Ridley Scott

The horror/sci-fi thriller Alien (1979), based on Alfred Elton Van Vogt's short story "Black Destroyer" (1939), and perhaps influenced by Mario Bava's Terrore nello Spazio (1965), mostly relies on the modernist scenography to sustain a rather trivial plot. The plot unfolds very slowly at the beginning, which is mostly visual. Then there is the usual suspense of being haunted by a killer monster. The poor humans have to face the evil computer, the evil robot and the super-evil alien: a concentrate of super-human evil. There is also a bit of psychoanalytical underpinning to the story: the "mother" computer, existential angst, fear of the unknown. And the whole tragedy is set in motion by capitalist greed: this is not a scientific mission, it's a commercial cargo. An immense space cargo, traveling towards Earth, is controlled by a computer, called "Mother", while the crew sleeps hibernated. A signal of unknown origin causes "Mother" to prematurely wake up the astronauts. They obey the computer's orders to land on the nearby planet. The landing is not easy. A three-man patrol, monitored on screens by captain Dallas, scientist Ash and the female third in command, Ripley, lands on the planet and looks for the source of what appears to be an S.O.S., although Ripley senses that there could also be some kind of warning. The patrol ventures into a crater swept by icy gusts and discovers a giant technological fossil that emits a regular, almost agonizing, breath. They veture inside this cave and one of them finds eggs. He makes the mistake of hitting one of them to see what happens: a disgusting squid-like thing splashes on his helmet and he loses consciousness. The others drag him back into the spaceship. Ripley is opposed to let them in without the prescribed quarantine but the scientist personally opens the door violating a procedure that he should know well. The unconscious man is immediately transported to a sort of surgical room where the scientist tries to remove the squid on its helmet, but a severed tentacle emits an acid that makes holes in several layers of the floor. On the other hand, the octopus disappears into thin air shortly after (it will fall on the head of the woman who looks for the traces, but now annoyed) and the victim heals suddenly. During dinner, however, the man is shaken by violent retching; it is spread out on the table and immobilized, but the spasms continue until with a sketch of flesh and blood (which sucks the others) the breast splits and emerges a snake with sharp teeth; the scientist prevents the negro from killing him and the snake disappears abruptly. The intruder's hunt for the spacecraft's corridors is a concentrate of suspense: one by one the crewmen are swallowed by the monster, which grows in size each time. They abandoned the idea of using surgery. Then suddenly the polip disappears and the man resuscitates. They look for the polip and they find it lifeless. During dinner, however, the man is shaken by violent spasms and his chest explodes. A snake-like monster with sharp teeth emerges and runs away. The scientist prevents the crew from killing it because he wants to examine it. They search the spaceship for the monster. At one point they think they cornered it, but it's only the cat. Nonetheless they want to capture the cat. The man who is about to catch it is snatched up by the monster and later found horribly mutilated. We see that the monster has grown enormously in size. They query in vain the computer for help: the computer consistently replies that it has no advice on how to kill this creature. They realize that the monster is using the air shafts to move around and captain Dallas in person enters the shafts to chase it out of the spaceship, but is attacked and killed. Ripley doesn't trust scientist Ash, who seems too eager to capture the creature alive, and decides for a plan to kill it. Ripley finally obtains some information from the computer: Ash is following "special order 937" according to which he has to deliver the organism alive to the company that sent them there. The priority is to bring the alien back to Earth. The crew is expendable. That was from the beginning the true purpose of the mission. She is ready to rebel but Ash blocks her. Ash tries to kill her and another member of the crew saves her by smashing Ash's head and Ash's body disassembles: it's a robot. They reassemble the head of the robot and interrogate it. Ash confesses that he betrayed them and tells them that the monster is immortal. Ash gives them no chance of survival. They kill and burn the robot in anger, but now they realize that their only chance is to blow up the spaceship and leave in the emergency shuttle. Ripley wastes precious time looking for the cat, but that's what saves her because the monster attacks the other two who are preparing the explosion. Ripley hears the screams but returns too late to help. She activates the explosion and tries to enter the shuttle. She succeeds when there only a few seconds left. The shuttle leaves and the spaceship explodes. She relaxes. She puts the cat into hybernation and prepares to do the same herself. But just then she sees something moving: the monster has been hiding inside the shuttle. She wears her astronaut suit and grabs a harpoon. Then she manouvres to expel the monster and shoots the harpoon. The monster drifts out in space and she records her report before hybernating for the trip back home.

