16 Blocks (2006) or, Heavy Traffic!

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This tall-lettered poster for Richard Donner's 16 Blocks presents the almost real-time cop action-thriller effectively but without much color

A police witness needs to be moved 16 blocks to a court house in New York City. The cop in charge faces serious resistance working against his completing the seemingly simple job.

Bruce Willis (Die Hard (1988)) is excellent as a troubled NYC cop, who for some unknown reason is also a burned-out alcoholic. David Morse (The Hurt Locker (2008)) is equally great as his opponent. 16 Blocks has a good anti-hero/anti-villain quality to it, which is refreshing in the superhero-age of the 00s (which still continues today.) The film also has an exciting hostage scene in a bus.
Though praised elsewhere, Mos Def (The Italian Job (2003)), who now goes by the name Yasiin Bey, plays the central witness in the film as a stereotype of a retarded African-American criminal in my opinion. This stereotype drags the film down immensely, as he is in almost the entire movie. SPOILER Another problem is that the ending of 16 Blocks is cheesy.
Master filmmaker Richard Donner (The Omen (1976)) has made the somewhat similar Lethal Weapon films (1987, '89, '92 and '98) with Mel Gibson and Danny Glover that are in some of the cases better than this, which seems to be his last film. 16 Blocks is written by Richard Wenk (The Equalizer (2014)).

Watch the trailer for the movie here

Cost: 55 mil. $
Box office: 65.6 mil. $
= Big flop (returned 1.19 times the cost)
[16 Blocks premiered 27 February (New York) and runs 110 minutes. It was shot in New York, Los Angeles and in Toronto, Ontario from April - June 2005 with re-shoots in July 2005. It opened #2, behind holdover hit Tyler Perry's Madea's Family Reunion, to an 11.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent one more week in the top 5 (#4) and grossed 36.8 mil. $ (56.1 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 4.2 mil. $ (6.4 %) and Mexico with 2.6 mil. $ (4 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch better than this one. 16 Blocks reportedly heaved in an impressive 51.5 mil. $ on DVD and Blu-ray sales, which would change its status to merely a flop if figured in. It is Donner's last film. Willis returned with a voice performance in Over the Hedge (2006), That '70s Show Special: The Final Goodbye (2006, TV special) and theatrically in the flesh in Fast Food Nation (2006); Def in Journey to the End of the Night (2006); and Morse in A.W.O.L (2006, short), House (2006-07) and theatrically in Hounddog (2007). 16 Blocks is rotten at 56 % with a 5.9/10 critical averate at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of 16 Blocks?

Manhunter (1986) - Perhaps the best criminal profiling picture ever

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The very 80s, somewhat cheap and hokey-looking poster for Michael Mann's Manhunter

In order to apprehend a grisly serial killer known as the Tooth Fairy, FBI criminal profiler Will Graham searches out help from the superiorly intelligent, twisted psychologist/serial killer Hannibal Lecter, who nearly killed him during their chase in the past.

