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Comedy Thriller
The sophomore outing for Mark Illsley, the writer and director of 1999's Happy Texas, Bookies is a return to the crime comedy genre of the filmmaker's first project. Starring Nick Stahl, Lukas Haas, and Johnny Galecki as college buddies Toby, Casey, and Jude, the film begins with the trio upset over a substantial gambling loss. After paying up, they decide that they are on the wrong side of the transaction and concoct a plan to become bookies themselves. Working in the shadows so as not to let on that they are anything but professionals, the young entrepreneurs devise a system that involves leaving money in unpopular books at the library where Jude works. Before they know it, the guys are rolling in the dough. Casey buys a bunch of computer equipment, Jude gets himself a drug habit, and Toby uses his newfound wealth to impress Hunter, a fellow student played by Rachael Leigh Cook. But just as fast as things started to go well, they take an unexpected turn. The boys are making so much money that they're cutting into the business of the local mafia. As one might expect, the thugs don't take too kindly to competition. Also starring John Diehl and David Proval, Bookies premiered at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nick Stahl, Lukas Haas, (more)
Chevy Chase added a classic comic hero to the film landscape with Fletch, one of his few truly popular star vehicles in a famously misguided post-Saturday Night Live career. Chase plays Irwin M. Fletcher, known to everyone as Fletch, a Los Angeles Lakers-loving investigative reporter with a gleeful disdain for deadlines and a knack for pushing the buttons of his frustrated editor (Richard Libertini). He's also known for donning numerous disguises and assuming zany false identities to help gain information. While pursuing an ongoing story about a powerful drug dealer who operates from Venice Beach, he comes across an intriguing offshoot in which he becomes intimately involved. Aviation executive Alan Stanwyk (Tim Matheson) has an unusual proposition for Fletch: If Fletch agrees to an elaborate plan to kill him, for reasons Stanwyk refuses to divulge beyond explaining that he has bone cancer, Fletch will walk away with a healthy sum of money and a plane ticket to Brazil. Curious yet suspicious by profession, Fletch begins investigating Stanwyk's true motives, which leads him through numerous misadventures. Among them are a visit to a stuffy country club; a high-speed car chase with an unwitting passenger; repeat encounters with Stanwyk's wife (Dana Wheeler-Nicholson), although she may not be his only one; and a trip to Provo -- that's Utah, not Spain. Inspired by a novel of the same name by Gregory McDonald, Fletch went from thriller to comedy as it was adapted into a vehicle for Chase. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chevy Chase, Dana Wheeler-Nicholson, (more)
An innocent man visiting a friend in New York City becomes embroiled in a dangerous series of events after being mistaken for the very man he has come to the city to see in director Paul McGuigan's labyrinthine murder mystery. Upon arriving at the empty apartment of his old friend Nick, the unassuming Slevin (Josh Hartnett) is troubled to hear the voice of his missing friend's next door neighbor Lindsay (Lucy Liu) expressing concern as to Nick's safety and whereabouts. When Slevin ventures into Lindsay's apartment only to be greeted by the uninviting fist of a thuggish mob henchman, he quickly realizes that Nick is indeed in grave danger. Soon summoned by the big boss and accused of being the deeply indebted Nick, Slevin's attempts to prove his identity are foiled by the fact that his wallet had been stolen upon arrival in the city. With time running out and a complex plot to assassinate one of the city's most powerful crime bosses slowly coming into focus, the arrival of a notorious hit-man named Mr. Goodkat (Bruce Willis) forces Slevin to step up his desperate search and reclaim his identity before he's forced to pay a debt that could cost him his life. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Josh Hartnett, Morgan Freeman, (more)
Tori Spelling stars in this suspense comedy about three college students who find themselves in need of some fast money. With more ambition than experience in criminal enterprise, they decide to kidnap a young woman from a wealthy family. Along the way, they make practically every mistake imaginable, and just when they think they've finally worked the bugs out of their plan and have the girl in their clutches, they discover that they've kidnapped the wrong woman, who proves to be a lot more trouble than they expected. Sean Devine, Danny Strong, and Mark Burgess co-star as the hapless would-be criminals. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sean Devine
