Crime Thrillers, Detective Stories, Modern Noir, Police
Action
Classic and cult-worthy cinema, of the 1980s and 1990s, dominates
this list... because that’s when I became more seriously interested in popular movies,
while re-watching, and studying, genre films, with fan-boy ambitions to write
criticism. Inevitably, I pick mostly American police thrillers offering the greatest
fun possibilities, and repeatable entertainment values, with a variety of legal
subjects (including murder, or gangsters - so this list isn’t just about robbery
by villains), while I avoid blatantly superhero and comicbook adventures, like RoboCop (1987), Dick Tracy (1990), Sin City
(2005), and Dredd (2012).
I also
excluded any examples of classic film noir, simply because so few of them are not,
for me, inherently re-watchable, especially during this century. Such old
B&W pictures were early products of a cinema technology that was, until
well into the 1960s, still in progressive development, or colour stock was not
easily, or cheaply, available in all regions. One other strand that’s relevant
is supernatural crime movies like: Wolfen
(1981), directed by Michael Wadleigh, Q:
The Winged Serpent (1982) by Larry Cohen, and Alan Parker’s Angel Heart (1987), with a cross-genre approach,
for character-study, personified by Lance Henriksen as Frank Black in Chris
Carter’s TV series, Millennium
(1996-99). Much as I love them all, I crossed these off my list, too. Films are
listed here in chronological order, with an A-Z at the end. Could, or would,
you (re-)watch one of these, each day, for a month?
Dirty Harry
(1971)
Director: Don Siegel
Clint Eastwood firmly established his now-iconic Inspector
Harry Callahan, as brutal police thug, whose impolite manner seemed a necessary
evil, while hunting down the psycho serial-killer ‘Scorpio’ (Andrew Robinson),
in San Francisco. ‘Dirty’ Harry soon returned for Magnum Force (1973), about cops becoming killers; and - my favourite
- The Enforcer (1976), where brusque
Harry is partnered (unhappily, at first) with Kate Moore (Tyne Daly, a TV star
in Cagney & Lacey, 1982-8);
followed by Sudden Impact (1983), with
Eastwood directing himself. And, finally, The
Dead Pool (1988). If you’re feeling lucky... binge-watch all five movies,
or punk out!
The French Connection (1971)
Director: William Friedkin
Shortly after Peter Yates’ actioner Bullitt (1968), starring Steve McQueen, on location in San
Francisco, exciting car-chase movies had arrived with an unforgettable impact.
Not to be outpaced by their east-coast rivals, here, New York becomes a cat ‘n’
mouse battlefield, with the dynamic excellence of mayhem on wheels. Based on a
non-fiction book, about drug smugglers, this seminal police procedural stars Gene
Hackman in a career-defining, Oscar-winning, role - successful enough to
produce a sequel, French Connection II
(1975), directed by John Frankenheimer, plus TV-movie, Popeye Doyle (1986). Hackman died a year ago, leaving us with four
decades of great performances.
Brannigan
(1975)
Director: Douglas Hickox
I’m really not a fan of John Wayne, but always liked his
grouchy performance in this, made just before Clint Eastwood’s third Dirty Harry outing, The Enforcer, that also teamed its rogue hero with a police-woman. John
plays Chicago cop Jim, in London, where he meets Judy Geeson as heroine
Thatcher. Richard Attenborough is good fun as their boss, Sir Swann. The
exceptional supporting cast includes: Mel Ferrer, John Vernon, Lesley Anne
Down, James Booth, Brian Glover, and Don Henderson. Look out for Tony Robinson,
too. First appearing alongside British TV series The Sweeney (1975-8), this film helped popularise the recognisably
home-grown action genre, and seems to have prompted features, like David
Wickes’ Sweeney! (1977), and its
sequel, Tom Clegg’s Sweeney 2 (1978).
Probably, Brannigan also inspired Ranald
Graham’s popular show Dempsey And
Makepeace (1985-6).
The Driver
(1978)
Writer & Director: Walter Hill
No character names, here. It’s a highly stylised thriller,
of pure genre symbolism, with minimalist dialogue, clearly inspired by Jean-Pierre
Melville’s classic French noir, Le
Samurai (1967). Ryan O’Neal plays getaway driver ‘Cowboy’, Bruce Dern is the
crafty police ‘Detective’ out to catch him, and Isabelle Adjani is the
‘Player’. Predictably, car chases start and end this movie, but one of cinema’s
greatest crash scenes takes place in an empty underground car park, where stuntmen
demo precision skills around the garage, to smash-up a Mercedes, without physical
injury to passengers. Drive (2011), starring
Ryan Gosling, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, was an obvious tribute-film to The Driver.
