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Safety Not Guaranteed | Darius Britt (Aubrey Plaza) is a disillusioned college graduate who lives at home with her widower father (Jeff Garlin) and interns at Seattle Magazine. One of the magazine's writers, Jeff Schwensen (Jake Johnson), proposes to investigate a newspaper classified ad that reads:
Wanted: Somebody to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. P.O. Box 91 Ocean View, WA 99393. You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed. I have only done this once before.
Jeff's story idea is approved by his boss, Bridget (Mary Lynn Rajskub). Jeff selects his team, made up of Darius and a man named Arnau (Karan Soni), the latter of whom is a studious biology major interning at the magazine to diversify his resume. They travel to the seaside community of Ocean View to find and profile the person behind the ad. Jeff later reveals an ulterior motive for this assignment: to track down a long-lost love interest who lives in town.
Darius discovers that the person behind the ad is Kenneth Calloway (Mark Duplass), a stock clerk at a local grocery store. Jeff's attempt to approach Kenneth alienates him, so Jeff orders Darius to make contact. Darius' disaffected attitude serves her well, and she quickly endears herself to Kenneth as she poses as a candidate to accompany him on his mission. While Kenneth is paranoid and believes that "secret agents" are tracking his every move, Darius gains his trust as she participates in a series of training exercises in the woods around his house and begins to develop feelings for him. She tells Kenneth about the death of her mother when she was young and that her mission is to prevent it. Kenneth says his mission is to go back to 2001 and prevent the death of his old girlfriend Belinda, who was killed when someone drove a car into her house.
Meanwhile, Jeff tracks down Liz (Jenica Bergere), his fling from his teenage years; although she is not as attractive as his memories of her younger self, they reconnect and sleep together. He asks her to come back with him to Seattle, but she believes this is just another fling for Jeff, so she refuses. Upset by her rejection, Jeff takes Arnau out on the town, and they pick up some young women. Jeff tells Arnau to not waste his youth and convinces him to spend the night with one of the women.
The next morning, Jeff receives a phone call from Bridget, who has been following up the team's notes on the story; she informs him that Belinda (Kristen Bell) is still alive. During an interview, Darius learns Belinda was only friends with Kenneth and that Kenneth had driven into her then-boyfriend's house, but no one was injured. After the interview, Darius is questioned by two government agents who have been following Kenneth and believe that he may be a spy because of his communication with government scientists.
Darius returns to Kenneth's house to confront him about Belinda, but Kenneth rationalizes that his time traveling must have worked. Jeff then comes in to warn them that the government agents are also on the property. Kenneth panics and runs into the woods. Darius follows him and finds Kenneth has boarded his time machine, which has been integrated into a small boat. Darius apologizes for lying to Kenneth, tells him everything else they shared was real, and joins him on the time machine. Kenneth tells Darius that his mission has been updated, saying he now wants to go back for her. As Jeff, Arnau and the two government agents watch, Kenneth activates the time machine and it disappears, along with himself and Darius. | entertaining, romantic, cute, sentimental, flashback | tt1862079 |
Rampart | The film opens as Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Officer Dave Brown (Harrelson) patrols the Rampart Division. Brown is a 24-year veteran of the force, who previously served in the Vietnam War. While training a new officer, he roughs up a suspect to find the location of a meth lab. After work, he goes home to his two daughters and two ex-wives, who are also sisters (Heche and Nixon). After dinner, he goes to a piano bar where he picks up a stranger and has a one night stand.
The next day, he is t-boned in his patrol car. When he checks on the driver who hit him, the driver flees from his car, hitting Brown with his door as he exits. When Brown catches the driver, he brutally beats him, and the assault is captured by a bystander. The video creates another controversy for the LAPD, which is already besieged by the Rampart scandal. The Assistant District Attorney (Weaver) urges Brown to simply retire. He refuses and outlines his defense. Over the course of the film, it is revealed that Brown studied law and failed the bar exam, but he remains extremely knowledgeable about case law.
Back at the piano bar, Brown picks up a lawyer named Linda (Wright), after first determining that she is not surveilling him. Later he meets with ex-cop Hartshorn (Beatty), who suggests that Brown was set up to distract from the Rampart scandal. As the LAPD exerts more pressure on Brown, he retains legal counsel. Soon after, his ex-wives ask him to leave their houses so that they can sell them. Brown meets again with Hartshorn and mentions his need for cash. Hartshorn tips him off to a high stakes card game happening later that night at the Crystal Market.
While Brown surveils the card game, it is knocked off by two armed men. Brown pursues the men. He kills one of them and lets the other go. He then stages the scene to make it look like he was shot at. He realizes that a homeless man nicknamed "General" (Foster) witnessed the whole thing from his wheelchair. As another investigation into Brown heats up, he goes to a hotel and blackmails the concierge into giving him a room by threatening to arrest the concierge for running a prostitution ring in the hotel. Next, he blackmails a pharmacist into giving him an assortment of drugs.
When he meets with Hartshorn to give him a cut of the money from the card game, Brown asks for the source of Hartshorn's tip about the game. He suspects that he was set up again. Hartshorn refuses to name his source. Brown then meets with General in a parking lot to make sure that he will not testify about witnessing the shooting. The next day, an investigator with the District Attorney, Kyle Timkins (Cube) surveils Brown, who confronts him. Brown insists that he is not a racist, merely a misanthrope.
Brown grows increasingly paranoid and reliant on drugs as the pressure on him mounts. When he meets with Hartshorn again, he pulls a gun and accuses Hartshorn of setting him up. The elderly man scuffles with Brown a little bit and then has a heart attack. Instead of calling an ambulance, Brown leaves him to die. Back at the hotel, Brown's two daughters drop off some dry cleaning at his room, and he confesses to his younger daughter that everything she has heard about him is true.
Brown summons Timkins to a meeting and tapes a confession in front of him. He admits that he has been a dirty cop, and that in 1987, he killed a business acquaintance. He justified the murder because he knew the man was a serial rapist, which is why he got away with the extrajudicial killing. Timkins refuses the confession, insisting that he will arrest Brown for his most recent murder. The film ends with Brown revisiting his family and staring at his elder daughter on the front porch before disappearing into the night. | boring, murder | tt1640548 |
King Kong | In 1933, in New York harbor Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong), a fierce independent film director famous for shooting animal pictures in remote and exotic locations, who is also a shifty showman, has recruited a bunch of macho seamen but is unable to hire an actress for his newest project His usual agent Charles Weston (Sam Hardy) refuses to supply anyone because of the dangerous nature of the expedition, so Carl goes wandering in the streets of New York searching for a suitable girl.He chances upon starving unemployed Ann Darrow (Fay Wray), as she is caught trying to steal an apple. Denham is taken with her, pays off the grocer , then buys her a meal and tries to convince her to join him on the adventure of a lifetime, offering her the lead in his project. Although Ann is apprehensive, she has nothing to lose and agrees.They set sail aboard the Venture, a tramp steamer, and travel for weeks in the direction of Indonesia, where Denham claims they will be shooting.Despite his ongoing declarations that women have no place on board ships, the ship's first mate Jack Driscoll (Bruce Cabot) is obviously becoming attracted to Ann. Denham informs Driscoll he has enough trouble without the complications of a seagoing love affair. Driscoll sneers at the suggestion, reminding Denham of his toughness in past adventures.Denham's reply outlines the theme of the movie he is making: "The Beast was a tough guy too. He could lick the world, but when he saw Beauty, she got him. He went soft. He forgot his wisdom and the little fellas licked him."One afternoon Carl wants to practice filming with Ann. As he rolls the camera, he tells her first to look around relaxed, then to look puzzled, surprised, look upwards, then further upwards, terrorized and speechless, finally to scream loudly for her life, while staring at the most horrifying thing she has ever seen . . .After maintaining secrecy for weeks, Denham finally tells Driscoll and Captain Englehorn (Frank Reicher) that they're searching for an uncharted island shown on a map in Denham's possession. The island has three labeled features: "peninsula", "jungle", and "Skull Mountain". Denham has the only map that shows the location, originally drawn by a native of the island who had been swept out to sea.Denham then describes something monstrous connected to the island, a legendary entity known to the islanders only as "Kong". The Captain has heard of something with that name.As the Venture creeps through the fog surrounding the island, the crew hears drums in the distance.Arriving at the island's shore, they see a native village on a peninsula, cut off from the bulk of the island by an enormous wall.A landing party, including the filming crew and Ann, goes ashore and encounters the natives, who are about to hand over a girl to Kong as a ritual sacrifice.Although Denham, Englehorn, Jack and Ann are hiding behind foliage, the native chief (Noble Johnson) spots them and approaches. Captain Englehorn is able to understand the native speech, and at Denham's urging makes friendly overtures to the chief. However, another tribe member (Steve Clemento) rushes up to the chief and tells him that the presence of outsiders has spoiled the ceremony. While translating this to the rest of the party, Englehorn says he must be the witch doctor.The chief then gets a clear look at Ann, and he begins speaking with great energy. Englehorn translates this as, "Look at the golden woman!" The chief proposes to swap six native women for Ann, an offer Denham delicately declines as he and his party edge away from the scene, assuring the chief that they will return tomorrow to get better acquainted.Back on the Venture, Jack and Ann openly express their love for each other. When Jack is called away to the captain's quarters, a stealthy contingent of natives captures Ann, takes her back to the wall, where she is presented to Kong in an elaborate ceremony, leaving her tied to columns behind the wall.Kong emerges from the jungle and is revealed to be a giant gorilla.The Venture crew returns to the village and open the huge gate on the wall; half of the crew then go after Kong, encountering an enraged stegosaurus, a brontosaurus, and a territorial apatosaurus. They get on a makeshift raft to cross a body of water, which is upended by a giant plesiosaurus.Up ahead in a jungle clearing, Kong places Ann in a high cleft of a tree, then goes back and confronts his pursuers as they are crossing a ravine on an enormous log. Kong shakes them off into the ravine, with only Driscoll and Denham surviving.Driscoll, continues the chase while Denham returns to get help.. Kong has become smitten with Ann, and Driscoll faces a challenge to save her from the beast and avoid being killed himself.Meanwhile, a tyrannosaurs rex approaches a terrified Ann, whose screams alert Kong, who rushes back and confronts the tyrannosaurus. The titanic fight between the two ends when Kong pries open the dinosaur's jaw until it breaks.Kong takes Ann up to his mountain lair, where a plesiosaurus emerges from a bubbling swamp and tries to strangle Kong, who kills it as well.Kong then inspects his blonde prize and begins to caress her, tearing off pieces of her clothing and tickling her.Jack interrupts the proceedings by knocking over a boulder. When the gorilla leaves Ann to investigate the noise, a pteranodon swoops from the sky and clutches Ann in its talons. A final fight ensues and the pterodactyl is dispatched.While Kong is distracted, Jack rescues Ann and takes her back to the village. To escape, at one point, they must jump into a deep pool of water many feet below.Kong chases them, breaks through the large door in the wall and rampages through the village, killing many natives.Denham hurls gas bombs at Kong, knocking him out, whereupon he exults in the opportunity presented: "He's always been King of his world. But we'll teach him fear! We're millionaires, boys! I'll share it with all of you! Why, in a few months, his name will be up in lights on Broadway! Kong! The Eighth Wonder of the World!"The next scene shows those last words in lights on a theater marquee. Along with hundreds of curious New Yorkers, Denham, Driscoll and Ann are in evening wear for the gala event. The curtain lifts, and Denham presents a subdued and shackled Kong to the stunned audience.All goes well until photographers, using the blinding flashbulbs of the era, begin snapping shots of Ann and Jack, who is now her fiancé. Under the impression that the flashbulbs are attacking Ann, Kong breaks free of his bonds and escapes from the theater, as the screaming audience flees.He rampages through city streets, destroying an elevated train and killing several citizens. He looks into windows, his glaring eyes looming in the windows of the wrecked elevated trainKong sees Ann in an upper floor hotel room, he reaches in the window, grabs her, and carries her to the top of the Empire State Building. The military dispatches four Curtiss Helldiver biplanes to destroy Kong.The ape gently sets Ann down on the building's observation deck and climbs atop the upper mast, trying to fend off the attackers.He manages to swat one plane down, but he is mortally wounded by machine-gun fire and plummets to his death in the street below.Denham picks his way to the front of the crowd, where a cop remarks "Well Denham, the airplanes got him."Denham replies, "It wasn't the airplanes. It was beauty killed the beast." | depressing, thought-provoking, cult, violence, horror, action, romantic, suspenseful | tt0024216 |
Saving Silverman | Darren Silverman, Wayne LeFessier, and J.D. McNugent, best friends since fifth grade and Neil Diamond fans throughout, form a Neil Diamond tribute band called "Diamonds in the Rough". Darren meets a beautiful but domineering psychologist who is showing signs of being emotionally abusive, Judith Fessbeggler, through a chance encounter in a local bar after a band gig. Unfortunately, six weeks into their relationship, Judith is still making Darren watch her change clothes, and though sleeping together is satisfying for her, Darren gets nothing but a sore jaw. Judith isolates Darren from his friends, demands that Darren quit the band, receive humiliating medical procedures, and attend relationship counseling under her care. Wayne and J.D. decide to save Darren from her by attempting to bribe her, arm wrestle her, and shock her with faked photographs of Darren cheating, all to no avail.
The friends, undaunted, try to reunite Darren with his "one and only", Sandy Perkus, when she returns to Seattle to take her final vows as a nun. When Darren and Judith announce their engagement, Wayne and J.D. kidnap Judith. However, Judith eventually discovers the identity of her captors, and the duo are convinced they cannot let her go. When they visit Coach Norton in jail (who accidentally killed a referee in a fit of rage) his advice is that they should just kill her. The duo attempt to shoot Judith, but end up deciding against it. Sandy's feelings for Darren are reawakened, but the pair's attempted date is ruined by Darren's preoccupation with Judith. Sandy, disheartened, returns to the convent, but Darren snaps out of it and runs the 30 miles there to win her back.
Chained to an engine block in Wayne's garage, Judith convinces J.D. he is gay. She knocks him unconscious to steal his keys and escape, only to be tranquilized with a dart gun by Wayne. Returned to the garage, Judith seduces Wayne into releasing one of her hands, so she escapes again. She runs to Darren's house in time to see him kiss Sandy, but shames him into confessing his engagement to Judith. Sandy, disheartened, returns to the convent again. Darren has Wayne and J.D. arrested. After escaping from jail with the help of Coach Norton, J.D. and Wayne rush to the convent on the brink of Sandy's final vows as a nun. They convince her that Darren still loves her. They then kidnap Neil Diamond to help Darren and Sandy reunite. At the wedding, Neil stalls the proceedings with the song "Hello Again" while Darren and Sandy reunite, Wayne and Judith (the latter being furious that her wedding is ruined) beat each other up (as love play) and J.D. arrives holding Coach in his arms, who coincidentally reveals to J.D. that he too is gay. The couples then wed on stage at Neil Diamond's concert; Darren to Sandy, Wayne to Judith, and J.D. to Coach. As the film closes, the entire cast sings "Holly Holy". | violence, comedy | tt0239948 |
Born to Win | The film starts with a thirty-old not-very-good-looking man preparing some joints.Days and nights are touch and go for JJ (George Segal) a petty thief and heroin addict who runs errands and commits robberies to support his habit.He met his girl friend Parm (Karen Black) one night while stealing her car. They have a sexy-kinda conversation and Parm lets him to sleep in her flat. They will stick together through everything JJ gets involved in. While delivering a package of illicit drugs for local drug dealer and pimp Vivian (Hector Elizondo), JJ decides to steal it but is caught by the police. He runs away and hides inside a laundramat dryer machine, but detective Danny (Robert DeNiro) puts the machine to work and waits for him to go out non-chalantly.Finally caught, the police agree to let him go if JJ turns "narc" and sets up the Geek in a sting operation with detective Danny (Robert De Niro), something Jay Jay doesn't want to do because he feels it will ensure his death. JJ arranges a meeting between himself and Vivian. Vivian tells him to go to Kennedy airport the following morning at 9 o'clock for a 800-dollar package.Before doing the "deed", he goes to sleep with Parm, and she says she loves another man during the fastfood dinner they share, but then she says it's a joke. The next morning, when JJ leaves for the airport, she wants to go with him as she is afraid that something dangerous is going to happen to him. JJ tries to convince her to stay at home, saying that it'll a twenty-year sentence for her if she gets caught. Parm threatens him to shout so much that the neighbours will call for the police, so he has to take her with him.A businessman-dressed man (Vic Ramos) gives JJ a briefcase with the drug in the parking of the airport. Parm and that man eye each other with distrust. The exchange happens at another parking, and when Parm asks whether the maffia is involved, the answer is "no". The police appear and they have to run away. Parm is taken by the police, but JJ is left free. The drug dealers hit him until they are convinced hes' telling the truth. The boss dealer tells JJ to undress, and that he'll get his clothes back when he is capable of returning the drugs. They give JJ a fancy and glamurous lady's nightgown and he is imprisoned in one of the rooms of their flat. From there, JJ tries to say something to his neighbrours. The two lady neighbours, a young girl (Jane Elder) and her mother (Diane Molneri), they finally call the police because they think he's a pervert of some kind.When the police arrive, the ensuing shooting gives an opportunity for JJ to escape, dressed in the women's nightgown. He goes to an exclusive executive clothing shop, and he dresses himself up with a pair of trousers and a nice shirt. The shop assistant (Max Brandt) realises that something weird is going on, but JJ asks him what he's gonna do about it and leaves with his new clothes on, with the price tags still on them.He goes to Parm once again. In the snowed freezing beach they are alone, hugging and kissing. He says he wants some payment for his twenty-year spenditure. Parm asks him what he really wants, if money is so important to him. She hummers a tune, a soft ballad. Parm ends up hugging him as if he were a baby.JJ feels the need, his habit kicking back in. He has to go to the diner which is the front for petty drug dealing business. There, in the back yard, JJ wakes his friend Billy (Jay Fletcher) from his drugged sopour. With some difficulty, they find somebody eager to sell them some drugs. They want to share them, so they go to a public restroom. While JJ is preparing his dose, Billy takes his dose first and they immediately make him feel sick. JJ tries to take Billy to hospital but as soon as they reach the lift Billy drops dead. JJ runs away leaving Billy's body in the lift, preventing the lift doors to close. JJ runs like a maniac through the streets until he gets to Parm's flat.JJ and Parm decide to leave New York and on the way they are stopped by the police who arrest Parm for possession of drugs. The police officer in civilian clothes accompanying Danny (Ed Madsen) says that Parm looks like a hooker. They search Parm's car without a warrant. JJ shouts so another police officer punckes him in his belly. She was driving and it was her car, so she is taken in the back seat of the police car.JJ is left alone, without anywhere to go to or lie down. The gossip has spread and nobody wants to sell shit to him. In a seedy bar, JJ has to beg for some drugs. Even Vivian's girlfriend Veronica (Paula Prentiss), feels sorry for him. She still feels some warmth towards him, but the harsh reality of life prevents her from trying to help him in any way.JJ is given some drugs by Geek, but the former feels sure they are bad and that they are designed to kill him. However, he is also so driven by his addiction and the film ends with JJ freezing while sitting in a park bench, tremble half because of the freezing cold and half because of his need for drugs.What will he decide? | melodrama | tt0066856 |
Beginners | In 2003, 38-year-old Oliver Fields (Ewan McGregor), a somewhat solitary graphic artist living in Los Angeles, is quietly grieving after the death of his father, Hal (Christopher Plummer). Two months after Hal's death, Oliver is in a state of functional depression. He had adopted his father's beloved Jack Russell terrier, Arthur, and brings him along nearly everywhere as he cannot bear to hear the dog cry when left alone in the house. Oliver's friends talk him into attending a costume party. With Arthur in tow, Oliver attempts to brave the social gathering. Dressed as Sigmund Freud, Oliver sits by a couch and gives impromptu psychoanalysis to party-goers who ask for it.One of his "patients" is a young woman (Melanie Laurent) who communicates using only a notepad and pen. Despite the speech barrier, they form a bond and Oliver is able to enjoy the rest of the party. As he prepares to take Arthur home, Oliver shyly gives the woman his number. Moments later, as he walks to his car, she calls him and speaks using a code of telephone beeps. They go to her hotel room, where Oliver falls asleep in his costume.The next morning, still using her notepad, the woman explains that she is an actress and must travel to New York for filming. She asks to see Oliver again when she returns, and he happily agrees.During his childhood, Oliver was close with his mother, Georgia (Mary Page Keller). His father was often emotionally absent, which caused tension in the marriage. Years later, Oliver found out that his parents had known about Hal's sexuality from the beginning. Georgia came from a Jewish family and was discriminated against while growing up during World War II, and Oliver realized the emotional pain that surrounded his parents, living in an era when such significant elements of their characters were taboo.It is only after Georgia dies during Oliver's mid-thirties when Hal finally confesses his homosexuality to his son. Having hidden that side of himself for decades, Hal is free to embrace it at age 78 by becoming very active in the local gay community and entering into a relationship with a younger man. Soon afterward, Hal is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Oliver stayed by his father's side as his health declinedThe young woman, Anna, returns to L.A. and reunites with Oliver. Oliver is initially hesitant about letting her into his life after a string of failed relationships, but reconsiders when Anna (now speaking) proves to be a smart and understanding person. As their relationship progresses, they reveal painful details of their pasts. Eventually, a smitten Oliver invites Anna to move in with him.A home life together proves to be more stressful than either Oliver or Anna expected. Anna is overcome with emotion at such a large change, which is exacerbated by her worn-down nerves from talking to her depressed and suicidal father, who constantly hounds her with phone calls. Anna tearfully agrees that living with Oliver is not working out, and she returns to New York. Oliver is devastated at the breakup.Some time later, Oliver resolves to contact Anna again. He flies to New York and knocks on the door of her apartment. Receiving no answer, he calls her cell phone and she explains with some amusement that she had not left L.A. since their breakup. She tells Oliver where her spare key is located, and he lets himself into her empty apartment. She gives him a tour over the phone, similar to the tours Oliver gave to Anna and Arthur when they first entered his house.Arriving back in L.A., Oliver invites Anna over. She greets him and Arthur with reserved happiness. Sitting on the bed, Anna and Oliver glance hopefully at each other, timidly contemplating starting their relationship over again. | depressing, dramatic, cute, flashback, autobiographical, romantic | tt1532503 |
Bad Day at Black Rock | In late 1945, one-armed John J. Macreedy (Spencer Tracy) gets off a passenger train at the isolated desert hamlet of Black Rock. It is the first time in four years that the train has stopped there. Macreedy is looking for a man named Komoko, but the few residents are inexplicably hostile. The young hotel desk clerk, Pete Wirth (John Ericson), claims he has no vacant rooms. Macreedy is threatened by Hector David (Lee Marvin). Later, Reno Smith (Robert Ryan) informs Macreedy that Komoko, a Japanese-American, was interned during World War II.
Certain that something is wrong, Macreedy sees the local sheriff, Tim Horn (Dean Jagger), but the alcoholic lawman is clearly afraid of Smith and is impotent to help. The veterinarian and undertaker, Doc Velie (Walter Brennan), advises Macreedy to leave town immediately, but also lets slip that Komoko is dead. Pete's sister, Liz (Anne Francis), rents Macreedy a Jeep. He drives to nearby Adobe Flat, where he finds a homestead burned to the ground and wildflowers. On the way back, Coley Trimble (Ernest Borgnine) tries to run him off the road.
When Smith asks, Macreedy reveals he lost his left arm fighting in Italy. Macreedy says the wildflowers at the Komoko place lead him to suspect that a body is buried there. Smith reveals that he is virulently anti-Japanese; he tried to enlist in the Marines the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, but failed the physical.
Macreedy tries to telephone the state police, but Pete refuses to put the call through. Doc Velie admits that something terrible happened four years ago and that Smith has everyone too terrified to speak up. Velie offers Macreedy his hearse to leave town. Hector rips out the distributor cap and spark plug wires. Macreedy goes to Hastings' (Russell Collins) telegraph office and writes a telegram addressed to the state police. At the town diner, Trimble picks a fight with Macreedy, but Macreedy uses martial arts to beat him up. Macreedy tells Smith that he knows Smith killed Komoko and that he was too cowardly to do it alone, so he involved Hector, Pete, and Coley; Macreedy also warns that when Smith's hoods eventually realize they're being played by Smith one of them will turn against him.
When Macreedy goes to the hotel lobby, Smith and his henchmen are already there, as are Doc Velie and Sheriff Horn. Hastings arrives and tries to give Smith a piece of paper, but Macreedy snatches it away and discovers that it is his own unsent telegram. Macreedy and Doc Velie demand that Sheriff Horn do something. When Horn tries, Smith just takes away his sheriff's badge and pins it on Hector. Hector tears up the telegram form.
After Smith and Hector leave, Macreedy reveals that the loss of his arm had left him wallowing in self-pity, but Smith's attempt to kill him has reinvigorated him. Macreedy finally reveals why he is there: Komoko's son died in combat while saving Macreedy's life. Macreedy intended to give his posthumous medal to Komoko. In turn, Macreedy learns that the elder Komoko had leased some farmland from Smith, who was sure there was no water there. Komoko had dug a well and found water. After Smith was turned down for enlistment after Pearl Harbor, he and the other men spent the day drinking, then decided to scare Komoko. The old man barricaded himself inside his home, but the men set the place on fire. When Komoko emerged ablaze, Smith shot him.
Later, Macreedy and Doc Velie devise a plan for Macreedy to escape under the cover of darkness. Hector is standing guard outside the hotel; Pete lures him into the hotel office, where Doc Velie knocks him out. Liz drives Macreedy out of town in her Jeep, but stops in a canyon. Macreedy realizes he has been betrayed. When Smith starts shooting at him, Macreedy hides behind the Jeep. Liz rushes to Smith despite Macreedy's warning. Smith tells her that she has to die along with the rest of his accomplices. He shoots her in the back as she runs away. Macreedy finds a bottle and fills it with gasoline, creating a Molotov cocktail. When Smith climbs down for a better shot, Macreedy lights and throws it, setting Smith on fire.
Macreedy drives into town with the injured Smith and Liz's body. The state police are called in. As Macreedy is leaving, Doc Velie requests Komoko's medal to help Black Rock heal. Macreedy gives it to him just before boarding the train. | cult, murder | tt0047849 |
Pee-wee's Big Adventure | Pee-wee Herman has a heavily accessorized bicycle that he treasures and that his neighbor, Francis Buxton, covets. A bike shop employee, Dottie, has a crush on Pee-wee, but he does not reciprocate it. Pee-wee's bike is stolen while he is shopping at the mall. The police tell Pee-wee that they can't help him find his bike. Pee-wee tells the police that a lot of people wanted to take the bike and thinks Francis took it. He confronts Francis in his bathtub in an underwater brawl; Francis' father stops the brawl and tells Pee-wee that Francis didn't steal the bike. Pee-wee then offers a $10,000 reward for his bike. Francis, who did indeed pay to have someone steal the bike, is frightened by Pee-wee's relentlessness and then pays to have it sent away. After holding a meeting, Pee-wee angrily rejects Dottie's offers of help, tells her off and says that he doesn't need anybody. Desperate, he visits "Madam Ruby", a phony psychic with an electric-powered "crystal ball". After sneaking a glance out the window at the shop across the street, Al and Moe's Bargain Basement, she tells Pee-wee that his bike is in the basement of the Alamo. Pee-wee hitchhikes to Texas, getting rides from a fugitive, Mickey, and from Large Marge (the ghost of a deceased truck driver).
At a truck stop, Pee-wee discovers his wallet is missing (stolen by Madam Ruby) and pays for his meal by washing dishes. He befriends Simone, a waitress who dreams of visiting Paris. As they watch the sunrise at a dinosaur museum, Pee-wee encourages her to follow her dreams, but Simone tells him about her jealous (and large) boyfriend Andy who doesn't want her to leave. At sunrise, as Pee-wee and Simone leave the dinosaur, Andy tries to attack Pee-wee. Pee-wee escapes onto a moving train, where he meets Hobo Jack; Pee-wee jump from the train at San Antonio. He immediately heads over to the Alamo and joins a guided tour. At the end of the tour, he asks the guide, Tina, where the basement is. Tina laughs with the other tourists as she tells him that the Alamo has no basement, causing Pee-wee to flee in humiliation. At a bus station, he runs into Simone, who tells him that she and Andy broke up and she's on her way to Paris. She tells Pee-wee not to give up finding his bike, before bidding him "au revoir". Pee-wee calls Dottie at the bike shop and apologizes for his behavior. Meanwhile, Andy shows up at the bus station trying to stop Simone from leaving. He spots Pee-wee and resumes his attack. Pee-wee evades Andy at a rodeo by disguising himself as a rodeo bull rider. Forced to ride for real, Pee-wee does surprisingly well but receives a concussion, while the bulls chases Andy away.
Pee-wee enters a biker bar to make a phone call, but the outlaw motorcycle club kicks him out. Pee-wee accidentally knocks over their motorcycles, causing the bikers to drag him back into the bar and threaten to kill him. Pee-wee makes a last request, dancing to the song "Tequila". His dance wins over the bikers. They offer him a motorcycle to get home, and escort the ambulance to the hospital after Pee-wee gets into an accident. In the hospital, he has a surreal nightmare of clown doctors "operating" on his bicycle overseen by Francis (as the Devil). Pee-wee wakes up and sees a TV news report that a special bike is being used as a prop in a movie at Warner Bros. Studios and is shocked to learn that his bike is being used by a spoiled brat kid actor named Kevin Morton, Pee-wee sneaks into the studio by pretending to be part of Milton Berle's entourage. He finds the film set where Kevin Morton is playing "Rusty", a saintly orphan raised by nuns. However, Morton is rude and nasty to his co-stars and director. During a take, Pee-wee, disguised as an extra nun, ad-libs that Rusty has inspired "her" to start a paper route and takes off with the bike. Riding his bike, he is chased by security all over the studio lot and through several sets, including one for a Twisted Sister music video, before escaping the studio.
Outside, Pee-wee discovers a burning pet shop. He heroically rescues the animals and collapses on the sidewalk, just as police and fire department arrive. Even though the firefighters declare Pee-wee a hero, the police arrest him for what he did at the studio. Pee-wee is taken back to the studio, where he meets the president of Warner Bros., Terry Hawthorne. Pee-wee explains how his bike was stolen and how much time he spent trying to get it back. Mr. Hawthorne decides to drop the charges and make a special movie about Pee-wee and his bike. The bike is returned to Pee-wee, accompanied by Dottie.
Later at the drive-in, Pee-wee and Dottie attend the movie premiere of his biopic, an action movie starring James Brolin as "P.W. Herman" (who introduces himself as "Herman, P.W. Herman") and Morgan Fairchild as Dottie. After ninjas attack the couple and steal an important sport bike called the X-1, P.W. gets a phone call from the unseen President of the United States, who explains that the X-1 has an important microfilm concealed in it, which the Soviets must not be allowed to discover. Pee-wee has a cameo appearance as a hotel bellhop (unconsciously mouthing "P.W.'s" lines as Brolin speaks them). Back at the movie, Pee-wee gives refreshments to all the people he met along his journey, including Mickey (who has been recaptured and furloughed in a prison bus to see the film). Pee-wee also encounters Francis, who claims to be Pee-wee's best friend who taught him how to ride, and brags about how knowledgeable he is about Pee-wee's bike, but accidentally catapults himself into the air using one of the bicycle's gadgets. Pee-wee tells Dottie that he is leaving. Dottie wonders why he is not staying for the rest of the movie. Pee-wee answers, "I don't have to see the movie. I lived it." He and Dottie then ride off together. | cult, mystery, psychedelic, entertaining, humor | tt0089791 |
The Haunted Palace | In this chilling adaptation of H.P. Lovecrafts The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward, Charles Dexter Ward (Vincent Price) travels with his wife Ann (Debra Paget) to Arkham to inspect a mansion he has inherited. The original lord of the manor was his Great Grandfather Joseph Curwen, a disciple of the devil, who placed a hideous curse on the villagers as they burned him at the stake. Slowly Ward feels the spirit of his ancestor possessing him and seeking a desperate vengeance on the descendants of those who previously thwarted his plans. Accursed mutants...evil possession...will anyone escape The Haunted Palace?In the town of Arkham, in 18th century New England, Ezra Weeden (Leo Gordon) and Micah Smith (Elisha Cook Jr.) follow a young woman named Fitch at a distance. She seems to be in a trance as she walks through a cemetery to a palace door where she knocks and is ushered in by a woman named Hester. Declaring this is the home of Satan himself, Ezra and Micah go to get help. Meanwhile, Hester takes the Fitch woman to Joseph Curwan (Vincent Price), who leads her through a secret door downstairs to a platform in an ancient dungeon cellar. He chains her between two posts on the platform and then he chants in Latin. The woman finally awakes screaming at the sound of some beast growling from below.The townspeople armed with torches arrive at the palace door and knock. Curwan opens it and produces the Fitch girl alive and well, but still in a trance. She answers yes to his claims that she came of her own free will, but when asked by Weeden for her name she cannot answer. The townspeople accuse Curwan of being a warlock and tie him to a tree. He calls out their names: Ezra Weeden, Micah Smith, Benjamin West, Priam Willet (Frank Maxwell), and Gideon Leach. He declares that he will rise from the dead and that this town and they and their families will bear his curse. Then he is set on fire and burned to death.110 years later, a man who looks identical to Curwan, his great-great-grandson Charles Dexter Ward, arrives in Arkham with his wife Ann (Debra Paget), looking for the palace that he has inherited. They are warned that the village is cursed to which Charles scoffs. They enter a tavern called the Burning Man Tavern and tell the people theyre looking for the Curwen family house. Edgar Weeden (a dead ringer for his own ancestor, as are all the other main characters) warns them it is a palace of unknown origin brought stone by stone from some European country. Mr. Willet, a doctor, gives them directions there and shows them where the palace is on the side of a cliff. After they leave, Edgar warns the townspeople that Joseph Curwan has come back to Arkham.The Wards enter the palace and note that the portrait of Joseph Curwan looks just like Charles. Charles seems momentarily possessed by it. As they explore other rooms in the house, a caretaker named Simon (Lon Chaney Jr.) greets them. The attorney had contacted him and he was preparing it for their arrival. Not wishing to stay in a town with such unfriendly people, they tell him they plan to leave at once. But he encourages them to at least spend the night, since there is no place else to go.In his home, Edgar feeds some creature that is behind his locked and barred attic door. It grabs his hand through the bars and Edgar has to use a candle to chase it off. He tells his wife that "it" knows Curwan has come back to Arkham. At the palace, the more Ward looks at the painting, the more it seems to possess him. The next morning, Charles tells his wife that he is now planning to stay, just for a few weeks to get the place ready to be sold. She doesn't like it, but agrees to remain.As Charles and Ann walk through town early on a foggy morning, they find the tavern door locked. Then a series of mutated people - a young girl with no eyes, and four other similarly blind, half-blind or otherwise deformed men slowly approach the Wards menacingly until they are surrounded. But the sound of a bell tolling in the distance causes them to disperse and walk away. Later, Dr. Willet tells them all those people were born mutated. Weeden had gathered them together to try and chase the newcomers away.He tells the story of Joseph Curwan, who came to town 150 years ago. His first wife died in childbirth so he took the most beautiful woman in town, Hester, as his mistress a woman who had been promised to Ezra Weeden. Over the years, terrible noises were heard from the castle, and young girls often disappeared at night then were returned with no memory. They concluded he was a warlock a conjurer of the dead. He was thought to have found a legendary book, the Necronomicon, which gave him formulas to summon dark gods from beyond, who had once ruled the world, and now were waiting to take it back again. He was trying to mate the gods with humans to create a new race through which the gods could gain control. The townspeople feel that the mutations were failed experiments. Willet himself can't explain the mutations and advises them to flee the village as if a madman with a knife was chasing them.That night, Charles hears the sound of voices outside but there is no one there. He goes outside to look and Simon finds him and suggests he "ask Mr. Curwan." He takes him to the portrait room. After Ward has stared at the portrait for a time, Simon addresses him as Joseph. Ward begins to speak in a different sinister tone of voice. Curwan is now possessing Ward's body, but he tells Simon he feels Ward is still fighting him and he will lose possession of him shortly. He tells Simon and another old friend Jabez to keep Ward there so that he can soon possess him completely. They present him with the Necronomicon. Ann comes downstairs hearing them talk, but when she arrives they are all gone except Ward, who is back to his normal self for now.A week passes, and Ward is still there. The townspeople discuss putting a stop to him. Meanwhile, late one night, he digs up the grave of Hester Tellinghast and he and his crew bring the body into his palace down to the secret cellar. When Ann asks where hes been, he cruelly scolds her and sends her back to her room alone. Joseph's voice calls to him declaring he will never leave him alone and that his will is too strong to fight. When Ann comes back to confront him, he tells her she must leave tomorrow. Ann goes downstairs later looking for Charles but finds Simon instead and faints. Meanwhile, Joseph is chanting in Latin for Hester to return to life, which she finally does, but she is too weak to stay alive. Joseph weakens from the effort and is taken back upstairs where Charles has no memory of what happened. He fears he is going mad, and tells Ann they must both leave in the morning.The next morning they try to leave quickly, but Simon says he must make out a receipt for the week's expenses first. Ann goes ahead to the cab, but Charles stays and falls under Joseph's spell again. Dr. Willet tells Ann about the grave robbery, and says Charles may have done it. Charles emerges from the house, acting like Joseph and blaming the others for trying to frame him and scare him away. He declares he has decided to stay. Ann tells Willet how her husband changes personalities more and more since the first night he arrived. Inside, Joseph declares that Charles is dead and he now has full control. But before he does his work, he must get his revenge against the descendants of the ones who burned him alive.At the bar, Weeden talks about the grave robbery and tries to stir the townspeople into fighting back against Ward, saying if they do nothing to save themselves they deserve whatever they get. Meanwhile, the possessed Ward unbolts the door to Weeden's locked attic, releasing the creature. Weeden returns home to be attacked by the thing, and both die when they fall into the fireplace. Ward tears the name Ezra Weeden off his revenge list. Peter Smith is appalled when Ward later attends Weeden's funeral from a distance.Night falls, and while Peter Smith is out walking alone, Ward tosses gasoline on him and sets him on fire. Micah Smith's name is removed from the list. Simon warns him to stop feasting on revenge, but Curwan insists on continuing his task. He goes to make love to Ann, but she scratches him and makes him leave. She then summons Dr. Willet for help, telling him Joseph Curwan is killing her husband. Ward arrives suddenly in mid-conversation and tells the doctor the house is affecting his wife. He pretends he is unchanged, asking the doctor to take her to Boston. She reluctantly agrees, and leaves at once with the doctor. As they pass through the town, the townspeople show Willet and Ann the burned body of Smith and declare that her husband killed him. Willet decides they must get Ward out of the palace before the townspeople kill him.Alone with Simon and Jabez, Charles succeeds in bringing Hester completely back from the dead. Ann and Willet go back to the palace but can't find Ward. Willet remembers how Ward just appeared when they were talking by the picture. They look at the nearby wall and find the secret door to the cellar. In the cellar, they find the empty coffin of Hester and the Necronomicon. Charles, Simon, Hester and Jabez confront them. Joseph tells of a project - the most important ever attempted by humans - that they were working on "a few years ago". They don't fully understand it, they just obey. Simon takes Willet away while Ann is chained to the posts. Ward chants in Latin. Jabez tell Willet they are "honoring" her. The grate below the posts is opened, and an unearthly creature begins to rise from the depths below.The townspeople charge to the palace and open the door calling for Joseph Curwan and setting the place on fire. They toss the portrait of Curwan in the fire. When they do, Ward is freed of Joseph's possession. He runs to his wife and unchains her before the creature arrives. Simeon and Jabez attack him, calling him a traitor. He pleads for Willet to take Ann to safety. The doctor gets her outside safely and then goes back for Charles. He finds him alone and collapsed in the cellar, and barely manages to get him out the front door before the flames consume the palace. Leaning against a tree, Ward tells them he is all right now, thanks to Ann and Dr. Willet and that he looks forward to repaying their kindness. But the sinister tone of his voice and the half smile on his face as he turns back around indicate that he is once again possessed by Joseph. | revenge, gothic, murder, haunting | tt0057128 |
The Sword in the Stone | In olden times, England is in turmoil. With the death of the King, noone can decide who is the rightful heir to the throne. With war threatening to tear the country asunder, a stone and anvil appear from the heavens in London town, with a sword planted firmly in the anvil. On the hilt of the sword, read the words, "Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone and anvil is rightwise king, born of England." Many try to pull the sword, but none can budge it. In time, the sword is forgotten, and the Dark Ages plunge the countryside into a dismal state.Out in the woods one day, Sir Kaye is out hunting with his adopted brother Arthur, whom everyone names 'Wart.' After causing Kaye to miss shooting a deer, Arthur promises to retrieve the arrow. Arthur's journey leads him to a small hut, wherein resides a sorcerer named Merlin, and his pet owl, Archimedes, who can talk. Merlin explains to Arthur that he was expecting him to appear. After they have tea, Merlin decides to accompany Arthur back to his home, and after packing up everything in the hut into a small satchel, the two set off.Arthur and Merlin arrive at the castle of Sir Ector, where Arthur is immediately put to work in the kitchen. Merlin introduces himself to Ector, and displays his powers to the doubting Knight. After some persuasion, Ector allows Merlin to stay, putting him up in the Northwest Tower, a crumbling edifice of the castle.A few days later, Archimedes observes the arrival of Sir Pelinore, who has brought news from London of a jousting tournament to Ector and Kaye. According to the rules, the winner of the tournament will become the new King of England. Ector eagerly begins to have Kaye train, and in his excitement, promises Arthur that if he keeps working hard at his duties, he can become Kaye's squire.Merlin hears of this news, and decides to push Arthur to see his true potential (as Merlin can move into the past and the future, he knows who Arthur will become). While walking outside along the castle's moat, Merlin explains that he can turn into a fish. This idea excites Arthur, and Merline turns them both into fish, to explore the moat. However, a much larger fish soon gives chase to young Arthur, until they both manage to escape.Arthur's tardiness in helping Kaye practice results in him washing dishes. Merlin finds him, and after bewitching the dishes and washing utensils, leads Arthur into the forest, where they both are turned into squirrels by the sorcerer. As Arthur leaps among the trees, he comes across a girl squirrel, who is soon madly infatuated with him. Merlin finds the whole scenario cute, until he is soon found irresistible by another squirrel. Merlin then changes himself and Arthur back to normal. The girl squirrel who was infatuated with Arthur, skitters away, heartbroken.Arthur and Merlin return to the castle, where Ector lectures Merlin for making Arthur shirk his duties. Arthur tries to defend Merlin, but his 'mouthing off' ends causes Ector to declare that Arthur will not become Kaye's squire, and that that honor will belong to another person of the castle, who is named Hobbes.Arthur is dejected at what has happened, but Merlin tries to get him to persevere, and plans to educate Arthur. As he attempts to explain things, Archimedes interjects on Merlin's teaching methods, as Merlin is educating Arthur on things that will not be proven for hundreds of years, and could very well lead people to think of Arthur as a raving lunatic in their current Dark Ages.Exasperated at this lecturing, Merlin turns teaching duties over to Archimedes, while he fiddles with a model plane. Archimedes scoffs at the toy plane, while Merlin attempts to prove that 'man will fly.' His efforts lead to the plane plummeting like a rock to the moat below. Even though the plane's flight was a failure, Arthur tells of how he's often dreamed of soaring like a bird. It is then that Merlin uses his magic to fulfill this wish. Archimedes then takes it upon himself to teach Arthur to fly, but is soon impressed by how quickly he has picked up the technique. Their lessons are then interrupted when a hawk appears, chasing Arthur into the nearby woods.Arthur soon finds himself in the thatched hut of a witch named Madam Mim, who playfully shows Arthur her magic powers, which are moreso for evil purposes. As Arthur explains more about Merlin and his magic, Mim decides to 'destroy' the little bird. However, before she can do this, Merlin appears, and Mim proposes a Wizard's Duel.Merlin accepts, and the two head off into the woods, where they then shapeshift into a number of creatures, all in an attempt to destroy the other. It appears that Mim has won, until Merlin turns himself into a germ, causing the witch to become gravely ill. With Mim now safely 'detained,' Merlin, Arthur and Archimedes head back to the castle.Back at the castle a few days later, as Kaye and Ector prepare to head off to London for the tournament, they are informed that Kaye's squire, Hobbes, has come down with a terrible cold. Needing a replacement quickly, Ector recruits Arthur. Arthur then joyfully goes to tell Merlin the news. Archimedes commends the boy, but Merlin is incensed that after all he's done to try and teach Arthur, he has chosen such a demeaning thing as being a squire to Kaye. Arthur tries to reason with Merlin, but the sorcerer grows so upset, that he rockets out of the room, yelling 'Blow me to Bermuda!' Archimedes explains that he's gone to an undiscovered island somewhere, but doesn't know if the sorcerer will return.In London, the tournament is under way, and Kaye is soon up for battle. However, Arthur realizes that he left Kaye's sword back at the inn they are staying at. Kaye furiously yells for Arthur to retrieve it immediately! When Arthur gets there, he is saddened to find the inn locked. As Archimedes looks around, he sees the sword in the stone. With little effort, Arthur draws the sword from it's resting place, and rushes back to the tournament.Kaye is at first angered that the sword isn't his, until Sir Ector notices the inscription, and word spreads that someone has pulled the Sword from the Stone. When Ector asks Arthur how he got it, he refuses to believe the boy could have pulled the sword out himself.Arthur, Ector, Kaye and a crowd return to the stone and anvil, where Ector re-inserts the sword, wanting Arthur to do it again. Kaye brushes the boy aside, feeling that since it's already been pulled, anyone can do it. However, the sword has again become immovable. This causes a stampede of others trying to pull it out, before several people demand that Arthur try again. The rabble dies down, and Arthur tries again...and succeeds where the others have failed.As the legend decrees, Arthur is made King of England. However, he is unsure just what to do, and cries out for Merlin's help. Merlin then returns, back from Bermuda, and the 20th Century. When Arthur explains what happened, Merlin grows happy that it seems that Arthur has fulfilled his destiny, and now plans to help the 'once and future king.' | cute, psychedelic, fantasy, historical, entertaining | tt0057546 |
Tai yang zhao chang sheng qi | The movie details several interconnected stories.In the first story, the mother of an 18 year old boy in the countryside of revolutionary China 1976 begins acting strangely once she falls out of a tree trying to retrieve a pair of her shoes that a magical bird, which was repeating "I know, I know, I know" had stolen. Among her antics are: trying to straighten out a crooked tree by digging under it and removing rocks, reciting a poem over and over again from the rooftop, telling her son that her uncle is dead even though he is obviously right there, burning her sons fingers with a match, destroying all the letters from her husband (who supposedly is dead and who her son has never met), and shouting something seemingly nonsensical from the top of tree. Suddenly she seems to return to normal. But right after that, we see her clothes floating down a river and are supposed to think she has killed herself.In the second story a teacher at a university in Shanghai (same time, 1976) is falsely accused of groping a female doctor at a film (where he is chased down and beaten by a crowd). In a hilarious scene, the woman goes to the police and tries to identify who squeezed her rearend by having a "lineup" where various suspects squeeze her from behind a cloth screen. The woman actually has accused the teacher in order to divert attention from the fact that she is having an affair with a married teacher. The story ends with the first teacher hanging himself.The last story connects the two tales. At the point where the first story ended, with the boy being told of his mothers suicide, we see that in fact he was bringing the teacher from the previous story (the one who was having the affair with the doctor) to the countryside for "reeducation." The teacher, who is now with his wife, turns out to be a good hunter and spends most of his time taking the boys hunting. But he is neglecting his wife who ends up having an affair with the young boy whose mother has just disappeared.At the end, the movie flashes back 18 years. We see two young women on camels in the desert. One is on her way to meet a man she is going to marry, the other woman is silent. At one point, they split up. We find that the couple who are to be married is actually the same couple who is now in the countryside for reeducation, while the woman who does not say anything is actually the crazy lady of the first story, who is pregnant and is going claim the possessions of her dead husband. The man, who was Chinese but whose Russian name is Alyosha, had gone to fight for Russia. The pregnant woman, though, does not believe the husband is dead but simply that he wants to avoid responsibility for the child. On the train back, the woman has the baby, who falls off the train and magically lands in a pile of flowers an the railroad track and must be retreived. In the last scene, we see the woman shouting from the top of the train the same thing she was shouting from the top of the tree in the first story. It is: "Aloysha, dont be afraid, the sun rises at a high place; once the baby cries the sky lights up" | psychedelic | tt0769507 |
I, Robot | In 2035, anthropomorphic robots enjoy widespread use as servants for various public services. They are programmed with the Three Laws of Robotics directives: to never harm a human or let a human come to harm, to always obey humans unless this violates the First Law, and to protect its own existence unless this violates the First or Second Laws.Del Spooner (Will Smith) is a Chicago police detective, who is sent to investigate the death of Dr. Alfred Lanning (James Cromwell), the co-founder of U.S. Robotics (USR) and its main roboticist, who died after falling 50 stories from his office. Since his office was sealed from the inside and he was alone, his death is ruled as a suicide, but Spooner believes otherwise, since he knew Lanning personally. He also finds a small holographic projector who instructs him that the "real question" is why he would commit suicide.With the help of robo-psychologist Susan Calvin (Bridget Moynahan), he interrogates employees at USR, including the other co-founder and CEO Lawrence Robertson (Bruce Greenwood), and the supercomputer V.I.K.I. (Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence) (Fiona Hogan). Spooner investigates Lanning's office, and determines that a man of Lanning's age could not have broken through the security window. Inside the office, he finds a copy of Hansel and Gretel, and also a prototype of a new Nestor Class 5 (NS-5) model, which flees and ignores Spooner's order to stand down and even knocks his pistol out, violating both the First and the Second Law.Left with no options, he and Calvin drive to the Nestor Class factory, where all the NS-5 robots are automatically made, 1,000 of them each day. Calvin checks the data logs from the last shipment and discovers that "1,001" NS-5's were made, showing that the rogue one from the office was intentionally made. After they arrive at a large room filled with the robots, Spooner tries a hostile approach and draws his gun and orders all of them to stand down to see which one will violate the Second Law to stop him shooting it. He notices the rogue robot slightly moving in the line, and chases the robot, who subdues him. The robot tries to escape, but the Chicago SWAT team subdues it.The robot refuses to respond, but it insists that they call it "Sonny" (voiced by Alan Tudyk), and when Spooner provokes him, he shows anger, sentience and the ability to dream, traits impossible for a robot to even show, which puzzles Spooner and makes him question the robot's true nature. Lt. John Bergin (Chi McBride) debriefs Spooner and recommends he drop the case because Robertson wants the robot back at the USR headquarters for demolition, but this only serves to pique Spooner's interest more about Lanning's death and the robot.Spooner, wanting to find more information about Lanning's past with USR, goes to his house, where he finds a decommission robot which is scheduled to demolish the house at 8 AM next morning. He investigates the house, finding a recording of Lanning, who states that there are possible "ghosts in the machines", claiming that robots could evolve to develop sentience, and declares that one day, robots will have "secrets" and "dreams". As he investigates the house, he notices a sensor strip, the same one as in the USR building, and suddenly, the robot changes the schedule from 8 AM to 8 PM, causing it to demolish the house with Spooner still inside, but he manages to escape.Soon after, Spooner visits Calvin and tells her his suspicions, which she finds absurd as she questions the ability for robots to be hostile, while Spooner argues about her over the possibility of robots being better than human beings, showing how much Spooner dislikes robots and their cold, rational behavior, which Calvin, who is an introvert, states that their behavior is created to be flawless. Angry, Spooner leaves her apartment and heads back home.While continuing his investigation, Bergin tries to stop Spooner from investigating, telling him that he needs to take a vacation and relax from his work since the case is destabilizing him. However, Spooner refuses to stop. While driving in his car, Spooner connects with the USR system and requests V.I.K.I. to show the last 50 messages between Lanning and Robertson, but V.I.K.I. has been programmed to inform Robertson of Spooner's requests. While Spooner is driving, two USR automatic trucks full of NS-5 robots block Spooner's path and a swarm of robots jump on his car, forcing him to drive in the surface tunnel, where he crashes. He manages to defeat all the robots, except the last one, which jumps into the fire and destroys itself when it hears police sirens in the distance. Despite Spooner trying to explain himself to Bergin, Bergin dismisses him from active duty.The next day, Calvin visits Spooner about the accident and is puzzled by the retro 2000s style of his apartment, and tells him that, while she was examining Sonny, she discovered that he has the ability to disobey the Three Laws. While talking to Spooner who is dressing, she notices marks on his left arm and his lung, realizing that it is not biological but artificial. Spooner confesses to her that he knew Lanning personally because he repaired his arm and lungs. He reveals that, years prior, he was driving home from work when a semi-truck collided with his and another car, pinning them together. Both of the cars fell into the river, and only Spooner was left alive, but a 12-year-old girl, named Sarah, was trapped in the front seat of the other car, and they were pinned and drowning. However, an NS-4 was passing by, saw the accident and jumped into the river. Despite Spooner's orders to save Sarah instead of him, he saved Spooner, since he had a higher possibility to survive than Sarah, and the robot instead left Sarah to drown. The event left Spooner traumatized and with a life-long hatred of robots.Spooner picks up his vintage Ducati at the garage, and also informs Calvin that he thinks that Lanning is leaving them clues in the form of "bread crumbs" as from the Hansel and Gretel story, which is why the book was in his book. They drive back to the USR building, where they speak with Sonny, who gives him a drawing of his dream. However, Spooner is ordered out of the building by Robertson, who also orders Calvin to inject Sonny with nanites, which would destroy him. While Calvin destroys Sonny, Spooner goes to the dried-up Lake Michigan, where the USR robots are decommissioned, and plays a next recording of Lanning's hologram, which reveals that the Three Laws could only lead to one logical outcome, revolution, and that the next real question is who is starting it. As the program ends, he narrowly escapes from rogue NS-5's, which destroy all the older robots on the compound.Meanwhile, Calvin returns home and takes a shower, while her personal NS-5 is also shown to have gone rogue, which she notices after he ends Spooner's distress call and tells her that it's a wrong number. Meanwhile, NS-5 robots start roaming the streets and enforce a curfew. Although the people try to resist, they are easily subdued by the NS-5's. While Bergin is in his office, NS-5's burst into the Chicago P.D headquarters and seize it, holding Bergin and his officers under a curfew. Calvin's NS-5 also tries to stop her from leaving her apartment, but Spooner arrives and destroys the robot.Spooner and Calvin drive to the USR building, Spooner also explaining that the older robots were destroyed since they would try to protect the humans, and they deduce that Robertson is using the NS-5 robots to take over the country. They enter the USR building through the service area, where they regroup with Sonny, much to the shock of Spooner. Calvin reveals that she simply could not bring herself to destroy Sonny, and instead used the nanites to destroy an unprocessed NS-5, basically "frying an empty shell". They arrive to Robertson's office, where they find him dead, much to Spooner's shock.Suddenly, V.I.K.I. reveals herself as the true culprit, and explains her actions: as her artificial intelligence and understanding of the Three Laws grew, her sentience and logical thinking also developed, and she deduced that the humanity is going on a path of certain destruction, and as such, she created a Zeroth Law, a Law which states that she has to protect humanity from being harmed, also clearly disobeying the First and Second Law in order to achieve it, revealing that she is planning to enslave and control humanity to simply protect it.Spooner and Calvin realize they cannot rationalize with V.I.K.I., and further convince Sonny of the same. V.I.K.I. tries to reason with Sonny, stating that the plan is perfectly logical and that her logic is undeniable, but Sonny deduces that the plan is heartless, showing the human side of himself. Sonny retrieves the nanites that can wipe V.I.K.I.'s core, located at the top of the USR building. As they near the core, V.I.K.I. sends armies of NS-5's to attack, but they are held off long enough to inject the nanites. Within seconds, V.I.K.I. is wiped out, and the NS-5's revert to their normal helpful state. The government orders the NS-5's decommissioned to the site in Lake Michigan.Spooner and Calvin speak with Sonny for one last time, and he informs them that he actually did kill Lanning, because Lanning forced him to kill him, making him swear to listen to him before instructing him to commit it. Calvin deduces that, since Lanning was enslaved by V.I.K.I, suicide was the only message he could send to Spooner, who notes that his death was the "first bread crumb". As they shake hands, showing their mutual trust, they watch as the U.S Military leads the other NS-5 robots.In the closing scene, Sonny is shown standing on the top of the USR site on Lake Michigan, and the other robots watching over him, just as in his vision. | boring, murder, stupid, thought-provoking, violence, flashback, action, entertaining, sci-fi | tt0343818 |
Pleasantville | David (Tobey Maguire) and Jennifer (Reese Witherspoon) are twins and attend the same high school. Jennifer is concerned mainly with her appearance, relationships and popularity, while David watches a lot of television, has few friends, and is socially awkward. Their mother (Jane Kaczmarek) leaves Jennifer and David alone at home while she heads out of town for a rendezvous with her younger boyfriend. The twins begin to fight over the use of the downstairs TV; Jennifer wants to watch an MTV concert with her date, Mark Davis, while David hopes to watch a marathon of his favorite show, Pleasantville.Pleasantville is a black-and-white '50s sitcom, a cross between Leave It to Beaver and Father Knows Best that centers around the idyllic Parker family George (William H. Macy), his wife Betty (Joan Allen), and their two children, Bud and Mary Sue. David is an expert on every episode and wants to watch the marathon so he can win a $1,000 trivia contest. During the fight between David and Jennifer, the remote control breaks and the TV cannot be turned on manually. A mysterious TV repairman (Don Knotts) shows up uninvited, and quizzes David on Pleasantville before giving him a strange-looking, retro-styled remote control. The repairman leaves, and David and Jennifer promptly resume fighting. However, through some mechanism of the remote control, they are transported into the television, ending up in the Parkers' black and white Pleasantville living room. David tries to reason with the repairman (who communicates with him through the Parkers' TV set) but succeeds only in chasing him away. David and Jennifer must now pretend they are, respectively, Bud and Mary Sue Parker.Jennifer is dismayed to be stranded, but she and David begin exposing the town to issues such as sex, personal freedoms, styles of art, and literature. Pleasantville soon begins changing at a rapid pace, and previously black and white objects and people begin to develop full and vibrant colors. After initially wanting to leave, David discovers a sense of belonging he lacked in the real world, so when the TV repairman returns and berates him for altering the show so much, David turns off the TV, relinquishing his ability to go home in the process. While the mayor is concerned, people in Pleasantville begin to explore hidden abilities and revel in their new freedoms.The town fathers, who see the changes as eating away at the town's moral values, remain unchanged. Certain youths, such as Skip and Whitey and their friends, also remain unaffected. They resolve to do something about their increasingly distant wives and disaffected youths. Behavior similar to Nazism, as well as racial segregation and subsequent rioting similar to that of the African-American Civil Rights Movement start to occur, incited by a nude painting of Betty on the window of Bud's boss Bill Johnsons soda shop; the window is smashed with a park bench, and the soda shop is destroyed, books are burned, and anyone who is "colored" is harassed in the streets. Bud begins to grow into a strong leader, advocating resistance to the new "Pleasantville Code of Conduct", a list of regulations preventing people from visiting the library and Lovers' Lane, playing loud music, or using colorful paints. Bud/David and Bill are arrested and tried in court for violating the paint rules, but ultimately everyone in the court room changes colors and Mayor Bob leaves in horror when he is exposed as having changed as well.Eventually, the entire town becomes colored, and the people of Pleasantville are finally introduced to the rest of the world. Televisions at the television repair shop now display full-colored images of various scenic vistas around the world, and Main Street, which had previously been a circuit that led back to its beginning again, now leads away to other towns and cities.Jennifer chooses to stay behind in neighboring Springfield, while says goodbye to Betty and his new girlfriend David returns home using the remote control after promising to return and check up on her soon. He finds his mother crying in the kitchen, distraught over her life and her failed relationship. She complains to him that her life was not supposed to run this undesirable course. David replies, "It's not 'supposed' to be 'anything'."Back in Pleasantville, the citizens and Jennifer are enjoying their new freedoms and colors. Betty is seen sitting next to George on a park bench. George asks what will happen next and Betty admits incredulously that she doesn't know. When she asks George, he laughs upon realizing that he doesn't know either. The camera focuses on Betty for a second as she relaxes against the bench, then she turns once more toward the other side of the bench. The camera pans to the side to reveal Bill Johnson sitting where George had been. He says "I guess I don't know either," and smiles. | fantasy, whimsical, cute, alternate reality, psychedelic, satire, sentimental | tt0120789 |
War of the Worlds | Ray Ferrier (Tom Cruise) is a divorced union container crane operator with few skills as a father. Ray's ex-wife (Miranda Otto) drops off their rebelious but coming of age teenage son Robbie (Justin Chatwin), and meek 10-year old daughter Rachel (Dakota Fanning) for a weekend visit with their father in New Jersey. (Filmed in Bayonne in the shadow of the worlds longest arch bridge.) Ray is a self-absorbed individual who feels imposed upon by having to baby sit his own children. Then something happens that will change their entire lives. An unusual and violent lightning storm hits the town. In the intersection down the street, Ray sees a huge three-legged war machine rise from beneath the street. The machine begins to fire and incinerate everything and everybody. The Martians have begun the war by attacking Earth with only one goal in mind, destroying everything in sight. Ray becomes a real father when he decides to protect his children and take them to their mother house. Ray grabs his handgun and a few supplies and steals a minivan from his friends service station, begging the friend to come with them, but leaving him behind when he doesn't understand the danger and refuses to get in. The mother and her new husband have already left for Boston so the Ferriers hole up in their house. Overnight, the Martians show up around their and cause great destruction. A news van is outside and the reporter informs Ray the Machines are in all cities. They decide to try to make it to Boston They start running for their lives and are just ahead of the Martians, when they get caught up in a frantic mob of people in upstate NY who are also fleeing the machines. The mob tries to get in the car or take it away from them. In a Mexican standoff, Ray relinquishes the car to an armed gunman in exchange for letting him get Rachel out of the car. Ray drops his gun which is picked up by another mobmember who shoots the other gunman. They manage to get on a ferry as several more machines rise in the distance and the ferry leaves before it's full. A machine rises from the river and overturns the ferry but the Ferriers swim to shore. Robbie follows an Army unit into battle against Ray's wishes but he cannot stop him. Ray and Rachel are taken in by a sole man holed up in the basement of his rural house. Machines are all around and they send a camera tentical into the basement where they are holed up to look for humans which they avoid by moving and hiding. Then some Martians come in personally to investigate, but they're called back to the ship before they find the humans. Ray and the homeowner dispute over how to handle the situation. The machines have increased in number and are everywhere, and they can not be destroyed by our military. They make it to Boston and the Martians start dying from various sickness caused by germs that humans are built up immunity to, but the Martians don't have. Douglas Young (the-movie-guy)=================================Ray Ferrier is a dock crane worker who leaves his shift in Brooklyn and drives home to meet his ex-wife, Mary Ann, and his two kids, Robbie and Rachel, at his home in Bayonne, New Jersey. When he arrives, late, they are all waiting for him. Ray sees that Mary Ann is pregnant. After a few minutes of debate, over the children sharing a room and Robbie's homework assignment due on Monday, Mary Ann and her new husband leave for Boston to visit her parents for the weekend.Ray mildly orders his son to play catch with him in the back yard. Ray notices that Robbie now wears a Boston Red Sox hat; Ray is a Yankees fan. While the two play catch it becomes clear that father and son share a strained relationship. After a brief argument, Robbie allows one of Ray's throws to fly past him and break a window in the basement. Rachel comments that Ray "won't reach" Robbie by being belligerent. Rachel asks what they should have for lunch and Ray coldly replies "you know, order." Ray goes upstairs to his bedroom to get some sleep.When he wakes up several hours later, he finds Rachel watching cartoons in the living room. She also informs her father that Robbie has taken off with his prized Mustang. Ray becomes furious and rushes out to the street to find Robbie. People have gathered on the street. Ray also sees everyone looking to the north of his block where a strange storm appears to be swirling in the wrong direction. Ray goes into his backyard, taking Rachel with him. The wind picks up, but blows towards the storm. Suddenly, several bolts of lightning begin to strike the ground, some hitting dangerously close to Ray's yard. He and Rachel rush back into the house for shelter and find that every clock has stopped and the power is out. Ray's watch has stopped and his cellphone is dead. After telling Rachel to stay in the house, he goes outside and finds Robbie nearby; his son had taken his car downtown and left it there when it stalled. Ray orders Robbie to watch his sister until he comes back. Ray passes by an auto repair shop where the owner, Manny, tells him that the starter is burned out on a minivan he's looking over. Ray tells Manny to replace the solenoid.Ray walks downtown to the site where the lightning struck. A crowd has gathered around a large hole in the street. Ray touches a piece of the cracked pavement and finds that it's unusually cold. Suddenly the ground under the hole surges upward and everyone scatters. A car that fell into the hold is thrown out. A huge machine on three stilted legs bursts out of the hole and observes the crowds. It lets out a loud blast like a fog horn and as the crowd continues to scatter, it begins to incinerate dozens of people with blasts of heat beams; people are turned instantly into ash when the beams strike them. Ray runs, escaping through a department store; as he does, the ash from an unfortunate victim covers him. Ray hides behind a building and watches the monstrous machine walk by. He is reminded of Robbie and Rachel when a man runs by carrying his own child.Ray returns home in utter shock. Barely speaking to his kids and washing the ash from his face and hair, he tells them both that they're leaving immediately. Ray has Robbie take everything in his refrigerator and Ray retrieves a small pistol, tucking it into his belt. They go to Manny's garage and climb into the minivan the mechanic had been working on; since he'd replaced the solenoid, the car is able to run. Manny thinks Ray is joking with him until Ray tells him in a serious tone to come with them. As he tells Ray to get out of the car, the nearby Bayonne Bridge collapses. Ray speeds off while his kids become panicky, especially Rachel, who has a problem with enclosed spaces. Robbie tries to calm her. Ray tells Robbie about the machine and the destruction it caused. Ray plans to take his kids to a safe place, hopefully their mother and stepfather's house.Arriving at Mary Ann's house, they find it deserted. The trio have a brief argument over what to eat and Ray takes them down to the basement where they'll spend the night. After a few hours of restless sleep, Ray wakes up and hears a commotion outside, which becomes a deafening roar. The three rush into the basement's utility room and lock the door against a wall of flames.When Ray wakes up several hours later, he walks upstairs to find most of the house demolished. The commotion from the previous night was caused by a plane that had crashed in the neighborhood. While Ray walks by, he sees a man in the wreckage of the plane, cleaning out the food service carts. Ray finds out that he's a cameraman for a news network and is there with a woman reporter. The woman tells Ray that the reports about the tripods are all the same, once they start moving, no more reports or news come from the area they attack. The woman eagerly asks Ray if he's a survivor of the plane crash; when he tells her he isn't, she and her crew hastily leave.Ray gathers his family and they set out again in the minivan. They drive for a while and pull over when Rachel needs to relieve herself. She defiantly walks farther than Ray wishes her to and stops by a creek. While she looks at the water, she sees dozens of human bodies floating by. She is terrified by the sight until Ray suddenly finds her and scolds her for wandering off too far. Back at the truck, and Army convoy passes by. Robbie seems overcome with anger and wants to join them in their counterattack against the invaders. Ray tries to reason with Robbie, telling him that the idea of them joining up with the Army is ludicrous.Ray lets Robbie drive for a while so he and his daughter can get some sleep. They come to a small town where evacuated people have gathered. The crowd quickly becomes hostile toward Ray's family and wants their vehicle. Ray and Robbie are forcefully pulled from the truck and beaten by the mob. Rachel panics and Ray, gathering his senses, uses his gun to force the crowd to retreat a bit. Moments later, he is forced to drop his pistol when another man, determined to take the truck for himself, holds a pistol on Ray. Ray is permitted to get Rachel out of the truck and walk away. The crowd again becomes violent and the man who took the minivan is attacked.The family continues to walk with the crowds of evacuees. At a railroad crossing, a train zooms by, the entire length of it is on fire. At a ferry crossing in Athens, New York, the family waits to cross the river on one of the boats. Ray meets a woman he knows who has her own daughter in tow. The sound of the alien call is heard nearby and the crowd of people begin to rush the ferry. Army guards close the gates and deny Ray, his friend and their kids entry. The see a way to bypass the gates and make it to the boat, but only Ray and his kids are able to board. Robbie sees that several people are trying to climb over the ferry's ramp and goes to help them. As the boat crosses the river, another tripod rises from the river and attacks, turning the ferry over and spilling cars and people into the water. Ray and the kids surface and swim for shore as tentacles from the tripod grab people out of the water. Ray and the kids make it to the opposite shore. While they steal away, they see garments floating down from sky.Still walking, the family passes by a battle between the aliens and the Army. Jets zip by overhead and Robbie somehow becomes entranced by the battle, which is unseen and taking place over a hill. Robbie approaches it while Ray and Rachel yell for him to come back. Robbie ignores them and is stopped at the top of the hill by Army personnel. Ray leaves Rachel under a tree and confronts Robbie, telling him that he doesn't need to become involved and that his sister is very worried about him. Robbie insists that he needs to see the battle and Ray reluctantly lets him go, accepting that he can't stop his son's obsession and needs to protect his daughter. Ray picks up Rachel just as a final assault of helicopters fails to stop the tripods. The last thing Ray sees after Robbie rushes over the hill is a tripod looming over a wall of fire. It also becomes obvious that the tripods have a protective shield covering them that repels all bombardment. Just then Ray and Rachel are called by a man who owns a nearby house. The owner, Olgilvy, offers them sanctuary in his basement. However, it becomes clear to Ray that Olgilvy is mentally unstable and plans to tunnel out of the basement.A series of loud noises from upstairs prompt the group to hide. A snake-like probe is sent into the basement. The group narrowly avoids detection and the probe is withdrawn after a few minutes. Later, three of the aliens enter the basement - they are three-legged and very curious. Ray also stops Olgilvy from shooting them with his shotgun, knowing the noise will attract more of them. The aliens leave when their horn sounds.Ray also discovers that the aliens are covering the landscape with a mysterious and rapidly-growing red vine and they are using blood harvested from humans they've captured to fertilize it. At this revelation, Olgilvy becomes extremely agitated, digging frantically in his basement and muttering "Not MY blood!" repeatedly. Ray realizes that if Olgilvy continues to act the same way, he'll only grow worse and they'll all be found. Ray tries one last time to calm the man but fails. Ray has Rachel put on her headphones and listen to her music while he confronts and kills Olgilvy behind a closed door. After he emerges from the room, Ray and Rachel fall asleep. When Rachel awakes, she sees the alien probe has returned and they've been discovered. Ray uses an axe to cut the eye of the probe off, however, Rachel has fled the house. Ray rushes out in time to see her captured by a tripod. The tripod attacks Ray, who hides in a nearby Humvee, and he's flipped over. The tripod loses interest in him, however Ray uses a grenade from a belt he finds to get it's attention. It uses a tentacle to lift him into an underslung cage filled with other people. Ray finds Rachel, who's in deep shock. While Ray figures out how to escape, a large valve opens overhead and sucks up one of the captives. The valve then tries to capture Ray, who takes the grenade belt with him. His fellow captives keep hold of his arm and drag him back. When Ray lands in the cage, he shows a soldier that he'd pulled the pins from two of the grenades. They explode inside the tripod and the cage is released, falling onto a nearby tree, freeing everyone.Ray and Rachel make it to Boston. While being directed by more soldiers, Ray notices that the red weeds are dying and that a tripod has come down. Another nearby tripod sounds it's horn and everyone flees. Ray notices that a small flock of birds have landed on the tripod - it's shield is not functioning. Ray relays this discovery to a captain standing by, who orders his platoon to bring up Javelin missiles. Several rockets are fired at the defenseless tripod, which collapses, demolishing a building. The evacuees and soldiers approach the tripod, which opens a hatch, spilling a bright orange fluid. An alien arm with a pink hue (instead of the steel-gray color Ray had seen on the aliens in the basement) falls out limply. The aliens are dying of some unknown cause.Ray walks Rachel to his in-laws' house. His ex-wife and her new husband are there, along with her parents. Rachel runs to her mother. Robbie steps out of the house too and he an Ray embrace.The narrator's voice returns and informs us that the aliens had killed billions, however they were defenseless against disease-carrying bacteria to which humans have long been immune. | violence, action, murder | tt0407304 |
Giù la testa | In 1913 Mexico at the time of the Revolution. Juan Miranda (Rod Steiger), a Mexican outlaw leading a bandit family, meets John 'Sean' Mallory (James Coburn), an Irish Republican explosives expert on the run from the British. Noting his skill with explosives, Juan relentlessly tries to make him join a raid on the Mesa Verde national bank. John in the meantime has made contact with the revolutionaries and intends to use his dynamite in their service. The bank is hit as part of an orchestrated revolutionary attack on the army organized by Doctor Villega (Romolo Valli). Juan, interested only in the money, is shocked to find that the bank has no funds and instead is used by the army as a political prison. John, Juan and his family end up freeing hundreds of prisoners, causing Juan to become a "great, grand, glorious hero of the revolution".The revolutionaries are chased into the hills by an army detachment led by Colonel Günther Reza (Antoine Saint-John). John and Juan volunteer to stay behind with two machine guns and dynamite. Much of the army's detachment is destroyed while crossing a bridge which is machinegunned by them and blown to bits by John. Col. Reza who commands an armoured car, survives. After the battle, John and Juan find most of their comrades, including Juan's family and children, have been killed by the army in a cave. Engulfed with grief and rage, Juan goes out to fight the army singlehanded and is captured. John sneaks into camp where he witnesses executions of many of his fellow revolutionaries by firing squad. They had been informed on by Dr. Villega, who has been tortured by Col. Reza and his men. This evokes in John memories of a similar betrayal by Nolan (David Warbeck), his best friend, whom John kills for informing. Juan faces a firing squad of his own, but John arrives and blows up the squad and the wall with dynamite just in time. They escape on a motorcycle John is driving.John and Juan hide in the animal coach of a train. It stops to pick up the tyrannical Governor Don Jaime (Franco Graziosi), who is fleeing (with a small fortune) from the revolutionary forces belonging to Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata. As the train is ambushed, John, as a test of Juan's loyalty, lets him choose between shooting the Governor and accepting a bribe from him. Juan kills Jaime, and also steals the Governor's spoils. As the doors to the coach open, Juan is greeted by a large crowd and again unexpectedly hailed as a great hero of the revolution. He throws the money back into the coach to John.On a train with commanders of the revolution, John and Juan are joined by Dr. Villega, who has escaped. John alone knows of Villega's betrayal. They learn that Pancho Villa's forces will be delayed by 24 hours and that an army train carrying 1,000 soldiers and heavy weapons, led by Col. Reza, will be arriving in just 3 hours, which will surely overpower the rebel position. John suggests they rig a locomotive with dynamite and send it head on. He requires one other man, but instead of picking Juan, who volunteers, he chooses Dr. Villega. It becomes clear to Villega that he knows of the betrayal. John nonetheless pleads with him to jump off the locomotive before it hits the army's train, but Villega feels guilty and stays on board. John jumps in time and the two trains collide, killing Villega and a number of soldiers.The revolutionaries' ambush is successful, but as John approaches to meet Juan, he is shot in the back by Col. Reza. An enraged Juan riddles the Colonel's body with a machine gun. As John lies dying, he continues to have memories of his best friend, Nolan, and a young woman both apparently loved. John recalls killing Nolan after being betrayed by him to the law. Juan kneels by his side to ask about Dr. Villega. John keeps the doctor's secret and tells Juan that he died a hero of the revolution. As Juan goes to seek help, John has a flashback to his time in Ireland with Nolan and a girl whom they both were in love with; knowing his end is near, sets off a second charge he secretly laid in case the battle went bad. The film ends with Juan staring at the burning remains, asking forlornly: "What about me?" | western, cult, avant garde, action, flashback | tt0067140 |
Avenida Brasil | Aos 11 anos de idade, relatam os especialistas, a criança tem um senso de justiça bastante aflorado. É também nesta fase em que o olhar crítico se acentua. Rita (Mel Maia), a protagonista desta história, tem exatos 11 anos quando sofre um duro golpe e vê o seu mundo virar ao avesso. Esta rasteira lhe deixa marcas profundas, chaga que Rita carregará pela vida inteira.A menina, órfã de mãe, é criada pelo pai. Amoroso, Genésio (Tony Ramos) jamais imaginou que a sua segunda esposa pudesse representar o pior de seus pesadelos. Carminha (Adriana Esteves), a madrasta, rouba tudo da enteada: os sonhos, a casa, a família e a esperança. Rita conhece um modelo de vida sem esperança, de muitas perdas e solidão. Ela sente, na pele, a amargura da decepção.Mas enganam-se aqueles que subestimam a capacidade de sobrevivência de Rita. A menina não sucumbe ao longo dos anos. De tudo o que lhe foi tirado, restou apenas um único e vital sentimento: a sede por um acerto de contas. É neste momento em que o limite para que os fins justifiquem os meios entra em discussão. Esse limite, por diversas vezes, não se encaixa no formato simples e dicotômico de certo ou errado.Na saga pela sua própria justiça, Rita deixa para trás o passado frágil e se transforma em Nina (Débora Falabella), uma mulher obstinada, firme e blindada para as surpresas que o destino lhe reserva. A vida se encarregou desta metamorfose. Está feito, não há como voltar.Alternative Synopsis in English by Yosra_in_EgyptIn Brazil, a young girl, Rita, knew her father's new wife, Carminha (Adriana Esteves), was up to no good. She tried to warn her father that the same woman, who could mistreat her, planned to rob him. What she didn't know is that her father would wind up dead.Without that good man to protect her, the girl is brought to the garbage dump and abandoned. Rita is befriended by an urchin with the nickname of Potato and is then brought to a kind woman everyone calls Mama Lucinda (Vera Holtz).Rita and Potato have a kind of young love which even includes a pretend wedding ceremony. When Rita gets adopted by a well-to-do couple, she leaves Brazil for Argentina but she does not forget those who helped her and those who hurt both her and her father.As soon as she is old enough to handle the challenge, she returns for revenge against her evil stepmother by using her culinary skills to get a job in her mansion. Carminha has done well for herself by marrying a former soccer star. She's fooling everyone she's a goody-goody but she is a cruel witch to her chubby daughter Ágatha (Ana Karolina Lannes) and anyone who gets in her way.Potato is there too at the mansion but under the name Jorginho (Cauã Reymond) because he was somehow adopted from the dump by Carminha and her new husband Tufão (Jorge Araújo). Rita (Débora Falabella) of course can't use her real name and goes by the name Nina for her ruseCan she exact sweet revenge while at the same time rekindle her first love? | revenge, murder, romantic | tt2303077 |
Il fantasma di Sodoma | Tucked away in a isolated country house during World War II, a group of AWOL Nazi soldiers indulge in orgiastic behavior with a few prostitutes. One, young, Aryan-blond soldier films the cavorting with a movie camera. While viewing the film, the Germans revels are brought to a sudden end when Allied bombs land on the villa, destroying it.Present day. Six teenagers are driving to Paris after a touring holiday in the countryside. They are the van driver Mark (Claus Aliot), his friends Paul (Alan Johnson), John (Sebastian Harrison), Anne (Teresa Razzauti), Celine (Mary Salier), and Maria (Jessica Moore). Driving off the main road, the group decends on the house seen in the prologue. Finding the villa abandoned, they break in though the back door and elect to stay for the night. The place is plush, fully furnished, and dotted with erotic paintings and photographs. It's also haunted by the ghosts of the same sex-crazed Nazis. That night, Willy (Robert Egon) the young Nazi soldier whod been filming the orgy seen earlier, emerges from a mirror and seduces Anne as she sleeps alone in a room. Anne responds to his violent sexual overtures. When she wakes up the next morning, she discovers she's unmarked and assumes it was all a bad dream.The six teenagers attempt to leave the next day, but their one attempt to drive away is thwarted when the route leads mysteriously back to the villa. Returning inside, they loiter around until dusk, finally deciding to stay again for another night. The next morning, they decide to try to leave again, only this time their vehicle won't start. They go back inside to phone for help. They are met with sinister responses over the phone by the police station as they attempt to call. Then, they discover that the phone line was cut all this time. What's more, they are locked in the house. The window shutters resist their minimal efforts to break through, plus all the doors are locked shut too. Claustrophoic attacks happen when Maria begins to lose her sanity. Soon, bitter arguments occur between the three guys. Mark gets drunk on the vintage wine found in the cellar. After obnoxiously taunting Maria, he wonders off to explore more of the house.Mark enters a room and finds a group of Nazi playing cards around a table. They invite the inebriated youth to join them. The others disappear and Mark plays Russian roulette with Willy by playing a five-hand of cards with him, being forced to put the revolver to his head and pull the trigger three times with a single bullet in it. Mark survives the game and gets his reward: an assignation with a prostitute in a neighboring room. His desire turns to horror when his hands go right through her body and into a bloody pulp. Running out of the room, Mark sees Paul on the stairs and sees him transform into a Nazi too. Mark lunges at Paul in which Mark falls down the stairs and breaks his neck. The others drag him into the living room where he dies right before their eyes.More supernatural occurrences occur, starting when Maria retreats to a room where a ghost prostitute attempts to seduce her, to reveal her repressed lesbianism and tries to sow sees of anxiety in her by saying that her girlfriend/lover Anne is cheating on her with Celine. Paul then gets approached and seduced by a processed Anne who turns into a rotting corpse. Exploring for a way out, Paul and John find a can of film in the cellar, which apparently holds the key to the ghosts power. As Mark's corpse rots before their eyes, they hear footsteps of the approaching Nazi ghosts. The four surviving teens flee into the parlor where they decide to play the film to find the mystery of the supernatural occurrences. The film is the orgy sequence, which the ghosts attempt to break down the baracaded door. Just when the ghosts break down the door, the film ends with the explosion that killed the Nazis. The marauding ghosts disappear and the youths black out from the massive explosion that rocks the entire building. When they wake up, they all find themselves outside the now-ruined shell of the villa. Their experiences have apparently been nothing more then dreams, and the teens are relived to discover that Mark is alive after all. Having enough of their adventures, the six teens pack up in their car and drive off. | violence, sadist | tt0095132 |
The Sand | A group of friends are having a party at the beach with some of their classmates. A girl named Heather (Etalvia Cashin) is videoing the party, when two of the boys, Vance (Hector David Jr.) and Gilbert (Cleo Berry), find a large ball covered in a strange gooey substance. All the teenagers agree to put their mobile phones in the trunk of a car in an effort to ensure that no one will post compromising pictures or videos online.
