Announcement
Collapse
No announcement yet.
Good People
Collapse
-
- Published: 11-13-2014, 10:02 AM
- 0 comments
X
Collapse
-
Good People
Released By: Millennium Entertainment
Released On: October 28, 2014
Director: Henrik Ruben Genz
Cast: James Franco, Kate Hudson, Omar Sy
Year: 2014
Purchase From Amazon
The Film:
In 1994, a rather independent British film was released by the name of Shallow Grave. The plot of the film involved three people who decided to get a new flatmate, who turned up dead a short time after moving in...with a suitcase full of money. Chaos ensued as the police got more suspicious over the death and as acquaintances of the dead man came looking for their cash, causing the former friends to turn against each other.
It's no coincidence that Good People, based on the book by Marcus Sakey, would draw comparisons to Danny Boyle's first film. Parental hopefuls Tom and Anna (Franco and Hudson) have moved to London from Chicago in the wake of a miscarriage, and an inheritance in the form of an old house. Hoping to quickly fix the home up to supplement his flailing income as a landscaper and renovations worker, Tom finds that the house is in far worse shape than he could've imagined, so much that he receives an eviction notice on the apartment that they're renting. Life doesn't seem to be that grand at all, compounded by the noisy fella they've sub-letted the basement out to. Fortunately, a solution arrives when their rambunctious tenant turns up dead of a heroin overdose, leaving behind a bag with almost half a million pounds hidden in the ceiling.
Of course, if Tom and Anna had turned the money over to the police during the investigation, the movie would've ended a whole lot sooner. Instead, they decide to wait for two weeks to see if anyone comes looking for the cash; a decision that is promptly broken when Tom decides to pay off the credit cards and get themselves squared away rent-wise. This decision, safely said, is a poor one. Tom's sudden flurry of cash activity alerts already suspicious Detective John Halden (Tom Wilkinson), and his late renter's former partners become suspicious of the couple when a search of the basement apartment turns up a whole lot of heroin hiding in the ceiling, but not the cash that came from the same heist of a ruthless drug kingpin. And speaking of that drug kingpin, well, he wants his money back as well, and the people responsible for stealing it from him.
Caught between a rock and a number of hard places, Tom and Anna have no choice but to turn to Detective Halden, who agrees to let them off of the hook if they act as bait for the bad guys. But with a corrupt police department and a few choice kidnap victims for the criminals to take advantage of, the couple realize that they're going to have to straighten things out themselves.
Good People definitely has a number of similarities to Shallow Grave, there's no denying that. However, there are a number of things (spoilers that I won't mention here) that make it well worth seeing. Performances across the board are very good....yes, even Kate Hudson...and Omar Sy's Kingpin Khan is riveting in the little screen time he's given. Henrik Ruben Genz, while no stranger to directing (mostly TV), does an exceptional job at keeping the camera moving when it needs to, but not being afraid to let it linger when building suspense. Speaking of suspense, the music by Neil Davidge is perfect for the film, never ramping up into the silly "Action Sequence" score freakouts that so many films are guilty of. The score is quiet and ominous for the most part, just slightly letting loose when appropriate.
With the combination of the pacing, competent editing and a 91-minute runtime, Good People doesn't get boring or feel too long. And while a number of reviews do seem to dwell on the similarities between this and Danny Boyle's directorial debut, there are enough differences and a gruesomely satisfying conclusion to make Good People worth checking out.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Good People comes to blu-ray from the folks at Millennium Entertainment in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer framed at 1.78:1 that looks great. The cold colour temperature reflects the mood perfectly, and noise/artifacts are non-existent.
The Dolby TrueHD audio track (there's also a Dolby Digital 2.0 track) is balanced nicely with tasteful use of the surrounds. No hisses or pops are present, and dialogue is balanced nicely with the score and sound effects.
Sadly, the only extra to be found on the disc outside of a Trailer Reel is a Making Of Featurette (2:52) that contains short interviews with some of the cast, the director, and associate producers discussing the film.
The Final Word:
Despite a rather lackluster selection of supplements, Good People is a decent film with great performances that I definitely felt was worth seeing.