The first Hannibal Lecter film, (spelled 'Lecktor' in it for some reason), is really, really good, especially for anyone with a penchant for 1980s styles on film.
The carefully designed color schemes and score by Michel Rubini (who also scored Tony Scott's vampire masterpiece from 1983, The Hunger), are VERY 80s. - But cool still today, and this very much because of director Michael Mann (Heat (1995)) and talented cinematographer Dante Spinotti's (Red Dragon (2002)) keen eyes for interesting photography.
Manhunter adapts Thomas Harris' (The Silence of the Lambs (1988)) novel Red Dragon (1981), which was later adapted again as Brett Ratner's Red Dragon (2002) probably Ratner's only really good movie. The two films are very different in style, and are both very good in each their own way: Where Ratner focuses on the horrific savagery of the Tooth Fairy murderer and some back-story of Lecter's bloody capture by the lead, Will Graham, and makes an intensely entertaining and frightening horror thriller with a stellar cast, Mann instead focus on forensic and investigative details, Graham's strained marriage and the psychological work needed for him to catch the crazed serial killer. Mann's is the sophisticated thriller in comparison, and perhaps the best film about criminal profiling ever made.
The cast of Manhunter is simply excellent: Future CSI-star William Petersen (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000-15)) is intense and believable as the titular manhunter; Kim Greist (Brazil (1985)) is very believable and charismatic as his compromising wife; Brian Cox (L.I.E. (2001)) does well (as could be expected) in the role that Anthony Hopkins (Hitchcock (2012)) made his and became iconic for in Jonathan Demme's masterpiece, The Silence of the Lambs (1991); Joan Allen (The Notebook (2004)) is good as blind victim Reba, (played wonderfully by Emily Watson in Ratner's version); Dennis Farina (Snatch (2000)) is a fine believer in Graham at the Bureau; and finally Tom Noonan (The House of the Devil (2009)) is alright without being exceptional as the evil Francis Dollarhyde, (Ralph Fiennes is essentially scarier as the Tooth Fairy in Red Dragon in my opinion.) Dollarhyde is decidedly not played as a monster in Manhunter, and he even has some compensating romantic scenes that are therefore quite chilling.
The first half of Manhunter could actually do with some more sensationalizing of its material, (the pace is a bit slow), but writer-director Mann refused to indulge that. There are also quite a lot of cuts midway through shots, (a technical objection), which probably had to do with the shoot being 'guerilla filmmaking', as I understand from different cast and crew interviews.
They all did really great work anyway. Manhunter is a re-established serial killer classic.
In the Hannibal Lecter franchise, the finest will always be masterful The Silence of the Lambs, with Manhunter and Red Dragon as equally good penultimates. Ridley Scott's Hannibal (2001) is overrated and has many flaws, among them an erratic visual side. Prequel Hannibal Rising (2007) is disappointing. But with the new NBC TV series Hannibal (2013-), with Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen playing Lecter, it seems that the fascination with the character is not about to fade yet.
Manhunter was overlooked and became a box office failure in 1986 (for some undoubtedly unfair reasons), but it has since crawled its way up and achieved widespread recognition.

Related posts:

Michael Mann: Collateral (2004) - Great, urban, digital age thriller from Mann in his right element
The Hannibal Lecter franchise: Hannibal Rising (2007) - Harris returns famed cannibal in sub-par origins flick

Watch the trailer for the film here

Cost: 15 mil. $
Box office: 8.6 mil. $ (North America only)
= Huge flop (some uncertainty but returned at least 0.57 times the cost)
[Manhunter was released 15 August and runs 120 minutes. Shooting took place in Atlanta, Georgia, Florida, Missouri, North Carolina, Chicago, Illinois and in Washington DC, ending in September 1985. The film opened #8 to a 2.2 mil. $ first weekend in North America. Internal problems at production company and distributor De Laurentiis Entertainment Group pushed the UK premiere into '87, with wide release there not until '89. The film played in relatively few markets and didn't open until '88 and '89 in many of them. The world total is not publicized online, so shoot me a comment if you find it anywhere. Mann returned with an episode of Crime Story (1987, TV-series), L.A. Takedown (1989, TV movie) and theatrically with The Last of the Mohicans (1992). Petersen returned in Long Gone (1987, TV movie) and theatrically in Amazing Grace and Chuck (1987). Manhunter is fresh at 94 % with a 7.8/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Manhunter?

2001 Maniacs (2005) or, Southern Camp Gore

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Robert Englund, wearing an eye patch with the Confederacy flag, is the scoop of Tim Sullivan's 2001 Maniacs

A group of party-hungering youths take a detour and end up in Pleasant Valley, Georgia, where 2001 Southern civil war ghosts are waiting to eat them!

2001 Maniacs is the crazily plotted remake of Herschell Gordon Lewis' Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964). The film contains lavish doses of sex and gore and both pro- and rather insulting gay-themed scenes, perhaps because its co-writer-director Tim Sullivan (Driftwood (2006)), a gay rights activist and horror filmmaker, struggled with the film's producers on these points. - Some of it has turned out fun, some of it just confusing.
Robert Englund (A Nightmare of Elm Street (1984)) is theatrical and campy in his over-the-top acting and quite funny as Mayor Buckman. The film is an absurd and entertaining cult favorite. (And actually a tad better than Lewis' original film in my opinion.)
Sullivan co-wrote the script with Chris Kobin (Driftwood (2006)).

