Streaming non-tip: Edgar Marie's super-violent PARIS COUNTDOWN proves mostly glossy drivvel

Well, it looks good, anyway. And it stars one of our favorite Frenchmen, Jacques Gamblin, plus an OK-but-less-known-in-America costar, Olivier Marchal. Otherwise, PARIS COUNTDOWN (known as Le jour attendra in its home country) is pretty much your standard revenge/ chase thriller, but just a bit glossier/bloodier than others in this genre. And not nearly as exciting. Compare it to French genre treats like Point Blank and Sleepness Night (both streamable via Netflix) for a quick course in thriller filmmaking.

The movie's writer/ director, Edgar Marie, shown at right, begins in America, of all places -- somewhere outside Las Vegas in a parched piece of desert (below) where our fellows are about to do a drug deal, a deal, by the way, that one of the two (M. Gamblin's character, Victor, below, left) was not at all in favor of attempting. His long-time friend and partner, Milan (M. Marchal, below, right), however, was all for it, and so here they are, way beyond their depth and about to get the shit kicked out of them.

We pick up things some time later, after these "friends" have not communicated over several years. Suddenly, their nemesis (played by Carlo Brandt, below) -- a fellow who was in that desert with them and went to prison for his trouble -- is about to be released and, wouldn't you know it, hell bent on revenge.

Nice, if somewhat standard set-up. For awhile, Gamblin's smooth charm and alluringly oddball sex appeal, together with Marchal's energy and drive, carry things along. We have chases and shoot-outs and betrayals and twists. And lots more blood.

But around the midway point, things begin to grow stale, coincidence piles up, logic flies out the fenêtre, and the been-there-done-that button rings rather incessantly. Worst of all, it too often seems that the bad guys have never learned how to aim their guns. (We don't expect every bullet to hit its mark, but come on now....)

Other than the genre tropes on display, the underlying theme here is heavy-duty male friendship. So, yes, we get that macho bonding, along with all the love and sacrifice (and sentimentality) that this entails. There may be times when you'll want to shout out, "Come on, you guys: suck each other's dick and get it over with!" But no -- they can't, they mustn't. And, as usual in these genre ventures, the women are either expendable or barely seen.

If you're up for it, Paris Countdown can be streamed now via Netflix and maybe elsewhere. 

From Paraguay: Maneglia and Schembori's SEVEN BOXES has charm, spirit--and body parts

If the new chase thriller SEVEN BOXES becomes the first film from Paraguay that you've seen, don't be surprised. Its creators Juan Carlos Maneglia and Tana Schembori, who directed and also wrote (with some help from Tito Chamorro) are evidently well-known in their little South American country and have studied movies well and smartly and appear to have learned a lot. Their clever little film steals from just about everything else you've seen down the decades yet their setting seems so unusual and shabbily exotic and the cast of characters is such a unique mix of the quirky, creepy and sweet that you may find it very difficult not to give over to the odd charms herein.

Maneglia and Schembori (shown above, with Ms S on the right) have concocted a surprisingly complicated scenario, despite the movie's advertising tag line above (which happens not to be true), but their film-making skills are such that they allow us to easily follow the plot's many cleverly constructed convolutions.

A teenager named Victor (the spunky Celso Franco, above and on those TV Screens) thinks he has lucked into a "dream" delivery job of taking seven boxes out for a little walk from their residence in a butcher shop in order to avoid being seen by the authorities. What's in the boxes? Money or drugs, we imagine. For this, he'll earn enough dough to buy a nice cell phone. If only. (That's one of the sleazy butchers giving our boy instructions, below.)

As the plot thickens, we're introduced to Victor's sister and her very pregnant co-worker, who labor in a Chinese restaurant where the owner's son has eyes for sis (the film offers an interesting look at Asian immi-grants in Paraguay); some rather inept kidnappers; a father whose infant child needs medication, a group of nasty Paraguayan low-lifes (below), and a pert and very likable young woman who is clearly carrying a torch for our Victor (played by the very talented and spikey Lali Gonzalez).