Alien (1979), è un condensato di luoghi comuni della fantascienza (immani scenografie, delirio di computer) arricchito da temi presi dall'horror (il mostro, simbolo di insicurezza, l'ignoto, effetti truculenti), dalla psicanalisi (il computer "madre", angoscia esistenziale) e dalla morale anti-capitalista (lo sfruttamento cinico degli uomini per scopi che essi neppure immaginano). Grande suspense nell'astronave ridotta a un relitto e perseguitata dall'indistruttibile mostro. Un immenso cargo spaziale, in viaggio verso la terra, è controllato da un computer, chiamato "madre", mentre l'equipaggio dorme ibernato. Un segnale di origine sconosciuta induce la "madre" a svegliare gli astronauti anzitempo. Una pattuglia di tre uomini, seguiti sugli schermi da capitano, vicecapitana e scienziato, sbarca sul pianeta e scopre, dentro un cratere battuto da raffiche di ghiaccio, una specie di mostro tecnologico che emette un respiro regolare, un fossile agonizzante. I tre uomini esplorano l'interno, come speleologi in una grotta (Verne?). Fra tanta desolazione c'è un grumo organico che schizza sul casco di uno dei tre. Viene subito trasportato nell'astronave, nonostante una donna si opponga per paura di contaminazioni e lo scienziato si prepara ad operare per separare il polipo dalla faccia del disgraziato. Al primo taglio però i tentacoli lasciano cadere un acido che perfora diversi pavimenti prima di arrestarsi. D'altronde il polipo scompare nel nulla poco dopo (cadrà in testa alla donna che ne cerca le tracce, ma oramai seccato) e la vittima guarisce di colpo. Durante la cena però l'uomo è scosso da violenti conati; viene steso sul tavolo e immobilizzato, ma gli spasimi continuano finchè con uno schizzo di carne e di sangue (che insozza gli altri) il petto si squarcia ed emerge un serpente dai denti aguzzi; lo scienziato impedisce al negro di ucciderlo e il serpente si dilegua di scatto. La caccia all'intruso per i corridoi dell'astronave è un concentrato di suspence: uno ad uno gli uomini dell'equipaggio vengono ingoiati dal mostro, che ogni volta cresce di dimensioni. La donna cerca di far parare il computer e scopre così che lo scienziato lo ha programmato per dare priorità assoluta al portare l'alieno sulla terra, anche a costo di sacrificare l'equipaggio, e che anzi, quello è stato fin da principio il vero scopo della missione. Lo scienziato cerca ora di sopprimere la donna, ma il negro gli stacca il capo con una sbarra: il corpo si accartoccia e si smembra, era un robot. Presi dal panico, i tre sopravvissuti (il negro e due donne) decidono di far esplodere l'astronave e di fuggire sulla "capsula" di salvataggio. Ma mentre preparano la bomba il negro e l'altra ragazza si trovano di fronte il mostro e, per non colpire la ragazza paralizzata dal terrore, il negro non può usare il suo lanciafiamme. Vengono divorati entrambi. La capitana, rimasta sola, programma l'esplosione e si avvia (con il gatto mascotte) verso la capsula. Ma nel corridoio è in agguato il mostro, e la nave sta per esplodere. Fallito un disperato tentativo di interrompere il conto alla rovescia, trova il coraggio di tornare nel corridoio e, appena in tempo, scappa. Ormai certa di aver distrutto il mostro, si prepara all'ibernamento per il tempo che rimane, ma il mostro l'ha seguita a bordo e i suoi tentacoli compaiono d'improvviso. Con calma la donna ingaggia l'ultimo duello e riesce a scaraventare il mostro nel vuoto. Apocalittico ed epico.

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Legend (1985) è una fiaba mitologica: il Signore delle Tenebre, rifugiatosi in un castello sotterraneo, ordina ai suoi seguaci di distruggere l'eden terrestre a cominciare dagli unicorni, usando come esca l'innocenza. L'odissea dei maligni si svolge in una foresta abitata da una principessa, da fiabe e da folletti e termina con la vittoria della luce. ** Legend (1985) è una fiaba magniloquente ambientata in un mondo fantastico minacciato dal signore delle tenebre e allietato dagli unicorni; i buoni sono la principessa, il ragazzo dei boschi e il folletto. Blade Runner (1983), a loose adaptation of Philip Dick's sci-fi novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" (1968), is a sci-fi thriller set in a dystopian society that is simultaneously very high-tech and morally decaying. It helped launch the cyberpunk genre. It is not clear who the real hero of the film is: the replicant, who tries desperately to break the cruel spell that condemns him to death and who, in the end, nobly grants Rick his life even though he could have killed him; or Rick, who is merely a ruthless exterminator without scruples. The film is compelling above all for the apocalyptic design of the metropolis, where ghostlike humans flounder in perpetual smog. It is at once a thriller and a western, unfolding in an anguished atmosphere within a society in decay. The film is a monster fable whose moral lies in the love for an android�a love that contaminates the hunter�s ferocity, a theme of the moral defeat of the tough-guy figure derived from noir crime films. The happy ending, with the two fleeing together, seems intended to reconcile the two �races� (with the English tradition of suspense and terror behind it) and the futurist megacities it portrays with baroque attention to detail. A common theme in his films is