Following up on his acclaimed Fun Bar Karaoke, Pen-ek Ratanaruang directs this gritty thriller about crime, gangsters, and the will to survive in the wake of the 1997 Asia economic meltdown. After getting dumped from her office job, Tum (Lalita Panyopas) is so despondent that she tries to chug every noxious substance residing under her sink. When she wakes up, she discovers what appears to be a box full of instant noodle packages. Instead, the cartons are filled with cash -- about a million baht. It turns out that she received the money because of a gangland foul-up in which a six on an apartment address was mistaken for a nine. The thugs quickly figure out their mistake and come knocking once again. When she plays dumb about the dough, they get violent. Soon Tum has two corpses on her floor. Realizing that she needs to get out of town -- and fast -- she turns to Kanjit (Black Phomtong), a mob fixer with a passion for long massages. Unfortunately for Tum, the intended recipient of the ramen carton baht was Kanjit, and he quickly cottons on to Tum's dirty deed. Meanwhile, Tum's already stressful life is made all the more complex by a nosy neighbor (Sirisin Siripornsmathikul) and a close friend (Tasanawalai Ongarittichai) in dire straits. This film was screened at the 2000 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lalita Panyopas, Black Pomtong, (more)
In this offbeat comedy - a U.S./Canadian co-production - Patrick (David Hewlett) is an eccentric and socially inept man who lives alone in his parents' rural Washington state house with just his pet dog, Mars, for company. One of the few members of his family who shows much concern for him is his sister Marilyn (Kate Hewlett, David's real life sibling), and he's delighted when she stops by to pay a visit - a little too delighted, as he feels extremely possessive of her on an almost unhealthy level. Marilyn works as a make-up artist on a science fiction television series, and accompanying her is her fiance, the genial actor Ryan (Paul McGillion) -- a cast member on the same series. Despite Ryan's attempts to get off on good footing, Patrick immediately starts scheming and plotting the young man's murder, but he botches the majority of attempts and frequently only succeeds in injuring himself. When Ryan accidentally dies, Patrick realizes that Marilyn will inevitably blame him for it and read the death as deliberate. He buries the body and cooks up some phony reasons for Ryan's disappearance; problem is, the corpse mysteriously keeps getting exhumed - or does it? It isn't quite clear if what is happening is actually happening or if Patrick is merely hallucinating. Leading man David Hewlett made his directorial debut with A Dog's Breakfast, in addition to writing the film's screenplay. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Hewlett, Paul McGillion, (more)
Bill Duke directs this quirky film adaptation of Chester Himes' crime novel -- a heavily plotted gangster tale with a sweet love story hidden underneath. The film begins in Natchez, Mississippi in 1956. During a police shoot-out with the mob leader Slim's (Badja Djola) gang, Slim's moll Imabelle (Robin Givens) takes off with a cadre of stolen gold. As a result, Imabelle is chased by Slim's mob from Mississippi to New York. By the time she reaches Harlem, she is broke and has to figure out a way to ditch the trunk full of gold. She finds herself at the annual Undertaker's Ball, where she sees the big and dumb Jackson (Forest Whitaker), a bumbling undertaker's assistant. She spots Jackson as a mark that she can use as a cover and latches onto him immediately. She moves in with him to hide out, but Imabelle becomes taken with his innocence. For his part, Jackson falls head over heels in love with her. But the Mississippi mob catches up with her and takes her away. Jackson calls in his street-wise brother Goldy (Gregory Hines) to help him rescue Imabelle. Jackson fears that Imabelle has been kidnapped. But Goldy knows better -- he still agrees to help him but Goldy wants the gold for himself. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Forest Whitaker, Gregory Hines, (more)
