Arrow Video's Blu-ray debut for Carol Reed's 1963 almost thriller, THE RUNNING MAN

OK: Carol Reed, shown below, may have been working at less-than-full-throttle during his filming of the 1963 movie, THE RUNNING MAN. (This idea is borne out -- by one of the people who assisted Reed -- on the Bonus Features section of Arrow Video's new Blu-ray edition.) Still, second-rate Reed is as good if not better than the first-rate work of many other lesser directors. Further, although a number of people associated with the film seem to have found the novel on which the film was based not so hot, filming went ahead as planned.

Fortunately, the movie has three very attractive and talented stars in the leading roles -- Laurence Harvey (below, left), Lee Remick (below, right) and Alan Bates (below, center) -- and so performance-wise, the movie holds up nicely, as well. The good screenplay by John Mortimer, from the novel by Shelley Smith, tells the tale of a clever enough insurance scam -- one that could hardly be managed today, thanks to the ever-presence of those blasted security cameras and the inability to keep one's face even remotely secret -- in which a fellow (Harvey) and his recently wed wife (Remick) seem to be pursued throughout Europe (mostly Spain) by a wily insurance investigator (Bates).

The suspense here, such as it is, stems from the seeming ability of our not-very-heroic hero to keep his identity a secret, and yet, fortunately, things are not always as they seem -- which is all for the best here, since the bare-bones story does not have a whole lot of surprise in store. Harvey was always best at playing a rotter (which according to a couple of the folk interviewed here, he was in real life, too), and he's just fine in that role once again. Remick was probably as fine an actress as mid-20th-Century film gave us -- every bit as classy, talented and beautiful as Grace Kelly, but without any of that accompanying stiffness (except when needed) -- as natural and graceful a performer as you could want. Bates, who was barely at the beginning of his long and prosperous acting career, makes a fine foil for Harvey and an even better near-romantic lead.

The wonderful location photography makes one want to visit Spain, even if many of the brunette supporting actresses here seems to be trying their best to look like Liz Taylor (this was the year of Cleopatra, remember). All in all, you could do a lot worse than watch The Running Man for its starry cast and yummy scenery alone.  From Arrow Academy (distributed in the USA via MVD Visual) and running 103 minutes, the movie, in its Blu-ray debut, hit the street this week -- for purchase and (I would hope) rental. As usual with Arrow, the Bonus features are well worth viewing/hearing, too -- especially if you want to learn more about the habits of the late Mr. Harvey.

Susanne Bier's sci-fi thriller, BIRD BOX, proves one of this lauded Danish director's best yet

Despite Susanne Bier's BFLF Oscar for In a Better World, along with some other awards throughout her career, I have been at best lukewarm to her work, finding her films, which generally deal with important human relationships above all else, too full of coincidence, manipulation and sentimentality to deserve our credence. Then last year I saw the British/US-produced cable series The Night Manager and found it surprisingly well done, melding those vital human relationships into a theme of international arms trading/spying.

Now comes the new Netflix-released movie BIRD BOX, a kind of sci-fi survival thriller that is a fine enough example of genre filmmaking that it occurs to TrustMovies that either Ms Bier's real strength may lie in the genre area, where coincidence, manipulation and sentimentality are more accepted, even perhaps expected, or -- since Bier (shown at right) is much more of a director than a writer and depends more often on the work of others in the writing capacity -- that both The Night Manager and Bird Box succeed as much on the strength of their screenplays as on the direction. (Bird Box was written by Eric Heisserer, based on the novel by Josh Malerman, while The Night Manager is credited to David Farr, based on the novel by John le Carré.)

Either way, Bird Box proves a riveting, surprising and emotionally gripping experience, as it moves back and forth in time, showing us what has happened to lead up to what is taking place right now. The movie posits that something, perhaps an alien force, is causing humanity worldwide to commit mass suicide. While watching, you may be put in mind of a much lesser film, M. Night Shayamalan's The Happening, and also of another sci-fi-thriller that opened earlier this year, A Quiet Place.

In the latter film, the aliens seemed to have next-to-nothing eyesight but wildly acute hearing capabilities, so the protagonists have to make no noise. In Bird Box, the suicides appear to be caused by actually viewing the alien force, and so the few survivors have learned, when out and about, they'd better cover their eyes. How Bier and her screenwriter bring this all to life works remarkably well, and how the tale is carried through to conclusion provides plenty of suspense, surprise and loss -- that last regarding characters we've come to understand and care for about as much and as well as any film in this genre I can readily recall.

In the leading role of a woman hurt by life and so recoiling from it, Sandra Bullock (above, left) gets a role she is perfect for and runs with it like the pro she usually is. The two children she is caring for are played -- by Vivien Lyra Blair and Julian Edwards -- very well, too -- while the well-chosen supporting cast includes first-rate actors like John Malkovich, Jacki Weaver, BD Wong, Sarah Paulson (above, right), Tom Hollander and Danielle Macdonald (below).

Worth special note is the performance from Trevante Rhodes (below, left and recently seen as the third iteration of the hero of Moonlight), playing the fellow who proves most capable of bringing Bullock's character out of her shell. Rhodes' work here proves that Moonlight (along with the several other films in which the actor has appeared) was no fluke.

Aside from being a good story well told, Bird Box almost works as well on a deeper, more profound level as an exploration of humanity in all its foibles and strengths. I say almost because, for me, it did not quite have the heft or depth necessary, though it occasionally came close. For you, it might be quite another story. In either case, the movie --  from Netflix and streaming now -- is definitely worth seeing.