Nine Puzzles - 2025 - S Korea

Nine Puzzles - 2025 - 6/10  
AKA - Nain Peojeul // 나인 퍼즐

 
“I really hate people.  Why the hell do you work so hard just to stay alive?
“Why would you struggle to live?  I don’t see the point of it.”
Nihilistic K-drama involves the search for a serial killer.
One targeting the powerful and influential.
Fans of interlocking mysteries and compartmentalized puzzles may enjoy.
The profiler is too young to be believable, and the sock-hat cop rings wrong.
Who and why, worked out.  How, is completely overlooked.

Law And Order - 1932 - USA

Law And Order - 1932 - 6/10

 
Frame Johnson, brother Luther, sidekick Deadwood, and shotgun wielding Doc Brandt arrive in Tombstone.
Where a gang of outlaws rule, rustle cattle and shoot opponents in the back.
Tensions simmer until conflict flares at the OK Corral.
Violent Pre-Code is a reimagined version of Wyatt Earp.
Earp had died just three years previously, and widow Josephine was fiercely protective.
Not as sanitized as all later versions (which omitted Earp's brothels, thieving, etc...).
Pristine restoration in 2025, along with commentary.

Peter Hujar’s Day - 2025 - USA

Peter Hujar’s Day - 2025 - 7/10

 
Taken from the interview transcript between photographer Hujar and writer Rosenkrantz.
She was planning a project akin to “what artists do all day.”
Here, Hujar reflects on his day.  A shoot with Ginsberg, chatting with other photographers, writers.
Commercial jobs, if he could land them, especially if they paid.
Most of this occurs in an apartment, or a few rooftop shots.
Enthralling throughout, although there is plenty of name-dropping amidst a mid-70’s New York.
English subs = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3369820

Pride And Prejudice - 1995 - UK

Pride And Prejudice - 1995 - 8/10

 
THE adaptation that Janeites rally around.
The Netherfield estate is to be let by the young Mr. Bingley, a single gentleman of good fortune.
Young Bennet sisters are in a tizzy, hopes mix with delusion.
Only Elizabeth and Jane, the two eldest, check themselves.
This has version has unsparing production values, and an extended run time that breathes.
Genuine chemistry between leads Ehre and Firth fueled this intensely.
The emotional restraint is faithful to Austen, and a contrast to cathartic outbursts of other attempts.

The Man On The Eiffel Tower - 1949 - USA

The Man On The Eiffel Tower - 1949 - 6/10

 
Inspector Miagret and the #1 suspect in a stabbing, the impoverished knife sharpener.
The slain was rich, the heir impatient with two grasping females on either arm.
Then there is the pompous intellectual, Life’s failure, who taunts the Gendarmes.
Scrappy, minor Noir features flashy turns by Charles Laughton and Franchot Tone.
In addition to beautiful Paris locations (must have been dazzling at the time).
The color has deteriorated badly into a sepia tone.

Minoes - 2001 - France

Minoes - 2001 - 6/10
AKA - Miss Minoes

 
Curiosity killed – make that, altered the cat.
After a barrel of illegal waste spills, Minoes the cat drinks it.
Turning into a female human, with a taste for fish and aversion to dogs.
Behind the waste, however, is the town’s most influential man.
Minoes and her league of feline family scurry forth to topple.
Pretty good family fare.  Performed nicely everywhere save for the States (atrocious dubbing).

Lake Nowhere - 2014 - USA

Lake Nowhere - 2014 - 5/10

 
Three couples and a spare disembark at the cabin by the forlorn lake.
Where they are observed … by a guy who appears to be auditioning for Sasquatch.
Alcohol, weed, implied canoodling, and a little barking dog.
Homage / pastiche to 80’s Slashers suffers from a trope of “airing on late nite TV.”
Nudity, awkwardly excised, seconds of commercials, tape offtrack.
Part Slasher, part zombie.  Males, to a soul, overact.
Good concept, missteps during execution.

Mermaid Legend - 1984 - Japan

Mermaid Legend - 1984 - 6/10
AKA - Ningyo Densetsu // 人魚伝説

 
Like most in the fishing village, the couple does not want to sell out to the amusement park.
None know that is just a front for a proposed nuclear reactor.
Migiwa is a deepwater albacore diver, husband Keisuke her topside lifeline.
So, when he is murdered, she almost murdered then framed, she wants answers.
Behind it all is corporate greed.
Idyllic first act shifts to murder mystery, then bloodbath.
A tasty gem; surprised this is not better known.
English subtitles = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3369651

Murder In Strasbourg - 2016 - France

Murder In Strasbourg - 2016 - 6/10
AKA - Meurtres à Strasbourg

 
The white wine pours from the vat with a red tint.
Because there is a body inside.  Oh no!
The Gendarmes arrive, and, wouldn’t you know it, the female cop and male doctor have a history.
Compounding matters, back when he avoided commitment and scampered off, she married his father.
Amidst bickering and recriminations, there’s another corpse.
Followed by a third.  Scenery is best thing in this one.
Family matriarch’s twisted manipulation sets an ugly low bar.

Nightshift - 1981 - UK

Nightshift - 1981 - 6/10

 
The stifling ennui of the graveyard shift at The Portobello Hotel.
Complaints, intrusions, overheard conversations, silence, more silence.
I worked a hotel night shift for a cycle of seasons.
This compresses a week of sundry activity into an hour.
Mostly, the job was numbing boredom, punctuated with some alcoholic’s emergency.
Should appeal to fans of Ligotti or Samuels.
English subtitles = https://sub-scene.com/subtitle/3369653