the determination to assert oneself, endlessly repeating a gesture (of honor, of survival, of pursuit). To science fiction he contributed a �negative� vision, one that never forgets the ambiguous and evil nature of human beings, even in colossal flights of fancy about the future (a ship of guinea pigs, a killer of androids�set in motion by economic laws that disregard all human considerations). Seven different versions of Blade Runner exist as a result of controversial changes requested by studio executives. A director's cut was released in 1992 and in 2007, Warner Bros. released The Final Cut, a 25th-anniversary digitally remastered version; this is the only version over which Scott retained artistic control. The "director's cut" doesn't have the happy ending. The action takes place in 2019 in a Los Angeles that has become a mixture of two extremes: colossal high-tech buildings (on which giant ads are prominently displayed) connected by flying cars. A corporation has created humanoids that look like humans, called "replicants", to work on space colonies, but they have been banned from Earth after deadly incidents. Rick (Harrison Ford) is a retired "blade runner", a cop specialized in killing replicants. He gets arrested by a cop, Gaff. It is just a pretext to force Rick to meet with his former boss Bryant. Bryant wants Rick to return to his old job and find and kill four replicants: Leon, Roy, Zhora and Pris. Rick refuses but Bryant blackmails him with secrets of his past and Rick has no choice. Rick gets a demonstration of the machine that is used to determine if a person is a replicant: Rick administers it to sexy secretary Rachael. Rick determines that Rachael is a replicant, but he is told that Rachael is an experiment: she has been implanted false memories so she doesn't know of being a replicant. Meanwhile, the boss of the replicant gang, Roy, is trying to find the bioengineer who built him and force him to extend his lifetime. Roy terrorizes a Chinese who makes eyes, who tells him that an engineer named Sebastian can take him to the bioengineer. Rachael visits Rick, trying to convince him that she is human, but Rick tells her the truth: that all her memories of a human childhood have been implanted. Rachael is devastated and destroys the photo of what she has always considered her mother. Meanwhile, a sexy replicant, Pris, hides in front of Sebastian's house and then pretends to be lost. Sebastian offers her shelter. Sebastian's house is full of automata. Pris works on his psychology to gain his trust. Rick follows a lead and gets to a sexy night-club dancer who performs with a snake. She is indeed a replicant, Zhora, who tries to escape through the crowded streets of the slum. Rick chases her until he kills her. Bryant congratulates Rick but also orders him to kill Rachael. Rick spots Rachael in the crowd and chases her but loses her. He is attacked by replicant Leon who is about to kill him but the very Rachael saves him. They become lovers. Roy joins Pris at Sebastian's apartment. Sebastian has been seduced by Pris. He reveals that he is dying just like the replicants because of a genetic disease. Sebastian helps Roy and Pris to meet with his boss, the bioengineer who invented the replicants, Tyrell. Tyrell says that he is powerless to extend Roy's lifespan. Roy first kills him, showing his love for his creator, but then kills him by crushing his head. Roy then kills Sebastian too. Later, Rick is attacked by Pris (disguised as an automaton and moving like an acrobat), but manages to kill her. Rick then waits for Roy, the last surviving replicant. They engage in a duel. Roy is furious after discovering Pris' dead body. Roy seems about to kill Rick on the roof of a skyscraper but instead saves his life. Roy dies of natural death: his life expired. Gaff congratulates Rick and then laments that now Rachael too has to die: "Too bad she won't live, but then again who does". Rick finds Rachael in his apartment. He points the gun at her but then caresses her and is about to escort her out. But Rick understands that Gaff was there and that Rachael is in cahoots with the cops, perhaps plotting against himself: perhaps he too is a replicant to be eliminated. (Later a happy ending was added in which the two depart together). Someone to Watch over Me (1987). Un poliziotto deve fare da guardia del corpo per un'ereditiera che ha visto un killer uccidere un suo vecchio amico, è determinata a testimoniare al processo, ma teme per la propria vita. Si trasferisce in pianta stabile a casa sua lasciando solo la moglie. Il killer terrorizza l'ereditiera. Fra questa e il tenente sboccia l'amore. Lei ignora le minacce e testimonia contro il killer; ma questi evade e lei è colta da una crisi di nervi. E' l'amore di lui a darle sicurezza. Il killer inizia però a terrorizzare la famiglia di lui e fa precipitare la crisi fra moglie e marito. Thriller melodramma. Lui sventa un attentato contro l'ereditiera, ma il suo collega e amico resta ucciso, e la colpa viene data alla sua tresca con la testimone. Sospeso dalla polizia, lasciato dalla moglie, viene anche ricattato dal killer che ha preso in ostaggio la sua famiglia. L'ereditiera si offre di aiutarlo ma ad uccidere il killer sono proprio moglie e figlio, approfittando del loro arrivo. Lui torna dalla moglie.

