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Drive (2011)

“You give me a five minute window, anything that happens in that five minutes and I’m yours”

‘The Driver’ is a stuntman/mechanic by day and a getaway driver by nightcall. Accompanied by his auto shop owner boss in Bryan Cranston, the two get involved in a heist which leads to an ill advised love interest, an out of patience hot headed mafia boss, a blood soaked hotel room and a slight altercation in an elevator.

Ryan Gosling plays ‘The Driver’s’ strong and silent type perfectly and with the scorpion embalmed jacket he evokes the use of the Scorpion and the Frog fable.

Nicolas Winding Refn’s ultra cool Drive has Gosling as a man equally as suited to a certain Sergio Leone western trilogy and along with an electronic pop soundtrack this made Drive a revelation at Cannes in 2011.




Drive....

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Here, if you have a milkshake, and I have a milkshake, and I have a straw. There it is, that's a straw, you see? You watching?. And my straw reaches acroooooooss the room, and starts to drink your milkshake... I... drink... your... milkshake!
-Daniel, There Will Be Blood



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The Tenant (1976)

The last film in Polanski's 'Apartment trilogy'. Another brilliant psychological horror that this time has Polanski himself starring. Again, claustrophobic, disturbing and intense, the film shows how Trelkovsky (Polanski) moves into an apartment in which the previous tenant had thrown herself out of her window. Again, things take a turn for the worse as paranoia and obsession take hold.

The Tenant will leave you with more questions that it does answers but nevertheless, another Polanski masterpiece in my opinion.




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Get Carter (1971)

“Frank wasn’t like that. Im the villain of the family, remember?”

Get Carter has Jack (Michael Caine) travel up north to discover more about the killing of his brother Frank. As Jack violently meanders through the puzzle of his brother’s death, he leaves a trail of bloodshed that eventually leads him to the disturbing truth.

Superb camerawork and a great score make this vengeful, gritty film an absolute must see for any gangster film fans.

Caine plays his anti-heroic character brilliantly and almost without emotion throughout the whole film barring a few scenes, which incidentally turn out to be some of the best. A cold, unsympathetic man on a mission, Jack Carter will find the truth at any cost.

I found this to be almost like a mix between a Guy Ritchie movie and Liam Neeson’s Taken but don’t let that put you off, Get Carter is better than both.




I found this to be almost like a mix between a Guy Ritchie movie and Liam Neeson’s Taken but don’t let that put you off, Get Carter is better than both.
I've not seen Taken, I don't think that's a surprise to anyone , but I'm sure you're right in saying that Get Carter is better than it. And it's certainly better than a Guy bloody Ritchie movie.

Glad you enjoyed it, SL.
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When I saw your thread, I was a little surprised with the omission of THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH...Marilyn Monroe's character is simply billed as "The Girl."



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When I saw your thread, I was a little surprised with the omission of THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH...Marilyn Monroe's character is simply billed as "The Girl."
The films I included were only the ones I've seen. Haven't watched The Seven year itch yet.



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To Catch a Thief


Released in 1955, Alfred Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief, stars Cary Grant as a retired jewel thief nicknamed ‘The Cat’ and Grace Kelly, the elegant daughter of a millionaire widow. Predominantly filmed in the alluring surroundings of the French Riviera, To Catch a Thief is a charming almost romantic thriller from the master of suspense.



John Robie (Grant) is enjoying life in Nice, when rather abruptly, his peace is interrupted by the police, after some well-executed jewel robberies nearby. Determined to evade questioning and prove his innocence, he flees. With Robie seemingly the only man capable of such professional-like robberies, he plans to catch the imitator himself. This is where we meet Frances Stevens (Grace Kelly), currently in the area with her mother Jessie and both coincidentally, owners of expensive jewels. Knowing John’s past and with his hard-to-get act seemingly working, Frances take a fancy to him. However when her jewels go missing, she feels conned and has the police alerted once again. With the all familiar man on the run theme from the director, can John catch the culprit before the police catch him? With roof-topclashes, a bitter love flame and a testy relationship with his old ex-con ‘friends’, it’s up to John to solve the mystery and reclaim his most prized jewel, Frances.


