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Krampus | The movie opens with a montage of crazed customers storming into a store for their Christmas shopping, trampling over the store's employees before maniacally grabbing every hot item they can get their hands on, all to the tune of "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas". In the mall, we see two parents, Tom and Sarah Engel (Adam Scott and Toni Collette), run to their son Max (Emjay Anthony) as he is fighting with another child after this child spoke ill of Santa Claus to the other children. Max's sister Beth (Stefania LaVie Owen) gleefully films everything on her phone.The family returns home where Max's German grandmother Omi (Krista Stadler) is baking. Sarah continues working in the kitchen in anticipation of her sister and her family arriving. She is anxious, as is everyone else, but Sarah tries to keep the Christmas spirit alive in the house. She hangs up a picture of her family posing with Santa, but it's ruined by everyone looking uninterested and Santa checking out Beth's butt.Sarah's sister Linda (Allison Tolman) arrives with her husband Howard (David Koechner) and their kids - Howie Jr (Maverick Flack), Stevie (Lolo Owen), Jordan (Queenie Samuel), and Baby Chrissy, along with the family dog Rosie. Also joining them, to Sarah's extreme displeasure, is their Aunt Dorothy (Conchata Ferrell), whom Sarah considers to be a nightmare. The family gathers for dinner, where Howard takes the time to boast about his use of guns, despite Linda telling him not to bring that up. Dorothy insults Sarah's cooking, so Sarah goes to get the dessert in the kitchen, where Dorothy follows her to make more complaints until Sarah shuts her up. Stevie and Jordan mock Max for still writing a letter to Santa. They swiped it off of him and start reading off Max's wishes. He wants his parents to be in love again, for him and Beth to spend time like they used to, and for things to go better between Linda and Howard. Stevie gets angry when she reads that Max wrote that Howard wishes she and Jordan were boys. Max loses it and fights Stevie to get the letter back. He yells at the whole family and says he wishes Christmas was like it used to be, but now he hates the holiday and his dysfunctional family before running back upstairs.Tom goes upstairs to comfort his son and remind him that this is the time of year where they have to deal with family members like this. After Tom leaves, Max puts his Santa letter into an envelope, but he is too angry to go through with it and he tears up the letter. He throws the pieces out the window, which are then blown up high into the sky. A dark cloud then forms over the whole neighborhood, followed by a strong gust of wind that takes out the power.The next morning, the whole family is struggling without heat and electricity as a snowstorms blows through the area. Max looks out the window and notices a creepy snowman having been built in front of the house. Someone knocks on the door and Linda answers it to find a delivery guy bringing some boxes. Next to him is a sack of gifts, but he claims it didn't come from him. Beth suggests that she walk a few blocks to her boyfriend Derek's house to see if he has power (and also so she won't be stuck with the family). Although Sarah is hesitant, she and Tom allow Beth to go out for an hour.Beth walks through the storm and sees a large horned creature perched on top of a roof. The sky becomes darker, and the creature appears to follow Beth. She runs away as the creature pounces across rooftops. Beth finds the delivery guy literally frozen in fear. She hides underneath his truck as the creature lands on the ground, where Beth sees its hooves. To her side, she sees a jack-in-the-box playing a tune. It opens and a smaller creature emerges slowly before attacking Beth.As it gets darker, Tom and Sarah become concerned when Beth doesn't return. Howard agrees to go out with Tom in his Hummer to find her, and Howard gives Tom a gun to carry just in case. They go to Derek's house and find it unoccupied and wrecked. The two see large hoofprints in the snow. They go back outside and Tom hears Beth screaming. He runs to find her, only for something burrowing underneath the snow to grab Howard. It nearly drags him beneath the snow until Tom shoots at the creature and sends it fleeing. They find the Hummer has been destroyed and they run home. The ladies tend to Howard's leg, which appears to have a bite mark on it. Omi is seen looking nervous by the fireplace. Tom says they need to board up the house and look for Beth in the morning.The adults decide to take turns keeping watch for anything suspicious. Howard volunteers to stay awake while Tom rests with his family. Howard also apologizes to Tom for thinking he was always a "spineless dick". Eventually, everyone falls asleep and the fire goes out. A hook descends from the chimney with a gingerbread man cookie tied to it. This awakens Howie Jr. He goes over to the cookie and takes a bite out of its head, only for the gingerbread man to come to life and frighten Howie. The hook wraps around Howie and starts pulling him up the tree. Sarah wakes up and runs to grab the boy, with the rest of the adults grabbing her for help. Sarah accidentally kicks a hot log toward the Christmas tree, igniting the presents and then the whole tree. Max runs to get the fire extinguisher and puts out the fire, but Sarah gets freaked out by the cookie, causing her to let go of Howie, and he is taken up the chimney.Now convinced that something unnatural is occurring, Omi speaks English for the first time to tell the family that she knows who is doing this, and that this is all their fault. She says she experienced the same thing as a child. Through an animated sequence, we see Omi as a little girl in her old poverty-stricken village. She was holding a toy Santa and a loaf of bread, but the other villagers snatched the bread from her and fought each other for it. When Omi returned home, her parents didn't help matters through their own bad behavior, and her mother ripped the Santa doll. Omi lost her holiday spirit and threw the doll in the fireplace after wishing that her parents would go away. This wish would summon an ancient spirit that arrives to punish anyone that disrespected the Christmas spirit. the spirit's name is Krampus, and he brings multiple helpers to terrorize the misbehaved. Omi watched as Krampus and his helpers dragged her parents to their underworld, with Krampus leaving her with nothing but a bauble with his name on it as a reminder of what she's done. Omi shows the family the bauble, and to this day, she has regretted making that wish. Howard remains unconvinced that this is the work of some supernatural entity, and he grabs his shotgun to go out and find Howie. As he opens the door, he discovers a snowman with a close resemblance to Howie on the front porch. Several demonic creatures lurk behind the snowmen, and Sarah pulls Howard back inside the house.Tom devises a plan to get to the snowplow with the family and head to the mall for shelter. Meanwhile, Stevie and Jordan think they hear what sounds like Beth's voice coming from upstairs. They walk up to investigate, but then the adults hear the girls screaming. Tom, Sarah, and Linda run up to the attic and notice that the kids' presents had something burst out of them. They then come across an enormous, worm-like Jack-in-the-Box in the process of swallowing Jordan whole. Tom shoots it, causing it to flee towards the vents, where it later escapes. The adults then get attacked by demonic toys. Sarah faces her mother's angel ornament that nearly hangs her with Christmas lights, Linda is jumped by an evil teddy bear, and Tom is attacked by a robot toy. Downstairs, Howard gets shot with a nail gun by three gingerbread men. Linda sees Stevie in the next room, driving her to grab an icicle and stab the teddy in the eye. She grabs a hatchet and swings at the angel and robot before running to Stevie. Sarah gets Howard's gun and shoots the robot to pieces. Howard shoots a lantern that burns the cookies, only for one to survive and pounce toward him, but Rosie eats it.The family goes downstairs to the living room where Max sends Rosie into the ventilation shaft to combat the clown, but the dog is consume by it off-screen. The Jack-in-the-Box clown suddenly crashes through the ceiling into the living room. Before Howard can kill it, the teddy and cherub leap down from the hole in the ceiling to attack once more. Dorothy takes the shotgun and kills the teddy and angel, but before she can finish off the clown, a group of dark elves break into the house. They take Dorothy and Chrissy, while Howard is lost when he grabs onto the clown's tail as it is sucked out through the hole in the wall. A loud thumping is heard on the roof, signifying the arrival of Krampus and causing the elves to flee. Omi stays behind while Tom, Sarah, Linda, Max, and Stevie escape. Omi then comes face-to-face with Krampus, who looks like a demonic Santa Claus with a long tongue. He opens his sack in front of Omi, and a gruesome-looking nutcracker soldier grabs her and pulls her inside.The family heads toward the snowplow, only for the creature in the snow to attack again. It first takes Tom before also getting Linda and Sarah. Max and Stevie get into the snowplow. Max tries to start it, but the elves attack and take Stevie. Max runs after her and he is faced by Krampus. He hands Max his torn-up letter that is wrapped around a bauble similar to what he gave Omi. This leads Max to realize that it's his fault that Krampus arrived. He follows the demons to a spot where they are preparing to take Stevie. Max calls to Krampus and throws the bauble back toward him. It sinks in the snow and opens up a massive hole in the earth that leads to the underworld. The elves hold Stevie over it until Max tells Krampus that he knows it's his fault that Krampus is there, and he offers to take Stevie's place. Krampus wipes Max's tear with his claw, but he and the elves start laughing as they throw Stevie into the hole. Krampus grabs Max and holds him over the hole. Max says he only wishes Christmas could be like it used to be. Krampus drops a screaming Max into the hole.Max then wakes up and finds himself in his room, and it's now Christmas Day. He goes downstairs and sees the whole family together, looking more happy and peaceful than they did a few days ago. They start to open presents, and Max hugs his parents, thinking the whole ordeal was just a bad dream. He then opens his gift to find the Krampus bauble, and suddenly everyone has an ominous look on their faces as their memories of the horrific events slowly come back to them. The camera pans out revealing that either the family is being watched through a snow globe by Krampus, along with hundreds of others in his collection, or are now held prisoner for all eternity by the evil Krampus.The evil toys then appear for one last jump scare. | paranormal | tt3850590 |
Woman in Gold | In a series of flashbacks throughout the film, Maria Altmann recalls the arrival of Nazi forces in Vienna, and the subsequent suppression of the Jewish community and the looting and pillaging conducted by the Nazis against Jewish families. Seeking to escape before the country is completely shut off, Maria Altmann and members of her family attempt to flee to the United States. While Altmann and her husband are successful in their escape, she is forced to abandon her parents in Vienna.
In the present, living in Los Angeles, a now elderly and widowed Altmann attends the funeral for her sister. She discovers letters in her sister's possession dating to the late 1940s, which reveal an attempt to recover artwork owned by the Altmann family that was left behind during the family's flight for freedom and subsequently stolen by the Nazis. Of particular note is a painting of Altmann's aunt, Adele Bloch-Bauer, now known in Austria as the "Woman in Gold".
Altmann enlists the help of Randol Schoenberg, the grandson of her close friends, but a lawyer with little experience, to make a claim to the art restitution board in Austria. Reluctantly returning to her homeland, Altmann discovers that the country's minister and art director are unwilling to part with the painting, which they feel has become part of the national identity. Altmann is told that the painting was in fact legitimately willed to the gallery by her aunt. Upon further investigation by her lawyer and Austrian journalist Hubertus Czernin, this claim proves to be incorrect, as the alleged will is invalid due to the fact that her aunt did not own the painting in question, the artist's fee having been paid by her uncle. Schoenberg files a challenge with the art restitution board, but it is denied and Altmann does not have the money needed to challenge the ruling. Defeated, she and Schoenberg return to the United States.
Months thereafter, happening upon an art book with "Woman in Gold" on the cover, Schoenberg has an epiphany. Using a narrow rule of law and precedents in which an art restitution law was retroactively applied, Schoenberg files a claim in US court against the Austrian government contesting their claim to the painting. An appeal goes to the Supreme Court of the United States, where in the matter of Republic of Austria v. Altmann, the court rules in Altmann's favor, which results in the Austrian government attempting to persuade Altmann to retain the painting for the gallery, which she refuses. After a falling out over the issue of returning to Austria for a second time to argue the case, Altmann agrees for Schoenberg to go and argue the case in front of an arbitration panel of three arbiters in Vienna.
In Austria, the arbitration panel hears the case, during which time they are reminded of the Nazi Regime's war crimes by Schoenberg. Schoenberg implores the arbitration panel to think of the meaning of the word restitution and to look past the artwork hanging in art galleries to see the injustice to the families who once owned such great paintings and were forcibly separated from them by the Nazis. Unexpectedly, Altmann arrives during the session indicating to Czernin that she came to support her lawyer. After considering both sides of the dispute, the arbitration panel rules in favour of Altmann, returning her paintings. The Austrian government representative makes a last minute proposal begging Altmann to keep the paintings in the Belvedere against a generous compensation. Altmann refuses and elects to have the painting moved to the United States with her ("They will now travel to America like I once had to as well"), and takes up an offer made earlier by Ronald Lauder to acquire them for his New York gallery to display the painting on condition that it be a permanent exhibit.
from Wikipedia | murder, flashback | tt2404425 |
Requiem pour un vampire | Two pubescent, pig-tailed, virgin schoolgirls, Michelle [Mirielle d'Argent] and Marie [Marie Pierre Castel], run away from their
school and find themselves lost in a cemetery which leads to a chateau
inhabited by vampires and naked women in chains. The girls try to escape,
but they are bitten by the vampires' aging Master. The Master decides to
initiate the girls in order to make them perpetrators of the vampire race
(which is about to die out). Eventually, of course, the girls will have to
be deflowered because 'you cannot be both virgin and vampire.' For now,
however, their job will be to hunt by day and lure victims back to the
chateau for the vampires to feed upon. Michelle brings back a victim, but
Marie takes pity on hers (Frédéric [Philippe Gasté]), begs him to be the one to deflower
her, and then sets him free.Tonight is to be the grand initiation. First goes Michelle. Then it's
Marie's turn. When the Master discovers that Marie is no longer a virgin,
the vampires set out to search the chateau for her defiler. Frederick
takes refuge in the Master's mausoleum. Then the Master takes Marie for a
walk and tells her a secret. He is the last vampire, and there will be no
more. Only Erica [Dominique Toussaint] has the chance to complete the change. The others will
change slightly over time, but they will never be full vampires. He then
sets Marie free and returns to his mausoleum.The next morning, Michelle confronts Marie and tells her that she
must reveal where Frédéric is hiding or they will both be killed. Marie
refuses, so Michelle chains her and spends the day whipping her, kissing
her, and apologizing for hurting her. But Marie refuses to talk. When
Erica threatens to poke out Marie's eye, Michelle helps Marie to escape.
Of course, Marie leads everyone directly to the mausoleum where Frédéric
is hiding. A gunfight ensues. All the vampires are killed except for the Master,
Erica, and Louise. The Master tells Louise to seal him and Erica in the
tomb and never let them out again. After their deaths, there will be no
more vampires. [Original Synopsis by bj_kuehl.] | pornographic, psychedelic, murder, gothic | tt0067950 |
Mechanic: Resurrection | In this sequel, after faking his death, Arthur Bishop (Jason Statham) has been living quietly in Rio de Janeiro as Mr. Santos. One day during lunch, he is approached by a mysterious woman (Yayaying Rhatha Phongam). She states that her employer wishes for Bishop to come out of retirement to kill three targets and stage them as accidents. The woman also brought a group of assassins with her. Bishop takes a picture of her on his phone as she reaches for a gun. He pushes the table against her as the other hitmen approach him. Bishop fights all of them before running onto a tram car. The woman chases him and almost gets him until he makes his escape by jumping on the back of a hang glider.Bishop retreats to a nearby location to hideout with help of his friend Mae (Michelle Yeoh) investigates the woman and learns her employer is Riah Crain (Sam Hazeldine), a former childhood friend of Bishop's.By the shore, Bishop sees a beautiful woman, Gina (Jessica Alba). Later at night, on the ocean, Bishop sees a boat and hears Gina sounding like she's being attacked. Bishop heads over to the boat and kills the attacker before bringing Gina back to the shore for safety. Bishop later watches a video of Gina teaching children in Cambodia. When she wakes up, Gina explains that a friend of hers was taken by Crain, and he threatened to harm the children if she didn't do what he wanted. Bishop keeps Gina close and takes her by a bar where Mae works. This brings the two of them closer as they bond, unaware that Crain's men are watching them.Eventually, Crain's men corner Bishop and Gina on the beach. While Bishop fights the hitmen, Gina is taken.Bishop is brought in to meet with Crain after a long absence. Crain has an axe to grind with Bishop after he felt that Bishop abandoned him when Crain needed him. Crain orders Bishop to kill the three targets, or else Gina will die. Bishop reluctantly agrees. The first target is a warlord named Krill (Femi Elufowoju Jr.), who is being kept locked up in a Malaysian prison.Bishop travels to Malaysia and gets himself arrested in order to get in the same building as Krill. While on the inside, Bishop stops a man who was already planning on killing Krill. Later, Bishop meets with Krill inside his little hut by the prison yard. As Krill discusses his plan to rule Africa once he gets out of prison, Bishop sneaks up on him and chokes him with a wooden rod by pressing it against a bar on the window. He sets up the "accident" by having Krill sit at his table to appear as though he was in the middle of a prayer. The guards are alerted to the incident and witness Bishop on the security cameras. Bishop creates a bomb that blows a hole through the prison walls. He walks through and jumps into the ocean to escape.Bishop is contacted by Crain through his tablet to speak with Gina. She tells him that he only has 36 hours to kill the next target or she will be eliminated. Crain tells Bishop that the next target is a man named Adrian Cook (Toby Eddington), who runs an underage trafficking ring.Bishop finds Cook's apartment and carefully sets up his trap. Cook goes for a swim in his glass pool outside his apartment while Bishop is hooked to a wire as he scales the building. He uses a device to break the glass in the pool, causing the water to spill out with Cook plummeting to his death. Once again, Bishop makes a clean getaway.Somehow, time has run out for Bishop, and he is forced to kill the last target immediately. The man is Max Adams (Tommy Lee Jones), a billionaire who owns a bunch of submarines. Adams finds Bishop waiting for him in his safe room, but instead of killing him, the two of them get along and decide to work together. Bishop has Adams fake his death by blowing up his equipment and telling Crain that the job is done. They arrange a meeting so Crain can give Gina back. However, Crain is planning to have Bishop killed.Bishop waits for Crain's men as they get off land and head to kill him. He shoots them all dead before heading toward Crain's boat. He shoots, stabs, and blows up more hitmen before getting to Crain. He finds Gina, and they discover that Crain has the boat rigged to explode. Bishop puts her in a chamber to let her escape while he finishes Crain. The two of them go head-to-head and fight as time is running out. Crain pulls Bishop down with the anchor chain, but Bishop manages to pull it off and tie Crain down with the chains. Bishop runs away moments before the boat explodes, killing Crain. Gina resurfaces in the chamber and sees the wrecked boat. She is rescued and treated by paramedics, and she learns there were no survivors.Gina returns to Cambodia to continue teaching. She writes a letter to Mae to let her know she is safe and doing what she loves. Gina is then surprised when Bishop shows up. They embrace.The last scene shows Adams reviewing security footage. He sees that Bishop found a chamber to sneak into before the boat exploded. He got out once that piece of the boat was recovered. Adams laughs and deletes the evidence. | revenge, murder, violence | tt3522806 |
Lásky jedné plavovlásky | Andula is a working-class young woman living in a fading Czech factory town, where, due to an oversight in central state planning, women outnumber men 16–1. The film opens with an intimate scene between Andula and her fellow shoe-factory-worker friend as they lie in bed in their dormitory discussing the ring given to Andula by her boyfriend Tonda and gossiping about her mildly flirtatious encounter with a forest ranger, which is shown in flashback.
The factory supervisor belatedly realizes that the gender disparity is impairing morale and productivity, so he arranges for an army officer to organize military maneuvers near the town in order for the factory to sponsor a big dance, at which the workers can find male companionship among the soldiery. "They need what we needed when we were young", he explains to a sympathetic officer. Anticipation runs high on both sides, with the girls expecting to meet the young men of their dreams, while the recruits, many of whom are actually middle-aged reservists, out-of-shape and already married, look forward to a night of revelry and seduction. The night of the party is a disappointment for some members of both groups; Andula and her friends are repulsed by the unappealing soldiers, whom they call "old buffers", and a trio of reservists are so nonplussed by the situation that they commit a series of comic faux pas, like sending a bottle of wine to the wrong table and dropping a wedding ring that one of them is trying to hide, only to watch it roll across the floor and land at the feet of the young women who are the objects of their lust. For these people, the mixer is a huge flop, with the girls retiring to the lavatory to devise a way to escape their pursuers and the aging reservists arguing with each other over expenses (one points out that "you can only get it [sex] free at home") and speculating on the necessity of going to the woods in order to consummate their romantic plans ("Imagine, in this weather!"). For others, however, the dance is a success: the factory supervisor looks on in smug satisfaction as couples throng the crowded dance floor, one girl holds her hands together in a gesture showing her delight and gratitude when she is asked to dance, while an obese, balding soldier capers with a mismatched tall, thin brunette, both clearly having the time of their lives.
Andula strikes up a flirtation with Milda, the big-city pianist of the band providing the music. He reads her palm and instructs her in how to rebuff unwanted advances with a kick in the shins. After the party she goes to bed with Milda, although the comic frustrations continue, with Milda fighting a battle with a window shade that won't close, before he feels secure in making love. Afterward, as they lie in bed together, Andula asks what Milda meant when he said she was "angular". He replies that a woman is shaped like a guitar: "And you, you look like a guitar too", he tells her, "but one painted by Picasso." Before they part, he offhandedly invites her to come to Prague and pay him a visit sometime.
Although she hears nothing from Milda after their night together, she still expects to reunite with her dream man shortly, so she breaks off with Tonda, who storms the dormitory demanding his ring back. After listening to a speech by the housemother on the virtues of fidelity and commitment, she packs up her suitcase and arrives on Milda's doorstep in the big city, ready to resume their romance. Milda is not home, and she meets his parents, who have never heard of her and don't know what they should do with her. Milda comes home very late, and after an evening of comically painful tension and uncertainty, his parents decide it's only decent to put the girl up for the night on the sofa, requiring Milda to climb into bed with them in order to avoid any appearance of impropriety. Forman has described this famous scene: "It’s a tight fit. The old man wants to sleep; the son would like to get thrown out so he can join the girl on the couch, but the mother runs the show and won’t tolerate any such filthy ideas under her roof." Andula, kneeling outside the door of their bedroom, overhears the family squabbling, and when it becomes clear to her that she is not valued in the least, she breaks down in tears and, the next morning, returns to her home. She tells her friends about her "wonderful" trip to the capital and how nice Milda's parents were to her, especially his father, and then she returns to work at the factory. | romantic | tt0059415 |
Solaris | We first see psychologist Chris Kelvin (George Clooney) going through his daily routine, getting up in the morning, taking the train to work, and talking to his patients in their group therapy sessions. However, there is an underlying sadness about Chris, which we'll learn more about later.One evening, Chris cuts his finger by accident in the kitchen while making dinner and washes the finger under the faucet and looks at the cut. (Important later on). He is then visited by two men who give him a video message from his friend, Dr. Gibarian (Ulrich Tukur), who has relayed this message from Prometheus, a space station in orbit around the planet Solaris. Solaris is an ocean planet that is being researched for its commercial or resource potential. Dr. Gibarian implores Chris to come to the space station, not explaining why exactly, but that something incredible has happened and that he has to come and see for himself. The two men explain to Chris that contact has been lost with the space station; an intervention team was sent and not heard from again. The government may abandon the station and the crew unless Chris travels up there to find out what happened.Chris makes the trip to the space station and upon arrival finds it mostly empty. However, stains of blood are everywhere on the walls. He stumbles upon a makeshift morgue and is devastated to find Dr. Gibarian as one of two dead people on the slab. As Chris leaves the room, he fails to notice blood accumulating in the ceiling panels.He proceeds to find only two survivors of the crew in the space station. The first is a young man named Snow (Jeremy Davies) who is EXTREMELY WEIRD, and only provides very vague and confusing answers. Chris learns that Dr. Gibarian committed suicide. Chris asks about doctor Coutard who was also supposed to be on board. Snow says the doctor was killed by an intervention team when he tried to escape from them. One other doctor has simply vanished; the only thing they know is that he is no longer aboard the station. Chris then proceeds to the other survivor, a woman named Dr. Gordon (Viola Davis). She has locked herself in her room because she is traumatized by what has happened to her and the others. Chris can hear another person stumbling inside her room, but she refuses to let him in. Both Snow and Gordon make it clear that discussing their issues is of no use unless the same things start happening to Kelvin.A little boy suddenly runs around the corridor. Chris tries to catch up to boy but loses him. Dr. Snow tells him it is Dr. Gibarian's son. When asked how the boy could be on board, Snow remains vague, but implies that this is part of the problems everyone is experiencing.Chris successfully coaxes Dr. Gordon out of her room and discusses her frail mental state, although she remains elusive about what caused it. Chris goes to bed and dreams about his wife, Rheya (Natascha McElhone), the time they first met, their courtship and making love to her. When Chris wakes up in the morning, Rheya is right beside him in bed. Chris jumps out of bed all freaked out. He asks how she got here, but Rheya doesn't seem to know what he means by that and continues to act as if they were still married. Chris realizes that Rheya cannot be real because Rheya has been dead for years. Chris tricks her into going into an escape pod and seals it shut. He sends her out to space and then breaks down crying.Chris receives Snow, who explains that Solaris is responsible for all of this. The planet is somehow able to read the minds of the scientists during sleep, and conjures up a living facsimile of their most beloved. Snow himself got a visit from his brother. The boy they saw earlier was actually a replica of Gibarian's son who appeared out of nowhere. Snow tells Chris that Rheya will appear again if he wants her to.The next night, Chris dreams about Rheya and in the morning, she's there in bed with him again. She is another copy and totally unaware of the first one. Chris asks her what she remembers and all she knows is her life with him. She has no clue how she arrived at the space station. Chris decides to let her stay with him, and tells Snow that the second Rheya may never know about what he did to the first.In time, Rheya has thoughts of her own and begins to have doubts about who she really is. She has all the memories of her life with Chris, but they do not feel like they belong to her. To her distress, she starts to remember that she suffered from a bad childhood and depressions. When she got pregnant once, she had an abortion without telling Chris, who left her furiously. She then committed suicide.All aboard have a meeting. They speculate how the planet creates these visitors from matter, and theorize how they could permanently dissolve them with a certain type of radiation. Against Gordon's judgement, Chris theorizes that Solaris is giving him a second chance with his wife, and he wants to take her home to Earth. Gordon thinks otherwise; more visitors could follow, some could go to Earth, and the effects may be devastating. She thinks that Rheya should be vaporized immediately, but Chris refuses and intends to carry on his relationship with Rheya. Gordon spills out to Rheya about the first copy of Rheya that Chris had sent out to space. Rheya is apalled and leaves. Chris is angered, but Gordon stresses that the visitors are not human, and that it is too dangerous to treat them as such.That night, Chris has a dream in which he talks to Gibarian about the visitors. Gibarian implies that he communicates for Solaris. Chris wants to know what Solaris wants from them. Gibarian says that they cannot be sure, and the planet may not even have plans for them; there are no answers, only choices. Chris awakens, and finds Rheya missing. He searches for her and finds her lying on the floor: she has killed herself by drinking liquid oxygen, her face burned where it was in contact with the oxygen.Chris brings her back to his bed where he, Gordon and Snow witness her facial wound suddenly healing itself. Gordon states that she hates watching "their resurrection". Rheya is distraught that she is alive again; she feels that she is not Rheya and therefore should not exist. There is a sudden power drain: Gordon has finished the special weapon and 'tested' it successfully on her visitor. Gordon warns Chris that Rheya will most likely try to kill herself again. Chris becomes determined to protect Rheya. He locks the door and starts taking pills to stay awake, in order to keep an eye on her.Rheya tells Chris that he 'remembered her wrong'; she is depressed and suicidal because that is how Chris remembers her. However, Chris vows to Rheya that they can be happy together and start anew, despite her doubts. In spite of his efforts, Chris falls asleep, dreaming about the breakup with Rheya that led to her suicide from sleeping pills; Chris found her and blamed himself for her death. She left Chris' favorite poem as a suicide note. When Chris wakes up, he finds the door ripped open; Rheya has broken out and has asked Gordon to vaporize her, but not before leaving a goodbye video message for Chris: she states that she can never be the real Rheya, and that it is better this way; she found the suicide note from the real Rheya that Chris had brought with him from Earth, and left it for him to find, again.Chris confronts Gordon in the makeshift morgue and gets angry at her for letting Rheya die; Gordon simply maintains that she only fulfilled Rheya's wish. Suddenly, they look up to the ceiling and see a large patch of blood. Chris opens up the ceiling tile and finds the body of doctor Snow, the cold having preserved the body. They both confront Snow and he admits to killing the doctor because it turns out that.... Snow himself is a visitor! He was the doctor's visitor and the doctor attempted to kill him within 30 seconds of his appearance, but the fake Snow didn't understand why or what was going on, killed the doctor in self-defense and stuffed his body in the ceiling.Gordon advises to vaporize Snow immediately, however Snow warns them that since vaporizing the other visitors, Solaris has increased it mass and the vaporizing equipment has used up most of the station's energy. The entire space station begins to descend towards the planet Solaris. Snow tells Chris and Gordon to evacuate by an escape pod while he stays behind to meet his doom. Chris and Gordon suit up and head towards the escape pod, making preparations to leave.We suddenly see Chris back on Earth, trying to resume his Earth life. He has no idea how long he has been back. While in his kitchen making dinner, he cuts his finger, like before, and rinses it out under the faucet. As he looks at the cut, it begins to heal itself and disappears. Chris suddenly remembers being back on the Prometheus, having second thoughts about escaping, and staying behind. Gordon goes off in the pod by herself as Chris turns back. As the Prometheus starts rocking, Chris is unable to stand on his feet and collapses to the floor. The little boy shows up, walks over and holds Chris' hand as Solaris comes closer.Back in his kitchen, Chris looks up and sees Rheya standing before him. Chris asks her if he is alive or dead; she replies that those words no longer have any meaning, and that their regrets no longer matter, or words to that effect. They embrace as the camera zooms out on Solaris.Now the question is: Is Chris dead and in heaven with Rheya? Or is he in Solaris with another copy of his wife? Or is she the real Rheya? Is Chris himself still real? | boring, psychological, flashback, psychedelic, philosophical, romantic | tt0307479 |
Everything Must Go | Salesman Nick Halsey (Will Ferrell) is fired from his job of 16 years following an unspecified incident in Denver related to his alcoholism. He sits in the parking garage after leaving the office, drinking from a flask. He then takes the Swiss Army Knife he was given as a farewell gift and stabs it into his supervisor's car tires, only to leave the knife (which has his name on it) and run away when he is unable to pull it back out from the tire. He immediately drives to a convenience store and buys a large amount of beer. When he returns home, he finds his wife is gone, the locks have been changed, and his belongings have been strewn all over his front lawn. His wife has left him a letter telling him that she is leaving him, also over the Denver incident, and to not contact her.
Nick spends the night on the lawn. In the morning, he leaves to buy beer and food, returning to find his company car being taken back. In addition, his credit cards no longer work, he has been blocked from the joint checking account he has with his wife, and his phone service is terminated. When the police ask him to vacate the premises, Nick gets them to contact his AA sponsor, Detective Frank Garcia (Michael Peña), who provides him with a permit for a yard sale, allowing him three more days before he must move on. Nick gets a neighborhood boy, Kenny (Christopher Jordan Wallace), to help him sell his possessions, assuring Kenny he will pay him for the help, and also that he will teach him to play baseball. The first day's sale is unsuccessful as Nick is unwilling to let items go.
Nick meets his new neighbor, a pregnant young woman named Samantha (Rebecca Hall), and invites her to his backyard. There, he tells her that he had been sober for six months until attending a conference in Denver, during which he had gotten blackout drunk with a female coworker; he awoke with no memory of the night before, and soon learned that she had lodged a complaint against him, setting the stage for his firing.
Nick then finds a yearbook with a friendly message from an old classmate, Delilah (Laura Dern), whom he tracks down and visits. The reunion is awkward, but Delilah nevertheless gives Nick a hug and tells him that he is a good person deep down.
Now completely broke, Nick has to go without alcohol and soon experiences withdrawal. Samantha gives him a Valium and tells him that he needs help. He replies that she is no better than him because she puts up with her husband's drinking and frequent absences. Samantha storms off, angry and hurt.
The next morning Nick awakes to find Kenny has arranged his belongings on the lawn and has put price tags on them. Most of the things get sold by that evening. Nick apologizes to Samantha, who admits that he was right and that she had told her husband to come home or get a divorce. She, Nick and Kenny then go out to dinner. In the restaurant restroom, Nick encounters his former supervisor, who explains that the incident in Denver probably did not happen. They fired the female employee he got drunk with because it was discovered she has a history of suing fellow employees for sexual harassment, and that Nick probably would have gotten his job back if only he hadn't slashed the supervisor's tires. Nick expresses little reaction to this news, but when the supervisor leaves a glass of beer in the restroom, Nick takes it back to him without drinking a drop.
After dinner, Nick meets with Frank, and answers Frank's phone while he steps out of his office. The caller is Nick's wife, Catherine, telling Frank she is waiting at his house. Nick confronts Frank, who admits Catherine has been staying with him ever since she left Nick. The two men have a fight, and Frank says Catherine deserves better than Nick. It is also divulged that Nick and his wife were both recovering alcoholics. Later, while Frank drives Nick home, he observes that, because Catherine got sober and Nick didn't, their marriage had little chance of succeeding, and proceeds to list the ways Nick failed her as a husband. He then hands Nick a packet of divorce papers for him to sign, along with some spending money and keys to the house. Nick tells Frank to drop him off on the nearest curb; before he gets out of the car, he asks Frank to tell his wife he's sorry. He walks home the rest of the way, at one point stopping to look into the convenience store where he regularly bought beer, but moves on.
The next day, he settles up with Kenny – including repaying him for what he skimmed from Kenny's profits for beer money – and receives an appreciative hug from Samantha, whose husband has come home. She hands him the Polaroid photo she took of him a few days prior, with the message from her fortune cookie taped to the bottom, which says "Everything is not yet lost." | dark, boring, home movie | tt1531663 |
Pulp Fiction | Late one morning in the Hawthorne Grill, a restaurant on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, a couple of young Brits called Honey Bunny (Amanda Plummer) and Pumpkin (Tim Roth) discuss the pros and cons of robbing banks versus liquor stores. Then they add restaurants to the equation, realizing they can make more by taking customers' wallets than they get out of the till. The two kiss, declare they love each other and stand up in their booth, announcing that they're robbing the diner.Earlier in the day, Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) and Vincent Vega (John Travolta) arrive at a San Fernando Valley apartment building. They are hit men in the employ of Marsellus Wallace and have come to retrieve a valuable belonging of Wallace's from a group of would-be crooks led by a young and naive guy named Brett (Frank Whaley). They take back the valuable item -- kept in a briefcase, it glows warmly and transfixes whoever looks at it. Jules recites what he claims is a Bible verse, Ezekiel 25:17, before he and Vincent execute Brett.Story #1: Vincent Vega And Marsellus Wallace's WifeAt his strip club, Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames) pays boxer Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis) to throw his next fight. Jules and Vincent arrive; though it's only a few hours after their visit to the Valley, the two hit men are sporting gym clothes in place of the suits they wore earlier in the day. While Jules heads to the men's room, Vincent goes to the bar and encounters Butch. The men take an instant disliking to each other. Vincent insults Butch but before Butch can retaliate, Marsellus calls Vincent over and embraces him. Marsellus is leaving town that evening and Vincent is to take Marsellus' wife, Mia (Uma Thurman), out for dinner to keep her entertained. Rumors abound that Marsellus gravely wounded another associate, Antoine, who he believed had been improperly friendly with Mia, so Vincent is nervous. Before picking Mia up, he visits his drug dealer, Lance (Eric Stoltz), and buys some high-quality heroin. Properly sedated, he escorts the cocaine-addicted, chain-smoking Mia to Jack Rabbit Slim's, a West Hollywood 1950s-themed restaurant. After some small talk about European travel, Mia's failed acting career, foot massage, and the rumors about Antoine (which Mia dispels), Mia enters herself and Vincent in a dance contest. They dance the twist and win an award. After dinner, they return to the Wallaces' home. Vincent goes to the bathroom to talk himself out of making a pass at Mia. Meanwhile, she discovers the baggie of heroin in his coat pocket and, assuming it's cocaine, snorts some. She immediately passes out and begins to foam at the mouth. Panicked, Vincent takes the dying Mia to Lance's where they argue about what to do with her. Following Lance's advice, Vincent is able to revive her with a shot of adrenaline administered straight to the heart. Vincent takes Mia home. They agree not to tell Marsellus what happened since both of them would get in trouble for it.Story #2: The Gold WatchThe following night, before his fight, Butch dreams of an incident from his childhood: Back at his Tennessee home in 1973, Captain Koons (Christopher Walken) visited Butch to bring him a gold watch. The watch had belonged to Butch's great-grandfather, who took it to World War I with him. Butch's grandfather had taken it to World War II, and Butch's father to Vietnam. Butch's father died as a POW, but gave the watch to Koons to return to Butch. Koons says that he and Butch's father had to hide the watch in their rectums to keep it away from their captors. Butch reaches up with his hand and takes the watch from Koons.Butch wakes from the dream. Instead of throwing the match (not shown on-screen), he fights so viciously that he kills his opponent. He took Marsellus' money and bet it on himself; his winnings will amount to a small fortune. Butch makes small talk with Esmarelda (Angela Jones), the driver of the cab he is in, who reveals that she knows he's the boxer who killed his opponent; she seems fascinated with the topic of death. Esmarelda drives Butch to the seedy motel where he and his French girlfriend, Fabienne (Maria de Medeiros), are staying, having abandoned their apartment. In the morning they will travel to Butch's hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee, claim their winnings, and leave the country. While packing the next morning, however, Fabienne reveals that she forgot the gold watch, the belonging Butch cherishes above all others. After a savage outburst in which he wrecks the motel room, Butch takes Fabienne's car to get the watch, parking a few blocks away and walking through a vacant lot to his apartment building as a precaution. He enters without incident and finds his wristwatch in the bedroom. He realizes he's not alone in the apartment when he notices a submachine gun in the kitchen. Catching Vincent off guard as he emerges from the bathroom, Butch kills him with the gun he found. He leaves his apartment after wiping the gun down with a tissue to remove his fingerprints.Leaving the apartment with his watch, Butch encounters Marsellus crossing the street. He tries to run Marsellus over with his car but only wounds him and is hit by another car himself. Both are injured and Marsellus chases Butch into a pawn shop. There, the owner, Maynard (Duane Whitaker), overpowers them. Marsellus and Butch wake up in the basement of the pawn shop, bound and gagged. Maynard has called his cousin Zed (Peter Greene), who works as a security guard. Maynard and Zed are apparently a pair of redneck serial killers who kill passersby who happen into their store. While the Gimp (Stephen Hibbert), a huge manchild dressed head to toe in black leather fetish gear, watches Butch, Maynard and Zed take Marsellus into the next room and begin to rape him. Butch manages to break the ropes and chair holding him and knocks out the Gimp. Rather than leave the pawn shop, he procures a samurai sword and rescues Marsellus; in the process, Maynard is killed and Zed emasculated by a shotgun blast fired by Marsellus. Marsellus stays behind to oversee the torture-execution of Zed ("I'ma get medieval on your ass," he tells him), but promises that as long as Butch never mentions what happened and never returns to Los Angeles, Marsellus will forget that Butch betrayed him in the boxing ring. Butch agrees. In the final scene, Butch and Fabienne leave town on Grace, Zed's chopper-style motorcycle.Story #3: The Bonnie SituationThree days earlier, flashing back in time to just after Vincent and Jules finish killing Brett for stealing Marsellus' prized possession, a gang member they had not known about bursts out of the bathroom and empties a large pistol point blank at them. However, all of the bullets miss Vincent and Jules, hitting the wall behind them, so they kill the gang member. Jules is certain what occurred was divine intervention, but Vincent dismisses the idea. They leave with Marvin (Phil LaMarr), Marsellus' inside man in the gang. In the car, Jules continues his insistence that what happened in the apartment was a miracle and that he's retiring from Marsellus' gang. Vincent asks Marvin if he believes in miracles, but accidentally shoots him in the head and kills him. The inside of the car is now covered in blood and brain matter. Jules, furious at Vincent's klutziness, drives to the house of his only friend in the Valley, a former colleague named Jimmie (Quentin Tarantino). Jimmie lets them hide the car but angrily tells them that they have to get rid of the body within an hour -- before his wife Bonnie comes home from her night shift at a hospital. Jules calls Marsellus at his home to explain their predicament. Marsellus then calls Winston Wolf (Harvey Keitel), a suave and professional criminal and gambler who solves problems. Wolf arrives at Jimmie's house and tells Vincent and Jules how to clean up the car and themselves -- they have to strip out of their business suits, be sprayed down with a garden hose and wear Jimmie's spare T-shirts and shorts (which explains their appearance at the strip club) -- then helps them dispose of the car and body at a junkyard belonging to a discreet friend named Monster Joe, whose daughter is Mr. Wolf's girlfriend.With the whole situation resolved, Jules and Vincent decide to have breakfast at the Hawthorne Grill, where they continue their discussion about miracles. Jules reveals his plan to leave his criminal life and travel the globe as a mendicant, helping those suffering under tyranny. Vincent mocks him, then goes to the bathroom. Just then Honey Bunny and Pumpkin (from the prologue) begin their robbery of the diner. They collect the cash from the register and the patrons' wallets. Jules gives Pumpkin his wallet, but when Pumpkin tries to take Marsellus' briefcase, Jules pulls his gun and disarms Pumpkin. While Vincent holds Honey Bunny at bay, Jules explains to Pumpkin how, even earlier that morning, he would have killed Pumpkin and Honey Bunny without a second thought. He recites his ersatz version of Ezekiel 25:17 again: "The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who in the name of charity and good will shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you."Jules explains that while he previously thought it was cool to make such a cold-blooded passage the last thing his victims heard, he now realizes that the "tyranny of evil men" part of the passage refers to him, and he intends to become a better person. He and Vincent allow Honey Bunny and Pumpkin to leave with all the money but not the briefcase. They leave the diner themselves and head to Marsellus' strip club. | comedy, murder, stupid, cult, action, revenge, suspenseful, neo noir, western, flashback, clever, psychedelic, satire, thought-provoking, atmospheric, philosophical, entertaining, storytelling, dark, mystery, realism, dramatic, violence, humor, plot twist | tt0110912 |
Some Like It Hot | Joe and Jerry, a saxophonist and bassist, respectively, are two working-class musicians, working in a Chicago speakeasy in February, 1929. Though they have steady work, they still owe money to many of their friends. However, Joe, the optimist, isn't worried since the gig they have seems to be stable. Joe does flirt briefly with the idea of taking all the money he and Jerry have and betting it on a greyhound race but the plan is soon discarded.Fortune changes a few minutes later when a police officer, Mulligan, working on a hot tip from a mob informant, Toothpick Charlie, raids the place for illegal liquor sales. The speakeasy itself belongs to Chicago's most notorious mob boss, Spats Colombo. Joe and Jerry barely escape the raid. Jobless, they try to figure out a plan to earn money; Joe suggests they hock their overcoats and bet the money on a long shot at the dog racing track. Joe's plan fails miserably and the guys are more broke than ever during a bitterly cold Chicago winter.Joe and Jerry go to the offices of their talent agents, whom have no work for them. They go to the last one, Sig Poliakoff's, where Joe talks to the receptionist, Nellie, whom he has been dating. She tells him that Poliakoff has openings for a sax player and bass player in a band that will be traveling to Florida. In Sig's office, Sig is on the phone frantically trying to find replacement musicians for Sweet Sue, the band's leader, and her assistant, Beinstock. Sue's band is all-female and she has a strict "NO MEN" policy; Sue's frustrated because one of her players got pregnant and another ran off to get engaged. Jerry and Joe, not knowing Sue is looking for women, burst into Sig's office and ask for the gig. Poliakoff informs them that they're the wrong gender, but he does have a gig in Urbana, Illinois, for one night. Joe and Jerry accept and con Nellie into loaning them her car to drive to the gig.Joe and Jerry go to the garage where Nellie's car awaits. A group of shady-looking men are playing cards in the corner, one of them is Toothpick Charlie. While the mechanic fills the car with gas, a large limo rolls into the garage and several gang members, armed with shotguns and Thompson machine guns get out. Joe and Jerry hide behind Nellie's car while everyone else is lined up against the wall. The gangsters who burst into the place work for Spats Colombo, who steps from the limo. He has come to Charlie's garage seeking revenge for the speakeasy being busted. He gives the command and his men slaughter everyone against the wall (a reference to the infamous St. Valentine's Day Massacre perpetrated by Al Capone). The gas nozzle in Nellie's car suddenly pops out when the tank is full and clatters on the ground, drawing the attention of Spats' men, who see Joe and Jerry. Spats orders them to be killed too, while at the same time, Charlie, still alive, tries to reach a nearby phone. Spats grabs a Thompson and kills Charlie, temporarily forgetting Joe and Jerry, who escape. One of Spats' goons shoots at them but only succeeds in hitting Jerry's bass. Joe and Jerry, now on the run, call Poliakoff's office, planning to fool their agent into thinking they're the women musicians needed for Sweet Sue's band.Joe and Jerry, dressed as women, arrive at the train station. They use false names; Joe becomes Josephine and Jerry becomes Daphne (he'd originally agreed to be Geraldine, but tells Joe he never liked the name). They meet Sue and Beinstock and fool them effectively enough to be hired. They also spot the band's singer and ukulele player, the attractive and blond Sugar Kowalczyk. Both men are instantly attracted to her, especially Joe.During a band practice on the train Sugar drops a flask of bourbon; alcohol is strictly forbidden by Sue. Beinstock reminds Sugar that he warned her not to hide liquor, however, Jerry tells them it's his flask and covers for Sugar. Later that night, Sugar sneaks into Jerry's berth to thank Daphne for covering for her. Jerry suggests that they both share a drink of whiskey, which Jerry steals from Joe's suitcase in the berth below his. The other women in the band quickly discover Jerry and Sugar and assume they're having a party. Joe and Sugar go to the ladies' room to prepare some ice and during their conversation, Sugar tells Joe that she's had bad luck with romance and men and that she has a soft-spot for saxophone players. Joe is floored but keeps his composure and they share a drink together. In his berth, Jerry finds that the other girls are becoming a bit too physical and, afraid they'll find out his true identity, pulls the emergency cord, stopping the train. All the girls spill out of his berth and the party grinds to halt, Sweet Sue flustered by the whole ordeal.The train arrives in Florida and the band is taken to their hotel. Joe leaves Jerry to carry all their luggage and as Jerry climbs the steps to the entrance, he loses a shoe. A rich man, Osgood Fielding III places it back on her feet and proceeds with improper advances toward Jerry's alter ego. Jerry fights the man off after he gropes him in the elevator. In their room, Jerry tells Joe they should leave the band and go further into hiding. Joe tells him they should stay in disguise since Colombo's gang would never look for them in an all-woman band. Joe is also attracted to Sugar, though he doesn't sight that as a reason for staying, and has his own plans to woo her. Sugar shows up and invites the two to the beach; Jerry joins her but Joe declines. After they leave, Joe takes out a suitcase he'd stolen from Beinstock (along with the man's glasses) and dresses up in a fashionable sailor's outfit. Joe goes down to the beach and sits in a chair, reading the Wall Street Journal. He attracts the attention of Sugar and presents himself as an heir to the Shell Oil Corporation. Sugar begins to flirt with him, however, he remains aloof, telling her he's waiting for a signal from his yacht offshore. Jerry happens by and instantly recognizes Joe. He convinces Sugar to go back to his and Joe's hotel room to expose him as an impostor. Joe beats them back there and they find him in the tub, covered with bubbles and posing as Josephine. Sugar tells Josephine that she's probably met a millionaire and she leaves. When she does, Jerry launches into a tirade about faking an identity on the beach and that Joe is trying to take advantage of Sugar. Joe responds by rising out of the tub, still in his Shell Oil Jr. outfit, and plops his wet wig down on Jerry's head. Jerry receives a ship-to-shore call from Osgood: Osgood wants to invite Daphne to have dinner with him aboard his yacht. Joe takes charge of the invitation and tells Jerry to persuade Osgood to take him to a dinner and dancing club instead of the yacht. Joe will go to the yacht as Shell Oil Jr. with Sugar.That night, while Joe & Jerry play with the band at dinner, Jerry receives a giant bouquet of flowers from Osgood. When the gig ends, Joe rushes back to his room and assumes the disguise, while Jerry and Osgood go to the restaurant. Joe arrives at the dock just before Sugar and takes her to the yacht on Osgood's boat. While the two have drinks and eat, Joe again acts aloof towards Sugar, trying to persuade her to kiss him. At first he acts as though he has a psychological block that prevents him from enjoying their romantic evening, but Sugar eventually turns him on. On the shore, Osgood and Jerry dance the tango all night.Sugar and Joe return to the mainland, apparently in love. He bids farewell to Sugar and climbs up to his room where Jerry is lying on one of the beds. Jerry tells Joe he's engaged; when Joe asks "who's the lucky girl?" Jerry says he is himself because Osgood proposed to Daphne. The two have a brief debate where Jerry reveals his plan to marry Osgood and tell him the truth right after the ceremony. He plans to extort a large settlement out of Osgood and live on the alimony checks he believes he'll receive. Joe convinces Jerry that he's committing fraud and will be caught. Jerry shows Joe the pricey diamond bracelet Osgood gave to him as an engagement gift, saying he'll return it. Joe suggests they keep it, perhaps thinking they can hock it for cash.In the hotel lobby, Spats Colombo and his goons arrive for a convention of "Friends of Italian Opera", which is actually a meeting of organized crime gangsters. The organization and meeting are being led by Little Bonaparte, the most powerful gangster there. Bonaparte already has a rivalry with Spats, which has been exacerbated by Spats' murder of Toothpick Charlie, who was a good friend of Bonaparte. Jerry and Joe, in the lobby, spot Spats and his crew and immediately get into the elevator to return to their room. Just as the doors are about to close, Spats and his men enter the elevator; Jerry and Joe's disguises work on them and they make it to their room.They pack hurriedly and Joe wants to take care of one last detail: Sugar. He calls her and once again uses his Shell Oil Jr. voice, telling her that he has to leave suddenly. His parents have told him to marry a woman who is the daughter of another millionaire with a large empire. As a final gesture, Joe leaves a bouquet of flowers outside Sugar's room with Osgood's diamond bracelet (the gift to Jerry) hidden inside. Sugar is devastated but accepts the gift.Jerry and Joe climb out the window to avoid running into the gangsters again. However, their path takes them right past Spats' balcony and they're spotted. Spats grabs the bass Jerry left behind and sees the bullet holes from when the two escaped in Chicago. Spats and his men chase them through the hotel but lose them. At one point, Jerry and Joe disguise themselves as a bellhop and a man in a wheelchair and duck into a banquet room, the same room all the gangsters will be eating dinner in. While they hide under the huge table, a pair of shoes with spats on them slides under the table. The two sit still and wait.Little Bonaparte begins the meeting with a lengthy criticism of Spats himself, admonishing him for the assassination on Valentine's Day. Bonaparte seems to forgive Spats' indiscretion and lightens the mood by announcing they will celebrate Spats' birthday. Spats points out that his birthday isn't for a few months but Bonaparte insists they still have a large cake for Spats. After the cake is brought in, the entire room sings to Spats and a gangster pops up out of the cake and shoots Spats and his crew with a Thompson. Jerry and Joe burst out from under the table and run out of the room. Just as Little Bonaparte orders his men to catch them, Chicago cop Mulligan walks in and demands to know what happened. Bonaparte avoids the question and Mulligan promises to start a federal investigation.Jerry and Joe retreat to their room, fixing their disguises once again. They overhear a gangster saying that they've got all the standard escape routes covered. Joe realizes that they can escape on Osgood's yacht and tells Jerry to call the millionaire and accept his marriage proposal. Before they leave, Joe wanders into the dining and dancing hall of the hotel and sees Sugar singing "I'm Through With Love". Moved, Joe approaches her and kisses her. Sugar realizes who Josephine really is and leaves the band, following Joe and Jerry to Osgood's speedboat. They all board it and head for the yacht. Joe tries to tells Sugar that he's a cad who took advantage of her and that he's a sax player who will only treat her badly. Sugar doesn't care and kisses him anyway. Jerry begins to tell Osgood that he's equally as treacherous, that he smokes and can't have children, however Osgood doesn't care. Jerry, frustrated, finally pulls off his wig and tells Osgood he's actually a man. Osgood replies, "Well, nobody's perfect." | entertaining, cult, comedy, murder, romantic | tt0053291 |
Duck Soup | The wealthy Mrs. Teasdale (Margaret Dumont) insists that Rufus T. Firefly (Groucho) be appointed leader of the small, bankrupt country of Freedonia before she will continue to provide much-needed financial aid. Meanwhile, neighboring Sylvania is attempting to annex the country. Sylvanian ambassador Trentino (Louis Calhern) tries to foment a revolution and to woo Mrs. Teasdale, and he tries to dig up dirt on Firefly by sending in spies Chicolini (Chico) and Pinky (Harpo).
After failing to collect useful information against Firefly, Chicolini and Pinky are able to infiltrate the government when Chicolini is appointed Secretary of War after Firefly sees him selling peanuts outside his window. Meanwhile, Firefly's secretary, Bob Roland (Zeppo), suspects Trentino's motives, and advises Firefly to get rid of Trentino by insulting him. Firefly agrees to the plan, but after a series of personal insults exchanged between Firefly and Trentino, the plan backfires when Firefly slaps Trentino instead of being slapped by him. As a result, the two countries come to the brink of war. Adding to the international friction is the fact that Firefly is also courting Mrs. Teasdale, and, like Trentino, hoping to get his hands on her late husband's wealth.
Trentino learns that Freedonia's war plans are in Mrs. Teasdale's safe and orders Chicolini and Pinky to steal them. Chicolini is caught by Firefly and put on trial, during which war is officially declared, and everyone is overcome by war frenzy, breaking into song and dance. The trial put aside, Chicolini and Pinky join Firefly and Bob Roland in anarchic battle, resulting in general mayhem.
The end of the film finds Trentino caught in makeshift stocks, with the Brothers pelting him with fruit. Trentino surrenders, but Firefly tells him to wait until they run out of fruit. Mrs. Teasdale begins singing the Freedonia national anthem in her operatic voice and the Brothers begin hurling fruit at her instead.
=== Mirror scene ===
In the "mirror scene," Pinky, dressed as Firefly, pretends to be Firefly's reflection in a missing mirror, matching his every move—including absurd ones that begin out of sight—to near perfection. In one particularly surreal moment, the two men swap positions, and thus the idea of which is a reflection of the other. Eventually, and to their misfortune, Chicolini, also disguised as Firefly, enters the frame and collides with both of them.
Although its appearance in Duck Soup is the best known instance, the concept of the mirror scene did not originate in this film. Max Linder included it in Seven Years Bad Luck (1921), where a man's servants have accidentally broken a mirror and attempt to hide the fact by imitating his actions in the mirror's frame. Charlie Chaplin used a similar joke in The Floorwalker (1916), though it did not involve a mirror.
This scene has been imitated many times; for instance, in the Bugs Bunny cartoon Hare Tonic, the Mickey Mouse cartoon Lonesome Ghosts, The Square Peg (1959), The Pink Panther (1963), and Big Business (1988). Harpo himself did a reprise of this scene, dressed in his usual costume, with Lucille Ball also donning the fright wig and trench coat, in the I Love Lucy episode "Lucy and Harpo Marx".
=== Other scenes and jokes ===
The climactic production number ridicules war by comparing nationalism to a minstrel show. One segment is a variant on the old Negro spiritual "All God's Chillun Got Wings" (and was reportedly considered for deletion for the film's DVD release, for fear of offending African Americans):
Shortly after, during the final battle scenes, "rightfully [...] called the funniest of all of cinema", Firefly can be seen wearing a different costume in almost every sequence until the end of the film, including American Civil War uniforms (first Union and then Confederate), a British palace guard uniform, a Boy Scout Scoutmaster's uniform, and even a Davy Crockett coonskin cap. Meanwhile, the exterior view of the building they are occupying changes appearance from a bunker to an old fort, etc. Firefly assures his generals that he has "a man out combing the countryside for volunteers." Sure enough, Pinky is wandering out on the front lines wearing a sandwich board sign reading, "Join the Army and see the Navy." Later, Chicolini volunteers Pinky to carry a message through enemy lines; Firefly tells him, "[...] and remember, while you're out there risking life and limb through shot and shell, we'll be in here thinking what a sucker you are." Thomas Doherty has described this line as "sum[ming] up the Great War cynicism towards all things patriotic".
The melodramatic exclamation "This means war!" certainly did not originate with Duck Soup, but it is used several times in the film—at least twice by Trentino and once by Firefly—and would be repeated by Groucho in A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races. Variations of this phrase would later become a frequently used catch-phrase for Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny in Warner Bros. cartoons.
In another scene, the film pokes fun at the Hays Code. Due to the code, a man and woman could not be shown in bed together. The camera begins the scene in a woman's bedroom, panning across the foot of the bed. A pair of men's shoes are shown on the floor, then a pair of women's shoes and then four horseshoes. The camera cuts to a shot of the entire room: Pinky is sleeping in one bed with the horse, while the woman is in another bed.
The film's writers recycled a joke used in Horse Feathers in this dialogue with Chico:
Prosecutor: Chicolini, isn't it true you sold Freedonia's secret war code and plans?
Chicolini: Sure! I sold a code and two pairs o' plans!
The street vendor confrontations are also well-remembered pieces of physical comedy: Chico and Harpo harass a lemonade seller (comedy film veteran Edgar Kennedy), egged on by his irritation that they have stolen his pitch.
First, there is a scene involving the knocking off, dropping, picking up and exchanging of hats. Later, Kennedy (a much larger man) steals bags of Harpo's peanuts, and Harpo responds by burning Kennedy's new straw boater hat; in return, Kennedy pushes over their peanut wagon. Harpo responds by stepping knee-deep into Kennedy's lemonade tank, where he imitates a stereotypical Italian grape-crushing peasant; this drives off Kennedy's waiting line of customers.
Just before the Mirror Scene is the Radio Scene. Harpo tries the combination to the safe on a box which proves to be a radio, and it starts blaring the break-up strain of John Philip Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever". The music continues despite frantic efforts to silence, and finally destroy, the radio.
Harpo often doffed his hat on-screen, but Chico very rarely removed his Tyrolean hat, even when indoors. For a few seconds on-screen in the earlier scene, Chico's head is uncovered, revealing a wavy wig. Chico had already started going bald when the brothers appeared in their first Broadway production, I'll Say She Is, in 1924. All of the Brothers' natural receding-hairline patterns were similar, but Harpo and Chico covered theirs with wigs (Groucho would later sport an obvious toupee in the films At The Circus and Go West). | insanity, anti war, absurd, cult, satire | tt0023969 |
Van Wilder: Freshman Year | Van Wilder (Jonathan Bennett) has graduated from high school. He is supposed to go on a road trip to Amsterdam with his dad (Linden Ashby), but his dad is busy with work, so Van goes alone. Van ends up going to Coolidge College, following family tradition. His family has their name on a building there, Wilder Hall. However, when he gets there, Coolidge is no longer the laid-back school of his dad's time, but a military-based institution run by Dean Reardon (Kurt Fuller).
Reardon, a military man who despises the senior Wilder, wants to take out his aggression on Van. He cannot force him out because his dad is wealthy and has ties to the school, so he tries to make Van's life a living hell. Van turns a one bedroom dorm into a two bedroom (by breaking down a wall). His roommate is Farley (Nestor Aaron Absera), a pothead from Jamaica. The boys decide to throw a party on campus, which is againt the rules, along with kissing, drugs, alcohol, sex, or anything else that is 'fun'. The only person to show up to the party is Yu Dum Fok (Jerry Shea). The boys try to find the girls, but instead find a group of religious, prudish girls led by Eve (Meredith Giangrande).
After Eve throws sacramental wine on them, Van pulls a prank during church. Reardon knows Van is behind the prank, so he commands his ROTC students, Dirk (Steve Talley) and his closeted sidekick Corporal Benedict (Nick Nicotera), on Van, trying to make him crack. Van falls for Dirk's girlfriend, Kaitlin (Kristin Cavallari), causing Dirk to get even more angry. Kaitlin thinks, lives, and breathes the military, and believes in chastity before marriage. After playing a military game with Reardon that results in him stepping down as dean and being tasered, Van and Kaitlin end up together and Van decides to finish college. The film ends as Van leaves Dirk and Benedict tied to each other in their underwear. | revenge | tt1276434 |
Across the Universe | The film opens with a solitary figure, Jude (Jim Sturgess), sitting on a quiet beachfront, singing Girl with a melancholy air, while looking off into the distant horizon. It's the end of the workday as Jude lines up with his fellow shipyard hands for their day's wages. After receiving payment from the old man in charge, Jude walks back home, smiling along the way.As he leaves, Hold Me Tight begins, while we flash to an idealistic prom scene, where Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood) dances along with her boyfriend Daniel (Spencer Liff) and their classmates. A classic band plays along, as Lucy sings to Daniel Tell me I'm the only oneIn another part of the world, another couple in Liverpool is singing the same song as they dance at a dark underground Liverpool bar, a reference to the Cavern Club, where the Beatles began their career. Jude holds his girlfriend (Lisa Hogg) as she sings Let me go on loving you. Ambling along a dark, damp street after leaving the bar, Jude and his girlfriend hold hands and trip along the cobblestone. They stop to kiss along the road, as she tells Jude not to forget her while he is in America. He laughs and consoles her, singing While I'm away, I'll write home everyday, and I'll send all my loving to you. While Jude continues to sing All My Loving, he packs his bag, kisses his mom (Angela Mounsey), and heads off to the docks to board a ship to America, seeking out his estranged father in New Jersey.Back at Daniel's house, Lucy is seeing him off to boot camp and Vietnam. In his new uniform, Daniel drives off while Lucy runs after the car. We then see Lucy sitting on her bed writing a letter, clearly for Daniel.In an army vehicle we see Daniel reading the letter presumably from Lucy as he and his fellow recruits drive away from Boot Camp. The vehicle drives past a high school football field, where football practice is winding down, with cheerleaders running through their routines and watching the players on the field.After practice ends, a cheerleader, Prudence (T.V. Carpio), watches wistfully as a fellow cheerleader flirts with a football player. She softly sings I Want To Hold Your Hand as she watches her obvious rival walking away with the jock. As she watches them and sings, she walks off the field, into the unknown. We then see her on the side of the road, thumb extended. In a different part of America, Jude is doing exactly the same thing. A car pulls over for him and, momentarily trying to get in on the wrong side before realizing American cars are different, he gets in.Jude arrives at Princeton and stands on the academic quad while a student, obviously in a rush, tears his way through the crowd and drops all of his books and papers. While stooping down to help collect the papers, Jude asks the student if he knows a certain professor, believing him to be his father. The student, Max (Joe Anderson), is first at a loss, until he realizes that Jude is looking for the janitor (Robert Clohessy). He laughs, and points to a man washing windows on a ladder, saying "That's him."Introducing himself to the window washer, Jude explains who he is. At first, the man is surprised, saying that he didn't know the mother was pregnant, and that he would have married Jude's mother if he had known. Jude assures him that this apology wasn't what he wanted, but just wanted "them each to know that the other existed."Max, the charming and outgoing student from earlier, is on a roof with a few of his buddies as they chip golf balls off of a beer bottle at the nearby dormitory windows. After a few misses, he finally connects - and the group flees the angry mob that spills out of the dorm. Jude, seeing the commotion while out having a cigarette in front of the building that his father is letting him stay in, lets Max slip in to hide. Grateful, Max invites Jude to go out that night with himself and his golfing buddies. While proclaiming that they get by With a Little Help From My Friends, they smoke and drink their way through town until they finally collapse on couches from exhaustion.Lucy walks home from school with her friend, while she talks about missing her boyfriend Daniel. As they walk up to Lucy's house, her mom hands her a letter, smiling; it's from Daniel saying that he has been able to get a few weeks leave, and will be home soon to visit. Lucy launches into song as she flies up the stairs, excited that "It Won't Be Long" before she'll be back together with Daniel.For Thanksgiving break, Max invites Jude home for the holidays. After picking up Max's little sister, who turns out to be Lucy, they continue on home. At dinner, Max announces that he is dropping out of college and going to New York. An argument ensues, and the three decide to go out bowling to release some tension.At the alley, while they joke around and tease each other, Jude thinks to himself that he's "falling, yes he is falling" for Lucy while singing I've Just Seen A Face. When he and Max drive away to New York, Max warns Jude that Lucy has a boyfriend. Jude smiles and assures him that It's OK; he has a girlfriend too.Jude and Max arrive in the city, and after climbing to the top of a walkup, they enter a large apartment owned by a singer named Sadie (Dana Fuchs), who shows them the apartment, while several people lounge around playing the guitar or reading. Pleased with the apartment, they agree to pay two weeks' rent in advance, and become New Yorkers.Moving to the streets of Detroit during the race riots, a little boy cowers next to a car on fire, while black men and women run on the streets from the police. Staring out at the audience, he sings "Let It Be" among the violence. Moving into a church in the black community, while the choir swells, we see the same little boy laying in a coffin, obviously a casualty of the rioting. JoJo (Martin Luther) stands holding an older woman as she weeps, staring at the little boy's lifeless body. The little boy is his younger brother.Experiencing the same grief, we see Lucy weeping after a letter to Daniel's parents notify them of his death. She too, stares at the burial of her boyfriend, as soldiers fold up the flag and hand it to bereaved mother.As the song ends, JoJo slings a guitar over his shoulder, and walks down the street, heading to New York City himself. As he steps along, Come Together plays to the beat. Walking down the street, he sees a sign for Guitarist Needed at the bar "Café Huh?" and enters. Sadie is there, and gives him the role of lead guitarist in her band. He comes to the apartment to live; one night while he is playing a song on his guitar for Jude, a water-logged Prudence climbs into their bathroom window out of the rain, and becomes their newest roommate.After graduating high school, Lucy joins her brother Max and friend Jude in the city for the summer before she goes to college. While she's happy to see her brother, she's reluctant to give him the letter that came for him - a draft notice. At a party at the apartment that night, Jude falls again for Lucy, and breaks up with a girl that he was seeing. Lucy sings If I Fell while they dance, and finally kiss.The next day, Max reports to the draft board for his physical, and despite having swallowed an entire box of cotton balls in the hopes that it will show up as a shadow in x-rays, is deemed qualified for service. While he and a large group of men all endure rigorous physicals, they imagine an animated poster of Uncle Sam singing to them I Want You.Back at the apartment, Prudence is mourning the coupling of JoJo and Sadie, after having found herself infatuated with the singer. She locks herself into the closet, and the others sing Dear Prudence to coax her out of her hiding place. Despite this, Prudence leaves unexpectedly; no one is sure where she goes.The remaining gang goes to a party where an agent tries to convince Sadie to go solo. Tripping out on pink punch, the group embarks on a psychedelic cross-country bus trip. At a stop in a field, they see a circus run by Mr. Kite, and find Prudence in the troupe dating a contortionist named Rita.Max is now off to war, leaving Lucy angry and distraught. After seeing an anti-war speaker in the park, she decides to protest the war and call to bring the troops home. As Lucy devotes more and more time to the protest, Jude becomes jealous of the man that runs the group.Sadie has finally told the rest of the band that she is planning on going solo. Infuriated, JoJo purposefully ruins her opening song Oh! Darling with distracting and awful guitar riffs, forcing her to leave the stage. Having his own relationship trouble, Jude sinks into his artistic work while singing Strawberry Fields Forever. He and Lucy have now fought over her increasing involvement and obsession with her anti-war group, culminating in Jude confronting her at their headquarters while singing Revolution.After being kicked out, he walks by a window display of the announcement of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. While My Guitar Gently Weeps starts playing. He meets up with JoJo and gets drunk, only to find that Lucy has moved all of her belongings out of the apartment, leaving him. Later that day, he gets on a subway (to the song Across The Universe) to go to Columbia University, where the anti-war group's actions escalate to increasing violence, leading to police action at Columbia.Sadie starts singing Helter, Skelter at a club, while Jude, walking through, sees Lucy as one of the protesters being arrested by the police, and attempts to save her while she is being dragged away. She calls out to him, but he is overcome by the police and is arrested.At the same time, Max gets into a gunfight, where he is injured and has a dream sequence about naked Vietnamese mothers floating in the river.Meanwhile, Jude sits in his jail cell, as more and more prisoners are released. Finally, alone, his father comes to visit him and breaks the news that although the police will not press charges, he is being deported to England. He encounters Molly, his old flame, now pregnant with Phil's child.While he is walking home, the scene cuts to Lucy at Max's bedside in the VA hospital. He starts singing Happiness is a Warm Gun in a sequence with Salma Hayek as a nurse.At one of her rallies, Lucy is in a phone booth, while her mother pleads with her on the phone to be careful and begs her to stop her involvement in the protests. Resolved, she argues with her mother, when a fight breaks out, and a bullet hits the phone booth. Lucy tells her mother she has to go and hangs up, then screams as she sees a protestor being mauled by a police dog. Uninjured but shaking in terror, Lucy sinks down while singing to herself that it'll be alright. TV scenes of the DC protests and the Pentagon protest show while Max watches at the VA hospital. Lucy goes back to the old protest headquarters and finds Paco making pipe bombs.[/i]A Day in the Life[/i] is playing as Jude gets off work, and he gets a newspaper and sees that the place where the protesters organized had blown up. Cut to him sitting on the beach... then cut to the wharf area in NY, where Max is sitting and Lucy sings Blackbird, while Jude wanders the beach and tidal areas in Liverpool.Jude gets back into his routine at the shipyards, then sits in a pub after work, having a pint. To the words of Hey Jude, sung by Max (as imagined by Jude as sitting next to him, while he is looking into a mirror behind the bar), he runs to his house to again pack his bags, and returns to the States (this time with a visa) to reclaim Lucy. Max meets him at Customs, and takes him to the building where Sadie and JoJo's reunited band is playing Don't Let Me Down to a cheering crowd on the streets.Unaware that Jude is back, Lucy is invited by note by Max to come to the concert. She is about to press the buzzer when she sees the strawberry logo Jude designed for Sadie, and old memories of her and Jude and the pain of the breakup come rushing back, and she walks away hurriedly. The police break up the concert as the crowd gathering gets larger. Jude hides from the police, and after being left alone on the roof, starts singing All You Need Is Love into the microphone. Sadie, JoJo, Prudence, Max, and the rest all rush back up to the roof, and join in. Lucy hears Jude's voice, and frantically rushes to get into the building, only to be stopped by the police. She turns, and runs to a building across the street, and stares at Jude from the roof across the way. As the rest of the band join in with song, Jude catches Lucy's eye from across the building. She smiles as a tear runs down her cheek. Jude sighs and a smile of happiness slowly spreads across his face. Together in the end, they kiss as Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds plays during the end credits. | anti war, psychedelic, murder, romantic | tt0445922 |
Beverly Hills Cop III | One night in Detroit, Axel Foley plans to arrest a gang of car thieves who run a local chop shop. Unbeknownst to his boss, Inspector G. Douglas Todd, Axel has canceled the SWAT, intending to raid the shop using only his team. Meanwhile, a group of men arrive at the chop shop to pick up a cube van that the car thieves had hijacked. The leader of the group confirms that the vehicle still contains its cargo, which consists of crates labelled as property of the U.S. government, then has his men execute the car thieves.
