Archive

Archive for the ‘Mystery’ Category

Revolver (2005)

February 5th, 2010 mastram No comments

revolver-2005Jake Green is a hotshot gambler, long on audacity and short on common sense. He’s rarely allowed to play in any casino because he is a winner. Jake has taken in so much money over the years, he is the only client of his accountant and older brother Billy. One night, Jake, Billy and their other brother Joe are invited to sit in on a private game, where Jake is expected to lose to Dorothy Macha, a crime boss and local casino owner who can’t play for squat, but always wins because people are too scared to beat him. Jake isn’t afraid of Macha, and not only beats Dorothy in a quick game of chance, but takes every possible opportunity to insult the man. Jake and his brothers leave the game, and Macha puts out the order for a hit on Jake, who ends up working for and being protected by a pair of brothers, Avi and Zack, who are out to take Macha down.

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Rating: 6.2/10 (10 votes cast)
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Rating: -2 (from 4 votes)
Categories: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller Tags: ,

Premonition (2007)

February 4th, 2010 mastram No comments

premonition-2007Devastated upon receiving the news that her husband has been killed in a tragic car accident, a woman wakes up to find him still very much alive as she begins to slip into a confusing world where the past and the future become increasingly difficult to distinguish. Linda Hanson (Sandra_Bullock) was an average housewife with a loving family, but when a policeman comes knocking on her door with news that her husband, Jim (Julian McMahon), was involved in a fatal car accident, Linda’s world slowly begins to unravel. While her grief is at first overwhelming, Linda assumes that the whole thing was nothing more than a vivid dream when she wakes to find her family still very much intact. With each passing day, however, Linda’s reality shifts and her circumstances grow increasingly surreal; one day Jim is dead and the next he is right there by her side. As her investigation leaves her convinced that her husband’s death wasn’t a dream and that her picture-perfect life may not have been quite as flawless as she thought, Linda embarks on a mind-bending journey to prevent her grim premonition from becoming a reality. Now, in order to save the man she loves, Linda will have to piece together a perplexing mystery that seems to span two separate planes of reality.

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Rating: 6.7/10 (3 votes cast)
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Categories: Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery Tags: ,

Gosford Park (2002)

February 1st, 2010 mastram No comments

gosford-park-2001Maverick American filmmaker Robert Altman takes a witty and absorbing look at the foibles of the British class system in this intelligent murder mystery set in the early ’30s. Sir William McCordle (Michael Gambon) and his wife Lady Sylvia (Kristin Scott Thomas) are a pair of wealthy British socialites who have invited a variety of friends, relatives, and acquaintances to their mansion in the country for a weekend of hunting and relaxation. Among the honored guests are Constance (Maggie Smith), Lady Sylvia’s matronly aunt; Ivor Novello (Jeremy Northam), William’s cousin who is also a well-known actor and songwriter; and Morris Weissman (Bob_Balaban), an American film producer who is friendly with Ivor and researching an upcoming project. Observing the proceedings are the domestic staff of the mansion, including imperious butler Jennings (Alan Bates); footmen George (Richard E. Grant) and Arthur (Jeremy Swift); Probert (Derek Jacobi), a valet to Sir William; housekeeper Mrs. Wilson (Helen Mirren); Mrs. Croft (Eileen Atkins), who oversees the kitchen; and Elsie (Emily Watson), a maid. Also on hand are the guests’ personal servants, including Mary (Kelly Macdonald), Constance’s maid; Henry (Ryan Phillippe), Weissman’s valet; and Parks (Clive Owens), a butler. While the servants are required to display a high level of decorum, they are expected to be passive observers who do not comment on what they see, though the gossip among them travels thick and fast once they retire to the servants’ quarters downstairs. And it turns out that there’s plenty worth gossiping about, especially after Sir William turns up dead, and everyone is ordered to stay at the mansion while the police investigate the killing. Gosford Park also features Charles Dance, Tom Hollander, Natasha Wightman, and Ron Webster; the screenplay was written by Julian Fellowes, based on a story by Altman and co-star Bob_Balaban.

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Rating: 9.7/10 (3 votes cast)
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Rating: +1 (from 1 vote)
Categories: Comedy, Drama, Mystery Tags: ,

Deception (2008)

January 27th, 2010 mastram No comments

deception-2008Cat and mouse. Jonathan McQuarry is an auditor in Manhattan, moving from office to office checking their books. While working late, a smooth and well-dressed man named Wyatt Bose chats Jonathan up, offers him a joint, and soon they’re pals. When their cell phones are accidentally swapped, Jonathan answers Wyatt’s phone to a series of women asking if he’s free tonight. Jonathan discovers it’s a sex club: busy powerful people meet each other anonymously in hotels. Jonathan falls for one of the club members, whom he knows only as “S,” whom he’s also seen on a subway. When she goes missing, patterns emerge and Jonathan faces demands involving violence and lots of money.

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Rating: 5.3/10 (9 votes cast)
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Rating: +1 (from 7 votes)
Categories: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Romantic, Thriller Tags: ,

Cube 2: Hypercube (2002)

January 23rd, 2010 mastram No comments

cube-2Eight strangers find themselves waking up in a strange cube-shaped room with no recollection of how they came to be there. Soon discovering that they’re in a strange fourth dimension where our laws of physics don’t apply, they have to unravel the secrets of the “hypercube” in order to survive.

