The Transporter

Jason Statham can be very effective in the right part, and this is one of them. Here he’s a guy who picks up packages and delivers them somewhere, no questions asked. He has three rules: Never change the deal; no names; and never open the package. He breaks his rule when he notices something in a package is moving. He finds a bound and gagged woman. What the hell, he delivers it anyway. ... Read more »

Transsiberian

Here is a competent and mostly believable thriller more in the Hitchcock mode than James Bond. There are no outrageous stunts, just a slow build-up of tension until it gets pretty tense indeed. Just about all the action takes place on the Transsiberian train from Beijing to Moscow, the longest train ride in the world. Woody Harrelson and Emily Mortimer meet another couple, and you suspect ... Read more »

Transsiberian

Here is a film Alfred Hitchcock could have made, had he lived that long. A couple are taking the Trans-Siberian railroad from Beijing to Moscow, a trip that takes four or five days. Woody Harrelson is a train buff who gets ecstatic over old steam engines in yard, and misses the train. While Emily Mortimer and two bunkmates they met on the train wait for him to arrive the next day, she goes ... Read more »

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

“Badges? We ain’t got no badges. We don’t need no badges. I don’t have to show you any stinking badges.” If you are thinking of iconic film lines, that one is sure to come up, though, like “Play it again, Sam,” it is often misquoted. This was the great John Huston’s fifth film as writer/director, though he had written many scripts before. It is from the book by B. Traven, ... Read more »

The Tree of Life

This has to be the most polarizing movie of the last decade. Critics almost unanimously loved it. Viewers at the IMDb and Metacritic were almost evenly divided between those who gave it a 1 and those who gave it a 10. Very little middle ground. What’s the deal? I read a few of the 1s, thinking these were probably mouth-breathers for whom Green Lantern was ... Read more »

Tremors

One of the very best monster movies. That’s an admittedly short list, but this movie is damn near perfect. In an SF story you get one unlikely or impossible premise, and here it is that gigantic mutant earthworms could travel underground faster than a man can run. With that out of the way, the rest of the plot proceeds logically and with great attention to detail. Most of it takes place ... Read more »

Tremors 5: Bloodlines

The original Tremors was one of those movies I live for: Something that came out of nowhere, with no expectations except the feeling that a film about giant mutant killer earthworms known as “graboids” was hardly likely to be any good, and ended up blowing me away. But it was funny, and had actual scary moments, characters you actually ... Read more »

Tremors II: Aftershocks

These two movies remind me of the Alien/Aliens duo in many ways.

1) Both concern monsters that are
2) unseen at first and are
3) out to eat you.
4) The second film gives you more monsters than the first one did.
5) The first films are groundbreaking (in the case of Tremors, literally), inventive, and ... Read more »

Tremors II: Aftershocks

Tremors II: Aftershocks (1996) These two movies remind me of the Alien/Aliens duo in many ways.
1) Both concern monsters that are
2) unseen at first and are
3) out to eat you.
4) The second film gives you more monsters than the first one did.
5) The first films are groundbreaking (in the case of Tremors, literally), inventive, and (Alien) scary as hell ... Read more »