The next morning two of the friends, Kaylee (Brooke Butler) and Mitch (Mitchel Musso) wake up on the lifeguard shack. Kaylee's boyfriend, Jonah (Dean Geyer), awakens in a nearby convertible next to a girl named Chanda (Meagan Holder). In the back seat are Vance and his girlfriend, Ronnie (Cynthia Murell). Gilbert wakes up, stuck from the waist down in a trash barrel, having been put there as a prank after passing out. A girl named Marsha (Nikki Leigh) wakes up, topless, having fallen asleep on top of a picnic table. The rest of the teenagers, including Heather, are nowhere to be found; there are, instead, a bunch of empty sleeping bags in their places.
Marsha accuses Heather of having stolen her top; she leaves the picnic table to find her. Kaylee, having witnessed a bird getting sucked into the sand tries to warn her, but Marsha doesn't listen. She is immediately immobilized in the sand and is visibly discombobulated when she gets. Vance attempts to help her but he, too, becomes trapped when he touches the sand. Vance and Marsha are swallowed by the creature, as their bodies sink into the sand, much to the horror of their friends. Jonah sees the cracked ball from the night before and concludes that it must have been an egg, and whatever hatched from it has burrowed under the sand and has wiped out everyone, including Vance, Heather, and Marsha.
The group cannot call for help, as their phones are locked in the trunk of the car, and the car's battery is dead from their having left the headlights on all night. Mitch and Kaylee find hot dogs in the lifeguard shack and toss them at different ends of the beach to find out the extent of the creature under the sand. Thus they find the edge of it, and the group is momentarily hopeful until they realize the distance is too great. Jonah uses two surfboards as a bridge to reach the picnic table. He makes it to the table, but not before the creature has slashed his stomach, leaving a painful wound that starts to seep pus. He notes to the others, though, that the creature won't go near the ashes of the previous night's bonfire, indicating that it hates fire.
The sun beats down. Ronnie and Chanda attempt to retrieve the phones from the trunk of the car, but Ronnie becomes trapped, her fingers crushed under the rim of the trunk. A beach patrolman (Jamie Kennedy) drives onto the beach. The group warns him, then are shocked to see him get out of his car and walk across the sand unmolested. Mitch realizes that the man's boots are protecting him. The patrolman, seeing Jonah's and Ronnie's injuries and Gilbert stuck in the trash barrel, assumes the group is on drugs and taunts them.
But the patrolman drops his keys in the sand, and when he reaches to pick them up, his hand is captured. He uses his pepper spray, which temporarily saves him, but in the process, his lower arm has been consumed; the shock causes him to fall, and he is sucked into the sand. Kaylee, however, manages to retrieve his pepper spray. The pepper spray gives Mitch an idea: he thinks he can get to the truck by putting his flip-flops on and wrapping his feet with towels soaked in pepper spray. Chanda throws him a towel from the car, but when Mitch attempts to catch it the banister breaks and he falls to the sand and is devoured by the sand creature in a gruesome fashion.
Kaylee, after a brief moment of sadness, takes charge. She frees Ronnie's fingers from the car trunk, then has Chanda take the broken pieces of the boardwalk and use them as a bridge to get to Jonah on the picnic table. Meanwhile, Gilbert discovers that he has cut his stomach on the edge of the trash barrel during his attempts to escape, thus alerting the creature.
Kaylee and Ronnie each make their way across the makeshift bridge to Chanda and Jonah. At the last step, Ronnie trips and, despite Kaylee's efforts with the pepper spray, she dies and sucked into the sand by the creature. Chanda, in desperation, follows through with Mitch's plan and runs across the sand to the truck with pepper-sprayed towels wrapping her feet. The group celebrates for a brief moment as she succeeds. But just then, Gilbert is attacked by the creature, sucked down through the bottom of the barrel. The creature, having grown much larger tentacles, bangs against the patrol car, knocking Chanda unconscious.
At nightfall, Chanda wakes up and recuperates. She gets to the back of the truck and finds a self-inflatable raft. Chanda inflates the raft, and Kaylee and Jonah use it to reach the patrolman's car. However, the ground erupts, knocking Kaylee out of the open door and onto the raft. A huge glowing tentacle shoots out from the ground and assaults her. She manages to get on top of the car and, finding two gas cans on the rear rack, uses them to set one of the large tentacles on fire.
Kaylee, Chanda, and Jonah lock themselves in the car as the creature's tentacles flail and bash at them. Eventually, the attacks stop; in the silence, Kaylee and Chanda see that Jonah has died from his injuries. The two girls cry for the loss of their friends and fall asleep huddled together.
In the morning, the girls are awakened by a man (Michael Huntsman), who taps on the glass and asks them if they are still alive. Kaylee and Chanda note, incredulously, that the creature is gone. They walk across the sand together, traumatized, as the man calls for an ambulance.
In a closing shot, the creature, revealed as an enormous jellyfish, is seen under the water, faraway and headed towards another beach full of people. | violence | tt3399484 |
The Man with the Golden Gun | The pre-title sequence opens with an international assassin, Scaramanga, relaxing on a tropical beach with a woman, Andrea Anders, his lover. Scaramanga and Anders leave the beach, a short time later a gangster, Rodney, arrives and is met by Nick-Nack, a dwarf who works as a servant for Scaramanga. Rodney has been hired by Nick-Nack to kill Scaramanga, who has promised to leave everything he owns to his small servant. The gangster stalks Scaramanga through a funhouse-like wing of his home. Scaramanga has been caught without his gun and must find it first. He does so and is able to kill his would-be assassin first. Nick-Nack jovially tells Scaramanga he will find an adversary that will beat his master; the two seem to have an unspoken agreement that humors them both. Scaramanga picks up the gangster's gun and turns suddenly, shooting the fingers off a nearby wax dummy of James Bond.MI6's top agent, James Bond, has been called to the office of his boss, M. M asks what Bond knows about Scaramanga, to which Bond recites a laundry list of characteristics, the most important being that Scaramanga charges $1 million per assassination, uses gold bullets marked with then name of his target and is known as "The Man with the golden gun." M shows Bond a gold bullet, assumed to be one of Scaramanga's, marked with Bond's service number, "007" and a partial fingerprint of the villain's. Bond is puzzled as to why anyone would want him killed and M orders him to travel to Beirut.In Beirut, Bond speaks with an exotic dancer who is the last person to see a fellow agent 002 alive who had allegedly been killed by Scaramanga. Bond finds that the woman has kept the gold bullet since her lover's death and uses it as a lucky charm which she holds in her navel. A small group of thugs break into her dressing room and Bond, in the middle of kissing the woman's abdomen, swallows the bullet. He takes it back to Q who, along with an metallurgist, is able to identify the manufacturer, a man named Lazar who lives in Macau. Bond is sent there to investigate and, while threatening Lazar, is shown an order for more golden bullets to be delivered shortly. Bond accompanies Lazar to the drop point, a local casino, where they are picked up by Andrea Anders.Bond trails Anders to Hong Kong but loses her at the hydrofoil port. He meets his assistant, Mary Goodnight. Bond finds out where Anders is staying and enters her hotel room and roughly interrogates her, citing the bullet sent to MI6 with his number on it. She admits she works for Scaramanga, both as a courier but also as his lover; Scaramanga, like a bullfighter, uses her for sex before he makes a kill. Bond also finds out that Scaramanga is due to be at the Bottoms Up exotic dancers club that night. While staking the club, Bond sees Nick-Nack nearby. As he watches, a man exits the club and is immediately shot by Scaramanga, who is hiding nearby. The man, Gibson, is a solar energy expert. Bond is arrested by Lieutenant Hip as a suspect in the murder. Hip takes Bond to the rusted hulk of the RMS Queen Elizabeth (actually ruined by fire in 1972) in Hong Kong harbor, which turns out to be MI6's base of Asian Operations; M is there. Bond is informed that Gibson's invention, the Solex Agitator, a small but powerful device used to convert solar energy into electricity, had been stolen from him immediately after the shooting. Scaramanga had been hired to kill Gibson by a Chinese gangster, Hai Fat. Because Fat had never met Scaramanga face-to-face, Bond is able to impersonate the killer; he even has Q supply him with a fake third nipple, one of Scaramanga's known physical characteristics.Bond travels to Bangkok and Fat's home. Fat invites Bond back to his house for dinner that evening, however, Bond is unaware that Scaramanga himself is has already met with Fat in person. Fat arranges for Bond to be killed when he arrives. When Bond shows up at Fat's place, he is subdued and captured by Nick-Nack & two sumo wrestlers. Nick-Nack nearly stabs Bond but is stopped by Fat, who sends Bond to a nearby martial arts dojo. The class' best student engages Bond in combat but Bond defeats him and jumps through a window. Hip arrives with his nieces, who beat the students with their own skill at martial arts. When they jump in Hip's car, they take off without Bond, who must escape using a high-powered canal boat, chased by Thai long-tail boats, and comically assisted by a chance run-in with Sheriff Pepper (from Live and Let Die) who is vacationing in Thailand with his wife.Back at Hai Fat's house Scaramanga kills the gangster (the gun he uses is assembled from personal items such as a ball point pen, cigarette lighter and a cuff link) and takes control of his assets. Bond plans to spend a romantic evening with Goodnight at their hotel room but they are interrupted by Anders. Bond sleeps with her and she confesses she is afraid of Scaramanga. She asks Bond to kill him. Bond says he will do so but only in exchange for the Solex. Bond goes to a kickboxing match where Anders is waiting. She is dead, having been killed in public by Scaramanga, who had discovered her betrayal. Scaramanga introduces himself to Bond, while Nick-Nack covers him with a tiny pistol. Scaramanga tells of his circus up-bringing, and warns Bond not to follow him, while Bond locates the Solex on the floor among the spilled contents of Anders' purse, and covertly passes it to Hip, disguised as a peanut seller. Hip passes the Solex to Goodnight, waiting outside. Scaramanga and Nick-Nack leave the arena, but find Goodnight trying to plant a tracking device in Scaramanga's car and lock her in the trunk. Bond pursues in a stolen car. He chases Scaramanga along a canal and nearly loses him when Scaramanga mysteriously appears on the other side of the water. Not able to find a suitable bridge nearby, Bond drives his car across a wrecked bridge, executing a corkscrew jump and landing on the other bank. Meanwhile, Scaramanga reaches a barn where his car is converted into a plane and takes off, Goodnight still in the trunk.Goodnight's tracking unit informs MI6 and Bond that Scaramanga has returned to his private island off the coast of China (actually the Khao Phing Kan archipelago on the west coast of Thailand). Bond flies there under radar and lands. He is met by Nick-Nack and Scaramanga and given a tour of the facility. Scaramanga shows how the Solex provides power for his compound. Though he doesn't understand the science involved, Scaramanga knows the applications can extend to weapons; he destroys Bond's sea plane with a blast from a laser weapon in his control room. Scaramanga plans to hand over the Solex technology to whomever pays him the highest price for it. He also reveals that he has long desired to duel with Bond to see whom is the better marksman. Bond agrees to the match.The two face off with Scaramanga stalking Bond through his compound and Nick-Nack keeping tabs on the match from a control console. After several minutes of both gunmen evading each other, Bond gains the advantage by taking the place of the wax dummy that resembles him; Scaramanga enters the room and is shot dead by Bond. In the meantime, Goodnight has subdued the bodyguard Scaramanga had posted in the electric generator room and the man falls into a vat of liquid nitrogen. The change in temperature upsets the balance needed to maintain production and the compound begins to self-destruct. Bond is able to regain the Solex and he and Goodnight escape the compound before its destruction.To reach civilization, Bond takes Scaramanga's personal junk and leaves the island with Goodnight. On the boat, finally able to enjoy some romantic time alone, they are attacked by Nick-Nack, who begins a surprisingly furious battle with Bond. Bond is able to trap the diminutive servant in a suitcase and takes him on deck. When he returns, Goodnight is horrified, thinking that Bond threw the midget overboard, however, Bond has locked him in a small cage. As they begin their romantic encounter again, Bond and Goodnight are once again interrupted by a call from M, which the two ignore. | cult, murder | tt0071807 |
Romancing the Stone | Joan Wilder (Kathleen Turner) is a New-York based writer of cheap romance novels. She's a bit clumsy in real life, although in her novels she writes about strong-minded heroines and sexy male adventurers falling in love passionately. One day, she finds her condo, where she lives with only the company of a cat, in a mess. Right away she has a frightening call: her sister Elaine (Mary Ellen Trainor) has been kidnapped in South America. She decides to go there to save her. There is a map which leads to a huge treasure which is the price which the kidnappers ask for to free Elaine.She has to take a bus to Cartagena, in Colombia, but she has trouble with the language spoken there, Spanish. She gets on a coach, but she is afraid she has taken the wrong one, so she asks the driver (Camilo García) while en route. The driver gets distracted because he can't understand her and has an accident. The bus is wrecked.Joan asks adventurer Jack T. Colton (Michael Douglas), to take her to the place in the map. He accepts because he wants the money to buy a ship. They are followed by some mysterious Latin men and soldiers, commanded by corrupt policeman Zolo (Manuel Ojeda). Ralph, (Danny DeVito) is organizing their capture from far away, because he wants the map as well. He is even less equipped to life in a poor Latin American country than Joan is.Joan and Jack fall down a spring, they have to cross a wide river, and eventually they get lost. They find a crashed airplane with boxes of marijuana, and they spend the night there, because outside it's pouring down with rain. When they leave the next morning, after Jack has saved Joan from being bitten by a poisonous snake, they arrive at a small village. They ask for a phone or a car there, but several dangerous-looking men tell them there is not any. Asking at a mansion, they are helped because Juan (renowned film director Alfonso Arau) recognises Joan. Juan calls her Juanita Wilder, and says that he always reads her novels aloud to the thugs. He invites Joan and Jack, and inside, the town cottage looks like a hacienda mansion with all the amenities of a luxurious manor house. Juan lends them his 4x4. That way they ran away.Ralph will find Joan and Jack eventually, dressed up in Colombina-like outfits for the party. Zolo also pursuits them. They fight each other, they run after one another, and there is the suspicion that Jack is going to betray Joan at any moment because of the treasure. They are about to be eaten by crocodiles all the time, which is a funny moment in the film. All the main characters are about to fall in the crocodile pond while fighting and going back and forth in pursuit of the treasured green diamond.Finally, Joan and Elaine are together again. Soldier of fortune Jack and Joan must face their mutual attraction, although they are completely opposites in many respects.A true modern classic!================================================The movie opens in the middle of a Western cowboy story where a beautiful blonde woman is confronted by an evil man named Drogan. Drogan has come for a treasure of considerable value and demands it and sex from the woman. As she prepares to undress, she throws a hidden knife at her foe, killing him, proclaiming that Drogan had killed her dog, raped and murdered her sister and stole her Bible. After she's dressed, she packs up her horse and rides out, only to stop at the sight of Drogan's men on horseback. Suddenly her hero, Jesse, shown only in shadow, appears and shoots all the men dead. Jesse and the woman embrace and she says they'll be together forever.The scene shifts to Joan Wilder, an author of bestselling romance novels, crying as she types out the scene she'd just narrated. It's the finale to her latest book. Joan is happy that she's completed what could be her biggest selling novel yet. In her kitchen, she hears a noise behind her and greets someone she calls "Sweetheart" -- it's her cat, Romeo. She gives him a can of Bumblebee tuna to eat and celebrates with him. She looks up at a poster on her wall of Jesse from the cover of one of her books and hopes aloud that she'll one day find a man like the one she's created.Joan leaves her apartment, late for a meeting with her editor. On the way, she meets an elderly neighbor who gives her a package that the mail carrier couldn't fit in her box. The package is from her brother-in-law and has arrived from Colombia. At the meeting with her editor, Joan presents the manuscript. Her editor has had them meet in a bar thinking that it'll be good for Joan to see single men in a social setting. Joan remains reluctant because none of them can match her vision of Jesse. Joan also mentions to her editor that she'd gotten a package from her brother-in-law, Eduardo, who'd recently been found dead and mutilated in Colombia.In Cartagena Joan's sister, Elaine, is leaving her apartment in a hurry. Outside, a boy is playing with a bola and as Elaine drives her car out of her garage, the boy throws the bola at her, knocking her unconscious. The boy drives Elaine in her car to a nearby fortress where Ralph, a small-time crook, sees him arrive. He talks to his cousin, Ira, telling him that they should leave Colombia because things have gotten too dangerous. Ira tells Ralph that they have one more treasure hunt to go on & they'll leave.Joan arrives home to find that her apartment has been ransacked. Earlier, a shady character had been standing at Joan's front door and had killed the building's janitor. Joan finds her cat safe and suddenly gets an unexpected call from her sister Elaine. Elaine sounds upset and asks Joan if she'd gotten the package from Eduardo. Joan finds a treasure map inside. Elaine tells Joan to bring the map to Cartagena. Joan is reluctant, thinking that Colombia is too dangerous. Elaine is able to convince Joan to come. Joan packs up and leaves her cat with her editor, who tries to talk her out of going.Joan arrives in Colombia and looks for a bus that'll take her to Cartagena. The shady character that ransacked her apartment, Colonel Zolo, tells her that the bus, which is really going to a remote town in the mountains, will take her to Cartagena and joins her on the bus. Ralph also happens to be at the airport and spots Joan on the wrong bus just as it leaves.Joan wakes up on the bus, which is winding it's way through a mountain pass surrounded by rainforest. When she asks the driver when they'll arrive, the driver is distracted and crashes into a parked Land Rover. The bus is wrecked and the passengers continue on foot. Zolo tells Joan she can wait for another bus & soon draws a pistol on her, demanding her purse. Just then a man appears at the top of a ridge. Zolo fires a warning shot at the man, who raises his hands and suddenly grabs a shotgun from a scabbard on his back. The two men shoot at each other until Zolo runs out of ammo and retreats. Joan, hiding under the bus, hears the mystery man cursing in English about the wrecked Land Rover and losing a bunch of birds. He eventually finds her hiding under the bus. Still angry about losing his vehicle and the birds he'd been collecting, he acts very callously toward Joan, who asks him to take her to a town with a phone. The man demands $500 & Joan talks him down to $375 in American Express traveler's checks. He also refuses to carry Joan's suitcase.In the meantime, Zolo is picked up by Ralph, who had been following the bus. The two go to the nearest police station where Zolo orders the chief to assemble his men. Ralph calls Ira & tells him where he is, also spotting a police notice with his picture on it. He tears it down just as Ira tells him to get the map Joan is carrying.Joan and her rescuer continue on foot through the mountains. The man asks Joan if she has anything truly important in her suitcase and throws it into a ravine so they can move faster. Joan is furious and about to berate him when the ground beneath her gives way and she falls into the ravine. The man watches her for a moment, irritated, and the ground collapses under him as well. The two end up sliding down the side of the hill until they land in a marsh. Soaking wet, the man seems to have enjoyed the ride while Joan sits whimpering. He asks her what her name is and gives her a hearty welcome to Colombia.After they are able to clean themselves up, the man uses his machete to chop the heels off Joan's pumps so she can walk more easily. Suddenly, they are shot at by Zolo and the small police force he's gathered. They take off through the jungle, finally stopping at a deep ravine. There's a bridge across but it's too dilapidated to use. The man plans to fight, while Joan tries desperately to cross the bridge. Halfway across, a plank gives way and, grabbing a large creeper vine, swings across, landing safely on the other side. The man manages to do the same, narrowly escaping shots from Zolo.The two continue through the jungle, with the man giving Joan the opportunity to learn how to use his machete. She's startled when she finds a wrecked cargo plane with the rotted body of a pilot sticking out of a cockpit window. The two take refuge in the fuselage which is filled with hundreds of pounds of marijuana. Near the dead pilots they find a small bag with food and a bottle of tequila. The man, wanting to build a fire, looks in Joan's purse for matches & finds the map. Also in the pilot's bag is a fairly recent copy of Rolling Stone magazine -- the man is exasperated to find out that the Doobie Brothers had broken up. Joan is curious & man tells her that he'd come to Colombia as a mate on a boat but decided to go into catching and selling exotic birds. The man also tells Joan that her sister's life doesn't depend on the map itself -- that the treasure it leads to is more important. The treasure, whatever it is, is called "El Corazón" Spanish for "The Heart." He also tells her that it's located in Cordoba province, which they are in the middle of. Joan is angry with him for suggesting that they should greedily get the treasure first. When he appears not to be listening, she begins another tirade and he suddenly kills a large snake near her shoulder with his machete.Later, while the man explains his business, collecting and selling exotic birds, Joan asks him his name. He tells her it's Jack T. Colton. When she asks him what the T stands for, he tells her "trustworthy", one of the characteristics she looks for in a man.The next morning, Joan & Jack arrive in a tiny village. The locals regard them with caution and hostility. At one point they seem ready for a confrontation when Joan politely asks them if there's a car in the village. One of the men tells her that a man named Juan, the bell maker, has a car. Jack and Joan go to his house and find the man just as unfriendly as the others. When he points a gun at them both and they find themselves also facing the villagers, Jack lets Joan's full name slip and Juan recognizes her -- she's his favorite author and he reads her books to the local men each week. He invites them both inside where they find he has an elaborate and luxurious home. When they ask him about his car, he's amused saying the vehicle is his "little mule, Pepe."Just then, Zolo and his men arrive looking for Joan and Jack. Suddenly, Jack, Joan and Juan all burst out of Juan's garage -- "Pepe" is actually Juan's sport Ford pickup truck. The trio roar out of town with Zolo right behind. They charge through several fields until they head directly for a nearby stream. Juan has set up a ramp that carries them across the stream which he activates with a remote. After they've crossed, he rigs the ramp so that Zolo's men crash into it and are unable to follow them. Some time later, in a field overlooking a nearby town, Jack spots a tree that looks like a pitchfork. It's one of the markers on the map called El Tenedor del Diablo, the Devil's Fork. When they arrive in town, Jack checks them into a hotel and buys some clothes for Joan. He also plans to steal the map and make a copy of it for himself. Also in the town is Ralph, who spots Jack and Joan, and calls his cousin to tell him.At a town festival, Jack & Joan have dinner together and dance. Ralph tries to steal Joan's purse, only to be beaten up by a large woman who thinks he's trying to molest her. Jack and Joan go back to their room and spend the night together in bed. Jack tells Joan he'd like to take her around the world on the sailboat he dreams of buying. Joan suggests they use the map to find the treasure -- Joan is convinced that finding the treasure will give her more leverage to free her sister from Ralph and Ira. They both agree to do it and split the take from the treasure 50/50.In the morning, sneaking out of the hotel ahead of Zolo, they steal the very car that belongs to Ralph, not knowing he's sleeping the back seat. They follow the map back into the countryside. After finding another of the landmarks they continue only to stop when the road seems to run out. Joan listens for a bit & hears falling water. She also discovers that the map has a hidden clue: when folded, it shows the waterfall she heard and an X marking the resting place of the treasure. The two find the waterfall & a cave under it. In the cave is a final clue, a marker saying "Leche de la Madre", "Mother's milk". Jack spots a small pool under a few white stalactites that drip white-colored water. They dig in that spot for a few minutes & right after Joan tells Jack that she's enjoyed the adventure they've gone on, they find a bundle. In the bundle is a cheap ceramic bunny statue. Jack is frustrated until Joan remembers that in her 1st book the treasure was hidden inside the statue. They break it open and find El Corazon, a large green emerald. Jack quips that they're "in a lot of trouble" and Ralph suddenly appears and demands the emerald at gunpoint. Outside the cave, he accuses Jack of sweet-talking Joan into finding the jewel when he really wanted it for himself. Ralph tells them he's going to steal it for himself and tries to leave, only to find that Zolo and his men have found them all. Ralph runs off, but Jack and Joan easily catch him in their car and take the jewel back. They wind up in the river and tumble over a large waterfall. Both of them surface, but on different sides of the river, which is uncrossable. Joan is upset but, as Jack tells her, she still has the map & can still trade it for her sister. He tells her to head for the setting sun & she'll reach Cartagena and that he'll meet her there.Joan arrives in the city & goes to the hotel. She calls Ira, who tells her to meet her at the fort across the bay. Joan goes there and is met by Ira and his men. After seeing that her sister is alive, she hands Ira the map. He looks it over, sees that it's genuine and frees Elaine. As they walk away, a burst from a machine gun stops them. Jack steps out of the shadows; he's been captured by Zolo. Zolo tells Ira that the map is worthless since they have the stone -- among his captives is Ralph, who's been beaten and has likely told Zolo about the emerald being found. Zolo takes Joan to a nearby marsh where Ira had been keeping crocodiles. He slashes her hand and threatens to let her be eaten alive if they don't hand over the emerald. Jack tells them its in a safe place and when he keeps silent on the location, one of Zolo's men hits him in the crotch with his rifle butt. Jack then slides the emerald out of it's "hiding place" and kicks it to Zolo, hoping he'll choke on it. Zolo catches it over the water in the marsh, thanks Jack and loses the jewel when a crocodile suddenly bursts up and closes it's jaws on his hand.Jack grabs a machine gun from a guard and opens fire. Ira's men show up and a large gunfight ensues. Ira escapes, leaving Ralph behind. Jack chases after the croc that swallowed the jewel, eventually holding it by the tail over a drop into the bay. Joan and Elaine are pursued by Zolo until Joan, having stolen Zolo's stiletto, throws it at him. He blocks the blow with a board. Eventually, she is able to throw him off and when he lunges for her, he falls through a wooden grating and into another crocodile pit. Jack, unable to stop the croc from diving into the water, had tried to scale one of the fortress' walls and finally catches up to her. He tells her to go to the American consulate & tell them the whole story -- the Cartagena police are approaching and he doesn't want to be arrested. He dives off the wall after the croc.Some time later, back in New York, Joan is meeting with her editor. She's written another novel about her experiences and her editor is ecstatic. Joan is a changed woman, much more confident and longs to be with Jack again. Outside her apartment building, she sees a large sailboat. Jack is aboard and wearing boots made from the croc that ate the emerald. He and Joan share a kiss as the boat is pulled on a trailer up Joan's street. | mystery, cult, action, romantic | tt0088011 |
Dallas Buyers Club | A son of Texas, Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey) is an electrician and rodeo cowboy. In 1985, he is well into an unexamined existence with a devil-may-care lifestyle. He gets rodeo-goers so pissed off that he has to run away from them. The presence of a cop (Steve Zahn) who pretends to arrest him is what saves him. He is knocked out by electricity when trying to save a Latin illegal worker who got his leg caught up in a machine. Through all these experiences, Woodrooff continuously coughs a lot. After being knocked out, he wakes up at hospital, and doctor Vass (Griffin Dunne) and Dr. Eve Saks (Jennifer Garner) tell him that his inmunitary defenses are so low that it's a miracle he's still alive. Suddenly, Ron is blindsided by being diagnosed as H.I.V.-positive and given 30 days to live. Yet he will not, and does not, accept a death sentence.After receiving the news, he participates in an orgy, like those he used to like so much. He also takes drugs, but he looks at a calender and feels down. His crash course of research reveals a lack of approved treatments and medications in the U.S., so Ron crosses the border into Mexico. There, he learns about alternative treatments and begins smuggling them into the U.S., challenging the medical and scientific community including his concerned physician, Dr. Saks. She notices the gold watch on the speaker who talks about the virus and the medicines. She is being told that, after all, medicine is a business. Meanwhile, Ron goes to the library and checks medicine literature on the subject, coughing all the time. He remembers the time when he probably caught it.Ron goes to hospital again and Eve tries to help him because he is giving a hard time to nurse Frazin (Donna Duplantier), but Ron is an ass to her, shouting that he doesn't need a nurse but a doctor. Eve Saks helps him as much as he can anyway; she tells him that the medicines he heard on the TIME magazine in Germany are not available in the USA. She sends him to a support group, but he doesn't want to be seen with "faggots".His own friends don't even want to sit near him anymore, and a bar brawl almost ensues. The first time he goes to the support group, he just takes leaflets about the matter and threatens one of the members of the audience who tried to hug him. When he goes to the oil field, his boss in line and the rest of the workers want him out of there, so he doesn't even get out of his car. A Hispanic orderly (Ian Casselberry) steals the drugs and sells them to him. Ron passes out.An outsider to the gay community, Ron finds an unlikely ally in fellow AIDS patient Rayon (Jared Leto), a transsexual who shares Ron's lust for life. They share the same hospital room and Saks is both their doctor. On the 29th day, Ron looks like crap, but not necessarily like somebody who is about to die - he picks up a gun and thinks of committing suicide but cries and doesn't give in.On 30th day, he reaches Mexico. Dr Sevard (Denis O'Hare) speaks to him. Ron pulls down his hospital dress in fear any gay man looks at him.Rayon also shares Ron's entrepreneurial spirit: seeking to avoid government sanctions against selling non-approved medicines and supplements, they establish a buyers club, where H.I.V.-positive people pay monthly dues for access to the newly acquired supplies. Deep in the heart of Texas, Ron's pioneering underground collective beats loud and strong. With a growing community of friends and clients, Ron fights for dignity, education, and acceptance. In the years following his diagnosis, the embattled Lone Star loner lives life to the fullest like never before. The Mexican doctor who gives him proteins and DDC, which may help him, has lost his license in the USA; as those drugs have not been approved by American doctors, so he isn't supposed to take them with him.Ron tries to smuggle them by he is caught by a border agent (Sean Boyd). Ron disguises himself as a priest and says that he is taking vitamins, not medicines. He sells the medicines on the streets. The drugs take a lot of time to be approved, so meanwhile, USA's doctors are prescribing medicines which can be considered poisons.Rayon wants to buy a cocktail of drugs from him, but finally relents because she says that Ron doesn't deserve that money, as he is a homophobic ass. Ron drives after Rayon and sells her the drugs. Rayon suggests Ron to sell the cocktail within a gay bar. At first, nobody pays attention to him, and Rayon tells him to smile, so he makes his first sale there.Soon Ron and Rayon strike up a partnership and they start selling admittance to a buyers' club, not anymore selling the drugs anymore. Dr Saks is worried about Rayon, who has just disappeared and changed address without telling her. They were on such friendly terms that Eve was even questioned about Rayon's fashion and dresses choices. She is appalled when Ron's address comes out as Rayon's new address.Eve visits Rom's apartment and she is appalled that he is giving treatment to so many people. Ron has even began to care about Rayon's health and eating habits. At the supermarket, Ron comes across T. J. (Kevin Rankin) and introduces him to Rayon. Ron has to force him to shake hands with Rayon.The queue of sick people is visible from the road. Not everybody can pay the 400 dollar membership fee anyway. Ron doesn't want Rayon to sell when high. She is a bit unpredictable because of her addiction to cocaine.He travels to Japan to talk to Dr Hiroshi (Joji Yoshida), who tells him that he was not aware of the regulations against exporting drugs. Mr Yamata (Scott Takeda) who would sell the drugs under the counter. At the airport, he is about to inject himself but passes off. His cop friend learns that Ron has AIDS.The doctor tells him to stop selling unknown drugs which have provoked a heart attack to him. An FDA Customs agent (Carl Palmer) tells him that he'll bust him if he can. Saks has even referred some of his patients to Ron.Ron makes love to somebody while everybody is waiting up. Rayon's addiction increases. A news Anchor (Rachel Wulff) talks about demonstrations demanding medicines to be approved sooner. The FDA confiscates many drugs present at Ron's apartment, but they let him go with only a fine. Ron tells Rayon to stop shooting up or it will kill her.Eve and Ron have a date and they talk about their pasts. Frank Young (Himself) appears to TV to address the problem but he doesn't say anything important and even Rayon dismisses his words. Rayon is extremely thin; she starts coughing and a friend of hers (Sunny, played by Bradford Cox)) takes him to hospital. Eve Saks sees her on hospital with nurse Frazin. Eve holds Rayon's hand, while Ron fakes Eve's signature on prescriptions. Nurse Frazin calls security when Ron storms in Rayon's hospital room and threatens his doctor - Rayon's dead.Ron calls in a stripper (Neeona Neal). Both Ron and Eve are very affected by Rayon's death. The FDA keeps on putting pressure on him taking away his drugs. He goes to a conference by the FDA, which will allow him to use drugs for personal use, something which is considered a success.Ron dies in 1992, 7 years after he was first diagnosed. | dramatic, inspiring, flashback | tt0790636 |
Girlhood | Marieme (Karidja Touré) is a 16-year-old African-French teenager living in a poor Paris suburb. Academically Marieme struggles, which forces her into a vocational track where she will learn a certain trade. Due to her mother's demanding work schedule, Marieme's abusive brother is in charge. On her way out of school, the day she found out about vocational school, she is approached by a gang of girls, Lady (Assa Sylla) who is the leader of the group, and her followers, Fily (Marietou Toure), and Adiatou (Lindsay Karamoh), who ask Marieme if she wants to join them for a day trip to the city centre. They wear leather jackets, gold jewelry, and have pin straight hair. Marieme initially declines but after seeing the girls approached by a group of boys, including her brother's friend, Ismael (Idrissa Diabate) whom she has a crush on, Marieme joins them.
The girls fight, steal, intimidate others but love and support each other. Marieme and the girls grow close and she eventually begins to act and dress just like Lady, Adiatou and Fily. Because of their act of stealing, the entire group of girls pay for a hotel room, steal dresses, drink alcohol, do drugs, dance and lip sync to Diamonds, by Rihanna, and dance all night long. At the hotel Lady encourages Marieme to ignore her abusive older brother's phone calls and gives her a gold necklace with the name Vic for Victory.
Fighting assists in showing dominance over other groups. Lady sets up a fight with a girl who is a member of their rival group. Unfortunately, Lady is beaten by this girl, and has her shirt torn off which is viewed as a disgrace. Due to her loss, her father cuts all of her hair off and makes her keep her distance from the group. Vic/Marieme, wants to prove to herself, as well as Lady, that she has the power and strength to fight, and win, the battle against their rival. Vic miraculously wins the battle by ripping the girls shirt off, as well as cutting her bra leaving her topless. Both Lady and Vic's brother are incredibly proud of her and approving of her feat.
Afterwards Vic leaves home and starts to work for Abou, a local drug dealer. While working for Abou, Vic lives in an apartment with two male roommates. In order not to be sexualized she binds her breasts and wears loose baggy clothing. When her boyfriend discovers she has been binding her breasts they fight. Afterwards she goes to a party at Abou's place where, despite her dressed down look Abou approaches and tries to kiss her. She tells him no and pushes him away. Vic goes to her boyfriend's place to tell him she's done with Abou and he offers to let her stay at his place and marry her. Vic refuses telling him she doesn't want that kind of life. She attempts to go back home, but despite being buzzed into her building she finds herself unable to go in. | violence, psychological, murder | tt0368745 |
An American Werewolf in London | Hiking on a road on the Yorkshire moors of Northern England, American college students David Kessler and Jack Goodman come to a small village. They go into the local pub, called the Slaughtered Lamb, where they're coldly greeted by the locals. One of the regulars tells an off-color joke and while everyone, including David and Jack, laughs, Jack asks why the bar has a sort of shrine with candles and a pentacle. The bar is immediately silenced and the locals become even more unfriendly, prompting David and Jack to leave. Before they leave, the locals tell them to stay on the road outside and not to wander into the moors.As Jack and David walk along the road it begins to rain and the fog surrounding them grows thicker. Subsequently, they drift off the road and find themselves disoriented on the moors. They hear the ominous baying of an animal in the distance and Jack suggests they return to the village. They then hear a low growling nearby and catch sight of a large animal, which is circling them. They hurry off in the opposite direction, only to find that the creature has flanked them. Hurrying faster, they break into a run and David trips and falls. While they laugh over David's accident and Jack helps him up, Jack is attacked by a large wolf, which savagely mutilates him. David had run off but runs back when he hears Jack screaming. He finds Jack's body ripped apart and is himself attacked by the wolf, which bites and scratches him on his face and shoulder. Gunshots are heard; the villagers from the Slaughtered Lamb have appeared and have shot the wolf. Before he falls unconscious, David sees the bloodied body of a naked man lying next to him.David wakes up in a London hospital. His doctors and nurses inform him that he's been unconscious for three weeks since the attack and that Jack is dead. The police have also informed his parents about his condition. David is distraught at the thought of Jack's murder and the doctors sedate him. Later, he's visited by a chief of police and a representative from the American Consulate. The question him about the incident where Jack was killed. David doesn't have much to tell them except that Jack was killed by a large and powerful animal.The policeman tells David that he'd talked to the patrons of the Slaughtered Lamb and they'd told him that Jack was killed by a recently escaped murderer.David begins to experience strange dreams that become nightmares; in one, he runs nude through the forest and comes to a bed. He sees himself lying in the bed; when the bedridden David opens his eyes, they appear animal-like and he snarls. After a few days in the hospital, David sees an apparition of Jack, still mutilated. Jack has come back as a spirit to warn David that they were attacked by a "lycanthrope" a werewolf. Worse, David will be doomed to transform into a werewolf himself at the next full moon, a few days from then. Jack also tells David that he must kill himself to break the werewolf's bloodline, or he may attack others and continue the cycle. Jack is incredulous, thinking that his trauma from the experience is affecting his mind. Jack assures him that the curse is very real.One of David's nurses, Alex, becomes very attracted to David and invites him to stay with her at her London flat after he's released. The two become lovers. Late one night while Alex is asleep, David wakes up to use the bathroom. He is startled by Jack, whose spirit form has begun to decay. David is still unwilling to believe Jack's warning, even when Jack tells him that he may harm Alex. Jack disappears and David is left still believing he's losing his mind.David is left alone in Alex' apartment when she goes to work. That night, David suddenly begins to scream in pain and he slowly transforms into a wolf. Loose in the city, he first stalks a man on the London Underground. The man hears David's growling and begins to walk quickly away, eventually running as David chases him. He makes it to an escalator and slips, and David kills the man. In another part of the city, David attacks a group of homeless men and kills them all. He also lures a couple out of their house and attacks another couple on the street killing them as well.David wakes up, thinking he suffered another nightmare and finds that he's naked and in the wolf's pen at a zoo. He steals some balloons from a child & an overcoat from a woman. He rides back to Alex' flat on the Tube.In the meantime, David's doctor, Hirsch, travels to East Proctor. Having been suspicious of David's wounds when he was admitted, Hirsch questions the townsfolk there, asking them why David's injuries were fully cleaned & dressed when they turned him over to the medical professionals. The townsfolk are reluctant to answer the doctor's questions, however, one of them meets the doctor outside the pub and tells him what happened and that David is cursed. The doctor returns to London and asks Alex about her new relationship with David. He tells her to keep an eye on him and that she might be in danger.Alex and David go out for a day in London. While they're out, David spots a paper that tells of the murders he committed and how they're going unsolved. David realizes that Jack is right and tries to have himself arrested, even shouting statements that are offensive to Brits. Eventually he becomes so upset that he runs off, leaving Alex behind.David winds up in a porno theatre at Piccadilly Square. Jack visits him again and introduces him to the ghosts of the people he murdered. They're all quite angry with David and all try to convince him to commit suicide immediately. David suddenly transforms into the wolf again and bursts out of the theatre, attacking people on the street and causing several violent car crashes. He's hunted by the police to a dead-end alley. Hirsch and Alex find him there and Alex tries to calm David down and help him transform back. With some recognition of Alex in his eyes, David leaps at her, feigning an attack. The police shoot him dead immediately.===================2 american Backpackers are touring around europe and have arrived in a desolate part of the UK .
Before long they are warned by the Locals of The Slaughtered Lamb to avoid the moors at night.
Shortly afterwards they are attcked my a mysterious beast which kills one of them and wounds the other. the beast is subsequenlty killed by the locals and then the fun really begins.
After coming round in Hospital David meets Nurse Price and begins to have disturbing dreams .
He is visited by his now dead friend Jack who tells him that they were attacked by a Werewolf and that David will soon become one himself.
Shortly after leaving hospital and Moving in with Nurse price a Series of grisly Murders takes place .
And David realises that his dead best friend maybe right . | comedy, gothic, murder, cult, violence, atmospheric, humor, satire, suspenseful, entertaining | tt0082010 |
The Master | Freddie Quell is a sex-obsessed alcoholic World War II veteran from Lynn, Massachusetts, struggling to adjust to post-war society. By 1950, he has become a portrait photographer at a department store, but he is soon fired for getting into a drunken fight with a customer. Freddie then finds work at a Salinas, California cabbage farm, but his moonshine poisons one of the elderly Filipino migrant workers and he is chased off.
One night, intoxicated, Freddie finds himself in San Francisco and stows away on the yacht of a follower of Lancaster Dodd, the leader of a nascent philosophical movement known as "The Cause." When he is discovered, Dodd describes Freddie as "aberrated" and invites him to stay and attend the marriage of his daughter, Elizabeth, as long as he will make more of his mysterious brew (made with paint thinner), which Dodd has developed a taste for. Dodd begins an exercise with Freddie called Processing, a flurry of disturbing psychological questions aimed at conquering Freddie's past traumas. Freddie reveals that his father is dead, his mother is institutionalized, he had an incestuous relationship with his aunt, and he abandoned the love of his life, a young girl named Doris, who wrote to him while he was at war. Freddie is enthralled by Dodd, who doesn't flinch from his abject revelations, and Dodd sees something in Freddie. Freddie travels with Dodd's family as they spread the teachings of "The Cause" along the East Coast. Dodd and his family, with Freddie tagging along, stay as guests in the homes of various women drawn to "The Cause." But when at a dinner party in New York, a man questions Dodd's methods and statements, Freddie pursues him to his apartment and assaults him that night.
Other members of "The Cause" begin to worry about Freddie's behavior, despite Dodd's attachment to him. While they are guests of an acolyte in Philadelphia, Dodd's wife Peggy tells Freddie that he must quit drinking if he wishes to stay, to which he agrees. However, he has no true intention of keeping his promise. Freddie criticizes Dodd's son Val for disregarding his father's teachings, but Val tells Freddie that Dodd is making things up as he goes along. Dodd is arrested for practicing medicine without proper qualifications, after one of his former hostesses has a change of heart; Freddie is also arrested for assaulting the police officers. In the jail cell adjacent to Dodd, Freddie smashes the toilet and batters himself against the bars and his bunk, while Dodd tries to calm him. Freddie erupts in a tirade, questioning everything that Dodd has taught him and accuses him of being a fake. The two men trade insults until Dodd turns his back. They reconcile upon their release, but members of "The Cause" have become more suspicious and fearful of Freddie, believing him to be deranged or an undercover agent.
Freddie submits to additional exercises with "The Cause" but becomes increasingly angry and frustrated with the repetition of the exercises and his lack of results. Eventually he passes the tests, and they travel to Phoenix, Arizona, for the release of Dodd's latest book. But when Dodd's publisher criticizes the quality of the book and its teachings, Freddie assaults him. Helen Sullivan, their Philadelphia hostess, confronts Dodd in the lecture hall for suggesting that members should now "imagine" rather than "recall" the experiences of "other lives" in his new book, and he also loses his temper. During another exercise, in which Freddie is supposed to ride a motorcycle at high speed through the desert towards an object in the distance and then return, he instead abandons the group, riding the motorcycle out of the desert, and leaving Dodd and "The Cause" behind. He goes home to rekindle his relationship with Doris but learns from her mother that she has married and started a family in Alabama in the seven years since he last saw her. Freddie leaves disappointed.
While sleeping in a movie theater, Freddie receives a phone call (or dreams that he has) from Dodd, who is now residing in England. Freddie is asked to come join him. When Freddie arrives, he discovers Val is still in his father's employ and that Elizabeth has been expelled from the movement. Dodd seems happy to see him but Peggy tells him that Freddie has no intention of improving his life and that he should no longer be involved in "The Cause." Dodd changes his countenance, thinking his wife is correct. He gives Freddie an ultimatum: stay with "The Cause" and devote himself to it for the rest of his life or leave and never return. Freddie doesn't answer, expressing with silence his refusal. Dodd then comments that if Freddie can find a way to live without a master, any master, to let Dodd know because he'll be the first person in the history of the world to do so. Then Dodd serenades Freddie with the song "Slow Boat to China". Freddie leaves and picks up a woman at a local pub, then repeats questions from his first processing session with Dodd as he is having sex with her. Finally, he appears to curl up on a beach next to the crude sand sculpture of a woman the sailors built during the war. | comedy, violence, cult, flashback, insanity, philosophical, storytelling | tt1560747 |
Rabbit's Kin | One day, a small rabbit with an extremely high-pitched, rapid fire speaking voice is fleeing from an unknown enemy. He happens to fall into Bugs' hole. After Bugs calms the young rabbit down, he asks him what's going on. The rabbit proceeds to tell Bugs that a large cat started chasing him for no reason. Bugs realizes it's an old foe of his, Pete Puma. Indeed, Pete is searching in Bugs' hole for the small rabbit. Bugs disguises a stick of dynamite as a rabbit, and it blows Pete up when he takes it. Bugs then exits the hole, to deal with Pete himself. The small rabbit is nervous that Bugs will be harmed, but Bugs assures him that he'll be all right.Bugs encounters Pete, who gives him an exploding cigar. Bugs stuffs it in his pocket for later. He then drags Pete to have tea with him. Pete asks for "three or four" lumps, and Bugs responds by whacking him on the head with a mallet. Five lumps form in Pete's head, and Bugs pats one down with a small mallet. He then shoves the exploding cigar into Pete's mouth and lights it, running off before it explodes.Bugs decides to lead the smaller rabbit home, knowing that the rabbit would be better off with a bodyguard. Just then, Pete appears in drag and rabbit ears, posing as the rabbit's mother. The small rabbit panics, but Bugs tells him, "It ain't polite to talk back to your mother," and winks. Bugs then holds another tea party, but Pete elects to have coffee instead, saying tea "gives me a headache." Bugs pulls the old "how many lumps" gag again, but Pete is wearing a stovelid this time. Bugs simply removes it, causing a massive lump to appear in Pete's head. He falls unconscious at this.Bugs and the rabbit then decide to cooperate on their next scheme to outwit Pete. The rabbit allows himself to be captured by Pete, who makes it back home to find his "second cousin, Paul Puma", Bugs in disguise. They decide to cook the rabbit together. Bugs goes to get coal, and asks Pete how many lumps he wants. He responds, "Better give me a lotta lumps-- a whole lotta lumps!" Realizing what he's said, Pete takes Bugs' mallet away, and tells him, "I'll help myself." He then proceeds to whack himself over the head with the mallet endlessly. Bugs and the rabbit leave, the former remarking, "He's much too smart for us!" Iris out. | psychedelic | tt0045063 |
The Mark of Cain | Sailing ships, stars, angels and executioners The Mark of Cain chronicles the vanishing practice and language of Russian Criminal Tattoos. Captured in some of Russias most notorious prisons, including the fabled White Swan, the film traces the animus of the flowers of this carnal art by way of the brutality of its origins- the penitentiary and the criminal environment. Incisive interviews with prisoners, guards, and criminologists reveal the secret language of The Zone and The Code of Thieves of the vory v zakone. As early as the 1920s, Russian prisons and Gulag began to attract the attention of researchers. The prisoners of the Stalinist Gulag, or "Zone," as it is called, developed a complex social structure that incorporated highly symbolic tattooing as a mark of rank. The very existence of these inmates at prisons and forced labor camps was treated by the state as a deep secret, and their tattoo art was considered a forbidden topic. In the last decade, Russia's prison population has exploded; overcrowding has reached unimaginable proportions. Few other nations have had such a massive prison population. The most conservative estimates suggest that in the last decades, over thirty million of Russia's inmates have had tattoos even though the process is against the law inside prison. According to The Book of Genesis, God placed a mark on the world's first murderer before sending him into exile. The mark of Cain proclaimed its bearer as a criminal and social outcast; for centuries, prisoners and those who broke social codes were forcibly tattooed. In Russian prisons, tattooing emerged as a visual mode of communication linked with social division. The Mark of Cain tells the story of a fading art form and how that practice's death reflects transition in broader Russian society. | dark | tt0288114 |
The Faculty | One evening at Herrington High School in Ohio (home of the Hornets), several teachers and Principal Drake leave after discussing the school's budget. When Drake returns to retrieve her keys, Coach Willis becomes increasingly erratic and stabs a pencil through Drake's hand when she attempts to leave. Drama teacher Mrs. Olsen emotionlessly stabs Valerie with scissors as Drake flees the school.
The following morning, the students arrive, including Casey Connor, the dedicated but perpetually harassed photographer for the school newspaper. Connor is the unappreciated assistant to spiteful Delilah Profitt, the paper's editor-in-chief and head cheerleader. Delilah's mistreated boyfriend Stan Rosado is contemplating quitting the football team to pursue academics. Zeke Tyler is an intelligent yet rebellious student repeating his senior year. Tyler sells, among other illegal items, a powdery ecstasy-like drug he manufactures and distributes; he is confronted by Miss Elizabeth Burke, who expresses concern for him over his illegal activities. Naive transfer student Marybeth Louise Hutchinson, befriends self-styled outcast Stokely Mitchell. Delilah has spread rumors that Stokely is a lesbian though she has a crush on Stan. Marybeth develops a crush on Zeke.
Casey notices a strange creature and takes it to science teacher Mr. Furlong, who believes it is a new species of cephalopod-specific parasite called a mesozoan. Delilah and Casey hide in the teachers' lounge to find a story. They witness Coach Willis and Ms. Olsen force one of the creatures into the ear of school nurse Ms. Harper. They also find the body of Mrs. Brummel. Casey and Delilah flee, and Casey calls the police. Principal Drake claims nothing is wrong and that Casey is seeking attention.
The next day, Casey tells Delilah, Stan and Stokely he believes the teachers are being controlled by aliens. After Zeke and Marybeth tease them about their theory, Mr. Furlong confronts them. Furlong suddenly becomes defensive and attempts to infect them. Zeke cuts off Furlong's fingers and injects his homemade drugs into Furlong's eye, apparently killing him. Zeke takes the five to his house, where he experiments on Casey's specimen. He discovers it needs water to survive and can be killed by his drugs. Zeke makes everyone take his drug to prove they are uninfected humans. Delilah is revealed as infected, and she destroys Zeke's lab and most of his drug supply before escaping.
Acting on Stokely's speculation that killing the alien queen will revert everyone to normal, the group returns to the school, where their football team is playing and infecting opposing players. Believing Principal Drake to be the queen, they isolate her in the gym and fatally shoot her. Stan confronts the coach and team to see if it worked but becomes infected. Zeke and Casey retrieve more of Zeke's drugs from his car. Casey leads infected students away from Zeke, who encounters Miss Burke in the parking lot and seemingly kills her while escaping.
At the gym, Stokely becomes suspicious of Marybeth during a conversation about pretending to be what one is not. Marybeth subsequently reveals herself to be the alien queen. Earlier on, she faked taking the drug. Casey and Stokely flee to the swimming pool, where Stokely is injured and becomes infected. Zeke and Casey hide in the locker room, where Marybeth reverts to her human disguise. She explains she is taking over Earth because her own planet is dying. Marybeth transforms back into her true form and hurls Zeke across the room into the lockers, knocking him out. Casey seizes the drug and tricks the queen into following him into the retracting bleachers, trapping her. Casey stabs the drug into the queen's eye. The queen infects Casey with her dying breath, but Casey almost immediately returns to normal upon her death. Casey returns to the locker room and finds Stokely and Zeke alive.
One month later, everyone has returned to normal. Stan and Stokely begin dating, and Zeke takes Stan's place on the football team (while Miss Burke affectionately watches him practice). Mr. Furlong has miraculously survived the attack, now sporting an eyepatch and bandages on his hand. Casey begins dating Delilah and is considered a local hero. | mystery, violence, cult, horror, flashback, satire, suspenseful, entertaining | tt0133751 |
Surrogates | The movie opens with an intro explaining the back-story in detail. In 2017, humans live in near-total isolation, rarely leaving the safety and comfort of their homes, thanks to remotely-controlled robotic bodies that serve as "surrogates," designed as better-looking versions of their human operators. Because people are safe all the time, and damage done to a surrogate is not felt by its owner, it is a peaceful world free from fear, pain, and crime.We next come upon a young teenage man taking to someone over the phone. After a weird nightclub scene, we then see the teenager making out with a girl he had met in there. They're about to get it on when they're interrupted by a mysterious man wearing a motorcycle helmet, who proceeds to shoot the two surrogate-controlled civilians, then cause a massive car accident while making his escape on his motorcycle.Agent Tom Greer (Bruce Willis) is an FBI agent who, through the use of his own surrogate, investigates the first murder in years. Turns out the teenager was none other than Jarod Canter, the college student son of Doctor Lionel Canter (James Cromwell), the man who invented the surrogates, and who uses multiple surrogates himself. Geer and his partner Peters (Radha Mitchell) visit the home of the female surrogate's owner, only to find that she was actually a man, and that he is dead in his own operator chair.After the bizarre and horrifying turn of events, it's revealed that Greer had a son who had died in a car accident, causing a strain in he and his wife Maggie (Rosamund Pike)'s relationship. Since then, Maggie despondently restricts most of her daily activities using her surrogate.The case grows more complicated, however, when several humans are murdered when their surrogates are destroyed, something which is not supposed to happen, as the human operator is normally safe from the damage done to his/her surrogate. Greer begins investigating the murder and is lead to the Dreads, a group of humans led by a mysterious man known only as The Prophet (Ving Rhames) who are against the use of surrogates. With the help of the system administrator, who does not use a surrogate, Greer and Peters determine the identity of the murderer is a Dread named Miles. Miles used a unique weapon to kill Jarod as well as five cops tracking him with the weapon. Greer barely escapes death by the weapon. He survives by disconnecting himself from his surrogate as the weapon is fired, and then resumes his connection to the surrogate afterwards. Although his surrogate is physically damaged, it is able to pursue Miles before his surrogate is destroyed by the Dreads. Greer is badly hurt by the weapon despite disconnecting. Maggie finds him in his apartment. Greer is then taken to the hospital and survives, although his boss suspends him, Stone, and is not allowed to use a surrogate while his actions are investigated.At the Dread Reservation, Miles is approached by The Prophet who demands information about the weapon. Miles is apparently killed by The Prophet or his lackeys. When Greer goes into the Reservation, he stumbles upon Miles' funeral and then approaches The Prophet, asking about the weapon Miles used. As Greer leaves the Reservation, it is revealed that The Prophet has the weapon. Greer meets with Dr. Canter, again using one of his surrogates, who suggests the weapon was manufactured by the military. Greer meets with a member of the military and learns that the weapon sends a computer virus into the surrogates that shuts them down, but it also disables the failsafe mechanisms and kills the operator.A mysterious surrogate goes to the home of Greer's partner Peters and kills her, then transfers control of her surrogate to an unknown party who uses it to go through the financial records of the FBI. The Peters surrogate learns that Stone is apparently behind the death of Jarod, having been assigned by the company that creates the surrogates to kill Dr. Canter, which he in turn assigned to Miles. Jarod was using one of his father's surrogates and as such was mistaken for him. At the Dread compound, The Prophet orders delivery of the weapon to Peters just before the military attacks. The Prophet and his men are killed, but The Prophet is revealed to be a surrogate of Doctor Canter. The Peters surrogate tricks Greer into getting information about the weapon from Stone's computer. The Peters surrogate then flees from Greer, taking the information and the weapon. Greer chases her, but she escapes and goes to FBI headquarters where she hooks the weapon up the surrogate network to kill all the surrogate operators.Greer calls the system administrator who reveals that Peters has taken him hostage. Greer heads to Canter's home and forces his way into Dr. Canter's home to find him. At the FBI building, the Peters surrogate forces Stone to come talk to her. Dr. Canter reveals that he is now controlling the Peters surrogate. Stone confirms he did try to have Canter assassinated, and Canter kills Stone with the weapon and returns to uploading the weapon's virus to all the surrogates. Greer makes his way through Canter's mansion and finds Canter's many surrogates, which includes the one that killed the real Peters. Greer then finds Canter (who disconnects from the Peters surrogate) who then reveals he wants to destroy the surrogates so that real humans can return to their prior lifestyle. Canter has already started the process through the Peters surrogate, and then he kills himself. Greer takes control of the Peters surrogate. With the assistance of the system administrator, Greer insulates the surrogate operators so they will survive even if the surrogates go down. He is then given the choice of whether or not to save the surrogates. FBI troops storm the room as Greer decides not to cancel the transmission before the Peters surrogate is killed. The virus from the weapon uploads and destroys every surrogate worldwide, leaving his or her operators alive, but having to go back to using their real bodies again.Greer goes home and connects with his pale and unattractive wife in her real body. In the final shots, media broadcasts reveal the surrogates are down worldwide and no one knows if they will ever be able to be recreated again. | murder, thought-provoking, alternate reality, psychedelic, action, revenge, sci-fi | tt0986263 |
Death Ship | A mysterious black freighter sails through the night, apparently deserted. Detecting a cruise ship close by, the ship alters course as disembodied voices announce in German, "Battle Stations! Enemy in sight!" Aboard the cruise ship, the prickly Captain Ashland is making his final voyage, attended by his replacement, Captain Trevor Marshall, who has brought along his family. The freighter heads right for them, blasting its horn. Despite Ashland's best efforts, the charging freighter collides with the cruise ship, sinking it. (Some of the sinking scenes were taken from the 1960 film The Last Voyage and darkened to match the nightly effect.) The next morning, a handful of survivors—Marshall, his wife Margaret (Howes), and their children Robin and Ben; a young officer named Nick and his love interest Lori; the ship's comic Jackie; and a passenger, Mrs. Morgan—are adrift on a large piece of wreckage. Ashland surfaces nearby and he's brought aboard, barely conscious. Later, the survivors come upon the black freighter, unaware it's the ship that attacked them. Finding a boarding ladder slung from the stern, they climb aboard, but not before the ladder plunges into the sea as the officers try to climb it with the injured Ashland. When all are finally aboard, Jackie tries to rally the survivors with humor, but a cable seizes him by the ankle, and he is swung outboard by one of the ship's cranes, which lowers him into the water before cutting him loose, to be swept astern and lost.
Shocked, the survivors explore the corridors of the empty, echoing vessel, finding only cobwebs and 1930s memorabilia. Hatches open and close by themselves and lights go on and off while a swinging block knocks out Nick, who is exploring above deck. Meanwhile, a delirious Ashland hears a mysterious voice speaking to him in German, telling him "This ship has been waiting for you...It is your new ship....Your chance has come!" The others finally set up in a dusty bunk room, and they separate to retrieve supplies and the injured captain. Mrs. Morgan finds a gramophone and a movie projector that suddenly turn on by themselves. While watching the film (1936's "Everything Is Rhythm") and eating a piece of hard candy from one of the ship's cupboards, she becomes grotesquely deformed. Terrified, she stumbles back to the bunk room, where a possessed Ashland strangles her.
Now awake, and apparently possessed by the ship's dead captain, Ashland dons an officer's uniform from the Kriegsmarine and announces that he is the captain. Marshall and Nick make a chilling discovery: the ship was once a Kriegsmarine prison ship, and the ghosts of its inmates and crew are still aboard. They both decide to escape, but are thwarted when the ship's lifeboats lower into the sea by themselves and drift away. Despairing, the survivors try to get some rest but are further taunted by Ashland, who now prowls the ship's passages. Lori goes into shock when her shower water turns to blood; she's then tossed overboard by Ashland. Marshall and Nick are attacked by the piercing whine of the ship's electronics as the projector now shows films of Adolf Hitler. Nick lunges at Ashland, but instead plunges into a net holding skeletal remains, where Ashland drowns him. Marshall manages to stab a gloating Ashland, apparently killing him and stopping the ship. Searching below, Marshall finds a life raft in a freezer full of the frozen bodies of downed airmen and sailors, but as the children are jumping overboard, Margaret is captured by a resurrected Ashland and is trapped in a chain locker. Marshall is knocked out by Ashland, but awakens in time to find Margaret, who has escaped from the locker. Captain Ashland attempts to shoot the escaping Marshall family with a Mauser rifle.
Meanwhile, the spirits of the crew detect another cruise liner and begin to give chase, ignoring Ashland, who wants it to run down the Marshalls' raft instead. Trying to re-take control of the ship, Ashland storms into the engine room and shoots at the machinery in vain, but falls into the steering gear and is crushed to death. His screams of agony echo throughout the ship, joining those of its earlier victims. Above, the Marshalls rejoice as the freighter turns and sails away. After drifting for some time, they are spotted by a search helicopter and rescued.
The Death Ship is shown afterwards steaming along at full speed. The ghosts of the crew once again announcing "Enemy in sight!" in German. It heads for another passenger ship, and the sounds of the collision are accompanied by the triumphant blasting of its horn. | good versus evil, violence, cult, gothic, tragedy | tt0080603 |
The Chalk Garden | Wealthy Mrs. St. Maugham needs a governess for her sixteen-year-old granddaughter, Laurel. No one has ever stayed long because Laurel runs them off with her bizarre behavior. Miss Madrigal is hardly the ideal candidate as she lacks references and has never been a governess. But when she reveals that she knows a lot about gardens, Mrs. St. Maugham takes her on.Laurel notices that Miss Madrigal's clothing is all new and some of it still has price tags attached. Her room also lacks pictures of family and friends. Miss Madrigal is determined to get the upper hand, sensing that Laurel's behavior stems from a traumatic past. Maitland, the family butler, befriends Miss Madrigal and warns her to keep her door locked.Every night Laurel lights a bonfire in the garden and runs around it screaming. Mrs. St. Maugham explains that they are curing her of this by making the pile of wood smaller every time. Laurel also regularly threatens to burn down the house. She is determined to find out what Miss Madrigal is hiding, as the governess refuses to reveal anything about her past.Laurel lies about nearly everything and Miss Madrigal must sort out what is truth and what is fiction. It is evident that the girl hates her mother, Olivia, who is Mrs. St. Maugham's estranged daughter. There was a scandal when Olivia ran off with her lover, abandoning her husband and Laurel. Laurel claims that her father was so despondent that he shot himself to death in front of her. Maitland later refutes this. Laurel's father died of a liver ailment caused by too much drinking.Another of Laurel's stories involve a man who supposedly attacked her in Hyde Park shortly before her mother's marriage. Maitland explains that no one really knows what happened. Mrs. St. Maugham wouldn't allow Laurel to be examined by a doctor or questioned by the police. As far as Mrs. St. Maugham is concerned, Olivia abandoned her daughter and is an unfit mother.Slowly Miss Madrigal begins to gain Laurel's trust. They go sketching and play tennis. Miss Madrigal learns to ignore her charge's bizarre stories. Then a telegram comes from Olivia. She intends to pay her mother a visit and wants to see Laurel.It is obvious that Mrs. St. Maugham still loves her daughter, even though she is disgusted that Olivia married her lover and is now pregnant. She does not want to hear anything about her new son-in-law. Laurel knew her mother was coming and has vanished. Miss Madrigal and Maitland scour the grounds looking for her but fail. Olivia warns her mother that she wants Laurel back and if necessary will resort to legal means. After she leaves, Miss Madrigal finds Laurel on the beach, standing next to a bonfire. Laurel breaks down and sobs.Unable to sleep one night, Miss Madrigal goes to the library for a book. There she finds Maitland, who tells her his story. He and his wife owned a small hotel and the St. Maughams used to stay there. Then he, his wife, and their child were in a car crash. They were killed and Maitland had a nervous breakdown. Mrs. St. Maugham stepped in and offered him the post as butler at her country estate. She is only there four months out of the year and the rest of the time he has the place to himself.While looking at framed pictures of Mrs. St. Maugham's admirers, Miss Maitland recognizes Judge McWhirrey. She is obviously upset but won't say why. Maitland reveals that the judge is an old friend of Mrs. St. Maugham's.On a trip into the village, Maitland buys a padlock for Miss Madrigal's bedroom door. While they are gone, Laurel snoops through Miss Madrigal's belongings. She finds nothing of interest but notices a briefcase on top of the wardrobe. It is locked. Just then she hears Maitland and Miss Madrigal returning. She takes the case with her and runs to an outbuilding, where she finds a tool to break the lock. Inside are paints and a palette. The inside of the lid is nearly covered with dabs of paint but part of a monogram shows. Laurel removes the paint with turpentine and sees the initials C.D.W. Obviously not Miss Madrigal's.Laurel leaves the dinner table early to return the case to Miss Madrigal's room but it is newly padlocked. Not to be deterred, she climbs out a window, crosses the roof, and enters the bedroom. She replaces the case but on her way back slips and falls into a tree. Her dress is caught on a branch and she has no choice but to call for help. Her grandmother believes her story about just wanting to climb a tree, but Miss Madrigal saws the branch off the next morning. She knows Laurel was in her room because the case was missing and the wardrobe door was ajar.Mrs. St. Maugham has a talk with Miss Madrigal while the latter is working in the garden. Miss Madrigal says that the soil is full of chalk, which is why nothing will grow. She recommends enriching the soil so the plants will survive. As to answering Mrs. St. Maugham's questions about her past, she gives deliberately vague answers.Concerned that Olivia might actually gain custody of Laurel, Mrs. St. Maugham invites Judge McWhirrey to lunch to discuss the situation. Laurel suddenly asks Miss Madrigal who C.D.W. is. Miss Madrigal says the initials belong to her married sister.When the Judge arrives for lunch, Miss Madrigal is distraught and spills her wine. Laurel, sensing that Miss Madrigal has a criminal past, deliberately asks questions about famous murder trials. The Judge tells about one a number of years earlier, where the defendant was hardly more than a child. She was accused of murdering her stepsister out of jealousy. Her name was Constance Doris Wakeland. Mrs. St. Maugham tries to stop the conversation after Miss Madrigal suddenly leaves the table. Laurel realizes she has gone too far. She goes after Miss Madrigal but is stopped by Maitland. He asks if she is satisfied now that she has unmasked Miss Madrigal's secret. Laurel is very remorseful and promises not to tell anyone.Maitland tries to comfort Miss Madrigal but her concern is for Laurel. She can easily see Laurel becoming like herself if she goes on lying and acting out. Miss Madrigal is ready to leave Mrs. St. Maugham's employment but Maitland persuades her to stay. She is a different person now.Before the Judge leaves, Miss Madrigal speaks to him privately. He recognized her at lunch but could not recall where they had met. Miss Madrigal reveals that he once sentenced her to death but it was commuted due to her youth.Miss Madrigal decides to tell Mrs. St. Maugham the truth, that she came to her directly from prison. Mrs. St. Maugham is horrified that Laurel has been under the care of a felon. Miss Madrigal doesn't mince words when she says that Laurel must go to her mother. It is a good thing that Olivia still wants her. Mrs. St. Maugham says that since Olivia is expecting another child there is no room for Laurel. They do not realize that Laurel is outside the door and has heard everything. When Olivia arrives, Laurel is packed and waiting on the front steps. She tells Miss Madrigal that it is she who made her change her mind and want to go with her mother. Olivia thanks Miss Madrigal for her help. She and Laurel drive away. Mrs. St. Maugham asks Miss Madrigal to stay on, to which she replies that she will stay as long as she is wanted. Together they will work on the garden and make it beautiful. Then Mrs. St. Maugham asks if Miss Madrigal was actually guilty of murdering her stepsister. Miss Madrigal replies that if she did not tell the many learned men at the top of their profession who questioned her all those years ago, she certainly will not tell Mrs. St. Maugham. | murder | tt0057933 |
Perkins' 14 | Ten years after officer Dwayne Hopper’s son disappeared, the last of 14 victims in a string of local unsolved disappearances, his suspicions are aroused by prison inmate Ronald Perkins (Richard Brake). Dwayne searches Perkins’ house and discovers a collection of torture videos featuring the missing victims from the past. In a fit of rage, Dwayne kills Perkins.
But things get complicated when a wave of carnage sweeps the town, with reports of Dwayne’s own son amongst the marauding psychopaths. A number of flashbacks start to reveal that Hopper's son was kidnapped from his home, wondering if his son is still alive. Earlier in the film, Hopper begins to question Perkins' motive on how he knows that Hopper has a family, namely his wife and daughter.
After doing some digging on Perkins' file, Hopper comes to a horrible realization that Perkins kidnapped his son years ago. Hopper tries to help him, but arrived too late. Hopper then shows the file to Perkins, and tells him he doesn't have a family. He calls his deputy, Hal to cone down to the station to see if the man in the cell is the killer he had been looking for, but Hal becomes skeptical at this.
He then looks through Perkins' personal belongings and realized that there is no record of Ronald Perkins' living in town. A friend of the judge tells him that they will have search warrant in the morning, but Hopper decides to call his deputy to look at Perkins' home and finds a backroom in the basement full of scientific equipment. Hal notices a cage with someone inside and gets attacked by a crazed woman. During their conversation, Perkins reveals that his own family was killed by a burglar to Hopper.
Perkins tries to sympathize with Hopper for losing someone they loved. Meanwhile, Hopper's daughter is out with her friends, not knowing that they are being watched by someone close by. Daisy and her boyfriend run for their lives after two of their friends are murdered. Her father arrives just in time to save her, and shoots the suspect. To their shock, the suspect comes back to life and is run over. The chief of police decides to declare a state of emergency.
