Michael Shannon Movies Blog

  I thought I’d seen this one before but having sat through it I don’t think I have, but I’m not sure. There was something similar to this that I watched on Netflix but there is so little to distinguish this film from many others in the genre that I can’t be sure. It was decent enough though, although I doubt I’ll remember it when it next appears on my watchlist.   The film opens with a montage of various terrorist atrocities committed against the USA by Bin Laden, culminating in the 9/11 attacks. The military has had quite enough and decides to send troops to Afghanistan. Rather than use current soldiers they get recent retirees Chris Hemsworth and our friend, Michael Shannon to head a team being sent to support the Northern Alliance. The Alliance is ostensibly the good guys and the Americans need to assist them in stopping the Taliban and Al Qaeda taking over the country before the Americans can gain a foothold.   They get to base and boss William Fichtner, who ...

  When the titles tell you the film you are about to watch is directed Werner Herzog and is produced by David Lynch you know that you are in for something a bit offbeat. The film starts conventionally enough with police detectives, Willem Dafoe and Michael Pena, on the way to a murder scene. When they arrive they push through the crowd and we briefly see Michael Shannon who pushes by with his coffee in a ‘razzle dazzle’ mug. ‘Razzle Dazzle’ says Shannon who is clearly using the old ‘mug/script’ technique. The cops find a dead woman in the house, who has been killed by a sword. They get a few details and realise that Shannon’s character Brad was the killer and he’s slipped through their fingers. He hasn’t gone far however and had taken over an adjacent house and claims to have two hostages. So begins a long stand off which lasts for the rest of the film. To keep us entertained we get plenty of flashbacks to show how Brad ended up killing the woman whom we learn was his ...