The police drama Black Rain (1989) is a tale of two metropolis, of two morally dirty and physically violent metropolis. Unfortunately, it is also a heap of third-hand Hollywood cliches. It would have been difficult to conceive a more predictable ending. Nick (Michael Douglas) is a New York cop with a bad reputation. He is a reckless motorcyclist who likes to race kids for fun, he is divorced with three children, and he is suspected by his superiors of stealing money from the gangster whom he arrests. He is having lunch with his best friend Charlie (a completely different type, all suit and tie) when a young Japanese gangster and his men enter the restaurant, holding machine guns, and carry out a strange transaction with two Japanese guests. At the end of it, the young Japanese coldly kills the two customers and walks out. Nick pulls out gun and badge and start running after him, and eventually catches him. They are all members of the Japanese mob. The Japanese embassy requests extradition, and, ironically, Nick and his buddy are assigned to escort the young killer, Sato, to Osaka. When the flight lands, a bunch of people wearing police uniforms come to pick up the prisoner, and Nick simply hands him over. But it turns out those were members of the mob and he just helped them rescue the killer. Nick feels like an idiot, and is determined to get even. Since they signed fake papers, they claim they never technically surrendered the prisoner to the Japanese police, so it is still their case. The Japanese police chief lets them stay as observers and pairs them with one of his men, stone-faced Masahiro. But Nick has no intention of being a mere observer and begins his own investigation, starting with an American femme fatale, Joyce (the 100th clone of Marlene Dietrich) who runs a brothel. The beginning is not propitious: Charlie gets killed by a gang of motorcyclists led by the very same Sato. Now it's personal. Initially, Nick and Masahiro don't get along, but soon they begin to respect each other and work together. They follow a woman who takes them to a meeting between Sato and his old boss: Sato is blackmailing him, showing no respect for the older man. When Sato and his kids leave the meeting, Nick attacks them. He kills all of them and is chasing Sato when the police chief in person shows up to stop him: no guns are allowed. He puts him on a plane back to the USA. But Nick gets off the plane from the back door and resumes his investigation. He meets with the boss whom Sato is blackmailing and offers to kill Sato, which would solve the problems of both men (eliminate the blackmailer and avenge the death of Charlie). The Japanese boss is reluctant because he, a survivor of Hiroshima, despises the American barbarians, but then he accepts. So Nick and Masahiro follow the gangsters when they meet again, each escorted by a number of gangsters armed to their teeth. While the two leaders discuss the truce, Nick and Masahiro begin to eliminate the sentries. Inside the building, Sato betrays the boss one more time, but just then Nick and Masahiro break into the house and start shooting everybody. The place becomes a volcano, but Sato manages to run away on a motorcycle. Nick also jumps on a motorcycle and starts chasing him in the rice fields.

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Thelma & Louise (1991) Louise è una donna indipendente di 37 anni, con un ragazzo sincero, anche se un po' rude. Thelma è una casalinga molto più giovane, fidanzatasi a 14 anni e sposatasi a 18 con lo stesso uomo, un borghese egoista, prepotente e senza personalità. Entrambe frustrate decidono di partire per un week-end di vacanza all'insaputa dei rispettivi uomini. Vogliono soltanto godersi la libertà, ma Thelma, ingenua e irresponsabile, le mette subito nei guai: in un bar dà troppa confidenza a un donnaiolo, che poi tenta di violentarla. Louise la salva con la pistola. L'uomo la insulta, e Louise, peso il controllo, gli spara a bruciapelo, uccidendolo. Louise era stata violentata anni prima e conservava la voglia di vendetta. Le due donne iniziano la fuga, che continuerà per tutto il film. Louise tenta di ragionare: telefona al ragazzo e gli chiede di spedirle tutti i suoi risparmi. Il ragazzo si presenta invece di persona, un po' per paura che lei stia fuggendo con un altro, un po' preoccupato che si trovi nei guai. Le regala anche l'anello di fidanzamento, ma lei insiste a non confidarsi con lui, per non metterlo nei guai. Thelma intanto, a cui Louise ha affidato i soldi, si è lasciata sedurre da un autostoppista equivoco, il quale ne approfitta per portarla a letto e derubarla. Le due donne sono ora abbandonate a se stesse e senza un penny. Thelma, colpevole di tutte le loro disgrazie, decide di rimediare e rapina un supermercato. La polizia, che era già sulle loro tracce, può ora seguirle da vicino. La loro fuga non dura a lungo. Quando sono raggiunte e braccate sul bordo del Grand Canyon, decidono di non arrendersi e lanciano l'auto dentro il burrone. Road movie alla Easy Rider. La vera protagonista è la svampita, vittima della moralità borghese. L'altra è una disperata che non ha più entusiasmo di vivere. Insieme costituiscono un meccanismo ad orologeria programmato per autodistruggersi.