Here is a Spanish trailer for the original Lewis version of the film

Cost: 1.5 - 3 mil. $ (differing reports)
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertainty
[2001 Maniacs premiered 7 July (Fantasia Film Festival, Canada) and runs 87 minutes. Shooting took place in Georgia from November - December 2003. There are precious few details out surrounding 2001 Maniacs' release and earnings. It seems to have had a good run in Russia, where it reportedly made 368k $, but that seems to be it for info available. Sullivan returned with Driftwood (2006)). Englund returned in Dance of the Dead (2005, TV movie), A Nightmare on Elm Street: Real Nightmares (2005, TV-series) and theatrically in Hatchet (2006). A sequel was made for just 0.5 mil. $ five years hence, 2001 Maniacs: Field of Screams. 11,137 IMDb users have given 2001 Maniacs an average rating of 5.4/10.]

What do you think of 2001 Maniacs?

Solaris (2002) - A suffering space question mark

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Natascha McElhone and George Clooney look very much in love on this poster for Steven Soderbergh's Solaris

Based on Pole Stanislaw Lem's (Man from Mars (1946)) 1961 novel that was also adapted with the same title by Russian master director Andrei Tarkovsky in 1972, American master filmmaker Steven Soderbergh (Haywire (2011)) here sprinkles the mysterious space tale with his own modern sense of style. - He has both written, directed, photographed and edited the film.

Through most of Solaris, audiences are made to suffer in ignorance with depressed or otherwise mentally ill characters. Slowly we gather that the male and female leads, who mysteriously encounter each other in a lost space station near the planet called Solaris, SPOILER have previously lost a child together, and that she has since committed suicide. It follows that she is actually a nonhuman clone, but later it seems that so is he.

- It's all very mysterious, and one of the problems of Solaris is that the film revels too much in its own mysteriousness and incomprehensibility. By hearing Soderbergh talk about the film, - not having read the novel, - I understand that the woman is a reflection caused by the mysterious Solaris planet. This I never got from the film itself.
Apart from George Clooney (The Descendants (2011)), who seems to journey through Solaris in perpetual suffering, Viola Davis (The Help (2011)) plays a depressed co-passenger, while Jeremy Davies (Saving Private Ryan (1998)) impressed me with his acting skills as a mentally deranged person, perhaps, I suspect, inspired by observations of real schizophrenics. The female lead is played by British Natascha McElhone (Californication (2007-14)), and she poses another big problem for me in Solaris. She plays all she can, I believe, but remains an anonymous hair-model like figure in Solaris for me, regrettably.
Far from engaging, Solaris does have some nice cinematography, as is usually the case with Soderbergh's films, where he - as here - is most often his own cinematographer. And the score by Cliff Martinez (Drive (2011)) is withheld but noteworthy.
This unassuming romance space riddle cost an astounding 47 mil. $ to produce and didn't turn in more than 30 mil. $, - which in hindsight doesn't seem that unpredictable, considering its hermetic, incomprehensible romance 'allure'.
It didn't affect Soderbergh professionally, I surmise. He is easily one of the most steadily working feature directors in Hollywood today. I am looking forward to seeing his latest, Behind the Candelabra (2013), which is a Liberace biopic that couples Matt Damon with Michael Douglas!

Related posts:

Steven Soderbergh: Magic Mike XXL (2015) - Lots of fun and skin but still no gay as Mike goes to the convention (cinematographer, editor, producer)
Side Effects (2013) - Modern people screw up in excellent thriller 
Behind the Candelabra (2013) - Restraint and extravagance 
Magic Mike (2012) - Soderbergh and Tatum score big with cheeky male strip romp 
Haywire (2011) - Soderbergh's taut, stylish ensemble actioner is a masterpiece 
Contagion (2011) - Soderbergh's global pandemic creep-out  
Che Part One - The Argentine (2008) - Soderbergh's sober depiction of the Cuban revolution   

Ironically, the people behind Solaris blamed this trailer (among other things) for the film's flop. But truthfully the trailer is only guilty of promising way more excitement than the film actually contains

