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29
January
2007

No ‘Smokin'’, please.4

Joe Carnahan thinks he's Quentin Tarantino. Let's try not to wake him. He seems to be having such a nice dream.

Here’s Andy Garcia’s cue to re-assume the mantle of Mr. Plot in writer/director Joe Carnahan’s new post-Tarantino mockup, Smokin’ Aces: “Make this all make sense.” Existential enough for you? After having delivered a lengthy expository monologue at the film’s outset, Garcia squares his shoulders in the ferocity of Ryan Reynolds’ fierce glower (yes, you read that right) and sums up a stunning, revelatory, incredible, mind-blowingly telegraphed third-act twist that is, in fact, intended to make the film make sense and set up a final shot that was evidently designed to deliver a more potent emotive blow than it did. Or had any right to.

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Posted: Articles

26
January
2007

Shallow Grave (Danny Boyle, 1994)1

Danny Boyle’s Shallow Grave deftly explores the most unstable of interpersonal relationships: the triangle. Add a corpse in a locked room and a briefcase full of money, and Boyle’s particular brand of black British humor, and you have a tense, effective thriller that exploits the “classic” thriller themes, while putting a fresh spin on the genre.

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Posted: Reviews, Drama, Horror/Thriller