Cold Comes the Night

What's to like ? Mood intense and stale at times grotty and unforgiving at other times when Russian mobster near blind speaks ... too much cliché. Frame plot and execution ? Some poor choices is being made. As for realism it workes rather convincingly. It has no real action moments, but I keep thinking John Woo. Perhaps because of the stand-offs that happen between the trio of power and interests: Cop - Motel mother - Russian Mobster When would it be any better ? In the frame and plot ? Not much room for any further development in the characters.

Bryan Cranston, a brilliant actor for his Breaking Bad work, is not really convincing to me as a foreign bad guy. His choppy foreign dialog was not very authentic in my view. There were other questions in the story line I could not parallel such as, he wants the Chloe character to find a "package" behind a car radio slot and a bit later this "package" turned into a huge bag of money with stacks so large they would never have fit into such a small space behind a car radio. It's hard to imagine a hardened killer, dispensing with lives so easily, leaving anyone alive for this "package", especially the dirty cop who comes back into the picture. I mean really, he's gonna gun down the wife and not the cop character. I just didn't buy it. Also, lots of needless use of the "f word". I just don't understand anyone thinking this word, if used over and over again, has any impact other than to bring down the intellect of any movie it's in at least 75 I.Q. points. A shame in any movie. This one gets a 4.

Cold Comes The Night is a dark thriller about a woman Chloe(Alice Eve) who lives and runs a rundown motel. To make ends meet and support her 10 year old daughter she is in business with Billy(Logan Marshall Green),a corrupt cop that deals smack and pimps hookers out of the motel. Billy(the least sympathetic character in this piece) takes advantage of Chloe's situation and at times is psychotic and brutal towards her. Bryan Cranston is a Russian mobster who spends the night at the motel. He loses his driver and the jeep that has a package he is obligated to deliver. Topo(Bryan Cranston) takes Chloe and her daughter Sophia hostage and sets out to retrieve his package at any cost. Chloe is the most sympathetic character in this film (with exception to her daughter obviously) and is mostly a victim of circumstance. Make no mistake everyone in this movie is bad, including Chole. Performances are real strong across the board and elevate this material greatly. Bryan Cranston is exceptional in this and stands out as a nearly blind, ruthless career criminal. As a huge fan of Breaking Bad myself, he was the reason to check out this downtrodden drama and I am not disappointed. CCTN overall really came across with the strong performances from the cast and sold what would otherwise be an average thriller. I am glad I gave this a look and hope to see Bryan Cranston play more dark characters like Topo and Walter White in the future.

As with most DTV films(Direct to Video) the budgets are small, and the stories are usually thin. No difference here, except the acting is very good as Bryan Cranston leads this low budget film. The story goes Chloe(played by the amazing Alice Eve) lives at a run down motel with her daughter. She runs the place and is trying to save enough money to get her out of there, and to someplace more acceptable. Early on in the film child services threatening to take her child away within two weeks in she does not move out of the motel complex. Topo played by the amazing Bryan Cranston is a near blind older man who is carrying out a job where he has to delivery a package of money. Helping him along the way is his sister's kid Quincy played by Robin Taylor, and tired after a long day on they road they decide to stop at a nearby motel for a few hours, which of course is the same motel run by Chole. Quincy decides he wants to spend the night with a prostitute and things quickly head south. Said prostitute ends up killing him, and the police quickly arrive on scene. Which presents a problem for Topo as the police take away the car they were driving in, and thus the package that was to be delivered. Later in that day when Topo goes to check out of the motel he takes Chole hostage so he can get his money back. Chole is friends with local police officer Billy played by Logan Marshall-Green. Topo makes her pick and pick at Billy until he can get any information on his package. Eventually the story ends up at the police impound lot where Chole is sent in by Topo to retrieve the package that was suppose to be behind the radio. It was of course gone and so continues the wild chase of events for the remainder of the film. Its not perfect or great, but if you are into low budget direct to video films as I am, it won't be a waste of time. Bryan Cranston and Alice Eve bring in top notch acting along the way as well. Overall if you can get your hands on this film it is worth a watch, no doubt about it.

This film, dig it's title, is another one of those small budget films that impresses. This film works cause of it's story, and the characters goals amidst complications, and deadly situations, which I must say, does shed some surprises and character twists, though the film does have some predictabilities too. Not looking at all hot as she did in She's Out Of My League, Chloe (Alice Eve) and cutie pie daughter run a sleazy motel, out in the very cold sticks, of what could be Canada, though I must say the surrounds are quite pretty in an Autumn way. Some of the rooms function as bordello's too, where lone and sole vreliant Chloe trying to make ends meet, gets a cut of the prossie's money, where the notes aren't always clean. When an idiot nephew of an almost blind and ice cold hit-man, (Branston delivering a stone solid performance, the film's best that you kind of very much relate to Jean Reno's Leon in The Professional) goes too far with a pro hottie, in one of the rooms, and they both end up bloody victims, Branston has an impasse, when the jeep is taken in, as still having a suitcase of moolah inside. Lucky, Chloe is good friends, with the corrupt young sheriff, who kept the motel arrangement afloat. Sounds exciting. These situation movies are great because of how they engross the viewer, but this movie is far from great, but I must say had me hooked, initially the film's title is what did it. We even see a b..ch fight between Eve and the corrupt cop's old lady, which Branston quickly disposes of the situation. The cold unnerving music score is a plus too.