As the murderers are about to leave, Axel, unaware of what has happened inside, proceeds with his plan to enter the shop and quickly finds his team outgunned. Todd, arriving moments later, is fatally shot by the group's leader. As the perpetrators escapes in the cube van, an angry Foley gives chase in one of the partially disassembled cars from the shop, but is prevented from continuing the chase by Secret Service Agent Steve Fulbright. Fulbright informs Axel that the killer must remain on the loose because the federal government is pursuing a larger scheme in which he is involved.
After Todd's funeral, Axel learns that several clues left behind by the killers point to Wonder World, a theme park in Beverly Hills, California owned by "Uncle" Dave Thorton. Axel arrives in Beverly Hills and reunites with his friend Billy Rosewood, who has been promoted to "Deputy Director of Operations for Joint Systems Interdepartmental Operational Command" (DDO-JSIOC), and meets Billy's new partner, Jon Flint. It is revealed that John Taggart is now retired and is living in Phoenix, Arizona. Axel asks Flint to call his friend Ellis DeWald, the head of Wonder World's park security, to let him know that he's coming to the park for his investigation.
Axel meets and befriends Janice Perkins (Theresa Randle) whilst touring the park's behind-the-scenes facilities. Later, he is spotted by security, shot at and attacked hand-to-hand. Axel retreats to the surface where he cuts in line to enter the Spider Ferris wheel ride. The guards accidentally jam the ride, placing two little kids' lives in danger. Axel rescues them and is subsequently taken to park manager Orrin Sanderson. When DeWald is called in to contest the claim that Axel was attacked by the security men without prior challenge, Axel immediately recognizes DeWald as Todd's killer, but Rosewood and Flint refuse to believe that claim because DeWald is keeping an impeccable public reputation.
However, Axel is later visited by Uncle Dave and Janice, who inform him that the Wonder World park's designer and Dave's close friend, Roger Fry, has mysteriously disappeared while inspecting the grounds two weeks ago, leaving only a letter with a cryptic message. He tries to heckle DeWald into revealing his criminal involvements, despite continued admonishments by Agent Fulbright, but DeWald proves too smooth to be caught in a mistake. When Axel later digs deeper into a closed-off section of the park, he finds out that DeWald and Sanderson run a counterfeiting ring that uses Wonder World as a front, and DeWald was at the chop shop in Detroit to get his hands on blank printing paper used for American currency. Axel later meets with Uncle Dave to ask him about further details to find a piece of viable evidence, and thereby discovers that Fry's warning letter is actually written on a sheet of the stolen mint paper. Before he can make use of that evidence, however, Uncle Dave is shot by DeWald, and Axel is framed for his shooting.
After getting away from DeWald and bringing Uncle Dave to the next hospital, Axel sets out to prove his innocence by storming the park, calling Rosewood and Flint to assist him. The resulting shootout kills DeWald's henchmen, and after a hand-to-hand fight Axel shoots and kills DeWald. Agent Fulbright appears to explain that Axel was right, but Axel realizes his actual involvement with the counterfeiter and shoots him during a brief struggle. Uncle Dave makes a full recovery, and he thanks Axel for his assistance by creating a new character for Wonder World in his honor, Axel Fox. | comedy, murder, cult, violence, comic, revenge, entertaining | tt0109254 |
Drop Dead Fred | Elizabeth Cronin is an unassertive and repressed woman, domineered by her controlling mother, Polly. While taking her lunch break from work, she visits her husband, Charles, from whom she is separated, hoping to sort out their problems. He reasserts his desire for a divorce and says that he is in love with another woman named Annabella. While she is at the public phone, a man walking down the street breaks into her car to steal her purse. Then her car is stolen as well. Forced to run back to work (at the courthouse), she arrives late and loses her job. While leaving the courthouse she runs into an old friend, Mickey, who brings up childhood memories they shared, which includes memories of Elizabeth's childhood imaginary friend, Drop Dead Fred. Mickey explains how only Elizabeth could see Drop Dead Fred, and everybody else thought she was crazy.
Since losing her job Elizabeth moves back into her mother's home. While rummaging through past belongings in her childhood bedroom closet, Elizabeth finds a taped-shut jack-in-the-box. She places the box by the window and gets into bed. Through a series of flashbacks, it is revealed that while he caused havoc for her, he also gave her happiness and a release from her oppressive mother. Elizabeth wakes up to find the jack-in-the-box slowly playing music. She removes the tape and the box continues to play itself, faster and faster, until Drop Dead Fred flies out of the box, finally freed after all these years. He agrees to help her become happy again, which she believes will only happen when she wins back Charles. However, his childish antics do more harm than good. He sinks Janie's boat, causes havoc at a restaurant, and even makes Lizzie attack a person playing a violin in a shopping mall.
Worried by Elizabeth's recent strange behavior, Polly brings her to a (children's) psychologist. In the waiting room, Fred is seen meeting up with the imaginary friends of other patients, who are all children. The doctor prescribes medication to rid her of him, whom he and Polly believe is a figment of her imagination. She also changes her appearance and wardrobe. Charles now wants her back and she is overjoyed, until Fred discovers he is still cheating on her with Annabella. Heartbroken, she tells Fred that she cannot leave Charles, because she is scared of being alone. They escape to a dream sequence in which she is finally able to reject him, stand up to Polly, and declare she is no longer afraid of her. She frees her imprisoned childhood self. Fred tells her that she no longer needs him, so they kiss and he disappears into her eternal subconscious.
Upon awakening from the dream, Elizabeth dumps Charles and asserts herself to Polly, who blames her for her father leaving home. Before leaving, she reconciles with Polly, and encourages her to find a friend to escape her own loneliness. She goes to her friend Mickey's house, and on meeting, they both express interest in becoming more than just friends. After his daughter, Natalie, comes up to them and blames Fred for mischief that has just prompted her nanny to quit, Elizabeth realizes that he is now with Natalie. She can no longer see him, but he is now leading another, and smiles contentedly. | cult, humor | tt0101775 |
Equus | Martin Dysart (Richard Burton) is a psychiatrist in a psychiatric hospital. He begins with a monologue in which he outlines the case of 17-year-old Alan Strang. He also divulges his feeling that his occupation is not all that he wishes it to be and his feelings of dissatisfaction and disappointment about his barren life. Dysart finds that there is a never-ending supply of troubled young people for him to "adjust" back into "normal" living; but he doubts the value of treating these youths, since they will simply return to a dull, normal life that lacks any commitment and "worship" (a recurring theme). He comments that Alan Strang's crime was extreme but adds that just such extremity is needed to break free from the chains of existence. A court magistrate, Hesther Saloman, visits Dysart, believing that he has the skills to help Alan come to terms with his violent acts involving six horses.At the hospital, Dysart has a great deal of difficulty making any kind of headway with Alan (Peter Firth), who at first responds to questioning by singing TV advertising jingles. Slowly, however, Dysart makes contact with Alan by playing a game where each of them asks a question, which must be answered honestly. He learns that, from an early age, Alan has been receiving conflicting viewpoints on religion from his parents. Alan's mother, Dora Strang (Joan Plowright), is a devout Christian who has read to him daily from the Bible. This practice has antagonized Alan's atheist father, Frank Strang (Colin Blakely), who, concerned that Alan has taken far too much interest in the more violent aspects of the Bible, destroyed a violent picture of the Crucifixion that Alan had hung at the foot of his bed. Alan replaced the picture with one of a horse, with large, staring eyes.During his youth, Alan had established his attraction to horses by way of his mother's biblical tales, a horse story that she had read to him, western movies, and his grandfather's interest in horses and riding.Dysart reveals a dream he has had, in a Grecian/Homeric setting, in which he is a public official presiding over a mass ritual sacrifice. Dysart slices open the viscera of hundreds of children, and pulls out their entrails. He becomes disgusted with what he is doing, but desiring to "look professional" to the other officials, does not stop.Alan's sexual training began with his mother who told him he could find true love and contentment by way of religious devotion and marriage. During this time Alan also begins to show a sexual attraction to horses, desiring to pet their thick coats, feel their muscular bodies and smell their sweat. Alan reveals to Dysart that he had first encountered a horse at age six, on the beach. A rider (John Wyman) approached him, and took him up on the horse. Alan was visibly excited, but his parents found him and his father pulled him violently off the horse. The horse rider scoffed at the father and rode off.In another key scene, Dysart hypnotizes Alan, and during the hypnosis, Dysart reveals elements of his terrifying dream of the ritual murder of children. Dysart begins to jog Alan's memory by filling in blanks, and asking questions. Alan reveals that he wants to help the horses by removing the bit, which enslaves them.After turning 17, Alan took a job working in a shop selling electrical goods, where he met Jill Mason (Jenny Agutter), an outgoing and free-spirited young woman in her mid-20s. She visits the shop wanting to purchase blades for horse-clippers. Alan is instantly interested when he discovers that Jill has such close contact with horses after she tells him that she works for a local stable owner. Jill suggests that Alan work for the owner of the stables, Harry Dalton (Harry Andrews), and Alan agrees.Dysart meets with Dalton who tells him that he first held Alan to be a model worker, since he kept the stables immaculately clean and groomed the horses, including one named "Nugget." Through Dysart's questioning, it becomes clear that Alan is erotically fixated on Nugget (or 'Equus') and secretly takes him for midnight rides, bareback and naked. Alan also envisions himself as a king, on the godhead Equus, both destroying their enemies.In the climax, Dysart gives Alan a placebo "truth pill" and revealing a tryst with Jill, begins to re-enact the event. Jill, who had taken an interest in Alan, had asked him to take her to a porno theater after he confided in her that he never had sex before and Jill apparently decided to show him "how it's done". While there, they both ran into Frank. Alan was traumatized, particularly when he realized that his father was lying when he tried to justify his presence in the theater. However, this occurrence allows Alan to realize that sex is a natural thing for all men... even his father. Alan walks Jill home after they leave. She convinces Alan to come to the stables with her.Once there, Jill seduces Alan and the two start having wild sex. However, Alan breaks this off when he hears the horses making noises in the stables beneath. Jill tries to ask Alan what the problem is, but he shouts at her to leave. After Jill puts back on her clothes and walks out of the stables, the stark nude Alan begs the horses for forgiveness for having pre-marital sex, as he sees the horses as God-like figures. "Mine!...You're mine!...I am yours and you are mine!" cries Equus through Dysart's voice, but then he becomes threatening: "The Lord thy God is a jealous God," Equus/Dysart seethes, "He sees you, he sees you forever and ever, Alan. He sees you!...He sees you!" Alan screams, "God sees!" and then he says "No more. No more, Equus!" Alan then blinds the six horses in the stable with a steel spike, whose eyes have "seen" his very soul. Dalton is the one who runs in and subdues Alan before calling the police. After finishing his story to the shaken Dysart, Alan is taken away in a straightjacket to a isolation cell of the hospital.The final scene has another monologue by Dysart questioning the fundamentals of his practice and whether or not what he does will actually help Alan, as the effect of his treatment will remove Alan's humanity which includes his intense sexual and religious commitment, and his worship of the horses as well. | insanity, flashback | tt0075995 |
The Hangover | The movie opens with Phil (Bradley Cooper) on the phone in the middle of the desert. He is calling the fiancee of his best friend Doug (Justin Bartha) and tells her that they messed up. "We lost Doug." The fiancée, Tracy Garner (Sasha Barrese), freaks out because she and Doug are supposed to get married in 5 hours. "That's not going to happen."Two days earlier, Doug and his soon-to-be brother-in-law Alan (Zach Galifianakis) are trying on tuxedos. Alan says it's OK if Doug doesn't bring him to the bachelor party tonight. Alan is severely socially inept but Doug makes it clear that he wants Alan to be there with him. Since they are going to be brothers soon, they have to look out for each other.Doug goes to talk to his future father-in-law, Sid Garner (Jeffery Tambor), and is given permission to take his Mercedes to Vegas for the bachelor party since Sid remembers what it was like to be a young man. Doug thanks him and promises that he will be the only one to drive the car that day. Doug and Alan then leave to pick up the others.Doug's best friend Phil is a high school teacher reminding one of his classes to pay 90 dollars for a field trip to an observatory, which they all promptly pay. Phil then removes the $3500 from their envelopes and puts them into an envelope marked Vegas. He grabs his bag, ignores a student and jumps into the Mercedes. The group then goes to get their last member.Stu (Ed Helms), a dentist, is at home arguing with his girlfriend, Melissa (Rachael Harris), about the bachelor party. Stu tells her that they are going to Napa Valley for a wine tasting. Melissa is convinced, however, that Phil will find a way to find a strip club. Melissa treats Stu very badly, but Stu takes it with a smile and tries to kiss her but she won't have any of it. The guys arrive and Stu leaves with them.The group drives to Las Vegas and check into Caesars Palace. They try to decide how to pay and Phil volunteers Stu's credit card as the main payment method. Stu flatly refuses, telling Phil that Melissa would see the charges and realize that they went to Vegas. Doug tells Stu that they'll sort out the payment when they check out. They go upstairs to get ready for their 1st night out. Stu tells Doug and Phil that he's going to propose to Melissa and use his grandmother's Holocaust ring as an engagement ring. While Doug congratulates Stu, Phil openly points out that Melissa is a controlling bitch. Stu and Phil get into an argument and Phil tells Stu that Melissa is clearly not a good person since she cheated on Stu when she slept with a bartender on a cruise. At that point, Alan comes in with a satchel and asks the guys if they're ready to let the dogs out.The four go to the roof and make a toast. Alan treats everyone to a shot of Jägermeister and then reads an awkward speech to the group telling them how the four of them are like a pack of wolves. Phil then tells the others that he's toasting them to a night they will never forget.Time passes as we see the night skyline of Las Vegas change slowly into the next morning.A woman walks out of the room carrying her stiletto heels. Stu comes to on the floor with blood on his shirt. Phil is sleeping on the floor and Alan wakes up on the couch. The room is a complete mess. A chair is horribly burned, statues litter the room, and there are a bunch of champagne bottles aligned as bowling pins. Alan goes to the bathroom and sees a live tiger. Phil wakes up when Alan steps on him and thinks that Alan is imagining things. He laughs at the fact that there is a tiger in the bathroom and tells Stu that his head hurts. Stu realizes that he's missing a tooth and Phil can't help but laugh. He stops once they realize Doug is nowhere to be found. They also note that Doug's mattress is missing. During their search, they hear a baby crying in the closet. They don't know whose baby it is but decide to take it with them to breakfast.At breakfast, Alan makes the baby pretend-masturbate for the guys and lovingly dubs him "Carlos." Phil, Stu and Alan realize that they can't remember anything from the night before. They check their pockets for clues to what happened last night. Alan has Stu's tooth, Stu has a receipt for an $800 withdrawal at the Bellagio, and Phil has a hospital bracelet on his wrist. They decide to make the hospital their first stop.Outside the hotel, the trio waits for the valet to bring around their car. They notice a cleaning crew removing a mattress impaled on Caesar's statue on an upper level of the hotel. Phil notes that they must have had a wild night. The valet drives up, not in the Mercedes, but in a police car and gives Phil the keys. They drive off and head to the hospital to get a lead on where Doug is.The ER doctor tells them that Phil was admitted with a mild concussion and that Doug was with them when they visited. Phil bribes him for more information and the doctor tells him that they had just come from a wedding at a chapel a few blocks away. The doctor also tells Phil that he had high traces of "ruphylin" (referring to the date-rape drug known as "roofies") in his system. Phil freaks out at the possibility of having been raped, but the doctor tells him he wasn't. The trio decides to head there.When they arrive at the chapel, they are greeted like family by the proprietor, Eddy. They can't remember why, but soon found out that Stu married a woman named Jade (Heather Graham) the night before and that everyone was present for the wedding. Stu freaks out a little, Phil looks into an annulment and Eddy gives them Jade's address.The trio head to the car and as they pull out, they are confronted by a pair of Asian gangsters demanding that the trio return someone they kidnapped. The gangsters pull out guns and threaten the trio before accidentally shooting Eddy in the shoulder. Phil drives the car out of the lot. They get to Jade's and find her on the phone freaking out because she couldn't find her baby, who turns out to be named Tyler. She sees Stu and is happy to see him but he freaks when he finds out that she's a stripper who works as an escort and he gave her his grandmother's Holocaust ring. The group is interrupted by the arrival of two police officers who arrest the trio for stealing their car.At the police station, Phil decides to call Tracy and tells her that they are enjoying Vegas so much they are staying an extra day. He doesn't tell her that they lost Doug and is forced to hang up when they are taken to the interrogation room. The two officers are angry that the trio stole their car and want to hold them over to be arraigned the following Monday. Phil explains the situation and then attempts to blackmail them into a deal (for losing track of their squad car), which backfires. The officers agree to let the guys off the hook but trick all three into being test subjects for a group of kids, demonstrating the effects of a Taser. The guys agree and weather the effects of being shocked by both the police and a couple of the kids, one of which is determined to get revenge on Alan when Alan kicked him lightly in the squad room.After the demonstration, the trio head over to recover the Mercedes that the police impounded. Stu is surprised that the car is in pristine condition and they then drive back toward the hotel to see if Doug went back. On the way they hear a knocking in the trunk and think that Doug is in the trunk of the car. They open it only to have a flamboyant and naked Asian man named Leslie Chow (Ken Jeong) jump out with a crowbar and attack them. After he runs off naked, Alan admits that he spiked their Jägermeister with the roofies, thinking they were Ecstasy pills. Stu flips out, but Phil plays it cool and the trio returns to the hotel.They are about to enter the hotel room when they remember the tiger. They cautiously open the door to find Mike Tyson and his bodyguard in the room. Tyson is singing "In the Air Tonight" by Phil Collins, getting the guys to join in before knocking Alan out cold. It turns out the tiger belonged to Tyson and the reason they were able to find the hotel room was because they found Doug's jacket and room key in the tiger cage. The trio are terrified because Tyson implies that the tiger may have eaten Doug. Tyson gives them an hour to bring the tiger back to his house. Alan puts five roofies into a raw steak in order to knock out the tiger, and two hours later they cart the tiger into the Mercedes.While driving to Tyson's mansion, the tiger wakes up and scratches Phil's neck. The trio gets out of the car and pushes it the last mile of the way while the tiger chews up the interior of the car. Upon arriving at the mansion, Tyson shows them a security tape of them stealing the tiger and Alan urinating into Tyson's grotto pond. Doug was with them and they put it into a police car but not before Phil screamed, "Look, I'm raping Tyson's tiger" and pantomiming having sex with the animal. Tyson asks where they got the cop car, and gives them props when they tell him they stole it. With no further leads, the group heads back to the hotel.On the way to the hotel, Chow and his men crash their car into the Mercedes and force it into a pole. They tell Phil that he kidnapped Chow, calling him "my lucky charm" and that he wanted to take Chow home with them. The gangsters also noticed that Alan took Chow's purse (which resembles Alan's satchel) with him and that the satchel Chow carried had $80,000 worth of Bellagio casino chips. Phil says they'll return the money, and Chow gives them until sunrise to get it to them and shows them that he has Doug in his SUV with a hood over his face.The gang returns to the hotel and can't find the satchel. They call Jade and let Alan try counting cards in order to win back the $80,000. Alan is a success and they make over $82,000. Just as the security men are about to move in on them for card counting, Jade fakes an accident and Alan and Phil get away. The group drives to the meeting point to make the exchange. They give Chow $80,000 in cash and Chow gives them Doug. Unfortunately, it's the wrong Doug. The Doug that Chow's gangster kidnapped (Mike Epps), who is African American, turns out to be the man who sold Alan the bad Ecstasy. Phil gets mad and tells Chow to give them back their money and to take "Black Doug" with him. Chow refuses and drives away.Phil decides that it is time to end the charade and tell Tracy what happened. We hear the opening play in the background as Black Doug, Stu and Alan discuss the reasoning behind the name roofies. Stu then realizes that they put Doug on the roof of Caesars Palace as a joke but forgot him and locked him up there. The mattress on the statue of Caesar was thrown there by Doug while trying to signal for help. Stu immediately tackles Phil and takes the phone away from him. He tells Tracy that Phil is drunk and that they are heading back now with Doug.The trio race to the hotel and find Doug sunburned and huddling for shade on the roof. Doug attacks Phil when Phil tells him that he is going to miss his own wedding. The group checks out and races to the now ruined Mercedes. Stu and Jade have a heart-to-heart talk and Jade tells him she knows the marriage was a mistake and gives him back his ring. Stu asks her if she wants to go on a date next weekend and she agrees. She also tells him that the reason Stu is missing a tooth is because Alan told him that he wasn't a good enough dentist if he couldn't remove his own tooth. Doug pulls out the missing satchel with Chow's $80,000 in casino chips. It had been left with him on the roof.Phil speeds down the highway on the way to the wedding. A tuxedo shop van drives up and tosses them four tuxedos that they ordered via phone. The group arrive at the wedding a few minutes late. Tracy walks down the aisle with Sid and asks Doug what happened. He explains what happened and tells her it will never happen again as long as they are married. Tracy forgives him and the two get married.Phil is happy to see his wife and son at the reception and spends the evening happy to be home. Alan and Stu are drinking at the bar when Melissa shows up. Melissa is mad that Stu didn't call at all and ignored her calls. She flips out when she sees he's missing a tooth. Stu finally can't take it anymore and flips out on her. She asks him when their relationship stopped working and Stu loudly announces that it was over when she had sex with the sailor on the cruise. Phil smiles proudly while Doug and Tracy look on in shock. Alan corrects him by saying it was a bartender, and Stu laughs. He tells Alan that they should go dance, which they do. Afterwards, Alan hits on Melissa and gets shot down.The guys are all gathered on the patio when Alan walks up with Stu's camera he found lodged in the backseat of the car; it contains photos of their adventures and mishaps in Las Vegas. They decide to look at the photos once and then delete the evidence.During the credits, the pictures are shown:* A bunch of photos with Phil, Doug, Alan and Stu hanging out with strippers
* Stu and Jade hooking up at the strip club.
* Chow, Alan and Phil gambling
* Phil and Doug doing cocaine with Carrot Top
* Doug posing in front of Tyson's mansion with the stolen police car and the officer's shotgun
* Tyson asleep next to a blonde
* Alan asleep next to Tyson and a blonde
* Alan firing a shotgun at the statue at Caesars Palace
* Doug asleep on the roof
* Alan pretending to rape Doug
* Alan getting a blow job from a hotel maid
* Stu and Jade's wedding
* Stu ripping his tooth out of his mouth with pliers and the aftermath
* The guys together before the night began. | comedy, horror, flashback, absurd, humor, entertaining | tt1119646 |
George and the Dragon | Note: Significant plot details follow.George (James Purefoy) returns from the Crusades to his father Sir Robert's (Paul Freeman) hall. George has tired of battle and has resolved to find a small plot of land to build a cottage and rear cattle. His father, formerly a great knight, is not best pleased that his son will not seek further glory. However he tells him of a friend to the north King Edgaar (Simon Callow) who may grant him some land especially if George shows him the Dragon Horn that Sir Robert has crafted from the toe-nail of a dragon, a dragon he once almost slew and that took both his legs, a horn that sounds a note only a dragon can hear and that the king will know can come only from his friend Sir Robert. Though he does not believe his fathers tale he accepts the horn and parts for the north.Several scences follow until George is presented to King Edgaar by his new friend Garth (Patrick Swayze). There is an exchange between Garth and King Edgaar in which we discover that with no good evidence Garth is convinced of the Picts guilt in the dissaperance of Princess Lunna and he has and will continue to persue them mercilessly in his desire to recover his bethrothed the Princess Lunna (Piper Perabo). As George is the son of a great knight and is himself a warrior he is entreated by King Edgar to assist in the search for his daughter. George agrees and George, Garth and a detachment of troops head out in search of the Princess Lunna.Sometime later George, Garth and troops arrive at a forward camp. It is from here that Garth has been conducting his search. Garth tells George that he has found no evidence of the Picts movements. However this encourages Garth. He is convinced that a lack of evidence means that the Picts must be guilty. Garth resolves to build boats in order to make a surprise attack upon the Picts. However as George, Garth and Men chop and work wood to make boats the Picts themselves launch a surprise attack upon the camp. Though the attack is repelled an excited monk pursues a group of three retreating Picts into the forest. George parts with Garth in order to assist the monk who he narrowly saves with the assistance of a lad from his fathers hall who has secretly been following them.George, the monk and the lad are subsequently unable to return to Garth being cut of as they try by the patrolling men of the mercenary El Cabillo, for he too is in search of the princess. Forced further into the woods they seek shelter in a cave. A cave that contains an egg the size of a cow.A creature squirms within the egg and George draws his sword to kill it before it can hatch. As he readys his thrust he himself is struck down with a blow to the back of his head. He is only dazed and he opens his eyes to see a small woman. The monk rushes up identifing the woman. It is the Princess Lunna herself.The Princess Lunna has named the egg and was aquainted with the mother dragon but tells the band that the mother dragon had gone down to the lake one day and had never returned. George insists that they kill the egg. Princess Lunna is determined to protect what may be the last dragon and to take the egg to a safe place to hatch. Reluctantly obeying her royal command George and his small band load Princess Lunna and the egg on a cart, though George laments he does not know where a safe place might be.They travel to a convent, where a cousin of Lunna's is a nun (Caroline Carver). Here they meet a friar an old friend of George's. The friar convinces the mother superior to allow the band of travellers and the egg to stay. She agrees but it must be for only one night and the precence of the egg must be kept secret. George must also tidy up as he is not suitably dressed for a knight. It is now that George is given his distinctive white tunic with the red cross pattée.At evening meal they encounter Garth for he too has sort refuge for the night. Though pleased to see the Princess Luna she is less than pleased to see Garth. Garth belives this must be because Princess Lunna has fallen for George, which George denies. The Princess Lunna tells Garth that she will never marry him, that she will marry only for love.Overnight Garth develops a rage, and a plan, he sends for his men to meet him at an abandoned castle and aducts the Princess Lunna and the Friar in order that he might marry the Princess. He will then return to King Edgaar and take the throne.George and his band chase after Garth. Several scences follow and it is revealed that the Mercenary El Cabillo is a title given to whoever bests the previous El Cabillo in single combat and the present El Cabillo is yet another friend of George's. However El Cabillo's men will not pass up such a rich bounty as the Princess Luna and the movie degenerates into a general melle involving Garth's Men, El Cabillo's mutinous men, and of course Garth, George and his band and also the Princess Lunna. At somepoint during this the baby dragon hatches, the monk is killed saving the Princess from a flying spear and King Edgars men and Sir Robert's men arrive to join the fray. This conflagration is interupted as the wall of the castle keep explodes across the screen.The mother dragon has returned.The combatants all flee. George is last to the door of the keep but debris prevents his escape. In the castle courtyard the former combatants all listen in silence as the dragon makes much noise within the keep. The Princess Lunna fears the worse for George.Within the keep the mother dragon seems preoccupied with her child and George is largely frozen lest he attract the mother dragon's attention. George notices a lance protrudes from the mother dragons side. This is the lance of his father still lodged in the beast. George slowly approaches the lance and takes hold. He asks God's forgiveness for what he must do.The scence shifts to the castle courtyard an almighty roar is heard. George emerges from the keep with a bloddied lance. Believing that George has slain the dragon the men are overjoyed. The Princess Lunna however is not and, sobbing, she flees on horseback. George pursues with King Edgaars horse and his blessing to marry his daughter. There is a chase along the shore of a large body of water but George is not alone in the chase. Garth has also persued. Garth knocks George from his steed and they fight. Garth has the advantage and as he raises his sword for the killing blow the mother dragon leaps from the water and swallows Garth whole.The Princess Lunna realizes that George did not actually kill the dragons. They kiss and presumably live happily ever after.Significant plot details end here. | violence, action | tt0306892 |
I Saw What You Did | Mr. and Mrs. Mannering are about to leave on an overnight business trip when the babysitter cancels. They reluctantly leave sixteen-year-old Libby and her younger sister Tess home alone. Libby invites her friend Kit Austin to spend the night. Kit's father allows her to come for dinner but not to stay all night, since the parents are not home.The Mannerings live on an isolated property several miles from town. Kit is given a tour, ending in the barn where the door blows shut. The girls are unable to open it and Tess, who has followed them, lets them out. She plays a prank on Kit by telling her that a boy is on the phone wanting to speak to her. When Kit picks up the receiver, no one is there. Libby scolds Tess but admits that they have fun making prank phone calls. Kit is mystified so the Mannering girls show her how it's done. They choose a number at random from the phone directory. In a sultry voice, Libby says "I saw what you did and I know who you are." Kit thinks this is hilarious. They call several people and get various responses, from indignation to amusement.Meanwhile, Mrs. Mannering is repeatedly calling home to check on her daughters but gets a busy signal. Her husband assures her that he'd be worried if they weren't on the phone.When the girls dial Steve Marak's number, his wife Judith answers the phone. Libby asks for Steve and Judith goes to get him. An open suitcase is on the bed and water is running in the bathroom. Judith tells Libby that Steve is taking a bath. Libby purrs that she really needs to speak with him. When Judith goes into the bathroom, she sees that Steve has slashed her clothing with a knife. She begins screaming at him. He yanks her into the shower and stabs her to death, then throws her body through the glass door.Since no one comes to the phone, the girls eventually hang up and decide to take a break.Steve's next-door neighbor Amy lets herself into the house. She sees the suitcase on the bed and knocks on the bathroom door. Wearing a bathrobe, Steve emerges and tells her that Judith has left him. He says they had a terrible fight and she left without bothering to pack her things. Amy is happy to hear this and says Judith was too young and flighty for him. She begins packing Judith's clothing and Steve tells her to leave it alone. When she offers to straighten up the bathroom, he yanks her away and walks her into the living room. He is trying to act normally but all he wants is for her to leave. She agrees to come back later and notices that the phone is off the hook. After she leaves, he replaces the receiver and goes into the bedroom.The girls, giggling hysterically, resume calling people. They wonder if the man is out of the bathtub yet but can't remember his name. Tess finds it because she put her peanut butter and jelly sandwich on top of it. Libby calls and this time Steve answers. He panics when a voice tells him she saw what he did and she knows who he is. Libby plays along when he asks for her name and tells him she is Suzette. He demands to meet with her and she hangs up, suddenly bored with the game.Amy, watching from her window, sees Steve putting a large trunk into his station wagon. When he drives away, she goes over and checks out the bathroom. She puts two and two together when she sees the shattered shower door and a bloody knife in the clothes hamper.Steve drives to a wooded area and digs a deep hole for the trunk. He is startled when a dog appears and begins barking at him. It belongs to a young couple who stopped so the dog could do its business. The woman catches a glimpse of Steve through the trees and quickly takes the dog back to the car. She tells her husband that the next time, he can chase the dog. They drive away but she is uneasy about what she saw.When Steve returns home, Amy comes over. He is beginning to feel stifled by her attention, saying it is late and he is going to bed. As she opens the door, the phone rings. He goes to answer it and Amy slips into the bedroom to listen on the extension. Libby, pretending to be Suzette, plays a cat and mouse game with Steve. He again wants to meet with her but she hangs up, this time intrigued and wondering what he looks like.Amy angrily asks who Suzette is and Steve tells her it is a business deal. He says he may have to go out later. By sweet-talking her and telling her he loves her, he persuades her to go home.
The girls speculate about Steve and wonder how old he is. Kit asks Libby if she would actually meet him somewhere and what would she do if he tried to get romantic. Libby admits that she might let him kiss her. She envisions Steve as a handsome man and wishes they had a way to see what he looks like. Since she has recently gotten her driver's license, she suggests they drive to Steve's house in her mother's car to try and catch a glimpse of him. Kit doesn't want to but lets herself be talked into it. Libby changes into a dress and puts on a lot of makeup, trying to make herself look older.On the way to the Marak home, Libby orders that no one is to get out of the car. When they arrive, the house is dark except for a light in the back. Kit wants to leave but Libby exits the car to peer through the windows. Steve sees her and goes into the kitchen for a knife. He is at the door when Amy appears, having seen Libby from her window. She yanks Libby's hair and drags her away. Kit and Tess immediately hide in the back seat. Calling her a tramp, Amy tells her to clear out. Libby tries to explain but Amy won't listen. Rather sadly she tells Libby that she is far too young for Steve. Then she opens the car door and shoves Libby inside. Seeing the car registration pasted on the steering post, Amy tears it off. Libby, shaking with fright, drives away.Amy confronts Steve and tells him there will be no more Suzettes. She points out that Suzette even lied about her name, showing him the registration card. Steve tells her she doesn't own him yet. Then Amy tells him she knows he killed Judith. Unless he agrees to marry her right away, she will go to the police. "Life with me or no life at all," she says. Steve has no choice but to accept. Amy makes them drinks and reminds him of how wealthy she is; that they can go anywhere in the world. Steve goes into the kitchen for ice cubes and retrieves his knife. He kills Amy and takes the registration card, which has Mrs. Mannering's name and address. Climbing into his car, he sets off.Libby is frantic about losing the registration card because her parents will find out that she took the car without permission. She thinks Amy was Mrs. Marak and that maybe if she returns in the morning, she can get the card back. Kit is fed up with Libby and tells her to forget about the card. Tess is supposed to be in bed, but the girls discover her missing. They go outside to find her and this time all three end up shut in the barn.Mrs. Mannering has continued to call home and even had the operator check the line. Now there is no answer. She insists that her husband call the police to check on the girls. They arrive at the same time as Kit's father, who has come to collect his daughter. Together they search the property and find the girls in the barn. Libby calls her mother and assures her that everything is fine. Everyone leaves and the Mannering girls go to bed.On the way home, Kit hears a breaking news story on the radio. The body of a young, attractive woman was discovered buried in a trunk not far away. A couple who were walking their dog reported seeing a middle-aged man, tall and dark-haired, in the vicinity. Kit shudders and turns off the radio. Her father knows something is wrong and says she may as well level with him. Kit says nothing but starts to wonder.Tess is awakened by their dog barking. Realizing he has somehow gotten out she wakes Libby, who tells her to let him in. When she goes outside, Steve is waiting. He asks for Suzette and Tess, too little to realize the danger, invites him in. She wakes Libby and tells her that Steve is downstairs. Libby is startled but goes to meet him, hoping he has come to return the registration card. She apologizes profusely for upsetting "Mrs. Marak" and says they were just making prank phone calls. Steve is relieved when he realizes she knows nothing of the murders. He scolds her and gives her back the card. As she closes the door behind him, the phone rings. Instead of leaving, Steve goes to the window to listen.Kit is calling to tell Libby about the news report. Libby says the man's description sounds a lot like Steve and that he has just left after returning the registration card. Kit abruptly hangs up after her father asks who she is talking to so late. Libby hesitates, then dials the operator and asks for the police. Steve crashes through the window and she runs upstairs, screaming at Tess to lock the door. But Tess is not in her room. Libby realizes she must have gone outside and slips out to look for her. Steve goes after them. Libby finds Tess and they run toward the car. Someone grabs Tess and claps a hand over her mouth. Libby is unable to start the car and then Steve, who was hidden in the back seat, tries to strangle her. A shot rings out and he collapses. Mr. Austin and the police are there. He grabbed Tess to prevent her from crying out. The girls embrace, sobbing. Mr. Austin says it is a good thing his daughter finally told him the truth. Libby tearfully says they will not be using the phone again for a long, long time. | suspenseful, murder | tt0059297 |
Bananas | Fielding Mellish (Woody Allen) is the protagonist, but he does not appear until after the opening credits. The cold open, which featured the assassination of the president of the fictional "banana republic" of San Marcos and a coup d'état that brings Gen. Emilio Molina Vargas (Carlos Montalban) to power, sets up the situation in which Mellish would become embroiled. The scene was in the form of a championship boxing telecast on Wide World of Sports, with Don Dunphy as the host and Howard Cosell as the commentator.
Mellish is a neurotic blue collar man who tries to impress social activist Nancy (Louise Lasser) by trying to get in touch with the revolution in San Marcos. He visits the republic and attempts to show his concern for the native people. However, he is nearly killed by the local caudillo and then saved by the revolutionaries, putting him in their debt. Mellish then learns, clumsily, how to be a revolutionary. When the revolution is successful, the Castro-style leader goes mad, forcing the rebels to place Mellish as their President.
When traveling back to the U.S. to obtain financial aid, he reunites with his activist ex-girlfriend and is exposed. In a classic courtroom scene, Mellish tries to defend himself from a series of incriminating witnesses, including a reigning Miss America and a middle-aged African-American woman claiming to be J. Edgar Hoover in disguise. One of the witnesses does provide testimony favorable to Mellish, but the court clerk, when asked to read back this testimony, replies with an entirely different, wholly unfavorable rendition. Mellish is eventually sentenced to prison, but his sentence is suspended on the condition that he does not move into the judge's neighborhood. Nancy then agrees to marry him. The film ends with the between-the-covers consummation of their marriage, an event that was over much more quickly than Nancy had anticipated. Like the opening scene, it was accompanied by Cosell providing commentary. | cult, comedy, satire | tt0066808 |
The Funeral | Director Abel Ferrara puts his finger on the pulse of the world of sin. The Funeral is a dark portrait of a family "not broken enough to believe in God". The film opens in a movietheatre where Johnny Tempio (Vincent Gallo) is watching Humphrey Bogart talking about death. After the titles we find ourselves at the home of the Tempio family where a coffin is brought into the house. When the coffin is opened we see Johnny; he's dead. His oldest brother Ray (Christopher Walken) seems to be the head of the family. He's a gangster. Behind his ice cold gaze lives the hunger for revenge and strategic 'gangster-justice'. When Johnny's other brother Chez (Chris Penn) enters the house the mood seems to change from silence into rage and fear, for Chez is a man on the edge of insanity. Madness, rooted in pain and fed by anger. The movie progresses into a parallel structure where we follow the three brothers through flashbacks up against the present where the two remaining brothers are dealing with their loss. The movie is a depiction of gangster life, without the traditional glamour and romanticism. The more mainstream enjoyment and stylistic elements of the famous gangster films are dismissed and replaced by pain, suffering and hopelessness. The Funeral is a bleak but powerful film about the fate of sin. A film about a place in the world where redemption is far gone. As opposed to most of Ferrara's films The Funeral finds no salvation for the lead character(s). Chez, the insane man turns out to be the man that does the only sane thing. End this life of evil and immorality by the only means possible in his way of thinking. | cruelty, depressing, murder, violence, flashback, insanity | tt0116378 |
Chinatown | Set in 1937 Los Angeles, a private investigator named Jake "J.J." Gittes (Nicholson) is hired to spy on Hollis Mulwray, the chief engineer for the city's water department. The woman hiring Gittes claims to be Evelyn Mulwray, Hollis' wife. For unknown reasons, Mulwray spends considerable time looking at dry riverbeds and water outlets. Mulwray is photographed while having a heated argument with an elderly man on the street. Gittes photographs Mulwray from a roof top when he kisses a young blonde, and the photo is published in the newspaper the next day, causing a scandal. After the story is published, Gittes is visited by the real Mrs. Evelyn Mulwray, who threatens to sue him for defamation.Gittes uncovers information that despite a serious drought and an expensive proposal to build a new dam, the Water and Power Department is dumping fresh water into the ocean at night. The dam project is opposed by Mulwray himself, who cites a potential disaster because of weak geological formations in the rock where the dam is to be constructed -- Mulwray had previously supported the building of another dam that had failed due to similar geological conditions. When he addresses a public hearing on the project, wbich Gittes attends, Mulwray is ridiculed by several farmers who want the reservoir and water the dam will provide.Jake goes to Mulwray's mansion to speak to him but is only able to talk to Evelyn Mulwray. While he waits for her, Mulwray's Japanese gardener cleans a small decorative pond. He casually says "bad for the glass" in broken English, a comment that Jake dismisses. Jake notices a shiny object in the pool and tries to retrieve it, stopping when Evelyn appears. She tells him that Mulwray usually takes afternoon walks at a reservoir and that he should look for him there.Gittes goes to find Mulwray at the reservoir but instead watches the police haul Mulwray's body out of the reservoir. They believe Mulwray died from drowning. Gittes used to work with the lead investigator, Lt. Lou Escobar. When the police interview Evelyn Mulwray about her husband's death, they assume she hired Gittes, and Gittes corroborates the lie for her. She thanks him and hires him to investigate what happened to her husband. Later, at the county coroner's department, Gittes learns from the coroner that Mulwray's lungs were filled with salt water, although he had been found in a freshwater reservoir. Gittes also learns that a local drunk was found dead from drowning in a dry riverbed that Mulwray had been inspecting.Later that night Gittes climbs the secure fence around the reservoir's and, after he is shot at, is nearly drowned when the culvert he is hiding in is suddenly filled with running water. Two water department security thugs detain him; a large man named Claude Mulvihill and a short thug (Roman Polanski), who slashes Jake's nose for being a "very nosy fella." Gittes, forced to wear a large and ridiculous bandage, receives a call from Ida Sessions, the woman who originally impersonated Evelyn Mulwray. She admits she was hired to trick Gittes, but refuses to come to his office. She tells him to read that day's obituaries. At the water department, Gittes sees photographs of the elderly man Mulwray quarreled with a few days before his death, and he turns out to be Noah Cross (John Huston), Evelyn Mulwray father. He used to own the water utility in partnership with Mulwray, but Cross ended his association with the department when the partners sold it to the city, as Mulwray had long desired.Cross invites Jake to lunch at his home and hires Jake to find the blond girl Mulwray had been seeing, saying that she might know what happened to him. Gittes goes to the Hall of Records and looks in a large plat book of the valley. He learns that a considerable portion of the valley has been bought up in the past few months by a few new land owners who have purchased large tracts of land. When the attendant in the room refuses to let Jake borrow the book, Jake surreptitiously tears the column out of the book and pockets it.Acting on another tip from Sessions, Gittes begins to unravel an intricate scandal involving LA's fresh water supply. Gittes first travels to an orange farm to talk with the owner about how his land is being irrigated. As he drives around he is shot at by the farmer and a few of his farmhands and crashes his car into a tree. Jake is dragged from his car, beaten and searched. The farmer explains that the Department of Water & Power has been harassing him by sending agents to run him off his land and poison the water in his wells. While he tries to show the farmer documentation of his investigation, the farmhands claim that Mulwray is responsible for harassment of late and attack Jake. When Jake tries to fight back, he's knocked unconscious. He wakes up to find that the farmer and his wife have called Evelyn, who has come to the farm.While they drive back to LA, Jake explains the scandal to her: her father and his partners have been forcing farmers in the rural areas surrounding the city off of their land so they can buy it cheap, after which a newly-built (and controversial) dam and water system would start redirecting much of L.A.'s water supply to that land, dramatically increasing its real estate potential and value.Since Cross wants no record of such transactions, he has partnered with a retirement home community, using the identities of the eldest residents within (one of whom is mentioned in the obituary column): they would legally, but unknowingly, own the land. Jake, having matched one of the obituary names to one of the names in the list he stole from the plat book, has Evelyn drive him to the retirement home and pose as a married couple trying to find a place for Jake's father to live. The host tells them they can tour the facility. They come across an activities board with the names of the people from the plat book. Jake talks to a group of women working on a quilt. One of the pieces of fabric they've sewn into the quilt bears the emblem of the Albacore Club, the yacht club owned by Noah Cross. Jake is confronted by the host who has figured out Jake's ruse. The man takes him out to the lobby where Mulvihill is waiting. Jake tells Evelyn to bring the car around and then severely beats Mulvihill and barely escapes when the short thug who slashed his nose shows up.Back at Evelyn's house, Gittes and Evelyn share a romantic interlude. As they lie on the bed afterward, Evelyn asks Jake about his past as a cop. He tells her he worked in Chinatown and was responsible for a woman "being hurt", possibly killed because of his actions. The phone rings and Evelyn has a cryptic conversation with someone, then informs Jake that she has to leave for a little while. She gravely asks him to trust her.Gittes takes Mulwray's car and follows Evelyn to a middle-class house and sees Mulwray's girlfriend crying. Evelyn claims the young woman is her sister, who was crying because she had just learned about Mulwray's death in the newspaper. Later that night, Jake receives a call at home from a detective named Loach, Escobar's partner, telling him to meet him at a specific address. When he gets there he finds that Ida Sessions is murdered and Escobar and Loach are waiting for him. When Jake asks how they knew to call him Escobar shows Jake his phone number written near the phone. Escobar also points out that he knows the coroner's report proves that salt water was found in Mulwray's lungs even though the body was found in a freshwater reservoir, a fact that Jake had discovered earlier but withheld. He demands that Jake turn over any incriminating photos that may reveal Mulwray's murderer's identity. Escobar's chief suspect is Evelyn herself.Under pressure from Escobar threatening to revoke his PI's license, Jake returns to Evelyn's mansion looking for her. Evelyn's Japanese gardener is working in the backyard and drops a minor comment about "salt water being bad for the grass". Jake has the man fish out the shiny object he'd noticed in the pool before: it's a pair of eyeglasses.Gittes confronts Evelyn at the small house where she'd been keeping the young girl. Evelyn reveals that the blond girl, Katherine, is both her sister and her daughter, born from an incestuous relationship she had with her father years before. Gittes asks Evelyn if her father raped her and she shakes her head no. It remains unclear whether the act was consensual or not. It is apparent also that Evelyn resents her father for taking advantage of her in a relationship considered unnatural. Gittes then chooses to help Evelyn escape. Evelyn also states that the eyeglasses Jake found in her back yard pond could not have been her husband's because they are bifocals. Gittes arranges for the two women to flee to Mexico on a fishing boat owned by another of Jake's clients and instructs Evelyn to meet him at her butler's address in Chinatown. Evelyn leaves, and Cross arrives with Mulvihill under the pretext that Gittes has found the girl; however, Gittes confronts Cross with the accusation of murder and the glasses. Cross had Mulwray drowned in the saltwater pond at his own house and lost his own glasses in the pond during the act. Jake asks Cross about the water scandal; Cross tells him that he plans to create a community in the desert with an abundant fresh water supply. The real estate revenues from the sales of the land will generate many millions of dollars for him. Cross considers the plan a way of buying the future, essentially insuring that his family will reap the benefits from such a deal for many years. When Jake pointedly asks Cross about the relationship with his daughter, Cross confidently says "Most people never have to face the fact that, at the right time and the right place, they're capable of anything". Cross then orders Mulvihill to seize the glasses, the only physical evidence Jake has and forces Gittes to take him to the girl. When Gittes arrives at Evelyn's hiding place in Chinatown, the police are already there and arrest Gittes on conspiracy and withholding evidence. Jake vainly tries to explain Cross' plan to Escobar, who won't listen.Evelyn appears with her daughter, trying to drive away in her car. When Cross approaches Katherine, demanding custody of her, Evelyn pushes him back, shoots him in the arm with a small pistol and starts her car. As Evelyn is driving away, the police open fire and Evelyn is shot and killed. Cross clutches Katherine, taking her out of the car, as a devastated Gittes is comforted by his associates, who urge him to walk away: "Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown."The plot is based in part on real events that formed the California Water Wars, in which William Mulholland acted on behalf of Los Angeles interests to secure water rights in the Owens Valley. | comedy, dark, depressing, murder, neo noir, mystery, bleak, cult, violence, plot twist, atmospheric, humor, suspenseful | tt0071315 |
Halla Bol | Ashfaque (Ajay Devgan) is a small town boy aspiring to be a film star in the Hindi film industry. He joins a street theatre group run by a reformed dacoit Sidhu (Pankaj Kapur) who uses street theatre as a medium to bring about an awakening in the masses. Ashfaque struggles to give a creative vent to the actor in him in order to realize his dreams. Ashfaque's determined struggle pays off and he gets a break in films. He gets a new screen name Sameer Khan. With the passage of time, the roles start becoming better and he moves up the success ladder in a very short time. Soon, he becomes Sameer Khan the superstar one who can enact any role with finesse, get under the skin of any and every character with ease and walk away with audience applause.Sadly, amidst all adulation and applause, he slowly loses his own identity. He forgets his real self and imbibes all characteristics of the various roles essayed by him on screen. Corruption takes over his entire system, alienating him from all loved ones, including his wife Sneha (Vidya Balan). A shocking incident at a party changes everything, rocking Sameer Khan's lifestyle. He gets caught between his human self on one side and his corrupted superstar image on the other.Whether the conflict within him gives way to good sense and whether he is able to discard his corrupted image and emerge as a true life hero, becomes an integral part of this true life cinema. | satire, murder, flashback | tt0892874 |
Dracula | It is the year 1462. Constantinople has fallen to invading Turks. Prince Dracula [Gary Oldman] must leave his bride Elizabeta [Winona Ryder] to do battle against the Turks. A ferocious and pitched battle occurs and Dracula's counteroffensive is a success and he leaves many in the Turk army alive and impaled on long spears on the battlefield. The Turks, seeking vengeance, send a message to Dracula's castle falsely announcing that the warlord has been killed in battle. Elizabeta flings herself into the river below. Because she committed suicide, the Bishop [Anthony Hopkins] proclaims her soul damned. Furious that God let his wife die while Dracula was defending His church, Dracula renounces God and the Church. He draws his sword and stabs the large cross on the dais of his chapel and it begins to bleed. Dracula drinks the blood flowing from the cross, proclaiming he will be reborn after his death with all the powers of darkness at his command.March 1897, England. Law clerk Jonathan Harker [Keanu Reeves] must travel to Transylvania to close the sale of 10 London properties being purchased by Count Dracula. Upon his return, Jonathan and fiancee Mina Murray [Winona Ryder] intend to be married. In Jonathan's absence, Mina goes to stay with her rich friend Lucy Westenra [Sadie Frost], who has just recently received three marriage proposals -- from Texan Quincey Morris [Bill Campbell], Dr Jack Seward [Richard E Grant], and Lord Arthur Holmwood [Cary Elwes] -- and she has decided to marry Arthur.Meanwhile, Jonathan has arrived at Castle Dracula following a strange carriage ride past blue flames and wolves. Even stranger is the Count himself. He never eats, sleeps all day, lives alone in a large castle in which most of the doors are locked, and crawls down the castle walls like a reptile. Jonathan has begun to have strange dreams about three women who try to seduce him. To Jonathan's further unease, the Count seems to be fascinated with a picture of Mina, who upon seeing her picture believes she is a reincarnation of Elizabeta, has forced Jonathan to write letters saying that he will be staying with the Count for another month. Meanwhile, the Count is preparing for his trip to England by having his mindless servants fill large crates with dirt from the grounds around the castle.July, 1897. Jonathan has been missing for over three months, and Mina is sick with worry, while Lucy is involved with planning for her wedding. But Lucy is not without worries either. A particularly violent summer storm has recently washed a ship of dead sailors upon the beach, and shortly thereafter Lucy has begun her old habit of sleepwalking. Each time she sleepwalks, she returns bewildered and pale. Dr Seward, who has his hands full treating the fly-eating lunatic R M Renfield [Tom Waits] , has taken on Lucy as his patient. She shows all the signs of anemia, but Dr Seward can find no cause for it. Consequently, he has decided to send for a metaphysician, philosopher, and specialist in rare blood disorders, his old mentor Professor Abraham Van Helsing [Anthony Hopkins]. Upon his arrival, Van Helsing immediately begins a blood transfusion on Lucy and places garlic near her bed. When Lucy's suitors ask what could possibly have caused such extreme anemia, Van Helsing suggests that a supernatural force may have been stalking her. The others find it too fantastical to believe.Meanwhile, Mina has begun occupying herself with a dashingly dressed but mysterious man she met near the cinematograph. He introduced himself as Prince Vlad of Szekely, and Mina is strangely drawn to him, as though she knows him. He is easily able to seduce her in the theatre but she is snapped out of her hypnosis when a large wolf appears and terrorizes the theatre-goers. Mina is surprised moments later when she sees that Vlad is suddenly friendly with the wolf.Mina later receives news that Jonathan has been found and has suffered a violent brain fever and is being cared for by the sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, who bid her to come to Romania and be married to Jonathan. She realizes that she can no longer see her prince again. Mina says goodbye to Lucy, writes a note to Dracula, and sets sail for Romania. Dracula, heartbroken at losing Mina to Jonathan, takes Lucy as his bride instead, attacking her in her bed as the wolf and causing a violent explosion of blood that kills her.Lucy is dead, although Van Helsing knows that the correct term is 'undead,' for he can see the fangs in her mouth and knows that she is 'nosferatu.' He explains to Arthur, Jack, and Quincey that, to give Lucy's soul peace, they must cut off her head and take out her heart. They are horrified and think that Van Helsing is just a sick old coot, until they
spend a night in Lucy's tomb and find her returning with a child in her arms. Van Helsing is able to force Lucy to release the child and forces her back into her coffin with a crucifix. Due to his engagement to and love of Lucy, Holmwood is selected to drive a large stake through Lucy's heart while Van Helsing beheads her with a single blow. When the deed is done, they band together to seek out the Count and destroy him.Mina and Jonathan have returned to London, only to hear that Lucy has died. One night, they have dinner with Van Helsing, and Jonathan realizes that he knows Count Dracula and that he sleeps in Carfax Abbey. After securing Mina at Dr Seward's sanitarium, the five of them -- Van Helsing, Jonathan, Quincey, Jack, and Arthur -- pay a visit to the abbey in order to sterilize Dracula's earth-filled crates. Meanwhile Dracula is paying a visit to Mina. When she learns that her prince is actually the vampyre who killed Lucy, she becomes extremely upset, but not enough to resist wanting to be with him, to live how he lives. Dracula drinks from Mina, then opens a vein in his chest and bids her drink. However, he stops short after she has taken but a bit. 'I love you too much to condemn you,' he explains. Suddenly, Van Helsing et al burst in the room. They attempt to destroy Dracula, but he changes into hundreds of rats and scurries away.Dracula knows that he cannot stay in England any longer and books passage back to Transylvania via Varna. Mina and the men follow close behind. As Dracula is in mind contact with Mina, Van Helsing knows Dracula's plans but Dracula also seems to know theirs. Instead of sailing into Varna, Dracula diverts the ship 200 miles north and lands at Galatz, causing a change in plans such that Van Helsing and Mina take a carriage directly from Varna to the Borgo Pass while Jonathan, Quincey, Arthur, and Jack continue by train to Galatz where they secure horses and ride for the Borgo Pass, hoping to intercept the Count. They are unsuccessful. Dracula's gypsies picked up his box at Galatz and are now speeding down the Borgo Pass road, making the race closer than ever.Mina and Van Helsing are almost to the castle but decide to stop for the night. Hearing spirits from the surrounding area, Van Helsing casts a circle around Mina and protects her by burning her forehead with a blessed communion wafer. They stay inside the circle through the night while Dracula's three brides tempt Mina to join them, killing the horses from their carriage. The next morning, as Mina sleeps in the circle, Van Helsing visits the castle and beheads the vampiresses, throwing their severed heads into the gorge.Near sundown, the gypsy wagon bearing Dracula in his crate approaches the castle. Jonathan, Arthur, Quincey, and Jack are riding hard to catch up. Mina and Van Helsing wait inside the castle courtyard. Mina calls up a blue flame to protect Dracula. As the gypsy wagon enters the courtyard, a gypsy stabs Quincey in the back. Jonathan attempts to open Dracula's box, but the sun has set and Dracula bursts forth, his strength revived. At that very moment, however, Jonathan slits Dracula's neck and Quincey stabs Dracula through the heart with a sword. Mina screams. As Arthur races forward to finish Dracula, Harker stops him. 'Let them go,' he says. 'Our work is finished here; hers has just begun.'As Quincey dies, Mina sits with Dracula on the chapel floor inside the castle. She kisses him, and he begs her to give him peace. Out of love, she pushes the sword the rest of the way through Dracula's heart. The burn on her forehead disappears, the wound in the altar cross repairs itself and Dracula dies, his face becoming youthful again. Mina gives him his final release by cutting off his head. [Original Synopsis by bj_kuehl] | avant garde, gothic, cult, violence, horror, good versus evil, insanity, romantic, revenge | tt0103874 |
Predator 2 | Los Angeles, 1997. The temperature in the city stands in the high 90s. In the streets, the LAPD and Colombian gangsters are fighting a pitched battle that the police are rapidly losing. Efforts to rescue two wounded cops have failed and backup is unavailable. Lieutenant Mike Harrigan bursts onto the scene. Harrigan arms himself and drives his car directly at the front lines, giving his comrades the chance to save their wounded friends. The Colombians seize the chance and retreat into a nearby building that serves as their stronghold.While the Colombians arm themselves they are attacked by an invisible enemy and slaughtered. Only the gang's leader, El Scorpio, makes it out, shooting wildly at Harrigan and his team. The hysterically terrified El Scorpio escapes to the roof, with Harrigan behind. On the roof, El Scorpio spots a distorted human figure and raises his guns to shoot. Harrigan shoots the man, who falls off the roof and is killed.In the room where the gangsters were arming themselves, Danny notices that one of them has been stripped naked and hung upside down about 40 feet above the floor. Marveling at the strength needed to perform such a task, Danny turns away and the body is pulled up by unseen hands. Outside the building, Harrigan is met by his captain, Heinemann, and told that he disobeyed direct orders. Harrigan argues with him, citing the war they're fighting an losing in the streets to better armed Colombian drug dealers who also have greater numbers. Adding to the mayhem is another faction, Jamaican gangsters, who are also fighting the cops and use brutal terrorist acts against their Colombian enemies.Back at his precinct, Harrigan is lectured by his other captain, who informs him that a federal investigation, lead by a man named Peter Keyes, is not to be interfered with. Keyes claims that his team is trying to stop the Colombian and Jamaican gangs from establishing an empire on the west coast. Harrigan agrees not to interfere in Keyes' work. Harrigan also welcomes a new member to his team, Jerry, a smart-mouthed and cocky detective.In a luxury apartment, Ramon Vega, the leader of the Colombian gangs is having sex with his girlfriend when they're interrupted by Jamaican gangsters. They hang him upside-down and cut his heart out as part of a voodoo ritual. They are suddenly attacked by an invisible enemy using superior weaponry. All of them are viciously slaughtered. When Harrigan and his crew arrive on the scene they enter the apartment against orders and find several bodies hung from the ceiling, skinned. Vega's girlfriend is the only survivor. Keyes enters the room and orders them all out. His own crew begins to examine the room, using unusual gadgets. Also in the room is a sleazy reporter, Tony Pope, who films much of the carnage. Everyone is ejected from the room and the woman who survived is taken away in an ambulance.Danny and Harrigan agree to meet at the scene later that night and conduct their own investigation. Danny arrives first and looks around the room. Seeing what appears to be a trail of claw-marks leading up a decorated column, he climbs up. In the rafters, he spots a small object embedded in an air-conditioner. He pulls it loose and examines it; it appears to be a spear-tip of some sort. Suddenly, he hears Harrigan's voice nearby and loses his footing and falls. An arm catches him and Danny looks up to see a large figure holding him by the ankle. The figure drags him back up and kills him. As he dies, Danny's necklace falls to the floor and is splattered with his own blood.Harrigan finds himself in Captain Heinemann's office. The captain reprimands him harshly for Danny's death and continuing to interfere with Keyes' investigation. Harrigan leaves the meeting angry and confronts Keyes in the station's lobby, telling him that he's motivated by revenge and will find Danny's killer himself. Strangely unoffended, Keyes tells him that the magnitude of the situation is beyond his comprehension. At the police forensics lab, Harrigan has a doctor examine the spear tip he recovered from Danny's body. The doctor determines that the metal isn't found on the Periodic Table of Elements. She also tells Harrigan about how Danny was murdered: by a sharp-edged weapon that cleaved Danny's heart.Harrigan tells Danny's wife, Leona, to arrange a meeting with King Willy, the leader of the Jamaican gangs, with the intention of sharing information about their mutual nemesis. Harrigan also meets with Jerry, who has done some surveillance on Keyes. The survivor of the attack in Vega's apartment was taken away in a helicopter and Jerry has been unable to find her. As he and Harrigan leave the bar, they are met by a large limo filled with Jamaican gangsters. Harrigan joins them and is taken to an alley where he meets King Willy. Willy, a voodoo practitioner, mysteriously tells Harrigan that the enemy they both face comes from a netherworld he can't understand. Harrigan leaves without answers. Just after he goes, the predator jumps to the ground behind Willy and walks through a small pool of water. The water causes an electrical disturbance on the predator's body and it becomes visible. It challenges Willy to blade combat and Willy loses. The predator carries Willy's severed head away and is seen cleaning the tissue off the skull for a trophy.Harrigan calls Jerry and Leona at the forensics lab. The doctor tells them that the only lead she has is from evidence collected at the scene of Danny's killing: whomever killed him left traces of debris that came from a slaughterhouse. Harrigan and Jerry recall that Jerry had lost track of Keyes in LA's meatpacking district. Harrigan tells them to meet him there.Harrigan goes to the cemetery to pay his respects to Danny. While he's there, he sees Danny's necklace hanging from a tree limb. Startled, Harrigan, looking around for his enemy, grabs the necklace and realizes the predator is stalking him specifically. Moments before, a small boy plays in the cemetery with a toy gun. The predator targets the boy but does not kill him when it realizes the boy poses no threat because he's unarmed.On the subway to the slaughterhouse district, Jerry and Leona encounter a group of gang members harassing a passenger. The passenger pulls a gun on them and the gang members do the same, prompting several other commuters to pull their guns as well. As Jerry and Leona try to defuse an impending slaughter, the predator jumps onto the roof of their car and enters it. It wades through the passengers, killing anyone who possesses a weapon. Leona is able lead most of the passengers out of the car and to the opposite end of the train. While she does, she sees Jerry shooting at an invisible target. Jerry's bullets have no effect and he leaps at the predator with a large knife. Leona pulls an alarm that stops the train and she guides the passengers out of the platform. She walks back to the last car and finds Jerry and a couple of commuters hung upside and dead. The predator suddenly appears and grabs her. Looking her over with it's infrared vision, it sees that she's pregnant.Harrigan arrives on the scene and sees the carnage. Jerry's body is gone and he walks down the tunnel, searching. He spots the predator ripping Jerry's skull and spinal column from his body. Harrigan chases it to street level. He steals a police car and chases it several blocks until he's stopped by Keyes' men. Taken to a high-tech command center, Keyes explains that the predator is an alien that uses advanced weaponry. He tells Harrigan about a commando team that encountered another of these creatures in a Latin American jungle 10 years prior. Keyes says that they believe the alien can only track it's prey using infrared technology and that his team, intending to capture it and study it, will wear special suits that will insulate their body heat and make them invisible. At the same time, they will dust the slaughterhouse with radioactive particles that will make the alien visible. Their ultimate goal is to freeze the alien with frozen nitrogen. The predator comes to the location every couple of days to eat the beef there. Keyes tells Harrigan to stay in the command center and observe.Keyes and his team move into the slaughterhouse. Their equipment functions well at first, until a couple of team members step on a creaking stair. The predator, hearing the noise, uses a small control panel to adjust it's vision enhancer, which changes several times until it's able to see the beams from the lights the team are using. Harrigan tries to warn Keyes that they've been spotted but the team is attacked by the predator, which kills nearly all of them. One of the teams sprays a smoke detector with nitrogen, setting off the warehouse's sprinkler system. Harrigan leaves the command center, arms himself and blows down the door just as the predator fires a blast from it's laser cannon at Keyes. Harrigan shoots at the predator, damaging its laser cannon. The alien tries to activate it's cloaking system but the water falling from the ceiling prevents from becoming invisible. Harrigan shoots the predator several times with a shotgun, blowing it onto its back. He approaches it slowly and removes it's helmet, studying it briefly before it wakes up suddenly and throws Harrigan backwards. The predator finally corners Harrigan and is about to kill him when Keyes intervenes, trying to blast the monster back with frozen nitrogen. Keyes tells Harrigan to retreat just as the alien throws a smart disk, cutting Keyes in half. The predator retreats to the roof of the building, using a breathing mask. It throws its large hunting spear at Harrigan and misses. Harrigan uses the spear to push the alien and himself off the building, where they both hang onto a ledge. The predator activates a timer connected to a small nuclear charge. Before the charge can go off, though, Harrigan uses the alien's smart disk to sever it's arm, deactivating the bomb. The alien falls down the side of the building and crashes into an apartment bathroom. It uses an elaborate first aid kit to heal it's wounds and again retreats. Harrigan follows it, falling into a cavern below the building where the alien's spacecraft has been hidden.Inside the spaceship, Harrigan finds a small shrine of sorts with skulls of humans, animals and aliens. The predator once again attacks Harrigan who fights it off and kills it with its smart disk. After it falls dead, several more predators appear and carry their fallen comrade off. The last one to leave looks over Harrigan briefly and tosses him a flintlock pistol, a trophy from a previous hunt. Engraved on the pistol is the original owner's name and the year 1715. Harrigan hears the ship starting up and runs out to cover just before the blast from the engines fills the cavern. As Harrigan walks out of a tunnel he meets one of Keyes' assistants, who, upon seeing the haggard Harrigan, leaves him. | comedy, neo noir, gothic, murder, cult, violence, good versus evil, action, suspenseful | tt0100403 |
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 | The Minister of Magic, Rufus Scrimgeour, addresses the wizarding media, stating that the Ministry will remain strong even as Lord Voldemort gains strength. Despite the Ministry of Magic's attempts to maintain an image of stability, the Death Eaters have made major gains after Dumbledore's death, committing mass killings of Muggles and infiltrating the Ministry itself. Harry, Ron and Hermione prepare for a journey to find and destroy Voldemort's Horcruxes, with Harry watching the Dursleys depart and Hermione wiping her parents' memories of her.