Murder By Decree (1979)
Director: Bob Clark
The ultimate Sherlock whodunit, because the villain here is ‘Jack
the Ripper’, and the casting of Christopher Plumber, as a quite likeable
Holmes, with James Mason as Dr John Watson, was clearly genius-level thinking. From
daylight Baker Street to gothic alley design, this Victorian conspiracy chiller
wisely steers away from typical slashers wallowing in gory shocks, such as
mystery-horror, From Hell (2001), and
is a greater movie because of its mature discretion.
Sharky’s Machine (1981)
Director: Burt Reynolds
While directing himself, 1970s’ superstar Reynolds somehow, inadvertently,
made his best-ever movie. Although the plot’s main twist owes a great debt to Otto
Preminger’s classic mystery, Laura
(1944), this drama of murder and political corruption updates its police-surveillance
scenario, and sex fantasy about classy escort, Dominoe (Rachel Ward), with
psychotic violence, from cocaine-fuelled killer, ‘Billy Score’ (Henry Silva,
off the rails), perhaps an inspiration for Stansfield (Gary Oldman), in Leon (1994), by Luc Besson. Buddy-movie,
Stakeout (1987), directed by John
Badham, was a farcical rom-com variant of this atypical crime-thriller.
48 Hrs.
(1982)
Director: Walter Hill
First, and best, of the 1980s’ buddy-movie actioners, this has
a convict, Reggie (Eddie Murphy) team-up with San Francisco cop, Jack (Nick
Nolte), for hunting killer, Ganz (James Remar, never better), after a stash of
stolen money. This loot ‘MacGuffin’ has driven plots before, of course, but the
focus here explores mismatched chalk & cheese characters who become wary friends
in violent adversity, when satirically outrageous Murphy provokes racists, with
a black cultural philosophy like sarcasm’s razor. Made with four times its
budget, sequel Another 48 Hrs. (1990),
faces down a revenge plot, plus extra dollops of comedy.
I, The Jury
(1982)
Director: Richard T. Heffron
Based upon Mickey Spillane’s 1947 debut novel (previously
filmed by Harry Essex as 1950s’ styled
3D noir), this updated ‘gumshoe’ flick, scripted by Larry Cohen, packs a
wallop, starring Armand Assante as tough private-eye Mike Hammer (also played
by nicer Stacy Keach on TV). I always prefer this witty hokum, to over-stylised
films like Robert Altman’s The Long
Goodbye (1973), or Roman Polanski’s Chinatown
(1974). Laurene Landon plays Mike’s secretary Velda, while Barbara
Carrera, as Dr Bennett, adds more sophisticated glamour to moody urban sleaze,
that often suits Hammer’s brashly swaggering bad manners.
To Live And Die In L.A. (1984)
Co-writer & Director: William Friedkin
The definitive 1980s’ movie, this vengeful clash between
Secret Service (US Treasury) agent, Chance (William Petersen), and money
counterfeiter, Masters (Willem Dafoe), delivers slickly authentic crime scenes,
visuals by European cinematographer Robby Muller, and music by British band
Wang Chung. It’s quite dazzlingly presented, with fashionable style that was
adopted, then clichéd, by Michael Mann’s faddish TV show Miami Vice (1984-90), but its vibrant energy and cultural impact
remains exemplary for this decade’s Hollywood cinema.
Year Of The Dragon (1985)
Director: Michael Cimino
Co-written by Cimino, with Oliver Stone, this is based on
ex-cop Robert Daley’s novel. Deservedly winning cult-worthy status, it’s a thriller
starring Mickey Rourke as a New York police captain, and John Lone as the new
leader of Triad gangs. After a string of violent betrayals, their uneasy truce
is broken, and Stanley White goes rogue to arrest Joey Tai. Full of blistering
action that contrasts with a few melodramatic scenes, Year Of The Dragon excels at messy, scary, bullet-strewn, urban battles
that, in retrospect, and partly because of the movie’s Chinese back-story and
cultural presence, appear to anticipate if not influence, the now-familiar hectic
style of director John Woo, at least from A
Better Tomorrow (1986), onwards.