Humphrey Bogart stars as one of five disreputable adventurers who are trying to get uranium out of East Africa. Bogart's associates include pompous fraud Robert Morley, and Peter Lorre as the German-accented "O'Hara", whose wartime record is forever a source of speculation and suspicion. Becoming involved in Bogart's machinations are a prim British married couple (Edward Underdown and blonde-wigged Jennifer Jones). As a climax to their many misadventures and double-crosses, the uranium seekers end up facing extermination by an Arab firing squad. The satirical nature of Beat the Devil eluded many moviegoers in 1953, and the film was a failure. The fact that the picture attained cult status in lesser years failed to impress its star Humphrey Bogart, who could only remember that he lost a considerable chunk of his own money when he became involved in the project. Peter Viernick worked on the script on an uncredited basis. Beat the Devil eventually fell into public domain, leading to numerous inferior editions by second and third-tiered labels. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones, (more)
Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn star in this stylish comedy-thriller directed by Stanley Donen, very much in a Hitchcock vein. Grant plays Peter Joshua, who meets Reggie Lampert (Hepburn) in Paris and later offers to help her when she discovers that her husband has been murdered. After the funeral, Reggie is summoned to the embassy and warned by agent/friend Bartholemew (Walter Matthau) that her late husband helped steal 250,000 dollars during the war and that the rest of the gang is after the money as well. When three of the men who attended her husband's funeral begin to harass her, Reggie goes to Joshua for help, at which time Joshua confesses that his name is actually Alexander Dyle, the brother of a fourth accomplice in the gold theft. The three men from the funeral are revealed to be the three other accomplices in the crime, and though she knows next to nothing of the heist, Reggie is caught in a ring of suspense as she is followed by the shadowy trio, all after the money. Apparently, the only person she can trust is Joshua/Dyle -- until Bartholomew tells Reggie that the fourth accomplice had no brother, and Joshua/Dyle reveals that he is, in fact, a crook named Adam Canfield. Now Reggie doesn't know where to turn. The musical score by Johnny Mercer and Henry Mancini was nominated for an Academy Award. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, (more)
David Dobkin made his feature directorial debut with this comedy thriller about an ordinary guy mistakenly viewed as a serial killer by the FBI. In small-town Mercer, Montana (population 1,536), easy-going gas station attendant Clay Bidwell (Joaquin Phoenix) endures a comical nightmare that gets underway when Clay's best buddy Earl (Gregory Sporleder) learns Clay slept with Earl's wife Amanda (Georgina Cates). Earl commits suicide as a horrified Clay watches. Amanda would rather see Clay in prison than have the local gossipers chatting about their affair, so to cover-up, Clay puts Earl's body into a faked auto accident. Clay then finds comfort with waitress Gloria (Nikki Arlyn), but Amanda kills Gloria, leaving Clay to dispose of another body. At the local bar, Clay is befriended by trucker Lester Long (Vince Vaughn), and they go fishing, hooking a corpse. Lester asks Clay to tell the cops he found it alone. The next victim is Amanda, stabbed 40 times. Clay tries to explain what's going on to the law -- Sheriff Mooney (Scott Wilson) and FBI agents Dale Shelby (Janeane Garofalo) and Reynard (Phil Morris) -- but he becomes the main suspect and is arrested, while serial killer Lester is on the loose. Clay manages an escape from jail and goes in search of Lester. David Dobkin, a Ridley Scott protégé, is an award-winning director of music videos (including the Coolio clips that won MTV's "Best Dance Video of 1996") and commercials, many helmed under the auspices of Ridley and Tony Scott's production companies. Shown at the 1998 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vince Vaughn, Janeane Garofalo, (more)
In this spoof of McCarthy-era paranoia and 1950s wholesomeness, the characters and plot are drawn from the popular Parker Brothers board game of the same name. On a dark and stormy night in 1954, six individuals with ties to Washington are assembled for a dinner party at the swanky mansion of one Mr. Boddy (Lee Ving). Boddy's butler, Wadsworth (Tim Curry), assigns each guest a colorful name: Mr. Green (Michael McKean), Col. Mustard (Martin Mull), Mrs. Peacock (Eileen Brennan), Professor Plum (Christopher Lloyd), Miss Scarlet (Lesley Ann Warren), and Mrs. White (Madeline Kahn). Two additional servants, the Cook (Kellye Nakahara) and Yvette, the maid (Colleen Camp), assist Wadsworth as he informs the