One of Goldie Hawn's rare ventures into pure thriller territory, 1991's DECEIVED is an interesting drama that will keep you guessing for at least half of its running time. As the film opens, Adrienne (Hawn) is meeting a blind date at a restaurant. While the date never shows, she does share glances and flirtation with a stranger alone across the restaurant. When that same man shows up at her studio the next day, its either the greatest coincidence of the year or part of a much bigger plan. The man is Jack Saunders, well played by John Heard (Home Alone, Cat People) as an art dealer who says he's met Adrienne before. As the film unwinds, the two fall in love, have a daughter and seem to have five years of marital bliss. And then, as things tend to do in these movies, or at least in the maddeningly uneven screenplay by Mary Agnes Donoghue (Beaches, White Oleander) Adrienne begins to suspect that Jack is having an affair, and that he may be a thief...and then...... The less you know the better from the halfway point. There is a mysterious death, some very well done cat & mouse snooping that will remind you of DePalma and Hitchcock in all the right ways and then some unraveling of the suspense as the truth emerges. Hawn remains good throughout and she's believable as both the trusting spouse and an intelligent woman feeling betrayed. For those of you that only know Heard as the Dad in the "Home Alone" movies, you'll find plenty of unexpected range from him as the plot unfolds. The last suspenseful confrontation between Adrienne and a major character starts off well and then ends in a moment that probably looked brilliant on the page, but seems only half executed on film. At THE key moment of denouncement, you find yourself thinking "hey wait, what happened there, did he....was it dark?..what exactly...." these are not the thoughts that should be running through your mind at this moment. But, if you can buy that moment, you'll probably have a pretty good time and let the better sequences carry you through. Hawn is a strong lead and is perfectly capable of carrying a non-comedy. It makes you wish she had done more straight roles like this and "The Sugarland Express". The film's good at taking the "When you fall in love with someone, how much do you really know about them" and chasing the possibilities down a very dark alley. As Goldie said at the time, "If he isn't who I think he is, then who am I?". An interesting premise and for at least 45 minutes in the middle of the film, very well explored. Deceived gets a B-.

OK, granted I went in expecting nothing, but damned if DEATH WISH didn't deliver an old fashioned revenge tale with over-the-top style and unexpected humor from a seemingly ageless Bruce Willis. Updating the original story from the Charles Bronson mega-hit of 1974, we meet Neurosurgeon Paul Kersey (Willis) in his role as leading doctor at Chicago's busy trauma hospital. We glimpse his perfect life, beautiful wife Lucy (Elisabeth Shue) and daughter Jordan Kersey (Camila Morrone, terrific in her first acting role) as they get ready to celebrate his birthday. When a Chicago gang of thieves enters their home and brutally attacks his wife and daughter, Paul finds his entire family being wheeled into the emergency room near death. Paul's transition from surgeon to vigilante killer is painted more realistically than the Bronson version, weaving in our current society of 24 hour news, cameras on every phone and social media blowing up the story overnight. Willis is flawless in this kind of role, making you feel his loss and frustration at the system's lack of progress and justice. As Kersey goes from amateur to revenge soaked killing machine, Director Eli Roth (Hostel) layers on the graphic violence and carnage. He's never made a fim that I've cared for, but he's found a blood soaked muse in Willis, who somehow makes the spilling blood and splattering innards more palatable. The original was controversial in 1974 for glorifying violence as it condemns it through Paul's actions and the same could certainly be said about the 2018 version, but I was enjoying an old fashioned action flick too much to care. Vincent D'Onofiro has his best (least eclectic) role in years as Paul's brother and Dean Norris (a veteran actor from every TV show you've loved the last 30 years including "Breaking Bad") is very good as the lead detective on the case. Roth's first Non-Horror film, it's a violent, fast-moving throwback to the films of the 80's Stallone (who produced this film), Willis and Arnold films, that of course were that decade's version of Bronson's 70's hits. Recycled, refurbished and in your face, DEATH WISH kills it and gets a solid B.