Extreme Prejudice (1987)
Director: Walter Hill
“Look the other way, or die trying.” One of the boldest
modern westerns, this actioner is an effective Peckinpah tribute, with
comic-book styling. It stars Nick Nolte as Texas Ranger Jack Benteen, and Powers
Boothe plays drug-smuggler, Cash Bailey. There’s a secret army team on a rogue
mission, as Benteen confronts acutely corrupt forces that prompt a climactic duel,
and showdown in Mexico. Contrary to cowboy lore, Jack and Cash both wear white
hats, like a symbol of their old friendship. The great supporting cast includes:
Maria Conchita Alonso, Rip Torn, Michael Ironside, and Clancy Brown.
Lethal Weapon (1987)
Director: Richard Donner
Written by Shane Black, mixing policier noir, partly about
suicidal grief, with actioner style fuelled by ex-military corruption. Mel
Gibson and Danny Glover play new partners Riggs and Murtaugh,
investigating murky L.A. underworld links to CIA agents of the Vietnam War. With nasty
blackmail, kidnapping, and torture, as escalating stages of the chief villain’s
plans, only the special forces training of Riggs might save the day. Gary Busey plays a strong but silent henchman, Joshua.
Although this was exciting as top action franchise starter, packed with
glossily explosive thrills, three movie sequels (1989, 1992, 1998), also by Donner,
mocked Riggs’ crazy mentality, and domesticated the fighting spirit of Murtaugh.
Quite bemusingly, it lurched into farcical self-parody. However, an engagingly
witty remake, for TV (2016-9), ran for three seasons.
The Untouchables (1987)
Director: Brian De Palma
Written by David Mamet, this bio-pic frames Prohibition as
the fundamentally moral crusade between Federal Agent Eliot Ness (Kevin Costner),
and Chicago’s mobster Al Capone (Robert De Niro). The Untouchables is De Palma’s genuine masterpiece, and my
favourite ‘cops & robbers’ movie. A train-station climax pays clever homage
to the famous ‘Odessa Steps’ montage, from Soviet Russia’s silent film, Battleship Potemkin (1925). Earlier
set-pieces explore the credibility of heroism, and inhuman depths that crooks
find appealing. This classic is on my top 25 list of best bio-pics.
Die Hard
(1988)
Director: John McTiernan
Bruce Willis, as John McClane, proves that one man can make
a difference, when he’s a plain-clothes superhero. British actor Alan Rickman (1946
- 2016), plays a German villain, Hans Gruber, helping to establish a casting
formula like the new transatlantic stereotype for Hollywood. Die Hard is not a bloody ‘Xmas movie’,
it’s actually a high-rise western. The corporate skyscraper plaza is clearly a
‘vertical’ town, and mentions of John Wayne and Roy Rogers cannot fail to
verify the cowboy-versus-outlaws label. Sequels established a variable franchise but I think they’re
all good or great actioners.
- Die Hard 2: Die Harder (1990) - hero
during airport siege, directed by Renny Harlin.
- Die Hard With A
Vengeance (1995) - McTiernan returns for McClane’s buddy-movie.
- Live Free Or Die Hard
(2007) - cyber-attacks on United States. Len Wiseman directs.
- Die Hard 4.0 (aka:
A Good Day to Die Hard, 2013) -
McClane & son’s Moscow spy-fi.
Black Rain
(1989)
Director: Ridley Scott
American detectives visit Japan, as police escort yakuza
killer Sato, who they arrested for knife-murders in New York. Michael Douglas
stars as bad cop Nick Conklin, Andy Garcia plays his likeable partner, Charlie
Vincent. After flying overseas, they can only be US observers in Osaka. Down at
prefecture station, Japanese cops and biker-gangs with cyberpunk vibe, don’t
care about Yankee bullshit, or swaggering foreigners. Kate Capshaw (now Mrs Spielberg) plays night-club hostess Joyce,
careful never to appear like a femme fatale. International politics and
extralegal co-operation is central when Americans face twin problems of
culture-shock and xenophobia. Ken Takakura plays Osaka cop Inspector ‘Mas’ and
he’s an unlikely third man in this buddy-movie. Gaijin tricked into a fatal
trap. Mobster-mash power-plays result in rebel Conklin’s arrest, but he
avoids official deportation, then chases ambitious Sato, to find a counterfeiting plate.