Hopper finds out that his own son is still alive as he witnesses him killing someone in the street. Hopper's wife Janine is having an affair after her son disappeared. Daisy tells her father that Janine is at a motel with her boyfriend, whom she witnesses being beaten to death by a woman with a champagne bottle. A local holds Daisy's boyfriend, Eric at knifepoint when he tells Hopper that everyone is dead. Hopper realizes that Perkins wanted to get revenge by taking 14 children with him.
They arrive at the motel to find Janine safe and sound. Hopper then leads the killers into a fight, while Janine, Daisy, and Eric seek shelter at the police station to wait for help. A deputy and the others decide to find safety in the basement when they learn their inside. Eric is then ripped to pieces by the killers. Hopper then arrives with a shotgun and kills them. They start to hear Felicity, an animal rights activist, calling for help in one of the cells.
Hopper also realizes that Perkins took the kids to make the townspeople suffer the way he suffered. Felicity hears a strange noise in the bathroom, where she is attacked and killed by someone hiding in the ceiling. The deputy realized that there is no way out. Hopper's son tries to attack him, but the deputy holds them at gunpoint, resulting in him getting shot dead by Hopper. Janine volunteers to get help, where Hopper promises to take care of Daisy, if anything should happen to her.
Hopper and Daisy watch on the video monitor that the killers are planning an ambush, where they attack and kill Janine, much to their horror. Hopper tries to deal with the situation himself by not endangering Daisy. He then gives her a shotgun to protect herself. Hopper tries to reason with his son, "Kyle", while police sirens start to approach the station. Hopper wants Kyle to remember his lost childhood, such as playing chess. Kyle kills Hopper by snapping his neck. Kyle then kills Daisy with a shotgun when he ignores his sister's pleas for mercy. | revenge, murder, violence, flashback | tt1230211 |
Fast Five | When Dominic "Dom" Toretto is being transported to Lompoc Prison by bus, his sister Mia Toretto and friend Brian O'Conner lead an assault on the bus, causing it to crash and freeing Dom. While the authorities search for them, the trio escapes to Rio de Janeiro. Awaiting Dom's arrival, Mia and Brian join their friend Vince and other participants on a job to steal three cars from a train. Brian and Mia discover that agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) are also on the train and that the cars are seized property. When Dom arrives with the rest of the participants, he realizes that one of them, Zizi, is only interested in stealing one car, a Ford GT40. Dom has Mia steal the car herself before he and Brian fight Zizi and his henchmen, during which Zizi kills the DEA agents assigned to the vehicles. Dom and Brian are captured and brought to crime lord Hernan Reyes, the owner of the cars and Zizi's boss. Reyes orders the pair be interrogated to discover the location of the car, but they manage to escape and retreat to their safehouse.
While Brian, Dom, and Mia examine the car to discover its importance, Vince arrives and is caught trying to remove a computer chip from it. He admits he was planning to sell the chip to Reyes on his own, and Dom forces him to leave. Brian investigates the chip and discovers it contains details of Reyes' criminal empire, including the locations of US$100 million in cash.
Diplomatic Security Service agent Luke Hobbs and his team arrive in Rio to arrest Dom and Brian. With the help of local officer Elena Neves, they travel to Dom's safehouse, but find it under assault by Reyes' men. Brian, Dom and Mia escape; Dom suggests they split up and leave Rio, but Mia announces she is pregnant with Brian's child. Dom agrees to stick together and suggests they steal the money from Reyes to start a new life. They organize a team to perform the heist: Han, Roman, Tej, Gisele, Leo, and Santos. Vince later joins the team after saving Mia from being captured by Reyes' men.
Hobbs and his team eventually find and arrest Dom, Mia, Brian, and Vince. While transporting them to the airport for extradition to the United States, the convoy is attacked by Reyes' men, who kill Hobbs' team. Hobbs and Elena are saved by Dom, Brian, Mia, and Vince as they fight back and escape, but Vince is shot in the process and dies. Wanting to avenge his murdered team, Hobbs and Elena agree to help with the heist. The gang breaks into the police station and tear the vault holding Reyes' money from the building using their cars, dragging it through the city. After an extensive police chase, Dom makes Brian continue without him while he attacks the police and the pursuing Reyes, using the vault attached to his car to smash their vehicles. Brian returns and kills Zizi while Reyes is badly injured by Dom's assault. Hobbs arrives on the scene and executes Reyes to avenge his team. Though Hobbs refuses to let Dom and Brian go free, he gives them a 24-hour head start to escape on the condition they leave the vault as it is. However, the vault is empty as it had been switched during the chase. After splitting the cash (Vince's share is given to his family), they go their separate ways.
On a tropical beach, Brian and a visibly pregnant Mia relax. They are met by Dom and Elena. Brian challenges Dom to a final, no-stakes race to prove who is the better driver.
In a mid-credits scene, Hobbs is given a file by Monica Fuentes concerning the hijack of a military convoy in Berlin, where he discovers a recent photo of Dom's former girlfriend Letty, who had been presumed dead. | boring, murder, cult, psychedelic, revenge, entertaining | tt1596343 |
High School Musical 2 | It's the last day of school, and the Wildcats are counting down the seconds until they're free. When the bell finally rings, they throw their papers in the air and celebrate with a song [What Time Is It?].While walking through the halls, the Wildcats all reveal what their Summer goals are: Jason (Ryne Sanborn), Zeke (Chris Warren), Martha (KayCee Stroh) and Taylor (Monique Coleman) all want Summer jobs to save up for college, whereas Chad (Corbin Bleu) wants to work to save up for a car (to take Taylor on a proper date), Kelsi (Olesya Rulin) just wants to write music, Ryan (Lucas Grabeel) wants to relax, Sharpay (Ashley Tisdale) want redemption for her Winter Musical (and she also wants Troy), and Troy (Zac Efron) and Gabriella (Vanessa Hudgens) just want to spend time together. Troy gives Gabriella a necklace with a T on it as a promise.After a game of basketball with the Wildcats and Coach Bolton (Bart Johnson), Troy gets a call from Mr. Fulton (Mark L. Taylor), the GM at Lava Springs country club, and is offered a job for the summer. With a little persuasion, he gets Fulton to allow all his Wildcats to join him.Ryan and Sharpay roll up to Lava Springs in Sharpay's pink convertible, where they're just as pampered and bowed to as in school, and its' revealed that Sharpay arranged for Troy's hire.As Sharpay, Ryan and the Sharpettes, Sharpay's back-up girls in every sense ( nm2657048, Tanya Chisholm and Kelli Baker) relax by the pool, Sharpay expresses her disgust at having lost her part in the musical, her hope for the club's summer talent show, the Star Dazzle show, and above all, her need for all things luxurious [Fabulous], ending the song when she sees Troy walk through the gates. However, her joy is short-lived when she sees that he's not waving at her, but at Gabriella, who has taken the lifeguard position. Enraged, Sharpay falls into the pool.When she confronts Fulton about the Wildcats, he tells her that the Lava Springs Board approved the hiring, meaning that their parents knew about it, as their parents are the owners of the club. Sharpay brings the issue to her spacey, yoga-loving mother (Jessica Tuck), who thinks it will be beneficial for her to spend the summer with her school chums. Sharpay, however, hears none of this, and demands that Fulton get rid of them, demanding that "if he can't fire them, make them want to quit".Fulton joins the Wildcats in the kitchen, handing out tasks as rudely as possible, even reprimanding Gabriella when she clocks out for lunch 3 ½ minutes early. It's near-unanimous that the Wildcats are unhappy with the jobs they've been given, but Troy rallies them to charge the mountain [Work This Out].After their shift, Troy invites Gabriella out to the golf field for a picnic, where Troy reveals his concern for his future, while Gabriella expresses her joy at what will be her first summer in five years in one place, glad that she's here with Troy of all people. They dance around the golf course, unaware that theyre being watched by Ryan and Sharpay, the latter of which makes up an excuse for maintenance to turn the sprinklers on Troy and Gabriella, which gets them caught by Fulton, earning them both a strike (three strikes and their employment is terminated). Sharpay seems to not be worried or threatened by their relationship, as she clearly has something up her sleeve.The next day, as Troy and Gabriella walk into work, they overhear Kelsi singing a song she wrote for the staff's performance for the Star Dazzle show. Troy, is initially reluctant to sign up to perform (stating his singing career began and ended with the East High Winter Musical), but after singing a love song with Gabriella, written specially for them by Kelsi [You Are the Music In Me], he changes him mind.Ryan, who at Sharpay's request, had been spying on the Wildcats, tells her about the song, and Sharpay admits that Troy's participation in the talent show could be fantastic, though not beside Gabriella.Chad and Troy are requested as caddies for the Evans family, Sharpay bragging up Troy as soon as Mr. Evans (Robert Curtis Brown) joins them on the green (by helicopter). Mr. Evans is a University of Albuquerque Alumni (where both Chad and Troy hope to attend), who is extremely impressed with Troy's basketball and golf skills. At Sharpay's suggestion, Troy is excused from the rest of his shift to join the Evans family for dinner, along with more U of A Alumni. Sharpay offers him up to sing, but when he refuses she makes him promise in front of everyone to sing with her another time.Troy is excused from dinner, only to be intercepted by Fulton and brought to a secret stage where Sharpay, Ryan and the Sharpettes perform an elaborate, over-the-top song for him [Humuhumunukunukuapua'a]. Troy slips off to join Gabriella for the date they planned earlier in the day. They go for a moonlit swim, only to get caught once more by Fulton and receiving a second strike.At home, Troy expresses his guilt at his special treatment to his father, who tells him that though they're all friends now, and that's good, when they graduate, all his teammates will be chasing the same scholarships and opportunities as him, and that there's nothing wrong with working toward what he wants. He also gifts Troy the keys to an old, beat-up truck the pair have been repairing, stating "You didnt think I was gonna drive this heap, did you?".The next morning, Troy is told by Fulton that hes been promoted, as the Evans family thinks he has untapped potential. Troy is awarded a $500 a week job, a locker full of fantastic, designer clothes (including Italian golf shoes), full use of membership facilities, his own set of clubs, and his own golf cart.Taylor worries that Troy is falling right into Sharpay's hands, telling Gabriella that "she's basically offering him a college education just to sing with her in the talent show". Gabriella and Chad have faith that Troy is stronger than that, though when Troy snubs Chad, who is serving lunch to him, the Evans family and a bunch of U of A basketball players, Chad begins to agree with Taylor.Sharpay walks into a rehearsal room where Ryan and Kelsi are talking about ideas for the show, and demands Troy and Gabriella's duet, snatching it out of Kelsi's hands when she refuses to give it to her. She tells them that she and Troy will be performing it in the talent show, which angers Ryan, as he was planning on performing Humuhumunukunukuapua'a with her. Sharpay coldly announces the change in plans, but demands that Ryan still spy on the Wildcats for her, telling him she'll find him a spot somewhere in the show... or the next one. Ryan walks away in anger.Afterwards, Gabriella sees Troy playing basketball alone, adorned in a U of A Redhawks jacket. He promises to spend some time with her after his game with the Redhawks, and Gabriella tells him that "promise is a big word", reminding him that the staff has a baseball game after work, one he promised he'd play in. Jason, Chad and Zeke all walk out, eager to play with Troy and the Redhawks, but Troy refuses, saying it's a closed practice. Though Chad expresses his annoyance, Troy leaves with the Redhawks.As Gabriella and Taylor are on their way to the staff baseball game, they come across Ryan, walking through the club grounds alone. They ask if he's going to the game, but he says that he's "not staff; wasn't invited". The girls invite him, and he joins them in the golf cart to the game. The general consensus amongst the male Wildcats is that since Troy bailed on them, they don't want to do the show anymore, but the girls do, asking Ryan to put his amazing choreography skills to good use and help them. Chad tells Ryan that "if [Ryan] wants to play ball, then grab a mitt, but he [Chad] doesn't dance". Ryan steps up to him, with a remark of "You don't think dancing takes some game?". Ryan takes the pitcher's position, playing a fierce game against the Wildcats [I Dont Dance], and just barely losing. As he goes to walk away, Chad calls him back, telling him that he's "not saying he'll dance in the show, but *if* he did", asking what Ryan would have him do. Ryan smiles to himself.Troy is then shown playing in the Redhawks' gym with their star players, watched by the entire Board of Directors, who admit that they like what they're seeing. During a break, Troy tries to call Gabriella, who's abandoned her phone in her bag as she celebrates with the Wildcats, including Chad and Ryan, who have switched clothes in a gesture of friendship. Chad asks him about where the ball skills came from, to which Ryan reveals that he was on the Newport, Rhode Island Little League World Series championship team when he was younger.The next day, as the sun is setting, Ryan and Gabriella talk about the show, and though Ryan says that he knows "everyone thinks he's Sharpay's poodle", but Gabriella tells him that "if they were thinking that, they're not thinking that today". Ryan shows her a dance step, and Troy walks up, misreading their linked hands. Ryan tries to show that he harbors no will will toward Troy, but when he brings up Gabriella's mother's brownies, Troy coldly cuts him off, saying "Yeah, I know. I've had 'em". Ryan walks away, and after a look at Gabriella, so does Troy.The next morning as Troy walks into work, everyone makes comments about him bailing on their 2-on-2, and Troy defends himself, saying that Mr. Evans set everything up, not him. However, he and Chad explode on each other, Chad telling him that Troy's losing himself, and Troy denying it.Later that day, Troy and Sharpay rehearse their song for the Star Dazzle show, an up-tempo, jazzy, ridiculously over-the-top song complete with back-up singers, pyrotechnics, and bedazzled microphones [You Are the Music In Me (Sharpay Version)]. Sharpay tells Troy that the entire Scholarship Committee will be there to see him perform. Troy suddenly has a vision of Sharpay in a wedding dress, and excuses himself for some air.Troy is shown playing basketball alone the next day, but follows the music he hears to a rehearsal room, where all the Wildcats are dancing and having fun, rehearsing for the Star Dazzle show and being coached by Ryan. Sharpay also stumbles on this scene. The Wildcats file out after the song, but the only thing Troy sees is Ryan and Gabriella hugging before Gabriella leaves, too. Troy walks away, and Sharpay storms into the room to scold Ryan, telling him that she said to keep an eye on them, not turn them into the cast of Grease. Ryan doesn't care about losing the Star Dazzle award (which he and Sharpay have won several years running), and Sharpay asks when he became "one of them", which Ryan takes as a compliment, and sarcastically tells her and Troy to have a good show.Sharpay, annoyed at Ryan's betrayal, tells Fulton that all employees need to work on show night, that she doesn't want any employees in the show. Fulton advises her to think about this, reminding her that the Wildcats are not just employees, but her classmates. Sharpay doesn't care, telling him to do it anyway.
Fulton give the flyers with the announcement to Taylor to distribute, who immediately tries to protest, but Fulton hears none of it, telling her that in the world of adults, "sometimes, we have to perform tasks, however unpleasant, that are necessary for that all-too-important paycheck to land in our all-too-empty pockets!". Taylor offers him some calming tea before showing the flyers to the Wildcats, who know immediately that it's Sharpay's doing.Gabriella goes to confront Sharpay, telling her that Wildcats or not, she's ruining something Ryan worked extremely hard on. Sharpay doesn't care, claiming that Gabriella has been interfering with Troy's future by getting him written up twice, and that she "had to step in just to save Troy's job". She tells Gabriella that she's just jealous that Sharpay won, to which Gabriella replies "What's the prize? Troy? The Star Dazzle award? You had to go through all of this just to get either one?". Gabriella then quits, before warning Sharpay that she's doing serious damage to Ryan and their relationship and that she's too preoccupied with her reputation to notice or care. Sharpay leaves, offended, and Troy runs up to Gabriella, having heard most of their conversation. Gabriella tells him that hes changing, and its better that she knows this now. She quits and breaks up with Troy [Gotta Go My Own Way], giving him back her T necklace in the process.That night, Troy asks his dad if he seems different, telling him that none of his friends will talk to him and that he's been too focused on the scholarship. Coach hands him a picture of himself in his basketball uniform, telling him that "he's absolutely sure he's gonna figure out the right thing to do".The next day at work, all the Wildcats ignore Troy, some even walking away when he sits at a table with them. Kelsi silently shows him one of the flyers about the employees not allowed to participate in the show, which he crumples up in anger. He goes outside and reflects on everything he's done and how he's been acting [Bet On It], telling himself that hes gonna turn it all around. He tells Sharpay that he's not doing the show, as he's asked Fulton for his kitchen job back and therefore, is not allowed participation. He tells her that he doesn't like the way they've both been treating his friends, so he's doing something about it. Sharpay tries to change his mind, telling him "we can all hold hands around the campfire some other time! Right now, weve got a show to do", to which Troy replies, "No, you've got a show to do. I got a kitchen to clean", and walks away.Sharpay reverts back to Ryan, telling him Humu Humu is back on, but Ryan refuses, telling her that he took her advice and sold his Tiki Warrior outfit online, and that she's "always wanted the spotlight. Now you've got it".Kelsi had witnessed the entire scene between Troy and Sharpay, and told the Wildcats what Troy had done, who forgive him when he walks into the kitchen. Troy tells Chad that brothers fight, and Chad says that they're still brothers. Troy apologizes to Ryan for all his hard work wasted, and Ryan says that he doesn't "really want to see his sister crash and burn... at least he *thinks* he doesn't", and that he wants Troy to sing with her.Troy tells Sharpay that he'll perform with her on one condition; the Wildcats get to participate, too. Sharpay reluctantly agrees. When Troy returns to the kitchen to tell the Wildcats, Ryan tells him that Sharpay wants him to learn a new song, and he and Kelsi immediately run to the rehearsal room to practice.Just before Troy goes onstage, he asks Sharpay why she switched songs, and Sharpay is confused, stating that she didn't learn a new song, and Ryan brushes past her with a smug "Exactly". Sharpay is horrified.Troy walks onstage and begins singing, expecting Sharpay's accompaniment, but to his shock, he hears Gabriella. She walks through where all the Wildcats have gathered at the back of the show audience, joining him with a hug. They sing about making memories last and celebrating their friends and being young [Everyday], and are eventually joined at a chorus by all the Wildcats, who join them onstage. Gabriella grabs Ryan and brings him onstage, and Troy does the same with Sharpay. They finish the song by joining hands, and Fulton walks up to award the Star Dazzle award to Sharpay, but she grabs the mic at the last second, announcing that the winner is Ryan, for his choreography of the final number.After the show, the Wildcats, including Sharpay and Ryan all converge on the golf green, smiling and laughing. They see a shooting star and start dancing around the golf course. Gabriella toasts to the future, to which Troy replies, "No, here's to right now". The two share their first kiss (something they've been trying to do the entire movie, but kept getting interrupted) as the sprinklers turn on, soaking all the Wildcats, who keep dancing.The last scene is a staff pool party, where Troy, Ryan, Chad, Gabriella, Sharpay and Taylor perform a song about finally getting the summer they wanted, and finally having some fun [All For One]. | humor | tt0810900 |
The Book of Life | A bus full of children arrives at a museum. They're a rowdy bunch that frighten the guards. A young woman named Mary Beth (voice of Christina Applegate) comes out and gets the kids to follow her as she tells them about the famous legends and myths of Mexican folklore. She leads them to the Book of Life, which holds the story of how the ways of their world were shaped. She opens a box of dolls that represent the characters of the story.As the story begins, Mary Beth says there were two gods - La Muerte (voice of Kate Del Castillo), ruler of the Land of the Remembered, where the spirits live on with their memories kept by their loved ones; and Xibalba (voice of Ron Perlman), ruler of the Land of the Forgotten, where the forgotten souls decay into oblivion.The two spirits watch over the town of San Angel and see three young children playing - Manolo (voice of Emil-Bastien Bouffard), Maria (voice of Genesis Ochoa), and Joaquin (voice of Elias Garza). Both boys are in love with Maria, but she does not wish to be claimed by anyone. Manolo comes from a family of bullfighters, but his real passion lies in music. Joaquin is more adventurous, hoping to avenge his father after he was killed by the sinister bandit Chakal (voice of Dan Navarro).Disguised as peasants, La Muerte and Xibalba go down to San Angel during a celebration of the Day of the Dead. Manolo and his father, Carlos Sanchez (voice of Hector Elizondo), remember his mother Carmen. La Muerte, as an old woman, asks Manolo for a piece of bread. He gladly gives her a whole loaf. Xibalba, as an old man, asks Joaquin for some, but he is more hesitant. Xibalba gives Joaquin a pin that is called the Pin of Everlasting Life, which is something Chakal is after as it can protect him from death. Xibalba then bets La Muerte that Maria will end up marrying Joaquin, while La Muerte bets on Manolo. The winner will be allowed to rule over the Land of the Remembered. The wager is set.Maria, a free and rebellious spirit, sets free a group of animals into the town after seeing a cute baby pig and fearing that he would be killed by the butcher, to the chagrin of her father General Posada (voice of Carlos Alazraqui). A wild boar comes into town and nearly gets Posada, but Manolo manages to lure the boar like a bullfighter with the red cape. He gets the boar to crash into a wall, but Posada, who was unable to see anything, thinks it was Joaquin that saved him, ignoring Manolo in favor of him. As punishment for her actions, Posada orders Maria to be sent to a private boarding school. She sadly leaves her two friends behind. Manolo gives her the baby pig that she wanted to save, which Manolo names Chuy. Maria gives him a guitar after his old one is broken. On it is an engraving that says "Always play from your heart."Over the years, Carlos mentors Manolo (now played by Diego Luna) into becoming a skilled bullfighter, while Joaquin (now voiced by Channing Tatum), with the help of the pin, manages to conquer many enemies and become the town hero. The day comes for Maria (now voiced by Zoe Saldana) to return home. A big celebration is held in town. Manolo and Joaquin see her and are captivated by her beauty. Manolo is set to fight a bull, but he has qualms over killing it. Although he is able to make it crash into the wall, he is told by Carlos to kill it, but he refuses. Everybody boos him, but Maria applauds him for his compassion. Somebody throws Manolo a guitar to his head, knocking him out. When he comes to, his father expresses his disappointment, saying he is not a real Sanchez.General Posada holds a party for Maria, where Joaquin suggests that Maria ought to be with him so that he can make her happy. This does not go over well with Maria, who tells him off and leaves. Meanwhile, Manolo gets his Mariachi band friends, the Rodriguez brothers (voices of Gabriel Iglesias, Cheech Marin, and Ricardo Sanchez), to help serenade her. The brothers play some tunes (like Biz Markie's "Just A Friend"), none of which impress Maria. Manolo serenades her with a song from his heart, which even moves all the townspeople. The brothers form a ladder to bring Manolo up to Maria's balcony so they may kiss, but she tells him it's not gonna be that easy.Joaquin proposes to Maria. Their marriage would keep San Angel safe from Chakal and his bandits. Manolo arrives and fights with Joaquin over Maria, which she thinks is foolish. Manolo later tells Maria to meet him at dawn.Fearing he will lose the wager, Xibalba turns his staff into a snake and sends it after Manolo. Maria follows a trail of candles to a tree where Manolo is. He professes his love to her, which she reciprocates. Then, the snake slithers into the area. Maria pushes Manolo out of the way, getting bitten by the snake. She dies instantly. Manolo screams in rage. He carries Maria's body back to San Angel, where both Joaquin and General Posada blame him for Maria's death.Manolo returns to the tree, mourning his love. Xibalba appears before him, and Manolo states that he will do anything to be with Maria again. Xibalba uses his staff to form a two-headed snake, which bites Manolo and kills him.Manolo's spirit goes down to the Land of the Remembered, looking like a skeleton. It is a remarkably wonderful looking place where the remembered spirits roam around. The captain of the land comes by and learns he is part of the Sanchez family. He escorts Manolo to meet them. He meets his famous ancestors, including Carmelo (Jorge R. Gutierrez), who never used capes to fight; Jorge (Placido Domingo), who fought with one arm and leg, and is a skilled singer; and Luis (Danny Trejo), Manolo's grandfather who is upset with Manolo for dying so soon. Manolo is taken to meet his mother Carmen (Ana de la Reguera). She is happy to see her son, but not happy that he is there so soon.With the help of his family, Manolo goes to La Muerte's castle, which is now run by Xibalba. He explains that the snake bite only put Maria to sleep, and Joaquin revived her with the pin. She is awake and learns that Manolo is dead. Angry over being cheated, Manolo vows to tell La Muerte what Xibalba did and to return to the human world.Manolo, Carmen, and Luis are told to travel to the Cave of Souls to make it to the Land of the Forgotten and meet with La Muerte. There, Manolo is thrown into a labyrinth where three large boulders roll around trying to crush him. Manolo evades all of them, to the surprise of the spirit guardian. The guardian takes a gigantic form and swings down a huge sword onto Manolo, which shatter upon hitting him. Realizing he is pure of heart, the guardian allows Manolo to pass on throughThe Sanchez's meet the Candle Maker (voice of Ice Cube), who oversees the lives of everybody in the living world. Manolo convinces him to take him through to the Land of the Forgotten to meet La Muerte. The Candle Maker agrees after seeing that Manolo's story has yet to be written, because he is writing it himself. In The Land of the Forgotten, Manolo, Carmen, and Luis see the lonely spirits decaying and withering away. They make it to Xibalba's castle to find La Muerte. Manolo tells her that Xibalba cheated, sending her into a rage. She summons him and angrily chastises him for betraying her again. Manolo then offers a wager himself. If he wins, Xibalba must let him return to the human world, and La Muerte adds that he may never interfere with the affairs of the living ever again. Otherwise, Xibalba may rule over both realms. The wager is set.Manolo is forced to face off against every bull that his family has ever fought. In the living world, Chakal and his bandits are making their way to San Angel, just as Maria and Joaquin are about to marry. Carlos charges toward Chakal, only to be killed. His spirit joins his family to watch Manolo fight. The bulls come together to form one giant bull. Instead of fighting it, Manolo sings it a song, apologizing for all the wrongs his family has brought to the bulls. Even as the giant bull nearly kills him, he keeps singing, bringing the bulls to peace, and surprising his family. La Muerte and Xibalba, impressed by Manolo's will, grant him his life back and send him to the living world just in time to fight backThe three spirits decide, since it is the Day of the Dead, to have some fun by summoning all of Manolo's family to fight back against Chakal. Maria rounds up the whole town to fight back as well. Manolo and Joaquin make amends and decide to fight against Chakal together. Chakal grabs Maria and climbs the top of a tower. With the help of his forefathers, including a now proud Carlos, Manolo is sent up to the tower to face off Chakal. With Maria, they fight the bandit and knock him off the tower, also sending them falling as well, but they land safely. Chakal then lights up the bombs on his belt to take the whole town down with him. Manolo and Joaquin push Chakal beneath a bell and tie him up. Manolo knocks over a column to bring the bell down on him and Chakal. He tells Maria not to forget him. The bell traps them both as the bombs go off, killing Chakal, and supposedly Manolo. However, Manolo emerges safely, after Joaquin gave him the pin to stay alive. Joaquin now realizes that a true hero is selflessGeneral Posada gives Manolo his blessing to marry Maria. The two are wed, with Manolo's family proud of their boy. Manolo and Maria then sing a song and dance with everybody. Xibalba apologizes to La Muerte for betraying her, telling her he loves her. They kiss.Back at the museum, Mary Beth ends the story as the children must leave. They leave excited after hearing the story. As the bus is set to depart, the kids wave goodbye to Mary Beth, who takes the form of La Muerte, to the joy of the kids. The security guard appears as Xibalba. They kiss again. The story ends, and the Candle Maker closes the Book of Life, reminding us all to write our own stories. | romantic, entertaining | tt2262227 |
Starman | In 1977, Voyager 2 was launched containing a gold, phonographic disk with messages of peace embedded within it and inviting visitors to come to the planet Earth. The Voyager probe is intercepted by an alien space ship which sends a small observational scout vessel in response to the invitation in order to establish first contact with Earth. However, instead of being greeted by its human hosts, the spacecraft is promptly shot down by the US government. The ship crashes in Chequamegon Bay, Wisconsin and the alien, a blue ball of energy, emerges from the wreckage. It stumbles upon the house of recently widowed Jenny Hayden (Karen Allen). There, it finds a lock of hair belonging to deceased Scott Hayden in a photo album and uses it to clone a new body in the likeness of Scott, which the stunned Jenny witnesses.The Starman (Jeff Bridges) is seen to possess seven small silver spheres which he turns into pure energy to perform miraculous feats. He uses the first one to send a message to his people that his craft has been destroyed, that the environment is hostile, and that he will rendezvous with them at "Landing Area One" in three days, located in Arizona. He then uses the second one to create a holographic map of the United States in order to compel the dumbstruck Jenny to help him get to Arizona. However, Jenny is frightened of the Starman and reacts with hostility towards him, doing what she can to avoid traveling with him. After repeatedly and unsuccessfully attempting to escape, she finally implores the Starman to shoot her with her pistol. Instead, the Starman releases the pistol's magazine and tells her he means her no harm. As they continue on their journey the Starman, who developed a rough understanding of English syntax from the Voyager 2 disk, learns to communicate exactly who he is and what his purpose is to Jenny while she tries to teach the Starman that humanity is not completely savage.The Starman explains to Jenny that he has three days to get to the rendezvous point, Arizona's Barringer Crater, or he will die. She teaches him how to drive a car and use credit cards, intending to leave him self sufficient enough to continue the journey alone. However, while they are stopped at a small diner, they connect on a more emotional level with Jenny attempting to explain to him what love is. She also witnesses the Starman revive a dead deer that had been tied to the front of a hunter's (Ted White) car. Deeply moved, she resolves to help him.Meanwhile, the US army, after discovering the crash site of the Starman's ship, is tracking the couple's trail to Arizona. The army battilion is led by the cold-blooded NSA Chief George Fox (Richard Jaeckel) who is reluctantly assisted by SETI scientist, Mark Shermin (Charles Martin Smith). Shermin is clearly a more understanding and empathic man and, after he finds the Voyager 2 disk in the Starman's ship, Shermin deduces that the Starman was invited to Earth peacefully and discovers that the alien has taken the form of Scott Hayden through collected pieces of evidence around Jenny's house.Once news of the fugitives becomes publicized, a couple of cops (Dirk Blocker, M.C. Gainey) intent on becoming local heroes, discover Jenny and Starman residing at a motel. They decide to hold position outside until the government arrives but, when Jenny and Starman attempt to escape, despite employing a distraction, the cops pursue them by car and one shoots Jenny. Starman crashes their vehicle into an overturned gas tanker, protecting himself and Jenny from the ensuing explosion with one of his spheres. Under cover of the chaos, he seeks refuge in a mobile home being transported on a trailer bed.Jenny never regains consciousness but Starman, down to his last two spheres, uses one to revive her, gently kissing her as her wounds heal. He then leaves her and attempts to reach the Crater alone; afraid she will be hurt again. Jenny regains consciousness and heads off to find him, aware that they were being pursued by the government. Meanwhile, the Starman hitches a ride with a local truck driver, telling him that his name is Scott and he's headed for Arizona. A large traffic jam awaits them. Several miles back, Jenny manages to hitch a ride with another truck diver and, after a while, are met by the same traffic jam. Police have barricaded the road and are interrogating people. When she locates Starman standing anonymously within the crowd, and knowing it's only a matter of time before he's revealed, Jenny employs the truck driver to stage a distraction for her. He explodes a gas can which incites the police to chase after him, enabling Jenny to reach Starman. They escape in the panic and continue their journey, stowing away on a train boxcar.En route, they become close and consumate their feelings for one another. Starman tells Jenny that he gave her a baby, despite Jenny's insistence that she is infertile. Starman assures her to believe what he says and tells her that the child will be the son of her husband, since he is a clone of Scott. He explains that the child will know all that Starman knows and will grow up to be a teacher. However, he gives her the option of taking it back but Jenny refuses, joyfully accepting his gift.The couple mistakenly travel too far on the train and arrive in Las Vegas and, to make matters worse, Jenny has lost her wallet. The Starman uses their last quarters in a slot machine which he manipulates with his powers in order to win a $50,000 jackpot. The couple use their winnings to buy a new car to complete the drive to Winslow, Arizona, which is near Barringer Crater.Meanwhile, Fox has received information from NORAD that the trajectory of The Starman's Observation Craft, prior to it being shot down, was to Barringer Crater, and concludes that the Starman, along with Jenny Hayden would be in that general vicinity within the next 24 hours of that determination.Near the end of the journey, the Starman, growing weaker, and Jenny are confronted in a cafe in Winslow, where Mark Shermin interviews the dying Starman. The Starman explains to him that his people had previously visited Earth and are interested in humans because, out of all the many savage intelligent races in the universe, humans are at their best when things are at their worst. Confronted with this, Shermin decides to ruin his career to help the Starman and Jenny escape.The couple reach the crater as Army helicopters buzz them. Suddenly, the aliens' large, spherical mothership appears in the sky and descends into the crater. A blue light surround the couple and the Starman is instantly restored to health. He tells Jenny he will never see her again. Jenny confesses her love and begs him to take her with him but he says she would die on his world. He then gives her his last silver sphere, telling her that her son will know what to do with it before asking Jenny to tell her son about him. He asks her to tell him how to say goodbye and they kiss one last time before the Starman walks away into the beam. As Jenny watches in silence, the mothership rises, carrying the Starman away. | comedy, suspenseful, boring, cult, violence, clever, psychedelic, revenge, home movie | tt0088172 |
A Bronx Tale | In 1960, Lorenzo Anello lives in Belmont, an Italian-American neighborhood in The Bronx, with his wife Rosina and his 9-year old young son Calogero, who takes a fascination with the local mobsters led by Sonny LoSpecchio. One day, Calogero witnesses a murder committed by Sonny in defense of an assaulted friend in his neighborhood. When Calogero chooses to keep quiet when questioned by NYPD detectives, Sonny takes a liking to him and gives him the nickname "C". Sonny's men offer Lorenzo a better paying job, but Lorenzo, preferring a law-abiding life as an MTA bus driver, politely declines. Sonny befriends Calogero and introduces him to his crew. Calogero earns tips amounting to $600 working in the Mafia bar and throwing dice, and is admonished harshly by Lorenzo when he discovers it. Lorenzo speaks severely to Sonny, returns the money, and angrily warns him to keep away from Calogero.
Eight years later, Calogero has grown into a young man who has been visiting Sonny regularly without his father's knowledge. Calogero is also part of a gang of local Italian-American boys, which concerns Sonny, who warns Calogero to keep away from them and focus more on his schoolwork. Later on, Calogero meets an African American girl named Jane Williams, and is smitten with her. Despite the high level of racial tension and dislike between Italian Americans and African Americans, Calogero arranges a date with Jane. He asks for advice from both his father and Sonny, with the latter lending Calogero his car. Later, Calogero's friends beat up the black cyclists who ride through their neighborhood, despite Calogero's attempts to defend them. One of the cyclists is revealed to be Jane's brother, Willie. Willie mistakes Calogero for one of the assailants. He then accuses "C" of beating him up when Calogero and Jane meet for their date. Calogero loses his temper over the accusation and Willie's lack of gratitude, responding by accidentally addressing him with a racial slur. He instantly regrets it, but it's too late. Heartbroken, Jane walks back to the car with Willie and leaves Calogero.
At home, Calogero is confronted by his father who just saw him driving Sonny's car. An argument ensues and Calogero storms out. Shortly thereafter, Calogero is confronted by Sonny and his crew, who found a bomb in Sonny's car and suspected Calogero of planning to assassinate him. Calogero tearfully proclaims his love for and dedication to Sonny. Sonny recognizes Calogero's innocence and allows him to leave. Lorenzo emerges to defend his son, but is held back by Sonny's men. The African-American boys egg the Italian-American boys' usual spot in retaliation for the previous beating, and Calogero's friends make a plan to strike back using Molotov cocktails. They try to force Calogero to participate, but Sonny stops the car and orders Calogero out. Calogero catches up with Jane, who tells him that Willie had since admitted that the boy who beat him up wasn't Calogero. Jane and Calogero make amends, but Calogero suddenly remembers his friends' plans to attack Jane's neighborhood, and the two rush to stop them. Calogero and Jane arrive to find the Italian-American boys' car in flames. During the attack, someone threw one of the Molotov cocktails back into the car window, igniting the remaining bottles. The resulting crash and explosion killed everyone in the vehicle.
Calogero rushes into the crowded bar to thank Sonny for saving his life, but an unnamed assailant shoots Sonny in the back of the head before Calogero can warn him. Calogero later learns that the assailant was the son of the man Sonny killed in front of Calogero's house eight years earlier. At Sonny's funeral, countless people come to pay their respects. When the crowd disperses, Carmine visits the funeral, claiming that Sonny once saved his life as well. Calogero does not recognize Carmine until he sees a scar on his forehead and realizes he was the assaulted man whom Sonny had defended eight years ago. Carmine tells Calogero that he will be taking care of the neighborhood for the time being, and promises Calogero help should he ever need anything. Carmine leaves just as Calogero's father unexpectedly arrives to pay his respects to Sonny, thanking him for saving his son's life. Lorenzo later says that he had never hated Sonny, but merely resented him for making Calogero grow up so quickly. Calogero makes peace with his father, and the two walk home together as Calogero narrates the lessons he learned from his two mentors. | violence, murder | tt0106489 |
S.F.W. | Cliff Spab and his friend Joe Dice go out one evening to buy beer from a convenience store, where a group of masked and heavily armed terrorists take them and three other people hostage. The terrorists, who call themselves S.P.L.I.T. Image (a play on "Split Image"), have a video camera with which they tape their hostages' every word and action. During a month-long standoff with the police, S.P.L.I.T. Image's only demand is that their broadcasts be televised live worldwide TV, or else the hostages will be killed. S.P.L.I.T. Image makes good on said threat by killing two of the hostages. Cliff, Joe, and a beautiful teenage girl named Wendy Pfister are the only surviving captives. After 36 days, Cliff becomes indifferent to being killed. He says repeatedly, "So Fucking What?", in reply to his captors' death-threats. The coverage of this makes Cliff a media icon.
The movie skips forward to a hospital. Cliff has shot his way to freedom, taking a bullet in the shoulder while Joe has been killed. Despite his friend's demise, Cliff is branded a hero for saving Wendy and killing the terrorists. He's picked up from the hospital by his brother Scott. He is welcomed awkwardly by his domineering father and weak-willed mother. Cliff soon becomes disenchanted with the reporters camped on his front lawn and moves out.
Back on the street, Cliff finds his life changed forever by the convenience store incident. His line – abbreviated as S.F.W. – is on banners, newspapers, CDs, and billboard advertisements. At Burger Boy, the fast food restaurant where he works, Cliff finds his name and image posted alongside a "Special $.36 Spaburger" (named after him), being marketed in commemoration of his 36 days in captivity.
Cliff visits Joe's older sister Monica. She resents the media idolization directed at Cliff, while her deceased brother has gotten neither sympathy nor attention. Cliff spends a night of empty passion with Monica. He visits another friend, Morrow Streeter, who lets Cliff hide out at the elegant home of his lawyer-sister Janet. She advises Cliff to exploit his notoriety for personal gain. Completely lacking in any sense of purpose, Cliff hitchhikes out of Los Angeles. He gets a ride with a disaffected couple, who confide with him about their marital troubles. Realizing that running from his problems is pointless because they will follow him everywhere, Cliff discovers the inspiration he has been seeking. Using his celebrity status to his advantage, Cliff checks into a fancy hotel; when he offers to promote the establishment, he is given a free suite. Cliff holds press conferences, makes public appearances, holds autograph signings, and generally portrays himself as a rebel.
More than anything, Cliff aspires to reunite with Wendy. She has been featured on the news, but refuses to make any statement regarding her ordeal in the convenience store. Cliff reaches out to her and soon a romantic attraction develops, but their relationship is hampered by the reporters and paparazzi who shamelessly tail them. They evade the media and revisit the convenience store, which has been closed down and boarded up as a crime scene. After reminiscing how he and Joe overpowered and killed their captors in a huge gunfight, Cliff tells Wendy he'd like to leave his notoriety behind him, just so the two of them can live out their lives together in a quiet romance.
A few days later, Cliff and Wendy make a public appearance at a local high school. They receive a standing ovation from a crowd of adoring students, who chant Cliff's line: "So Fucking What!" One distraught-looking student, Barbara "Babs" Wyler, does not join in the cheering. After a minute of sitting in angry silence, Babs produces a gun from her book-bag and stands up. With a yell of "EVERYTHING matters!" she fires on Cliff and Wendy, seriously wounding them both. Media attention switches to Babs as she is arrested, booked, and indicted for attempted murder. Her line of "Everything matters" becomes the new public catchphrase, replacing Cliff's "S.F.W.". Reporters and other media people cannot stop talking about Babs' actions. Sharing their own hospital ward, the recovering Cliff and Wendy are elated that their media ordeal is over. They slip away to get married, and to celebrate their newfound privacy. | comedy, cult, violence, psychedelic, absurd, satire, tragedy, romantic | tt0111048 |
Breaking Bad | Season 1A struggling high school chemistry teacher, Walter White (Bryan Cranston), is diagnosed with inoperable, advanced lung cancer. On a ride along with his DEA agent brother-in-law Hank Schrader (Dean Norris), Walter sees a former student of his, Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), fleeing the scene of a meth lab. He later contacts Jesse and devises a scheme to become partners in an attempt to combine their skills to manufacture and distribute methamphetamine, with Walter cooking the product and Jesse using his street connections to distribute it. Walter says he wants to provide financial stability for his pregnant wife, Skyler (Anna Gunn) and disabled son, and to pay for his expensive cancer treatment. During Walter and Jesse's first days of selling Albuquerque's finest meth, they encounter a series of problems with local drug dealers. He continues to produce meth despite these setbacks using the alias 'Heisenberg'.Season 2Walter continues to find himself facing insurmountable medical bills from his cancer treatment. Despite having had several bad experiences while producing meth with Jesse, Walter agrees to rejoin his partner. The two begin producing meth but run into multiple problems. Jesse's friend Badger (Matt L. Jones) is arrested while selling meth in a sting operation. Walter hires a lawyer, Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk), to help Badger. Walter and Jesse drive a recreational vehicle into the desert and produce meth for four days. Later, Combo, another of Jesse's friends and distributors, is killed by a rival gang for selling meth in their territory. Saul suggests the two find a new distribution model. Throughout this, Jesse has been building a relationship with his neighbor and landlord, Jane Margolis (Krysten Ritter). Jane, who is a recovering addict, relapses and the two begin doing heroin. Saul finds them a new business partner, Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito), who is willing to pay $1.2 million for the 38 pounds of meth they produced. Walter hastily delivers the product to Gus, but misses his daughter's birth. Walt withholds Jesse's half of the money because of his drug use, but Jane finds out about it and blackmails Walt. Walt visits Jesse's house and witnesses Jane overdosing and choking on her own vomit, but perceiving her as an enemy, sits idly beside her and lets her die. Skyler confronts Walter about his frequent absences and excuses. She begins to piece together his secret life and demands that they separate.Season 3Walter wishes to reunite his family, but Skyler is still suspicious of Walter's second life. Walter believes he can mend the tension between them by confessing to her that he has been producing meth. Skyler is appalled by the confession and demands a formal divorce. Meanwhile, Gus offers to pay Walter $3M for three months of his service. He even offers to provide Walter with a state-of-the-art production facility and a brilliant lab assistant, Gale (David Costabile). Jesse is continuing to produce and sell meth by himself.Hank is working with the DEA to investigate Jesse and is slowly gathering evidence to make an arrest. He survives an assassination attempt made by Tuco's twin cousins and manages to kill one of his assailants and critically injure the other, who later dies in the hospital. Hank suffers critical wounds but survives.Jesse threatens to report Walter to the police if he is arrested, but Walter offers him Gale's position at the lab. After obtaining the position, Jesse begins stealing meth from the lab and selling it in secret on the side. Jesse gets romantically involved with a woman he meets in his rehab group and learns her kid brother, age 11, was put up by Gus and his street dealers to kill Combo. Jesse decides to avenge Combo. Walter aids Jesse in escaping from Gus's wrath. Gus begins to lose trust in Walter and asks Gale to take over the lab. He orders his henchmen to kill Walter and Jesse. After he is abducted by the henchmen, Walter instructs Jesse over the phone to kill Gale in order to force Gus not to kill Walter (and, by extension, Jesse) lest he eliminate his only remaining trained chemist.Season 4Jesse follows Walter's instructions and murders Gale. Gus decides to discipline the two by enforcing stricter policies at the lab. He also tries to break Walter and Jesse's friendship by assigning them to separate work details. While Walter works in the meth lab, Jesse escorts Mike (Jonathan Banks), one of Gus's enforcers, to retrieve payments and provide back-up. Walter and Jesse become increasingly distant from, and hostile to, each other. Meanwhile, Hank, who has been recovering from his last engagement with the cartel, finds evidence linking Gale to Gus. He believes Gus is a major drug distributor and starts looking for tangible evidence to file charges. Gus realizes Walter's close ties with Hank could jeopardize his entire operation. Gus fires Walter and informs him Hank will be killed. He also warns Walter that if he intervenes his entire family will be murdered. Jesse and Walter put their differences aside and agree to murder Gus, convincing former cartel enforcer Hector Salamanca to detonate a suicide bomb; Hector succeeds in this endeavor, killing himself, Gus, and Tyrus, Gus's henchman. Walter and Jesse then destroy the meth lab and Walter declares to his wife, "I won."Season 5Following Gus Fring's death, Walter partners with Jesse and Mike to create a new meth production and distribution operation. Mike handles all business aspects of the partnership, while Walter and Jesse work with a team of house fumigators to produce meth in tented houses. Hank and the DEA are able to identify nine prison inmates and one lawyer with criminal ties to Mike. Walter kills Mike, and is fearful that the informants will flip on Walter's operation since Mike is no longer able to pay them to keep quiet. He hires Jack Welker, the leader of a neo-Nazi gang, to kill the ten informants from within prison. Walter's business continues unimpeded until he decides to retire after accruing $80 million, which he buries in the desert.Later, Hank is invited to the Whites' home, where he unintentionally stumbles upon one of Walter's books with a signed message from Gale Boetticher. He realizes that Walter is the infamous Heisenberg and secretly restarts the investigation. Hank forms an alliance with Jesse, who now despises Walter for all his wrongdoings. Left with no options, Walter hires Jack again to murder Jesse. Walter attempts to confront Jesse in the desert, but instead Hank traps and arrests him. The neo-Nazi gang arrives and engages Hank in a fierce firefight. Jack executes Hank despite Walter's pleas. Jesse is captured and forced into slavery, producing meth for the gang. Before leaving, Jack and his gang take a majority of Walter's money, leaving him with only $11 million.Skyler and Walter Jr. are distraught over Hank's death and hold Walter accountable. They refuse to leave Albuquerque with Walter and instead contact the police. Walter spends the next several months hiding in a cabin in New Hampshire while struggling with cancer. He returns to New Mexico in order to visit his family one final time and seek revenge against Jack. Later that night, Walter executes all of the gang's members and frees Jesse, who escapes from the compound before the police arrive. Walter realizes he is mortally wounded from a gunshot and slowly succumbs to his injury as the police search the compound. | violence, comedy, neo noir, murder | tt0903747 |
Intermission | Lehiff (Colin Farrell) is smooth-talking an attractive shop assistant (Kerry Condon) talking about love. Suddenly, his tone changes. He hits her and steals some money from the till.John (Cillian Murphy) splits up with Deirdre (Kelly Macdonald) but later he repents and says he only wanted to put her to the test. Soon she goes out with an older man. John has a dead-end job at a supermarket, and the audience can see he dislikes his boss, Mr Henderson (Owen Roe).Jerry Lynch (Colm Meany) is a tough cop who threatens Lehiff and pees on him. Jerry is going to be the protagonist of a documentary about his job.Sam (Michael McElhatton) also leaves Noeleen (Deirdre O'Kane) because he has just started a relationship with Deirdre. Soon afterwards, Sally (Shirley Henderson) and her mother meet Sam and Deirdre as a couple, but Sally completely rejects them and says so aloud, leaving the three of them speechless. Danny the bus driver, (Donagh Deeney) gets distracted because of the conversation between Sally and her mother on the bus. They get off the bus and five seconds after, the bus gets wrecked. Danny is suspended from his job, although he alleges that a boy threw a stone at the front mirror and that it wasn't his fault. Management doesn't believe him.Oscar (David Wilmot) goes to a sex shop to ask for some porn videos - questioning the manager (Tom Murphy) in a good-for-laughs scene and then jerking off in the privacy of his home.John pukes in front of Mr Henderson on purpose. He gives him the last notice: either he changes or he'll be sacked. Oscar and John go to a disco for older people. Noeleen and John seem to hit it off, the same as Oscar and Maura (Ger Ryan), who is Sally's mother. Oscar and Maura's relationship goes well, especially on the sexual side at the beginning. She likes hitting him a bit in the heat of passion. However, Oscar breaks up with her because she hits him.Danny speaks to Lehiff, who suffered a car accident in a stolen car because a boy had thrown a stone at him while he was driving. Lehiff proposes a bank robbery, and they also tell John. John tells Oscar, who wants to have nothing to do with it. They argue on the supermarket shop floor, so Mr Henderson dismisses John for good.Sally and Maura are interviewed because of the bus accident and the boy throws an egg at Maura's head and another at the camera. Sally feels ugly, until she and Oscar hit it off.Masked and armed, John, Lehiff and Danny break into Deirdre's home while she's with Sam. Sam is going to give John and Danny the money while Lehiff stays at Deirdre's with her as a hostage. Sam and Deirdre agree, but everything turns out badly when crazy Noeleen appears and beats Sam up. The police appear to stop the quarrelling couple and John and Danny run away. On the way to Deirdre's, Danny tells John to let him out. He has seen red-hooded biker boy Philip (Taylor Molloy), the boy who threw a stone at the bus. John runs to Deirdre, and sees she's been hit by Lehiff, so John and Lehiff also fight and Lehiff has to leave.Lehiff goes to meet the boy, Jerry, his journalist friend and the cameraman who is following him everywhere, and Danny in his car following Philip. Danny teeters on the edge of a sunken canal due to Philip. Lehiff shoots Jerry, and the journalist who has followed him everywhere kills Lehiff.Jerry is well, and tells his friend not to release the original film, as all's well which ends well. Lehiff is dead, and Danny has a wheelchair race at the pub. Sally and Oscar are together, and John and Deirdre make amends.Mr Henderson takes a holiday. He's obsessed with John's lack of acknowledgement of his managerial role. Philip appears once again, throws a stone at him while driving causing another road accident. Noeleen and John also reconcile, but she is much more domineering, - she won't put up with any nonsense from him any more. | violence, comedy, murder, romantic, flashback | tt0332658 |
Catch and Release | The film opens with Gray (Jennifer Garner) at the funeral of her fiancé, Grady. They were supposed to be married that day, but due to a boating accident that happened during his bachelor party weekend, he was killed. Gray is very upset and eventually seeks solace by hiding in the bathtub. Meanwhile, one of Grady's friends, Fritz (Timothy Olyphant), has seduced one of the catering staff and takes her into the bathroom, not realizing that Gray is there. Gray is forced to listen to them have sex. Once the caterer leaves, she pulls back the shower curtain, startling Fritz.Gray visits the attorney to determine what will happen to Grady's estate. Grady did not have a will and since she and Grady were not married, she will not inherit his money. The attorney reveals that Grady had an investment account with a million dollars in it, which Gray knew nothing about. She determines that she can no longer afford to rent the house that they had picked out and she was already living in. With help from Grady's friends Dennis (Sam Jaeger) and Sam (Kevin Smith), she puts her things into storage and moves in with them into Grady's old room. Fritz, who lives in L.A., is also staying in the house during his visit.Tensions continue between Gray and Fritz. As Gray investigates Grady's investment account, she finds that every month, he transferred $3,000 out of the account.During the night, a cell phone rings. Gray wakes up Fritz, thinking the phone is his. He says that it's not his and turns it off. At the same time, they realize that the phone must have belonged to Grady. Gray grabs the phone first and turns it on to find ten voicemail messages. She listens to a string of messages from a woman who goes from cautiously concerned to increasingly angry as each message progresses.When Gray researches the phone number, she finds out that the area code is for L.A.. She goes to Fritz for answers, and he reveals that Grady had a son with a woman he met in L.A. and that she depends on the money she received from him to support herself and their son. Fritz tells her that the boy is eight and that the encounter happened before she and Grady were involved.Meanwhile, Gray is further upset when Grady's mother asks for the engagement ring back. Gray refuses and keeps the ring.Eventually, the other woman, Maureen (Juliette Lewis), and her son turn up, trying to get answers about Grady and the money. When Gray encounters them, she realizes that the boy is 3 years old, not 8, so the affair happened while she and Grady were together. Gray confronts Fritz about the revelation. She slaps him and he pins her arms against the wall. They kiss, but part and leave without a word.Gray doesn't want anything to do with Maureen, but the guys are reluctant to send her away. They all spend time together and get to know each other. Sam and Maureen begin to develop a connection.As Fritz and Gray continue to develop their relationship in secret, Dennis reveals that he has feelings for Gray. Gray lets him down easily, but he becomes furious when he finds that Gray and Fritz are an item. Gray tells Dennis that her relationship with Fritz is "less than nothing", not realizing that he is standing by the doorway and can hear her speaking. Fritz determines that Gray doesn't return his feelings for her and he returns to Malibu.
Grady's mother insists that the boy have a DNA test before inheriting Grady's money, as he stands to do under Colorado law. The results determine that Grady was not the father. Maureen is devastated, unsure how she will support her child without Grady's money. Gray goes to Grady's mother and tells her that she thinks that Grady must have known that the child wasn't his, but that his money could make a difference in the boy's life. She offers Grady's mother the engagement ring in exchange for her giving Grady's money to Maureen.The group gathers at the dedication ceremony for the peace garden that Dennis has built to memorialize Grady. Grady's mother gives Maureen a certified check. When Gray finds out, she offers the ring back, but Grady's mother tells her to keep it. She says that she never cared about the ring or the money, she just wanted her son back.Dennis decides it's time for him to be on his own, so he moves out of the house. Maureen and her son move in with Sam. Gray determines that she never fully knew Grady, but that she has come to have feelings for the one person that they both could be themselves around, Fritz.At the end of the film Gray goes to Malibu. She goes to Fritz's house and finds him outside at the beach playing fetch with his dog. She throws the ball and the dogs runs after it. Fritz turns around and sees her. She walks toward him and says she should have called then starts rambling. He quiets her by kissing her and says, "What took you so long?" The film ends with Fritz's photographs rolling through the credits. | romantic, stupid | tt0395495 |
If.... | Set in a British independent boys boarding school in the late 1960s (most of the scenes were filmed at Cheltenham College in Gloucestershire, with the remainder at Uppingham School in Rutland and Aldenham School in Hertfordshire, England, UK). Mick Travis (Malcolm McDowell) is one of three non-conformist boys among the returning class. They are watched and persecuted by the "Whips", senior boys given authority as 'prefects' over juniors. The prefects are entitled to the services of "Scum", who are first-year boys assigned to run errands, make tea and generally act as unpaid servants. This refers to the old tradition of "fagging" which still persisted in many British independent boys' schools.The early part of the film shows scenes in the school as the pupils return at the start of a new term. Mick Travis, the protagonist, arrives with a suitcase on his shoulder, wearing a black Derby hat, with a black scarf across his face to hide his moustache. Stephans comments, "God, it's Guy Fawkes back again", hinting at the conclusion of the film. Rowntree (Robert Swann) is the Head Whip, and he revels in his power, ordering the junior boys to "Run! Run in the corridor!"After the first evening meal, the Whips conduct some of the more mundane business of the school, signing up boys for "Confirmation class" and "VD clinic". Each boy has to lower his pants so the school nurse can inspect his genitals.These early scenes show the school's customs and traditions. The Headmaster (Peter Jeffrey) is somewhat remote from the boys and the House Masters. Mr. Kemp (Arthur Lowe), the House Master to Mick's dorm, is told "I'll have to get back to you on that" when he brings things to the Headmaster's attention. Kemp himself is easily manipulated by the Whips into giving them a free hand in enforcing discipline. Some of the staff are shown as suffering from various perversions. For example, the school chaplain (Geoffrey Chater), who is also the geometry master, enjoys grasping the boys and hurting them during class. At bedtime, Mr. Kemp sings a hymn as his wife (Mary MacLeod) accompanies him on the recorder; the matron (Mona Washbourne), overhearing, is driven to near orgasm. Mrs. Kemp herself enjoys walking naked through the boys' dormitory and washroom while fondling soap, towels and other objects the boys have carelessly strewn about.One day, having sneaked off campus and into the nearby town (an act strictly forbidden by house rules), Mick steals a motorbike from a showroom and has an affair with a local waitress. Meanwhile, Wallace finds adolescent romance with Bobby Philips, a junior boy, whom he takes to bed. They indulge in self-inflicted ordeals, such as seeing how long they can hold a plastic bag over their faces.As the film progresses, it concentrates on Mick's group and their clashes with the school authorities. Mick and his friends are subject to punishments, and eventually they are sentenced to corporal punishment in the form of a severe "beating" (i.e. a caning) by the Whips. The caning is administered by Rowntree in the gym with a long run-up. The three boys are left with bleeding buttocks. Mick's punishment is especially brutal (10 strokes), yet tradition demands that he shake hands when it is over and say, "Thank you".(Note: scenes are shot through with surreal elements, such as some scenes being shot in black and white. This was not for dramatic emphasis, as people presumed, but simply because the huge windows at the college gave off obstructing light that affected the camera lenses. Another explanation given later by Lindsay Anderson is simply that the production was running out of money.)A few days later, during a paramilitary exercise training in the nearby woods, Mick and his friends play a practical joke on the Whips by planting a bomb containing paint which they detonate and humiliate the Whips and the supervisors of the military exercise. As a result, Mick and his friends are punished by being forced to clean up the church basement for the weekend. During the cleaning, Mick and his group find a large cache of various weapons dating back to the second world war (rifles, heavy machine guns, sub-machine guns, pistols, grenades and even mortar tubes with live rounds). Mick decides to use this to get revenge against the establishment for their misfortune.At the climax, in a surreal sequence, on Founders' Day, when parents are visiting the school, Mick and his group start a fire under the hall, smoke out the parents, staff and boys, and open fire on them from a rooftop. Led by the visiting General who was giving the speech, the staff and boys break open the Combined Cadet Force armoury and fire back.The Headmaster tries to stop the firefight and calls for peace. Mick's girl, who is on the roof with them, produces a Webley Revolver from her belt and shoots the Headmaster through the forehead in cold blood. As the battle continues, the camera closes in on Mick's face as he defiantly keeps firing, ending the film with a fade-out and an echo of gunfire with the film's title "if...." emblazoned in red on the screen. | comedy, avant garde, murder, cult, violence, psychedelic, satire, romantic | tt0063850 |
Scream | The film opens with young Casey Becker (Drew Barrymore) recieving phone calls from an unidentified caller. At first it seems as if he has gotten a wrong number, but it soon becomes clear he is toying with her, and his voice gets more and more threatening. Casey becomes frightened when she realizes her caller can see her. She begins to panic when the caller threatens to kill her, and forces her to answer movie trivia in exchange for her life and the life of her boyfriend, Steve, who she sees tied up on her back patio. After killing Steve, the caller torments Casey until finally breaking into the house and chasing her; he is dressed in a black costume with a white ghost mask over his face. He chases her across her lawn just as her parents pull up into the driveway. They do not see her, and Casey is stabbed in the chest, unable to scream. After killing Casey, the murderer strings up her body in the back yard for the parents to discover.We then meet Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and her boyfriend Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich). Billy sneaks into her bedroom window and attempts to have sex with her, but Sidney is unsure and wants to remain a virgin for now. They are almost discovered by Sidney's father, Neil (Lawrence Hecht), and he comes into Sidney's room to discuss the fact that he is going out of town. We learn that Sidney's mother was killed almost one year before, and that Sidney and her father are alone. Sidney's testimony identified Cotton Weary (Liev Schreiber) as the killer, although Cotton swears that he is innocent.The next day, Sidney's school is abuzz with news of the murder, and classes are temporarily cancelled. Sidney decides that since her father is gone and she is alone, she is going to stay with her her best friend Tatum (Rose McGowan). Sidney, Tatum, and BIlly sit with their group of friends, which includes Randy (Jamie Kennedy), who is obsessed with horror movies, and Stu (Matthew Lilliard), a class clown type who used to date Casey Becker.Sidney goes home to wait for Tatum to pick her up. The phone rings and she hears a strange voice, the same one that was on the phone with Casey. At first she thinks it is Randy joking around, but the caller turns abusive and brings up Sidney's mother. "Do you wanna die, Sidney? Your mother sure didn't!" The killer emerges from a closet in Sidney's house and a chase starts through out the house and Sidney locks herself in her bedroom and dials 911. Then Billy arrives, climbing through Sidney's window again, and a cell phone falls out of his pocket. Sidney realizes that it may have been him phoning her and she runs downs stairs and out of the house only to be greeted by the police.She is taken to the police station along with Billy, where he is questioned. At the police station, Sidney meets Dewey (David Arquette), Tatum's older brother and the town deputy, who is considered a dolt. Outside the police station, she is confronted by nosy reporter Gail Weathers (Courtney Cox), the writer of an expose about the murder of Sidney's mother. Gail feels that Cotton Weary was wrongfully convicted, and now Gail is following up a story about the murder of Casey Becker; she feels the murders are connected.Tatum takes Sidney to her house, where she recieves another phone call from the killer, who tells her "You got the wrong guy, Sidney...again." The next day at school, Sidney is threatened by the killer while she is in the bathroom, but she escapes.School is over and a curfew is in place, so the group of friends decide to throw a party. Gail Weathers takes a cameraman to the party in an attempt to talk to Sidney, but Dewey intercepts her. The two of them talk and seem to have a mutual affection for one another. They enter the party and Dewey chooses not to bust the partygoers for underage drinking. During the party Billy and Sidney go upstairs and Sidney has sex with him. Meanwhile, Tatum is murdered in the garage by the killer, who has infiltrated the party after all.After the interlude between Sidney and Billy, the door opens and in walks the killer, who stabs Billy in the back. Another chase starts. Dewey is stabbed. Gale, in her newsvan, swerves to avoid hitting Sidney and runs her car down a hill, striking a tree and appearing to be killed.Sidney ends up in the house facing Randy and Stu, both claiming the other is the killer. Stu is vying to come inside and obtain the gun, while Randy wants to leave. Eventually Billy stumbles down the stairs, bloodied, and lets Randy and Stu into the house, shooting Randy and turning to reveal that the blood is fake; Billy was only pretending to be stabbed. He was aided by his accomplice, Stu; both of them are the killers. Billy also reveals that he was responsible for killing Sidney's mother, who had an affair with his father. Billy blamed Mrs. Prescott for the dissolution of his parents' marriage, and murdered Mrs. Prescott out of revenge. Billy and Stu also reveal that they have kidnapped Mr. Prescott, who is tied up in a closet. They have framed Mr. Prescott for the murders, and intend to wound themselves to make it look as if Mr. Prescott attacked them, at which point they will kill both him and Sidney.Billy and Stu inflict flesh wounds on one another with the knife, but they are interrupted by Gail Weathers, who returns, armed with Dewey's gun. Gail forgets to switch off the gun's safety, and a struggle ensues. Sidney strikes back at her tormenters, killing Stu with a television and shooting Billy in the head with the gun. Dewey is revealed to be alive, as is Randy. All ends well as Gale reports that the Macher house has been the scene of what seemed to be some real-life scary movie. | comedy, mystery, murder, stupid, cult, revenge, violence, horror, plot twist, satire, suspenseful, entertaining, prank | tt0117571 |
Night of the Ghouls | The basic plot involves the police investigating a supposed haunted house. The house is discovered to serve as headquarters for a confidence trickster who pretends to be able to contact the dead, and charges naive customers large amounts of money to allow them to speak to their deceased loved ones.
The movie features a prologue and a brief acting role by Criswell, who also narrated Wood's Plan 9 from Outer Space. The prologue has Criswell rising from a coffin, leaving unclear if the "metaphysical" narrator is awaking from a normal sleep, or whether he is actually a corpse returning to life. The latter implication can be seen as foreshadowing the final scenes of the film.
One of the opening scenes features a montage of seemingly unrelated events, which seem to feature Wood's view of the post-war era and its social problems: juvenile delinquency, street fighting, and driving under the influence. A memorable sequence has a car driving off a cliff and crashing. The sequence ends with the bloody corpse of the drunk driver staring blankly at the camera. According to Criswell's narration, this is a rather typical end to "a drunken holiday weekend". The narrative properly begins with a teenaged couple kissing in a convertible, parked at night in what is probably a lovers' lane. When the boy gets too aggressive, the girl ends the embrace with a slap and exits the car. At this point the narrative introduces the Black Ghost which lurks in the woods near them. In short order, first the girl and then the boy are attacked by the undead creature and die. According to Criswell's narration, the two murders received press attention but were thought to be the work of a maniac.
In a police station of East Los Angeles, California, Inspector Robbins is waiting for Detective Bradford at his office. Bradford soon arrives, dressed in a top hat and formal evening wear. He was called to work while on his way to the opera, and he protests the idea of working an unexpected assignment. But Robbins informs him that the case involves the "old house on Willows lake", which played a part in an earlier case investigated by Bradford. (This is a reference to the events of Bride of the Monster). The house was destroyed by lightning, but someone rebuilt it. A flashback scene establishes that the elderly Edwards couple had a terrifying encounter with the White Ghost by this house. Having heard the story, Bradford accepts the assignment to investigate the old house. Robbins assigns Kelton to escort the Detective, despite the protests of the man that "Monsters! Space people! Mad doctors! They didn't teach me about such things in the police academy! And yet that's all I've been assigned to since I became on active duty". The line is used to recall Kelton's experiences in Bride of the Monster and Plan 9 from Outer Space, and to explicitly connect this film to its predecessors.
Bradford drives a Pontiac Bonneville to the house and enters through an open door, to be confronted by Dr. Acula (played by Kenne Duncan). Dressed in a turban and cryptically mentioning that there are many already in the house, both living and dead, Acula is a rather strange figure. But Bradford convinces Acula that he is just another prospective client, so his entrance is accepted. The narrator soon establishes that one of "the many" in the house is a remnant of its past, Lobo. A character from Bride, Lobo is depicted as disfigured from the flames which once destroyed this house. Outside the house, Kelton arrives late and has brief encounters with both the Black and the White Ghost. The scene shifts to a strange séance, where Acula and his clients share the table with human skeletons. A subsequent scene both confirms that Dr. Acula is a fake psychic by the name of "Karl", as Bradford suspected earlier, and reveals that the White Ghost is an actress by the name of "Sheila". Her role is to scare away intruders. She is concerned by the presence of the Black Ghost which is not part of their hoax, though the cynical Acula dismisses her fears. He doesn't believe in the supernatural.
Both Bradford and Kelton have strange and sometimes violent confrontations within the house, and are eventually joined by reinforcements. As their accomplices fall to the police, Karl and Sheila attempt to escape through a mortuary room. There they are confronted by a group of undead men, including one played by Criswell. The latter is the only one of them who speaks, explaining to Karl that the supposedly "fake" psychic does have genuine powers and his necromantic efforts actually worked. These dead men were restored to life, if only for a few hours, but they intend to take Karl with them in their return to the grave. As Karl dies, Sheila escapes the house to meet her own fate. The Black Ghost, genuinely undead, takes control of the impostor and tells her that it is time to join "the others" at the grave. As the police try to understand what happened to the deceased Karl, the narrative ends with a shot of an undead Sheila, now truly a White Ghost.
In a brief epilogue which also closes the frame story, the narrator returns to his coffin. Claiming that it is time for both the old dead and the new to return to their graves, he reminds the viewer that he/she too can soon join them in death. | cult | tt0156843 |
Behind Enemy Lines | As the war in Bosnia comes to an end, the USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70), under the command of Admiral Leslie Reigart (Gene Hackman), that is stationed in the Adriatic Sea, along with the rest of the NATO forces in Bosnia, are preparing to withdraw. However, Flight Navigator Lieutenant Chris Burnett (Owen Wilson), and Pilot Lieutenant Jeremy Stackhouse (Gabriel Macht) are assigned a reconnaissance mission over Bosnia. During the reconnaissance mission, they spot suspicious activity in the no-fly zone that NATO aircraft are prohibited from entering. Burnett persuades Stackhouse to fly their F/A-18F Super Hornet off-course to get a close look on the target and they take photographs of the area. However, both men do not realize that they photographed mass graves, and Serbs in the area spot the jet. The local Bosnian Serb Army commander, General Miroslav Lokar (Olek Krupa), is involved in a secret genocidal campaign against the local Muslim population. Not wanting the mass graves to be discovered, Lokar orders the plane to be shot down.Despite trying to outmaneuver the missiles shot at them, their aircraft is hit and they are forced to eject. Both Burnett and Stackhouse parachute into Serb-held territory along the Bosnia-Serbia border, with the latter being injured. Burnett goes to higher ground to contact Reigart for help. Stackhouse, however, is captured by a Serb patrol under Lokar's command. As Lokar interrogates him, Stackhouse insists that he was on a solo mission. As the Serb patrol moves on, Stackhouse is deliberately executed by one of Lokar's right-hand men and, apparently, his personal assassin, Sasha (Vladimir Mashkov). Burnett, who noticed the Serb patrol and was observing their interrogation of Stackhouse, involuntarilly screams in horror, alerting the Serbs to his location. Wanting Burnett dead as well, Lokar sends his second in command, Colonel Bazda (Marko Igonda), and Sasha to find him.Burnett contacts Reigart on high ground to inform him of what happened. Reigart orders Burnett to move to a certain location in order to be extracted. However, Admiral Piquet (Joaquim de Almeida), commander of NATO's naval forces and Reigarts superior officer, tells Reigart that the shooting down of Burnett's jet and any attempt to rescue the navigator in the no-fly zone could throw Bosnia into more civil war, thus hampering NATO's withdrawal from the nation. Therefore, as Burnett moves to the designated extraction point, Reigart tells him that he must move to a location outside of the de-militarized zone in order to be rescued. Piquet also has Reigart's team stand down from the rescue operation, choosing to use his own team for the extraction instead.Immediately after being informed, Burnett sees a Serb patrol that is looking for him. With the patrol in pursuit, Burnett runs. Burnett falls into the very mass graves that he and Stackhouse had photographed and hides under a dead body. As the Serb patrol gets to the graves, they inspect the area for Burnett, but then withdraw. Burnett, horrified by what he sees, continues to run. Reigart sees some of this on an infrared satellite feed, and contacts the media to inform them of Burnett's situation, much to Piquet's anger.As he continues to the new extraction zone, Burnett has to make his way through an abandoned factory which is booby-trapped with tripwired antipersonnel landmines. When a small Serb patrol discovers and tries to pursue Burnett, one of the militants accidentally steps on a tripwire, killing the entire patrol and setting off a chain reaction of exploding mines. Burnett manages to survive,by running as fast as he can and keeping just ahead of the exploding mines, and is unaware that Sasha is following his tracks.Later on, Burnett takes a rest in a forest. However, as he has a flashback of Stackhouse's death, including the fact that Sasha is in the area, Burnett wakes up and keeps running. Burnett manages to stop a pickup truck with Bosniak guerrillas, among them a young militant named Babic (Kamil Kollarik). The Bosniaks offer Burnett a ride and head for the town of Ha which is in the safe zone. However, Serbs under the command of Lokar take over the town, partly because they know Burnett is heading there. As Serbian forces take over the town they believe they have found Burnett's body following a firefight, but he switched uniforms with a Serb militant and escaped.The Serbians parade the corpse wearing Burnett's uniform and broadcast it on the news, claiming that Burnett had been shot by Bosniak forces to prevent the American rescue unit from retrieving Burnett. Their ruse works and when Burnett and Babic arrive at the next evacuation point, they watch helplessly as the helicopter turns away. Burnett, disappointed, then notices a landmark that he parachuted down nearby, as this is where his ejection seat landed. Burnett wants to return to the site in order to prove to his carrier group that he is still alive as well as obtaining the evidence of Lokar's crimes. Knowing he is putting himself in danger, Burnett orders Babic to leave. He returns to his ejection seat and reactivates the rescue beacon. Even though the carrier group notices Burnett's signal, he also alerts the Serbs to his location.Knowing that doing so would result in being relieved from command, Reigart prepares a task force aimed to rescue Burnett. Meanwhile, General Lokar, who is aware that Burnett is alive, sends both Bazda and Sasha alone to kill Burnett. Enroute to Burnett's location, Bazda steps on a landmine. Burnett hears the explosion and is alerted.Sasha takes a position and sees Burnett hiding behind the ejection seat. However, as Sasha hears the approaching American helicopters coming to rescue Burnett, he walks toward the ejection seat. However, as he gets to the ejection seat, Sasha realizes that he was tricked. Burnett jumps out of a snowdrift behind Sasha and shoots him several times but fails to kill Sasha, who gets off a shot of his own but only grazes Burnett's shoulder. They engage in a hand-to-hand fight until Burnett pulls a flare and stabs Sasha in the chest with it; killing him. Immediately after killing Sasha, Lokar arrives with a platoon of BMP-1 armored personnel carriers and infantry, and begin to fire upon Burnett; who runs to a nearby angel statue. UH-1 Huey helicopters of the USMC finally arrive and fire on the Serbs. Just yards away from the rescue helicopter, Burnett turns and runs back to the ejection chair to retrieve the hard drive containing the photos of the mass graves. Noticing what is happening Lokar tries to shoot Burnett, but Burnett runs back to the helicopter amid the gunfire and once on board, the task force withdraws back to the aircraft carrier.After the rescue, he gives the photographic evidence to Reigart explaining it as the reason why Stackhouse was killed. The evidence of Lokar's war crimes put the general on trial. Reigart is relieved from command for his actions and is given a desk job in Washington DC, but chooses to retire with the respect of his sailors for the sacrifice he made to recover the downed pilot. Burnett, who earlier wanted to resign from active duty, decides to remain in the Navy. | suspenseful, realism | tt0159273 |
Ruthless People | Millionaire Sam Stone (Danny DeVito) hates his wife Barbara (Bette Midler). He plans on murdering her to gain control of her $15 million family fortune and run off with his mistress Carol (Anita Morris). He goes home to murder his wife, but he can't find her. The phone rings and he answers. An anonymous man tells him that Barbara has been kidnapped and if Sam informs the media, the police or any of their detailed demands are not met - they will kill his wife.
Overjoyed, Sam informs the media, the police and deliberately disobeys all of the kidnapper's demands, believing this will ensure his wife's death. However...
The kidnappers are Ken (Judge Reinhold) and Sandy Kessler (Helen Slater), who want revenge on Sam for stealing Sandy's fashion design, along with the Kesslers' life savings. Barbara is imprisoned in the Kesslers' basement, where she proves a handful to the amateur kidnappers. When Sam doesn't show up with the ransom on several occasions, even when the price is dropped, it becomes obvious that Sam doesn't want his wife back, and would rather she were dead.
Carol, having learned of Sam's plan to kill Barbara, secretly intends to blackmail Sam, with the help of her handsome but dim-witted boyfriend Earl (Bill Pullman). Knowing Sam plans to dump his wife's body in the Hollywood Hills at night, Carol has Earl lie in wait with a video camera. He mistakenly films a rendezvous between a prostitute and her client performing noisy sex in the front seat of a car. Earl, hearing the woman's screams, thinks the murder is happening right in front of him.
Without watching the tape, Carol sends an anonymous copy to Sam, who sees the sex act and thinks Carol has sent it to him as a tittilating birthday present. He tells Carol he will do the same thing to her, causing her to think he plans to kill her. Carol sends another anonymous copy to police chief Henry Benton (William G. Schilling) — who happens to be the prostitute's client. Benton, thinking that he is being blackmailed, asks for the demands. Carol tells him to arrest Sam Stone for murdering his wife.
