is one limited series for you. 

It’s an addiction. And this is in spite of the cringe slow-motion visuals every other minute of a Madoff doppelgänger circling his office with the same rictus grin, a “financial serial killer” in his element.

As a history lesson, it’s impeccable, and none of the willing participants are let off lightly.

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Feb 27 2023
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Art, Cinema, Crime, Film, Movie, Movies, Uncategorized

Oldboy (2003).

A movie almost unique in its seamless harnessing of script, characterisation, and style, Oldboy (2003) is two-in-one, arthouse and popcorn cinema. Its influence international and far-reaching, one must be conscious of not just lifting a few stand-out scenes for praise, but the corridor scene is immense. Not only did it connote the visual delights of Donkey Kong on the SNES (or is that just me?), it gave a whole new dimension to the sequence shot, one that went beyond just an aesthetic achievement.

No matter how many times I’ve watched this, it still impresses. And that score. Wow.

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