guests that they have been gathered to meet the man who has been blackmailing them: Mr. Boddy. When Boddy turns up dead, however, the guests must try to figure out who killed him so they can protect their own reputations and keep the body count from growing. Three separate endings were filmed for Clue and shown in different theaters; all three are collected for the video edition. Although the film is set in the 1950s, the original Clue game was actually devised by Anthony Pratt, a clerk in Leeds, England, to pass the time during World War II air-raid drills. First released in 1946 under the name Cluedo by British manufacturer Waddington's, Clue was renamed and released in the U.S. in 1949. Today, Clue/Cluedo is marketed in 70 countries around the world and has been adapted into a British game show and an off-Broadway musical. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eileen Brennan, Tim Curry, (more)
A single mother from Queens becomes unwittingly embroiled in international espionage indirector Hal Hartley's sequel to the critically acclaimed Henry Fool. Fay Grim (Parker Posey) is determined to raise her 14-year-old son Ned (Liam Aiken) so he won't be like his father Henry (Thomas Jay Ryan), who disappeared seven years ago after accidentally murdering a vicious neighbor. As Fay's brother Simon (James Urbaniak) serves time in a prison cell for aiding Henry in his daring escape, he gradually begins to suspect that the man who inspired him to take up writing in the first place is not the louse he appeared to be, but instead the keeper of some potentially explosive government secrets that, if made public, could prove quite dangerous. As Simon begins to explore the possibility that Henry's autobiography "Confessions" contains coded references to a wide variety of international atrocities committed by governments around the world, the CIA contacts Fay to inform her that her husband was killed in a hotel fire in Sweden shortly after fleeing America, and that the French government is currently in possession of two notebooks containing drafts of "Confessions." Convinced that the notebooks contain information that could endanger the security of the United States, CIA agent Fullbright (Jeff Goldblum) convinces Fay to travel to Paris and retrieve Henry's property before the information falls into the wrong hands. Now trapped in the middle of a cross-continental con and thrust deep into the world international espionage, Fay is about to find out that her ex-husband is not only still alive, but in more trouble than he could ever imagine. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Parker Posey, Jeff Goldblum, (more)
A darkly comic whodunit about greed, deceit, and romantic deception, Goodbye Lover stars Patricia Arquette as Sandra, a seemingly moral and obsessively cheerful woman who sells real estate and is fascinated by the movie The Sound Of Music. But Sandra has a secret; while she's married to Jake (Dermot Mulroney), an ad executive who is having problems with both his career and his drinking, she's having an affair with his brother, Ben (Don Johnson), a successful public relations man. Ben, on the other hand, is already dallying with Peggy (Mary-Louise Parker), a woman on his staff who is beautiful but insecure, though she has a darker side few people know about. When Ben decides to break it off with Sandra so he can pursue his relationship with Peggy, Sandra is furious, and, knowing Jake would be just as angry, tells him about their affair. A vengeful Jake confronts Ben, which leads to a knock-down, drag-out fight -- and Ben's death, as he falls from a window. Ben leaves behind a hefty insurance settlement, and soon the surviving characters are scrambling over the money. Enter Police Detective Rita Pompano (Ellen DeGeneres), who has seen too much in her time on the force to not develop a deep cynicism about the people she protects -- or to not be tempted to get in on the payday herself. Goodbye Lover was directed by Roland Joffé, in something of a departure from his best-known work in high-minded dramas such as The Killing Fields and The Mission. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patricia Arquette, Dermot Mulroney, (more)
