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crime

Chugyeogja – Hong-jin Na (2008)

“The Chaser” is an entertaining film from the far East. A pimp thinks somebody kidnaps and sells his girls. When he sends out his last girl, he thinks he has an idea about whom is responsible for the kidnappings, so he goes out for a chase.

“Chugyeogja” contains the usual elements for this type of film. Black humor, bloody violence, stupid policemen. Especially funny are a couple of chaotic scenes.

The film is never really surprising, nor is it of the dark Eastern type. Rather an amusing crime thriller.

Fargo (series) (season 2 2015)

I have good memories of season 1, which I remember is quite like the film. Reading back my review of July 2015, this is not really the case though. Somehow I had the idea that I had seen season 2 already and when season 3 came I noticed I had not seen season 2 yet. Time to do something about that!

The story is season 1 is that of the film, but with more context. So what would the story be of season 2? Do small, snowy cities have more violent crimes? Apparently they do, since season 2 takes us back to 1979 in which a clash between two criminal groups runs completely out of control. Some civilians and local police officers get caught in the middle and a story as unlikely as that of the film and season 1 unfolds. The stunning naivety of some of the main characters gives plenty room for the black humor that accompanied previous Fargos and the cold-bloodedness of the criminals allows for violent outbursts and more black humor.

Now I do not know if you want to know this or not, but season 2 is not just similar story in a similar surrounding. Two characters that feature in season 2, return in season 1. Or put the other way around: season 2 is a “prequel”.

Just as season 1, season 2 is a fun watch, but by and far not as good as the Coen film. Since there are only 10 episodes, the music (especially in the earlier episodes), characters, story and atmosphere are well done, I would say that this second season is not a waste of time though.

Deja Vu – Tony Scott (2006)

It probably sounded like a good idea for a story. A special investigation team found a way to look 4,5 days back in time, so they can retrace people’s steps solving crimes. Things get highly unlikely when the hardware proves to be able to see everything in that past, even within apartments. If that is not enough, the package comes with a time traveling machine.

A ferry is blown up killing hundreds of people. ATF agent Doug Carlin (Denzel Washington) proves to have a keen eye and his is recruited for the special team by Agent Pryzwarra (Val Kilmer). Soon the investigation focuses on a young lady who proved to have died before the ferry was blown up.

I found the unlikeliness of the hardware too annoying to ‘get into’ the film. Fortunately the acting makes up a bit, but when things take ‘unexpected’ courses, my annoyance level rises again and the end is even more incredible.

The film is alright with regards to filming, action and acting, but more thought had to be given to the central theme of the film.

Triple 9 – John Hillcoat (2016)

A descent crime-action-thriller in which a group of bad cops violently rob a bank. Severe pressure forces them to do another job.

We follow the cops in their normal and ‘other’ occupations and of course their group of colleagues trying to find the men who robbed the bank.

The film starts as a proper action film, but slowly becomes somewhat darker making a nice, gloomy atmosphere towards the end. The story shows that there are often more sides to a story. It does not really have many surprises, but it is good and worked out well.

Educazione Siberiana * Gabriele Salvatores (2013)

In this moody film John Malkovich plays the pater familias of a Siberian (criminal) family that has no respect for Russian law (enforcement), but has a strict code of its own.

The international title of this film seems to be “Deadly Code”, but the original title rather seems to mean “Siberian education”, which covers the film a lot better. We mostly follow a small group of youngsters growing up in a small, Siberian town, educated about the people’s ways by the grandfather of one of the boys. They are fed hatred for the regime and harsch ways of protecting their own ways.

The film is told in two stories, which are actually the same, but playing in different times, both of which give a peek into Russian ‘mafia’ and law enforcement.

The Infiltrator * Brad Furman (2016)

Robert Mazur (played by Bryan “Heisenberg” Cranston) fights drug trafficking in Florida, infiltrating in the organisations he is after. When he picks up the idea to follow the money rather than the drugs, he is soon playing in the ‘major league’ all the way up to the level of Pablo Escobar whom we all know because of the popular series “Narcos” (but more has been filmed around this mans life).

This ‘major league’ is quite above Mazur’s head whose ‘real life’ and undercover life start to run through each other.

“The Infiltrator” is an 1980’ies looking film based on true events, like we saw more of in these days. It makes a descent thriller about a man working his way into the relentless world of drug-related criminality.

La Isla Mínima * Alberto Rodríguez (2014)

The film starts as a fairly common murder investigation in the rural parts of Spain. Two officers are sent to a small community to investigate the disappearance of two young sisters. Soon it becomes clear that more is going on and the film develops towards a somewhat grim, Scandinavian-gloomy-ish thriller with long shots and a dark images. There are the obligatory twists and turns in the story and the changing suspects. Nothing too unexpected, but well enough.

The film is perhaps better suited for a dark autumn or winter night than a hot summer night, but “La Isla Mínima” makes an entertaining crime thriller.

Sicario * Denis Villeneuve (2015)

For some reason the name of the director connects to interesting films in my head. When I see my reviews of two other Villeneuve titles, I wonder why. Do I mix him up with another director with a French name?

With “Sicario” the expectations were lived up though! Contrary to the two other films, which were dramas, “Sicario” is a dark, gloomy and raw crime action. The young FBI agent Kate Macer is asked for a special team hunting a Mexican drugs cartel. She tumbles into a world were laws and especially violence are not what she was used to and that is quite something after the opening scene.

The film has an almost constant gloomy atmosphere with the suggestion of an extremely violent outburst. The rumbling soundtrack sure adds a lot to the atmosphere, as do the shots of the desolate landscape between the USA and Mexico.

Indeed, “Sicario” is a very descent crime film.

Dog Day Afternoon * Sidney Lumet (1975)

An oldie. I wonder how it came on my watchlist. “Dog Day Afternoon” is an alright film, but it does not really look like a classic. Well of course there is a very young Al Pacino as main actor, but I wonder what my other criteria were to want to see this film.

Three young men go to rob a bank. This clumsey act goes wrong from the beginning and soon leads to a massive media event in which the gathered audience see one of the crooks (Pacino) as a hero. The ‘plot keeps thickening’ while Sonny enjoys the media attention, has some odd requests and thinks he is going to get away with it all.

Like I said, the film is alright, but does (to me) not really rise above the level of ‘I’ll watch it on TV some time’.

The Ice Harvest * Harold Ramis (2005)

The title of this film has not become entirely clear to me, but “The Ice Harvest” is a crime comedy, a bit in the screwballish Coen style. The film starts with a big robbery that laywer Charlie Arglist (John Cusack) and Vic Cavanaugh (Billy Bob Thornton) have commited. The rest of the film mostly follows Charlie. The deal was that both would spend Christmas evening as normal as possible and skip their dull town with the money the day after. Of course things do not go as planned, the two get chased by a hitman and an amusing film unfolds with Christmas receptions, drunkarts, family intrueges, stipclubs and a few bloody encounters and shootouts. The dialogues are quite funny here and there as well.

Not a high-flyer, but not a bad film either.