Thriller Movies

Stephen Soderbergh’s Contagion was one of the better movies of the fall, well executed and surgical in its realistic portrayal of how a massive outbreak would spread throughout the world and cause incredible panic. Contagion, which stars Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Gwenyth Paltrow, Jude Law, Marion Cottilard and Laurence Fishburne, comes to Blu-ray and DVD on Tuesday, and we’re giving away two free copies of the Blu-ray combo pack, with an Ultra Violet copy.

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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, not to be confused with the 2009 movie The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, based on the same book only in a different language, is now in theaters, and while at first glance the necessity of an English-language remake appears questionable, director David Fincher establishes early on why audiences should care: his version is simply better.

Read FilmJabber’s full The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo movie review.

Pregnant wife, check. Upcoming promotion, check. Corrupt, murderous cops who’ve kidnapped said wife and future mother? Check. The French thriller À bout portant (Point Blank) is a fast-paced thriller that races from one action sequence to the next but fails to capitalize on its twists and turns.

Read FilmJabber’s full Point Blank movie review.

Take James Bond, The Bourne Identity, Mission: Impossible and True Lies and combine them altogether, you’ll get a movie that’s about as far away from what Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, a methodically methodical thriller that harkens back to spy films of old, does it well, and then does it too well. The result: an even-tempered, extremely well-made picture that requires more patience from its audience than it has any right to and lacks a gratifying pay-off for doing so.

Read FilmJabber’s full Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy movie review.

Trolls exist, and they are big, angry and smell like trolls. In the found-footage adventure tale TrollHunter, a group of college filmmakers investigating the mysterious deaths of several bears in Norway track down a bear hunter who is anything but a bear hunter. What ensues is a surprisingly slick, engaging and fun movie about friendship, love and dogs. Or about trolls.

Read FilmJabber’s full TrollHunter movie review.

With the apocalypse not at all approaching, two friends spend their days preparing for it, building flame-throwers and Mad Max-esque vehicles. Amongst their otherwise normal lives, one of the friends, Woodrow, meets a girl and falls in love. But all good things come to an end: what began as an innocent relationship quickly spirals out of control. Welcome to Bellflower, the intoxicating and unique drama from first-time writer/director/star Evan Glodell.

Read FilmJabber’s full Bellflower movie review.

It’s a rule that has stood the test of time, from the days of Julius Caesar to the poetry of William Shakespeare: hubris is a bitch that will beat you, or stab you, dead. Confidence is important, but overconfidence – especially the assumption that things will always go your way because you’re more virtuous than the next guy – will ultimately destroy you. In George Clooney’s mesmerizing The Ides of March, people are but pawns, emotion and friendship unimportant in contrast to strategy and victory, pieces of flesh to be positioned and brushed aside for the sake of success. Or the twisted form of success idealized by politicians.

Read FilmJabber’s full The Ides of March movie review.

OK, so it’s not that new in respect to entertainment news. It was released several days ago, but since I have other things on my mind than posting movie trailers, I’m just getting to it now.

The first full-length trailer – and at nearly four minutes, it’s a long one – for the David Fincher version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – is now online. It shows quite a lot of the movie, but is edited in a way that doesn’t entirely ruin the plot for people who haven’t read the books – or who haven’t seen the original movies.

Read the full article »

The world is more connected than ever. Thousands of flights occur every day, connecting people from one corner of the globe to the other. Products, materials and food are shipped overseas by the minute. No place is too far away. In other words, it’s the perfect storm for a super virus to wipe out much of humanity, as depicted in the new Steven Soderbergh film Contagion.

Read FilmJabber’s full Contagion movie review.

When will criminals learn? Stick to your guns, stick to your rules, and things will be fine. Deviate from your simple guidelines, mix in a love interest and let things get personal, and all things will go to hell. Then again, if you’re the bad guys you know you should never mess with the quiet guy who’s the protagonist in a movie, especially if he looks like Ryan Gosling and is featured in the movie Drive. Because he’ll f**k them up, and the movie will blow audiences away.

Read FilmJabber’s full Drive movie review.

From director John Madden comes the espionage thriller The Debt, a superbly acted tale of three Mossad agents who are assigned to capture a Nazi war criminal responsible for torturing and murdering thousands of Jews during the war. Engaging and powerful, The Debt is Madden’s best movie since Shakespeare in Love, but the film’s lack of a cohesive theme keeps it from greatness.

Read FilmJabber’s full The Debt movie review.

After two overtly cell phone-friendly teaser posters, Fox Searchlight has released the first official poster for the upcoming drama-thriller Martha Marcy May Marlene, starring Elizabeth Olsen (younger sister of Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen) and John Hawkes.

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