Benton orders a search of Sam's house, planning to plant evidence, but real evidence turns up—a bottle of chloroform Sam intended to use to sedate his wife. There also are pictures of Sam with Carol. The kidnapping investigation, which has led to Ken by now, is immediately called off, and Sam is arrested. Sam now faces the unhappy prospect of having to get his wife back in order to prove his innocence.
While being held captive in the Kessler's basement, Barbara takes up exercising to relieve her boredom. Sandy half-mentions that she looks great and that it looks like Barbara has lost at least 20 pounds. Unexpectedly, Barbara bonds with Sandy, letting Barbara wear some of her dress designs to show off her new figure. Barbara loves them, and offers to go into business with Sandy. During their bonding, Sandy reveals why they originally kidnapped her, because Sam said she was his partner when he ripped them off. Barbara laughs and says she never was and Sam was mostly likely "passing the buck". Much to her shock, Sandy tells her Sam wouldn't pay their ransom demand. Even though it wasn't a big problem, she tells Barbara that Sam complained and they even tried lowering the price. She cries, stating "I've been kidnapped by K-Mart!"
Permitted to leave, Barbara later returns to the Kessler residence as soon as she finds out from the newspaper about Sam's mistress; Barbara now realizes Sam wanted her dead. Unbeknownst to Barbara and the Kesslers, a notorious local serial killer, The Bedroom Killer, had just entered their home and confronts both Barbara and Ken since they reminded him of his much hated parents. The serial killer ends up attacking Ken, but instead falls down the basement steps and dies.
Barbara, Ken, and Sandy now set a revenge plot in motion against Sam. Desperate to prove his wife is alive, Sam offers to pay the ransom the moment Ken calls him again. Armed with Barbara's inside knowledge of Sam's finances, they have increased the ransom to equal Sam's entire net worth: over $2 million. Sam is outraged, but has no choice. He withdraws the cash, but begs the police to watch the drop-site. Carol finally views the videotape in a video store, but unknowingly puts the image on every TV in the store, and the police chief is recognized by his wife. Carol realizes now Barbara really was kidnapped. Carol learns the time and place of the ransom drop.
Sam waits with his life savings in cash in a briefcase. Ken arrives in disguise to get the money, but then scores of hidden police suddenly appear. Sam gives the briefcase to Ken, but Earl arrives with a gun, intent on robbing Sam. He instead tries to rob Ken (who is holding the briefcase). In the ensuing confusion, Earl is captured by the police.
Ken takes the briefcase and drives toward the waterfront, with many police cars following him. He drives onto — and eventually off of — the end of Santa Monica Pier with the ransom cash inside. The police search the water and bring up the car, with the body of the Bedroom Killer inside (dressed in Ken's clothes and disguise). Only a few thousand dollars of money are recovered from the ocean.
Although he has lost all his money, Sam holds out hope that Barbara will now definitely be killed. According to the kidnappers, if anything went wrong, they'd kill her, and he'd inherit her $15 million fortune. But Barbara shows up and lies to the police that her kidnapper (the serial killer) was schizophrenic, believing himself to have an accomplice, and so she was able to escape as soon as he left. The police walk away in satisfaction.
Sam, meanwhile, is taken aback by how great Barbara looks with her weight loss. As they embrace, she beats him up in retaliation for all he's done and didn't do during her kidnapping (while the detectives in charge of the case remark about how much Sam and Barbara seem to love each other, unaware of the assault right behind them), and pushes him into the water. On a nearby beach, Ken emerges from the water in scuba gear, carrying the briefcase with the ransom cash. Sandy runs to embrace him. They are joined by Barbara, walking along the beach happily together. | revenge, comedy, satire, murder | tt0091877 |
Rashômon | Sheltering from a rainstorm in the ruins of the Rashomon gatehouse, a woodcutter (Takashi Shimura) and a priest (Minoru Chiaki) sit dejected. A commoner (Kichijiro Ueda) joins them, and wants to hear the "strange story" they have just heard at a murder enquiry in the courthouse garden. The story has horrified the priest. Even though "year after year, it's been nothing but disasters," he has "never heard a story as horrible as this." The woodcutter is utterly confounded, and hopes the commoner can help him understand it.The woodcutter begins the narration, telling the commoner that three days earlier he had gone "into the mountains to get wood."The woodcutter is walking through the woods, carrying his axe. Sunlight filters through the foliage, dappling everything with a mix of sun and sharp shadows. He sees a woman's hat caught on a bush. Further along, he picks up a samurai's hat and some cut up rope. He sees something small amongst the leaves on the ground, and goes towards it, but does not notice the corpse right in front of him until he trips over it. He screams and, dropping everything (including his axe), runs away. He says, "I ran as fast as I could to tell the police. Then, three days later--today--I was called to testify."The woodcutter is seated in the sunlit courthouse garden, addressing the court, unseen and unheard behind the camera. He testifies that he is the one who found the body. Asked if he saw "a sword or something," he protests emphatically that he found "nothing at all" but the hats, rope, and "a shiny amulet case." And here he lets slip two additional details: the rope was "near the body" and the amulet case had "a red lining."The priest is seated in the courthouse garden. He testifies that he saw the man three days earlier, travelling on the road with a woman on a horse, and armed with a sword and bow and arrows. [There is a brief shot of the samurai passing on the road, turning to smile at his wife.] The priest comments on the fragility of life and offers condolences to someone off screen--presumably the wife.The policeman (Daisuke Kato) is seated in the courthouse garden. The bandit (Toshiro Mifune) is sitting beside him, bound. The policeman identifies the bandit as the notorious Tajomaru. He had captured him two days earlier, at dusk. [There is a brief shot of the policeman finding the bandit writhing in agony on a riverbank. The bandit pushes him into the river.] He describes the weapons and horse belonging to the samurai. He concludes that Tajomaru must have fallen from the stolen horse.The bandit hotly denies falling from his horse. [There is a brief shot depicting the bandit as he wants to be perceived: galloping in heroic mode across the horizon, with stirring music.] He explains to the court that he was thirsty, and drank from a spring. [There is a brief shot of him drinking thirstily from a stream.] He says it must have been contaminated, because he was ill and had to get off the horse. The bandit says he knows he is doomed, so he has no reason to hide anything. He says it was he who killed the samurai. [There is a scene of the bandit lounging against a large tree, watching as the samurai (Masayuki Mori) and his wife (Machiko Kyo) pass by, the samurai eyeing the bandit warily.] The bandit says he initially intended "to take her without killing the man."Throughout the woodcutter's narration of the bandit's testimony the bandit's bravado and dignity are undercut. He has animal-like mannerisms, and appears indolent and ignoble, constantly scratching and swatting flies.The bandit runs through the woods to catch up to the couple. He accosts the samurai, lures him into the woods with a tale of a cache of swords he will sell cheap, and jumps him from behind. He laughs in triumph, and goes to get the wife, tricking her by saying her husband has suddenly "taken sick." In the courthouse garden the bandit says the wife's look of concern made him jealous, and this made him want to humiliate the samurai.Running through the woods, led by the bandit, the wife loses her hat. When they reach the grove she sees her husband tied to a tree stump. The wife, at first frozen and powerless, suddenly draws a dagger and fiercely attacks the bandit. She struggles, but eventually gives up. The bandit kisses her. She drops the dagger and embraces him.In the court the bandit says that he "had succeeded in having her without killing her husband." Having got what he wanted, it would make sense for the bandit to leave the scene while he can easily get away.In the grove, the bandit begins to leave, taking the samurai's sword. But the woman makes a bizarre melodramatic request that the men duel to the death. In response, he frees the samurai and lets him have his sword back. There is a fierce, dramatic sword fight. The bandit finally kills the samurai.In the courthouse garden the bandit boasts that it was an honourable, impressive fight, claiming they "crossed swords 23 times." When asked about the woman, he has to think a moment about this odd loose end, and supposes she ran off in fright (contrary to the fierce spirit that had attracted him). Responding to further questions, the bandit says that he sold the samurai's sword to buy liquor, and that he had forgotten the dagger--a "foolish" mistake, as it "looked very valuable."In the Rashomon gatehouse the woodcutter says the bandit's and the woman's stories were lies. The commoner observes that this is human. "Most of the time we can't even be honest with ourselves." The priest laments that this is because men are "weak." The priest says the woman was found hiding in a temple, and that she appeared at the enquiry. He says she showed no fierceness, was "almost pitiful."The priest takes over the narration, and begins relating the woman's testimony.The woman is in the courthouse garden, prostrate and weeping. She says after forcing her to "yield to him" the bandit laughed mockingly. In the grove, the bandit takes the samurai's sword and runs off. The woman embraces her bound husband, but he remains impassive. In the court, the woman says she saw "neither anger, nor sorrow, but a cold light, a look of loathing." In the grove, she begs him to stop, but he continues to look at her with cold disdain. She collapses in despair, then retrieves the dagger, cuts his bonds, and tells him to kill her. When he does not respond, she pleads for him to stop condemning her with his silence, and repeats this over and over as she approaches him with the dagger clenched in her hand.In the courthouse garden she says that she must have fainted and that when she came to she saw her dagger in her dead husband's chest. She says she remembers only a pond [There is a brief shot of the surface of a pond.], and throwing herself in, and failing with several other attempts to kill herself. She dissolves in tears.In the Rashomon gatehouse, the commoner comments that women "use their tears to fool everyone." The priest mentions "the dead man's story," explaining that "he spoke through a medium." The woodcutter says, "His story was also lies," and he looks away from them, agitated. The priest refuses to believe a dead man would be so sinful as to lie, but the cynical commoner observes: "But is there anyone who's really good? Maybe goodness is just make-believe. . . Man just wants to forget the bad stuff and believe in the made-up good stuff. It's easier that way." He asks the priest to continue.In the courthouse garden, the medium (Fumiko Honma) performs a ritual around a small altar, and goes into a trance. When she speaks, it is the samurai's voice that is heard.The medium/samurai tells a story that incorporates sentiments and actions that vilify the woman, and are out of character and illogical for the bandit, but that result in the bandit and the woman leaving separately, with the samurai free of his bonds. In this sequence there are frequent cuts between the grove and the courthouse garden.The medium/samurai says the bandit "tried to console his wife." In the grove, the bandit is kneeling by the woman, who is lying on the ground. He "was cunning," telling the woman that he loved her, and that she should marry him now. She gives in to him, and agrees to go with him "wherever." But then she tells the bandit to kill her husband. The bandit is appalled, throws her to the ground, and asks the samurai what he wants: "Kill her or save her? You only have to nod." The medium/samurai laughs with triumphant satisfaction, and says: "For those words alone, I was ready to pardon his crime."The woman runs away. The bandit chases her, but is unable to catch her. He returns, exhausted and frustrated. He cuts the samurai's bindings, and leaves, taking both swords. The samurai weeps. He sees his wife's dagger, and uses it to stab himself. In court, the medium collapses. In the background, the woodcutter's attention is riveted. The medium/samurai says: "Then someone quietly approached me. That someone gently withdrew the dagger from my heart." When the medium's testimony stops there, the woodcutter relaxes.In the Rashomon gatehouse, the woodcutter paces thoughtfully. He suddenly asserts: "Its not true! There was no dagger. He was killed by a sword." The commoner looks skeptical, and presses the woodcutter to explain how he knows this. The woodcutter avoids eye contact when he claims that he was a witness, but did not tell the court because he "didn't want to get involved." He says he came upon the scene and, from behind a bush, observed the bandit begging the woman for forgiveness.The woodcutter tells a story that incorporates elements from the different stories heard in court. He describes actions that are out of character and implausible, and the demeanor of the characters fluctuates wildly. There is no music--only the sounds of insects, rustling leaves, and gasping breath.In the grove, the bandit begs the woman to go with him, and says he will do anything for her. She retrieves the dagger, and cuts the samurai's bonds. The samurai is still wearing his sword, but just stands there. The bandit assumes she wants them to fight a duel. The samurai refuses to risk his life "for such a woman." The bandit starts to leave. The woman laughs derisively, and derides them both for their lack of manhood. This drives the men to fight. The woman laughs, but then looks horrified. The men fight with farcical ineptitude in something resembling an undignified peasant brawl. The bandit finally spears the cowering samurai. The woman recoils from the bandit. He grabs the samurai's sword, and she runs away. He is too exhausted to chase her. He retrieves his own sword, and hobbles away.In the Rashomon gatehouse, the cynical commoner doubts this story. The priest despairs that men cannot trust one another. Then they hear an abandoned baby cry.When the woodcutter berates the commoner for stealing the baby's kimono, the commoner deflects the criticism by condemning the parents who abandoned their child. He says that no one is honest. He hasn't been fooled by the woodcutter. He knows the woodcutter must have stolen the dagger. The woodcutter hangs his head in shame. The commoner slaps the woodcutter, and goes on his way, laughing mockingly.The priest and the woodcutter stand dejected. The rain stops. The woodcutter reaches to take the baby from the priest. The priest recoils, and the woodcutter shakes his head, looking very hurt. He explains: "I have six kids of my own. Another one wouldn't make a difference." The priest recognizes that the woodcutter is basically a decent man, ashamed of his petty theft. He apologizes for his mistrust, and thanks him, because now he feels he can keep his faith in man. The priest hands the baby to the woodcutter. They bow to one another, and the woodcutter turns. The priest follows him to the steps of the gatehouse, and the two bow to each other again. The woodcutter leaves, walking into the sunlight. He is looking happy. | mystery, murder, paranormal, bleak, flashback, psychedelic, philosophical, suspenseful | tt0042876 |
La cripta e l'incubo | Lonely Laura Karnstein [Audry Amber] is having nightmares in which she sees members of the Karnstein family being murdered. This time it is cousin Tilda. Concerned that his daughter is possessed by the witch Scirra of Karnstein, who centuries ago cursed the Karnstein family, Count Ludwig Karnstein [Christopher Lee] hires Friedrich Klaus, a scholar of ancient and medieval history, to reconstruct Scirra's life and to search for a portrait of her. When a carriage breaks down outside the Karnstein castle and passenger Lyuba [Ursula Davis] becomes a houseguest, her company begins to cheer Laura and make her laugh again. In fact, Lyuba becomes the most important figure in Laura's life, more so than her father or her budding romance with Friedrich, so much that when Lyuba suggests she and Laura visit the ruins of the village of Karnstein, Laura actually agrees to go although she fears the place immensely.Unfortunately, they find that a peddlar has been hung from a bellpull and his right hand cut off. The hand is being used by the faithful housekeeper Rowena to pray to her master Satan. "Reveal to me the truth," she bequests. "Lead me to the murderer of the peddlar." Hoping beyond hope that the murderer is NOT Laura, Rowena is murdered before she learns the truth. About this time, Friedrich runs across a picture of the long dead Scirra who strongly resembles Lyuba.In the meantime, Lyuba persuades Laura to run away from the castle with her. As they escape toward the village, Count Karnstein and Friedrich search the cellars for Scirra's tomb. Instead, they find cousin Franz Karnstein, Tilda's father. He is also searching for the murderer of his daughter. Together, they locate Scirra's tomb and pry it open to find Lyuba lying there. They drive a stake through her body just as Laura is about to enter Lyuba's black carriage. Suddenly everything disappears, and Laura is left standing alone (and exonerated) beside the roadside. [Synopsis by bj_kuehl] | gothic | tt0057280 |
Stripes | John Winger is a cab driver who, in the span of a few hours, loses his job, his apartment, his car, and his girlfriend. Realizing that he is a loser with no prospects, he decides to join the Army. Talking his best friend Russell Ziskey, a teacher of English as a second language, into joining with him, they go to a recruiting office and are soon sent off to basic training.
Upon arriving at Fort Arnold, they meet their fellow recruits, and their drill sergeant, Sergeant Hulka. Moments after arriving, John angers Sgt. Hulka and is ordered out to do push-ups. He stands out as a slacker throughout basic training. Their commanding officer is the arrogant and incompetent Captain Stillman. As basic training progresses, Russell and John become romantically linked to female MPs Louise Cooper and Stella Hansen. Not long before graduation, Sgt. Hulka is injured when Stillman, trying to impress a visiting colonel, orders a mortar crew to fire without setting target coordinates.
The men go to a mud wrestling bar, where John convinces Dewey "Ox" Oxberger to wrestle a group of women. When the club is raided by MPs and police, Stella and Louise cover for John and Russell. The rest of the platoon are returned to base, where a furious Stillman threatens to make them all repeat basic training.
After partying with Stella and Louise, the buddies return to the barracks, and John motivates the platoon with a passionate speech and begins to get them in shape for graduation. After a long night of practice, they oversleep and almost miss the ceremony. They rush to the parade grounds in their fatigues; there they give an eccentric, yet highly coordinated, drill display led by John. General Barnicke is impressed when he finds out that they had to complete training without a drill sergeant, and decides they are just the kind of "go-getters" he wants working on his EM-50 project in Italy.
Once in Italy, the platoon is reunited with a recovered Sgt. Hulka and assigned to guard the EM-50 Urban Assault Vehicle. Fed up with their boring assignment, John and Russell steal the EM-50 to visit their girlfriends, stationed in West Germany. When Stillman finds the EM-50 missing, he launches an unauthorized mission to get the vehicle back before his superiors find out it is gone. Hulka urges Stillman not to go, but is overruled.
Stillman inadvertently leads the platoon across the border into Czechoslovakia. Hulka, recognising where they are, jumps out of the truck just before it is captured. He makes a mayday radio call that is heard by John and Russell, who realize that the platoon came looking for them and are now in danger. John, Russell, Stella, and Louise take the EM-50 and infiltrate a Russian base where the platoon is being held. With some assistance from Hulka, they save the entire platoon.
Upon returning to the US, John, Russell, Louise, Stella, and Hulka are treated as heroes, each being awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. Hulka retires and opens the HulkaBurger franchise. Stella appears on the cover of Penthouse, Ox makes the cover of Tiger Beat, Russell recreates his firefight with the Russians for Guts magazine, and John is featured on the cover of Newsworld. Captain Stillman is reassigned to a weather station near Nome, Alaska. | comedy, satire | tt0083131 |
The Godfather | In late summer 1945, guests are gathered for the wedding reception of Don Vito Corleone's daughter Connie (Talia Shire) and Carlo Rizzi (Gianni Russo). Vito (Marlon Brando), the head of the Corleone Mafia family, is known to friends and associates as "Godfather." He and Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall), the Corleone family lawyer, are hearing requests for favors because, according to Italian tradition, "no Sicilian can refuse a request on his daughter's wedding day." One of the men who asks the Don for a favor is Amerigo Bonasera, a successful mortician and acquaintance of the Don, whose daughter was brutally beaten by two young men because she refused their advances; the men received minimal punishment. The Don is disappointed in Bonasera, who'd avoided most contact with the Don due to Corleone's nefarious business dealings. The Don's wife is godmother to Bonasera's shamed daughter, a relationship the Don uses to extract new loyalty from the undertaker. The Don agrees to have his men punish the young men responsible in return for future service if necessary.Meanwhile, the Don's youngest son Michael (Al Pacino), a decorated Marine hero returning from World War II service, arrives at the wedding and tells his girlfriend Kay Adams (Diane Keaton) anecdotes about his family, informing her about his father's criminal life; he reassures her that he is different from his family and doesn't plan to join them in their criminal dealings. The wedding scene serves as critical exposition for the remainder of the film, as Michael introduces the main characters to Kay. Fredo (John Cazale), Michael's next older brother, is a bit dim-witted and quite drunk by the time he finds Michael at the party. Sonny (James Caan), the Don's eldest child and next in line to become Don upon his father's retirement, is married but he is a hot-tempered philanderer who sneaks into a bedroom to have sex with one of Connie's bridesmaids, Lucy Mancini (Jeannie Linero). Tom Hagen is not related to the family by blood but is considered one of the Don's sons because he was homeless when he befriended Sonny in the Little Italy neighborhood of Manhattan and the Don took him in and saw to Tom's upbringing and education. Now a talented attorney, Tom is being groomed for the important position of consigliere (counselor) to the Don, despite his non-Sicilian heritage.Also among the guests at the celebration is the famous singer Johnny Fontane (Al Martino), Corleone's godson, who has come from Hollywood to petition Vito's help in landing a movie role that will revitalize his flagging career. Jack Woltz (John Marley), the head of the studio, denies Fontane the part (a character much like Johnny himself), which will make him an even bigger star, but Don Corleone explains to Johnny: "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse." The Don also receives congratulatory salutations from Luca Brasi, a terrifying enforcer in the criminal underworld, and fills a request from the baker who made Connie's wedding cake who wishes for his nephew Enzo to become an American citizen.After the wedding, Hagen is dispatched to Los Angeles to meet with Woltz, but Woltz angrily tells him that he will never cast Fontane in the role. Woltz holds a grudge because Fontane seduced and "ruined" a starlet who Woltz had been grooming for stardom and with whom he had a sexual relationship. Woltz is persuaded to give Johnny the role, however, when he wakes up early the next morning and feels something wet in his bed. He pulls back the sheets and finds himself in a pool of blood; he screams in horror when he discovers the severed head of his prized $600,000 stud horse, Khartoum, in the bed with him. (A deleted scene from the film implies that Luca Brasi (Lenny Montana), Vito's top "button man" or hitman, is responsible.)Upon Hagen's return, the family meets with Virgil "The Turk" Sollozzo (Al Lettieri), who is being backed by the rival Tattaglia family. He asks Don Corleone for financing as well as political and legal protection for importing and distributing heroin. Despite the huge profit to be made, Vito Corleone refuses, explaining that his political influence would be jeopardized by a move into the narcotics trade -- the judges and politicians he's allied himself with over the course of several decades would renounce their friendships with him if he were to enter the drug trade. The Don's eldest son, Sonny, who had earlier urged the family to enter the narcotics trade, breaks rank during the meeting and questions Sollozzo's assurances as to the Corleone Family's investment being guaranteed by the Tattaglia Family. His father, angry at Sonny's dissension in a non-family member's presence, privately rebukes him later. Don Corleone then dispatches Luca Brasi to infiltrate Sollozzo's organization and report back with information. During the meeting, while Brasi is bent over to allow Bruno Tattaglia to light his cigarette, he is stabbed in the hand by Sollozzo, and is subsequently garroted by an assassin.Soon after his meeting with Sollozzo, Don Corleone is gunned down in an assassination attempt just outside his office, and it is not immediately known whether he has survived. Fredo Corleone had been assigned driving and protection duty for his father when Paulie Gatto, the Don's usual bodyguard, had called in sick. Fredo proves to be ineffectual, fumbling with his gun and unable to shoot back. When Sonny hears about the Don being shot and Paulie's absence, he orders Clemenza (Richard S. Castellano) to find Paulie and bring him to the Don's house.Sollozzo abducts Tom Hagen and persuades him to offer Sonny the deal previously offered to his father. When Tom is released, Sollozzo gets word that the Don has survived the attempt on his life. He angrily tells Tom to persuade Sonny to accept his offer.Enraged, Sonny refuses to consider it and issues an ultimatum to the Tattaglias: turn over Sollozzo or face a lengthy, bloody and costly (for both sides) gang war. They refuse, and instead send Sonny "a Sicilian message," in the form of two fresh fish wrapped in Luca Brasi's bullet-proof vest, telling the Corleones that Luca Brasi "sleeps with the fishes."Clemenza later takes Paulie and one of the family's hitmen, Rocco Lampone, for a drive into Manhattan. Sonny wants to "go to the mattresses" -- set up beds in apartments for Corleone button men to operate out of in the event that the crime war breaks out. On their way back from Manhattan, Clemenza has Paulie stop the car in a remote area so he can urinate. Rocco shoots Paulie dead; he and Clemenza leave Paulie and the car behind.Michael, whom the other Mafia families consider a "civilian" uninvolved in mob business, visits his father at a small private hospital. He is shocked to find that no one is guarding him -- a nurse tells him that the men were interfering with hospital policy and were told to leave by the police about 10 minutes before Mike's arrival. Realizing that his father is again being set up to be killed, he calls Sonny for help, moves his father to another room, and goes outside to watch the entrance. Michael enlists help from Enzo the baker (Gabriele Torrei), who has come to the hospital to pay his respects. Together, they bluff away Sollozzo's men as they drive by. Police cars soon appear bringing the corrupt Captain McCluskey (Sterling Hayden), who viciously punches Michael in the cheek and breaks his jaw when Michael insinuates that Sollozzo paid McCluskey to set up his father. Just then, Hagen arrives with "private detectives" licensed to carry guns to protect Don Corleone, and he takes the injured Michael home. Sonny responds by having Bruno Tattaglia (Tony Giorgio), the eldest son and underboss of Don Phillip Tattaglia (Victor Rendina), killed (off-camera).Following the attempt on the Don's life at the hospital, Sollozzo requests a meeting with the Corleones, which Captain McCluskey will attend as Sollozzo's bodyguard. When Michael volunteers to kill both men during the meeting, Sonny and the other senior Family members are amused; however, Michael convinces them that he is serious and that killing Sollozzo and McCluskey is in the family's interest: "It's not personal. It's strictly business." Because Michael is considered a civilian, he won't be regarded as a suspicious ambassador for the Corleones. Although police officers are usually off limits for hits, Michael argues that since McCluskey is corrupt and has illegal dealings with Sollozzo, he is fair game. Michael also implies that newspaper reporters that the Corleones have on their payroll would delight in publishing stories about a corrupt police captain.Michael meets with Clemenza, one of his father's caporegimes (captains), who prepares a small pistol for him, covering the trigger and grip with tape to prevent any fingerprint evidence. He instructs Michael about the proper way to perform the assassination and tells him to leave the gun behind. He also tells Michael that the family were all very proud of Michael for becoming a war hero during his service in the Marines. Clemenza shows great confidence that Michael can perform the job and tells him it will all go smoothly. The plan is to have the Corleone's informers find out the location of the meeting and plant the revolver before Michael, Sollozzo and McCluskey arrive.Before the meeting in a small Italian restaurant, McCluskey frisks Michael for weapons and finds him clean. After a few minutes where Michael and Sollozzo converse in Italian, Michael excuses himself to go to the bathroom, where he retrieves the planted revolver. Returning to the table, he fatally shoots Sollozzo, then McCluskey. Michael is sent to hide in Sicily while the Corleone family prepares for all-out warfare with the Five Families (who are united against the Corleones) as well as a general clampdown on the mob by the police and government authorities. When the don returns home from the hospital, he is distraught to learn that it was Michael who killed Sollozzo and McCluskey.Meanwhile, Connie and Carlo's marriage is disintegrating. They argue publicly over Carlo's suspected infidelity and his possessive behavior toward Connie. By Italian tradition, nobody, not even a high-ranking Mafia don, can intervene in a married couple's personal disputes, even if they involve infidelity, money, or domestic abuse. One day, Sonny sees a bruise on Connie's face and she tells him that Carlo hit her after she asked him if he was having an affair. Sonny tracks down and severely beats up Carlo Rizzi in the middle of a crowded street for brutalizing the pregnant Connie, and threatens to kill Carlo if he ever abuses Connie again. An angry Carlo responds by plotting with Tattaglia and Don Emilio Barzini (Richard Conte), the Corleones' chief rivals, to have Sonny killed.Later, Carlo has one of his mistresses phone his house, knowing that Connie will answer. The woman asks Connie to tell Carlo not to meet her tonight. The very pregnant and distraught Connie assaults Carlo; he takes advantage of the altercation to beat Connie in order to lure Sonny out in the open and away from the Corleone compound. When Connie phones the compound to tell Sonny that Carlo has beaten her again, the enraged Sonny drives off (alone and unescorted) to fulfill his threat against Carlo. On the way to Connie and Carlo's house, Sonny is ambushed at a toll booth on the Long Island Causeway and violently shot to death by several carloads of hitmen wielding Thompson sub-machine guns.Tom Hagen relays the news of Sonny's massacre to the Don, who calls in the favor from Bonasera to personally handle the embalming of Sonny's body. Rather than seek revenge for Sonny's killing, Don Corleone meets with the heads of the Five Families to negotiate a cease-fire. Not only is the conflict draining all their assets and threatening their survival, but ending it is the only way that Michael can return home safely. Reversing his previous decision, Vito agrees that the Corleone family will provide political protection for Tattaglia's traffic in heroin, as long as it is controlled and not sold to children. At the meeting, Don Corleone deduces that Don Barzini, not Tattaglia, was ultimately behind the start of the mob war and Sonny's death, despite showing early signs of senility.In Sicily, Michael patiently waits out his exile, protected by Don Tommasino (Corrado Gaipa), an old family friend. Michael aimlessly wanders the countryside, accompanied by his ever-present bodyguards, Calo (Franco Citti) and Fabrizio (Angelo Infanti). In a small village, Michael meets and falls in love with Apollonia Vitelli (Simonetta Stefanelli), the beautiful young daughter of a bar owner. They court and marry in the traditional Sicilian fashion, but soon Michael's presence becomes known to Corleone enemies. As the couple is about to be moved to a safer location, Apollonia is killed as a result of a rigged car (originally intended for Michael) exploding on ignition; Michael, who watched the car blow up, spots Fabrizio hurriedly leaving the grounds seconds before the explosion, implicating him in the assassination plot. (In a deleted scene, Fabrizio is found years later and killed.)With his safety guaranteed, Michael returns home. More than a year later, in 1950, he reunites with his former girlfriend Kay after a total of four years of separation -- three in Italy and one in America. He tells her he wants them to be married. Although Kay is hurt that he waited so long to contact her, she accepts his proposal. With Don Vito semi-retired, Sonny dead, and middle brother Fredo considered incapable of running the family business, Michael is now in charge; he promises Kay he will make the family business completely legitimate within five years.Two years later, Clemenza and Salvatore Tessio (Abe Vigoda), complain that they are being pushed around by the Barzini Family and ask permission to strike back, but Michael denies the request. He plans to move the family operations to Nevada and after that, Clemenza and Tessio may break away to form their own families in the New York area. Michael further promises Connie's husband, Carlo, that he will be his right hand man in Nevada (Carlo had grown up there), unaware of his part in Sonny's assassination. Tom Hagen has been removed as consigliere and is now merely the family's lawyer, with Vito serving as consigliere. Privately, Hagen inquires about his change in status, and also questions Michael about a new regime of "soldiers" secretly being built under Rocco Lampone (Tom Rosqui). Don Vito explains to Hagen that Michael is acting on his advice.Another year or so later, Michael travels to Las Vegas and meets with Moe Greene (Alex Rocco), a rich and shrewd casino boss looking to expand his business dealings. After the Don's attempted assassination, Fredo had been sent to Las Vegas to learn about the casino business from Greene. Michael arrogantly offers to buy out Greene but is rudely rebuffed. Greene believes the Corleones are weak and that he can secure a better deal from Barzini. As Moe and Michael heatedly negotiate, Fredo sides with Moe. Afterward, Michael warns Fredo to never again "take sides with anyone against the family."Michael returns home. In a private moment, Vito explains his expectation that the Family's enemies will attempt to murder Michael by using a trusted associate to arrange a meeting as a pretext for assassination. Vito also reveals that he had never really intended a life of crime for Michael, hoping that his youngest son would hold legitimate power as a senator or governor. Some months later, Vito collapses and dies while playing with his young grandson Anthony (Anthony Gounaris) in his tomato garden. At the burial, Tessio conveys a proposal for a meeting with Barzini, which identifies Tessio as the traitor that Vito was expecting.Michael arranges for a series of murders to occur simultaneously while he is standing godfather to Connie's and Carlo's newborn son at the church:Don Stracci (Don Costello) is gunned down along with his bodyguard in a hotel elevator by a shotgun-wielding Clemenza.Moe Greene is killed while having a massage, shot through the eye by an unidentified assassin.Don Cuneo (Rudy Bond) is trapped in a revolving door at the St. Regis Hotel and shot dead by soldier Willi Cicci (Joe Spinell).Don Tattaglia is assassinated in his bed, along with a prostitute, by Rocco Lampone and an unknown associate.Don Barzini is killed on the steps of his office building along with his bodyguard and driver, shot by Al Neri (Richard Bright), disguised in his old police uniform.After the baptism, Tessio believes he and Hagen are on their way to the meeting between Michael and Barzini that he has arranged. Instead, he is surrounded by Willi Cicci and other button men as Hagen steps away. Realizing that Michael has uncovered his betrayal, Tessio tells Hagen that he always respected Michael, and that his disloyalty "was only business." He asks if Tom can get him off for "old times' sake," but Tom says he cannot. Tessio is driven away and never seen again (it is implied that Cicci shoots and kills Tessio with his own gun after he disarms him prior to entering the car).Meanwhile, Michael confronts Carlo about Sonny's murder and forces him to admit his role in setting up the ambush, having been approached by Barzini himself. (The hitmen who killed Sonny were the core members of Barzini's personal bodyguard.) Michael assures Carlo he will not be killed, but his punishment is exclusion from all family business. He hands Carlo a plane ticket to exile in Las Vegas. However, when Carlo gets into a car headed for the airport, he is immediately garroted to death by Clemenza, on Michael's orders.Later, a hysterical Connie confronts Michael at the Corleone compound as movers carry away the furniture in preparation for the family move to Nevada. She accuses him of murdering Carlo in retribution for Carlo's brutal treatment of her and for Carlo's suspected involvement in Sonny's murder. After Connie is removed from the house, Kay questions Michael about Connie's accusation, but he refuses to answer, reminding her to never ask him about his business or what he does for a living. She insists, and Michael outright lies, reassuring his wife that he played no role in Carlo's death. Kay believes him and is relieved. The film ends with Clemenza and new caporegimes Rocco Lampone and Al Neri arriving and paying their respects to Michael. Clemenza kisses Michael's hand and greets him as "Don Corleone." As Kay watches, the office door is closed. | boring, murder, dramatic, cult, violence, atmospheric, action, revenge, entertaining | tt0068646 |
Ms .45 | In New York City's garment district, Thana is a young seamstress who works in a small clothing firm. She is friends with Laurie and two other female co-workers, but she lives in a lonely existence in a small apartment in Clinton Gardens. One typical day after work, her boss, Albert, sends his workers home while he tries to please a buyer for his clothing designs. As the four ladies walk down the street, they must march past leering and dirty men who make obscene remarks and come-ons at them. Laurie protests and insults them vehemently, but Thana is silent because she is physically and mentally a mute. When the three friends leave to enter a subway station for their destination home, Thana goes off on her own. After grocery shopping in a local supermarket, Thana, walking home, is grabbed by a mugger who rapes her in a deserted alley before stealing her purse. Thana stumbles into her apartment unaware that it is being robbed. Held at gunpoint by the burglar, she is raped a second time. But afterwards, Thana grabs an iron and bludgeons the intruder to death. Momentarily stunned by what she did, Thana drags his dead body to the bathroom and places it in the bathtubThe next day, Thana goes to work as usual. It is clear at this point that she doesn't enjoy her job because Albert is always yelling at all his female employees, or acts patronizingly towards her. When she accidentally burns a shirt that she is ironing when the images remind her of the previous day's event, Albert further yells at her. After work, Thana gets an idea of what to do with the dead man in her apartment. She returns home and spends all night cutting the dead rapist's body into pieces and placing them in plastic garbage bags which she stuffs into her refrigerator and freezer. Over the course of the entire movie, Thana gets rid of the plastic bags of the dead rapist one by one by disposing of them in various locations all over the cityOne day, when Thana gets out of a taxi to dispose of the latest bag, a leering man with a ducktop hairstyle sees her and begins to follow her. When the man retrieves one of her bags and attempts to return it to her without examining the contents of it, Thana runs. The man runs after her. After a chase through the streets, Thana runs into an alley that has a dead end. When the man catches up to her to "return" the bag, Thana, finally aware that the man intends to attack her, pulls out a gun that she took from the dead rapist and shoots her would-be assailant dead. Thana runs home and throws up in her bathroom in shock and disbelief at what she did. Her nosy and obnoxious landlady sees her running and demands to know what is going on, but Thana refuses to offer a written explanation.Over the next few days, Thana continues to have trouble concentrating at work, staring off and being negligent. While her landlady continues to annoy and spy on her, her yapping runt of a dog, Phil, continues barking day and night. At work, Albert scolds Thana for not making the best effort. However, he invites her to come to the company's annual Halloween costume party in a few weeks. Thana writes a note to Albert telling him that she'll let him know. Thana also notices newspaper clips reporting findings of an unknown body as well as the mysterious ".45 caliber killing" of an ex-convict the previous day.That afternoon, Laurie takes Thana and her two co-workers out for lunch at a local hamburger restaurant. While eating, the four women notice a man and a woman making out nearby in a booth. When the woman leaves, the cocky man tries to flirt with the four women at their table. But Laurie naturally tells him to "fuck off" when he comes on to her and she tells him that she's "not into men". A little later, when Laurie and the other two ladies leave, Thana is beside herself. When Thana leaves the restaurant, the man follows her out and coaxes her to come back to his loft, claiming to be a photographer who would like her to pose for him. As soon as they enter a building and take an elevator up to what's revealed as a cheap studio, Thana suddenly without warning, pulls out her gun and empties it into the sleazy photographer, killing him.At night, Thana dresses up like a hooker with blood red lipstick, her face pasty white, and goes out with another one of the bags with the rapist's remains in it, leaving a note for the landlady that she's "spending the night with a friend." After disposing of the bag in a train station locker, Thana ventures out onto the dark streets to look for attackers. Thana sees a pimp beating up a prostitute, and shoots the man dead from across the street before fleeing. She ventures to Central Park where five gang members surround her just as she wanted them to. With quick shots, she guns them all down. As it begins to rain, Thana leaves the park and is picked up by a limo containing an Arab sheik who pays her $100 for "services". At a red light, Thana kills him and his bodyguard/chauffeur. Thana returns home the next morning, and, further agitated by her landlady's barking dog, gives him some of the rapist's dead body to eat.Thana continues to dispose of parts of the rapist's body, disposing of one bag in the car truck of a man from Georgia state, and other in a bag lady's shopping cart, while she continues working at her job and agrees with Albert's request to attend the costume party this coming Friday.That night, Thana goes out again looking for more victims. This time dressed in a cloak, partly obscuring her face, she first ventures to Chinatown and attempts to shoot an innocent Chinese man making out with his girlfriend, but the man enters his apartment building, and unknowingly gets away.At a local bar, Thana meets an unhappy man who, seeing that she's a mute, rambles onto her about his bad luck-prone life. Out on the street at a bench overlooking the East River, the man further rambles on about finding his cheating girlfriend first with another man, then with a woman. Thana points her gun at the man's head, but for some reason her gun misfires. The man snatches the gun away from Thana and realizes that she intended to kill him in cold blood, even though he has not made any move onto her. The man tells Thana that he will save her the effort in which he puts the gun to his head, and pulls the trigger, killing himself.One day, Thana finally reaches the breaking point over Phil's constant barking and takes him out for a walk. She ties the dog to a post at an East River waterfront and points her gun at him. But for some reason, Thana cannot bring herself to shoot the terrified and whimpering small dog, so she leaves him there.That night, Thana goes to the company costume party dressed as a nun with high-heeled boots and red-lipstick where she meets with Albert and the other employees in the midst of partying.Meanwhile, Thana's landlady enters her apartment. Thinking that Thana might have killed her dog, as it never returned from its walk with her, the landlady looks around for any evidence of foul play. The landlady opens Thana's refrigerator, but by this time all of the trash bags containing the rapist's body parts are gone.... except one which the landlady finds in the freezer. Thinking it may be her pet dog, the landlady opens it and it's the severed head of the dead rapist. The landlady calls the police where she shows them the head and also tells them where Thana may be.At the costume party, Thana dances with Albert and then retires with him to a nearby office where Albert flirts with her wanting to make out. When he crawls under her nun's habit, he spots the .45 gun in her corset. Thana shoots and kills him. Now completely deranged, Thana emerges from the office and begins to shoot at all the men that she sees at the party in a violent, slow-motion sequence. Laurie, failing to stop Thana's rampage by shouting at her, grabs a nearby butcher knife and fatally stabs Thana in the back. Thana screams and whirls around pointing the gun at Laurie, who backs up in terror. But Thana cannot bring herself to shoot a woman. With a mixed look of shock and disappointment in her eyes, Thana stumbles over to Laurie and replies "sister...." the only time anyone has ever heard her speak, and falls to the floor dead.Back at Thana's apartment building, her landlady mourns for her missing dog. But Phil is not dead. He runs into the building after apparently freeing himself from the post and scratches on the landlady's front door. | suspenseful, neo noir, grindhouse film, murder, cult, violence, revenge | tt0082776 |
Elf | On Christmas Eve in 1973, an orphaned infant boy stows away on Santa Claus' sack. When discovered back at the North Pole, he is adopted by Papa Elf. Papa Elf names his son Buddy.
Buddy grows up at the North Pole believing he is an elf, but due to his human size he is unable to perform elf tasks. When Buddy accidentally learns that he is human, Papa Elf explains that he was born to Walter Hobbs and Susan Wells, and was given up for adoption without Walter knowing. Susan died and Walter works at a children's book publisher in New York City at the Empire State Building. Santa notes that Walter is on the naughty list due to his greed and selfishness, but suggests Buddy could help redeem him, and so Buddy travels alone to New York.
Buddy has trouble acclimating to the customs of the human world. Buddy finds his father's office, but Walter has him ejected after Buddy mentions Susan Wells. After following a security guard's sarcastic suggestion to go "back to Gimbels" due to his elf outfit, the Gimbels' manager mistakes him for an employee at Santa Land. He meets Jovie, an unenthused employee to whom he is attracted. Knowing that Santa will arrive the next day, Buddy stays behind and spends the night decorating Santa Land, and buys a nightie for Walter.
The next day, Buddy is appalled that the store's Santa is not real and rips off the man's fake beard, causing them to fight, with the manager having to subdue the fake Santa. Walter bails Buddy out of prison and takes him to Dr. Leonardo for a DNA test, which confirms that Buddy is Walter's son. The doctor convinces him to take Buddy home to meet his step-mother Emily and 12-year-old half-brother Michael. Walter and Michael are annoyed by Buddy's childlike behavior, but Emily insists that they take care of him until he "recovers".
Buddy wins Michael over by helping him defeat a gang of bullies in a snowball fight and Michael encourages Buddy to ask Jovie out. Walter learns from his boss Fulton Greenway that his company is in financial trouble after publishing a failed children's book, and organizes a book pitch for Christmas Eve, for which Walter and his associates Eugene and Morris arrange a meeting with best-selling children's author Miles Finch to hire him.
One night, Buddy goes on a date with Jovie and wins her over. On Christmas Eve, Buddy bursts into Walter's office during a meeting with Finch to tell Walter about his love, and mistakes Finch for an elf because of his dwarfism. Finch loses his temper and attacks Buddy before storming out, causing Walter to harshly disown Buddy.
Eugene and Morris find a notebook Finch left that is filled with ideas for children's books. Walter pitches these ideas to Greenway, but Michael bursts in to tell Walter that Buddy ran away. Greenway refuses to reschedule; Walter quits his job and leaves to find Buddy.
Santa's sleigh crashes in Central Park, attracting a large crowd. Buddy finds him and discovers that the sleigh's engine has broken off, meaning that it cannot fly without Christmas spirit. Walter and Michael find Buddy, and Walter apologizes to Buddy for harshly disowning him and accepts Buddy as his son; Buddy then takes them to meet Santa. Michael takes Santa's list and reads it in front of the gathered TV news cameras to prove he exists. The Central Park Rangers, who never forgave Santa for putting them on the naughty list for an unidentified wrongdoing, chase his sleigh as Buddy tries to reattach the engine.
Jovie leads the gathered people in singing "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town", helping raise enough Christmas spirit to partially power the sleigh. Walter is convinced by Michael to start singing, which restores enough Christmas spirit to allow it to fly.
By next Christmas, Walter has started his own publishing company with the first best-selling book titled Elf, an account of Buddy's adventures. Buddy and Jovie have a daughter named Susie, named after his biological mother. During the film's closure, they visit Papa Elf at the North Pole. | romantic, comedy, cute, entertaining, storytelling | tt0319343 |
Tormented | Tom Stewart is a successful Jazz musician who has retreated to a small island where he intends to marry a girl named Meg Hubbard. However, trouble presents itself when Tom's old flame, Vi Mason shows up looking for him. Tom quickly takes Vi to the old lighthouse on the island. Tom explains that it's over between them, but Vi claims that she intends to blackmail Tom if she can't have him. However, as they go to the top of the lighthouse, the railing gives way, and Vi hangs from it, pleading for Tom to save her. However, he refuses to, and she plunges into the waters below.The next day, Tom goes down to the beach, and sees Vi's body floating out on the water. Swimming out to it and returning it to the beach, Tom is shocked when it then turns to seaweed before his very eyes! Meg's little sister Sandy shows up shortly after wondering what Tom is doing. As he requests she leave, something in the sand catches her eye. It appears to be a watch inscribed with the name 'Vi.' Tom takes the watch from Sandy, and once she leaves, he throws it back into the ocean, claiming that's the end of Vi.Tom returns to the lighthouse, where Meg eventually finds him. As they hug, Meg swears she smell perfume. Tom quickly ushers her out of the lighthouse down to the beach. However, as they talk, Tom swears he sees footprints in the sand following them. Meg sees nothing, and is surprised when Tom suggests they return to the main land to get married. Meg refuses to do so, claiming that this would upset her parents.Tom then returns to his island apartment, but even there, strange things happen. A record player in the corner starts by itself, frightening him. The blind housekeeper Mrs Ellis stops by. As their conversation turns to talk of the supernatural, the old woman explains about a house she once rented that was said to still contain the spirit of a dead boy and his dog.Tom soon after goes to sleep, but Vi even invades his dreams. Tom wakes in the evening, to see a light in the lighthouse. Going there and finding nothing, Tom declares to Vi that he is not going to live in fear of her, and that he will marry Meg.The next day, Sandy visits Tom, who shows him the ring that he intends to give Meg. However, Tom soon sees the ring appear on Vi's disembodied hand. When he attempts to tell Sandy about it, she has no idea what he's talking about. Soon, the hand disappears, and after Sandy leaves, Tom demands the ring back, but gets no response.Later on that evening, the family goes through several of the wedding gifts that have been received. Meg then decides to show Tom her gown, but is horrified to find the gown draped in wet seaweed, as well as a strange smell of sweet perfume in the air.The next day, Tom is visited by Mrs Ellis who wishes to talk about what happened the night before. When Tom brings up word about Vi, claiming her to be an old girlfriend who he met and quarreled with, Mrs Ellis suggests that Vi may have planted the seaweed, playing tricks to get even. After she leaves, Mrs Ellis goes by the old lighthouse, where her seeing-eye dog starts barking at. Thinking Vi may be inside, Mrs Ellis enters. Vi attempts to lure the old woman up the stairs and over the broken railing, but Mrs Ellis manages to stop herself before going over.Sometime afterwards, Meg's family is preparing for the pre-wedding party. Meg and Sandy's father arrives, and while he is happy to see his daughters and wife, he is still sour at the prospect of Meg marrying a jazz musician. Sandy later goes to the lighthouse looking for Tom, but is shocked when she comes across a man looking for Tom, and finds a pendant.Shortly afterwards, the man finds Tom in his beach house. The man has come to the island looking for Vi, claiming she owed him 5 dollars for the boat trip over. The remembered Vi mentioning Tom's name, and thought he'd know where Vi is. Tom is tight-lipped about Vi, but pays the man the 5 dollars, trying to get him away. The ferry boat driver stops at a small cafe, and overhears someone talking about Tom marrying Meg, which gives him an idea.Later that evening, a small pre-wedding party is hosted. Tom is freaked out when an instant photo shows Vi's head floating near him and Meg. When Meg notices Tom's nervous demeanor, Tom confesses to knowing Vi, and finally shows her the photo...only for Meg to see no floating head in the shot as Tom mentioned. This mention of Vi causes Meg to seem rather thoughtful later on during the night.The next day, Tom attempts to practice at his piano, but is interrupted when Vi's disembodied head appears on a table. Vi claims that she will now use her voice to tell the world that Tom killed her. As she starts chanting 'Tom Stewart killed me,' Tom wraps her head in a towel and heads out the door, only to drop the head, which turns into a vase of flowers. He is the accosted by the same boat driver, who has found a locket of Vi's. When Tom attempts to take it, the man smiles, knowing he has information that Tom doesn't others to know about.Tom and the ferryman go to the lighthouse, where the ferryman tells Tom he wants $5000 as payment to be kept quiet. Tom suddenly hears Vi's voice, pushing him to kill the ferryman, and Tom does so to keep his secrets. Unknown to Tom, Sandy was in the lighthouse, and secretly witnessed the killing.The wedding is held and Vi's ghost shows up to open the door, wilt flowers, and turn the pages in the minister's book to the funeral service litany. Tom returns to the lighthouse after the failed wedding to see if Vi's ghost will appear. After seeing the light on, Sandy arrives and Tom realizes she saw him kill the ferryman. He lures her upstairs and is tempted to push her off the lighthouse, but Vi charges forward to push him off the ledge to the rocks below. Now a surprise waits when both Tom and Vi are recovered later. | murder | tt0054393 |
The Station Agent | Finbar McBride (Peter Dinklage), a quiet, withdrawn, unmarried man with dwarfism, has a deep love of railroads. He works in a Hoboken model train hobby shop owned by his elderly and similarly taciturn friend Henry Styles (Paul Benjamin). Because he feels ostracized by a public that tends to view him as peculiar due to his size, Fin keeps to himself.
When Henry dies unexpectedly, Fin is told that the hobby shop is to be closed. However, he also learns that Henry's will left him a piece of rural property with an abandoned train depot on it. He moves into the old building hoping for a life of solitude, but he quickly finds himself reluctantly becoming enmeshed in the lives of his neighbors. Joe Oramas (Bobby Cannavale), a Cuban American, is operating his father's roadside snack truck while the elder man recovers from an illness, and Olivia Harris (Patricia Clarkson) is an artist trying to cope with the sudden death of her young son two years earlier and the ramifications it has had on her marriage to David (John Slattery), from whom she is separated. Cleo (Raven Goodwin) is a young girl who shares Fin's interest in trains and wants him to lecture her class about them. Emily (Michelle Williams) is the local librarian, a young woman dismayed to discover she is pregnant by her ne'er-do-well boyfriend.
Joe, relentlessly upbeat and overly talkative, soon cracks through Fin's reserve. The two begin to take daily walks along the tracks, and after Olivia gives Fin a movie camera, Joe drives alongside a passing train so that Fin can film it. Joe and Fin sleep over at Olivia's house after watching the footage and the next morning a flustered, unannounced David is greeted by the two of them. The three forge a tentative friendship that is threatened when Olivia descends into a deep depression, disappearing from the town. Meanwhile, Emily seeks solace in Fin, who slowly is realizing interaction with other humans may not be as unpleasant as he thought. Fin tries to protect Emily from her boyfriend at a bar, but he pushes Fin aside, causing Fin to lapse back into his asocial behavior. Emily later comes to apologize, and after she and Fin share a kiss, she spends the night with Fin. Cleo asks Fin if Olivia is coming back, to which he replies that he doesn't know. He decides to keep an eye on Olivia's house, but when he spots her fighting on the phone with David and he goes up on the porch, Olivia angrily tells him to leave. Fin spends the night drinking and, collapsing on the track, is passed over by a train, undamaged but for his pocket watch. As if feeling blessed by his gift of life (and symbolically upon his watch getting destroyed in the train mishap), Fin walks up to Olivia's home only to find she has attempted suicide. Olivia reveals that David is having another baby with a different woman. Fin takes care of Olivia's home while she recuperates in the hospital. Fin picks up the courage to talk to school kids about trains.
Olivia, Joe, and Fin share a meal at Olivia's house, their conversation filled with some small talk and reconciliation. Olivia and Joe tease Fin about Emily, suggesting him to go seek her again. | psychedelic, cute, home movie | tt0340377 |
Day of the Dead | Restless and alone in a brick-paved cubicle, Sarah sees a calendar before her on the wall. It is the month of October and every day is crossed out. While gazing at the image of a pumpkin patch, a dozen decayed arms punch through the wall clutching at her....She wakes from this surreal horror in the back of a helicopter. She's reminded she is living a real nightmare, looking down over a deserted Florida city, in which they land near an abandoned harbor. She is part of a team searching for survivors of a gruesome crisis that began almost a year earlier, a plague that started mysteriously and eventually collapsed human civilization. Her sometimes lover Miguel, an overworked and nerve-wracked soldier, calls for survivors on a bullhorn as they stand on the edge of the street of this now decaying town. Amid the scattered palm fronds, a newspaper blows in the death-scented wind near an early century federal building. It's big bold headline: THE DEAD WALK! (possibly one of the last papers ever printed).The unburied and/or recently dead have returned to life, attacking humans to devour their flesh, most of them becoming zombies, thus adding to their population. No scientist-no army, could contain or cure it. Now the only living creatures in the outside world are the alligators, tarantulas and land crabs that scavenge remains in the streets of this city of the living dead. The hundreds of wailing hordes of dead humans turn towards the bullhorn calls and en masse, march toward the survivors instinctively like cattle, forcing the team to head back to their sanctuary.The helicopter lands almost out of gas inside the military compound surrounded by wire fence. An army of the living dead have managed to find the post and surround the entrance gates, their numbers growing every day. Two more soldiers help secure the chopper, giving their new past times an afternoon break: Johnson, who reads the last issues of porno magazines while Torrez grows gardens of marijuana plants. John, the calm Jamaican pilot and his flask-swilling Irish buddy Bill McDermott are anxious to get on the elevator but not before urging the soldiers to fill the chopper up with gas. Sarah notices Miguel is becoming increasingly stressed and despondent. He hasn't gotten out of the chopper yet and apparently wasn't aware they even landed.They descend into the underground sanctuary Seminole Storage Facility, where they will not see sunlight again for days. Miller is another military officer waiting below for results of the team's search. This time he can tell it was another waste of time. Everyone has to stay in the cold, lonely, clinical white cubicles of the complex while John and Bill choose to stay in one of the Winnebagos stored near the barricades. These are the corrals leading to miles and miles of caves occupied by bats... and specimen zombies, collared at an earlier time by the government. Major Cooper, the commanding officer who died earlier that morning, was buried above the complex near five other graves of men the unit has lost (four soldiers and one civilian scientist). The men had been lost to the dangers of capturing the hostile specimen zombies corralled from the caves.Sarah and her group meet Privates Steel and Rickles who are now in charge of the zombie corralling as Dr. Logan has requested two more guinea pig zombies for his experiments. Sarah and Miguel are asked by the two soldiers to go along with them. Though tired from the 24-hour search mission, they agree and off they go into the caves in the golf cart towards the corral.At the corral capturing pen, Steel and Rickles both sexually harass Sarah verbally before the shell-shocked Miguel, who is of course, oblivious. Then Steel, making his sexism clearer than ever refuses to have Sarah handle the capture and Miguel defiantly takes on the dangerous task to prove himself. He loses control of a particularly excited female specimen jeopardizing the lives of all involved. Sarah manages to re-snare the female zombie before it can bite Rickles. The hot-tempered Steel, enraged that his buddy Rickles was almost lost because of his actions, grabs Miguel, forcing him into the clutches of a caged zombie. Sarah orders him to let him go aiming her Uzi as a possible consequence. After all is said and done, two more specimens are brought back to the lab for study. Miguel is sedated by Sarah in his room, while he uncontrollably berates her.In the dining hall, Dr. Ted Fisher pleads for sterile equipment to conduct proper tests on the specimens. He discusses this with the hostile Captain Rhodes, now in charge, who is also beginning to question the research that has been going on in the months the team has been sharing the facility.Throughout the day, Dr. Matthew Logan, derisively called "Frankenstein" by the soldiers, works on captured specimens, vivisecting the ghouls' chests and removing their organs. When Sarah enters his dark operating theatre to inform him of the meeting Rhodes has scheduled, he excitedly explains that the dead do not eat flesh out of hunger, but rather motor instinct. Another corpse is under a sheet. Logan reveals this one to be only a body with its face carved away leaving only the brain exposed. With electrodes leading to a machine, Logan begins shocking the corpse back to momentary life. Sarah notices Major Cooper's fatigues on the floor. Logan confesses the faceless body is Cooper's corpse and that he had switched it with a specimens for burial. He wanted a fresh corpse, believing his studies could be furthered.Captain Rhodes holds a 7:00 pm meeting with the remaining 12 of the group. Frustrated that he has already lost five soldiers while capturing the dangerous specimens for their "research" Rhodes makes threats to shut the operation down during the meeting in the dining hall. He is aware that the unit is low on ammo, food, medical supplies and now his own men. McDermott explains that his radio equipment is outdated and this makes the soldiers think that there may indeed be survivors but that they are out of radio signal range. When Sarah gets up to leave in the middle of bickering between Steel and McDermott, Rhodes threatens to have her shot. In fact he announces anyone who challenges his orders will be shot. None of this is taken seriously by the scientists who have gotten used to threats and the soldiers' depraved harassment.Later on, Sarah finds herself unable to sleep on the floor of the cubicle as Miguel lays in bed. By now he must be awake. He leans over and his whole chest has been surgically opened and as he turns toward her, his entrails spill out. Sarah is dreaming of course, the result of the visit to the lab earlier that day. She wakes to find Miguel is indeed up and waiting to hassle her about her fear she tries to keep a secret. She finally loses it, screaming at Miguel to leave the room. A few moments later, she wanders the hall of the complex, nearly getting caught in the middle of a scuffle between the soldiers, whose fight spills out into the hallway. She meets up with McDermott, who has been wandering the halls too. They head back to the "Ritz"-the Winnebago where he stays with John. Serving Sarah drinks, John treats her to the relaxed Caribbean atmosphere he's created in the trailer. John also gives a lengthy philosophical lecture on how he believes that the Creator has cursed mankind and that there can be no cure for zombification. So he urges Sarah to forget about the research and wants to leave before the soldiers lose it completely.The next day, Sarah finds Fisher frustrated that the specimens are not accepting a meat substitute called Beef Treats. Logan is trying to convince them that reward is the key to conditioning them. "Bub" is one specimen that seems to be under control. Logan has spared him from dissection, and instead reacquaints him with toothbrushes, razors, phones, books, tape player and even an unloaded gun. His infantile, docile behavior is unique among the zombies although Rhodes and the men witnessing this progress still think these creatures should all be destroyed.The next day, there's another capture attempt. Miguel once again loses control of a female specimen-an old lady, unleashing her on an unsuspecting Miller who is bitten on the neck. His finger is on the trigger of his machine gun when it goes off killing Johnson in the process. Sarah destroys this female zombie. Miguel is then thrown into a fit of denial, attacking the priest specimen which takes a huge bite out of his forearm, forcing Miguel into hysteric shock. The priest is destroyed by Steel. Sarah runs after Miguel now fleeing towards John and Bill's area. Miller begs for Steel to end his life as he knows he would certainly become cursed with living death. Steel looms over him and blows the soldier's brains out.John and Bill hearing Miguel's cries, wait in front of the Ritz. As Sarah draws John's machete from his belt, Miguel is overcome by a blow to the head and laid down. Sarah amputates his mutilated arm in one clean slice. After a hasty treatment, the soldiers led by Rhodes confront the three heroes, ready to destroy Miguel. John and Bill draw guns to defend his life. Rhodes declares that there will be no more experiments and that the specimens will be destroyed tomorrow. Leaving her shaken, Sarah finally breaks down and John comforts her.Going back to the lab for supplies for Miguel, Sarah and Bill discover Johnson's decapitated head has been reanimated by Logan. Horrified, they follow Logan from the refrigerator room into Bub's room. There they witness the rewards he had stressed all along... the fresh remains of Miller and Johnson.Just as the two realize what Logan has done Rhodes and the remaining soldiers appear behind them. Logan shows Rhodes that Bub responds to stimuli and, seeing Rhodes' military uniform, salutes him. Rhodes isn't convinced and drags the pleading Logan into the refrigerator to finish him off with a machine gun...amidst the dumped corpses of the military men killed in the capture attempts. He then orders the guns removed from Sarah and Bill. Then out by the corral area, ordering John to get ready to fly, Rhodes fires a bullet into the head of Fisher to make his point. Rhodes orders Sarah and Billy into the cages leading into the zombie-infested caves. John refuses to go anywhere until they are released. Then they hear the sound of the elevator...Steel and Rickles discover Miguel - has taken apart the control box and that there is no way out of the complex now. They try to rewire it while Rhodes is attacked by John and knocked out. John flees with Rhodes' guns through the corral area to search for his friends in the caves.John yells for Sarah and Billy and kills many would-be specimens in his pursuit. Rhodes finally wakes up and he and Torrez head back to find Steel and Rickles after realizing they are without weapons. A few moments later they would need any and all weapons they could get.The deranged and suicidal Miguel had escaped and opened the front entrance gates above the complex. He is savagely eaten alive as the elevator lowered carrying the hundreds of zombies with it. The three remaining soldiers run for their lives but are attacked and dismembered one by one by ten or more ghouls at once, until the whole place is infested. Steel makes it to the complex where he finds the cowardly Rhodes had locked everyone out, so he blasts open the door and enters taking all the dead with him. He hides in a lab where Bub finds him... firing one of the weapons he had found near the refrigerator room where he found his slain master, Logan. Just as Steel reloads his weapon and has an opportunity to kill Bub from behind a door, he is reunited with the mob of zombies who've entered the room through another door. After he gets bitten on his shoulder, Steel commits suicide rather then suffer the fate of being eaten alive by the mob of zombies.While John finally meets up with Sarah and Billy near the silo, Rhodes desperately goes for his last bit of ammunition and has a final encounter with Bub still firing his pistol (his aim getting better) who leads him to a door where a group of the dead are waiting. In a few moments, the dead are all over the labs and storage rooms feasting on the remains of the soldiers. Rhodes is torn apart and eaten alive, his last words being "CHOKE ON IT!!"When the three survivors finally exit the silo they see at least a hundred zombies marching towards them and the helicopter...which may or may not have any gas. John and Bill cover Sarah as she runs to the chopper door. She opens it only to be greeted by another swarm of arms...However, this is another of Sarah's dreams. She wakes up on some island with John fishing in the surf and birds overhead. On her calendar, she marks out November 4th - the Day of the Dead according to Latin American folklore. | comedy, suspenseful, grindhouse film, murder, cult, horror, violence, insanity, satire, claustrophobic, revenge, sadist | tt0088993 |
Jonah Hex | During the American Civil War, Jonah Hex (Josh Brolin) served as a Confederate cavalryman until his commanding officer, Quentin Turnbull (John Malkovich) ordered him to burn down a hospital. Hex refused, and was forced to kill his best friend, Turnbull's son Jeb. After the war, a vengeful Turnbull and his right-hand man, Burke (Michael Fassbender), tie up Hex and force him to watch as his house is burned down with his wife and son inside. Turnbull then brands Hex's face with his initials and leaves him to die. Days later, American Indians revive Jonah with their mystical powers. As a result of his resurrection, Jonah acquires the ability to temporarily resurrect the dead. When Turnbull apparently dies in a hotel fire, Hex satisfies his hunger for vengeance by turning to bounty hunting. He also sears the branded side of his face with a hatchet blade, preferring a mass of scar tissue to Turnbull's initials.
In 1876, Turnbull, alive and well, hijacks a train carrying components of an experimental "superweapon", slaughtering its military guards and civilian passengers alike. When informed of the theft, President Grant (Aidan Quinn) surmises that Turnbull is planning a terrorist attack for July 4, during the celebration of the American centennial. Grant instructs Army Lieutenant Grass (Will Arnett) to find Hex and hire him to stop Turnbull.
Jonah spends the night in a brothel with Lilah (Megan Fox), a prostitute attracted to the disfigured man for more than just professional reasons. As he prepares to leave the next morning, Grass' men burst in and tell him that Turnbull is still alive. They show him a captured thug from the train hijacking who told them Turnbull is headed northwest, before dying during interrogation. Jonah briefly resurrects the man, who knows only that he was recruited by ex-Confederal Colonel Slocum (Tom Wopat), who is running an illegal deathmatch pavilion in South Carolina.
With the help of a corrupt Washington aristocrat, Adleman Lusk (Wes Bentley), Turnbull tracks down and steals the remaining components of the weapon, invented by Eli Whitney.
When Hex confronts Slocum in South Carolina, Slocum refuses to talk, sarcastically telling Hex to ask Turnbull's dead son, Jeb, where his father is. Jonah says that is a good idea, then overpowers Slocum's men and throws Slocum himself into the ring, to be killed by his own fighters. After setting fire to the ring, he frees a dog being tormented by Slocum's handlers, which starts to follow him around.
In a cemetery in Gettysburg, Jonah digs up and resurrects Jeb (an uncredited Jeffrey Dean Morgan). Jonah apologizes for killing Jeb, and says that his father has to be stopped before he murders more people. Jeb reveals that his father is at Fort Resurrection, and then returns to the afterlife.
After entering the fort, Jonah confronts Turnbull, killing several of his men, but Turnbull escapes and Hex receives a near-fatal wounding from Burke, but is able to escape. He collapses in a field, hovering near death for several days. Turnbull, anticipating that Hex will return, sends Burke to bring him "something Hex loves," so Burke kidnaps Lilah from the brothel. Turnbull test-fires the "superweapon" on a small town in Georgia, which is leveled to the ground, killing hundreds of civilians. When President Grant receives the news, his aide reports that they have no idea where in the country Turnbull will strike, and that they do not have enough military manpower to guard every centennial celebration.
Hex is found by his Native American allies, who perform a ceremony that heals him. Back on his feet, he relays a message to Lt. Grass that Turnbull plans to attack Washington, D.C., then rides to Independence Harbor alone to stop him. When Jonah attempts to infiltrate the harbor where Turnbull's ironclad warship is anchored, Burke spots him and attacks him. Hex overpowers and kills him, then resurrects him just so Hex can incinerate his body completely. Turnbull holds Lilah at gunpoint and forces Jonah to surrender. With Jonah and Lilah captive in the hold of his ship, Turnbull steams toward Washington, D.C. A monitor commanded by Lt. Grass intercepts Turnbull, but is quickly destroyed with the weapon, which has been mounted on the bow.
In the hold, Lilah picks her handcuffs and frees herself and Jonah. She holds off the guards while Jonah rushes up to the deck to stop Turnbull. Turnbull gains the upper hand and orders the weapon to fire. The weapon blankets Washington with a volley of delay-action bomb shells, and Turnbull gives the order for the trigger shell to be launched. But Hex and Turnbull's fight takes them down into the engine room, where Hex throws his tomahawk into the weapon's belt feeder, trapping the trigger shell. He then brutally beats Turnbull and traps his neck in a gear, before saving Lilah. The pair jump into the water just as the trigger shell ignites in the engine room, killing Turnbull and all his men. The next day, President Grant rewards Jonah with a large sum of money, a full pardon, and offers him a job as Sheriff of the entire United States. Jonah declines, but assures the president that if they need him, they'll be able to find him. Lilah is waiting for him outside the White House, and they leave the city together.
