Craig Sheffer is a formidable example of a terrific and exceedingly talented actor, that never had his breakthrough in the movie industry, although he has somewhat managed to have a stable career, which is something that – especially in the extremely competitive field of work that is the motion picture industry – definitely is quite an achievement. Sheffer has had major roles in movies, being the lead in some very interesting and peculiar films, but he was never able to become the star that, given his amazing talent, credibility and superb dedication to the profession, he certainly deserved to be. 

Well, first of all, life is not always fair. We all – or, at least, most of us – have a great amount of talents, but this fact doesn’t mean people will recognize our potentialities or even the amazing results we are able to achieve. Everybody are busy with their own lives, and people doesn’t have the obligation of recognizing our capabilities. Unfortunately, this was the case for Craig Sheffer, that never managed to capture the attention of great studio executives, nor had someone willing to give him a major opportunity.    

Craig Sheffer, unfortunately, from the beginning of his career, has fallen into a sordid loophole of very low budget movies, and was never able to break into the mainstream. He was buried into the blank space of B-movies, made for television films, and independent low budget flicks that nobody ever saw, and never managed to get out of this sordid limbo, like the vast majority of his work colleagues in the American movie industry.  

In 1984, he starred in Voyage of the Rock Aliens, a rock musical movie, that Sheffer himself probably is willing to forget. In 1990, he achieved a moderate degree of notoriety after starring as the main character in the movie Nightbreed, an adaption of a literary work by British author Clive Barker, that also directed the film. 

The only great big budget production of Sheffer’s career – on which he had a relevant role – was the 1992 movie A River Runs Through It, directed by Robert Redford. On this movie, Sheffer played real life character Norman Maclean, a celebrated American writer, whose eponymous literary narrative – published in the book A River Runs Through It and Other Stories – was the inspiration for the movie. On this film, Sheffer has worked with a then yet to become famous Brad Pitt, whose character was Paul Maclean, Norman Maclean’s brother. A then unknown Joseph Gordon-Levitt – which was also destined to become a notable actor – also appears, as a younger version of Norman Maclean.

A River Runs Through It was the only performance of Sheffer in a major motion picture. In 1993, Sheffer starred in the B-movie Fire on the Amazon, on which he divided the screen with Sandra Bullock, that also would become a celebrated and notorious actress. 

My favorite Craig Sheffer movie was, undoubtedly, Hellraiser: Inferno, released in 2000. On it, Sheffer plays a bright, methodic and highly intelligent, but also deceitful, corrupt and immoral Denver police detective named Joseph Thorne. Another adaptation of a work by Clive Barker, I saw this movie several times – and in my opinion –, this was one of the most incredible films that I ever saw. 

The plot concerns the discovery of a bizarre puzzle box by the main character, in a ritualistic crime scene investigation. After also discovering a finger, the detective finds himself on the trail of a deranged criminal mastermind, known only as the Engineer. Thorne then undertakes a massive investigation into the underworld, in an obsessed pursue to capture the Engineer, to stop his depraved, hostile and sadistic crime spree, but also seeking to do something good, in a desperate attempt to redeem himself for his evil deeds, as his troubled conscience begins to be a significant burden on him, a natural consequence for all his past malevolent deeds, contraventions and wrongdoings, like being a bad husband, an absent father for his little daughter, and an immorally indulgent police officer.  

As he succeeds in his journey, he begins to find more and more fingers, only to suffer from macabre hallucinatory delusions, and then being forced to confront the fact that he is being tormented by an extraordinary and exceedingly hostile supernatural entity, which is later revealed to be Pinhead, played by actor Doug Bradley. The movie also stars Nicholas Turturro as Tony Nenonen, the police partner of Joseph Thorne, and James Remar as a psychiatrist who at first seems willing to help Thorne, but then reveals himself an ambiguous and dual character. For me, this was definitely the most intriguing and pervasive character Sheffer has ever played, and the most amazing film of his career.

Nevertheless, Sheffer is undoubtedly best remembered today as Keith Scott, the cool and light-hearted uncle of Lucas – Chad Michael Murray’s character –, on The WB hit show One Three Hill. On this series, Sheffer played a very serene, comprehensive and sensible individual, who constantly antagonizes with his brother Dan, Lucas biological father, played by Paul Johansson. 

Lucas is constantly rejected and humiliated by his father, who shows unconditional preference for his other son, Nathan, played by James Lafferty. Nathan is Lucas’ half-brother, but he also displays towards Lucas the same amount of despise his father does. By virtue of this troubled familial relationships, Keith always tries to support Lucas, offering him the kind and gentle support his father never wanted to show him. Keith also had a crush on Karen, Lucas’ mother, played by Moira Kelly, but his love was never reciprocated.

Throughout the years, the relationships of the characters severely changed. Lucas and Nathan eventually became best friends – bonded not only by their consanguineous connection, by also by their mutual love of college basketball – and Nathan eventually married Hailey, Lucas’ best friend, played by actress Bethany Joy Lenz. Eventually, Lucas also reconciled with his father, and the two became close.

The series was a very emotional and beautiful one. Although I was never an ardent enthusiast, it was a very good show, and I watched several episodes along the years, when was broadcast by Fox Television Network, here in my country.  

Sheffer was a regular on the series throughout the seasons from 2003 to 2007, and then was removed from the show, when his character was killed. He made special guest appearances in the 2012 season.  

Another films of his career that may be interesting to mention was 1999 Turbulence 2: Fear of Flying, 2000 Without Malice, on which he co-starred with the late Corey Haim, and 2004 Berseker, on which he co-starred with his One Three Hill colleague Paul Johansson. In 2008, he had a very small role as Kenneth, the cruel and abusive husband of Della Myers – Kim Basinger’s character – in the thriller While She Was Out. 

In 2012, he starred in the movie The Mark, alongside Eric Roberts. He reprised the role in a sequel, 2013 The Mark 2: Redemption. His last work to date was 2016 Code of Honor, on which he shared the screen with action film star Steven Segal. 

Throughout his career, Sheffer has worked with several notable actors and actresses that already were – or would become later – famous, while his talent, on the contrary, was never properly appreciated nor recognized in the movie and television industries. Like I wrote above, he managed to have a stable career, but he never achieved the level of fame and recognition he certainly deserved, that would be satisfactorily proportional to his talent, dedication and creativity. 

