• The Secret World of Arrietty
     
     http://bartybooks.com/the-secret-world-of-arrietty.htm
  • Gone
     
     http://bartybooks.com/gone.htm
  • Wanderlust
     
     http://bartybooks.com/wanderlust.htm
  • This Means War
     
     http://bartybooks.com/this-means-war.htm
  • Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
     
     http://bartybooks.com/ghost-rider-spirit-of-vengeance.htm
  • The Vow
     
     http://bartybooks.com/the-vow.htm
  • Safe House
     
     http://bartybooks.com/safe-house.htm
Home » dir » Katy Marks Disappearance

All Good Things (2010)

ALL THINGS GOOD is a polished little film based on a true story that while it may not have the visual gruesome detail of the usual thriller tropes of films, it is terrifying in its presentation of personality variations that produce a shuddering reaction on a purely intellectual level for the audience. It is both a love story and a missing persons/murder mystery based on a still unsolved case that continues to haunt New York investigators and reporters and detectives.

What writers Marcus Hinchey and Marc Smerling have created from known and newly discovered facts, speculation and court records results in a psychological examination of a powerful New York family, obsession, love and loss. The film relates incidents that began in 1972 and end in 2003 and at this time the truth is still unknown. Director Andrew Jarecki uses a superb cast and a fine sense of voice-over narration to interweave the puzzling history with the gradual dissolution of each of the characters involved.

Sanford Marks (Frank Langella) is one of the wealthiest owners of Manhattan real estate, the current head of a family that has long dominated the New York scene with its power and money. Marks is aging and is relying on his son David (Ryan Gosling) to take over the family business: he sends David out to the brothels, and filthy hotels and porn houses to collect rent. David is reticent to be a part of his father’s business: he is a deeply disturbed young man, having witnessed his mother’s suicide leap as a child. David meets a tenant in one of the properties – Katie McCarthy (Kirsten Dunst) who longs to go to medical school but at present has no income to support that dream. The chemistry between the two is magnetic and despite David’s father’s objection that Katie is not of ‘their kind of people’, David decides to marry Katie and move to Vermont to open a Health Foods store – a move that makes the couple ecstatic, but is financed by Sanford Marks who eventually convinces David to sell his haven and move to New York to stay with the family business.

In their Manhattan home (and in their country lake front home!) the couple flourishes until Katie mentions she’d like to have children – a force that drives David back into violent behavior resulting form his witnessing his mother’s suicide: David can’t understand why Katie would want anything but the obvious life of wealth they enjoy. The shell is cracked and the subsequent events include Katie becoming pregnant only to be forced by David to terminate the pregnancy, Katie’s disappearance after uncovering the facts about the sources of wealth of the family, David’s descent into drugs and irresponsible behavior, and ultimately his leaving New York for Galveston, Texas where he lives a life disguised as a woman, his only friend being another old runaway Melvin Bump (Philip Baker Hall) who David engages to do away with a ‘problem confidant’ (Lilly Rabe), after which Bump is killed and dissected and tossed into the river. The murders are never solved nor is the mystery of Katie’ disappearance. A trial (the source of the voice-over throughout the film has been the lawyer’s interrogation of David in the year 2003) fails to resolve anything and the film ends with the message that David Marks is at present a real estate broker in Florida.

Frank Langella is superb as the heartless father who drives his family like cattle in the quest of power and wealth. Ryan Gosling offer a multifaceted performance of the deeply disturbed David and is match by Kirsten Dunst’s bravura performance as Katie, the simple bright girl whose life is quashed by a powerful family’s sickness. The brilliant cast, including the performances by Philip Baker Hall and Lilly Rabe – daughter of the deceased Jill Clayburgh), has excellent cameo roles by Diane Venora, Trini Alvarado, David Margulies, Nick Offerman and many more. This is a tough film to watch because at the bottom of it all is that it is true and the cases are unsolved. It makes us cringe but it is a very fine film.

david marx murder, david marx real estate, katie mccarthy missing person, katie mccarthy missing, katie marx missing, ryan gosling in sarasota

Posted in: Drama, Movies, Mystery, Thriller.
Tagged: · ·

david marx murder, david marx real estate, katie mccarthy missing person, katie mccarthy missing, katie marx missing, ryan gosling in sarasota

Home » dir » Katy Marks Disappearance

Vanishing on 7th Street (2010)

This movie had so much potential but in the end, it was nothing but an unfinished, unexplained, mess with no questions answered & a cheesy, stupid ending.

