Predator

#5 in my Ranking of John McTiernan films. What I find most interesting about Predator from a narrative perspective is the fact that it changes genres after half an hour. It quickly runs through the conventions of a big budget 80s action movie with a huge action set piece led by the muscle bound lead…

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The Rock

One of the reasons this movie works so well is the complete commitment to the reality of the film from the actors. From the main three actors to every marine, SEAL, and FBI agent, every actor is 100% committed to the story of a deranged marine general stealing chemical weapons and threatening San Francisco. The…

Blackmail

#36 in my Ranking of Alfred Hitchcock's films. This was Britain's first sound picture, immediately on the heels of the technical marvel that was The Jazz Singer, and it shows. Hitchcock did manage to do some interesting things with his first foray into sound design, but the bulk of the sound, especially in the film's…

The Night of the Generals

In the middle of war, with death everywhere, the loss of a single life should still matter. That's pretty much the message of the film, though it does try to become a sort of mini-epic that includes the July 20th assassination attempt on Hitler that does tie in a bit thematically with the main plot.…

The Manxman

#40 in my Ranking of Alfred Hitchcock's films. Here's a weird little movie that leaves out all of the legwork needed to make dramatic moments work but still manages to raise an interesting moral question at its center. It's based on a novel by Hall Caine, and it feels like many subpar adaptations of novels…