There's a whole lot of talent in front of and behind the camera in 1982's box office hit DEATHTRAP. Based on Ira Levin's successful play of the same name (and sometimes feeling a bit like a filmed stage performance), we meet some decidedly untrustworthy characters. Playwright Sidney Bruhl (Michael Caine) has just had another Broadway flop. He's had more misses than Max Bialystock ("Producers" fans unite) and is beginning to think he’s lost all creative spark. Money is running thin and his wife Myra’s fake enthusiasm is grating on his last nerve. Dyan Cannon (Heaven Can Wait, The Last of Sheila) is at full volume throughout, but brings more than a few smirks with her reactions to Sidney’s pain. Enter young playwright Clifford Anderson, who just happens to have mailed Sidney the only copy of his first play. It’s a masterpiece. Sidney alternates between fury at the young man’s talent his first time at bat and jealousy of Clifford’s innocence. Clifford is played by Christopher Reeve, who was fresh off of Superman II and looking for a different kind of role. What follows is a twisting, turning mystery with Sidney inviting Clifford to their house, Myra growing suspicious of her husbands intentions and their next door neighbor, a famous psychic named Helga ten Dorp (Irene Worth) dropping in to portend great impending danger. Jay Presson Allen (Marnie, Cabaret) adapts Levin’s play into a screenplay with many twists, turns and triple crosses that keep you guessing, while piling on perhaps a bit too much incredulity. Sidney Lumet (Serpico, Network, Dog Day Afternoon) keeps everything moving, making the most use of the Bruhl’s claustrophobic home (windmill included),which is the setting for nearly the entire film. The bottom line is that this every-changing, house bound murder mystery has been done much better before, notably with Caine and Laurence Olivier the same year in SLEUTH. Caine and Cannon are good if a bit loud, Reeve is not very good, just as wooden as he was in “Somewhere in Time”. The man could rock a cape, but outside of those films, woof. Fun but over the top, DEATHTRAP eventually succumbs to its own over indulgences and gets a B-.

Originally part of the 3 hour, double feature homage to 70's drive in cinema "Grindhouse", 2007's DEATH PROOF is the fifth film from Quentin Tarantino, and at first glance, a lesser effort. When I first saw "Grindhouse", I was really put off by the unending profanity and slow, long dialogue scenes, but a decade has aged the film well, and its MUCH better than I remembered. We meet two different groups of young, independent women that both cross paths with Stuntman Mike, played with slimy, sexist sleaze by Kurt Russell. After we see what happens the first half of the film, the movie flashes forward and we meet a second group of women, led by real life Australian stunt woman Zoe Bell, Abernathy (Rosario Dawson) and Kim, well played by Tracie Thoms (Rent). As the girls bond over drinks in Austin, Texas at a honkytonk overseen by Warren (Tarantino), they bond and spar over topics with style and balls to spare. When Stuntman Mike becomes obsessed with them, he shadows them quietly, getting bolder in his stalking. When Zoe finds a replica of the car from her favorite 70's car chase movie "Vanishing Point" ( a personal favorite of my brother Mark and I) she takes the car for a test drive that turns into a fast-paced incredible car chase and joust with the deranged stuntman. I don't care how slow the first half is, the payoff is worth the wait. Tarantino stages a tribute to the best car chases of all time, using real cars, NO CGI and fantastic camerawork. Bell is one of the best stuntwomen in the world and her adventure on top of the hood during a 75 mile an hour chase is incredible, fantastic, there are no words. Tarantino ramps up the action and violence to heights only he can pull off, crafting a female revenge story that's hilarious, graphic and kicks ass for the film's final 30 minutes. Russell is game, playing crazy to the hilt and matching the bravado with some seriously hilarious whining and panic when the women turn the tables. At one point, Zoe jumps half into a speeding car, sitting on a closed door with one leg hanging outside and a steel bar held out like she's ready for a death metal joust. It's jaw-dropping cool in a way only Tarantino could pull off. Bell does all her own stunts. She was Uma's double in the "Kill Bill" films. At one point, QT stages a car crash that's so graphic, tires run over faces, limbs fly through the air and heads fly off. And then he repeats it over and over in a slow motion orgy of violence. I think only QT can craft this kind of scene and make me not only watch, but replay it with an appreciation of his craftsmanship. He's like a maestro of graphic action, making you feel all too comfortable before smashing cars together at high speed so hard you can smell the smoke. A tribute to the "Vanishing Point", "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry" era with a splash of "Bullitt", DEATH PROOF kills and gets a B. If you are offended by profanity, blood or graphic violence, RUN AWAY like you just saw Stuntman Mike at the bar.....

