#nicky guadagni

[h-a-unted]

[haveyouseenthismovie-poll]

[filmjunky-99]

c u b e, 1997 🎬 dir. vincenzo natali 'Blue Room'

[blackramhall]

Who wants to play a game? Ready or Not Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (2019)

Blackram Hall: whodunit, murder mystery, hardboiled, noir, pulp, italian giallo, crime, thriller, spy stories, detectives and serial killers, vintage, manor houses, art, life and death.

[reppyy]

[adamwatchesmovies]

Ready or Not (2019)

Ready or Not is a nice slice of ghoulish fun. We’ve seen elements of the premise before but writers Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy make this horror comedy feel brand new by crafting memorable characters and capping the skin-crawling climax with a terrific ending. With the sharp direction by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillet and a dedicated performance from Samara Weaving, you’ve got the kind of movie gore-hounds can show to non-horror fans to get them on board with the genre.

Grace (Samara Weaving) and Alex (Mark O’Brien) are now married. He’s warned her his family is full of terrible people but they seem to be behaving themselves alright. After the ceremony, she’s invited to play a game as part of her initiation into the family. When she pulls the hide-and-seek card out of a mysterious box, she agrees to play, unaware that being found means she'll be murdered by her new in-laws.

They say the Le Domas family made its fortune following a deal with the mysterious “Mr. Le Bail” and that if they don’t sacrifice Grace on an altar before the sun rises, that the consequences will be grave. Right away, this "deadliest game" becomes more interesting. Firstly, the family has motives beyond “we’re bored and want to hunt something exotic”. In fact, it might mean their lives if they don’t get grace, so they REALLY want to get her. Secondly, you can't help wondering "What if there really ISN’T a Mr. Le Bail?" It would mean that these people are crazy, or at the very least, so obsessed with family tradition that they can no longer tell right from wrong. There’s a lot to say about that, particularly since this is a family with a lot of "old money", exactly the kind that would keep track of all these little details about the family business and what the ancestors were up to.   Surprisingly, the most memorable thing about Ready or Not are the people hunting Grace. They’re all terrible but for reasons other than the fact that they, you know, want to kill her. There’s Emilie (Melanie Scrofano), who is hopelessly addicted to cocaine and an all-around screw-up. She’s got a surprising body count by the time the credits roll because her brain is so frazzled she ends up killing people she didn’t mean to. She’s married to Fitch (Kristian Bruun), who is the only person less qualified to handle a weapon than his wife. He’s an idiot and clearly only married into the family for the money. If Emilie could ever sober up, she might realize this. Then there’s the alcoholic Daniel (Adam Brody), who is married to Charity (Elyse Levesque) and is completely dominated by her. They obviously hate each other, which is probably the reason why they don’t have children. Mom and Pop (Henry Czerny and Andie MacDowell)? They seemed alright at first but ultimately, they’re like all rich people: they care about themselves and their fortune first and foremost, no matter what they might’ve said before. Finally, we get to Aunt Helene (Nicky Guadagni), a white-haired viper wielding a battle-axe. She’s the most adept of all of them, though her skills still aren’t anything compared to “the help”. That’s right. Unsurprisingly, the butler (John Ralston) and the maids are way better at everything than their masters. All of these memorable people offer up splatters of blood and plenty of laughs.

Ready or Not knows how to make you wince in anticipation and when to release that pent-up tension. A great example is a scene of Grace squeezing her way through the gate surrounding the Le Domas mansion. She can barely fit but she’s determined to get through. Unfortunately, there’s this protruding spike at about mid-shoulder height. Every inch forward extends this agonizing gash along her back. You can practically feel how much it hurts and describing it doesn’t do it justice. The movie has just enough moments like that to make you care about her and make you secretly hope that all of her escape routes get blocked so she's forced to turn around and give these uncooked balls of dough a taste of their own medicine.