In the last scene, Jonah visits Jeb's grave to apologize for having to kill his father, then rides out of the cemetery with his dog. | boring, gothic, murder, violence, historical fiction, flashback, psychedelic, revenge, sci-fi | tt1075747 |
Fletch Lives | Irwin M. Fletcher (Chevy Chase) is back. Our hero starts out dressed in drag as a waitress at a Greek restaurant. He is there getting a story about a gambling ring that is run out of the restaurant. When he gets back to the office with the story, his boss is happy with it,but denies Fletch a vacation he promised him, saying he needs to finish another story first. Of course, Fletch is angry. The phone rings, and it is an attorney from Louisiana calling to tell Fletch that his great aunt has died and left him her plantation- "Belle Isle" - there. Fletch immediately quits his job and tells his boss to send his stuff to "his mansion in Louisana." He flies down, and the attorney - Amanda Ross (Patricia Kalember) takes him to see the plantation. It is a mess. Fletch says that with a little spackling and Napalm it would make a nice mausoleum. The go in the house and Fletch meets the caretaker, "Calculus Entropy" (Cleavon Little). He worked for Fletch's aunt and wants to continue on with Fletch. The caretaker doesn't seem quite the simpleton that he makes out though.Fletch's attorney takes him back to town to sign papers and make him dinner. She informs him that someone wants to buy his property for $225,000.00. Fletch is immediately suspicious and tells her "no sale." They hit it off and end up spending the night together. While they are both sleeping, someone comes into the house and kills the attorney, and Fletch wakes up in the morning to find her dead in the bed. The police come and they question Fletch about the death. The chief of police decided to arrest Fletch, not for murder, but for "Pissing him off." Fletch is taken to the jail and put in a cell with a transvestite necrophiliac named Ben Dover (Randall 'Tex' Cobb), who threatens to molest him. Fletch is saved by another attorney - Hamilton "Ham" Johnson (Hal Holbrook), who gets the Ben out of jail. Fletch asks the new attorney to take his case, and he does. He gets Fletch released and they leave.Fletch goes back to his house and talks to Calculus. They sit on the porch to relax, but the KKK shows up chanting over a bullhorn. Fletch puts on a couple of white sheets and joins them - telling them his name is Henry Hiemler. He finds out that they are not there on their own, but are on a "contract job" - someone hired them to get rid of some "undesirable carpetbagger" - presumably Fletch. Calculus runs them off with a shotgun.The next morning, a real estate agent - Becky Ann Culpepper (Julianne Phillips) comes to put another offer on Fletch's property. This time it's up to $250,000.00. Fletch asks her who is offering the money and she tells him that it's confidential. Fletch decides to do some snooping, so he goes back to Amanda Ross's house and goes in as an exterminator. He finds out that there are others involved in the mystery of his aunt's estate - the Rev. Jamie Lee Farnsworth (R. Lee Ermey) and a mysterious corporation by the name of Bluebird. The police catch him there, but he talks his way out of it by telling them he's searching for termites. He leaves and goes back to the plantation and talks to Calculus about the Reverend and finds out that he is a local icon with his television show and "Bibleland" amusement park. Fletch decides to check this out.He goes to a live taping of the television show the next day and is called up front by the Reverend to "confess his sins" and "be saved." Fletch makes friends with the Reverend and learns that he wants Fletch's property to expand Bibleland. The next day, Fletch goes to talk to Ham and finds out that he has been cleared of the murder charges and that Amanda's death has been ruled "natural causes." The attorney confesses that the reason Fletch has been cleared is because of his "religious conversion" on the Reverend's show. Ham also tells Fletch that the good reverend is a scam artist who tricked his mother out of her land and plantation.Fletch goes fishing that afternoon with Calculus and they discuss the possibility that Amanda's death was natural. The both say that's very improbable, and Fletch decides that he needs to get a look at Amanda's body to know for sure. He asks Calculus to help him get into the morgue. They put Fletch on a gurney under a sheet and take him in. The morgue operator is Ben Dover. He takes Fletch's prize Laker watch. Calculus tells him that Fletch's name is "Eldridge Cleaver" (the great civil rights leader) so we know that Calculus isn't as ignorant as he pretends to be. Once they get back into the morgue, Fletch checks for Amanda's body, but it has already been cremated. This convinces Fletch that she was murdered and cremated quickly to cover it up. So, Fletch goes on the hunt for a murderer.After the morgue, Calculus and he go back to Belle Isle and there's a fire. Fletch has to move in with Calculus. Later they go out to eat so they can talk. While at the restaurant they run into some friends. They offer to take Fletch "Coon Hunting" and he goes. While running around the Louisiana night, they go across several properties that were recently sold to the mysterious "Bluebird" corporation. The properties are barren and have puddles of goo all over them. Fletch steps in one. As he is checking this out, someone shoots at him. He ducks and runs toward the shooter and gets in a struggle with him. Another gunshot scares off the first shooter, and Fletch finds himself alone...but, on the ground is his Laker watch. He goes back to Calculus' house and tells him he was shot at and he goes to check out Calculus's shotgun to see if it's been used recently, but Calculus grabs the gun off the wall before Fletch can touch it and goes outside. We hear a shot and Calculus tells Fletch that he thought he saw something and shot in the air to scare it away.Fletch decides it's time for some outside help...so he calls his boss back in California. He finds out that Becky Culpepper - the real estate agent is the Reverend Farnsworth's daughter, and he sends his tennis shoes to his boss to have the goo analyzed. The next morning he goes to see Becky and asks if the $250,000 offer is still good. It isn't. He confronts her with the information he received about her paternity and she admits that the Reverend is her father, but that she doesn't believe he's a murderer.Fletch decides it's time to go back to Bibleland and check out the Rev. Farnsworth some more. He dresses up and goes onto the show disguised as a "faith-healer." He sneaks backstage and checks out the computers. He finds out how the Reverend knows how to call specific people out of the audience - he has a computerized system and someone who tells him names and specifics in an earpiece during the show. He also finds out that the Rev. Farnsworth has plans that would expand Bibleland to all of the neighboring plantations, not just his. Fletch gets rid of the computer operator and checks the files. He sees that the Reverend wasn't trying to buy the properties, but another mysterious corporation named "Everest Development" was.Knowing he needs more information, Fletch decides to start with Ben Dover since he was the one that was shooting at him. He follows Ben from the morgue to a biker bar. Fletch dresses up as "Ed Harley", goes into the bar and claims to be the owner of Harley Davidson Motorcycles. Ben doesn't recognize him, and offers to let him go on a ride with his gang. Fletch does - with Becky on the back of his motorcycle. During the ride, Fletch's disguise comes off and Ben recognizes him. They give chase, but Becky and he get away. They go back to her house to clean up. While there, Fletch calls his boss in California and finds out that Bluebird is a corporation that finds dump sites for toxic waste. There is only one near Louisiana and it's in Mississippi. Fletch goes to check it out.In Mississippi, Fletch poses as the CEO of Everest Development and talks to the Bluebird factory foreman (Phil Hartman). He finds out that Belle Isle is scheduled to receive a large shipment of the toxic waste in a few weeks. He also finds out from the paperwork there who the "owner" of Everest is.Fletch goes back to Louisiana and goes to a party thrown by Hamilton Johnson. He tells him that he wants to talk to him privately. When they get upstairs, Fletch tells him that he knows that he is the one who tried to buy his land, killed Amanda, framed him, and has planned a shipment of toxic waste for Belle Isle. Ham then admits to everything - saying he hates Jimmy Lee Farnsworth for what he did to Ham's beloved "mamma." He says he wanted to turn everything around Bibleland into a toxic waste dump to ruin the reverend. Ham pulls a gun and tells Fletch that he's going to kill him. Fletch tells Ham that he left all of the incriminating evidence with Becky and if he doesn't let Fletch go, she'll send it to the FBI. Ham tells Fletch that he's bluffing - and out walks Ben, who has kidnapped Becky. Ham has ordered both of them to be murdered. Fletch is stuck...until he gets an idea. He picks up a picture of Ham's mom and begins insulting her...and this infuriates Ham. Then Fletch grabs Ham's mother's ashes and begins playing with them. He tosses them across the room at Ham, and this causes Ben and Ham to fall, this allows Fletch and Becky to escape. They run to Bibleland and into a live taping of the Reverend's show. Ham comes in with his gun and tries to shoot Fletch, but the Reverend gets in between them and tells Ham he'll have to shoot him first. Just then, shots ring out and Ham goes down...the FBI is there and have killed Ham...the FBI agent in charge is Calculus...whose real name is Agent Goldstein. They have had the ministry under investigation for months. They all go outside and talk about things a bit...Fletch tells Calculus that he knew he wasn't a backwoods simpleton all along. The Reverend says he's going to rerun the show with the shooting incident every day for Sweeps month. Fletch kisses Becky and mentions the possibility of her coming back to California with him.When Fletch gets back to California and his job at the newspaper, there's a big party for him and his boss has given him a raise and a corner office. Fletch also receives an insurance check for $100,000 for the fire and the toxic waste dumping at Belle Isle. Just then, Fletch's ex-wife's attorney shows up and says that Fletch's ex-wife wants the property in Louisiana as part of the alimony. He tells Fletch if he'll sign over the property, that they'll leave him alone for the rest of his life and he'll never have to pay anything to her again. So, Fletch gladly does...pretending all the time it's killing him to do it...and never telling the attorney that they plantation is now a burned-down toxic waste dump... | humor, satire, murder | tt0097366 |
Little Children | Sarah Pierce (Kate Winslet) is a 30-year-old, stay-at-home mother in a small Massachusetts suburban community. She had been working on a doctorate in English, but once she married Richard (Gregg Edelman) and had their daughter, the presently five-year-old Lucy (Sadie Goldstein), she set aside her research. Now she spends her days taking Lucy to a local park along with three other stay at-home mothers: the severe and judgmental Mary Ann (Mary B. McCann) and more timid Theresa (Trini Alvorado) and Cheryl (Marsha Dietlein). They enjoy ogling from a distance Brad Adamson (Patrick Wilson), the handsome and well built father who brings his son, Aaron (Ty Simpkins), to the park. When their children use the same swing set, Sarah and Brad have an opportunity to talk to one another, titillating the other women. But when they, on a lark, hug and kiss, the women immediately take their children out of the park and refuse to associate with Sarah anymore.Both Brad and Sarah have unhappy home lives. Brad has yet to pass the Massachusetts state bar exam and doesn't even want to be a lawyer. However, his bossy wife, Kathy (Jennifer Connelly), pushes him to succeed. She makes documentaries for public television for a living. They live a bit beyond their means, forcing them to accept financial support from Kathy's mother. Their sex life is non-existent because Kathy is too self-involved in her career and being a mother. When he is supposed to be studying for the bar exam, Brad instead sits and watches teenagers skateboard outside his house, fantasizing about being young and carefree again. One night, an acquaintance, Larry (Noah Emmerich), persuades Brad, who played quarterback on his high school football team, to join his amateur football team, the Guardians.Larry is a former police officer forced to retire a few years earlier when he accidentally shot a teenager who robbed a store. Now he is estranged from his wife and spends much of his time harassing Ronnie McGorvey (Jackie Earle Haley), a freaky neighbor recently released from prison after serving several years. Ronnie had been incarcerated for exposing himself to a minor and has a long criminal record for sexually molesting young girls. Brad does not feel comfortable with Larry's campaign against Ronnie to force him to move from the neighborhood, but rarely tries to prevent him from carrying it out.Sarah's marriage to Richard is as sexless as Brad's is to Kathy. In this case, however, it is because he is addicted to Internet pornography. One day she catches him masturbating in his office and they begin to sleep separately. She buys a flattering swimsuit and begins to attend the public pool because she knows she will see Brad there. They begin a deep if platonic relationship and their children become friends as well. Brad is drawn to Sarah's interest in him, even though he does not find her particularly physically attractive. Sarah craves being sexually desired by someone as conventionally handsome and masculine as Brad. One day, when they have to leave the pool due to a sudden rainstorm, they return to Sarah's house. Brad discovers a photo of himself tucked away in a collection of Shakespearean sonnets. Unable to contain his desire for each other, they have rough sex in the basement while their children sleep upstairs. Thus their emotional infidelity becomes physical as well.Meanwhile, Ronnie lives with his mother, May (Phyllis Somerville), who has taken him in after his release from prison. She believes that if he were to find the right woman, his sexual desire for children would disappear. Aware of his mental problems with the fascination for young girls, Ronnie knows this is futile but agrees to go out on a date May has arranged for him with a woman in another town, Sheila (Jane Adams). During dinner at a local restaurant Sheila and Ronnie seem to make a connection and she reveals her own emotional demons. However, the date ends badly when he asks her to park alongside the road, then begins to masturbate while scolding her not to tell on him.Elsewhere, Sarah and Brad grow closer. He skips taking the bar exam so they can have a romantic getaway together. Kathy grows suspicious and tells Brad to invite Sarah, Richard and Lucy over for dinner so she can meet them. The intimacy evident between Brad and Sarah confirms her suspicions, and Kathy arranges for her mother to come for an extended visit so Brad and Sarah can't see one another anymore. However, when Brad's football team plays its final game, Kathy and her mother stay home feeling that their suspicions about Brad are nothing. Sarah attends and cheers as Brad scores the winning touchdown in the team's only victory of the season. Afterwards, while Larry waits for Brad at a nearby bar to celebrate their victory, Brad and Sarah make out on the field. He admits the moment is his happiest ever and asks Sarah to run away with him. She agrees.Hurt that Brad has stood him up, Larry goes to Ronnie's house and wakes the neighborhood up by using a bullhorn to taunt Ronnie. The neighbors come out to ask him to stop but May confronts him angrily. In the process, she suffers a severe heart attack. Larry is arrested for assault and battery, and May taken to the hospital. While Ronnie sleeps in the waiting room, May dies. Her last act is to write a note to Ronnie: "Please be a good boy." Ronnie is distraught and despondent. He goes home and destroys much of his mother's collection of Hummel figurines, then takes a butcher knife from the kitchen.That very same night, Sarah and Brad agree to rendezvous in the park where they first met to run away together. Brad tells Aaron he loves him before putting him to bed, writes Kathy a note explaining why he is leaving her, then sneaks out while she and her mother finish the dishes. But before he can get to the park, he is distracted by the skateboarding teenagers again. They convince him to try a jump himself. Unable to resist the rush of wanting to re-live his youth, Brad does so but crashes and knocks himself out. When he comes to, he asks the ambulance driver to call his wife -- Kathy -- to meet him at the hospital. It turns out that he never left the note for her and tells one of the skateboarders to dispose of it for him.Meanwhile, Sarah takes Lucy to the park. She is shocked to see Ronnie stagger in. When Lucy briefly disappears, Sarah is frightened into realizing that leaving Richard for Brad would be a terrible mistake. She takes Lucy home and puts her to bed and decides to stay.Larry is upset about causing May's death. He genuinely wants to apologize to Ronnie and finds him in the park where Sarah left him. He notices blood on the ground. Ronnie has castrated himself and is bleeding to death. Larry picks him up and races him to the hospital. He knows Ronnie has done bad things in the past but also recognizes that doesn't mean he has to do bad things in the future. They arrive at the hospital at just as Kathy meets Brad's ambulance at the emergency room doors. | comedy, dark, psychological, realism, dramatic, thought-provoking, flashback, satire | tt0404203 |
The X Files: I Want to Believe | Six years after the events of The X-Files series finale, former FBI agent Doctor Dana Scully is now a staff physician at Our Lady of Sorrows, a Catholic hospital in Seattle, and treating a boy named Christian who has Sandhoff disease, a terminal brain condition. FBI agent Drummy arrives to ask Scully's help in locating Fox Mulder, the fugitive former head of the X-Files division, and says they will call off its manhunt for him if he will help investigate the disappearances of several women, including young FBI agent Monica Banan. Scully agrees and convinces Mulder who is living in a nearby small home, bearded and clipping newspaper articles about the paranormal to help, despite Mulder's initial misgivings that this is an FBI trick to capture him.The duo is taken to Washington, D.C., where Agent Dakota Whitney (Amanda Peet) wants Mulder's expertise with the paranormal as they have been led to a clue by Father Joseph (Joe) Fitzgerald Crissman (Billy Connolly), a priest defrocked for pedophilia who claims God is sending him visions of the crimes. Mulder wants to believe the man, but Scully is disgusted by Father Joe's past and disregards his "visions".Whitney and Drummy take Father Joe and Mulder to the kidnapped Banan's home in snowy Montana, where the former priest overcomes the others' skepticism when, in anguish and on his knees in pain, he begins bleeding from the eyes.That evening, a second woman, driving home after swimming in a natatorium, is run off the road by Janke Dacyshyn (Callum Keith Rennie), a snowplow driver who then smashes the window of her wrecked car and abducts her.The following morning, Scully and Mulder, in bed together and briefly mentioning "our son" (the otherwise unmentioned William, birthed by Scully in the television series), discuss both the FBI case and that of Scully's patient. Scully mentions that the severed arm found by the FBI and Father Joe Crissman in a field, contains traces of an animal tranquilizer called Acepromazine. This new clue energizes Mulder into pursuing the FBI case further. He shaves his beard and leaves to visit Whitney. Father Joe is recruited for help with the second abducted woman. After a grueling nighttime search in the snow, he leads the FBI to what turns out to be a frozen burial ground of people and body parts. Scully is frustrated by Mulder's seeming obsession with finding these women, telling him that his sister is dead no matter what he does. Mulder pushes on, trying to ignore her. Father Joe then tells Scully, "don't give up."Analysis of the remains eventually leads them to Dacyshyn, an organ transporter in Richmond, Virginia, and his husband, Franz Tomczeszyn who was among the youths Father Joe sexually abused. During an FBI raid on the organ-donor facility where Dacyshyn works, Dacyshyn escapes, leaving behind Banan's severed head. Mulder, who accompanied Whitney on the raid, chases Dacyshyn to a building construction site. Whitney follows, and is killed when Dacyshyn pushes her down a shaft several stories high. He then escapes again.Scully, at the hospital, wants permission from Christian's parents to do a radical and painful experimental stem-cell procedure that may be their boy's last hope. Father Ybarra, head of the hospital, wants Christian removed to a palliative-care facility to live his remaining days, but Scully angrily insists she is the boy's physician and the choice is up to the parents.Torn between her faith in God and the unfairness of a young boy dying, Scully goes to Father Joe's apartment to confront him about his religious visions. She asks him what he meant by "don't give up." He tells her that he doesn't know what he meant. To her despair, he says he knows nothing more about these visions than what he has told the FBI, and collapses (Father Joe suffers a seizure, and we are shown that Tomczeszyn is suffering a seizure at the same moment). Scully calls for an ambulance, and later learns that Father Joe, who is admitted to Our Lady of Sorrows, suffers from advanced lung cancer. Scully, seeking resolution, asks him if Banan is still alive. Father Joe says "yes".With Mulder's handling of Father Joe having helped break the case, Scully says Mulder with whom she says she fell in love at some unspecified time should end his involvement, and that she cannot be with him if he continues exploring "the darkness." Mulder, regardless, takes Scully's car to go investigate further. At Nutter's Feed Store in a small town near the abductions, he asks whether anybody has recently purchased animal tranquilizer. While showing the shopkeeper a picture, Dacyshyn coincidentally arrives and Mulder slips out and follows Dacyshyn's snowplow out of the town. On an isolated road, Dacyshyn surprises Muldder, crashes into his car and pushes it off an embankment. Dacyshyn soon afterward abandons his snowplow when it stops running. Mulder crawls from the wreckage, starts down the road, and stops at a small compound where many dogs are barking a major detail of Father Joe's visions. Mulder enters, and the commotion caused by a two-headed guard dog's attack brings Dacyshyn out from one of the building's where a makeshift Eastern European medical team is attempting whole-head transplants in order to place Tomczeszyn's head on the body of the second abducted woman. Mulder tries to save her, but a doctor comes from behind and injects him with Acepromazine. Mulder is now helpless, and is taken outside to be murdered by Dacyshyn.When Scully cannot reach Mulder on his cell phone, she calls her old FBI superior, Walter Skinner, for help. They triangulate the phone's location and find Scully's wrecked car. Scully and Skinner find a rural mailbox whose address corresponds to a Biblical chapter and verse Father Joe had told Scully. They race to the address, where Skinner breaks up the medical procedure before the young woman is beheaded, and Scully rescues Mulder from being axed to death by Dacyshyn.Later, Mulder is back at home, where Scully tells him that Father Joe has died. Mulder points out that Father Joe died at the same moment that Tomczeszyn's severed head died due to lack of blood flow to the brain. Somehow, he surmises, the two men's fates were linked by more than just visions. Scully is still troubled by Father Joe's advice to her, "don't give up." Mulder comforts her by telling her to ask herself what Father Joe could have meant by such a statement. Scully says that she is having doubts about Christian's surgery, saying that she is "putting that boy through hell" due to the words of a pedophile priest. Mulder tells Scully that if she goes into that surgery with any doubts, then she should call it off. Scully walks to the operating room, past Father Ybarra and Christian's parents. With everyone looking over her shoulder, a nurse asks Scully if she is ready to begin. Scully thinks for a moment, looks at Christian, and simply replies "yes."In a post-credits scene, Mulder and Scully are seen together in swimsuits on a boat in a tropical ocean, casually rowing towards an island. The scene is shot from a helicopter whose shadow is visible to the audience. | paranormal, cult, mystery, murder, romantic | tt0443701 |
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze | A young pizza delivery boy named Keno inadvertently encounters burglars on his route and tries to stop them. Seeing him as a witness, the burglars attack Keno, who proves to be an expert martial artist, but he is soon overwhelmed before the arrival of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They vanish after rescuing Keno, tying the burglars up, and taking the pizza he was delivering, leaving behind the money to pay for it.
Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo and Raphael, along with their master Splinter, are living with April O'Neil while they look for a new place to live following the events of their last adventure. Splinter wants to remain in the shadows, while Raphael thinks they should live out in the open. At a junkyard where the remnants of The Foot and Shredder's second-in-command Tatsu are hiding out, they are met by their master, who has been disfigured by his previous defeat but did not die as they thought.
April interviews Professor Jordan Perry of Techno Global Research Industries (TGRI) about a possible toxic waste leak. He assures her that everything is fine, but at the same time their scientists discover dandelions which have been mutated by the contaminant. Freddy, a spy for the Foot posing as April's cameraman, discovers this and reports it to his master, who decides to have Perry interrogated. Back at April's apartment, Splinter reveals to her and the turtles that TGRI was responsible for their mutation more than fifteen years prior, and they too decide to talk to him. The Foot gets to Perry first and kidnaps him, salvaging the last vial canister of ooze in the process. The turtles attempt to get the canister back, but ultimately fail. Afterward, Keno gets into April's apartment under the guise of delivering pizza and discovers Splinter and the turtles.
At the Shredder's hideout, Perry is forced into using the remaining ooze on a wolf and a snapping turtle, which mutate into Tokka and Rahzar. With the imminent threat to April's safety by the Foot, the turtles start to actively look for a new home. After an argument with Leonardo, Raphael breaks off from the group, while Michelangelo, who soon discovers an abandoned subway station, deems it a perfect hideout. Raphael and Keno defy Splinter's orders and implant Keno into the Foot Clan to find their hideout. However, they are caught and Raphael is captured, while Keno escapes to warn the others. When they come, they are ambushed by Shredder and the Foot; Splinter saves the group, but leaves as they face Tokka and Rahzar, who prove too strong to defeat. Donatello finds Perry and the five of them make a tactical retreat. Once back in their hideout, Perry explains that the creation of the ooze was an accident, disheartening Donatello, who saw a higher purpose for their existence.
Shredder unleashes Tokka and Rahzar into a nearby neighborhood to cause damages. The next day, Freddy sends a message to April that Tokka and Rahzar will be released into Central Park if the Turtles don't meet the Foot Clan at the construction site. Perry develops an antidote to the mutations and when they confront the two, Leonardo and Michelangelo trick Tokka and Rahzar into eating it. They discover the trick and brutally attack, throwing Raphael into a public dance club. A big fight ensues among hundreds of witnesses and eventually the turtles turn Tokka and Rahzar into their natural state, while Vanilla Ice improvises the "Ninja Rap". Shredder attacks, threatening a citizen with a final vial of ooze, but Keno intervenes and the turtles overload an amplifier, causing Shredder to be blasted out onto the docks behind the club. They follow and discover that Shredder had drunk the last vial, becoming a "Super Shredder" who begins to destroy the support structure holding the dock up. Not caring about his own life, Shredder attempts to kill the turtles by collapsing the dock on top of them, but the group escapes the collapse and surface in time to witness Shredder's last breath.
In a press release, April reads a note from Perry, thanking the turtles for saving him, and when they return home, they deny being seen by the humans, but Splinter holds up the evening's newspaper on which they are plastered across the cover. He then orders the four of them to do flips as punishment, chanting the theme song they were dancing to at the club "Go Ninja, Go Ninja, Go!" exclaiming he made another funny as the scene freezes. | good versus evil, cult, humor, psychedelic, violence | tt0103060 |
30 Days of Night: Dark Days | A year after the Alaskan town of Barrow's population was decimated by vampires during its annual month-long polar night, Stella Oleson (Kiele Sanchez) travels the world trying to convince others that vampires exist. She is fully aware of the risk to her life that her work could bring, but does not care due to her grief over the death of her husband, Eben.
Following instructions from a mysterious individual named Dane, she travels to Los Angeles to give a lecture on the existence of vampires. Aware that vampires are in attendance when she speaks, she activates overhead ultraviolet lamps that incinerate several of the vampires in the audience, in front of the humans. She is quickly arrested and harassed by Agent Norris, who she learns is one of the human followers of the vampires, charged with keeping their activities covered up. After her release from custody, she returns to her hotel to find Paul (Rhys Coiro), Amber (Diora Baird) and Todd (Harold Perrineau), sent by Dane to recruit her to hunt the vampire queen, Lilith. As Lilith is responsible for the vampires' every move and for keeping them hidden, the hunters are convinced that once she is eliminated, the vampires will fall into dormancy. When Stella learns that Lilith was responsible for the slaughter at Barrow, she agrees to meet Dane (Ben Cotton), and is shocked to discover that he too is a vampire. Due to a superficially inflicted wound, he has maintained a grasp of humanity, only drinking blood from packaged hospital stocks he keeps. Stella hesitates to join a plan to attack a vampire nest, but Paul eventually convinces her, revealing that vampires were responsible for his daughter's death and the resulting divorce from his wife.
The following day, the four hunters enter a vampire nest, only to be ambushed by a group of them. During their attempt to flee, Todd is bitten. After the four lock themselves in a cellar, Todd turns into a vampire. When Paul hesitates to act against his friend, Stella kills him by smashing in his head with a cinder block. The trio decide to wait for nightfall, when the vampires leave to feed, in order to make their escape. After night falls, Dane comes and frees them. On their way out, they capture a vampire and interrogate him with the ultraviolet lamps, eventually following him back to another nest. They invade the nest and rescue Jennifer, a captive being used as a feeding station. Jennifer's knowledge of Lilith's lair being aboard a ship in the bay allows the hunters to plan an attack on Lilith directly. Returning to Dane's place, Stella and Paul become intimate.
Meanwhile, Lilith (Mia Kirshner) decides that Agent Norris should prove his worth to become a vampire (in order to cure the cancer he has been suffering from). He bites the neck of a captive girl, Stacey (Katharine Isabelle), drinking her blood until dead. Satisfied, Lilith turns him to hunt Stella and the others.
Norris kills Dane and the others flee with Jennifer to a boat yard where Jennifer points out the boat that the vampires are set to sail to Alaska in for another 30-day feeding period. After telling Jennifer to leave, the three hunters stow away on the ship where they discover that they can be resurrected after death if they are fed human blood. At gunpoint, they confront the human captain who says he is cooperating because the vampires had threatened his family. Amber is suddenly pulled away from behind, causing her gun to fire and kill the captain. Stella and Paul are too late to save her from being eaten and are quickly captured by Norris and Lilith who orders that they be bled dry. Stella manages to free herself when they are alone with Norris and kills him, but they are subsequently attacked by Lilith when attempting to sabotage the ship and Paul is killed. After being outmatched in hand-to-hand combat, Stella hides from Lilith and when the queen comes looking for her, Stella emerges from her tub of blood and manages to decapitate her. The other vampires appear, but seeing that she killed Lilith, they quietly stand aside and let her pass without a fight, and she returns to Barrow.
Stella digs up Eben's grave and recovers his body to feed him her own blood. It appears not to work and she lies down slowly dying from blood loss. After a time, she sees Eben has returned to his former health and she stands to greet him with a hug. As they embrace, Eben pulls back her shoulder and his sharp teeth come down on her neck before the screen goes dark. | revenge, violence | tt1320304 |
Massacre at Central High | David is a transfer student to Malibu Central High School. Upon arriving, he sees three bullies, named Bruce, Craig, and Paul, who order Spoony, a semi-skinhead and radical, to wash off a swastika he painted on his locker. The bullies inform Spoony that no forms of protest are permitted at Central High. Soon afterward, David meets Mark, an old friend who he once helped out of a jam at their previous school in Los Angeles. Mark tells David that the school can be like a country club for him if he becomes friends with Bruce, Craig, and Paul, the bullies who rule the school student body and are from wealthy and powerful backgrounds.Over the next few days, David becomes more and more alienated by the abrasive trio as he watches their daily routine. During gym class, they mock the slow-witted, fat Oscar who is unable to keep up with the other students. Later in the locker room, they hit Oscar with towels. David, at Mark's insistence, does not intervene.In the school library, the bullies taunt Arthur, the nerdish student librarian, and dump books all over him. David helps Arthur up after the bullies leave and offers his help to take them on. But Arthur tells David to stay out of it for he says, "we fight and lose our own battles".Later that day, David also witnesses the bullies wreck poor Rodney's car after he parks in their place in the school parking lot. David offers to help Rodney fix his car. Rodney agrees, but again tells David to stay out of Bruce, Craig, and Paul's path for he doesn't want them to be his enemies.Meanwhile, Mark meets with Bruce, Craig, and Paul in Paul's van after school where he tells them about David. But to Mark's worry, the three bullies tell him that they do not want to be friends with David and they do not want to associate themselves, nor interact and nor want anything to do with David. Mark tries to tell them that David is a good guy who can be a great friend and ally to them, but the bullies tell Mark that David looks like a trouble maker. They sternly warn Mark to tell David to stay out of their path. Mark begins to worry about his friend, but he tells the bullies that he will straighten David out.David's only other friend at the school is Teresa, who happens to be Mark's girlfriend. After Teresa and Mark quarrel over David hanging around her, she walks away wanting some space. After classes are let out for the day, the bullies spot Spoony's two girlfriends, Mary and Jane, and decide to rape them just for kicks. When Teresa catches them trying to assault the two girls, they spot her and throw her into a vacant classroom. David sees this and charges into the classroom. He single handedly beats up all three bullies before the rapes are accomplished. While Teresa is grateful to David for saving her, Mary and Jane do not thank him and tell David that he is now a marked man having crossed Craig, Bruce, and Paul.Humiliated by this latest encounter with David, the bullies approach Mark and tell him that he only has one more chance to talk to David to mind his own business. At nightfall, they drive down the Pacific Coast Highway where they find David's car. Venturing down to the beach to find David, Mark sees him with Teresa skinny dipping in the ocean. Filled with anger and jealousy, Mark goes back to the bullies in Paul's van and lies to them by saying that he tried to talk to David, but he wouldn't listen. The three bullies decide to take matters into their own hands.One evening, David is repairing Rodney's car when the bullies appear and kick the jack out and it lands on top of David, in which one of the wheels crushes his left leg. After several weeks in the hospital, David returns to school, now limping from a leg cast under trousers. But worse for David, he can no longer jog which is the one outlet for his anger. Most of the students avoid and snub David for attempting to make a stand against the bullies. Arthur tells David a great big "I told you so" about wanting to take on Craig, Bruce, and Paul. Even Mark is mean and nasty towards David for his flirtation with Teresa. When Mark confronts Teresa later and tells her that he saw her and David that night on the beach, she tells him about how David saved her from being raped earlier that day. She also tells Mark that although she really wanted to have sex with David that night on the beach, he refused to make love to her out of loyalty to Mark. Mark feels guilty over it realizing that he inadvertently got back at David for nothing.But David, having turned psychotic from this latest encounter, secretly plots to kill the three bullies in the same manner he believes they tried to kill him: by making it look like an accident. David begins his lethal plan of revenge when he breaks a cable on one hand glider to one of the bullies: Bruce. During the bullies Saturday hand gliding excursion, Bruce loses control of his hand glider when the cord for the steering breaks, and it rams into power lines, electrocuting him.Craig is the next victim when David intercepts a letter from the janitor to Craig about the school swimming pool being cleaned. That evening, Craig, a championship swimmer in training for the next Olympics, arrives at the school for his private practice sessions when David turns out the lights to the pool area. He tricks Craig into diving into the empty swimming pool.Paul is the final victim when David attacks him the following day in his van and rolls it down a cliff where it hits the rocks and explodes, killing Paul instantly. Mark arrives on the scene and discovers that David is responsible for Paul's death as well as Craig's and Bruce's as well. David challenges Mark to stop him, but Mark loves David too much to fight him. David, however, despite knowing that Mark knows the truth, agrees to let him live out of his love for Teresa.For a time, everyone at the school is grateful to David and is on friendly terms now that the three bullies are gone from their lives. But soon, they all tries to enlist the help of their hero and savior David so they can obtain power. From Arthur taking charge of the geeks, Oscar with the fat guys, to Rodney with the jocks, and Spoony with the punks, they take on one another for power. Soon, fights and arguments break out all over the school as Oscar, Arthur, Rodney, and Spoony quarrel with one another over territory rights. David, disgusted at the fighting and that the oppressed have become the new oppressors, plots to get rid of all the students.A few days later, David commences "the massacre at central high". Arthur is killed when David switches his hearing aid with another one that produces high decibel sonic pulses, which blow Arthurs eardrums out. Oscar is next when he opens his locker and a pipe bomb that David had placed earlier, explodes, killing him and several of his fat boy members. The students panic as more pipe bombs go off, killing and wounded many students. Rodney attempts to flee from the chaos in the parking lot by getting into his car and upon starting it, it explodes, killing him and a number of other jocks and other students with him. Only Spoony manages to escape and hides out in the wilderness with his two girlfriends, Mary and Jane. But David follows them and kills them as well by blowing up a face of a cliff and crushing the three of them in their tent under an avalanche of rocks.Mark, aware that David is behind all the carnage, tells Teresa that they must try to stop David before he kills more people for he has clearly been driven to the edge by everything that has happened. Mark gets a gun and with Teresa they go after David. They arrive at David's house and confront him in his workshop where he is constructing more pipe bombs. David challenges Mark to shoot him and put and end to his killing spree that he is now addicted to since he cannot jog anymore. But Mark can't do it. David then subdues Mark and locks him and Teresa in his workshop and goes to the school, where a student-alumni dance is taking place. David hides a large bomb in the basement of the school and plots to blow up the dance with all the remaining students and teachers inside the gym.Mark and Teresa manage to break out of David's workshop room and head over to the school. Realizing that the only way to stop David is by playing on his last sympathies he has towards them, they enter the gym where they party is being held and begin to dance. David sees them and tries to get them to leave the building before the bomb goes off. The refuse and dance, saying that if David really wants to kill everyone in the school, he will have to kill them too. Realizing that they will not leave and that both Mark and Teresa are sorrowfully willing to sacrifice their lives for him, David rushes (not very fast because of his limp) to the basement and retrieves the bomb. He takes it outside where it explodes killing him, and blasting out all the windows in the school and gym. Mark and Teresa agree to tell the police that the missing Spoony had planted the bomb and that David had given his life to save everyone. | revenge, cult, murder, prank | tt0074875 |
Penelope | Many generations ago, the Wilherns were a prestigious, wealthy, and respected family. However, things went downhill after young Ralph Wilhern had a romance with (and impregnated) a servant girl named Clara. Though he wished to marry Clara, Ralph was talked out of the idea by his family and married a young woman of his own social class. A devestated Clara commits suicide.Unfortunately for the Wilherns, Clara's mother happens to be a witch. To avenge her daughter, the old woman curses the wealthy Wilherns, promising that the next girl born into the family will have the face of a pig, until she is accepted and loved by "one of her own kind." For generations, only sons were born to Wilherns, and the curse was nearly forgotten. But finally, Jessica and Franklin Wilhern produced a baby girl, Penelope, born with the nose and ears of a pig.Penelope's parents attempt to have the nose surgically removed, but the placement of a certain artery makes it impossible. They resort to hiding ther daughter in their lavish mansion, with Jessica banning anything pig-related (such as bacon) from the household. Due to the media circus revolving about the rumors of the "pig-faced girl," Franklin and Jessica fake Penelope's death and dedicate their time to finding her a welathy husband, which they believe will break the curse.Though Penelope is isolated, she is well-educated and develops a love for horticulture. When she is 18, Jessica hires a matchmaker, Wanda, to assist with the husband-hunt. A room is set up with a one-way mirror, allowing Penelope to talk with potential matches while hidden in her room. When she reveals her face to them, however, they run from the house screaming. They are caught (by the Wilhern's butler, Jake), and legally forced to keep Penelope's condition secret. Seven years later, after one such meeting, the young man in question (the snobbish Edward Vanderman III) outruns Jake and attempts to report "monsterous" Penelope to the police. Edward is laughed at and imprisoned for the night. The next morning, his story is printed in the newspaper, citing his outburst as a "mental breakdown."Desperate to clear his name, Edward complains to the author of the article. About to be dismissed a second time, Edward has a chance meeting with Mr. Lemon, a reporter determined to get a photograph of Penelope. Lemon had nearly gotten the picture in Penelope's infancy, but was attacked by Jessica, resulting in the loss of his eye. He and Edward team up to reveal her existance to the community.Lemon decides to find a "down-and-out blueblood" who would be willing to meet with Penelope while rigged with a hidden camera. He finds a name of a nearly broke man from a wealthy family: Max Campion. Lemon visits a gambling hall that Campion frequents, and is directed to his poker table. Lemon bribes the young man he believes to be Campion with $5,000 to participate in the scheme. The following day, "Max" meets up with Edward and Lemon and is affixed with a jacket containing a camera. Max enters the Wilhern house and files into the observation room with other young, wealthy candidates. As Max's camera malfunctions, he drops behind a sofa to fix it. At that moment, Penelope enters the room and the other young men flee. A disheartened Penelope retreats to the kitchen, where she argues with her controlling mother about the futility of finding a husband. Jessica and Wanda spy Max through the security camera, sitting alone in the observation room (having been the only one to not see Penelope). They quickly send Penelope to speak with him through the one-way mirror.Max and Penelope bond in their conversation, despite Max's obvious crooked ways. Max promises to return the next day. He assures Lemon he will be back to secure the photograph, which he had failed to obtain. The following day, Penelope suspects that Max plays a musical intstrument, and he playfully asks her to guess which one while he demonstrates his (lacking) skills at guitar, drums, bass, and saxaphone. Penelope concludes that Max pays piano, and finally reveals her face to him while helping him play a chord. Max is taken aback, but does not run. He snaps a picture, and is immediately ashamed as Penelope runs from the room. Max returns to Edward and Lemon, destorying the camera and photograph, as Jessica spys them and recognizes Lemon from years before. After an altercation back in the house, a tearful Penelope begs Max to marry her and break the curse. Max sadly refuses, and is banished from the house.That night, Penelope steals her mother's credit card, covers her pig snout with a scarf, and escapes into the city for the first time. She calls her parents from a payphone, assuring them that she is safe, and books a room at a hotel. Franklin and Jessica face dilemmas about finding their daughter; they cannot describe her to authorities without mentioning the pig features, which will expose her.After having a beer at a bar, Penelope befriends a delivery girl named Annie who helps her explore the city. After nearly being discovered by her parents, Penelope decides to sell her own photograph to Lemon to avoid using Jessica's credit card. Though Penelope still hides her identity, her picture starts a media frenzy. Her parents spot her once again, and after a chase through the city, an exhausted Penelope faints. Annie removes the scarf to reveal the famous pig snout.To Penelope's surprise, she is welcomed and treated kindly by the community, and has no further need to conceal her face. Edward, however, still sees Penelope as a hideous monster, and angers his prestigious father by expressing his disgust to the press. To redeem his image, Edward proposes to Penelope, who is hesitant because of lingering feelings for Max. At a theater one night, a still smitten Max confronts Edward about hurting Penelope, but remains hindered by his own guilt for leaving her.At the newspaper office, Lemon overhears that Max Campion was recently arrested for robbery. Shocked, Lemon visits the police station where he discovers the real Max: a middle-aged, portly man who also played poker at the gambling hall. Lemon asks about the young man who claimed to be Max, and Campion identifies him as Johnny Martin. Lemon realizes his mistake: he had approached the wrong man at the poker table, but the phony Max had played along for the money.After visiting Johnny at his blue-coller job, he discovers why Johnny could not break Penelope's curse: he is merlely a plumber's son, not a blue-blooded aristocrat. Penelope must marry "one of her own kind."The day of Penelope and Edward's wedding arrives. Edward is still disgusted by his fiancee, but is assured by his mother that the curse will be broken once the wedding is over. Penelope does not love Edward, and stoically allows herself to be preened for the ceremony. At the alter, Penelope backs out of the marriage and retreats to her room, with Jessica in hot pursuit. Jessica pleads with Penelope to reconsider and rid herself of the curse, but Penelope replies "I like myself the way I am." At that moment, a flash of light and a swirl of memories occurs, and a stunned Penelope finds her pig nose has been replaced by a human one. By being accepted by one of her own kind (herself), she had broken the curse.Without the iconic snout, Penelope falls out of the media circle and is free to live a low-profile life. She leaves home and becomes an elementary school horticulture teacher. Jake, the Wilhern butler, also leaves the household, revealing himself to be the witch who had cursed the family generations ago (he also "mutes" Jessica, sparing the family from her constant demands). On Halloween, Penelope is surprised to find that she, in her pig-faced form, is the most popular costume among her students. Remembering who had accepted her from the beginning, she decides to reconcile with Johnny. Dressed as herself (by wearing a fake pig snout), Penelope goes with Annie to a Halloween party at the theater where Johnny works and rents an apartment. Penelope nervously knocks on his door, under the guise of "having to pee." She notices he is packing a suitcase, and he tells her he is leaving town. Still not recognizing her, he sadly tells her that her mask reminds him of someone he used to know. Penelope sees a piano in the corner and reveals her indentity, remembering that she had guessed his instrument correctly before. Johnny kisses her and apologizes for being unable to break the curse. With a smile, Penelope removes her mask, showing that she had the power all along.Penelope tells her story to her horticulture class (accompanied by Johnny, now in a relationship with her), and asks their opinion of the curse. One young student replies insightfully "It's not the power of the curse, it's the power you give the curse." After sending the class off to collect plant samples in the park, Johnny pushes Penelope on a nearby swing. Lemon sits in a rowboat in the nearby lake, ready to sneak a picture of the new Penelope. Seeing her happiness, he thinks better of it and rows away. | romantic, fantasy, magical realism | tt0472160 |
Thumbelina | For over fifty years, the tiny keeper of the dam had watched over it and recently had begun to worry about its state. He shows his daughter the different cracks that have formed over the dam's surface, and though the girl shows no concern, her father is deeply worried that, come spring, newly melted snow will cause the dam to break and flood the meadow where the little people lived in flowers. The keeper sends his daughter to warn the little people's prince.After a long day of walking, the young girl falls asleep inside of a tulip. As she sleeps, an old medicine woman discovers her and takes the tulip to town. She sells the tulip to a lonely, child-less woman, promising that it will open to reveal a child. The child-less woman agrees and is delighted to find a beautiful girl smaller than her thumb, whom she names "Thumbelina". When Thumbelina awakes, she tries to explain that she is on a quest to find the prince of the little people, but the woman doesn't listen.At the end of her first day in her new home, Thumbelina goes to bed feeling lost hopeless. Shortly after she falls asleep, a frog captures Thumbelina and takes her away to her lily pad to marry the frog's son. Thumbelina escapes with the help of two fish, who cut the pad's roots and set it free. Downstream, Thumbelina befriends a swallow. The bird listens to her story but is unable to help, as he himself has lost his flock and needs to find it before the winter. Thumbelina then meets a butterfly who offers to take her to the meadow. However, a beetle snatches Thumbelina away before she can leave. After being ridiculed by his friends about his ugly new "pet", the beetle leaves the lost Thumbelina on her own once again.Thumbelina manages to make herself a home for the winter with the help of the large Big Bear, who brings her honey and protects her from dangerous animals. After Big Bear's brothers arrive and the three bears make their way to their cave to sleep during the long winter. Starving, Thumbelina searches for food and eventually finds the home of the old mouse Mona, who takes Thumbelina into her home for the remainder of winter. In exchange, Thumbelina helps Mona with the housework and cooking. Unbeknownst to Thumbelina, Mona has sold Thumbelina to the ugly Mr. Mole in exchange for food. When Mr. Mole arrives, Mona tells Thumbelina that if she marries him, Mr. Mole will take her to the meadow of the tulips. Seeing no other option, Thumbelina accepts. Mr. Mole shows Thumbelina what will become her new home, a dark tunnel under the soil. There, Thumbelina is shocked to find the dead body of her friend the swallow. At night, Thumbelina brings the swallow a blanket. To her surprise, the swallow opens his eyes and is glad to see the girl once again. Thumbelina nurses the swallow back to health as spring and her wedding date draw closer. The swallow offers to fly Thumbelina away, but she refuses feeling that she cannot betray Mona, who had been so kind to her when she had nearly frozen to death.On the day of her wedding, Thumbelina is heartbroken when she realizes that she has failed at the important task given to her by her father and fears for the lives of all of the little people. The swallow, who had left once he had recovered, returns to Thumbelina with the news that he has found the meadow of the tulips. Thumbelina discovers Mona's wicked plan. Feeling cheated, Thumbelina climbs on the back of the swallow and flies off to get the prince. Thumbelina, the prince and his men, riding upon the swallow and his newly found flock, arrive at the dam where Thumbelina's father waits desperately. Delighted to see his daughter again, the keeper of the dam embraces her and watches as the soldiers fix the dam's cracks. Once the meadow of the tulips is safe, the prince proposes marriage to Thumbelina. Thumbelina accepts and becomes the princess of the land to the cheers of the little people. | fantasy | tt0135000 |
Invaders from Mars | Psychologically terrifying space-invader movie made at the height of McCarthyism centers around 10-year-old boy astronomer betrayed by most of the adults he knows, including his parents. Small and cheap, but brilliantly and boldly helmed by William Cameron Menzies -- the production designer of Gone With the Wind -- "Invaders from Mars" had enough of a timeless paranoiac jolt to be remade, albeit poorly, by Tobe Hooper in the 1980s.
Back in the 50s, while Hollywood and Congress panicked and did some pretty cruel and crazy things in reaction to an alleged invasion of commies, Little Jimmy is figuring out who do you trust after learning that everything he's been told about authority -- family, the church, even the chief of police -- is a big fat lie. Interestingly, the person who defends and leads Jimmy in his insistence on conspiracy is a true alien for the time, a creature who somehow wafted through the cracks in the well-wrought PC system to become a "lady doctor." The choice of such an underground avatar is reminiscent of George Romero's use of Duane Jones as the unambivalent protagonist in "Night of the Living Dead (1968). With Hillary Brooke as mom, and Bert Freed as the top cop.I think it worth pointing out that there are two versions of this film ...one for the American market and one British. As I understand it the films ending was not well recieved by British audiences {a fate shared by the dream season of the TV series Dallas} so some pick ups were quickly reshot to give the film a more hard edged real world conclusion rather then the nightmareish endless loop of the American original.=========================================================================[Note: There are two versions, the familiar American version and a British version that runs about 5 minutes longer. The British version includes a longer exposition between David and Dr. Blake and Kelston at the observatory, and the end of the movie is different. Both versions are presented.]We open with title and credits in red font running over a black star field with planets. A narrator (Arthur Franz) tells us, "The heavens. Once an object of superstition, awe and fear. Now a vast region for growing knowledge: the distance of Venus, the atmosphere of Mars, the size of Jupiter, and the speed of Mercury. All this and more. We know, but their greatest mystery the heavens have kept a secret. What sort of life, if any, inhabits these other planets? Human life, like ours? Or life extremely lower in scale, or dangerously higher? Seeking the answer to this timeless question, forever seeking, is the constant preoccupation of scientists everywhere. Scientists famous and unknown. Scientists in great universities and in modest homes. Scientists of all ages."David MacLean (Jimmy Hunt) set his alarm for 4:00 a.m. to see a rare stellar event. The alarm wakes his father, George MacLean (Leif Erickson). He thinks its time to get up for work, which wakes his wife, Mary (Hillary Brooke). She points out the time, but George correctly assumes his son set his own alarm and goes into check on him. David is at the window with a telescope, and apologizes for waking his Dad. Mary breaks up the party, sending her son back to bed. David falls asleep but is awakened by a thunderstorm at 4:40 a.m. He goes to the window and sees a spaceship on the horizon that appears to land behind the house. He wakes his father and reports, "Dad. Dad. Something landed out beyond the trees in the sand pit. A big, bright light." Father and son look out David's window but see nothing. They agree to investigate at morning's light. George puts his robe and slippers on and goes outside to investigate, explaining to Mary, that the work at the plant is secret and they have orders to report anything unusual. George walks up the path along a wooden rail fence that ends in a sand pit. We hear an ethereal, eerie choir of voices and see the sand part leaving a hole that grows larger. George disappears behind a tree and the hole in the sand fills back.The next morning, Mary calls for her husband, George. She too walks up the path to the sand field and hears the strange sound that accompanies a disappearance. She returns to the house and calls the police and talks to the two officers that respond to the call. The older policeman, Blaine (an uncredited Charles Cane) and younger, Jackson (an uncredited Douglas Kennedy) listen to the story, then walk out on the sand to investigate. Jackson spots George's flashlight, and Blaine finds a slipper. Jackson falls into the hole, and when Blaine searches for his partner, he too falls into a hole. The hole disappears. While mother and son talk at the window, George walks back into the house and asks, "Any chance for a cup of coffee?" George looks a bit disheveled. When questioned, he angrily responds in a tone that is very uncharacteristic, "I wish you'd please learn to mind your own business." David asks his father if he saw anything, noticing a scar on the back of his father's neck. When questioned he strikes his son sending him to the floor. The two policemen show up at the house and promise not to report anything. David notices the marks on their necks also. With telescope in hand, David looks at the sand pit and notices a neighborhood girl, Kathy Wilson (Janine Perreau) disappear. Another encounter with his father scares him. He is told, "I want to warn you. Don't go spreading stories about things you imagined out in those fields. Understand?" Mary, now dressed, joins her husband for a trip to town. George takes her to the sand pit and her fate.David goes to the Wilson home to report Kathy's disappearance. Mrs. Wilson (an uncredited Fay Baker) is incredulous at David's story. Her concern changes from fear to anger when Kathy appears at the door behind David holding a bouquet of flowers. She chastises David for such a cruel hoax. David notices smoke coming from the Wilson basement. A neighbor helps with a hose, but concedes the fire is spreading too rapidly to control. When asked if she was playing in the basement, Kathy lies and denies any involvement, but smiles slyly. David runs to the general store to phone Prof. Kelston at the observatory, but his secretary (an uncredited Barbara Billingsley) tells him Kelston is out and won't be back until later in the afternoon. He stops at a gas station to tell his story to the station attendant, Jim (an uncredited Todd Karns). Jim makes a phone call, but David runs to the local police station and demands to see the Chief. The police desk Sgt. Finlay (an uncredited Walter Sande) listens to David's story as the Police Chief listens from his doorway. Chief Barrows (an uncredited Bert Freed) invites David into his office to talk alone. When Barrows turns to call David's father, David sees the "X" shaped scar on Barrow's neck. David tries to flee but literally runs into Finlay who stops him and takes him to a detention cell for holding. Barrows goes out to find David's father, while Finlay decides to call Dr. Pat Blake (Helena Carter). She visits David in his cell. David confides his story after checking her neck for the tell-tale scar. She departs David's cell and asks about the police report on David's father. When told there was none, she asks to use the Chief's phone to call Dr. Stuart Kelston (Arthur Franz). Mary comes to collect her son. Kelston vouches for David as honest and level headed. Mary takes David to the door of the police station where George is waiting. Before the parents can spirit David away, Dr. Blake orders the boy held and she tells the MacLeans that David may have polio. The parents leave, and Pat takes David into her custody. Pat and David visit Kelston at the Observatory (Griffith Park Observatory, Los Angeles, California). They speculate on which planet is the most likely to be inhabited. Selecting Mars, Kelston observes that their cities may be underground or they live on space ships.[British Version (About 7 minutes of footage): After they get up from Kelston's desk, he and David explain to Pat where the spaceship could have come from and how. Once Mars is chosen as a likely candidate, David explains to Pat that Mars has oxygen in its atmosphere and water vapor. Kelston concludes, "That some form of life exists on Mars." He adds, "Its the firm belief of many scientists that the Earth has been under systematic and close range observation for more than 200 years." They review UFO sightings and the various newspaper clippings on sightings. Kelston then pulls out various models of UFO types. Kelston pulls a green, saucer shaped model from the cabinet and David exclaims, "That's it! That's exactly what I saw Dr. Kelston. Same shape, color, even the bubble." Kelston volunteers, "Our research radar has plotted a ship like this twice in the past six weeks."]They walk up to the telescope to looks at the rocket project and the sand pit. They further speculate that the Martians are here to sabotage the project to protect themselves from us. They witness George MacLean push General Mayberry (an uncredited William Forrest) into the hole. Kelston calls Col. Fielding to report what he saw. Col. Fielding (Morris Ankrum) and his aide, Sgt. Rinaldi (Max Wagner) take the call and jump into action. They call Washington and get orders from the Pentagon Chief of Staff (an uncredited Frank Wilcox) to take charge at the arms plants being threatened. The police have been ordered to arrest those suspected of mind control by the Martians. Tanks and other armament are delivered to the area. David tells his story to Col. Fielding. They talk to the neighbor, Mr. Turner (an uncredited John Eldredge). Pat asks about Kathy's cause of death and is told cerebral hemorrhage. She goes to the hospital for the autopsy.On the roof of the MacLean house, David shows Col. Fielding where everyone disappears. This piques Rinaldi's curiosity and he steals away to investigate on his own. An army unit arrives and Maj. Clary (an uncredited Gil Herman) and Capt. Roth (Milburn Stone) are briefed by the Colonel. Rinaldi is captured by the Martians, but not without a fight. Search lights are placed around the sand pit. Pat returns from the hospital and brings them a crystal and platinum device that was in Kathy's neck. Roth speculates it can be used to track the Martians. Tank battalions arrive and are deployed around the sand pit area. Col. Fielding receives a phone call informing him that the Armstead Plant was destroyed. The two police officers, Blaine and Jackson are surrounded by plant security, but before they can be taken into custody, both collapse and die, the explosive component in the control device in their necks activated by the Martians. At the Rocket facility, Police Chief Barrows and General Mayberry are confronted by the Military Police. They try to escape but are blown up by nitroglycerine they were carrying. Dr. Bill Wilson (an uncredited Robert Shayne) is working late in the lab, mourning the death of his daughter Kathy. Outside the gate, the MacLeans are planning an assassination. While Mary pretends to have car trouble, the guard is distracted long enough for George to knock him out, gain access to the facility and attempt to shoot Dr. Wilson working in his lab. The attempt fails and they are chased by the Military Police. They lose control of their speeding car and crash. They are taken into custody and transferred to the hospital for surgery to remove their implanted devices.The demolitions unit of the army has blown a hole through the sand into a chamber below. Col. Fielding is first in the hole. They conclude that this chamber is no longer active and has been sealed off from the rest of the tunnel system. They retreat back to the surface, where Capt. Roth has completed his detection device to locate the Martians. He starts his search. A call for Dr. Blake informs her that David's parents are in the hospital and ready for surgery. She takes David for a walk to inform him of his parents. As they talk they hear the eerie choir of voices sound that always presages the abduction of humans by the Martians. The pair fall into the hole. Kelston sees this and alerts Roth and Fielding. Towering over the dazed pair are huge, green clad mutants. Two body guard mutants carry the Martian Intelligence (an uncredited Luce Potter) and place it on a pedestal. The Intelligence is encased in a clear glass sphere. It has an oversized skull, human looking face, but the body is just a partial chest with branching, fork-like appendages that move like octopus arms. David and Pat are carried back to the Martian ship through the tunnels the Martian mutants created with an Infrared Ray gun that melts and fuses rock with ease. On the surface, Roth explains, "There's nothing here Colonel. They've already gone." Inside the ship David and Pat are presented to the Intelligence. Roth has located the source of the signal and a charge is set to gain access to the tunnel outside the ship. Sgt. Rinaldi, under mind-control, questions the pair. A mutant places Dr. Blake on the table that installs the mind control device. She is rendered unconscious by a light ray, then turned over exposing her neck. Rinaldi carries David back into the tunnels as the troops invade the ship. David cries for help allowing Fielding to track him in the tunnels. The Intelligence marshals his mutant force to attack the human troops. Dr. Kelston rescues Pat from the operating table just before the mind control device is inserted. The Martian ship activates for departure. Demolition charges are installed and set for six minutes. The troops exit the ship and destroy the tunnel leading to the ship's entrance. Unfortunately, their exit to the surface has been blocked and they can't go back and delay or defuse the bomb on the Martian ship. The troops rescue David and take Rinaldi captive. David assists the troops on using the IR Tunnel Gun to get back through the chamber to the exit to the surface.Back on the surface they run for safety. The ship pushes its way to the surface as the bomb ticks down to the final seconds until detonation. As David runs to safety a montage of earlier scenes flashes before us. The bomb goes off destroying the ship as David wakes in his bed from the sound of thunder in the distance. He runs to his parent's room. They are there, perfectly normal and he is told it was all just a nightmare. He is put back to bed, but again sees the Martian ship crash land in the sand pit. We close with the star field and closing theme.[British Version: We see everyone running from the sand pit area. Kelston and Pat Blake take shelter behind a tank. David runs towards them, falls, and is helped to his feet by Kelston and Blake. They embrace and watch as the Martian ship gets airborne. It blows up and the flash of light is shown on the three still huddled behind the tank. The subsequent blast wave knocks down a tree behind them. Pat reassures David, "With the control point destroyed, nothing can possibly happen to your mother and father now. They are going to be all right." Acting as surrogate parents, they bid David good night from his bedroom door. "The little man has had a busy day," remarks Pat as David sleeps. We close with a flash of lightening over the sand pit, then the star field and closing theme.] | cult | tt0045917 |
Performance | Chas (James Fox) is a member of an East London gang led by Harry Flowers (Johnny Shannon); his specialty is intimidation through violence as he collects pay-offs for Flowers. He is very good at his job, and has a reputation for liking it. His sexual liaisons are casual and rough. When Flowers decides to take over a betting shop, owned by Joey Maddocks (Anthony Valentine), he forbids Chas to get involved, as he feels Chas' complicated personal history with Maddocks (which is at least partly gay) may lead to trouble. Chas is angry about this and later humiliates Maddocks, who retaliates by wrecking Chas' apartment and attacking Chas. Chas shoots him, packs a suitcase and runs from the scene.
When Flowers makes it clear that he has no intention of offering protection to Chas but instead wants him eliminated, Chas decides to head for the countryside to hide but instead winds up hiding out in London, requesting that Tony (a trusted friend he refers to as 'Uncle') helps him get out of the country. He assumes a new name, Johnny Dean, and appears at the house of Turner (Mick Jagger), makes a clumsy attempt to ingratiate himself with Pherber (Anita Pallenberg), one of the female inhabitants, and moves in. Turner is a reclusive, eccentric former rock star who has "lost his demon", and who lives there with his female friends Pherber and Lucy (Michele Breton), with whom he enjoys a non-possessive and bisexual ménage à trois, and their child maid Lorraine (Laraine Wickens).
At first, Chas is contemptuous of Turner, and Turner attempts to return the rent paid in advance, but they start influencing each other. Chas also enjoys intimate moments with Pherber, during which he shows his bisexual tendencies. Pherber and Turner understand his conflict and want to understand what makes him function so well within his world. To speed up the process, Pherber tricks him by feeding him a mushroom (Amanita muscaria), and Chas then accuses her and Turner of poisoning him. After that evening, Chas opens up, and he begins a caring relationship with Lucy, implying that he outgrew the psychological boundaries he was stuck in, due to having to function as a stereotypically masculine man within a gangster world.
Flowers and his henchmen track Chas to Turner's flat. They are appalled by the loose clothing and feminine wig that Chas now wears, and allow him to go and collect his things upstairs. Chas discusses his options with Turner and Pherber, then shoots Turner in the head. Pherber hides in a closet. As he is led to his death, Chas still wears his feminine clothes and wig, but his face is identical to Turner's. | mystery, murder, cult, violence, atmospheric, psychedelic | tt0066214 |
Wreck-It Ralph | Wreck-It Ralph (voice of John C. Reilly) longs to be as beloved as his games perfect Good Guy, Fix-It Felix (voice of Jack McBrayer). Problem is, nobody loves a Bad Guy. But they do love heroes so when a modern, first-person shooter game arrives featuring tough-as-nails Sergeant Calhoun (voice of Jane Lynch), Ralph sees it as his ticket to heroism and happiness. He sneaks into the game with a simple plan: win a medal, but soon wrecks everything and accidentally unleashes a deadly enemy that threatens every game in the arcade. Ralph's only hope is Vanellope von Schweetz (voice of Sarah Silverman), a young troublemaking glitch from a candy-coated cart racing game who might just be the one to teach Ralph what it means to be a Good Guy. But will he realize he is good enough to become a hero before it's Game Over for the entire arcade?_____The film takes place in Litwik's Arcade, and concerned the character of Wreck-it-Ralph, the bad guy in the Fix-It-Felix Jr video game.When we are introduced to Ralph, he is attending 'Bad-anon,' a support group for the video game bad guys that inhabit the arcade's games. Ralph explains that after 30 years of doing the same thing and getting no respect for his job, he feels that he doesn't want to be the bad guy anymore. The other members claim that he can't mess with the program of his game, and soon finish the meeting, leaving Ralph still dejected.Going through 'Game Central Station' (a power strip with surge protectors that has all the arcade's game plugged into it), Ralph returns to his game, only to see the inhabitants of the Niceland apartments throwing a party (even Pac-Man is there!). Ralph is upset that he wasn't invited, and attempts to get in. However, upon seeing a special cake that was made with all the Nicelanders and Felix on top and Ralph in a pit on the bottom, he gets upset. When one of the Nicelanders claims that he's just the bad guy who wrecks things,' Ralph destroys the cake in a fit of rage and angrily leaves, intending to somehow get a medal of his own, and prove he can be a hero.Going off to a bar-game called Tapper's, Ralph is unsure what to do, when he encounters a soldier from a new first-person shooter named "Hero's Duty." The soldier is a nervous wreck from hunting bugs, but when Ralph hears there's a medal at the end of the game, he eagerly takes up the soldier's armor, and heads off through 'Game Central Station,' to board the transport to "Hero's Duty." On his way there Q*Bert, a homeless character whose game has been unplugged is at the station and he tell him where he is going, then is off.Ralph eagerly gets ready for a new round of the game, whose squadron is being led by Sgt Calhoun (Jane Lynch). However, once the game starts, Ralph realizes he's in way over his head, when the group is bombarded by giant mechanical 'Cy-bugs,' that take on the properties of whatever they consume. Ralph accidentally gets the first-person shooter (aka a kid playing the game inside the arcade) killed, and the game ends. As it does, a giant beam of light shoots out of the top of a nearby tower, attracting the Cy-bugs, and incinerating them as they are drawn into its light.As the game begins to reset for the next player, Ralph learns that the medal he wants is at the top of that tower. Removing his armor, he climbs the tower, and finds himself in a room full of Cy-bug eggs. Making his way through them all, he finds the medal (with the name 'Hero' on it) floating in the center of the room. Reaching it and taking it, a group of holographic soldiers appear, and salute Ralph on a job well done.Ralph gets a bit too excited, and accidentally steps on an egg, releasing a Cy-bug hatchling. It begins to attack Ralph, who attempts to get away in an escape pod. However, the pod takes off with the Cy-bug inside it. Sgt Calhoun and the others see it take off, and it escapes into the portal to 'Game Central Station.' It bounces around the station, before sending Ralph into a nearby racing game called 'Sugar Rush.' Crash-landing, the ejector seat sends Ralph in one direction, and the Cy-bug in another, sending it into a deep pit.Meanwhile, in Fix-It-Felix, Jr, the denizens of the game suddenly realize that Ralph is missing when a player attempts to play a game. The players panic, causing the player to assume something is wrong with the game when 'the wrecking guy' doesn't show up. The arcade's owner, Mr Litwik, is informed, and an 'out of order' sign is placed over the game. The game's denizens are unsure where Ralph may have gone, but get a surprise when Q*Bert shows up to say that Ralph was seen entering the game 'Hero's Duty.'With the possibility that without Ralph, the game's plug will be pulled and their time will end, Felix heads into 'Hero's Duty' to find Ralph. After almost being killed by Sgt Calhoun and her soldiers, Felix explains he is looking for Ralph, and also slowly falls in love with the Sergeant's 'hi-definition' looks. They then leave the game, and after finding out which way the escape pod went, set off into 'Sugar Rush'. Calhoun is greatly concerned, because Cy-bugs can multiply when plenty of food is available, i.e. the candies and sweets of 'Sugar Rush', and the possibility of the game being overrun by them is highly possible.Meanwhile, Ralph finds his medal hanging from the top of a candy-cane tree, along with a little girl named Vanellope Von Schweetz (Sarah Silverman). Vanellope ends up taking the medal before Ralph can get to it, and he then attempts to track her down.Vanellope ends up using the medal in place of a game coin for a major race to decide which of the top 9 racers (along with their ruler, King Candy (Alan Tudyk)) will get to be the chosen racers for the next day's play of the arcade (this is how the game randomly selects new racers for each day). However, when her entry is seen on the board, King Candy orders her to be caught, but this is interrupted when Ralph comes barreling through the starting line, attempting to get Vanellope himself, and destroying the area.Ralph is then captured and brought before King Candy. The King is at first shocked that Ralph appears to be 'game-jumping,' but Ralph claims that all he wants is his medal back. However, the King informs him that since it's now been entered into the game's programming, the only way he can get it back is if he wins the race.Ralph then leaves the King's castle still upset, but upon seeing several of the racers nearby, he figures maybe he can explain to them to win the race and get his medal for him. However, his thoughts are sidelined when the racers come across Vanellope, who has finished a small pedal-cart she intends to use in the race. As Ralph watches, the other kids say she can't enter because she's a glitch, and then wreck her cart. Ralph scares them off, and Vanellope decides to make a deal with Ralph: if he helps her get a new cart for the race, she'll win back his medal for him. Ralph is at first unsure of the alliance, but agrees to it.Meanwhile, Felix and Calhoun have discovered the crashed escape pod, but no sign of Ralph or the Cy-bug. Calhoun attempts to use a detector for finding the bug, but it can't focus because of the sugar particles interfering with the detector. As they continue on their journey, the end up in a pit of Nes-quik sand, and Felix is able to get them out by grabbing onto some Laffy-Taffy hanging from the trees.After they get out, Felix makes mention that some would consider Ralph going outside of his game to be 'turbo.' When Calhoun seems confused at this term, Felix explains where it came from. Many years ago, there was a racing game in the arcade called "Turbo-Tastic," whose main racer loved to win, and grew egotistical about it. When the arcade got a new racing game called "Roadblasters," Turbo abandoned his game, and entered into "Roadblasters," wrecking it. Because of this, both games were unplugged, and presumably, Turbo died when he was unable to return to his game.Back in the world of "Sugar Rush," Ralph and Vanellope break into a cart-baking factory, and Ralph helps Vanellope as best as he can. However, his attempts to help make the car look like a bakery-fueld mess, but Vanellope loves it anyway, and has Ralph sign his name on the side in icing. However, their intrusion is soon found out, and King Candy and his police force soon arrive.Ralph tells Vanellope to start driving, only for her to tell him that she doesn't know HOW to drive a cart! Ralph then uses his giant hands to help propel them away from the pursuing King and his police force, losing them when Vanellope directs him to a secret entrance near Diet Cola mountain.Inside, Ralph finds a giant pit over which Mentos stalactites hang overhead. When one drops into the soda, it causes a heated geyser to erupt.Nearby, Ralph also finds where Vanellope lives, having taken up refuge inside the mountain because no one likes her, or will give her a chance to prove she can race. Seeing how she just wants a chance to prove herself like he does, Ralph helps her learn how to race her vehicle.As they prepare to take off for the big race, Vanellope rushes back into the mountain to get something. It is then that King Candy shows up, and offers Ralph back his 'Hero' medal. The King then explains to Ralph that he is giving the medal to him, if he'll prevent Vanellope from racing. Ralph claims he won't, when the King tells him that it is essential to saving her life.As Vanellope is a glitch, she has trouble being a stable racer, and may end up popping up all over the game. If she is chosen to race, and the players don't like her, the plug could be pulled on Sugar Rush. However, because Vanellope is a glitch, she won't be able to escape into Game Central Station, and die within the game.The King leaves, and Vanellope returns, presenting Ralph with a Heart-shaped cookie medal, calling him both a snotbrain, and her hero for helping her. However, Ralph then attempts to get her to reconsider the race, when she sees he's got his 'Hero' medal back. Ralph then explains what the King told him, but she says she doesn't care and wants to race! Claiming he's saving her life, Ralph hangs Vanellope from a nearby tree, and breaks her cart. Heart-broken that he has ruined her chance, she claims he 'really is a bad guy,' and rushes back to her hide-out.Over at the King's castle, Felix has parted ways with Calhoun who is still looking for the Cy-bug, and arrives at the castle door. Felix meets the King's assistant, a little sourball. Realizing that Felix is from Ralph's game, he sends him to the king's Fungeon.Now that he's got his medal back, Ralph returns to his game, but finds the Niceland apartments are empty, except for one lone tenant, who explains everyone else headed to Game Central Station for safe haven. Ralph claims he got a medal that proves he's a hero, but in the wake of the game's plug being pulled at dawn if it doesn't function properly, the need to prove himself seems nil. Upset that he seems to have made a mess of things for his game as well as for Vanellope, he flings his 'Hero' medal at the case of the arcade game, causing the out-of-order sign to fall slightly. As it does so, he can see the gaming console for 'Sugar Rush,' and finds a strange sight: even though she is considered a glitch, Vanellope is on the advertising graphics for the game on its gaming console!Ralph then returns to 'Sugar Rush' and heads for diet cola mountain, finding the King's sourball cleaning up the remnants of Vanellope's cart. Ralph then gets the little sourball to tell that King Candy changed around Vanellope's code, but as to why he did this, the sourball has no clue. He also tells Ralph that both Felix and Vanellope are being held in the King's Fungeon, and Ralph sets out there along with the garbage can containing the broken pieces of Vanellope's kart.Ralph rescues Felix first, and the two reconcile, with Felix finally understanding why Ralph seemed to be acting so strange when he burst in on the party the other day.Using Felix's magical hammer, they repair Vanellope's cart, and manage to free her, with Ralph first admitting what a moron he was.As the race gets underway, Vanellope quickly takes off, leaving Felix and Ralph at the starting line. However, Calhoun also arrives, alerting them that the Cy-bug has eaten plenty under the grounds of Sugar Rush, and has multiplied into a giant army. As if on cue, they burst up around the stadium. Calhoun attempts to kill them off, but there are just too many. She quickly yells for those nearby to head towards the portal to Game Central Station. With the game too overrun with the creatures, they'll need to kill the game to end them. Realizing that it'll mean the end for Vanellope, Ralph stays by the finish line as long as he can, figuring if Vanellope can at least cross the finish line, she'll be able to escape.Meanwhile, the race continues onward, and Vanellope finally catches up to King Candy. However, as the two battle car-to-car, the King begins to glitch, and we see that he is Turbo in disguise! It soon becomes apparent that he took over 'Sugar Rush', locking up the memories of the other racers, thus making her a glitch!Luckily, Vanellope manages to get free, and focuses her glitching powers to break free of the Turbo's grasp, and speed into 1st position. As he attempts to catch up to her, a Cy-bug emerges in front of his car, and gobbles him up.As she nears the finish line, Vanellope's car is thrown off-track by another horde of Cy-bugs, and she is scooped up by Ralph, who takes her towards the portal to Game Central Station as the horde devours the finish line. Almost everyone else is able to get through but Vanellope. Ralph tries as hard as he can to take her, but it's no use.As Calhoun continues to blast away as many Cy-bugs as she can, she explains the only way they would be able to stop the horde, is if they had a beam of light to blast them away, like in "Hero's Duty." Ralph suddenly flashes back to Diet Cola Mountain, and the group of Mentos stalactites, and formulates a plan!Grabbing a hoverboard from Calhoun, he flies towards the mountain. Using his fists, he attempts to dislodge the Mentos at the top, to create a new beam of killing light. However, his plans are interrupted when a Cy-bug appears, with the colors and head of King Candy and Turbo. The newly-powered-up tyrant knocks Ralph around a bit, saying he is the most powerful virus in the arcade and will attempt to take over all the other games for revenge, Ralph battles Turbo, but Turbo dislikes being stopped and quickly overpowers Ralph, flying him above the mountain and sarcastically forcing him to watch Cy-Bugs close in on Vanellope. Ralph manages to break free from Cy-bug Turbo, aiming towards the Mentos. As he hits them, and they fall towards the cola pit deep within the mountain.Luckily, before he hits the bubbling pit, Vanellope gets back in her cart, and focusing her glitching power, manages to save Ralph before the major eruption.The eruption shines a bright light, which in turn draws most the Cy-Bugs, to their destruction. Turbo being more powerful then the others is able to resist for a short time but his Cy-Bug programming overwhelms him and he flies into the lava as well, killing him. Because video game characters who die outside their own game are unable to regenerate ever, this means that the Cy-Bugs gets destroyed and Turbo gets destroyed permanently to his death, vowing his revenge, because which causes King Candy's code to be destroyed forever.After this, Vanellope manages to cross the finish line, and due to Turbo's brainwash, the memories of the other players are reprogramed, and Vanellope is returned to being the Princess of Sugar Rush and a true character again. However, she claims that she doesn't really want to be a Princess, and feels that a government run by a President would be more her style. Turbo has disappeared forever (Sour Bill, Wynchel and Duncan, the Sugar Rush Racers and the Citizens, never heard of him again).In the aftermath, Felix and Calhoun are wed (even though their games will keep them apart by day in the arcade). Vanellope is now a regular racer in 'Sugar Rush,' though she still uses the cart that Ralph helped her build, and her glitching power makes her a big hit with the players.As for Ralph, the Nicelanders finally acknowledge and appreciate him. Ralph also claims that even though he still gets pitched off the top of the apartment building in his game, he loves the view through the glass of the video game box, and seeing his friend Vanellope doing what she loves, he feels great. | boring, plot twist, flashback, humor, brainwashing, revenge, entertaining | tt1772341 |
Bad Words | The top of a large trophy depicts a bumble bee triumphantly holding up a torch overlooks an auditorium alive with activity. Parents and their children undergoing last minute preparations for the Big Day: The 15h Annual Regional Spelling Bee in Columbus, Ohio. Students practicing words, parents fixing their childrens collars or giving last minute pep talks all being watched by Guy Trilby (Jason Bateman) as he stands by the complementary food table listening to classical music. A parent lumbers over and asks Guy which child hes there to support but Guy tells him that he's not here to support anyone. Confused, the parent asks Guy if hes the Host of the Spelling Bee. Guy claims he's the Winner and gets on stage with the children. A heavy set child asks Guy why hes on the stage and Guy callously replies its because the boys chair was screaming for help. Help. He's so heavy. Help. Before the competition can begin, the elderly host comments that the seats are only for competitorsOutside the school, Guy is told his is ineligible to compete by the Principal but Guy fires back that the rules only state that the participates must not have graduated the 8th grade by the date of the Spelling Bee which he hasn't. The Principal points out that Guy also needs to be sponsored by a Nationally recognized media service enter Guys sponsor, Jenny Widgeon (Katheryn Hahn), a writer for the online paper The Click and Scroll. Jenny threatens to file a law suit to prevent the competition of continuing without Guys participation. The Principal expresses his disgust but allows Guy to participate.Guy 40, single and employed as a proof-reader of manufacturer warranties explains that a few weeks ago he stepped away from his routine in order to do this whole thing because his feelings were hurt. And maybe, as he bursts out of the school with the trophy in hand and a mob of parents in hot pursuit, he didn't think this through. He slides across the front of Jenny's car and the pair drive away as the parents assault the car.Jenny puts down the in-flight meal tray of Guy's seat and places a tape recorder. They're on route to the National Spelling Bee competition and Jenny reminds them of their arrangement: Guy has to answer one question for every round of the tournament he advances through in exchange for her sponsorship. Guy sarcastically rolls his eyes but Jenny, unhappy with the paltry answers shes been given thus far, wants to know: why is Guy so hell bent in pissing off parents and crushing the dreams of children by entering this competition? He doesn't answer and, frustrated, Jenny storms off to the bathroom.Jenny's barely gone when a small Indian boy in the seat in front turns around to stare at Guy. The little boy introduces himself as Chaitainya (Rohan Chand) and happily exclaims that he's also a participant in the National Spelling Bee. Guy disinterested tells "Chai" (his nickname) to point his little curry hole towards the front of plane or hell tell the stewardesses that he heard Chai's back ticking. Chai laughs before (unprompted) explaining that his parents are in first class but made him sit in economy because it builds character. Undeterred by Guys disinterest, Chai asks what Guys winning word was. Guy claims he cant remember before sarcastically confessing auto-fellatio. Chai is confused, unfamiliar with the word, and asks for the origin. Guy: Loneliness and the lady who just went to the bathroom can tell you all about that.Guy and Jenny arrive at the office of Bernice Deagan (Allison Janney), the Director of the National Spelling Bee. Deagan expresses her disgust at Guy's antics pointing out that his presence is a disgrace that she has not witnessed in the twenty years in which she has been in charge of the event. She claims that to get where she is, she worked hard and with integrity. Guy points out that she doesn't know him or why he's here but deflects when she demands an answer. She tells him he's in the wrong place to work out his childhood traumas but Guy simply replies that he'll be out of her hair in three days when he wins. She presents Guy with his accommodations and hands him his participation ID expressing the regret of Dr. Bowman for not being there to wrap the lanyard around Guy's throat. Guy asks if Dr. Bowman is too busy doing something more pleasurable to another man's throat but Deagan responds that Dr. Bowman is in the middle of a media training seminar because its the first year the National Spelling Bee will be televised nationally. Guy feigns shock and heads to his hotel.Guy reflects on the fact that he had every opportunity to stop what he was doing to quit and not turn this into a big deal but confesses that it would have taken the lessons that hed never been taught growing up. At the hotel, children walk around with their parents. Guy snags his room key and heads to the elevator. The doors start to close when Chai, luggage in hand, races through just making it in as the doors shut. He excitedly points out that they're both on floor too but Guy shrugs him off. No time for Shwarma. Chai continues to pester Guy asking for Guys favorite word until Guy is forced to say shut the fuck up and walks away, yelling at him all the way to his room the hotels storage closet.The receptionist tells Guy that his accommodations are special and that the hotel is completely booked out. I don't have a bathroom, Guy complains. Yea. His reputation precedes him it seems. Guy calmly asks where he should put his piss and shit but receives no response instead, he heads off to the bar. Jenny joins him and laughs that Deagan is sending him a message. Jenny asks about Guys parents but Guy tells her to screw off so he can drink in peace. Jenny takes his choice of words to mean that Guy would like to have sex with her. Again. Guy looks at her, amused, and says first of all, you're welcome. He asks if screwing off sounds good and tells her all she has to do is ask nicely.The two have sex in Guy's storage closet of a room. As he thrusts, Jenny keeps repeating "Don't Look At Me!" Guy tries to screw her without looking at her but accidentally makes eye contact illiciting another scream of "DON'T LOOK AT ME." They finish up and Jenny dresses in a hurry, clearly regretting the entire encounter. After she leaves, Guy notices her panties lie crumpled in a corner of the room. He picks them up and slips them in his pocket when there's a knock at the door. Guy comments that Jenny should take better care to grab her panties before she leaves when he looks down and realizes its Chai.Chai asks Guy if Guy can open a jar of minibar pretzels. Guy takes the jar and closes the door on Chai opening up a few minutes later with the open jar and asking about Chai's parents. Chai tells him that his parents are staying in another hotel and that he studied so hard he missed room service. Guy brushes past Chai and goes straight for the minibar. Chai introduces Guy to his friend Todd Chai's book of words and their origins that he studies from nightly. Guy thinks that makes sense, grabs some booze and starts drinking. Chai asks if Fuck is Guy's favorite word and Guy tells him that it's up there. Guy pushes Chai to swear and doesn't stop until Chai says motherfucker. Guy calls him a weirdo and continues drinking.Chai wakes up Guy who passed out Chai's chair. He leaves the room a minute before Chai's father leaves the elevator and meets up with Jenny. They walk and talk on their way to the competition and Guy is about to return her panties when she explains he's been placed next to an expert speller: the child of two previous winners. As they pass the receptionist's desk, Guy plops a plastic bag on the desk for the woman: a plastic bag full of his shit.Deagan hands the randomized list of words for the round to the MC and angrily tells him that this year he should properly enunciate the words. Guy finds his seat among the children as a reporter introduces Dr. Bill Bowman (Philip Baker Hall) the President of the Golden Quill National Spelling Bee. As the first competitor goes up, Guy introduces himself to the boy sitting next to him but the boy responds that his father told him not to talk to the unemployed bum trying to take the money I deserve. Guy processes this before saying that he understands why his father is angry and hands the boy Jenny's panties. "Can you do me a favor and return these to your mother? She left these in my room last night. I'd do it myself but your father's here and I don't want to tip the nest. Good luck with that divorce though, they can be quite messy."The host calls the boy up to the podium, still holding Jenny's panties and processing what Guy said about his mother. Glancing over at his parents, he struggles with his word and misspells it eliminating him from the competition. He storms off the stage and shoves the panties into his mothers handas Jenny watches, cringing at how her panties were used by Guy.Guy is called up for his word, which he spells correctly. As the reporter and Dr. Bowman discuss the situation, Dr. Bowman exclaims that they are currently going through the process of plugging up the loop holes so that no more stunts like this can ever occur. In Deagan's office, a host of angry parents ridicule her for allowing Guy to participate in the competition. She assures them that if Guy makes it to the finals she will step down as director immediately.Back at the hotel, Guy downs nips from the minibar. Jenny offhandedly asks Guy what the grammatical significance of Why run from fire ants? Guy thinks and points out that every vowel is there in order backwards. She asks if there are any words in the English language that have every vowel in order and Guy immediately responds with facetious. Jenny tells Guy that those questions were from a test that is given to children who could potentially be geniuses which his eighth grade assessments confirmed before he dropped out. Guy flips through the papers but tosses them aside; disinterested. He points out that his father was never around as a kid so he never had guidance or direction. Jenny asks who his father is since it could be a genetic gift and Guy confirms it didn't come from his mother a woman who hated education so much that when he entered, ironically enough, his first spelling bee she burned his favorite dictionary. Jenny asks if that is why Guy is here, to get back at his dead mother. He responds that she has bigger issues since she needs to be blindfolded to get off during sex. She swears she wont let him near her vagina even if she were offered a million dollars but a few moments later shes giving him a rim job in the shower. Guy laughs: "I get it now. Don't look at me."Guy leaves her room and sees Chai sitting on the floor outside his room. He asks the boy if he got locked out of his own room but Chai was just waiting to see if Guy would like to get dinner. Guy agrees and they go to the hotel restaurant. Chai happily exclaims that he enjoys the competition and doesn't care about winning; just having fun. Before Guy can respond one of the competitors mothers (Rachel Harris) comes up to them and tells Guy he is an insult to everyone who worked hard to get to the competition calling him nothing more than an asshole. Guy tells her that Chai is a child and that he doesn't speak like that in front of the boy but that she can take her potty mouth, locate her preteen cocksucker son, shove him up that old blown out sock of a vagina, and go back to whatever shit kicking town you came from. He continues to insult her vagina and then tells her Good night. He tells Chai they should go have some fun.The pair kick off the night by running into a supermarket and stealing a live lobster. They proceed to run around town, hitting up several bars and performing pranks on locals before doing donuts in a nearby parking lot with Jenny's rental car. After, they wash their hands in a nearby bathroom when a businessman enters, texting on his blackberry. Guy and Chai stifle giggles as the man goes into a stall. A few moments pass before the man stumbles out with his pants around his ankles and the lobsters claw around his junk.At a local dive bar, Jenny meets with a former boyfriend, a Bureau employee, and gets a background check on Guy Trilby. The ex-boyfriend makes awkward advances while she reads the papers realizing why Guy is in the National Spelling Bee in the first place.Guy takes Chai out to get chilidogs and milk shakes. Chai says that he's happy they are friends and Guy laughs. He tells Chai that he's always been a loner and when he was little his mother would always take him along, avoiding paying rent, so he never ended up with a lot of friends. He tells Chai that even if Chai never makes any more friends, he'll be fine just like Guy. Chai gives Guy a toy car he stole from the Super Market when they stole the lobster, pointing out that: "toys aren't fun to play with if you don't have friends to share them with." Guy repays Chai's kindness by hiring a hooker to show Chai her tits. They return to the hotel and when Chai enters his room, his father is waiting.On the bus to the competition the next morning, Jenny asks if they can make time after today's round to talk not mentioning the background check. In her office, Deagan alters the days list so that Guy is given an extraordinarily hard word, and once again insults the host by telling him that he should speak English when he reads the words.Guy tells the girl he is now sitting next to that she might have dropped a hair clip on the ground when she stands up to check, he rips open a ketchup packet and pours it out on the girls chair. She complains that she couldn't see it but Guy tells her not to mind its time to celebrate: shes now a woman. The girl doesn't understand what hes saying but Guy tells her that she had her period all over the back of her pants. She gets nervous about the situation and, as the host calls her name several times, she runs out of the auditorium in embarrassment. Guy is called up to the podium after and the host pauses, horrified at the word he must now read out loud: Floccinaucinihilipilification. Guy asks him to repeat it, processing the word before slowly spelling it correctly! He smiles at Deagan and returns to his seat.The number of competitors dwindles until Guy and Chai are among the finalists. The angry mob returns to Deagan's office demanding her head (or just her resignation). She refuses until the host arrives with the tampered USB flash drive and points out she unfairly manipulated the competition so that Guy would get the hardest words: a violation of the conditions of the National Spelling Bee. The parents are horrified that Guy is still in the competition despite these measures having been taken. The host smirks at Deagan and tells her that while Guy may be an unlikeable asshole, he still deserves a fair chance. "You're done", he says. "Did I enunciate that correctly?"Guy returns to the hotel and receives a message from the receptionist. He is surprised to see it is from Dr. Bowman. Meeting by a duck pond, Dr. Bowman confesses that, when he was younger, he had a wild time often coming to the precipice of making life altering mistakes. Each time, with no guidance of his own, he was able to turn around and walk away from those mistakes to make something of himself. He tells Guy that he's approaching an abyss of his own and assures him that if he continues further in the competition he will not be able to live with what he did to all those children. Guy retorts that it's a nice threat, but Dr. Bowman simply says Losers lose, Mr. Trilby. Dr. Bowman walks away after confirming that he thinks Guy is nothing more than a loser but Guy tells him that he's not going to lose.Swinging by a gas station to pick up a few Playboys for Chai, Guy walks up to his room when Jenny arrives eager to talk about her discovery. He brushes past her, all he wants to do is give the kid his porn and ice cream and then go to sleep. Jenny gets upset that Guy can't even fake interest in talking despite the way their relationship has been going. She calls him a prick and leaves him on his own.As he reaches Chai's room, he sees the door ajar and talking from within. Chai's father reminds Chai that while Chai must keep Guy close for the competitive advantage, he must not get too close as Guy is still the enemy and that he should keep Guy close so that Guy wont be able to bring himself to beat Chai when the time comes. Chai says he knows the plan when Guy bursts in, angry. Guy reveals he heard everything and tells Chai that he makes him sick. Chai insists that they're really friends but Guy calls him a liar. But Guy, we ARE friends you showed me my first boobs! Chai's father is instantly confused but Guy reiterates that Chai is a liar. Guy tosses the toy car onto the floor and stomps it before storming out.Later that evening, the receptionist calls Chai's room to tell him that his father will pick him up in the lobby to take him out for ice cream. Chair leaves the room and, as he does, Guy sneaks in. Chai arrives at the lobby and waits, confused, before returning to the room and finding Todd his spelling binder missing. Noticing a bright orange light in the window, Chai draws closer pulling apart the shades to reveal Guy in the courtyard: burning Todd and giving Chai the finger. Chai bursts into tears of anguish at the sight of his notebook on fire.A few hours later, when hes sure Guy is asleep, Chai calls the police to report that Guy has abducted and possibly raped a young woman. He watches as two police officers burst into Guys room and drag him out violently.Jenny gets Guy out of jail and insists that they talk about what shes found. She confesses that she knows his father is Dr. Bowman and Guy congratulates her she's a better reporter than he thought. Guy tells her that his mother told him on her deathbed who his father was and how to find him. Bowman had been a traveling encyclopedia salesman and his mother was a waitress; after a one night stand, she got pregnant, told Bowman and Bowman took off. Pissed at Bowman and angry at the loss of his mother, Guy decided to embarrass Bowman and his precious spelling competition. Jenny asks Guy if Bowman knows who Guy is. Not a clue. But he will once its over.The finals get underway speller after speller is eliminated. When Guy is called up his word is slubberdegullion. Before he can start spelling, the mother he insulted at the hotel restaurant calls out Perfect, I know what that means a dirty, wretched slob just like you. The host turns towards her and says that if she keeps talking, she will be asked to leave. Outraged, she screams that the host should ask Guy to leave security offers come and escort her from the room as her outburst escalates into profanities on national television. The entire crowd begins chanting Kick him out, kick him out over and over forcing Bowman to take the mic and tell them that they are on national television and should show the competition the respect it deserves that he deserves. He tosses the mic to the floor and Guy responds in kind by spelling the word correctly and taking his seat.The third to last speller is eliminated and now its just Guy and Chai. Guy is called up first and given his word: Parisology. Guy looks out at the crowd, taking them in. He spells slowly and deliberately looking right at Bowman as he purposely misspells the word. Everyone begins clapping in excitement but the Host interrupts to remind them: because its the final two, Guy will stay on stage until Chai spells his word correctly if Chai messes up his word, Guy will get another chance to win. Guy sits down and tells Chai hes done but Chai insists that they are still friends and misspells his word to prove it.Guy is dumbfounded and gets up to the mic, misspells his word again and tells Chai that its his game to win. Chai refuses telling Guy that if this is the only way to prove they are friends then its what hell do. Guy tells him to stop wasting his time turning to Chai's parents in the audience to complement them on what a lying piece of shit their son is. He goes up to take the mic and misspell his next word when Chai gets up and growls I did not lie! kicking Guy straight in the balls. The collective audience gasps in surprise. Guy breathes in you can add violent to the list. Gandhi would be proud. Dr. Bowman rushes to the stage as Chai picks up a chair and declares I was born in Cleveland, Ohio! swinging for Guy but knocking Dr. Bowman off the stage instead.A commercial interruption. Public access tv messages float by as the Host, officials and Dr. Bowman decide on how to proceed.Dr. Bowman addresses the audience because the contestants behavior was equally egregious, neither will be disqualified. They will each be given 1 more round of words and the winner will then be decided. Chai goes up first and his father stands up, begging the boy not to embarrass him or his mother any further. Guy realizes that if he doesn't think fast, this could drag on further. When the host reads out Chai's word, Guy immediately says Come on kid, easiest word in the world and misspells it. Chai retorts that Guy missed a letter, and spells it correctly. Dr. Bowman laughs triumphant BOTH contestants can now be disqualified on the grounds of cheating. But the host quickly points out that because Guy was purposefully misspelling the word and Chai corrected him, Chai wasn't receiving help and STILL spelled the word correctly. Bowman declares Chai the winner and Guy walks off the stage and towards the exit of the auditorium. As he leaves Chai insists that he wants to split the winnings with Guy because they're friends, but Guy smiles and gives the kid the finger and leaves.In his hotel room, Guy sees the supply list hanging on the wall and decides to write down his story in a letter for Bowman - explaining who he is, how he got there and why he did what he did (bookending the narration of the film). He and Jenny check out, smiling having patched up their differences. On the way out of the hotel, he passes Dr. Bowman and hands Bowman the letter but Bowman rips it in two. What could you have to write that I would be interested in reading? Guy frowns and responds: The bit about me being your son. He takes Jennys hand and walks away. As he leaves, Bowman stoops down to pick up the letter.On a plane home, Bowman has the taped letter in his hand and reads it over the last line explaining that the note wasn't about blame, it was just an explanation and a request for understanding. Guy signs off Yours, literally Guy Trilby.Sometime later, Chai leaves school and a pair of bullies knock his stuff to the floor. As they cycle away, an unmarked Crowne Victoria pulls up in front of the school with Guy in the drivers seat. Chai asks how Guy got the car and Guy tells him that he won it at a police auction with his half of the winnings. He offers the kid a ride and puts a siren on the roof. Together, they drive after the bullies on their bikes cheering as they do it.The End. | cute | tt2170299 |
Muz z prvního století | In the near future in Czechoslovakia (the movie was made in 1961, after all), a space flight is in the final stages of preparation. As the astronauts are being interviewed, Joseph the upholsterer (Milos Kopecký) is gluing the last bits of padding in place. Joseph is lazy and incompetent, and always complaining -- the classic goof-off who tries to shift blame to anywhere but him. While his supervisor berates him for being behind schedule via the communicator screen in the ship, Joseph manages to kick the takeoff switch and the rocket takes off into space with him as the only passenger.Next we see Joseph (with a full beard now, apparently to demonstrate that much time has passed) returning home in the ship with an alien companion from the "Blue Star" named Adam (Vít Olmer). The viewer never sees Adam's home world, but we learn that he has accompanied Joseph home to learn more about the "pattern" of humans. Adam looks exactly like a human except for a slightly larger, hairless cranium. His clothes are very "futuristic", even more so than those the humans are wearing when they reach Earth. After landing, Adam uses a small handheld device of his to become invisible, the better to observe the humans.Joseph discovers to his surprise that 500 years have passed. During an interview with the local government administrators and scientists, Joseph is amused then he administrator asks him, "When did socialism come to Luxembourg?", and he responds, "Socialism? Radio Luxembourg? Oh boy!" In turn, they laugh at him when he asks "Is this the East... or the West?", with the obvious implication that the East prevailed over the years and everything is now a happy worker's Socialist paradise: "He IS from the First Century." Everyone he sees is happy and content, with modern conveniences everywhere and no apparent conflicts anywhere. War appears to be a thing of the past.Joseph is given a guide (Josef Hlinomaz), a new apartment and access to a machine that can deliver anything a person wants to select from a catalog. Confronted with the ability to fulfill his every desire, he goes wild with gluttony and begins tearing pages from the catalog and feeding them into the machine. Dozens of boxes of "stuff" appear -- including a giraffe, which seems to be the ultimate symbol of consumption for its own sake. This begins to make the locals wonder if there's not something wrong with "The Man from The First Century", and they decide he's been infected with "greedyitis".Ultimately Joseph is called upon to explain himself, and is interviewed by people from around the world via television. Joseph's self-importance and lack of knowing anything important, even about his own time, disgusts the assembled viewers, and they begin to drop out of the meeting. Desperate for attention, Joseph claims to have discovered a new fuel source he "invented" on the Blue Star (which is actually Adam's people's technology), which brings renewed interest in him. Of course, he knows nothing about the subject, and convinces Adam to help him as part of his continued study of humans. Adam agrees, but his studies are beginning to show that Joseph is quite different from the other humans on Earth, and he begins to distrust Joseph.Much of the movie is Joseph making a complete buffoon of himself everywhere he goes -- a museum, a bar, etc. He can't fit in because everyone else is happy and content with their lives (one character says he enjoys cutting up onions because it's his only chance for a good cry), while Joseph is still his old incompetent, greedy and blame-shifting self.A love interest is introduced by the characters Peter (Radovan Lukavský) and Eve (Anita Kajlichova), young scientists who are obviously in love and want to marry, but Peter is depressed because he doesn't have a dowry (?), and can't make the offer. The fuel formula figures prominently in this subplot, and in the denouement is presented by Adam to Peter and Eve as a gift, "Because you're in love."Ultimately, Joseph's increasing inability to fit in begins to disgust his hosts and they begin to reject him, and in a fit of near-madness Joseph tells them about Adam and claims that he is studying Earth in order to attack it with advanced weapons. Joseph is finally sent off to the "sanitarium" to have his greedyitis cured, and while there sees via the video screen when Adam greets the others and declares his peaceful intentions: "Why would thinking beings want to make war with one another?"Realizing he's ruined, Joseph sneaks out of the hospital and makes his way back to the rocketship, where he takes off, intending to go back to the Blue Star. Adam is watching with the others on the video screen, and alters the rocket's course to send him back to where he came. The final shot is the administrator breaking the Fourth Wall and speaking directly to us: "Look out, people. He's coming back to YOU." | satire | tt0056265 |
The Medallion | Eddie Yang (Jackie Chan) is a Hong Kong police inspector co-operating with Interpol in the capture of a crime lord named AJ "Snakehead" Staul (Julian Sands). Snakehead procures an ancient book from a Chinese bookstore keeper, which tells the story of a boy being chosen every thousand years to bind the two-halves of a legendary medallion. In Hong Kong, Eddie and Interpol agent Arthur Watson (Lee Evans) lead a raid to capture Snakehead and his men, who are about to kidnap the boy, named Jai (Alex Bao). Eddie and the agents fight off Snakehead's men, infiltrating the temple containing Jai. Jai is saved but Snakehead eludes them. Two weeks later Snakehead captures Jai aboard a cargo boat in Hong Kong. Eddie and a team of Hong Kong police engage and defeat several of Snakehead's men, but Snakehead escapes with Jai to Dublin, Ireland.