Most people have trouble deciding what to say when they're asked what they've been doing with their lives at a High School reunion, but Martin Blank (as played by John Cusack) has a different problem than most -- he has to make his career sound less interesting than it actually is. Martin is a former CIA operative who is now a freelance hit man, making good money for killing people he doesn't know. However, Martin's game has been a bit off lately; he's no longer happy in his work, and both his secretary Marcella (Joan Cusack) and his psychiatrist, Dr. Oatman (Alan Arkin), who is more than a bit nervous about having a hired assassin as a patient, think that Martin should accept an offered assignment in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, his old home town, which would conveniently coincide with his ten year high school reunion. While in Grosse Pointe, Martin discovers that his high school sweetheart, Debi Newberry (Minnie Driver), is still living in town, and still holds a grudge against him for standing her up on prom night. While Martin tries to sort out his past and tie up loose ends with Debi (whom he still loves), he discovers someone in Grosse Pointe is out to kill him; he's also confronted by the highly unstable Mr. Grocer (Dan Aykroyd), a fellow hit man who wants Martin to join forces with him and form a union and isn't keen on taking no for an answer. Grosse Pointe Blank was a pet project for star John Cusack, who co-wrote the screenplay and also served as co-producer. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Cusack, Minnie Driver, (more)
Walter Matthau plays a CIA agent who's been confined by office politics to a desk job. The disgruntled Matthau quits the service and heads to Europe, where he links up with former lover (an fellow ex-agent) Glenda Jackson. All goes smoothly until Matthau acts on the advice of yet another retired agent, Russian Herbert Lom, who suggests that Matthau write a tell-all autobiography. Spitefully, Matthau sends out copies of his first chapter to the heads of the CIA agencies throughout the world--and from that point on, he and Jackson don't have a moment's peace. This delights Matthau: now that all of his former colleagues are chasing after him, he has a reason to get up in the morning. As written by Brian Garfield, Hopscotch was a conventionally serious espionage novel. As adapted for the big screen by Garfield and Bryan Forbes, Hopscotch is a lively exercise in cloak-and-dagger comedy, even when the pursuit of Matthau turns deadly towards the end. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Walter Matthau, Glenda Jackson, (more)
A pair of garbage workers (Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez) are shocked to find the body of a city councilman in one of their trash cans. With help from a supervisor (Keith David), the duo must solve the case and find the man's killer while hiding the body from the cops. Estevez also directed and provided the screenplay for Men at Work. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Emilio Estevez, Charlie Sheen, (more)
In this comic adventure story, Maddy (Mary-Kate Olsen) and Abby (Ashley Olsen) are twin sisters (sounds reasonable) who accidentally witness a felony and soon find they're being chased by hoodlums who want to make sure they keep quiet about what they've seen. Hoping to keep the girls under wraps so they can testify against the crooks, Maddy and Abby are placed into the FBI Witness Protection Program; however, the girls have a tragic inability to keep a secret, and before long the FBI decides the best approach is to simply ship the twins out of the country until they can testify. Maddy and Abby are sent to sunny Sydney, Australia, where they find sun, fun, and danger when the gangsters discover them down under. Our Lips Are Sealed was released direct-to-video on November 21, 2000. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mary-Kate Olsen, Ashley Olsen, (more)
In this tech-thriller from director Phil Alden Robinson, a group of five renegade computer hackers, led by Martin Bishop (Robert Redford), are hired by the government to steal a black box, containing a code-breaking machine, from the mathematician who invented the device. The government is able to persuade Martin to take the job by convincing him that they will drop a decades-old federal warrant for his involvement in computer fraud. Martin agrees and he takes his team on the mission, eventually taking the box. Shortly after the hackers have stolen the device, the mathematician turns up dead. Before long, the quintet realize that they've gotten themselves into more than they'd originally bargained for, as Bishop's old rival Cosmo (Ben Kingsley) enters into the fold. The eclectic ensemble also includes River Phoenix, Sidney Poitier, Dan Aykroyd, David Strathairn, Mary McDonnell, and James Earl Jones. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier, (more)
