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On Demand picks

November 23, 2010

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PSYCHO (Max on Comcast) Arguably Alfred Hitchcock’s best film, if only for the fact that he broke so many rules of the genre. The first thing he did was to kill off his star (Janet Leigh) halfway through the film, an artistic decision that enraged the studio although it made the film. She’s killed in the shower, in case you haven’t been told. (PG-13; runs through Nov. 25)

RESERVOIR DOGS (Comcast Movies: All Movies) The bad guys are holed up in a warehouse after the big job, hoping they won’t all go down and trying to root out the turncoat in their midst. Meaning this is an actor’s playground (for Lawrence Tierney, Christopher Penn, Steve Buscemi, Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen, and Tim Roth), with lots of chances to fly operatically off the handle. But even if artifice is as big a component as adrenaline, director Quentin Tarantino brings off this exercise in lively fashion. (R; runs through Nov. 30)

THE FIRM (Max on Comcast) It’s really a feel-good morality fable masquerading as a thriller, but star Tom Cruise and director Sydney Pollack do outrun boredom. The story comes from John Grisham’s bestseller, about a yuppie Faust who signs on with a Memphis law firm fronting for the mob. The juice comes from the supporting performances, notably by Gene Hackman, David Straithairn, Holly Hunter, and Gary Busey. (PG-13; runs through Nov. 25)

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