The main reason behind this problem was the fact that rarely he was offered something relevant outside the zone of low budget B-movies or television films. When this was the case, it was usually small roles. Never able to break outside the marginal niche of work upon which he became confined, Sheffer remained doomed to take whatever roles were offered to him, never having the opportunity to display his marvelous acting skills in a wide, more elegant, sophisticated and consistent scale. Unfortunately, he remained relegated to works situated in the sidewalk corners of the industry, and thus, became permanently ignored by major studios executives. ​


​Wagner

Raizō Ichikawa was one of the most famous and talented Japanese actors of all time. Despite having died very young – at 37 years old –,  he was an exceedingly prolific actor. In a career that has spanned only fifteen years, beginning in 1954 and lasting until his death, in 1969, Ichikawa appeared in 158 films. A versatile and amazingly profound actor, Ichikawa left an enormous legacy, that can also be noted in the perception and tenderness of the Japanese audiences towards him. 

Born in 1931, Ichikawa had a somewhat turbulent youth, that drove him distant of his biological family. He was first adopted by a distant relative, and then by an aristocratic theater enthusiast, with connections that would help Ichikawa to launch his career, after he was already drove to theater acting. For this reason, his legal name changed several times during the course of his youth.  

From a young age determined to become an actor, in late 1946, only fifteen years old, Raizō Ichikawa made his debut in kabuki theatre. Learning and perfecting his acting skills with easiness – despite his young age – he rapidly became a consecrated actor, recognized by the vividness, grace and intensity of his style, impressing everyone who went to see his performances. Thus, in the beginning of the fifties, he endured a successful transition to film, that would definitely establish his reputation across Japan as one of the most talented actors of his generation.  In 1954, Ichikawa made his film debut. 

Like everything in his life – especially related to his acting career – Ichikawa rapidly became an established icon in the Japanese motion picture industry, making one film after another.  By the end of the decade, he was practically a national celebrity. He could do as much as fourteen movies in a single year, and in his brief life, participated in a total of 158 films. He remained working in a very constant and rigid schedule, until cancer would provoke his untimely demise, at the age of thirty-seven years old.

In 1968, Ichikawa begin suffering severe health problems, and then consulted a doctor. The exams soon demonstrated that he had rectal cancer, but the doctor, his friends, family and closest associates decided not to tell him about the disease. He had to perform surgery, but apparently, it was too late for him to be cured. Doctors advised his family members that the cancer would eventually return. Having always suffered from precarious health, the disease could have been properly treated when Ichikawa consulted a doctor for the same problem several years earlier, but was misdiagnosed. 

As his physical condition deteriorated, soon he wasn’t able to do films properly, and in the movies he was still cast, doubles had to be used for elaborate or more intricate scenes. In the beginning of 1969, after a second surgery, he was too weak and excessively debilitated to do anything. His health had practically vanished. After learning that a substitute actor was cast in a movie for a role he desperately wanted to portray, he became too disappointed, and apparently became apathetic towards work prospects. He died some months later. A promising and brilliant career – that was, indeed, very fruitful and prolific – was cut short at the dawn of its rise.   

 Nonetheless, Ichikawa managed to leave behind a wonderful legacy, that consolidated his reputation as one of the most formidable, versatile and significant actors of his generation. He made the skill of acting to appear spontaneous – somewhat easy to execute –, because it was natural for him, despite the fact that all of his characters were profound and intense. 

On Young Boy Takechi, Ichikawa plays a young naval officer that abandons his position, to assume the leadership of a Yakuza ring after his father – the actual leader –, dies. On a lustful man, Ichikawa plays a very eccentric womanizer, that thinks that his “mission” in the world is to make women happy. 

A splendid talent that was lost too soon, fortunately, the actor had enough time to consolidate and leave behind a consistent and robust legacy, that not only is filled with some marvelous movies, but also have his deeply graceful and vivacious interpretations of exceedingly peculiar and dense characters, that engraves in a very colorful scenario the poetic beauty of Japanese cinema.   

 
Wagner

Siberia is a drama film, starring Keanu Reeves, released in mid-July. On this movie, Reeves plays Lucas Hill, an illegal dealer of diamonds, that goes to Russia, to make business with a dangerous, sinister and very unscrupulous mobster – named Boris Volkov – played by Pavel Lychnikov. On the small community of Mirny, where he first goes, Lucas falls in love with a bar owner, Katya, played by Ana Ularu. They begin an illicit affair, and soon Lucas is entangled in a very complicated dilemma, upon which he has to choose between the white-collar life he is living, and the sincerity of his love for Katya. But things goes terribly wrong – as his situation runs an unexpected turn for the worst – and Lucas learns in the hardest way possible that the Russian mob is a very treacherous, aggressive, cruel and hostile organization. 

Although the premise seems nice at first, the movie is viciously suffocated at the vicinities of its own predictabilities. Despite the fatalist ending, that is surprising – but somewhat faltered and empty – the movie can be considered good entertainment, but does not go too much beyond this evaluation. At the end of it all, the movie becomes more worthy by its unusual, but conspicuous, singularities: there are several very ardent, passionate and hot sex scenes in the movie, between Lucas and Katya, the two main characters, which is uncommon for a Keanu Reeves movie. Here we also have the opportunity of seeing Reeves playing a criminal – a more subtle category of criminal, its true – which is also very unusual for the Canadian actor. He normally plays the hero, the good guy or the virtuous cop, and is rare seeing him going out of his comfort zone.    

Like I wrote above, the movie is valid as a piece of entertainment. It’s not a bad movie, but you will not get too much from it either. Lucas Hill is an ordinary character – an illegal diamond dealer –, that goes to Russia to do business. But on his way through it, he has to deal with some unexpected obstacles. As he underestimates the fury and the atrocities that the Russian mob is willing to commit to anyone that doesn’t do business in their way, he is destined to suffer the consequences of his relapse behavior, misdemeanor and wrongdoings. 

You can see where these situations will lead the main character. He enters into a spiral of problems, and doesn’t manage to get out of it. And the movie gets stuck on it. Really, there is not too much to analyze here. If you like a reasonable movie that is mere entertainment, maybe Siberia will satisfy you. Your expectations cannot be high, as there is absolutely nothing in this movie that is extravagant or extraordinary. But you will, somewhat, have a good time. To see Keanu Reeves play a morally obtuse character – that has a very questionable occupation for a living, and even being married, has an extramarital affair – it is, to a certain extent, an interesting experience. If you like Keanu Reeves, of course.   