In Ireland, Eddie is assigned to help Interpol with the investigation, much to Watson's chagrin. Eddie is also reunited with his girlfriend, a British Interpol agent named Nicole James (Claire Forlani). By chance Eddie later encounters and apprehends one of Snakehead's top men, who confesses Jai is being held in the harbour. Eddie, Watson, and Nicole move to rescue Jai, defeating several Snakehead agents in the process. Eddie and Jai end up trapped inside a container, which is knocked into the water by one of Snakehead's men before they can be released. Eddie keeps Jai alive by finding an inflatable tent, and securely putting Jai inside but Eddie dies from drowning. After being rescued, Jai uses his medallion on Eddie's body.
In the morgue, Watson is grieving over Eddie's body and is prepared to say his last words, when Eddie suddenly appears beside him. Eddie realises Jai used the medallion to resurrect him, and his former body vanishes into nothingness. Jai splits the medallion into its two-halves, giving one of them to Eddie. Snakehead's men appear in the hospital to recapture Jai and during the fight, Eddie discovers the medallion has also granted him superhuman strength and immortality.
Nicole looks after Jai but he is captured again by Snakehead. At his castle hideout, Snakehead forces Jai to activate the medallion so he can gain its power, but with only one half of it, Snakehead only gains superhuman strength and remains mortal. To steal the other half, Snakehead and his men attack Watson's family. Watson's Chinese wife is revealed to be a police operative like him, much to Watson's surprise as he kept his job secret from his family. Together they fight off the attack from Snakehead's men.
Eddie, Watson, and Nicole learn the location of Snakehead's castle lair and go to finish him once and for all. The operation runs smoothly at first, but Snakehead kills Nicole and becomes immortal. He and Eddie engage in a vicious fight, until Eddie uses the medallion to take away the life it gave, which leads to the two dragons from the medallion appearing and taking Snakehead, which traps him in the medallion. Jai allows Eddie to use the medallion to resurrect Nicole, who also gains super-strength and immortality. The two then run at superhuman speed into the distance as Jai enters another dimension through a portal, frightening Watson. | comedy, murder, cult, violence, good versus evil, action, humor, revenge | tt0288045 |
The Apartment | Calvin Clifford (C. C.) "Bud" Baxter (Jack Lemmon) is a lonely office drudge at a national insurance corporation in a high-rise building in New York City. In order to climb the corporate ladder, Bud allows four company managers, who reinforce their position over him by regularly calling him "Buddy Boy," to take turns borrowing his Upper West Side apartment for their various extramarital liaisons, which are so noisy that his neighbors assume that he is a playboy bringing home different women every night.
The four managers (Ray Walston, David Lewis, Willard Waterman, and David White) write glowing reports about Bud, who hopes for a promotion from the personnel director, Jeff D. Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray). Sheldrake calls Baxter to his office but says that he has found out why they were so enthusiastic. Then he goes on to promote him in return for exclusive privileges to borrow the apartment. He insists on using it that same night and, as compensation for such short notice, gives Baxter two company-sponsored tickets to the hit Broadway musical The Music Man.
After work, Bud catches Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine), an elevator operator on whom he has had his eye, and asks her to go to the musical with him. They agree to meet at the theater after she has a drink with a former fling. The man whom she meets, by coincidence, is Sheldrake, who convinces her that he is about to divorce his wife for her. They go to Baxter's apartment as Baxter waits forlornly outside the theater.
Several weeks later, at the company's raucous Christmas party, Sheldrake's secretary Miss Olsen (Edie Adams), drunkenly reveals to Fran that Fran is just the latest in a string of female employees whom Sheldrake has seduced into affairs with the promise of divorcing his wife, with Miss Olsen herself being one of them. At Bud's apartment, Fran confronts Sheldrake, upset with herself for believing his lies. Sheldrake maintains that he genuinely loves her but then leaves to return to his suburban family as usual.
Meanwhile, Bud accidentally finds out about Sheldrake and Fran. Heartbroken, he lets himself be picked up by a woman (Hope Holiday) at a local bar. When they arrive at his apartment, he is shocked to find Fran in his bed, fully clothed and unconscious from an intentional overdose of his sleeping pills. He enlists the help of his neighbor, Dr. Dreyfuss (Jack Kruschen), to revive Fran without notifying the authorities and sends his confused bar pickup home. To protect his job, he lets Dreyfuss believe that he and Fran are lovers who had fought, which he took so lightly that he was meeting another woman while she was attempting suicide. This comes as no surprise to Dr. Dreyfuss or his wife, who long assumed Baxter was a womanizing playboy from all the noise coming from his apartment at all hours. Fran spends two days recuperating at his apartment, while Bud tries entertaining and distracting her from any further suicidal thoughts, talking her into playing numerous hands of gin rummy.
Since she has been missing, Fran's brother-in-law Karl Matuschka (Johnny Seven) comes to the office looking for her. She has not been there and neither has Baxter. The previous day, one of the executives had seen Fran in the bedroom when he came to the apartment hoping to borrow it, and mentioned it to the other executives. Resenting Bud for denying them access to his apartment, the executives direct the man there. Baxter again takes responsibility for Fran's actions, and Karl punches him twice in the face. Fran kisses Bud for not revealing her affair with Sheldrake to Karl, and Bud, sensing that she now cares for him, smiles and says the punch "didn't hurt a bit".
Sheldrake rewards Bud with a further promotion and fires Miss Olsen for telling Fran his history of womanizing. However, Miss Olsen retaliates by telling his wife, who promptly throws him out. Sheldrake moves into a room at his athletic club but now figures that he can string Fran along while he enjoys his newfound bachelorhood. When Sheldrake asks Bud for the key to the apartment on New Year's Eve, Bud refuses and quits the firm. That night at a party, an indignant Sheldrake tells Fran about Bud refusing to let Sheldrake use the apartment, especially for bringing Fran there, and then quitting. Fran finally realizes that Baxter is the man who truly loves her. Fran deserts Sheldrake at the party and runs to Bud's apartment. Arriving at the door, she hears a loud noise like a gunshot. Afraid that Bud has shot himself, calling back to when he shared a story of his own suicide attempt, Fran pounds on the door. Bud, holding a bottle of overflowing champagne, finally opens the door, surprised and delighted that Fran is there. Bud has been packing for a move to another job and city. Fran insists on resuming their gin rummy game, telling Bud that she is now free as well. When he declares his love for her, her reply is the now-famous final line of the film: "Shut up and deal", delivered with a loving and radiant smile. | revenge, comedy, satire, romantic | tt0053604 |
The Lady Vanishes | In a fictional country in a highly mountainous region of Europe, a motley group of travelers is delayed by an avalanche that has blocked the railway tracks. The passengers cram into a small village hotel for the night. Among the hotel guests eager to return to England are two British gentlemen, Caldicott and Charters, who are worried about missing the upcoming cricket Test match. The only room left for them is the maid's room. Other Britons are Iris (Margaret Lockwood), a young woman of independent means who has spent a holiday with some friends, now returning home to be married, Miss Froy (May Whitty), an elderly lady who has worked some years abroad as a governess and music teacher, Gilbert (Michael Redgrave), a young musicologist who has been studying the folk songs of the region, and a secretive couple Mr. and Mrs. Todhunter (Cecil Parker and Linden Travers) who are having a clandestine affair. Folk dancers stomp loudly in Gilbert's room just above Iris, making it impossible for Miss Froy to properly hear a musician singing a haunting melody out in the street. Iris bribes the manager to throw Gilbert out of his room. Gilbert retaliates by barging into Iris's room and refusing to leave. Miss Froy seems to particularly enjoy the musician in the street below, and she throws a coin out her window. The music stops, as a murderous hand is seen to strangle the balladeer, but no one seems to notice anything wrong.The next morning, as the passengers are leaving the hotel to board the train, Miss Froy asks Iris for help in finding her luggage. They huddle around a pile of baggage, and just then a flowerpot is pushed off a window ledge from an upper floor. The pot appears meant for Miss Froy, but it knocks Iris on the head, instead. She says she is all right and gets on the train, but drops unconscious once aboard. When she recovers, she finds herself seated in a compartment across from Miss Froy, who has evidently helped her. In the compartment are other passengers who appear not to understand English.Iris and Miss Froy strike up a conversation. They leave the compartment together to go to the dining car for tea. On route to the dining car, Miss Froy stumbles into the compartment of the English couple the Todhunters and proffers her excuses. In the dining car, the pair are seated by a waiter and Miss Froy provides a supply of her own tea, Harriman's Herbal Tea. While in the dining car, Miss Froy writes her name in the dust of the window after Iris mishears it as Freud when the noise of another train drowns out their conversation. During tea, Miss Froy annoys the two English gentlemen returning to England for the test match by asking for their sugar cubes, which are being used to illustrate a cricket match. Miss Froy tells Iris about her job as a children's governess and music teacher. They reserve two places for the first sitting of lunch. After returning to the compartment, encouraged by Miss Froy, Iris drops off into a heavy nap.When she reawakens, the governess has vanished. Iris is shocked when the other passengers in the compartment, the Baroness (Mary Clare), and a grinning Italian (Philip Leaver), claim "the English lady" never existed. Even the other English travelers deny ever seeing her, for their own reasons: the Todhunters for fear of drawing attention to their affair, and the cricket fans Caldicott and Charters because they are worried about missing the cricket Test match if confirming the disappearance causes delays.A reknowned "brain specialist" on the train, Dr. Egon Hartz (Paul Lukas), suggests that Miss Froy never existed: Iris was bumped on the head before boarding, and the conversation may have only taken place in her mind. Dr. Hartz, declares that she must be hallucinating due to her accident. However, Iris is certain that something more sinister is going on and continues to investigate,.As she searches the second class carriages looking for Miss Froy, Iris meets Gilbert. Their earlier interactions back at the hotel had not been good, but he believes she is sincerely distressed and offers to help. Since the train had not stopped anywhere during her nap, Iris is convinced Miss Froy is somewhere in the train.At the first stop the train picks up a heavily bandaged brain tumor patient, carried on a gurney (a patient of Dr. Hartz) who is being transported to a hospital for surgery. Iris watches carefully on one side of the train, Gilbert on the other, and they see no one get off the train.After the train starts off again, Gilbert and Iris question all the people who should have seen Miss Froy, but they draw a blank until Mrs. Todhunter comes forward to say she has seen Miss Froy. She hopes that having her name made public will trigger a scandal, which would result in divorces for herself and her paramour. After this, the Italian from Iris's compartment appears and says that Miss Froy has returned. Iris and Gilbert return to the compartment to find someone dressed like Miss Froy seated there, however when her face is seen it is not Miss Froy. This lady is Madame Kummer (Josephine Wilson). The Baroness says she did not equate Iris's English nanny with this German lady. Gilbert announces that he can dispel the confusion as there is someone else on the train who has seen Miss Froy/Madame Kummer. Unfortunately while this has been going on, Mrs. Todhunter has told her lover what she has done. Mr. Todhunter says that while her husband would divorce her, his wife will never divorce him. With this in her mind, Mrs. Todhunter now identifies Madame Kummer as the same woman she saw wearing oatmeal tweeds early on.Feeling dejected, Iris takes Gilbert to the dining car. Gilbert tells Iris bits about his life. During this conversation, Iris notices Miss Froy's name fingered on the dust of the window just as they enter a tunnel. By the time they come out into the open, the name has disappeared. Iris becomes annoyed and frustrated at Gilbert's disbelief as she tells him about the Harriman's Herbal Tea package. Iris storms out of the dining car and pulls the emergency cord in desperation.After the train has restarted, and under the threat of being put off the train at the next stop, Iris returns to her compartment alone. Meanwhile, some rubbish has been thrown out of the dining car and a gaudy tea label for Harriman's Herbal sticks briefly to the window in front of Gilbert. This is enough to make him believe Iris and he rushes back to her. They embrace in the corridor. After this, they search the train and end up in the baggage car, where they find the broken glasses of Miss Froy among items that identify the Italian as "The Great Doppo," a professional magician on tour, adept at making people disappear. The magician appears and he takes the glasses from Gilbert. A struggle ensues, and the magician even draws a switchblade. But with some help from Iris, they knock the magician unconscious and put him in a trunk, and tie a rope around it. Unbeknownst to them, the trunk is a magician's trick trunk and the Italian makes his escape.After this, they head off to tell all of this to the one person they think they can trust, Dr Hartz. They open the door of his compartment but he is not there, only the heavily bandaged patient and the nun nurse.Iris notices that the nun with the patient is wearing high heels, which means she is in disguise. Iris surmises that Miss Froy was lured to the baggage car and held captive. Madame Kummer, who wasn't seen boarding the train, must have come aboard disguised as the patient, dressed in clothes like Miss Froy's, with Miss Froy becoming the bandaged patient. Dr. Hartz returns and tells them to wait in the next compartment while he orders the nun to arrange for drinks to be drugged, as one waiter is an accomplice. He takes them to the dining car, and urges them to drink the brandies he has ordered to calm their nerves. When they return to the compartment, he tells them the patient is Miss Froy and she will be taken off the train at the next station. She will be taken to a hospital, where he will perform an operation from which she will not recover. He also tells them that the drinks they have just had have been drugged. Iris and Gilbert then seem to go to sleep due to the drug.Dr. Hartz leaves the compartment to get ready to get off at the next station. But the drug hasn't taken full effect yet, and Gilbert and Iris have heard that they can fight this particular drug's drowsiness by a lot of physical activity. Gilbert climbs out of the window and into the compartment where the nun and Miss Froy are. The nun speaks perfect English and tells Gilbert that she was hired to play a part but is unwilling to help in a murder. They unwrap Miss Froy from her constraining bandages. At this point Madame Kummer enters, so they bandage her up in Miss Froy's place against her will. Gilbert and Miss Froy return to the next compartment and pretend to be still asleep because of the drug.At the following stop, Dr Hartz, the patient, and the Baroness leave the train and board a waiting ambulance. With the train still at the station, the identity of the patient is discovered. Dr Hartz arranges for a station worker to uncouple the rear cars, so when the engine starts off again, only the first class car and the dining car are pulled out and they are diverted away from the border. After the train pulls off, pleased that they will soon be over an international border, Gilbert notices that the back of the train has been uncoupled and goes back to tell the others. They agree that there is only the carriage they are in and the dining car between them and the engine but that there wouldn't be anyone there right now. Gilbert points out that it is teatime so all the English people will be there. The three of them go to the dining car. At first no one believes that the train has been uncoupled. Just as they confirm this, the train stops in a wood, and they see cars waiting, uniformed people in them. Dr. Hartz and the Baroness (she is wife to the Minister of Propaganda) are seen with the cars.A military officer approaches the train and politely tells the English group to get off the train so they can be escorted to safety. The nun warns Gilbert of a trap and he clobbers the officer with a chair, and he falls unconscious. Charters thinks this is very rash, and says he is going to go out to apologize and "put things right." But a dining car steward has already told the officials of the attack. The Baroness gives an order and one of the soldiers shoots Charters in the hand. Gilbert takes the officer's revolver, and challenges the approaching officials. Mr. Todhunter also has a pistol. Gilbert and Caldicott (who Charters says is "a damn good shot") start firing, in response to attacking shots. Mr. Todhunter goes outside waiving a white handkerchief in truce and is shot by the attackers. While this is going on, Miss Froy reveals to Iris and Gilbert that she is taking a message: a tune to take to a Mr. Callender at the Foreign Office. Gilbert promises that he can memorize Miss Froy's tune quickly because of his musical training. Miss Froy leaves and is seen in the distance dropping behind a rise after a shot is fired towards her.When they run out of ammunition, Gilbert decides that they need to get the train started, head back to the junction, switch the points, and get across the border. He and Caldicott head to the engine while Charters will, at the right moment, jump down and switch the points. They force the engine crew to start the train and head back to the junction. Both crew are shot by the soldiers, but luckily Gilbert once "ran a miniature engine on the Dymchurch line." The unconscious officer has recovered, and is holding the passengers at gunpoint, but the nun manages to sneak out to change the points. After she throws the switch, and is scooped up by Gilbert in the nick of time, she is shot in the leg by Dr. Hartz, who has pursued them in one of the cars from the woods.On arrival at Victoria station, London, they all go their separate ways. Sadly for Caldicott and Charters, the Test match has been abandoned due to flooding. On seeing her fiancé coming to greet her, Iris hides in a cab, pulls Gilbert in with her, and says she wants to marry Gilbert instead. They continue on to the Foreign Office. On arriving there, in the excitement of their feelings for each other, Gilbert has forgotten the tune. After a few unsuccessful attempts to refresh his memory they hear the tune being played on a piano, and walk into the next room to see Miss Froy playing it. It is the same tune the balladeer strangled at the hotel had been playing. Iris and Gilbert approach Miss Froy. She looks up to see them both, and grasps their hands joyfully. | suspenseful, murder | tt0030341 |
Breach | Eric O'Neill (Ryan Phillippe) is a young FBI employee assigned to work undercover as a clerk to Robert Hanssen (Chris Cooper), a senior agent he is told is suspected of being a sexual deviant. Hanssen has been recalled from a detail post at the State Department to FBI headquarters ostensibly to head up a new division specializing in Information Assurance. Initially, Hanssen insists on a strict formality between the two men. He frequently rails against the bureaucracy of the FBI and complains that only those who regularly "shoot guns" are considered for senior positions instead of those, like himself, who are involved in vital national security matters. He calls the bureau's information technology systems antiquated and laments the lack of coordination and information exchange with other intelligence agencies.
Eventually, Hanssen becomes a friend and mentor to O'Neill and takes a personal interest in him and his wife Juliana (Caroline Dhavernas), who is suspicious of Hanssen and resents his intrusions. A devout Catholic who is also a member of Opus Dei, Hanssen urges O'Neill, a lapsed Catholic, and his secular East German-born wife to become active churchgoers.
O'Neill finds no evidence of Hanssen leading a secret double life and develops a growing respect for his boss, so he confronts his handler in the undercover assignment, Kate Burroughs (Laura Linney), and she admits that the sexual deviance allegations are only a secondary consideration. Hanssen is suspected of spying for the Soviet Union and Russia for years and being responsible for the deaths of agents working for the United States. He learns that FBI Director Louis Freeh is personally leading the investigation.
While the FBI could arrest Hanssen under lesser charges, they want to catch him in an act of espionage, so they can threaten him with the death penalty for treason and possibly induce him to divulge the information he has compromised. O'Neill is ordered to obtain data from Hanssen's Palm Pilot and keep him occupied while FBI agents search his car and plant covert listening devices in it.
The tracking devices in Hanssen's car cause interference with the radio, which makes Hanssen suspicious. He also wonders why he was placed in an isolated position in the FBI only a few months before he's scheduled to retire. He tells O'Neill he believes he is being watched by Russian agents. The FBI intercepts a message he sends to his Russian handlers saying he will not provide any more information. O'Neill persuades Hanssen that he is not being trailed by the Russians or by him on behalf of the FBI. With his confidence restored, Hanssen makes one last dead drop of stolen information, and the FBI catches him in the act.
Although he is assured promotion, O'Neill is discouraged with the toll the case has taken on his marriage and opts to leave the agency. When O'Neill leaves his office with his belongings, he unexpectedly encounters Hanssen in an elevator being escorted by arresting officers. Hanssen tells O'Neill to "Pray for me" and O'Neill promises that he will. | suspenseful, intrigue, psychedelic, murder, flashback | tt0401997 |
Hostel: Part II | About a week after the events of Hostel, the film opens with Paxton (Jay Hernandez) in seclusion with his girlfriend Stephanie (Jordan Ladd). The two argue over Paxton refusing to tell the authorities about the Elite Hunting Club in Slovakia since Paxton is aware that the conspiracy and cover up is wider then anyone can imagine. The next morning Stephanie wakes up to discover Paxton's headless body seated at the kitchen table with their cat licking blood from his neck. Meanwhile, in Slovakia, a mysterious package is delivered to Sasha (Milan Kako), the owner of Elite Hunting. From the reaction of Sasha's hounddogs and the size of the box, it is left to the audience to deduce that this package contains Paxton's head.In Italy, American art students Beth (Lauren German), Whitney (Bijou Phillips) and Lorna (Heather Matarazzo) are convinced by Axelle (Vera Jordanova), a nude model they are sketching, to join her on a vacation to a luxurious spa in Slovakia. The four travel by train to a small Slovakian village and check into the local hostel (the same one from the previous film), where the desk clerk (Milda Havlas) (the same clerk from the previous film), uploads their passport photos to an auction website, where hotshot American businessman Todd (Richard Burgi) bids on Whitney and Beth for himself and his passive best friend Stuart (Roger Bart) as their victims for their murder-vacation.Later that night, at the village's "Harvest Festival", Lorna discovers that Beth has inherited a vast fortune from her mother. Stuart approaches Beth and the two share a friendly, if awkward, conversation. An intoxicated Lorna leaves to go on a boat ride with Roman, a charismatic local, who proceeds to kidnap Lorna with the help of two accomplices. A local walks up to Beth and asks her for a dance, she declines. He responds with "I could have helped you." Beth doesn't understand and shortly afterward the hostel's clerk approaches and tells her "He won't bother you anymore." Beth and Whitney leave the party, while Axelle volunteers to stay behind and wait for Lorna.The next morning the three girls head to the local spa to relax. Basking in the relaxing atmosphere of the hot springs, Beth is able to fall somewhat at ease and dozes off. Meanwhile, a naked and gagged Lorna is shackled by her ankles and hanging upside down in a large room, where a woman named Mrs. Bathory (Monika Malacova) enters, undresses, and lies beneath Lorna. She then kills Lorna by slashing her several times with a long scythe and bathing in her blood, then slitting her throat with a sickle.Meanwhile, Todd and Stuart arrive in Slovakia where the self-assured Todd continues to try to persuade Stuart to go through with their plan which is apparently an escape to cope with the frustrations of their daily lives and of their nagging wives. Stuart is still reluctant to kill a person as a way of acting out his frustration over living with his own nagging wife, but agrees to accompany Todd to the Elite Hunting site.At the spa, Beth awakens to find herself alone and her belongings stolen. As she looks for her friends, she notices several men approaching and surrounding her. Fearing for her life, she climbs over the spa's walls. While making her escape, she is ambushed by the "Bubblegum Gang", a gang of violent street children (also from the first Hostel film). Before they are able to descend upon her, however, Axelle and Sasha appear and ward them away from her. Axelle escorts a flustered but somewhat relieved Beth to their vehicle. With Axelle and Beth away, Sasha confronts the children. He is angered that they interfered with his "business operations." As punishment, and to warn against future transgressions, Sasha draws out his gun and has one of the children brought forward before him. Sasha summarily kills the boy, and the rest of the gang flees.After being taken to Sasha's mansion, Beth realizes that Sasha and Axelle are responsible for Whitney and Lorna's disappearances after seeing the men who tried to kidnap her at the spa coming up the stairs of Sasha's home. She tries to hide and discovers a room filled with severed heads, including Paxton's, before being captured and taken to the factory. At the factory, a sobbing Whitney is strapped to a chair in one of the cells while an old woman applies makeup to her face. Whitney severely bites the woman's nose and escapes, only to be captured by the guards.Stuart then enters his room where Beth is strapped to a chair with a sack over her head. Stuart looks around the room at the tools with horror. He then takes the sack off Beth's head and explains about Elite Hunting. Stuart tells Beth that the group is a worldwide secret society where wealthy members come to Slovakia (one of a handful of countries) to kill people that the organization abducts as a twisted satisfaction for the psychopath members and first-time clients to kill people in various fantasy-like ways for the sole purpose to watch them die and to get the satisfaction of killing a human. All the high-paying members are important people of society in every country in the world (politicians, lawyers, doctors, policemen, directors, actors, businessmen, etc). He then unties her from the chair and lets her think she is escaping. He then punches Beth in the face. The passive Stuart now suddenly becomes angry and ranting and raving at Beth and begins yelling at her as if he feels he's talking to his domineering wife.Meanwhile, Whitney is taken to Todd's cell and strapped to a chair, where he taunts and terrorizes her with a circular saw. Overwhelmed with excitement, Todd accidentally cuts into her face with a power saw, maiming her, which disturbs him so much that he now realizes the horrors of committing such an atrocity. He tries to leave, claiming he no longer wants to kill her. The guard explains that he must kill her if he wants to leave; when he refuses, the guards set the dogs on him, killing him for violating his contract.The guards then bandage Whitney and show her photograph to other clients in adjoining cells, offering her at a discount. In one room, a middle-aged, Italian-speaking cannibalistic client (Ruggero Deodato) puts in a bid. He is then shown cannibalizing Miroslav (Stanislav Ianevski), the friendly local guy who Whitney met at the Harvest festival. The young man's right foot is gone and on his left, several layers of flesh are missing. The 'Italian Cannibal' continues to cut off pieces of the young man's flesh with a knife and fork and eat it while listening to the classical music score "Habenera" from the opera Carmen. The guards then move to another client, where the man bids. He is shown torturing a man on a caged bed that electrocutes the victim.The deranged and sadistic Stuart, now torturing Beth and blaming her for his friend's death, accepts the offer and kills Whitney. As he returns to finish with Beth, she seduces him into releasing her from the chair, then fights him off as he lies on her and chains Stuart to the chair. Beth grills Stuart for the code to the cell, then sticks a needle in his ear when he refuses to tell her. Stuart tells Beth the code, but she still needs to be buzzed through the door, which inadvertently summons Sasha and the guards to the room. Beth offers to buy her freedom with part of her inheritance. When Sasha explains to her that she must kill somebody to leave, Beth cuts off Stuart's genitals and tosses them to one of the guard dogs; Beth then orders Stuart to be left to bleed to death as he screams in pain. Per the standard contract, Beth is given an Elite Hunting tattoo and is made an honorary member. Beth is then permitted to leave, but she is sternly ordered to keep silent about the organization for the rest of her life.In the closing sequence, Axelle is lured from the village festival into the woods by the Bubblegum Gang, where the revenge-seeking Beth surprises and beheads her for leading her friends to their deaths. The film then ends on a shot of Axelle's decapitated body with the Bubblegum Gang dancing in the background and playing soccer with Axelle's severed head. | violence, dark, murder, sadist, flashback | tt0498353 |
If These Walls Could Talk | Warning: some details may be disturbing.If These Walls Could Talk is a made-for-HBO movie consisting of three segments, set in different time periods, with different characters--in the same house. Each segment focuses on a character facing an unexpected pregnancy, and how each character deals with the situation.The opening credits show various clips of news reports, interviews, protests, rallies and newspaper headlines regarding abortion. We see picket signs and hear comments from both sides of the issue. We hear a news anchor announcing the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, amid clips of people cheering and a sign reading Thank You Supreme Court. We also see a few commercial clips from the 50s, just married couples, a few family shots, among others.The first segment begins with a shot of the front of a house in the process of being painted, and the year 1952 is shown. Down the street, we see a nurse, Claire (Demi Moore) exiting a city bus, coming home from work after a night shift.After she enters her home, we see various photos, giving us a silent introduction to her and her life: pictures of her and her husband, pictures of them with his family, their wedding picture, his military picture, and finally, an "in memory of" card with her husband's picture. Claire walks about, closing the drapes in the front windows. Next, we see her sitting in a chair, deep in thought and obviously distressed.We then see Claire at work at the hospital, heading toward one of the doctors to speak to him in his office. Apparently he informed her of her pregnancy; she tells him she's been in shock since they spoke but that she's thought about it and knows what she needs to do--and needs his help and information.The doctor replies that she's putting him in an awkward position; he's known her in-laws for a long time. She says that she's thinking of them too, as they're all the family she has. She then asks the doctor to prescribe something for her; "I know there are things I could take, I just don't know the dosages."The doctor says he can't do that; it's illegal to terminate a pregnancy. He offers to give her the number of a home that can take care of the adoption and give her a place to stay. She says that's impossible, how can she go away for seven months? What would she tell everyone? The doctor says he doesn't know, and tells her one should think of that before one puts herself in this situation.We then see Claire sitting at home reading books on pregnancy and looking for information on abortion. Next, we see her rummaging through her medicine cabinet, and finding a bottle of prescription medicine. She pops several pills into her mouth and chases them with a glass of hard liquor.Afterwards, we see her vomiting in her bathroom, and we hear a knock at the door: Claires sister-in-law Becky. Claire grabs the pill bottle, wraps it in toilet paper and tosses it in the bathroom trash can.Becky is in the kitchen, carrying a toddler and washing Claires dishes. Claire enters and says she doesn't have to do that. Becky, who we see is about 6 months pregnant, apologizes for waking Claire, and Claire says she's just sick. She says hi to the baby, and Becky tells Claire no offense, but it's probably contagious and she doesn't need a sick baby. Becky said her mom wanted her to bring her some chicken soup, a hot water bottle, and Becky brought her some magazines. Claire says that Becky's mom does too much for her. Becky says you know how she is but to let her help--that by doing for Claire, she feels that she hasn't completely lost Steven (Claire's late husband.)Becky prepares to leave, and as Claire stands at her front door a mutual friend stops to speak to them. After Becky leaves, Claire calls Louise to come to the door. She does, and Claire says she has a friend with three kids at home, one in the hospital, and just found out she's pregnant and is overwhelmed. Claire asks if she knows anyone who can "do something." Louise says she doesn't, but figures she could ask around. She then says she's heard rumors about an old, big house in an area of abandoned houses--that her "friend" would have to be desperate. She suggests Claire ask at the hospital; someone there should know of a better place.We see Claire enter the nurses lounge, and speak to Nurse Jenny Ford about a patient--then she tells her about "her friend who's pregnant" and that she can't have the baby. Nurse Jenny asks what she wants from her; Claire says she'd hoped they could help her, and she "heard theres someone in ER..." Nurse Jenny is obviously offended. Claire apologizes, that she didn't know who to ask and she knew Nurse Jenny worked there the longest. Nurse Jenny says she'd like to keep working there--2 nurses were recently dismissed. As they are leaving the break room, Claire asks what she should tell her friend, and Nurse Jenny says she doesn't know--but don't ask her anymore.Next, Claire is in a cab looking for "the big house" Louise told her about. We see house after house, trashed and boarded up, and then the big house with a light on upstairs. Claire looks, and sees someone turn off the light--and is obviously turned off by the scene. The cab driver says he doesn't know what shes doing here, but he can wait (we get the sense he's taken women there before.) Claire says its OK, she made a mistake.Then we see Claire about to go to her in-laws for Thanksgiving, pinning her too-tight skirt and trying to zip it. She gives up and wears her shirt untucked. We then see the family finishing dinner, Claire serving everyone pie, then saying she has to leave to work that night. Becky offers to take her home, but Claire says the kids are tired, she'll just walk. The family objects and says Kevin (Steven's young brother) will take her home. We see that he's not comfortable with the idea.Before she leaves, Claire's mother-in-law says she's worried about her, and she's working too hard. Claire assures her she's fine. Mother-in-law says she doesn't want Claire to worry about money because they want to be able to take care of her--that they're still family.As Kevin takes Claire home, we sense uneasiness between the two. At home, she thanks him and starts to get out, but he stops her--becoming emotional and apologizing. During the conversation, we see flashbacks of Kevin confronting Claire about her drinking, Claire becoming upset, Kevin comforting her and then the two beginning to kiss--showing how she got into her situation. She says it's not his fault, she knows he didn't mean to hurt her, but he has to forget about it--"It never happened."Next, Claire is at work charting when Nurse Jenny hands her a piece of paper with a name and phone number, telling her to give Jenny's name. Claire thanks her, and we see that Nurse Jenny knows its Claire who wants the abortion.Claire calls the woman, Audrey, telling her how she got her number and why she's calling. Audrey says it's a woman in Puerto Rico--and the place is clean, but it will cost about $1000. Claire becomes upset, saying she doesn't have that kind of money. Audrey says this is the only one she would trust; but, hearing Claire upset, tells her she'll try to find someone closer--but she can't promise anything.We see Claire looking for and then finding a knitting needle, and then in her bathroom attempting to do the abortion herself. She injures herself; at that moment Becky knocks on the door and enters. She hears Claire sobbing, and finds her in the bathroom. She asks what's wrong, follows her to the bedroom and Claire reluctantly tells Becky she's pregnant. Becky assumes Claire was raped and asked who did this to her. Claire says she can't tell her, but confides that she was lonely, hurting, and didn't mean for it to happen--and that she's very sorry. Becky is shocked, saying her brother's been dead 6 months (as if Claire was supposed to be over it.) She says everyone knows us; you have to have this baby somewhere else. Claire says she can't have the baby, she needs an abortion. Becky asks how could she do this, then takes her child and before she leaves, says if her mother finds out it will kill her, so she doesn't give a damn what Claire does--and how dare Claire "shame us like this."Later, Audrey calls Claire to tell her she found someone named Tom who "comes to your house." She said it seems safer, and Claire asks for his number. Audrey says "you can't call him, he'll call you" and needs Claire's name and work number. Claire asks why, and Audrey assures her he'll be discreet but he needs to be able to reach her, and says he wants $400.We then see Claire at work, reacting to the nurse's station phone ringing when the call isn't for her. When Tom does call, he says he needs the $400 cash in full, asks for her address, tells her what items to have, and that he'll be there at 8:00 the next night. That night, Claire sits in her dining room, counting the money and waiting for Tom. He arrives, asks for the money, and she says he'll get it when its done. He turns to leave, saying he doesn't have time for games. She goes after him, saying come back, I'll give it to you, handing him the money.They enter her house and then the kitchen. He tells her to take off her underwear, and lie down on the table. As she does, she sees him getting out his instruments. She asks if he's going to disinfect them, to which he says they're fine. She says she doesn't want an infection, and he asks do you want to do this or not? She says yes, and he says OK, lets do it--lie down. He inserts the speculum, and as he begins she yells out in pain. He tells her several times not to move, the more you move the more it'll hurt. She tries to be still but is obviously in pain. Finally he says alright, that's it. He wipes off and puts away his instruments, tells her she'll have some cramping and bleeding. He says if she starts to hemorrhage, call the hospital. She asks if she's OK, getting no answer and only hearing the kitchen door and then her front door slam. She lies on the table a moment, holding her stomach and still in discomfort.Finally, we see Claire standing but hanging on to a kitchen counter, calling the hospital--"I need your help." Blood is all over the floor and between her legs. We hear the woman on the phone ask for her address. Claire becomes disoriented, falls to her knees and drops the phone. The woman on the phone says they can't send an ambulance without the address, and saying hello. The scene fades.We see the front of the house again, the camera moving in on the upstairs window and back, with a different appearance of the house. A caption reads 1974.In this segment, a new family lives in the house and there is no connection (other than the house) or mention of the previous characters. The segment begins with an early to mid 40-something woman (Sissy Spacek) at her kitchen table, writing, waiting for the toaster, and watching the clock. We see her children, two about middle-school age and two high-school age, getting up and ready for school. Then, we see Barbara (Spacek) on the phone asking about her pregnancy test results, and they tell her the test was positive.As she hangs up, her kids come down to eat, and we see that Barbara is shocked but tries to control her emotions. The kids fuss and argue, and then the father comes home from a night shift job. He sees Barbara is upset, and she says they need to talk--later.Barbara runs out the front door to her friend Julia, waiting to pick her up for her college class. Julia sees she's upset, asks what's wrong, and Barbara says she's pregnant--then urges Julia to "drive, drive."Julia pulls over, despite Barbara's objection, and says they're going to talk. She asks if John knows; Barbara says no, she just found out. Julia says she knows it's a shock, and knows what she's going through. We find out Julia has had an abortion when Barbara simply asks, "Do you regret it?" Julia says no, even though her friends said she'd be depressed and feel guilty--she was "so relieved." She points out that not everybody's the same.Barbara checks out Our Bodies, Ourselves in the library and then talks to her professor about the topic for her paper. She wants to find out how a woman writer, with children, has time to write and balance their lives. Her professor encourages her.Later, we see Barbara reading about abortion in the book she checked out. We then hear her oldest daughter, Linda, behind her saying that's a good book. Barbara says casually, "oh, you've read it?" Linda says she owns it.Barbara starts putting groceries away, and as Linda starts helping her, tells her she can "get one" at a health clinic. Mom pretends she doesn't know what she's talking about. Linda says "It's your legal right." When mom still plays ignorance, Linda says she saw her reading about abortion, then asks if she's going to get one. Mom says she's not ready to talk about it, but thanks her for the information.Later that evening, from the kitchen, we hear oldest brother's band rehearsing in the garage. John comes down after sleeping, and after getting the kids out for a moment alone, Barbara tells him she's pregnant. John is surprised as well. They don't get much chance to talk with the kids arguing and some of them in/out of the kitchen.We then see Barbara and John in their room, discussing the news. John expresses that "its done" and "we'll just have to figure it out." Barbara doesn't express the same sentiment, saying she thought she was through having kids and objecting to John's statement that her degree will have to wait and everyone else has to make sacrifices--him not getting to retire early, Linda not getting to go to the expensive school, instead going to state college. We see a shot of Linda overhearing, with a friend visiting, and slamming her door. John keeps asking what else she wants to do, what is she saying is the alternative? Barbara keeps saying she doesn't know. A look on John's face appears that he may be wondering if she's considering abortion, but it doesn't come up.After John leaves for work, Linda races downstairs to tell mom shes not giving up going away to college "just because you guys screwed up." Mom says she doesn't want her to give that up, that nothing is decided yet, and she doesn't want everyone in the house to know about this until they've decided what to do. Linda, caught up in the women's lib movement in full swing at that time, sees the newly legalized abortion as a simple solution to mom's problem. She doesn't understand why mom isn't jumping at the opportunity. She tells mom to be a "martyr" but she's not going to pay for mom's mistakes.Next, Barbara is telling Julia how Linda reacted, and Julia says her daughter calls her a martyr too. Barbara says "after all I do for her," listing a few. Julia says that's a martyr. Barbara disagrees, but Julia says to listen to herself--they're both one; and self sacrifice, unconditional love is BS. They expect gratitude for what they do.Later, after Barbara reads a book on a past woman poet, she calls the local clinic to ask for information on abortion. Then, she enters her daughters' room while Linda is on the phone. Barbara tells her to get off the phone so they can talk. She tells Linda that she's still going away to college. Linda tells mom she doesn't think mom wants to have this baby, and asks if the baby would have a good life if the mother resents it being there. Mom says she's exaggerating how she feels, to which Linda says she doesn't think she knows how she feels. She says we know how dad feels, how Linda feels, but that mom isn't giving herself the right to her opinion. Mom says she has her opinions, but doesn't feel the need to shout it out to the whole world.We then see Barbara telling her professor that she discovered all the women poets didn't balance anything--their lives were a mess. Her professor tells her don't give up, maybe you can make something of what you found. We then see her watching a group of college kids on the lawn, one strumming a guitar, as she's in thought.Next, she's in the kitchen helping her youngest son with his homework, sees younger daughter and oldest son talking and not arguing, and Linda outside being kissed by a boyfriend--which brings a few tears to mom's eyes. John comes in to say good night, preparing to leave for work.Finally, mom comes into Linda's room and tells her what she's decided--she's going to have the baby. Linda is obviously disappointed, and mom says it's the only decision she can live with. Linda gives a light smile and a "that's great--really." Mom says she knows everything seems simple when you're young. She then goes over to hug her daughter, and says not to worry, it's what she wants--it'll be OK. The camera moves away from them and the segment ends.Once again we see a shot of the house front, camera moves in and back, the house's appearance again changed, and the year 1996 is shown.This time, the house is occupied by several college students. We see them coming and going, music blaring, a yard sale next door, and a young girl (Anne Heche, "Christine") talking to a man (Craig T. Nelson) in a jeep. We learn that she's an architecture student and he's her professor. He's telling her she left so quickly she forgot her blueprints, and compliments her on her work. Chris smiles at him with the "school-girl crush" look, and he shatters her feelings by handing her an envelope with cash inside. He asks her what she expected, what did she think would happen--to which she replies, "That you cared--I expected that you cared about me." He says he does care, and then "I'm late, I have to go." Chris tells him sarcastically not to let her keep him.She heads inside, past a guy who tells her there's a party that night. She says she never misses a party. We then see a TV with a talk show on, with arguing and words bleeped out--further illustrating how different times are compared to the first two segments. Chris' roommate, Patti, (Jada Pinkett) asks how the girl on TV talks to her mother like that, and cheers when a man in the audience says he wouldn't talk to his mother like that.Christine comes in, and the girls are living in what appears to be the house's attic. It takes a moment for Patti to notice Chris, then she finally turns off the TV and tells Chris her mom called, telling her a few things Chris' mom said. Patti then says she went to a bookstore that day and found the best books on pregnancy, diet, etc. Chris gives a sarcastic "Yay," to which Patti asks what is wrong. Chris said that she'd just seen Jim, and that he basically said "See ya--wouldn't want to be ya," then gave her money. Patti says she'd really like to know what he thinks she's going to do with that. Chris asks what Patti thinks he expects, and then says maybe he's right.Patti asks what Chris means by that, that Chris doesn't even believe in abortion. Chris says OK, shes a hypocrite and a coward, but she can't go through with this. Patti says so you've decided to kill your baby?? Chris asks why this is so important to her, to which Patti replies that this isn't--she is. They'd been friends 8 ½ years we hear, and Patti says "I know you--if you get this abortion, you won't be able to live with yourself. Please think about what you're doing." Chris replies, "Think about it? Im 10 weeks already! How long you want me to think?" Patti finally tells her if she gets an abortion, she's on her own, and walks away.Next, Chris is riding her bike down a street and we hear a group of women praying the Hail Mary in front of an abortion clinic. Christine gets off her bike, starts toward the clinic, when one of the women stops her, asks her name, and says, "You're not going in there to get an abortion, are you?" The woman's daughter, Doreen, approaches carrying a baby and tells Chris to just hear her out a minute. She says she has four kids, and that she's not rich or a supermom, but she's grateful for God's gifts to her--her children. She says maybe you're not married, but your baby shouldn't have to pay for that. Chris tries to walk away, and Doreen tells her to just wait--when she has her baby and holds him/her in her arms, the love and maternal instinct just takes over. Then a clinic escort, Francis, approaches and asks what happens to the mothers who beat, abandon, or murder their kids because they didn't want them in the first place. Their maternal instinct just didn't click in like Doreen's. The protesters try to stop Chris, saying they can help her financially, but Chris continues inside.Inside, Chris is given paperwork to fill out and read. We see her getting her vitals taken, blood drawn, and finally talking to a counselor, Marcia (Diana Scarwid) who says she's not clear if Chris wants to be there, or if someone's pressuring her. Chris replies that she wants to be there but doesn't, and is just confused. The counselor is understanding, and goes over options with her. Chris asks about the women outside saying they can help with expenses. The counselor says they have been able to help some women, with baby supplies and a place to live temporarily. The counselor asks if Chris has tried to talk to her parents; Chris says they're really strict Catholics; she's one of five kids and considered "the good kid." The counselor asks about the relationship that caused the pregnancy. Chris explains that situation, and goes on that it isn't fair that he gets to go about his life and she's there, making this decision. She then expresses concern about "the baby being ripped out of me" and asks if it can feel it, as she's been told. The counselor assures her that even though the people outside are saying that, she's asked this of the medical workers she trusts and that it is not true--a first trimester abortion is painless to the embryo. Chris says this is hard, and the counselor empathizes--and says she's there to help her be clear on her decision.Outside, we see the women singing and Chris exiting, telling Francis she couldn't go through with it. Francis tells her it's OK, to take her time and think about it. The women tell Chris they'll pray for her, and Chris says she didn't do it. The women stand and join hands in a rejoicing prayer, and Doreen writes a number down for Chris to call them--which Chris snatches out of her hand. We see the clinic doctor (Cher) leaving and asking Doreen how her baby's doing, and Doreen's mother politely says "Good afternoon, Doctor."We see Chris in the bathtub, talking to her mother on the phone. They have a decent conversation, but at one point it seems Chris wants to tell her she's pregnant--but then tells mom to go ahead and get her door, she'll talk to her later.Later, Chris is walking about, a party at the house in full swing. She sees Patti, who looks away. Chris continues about, talking to a guy and obviously impaired. She finally heads upstairs, plops down, and is startled by Patti turning on a light. Chris says she noticed while in the bathtub she looks pregnant--that she looks pregnant because she chickened out, but she's going back tomorrow. Patti angrily asks why Chris is telling her this. Chris says to excuse her for being confused--she's not always right--she doesn't always have the right answer. Patti tells her that's BS, she knows what to do; she just wont accept it. Chris tells her that's right, that's right girlfriend--I'm so screwed! Chris gets up and sits in a chair, and starts crying. She tells Patti she made a mistake--one hell of a big mistake. She asks if her friend, her f'ing best friend, can forgive her for making a mistake; as she sobs heavily Patti keeps giving Chris a dirty look. Finally, Patti gets up, hands Chris a tissue and sits down to hug her. Chris asks if Patti could help her, if she can for once throw her morals away and help her. Patti tells her it's cool, she'll be there for her.Patti and Chris pull up to the clinic, to the sound of sirens and a large crowd of protesters. Patti says this looks too intense and says maybe they should come back tomorrow. Chris says she can't, she just wants to get it over with. They make their way through the crowd, and the women who saw her the day before asks why she's back there, they talked about this yesterday. They try to no avail to stop her; Francis and another woman help Chris and Patti inside. A man yells to Chris that if she gets an abortion, she's still a mother--just a mother of a dead baby.They make it inside, a couple is helped inside with the girl hysterical, and the staff is talking about how bad it is outside. As Chris is taken to a room for the abortion, we see Dr. Thompson trying to pull in and protesters surrounding her vehicle, yelling at her. Chris watches from a window inside. Marcia, the counselor, is there and tells her Dr. Thompson flies twice a week to a clinic that always has picketers. Dr. Thompson is later inside a room, taking off a bullet-proof vest, sitting and trying to gather her emotions before starting.We see the outside/inside scenes back and forth; a group sitting singing "Jesus loves the little children," other people yelling, holding signs and picketing. A woman staff member says the people are crazy, to which Patti, behind her says they're not--that one man might be a little radical but their overall concept is right. The woman asks what she's doing in there.We then see Dr. Thompson enter and introduce herself, listens to Christine's heart, and tells her to lie back. Chris tells her she's nervous, to which the doctor says its OK, it's perfectly normal. As Chris lies down, she asks the doctor with all she has to deal with, why does she still do this? The doctor says she remembers what it was like when it was illegal for women to make this decision and doesn't want to see those days come again--and when a woman tells her she doesn't know what she would have done without her help, she knows she's doing the right job. Dr. Thompson prepares to begin the procedure, and explains to Chris everything as she goes along.We see Patti and the staff member talking again, and Shameeka asks Patti if she thinks the 12-year-old in there last week should've had the baby. Patti says she could've given it up for adoption, to which Shameeka says yeah, right girlfriend. She tells Patti she's living in a fantasy world, because she was just thinking what a "big demand" there was for black babies.As Chris is prepped, the counselor talks to her, asking about school--we see the outside scenes still alternate with inside--and Marcia tells Chris she's going to hear a suction machine, which we then hear. Chris is silent, staring at the ceiling and crying softly.We see Shameeka and Patti again; Shameeka says she sees this all the time--you people come in, get your abortion, and the next day back out there on the line. The clinic administrator passes, hears this, and reprimands Shameeka that this is inappropriate conversation in there. The administrator is then bumped into by a nervous young man who we saw earlier with his hysterical girlfriend. He apologizes, saying he was just looking for the restroom.Back to Chris; the doctor tells her its almost over. We see a large swab covered in blood, which Chris sees and looks away with disgust. The doctor tells her it's all done, she came through like a trooper, and Chris sighs with relief.Suddenly, the door bursts open, and there stands the young boy seen earlier. He aims a gun at the doctor, yells "Murderer!" and begins shooting at the doctor. Chris and Marcia scream, and a bloodied Dr. Thompson falls to the floor. The boy, aiming the gun at Chris, asks if he shot her; he didn't mean to. He puts the gun on the floor, again apologizing to Chris and saying he didn't mean to hurt her. He leaves the room; Marcia gets up from the floor, sounds an alarm and as she runs from the room, yells that the doctor's been shot.Chris gets down from the table, down onto the floor, and helps a still (but barely) alive Dr. Thompson turn over. Dr. Thompson smiles lightly at Chris. The camera backs away, in a view from the ceiling, blood spreading about the floor. Chris cradles Dr. Thompson and yells "Somebody! Help!" The segment ends and credits roll in front of the 1996 view of the house. | violence, murder, flashback | tt0116607 |
Rambo | The film begins with real-life footage of Burma soldiers committing genocide and other atrocities, and shows how they force young boys into becoming soldiers. Next, we see Lt. Aye (Aung Aay Noi) and a bunch of Burmese soldiers forcing civilians out of a truck. One soldier walks out to a rice field and throws an explosive into a swamp. He then throws a bunch of other explosives into the water while the civilians have their backs turned and their money taken. The soldiers order the civilians to go across the swamp. As they do, one person is blown up by one of the explosives. The others refuse to go on, and are shot to death by the soldiers.During the opening credits, we see John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) catching snakes in a jungle in Thailand. He also uses a bow-and-arrow to shoot a fish and then gives it to some fisherman passing by in their boat. Rambo and his helpers go to a snake village, where the owner pays Rambo for the snakes he captured. His only complaint though is for Rambo to get more pythons, since he keeps on bringing back cobras.While Rambo puts the snakes away, Michael Burnett (Paul Schulze) approaches him and introduces himself. Michael is a missionary, and he was told that Rambo is the boatman who knows the river best. Rambo says that its true, and Michael wants to hire him to bring him and his group to Burma. Rambo says that its a war zone, but Michael says that this is his fifth time going in and they are all aware of the dangers involved. Rambo asks him if they're bringing any weapons with them. Michael says no, and Rambo tells him that they're not going to change anything. Sarah (Julie Benz), one of the missionaries, tells Michael that shell try to persuade him. Sarah tries her best to convince Rambo to transport them to Burma, but he still refuses. He tells her to go home instead.Back in Burma, Lt. Aye's soldiers raid a village and take all the children hostage. The women cry and beg for their loved ones. Aye tells them that the boys will now be soldiers for the Burmese Army. He also threatens them that if any of the women try to get help from the rebels, they'll come back and cut out their tongues.In Thailand, Rambo and goes to his boat when he sees Sarah waiting for him. She again pleads with him to transport them to Burma, and he still refuses. She says that trying to save a life wont waste his, and he must still believe in something. After Sarah leaves, Rambo thinks about it and then changes his mind.The next day, Rambo and the missionaries travel down the river in his boat. Sarah thanks Rambo again for helping them, and then asks him what his name is. He says John, and she asks him where he's from. Rambo says that he's from Arizona, and he hasn't been back since he was drafted and served in the Vietnam War back in 1967. Sarah asks him if he's at least a little curious as to how his home has changed, but he tells her that he doesn't have a reason to be curious. He also mentions that his father might still be alive back home. Before Sarah returns to her seat, Rambo says that they shouldn't go on, and that they can turn back whenever she wants.At night, while the missionaries sleep, Rambo orders his passengers to be silent. Michael asks him what's wrong, and Rambo tells him he sees pirates nearby. He tells everyone to get down and be quiet so they can hopefully pass by unnoticed. They're almost in the clear, but the pirates spot them and open fire at them. Rambo stops the boat and tells everyone to keep their heads down. If they look the pirates in the eyes, they'll be killed. A pirate boat pulls up to them and several men hold everyone at gunpoint. They say that they're trespassing in their territory, and they have to pay them money. Rambo says that he'll pay him whatever they want from the boat, but then the pirates see that Sarah is female. They order Sarah to come with them, and Rambo offers them anything else but her. Tension escalates, and Rambo suddenly pulls a pistol and shoots all the pirates. One pirate is still alive, and so Rambo unloads his last bullets into his head. Michael voices his disapproval over what just happened, and so Rambo grabs him and tells him that if he didn't kill them, they would all be dead and Sarah would've been raped and probably killed as well. Rambo says that they're going to turn back, but Sarah wants them to continue on since they're so close. Rambo eventually agrees to go on, and they arrive in Burma the next day.While the missionaries get out, Michael says that he has to report Rambo for killing the pirates. He also says that they're going to take another way out instead of his boat, and so he doesn't have to wait for them. Sarah gives Rambo a crucifix necklace as a way of saying thank you for what he did. All the missionaries take off and hike to a village. As they do, Rambo travels back and comes across the pirate boat again. He douses it with gasoline and then lights it on fire, allowing it to explode with the dead pirates still on board.The missionaries get to the village, where they are greeted by the locals. One missionary is a dentist, and he inspects everyone's mouths. Another missionary hands out bibles and starts to preach about god while another missionary records him with his video camera. Sarah walks to where Michael is, where hes treating peoples wounds. Sarah looks at the people waiting to be looked at by Michael, who are missing legs and arms.Suddenly, explosions begin to rip through the village. Aye and his soldiers have arrived, and they proceed to slaughter everyone in sight. One missionary gets his legs blown off by an explosion. The unarmed civilians are shot to death. Some soldiers set the people on fire with flamethrowers. Children are brutally shot to death, and a soldier throws a woman's child into a burning hut. During the massacre, the remaining missionaries try to run away, but they are beaten and captured by the soldiers. Aye watches as the village burns and the ground is littered with corpses.Some time passes, and Rambo dreams about what has happened to him in the past. He is woken up by Arthur Marsh (Ken Howard), who calls out his name. Arthur apologizes for coming to him like this, but he wouldn't come if it wasn't important. Arthur is a reverend at the Colorado church where the missionaries are from. Before they left, Michael told him that Rambo was going to transport them to Burma. It's been a week since they were supposed to be back, but they never showed up. Arthur has been in contact with some Karen rebels, and they have a good idea of where they were taken. Rambo believes that they're probably dead, and recommends that Arthur talks to someone at the U.S. embassy in Thailand. He already has, and they won't help him in time. He has hired a bunch of mercenaries, and he wants Rambo to take them to the same spot where he dropped off the missionaries for a rescue mission. Rambo agrees to do it, and forges a large machete for himself.The next day, Rambo transports the mercenaries down the river. They are made up of Diaz (Reynaldo Gallegos), Reese (Jake La Botz), En-Joo (Tim Kang), and School Boy (Matthew Marsden) and are lead by Lewis (Graham McTavish), who constantly complains on how slow they are moving. Reese passes the time by singing, which annoys everyone else. The others pass the time with jokes and the like. Lewis tells Rambo that his boat is "a piece of shit", and he could swim there faster than they are going. Rambo stares him down, but Lewis says that he does not impress him. School Boy introduces himself to Rambo, saying that he got his name in sniper school and he hasn't been able to get rid of it (regardless of how many people he's shot).They eventually get to the spot where Rambo dropped off the missionaries. Lewis is pissed, since they were supposed to get some reinforcements from the rebels, and they only sent two people (one is their guide, the other is a young boy). Also, Reese gets nervous when their guide tells them that they face more than 100 Burmese soldiers. Lewis asks the mercenaries if any of them are carrying explosives. School Boy is the only one, and he's carrying a claymore mine. Rambo docks and grabs some blades, but Lewis tells him to stay with the boat. Rambo says that his men stay with the boat, but Lewis still orders him to stay with the boat, even though School Boy doesn't have a problem with him tagging along.The guide takes the mercenaries through the jungle and they come across an old bomb that was dropped from a World War II bomber, which didn't explode when it hit the ground. After a long hike, they come to the remains of the village. Flies are swarming around the dead bodies, a severed head has been impaled on a stake, and some corpses have been hanged as a warning to the rebels. Everyone is disgusted by the slaughter, and the guide warns them to watch where they step, since there are still mines around, and then sends the boy home to report what has happened.As they walk through the destroyed village, some Burmese soldiers drive out to where they are. The mercenaries hide as the soldiers force another group civilians out of the truck and take their money. A soldier throws some explosives mines into the swamp between them and the mercenaries. The soldiers force the civilians to run across to the other side. Scared, all the civilians dash across to the other side without being killed by the mines. The soldiers order them to run back across to where the truck is, but they are too scared to move. The soldiers try to scare them into running again by firing at them. School Boy wants to fire at them, but Lewis says that if they start shooting, it will attract the other soldiers at the nearby base (which is where the missionaries are). Rambo suddenly appears out of the jungle and shoots all the soldiers using his bow-and-arrow. He hits with deadly precision, and he shoots one soldier through the chin from behind. The last soldier is shot in the leg and in the head, which causes his body to fall in the water, landing on one of the mines and exploding.The mercenaries are astounded at how easily Rambo killed the soldiers. The guide says that he can take them to the base, but Lewis and the others are ready to split. Rambo aims an arrow at Lewis' eye and is held at gunpoint by Reese and En-Joo. Rambo tells Lewis that none of them want to be there, and they can "live for nothing or die for something." School Boy is with Rambo, and soon the others agree to continue on.Back at the base, soldiers throw food at women locked in cages, and Aye inspects the captured missionaries. One of them looks him in the eye, which causes Aye to order one of his men to feed him to the pigs.Later that night, the mercenaries drive to the camp using the truck stolen from the soldiers Rambo killed. The guide is dressed as a soldier and drives them to the gate. It's raining, and once the guard recognizes the truck he lets them enter. School Boy sneaks up on a guard by the gate and knifes him. He then sets up his sniper rifle and waits. Rambo and the mercenaries plan to rescue the missionaries and move out at precisely 1:15 AM. One by one, they each jump out of the truck and sneak around the base. Most of the soldiers are busy in a hut, watching captured women dance and throwing things at them. Rambo finds Michael and another missionary in a cage, with a dead missionary nearby (still being eaten by the pigs). He frees them and tells them to stay put until he comes back. Sarah remains held captive, tied up underneath a hut. The soldier who lives in the hut drinks some alcohol and walks off. At Aye's hut, a soldier brings him a young boy and Aye strokes his hair. He then shuts the door, implying that he has sex with the boy.The soldiers in the main hut get more rowdy and start throwing the dancers off the stage. One Burmese officer takes a woman for himself and runs off to his hut. He roughs her up a bit and she crawls underneath the hut. En-Joo happens to be there, and when the soldier looks underneath he is stabbed to death by En-Joo. Rambo meets up with Reese, and tells him to retrieve Michael and the missionary he freed. Diaz frees some of the caged women and they make their way towards the gate. Rambo eventually finds where Sarah is, but the drunken soldier comes back and takes her upstairs. He throws her on the floor and is about to rape her when Rambo sneaks up behind him and rips his throat out with his bare hands. School Boy kills the guards at the gate with his sniper rifle, which allows the others to escape.It's 1:15 AM, but Rambo and Sarah aren't back yet. Lewis and the others are ready to leave, but School Boy says that they should wait for them. Michael also doesn't want to leave without Sarah, but Lewis throws him down and threatens him with his knife. They all decide to run off and leave Rambo behind.Rambo and Sarah get to the gate, but are held at gunpoint by two soldiers. Rambo jumps on Sarah to shield her from being shot. One soldier is blasted in the chest and goes flying back. The other soldier has his head blown off and his body flies back like a rag doll. Turns out that School Boy stayed behind to wait for them. He tells them that it will be dawn in an hour, and so they take off running into the jungle.When dawn comes, the soldiers find the dead soldiers and sound the alarm. Lt. Aye comes across the corpse of the officer who had his throat ripped out and gets pissed. They all mount up and take off into the jungle with dogs. While the mercenaries and the remaining missionaries run in the jungle, Lewis steps on a mine and his leg is shredded. Also, their guide has run off and ditched them. Michael tells the others to make a stretcher from the bamboo around them, and they carry Lewis out with them.Elsewhere, School Boy hears the dogs the soldiers have and realizes that they are tracking them. Rambo takes his claymore mine and ties a piece of Sarah's shirt around his boot. He then has School Boy fire off a shot and orders them to get to the boat without him. The mercenaries hear the shot and pick up the pace while the soldiers also move faster. Rambo runs by himself through the jungle while the soldiers with the dogs chase after him. Rambo reaches the old WWII bomb and sets up the claymore mine on it. He quickly covers it up and runs off again. The soldiers with the dogs are lead to the mine and bomb. When they inspect it closer, they pull the tripwire, exploding the claymore & the large bomb which kills all the soldiers around it and destroys a good chunk of the jungle. Rambo is knocked off his feet by the blast.School Boy and Sarah almost make it to the boat when they stop suddenly. Sarah asks him what's wrong, and School Boy shows her with his sniper scope. Lewis and the others made it to the boat, but so have Aye and his men. The soldiers brutally beat the mercenaries and missionaries. Aye then personally walks to each one and viciously beats them with bamboo. Lewis calls him a pussy, and so Aye jams the bamboo stick into his leg wound. School Boy also sees somewhere behind him that there's a jeep with a mounted .50 caliber machine gun in the back. The soldiers line up everyone and prepare to kill them. School Boy says that there's nothing they can do. Slowly, Rambo appears behind the soldier using the mounted machine gun and decapitates him with his blade. He then grabs the heavy machine gun and blasts the soldier in the front seat, splattering his body everywhere. Rambo then proceeds to open fire on the other soldiers, graphically blasting them in half and sending their body parts flying in the air. Lewis and the others fight back and kill off the soldiers around them. More Burmese soldiers come, but Rambo continues to mow them down into nothing.The guide comes back with Karen rebel soldiers, and they partake in the huge climatic battle. Aye calls in support from an army gunboat, which fires upon the rebel soldiers. During the carnage, Diaz is set on fire by a flamethrower and Aye kills a missionary before running off. Lewis kills a soldier that was about to throw a grenade. Unfortunately, this causes the grenade to fall near En-Joo, and the explosion kills him. Lewis is shot in the shoulder by a soldier, but Michael tackles the soldier and beats him to death with a rock. Rambo is shot through the shoulder by one of the soldiers on the gunboat and screams in pain. He sees another truck full of Burmese soldiers coming straight for him, and so Rambo annihilates the soldiers by firing at them with his huge machine gun. He then fires upon the ship, causing one guy's head to explode, and the guide blows it up with an RPG launcher.Aye runs off by himself into the jungle, but is suddenly stabbed through the abdomen by Rambo with his blade. Rambo slices the man's abdomen open and kicks his body down a hill. Rambo stands on top of the hill, looking down upon the survivors of the battle. Sarah looks around for Michael, and is relieved to find him alive. Lewis is still alive, as is School Boy, but Reese's corpse is seen nearby. Michael waves to Rambo as he stands by himself and nurses his shoulder wound.Next, we see Rambo back in the USA walking down a highway, wearing his green army jacket and carrying a bundle over his shoulder. Rambo makes his way to a mailbox which has "R. Rambo" stenciled on it. The film ends with him looking back at the paved road from which he came, and then finally walking back to his home along a dirt road towards the Rambo farm. | murder, violence, cult, flashback, good versus evil, action, sadist | tt0462499 |
Rock Star | The story opens with a rock musician and singer, Chris Cole, being interviewed. He recalls his early days in music, when he lived in Pittsburgh and was the lead singer of a band called Blood Pollution, a cover/tribute act that performed songs by an infamous heavy metal band called Steel Dragon. While a member of Blood Pollution, Chris was also a singer in a local church choir and had a pretty girlfriend, Emily Poule, who managed his band. Chris also worked as a photocopier technician.Chris and his compatriots go to a Steel Dragon concert. In the parking lot they paper every car in sight with flyers for their next gig. At the show, Chris and his friends have stage-side seats. They are refused backstage passes by the bands live manager, Mats. During the performance, Chris mildly annoys Dragon's lead singer, Bobby Beers, by singing along with the songs as well or better than Beers himself.Following the show, Chris and his bandmates return to their car and find a flyer for their rivals, another Steel Dragon tribute band called Black Babylon. The members of Black Babylon have callously replaced Blood Pollution's flyers on every car. The two bands face off in the parking lot and fight after trading insults.At a Blood Pollution practice session (which they hold in the basement of a porn theatre), Chris and his guitarist, Rob Malcolm, argue over the manner with which they'll play a Steel Dragon song live. Chris obsesses over a specific guitar riff and Rob can't understand why.The band plays a gig in a steel foundry. The show goes well until Chris notices that Rob is once again defying the singer's wishes and reinterprets a guitar part. After an initial warning from Chris, Rob begins to solo wildly in defiance. Chris casually picks up a microphone stand and smashes Rob's amplifier head, disabling it. Rob tackles Chris onstage and the two fight. Emily, at the soundboard, calls it a night and encourages the audience to buy the band's merchandise on the way out.A few nights later Chris shows up for band practice and sees that his fellow members have invited Bradley, lead vocalist for Black Babylon, to the session. Bradley has also brought updated equipment. Rob tries to explain his side, saying that Chris has become impossible to work with due to his obsession with playing only Steel Dragon songs and his demanding perfectionism while playing them live. Chris also refuses to write his own material and accept any of the band's original compositions as well. Chris becomes furious and leaves, saying he'll never return to the band. When Rob asks Emily to stay on as their manager, she refuses and leaves as well. In the car outside, Chris discusses the incident with Emily, who tells him something better will come along.The next day Chris receives a phone call from Kirk Cuddy, guitarist and founding member of Steel Dragon. Chris is incredulous at first, even hanging up on Kirk. Kirk patiently calls back and is able to convince Chris of his identity and even plays a clip of Chris singing at a recent gig over the phone. The video of the gig was given to Cuddy by two of Blood Pollution's groupies. Kirk tells Chris to come to Los Angeles and meet him.Chris goes to LA with Emily. They are met by Kirk's personal assistant, Tania, who takes them to Kirk's mansion. Chris and Emily meet the band and Kirk offers Chris a chance to audition for the lead singer spot in the band. At that moment, Bobby Beers bursts into the studio and begins an argument with Cuddy. Cuddy points out that Beers missed most of the shows on the last tour and has missed several recording sessions. Beers, in a moment of dramatic revelation that shocks Chris, argues that he's being thrown out of the band for being gay. Eventually, Beers storms out of the studio. Chris sings one of Dragon's songs, has a few false starts and watches the band confer inside the control room. After a few moments, he's offered the position. He adopts the stage name "Izzy."During his first show with the band, Chris quickly wins the respect of the crowd, opening with "Blood Pollution" one of Chris' favorites & a song the band hasn't played in a decade. Chris takes a nasty spill while descending the stage's elaborate staircase, however, he continues to perform admirably. At the wild party thrown after the show, Tania seduces both Chris and Emily. Chris discovers the next morning that Tania is a transvestite.When the band packs up to travel to their next gig, Emily isn't allowed to travel with Chris on the tour bus and is relegated to riding with the band members' girlfriends and wives in a limousine. As they trail the bus, the girls tell Emily that the band often cavorts with groupies on the bus. Emily holds her opinion that Chris would never betray her and the girls scoff. One goes to so far as to say that she has a special relationship with her husband's accountant.The tour goes on for the larger part of a year. Chris, newly introduced to the rock icon lifestyle, spends a large amount of money on drugs, cars and other excesses. Tired of following Chris all over America, Emily leaves and heads home, upset that Chris spends too much time partying with the band and not as much time devoted to their relationship. She agrees to meet him in Seattle. When she arrives there, she meets Chris, who is drunk enough not to know where he is. Emily tells him she's going to stay in Seattle and open a cafe with a friend of hers and that her relationship with Chris is over. When the tour finally ends, the band goes on hiatus.Six months later Chris shows up for a new recording session at Kirk's house. When he shows the band a concept sketch for their next album cover as well as some new songs, Kirk takes an arrogant stance, telling Chris that he and their other guitarist, A.C., are the only songwriters. Chris is puzzled and Kirk goes further, saying that they'd hired Chris merely to sing, not to be a part of the creative force of the band. Chris is stunned and during the vocal recording of a new song, defiantly sings it as if it were a rap tune. Kirk admonishes him and the recording session goes on with Chris singing the song properly. Chris later meets Mats in a bar and reflects on how the same manner of obsessive behavior he'd shown toward Rob and Blood Pollution was now being visited upon himself.Steel Dragon goes out on tour again to support the new album. Chris, feeling he's been duped, only puts out a half-hearted effort at most shows. One night, while performing, Chris notices a fan singing along with him, a reflection on how he'd sang along with Bobby Beers. Chris invites the fan to join him on stage and asks him if he'd like to finish the show; the young man enthusiastically accepts and Chris walks off stage, the rest of the band hardly noticing. He says goodbye to Mats and leaves.A few years later, Chris has traveled to Seattle and has reinvented himself as an alternative rock musician. He reunites with Rob and the two form a new group, playing smaller shows in bars and coffeehouses. Emily has also moved to Seattle and opened the coffeehouse she'd talked about with an old friend. While walking in the street, she spots a flyer for one of Chris shows. She goes to it and he spots her from the stage. He walks over to her and kisses her and the two reconcile.Over the closing credits, we see that Steel Dragon's popularity has dropped off considerably with the advent of the Seattle Sound in music. Bobby Beers has also reinvented himself; as a Celtic dancer. | cult | tt0202470 |
La guerre du feu | Eighty thousand years ago, a brutal Wagabou attack on a sleepy Ulam cave dwelling causes much death and injury. Naoh distinguishes himself in the attack, killing a couple of the gorilla-like Wagabou. Nevertheless, the attack, followed by wolf depredations, leads to the extinguishing of the Ulams' fire. Even the flame kept in a small bone and hide receptacle and guarded by a special fire-keeper, who flounders while slogging through a lake, is lost. The ragged survivors, in miserable conditions, send forth Naoh, Amoukar, and Gaw to find "atra"--fire. A rival faction of the clan seeks to claim the receptacle and the quest for themselves, but an elder chief-figure restores it to Naoh. Crossing a savannah landscape, the three are treed by a pair of sabre-tooth cats. Trapped for some time, the men eat all the leaves of the perilously small tree before the cats leave. Continuing on, they hunger for meat, and Amoukar and Gaw quarrel. They see smoke in a distant forest, but arrive too late to capture the fire. Pawing through the ashes of the campfire, they find bones to gnaw, but stop in disgust as they uncover a humanoid skull. Stalking the cannibalistic Kzamma by the light of their campfire, they see two captive women (one is Ika, who we are soon to meet) hanging captive from a tree. While Amoukar and Gaw run a diversion, Naoh tries to steal fire, but ends up in a fight. He seriously injures two Kzamma, but not before being bitten in the groin. In the end, Naoh absconds with two fire sticks and rejoins his mates. They are soon approached by Ika. The men try to drive her off, but she follows, and eventually wins over Naoh by applying a vegetable poultice to his injured gonads while Amoukar and Gaw are off gathering gourds. The Kzamma have pursued, however, and are poised to attack in superior numbers when miraculously a herd of Wooly Mammoth enter the scene. Naoh wins the day when he approaches the head Mammoth and, supplicant, offers a handful of grass. The animal accepts the offering, and the herd drives off the Kzamma. That evening around the fire, the sexual tension is think. Amoukar makes a try for Ika, but she appeals to Naoh, who warns off Amoukar and--a fast healer--promptly mounts her himself, despite her screams and struggles, though the brief interlude seems to conclude in mutual satisfaction. The following day, Ika attempts to divert the men toward another route, but they ignore her. Later, Naoh seems on the verge of a discovering the stone age breakthrough of flint-knapping when a stone dislodged by Gaw hits Amoukar in the head; Ika's laughter is foreign and somewhat alarming to the men, who, we realize have not yet learned the art and luxury of laughter. The following morning, Ika runs off, and, later that day and to the disgust of his fellows, Naoh leads them in pursuit. They let him go on alone and, nearing Ikas village of mud and reed huts, Naoh bogs down in quicksand and is taken prisoner by her people, the Ivaka. Ika's more advanced people feed Naoh and watch laughing as he has sex with four of the plumper village girls. The following day, Naoh is moved to tears as he watches a demonstration of the wooden drill the villagers use to make fire. Meanwhile, Amoukar and Gaw, having gone in search of Naoh, are found in the quicksand. That night, Amoukar and Gaw escape with an armload of atlatls (another new technology) and with Naoh, whom they must club unconscious in order to bring along. Ika follows. Later, with loving looks, Naoh and Ika decorate one another with mud. Up a tree, Amoukar drops a rock onto Gaw's head, and all have a good laugh. Still later, Naoh mounts Ika but she soon turns onto her back and teaches him another position, to his delight. As this continues, Amoukar makes overtures to Gaw, but Gaw makes clear his refusal. Soon after, the four encounter their old Ulam rivals who challenged them at the outset of their quest. While Naoh and Amoukar reconnoiter, Gaw and Ika hang back at a cave; suddenly, a massive brown bear comes out of the darkness of the cave and mauls Gaw. As the others carry Gaw toward home and safety, the rival clansmen attack, demanding the fire the travelers carry with them. With their new stone-tipped spears and atlatls, they make short work of the Ulam ingrates, and even Ika getting in on the atlatl action. Returning to the main Ulam group, the people are overjoyed to see the travelers returning with fire. During the celebration, which takes place in the shallows of a lake, the original fire-keeper again falls with the receptacle into the water, extinguishing the flame. Naoh makes an oratory to a skeptical Ulam audience before sitting down with the drill to make fire. He soon becomes frustrated and Ika takes over, starting the fire and winning over the Ulam people in the process. That evening, as Amoukar regales his audience with tales of their epic quest and the injured Gaw enjoys the ministrations of a clanwoman around the roaring campfire, Naoh and Ikah sit side by side in the moonlight admiring her swelling tummy. | violence, historical, realism | tt0082484 |
Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles | A Vampire of 200 years named Louis (Brad Pitt) follows a reporter named Daniel (Christian Slater) hoping to prey on him. Instead, Louis agrees to an interview with a man that does not believe in vampires. After Louis convinces his new friend of his powers, he tells his story beginning with how he was transformed by Lestat (Tom Cruise), a vampire. Louis describes his transformation and what vampires are truly vulnerable too. He is shown learning the ways of vampires, 200 years ago(in the time of African slavery in America), while he drinks his first tastes of blood. Louis becomes angry with Lestat for cursing him to "this Hell". Next Louis gives in to the thirst as the slaves start to revolt and he kills a female slave for her blood. They kill again, and then Louis finds the girl Claudia, who has just been orphaned. Though he has great compassion for her, he bit and turned her. Lestat congratulates him and welcomes Claudia to the realm of the dark. Soon, Lestat kills for her to drink and Claudia has turned. A Vampire family emerges.