How all these mix and mingle proves frightening, funny, surprising and exciting. The filmmakers have their pacing down pat, and their cast delivers good performances first to last. Once the wheels (and wheelbarrows used for delivery) are set in motion, the movie clicks and clacks along like an unstoppable locomotive.

A kind of coming-of-age tale, Seven Boxes' ace-in-the-hole is how much charm and spirit it provides, which is particularly commendable, considering how grizzly the goings-on become. Yet the film's sweetness easily surmounts its body count.

Seven Boxes, from Breaking Glass Pictures and running 100 minutes, opens in theaters (the listing is shown below) this Friday, February 7, and simultaneously will be available via VOD and iTunes.

In New York City--Cinema Village;  Los Angeles, CA--Downtown Independent;  Pasadena, CA--Laemmle Playhouse 7; Chicago, IL--Siskel Film Center; Sante Fe, NM--Jean Cocteau Cinema; Scottsdale, AZ--Harkins Shea. The following Friday, February 14, look for it in Toronto, ON--Carlton Cinema; Miami, FL--Coral Gables Art Cinema; Saskatoon, SK--Roxy Theater; and elsewhere across the country & Canada in the weeks ahead.

DVD/Blu-ray debut: John Moore's A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD -- mediocre dumb fun

And the shits just keep on comin'! The latest is the most recent in the quarter-century-old Die Hard series that began with a smart and entertaining hit before devolving into that other category. How this latest in the series managed to open in Russia, where it takes place and a bit of it was even filmed (most of it was shot in Hungary), given that every Russian we meet in the movie proves to be the scum-of-the-earth (except for one cab driver, shown at bottom, who fancies himself a singer), is certainly a more interesting mystery that what lies at the core of this chase thriller involving politicians, prisoners, arms dealers and the CIA.

Bruce Willis and Jai Courtney play father & son spy types, the latter of whom is arrested and soon to be put on trial in Moscow. He's angry at papa, but Willis heads out to rescue the kid anyway. What a dad! Directed by John Moore and written by Skip Woods, the movie's first and best action sequence involves a courthouse break (as in prison break) and road chase that goes on and on and on, growing crazier and more demented by the minute. Nothing tops this in the upcoming 96 minutes, though it's not for want of trying. There a shootout in a deserted ballroom (with a helicopter gunning for our twosome through the windows and walls, and later a long, somewhat lax sequence in Chernobyl to wrap things up.

Mostly, though, A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD is a cynical (though mostly irony-free) attempt to give us a good time by overdoing everything, including the never more than so-so repartee between father and son. The two take beating together that would kill us ordinary guys, then rise from the floor to go on and beat the shit out of everyone else. Now, we don't expect anything approaching reality in these kinds of movies. Even so, this kick-in-the-head/gut/stomach/crotch scene with the "dancer" is one for the nitwit record books.

There is also, of course, the completely-unnecessary-but-who's-complaining bit of disrobing by the femme fatale (above). If you want to have some additional fun with the film, TrustMovies suggests you go to a site where there's a smart and amusing infographic on the entire Die Hard series created by Alex Hillsberg, with special attention given to this latest addition. The infographic's clever and fun, and you might learn a few things, too.

Otherwise, the movie itself, from 20th Century Fox is out now on DVD and Blu-ray for your delectation and giggles/sniggers.

VEHICLE 19: In Mukunda Michael Dewil's South African chase thriller, Paul Walker goes fast and furious, B-movie level

First-off, TrustMovies sees nothing wrong with a good "B" movie. We should have more of them, as in the good ol' 1940s and 50s eras, when I was growing up. "A" movies these days are so often bloated in length, while paltry in style and content, that the new Paul Walker vehicle made in South African and titled VEHICLE 19 -- though for all I know it may be an "A" movie so far as South African is concerned (we don't see that many home-grown films from there; District 9 was something of an anomaly) -- seems to me a good example of a generally tight, twisty little B film.