The period of biggest stardom and blockbusters for Reeves is long past, but he has somewhat managed to stay relevant in Hollywood, which is quite an achievement, being able to appear viable as a lead for the motion picture industry. He has done some reasonably decent movies lately, but nothing that could be labeled as excellent or fantastic – his last great movie was 2008 Street Kings, exactly ten years ago. His last blockbuster was the critically deceitful 2013 movie 47 Ronin, that had a monumental budget of U$D 175 million, and was a box office disaster, that incurred in a financial loss of 152 million U$D. 

Siberia is a good drama. On an overall analysis, it’s a waste of time, but has some frivolous, ordinary qualities. Since there are a lot of movies severely worst, the option is not entirely bad. But don’t expect too much from it. In the end, it is just another flick to be added to the ever-increasing insipid Keanu Reeves filmography – that is filled with good and even great movies, but this is not the case here. Reasonably decent at best, Siberia is definitely watchable, but you will probably forget about this movie five minutes after it is finished.           


Wagner

Tad Hilgenbrink is an American former actor, that became famous after starring as Matt Stifler in the 2005 movie American Pie Presents Band Camp. Nevertheless, despite being this movie that threw him into the spotlight, the actor originally from Quincy, Illinois, engraved his presence on the screen for starring in two horror films, 2008 Lost Boys: The Tribe and 2009 The Hills Run Red. 

Although I have seen these three movies, it’s the last – The Hills Run Red – that I remember the best, especially for the fact that I have the DVD, and I have seen this movie a dozen times, because I really appreciate it. It’s not a fantastic movie, however, but it’s definitely my type of horror.   

In The Hills Run Red, Hilgenbrink plays Tyler, a young student that is undergoing a personal project. He wants to do a documentary about an obscure horror movie, titled The Hills Run Red, and the director, Wilson Wyler Concannon (played by William Sadler). The film is considered lost, no copies are known to exist and the director apparently disappeared in mysterious circumstances after the movie was released. Tyler is passionate and enthusiastic about his project, and has located Alexa (played by Sophie Monk), the daughter of Concannon, to dive further into a deep investigation. She is a stripper in a club, and he wants to find her, to discover everything he can about the movie and the director, and why both mysteriously vanished. His girlfriend, Serena (played by the gorgeous and fabulous Janet Montgomery) and his friend Lalo (played by Alex Wyndham) join him in the adventure. 

Tyler locates Alexa, and she strips for him. He lets her know that he doesn’t want her services, he just want to ask her some questions, but she tells him that they better pretend, because they are being watched, and she stares at a discreet camera on the ceiling. She whispers to him, to wait for her outside. Upon finishing her shift, both drive to her place. After acknowledging that she is a drug addict, he locks her and forces her to undergo a hazardous, deliberate and stressful period of abstinence, to fully recover from the drugs and its pernicious effects. At first, she goes furious and insane, but after detoxifying, she became more healthy and reasonable. 

By neglecting his girlfriend, Serena becomes lonely. Perceiving her neediness, Lalo advances towards her, and she accepts his advances. They sleep together, and blame Tyler for his omission, as well as his obsession on the documentary. Regardless, both soon join Tyler and Alexa, and the shooting of the documentary begins. Then the group goes towards the small town where the movie was originally filmed.  





​The premise of the movie basically revolves around a dark character called Babyface, a vicious and sadistic killer. After interviewing local hillbillies – that saw some of the original shooting, as well as the movie when it premiered on a local theater –, that seems friendly at first, but afterwards attack them in their bonfire encampment, threatening to sexually violate the girls, Babyface comes from the darkness, and kills the aggressive hillbillies. The four, feeling threatened, untie and escape from Babyface, seeking refugee towards a cabin in the secluded forest.

Eventually, while running away from Babyface, the group split, but all of them become trapped in different places and situations. After Alexa disappears, Tyler enters the cabin to search for her, and finds her almost naked tied up to a bed. But then Babyface attacks again. Alexa then orders Babyface to go after them.
 
Tyler eventually finds a dark room full of film reels, and he recognizes himself in some of them. After being assaulted and beaten, Tyler loses his conscience, and wakes up tied to a chair, just to see Concannon suddenly joining him, after being misinformed by Alexa that her father had been dead for years. Concannon reveals to Tyler that the movie is still being shot to this day, and that all of the original cast were amateur actors. After seeing some footage, Tyler realizes, to his distress, that all the killing done in the movie was real.

Concannon also shows Tyler footage of himself touching Alexa’s breasts, when the two were confined all alone, during the abstinence crisis that Tyler forced Alexa to undergo. It is then implied that – when Tyler first contacted Alexa – she probably told everything to her father, that managed to plant cameras on Alexa’s nightclub and flat, to continue the shooting of his movie with new victims. Alexa acted as a voluntary bait, to attract them to a trap.   

Concannon wants to do some shooting, with the group being a part of his movie. Lalo is also held imprisoned, but is savagely tortured by Alexa – who has revealed herself to be on her father’s side. Nevertheless, Concannon and Alexa never agree upon anything, argue all the time, and he acts increasingly aggressive towards her, which enrages Babyface. Serena manages to run away for a brief period, hiding in a cellar, and submerging into a barrel of blood. Nevertheless, Babyface, suspecting that she was there, hides in the rooftop, and waits for her to leave. When Babyface eventually locates and captures her, Serena, thinking that Babyface – which has a terribly disfigured face, covered with an equally disturbing and abominable baby mask – is mentally handicapped, sings a lullaby for him. He apparently feels calm at first, but then, with an adult voice, coldly tells her that this won’t do to her any good. She eventually realizes that Babyface’s mental condition is normal, that he is a psychopath, and that she can’t persuade him to let her go unharmed, which makes her go hysteric. 

Meanwhile, Alexa proceeds to torture Lalo, and manages to kill him. Concannon and Alexa then argue about the direction the movie should go, and after feeling jealous about her cinematic virtues, Concannon tells Alexa that he is the only talent in the family, and kills her. Babyface becomes enraged, intervenes, and kills Concannon, with Tyler’s encouragement, Before his execution, Concannon reveals a secret, upon which becomes implicit that Babyface may be the offspring of an incestuous relationship between Concannon and his daughter Alexa. 

