Crtic Cinema Recommendations - Mystery & Suspense Titles

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Basic Instinct (Collector's Edition)
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Starring: Douglas, Michael Stone, Sharon
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Director: Verhoeven, Paul	Rating: R	Running Time:
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Category: Mystery & Suspense	User Rating:	Color Dolby

Amazon.com The take-no-prisoners sex thriller from 1992 now stands as a milestone in the career of screenwriter Joe Eszterhas, but in the hands of director Paul Verhoeven Basic Instinct is an undeniably stylish and provocative study of obsession. In the role that made her a star (and showed the audience a little more skin than she intended), Sharon Stone plays the cleverly manipulative novelist Catherine Tramell who snares San Francisco detective Nick Curran (Michael Douglas) with her insatiable sexual appetite during the investigation of her boyfriend's murder. Tramell is the prime suspect, but the plot twists and turns until Curran is trapped in a dangerous cycle of dead ends and unsolved murders, never sure if Tramell is committing the crimes or if it is some other, unknown suspect. With a plot that keeps viewers guessing, Basic Instinct is the work of a director who is clearly in his element. --Jeff Shannon --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition.

Bound
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Starring: Tilly, Jennifer Gershon, Gina Pantoliano, Joe Ryan, John Meloni, Christopher Sarafian, Richard C.
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Director: Wachowski, Andy / Wachowski, Larry	Rating: NR	Running Time: 110 minutes
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Category: Mystery & Suspense	User Rating: 7.5/10 (IMDB)	Color Surround Sound

VideoHound Golden Movie Retriever 2000: Ex-con Corky (Gershon) is busy fixing up her new apartment after serving five years for robbery. Her next-door neighbors are Caesar (Pantoliano), a neurotic, money-laundering mobster, and his sexy girlfriend, a seemingly dumb brunette named Violet (Tilly). The femme twosome hook up (in and out of bed) and hatch a plan to steal two million freshly laundered dollars from Caesar, who goes ballistic when he discovers the money gone. It's a flashy-but not substantive-thriller. Directorial debut for the brother Wachowski.

Deliverance
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Starring: Voight, Jon Reynolds, Burt Beatty, Ned Beatty, Ned Cox, Ronny Redden, Billy Glass, Seamon Deal, Randall Deal, Randall Coward, Herbert 'Cowboy'
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Director: Boorman, John	Rating: R	Running Time: 1 Hour 49 Minutes
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Category: Mystery & Suspense	User Rating: 7.8/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com essential video One of the key films of the 1970s, John Boorman's Deliverance is a nightmarish adaptation of poet-novelist James Dickey's book about various kinds of survival in modern America. The story concerns four Atlanta businessmen of various male stripe: Jon Voight's character is a reflective, civilized fellow, Burt Reynolds plays a strapping hunter-gatherer in urban clothes, Ned Beatty is a sweaty, weak-willed boy-man, and Ronny Cox essays a spirited, neighborly type. Together they decide to answer the ancient call of men testing themselves against the elements and set out on a treacherous ride on the rapids of an Appalachian river. What they don't understand until it is too late is that they have ventured into Dickey's variation on the American underbelly, a wild, lawless, dangerous (and dangerously inbred) place isolated from the gloss of the late 20th century. In short order, the four men dig deep into their own suppressed primitiveness, defending themselves against armed cretins, facing the shock of real death on their carefully planned, death-defying adventure, and then squarely facing the suspicions of authority over their concealed actions. Boorman, a master teller of stories about individuals on peculiarly mythical journeys, does a terrifying and beautiful job of revealing the complexity of private and collective character--the way one can never be the same after glimpsing the sharp-clawed survivor in one's soul. --Tom Keogh