Imagine this: a normal morning in your everyday big city – taxis, cars, people, etc.. all going about their lives when suddenly, with no warning, a wave of darkness washes over the city wiping away all electrical light as well as daylight instantly – the darkness lets up and everyone is gone, nothing but their clothing from where they once stood, remains.

Who survives? A man working at a movie theater who had a battery powered headlight(Leguizamo). A man who was sleeping near lit candles (Christensen). A woman who had just stepped out to take a smoke break & opened the lighter at the exact second it happened (Newton)..people who were near prevailing light sources when the darkness came.

Now there is a fight for survival against the darkness that seems to be quickly taking over any light left – daylight becomes increasingly scarce w/ night lasting longer & daytime lasting shorter. Batteries used for flashlights keep dying, lasting at first hours on end but quickly dying out after minutes. Nearly all cars are dead – batteries drained. The survivors are trapped in a city (specifically 7th street) that is being taken over by night, a darkness that will take you unless you are surrounded by light.

Sounds interesting, right? I know.. this movie had so much promise which makes the execution so frustrating. I wish someone would have told me going into it not to try and figure out what was happening. With most psychological thrillers or horror films like this, creepy/odd things happen & then in the end, an explanation is given for what happened & why. I kept trying to find clues, piece them together & figure out what the initial darkness was, why it was light vs. dark, why the daylight was getting shorter, why light sources were dying at rapid rates, etc.. & how the darkness had a mind of it’s own since it is shown in the movie that the darkness thinks & has the ability to create fake light sources as well as add in loved ones’ voices to draw the survivors out, thinking they are safe and without warning the light goes out and the person is taken instantly.

…but alas nothing is ever explained. The audience is just supposed to accept what happened as an unexplained disappearance & take it for what it is – so beware – don’t bother trying to piece together what is happening, that is too advanced of a concept for this film.

I want to be clear that this is NOT some high concept, brilliant movie that answers some questions in a vague, thought provoking manner that leaves the audience drawing their own conclusions.. movies like that can be quite interesting. Just b/c this film doesn’t answer questions about what is happening & why, doesn’t magically make it ‘brilliant’ or ‘smart’ – this film is straight forward with a disappearance of a population, a light vs. dark scenario and the explanation that it’s just an unexplained disappearance which isn’t any explanation at all.

3/10 Utter failure – anyone can come up with some crazy concept, the true talent is putting all the parts together to explain the truth behind the mystery or what is really happening & this movie doesn’t even bother. Also, I found it hard to sympathize/care about any of the leads. I didn’t really care if they lived or died (do they even really die? Who knows – again.. what happens to those that disappear was never explained) Also, the movie comes to a halt about 30 minutes in when a place called Sonny’s Bar comes into play – and never really get back to where it was going. Finally, expect the usual problem of characters acting stupidly in this movie – when someone is in need of a light source & is desperate, FIRE come to mind especially when surrounded by alcohol in a bar & there is tons of fuel at their disposal from the cars in the streets – too bad no one could take that mental leap.