Babyface and Tyler then starts to fight. Serena tries to intervene, and manages to subdue Babyface, but Alexa – which was only harmed by her father, and not killed – arranges to subjugate both Serena and Tyler. Alexa ties Tyler to a chair in a room full of dead people, leaving him alone to see her version of the movie. Tyler goes insane. Afterwards, it is revealed that Serena is pregnant, and is being held hostage by Alexa. Only recently I saw the DVD extras, and acknowledged that the movie was shot in Bulgaria. 
  

​
For me, this is the movie that is the pearl on Tad Hilgenbrink’s career. Another movie that highlighted him in a lead role was 2006 The Curiosity of Chance (but I haven’t seen this one). Apparently, the actor was active in the film industry for about five years only, from 2004 to 2009, participating in thirteen movies in this short period. He was never seen again in any other movies, nor TV shows. He is absent from the screen for almost ten years now. What has happened to him?  

He simply disappeared, like the director Wilson Wyler Concannon, from The Hills Run Red. Having become exasperated with acting, he retired from the spotlight and probably just changed occupations. Why not? This would not have been the first time, many other people have done that. Famous actress Kay Panabaker ended her career in 2012, after eleven years in the industry, to work in zoology. Another notorious actress, the beautiful and talented Leelee Sobieski, ended her career in the same year, 2012, after successful seventeen years in the movie industry. Or he may just be taking a break. Actress Alison Lohman stopped acting in 2009, the same year as Hilgenbrink, but returned briefly in 2015, to stop acting again, in the next year. 

Or – who knows – he could have died, and no one noticed. Who really knows, besides people on his personal circle? It would be good to know, out of curiosity. Nevertheless, his brief career was a highlight for horror movies enthusiasts, and although his legacy is modest in quantity, certainly he compensates on the great dramatic quality of his memorable performances.   



Wagner

 The film begins with a woman receiving a call from the police, informing her that her home is being invaded, but the law officers will do their best to control the situation. ​She grabs a gun for defense, and gets worried for her infant daughter. Then, it is revealed that this call was a prank from the aforementioned group of young pranksters, one of many they do to upload on their successful website. 

​One afternoon, Sam and Brady reunite in Sam’s home. They are both alone, since Sam’s parents are away for the weekend. Sam is a little frustrated by virtue of his situation with his girlfriend, Peyton. So Brady decides they should grab the phone, and do some prank calls, to improve Sam’s mood. 

One of their first pranks is to a neighbor. They call to a pizza-delivery service, where their friend, Jeff Mosley, works, as well as Peyton. Pretending to be Sam’s neighbor, they ask the pizza to be delivered in his address. When Mosley appears to deliver the pizza, the boys call Sam’s neighbor, telling him that several robberies have been taking place in the neighborhood, most of them by an assailant dressed as a pizza delivery guy. When the neighbor sees Mosley, he assumes him to be a criminal, and persecutes him. Mosley, suspecting the prank, crosses the street and confronts Sam and Brady. To appease their friend, they buy the pizza from him. 

After doing several more prank calls for their personal amusement, a stranger calls them. Despite telling both very bizarre things, Sam and Brady decide to shut off the call, dismissing it as an ordinary joke. Nevertheless, the stranger calls a few more times, and finally succeeds to attract the boys’ attentions, after telling them their complete names, and the addresses of their homes, to their total dismay.    

At first assuming their friend Mosley is behind the prank, in Brady’s mobile phone he receives a message saying it’s not Mosley. Both get surprised to discover that the prankster has Brady’s mobile number, and for rapidly assuming their suspicions concerning their friend. Suddenly, Brady realizes that a picture was also sent to him. In the picture, it is possible to see two persons tied to chairs. Brady soon recognizes them as his parents. 

Realizing they are in great danger, the two friends are progressively strained in a labyrinth of despair. Eventually, they dial 911, and hysterically tell to the attendant everything that is happening to them. Unfortunately, for their astonishment and unpleasant surprise, the person talking to them in the other side of the line reveals itself to be the mysterious prankster, who is effectively exerting control over every communicating device inside the house, including the television, by which he starts to send images of Brady’s parents. Sam also realizes that Peyton’s car is outside the house, which is strong evidence that she was probably captured by their mysterious aggressor. She had visited the two briefly in the beginning of the afternoon just after Mosley had left.      

The mysterious assailant – who attends by the alias of “Mr. Lee” – soon reveals itself to be in complete control of the situation, and succeeds in viciously putting the two friends against each other. The mysterious prankster tries hard, in different occasions, to stimulate disagreement between them, even engaging in an effort to make the boys resort to murder each other in a secretive deal, first offering redemption to Brady if he kills Sam, and then to Sam, for killing Brady, but he fails both times. Nonetheless, he manages to increase the terror generated by his constant menaces, affirming that he is disposed to kill the boys’ loved ones, for he has nothing to lose. When analyzing, though, the images in the screen, Sam sees a clock behind Brady’s parents, with a two hour gap, indicating that they were seeing recorded, and not live images. As they were practically receiving calls from the mysterious prankster all the time, their communication was constant through the speakerphone, and Sam demands to see proof that Mosley and Peyton are still alive. In the meantime, Brady begins to suspect that his parents are no longer alive. Soon thereafter, the mysterious assailant talks to both Brady and Sam onscreen. When he leaves, it is possible to see Brady’s parents dead, both having their throats slit, much to the complete horror of both.  

In several occasions, Brady has threatened to leave the house, and call the police, despite severe warnings given by their antagonist that they shouldn’t, under the menace of drastic consequences. Discording over this matter, Sam and Brady begins an argument, that escalates to a physical altercation. Managing to subdue Brady, Sam handcuffs him with a nylon strip to the handrail, limiting his movements, and preventing him from leaving the house. The assailant, nevertheless, manages to put Sam against Brady one more time when he uploads a video of Brady having sex with Peyton. When Sam sees the video, he gets terribly disturbed, and another serious fight, more aggressive this time, ensues between the two.     

The attacker then shows them that he has, in fact, their friend Mosley in his power, and suffocates him with a plastic bag, for Brady and Sam’s complete shock. Suddenly, Sam sees in the screen the picture of a little girl, which was the profile picture of a person who requested his friendship in a social network earlier. Upon searching the personal page of this individual, he sees on the profile several pictures of him and Brady, as well as Peyton, Mosley, and a lot of their friends, several of them going as far as a year ago. Terrified, they conclude that they had been watched for months, or possibly, more than a year. 