From foundry to farm, director Scott makes memorable use of back-drops, for
action sequences on vastly different locations, that contrast stunning
painterly colours with a familiar neon glamour of Japanese city streets.
Blue Steel
(1990)
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Jamie Lee Curtis plays a cop (on her first day at work) who
shoots a robber... oh yeah, it sounds like a terrible Hollywood cliché. But
with astute direction, and a great effort by Curtis as Megan Turner, this
visually stunning thriller about a psycho (Ron Silver) with a stolen gun, ensured
the star’s break away from slasher and horror stereotypes. Comparisons to John Carpenter’s Halloween are hardly relevant, because Megan kills first, before
the witness who turns into an obsessive maniac, and it’s her defiant stand
against armed robbery that prompts his later criminal behaviour. For a
policewoman, Blue Steel seems a
nightmare, but it’s one of the era’s greatest cops & robbers movies.
The Silence Of The Lambs (1991)
Director: Jonathan Demme
Jodie Foster stars as FBI trainee, Clarice Starling, in this
acutely macabre crime film, about hunting a serial killer. With its descent into anguish,
for a terrifying, yet darkly humorous confrontation, the movie’s finale is done
rather better than quite similarly themed violence, in Martin Scorsese’s 1991 remake
of revenge-thriller, Cape Fear. If
the main problem with Demme’s classic horror is that gothic undertones, of
Anthony Hopkins playing Dr Lecter, attempts to counteract a realistic
portrayal, by Brian Cox as Lecktor, in Michael Mann’s chiller Manhunter (1986), well, that’s messy franchise
revisionism for you. Awkwardly, Red
Dragon (2002), directed by Brett Ratner, tried to be a remake of Manhunter, and a prequel to Ridley
Scott’s great sequel, Hannibal (2001),
which cast Julianne Moore as federal agent Starling. The belated TV spin-off, Clarice (2021), starred Rebecca Breeds in
the lead role, for a character-study series.
Hard Boiled
(1992)
Director: John Woo
I never liked the term ‘heroic bloodshed’ but, for John Woo,
this instant-classic movie became his best Hong Kong work, under the humbler ‘gun
fu’ label, of choreographed stunts. Premier action stylist Woo directs Asian
superstar, Chow Yun-fat, as Inspector ‘Tequila’, and Tony Leung, as undercover
cop Alan. The great Anthony Wong as Triad leader Johnny, his top henchman, gunfighter
Mad Dog (Philip Kwok), and Teresa Mo as Tequila’s girlfriend (also a police
officer), and ex-cop actor Philip Chan as Tequila’s boss, Superintendent Pang,
round out an excellent supporting cast. The magnificently artful blending of
real-time and slow-motion, creates visual poetry, mythic resonance, and low-key
symbolism, to survey the ‘warrior mystique’ of vehemence versus valour. Far more than just ‘Die
Hard in a hospital’, the movie’s climax delivers such a blazing shoot-out
of genuinely impressive thrills, punctuated by tragedy, humour, and rather
extraordinarily unsafe business like fire endangering a nursery in the
maternity ward. Tequila’s honest one-liner: “You saved the day, you little
piss-pot!”, always makes me laugh.
Falling Down
(1993)
Director: Joel Schumacher
“I’m going home... Clear a path!” Starting with brooding
riffs, on Scorsese’s charmless Taxi
Driver (1976), and Godard’s surrealistic Weekend (1967), Michael Douglas plays frustrated driver, William
‘Bill’ Foster, in a gridlocked car with personalised ‘D-FENS’ number plate.
Perhaps the greatest supporting actor of his generation, Robert Duvall (who
died last month) co-starred as Los Angeles police detective, Prendergast, on
his last day at work. The cop tracks pedestrian Foster’s bouts of violence for
challengingly satirical mayhem, through post-yuppie scenes, where laughably
angry residents meet the last gasps of patriarchal machismo, and consequences
of a suppressed rage. What begins like a sketch about an imaginary blues song,
ratchets tighter with the drive-by shooting in street-gang territory, that does
nothing but add guns to D-FENS’ temper. This is Schumacher’s genuine
cult-worthy masterpiece of sardonic irony, particularly when it pre-empts the various
criminal themes and episodic structure, of Tarantino’s popular Pulp Fiction (1994).