Agatha Christie mysteries were always a lot of fun. Throw a bunch of suspects with motives in a confined place and one of them turns up murdered. The first film to really do her hero Hercule Poirot justice was 1974’s “Murder On The Orient Express” starring Albert Finney as the Belgian sleuth. As good as Finney was, the fun quotient was definitely raised when Peter Ustinov took over the role in 1978’s DEATH ON THE NILE. Poirot finds himself on a river barge down the Nile with a who’s who of Hollywood stars, who conveniently all have a grudge against wealthy socialite Linnet Ridgeway, played by Lois Chiles (Moonraker). There’s her Uncle lawyer Andrew (George Kennedy) who wants to make sure his control over her fortune doesn’t waver now that Linnet has married Simon (Simon MacCorkindale, who could have used Poirot around when his Hollywood career was murdered by “Jaws 3”). Meanwhile, Simon’s former fiancé and Linnet’s former best friend Jackie (Mia Farrow) follows the couple to ruin their Honeymoon, bitter that Linnet stole her man. Bette Davis is a rich woman with a penchant for jewelry, Jane Birkin is a loyal maid with a grudge, Olivia Hussey is Rosalie, the loyal daughter of eccentric author Salome Otterbourne (Angela Lansbury) whose latest book is threatened by a lawsuit from Linnet. David Niven is Colonel Race, an ally of Poirot’s who joins the detective in his quest to find a murderer when Linnet turns up shot in the head in her cabin. Niven and Ustinov are obviously having a hell of a good time together and it’s catching for the audience. Maggie Smith and Jack Warden round out the cast, providing even more suspects to be considered along the journey. Smith and Davis are in fine, nasty old woman form skewering each other with one-liners a plenty served up by Anthony Shaffer’s (Frenzy, Sleuth) script. Shaffer would come back to write the 1982 sequel “Evil Under The Sun” also starring Ustinov as Poirot. Director John Guillermin (The Towering Inferno, The Blue Max) gets the whole cast off the boat into some stunning locations including the pyramids and keeps everything moving nicely toward a satisfying resolution to our mystery. Academy Award winner for best costumes and BAFTA nominated for Ustinov’s, Lansbury’s and Smith’s performances. Ustinov is that rare combination of very smart and witty that makes him someone you’d love to hear telling stories for hours on end. He’s flawless, making every word count. A lot of fun for Christie fans and non-fans alike, DEATH ON THE NILE gets a B.

One of the funniest movies I've seen in a very long time, THE DEATH OF STALIN is smart, laugh-out-loud funny and loaded with talent. Writer/Director Armando Iannucci created "Veep" for HBO, making the everyday maneuvering of American politics fall over funny, which is not easy to do today. Iannucci's done the same thing for history here, telling the story of the death of the Russian leader and the explosive battle for power that falls into place with his last breath. Steve Buscemi (The Big Lebowski, Fargo) is at his absolute best as Nikita Khrushchev. Simon Russell Beale, Jeffrey Tambor (The Larry Sanders Show) and Monty Python's Michael Palin are all brilliant, crawling all over each other in their positioning to assume power. Somehow Ianucci manages to straddle a very fine line between near perfect physical comedy, intelligent wordplay, murderous ambition and historical fact. He also gave this incredible cast plenty of room to improvise as well. Don't let the threat of a historical setting scare you off. Characters don't get more desperate or funny than Tambor's clumsy & insecure Malenkov and Palin's too smart for the room Molotov. The Russian council of ministers push and scrape their way to a new leader in some of the best political satire since Kubrick's " Dr Strangelove" with plenty of 'Veep"'s broader humor and profanity thrown in the mix. Jason Issacs (Harry Potter) is violently terrific as Field Marshal Shukov and Tom Brooke (Preacher) steals every scene he's in as a doctor who can't make a decision (hilariously so). If you love political satire and/or smart humor, it doesn't get ANY better than this. Don't let the title scare you, this is one funny flick. Unlike the Council members, I'll make a decision and give this new comedy classic an A+.

