Thriller – To Watch Next

QUEEN OF THE SOUTH

October 3, 2020October 5, 2020Posted in Action, Drama, Hispanic, ThrillerTagged Action, Drama, Hispanic, ThrillerLeave a comment

Release Year – 2016

Genre – Thriller, Drama, Action

Cast – Alice Braga, Hemky Madera, Alfonso Herrera, Veronica Falcon, Justina Machado, Peter Gadiot, Gerardo Taracena, Joaquim de Almeida

Directed by – M.A. Fortin, Joshua John Miller

Produced by – Robert J. Wilson Lorenzo, O’Brien MAtthew J., Lieberman Judd Rea

Seasons released so far – 4

IMDb Ratings – 7.9/10

Rotten Tomatoes – 68%

Story line –

This is a powerful story of Teresa Mendoza who is a woman in her early 20s who comes to the US as her drug dealing boyfriend is murdered in Mexico and she wants to avenge his death. Little did she know that her life was about to be changed forever. She then seeks refuge in Dallas after which she is set to run a drug cartel all on her own. She faces near death experience many many times but she is always saved.

Our Views –

This series focuses more on women taking incharge and changing the rules of the game and these things are done very flawlessly.

This is definitely a worth watching show for numerous reasons like it’s full of suspense, drama, good scenes, good acting and ofcourse Alice Braga herself!!

When you initially start watching, the first episode will give you the “Narcos” vibes and it might be what you might say is a lady narcos.

As the starting shows us how Teresa runs away from a drug cartel and then held as a refugee and there we can see all the action that we possibly can and then the rate of action declines as the plot matures. At the very first scene the end is shown where Teresa is already running this business and she on the top.

Her aura in the whole series is that of a lone wolf, a lioness and a fighter who will stop at nothing to get what she wants. She is loyal, she wants revenge in the start but later she is calm and she learns about herself that this is what she is made for.

Though the story revolves around Teresa Mendoza but the important part is played by Camila Vargas and Epifanio. The reason for putting this one in the Hispanic section is of course of its Mexican culture influence and its more than self explanatory of being in this section.

JL50

September 5, 2020September 19, 2020Posted in Bollywood, Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller, TV SeriesTagged Drama, Sci-Fi, ThrillerLeave a comment

Release Year – 2020

Genre – Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Cast – Abhay Deol, Pankaj Kapoor, Piyush Mishra, Ritika Anand

Director – Shailender Vyas

Writers – Shailender Vyas

Story line –

JL 50 follows a CBI officer, Shantanu Das (Abhay), who is tasked with investigating a plane crash. It turns into a top secret mission as they realize that the plane that crashed somewhere in northern Bengal took off from a Kolkata (then Calcutta) airport 35 years ago.

Our Views –

India doing a Sci-Fi movie with a good taste is really rare. But here they really went out of the way and created a masterpiece. JL50 talks about a very unique subject which is rarely talked about in any other Indian movie and that is Time Travel. Though the web series is based on a real story, they have very beautifully linked it with Time Travel.

Pankaj Kapoor says “Time never moves, Time is always present” in the beginning of the series and it seems on this basis they have explained the whole series. Pankaj Kapoor aka Professor Das appears to be very fishy right from the start. An airplane goes missing with some important delegates in it and in order to investigate it, a plane which was lost 35 years ago is recovered (with 2 survivors).

Abhay Deol aka Shantanu keeps the story rolling forward as being the lead CBI investigator. He is not a believer of time travel until all the other possibilities are not ruled out. He was left at an orphanage and he never got to get closure about his parents but due to time travel he got to know that the survivor of the time travel actually turns out to be his mother.

It explains a time travel mystery with the sources of the explanation which dates back to the times of Emperor Ashoka and later solved by a scientist in 1984. This web series is on Sony LIV with 4 episodes each and not more than 35 min each is easy to watch in a go. And it’s definitely highly recommended.

MOM

September 3, 2020September 19, 2020Posted in Bollywood, Crime, Drama, ThrillerTagged Crime, Drama, ThrillerLeave a comment

Release Year – 2017

Genre – Thriller, Crime, Drama

Cast – Sridevi, Adnan Siddiqui, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Akshay Khanna, Adarsh Gourav, Vikas Verma, Riva Arora, Sajal Aly

Directed by – Ravi Udyawar

Produced by – Boney Kapoor, Mukesh Talreja, Sunil Manchanda, Gautam Jain, Naresh Agarwal

Story line –

Arya’s life changes when she is brutally gang-raped by a group of spoiled rich students from her school and two of their house helps. Her stepmother seeks justice and takes the help of a detective to teach the perpetrators a lesson. Devki, a biology teacher, seeks help from DK, a private detective, and vows to get revenge after her stepdaughter’s rapists are acquitted by the court.

Our Views-

The movie plays Sridevi as the central character. And it is a revenge based plot seeks by the rape victim’s mother (Sridevi) on the culprits. The story is like “PINK” but this movie does not show the faults in the justice system but how a common mother seeks revenge. Regardless the differences her 18 year old daughter has with her, still that does not stop her from taking revenge for her.