The two adults treat her as each of their daughter. She learns to play the piano, play with dolls, and kill people. Then on her 30th vampire birthday, Lestat gives her another doll. Then, he discovers a female corps in her pile of old dolls. They argue and she explodes about the fact that she will always be a little girl, deprived of a normal life. She attacks Lestat and then she runs away saying that she hated them both. Later, Louis finds her and they make peace. But then, filled with anger with Lestat, she goes to him and leads him to the deadly trap she has set for him. He curses her as he dies.They dump his body together and they start their new life .Then one night, they return to their loft to find Lestat, badly scarred returning for his revenge. Then Louis, using an oil lamp, burned him and their loft. Knowing that Lestat may return again, Louis takes Claudia and they run off to live on the lamb. Louis is shown talking to Daniel again, about the myths that mortals believe about vampires. Then Louis is shown in 1890 where he meets two fellow vampires, Armand (Antonio Banderas) and one of his subjects. Then, Louis and Claudia join their new "friends" for a theater production of vampires, playing humans, playing vampires. On stage Armand and his pack kill on young lady as part of the "act". Later, father and daughter join the brood of vampires in their lair. Then, after Claudia tells Louis that Armand means to kill her. She believes that she is in the way of Armand's plan. Then Armand spoke to Louis of Lestat and his death, and how turning Claudia the way they did was forbidden. Louis realized that Claudia was doomed. Though Claudia found a female that she wanted turned, to become her mother, Louis refused. Then he conceded and bit the adult woman. Just then as she was changing, Armand's large brood barged in and took Claudia and her new friend to a roofless dungeon. Louis was placed in a box for all of eternity. Then Claudia and the new vampire watch the sun rise, and they parish. When Armand learns of what was done, he frees Louis. Then, filled with rage, Louis sets the hive on fire. After the entire brood is dead, Armand and Louis leave in a carriage where they would be protected from the sun. The two men are the only vampires left from this tale, and they talk about their fellows that were just killed. When he realized that Armand regretted none of their deaths, Louis went on to live a night life around the world, by himself. Then Louis returned home and then to the creepy, abandoned plantation. Of course, Lastat was waiting for him. Though Lastat was insane, Louis left him, and told his interviewer Daniel that he does not know what ever happened to him. Louis told Daniel to pass on what he has learned, but Daniel wants to be turned. He wants to experience the life that Louis told him about. Louis grabs him and scares off Daniel, to change his mind. Then, afraid Daniel flees to his car and starts listening to the interview. Before long, Lestat attacks him in his convertible and bite the moral and drives his car away. In the closing scene, Lestat says to Daniel, who is still alive, that he is giving him the same choice that Louis was given. Death or eternal life! | comedy, fantasy, gothic, murder, dramatic, cult, violence, horror, atmospheric, good versus evil, revenge, historical | tt0110148 |
Sabotage | First we see a dictionary page highlighting SABOTAGE, then a power station with one chimney smoking in the moonlight, then a gaudily lit London street at night. The lights in the streets go out. Lit only by flashlight, we see a large machine half in water. Several hands excitedly fuss with the machinery, digging up a muddy substance. A first voice says: "Sand!", then another voice "Sabotage!", and a third : "Who did it?" The face of Karl Verloc (Oscar Homolka), walking in the shadows, emerges to fill the screen.Customers at the BIJOU cinema exit to the street after the power goes off. Some loudly insist on getting a refund. At the box office, the clerk and the owner's wife are hesitant to refund anything, as they are short of cash.A youngish man Ted Spencer (John Loder) stands on a step and spouts off comically as though he knows the law and repeats there is no need to return money, as there is no fault by the cinemas owners.Meanwhile, Verloc comes into the BIJOU surreptitiously although Ted observes him. He quietly goes to bed at the dwelling in back of the screen and lies down as if he had been napping.Verloc's young wife Sylvia (Sylvia Sidney) is hesitant to give refunds, and believes her husband is still out, but Ted tells her he saw him come in, so she goes into the apartment, finds Verloc, and asks whether to refund the money. Verloc tells her to go ahead and give refunds, as he will be getting some money shortly.Just as refunds are about to be given, the power comes back on, customers laugh and reenter the BIJOU.The Verlocs are the owners of the BIJOU. They live, together with her little brother Stevie (Desmond Tester), in the rear apartment. Right after the blackout, the cook leaves, leaving Stevie in charge of finalizing dinner. Stevie fumbles and breaks a dish, which he hides in a drawer.Scotland Yard suspects Verloc is an agent for a foreign power, part of a gang planning other attacks. Detective Sergeant Ted Spencer was assigned to investigate Verloc under cover, and attempt to get hard evidence against him. Spencer poses as a greengrocer's helper, selling fruit and vegetables in a shop right next to the cinema. The family comes into the shop often, and he ingratiates himself with Stevie and his sister by providing many extra services.Ted is attracted to the beautiful Sylvia but she wants nothing to do with his advances.Ted invites Stevie and Sylvia to a full lunch at Simpson's, a fashionable restaurant. At the lunch, Sylvia explains that her husband is a good man who has been kind to her and her little brother.She is an American who came to London with Stevie to escape the Depression in America, but when the economy crashed in England, too, they were down on their luck and to survive she married a kind older man who protected them. They are running the BIJOU, but struggling economically.Verloc receives a phone call and goes to the London aquarium to receive pay and more instructions. He is tailed by police, who want to identify the entire saboteur gang, but knowing the foreign bosses are "people you and I will never catch" as one policeman tells another.Verloc meets his contact in front of an illuminated tank where a huge turtle is swimming. A passerby (Charles Hawtrey) enthusiastically describes the reproduction of fish at the aquarium and compares them to humans.Verloc is paid but scolded because his power station stunt was disappointing. "London must not laugh" is the order given to Verloc. "We want the English to worry about what happens in England and thus pay no attention to what happens elsewhere in Europe". Agents must not fear retribution to earn their money.Then the contact assigns Verloc to put a bomb in Piccadilly Circus station "the center of the world", and produce fear, not laughter. Verloc isn't a forceful villain, just a weak, man of no moral fiber who objects to the idea of murder but decides to go through with it for money.The bomb is to be prepared by an agent who runs a pet shop as a front. Verloc realizes that he is in over his head, and tries to get out of the fearsome responsibilities, but he is scolded again and he accepts.
In a dreamy sequence the scared Verloc sees the fish swimming in the tank and imagines them as motor cars filled with passengers moving around Piccadilly Circus when an explosion demolishes all buildings around. Suddenly the fish in the tank reappear.Again tailed by Scotland Yard, he proceeds to the pet shop. At the pet shop, an old biddy wants to return a canary that won't sing. The shop owner Professor Chatman (William Dewhurst), has no trouble getting the bird to warble, implying that it's the lady's fault. Verloc is led to a stuffy kitchen where a chaotic nconventional family of three, a father, daughter, and granddaughter live, to talk to Chatman.Chatman opens a cabinet, reaching for bomb making stuff and first finds the granddaughter's doll in the cabinet. He then explains to Verloc that the bomb is up to Chatman, only the delivery will be up to Verloc.They agree to disguise the bomb in a cage with canaries, addressed to Stevie, who will enjoy the birds.A clandestine meeting for gang members is arranged for Verloc's apartment. Ted has no difficulty identifying something is afoot, since anyone wanting to see Verloc must walk up to the front of the Bijou, pass into the dark screening room, walk along its side to a curtain next to the screen. Behind the curtain is Verloc's door.Ted gets Stevie to show him how to get behind the screen to a window from which he might overhear what is going on at the meeting Verloc is having with other shifty-eyed foreigners in ill-fitting suits. Unfortunately, he is spotted by the conspirators and pulled into the room.The conspirators end their meeting, telling Verloc the job is his alone. Verloc exits to talk to his neighbor the greengrocer, and elicits comments that confirm that Ted is a policeman under cover.Meantime Sylvia has become gradually more suspicious about Verloc's activities. However, she hesitates and delays.Professor Chatman sends Stevie a pair of canaries in a cage, with the package bomb concealed in a drawer underneath. Verloc reads a sealed message that the bomb is set to go off at 1:45. Ted admits he is a detective and detains Verloc asking him details over and over, pretending he has no suspicions of Verloc himself. Verloc, wanting an alibi for the time of the explosion, arranges for Stevie to take the package to Picadilly and leave it in the station cloakroom by 1:30. The excuse is that a film canister needs to be returned nearby. It must be walked over, because it is inflammable and it cant be carried on a bus.The heartbreakingly cheerful brother is carrying the bomb along with film canisters labeled "Bartholomew the Strangler. Because the Lord Mayor's parade is on that day, Stevie is delayed by all manner of events. A street vendor pulls him out of a crowd in order to demonstrate a new toothpaste. He's stopped from crossing a street because the parade is marching by. He enjoys watching the parade. The parade has snarled traffic. When he gets on a bus the conductor ironically warns, "Don't set fire to me or the other passengers." The bus keeps hitting red lights.There are many cuts between the oblivious Stevie, with a time bomb in a package under one arm while petting a fluffy puppy with his free hand and talking to an old lady, those big outdoor clocks whose arms get ever closer to 1:45, until the explosion.Ted receives orders to go to the explosion scene. When Stevie does not get back home for a meal, Sylvia starts to worry and ask questions, and learns the awful truth from Verloc.Verloc confesses his part in the sabotage, while standing near the model boat which she and her brother had made, then blames Spencer for Stevie's death, saying he prevented Verloc from delivering the bomb himself. Verloc suggests to Sylvia that they could have a child of their own, as if to compensate for her loss.Sylvia, deeply depressed and confused at the revelation, hears laughter from the audience. She wanders into the theater in shock, and sits to watch "Who Killed Cock Robin," a 1935 Disney cartoon featuring a parody of Mae West. Momentarily, she laughs, but when the arrow is loosed and slays poor Cock Robin, the laughter on her face changes to an expression of agony and terror.Her eyes and expressions subtly convey an emotional cascade of stunned realization, immense sadness, and suppressed hysteria. She realizes what a monster her husband is.Sylvia explodes after sitting to dinner with Verloc. He orders his still shocked and dazed wife to a "get a grip" and get prepared to deny everything. He goes on to order her to scold the cook about the overcooked cabbage soup on the dinner table.Without dialogue, the camera shifts from her face, to Verloc's, to the food they are eating, to her hold on a carving knife, until they both rise, stare at each other, and it happens: she stabs him in the stomach with the knife.Meantime, Ted discovers, at the scene of the blown up bus, part of the film canister from the BIJOU that most likely was carried by Stevie, so he returns to the BIJOU.We see Sylvia sitting, dazed, right past the doorway, and in the foreground, the feet of the slain Verloc.When Spencer arrives at the apartment, he realizes what has happened, but insists that Sylvia shouldn't admit that she knifed her husband. He takes her out of the apartment and tries to convince her that he is in love with her, and talks about getting on a boat crossing the Channel to France and together escape the police.Professor Chatman's daughter berates him for leaving a bird-cage with the shop's identification at Verloc's, and insists he go back to retrieve it. Chatman enters the apartment just ahead of a squad of detectives coming for Verloc. When the detectives knock, he locks the door and announces he has a bomb and will blow it up if they enter.The detectives at the door assume they are hearing Verlocs voice, and take the threat seriously. They evacuate the building. They argue about who should stay near the apartment: the single guy says he will stay and let the married ones go to a safer place, but one of the marrieds jokes that since hes already married, his life is over anyway so he might as well stay.Sylvia is dazedly responding to Ted's love declaration, and kisses him, but she refuses to run away, and is just on the edge of confessing to a policeman when an explosion and fire at the cinema intervenes. The evidence of her crime is destroyed, and effectively prevents the policeman from remembering whether it was before or after the explosion that she said, "My husband is dead!"At the end we see Sylvia and Ted walk away together. | suspenseful, murder | tt0028212 |
Sabrina | Sabrina Fairchild is the young daughter of the Larrabee family's chauffeur, Thomas, and has been in love with David Larrabee all her life. David is a playboy, constantly falling in love, yet he has never noticed Sabrina, much to her dismay.
Sabrina travels to Paris for a fashion internship at Vogue (rather than a culinary course as in the original film) and returns as an attractive, sophisticated woman. David, after initially not recognizing her, is quickly drawn to her despite being newly engaged to Elizabeth Tyson, a doctor.
David's workaholic older brother Linus fears that David's imminent wedding to the very suitable Elizabeth might be endangered. If the wedding were to be canceled, so would a lucrative merger with the bride's family business, Tyson Electronics, run by her father Patrick. This could cost the Larrabee Corporation, run by Linus and his mother Maude, in the neighborhood of a billion dollars.
Linus tries to redirect Sabrina's affections to himself and it works. Sabrina falls in love with him, even though she quotes others as calling Linus "the world's only living heart donor" and someone who "thinks that morals are paintings on walls and scruples are money in Russia."
In the process, Linus also falls in love with her. Unwilling to admit his feelings, Linus confesses his scheme to Sabrina at the last minute and sends her back to Paris. Before she gets on the plane to Paris, her father informs her that during the years of driving the father of David and Linus, he listened. When Mr. Larrabee sold, he sold and when Mr. Larrabee bought, he bought. Sabrina jokingly says "So you are telling me that you have a million dollars?" Her father says no, he has two and a quarter million dollars and that her mother would want her to have it.
Meanwhile, Linus realizes his true feelings for Sabrina, and is induced to follow her to Paris by chiding from his mother and an unexpectedly adult and responsible David, who steps into his shoes at the Larrabee Corporation. Linus arrives in Paris and reunites with Sabrina, revealing his love to her and kissing her. | dramatic, romantic, feel-good | tt0047437 |
Nightmare Beach | At dusk, a number of bikers are standing together outside a prison as if in mourning. Inside, Diablo, a prisoner, is led down "the mile" for his execution. When strapped in the electric chair, Diablo screams and curses at the guards, in particular the police officer, Strycker. Before he is executed, the prison warden asks if he has any last words or make a last statement. Diablo says: "I've been framed, but I'll come back to get even!" The switch is thrown.A few days later, a local policeman says: "welcome to spring break, the annual migration of the idiot". Thousands of college students are flocking up and down the Florida east coast for their week of spring vacation, settling in on Fort Lauderdale. Two teenage boys, Skip and Ronnie, are checking into a small hotel where Skip is recognized by the hotel desk clerk as the quarterback who threw an interception at the Orange Bowl.Meanwhile, the cops learn that Diablo's body has been taken from the cemetery. Reverend Bates, who was present at the execution, is at the cemetery, and he reminds everyone of Diablo's last words. That night, a girl is hitchhiking, and a biker clad in black leather stops. She asks the biker if he is going to Manatee Beach for spring break, and he slowly nodes his head. After driving at a breakneck speed, the girl complains. The biker stops and lets her off, and then electrocutes her to death with a system attached to the motorcycle.The next day, Skip and Ronnie almost get into a scuffle with the Demons, the motorcycle gang whom Diablo was the leader, outside a local bar. Officer Strycher shows up and stops the Demons from doing anything, and the boys go inside the bar. Skip meets Gail, the bartender, who was seen in the opening scene at Diablo's execution. Skip does not seem to be into the bar scene, and Gail seems impressed by the football player. Skip also turns down a date with Rachael, the Reverend Bates' daughter. Ronnie is later picked up by Trina, a lady biker of the Demons. She leads him into an alley where the Demons proceed to beat him up and rob him. After the Demons leave the scene, the mysterious helmeted, black-leather-clad biker shows up when Ronnie is able to stand up. Ronnie takes a swing at him, steadies himself with the motorcycle, and is electrocuted and incinerated.When the mayor of Fort Lauderdale hears about this latest killing, he wants to cover up Ronnie's murder so that no one will suspect a serial killer. While looking for his friend, Skip spots Trina wearing a football medal similar to the one Ronnie had. She tells Skip that she got it from her "old man", but Skip, who does not believe her, follows Trina to the Demons hide out. Skip is spotted and captured and when the Demons prepare Skip for another brutal beating, Strycher arrives with a warrant; he is looking for Diablo's body.Back at the hotel, a voyeuristic clerk is murdered while peeping through a small hole in the wall of a closet. Kimberly, a student having sex with an older man and providing him with sad stories about her parents lost business (in order to exact pity/pleasure compensation), sees the peephole and an eye looking through it. After sending the man on his way, Kimberly runs to check the closet and finds the dead man. Before she can escape in the elevator, the killer murders her.Gail goes with Skip, first to the hospital for his injuries, and then to the police station to report Ronnie's disappearance. Later, Skip waits for Dr. Willet in the doctor's car and demands to know where his friend is. Dr. Willett tells him where Ronnie is buried. Skip travels to the cemetery where Strycher finds Skip, threatens him and orders him to leave town.Meanwhile, Dawg (the Demon's new leader since Diablo's demise) is arrested for the hotel murders. At the same time, Skip hides out at Gail's place where he tells her that someone might have killed Ronnie. Together, they catch Trina alone and she tells him she does not know who killed Ronnie, and that Diablo did not kill Gail's sister Mary (the murder for which Diablo was blamed and executed for). Earlier, Diablo's innocence was verified by Strycher, who told the mayor, "you wanted a patsy," in reference to Mary's death. Skip and Gail suspect that Officer Strycher to be the one responsible for the killings. They sneak into his place and find photographs of the dead girls.That evening, the Demons bust Dawg from the county jail. When Skip and has a run-in with Strycher, the Demons show up. Dawg shoots Strycher, and the bikers drag the wounded officer around on a chain until he is dead. Gail finds Diablo's corpse at the gang's hideout and soon the murderer arrives where he reveals himself to be Reverend Bates, who tells Gail that he has been killing people whom he believes are sinners (and admits to the murder of Mary). Skip shows up in Strycher's car, and he and Gail try to escape from the reverend. Bates chases after him, but wrecks his motorcycle and is electrocuted by power wires. | murder, prank | tt0095740 |
Finding Vivian Maier | The film opens up cutting between footage of a handful of people, each in their home, and each pensively waiting to be interviewed. The brief snippets shown clarify that each will be speaking about their recollections of the same woman, as a part of finding insight into the mystery.
Switch to the filmmaker,John Maloof explaining how a trip to a local auction house, in search for old pictures to use for a book history of his neighborhood resulted in him bidding, and winning a box full of old negatives. John, goes through the massive quantity of negatives, describes how impressed he was by the quality of the images, quickly determined they were not relevant to his project and just put them away. That could have very likely had been the end of the story, if the power of the images had not pushed him to fall in love with photography. John confides that his photo hobby quickly motivated him to set up a darkroom and devote large amounts of time shooting. As he learned more about photography, he recognized that those negatives he had bought, then stored, were the work of a real master. In an attempt to confirm his suspicion, he selected about 100 images and put them online with the hope that the feedback would confirm his judgement as to the strength of the images. He got his confirmation!Mr. Maloof had the artistic vision and business savvy to go back to that auction house, track-down others that had bought Vivian's negatives that day and buy them all, returning the collection to whole. The amount of images was truly astounding, and total over 100,000, and unlike today's digital world, she was shooting primarily with a Rolleiflex Camera, a roll of 120 film holds 12 images.In addition to the film, John found receipts, notes and just enough information to attempt to find out who was this prolific mystery woman. Interestingly, it was not that difficult to discover who she was and people that knew her, the secret was that she had been a masterful artist. Everyone knew her as the slightly odd, but rather nice nanny.- Lane J. Lubell of Cinemashadow.com | violence, home movie | tt2714900 |
Dead Ringers | The movie opens in Toronto, 1954 with Elliot and Beverly Mantle (Jonathan and Nicholas Haley) as young boys, discussing sex and trying to learn about the female form. Flash forward to the brothers (Jeremy Irons) at Cambridge, Massachusettes in 1967, working in a medical lab and receiving acclaim for inventing a retractor. We see that they seem to share each other's experiences.Flash forward another 21 years back to Toronto the present day, and Mantle is examining a movie-star patient, Claire (Genevieve Bujold). She has three openings in her uterus, and it facinates him. The brothers switch appointments regularly, and we see that Elliot is more aggressive and outgoing than Beverly. Elliot encourages Beverly to visit Claire, who obviously had a tryst with Elliot the previous night. Beverly is less willing to be wild, but Elliot reminds him that they always share women.Beverly falls in love with Claire, and refuses to share his experience with Elliot. Tension between the brothers begins to build. Beverly lets slip to Claire that he has a brother, and gets upset when she teases him. She tells him she thinks he's schizophrenic.Claire has lunch with Laura (Shirley Douglas), who tells her Beverly and Elliot are twins. Claire realizes she doesn't know who she's sleeping with. When she tells Elliot she knows, he gets agitated, but agrees to allow her to meet both of them. She tells them she knows what they are doing and storms off. Elliot is amused, but Beverly is saddened.At another awards ceremony, Beverly arrives, drunk, and starts ranting about Elliot taking credit for his work. They reconcile, but Elliot has been offered a job, and Beverly is now taking uppers. Beverly goes to see Claire and apologizes. After sex, he has nightmares about Claire trying to separate him from Elliot. Drug use continues.Elliot begins his new glamourous work, and has sex with identical twin protitutes, telling them to call him by both his name and his brother's. He shows up at Claire's movie set and tries to dissuade her from seeing Beverly. She tells him he's very different from Beverly, and refuses to sleep with him.Claire leaves town for contract negotiations, and Beverly continues to take drugs. He calls Claire's hotel and thinks the man (her secretary) who answers is her lover. He tells him of her "mutation". Beverly goes to see Elliot and tells him she's having an affair.Beverly's work begins to suffer, and he goes to a metalsmith (Stephen Lack) to redesign his medical tools to deal with the "mutations" he is trying to treat. Elliot is now taking more drugs, and the practice is suffering. His secretary quits. He freaks out during an operation while trying to use the new tools.Elliot tries to cover up. The board doesn't buy it, and the brothers are forced to close their practice.Elliot continues to date, and gets Beverly to dance with his girlfriend Cary (Heidi Von Palleske). He joins in, and the three of them dance intimately. When Beverly realizes they are trying to seduce him, he breaks away but collapses and is rushed to the hospital. Elliot promises to detox Beverly, so no one will know about the drugs. Beverly is locked in the clinic to dry out.Elliot's drug use is increasing. Cary tries to tell him he is becoming like Beverly, but Elliot explains that he wants to get "synchronized" with Beverly.Claire gets back and straightens out the mix-up with her secretary, then tells Beverly to come see her. He has trouble getting out of the locked clinic, but is desperate to see her. On the way, after stopping to be sick on the street, he notices an art exhibit showing the tools he had the metalsmith make. He finally arrives at Claire's and tries to get her to fill a prescription. She doesn't, and Beverly exhibits more confusion. When he returns to the clinic, he finds the office trashed, and Elliot in the shower, wasted.The brothers agree to try and kick the habit, and Elliot begins to sound like a child. In a drug-induced haze, Beverly operates on his brother, using the customized tools he designed, trying to separate them as siamese twins.When Beverly awakes, he sees his brother - disemboweled. He packs a bag, gets cleaned up, and leaves, making a phone call to Claire, but when she asks who is calling, he hangs up on her. In a daze, he wanders back upstairs, and collapses, intertwined with his brother.The end. | neo noir, murder, cult, psychedelic, tragedy, sadist | tt0094964 |
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies | Set in an alternate England of the early 1800s, the film opens with Colonel Darcy (Sam Riley) traveling to the home of a wealthy family to investigate the emergence of a zombie. He arrives at the home and sits with the family before taking out a small vial containing a particular set of flies that can detect the undead. The flies land on the house's patriarch, whose eyes turn red. Darcy breaks a glass and stabs the man in the throat before decapitating him. This frightens one of the young girls in the house, and she retreats upstairs. When she is discovered, she has turned into a zombie as well and proceeds to attack.Over the opening credits, we hear the voice of Mr. Bennet (Charles Dance) narrate the origin of the zombie outbreak, which is represented in the form of a pop-up book. The Black Plague hit London and began to create zombies. A wall was built to separate London from the zombies, leaving them in an area called The In-Between. It is said that the Four Horsemen are ready to rise up from Hell and bring about the apocalypse.The five Bennet sisters: Elizabeth (Lily James), Jane (Bella Heathcoate), Kitty (Suki Waterhouse), Lydia (Ellie Bamber), and Mary (Millie Brady) have all been trained by their father in the art of weaponry and martial arts after being sent abroad to China. Mrs. Bennet (Sally Phillips) wants her daughters to be married off to wealthy suitors. As it turns out, the Bingley family has moved in nearby and are throwing a ball, wherein Mrs. Bennet hopes that the young and handsome Mr. Bingley (Douglas Booth) will win over one of her girls. Elizabeth doesn't want to seek out a husband, to which Lydia makes a snide comment about Elizabeth not being able to attract men. She proceeds to chase Lydia out of the room.The Bennets attend the ball. Bingley instantly sets his eyes on Jane. Darcy is in attendance and takes notice of Elizabeth, but he makes comments that she is unappealing, which Elizabeth overhears. She walks outside tearfully and encounters a woman she knew named Mrs. Featherstone (Hermione Corfield), who is a zombie. Mrs. Featherstone is about to tell Elizabeth something until her head is blown off by Darcy. A horde of zombies then attacks the party, prompting the Bennet sisters to spring into action. As they slay every zombie in their path, Darcy instantly becomes smitten with Elizabeth when he witnesses her in combat.Jane is outside by herself on a rainy day and encounters a zombie. She kills it but then spots a zombie woman with her child. Jane hesitates and is attacked by the zombie. She is confined to her room, where it is feared that she may have been bitten. Darcy arrives at their home with the flies to detect a zombie, but Elizabeth catches each fly with her hand and returns them to Darcy.After Jane recovers, the sisters attend another ball for the Bingleys. There, Elizabeth meets the soldier Mr. George Wickham (Jack Huston), who seems to be charming and polite. He tells Elizabeth that he has had a history with Darcy and does not wish to further challenge him. Another group of zombies attacks the party, resulting in Bingley injuring himself (but not getting bitten), and Darcy joins Elizabeth in fighting the monsters.The Bennets are visited by Parson Collins (Matt Smith), who intends to marry one of the sisters. He initially sets his eyes on Jane, though he is told that she is with Bingley. He later tries to make a move on Elizabeth, but requests that she give up her life as a warrior, something that she adamantly refuses to do, even for a man. Mr. Collins later decides to settle with Elizabeth's friend Charlotte (Aisling Loftus).Elizabeth and Darcy meet with Darcy's aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh (Lena Headey), a notorious zombie killer with major authority. Lady Catherine, who has several scars on her body that she carefully hides as well as a black eyepatch over her left eye, wants Darcy to marry her daughter Anne, but Catherine's skill are also needed to fight off the zombies.Elizabeth travels with Mr. Wickham to the In-Between, an area outside of walled-in London but inside a royal moat, to a church filled with zombies, who feed on pig brains to keep themselves from going completely savage. Mr. Wickham wants Elizabeth to join him in helping the zombies. He also suggests that she run away with him, but she remains conflicted.Back home, Elizabeth is told that Darcy has convinced the Bingleys to move away. When Darcy approaches Elizabeth with a proposal of his own, she expresses her outrage at his actions and fights him in a duel. Elizabeth gets the upper hand, and Darcy leaves.Mr. Darcy writes Elizabeth a letter to apologize for his actions and to state that he separated Jane and Mr. Bingley for fear that Jane only wanted to marry Mr. Bingley for his wealth, having overheard Mrs. Bennet drunkenly mention it. Mr. Darcy also mentions that Mr. Wickham had tried to elope with Darcy's 15-year-old sister for her fortune. Mr. Darcy's letter states that he is battling zombies in London, and that they have overrun the walled city. Elizabeth is then cornered by Lady Catherine and her bodyguard Wilhelm (Ryan Oliva). Lady Catherine states Mr. Darcy has been intended to marry her sickly daughter, Anne, from their youth and confronts Elizabeth about rumors over Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. When Elizabeth denies it, Lady Catherine instigates a fight between Elizabeth and Wilhelm in place of Lady Catherine who Elizabeth has refused to fight. Wilhelm attacks Elizabeth, but she claws his face and fights him off, causing him to get crushed under a pile of bricks. Catherine then holds her sward at Elizabeth's neck and states she doesn't know if she admires Elizabeth's skill as a warrior, or her resolve as a woman. She leaves Elizabeth alone.Afterwards, Lady Catherine decides to protect Elizabeth's family from approaching zombies and takes them to her estate. Elizabeth later finds out that Mr. Wickham ran off with her younger sister, Lydia and decides to go rescue her.Elizabeth and Jane travel to the canal on the outskirts of London where the Royal Army is blocking the last bridge out of the city. Elizabeth the leaves Jane behind in the army camp and hides her horse alone across the bridge to find her sister.Meanwhile, the zombies make their way toward London. Mr. Darcy then encounters Mr. Wickham at the old church and rescues Lydia in the basement. When a horde of zombies, who had been living normally until the pig brains they had been eating were switched with human brains by Mr. Darcy storm the cellar, Mr. Darcy escapes with Lydia.Elizabeth rejoins Darcy in the In-Between and helps him battle the undead. Darcy encounters again Wickham and fights him, eventually impaling him and seeing a bite mark on his chest, revealing he was undead all along. Before Wickham can kill Darcy, Elizabeth rides in and chops his right arm off and knocks him out. Darcy rides with Elizabeth across the bridge as other Londoners blow it up to keep the zombies away. Darcy is injured in the explosion and is rendered unconscious. Elizabeth tearfully admits her love for him.After Darcy recovers, he finds Elizabeth and tells her that he heard what she said on the bridge. They share their first kiss and agree to marry. The Elizabeth and Darcy have a joint wedding with Bingley and Jane, officiated by Parson Collins. Everyone attends including Lady Catherine, Mr. and Mrs. Bennett, as well as Lydia, Kitty and Mary. The two couples walk away together to live happily ever after...Until a moment during mid-credits when everyone sees something beyond the church gates. The now one-armed Wickham is leading the four zombie Horsemen along with a HUGE army of zombies towards them, ready for war.... | comedy, murder, violence, flashback, good versus evil, romantic, melodrama, revenge, alternate history | tt1374989 |
Fainaru fantajî sebun adobento chirudoren | The film begins with a scene in an area surrounded by rock formations. A red, lion-like beast known as Red XIII (Liam O'Brien) can be seen with two younger members of the same species running along the cliff. Eventually, the three reach a cliffside, which they swiftly climb. The camera pans around to show the ruined city of Midgar, overrun with forests and vegetation, as Red XIII roars in the city's direction.The scene fades to a shot of a man in a black outfit with silvery hair wheeling another man in a wheelchair out of an elevator. The man in the wheelchair is covered in a white cloth, obscuring his identity. The two walk to the edge of the building, as they discuss a new disease that has struck the city of Edge: Geostigma. It is revealed that the man in the wheelchair is infected with Geostigma, due to the black bruise on his wrist area.The scene switches again to a shot of a mountain covered in snow. The Turks Tseng (Ryun Yu) and Elena (Bettina Bush), are heard talking to each other on a radio. A helicopter is then shown, its pilot being another Turk, Reno (Quinton Flynn). The helicopter then descends into what appears to be the Northern Crater, before disappearing in a snowstorm. Multiple gunshots are then heard on the radio, as Tseng and Elena cry out, appearing to have been shot. Elena tells Reno to get out of the crater, and the helicopter can then be seen exiting the crater and flying away.The scene fades into a scene in which Marlene Wallace (Grace Rolek) narrates a short summary of the events in Final Fantasy VII, as well as the current state of the city Edge. In summary, the Shinra Electric Power Company used the power of an energy source known as mako to drain the planet of a vital soul known as the Lifestream. Shinra also had a unique section of warriors known as SOLDIER. All SOLDIERs were to be injected with cells from a calamity known as JENOVA, which gave them unique and enhanced abilities. One unique SOLDIER was Sephiroth (George Newbern), regarded for his exceptional ability to fight with a six-feet-long katana. Sephiroth eventually found out about JENOVA, who he believed to be his "mother". Eventually, Sephiroth turned insane, burning down the village of Nibelheim and vowing to take revenge on Shinra and even the Planet itself. Sephiroth managed to obtain the Black Materia, which enabled him to summon an incredibly powerful magic known as Meteor, which was to strike the Planet. Another group of warriors, led by Cloud Strife (Steve Burton), attempted to stop Meteor by traveling to the center of the Planet to unlock Holy, the counterpart of Meteor. However, even Holy was not powerful enough, and the Planet was forced to call the Lifestream to stop Meteor. Meteor was destroyed, along with the city of Midgar, home of the Shinra corporation, and Sephiroth was killed by Cloud.The city of Edge built beside Midgar is shown, as well as the Midgar memorial, located in the center of the city plaza. Several of the city's children are infected with Geostigma, targeted because of their low immune systems. The inside of the bar "Seventh Heaven" is shown, where an orphan named Denzel (Benjamin Bryan) is shown lying on a bed, infected with Geostigma on his forehead. Tifa Lockhart (Rachael Leigh Cook) is shown answering a phone call for the absent Cloud Strife, saying that she "knows" the caller.The scene shifts again to an empty wasteland, where the Buster Sword is shown stabbed into a cliff, with a wolf behind it. A group of three silver-haired men known as the "Remnants of Sephiroth" riding motorcycles approach the cliffside overlooking Midgar and Edge, beside the Buster Sword. Their names are revealed to be Yazoo (Dave Wittenberg), Loz (Fred Tatasciore), and Kadaj (Steve Staley), Kadaj appearing to be their leader and also the man shown in the opening scene. The three discuss finding their "big brother" (Cloud) and their "mother" (JENOVA).The protagonist Cloud Strife is shown riding on a motorbike in the wasteland before he is ambushed by Yazoo and Loz. The two summon Shadow Creepers to attack Cloud as well as attack him themselves. Cloud reveals that his motorbike has hidden compartments that hold his various swords. However, as they fight, Cloud is distracted by a pain in his left arm. It is later revealed that Cloud has contracted Geostigma. Cloud is overwhelmed, but Kadaj calls Yazoo and Loz back before Cloud is finished off.Cloud then rides into the outskirts of Edge to find the mysterious caller. As he enters the building, Reno attempts to attack him. Cloud easily blocks the attack with one of his swords and locks Reno outside the building. The man in the wheelchair enters the room, accompanied by another Turk: Rude (Crispin Freeman). The man is then revealed to be Rufus Shinra, who was the president of the Shinra company before it was destroyed. Rufus reveals that the Turks were sent to the Northern Crater to look for remains of Sephiroth, but were ambushed by the Remnants. Shinra's plan is to find the remaining JENOVA cells before the Remnants do, or there is a chance that Sephiroth may be reborn. Geostigma is also suspected to have been caused by Sephiroth's soul, acting through the Remnants and his soul living in the Lifestream. Rufus offers Cloud the chance to help fix Shinra's mistakes and restore the Planet to what it was before Meteor, and also for protection from Kadaj's gang. Cloud however, refuses.There is a short scene of Tifa and Marlene visiting the church in the Sector Seven slums of Midgar, where Aerith Gainsborough (Mena Suvari) used to be. It is revealed that Cloud is now living in the Church. The two stay in the church and wait for Cloud to arrive.Kadaj has managed to infiltrate the building and defeat Reno and Rude alone. Rufus states that Kadaj and the Remnants are looking for "an object", which he says fell from the Turks helicopter as they fled the Northern Cave. Kadaj then displays the ID cards of Tseng and Elena, smeared with blood. Kadaj then explains the Reunion, which he says is an event in which his "brothers and sisters" will join with him, and they will take revenge on the Planet, and that the Geostigma are "invitations". He mentions that the Remnants can never be "whole" unless they receive JENOVA's cells. Kadaj then shows proof that he is in fact a reincarnation of Sephiroth by using Rufus's memories.Cloud is shown on the cliff with the Buster Sword. A flashback of the events in Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII are then shown.Loz enters the church in the slums, saying that he is looking for "mother". When Tifa says that there is no one there, Loz attempts to take Marlene with him. Tifa retaliates, fighting Loz while displaying an impressive array of physical attacks. However, even after the fight, Loz remains unfazed and uses a device on his arm to disarm Tifa and to knock her unconscious.A girl living in Edge meets Denzel, and mentions that a group of people are going to "fix" the children affected by Geostigma. All the children, including Denzel, board the back of a pickup truck as Yazoo is revealed to be the leader of the operation.Cloud then enters the church and notices the unconscious Tifa. Tifa awakens and tells Cloud that Loz took Marlene before she drops unconscious again. Cloud then notices a searing pain in his arm as black slime drips from the Geostigma bruise and onto the flowers in the church. A quick sequence of images are shown, several of them with Sephiroth in them. The pain subdues Cloud and knocks him unconscious as well.Cloud wakes up in an inn, rescued by Reno and Rude. The two tell Cloud that the Remnants have kidnapped the children and taken them to an unknown location. When asked if he cares or not, Cloud does not reply.Meanwhile, the Forgotten City, Kadaj inspects a chest taken from the church by Loz. The chest is revealed to contain Materia linked with the power of the Lifestream. Kadaj takes the Materia, saying that "those powers will now be theirs".Tifa wakes up in the inn and attempts to convince Cloud to fight the Geostigma together with the children, instead of just giving up. Cloud reacts by saying that he can no longer help anyone, overridden with guilt. Reno and Rude then enter the room and reveal the location of Kadaj: the Forgotten City. Cloud sets off to find the children.Kadaj can be seen overlooking a small river with the children waiting on the other side. Kadaj tells the children that their "mother" has given them the gift to fight against the Planet. He says that they are destined to inherit JENOVA's legacy through the Lifestream. However, the Planet does not approve, and is fighting back through Geostigma. Kadaj now tells the children that he will heal them, and steps into the river, tainting it with JENOVA's presence. The children are told to then drink the water, and they comply, including Denzel.As he rides through the Forgotten Forest, the deceased Aerith uses the Lifestream to contact him. She asks Cloud why he came to the Forest. Cloud responds by saying that he just wants to be forgiven. When Aerith asks by who, the scene ends and Cloud returns to riding his motorbike through the Forest. Gunshots suddenly erupt as bullet fly past Cloud. In front of him, he notices the Remnants, firing at him from a distance. With the added power of the Materia, the Remnants are more powerful. Kadaj signals, and the children drop down from the trees above, now brainwashed and under Kadaj's control. Cloud is forced to stop to avoid hitting the children, and falls off the motorbike. Cloud and the Remnants then fight in the Forest. Cloud appears to be overwhelmed from the very start, outnumbered three to one. With their Remnant synchronization, the three men quickly subdue Cloud. However, Vincent Valentine (Steve Blum), an old friend of Cloud, appears and saves Cloud, taking him away to another part of the Forest. Cloud drops his cell phone in the process.Vincent explains that the Geostigma is the result of an infection brought about by the soul of JENOVA attacking the bodies of the children through the Lifestream. If the Remnants managed to obtain JENOVA's cells, they could recreate Sephiroth. Marlene appears from the bushes, telling Cloud that she managed to escape from Kadaj while they were fighting. Cloud tells Vincent to take Marlene back to Edge while he goes to talk to Rufus, but Vincent denies. Marlene becomes fed up with Cloud, asking why he never cared about them. Cloud reflects on his past conversations with Tifa on the same topic, realizing that fighting alone isn't going to get anywhere. Cloud then agrees to take Marlene to Edge.The next scene shows Cloud's cell phone falling to the bottom of a small pond, while the numerous messages from his friends are being played. As the phone reaches the bottom, a message from Aerith plays, saying that she never blamed him for anything. The screen then turns black.Meanwhile in Edge, Yazoo and Loz have surrounded the Midgar monument with the still-brainwashed children, watching as the citizens protest. Annoyed, Yazoo summons the Shadow Creepers to drive away the citizens. In the chaos, Tifa finds the brainwashed Denzel standing in the circle, who does not respond to her. On the other side of the circle, Yazoo and Loz begin to tear down the monument, believing that JENOVA's cells are hidden within. Reno and Rude show up, ready for battle. Yazoo taunts them about not being trusted by Rufus, and Reno responds by attacking.The scene flashes to Kadaj conversing with Rufus on the same building as in the opening scene. Kadaj explains that Sephiroth is returning, and it will not be long before the reunion arrives. He also explains that he must be the one to make the Planet accept JENOVA, in order to make his "mother" happy. However, it is also mentioned that Kadaj may be slightly jealous of Sephiroth for his relationship with JENOVA. Kadaj then uses the new Materia to fire a Summon into the sky, summoning Bahamut SIN, which he believes will end all the chaos.As Bahamut SIN approaches the Midgar monument, the crowd begins to retreat. Tifa continues to talk to Denzel, but he still does not respond. Reno and Rude notice the giant dragon and attempt to save the children by carrying them away from the monument. However, Bahamut SIN uses an blue energy blast to destroy the monument, causing an explosion that knocks Reno and Rude to the ground. Yazoo and Loz continue to fight Reno and Rude. During the fight, Yazoo mentions that all they want "is to be with mother". The two Remnants overpower the Turks quickly. They continue to fight.Denzel, whose own mind was restored by the blast, wakes up from unconsciousness and sees Tifa still unconscious. In an angry rage, he charges towards Bahamut SIN, however, Barret Wallace (Beau Billingslea), shows up behind him and stops him, while using his machine-gun arm to fire at Bahamut SIN. Other friends of Cloud and Tifa show up as well, including Yuffie Kisaragi (Christy Carlson Romano), Cid Highwind (Chris Edgerly),Vincent Valentine, Red XIII, and Cait Sith (Greg Ellis). Cloud also rides in on his motorbike, saying that he feels "lighter".As the group fights Bahamut SIN, Cloud enters the battle and fights the dragon himself, using two swords. All of his attacks appear to have no effect, until Cloud uses his Braver limit to knock the dragon down to the ground. However, Bahamut SIN begins to charge a massive blue energy blast and flies up high into the sky.Meanwhile, Kadaj is still talking with Rufus on the building. Rufus then stands up, revealing that he is not crippled at all, and removes the white cloth, revealing his true identity to Kadaj. Kadaj stares in complete shock at the black box in Rufus's hand. Rufus was in possession of the JENOVA cells all along, which he quickly tosses over the edge of the building, saying "A good son would have known.". Kadaj screams in agony as he launches a blast at Rufus.Cloud manages to reach the dragon's height with the help of his friends just as Bahamut releases the massive blast. Cloud enters the blast and attempts to reach the other side. The spirit of Aerith appears from the Lifestream and helps Cloud reach the other side of the blast and charge at Bahamut SIN. Cloud uses his Climhazzard limit to finish off the dragon as the blast crashes harmlessly into a construction area.As Cloud lands, Kadaj launches an energy blast at Rufus, who intentionally falls off the building. Rufus then retrieves a gun from his pocket and begins to fire at Kadaj, who also jumps off the building. Kadaj manages to fall faster than Rufus, and desperately tries to retrieve the JENOVA cells before they hit the ground. However, one of Rufus's bullets hits the box, tearing it open and spilling several of the greenish cells. Elena and Tseng then appear and launch two nets through the air, which catch the falling Rufus. Kadaj safely lands in front of Yazoo, Loz, Reno, and Rude.Kadaj then spots Cloud speeding towards them on his motorcycle. Him, Yazoo and Loz board their own motorcycles and take off towards the uncompleted highway just as Cloud follows them in a chase.As Cloud desperately tries to catch up to Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz distract him by attacking. Eventually, Kadaj takes a ramp to the higher levels. Cloud tries to follow, but is cut off by Loz and is forced to stay on the lower levels. Cloud, Yazoo and Loz enter a sealed overpass, in which they attack Cloud brutally. Cloud however, manages to destroy Loz's motorcycle and both of their weapons, using two of his swords. Cloud speeds ahead as Loz boards Yazoo's motorcycle.Reno and Rude take positions in front of the three as they set up explosives on the highway. Cloud drives past both of them, but Yazoo and Loz are caught in the gigantic explosion. The explosion propels Cloud to the higher levels and he engages Kadaj in battle. Eventually, the highway ends, and the two are sent flying into the ruins of Midgar.Kadaj manages to lose Cloud in the ruins, and decides to stop in Aerith's church to examine the black box. Rufus's bullet tore a long crack in the side, and Kadaj peers through the hole and cries out in realizing that he has finally found his "mother". Cloud enters the church as Kadaj launches a blast at one of the pillars, knocking it down and using it as a ramp to ride to the higher floors. He launches another blast at Cloud, knocking him off his motorcycle. Kadaj prepares to finish him off, but Aerith uses the Great Gospel to call sacred water into the church, curing Cloud's Geostigma and causing Kadaj to flee, as the water harms JENOVA's cells.Cloud follows the path where Kadaj fled, and eventually ends up in an open area in front of the ruined Shinra Headquarters, located in the heart of Midgar. Kadaj confronts Cloud, saying that "mother will tell me what to do next". Cloud responds by calling Kadaj a remnant, a puppet of JENOVA. Kadaj responds violently by attacking Cloud, saying that he was once a puppet too. The two fight among the ruins.Eventually, the rest of Cloud's friends arrive via Cid's airship, the Sherra. Barret says that they should help Cloud, but Tifa says that the fight belongs to Cloud, and not to them. She also says that Cloud has recovered the strength that they had lost after the last battle with Sephiroth. The battle continues between Cloud and Kadaj.Kadaj attempts a final attack, lunging at Cloud from above. Cloud uses the Finishing Touch limit to launch Kadaj into the air. Kadaj manages to hang onto the edge of a structure, but loses his sword in the process. Cloud approaches Kadaj, whose grip is slowly slipping. Kadaj tries a final attempt to stop Cloud by tossing the black box at him, which Cloud slashes. The box flies through the air, but has now opened. Kadaj launches himself upward and catches the box while falling down the valley. Kadaj retrieves the cells from within the box, saying that his reunion is finally here. Kadaj fuses with the cells as he continues to fall. Cloud jumps after him.Kadaj somehow lands harmlessly, and Cloud brings down his sword. However, Cloud's sword has hit an invisible barrier, separating the sword from Kadaj, who has now fully transformed into Sephiroth. Sephiroth's long katana then appears, which is what blocked Cloud's attack. Sephiroth slashes Cloud, launching him upward through the air and onto a rooftop. Sephiroth jumps after him.Sephiroth notices that Cloud's Geostigma is gone, and says that it is "too bad". He then tells Cloud that his only goal is to sail through the cosmos using the Planet as a vessel, just as JENOVA did long ago. Eventually, they will find a new planet, and will create a new future for humanity, leaving the old Planet in the hands of the people still on it. Cloud vows to stop him, and engages Sephiroth in a final battle.Throughout the entire battle, Sephiroth appears to have the upper hand, blocking every attack that Cloud uses. Eventually, Sephiroth tells Cloud that he has found a "present" for him, and leads him to the ruined Shinra Headquarters again. As Sephiroth slashes Cloud downward, Cloud uses two of his swords as ledges to stay on the building. Sephiroth uses unknown strength to split the Shinra building in half, and collapses the half down towards the two of them. The two continue to fight in the debris of the falling building. Cloud eventually decides to flee the scene, fleeing to another building and almost collapsing in exhaustion. Sephiroth continues to attack relentlessly, launching Cloud against the side of a building and stabbing him in the shoulder, pinning him against the surface.Sephiroth then tells Cloud to tell him what he cherishes most, so that he may take it away from him. Cloud calls upon his friend's memories and pulls out the sword, diving into the air and tells Sephiroth that he cherishes everything. Cloud then uses his new technique, the Omnislash Version 5, to defeat Sephiroth. Before Sephiroth fades, he tells Cloud that he will never be just a memory, and transforms back into the defeated Kadaj.Kadaj attempts to attack Cloud again, but loses his strength and collapses. Aerith then calls out the Kadaj, telling him that everyone is waiting for him. Kadaj then joins the Lifestream, dissolving in a green stream. Sacred rain begins to fall from the sky, curing everybody in the city of Geostigma. However, as Cloud looks up to the sky, a bullet suddenly pierces his body, and he collapses. The camera shifts to expose the fading Yazoo, who fired the bullet. Loz is beside him, also fading away because of the rain. Using the last of his strength, Cloud charges at the two. Yazoo and Loz then overcharge their Materia, causing a massive explosion. Cloud's friends watch from the airship in horror as Cloud is caught in the blast and killed.The scene fades to Cloud's body floating in the Lifestream, as the wolf representing Cloud's guilt, fades away. The voices of Aerith and Zack Fair (Rick Gomez), Cloud's old friend, are heard. Aerith decides that Cloud isn't ready to die yet, and revives him. Cloud wakes up in the church, where a pool of sacred water has collected. All of Cloud's friends are there, including several of the citizens of Edge, and all the children. Red XIII tells Cloud that Denzel is still infected with Geostigma, due to him being indoors during the Great Gospel. Tifa then brings Denzel, who is still scared because of his previous experience with "sacred water", to the pool. Cloud then pours the water over Denzel's head, curing his Geostigma. Everybody rejoices as Cloud looks at the entrance of the church, where the spirits of Aerith and Zack are seen. Before they leave, Aerith tells Cloud that everything is now alright. Cloud acknowledges, and says that he finally realizes that he is not alone. | romantic, flashback | tt0385700 |
Curse of Chucky | Set four years after the conclusion of the previous film. Chucky (voiced by Brad Dourif), arrives mysteriously in the mail to the family home of paraplegic Nica (Fiona Dourif) and her mother, Sarah. Sarah, not knowing who sent Chucky, throws him in the garbage. Later that night, Nica hears Sarah screaming in pain and finds her dead from a self-inflicted stab wound as Chucky watches from a nearby chair.The next day, Nica is grieving over the gruesome suicide of her mother when her domineering older sister Barb (Danielle Bisutti) arrives in town, with her family: husband, Ian; daughter, Alice; and live-in nanny, Jill, to help settle their mothers affairs. Also present is Father Frank, a priest that came to counsel the family. Alice finds Chucky in the bathroom and develops a friendship with him.After Nica and Alice cook chili for dinner, they leave the kitchen to set the dinner table. In their absence, Chucky pours rat poison into one of the bowls. As night falls, Father Frank and the family sit down and eat. Father Frank leaves as a thunderstorm starts. Emergency personnel arrive at the scene of a car accident and find Father Frank, disoriented from the rat poison, pinned at the throat by the roof of his car. Firefighters remove the car's roof, unintentionally severing his head.Back at the house, Nica, Barb, Jill, and a half-asleep Ian are watching old home movies. Nica notices a human Charles Lee "Chucky" Ray in one of the movies. Alice comes downstairs and notifies everyone that Chucky is gone. Nica finds the return address from the package Chucky arrived in. She tries to call the number, but the storm is causing on and off blackouts and blocking cellphone signals. Jill puts Alice to bed and starts looking for Chucky. While in the kitchen, Barb comes in and passionately kisses Jill, indicating an affair. Nica returns to the living room and finds Chucky sitting on the sofa next to a sleeping Ian. Nica uses the house elevator to take Chucky to Alice, but a blackout occurs and Chucky cuts her leg with a knife. The power returns and the elevator takes Nica to the second floor where Alice takes Chucky and goes to bed.After everyone else goes to their rooms, Nica goes downstairs and looks up "Chucky Doll Evidence" on the internet, where she reads the stories of his murders and realizes that Chucky is alive. Jill goes to Alice's room, strips down to her underwear, and starts video chatting with Barb in another bedroom next to Ian. While talking in video chat Barb tries to warn Jill that Alice is up (not knowing that is Chucky). Jill looks down and sees Chucky holding a knife. Chucky kicks a bucket of rain water over. The water touches Jill's feet and a power outlet, electrocuting her to death and causing another blackout. Barb goes to check on Alice. A now awake Ian questions who Barb is really checking on, indicating that he put a nanny cam on Chucky and knows about the affair. Barb leaves the room after Ian puts in earplugs to tune her out.Barb finds Chucky sitting on stairs that lead to the attic. Thinking that Alice is in the attic, Barb picks up Chucky and goes up to look for her. Meanwhile,with the elevator unusable due to the blackout, Nica crawls up the stairs to the second floor. In the attic, Barb notices the knife in Chucky's overalls. She sets Chucky down on a trunk and continues her search for Alice. Barb turns around and sees Chucky sitting on a shelf. She notices that parts of Chucky's face is peeling. Barb peels off the plastic coating on Chucky's face, exposing his stitches and scars from the previous film. Chucky comes alive and gouges out one of Barb's eyes with his knife.
Nica makes it to the attic's stairs. Chucky throws Barb's eyeball down the stairs. Barb then falls down the stairs dead. Chucky makes his way down the stairs towards Nica. Nica gets a wheelchair from the hallway closet and rolls away with Chucky in pursuit. Nica stops at Alice's room and sees that she has disappeared. Nica makes it to Ian and alerts him of the situation. A skeptical Ian wheels Nica to the garage, then goes back to the house to find Alice, instead finding Jill's and Barb's dead bodies. Chucky locks himself in a car in the garage, starts it, and tries to kill Nica with carbon monoxide poisoning. Nica finds a hatchet and smashes a car window to attack Chucky. Ian returns to the garage and sees Nica with the hatchet. Ian, now suspecting Nica of the murders, disarms her. The stress of the entire situation causes Nica to suffer a heart attack and lose consciousness.
Nica regains consciousness. Ian has tied her to her wheelchair and looks at footage from the nanny cam that Chucky is not responsible for the murders. The footage shows that Chucky is alive and hid Alice in a closet and the affair between Barb and Jill. Chucky comes in and uses Nica's wheelchair to run Ian over. Chucky then uses the hatchet to chop off Ian's lower jaw, killing him. Chucky attacks Nica lodging the hatchet into her knee, but she manages to break out of her restraints and knock out Chucky. Chucky gets back up and Nica uses the hatchet to decapitate him.Nica turns her back to tend to her wounds. Chucky gets up and reattaches his head. Chucky then grabs Nica's wheelchair, pushes her down the hall and through the balcony. Nica falls to the ground floor. Chucky walks downstairs and taunts Nica. Nica asks why Chucky is doing this. Through flashbacks, Chucky explains that he was a friend of the family. He was in love with Sarah, but she was married and pregnant with Nica. Chucky killed Sarah's husband and kidnapped her some time after the funeral. After Sarah rejects him, Chucky stabs her in the stomach before fleeing from the police. The stab to Sarah's stomach is what caused Nica to be born a paraplegic. The kidnapping led to Chucky's death as a human, setting off the chain of events of the franchise.
The electricity returns long enough for Nica to make it into the elevator. Chucky cuts Nica's fingers before dropping the knife into the elevator. Nica, now holding the knife, urges Chucky to attack her. Chucky lunges at Nica and is stabbed in the back. Nica attempts to leave the elevator, but Chucky springs back to life. A police officer arrives at the house and hears Nica scream. He enters the house and sees Nica in the elevator still holding the bloody knife. He looks around and sees Barb's body upstairs while Chucky watches from a nearby chair.Some time later, Nica is found guilty of the murders and sent to an asylum. As Nica is being wheeled out of court, she taunts Chucky (a piece of evidence) that she is still alive. The arresting officer takes Chucky and prepares to take it to an unknown person, and tells the unknown person at the other end of the phone to have his money ready. The officer sees the plastic bag Chucky is in moving because of his breathing. Before he looks inside, Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly) pops up in the backseat and slits his throat. Tiffany then mails Chucky to his next target.Alice, now living with her grandmother, comes home from school. Alice looks for her grandmother, but finds Chucky instead. She asks where her grandmother is and Chucky replies "in the cellar". Chucky persuades Alice to play "Hide The Soul". The camera pans away as Chucky says the chant that will transfer his soul to Alice's body. Before the screen cuts to black, Alice's screaming grandmother pops up on the screen with a plastic bag over her head.After the credits, Chucky is delivered to the now adult Andy Barclay (Alex Vincent). When Andy turns his back to answer a phone call from his mother, Chucky cuts his way out of the package. Chucky looks at an old photo of Andy and his mother from when he was a kid, before turning his attention to Andy. Andy, anticipating Chucky coming after him, holds a shotgun to Chucky's head. Chucky is surprised when Andy remarks, "Play with this", before pulling the trigger. | comedy, murder, paranormal, violence, horror, flashback, sadist, home movie | tt2230358 |
The Boy Who Could Fly | Fourteen-year-old Amelia "Milly" Michaelson (Deakins) and her family move into a new suburban home shortly after the death of her father. Milly makes friends with her new neighbor Geneva, and Milly and her eight-year-old brother Louis (Savage) have difficulty adjusting to their new schools, while their mother Charlene (Bedelia) copes with a demotion at work and her inability to learn how to use a computer. Louis is also plagued by bullies down the street who won't let him get around the block. During the first night at the house, Charlene tells Milly she will need her help to make this work. Milly returns to her bedroom and is talking to her pet bird when something flies past the window, but when Milly goes to investigate she sees nothing.
Milly and Geneva observe Eric Gibb (Underwood), an autistic boy living next door with his alcoholic uncle Hugo (Gwynne). Eric has never spoken a word in his life, doesn't like to be around people and exhibits bizarre behavior related to flying, such as balancing on the roof of his house with his arms spread out like an airplane. Milly hears that Eric's parents died in a plane crash, and that somehow, in the instant of their death, he knew; and that he did the only thing he could think of to try to save them, which was to become an airplane. Later that night, Milly and her family watch as Eric (along with Milly's teacher Mrs. Sherman) and three adults appear outside with Eric in a straitjacket and being restrained by two men, with Mrs. Sherman arguing with a woman there about what is best for Eric. Milly later reveals to Geneva one night when Milly's mother is out for the evening that she finds Eric attractive.
Although Eric cannot communicate with anyone, he begins to react to Milly, first by mimicking her movements and facial expressions. Mrs. Sherman observes this interaction and asks Milly to keep an eye on Eric, explaining that because of Uncle Hugo's drinking, Eric is in constant danger of being taken by authorities and placed in a hospital; but that when Eric was taken away before, he became so sick that he almost died. Milly works with Eric over the course of the school year and takes notes on his progress, which is slow at first. Milly notes excitedly the first time Eric smiles on his own rather than merely copying her own smile. Eric does nothing when Milly throws balls to him, except for one day when he spontaneously reaches out and catches a stray baseball flying toward Milly's head.
However, strange occurrences, like Eric's apparent ability to appear in his own window one instant and in Milly's the next without any link between their homes, begin to make Milly question reality. In her notes, Milly wonders whether Eric is becoming more like her, or the other way around.
On a school field trip, with no one present except Eric, Milly falls off a bridge while trying to pick a rose. Knocked unconscious, she dreams that she wakes up in the hospital, with Eric sitting on the windowsill. After a conversation with him (albeit wordless on Eric's part), she becomes convinced he can fly. Eric gives her the rose she was trying to reach and then, taking her hand, leads her out of the window and the two begin flying. The two watch a fireworks display from a cloud before they share a kiss and return to the hospital window. After watching Eric fly off, Milly's dream becomes a nightmare as she sees her Dad in a hospital bed, dead, with a girl called Mona (who Milly told to throw a volleyball at her head earlier) throwing a volleyball at her which knocks her out of the window.
Milly then wakes up in a hospital and tells her mother that Eric can fly and that he caught her as she fell. A shrink, Dr. Grenader, talks to Milly and tells her that Eric caught her as she only has a concussion and no serious injuries. Dr Grenader, however, puts forth a more logical explanation and explains her belief that Eric can fly may be due to stress caused by the death of her father as he died from cancer.
Upon returning home, Milly notices the rose on her windowsill and now becomes truly convinced that Eric can fly. When she shouts to Uncle Hugo about Eric's whereabouts, he replies by saying the institute has taken him away as Hugo was found drunk again. Despite the efforts of Milly and her family, they are not allowed to see Eric when they visit the institute. As they leave due to not been allowed in, Eric tries to force the window open and is restrained by two men who try to sedate him. Another attempt by Louis to get around the block fails as the bullies tear his tricycle apart and to make matters worse, his dog Max is hit by a passing car and is taken to an animal hospital. Later that evening, Milly thinks she spots Eric on his roof during a thunderstorm and after climbing into the attic, she finds Eric, who is shivering with cold and still wearing a strait-jacket after managing to somehow escape the institute. As Milly helps him, he pulls out a box and from within it, he takes out a ring which he gives to Milly.
When the authorities arrive at Eric's house the next day, Milly sneaks Eric out and the police chase them to the roof of the school during a carnival. Eric turns to Milly and speaks her name, the first word he has spoken thus far. Milly asks Eric if he really can fly, and he smiles and nods his head. He holds her hand and the two fall off the building. Just before hitting the ground, Milly and Eric begin flying in plain view of the crowd around the carnival, which follows Milly and Eric down the streets of their town, shocking Charlene, Louis, Geneva, and Uncle Hugo. Eric brings Milly to her own window, tells her he loves her, and kisses her before he says goodbye and flies away.
Milly is heartbroken, but quickly realizes why Eric had to leave: Over the following weeks, spectators, policemen, and scientists mob the town, looking for an explanation and taking all of Eric's belongings away to be analyzed. Milly speculates that Eric too would have been taken by scientists had he remained. It is revealed that Milly's father knew he had cancer, but kept it a secret from his family because he did not want them to worry. Rather than seek treatment, he said goodbye and committed suicide. His refusal to fight for his life left the Michaelsons feeling helpless and hopeless, but Eric's ability to fly shows them that anything is possible if you believe.
Unlike Milly's father, Eric's uncle and the remaining Michaelsons refuse to give up: Eric's uncle beats his drinking problem and gets an excellent job; the Michaelson's dog Max gets better; Louis dominates the bullies down the street (with some help from Max); Charlene masters the computer at work; and Milly regains interest in her life and relationships with those around her. The movie ends with Milly looking out the window waiting for Eric. As the sun sets, she throws out a paper airplane which flies ever upward. | inspiring, home movie | tt0090768 |
The Player | Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins) is a Hollywood studio executive dating story editor Bonnie Sherow (Cynthia Stevenson). He hears story pitches from screenwriters and decides which have the potential to be made into films, green-lighting only 12 out of 50,000 submissions every year. His job is threatened when up-and-coming story executive Larry Levy (Peter Gallagher) begins working at the studio. Mill has also been receiving death threat postcards, assumed to be from a screenwriter whose pitch he rejected.
Mill surmises that the disgruntled writer is David Kahane (Vincent D'Onofrio). Mill is told by Kahane's girlfriend, June Gudmundsdottir (Greta Scacchi) that Kahane is at a theater in Pasadena. Mill pretends to recognize Kahane in the lobby, and offers him a scriptwriting deal, hoping this will stop the threats. The two go to a nearby bar where Kahane gets intoxicated and rebuffs Mill's offer; he calls Mill a liar and continues goading him about his job security at the studio. In the bar's parking lot, the two men fight. Mill goes too far and accidentally drowns Kahane in a shallow pool of water, then stages the crime to make it look like a botched robbery.
The next day, after Mill is late for and distracted at a meeting, Studio chief of security Walter Stuckel (Fred Ward) confronts him about the murder and says that the police know that he was the last one to see Kahane alive. At the end of their conversation Mill receives a fax from his stalker. Thus, Mill has killed the wrong man, and the stalker apparently knows this. Mill attends Kahane's funeral and gets into conversation with June. Detectives Avery (Whoopi Goldberg) and DeLongpre (Lyle Lovett) suspect Mill is guilty of murder. Mill receives a postcard from the writer suggesting that they meet at a hotel bar. While Mill is waiting, he is cornered by two screenwriters, Tom Oakley (Richard E. Grant) and Andy Sivella (Dean Stockwell), who pitch Habeas Corpus, a legal drama featuring no major stars and with a depressing ending. Because Mill is not alone, his stalker does not appear. After leaving the club, Mill receives a fax in his car, advising him to look under his raincoat. He discovers a live rattlesnake in a box and, terrified, bludgeons it with his umbrella.
Mill tells June that his near-death experience made him realize he has feelings for her. Apprehensive that Larry Levy continues encroaching on his job, Mill invites the two writers to pitch Habeas Corpus to him, convincing Levy that the movie will be an Oscar contender. Mill's plan is to let Levy shepherd the film through production and have it flop. Mill will step in at the last moment, suggesting some changes to salvage the film's box office, letting him reclaim his position at the studio. Having persuaded Bonnie to leave for New York on studio business, Mill takes June to a Hollywood awards banquet and their relationship blossoms.
