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thriller

The Contractor – Josef Rusnak (2007)

Wesley Snipes plays an ex-CIA agent who is hired to take out a terrorist who might be a problem for the US government. After fulfilling the assignment, he soon realises that he was set up and is now hunted by both the British and American secret services.

Somewhat interesting to the story is that the actual shooting takes place all the way in the beginning of the film and that the res of the movie is about who Snipes’ character tries to prevent from being apprehended.

Not great, not boring.

The Little Things – John Lee Hancock (2021)

Acting veteran Denzel Washington shares the screen with relative newcomer Rami Malek and this is exactly their relationship in the film.

Washington’s character is sent for ‘arrents’ to the district where he used to work. He meets the young investigator played by Malek and stumbles into a serial killer case that is very similar to the one that costed his sanity.

Of course he cannot let things go and the two actors for an unlikely couple trying to solve the case. When a suspect surfaces, the story gets an interesting twist.

An alright cat-and-mouse thriller.

State Of Play – Kevin Macdonald (2009)

A political thriller which opens with two seemingly unrelated murders that catch the attention of journalist veteran Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe). An old friend of his is involved and McAffrey balances between professionalism and friendship.

As McAffrey and his young colleague Della dive into the story, things appear to go deeper and deeper. High-up forced start to push back. Is it worth bringing out the truth?

A decent thriller.

Double Jeopardy – Bruce Beresford (1999)

During a boat trip Libby wakes up to find the entire boat full of blood and her husband missing. Libby is convicted for murder and is sent to jail. During that time she finds out that he husband is not dead after all, so she sets out for revenge.

Nowadays a film like this would be a bloody shootout of a one-woman-army, but “Double Jeopardy” is more of a thriller.

The Craft – Andrew Fleming (1996)

At the 2026 Wave Gotik Treffen Graeme Revell was to play as SPKtR together with his son Robert, but the latter fell ill and Graeme decided to give an overview of his film scores instead. He made the music for some quite famous films such as both The Crow films and a bunch more.

Making this as an argument to pick a film to watch, the options proved to be more limited than hoped and we ended up with the (in)famous film “The Craft”. I have no idea if I saw it before.

A girl with some magic skills moves to a new school where she encounters a little coven of witches of three who are looking for their fourth member. Trying all kinds of magic, the four succeed and the new powers rise to their heads (or of some of them at least) bringing jaleously and infighting.

Nothing too interesting and way too teeny for my liking.

The Guilty – Antoine Fuqua (2021)

Now I now why I thought I already saw this film, it is a remakt of the film “Den Skyldige“.

In this case Jake Gyllenhaal is a police officer who awaiting his trial for an incident at work, is placed at the communications department. When he gets a call of a woman who is abducted, a fairly interesting story unfolds.

Like in the original, you basically only see the control room, the information comes from phone calls, so you have to picture the events yourself.

The Devil’s Own – Alan Pakula (1997)

Brad Pitt plays the wanted IRA terrorist Rory Devaney. To both lay low in Ireland and stay in business, he moves to the USA planning to go undercover and fix a massive arms deal.

Through a network, he is housed in the cellar of police officer Tom O’Meara (Harrison Ford) who has nothing to do with the IRA. There is no need to say how the story is going to unfold.

While watching this film, I was pretty sure that I saw it before. Maybe before I started reviewing?

In any case, a descent classic.

Striking Distance – Rowdy Herrington (1993)

When I have to pick a Netflix film unprepared I somehow often come to one of the old movies that are available and again this was a Bruce Willis title.

Tom Hardy (Willis) is a cop whose good behavior costed him to be transferred to maritime police. There an old case catches up with him, a case in which he was always convinced the perpertrator is a cop.

Trying to find the actual serial killer, Hardy wins the trust of his new partner (Sarah Jessica Parker) and the two set out to uncover the truth.

Speak No Evil – James Watkins (2024)

A young American couple with a kid befriends another young family with a kid while on holidays in Ireland. The American couple now lives in London and the other in the English countryside. They decide to spend a weekend together.

A highly predictable story unfolds in which the man of the house proves to be a manipulative bastard with evil plans for his guests.

Mercury Rising – Harold Becker (1998)

It is good that there are still ‘old films’ that I have not seen yet. They are usually more interesting than films that are produced nowadays as I again saw this weekend.

Bruce Willis is an FBI agend fallen from grace. Still he is dragged into a case of an autistic boy that somehow caught the attention of a variety of agencies. Jeffries (Willis) is the only one who seems to see the danger and he tries to protect the boy at all costs.