Dark, hilarious and entertaining, 1992's DEATH BECOMES HER is a razor sharp satire of our celebrity culture & obsession with youth, doused with terrific special effects. Robert Zemeckis has always pushed the edge of what movies can deliver visually, and he was at the forefront of digital effects when this hit theatres. Meryl Streep stars as fading mega-star Madeline Ashton. Her current Broadway musical is flopping and she's terrified of aging, spending more time studying the mirror than her lines. After opening night, she meets her life-long rival backstage, writer Helen Sharp, played by Goldie Hawn at her most frumpy. Helen's fiance Dr. Ernest Menville (Bruce Willis) is a famous plastic surgeon at the top of his game, and he's completely enamored of Madeline. Very quickly, Madeline steals Ernest as her husband and Helen falls into many years of self loathing. Zemeckis propels the story forward like a bullet train, jumping forward 7 years in time. A mysterious woman with a magic potion comes into their lives. The ageless Isabella Rossellini (Blue Velvet) is Lisle, offering eternal youth in a glowing vial. But is it really eternal? What are the side effects? Where's the fine print. Zemeckis uses every make-up and special effects trick in the book to have characters gain hundreds of pounds, drop ten years off their lives and have a lot of fun as we watch vanity run amok. This was his second film to win a Best Special effects Oscar. Willis is terrific playing against type as the terrified husband, who's gone from famous plastic surgeon to only practicing in funeral homes. Who knows, that may come in handy! Director Sydney Pollack has his best on screen role since "Tootsie" as Madeline's physician having a hell of a time finding her pulse. Writer David Koepp (Jurassic Park, Mission Impossible) brings plenty of wit and one-liners to the story, while never confusing us as the story propels forward, covering over 50 years from start to finish. Streep and Hawn tear up the screen as rivals. Some of their best weapons are very quiet one-liners delivered face-to-face. That's saying something when they also face off with shovels and shotguns. Wrapped in a great music score by Alan Silvestri (Romancing the Stone, The Abyss), DEATH BECOMES HER turns out to be an ageless comedy/fantasy nearly 30 years after it's release. It gets an A-.

The shortest, silliest and least successful of the five Dirty Harry films, 1988's THE DEAD POOL has one redeeming grace and that's Clint Eastwood in his iconic role as the take no prisoners San Francisco detective. This time around, Harry is assigned to a lightweight and odd case around an arrogant movie director and an on-set list called The Dead Pool. The film crew is betting on which celebrities will die first. When everyone on the director's list starts getting murdered, Harry goes into action. Liam Neeson has one of his first major roles as the arrogant director, Jim Carrey (billed here as James) plays an off the rails rock star named Johnny Squares who needs a lot of drugs to get through filming. Carrey's facial expressions and physical thrashing were a lot more funny when he used them as Ace Ventura a few years later.... Eastwood has MANY great one-liners and enough sarcastic facial expressions to fill ten movies and steals the entire movie. Patricia Clarkson (Shutter Island, The Green Mile) is dull as a ruthless reporter that falls in with Callahan but Michael Currie returns to play Captain Donnelly as he had hilariously in "Sudden Impact". There is one very cool but totally stupid action sequence with the killer chasing Harry's car with a remote control car loaded with explosives. It's exciting and well staged, but seems like an odd fit for a Dirty Harry movie. The ending sequence in a warehouse is great looking and suspenseful, but the film wraps up out of nowhere, ending a very short 91 minute running time. Maybe they should have waited for a story more worthy of Harry and the character's film legacy. While it made a small profit, THE DEAD POOL managed to kill off the terrific film series. After this and two other Eastwood films, Director (and Eastwood friend) Buddy Van Horn went back to directing the stunts on Clint's films, a job he did until "J Edgar" in 2011. THE DEAD POOL is DOA and gets a C.

One of the best film adaptions of Stephen King's novels, 1983's THE DEAD ZONE is a taut, terrific thriller. Christopher Walken stars as Johnny, a school teacher who falls deep into a coma after a rainy car accident. Awakening after five years, Johnny finds that his fiance has remarried, life has moved on and that he has a very special "gift". When he touches people, he can see major events in their lives, past, present or future. At first, the ability appears to be a gift. Johnny touches a nurse caring for him when he wakes up and sees her daughter at home, trapped in a fire. The nurse rushes home just in time to be save her. Soon however, the visions bring darker events to life and Johnny becomes part of the hunt for a serial killer in his home town. Martin Sheen is great as a slimy politician whose chance hand shake with Johnny drives the film's final act. Walken is very good as Johnny, portraying a good, quiet man with a dangerous power. Unsure how and when to use it, Johnny walks a dangerous and very fine line. Director David Cronenberg is a great fit for the material. It's a far more mainstream film that his other efforts like "Scanners" or "Videodrome" but he carves out a great movie. The Dead Zone is heaven for King fans and a fine thriller for any movie fan. It's aged well and Walken is superb. We'll give it an A.