Donnie Brasco
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Starring: Pacino, Al Depp, Johnny Madsen, Michael Heche, Anne Kirby, Bruno Kirby Jr., B. Grenier, Zach Becker, Gerry Becker, Gerry Tarantina, Brian
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Director: Newell, Mike	Rating: R	Running Time: 127 minutes
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Category: Mystery & Suspense	User Rating: 7.5/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com Based on a memoir by former undercover cop Joe Pistone (whose daring and unprecedented infiltration of the New York Mob scene earned him a place in the federal witness protection program), Donnie Brasco is like a de- romanticized, de-mythologized version of The Godfather. It offers an uncommonly detailed, privileged glimpse inside the world of organized crime from the perspective of the little guys at the bottom of Mafia hierarchy rather than from the kingpins at the top. Donnie Brasco is not only one of the great modern-day gangster movies to put in the company of The Godfather films and GoodFellas, but it is also one of the great undercover police movies--arguably surpassing Serpico and Prince of the City in richness of character, detail, and moral complexity. Donnie (Johnny Depp, a splendid actor) is practically adopted by Lefty Ruggiero (Al Pacino), a gregarious, low-level "made" man who grows to love his young prot�g� like a son. (Pacino really sinks into this guy's skin and polyester slacks, and creates his freshest, most fully realized character since his 1970s heyday.) As Donnie acclimates himself to Lefty's world, he distances himself from his wife (a terrific Anne Heche) and family for their own protection. Almost imperceptibly his sense of identity slips away from him. Questioning his own confused loyalties, unable to trust anybody else because he himself is an imposter, Donnie loses his way in a murky and treacherous no-man's land. The film is directed by Mike Newell, who also headed up Four Weddings and a Funeral and the gritty, true crime melodrama Dance with a Stranger. --Jim Emerson

Firm, The
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Starring: Cruise, Tom Tripplehorn, Jeanne Hackman, Gene Holbrook, Hal Brimley, Wilford Busey, Gary Cruise, Tom Strathairn, David Strathairn, David Hackman, Gene
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Director: Pollack, Sydney	Rating: R	Running Time: 2 Hours 34 Minutes
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Category: Mystery & Suspense	User Rating: 6.6/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com essential video By far the best adaptation of a John Grisham bestseller, this smart, fast-paced 1993 film--directed by Sydney Pollack (Out of Africa)--offers up the dilemma of a young lawyer whose life is turned upside down when he takes a job at a Southern law firm owned by the mob. Mitch McDeere (Tom Cruise), having just graduated from Harvard Law, is besieged with offers but takes a job, too good to be true, with a small Memphis firm. He and his wife, Abby (Jeanne Tripplehorn), are sucked in by the seemingly close-knit, collegial nature of the firm's partners and the expensive perks that come with the job. His mentor, Avery (Gene Hackman), teaches him the ropes, but Mitch and Abby begin to sense there's something wrong with this idyllic life. When a couple of associates turn up dead, Mitch begins to investigate the history of the firm; and when the FBI asks him to spy on the firm for them, Mitch realizes his life will never be the same and that, if discovered, he, his wife, and his long-lost brother will be in mortal danger. Mitch must use all his talents as a lawyer to outsmart the firm, the FBI, and the mob in order to reclaim control over his life. A very entertaining thriller that engages the audience at a breakneck pace while not taking itself too seriously. It also features some fine writing and strong performances from a large cast of exceptional actors. --Robert Lane --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition.

Fugitive, The
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Starring: Ford, Harrison Jones, Tommy Lee Jones, Tom Lee Katsulas, Andreas Krabbe, Jeroen Pantoliano, Joe Ward, Sela Moore, Julianne Moore, Julianne Wood, Tom
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Director: Davis, Andrew	Rating: PG-13	Running Time: 131 minutes
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Category: Mystery & Suspense	User Rating: 7.7/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com essential video Do you know anyone who hasn't seen this movie? A box-office smash when released in 1993, this spectacular update of the popular 1960s TV series stars Harrison Ford as a surgeon wrongly accused of the murder of his wife. He escapes from a prison transport bus (in one of the most spectacular stunt-action sequences ever filmed) and embarks on a frantic quest for the true killer's identity, while a tenacious U.S. marshal (Tommy Lee Jones, in an Oscar-winning role) remains hot on his trail. Director Andrew Davis hit the big time with this expert display of polished style and escalating suspense, but it's the antagonistic chemistry between Jones and Ford that keeps this thriller cooking to the very end. In roles that seem custom-fit to their screen personas, the two stars maintain a sharply human focus to the grand-scale manhunt, and the intelligent screenplay never resorts to convenient escapes or narrative shortcuts. Equally effective as a thriller and a character study, this is a Hollywood blockbuster that truly deserves its ongoing popularity. --Jeff Shannon