The two friends begin to suspect the mysterious assailant to be inside the house, or nearby, and they decide to check it out. Sam frees Brady, they arm themselves with a baseball bat and a knife, respectively, and decide to confront the maniac that is harassing them.   

For his shock and horror, Sam discovers Mosley’s body in the back door, with a plastic bag all over his face. Mosley’s body falls when Sam opens the door, but the corpse is tied with a rope to the door frame. Desperate, thinking there is a chance of Mosley being alive, Sam rips off the plastic bag from the face of Mosley, and pulls it off from his head, just to discover, in horror, that his throat has been slit, and the tape around his neck securing the plastic bag was also preventing him from bleeding. In a matter of seconds, Mosley bleeds profusely and dies, to Sam’s complete affliction. Brady, by this point, gets exceedingly traumatized as well.

Brady demands Sam to leave the house and call the police. With the prerogative of verifying the vicinities, pretending to go with him, Brady manages to lock Sam out of the house, and insist for Sam to save his life and to ask for the help of authorities. Sam initially is angered, and hits the door furiously, pleading for Brady to open the door. Since Brady ignores his pleas, Sam, despite the heavy rain, decides to inspect the neighborhood, and sees a suspected van parked outside his house. Checking the van, he sees Peyton bound and tied up, and frees her. Suddenly, both hear a scream, and decide to go check it out what was happening, supposing that Brady was attacked.  

Returning to the backyard, Sam and Peyton see a masked assailant going their direction with a knife, trying to attack them. Sam manages to counterattack their aggressor, and stabs him with his own knife, killing him. Suddenly, he recognizes a tattoo in the arm of the assailant, the same tattoo Brady had shown him when he recently had arrived at his house. Desperate, he removes the mask of the attacker, and sees Brady, with a duct tape on his mouth. Realizing that he has killed his own friend, Sam cries in desperation.  

Suddenly, the true attacker arrives, and reveals himself. When Sam asks the motive for all that aggression he has been inflicting on them, the mysterious assailant reveals the reason behind his actions. He was married to the woman victim of the prank shown in the beginning of the movie. When they called her, with the prank that their house has been invaded, she grabbed a gun in order to protect herself and their daughter. By the orders of the pranksters – that she thought was the police – she moved a balcony in front of the bedroom door, to protect her from the supposed invaders, since she hasn’t a key to lock the door. She put her cell phone above the balcony, but it fell off to the ground underneath the bed, when she moved the furniture again, to clear her way to her daughter’s bedroom, since she became desperate to check upon her child. No longer holding her cell phone, she hasn’t heard when the pranksters announced that everything was a joke. Unbeknownst to them, she wasn’t aware that she was the victim of a prank. Truly believing that her house was being invaded, she grabbed her gun, and decided to check upon her daughter. Seeing that she wasn’t in her bedroom, she panicked. When she heard the door next to her opening, she became frightened and gave a shot directly through the door. To her desperation, she shot her own daughter – who had only gone to the bathroom –, who died instantly. Profoundly disturbed by the tragedy, the woman put the gun against her chest and committed suicide. So the aggressor, identified as “Mr. Lee”, was the man taking vengeance upon his wife and daughter. 

Sam cried in desperation, saying that it was never their intention to hurt anyone. Then the man stepped over Sam’s face, and a gunshot was heard. Suddenly, its morning, and we see Sam alive, waking up. He has a knife on his hand, and a gun on the other. Next to him, he sees the body of Brady, and going outside, the body of Peyton, who had been shot in the head. He doesn’t release neither the knife, nor the gun, suggesting that they might be stuck in his hands. In the living room, the video of Brady having sex with Peyton plays nonstop. Suddenly the police arrive in the scene, and the news is already noticing the terrible manslaughter that took place. Apparently, as the footage suggest, the massacre was executed by a sadistic young man, jealous of discovering that his best friend had cheated him with his girlfriend. 

In the end, we see the photo of the little girl, used as picture for the profile “Mr. Lee” uses on the social network, making a friend request to another member of the group of pranksters, suggesting that he will continue his journey of vengeance.         

Although this is not exactly a masterful movie, Don’t Hang Up has audacities and qualities that deserve to be praised. The movie has a cohesive story line, a plausible expectation of possibilities, credible plot scenarios and evaluations, good acting and a very genuine approach in what concerns the main elements of fear and tension.

Undoubtedly, while this movie can be considered, at least, in a more broad analysis, just one more flick, it is unquestionable the fact that there is a creative level and a consistent element of mordacious originality here. Although the central theme of an individual getting revenge from an inconsequential adolescent prank gone wrong has been explored in movies before, certainly this is one of the best exemplars released so far. Despite the conciseness of the story, the whole concept is intriguing, works out very well, is definitely coherent, and doesn’t disappoint, although there are some predictable aspects in the story as a whole.   

Don’t Hang Up is not an extremely fascinating movie, and will not change your life. Nevertheless, certainly can be regarded as a minor gem precisely executed, and a marvelously good work of art. On this movie, we see two young adults having to deal with the consequences of a catastrophic wrongdoing, and gradually discovering the result of a tragedy for which they were the major responsible agents, but totally ignore the level of malevolence for what they have done.

With splendorous moments of tension, an inquisitive demand for affliction and wonderful components of dreadful expectation, Don’t Hang Up certainly will delight you with an amazing time of entertaining exhilaration. You can’t afford to miss this interesting thriller.         


Wagner Hertzog

After seducing a beautiful girl in a local bar – being himself a charming and seductive individual –, they go to her place using a Ryde driver. There, pretending that they will have sex, he coldly and violently kills her, stabbing the girl in the bathtub. After cleaning up the scene, the killer starts the Ryde app, and the same driver that drove them before appears to pick him up. 

Pretending to be just a regular customer, the killer tells the driver to leave him at his house, asking the driver to wait for him. After changing clothes and collecting weapons, he returns. The ride continues and both engage in interesting conversation. After some minutes, the killer request the driver to stop for him to smoke, and invites the driver to join him. 

When they return, the killer murders the driver, puts his body on the back of the car, and takes his place. Attending by the fake name of Karl, at the course of the night, the killer went to reclaim several more victims: unwary passengers that mistakenly think the killer is just a regular Ryde driver. As the night begins for the killer, he deliberately engages in a vicious and cruel rampage. 

