Gorky Park (1983)

When three unknown bodies are discovered frozen in the snow in Moscow's Gorky Park, officer Arkady Renko (William Hurt) of the Soviet police force gets himself deep in danger while trying to get to the bottom if it. The KGB casually hand him the case, even though he suspects they may be involved.
Based on a novel of the same name by Martin Cruz Smith (I've not read it), it's a political thriller with a script that doesn't waste words, but to sustain its realism a film that's set in Russia and is about Russian citizens ought to be in the Russian language, not littered with American and British accents, even if they are fine actors at home. The love subplot that develops is rushed and unconvincing, but the level of intrigue compensates well enough.

3 cold reconstructions out of 5

FX 2: The Deadly Art of Illusion (1991)

aka F/X2

A sequel to FX (1986) that was released and set five years after the first film. Structurally it's similar, Roland Tyler (Brown) is hired by law enforcement officers to make something fake look real, but an unplanned element means it goes badly. McCarthy (Dennehy), who's now a Private Investigator, turns up around the 40 minute mark, etc. But ultimately it's a lot worse. The story is weak and the 'logic' is dumb. Tyler conveniently has all the gadgets he needs, for all eventualities, and the twists are ridiculous. It has a few good scenes, but none that stick in the mind (except the dumb logic, for the wrong reasons).
There was no third film, but a two-season TV series followed five years hence, titled F/X: The Series, It's the same characters, but they were recast.

2½ clown moves out of 5

FX: Murder by Illusion (1986)

aka F/X

Movie effects guy Roland Tyler (Bryan Brown) is approached by the Justice Department, who want him to use his skills to fake an assassination. The target is an ex-mobster (Jerry Orbach), who's going to rat on his former colleagues. It's a dangerous situation, but the pay is good and the challenge appealing.
The story relies on artificiality, and therefore highlights its own, but it works-well enough; especially during the rare moments when it succeeds in using a viewer's knowledge of what's 'phoney' against them.
Brian Dennehy's police lieutenant arrives late to the party but brings a screen presence that elevates the entire production. It doesn't seem as clever today as it did back in the 80s, but it was enjoyable revisiting it after so many years.

3 false numbers out of 5

Midnight Movie (1994)

A filmmaker and his young trophy wife move into a house that neither has been before, but for one of them it feels oddly familiar.
It's a Dennis Potter screenplay adapted from a Rosalind Ashe novel, directed by Renny Rye. I don't know if the novel was changed much (and if so, was it done respectfully?), but the result is very much like something born of Potter's own fixations, though one that'll likely only appeal to existing fans.
Louise Germaine, who played Sylvia in Lipstick on Your Collar (1993), is again an 'object' of desire for more than one pair of lecherous eyes. The themes of fiction and reality overlapping recur. For a TV movie, it's unusually shocking.

3 reflecting surfaces out of 5

Meet Monica Velour (2010)

Tobe Hulbert is in love with adult film star Monica Velour, but it’s a love with complications because the fantasy and the reality are separated by time. Tobe is in his late teens. Monica made her movies thirty years ago.
A masturbating, peeping Tom teen and a forty-nine-year-old ex-porn star have very little common ground on the surface, but MMV is an indie that grabs hold of the aphorism 'Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder' and runs headlong with it until the surface peels away to reveal hidden depths.

3 kinds of junk out of 5

First Blood (1982)

The name Rambo has become synonymous with the action hero genre, but the first film isn't like that at all. John Rambo is just a guy trying to survive in a world that doesn't want him. The enemy isn't a foreign power or a moustachioed villain intent on taking over the world, it’s small town prejudice and fear, it’s asshole cops that think a little power gives them the authority to dictate how everyone else should live.
Stallone isn't renowned for his acting ability, but to his credit he gives a chilling performance in one pivotal scene that is the film highpoint.

4 sharp edges out of 5

Assault on Precinct 13 (2005)

Jean-François Richet’s remake of John Carpenter’s version (1976) of Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo (1959) adds more guns in the hope that it’ll be enough to distract you from the fact that they removed the point of the previous entry entirely.
Ethan Hawke said it was the best action script he’d ever read; I think he needs a new agent. Without Laurence Fishburne I’d have tossed the shit-fest out the window long before the end.

1½ hours I wasted on this crap out of 5