Just to be clear, the idea that it’s a reboot or some Adam/Eve scenario which I saw some people trying to sell as answers is NOT an explanation – that is just a potential reason for what happened but still doesn’t answer anything about how it happened. If the people turn into the darkness/shadows when they are taken, then what was the darkness made of when it initially came – it was obviously large & powerful enough to take over everything & wipe out ALL electrical light so what was that? Why light vs. dark? What was going on with Leguizamo’s character’s death? etc…

Also – the Adam/Eve idea based on the boy/girl in the end makes NO sense given the ending of the film. If they road off into the sunset w/ daylight shining upon them, then I might buy that (as a reason for what happened, NOT as an actual explanation as to how it happened) BUT that is not the case. As the boy/girl ride off, the shadows/darkness can be seen taking back over the city w/ night fall coming signaling to the audience that whatever is happening is NOT over. If the girl’s magical flashlight dies – then I am assuming she & the boy will be gone just like everyone else. There was no indication in the end that the occurrence was over so clearly the 2 kids are not the chosen ones so that theory doesn’t work.

by PhantomAgony from United States (IMDB)

atm movie ending, what happens at the end of the movie atm, atm ending explained, what happens at the end of atm, atm movie ending explained, shame ending explained

Posted in: Horror, Mystery, Thriller.
Tagged: · ·

atm movie ending, what happens at the end of the movie atm, atm ending explained, what happens at the end of atm, atm movie ending explained, shame ending explained

Home » dir » Katy Marks Disappearance

Gone

An indispensable element in all good mystery stories is the red herring. No, this kind of red herring is not some smelly fish, but something that distracts you so that you are thrown off the scent of the real killer. Brazilian director Heitor Dhalia and “Underworld: Awakening” scenarist Allison Burnett have appropriated those venerable red herrings and combined them with the storytelling device about the guy who cried wolf for “Gone,” a shallow, slow-burn serial killer thriller. The psychological saga grows out of a kidnap victim’s memory of the criminal who grabbed her and left her at the bottom of a “Silence of the Lambs” type hole where several other victims had perished. Miraculously, our hero manages to escape, but the Portland Police Department cannot find either the hole or the killer so they write her off as a lunatic.

It doesn’t help matters that Jill Conway (Amanda Seyfried) has spent time in a psycho ward. Predictably, the authorities aren’t amused when Jill shows up at the police department with news that her alcoholic sister Molly (Emily Wickersham) has gone missing. Since she cannot get the police to launch an investigation into her disappearance, Jill buys herself a revolver and starts questioning everybody who might know something. Eventually, she tracks down the guy who not only abducted his sister but also her, too. Meanwhile, the police are looking for her because she has brandished her gun. As it turns out, the killer rings her up on her cell phone and gives her directions deep into the woods where he is awaiting her return. Throwing caution to the wind, Jill follows his directions. You can figure out after about an hour of “Gone” elapses that Jill Conway may be crazy but crazy like a fox. This make the Portland Police look pretty bad after they send her packing.

Credibility is the key to everything that occurs in “Gone,” and you know that Jill is on the right trail when her missing sister still doesn’t show up. Everybody but one cop treats Jill as credible, but he vanishes from the action, prompts us to believe that he has something to do with the case. Meanwhile, the cops do their dead level best to find Jill. Of course, these incompetent cretins blow that objective, too. As Jill questions people who may have information about her sister, she lies about the circumstances surrounding the case. Mind you, Jill goes out on a flimsy limb with her plethora of lies.

“Gone” isn’t very good. The dialogue is as forgettable as the characters are one-dimensional. One of the Portland police detectives exits the film for a long stretch making himself look suspicious. Eventually, after Jill proves that she isn’t a lunatic, she dispenses vigilante justice. Occasionally, “Gone” recalls the Ashley Judd thriller “Kiss the Girls,” but neither Dhalia nor Burnett conjure up any surprises that make you catch your breath. The far-fetched ending and the incredible cell phone that our heroine can talk on for long lengths of time in the depths of the woods undermine this occasionally atmospheric nail-biter. The performances by Seyfried and solid cast are the film’s sole saving grace.


Fast Tube by Casper

Posted in: Drama, Thriller.
Tagged: · ·


Page 1 of 41234

54 queries. 0.958 seconds.