Though overlong even for a Hayley Mills vehicle, That Darn Cat is an expert blend of laughs and suspense. The eponymous feline is D.C., a Siamese belonging to sisters Hayley Mills and Dorothy Provine. One evening, D.C. comes flouncing home with a lady's wristwatch attached to her neck. The watch contains an unfinished plea for help scribbled on its back, written by Grayson Hall, a bank teller held captive in a neighboring house by robbers Neville Brand and Frank Gorshin. Mills and Provine contact the FBI, who send agent Dean Jones (who's allergic to cats) to investigate. In their efforts to locate and rescue Hall and capture the crooks, Jones and the two sisters embark upon a series of slapstick misadventures involving an unending stream of top character actors. The highlight is a lengthy sequence at the drive-in movie theatre managed by ulcerated Richard Deacon. That Darn Cat is based on Undercover Cat, a somewhat more serious suspense novel by The Gordons. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hayley Mills, Dean Jones, (more)
Jackie Chan tones down the martial arts action but turns up the international espionage in this globe-trotting adventure. Buck Yuen (Jackie Chan) is a sporting goods salesman from Hong Kong who daydreams of living the exciting and dangerous life of an international spy. One day, Buck makes the news after he accidentally stops a gang of bank robbers from getting away with the loot, and his brief moment of celebrity attracts the attention of Many Liu (Eric Tsang), a low-rent private detective who's looking for help with a missing person's case. One of Many's clients is looking for his long-lost son, and Many thinks Buck is just the guy to help track him down. Buck signs on, and is sent to Korea, where he meets a mysterious man named Mr. Park; Buck doesn't think he's the man Many wants, but he wonders if he might be his own father, who disappeared when he was a child. Buck makes the acquaintance of Carmen (Kim Min-jeong), an attractive journalist who tips off Buck that Mr. Park is actually an infamous North Korean espionage agent; Buck confronts Mr. Park, who has suddenly fallen ill, and Park on his deathbed tells Buck a riddle that, if properly decoded, could lead him to a great fortune. As Buck and Carmen try to unravel the mystery of Mr. Park's final words, their adventures lead them to Istanbul, where the fate of millions is suddenly put into Buck's hands when he discovers a deadly biological weapon coveted by Mr. Zen (Wu Hsing-kuo), a ruthless Chinese crime boss. One of Jackie Chan's most lavish Hong Kong-based vehicles, Takmo Mai Sing was a massive commercial success there, where it did impressive business opening on the Chinese New Year. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jackie Chan, Eric Tsang, (more)
The 50th film from legendary French New Wave writer and director Claude Chabrol is a typically Hitchcockian comic thriller about a pair of con artists. Up to now, the duo of Betty (Isabelle Huppert) and Victor (Michel Serrault) have contented themselves to small scams at hotel conventions, such as spiking the drink of a gambler, then rolling him for his winnings after he follows the flirtatious Betty back to his room and passes out. It then develops that, for the past year, without telling Victor, Betty has been plotting an enormous score involving Maurice (François Cluzet), the treasurer of an international corporation, who's planning to abscond with a briefcase containing five million Swiss francs in syndicate money. Betty's plan is for Victor to swap an identical briefcase with Maurice's and walk away with the jackpot, but Victor becomes suspicious of Betty's solo venture. Is his once-loyal partner betraying him? What about Maurice, who's no fool, and his gangster bosses, who will surely want their money returned? A dizzying array of potential double-crosses muddles the question of who's grifting who in the Betty-Victor-Maurice triangle. Rien Ne Va Plus (1997) screened at several film festivals under the English-language title The Swindle. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Isabelle Huppert, Michel Serrault, (more)
