More Movies

We've seen a couple of really good movies recently, neither of which did much business at all at the box office. Guess that just proves I'm out of step with the vast movie-going public.

LUCKY NUMBER SLEVEN is one of those very intricately plotted crime movies where nothing is what it seems and you have to watch closely all the way through to see how everything fits together. I had most of it figured out by the halfway point, but there were still a few twists I wasn't expecting. I really like this sort of movie and tried to achieve something of the same tone in my novel DUST DEVILS, which will be out next year from Point Blank Press. (Nothing like a little BSP in the middle of some movie comments.)

THE GREAT RAID is the sort of World War II movie I didn't think they made anymore. Shoot, I didn't think anybody in Hollywood even knew how to make this sort of movie anymore. It's based on the true story of how American Ranger troops rescued hundreds of POWs from a Japanese prison camp in the Phillipines. In addition to the commando raid, there are also prison camp scenes and a look at how the underground helped set up the whole thing. Very stirring and well-done, and as far as I could tell, historically accurate, although I don't know as much about that part of the war as I do about some other areas.

Anyway, these movies may not have done well in the theaters, but they're sure worth a DVD rental, in my opinion.