Category Archives: Thriller

Argo review

October 25, 2012 flawintheiris

Directed by Ben AffleckWritten by Chris Terrio from a Joshuah Bearman article in Wired MagazineThis is a story I'm familiar with. My folks were in the Canadian diplomatic corps, so Canadian Ambassador to Iran in 1979, Ken Taylor, was something of a big deal in Dad's business. Taylor and his wife, Pat, helped get six…Read More

The Bourne Legacy review

August 15, 2012 flawintheiris

Directed by Tony Gilroy Written by Tony and Dan Gilroy, from a story by Tony, inspired by the Robert Ludlum novels. Tough act this one is following. The first three Bourne movies are that rare popular franchise without a weak link. Each of the films has something to recommend it, the second and third strongly…Read More

Revisiting the Bourne Trilogy

July 30, 2012 flawintheiris

I decided to rewatch the immensely popular and influential Universal Pictures action franchise this weekend in advance of its relaunch August 10 with The Bourne Legacy. I say "relaunch" because it's not just another sequel — the director of the second and third film, Paul Greengrass, chose not to return, as did the lead, Matt…Read More

The Dark Knight Rises review

July 22, 2012 flawintheiris

Directed by Christopher NolanWritten by Jonathan and Christopher Nolan, from a story by Christopher Nolan andDavid S. Goyer. Batman was created by Bob Kane in DC Comics.And so it ends, eh? When Christopher Nolan was handed the reins to the pointy-eared vigilante franchise and Batman Begins came out in 2005, the character could only go…Read More

London Boulevard and The Double reviewed

February 14, 2012 flawintheiris

Just in case you think I've not been seeing anything lately, here are two new reviews of films I caught up with on DVD. (It's almost too cold in Halifax to go out to the movies, I'm just sayin'.)London Boulevard, the review up at The Coast, offers another sterling Colin Farrell performance. And The Double,…Read More

Haywire review — Terrific spy thriller delivers wall-to-wall action

January 21, 2012 flawintheiris

Directed by Steven Soderbergh | Written by Lem Dobbs | 93 min | Hoopla Oh, how much fun is Haywire? It's from Steven Soderbergh, who is always an interesting director—I'm a big fan of The Limey, Out of Sight, sex lies and videotape and Solaris, with much respect for Traffic, last year's Contagion, Erin Brockovich…Read More

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol review

December 19, 2011 flawintheiris

Directed by Brad Bird Written by Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec, based on the TV series Mission: Impossible created by Bruce Geller | Netflix People talk about how the Bourne movies updated the espionage action thriller for the new century, in the feel and the look of the thing. Just consider how the director of…Read More

Contagion review

October 2, 2011 flawintheiris

Directed by Steven Soderbergh | Written by Scott Z. Burns | 106 min | Netflix I've read that Soderbergh's intent with this virus thriller was to make a film akin to producer/director Irwin Allen's disaster movies of the 1970s, which included The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno and The Swarm. The template of those pictures…Read More

The Debt review

September 4, 2011 flawintheiris

Directed by John MaddenWritten by Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman and Peter Straughan,based on the film Ha-Hov by Assaf Bernstein and Ido RosenblumRachel Singer (Helen Mirren), ex-husband Stephan Gold (Tom Wilkinson) and ex-pat David Peretz (Ciaran Hinds) are national heroes in their homeland of Israel. In the mid-1960s they were Mossad agents, assigned to East Berlin…Read More

The Mechanic (2011), The Mechanic (1972) reviews

June 13, 2011 flawintheiris

(2011) Directed by Simon WestWritten by Richard Wenk and Lewis John Carlino(1972) Directed by Michael WinnerWritten by Lewis John CarlinoBoth now on DVD For fans of action movies, watching these two workman-like examples of the genre is a great lesson in how much they've changed in the past 40 years.These days we expect our action…Read More