The best moments of the film are all the different ways she meets DK (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), be it in the art gallery of ‘Modern Art’ or be it at the metro station or any other place. The movie gives many messages and it focuses on how the whole family all goes through the trauma which the victim also goes through.

Thankfully there is not much melodrama unlike other typical bollywood films. And I especially liked the tactics Sridevi used to take revenge. Sridevi and Nawazuddin Siddhiqui has been flawless as ever but Akshay’s role could have given more depth being the main investigating officer of the case.

This movie was the last movie of Sridevi and she did an outstanding job. May her soul rest in peace.

A SIMPLE FAVOR

August 29, 2020September 19, 2020Posted in Hollywood, ThrillerTagged Comedy, Thriller1 Comment

Release Year – 2018

Genre – Mystery/Comedy

Cast – Blake Lively, Anna Kendrick, Henry Golding, Linda Cardellini, Andrew Rannells, Rupert Friend, Ian Ho, Eric Johnson

Director – Paul Feig

Producer – Paul Feig, Jessie Henderson

Story Line –

In A SIMPLE FAVOR, Stephanie (Anna Kendrick) is a suburban single mom with lots of energy for crafts, school projects, and her vlog. She unexpectedly makes friends with fellow mom Emily (Blake Lively), an aloof fashion-plate with a handsome husband (Henry Golding), a great house, and a seemingly perfect life. When Emily goes missing, Stephanie sets out to solve the mystery — quickly discovering she didn’t know her friend as well as she thought.

Our Views –

It is a great movie with a good story line for adults. There is a lavish lifestyle of Blake and a typical mum life of Anna. It has a lot of everything like a lot of humour, lot or thriller and a spike of crime. We can see a very different Blake compared to her role of Serena Van Der Woodsen of the Gossip Girl and here we can see her in a bold role with small slutrly smiles.

The movie focuses more on Kendrick’s thinking but I was personally inclined towards Blake. The movie gives various moods and scene shifts in a very smart way like giving brief laughs to brighten dark moments. Kendrick becomes a girl detective and solves the mystery which Emily Nelson(Blake Lively) becomes after she ignores some red flags.

She catches Emily red handed and sends her to jail. The movie is smart, funny, dark, mystery and its almost like all in one.

KHUDA HAAFIZ

August 21, 2020September 5, 2020Posted in BollywoodTagged Action, ThrillerLeave a comment

Release: 2020

Director: Faruk Kabir

Writer: Faruk Kabir

Stars: Vidyut Jammwal, Shivaleeka Oberoi, Annu Kapoor

Genre – Action, Thriller

StoryLine–

Samir and Nargis get married but soon recession takes place globally.Sameer’s IT business shuts and Nargis also loses her job they apply for a job in Noman where both get selected while Nargis has to reach first.Before Sameer could leave he gets call from Nargis that she isn’t at safe place and needs help. Sameer takes the help of cops and flies to Noman where he is helped by a Pakistani Taxi driver Usman.Sameer manages to find Nargis but before he could take her he is attacked by goons where he creates havoc and gets imprisoned. But then he tells his story and is helped by Indian Embassy and was helped to find Nargis but then betrayed by the Omanian police. He fights with everyone and saves his wife.

Our Views-

It focuses on the hero more on the hero rather than the victim. Nargis was kidnapped and sold to prostitution yet the movie focuses on the way Sameer deals to get her back rather than the hardships she faces. It is not only an action movie but it also throws a romantic angle with the Sameer-Nargis love story. The side roles played by Shiv Pandit and Aahana Kumra are far more pleasing if ignored their Arabic lingo. The duo of Sameer and taxi driver Usmaan can also be seen as very important for the story to move forward. It can be watched for Vidyut’s acting during these trying times and the roles of the supporting characters.

Khuda Haafiz official trailer

THE STRANGER

August 19, 2020September 19, 2020Posted in Hollywood, TV SeriesTagged British, ThrillerLeave a comment

Release Year – 2020

Cast – Richard Armitage, Dervla Kirwan, Hannah John-Kaman, Siobhan Finneran, Jennifer Saunders, Anthony Head, Stephen Rea

Genre – British Thriller Series

Produced By – Madonna Baptiste

Directed By – Daniel O’Hara Hannah Quinn

Based on – A book by Harlan Coben “The Stranger”

StoryLine –

The Stranger is an eight part British Mystery thriller series written primarily by Danny Brocklehurt and based on the 2015 Harlan Coben novel of the same title. A mysterious stranger tells a man a secret that has a devastating impact on his seemingly perfect life. This stranger is a woman in her 20s with a baseball cap and a bomber jacket, and is learned to be correlated with more secrets as the series progresses. This secret affects the man’s wife who goes missing as a result.

Our Views –

As the series evolves, it can be seen that there is a stranger who has many targets in the town to reveal their secret publicly for money. The secrets are revealed about the life around Adam Price (Richard Armitage). This series keeps us on our toes throughout. We can see a skillful tying of all the twisty knots and gives a charging experience. But the end given was a bit unsatisfactory and failed to provide the climax which is built throughout the series.The main crux which Adam gets in the end is that the secret is better buried. The speed is properly propelled and not speeded.