Whilst not the most powerful of Hitchcock films, To Catch a Thief is a fun,riveting, piece of cinema. The pacing is effortless and containing such witty dialogue, it could easily pass as a James Bond film. With Oscar-winning cinematography and superb chemistry from Grant and Kelly, this is a glamorously slick and entertaining adventure.

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Night of the Hunter

Based on the novel of the same title, Night of the Huntercasts Robert Mitchum in the lead role as Harry Powell, an unethical preachercum murderer. Alongside Shelley Winters, the film is loosely based on a truestory, as he attempts to romance the unsuspecting widow and steal the hiddenmoney. It was to be the last film directed by Charles Laughton.



Set in 1930’s West Virginia, Harry Powell is a self-labelledpreacher who has been travelling the country attracting widows, then killingand robbing them, all the while convinced that this is what God wants him todo. Arrested for driving a stolen car and temporarily jailed, he meets prisonerBen Harper, a convicted killer and bank robber facing execution. Despite not beingable to convince Ben to disclose where the loot is hidden, Powell hatches aplan to target his next widow, Willa Harper (Shelley Winters). However, withthe two Harper children being the only ones who know where the spoils are,Powell certainly won’t have things his own way.



With Mitchum giving such a skin crawling and menacingperformance, Night of the Hunter is now known to be one of the mostfrightening movies around, for its time. Containing possibly the mostnotoriously twisted, on-screen villain in cinematic history, this is a film youwill either LOVE or HATE.

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Hour of the Wolf

Regarded by many as one of the most important andinfluential directors of all time, Ingmar Bergman made many great films, a lotof which handled death, disease and the downfall of the human mind. Hour of the Wolf is no different.

The film is set on a modest, harsh looking island, whereJohan, played by Max Von Sydow, has sought refuge, along with his wife Alma(Liv Ullman). Johan is a painter who is battling insomnia and is haunted by thedemons of his past. Despite coming across as being very cold and a bit of abully, his loving wife is loyal and helps him through his obvious psychologicalillness. Things however take a turn for the worst, as Alma discovers Johan’ssecret diary, followed by an eerie invitation for dinner with fellow islanders,who live in a nearby castle. As ‘the hourof the wolf’ approaches, the truth is unravelled and the shocking past thathas been torturing Johan is frighteningly revealed.

This gothic horror is a chilling, claustrophobic journey,that displays the psychological torment one man suffers. A gritty, surreal workof art from a genius director, Hour ofthe Wolf is a beautiful butbleakmovie that easily stands the test of time.




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Falling Down


Joel Schumacher’s crime drama, Falling Down, stars Michael Douglas in the lead role of William Foster, a man hell bent on getting to his estranged daughter’s birthday party, at any cost. Although this may be a crime-drama film with plenty of action, it is also a very powerful, emotiona lfilm exhibiting one man’s life completely dismantling.



Laid off from his job and with an ex-wife armed with a restraining order to keep him away from her and their daughter, Foster’s frustration begins on a sweltering hot L.A day in traffic, when the in car air con fails. This sparks a chain of events that Foster converts into obstacles. These obstacles that are preventing him from making his daughter’s party are all faced with violence and confrontation. With Robert Duvall expertly (as ever) playing the role of Sergeant Prendergast, hot on the trail of Foster, how can the psychotic behaviour of our anti hero be stopped peacefully? And will he make his daughter’s party?



Michael Douglas gives the performance of his career in this tense portrait of just an average man, pushed beyond breaking point, a man that shares the same thoughts as you, only he acts them out!!




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Rosemary's Baby


The most acclaimed in ‘the apartment trilogy’, Rosemary’sBaby stars Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes as husband and wife that just moved into an old fashioned New York City apartment.