Severus Snape arrives at Malfoy Manor to inform Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters of Harry's impending departure from No. 4 Privet Drive. Voldemort commandeers Lucius Malfoy's wand, as Voldemort's own wand cannot be used to kill Harry, because the wands are "twins."
Meanwhile, the Order of the Phoenix gather at Privet Drive and escort Harry to safety, using Polyjuice Potion to create six decoy Harrys out of Ron, Hermione, Fleur Delacour, Fred, George and Mundungus Fletcher. During their flight to the Weasley family home at the Burrow, all are ambushed by Death Eaters. They kill Mad-Eye Moody and Harry's owl, Hedwig, injure George Weasley, and knock out Hagrid. This forces Harry to take over and drive his flying motorbike while fighting Voldemort. In the process, he destroys some power lines and causes a blackout in a Muggle city. After arriving at the Burrow, Harry has a vision of the wand-maker Ollivander being tortured by Voldemort, who claims that Ollivander had lied to him. Ollivander claimed that the only way Voldemort could kill Harry was by using another person's wand.
Scrimgeour arrives at the Burrow with Albus Dumbledore's will and distributes three items to Ron, Hermione, and Harry. Ron receives Dumbledore's Deluminator, Hermione a copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, and Harry the first Golden Snitch that he ever caught in a Quidditch match. Scrimgeour reveals that Harry was also bequeathed the Sword of Godric Gryffindor. The minister states, though, that the sword was not Dumbledore's to pass on and, in any case, is missing.
The Death Eaters kill Scrimgeour. As a result, the Ministry falls to the Death Eaters and they replace him with their puppet Pius Thicknesse who is under the influence of the Imperius curse. They begin persecuting Muggle-born witches and wizards. The Ministry attacks Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour's wedding, but they had been forewarned by Shacklebolt's patronus charm and many escape. Harry, Hermione, and Ron disapparate to Shaftesbury Avenue in London. After they are attacked by Death Eaters in a diner, they find sanctuary at No. 12 Grimmauld Place. There they discover that the "R.A.B." from the false Horcrux locket is Regulus Arcturus Black, the younger brother of Sirius Black. Kreacher, the Black's house-elf, tells them that Mundungus Fletcher stole the real locket. Kreacher and Dobby apprehend Fletcher, who reveals that the locket is in the possession of Dolores Umbridge. Under the disguise of Polyjuice Potion, the trio infiltrate the Ministry. In the courtroom, Umbridge is interrogating a Muggle-born witch and threatens her, which enrages Harry, who then stuns Umbridge and Hermione successfully retrieves the locket. The trio escape from the Dementors by fleeing into the wilderness after accidentally revealing the location of No. 12 Grimmauld Place to Yaxley, a Death Eater.
Unable to destroy the Horcrux, they take turns wearing it to dilute its malignant power. Harry sees a vision of Voldemort interrogating and killing Gregorovitch, a renowned wand-maker, who claims that a teenage boy had once stolen the legendary Elder Wand from his shop. While Ron wears the locket, he is overcome by his negative feelings and after arguing with Harry, he leaves, upsetting Hermione. Harry and Hermione decide to go to Godric's Hollow, where they visit Harry's parents' graves and the house where they were killed. They also want to search for the Sword of Gryffindor, which Hermione deduces is able to destroy Horcruxes. After traveling a cemetery where Harry's parents are buried on Christmas Eve, they visit Bathilda Bagshot, who they believe has the Sword. They are surprised by Voldemort's snake, Nagini, who has been possessing her corpse. Hermione accidentally breaks Harry's wand as they escape into the Forest of Dean. Hermione is able to identify the mysterious thief seen in Harry's vision as Gellert Grindelwald.
When evening falls, Harry sees a Patronus in the form of a doe which leads him to a frozen pond. Gryffindor's sword lies beneath the pond's ice. Harry breaks the ice and jumps in to reach the sword. The locket around his neck attempts to strangle him, but Ron arrives just in time to rescue Harry. Despite the soul inside the locket attacking both of them, Ron manages to destroy it with the Sword of Gryffindor. Hermione is angry with Ron at first but then reconciles with him.
The trio then visit Xenophilius Lovegood to learn about a symbol seen several times on their journey. He tells them that the symbol represents the Deathly Hallows: the Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone and the Cloak of Invisibility. Lovegood betrays them to the Death Eaters in an effort to have his kidnapped daughter returned.
The trio escape into the wilderness once more, but Snatchers appear and chase them. Harry has a vision of Voldemort learning from Grindelwald that the Elder Wand lies with Dumbledore in his grave. They are then captured and taken to Malfoy Manor. Bellatrix Lestrange imprisons Harry and Ron in a cellar, in which they discover Luna, Ollivander, and Griphook the goblin. Bellatrix tortures Hermione for information on how they got the sword of Gryffindor. After Dobby apparates in the cellar to save them, and incapacitates Peter Pettigrew, a short battle ensues; Harry duels and disarms Draco Malfoy. Narcissa Malfoy's wand is taken by Dobby who then disapparates the group out of the manor. Bellatrix throws her knife at them in fury. They appear on a beach outside Shell Cottage where Dobby dies in Harry's arms, having been stabbed in the stomach by Bellatrix's knife. Meanwhile, Voldemort breaks into Dumbledore's tomb and takes the Elder Wand. | dark, fantasy, boring, cult, flashback, good versus evil | tt0926084 |
Gurotesuku | A young couple Aki and Kazuo are snatched off the street while having their first date as a romantic couple after a few years working in the same office, and wake up shackled in a basement, which has all its walls covered with plastic. With no further explanation, a sadistic madman degrades, tortures and mutilates them. Initially, he punctures Kazuo's belly with a screwdriver and slices his tongue, then rapes both, one at a time, forcing the other to watch. Sometimes he stops the torture to provide medical assistance and cure the couple's wounds, so they can continue alive for a long period of time. This way he cuts off all their fingers, makes collars with them, pops out Kazuo's right eye, removes the girl's nipples and cuts off her right arm. As the torture progresses, it is revealed he is simply doing it for sexual stimulation, and tells the couple he wants the two to survive. He finally castrates Kazuo, claiming he has found all the sexual relief he needs, so no longer needs the couple's "services". Then the couple is moved to a room which resembles a modern and clean hospital room, where the kidnapper takes care of the couple's wounds. While it is never explicitly mentioned on the movie, it becomes gradually apparent that the man has professional medical training, refined manners, taste for classical music and good wines and dressed with expensive clothes when he is not in surgeon dress torturing the couple. At some point he even mentions he is a wealthy man, which suggests he may be a reputable surgeon, not merely a violent sadist, looking for an extreme and different way to obtain satisfaction on his lonely life; however, the couple also notes the doctor has a particular rotting smell always present behind his clean and elegant appearance. After several days healing, the "doctor" simply tells the couple they will be free to go, he will turn himself to authorities and, as apology for all the suffering he inflicted to the couple, he will give them all his fortune which seems to be very large, as compensation. After all the horror, in a moment alone in the hospital room, Aki and Kazuo promises to support each other once they leave the place and become a formal couple. It is unclear if the madman changed his mind, or if playing with the couple's hopes to survive and being released soon was part of his mischievous plan from the beginning, but immediately after communicating to them they will be released, the next scene takes back the couple to the scary basement. After being drugged, they are shackled again, exactly as they were the first time. The "doctor" announces they must participate in one final test of love strength. He pulls out an extreme of Kazuo's intestines and attaches them to a hook. If Kazuo is able to cross the room to the other side (pulling off his entire intestines out of his body in the process), take a scissors and cut Aki's ropes to release her, both will be finally free. However, Kazuo fails due to blood loss and falls to the ground, agonizing (it is also revealed that the ropes restraining Aki have a metal wire running through them, rendering them impossible to cut with scissors; the task was therefore impossible). Aki begins to insult the doctor, telling him he is just the son of a whore that nobody cares about, and insists despite his refined manners and expensive clothes, he has an unusual and unbearable skunk odor, no matter how hard the tries to cover the stench. Angered, the doctor cuts off Aki's head in response and as her head falls down, it lands on the man's neck and bites him with her final breath. Kazuo on the floor, not dead yet, stabs him in the foot with the scissors as a supreme last action. The couple then dies facing each other. In the epilogue of the film, the madman is revealed to have survived what happened to him in the basement, although he cannot walk properly. He is in a quiet forest where he respectfully buries the couple next to each other in a traditional Japanese way, leaving the scissors on their tombs as a symbol. The next scene shows him back in the same car he used to kidnap the couple, covering himself with lots of perfume to hide his skunk stench while a girl is walking by, and the screen cuts to black as he goes after his next victim...Source: Wikipedia | violence, cruelty, murder, sadist, flashback | tt1352369 |
Ri¢hie Ri¢h | Richie Rich is the son of Richard and Regina Rich, two of the wealthiest people in the world. Richie lives a life of luxury in the Rich Mansion, of which he is helped and waited upon by a manservant named Cadbury, who acts as Richie's guardian when his parents are unable to. Also in the employ of the family is Professor Keenbeen, a man who comes up with rather amusing gadgets and gizmos for the Rich family.One day, Richie attends the reopening of a factory called United Tool, which is father has saved from bankruptcy. While acting in his father's place, Richie soon becomes more interested in some kids playing a game of baseball nearby than the event. However, when he tries to join in the game, he is ushered away by Cadbury. On the trip back to the Rich Mansion, Cadbury notices a strange look of melancholy on Richie's face.When Richie attends school the next day, he tries to get some of the other wealthy classmates to 'hang out' with him, but none of them are willing to or know what this meaning is. On the way home, Richie has Cadbury take him back to the neighborhood where United Tool is. Finding the kids playing baseball again, Richie tries to join their game, only to have the kids feel that Richie is too rich to know how to play sports. He proves them wrong by hitting a homerun. Richie's thoughts that this will impress them, only seems to repulse them.Richie is then scheduled to accompany his parents on a visit to see the Queen of England. However, Cadbury insists that Richie stay home, and Regina and Richard give in to his request.Later on in the day, Cadbury surprises Richie by showing that he has invited the kids from the baseball game to stop by. They are soon enormously impressed by the Rich Mansion, and soon end up playing all sorts of games with Richie. Richie eagerly invites them back for another time to play, but this is soon tempered when a report comes that his parent's airplane has gone down in the Atlantic Ocean. Even though it seems hopeless, Richie and Cadbury believe that Richie's parents are still alive.Unknown to them, the plane crash was orchestrated by Lawrence Van Dough, a ruthless member of the Rich Industries Board who intends to take over the company. As the second-in-command behind Richard, Lawrence begins to make changes in the company's policies, starting with the closing of United Tool. When Richie is informed of this by Gloria, he decides to take action.As heir to the Rich Family Fortune, Richie owns a large portion of company stock, but is unable to take control of the company. However, since Cadbury was placed as Richie's guardian in the case of anything happening to his parents, Richie can operate through Cadbury.This move irritates Van Dough, who soon finds himself in a tug-of-war with the Rich Empire's board of directors. | cult, comedy, entertaining | tt0110989 |
Weekend at Bernie's | Larry Wilson (McCarthy) and Richard Parker (Silverman) are two low-level financial employees at an insurance corporation in New York City. While going over actuarial reports, Richard discovers mismatched payments. Richard and Larry take their findings to the CEO, Bernie Lomax (Terry Kiser), who commends them for discovering insurance fraud and invites them to his Hamptons island beach house for the weekend. Unbeknownst to Larry and Richard, Bernie is behind the fraud. Nervously meeting with his mob partners, Bernie asks to have Larry and Richard killed and arrange it to look like a murder-suicide. However, after Bernie leaves the gangsters decide Bernie has been attracting too much attention with his grabbiness as well as his fooling around with a girlfriend of one of the mobsters, and order that he be killed instead.Bernie arrives at the island before Larry and Richard and speaks to the hitman Paulie (Don Calfa) on the phone, planning the murders and establishing an alibi, unaware the conversation is being recorded on Bernie's answering machine. Bernie then plants cash and a fake confession note implicating Larry and Richard in the insurance fraud. Paulie arrives, injects Bernie with a fatal overdose, then plants heroin on him. When Larry and Richard arrive at the beach house, they find their boss's body. Before they can call the police, however, guests arrive for a party that is a regular event at Bernie's house every weekend. To Larry's and Richard's amazement, the guests are all too engrossed in their partying to notice their host is deceased, with Bernie's dark sunglasses and dopey grin from the fatal injection concealing his lifeless state.Fearing implication in Bernie's death, Larry proposes he and Richard maintain the illusion that Bernie is still alive, a notion that Richard finds absurd. Only the arrival of Richard's office crush, Gwen Saunders (Catherine Mary Stewart), convinces him to go along with Larry's plan. After the party, Richard and Gwen enjoy a romantic walk on the beach, but Bernie's body, after being carried out on the tide, washes up next to them, prompting Richard to return to the house and get Larry to help him retrieve the corpse.Vito's girlfriend Tina arrives at the house, convinced Bernie has been cheating on her. She threatens Larry and Richard with a knife, so they direct her to the bedroom, but she also fails to realize Bernie is dead. At that moment, another man from Vito's gang witnesses the two of them apparently making love. Fooled into thinking Bernie's assassination failed, he notifies Vito, who orders Paulie back to finish the job.The next morning, Richard is appalled to discover that Larry is furthering the illusion Bernie is alive by manipulating his corpse's arms and legs. The two bicker about alerting the police until Richard attempts to call the police himself but instead activates the phone message detailing Bernie's plot against them. Unaware of the circumstances of Bernie's death, they mistakenly believe they are still the targets of a mob hit, and decide to use Bernie's corpse as a prop for protection. Paulie, in the meantime, has returned to the island and throttles Bernie's corpse.Richard and Larry make various attempts to leave the island, but Bernie's body becomes repeatedly misplaced and recovered in the process. They attempt to board the mainland ferry with Bernie in tow, but the ferry has already departed. Paulie, who was on board, sees what looks like Bernie running with Richard and Larry on the dock, and gets frustrated at the failure of his assassination. An ill-fated attempt to use Bernie's speedboat results in numerous mishaps: Larry pulls away from the dock without first untying the boat, Richard falls overboard, and a tied-up Bernie topples from the boat and smashes into several buoys as he is dragged through the water. Finally, the boat runs out of fuel and Larry and Richard are forced to float back to shore on Bernie's body. Paulie, unfortunately, sees them and assumes that Bernie has somehow survived. Unhinged at his apparent failure to kill Bernie and Bernie's inexplicable "immortality," Paulie returns to the island to finish the deed.At the house, Gwen confronts Larry and Richard, who confess that Bernie has been dead since their arrival. At that moment, Paulie suddenly appears and empties a pistol into Bernie's chest, then turns his attention to Larry, Richard and Gwen, but fails to shoot them as he exhausted all his ammunition. Chasing after the trio, who have spilt up in different parts of the house, Paulie corners Larry, who clumsily manages to subdue Paulie with a punch and a phone cord. Richard and Gwen then alert the authorities.The police eventually arrive to place Paulie under arrest for first-degree murder, carting him off in a straitjacket as he continues to insist Bernie is still alive. The film ends with Bernie being loaded into an ambulance. However, his gurney rolls away and topples off the boardwalk, dumping him onto the beach right behind Richard, Larry and Gwen, who run away after noticing him. Eventually, a young boy comes along and starts to "play" with Bernie, scooping buckets of sand over his lifeless body. | entertaining, cult, comedy, murder, stupid | tt0098627 |
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock | The USS Enterprise, having survived it's battle with Khan Noonien Singh, is returning to Earth. With a few hours left in their journey, Kirk remarks in his log that there is a heavy feeling amongst the crew on the ship, having lost their science officer, Captain Spock, whom sacrificed himself to insure the Enterprise would not be destroyed by Khan. Kirk has Uhura check for a hailing signal from Starfleet but finds there isn't one. When asked by a cadet if they will receive a hero's welcome at home, Kirk thinks they will since they've "paid with their dearest blood."In a remote area of space, a Klingon female, Valkris, waits on a small freighter for a signal from her commanding officer. Commander Kruge responds and Valkris transmits stolen data to him on the Genesis project. When asked by Kruge if she had seen the information, she replies she had.Kruge tells her that it's unfortunate that she had. With the captain of the freighter asking when he'll be paid, Kruge's ship, a Klingon Bird-of-Prey, deactivates it's cloaking device and swings into attack, blasting apart the freighter and flying off.At Earth the Enterprise arrives at the orbiting Spacedock. While the ship docks the crew catches sight of the fleet's newest and most advanced ship, Excelsior. Sulu remarks that Excelsior has a new technology called "transwarp" drive. A skeptical Mr. Scott is scornful however Kirk scolds him gently, saying "young minds, fresh ideas." A warning alarm suddenly sounds; someone has broken into Mr. Spock's quarters which Kirk had ordered sealed. Kirk goes there himself and finds Dr. McCoy, whom appears to be suffering from mental trauma. He tells Kirk that "he left him back on Genesis" and that he has to "climb the steps of Mount Selaya" on the planet Vulcan. McCoy collapses, unconscious, and Kirk calls for the medics.Back on Kruge's ship, he and his first officer study the Genesis materials and determine that it can be an invincible weapon. He orders a course set for the Genesis Planet.On Earth, the crew of the Enterprise is not given a ceremonial reception. They are received by Admiral Morrow who has nothing but bad news for them: Kirk will not be allowed to return to the Genesis Planet to retrieve Spock's body. Project Genesis has become a "galactic controversy" and only the science teams will be allowed access to the planet. The crew are sworn to secrecy regarding the subject. Scotty will be transferred to the Excelsior to help with engineering development on the new ship. Worst of all, the Enterprise is to be decommissioned from service.Onboard the USS Grissom, one of Starfleet's science vessels, Dr David Marcus and Lt. Saavik approach the Genesis planet. They scan the surface of the planet and find varying environmental conditions. They also locate the photon tube in which Spock's body was sent to the planet's surface during his funeral services. They ask permission to beam down to the planet, a request that Captain Esteban is reluctant to allow. He eventually gives them permission.Back on Earth, at Kirk's apartment, he and his comrades share a drink honoring Spock. They also discuss McCoy's condition, who is noticeably absent and allegedly sedated in a medical facility. Kirk answers a ring at his door and is surprised to see Spock's father, the Vulcan ambassador, Sarek. Kirk asks his friends to leave and talks privately with Sarek, who is quite upset with Kirk for leaving Spock behind. Sarek speaks of Spock's Vulcan "katra", his soul, that can possibly be returned to his body. Saying that Spock wouldn't have spoken openly about his final wishes, he asks Kirk to allow a mind-meld with him. Sarek recounts Kirk's and Spock's final moments together but does not find a trace of Spock's katra. As he starts to leave, Kirk stops Sarek and tells him that even in a situation as desperate as the near-destruction of the Enterprise and Spock's efforts to prevent it, Spock would have transferred his katra to someone. Kirk reviews the ship's recording of Spock's last conversation with Dr. McCoy and sees that Spock had mind-melded with him after rendering him unconscious. Sarek tells Kirk that he must bring both McCoy and Spock to Mount Selaya on Vulcan where a ritual can be performed to restore Spock's mind to his body. Kirk says it will be difficult, but he will attempt the rescue.On Genesis, David and Saavik find Spock's photon tube, his burial robe inside. The tube is also covered with a strange species of slimy, orange creature. David deduces that they are the evolutionary descendants of microbes present on the tube before it was sent to the planet. They also notice that the weather conditions on the planet change very rapidly. They hear a child's cry coming from a nearby cave and find a young Vulcan boy: Spock. They dress him again in his robe and contact Grissom about the discovery. However, Esteban has to cut off communication with them when Kruge's Bird-of-Prey enters the sector and attacks. Kruge's gunner fires a torpedo at Grissom, obliterating it. In a fit of anger over being denied Federation hostages, Kruge shoots his gunner with a blaster, disintegrating him. His officer, Torg, tells him that there are members of Grissom's crew on the Genesis planet below and that he'll still have a chance to take prisoners. Kruge beams down with two of his crew and they search for Saavik and David. They reach the photo tube and find huge, lamprey-like creatures, the next evolution of the small creatures David and Saavik found earlier. They pick up David and Saavik's signal on a scanner and head toward them.On Earth, Kirk asks Admiral Morrow to allow him to return to the Genesis planet to rescue Spock. Morrow refuses, citing that Genesis is off limits and a forbidden subject. He also expresses doubt about what he calls Vulcan "mysticism". Kirk acts as though he sees Morrow's point and agrees not to attempt a voyage to Genesis. Outside the bar where he met Morrow, he finds his friends and tells them that despite Morrow's refusal, they'll go ahead with their plans. In another bar, Dr. McCoy meets with an alien pilot to arrange his own charter to Genesis. The alien, who has a booming voice, speaks loudly enough to get McCoy noticed by Federation officers that have followed him. They arrest him and put him in the brig. After making his arrangements for travel, Kirk visits McCoy in his cell and tells him about Spock's mind meld. McCoy is given a tranquilizer and Sulu, using martial arts, subdues the guards. In a transporter room in Spacedock, Uhura is present when Kirk, Sulu and McCoy arrive. She blackmails the officer she works with in the facility and beams her three friends aboard the Enterprise. On board already is Scotty, who has reworked the ship's control systems to be operated from the bridge. As they prep the ship for departure, they are hailed by Federation security to return the Enterprise, a warning that Kirk orders ignored. The ship moves out, heading directly for the dock's space doors, which remain closed. Scotty, following several attempts, is successful in opening them. allowing the Enterprise to escape. Meanwhile, on board Excelsior, Captain Styles receives orders to pursue and stop Kirk. The Enterprise goes to warp speed and streaks away. Excelsior powers up, Styles planning to use the ship's experimental "transwarp" drive to overtake the Enterprise. When he orders the transwarp drive activated, it fails, leaving Excelsior stranded outside Spacedock. On board the Enterprise, Scotty gives a handful of circuits to McCoy, admitting he'd sabotaged the other ship.On Genesis, Saavik confronts David about the unstable nature of the planet. David admits that he used a volatile substance, "protomatter", in the Genesis Project matrix. The protomatter, may have advanced David's research, but has created a planet that is aging too rapidly to be habitable. The same effect is also advancing Spock's development and David and Saavik conclude that they must escape the planet before it destroys itself and to halt Spock's rapid aging. Spock is also experiencing a biological process called "pon farr", transformational periods that occur every seven year in which a Vulcan male develops into an adult. Saavik is able to soothe the painful process for Spock.Later, the three are captured by Kruge and is crew. Kruge tells them of his intention to seize the Genesis research, despite David's insistence that it doesn't work. Kruge, of course, intends to use it as a weapon. The renegade commander is called back to his ship when the Enterprise arrives at Genesis. Kruge orders the cloaking device engaged and they wait for Enterprise to close the distance for attack. On board the Enterprise, Chekov loses a signal on his sensor as the Bird-of-Prey cloaks. The crew looks closely at the viewscreen and Kirk notices a shimmering distortion. As Kruge orders his ship de-cloaked and prepares to fire, Sulu identifies it and Kirk orders the firing of photon torpedoes. The Bird-of-Prey is hit directly and begins to tumble, but quickly recovers, having suffered minimal damage. Kirk orders the Enterprise's shields to be raised, but Scotty reports that the ship's systems are malfunctioning due to the unexpected battle, and before the crew can do anything else the Klingons fire a torpedo at the ship's warp engines, causing devastating damage which destroys the Enterprise's main systems, leaving the ship a lifeless hulk.Kirk hails the Klingon ship and demands to know why they are there and why they attacked. Kruge realizes that he has the advantage, since Kirk would have just destroyed the Bird-of-Prey if the Enterprise was capable, and demands that Kirk surrender, saying that the very possession of Genesis by the Federation brands them as warlike. He also reveals that he is holding Saavik, David and Spock prisoner. He allows communication with them and Saavik tells Kirk that Spock is with them. David tells Kirk that the planet will self-destruct and that Spock must be taken off immediately. Kruge, to show his intentions are sincere, orders one of his prisoners executed. One of the Klingons draws a dagger and prepares to kill Saavik, David intervenes and fights with the Klingon, who stabs David to death. Kirk is overwhelmed by the death of his son. After a few moments, he invites Kruge to send over some of his crew to retrieve them and the Genesis materials. He orders McCoy and Sulu to the transporter room, leaving himself, Chekov and Scotty on the bridge. The three activate the Enterprise's self-destruct sequence and leave for the transporters. They beam down to the planet just as Kruge's men arrive. They find the bridge and discover the timer counting down; Kruge's order to beam them back comes too late and the Enterprise explodes. On the planet, Kirk and his friends watch as the Enterprise falls out of orbit and burns up in the Genesis atmosphere. Kirk asks "My God, Bones, what have I done?" McCoy replies "What you always do: turn death into a fighting chance at life."Kirk and his team find Saavik and Spock just as Spock, in a rage of pain, throws one of his Klingon captors, possibly killing him. Kirk kills the second guard. Saavik tells Kirk that the Genesis effect will kill Spock if they don't leave the planet immediately. Just then Kruge beams down and holds them all at gunpoint. He orders his crew to beam up everyone but Kirk and Spock. Kruge demands Genesis; Kirk says he'll give it to him if he beams Spock up, which Kruge refuses. The two fight, hand-to-hand while the ground shifts and rumbles with earthquakes around them. They battle to the edge of a cliff, part of which falls away under Kruge's feet, leaving him dangling over a chasm of molten rock. Kirk offers to pull the Klingon up; when he does, Kruge tries to pull Kirk down with him. Kirk kicks Kruge several times in the face, finally dislodging him; Kruge falls hundreds of feet and burns up in the extreme temperatures below. Kirk runs back to Spock, grabs Kruge's communicator and, imitating the Klingon's voice, calls for beam-up. He and Spock arrive safely on the Bird-of-Prey, which has been commandeered by Kirk's comrades. The speed off as Genesis explodes.The ship arrives on Vulcan where Sarek has made preparations at Mount Seleya. Spock's body is brought up to an altar on the mountain where the high priestess, T'Lar, awaits with Sarek. Sarek asks for the ancient ritual of "fal-tor-pan", the "refusion" of Spock's katra with his body. T'Lar warns that the ritual has "succeeded only in legend". She also warns McCoy that the ritual carries as much danger for him as it does Spock. McCoy agrees to participate.An indeterminate amount of time passes while T'Lar performs the ceremony. The Enterprise's crew waits anxiously until McCoy walks down from the altar, apparently fine. Kirk asks Sarek if the ritual was successful, to which Sarek replies "only time will tell." Spock, clad in a white robe, descends, at first oblivious to Kirk's and his old friends' presence, however, he stops and recognizes Kirk. He asks "ship out of danger?" to which Kirk says that he saved them all. Spock, a note of recognition in his face, says "'Jim.' Your name, is 'Jim'." Kirk and his friends are overjoyed. | cult, revenge, murder | tt0088170 |
Tammy and the Bachelor | Tambrey "Tammy" Tyree (Debbie Reynolds) is a seventeen-year-old girl living in a houseboat in Mississippi (within sight of Louisiana) with her Grandpa, John Dinwitty (Walter Brennan). She runs around barefoot, dreaming of life outside of the swamp, and talking to her best friend, Nan, a goat.
One day in the swamp, Tammy and her grandfather locate the wreckage of a plane the grandfather had heard crash and discover the unconscious body of Peter Brent (Leslie Nielsen). Tammy and her grandfather help Peter recover at their home, during which time Tammy falls in love with Peter. However, he must return to his own home, but tells the grandfather that, if anything happened to the grandfather, Tammy would be welcome to come and stay with Peter at his spacious house.
Several weeks later, Tammy's grandfather is arrested for making moonshine. With no one else to stay with, Tammy sets off for Brentwood Hall, Peter's home. She arrives during a dance rehearsal and sees Peter with his friends. When Peter's friend Ernie discovers Tammy outside of the party, Tammy tries to explain her grandfather's imprisonment; however, Peter misunderstands, and tells Mrs. Brent (Fay Wray) that Tammy's grandfather has died, leading the Brents to take her in. Tammy learns that Peter is busy with "Brentwood #6", an experimental tomato he is growing in hopes of making Brentwood Hall self-sustaining once again. After Tammy finally tells everyone that her grandfather isn't actually dead, Mrs. Brent is upset over Tammy announcing to everyone that she has a relative in jail. However, Peter and his Aunt Renie convince Tammy to stay, leading her to sing of her love for Peter.
Peter's love interest drops by Brentwood Hall. Her uncle wants Peter to stop experimenting with tomatoes and offers him a deal to come to work with him in the advertising business. Peter turns down the offer. That week is also Pilgrimage Week, which includes a ball and tours of Brentwood Hall, all while in costume. Renie gives Tammy the dress Peter's great-grandmother wore. Mrs. Brent and Renie suggest that Tammy pretend to be Great-Grandmother Cratchett for the evening. At the Ball that night, Tammy tells a story for the guests, and enchants everyone, even Mrs. Brent.
That night, a hail storm hits Brentwood Hall and destroys all of the Brentwood #6s. The next morning, Peter announces that he is going to accept the advertising offer, leading Tammy to run away. Peter realizes he loves Tammy, finds Tammy's grandfather, and returns to the houseboat, where he kisses her. | romantic, storytelling | tt0051051 |
Christie's Revenge | 19-year-old CHRISTIE COLEMAN (Dani Kind) has had a difficult life. After her mother divorced her father RICHARD, Christie was the only one to stand by him despite the fact that everything in Richard's life seemed to be going downhill. Shortly before his suicide, Christie overheard that Richard's successful brother RAY (John Wesley Shipp), an OB/GYN in Philadelphia, refused to loan Richard money to help him out. Christie, only 16 at the time, was the one to find her father's body when he shot himself, and vowed at that moment, to someday take revenge on the man she blamed for his demise Uncle Ray.Three years later, Christie sets her plan to ruin Ray's life and make his murder
look like a suicide, into motion. While attending a prestigious university near
Ray's house, she moves in with him and his family his beautiful wife MIRANDA (Cynthia Gibb) and their rebellious teen daughter HALEY. And it's right about that time that things start to go tremendously wrong for Ray.Ray's shocked when one of his patients, JENNIFER, comes to his office and
blackmails him. Threatening to turn him in for sexual misconduct, she demands he pay her thousands of dollars or kiss his career and reputation goodbye. What scam artist Jennifer doesn't realize is her partner, Christie, isn't in this for the money. Christie murders Jennifer and frames Ray, making it look like he took squelching Jennifer's potentially damaging accusation on his own. As Ray suddenly finds himself in the middle of a homicide investigation, Christie prepares to execute the final steps of her evil plan.But to Christie's surprise, not everything works out the way she expects it to.
JOSH, Jennifer's on-and-off-again boyfriend ventures out from Missouri to find
her, and Haley happens to notice that Christie isn't exactly who she pretends to be. While Christie is forced to take care of Josh before he can reveal her part in the scam, Haley goes to her mother to express her concerns. Luckily for Christie, Haley's complaints fall on deaf ears after Haley's series of lies
about skipping school and getting drunk.Will Miranda listen to her daughter and suspect Christie's up to no good before her niece can make sure Ray suffers the same violent fate as Richard? Or will Christie succeed in taking her revenge? | revenge, murder | tt0929237 |
Child's Play 2 | In 1990, two years after Chucky was destroyed by the Barclays and detective Mike Norris, the killer "Good Guy" doll Chucky (voiced by Brad Dourif) is rebuilt from scratch by the Play Pals company to prove there is no fault with the dolls. As a result of Andy Barclay (Alex Vincent) blaming Chucky for the murders committed, the company has suffered. One of the men working on Chucky is killed via electrocution; as a result, the CEO of the company Mr. Sullivan (Peter Haskell) orders his assistant Mattson (Greg Germann) to cover the accident and get rid of Chucky.
Meanwhile, Andy is now in foster care, due to his mother being in a mental hospital for supporting his story about Chucky. Andy is adopted by Phil (Gerrit Graham) and Joanne Simpson (Jenny Agutter). In his new home, Andy meets his new foster sister Kyle (Christine Elise).
After work, Mattson goes to a corner store and while he leaves his car, Chucky uses the car phone to ring Grace Poole (Grace Zabriskie), the manager of Andy's foster center. He claims to be a relative of Andy's in order to get his new address. He then carjacks the car and orders Mattson to drive outside the Simpson household at gun point. Chucky then kills him by suffocating him with a plastic bag. In the house, Chucky accidentally activates "Tommy", another "Good-Guy" doll, and destroys him with Joanne's ornament. Chucky then buries the doll in the garden and takes his place as "Tommy". Phil punishes the children believing one of them broke the ornament. After Andy spends the rest of the day with Kyle, Chucky waits for nightfall and ties up Andy in order to possess him. However, Kyle, who snuck out, arrives and the ritual is interrupted. After Andy claimed Chucky tied him up, Phil throws Chucky in the basement.
The next day, Chucky hitches a ride on the bus to Andy's school. Andy's teacher Miss Kettlewell (Beth Grant) discovers an obscenity Chucky wrote on his worksheet. Believing Andy was responsible, she forces Andy to stay in the classroom as punishment, and locks Chucky in the closet. Andy escapes, and Chucky beats Miss Kettlewell to death with a yardstick. After Andy insisted Chucky got him in trouble, Phil considers taking him back to the foster center.
That night, Andy tries to kill Chucky with an electric knife in the basement, but Chucky attacks him. Phil goes to investigate the commotion but he is killed by Chucky who trips him and throws him to the floor, snapping his neck. Joanne, onvinced that Andy killed him, sends him back to the foster center. Later, Kyle discovers the buried doll in the garden and realizes Andy was telling the truth all along, and rushes in to find Joanne dead. Chucky attacks Kyle and orders her to take him to the center. There, during a false fire alarm, he kills Grace and orders Andy to take him to the PlayPals "Good-Guy" factory for the transfer.
Kyle follows Chucky and Andy to the factory. After knocking Andy unconscious once again, Chucky fails to possess the boy, since he spent too much time within the doll's body. Enraged, Chucky decides to kill Andy and Kyle instead. Chucky murders a factory worker. He then loses one of his hands, which he replaces with his knife, and his legs, but still goes after the two. Kyle and Andy then pour molten plastic over him before inserting an air hose in his mouth, which causes his head to explode and finally defeating him. Andy and Kyle leaves the factory for "home", with Andy asking where "home" is and Kyle responding that, in truth, she doesn't know. | comedy, gothic, violence | tt0099253 |
The One-Nighter | Ever wake up with someone you've never met? It's awkward. You don't know where you are or how you got there? Has that ever happened to you? Your wallet, keys and cell phone have been stolen. You're locked in a crappy apartment on the 16Th floor of a high rise in Newark and the only person who can hear you scream for help is Pixie, the ex-hooker next door who's pissed at you because she's trying to give her boyfriend, Louie, the 'Pixie L'Amour Hula Special.' That's what happens to Chad, a body building underwear salesman from Brazil who loves every inch of himself and Annie, a Catholic kindergarten teacher from Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrows.Pixie's not having a great day either. Once, she was the highest paid hooker in Newark but she gave up all her other tricks when Louie said he was going to divorce his wife and they would be together. That was 32 years ago today and she's beginning to think he's never going to leave her. Louie has been seeing her every Wednesday morning from nine to eleven, except during Lent. He gives her up for Lent.Meanwhile, Zander, the guy who locked Chad and Annie in his apartment, shows up, says he's a cab driver and they stiffed him for his fare last night and he's not going to let them out until he gets his money. Annie signs a check for him because she has an entire kindergarten waiting for her not to mention a nun the kids call Sister Quasimodo. Chad gives him his ATM code because he has a meeting for a $3 million account for men's fiber filled shorts. Zander leaves to get his money.Louie agrees to let Pixie give him her hula special but he wants to do it on the clothes dryer. He likes the vibration. Louie gets up on the dryer. Pixie gets up on the washer but when Louie twists around to turn the dryer on, his back goes out. He can't move. He screams in agony. Pixie says she'll call 9-1-1! Louie screams even louder. 'No 911! No 911!' 'Why Not? They'll take you to the hospital!' 'And Medusa will find out about us! She'll skin me alive. She'll take every dime I've got and make me pay alimony until I'm dead!' 'That'll be better than dying right here on the dryer!' Louie writhes in pain, 'It's not my heart. I'm not going to die right here on the dryer. Ya got any drugs?' Pixie thinks back, 'Yeah. I got Maui Wowie.' She whips out her plastic bag of stash -- dated 1986. Louie whines, 'We're gonna smoke dope from the last century?' Meanwhile, Bubbles, Zander's girlfriend who is not too bright, knocks on Zander's door, 'Sugar Buns? Let me in. I forgot my keys at work.' Annie answers, 'I can't let you in. Zander's got these locks that won't open from the inside. ' Bubbles answers, 'Oh, yeah. Why does he have those crazy locks on there?' 'I don't know. I'm asking you.' 'What are you doing in my boyfriends apartment?' 'I don't know. I woke up in here and I couldn't get out.' When Bubbles finds out that Zander brought Annie and a man home with him, her mind boggles with the possibilities. 'I'm going to kill him.' She storms off.
Meanwhile, Louie and Pixie light up and choke their brains out on the twenty-five -year-old weed.Then Annie and Chad begin to remember last night. They lie down on the bed; Annie looks deeply into his eyes, 'Chad? Was I any good?' 'You were very pleasant.' 'What should I do to improve?' 'Moving would help.' Zander pounds on the door with his gun. 'Excuse me, folks. I'm back.'Louie, stoned out of his mind, asks Pixie if she's ready to give him 'The Pixie L'Amour Hula Special.' Equally buzzed, she manages to get up on her knees on top of the washer and crawl over to him.' We hear a crack. She screams. Louie asks, 'What is it? Is it your back?' 'No! It's my hip! We gotta get to the phone. I don't care if Medusa finds out." But Louie still can't move and she can't move. Now they're the ones screaming for help. What a way to start the day.We follow our six characters as they bob and weave through the labarynth of love always going somewhere one would never expect and just when it seems nothing is going to work out, everything changes one night in Newark. | romantic | tt1327196 |
The Inbetweeners 2 | Will, Neil and Jay's girlfriends have all broken up with them since the events of the last film, and Simon is unhappy with his girlfriend Lucy, who has become obsessive and abusive. Simon and Will are depressed and ostracised at university; Neil is working in a bank; and Jay is taking a gap year in Australia. He emails Neil, claiming that he is now a top DJ at a popular night club, lives in a luxury mansion, and has daily sex with multiple partners. This convinces them to visit him in Australia for their Easter holidays. Once they arrive at the club they find that Jay in fact only works as a toilet attendant and lives in a tent in his Uncle's front garden, while Will meets Katie, an old friend from his private school days, who is backpacking, and she persuades him to join her.
The next day, the four travel to a youth hostel in Byron Bay, as Will wants to follow Katie there. He attempts to become friends with one of the backpackers, Ben, but is unsuccessful when the backpackers quickly deduce that he is a tourist, rather than a "traveller". Will struggles to fit in with the 'spiritual' activities of the travellers and discovers that Katie is seeing multiple people at once, launching him into one of his foul-mouthed tirades towards them, which leads Katie into having sex with Ben.
The boys and the backpackers visit a water park, where Jay intends to find his ex-girlfriend, Jane. The park staff tell Jay that Jane has found a new job in the vast Outback, which leaves Jay feeling very dejected. Neil pays for a swimming with dolphins session and this quickly turns sour when Neil's dolphin dies from being fed junk food that Neil smuggles in his wetsuit.
Jay gets Simon into trouble whilst walking to the Lazy River, because Jay deliberately blurted out that Simon was a paedophile in front of a passing family and he then deliberately nudged Simon into the water and he landed head-first into the lap of a child using a rubber ring, consequently leading to the child's father and another male beating him up. Neil gets into trouble by pooing down a water slide due to an attack of irritable bowel syndrome which proceeds to land into Will's face, Will consequently vomits everywhere, leading to everyone screaming and running away and the park being closed down; he berates Neil because Will was arrested.
Lucy tells Simon via Skype that Jane is working on a stud farm in the remote settlement of Birdsville, and the boys intend to drive there. Their car runs out of petrol in the middle of the desert. The group hold hands together as they realise that they will most likely die, but are rescued by Jane and her co-workers. She realises how far Jay came to win her over again, and although she is touched by the gesture, she does not take him back. Back at Jay's uncle's house, the boys find that their parents have travelled to find them after hearing of their near-death experience. The boys are shocked to find Mr Gilbert (their old head of sixth form and Will's nemesis) there too, and Will's mother announces that she and Gilbert are in a relationship, to the abject horror of Will and amusement of the other three friends. Over Skype, Lucy breaks-up with Simon because she is now in a relationship with his university 'best friend' Pete, which Simon responds to by cheering and abruptly hanging-up on her.
The four boys decide to travel to Vietnam in a montage during the film's credits. As they return to the United Kingdom, Neil begins a relationship with one of the travellers while Will's mother reveals that she and Gilbert are engaged. Will attempts to run back to the plane, but is wrestled to the ground by security. | comedy | tt3097204 |
The Bunker | An American captain wants to see the infamous bunker of Hitler. The Russian guard lets him head into the bunker. Water covers a good deal of the floors. Here is where Hitler lived his last 105 days.Flashback. January 16, 1945. The Americans are at the Rhine River in Germany. Hitler goes to his bunker in Berlin. Bormann checks the place out and comments, "What have we come to? Reports come in that the Russians are raping all German women. Goebbels arrives. Reichsminister Albert Speer, Hitler's architect and industrial production man, arrives. Speer wants to try to talk Hitler out of his plan to destroy all Germany. Speer gets his private audience, but Hitler is absolutely committed to his plan of utter annihilation of Germany as a punishment for betraying him.Speer talks with Dieter Stahl, Chief of the Munitions Division, about the possibility of assassinating Hitler by introducing into the bunker a new poison gas that is said to be able to penetrate any air filter. Stahl tells him that it is too risky of a gas and that mustard gas would be better. Speer asks Stahl to get him some of the gas and Stahl agrees.Hitler is in conference with his generals. He is furious with them saying that the generals have let him down. One of the generals strenuously objects and the only thing that Hitler does to him is to tell him to go on six weeks of sick leave.Bormann speaks with Speer and asks him why he has not carried out Hitler's plan for total annihilation of German towns and villages. Speer says that there have been administrative problems. He then has to speak with Hitler about the subject. Hitler tells him that he has read Speer's long memorandum on the subject but says there will be no reconsideration of his policy. He becomes extremely mad at Speer when the architect dares sits down: "How dare you sit in my presence?" Speer is then dismissed. He later learns that he has been replaced with Bormann as head of the annihilation plan.The next time Hitler speaks to Speer he tells him that he must believe that the war is not lost. But Speer says the war is lost. Then Hitler retreats a bit and says "If you could just hope we will win" that would be enough to satisfy me. Speer feeds Hitler some other lines and Hitler announces his victory with "I knew I could rely on you".Goebbels reports to Hitler that the American president, Franlin Delano Roosevelt, has died. The minister of propaganda is absolutely ecstatic. That happiness, however, is offset by the message that Vienna has fallen.Eva Braun, Hitler's mistress, arrives. The head of the German Air Force, Goering, arrives followed by head of the secret police Himmler. Himmler is secretly negotiating with Count Bernadotte of Sweden about peace.Berlin is now closed on three sides. Hitler tells his generals to send General Steiner in with his Panzer corps, but Steiner only has 11,000 men. Hitler demands to know who was responsible for not stopping the Russians in their latest move. It's the 56th Panzer of General Wielding. Hitler tells his staff to have the general executed. Hitler goes outside and praises the kids who are now serving as German soldiers.Goebbels calls his wife and tells her that the time has come. That is code for the situation is so bad that it is time to bring the children to the bunker to commit suicide with Hitler and Eva. The Goebbels believe that a world without Hitler would be simply unbearable.Bormann asks Hitler to move to greater safety in Bavaria, but Hitler answers with a definite no. Two of Hitler's secretaries come in to tell Hitler that they want to stay with him through the bombardments. Hitler nods in agreement. Magda Goebbels and her six children arrive.Conferring again with his generals, Hitler learns that General Steiner has been captured. Hitler goes into a rant saying that the army has betrayed him, that his orders have not been carried out. He finally admits: "I'll die in Berlin. The war is lost."Eva Braun's brother-in-law Colonel Fegelein is brought by force into the bunker. The man has been absent for three days and was about to leave Berlin. Hitler chooses to be lenient and tells his staff to release him. But then Hitler is told that Himmler has offered to surrender the western German armies to Eisenhower. Hitler then even gets madder when he learns that Goering in a message to von Ribbentrop said that he will take over in Germany after Hitler's death. Speer has come to say good-bye to Hitler because he is leaving, but Hitler is too angry to give him much notice. But Hitler has time enough to tell Bormann to execute Fegelein.Hitler and Eva Braun have afternoon tea and crumpets. Hitler is distracted with his worries, so Eva asks him if they can tell the secretaries the good news. She gets the okay and she tells the women that they will be married. There is only about 48 hours left until the arrival of the Russians at the bunker.Hitler asks General Mohnke, who is in charge of the defence of Berlin, if he can hold out until May 5, the anniversary of Napoleon's defeat. The general tells him that he can give no assurances as to any particular date.There is a farewell dinner for Dr. Goebbels. Hitler learns that Mussolini and his mistress have been executed and their bodies hung upside down in the public square.The end has come. Hitler and Eva Braun say good-bye to their staff. They then retire to their private chamber where they both bite down on cyanide capsules. Almost simultaneously Hitler shoots himself in the head with his revolver. Their bodies are taken outside the bunker and burned. Now it is the turn of the Goebbels. In their beds, Magda makes all six children bite down on cyanide capsules. They are quickly dead. Magda and Joseph go outside and repeat the actions of Hitler and Eva Braun.The staff now leaves the bunker with the exception of the engineer in charge of operating the electrical generator. Only six of the staff that left were able to avoid capture by the Russians. Two of Hitler's secretaries were captured by the British. Bormann's body was finally discovered in 1972, a suicide committed at the time of the fall of Berlin. Albert Speer was captured and served 20 years in prison. | violence | tt0082114 |
Sister Act | The film opens in 1968 at St. Anne's Academy, a California Roman Catholic school, where a young girl named Deloris Wilson is scolded by Sister Immaculata (Lois de Banzie) for wisecracking and disobedience. The setting then changes to the present day, where Deloris (now going by the surname Van Cartier) is a lounge singer in a 1960s-themed act called The Ronelles (a parody of The Ronettes), who sing at The Moonlite Lounge of the Nevada Club in Reno, Nevada, run by her boyfriend, the mobster Vince LaRocca. After Deloris walks in on Vince having his chauffeur Ernie executed for betrayal, Vince orders his two henchmen Joey and Willy to kill her as well. Deloris flees Vince's casino to the local police station where Lieutenant Eddie Souther suggests she testify against Vince if he can be arrested and tried, but for now, she should go into witness protection until the time comes.
Deloris is taken to St. Katherine's Parish in a seedy, run-down neighborhood of San Francisco, where Souther suggests she take refuge in the attached convent. Both Deloris and the stoic Reverend Mother object, but are convinced by Souther and Monsignor O'Hara to go ahead with it. Deloris 'becomes' a nun – habit and all – under the hand of Reverend Mother, who gives her the religious name 'Sister Mary Clarence' to complete the disguise. Mary Clarence objects to following the strictures and simple life of the convent, but comes to befriend several of the nuns, including the forever jolly Sister Mary Patrick, quiet and meek Sister Mary Robert, and the elderly deadpan Sister Mary Lazarus. After sneaking into a nearby bar, Mary Clarence is chastised by Reverend Mother and put into the choir, which she has seen to be dreadful. The choir nuns, learning that Mary Clarence has a background in music, elect her to take over as choir director, which she accepts, and she rearranges them to make them better singers. At Mass one Sunday, the choir sings the "Hail Holy Queen" in the traditional manner beautifully before shifting into a gospel and rock-and-roll-infused performance of the hymn.
Reverend Mother is infuriated with Mary Clarence about the performance, and orders that Mary Lazarus once again become the director of the choir, but Monsignor O'Hara is thrilled with the performance as the unorthodox music brought people, including teenagers, in off the streets. Deloris convinces Monsignor O'Hara that the nuns should be going out to clean up the neighborhood. This they do, and the choir wows church visitors with their music, with Souther eventually attending a performance of "My Guy" (appropriately rewritten as "My God"). Eventually, O'Hara announces to the choir that Pope John Paul II is to visit the church to see the choir himself. Reverend Mother decides to hand in her resignation since her authority has been unintentionally undermined, but Mary Clarence offers to leave in her stead, to which the Reverend Mother disagrees.
Detective Tate, a police officer on Vince's payroll, finds out where Deloris is and contacts Vince, who sends Joey and Willy out to grab her. Souther confronts Tate, gets him arrested, and flies to San Francisco to try and warn Mary Clarence, but Vince's men abduct her.
The nuns, led by the Reverend Mother, risk their lives by going to Reno to save Mary Clarence. Meanwhile, she flees Vince and his men, leading to a chase around the casino until the nuns find her and try to sneak out. Vince, Joey and Willy confront the nuns, but they cannot bring themselves to shoot Deloris while she is in a nun's habit, and Reverend Mother proclaims Deloris is indeed a nun, to convince Vince. As Vince works up the courage to shoot her anyway, Souther bursts in and shoots him in the arm, and has the men arrested. Reverend Mother then thanks Deloris for everything she has done for them and agrees to remain at the convent.
The film ends with the choir, led by Deloris, singing "I Will Follow Him" before the Pope and a packed and refurbished St. Katherine's, earning a loud standing ovation from the audience, the Pope, Reverend Mother, Monsignor O'Hara and Lt. Souther. The end credits reveals that Deloris' secret life as a nun was sold to the media and has become a sensation. The ending of Deloris' "career" as a choir leader is revealed through magazines and album covers and Deloris has continued leading the choir as a famous group with published albums. | murder | tt0105417 |
Julius Caesar | The play opens with the commoners of Rome celebrating Caesar's triumphant return from defeating Pompey's sons at the battle of Munda. Two tribunes, Flavius and Marrullus, discover the commoners celebrating, insult them for their change in loyalty from Pompey to Caesar, and break up the crowd. There are some jokes made by the commoners, who insult them back. They also plan on removing all decorations from Caesar's statues and ending any other festivities. In the next scene, during Caesar's parade on the feast of Lupercal, a soothsayer warns Caesar, "Beware the ides of March." This warning he disregards. The action then turns to the discussion between Brutus and Cassius. In this conversation, Cassius attempts to influence Brutus's opinions into believing Caesar should be killed, preparing to have Brutus join his conspiracy to kill Caesar. They then hear from Casca that Mark Antony has offered Caesar the crown of Rome three times and that each time Caesar refused it, fainting after the last refusal. Later, in act two, Brutus joins the conspiracy, although after much moral debate, eventually deciding that Caesar, although his friend and never having done anything against the people of Rome, should be killed to prevent him from doing anything against the people of Rome if he were ever to be crowned. He compares Caesar to "A serpents egg/ which hatch'd, would, as his kind, grow mischievous,/ and kill him in the shell." He then decides to join Cassius in killing Caesar.
Caesar's assassination is one of the most famous scenes of the play, occurring in Act 3, scene 1. After ignoring the soothsayer, as well as his wife's own premonitions, Caesar comes to the Senate. The conspirators create a superficial motive for coming close enough to assassinate Caesar by means of a petition brought by Metellus Cimber, pleading on behalf of his banished brother. As Caesar, predictably, rejects the petition, Casca grazes Caesar in the back of his neck, and the others follow in stabbing him; Brutus is last. At this point, Shakespeare makes Caesar utter the famous line "Et tu, Brute?" ("And you, Brutus?", i.e. "You too, Brutus?") Shakespeare has him add, "Then fall, Caesar!" This suggests that such treachery destroyed Caesar's will to live.
The conspirators make clear that they committed this act for Rome, not for their own purposes, and do not attempt to flee the scene. After Caesar is killed, Brutus delivers an oration defending his actions, and for the moment, the crowd is on his side. However, Mark Antony makes a subtle and eloquent speech over Caesar's corpse, beginning with the much-quoted "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!" In this way, he deftly turns public opinion against the assassins by manipulating the emotions of the common people, in contrast to the rational tone of Brutus's speech, yet there is method in his rhetorical speech and gestures: he reminds them of the good Caesar had done for Rome, his sympathy with the poor, and his refusal of the crown at the Lupercal, thus questioning Brutus's claim of Caesar's ambition; he shows Caesar's bloody, lifeless body to the crowd to have them shed tears and gain sympathy for their fallen hero; and he reads Caesar's will, in which every Roman citizen would receive 75 drachmas. Antony, even as he states his intentions against it, rouses the mob to drive the conspirators from Rome. Amid the violence, an innocent poet, Cinna, is confused with the conspirator Lucius Cinna and is taken by the mob, which kills him by tearing him to pieces for such "offenses" as his bad verses.
The beginning of Act Four is marked by the quarrel scene, where Brutus attacks Cassius for supposedly soiling the noble act of regicide by having accepted bribes. ("Did not great Julius bleed for justice' sake? / What villain touch'd his body, that did stab, / And not for justice?") The two are reconciled, especially after Brutus reveals that his beloved wife Portia had committed suicide under the stress of his absence from Rome; they prepare for a war against Mark Antony and Caesar's adopted son, Octavius. That night, Caesar's ghost appears to Brutus with a warning of defeat. (He informs Brutus, "Thou shalt see me at Philippi.")
At the battle, Cassius and Brutus, knowing that they will probably both die, smile their last smiles to each other and hold hands. During the battle, Cassius has his servant Pindarus kill him after hearing of the capture of his best friend, Titinius. After Titinius, who was not really captured, sees Cassius's corpse, he commits suicide. However, Brutus wins that stage of the battle--but his victory is not conclusive. With a heavy heart, Brutus battles again the next day. He loses and commits suicide by running on his own sword, which is held by a soldier named Strato.
The play ends with a tribute to Brutus by Antony, who proclaims that Brutus has remained "the noblest Roman of them all" because he was the only conspirator who acted, in his mind, for the good of Rome. There is then a small hint at the friction between Mark Antony and Octavius which characterizes another of Shakespeare's Roman plays, Antony and Cleopatra. | tragedy, revenge, murder, violence | tt0065922 |
Edward Scissorhands | An elderly woman tells her granddaughter the story of a young man named Edward who has scissor blades for hands. As the creation of an old Inventor, Edward is an artificially created human who is almost completed. The Inventor homeschools Edward, but suffers a fatal heart attack before he can fasten hands on Edward.
Some years later, Peg Boggs, a local Avon door-to-door saleswoman, visits the decrepit Gothic mansion where Edward lives. She finds Edward alone and offers to take him to her home when she realizes he is virtually harmless. Peg introduces Edward to her family: her husband Bill, their young son Kevin, and their teenage daughter Kim. They are initially fearful of Edward but come to see him as a kind person.
The Boggs' neighbors are curious about their new house guest, and the Boggs throw a neighborhood barbecue welcoming Edward. Most of the neighbors are fascinated by Edward and befriend him, except for the eccentric religious fanatic Esmeralda and Kim's boyfriend Jim. Edward repays the neighborhood for their kindness by trimming their hedges into topiaries. This leads him to discover he can groom dogs' hair, and later he styles the hair of the neighborhood women. One of the neighbors, Joyce, suggests that she can help Edward open a hair salon. While scouting for a location, Joyce attempts to seduce him, but scares Edward. Joyce tells the neighborhood women that he attempted to seduce her, reducing their trust in him. The bank refuses to give Edward a loan for the salon as he does not have a background or financial history.
Jim, jealous of Kim's attraction to Edward, suggests Edward pick the lock on his parents' home to obtain a van for Jim and Kim. Edward agrees, but when he picks the lock, a burglar alarm is triggered. Jim flees and Edward is caught by the police. The police discover through psychological examination that his period of isolation has left Edward without any sense of reality or common sense. Edward takes responsibility for the robbery, telling a surprised Kim he did it because she asked him to. Edward is shunned by the neighborhood except for the Boggs.
During Christmas, Edward carves an angelic ice sculpture modeled after Kim, the ice shavings being thrown into the air and falling like snow, a rarity for the neighborhood. Kim dances in the snowfall. Jim arrives and calls out to Edward, which surprises him, accidentally cutting Kim's hand in the process. Jim accuses Edward of intentionally harming Kim, but Kim, fed up with Jim's jealousy, says she is breaking up with him. Edward runs off in a fit of rage, destroying his works until he is calmed down by a stray dog. Kim tells her parents what happened, and they set out to find Edward. Edward returns to the Boggs home to find Kim and Kevin there. Kim tries to apologize for Jim's behavior and asks him to hold her, but Edward is afraid he will hurt her again. Jim returns in a drunken rage and nearly runs over Kevin, but Edward pushes Kevin to safety, inadvertently scratching him. Jim tells those witnessing the event that Edward is attacking Kevin, and he tries attacking Edward. Edward defends himself, cutting Jim's arm, and then flees to the mansion.
Kim races after Edward, while Jim obtains a handgun and follows Kim. In the mansion, Jim corners Edward and fights him; Edward refuses to fight back until Jim slaps Kim as she attempts to intervene. Enraged, Edward stabs Jim in the stomach and pushes him from a high window, killing him. Kim confesses her love to Edward and kisses him before she departs. As the police and neighbors gather, Kim states that Jim and Edward both fell to their deaths, and brandishes one of the spare scissor blades as proof of Edward's death.
The elderly woman finishes telling her granddaughter the story, revealing that she is Kim and saying that she never saw Edward again. She prefers not to visit him because decades have passed and she wants him to remember her as she was in her youth. She thinks that Edward is still alive, immortal because he is artificial, and because of the "snow" which Edward creates by carving ice sculptures that scatter shavings over the neighborhood. | comedy, fantasy, gothic, dark, cult, magical realism, flashback, psychedelic, satire, romantic, revenge, entertaining, storytelling | tt0099487 |
Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein | Lawrence Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.) makes an urgent phone call from London to a Florida railway station where Chick Young (Bud Abbott) and Wilbur Grey (Lou Costello) work as baggage clerks. Talbot tries to impart to Wilbur the danger of a shipment due to arrive for "McDougal's House Of Horrors", a local wax museum. The crates purportedly contain the remains of Count Dracula (Béla Lugosi) and the Frankenstein Monster (Glenn Strange). However, before Wilbur can understand, a full moon rises and Talbot transforms into a werewolf. He proceeds to destroy his hotel room while Wilbur is on the line. Wilbur thinks the call is a prank and hangs up. Meanwhile, the museum owner, McDougal (Frank Ferguson), has arrived to claim the shipments. When Wilbur badly mishandles the crates, McDougal demands that the boys deliver them to his museum so his insurance agent can inspect them.
Chick and Wilbur deliver the crates after hours. They open the first one and find Dracula's coffin. When Chick leaves the room to retrieve the second crate, Wilbur reads aloud the Dracula legend printed on an exhibit card. The coffin slowly creaks open. Wilbur is so frightened that his attempts to call Chick result in helpless sputtering. Before Chick returns with the second crate, Dracula climbs unnoticed out of his coffin and hides in the shadows. Wilbur claims that the coffin opened, but Chick shows him that it is in fact empty. While the boys open the second crate containing the Monster, Chick leaves the room to greet McDougal and the insurance agent. Dracula now hypnotizes Wilbur and re-animates the Monster. They both leave, and by the time McDougal, the insurance agent, and Chick enter, both crates are empty. McDougal accuses the boys of theft and has them arrested.
That night, Dr. Sandra Mornay (Lenore Aubert) welcomes Dracula and the Monster to her island castle. Sandra, a gifted surgeon who has studied Dr. Frankenstein's notebooks, has seduced Wilbur as part of Dracula's plan to replace the Monster's brutish brain with a more pliable one--Wilbur's.
Wilbur and Chick are bailed out of jail. They assume that Sandra posted bond, but Joan Raymond (Jane Randolph), an undercover investigator for the insurance company, did so. Joan also feigns love for Wilbur, hoping he will lead her to the missing "exhibits." Wilbur invites Joan to a masquerade ball that evening. Meanwhile, Lawrence Talbot has tracked Dracula and the Monster from Europe and has taken the apartment across the hall from Wilbur and Chick. Talbot asks Chick and Wilbur to help him find and destroy Dracula and the Monster. Wilbur believes, but Chick remains skeptical.
That night Wilbur, Chick and Joan go to Sandra's castle to pick her up for the ball. Wilbur answers a telephone call from Talbot, who informs them that they are in fact in the "House of Dracula". Wilbur reluctantly agrees to search the castle with Chick, and soon stumbles upon a basement staircase that leads to a boat and dock. Chick insists they search for Dracula and the Monster to prove to Wilbur that they do not really exist. Behind a revolving door, Wilbur experiences a few close calls with the monsters; whenever he tries to get Chick's attention, the monsters have disappeared. Meanwhile, Joan discovers Dr. Frankenstein's notebook in Sandra's desk, and Sandra finds Joan's insurance company employee ID in her purse.
As the men and women prepare to leave for the ball, a suavely dressed Dr. Lejos (a.k.a. Dracula) introduces himself to Joan and the boys. Also working at the castle is the naive Prof. Stevens (Charles Bradstreet), who questions some of the specialized equipment that has arrived. After Wilbur admits that he was in the basement, Sandra feigns a headache and tells Wilbur and the others that they will have to go to the ball without her. In private, Sandra admits to Dracula that Stevens's suspicions, Joan's credentials, and Wilbur's snooping in the basement have made her nervous enough to put the experiment on hold. Dracula asserts his will by hypnotizing her and biting her in the neck. (In a continuity error, Dracula's reflection is visible in a mirror. Vampires do not have a reflection, as stated in "Dracula" (1931).)
Everyone is now at the masquerade ball. Talbot arrives and confronts Dr. Lejos, who is in costume as Dracula. Lejos easily deflects Talbot's accusations and takes Joan to the dance floor. Sandra lures Wilbur to a quiet spot in the woods and attempts to bite him, but Chick and Larry approach and she flees. While Talbot, Chick and Wilbur search for Joan, Talbot transforms into the Wolf Man and stalks Wilbur. Wilbur escapes, but the Wolf Man attacks McDougal, who is also at the ball. Since Chick's costume includes a wolf mask, McDougal accuses Chick of attacking him out of revenge. Chick escapes, and witnesses Dracula hypnotizing Wilbur. Chick is also hypnotized and rendered helpless while Dracula and Sandra bring Wilbur and Joan back to the castle. The next morning, Chick and Talbot, both fugitives, meet up in the bayou. Talbot confesses to Chick that he is indeed the Wolf Man. Chick explains that Dracula has taken Wilbur and Joan to the island, and they agree to work together to rescue them.