Heat
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Starring: Pacino, Al Niro, Robert De Kilmer, Val Kilmer, Val Sizemore, Tom Voight, Jon Venora, Diane Brenneman, Amy Brenneman, Amy Williamson, Mykelti
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Director: Mann, Michael	Rating: R	Running Time: 2 Hours 52 Minutes
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Category: Mystery & Suspense	User Rating: 7.8/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com essential video Having developed his skill as a master of contemporary crime drama, writer-director Michael Mann displayed every aspect of that mastery in this intelligent, character-driven thriller from 1995, which also marked the first onscreen pairing of Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. The two great actors had played father and son in the separate time periods of The Godfather, Part II, but this was the first film in which the pair appeared together, and although their only scene together is brief, it's the riveting fulcrum of this high-tech cops-and-robbers scenario. De Niro plays a master thief with highly skilled partners (Val Kilmer and Tom Sizemore) whose latest heist draws the attention of Pacino, playing a seasoned Los Angeles detective whose investigation reveals that cop and criminal lead similar lives. Both are so devoted to their professions that their personal lives are a disaster. Pacino's with a wife (Diane Venora) who cheats to avoid the reality of their desolate marriage; De Niro pays the price for a life with no outside connections; and Kilmer's wife (Ashley Judd) has all but given up hope that her husband will quit his criminal career. These are men obsessed, and as De Niro and Pacino know, they'll both do whatever's necessary to bring the other down. Mann's brilliant screenplay explores these personal obsessions and sacrifices with absorbing insight, and the tension mounts with some of the most riveting action sequences ever filmed--most notably a daylight siege that turns downtown Los Angeles into a virtual war zone of automatic gunfire. At nearly three hours, the film qualifies as a kind of intimate epic, certain to leave some viewers impatiently waiting for more action, but it's all part of Mann's compelling strategy. Heat is a true rarity: a crime thriller with equal measures of intense excitement and dramatic depth, giving De Niro and Pacino a prime showcase for their finely matched talents. --Jeff Shannon --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition.

Jackie Brown - Miramax Collector's Edition
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Starring: Grier, Pam Jackson, Samuel L. Forster, Robert Forster, Robert Tucker, Chris Grier, Pam Fonda, Bridget Hamilton, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Lisa Gay McInerney, Elizabeth
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Director: Tarantino, Quentin	Rating: R	Running Time: 2 Hours 34 Minutes
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Category: Mystery & Suspense	User Rating: 7.4/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com essential video The curiosity of Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown is Robert Forster's worldly wise bail bondsman Max Cherry, the most alive character in this adaptation of Elmore Leonard's Rum Punch. The Academy Awards saw it the same way, giving Forster the film's only nomination. The film is more "rum" than "punch" and will certainly disappoint those who are looking for Tarantino's trademark style. This movie is a slow, decaffeinated story of six characters glued to a half million dollars brought illegally into the country. The money belongs to Ordell (Samuel L. Jackson), a gunrunner just bright enough to control his universe and do his own dirty work. His just-paroled friend--a loose term with Ordell--Louis (Robert De Niro) is just taking up space and could be interested in the money. However, his loyalties are in question between his old partner and Ordell's doped-up girl (Bridget Fonda). Certainly Fed Ray Nicolette (Michael Keaton) wants to arrest Ordell with the illegal money. The key is the title character, a late-40s-ish flight attendant (Pam Grier) who can pull her own weight and soon has both sides believing she's working for them. The end result is rarely in doubt, and what is left is two hours of Tarantino's expert dialogue as he moves his characters around town. Tarantino changed the race of Jackie and Ordell, a move that means little except that it allows Tarantino to heap on black culture and language, something he has a gift and passion for. He said this film is for an older audience although the language and drug use may put them off. The film is not a salute to Grier's blaxploitation films beyond the musical score. Unexpectedly the most fascinating scenes are between Grier and Forster: two neo-stars glowing in the limelight of their first major Hollywood film after decades of work. --Doug Thomas --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition. DVD Features The documentary Jackie Brown: How It Went Down is basically a vacuous cast-and-crew lovefest, but their enthusiasm is genuine, and the other bonus features are consistently worthwhile. A 54-minute interview with Quentin Tarantino seems excessive until you fully appreciate the writer-director's passionate devotion to movies and movie knowledge; film students are advised to listen attentively. The gem of the bunch, however, is the complete "Chicks with Guns" infomercial that's partially seen in ... read more

