A Shot in the Dark (1964)
A millionaire’s driver is shot dead in the room of his maid (Sommer, The Prize), and all the facts point to her guilt. Yet this doesn’t hinder the illustrious Inspector Clouseau (Sellers, Dr. Strangelove) to think she’s...
Category: Mystery
Brick (2005)
First-time writer-director Rian Johnson’s script for Brick was written shortly after film school in the mid-1990s, during a period when he had read just about any Dashiell Hammett book he could get his hands on. ...
21 Eyes (2003) | aka: Replay
21 Eyes is a high-concept thriller told almost entirely from the perspective of twenty-one security video cameras capturing the events revolving around a botched robbery attempt of a priceless diamond at the home of a...
Kiss the Girls (1997)
Kiss the Girls is a film based on the James Patterson bestseller, slickly directed by Gary Fleder (Impostor, Runaway Jury), and relatively engaging until about the final third of the film. Like so many mystery-thrillers, there...
The Da Vinci Code (2006)
Tom Hanks (The Polar Express, The Terminal) stars as renowned professor of historical religious symbolism Robert Langdon, who finds himself embroiled in a deadly web of intrigue when an old crony ends up murdered in...
Basic Instinct 2 (2006)
Sharon Stone returns to the role that made her a star, playing Catherine Tramell in this belated sequel to the popular 1992 film, Basic Instinct. At this point in time, both for Stone’s career as well...
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
There are movies that one recommends for the characterizations and the cleverness in the dialogue rather than the story or plot. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang strikes me as one of those kinds of movies. That’s...
Dressed to Kill (1980)
The seed for Dressed to Kill was planted in 1974 when filmmaker Brian De Palma adapted Gerald Walker’s 1970 novel, “Cruising”, about an undercover cop searching underground gay clubs for a serial killer. De...
Eyes of Laura Mars (1978)
John Carpenter began writing a number of script treatments just out of film school, some of which would be turned into movies. Prior to his breakthrough with Halloween, Eyes originally came to producer Jack...
Agnes of God (1985)
Agnes of God is, at its heart, two mysteries in one. There is a small mystery, which is the main plot of the movie, and then there is a big mystery — or I should...