1492 Conquest of Paradise (1992) is an epic about the discovery of America, followed by the mediocre White Squall (1996) and G.I. Jane (1997). The overlong Gladiator (2000), written by David Franzoni but inspired by the Daniel Mannix's novel "Those About to Die" (1958), is imbued with Shakespearian overtones and Kurosawa overtones. The film opens with a tedious battle between the Roman army and a Barbarian tribe. The Romans win led by the valiant general Maximus. The aging emperor Marcus Aurelius watches from a distance. The soldiers are loyal to the general Maximus more than to the emperor's son Commodus, designated heir to the throne. Maximus wants to go home and become a farmer, but the emperor wants him to lead a crusade against the corruption that has weakened the Roman state. The emperor wants Rome to be a republic again. Maximums is the son who always wanted. The emperor's daughter Lucilla flirts with Maximus, who doesn't seem to like her. She is a widow and has a son (who may or may not be Maximus' son). Instead the emperor's son Commodus is not up to task and even cries like a baby realizing that his father doesn't trust him. The son kills the father. The sister slaps the patricide in the face. Maximus guesses that the emperor has been murdered. Minutes later he is arrested and sentenced to death, but he escapes. He rushes home but too late: Commodus' soldiers have already killed his family. Maximus is rescued by Africans who take him as a slave and sell him to an old merchant, Proximo, who trains gladiators. He refuses to train but eventually he is thrown into a live gladiator show in front of a cheering crowd and he has no choice but to show his skills. Maximus become known as a superb gladiator, known as "the Spaniard". Meanwhile, Commodus enters Rome as the new emperor. He marginalizes the Senate and entertains people with nonstop games at the Colosseum. Maximus is eventually taken to fight in Rome at the Colosseum. Lucius, the sister's son, visits Maximus in his cell before the game, not knowing who he is but having heard that he is a phenomenal gladiator. Commodus in person watches the game, with Lucius sitting next to him. Maximus organizes the gladiators like a little army and leads them to an unlikely victory against the better armed Roman soldiers sent to kill them. The emperor demands to meet the "Spaniard". Maximus removes his helmet and reveals his identity and swears revenge. He can't kill Commodus because Commodus is holding Lucius. The whole stadium salutes the hero and the emperor has to spare his life. Lucilla visits Maximus and swears she wants revenge too. She tells Maximus that someone is plotting against Maximums. But Maximus doesn't trust her. A stranger approaches him as a fan and hands him a relic of his family. Lucilla arranges for a meeting between Maximus and a senator, Gracchus, who approves the murder of the emperor. But the senator gets arrested almost immediately. Commodus is morbidly attracted to his sister Lucilla but can't quite rape her. Lucilla helps Maximumus escape and the other gladiators protect him with their lives when the guards attack. Maximus enters the palace but it's a trap: he is arrested. All the conspirators are in jail at the Colosseum. The crowd calls for Maximums. The emperor decides to fight Maximus personally, but first he stabs him to gain an advantage. When the emperor loses his sword, none of his guards gives him a sword: he suddenly realizes that everybody hates him. They continue fighting without weapons. Commodus pulls out a hidden knife but eventually Maximums kills him. The crowd is silent. Maximums demands that the prisoners be freed. And then he finally dies of his wounds. Lucilla is the first one who runs to him. He has a vision of his wife and son. Hannibal (2001) and the war movie Black Hawk Down (2001) were trivial. Matchstick Men (2003) was based on an interesting plot but ruined by a silly ending. Roy has a nervous tick that explodes outdoors and in sunlight, and is also paranoid about cleanniness. He partners with a younger friend, Frank, to cheat gullible consumers. They cheat and elderly couple of a lot of money, first cheating the wife when they pretend to be sending her a gift and then cheating the husband when they pretend to be police detectives investigating the fraud that she was just the victim of. They are con-men, and Roy is the master of con-men. Roy is taking some pills to treat his nervous disorder. When he runs out of them, Frank sends Roy to see a psychiatrist. As Roy insists, the psychiatrist prescribes some pills but also insinuates that his problem is psychological, not physical. Roy admits that he was traumatized by his failed marriage and reveals that he left his ex-wife when she was pregnant. The psychiatrist sows doubt in Roy's mind that he may be the father of a 14-year-old boy or girl. Roy now would like to know if that is the case and asks the psychiatrist to call his wife on his behalf. The psychiatrist does so and tells Roy that he has a daughter and that the daughter would like to meet him. Roy meets Angela in a park and takes her to a restaurant. Whether it's the pills or the meeting with Angela, Roy suddenly feels a lot better. He accepts a project that Frank has been wanting to do for a long time: cheat a rich businessman of a large sum of money. Angela shows up uninvited at Roy's place claiming a big argument with her mother and decides to stay a few days. When Roy does out to prepare the operation with Frank, Angela spends the evening searching Roy's apartment and finds where he hides the money and a gun: inside a dog statue. Meanwhile, Frank introduces Roy to the businessman and they lure him into a money-exchange