Tell No One

If you've looked at the movie listings recently, you probably already know that there isn't much playing right now. With the pickins being so slim, we decided to check out something a little different.

The name of the movie is Tell No One. Francois Cluzet stars in this French thriller, based on the international best seller. A story of upended love with a mystery that exerts its power till the very end.

Eight years after the heinous murder of his wife, doctor Alex Beck receives an ominous email from an unknown source. The message contains a video image of Alex's thought-to-be dead wife in real time.

Maintaining a rewarding balance of genuine emotion and high tension entertainment, Tell No One is one that - if you don't mind subtitles - you will want to see and tell everyone.

88 Minutes

This week mom and I went to see 88 Minutes. This suspense thriller starring Al Pacino as a police psychologist/teacher, is a fast paced, entertaining little film, which keeps you gripped all the way to the end.

September 1, 1997. Most of the world is talking about the death of Princess Diana. In rainy Seattle, twin sisters Janie and Joanie Cates are getting ready for bed. Before the morning comes, one of the them will have been brutally murdered, the other tortured. A man is arrested and, with the help of testimony from Forensic Psychiatrist Jack Graham (Al Pacino), is sentenced to die, a sentence that takes nine years before it can be carried out. The killer (Neil McDonough) has always maintained his innocence, claiming that Graham lied and persuaded the jury to convict him. In fact, in of the many plot twists, it appears that the Seattle Slayer (the nickname given the cause of these brutal murders) is still killing nine years later, on the day the alleged killer is due to die. Are these copycat crimes or might Forster, as he convincingly maintains, be innocent?



Forster wins a stay and is about to be released. Then, ominously, Gramm receives mysterious phone messages, punctuated by the words “Tick-tock, Doc,” warning that he has only 88 minutes to live. The story unfolds at breakneck speed as Gramm tears through one frantic morning trying to maintain his routine schedule as he struggles to get answers and dodge the ever-increasing threats.



“88 Minutes” is a fine showcase for the talent that IS Al Pacino.

Vantage Point

Vantage Point stars, among others, Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, and Forest Whitaker. Quaid and Fox are secret service agents assigned to protect the president (William Hurt) while he makes a speech in Spain. Quaid is the old agent whose lost is nerve and probably should have retired, who has only recently been reinstated after taking a bullet for the Chief a year earlier.

Whitaker is an American tourist, who happens to be in the crowd with a camcorder when the president is suddenly shot, he thinks he has captured the terrorist on film, and for no apparent reason gets it into his head that the best way to help the Secret Service is to chase after them on foot with his camcorder.

The movie introduces each character one at a time, following them right up until the attack and then shortly thereafter. Then it stops, literally rewinds and shows us the same thing from a new character’s perspective, following that character until he too reaches a predetermined cut off point.

With each replay, different pieces of the puzzle are revealed helping us piece together the circumstances leading up to the deadly tragedy. The final picture is a surprisingly captivating, edge-of-your-seat experience.

Michael Clayton

The movie of choice this weekend was Michael Clayton. In this Legal-Eagle thriller, Clooney’s Clayton is trained as a high-class lawyer but works the lower end of the judicial spectrum. So low, in fact, he has not set foot inside a courtroom for over a decade. Michael is the firm’s “fixer” - a guy who knows the right people for the right circumstance, a somewhat shady character and hard to define- until you need him.

After spending 6 years defending a phosphate conglomerate in a multi-billion dollar toxic poisoning case, veteran lawyer Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson) has lost his mind and is threatening to change sides. On the orders of his boss (Sydney Pollack), Clayton is told to bring his powers of persuasion to bear on his friend. However, Clayton’s instincts tell him there could be some truth to Arthur’s insane ramblings.

This movie reminded me of a combination of The Firm and Erin Brockovich. If you liked those movies, your sure to love this one - Not to mention, George Clooney is always nice to watch...ha!