Cold Comes the Night

Jees, what a let-down. After 'Breaking Bad' no one could deny that Bryan Cranston is a formidable actor, capable of amazing drama. And he signed on for this. Don't get me wrong – it's not bad-bad. It's just nowhere near what he should be starring in. He plays a half-blind Russian thief (with a slightly dodgy accent sometimes) who takes a single mother hostage in order to help him retrieve his loot.

That's about it. Alice Eve plays his hostage and she does it as well as the story will allow. The simple thing about this film is that it's just so run-of-the-mill it's barely worth talking about.

You won't hate it, but you won't remember it in a week's time either.

Bryan (and Alice), you're both capable of bigger and better things.

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Mrs. Shullivan and I were in the mood for a crime thriller genre film and so we popped in Bryan Cranston's starring role in Cold Comes the Night. Cranston plays a Russian courier named Topo who is gradually going blind and he in the middle of a road trip which has him couriering one million dollars to his Russian mobster boss. As his sight is near gone he requires someone to drive the car couriering the Russian mobs cash and his driver just can't be trusted as we discover.

His co-star is Alice Eve who plays a single mom named Chloe working as a motel night desk clerk in a seedy part of town strewn with ladies of the night who prefer to rent her motel rooms by the hour rather than by the night. Now Chloe has received an ultimatum by a case worker from Child Services that she needs to move her daughter to a more suitable living environment than hooker haven or Child Services will swoop in an take Chloe's daughter away from her.

So Topo and his brother-in-law dupe of a chauffeur played by Robin Lord Taylor (more widely known as Oswald Cobblepot, the Penguin, on the hit 2014 TV series Gotham) make an over night stop over at Chloe's motel, rent separate rooms for the night, and then this thriller evolves....well sort of anyway.

I can't say that Bryan Cranston was right on character as the blind Russian mobster since his Russian dialect was as believable as maybe a Jimmy Fallon's Russian impersonation. Of course you have a corrupt cop named Billy Banks played by Logan Marshall-Green who is supposed to add some hype and action to this crime thriller but I thought his acting was way over the top. (Also a personal observation, what makes so many actors/actresses use a stage name comprised of both their divorced parents surnames as a way of commemorating both parents and think we will remember them? This is a pet peeve of mine. Hey actors/actresses, choose one surname or another and get over yourself.)

Without giving away too much of the movies plot (as there is not a lot of meat on this bone) Topo's cash goes missing and he will stop at nothing to find the scammers who have left him holding an empty bag that he must now otherwise report back to his Russian mob boss unless he recovers his stolen million dollars.

A two for one rating: Mrs. Shullivan gave the film a 4 out of 10 and since I am a sucker for crime thriller genres and have seen literally thousands of them I give it a slightly higher 6 out of 10 rating. It is worth a late night watch if you are having difficulty sleeping. If you are a crime thriller genre junkie as I am, I don't think you will be able to go to bed without finding out first how the film ends. It's not so great but does have a "so/so" story line to keep you hooked until the final two words are illuminated..."THE END".

This is a decent watchable thriller.

A financially struggling mother(with a young daughter) is running a motel which caters for low lives when some very unsavory characters enter their lives and make things even worse.......

One of the "baddies" is an actor called Bryan Cranston who absolutely steals the show. He has the best line in the picture the tongue in cheek: "Hard to get decent help"

Though the eventual outcome of the story is very predicable and unoriginal, I lasted to the end so can award a respectable:

6/10

Cold Comes the Night kept me tense and engaged all the way through. The characters were refreshingly multi-layered, the cinematography was fantastic, the soundtrack was well-matched (that song at the end was killer!), and Cranston, Eve, and Parker's performances were stellar, which is the result of excellent directing as well as acting.

I don't understand why certain viewers felt like the twists and turns were illogical--while there are a few extreme moments, I thought the characters' actions and reactions were consistent with what we knew about them. The less predictable behavior kept me interested in the two main characters, who had much more depth than the characters that usually star in this genre.

My only complaint is that I did not get to see this film on the big screen. I can't wait to see more of Chun's work!

Nothing truly special or unusual: Just a really good crime drama that's a little too well-acted and realistic to be labeled a "thriller." COLD COMES the NIGHT is grimly riveting and constantly leaves you wondering what will happen next. Some layers, twists, and reversals, but it's still very easy to follow and, therefore, may be a little too episodic and simple for some tastes.

CCN has a minimalistic low-budget appeal to it. We don't know a whole lot about the various players in the smaller town Mid-Atlantic setting. Nevertheless, it shows us all we really need to know. Violent, disturbing, but without cheap schlocky gore. I kept thinking, "This is how real murders must look and, especially, sound." Alice Eve gives a plain yet memorable performance as Chloe, a tough but compassionate single mother who manages the sleazy motel where all the trouble starts. The other actors do likewise in their roles. The script and cinematography are similarly real. Nice ending. Good, fitting soundtrack too. Though it doesn't try for anything big, COLD COMES the NIGHT accomplishes all it sets out to do and is a very watchable little film.