In one of his drives, the killer is stopped by a police officer, demanding to see his license and registration. Asking why he was being checked out, the officer tells him that he has parked in a forbidden zone. Suddenly three girls enter the vehicle, and demand the officer to be gentle with the driver, saying they were to blame for his fault, as he was waiting for them. When the driver is ready to leave the scene, the officer demands him one more time to stop, and to open the trunk, saying that the back lights of the vehicle were irregularly blinking. He offers himself to fix it up the cables, as a favor to the driver, preventing him from being pulled over by the police for a second time in the same night. Since the body of the real driver was there, the killer faced the danger of being caught. So he discreetly lowers himself down to pull a knife he has on a sheath attached to his foot, when suddenly the officer tells him that the verification is no longer needed, as the lights were slowly stopping to blink. 

So the killer drives the three girls to the luxurious home of one of them. As they find him attractive, two of them try to seduce the driver, and invite him for a private party in the pool, where, initially pretending to engage in sexual activity with them, he murders them both. A third girl, too drunk to understand what has happening, was spared by the killer, that carries her to bed.    

Everything gets more exciting when the killer drives a couple, arguing for the fact that they have to attend two parties that same night. He clearly gets an interest in the girl. After leaving the couple in the place of their destination, the killer continues his night rides and his murder spree. Nevertheless, after some hours he encounters the same girl in a street food tent, pretending to find her coincidentally. After she recognizes him, they engage in mutual conversation, and the killer offers to drive her to her place, and she accepts. Guessing that she would be alone, her boyfriend, leaving the club upon which they were attending the party earlier, which was near, suddenly appears. Their discussion is intensified, but he decides to go in the ride with her.        

Surprisingly, when the same girl needs a ride again, the driver appears one more time to collect her. Visibly upset by virtue of the discussion with her boyfriend, she stays more silent than in the occasion before. The driver, being exceedingly charming and sympathetic towards her, offers her an opportunity to talk about her problems, and encourages her to see him as a kind of “therapist”, to which she politely denies. Nevertheless, he is persistent, and after he compliments her good looks, she starts to feel threatened. At first, she demands him to return, affirming that she may have forgotten something at the party, and then she asks the driver to stop, saying that she is feeling sick and wants fresh air.

When he stops, he gets close to her, and tries to kiss her. She rejects his advances, and a fight ensues. After a hideous physical altercation, the killer subdues and ties her, and they continue the ride. Inside the car, the girl attacks him, and the killer loses control of the vehicle, colliding with an abandoned car in a stretch of deserted area. 

The girl awakens in the hospital. Her boyfriend and her best friend are there. The physician tells her that she is pregnant, and her boyfriend apologizes to her. As they reconcile, an LAPD detective approaches her, and tells her that she needs to identify the body of her assailant in the morgue. As they go to the mortuary, the girl sees a badly burned and disfigured corpse, but affirms positively that the body is not that of her attacker. As the camera gets close to the body, the spectator can see that the body is, in fact, of the real driver, murdered by the killer, and put in the trunk of the car.     

This movie deserves a very good and sincere evaluation. Although Ryde is not exactly a fantastic or splendorous movie, it is, indeed, a very good one, with tense moments, an afflictive story line, and a very cohesive plot. Good interpretations and dense character impersonations guarantee a dramatic, intense and exceedingly realistic approach. Some very profound and poetic moments – like a majestic and very cinematic scene when the main character is in a nearly empty cafeteria in the dead of night, with a perceptive look in his eyes that transmits his cold void feelings looking anywhere in his singular universe of mortifying nothingness, with a very beautiful woman that strongly and romantically flirts with him getting disappointed after he ignores her and unexpectedly leaves –, emphatically exhibits a glimpse of the character’s disturbed mind, as well as his personal world of destitute desolation, violence and bestiality.

Despite the fact that Ryde, for the most part, can be seriously defined as a very regular movie, it is a majestically effective, masterful regular movie. There are no flaws and no mediocrity in this production. From the technical devices to the acting to the whole concept of the story, everything was greatly executed. If you want to see a good thriller film, Ryde certainly is highly recommended. I can personally assure you will be thrilled with this movie.               


Wagner Hertzog 

Since turning into a major name in Hollywood in the late 90’s, what most people don’t know about Ben Affleck it’s that he started his career as a child actor, in the early 80’s, when he was only eight years old. Now, 44, and a successful actor and director, the major Hollywood star seems to be far more interested in politics than everything else. 


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After a string of major successes in his career – specially Argo, in which he stared and directed – and on the most recent Gone Girl, having shared the screen with sexy co-star, British actress Rosamund Pike, Ben Affleck struggled to prove his talents and capabilities in front as well as behind the cameras, and today, being hugely successful on such an aggressive and competitive field of work, he can breath and rest a little, since his accomplishments are, more than ever, no dust in the ground.

Being an enthusiastic and ardent political and humanitarian activist as well, Affleck discovered fame has its ups and downs, since, everywhere he goes, paparazzi are following him, struggling to get the best angles for photographs, with the hopes of selling them for the best tabloid publications. Nonetheless, his victories and relevant filmmaking efforts in the industry in the last decade redeemed him for a string of terrible and mediocre movies in the nineties, that lasted to the early 2000’s, when he was struggling for a place in the spotlight, hoping and auditioning for movies he saw it could make the difference, but with no better prospects, taking parts in the worst flicks, just to make a salary.  

Having had his share of relationship publicities, especially his well-documented relation with J-Lo – being dubbed “Bennifer” at the time by the media outlets – Affleck has divorced his wife of ten years, actress Jennifer Garner, with whom he had two daughters and one son. They shared the screen in the 2003 movie Daredevil.  

After playing Batman in two movies, Affleck will reprise the role in the upcoming Justice League feature film. But, by the way things are going right now, if things in the upcoming movie didn’t get along well, at this point of his career, Ben Affleck can endure very well the low points of his journey, way better than he did when he was just trying to make it or break it. After all, successful, confident and easy-going at middle-age, if things went wrong at the box office, he just have to shake the dust of his feet, and move along to the next project.  


Wagner Hertzog

Le Capital is a very interesting French movie, directed by renowned filmmaker Konstantinos Gavras, starring Gabriel Byrne and Gad Elmaleh. Elmaleh plays Marc Tourneuil, a highly intelligent individual of the financial market, that is promoted to head of Phenix, an increasingly valuable high risk bank of Europe, that rises to be a giant of the financial system. 