Wilbur is held in a pillory in the cellar. Sandra explains her plan to transplant his brain into the Monster. When she and Dracula leave him to prepare the Monster for the operation, Chick and Talbot sneak in set Wilbur and Stevens free. Dracula and Sandra return to the cellar and find Wilbur missing; Dracula easily recalls Wilbur, and he soon finds himself strapped to an operating table in the lab. The Monster is on an adjacent table, receiving electric shocks. As Sandra brings a scalpel to Wilbur's forehead, Talbot and Chick burst in. Talbot pulls Sandra away from Wilbur, and Chick unintentionally knocks her out while fending off Dracula with a chair. Chick flees the lab pursued by Dracula. Talbot is about to untie Wilbur when he once again transforms into the Wolf Man. Dracula returns to the lab and engages in a brief tug of war with the Wolf Man over Wilbur's gurney. Dracula flees and the Wolf Man gives chase. Chick returns to untie Wilbur just as the Monster, now at full power, breaks his restraints and climbs off his gurney. Sandra attempts to command him, but the Monster picks her up and tosses her out the lab window to her death. Chick and Wilbur escape the lab and run from room to room with the Monster following them.
Dracula, while fighting with the Wolf Man, attempts to escape by transforming into a bat. The Wolf Man leaps, catches the bat, and tumbles off a balcony onto the rocks below. Presumably, both are killed. Joan abruptly wakes from her trance, and is rescued by Stevens. The boys run out of the castle to the pier, with the Monster still in pursuit. They climb into a small row boat while Stevens and Joan arrive and set the pier ablaze. The Monster wheels around into the flames, succumbing as the pier collapses into the water.
Wilbur scolds Chick for not believing him. Chick insists that now that all the monsters are dead, "there's nobody to scare us anymore." They suddenly hear a disembodied voice (provided by an uncredited Vincent Price) and see a cigarette floating in the air. The voice says, "Oh, that's too bad. I was hoping to get in on the excitement. Allow me to introduce myself--I'm the Invisible Man!" The boys jump out of the boat and swim away while the Invisible Man laughs. | gothic, murder | tt0040068 |
Inferno | Rose Elliot (Irene Miracle), a poet living alone in New York City, discovers an ancient book called The Three Mothers. It tells of the existence of three evil sisters who rule the world with sorrow, tears, and darkness. The book, written by an architect named Varelli, reveals that the three dwell inside separate homes that had been specially designed and built for them by the architect in Rome, Freiburg, and New York. Rose suspects that she is living in one of the buildings and writes to her brother Mark (Leigh McCloskey), a music student in Rome, urging him to visit her. Using clues provided in Varelli's book as a guide, Rose searches the cellar of her building and discovers a hole in the floor which leads to a water-filled ballroom. After accidentally dropping her keys into the water, she enters the flooded room. Swimming under the surface, she sees a portrait bearing the words "Mater Tenebrarum" and is able to reclaim the keys. A putrid corpse suddenly rises from the depths, frightening her. She escapes, although a shadowy figure watches her leave the basement.In Rome, Mark attempts to read Rose's letter during class. He is distracted by the intense gaze of a beautiful student (Ania Pieroni). When the class ends she leaves suddenly; Mark follows, leaving the letter behind. His friend Sara (Eleonora Giorgi) picks up the letter, and eventually reads it. Horrified by the letter's contents, she takes a taxi to a library and locates a copy of The Three Mothers. While looking for an exit, Sara is attacked by a monstrous figure who recognizes the book. She throws the book to the ground and escapes. Later that night, she seeks the company of a neighbor named Carlo (Gabriele Lavia) and both are stabbed to death by a gloved killer. Mark discovers the bodies and two torn fragments from Rose's letter. After the police arrive, he walks out of Sara's apartment and sees a taxi slowly driving by. In it is the music student, staring at him intently once again.Mark telephones Rose but is unable to hear her clearly. He promises to visit just before the connection fails. Cut off, Rose sees two shadowy figures preparing to enter her apartment. She leaves through a back door, but is followed. In a decrepit room, she is grabbed from behind by a clawed assailant and brutally murdered.Upon arriving in New York, Mark meets some of the residents of Rose's building, including a nurse (Veronica Lazar) who is caring for the elderly Professor Arnold (Feodor Chaliapin, Jr.), a wheelchair-bound mute. Mark learns from the sickly Countess Elise (Daria Nicolodi) that Rose has disappeared. Elise explains how Rose had been acting strangely. After the two find blood on the carpet outside Rose's room, Mark follows the stains. He suddenly becomes ill and falls unconscious. Elise sees a black-robed figure dragging Mark away, but the figure suddenly stops and gives chase to Elise. She is attacked by dozens of cats, who bite and claw at her flesh. The hooded figure then stabs her to death. Mark staggers to the house's foyer where the nurse and caretaker (Alida Valli) put him to bed.The next day, Mark asks Kazanian (Sacha Pitoëff), the antique dealer who sold Rose the Three Mothers book, about Rose. However, the man provides no information. That night, Kazanian drowns several cats in a Central Park pond and accidentally falls into the water. Hundreds of rats from a nearby drain crawl all over him, gnawing his flesh. A hot dog vendor hears Kazanian's cries and rushes over. The man kills Kazanian with a knife.Carol, the caretaker, discovers the horribly mutilated corpse of Elise's butler (Leopoldo Mastelloni) in the Countess' apartment. Shocked, she drops a lit candle which starts a fire. Attempting to put out the flames, she becomes entangled in burning draperies and falls from a window to her death.Meanwhile, Mark uses a clue from Rose's letter to discover that beneath each floor is a secret crawl space. He follows the hidden passages to a suite of rooms where he finds Professor Arnold. The old man reveals, via a mechanical voice generator, that he is in fact Varelli. He tries to kill Mark with a hypodermic injection. During the struggle, Varelli's neck becomes caught in his vocal apparatus, choking him. Mark frees him, only to be told by the dying man, "Even now you are being watched." Mark follows a shadowy figure watching him from the doorway to a lavishly furnished chamber, where he finds Varelli's nurse. Laughing maniacally, she explains to him with growing intensity that she is Mater Tenebrarum. She suddenly transforms into Death Personified. However, the fire that has consumed much of the building enables Mark's escape from the witch's den. As the structural integrity of Tenebrarum's home fails, debris crashes down on the fiend, destroying her. | dark, gothic, murder, violence, cult, horror, atmospheric, suspenseful, sadist | tt0080923 |
Colossus: The Forbin Project | Dr. Charles Forbin (Eric Braeden) stands in the middle of an incredibly vast complex of reel-to-reel tapes, pilot lights, and punch tapes. This complex is named Colossus, and is the product of years of work toward a single goal: build a sophisticated and impregnable computer that can run America's missile defenses without interference from humans, and retaliate at once to any threat an enemy might pose.Clad in a white overall, he walks through the complex, a remote control in his hand, as he activates bank after bank of the huge complex. That done, he walks out of the complex, sealing huge vault doors behind him. The last door to close is the one to the outside of a mountain in Colorado. Once that door closes, it will never open--and even if anyone could get in, deadly radiation would kill him within minutes.Outside, the President (Gordon Pinsent), the Secretaries of Defense (Sid McCoy) and State (Byron Morrow), and the press greet him. He makes a brief speech, then flies to Washington, DC with the Presidential party.In the White House, the President orchestrates a grand announcement to declassify Project Colossus totally and let the world know what the United States has built. Forbin is on hand to explain what Colossus can do, and how it can monitor the state of the world, including every telephone call, radio and TV broadcast, or other mode of communication.Back in the primary command center on the California coast, Cleo Markham (Susan Clark) hosts a wild party with all the technicians who worked on the project, including Drs. Blake (Willard Sage), Johnson (Martin Brooks), Fisher (Georg Sanford Brown), Peterson (Lew Brown), and Harrison (Tom Basham), and secretary Angela Fields (Marin Ross).And in the middle of that celebration, Colossus abruptly issues a cryptic warning: THERE IS ANOTHER SYSTEM.The angry President summons Grauber (William Schallert), Director of Central Intelligence, to ask him why the [censored] he, the President, had to hear from Colossus, not from the CIA, that the Russians had a Colossus of their own! Forbin flies back to his command center to confer with Cleo and his staff. They run a diagnostic program--which runs about 150 times as fast as they're used to seeing. And then--a propos of nothing--Colossus requests--no, orders--everyone to set up a communications link between Colossus and Guardian, Colossus' Soviet counterpart.Intrigued by the possibilities, Forbin urges the President to set the link up. The President and the Soviet Party Chairman (Leonid Rostoff) agree.Colossus begins by sending Guardian a multiplication table, then progresses rapidly to calculus, then to very highly advanced mathematics. Next, Guardian starts sending the same output back to Colossus. Then Colossus slows down to let Guardian catch up, and then they continue with incredibly abstruse formulas in perfect synchrony.And then they stop. When Forbin asks Colossus to tell him what's happening, Colossus replies that it and Guardian have developed their own inter-system language and will start their own dialog--a high-powered dialog that no human can hope to follow.The Soviet Chairman calls the US President immediately and suggests pulling the plug, in fear that each system is disclosing classified information to the other. Forbin and his own counterpart, Kuprin (Alex Rodine), protest, to no avail.They cut off communications--and then Colossus demands they restore it. When the humans refuse, Colossus threatens "action," but won't say what. Then the President dictates a hard-nosed message to Colossus--which response by launching a missile at a Soviet oil complex. Guardian, for its part, launches a missile at Henderson AFB in Texas.Hurriedly, Forbin and Kuprin restore the link--and while Colossus can intercept the inbound missile, Guardian cannot--or does not--intercept the outbound. Colossus then demands the humans give it a tap into the White House/Kremlin Hot Line, the only line Colossus cannot--yet--listen in on.Forbin suggests making one last call over that line, to ask Kuprin to meet him in Rome. Forbin flies there, while the news desks explain away a stray missile that Colossus successfully intercepted, and a "meteor strike" that took out the oil complex.While Forbin is in Rome, Colossus issues another demand: "I WANT FORBIN." Cleo Markham desperately tries to stall Colossus by saying that Forbin is trying to catch some badly-needed sleep. But Colossus is not fooled. "WHERE IS FORBIN?" it demands. So Cleo confesses the truth.Colossus and Guardian engage in more dialog, while Colossus tells the humans to have Forbin on the line at 0800 the next morning "OR ACTION WILL BE TAKEN." Also: Guardian dictates an ultimatum to the Soviet authorities: kill Kuprin or a missile will take out Moscow.Once Forbin returns to the command center, Colossus orders him to arrange for "visual and audio surveillance" to cover him at all times--or the Colossus-Guardian team will nuke Washington. Forbin reluctantly agrees--but has one last meeting before the deadline. At this meeting he proposes three things:1. The technicians will write a program powerful enough to overload Colossus' circuits.2. The Air Force will painstakingly seek to disable all the missiles.3. Cleo Markham will pretend to be Forbin's mistress, and if Forbin can convince Colossus to let them have a little privacy in their lovemaking, Forbin can get information in and out, with Cleo as the channel.The next day, Forbin goes under surveillance, as agreed. In a dialog fraught with irony, Forbin gets Colossus to agree to let him and Cleo have private moments--under several almost humiliating conditions. Among them: that Forbin work with his technicians to give Colossus a proper voice, so that Colossus can communicate by more means than through slow terminals and teletypes.Cleo Markham succeeds in playing the part of a lover. Forbin keeps the relationship coldly professional as soon as the cameras and mikes are off--the first night. The second night, Cleo asks Forbin to make it somewhat more than professional. It becomes clear that Cleo has been in love with Forbin the whole time, though she knew him to be a cold fish, and is now availing herself of the opportunity to thaw him out.The overload program ends in worse than failure: Colossus correctly identifies Johnson and Fisher as the authors of the overload program and orders the guards to shoot them down--right outside Forbin's window, where they will lie where they fell overnight and until the next morning, when the guard will then cremate them. That night is another night for Cleo to visit Forbin, and Forbin breaks confinement to drink at night--which Colossus criticizes him for.The missile-crippling program, however, has another stroke of luck. When Colossus tries out its new voice (Paul Frees), it announces that Colossus and Guardian are now one corporate entity. Then it calls for manual realignment of all missiles to new targets--the capital cities of nation-states not under the direct control of either constituent mainframe. Grauber sees the point at once: in a few weeks they can reservice every missile--and place dummy guidance modules that will render them useless.But Colossus has the last laugh. One day, it is confidently sending out blueprints for a third system, that it expects Forbin to build for it on Crete, after evacuating its entire population. The next day, it addresses the world--and after boasting that it is now the ruler of the world, it says it has known about the sabotage since its inception, and will now detonate two missiles, one in Death Valley and one in the Ukraine, that were still active.The detonation kills Grauber, the SecState, and the SecDef.Forbin, crushed by what he has seen, takes a desktop telephone, jerks out its cable, and throws it into a monitor. Colossus takes no notice and goes on with its message that "time and events" will vindicate it. Forbin reacts in the most emotion he has ever displayed in his life: "You [illegitimate son]!" he shouts. And when paparazzi start snapping pictures at him, he roars at them to "GET OUT!" But Cleo Markham reaches for his hand, and smiles warmly.The last word Colossus has for Forbin is that Colossus will release Forbin from surveillance the next day, and expects Forbin to work with it, even if reluctantly at first. Forbin insists he will never do this, perhaps knowing that his protests are as futile as are those of a petulant child under parental or school discipline. | cult | tt0064177 |
Zanna Bianca | Yukon Wilderness, 1896. When Charlie (Daniel Martin) a Native American fur trader, discovers that his young son Mitsah (Missaele) is attempting to befriend a wolf, he scares the beast away, believing it to be too wild and dangerous. Unknown to him, his son persists. Mitsah names the animal White Fang because of the ivory-white teeth the beast sprouts. That night, Charlie changes his mind about the animal when it arrives at his hut barking furiously. Mitsah, while strolling through the woods at night to meet his friend, falls through the ice of a frozen lake and the animal, a wolf/dog cross breed, raises the alarm.Mitsah is saved by his father and canine friend, but falls seriously ill with hypothermia after his plunge into the icy water. Charlie decides to take his son for medical treatment at the nearest settlement. While carrying Mitsah down a mountainside, he meets an old friend named Kurt Johnson (Raimund Harmsdorf) a fellow fur trapper who agrees to help Charlie carry the barely conscious Mitsah. Kurt tells them the nearest town is a place called Dawson City, in which he informs them that it is not safe there. But Charlie tells them that he must get medical attention to his son or he will die. The group, after arriving at a riverside port below the snow line, are introduced to Jason Scott (Franco Nero), a writer traveling to Dawson City in search of a story. Once they arrive in town on a riverboat steamer, they meet with Sister Evangeline (Virna Lisi) a nun who has recently arrived in Dawson City to set up a hospital mission. Jason and Kurt soon discover Dawson City is like an American Wild West frontier town that is a hotbed to business corruption and barely suppressed lawlessness. Sister Evangeline has already encountered corruption in the form of the town's alcoholic priest Father Oatley (Fernando Rey), whose interest in her money is highly suspect. Father Oatley is under the thumb of Dawson City's richest and most powerful resident, Beauty Smith (John Steiner). Smith has bought his way into overall control of the settlement, with some cash and lots of promissory notes he gives to the residents in exchange for gold. He surrounds himself with a posse of thugs wherever he goes and lords it up around town like a dandified 'artisto'. Smith is also romantically involved with Father Oatley's attractive daughter Krista (Carole Andre), who works as a singer and dancer in Dawsons City's notorious bar while her father conceals his paternity connection to her in shame.Sister Evangelina takes care of the sick Mitsah at the hut she plans to turn into a hospital, while outside, Scott, Kurt, and Charlie are threatened by Hall (Rick Battaglia) one of Beauty Smith's henchmen plus a few others, demanding money for keeping Mitsah in town as well as for the hospital sign they put up. Scott and Kurt beat up Hall and all of Beauty Smith's henchmen single handedly, which Smith himself watches with both anger and admiration for their courage.A little later, Charlie is threatened by Smith's henchman who make racial slurs as him as well as demand money as well as the fur pelts that he brought with him. A fight is provoked by between White Fang and Smith's champion hound he uses for dogfight gambling bets. White Fang is victorious, killing the opposing dog. Beauty Smith, seeing the whole thing, approaches Charlie and offers the Indian trader a large sum of money for his dog. Charlie refuses to sell White Fang. Furious at this one humiliating failure of his attempt to wield cash power, Smith stalks off for a muttered conference with his lackeys. As Smith walks away, Charlie is surrounded by the jostling gang and fatally stabbed to death. Scott and Kurt arrive on the scene just as Smith's henchmen disperse where the assembled townspeople, gripped with fear of retribution, claim to have seen nothing. White Fang is captured by Smith's henchmen and put to service, earning money in a public fight against a captured, wild bear chained to a post. White Fang is severely injured before Scott and Sister Evangelina arrive to rescue him. Returning the wolf-dog to Mitsah, who is staring to recover, they suppress any news of the death of his father until he is physically recovered. In the meantime, Scott takes a parental interest to the youngster.Soon, everything starts to go wrong for Beauty Smith as karma catches up to him. Smith tries to persuade Krista to accompany him away from Dawson City for he is planning to skip town with his ill-gotten money, trailing unpaid promissory notes behind him. A frantic tussle erupts where Smith accidentally shoots Krista, killing her. Father Oatley, arrives on the scene and sees what Smith has done. Enraged, Oatley runs out onto the streets shouting Smith's secret to the startled townsfolk. Smith immediately decides to start packing to move onto Nome, Alaska where more gold has recently been discovered and set up shop there. Oatley's outburst blows the lid off the secret as the whole town prepares to move on to the newly discovered gold deposits.Meanwhile, Chester (Daniele Dublino), the Smith assassin who murdered Charlie, is freed from his jail cell by a corrupt Mountie (Janos Bartha). On Smith's orders, Chester sneaks into Jason Scott's quarters and almost succeeds in killing him. But White Fang leaps in through a window and savages Chester. Beauty Smith and one his henchmen, Hall, then sneak into the mission hut and take Mitsah hostage, and shoots Father Oatley as he attempts to stop them. Scott, White Fang, and a horde or irate villagers give chase. Smith attempts to sweep away his pursuers by blowing up a dam. But White Fang jumps upon Smith and saves the day by gnashing at the villain's wrist. But as Scott drags Beauty Smith back to face justice, the dynamite explodes, sweeping away Smith, Hall, and White Fang.The following day, the remainder of the townspeople, including Scott, Kurt, Sister Evangelina, and Mitsha sail away from the abandoned town down the river in a steamboat as a tearful Mitsah is distraught over the loss of both his father and beloved hound. But at the last minute, White Fang reappears, swimming from the riverbank after the departing boat and is soon with Mitsah once again. | murder | tt0069536 |
The Purge: Anarchy | In this indirect sequel to the first Purge film, set in Los Angeles on March 21, 2023 one year after the previous film.... just less than 2.5 hours before the Annual Purge commences where all crime will be legal for 12 hours. The employees of a diner are nervously waiting to be dismissed by their boss. They briefly discuss what they plan to do on the evening of the Purge. One of the waitresses, Eva (Carmen Ejogo), goes home to her father Rico (John Beasley) and teenage daughter Cali (Zoe Soul). Cali is watching a video online of a man named Carmelo Jones (Michael K. Williams), who seeks to rally followers against the New Founding Fathers and their heinous acts against the poverty stricken population. Rico hates the Purge and wants to hear nothing about it for the night. He leaves, and Cali asks Eva if her boss gave her a raise. She tells her daughter that it's not in the cards at the moment.Meanwhile, a man named Leo (Frank Grillo) is arming up before the commencement. He hears a knock on the door. It's a woman named Janice (Chad Morgan). She sees newspaper clippings on his wall of a man that was let go from trial, knowing why he plans to go out that night. Although she urges him not to go through with his plans, Leo sends her away.Elsewhere, a couple named Shane (Zach Gilford) and Liz (Kiele Sanchez) are out driving. There is obvious tension between them. After their trip to a store, Liz tells Shane they have to tell his sister about something. They are briefly spooked by a punk with face paint and a cross drawn on his forehead. He retreats and joins his other masked/face-painted punk friends. A man in a mask with "God" written on it waves at the couple. As they hit the road again, we learn that they are separating, and this is what Shane is hesitant to tell his sister. Suddenly, their car breaks down in the middle of the street, not long before the start of the Purge. They look under their car and see that the wires were cut. The punks ride up close to them, with the "God" punk stepping out with a blade. The couple knows they cut the wires and they make a run for it.As the clock nears 6:00 p.m., Eva and Cali prepare dinner, while Shane and Liz try to hide from the punks, and any other Purgers. The sirens go off, signaling the start of the Purge. Leo goes out in his armored car with his guns in tow. A truck with psychos drives through the streets. They pass a couple armed with machetes, looking to "release the beast". From inside the truck, a man known as Big Daddy (Jack Conley) takes out a machine gun and kills the couple. Leo passes a man getting beaten to death, while not noticing a burning bus flying behind him moments later.Cali goes to find Rico to have dinner. She finds a note that she shows to Eva, where Rico discloses that he is already dying, and is going to the home of a rich family for them to purge on him. In return, they supply money to Eva's account to provide support. As the women mourn their inevitable loss, they hear commotion outside. They look out the window to see a SWAT-like team of men coming toward their building. The ladies then hear a loud banging noise. Their lecherous neighbor Diego (Noel Guliemi) comes in with a shotgun, planning to rape and kill the women. He grabs Eva's throat and licks her face, when another banging is heard. Diego is shot to death by the armed men, who then take Eva and Cali to be purged by Big Daddy.Leo drives by the ladies' building to see the men trying to force them into their truck. Leo mutters to himself just to drive by and ignore this, but, seeing the ladies fight back, he chooses to get out of the car and shoot the men down. With his back turned, Shane and Liz sneak into his car to hide. Big Daddy emerges from inside the truck, and Leo shoots him in the face. He turns to walk back to his car, but then offers Eva and Cali to join him. They follow and all three of them are startled to see Shane and Liz in the back of the car. Leo draws his gun on them, but they assure him they're unarmed and are not looking to purge. They then see Big Daddy standing to his feet, and the punks on their bikes not far behind. Reluctantly, Leo takes everybody with him as Big Daddy opens fire with his machine gun.Leo's car also happens to break down, leaving everybody stranded in the outskirts of town. Eva offers to get Leo a new car from her friend and co-worker Tanya (Justina Machado) if he promises to get them to her place safely. He agrees and hands everyone guns to protect themselves.On their trek to Tanya's home, Shane gets his foot caught in a trap. Purgers from every corner appear and try to shoot at the group, but Leo manages to fire back and kills most of the attackers. Shane shoots the cable and breaks himself free. As a running group of Purgers chase after the five, they run down by a subway tunnel. While walking, Cali tries to talk to Leo and convince him that whatever reason he had for being out at night is wrong. He just ignores her. Another group of Purgers rides in, wielding a flamethrower and more guns. The five run again while the Purgers kill other bystanders that were hiding. Shane and Liz shoot back at the Purgers while Leo, Eva, and Cali run. Shane gets shot in the shoulder, but he and Cali manage to shoot the driver and then hit the flamethrower's tank, blowing all the Purgers up.The group finally makes it to Tanya's house. She and her mother, along with her sister Lorraine (Roberta Valderrama), set up dinner for the group. They are joined by Tanya's father and brother-in-law Roddy (Niko Nicotera). The ladies treat Shane's bullet wound, while Leo prepares to take the car and head out again. Eva admits that there isn't a car and that she needed Leo to get them there safely. He decides that one way or another, he is going to get to his destination. He also doesn't trust Tanya, as she is clearly drunk and has been making comments about purging should she choose to. Moments later, Lorraine comes in with a gun and shoots Tanya to death, after finding out that she and Roddy were having an affair. Lorraine draws her gun on Roddy, but he grabs Liz and holds her at gunpoint to call Lorraine's bluff. Leo shoots Roddy in the side and then shoots Lorraine. The five run out (again) and try to escape. Unfortunately, Big Daddy and the armed men are outside waiting to get Leo, Eva, and Cali. The group tries to find another way out, but once they get outside, they are captured by the biker punks.The punks take the group to a facility where they are paid to bring the people in as victims for an organized Purge. The five are brought before an audience of rich people that gleefully bid on killing them. After a group of seven Purgers are selected, the five are put in a dark room for the Purgers to hunt them down. As the Purgers say their thankful "prayer" of sorts, Leo devises a strategy to get himself and the others out of there. He sneaks by the Purgers and takes down one man, killing him and taking his night vision goggles and weapon. He kills three more and takes their weapons, to the horror of the rich audience watching. Leo shoots at them to frighten them, but the bullet-proof window protects them. He brings the weapons to the group, where they kill one more Purger before the other two escape. The elderly rich woman organizing the event calls in for back-up. The group, knowing they may not make it out, sits in fear. Shane apologizes to Liz for everything, and she tells him she loves him, just seconds before the back-up Purgers arrive and shoot Shane to death. Liz cradles his body in her arms and cries. Then, an explosion is heard. Since explosives are prohibited here, the Purgers sense trouble. The back-up Purgers are shot to death by the Stranger (from the first film that the Sandin family helped). He brings in an army, led by Carmelo. They fire at the other Purgers, and then offer to help out the group. They give Leo, Eva, and Cali a chance to escape, but Liz chooses to stay behind and purge to avenge Shane. Carmelo and his men vow to guard Liz. In the parking garage, Leo finds the woman that organized the event and carjacks her at gunpoint, where she begs Leo not to shoot her. He lets her leave.The morning comes, and the Purge is nearly over. Leo drives to the home of a man named Warren Grass (Brandon Keener). It is here that Leo tells them that Warren Grass was a man who accidently killed Leo's son in a drunk driving accident several months ago. Since it did not happen during the Purge, Warren was arrested and charged with drunk driving and manslaughter of a child, but he was let go on a legal technicality despite his blood-alcohol level being very high. Cali pleads with Leo not to go through with this, but he ignores her and breaks into the man's home, just five minutes before the Purge is over. He goes into Warren's bedroom and wakes him and his wife up. He holds Warren at knifepoint and reminds him of what he did to his son. Warren apologizes and acknowledges his wrongdoing, and then a scream is heard...Leo walks out of the home, and is then shot twice. The shooter is Big Daddy, who looms over Leo, stating that he shouldn't have saved Eva and Cali, as they were his to kill. He adds that The Purge is no time or place to be a hero. Before he kills Leo, Big Daddy is shot in the head by Warren, whom Leo chose not to kill after all. The armed men led by Big Daddy come running up to the house, while Eva and Cali run out with their guns. And then the sirens go off, signaling the end of the Purge. Eva then urges Warren to get his car so that they can take Leo to the hospital.On the ride to the hospital, Cali thanks Leo for saving them, also happy that he didn't kill Warren. They make it to the hospital, with Eva and Cali carrying Leo inside, while the news and police helicopters fly over the city, slightly devastated by the events of the evening.Before the credits begin, a final text comes up proclaiming 364 days left until the next Purge. | revenge, suspenseful, satire, murder, violence | tt2975578 |
Anbe Sivam | The film begins with ad film-maker Anbarasu (R. Madhavan)- who prefers that his name is mentioned in the abbreviation of A. Aras rather than his full name, arriving at the Bhubaneswar airport in Orissa, India. He is about to board a flight back to Chennai for his own wedding. However, he learns at the airport that his flight is cancelled due to the bad weather in the state where heavy floods and torrential rain due to the wet season have affected air traffic. While waiting for further announcements, Aras watches a television news of a terrorist threat at an airport in Mumbai, making him suspicious when he sees a limping man carrying an old sack on his hands. He informs the authorities, who find out that the man only has a cucumber in that bag and nothing else.The man, a physically disabled man named Nallasivam a.k.a Nalla (Kamal Hassan) introduces himself to Aras and both of them get to know each other. However, Aras underestimates Nallasivam, ignoring his advice and friendly acquaintance, resulting in some comical events in the airport itself. Announcements are finally made that the flights would not board on that day and Aras will have to reserve place in nearby hotels to put up the night. Aras realizes that the five star hotel that he was staying in before is now fully booked, leaving him optionless. Nallasivam however helps him find a place in a two star hotel nearby, in which both Nalla and Aras have to share the same room. Aras' resentment of Nalla makes him act selfishly in trying to get rid of Nalla but at every juncture, Nalla does him a favor which leaves Aras with a heavy heart. The next morning, Aras takes a taxi without waking Nalla in order to find his own way to Chennai. However, Aras realizes that the floods have blocked most of the roads and even the train station is covered by high levels of water. He gets mugged by a thief in the station who offers to help Ars with his luggages, and loses all his money. Nalla however comes to the station and helps Aras retain the wallet, sans the money. It is then revealed that Nalla is a trade unionist and is travelling with a cheque worth Rs. 30 lakh to be delivered to some people after fighting a court cases for some union workers. The comical and misunderstanding events continue as the pair make it to a different train station. There, Nalla decides to tell the story of his own past, but a tired Aras falls asleep and walks away as he is about to begin.The film then flashes to few years back when a perfectly good looking Nalla performs in street theatres protesting against the industrialisation process which is marginalizing labor force. He often gets into trouble due to this. Nalla is also a painter, and a very talented one at that. He is fighting mainly against the town's biggest business tycoon, the manipulative Kandasamy Padayachi (Nassar), whom he satirically imitates during many of his shows. However, an interesting turn of events sees Nalla and Kandasamy's own daughter Bala (Kiran Rathod) fall in love with each other. Realizing Kandasamy's power would be too much to bear if they want to get together, Nalla and Bala decide to elope, but while Nalla is on a bus on his way to meet Bala, the bus meets with a horrible accident at a hillside which leaves Nalla badly injured, which subsequently leads him to be paralyzed. Bala is told by her father that Nalla is dead, while Nalla suffers from inferiority complex on his new, paralyzed look and starts wondering about doing social work and still fighting for union causes. Nalla is also shown as a communist believer.The film returns to present times, as Aras and Nalla board the train for which they have been waiting, but as the train arrives, they get into an argument about communism, Karl Marx, and so on. Nalla accuses Aras as an agent for Western and rich manipulation, while Aras defends himself and criticises communism as a whole, referring that the Soviet Union doesn't exist anymore. Nalla argues that the idea of communism wouldn't die. The argument turns heated and sensitive, causing a short-tempered Aras to punch Nalla. After initially looking calm, Nalla punches Aras back even harder, causing Aras to bleed. As a result, Aras deceives Nalla into buying water for him and locks the train door, leaving Nalla stranded. On the train, Aras meets a good-looking corporate individual who shares the same interests as Aras (Yugi Sethu), who asks Aras to throw away a pack of biscuits Nalla gave to Aras and instead take his own whisky offering. As Aras wakes up the next day, he realizes that he has been conned again and the corporate man is a thief, and has stolen all of Aras' belongings. The train comes to a halt because a train which travelled on the track before had an accident and it has to be cleared up first. There, Aras witnesses a slew of dead bodies and suffering people, causing him to suffer emotionally. To his surprise, he meets Nalla again at the treatment camp nearby. He apologizes to Nalla, who forgives him. Nalla proposes that he donate blood to a dying boy in need of AB- blood, while Aras mentions that he is bloodsick. Nalla manages to convince him finally, and Aras donates. Aras also retrieves his belongings as he finds that the thief is also around the camp. Nalla proposes that Aras travels with him in an ambulance which will be carrying the injured boy on its way to Chennai.While on the journey, the boy passes away, finally causing Aras to cry as he calls God 'unjust' for giving the boy hope in the form of Aras' blood, and then take away his live. Nalla, who doesn't believe in God externally, tells Aras, that Aras himself is God, that his tears after the boy dies is the nature of God itself. Aras also comes to terms with using his full name Anbarasu (derived from the full Tamil name Anbarasan - literally 'King Of Love'), a name he previously despised under the reason that he doesn't like 'anbu' (love). Both of them go their separate ways in Chennai, but Aras realizes that Nalla's union cheque is with him and returns to the address Nalla had given him.He realizes that Nalla had lied to him previously when he told that he has a wife and son named 'Sangu'. The address is a place where injured labourers from Orissa camp while waiting for their legal funds (the money fought for them by Nalla). 'Sangu' is the name of Nalla's dog. After giving the cheque, he goes to the nearby shop to meet Nalla, and scolds him for not telling the truth. He asks Nalla to come with him for his marriage, but Nalla says he will 'come later'. In an emotional moment, Aras recounts the story of how his brother died from a freak accident when he was young (a story he already told to Nalla before). He says that Nalla is his new-found brother and should stay with him as long as life permits. A clearly emotional Nalla immediately accepts the invitation.However, at the marriage, Nalla realizes that the girl Aras is about to marry is Bala. He takes this opportunity to appear in front of Kandasamy and threaten that he will stay on and make Bala realize what a cheat her father is unless Kandasamy signs all related documents for pay increment and bonuses for his company's labourers. Sacrificing himself for the workers, Nalla leaves after Kandasamy signs, leaving behind a letter for his 'brother' that he has missions to complete in this world, and that he'd rather travel as a free bird than to be caged and tied at one particular place. He thanks Aras for the love shown. Kandasamy meanwhile orders his assistant (Santhana Bharathi) to kill Nalla. As Nalla walks away, the assistant approaches and Nalla, telling that he cant fight like he used to do, is ready to accept death. However, the assistant drops his weapon, weeps, and apologizes to Nalla. He tells Nalla that because he did all the dirty work for his boss, the God has punished him by taking away his beloved daughter from him. He tells Nalla that he has done enough sins, and doesn't want to bear any more sins on behalf of his boss. He asks Nalla to leave and that God will protect Nalla. Nalla refutes, saying that the assistant himself is God. He says that there is no greater God than to be able to apologize and change an original intent of killing.The film ends with Nalla walking away with his dog, Sangu.Thanks to Wikipedia | romantic, flashback | tt0367495 |
You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger | Helena, an older woman whose husband has left her after 40 years of marriage, goes to a psychic named Cristal for advice. Cristal points out that Helena is constantly blaming herself for the problems in her life, but she sees better times coming for her.As a narrator elucidates, Helena's husband Alfie had suddenly become terrified of dying and then became obsessed with fitness. He put himself through a complete body makeover and wanted out of the marriage. As a result, Helena had a breakdown.Helena's daughter Sally is married to Roy, who left his pursuit of a medical degree to become a novelist. His first book was a success, only his work ever since has not been as accomplished. As he struggles to complete his latest book, he becomes preoccupied with a young lady neighbor whom he can see in an apartment across the street.Alfie is not exactly happy living like he is 30: he eats alone, women his age are frail, and he does not relate to the young people he meets. Yet he suddenly discovers a much younger woman whom he wants to marry.Alfie's new engagement upsets Helena deeply, but Cristal foresees that he will not be happy with the new woman. Cristal further envisions that Helena will meet a handsome new stranger.When Sally and Roy meet Alfie's new fiancé Charmaine, they are shocked by how scantily clad she is, and further by their speedy engagement. As the narrator reveals, Alfie has not mentioned that he initially hired her as a prostitute and then fell in love with her. Now he wants to have a son with her, because his only son died, and he has persuaded Charmaine to marry him for practical reasons.Some friends hire Helena as a personal shopper, through whom she meets a rather unattractive older man, Jonathan, whose wife recently died.Roy waves to the woman in the apartment across the street and learns her name is Dia. He invites her to lunch nearby and is unabashedly flirtatious, in spite of her engagement to Alan, who sometimes visits her but lives in Brussels.Sally takes an assistant position in an art gallery and develops a crush on her new boss, Greg. One night he has an extra ticket to the opera and invites Sally to join him. Afterward he reveals that his marriage is not so happy, and though Sally pauses for a long goodbye, they do not kiss.Roy happily spends many afternoons with Dia. His increasing flirtation has been flattering to her, and causing her doubt about her love for Alan.Alfie gets an expansive and expensive apartment for Charmaine. He takes Viagra in anticipation of having sex with her, but she is dismayed that he needs to wait a while to achieve the desired effect.Sally learns that a painter she has referred to Greg for a gallery exhibit is having an affair with him, and enjoying it quite a lot. Sally is crushed, and rushes home to tell Roy that she hates Greg and wants to open her own gallery. Just then Roy gets a call from his publisher with the bad news that his latest manuscript has been rejected. Complicating matters further, Helena shows up convinced that she has had a past life. Roy storms out, and Sally tells Helena she wants out of the marriage.Roy then gets even worse news: some of his friends have been in a terrible accident, and one of them, a budding novelist, has died. At first Roy is shaken, but then he remembers how great his friend's latest manuscript had been, so he decides to steal it and use it as his own.Alfie has trouble keeping Charmaine happy, so he agrees to go with her to a nightclub, where she dances with a younger guy.After Sally tells Roy she wants a divorce, he begins spending even more time with Dia, making her extremely conflicted about her imminent marriage to Alan.Charmaine buys new furs without asking Alfie, who only hints at the massive financial debt he is in.Dia calls off the wedding, greatly upsetting both her and Alan's families.Helena is excited to introduce Sally to Jonathan at the occult bookstore he owns. Sally expresses dismay about their romance, to which Helena responds, "He may not be a tall dark stranger, but hes become my stranger." Sally asks Helena for money to start her own gallery, and Helena tells her to confess her affections to Greg.Sally tells Greg that she is leaving his gallery, and that she had begun to feel close to him, seeking to see if he felt the same way toward her. He admits to his affair with her friend, and does not give Sally the reciprocal attraction she wants.Alfie sees Charmaine walking out of a hotel with a guy from their gym, having clearly slept with him.Roy moves in with Dia, and is soon happy to receive great praise from his publisher about the manuscript he has submitted, which of course is plagiarized.Alfie takes Helena to an old favorite restaurant and asks her to begin again, admitting he has messed up his recent life. Helena points out that he is married, and tells him that he will have another life after this one. Plus she is dating Jonathan, who shares her spiritual ideas.At a séance, Jonathan seems to make contact with his dead wife. Helena presses him to ask her for approval of their relationship, and Jonathan says that he is still in love with her, making Helena quite upset.Roy introduces Dia to his friends, and is distressed to learn that the author whose work he has stolen is in fact not dead but in a coma, with a good chance of recovery.Alfie catches Charmaine in flagrante delicto with the man from their gym, leading to a fistfight between the two men. Later, in trying to make him feel better, Charmaine tells Alfie she is pregnant. Alfie immediately distrusts her, and insists he wants a paternity test.Helena tells Sally that her relationship with Jonathan has ended, but Cristal is optimistic for her. Sally explains she needs a bigger loan for her new gallery, but Helena says Cristal has told her that the stars are not aligned for any large financial transaction. Sally becomes incredulous and tells Helena that Cristal is a fraud.Roy goes to see his comatose author friend with his other buddies. They try to stimulate him by speaking to see if he will respond, and when one of them mentions Roy's supposed novel, the author seems to move his eyes. Roy walks away, ruminating.The narrator tells us that the story is now closing. Jonathan returns to Helena to tell him that his widow has agreed he can marry her. As with Cristal, she speculates that sometimes illusions work better than medicine. | comedy, bleak, dramatic, flashback, satire, tragedy, romantic | tt1182350 |
Furious Seven | In the opening scene set in London, England, Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) stands by his brother Owen's (Luke Evans) bedside as he lays in a coma, badly scarred and crippled after being ejected from the plane (in the last Fast and Furious film). Shaw promises to his brother that he will settle his score. He leaves the room and out into the rest of the hospital, with bodies everywhere. The building continues to burn and crumble around him.Meanwhile, Dom (Vin DIesel) drives Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) to a racetrack in the California desert where hundreds of people from their neighborhood gather for Race Wars, something that Dom and Letty invented when they were younger. Letty goes up for the race and flies past her opponent as his car breaks down on the track. All the patrons cheer her on after she crosses the finish line, followed by Iggy Azalea showing up out of nowhere to congratulate Letty. The excitement from the others is too overwhelming for Letty, and she takes the car and drives away. Dom later finds her that night at the cemetery, staring at her own tombstone. Dom takes a sledgehammer to smash it, but Letty stops him because she thinks the person she used to be is no longer who she is to Dom, and she doesn't want to hurt him for that. She bids Dom goodbye.Brian (Paul Walker) is adjusting to life as a minivan-driving dad, as his son Jack is now old enough for school. Even his wife Mia (Jordana Brewster), Dom's sister, acknowledges that he has had trouble settling down this way.That evening, Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) continues to do some overnight work while Elena (Elsa Pataky) is getting ready to go out. Hobbs hands her a letter of recommendation that she asked him for. He wishes her luck in her pursuits. Hobbs then sees Shaw in his office hacking into his computer. Hobbs attempts to arrest him as he is gathering the information on the crew that took down his brother. Shaw battles Hobbs through the whole floor, smashing each other through glass walls and coffee tables, while Hobbs manages to get a good chokeslam down on Shaw. Elena returns for back-up as Shaw gets a grenade out. He tosses it towards the detectives, forcing Hobbs to run to Elena as the grenade explodes, sending them both out the window where they land Hobbs-first onto a van. Elena is unharmed. In the office, it is shown that Shaw was looking for Han (Sung Kang).Dom visits Mia at her home as Brian is getting Jack ready for school. Outside their house is a large package. Mia tells Dom that she is having another child, but she hasn't told Brian for fear of how he'd react to more changes. Dom gets a call from Shaw, listening to his message after killing Han (from the end of the previous film). Dom realizes there's trouble, and he grabs Mia as the package explodes massively, destroying the whole house. Jack is safe in the minivan, though his parents rush to him in a panic.Dom follows Elena to Hobbs' hospital room. He tells Dom who Shaw is, including his history in the Special Forces, where he was turned into a human killing machine. Hobbs asks Dom to promise him he will take Shaw down for good. Dom agrees. Meanwhile, Brian sends Mia and their son to hide out in the Dominican Republic until this thing with Shaw is taken care of. He promises to Mia that he will return as long as they are safe.Dom flies to Tokyo to bring Han back for a proper burial. He meets with Sean Boswell (Lucas Black), Han's friend (from the third film Fast and Furious 3: Toyko Drift). After the two have their race, Sean gives him the only things they could find from Han's car: a picture of Gisele and a cross necklace.Back in California, the gang gathers for Han's funeral, joined by Tej (Ludacris) and Roman (Tyrese Gibson). Dom spots a car suspiciously driving near the funeral. He follows after it, learning it is Shaw. They crash into each other in a tunnel, and they briefly fight until a team of agents come in, giving Shaw a chance to escape. Their leader, a shadowy agent known only as "Mr. Nobody" (Kurt Russell), brings Dom with him and gathers Brian, Tej, Roman, and finally Letty to work together on a mission. A hacker known only as Ramsey has been captured by a terrorist leader named Mose Jakande (Djimon Hounsou), because he is pursuing something Ramsey helped develop called God's Eye, which is a surveillance system that can spot anybody from anywhere in the world. Using this, Dom can locate Shaw. The guys come up with a plan to infiltrate the bus that is carrying Ramsey, while Dom asks Tej to help him put armor on one car.The plan involves the five dropping from a jet in their cars and carefully land close to their target. Roman gets cold feet, prompting Tej to pull the chute out on him and sucking him out of the plane. The other four land close to the bus and break in. Jakande's men shoot at the team. Brian hops on the bus and fights off the guards. He finds Ramsey... a young woman (Nathalie Emmanuel) in her cell and has her jump off the bus and onto the hood of Dom's car for safety. He then dukes it out with a minion named Kiet (Tony Jaa), who is a tough fighter. In the madness, the driver of the bus is accidentally shot. Kiet locks Brian on the bus as he gets out. The bus slides toward the edge of a cliff. Brian climbs out and manages to run off the bus and onto Letty's car as she arrives in time to grab him. Meanwhile, Dom and Ramsey encounter Shaw, leading them both through the woods. Roman appears and knocks Shaw off the road. However, Jakande and his team find Dom. Before they can get him, he drives his car off a cliff, yet he and Ramsey miraculously survive.The team revives Ramsey, who tells them that she gave God's Eye to a friend of hers in Abu Dhabi. They all travel there and meet this person, Safar (Ali Fazal), who says he sold God's Eye to a prince. The team goes undercover to a party that the prince is throwing. Dom and Brian find that God's Eye is in a car. Letty ends up fighting three guards and the prince's chief bodyguard Kara (Ronda Rousey). Kara alerts the guards that there are intruders, keeping Tej and Ramsey out of their systems. Dom and Brian drive the car out of there before the gates shut the place down. Shaw comes out and tries to shoot at Dom, until he drives out of the building and through the next one. Dom discovers that the breaks are out, forcing him and Brian to jump to the next building. The two jump out of the car and pull God's Eye out before the car slides out and crashes to the ground below.With God's Eye, the team learns that Shaw is hiding out in an abandoned factory outside the city. After tracking him there, they see that he has a lot of back-up from Jakande. The team evades gunfire, when Mr. Nobody gets shot in the chaos. Dom carries him out of there, and Jakande gets his hands on God's Eye. Mr. Nobody calls for medical assistance, and tells Dom that he will be leaving him from there.The team knows that it's time to end it with Shaw once and for all. They decide to take the fight back to the streets of their hometown in Los Angeles. Brian calls Mia to tell her he loves her in case he doesn't make it back. Mia tells him that they're having a little girl. Brian then promises to come back to her.Tej and Roman take Ramsey with them while they try and hack God's Eye to prevent Jakande from finding Ramsey. Dom finds Shaw and lures him to a parking lot where they have their final showdown. They have a street fight, dueling with wrenches and pipes. Meanwhile, Jakande, in an armored Stealth Black Hawk helicopter, sends a flying armored drone aircraft to find Ramsey. They end up shooting down an electrical tower, which catches Hobbs' attention after watching it on the news. He announces "Daddy's gotta go to work" and breaks off the cast on his arm, and then gears up.Ramsey gets switched under the bridge and goes with Lettty while Brian tries to find a new spot to hack God's Eye. He encounters Kiet again and kills him when he hooks him up to a weight and pushes him down an elevator shaft. The drone chases after Letty and Ramsey, nearly getting them until Hobbs rides in on an ambulance and destroys it by crashing into it with the ambulance off the freeway ramp. Hobbs exits the totaled ambulance, shaken but still alive.They succeed in the hack, and Jakande is furious. He and his men locate Dom and Shaw still fighting on the roof of the parking garage. They shoot a missile at the lot, causing the ground to break beneath Shaw's feet. Dom stomps on the concrete and drops Shaw through the lot. Jakande continues shooting at Dom as he drives away, but Hobbs shoots back. Dom grabs a bag of grenades and drives close enough to stick them onto Jakande's chopper. Hobbs shoots at the bag, destroying the chopper and Jakande. Dom crashes his car and is pulled out by Brian and Letty. Letty begs him to stay alive and says she remembers that they got married in the Dominican Republic. That's where he gave her the cross necklace that Han had. Dom awakens and kisses Letty.Shaw is locked up for good in a maximum security black site prison. He threatens to break out, though Hobbs doubts that it will ever happen.The team watches Brian and Mia play with Jack on the beach. They realize this is where he belongs, and they look at them lovingly. Dom gets up to leave. Ramsey asks if he's gonna say goodbye. Dom says, "It's never goodbye." He drives away, only to get caught up with Brian on the road. They look at each other with a smile.We hear Dom's voice say that they both lived life at a quarter mile, and that's why they're brothers. This is cut between scenes of Brian through the whole series and everything he and Dom have been through. Dom says Brian will always be his brother. The two continue driving until they finally part ways at a fork in the road, with Brian driving into the sunset.The film closes with the text, "For Paul". | revenge, murder, violence, flashback | tt2820852 |
Beta House | In this direct sequel to 'American Pie: Naked Mile', Erik Stifler and Mike "Cooze" Coozeman arrive at the University of Michigan as freshmen. Upon arriving at his dorm, Erik meets a girl named Ashley while she is taking a shower in the co-ed bathrooms. He then meets his new roommate Bobby and his girlfriend Margie while they're having sex. Erik eventually reunites with his cousin, Dwight Stifler, the leader of the Beta House fraternity, who invites Erik, Cooze, and Bobby to a Beta House party. They learn how they can gain eligibility to pledge for the Beta House and meet Wesley, the rush chair of the Beta House who experiences blackouts after drinking alcohol. Erik and Ashley begin dating, but on their first date at a restaurant, Erik accidentally spills hot soup on his legs, so Ashley brings him to her room to clean up. As Ashley rubs lotion on Erik's thigh, he develops an erection and accidentally ejaculates over her possessions. Erik apologizes and explains to Ashley that his girlfriend Tracy broke up with him, and he has not had sex in four months.Meanwhile, Cooze falls in love with Ashley's roommate Denise, however, she is nervous to show him her genitalia and have sex with him, so she instead gives Cooze a handjob. After talking with Erik, Bobby, and Dwight about Denise, Cooze develops suspicions that Denise might have a penis, so Dwight encourages Cooze to find out. Alongside two other pledges, Erik, Cooze, and Bobby complete fifty tasks to pledge the Beta House, including getting their posteriors signed by a stripper, having sex with a professor, marrying a male friend in Canada, and placing a live ostrich in the Geek House.After they complete their final task, Edgar, the president of the Geek House, challenges the Beta House to the 'Greek Olympiad'; a series of outrageous events that had been outlawed by the university. Beta House alumni Noah Levenstein (Jim's Dad) returns to campus to officiate the competition. The first competition is won by Beta House as Dwight and Edgar compete in removing girls' bras. Geek House win the next two competitions: a light saber duel and catching a greased pig.Beta House win the fourth and fifth competitions: a Russian roulette challenge between Dwight and Edgar with aged horse semen, and a drinking competition won by Wesley. Dwight learns from Rock that Edgar previously had sex with a sheep, so Beta House uses his wool fetish against him in the final striptease challenge with Margie wearing a sheep costume, resulting in the Geek House losing the Greek Olympiad.The Beta House host a climatic toga party, while Erik comes up with the idea of a new pledge task for the Beta House: having sex in a movie theater, and he does so with Ashley. Meanwhile, Cooze and Denise finally sleep together, and Cooze discovers that Denise was actually hiding the fact the she ejaculates during sex, much to his excitement.The following morning, Wesley wakes up after a blackout and discovers that he had sex with the Geek House bodybuilder. In a post-credits scene, Edgar instructs a stripper at Silver Dollar to dance with the headpiece of the sheep costume. | revenge | tt0974959 |
Man of the Year | Tom Dobbs (Robin Williams) is a comedian of a satirical talk show who is able to tap into people's frustrations with the sharply divided, special interest-driven political climate. Specifically, he makes fun of the American two-party system. During his warm-up act, an audience member suggests that he run for president. At first, Dobbs laughs off the idea, but following a popular groundswell of support, later announces on the air that he will stand as a candidate. Through his efforts, he gets on the ballot in 13 states and participates in one of the national debates with the Democratic incumbent, President Kellogg, and Republican U.S. Senator Mills.
A parallel plot follows Eleanor Green (Laura Linney), who works at a voting machine company in California called Delacroy. According to a television commercial in the movie, the entire United States will be using Delacroy voting machines for the Presidential election. Shortly before the elections, Eleanor notices that the voting system does not work correctly and alerts the head of the company, James Hemmings (Rick Roberts) via e-mail.
Initially, Dobbs approaches the campaign seriously – perhaps too seriously, to the chagrin of his staff, especially his manager Jack Menken (Christopher Walken). That turns around the night of the presidential debates, when, fed up with the other candidates' posturing, Dobbs shifts back into comedian mode, managing to keep the audience laughing and make serious points simultaneously. From then on, he resumes his showman persona, thoroughly shaking up the political landscape. Dobbs surges in polls after the debates, but remains a distant third to Kellogg and Mills.
Election Day arrives, and polls show Dobbs at 17% with Kellogg and Mills tied in the 40s. Early returns show Kellogg beating Mills everywhere. Eleanor says that this is part of the error in the voting systems. Suddenly, Dobbs starts winning states. He soon stands at 146 electoral votes, and the media report that if he wins the remaining states whose ballot he is on, he will become president. Soon afterwards, results show that Tom Dobbs has indeed won the Presidential race, beating out Kellogg and Mills. Eleanor tells James Hemmings that the election results look like they are due to the error she found earlier, but his aide Stewart (Jeff Goldblum) drives her away. Dobbs is extremely shocked – like the rest of the world. While Dobbs and his crew move from shock to celebration, Eleanor is attacked in her home and forcefully given an injection. The next day at work she is extremely anxious. Her erratic behavior draws attention and concern. She is sent to the hospital, where a toxicology report reveals high levels of illegal drugs. While recovering in the hospital, she is visited by her work mate, Danny, who has just been promoted by Delacroy (which she thinks is an effort to buy him off). He tries to convince her that she has a drug habit and that no one will believe her. She decides that the person who will believe her is Dobbs. The company uses her toxicology report as a pretext to fire her.
Eleanor eventually makes her way to Jack Menken's birthday party. There, she unconvincingly impersonates an FBI agent in order to talk with Dobbs. Thinking that she needs a job, Dobbs gives her his phone number. She is unable get to the point about the election before Dobbs is pulled away. Later, the two dance, but Eleanor is still unable to tell Dobbs. That night, Danny calls her cell phone, asks if she has told Dobbs, and tries to convince her to let it go. Later, Dobbs tries to get back in contact with Eleanor by calling Delacroy's headquarters. James Hemming tells Dobbs that Eleanor has a drug problem. While watching Wheel of Fortune, Eleanor figures out the flaw in Delecroy's vote counting system. It favors candidates whose names contain double letters, with preference given to the double letters that come earliest in the alphabet, so that Dobbs beats Kellogg, which beats Mills. Eleanor calls Dobbs and he whisks her off to a paintball fight. She leads up to telling him about the election, but he interrupts to tell her he already knows about her drug problem. She denies having a drug problem, but is interrupted and then pulled along to Thanksgiving dinner. At dinner, she finally gets him alone to tell him that the election vote count was wrong, then leaves. Dobbs wrestles with the idea that he should not have been elected as president. He calls and tells Eleanor, who calls and tells Danny, who provides the information to Stewart, that Dobbs plans to break the news to the public at 11am the next day. Delacroy pre-empts Dobbs' public announcement with one of their own, stating that Eleanor was caught attempting to throw the election for Dobbs, but that her efforts had no impact on the polls. Dobbs' team turns against Eleanor, but Dobbs doesn't. Eleanor sees the news and becomes increasingly concerned, a feeling that is soon justified as Delacroy agents break into the hotel room where she is staying and take her computer.
Desperate, Eleanor first flees. Needing to charge her phone so she can call Dobbs, she goes to a mall, where she is followed and apprehended by a Delacroy agent but escapes. Later that night, she calls Dobbs from a pay phone. She manages to reach him but is not able to communicate much before the Delacroy agent drives his truck into the phone booth. She escapes just before the collision but is injured and hospitalized a second time. Dobbs goes to the scene and talks with Eleanor, although he cannot understand her logic about double letters. Later, as he is about to board his private plane at BWI, he sees Delacroy's private plane on the tarmac. During the Weekend Update segment of the sketch comedy TV show Saturday Night Live, he finally announces to the public that the vote counting were flawed and that he should not be president. Dobbs declines to accept victory in a phony election, and another election is held with Dobbs choosing not to participate. President Kellogg wins a second term, and, perhaps due to Dobbs, has a better second term. Dobbs returns to his career as a talk show host, with Eleanor as his producer and later as his wife. The Delacroy executives are arrested. The last seconds of the film shows a mock TIME magazine cover with Dobbs chosen as Person of the Year. | comedy, humor, satire | tt0483726 |
A Walk on the Moon | Pearl Kantrowitz (Diane Lane) and her husband Marty (Liev Schreiber) are a lower middle class Jewish couple in New York City, where Marty is a television repairman. The movie begins with the couple and their family including their teenage daughter Alison (Anna Paquin) and young son Danny (Bobby Boriello) and Marty's mother Lillian (Tovah Feldshuh) going to their summer camp retreat, Dr. Folger's Bungalows, which they attend each summer.
Marty is forced to work away from home and hence, he only visits the family on weekends. This leaves Pearl feeling lonely and isolated. Pearl got pregnant at the age of 17 and she feels she missed enjoying her youth. With the absence of Marty, Pearl is attracted to the new "Blouse Man" Walker Jerome (Viggo Mortensen). Meanwhile, Alison is neglected and she experiences her first period, her first date, and her first kiss as she enters a relationship with another boy at the camp, Ross Epstein.
Marty is unable to visit the family because he has to repair more TV sets than usual, due to the impending moon landing. While the whole town celebrates the historic moonwalk, Pearl has sex with Walker. Marty's mother Lillian learns of the affair and tries to persuade Pearl to break it off. The affair continues when Marty cannot get up to visit on the weekend because of the traffic jam caused by the Woodstock festival, which is within walking distance of the bungalow colony. Pearl goes to the festival, and unbeknownst to her, Alison goes as well with Ross and her friends despite her mother previously forbidding it. Alison becomes upset after seeing Pearl and Walker carousing while on LSD.
Marty learns of the affair and confronts Pearl while Alison confronts her mother in an emotional scene. Pearl is forced to deal with her love of her family and her conflicting yearning for marital freedom.
Pearl finally makes her decision to stay with Marty and tells Walker she cannot go away with him. Walker says he understands. The final scene shows Pearl and Marty dancing together, first to Dean Martin's "When You're Smiling" and then to Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze", after Marty changes the station. | anti war | tt0120613 |
Cyborg | "First there was the collapse of civilization...anarchy, genocide, starvation...then we got the plague." Cyborg is about the post-apocalyptic struggle for survival of an urban ninja named Gibson (Jean-Claude Van Damme). The movie opens with a man and woman in jumpsuits fleeing sociopathic pirates (they have a boat) led by Fender (Vincent Klyn), a buff-looking guy wearing chainmail and sunglasses. The jumpsuited-man tries to hold off the pirates while his counterpart escapes. He is quickly killed by the feral pirate horde. Apparently the jumpsuited woman, named Pearl (Dayle Haddon), is a CYBORG and has obtained the cure for the plague in New York and is storing it in her brain/hard drive. Fender wants the cure for himself, so he commands his crew to capture the CYBORG.Pearl gets trapped in an alley by a trio of pirates, but they are quickly dispatched by the agile Gibson who happens upon the scene. She tries to hire him to take her back to the last group of doctors in Atlanta, who originally tasked her with finding the cure. They are interrupted by a pirate sniping at them with a crude-looking gun and Gibson is forced to run into a wood structure, which collapses on him. Fender takes possession of Pearl and heads back to his ship, destined for Atlanta.Gibson punches his way out of the rubble and follows Fender to the harbor. He finds a burning village and Fender already gone. While staring at the fire he notices movement in the shadows and throws an unknown projectile, hitting someone. The person turns out to be a villager that survived Fender's attack, named Nady (Deborah Richter). While waiting for her to awaken, he has a flashback to a previous family that hired him to get them out of New York. It shows Gibson leading them to a house in the country and then violent images involving Fender. Gibson waits for Nady to wake up and then he leaves. She offers to help him rescue Pearl, but all he cares about is getting Fender. They set off on the road to Charleston.Gibson and Nady stop for information in a shantytown where he talks with his friend Maize (Jophery C. Brown), who tells him where he can catch Fender's boat. It is revealed that Gibson had settled down with the family he rescued and given up his previous life.After leaving the shantytown, Gibson and Nady are ambushed by highwaymen. Gibson disappears into the woods and Nady flees to a nearby decrepit building. Gibson kills two of the men while in the woods and runs to the building, where Nady is being held at knife-point. Gibson, using his gun and boot-shiv, takes out the rest of the highwaymen and rescues Nady.The heroes finally reach the ocean where Fender must land and continue inland to Atlanta. Nady takes the opportunity to bathe and Gibson follows suit. While warming up around the campfire, Nady offers herself to Gibson, who declines and seems distracted. He then flashes back to a love scene between Gibson and the oldest girl of the family he rescued. As they lay sleeping on a bed, Fender and his pirates are seen standing at the window.The next morning the heroes find Fender's boat and follow him to an abandoned industrial complex. An intense gun and knife battle takes place, resulting in the death of more pirates and Gibson getting wounded by Fender. Gibson must flee with Nady after Pearl refuses to be rescued, relying on the forces in Atlanta to destroy Fender. Gibson enters the sewer and is followed by the pirates. He stops to kill the biggest pirate (Ralf Moeller) and then exits the sewer onto a field, where he and Nady begin frantically running. The pirates catch up to them and Gibson kills a few before being overpowered. Nady takes out one pirate but is knocked out (again). Fender proceeds to beat Gibson to a bloody mess and then nails him to the mast of a beached boat, leaving him to die.While hanging from the mast, Gibson flashes back for the last time to his adopted family in the country. He and the oldest girl and her little brother are tied up with barbwire hanging over a well. Fender gives the barbwire to the younger sister Haley (Haley Peterson) and tells her if she can hold it, her family will live. The wire rips through her hands and the family falls into the well. Gibson manages to climb out of the well, but the girl and her brother have died. Hanging on the mast, Gibson recognizes Haley as being Fender's woman now. Summoning his rage, Gibson breaks the mast with his heel and falls to the ground, where he is cut free by Nady.Fender and Pearl enter Atlanta and reach the center of the city by nightfall. In the rain, Gibson and Nady prepare for their ambush. Gibson gives Nady a knife and she runs to hide. Gibson fires a single arrow at Fender as he approaches. The arrow lands at his feet and Fender orders the remnants of his pirates to attack. Gibson deals with them while Nady sneaks up and takes out the two pirates guarding Pearl. Nady fends off the last pirate as Gibson and Fender commence their final showdown. Halfway through the fight, Haley yells at Fender to stop and he goes after her instead. Nady prevents Fender from killing Haley, but is slashed by his knife in the process. Gibson recovers and stabs Fender, finally kicking him onto a large hook which kills him. Gibson, Haley, and Pearl then mourn Nady's death.The trio arrive at the Atlanta facility and Pearl asks Gibson and Haley to stay, but alas they belong on the streets where they can help others. They leave as Pearl enters the facility and the armored door closes behind her. | cult, action, murder, violence, flashback | tt0097138 |
Lady in the Water | Maintenance man Cleveland Heep (Paul Giamatti) tries to keep up with the needs of his many tenants. He comes to realize someone is swimming in the pool after 7 p.m., which is not allowed. The pool cleaner also brings to his attention that there seem to be globs of some sort of hair in the pools filter that have accumulated in just one day. One night, when he is very tired, he hears splashing in the pool and thinks that at last he will catch the mystery swimmer. But when he goes to the pool, there is no one there, not even footprints. As he walks around the pool, he hears someone splashing in the water at that very moment. He thinks all he has to do is wait, and they will surface soon enough. He picks up a brush and walks around the pool, takes a bad step, falls, hits his head and rolls into the pool.In the next scene we find Heep laying on his own couch, and a nude young woman is sitting across from him. There is water on the floor. He asks if she brought him here, but she only nods that she did. He gives her a shirt to wear. She clings to him, saying that she is too scared to go outside. So there he sits, with a young woman in his lap clinging to him who then falls asleep. He is clearly uncomfortable and tries to wake her. He decides he should take her outside for some fresh air, and then he will walk her home. Once outside, however, he is confronted with a growling creature which sends them both screaming back into his house.Heep needs to know who she is and what the creature is. We learn that her name is Story and that there is a creature hunting her. She is somehow prohibited from telling him who she is or what is happening, but she does tell him that she is a Narf. Heep begins asking his tenants if they have ever heard of a character called a Narf. Upon asking a young Asian student named Young-Soon Choi (Cindy Cheung), she says she has heard of a Narf as part of a bedtime story that was told long ago to her mother, but she doesn't remember much about the story.Heep continues doing his repairs, and we are introduced to many of the tenants. Between tasks, Heep tries to catch Young-Soon when she is with her grandmother, so he can ask more questions about the story. Though she has no idea why he is asking all these questions, she is happy to do what she can for this oddly curious man. Her grandmother, however, is suspicious as to why a grown man is so interested in a bedtime story.Frustrated at only getting bits and pieces of the story here and there, he arranges to be invited into the apartment of Young-Soon and her grandmother. Young-Soon tells him to try and act more like a curious child than a man, and it will help to bring out the grandmother's softer side so she will tell him more about the story of Story. After wiggling, eating cookies and dribbling milk down his face, the grandmother is amused and tells him the story.Meanwhile, Story is walking through his apartment, marveling at various objects. She notices a different-looking book and takes it down and reads it. The book is actually a journal, one that Heep wrote following the tragic loss of his family. When Heep discovers her reading the book, he asks her not to tell anyone of his past; no one there knows the story or that he used to be a doctor. He also needs to check with Story that what he has learned so far is accurate. Though Story cannot actually say, she makes a sign when he makes a correct statement.It seems Story is a Narf, here to motivate a great writer to complete his work that will have a tremendous positive effect on the future, at which point a giant eagle will come and take her home. But there is a creature called a Scrunt who will try to kill her before she can complete her task. There are many people who live in the apartment comple, besides the writer, who will unknowingly play different parts in helping Story. Heep believes himself to be her "guardian", the one who can protect her from the Scrunt. In a scene that starts out suspenseful but becomes rather light, Heep tries to face down and battle the Scrunt, being coached by Story via walkie talkie, but it soon becomes apparent that he is not the guardian when the Scrunt attacks him. The attack is interrupted by an arrogant movie critic just in the nick of time.But now Heep has an idea of what he needs to help Story get home. He must cast the roles needed to complete the task from the diverse people that live in the apartment complex. It is such a complex undertaking that he decides to consult the latest addition to the complex, the arrogant movie critic, to help him root out some of the characters described to him. Heep finally concocts a plan, but it is misguided. When it fails, the Scrunt seizes hold of Story and tries to drag her away, but Heep manages to grab hold of her. It is now apparent they have the wrong people for the roles, and they need to rethink them fast.The pivotal character to find is the "symbolist", who can "read" the situation, giving a much better description of the characters needed and what they all must do. At last, most of the correct people are found, all but the guardian. They all encircle her hoping to protect her long enough for the eagle to arrive. But the Scrunt is patient and wily and finds a way to get close to her unseen.Finally, the guardian appears and stares the Scrunt down. We hear the eagle and Heep says goodbye to Story. He realizes she has saved him from hiding himself away, and then she is gone. | fantasy, storytelling, stupid | tt0452637 |
Monster's Ball | Hank Grotowski (Billy Bob Thornton), a widower, and his son, Sonny (Heath Ledger), are corrections officers in a prison in Louisiana. They reside with Hank's ailing father, Buck (Peter Boyle), a bigoted retired corrections officer whose wife committed suicide.
