“September 5.” / “Operation Napoleon.” / “Red Right Hand.”

“September 5” (2024, Paramount+) historical drama thriller film, chronicles the Munich massacre of 1972 from the perspective of the ABC Sports crew and their coverage of the events.

       The Munich massacre was a terrorist attack during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, carried out by eight members of the Palestinian militant organisation Black September. The militants infiltrated the Olympic Village, killed two members of the Israeli Olympic team, and took nine other Israeli team members hostage. Those hostages were later also killed by the militants during a failed rescue attempt.

       Actual footage of the event are interplayed with the drama in the TV production control room. So this movie is all about how ABC covered the event in those days. With the technology that they had at that time, they tried to give the global public what's going on, as the tragedy unfolded. 

       The tension and stress, pressures and fears, hopes and frustrations of the journalists’ as they pursued a story. Good shots, scooped info, timely feeds--only to realize later when smokes cleared, the dead. 

       Remarkable teamwork acting: Peter Sarsgaard as Roone Arledge, the president of ABC Sports; John Magaro as Geoffrey Mason, the head of the control room in Munich; Ben Chaplin as Marvin Bader, the head of operation at ABC Sports; and Leonie Benesch as Marianne Gebhardt, a translator for the crew who speaks German and Hebrew. 🎥👍📽

“Operation Napoleon” (2023, Hulu) Icelandic thriller, based on Arnaldur Indriðason's best selling book of the same name. Plot: A lawyer is drawn into an unexpected sequence of events when her brother stumbles upon a World War II plane wreck on top of Vatnajökull. The plane is linked to the Nazi of the 1940s, which then brings us to Germany's occupation of Denmark and Britain's invasion of Iceland. But that'd be stretching it too far back. But we can add “climate change” as a current-day equation.    

  

       “Operation Napoleon” has the potential of a swashbuckling political/thriller actioner. But director Óskar Þór Axelsson lacks the creativity to improvise around a promising material. And lead characters Vivian Ólafsdóttir as the lawyer Kristín and Jack Fox as her friend Steve are simply talking-head ornaments. No sense of drama at all. 

       Then there's Scottish actor Iain Glen with his perpetually curled forehead as the villainous William Carr. At least I see again the prolific Icelandic actor Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as Einar, he seems to be the only focused person in this movie that started big but ended tiny. 🎥💻📽

“Red Right Hand” (2024, Hulu) action thriller film. Cash is trying to live an honest and quiet life taking care of his recently orphaned niece Savannah in the Appalachian town of Odim County. When the sadistic kingpin Big Cat who runs the town forces him back into her services. 

       I guess, another work gig for Orlando Bloom (as Cash) and Andie MacDowell (as Big Cat). Cash is the former bad boy who had to commit to last bad job orders so he can save his niece. Big Cat is a sinister character whose evil is super dark as cliché. The glade is littered by macho bad dudes who are all pulverized by Cash. Of course. 🎥💻📽

GAVE UP: “Detained” (2024, Paramount+) psychological thriller. A woman wakes up in a police interrogation room with no memory of the night prior. Something does not seem quite right in this police station. Ridiculously implausible plotline. Inane, stereotypical acting. I can't believe I mustered 15 minutes of this movie. Probably because I like Abbie Cornish.