Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier and Roy Scheider
Movie Release Date: 8 October, 1976
Reviews:
John Schlesinger in his adaption of the bestseller book by William Goldman has presented in the Marathon Man, a taut seat of the edge thriller.
With nail biting suspense, high tension and an intrinsically satisfying finale, the movie is a really watcher. Dustin Hoffman’s plays the character of a compulsive runner, an important characteristic from which we get the title of the movie.
Dustin Hoffman plays the role of a young graduate student (Babe) who gets embroiled in the middle of an international conspiracy, involving stolen diamonds, an exiled Nazi war criminal- Snezll (Lawrence Olivier), and a rouge government agent-Doc (Roy Schneider). When Doc gets killed, his brother is captured and tortured by Snezll who is a dentist by profession. This leads to the films most famous scenes, the doctor chair interrogation, where Snezll drills through Babe’s teeth asking him, ”is it safe?”. The director firmly holds the audience’s attention with well-cut scenes and excellent direction. A brilliant performance by Hoffman and Olivier with crisp editing gives the movie a knife edge thriller effect. Marathon Man is cold, hard hitting, gritty, a thriller of striking power and ferocity. ”It’s safe” to say it is a great diabolical thriller.
Cast: Roy Scheider, Lorraine Gary and Murray Hamilton
Movie Release Date: 16 June, 1978
Review:
Very rarely you come across a sequel which has the ability to stand up to the expectations set by the original.
Moreover to have maintained the pace of a sequel there should be a very strong story. Jaws 2 definitely fails to deliver, it comes across more like a leftover of the original! (But if you see the third and fourth part this one will look like a masterpiece.) Director Jeannot Szwarc follows the same filming style and almost the same script as that of Spielberg, but fails to generate the fear , tension and intensity as in the original.
The characters and the locale are same. Amity’s shark tarnished image is being improved by the Mayor Larry Vaughn (Murray Hamilton). Roy Scheider plays Chief Martin Broody who is led to believe that the shark is back in Amity. He fails to convince the locals. Meanwhile the sharp toothed animal brings down a chopper and snacks on some yelling teenagers.
The shark though, looks better than the original, however is shown far too many times making it less terrifying to the audience. Jaw 2 does have its moments, but it fails to live up to the standards set by Speilberg’s, undoubtedly.
Directed by Robert Redford and written by Matthew Michael Carnahan, Lions for Lambs is an amazing drama movie where the director has regulated the story, connecting traverse lives with various stories. It’s a beautiful movie with a relatively strong message for all viewers. Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep and Robert Redford have put in amazing performances making the movie a success.
Critics believe that this film was not just built on characters and a plot but on unique ideas, which is what made the film so different as compared to any other film. The dialogues in the film are considered worthy. One of the critics refers to the film as what Hollywood does best, when it wants to. The movie however is also considered to be simple, has good intentions. Lion for Lambs tries combining social, political and military all together in the same film.
Audiences believe that the movie is enjoyable and can be fun if you watch it with family and friends. The very fact that different stories are connected to a common subject from various perspectives makes the movie compatible to various discussions with respect to politics and war. Do watch the movie if you haven’t, it’s definitely worth the watch!
Cast: Sean Connery, Ursula Andress and Bernard Lee
Genre: Action|Adventure|Thriller
Running Time: 110 min
Director : Terence Young
Written By: Richard Maibaum , Johanna Harwood
Movie Release Date: 8 May, 1963
Review:
Released in 1962, Dr. No has been a trendsetter for all the James Bond movies released so far. The first of its kind, this movie gave total importance to the plot. Simplicity was its trade mark as the movie had no freaky gadgets and unnecessary sci-fi or violent elements like the recent ones. It obviously had beautiful skimpily clad women adding to the glam quotient, but the movie was definitely serious business. Pierce Brosnan earmarked the character of Bond in this famous flick and Ursula Andress (Honey Ryder), Zena Marshall (Miss Taro) and Eunice Gayson (Sylvia Trench) played the eye candies in the movie.
The movie as the name suggests is about the bad guy Dr. Julius No (Joseph Wiseman) and his secret island called the Crab Key. The story denotes a connection between the murder of a British agent, a few rocket launching failures of the US and Dr. No. Bond is all set to solve the mystery behind this connection. Dr. No basically wants to control the world and keep trading with governments through his unique atomic wave research which can control the rockets and missiles that are being launched by America. Bond discovers this and finally in his signature style beats the bad guy to death and flees with the woman.