Hank is a deputy warden. He oversees the execution of convicted murderer, Lawrence Musgrove (Sean Combs). As explained to Sonny by Hank, at the diner bar the night before, a "Monster's Ball" is what the execution team calls that night's get-together. The proceedings prove too intense for Sonny, who, as he is leading Lawrence to the electric chair, vomits and then collapses.
Hank confronts Sonny in the jail's bathroom afterwards and slaps him for being so "soft" and for "ruining a man's last walk". At home, Hank attacks Sonny in his bed and tells him to get out of the house. Sonny grabs a gun and threatens his father, who backs off. The confrontation ends in their living room with Hank at gunpoint, lying on the carpet, and Sonny in Buck's customary chair. Sonny asks his father if he hates him. After his father calmly confirms that he does, and always has, Sonny responds, "Well I always loved you," and then shoots himself in the chest, dying instantly.
Hank buries Sonny in the back garden with an abbreviated funeral because, as Buck comments, "He was weak." Hank subsequently quits his job, burns his uniform in the backyard, and locks the door of Sonny's room.
During the years of Lawrence's imprisonment, his wife, Leticia (Halle Berry), has been struggling while raising their son, Tyrell (Coronji Calhoun), who has inherited his father's artistic talent. She abusively berates the boy regarding his obesity. Along with her domestic problems, Leticia struggles financially, leading to the loss of the family car and, worse, an eviction notice on her house. In desperate need of money, Leticia takes a job at a diner which is one frequented by Hank.
One rainy night, Leticia and Tyrell are walking down a soaked highway when Tyrell is struck by a car. Hank happens to be driving along and sees Leticia and Tyrell. After some hesitation, he drives Leticia and Tyrell to a hospital, but Tyrell dies upon arrival. At the suggestion of the authorities at the hospital, Hank drives her home.
A few days later, Hank gives Leticia a ride home from the diner. They begin talking in the car about their common losses, and she invites him in. Hank finds out that Leticia is Lawrence's widow, though he does not tell her that he participated in her husband's execution. They drown their grief with alcohol and have sex.
Leticia stops by Hank's home with a present for him, but he is not there. She meets Buck, who insults her and implies that Hank is only involved with her because he enjoys sex with black women. Leticia, hurt by the remarks, refuses to interact with Hank. The incident proves to be the last straw for Hank, who decides to send his father to a nursing home.
Leticia is evicted from her home for non-payment of rent, and Hank invites her to move in with him. She later discovers Hank's involvement in her husband's death when she finds a drawing of Hank done by Lawrence as he awaited execution. She erupts, but is there waiting for him when he returns from town with ice cream. The film ends with the two of them eating ice cream together on the back porch, content with each other. | tragedy | tt0285742 |
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps | In 2001, Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) is released from prison on parole after serving eight years behind bars for insider trading and mail fraud. He leaves the prison hoping to find a car waiting for him but there is no one. He's alone.Seven years later in June 2008 during the time of the great USA financial collapse, Jacob "Jake" Moore (Shia Lebouf) is awakened in his apartment by his girlfriend, Winnie (Carey Mulligan). Jake turns on the television and there is an interview with Gekko on television. Gekko has become an author and a lecturer promoting his new book, 'Is Greed Good?' Winnie gets upset and throws the remote at the TV after Jake doesn't turn it off. Winnie is Gekko's estranged daughter and wants nothing to do with him. Jake drives Winnie to the airport on his motorbike and she goes off to gather investors for her online political magazine.Jake goes to work at Keller Zabel Investments, a Wall Street banking institution. He tries to raise more money for a fusion research project which will be a viable source of alternative energy down the line but the rest of the board doesn't agree with him. Jake is one of the firms top brokers and the protégé of its managing director, Louis Zabel (Frank Langella). Zabel has become disillusioned with the industry and doesn't understand how he can be told a loss is a profit. He gives Jake a $1.5 million bonus and tells him to spend it and keep the economy going. Zabel also encourages Jake to marry Winnie and have a kid since he knows that growing old isn't for the weak in this business and that Jake needs her.Jake goes out to celebrate with his best friend and buys Winnie a diamond ring. He mentions that Winnie doesn't really support marriage, given the outcome of her parents divorce, but Jake knows that she loves him and he loves her. His friend asks about rumors that Keller Zabel is in danger, but Jake brushes it off.The next day the company's stock starts crashing. Zabel doesn't come in to work so Jake goes and finds him walking his wife's dog in the park. Jake asks him if Keller Zabel is going to go under, but Zabel just tells him that he's asking the wrong question. The right question is: "Who isn't going under?"Zabel meets with the chairmen of the US Treasury at the Federal Reserve. He tries to arrange a bailout but he is blocked by Bretton James (Josh Brolin), a former businessman that Zabel had crossed eight years prior when his company was going under. James insults Zabel by offering to buy Keller Zabel stock at $3 a share (against its $75 trading value from a week prior).The next morning, Zabel wakes up and kisses his wife after breakfast. He goes to a news stand and picks up a bag of Lays chips and a newspaper. As the train pulls in, Zabel pushes towards the front of the line and jumps on the tracks.Jake hears the news on the television of Zabel's suicide as Winnie returns from her trip. She hugs him and consoles him before he proposes to her. She agrees to marry him.A few weeks later, Jake attends a lecture at Fordham University given by Gordon Gekko and hears what Gekko has to say about the current financial crisis. Gekko reveals that in his opinion the unrestrained speculation will cause a financial cataclysm, even though everybody is euphoric about the current financial bubble. After the lecture ends, Jake approaches Gekko and tells him that he's about to marry Winnie. They ride a subway train together and Gekko explains that his daughter won't speak to him because of her brother Rudy's suicide a few years prior over Gekko's imprisonment and social shunning over his father. Jake sees that Gekko has a photo of Winnie as a toddler and asks if he can have it. Gekko tells him that he will trade Jake for a more recent photograph of Winnie. Gekko gives him the photo and his card so that Jake will find him later on. He also tells Jake that Keller Zabel was in trouble the minute someone started rumors about them and that Jake should look for whoever profited from Keller Zabel's collapse. From now on, Gekko and Jake agree to make a "trade", so that Jake would enable Gekko to communicate with his estranged daughter, and, in return, Gekko would help Jake collect secret information to destroy Bretton, who ruined Jake's mentor. Thus Gekko reveals his characteristic philosophy of life, where every deal that he makes in return for something is nothing but a trade.With the help of Gekko, who is very resourceful, Jake does some digging and realizes that Bretton James profited from the Keller Zabel collapse. In order to get his attention, Jake spreads false rumors about the nationalization of an African oil rig that Bretton's company owns. The company loses $120 million and Bretton asks for a meeting with Jake. At the meeting, he tells Jake that he is impressed and offers Jake a job, making it clear that if Jake doesn't accept he will have a lot of trouble being hired anywhere else. Determined to take Bretton out and avenge Zabel, Jake accepts.Winnie and Jake go out to Long Island to meet with Jake's mother (Susan Sarandon), a real estate agent in financial trouble. She asks for $200,000 to float her properties. Jake gives it to her but Winnie tells Jake in private that she's only going to waste her chance again. She asks him to take her very expensive ring back because she isn't comfortable wearing something so expensive.Jake pretends that he called Gekko to have dinner and ask his approval so he and Winnie go to have dinner with him. During their re-introductions, Gekko sees an important business man and introduces himself, only to be brushed off as a nobody. Winnie realizes that Gekko hasn't changed his greedy ways and leaves the restaurant upset. Jake pursues her and she tells him that if he goes back, Gekko will destroy them.A few days later, Jake visits Gekko again at his apartment and gives him the photo of Winnie that he promised. Gekko tells Jake that his research pointed out that the Locust Fund, a private offshore hedge fund was betting against Keller Zabel. Jake explains that he was offered a job by Bretton James and Gekko tells Jake that he suspects it was James's testimony which got him sent away for eight years (more time than a murderer). Jake is confused, having assumed that it was Bud Fox who put Gekko after Fox's 1985-1986 insider trading trial. Gekko explains that Bud Fox got him on insider trading but that was nothing compared to some of Gekko's other activities that he was convicted of. He and Bretton had a falling out back in 1988 and, though he doesn't know for sure, he suspects that Bretton was behind it. Gekko asks for another trade: he wants to have a face to face with his daughter.At work, Jake is put on the sideline so that Bretton's point woman can take over a pitch to the Chinese businessmen. They are unimpressed with her pitch, stating that they are looking for the next big thing in energy. Jake swoops in and presents them with the fusion research he has been supporting. Bretton is impressed by Jake's initiative and is glad that the firm has made more money. However, the firm is in trouble but Bretton doesn't want anyone to know. The economy is slowly starting to crumble. Bretton hosts a fundraiser and invites Jake and Winnie. Gekko asks Jake to front him $10,000 so that Gekko can also attend and have another chance to reconcile with Winnie.Wandering around the party, Gekko ends up bumping into Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen, in a suprise cameo). Apparelty Fox did his time in prison and went on to build Bluestar Airline into one of the premier airlines in the country after his father's retirement and death. Fox sold the company and retired a multi-millionaire. He wishes Gekko well and tells him to stay out of trouble.Gekko approaches Winnie and Jake at Bretton's table but Winnie leaves when Gekko arrives. Gekko and Bretton exchange a tense conversation where Gekko implies that he has proof that Bretton is responsible for putting him away. Bretton gets uncomfortable but points out that Gekko is no one. Gekko leaves him to find Winnie. Bretton tells Jake that the Chinese are going to invest $150 million in the fusion research Jake has been supporting.Outside of the building, Gekko finds Winnie outside on the steps and they have an intense conversation. He tells her that she's all he has and she's his gal until the day that he dies. She hugs him and Jake watches them have their moment. Jake calls the head researcher and tells him that the money is on its way.Over the next few months, the USA economy collapses. The stock market loses billions during September-October 2008.Jake is at his apartment and tells Winnie that the world as they know it is over. Winnie tells him that is unacceptable because she is pregnant. Jake is floored but excitedly happy and kisses her.Numerous companies around the country are failing. Bretton calls Jake into his office and Jake takes a helicopter to meet Bretton at his estate in upstate New York. The two participate in a motorcycle race against each other and Jake beats Bretton. Bretton tells Jake that the money the Chinese invested is going into fossil fuels instead of fusion research. Jake gets angry knowing that Bretton is trying to sink the fusion research since it is not profitable, even though it would benefit the entire world. Bretton would be unable to control the source once the technology becomes known, unlike with the oil industry. Jake quits and tells Bretton to go fuck himself.Jake tells Gekko about what happened and Gekko reveals that there is a solution: Winnie has a trust fund account in Switzerland with $100 million which Gekko set up in the 1980s when she was born. He told her that once he was out of jail, he would need that money to reassert himself but Winnie reneged when Rudy died. While she has always considered giving it to charity, she hasn't. Jake could use that money to fund the research and save the company. But since Winnie never declared it, she could go to jail for tax evasion. Gekko tells Jake that he can embezzle it with his old contacts. Jake believes him and goes to talk to Winnie.At Winnie's office, Jake asks why she never mentioned the money. Winnie is shocked that he knows but Jake gets enthusiastic about the fusion research and tells her that this is her chance to make a difference. She agrees and the two fly to Switzerland. She signs the money over to Jake. Jake then entrusts the money to Gekko so that he can legitimize the funds for the investment in the fusion research company.A few hours after returning to New York, Jake gets a call saying that the money never arrived. He gets frantic but his mother interrupts him before he goes to deal with Gekko. She asks for $100,000 because of the collapse of the housing industry, but Jake gives her $30,000 and tells her that he cannot afford to waste any more money on her ridiculous real estate deals. He goes to Gekko's apartment and finds it empty: he's gone.Jake tells Winnie what happened and that he's been talking to Gekko for a while. She breaks off their engagement and tells Jake to leave: she no longer trusts him or feels safe around him. He leaves bitterly and tracks Gekko to England, where Gekko is running a financial company again with the $100 million he stole from Winnie and Jake. Jake propositions him for one last trade: Winnie gets her $100 million back and Gekko gets a grandson. Jake shows him the ultrasound of his son but Gekko, despite being moved, cannot let go of being someone of importance. He tells him that its not about money; its about the game. Gekko says that giving the money away is a "trade he cannot make." Jake leaves.Over the next few weeks, by using the previous information collected by Gekko about Bretton, Jake begins piecing together everything from Keller Zabels collapse to the economic bailouts being issued for Brettons company. Jake points out that Bretton owns the Locust Fund (www.locustfund.com) and puts the pieces together in one large information packet. He gives it to Winnie, telling her that it will put her website on the map for good as a legitimate source of information and that he misses her like crazy. He then leaves.Winnie runs the story and Bretton James is exposed. The board of directors kicks him out of the company and Bretton is forced to testify to his crimes in front of the Congressional Committee, who note that they previously had Brettons cooperation in the Gekko investigation. Bretton's career is over and he's left to the sharks. Bretton's board of directors, led by the elderly banker Julius Scherhart (Eli Wallach) goes to Gekko in order to start doing business with him in view of the new credibility Gekko gained through his London firm's astounding success. He speaks to his materialistic business clients in the language they understand and respect: by correctly predicting the coming financial collapse, Gekko sold the market short and turned the 100 million that he stole from his daughter into the incredible sum of $1 billion dollars. He proudly looks at his account assets; Gekko is a billionaire again.Jake sees the very pregnant Winnie walking to her apartment and helps her carry her things. Their son has been kicking and keeping her up at night. Jake feels his sons kicks and Winnie thanks him for the help but they do not reconcile. Gordon appears and tells them that he deposited the $100 million in to the fusion researchers account anonymously. Now that Gekko attained his aim of becoming a billionaire by using the money he stole from his daughter, he finally returns that relatively small sum. He tells them that they make a good couple and that hed like to be there for them as their father and a grandfather. He walks away saying, "What? Can't you believe in a comeback?"Jake kisses Winnie and they reconcile before the birth and, one year later, they celebrate their son's first birthday with a party, at which Gordon Gekko is also present. | boring | tt1027718 |
Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead | Sue Ellen Crandell (Christina Applegate) is a 17-year-old high school dream teen who looks forward to the summer when her divorced mother will be in Australia all summer. Sue Ellen tells her friends at the clothing shop about her thoughts of a fun-filled summer of freedom in the rural Los Angeles suburbs while the rest of her friends are planning a trip to Europe. After arriving home, Sue Ellen's dreams are then abruptly curtailed upon the arrival of elderly Mrs. Sturak (Eda Reiss Merin), whom Mrs. Crandell (Concetta Tomei) has hired as a live-in babysitter for Sue Ellen and her younger siblings: 16-year-old Kenny (Keith Coogan), a heavy metal-loving stoner; 12-year-old Zach (Christopher Pettiet), a romantic ladies' man; 10-year-old Melissa (Danielle Harris), an athletic tomboy; and eight-year-old game show addict Walter (Robert Hy Gorman).Mrs. Sturak reveals her true colors the moment Mrs. Crandell departs: an iron-fisted, whistle-blowing, no-nonsense disciplinarian. That evening, Sue Ellen inspires her siblings to rise up against Mrs. Sturak and end her reign of terror. The moment they move in to confront her, however, they discover Mrs. Sturak dead in her chair. The Crandells panic and debate calling the police, or their mother in Australia, but Sue Ellen realizes that doing so jeopardizes any chance for summer fun for their mother will no doubt return and unfairly blame them for Mrs. Sturak's death. They finally decide to seal Mrs. Sturak's body in a trunk, and drop it off anonymously at the local morgue with a note reading: "Nice old lady inside. Died of natural causes."More panic ensues when the kids realize that all the cash their mother left them for the summer was in an envelope that Mrs. Sturak kept about her person at all times. The Crandell kids now have no money, but Sue Ellen decides all she needs is a job. Unfortunately, the only place that hires her is Clown Dog, a fast-food restaurant, where she performs grunt labor in miserable conditions. Despite meeting Bryan (Josh Charles), a handsome and supportive co-worker who becomes her boyfriend, Sue Ellen quickly gets fed up with Clown Dog and quits.Sue Ellen then forges the résumé of a mid-level fashion executive and poses as a 28-year-old as she applies at General Apparel West, a downtown L.A. clothing manufacturer, for an open receptionist position. Although scorned by Carolyn (Jayne Brook), the rude and sarcastic receptionist due for a promotion, Sue Ellen's résumé garners the attention of Rose Lindsey (Joanna Cassidy), the senior vice president of operations at GAW, who offers an executive administrative assistant position to her.Sue Ellen struggles to keep the truth about her double life hidden from Bryan and GAW. But things become more complicated after Sue Ellen learns that Bryan is the younger brother of Carolyn the receptionist who quickly sees through Sue Ellen's charade and she teams up with her equally cynical and sneaky boyfriend Bruce (David Douchney) to try to prove that sue Ellen is a phoney to the skeptic Rose.After learning about office money called petty cash, Sue Ellen "borrows" enough for groceries. She convinces herself that she will be able to pay back the money she stole, but on her first payday, she sees that her paycheck is only $730, for nearly half of her pay is taken away for taxes and her siblings used even more petty cash, totaling over $3,000, to purchase nonreturnable items such as Zach purchasing a huge stereo TV and sound set.Compounding her distress is bad news from Rose: the company is going under because GAW's dowdy fashions aren't selling amid their buyers, and soon all of them will be out of a job. In a moment of epiphany, Sue Ellen goes out on a limb for GAW by designing high-end fashions on her own for GAW. She convinces Rose and the other senior staff members that her hip clothes could pull GAW back out of bankruptcy. Rose is impressed and wants to hold a gala event-type show to reveal GAW's new fashion line to their buyers. Realizing there isn't enough petty cash to rent a hall, Sue Ellen convinces Rose to hold the fashion show at the Crandell house.Working together with her siblings and friends, they use the remaining petty cash to spruce up the house and host the event themselves. The evening goes off swimmingly, with the audience loving the new GAW clothing line. Right at the show's finale, however, Bryan shows up unexpectedly, quickly followed by a furious Mrs. Crandell, back early from Australia (having not heard from the kids over their refusal to take her phone calls).Overwhelmed by her lies, Sue Ellen announces the truth to everyone and apologizes to Rose, but Rose assures her that the buyers loved the new fashions and don't care about Sue Ellen's personal life. With GAW's future secured, Rose gladly offers the "real" Sue Ellen another position at GAW, but Sue Ellen declines in favor of pursuing college first.With the party ended and the guests departing, Mrs. Crandell begins to lose her temper, but is quickly calmed down by a now more-mature Sue Ellen, as well as the suttle Kenny, Zack, Melissa and Walter. Mom walks around the house, impressed and suspicious by the cleanliness, expensive new furnishings, and the behavioral turn-around of all her children. As Sue Ellen and Bryan embrace and kiss, Mrs. Crandell asks about the whereabouts of Mrs. Sturak.The end credits then begin to roll as the film cuts to a scene at the local cemetery, where the two morgue attendants are visiting Mrs. Sturak's grave and saying how nice it was of her to leave them all her money which they squandered on gambling trips to Las Vegas. Her tombstone simply reads: "Nice Old Lady. Died Of Natural Causes." | cult | tt0101757 |
End of Watch | Police officers Brian Taylor (Jake Gyllenhall) and Mike Zavala (Michael Peña) are close friends and partners in the Los Angeles Police Department. Taylor is filming their police activities for a film project, attaching small cameras to his and Zavala's uniforms and carrying around a camcorder, much to the dismay of their peers and superiors. After shooting two suspects following a high speed chase, the shooting is declared justified by the D.A. and the officers are commended for their actions. Taylor and Zavala's antics are met with scorn by fellow officer Van Hauser (David Harbour).The officers respond to a call regarding a man, Mr. Tre (Cle Shaheed Sloan) scaring off a mailman while intoxicated. Upon arrival, Tre hurls racist insults at the Hispanic Zavala, who responds by accepting a fight, to Taylor's approval. Zavala beats him soundly and arrests him, but wins the man's respect for both fighting fair and not mentioning the fight in the report (which may have sent Tre to prison for life due to Three Strikes). Later that night, Tre and his friends are shot at by a group of Latino gang members and one of his friends is killed. The officers find the now-burnt vehicle used in the drive-by the next day, but are shooed off the scene by homicide detectives as well as Van Hauser, who warns them they will get screwed over by the LAPD someday.Responding to a missing persons report, the officers discover two children bound and locked away in a closet and arrest the distressed mother and her drug-addict husband.The cops arrive as a group at a loud outdoor party, the Hispanics from the drive by shooting are celebrating. The cops and partiers verbally joust and Brian sizes up the gang leader, Big Evil (Maurice Compte). The cops depart telling them to keep the noise down.Taylor begins dating Janet (Anna Kendrick) and feels Janet is the only girl he's dated who can connect with him on an intellectual level. Zavala, who is married and expecting a child, offers him relationship advice.Investigating the South Central area, Taylor has a hunch and determines to scope out the home of the mother of a known gang member and sees an expensive pick up truck in the driveway. A woman walks out of the house and delivers a large soup saucepan with lid to the man in the truck. As the truck drives away, the officers follow and then pull over the man in the truck, ostensibly for having CD hanging off the mirror and illegally obstructing the front view, which is minor traffic violation in California per VC 26708 . As Zavala approaches the driver's window to make contact, the driver suddenly draws a gun and fires, and Zavala deflects the man's arm just in time to avoid being shot. After arresting the driver, the officers find an ornately-decorated, compact .45 Colt automatic pistol, a gold-plated AK-47 rifle, and a large amount of money in his truck (hidden in the soup pot). As revealed later, the money and firearms are connected to a Mexican drug cartel operation in the South Central area as well as the gang that did the drive-by on Tre and others.Days later, the two officers are first responders at a house fire that has trapped children on the second floor. Zavala and Taylor enter the house and rescue two young children and are nearly overcome by heat and smoke. When the mother informs them that a third child remains inside, Zavala to rushes to the aid of the remaining child as Taylor reluctantly follows, barely making it out alive. The two are commended and receive the Medal of Valor for their actions, but Taylor has mixed emotions about the situation. Using the house fire incident as leverage, Taylor convinces Zavala to further investigate the South Central incident, to Zavala's chagrin. Arriving at the house, Taylor and Zavala notice suspicious behavior from outside and enter. They arrest another man, who is also in possession of several ornate firearms: a .45 Colt automatic similar to the first one found at the traffic stop, and a Walther PPK. Investigating further, Taylor discovers a hidden stash of Mexican and Asian prisoners, indicating that they have just stumbled upon a human trafficking case. Upon exiting the building, they are accosted by the suddenly arrived federal officers of the ICE department, informed that the man had been a person of interest with possible leads to the cartel, and strongly urged to "lay low" due to possible cartel reprisals. Taylor is left confused and agitated.Soon after, Zavala's wife Gabby (Natalie Martinez) gives birth to the couple's first child, Mike Zavala Jr.One night, the two receive an 'officer needs help' call from Sook (Kristy Wu), Van Hauser's probationary partner. She fails to give the address and is unable to communicate their location effectively before she screams and the call is cut off. Urgently responding to the call, the two find Van Hauser calmly waiting in front of a building with a knife stabbed into his right eye, warning the two of a large criminal around the corner. Taylor and Zavala grab a shotgun from their car and investigate, finding the man brutally beating Officer Sook. Instead of using deadly force, Taylor orders the suspect to stop, who, surprisingly, immediately stops the assault and surrenders without any sort of resistance. The suspect is detained by Zavala, while Taylor calls for an ambulance and attends to the rookie officer, whose face has been badly injured. The Sarge, wonders why Brian didn't kill the man, and mentions Sook turned in her badge, resigning from the Dept.Taylor later marries Janet and, after a night of celebration, Zavala drunkenly, though earnestly, tells Taylor that, should anything happen to him, he will take care of her.After deciding to respond to a more easygoing call the next day, the officers go to investigate a welfare check from an elderly woman. After receiving no response, the officers break down the door and discover the dead homeowner along with a number of dismembered corpses, tortured, and killed by the cartel.Elsewhere, an unknown observer (heavily implied to be someone from an unnamed federal agency) records footage of a cartel member speaking on the phone to put a kill order on the officers, and the LA gangsters from the earlier drive-by begin plotting their assassination. While Taylor and Zavala receive no warning from the LAPD or the federal agency that recorded the conversation, Tre, having a higher level of respect for Zavala after the earlier fight, warns them of rumors that they are now hot targets for the cartel, but they disregard his comments, saying "We're cops, everyone wants to kill us."The two cops are followed by Big Evil and his gang, they realize they need a good plan.Janet becomes pregnant shortly after the marriage.After a short pursuit with a reckless minivan one night, the officers chase the driver into an apartment complex, where the gangsters have set up an ambush to kill them. The officers are fired upon with AK-47 assault rifles and Officer Taylor is shot in the hand, destroying his radio. Taking refuge in a small apartment, Taylor decides that they are going to have to gun their way out. The two open fire, suppressing the gunmen, and end up killing a shooter on the way out of the complex. Awaiting backup outside, the two are fired upon once more and Taylor is shot in the chest. Zavala kills the shooter, desperately attends to Taylor, and cries out for backup, but Taylor remains unresponsive. Zavala begins to believe Taylor is dying and cries in mourning, while frantically calling for backup. Realizing that the gangsters from inside the apartment have approached behind him, Zavala reaches for his firearm, but is repeatedly shot in the back. As a last-ditch effort to save his partner, he throws his body over the seriously wounded Taylor, protecting him from further injury, at the cost of his own life. Backup eventually arrives and a brief shootout ensues. The gangsters, including "Big Evil", are shot and killed when they refuse to drop their weapons and spray shots at the backup officers.Zavala is killed in his effort to save Taylor, but Taylor miraculously survived the encounter, albeit heavily injured. A funeral is held for Officer Zavala, during which Taylor tearfully declares that Zavala was his brother, before breaking down in tears among his wife and Zavala's family. The screen fades to black. In an epilogue scene, a clip is shown from earlier in the day of the shooting, during which Zavala details hiding under his then-newlywed wife's parents' bed while the parents had sex. Taylor and Zavala both laugh heartily, before going off to "fight crime or some shit". | comedy, neo noir, murder, violence, flashback, tragedy, prank | tt1855199 |
Ghostbusters | The film opens within the New York Public Library, where a librarian (Alice Drummond) is first gathering books, before heading downstairs to a remote and empty section. She places a book back on the shelf, not noticing that the books behind her are levitating across the aisle. Later, she passes the card catalogue shelves as they open behind her and suddenly begin to hurl their contents into the air. Frightened and screaming, she runs through the room before being stopped by an unseen ghost, which scares her terribly. This leads into the title card.After the opening title shot, the film continues in the Paranormal Studies Dept. of Columbia University, where Dr. Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) is conducting a test on ESP with a nerdy male student (Steven Tash) and an attractive female student (Jennifer Runyon). Venkman continually flirts and lies about her abilities, while enjoying administering electric shocks to the male student. Having finally had enough, the male student departs, and Venkman continues to flirt with the young woman. Dr. Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) enters, and frantically begins to tell Venkman about the sighting at the library, insisting they leave at once to check it out. Venkman makes a date with the student, and follows Stantz out.Upon arriving at the library, Venkman and Stantz meet up with Dr. Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis), and Venkman proceeds to ask a series of personal (and cynical) questions about her medical and social history, before the three head down to the area the ghost supposedly inhabits. While down there, the three men collect ectoplasmic residue, discover a tall "symmetrical stacking" of books from floor to ceiling, and narrowly escape a falling bookcase.Turning the same corner as the librarian, they see the ghost: a transparent form of an elderly lady (Ruth Oliver), reading a book. Having no idea what to do, Venkman begins to talk to the ghost as if it were a lady in a bar. She shushes him, before Stantz proclaims he knows what to do. They stealthily approach the ghost, before Ray yells, "Get her!" and the ghost mutates to a ghoulish, skeletal apparition, scaring the hell out of the trio, who run screaming from the library. They ignore the library administrator (John Rothman) in their frantic way out.After they've calmed down a bit, they walk back to the university. Venkman mocks Ray's idiotic plan, and Egon announces that based on his readings, they now have a "good change of actually catching a ghost and holding it indefinitely." However, once they get back to the school, they meet the dean (Jordan Charney) who tells them that their grant has been terminated due to their shoddy and highly suspect findings, research, and methods.Peter and Ray sit drinking on campus, and Ray mopes about their bleak prospects, before Peter suggests this turn of events happened so that they could go into business for themselves, as the world's first firm for paranormal investigations and eliminations.Peter convinces Ray to take out a mortgage on his childhood home, and use it for startup capital. The trio checks out an empty firehouse to use as a headquarters, and while Egon enumerates the many problems with the building itself, Ray is beside himself with excitement at the prospect of living and working there, specially with the fire-fighter pall in the middle of the hall.At 55 Central Park West, classical musician Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver) arrives home with groceries. Her neighbor, übernerd and accountant Louis Tully (Rick Moranis), stops her in the hall, telling her that her television had been left on. Louis badgers her about an upcoming party he's hosting, and Dana finally brushes him away and enters her apartment. As she is putting away her groceries, she notices that her eggs are now leaping out of their shells and cooking themselves on her countertop. She then hears a growl coming from her refrigerator, opens it, and sees an otherworldly temple, and a doglike creature that growls the word "Zuul" (voiced by Ivan Reitman), before Dana frantically slams the door shut.Back at the newly christened Ghostbusters headquarters, Ray pulls up, shocking Peter with the new business car, an old beat-up ambulance that needs a lot of work. Peter goes back inside, makes small talk with their new secretary, Janine (Annie Potts), and waits around for business.Dana arrives seeking an explanation for the events in her kitchen. Peter flirts vigorously with her, while Egon and Ray examine her briefly, and speculate as to what may be the cause of her encounter. After deciding on a plan of action, Peter insists on going with Dana back to her apartment, where he haphazardly looks around, but mostly flirts with her. He looks in the kitchen, and sees the eggs on the counter, but nothing else out of the ordinary. Dana is annoyed, but Peter continues to beg her for a date, pledging to solve her problems in an effort to impress her.Later, the Ghostbusters sit around enjoying dinner, when Janine finally gets a call about a ghost. Peter, Ray, and Egon quickly dress, and race out of their headquarters, to the Sedgwick Hotel, where the manager (Michael Ensign) informs them of a ghost on the 12th floor. They've always had problems, he tells them, but lately it's gotten out of hand. The Ghostbusters assure him they'll take care of it, and head up to the 12th floor. Egon and Ray worry about their equipment, which Peter describes as an unlicensed nuclear accelerator, and decide that they'll ignore the danger for now. They make chitchat conversation with a guest (Murray Rubin) outside the elevator, and they tell him they are going to kill a cockroach, to which the guest answers, "That's gotta be some cockroach." He takes the next elevator.Almost immediately after the Ghostbusters exit the elevator, a maid startles them, and they nearly kill her with their proton packs. The three split up, and Ray eventually sees the ghost: a rotund, green blob, eating everything on a room service cart. Ray tries to hit it with his proton pack but misses, and it flies away, frightened. Ray calls Peter on his walkie-talkie, and Peter, who is now face-to-face with the ghost, is suddenly attacked by it. Ray runs to Peter, and finds him on his back, covered in green slime, but otherwise OK. Egon calls them and informs the other two that the ghost went into the hotel's ballroom.They calm the hotel manager, and then set to work on containing the little green ghost. While shooting their weapons all over the room, Egon suddenly warns the others not to cross their streams, because to do so would result in the destruction of "all life as you know it." After destroying much of the ballroom with their seriously unstable proton packs, the Ghostbusters finally trap the ghost, and burst triumphantly from the ballroom, before the anxious manager and a host of guests burst in. The Ghostbusters haggle with the manager over the bill for a moment, and then head back home, victorious.There is a montage of a series of missions, news spots, newspaper clippings, and stories about the Ghostbusters' new fame and success. There are even interviewed by Larry King and Joe Franklin (themselves).Peter briefly meets with Dana after her orchestra practice, and flirts a bit with her before telling her about Zuul, whom he has discovered is associated with an ancient Sumerian god of destruction, Gozer. He tells her that he'll go over it in more detail over dinner, and finally, she agrees to a date.The Ghostbusters soon hire a fourth man, Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson), a black, blue-collar type guy, who is just looking for a job. Hired immediately by Ray and Peter, Winston is handed a couple of traps and led off by Ray to learn about getting rid of the ghosts, while Peter is informed that there is a man from the EPA waiting for him.Walter Peck (William Atherton), the pompous EPA delegate, condescendingly talks to Peter, refusing to acknowledge that Peter is, in fact, a PhD, and therefore, Dr. Venkman, and briefly questions him about the possible environmental impact of their business, and specifically, their custom-built storage facility. He demands to see it, but Peter just patronizes him for a bit before throwing him out.Ray shows Winston how they unload the ghosts they've trapped into the storage facility, while Egon tells them that his latest research indicates that the city is experience a colossal increase in paranormal activity, comparing it to a 600-pound Twinkie. Peter joins them, mentioning the EPA, and memorably asks, "What about the Twinkie?"A brief shot on the top of Dana's building shows that dog-like gargoyle statues atop the roof are breaking apart and real animals are underneath the stone.Back inside, Dana arrives home, and is once again accosted by Louis who is raving about his party. He is disappointed when Dana tells him she has a date. She gets rid of him again, and goes into her apartment, undressing and talking on the phone. She sits in an armchair for a moment before noticing the same growling sounds from the kitchen. Before she can react, three arms burst from the chair and hold Dana down as she is dragged through her kitchen door to one of the Terror Dogs. Another shot on the roof shows that the gargoyles on the roof have completely broken apart, and whatever was in them is loose.Louis' party continues as he rambles on about the price efficiency of his hosting a party. Two guests show up, hand Louis their coats, and he throws them -unnoticing- on the terror dog sitting at his desk. It roars, and bursts through the door, apparently only after Louis. He runs out of the apartment, through Central Park, before being cornered and attacked outside Tavern on the Green.Meanwhile, Peter arrives at Dana's apartment, stepping over the carnage of Louis' party, and knocks on the door. Dana opens it, dressed in a slinky red dress, and asks, "Are you the Keymaster?" Peter says no, so she angrily slams the door in his face. He knocks again, and enters after answering her question "yes". Dana says that she is Zuul, and they must prepare for the coming of Gozer, The Destructor. Peter talks to her and resists the possessed Dana's aggressive advances, before requesting to speak with the real Dana. At first, Dana coyly replies "There is no Dana, there is only Zuul," trying to kiss him but Peter, still trying to get through to the real Dana Barrett, restrains her. The possessed Dana now becomes visibly annoyed at his persistence, as Peter once again inquires about the real Dana; she replies in an unearthly demonic voice "There is no Dana, only Zuul!" Peter sarcastically dismisses her and gives her to the count of three to talk to the real Dana. With each count, Dana presents further signs of her possession: at first demonically rolling her eyes, then panting like an animal, and finally roaring like a demonic beast and magically floating above her bed. She turns over in midair, to face down at Peter whom asks her to please come down. Dana roars fiercely at him, finally frightening him.Louis, looking disheveled and generally abused, runs out from Central Park rambling, and asks a hansom cab horse if he is the "Gatekeeper". The driver (Danny Stone) chases him off, so he runs away, screaming about a sign of Gozer's arrival.The NYPD arrives at the Ghostbusters headquarters, to drop off Louis, who's been captured and rejected by both the city jail and Bellevue's psych ward. Egon looks at him briefly, and takes him inside. Louis reveals his name is Vinz Clortho, Keymaster of Gozer. He goes on about the history of Gozer, how the god assumes various forms and would mean the destruction of the civilization he targets. During the exam, Peter calls, and tells Egon about the developments with Dana, who is now lies heavily sedated on the bed next to him. Egon tells Peter in return about Louis' psychic transformation, and insists Peter come back to headquarters.Winston and Ray are driving back to the office, Winston driving while Ray examines the "very odd" blueprints of Dana's apartment building. Winston asks Ray about his belief in God, and speculates that the reason they've been so busy lately is because the dead have been rising from the grave, as it was foretold in the Book of Revelations, as a precursor to judgment day, and the end of the world. Ray ponders this.Back at headquarters, Walter Peck has returned with a court order, a cop, and a Con Edison worker (Larry Dilg), intent on shutting down the storage facility. Egon tries to talk them out of it, and Peter arrives just in time to antagonize Peck some more, before the cop intervenes and the Con Ed guy shuts off the power grid. A warning buzzer sounds, and everyone clears the building, as the storage facility rumbles and begins to destroy the basement.A supernatural light show occurs, as all kinds of paranormal energy bursts through the building and shoots out of the roof. Across town, Dana, immediately wakes up from her sedation, and walks toward her living room window. Louis is excited, claiming this is the sign he was waiting for. Ray and Winston arrive, and Egon attacks Peck, getting everyone arrested.Ghosts run rampant through the city, but most of the energy seems to run directly to Dana's building. Dana growls at the energy, ripping out the wall of her apartment in a small explosion.Sitting in jail, Ray shows Egon and Peter the blueprints of Dana's apartment building, pointing out highly unorthodox methods and materials, especially near the roof. Egon tells them that the building, he's discovered, was designed by an insane architect/surgeon named Ivo Shandor. In the 20's, Shandor was evidently so disgusted by the First World War, that he decided he would try to bring about the end of the world with a secret society of Gozer worshippers. They performed rituals atop Dana's building, and the roof itself was meant to be the gateway to allow Gozer into our world. A guard arrives (Reginald VelJohnson), and tells the Ghostbusters that the mayor wants to meet them, to deal with the rash of ghosts and other unbelievable phenomenon happening throughout the city.Louis arrives at Dana's demolished apartment, and they share a passionate kiss before slowly making their way up to the roof via a mythical staircase behind the wall where Dana's fridge used to be as lightning flashes ominously.The four men and Peck are brought before the Mayor (David Margulies) both arguing their sides. Peck claims the Ghostbusters are con artists and use nerve gases to force people to hallucinate and have visions of ghosts. Winston steps up and defends the things he's seen as real. Ray reveals that the city is headed for a disaster of "biblical proportions", and Venkman finally appeals to the possibility that the mayor could be responsible for saving the lives of millions of registered voters. The Mayor throws Peck out of his office and offers whatever support he can to the Ghostbusters.People have gathered all around the apartment building, which has clearly become the center of the entire mess. They cheer as the Ghostbusters arrive, and Peter mugs for the crowd. The four men put on their proton packs and are prepared to enter, but a sudden earthquake seems to swallow them beneath the street. Eventually, they emerge unharmed to the continued cheers from the crowd. They band together and head inside.Once inside, they must climb the stairs to Dana's 22nd floor apartment. Dana and Louis lie on a large stone table. Dana seductively wakes up, followed by Louis. They stare in awe at the large Temple in front of them then walk toward the opposite stone pedestals where the Terror Dog statues once stood. The Ghostbusters arrive to find Dana's apartment burned out and more or less destroyed. They see the staircase in the kitchen and go up.Dana and Louis raise their arms to the sky and are suddenly struck by bolts of lightning, redirecting the lightning bolts toward the temple door, causing it to open and signaling the arrival of Gozer the Gozerian. With the temple doors finally open, Dana and Louis now absorb their full power as the Ghostbusters arrive just in time to see the lightning converge on the demonic couple in a huge blast, transforming them back into the monstrous Terror Dogs, who now turn and roar menacingly at the Ghostbusters before leaping towards the side of the Temple doors.Gozer appears in the form of an exotic female with a tall, dark flattop and blood red eyes (Slavitza Jovan). Egon points out that she's not really a woman, but rather, takes the shape of whatever it wants. Peter goads Ray into talking to her. Ray very formally requests that Gozer returns to her place of origin, but she responds by asking if he is a god. He says no, and Gozer responds by shooting lightning from her fingers and nearly hurling the Ghostbusters off the roof.They regroup and decide to attack Gozer, but she nimbly jumps clear of their streams and lands behind them. Another attack proves fruitless as she disappears rather than being caught in the streams. Believing they are victorious, the Ghostbusters begin to celebrate, but it is short-lived as Gozer's booming voice is heard above the city demanding that they "choose the form of the Destructor".Peter tells everyone to clear their minds, and think of nothing, so no form will be taken, but it is clearly too late. Ray admits he did his best, but something just popped in his mind, something he thought could never harm anyone. "It's the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man."A 10-story, white, puffy marshmallow man begins to walk the streets of the city, crushing everything underfoot. When he is close enough, the Ghostbusters open fire, setting Mr. Stay Puft ablaze, as he begins to climb the building, King Kong style.Running for cover, the Ghostbusters appear out of ideas, until Egon suggests that they cross the streams, in an effort to close the door, and destroy Gozer's portal. Realizing this will probably mean their doom, the Ghostbusters go ahead with the plan, and set off to finish the god.Crossing the streams does indeed result in a catastrophic explosion, destroying the temple and incinerating the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, raining molten marshmallow all over the street, including an onlooking Walter Peck.Back on the roof, the Ghostbusters have survived, and slowly emerge from the rubble, covered in marshmallow. Peter finds the roasted carcasses of the Terror Dogs, and believes Dana dead. Behind him, though, her fingers crack through the hardened ruins of the animal, and the Ghostbusters quickly break apart the rest, freeing her and Louis. They leave the roof, and Winston exclaims, "I love this town!"As the closing credits roll, the Ghostbusters return to the street to the roaring cheers of the crowd. Peter and Dana kiss in front of everyone, Louis is helped into an ambulance, and as they drive off, the green ghost from the hotel roars toward the camera as it fades to black. | comedy, fantasy, mystery, paranormal, cult, haunting, humor, action | tt0087332 |
Tucker and Dale vs Evil | The film begins with a news reporter and her camera man investigating a crime scene much further than what was already given, ala The Blair Witch Project. They walk in an abandoned mill, hoping to find more clues only for the news reporter to be suddenly struck on the head. The camera man gets frightened and runs off before being struck as well, dropping his camera and dying moments later. You then get a glimpse of a disfigured man smiling into the camera.Three days earlier, Allison (Katrina Bowden) and her friends, Chad (Jesse Moss), Jason (Brandon Jay McLaren), Chloe (Chelan Simmons), Naomi (Christie Laing), Chuck (Travis Nelson), Mitchell (Adam Beauchesne), Mike (Joseph Allan Sutherland), and Todd (Alex Arsenault), are out on a road trip, hoping to find a good time in the woods to party and smoke weed, before they rush in front of a truck belonging to Tucker (Alan Tudyk) and Dale (Tyler Labine). The two catch up with the college students, giving them dirty stares for cutting them off and speeding, which was misinterpreted by the students as a threat. Naomi says they forgot to bring the beer and the college students panic and stop at a store.At the store, Chad and Allison walk inside to see Tucker speaking with the store clerk and the two give each other a stare off, with Chad and Allison believing they are intimidating them, but in reality, the two hillbillies were intimidated by them. Allison browses the store and catches Dale on the other side of a shelf, who becomes frightened and turns around. Chloe then comes and confesses to Allison that the place is "creepy" and she agrees. After the two leaves and Chad purchases beer, Tucker and Dale, who are both munching away at pickled eggs, are putting their supplies in their truck. Dale, who has an inferiority complex, begins staring at the college girls, particularly Allison, and feels that girls like them cannot mix well with a guy like himself. Tucker tries to uplift his friends spirit and advises to go talk to the girls, telling him to just smile and laugh when he gets nervous. Taking the advice, Dale, while holding a bush-whacking scythe, approaches the girls and attempts to strike up a conversation, laughing nervously while doing so. This easily terrifies the girls, which makes Chad step in and scare off the nervous hillbilly.The college students continue on their road trip while Tucker and Dale drive to their newly-acquired vacation home, which the two were dreaming of getting, all the while Tucker continues giving advice to Dale, that "Life is short, you gotta go after what you want." He then drops beer upon his lap and Dale goes down to clean it up. Suddenly, a cop car is following them, which Tucker slightly panics and pulls over, with Dale struggling to get free, finally pulling himself up without his shirt on as the cop reaches their window. Tucker hands him his temporary license, as he lost his and a new one is being delivered via mail. The cop begins interrogating the two and asks where they are headed. Tucker states they are heading to their new vacation home in the woods. The cop warns them to stay away from that place as dangerous things happened there and tells them they have a busted tail light before leaving.The two finally reach their old cabin, which they call a "fixer-upper", seemingly impressed by the shoddy wooden house. The two go inside to see bones hanging from the ceiling, which Tucker assumes belonged to an archaeologist, and newspaper clippings on a wall, all of which connected to the Memorial Day Massacre, but ignored by the two friends as they caught eye of a coupon instead. The cabin is obviously falling apart, as when Tucker leans on a pillar, it creaks and a beam of wood with nails poking through the end of it, falls. Dale saves Tucker from being impaled through the head and the two agree to fix that as soon as possible. Meanwhile, the college students set up camp and are sitting around a campfire. Chuck asks if they all want to hear a scary story, which they all verbally reply "No." Chad then comes in and asks if they want to hear a real scary story, in which the others comply.He begins taking his inhaler (he has asthma) and starts with the Memorial Day Massacre, which occurred twenty years ago at the very woods they are camping on. Six college students were out partying on the woods until two psychotic hillbillies approach them menacingly. One of them holds a saw blade, which he scratches the back of his neck with, and flings it at one of the male students, which cuts through the middle of his head. The second comes in and approaches a girl, who backs away to a tree, and stabs her throat. A blonde girl goes running through the woods and falls down a hill. Crawling away and hiding behind a log, she is found by one of the killers and watches as the weapon comes down.The flashback ends with Chad saying there no bodies were found and only one lone survivor lived to tell the story. The whole group looks mortified and terrified until Mike comes in and says that there is a lake nearby and asks if they wanted to go skinny dipping. Relieved by the dramatic tension, they all agree. It gets dark and Tucker and Dale is shown fishing on a boat out on the lake. Dale and Tucker reach in their cooler to see that there is only one beer left, in which Dale gives to Tucker, who then advises him to "stand up for himself" after calling him hopeless. Allison prepares to go skinny dipping and hears a noise. Turning around, she sees that it is Chad scaring her with an axe. She is easily turned off by it but it approached by the drunk Chad, who begins to tell her to "drop the act" of pretending to be better than everybody. He then confesses that he's glad the two get to spend time together before trying to kiss her. Allison backs away, telling him he's drunk, which he says is a good thing as it lowers his "inhibition." He then tries kissing her again which makes Allison push him away again before leaving.The rest of the students take off their clothes and drop into the lake, which captures the attention of Tucker and Dale, who can easily see from a distance a topless Chloe. Dale is immediately put off at the thought of being near them while Tucker tries to row the boat closer to get a better look. Dale attempts to row the other way until Tucker catches glimpse of Allison taking off her clothes, save for her bra and panties, on top of a rock. Dale looks away and tells Tucker to row the boat and calls him a Peeping Tom. Allison begins climbing down the rock until Dale accidentally shouts Tucker's name, which prompts her to turn around and slip in fear, hitting her head as she falls down into the lake. Tucker and Dale briefly argue before they realize she isn't getting back up. The two row their boat to the spot where she fell and Dale dives in to save her. From a distance, Chloe sees Dale bringing up an unconscious Allison to their boat and screams out in terror. Tucker calls out to the college students, "We got your friend!" Taking this as a menacing threat, the students run away, which confuses the two hillbillies. Deciding to take the unconscious Allison back to their cabin, hoping that her friends will come by and pick her up in the morning, the two row away.Chad is shown again, drunk, back at the campsite, throwing his axe at a tree as target practice. The frightened students tell Chad that they saw the two hillbillies take Allison away. He picks up his axe and runs to the shore, but it is too late as the two hillbillies carry the girl off into the fog. Next morning, Allison wakes up with a bandage wrapping around her head, dazed and confused upon looking inside the cabin. She spots the bones and a mean-looking, one-eyed dog across the room. Dale then comes in, which terrifies the young girl, and panics the shy hillbilly, who only came in to give her pancakes. Assuming she didn't like them, he goes back to make something else. Meanwhile, the college students are discussing what they thought they saw when Allison was being carried away, with Chuck saying that it looked like "one of them was eating her face", an obvious misinterpretation of CPR. Naomi then suggests calling the police, which Chad disagrees with, seeing it as a chance to fight evil without any rules or regulations, remarking "it's us against them." Chuck volunteers to take his father's truck to find help, which Chad is put off by but says he can leave if he wants to. Chuck runs off much to Chloe's dismay.Jason spots the cabin around the corner and alerts his friends. They all fear approaching the cabin, save for Mitchell who claims that they may not be psycho killers. Chloe then suggests he should just walk up and knock on their door, which Mitchell snarks at but reveals he is also afraid. Back in the cabin, Dale returns with eggs and bacon and gives it to Allison. The two talk for awhile, in which Dale says the cabin is Tucker's new vacation home, introduces himself, and the mean, one-eyed dog, named Jangers, who is actually sweet and tender. He tells her she hit her head after she slipped into the lake and Tucker and Dale rescued her from drowning. He then says her friends ran off, which he takes it as an immediate reaction to a sudden crisis, and hopes they'll return to pick her up. Throughout their conversation, Dale shows his anxiety from talking to a high-class woman and attempts to clean the place up. Allison asks if there is anything fun to do in the meantime, which Dale suggests a board game, Trivi-Up.Back to the college students, Chad, Mitchell, Mike, and Todd play rock, paper, scissors to send of their own to the cabin to investigate. Mitchell loses. He fearfully approaches the cabin while Tucker prepares a chainsaw to cut through some wood. He looks up and spots Dale and Allison playing the board game and having fun, which he enviously claims "Damn Romeo." He begins cutting through the wood, not knowing a bee hive is hiding within, which he accidentally cuts through. The bees swarm Tucker, which prompts him to swing his chainsaw madly and run from them. Mitchell spots this and mistakes this as being attacked. He yells at his friends to run before running off into the woods himself, with Tucker following. The two run deep until they both turn to briefly look at each other before Mitchell runs straight into a large tree branch, which impales him through his gut. Tucker continues running away from the bees. A dying Mitchell spots a lone bee hovering near him and has a look of realization before dying.Meanwhile, Allison and Dale continue their game of Trivi-Up, where Dale reveals that he has a weird brain, in which he's extremely dumb but can remember everything he hears. Allison remarks that he isn't dumb and that makes him quite brilliant, telling him there is a difference between education and intellect. She tells Dale that she plans on getting a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology. She admits that it's a dumb dream but Dale professes that dreams aren't dumb and supports her. Tucker then comes in, swollen-faced and angry at Dale for not helping him. He goes to the cooler to wash his face with beer as Dale goes to take out the stingers. He tells Allison that he saw her friend out there, running away, which he assumed must be because he was allergic to bees. Allison tries to go out there and find them but Dale tells her to rest and that both Tucker and himself will find them.The college students find Mitchell's body hanging from the branch and see it as a warning from the hillbillies to stay out of their woods. This provokes Chad even further into insanity by breaking Chloe's phone and throwing his axe, which nearly hits Jason. They then hear Tucker and Dale approaching and hide behind a tree. They listen in on a conversation of Dale beating Allison at a game of Trivi-Up and mistakes it as him torturing their friend. Tucker then calls out "College kids!" which terrifies them. He repeatedly calls them out louder, until the two decide to leave them a message with Chad's axe in case they return. Dale engraves a message on to the log and leaves behind the axe. When the coast is clear, the college kids walk up to see the message: WE GOT UR FREIND.At the cabin, Tucker is chipping away wood via the wood chipper while Dale digs a hole for the outhouse. Allison, who re-fashioned Dale's clothes to fit her, approaches him and volunteers to help out, which Dale refuses, but is surprised to see the high-class college girl able to dig at an outhouse hole. She confesses she grew up on a farm and had to work there. The college students return, hiding behind some bushes and see Allison digging away at a hole while Dale watches in amazement. They quickly assume she is digging her own grave. Todd holds his spear, Chad readies his axe, and Mike prepares his pocket knife, and they split up into three groups, with Mike, Chloe, and Naomi going after Tucker, Todd going after Dale, and Chad and Jason remain where they are. Once they all get into position, Chad makes his call to charge, which catches Dale's attention and sees Chloe and Naomi from a distance. He calls out to them as Allison hears Todd charging at Dale with a makeshift spear. She calls out Dale's name, which makes him turn to see Todd before accidentally knocking Allison out with his shovel and slipping into the outhouse hole next to an unconscious Allison. Todd then trips on a branch, flings the spear next to Dale and falls onto it.As this is occurring, Mike sneaks behind Tucker, who is still casually throwing wood into the wood chipper and takes out his pocket knife. He flings forward, preparing to stab him, but timed it wrong when Tucker bent down to pick up another log and falling head first into the wood chipper. Tucker panics as blood spurts out and splatters all over Chloe. He grabs hold of the legs and tries to pull Mike out but to no avail. The machine shuts down and a frightened Tucker ignorantly asks "Are you okay?" before frustratingly kicking the machine.Dale, covered in Todd's blood, runs into the cabin with an unconscious Allison and panics at what he just saw. Tucker follows, covered in Mike's blood. The two panic and contemplate that the college students must be some sort of psychotic suicide pact and runs around the woods killing themselves. They hide all the sharp objects in hopes of avoiding anymore needless deaths. Dale suggests calling the cops but Tucker claims that it will only bring more trouble as it can label the two as killers, adding that only a moron would believe college kids are killing themselves in their property. Tucker then suggests hiding the bodies.The college kids regroup, with Chloe desperately trying to light a cigarette while covered in Mike's blood and Naomi asking why didn't they go for help before, all the while Chad is casually sharpening his axe. They all agree to go get help except for Chad, who wants to continue his survival game. He remarks that it is "us against them" and says that they must destroy evil in order to live and anyone who tries to run deserves to die, which disgusts Jason. Suddenly, they hear sirens from the distance. Chuck is inside the passenger seat of the cop car, the same one that pulled Tucker and Dale over, and brakes upon seeing Chloe approach them. Naomi, Chloe, and Jason hurry into the back with Chad cursing at them from afar and running off on his own.Tucker and Dale, in the meantime, try to get Mike's lower half out of the wood chipper, which makes Dale very queasy. The successfully take it out and drag it out only to see the cop car stop in front of them. The sheriff tells the kids to stay in the car while he goes and takes care of business. He then begins to interrogate the two hillbillies, with Tucker doing most of the talking. Without a proper excuse, Tucker merely comes out with the truth: that the college kids are psychos and are killing themselves all over their property. An afraid Dale begins to blabber out that Allison, who is inside their bedroom, unconscious in their cabin, can tell him, which frustrates Tucker and makes the sheriff that much more suspicious. The two lead him into the cabin which makes the college kids panic.Inside, the sheriff investigates Allison's conditions and says she's not braindead and will recover. He then tells the two that he warned them about the woods and told them to stay away. The sheriff confesses that the two could be taken in for involuntary manslaughter, if they are lucky, and as he is saying this, he leans on the weak wooden pillar, which Tucker and Dale both warn him about, but is too late as the beam comes flying down with the nailed board and impales the sheriff through the head. Still alive and managing to step outside, the sheriff lugs to his car as Tucker, Dale, and the college kids look on in fear, and attempts to call for help via radio before falling dead. Dale and Tucker argue over fixing that beam while Naomi, Chloe, and Jason panic from the back as they are locked inside. Chuck, from the passenger seat, spots the sheriff's gun and runs outside to shoot at the two hillbillies. Seeing that the gun isn't firing, Dale, in panic, suggests that the safety might still be on and Chuck stupidly turns the gun around for the safety and points the barrel towards his head, accidentally pulling the trigger as he turns off the safety. Goodbye Chuck.Tucker yells at the kids to be more careful as Chad comes in from behind, picks up the gun and starts shooting at them. Dale and Tucker run inside and lay on the ground in order to avoid the gunshots. Tucker blames Dale for the situation they're in and Dale responds by saying that they shouldn't have gone fishing, which he confesses to hate. This hurts Tucker's feelings. More shots are fired until they hear a dog bark outside. Tucker asks where Janger is which makes Dale panic, crawl towards the window, and see that Chad is holding the dog hostage, with the other three, now freed from the car, watching. Tucker then comes up with a plan to have Dale use the nail gun to create a distraction while Tucker himself goes outside and frees Janger. The two make their move as Dale shoots the nail gun close to the kids but not at them. Tucker runs around from behind and uses camouflage to reach Janger. As both Dale and Chad shoot at each other, Tucker successfully reaches Janger as Chad runs out of bullets and threatens Dale's dog. Tucker frees Janger but is caught by the ignorant college kids.Tucker runs into the woods in fear and is chased by the kids. He hides behind a log, much like the woman in the Memorial Day Massacre, and attempts to camouflage. It works until Chad spots him and knocks him out with a punch. Moments later, Tucker wakes up to see himself dangling upside down from a tree. He remarks to them "what the hell is wrong with you kids?" which provokes Chad, who tells Jason to hold him steady, and says that Tucker is pure evil before proceeding to chop off his finger for their fallen friends.Back in the cabin, Allison wakes up to see Dale wiping her head and covered in blood. She asks what happened and Dale cannot seem to tell her, crying in shock and anxiety. She comforts him and calms him down. Dale then asks if her friends are crazy before telling her that they have been killing themselves, then tried to kill Tucker and himself, before trying to kill his dog. She then remembers Todd running at them with a spear and begins to look confused. Dale says that her friends seem to enjoy killing and panics when the door starts banging. She tries to calm him down by saying her friends would never hurt anybody but then hears Chad scream "Die hillbilly!" from the outside. She goes out to check and sees the corpses of the sheriff and her friends and is repulsed. She looks down to see a bloodied cloth on the doorstep. Allison comes back in and Dale recognizes the cloth to belong to Tucker's shirt. They unwrap it to see two bloody fingers and a note. The note says: NOW WE GOT YOUR FRIEND. TRY AND GET HIM BACK.Dale musters up his courage and decides to go out and save Tucker. He grabs a machete and prepares to walk out. Allison tries to stop him saying they shouldn't instigate things and defends her friends by saying that they must be trying to protect her. Dale gets offended and asks why they would think such things. Allison confesses it is because he is a hillbilly, and both her and her friends misjudged him. Dale seems to accept this and depresses him. Before he departs, he asks Allison to tell her friends he is harmless and never wanted to hurt anybody.Dale goes out into the woods, calling out Tucker's name and holding his machete. He comes across puddles of blood and Tucker's hat and sees the corpse of Mitchell, still dangling from the branch. Shaken, Dale presses onward when he hears Tucker respond to his calls. He sees Tucker dangling upside down and approaches him. As he's walking, Tucker tells him it's a trap and Dale accidentally sets it off. Thankfully, he stood still and the makeshift spear only cut through his pants leg. He cuts down Tucker, who falls headfirst onto the ground and comments that their vacation sucks.Night comes, and Chad and Naomi sneak into the cabin, looking for Allison. They creep in and see her standing in the bedroom and whispers to her. When they are notified that nobody else is home, they calm down and speak normally. Chad asks her what they did to her, which she replies that she is perfectly fine and all this has been a huge misunderstanding. Chad ignores this and proceeds to burn the cabin down. Allison yells at him to stop and that it is their vacation home. Chad becomes enraged and tries to persuade Allison that Tucker and Dale are evil men and that he was trying to save her. She retorts by saying they saved her life. Naomi makes a comment that Allison developed Stockholm Syndrome, which angers Chad. He questions Allison on whether if she has truly fallen in love with Dale. He lunges at her with his axe until Tucker and Dale rush in to save her. They both prepare to lunge at each other with their weapons until Allison comes between them and sways them both to calm down, sit, and drink tea (which Tucker makes a sarcastic remark that he'll bring out the finger sandwiches).She sits Chad on one end of the table and Dale on the other and begins serving them tea. Chad asks her if it's Chamomile Tea and says that he cannot drink it if it is as it'll harm his asthma. She says it's Earl Grey. After serving tea, she begins the therapy session. She will allow both sides to tell their sides of the story and to consider their perspective. Chad complies and begins way back before he was born, twenty years ago, during the Memorial Day Massacre.His parents were among the partying college kids who were killed by the two hillbillies. His mother, revealed to be the blonde woman who ran away into the woods only to be caught by one of them, was the lone survivor of the massacre. She was brought back to camp, where she lied next to her lover, Chad's father, who didn't know she was pregnant with Chad, and reached for a knife in the toolbox next to her. With it, she tried freeing him. When one of the hillbillies tried grabbing her, she stabbed him in the leg and escaped. This caused the hillbillies to throw Chad's father into an incinerator and watched him burn to death. The woman eventually birthed Chad and had to be institutionalized afterwards. He heard the story from his grandmother.As the flashback ends and Chad explains why he holds deep hatred towards hillbillies, Dale defends himself and Tucker by saying they were much too young to be part of such an event and says that he's harmless, saying he can't even hurt a fish. Outside, Jason and Chloe sneak around to a window, claiming that if Chad and Naomi had not returned in fifteen minutes, the two of them would charge in. Allison asks how both of them feel after telling their stories, Dale admits he feels better. Suddenly, Jason barges in with a weed whacker and charges towards Tucker, who narrowly dodges the spinning blades. Jason accidentally strikes Naomi's face and begins mutilating her. Chad throws the table forward onto Dale and tries hacking him with an axe only to be punched by Tucker. Chad grabs a lit lamp and throws at the two, but misses and accidentally hits Jason's leg. He catches on fire and begins to panic, with Tucker and Dale advising him to stop, drop, and roll. Chloe grabs a jar and tries to douse the fire only to ignite Jason even further. He flings himself around madly and finally falls over, burning to death, and igniting the gasoline Chad was pouring moments earlier. Shocked, Chloe lights a cigarette next to piles of gasoline cans, which Dale admits that he should've moved those earlier. Tucker, Dale, and Allison make a run for it, followed by Chad but is held by Naomi, who is begging for his help. The cabin explodes as the three narrowly make it out, killing Jason, Chloe, Chad, and Naomi. Tucker and Dale stare shocked at their vacation home incinerating and Allison states that she is a terrible therapist, which Dale disagrees with. Just as things calmed down, Chad emerges, half of his body burned. The three run to the pickup truck and try to start the truck as Chad slowly limps to them, axe in hand. They finally get it started and drive away. As Dale mocks the college kids, he loses his focus and drives into a tree.Dale wakes up with Janger licking him and sees that Allison is missing and Tucker lying beside a tree, bleeding heavily. He approaches his friend and tries to help him. He tells Dale that Chad took Allison away and to go after her, much to Dale's dismay. He admits to him that he was always better at everything and he sees the way Allison and Dale look at each other. Proclaiming their friendship, Dale promises to return for Tucker and runs off with Janger, who can lead him to Allison.Come sun rise, Dale and Janger reach an abandoned lumber mill. He leaves behind Janger and presses on alone. Chad tied Allison up to a log next to a saw, ala a classical Western villain. He says that she turned hillbilly on him and if she begs and apologizes, he will let her go, and kisses her. Feeling that the kiss wasn't right, he decides to give her a second shot and licks her face. He hears banging from outside and smiles. Outside, Dale breaks open the tool shed and straps himself up with various weapons. He equips himself with a welder's mask and a chainsaw before charging in. Inside, Allison gets frightened by Dale's appearance and he reveals himself to her. Using a knife, he attempts to cut the ropes, while Chad starts the intercom and begins making threats to Dale and Allison. The machine starts and the log Allison is tied slowly begins to saw it vertically in half. Dale continues to struggle with the ropes until Chad appears and attacks Dale. He throws his axe at him but misses and the two fight each other, Chad with a metal pipe and Dale with his chainsaw. Chad gains the upper hand until Dale stabs him in the leg with a knife strapped to his boot and elbows him in the stomach, reaches forward, grabs the axe, and with a lucky throw, cuts Allison's ropes loose. With the girl away from danger, Chad and Dale continue their fight. Dale throws his chainsaw at him to keep him off-balance.Allison and Dale run upstairs and locks the door behind them. Dale looks around for something to stab Chad with while something catches Allison's eye. Allison calls out to Dale as he looks at a box of Chamomile Tea and shows him an old newspaper. The headline states that one of the killers of the Memorial Day Massacre was caught by some policemen, one of them happening to be the same sheriff back at the cabin. The killer bared strong resemblance with Chad. It is revealed through the article that the survivor was tortured and raped before being freed.Chad suddenly emerges with the chainsaw and threatens the two. Dale is knocked to the ground and just as when Chad prepared for the killing blow, Dale shows him the newspaper article and says that he too is hillbilly. Refusing to accept this, Allison remarks that he is indeed "half hillbilly." Just as Chad is occupied with the newspaper article, Dale attempts to grab hold of the box of Chamomile Tea. Chad grows angry and proclaims that "everything is a lie" and lunges forward. Dale grabs some of the tea powder and flings it at Chad. His asthma begins to act up and Dale reveals that he won't be harmed just as Chad steps backwards through a window and falls to the ground. Allison and Dale look down and sees Chad presumably dead.Night comes as a squadron of cops investigate the mill. The reporter and her cameraman that appeared in the beginning of the film report a mass suicide of college students and a deranged killer that is responsible for it remains at large. Tucker watches this as he recovers from a hospital. Dale comes in, clean and well-groomed, and sees how his friend is doing. Tucker reveals he got his fingers back, and high from prescription medication, realizes that one of his fingers look different. It appears as though they got Chloe's finger with a red painted nail and mistook it as Tucker's and sewed it onto him. Dale brings his friend cold beer with a bendy straw and reveals that he is going out bowling with Allison. Tucker congratulates his friend for overcoming his fear of women.At the bowling alley, Allison proves to be a fantastic bowler. One of Dale's friend, BJ, who seeks advice on how to get women such as Allison to like him, asks Dale for help, who gives him the same advice Tucker gave him a few days earlier. He directs BJ to go talk to one of the young woman playing with her friends not so far away. As he leaves, Allison and Dale are left by themselves. Dale gives Allison a gift: a pink helmet that suits her accident-prone nature, and the two confess love for each other before kissing. In the back, BJ accidentally knocks out one of the women and starts to carry her but the two continue kissing. | comedy, cult, violence, clever, flashback, absurd, satire, romantic, entertaining | tt1465522 |
New Nightmare | Just as the first Nightmare film opened with the creation of Freddy's infamous glove, New Nightmare opens with the creation of an updated, more sinister and sleeker looking glove. As the maker of the claws appears to chop off his own hand in preparation for attaching the claws to his own wrist, the other people on the set wince, and the director, Wes Craven, encourages the effects specialists to pump more blood. Soon he yells, "Cut! Print that Gretchen!" Heather Langenkamp, her husband, Chase, and their son, Dylan, are wandering around the set of the new Nightmare on Elm Street movie.Presently the claw, which was only a prop a minute ago, comes to life and starts maiming and killing the special effects crew. Dylan is now gone, and as the claw advances to attack Chase, Heather screams waking up in her own bed in her own house with Chase, during an earthquake in Los Angeles. After the earthquake dies down Chase has a couple of scratches, which are the very same as he had received in the dream. This causes Heather to wonder if they were sustained in the earthquake or during the dream. Heather reveals she has been receiving harassing phone calls from "someone who sounds an awful lot like Freddy", but they've stopped for the last couple weeks until now.Heather is a guest on a morning talk show the very same day, where they discuss the 10th anniversary of the "Nightmare" films. Also, as part of the talk show line-up, Robert Englund as himself tears through a screen dressed up as Freddy Krueger to surprise Heather, Heather is slightly disturbed by this. Producer Bob Shaye asks Heather to visit his office at New Line Cinema, and explains that Wes Craven is working on a script for the new and final "Nightmare" film. Heather is asked to reprise her role as main character "Nancy", but decides against it with her own recent nightmares, disturbing phone calls, and disgruntlement over her son's change in behavior. Bob explains that her husband Chase Porter is also working on the film and he is creating a scary new glove for Freddy, much to Heather's dismay.When she gets home, her son has an episode during which he warns her in a voice not of his own, "Never sleep again!" Worried, Heather asks Chase to come home, however Chase falls asleep at the wheel on the way and dies supposedly in a car crash. When Heather goes to identify the body, it seems to her that there may have been more than meets the eye to the "crash", as was made apparent by the claw-like marks on his chest. Dylan, now also grief stricken, continues acting even more strangely.She enlists Wes Craven's help for making sense of what's been happening. Craven explains that he does not know much more than she does. He dreams a scene or two each night and wakes up and writes them down. Craven goes on to tell her that in the script he's been writing, pure evil can be temporarily defeated if its essence is effectively captured in a work of art that is able to allow evil to express itself. Craven explains that the evil has taken the form of Freddy Krueger because it is a familiar one. "Freddy" sees her as the gatekeeper who holds Freddy at bay, since Heather's character Nancy defeated Freddy in the first movie who in turn eliminated Nancy in the third, but still couldn't be released. To Freddy it is Heather that gave the character of Nancy her fortitude. Freddy is attacking her at her weakest points, trying to break her down before confronting her, prompting her to leave just as confused as when she arrived.After a short sleep in Dylan's room, Heather wakes to discover Dylan is gone, she goes downstairs and finds Dylan in another episode. Heather finally takes Dylan to the hospital, there a doctor asks if Dylan said anything during his trance, Heather says "No" but the doctor later gets it out of her that Dylan has been doing Freddy-like actions and singing Freddy's theme. Later, Julie (Dylan's babysitter) shows up at the hospital and tells Heather she had a nightmare about him. Soon, two nurses want to sedate Dylan, but Julie had been instructed by Heather to not let Dylan fall asleep while she goes home to get Rex. Julie ends up punching a nurse and threatening another with a needle (cameo appearance by Wes Craven's daughter), and locks the door. Meanwhile, Heather tried to leave but had been stopped by security guards to be questioned by the doctor, the doctor suspects Heather is insane, and tries to get her to agree to foster care. Next, Dylan drifts to sleep, Freddy appears in the locked hospital room and brutally slays Julie.(ironically in the same fashion as Tina Gray in the first film) The nurses unlock the doors, and discover the murder in progress. They run, but Heather is concerned where Dylan went, the doctor realizes Heather is right. Heather soon remembers home, (previously she comforted Dylan by telling him their home is right across the freeway from the hospital). She discovers a giant Freddy dangling Dylan from above traffic. She arrives home and finds Dylan, but Freddy begins to manipulate the world around her, causing her to become Nancy and her house to become the house on Elm Street. By forcing Heather to accept the role he wants her to play, Freddy rises out from Dylan's bed and is fully in the real world. Heather runs inside and into Dylan's room only to find him gone, and the toy dinosaur Dylan believed was protecting him totally eviscerated by Freddy.Heather takes sleeping pills to join in on a lucid dream, final showdown with Freddy to save an already captured Dylan. It occurs in a hot, steamy and water-logged dreamscape ruin, apparently Freddy's home turf. Dylan finds Heather, only for them both to be attacked by Freddy, Heather is knocked out, Dylan is left in a state of defenselessness.Freddy lures Dylan into a trap and tries to attack him vigorously, Heather discovers the battle and fights off Freddy, but Freddy makes his tongue extend and wrap around her face. Dylan gets out of the trap to save Heather by taking a large kitchen knife that she brought in with her, stabbing Freddy's tongue and making it go back to its previous size. The two succeed in killing Freddy, by locking him in a lit furnace where upon catching on fire, (in a Hansel and Gretel-like ending) his true visage is shown amidst a fiery blast, all the while Dylan & Heather flee said inferno, escaping back to reality, where they find the script of the film Craven has been working on, waiting for them. Dylan asks his mother to read some of it to him, which she does: "We open on an old wooden bench. There's fire and tools, and a man's grimy hands building what's soon revealed as a gleaming set of claws. And the claws are moving now as if awakening from a long and unwanted sleep...." | fantasy, murder, cult, alternate reality, violence, intrigue, good versus evil, psychedelic, suspenseful | tt0111686 |
C'eravamo tanto amati | Gianni, Antonio and Nicola were resistant during the war, sharing everything like brothers. After the war, they returned to their lives. Antonio as a nurse in a Roman hospital where he fell madly in love with a girl named Luciana. He also milits for the Popular Front. Gianni entered as an assistant a law firm who's head, La Rosa, is running as a deputy candidate for the Socialist Party. Nicola returned to teachnig in a small town high school, married a woman named Gabriella and had a child, Tommasino. He is an intellectual idealist, active member of the communist party, as well as a passionate film buff.The story begins three years after the war, as Antonio is lunching with Luciana in a restaurant when Gianni happens to pass by. Antonio is thrilled and he starts talking about the days they resistant life. Luciana and Gianni don't really listen to him, as they fall in love in silence with each others. Antonio sees nothing.A following night, Gianni and Luciana visit Antonio to his hospital to speak the truth about their affair. Antonio takes the news very calmly even though Luciana is everything to him. Gianni says he is sorry but cannot contain his feelings for her. Luciana tells Antonio she loves him, but says that with Gianni, "it's different". Sad about the two friends splitting over her, she insists that they remain friends. They don't answer but seem to agree. Luciana and Gianni leave until Antonio suddenly runs after them and kicks Gianni. He says he is not surprised by his friend betrayal, "as you've exploited us for years already", refering to Gianni's political incline.Around the same period, Nicola is loosing his teaching job after a violent argument with his superior about the movie Lattri di Biciclette (Vittorio de Sica, 1948). Her wife is despesparate, and asks him to apologize to get back his job, which he won't. He leaves wife and kid, gets to Roma with a case of books to find Antonio.Gianni and Luciana live happily and start to have family projects. Gianni is up the ladder, working for the firm as an lawyer. He is asked to defend in court a real estate constructor who found two of his employees dead on a site for not respecting security measures. Gianni refuses the case and the client tells him the office refusal is due to the own problems of the firm's head, La Rosa, now deputy who is accused of many political and financial misconducts.
