This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.
... View MoreThe film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
... View MoreThe movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.
... View MoreGreat example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.
... View MoreI'll admit, this one's a little baffling. "Manhattan Night" has all of your usual noir clichés and a generally melancholy vibe, but it is far from a nail-biter. There is a point, late in the game, where things actually do heat up, but it is a genuine challenge getting there. And this is a movie with more than one naked Yvonne Strahovski scene. That's criminal, man.The movie's worth it for the cast (Jennifer Beals is always an asset) and there is a payoff in the end, but I can't say I'll be coming back around for this anytime soon.5/10
... View MoreThe film was based on the book named 'Manhattan Nocturne'. Excellently made film, it's the director's first feature film as well. He did not get the top actors, but these actors were the good ones. Adrien Brody and Yvonne Strahovski were amazing their respective roles. It was not a detective story, but very close to being one. So if you love crime-mysteries, then you should try this. The tone of the film makes very interesting. It's not about the question of story prediction, but how cleverly it was advanced like the characters were transformed compared to the opening and the conclusion.Some films open strongly, but ends poorly. In this case, the opening was average, but ended on a high. The main reason is the middle parts, keeping all contents together and developing some suspense with a couple of quick twists made this film to reach the expectation made by its viewers. It was a tale of a recently famed reporter finds an affair with a young widow, despite he's married with a child. Soon, he discovers some mysterious men are watching him, who threatening his family as well. How he gets out of that trouble by finding reasons behind it is what the rest of the film narrates.It looked a lot like a television film. Not because of the production quality, actually the production was top class, but the story and its narration felt kind of like a mini-series type. I don't know how many books are there, but I want this to continue, at least as a television film series. One of the best of its kind, I almost liked everything about the film. But I still feel I underrated it, at the end I'm satisfied with what I gave. Definitely, I recommend it.7/10
... View More"I'm always running to the place where the bad thing just happened, arriving just after the danger has passed, watching from a safe distance, searching for an angle, that little wrinkle, the kick to the heart that makes you want to put down the dollar and pick up the paper."After seeing two not so good films with Adrien Brody ("Backtrack" and "American Heist") I noticed that sad look of him on the cover of "Manhattan Night". It might sound weird, but every time I see Brody's facial expression on a cover, at once a sense of gloom and sadness overtakes me. Examine once again the cover from "Backtrack" and that of, lets say, "Wrecked". Every time you see a person filled with melancholy. With those sad puppy eyes and a grim facial expression. He stares at you with a helpless and beseeching look. The man exudes melancholy.Despite his distinctive physical traits, he reminded me of Jake Gyllenhaal hunting for sensational news in "Nightcrawler". The same profession, the same eagerness and the same melancholy look. The only major difference is that Porter Wren already had his victory moment in the past when a young girl was found after his journalistic work. Hence, he still takes care of a daily column in the New York Daily News. Even though the new owner of this newspaper isn't very enthusiastic about it. At first you might say that Porter is a boring and rational person. But then again, he hasn't taken Caroline Crowley (Yvonne Strahovski) into account. The moment he sees her at a party, he's lost and he becomes entangled in the seductive web of this blond vamp. Caroline's interest in Porter is also of a practical nature. She wants to use Porter's "Sherlock Holmes" skills to investigate the suspicious death of her husband Simon Crowley (Campbell Scott).You'll experience something similar like "Basic Instinct" with Brody acting as a sort of Poirot who's persistent in solving a case. In addition, he has to deal with a case of extortion, so the whole thing gets even more complicated. A story full of intrigue and erotically charged scenes. Brody's daily column is about other people's misery. It looks like he's becoming the main character in such a column. Although all my attention should be drawn to the stormy affair between Porter and Caroline and the complicated developments gripping Porter, my attention went to the rather extravagant personality of Crowley. A slightly deranged movie producer with some absurd traits. A real weirdo with a weird sense of humor. Such a person who pretends to having commit suicide after swallowing a large number of pills. And then he gets up calmly and says it was just a joke. And a highly attractive, breathtaking erotic blonde falls in love with such an eccentric who looks like a bum? Women are unfathomable and inapprehensible. But the acting of Campbell Scott was beyond dispute extremely brilliant.All in all not a bad movie. Not bad at all. But not a high flyer either. Turn it into a black and white film and you can place it between other Hollywood classics which are shown on a pay-per-view television-channel. It won't be noticed. You can call this film stylish though. "Manhattan Night" pretends to be a neo-noir film with a mystery build into. But in the end it isn't really mysterious. More reviews here : http://bit.ly/1KIdQMT
... View MoreAdrien Brody is outstanding as the hard-luck, yet creative, investigative newspaper reporter always looking for the special scoop on human calamity. He meets his match with a femme-fatale, whose mysterious past holds the secrets to a complicated blackmail plot.The best scenes are those between Brody's character Porter Wren and the emotionally fragile Caroline Crowley played dynamically by Yvonne Strahovski. There is good sizzle to their romantic encounter, as Porter gets deeper and deeper into a plot that involves a missing chip with compromising video footage of a business tycoon.The greatest film noir movies were those that featured an innovative use of black-and-white filming. In this color film, there is nonetheless a thoughtful approach to the cinematography with fascinating location filming in New York City, plus dynamically lit interior scenes. In the bonus segment, director Brian DeCubellis described how every shot was carefully planned in advance, much in the tradition of an Alfred Hitchcock film. The behind-the-scenes segment also included Brody noting that the neo-noir films of the 1980s, including "Fatal Attraction" and "Body Heat," were the models for "Manhattan Night." The main weakness of the film was the excessive violence and the truly bizarre relationship of Caroline Crowley and her former husband, a film director played by Campbell Scott. Scott's character appears in flashback sequences that go well beyond the bizarre into the deeply troubling and unpleasant.In the classic film noir, there was always an ironic quality and even a moment or two of humor injected into the drama. In "Manhattan Night," there was a tentative attempt at the irony with a colorful character played by Linda Lavin. After catching Porter snooping around in her home, she sits him down for an outrageous conversation that ties up all the loose ends of the mystery! Still, the mood of the film rarely escapes from the somber tone of deceit, ulterior motives, and eventual trauma experienced by all of the characters. This film is definitely not for the squeamish or family-film viewer.
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