operation, pretending that Frank works in a bank. Back at home, Frank is interrogated by Angela: he told her (and told everybody) that he is an antique dealer but Angela guesses that his real job must be criminal otherwise he wouldn't hide money and a gun. When she disappears for a night, Roy behaves like the typical angry father. He tells her the truth about his profession. She insists in being shown how to con people and Roy helps her cheat money from a housewife at a laundromat, except that then he forces her to return the money. Every night Roy buys groceries at the same supermarket and meets a cashier, Kathy, who seems to like him. Frank sets up a meeting with the businessman and Roy prepares a suitcase full of money: Angela walks with him to the bank where Roy keeps his money, but Roy doesn't show her the password to access his safety deposit box. Frank then joins Roy at the airport, where they hand the suitcase full of British pounds to the business man and the businessman hands them a sack full of dollars. Angela causes a distraction during which Roy switches the suitcase with an empty one. Roy and Angela leave with both the suitcase full of pounds and the sack full of dollars, while the businessman walks away with the empty suitcase. But the businessman finds out that he has been cheated and chases them as they are leaving the airport parking lot. They barely escape. Roy decides he has had enough of this work and leaves all the money to Frank. Frank is unhappy with the part played by Angela and prays that Angela has never been arrested: she confesses she has been. That means that the police have their photo and she could be identified by the airport cameras. Roy tells her that he doesn't want to see her anymore. Back home Roy cannot find the pills anymore. He drives to a pharmacy and hysterically demands to be given more pills, even if he doesn't have a prescription because he can't find the psychiatrist: the pharmacist, however, notices that he has been taking a harmless medicine for menopause. Roy confronts the psychiatrist who tells him that his problem is psychological, not physical: he needs Angela. Roy then meets Angela again and offers to become a real father. He then treats her to a dinner. When they return home, however, they find that the businessman has kidnapped and tortured Frank and is pointing a gun at them: he wants his money back. Angela grabs the gun that Roy kept hidden in the dog statuette and shoots the businessman. Frank tells Roy that the businessman is mortally wounded. Roy's priority is to save Angela from being arrested for murder and asks Frank to take her to a hotel, while he will take the blame for killing the businessman. However, the businessman is alive and knocks him unconscious. Roy wakes up in a hospital room where two cops try to interrogate him. The businessman was found dead in his driveway and his daughter Angela has disappeared. Roy demands to speak with his psychiatrist, the only person he can trust. Roy then tells the psychiatrist to call Angela and to give Angela the password to take the money from the bank. Roy then falls asleep. He wakes up in a very hot room, with no nurse and no doctor around. He walks out of the room and finds out that the hospital is... staged: it's just one room on the roof of a building. Roy takes a taxi to the psychiatrist's office but finds out that it has been abandoned. Roy now drives to his ex-wife's place to ask about Angela: his ex-wife tells him that she lost the baby after they broke up, that he doesn't have a daughter. It is obvious now that Frank, Angela and the businessman connived to rob him. He, the great conman, has been conned. Sure enough the safety deposit box at the bank contains only a few banknotes left by Frank out of pity for Roy. One year later Roy is working as a salesman at a carpet store when a young man walks in to buy a carpet, and Roy recognizes the girl who is with him: Angela. Roy doesn't get upset and doesn't reveal her past to the young man who is in love with her: Roy is at peace with himself now that he has a honest job. Roy drives back home where his new wife is waiting for him: Kathy the supermarket cashier, and she is pregnant. Kingdom of Heaven (2005) and A Good Year (2006) were awful. The biopic American Gangster (2007), written by Steven Zaillian and based on a real-life gangster of the 1970s, is a diligent quasi-documentary about police corruption and the drug underworld. Frank is introduced when his boss Bumpy dies: Bumpy was a mob boss revered in Harlem because he behaved like Robin Hood. Frank behaves like a gentleman, not a mobster. At Bumpy's funeral he observes corrupt cops and politicians paying respect to Bumpy. Meanwhile, Ritchie is a cop separated from his wife and his wife is suing for custody of their son. Ritchie and his partner Joey are cops working in Harlem. One day they force a man to help them track down a drug dealer and find a bag full of money in the trunk of his car. Joey would like to keep the money because that's what cops are supposed to do, while Ritchie is the rare honest cop who wants none of it. Ritchie delivers the money to the police station despite Joey's objections and all the cops look down on him. Meanwhile, detective Trupo in nearby New Jersey is a corrupt cop who indirectly controls the market for heroin. Frank hears this from an old friend of Bumpy, who also laments that Bumpy's death is causing anarchy in the underworld of Harlem. Frank, always dressed in formal suit and tie, learns that his cousin Nate lives in Thailand and hears on television that heroin is spreading through the US troops in Vietnam because it's so cheap. Frank finds a way to buy heroin from Thailand's poppy producers