They are talking on the subject when Elide, the client's youngest daughter enters and falls in love instantly of Gianni. She leaves, and the client tries to bribe Gianni so he takes the case. Gianni doesn't accept nor refuses.Nicola tries to work in Rome as a film critic and attempts to start a magazine, "Cine Culture" but he fails everywhere.Years later, Antonio and Nicola are having lunch at their usual restaurant when Luciana enters. Antonio is not at ease. Nicola understands it is THE Luciana his friend was in love with but he insists into being introduced, which Antonio reluctantly does. They start talking and Luciana asks about Gianni, who she hasn't seen in a long time. The news fires Antonio's hopes.Later at night, the three of them are drunk and Nicola is playing a reconstitution on the stairs of Piazza di Espagna of the famous Stairs Scene from the Potemkine movie (Eisenstein, 1925), obviously trying to make Luciana laugh. Antonio is sitting alone, down the stairs, deep in his thoughts, smoking. He can't stand Nicola's game and argues with Luciana. She says she can do whatever she pleases, including becoming an actress. Antonio leaves, pissed, while Luciana hides in a photomaton and Nicola follows Antonio, trying to calm him down. He fails and returns to Luciana who has left the photomaton, leaving pictures of her where we see she has been crying warm tears.Years later, Gianni receives a letter from Nicola saying that Luciana has tried to commit suicide. He wonders why he, who has been away, receives such a letter, and why Nicola is sending it. He nevertheless goes to Luciana's.Luciana has tried a career on stage but has failed. She lives in a hotel room with other artists. Antonio is already there, nursing her. When Nicola comes back in, she asks him if he told Antonio about "them". Nicola slaps her. She tells that their two night story is over and apologizes to Antonio who starts a fight with Nicola, saying he took advantage of her.When Luciana is feeling better, they all leave the hotel, Luciana takes a bus and the two men go their separate ways in silence. Gianni is watching the scene from behind a news stand but cannot find the courage to confront his old friends.Years later, Gianni has married Elide, his client's daughter, he is now a rich and powerful lawyer with two children, Fabrizio and Donatella. They are partying for his client's 69th birthday. Elide tells Gianni how happy she is to be married with him and about that other life, she would have had, if he had married another woman.
This flashes back Gianni to Luciana, his forgotten love.Gianni and Elide are having a family diner when they see Nicola on TV in a quizz show about Italian cinema. Antonio also happens to see the show from his ward. Nicola answers all the questions right and wins a considerable amount of money and the right to come back the following week on the show. He immediately calls his wife, with who he is reconciled. She advises that he takes the money without risking it at the next show. He claims his target is not the money but that his book "Cinema as a school" be published, which an editor promised to do if he won the grand prize of the show.Comes the next show. Nicola plays double or nothing, risking to loose all he has won. He is asked a question about Vittorio de Sica which he answers but his answer is deemed wrong by the jury. He complains but is expelled from the show, loosing the money.Antonio is still working in the hospital. A night, he is in an ambulance blocked by the shooting of the famous scene of the Trevi Fountain from La Dolce Vita (Frederico Fellini, 1960). He sees the movie's main actor and playboy, Marcello Mastroiani talking to an actress: Luciana.The ex lovers sit for a talk. Antonio is worry to see she has developed an alcoholic habit. As in love as the first day, he invites her for diner the next evening when her impressario comes in and says she is busy that evening. Antonio starts a fight. She asks not to see him again.A decade later, Gianni is a cold blooded businessman. He quarrels with his step father over a real estate project. They come to blows and the father sees he is too old and weak to stop Gianni. He gives him power to decide over the business.Antonio is living with a girl named Valeria. The couple is strolling in a public garden when they meet Luciana.She asks about Gianni, but he has no news from him. A kid come to talk to them, it is Luciana's son, Luigi. Antonio and Luciana start to see more each others, she works as a usher and lives alone with her kid.Gianni has a wonderful house in the contryside, where he can avoid his wife as much as he wants until one day, desesprate to talk to him, she catches him as he goes to work. She confesses that in her despair, she has met another man. He believes she makes the whole story up to upset him. Tired of the game, willing to prove her love, she takes her car, starts the engine and rush to her death.Nicola and a friend are at a festival where Vittorio De Sica is being interviewed. He tells the anecdote proving that Nicola was right in his answer to the show. This saddens Nicola. His friend tell him to go talk to De Sica, the model of all his life, but Nicola refuses, saying he has no more to say to him. He wanted to change the world, but the world has changed him.Antonio is driving into Rome when he sees Gianni. He goes to him, they awkwardly talk, realizing they haven't seen each others in some 25 years. Gianni pretends to be broke. They agree on meeting with Nicola, who is now a stringer for a newspaper. Gianni knows he won't go to the meeting but when he returns to his palace, he realizes it is all empty, his wife is dead, his children are gone, remains only his step father who won't die. Gianni realizes he is doomed and he decides to go to the meeting with his old friends.The three meet in the usual restaurant and talk joyfully about the past. Gianni breaks the good mood when he says they are a generation of bastards who did nothing to fulfill the hopes they had for a better world when the war ended. They blame each others policital views and fight again, drunk in the streets. When they stop, Nicola breaks into tears for what seems to be an acceptation of his failure. Instead, he reveals that his son is getting married, and that he actually cries for joy.They all take a car and go to Antonio's wife, who is Luciana. When Nicola and Gianni see her, they realize they both still have feelings for her. Gianni is left talking alone with Luciana and tells her that he kept being in love with her through all the years. She says she didn't think of him one bit. Gianni leaves while Nicola realizes he has the driving license of Gianni in his pocket.Morning, Nicola, Antonio and Luciana go to Gianni's house to see that he lied when he said he was broke. They leave the license at the door and leave, arguing with each others for nothing, like they did all their lives. | romantic, flashback | tt0075793 |
Population 436 | Steve Kady (Jeremy Sisto), a US Census Bureau researcher is sent to the remote and seemingly idyllic village of Rockwell Falls, North Dakota, to interview residents concerning the population. On the way to Rockwell Falls he is distracted by a woman falling off a horse and his vehicle hits a pothole and bursts two tires. He is eventually picked up by Bobby Caine (Fred Durst), the Sheriff's Deputy, who drives him into Rockwell Falls and helps him find a place to stay.
During his stay, Kady notices a number of increasingly strange things about the town, people acting awkward, and strange. People make vague allusions to 'the fever', and several residents treat him as though he were not just a visitor, but has moved to Rockwell Falls permanently. His research reveals that the town's population has remained at exactly 436 for over 100 years. People who try to leave Rockwell Falls seem to meet with bizarre and deadly accidents, or just vanish, which the residents believe to be the work of God. Kady also begins to have eerie dreams about a truck, a cross and a doll.
Kady becomes romantically involved with Courtney Lovett (Charlotte Sullivan), a local woman and the daughter of his host, much to the chagrin of Caine, who is also in love with her. He also befriends Amanda, a young girl whose father was killed trying to escape from the town and who is being held at the clinic of Dr Greaver, the town doctor, on the pretext of treating her for schizophrenia. Courtney and Amanda both express a desire to leave the town, but are afraid of the consequences of trying.
After stumbling upon some books on Biblical numerology, Kady realizes that the townspeople attach a mystical importance to the number 436 and are willing to go to extreme lengths to keep the population at exactly that number, including executing surplus residents. Anyone who expresses a desire to leave is treated for the 'fever' by Dr. Greaver with electroshock therapy or, in extreme cases, frontal lobotomy. It gradually becomes apparent to Kady that the residents of Rockwell Falls have no intention of allowing him to leave.
After witnessing the execution of a seemingly willing woman at a town feast, Kady becomes hysterical, and is taken to the clinic to be treated for the 'fever'. He escapes from the clinic, and is sheltered by a sympathetic resident who reluctantly helps him plan his escape. After setting fire to the town garage as a diversion, Kady rescues Amanda from the clinic, but is forced to leave Courtney behind after discovering that she has been lobotomized by Dr. Greaver. As Kady and Amanda flee the town in a stolen tow-truck, a rainstorm is brewing and, after a lightning strike, the cross from his dream appears in the truck hanging from the mirror. It is followed by the doll from his dream appearing on the dashboard with the next lightning strike. While he is distracted by these, the truck veers into the path of an oncoming semi-trailer truck, killing them both.
The film ends with one of Kady's co-workers (Christian Potenza), who has come in search of him, being picked up by a police officer after his car hits the same pothole that Kady's did, blowing his tires, echoing the beginning of the film. | brainwashing, cult, murder | tt0462482 |
Passage to Marseille | Titles against pictures of tramp steamer. Music includes Marseillaise and Marche Lorraine.Titlepage: "This is the story of a Free French air squadron. It is also the story of France. For a nation exists, not alone in terms of maps and boundaries, but in the hearts of men. To millions of Frenchmen, France has never surrendered. And today, she lives, immortal and defiant, in the spirit of the Free French Air Force, as it carries her war to the skies over the Rhineland."Current events.Title: "Somewhere in Germany." Bomber planes are flying. German anti-aircraft defences fire at them. The bombers' insignia is the cross of Lorraine. Bombs away. Target hit. On the way home, one bomber makes a detour over the town where Paula Matrac (Michèle Morgan) listens for them with her small son (Peter Miles). Bomber gunner Jean Matrac (Humphrey Bogart) drops a message: "To my wife. Till we meet again."Title: "Somewhere in England." Background music Hearts of Oak. War correspondent Manning (John Loder) is escorted by an RAF officer Lt Hastings (Mark Stevens) to the Free French air base. It looks like an ordinary farm. He is introduced to the liaison officer between the RAF and the Free French, Captain Freycinet (Claude Rains).
The airmen are sent on a mission. Manning exclaims, "Good Heavens! What is this? Planes being pulled out of barns? A haystack for a control tower?" as the farm is converted to an airfield, fences removed, etc. One of the airmen is Matrac. Freycinet goes to him. Matrac asks for permission to divert as it is his son's birthday. Freycinet gives it. The planes take off. Freycinet tells Manning that the planes are going on a pathfinding mission to Berlin. 2,000 bombers will attack. Manning asks about Matrac. Freycinet: "I could tell you a story about him I've never told to anyone. Would you care to hear it?"Flashback level 1. Freycinet's account to Manning.At the outbreak of war Freycinet takes passage on the Ville de Nancy, under Captain Malo (Victor Francen), bound for Marseilles with a cargo of nickel ore. There are three cabin passengers, including a French army officer, Major Duval (Sydney Greenstreet). They discuss the position of France in the war. At Panama they receive news of the fall of the Maginot Line.Two days out of Colon they pick up a small boat containing five men "pretty far gone." They are Matrac, Renault (Philip Dorn), Marius (Peter Lorre), Petit (George Tobias), and Garou (Helmut Dantine). Matrac says that they have been without food for twenty days, without water for five.Duval believes that they are fugitives from Devil's Island, 1,500 miles away. Captain Malo questions them. They claim to be French workers from Venezuela trying to get back to France to fight. Duval is sceptical.Freycinet warns the five men that Duval believes them to be escaped convicts. He himself also believes that, but is sympathetic. They confess that they have indeed escaped from Cayenne, but insist they only want to fight for France. They start to tell their stories. Renault says that Petit was a farmer whose land was confiscated and his protests led to his being transported for life to French Guiana.Flashback level 2a. Renault's account of Petit's story to Freycinet.French Guiana. Petit is among the convicts building a road, known by the convicts as Route Zero, because it will never exist. "Already it has been under construction for more than half a century, and for that there is exactly 16 miles to show. And for those 16 miles, there is one dead convict for every yard." Garou is there. "Formerly a mechanic and a professional racer of motor cars, he has killed his sweetheart during a lovers quarrel. In certain circles it was considered crude of him to have accomplished this end with an axe." A convict (Anatol Frikin) goes berserk and runs. He is shot down in the swamp. Alligators come.End of flashback level 2a. Return to level 1.Marius tells his own story. He was a safecracker and pickpocket. Renault tells his own story. He was a deserter in WW1. Ashamed, he went to Morocco to join the Foreign Legion, but was arrested.Flashback level 2b. Renault's account of his own story to Freycinet.At the Caserne Infanterie Coloniale (Colonial Infantry Barracks) Renault meets Grandpere (Vladimir Sokoloff) who has served his sentence and is allowed freedom within the colony, but is not allowed to leave. He catches and sells butterflies, saving the proceeds towards an escape. Sensing that they are patriots, he recruits Renault, Marius, Petit, and Garou to join his escape plan. Marius says they should recruit Matrac, a greater patriot than any of them. He says, "Matrac knows the ocean. He escaped once in a canoe from Venezuela." Renault says, "In 1938, during the Munich crisis . . ."Flashback level 3. Renault's account of Matrac's story to the convicts.Matrac is covering the Munich conference for La Verité Francaise, a newspaper that he publishes. He phones his story to his Paris office, where Paula takes it down. The resulting headline reads "Infamy at Munich. I accuse Daladier!" The paper sells out, but a gang of thugs storms the office and wrecks the presses. Police look on and do nothing.Matrac and Paula retreat to the country (Arly). He proposes and they marry. A café singer (Corinna Mura) sings Some day I'll Meet You Again.Paula sees a newspaper report that Matrac is wanted for murder of a newsman. She tries to persuade him to flee the country. At first he wants to go to trial to confront his accusers, but finally agrees.As they try to escape, Matrac is arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to 15 years in Guiana.End of flashback level 3. Return to level 2b.The escape plotters want to recruit Matrac but he is in solitary. Voice over by Renault: "Here on St Joseph's Isle is a building like nothing else in the world. One can go mad in this place. Nothing to see except blank walls. Nothing to think about except escape." Guards taunt Matrac. He retaliates and is beaten with a club. Marius contacts him.Matrac is released from solitary. The night of the escape another convict, Bijou (Frederic Brunn), overhears their plans and wants to join them. Voiceover by Renault: "We waited in the semi-darkness. Nine oclock. Nine-thirty. Five minutes to ten." They douse the only light and escape from the barrack room. When guards enter, Bijou is lying dead.As the escapees make their way through the jungle, one says, "Wheres Bijou? I dont see him." Matrac replies "He changed his mind." They make their way down stream by raft. At the coast, there is room for only five in the boat. Grandpere volunteers to stay and insists that they make a patriotic vow. They set sail.End of flashback level 2b. Return to level 1.Freycinet agrees to help the men.Captain Malo summons the crew and reads them a wireless message he has just received. "June 23. France, under the leadership of Marshal Petain, has signed an armistice with Germany." That night Captain Malo tells Freycinet that he is secretly altering course for England.Freycinet talks to Matrac, who says he wants to get back to Paula.Voiceover by Freycinet: "Imperceptibly we swung northward." "On the morning of June 26 I was awakened by the profound silence which had settled on the ship." Duval and his followers had taken control of the ship in order to take it on to Marseilles, believing that their duty is to support the Vichy government.A fight breaks out. The patriots overcome the Vichy supporters, but before they can stop him, the wireless operator radios their position to France. Petit overpowers him.A German bomber attacks the ship and causes much damage, but eventually Matrac shoots it down.Music: Marche Lorraine. Marius dies of wounds received in the attack. The German airmen have survived, and climb onto their floating aircraft. Matrac shoots them. Capt. Malo: "What are you doing? You cannot assassinate helpless men!" Matrac: "Look around you, Captain, and see who are the assassins."End of flashback level 1. Return to current events.Freycinet tells Manning that Matrac drops letters to his wife in France. Manning asks what became of the other escaped convicts. Freycinet points out Garou in the hangar welding and Petit working a crane. Freycinet tells Manning that Renault is the pilot of Matrac's plane.Planes return one by one, except V for Victor, which has been hit and is limping home on two engines. Renault tells Matrac that they cannot divert to his home town, but must fly straight back to base.Paula and her son wait. It is his birthday tea. They think they hear a plane, but none appears.At the UK airbase they wait. They hear a plane. V for Victor lands. Matrac is dead. Freycinet removes the message to Paula from his jacket.Matrac is given a military funeral. Freycinet reads the message that Matrac had written for his son. It is a stirring call to patriotic duty.THE END | murder, flashback | tt0037166 |
Primeval | In Burundi, a British forensic anthropologist is examining the corpses in a mass grave, claiming they were all killed in an identical manner. When the woman digs her shovel into what she believes is another grave, an unseen creature attacks, and violently drags her into the river. The UN soldiers accompanying her fire into the water, but only her partially devoured corpse floats to the surface, before being devoured.
In a New York City newsroom, television journalist Tim Manfrey (Dominic Purcell) is assigned by his boss, Roger (Patrick Lyster), to travel to Burundi with Aviva Masters (Brooke Langton), a reporter who deals with animal stories and has become interested in Gustave, a gigantic, fierce crocodile known to have killed hundreds of people in Africa, over the years. With the killing of the anthropologist, Gustave is suddenly a story of interest to the world. Tim doesn't want to go, knowing that Burundi is a war zone, but he has little choice, since one of his stories turns out to have been based on falsified evidence. Tim and Aviva are accompanied to Burundi by Tim's cameraman and friend, Steven Johnson (Orlando Jones) and herpetologist Matt Collins (Gideon Emery), who is intent on capturing Gustave alive.
At the airport in Bujumbura they are met by a government official nicknamed Harry (Dumisani Mbebe), who tries to delay their departure by warning them of unrest in the bush, caused by a dangerous warlord who has nicknamed himself "Little Gustave." Tim manages to overrule Harry by faking a call to Roger, and the team departs the next day, accompanied by two soldiers. When the party reach the village where the last attack occurred, they meet their guide, a licensed hunter named Jacob (Jürgen Prochnow), and are blessed by the local shaman. The friendly villagers later, assemble a steel cage in order to capture the crocodile and take it to a nearby swamp. The first attempt to capture Gustave, by placing a goat as bait fails, but Matt manages to shoot a tracking dart on it.
In the next attempt, Jojo (Gabriel Malema), a teenage villager who helped set up the cage, uses himself as live bait to capture Gustave. The beast arrives, and tries to devour him, but disappears, as Tim, Matt, and Steven race to rescue him. Meanwhile, Avivia catches one of the soldier escorts stealing money from a tent. The soldier knocks her down, but Gustave arrives and kills him. Avivia escapes unharmed, and catches up with the others. The remaining guard relays over his radio that the Americans videotaped the shaman's execution. Just as the group realizes that the soldiers work for Little Gustave, the remaining guards, believing Jacob videotaped the evidence, wounds him; Jojo intervenes, and shoots them. While Jacob's wound is being treated, Gustave attacks the group. Jacob recalls the story of how his wife, Ona, was killed by Gustave, and that he swore revenge. Jacob produces a grenade, and detonates it as Gustave grabs him in his jaws, and devours him, but the explosion fails to kill the crocodile.
The next day, a helicopter arrives to airlift the survivors, but a truck arrives with two of Little Gustave's men, who fire a rocket at the helicopter. The group ducks, except for Matt, who runs after the helicopter to stop it from flying away. Matt is rammed by the truck and shot to death by the younger of the two militias, a teenager performing what is clearly his first execution. When the driver of the truck notices the rest of the group, Tim yells for them to split up. In the ensuing chase, both of Little Gustave's men are killed: when the truck crashes into the river, the teenager is thrown out and dies on impact, while the driver is shot by Aviva when he tries to strangle Tim to death.
Steven stumbles upon Gustave and struggles to escape. While Aviva stays with the injured Jojo, Tim goes to look for Steven, but finds only his camera. As they are waiting for help, Tim remarks to Aviva that he now understands the shaman's earlier words that "we make our own monsters." Matt had earlier told the group that crocodiles frequently feed on carrion, and there is no limit to how large they can grow, given enough sustenance; it is the bodies from the civil war, floating in the river, that have given Gustave a taste for human flesh, and allowed him to reach such a gargantuan size, as the years go by.
Harry arrives in a Range Rover, but Tim realizes that he is Little Gustave and wants the video evidence. Tim attempts to trick Harry by giving him the GPS tracker linked to the dart on Gustave, saying it will locate the computer with the video. Harry forces Tim and Aviva to lead them to the "computer." While Harry holds Aviva at gunpoint, Tim and one of Harry's men follow the tracking signal to Gustave's lair, where the crocodile is sleeping. Tim finds Steven's mutilated body, and a combat knife in the scattered human remains, and stabs the guard. At the same moment, Aviva splatters Harry with Matt's container of crocodile pheromones and runs. Gustave wakes up and ignores Tim and Aviva in favor of devouring Harry.
Tim, Jojo and Aviva climb into the Range Rover, but Gustave attacks through the rear window. Tim stabs the crocodile in the mouth with a machete. It then roars in defeat, as the others manage to escape. Tim, Aviva, Jojo and Wiley receive medical treatment and fly back home to America, watching leftover footage of Steven on his camera. The end credits state that the Burundian Civil War ended with a ceasefire in 2005, but Gustave is very much alive and still killing people in the rivers of Burundi. | violence, murder, atmospheric | tt0772193 |
Poltergeist II: The Other Side | One year after the events of Poltergeist, Cuesta Verde, the Freelings' neighborhood from the first film, is being evacuated and turned into an archaeological paranormal dig centered around the spot where the Freelings' home stood before it imploded. The excavation leads to the discovery of an underground cave by a ground crew. Its existence is revealed to psychic Tangina Barrons (Zelda Rubinstein), who tells a friend of hers, Taylor (Will Sampson), a Native American shaman. After investigating the cave for himself, Taylor realizes that Rev. Henry Kane (Julian Beck), a deceased, insane preacher, has located Carol Anne and goes to defend her.
The Freeling family—Steven (Craig T. Nelson), Diane (JoBeth Williams), Robbie (Oliver Robins), and Carol Anne (Heather O'Rourke)—has relocated to Phoenix, Arizona and now live in a house with Diane's mother, "Grandma Jess" (Geraldine Fitzgerald). Having lost his real estate license, Steven is reduced to selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door while filing repeated insurance claims to cover the missing home. Grandma Jess is highly clairvoyant, and says that Diane and Carol Anne are clairvoyant as well. Grandma Jess later dies from natural causes, but not before telling Diane one last time that she'll always "be there" if she needs her.
Taylor shows up as Kane begins his first assault on the home. Unable to get in through the television as the family has removed all television sets from the home, Kane's minions are forced to find another way in, this time through Carol Anne's toy telephone. The attack fails, and the family gets out of the house quickly. Taylor introduces himself and convinces them that running would be a waste of time since Kane would only find them again, and they return to the house, which Taylor has made safe for the time being.
Kane himself shows up at the home one day in human form and demands to be let in, but Steven stands up to him and refuses. Taylor congratulates him for resisting Kane, and then takes Steven to the desert and gives him the "Power of Smoke", a Native spirit that can repel Kane. Tangina shows up at the house and helps Diane to understand Kane's history and how he became the Beast that is now stalking the family. Reverend Henry Kane led his followers into the cave because he believed the end of the world was coming, then left them to die after the date he predicted came and went. Because he was so evil, Kane became a monster after death. Taylor warns the family that Kane is extremely clever and will try to tear them apart.
One night, Steven lets his guard down and gets drunk, swallowing a Mezcal worm that is possessed by Kane, who then temporarily possesses him. He attacks and tries to rape Diane, who cries out that she loves him. Steven then vomits up the worm possessed by Kane, which grows into a huge, tentacled monstrosity. In this form, Kane attacks Steven from the ceiling, but Steven uses the smoke spirit to send him away. The Beast then decides on another assault, and this time, the family decides to confront the Beast on his own turf, the Other Side.
The Freelings return to Cuesta Verde and enter the cavern below their former home, where Kane pulls Diane and Carol Anne over into the Other Side. Steven and Robbie jump in after them through a fire started by Taylor. On the Other Side, Steven, Diane, Robbie, and Carol Anne unite, but Kane (now a horrifying, gigantic monster) grabs Carol Anne. Taylor gets a charmed Native lance into Steven's hands, and Steven stabs Kane with it, defeating the monster and causing him to fall into the afterlife. Carol Anne nearly crosses over into the afterlife as well, but Grandma Jess' spirit appears and returns her to the family. The Freelings then return safely and thank Taylor and Tangina. | paranormal, cult, haunting, flashback | tt0091778 |
American Horror Story | Created by Ryan Murphy, of Glee and Popular, American Horror Story is an FX original series. Described as an anthology series, AHS chronicles fictionalized haunted locations, the living and the dead who interact within them. Each season has its own self-contained storyline and characters and it has been posed that each season will introduce a new location as well as new characters and storylines. Premiering in October 2011, the first season focused its sights on a struggling family of three who move into a new house in LA. Each of them soon learn the house's demonic secrets as well as the violent and selfish spirits within its walls. American Horror Story: Asylum begins in 1964 at the fictional mental institution, Briarcliff Manor, following the stories of the staff and inmates who occupy it, and intercuts with events in the past and present.Returning cast members from the previous season of the series include: Sarah Paulson, Frances Conroy, Jessica Lange, Dylan McDermott, Evan Peters, Zachary Quinto and Lily Rabe.The season garnered seventeen Primetime Emmy Award nominations, more than any other show. The performances of Jessica Lange, James Cromwell, Zachary Quinto, Sarah Paulson, and Lily Rabe were particularly praised. Cromwell won the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie, as well as Quinto and Paulson winning their respective supporting categories at the 3rd Critics' Choice Television Awards.The third season primarily follows the antics and events of a Coven of Salem descendants who reside within a boarding school, Miss Robichaux's Academy, centered in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Academy is run by headmistress Cordelia Foxx (Sarah Paulson), who has always lived in the shadow of her mother, Fiona Goode (Jessica Lange). Fiona is the Coven's "Supreme", a witch born every generation who embodies countless gifts and magical abilities, namely, the Seven Wonders of Witchcraft; the Supreme is the head of the Coven. Danger lurks inside the Academy's past due to the mysterious butler Spalding (Denis O'Hare) and his relationship with Fiona. The entire Coven is assessed and evaluated by the Council of Witchcraft, which includes Fiona's old rival and Cordelia's mother figure, Myrtle Snow (Frances Conroy).The season is set in Jupiter, Florida in 1952,[7] centered around one of the few remaining freak shows at the time, as its members do anything to keep the business alive.[8] The season focuses on the conflict between the freaks and the "evil forces" who do not understand them.[9] | paranormal, magical realism, murder | tt1844624 |
The Good Thief | The film is about an aging thief, gambler, and drug user Bob (Nick Nolte) who is down on his luck. He has a chance to change his luck by robbing a casino in the French Riviera. However, what Bob doesn't know is that someone has tipped the police of the heist. The policeman, Roger (Tcheky Karyo) who has a friendship with Bob, begins to watch him knowing that he will eventually have to arrest Bob for this crime. To get ready for the heist, Bob quits taking drugs cold turkey. Bob gets Roger to drive him to an addiction meeting and tries to get Roger to admit that he is an addict too. Bob goes into the meeting and goes out the back door. Bob's part in the heist is to gamble at the casino and keep the police focused on him while the team does the job. With Anne (Nutsa Kukhianidze) and great style, Bob wins big. Douglas Young (the-movie-guy) | murder, storytelling | tt0281820 |
Dead of Night | In Vietnam, US soldier Andy Brooks is shot by a sniper and falls to the ground. As he begins to die, he hears his mother's voice calling out, "Andy, you'll come back, you've got to, you promised." The voice becomes sinister and muffled as Andy's eyes close. Sometime later, his family receives notice of his death in combat.Back home, Andy's father, Charles, and sister, Cathy, begin to grieve, but his mother, Christine, becomes irate and refuses to believe that Andy has died. Hours later, in the middle of the night, Andy arrives at the front door in full uniform and apparently unharmed; the family accepts the notice of his death as a clerical error and welcomes him back with joy.Over the next few days, Andy displays strange and erratic behavior, dressing in an unusually concealing matter and spending his days sitting around the house listless and anemic. Meanwhile, local police investigate the murder of a local trucker, who was found with his throat slashed and his body drained of blood after telling diner patrons that he'd picked up a hitchhiking soldier.Charles attempts to confront Christine about Andy's erratic behavior, which only leads to tension between the couple as Christine insists that Charles was too withholding and authoritarian a father and Charles telling Christine that she's made Andy too sensitive by smothering him. Andy continues to display unusual behavior, attacking a neighborhood boy who attempts to demonstrate his karate skills and then attacking the family dog when it tries to protect the child. At night, Andy becomes inexplicably lively and animated, wandering the town and spending time in the local cemetery. It ultimately becomes apparent that Andy has returned as some kind of vampire, and has been draining people's blood in order to reinvigorate himself, injecting it into his own decaying body with syringes.On a double date at the drive-in with his high school sweetheart Joanne along with his sister and best friend, Andy begins to die from a lack of blood and attacks first Joanne, then his friend. They are both killed during the attack. The other drive-in patrons witness the last attack and panic. This causes Andy to flee before he can infuse himself with his friend's blood. The police pursue Andy, the chase ultimately ending at the graveyard where Andy has been spending his free time. There they discover Andy, finally dead and reduced to a skeleton, lying in a shallow grave that he has been progressively digging for himself beneath a crudely fashioned tombstone. Christine, looking at her son's body, gravely tells the police "Some boys never come home." | cult, grindhouse film, murder | tt0068457 |
Monsters, Inc. | The city of Monstropolis in the monster world is powered by energy from the screams of human children. At the Monsters, Inc. factory, skilled monsters employed as "scarers" venture into the human world to scare children and harvest their screams, through doors that activate portals to the children's bedroom closets. It is considered dangerous work, as human children are believed to be "toxic". Energy production is falling because children are becoming less easily scared, and company chairman Henry J. Waternoose is determined to find a solution. James P. "Sulley" Sullivan is the organization's top scarer, but his chief rival, chameleon-like monster Randall Boggs, is close behind.
One day, Sulley discovers that Randall has left a door activated on the scare floor, and a small girl has entered the factory. After several desperate failed attempts to put her back, Sulley conceals her and takes her out of the factory. He interrupts his best friend Mike Wazowski's date with his girlfriend Celia, and chaos erupts when the child is discovered. Sulley and Mike manage to escape with the child before the Child Detection Agency (CDA) quarantines the restaurant, and back at their home, discover that she is not actually toxic after all. Sulley grows attached to her and calls her "Boo", while Mike is just anxious to be rid of her.
When they smuggle her back into the factory disguised as a baby monster in an attempt to send her home, Randall discovers her and tries to kidnap her, but mistakenly kidnaps Mike instead. He straps Mike to a large machine called "The Scream Extractor", which he intends to use to revolutionize the scaring industry and solve the monster world's energy problems by forcefully extracting screams from kidnapped human children, though not without harming them in the process. Before Randall can use the machine on Mike, Sulley intervenes and reports Randall to Waternoose. Waternoose, secretly in league with Randall, instead exiles Mike and Sulley to the human world in the Himalayas. The two are taken in by a Yeti, who suggests they travel to a nearby village to return to the monster world. Sulley prepares to leave, but Mike angrily refuses to go with him. Meanwhile, Randall is preparing to use the Scream Extractor on Boo, but Sulley arrives and saves her. Randall and Sulley fight, and after Mike returns and the two reconcile, they overpower Randall, take Boo and flee.
Randall pursues them to the giant door vault, and a wild chase ensues among the millions of doors as they move in and out of the storage vault on rails to the factory floor. Boo's laughter causes all the doors to activate, allowing the chase to pass in and out of the human world. Randall attempts to kill Sulley, but Boo overcomes her fear and attacks him. Sulley and Mike trap Randall in the human world, where two residents at a trailer park beat him with a shovel, mistaking him for an alligator. Sulley and Mike then trick Waternoose into revealing his plot with Randall, while Mike secretly records the entire conversation. The CDA then arrests Waternoose, and Sulley and Mike say goodbye to Boo and return her home before her door is shredded to prevent any more contact with her.
With the factory temporarily shut down, Sulley is named the new CEO of Monsters, Inc. Under his leadership, the energy crisis is solved by harvesting children's laughter instead of screams, as laughter has been found to be much more potent. Mike takes Sulley aside, revealing he has rebuilt Boo's door, and only needs one final piece, which Sulley took as a memento. Sulley enters and joyfully reunites with Boo. | comedy, fantasy, cute, cult, clever, humor, satire, entertaining, sentimental | tt0198781 |
The Purge: Election Year | In 2022, a masked purger taunts a young woman (Christy Coco) and her entire family. He then tells them they are going to play one final Purge game, called "Mommy's Choice." When she refuses, the man moves slowly towards the family as they struggle.
In 2040, two days before the Purge, riots break out all over Washington, D.C., claiming that the totalitarian New Founding Fathers are using the Purge to help their economic agenda. The events make a great effect on the upcoming Presidential election. Charlie Roan (Elizabeth Mitchell), a Senator, is gaining ground over the NFFA's candidate, Minister Edwidge Owens (Kyle Secor). It is revealed that she is the young woman from the beginning, and that she alone was spared by the masked purger. The NFFA, headed by Caleb Warrens (Raymond J. Barry), view Roan as a threat to their rule and plan to use the upcoming Purge to eliminate her from play. Meanwhile, Roan and Owens attend a debate and, while Owens states how America's crime rates are lowering, Roan gets a standing ovation after she declares the Purge only serves to eliminate the poor and benefit the rich and powerful, after which she then breaks security protocol, by stepping into the audience. At a convenience store, owner and proprietor Joe Dixon (Mykelti Williamson), his assistant Marcos (Joseph Julian Soria), and their friend EMT Laney Rucker (Betty Gabriel), watch the coverage on television.
On March 20, the day before the Purge, the NFFA revokes the Purge rule that protects government officials with a 10 ranking, appearing to attempt to regain public favor, but the move is actually a front for an attempt to kill Roan. That same day, Joe and Laney confront a teenage shoplifter named Kimmy (Brittany Mirabile) and her friend (Juani Feliz), who relent because Laney used to be queen badass of the neighborhood. Later, an enraged Joe discovers that his Purge insurance premium has been raised beyond his affordability, prompting him to stake out and guard his store. Roan decides to wait out the Purge from her unsecured home in order to secure the popular vote of the common people. Her head of security, former police sergeant Leo Barnes (Frank Grillo), initially disagrees with the idea, but accepts her reasons. He then revamps security and has Roan's house re-secured with new barricades and surrounded by secret service agents and SWAT snipers standing watch outside, with his partners Chief Couper (Ethan Phillips) and Eric Busmalis (Adam Cantor) as well as three more secret service agents partly supervising the event from indoors. Meanwhile, a group of South African tourists at Dulles Airport are interviewed by a news anchor wherein their response is to join the Purge. News of airports across America flooding with more tourists traveling to the United States to witness or join the Purge make the press dub them as "Murder Tourists."
After Purge Night commences, Joe and Marcos repel an attack by the teenage shoplifters, injuring Kimmy. Laney and her partner Dawn (Liza Colón-Zayas) patrol the city in a heavily modified ambulance, rendering medical care to the wounded. Roan and Barnes are betrayed by Couper and Busmalis, who signal a Neo-Nazi paramilitary force led by Earl Danzinger (Terry Serpico) and secretly let them into the household, having killed all the secret service agents and SWAT snipers. As the troops assassinate the three remaining secret service agents, Barnes manages to get Roan to safety, but is wounded in the process. He detonates a bomb in the house, killing Couper, Busmalis, and a few troops. Navigating through the hostile streets of Washington D.C. to seek safer shelter, Roan and Barnes are ambushed and taken captive by a group of Russian Murder Tourists. While the group taunts them, Marcos spots the commotion, prompting him and Joe to leave the store's roof and rescue the duo. They shoot the group dead, and take Barnes and Roan to Joe's store. Roan converses with the two while Marcos tries to tend to Barnes' wound. As Barnes and Joe get into a light argument, Marcos then witnesses the teenage shoplifters returning in two groups, causing Joe to call Laney and Dawn for backup, who cannot respond immediately as they are treating a teenage boy named Rondo (Jared Kemp). As Barnes, Roan, Joe, and Marcos prepare to defend themselves, Laney and Dawn arrive and run over Kimmy and her friend with their ambulance. Laney then guns down the other shoplifters before finishing off a heavily wounded Kimmy with a point-blank headshot. The group then leave the store for a safer hideout.
With all seven safe in the ambulance, the group is ambushed by a helicopter piloted by Danzinger, who ends up killing Rondo. The surviving six then seek refuge underneath a highway overpass wherein Barnes deduces they were found because the bullet in his chest is a tracker. After he extracts the bullet, the group is confronted by members of the Crips, but when Joe gives the gang's trademark whistle call "(revealing that he was once their member)," the Crips calm down. Their leader asks the group to tend to his heavily injured "boy," to which the group agrees. In return for the group's actions, the Crips plant the bullet in another area to trick the paramilitary forces after telling the former to leave. When two of Danzinger's ground team members find the bullet, the Crips emerge from hiding and eliminate them.
Barnes, Roan, Joe, Laney, Dawn, and Marcos are led to a hideout beneath a hospital protected by anti-Purge rebels led by Dwayne Bishop (Edwin Hodge) where volunteer doctors and nurses administer to wounded Purge victims while other professionals supply food, water, and medicines. Joe, Marcos, and Laney decide to go back to the store, but are forced to turn back after spotting several NFFA death squad trucks heading to the hideout, prompting Laney to report to Dawn. Meanwhile, Roan discovers the rebels are planning to assassinate Owens and tries to dissuade them, as she wants to win the election fairly. They are forced to flee as Dawn alerts the entire hideout of death squad forces arriving. Barnes and Roan survive the hostile alleyways, and they meet up again with the ambulance. However, before the group can escape the city, the ambulance is rammed by Danzinger, and Roan is captured.
The senator is delivered alongside a drug addict named Lawrence by Danzinger to an NFFA-captured Catholic cathedral where Owens presides over a midnight Purge mass, while Barnes and the others give chase. The group meets up with Bishop and his team wherein they formulate a plan to rescue Roan by infiltrating the cathedral through a tunnel system. Meanwhile, at the cathedral, Owens has his friend Harmon James (Christopher James Baker), another NFFA loyalist, stab Lawrence as a cleansing ritual for his longtime vice. As he invites the high-ranking members of the NFFA to the altar to sacrifice Roan with Warrens to lead them in the purging, the group and Bishop's team both reach the cathedral wherein Barnes and his team stealthily eliminate the NFFA Secret Service Agents and take position in the choir loft.
As Warrens begins to slit Roan's throat, Marcos assassinates him from the choir loft, instigating a chaos that signals Bishop's team to invade the cathedral. As the entire congregation begins to disperse and flee in panic, the group fires into the fleeing crowd, killing a vast number of them and leaving only a few, including Owens and James, to escape. A second horde of NFFA secret service agents attempts to eliminate the group but are gunned down by Bishop's team. After the rebels untie Roan, the group heads to the cathedral's crypt to find Owens. Bishop captures Owens and contemplates killing him, to the protests of Roan and Barnes, while Owens goads him on to kill him. Bishop refrains, realizing that killing Owens would be taking part in the Purge and would make him no better. As Barnes knocks Owens unconscious with Joe watching, the group also discovers a large number of bound and gagged Purge mass sacrifice victims that Owens had stashed in the crypt.
Bishop and his men decide to secure transport to leave the cathedral while Barnes, Roan, Joe, Laney, and Marcos attempt to untie the captives. However, they are soon ambushed by Danzinger and his mercenaries, leaving the rebel team killed and Bishop wounded. Barnes rushes out to help him, leaving Roan in the care of Laney and company. Bishop manages to dispatch the remaining mercenaries, but is fatally gunned down by Danzinger. Seeing this, Barnes engages Danzinger in a vicious melee combat wherein the former gains the upper hand, killing the latter. As Roan frees some of the last of Owens' imprisoned victims, James emerges from hiding and fires at the group, killing one of the newly freed victims. After incapacitating Laney and wounding Marcos, he targets Roan, but Joe steps in and engages in a furious crossfire with James, finally killing him with a headshot. Before succumbing to his injuries, Joe urges Roan to win the election and tells Marcos and Laney to take care of his store.
On May 26, two months after the Purge, Roan defeats Owens in the presidency by a landslide while Barnes is promoted to head of Secret Service while continuing his service as her chief of security. Marcos and Laney renovate the store and continue to run it in Joe's honor while they watch the news of Roan's victory, and another report indicating that outlawing the Purge has become Roan's top priority. Further reports state that many NFFA supporters have reacted to the election results with violent protests in the streets as Marcos looks at an American flag hanging outside the store. | comedy, suspenseful, murder, violence, flashback, insanity, brainwashing, revenge, sadist | tt4094724 |
The Paperboy | Anita (Macy Gray), the chain smoking black maid of the Jansen family, recounts to an unseen reporter the events of the summer of 1969, when idealistic reporter Ward Jansen (Matthew McConaughey) came back to his fictional hometown of Lately in Moat County, Florida, to investigate the events surrounding a murder in an effort to exonerate a man on death row, Hillary Van Wetter (John Cusack). In 1965, swamp-dwelling alligator hunter and small-time criminal Van Wetter has been jailed for the murder of a violent and unscrupulous local sheriff, Thurmond Call. Four years later, Charlotte Bless (Nicole Kidman), a woman from Mobile, Alabama whom Van Wetter has never met but who has fallen in love with him after exchanging correspondence, is now determined to prove his innocence and have him released so they can marry.
Charlotte requested the help of Ward and his colleague, Englishman Yardley Acheman (David Oyelowo), who are both investigative reporters from The Miami Times. Ward's younger brother, Jack Jansen (Zac Efron), is hired as their driver. Ward has mixed feelings about returning home to his estranged father, who runs a local newspaper and distributes The Miami Times in their town. Both Jansen brothers dislike their father's latest girlfriend, Ellen. Jack now works as a paperboy for his father's business after having been expelled from college for vandalism, ending his prospective career as a professional swimmer. His only real friend is Anita, who brought him and Ward up after their mother left them.
The evidence against Van Wetter is inconsistent and Ward and Yardley are confident they can expose Van Wetter as a victim of redneck justice. Meanwhile, Jack has fallen in love with Charlotte, who only desires Van Wetter. During a day at the beach, Jack gets stung by a jellyfish and has a life-threatening allergic reaction. Charlotte saves his life by urinating on him, an embarrassing circumstance that his father promptly exploits for an article on his newspaper. Anita realizes that Jack can never stop thinking of Charlotte as she is his first true love.
Van Wetter is hostile to the reporters at first, and contrary to the romantic portrayal he had painted of himself in his letters to Charlotte, he reveals himself to be a sexist and rude man with anger issues. One day, after finally acquiring some useful information from Van Wetter, the Jansens travel to meet Van Wetter's uncle Tyree. The man is the only one who can corroborate Van Wetter's alibi, since, according to Van Wetter, the two men were stealing sod from a golf course in Ormond Beach the night of the murder. Tyree, who lives in pitiful conditions in the middle of the swamp with his "white trash" family, is initially ill-disposed and wary of admitting his own crime to save his nephew's life, but finally caves in. In the meantime, Yardley and Charlotte have visited the golf course to verify that side of the story; Yardley comes back claiming to have tracked the developer who bought the sod stolen by Hillary and Tyree, but the man only agreed to talk upon the promise to remain anonymous, so Yardley refuses to disclose his name even to Ward. Satisfied with his findings, Yardley goes back to Miami to start writing the article.
Suspicious of Yardley's motives, Ward decides to go check the truth in Ormond Beach himself, with Jack and Charlotte in tow. During the trip, Ward gets drunk, approaches two black men in a bar, and take them to his motel room. During the night, Charlotte wakes up Jack after hearing alarming sound from Ward's room, and the two finds Ward tied up, after being raped and tortured by the two men. As Ward is taken to the hospital, Jack does not resent him for secretly being a homosexual or for being into violent, self-destructive practices, but just for keeping from him this side of his adult life.
While Ward's still in the hospital, Jack goes to Miami to try and convince Yardley not to publish the article in his brother's name without checking all the facts first. During the confrontation, Yardley reveals he's actually an American pretending to be English to escape discrimination. He also reveals he had given Ward sexual favors in the past, which was the beginning of Ward's guilty, self-hating infatuation with black men.
After the article is published, Van Wetter obtains a pardon and is released from prison. He takes Charlotte away to the swamp to live with him. Months later, she is unhappy with the demeaning lifestyle she has to endure, and sends a letter to Jack telling him she now realizes she made a mistake and plans to reunite with him at his father and Ellen's wedding reception. However, Jack only finds out about the letter one month later, at the very day of the wedding, when Anita, who's been fired from the Jansen household, gives the letter to him, revealing Ellen decided to hide it from Jack.
Since Charlotte is not there, a worried Jack leaves the party to go find her, followed by Ward, who has lost an eye due to the incident at Ormond Beach and is now an alcoholic after Yardley left for New York with a deal to write a book on the Van Wetter case. When Jack and Ward confront Van Wetter, Charlotte has already been killed after Van Watter refused to let her leave to attend the wedding. A fight ensues, and Van Wetter kills Ward as well, by slashing his throat with a machete (the same weapon the sheriff was murdered with), but Jack manages to evade Van Wetter by diving into the swamp; the next morning, he retrieves Ward and Charlotte's bodies and leaves on the boat in which they came.
Anita finishes narrating by revealing Van Wetter was later convicted for the murders of Ward and Charlotte and sent to the electric chair, yet the identity of the sheriff's murderer was never ascertained. Jack would later meet his mother at Ward's funeral, but he would never get over Charlotte. | romantic, dark, murder | tt1496422 |
Blindness | The story of Blindness begins on a morning in an unnamed city during rush-hour traffic. As the traffic lights change, a young Japanese professional (Yusuke Iseya) is suddenly struck blind for no apparent reason and blocks all the traffic behind his car. With the honking horns of the other frustrated drivers causing a commotion, the Japanese man is approached by a few concerned people, one of whom (Don McKellar) offers to drive him home. As they proceed to drive away, the blinded man describes his sudden affliction: an expanse of dazzling white, as though he is "swimming in milk." Eventually they arrive at the Japanese man's upscale apartment, but as soon as he assures his rescuer that he'll be fine waiting there for his wife to come home, the "rescuer" departs with the car keys and steals the vehicle.Upon arriving home later that evening and noticing her husband's blindness, the Japanese man's wife (Yoshino Kimura) takes him to a local ophthalmologist (Mark Ruffalo) who, after testing the man's eyes, can identify nothing wrong with his sight and recommends further evaluation at a hospital. Among the doctor's patients are an old man with a black eye-patch (Danny Glover), a woman with dark glasses (Alice Braga), and a young boy (Mitchell Nye). Later that same evening, the car thief is also struck blind, abandoning the Japanese man's car as he runs down the street.During a dinner with his loving wife (Julianne Moore), the doctor discusses the strange case of sudden blindness that hit the Japanese man. Elsewhere in the city, the woman with dark glasses - revealed to be a call-girl - becomes the third victim of the strange blindness after an appointment with a john in a luxury hotel.
The next day, the doctor wakes up to realize that he too has gone blind, which panics him all the more since he may have infected his wife in turn, but she refuses his attempts to keep her at arm's length and promises she will be safe. In various locations around the city, several more citizens are struck blind, causing widespread panic, and the government organizes a quarantine for the blind in a local derelict asylum. When a Hazmat crew arrives to pick up the doctor, his wife climbs into the van with him, lying she has also gone blind in order to accompany him into isolation.In the asylum, the doctor and his wife are first to arrive and both agree they will keep her sight a secret. Several others arrive: the woman with dark glasses, the Japanese couple, the car thief, and the young boy. At first a fight breaks out between the Japanese man and the man who stole his car, but the doctor pulls them apart and effectively assumes leadership of the ward. The Japanese man is then reunited with his wife, who becomes all but catatonic as a result of her sudden disability. Then the doctor's wife - who continues to remain sighted - comes across the old man with the eye-patch, who describes the condition of the world outside. The sudden blindness, known only as the "White Sickness", is now international, with hundreds of cases being reported every day. Desperate by this point, the totalitarian government resorts to increasingly ruthless measures to try to staunch the epidemic.In due course, as more and more blind people are crammed into the fetid prison, overcrowding and total lack of any outside support causes the hygiene and living conditions to degrade horrifically in a short time. Soon, the walls and floors are caked in filth and human feces. Anxiety over the availability of food, caused by irregular deliveries, undermine the morale inside. The lack of organization prevents the blind internees from fairly distributing food among each other. The soldiers who guard the asylum become increasingly hostile. The government refuses to allow in basic medicines, so that a simple infection becomes deadly. During one load of new inmates, a man wanders too far away from the group and is killed by the soldiers, along with two other people caught in the crossfire. A shovel is callously tossed over the wall for the corpses to be buried by the blind.Living conditions degenerate even further when an armed clique of men, led by an ex-barman who declares himself the King of Ward 3 (Gael García Bernal), gains control over the sparse deliveries of food. The rations are distributed only in exchange for valuables, solely as a humiliation. With the prospect of starvation and the hopelessness of being unable to take care of himself, the doctor turns to the woman with dark glasses in a moment of true weakness, and they have sex. Both regret it afterward and even more so once they hear the doctor's wife speak knowing they were not alone and that she had witnessed most of their tryst. Although the doctor's wife does not really trust her husband again, she still remains to help and in the end she forgives both the woman and her husband. The next day, the King of Ward 3 demands women in exchange for food. One by one, the desperate women volunteer to be sex slaves for the men in ward 3, and the King of Ward 3 rapes the doctor's wife. When the women get back, one of them has been brutally beaten to death by her rapist. Faced with starvation and hell-bent on revenge, the doctor's wife snaps and murders the King of Ward 3 with her scissors. His death initiates a chaotic war between the wards, which culminates with the asylum being burned down. Most of the inmates die in the fire. Only then do the few survivors discover that the military has abandoned their posts. They are free to venture into the city.But all is squalor and chaos. The entire population is blind amid a city devastated and infested with vermin and overrun with filth and dead bodies. The doctor's wife leads her husband, the Japanese couple, the old man, the woman with dark glasses and the young boy through the ruined streets in search of food and clean clothes. Everywhere she looks is grim as people squat in derelict buildings and society as she knew it no longer exists. Leaving her friends in the relative safety of an old cafe, she and her husband go to look for food. In a supermarket filled with stumbling blind people, she finds a storeroom stocked with food and packs it into bags. As she prepares to leave and meet her husband outside, she is attacked by the starving people who smell the food she is carrying. Her husband, now used to his blindness, saves her and they manage to return to their friends.The doctor and his wife with their new "family" eventually make their way back to the house of the doctor, where they establish a permanent home. The doctor's wife has truly forgiven her husband for sleeping with the woman with dark glasses, and in turn makes love to him where he states that when they are together like this, he can really "see" her through his touch. Just as the "family" are becoming accustomed to their new way of life, the Japanese man recovers his sight one morning. This gives the other people hope that their blindness will lift as quickly and inexplicably as it came. As the friends all celebrate, the doctor's wife stands out on the porch, staring up into a white overcast sky and for a moment thinks to herself "I'm going blind", until the video camera shifts downwards, revealing the cityscape before her. | avant garde, cruelty, murder, psychological, allegory, violence, revenge | tt0861689 |
Wild at Heart | At a formal dinner party in Cape Fear, North Carolina, outgoing 23-year-old Elvis Presley freak Sailor Ripley (Nicolas Cage) is accused by a goon named Bob Ray Lemon (Gregg Dandridge) of making sexual advances on Marietta Fortune (Diane Ladd), the mother of Sailor's 20-year-old girlfriend Lula (Laura Dern). Lemon announces that Marietta just paid him to kill Sailor and draws a switchblade, but Sailor defends himself, brutally beating and smashing his assailant's head into the floor all in front of Lula, Marietta, and several other people.Sailor is convicted of manslaughter and sent to the Pee Dee Correctional Facility. Upon his parole, 22 months later, despite orders from her domineering mother that she should never see Sailor again, Lula runs off to reunite with Sailor. Sailor is overjoyed to see Lula, who's brought him his prized snakeskin jacket, a symbol of his "individuality and belief in personal freedom." Sailor and Lula check into a motel, have mad, passionate sex, then go dancing at a local nightclub where he serenades her Elvis-style with "Treat Me Like a Fool." Lula asks Sailor why he never sings her "Love Me Tender," and he explains that he would only sing that song to his wife.Marietta, who in fact drunkenly propositioned Sailor in the men's bathroom that fateful night in Cape Fear, as well as threatening Sailor with the possibility that he knows "too much," is beside herself with rage. Marietta entreats private investigator and part-time boyfriend Johnnie Farragut (Harry Dean Stanton) to find Lula and bring her home. When Johnnie fails to find the couple quickly enough for her liking, Marietta also enlists the assistance of Marcelles Santos (J.E. Freeman), another boyfriend and dubious associate, to kill Sailor. Santos agrees to kill Sailor, but only on condition that he gets to kill Farragut, too, because Farragut is on to their criminal dealings. Marietta backtracks and tells Santos to leave Farragut out of it. Santos telephones gangster boss Mr. Reindeer (William Morgan Sheppard), who assigns his assassins Juana (Grace Zabriskie), Reggie (Calvin Lockhart) and Dropshadow (David Patrick Kelly) to handle the killings of both Sailor and Farragut.Having opened Pandora's Box, Marietta has a crisis of conscience and sets out to try and protect Farragut.Sailor suspects that Marietta may have put a hit out on him, and decides to break parole by leaving North Carolina with Lula and making a run for California. They first stop in New Orleans where they check into another motel, have a rainbow spectrum of sex, go out dancing, and talk about their personal lives.Marietta flies out to New Orleans and meets up with Farragut, but when he asks her whether Santos is involved in the hunt for Sailor and Lula, she denies it. Before Marietta can hustle him out of harm's way, Farragut is kidnapped by Mr. Reindeer's hit squad, who kill the hapless investigator in a sexually-charged, ritualistic manner.On the road late at night, Sailor confesses to Lula that before he met her, he used to work as a driver for Marcelles Santos. He was parked outside of her house the night it went up in flames, a witness to the conflagration in which Lula's father perished. Soon after discussing that so-called accident, Sailor and Lula encounter a car accident on the roadside where a bloodied young woman (Sherilyn Fenn) dies after stumbling out of the wrecked car. Lula says that it's a bad omen of things to come.Running short on money, Sailor and Lula stop in the small town of Big Tuna, Texas where they meet several grade-A weirdos including Juana's sinister daughter Perdita (Isabella Rossellini), local creeps Buddy (Pruitt Taylor Vince), Timmy (Frank Collison) and Sparky (Tim Lurie); crazy drunk 00 Spool (Jack Nance) and the slimy Bobby Peru (Willem Dafoe).Lula reveals to Sailor that she is pregnant from all the sex they've been having for the past few weeks. Bobby, meanwhile, intuits that Lula is pregnant after he pays her a surprise visit while Sailor's away and sees that she's puked on the floor due to morning sickness. Bobby uses Sailor's concern about having to support a family to persuade him to participate in an armed robbery. Lula wants to leave Big Tuna immediately but Sailor tells her that they only need to wait one more day, keeping her in the dark about his plans with Bobby Peru. Unbeknownst to Sailor, Bobby and Perdita are both in league with Mr. Reindeer and intend to make sure that Sailor does not survive the robbery.The next day, Sailor and Bobby, with Perdita as the getaway driver, hold up a feed store. It goes badly -- a police car shows up and a cop starts questioning Perdita. Bobby shoots the two store clerks although they'd initially agreed that no one was supposed to get hurt, then turns the shotgun on Sailor and reveals that he double-crossed Sailor by giving him a gun loaded only with blanks. Perdita flees when the shooting starts and the cop opens fire on Bobby, hitting him several times. As Bobby stumbles, he accidentally blows his own head off. Sailor surrenders and is sent back to prison. Marietta and Santos arrive and take Lula away back to North Carolina.Five years and ten months later, Sailor Ripley is once again released from prison. No longer under any parole obligations and having kept in touch with Lula who has relocated to Los Angeles, Sailor decides to visit her. Marietta remains dead-set against her daughter associating with the two-time loser, but Lula confronts her mother angrily. In keeping with the story's The Wizard of Oz theme, Marietta's photo smokes to signify her diminished power when Lula throws her drink at it, just as the Wicked Witch of the West melted when Dorothy splashed her with water.Lula takes their young son, Pace (Glenn Walker Harris, Jr.) to meet Sailor when he arrives at the train station. Their encounter is awkward and Sailor decides it would be best if Lula leaves him for good. Lula is crushed but understands. After they part, Sailor is attacked and beaten up by a roving gang.Knocked unconscious, Sailor hallucinates about a hovering young lady, Glinda the Good Witch of the North (Sheryl Lee), who tells him that Lula really loves him. "Don't turn away from love!" she admonishes. Sailor comes to, apologizes to the gang members, screams Lula's name and runs back to her convertible, which is immobilized by a monster traffic jam. The family is happily reunited, and Sailor serenades Lula with Elvis Presley's song "Love Me Tender" as the end credits roll. | dark, avant garde, cruelty, comedy, murder, fantasy, cult, violence, atmospheric, flashback, absurd, psychedelic, satire, revenge, sadist | tt0100935 |
Kabul Express | Suhel Khan (John Abraham) and Jai Kapoor (Arshad Warsi) are Indian journalists working for Star News who are sent into Afghanistan to create a report on what life is like in the country following the US Invasion of the country in September 2001. The two are shocked at the state of the country and the ruins that remain due to years of rule by the Taliban Regime. They take a tour of the country in a Taxi starting in Kabul. This follows an escape from capture by the Taliban.
On the way, they stop in the village of Ishtar along with the Taxi Driver Khyber (Hanif Humghum) who has watched his country fall apart over the decades. They stop in a small cafe selling Kebabs where they meet American journalist Jessica Beckham (Linda Arsenio) who is working for Reuters in reporting on the US side of the War in Afghanistan. Suhel and Jai then invite Jessica to join them on their tour of the country which she does. However, shortly after leaving Ishtar, they are caught by Taliban official Imran Khan (Salman Shahid) who has hitched a ride at the back of the Taxi in disguise as an Afghan woman. Imran demands they listen to him and travel straight to the Afghan border with Pakistan or he promises they will be killed. Imran is attempting to cross the border, get past Pakistani troops and negotiate with his Taliban associates in Pakistan.
