No Sudden Move (2021)

The elaborate costuming of the ensemble cast and period 1960s Detroit setting feel like an affectation until late in this Steven Soderbergh movie when a card is played that turns the riveting, finely-acted neo-noir crime flick into something sharper: a pointed social commentary.

★★★★☆

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Turbulence (1997)

This plane disaster movie throws into its Die Hard-esque Christmas context a gang of ruthless Con Air criminals, a Silence of the Lambs serial killer, a Perfect Storm storm, and laws of physics-defying Flight aerobatics, not to mention a Backdraft cabin fire, a "Here's Johnny" The Shining climax, oh and some turbulence, and despite all this cannot hide the fact it is basically an exceedingly silly mid-air "Someone has to fly this plane!" Flying High.

★★☆☆☆

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Hannibal (2001)

Oh dear, the subtle, chilling and in many ways groundbreaking Silence of the Lambs is followed up by this blatant, bloated, over-the-top gothic melodrama, a sequel which replaces Jodie Foster's intense, determined but vulnerable Clarice with Julianne Moore's personality-free version who starts off being held responsible, ridiculously, for a 70s blaxploitation movie's stakeout-gone-wrong and then bungles her way through a dull serial killer investigation involving so much exaggerated horror without any let up or normalcy that in the end it feels like a desperate, unclassy, um, assault upon the brain.

★☆☆☆☆

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