Heat (1995)
Writer & Director: Michael Mann
Basically, a cinematic remake of Mann’s cult TV-movie L.A. Takedown (aka: Made In L.A., 1989), this scaled-up feature reflects on the
dichotomy of villain and hero in epic movies, like The Untouchables, but
flips their usual, if not always so typical, character traits. Here, Al Pacino
plays LAPD Lieutenant Vincent Hanna, as loud and obnoxious, while co-star
Robert De Niro (ghastly and vicious, as Capone, in The Untouchables) is the quietly intense criminal bloke, as Neil
McCauley. Rightly celebrated for its camera work, and some electrifying
shoot-out choreography after the bank robbery sequence, Heat is not just another actioner, it’s Hollywood’s greatest crime
thriller of the 1990s.
Seven (aka: Se7en, 1995)
Director: David Fincher
After the success of The
Silence Of The Lambs, it was this extraordinarily ‘dark’ movie that added
unflinching horrors to standard policier films. Morbid extremes anticipate the
21st century’s cycle of ‘torture porn’ shockers, epitomised by Leigh Whannell,
and James Wan, creating the Saw
franchise (2004-23). Veteran police detective Somerset (Morgan Freeman) teams
up with younger cop Mills (Brad Pitt) for a serial-killer case of murders based
on the ‘seven deadly sins’. Killings that are inspired by gluttony and greed
are dreadful enough, but a sloth victim is found still alive after a year of
torture. A sunless urban atmosphere means even daylight scenes are so grimly
oppressive, it’s as if the unknown city’s a nightmarish purgatory, or a world unfit
for basic humanity. Seven might resemble
Blade Runner (1982), but often feels
like TV show The X-Files (1993-2002),
with a Hammer-horror super-villain. Literary puzzles, solved by canny old
Somerset, also reveal Mills’ ignorance. Disgust, as required for modern horror,
is in plentiful supply here. Gwyneth Paltrow plays Mills’ unhappy, doomed, wife
Tracy. The killer, ‘John Doe’ (Kevin Spacey), might be the devil or a dark
angel, delivering a message from god. In genre terms, it’s curious that Seven owes far more to mystery-horror, Angel Heart (1987), than fantasy-comedy,
Bedazzled (1967).
Fargo (1996)
Co-Writers & Directors: Joel & Ethan Coen
Ever since Blood
Simple (1984), the Coen brothers have re-mixed subgenre themes of modern
noir, black comedy, and stylised horror. I think Miller’s Crossing (1990), was the greatest film about gangsters,
while their western, True Grit (2010),
was a remake that improves upon 1969’s original vehicle for John Wayne. Fargo perfects the Coens’ innovative mode
of twisty mystery-thriller, with occasionally surrealistic imagery. Set in
northern US states, this movie stars Frances McDormand as police chief,
pregnant Marge Gunderson, and William H. Macy as crooked salesman, Jerry.
Everything that could go wrong with Jerry’s kidnap-for-random plot eventually
does, and so murders seem inevitable. Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare are
great fun as chalk-and-cheese chancers leading the supporting cast with a
leisurely plot that crackles with ironic wit. “Yeah, you betcha!” Noah Hawley
developed a TV spin-off (2014-24), that ran for five seasons.
Face/Off
(1997)
Director: John Woo
This non-stop sci-fi actioner pits Nicolas Cage against John
Travolta, with iconic role-play. It continues the switch of traditional cop and
crook stereotypes, previously seen in Heat,
following The Untouchables.
Travolta, as heroic FBI agent, Sean Archer, and Cage, as prime villain Castor
Troy, deliver scenes of mind-bendingly tremendous fun, about rival personalities
with conflicting identities, when hi-tech surgery trades their faces, and they have
to portray each other. Both actors tackle performing, with relish, and
super-cool confidence, despite initial confused anxieties. Sad dad Archer became
frustrated by FBI rules after his son was killed. Castor spooks choir like a crazy
comic villain. Saint against sinner characters mark-up religious symbolism of
good and evil. Hysterically homicidal maniac versus a family man, married
to Dr Eve. Castor learns he has a son named Adam. Eventually, the cop and the
crook discover they are more alike than either of them ever thought. The
central undercover mission, in ‘Erehwon’ (nowhere) prison, meets Castor’s brother
Pollux, who knows the location of a WMD. A key scene has Archer and Troy, pause,
in opposition, before a double-sided mirror, guns aimed at their reflections,
and so each other, adding critical nightmare imagery.