Cost: 47 mil. $
Box office: 30 mil. $
= Huge flop (returned 0.63 times the cost)
[Solaris premiered 19 November (Los Angeles, California) and runs 98 minutes. Shooting took place in Nevada, Arizona, Chicago, Illinois and in Los Angeles, California, ending in May 2002. The team behind it struggled with the MPAA, who had first slapped an R rating on it due to Clooney's bared bottom in the film (!), but they succeeded in getting it lowered to a PG-13. The film opened #7 to a 6.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it only declined from there and grossed a paltry 14.9 mil. $ (49.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Spain  with 2.9 mil. $ (9.7 %) and France  with 2.1 mil. $ (7%). Soderbergh returned with K Street (2003., TV-series), Eros (2004, segment) and all by himself with Ocean's Twelve (2004). Clooney returned in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002). Solaris is fresh at 66 % with a 6.5/10 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

How do you like Soderbergh's Solaris?
Did I miss the point of it?
Or do you also like Tarkovsky's version better?

15 Minutes (2001) or, Bad Cynics in New York City

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Stars Edward Burns and Robert De Niro caught in a moment of intensity on a video camera on the poster for John Herzfeld's 15 Minutes

15 Minutes is about a famous New York City cop and a pair of Eastern European crooks on a crime spree in the Big Apple, whose paths cross.

Very critical towards mass media and the US, this film sometimes feels like a debate commentary more than a movie. Writer-director John Herzfeld's (2 Days in the Valley (1996)) ambition seems to have been to go further into extremes with every new scene.
The aesthetics of the villains' video-tapes leave a confused impression, although bearing in mind the way video capture has revolutionized the lives of normal people since the film's release, - as well as the world of crime, - the element may be considered interesting regardless.
15 Minutes, (the title is taken from the famous Andy Warhol quote that everyone will get their 15 minutes of fame in the future), keeps afloat due to its great ensemble cast which includes Robert De Niro (Silver Linings Playbook (2012)) working at top speed; Edward Burns (Saving Private Ryan (1998)) as his young apprentice; Kelsey Grammer (Frasier (1993-04)) as a cynical TV host, and great Czech actor, Karel Roden (The Abandoned/Los Abandonados (2006)) as a delusional bad guy.
Also co-starring are attractive actresses Vera Farmiga (The Conjuring (2013)), Kim Cattrall (Sex and the City (2008)), and Charlize Theron (Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)).
Herzfeld's career has been going downhill since the film: He has only directed the two little-seen features, The Death and Life of Bobby Z (2007) and the recently poorly received drama Collection/Reach Me (2014) with Sylvester Stallone and again an impressive ensemble cast.

Watch the trailer for the somewhat hyperbolic 15 Minutes right here

Cost: 42 mil. $
Box office: 56.3 mil. $
= Big flop (returned 1.34 times the cost)
[15 Minutes premiered 1 March (USA) and runs 120 minutes. Shooting took place on location in New York and Los Angeles, ending in May 1999. The release was pushed out one year after trailers had been playing for unknown reasons. It opened #2, behind holdover hit The Mexican, to a 10.5 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent one more week in the top 5 (#5) and grossed 24.4 mil. $ (43.3 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets seems to have been the UK  with 2.3 mil. $ (4%) and Australia with 1.3 mil. $ (2.3 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch higher than this one. Herzfeld returned with Bill Stanton Project (2003, TV-series), Dr. Vegas (2004, TV-series) and theatrically with Bobby Z (2007). De Niro returned in The Score (2001), Burns in Sidewalks of New York (2001). 15 Minutes is rotten at 32 % with a 4.4/10 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of 15 Minutes?

1408 (2007) or, The Haunted Hotel Room

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Mikael Håfström's 1408, though good, does NOT rank as one of the best Stephen King adaptations with The Shining, although Maxim's Pete Hammond is quoted saying so on this sickly looking poster for it

A horror writer stays in a haunted hotel.