Posting comments is disabled.
Categories
Collapse
article_tags
Collapse
- album review (218)
- album reviews (274)
- arrow video (271)
- blu-ray (3225)
- blu-ray review (4140)
- comic books (1392)
- comic reviews (872)
- comics (988)
- dark horse comics (484)
- dvd and blu-ray reviews a-f (1969)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews G-M (1711)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews N-S (1757)
- DVD And Blu-ray Reviews T-Z (878)
- dvd review (2512)
- idw publishing (216)
- image comics (207)
- kino lorber (385)
- movie news (260)
- review (318)
- scream factory (279)
- severin films (295)
- shout! factory (537)
- twilight time (269)
- twilight time releasing (231)
- vinegar syndrome (496)
Latest Articles
Collapse
-
Released by: Severin Films
Released on: April 30th, 2024.
Director: Lee Frost
Cast: Joseph Mascolo, Virginia Goodman, John Alderman
Year: 1969
Purchase From Amazon
Hot Spur – Movie Review:
Director Lee Frost and Producer Bob Cresse's film, Hot Spur, opens in Texas in 1869 with a scene where a pair of cowboys wanders into a bar where they call over a pretty Mexican waitress and coerce her into dancing for them. She obliges, but...-
Channel: Movies
03-22-2024, 11:53 AM -
-
Released by: Mondo Macabro
Released on: April 9th, 2024.
Director: Max Pecas
Cast: Thierry de Carbonnières, Jean-Marc Maurel, Denis Karvil, Lillemour Jonsson
Year: 1985
Purchase From Amazon
Death Squad – Movie Review:
Also known as Brigade Of Death, French sleaze auteur Max Pecas’ 1985 film, Death Squad, opens with a night time scene outside of Paris in the Bois de Boulogne Forest where cars pass by a small gang of transsexual...-
Channel: Movies
03-22-2024, 11:46 AM -
-
Released by: Quality X
Released on: February 28th, 2024.
Director: Chuck Vincent
Cast: Samantha Fox, Vernoica Hart, Kelly Nichols, Jerry Butler, Jamie Gillis
Year: 1982
Purchase From Amazon
Roommates – Movie Review:
Directed by Chuck Vincent and released in 1982, Roommates opens with a scene where a young woman named Joan Harmon (Veronica Hart) gets a hotel room with an older man named Ken (Don Peterson, credited as Phil Smith),...-
Channel: Movies
03-15-2024, 01:10 PM -
-
Released by: Blue Underground
Released on: March 26th, 2024.
Director: Jess Franco
Cast: Christopher Lee, Maria Rohm, Dennis Price
Year: 1970
Purchase From Amazon
Night Of The Blood Monster – Movie Review:
Directed by Jess Franco, The Bloody Judge (or, Night Of The Blood Monster, as it is going by on this new release from Blue Underground) isn't quite the salacious exercise in Eurotrash you might expect it to be, and while it...-
Channel: Movies
03-15-2024, 01:07 PM -
-
Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: March 26th, 2024.
Director: Saul Bass
Cast: Nigel Davenport, Michael Murphy, Lynne Frederick, Alan Gifford, Robert Henderson, Helen Horton
Year: 1974
Purchase From Amazon
Phase IV – Movie Review:
Saul Bass’ 1974 sci-fi/thriller Phase IV is an interesting blend of nature run amuck stereotypes and Natural Geographic style nature footage mixed into one delicious cocktail of suspense and...-
Channel: Movies
03-15-2024, 01:02 PM -
-
Released by: Radiance Films
Released on: March 26th, 2024.
Director: Shigehiro Ozawa, Eiichi Kudo
Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Minoru Ôki, Arashi Kanjuro, Bin Amatsu, Chiezo Kataoka
Year: 1969-1972
Purchase From Amazon
The Bounty Hunter Trilogy – Movie Review:
Radiance Films gathers together the three films in Toie Studios’ Bounty Hunter Trilogy, starring the inimitable Tomisaburo Wakayama. Here’s how the three movies in this...-
Channel: Movies
03-13-2024, 11:30 AM -