Written and directed by a South African fellow with the mouthful of a name -- Mukunda Michael Dewil (shown at right) -- the movie tosses you into an immediate car chase with Mr. Walker (below) at the wheel (Fast & Furious franchise fans should feel right at home with the person, if not the place). Then, after some speedy, scary moments, we come to a sudden halt, and then we're taken back to a few hours earlier, as the plot kicks into action. While there is not a hell of a lot of plot, there's enough to keep us and Walker occupied tidily for the 85-minute running time. Basically, this is one of those in-the-wrong-place-at-the-wrong-time movies, but with a little bureaucratic twist in which an employee makes a simple mistake in her assignment of a particular object. And then all hell breaks loose.

I don't want to go much further plot-wise because the movie has a couple of neat surprises up its sleeve, one of which involves another character. I will just say that, as usual, with films in which you find dirty cops at the top of the food chain -- from L.A. Confidential to the recent Eden -- things do not look all that bright for the protagonists on view.

Mr. Walker's character, Michael, has a checkered history himself, which adds to our hero's problems, and while the actor plays mostly angry and determined (with a couple of very moving moments of concern and grief), but he handles these two states well enough. Naima McLean (above, right) plays her "whistleblower" role quite well, too, and the only other major character is essayed by Gys de Villiers, first heard as a phone voice and finally given the solidity of a body to go with it.

In an article I searched out about the making of the film, it was said that all the action takes place inside the titular vehicle. I don't quite remember the movie that way. There are plenty of scenes shot from outside the car looking in, so this is not on of those "contained thrillers" like Buried or Brake.) I also think I recall Walker's getting out of the vehicle, as well. Still, most of the movie does take place in the generally speeding car, and the fact that it gets such good mileage out of this situation is very much to the filmmaker's credit as writer and director.

Distributed by Ketchup Entertainment, Vehicle 19, a good title, the meaning of which comes eventually clear, opens this Friday via AMC theaters in ten cities across the country, including New York City (at the Empire 25), Ontario (in California, at the Ontario Mills 30), Atlanta (at the Southlake Pavilion in Morrow, GA), Chicago (at the Barrington in So. Barrington, Il.), Dallas at the Mesquite in Mesquite, TX), Houston (at the Studio, Houston), Miami (at the Sunset Place in South Miami), Philadelphia (at the Neshaminy in Bensalem, Pa.), San Francisco (at the Deer Valley Stadium in Antioch, Ca.), Washington DC (at the Hoffman in Alexandria, VA). If you don't live near these locations, I expect VOD and DVD will be coming semi-soon.

THE PREY's Eric Valette, Laurent Turner & Luc Bossi create a crackerjack new thriller

Remember Tell No One -- that unusual French thriller that proved the most successful foreign-language film to be released in the USA during 2008? Most confirmed and avid movie-goers will, while also wondering why there has been so little so good in this genre since then. All of which makes the release of a (relatively) new French thriller THE PREY (La proie, from 2011) so welcome. It's one of the best of its kind since Tell No One, combining everything from bank robbery and stashed loot to prison, escape, chase, a serial killer, cops, kids, and some quite beautiful young women, not all of whom will make it to their middle age. If it is not as convoluted (nor juicy) as that fine earlier film, this new one nonetheless manages to take its rather standard materials and juggle them about as expertly as you could wish -- or expect -- in these dumbed-down days.

Director Eric Valette (shown at right), together with his screen-writers Laurent Turner and Luc Bossi, gives us a story that starts in one direction then veers in another and yet another as we gladly race along keeping up. Don't get too attached to all the characters, however; as in life, some of the good folk leave us as young and untimely as we might wish for the evil ones. That said, The Prey tends to be more conventional in its use of bad guys and good than Tell No One (or the also excellent French thrillers Point Blank and Sleepless Night). There are no big conspiracies here, and the cops, though they may be dumb, are at least decent.

As usual, the less said about plot will allow you to experience the ongoing surprises, and a nice number of these there are. Instead, let's talk about the cast -- as the movie is chock full of good performers you'll be happy to see again.

The lead roles are taken by that craggy-faced leading man Albert Dupontel (two photos above, of Paris and Intimate Enemies) and Alice Taglioni (just above, and lately seen here in Paris Manhattan). Both actors are quite good, with the gorgeous Ms Taglioni more convincing that you might think as a cop who can rough-house and fight with the best of the boys.