Filmed on what MGM considered a B-picture budget and schedule (14 days, which at Universal or Columbia would have been considered extravagant), The Thin Man proved to be "sleeper," spawning a popular film, radio, and television series. Contrary to popular belief, the title does not refer to star William Powell, but to Edward Ellis, playing the mean-spirited inventor who sets the plot in motion. The recently divorced Clyde Wynant (Ellis) discovers that his new girlfriend, Julia Wolf (Natalie Moorhead), has stolen 50,000 dollars and is carrying on with other men. Not long afterward, he disappears. Anxious to locate her father, Wynant' daughter, Dorothy (Maureen O'Sullivan), goes to private detective Nick Charles (William Powell) for help. Having just married the lovely and wealthy Nora (Myrna Loy), Nick has no desire to return to sleuthing, but the thrill-seeking Nora eagerly talks him into taking Dorothy's case. Shortly thereafter, Wynant's lady friend is murdered; so far as police detective John Guild (Nat Pendleton) is concerned, the still-missing Wynant is the guilty party. Nick is unsatisfied with this deduction, and with the help of his wire fox terrier, Asta, he manages to uncover several vital clues -- including a decomposed corpse. At a fancy dinner party, between cocktails and the first course, Nick solves the mystery and exposes a hidden murderer. The story itself, lifted almost verbatim by scenarists Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich from the Dashiell Hammett novel on which The Thin Man is based, hardly matters. The film's strong suit is the witty repartee between Nick and Nora Charles, who manage to behave like saucily illicit lovers throughout the film even though they're married. The chemistry between William Powell and Myrna Loy would be adroitly exploited by MGM in several subsequent films, including five additional Thin Man mysteries produced between 1936 and 1948. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Powell, Myrna Loy, (more)
Director Jonathan Demme filters the classic Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant vehicle Charade through the influence of the French New Wave in this stylish romantic thriller. Regina Lambert (Thandie Newton) has been having second thoughts about her marriage to the often enigmatic art dealer Charlie (Stephen Dillane), and decides to take a vacation without him, where she meets Joshua Peters (Mark Wahlberg), a handsome and charming American who seems quite taken with her. When Regina returns home to Paris, she receives the startling news that her husband has been murdered; however, even more disturbing is her discovery that her husband had a secret life which involved several passports under different identities, and a missing six million dollars. Police official Commandant Dominique (Christine Boisson) seems to believe that Regina is somehow involved in the crime, while U.S. embassy representative Mr. Bartholomew (Tim Robbins) breaks the news to Regina that her late husband was actually a secret agent involved in some very shady operations. Three mysterious and dangerous figures who had ties to Charlie -- Emil Zadapec (Ted Levine), Lola Jansco (Lisa Gay Hamilton), and Il-Sang Lee (Joong-Hoon Park) -- also arrive in Paris, convinced that Regina knows where her husband stashed the money and determined to get their hands on it. Meanwhile, as Regina's life becomes increasingly chaotic and dangerous, Joshua arrives in Paris and a romance begins to blossom between them, but while he seems determined to do whatever he can to help her, Regina soon has reason to doubt that Joshua's motives are as pure as they seem. Shot on location in Paris, The Truth About Charlie also features cameo appearances from a number of legendary French actors and filmmakers, including Charles Aznavour, Anna Karina, and Agnès Varda. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mark Wahlberg, Thandie Newton, (more)
Jake Kasdan made his feature film directorial debut with this oblique thriller about eccentric private detective Daryl Zero (Bill Pullman) and his sardonic front man partner Steve Arlo (Ben Stiller). After the two are hired by blackmail victim Gregory Stark (Ryan O'Neal), Zero sets up a sting operation and soon focuses on his suspect, Gloria Sullivan (Kim Dickens), a woman he met at a health club. Thinking Zero is an accountant, she asks him to look over her tax return. Clues form a trail to hitman Kragan Vincent (Matt O'Toole), who could be Gloria's father. Amid the romance and revenge, Zero manages to write a few songs (actually written by Pullman and Kasdan). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bill Pullman, Ben Stiller, (more)
Shock to the System is a black comedy about a middle-aged advertising executive (Michael Caine) who loses his long-awaited promotion to a younger man (Peter Reigret). In frustration, Caine accidentally pushes a panhandler in front of a subway train--and he gets away with the death. Realizing that committing murder might be a little easier than he previously had thought, he begins plotting the murder of several of his corporate enemies. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Caine, Elizabeth McGovern, (more)