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Rating: 8.0/10 (13 votes cast)
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Rating: +4 (from 6 votes)
Categories: Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller Tags: ,

Phone Booth (2003)

January 18th, 2010 mastram No comments

phone-booth-2002A fiendish publicist finds himself being held hostage in a phone booth by an extreme moralist who watches his victim’s every move through the scope of his high-power sniper rifle, while speaking to the publicist via the phone booth. The caller prides himself on using force to punish corrupt people by forcing them to admit all of their lies and sins through mental games, or killing them. At the same time, he eliminates other people as well; everyday people who are guilty of brutal dishonesty and/or corruption, such as a murderous street pimp and a pushy pizza man (all of which, if you look hard enough in the film, have a guilt link). The caller himself is corrupt, and uses it defeat other corruption. It is evil fighting evil in the phone booth.

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Rating: 8.8/10 (5 votes cast)
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Categories: Mystery, Thriller Tags: ,

Perfect Stranger (2007)

January 18th, 2010 mastram No comments

perfect-stranger-2007In New York, the investigative reporter Rowena Price sees her scoop about a gay senator spiked by her editor. She quits her job in the newspaper and meets with her childhood friend Grace by chance in the subway. Grace tells Ro that she had just been dumped by the powerful and wealthy owner of the greatest New Yorker advertising agency, Harrison Hill, and she was threatening to tell his wife about their affair. When Grace is found dead, Harrison becomes Rowena’s prime suspect. With the support of her hacker friend and former colleague Miles Haley, Ro is hired for a temporary work in Harrison’s agency to get close to the executive and investigate his life.

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Rating: 4.2/10 (5 votes cast)
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Categories: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller Tags: ,

Paranoid Park (2007)

January 18th, 2010 mastram No comments

paranoid-park-2007A teenage skateboarder has a run-in with a security guard that results in the man’s death. Confused, fearful, and evasive, the teen wanders the streets of Portland as his life takes a turn for the worse in director Gus Van Sant’s screen adaptation of author Blake Nelson’s grim coming-of-age tome. Alex (Gabe Nevins) is a withdrawn 16-year-old boy who has recently discovered Paranoid Park — a massive skate park in Portland, OR. The Portland skate punks built Paranoid Park so they could have a place to cruise the concrete without being hassled by the cops. One day, after befriending a local skater and anarchist at the park, Alex decides that a little adventure might be just the thing to help him forget about his problems back home. When Alex and his new friend attempt to hop a train and a security guard gives chase, tragedy strikes so quickly that the two teens are barely able to comprehend what has just happened. In the aftermath of the fatal accident, one man is robbed of life and two teens are left to ponder the consequences of their youthful recklessness. Alex doesn’t think that anyone will believe him if he explains how events really unfolded that night, but why would anyone have cause to think he wasn’t telling the truth in the first place? As the police launch an investigation into the death and Alex begins to express himself in a deeply personal diary, the audience is able to experience the pain and confusion of adolescence from the perspective of a young boy who was only seeking to escape from reality when suddenly confronted by the concept of mortality.

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Rating: 7.6/10 (5 votes cast)
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Rating: +3 (from 3 votes)
Categories: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Sport, Thriller Tags: ,

Oldboy (2005)

January 12th, 2010 mastram No comments

oldboy-2005On the day of his daughter’s birthday, Ho Dae-su (Min-sik Choi) gets completely drunk and is arrested. His best friend No Joo-hwan (Dae-han Ji) releases him from the police station, and while calling home from a phone booth, Dae-su vanishes. Indeed he has been abducted and imprisoned in a room for fifteen years. One day, he is suddenly released, receives clothes, money and a cellular and meets the Japanese chef Mido (Hye-jeong Kang), and they feel a great attraction for each other. However, Dae-su seeks for his captor and the reason of his long imprisonment. While looking for revenge, Dae-su discloses deep secrets from the past.

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Rating: 5.7/10 (7 votes cast)
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Rating: +3 (from 5 votes)
Categories: Drama, Mystery, Thriller Tags: ,

The Number 23 (2007)

January 11th, 2010 mastram No comments

number-23Upon acquiring a mysterious book in which the number 23 seems to take on powerful cosmic significance, a once-sane man gradually becomes obsessed with the idea that the frequently recurring number may in fact hold a deadly secret in this intense mystery-thriller starring Jim Carrey and Virginia Madsen, and directed by Joel Schumacher. Walter Sparrow (Carrey) is a middle-aged dogcatcher whose wife Agatha (Madsen) has bestowed him with an obscure mystery novel detailing the investigation launched by a tough-talking gumshoe named Fingerling (also Carrey) whose every move seems to be overshadowed by the enigmatic eponymous number. After noting a series of alarming parallels shared between the fictional detective and himself, Walter is quickly drawn in to the story as the hard-boiled private investigator murders raven-wigged moll Fabrizia (also Madsen) and pins the crime on her unsuspecting lover (Danny Huston). Back in the real world, fiction seems to merge with reality as Walter and Agatha’s close friend Isaac (also Huston) begins to ingratiate himself ever deeper into the couple’s relationship and Walter begins experiencing a gruesome series of visions in which he violently murders an unfaithful Agatha. His mind fast descending into a dark and violent whirlwind of madness, Walter enlists the aid of Agatha and the pair’s adolescent son Robin (Logan Lerman) in seeking out the author of the mysterious tome and uncovering the sinister truth behind the so-called “23 enigma.”

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Rating: 3.5/10 (2 votes cast)
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Categories: Drama, Mystery, Thriller Tags: ,