The supporting cast is awash with oft-seen talent, from the wonderful Sergi López (above, as an ex-cop with a big beef) to Natacha Régnier (below, left, as one of the screen's more memorable "enablers," a lady who takes "help-meet" to rather horrifying limits). New to me and creepily memorable is Stéphane Debac (below, with rifle) as the kind of antagonist you'd do well to avoid -- if only you could realize what he was up to in time.

Screenwriters Turner and Bossi create this tapestry of intriguing characters, plots and sub-plots that of course begin to meld, setting them all to spinning, if not exactly merrily, then quite entertainingly. Director Valette keep things moving in tight and focused fashion, pausing only to let his actors ply their trade expertly.

There are some fine action scenes and breath-taking chases, as the suspense keeps ratcheting and the corpses pile up. The filmmakers play their hand for maximum excitement and thrills -- hitting the proper line, I think, between what must be shown regarding the dead and what happened to them, while not making the usual (and often unnecessary) trip to gore-land. What we see is plenty bad enough, but our noses aren't rubbed in the entrails.

The pacing is quite good, too, with the breathless stuff alternating confidently with quieter, character- and plot-driven incidents. All in all, The Prey is a savvy, intelligent, twisty, suspenseful and well-plotted thriller. More, please.

From Cohen Media Group, in French with English subtitles and running 102 minutes, the movie opens this Friday, June 7, at AMC theaters across the country. Here in New York City it's at the Empire 25; in the Los Angeles area at the Burbank Town Center 8; in Boston at the Boston Commons 19; in Phoenix at the "dine-in" Esplanade; and in Seattle at the Pacific Place 11.

Philipp Stölzl's ERASED gives its cast--and its audience -- a speedy, thrilling workout

If you're looking for a nifty suspense thriller with a intelligently convoluted premise and some great action/fight set pieces, you could do a lot worse than ERASED, the new film from Philipp Stölz (shown below, the Bavarian filmmaker who earlier gave us the fine North Face and the just-OK Young Goethe in Love). An example of one of those internationally created, funded, cast and executed movies that actually works pretty well, Erased was filmed in and around mostly Belgium (with a little Montreal tossed in), using locations that are scenic and photogenic, as well as pleasantly different from the sort we most often get.

The film's original title was The Expatriate, which, once you know the story, proves a much better choice for both its meaning and irony. Undoubtedly the movie's marketing mavens decided that those extra couple of syllables in this fifty-cent word would prove too much for mass audiences to handle. So Erased it is, and erased (or nearly) are our hero and heroine. The former is played by the always reliable Aaron Eckhart (below), as, yes, an expatriate working in Belgium for a company that makes a very interesting product, about which a glitch has just been discovered.

Into Eckhart's care has come his somewhat estranged teen-age daughter, played with grace and grit by Liana Liberato (below, of Trust and Trespass). The movie begins with a gunshot and the trail of corpses the shooter has left in his wake. Something is stolen, then passed from hand to hand.

By the time, shortly thereafter, that father and daughter are running for their lives (below), the audience is piecing together plot strands like crazy, trying to figure out, as is the Eckhart character, what is going on and why.

Into the mix comes the lately-often-seen Olga Kurylenko (below, of Oblivion, To the Wonder, Seven Psychopaths) as a suspect ex-compatriot of Eckhart, and Garrick Hagon (further below, with Eckhart), as a naughty corporate head.

As the body count increases -- it's huge, for the bad guys are relentless and remorseless -- betrayals both planned and accidental occur, while father and daughter alternately spar and join forces to stay alive.

If the finale proves somewhat less exciting and worthwhile than what has come before, this is unfortunately par for the course of most of these international thrillers. On the plus side, I would say that Erased builds up enough good will and excitement during its first hour or so that you won't mind tagging along for the duration.

The movie -- from Radius-TWC and running 104 minutes -- is currently playing the L.A. area at Laemmle's Town Center 5 and will open this Friday, May 17, in Manhattan at the Village East Cinema and perhaps elsewhere. But, as it's been playing VOD since the beginning of April, you'll be able to gain access to it fairly easily.