In the early 80's heyday of Steve Martin's comedy stardom, he made some truly eclectic film choices. 1982's DEAD MEN DON'T WEAR PLAID is a goofy little black and white tribute to gumshoe films of the 40's and 50's. Using greenscreen (or maybe it was blue screen that long ago!) Martin inserts himself into film clips of classic detective movies starring Bogart, Alan Ladd, Burt Lancaster and a cavalcade of movie stars. Martin and the legendary Carl Reiner weave the film clips into a very loose story of Rigby Reardon (Martin) and his encounter with femme fatale Juliet Forrest (a stunning Rachel Ward). Her father has disappeared and she and Rigby search through many suspects, interacting seamlessly with stars in many famous clips. By the time Reiner pops up as a Nazi villian, it's all rather silly, but it's a lot more consistently funny than I remembered. Martin is at his best with both physical comedy and comic delivery. The black and white photography is crisp, the story convoluted and the laughs consistent. We'll give Martin's trip through film noir a B-.

1989's thriller DEAD CALM is the opposite of its title. Sam Neill (Jurassic Park) and Nicole Kidman are John and Rae Ingram. In the film's opening moments, they suffer a family tragedy that threatens to tear Rae apart. They escape to the sea on their yacht, seeking solitude to regain their footing after a devastating loss. When they come across a large tourist vessel taking on water, they take aboard its terrified lone survivor Hughie, played by Billy Zane (Titanic). John is an Australian Naval officer and the more he hears Hughie's tale, the more he grows to suspect that everything isn't what it seems. While Hughie sleeps, John takes a smaller boat over to the marooned ship, leaving Rae alone on their boat with the stranger. The following hour is pure tension and thrills as all three people prove themselves to be single minded in their determination. Neill is excellent as John and his many scenes alone on screen are terrific & resourceful, showing all the screen presence the world would come to know the following year in "The Hunt For Red October" and four years later in Spielberg's dinosaur epic. Nicole Kidman was only 21 when she filmed this, her first screen role. She's excellent throughout, busting the boundaries of a traditional "woman in distress" and holding her own against the invader. Zane is all twisted menace as Hughie, flipping on a dime like a sea-bound Sybil and flashing seductive danger at every turn. Producer George Miller, who directed the "Mad Max" series has his fingerprints all over DEAD CALM. It feels like a Miller film, from its imposing main title sequence and Graeme Revell's (The Crow) spooky music score to the crazy sweeping cameras that seem to hover around every angle of their yacht. At just over 90 minutes, DEAD CALM is a non-stop, fast moving thriller that will get under your skin. It's too bad it succumbs to slasher movie stereotypes for its final two minutes, but with all the great scenes that came before, we'll forgive the tacked on "audience-pleaser" ending. DEAD CALM gets an A.

Proof that its possible to have great performances in a questionable movie, DAYS OF THUNDER was a minor hit for young Tom Cruise that still oozes 1990 cool. Cruise is Cole Trickle (insert your Nascar joke here) a rookie driver looking for his break to drive in the big leagues. When he pulls into the pits on a motorcycle, wrapped in slow motion, Hans Zimmer's score and endless smoke and hairspray, Cruise is the epitome of 1990 cool. Robert Duvall gives an excellent performance as Harry Hogge, a wise, seasoned pit chief that becomes Cole's mentor. He always feels authentic, even as some cardboard characters move around him. Nicole Kidman is a doctor that falls for Tom (they have great chemistry that led to marriage off camera), Randy Quaid (Vacation) is the team owner, Cary Elwes (The Princess Bride) is a cocky young driver and Michael Rooker (Guardians of the Galxy) is Cole's rival on the track. This was one of John C. Reilly's first films and he's terrific as well. It's written by Robert Towne, who also wrote "Chinatown" and 'Shampoo". He's a fantastic writer, but his script is buried in an awful lot of 90's sheen from Director Tony Scott (Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop). Cruise has also said that most of the script was thrown out and that scenes were rewritten on the fly, which may explain some of the meandering story. Cruise is fine, the action on the track is well shot and the ending is undeniably 'Rocky"-esque and enjoyable. I also loved hearing a lot of those 90's songs on the soundtrack. If you take it all lightly, its still a hell of a lot of fun, cheesy dialogue and all. No one does everyday heroes quite as well as Tom. DAYS OF THUNDER makes left turn after left turn while never straying far from familiar roads, roaring its loud, guilty pleasure path to a C+.