Monday, December 23, 2013

Movie Monday 12/23

With my college son home and the holiday break in full swing, we were able to watch some movies this weekend.
Both boys were occupied with friends in Friday night, so my husband and I watched Frozen Ground, a very creepy movie about a serial killer in Alaska. If tension and suspense keep you up at night, it's better to skip this one! It was an excellent movie and very well made, with an outstanding cast. Nicholas Cage plays the state trooper heading up the investigation, and John Cusack is chilling as the psychotic killer who is a loved member of the community. Vanessa Hudgens gives a surprisingly emotional performance - far different than her role in High School Musical! - as a prostitute who was beaten and raped by the killer but managed to escape. The movie takes place in Alaska in winter, so it is a very dark setting and a darker theme, especially when we found out it was based on a true story. It was gripping and compelling, with nail-biting suspense, and thoroughly chilling.

Saturday night, our younger son had friends over, so we watched Arbitrage with our 19-year old son, a movie we'd seen previewed on the DVD we watched the night before! This one is free on Amazon Prime right now. It was another suspense movie but of an entirely different sort. Richard Gere stars as a wealthy business man who seems to have it all - good looks, a beautiful wife (played by Susan Sarandon), a loving family, and a thriving business. He's on the cover of Forbes, and is closing a deal to sell his business for over 400 million dollars. Then things begin to slowly unravel, after he is in an accident and his various lies come back to haunt him. "What a tangled web we weave..." It's a good movie with a great cast and a complex plot that keeps you guessing.

Have you seen any good movies lately?


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Welcome to the rileys is a pretty good film and mr nobody is a visual and creative movie. I recently read Stephen Kings book about tiimetravel and an attempt to stop Kennedys assasination, it was a better book than I thought. Also Frans de Waal latest book about moral and science and religion is a very good book.

Beatrice Desper said...

We really liked Arbritage. Nice ending