matjusm

In a remote corner of Minnesota in the middle of a snowy winter, a down on his luck delivery driver Leland Shaw (Alexander Arnold) is struggling to make ends meet by making food courier deliveries. One night, as he's making deliveries with his pet fish Reggie, a crazed snowplow driver starts following and hunting him, and for some reason he's dead serious about catching Leland.

The film is basically a modern reimagining of Steven Spielberg's 1971 classic Duel, one of my favourite films. I had always thought that it would be interesting to explore this concept in a snowy location instead of a desert like the original and...someone did it!

I enjoyed the beautiful scenery (shot in Finland interestingly enough), decent enough soundtrack and tension as Leland tries his best to evade his hunter. Leland is a complicated person, you want to like him but he's got numerous flaws, but that also makes him that bit more human.

What let the film down for me was that it was at times a bit too un-serious. While Duel played it straight, here they lean into the less serious side of the main character and almost make him a bit of a clown, and for me that took away from the tension. There were also a few situations where where less than logical decisions were made, which of course is by no means unique to this film. Maybe I had set my exceptations the wrong way, but I do think this film could have been a bit better.

Not bad by any means, but felt like it could have been a bit more. 5/10.

A reporter played by Keira Knightley is brought in to cover a story on a luxury yacht as it sails from the UK to Norway. One night she thinks she seems someone go overboard, but there is no record of such a person ever having been on the boat. Is she losing her mind, or is something going on?

The film is a modern day take on the 1938 Hitchcock film The Lady Vanishes, using the same underlying concept. It starts off strong, gradually building up the background of the story and characters, and making good use of the setting on this beautifully designed boat, letting it almost become like another character.

However as time goes on, the twists and turns in the story start coming a little too unsatisfyingly fast. You don't get to enjoy the unraveling of the mystery as much as you could, and the implausibilities start building up.

The final act really falls flat, as things become increasingly ludicrous.

Overall not a bad film, starts off strong, but then descends into mediocrity. 6/10.