Thrill: Nerve-shredders that’ll get your adrenaline pumping and keep you on the edge of your seat
“If you run, the beast catches you; if you stay, the beast eats you”
Opening the film with a chicken chase, City of God is the most gripping history of drug-wars in the Rio de Janeiro favelas that anyone could hope for.
From: Brazil, South AmericaContinue reading “City of God – Get Involved in the Drug Dealing Gangs of Rio”
Watch: Trailer, Rent on Amazon, Buy on Amazon, Netflix
Next: Elite Squad, El Infierno, Traffic
Have you ever read a book by Haruki Murakami? If you have, and you enjoyed it – great, you’ll get to see his writing live. If you haven’t, no problem, you can start after this film. It’s the perfect mystery film.
From: South Korea, AsiaContinue reading “Burning – A Brooding, Mysterious Trail of Insecurity”
Watch: Trailer, Netflix, Amazon Rent, Amazon Buy
Next: Gone Girl, Tape, Vertigo
Imagine a German nightclub blasting techno music. Imagine a German nightclub blasting techno music whilst drinking Red Bull. Imagine a German nightclub blasting techno music whilst drinking Red Bull and dancing the running man. You’re now getting close to the adrenaline rush of Run Lola Run.
Imagine a German nightclub blasting techno music. Imagine a German nightclub blasting techno music whilst drinking Red Bull. Imagine a German nightclub blasting techno music whilst drinking Red Bull and dancing the running man. You’re now getting close to the adrenaline rush of Run Lola Run.
From: Germany, EuropeContinue reading “Run Lola Run – An Adrenaline Rush in Berlin”
Watch: Trailer, Rent on Amazon, Buy on Amazon
Next: Trainspotting, Vertigo, Crystal Swan
If you’re looking for a fun, fast-paced crime-thriller from South America, Ratas, Ratones, y Rateros is the film to watch. You’ll try and evade the law with crazy ex-con Angel and his amateur thief cousin Salvador, accompanied by his teenage friends. It’s probably the closest you’ll get to the style of Trainspotting or Run Lola Run from South America. Plus it’s available to watch with subtitles below (thanks to Vimeo).
The film starts with a close up of a Angel’s face upside-down. He opens one eye and the camera zooms out to show him lying upside down, hanging off a bed, lying beside a woman. The camera starts fast-cutting between Angel, as he starts rolling a cigarette, and the bedroom door, which he keeps looking at.
It’s obvious he’s uneasy. The woman tries to reassure him that “no one saw him coming in”.
All of a sudden the door busts open and two armed men run in. Angel manages to escape the room and jump across a few tin roofed houses as the two men chase after him. The grimy rock music kicks in at this point as if to cheer on Angel vs. the chasers.
The chasers lose him in a large cemetery until Angel ambushes them and knocks dead one of the men chasing him to end a adrenaline-filled opening scene. (As words can’t accurately capture the feeling of the opening, I recommend checking out the opening here or in the embedded video above).
Quite a lot. We meet Salvador and his friends back in Quito. Salvador is Angel’s cousin, and he’s excited to hear that his cousin will be returning to the capital to see him. Salvador and his friends are all amateur thieves of their own, but when Angel arrives, he’s looking to take them to the next level.
Without giving too much away, he has some enemies in the capital, and Salvador also has some rich friends.
All action or crime thriller fans will enjoy this film. It looks and feels like a great Hollywood indie film so it will be familiar to all Hollywood film fans. Check it out here on Vimeo.
If you’re after something similar (another stylised action thriller) I strongly recommend checking out the German thriller Run Lola Run. You could also check out Kung Fu Hustle or Layer Cake, two more films full of style that will keep you entertained throughout.
Otherwise for more South American thrillers, check out The Secret in their Eyes (just make sure it’s the Argentinian original). It’s one of the best foreign language films to start your world cinema journey with.
Looking for teen thriller at the other end of the spectrum from the usual teen horror films? Try Bad Genius. It will conjure up those dreaded memories of sitting in exam rooms at school. And before you think, how can a film about exams be exciting, think again. These fun characters are big time cheaters and keep taking their tricks to the next level as the stakes get higher and higher.
Bad Genius starts with Lynn, a teenager applying to a top secondary school to take her final year exams. She’s got a load of trophies from all her academic achievements, but she knows her dad can’t afford to pay for the education at this new school. So, her Dad pays for it on the sly by hiding the payments he makes.
It’s inevitable that she finds out he is paying more than she expected (which she’s not happy about). But, more importantly, she finds out after she’s helped her best friend cheat in a maths exam. The perfect time to receive a proposition from her richer classmates: to help them cheat their school exams for a price. From then on, the stakes slowly get higher and higher.
What’s obvious from the start is the massive class divide between the kids at this scholarship school. Unfortunately, the poor, clever kids are exploited by the rich, lazy kids. Ultimately, this is the wealth privilege. As presented in this film, the rich will always make it out OK, whereas the lives of the underprivileged have to be absolutely speck free to get anywhere close to success.
If you’re looking for a thrill, watch Bad Genius. The story-line is tight, and the characters are fun, and just like the best magic shows, you’ll be enthralled by seeing how these kids managed to cheat the SAT exams.
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