Marc Tourneuil, married to Diane (Natacha Régnier) is a very skilled and intuitive pawn of the financial market, that is promoted to president of the Phenix Bank as soon as the current president becomes sick. He is chosen in a hurry by a select group of the board committee, that constitute the elite of the European financial system, which already elaborate plans to substitute him as soon as the former president – a sort of mentor for Tourneuil – dies. Acknowledgeable, determined, lucid, very wise, and assuming that he will become a sort of puppet at the hands of the shareholders, who detain the real power behind the bank, Tourneuil immediately employs a private detective to work for him, with the intention to discover who his real enemies really are, who are the ones he can really trust, and the ones he can’t. 

As soon as he assumes the presidency of the bank, he gets close to Dittmar Rigule (Gabriel Byrne), a very unscrupulous individual, that knows how to present himself as lovable, trustful and friendly. Likewise, Tourneuil, on dealing with extremely dubious persons, learns how to perfectly play the game in the financial market, never satisfying the demands of the real detainees of the power, but never disappointing them either. When he gets involved with a very beautiful and exotic, but promiscuous international top model, he immediately suspects that this could be an arrangement made by the bank elite, to blackmail him in a future occasion, in order have him fully controlled, to act as the head for their illicit ordeals, under the threat of ruining his personal life and marriage. Nonetheless, always one step ahead of his enemies, Tourneuil knows that, one way or another, he will be used as a puppet for all kinds of fusions and financial transactions. Having no alternative, besides being astute and intelligent, he becomes a master at the corporative cat and mouse game, with the fraudulent acquisition of a Japanese bank becoming the apex of his vengeance against the leaders of the financial market, that orchestrates his downfall behind his back. In a world where luxury, money, greed and power games are at the forefront of the coffee table every day, the winner is the one who always thinks ahead of his enemies, knowing that you have no friends or allies to support you whatsoever.    

Bright enough to absorb the professional dynamics of the financial market, Tourneuil rapidly acknowledges each and every possible aspect of the environment. Travelling constantly to close deals and arrange an equilibrium between his hold on power, and the constant demands of the shareholders – specially Dittmar – Tourneuil soon learns that he is playing a game that no one can really win. In the end, to postpone his downfall, and to delay the attack of his enemies on him, is the best he can do. Nonetheless, he arranges the Japanese bank deal to be fully and embarrassedly compromised, threating to expose the fraudulent ordeal involving the acquisition. 

Le Capital is a very good movie, that really captures the attention of the viewer from the very beginning until the last scene. Showing literally all the wild interests that lies behind a corporative organization, and all the sordid intricacies that revolves around the financial market, and how this affects us, ordinary human beings, the film is very honest about all the dirtiness, political intrigues, struggles for power, emotional tensions and corrupt schemes of the economic system, exposing the perfidious rottenness of a machinery that feeds itself from the very own greed of human ambition, in a parallel pursue of power, influence and fortune, that never rests, until someone is hurt, or finally out of the game. 

With incredible performances, amazing dialogues, systematic realism and a very graceful lust that seems to contaminate each and every character within the movie – specially Tourneuil, the lead character – Le Capital is a formidable, imaginative, intriguing and very crude portrait of what really happens in the financial market: a real den of wild animals – specially tigers and lions – eager for victims, disposable flesh, and ready to devour themselves vehemently, and without any compassion or consideration. The movie shows a system where no one have any kind of friends or colleagues, only explicit and implicit enemies, and the ones who are kings today, probably will suffer a tremendous and unpredictable downfall tomorrow. A major, superb and very drastic movie, Le Capital has everything an excellent movie about the financial market is expected to have: tension, emotional affliction, intrigues, inevitable conflicts of personality, collisions of interest, and a vast amount of illicit schemes. If you like this genre of movie, you certainly can’t afford to miss Le Capital.    



​Wagner

The Disappointments Room is a 2016 American supernatural horror film, starred by Kate Beckinsale and written by Wentworth Miller. Kate Beckinsale plays Dana, a woman who moves with her son and her husband to a new house in the countryside, just to discover a hidden room in the place, that is submerged in the mysteries and secrecies of a dark and turbulent traumatic past. 

When Dana and her family move to a new house in a very small provincial town, initially everything went exactly as they wanted. The happiness, joy and excitement of a new life surrounds them, and, although some rooms in the house are in ruins, in need for serious repairs, the family of three is satisfied, and ready to initiate a new chapter in their lives. 

Nonetheless, everything changes when Dana discovers in the attic a mysterious room, which is locked, and she can’t manage to open the door. When she finally finds the key to the mysterious room, which was above the doorframe, Dana enters what appears to be a very large and abandoned empty space. Stricken by intuitive bad thoughts and feelings, Dana becomes eager to discover the real purpose behind the hidden room, so she goes to the town library, and starts doing a full research. With the help of the elder local librarian, she finally discovers that the hidden room in her house was used by its former residents as a disappointments room: a common habit within wealthy and aristocratic families in the past, they used to hide relatives that had some kind of morbid congenital disease or grotesque physical deformity in a secret place within the household, preventing the isolated family member to have any kind of social interaction. This measure was adopted by the family as a means to avoid social shame or shunning, and the secluded relative had completely denied the possibility to have a normal life. Tormented by visions from past events related to the family that has lived in the house several generations ago, Dana starts to feel the suffering inflicted by a mysterious man on an innocent deformed child, that probably was related to him. The visions achieve a climax, when Dana sees the mysterious man killing the deformed child. Suddenly, she starts to feel that a very unwanted and sinister presence is hidden somewhere within the house, putting herself, her husband and her son’s life in danger.   

The Disappointments Room is a movie very difficult to evaluate precisely, because it’s as good as it is bad, having its share of good moments, in the same amount of bad moments as well. Undoubtedly, the story is intriguing. With potential, and a very promising and interesting premise, the overall plotline eventually falls in several tiresome and predictable genre clichés, and sometimes seems to revolve around literally nothing. With very intrinsic dynamics, the movie alternates between very intense and interesting moments, and scenes where literally nothing happens, finishing in extremely obvious plot devices. Almost everything revolves around Dana – Kate Beckinsale’s character –, with everything created to gravitate around her, or towards her. Nonetheless, several elements of the plot are frozen in a very obvious atmosphere, specially her relation concerning the bad things that had happened in the disappointments room, and the visions she has related to it.

