Silk Road (2021)

Silk Road: Directed by Tiller Russell. With Nick Robinson, Jennifer Yun, Jimmi Simpson, Jason Clarke. Philosophical twenty-something Ross Ulbricht creates Silk Road, a dark net website that sells drugs, while DEA agent Rick Bowden goes undercover to bring him down.

“A cat spends the day chasing a mouse. When he finally corners the mouse, he takes sadistic delight in batting it around, playing with it before it goes in for the kill. The cat wishes to savor the look of fear on its prey, instead of merely indulging the reward itu0026#39;s worked so hard to catch. This is the predator/prey relationship evidenced in u0026quot;The Hitcher,u0026quot; one of the most relentlessly intense and mean-spirited horror films ever made.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSince the setting is the desert, I suppose it would make more sense to call John Ryder (played by Rutger Hauer) a vicious coyote, who is picked up one rainy night by a stray lamb named Jim Halsey (C. Thomas Howell). Ryder, whou0026#39;s apparently been murdering people all over the desert, is looking to do the same with Halsey, who cheats death only to be tormented for the rest of the film by this savage predator. The coyote craves a challenge–in fact, he seems to live for it.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNothing else needs to be said. u0026quot;The Hitcheru0026quot; relies so heavily on a plot that weaves in and out of u0026#39;the expectedu0026#39; that any further description would spoil the fun. The two leads are excellent–Rutger Hauer has created one of the great villains of modern cinema, and C. Thomas Howell is a sympathetic and believable victim driven to madness. While the film isnu0026#39;t necessarily deep, the high-energy cast, moody desert settings and twisty script fuel this effort for 98 intense minutes. 3.5 stars out of 5.”