In The Land of Saints and Sinners (2023)

Patriot Games also pitted an IRA terrorist against a hero who makes the mistake of killing the terrorist's brother, but this movie transports the story to an unlikely setting, a tiny coastal village of Ireland where it can be hard for viewers to believe that the two parties - Liam Neeson's brother-killing hero Finbar Murphy and Kerry Condon as the terrorist and sister of the man killed -  don't immediately find each other and have it out; the unbelievable delay is to allow the movie to build to a melodramatic - and a little out-of-place in a small Irish village - John Woo finale where the town suddenly has the population density amd proportions of a major city.

★★★☆☆

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The Woman In Black (2012)

There's a terrific legend at the heart of Susan Hill's ghost story - one that ought to sustain a series of The Conjuring-style sequels and spinoffs - yet by adopting the very look and feel of The Conjuring brand of horror, director James Watkins drains the material of distinction, delivering a pale comparison to the low-budget but memorable 1980s TV miniseries, so this movie is inadvertently a case-study in how SFX and excess can diminish rather than enhance horror.

★★★☆☆

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