L.A. Confidential (1997)
Director: Curtis Hanson
Adapted by Hanson, with co-scripter Brian Helgeland, from a
novel by James Ellory, this episodic noir has sleazy police collide with showbiz
cynicism beneath a veneer of Hollywood glamour. Three cops navigate 1950s’ vice,
while cosmetic surgery makes celebrity look-alikes for escort prostitutes. Fabulous
in retrospect, main cast features Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, James
Cromwell, David Strathairn, Danny DeVito, and Kim Basinger. It’s a period-setting
but without nostalgia. Elegant styles of history, blend with a messily
realistic modernity, to cleverly avoid the men-in-hats appeal of Mulholland Falls (1996), that looks
dated when this movie offers a timeless quality. Cops close ranks against
public scandal, but happily betray their career rivals for promotion. American
dreams are poisoned by ‘righteous trash’. Corruption might discover conscience,
even heartless thugs. Here we find angels perching on shoulder-chips, or devils
in secret wallets. “Just the facts,” quotes the in-story TV show, ‘Badge Of
Honour’ that references Dragnet
(1951-9). And yet, apart from a Lana Turner joke, L.A. Confidential never spoofs its milieu like remake movie Dragnet (1987). Although the plot’s
about cops, crimes, and knotty tangles of both, the movie’s producers wisely put
Kim Basinger on the posters.
The X-Files (aka:
The X-Files: Fight The Future, 1998)
Director: Rob Bowman
Before the Millennium, the formulaic blend of basic ‘cops
& robbers’ action expanded. Chris Carter’s hit TV series about FBI agents, Fox ‘Spooky’
Mulder (David Duchovny), and Dr Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), became a perfect
SF/fantasy/horror/mystery TV series of the 1990s. This first spin-off movie
continues that cross-genre mix, about weird crimes, and government conspiracy. Thrills
and intrigues abound in this smart sci-fi scenario inspired by ‘first contact’
themes. The prehistoric beginning references Stanley Kubrick’s artistic
masterpiece, 2001: A Space Odyssey
(1968), and its climax absorbs themes from John Carpenter’s superb monsterama, The Thing (1982), which remains the best
remake in cinema history, and the greatest SF-horror movie. Wisely, this cribs
from such classics, and combines contrasting elements, with re-interpretive
twists, and it’s something that just a few modern franchised productions do
very well.
The Kingdom
(2007)
Director: Peter Berg
Potentially a classic, The
Siege (1998), directed by Edward Zwick, was, too frequently, over-weighted
by its star turns. Denzel Washington, Annette Bening, and Bruce Willis (in a
rare villain role). It followed nearly forgotten TV movie, Path To Paradise (1997) about 1993’s World Trade Centre bombing.
After the destruction of WTC twin towers, on 11th September 2001, American
agents hunting terrorists committing random acts of extreme brutality no longer
seemed viable as movie thrillers. However, middle-east timelines about Saudi
Arabian oil, sold to the USA, spawned vast imbalances of global power. A set-up
between traditional beliefs, based on religious delusions, and modern secular
society built upon US trust in god-of-money Mammon, was a total fiction that
defied reality while attempting to define humanity. Obviously, the cultures are
deeply flawed. Complexity and sophistication being simplified is a typical requirement
for all action movies, even cops & robbers dramas where crimes are solved
by intelligence or forensic clues. The
Kingdom sits on a throne of American self-indulgence, thankfully, never
overwhelmed by its cast. Jamie Foxx, and Chris Cooper... plus Jennifer Garner,
from superhero movies, Daredevil
(2003), and under-valued Elektra
(2005), and TV spy-fi series, Alias
(2001-6), who steals every scene she’s in.
Mad Detective
(2007)
Directors: Johnnie To & Wai Ka-Fai
While obsessive-compulsive disorder and a long list of
phobias enabled Adrian (Tony Shalhoub), to help San Francisco cops, in TV
comedy-drama Monk (2002-9), Chinese
movie Mad Detective reaches a new level of eccentric weirdness.
