#Yuri Zeltser

[adamwatchesmovies]

High Crimes (2002)

High Crimes could’ve been something had it dug into its story potential. As is, it’s fine as a piece of disposable entertainment… until the conclusion.

Attorney Claire Kubik (Ashley Judd) is shocked when the FBI arrest her husband, Tom (James Caviezel). She’s told his real name is Ronald Chapman and that he’s been hiding ever since he murdered nine unarmed civilizations in El Salvador during a covert military operation in 1988. She’s determined to help the inexperienced lawyer, First Lieutenant Terence Embry (Adam Scott), defend her husband but when the evidence points to a conspiracy at work, she hires embittered former military attorney Charlie Grimes (Morgan Freeman) to assist.

The movie starts on the wrong note by showing Claire winning a new trial for her client: a man accused of rape. They never show you the details of the case but a part of you knows she’s one of these unscrupulous lawyers you hate, the kind that will bully a witness to make the jury question their authenticity. Even with this false step, the movie could’ve worked if it asked the right questions. Let’s say you’re a lawyer and you’re used to representing people you know are bad but can’t be proven villainous in a court of law. What happens when someone you love is accused of a crime? What happens if you suspect they did it? While High Crimes sows uncertainty within the audience (to varying effectiveness), in Claire’s mind, he’s innocent. This makes the film simply about the court case, and nothing else. Not necessarily a flaw but it is a missed opportunity.

As the conspiracy against Tom/Ronald is uncovered, things get more interesting. When the prosecution has counters to every move the defense makes, the evidence is largely circumstantial and even the judge appears to want to get this affair dealt with as quickly as possible, you start to believe there's something fishy going on. It makes you wonder why they have military courts at all except to sweep shady operations gone wrong under the rug. There certainly doesn’t seem to be any desire to get true justice, not from the way things are done here.

The question is not whether the film is emotionally manipulative; it’s whether it will push your buttons in a way that remains fun. For the most part, it is. You want to hear what really happened and it’s satisfying to see Claire gather evidence to piece together the big picture. Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman are both excellent performers. I’ll even call their characters memorable enough that if the book the film is based on was part of a series, they could’ve done more of these with the two leads teaming up again.

Unfortunately, what works about this legal thriller just narrowly outweighs the bad and when we get to that conclusion, the scale falls down towards the negative. You could cut this movie short by a good 15 minutes and have a much better picture, a tale that leaves you uncertain and with a slight chill down your spine… but nah. Instead, director Carl Franklin makes the answers really clear-cut and easy. It all comes down to a tussle in which someone has to die so the whole thing can be resolved without any ambiguity.

A movie like High Crimes can only end in one of two ways and once you’ve figured this out, the movie could only earn itself so many stars. Once you realize which of these two would be the most shocking, the kind this movie would choose to have a “surprising twist”, you know there's only one possible ending. The highest score High Crimes could earn drops another star. Still, it could’ve been fine. A cycle of new evidence, suspense, and devastating countermove can be fun if it pays off in the end. Unfortunately, High Crimes does not pay off. (Widescreen version On VHS, June 3, 2021)

#High Crimes #movies #films #movie reviews #film reviews #Carl Franklin #Yuri Zeltser #Grace Cary Bickley #Ashley Judd #Morgan Freeman #Jim Caviezel #Amanda Peet #Tom bower #2002 movies #2002 films

[europephotoboss]

“Film ‘Our Little Secret Premieres’ in Official Competition at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival from 27th November 2017” Film’s director, Yuri Zeltser and Yan Fisher-Romanovsky producer "A desperate woman leaves her two young daughters in the care of a troubled tenant, not realizing that the world as they know it is about to be turned upside down"

[darringauthier]

Darrin’s Cache: Eye Of The Storm (1991)

Genre: Thriller

Who’s in it: Dennis Hopper, Craig Sheffer, Lara Flynn Boyle, Bradley Gregg

Who Directed it: Yuri Zeltser

Plot:  At a highway gas station/motel/diner where they live, two young brothers witness their parents murder. The younger brother is blinded in the same incident. Ten years later both brothers are still there and the tragedy may have turned one of them psychotic. When the abusive Gladstone and his young and sexy wife are stranded at the gas station it brings out the worst in everyone.

Running Time: 1 hour 38 minutes

IMDB Score: 5.2

My Viewing History: I saw this as a rental, yes I’m a B-Movie junkie, I look for genre films with actors I know and this fit the bill.

Thoughts: One of the reasons I’m doing Darrin’s Cache is to hit films maybe no one’s heard of and if they did they forgot it, the made for DVD market is rich and there’s a lot of decent titles to discover.  I call finding movies like this bin diving, where you got to a store that has movies on sale and you go to the bottom of the bin you don’t know the film but you see names and go alright I’ll buy that for $3.99.  

People forget Craig Sheffer had a pretty good career, he’s had more hi-lights than you think like “A River Runs Through it”  and “Night Breed” he’s done a lot of TV and during the 90′s he did a lot of films like this one.  He’s a good choice cause he’s played both good guys and bad and here you have to figure out which one he is.  This is a decent movie Dennis Hopper and Lara Flynn Boyle class it up a bit and it’s a solid thriller.

Why You Should Watch it: It’s a fine B-movie with good performances and a couple of good twists.

#eye of the storm #Dennis Hopper #craig sheffer #lara flynn boyle