John Dahl
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Anyone who remembers Steven Spielberg's debut with "Duel" will see its influence here.
There will be comparisons to Steven Spielberg�s Duel, and they aren�t too far off.
In another gripping scene, Fuller and Lewis's car is squished up against a tree by the evil truck driver's cab (calling to mind Steven Spielberg's 1971 feature debut, the excellent Duel ).
The script owes too many debts to be repaid; it siphons fuel freely from Steven Spielberg's classic "Duel," Richard Franklin's Australian thriller "Road Games," Jonathan Mostow's underrated "Breakdown" and, in a fake nail-chewing climax, "The Silence of the Lambs."
Its menacing trucker theme reminded me most of Steven Spielberg's 1971 film "Duel," though this one is played more for laughs.
To a certain extent, it's a ripoff of the famous 1971 Spielberg television movie "Duel," but it also neatly blends in elements of both the current teen-scream genre and the 1990s' neo-films-noir that made Dahl's name.
His role is an obvious lift from the charismatic screw-up played by De Niro in "Mean Streets," but Norton has enough skill to make the character his own, even down to the way he lets his clothes hang on his lanky frame.
The remainder of the movie is "Mean Streets" redux, with Damon (the struggling saint) wrestling to keep Norton (the reckless sinner) from the clutches of people who want to either separate him from the money he owes them or to separate his shoulders from their sockets.
Co-written and directed by Jon Watts (who’s since been tapped to helm the next Spider-Man movie), Cop Car is a surprisingly nasty piece of work, more reminiscent of old John Dahl thrillers from the ’90s ( Red Rock West , The Last Seduction ) than of Let’s Be Cops .
Controversial director Oliver Stone is back and supposedly returning to his roots with a smallish, lower-budget, darkly comic rural melodrama (which combines elements of "Red Rock West," "Double Indemnity," "The Postman Always Rings Twice" and a number of other film noir thrillers).
The film's obvious predecessors are Blood Simple, The Hot Spot and Red Rock West.
Using the already pitch-dark modern noir style of Red Rock West as a starting point, Stone pushes his story of murder, veiled motives, and sexual double-cross into realms of surreal excess that make John Dahl look like Ron Howard by comparison.
A cautionary tale for horny saps of the sort who populate "Double Indemnity" and "Body Heat," the movie centers on the double-crossing machinations of Bridget Gregory (Fiorentino).
In John Dahl's "The Last Seduction," a post-"Double Indemnity" drama full of plot twists, double-crossings, sexual gyrations and dark pronouncements, Linda Fiorentino persuades her husband Bill Pullman and a ruthless loan shark to finance a drug deal, then skips town with the $700,000.
It feels as if it’s filtered through a lens that blends early 90s neo-noir features like Red Rock West with a gritty exploitation vibe from grind-house 70s films.
At times it feels like nothing more than a brain dead white-knuckler (in the vein of 2001’s underrated “Joy Ride”), but then he switches gears and awkwardly injects social commentary.
Their inventiveness in thinking up one outrageous yet plausible plot development after another also recalls John Dahl's "Red Rock West."
Blue Ruin (2014)
Directed by Jeremy Saulnier
influenced by Kill Me Again (1989), Red Rock West (1993)
Visuals
With a palette reminiscent of the loved-but-forgotten neo-noir Westerns of the 90s such as Red Rock West and Kill me Again, he paints the story of a resourceful everyman who becomes an avenger who finds himself out of his depth.
With a palette reminiscent of the loved-but-forgotten neo-noir Westerns of the 90s such as Red Rock West and Kill me Again, he paints the story of a resourceful everyman who becomes an avenger who finds himself out of his depth.
Those walking into The Gambler expecting another chip-splashing thriller like 21 or Rounders are going to be sorely disappointed, as William Monahan’s script focuses heavily on a downward-spiralling character whose narcissism and suicidal subconscious translates into unhealthy, life-threatening habits.
(See also: Gretchen Mol in Rounders, Lauren Hutton in the original Gambler, etc.)
“The Gambler” is a card-thriller, but it’s no “Rounders.”
Her toying with her male counterparts is a little too reminiscent of Basic Instinct and The Last Seduction, while some the modelling scenes could have been deleted scenes from either Pret a Porter or, dare I say it, Showgirls.
I’ve long stood up for the femme fatale as a character type; some of the best characters in film (and theater) history could be said to fit that description, and it shouldn’t be impossible to be a committed feminist and also to thrill to the man-eating exploits of Linda Fiorentino in The Last Seduction or, hell, Rosamund Pike in Gone Girl (another murder mystery that gave Ben Affleck’s character the short end of the marital stick).
The Last Seduction looked like a career maker for director Dahl and star Fiorentino, but four long years on, this dire effort suggests it could have been a flash in the pan.
In many ways, “The Lookout” most resembles the neo-noirs of John Dahl from the ’90s, like “Red Rock West” and “The Last Seduction”.
Pretty Persuasion (2005)
Directed by Marcos Siega
influenced by The Last Seduction (1994)
Characters
She is alone with only the delicate alliances of high school and whatever sense of self-worth she can muster, which at first seems to be plenty as she comes across like a younger version of Linda Fiorentino's character in 1994's "The Last Seduction."
Loken perpetuates this image further by exposing her breasts in an explicit sex scene that's nearly identical to Linda Fiorentino's famous hookup in "The Last Seduction."
The plot of a nasty woman betraying a nasty man who then comes after her is similar to The Last Seduction , which also happened to feature the last great femme fatale performance (by the sizzling Linda Fiorentino).
Fiorentino, of course, starred in the most unforgettable sexual put-down in recent movie history (in " The Last Seduction ," where she calls the bluff of a barroom braggart).
Of course, emotionally damaged hitmen are common nowadays, as seen in Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), Panic (2000), The Matador (2005) and on "The Sopranos," but Dahl and writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely ( The Chronicles of Narnia ) find a fresh take, balanced between deadpan humor and nasty violence.
Meanwhile, Linda Fiorentino ("Men in Black," "The Last Seduction") does a decent job as the central figure but isn't particularly noteworthy, while Alan Rickman ("Die Hard," "Sense and Sensibility") is quite good as the voice of God.
Linda Fiorentino disappeared off the radar after a deservedly heralded turn in the cable pic The Last Seduction, and her being cast as Dogma's lead is nothing short of inexplicable.
Matt Damon ("Rounders," "Good Will Hunting") and Ben Affleck ("Armageddon," "Good Will Hunting") team up once more following their Oscar nominated picture and again seem quite believable as old buddies as prone to betting each other about any matter as just sitting around and making witty observations about the world.