JFK
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Starring: Costner, Kevin Oldman, Gary Jones, Tommy Lee Metcalf, Laurie Oldman, Gary Pozniak, Beata Rooker, Michael Sanders, Jay O. Sanders, Jay O. Doyle-Murray, Brian
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Director: Stone, Oliver	Rating: R	Running Time: 206 min (director's cut)
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Category: Mystery & Suspense	User Rating: 7.8/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com essential video Director Oliver Stone added 17 minutes of previously unseen footage for the "director's cut" edition of his hypnotic courtroom epic about the investigation into the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in November 1963. That fateful day in Dallas set in motion a sequence of events that would only intensify the mystery behind Kennedy's death, causing New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner) to begin an investigation that would gradually become a personal obsession. Bravura filmmaking combined with controversial treatment of historical facts and audacious speculation, this breathtaking revision of history presents a mesmerizing parade of shady figures and conspiracy theories, unfolding like a classic mystery based on history's greatest unsolved crime. A technical triumph boasting Oscar-winning cinematography and editing, Stone's film is guaranteed to grab the viewer's attention with its daring take on the JFK controversy. The stellar supporting cast includes Tommy Lee Jones, Joe Pesci, Jack Lemmon, Donald Sutherland, Sissy Spacek, Kevin Bacon, and Gary Oldman as Lee Harvey Oswald. --Jeff Shannon

L.A. Confidential
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Starring: Spacey, Kevin Crowe, Russell Pearce, Guy Basinger, Kim DeVito, Danny De Vito, Danny Cromwell, James Strathairn, David Strathairn, David Rifkin, Ron
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Director: Hanson, Curtis	Rating: R	Running Time: 2 Hours 18 Minutes
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Category: Mystery & Suspense	User Rating: 8.4/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com essential video In a time when it seems that every other movie makes some claim to being a film noir, L.A. Confidential is the real thing--a gritty, sordid tale of sex, scandal, betrayal, and corruption of all sorts (police, political, press--and, of course, very personal) in 1940s Hollywood. The Oscar-winning screenplay is actually based on several titles in James Ellroy's series of chronological thriller novels (including the title volume, The Big Nowhere, and White Jazz)--a compelling blend of L.A. history and pulp fiction that has earned it comparisons to the greatest of all Technicolor noir films, Chinatown. Kim Basinger richly deserved her Supporting Actress Oscar for her portrayal of a conflicted femme fatale; unfortunately, her male costars are so uniformly fine that they may have canceled each other out with the Academy voters: Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kevin Spacey, and James Cromwell play LAPD officers of varying stripes. Pearce's character is a particularly intriguing study in Hollywood amorality and ambition, a strait-laced "hero" (and son of a departmental legend) whose career goals outweigh all other moral, ethical, and legal considerations. If he's a good guy, it's only because he sees it as the quickest route to a promotion. --Jim Emerson