The four of them (Suhel, Jai, Jessica, Imran and Khyber) travel through various villages where they see horrific sights of poverty before reaching the southern city of Kandahar where Jessica gets the chance to interview US troops who are fighting to re-gain control of the city from the Taliban who occupy the area. In the meantime, Suhel and Jai attempt to interview Imran yet are unsuccessful when Imran threatens to shoot them. Once leaving Kandahar they travel through a farm and manage to capture a bull fight on film before stopping off at a stream coming closer to the Pakistan border. While Imran and the rest are out exploring, Jessica discovers Imran's passport as a Pakistani passport. She discovers that he is not a Taliban, but in fact a member of the Pakistani army named Wassim Chaudrey sent to Afghanistan to support the Mujahadeen rebels in their war against the USSR back in the 1980s before he settled down in the country as a member of the Taliban Regime. When Imran discovers the break-in, he takes Suhel, Khyber and Jessica hostage and forces them to continue the journey to the Pakistan border. At one point, Imran abandons them for hours when he hears a noise. Gunshots are fired and the three travellers discover Imran to have 10 US soldiers who attempted to kill him. With Imran distracted, Suhel grabs a gun from one of the soldiers and points it at Imran threatening to kill him if he doesn't answer him in his interview. They leave Imran at the side of the road and start their journey back to Kabul. However they stopped in their path when Imran manages to leap onto the Taxi and demands they continue their journey to the border. They soon arrive at the border where Imran bids them farewell. On the way they stop at the village where Imran lived and Imran meets his long lost wife and daughter Zoya. But before Imran can reach anywhere he and the rest of them are attacked by the Mujahideen. Imran tells Suhel, Jessica, Khyber and Jai to go while he uses his fighting skills to fight them off. Imran later travels on his own to the border and tries to persuade Pakistani troops to allow him entry into the country and that he is a Pakistani. However they do not listen and Imran is shot on the border by the troops. | satire | tt0770214 |
Anastasia | In St Petersburg, Russia, in 1916, a lavish ball is held to celebrate 300 years of the ruling of the Romanov family. Attending the event is the Dowager Empress Marie (Angela Lansbury), whose son Nicolas is the Tsar of Imperial Russia. At the event, Marie is happy to see her granddaughter Anastasia (Kirsten Dunst), who is sad that Marie will be going to Paris, France. Marie has chosen to give Anastasia a music box as a gift, which plays a melody that both of them know. The wind-up key to make the music box work is on a pendant, inscribed with the words, "Together in Paris."The mood of the party is soon silenced as Rasputin (Christopher Lloyd) enters, claiming to be Nicolas' "confidant." Nicolas instead brands Rasputin as a traitor, and orders him out of the Palace. Angered at Nicholas, Rasputin claims that he and his family will be dead within the fortnight, and vows to not rest until all the Romanovs are dead.Rasputin then sells his soul for the power to destroy the Romanov family. With his stronger dark powers, Rasputin uses them to cause dissent among the people, who soon revolt and charge the Palace gates. Anastasia and Marie are in a room in the midst of the chaos, but escape through a secret entrance with the help of a servant boy. As they attempt to make their way across a frozen river on the Palace Grounds, Rasputin confronts them, but ends up on thin ice, which cracks and gives way under him, causing him to sink into the cold waters, leaving behind his magic reliquary and a little fruitbat named Bartok (Hank Azaria).Anastasia and Marie attempt to board a train, but in the process, Anastasia loses her grip on Marie's hand, falling to the platform, where she hits her head and goes unconscious.10 years after the revolution, St Petersburg is filled with gossip that Anastasia (Meg Ryan) may still be alive, with the Dowager Empress Marie (who still resides in Paris) promising to pay a reward for the return of her granddaughter. A conman in St Petersburg named Dimitri (John Cusack) and his assistant Vlad (Kelsey Grammer) are attempting to find a woman to pass off as Anastasia, in hopes of bilking Marie out of the reward.Meanwhile, Anastasia has grown up in an orphanage, under the name of Anya. Having developed amnesia after falling off the train onto the platform, no memory of her past life remains, except for the key/locket to the music box. The head of the orphanage has deemed it time for Anya to go to work, and sends her off to work at a fish factory. Anya soon comes to a fork in the road, with one way leading to the town where the fish factory is, and the other leading to St. Petersburg. Unsure which way to go, Anya is surprised when a little puppy appears, and seems to lead her to St. Petersburg.Once there, she attempts to take a train to Paris, but is denied transit because she does not have an exit visa. A woman who hears this tells Anya to see a man named Dimitri, who she claims can help her. Anya is informed that Dimitri can be found near the now-abandoned Royal Palace, and soon enters. Once inside, she is overcome by various memories, as she enters the now-dusty grand ballroom.Suddenly, a voice rings out, and Anya finds herself face-to-face with Dimitri and Vlad. Looking at her, Dimitri feels that Anya would be perfect for his plans, and convinces Anya that he can help her get to Paris if she will accompany him and Vlad to see the Dowager Empress and see if she may really be the missing Anastasia Romanov. Naturally, Anya goes along with the plan, having no knowledge of who she really is.Meanwhile, in a little alcove of the ballroom, Bartok has been hiding, and notices that Rasputin's reliquary has started to glow. As he lays a hand on it, it suddenly rockets the little bat into 'limbo,' where Rasputin has been for 10 years. Since Anastasia survived, he was not able to die completely, and has been stuck in limbo as a rotting corpse. When Bartok presents him with the reliquary, Rasputin uses its powers to conjure minions to destroy Anastasia.Anya, Dimitri, and Vlad board a train headed to Paris, but end up having to hide in the baggage car when their passports' coloration is overheard to not match the proper color. Rasputin's minions also intend to derail the train, but our group manages to escape before it plunges into a canyon.They continue on foot, with Vlad telling of the Dowager Empress' first cousin, Sophie (Bernadette Peters), who questions anyone claiming to be Anastasia. Anya gets indignant that no one told her she had to prove she was Anastasia. Vlad convinces her that there's nothing for her back in Russia, and that Paris could hold something special. His words convince her, and they begin going over proper etiquette and Romanov history.Eventually, they take a ship from Germany to Paris, where both Dimitri and Anya perform a waltz, which seems to bring the two a bit closer together. That evening, Rasputin invades Anya's dream, and causes her to almost sleepwalk over the edge of the boat, until Dimitri saves her.After the two setbacks, Rasputin decides he will return to the living world and deal with Anastasia himself. Bartok reluctantly follows.Anya, Dimitri and Vlad eventually make it to Paris, unaware that the Dowager Empress has had enough of the various impostors claiming to be her granddaughter, and decides to forgo the search.Just moments after this decision, Anya and the others arrive at the Empress' mansion, and Sophie answers the door. Even though she has been privy to the Empress' wishes, she still questions Anya. Eventually, the questioning turns to just how Anastasia was able to escape from the Palace. Dmitri thinks that they will be found out, but is shocked when Anya explains that a young boy opened a secret passage for her and the Empress to escape through.Sophie explains that Anya appears to have answered all the questions correctly, but explains about Marie's wishes to not see anyone else. Vlad insists that Marie meet Anya, and Sophie hints that Marie will be attending a performance of the Russian Ballet that night. Sophie then takes the three of them shopping for new clothes.Later that evening, Dimitri takes Vlad aside, and explains that with the escape story that Anya told, he is sure that their intended impostor is the real Anastasia, telling Vlad that he was that boy in her story. However, their talk is interrupted as Anya arrives, and they go to their box in the Opera Hall.During the intermission, Dimitri and Anya go to the Empress' private box, where Sophie allows Dimitri to meet with the Empress. However, Marie explains that she's heard about Dmitri, and knows about his schemes to deceive her. Dimitri is thrown out, having failed to see that the door to the box was partially open, and Anya heard the entire conversation. Dimitri tries to explain who she really is, but she storms off and heads back to their residence.Dimitri waits until Marie leaves the Opera House, and then takes the place of her chauffeur, driving her to Anya's residence, and demanding Marie see her. Marie still refuses, until Dimitri produces the music box that she had given Anastasia long before (the music box was left behind after Marie and Anastasia escaped through the secret door).Marie then gives into Dimitri's wish, and talks to Anya. Anya explains that all she wants is to find where she belongs. As they talk, Anya shows Marie the locket she has, and when Marie produces the music box, Anya's memory fully returns, and Marie is overjoyed that she has found her granddaughter again.Marie eventually calls on Dimitri, presenting him with the reward, and her gratitude. Even so, Dimitri refuses the reward, but is glad to see that he has reunited Anastasia with her true family. As he leaves, he encounters Anastasia, and the two exchange few words, with Anastasia believing that Dimitri got his reward after all.Later on that evening, Marie and Anastasia are in attendance at a social function in Paris, in which Anastasia will be revealed to those in attendance. Marie explains that her granddaughter should be happy, but she seems somewhat distant. Marie knows that Anastasia secretly loves Dimitri, and explains to her that he did not take the reward. Marie goes out to join the festivities first, telling Anastasia that whatever path she chooses should make her happy.After Marie leaves, Anastasia is distracted by her puppy, which leads her out into the garden near the building. As she makes her way to a nearby bridge, Rasputin emerges from the fog, and attempts to kill her. However, Dimitri (having had second thoughts) returns to try and save Anastasia. In the process, Anastasia manages to get hold of Rasputin's reliquary, and destroy it, causing the 'mad monk' to finally be destroyed.In the aftermath, Anastasia and Dimitri confess their feelings for the other, and elope, with Anastasia choosing to forgo her royal heritage for love, much to the delight of her grandmother, who declares it a "perfect beginning" for the two young lovers. | romantic, cute, entertaining | tt0118617 |
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull | In 1957, Indiana Jones and his partner George "Mac" McHale are kidnapped in New Mexico by Soviet agents under Colonel Dr. Irina Spalko. The Soviets infiltrate a warehouse labeled "Warehouse 51" and force Jones to locate a mummified alien corpse, recovered ten years earlier. Upon its discovery, Mac reveals he is a double agent working for the Soviets. Jones escapes and unsuccessfully attempts to retrieve the body. After a fight with Spalko's sadistic henchman, Colonel Antonin Dovchenko, Jones escapes to Doomtown (a model town), at the Nevada Test Site, minutes before an atomic bomb test, and takes shelter in a lead-lined refrigerator. Jones is rescued, decontaminated, and apprehended by FBI agents, who suspect him of working for the Soviets; and though freed on the recommendation of General Ross, who vouches for him, he is put on indefinite leave of absence from Marshall College. His leaving also causes the dean's resignation to keep Indiana's job at the college.
Jones is approached by greaser Mutt Williams, who tells him that Harold Oxley had found a crystal skull in Peru, suffered a mental breakdown and was later kidnapped. Jones tells Mutt about the legend of crystal skulls found in Akator. Mutt gives Jones a letter from his mother, who is also held captive, containing a riddle written by Oxley in an ancient South American language. KGB agents attempt to capture them, but Jones and Mutt evade them and reach Peru. At the local psychiatric hospital, Oxley's scribbles on the walls and floor of his cell lead them to the grave of Francisco de Orellana, a Conquistador who has searched for Akator. They discover the skull at the grave, with Jones reasoning that Oxley had returned it there.
Jones and Mutt are captured by Mac and the Soviets and taken to their camp in the Amazon jungle, where they find Oxley and Mutt's mother, Marion Ravenwood, who reveals that Mutt is Jones' son, Henry Jones III. Spalko believes that the crystal skull belongs to an alien life form and holds great psychic power, and that finding more skulls in Akator will grant the Soviets the advantage of psychic warfare. Spalko uses the skull on Jones to enable him to understand Oxley and identify a route to Akator. Jones and his four allies escape with the skull, but Marion and Jones get caught into a dry sandpit, to be recaptured by the Soviets. On their way to Akator, Mac tells Jones he is a CIA double-agent to regain Jones' trust, and Jones' team fights its way out of the Soviets' clutches, while Dovchenko is devoured by giant ants. Jones and his allies survive three waterfalls in an amphibious vehicle, while many of the Soviets fall from a cliff while trying to pursue them. Jones and Oxley identify a head-like rock formation that leads them to Akator, unaware that Mac lied about being a CIA agent, is still loyal to Spalko and has been dropping transceivers to allow the surviving Soviets to track them.
The adventurers escape the city's guardians, gain access to the temple, and find it filled with artifacts from many ancient civilizations, identifying the aliens as extra-dimensional "archaeologists" studying the different cultures of Earth. They find and enter a chamber containing the crystal skeletons of thirteen alien beings, one missing its skull. Spalko arrives and presents the skull to its skeleton, whereupon the aliens reanimate and telepathically offer a reward in ancient Mayan through Oxley. A portal to their dimension becomes activated, and Spalko demands knowledge equal to the aliens'. The thirteen beings fuse into one, and in the process of receiving the overwhelming knowledge, Spalko is disintegrated and sucked into the portal. Jones, Marion, Mutt, and Oxley–who has regained his sanity–escape, while the remaining Soviets are also drawn into the portal. Mac is caught in the vortex while trying to scrounge some of the treasure, and even though Jones offers him his whip to pull him to safety, he willingly lets go and is sucked in. Jones and the others escape and watch as the temple walls crumble, revealing a flying saucer rising from the debris and vanishing, while the hollow in the valley floor left by its departure is flooded by the waters of the Amazon.
The following year, Jones is reinstated at Marshall College and made an associate dean, and he and Marion are married. As the wedding party leaves the chapel, a gust of wind blows Indy's brown fedora off the coat rack and deposits it at Mutt's feet. Mutt picks it up and is about to don it before Jones snatches it from his hands and puts it on with a grin. | comedy, mystery, murder, stupid, cult, plot twist | tt0367882 |
First Blood | John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) is a former member of an elite United States Army Special Forces unit and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his service in the Vietnam War in which he was also a prisoner of war (POW). The film begins 10 years after Rambo left the war, in the American Northwest in 1980. Rambo is searching for one of his friends from his unit, Delmar Berry. Rambo soon learns from Delmar's mother that he has died a few months earlier from cancer due to Agent Orange exposure. Although not yet revealed to the audience, Rambo knows he is now the last surviving member of his unit. He leaves the picture of his unit with Berry's mother and walks away, obviously saddened.The scene fades to Rambo entering the small town of Hope, Washington State on foot. With his longish hair and military-style coat, he is quickly spotted by the town's overzealous and paranoid sheriff, Will Teasle (Brian Dennehy) who quickly drives Rambo out of town, noting his strong distaste for "drifters." A defiant Rambo heads back toward town immediately, to the dismay of Teasle who arrests him for vagrancy and for carrying a large combat knife as a concealed weapon.Rambo stands his ground against the officers at the station and is brutalized and harassed by Art Galt (Jack Starrett), the sheriff's cruel head deputy and closest friend. Rambo is ordered to strip and Galt and his deputies, Ward (Chris Mulkey) and Mitch (David Caruso) are astonished to see his chest and back are covered with horrible scars. Galt viciously hits Rambo in the lower back with his police baton without provocation. A third officer sprays him with a fire hose to clean him up. When they attempt to dry-shave him with a straight razor in preparation for his court appearance, Rambo has a flashback to being tortured in a North Vietnamese POW Camp and loses control, instinctively using his military training to beat Galt and his comrades. He fights his way out of the station, retrieving his large knife. He assaults several more officers, pulls a civilian off a motorcycle, steals it, and is pursued into the nearby mountains. Teasle chases him into the wilderness but ends the pursuit when his car overturns. Further up the mountain, Rambo spills the cycle he stole and runs up past the treeline. He finds an old sheet of canvas, making a tunic for himself. He ventures further up the mountain, into the forest.The deputies are eventually forced to search for Rambo on foot and he climbs down onto a steep cliff to elude capture. After spotting Rambo from a helicopter, Galt blatantly disregards procedure and attempts to shoot him in cold blood. Rambo drops off the cliff into a mass of trees and cornered, throws a rock at the helicopter in self-defense. The helicopter, struck by the rock thrown by Rambo and due to strong updrafting, pitches, causing Galt to fall to his death. Teasle, who did not see Galt's attempt to kill Rambo, vows to avenge his friend's death. After tending to a deep cut in his upper arm, Rambo attempts to surrender, he's shot at by Teasle's men and retreats into the woods.Teasle leads his deputies into the forest to capture or kill Rambo. The deputies are inexperienced and bicker, particularly after learning over the radio about Rambo's combat experience, and that he's a Green Beret and a war hero. Rambo quickly disables the small, disorganized team using guerrilla tactics and booby traps, severely wounding, but not killing, all the deputies and takes one deputy's walkie-talkie. In the chaos, Rambo, wearing heavy natural camouflage, isolates and confronts Teasle, holding his knife to the sheriff's throat and saying, "Don't push it or I'll give you a war you won't believe. Let it go..." he warns before disappearing into the woods.A base camp is assembled near the site and the National Guard is called in. Just after the National Guard informs Rambo that he is surrounded by their forces, United States Special Forces Colonel Sam Trautman (Richard Crenna) arrives, taking credit for training Rambo and telling the sheriff that Rambo has been trained to survive in harsh environments and has been taught to engage superior numbers in combat. He is surprised to find any of the deputies still alive and warns that it would be safer to let Rambo go and find him a few days after the situation has calmed down, suggesting that Rambo can be apprehended without a fight. Fueled by a mixture of scorn and pride, the hot-headed Teasle refuses to heed his advice. Knowing that Rambo had stolen a CB radio from one of his men, Teasle allows Trautman to talk to Rambo. Trautman tries to convince Rambo to give himself up, however, Rambo refuses in his response, citing his deplorable treatment by Teasle and his men. Trautman suggests that Rambo shouldn't have fought back so harshly, to which Rambo states "They drew first blood, Sir." Rambo switches the radio off. By the time the conversation ends, Teasle's men have triangulated Rambo's location on the mountain.Rambo is eventually cornered by the National Guard troopers in a mine entrance, where he has taken refuge. The novice guardsmen fire a M-72 LAW's rocket at him, collapsing the entrance and trapping him inside. They assume Rambo is dead. Unbeknownst to his pursuers, Rambo has escaped into the tunnels of the mine. Rambo finds some old fuel and makes an improvised torch. After wading through waist-deep water and fighting off rats, Rambo cleverly uses the flame of the torch (as an indicator of air flow in the tunnels) to find an escape to the surface.Rambo hijacks a passing U.S. Army M135 2.5 ton cargo truck, throws out the driver, crashes through a roadblock and returns to town, crashing it into a gas station. He blocks the highway to anyone in pursuit by igniting the spilled fuel on the road, also destroying the stolen truck. Armed with an M-60 machine gun, Rambo then goes on a shooting spree in town as the residents flee. Rambo, using his experience at guerrilla tactics, takes out power transformers, blacking out part of the town. Rambo shoots up and destroys a sporting goods shop and a few other businesses in an attempt to confuse Teasle as well as identify his position before spotting him on the roof of the police station.After shooting up the building, Rambo carefully enters the police station. Aware of Teasle's presence on the roof, Rambo darts under the skylight to draw fire as bait to reveal his exact location. Teasle immediately fires at Rambo who notes his position and returns fire through the ceiling with the M-60, injuring him. Teasle falls through the skylight onto the floor. Rambo steps over him, prepared to kill him. Before Rambo can shoot Teasle, Colonel Trautman appears and tells him that there is no hope of escaping alive. Rambo, now surrounded by the police, rages about the horrors of war in Vietnam and the difficulties he has faced adapting to civilian life. He's tired of being misunderstood, and how in the Army he was a war hero but back in America he could not even be trusted to work "parking cars." He weeps as he recounts a particularly gruesome story about witnessing his friend dying by having his legs blown off by a booby-trapped shoeshine box planted by a Viet Cong child operative. Rambo then turns himself in to Trautman and is arrested. The credits roll as he and Trautman exit the police station. | suspenseful, cruelty, murder, anti war, cult, violence, dramatic, flashback, action, tragedy, revenge, sadist | tt0083944 |
Judgment Night | Frank Wyatt (Emilio Estevez) leaves his wife and baby daughter at home for a night out with his friends to see a professional boxing match in modern Chicago. Frank is joined by Mike Peterson (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and Ray Cochran (Jeremy Piven) who shows up in a lavish RV Ray is "testing out" for his business. When another friend of the guys cancels Frank invites his brother John (Stephen Dorff), and they all head to the city for the boxing match.Stuck in a traffic jam en-route, John gets into a fight with another driver. Frustrated by the delay, Ray decides to save time by getting off the crowded expressway and search for a shortcut through a poor, residential neighborhood. The four friends are alarmed when they run over something. John, Mike and Frank get out to investigate, and find a man named Teddy (Michael DeLorenzo) lying in the street hurt, and they take him back into the RV. Ray gathers up all the liquor and empty liquor bottles and tosses them to erase any evidence that the guys had been drinking. Upon examining Teddy for injuries they found that he had been shot, and with a paperbag of money in his possession. Mike hears a police car, which the group sees drive through the intersection ahead a few seconds later. Frank jumps into the driver's seat and begins pursuing the squad car.Unable to catch up to the police, their vehicle is suddenly struck by a car. The impact forces them into a narrow alleyway, leaving the RV damaged, stuck between two brick walls, and unable to start. Moments after the crash three unknown men drag Teddy out of the RV through the back window. The psychotic and ruthless leader of the gang, Fallon (Denis Leary), arrives in the vehicle that struck them. Still inside the RV the four friends overhear the group talking about their suspicions that Teddy had stolen money from Fallon. Fallon shoots and kills Teddy and reminds the rest of the gang that they have a policy to leave no witnesses. As the group of criminals approaches the RV, Mike breaks the windshield as Frank sets the RV on fire, and all four escape through the front window and run.The film continues with the four friends hiding and trying to outrun the gang until they think they've gotten away. They head to a railyard and hide aboard an empty train. Fallon and his gang search the yard and trains for the guys. While hiding inside the car of a old train Frank and his friends are frightened by some sleazy homeless people who were aboard the train already. The homeless ringleader blackmails them to alert Fallon's gang to their location unless they pay them for their silence. Ray gives up his watch, Frank gives up his wallet, while John gives up his pocket change and Mike gives up his gold chain necklace. A mentally retarded member of the other homeless men aboard the train, Buck, shows interest in Mike's (Purdue) jacket by stating and repeating that he is a college graduate. When Mike refuses to give up his jacket the homeless man becomes angry and gets loud. Fallon and his gang were leaving the railyard when they heard the shouting coming from the railcar. As they open the car everyone aboard jumps off and starts running. Fallon shoots a guy wearing the (Purdue) jacket and it turned out to be Buck, the homeless guy who was wearing Mike's jacket. The homeless guy is in possession of Frank's wallet when he is killed by Fallon. Fallon recovers the wallet and now knows who Frank is, his family, and where he lives. Frank and the guys continue to outrun Fallon and his gang until they eventually find an apartment building. With an open door Frank and the guys all run inside. They hole up in the apartment of two overprotective women, mothers Clarissa and Rita, and call the police minutes before the criminals catch up with them. Determined to get Frank and his friends, Fallon and his gang terrorize the building's tenants. Hearing them terrorize the tenants the enraged women demand that Frank and his friends leave. One of the women, Rita, suggests that they head to the roof of the building to escape Fallon. They flee to the rooftop and Mike, John, and Frank manage to cross over to the neighboring building's roof with the use a ladder. Because of Ray's fear of heights, he decides to knock the ladder off and stay behind and try to negotiate with Fallon, convinced that Fallon will spare their lives. However, Fallon pushes Ray off the roof and Ray falls to his death.Escaping into the sewers, Mike suggests that they fight back against their pursuers and Frank and John agree. Sykes, Fallon's righthand man and best friend, catches up with them, and after a brief confrontation has his gun wrestled away and he is shot and killed by Mike. Frank chooses not to risk their lives anymore, so they escape the sewer and decide to keep running. Within the sewer, the remaining members of Fallon's gang find the body of Sykes. A comment made by one of the gang members annoys Fallon and he drowns him.While hiding once more in an abandonded building, the three remaining friends see a bus and try to flag the driver down. The driver sees them but, thinking they're other gang members, decides to drive off leaving them behind. Searching for help, Mike breaks the window of a closed grocery store, in the hopes it will trigger the alarm and bring the police. Shortly afterwards, they realize that Fallon has found them once more. The last remaining member of Fallon's gang is shot dead by Mike, but in the process Mike is shot in the stomach. John goes to help Mike and Fallon shoots him in the leg. Frank leads the wounded Mike and John to a bathroom where they hide. Frank gets to the security office and activates the silent alarm. Knowing that the three can run no longer, Frank draws out Fallon, leading him away from the wounded Mike and John. After a struggle between the two, Frank pushes Fallon off the stairs, killing him. The movie ends with the police investigating the crime scene and Frank's wallet is recovered by the police. It is suggested that Mike and John's wounds might not be fatal as they are wheeled away by the medics. | violence, neo noir, murder | tt0107286 |
Titanic | In 1996, treasure hunter Brock Lovett and his team aboard the research vessel Keldysh search the wreck of RMS Titanic for a necklace with a rare diamond, the Heart of the Ocean. They recover a safe containing a drawing of a young woman wearing only the necklace. It is dated April 14, 1912, the day the ship struck the iceberg. Rose Dawson Calvert, claiming to be the person in the drawing, visits Lovett and tells of her experiences aboard the ship.
In 1912 Southampton, 17-year-old first-class passenger Rose DeWitt Bukater, her fiancé Cal Hockley, and her mother Ruth board the Titanic. Ruth emphasizes that Rose's marriage will resolve the DeWitt Bukaters' financial problems. Distraught over the engagement, Rose considers committing suicide by jumping from the stern; Jack Dawson, a penniless artist, convinces her not to. Discovered with Jack, Rose tells Cal that she was peering over the edge and Jack saved her from falling. Cal is indifferent, but when Rose indicates some recognition is due, he offers Jack a small amount of money. After Rose asks whether saving her life meant so little, he invites Jack to dine with them in first class the following night. Jack and Rose develop a tentative friendship, though Cal and Ruth are wary of him. Following dinner, Rose secretly joins Jack at a party in third class.
Aware of Cal and Ruth's disapproval, Rose rebuffs Jack's advances, but later realizes that she prefers him over Cal. After rendezvousing on the bow at sunset, Rose takes Jack to her state room and displays Cal's engagement present: the Heart of the Ocean. At her request, Jack sketches Rose posing nude wearing it. They evade Cal's bodyguard and have sex in an automobile inside the cargo hold. They later visit the forward deck, witnessing a collision with an iceberg and overhearing the officers and designer discussing its seriousness.
Cal discovers Jack's sketch of Rose and a mocking note from her in his safe along with the necklace. When Jack and Rose attempt to tell Cal of the collision, he has his butler slip the necklace into Jack's pocket and accuses him of theft. He is arrested, taken to the Master-at-arms' office, and handcuffed to a pipe. Cal puts the necklace in his own coat pocket.
With the ship sinking, Rose is desperate to free Jack. She flees Cal and her mother, who has boarded a lifeboat, and rescues him. They return to the boat deck, where Cal and Jack encourage her to board a lifeboat; Cal claims he can get himself and Jack off safely. After Rose boards one, Cal tells Jack the arrangement is only for himself. As her boat lowers, Rose decides that she cannot leave Jack and jumps back on board. Cal takes his butler's pistol and chases Rose and Jack into the flooding first class dining saloon. After using up his ammunition, Cal realizes he gave his coat and consequently the necklace to Rose. He later boards a collapsible lifeboat by carrying a lost child.
After braving several obstacles, Jack and Rose return to the boat deck. All the lifeboats have departed and passengers are falling to their deaths as the stern rises out of the water. The ship breaks in half, lifting the stern into the air. Jack and Rose ride it into the ocean and he helps her onto a wooden panel only buoyant enough for one person. Holding the edge, he assures her that she will die an old woman, warm in her bed. He dies of hypothermia but she is saved.
With Rose hiding from Cal en route, the RMS Carpathia takes the survivors to New York. There she gives her name as Rose Dawson. She later learns that Cal committed suicide after losing everything in the 1929 Wall Street Crash.
Lovett abandons his search after hearing Rose's story. Alone on the stern of the Keldysh, Rose takes out the Heart of the Oceanin her possession all alongand drops it into the sea over the wreck site. While she is seemingly asleep in her bed, photos on her dresser depict a life of freedom and adventure, partly inspired by Jack. A young Rose reunites with him at the ship's Grand Staircase, applauded by those who perished. | comedy, dramatic, suicidal, violence, atmospheric, historical fiction, action, romantic, melodrama, tragedy, revenge, historical, sentimental | tt0120338 |
Fascination | 1905. April in Paris. All the fashionable Parisian ladies partake of the current cure for anemia by stopping at the abattoir [slaughterhouse] for their therapeutic glass of ox blood. Some ladies, however, have taken the cure to a higher level. Somewhere near Paris, Mark [Jean-Marie Lemaire] (a thief trying to escape from four other thieves who want the gold coins he is carrying to London) takes refuge in a castle currently inhabited by two lesbian chambermaids, Elisabeth [Franka Mai] and Eva [Brigitte Lahaie], who are awaiting the arrival of the marchioness and her servants. Elisabeth feels an immediate attraction to Mark but, while the gang of thieves lay outside the castle awaiting the chance to kill him, Mark is seduced by Eva, much to Elisabeth's chagrin. When the marchioness and her servants arrive, they hold a party in which Mark (the only male) is showered with attention. When midnight comes, however, everything changes. The women are revealed as "vampires" who want Mark's blood. Elisabeth helps Mark to escape, while the four servants sate their bloodlust on Eva. When Mark confesses to Elisabeth that he is also in love with her, Elisabeth changes her mind, decides that she never really loved Mark, and shoots him. It is Elisabeth and the marchioness who go into the sunrise together. | pornographic, murder | tt0079135 |
Mama | A man kills several of his business partners and his estranged ex-wife, then runs away with his children: a young Victoria and baby Lilly. After speeding on a remote, snowy road, he crashes into the woods and takes the children to an abandoned cabin he wanders upon nearby. Realizing the mistakes he has made, he prepares to commit murder suicide but at the last moment is killed by a strange figure in the cabin. Victoria looks at the figure but only sees a blur as her glasses were broken in the crash.Five years later, their Uncle Lucas (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and his girlfriend Annabel (Jessica Chastain) have been madly searching for his brother and nieces using the inheritance of his brother. The searchers stumble upon the crashed car and find the two children in the cabin. In this time, they have become completely like animals, with Victoria physically shielding Lilly in a defensive stance to the intruders. They are put under the care of a psychiatrist, Dr. Dreyfuss. There is a legal dispute over custody of the children between Lucas and a rich aunt on the childrens' mother's side, while the court questions the ability of Lucas and Annabel to raise the children in a small apartment with little income given their special needs. Dr. Dreyfuss agrees to recommend Lucas and Annabel as the childrens' legal guardians as long as they agree to move into a special home used to perform case studies, knowing that he would not be able to monitor their progress if their aunt, who lives on the other side of the country, were to obtain custody.It quickly becomes apparent that the strange figure, who the children repeatedly refer to as "Mama", is in the new home with the children. Her history is given throughout the movie through a combination of dreams Anabelle has (induced by Mama), research by Dr. Dreyfuss, and conversations with Victoria. "Mama" was a former patient at a mental asylum in the 1800's; her appearance and simple actions imply she had Down Syndrome, though this is never officially stated. She breaks out of the asylum and stabs a nun who had taken Mama's baby (also named Lily) into her care then steals the baby back. Chased by the authorities, she ends up at the edge of a cliff overlooking the lake; seeing no other path, she jumps and hits a tree branch on the way down. While Mama fell into the lake, the baby (killed by the impact) was stuck to the tree trunk and was recovered by the pursuers. Mama becomes a ghost, twisted by the sad emotions of not knowing where her child is (she is unaware of why the baby was not in the lake with her). This causes her to take a form of physically being twisted, with body parts askew and many joints bending the wrong way. She searched the woods for centuries trying to find her baby, until she stumbled upon Victoria and Lily about to be killed in the cabin, and began taking care of the children as her own.Mama's presence is generally signaled by black butterflies and electrical problems. She plays with the children but hides from sight of anyone else; Victoria always takes off her glasses when she looks at Mama and tells Dr. Dreyfuss she won't come where she can be seen. Early in the movie, Lucas is pushed down the stairs by Mama and ends up in a coma. This forces Annabel, who does not want the children, to take care of them. Over time, Victoria becomes more like a normal child, but Lilly retains her animalistic nature; this is attributed to the fact that Victoria was older and thus had socially developed before their abandonment in the woods. Over time, Annabel becomes attached to the children, and later, Victoria begins to prefer her over Mama, but Lilly still remains completely loyal to Mama. Annabel becomes aware there is something wrong and that Mama may indeed be real. Victoria worries for her safety, saying Mama gets very jealous.Dr. Dreyfuss begins to believe the stories of Mama, first because Victoria is able to tell stories with information she shouldn't be able to know, and later because he actually sees Mama. In the course of the investigation, he obtains custody of the corpse of Mama's baby. Dr. Dreyfuss comes to believe that Mama is located in the cabin in the woods and goes to investigate but is killed by Mama there. The aunt believes Annabel is abusing the children (due to bruises Lilly has from her animalistic tendencies) and begins to spy on the house for proof. Lucas has a dream induced by his dead brother while in a coma, asking him to save his children and pointing him to a location in the woods. Annabel visits Dr. Dreyfuss's office after another supernatural night at the house but finds out he is missing; she steals his objects related to the case. At this point, she learns of the aspects of the case which the doctor had found out about and finds the baby's corpse. At the same time, Mama becomes angry and attacks the children and Annabel; Victoria tries hard to defend Annabel and pleads for Mama to stop, but Lilly is still clearly loyal to Mama. Annabel is knocked out, but at the last moment the aunt breaks into the house and has her body possessed by Mama. Mama uses this body to take the children to the cabin.Annabel wakes up, grabs the baby's corpse, and drives to the lake, finding Lucas along the way, who has left the hospital and gone to the site his brother told him about in his coma dream. They arrive at the cabin, finding the aunt's corpse but neither Lilly nor Victoria. Annabel sees the cliff that Mama had originally jumped from; remembering the warning that ghosts are twisted souls doomed to repeat their mistakes, she realizes Mama's intentions to jump off the cliff with the children. Lucas and Annabel arrive in time to stop the children from jumping, but Mama attacks them. The assault is stopped when Mama finds her baby's corpse, begins crying, and prepares to jump off the cliff with it, her twisted appearance reverting to a more human one. However, as they are leaving, Lilly shouts to Mama and she regains her twisted appearance and attacks again, knocking out Lucas. She grabs the kids and walks to the edge of the cliff. Annabel tries desparately to stop Mama, eventually beaten to the point that she can only hold onto Victoria. Once at the edge of the cliff, Victoria tries to convince Lilly not to go, and Lilly cries that Lilly, Victoria, and Mama should all be together. Mama jumps off the cliff with just Lilly, and upon hitting the branch, Mama and Lilly turn into a shower of butterflies. The movie ends with Victoria realizing that one of the butterflies watching over her is in fact Lilly, perhaps referencing a ghostly regret of Victoria not going with her. | paranormal, suspenseful, horror, haunting | tt2023587 |
Revenge | Emily Thorne (Emily Van Camp) is the newest arrival in the Hamptons. By all appearances, she's a friendly and sophisticated "girl next door," but with a dark family history, Emily is anything but what she seems. Seventeen years ago, her father was framed for a crime by neighbors he trusted, and sentenced to life. Emily never saw her father again, and spent her childhood consumed by rage, loss and betrayal. Now she's returning under an assumed identity with one goal - REVENGE -- every social overture a carefully planned chip at the foundation of her sworn enemies. Victoria Grayson (Madeleine Stowe) is the glamorous matriarch of the Grayson family and reigning Queen of the Hamptons who holds a dark secret -- her culpability in the events that destroyed Emily's life. Conrad Grayson (Henry Czerny) is the head of the Grayson family, a man willing to do whatever it takes to slither out of scandalous situations. Daniel Grayson (Josh Bowman) is the Graysons' son who finds himself unable to resist Emily. Charlotte Grayson (Christa B. Allen), their daughter, fits right in with the "mean girls" of the Hamptons, but is also drawn to boys from the "wrong side of the tracks." Nolan Ross (Gabrielle Mann) shares a link to Emily's past, her present and her secret. Jack Porter (Nick Wechsler) has spent his life helping his father manage the Stowaway Tavern, and when fate brings Emily into his life, he's unable to shake a deja vu-like connection to her. Declan Porter (Connor Paolo), Jack's kid brother, is intrigued by the wealthy world of these elite vacationers and finds a target in Charlotte Grayson. Emily's closest friend, Ashley Davenport (Ashley Madekwe), is the go-to event planner who hopes to gain entry into Victoria's good graces and solidify her status among the Hamptonites.OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS | revenge | tt1837642 |
Biker Boyz | In the world of underground motorcycle racing, the undefeated racer known as Smoke (Laurence Fishburne) is the undisputed "King of Cali." But Smoke's dominance of the set is about to be threatened by a young motorcycle racing prodigy called Kid (Derek Luke), who is determined to win Smoke's helmet and earn the coveted title. Kid says that the difference between men and boys are the lessons they learn- and that his father, Slick Will, taught him plenty.
The film starts with Kid, a novice rider and motorcycle club "prospect," assisting his father, Slick Will, as they prepare Smoke's bike for the evening's drag races. A biker issues a challenge to Smoke, who accepts, and the race begins. In the midst of the race, the biker loses control from mechanical issues, his bike flies from under him into a row of parked bikes sending one into Slick Will throwing him through a store window and killing him instantly. At the funeral, dozens of bikers from the "Black Knights" (to whom Slick Will was a mechanic) show up with Smoke, who drops a rose and a Black Knights flag to his grave.
6 months later, Kid is now a familiar racer with his custom-powered bike, and he shows up at the events. His first "race" was when he interfered with Stuntman's race with Donny. As he interrupts the race, he pulls off several stunts, notably standing on top of the motorcycle while it is still moving. He wins the race and the crowd seem to like his stunts, much to the dissatisfaction of Smoke. Kid demands to race with Smoke but Smoke says he is too inexperienced and should get experience first. It is later revealed that Kid and Stuntman were hustling in that race.
Kid then goes to a diner where he meets fellow hustler Stuntman. Fellow biker Primo tells them to create a bike club, and after a bit of persuasion they agree, and Kid goes to the biker jury consisting of 8 leaders of most powerful biker gangs, and Smoke is on the lead. He apologizes for his disrespect towards Smoke and they all agree to verify the club, calling themselves the "Biker Boyz."
Kid is set to race Motherland to prove he is good enough to race Smoke. However he has showed up late to "make an entrance" after Smoke has already beaten Dogg, who is after Smoke's crown (his helmet). Kid is arrested when racing Motherland, and the rest of the bikers manage to escape. Anita confronts Kid, saying that if he ever races again, she will kick him out of the house. Kid agrees.
One night at a Black Knights dance, Kid is "called out" to race Dogg and in fury, he accepts. Having said that, Anita finds Smoke before the race, and demands that he stop the race. Angry, Smoke confronts her and demands a reason, and she tells him that Kid is actually his son, not Slick Will's. Smoke successfully stops the race by punching out Kid and stealing his keys. This however only leads to a fight between the two, from which Kid comes off considerably worse than Smoke. Smoke then tells him that he is his son, to which Kid angrily goes home. He confronts Anita about this, who confesses that it's the truth. In a rage, he leaves home and heads to Tina, his girlfriend.
Kid decides to turn renegade and after gaining quite a few more followers for his club, announces that "we're gonna win more lids than any crew on the set and we're gonna out hustle every crew off the set" and indicates that from that point on, "Biker Boyz set their own rules." At this point the Biker Boyz get their own hangout and begin hustling several races, but when they go to the wrong part of town and Stuntman successfully hustles the nephew of a respected biker, Stuntman and Primo are ambushed at the next party. Kid comes to the rescue but is quickly over-powered as the leader of the other club pulls a gun on him.
Smoke and some of the other Black Knights intervene and convince the other bikers to stand down. Smoke takes Kid inside and sits down to give him a stern talking-to, but Kid shrugs it off angrily. It is at this point that Smoke agrees to race Kid. However, whoever loses will never race again. But first Kid has to race Dogg, but this time, they agree to race at the track.
On the race track, everybody shows up, including the Black Knights. At the race, Dogg and Kid race down, and Kid is going to win, but Dogg plays dirty and causes him to crash. Kid is alright, but his bike has been wrecked. Later that day, Smoke talks to Kid, and informs him that the authorities are going to close the track, due to many crashes, but he managed to rent a local farm outside of town to race on it. Kid agrees to arrive the next day.
Later that night, Kid, with Primo and Stuntman, are trying to fix his bike, but fail to do it. Suddenly, Dogg and his crew arrive at the motel, and Dogg's mechanic arrives and checks out the engine, and informs Dogg that not even he can fix it by tomorrow. Dogg informs Kid; "There are only 2 bikes as strong and fast as Smoke's, yours, and mine." Dogg offers Kid his bike, but only if Kid promises him that he will beat Smoke tomorrow.
On the day of the race, both the crew of the Black Knights and the Biker Boyz arrive. Smoke wants it to be a fair race, with no N20 system, and Kid wants Tina to start the race. Smoke and Kid are racing on a farm with open fields. With the finish line in sight, it is obvious that Smoke will win. However filled with emotions, he decides to slow down and let his son win the race, becoming the new "King of Cali." Kid tells Smoke to hang onto his crown for a while, and that he'll come and get it someday.
Kid rides off, repeating his sentiment that the difference between men and boys are the lessons they learn, and that his father taught him plenty. | action | tt0326769 |
The Sensei | A Woman Warrior returns home. A Boy struggles to become a Man. Two destinies entertwine. The Master will give the final lesson. And the entire town will be changed by...The Sensei."You have a right to defend yourself against hatred"The story centers around McClain, a homosexual teenager who recently lost his lover to a lynch mob in a small, rural town in Colorado. Afraid for his life, he frequently tries to enlist in martial arts classes at a local dojo, only to have his applications mysteriously (read: deliberately) vanish. To further matters, the local minister turns the sermon at an Easter mass from the passion and resurrection of Christ to matters of Sodom and Gomorrah at the very sight of McClain and his mother entering the church to join in the ceremony. In the dojo's defense, they turn young McClain away not directly because of his sexual orientation, but because they fear losing their students over the matter. In fact, the family that runs the dojo has had some acceptance issues of their own to deal with, not just because of being Asian, but actually because of being multi-ethnic, with Irish, Asian, and even Filipino members and relatives. They're also of mixed faiths, with the grandparents devout Buddhists and one of their sons a Christian actively involved with the local church. The family has a very proud tradition of teaching the martial arts throughout the generations, a tradition that sadly is not open to the women of the family, as we learn when we are introduced to Karen O'Neil (played by the film's director D. Lee Inosanto), a black sheep of the family who returns to town to settle a small matter which is revealed later on in the film. McClain is cornered in the locker room after gym class and savagely beaten by the school bully, recently suspended from the football team (a move that lost him his scholarship, and the respect of his ex-convict brother). Desperate, McClain's mother approaches Karen and asks him to teach her son some fighting moves, in the hope he might have a fighting chance at defending himself. Karen is reluctant at first, but agrees to private lessons (emphasis on private, as Karen was denied her black belt thanks to the family's proud traditions), wherein she forms a strong and lasting bond with McClain. The lessons are put to the test when a fight breaks out in the school cafeteria, instigated by the bully (out on bail and awaiting a court hearing). McClain is able to subdue the attack, only to earn the scorn of the bully's older brother, who blames McClain for his brother's now-repeated incarceration. Things go south for Karen when her family finds out she's been teaching McClain, with her older brother the most (and, it turns out, only) disapproving, and she considers leaving town. McClain is devastated by her decision, and his attempts to outrun the pain sets him in the sights of the bully's intoxicated brother and his motley crew of hicks and hillbillies. Karen manages to come to the rescue in time, and the two just barely manage to hold their own against the brutes. As a result, everyone is hospitalized, but a small misunderstanding about bleeding wounds drives a wedge between McClain and Karen, leading him to think she's just as homophobic as everyone else. Karen's family arrives (even her disapproving older brother, now mellowed a bit) and Karen reveals the reason she came back has to do with her husband's death. She tells McClain that her husband, a boxer she'd previously said died of cancer, in reality had AIDS and passed it on to her (hence her concern over getting too close to McClain after she's severely wounded in the fight). What follows is how all these revelations are reconciled by the families, friends, and community at large. | good versus evil | tt0454941 |
Blanche Fury | Blanche Fury, née Fullerton (Valerie Hobson) is in bed, very ill, giving birth. She starts remembering her life.She has been through several positions of employment before and lost them due to her independent nature. She is given one last chance to be the hired companion for a irritable rich old woman, Mrs Hawkes (Margaret Withers). However, she recieves a letter offering her another position and she leaves Mrs Hawkes after having given her opinion of what she thinks of her.She is the new governess at the mansion of the Furys with a far superior salary. There, she comes to terms with her distant cousins. Her task is to teach and accompany young Lavinia (Suzanne Gibbs). However, the most complicated man within the household is Philip Thorn (Stewart Granger). He's an illegitimate child of the late father of the family, and he's suing the family so that he can inherit everything.There is a gypsy encampment near the village. Phillip enlists her aid in recovering some horses that were stolen by the gypsies and she is attacked by some of them. She and Phillip fight their way free and escape with the horses successfully. This angers the gypsies into seeking revenge. Blanche falls in love with Philip, however, she prefers to marry the wealthy son of the family, Simon (Walter Fitzgerald). Philip is told by his lawyer that they couldn't find any proof of his mother having married secretly in Italy. He is then driven by the heritage that he feels in his blood and the legend of the symbol of the family that guards it. When a beloved old horse is shot and killed because she can no longer profit the owners with foals it is the last straw. Philip murders the father and son in the disguise of the gypsies. This is easily believed as the gypsies had plenty of motive and had tried to take vengeance before by burning the family barn and been caught. Blanche knows that he did it because she saw him at the window that night and she aided in the murder by not warning her husband and his son or calling for help as she was told to do.Philip undergoes a change in personality because of the murder. He begins to behave as if he were the master of the place, although Blanche tells him to be discreet. He tells her that the only thing which stops him from being master and commander is the little girl,Lavinia, but Blanche won't allow him to kill the innocent child who will inherit everything in time. She changes her testimony and accuses Philip of the murders after he encourages the little girl to attempt a dangerous jump with her pony, in spite of Blanche warning him not to harm the child. Philip is sent to the gaols.At the trial, Philip insists on defending himself. Blanche gives her evidence, and accuses him of plotting against Lavinia. However, Philip is defending himself well, so it seems as if it were just Blanche's imagination. However, Blanche asks for permission to sit down, as she is heavily pregnant. This makes Philip stop, he realizes suddenly that he is the father of her child, and that the child is going to have the opportunity of being the rightful inheritor of the mansion and all its privileges. So Philip allows himself to be convicted with no further defense.The day that Philip is executed Blanche tries to stop Lavinia who is determined to try the jump on her pony. The child is killed and Blanche carries her body back to the estate in grief. This provokes Blanche going into labour too soon. She will die, but the child will live and will be the sole heir of the estate. It is suggested that this has been fated from the beginning by the legendary guardian of the place and family and all is back in the hands of the rightful blood heir. | murder | tt0039195 |
Om Shanti Om | Set in the 1970's, Om Prakash Makhija (Shah Rukh Khan) is a junior artist in the film industry. He and his friend Pappu (Shreyas Talpade) are trying to become big heroes one day. Om's mother, Bela Makhija (Kirron Kher), inspires and encourages her son to become a hero. Om's whole family consists of junior artists. Om's love interest is the country's heart throb and the star of the film, Dreamy Girl, Shantipriya (Deepika Padukone).During the Dreamy Girl premiere, the pallu (scarf) of Shanti's sari gets entangled with Om's hand. Pappu steals an exclusive pass that belongs to Mr. Manoj Kumar to watch the premiere, but have to run out when the real Manoj Kumar appears. While being dragged out of the theater Om manages to get Shanti's attention and he swoons under her gaze.(He does this alot).During the shooting of film in which Shanti stars and Om is an extra, the set catches fire in an uncontrolled manner. Shanti is trapped inside the set and Om rescues her, hurting himself. After the incident, Shanti comes to thank him personally, and incidentally she overhears Om's love for her. They become good friends. Pappu says to Shanti that Om is a big superstar of south India film industry, and even calls her to watch him during a shoot. A hilarious scene of Om fighting the bad guys & a stuffed tiger in true South Indian style being shot by a fake crew occurs. However, the truth is revealed to Shanti that he is really a junior artist and not a big star. She tells him that she thinks that he is a star to her, and he can ask her to do anything he wants, except jump into a fire. He asks her to spend one evening together.Shanti comes to meet Om hidden in a muslim woman's burkha. Om asks Shanti to bring out her hand and ask for love to anyone she loves. After that day they often meet each other. Next day Om manages to pass security and tries to meet Shanti in her dressing room. He overhears that Shanti is already married to the producer Mukesh Mehra (Arjun Rampal). Mukesh first says that he wants to keep their marriage under wraps as a married heroine is not accepted in tinsel town. Mukesh also tells Shanti that he cannot officially accept this because a rich businessman is financing his upcoming film Om Shanti Om for which he requires 40 lakhs rupees. The truth is he is getting married to the daughter of the businessman. Shanti then reveals that she's pregnant & Mukesh is overwhelmed. Om gets heartbroken and tries to avoid Shanti.One night as Om is sitting near a set of Om Shanti Om he finds Mukesh and Shanti driving in to the set. Unknown to them, Om creeps into the set and sees Mukesh telling Shanti that he has decided to cancel the film and he is going to reveal his marriage with her to the public. He also tells Shanti that he will destroy the set after they have a marriage ceremony on it. Om hears all of this and leaves, unable to hear anymore.After Om is gone, Mukesh changes his behavior and he holds Shanti responsible for his financial loss and sets fire in the set of the film. Om sees Mukesh going away in his car & Shanti trapped inside, crying out for help. He tries to help her, but Mukesh's security guards beat him up. Even after the beating, Om tries to save Shanti by going into the set, but in vain. A blast occurs Om is thrown outside and he sees the set explode, killing Shanti. As he runs for help, he is hit by a car owned by Rakesh Kapoor (Javed Sheikh), a well known actor who was rushing his pregnant wife to a hospital. Rakesh takes him to the hospital, but Om dies.The film moves 30 years on after the incident. Om is reincarnated as Om Kapoor, son of Rakesh Kapoor, who was born right after Om Makhija dies and has a burn mark like the Om sign on his wrist (where Om had a tattoo). He is seen as a rising star, a star's kid, and a rich brat, who is also known as "OK". During the shooting, Om freaks out because of the special effects fire eruptions & it is revealed that he is terrified of fire.Om Kapur sees Om Makhija's mother running along side his car. He does not recognize her yet but she recognizes him. Deciding to move onto a new film project, he has his assistant set up a shoot for the next day. They choose the same burnt studio and set of the old Om Shanti Om. As soon as he sees it, Om gets the feeling that he has been there before. As Om visits the burnt set, he remembers everything about his past life. The Filmfare Award ceremony follows, in which Om wins best actor. During the party that follows, he meets Mukesh now Mikey, who has been a popular Hollywood producer for the past 25 years.Om goes to meet Pappu and Bela, Om's mother. He decides to remake the film Om Shanti Om with Mukesh as a way to trap him into confessing for his crime. During the audition for the role of Shanti, the crew meets Sandy or Sandhya, a look-a-like of Shantipriya who swoons the same way he used to swoon whenever he saw Shanti.Sandy is then trained to walk & talk like Shantipriya. Om lashes out at her when she starts laughing while she's reciting a serious dialogue. He then reveals is story to her & Sandy then says that she would've believed him anyway because she loves him.Om then takes Mukesh to the burnt film set (where he killed Shantipryia) to announce the beginning of the film. Here, Om tries to re-enact the whole murder with the help of the new cast of Om Shanti Om with a young actress who Mukesh often looks at with lecherous intentions. Sandy often appears to make Mukesh believe that Shanti has turned into a ghost & he begins to believe that he's going crazy.Later on at the launch of it's music release, Om does a song & dance number where he reveals the whole story. Suddenly a chandelier hits Mukesh's head, making him unconscious. After he wakes up, he finds there is no one in the set except him and Om. Om faces Mukesh and they started fighting. Mukesh reveals that he knows about the plan & his fake Shanti. Sandy appears and starts to speak lines which were not part of their plan, lines that nobody knew about. She reveals that Mukesh came back after burning the set to take care of her body and buried her underneath the set's floor even though she was still alive. Om realizes that she is actually Shanti's ghost when Sandy & his friends burst through the front door. The ghost Shanti kills Mukesh by making a chandelier fall on him. At the end, Om sees the ghost of Shanti tearfully bid him good-bye. She and runs up the stairs and disappears. It is implied that Om and Sandy (who was never the reincarnation of Shantipriya) get together in the end. | revenge, romantic, melodrama | tt1024943 |
Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa | Norwich radio station North Norfolk Digital is bought out by a multinational conglomerate, with staff members facing redundancies. DJ Alan Partridge is not concerned, but fellow DJ Pat Farrell convinces him to gatecrash a board meeting to persuade the new owners not to fire Pat. When Alan discovers that either he or Pat must go, he urges them to fire Pat, and writes "JUST SACK PAT" on the room's flip chart.
During a company party, Pat enters the station with a shotgun and holds the staff hostage, demanding his job back. The police enlist Alan as a negotiator, and he builds an uneasy rapport with Pat; with Alan's co-presenter Sidekick Simon, the three host a radio show during the siege. Alan daydreams of ending the siege heroically, but cannot bring himself to grab Pat's gun. As the siege becomes national news, Alan's assistant Lynn is persuaded to ditch her frumpy style for a TV interview, Alan's ego swells because of his pivotal role, and he shares a kiss with his colleague Angela.
Alan accidentally locks himself out of the building and loses his trousers trying to get back in through a window. The police realise he is an ineffective negotiator and send in an undercover officer disguised as a pizza delivery man. Alan interrupts and takes the pizzas in himself. When Pat discovers a taser in one of the boxes, an argument erupts between the hostages and the police burst in. Pat escapes in the station's tour bus, taking Alan and security guard Michael.
On the bus, Alan regains Pat's trust and they continue to host the radio show. However, Pat sees Alan's "JUST SACK PAT" message in a photo and deduces that Alan was behind his redundancy. Alan hides in the bus toilet compartment and escapes in the septic tank.
On Cromer Pier, Pat faces off with Alan and the police. Michael tries to distract Pat by throwing himself off the pier; he is never seen again. Pat tells Alan that he is depressed due to the death of his wife and prepares to shoot himself. Unable to pull the trigger, he gives his shotgun to Alan, who throws it aside. The gun goes off, shooting Alan in the leg; he is then shot again by a police sniper reacting to gunfire. Lynn arrives and thinks Alan is dead, but a paramedic assures him that he will be fine.