The movie received a good response at the box office and movie lovers have given it a good 7.3 out of 10 on movie review site IMDB. Pierce Brosnan’s work has also been applauded. Hence for being a Bond series fan, this flick is a must see.
Cast: Harrison Ford, Sam Spruell and Peter Stebbings
Genre: Drama|History|Thriller
Running Time: 138 min
Directed by: Kathryn Bigelow
Written By: Louis Nowra, Christopher Kyle
Movie Release Date: 19 July 2002
Review:
The movie is based on the real life episodes that were faced by the nuclear submarine of Russia with the same name. The submarine was also called the Widowmaker as a lot of people had lost their lives while constructing it. It includes a lot of drama, wherein a more human approach of command conquers bureaucracy.
The K-19 under the captaincy of Alexei Vostrikov (Harrison Ford), is ordered to start sailing. However the submarine does suffer a few drawbacks and needs a few tests before hitting the North Atlantic. This is when the nuclear reactor’s coolant pipe bursts and causes spilling. If this is not fixed, it would lead to an outbreak of radiation causing severe damage. After a lot of motivation, the team finally decides to fix the pipe by filling drinking water as coolant in it. After hours of attempts to fix the problem and suffering from exposure to poisonous radiation, the crew has to give up and is rescued by another Russian submarine. Liam Neeson also plays an important role of Executive officer Mikhail Polenin who brings the much needed change in the bureaucratic leader Vostrikov.
K-19 The Widowmaker has received a 6.6 out of 10 rating on a movie review site named IMDB. Though the movie had elements of suspense, adventure, thrill and a few special effects too, it was unable to conquer the box office.
The name of the movie refers to the submarine Red October and the hunt carried out by Russia and US for finding it. Released in 1990, it is full of action, thrill and depicts elements of technology. The Red October is one of its kind nuclear submarine which has a special engine which works quite silently and thus will be helpful in attacking the enemy without prior information. The movie received a good box office opening and received 7.6 out of 10 from the viewers on the movie review site IMDB. It starred Pierce Brosnan and Alec Baldwin in the lead roles.
The plot circulates around Marko Ramius (Pierce Brosnan) who is the captain of Red October. A mysterious kind of person, he has some weird palns with the submarine. He kills the political officer to disregard the orders received by him regarding voyage of the submarine. He then deserts with the submarine towards the East coast of America. The Americans think Ramius is planning to start a war against them and attack them with nuclear missiles. This is when Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin) who is a CIA analyst comes into picture. Aware about Ramius to some extent, he predicts that Ramius may have deserted but he has to prove it. Finally after a lot of sequences where the Russian navy also tries to destroy Red October, the audience can heave a sigh of relief as Ramius and his crew is rescued by Ryan and his team.
Cast: Colin Farrell, Kiefer Sutherland and Forest Whitaker
Movie Release Date: 4 April, 2003
Review:
Phone Booth is a super hit thriller movie released in the year 2002. The direction and the screenplay of the movie are very good. The movie keeps the audience interested till the end. The movie is a psychological thriller. A famous publicist who is cheating on his wife goes to a phone booth to call his girlfriend. Here, over the phone, he is caught hostage by the villain. The bad guy knows about the publicist’s life and asks him to reveal the facts to his wife and girlfriend over the phone or else he threatens to kill him as soon as he comes out of the booth. There are many more complications shown in the movie during this process. In the end he comes out of the phone booth and the criminal shoots him. He is hurt but saved by the police present there. It is shown that the criminal was just trying to tell him the truth of life and teach him a lesson to be loyal. The movie demands a lot of concentration towards the end.
The movie was very much liked by movie goers. It generated revenue of around ninety seven millions against an investment of only ten millions.
Cast: Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow and Linda Blair
Movie Release Date: 26 December 1973
Review:
“The Exorcist” as the name suggests, is a classic horror movie of its times. It is a movie about a teenage girl who is possessed by the devil. Two priests come into the picture to rescue her and all three face various different horrors throughout the movie.
The movie was received very well because of its new concept added with the brilliant special effects seen for the first time. The movie overall did quite well for its time. Inspires from William Peter Blatty novel he had a major role in the filming and the making of the movie, he also played the screenplay writerand producer of the movie. In the year 2000 he re-released the movie with additional twelve minutes segment which was cut due to some reasons by the director William Friedkin in the first release. This is one of the few movies which have been released twice in the history of movie making. Chris Newman won an Oscar for his work on background sound and music in this movie. It was nominated in 10 Academy Awards categories out of which it won 2.
A definite favourite of movie buffs and a must watch if you’re a fan of horror movies.
Genre: Drama | Thriller
Genre: Drama|Thriller|War