Play Misty for Me
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Starring: Eastwood, Clint Walter, Jessica Siegel, Don Ging, Jack Larch, John Mills, Donna Walter, Jessica Hervey, Irene Hervey, Irene Everts, Duke
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Director: Eastwood, Clint	Rating: R	Running Time: 1 Hour 43 Minutes
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Category: Mystery & Suspense	User Rating: 7.0/10 (IMDB)	Color Stereo

Amazon.com essential video Clint Eastwood (making his very assured directorial debut) is a poetry-spouting stud-muffin DJ stalked by a maniacally amorous fan after a misguided one-night stand in this enjoyably schlocky, undeniably effective film about good intentions gone murderously wacky. Although many of the very '70s trappings presented here may ultimately be too dated to be taken seriously (including a very self-indulgent jazz number and a hilariously gooey seduction number between Eastwood and Donna Mills), the core premise of infatuation taken out of bounds remains uncomfortably plausible--and was influential enough to be appropriated by one of the biggest hits of the '80s. (Here's a hint--it starred Michael Douglas, Glenn Close, and a very unfortunate bunny rabbit). A well-staged and occasionally very frightening thriller worth watching for Jessica Walter's peerlessly unhinged performance alone. Frequent Eastwood collaborator Don Siegel (director of Dirty Harry, Coogan's Bluff, and The Beguiled, to name but a few) has a nice cameo as Murphy, the mustachioed, chess-playing bartender. --Andrew Wright --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition.

Pulp Fiction - Miramax Collector's Edition
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Starring: Travolta, John Jackson, Samuel L. Thurman, Uma Jones, Angela Willis, Bruce Arquette, Rosanna Thurman, Uma Buscemi, Steve Buscemi, Steve Plummer, Amanda
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Director: Tarantino, Quentin	Rating: R	Running Time: 2 Hours 34 Minutes
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Category: Mystery & Suspense	User Rating: 8.7/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com essential video With the knockout one-two punch of 1992's Reservoir Dogs and 1994's Pulp Fiction writer-director Quentin Tarantino stunned the filmmaking world, exploding into prominence as a cinematic heavyweight contender. But Pulp Fiction was more than just the follow-up to an impressive first feature, or the winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival, or a script stuffed with the sort of juicy bubblegum dialogue actors just love to chew, or the vehicle that reestablished John Travolta on the A-list, or the relatively low-budget ($8 million) independent showcase for an ultrahip mixture of established marquee names and rising stars from the indie scene (among them Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis, Ving Rhames, Harvey Keitel, Christopher Walken, Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer, Julia Sweeney, Kathy Griffin, and Phil Lamar). It was more, even, than an unprecedented $100-million-plus hit for indie distributor Miramax. Pulp Fiction was a sensation. No, it was not the Second Coming (I actually think Reservoir Dogs is a more substantial film; and P.T. Anderson outdid Tarantino in 1997 by making his directorial debut with two even more mature and accomplished pictures, Hard Eight and Boogie Nights). But Pulp Fiction packs so much energy and invention into telling its nonchronologically interwoven short stories (all about temptation, corruption, and redemption amongst modern criminals, large and small) it leaves viewers both exhilarated and exhausted--hearts racing and knuckles white from the ride. (Oh, and the infectious, surf-guitar-based soundtrack is tastier than a Royale with Cheese.) --Jim Emerson --This text refers to the DVD edition. DVD Features This collector's edition of Pulp Fiction retains several supplemental features from the out-of-print Criterion Collection laserdisc, adding some fine bonus material of its own. A new documentary combines cast and crew interviews from various sources with on-set footage and healthy hindsight on the Pulp Fiction phenomenon, while the Charlie Rose hour from 1994 remains a definitive interview from the peak of Quentin Tarantino's stratospheric success. Better yet is Michael Moore's priceless... read more

