For the 36th week of 2019 as part of Wandering Through the Shelves' Thursday Movie Picks. We venture into the simple subject of hostage where it’s often told in a suspense thriller where someone has to save someone who has been taken hostage and all sorts of things. Here are my three picks:
1. High and Low
Akira Kurosawa’s adaptation of Ed McBain’s novel King’s Ransom is probably one of his finest films during his glory period from the early 1950s to the mid-1960s. It’s a film that explores a businessman who learns that his son has been kidnapped only to realize that it’s the son of his chauffeur that’s actually been kidnapped as he copes with having to save the boy’s life by giving away money that was meant to start a new life for him. It’s a film that play into all sorts of morality into a man wanting to do what is right but it also questions the sacrifices he had to make as it features great performances from Kurosawa regulars Toshiro Mifune and Tatsuya Nakadai where the latter plays the detective trying to capture the kidnapper.
2. Nick of Time
Johnny Depp is a mild-mannered accountant who is forced by Christopher Walken to kill a governor as part of an assassination while he would take Depp’s daughter hostage. If things go wrong, Depp’s daughter dies forcing Depp to carry on with the mission as he is aided by a disabled war veteran in Charles S. Dutton to get him out of the jam. It’s an unusual yet underrated film that is told in real-time as it is something unlikely that was expected from Hollywood at the time yet it somehow manages to work.
3. Cellular
A film that is underrated in terms of its premise, it revolves around a young man getting a phone call from his cellphone as he tries to save her and find the cops but there’s trouble that involves dirty cops and Jason Statham as the mastermind trying to get money. It’s a film that doesn’t scream a lot of substance but with Kim Basinger as a hostage and the person who receives her call is Chris Evans and it ends up being a better film than it’s supposed to be. Especially as the film is really a preview for Evans’ physicality and earnestness that would make him the right choice to be America’s Ass.
© thevoid99 2019
5 comments:
lmao that last gif! I saw Cellular once and I don't remember a thing about it. It was just one of those movies I watched because I worked in a theater. I haven't seen your first two picks either, but they sound intriguing.
I loved High and Low when I saw it earlier this year. I wasn't sure at first but it grabs you early in the film and is expertly crafted.
Nick of Time flopped when it came out which I didn't understand. It's no masterpiece but a decent thriller with a good cast.
Speaking of films that aren't masterpieces, Cellular has enormous logic plot holes but I enjoyed it when I saw it on cable for all its silliness. Most of that was due to its players.
A bunch of choices this week so I did a little skip through the decades to add some variety.
Hostages (1943)-A large group of Czechoslovakians are held hostages by the Gestapo until the supposed killer of a Nazi officer-actually a suicide-is turned in. Among the group is the leader of the resistance movement (William Bendix), working undercover as an apparently ignorant washroom attendant in the nightclub where the victim was last seen alive. Meanwhile a group of resistance fighters, led by Maria (Katina Paxinou), try to contact Bendix to establish the time to blow up a German ammunition supply and devise a plan to rescue the prisoners. This was double Oscar winner Luise Rainer’s last film for 54 years.
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)-Four men Misters Blue, Green, Grey and Brown board a New York subway train and take the 18 passengers hostage demanding one million dollars in an hour’s time or they will start killing the hostages, one a minute until their demands are met. Under the direction of laconic but sharp transit cop Zach Garber (Walter Matthau) the city tries to meet the deadline and negotiate the lives of the hostages. Slam bang adventure with a cast full of familiar faces really captures the pulsing feel of New York City in the 70’s.
Argo (2012)-1979 Tehran, militants storm the U.S. embassy taking 66 American hostages. During the siege six manage to slip away and find refuge with the Canadian ambassador. Knowing that it's just a matter of time before the refugees are found and likely executed, the U.S. government calls on extractor Tony Mendez (Ben Affleck) to rescue them. Mendez's plan is to pose as a Hollywood producer scouting locations in Iran and train the refugees to act as his "film" crew. Affleck does well in blending all the intricacies of the plot into a cohesive taut whole.
That last gif 🤤
Cellular is the only I've seen and I wasn't a big fan
I just remembered I saw Cellular! Completely forgot about that film although it was actually pretty cool.
Nice picks! Cellular is so much fun - one of those action movies you can't take the plot too seriously, and has decent performances. Evans, in particular, has so much charisma. It's almost hard to believe he couldn't become a big movie star with or without Captain America.
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