Thrilled with their new surroundings, Rosemary (Farrow) and Guy (Cassavetes) decide that having a baby is the next step in their relationship. With her interfering, yet supportive neighbours (Minnie and Roman), she embarkson her journey through pregnancy and is somewhat shoved in the direction of Dr Sapirstein, who insists that Rosemary drink a concoction that her helpful neighbour will bring her daily. However, after burrowing deeper into the bizarre behaviour of those all around her, including her husband Guy; she speculates that they all have very sinister intentions for the unborn child.

Can Rosemary unravel the plot in time to save her baby AND her sanity? Or has this all been a cruel illusion of mind tricks?



Mia Farrow produces the performance of a lifetime in Polanski’s brilliant psychological horror. Released in 1968, this truly terrifying film effortlessly stands the test of time.




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Sorry, Wrong Number

Starring Hollywood heavyweights, Barbara Stanwyck and Burt Lancaster, Sorry, Wrong Number is a slick film-noir released in 1948 andset in New York. The story is told in a series of flashbacks and is almost played in real time.


Leona Stevenson (Stanwyck) is the bedridden daughter of a rich pharmaceutical business owner. Whilst trying to ring her already late from work husband Henry (Lancaster), she experiences a cross-wire connection and overhears a plot to murder a woman at 11.15. Without hearing any more details,she desperately calls the police to inform them, however with so little information; the policeman advises that they are powerless to investigate any further. Certainly a film where the less known the better, you can look forward to a compelling and suspenseful ending. With death creeping outside her door,can Leona devise an escape? And where has her husband been all this time?

Very Hitchcockian in style, Sorry, Wrong Number is a classic insight into paranoia and helplessness. Containing superb cinematographyand fantastic performances from both Stanwyck and Lancaster, this is a nerve-racking film that will have you on the edge of your seat. If you are a fan of Rear Window, you’ll love this.




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Inside (À l'intérieur)





The French have a reputation for generating some of the best movies in the horror genre. À l'intérieur is no different. Released in 2007 and directed by Alexandre Bastillo and Julien Maury, the film stars Alysson Paradis and Beatrice Dalle.



The movie opens, in devastating, if not spectacular fashion, with a fatal car crash injuring the pregnant Sarah (Paradis) and killing her husband. We travel months later to Christmas Eve and the still-grieving Sarah is putting the final steps in place for the birth of her child the following day. As a strange woman in black (Dalle) arrives at the door, insisting she enters the house to use the telephone, the shocked Sarah rejects her advances and calls the police. When the police arrive and with the would-be intruder out of sight, Sarah can get back to her labourpreparations.



Au contraire….



As part of the youthful New Wave of French horror, À l'intérieur, is an extreme, gory and twisted film, shot on a typically low budget. A graphic and relentless splatterfest, this is an emotionally draining and graphic piece of French cinema that is not for the faint hearted (or those pregnant or suffering Aichmophobia).




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Black Christmas (aka Silent night, Evil night)

Often cited as the first slasher movie in modern cinema, Black Christmasis a 1974 horror, directed by Bob Clark. Using innovative camerawork and clever POV shots, the director exquisitely creates a tense and menacing atmosphere throughout the film. The story concerns a group of girls staying in a sorority house that are bothered by a disturbed prank caller. What at first seems to be just a twisted deviant turns into a suspected homicidal maniac.



Despite constant phone calls from the man they call ‘the moaner’, most of the girls dismiss the pest as nothing more than a nuisance. That is, until one of the sorority girls goes missing and along with another young girl reported missing, a search party is initiated. When the tragic young girl’s butchered body is found, it is not before long that the body count starts rising and panic amongst the sorority ensues. With the police now firmly on the case, is there a link between the killer and the caller? And will anyone in the sorority be left alive to find out?



With fantastic performances from Olivia Hussey and Margo tKidder as members of the sorority, Black Christmas is a scandalously overlooked gem from the horror genre. A film that will leave you with more questions than answers, Black Christmas asks, if you make sure you have locked your windows and doors, how do you know that the killer isn’t already inside?