and to smuggle it into the USA using military planes meant to fight the war in Vietnam. Frank comes up with a wonderful business plan: his heroin (dubbed "Blue Magic") is half the price and twice the strength of the one sold by other gangs. One day Ritchie has to save Joey from an agry crowd: Joey has shot dead a drug dealer. Ritchie realizes that Joey is a drug addict who tried to rob the drug dealer. Joey begs Ritchie, his best friend, to forget about it, but Ritchie refuses: he is a honest cop. Realizing that nothing will stop Ritchie from doing his duty, Joey escapes. Ritchie keeps going to court to discuss his divorce and even seduces his sexy lawyer. Their sex is interrupted by a phone call: Joey has been found dead. Ritchie's fame reaches a captain in charge of creating a special police unit to fight narcotics, Lou. Lou tells Ritchie that he can hire anybody, and Ritchie hires a ragtag army of trusted cops. Meanwhile, Frank is getting rich with his heroin business. He brings his mother and his brothers from their provincial town to Harlem, where he bought a nice mansion for them. He gives his brothers a demonstration of what his business is like when he murders a debtor in the street, indifferent to all the witnesses, and introduces them to the heroin laboratory, where girls work naked to make sure they cannot steal. Trying to find who is selling "Blue Magic", Ritchie runs into the corrupt Trupo, who warns him to stay out of his territory. Frank falls in love with a Puertorican woman, Eva. Frank has zero tolerance for anyone who makes trouble. He brutally attacks a cousin who loses control in his own house. Frank enters into business with a rich British man who can distribute his heroin worldwide. He has always preached that it's important to wear humble clothes so not to stand out, but Eva gifts him an expensive coat and Frank wears it at a famous boxing match. Therefore he is noticed by both the corrupt Trupo and by Ritchie. He later burns the coat in front of his wife. He sends a warning to Trupo by blowing up his expensive car. Trupo retaliates by stealing heroin from his car. Ritchie and his man are watching the scene and see Trupo leave with the loot. Ritchie is closing in to Frank. A former cop who is a good friend warns him to drop the investigation but Ritchie as usual refuses. He is now more convinced than ever that Frank is his man. Meanwhile, in court, Ritchie admits that he is not suited to keep his son and lets his wife have him. Television shows the last days of the Vietnam War. Someone tries to assassinate Frank's wife and she decides to move out. That same night Frank watches as the president of the USA announces the end of the Vietnam War, which also means the end of Frank's heroin transport trick. One night Ritchie's man capture one of Frank's associates who has shot his girlfriend. He accepts to turn informer in order to avoid jail. This way Ritchie learns that Frank has devised a new way to smuggle heroin into the USA: a cargo plane. Ritchie gets a warrant to inspect the plane when it lands. His men find nothing on the plane. Ritchie guesses that the drug is hidden in the caskets carrying dead soldiers home but is forbidden from desecrating the caskets. Nonetheless, he and his man follow the caskets all the way to Frank's secret laboratory. At the same time, sensing that Frank is finished, Trupo breaks into his mansion, beats his wife and finds the emergency money that Frank hid in the garden. Frank takes his mom and wife to church. Ritchie stages a raid of Frank's laboratory and arrests everybody. He then waits for Frank to come out of church. After arresting him, Ritchie convinces Frank to cooperate and incriminate all the corrupt cops. Trupo kills himself. Dozens are arrested. Ritchie quits his job and becomes a defense lawyer. His first client is Frank. Frank's sentece is reduced to 15 years. The ridiculous Body of Lies (2008), based on David Ignatius' 2007 novel, is a concentrate of Hollywood stereotypes. The convoluted and implausible plot is littered with embarrassing and stupid dialogues that pretend to be intellectual comments on the Iraqi War. Luckily those too young to remember the Iraqi War may not realize the intentions of the filmmaker. The acting is high-school level. Roger is a CIA agent in Iraq during the Iraqi War of 2003, at the time when terrorists (which the film imagines being members of Al Qaeda, although Al Qaeda was in Afghanistan) were carrying out suicide missions against the "occupation" forces. Now the film imagines that the same terrorists are blowing up bombs in Europe. Roger's wife is divorcing him. Roger obeys the orders of his superior, Ed, a politician who lives a normal life in the USA, and orders killings while taking care of his children. Ed can see everything that goes on in Iraq thanks to drones that project images live to the giant monitor of his control room. Roger is introduced to a terrorist who defected and wants asylum in the USA in return for information about the terrorist organization. Ed is not willing to help the defector. Roger gets mad with Ed but then betrays this poor defector in order to learn more about a safe house. Now Roger knows that the terrorists will take revenge on the defector but cannot prevent him from being kidnapped and has to kill him in order to protect his own identity. Roger and his buddy Bassam attack the safe house and drive away with valuable information, chased by several cars. They invoke the help of helicopters that destroy the chasers but also kill his buddy Bassam. Ed dispatches Roger to Jordan where he rudely relieves the chief of his duties and tries to forge an alliance with the head of the Jordan secret service, the