The Dead Pool (1988)
Sep 12, 2000Dirty Harry vs a Psycho
The fifth and last of Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry films, the weakest of the series. Dirty Harry comes up against a betting pool on celebrity deaths and a killer who decides to help it along
Patricia Clarkson
The Green Mile (1999)
Dec 24, 1999Miracle-Healing Death Row Inmate/Stephen King Addaptation
Frank Darabont had a hit with the Stephen King adaptation The Shawshank Redemption. This, another King adaptation about a Death Row inmate with healing powers, tries to repeat that
Simply Irresistible (1999)
Apr 19, 2000Magical Realism/Magical Cooking
Very silly romantic comedy in a Magical Realist vein where Sarah Michelle Gellar gains magical cooking abilities. Like Water for Chocolate did this better.
The Pledge (2001)
Jan 19, 2001Psycho-Thriller
Slow and subtle Sean Penn directed thriller where Jack Nicholson plays a retired detective haunted by a child murder case
Wendigo (2001)
Apr 9, 2001Backwoods Stalking/Native Indian Spirit
Early film from Larry Fessenden about a family and a Native American spirit. Much brooding build-up but not much payoff (*)
Carrie (2002)
Nov 22, 2004Telekinetic Teen's Revenge/Stephen King Adaptation
TV mini-series remake of the Stephen King novel, which restores many aspects of the book not in the 1976 film. Unfortunately, Brian De Palma has been replaced by a tv director who regards it as just another assignment
Shutter Island (2010)
Mar 9, 2010Sinister Psychiatric Institution/Reality Bender
Martin Scorsese and an impressive A-list cast make a 1940s-styled psycho-thriller about a sinister asylum that soon starts into a series of major reality bending turns
The Maze Runner (2014)
Sep 28, 2014Young Adult/Maze World/Conceptual Breakthrough Story
One of the better among the current fad for Young Adult dystopian SF works post-The Hunger Games. This dispenses with dystopian Coming of Age stories and gives us a fascinating conceptual mystery even if the answers prove underwhelming
The Scorch Trials (2015)
Oct 30, 2015Young Adult/Post-Holocaust Adventure
The Maze Runner was one of the better Young Adult films, creating an intriguing conceptual mystery; this sequel ignores all of that, even throws the book out and is essentially a jumble of random sf tropes that amount to no more than running, shooting and things exploding
Delirium (2018)
Jun 27, 2022Home Detention Detainee Has Possible Hallucinations
Blumhouse film with Topher Grace as a home detention detainee who may or may not be hallucinating seeing figures inside the house
The Death Cure (2018)
Apr 21, 2018Young Adult/Dystopian-Post-Holocaust Adventure
The Maze Runner was a solid Young Adult effort that built out an effective Conceptual Breakthrough story; this, the second of two sequels, feeld like a series of canned action scenes in search of a purpose
Jonathan (2018)
Sep 20, 2020Two Brothers Living in the Same Body
A smart and intelligent SF film with Ansel Elgort as two brothers who inhabit the same body