This horror just makes it to generous four small hearts. It is an adaptation of a 1999 same-titled short story by Stephen King (The Stand (1978)).
The shocks are there, and the horror is mostly based on different phobias which is interesting. 1408 is entertaining, although I can't really stomach John Cusack's (Maps to the Stars (2014)) silly acting here, bulging his eyes out and staggering around. He's often just not my cup of tea for some reason.
The film's Swedish director Mikael Håfström (Escape Plan (2013)) is also no Stanley Kubrick, (who made the arguably scariest hotel horror ever with his King adaptation The Shining in 1980), even if he did make a really good film with Jan Guillou's autobiographical youth novel, Evil/Onskan (2003), (which, despite its title, is not a horror film but an intense, school-set drama.)
1408 is co-written by Matt Greenberg (Mercy (2014)), Scott Alexander (Goosebumps (2015)) and Larry Karaszewski (Big Eyes (2014)).
Besides The Shining (1980), the best Stephen King adaptations are, in my opinion; Carrie (1976), Creepshow (1982), Christine (1983), Stand By Me (1986), Misery (1990), The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and The Mist (2007).

Related post:

Mikael Håfström:  Derailed (2005) - Håfström's pointless romance thriller

Watch the trailer for 1408 here

Cost: 25 mil. $
Box office: 131.9 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 5.72 times the cost)
[1408 was premiered 12 June (Los Angeles, California) and runs 104 minutes with an unrated cut that runs 112 minutes. Shooting took place in New York, California, including Los Angeles, and in England, including London, ending in July 2006. The film opened #2, behind fellow new release Evan Almighty, to a 20.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed in the top 5 for another week (#5) and grossed grossed 71.9 mil. $ (54.5 % of the total gross.) The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 6.4 mil. $ (4.9 %) and Spain with 5.7 mil. $ (4.3 %). Håfström returned with Shanghai (2010). Cusack returned in Martian Child (2007), and Samuel L. Jackson (Unicorn Store (2017)) in Great Performances (1990-07)) and theatrically in Cleaner (2007). 1409 is certified fresh at 79 % with a 6.7/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of 1408?

28 Weeks Later (2007) or, Fast Zombies in England 2

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The blood-red poster for Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's 28 Weeks Later

The zombie virus from the first film has left England a wasteland. Now American forces are trying to re-establish the country, - but disaster strikes again.

The nearly doubled budget, compared to its successful predecessor, Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later (2002), means (especially) more alone-in-the-world scenes and an expensive fire-bombing-scene of London here in the inevitable sequel. The sequel also employs documentary-style photography.
Weeks, co-written by its Spanish director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (Intruders (2011)), Rowan Joffe (Before I Go to Sleep (2014)), Enrique López Lavigne (El Asombroso Mundo de Borjamari y Pocholo (2004)) and Jesús Olmo (Flores Muertas (2004)), is intensely frightening and at times disgusting.
But on the down side, its score by John Murphy (Snatch. (2000)) is monotone, and an annoying subplot with kids also weighs down the film.
Boyle was busy with Sunshine (2007) at the time of the making of the movie and therefore left the directing to Spanish Fresnadillo, known at the time for the Spanish mystery film Intacto (2001).
Robert Carlyle (Trainspotting (1996)) stars in 28 Weeks Later alongside Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker (2008)) and Rose Byrne (Bridesmaids (2011)). But these bigger stars can't conceal that the movie isn't nearly as good as 28 Days Later.
It was a hit though, so another sequel is in talks.

Related review:

28 Days Later (2002) or, Fast Zombies in England

The mediocrity of 28 Weeks Later is apparent in its trailer

Cost: 15 mil. $

Box office: 64.2 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 4.28 times the cost)
[28 Weeks Later premiered 26 April (London) and runs 100 minutes. Shooting took place in the UK, including London and Wales, and in Paris, France, ending in September 2006. The film opened #2, behind holdover hit Spider-Man 3, to a 9.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another week in the top 5 (#4) and grossed 28.6 mil. $ (44.5 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 10.6 mil. $ (16.5 %) and Spain with 4.5 mil. $ (7%). It was nominated for 2 British Independent Spirit awards. As of July 2010, the film has sold 1.3 mil. DVD and Blu-ray units in North America alone, accruing another 24.3 mil. $, which, if added into the theatrical gross, would change the film's status to that of a 'huge hit'. Fresnadillo returned with Intruders (2011). Carlyle returned in The Last Enemy (2008, miniseries) and theatrically in Stone of Destiny (2008); Renner in Take (2007) and Byrne in Just Buried (2007). 28 Weeks Later is fresh at 71 % with a 6.6/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of 28 Weeks Later?