Showing posts with label FBI. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FBI. Show all posts

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Catch Me if You Can - 2002



"Ah, people only know what you tell them, Carl."

A true story about Frank Abagnale Jr. who, before his 19th birthday, successfully conned millions of dollars worth of checks as a Pan Am pilot, doctor, and legal prosecutor.

Frank William Abagnale, Jr. (born April 27, 1948) is an American security consultant known for his history as a former confidence trickster, check forger, impostor, and escape artist. He became notorious in the 1960s for passing $2.5 million worth of meticulously forged checks across 26 countries over the course of five years, beginning when he was 16 years old.

In the process, he became one of the most famous impostors ever,[3] claiming to have assumed no fewer than eight separate identities as an airline pilot, a doctor, a U.S. Bureau of Prisons agent, and a lawyer. He escaped from police custody twice (once from a taxiing airliner and once from a U.S. federal penitentiary), before he was 21 years old.[4]

He served fewer than five years in prison before starting to work for the federal government. He is a consultant and lecturer at the academy and field offices for the FBI. He also runs Abagnale & Associates, a financial fraud consultancy company

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Breach - 2007

Breach is a 2007 American docudrama directed by Billy Ray. The screenplay by Ray, Adam Mazer, and William Rotko is based on the true story of Robert Hanssen, an FBI agent convicted of spying for the Soviet Union and later Russia for more than two decades, and Eric O'Neill, who worked as his assistant and helped bring about his downfall. O'Neill served as a consultant on the film.


Eric O'Neill is a young FBI employee assigned to work undercover as a clerk to Robert Hanssen, a senior agent he is told is suspected of being a sexual deviant. Hanssen has been recalled to FBI headquarters ostensibly to head up a new division specializing in Information Assurance.


Initially, Hanssen insists on a strict formality between the two men. He frequently rails against the bureaucracy of the FBI and complains that only those who regularly "shoot guns" are considered for senior positions instead of those, like himself, who are involved in vital national security matters. He calls the bureau's information technology systems antiquated and laments the lack of coordination and information exchange with other intelligence agencies. Eventually, Hanssen becomes a friend and mentor to O'Neill...


eter Rainer of The Christian Science Monitor named Breach the best film of the year (2007). Richard Schickel of Time ranked it #6 and called Chris Cooper's performance "brilliant". Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post named it the ninth best film of 2007.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Die Hard - 1988



"Welcome to the party, pal."

I love action and this film is one of my favorites in that genre. A funny and thrilling battle between the good guys and the bad guys. This was based on a book by Roderick Thorp entitled "Nothing Lasts Forever" - a sequel to another book entitled "The Detective", which in 1968 was made into a film starring Frank Sinatra.

Bruce Willis was the sixth choice for the main character. It originally went to Arnold Schwarzenegger, then Sylvester Stallone, then Burt Reynolds, then Richard Gere, then Harrison Ford, then Mel Gibson before Willis got it.

NYPD cop John McClane's (Bruce Willis) plan to reconcile with his estranged wife, Holly (Bonnie Bedelia), is thrown for a serious loop when minutes after he arrives at her office, the entire building is overtaken by a group of pitiless terrorists. With little help from the LAPD, wisecracking McClane sets out to single-handedly rescue the hostages and bring the bad guys down. This classic John McTiernan actioner launched Willis into superstardom.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

The Silence of the Lambs - 1991



To be a good psychological thriller a film has to have enough tension to keep you on the edge of your seat and get into your head enough to keep you thinking about it well after the credits have rolled. This is just that film.

In preparation for his role, Anthony Hopkins studied files of serial killers. Also, he visited prisons and studied convicted murderers and was present during some court hearings concerning serial killings.

Jodie Foster spent a great deal of time with FBI agent Mary Ann Krause prior to filming and it was Krause who gave Foster the idea of Starling standing by her car crying. Krause told Foster that at times, the work just became so overbearing that this was a good way to get an emotional release.

In this pulse-pounding adaptation of Thomas Harris's novel, FBI trainee Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) ventures into a maximum-security asylum to pick the diseased brain of Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins), a psychiatrist turned homicidal cannibal. Starling needs clues to help her capture a serial killer; unfortunately, her Faustian relationship with Lecter soon leads to his escape … and now, two deranged killers are on the loose.