Thriller Movies

The funniest movie of the year is Alex Cross. Tyler Perry stars in the serious crime thriller, which accomplishes two great feats: it made me laugh so hard I cried, and it reminded me why I avoid Tyler Perry movies at all costs.

Read FilmJabber’s full Alex Cross movie review.

Tense. Thrilling. Entertaining. Serious. Funny. Ben Affleck has a legitimate Oscar contender on his hands in the form of Argo, a movie that is not only his most accessible film but also his best suited to appeal to Oscar voters. About a so-absurd-it-has-to-be-real CIA mission to extract six American hostages from Iran, Argo is at once timely and nail-bitingly fun.

Read FilmJabber’s full Argo movie review.

While lawyers, policemen and doctors get television show after television show, bike messengers get nada. Hell, truck drivers in Alaska get a television show. Packrats do, too. How many shows are there about bike messengers? A big fat zero. Not anymore! Bike messengers finally get their day in the spotlight, and not on television – in a big-screen movie starring big-screen actors, depicting just how awesome their low-paid jobs are. Especially when corrupt cops and Chinese smugglers are involved.

Read FilmJabber’s full Premium Rush movie review.

First there was Alec Baldwin. Then Harrison Ford. Oh yeah, and Ben Affleck. Now, Chris Pine looks to bring the popular Tom Clancy character into the 21st century with Jack Ryan, an original story that looks at the character’s beginnings as a CIA operative.

Paramount Pictures has released the first two movie images from the upcoming film, which is scheduled to be released on December 25, 2013. The action-thriller also stars Keira Knightley, Kevin Costner and Kenneth Branagh.

Chris Pine and Kevin Costner star in Jack Ryan. 

Chris Pine rides a motorcycle in Jack Ryan.

Ever since his career-making turn in 1999′s 10 Things I Hate About You, Joseph Gordon-Levitt has proven he has an eye for choosing rewarding, versatile projects (we’ll ignore G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra). Joseph Gordon-Levitt is one of the most talented actors working today, and while he has yet to earn an Academy Award nomination, it’s only a matter of time.

With The Dark Knight Rises still plugging along and the Gordon-Levitt-starring Premium Rush in theaters this week, now is a perfect time to look at the accomplished actor’s best movies.

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Last time Nicolas Cage and director Simon West joined forces, the absurdly entertaining Con-Air was the result. Oh, times have changed. Fifteen years later, the action genre has evolved, Nicolas Cage’s career has devolved and their collaboration is being released to limited theaters – a troubling trend for the once popular actor.

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An old maid turned millionaire’s wife realizes that she’s going to be denied her husband’s inheritance and decides to do something about it in Elena, the 2011 winner of Cannes’ Un Certain Regard Special Jury Prize. Described as a Hitchcockian thriller but in reality a somber drama without a third act, Elena has a lot of good things going for it until it doesn’t, begging the question: what’s the point?

Read FilmJabber’s full Elena movie review.

Look at Oliver Stone’s career from one side and you see a string of celebrated classics. Platoon. Wall Street. Born on the Fourth of July. The Doors. JFK. Natural Born Killers. Impressive. Look at his 21st century career, however, and it paints a different picture. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. W. World Trade Center. Alexander. A couple mediocre films. A few disasters.

Read FilmJabber’s full Savages movie review.

I typically try to write reviews for every individual Blu-ray I receive in the mail (well, the good ones), but after a crazy hectic June I came home late last week to find a stack of great movies sitting on my doorstep. All were released in the last few weeks, but the thought of tackling all of them was overwhelming. I won’t write about movies just because I receive them, but these six warrant attention:

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Oliver Stone’s Savages debuts in theaters this Friday! In anticipation of the release (possibly a return to form for the director?), we’re giving away a huge prize pack containing a cool-looking T-shirt, a Day of the Dead bracelet and two DVDs – Scarface and Born on the Fourth of July.

Enter to win today, and watch Savages this weekend.

When Willem Dafoe sets his sights on something, he’s going to get it. That’s too bad for the elusive Tasmanian tiger in the drama-thriller The Hunter, in which the celebrated actor plays a mercenary hired by a secretive military biotech company to track down the last remaining specimen of the animal. Usually a loner, he bonds with the troubled mother and her two children that he lodges with while on his quest.

Read FilmJabber’s full The Hunter movie review.

Blade Runner and Alien. Ridley Scott is responsible for both of them, two of the most renowned sci-fi movies of all time. After 30 years, the Gladiator director returns to the genre with Prometheus, a quasi-prequel to Alien that seeks to explain the origins of mankind, and at least hint at how those acid-spewing, face-hugging teddy bears came to be. A beautiful and suspenseful action-thriller, Prometheus isn’t perfect, but it still stands among the best of the genre.

Read FilmJabber’s full Prometheus movie review.