Ransom (1974)

Aka The Terrorists. Men like you merely play a game. Attempting to secure the release of political prisoners, a terrorist group, led by the fierce Ray Petrie (Ian McShane), takes over a British aeroplane on the tarmac at an airport in the capital city of Scandinavia. Tough law and order security chief Nils Tahlvik (Sean Connery) is sent in to deal with the armed men and free the aircraft’s passengers. Unfortunately for Tahlvik, the terrorists prove to be quite formidable and the constant news coverage isn’t helping. Meanwhile, another unit of the same extremist organisation led by Martin Shepherd (John Quentin) is holding the British ambassador Palmer (Robert Harris) hostage, which further complicates matters particularly when his wife (Isabel Dean) becomes irate and Petrie demands he be put in contact with Shepherd. Tahlvik suspects all is not as it at first appears as the gang attempts to extract money from not one but two governments both of which insist the terrorists’ demands be met … The next one you send will die. In what is probably Connery’s worst film (at least the first half) there is little to sustain suspense despite the urgent premise of this hostage thriller. Despite the presence of ace cinematographer Sven Nykvist, the snowy Norwegian landscapes and the general sense of international moviemaking the cast suggests, this has the air of a TVM that’s been quickly made with little attention to style or narrative drive – that race against time means little. There was probably as much drama offscreen when the contracted airline Mey-Air defaulted on their payments to Boeing which led to the plane being repossessed and the shots never being completed. Connery shines when he is being humiliated by Mrs Palmer who describes her husband’s suffering in wartime Yugoslavia as Connery stupidly claims the gun is being held to his head. Otherwise the script gives him little to do except as a bogey man with a reputation to live up to among all the double-talking diplomats. It’s a relief when he swings into proper action in the latter stages of the drama and sets the cat among the pigeons by entering the aeroplane when he figures out the identity of the gang. That poster is the most colourful thing about the whole shebang. Written by Paul Wheeler. Directed by Finnish filmmaker Caspar Wrede. Don’t you understand there are orders you must not obey?

Bad Therapy (2020)

Aka Judy Small. I want a break from all the drudgery. I want my life to expand. Nature TV editor Bob Howard (Rob Corddry) and his realtor wife Susan (Alicia Silverstone) are enduring some financial issues. It’s her second marriage and she has a daughter Louise (Anna Pniowsky) from her first marriage which ended with her husband’s accidental death. They see marriage counselor, Judy Small (Michaela Watkins) to improve their relationship. However, Judy’s insistence that all three of the family see her separately reveals dark impulses that will bring Bob and Susan’s marriage to the breaking point as she manipulates them into losing trust in each other. And Judy’s former colleagues have discovered that she is practising two years after being barred due to the suicide of a client and what’s that mannequin she talks to in a back room?…  It was an unfortunate instance of counter-transference enactment. Nancy Doyne adapts her novel Judy Small with the tone shifting unevenly from comedy to thriller and back, an unsettling portrait of what therapists can do to their clients and a worrying insight into how the industry is governed (David Paymer ends up at the bottom of a staircase and not in a good way). Ironically while this film enjoys pushing its protagonists’ buttons it doesn’t sensibly explain the reason for the chaos caused by this disturbed psycho(therapist) and the fact that the couple continues seeing her makes it a little silly. The women are terrific in this throwback yuppies in peril-style thriller. Directed by William Teitler. Let me help you now

Showdown (1963)

Aka The Iron Collar. Maybe together you might make one good man. Chris Foster (Audie Murphy) has to get $12,000  in stolen bonds from the ex-girlfriend Estelle (Kathleen Crowley) of his partner Bert Pickett (Charles Drake), or the gang holding him hostage led by wanted outlaw Lavalle (Harold Stone) will kill him. When Chris tracks Estelle down singing her last song in a saloon before catching the stage out of town it seems she has other plans for the money … Seems to me you’re more cat than kitten. An efficient tale dressed up with some unusual levels of violence and occasionally ripe dialogue – Stone gets to expound on his love of oysters which might put you in mind of a certain monologue authored by Gore Vidal in a rather different setting. Strother Martin has a good role as the town drunk while Crowley looks great and gives some odd line readings in a story that is piquant and threatening, with some nice black and white shooting done around Lone Pine, CA.  Written by Bronson Howitzer (aka TV western scribe Ric Hardman) and directed by R.G. Springsteen.  Most of his friends grow well in the dark

Bel Canto (2018)

How did you sing like that? Acclaimed American soprano Roxane Coss (Moore) travels to an unnamed South American country to give a private concert at the birthday party of rich Japanese industrialist Katsumi Hosokawa (Watanabe) who’s allegedly building a factory in the vicinity. Just as an élite gathering of local dignitaries convenes at Vice-President Ruben Ochoa’s mansion, including French Ambassador Simon Thibault (Christopher Lambert) and his wife (Elsa Zylberstein), Hosokawa’s faithful translator Gen Watanabe (Ryo Kase), and Russian trade delegate Fyorodov (Olek Krupa), the house is taken over by guerrillas led by Comandante Benjamin (Tenoch Huerta) who believe the President is in attendance (he’s at home watching TV) demanding the release of their imprisoned comrades. Their only contact with the outside world is through Red Cross negotiator Joachim Messner (Sebastian Koch). A month-long standoff ensues in which hostages and captors must overcome their differences and find their shared humanity and hope in the face of impending disaster. Roxanne and Katsumi consummate their rapidly escalating love for each other while Gen falls for rebel Carmen (Maria Mercedes Coroy) as the military gather outside the building … He is always moved by your music. Adapted from Ann Patchett’s novel by director Paul Weitz and Anthony Weintraub, this might be another instance of be careful when tackling literary fiction:  three mentions of telenovelas remind us that when you strip out the elevated language sometimes what you’re left with is a soap opera. And how unlikely much of this is, these people holed up in this nice residence, all getting along in this unreal idyll, even having sex, you just wonder where the butler is hiding the silver salver with the stacks of Ferrero Rocher and why it never occurs to anyone to escape not even when they’re wandering about that lovely tree-filled garden. Nonetheless Moore and Watanabe are both splendid and the underlying message that music is that other universal language is well made in this fantasy take on Stockholm Syndrome before it concludes in the inevitable bloodbath. What are the takeaways? Don’t adapt posh novels, stay out of South America where the natives are always revolting and for goodness’ sake don’t sleep with your kidnapper – or your biggest fan. It never ends well. Moore lip syncs to Renée Fleming.  Are you sure they won’t shoot you? Not everbody likes opera