Reservoir Dogs - (Mr. Blond) 10th Anniversary Special Limited Edition
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Starring: Keitel, Harvey Roth, Tim Keitel, Harvey Penn, Chris Madsen, Michael Tierney, Lawrence Roth, Tim Baltz, Kirk Baltz, Kirk Bender, Lawrence
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Director: Tarantino, Quentin	Rating: R	Running Time: 100 minutes
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Category: Mystery & Suspense	User Rating: 8.3/10 (IMDB)	Color DTS Surround Sound

Amazon.com essential video Quentin Tarantino came out of nowhere (i.e., a video store in Manhattan Beach, California) and turned Hollywood on its ear in 1992 with his explosive first feature, Reservoir Dogs. Like Tarantino's mainstream breakthrough Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs has an unconventional structure, cleverly shuffling back and forth in time to reveal details about the characters, experienced criminals who know next to nothing about each other. Joe (Lawrence Tierney) has assembled them to pull off a simple heist, and has gruffly assigned them color-coded aliases (Mr. Orange, Mr. Pink, Mr. White) to conceal their identities from being known even to each other. But something has gone wrong, and the plan has blown up in their faces. One by one, the surviving robbers find their way back to their prearranged warehouse hideout. There, they try to piece together the chronology of this bloody fiasco--and to identify the traitor among them who tipped off the police. Pressure mounts, blood flows, accusations and bullets fly. In the combustible atmosphere these men are forced to confront life-and-death questions of trust, loyalty, professionalism, deception, and betrayal. As many critics have observed, it is a movie about "honor among thieves" (just as Pulp Fiction is about redemption, and Jackie Brown is about survival). Along with everything else, the movie provides a showcase for a terrific ensemble of actors: Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Steve Buscemi, Michael Madsen, Christopher Penn, and Tarantino himself, offering a fervent dissection of Madonna's "Like a Virgin" over breakfast. Reservoir Dogs is violent (though the violence is implied rather than explicit), clever, gabby, harrowing, funny, suspenseful, and even--in the end--unexpectedly moving. (Don't forget that "Super Sounds of the Seventies" soundtrack, either.) Reservoir Dogs deserves just as much acclaim and attention as its follow-up, Pulp Fiction, would receive two years later. --Jim Emerson --This text refers to the DVD edition.

Usual Suspects (Special Edition), The
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Starring: Byrne, Gabriel Spacey, Kevin Palminteri, Chazz Spacey, Kevin Esposito, Giancarlo Palminteri, Chazz Pollak, Kevin Toro, Benicio Del Toro, Benicio Del Hedaya, Dan
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Director: Singer, Bryan	Rating: R	Running Time: 1 Hour 46 Minutes
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Category: Mystery & Suspense	User Rating: 8.7/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com essential video Ever since this convoluted thriller dazzled audiences and critics in 1995 and won an Oscar for Christopher McQuarrie's twisting screenplay, The Usual Suspects has continued to divide movie lovers into opposite camps. While a lot of people take great pleasure from the movie's now-famous central mystery (namely, "Who is Keyser S�ze?"), others aren't so easily impressed by a movie that's too enamored of its own cleverness to make much sense. After all, what are we to make of a final scene that renders the entire movie obsolete? Half the fun of The Usual Suspects is the debate it provokes and the sheer pleasure of watching its dynamic cast in action, led (or should we say, misled) by Oscar winner Kevin Spacey as the club-footed con man who recounts the saga of enigmatic Hungarian mobster Keyser S�ze. Spacey's in a band of thieves that includes Gabriel Byrne, Stephen Baldwin, Kevin Pollak, and Benicio Del Toro, all gathered in a plot to steal a large shipment of cocaine. The story is told in flashback as a twisted plot being described by Spacey's character to an investigating detective (Chazz Palmintieri), and The Usual Suspects is enjoyable for the way it keeps the viewer guessing right up to its surprise ending. Whether that ending will enhance or extinguish the pleasure is up to each viewer to decide. Even if it ultimately makes little or no sense at all, this is a funny and fiendish thriller, guaranteed to entertain even its vocal detractors. --Jeff Shannon --This text refers to the DVD edition.