In general, The Disappointments Room can be considered just another ghost movie, with a more intriguing and sophisticated plot, that falls into a generic and predictable storyline. Nevertheless, the major flaw of the movie is the fact that it is too short. The entire movie feels like a large and compelling introduction, and when you think that the movie will finally begin, in fact, it abruptly ends. Conclusively, what you really have in this movie is an interesting beginning with a very peculiar premise. But as the movie progresses, the story eventually falls in a series of clichés and obvious plot devices, that in the end turns the movie into something a little less than a total waste of time.
 
The Disappointments Room ended up as a major disappointment, being scorned by critics and audiences alike. The final product is better described as a very interesting premise, wasted in a very ordinary movie. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not completely terrible. If you are an intelligent and lucid spectator, you certainly manage to absorb some fragments of good art here and there. But generally, it doesn’t worth the time. Actor Wentworth Miller, though, is revealing himself a talented screenwriter. He had also scripted Stoker, a far more decent, somber and clever movie, which was released in 2013, starred by Nicole Kidman and Matthew Goode. Unlike The Disappointments Room, Stoker is totally worthwhile watching it. 


Wagner

Ray Liotta has always been one of my favorite actors, and his presence in a movie is enough for me to watch it. Having entered the show business in the late seventies, Liotta rose to prominence as Henry Hill in the 1990 biographical crime-drama film Goodfellas, directed by Martin Scorsese, where Liotta divided the screen with highly acclaimed legendary actors, Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci. As Liotta wasn’t a very well-known actor at the time, he auditioned for the role, and persistently persuaded Scorsese and the producers of the film for the part of Henry Hill, who is the main character and narrator of the movie. Eventually, Liotta himself had met the real Henry Hill, who was an associate of the Lucchese crime family of New York, from the mid-fifties until his downfall and subsequent imprisonment in the eighties, whose incarceration had finished the criminal careers of several of his mafia partners as well. The movie covers extensively all these decades’ long periods in Henry Hill’s life, beginning when he joins the mob, until his eventual arrest.  

Despite being best known for his part on the Scorsese biopic, Liotta is a very prolific actor of movies and television, working occasionally as a narrator of documentaries, and appearing in commercial advertisements as well. Usually playing very tough guys, mainly corrupt cops or very dubious and immoral law officers, he can be seen regularly playing both decent and evil characters. 

With more than eighty movies to his name, despite the fact that he is sixty two years old, the veteran actor born in 1954 in Newark, New Jersey, apparently is eager to work more frequently than ever. Like Christopher Walken, he hardly refuses to participate in a project, and can be seen regularly in movie festivals and events worldwide. Frequently seen in movies where he is the lead, he also heavily participates in secondary and minor roles. The genres upon which he is mostly seen are crime, drama and cop thrillers. Personally, if you ask me, I remember him mostly for his parts as extremely corrupt police officers, and I can describe a lot of examples. In the 1997 movie Cop Land, upon which he worked again with De Niro, Liotta shared the screen with Sylvester Stallone, Robert Patrick and Harvey Keitel. In this movie, Stallone plays the sheriff of a fictitious small town, who has to deal with extremely corrupt and abusive NYPD police officers. As the authority figure of what is usually called a “dormitory city”, Stallone’s character has to deal with cops who work in New York City, but live in the neighboring small town. They frequently engage in abuse of authority and blackmail, amongst many other illicit activities. Determined to break this chain of corruption, although he is frequently ridiculed by his role of sheriff of a little community, the character of Stallone decides to stand against the criminal cops, and Ray Liotta’s character is one of them. In the more recent Blackway, a movie on which Liotta shared the screen with Anthony Hopkins, he plays the title character, a brutal, perfidious and very insidious local crime lord, who was a former police officer. In Street Kings 2: Motor City, he played a very pervasive and furtive cop, thoroughly involved in serious crimes. In The Place Beyond the Pines, Ray Liotta had played a very malevolent and corrupt cop as well. In the classic 1992 movie, Unlawful Entry, on which Ray Liotta co-starred with Kurt Russell and Madeleine Stowe, he played a very ambiguous, immoral and delusional cop, who develops an extremely sick obsession by Karen, Madeleine Stowe’s character. In The Son of No One, co-starred by Channing Tatum and Al Pacino, Liotta one more time played a very dark and malevolent law officer. Although evidently there was a lot more movies than this one, I only remember Ray Liotta playing a very good, honest and decent cop in the movie Suddenly, on which he co-starred with famous actor Dominic Purcell, whose character is the antagonist of the story, that revolves around a very deadly premise. Purcell plays a double agent, whose mission is to kill the US President, expected to attend a public commitment in the small city upon which Liotta’s character is the sheriff. Purcell and Liotta had previously worked together in the movie Bad Karma. 

In the 2002 movie Narc, co-starred by Jason Patric, and in the 2011 movie The River Murders, co-starred by Christian Slater, Liotta played more down to the ground law officers, that try hard to be good coops, but eventually fall under the pressure of their own moral flaws, as well as the evil that surrounds the profession. 

Another of his memorable roles was the one Liotta took on the movie Identity, co-starred by John Cusack, Amanda Peet and Pruitt Taylor Vince. A more sinister and ambivalent thriller, Identity tells the story of prospective victims of a very shadowy and mysterious serial murderer, that gather together to eventually discover that they have far more things in common, than what they could possibly have imagined.  Amongst his recent major movies, 2011 The Entitled also deserves mention. In this movie, Canadian actor Kevin Zegers plays an individual who kidnaps three young adults from rich parents. Ray Liotta plays the father of one of the individuals kidnapped. The other two are the son and daughter, respectively, of his two wealthier friends, who are also successful businessmen. Nonetheless, the son of one of them is fatally killed, and Ray Liotta’s character, who has been in fact financially broken, elude his friend that his son is still alive, just to deceive him to loan him money, for having the chance to pay the ransom for his own son. A very amazing and exceptional movie, The Entitled is a major and compelling thriller, that deserves to be seen very attentively, from the beginning until the end.  

Having started his career in a soap opera, in the early eighties Liotta moved to Los Angeles, in the hopes of getting roles in the movie industry. This proved to be beneficial for his career, as in a matter of time movie roles were being offered to him. From then on, his hardworking ethics would compensate. Now, regarded as a formidable Hollywood actor, he always has a lot of roles in movies and television at his disposition, waiting to be played by him. With an extensive and very respectable filmography, Ray Liotta has really conquered his well-deserved space in the movie industry, and has proved the extensive range and amazingly realistic skills of his acting abilities.  


​Wagner