Virtuoso techniques of film-making merge with superb characterisation of an unhinged
ex-cop, Bun (Sean Lau), sacked for cutting off his own ear. Later, off his
meds, maybe off his trolley, but he hears appeal from Inspector Ho (Andy On),
for help to find a missing officer. Bun claims that seeing people’s inner life means
his intuition is peerless, while remaining ambiguous. A murderer’s split ‘personalities’
appearing on-screen, skilfully generates unease, and suspense, even more
surprisingly powerful than William Hurt’s alter-ego for Kevin Costner’s
sociopath in Hollywood’s psycho-chiller, Mr Brooks (also 2007). Mad Detective offers poignant farce with
mesmerising demos of crime-buster insight, like neuro-diverse genius, but delivery
is on the knife-edge of supernatural absurdity.
Detective Dee And The Mystery Of The Phantom Flame (2010)
Director: Tsui Hark
Set in the Tang dynasty, where Andy Lau plays exiled traitor,
Di Renjie, pardoned to investigate mysterious murders, before the coronation of
Empress Wu (Carina Lau). Our hero contends with palace intrigues, and a military
coup against the first woman on China’s
throne. Freely adapted from post-war novels by Robert Van Gulik, whose detective
was ‘Judge Dee’, this adventure showcases Dee as a fantastic martial artist,
instead of a portly sleuth. Apparent black magic is soon exposed by scientific
inquiry as psychological scam. Dee uncovers parlour tricks, like ventriloquism,
and mythical illusions of transfiguration, but logic can’t explain everything. An
intrepid champion, ‘perfect person’ Dee has insight and cunning, intellect and
humour, and there’s some dynamic fight choreography by Sammo Hung. Epic scaled action
and vivid spectacle, ensure this stands tall in the crowded arena of the 21st
century’s Asian blockbusters. Two prequels followed - Young
Detective Dee: Rise Of The Sea Dragon (2013), and Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings (2018) - but, without the
presence of Andy Lau, something vital seemed missing from the ‘superheroic’ psychic
wuxia formula.
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011)
Director: David Fincher
One of Hollywood’s very best remakes, this revision is of
the first Swedish movie from Stieg Larsson’s ‘Millennium’ trilogy, The Girl
With The Dragon Tattoo. With sequels, The
Girl Who Played With Fire, The Girl
Who Kicked The Hornets’ Nest, all filmed in 2009, they showcased Noomi
Rapace, as a Pippi Longstocking meets Modesty Blaise. US actress Rooney Mara replaced Swedish star Rapace, but
with a finer performance. A computer hacker with a photographic memory, Lisbeth
Salander is quite basically a disturbed, dangerous, cyberpunk heroine, helping famous
reporter Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig, between Bond movies), solve the
cold-case of an heiress who vanished, 40 years ago. Violence and vengeance
haunt mystery research, and detective work, as the unlikely crime-busters
uncover secrets about a wealthy family with links to Nazis. A follow-up movie, Fede Alvarez’s The Girl In The Spider’s Web (2018) is also a great conspiracy
thriller, although its star (Claire Foy plays Lisbeth) is closer to a costumed vigilante
than any private-detective or investigative-journalist character.
Charlie’s Angels (2019)
Writer & Director: Elizabeth Banks
While the 1970s’ TV series attempted to break new ground for
pop-culture feminism, a pair of millennial spy-fi movies from ‘McG’ only
succeeded as guilty pleasures. The franchise redevelopment, by Smallville creators Alfred Gough and
Miles Millar, later continued with a short-lived TV remake (2011). Eventually,
Hollywood twigged to the obvious, that any new movie about the
now-international Townsend detective agency really needed a woman in charge. This
‘requel’ feature perfects the formula’s appeal.
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TOP 30 ‘COPS & ROBBERS’ A-Z LIST
Black Rain (1989)
Blue Steel (1990)
Brannigan (1975)
Charlie’s Angels (2019)
Detective Dee And The Mystery Of The
Phantom Flame
(2010)
Die Hard (1988)
Dirty Harry (1971)
The Driver (1978)
Extreme Prejudice (1987)
Face/Off (1997)
Falling Down (1993)
Fargo (1996)
48 Hrs. (1982)
The French Connection (1971)
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011)
Hard Boiled (1992)
Heat (1995)
I, The Jury (1982)
The Kingdom (2007)
L.A. Confidential (1997)
Lethal Weapon (1987)
Mad Detective (2007)
Murder By Decree (1979)
Se7en (aka: Seven, 1995)
Sharky’s Machine (1981)
The Silence Of The Lambs (1991)
To Live And Die In L.A. (1984)
The Untouchables (1987)
The X-Files (aka: The X-Files: Fight The Future, 1998)
Year Of The Dragon (1985)
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