jack-mckay-291-882636
Lifetime Total
1+
IMDb Member
12 years
Reviews
Red Widow (2013)
Intense, and gripping
Can Marta successfully transform herself from soccer-mom suburban housewife to big-league drug smuggler? She's quite delicious, and convincing, too, as she struggles with her new, and very much unwanted, role. She fumbles and stumbles, and we agonize over her struggle, rooting for this very nice young mother to succeed in the world of tough drug smuggling. Talk about being out of one's depth! But she is, after all, the daughter of a Russian mobster, so evidently she's got the genes for the job. "Marta, you've changed," her father says, impressed with her new toughness. Indeed! And we get to root for her to be successful in a serious criminal activity. I have to wonder how the writers will resolve the dilemma of allowing a criminal action to succeed, while not offering any approval of heroin smuggling.
Or will she succeed? If she does not, how will she keep her family safe? Who shot her husband dead? Who took the 75 kilos of heroin that had been stashed in her boat? Man, am I hooked on this show.
It helps that Radha Mitchell is intensely desirable. If there's a serious flaw in the plot, it's the way Bob shrugs off her advances, as she tries to befriend him, planning to bribe him to be a partner in the crime. It's hard enough to believe that Marta could enjoy a luxurious life in an expensive Marin County home while never noticing that her husband's rental-fishboat profession cannot possibly support such a rich lifestyle. It's much harder to believe that any man with normal hormones could blithely brush off the advances of such a woman, slender, sexy, and clearly interested in him. That just does not compute.
Marta is the heart of the show, and manages to be credible at both soccer-momhood, and wannabe-drug smuggler. One moment she's laughing with ice cream and her children – and then the phone rings, and she's back in the drug-smuggling world, and utterly terrified. That's what makes the show work. We love her, and we really want her to succeed in this awful Russian-mobster role. I can't wait until Sunday, and the next episode.
Or will she succeed? If she does not, how will she keep her family safe? Who shot her husband dead? Who took the 75 kilos of heroin that had been stashed in her boat? Man, am I hooked on this show.
It helps that Radha Mitchell is intensely desirable. If there's a serious flaw in the plot, it's the way Bob shrugs off her advances, as she tries to befriend him, planning to bribe him to be a partner in the crime. It's hard enough to believe that Marta could enjoy a luxurious life in an expensive Marin County home while never noticing that her husband's rental-fishboat profession cannot possibly support such a rich lifestyle. It's much harder to believe that any man with normal hormones could blithely brush off the advances of such a woman, slender, sexy, and clearly interested in him. That just does not compute.
Marta is the heart of the show, and manages to be credible at both soccer-momhood, and wannabe-drug smuggler. One moment she's laughing with ice cream and her children – and then the phone rings, and she's back in the drug-smuggling world, and utterly terrified. That's what makes the show work. We love her, and we really want her to succeed in this awful Russian-mobster role. I can't wait until Sunday, and the next episode.
Wait Until Dark (1967)
too improbable to be effective
Perhaps this was plausible back in the innocent 60s, but now there's just too much stretching of credibility for this movie to be effective. It's hard to be seriously frightened when what the bad guys are doing is impossible to believe.
Would real drug dealers go to such lengths for what appears to be perhaps a quarter of a kilo of heroin, street value $20,000, tops? Would serious bad guys engage in elaborate measures, including costumes and play-acting, in an attempt to fool Susie into revealing the location of the doll? In real life, one of them would put a knife to her throat in scene one, and that would be that.
Other things just misfire. Would a bad guy intent on terrorizing Susie splash gasoline all around, and then light a match, virtually assuring self-immolation just to scare her? For that matter, how many New Yorkers would leave a front door unlocked, with a note, no less, telling anyone who comes by that the door is unlocked, come on in? That's how Mike and Carlino get in so easily at the start, and how plausible is it that Carlino, instead of participating in the search for the doll, raids the refrigerator and lazily fixes himself a sandwich?
That's the weakness of this movie, in this modern era: it's so implausible that it's not convincing, and hence isn't particularly frightening. We know much more, I'm afraid, about drugs and drug dealing and drug dealers, than we did in 1967.
Would real drug dealers go to such lengths for what appears to be perhaps a quarter of a kilo of heroin, street value $20,000, tops? Would serious bad guys engage in elaborate measures, including costumes and play-acting, in an attempt to fool Susie into revealing the location of the doll? In real life, one of them would put a knife to her throat in scene one, and that would be that.
Other things just misfire. Would a bad guy intent on terrorizing Susie splash gasoline all around, and then light a match, virtually assuring self-immolation just to scare her? For that matter, how many New Yorkers would leave a front door unlocked, with a note, no less, telling anyone who comes by that the door is unlocked, come on in? That's how Mike and Carlino get in so easily at the start, and how plausible is it that Carlino, instead of participating in the search for the doll, raids the refrigerator and lazily fixes himself a sandwich?
That's the weakness of this movie, in this modern era: it's so implausible that it's not convincing, and hence isn't particularly frightening. We know much more, I'm afraid, about drugs and drug dealing and drug dealers, than we did in 1967.