Winter Kills

A precursor to The Big Lebowski in that Jeff Bridges doesn't know what's going on for the entirety of the runtime. Made the same year as The American Success Company in which Jeff Bridges is the only character that knows what's going on. Great supporting cast, everybody having fun. Anthony Perkins is wonderful late in the film offering another explanation for the plot that adds up essentially to "it was meant to confuse you." It's a reasonable explanation.

This is a strange film that has an interesting script. Not every scene works in this movie but there are several good moments. The cast does good work here, especially Jeff bridges and John Huston. Overall I would recommend this film.

A satirical conspiracy thriller that occupies the headspace of 70s paranoia with bizarre panache. I knew it was going to be a bit offbeat, but I really wasn't prepared for just how strange and different this film is. This makes two brilliant and weird John Huston performances from the 70s. Are there are anymore I should be aware of?

I love the hell out of this film. It's a shambling, unruly mess, but it's the definitive statement on our love of conspiracies and the depressing truth about how our systems really work.

I'm a big fan of "definitive" endings, but with a conspiracy thriller, you almost can't have one without going through some convoluted hoops. Here, even with a pretty amazing cast, that conspiracy angle is almost played for laughs as the scenes get stranger and stranger. It's a peculiar little niche of the political thriller genre -- not bad, but not one of the greats, either.

An amiable attempt at a kind of 'gonzo' conspiracy thriller, which was probably the only way to go with the genre by the late 70s. The problem is that is lacks wit, which is essential for this type of self conscious 'offbeat' variation, and it really deconstructs in the finale, and not in an ironic intellectual sense. It just falls apart. Probably worth a look for hardcore Huston fans.

Straddles the border between neo-noir and 1970s political paranoia, which would imply a serious tone, but instead it's pointedly off-kilter and tongue-in-cheek. Fantastic all-star cast.

This is a strange one, but I liked it. Thriller, conspiracy-theory, action, drama and dark comedy. All starring a young Jeff Bridges and an old John Huston.

The black sheep of the 70s paranoid political thriller family, Winter Kills is messy and lacks the heavy impact of its more earnest siblings like The Parallax View but it gets by on its loopily eccentric brand of dark humor. If Bridges sometimes comes across as lost in a somewhat underwritten role, John Huston and the rest of the cast are having a total ball blasting their ways through a string of memorably oddball scenes. Wild, funny and sometimes unsettling.

Having heard what the director had to say about it, it might have been better not have shady smugglers finance a movie. Not to say it couldn't have been better, but it can't be good for a first-time feature director to have to film over two years.

This is a quirky and flawed but quite fun conspiracy thriller that has some very fun performances (director John Huston on the other side of the camera especially stands out) and an interesting tone, veering comical at times. The other actors in this are also absolutely delightful. What an weird, insane cast. Bridges is the lead, but stars of yesteryear Eli Wallach, Elizabeth Taylor, Sterling Hayden, Anthony Perkins, and Toshiro Mifune (!) all make appearances here. Fun time.

Ridiculous plot, but there is some redemption watching Jeff Bridges and John Huston. Not enough to recommend the movie.

Commonly pegged as a thriller, this plays more like a gonzo parody of the paranoia cinema of Frankenheimer and Pakula. Bridges is uncharacteristically dull, a cipher around whom an outrageous plot unfurls with undoubtedly the funniest performances Huston and Perkins ever gave. The cast, apart from Bridges, is extremely impressive and the film has a certain freewheeling charm but it's all pretty uneven and everyone involved seem just the slightest bit hung over.

A witty, well-made assasination thriller. All all-star cast, with Bridges doing justice to the lead.

Good film.