Movie review: The Silent Partner (1978)

Yesterday, Christopher Plummer, whose career spanned nearly 70 years and included films as diverse as The Sound of Music, Murder by Decree, An American Tail, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, and Knives Out, passed away at 91. In remembrance, here is a look at a film that you may not be familiar with […]

Book and movie review: Invasion U.S.A.

In 1985, Cannon Films, the legendary studio behind a load of mostly bad but often fun low-budget films, released the Chuck Norris vehicle Invasion U.S.A. The film was reviled by critics–Roger Ebert gave it a whopping 1.5 stars, while Leonard Maltin gave it the notorious BOMB rating and called it “Repellant in the […]

Movie review: The Nice Guys

I knew I should have written this up right after I saw the movie, or at the very least, the next day.

But I didn’t, and now it’s been almost a week since I’ve seen it, and I really wish it were completely fresh in my head because I don’t think I’m going to […]

Donald Westlake’s Cops and Robbers gets a new DVD/Blu-ray release

 

Here is some news of interest. Cops and Robbers, based on the novel by Donald Westlake and with a screenplay by him, is coming to DVD and Blu-ray on June 23.

Apparently, this had a previous DVD release that was an edited television cut, as was the prior VHS release. Kino Lorber is […]

Trailer for A Walk Among the Tombstones

I’m a bit late to the party on this, so maybe you’ve seen it already, but below is the trailer to the upcoming film adaptation of Lawrence Block’s Matthew Scudder novel, A Walk Among the Tombstones, starring Liam Neeson as Scudder. Lawrence Block has a cameo.

This is one I have not yet read, […]

Westlake on Highsmith, in The Getaway Car

NB: A version of this post also appears at Existential Ennui.

Four years ago on Existential Ennui I posted a review of Ripley Under Ground, Roger Spottiswoode’s 2005 film adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s second Tom Ripley novel. Much as I love Highsmith’s source text—indeed the Ripliad as a whole—I wasn’t terribly keen […]

Quick take movie reviews: Jack Reacher and Gangster Squad

Had the exact same film Jack Reacher not been based on a huge-selling series of books, starred an A-lister, and been heavily advertised, it would be a jewel, something to tell your fellow crime aficionados about after it’s forgotten, something akin to The Outfit (although it’s not as good as that one), […]

Noir Magazine features Parker, Reacher…

…and me!

This one’s so hot off the presses, the website isn’t even live.

This is Noir Magazine, a new magazine for tablets. I downloaded it for my iPad today, the day of its debut.

I just got the iPad a few weeks ago. I won it in a drawing of all things, the […]

Books which begat films on Existential Ennui

Just a quick plug for a series of posts over on Existential Ennui—one of which Trent kindly linked in his “News for week ending”—on books which begat perhaps more famous films, some of which may be of interest to Violent World of Parker regulars. I cross-posted one of the earliest missives—on Brian […]

Off topic: brazen plug for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy competition

Just a quick one for those of you who like a spot of spy fiction: to mark the general release in the States today of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Tomas Alfredson’s film adaptation of John le Carré’s classic Cold War thriller, I’m running a competition over on Existential Ennui to win some […]