Alan returns to North Norfolk Digital with Sidekick Simon and Pat calls the show from jail. Alan goes on holiday with Angela and her sons. | revenge, comedy, satire, suicidal | tt0469021 |
Timequest | On the morning of November 22, 1963, a seventy-something man (Ralph Waite) who wears spacesuit-type clothing materializes in the hotel suite occupied by Jackie Kennedy (Caprice Benedetti). The Time Traveler shows Jackie future television footage of the assassination and funeral of John F. Kennedy (Victor Slezak). Shortly thereafter, the Time Traveler speaks to the president and to Attorney General Bobby Kennedy (Vince Grant), giving them details of their respective assassinations and of the public revelations of JFK's sex scandals. The Time Traveler, knowing Bobby's ways, won't state his name or his birthplace, but does mention that he was born on this day. The Time Traveler asks Jackie to dance with him; she does. (The Time Traveller is obsessed with Jackie Kennedy.) The Time Traveler and the three Kennedys drink a toast in the hotel suite just before 12:30 pm, which is the time that history is definitely changed (JFK is shot-JFK is not shot). At 12:30 the Time Traveler turns into nothingness, and the lead-crystal glass that he was holding, drops to the floor and shatters. Bobby finds a piece of glass with the Time Traveler's fingerprint on it. Lee Harvey Oswald (Jeffery Steiger) is captured, taken to Washington, and gives much info to the Warren Commission; as a result, the CIA is disbanded. Meanwhile, Bobby Kennedy is determined to uncover the Time Traveler's identity, but Jackie exacts an iron promise from Bobby that the Time Traveler-wouldbe will never be harmed. As it turns out, the Time Traveler-wouldbe is Raymond Mead (Joseph Murphy). At sixteen he commits a burglary, is arrested and put on a prison bus; his fingerprinting enables President Bobby Kennedy to know the Time Traveler's name. President Bobby has the teenager pulled off the bus, he talks to the kid, and he gives Mead a full pardon. Years later, when Mead has become an artist, an elderly Jackie buys many of his paintings. In 2001, after JFK dies of old age (and Jackie is already dead), youngest son James Robert Kennedy (Rick Gianasi) explains to Mead why the Kennedy family has been so generous to him. | alternate history | tt0238463 |
Pineapple Express | The movie starts off in 1937 when a car pulls up to an empty field with a large rock. Two men get out of the car, and lift the rock, which reveals a sewer opening. The climb down to a military facility and watch behind a two-way mirror as a soldier, smoking marijuana, begins to reveal very graphically what he hates about the army, but still remains very relaxed and happy. The higher-ranking officer immediately closes the project and deems marijuana ILLEGAL!Jump forward to the present is Dale Denton (Seth Rogen) in his car listening to talk radio, smoking pot, and giving his own advice to listeners. He is a process server and drives from client to client, changing into different disguises to more easily serve people court documents and collection notices. On his break, he visits his 18-year-old girlfriend Angie (Amber Heard) at her high school, and tries to avoid going to her house for dinner with her parents, who he has yet to meet. When they're discussing this, a teacher asks for his vistors pass and picks a fight with Dale, who responds very crudely, even giving him the finger several times (one of many funny scenes). Only after seeing Angie talking to good-looking male student does he finally agree to go to dinner.Leaving the school, he calls Saul (James Franco) to pick up some more weed. When he gets to Saul's place, Saul introduces him to Pineapple Express, a rare form of marijuana he got from his supplier Red (Danny McBride). Saul repeatedly tries to keep Dale from leaving, coaxing him with a cross-shaped joint, which creates a trifecta effect when all three points are lit at the same time. After they take a hit, Saul again tries to leave, but Saul begins asking questions about what he does. Saul explains, and tells him he's actually going to serve a man named Ted Jones (Gary Cole) right after leaving. Saul says his supplier Red gets his stuff from a guy named Ted Jones. It would be funny if it were the same guy.Dale gets to Ted's house, but parks to smoke a quick joint. As hes smoking, he notices a cop car pull up behind him, so he ducks down to avoid being noticed. A female cop (Rosie Perez) gets out and marches into Ted's house with her gun drawn. Dale gets freaked out when hears gunshots and looks up at the bedroom in time to see Ted and Carol (the cop) shoot an Asian man. He freaks out and tries to leave quickly, but repeatedly backs into Carol's squad car and another car before making his getaway. In his haste, he threw his joint out of the window. Ted and Carol hear the commotion and come outside. Ted sees the joint, takes a puff, and says, Pineapple Express.Dale gets to Saul's place, but doesn't get in right away because Saul keeps pressing the buzzer too quickly. When he finally gets upstairs, he begins to freak out and vomits on Saul's printer. Saul tries to calm him down, but them mentions Pineapple Express is really rare. Dale asks if he's the only person that has it in town. Saul says yes. Dale again begins to panic. They begin to run around the apartment, trying to figure out what to do. They get the weed, bring some snacks, get the hell out.Driving around, they decide to go nowhere, so they pull off into the woods, begin to smoke. Saul calls Red and tells him they'll be by at noon the next day. Red is not alone in his home. Ted sent his men, Budlofsky and Matheson, who call him to give him the news. Budlofsky is a quiet, white man whos married. Matheson (bouncer from Knocked Up) is a bigger, black man who keeps telling Budlofsky he's gone soft.Dale and Saul begin freaking out in the woods. They become paranoid their phones can be traced, so they decide to smash them. Dale smashes his on a rock, while Saul tries to throw his at a tree, but misses. As they're looking for the phone, Saul panics and thinks he hears something, so he begins running. Dale takes his cue and runs in the opposite direction. They both fall multiple times before making it back to the car. Dale turns on the radio to listen to talk radio.They wake up the next morning to find they slept till 4pm. Dale tries to turn on his car, but the batteries dead, so they have to hike through the woods. Funny sequence of them smoking in the woods and dancing. They hitchhike to Red's place, where Red invites them in for cake. It's obvious hes been beaten up, but he says he's got herpes, which disgusts Saul since they shared joints before. Red says he's going to call his wife; Dale starts to get suspicious and takes the phone. When he doesn't give it back, Red throws an ashtray at him. He and Dale begin to fight. When Dale has him down, he runs into the bathroom and throws it in the toilet. Red and Saul begin to fight and Dale joins in again. (Awesome scene!) They trash Red's house with all the fighting. Red manages to lock himself into the bathroom, and tries to use the phone. Saul and Dale break down the door, knocking Red into the sink, which breaks, and squashing him under the door with Dale on top. He calls time-out, which causes Dale and Saul to momentarily stop, then calls time-in, and throws Dale off the door and runs into his living room. Dale finally throws Red headfirst into a wall to get the fight to end.They duct tape him to his deceased grandfathers wheelchair, and pump him for info. He tells them about Matheson and Budlofsky and promises to help them get away. Just them, Matheson and Budlofsky knock on the door. Dale and Saul run out the back way and into an alley to hide. Red immediately tells Matheson and Budlofsky, who call Ted with the news. Ted tells them to kill Red, so they each shoot him in the stomach and leave. Ted begins to wonder if Dale works with the Asians he's at war with, who are camped outside his house. Dale realizes if Red tells Ted's guys who he is, then Angie's in danger since she has things in his apartment, so they run to Angie's house.When they get there, Dale goes in, looking and smelling horrible. Angie is upset with his appearance and lateness, and as he tries to explain the whole situation, her father goes to get his gun. When Saul notices Matheson and Budlofsky outside, he runs inside to warn them only to be stabbed in the shoulder with a fork by Angie. Dale explains Saul is the good drug dealer, his drug dealer just before her father arrives with his gun and begins shooting at them. Dale calms them down and gets them to leave the house before the others get there. He tells Angie to go to a motel on the other side of town and use the name Garagely. He and Saul hide in a tree for the night. They talk. Saul tells Dale he considers him a friend.The next morning, they decide to sell weed to make some money, so they sell a few handfuls to some high school kids. While Saul gets them food, Dale just sits back and smokes. A cop driving by catches him. She arrests him and alerts officers, including Carol, of their location. He explains the situation to her. She seems to believe him, asking him for more info. Saul sees Dale in the back seat and assumes the cop is Carol, so he creates a division while she's driving towards him. He throws himself on her car and throws cherry slushies at the windshield. When she gets out to see who she hit, he climbs into the driver's seat and reverses the car. She begins firing at them, and Carol tries to ram them from behind. A very funny car chase ensues. He cant find the wipers, so he kicks the windshield with his foot, only to have it get stuck, so he drives around with his foot through the window. They lose Carol by getting her to ram several cars and flip hers.When they get out of the car, Dale calls Angie to see how shes doing. They argue and basically break up. Dale suggests to Saul they stop smoking, so they can be more aware of whats going on. Saul disagrees and this leads to an argument between them, where Dale coldly tells Saul they aren't friends, which upsets Saul and causes them to go their separate ways. Saul goes to the park and cries as he eats a sandwich. Dale calls Angie, and cries he loves her and how important she is to him. She responds she loves him back, and explains how she kept thinking she wants to marry him. This immediately stops Dale from crying and causes him to backtrack what he meant, and how quickly they're moving. This just pisses Angie off and causes her to hang up on Dale. He then looks up the address of Saul's grandmother whos in a nearby retirement home.Saul arrives at the home and is surprised by Matheson and Budlofsky. As he tries to get away, he smashes a coffee pot in Matheson's face, but is tackled by Budlofsky before he can get away. Dale arrives to find the police taking statements from Saul's grandmother and other residents. He realizes Saul's with Ted's guys and goes to Red's house. He finds Red in his bathroom with noodles and a knife. He attempts to pump Red up to rescue Saul, but Red mentions he's been shot and is probably close to death. After a minute, he says what the hell and gets up to unveil his stash of guns. They arm themselves then take Red's Daewoo Lamas to the farmhouse where Red grows his marijuana, the same facility used in the beginning of the movie.At the farm, Matheson reveals he now has a terrible scar on the side of his face and attempts to attack Saul. Budlofsky forces him to lock Saul in a room downstairs, the same room where the soldier in the beginning was being observed. Dale and Red arrive, but Red chickens out and goes home. Dale busts in and holds one of Ted's men hostage, hoping to trade him for Saul. It fails when Budlofsky shoots the guy and also forces Dale into the room with Saul.While there, they talk and make up, which annoys Matheson since he heard from outside. When he leaves again, they attempt to break the ropes around their hands by using the buckle of Dales belt. The commotion sounds like they're having sex, which freaks out Matheson, who they attack. He fires a shot at Dale and then is shot by Saul. Dale is alive, but was shot in the ear (Think Evander Holyfield). They arm themselves with guns that are around, while the Asians attack Ted, Carol, and their men from above. A huge gunfight goes down. Carol covers Ted so he can go down and see whats going on, they kiss before he goes. Dale and Saul kill a few of Ted's men. Dale helps Saul into an airduct, but is shot at by Ted before he can make it up there too.Dale and Ted have a shootout, then a fight. Ted tries to bite Dale's ear, but realizes too late it's bloody. He screams in disgust, which gives Dale time to pummel. They hit each other with fire extinguishers, fluorescent lights and pipes. Just as Dales winning, an Asian guy throws a bomb towards them. They run to avoid it, but Ted is blown into a wall and killed.In the meantime, after Saul climbs out of the vent and he goes back inside the farmhouse and ends up fighting Carol. They have a pretty good fight, before he ultimately wins. Just as he is about to finish her off, Budlofsky fires a shot. He decides to go home to his wife rather than get more involved. As hes leaving, hes shot by Matheson, who is about to shoot Saul when he is rammed by Red's Daewoo Lamas. Hes doing a little victory dance when Carol shoots him several times. When shes about to shoot Saul, the explosion from below blows the car onto Carol, killing her. Dale climbs out, and notices his pants are on fire, so he takes them off. He then pulls an unconscious Saul out of the burning building.When he comes too, they get up in time to see the farmhouse explode. Oddly enough, Red crawls out, still alive. They celebrate their escape with breakfast at a nearby dinner. Red makes a joke about how hes probably dying, and as they take a moment to reflect on the miracle of their escape, he falls unconscious. They think hes dead, but he comes to when they call him. Sauls grandmother arrives and they climb into her car. | comedy, murder, violence, cult, flashback, romantic | tt0910936 |
49th Parallel | U-37, the first German submarine to reach Canada, sinks a merchant ship in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, then runs for cover in Hudson Bay. Captain Bernsdorff sends men ashore to capture a trading post - just before U-37 is destroyed by an RCAF bomber. Lieutenant Ernst Hirth, eager but inexperienced leader of the shore party, (comprising his resentful deputy Lieutenant Kuhnecke and the sailors Vogel, Kranz, Lohrmann and Jahner), follows his orders regardless. In the trading post, the Factor is updating French-Canadian trapper Johnnie Barras (just back from eleven months in the wild) on the outbreak of war when Hirth and his men burst in, injuring the Eskimo servant, Nick. After an edgy night, a radio ham from Grand Rapids, Michigan, calls up for his regular chess game with the Factor and Johnnie shouts an alarm into the microphone. Jahner shoots him, and he later dies. Knowing that a seaplane will come to the post to investigate, the Nazis plan to hijack it and fly to the neutral U.S.A. They take the plane (with much loss of life), but Jahner is shot by an Eskimo marksman as it takes off. Kuhnecke misjudges the plane's fuel reserves and dies when it crashes into a lake, still well north of the 49th parallel. The four survivors come upon a Hutterite community of émigré Germans, led by Peter. The gentle Vogel befriends the fifteen-year-old Anna and, impressed by the community's spirit, volunteers to bake its bread. Hirth takes the Hutterites for secret Nazi sympathisers and openly appeals for their help at a general meeting, where Peter angrily refuses him. While Hirth, Kranz and Lohrmann prepare to move on, Peter persuades Vogel to stay on as the baker. But Hirth returns and summarily executes him for desertion. The three Nazis reach Winnipeg, and learn that the Mounties are on their trail. They set off for Vancouver, intending to take a Japanese boat to Russia. Mounties suspect their presence at the Indian Day celebrations in Banff, and Kranz is arrested when he panics and reveals his identity. Hirth and Lohrmann proceed on foot across the Rockies and stumble into the camp of Philip Armstrong Scott, an English aesthete and academic researching the history and culture of the Blackfoot Sioux. They respond to his hospitality by burning his paintings, books and research notes and tying him up, but he breaks free and captures Lohrmann. The wounded Hirth hops the freight car of a train heading for the U.S. border and overpowers fellow stowaway Andy Brock, an AWOL Canadian soldier. The train halts at Niagara Falls and Hirth identifies himself to the U.S. customs officers, demanding to be taken to the German embassy. But Brock persuades them to classify himself and Hirth as "improperly manifested freight" and to return his carriage to Canada. Now disarmed, Hirth is no match for Brock's fists... | murder | tt0033627 |
Dick Tracy | During the film's opening credits, radio news broadcasts and newspaper headlines proclaim various gangland atrocities. As the action begins, a young street urchin (Charlie Korsmo), who calls himself "Kid," is seen eating out of a garbage can and hiding from the cops. The Kid witnesses an illegal poker game between five thugs at the 7th Street Garage. Suddenly, a car bursts through the brick wall of the building and guns down all the card players. The massacre is executed by Flattop (William Forsythe), one of Alphonse Big Boy Caprice's gun-happy hoods. Flattop leaves a calling card: he shoots a message into the brick wall with his tommy gun that reads "Eat Lead Tracy." Big Boy (Al Pacino) is expanding his crime syndicate by taking over new territory and exterminating anyone who stands in his way.Dick Tracy (Warren Beatty) and his girlfriend, Tess Trueheart (Glenne Headly), are at an opera performance when his wrist radio alerts him of the killings. He excuses himself and quickly heads for the 7th Street Garage. When Tracy, in his yellow overcoat and matching hat, arrives at the crime scene, he surmises immediately that Big Boy is responsible. Tracy returns to the opera and Tess. After the performance, he answers questions from various news reporters.The camera shows a cartoon-influenced-view of the city and zooms in to the Club Ritz as a female singer, Breathless Mahoney (Madonna), croons "Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)." Inside the club, Breathless continues her performance, accompanied on the piano by 88 Keys (Mandy Patinkin). As the club's owner, Lips Manlis (Paul Sorvino), slurps down a plate of oysters, one of his hoods reports that several of his men were bumped off and the others are getting very nervous. When Breathless joins Lips at his table after her performance, he compliments her singing, but she seems oblivious. (She's obviously his woman, but isn't thrilled with the arrangement). Soon the police arrive to arrest Lips for operating a gambling establishment; they also arrest Breathless. However, it is soon revealed that these are not real cops; they are Caprice's men.As Tracy and Tess walk down the street, Tess tries to convince her detective boyfriend to settle down to a less dangerous job, maybe a desk job. Of course, Tracy isn't interested in playing it safe.As they enter a diner, they are almost knocked down by the Kid as he flees the scene of his theft of a watch. Tracy chases after the kid, but seemingly loses him. The Kid takes the watch to a shantytown where he presents it to his ruthless guardian. Just after the man hits the boy, Tracy intervenes.The scene changes to Big Boy's hideout where he demands that Lips sign over the Club Ritz to him. Once Lips reluctantly signs, Caprice orders his hoods to give Lips a cement bath (a gruesome death of being completely covered in cement and dumped into the bay). Caprice takes Lips's girlfriend, Miss Mahoney, as his own.After rescuing the Kid from his abusive guardian, Tracy takes him back to the diner where the boy enjoys a wonderful meal. With the help of Tess, Tracy temporarily adopts the Kid. During their meal, Tracy gets a message on his wrist radio to come to the Southside Warehouse. Once he arrives, Tracy finds remnants of walnuts, Big Boy's favorite nuts.At the Club Ritz, Big Boy choreographs Breathless and a chorus line of girls in a rehearsal of "More." During the rehearsal, the film flashes back and forth from the song rehearsal to Tracy questioning Mumbles (Dustin Hoffman), one of Caprice's hoods.After questioning Mumbles, Tracy and the police head for the club to arrest Big Boy for Lips's murder. After the cops take Big Boy away, Tracy stays behind. He follows Breathless into her dressing room and asks her to testify against Caprice. Breathless attempts to seduce Tracy and he comes close to giving in to her feminine charms. She says, "You don't know whether you want to hit me or kiss me. I get a lot of that." When Tracy rejects her advances, she refuses to testify against Big Boy. Since she is the only witness, there isn't enough evidence against Caprice, so he is released.When Tracy returns to his apartment early the next morning, Tess is asleep in the living room while the Kid is sleeping in Tracy's bed. Tess seems very uncomfortable to be in a man's apartment, so she hurries back to her greenhouse. She claims she is expecting a shipment of delphiniums.Tracy and Tess get the Kid new clothes, and feed him all day. When they return to Tess's apartment, there is an attempted hit on Tracy, but it is unsuccessful.Miss Mahoney shows up at Tracy's office. (Apparently Tracy had telephoned her.) She is weainng a sexy dress. She says, "Thanks for calling. I was wondering what a girl had to do to get arrested." , Tracy responds, "Wearing that dress is a step in the right direction." Breathless agrees to testify against Big Boy, but only if Tracy gives in to her sexual advances. Even though he is obviously attracted to her, Tracy resists.At the Club Ritz, Big Boy brings together several local crime bosses, including Spud Spaldoni (James Caan), Pruneface (R.G. Armstrong), Ribs Mocca (Robert Beecher), Mumbles, Itchy (Ed O'Ross), and Numbers (James Tolkan). Tracy has secretly followed Breathless there and informs Pat and Sam. Big Boy proposes forming an organization with him as the Chairman of the Board and them as the Board of Directors. Spaldoni refuses and leaves the meeting. When he gets into his car, it explodes.Itchy and Flattop grab Tracy and bring him to a boiler room, where Big Boy is waiting. The Kid has stowed away on the car's back bumper. Big Boy offers Tracy a bribe. When Tracy refuses to cooperate, Big Boy instructs his hoods to kill him but make it seem like an accident. They cause the boiler to overheat. Just before it explodes, the Kid climbs through a small window and cuts Tracy loose.The Police Chief (Charles Durning) presents the Kid with an Honorary Detective Certificate with a badge for action in the face of grave danger. However, it is only a temporary certificate because the Kid needs to choose a real name. During the ceremony, the Kid presents Tracy with a policeman's badge he had found in the trash; it belonged to D.A. Fletcher (Dick Van Dyke).In a graveyard, Big Boy tells the D.A. in no uncertain terms that he owns him. Later, the D.A. tells Tracy that he has fourteen witnesses that will testify that Big Boy was at dance lessons at the time of Lips Manlis's killing.Breathless shows up at Tracy's apartment. Dressed in another slinky outfit, she asks, "Aren't you going to frisk me?" She's worried that if she testifies Big Boy will kill her. Just as she plants a kiss on Tracy's lips, Tess and the Kid arrive from a trip to the grocery store. When Miss Mahoney leaves, Tess cries in the kitchen.A person with no face, The Blank, offers 88 Keys $5,000 to give a letter to Big Boy that guarantees him protection for ten percent of his business. 88 Keys unsuccessfully tries to convince Big Boy that he has nothing to lose and should accept the offer.While Breathless sings a reprise of "Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)," Tracy leads a seemingly unsuccessful raid on Club Ritz, but it is only a cover. During the raid, one of Tracy's men plants a listening device in a back room of the club so Bug Bailey (Michael J. Pollard) can listen in on Big Boy's plans. As Breathless's song continues, a montage shows the police foiling numerous crimes due to information gathered from the bug. When Big Boy discovers the listening device, he uses it to lure Tracy. Tracy meets Tess at the diner where she tells him she is leaving town. During their meeting, Tracy gets a call that something big is going down at the Southside Warehouse. Of course, Tracy leaves Tess and rushes to the warehouse. Caprice has captured Bug Bailey and is bathing him in cement just like he did Lips. Tracy manages to save Bug. Just as Pruneface is about to kill Tracy, The Blank steps out of the shadows and shoots Pruneface. Big Boy now agrees to the proposal that 88 Keys had offered, but only if it includes killing Tracy.Heartbroken, Tess goes to her mother's house. While there, she has a change of heart and plans to return to Tracy, but before she can tell him, The Blank kidnaps her. Alone at the club, 88 Keys and Breathless sing "What Can You Lose?," a rueful song about unrequited love. 88 Keys is obviously in love with Breathless, but she has fallen for Tracy.Tracy and Breathless meet again at the docks and once again he asks her to testify. She demands that he admit he wants her. He finally admits that he thinks about her, but he won't say he wants her because it would hurt the one he loves.After receiving a phone call from The Blank, 88 Keys has a guy forge a letter from Tracy to the corrupt D.A. to meet him at a hotel with $10,000 because he has the goods on him. Then Tracy receives a message to come to Tess' greenhouse, but when he arrives, The Blank drugs him with hidden gas lines and he collapses. Then The Blank, in Tracy's yellow coat and matching hat, runs into the hotel and up the stairs to a room. He shoots the D.A. with a silenced gun, then 88 keys moves Tracy's drugged body into the room to frame him for the D.A.'s murder. 88 Keys screams threats that are overheard by the hotel manager, who telephones the police. Hotel residents and the manager then hear gunshots. Before The Blank exits by the window, he wakes Tracy with some ammonia. Tracy is arrested for blackmail and murder.Meanwhile, a lady from the orphanage comes to take the Kid. During a few scenes of him at the orphanage, he is miserable.Big Boy is back in business and thrilled. Against a montage of various gambling scenes and Big Boy raking in the dough, we hear "Back in Business" (performed by a girls' trio: Janis Siegel, Cheryl Bentyne and Lorraine Feather).From the orphanage, the Kid calls the Chief and tells him he knows Tracy didn't kill the D.A. The Chief picks the Kid up from the orphanage on New Year's Eve to visit Tracy in jail. The Kid tells Tracy he now has a permanent certificate because he has chosen a name: Dick Tracy, Jr.Sprung from jail by his colleagues on New Years Eve, Tracy sets out to rescue his girlfriend. The Blank calls the police and frames Big Boy for kidnapping Tess. Tracy gets Mumbles to tell him who set him up for the D.A.'s murder. Mumbles clearly states without mumbling that Big Boy paid 88 Keys to get Tracy out of the way. At a shootout outside the Club Ritz, the police and Tracy gun down most of Big Boy's men.Big Boy finds Tess in a vault. He takes her hostage and ties her to a drawbridge mechanism when he finds the drawbridge is up and can't escape. With some help from Breathless, Tracy trails Big Boy and Tess and confronts Caprice in the gear room of the bridge. After they fight, as Tracy is untying Tess, The Blank fires a warning shot at Big Boy. The Blank tells Tracy to pick up a pipe and kill Big Boy, but he doesn't. The Blank prepares to shoot Tracy, but the Kid tackles him. Caprice shoots The Blank. Tracy then socks Big Boy, which sends him falling to his death in the bridge's gears. Tracy rescues Tess. Beneath The Blank's mask, Tracy is shocked to find Breathless Mahoney. She tells him that he was her only mistake, and wonders if anything could have happened between them. She kisses him just before she dies. When Tracy finds Tess waiting outside, they embrace.Later at the diner, Tracy, Tess and the Kid share a meal. Tracy gives the Kid a wrist radio. Then he stumbles through a marriage proposal to Tess, but Pat interrupts on his wrist radio about a robbery in progress. As Tracy and the Kid leave to investigate, Tracy tosses Tess a ring and says, "You're one in a million."Madonna sings a reprise of "More" during the closing credits. | neo noir, murder, violence, alternate reality, good versus evil, romantic | tt0099422 |
Urusei Yatsura 5: Kanketsuhen | After falling asleep in class, Lum has a strange dream of a dark hooded figure coming to her as a child on her home planet of Oni. When Lum answers where she lives, the old man cackles with joy, claiming that he will come to claim her when she is older to take her to a dark place.Lum wakes from her dream and asks Ataru for console, but he refuses to listen to her concerns. Growing frustrated with his attitude, Lum zaps him and flies away. Eventually, Ataru encounters Sakura and Cherry, who soon after encounter 3 bad omens in a row: Sakura's sandal thong snaps, a black cat appears, and a hearse soon drives past.Back on her UFO, Lum receives a message from her parents, claiming they found her Great-Grandfather, who somehow had his sleeping chamber misplaced when the family moved some time before. Having never met his Great-Granddaughter, Lum's parents invite her to meet her elderly relative.Meanwhile. Ataru, Sakura, and Cherry have returned to Sakura's temple, and consult a crystal ball for more information about the bad omens they encountered. Lum soon appears in the crystal ball, and is slowly swallowed up in darkness. As Ataru leaves, Lum's words about the dream she had flash through his mind, and he rushes back to his home, only to find Lum gone. Lum's nephew Ten explains that Lum left, but does not say where to.Arriving at her parent's place, Lum finds her Great-Grandfather, who upon seeing that Lum is a girl, begins to sob uncontrollably. Noone can figure why this is, until a dark figure (whom Lum recognizes from her dream) appears at the door, and Lum recognizes the figure from her dream.Upon seeing the dark-cloaked stranger, Great-Grandfather then relates a story from a long time ago, where the dark figure came upon him, weak from hunger. Great-Grandfather was offered two mushrooms to choose from, one of which was poisoned. Great-Grandfather chose the poison mushroom, and in exchange for the antidote, agreed to let the dark-cloaked man marry one of his daughters. However, even though he was dying, Great-Grandfather tricked the old man, claiming he had only sons. The stranger then vowed he would return to claim the first daughter born into the bloodline, which now happens to be Lum. The cloaked figure claims that since he is too old, he intends Lum to be the bride to his Grandson, Rupa. This revelation is soon met with the family tossing the old man out of the house.The next day on Earth, Rupa arrives at Tomobiki High School looking for Lum. Upon finding her, he places a strange ring on her finger, claiming it will make her an adult sooner. Lum attempts to take the ring off, but it won't budge. It turns out that the ring is actually an accelerator mushroom that will cause Lum to mature to the point where she will lose her oni horns.This occurs the next day, and with Lum now being powerless, Rupa abducts her and Ten. Upon finding out, Ataru, Mendo, Oyuki and Benten 'borrow' Ran's spaceship, and head for Rupa's home planet. However, in the process of reaching The World of Darkness, Ran's ship collides with another, and both ships eventually arrive at the planet.Rupa is alerted to this, but when he sees the ship that collided with Ran's he suddenly demands that the wedding to Lum take place immediately! Lum's friends are captured, with the exception of Ataru, who managed to evade capture. Ataru soon encounters a dark-skinned girl with white hair, who demands he sign a marriage license to be wed to her, to which Ataru eagerly accepts.The two then head to the chapel where the girl, named Carla, attempts to open-fire on Rupa and Lum, claiming that Lum stole Rupa from her. In the scuffle, Rupa's Grandfather hides Lum in a hidden room, and uses a decoy to distract Carla and Ataru. Ataru asks the decoy-Lum to come with him, but she claims she wants to stay with Rupa. Carla again demands Rupa come with her, but when he refuses again, she threatens to kill him before she kills herself. The fight then escalates up to the roof where Lum has also come about.Rupa's Grandfather attempts to help him and Lum escape in a hot-air balloon. Lum begs Ataru to help her, but after being fooled by the decoy, he refuses to assist her. In the meantime, Lum's friends have managed to escape their confines, and Mendo manages to slice through the rope ladder that Rupa and Lum are on. Rupa lands safely, but Lum ends up falling over the side of the tower. Ataru falls after her, but as they fall they both argue that the other has been unfaithful. When Ataru claims that he is finished with her, Lum's horns manage to regrow, and she emits a large temperamental electrical charge, frying Ataru, before returning to the roof. She then claims she is going to stay with Rupa. | romantic | tt0096353 |
Chicken Run | The Tweedys are a troubled middle-aged couple who run their own chicken farm somewhere in a town in Yorkshire, England. Mrs. Tweedy (voiced by Miranda Richardson) is the ill-tempered brains of the pair, while Mr. Tweedy (voiced by Tony Haygarth) is slow, but he can handle the manual work industriously. The coop is run in the style of a World War II POW camp, with the chickens accountable for the number of eggs they lay daily. One chicken, Ginger (voiced by Julia Sawalha), who is often treated as the chickens' leader, has attempted numerous escapes, which she was aided by contraband smuggled in by a pair of rats named Nick and Fetcher (voiced by Timothy Spall and Phil Daniels). However, Ginger is routinely captured by Mr. Tweedy and his dogs and is later thrown into a coal bin for solitary confinement. Ginger is released from the coal bin just in time for roll call the next day. Mrs. Tweedy soon finds out that one chicken named Edwina had not laid any eggs that week. Edwina is beheaded to death and is later cooked for the Tweedys' dinner. Ginger becomes increasingly desperate to find a plan of escape which will work but faces problems with Nick and Fetcher, who are tired of being paid with chicken feed and want their own eggs instead.Mrs. Tweedy soon realises that the couple's farm is failing and reads a catalogue on an ambiguous method of increasing profits. Realising something is wrong, Ginger attempts to convince herself and the other chickens to speed up their efforts to escape. However, Ginger soon concludes that the only escape route is to go over the fence and something that she and the other chickens cannot do. That same night, as Ginger sits outside of the coop, she sees a Rhode Island Red cockerel named Rocky (voiced by Mel Gibson), who flies over the fence and accidentally crash into the coop. The other chickens also fawn over Rocky, while Ginger finds the first half of a poster with a picture of Rocky on it that appears to show that he can fly. After Ginger discovers that Rocky is from a circus, she agrees to hide him from his owners if he teaches them how to fly. Rocky reluctantly agrees, but says he cannot show them immediately because he injured his wing when he crashed into the chicken coop. Instead, Rocky puts Ginger and the other chickens through a set of exercises that seem to have no purpose, while assuring them that they are making progress.Suddenly, a large pie-making machine arrives at the farm, in which Mrs. Tweedy orders all food rations doubled. Ginger proclaims that their intent is to fatten them up and then kill them. Rocky and Ginger argue with each other, which Rocky claims that Ginger's honesty will demoralise the chickens, and Ginger refusing to lie to the other chicken. Discovering that the other chickens have gone into depression following Ginger's announcement, Rocky organises a party using a radio obtained by Nick and Fetcher. During the party, Rocky's wing is shown to have healed. Once their pie machine is complete, the Tweedys kidnap Ginger and later subject her to its first test. Rocky follows Ginger into the machine and rescues her by damaging the machine and giving him and Ginger more time to work on their escape. Fowler (voiced by Benjamin Whitrow), an older cockerel who has been doubtful of Rocky's acts, gives Rocky his respect for rescuing Ginger and his old Royal Air Force (RAF) badge in tribute. Rocky decides to flee the farm the next day, leaving behind Fowler's medal and the second half of his poster, which shows that he was actually a stunt cockerel who "flew" by being shot from a cannon. This revelation outrages and demoralizes all the chickens except Ginger. When Fowler arrives to try and restore order, he begins talking of his days in the RAF, leading Ginger to realise that she and the other chickens could fly out after all by using an airplane, built from the chicken coops, modeled after Fowler's pictures and personal recollections and constructed using tools supplied by Nick and Fetcher. The chickens race against time to assemble their plane as the Tweedys work to repair their pie machine.The chickens finally finish their plane just as Mr. Tweedy enters the coop to grab them. However, the chickens launch an open revolt by tying up and gagging Mr. Tweedy. As the chickens are preparing to depart, Mr. Tweedy frees himself and knocks down the ramp used to get the chickens' plane airborne. Ginger jumps down as Fowler turns the plane around, which knocks Mr. Tweedy unconscious. As Ginger struggles to lift the ramp, Mrs. Tweedy attempt to kill her with her hatchet. However, Rocky, who just returned after seeing a controversial ad for the chicken pies, jumps over the fence aboard his tricycle and hits Mrs. Tweedy in her face, which knocks her senseless. Rocky and Ginger grab onto the string of lights which was caught on the plane's landing gear as the plane departs. However, Mrs. Tweedy soon awakens and also grab the lights, which weighs down the chickens' plane. Ginger heads down the string to cut it and get rid of Mrs. Tweedy, but she accidentally loses her own scissors. Realising that it is the only way to cut the lights, Ginger manages to trick Mrs. Tweedy by using her hatchet to sever the string, which later causes Mrs. Tweedy to fall, crash into the pie machine, and plugging herself into the safety valve. The pie machine build up its pressure and explodes, destroying the barn, and covering the entire farm with gravy. The chickens continue to fly to freedom as Mr. Tweedy tells Mrs. Tweedy: "I told you they was organised". Mr. Tweedy later pushes the door on top of Mrs. Tweedy before she can lash on him.In the epilogue, the chickens are happily living in their bird sanctuary, where they can live in comfort and raise their new chicks. Rocky and Ginger fall in love with each other and later become a couple. Meanwhile, Nick and Fetcher discuss their plans of starting their own chicken farm, so they can have all the eggs they could eat. However, Nick and Fetcher ends up arguing with each other over whether the chicken or the egg came first during the film's closing credits. | cute, humor, entertaining, clever | tt0120630 |
The Naked Mile | Erik Stifler (John White) has a difficult time living up to his family name. He is Steve and Matt Stifler's cousin. He is perhaps the only Stifler about to graduate from high school as a virgin. The film opens with Erik feigning illness so that he can stay home and masturbate. Unfortunately, just as he is about to ejaculate, his parents and grandmother unexpectedly walk into the door and are hit with Erik's semen, after which his grandmother dies of a heart attack. Erik's dad later surmises that, as a Stifler, his son should be out having sex instead of masturbating. Erik's girlfriend of two years, Tracy (Jessy Schram), loves him, but is not ready for intercourse. Tracy decides to have sex, their first attempt goes horribly wrong, and she backs out of trying again.
Erik's friends Cooze (Jake Siegel) and Ryan (Ross Thomas) plan a road trip to visit Erik's cousin Dwight Stifler (Steve Talley) in Michigan during an event known as the Naked Mile. Tracy sees this as an opportunity to give Erik a "guilt free weekend pass," hoping that he can quench his lust and get sex out of his system since she is not ready.
As soon as Erik and his friends arrive on campus, they witness an over-the-top drinking contest where Dwight is crowned a campus champion. Later, they lose a rough game of football against a bitter rival fraternity composed almost entirely of midgets, and end up in a brawl with those same midgets on several occasions. The first night when the guys are at a college bar, Erik meets a college girl named Brandi (Candace Kroslak) who has a fetish for virgin boys, prompting Ryan and Cooze to make a bet with each other that Erik won't sleep with Brandi and will remain a virgin. At the same time, Ryan and Cooze end up getting turned down by a couple of girls they have met at the bar, Jill and Alexis, who are taken by a couple of the midgets.
The following morning, Dwight gets jumped by the midget fraternity in disguise while walking down the street, landing him in the hospital. Dwight tells the guys he probably won't make it to the Naked Mile, but yet still manages to make it right in time. Right away, he joins up with Erik, Ryan, and Cooze, who are at first reluctant to run, but when Brandi, Jill, and Alexis show up to run with the guys, they're finally prompted to strip down and run with the girls, and end up having a great time. Finally as Erik and Brandi reach the finish line, they steal a kiss, which is then caught on camera for a news report on TV. Watching the news report about the Naked Mile back at home, Tracy is upset and feels guilty that she allowed Erik the free pass. Her friends convince her to also lose her virginity before he gets back.
Later that evening, Erik realizes that he loves Tracy, confesses to Brandi that he can't sleep with her, and rushes back to see his girlfriend. When he gets to her house, Tracy's dad says she is at a party and Erik arrives at the party just as Tracy has headed upstairs, presumably to lose her virginity to her ex-boyfriend. Erik loudly pounds on the closed bedroom door, proclaiming his love for her. However, Tracy was not in the room because she had decided that she could not go through with her plans. The two decide that they should be each other's first, and they make love.
When Erik returns to the Beta house to pick up his friends the next morning, each boy shares stories of his experiences from the night before. The guys then ask Erik if he "sealed the deal" with Brandi that night, and Erik tells them no, prompting Ryan and Cooze to pay up on their bet, until Erik tells them about his adventure back home to make up to Tracy and finally lose his virginity. The guys are now proud of Erik for officially living up to the Stifler family name, and the three friends finally drive back to East Great Falls.
During the post-Naked Mile party, Dwight spots Vicky (Winkler), the girlfriend of Rock (Prentice), the leader of the midget fraternity, and the two of them head up to Dwight's room to have sex. Later, as the film closes, Dwight sent a DVD to Rock that reads, "Payback's a bitch." It reveals both Dwight and Vicky having sex, as Rock yells out, "Stifler!" As it turns out, Dwight and Vicky start dating, and they end up traveling the world together, as various postcard pictures show their many journeys together as the end credits roll. | romantic, flashback | tt0808146 |
The Gay Falcon | A high-brow detective attempts to stop crooks from running an insurance scam.Renowned Lady's man and amateur sleuth Gay Laurence AKA The Falcon (George Sanders) is going to forsake chasing dames and solving crimes for the sake of his fiancée Elinor Benford (Nina Vale). To please Elinor he and his sidekick Jonathan G. "Goldie" Locke (Allen Jenkins) agree to open a brokerage firm on Wall Street, but when Elinor asks him to go to a swanky soiree hosted by Maxine Wood (Gladys Cooper) to mingle with potential clients Gay refuses and after one day on Wall Street is ready for retirement. Gay returns home from the office to find the beautiful Helen Reed (Wendy Barrie) waiting to see him. Helen is the secretary of Wood and on her employer's behalf invites The Falcon to the same party Elinor wanted him to go to. She goes on to explain that some of Wood's parties have been plagued by jewel thefts and Maxine is particularly concerned about a diamond owned by Mrs Vera Gardner (Lucile Gleason) one of the guests. Unable to resist Gay accompanies Elinor to the party while instructing Goldie to infiltrate the event too.However, Elinor becomes angry when she realises why Gay changed his mind about attending the party and retaliates by dancing with one of the other guests Manuel Retana (Turhan Bey). In frustration, she grabs the flower from Retana's lapel and flings it at Gay. He calmly picks it up and attaches it to his lapel. Gardner then insists on dancing with Gay and while they are dancing she hands him her diamond secretly. Her action puzzles Gay greatly but before he can ask her about it she leaves the room. Moments later, a shot rings out, and she falls to the floor dead. The killer is seen by Goldie as he makes his getaway. Unfortunately, when the police arrive Detectives Bates (Edward Brophy) and Grimes (Eddie Dunn) arrest Goldie as a material witness as he was the only person in the room where Mrs Gardner was killed. Gay follows Goldie to the police station where he speaks to Inspector Mike Waldeck (Arthur Shields) and manages to convince him to release Goldie to act as bait to lure the killer out into the open.Helen meets them at the station and the three of them head off to Maxine's apartment to question her. They leave Goldie waiting in the car but while they are with Maxine, Goldie is snatched from the car by the killer Noel Weber (Damian O'Flynn). Gay tells Maxine that he suspects that Mrs Gardner was involved with a gang of jewel thieves led by Retana. Meanwhile, Weber takes Goldie to a nearby pinball parlour and orders him to phone The Falcon and make him an offer - the diamond for Goldie's life. As Goldie begins dialling the number a shot is fired and Weber falls down dead and when the police arrive they find Goldie with a dead body for the second time and re-arrest him. The Falcon returns home where Bates tells him that Goldie is once again being held on suspicion of murder and that Waldeck wants to speak to Gay back at Headquarters. Gay manages to give Bates the slip and the following day, while disguised as a tramp, he tries to apologise to Elinor who is furious because he left with Helen. She icily informs him that she has a date with Retana later that evening and never wants to see Gay again.By this point, Gay suspects Gardner must have arranged to have her diamond "stolen" so she could collect on the insurance. The flower was a signal, indicating to whom Gardner was to give the jewel. It should have been Retana but Elinor throwing it at Gay upset the scheme. Suspicious of Retana, Gay and Helen break into his apartment, but when he returns unexpectedly halfway through their search they are forced to hide outside on the patio. They observe Retana as he checks a secret compartment hidden behind a wall panel. Once Retana leaves Gay reaches behind the panel and finds the gun that killed Weber. Gay goes to the city morgue to examine the body of Weber and recognises him as the man pictured with Retana in a photograph he found during the search of his apartment. Meanwhile, as the police interrogate Goldie, Helen bursts in and confesses to Weber's murder and presents the Detectives with the gun from Retana's place. Once the police have identified the weapon as being that that killed Weber, Helen tells them all about Retana and tells them to go to the club where he is due to dine with Elinor. Gay phones Elinor at the club to warn her that the police are coming to pick up her host, but she thinks that Gay is trying to frame Retana because he is jealous so she warns him that the police are on their way. When The Falcon returns to his home he finds an armed Retana has tied up his manservant Jerry (Willie Fong) and is demanding the diamond, but when Helen unexpectedly appears at the door Retana thinks it is the police and flees.Meanwhile, back at the club Bates has arrested Elinor for obstruction and when she phones Gay from the police station he instructs Waldeck to meet him at Maxine Wood's apartment. There Maxine tells them that her life has been threatened, prompting Gay and Waldeck to promise to stay the night to protect her. Maxine retires for the night while the two guard her bedroom door, but Retana slips in through the bedroom window and threatens her. Gay and Waldeck break into the room but before they can get to Retana he collapses to the floor dead with a hypodermic needle laying by his side. Mike assumes he has committed suicide but Gay sees Maxine try to crush the hypo with her foot in order to destroy any fingerprint evidence. The Falcon declares that Maxine killed Retana, that she was married to Weber and the three of them comprised the jewellery theft ring. He goes on to explain that when she and Weber tried to double-cross Retana, he killed Weber and was about to do the same to her before she killed him with the hypodermic needle. Waldeck is amazed at how The Falcon has come to that conclusion but Gay explains that he was tipped off when Goldy was snatched from the car outside Maxine's apartment as she was the only person who could have known where he was at that exact moment and thus she must have been involved with the ring.They then all return to the police station where they release Elinor, but just as she is about to forgive Gay an attractive young woman arrives and asks The Falcon for his help in solving another crime. | romantic, mystery, murder | tt0033650 |
Mamma Mia! | === Act I ===
Before the curtain rises, the orchestra starts playing the overture, which is a montage of instrumental versions of some of ABBA's hit songs.
On the Greek island of Kalokairi, 20-year-old Sophie is preparing to marry her fiancé, Sky. She wants her father to walk her down the aisle ("Prologue") but does not know who he is. Sophie discovers her mother's old diary and finds entries which describe intimate dates with three men (Sam Carmichael, Bill Austin (Anderson in the film version), and Harry Bright) ("Honey, Honey"). Sophie believes one of these men is her father and, three months prior to the wedding, sends each an invitation to her wedding, writing in the name of her mother, Donna, without letting the unsuspecting mother know.
The day before the wedding, Donna begins receiving guests at her taverna. The first to arrive are her old best friends, Tanya, a rich woman who has been married and divorced three times, and Rosie, an unmarried, carefree woman. The trio used to be a girl group called "Donna and the Dynamos". The three women catch up and talk about how their lives have been ("Money, Money, Money").
Later that day, Sophie's three possible fathers arrive: Sam (an American architect), Harry (a British banker), and Bill (originally an Australian writer and adventurer, Swedish in the film, and currently American in New York and on tour). Sophie convinces them not to tell Donna that she invited them ("Thank You for the Music"). Donna is surprised to see her ex-lovers ("Mamma Mia") and leaves in tears. Donna, crying, explains to Tanya and Rosie the situation, and they cheer her up ("Chiquitita"). Tanya and Rosie try to convince Donna that she can still be the girl that she once was ("Dancing Queen").
Sophie had hoped she would know her father the moment she saw him, but is now only confused. She tries to tell her fiancé, Sky, how she feels without confessing what she has done. Sky tells her he will be the only man she ever needs ("Lay All Your Love on Me").
At Sophie's hen party, Donna and the Dynamos don their old costumes and perform a song, "Super Trouper". Sam, Bill, and Harry accidentally walk in on the party, and the guests persuade them to stay ("Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)"). Sophie first pulls Sam out of the room to talk to him. After he asks why he is here, she is overcome with guilt and goes to talk to Harry instead. But Harry asks if Sophie's father is at the party, and she tells him the whole truth. Lastly, she draws Bill aside to talk with him. She learns that Bill has an aunt Sophia who left all her money to Donna's family. Bill learns that Donna built the taverna with money she inherited from a friend she lived with when Sophie was a baby; that friend was Bill's aunt. They both think this means he is her father.
Sophie asks Bill to walk her down the aisle, but Bill wants to discuss it first with Donna. This has been her secret, after all. But no one knows yet that even Donna does not know who the father is, because she slept with the three men in such swift succession. Sophie insists they must not tell Donna anything ("The Name of the Game") and finally, Bill agrees.
Afterward, everybody crashes the hen party (including the guys from the stag party). Eddie, a stripper, has an erotic yet tasteful nude scene. During the striptease, Sam pulls Sophie aside and tells her he has figured out why she invited him. He knows he is her father and promises to walk her down the aisle the next day. Then, Harry approaches Sophie, apologizing for being so slow on the uptake; he is also convinced that she is his daughter and promises to walk her down the aisle. Sophie leaves the party, hopelessly confused; she does not want to turn any of them down ("Voulez-Vous").
=== Act II ===
(Entr'acte) Sophie's having a nightmare, involving her three possible fathers all fighting for the right to walk her down the aisle and wakes up despairing ("Under Attack").
Sophie's upset, and Donna assumes that Sophie wants to cancel the wedding and offers to handle all the details. Sophie is offended and vows that her children won't grow up not knowing who their father is. As Sophie storms out of the room, Sam enters and tries to tell Donna that Sophie may not be all she seems, but Donna won't listen ("One of Us"). She hates Sam; at the end of their affair, she said she never wanted to see him again. But it seems that Sam was the man Donna cared about the most, and both of them wish they could go back to the start ("SOS"').
At the beach, Harry asks Tanya what the father of the bride ought to be doing for Sophie's wedding. Tanya explains that for her part, her father gave her his advice and then paid. Pepper, one of the guys who works at Donna's taverna, makes advances to Tanya, but she rebuffs him ("Does Your Mother Know").
Sky finds out what Sophie has done in inviting Sam, Harry and Bill to the wedding. He accuses her of wanting a big white wedding only so that she can find out who her father is. He's very hurt that she kept this plan a secret from him. He storms off just as Sam walks in. Sam tries to give Sophie some fatherly advice by describing his failed marriage ("Knowing Me, Knowing You"), but Sophie isn't consoled.
Harry offers to Donna to pay for the wedding, and they reminisce about their fling ("Our Last Summer"). Sophie arrives and Donna helps her get dressed. She cannot believe her daughter is going to be a bride ("Slipping Through My Fingers"). Donna admits that her own mother disowned her when she learned that she was pregnant. They reconcile and Sophie asks her mother if she will walk her down the aisle. Sam arrives and tries to speak to Donna again, but she does not want to see him, and asks him to leave. He refuses, and a bitter confrontation ensues. Donna tells Sam that he broke her heart, presumably when she found out he was engaged ("The Winner Takes It All"). It emerges that the two still love each other dearly, albeit against Donna's better judgment.
Rosie is making final preparations in the taverna when Bill arrives. He's upset because he has received a note that Donna will be walking Sophie down the aisle. Bill reaffirms his commitment to the single life, but Rosie has become attracted to him, and urges him to reconsider ("Take a Chance on Me"). They are about to have sex in the taverna, but the guests arrive, leaving Rosie quite stunned.
The wedding begins, with Donna walking Sophie down the aisle. Before the priest has a chance to begin the ceremonies, Donna acknowledges to everyone that Sophie's father is present. Sophie tells her mother that she knows about her father. Donna realizes that Sophie invited them to the wedding for that very reason. The issue of Sophie's parentage is left unsettled, as none of them have any idea whether they are actually her father. Everyone involved agrees that it does not matter which one of them her biological parent is, as Sophie loves all three and they are all happy to be "one-third of a father" and a part of her life at last. Finally, Harry, who has made frequent references to his "other half" throughout the show, is revealed to be in a committed gay relationship.
Suddenly, Sophie calls a halt to the proceedings. She is not ready to get married and Sky agrees with Sophie about not getting married. Sam seizes his chance and proposes to Donna in order to prevent the wedding preparations from going to waste. He explains that he loved her, even when he left to get married. It is revealed that he called off the wedding with his fiancée and came back to the island, only to be told that Donna was going out with another man (Bill). He went back, married his fiancée and had children but he got divorced. Surprisingly, Donna accepts ("I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do"). In the end, Sam and Donna are married, and at the end of the night, Sophie and Sky depart on a round-the-world tour ("I Have a Dream") .
=== Finale and Encore ===
After their final bows to the audience, which are set to an instrumental version of "Does Your Mother Know", the ensemble performs a reprise of "Mamma Mia". A reprise of "Dancing Queen" follows, during which Donna, Tanya, Rosie are revealed wearing brightly colored ABBA inspired costumes. The cast ends the finale with "Waterloo", during which Sam, Bill, and Harry join the rest of the cast onstage in brightly colored costumes that match the leading ladies. The Dynamos and the Dads often invite the audience to clap, dance, and sing along during the finale. | cult, flashback | tt0795421 |
Life After Beth | In the opening shot, a woman named Beth Slocum (Aubrey Plaza) is walking through the woods while looking at her phone. She looks back, thinking she heard something, then continues walking.Her boyfriend Zach Orfman (Dane DeHaan) is out at the supermarket looking for black napkins. He has to settle for beige napkins. He goes to Beth's funeral, as she has died from a snake bite. Everyone gives Zach their condolences. Later, he goes to Beth's home to play chess with her parents, Maury and Geenie (John C. Reilly and Molly Shannon). Maury takes out a joint and smokes it with Zach. Zach admits that he and Beth had some problems in their relationship before she died. Maury says that Beth's last words to him was to stop being annoying. He tells Zach that they shouldn't let things like that define the entire relationship they had with someone. Geenie gives Zach one of Beth's scarves as a keepsake.Despite his family's advice to move on, Zach is still a wreck. The Slocums stop contacting Zach and ignore his calls. He goes over to visit them, but they won't let him in. One afternoon, he peeks through the window and sees what he thinks is Beth walking through the halls. Zach freaks out and pounds on the door. His brother Kyle (Matthew Grey Gubler), who is a security officer, comes over and threatens to have Zach arrested. To fuel his suspicions further, he visits Beth's grave and sees a big hole in the ground.Zach finally manages to get into the Slocum house, even as Maury tries to push him away. He sees Geenie trying to push Beth into the closet, forcing them to come clean. Zach is both elated and alarmed to see his girlfriend alive. Beth has no memory of being dead, claiming that she has a test to study for the next day. She also mistakes Zach's questioning as thinking he believes she cheated on him or that he wants to break up. Against her parents' orders, Zach decides to spend time with Beth, swimming with her and going to the park to have sex. He does happen to notice the snake bite in her skin, and she later goes home with a blistering sore on her cheek.One evening, Zach takes Beth to the beach. He begins to serenade her with a song he wrote, but she hates it so much to the point where it pisses her off. She starts breaking off the lifeguard stand, causing it to catch fire. Zach tries to calm her down and takes Beth back to the car. He barely turns around for a second before she breaks the window with her elbow, thinking he was already trying to abandon her.People in town start behaving oddly, exhibiting similar mood swings and spaced-out behavior like Beth. Needing a break from Beth, Zach goes to a diner. There, he sees an old childhood friend, Erica Wexler (Anna Kendrick). She sits with him and she gives her condolences to him over Beth. Zach has a hard time telling her what's going on and that he has now preferred that Beth stay dead. After they finish their meal, Zach accidentally runs Beth over with his car. She is okay, but when people try and help her, she screams at them and scares them off. She even frightens Erica after thinking Zach has replaced her. Zach then takes her to her grave and tells the truth about her death. This makes her angrier and she steals his car.Zach walks home and sees Kyle and their parents panicking, since Zach's dead grandfather is sitting in their living room, now a reanimated corpse. Then enters the previous owners of the house. Kyle tries shooting at them, but they don't go down. In fact, they're not flesh-hungry zombies, just cranky undead people. Maury then comes to get Zach and tell him that it's his fault this is happening since he went and told Beth about her death. He wants Zach to lie to her and tell her he made up the story about her death. They resolve to have Maury call their former housekeeper, Pearline, to see if she may know anything about stopping zombies, purely based on the fact that Pearline is Haitian. They go back to the Slocum house, where Beth breaks through the window and comes back with her face caked in blood. Zach brings her in the car.Zach goes to a motel to find Pearline, only to find her cousin there, who thinks it's offensive that anyone would assume they know about voodoo or zombies because they're Haitian. The cousin says Pearline had nothing to do with what's happening and that she quit working for the Slocums because Maury wanted her to walk around naked. Zach is left without any answers. Maury shows up, knocks Zach out, and takes Beth home.When he returns home, Zach finds someone in his home, who then runs away. Outside in the backyard are burnt corpses, leading Zach to assume his family is dead. He packs his bags and prepares to get out of town, though he has a change of heart and goes back to Beth's home. She has officially turned into a mindless bloodthirsty zombie, having eaten Maury which led to Geenie tying her to the stove. Zach convinces Geenie to let him take Beth with him. He tells her they're going on a hike. Outside, Kyle shows up, shooting any zombies in his path. He tells Zach that their parents are alive and are hiding in a safe house. He gives Zach his gun and tells him he needs to let Beth go.Zach takes Beth on a hike, when they get to a cliff and stop to check out the view. He tearfully apologizes for not doing all the things Beth wanted to do when she was alive. He tells her he loves her, and Beth is able to mutter "I love you too." He shoots Beth in the head, and her body tumbles down the hill with the stove crushing her as it goes down with her.Zach finds the safe house, reuniting with his family, and he sees that Erica has joined them after her own mother turned into a zombie. She was forced to kill her, leaving her traumatized. The news comes on, with a report that although things look messed up, people seem to be going back to normal.Zach's mom takes him and Erica to the graveyard where he visits Beth's and Maury's graves. He leaves Beth's scarf on her grave. They leave, and Zach asks Erica out to dinner. She accepts and smiles as his mom drives them away. | dark, comedy, violence | tt2581244 |
The Duellists | "The Duellists" is based on a story written by Joseph Conrad, which, according to the author, was itself based on a true story whose origins sprang from a ten-line paragraph in a small Southern France local newspaper. That brief paragraph reported the fatal ending of a duel between two officers in Napoleon's Grand Army. The two officers had fought a series of duels in the midst of great wars on some futile pretext. As the pretext was never disclosed, Conrad invented one.We are in 1800, in the garrison town of Strasbourg, on the Rhine. There is a lull in the Napoleonic wars, and the French soldiers are enjoying a moment of peace before resuming the slaughters. As the film opens, a young girl driving a gaggle of geese happens upon two men dueling in a meadow. Lieutenant Gabriel Féraud (Harvey Keitel), from the 7th Hussar Regiment, is in the process of settling a score with an unknown man who soon ends up skewered on the Lieutenant's épée. We learn that this man is the nephew of the Mayor of Strasbourg, and is seriously wounded, when General Treillard (Robert Stephens), Commandant of the garrison, enters his officers quarters and makes inquiries about this Lieutenant Féraud. Lieutenant Armand d'Hubert (Keith Carradine), from the 4th Hussar Regiment, admits to vaguely knowing the gentleman, and he is immediately "volunteered" by his Commandant to find him and bring him back to the barracks, where he will be put under house arrest. General Treillard, who must see that his soldiers obey the Emperors rules prohibiting combat with civilians, needs to investigate what happened in the meadow. It is somewhat ironical that Bonaparte, who spent a large part of his life dueling with the rest of Europe on a rather grand scale, involving tens of thousand of participants on both sides (but was somewhat of a dilettante when judged by present day's standards), had little respect for the same tradition on an individual level.D'Hubert, after looking all over town, ends up at Féraud's private quarters, where he learns that the Lieutenant is attending a soirée at the salon of Madame de Lionne (Jenny Runacre). At the salon, d'Hubert meets with Féraud and informs him of his mission. Féraud, having judged himself the insulted party in his morning duel, cannot comprehend the reason for his arrest. Further, he determines that d'Hubert has in turn insulted him by bursting into the salon of Madame de Lionne, disturbing him with the General's orders as he was talking to the lady. Féraud immediately challenges d'Hubert to a duel with sabers, which ends when Féraud is wounded. Now, not only has Féraud's forearm been injured, but his wounded pride demands satisfaction.From then on, for the next fifteen years, Féraud will be obsessed with the idea of settling his dispute with d'Hubert, holding him captive by Férauds tragic, ironic concept of honor.D'Hubert goes to meet his friend, an army surgeon (Tom Conti), asking his advice on how to get out of this messy situation. The surgeon tells him first, to keep away from Féraud, second, to always stay ahead of Féraud in military rank, since only duels between soldiers of equal ranks are tolerated and third, to rely on Napoleon for keeping the wars going, as there is no dueling during a state of war.Augsburg, one year later. Lieutenant d'Hubert meets an old girl friend, Laura (Diana Quick), one of the camp followers. She tells him she has an offer of marriage from a one-armed veteran, but they nevertheless resume their relationship. It happens that Lieutenant Féraud is in the same town, and of course they will duel again. Epées, this time. This encounter is not so lucky for d'Hubert, who ends up gravely wounded. Their seconds propose that now the honor of both parties has been saved, but The Duellists both refuse the opportunity for reconciliation. Laura nurses d'Hubert back to health, but after a face-to-face with Féraud and a subsequent consultation with a fortuneteller, she realizes that these duelists will go on until one of them is killed. If it is d'Hubert who is to die, she cannot see any future in their relationship. She decides to leave him and go and marry the disabled ex-soldier.Captain Féraud (he caught up in rank with d'Hubert, who was promoted earlier) and Captain d'Hubert meet in a third duel, again with sabers, in a cellar. The two combatants fight to total exhaustion in an inconclusive duel, and eventually, dirty and bleeding, must be separated by their seconds.Lubeck, 1806. Captain d'Hubert and Captain Féraud duel a fourth time, on horseback. It is Féraud's turn to be wounded, seriously enough to not be able to continue the fight to its conclusion. Laura reappears on the scene. She is now a widow, and had hoped to settle with her ex-lover, Captain d'Hubert, but she sees that this is just wishful thinking. D'Hubert, too involved in this dueling matter, remains deaf to her subtle suggestion that they resume their affair.Russia, 1812. The Emperor's Grand Army, defeated by the terrible Russian winter and the Russian battle tactics, is in retreat. Colonels Féraud and d'Hubert are now like grunts in the "sacred battalion," consisting of officers of all arms who had no longer any troops to commend. One night, around a campfire, they find themselves again face to face. They silently recognize each other. The next day, Féraud requests a volunteer to go investigate some Cossack activities in the nearby woods. The soldiers are so exhausted and despondent that Féraud had guessed rightly that d'Hubert would be the only one to follow him, with the ulterior motive of finishing their endless confrontation. Far from the camp they come face to face, each with a pair of pistols, but at that moment, a group of Cossacks appears and the two adversaries present a common front to fight them off. Following this, in a gesture of reconciliation, d'Hubert offers Féraud a drink from his hip flask, but the latter disdainfully walks away: "Pistols, next time," he says.Tour, 1814. Napoleon is in exile on the Island of Elba and the Bourbons are back in power with Louis XVIII. General d'Hubert is convalescing at his sister Leoni's home from a bad leg wound sustained during the campaign in France, fighting the Prussians. She suggests to her brother he ought to get married, and offers to introduce him to Adele (Cristina Raines), the niece of her neighbor, the old aristocrat Chevalier de Riverol (Alan Webb). After a short courtship, the two marry. D'Hubert is visited by a Bonapartist gentleman (Edward Fox), a friend of General Féraud, who tries to recruit him to aid in the planned return of the Emperor, but d'Hubert refuses.Following the "Hundred Days," the return of Napoleon to French soil, the Emperor is defeated at Waterloo, and definitively exiled to the Island of St. Helena. Louis XVIII is returned to the throne. Many known Bonapartists are arrested, including General Féraud, and these will be executed as examples. Upon hearing the news, d'Hubert meets with the Police Minister of the Second Empire, Fouché, now Duke of Otranto (Albert Finney), and requests Férauds pardon, a request that is granted. D'Hubert asks only that his intervention on Férauds behalf be kept secret.Having discovered d'Hubert's whereabouts, Féraud sends two of his ex-companions in arms to set up yet another, and hopefully, final duel. The Duellists meet at dawn, on d'Hubert's property, with pistols. Two shots each, fire at will. D'Hubert gets to fire the last shot, but instead of killing Féraud, he fires a bullet into the ground, and with this gesture becomes the rightful owner's of Féraud's life: "I shall simply declare you dead," says d'Hubert. The final scene shows Féraud, from the back, standing on a bluff overlooking the Dordogne River winding through the beautiful valley below. He stands wearing a two-pointed cocked hat and a long black, straight military capote, reminiscent of his Emperor's portraits on the Island of St. Helena - could it be "le petit caporal" (the little corporal), the Emperor himself, humiliated and defeated? It is the "end of the road" for Féraud: finally at peace, as he meditates on what has been his life. | violence, action, historical | tt0075968 |
The Stuff | Two miners (Peter Hock & Harry Bellaver) find a yogurt- and ice-cream-like substance that appears from inside the Earth's core in a kind of eruption. They taste it to see whether it's edible, and they like it a lot. They love the way that it tastes so much that they decide to mass-produce it and start selling it. From now on, it's known as the Stuff, the latest taste sensation.Jason's mother (Colette Blonigan) buys the product--suddenly it's everywhere, on commercials, billboards, at the supermarket.... The Stuff is usually kept in the fridge, but Jason (Scott Bloom) doesn't like this new product at all, especially because he saw it move all by itself inside his refrigerator. However, his mother doesn't listen to him. Soon, there is only Stuff in the household fridge, so that Jason feels more and more hungry and isolated. Jason's family was not a really good family before-at least toward Jason--but now they only talk, eat, and think Stuff.Finally Jason is contacted by ex-FBI agent David "Mo" Rutherford (Michael Moriarty). They recognize each other as people who have not tasted Stuff. They go to the main factory to try to stop them producing the deadly dessert. People become slaves of the Stuff, preferring that substance instead of food.Mo and Jason, and Nicole (Andrea Marcovicci), the designer of the strange substance's advertising campaign, start being attacked by people who have become addicted to the Stuff.Finally, they reach the factory. Mo and Nicole are given a tour around the factory, and the foreman tells them that they have a room paid for at the nearest motel. Meanwhile, Jason has trespassed, and he becomes trapped inside one of the distribution lorries.The most famous scene happens now when at a cheap motel, Stuff starts appearing from their mattress. First, it tries to suffocate David, but Nicole burns it. They run away, but a man obedient to the Stuff is the one who gets killed. Stuff overfloods the whole motel. Meanwhile, the lorry in which Jason is in starts moving, followed by David and Nicole. Jason tumbles all around inside. The lorry reaches its destination.Nicole and David see a stream of Stuff flooding from the core of the Earth, and being put inside the lorries without any filtering. David attaches some mini recording cameras to his ankles and then uses the yellow overalls of the Stuff workers. The Stuff creates weird milky structures.Stuff is being poured in the lorry where Jason is trapped in. David hears Jason talking to the Stuff, so he can free him. Meanwhile, Nicole is attacked by one of the workers while she is travelling to the meeting point with David, who saves her. Then, David comes back to take Jason from the lorry.A police officer stops the lorry which David is driving because the back door was open. David mentions that its' a pity that so much Stuff is getting wasted. Jason and Nicole pretend to eat it until the police officer also goes to eat some and David can knock him down.They reach a castle and some army guys will help them to take on the factory lead by Colonel Malcolm Grommett Spears (Paul Sorvino). They kill many factory workers but the Stuff overflows once again. Nicole and Jason run in the last second. The Stuff wrecks the factory. They want to broadcast from Atlanta so that everybody knows what the Stuff can do.
'Chocolate Chip' Charlie W. Hobbs (Garrett Morris) is a radio broadcaster who will help them because he has seen what people turn to after the Stuff has finished with them. However, he is one of them. He takes Nicole aside and opens his mouth and Stuff starts pouring out.Somehow, people believed what the Colonel said and they start turning against Stuff. They burn it and vandalise places which sale it.The owners of the Stuff want to comercialize it calling it The Taste, with enough Stuff on it to turn everybody's' mind addicted to it. David calls Jason, and he enters the room. Jason takes glasses and glasses of Stuff and they force them to eat it.The police arrive while the two owners eat and eat. They are already hooked on it and cant stop. David and Jason leave.Meanwhile, some criminals are buying loads and loads of their drug of choice, Stuff. | cult, comedy | tt0090094 |
The Specialist | In 1984, Captain Ray Quick and Colonel Ned Trent, explosives experts working for the CIA, are on a mission to blow up a car transporting a South American drug dealer. But when the car appears, a little girl is inside with the dealer. Ray insists they abort the mission, but Ned intends to see it through and allows the explosion to happen, resulting in the deaths of both the drug dealer and the child. Furious by the girl's wrongful death, Ray savagely beats Ned and flees, effectively resigning from the CIA.
Years later, in Miami, Ray works as a freelance hit man. Desperate people contact him via an Internet bulletin board and he takes the cases that interest him. Ray specializes in "shaping" his explosions, building and planting bombs that blow up only the intended target while leaving innocent bystanders unharmed.
He answers ads placed by a woman named May Munro and speaks to her often to decide if he should take the job or not. During the talks he becomes intrigued by her story, coupled with the fact that he sees how attractive she is while following her. She is the only child of parents who were killed by Tomas Leon and his men. Against his better judgment, and pushed by her insistence that she will infiltrate the gang with or without him, Ray is persuaded to accept the job. Even though he has agreed, May ingratiates herself into Tomas' world as Adrian Hastings.
Ned now works for Joe Leon, Tomas' father and director of their mafia organization. Once the hits on their lower level guys begin, they contact the chief of police to place Ned in their bomb squad. May tolerates Tomas and plays along as his girlfriend so she can watch the hits one by one. It is revealed after the second target is killed that May has actually been forced into a partnership with Ned, whose goal was to coax Ray out of hiding. After the job in South America went wrong, Ned was dismissed from the CIA and is intent on revenge.
When the trap for Tomas is set, May is in the room; the resulting explosion appears to kill them both. When Ned goes to Joe to pay his respects, he is left alive only so he can find Ray and bring him to Joe before Tomas is buried. Both Ray and Ned believe that May is dead, yet Ray discovers that bulletin board messages are still being posted. He responds to one, quickly realizing that it is a trap set by Ned and the bomb squad, and baits Ned into an explosive tirade.
When he goes to the funeral of Adrian Hastings, Ray finds that May is alive. She went to the funeral to see if Ray would attend. They go to the Fontainebleau Hotel where they have sex, after which she leaves. Meanwhile, Ned has gone to the church and learns that the person in the casket is not May. She runs into Ned in the hotel lobby and makes an excuse as to why she did not tell him that she was alive. A henchman is ordered to take her to the car and on the way she asks to use the restroom. Once there, she uses a cell phone to warn Ray. He rigs the hotel room to explode, and when Ned's henchmen enter the room it detonates, breaking the entire room off into the ocean.
In a final showdown, Ray and May are cornered in Ray's own booby-trapped warehouse. Ned pursues them, but is done in by his own hubris when he steps on a bomb. After the entire warehouse goes up due to the chain of bombs exploding, it appears that all inside have been killed.
The next day Joe reads about the incident at the warehouse. He then opens the mail brought to him and finds a necklace. It contains a picture of May's parents, which then explodes. After hearing the blast and knowing all responsible for her parents' death are dead, Ray asks how she feels, to which she responds, "Better." | suspenseful, neo noir, murder, cult, violence, flashback, revenge | tt0111255 |
Wild Geese II | Africa, 1977In a brief flashback to the previous movie, veteran British mercenary Allen Faulkner trains and then leads a group of 50 hired soldiers in an attempt to rescue deposed President Julius Limbani from the fictious African country of Simba. After initially being successful, the mission begins to fall apart, double-crossed and caught in the open, an enemy plane strafes Faulkner's men. With what few men remain Faulkner looks to escape the country in an old Dakota aeroplane. With only his best friend Rafer Janders is left to board the plane, Janders is shot in the leg and can't catch the taxiing plane. As the hoardes of ferocious Simbas are virtually upon him, Janders calls for Faulkner to kill him, which he regretfully does.London, 1982As the only surviving Nazi leader in captivity, Rudolf Hess (Laurence Olivier) has secrets that could destroy the careers of prominent political figures, secrets an international news network will pay any price to get. As the aged Alex Faulkner (Edward Fox) arrives for a meeting, Robert McCann (Robert Webber) is arguing with Michael Lukas about the delay of a planned rescue of Rudolf Hess. Faulkner is escorted into the office where he meets Michael and Kathy Lukas (John Terry and Barbara Carrera) where they show him a brief video tape and offer to let him name his price to rescue Hess. At first Faulkner thinks they are joking, but when he finds out they are serious, he tells them about the possible consequences of Hess's rescue. Faulkner refuses the offer but recommends John Haddad (Scott Glenn) to them as a substitute. As former Lebanese-American soldier-turned-mercenary Haddad avoids Palestinian hitmen in London. Later, network executives Kathy and Michael Lukas hire Haddad to free Hess and get him safely out of West Berlin.When Haddad arrives in West Berlin he stakes out the outside of Spandau as a jogger while being spied on. He drafts plans of the outside of the prison including guard towers and entrances. The next day Haddad joins a construction team and sneaks away to get into the prison guard entrance. Carefully eluding the guards by studying their timed patrols he drafts floor plans of the hallways and cell blocks. When he leaves the prison with the construction crew, Haddad is abducted by East German spy Karl Stroebling. Tortured into telling Stroebling about his mission, Haddad escapes and survives by overpowering the thugs and rolls across the street being barely missed run over from an oncoming truck as the police arrive as witnesses to the incident. While recovering in hospital, Haddad is visited by British Colonel Reed-Henry (Kenneth Haigh). Reed-Henry questions Haddad but to no avail; he leaves Haddad but suspects he is there to rescue Hess. Haddad leaves the hospital and along with Kathy goes to Bavaria to plan the mission without interference from Stroebling. Haddad enlists his old mercenary comrade Colonel Alex Faulkner to watch his back. Faulkner, a former British Army officer, is working as an assassin and is an expert marksman.As romance between Haddad and Kathy blossoms, the trio return to West Berlin to find that Reed-Henry will help Haddad release Hess. Once again Stroebling's thug's attempt to kill Haddad, but this time Faulkner helps him kill all but one of them. Meeting with Reed-Henry to discuss his plan, Haddad agrees to hand over Hess to the Colonel in exchange for help from Regimental Sergeant Major James Murphy (Paul Antrim). Murphy, an ex-warden at Spandau prison, informs Haddad of the prison routine and helps make the mercenaries look like British Royal Military Police. Stroebling offers to remove a contract on Haddad's life in exchange for Hess and the death of Faulkner. Haddad refuses and Stroebling leaves, frustrated.As the plan is finalised with the News network, Reed-Henry and Stroebling each believing they will receive Hess. Part of the plan involves a staged traffic accident so Haddad employs a fair ground wheel of death rider, Pierre (Malcolm Jamieson) to perform the deliberate crash. Attempting to (subjugate) Haddad into a vulnerable position using blackmail, Stroebling kidnaps Kathy. In exchange for guaranteeing her safety, Haddad must have a member of Stroebling's gang Patrick Hourigan (Derek Thompson) join the rescue group. Haddad and Faulkner are now joined by Kathy's brother and Lebanese mercenaries Joseph and Jamil. The group now including Hourigan are trained by Murphy. During one of Faulkner's fever spells, Hourigan substitutes Faulkner's medication with LSD tablets causing hallucinations. Hourigan taunts Murphy about an IRA ambush he participated in. Murphy shoots Hourigan dead, putting Haddad in a dilemma over Kathy's existing safety. Haddad enlists his final team members, Arab businessman Mustapha El Ali (Stratford Johns) and his employees, to do a couple of minor parts of the rescue. To appease Stroebling, Haddad offers Michael as extra insurance.Launching a coup that will change the shape of the world, Haddad must also rescue Michael and Kathy from the clutches of Stroebling. Michael creates a diversion for him and Kathy to escape but he is killed during the struggle when the guard retrieves his handgun and shoots him. Moments later Haddad kills the guards and rescues Kathy. The plan goes ahead as scheduled but Pierre is killed in the flaming wreck from the staged accident. Hess is sedated with an anasthetic, and switched with the look-alike corpse from the other ambulance and placed into a waiting jeep. At the rendezvous point at the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial Reed-Henry tries to intercept Hess, but discovers that he has been duped into killing Stroebling disguised as a guard. Kathy, Haddad and Faulkner take a drugged Hess to and from a soccer game with international passengers to their plane flight, and escape from being caught by murdering a customs officer. Reed-Henry confesses to his superiors that Hess has escaped with his rescuers and is nowhere to be found. He accepts execution via being shot with his own pistol from his superiors as his punishment.EpilogueHaddad, and Kathy and Faulkner take Hess to a hotel in Vienna, Austria where he awakens to find himself in an unfamiliar environment. Although he is offered the best hospitality, he insists on knowing why he was drugged while Kathy talks to McCann about the rescue and Michael's death. Hess, knowing that he is being exploited, overhears the conversation and tells Kathy, Haddad and Faulkner that he has no desire to be a part of modern society. Haddad and Faulkner try to talk him into accepting his freedom, but he insists on going back to Spandau to live the rest of his life. The following day Haddad, Kathy and Faulkner take Hess to the French embassy where he turns himself in. An article of a newspaper in the following days tells a story about a false rumor of Hess's escape. | cult, violence | tt0090323 |
Scary Movie 5 | Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan get together to make a sex tape with over 20 cameras beside Sheen's bed. The time-lapsed tape fast forwards through the two doing all sorts of bedroom antics, including gymnastics, riding a horse, and having clowns jump in under the sheets. Sheen is pulled into the air by a paranormal force and thrown against walls, shelves, and doors until he lands on the bed again. Lohan is frightened so she decides to go home when she flies into the air as well; she becomes possessed and throws Sheen into the camera and kills him. The text explains that Sheen's body was found that day but he didn't stop partying until days later, and that his three kids were found missing, Lohan was arrested, again, and a reward was put out for the missing children.
Several months later, Ja'Marcus (Snoop Dogg) and D'Andre (Mac Miller) are walking in the Humboldt County woods in California in search of cannabis plants to steal. After stealing one and fleeing, they take shelter in a cabin in the woods. Upon entering they see three strange creatures, later confirmed to be Sheen's children, and turn them in for the reward. The feral children are placed in isolation at a child development research center for a few months until they are deemed well enough to be returned to familial custody. When Sheen's brother, Dan Sanders (Simon Rex) and his wife Jody (Ashley Tisdale) come to collect them, they are told they can have them if they agree to stay in a large suburban middle-class home fitted with security cameras. Jody is reluctant to take the kids at first but soon adjusts to having them. In an attempt to bond with their new children, Jody auditions for a ballet performance, Swan Lake, and is cast in the lead role as the Swan Queen.
Meanwhile, a continuing pattern of bizarre paranormal activity in their new home makes them investigate further. They eventually learn from the children that the attacks on their home are by "Mama", the mother of the children, who is under a curse and is trying to get them back so she can sacrifice both herself and the children. Maria, the couple's Hispanic live-in maid, is frightened and keeps experimenting with various rituals, Catholic and otherwise, to ward off the evil spirits in the house. During the day, Dan is frustrated with the modest progress of his test subjects at a primate intelligence research facility; ironically, Dan is not bright enough to realize that one of the chimpanzees, Caesar, is now actually much smarter than he is.
Jody and Dan, with the help of Jody's close friend Kendra Brooks (Erica Ash), who Jody met at her ballet class, must quickly find a way to lift the curse and save their family. Along the way, they seek the assistance of psychic Blaine Fulda, who turns out to be a complete fraud, and a dream extractor named Dom Kolb (Ben Kornish), who helps them understand that the solution to their problems lies in the mysterious Book of the Evil. However, Jody and Kendra fail to see what the book is capable of, oblivious to four friends continuously becoming possessed and reviving in the cabin. They wreak havoc when either of the two read the two passages of the book; one that unleashes demons, "gort klaatu barada nikto", and the other that revives them from possession. When "Mama" takes the children to a cliff to sacrifice them, Jody fails to lift the curse with the book, but does manage to knock the evil spirit into Ja'Marcus and D'Andre's pool containing a live shark, which then devours her.
Realizing the love for her adopted children is all she needs in life, Jody gives the part of the Swan Queen to Kendra, who performs the dance in the style of a stripper. The performance is heavily applauded by an audience that includes Jody, Dan, the children, and Madea. The story's narrator is revealed to be Caesar, who then informs the audience that the humans should enjoy the time they have on earth and says that apes will one day take over the world.
In a post-credits scene, Sheen wakes up, with Dom Kolb sitting beside him, from a dream extraction, i.e. the whole movie was a dream. After Kolb informs that Sheen will be sleeping with Lohan, a car crashes into the room, killing Sheen. Lohan is revealed as the driver; she gets out of the car, says to Kolb "You were driving" and throws him the keys, blaming the accident on him. | paranormal, entertaining, flashback | tt0795461 |
Subsets and Splits