Terrorists/freedom fighters in their twilight years: Redford's THE COMPANY YOU KEEP

The evergreen saw that tells us a terrorist is simply a freedom fighter from another viewpoint takes on meaning yet again in THE COMPANY YOU KEEP, the new film starring, directed and co-produced by Robert Redford, with a screenplay via Lem Dobbs from the novel by Neil Gordon. Interestingly close in theme to another movie -- Bob's New Suit -- that just made its straight-to-DVD debut (about which I'll have more to say here soon), Company tells the tale of the appearance, after several decades, of former Weather Underground members who've been hiding from the law under assumed identities but are now making themselves known, arrested and/or on-the-run.

Mr. Redford has assembled about as starry a cast (for adult audiences, that is) as any we're likely to see again soon, and he and Mr. Dobbs have given that audience a tale that, initially at least, is likely to depress them in a  thoughtful, darkly nostalgic manner that will take those who currently reside in Redford's and my own generation back to the days of our protesting the Vietnam War. What the movie then brings to the fore, inadvertently or not (I think not), is how little has changed regarding the way our government lies, cheats and steals, engaging our country in unauthorized, unnecessary conflicts that cost our "higher powers" little and in fact enrich them no end, while sacrificing the lives of our young. For those of us approaching (or already in) our 70s, there is no way the film will not initially make us angry anew and doubly so for how little those in power seem to have learned -- or even care that they have not.

All this, of course, occurs at the beginning of the film, as the situation is being set up. Once in action, the movie becomes a kind of thriller (and not a bad one) about what, exactly, is happening and why, before eventually descending into a feel-good finale that makes everything all right. I am as clued-in as the next moviegoer to what audiences want (or say they want) and so can fully understand the reasoning going on here.

Yet having brought up the subject of the Weather Underground, its intentions and how these sometimes went afoul, it is a shame that Redford didn't deal with all this more effectively. He addressed important and timely questions in his more overtly political film Lions for Lambs (made in the middle of the disgusting George W. Bush regime), which you should see -- and see again if you didn't appreciate it the first time, for it was and remains a brave and intelligent movie, very well executed.

On the other hand, he and his team have given us probably his most accessible and popular entertainment in some years (perhaps since Quiz Show or that silly Horse Whisperer), and so one can't really blame him for taking the easier route. At least he's raised some worthwhile questions about some important subjects: how the past must impinge on the present and the lies we tell our children, for whatever reason, will finally haunt us and them.

About that starry cast, let's count the blessings on display: Julie Christie (four photos up) in what seems to be another yearly and welcome return to the screen, looking weathered and quite wonderful, is as good as ever in the acting department; Brit Marling (adding luster to her recent work in Arbitrage and Sound of My Voice) as another piece of the puzzle; and Brendan Gleeson (two photos above) as a slippery police chief. Anna Kendrick, Sam Elliott, Nick Nolte (three photos above), Chris Cooper and Richard Jenkins (above, right): they're all here and doing splendid work. Oh -- and look for a wonderful prison scene with Susan Sarandon (shown below).

As his co-star, Redford has tapped the now-slightly-beyond-teen-years Shia LaBeouf, below with Ms Marling, playing an enterprising young journalist whose biggest story to date this one is. LaBeouf seems less out of his element here than in films like Lawless or the Wall Street sequel, and he acquits himself well, delivering some choice lines like "I barely have furniture!" (which, in context, proves delightful).

To see this fine a cast strut its stuff is reason enough to view The Company You Keep. But should you happen to see it along with members of the younger generation, for goodness sake, open up a line of discussion and fill them in.

From Sony Pictures Classics and running a long but never boring 125 minutes, the movie opens tomorrow, Friday, April 5, in New York City (Cinemas 123, Lincoln Plaza Cinema and Regal Union Square) and Los Angeles (Hollywood Arclight and The Landmark), and the following Friday, April 12, in 32 more cities, with a continuing rollout across the country in the weeks to come. Click here to see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters.