The Mighty Macs

This film tells the story of rookie basketball coach and future Hall of Famer Cathy Rush who led the women of Immaculata College to three consecutive national championships from 1972 to 1974.

"...unable to infuse his film with any tension or suspense, and with the team’s come-from-behind win a foregone conclusion,..."

Oct. 21, 2011 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame

Tsui Hark directs this delightful mystery film that's part spectacular period piece and part Sherlock Holmes.

"...by the master, Sammo Hung. Creative spectacle, humor, and suspense drive the film, and we can only hope that..."

Sept. 30, 2011 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Colombiana

A professional assassin by day, a vigilante by night: Zoe Saldana is Luc Besson's latest femme fatale.

"...from this film is any sense of import. And suspense. And originality. And anything remotely resembling the action masterpiece..."

Sept. 2, 2011 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Final Destination 5

In case we've forgotten, this series returns to remind us that death does not like to be cheated.

"...success hinges entirely on its death scenes and the suspense-filled "clues" leading up to them. Director Quale, a longtime..."

Aug. 19, 2011 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Fair Game

The performances of Sean Penn and Naomi Watts make this film rendition of the Valerie Plame affair a study in acting.

"...field operative, Fair Game would have all the gripping suspense of an Urdu 101 class at Langley. Based on..."

Nov. 5, 2010 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Monsters

In this startlingly original indie film, a road trip combines with an alien invasion to remind us of our ageless fear of otherness.

"...at SXSW Film 2010) is ruthlessly effective at teasing suspense while forgoing the shock-and-awe-and-goopy-gore so common to contemporary monster..."

Oct. 29, 2010 Movie Review by Kimberley Jones

Mao's Last Dancer

In this film based on a true story, a Chinese ballet dancer defects to the U.S. when he falls in love with a Houston dancer while on tour.

"...in doubt, although Beresford and company wring the utmost suspense from a sequence in which associates of the Chinese..."

Sept. 3, 2010 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Green Zone

With Matt Damon's Bourne director at the helm, the actor plays an officer in Iraq who's mystified by why he's unable to uncover any WMDs.

"...films. Greengrass is by now the undisputed master of action-suspense films, and his director of photography Barry Ackroyd (The..."

March 19, 2010 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Broken Embraces

Penélope Cruz stars in Pedro Almodóvar's latest, which plays like the lost love child of Douglas Sirk and Alfred Hitchcock.

"...Almodóvar appears to be adding a bit of narrative suspense to his storytelling in Broken Embraces. Starring his longtime..."

Jan. 8, 2010 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

The House of the Devil

This retro horror film is the freakiest and most unnerving shocker in theatres this season.

"...before amping up the claustrophobic atmosphere and the overall suspense to Chinese-water-torture levels. It's not a classic so much..."

Oct. 30, 2009 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

A Perfect Getaway

This is a smartly paced and ultimately pure exploitation head trip that's a lot of fun if you can get past its third-act meltdown.

"...wrote the screenplay here, ratchets up some seriously nail-gnawing suspense; A Perfect Getaway is, in its own delightfully silly..."

Aug. 7, 2009 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Drag Me to Hell

Sam Raimi makes a triumphant return to the "splatstick" horror genre he more or less invented with The Evil Dead and its two sequels.

"...to a razor's edge in the creation of nerve-racking suspense and jarring shocks. This film is, quite simply, one..."

May 29, 2009 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

The Last House on the Left

Two parents take revenge on the scum who raped and savaged their daughter in the remake of Wes Craven's grisly horror landmark.

"...of Iliadis' House. He's more concerned with cranking out suspense by the dollop (which often works), and upper-middle-class moralizing..."

March 20, 2009 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

The International

This conspiracy thriller starring Clive Owen and Naomi Watts never gets past second gear.

"...passable; it’s a clock-puncher that’s almost entirely free of suspense or surprise. Its action sequences provide just enough thrills..."

Feb. 13, 2009 Movie Review by Josh Rosenblatt

Timecrimes

Spanish director Nacho Vigalondo's first feature film is a tremendously entertaining bit of Kafka that whirlpools down into The Twilight Zone – and one helluva blast to watch.

"...see why: Vigalondo's triple command of surreal compositions, nerve-raping suspense, and the ability to draw out scarily emotional performances..."

Jan. 16, 2009 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Valkyrie

Tom Cruise seems somewhat out of place as a German officer in this thriller about the attempt on Adolf Hitler's life in July 1944.

"...Wolf's Lair retreat, is fitfully dour. There's more honest suspense in waiting for him to crack a smile (he..."

Dec. 26, 2008 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Ripple Effect

Like a pilgrim seeking salvation, Ripple Effect is awash in self-important questions, becoming an exercise in pop mysticism which stars Forest Whitaker.

"...modern self-help melodrama with the shoddy camerawork and low-grade suspense of Cinemax soft-core porn (minus, unfortunately, anything even resembling..."

Aug. 1, 2008 Movie Review by Josh Rosenblatt

Prom Night

A remake of the Eighties horror film in name only, Prom Night is a nearly bloodless slasher film with few surprises.

"...exsanguinated (offscreen, no less), with nary a shred of suspense or even mild annoyance as the still-statutory crush'n prof..."

April 18, 2008 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

P2

Horror overtakes a woman on level P2 of a parking garage, and the film's suspense plays on our collective unease with being alone, at night, surrounded by concrete and rebar.

"...it does a fine job of ratcheting up the suspense via glimpses and echoes, and then more sadistic measures...."

Nov. 16, 2007 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Beyond the Gates

With infinite grace but no real suspense, Beyond the Gates bears dramatic witness to the Rwandan ethnic genocide of the last decade.

"...and terrible conclusion with infinite grace but no real suspense. Beyond the Gates bears witness to the worst of..."

June 1, 2007 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Vacancy

Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale play a couple who try to escape from the snuff-film motel at which they're stranded.

"...few years back. That film mined the innate subterranean suspense of the Budapest metro for every single kilo of..."

April 27, 2007 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Zodiac

The director of Fight Club and Se7en switches gears here from psychological thrillers to something that more closely resembles a police procedural.

"...too long in the telling and too short on suspense. Certainly, it is the most fact-filled film version of..."

March 2, 2007 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Breach

The career of Robert Hanssen, the brilliant real-life FBI spy whose exploits as a double agent caused a great many deaths, should be the mole story to end all mole stories, but it is not.

"...political thriller to top our political reality for sheer suspense and treachery, and though director Ray (Shattered Glass) provides..."

Feb. 16, 2007 Movie Review by Josh Rosenblatt

Hannibal Rising

Who would have thought mass murder and cannibalism could be so dull?

"...violent enough, is almost entirely devoid of shock or suspense. Who would have thought mass murder and cannibalism could..."

Feb. 9, 2007 Movie Review by Josh Rosenblatt

Heading South

North American women of a certain age, who are sex tourists at a Haitian resort in the late Seventies, provide grist for this French film's study of social and economic contrasts.

"...human beings. Furthermore, when a little bit of dramatic suspense is introduced midway through the story, it seems both..."

Dec. 1, 2006 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Peaceful Warrior

It's mostly hoo-hah, but there are moments in this New Agey, feel-semi-good crowd-pleaser that rise above and beyond the gymnastics and psychobabble.

"...out what that something was. Warrior has elements of suspense, thriller, even horror films, which dovetails with the director's..."

June 23, 2006 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Darna Zaroori Hai

Unusual Bollywood film is an anthology horror film with segments directed by seven different directors.

"...predecessor, it's another series of six minor supernatural and suspense shorts with a wraparound story involving a group of..."

May 12, 2006 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

Red Eye

Red Eye’s no classic, but with its smart, twisty little script and those two killer performances, it's a helluva lot of fun.

"...Craven’s new Red Eye, a busy little engine of suspense that never pauses once for breath in its 85-minute..."

Aug. 19, 2005 Movie Review by Marc Savlov

The Skeleton Key

A top-notch cast is mostly wasted in this atmospheric but prosaic hoodoo spooker.

"...and ancient. Yet the movie, overall, lacks tension and suspense, and some of its key emotional moments were found..."

Aug. 12, 2005 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten

Taking Lives

Angelina Jolie and Ethan Hawke star in this disappointing thriller.

"...filmmakers have neglected the essentials of an effective mystery: suspense, depth of characterization, and logic. (We are to believe,..."

March 19, 2004 Movie Review by Marrit Ingman

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