"Good help is hard to find." Chloe (Eve) is a hotel owner who is not only struggling to keep her life together but also to keep her daughter with her. Her day goes from bad to worse when after being threatened by child protective services a murder occurs in one of her rooms. As if that isn't bad enough a man named Topo (Cranston) knew the man who was killed and the vehicle that had his money was taken by the cops. He enlists the help of Chloe and the two of them set out to get the money back...or Amy will lose her daughter forever. There have been many many movies with this idea, someone loses something important to them and an innocent stranger must help them get it back. The difference in this one is...the cast. I'm not saying they were great I'm saying this one had a different cast. On the other hand though the cast is really one of the reasons why this is watchable. Alice Eve is believable as a woman who will do anything to save her daughter. Cranston tries his best to be a creepy tough guy but comes off as being flat. This is a movie that had potential but again became another generic "let's get my money or else" movie. Overall, not horrible but the movies Cash and Pressed were much better. I give this a B-.

Montreal lies due north of New York. To the south of Montreal are the Adirondack Mountains. It was here, at Saranac Lake in December 1887, that Robert Louis Stevenson first conceived of 'The Master Of Ballantrae', and decided to use the location for a setting in his novel. South of there lies Albany the capital city of the state of New York, and south of there is Sullivan County, where, in Bethel, was staged the famous Woodstock Festival of 1969. Halfway between New York and Montreal, up the Hudson River, between Sullivan County and Albany, are the Catskill Mountains and Greene County. This is the setting for this film, but the Greene County of this film is a million miles away from the government in Albany or the hippies of Woodstock. Rather, the Greene County setting, is as dark as that Saranac setting of R.L. Stevenson. After the credits, the film starts pleasantly enough with a mother sending her kid off to school. There follows a few short scenes which show effectively and efficiently the drudgery of the woman in her work. She works in a motel, as manager, chamber-maid, and sole employee, and she and her daughter live there too. One night two men decide to stay in her motel. They are men on a mission. Not a mission from god, but rather their mission is to transport Mr Alfred Hitchcock's McGuffin. The overnight stay at the motel starts a chain of events that quickly spiral out of control. At the centre of these events is Bryan Cranston, who plays one of the coldest characters ever seen since Tom Cruise in 'Collateral' (2004). Cold, ruthless, and unemotional, the words "I am a friend of your mothers", are truly terrifying. The mother herself, played by Alice Eve, also shows no emotion or expression. She too is cold. She is portrayed as passive and submissive. This reviewer, whilst puzzled by this, feels that this must be a deliberate film-making decision; to show these characteristics as a learnt defence mechanism, which the mother has adopted to help her deal with her past and present circumstances. At the heart of this film is the McGuffin, and the battle of wits between the male and female lead. Both leads are mostly laconic, and if you are looking for a film-noir with more twists than a pretzel, then you will not be disappointed by this film that fulfils the conventions and expectations of the genre. Good support is given by the rest of the cast. Special mention should go to Ursula Parker, playing the daughter, who gives a very natural performance. Praise too, for Logan Marshall-Green, who plays a cop, and gives a very animated, heated, and passionate performance, which is the complete opposite of that of the two (cold) leads. Some clever filming enables the audience to experience things through the eyes of the protagonists. Viewers should not expect to learn everything. Some questions, and some plot-threads are deliberately left unexplained or vague. It is clear that some things are understated and left to our imagination. If you liked 'Hard Eight' (1996), 'Collateral' (2004), or the recent 'Dead Man Down' from earlier this year, then this dark, tense, film is for you. Warning: Contains blood. 8/10.

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source: Cold Comes the Night

Bryan Cranston, a brilliant actor for his Breaking Bad work, is not really convincing to me as a foreign bad guy. His choppy foreign dialog was not very authentic in my view. There were other questions in the story line I could not parallel such as, he wants the Chloe character to find a "package" behind a car radio slot and a bit later this "package" turned into a huge bag of money with stacks so large they would never have fit into such a small space behind a car radio. It's hard to imagine a hardened killer, dispensing with lives so easily, leaving anyone alive for this "package", especially the dirty cop who comes back into the picture. I mean really, he's gonna gun down the wife and not the cop character. I just didn't buy it. Also, lots of needless use of the "f word". I just don't understand anyone thinking this word, if used over and over again, has any impact other than to bring down the intellect of any movie it's in at least 75 I.Q. points. A shame in any movie. This one gets a 4.