gentleman-like Hani. Hani only asks Roger for trust and loyalty. Roger tells him that they are watching a terrorist safe house in town. Roger is betrayed again by his boss Ed, who orders an operation against the safe house without informing him. When the operation backfires, Roger has to kill a terrorist to avoid that the terrorists learn of his operation. During the killing he is bitten by rabid dogs. He is taken to a hospital and meets the cute nurse Aisha. Hani finds a simple way to turn a terrorist into a spy after inviting Roger to witness the deal (one only wishes it were so easy). This Karami is now their men inside the safe house. Unfortunately, Ed orders someone else to kidnap this Karami and this becomes another botched operation that results in the terrorists blowing up and leaving the safe house. Hani doubts that Roger knew of Ed's plan and loses his trust in Roger. Hani advises Roger to leave the country as he is not welcome anymore. Roger proposes a new plan to Ed. Their goal is to capture the head of the terrorist cell, Saleem. Roger proposes to create a fake terrorist group so that this Saleem with make contact. Ed engineers a fake terrorist attack on a US military base in Turkey, and a CIA software engineer hacks social media to make it look like the attack has been directed by an architect, Sadiki, who in reality is simply a pious Muslim. Sure enough Saleem's goons kidnap Sadiki but only to find out that Sadiki is no terrorist. Sadiki is soon found dead and Roger's plan fails to lead him to Saleem. Meanwhile Roger has seen Aisha again and has been introduced to her older sister, who is hostile to the USA. One day Roger finds Aisha missing and assumes that she's been kidnapped by Saleem. Roger begs Hani to help him save Aisha. He has to confess that he invented Sadiki's terrorist organization, and, again, Hani is offended that the USA lied to him. Somehow Roger makes contact with the terrorists and offers himself in return for Aisha's freedom. The kidnappers meet him in the desert. Ed is watching the meeting from his control room but the kidnappers are smarter than him: they show up in multiple cars, drive around Roger to generate enough dust that makes it impossible to see in which car Roger is loaded, and then drive the cars in different directions. Ed cannot tell which car has Roger. Roger finally faces Saleem, who is proud to have captured a CIA agent. Saleem breaks his fingers and would gladly kill him but first he tells Roger that he doesn't have Aisha: someone else kidnapped her. Hani and his agents arrive just in time to save Roger and arrest Saleem: it was Hani who faked Aisha's kidnap in order to use Roger as bait to arrest Saleem. Roger tells Ed that he's done with the war. Ed offers him a relaxed job at headquarters but Roger walks out on him. Ed orders the drones to stop watching over him. Roger prefers a life with Aisha. Scott worked on the mediocre Robin Hood (2010) and Prometheus (2012), before The Counselor (2013) redeemed his career. Alas Exodus - Gods and Kings (2014) was another awful film. Martian (2015) is a Robinson Crusoe for the space age but also a concentrate of Hollywood stereotypes. A group of astronauts is performing experiments on Mars when a sudden storm forces them to leave the planet in a hurry. One doesn't make it and they assume he is dead. NASA announces to the world that one astronaut died and the others are on the way back home. However, the astronaut has survived and is perfectly conscious. He realizes that he has been left behind and that his chances of survival are scant because the next Mars mission will reach him only in four years, way too late. While the country is celebrating his funeral, the astronaut learns how to grow food and tries to make a living on a desert planet. He keeps an audio diary of his endeavours and never falls to desperation. One day NASA realizes that something is moving on Mars' surface and it becomes obvious that he is alive. NASA's director knows that the astronaut will probably starve to death. He also refuses to tell the crew that is returning home, because he doesn't want to cripple their already low morale. The scientists decide that there is a chance to save the astronaut if supplies are shipped as soon as possible. Meanwhile, the astronaut digs out an old spaceship that lies buried in the sand. NASA realizes that he is trying to communicate using the old still-frame camera. NASA responds to his signals by moving the camera and soon they are able to communicate. Now he knows that help is on its way. Finally, NASA tells the crew that the lost astronaut is alive. Incidents delay the rescue mission: an explosion causes another emergency to the astronaut and the rocket with the supplies explodes before reaching the atmosphere. Luckily, China decides to offer its own top-secret rockets and a crazy scientist comes up with a bizarre but effective plan to use the returning spaceship for rescuing the astronaut. NASA's director vetoes the plan because it would jeopardize the lives of the returning crew and greatly delay their return; but one of his staff leaks the plan to the returning crew and they enthusiastically vote for a mutiny in order to force NASA's hand. Now the spaceship is heading back to Mars and the astronaut is preparing for an unlikely rendezvous watching by the whole world. Inguinity solves all the problems and eventually the commander heroically risks her life to walk in free space and grab the astronaut that has ejected himself. All ends well and the world rejoices. Alien - Covenant (2017) The Last Duel (2021), a faithful adaptation of Eric Jager's book "The Last Duel", is a 152-minute historical drama that feels at least 50 minutes too long.