Another top-notch character is Grace’s husband, Alex. For all his talk of “for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health”, we eventually realize that he isn’t different from the rest of his family. He doesn’t love Grace, not really. Not enough to risk her living through the night, anyway. Fortunately for our heroine, he fails. When the sun finally rises, there’s a pause. The family didn't get Grace. What now? At first, you think nothing is going to happen. "Whoops. Guess that was all for nothing!" but then, it happens. Mr. Le Bail shows up and kills everyone but Grace, including Emilie and Fitch’s two bratty kids. In those few minutes, there was so much uncertainty and now, the payoff is so satisfying you’ll be in hysterics.

Ready or Not offers terrific blood-splatted laughs and tension along with some sharp - and smart - societal criticisms. There’s a lot to love here and it doesn’t get any less fun the second time around. (August 5, 2022)

[nihillist-blog]

Ready or Not (2019)

[letterboxd-loggd]

Ready or Not (2019) Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett

July 10th 2023

[oceanusborealis]

Ready or Not (2019) – Exploring the Past

TL;DR – An electric tense film with more than one moment that made me audibly gasp ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 4 out of 5. Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene. Ready or Not Review – Every year there are films you want to see that just slip you by, and today’s film is one of those. I had always meant to see Ready or Not in cinemas, but the session times never lined up. It also missed my…

[flowerynameslover]

Nicky Guadagni as Helene le Domas in Ready or Not (2019)

[moaninmoonen]

Cube (1997) = 2.8/5

Plot …………. 2

Acting ……… 2

Production…. 3

Concept ..….. 4

A group of strangers awaken to find themselves placed in a giant cube. Each one of them is gifted with a special skill and they must work together to escape an endless maze of deadly traps.

Director:

Vincenzo Natali

Writers:

André Bijelic

Vincenzo Natali

Graeme Manson

Cast:

Nicole de Boer

Nicky Guadagni

David Hewlett

IMDb

[in-love-with-movies]

Cube (1997)

[filmjunky-99]

c u b e, 1997 🎬 dir. vincenzo natali 'Red Room'

[abs0luteb4stard]

W A T C H E D

[claudia1829things]

Favorite Episodes of "A NERO WOLFE MYSTERY" (2000-2002)

Below is a list of my favorite episodes from the A&E series, "A NERO WOLFE MYSTERY". Based upon the detective stories and novels written by Rex Stout, the series starred Timothy Hutton and Maury Chaykin as Archie Goodwin and Nero Wolfe:

FAVORITE EPISODES OF "A NERO WOLFE MYSTERY" (2000-2002)

1. (1.02) "Champagne For One" - In this adaptation of Stout's 1958 novel, detective Nero Wolfe investigates the death of a young unwed mother at a charity dance attended by his assistant, Archie Goodwin. The latter had been standing in for an acquaintance, who was related to the wealthy hostess.

2. (2.08) "Before I Die" - A notorious gangster hires Wolfe to protect his real daughter, who is unaware of her father's identity, and stop the woman impersonating her from blackmailing him in this adaptation of Stout's 1947 novella.

3. (2.05) "The Mother Hunt" - In this adaptation of Stout's 1963 novel, a wealthy young widow hires Wolfe and Archie to identify and locate the birth mother of the baby left in the vestibule of her townhouse.

4. (1.08) "Over My Dead Body" - A Montenegro woman claiming to know Wolfe's adopted daughter is suspected of theft and murder at a prestigious fencing club in this adaptation of Stout's 1940 novel.

5. (2.09) "Help Wanted, Male" - In this adaptation of Stout's 1945 novella, Wolfe receives a death threat regarding a past case and hires a look-a-like double to temporarily impersonate him until he can identify the perpetrator.

Honorable Mentioned: (2.06) "Poison à la Carte" - When Wolfe and Archie attend the annual Ten for Aristology, a gourmet society, one of the members is poisoned. Wolfe suspects one of the female servers of the crime.