Homepage & Research: The Insider (Part 1)

Homepage & Research: The Insider (Part 1): The Insider Russell Crowe stars as former tobacco executive Jeffrey Wigand, who decides to appear on the hard-hitting US news show 60 Min...

synopsis and opening 5 minutes

synopsis

first 5 minutes: the film begins with a scene of a boy, bloody and bruised, is tied to a chair in a room. he is drifting in and out of consciousness until you hear footsteps coming towards the room and the scene fades out. you then see a close up of the boys face fading in and out of consciousness; flash backs start occuring on screen, as assumed in his mind. they are mostly in fast-forwarded time, however every now and then, key events with relevance to his current situation are shown in normal speed as short glimpses.

after the first 5 minutes the film starts a new scene, back in time, at the beginning of the influential events that lead to him being tied and beaten in a chair. the film plays out until the present where the dialemna s sorted.

thrillers

thrillers all share the same similar traits. the beginning normally starts with normality- a steady life which tends to seem either boring and tedious or happy. an occurring event or series of events change this normality. a common plot is that there is a series of action related events to solve this change or dialemna, or until the change takes it course. for example, the movie of fight club has the plot of a boring life being exited by the sub conscious creation of a alternative personality. the realization of the truth by the main character is the solving of the change in the film.

Fight Club Trailer - HD

In this complex comment on disposable pop culture, the unfulfilled Edward Norton finds a kindred spirit in Brad Pitt's subversive Tyler Durden.

They become fast friends, bonding over a mutual loathing for corporate consumer-culture hypocrisy. Eventually, the two start Fight Club, which convenes in a bar basement where angry men get to vent their frustrations in brutal, bare-knuckle bouts.

Director David Fincher's thriller - an aggressive, though-provoking tour-de-force - is a genuine one-off.

SE7EN - Trailer - HQ - (1995)

In this hugely influential thriller, a veteran homicide detective (Morgan Freeman) and his young partner (Brad Pitt) pursue a serial killer who is selecting his victims according to the Seven Deadly Sins. Director David Fincher pioneers the recent style of rain-lashed gloom in a chiller with more twists than a corkscrew factory. One of those rare films where a Hollywood ending was notable by its absence. Don't watch it alone.

No Country for Old Men (2007) Trailer

A case full of drug money, a psychopath with a terrible haircut, and enough dead bodies to dam the Rio Grande: the Coen brothers are back with a magnificent adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's latterday western.

Winner of four Oscars including Best Film, Best Direction and Best Supporting Actor for Javier Bardem, stone-cold brilliant as the relentless killer who leaves no witnesses to his pursuit of Texan chancer Josh Brolin and the stash of cash he found out in the desert. Tommy Lee Jones is the world-weary sheriff left to pick up the pieces. Think you see where it’s going? Think again.

Manchurian Candidate, The (1962) (Trailer)

Silence of the Lambs director Jonathan Demme remade the seminal 1962 original with Liev Shreiber playing an heroic Gulf War veteran (in John Frankenheimer's version it was Korea) who is standing for high office.

Denzel Washington is the company commander whose suppressed memories of exactly what Shreiber did single him out as a target of dark political forces. Ambiguous and unsettling, this makes the Manchuria of the original (a region of China) became Manchurian Global, a huge Halliburton-style military service company and home to Shreiber's hawkish mother (Meryl Streep).

Clear And Present Danger (1994) Trailer

CIA agent Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford) discovers links between a Colombian drugs cartel and the US government. This fine follow-up to Patriot Games features a breathtaking setpiece where a convoy of CIA men are ambushed by rooftop snipers in a Colombian city.

Ford lends the role a steely gravitas while conspiracy theorists will have a field day second guessing which American official is stitching up the administration. Superior action fare - it makes you wonder why bland Ben Affleck was chosen to replace Ford as Jack Ryan.

All The President's Men - Trailer

True-story political thriller starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as the two Washington Post reporters who uncovered the political scandal which brought down US president Richard Nixon.

Director Alan J Pakula shapes the gripping story with his usual emphasis on urban paranoia while the two stars never let their celebrity get in the way of two cracking roles. An absorbing and suspenseful reconstruction of real events.

Psycho Trailer (1960)

Credited with inventing the genre of the modern horror film, PSYCHO has had its share of sequels and imitators, none of which diminishes the achievement of this shocking and complex horror thriller. Alfred Hitchcock's choreography of elements in PSYCHO is considered so perfect it inspired a shot-by-shot remake by Gus Van Sant in 1998. However, Hitchcock's black-and-white original, featuring Anthony Perkins's haunting characterization of lonely motel keeper Norman Bates, has never been equaled. Bates presides over an out-of-the-way motel under the domineering specter of his mother. The young, well-intentioned Bates is introduced to the audience when Marion Crane (Janet Leigh), a blonde on the run with stolen money, checks in for the night. But Momma doesn't like loose women, so the stage is set for this classic tale of horror--and one of the most famous scenes in film history. PSYCHO was initially received by audiences with shock and amazement, and it still terrifies today. Though it is now considered prototypical Hitchcock, its setting, pace, and emphasis on terror were major departures for the director at the time, coming after the more classically grand NORTH BY NORTHWEST.

Bonnie and Clyde - Trailer - (1967)

George Washington University professor Michael Faraday (Jeff Bridges) teaches a course in terrorism, but after his wife, an FBI agent, is killed under questionable circumstances, he becomes obsessed with the topic. An all-American family moves in across the street, but Faraday soon suspects that they might be terrorists themselves. Bridges's portrayal of the man fighting against a virtually unseen enemy, with no one believing him, is reminiscent of Jimmy Stewart in Alfred Hitchcock's THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH.

A History of Violence Trailer [HD]

Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen) is living a happy and quiet life with his lawyer wife (Maria Bello) and their two children in the small town of Millbrook, Indiana, but one night their idyllic existence is shattered when Tom foils a vicious attempted robbery in his diner. Sensing danger, he takes action and saves his customers and friends in the self-defence killings of two-sought-after criminals. Heralded as a hero, Tom's life is changed overnight, attracting a national media circus, which forces him into the spotlight. Uncomfortable with his new found celebrity, Tom tries to return to the normalcy of his ordinary life only to be confronted by a mysterious and threatening man (Ed Harris) who arrives in town believing Tom is the man who's wronged him in the past. As Tom and his family fight back against this case of mistaken identity and struggle to cope with their changed reality, they are forced to confront their relationships and the divisive issues which surface as a result.