Sentences with word «potboiler»

At its best, the movie is an effective political potboiler about the backdoor push for the 13th Amendment, with comic relief in the form of off - the - books operatives (James Spader, John Hawkes) dispatched on the sly to trade patronage jobs for votes.

There is good to be found in Spectre, but it's buried beneath three feet of potboiler muck and sandwiched in six inches of narrative grizzle.

Hitman (Unrated) Action - oriented political potboiler about a cold and calculated, genetically - engineered assassin (Timothy Oliphant) being pursued across Europe by Interpol and the Russian military who suddenly discovers that he not only has a conscience but feelings for a mysterious femme fatale (Olga Kurylenko).

She ghostwrites his «Willy» potboilers for him until she eventually grows into her own identity as a woman writer («Gigi,» «Cheri»), stage performer and lover of women.

A loss - and - revenge potboiler with Relevant Sociopolitical Pretensions, elevated beyond all reason by Diane Kruger's wounded beast of a great performance, which won her best actress honors at Cannes.

The role should have been a breakthrough but most of her footage ended up on the cutting - room floor and she spent the remainder of her screen career playing catty and sometimes downright vituperative women in potboilers.

Their scenes early in the movie set a flame under what is — at that moment — an already effectively paced and shot little potboiler about a man dedicated to the law and another driven to break the law because of the cracks in the system of said law.

Overall, though, Split is a solid example of the type of elevated B - movie potboiler at which Shyamalan excels, and to which he thankfully seems to be re-committing his energies.

MGS3 is also a good entry point - it's a prequel set in the 60s, so it's probably the game that works best as a standalone Cold War potboiler without much concern for the series» baroque mythology.

It may push more buttons than envelopes but John Q is a good old fashioned potboiler that generates ripped from the headlines heat.

Kahanamoku attempted to cash in on his fame by appearing in such Hollywood potboilers as Lord Jim (1926) and the Mascot serial The Isle of Sunken Gold (1927), but screen producers saw him mostly as an exotic villain or the odd South Seas Island native and true stardom eluded him.

His credits extend from such landmark 1970s efforts as Five Easy Pieces (1971) and Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) to such 1990s potboilers as Friday the 13th Pt.

At least Planet Terror looks like the sleazy potboilers ground out in narrow «twin» cinemas of old.

Sumptuously filmed, with a great sense of visual style, Meirelles captivates with subtle touches that makes what could have been a boring talking heads potboiler into a touching love story, an exciting mystery, and a bleak commentary on the growing reality of the potential for corporations to expend human lives in the name of the almighty dollar.

7 Women is, in actuality, a great film whose potboiler plot masks an incisive inquiry into the battle of the sexes.

Doug Liman (Swingers, Go) keeps the film reserved most of the way, although an exciting car chase and shootout at the end does fuel the action up a notch above most espionage potboilers.

Lincoln is another political potboiler like Argo, just in a fundamentally different way.

Even stranger, it succeeds by cloning the turn - based strategy of sci - fi potboiler XCOM.

It's action filmmaking as controlled demolition — and the best train potboiler since Steven Seagal's Under Siege 2: Dark Territory.

Perhaps most importantly, it gives HBO an effortlessly entertaining potboiler about the allure of dangerous attraction after probably a few too many shows drearily dissecting broken relationships.

Unfortunately, Hackford's pedestrian approach to the material barely raises the temperature of this real - life potboiler above a simmer.

Even so, some observers contend the changes — which only affect the 800,000 titles in the «Lending Library» offered under the Kindle Unlimited and Amazon Prime services — gives an unfair advantage to page - turning potboilers over heftier, more substantive fare.

Bulworth is a headstrong dervish of a film, caroming this way and that from high comedy to lowbrow urban potboiler to impassioned tract.

There's a reason potboiler paperbacks don't make good movies — there's too much outlandish plot, even for Hollywood.

My second dispatch from Park City muses on the medium - rare pleasures of a well - done potboiler and when bad movies happen to good intentions.

The action takes place during the making of a small - budget potboiler film, HOME FOR PURIM, that no one is taking seriously, not even the folks making it, until an internet rumor surfaces that one of the cast is giving an Oscar - worthy performance.

Unfortunately, this supernatural potboiler about a phantom who comes at the call or just the thought of his (again very goofy) name can't even clear the low bar set by your average January fright flick.

Overall, we thought that «Split is a solid example of the type of elevated B - movie potboiler at which Shyamalan excels.»

My reaction to reading this news (in the Guardian newspaper) is that book readers in general remain prolific but nowadays content themselves with grubby bestsellers or popular potboilers marketed by the global giants.

I am a book editor myself, I've worked in the trade now for more than twenty years, and with every kind of book and author, from mass - market potboilers to Miles Franklin winners and everything in between.

«Zemeckis and screenwriter Steven Knight tread a carefully wrought path that negotiates between wartime drama, spy - thriller potboiler, and domestic fluff, while steering well clear of comedy (this is, thankfully, not a fresh spin on MR. AND MRS. SMITH).»

It's part potboiler, part harlequin romance, and part gothic horror — but even playing in familiar tropes, the film feels entirely unique.

For a straightforward potboiler premise, Soderbergh can't contain its messiness under the surface.

«THE WRESTLER» Frankly, this could be a B - grade potboiler and it would still merit inclusion for Mickey Rourke's colossal, destined - to - be-iconic performance alone.

What begins as a dirge for the institutions of physical and emotional wealth diverges midway into something of a competent yet vague potboiler before finding its slow rhythm again at the end.

Evangelical speaker Dave Hunt, coauthor of the evangelical potboiler The Seduction of Christianity, has even tried to link the movement to New Age phenomena.

That runaway growth has given rise to fears that science is taking over (just watch any Hollywood science - fiction potboiler to see how deep - seated those feelings are).

BP seems the perfect place to set a cloak - and - dagger potboiler: a secret establishment full of eccentric characters using their wits to defeat a deadly foe against terrible pressure of time.

Before «99 Homes,» Bahrani made a more conventionally plotted family - farm potboiler, «At Any Price,» with Dennis Quaid and Zac Efron.

The material is well served by director Roman Polanski, who knows well how to instill a subtle, claustrophobic sense of dread in an audience and has put together a rather elegant potboiler.

Many of the plot points echo those that might have anchored a forgotten black - and - white potboiler.

Many of his mainstream film appearances have been in comedy potboilers unworthy of his talents: exceptions include De Palma's Phantom of the Paradise (1974) in which Graham was both funny and ferocious as the Rocky Horror - ish «Beef,» and Louis Malle's Pretty Baby (1978), in which he was cast as Highpockets, Susan Sarandon's scuzzy, abusive boyfriend.

, nearly forgotten mistress, Jeanie Macpherson, this Biblical churning potboiler is just as good, and maybe better in spots, than what came later.

If someone left «1984,» «Fahrenheit 451,» «Brave New World,» «Gattaca» and the Sylvester Stallone potboilers «Judge Dredd» and «Demolition Man» out in the sun and threw the runny glop onto a movie screen, it would still be a better picture than Equilibrium, a movie that could be stupider only if it were longer.

Jo Nesbo's Harry Hole series is comprised of page - turning, airport - blockbuster Scandi crime potboilers; Alfredson scorches the seventh, The Snowman, with such art - house intensity that it eventually melts into an exhausted puddle.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is an impressive potboiler.

Although 2000 AD starts out as a routine potboiler espionage thriller of little significance, it gets supercharged about halfway through into an exciting actioner worth watching.