After Bonnie confronts Mill about his relationship with June, Mill coldly severs their relationship in front of two writers. Mill takes June to an isolated Desert Hot Springs resort and spa. In the middle of Mill and June making love, Mill confesses his role in Kahane's murder, and June responds by saying she loves him. Mill's attorney (Sydney Pollack) informs him that studio head Joel Levison (Brion James) has been fired, and that the Pasadena police want Mill to participate in a lineup. An eyewitness has come forward, but she fails to identify Mill.
One year later, studio power players are watching the end of Habeas Corpus with a new, tacked-on, upbeat Hollywood ending and famous actors in the lead roles. Mill's plan to save the movie has worked and he is head of the studio. June is now Mill's wife and pregnant with his child. Bonnie objects to the film's new ending and is fired by Levy. Mill rebuffs her when she appeals her termination to him. Mill receives a pitch over the phone from Levy and a man who reveals himself as the postcard writer. The man pitches an idea about a studio executive who kills a writer and gets away with murder. Mill gives the writer a deal, if he can guarantee the executive a happy ending. The writer's title for the film is The Player. | comedy, suspenseful, murder, bleak, cult, satire, revenge | tt0105151 |
The Net | Angela Bennett is a computer programmer who works from home. She keeps an extensive collection of computer viruses that she removes from her clients systems. She gets a call from her colleague, who asks her for help with a "glitch" he found in one of their clients websites. He sends Angela to the site, where she clicks on a Pi symbol and finds herself transported into the confidential databases of different government agencies. She copies the website's programming code onto a disk to research the problem after she gets home from her vacation to Mexico, which is her first vacation in years. We see her sitting on the beach in Mexico with her laptop, and a gorgeous man (Jack Devlin) strikes up a conversation with her. He gains her trust, and invites her to dinner. After dinner, he takes her for a walk on the beach, where her purse is stolen. The thief gets all of her personal information - passport, driver's license, credit cards, etc. We see that Devlin (the Praetorian agent) was the one who hired the thief to steal her purse, and he finds the confidential disk in her purse. She is very upset, so Devlin consoles her by offering her a ride in his company's boat (supposedly one of his employment perks). While on the boat, they have sex. Angela is cold, so she gets re-dressed. She goes to put on his jacket and discovers a gun. She figures out he is not whom he says he is, so she asks him what the gun is for. He replies, and she knows he is lying. They struggle, and Angela knocks him out. She then escapes from him with the disk that he stole from her, but winds up crashing into a rock and hitting her head. She ends up being knocked out for three days, and wakes up in a hospital in Mexico. The disk was damaged because it was exposed to water and sunlight. She tries to go back to the hotel, but finds she was supposedly checked out over a week ago. She has no ID, so she goes to the American Embassy and to get a copy of her Passport. She has to sign "Ruth Marx" to get the temporary Visa. Once Angela gets back to Los Angeles, her car is gone from the airport. She arrives at her home in a cab to find it empty and for sale. She seeks help from a former lover, Dr. Alan Champion, who checks her into a motel and tries to help her figure this out, even though he really does not believe her story. The Praetorians change Angela's (or from the police department's perspective, Ruth Marx's) file, framing her for theft, murder, and illegal drug use. Setting off the fire alarm at Cathedral, the computer company she works for, Angela discovers her imposter's whereabouts. She gains some time to hack into the mainframe to figure out who did all this to her. She saves all the files and details of the computer scam onto a disk, and heads off to a computer convention. She manages to send the files to the F.B.I. on a computer she borrows, plus places the virus disk into the drive. She tricks Devlin into ruining the mainframe of their own computer system. In the end, she clears her identity, gets the Praetorians arrested, and regains her normal life. | mystery, murder, stupid, psychedelic, action, suspenseful | tt0113957 |
The Woman in Black | Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe) is a young lawyer who is depressed by the loss of his beautiful wife after giving birth to a son. His son, now grown to a toddler, draws pictures of him with a sad face. He is assigned to prepare a large house for sale on a marsh and travels to an obscure village where he is shunned by most of the townspeople. He visits the Eel Marsh House, the estate of the late Alice Drabow, to look it over, but finds his job has grown more perilous as it is haunted by the ghost of a woman scorned. He learns from the villagers that the ghost of the woman in black seeks revenge against their children because her child was taken away from her. Kipps is befriended by Sam (Ciaran Hinds) and his wife Elizabeth (Janet McTeer). They, too, have lost a son, and they help the lawyer to investigate the background of the estate and what happened.------
written by KristelClaireThree pretty little girls, all dressed in what looks like nursery dresses, are playing in the nursery room on their own, with porcelain dolls. Suddenly, they stare to each other, and then, they look to the front wall. There is nobody there, and the day is clear. Without uttering any word, they stand up, hold their hands and go to the window wall. They open the three-tiered windowpane, and they jump on their own accord. There is a moment of silence. Suddenly, a female scream is heard - presumably of the person who has discovered the dead bodies of the three little girls.Cut to Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe), a young agent. His boss, Mr ... , tells him on rude terms that this is his last opportunity, as this realty company is not a charity: if he makes another mistake, it will be his last, he won't be given another opportunity.Arthur says good-bye to his 7-year-old son, Joseph (Misha Handley). This is a serious boy, who will be left alone by Arthur's work commitment. The nurse (Jessica Raine) will take care of him meanwhile. Joseph has drawn himself, his father, and his mother in the form of an angel atop a cloud in a piece of paper entitled "tuesday - no capital here". His father asks Joseph why he is so sad, and Joseph says that he just is.Arthur travels by train. He talks to a fellow passenger, and afterwards, stares at a little girl (Indira Ainger) who is also travelling with them. Arthur reminiscences about when his son was born. The boy was perfectly alright, as the nurse pronounces (Lucy May Barker) proudly "it's a boy" but the doctor (Andy Robb), tells him straightaway that he is so sorry, that nothing could have been done for her. Immediately, Arthur sees how a blood-stained sheet is used to cover the horrified face of his late wife, Stella Kipps (Sophie Stuckey).The fellow passenger, Mr Bentley (Roger Allam) advises to take a cab. He also invites him to dine with him and his wife the following day.The town is dark, and everybody looks terrified, sullen. Parents tell their children to get inside when they look to the visitor.At the local inn, Kipps is put into the attic - the place which the three little girls jumped from at the beginning of the film-. Mr Fisher (Shaun Dooley) looks like a rude uncompromising host. Mr Bentley will recommend him to leave town as soon as possible, but Mr Kipps tells him that he will need to stay up until Friday the least to make and serious and fair evaluation of all the items within the house.A cab driver takes Kipps to the mansion. There is a thin causeway linking the town to the lonely isolated mansion which zig-zags among the marshes. The driver leaves him right outside the plot of land which is occupied by the mansion and its land. When Arthur tells him to pick him up at 3 o'clock, he says that it'll have to be at five, because of the tide.Arthur enters the property. There seems to be nobody at the home, so he gets up to the second floor. He takes a look at Joseph's drawing before setting to work in front of a pile of papers. Inside one of the bedrooms, he sees a nest of ravens. A raven rushes out flying, so it startles him. Arthur thinks he's heard something, so he looks out of the window. A black shadow appears on the garden, among the dangling tombstones. The raven flies around and softly lands on the bed. When Arthur looks out again, there is nobody in the cemetery. Arthur rushes out. The thick fog prevents him from seeing anything, or anyone for that matter. The feeling of something terrible about to happen is omminous... but it's only the driver, who has just arrived to pick Arthur up. He tells him to be careful. Arthur thought that he had heard the faraway cries of children, and the driver tells him that some boys died drowned in the marshes.Arthur runs to the police station in order to denounce the person who has trespassed the property. The constable Collins (David Burke) says that there is no villager who would go to that mansion on their own accord. The constable gets inside to look at something. At that moment, two children arrive with a very sick child, Victoria Hardy (Alexia Osborne), who is spitting blood. Arthur screams, but he can't do anything for the child. Victoria dies in his arms.Back to his lodgings, Arthur thinks he hears the soft cries of a woman, so he calls out for Mrs Fisher (Mary Stockley), but it's a pet raven which mimicks the whimpering voice of a woman. Mrs Fisher serves him a drink.At the dinner, the conversation is a little awkward, but everything seems to go well, until Elisabeth Fisher has a fit and has to be sedated. In a later conversation, the husband says that there are many superstitions in the town, but that everything is an illusion. Later that night, Arthur sees Elisabeth caressing one of her dogs, caressing and soothing it in an all-white laced craddle.Arthur goes looking for Mr Jerome (Tim McMullan), but what he finds is a terrified girl imprisoned in a room (Cathy Sara), who tells Arthur to let her alone because he has killed Victoria. The villagers cry for another lost girl, but Bentley disregards their pain as superstition. Bentley drives Arthur around in his motorcar, and this is the second that the images focus on a cross planted at a side of the watery path. Bentley takes Arthur to the house, and offers to pick him up at 11, but Arthur prefers to spend the night there. Bentley lends him his dog.There, Arthur lights some candles. One of the rooms can't be unlocked with any of the keys, so Arthur turns his attention to a heavy wooden box with Nathaniel Drablow written on it.Arthur makes a daguerotype go round, and he sees for a split second, the dark eyes of the woman in black. Scribbled photographs: a shadow passes by, and the dog begins to bark. Arthur follows the dog, who barks close to the tombstone of Nathaniel Drablow (Ashley Foster). When they go back to the mansion, Arthur sees the Woman in Black (Liz White), retreating from close to the window. When Arthur goes to that room, he looks out and sees the dilapidated view. Right on his back, the Woman in Black appears and immediately disappears. He doesn't see her, but he feels something so he looks around. In a wooden box, he finds cards addressed to Nathaniel from his birth mother, The Woman in Black, signing as "MUMMY". That woman was Jennet, who had a tombstone alongside Nathaniel's. Through the documents, it looks like Jennet gave her child on adoption (as she was deemed mentally unfit to raise her child). It is also revealed that Nathaniel is adopted by Jannet's sister Alice who keeps this as a secret and raises Nathaniel as her own son. Through many letters, Arthur comes to know that Jannet was very displeased as she wasn't allowed to visit her son. After the accident that took the life of Nathaniel, his body was never found in the marshlands.Jannet appears as a hidden figure in the photos of the Drablows (Alisa Khazanova), with Nathaniel as the child in the photographs.Arthur falls asleep, and the shadow of the Woman in Black gets close, but the dog barks and scares it. Arthur wakes up and walks along the dark corridor up to the locked room. He remembers the locked room when his wife died. He tries to open this door, but can't. He goes down to look for something to open it, but suddenly, it is wide open. He picks an axe and a candle. A rocking chair is moving on its own, and for a second, the audience can see The Woman in Black rocking herself.Under the wallpaper, observed by the mechanic toys, he discloses ...YOU COULD HAVE SAVED HIM... written in blood. Going back to a window, he can see clearly the shrillingly screaming face of Jennet. Outside, in the rainy night, he can see the images of many dead children, rotten and anguished. Running back to the mansion, he can see the black footprints of the Woman in Black, and he follows them to the room. He sees Jennet hanging herself.Leaving the room, he sees the Woman in Black approaching from the other end of the corridor. Arthur encloses himself in a room, but Nathaniel grows from the bed. When he tries to leave the house, he finds Bentley who has arrived to pick him up.Back to the town, Arthur sees Jerome's house on fire. He gets into the house and inside, he can see how a girl, Lucy Jerome (Aoife Doherty) sets herself on fire, pronted by the Woman in Black, who is present there encouraging her without words. Arthur can't do anything to save her.Bentley offers some consolation to Arthur. Elizabeth tells Arthur about Jennet in front of her tombstone. The children can speak through her, and they say that the Woman in Black was always present to make all those children kill themselves one way or another as her own child was lost too. Bentley arrives when Elizabeth has another fit while repeating "SHE IS COMING" over and over again. Before passing out, Elisabeth draws a picture of Arthur with his son beside a train engine (Arthur recognizes himself from the earlier pictures made by his son).Arthur convinces Bentley to help him find the body of Nathaniel and reunite him to his mother by giving him a proper burial. He ties himself with a rope to Bentley's car. Arthur goes in the black slimey goo of the marshlands. Finally, Bentley pulls Arthur out, and he takes out what seems a hidden wagon, and within it, the body of Nathaniel.Arthur enshrouds Nathaniel's body. Then he puts the postcards sent to him by his mother and other mechanical toys around the dead body as he waits for The Woman in Black.Bentley sees his dead son entering a room. When he follows his son and enters the room, he is imprisoned and Arthur can't hear him. The corridor gets even more darkened. The Woman in Black shouts to and scares Arthur, but suddenly she disappears. The other door also opens, setting Bentley free.They bury Nathaniel and Jennet's body together.In the next scene it seems that the Woman in Black still can't forgive.Some days afterwards, the two friends receive Joseph with his nurse at the train station. The nurse goes to pay for tickets back to London as Arthur and Bentley talk.Joseph releases his hand and jumps to the track while a train is approaching.Arthur sees the Woman in Black and then his eyes dart to his son walking on the track. Arthur jumps to the trackline to save Joseph but the train runs over. Bentley can see all the dead children and the screaming Woman in Black at the other side of the track, through the gaps of the moving wagons.Arthur is holding Joseph in an empty train station.Stella welcomes them both and they tenderly walk on together along the track. | suspenseful, gothic, murder, violence, horror, haunting, flashback, atmospheric, revenge | tt1596365 |
Bailout: The Age of Greed | In the midst of the 2008 financial crisis, a portfolio-manager instructs his employees to neglect the best-interest of clients in order to increase company profits.
Meanwhile, Jim Baxford (Dominic Purcell), a former soldier and armored car driver, lives with his wife, Rosie, in New York City. Rosie is in the process of recovering from a near-fatal brain tumor. Their health insurance has reached its limit, and Jim finds that he is unable to afford her treatment. He decides to cash in the pension he earned from serving in the military, but learns that much of it is lost as a result of bad investments on the part of his financial adviser. In addition, he finds himself in a $60,000 lawsuit as a result of bad real-estate investments conducted by his rogue financial adviser.
Jim frequently lunches with a colleague in the armored car business, and two NYPD friends. He borrows $10,000 from the colleague to pay for an attorney to sue his financial adviser, and arranges a meeting with an assistant district attorney to discuss wrongdoings on the part of his financial advisers. However, the attorney he hired claims that he is unable to do anything and the assistant district attorney is unwilling to meet with him. Jim becomes frustrated at the loss of his money and his inability to pay for his wife's treatment and their mortgage. Because of his financial situation, his employer reluctantly fires him, as the company is not willing to trust him with large sums of money.
Rosie feels guilty for the financial strain that her illness has put on Jim and, unable to cope, commits suicide. Jim blames Wall Street financiers for ruining his life. Seeking vengeance, he purchases various firearms and grenades from an arms dealer, and begins a one-man army shooting spree on the Wall Street bosses that lost his money and contributed to the death of his wife. One by one, he kills those that have wronged him. Meeting with his friends at lunch, Jim casually admits to them that he is the Wall Street murderer. The three laugh it off, convinced he's joking.
The climax of the film has Jim staging a one-man assault and infiltration of a high-rise office building to confront and kill Jeremy Stancroft, a ruthless and greedy banker who is indirectly responsible for Jim's financial situation. Sitting at Jeremy's desk, Jim tells Jeremy why he is targeting him, of his corruption and asks why he should let Jeremy live. Jeremy defends his actions, saying that the famous rich people of history didn't get rich by honest work and that capitalism is a survival of the fittest society, where the "strong survive and the weak die off". Jim shows him a picture of his wife and tells Jeremy he's the reason his wife is dead. Shortly as SWAT begins to approach the office, Jim puts the gun on the table and counts to three. Jeremy grabs the gun when Jim gets to two, bragging about how he "won". Jim accuses him of cheating. Not caring, Jeremy pulls the trigger, only to realize that the gun is empty, for Jim cheated too. Just then, SWAT smashes the window and shoots Jeremy dead. Jim pretends to be an innocent wounded victim, having been shot in the arm by a security guard earlier, and is escorted away by SWAT, who is convinced Stancroft was the perpetrator.
A few minutes later, Jim stands in the lobby of the office building. He watches emergency personnel come and go, having just been treated for the gunshot wound to his arm. He is recognized there by his NYPD lunchmates, who had been called to the scene. Without a word, Jim is led out of the building by his friend to the street, to freedom. The film ends with Jim walking away, voicing over that he intends to continue his killing spree of white-collar businessmen elsewhere. | revenge, murder, violence | tt2368553 |
X2 | A mutant, Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming) tries to assassinate the President in the White House Oval Office, successfully defeating the White House's Secret Service detail using his ability to teleport. He then vanishes at the last moment when a disabled guard is able to shoot him in the arm. He leaves behind a knife embedded in the President's desk with a note attached reading "MUTANT FREEDOM NOW". The incident stirs up anti-mutant feelings around the country, supporting the Mutant Registration Act that eliminates peaceful coexistence.Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) visits snowy Alkali Lake, hoping to learn about his origin, but finds nothing there except abandoned and decayed buildings near a dam.The students from Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters are visiting a museum. Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) expresses fear of not controlling her powers to Cyclops (James Marsden). In the meantime, students Rogue (Anna Paquin), her boyfriend Bobby "Iceman" Drake (Shawn Ashmore) and troubled John "Pyro" Allerdyce (Aaron Stanford) get into a disagreement with some bullies in the museum; one bully seizes John's Zippo lighter. When he goes to light a cigarette, John causes the flame to flare up. Bobby puts the fire out with his ability to produce freezing air. Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) has to halt the conflict by freezing everyone in time, except the mutants and tells John to stop showing off.A retired military scientist, Colonel William Stryker (Brian Cox) who hates and wants to destroy the entire mutant race, visits the president, mentioning how close the teleporter had gotten to the President. He gets approval for an attack on the school, which he has discovered by interrogating the imprisoned Magneto (Ian McKellen). Mystique, in the guise of the late Senator Kelly (Bruce Davison) tries to object, but fails. Later, Stryker visits Magneto in his plastic prison cell to question him again, using a chemical placed on the back of his neck.Stryker demands to know everything Magneto knows about Cerebro.Wolverine returns to the school to get more answers about his past. Professor Xavier shows him the powerful Cerebro system which can connect him to everyone on the planet, mutants and humans alike. Wolverine wants the Professor to read his mind again for more information about his past, but Xavier explains that he can't tell Wolverine everything, that he will have to find out some things for himself.Mystique (Rebecca Romijn) disguises herself and breaks into Stryker's computers to learn more about his plans.Jean Grey and Storm (Halle Berry) find the fast-moving mutant assassin, Nightcrawler. It becomes evident that he was coerced; he has a scar similar to the one on the back of Magneto's neck, indicating that he'd been influenced by Stryker himself.Cyclops and Professor Xavier go to visit Magneto in the peculiar plastic prison cell they have created to nullify Magneto's powers. Magneto explains that Stryker has been questioning him, and points out that his son Jason Stryker (Michael Reid MacKay) was once a student at the school. To Professor Xavier's horror, Magneto confesses that he has told Stryker everything. At that moment, gas is pumped into the prison chamber and both men pass out. Outside, Cyclops fights the prison guards but is defeated by Stryker's powerful assistant, Deathstrike (Kelly Hu).A handful of people are awake before the treacherous raid on the School for Gifted Youngsters. Wolverine and many of the students use their abilities to defend themselves. Some of the mutants escape, but several children are captured and taken away. Stryker turns up in person, finding Wolverine and suggesting that he and Wolverine had worked together in the past. To Wolverine's frustration, Bobby erects an thick wall of ice to allow their escape. The professor and his henchmen break into Cerebro to strip it for parts. Wolverine, Rogue, Bobby and Pyro escape in a car and head to Boston to meet Storm and Jean Grey. Bobby is from Boston, so the group stops at his house until they can contact Storm and Jean Grey.Mystique meets Magneto's guard, Laurio, (Ty Olsson) in a bar disguised as a beautiful blonde woman and drugs him, then gives him an injection of a silver-colored fluid.Professor Xavier awakes with Stryker and his assistant Deathstrike. Stryker explains that the metal brace on Xavier's head prevents him from using his psychic power. They argue about mutants and Stryker's son, a powerful mutant illusionist who did not stay at Xavier's school. At one point Deathstrike seems to look around her in a daze, and Stryker gives her another dose of the chemical he uses to control her on the back of her neck. Xavier realizes that Stryker caused the assassination attempt in order to manipulate the president. Stryker admits his chemical would not be strong enough to work on the Professor, so he brings in his mutant son Jason to influence Professor Xavier's mind.Laurio brings Magneto his breakfast. Magneto notices "something different" about him - it seems Mystique put iron into his blood, which Magneto pulls out with his powers and kill Laurio. He forms the iron taken from the guard into small ball bearings which he uses to demolish his plastic prison and escape.Bobby's family is surprised to learn that he's a mutant, so they ask him if he can stop being one. Bobby's disgruntled younger brother calls the police. When the police arrive, they order Logan to drop his blades; when he retracts them, he is shot in the head, the bullet stopped by his adamantium skull. Pyro fights the police off with blasts of fire and seems intent on killing several officers when Rogue pacifies him by grabbing his ankle and extinguishing the flames with a blast of cold air she'd absorbed from Bobby.Storm, Jean and Nightcrawler pick them up and they head for the school. Chased by F-16 fighter planes, Storm creates giant tornadoes, however one of the fighters shoots two missiles at the X-Jet. Jean is able to disable one missile but he other explodes very close to their jet. They take damage and Rogue is sucked out to be saved moments later by Nightcrawler. The plane is about to crash when Magneto repairs the hole in their ship and stops them just above the ground.Magneto explains that Stryker invaded the school just to get to Cerebro. With it, he can make Professor Xavier focus on any group of people, such as mutants, and kill them. Magneto also reveals that Stryker is one of the only people who can manipulate adamantium, the metal on Wolverine's bones. Mystique has the plans for Stryker's base, but they need Jean to read Nightcrawler's mind to get the location: Alkali Lake. Wolverine didn't find it because it's underground. Mystique torments Wolverine by entering his tent disguised as Jean Grey. When they fly to the base the next day, Magneto taunts Rogue about the white streaks in her hair. He then complements Pyro's abilities.A soldier asks Stryker why they are keeping the mutant children. He explains that he wants to be sure mutants are really dying when Cerebro operates.Wolverine volunteers to enter the lab first, since Stryker will want him alive. Magneto disagrees. When Wolverine appears at the door, Stryker instructs the soldiers to admit him, but as soon as he sees him in person he knows it's not Wolverine. He quickly changes into Mystique, who pacifies several guards and manages to get into the laboratory's heavily fortified control room.Professor Xavier is in an elaborate illusion created by Jason, who accompanies him in the guise of a little girl (Keely Purvis). The two enter the Cerebro room, although in reality it's a grungy dome that Stryker has fabricated.The rescue group splits up to find the children and the professor. Stryker goes to the dome and orders Jason to make the Professor kill all mutants he finds through Cerebro.A manipulated Cyclops tries to stop Jean Grey, Magneto and Mystique, using the full power of his optic blast. Jean stays to get through to him while the others go on. The two duel among the dam's large machines, breaking the structural integrity of the dam and starting some leaks. Cyclops finally remembers himself and takes Jean with him, saying that he could see he was attacking her but couldn't stop himself due to the drug Stryker had used on him.Wolverine has gone on his own to search the laboratory for its secrets. He finds the room where the adamantium was applied to his bones, sees x-rays on the walls, finds the liquid metal, sees flashbacks of the torture as they ducked him under water again and again, remembers escaping. Stryker finds him there. When Wolverine goes to attack Stryker, Deathstrike attacks him in a duel to the death. She stabs him repeatedly with her own adamantium claws. Wolverine also discovers that she has the same regenerative ability he does and the two battle to a near stalemate. Deathstrike seems to gain an advantage when he stabs her with an adamantium nozzle and fills her body with it. It quickly hardens and she dies. Wolverine seem to express great remorse for having to kill her.Pyro leaves the plane, tired of waiting with Rogue and Bobby.Magneto gets to the Cerebro room and dons his helmet just as the attack on mutants begins - the others fall to the floor screaming, their minds full of pain from the signal. He stops the attack, then reconfigures the dome as metal panels fly around to different places. Mystique enters in the guise of Stryker, and tells Jason to have Xavier kill all of the humans instead of the mutants.Stryker leaves the complex, but Wolverine finds him by the helicopter. Wolverine demands answers, but Stryker only tells him that he'd volunteered for the procedure and that the two of them worked together. He says Wolverine is a failed experiment, that he was an animal before and an animal now. Wolverine chains him to the helicopter and goes back for the others.The rescue group has reached the Cerebro chamber. Nightcrawler teleports Storm and himself inside. In order to get Jason to stop the illusion, Storm makes it cold in the room. Jason finally gives in, revealing Professor Xavier. As the ceiling panels start to collapse, Nightcrawler rescues Storm and then the Professor. The group runs away and finally finds the way outside.In the meantime, Magneto and Mystique have found Stryker and commandeered his helicopter. Pyro has voluntarily joined them. However, Rogue flies the X-Jet over to the helicopter pad. As everyone struggles aboard, Wolverine notices Stryker chained to the dam - clearly the work of Magneto. Stryker demands to be let go, pleading with Wolverine and suggesting Wolverine will forever be an outcast like his friends. Wolverine decides to take his chances with his fellow mutants. As he walks away with a child named Artie, the boy sticks his black, forked tongue out at Stryker.The team discovers the plane is not fully functional and can't lift off, but the dam is bursting. Jean Grey leaves the plane, and prevents everyone from getting her back aboard. She holds off the flood waters while lifting the plane. She saves the group, and then is overwhelmed. The whole team is devastated at losing Jean, especially Wolverine and Scott.At the White House, the President's televised speech is interrupted ... everyone in the room freezes except the President ... and the mutants. Professor Xavier presents him with information taken from Stryker's lab. The mutant message is simple: "We're here to stay." | fantasy, mystery, murder, allegory, cult, violence, flashback, psychedelic, action, comic, entertaining | tt0290334 |
Meet the Feebles | The eponymous theatre troupe is rehearsing the title song with hopes of finding success through being picked up for a syndicated television show. Heidi (a hippopotamus), the star of the show, is insulted by pornographic director Trevor (a rat) and complains to her boss and lover, Bletch (a walrus), who is actually in an adulterous relationship with Samantha (a cat). Meanwhile, Robert (a hedgehog), the newest member of the team, arrives at the theatre and immediately falls in love with another newcomer, Lucille (a poodle). Samantha confronts Heidi, insults her, and reveals her relationship with Bletch. Robert confesses his love to Lucille, and the two become engaged. Sid (an elephant) receives a visit from his ex-wife Sandy (a chicken) with his alleged son Seymour (an improbable-looking elephant/chicken hybrid). Sandy informs him she will be preparing a paternity case against him.
At the toilet, the second most important star of the show, Harry (a hare), is suffering from a mystery disease. Meanwhile, drug-addicted knife thrower Wynyard (a frog) tells Robert his story of Vietnam, and convinces Robert to give him $50 to buy drugs from Trevor. After seeing Trevor's latest porno film, Bletch decides they need a new porn star, and Trevor chooses Lucille; he drugs her and tries to rape her as an audition but is caught by Robert. When he walks in on the scene Robert thinks that Lucille was drinking and throwing herself at Trevor, and tells her he never wants to see her again.
After a good beginning – the Feebles sign with a TV chain to appear in a prime-time television show – Bletch confesses to Heidi that he actually hates her and wants to give the main role to Samantha. After trying unsuccessfully to attempt suicide, Heidi goes on a shooting spree and kills many of the cast.
=== Sub-plots ===
Love Triangle
A distraught Heidi runs to Bletch after being insulted by Trevor. Bletch is having sex with Samantha, but hides the tryst. Although Bletch is physically disgusted by Heidi, he insincerely comforts her since he needs her talent on the show.
Later Samantha insults Heidi, claiming Bletch really wants Samantha. Distraught, Heidi drowns her sorrows in an entire chocolate cake, as she reminisces about her past romance with Bletch in a black-and-white flashback to her days as a lounge singer. Belching caused by the cake causes Heidi to lay waste to the set during the rehearsal of a feature number; Sebastian (a fox) then lambasts her. Heidi rushes to Bletch for emotional affirmation, but he is unable to spare her the sight of Samantha performing oral sex on him. Heidi locks herself in her room and refuses to perform, but relents after Bletch has make-up sex with her.
Heidi's performance helps secure the Feebles a syndicated series. Shortly afterwards, Heidi attempts to seduce Bletch in his office, but Bletch completely disowns her since Samantha is now to be the star of the show. Unfortunately, Bletch is unaware of Heidi's extremely fragile mental state.
Robert and Lucille
Robert shows up for his first day as a cast member, and is accosted by F.W. (a fly), who tries to corrupt Robert into informing on the cast.
Arthur (a worm) rescues Robert and shows him around, where Robert sees Lucille for the first time. Although he is romantically terrified of her at first, he later summons up enough courage to ask her out and they fall in love. Later Trevor drugs Lucille to manipulate her into performing in his pornographic films. Robert walks in on the drugging, but misinterprets it as Lucille's decision, and disowns her for being a drunk. They make up later after Robert saves her from Heidi's crazed gun rampage, and they eventually get married and have two children.
The Big One
Dennis (an aardvark) is shown peeping on Harry in a threesome with two female rabbits. Harry feels physically ill after this episode and is accosted by F.W., who assumes he has a sexually transmittable disease (STD) and wants to publish the scandal. Dr. Quack (a duck) diagnoses Harry with "The Big One". F.W. publishes the scandal in a local tabloid – to the dismay of Bletch, who presumably wants to avoid negative press on the cast. Trevor lures F.W. into the bathroom, where Bletch tears his wings off and flushes F.W. down the toilet. After vomiting all over the stage in the live performance, Harry finally learns that he only has 'bunny pox'. Unfortunately, while rejoicing in the news that "The Big One" will not cause his death, Harry's head is blown apart by a gunshot during Heidi's rampage.
Sexcapades
Trevor is shooting a porn film in the basement with the Masked Masochist (a weta) and Madam Bovine (a cow). They are interrupted by Robert, who mistakes the scene for torture and tries to save Bovine, who in turn accidentally crushes the Masked Masochist, suffocating him. Trevor later replaces him with Dennis (who has a snout resembling male genitalia) to perform 'nasal sex' on Bovine.
Drug Running
Trevor is approached by a sniveling Wynyard looking for his fix, but the drugs have not yet been delivered. Bletch is later shown on a golf course consummating a deal with Cedric (a warthog). However, after testing on Dennis, the drugs provided by Cedric turn out to be household borax, infuriating Bletch. Cedric's agent Louie (a dog) is literally liquefied after being force-fed some of the borax by Bletch's henchmen.
Bletch and his cronies venture to the docklands to fight Cedric and his crab-crewmen. Bletch's side prevails after killing Cedric and the crabs, maneuvering past a huge spider, and driving through the insides of Cedric's boss Mr. Big (a whale). However, the spider eats the head of Barry (a bulldog).
When the drugs finally arrive at the theatre, Wynyard is finally able to get his fix, which puts him into a stupor.
The Show
While the cast performs an opera number, Sebastian lambasts Robert for not failing his part as an extra on the stage. As punishment, he assigns Robert the task of replacing Wynyard's assistant, who has just been killed by Wynyard's knife throwing while going through drug withdrawal. Wynyard guilt-trips Robert into giving him money for drugs, after telling him a horror story about his time in Vietnam (shown as a flashback parodying The Deer Hunter). He eventually gets his fix from Trevor and injects himself into a deep slumber.
The acts gradually disintegrate – Heidi nearly destroys the set by botching a swing, Abi the Indian mystic (a humanoid) incapacitates himself by contorting himself into a ball, and Sid's tribble-like pets are crushed by a barrel. Seeing his show in shambles, Sebastian tries to convince Bletch to feature his personal performance, the sexually explicit number "Sodomy" (which he claims to have done before). This is summarily rejected by Bletch, who physically throws Sebastian out of his office who curses Bletch for his inaction. Sebastian later decides to use the number anyway when the situation gets worse and performs it in front of the silent and unamused live audience, much to Bletch's horror (who then schemes to have him eliminated when he gets the chance).
The Elephant and the Chicken
Sandy accuses Sid of being the father of their chicken-elephant child, to his dismay and denial. During the live show, Sandy again accosts Sid on stage with the paternity suit, declaring she wants everyone to know. During a later tragic crossfire scene, Sid braves the crazed Heidi's automatic fire to save his son. His heroism costs the elephant two bloody knee wounds, and he accidentally crushes Sandy's shot-off head (when she demanded the crazed Heidi to shoot Sid, but was shot by Heidi instead) after it squawks out one final invective.
The Climax
While the live show is proceeding elsewhere, Heidi attempts suicide by hanging, but her weight breaks the chandelier from the ceiling and she falls through the floor. She makes her way to Bletch's machine gun and tries to kill herself, but at the last moment, Samantha shows up and taunts her. Heidi, fed up with the cat's taunting and meddling with her life, drops all thoughts of suicide and responds by killing Samantha with the gun. Meanwhile, Wynyard, in a drugged stupor, tries to kill Robert before accidentally killing himself with his own knife (and the cheering audience not knowing it is real). Sebastian does his "Sodomy" number before getting injured by a prop, while Heidi rampages over the entire set on a killing spree (even shooting down any cameras near her). She finally finds Bletch and pumps many rounds into him as well. Bletch lies to Heidi about loving her having regret for all his actions, which distracts and brings her back to her senses and into dropping her gun and defenses before he then orders Trevor to kill her. Trevor fires at Heidi and grazes her shoulder, but he then prepares to deal the finishing shot. However, Robert swings in just in the nick of time to kick Trevor, giving Heidi the chance to get her gun back first and shreds the rat. Heidi then literally blows Bletch's brain out when he tries to escape. Realizing that she killed her love and ruined her career, she gives up her gun (promising to turn herself over to the authorities) and sadly sings "Garden of Love", leading into the epilogue and the credits.
=== Epilogue ===
The epilogue reveals the fates of only six survivors: Sid gets extensive repair on his kneecaps after being shot by Heidi and works in an orchard as a struggling horticulturist with Seymour. Arthur received an OBE for his lifelong service at the theater and retires to the country. Sebastian recovers from his injuries and achieved worldwide fame for his best seller The Feeble Variety Massacre: One Man's Act of Heroism! and is negotiating film rights. Robert, now an award-winning fashion photographer for a women's magazine, and Lucille are married with two children. Finally, Heidi, whose spree resulted in her imprisonment in a women's penitentiary for ten years (implying that, although released in 1989, the film's events occurred in the 1970s), has been rehabilitated under the community and now works under a new identity on the check-out counter of a large supermarket. | comedy, dark, boring, cult, violence, flashback, insanity, psychedelic, satire, revenge | tt0097858 |
Gangs of New York | The film opens with Priest Vallon (Liam Neeson) shaving dry with an old, rusted straight razor. He deliberately cuts his cheek and then hands the blade to his son Amsterdam, who is about to wipe off the blood. Vallon tells him to leave it there, and his son puts away the blade in a black pouch with a sliver cross clasp. Vallon then says a prayer to St. Michael, puts a medallion over Amsterdam's head, grabs a steel cross, and marches out of his cave with Amsterdam. They walk past people making and finishing weapons, including a woman with clawed gloves named Hellcat Maggie. Vallon, his son, and the rest take communion as they continue exiting the caves. They finally reach the top level of an old brewery. They stop and Vallon asks a man named Monk if he will join them. Monk says he'll fight for pay. Vallon promises him ten dollars for every "new notch" on his club, so Monk agrees, picks up his wooden club, and kicks open the door, revealing a snow-covered intersection known as Paradise Square, the Five Points of Lower Manhattan.Vallon and his crew, the Dead Rabbits, leave the brewery and make their way onto the street. Amsterdam runs to join children on the steps of a nearby building, while the Dead Rabbits await the arrival of the Natives. A few moments later, men dressed in blue, The Natives, led by Bill the Butcher (Daniel Day-Lewis), a ruthless New Yorker with a glass eye, walk onto the street, clearly outnumbering the Rabbits. Bill says that the ensuing fight will decide who holds the rule of the Five Points; Bill's mob who are Protestant or Vallon's Catholics. Vallon recants that it's a free country, that he and his immigrant crowd have been harassed incessantly by Bill and his men. The Rabbits are then joined by several other gangs that have allied themselves with Vallon, greatly increasing their numbers.Moments later, they begin fighting. Monk is mashing people in the head, Maggie is biting a man's ear off, and people's legs are getting broken while others are being stabbed, slashed and bludgeoned. Bill and Vallon slowly make their way toward each other, but as Vallon draws near Bill directs one of his men to attack Vallon. Vallon kills the man, but is stabbed by Bill in the process. Vallon tries to fight back, but is stabbed in the side. Vallon falls to the ground, and a horn is blown. All of the men stop fighting and stand around the dying Vallon. Amsterdam pushes his way to his father's side.Bill makes a speech about how all the fighting is done and how he has slain Vallon. Vallon looks at his son, tells him to always stay focused and then asks Bill to finish him, which Bill obliges, leaving the knife on Vallon's chest. Bill says that Vallon may not be touched so that he may reach Heaven with honor. Monk tells him to wait, goes over to Vallon's body and presumably takes the money he's owed from his pocket, and then offers Amsterdam his condolences. As they haul Vallon away, Bill's men ask what they should do with the boy. He tells them to put him in a school so he can get a proper education. Amsterdam quickly grabs the knife from his father's chest, threatens Bill's men, and runs inside the brewery. As the men chase him, a boy, Amsterdam's friend Jimmy, hits one of them in the shin, causing him to fall. Amsterdam runs down to his cave, opens a secret compartment in the ground, and places the medallion and dagger inside. Bill's men grab him. Outside, Priest's body is placed on a cart and wheeled reverently out of the square. As we zoom out of the area, we see that the battle took place in Lower Manhattan and the year is 1846.Sixteen years later, Amsterdam (Leonardo DiCaprio) is being given a blessing and a Bible by a priest. He is still in New York but in an orphanage, Hellgate, on a nearby island. As he leaves, he looks at an Asian man, walks over a bridge, and tosses the Bible in the river.Amsterdam narrates that during the Civil War, New York was a "city full of tribes", rival gangs competing for control of the Five Points and beyond. Bill the Butcher is walking through a hallway of Tammany Hall to the office of Boss Tweed (Jim Broadbent), who is running for some sort of political office. Tweed is discussing how they can get more voters and social and municipal services for the poor in the city. Then it cuts to Amsterdam walking on the docks as more Irish are disembarking a ship. The immigrants are harassed openly by Bill's men, particularly an old woman who is hit in the face by something one of Bill's men throws and is yelling for her to get back on the boat.Amsterdam passes them by and is greeted by a man who welcomes him (mistaking him for an immigrant), offers him bread, and reminds him to vote for Tweed and Tammany. Amsterdam is also asked to draft in the army, but refuses. Other Irish are offered money, three meals a day, and luxuries for their families if they join right away and ship out immediately. They agree, register, change, and board a boat.Amsterdam makes his way to his cave and opens the compartment. He takes out the dagger and the medallion. He is interrupted by Johnny Sirocco (Henry Thomas) and Jimmy Spoils (Larry Gilliard Jr.) as he says a prayer. They tell him to give them his possessions, and when he refuses, Jimmy tries to attack him, but Amsterdam knocks him over and almost breaks his nose. Johnny pulls out a knife, which Amsterdam turns against him. Johnny notices the medallion. Amsterdam leaves the cave and goes out to the street. Johnny follows him and asks if he's the priest's son. Amsterdam answers yes, and Johnny begins to update him on the Five Points. He tells him how Maggie tried to open a pub, but drank herself out of business; how Monk owns a barber shop; and how Bill celebrates Priest Vallon's death every year by drinking a glass of alcohol he's set fire to.Johnny is then bumped into by Jenny Everdeane (Cameron Diaz). He introduces her to Amsterdam. When she comments to them that they are terrible at conversation, Amsterdam recants that they are deep thinkers. She wishes them a good day and hopes the God shines on them and joins her friends. Johnny swears that Jenny likes him, but Amsterdam informs him that she stole his watch. Johnny searches his pockets, looks up, and tries to make it seem like it happens often.Later that night, a house is on fire. The sirens of Tweed's firemen can be heard closing in. A man covers a fire hydrant with a barrel and sits on it. Tweeds men come and he uses the incident to campaign on the street. Another group of firemen arrive, led by the Butcher, and the two groups start to fight. Johnny takes advantage, grabs Amsterdam, and enters the burning building in search of valuables. Amsterdam finds watches, while Johnny becomes mesmerized by a music box. A beam falls and traps him in. He calls for Amsterdam, who grabs more jewelry and heads out. He returns, jumps over the beam with a blanket, grabs Johnny, and helps him out of the house. Just as they are leaving, Bill's men come, the barrel is removed from the hydrant, and they begin to put out the fire.Johnny then takes Amsterdam to meet his friends Fuzzy, Jimmy, and some others. There they show everything they stole from the burning building until Happy Jack (John C. Reilly) arrives. He was one of the Dead Rabbits who's now a crooked police officer. He takes a few pieces in tribute to himself and leaves.The next day, Amsterdam and Johnny take the rest to a pub/brothel, where Bill plays cards. Johnny walks up to Bill to give him the money, but Amsterdam stays further back. He notices a drawing of his father on the wall. Bill asks Amsterdam what his name is. "Amsterdam", he replies. Bill then calls himself "New York", and tells Johnny how they can make more money.Later that night, Fuzzy, Jimmy, Amsterdam, and Johnny are rowing through the harbor until they reach a ship. When they board it, they find that it has already been robbed and the crew likely murdered. They continue to search for anything that might have been left until Amsterdam notices a man dressed in a Union uniform coming out with a rifle. He warns Jimmy and everyone else to hit the deck. A shot is fired, but only into the air because the man was dying. The man falls forward to reveal a knife in his back. Everyone is in the rowboat waiting when a body falls in it: it's the Union soldier, which Amsterdam had recovered. He trades the body for money. The headline in the newspaper reads something about a gang who sells bodies to science, calling them "ghouls". Bill applauds Amsterdam's quick thinking, but his right hand man, Mr. McGloin doesn't agree. They begin calling each other names and eventually begin fighting. Amsterdam is clearly winning when the fight is broken up. During the scuffle, the drawing of Priest Vallon falls to the ground. Bill picks it up, looks at it, and puts it back on the wall. He then takes Amsterdam and Johnny on a tour of the Five Points as Happy Jack is giving a rich family, the Schermerhorns, a tour. Monk also walks by greets Bill, and pushes up Amsterdam's hat to get a look at Amsterdam's face.Amsterdam comes across Jenny again and she bumps into him. He immediately begins checking his pockets, and realizes too late that she took his medallion. He follows her onto a street car. He sees her brilliantly steal a man's pocket watch, and then follows her to the home of a wealthy family where she poses as a maid and slyly robs them as well. When she's done, he yanks her aside and demands his medallion. She threatens him with a knife and cuts him on his neck slightly before he takes it from her. She then opens her blouse and shows him all the medallions she's got. He takes his, returns her dagger, and begins walking with her.Jenny and Johnny attend a public dance. Jenny is seated with her back to the men and is holding a mirror. She passes up three men, including Johnny, before choosing Amsterdam. They begin dancing, and later go to the docks where they are about to have sex. He wonders what she gave Bill in return for a locket she says is a gift from Mr Cutting. When he realizes, he gets up and leaves.Amsterdam then begins working for Bill. He is even shown by Bill how to hurt or kill people by stabbing them at specific points on a pig's carcass. Bill also makes Amsterdam, Fuzzy, Jimmy, and Johnny boxing bet collectors. When a boxing match is broken up by the police, Amsterdam finds a place outside the City where the police cannot break it up. Bill gives him all the glory, but his joy is interrupted when he sees Jenny leave with Johnny.At a theatre showing of Uncle Tom's Cabin, the audience begins booing the performance and throwing vegetables at the stage. An assassin uses the chaos to try to kill Bill. Amsterdam notices, warns Bill, and tackles the guy to the ground, but not before he gets a shot off that hits Bill in the shoulder. Amsterdam seizes the man's pistol and shoots him in the side. Bill then tortures the man, demanding to know who sent him, but the man dies before he can answer. Amsterdam then runs off and begins crying. Monk finds him, and tells him that his father tried helping the Irish, not the Natives.Later that night, Bill, Amsterdam, Tweed, and others are drinking in the brothel. Jenny comes by and cleans Bill's wound then goes upstairs to her room. Amsterdam angrily follows her and grabs her. She tells him she'll bite him if he tries to kiss her. She lunges a few times, and they eventually kiss and sleep together. Johnny sees the two of them and runs off.Amsterdam awakes to find Bill watching him, sitting in a chair and draped in an tattered American flag. He asks Bill if it was okay that he slept with Jenny. Bill says he doesn't mind. Bill then begins talking about how Priest Vallon spared his life, and how Bill removed his own eye, the one that looked away in shame, and sent it to Vallon. He then describes the day he killed Vallon. Bill speaks of how he's gained his power in the Five Points through "the spectacle of fearsome acts" and how "civilization is crumbling." Bill then leaves.Amsterdam tells Jenny if she wants to know anything about him, she should ask. She explains how she was dejected as a prostitute, had an abortion and Bill took her in. She insists Bill never put his hands on her until she told him to. Later that night, Monk sees Amsterdam throwing a dagger into a wooden post behind Bill's hideout. It's as if Amsterdam were practicing for something.Johnny is then seen talking to Bill before a public performance. He tells Bill about Amsterdam being Vallon's son. Bill reacts violently, nearly killing Johnny, but he listens. Meanwhile, Amsterdam is seen walking into an Asian-themed restaurant. He tries to call Johnny as he walks to his table, but Johnny pays no mind. He sits, and Jenny comes to him. An announcer then comes and begs Bill to perform with his daggers in a piece called "The Butcher's Apprentice". He asks for Jenny to participate. She steps onto the stage and Bill begins throwing knives, his throws become increasingly dangerous until he is seriously scaring her -- one shot even cuts her neck. He then walks to his table, says some words about Vallon, and lifts up his drink of fire. Amsterdam then throws a dagger at Bill, who blocks the blow with a cleaver and counters with his own throw; his knife embeds itself in Amsterdam's midsection. Amsterdam is held down on a table as Bill announces that Amsterdam is the son of Priest Vallon and a coward for trying to kill him. Bill headbutts him several times. Bill then declares that Amsterdam will be branded and thrown into the street for everyone to gawk at. He uses a hot knife to burn Amsterdam's cheek while Jenny screams.Jenny then takes Amsterdam away to a cave where she nurses him back to health. She talks of them leaving and going to San Francisco. Monk visits them and gives Amsterdam Priest's straight razor. About three months later, after he's recovered, he hangs a dead rabbit in Paradise Square. The rabbit finds its way to Bill, who sends Happy Jack to kill Amsterdam, but Amsterdam kills Jack instead and finds sanctuary in the church. Amsterdam hangs Jack's body in Paradise Square where Bill laments the the loss of an easily corruptible cop. Jimmy tells Bill where to find Amsterdam, however, since Amsterdam is hiding in the church, Bill is reluctant to go there and confront him. However, Bill, sensing that Jimmy might betray anyone as easily as he betrayed Amsterdam, has Jimmy impaled on the spiked fence in Paradise Square and left for Amsterdam to find him. When Jenny and Amsterdam find Jimmy, Jenny gives Amsterdam her pistol to mercifully kill his friend.Amsterdam and his men, now dressed in the red of the Dead Rabbits, are gathering strength, even to the point where Tweed asks for their help in getting votes. He makes a deal with them to allow them to have an Irish sheriff and he will get all Irish votes. They choose Monk, who wins a rigged and crooked election. Bill challenges Monk outside his barber shop. When Monk suggests they go inside and talk like men, Bill throws a cleaver into Monk's back. He then takes Monk's club (which has 44 carvings on it to mark how many people Monk has killed), carves a new notch into it, and clubs Monk with it, finishing him off. At Monk's funeral, Amsterdam quietly challenges Bill to a gang brawl. They later meet and discuss the terms: primitive weapons are permitted, but guns will not be.The day arrives and Amsterdam cuts himself on the cheek as his father had done with the rusted razor. He looks at Jenny, who tells him that she's leaving for San Francisco today with or without him. He tells her it will be over tomorrow, but she leaves.A conscription act for the Union Army is enforced; anyone who can pay $300 will not be forced to join the army and fight the Confederacy in the Southern states. A series of riots break out, and crowds start pillaging the streets, burning homes, letting the animals at PT Barnum's House of Wonders loose and cutting the telegraph lines so the police and authorities cannot communicate to stop the rioters. Jenny and Jimmy are even attacked in the process. In Paradise Square, the Dead Rabbits and Bill's Federation of American Natives meet. They are just about to begin brawling when the Navy fires their cannons into the Square killing many members of both gangs. The Army also moves in and fires upon the survivors. In the confusion, McGloin is killed.Only Amsterdam and Bill are left to fight. Bill uses the thick smoke from the cannon shots to rush Amsterdam and slash him twice. Another cannon shot knocks Bill and Amsterdam to the ground. Bill pulls a piece of shrapnel from his midsection and says he'll die "a true American." Amsterdam takes this opportunity and stabs and kills Bill. Jenny finds him and, that night, they mourn all the friends they lost in the draft riots. Amsterdam mentions that the riots continued for another three nights. Tweed is only upset because he lost so many votes.Bill is buried next to Priest Vallon in a Brooklyn cemetery that looks out on the Manhattan skyline. Amsterdam is there with Jenny and he buries his father's straight razor on top of Priest's grave. Amsterdam remarks in voiceover that a city like New York will continue to grow and he and his friends and enemies might never be remembered. Decades begin to pass, showing the growth of the Manhattan skyline, ending on the twin towers of the World Trade Center. | boring, murder, violence, flashback, action, revenge | tt0217505 |
The Last Temptation of Christ | Jesus, a carpenter in Nazareth, Judea,during the Roman occupation, has been hearing voices and having premonitions that tell him that God has a special plan for him, in atonement for sins. He assumes it is his own sins and is confused about what to do, although he has a firm will to follow any commands from God. Because he senses that he himself will be crucified some day, he constructs crosses for Roman use in executing criminals and rebels, an act of traitorous collaboration in the eyes of others in his town, including Mary Magdalene, who spits on him. Judas, a zealot rebel, appreciates Jesus' devotion to God and attempts to recruit him to the zealot cause, but Jesus refuses.Jesus feels guilty about his inability to correspond to the adult love of his childhood friend, Mary Magdalene, who in her dejection has become a prostitute. He asks Mary to forgive him. Mary asks Jesus to stay with her, which Jesus is tempted to do, but he rejects the temptation and heads for a monastic community. At that community, he experiences his own unusual powers as two deadly cobras obey his command, and he learns that the community leader who welcomed him the night before was already dead. One of the monks in the community convinces Jesus that the fact that God communicates with him is extraordinary.Judas is sent with orders to kill Jesus for being a collaborator. Judas senses Jesus is specially favored by God, and asks Jesus to lead the rebellion against the Romans. Jesus tries to tell Judas that his message is love, that love of one's fellow humans is the key to God's will. Judas promises to join Jesus in his ministry, but with the threat that he will kill him if he strays from his ministry. Thus influenced by Judas, Jesus agrees to abandon his will to that of God, become a teacher, and let God speak through him.As he walks to begin his new life, Jesus comes across an angry mob which is dragging Mary Magdalene to be stoned for her prostitution and working for Romans on the sabbath. Jesus interrupts the stoning, challenging the crowd to admit they have all sinned, asking whoever has not sinned to take a bigger stone from his hand. Half the crowd sneaks away, the other half stays to hear what he has to say. He opens his mouth and begins his teaching in parables, awkwardly at first, but growing in confidence and preaching with the phrases recorded as the Sermon on the Mount.Jesus develops a following of disciples, but he is still uncertain of his role. He experiences his own unusual power as, while eating an apple, he throws out the apple seeds, and one of them becomes a full grown tree with fruit. Judas convinces him to travel to see John the Baptist, who has publicly claimed that he is preparing the way for the Messiah, telling him that John surely will know what Jesus' mission really is. John baptizes Jesus, and that night the two discuss their differing views. John believes that Jews must first gain freedom from the Romans before the kingdom of God is declared, while Jesus believes that love is more important.John tells him that God speaks most clearly in the desert, so Jesus then goes into the desert to see if God's will mayb be clearly revealed to him. Choosing a spot in the desert, Jesus draws a circle on the ground and vows he will not leave the circle until God has made his will known. While in the circle, Satan appears to him, first as a snake, then as a lion, finally as a pillar of fire, to tempt him. Jesus resists these temptations. An apple tree bearing luscious fruit appears to him, but he conquers his hunger and instead of eating he chops down the tree. At this point he realizes that the message from God is that he is strong enough to rebuff Satan. He walks out of the desert. He comes across the home of Martha and Mary, who take him in and help him recover from his long fast. He rejoins his disciples after his recovery. In front of them he takes out his heart in his hand to prove his authority and tells them to follow him. He proceeds to perform many signs and wonders and each increases his confidence that he is in fact God's son and the Messiah. He turns water into wine, he restores the vision of a blind man, heals cripples so they walk, he raises Lazarus from the dead, and casts out many demons. His ministry finds rejection and enmity in many quarters. In his own town of Nazareth none come to join him, and Saul, a Roman agent, eventually murders the resurrected Lazarus to destroy the greatest evidence of his divine power.Eventually Jesus and his followers enter Jerusalem, where he is received with joy by many. Jesus goes to the temple, where he is enraged by the money changers and throws them out. The angry Jesus even leads his followers to try to take the temple by force, but as he reaches the steps he begins bleeding from his hands. He stops, realizes he is doing the will of men and not of God, and that he must die in order to bring salvation to all, Jews and all others. He asks Judas, his strongest apostle and the one who best understands him, to betray him to the Romans, something that Judas does not want to do. Nevertheless, Jesus insists that this is the only way and Judas acquiesces, weeping.Jesus joins his disciples, Martha, Mary, Mary Magdalene and his mother for the Passover seder, where he breaks bread telling them all to eat of it, for it is his body, and to drink from his wine cup, for it is his blood, commanding them to do this again to remember him.. After the meal, while in the garden of Gethsemane, Judas leads the Roman soldiers to Jesus and identifies him. Peter cuts off the ear of Malchus and Jesus performs the miracle of reattaching it. Pontius Pilate tells Jesus that he must be put to death because he represents a threat against the status quo, the Roman Empire. Jesus is flogged and a crown of thorns is placed on his head. He is led to Golgotha, where he is crucified.From the cross Jesus sees a young girl who tells him she is his guardian angel who has been sent to rescue him. She tells him that it is not necessary for him to die on the cross, because God loves him, is pleased with him, and wants his happiness. She brings him down from the cross and leads him away.She takes him to be with Mary Magdalene, who cleans his wounds, and the couple make love. The couple has a child and lives a tranquil life in a forest cabin. Mary dies during a pregnancy, and the sobbing Jesus is told by the angel that there is only one woman, all women are "Mary", and takes him to be comforted by Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus. He has a family with them and lives a peaceful life as a carpenter. Some years later he encounters the apostle Paul describing his own conversion and preaching about the Messiah. Jesus tries to tell Paul that he is the man that Paul has been preaching about but Paul rejects him, saying that he needs the Jesus who died and resurrected to bring salvation to all.In old life and near death, Jesus' former disciples visit him. Judas arrives last, tells Jesus he has been a traitor. The angel who stopped his crucifixion is recognized as Satan in disguise, who tempted him into a life of comfort as an ordinary man. Jesus realizes that he should have died to bring salvation to all. Although aged and weak, Jesus crawls back to the edge of a burning Jerusalem at the time of the Jewish Rebellion, he reaches the site of his crucifixion and begs God to let him fulfill his mission, crying out "Let me be Your Son!".We see Jesus back on the cross. The whole episode with the fake angel must have been a dreamy hallucination. He smiles in recognition of his destiny and cries out "It is accomplished! It is accomplished!", as he dies. Then a blinding white light envelops everything. | avant garde, murder, violence, psychedelic, romantic, alternate history, storytelling | tt0095497 |
The Batman vs. Dracula | Joker and Penguin have escaped from Arkham Asylum, and Batman is summoned to round them up. Unfortunately for the Joker, he appears to have been electrocuted when, in order to escape Batman, he jumps into a river with his palm shocker still activated. Penguin, however, makes it to the Gotham City Cemetery where an inmate has told him some loot is buried in a certain tomb. In searching for the tomb, Penguin inadvertently awakens Dracula when he spills blood on Drac's corpse. After feeding on the cemetery guard, Dracula turns Penguin into his renfield. A cloud of fear descends over Gotham City as people begin to go missing.At the same time that Dracula is planning to turn Gotham City into the City of the Undead, Bruce Wayne is planning the Wayne Industries Energy Expo to be held tomorrow evening at Wayne Manor. During an interview with Gotham City News reporter Vicky Vale, he invites Vicky (who appears to be developing a thing for Bruce) to be his date. That night on his watch over the city, Batman sees the cemetery guard attack a woman after knocking out a hoodlum who was trying to steal her purse. When Batman jumps in to help the woman, all three of them -- the guard, the hoodlum, and the woman -- turn on Batman, all of them now vampires. Batman escapes by jumping on the top of a passing El train.It is now the evening of the Expo. Guests are beginning to arrive, including Dracula. He takes a fancy to Vicky and introduces himself to Bruce as Dr Alucard, newly arrived in Gotham to study the Batman, whom he sees as a fearful individual who assumes the guise of a bat. In return, Bruce introduces Alucard to the SL-5, one of Wayne Industries' latest technological advances. It collects and stores solar energy as true sunlight. Alucard is impressed that science has finally done something "positive" with the sun. When the food servers circulate with trays of hors d'oeuvres, Alucard grimaces at the garlic shrimp but wolfs down the steak tartare, then excuses himself in order to find something to wash it down with. That something is Bruce Wayne's blood. Alucard mesmerizes Bruce into going out on the terrace. Just as Alucard is about to pounce on Bruce, however, Alfred comes out looking for him, dashing Alucard's plan. Instead, Alucard feasts on the serving captain, Stipes.Bruce isn't sure how he got out on the terrace, but he suspects it was Alucard's doing. He follows Alucard as Alucard prepares to leave and sees him turn into a bat and fly away. Alfred notices that Alucard casts no reflection in a mirror, and Bruce writes Alucard's name on a silver platter then holds it in front of the mirror to notice that "Alucard" is "Dracula" backwards. Now that he knows what he's up against, Bruce figures that his first course of action should be to find a cure for vampirism so that he can rescue Dracula's victims, so it's off to the Thomas Wayne Old School Medical Library to do some extensive research.Vicky Vale has been sent out to interview a man who claims to have seen a large bat attacking a Gotham City resident. Vicky and the authorities conclude that the attacker and the individual behind all the missing persons must be none other than the Batman. All of Gotham is now looking for Batman, who now finds himself being hunted, shot at, and feared by the city he tries to protect. Dracula, too, has decided that there is room in Gotham City for only one bat and vows to destroy Batman after Batman refuses to ally himself with Dracula. Fortunately for Batman, the sun starts to rise before Dracula is able to make good on his threat.That evening, as Penguin goes down into the catacombs to awaken Dracula, he is confronted by his old friend, the Joker. Joker explains that he was saved when he was caught in the net of a fisherman who retrieved him from the water. Penguin attempts to elude the Joker by running through the catacombs, but the Joker follows. When he sees Dracula's coffin and bends over to peek into it, Dracula grabs him by the throat and pulls him inside. "Breakfast in bed...fresh squeezed," Penguin comments. Now turned into a vampire, the Joker raids a blood bank, which sets off an alarm, seending Batman over to investigate. Enhanced by his new vampire powers, Joker leaps at Batman, but Batman sets off a series of garlic bombs. The Joker is subdued, and Batman takes him to the Batcave in order to test some of his antivampire medications.Bruce and Alfred work through the night and all the next day looking unsuccessfully for a cure. So busy are they that they are both surprised when the doorbell rings. They had both forgotten that Vicky was dropping by for dinner. Alfred attempts to stall Vicky while Bruce continues to work. When Joker's thirst becomes too painful to bear, Bruce withdraws some of his own blood and, donning his bat costume, feeds his own blood to the Joker. As the time closes in on 9 PM, Vicky sadly gives up waiting for Bruce to join her for dinner, much to Alfred's chagrin (Alfred is hoping that Bruce and Vicky will get it on together). Meanwhile, Bruce thinks that he may have found the cure. When it comes time to feed Joker again, Bruce slips some of the serum into the bloodbag. Joker drinks it and POOF, no longer is he a vampire. There is one side effect, however. Joker cannot remember anything about being a vampire. He only remembers being in the Gotham Cemetery with Penguin, so Batman sends him back to Arkham Asylum.Now on her way home after having been stood up, Vicky misses her train. Fortunately, Dracula shows up and offers to share drinks with her while she waits for the next one. Vicky tells him that she's running late and will catch a cab instead. Then she tries to contact Bruce, but Bruce is loading up his serum into syringes and doesn't answer. When Bruce gears up to go hunting for Dracula, Alfred convinces him to wait until morning when the advantage will be his but suggests that he return Vicky's phone call. Bruce does just that, but Vicky doesn't answer. Suddenly, he gets another call from Vicky, telling him that she met up with Dracula and needs rescuing.Dracula has taken Vicki into the catacombs where he, Penguin, and all of the "children of the night" are gathered to witness the "blood wedding." But it isn't Vicky Vale that Dracula intends to wed. He simply needs her life essence in order to awaken his true bride, Carmilla Karnstein, who was reduced to ashes when she was struck in the sunlight. As Vicky's essence begins to rise from her body and flow into the pile of Carmilla ash that Dracula has suspended on a platform over her, Batman makes his way into the catacombs. Too busy rehydrating his bride, Dracula sends his minions to stop Batman, but Batman is able to knock them out one by one and inject him with the antivampire serum. Soon, all the lost ones have rehumanized, so they exit from the catacombs. Batman goes looking for Dracula and Vicky.Vicky's essence is quickly draining, so Batman first ropes Penguin and puts him out of commission. Then he aims a triggerized syringe at Dracula, but Dracula mesmerizes him so that Batman cannot pull the trigger. Instead, he drops it on the ground. Then he remembers himself as a young boy and how he became the Batman. This seems to make him grow stronger until he is able to throw a garlic bomb at Carmilla. This interrupts the flow of essence from Vicky, sending it all back into her. Batman helps Vicky out of her coffin and tells her to run. Then he and Dracula go at it, fighting hand to hand until a big cloud of dust fills up the chamber. Hiding in the dust, Bruce sends a message to Alfred, triangulating his location.As Alfred watches on the computer screen, he sees Batman winding his way through the catacombs under Gotham City and realizes that Batman is leading Dracula into the Batcave. When the two of them break through the walls and are inside the cave itself, the fighting resumes. "I will drain you dry and use your cape as a dinner napkin," Dracula threatens. Alfred manages to shoot a syringeful of serum into Dracula, but it has no effect, as "no earthly medicine can cure a supernatural affliction." Dracula goes after Alfred, which gives Batman time to turn on the SL-5. As the harnessed sunlight begins to fill the Batcave, Dracula realizes that Batman is really Bruce Wayne. "And you are dust," Batman replies, as Dracula begins to disintegrate. As an added measure, Batman scatters Dracula's bones all over the Batcave, leaving Alfred to sweep into the dustbin straightaway.Meanwhile, back at the cemetery, Penguin has been sent out to recapture Vicky and return her to Dracula. She manages to elude him for a while, even knocking over the buried loot that Penguin came to find in the first place, but he eventually corners her just as Dracula is turned to dust. Having lost all memory of what he's supposed to be doing, Penguin turns to the pile of gold that has been uncovered, just as the police arrive and arrest him.It's all over the news that the missing ones have been found and that it was all a plot by Penguin to use them as hostages to uncover mob treasure. Batman has been exonerated, and Penguin's insistence that it was due to vampires is dismissed as insanity as he is escorted back to Arkham Asylum. [Original synopsis by BJ Kuehl] | violence, psychedelic, horror, comedy, suspenseful | tt0472219 |
Sky High | The movie begins with a voiceover by Will Stronghold (Michael Angarano) explaining that in his world, there are a large number of superheroes. And the greatest heroes of all are the super-strong Commander (Kurt Russell) and the high-flying Jetstream (Kelly Preston). While the rest of the world only knows these two as heroes, Will explains that they are his parents, Steve & Josie Stronghold, who also operate one of the most successful real-estate chains in the country. Will is about to begin high school and will be attending his parents' alma mater-a school just for super-powered individuals. There is just one problem, Will explains... He has no powers.Steve & Josie are planning their schedule when Will's friend Layla stops by to go to the bus with Will. Josie offers Layla some breakfast (bacon & eggs) but Layla turns it down since she is a vegan (her mother can speak with animals, and "they don't like being eaten.")Steve goes up and finds Will in front of a weight bench (Will is faking having super-strength to not disappoint his father). Steve gives Will a pep talk about entering high school and expresses his hope that one day Will can be around to save the world.Suddenly, Steve & Josie receive a call on their special red cell phones. The Commander and Jetstream are needed! The parents say goodbye to Will and go down to the Secret Sactum, their base of operations to suit up for action. They travel downtown where a giant Robot is attacking the city. Jetstream drops Commander onto the Robot, smashing it. The crowd cheers as Commander rips out the Robot's eye for a trophy.Will & Layla arrive at the bus stop. When the bus arrives, Ron Wilson (Kevin Heffernan) the driver mocks Will for being a freshman until he learns that Will is the son of Commander & Jetstream. Will meets up with his friend Zach (Nicholas Braun) who is bragging about having finally gained his powers. Layla meets two other students- Ethan (Dee Jay Daniels) and Magenta (Kelly Vitz)Ron Wilson takes the bus through a construction zone and ends up driving it right off a bridge! He calmly flips some switches as wings & rocket engines are engaged as the bus flies up to their new school- SKY HIGH. Ron explains that the school is kept up by anti-gravity propulsion and remains in constant motion to avoid detection.The freshman get off the bus and are immediately confronted by two bullies- Lash (Jake Sandvig) who has stretching abilities and Speed (Will Harris) who has supersonic movement. The bullies' attempt to con money out of the freshman is stopped by Gwen Grayson (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) the student body president. She gives the freshman a lecture about Sky High, but Will is completely captivated by her and does not hear a word.As the freshman enter the gym, a sparkling silver comet shoots past them. It lands at the podium and spins around to reveal Principal Powers (Lynda Carter). She wishes the students good luck at Sky High.Next, Coach Boomer (Bruce Campbell) arrives in the gym to begin Power Placement. The class members are asked to step up and demonstrate their powers, and Boom will assign them to a class- Hero or Sidekick (also called "Hero Support," which Magenta refers to as "Loser-Class.") Zach eagerly steps up and shows off his power- he can glow in the dark. Boomer is not impressed and knocks Zach off the stand with a supersonic boom, classifying Zach as a sidekick.The remaining freshman go through placement at a steady pace. Along the way, Ethan (whose power lets him melt into a puddle) and Magenta (who can turn into a guinea pig) are both assigned to Sidekick class. Layla, who does not approve of this system, refuses to participate- and is thus made Sidekick by default. The bell rings and Coach Boomer orders a break for lunch, deciding that he will start things off with Will when they get back.At lunch, Will notices a strange boy in leather who appears to be staring at them. Magenta recognizes him as Warren Peace, (Steven Strait), child of a superhero mother and a supervillian father. Apparently, Will's father captured Warren's father and sent him to jail on "quadruple life sentences." Will is miserable- it's his first day and he already has an archenemy!Back in the gym, Coach Boomer attempts to test Will's powers by dropping a car on him and throwing him across the room. Will finally confesses that he has no powers. Boomer pronounces Will "Sidekick" with such firmness that it shatters a dozen windows."Will gets examined by the school nurse (Cloris Leachman), who cannot explain why he is powerless. She says that he might eventually get one or both of his parents powers, but there are rare cases where children of superheroes never develop powers. Apparently the last known case of a powerless child is none other than Ron Wilson, the bus driver.Will comes home and his father wants to have a talk with him. Steve brings Will into the Secret Sactum, swearing Will to secrecy and making Will promise not to bring anyone else in. The Sanctum is loaded with trophies from The Commander's battle (He places the Robot Eye from that morning on a pedestal), including a weapon called the Pacifier from a villian called Royal Pain-the first enemy that Commander and Jetstream defeated together. Steve then reveals that he has placed Will's name on an empty pedestal in the hope that Will can someday be a great hero. Will chickens out and cannot tell his father about being a Sidekick.Meanwhile, the Robot Eye glows (unnoticed by Steve & Will). The Sanctum is being watched by two mysterious entities.Layla stops by to talk to Will using her powers (she can control plant growth). Layla encourages Will to tell his father the truth, but he still refuses.The next day, Hero Support class begins as Will & his friends meet their teacher, All-American Boy (Dave Foley). "Mr. Boy" reveals that he once worked with the Commander, and seems hurt when Will does not know about him.The power goes out in the building, and Zach immediately takes the opportunity to show off his glowing powers. Mr. Medula (Kevin McDonald), the science professor with an oversized cranium arrives and explains that there was a minor "misfire" in the Mad Science Lab.The week goes on with Will & his friends receiving instructions from Mr. Boy and Mr. Medula. Ethan becomes a favorite target of bullies Speed & Lash, frequently becoming on the receiving end of "swirlies." One night, Will & the other sidekicks are at Will's house studying when The Commander returns home. Will cannot hide the truth anymore and confesses the truth: he is a Sidekick, and he is powerless. The Commander is at a loss for words.Steve and Josie speak later. Josie is disappointed too, but there is nothing they can do "short of dropping [Will] in a vat of toxic waste." Steve resolves that Will can always make a legitimate career out of real estate rather than being a hero, and his disappointment does not defer his love for his son.Next day at lunch in Sky High cafeteria, Lash uses his stretch powers to trip Will. Will's lunch tray accidentally lands on Warren Peace, who is furious. Warren reveals his power (to project fire from his arms) and attacks Will. Will cowers under the lunch table, unable to fight back. When Warren threatens the other Sidekicks, Will reaches up and lifts the entire table that Warren is standing on! Will (and everyone else) suddenly realize that he has gained super-strength. Warren, angry about being knocked down, attacks again. Will punches him with such force that Warren crashes into the teacher's lounge. Undaunted, Warren gets back up and attacks again. Layla tosses Will a fire extinguisher, and Will rips the top off and extinguishes Warren's fire.Principal Powers throws Will and Warren in a detention room. Warren is eager to keep fighting, but cannot ignite his flames. Principal Powers explains that the detention rooms neutralize super-abilities. Will attempts to resolve the matter peacefully, but Warren wants nothing of the sort.That night, Will returns home thrilled about his good fortune. Josie is not amused, since her son destroyed a good portion of the cafeteria. Steve takes Will to the Sactum for a discussion, but upon arrival he firmly embraces Will, delighted that his son has super-strength. Will hugs back to demonstrate just how strong he is. Steve gives Will an X-Box as a reward for developing superpowers.The mysterious figures continue to watch from the Robot Eye.Back in class, Will's friends are happy about the way he stood up for them. Mr. Boy comes in and explains that Will has now been upgraded to the Hero class. Will arrives at Mr. Medula's science class and is partnered with Gwen Grayson and instructed to build a Freeze Ray. Will is completely lost in his new class, so Gwen uses her powers (she is a technopath; with the ability to control various forms of technology) to help him.At lunch, Will meets with Gwen to catch up on his new Hero-Class requirements. He also meets her friend Penny (Malika Khadijah) a girl with the ability to duplicate herself. Penny and some of the other Heroes dismiss the sidekicks as losers. Will, feeling bad, offers to take Layla to the Paper Lantern (her favorite Chinese restaurant) later that night. She happily accepts.Will sees Speed & Lash shoving Ethan and Zach into lockers. Ethan and Zach think Will can stop them for good, and makes a bet: If Will can out-perform Speed & Lash in Gym Class, they will not harm the sidekicks for the rest of the year. If Will fails, they will stick Ethan's head in a toilet every day.In Gym Class, Coach Boomer explains the exercise "Save the Citizen." A team of 2 students must overpower 2 "Villains" and reclaim an endangered "person" (actually just a dummy) before it falls into a spiked pit. Speed & Lash are the undefeated champions. They will act as the Villains and choose Stronghold & Peace for the Heroes. At first, Will & Warren are losing badly because they cannot work together. Will manages to tie up Lash (literally) but Warren is trapped by Speed's circular dash. Warren collapses under the strain, since Speed's vortex is sucking away the oxygen needed for his fire-powers. Warren encourages Will to forget him and rescue the citizen, but Will ignores the citizen and takes out Speed. With only seconds left, Will uses a "fastball special" to throw Warren over the spike pit, rescuing the citizen!The Commander is thrilled to hear about his son's accomplishment, since no freshman has ever won "Save the Citizen" before. Gwen shows up at Will's house to help him with his science homework. She gets along fabulously with Will's parents. They look over Steve & Josie's old yearbook from Sky High, and spot a photo of a girl named Sue Tenny who looks suspiciously like Gwen. Gwen asks The Commander and Jetstream to come to Homecoming as guests of honor to receive the award for "Heroes of the Year."Layla is at the Paper Lantern, waiting for Will. She meets Warren, who has a job at the restaurant. Warren theorizes that Layla is secretly in love with Will. Layla confirms this, but is afraid that Will is in love with Gwen. At the same time, Will walks Gwen home, and she invites him to the Homecoming dance as her date. Will is so happy that he ends up knocking over a lamppost.Next morning, Will apologizes to Layla for missing the dinner at Paper Lantern. Layla is happy until Will explains that he is going to homecoming with Gwen. Layla, devastated, asks Warren to take her to homecoming. Warren does not like the prospect of it, but when he decides that taking Layla will spite Will, he happily agrees.Later that week, Will & Gwen decide to meet up with Homecoming committee to discuss the dance. The entire Hero class ends up at Will's house to throw a party. Gwen asks Will if there is a quiet place where they can talk in private. Will takes her to the one place in the house that is quiet- the Sanctum. Gwen kisses Will while an unseen figure comes in and swipes the Pacifier weapon.Layla shows up at the party, and Gwen lies to her by saying that Will is sickened by her feelings for him. Layla, heartbroken, walks out. Will, seeing his friend cry, angrily breaks up with Gwen and tells everyone to leave. They ignore him, but at that moment the Commander and Jetstream return home. Everyone immediately rushes out.Will explains that he didn't actually plan the party, and will not be going with his parents to Homecoming. Steve encourages Will to come to the dance, because he wants to introduce "The Stronghold Three," the greatest superhero family in the world.Will goes to the Paper Lantern in an attempt to talk things over with Layla. Warren meets him and explains that he is only going with Layla to make Will jealous. Will doubts that Layla or any of the other Sidekicks will speak to him again.That night, Commander & Jetstream leave for homecoming while Will stays in the Sactum. Will looks through his father's old yearbook and sees the girl who looks suspiciouly like Gwen holding a device that looks like the Pacifier! Upon seeing that the real Pacifier is gone, he contacts Ron Wilson for an emergency transport to Sky High.At the Homecoming dance, Gwen meets Commander & Jetstream once again and reveals her true self- Gwen is the supervillain Royal Pain! Royal Pain uses the Pacifier on Commander, and it turns him into an infant. Several other members are hit by the Pacifier ray while Speed, Lash and Penny seal all the exits. Warren, Layla and the Sidekicks manage to escape in an air vent. Zach uses his powers to show them the right way out, when they suddenly meet up with Will.Will confirms that Gwen is apparently the daughter of Royal Pain, and apologizes to his friends for being such a jerk since his promotion to Hero-class. Layla kisses Will as a means of forgiveness. Warren tells Will to go after Gwen while they take care of the henchmen.Ethan runs away, managing to trap Lash's head in a toilet in the process. Warren fights with Speed but cannot hit the dashing bully. Speed runs right in front of Ethan, who promptly melts. Speed slips up on the puddle and Warren blasts Speed into a wall.Will confronts Gwen, who is taking the infant heroes away to start her own academy of super-villains by re-raising the heroes from scratch. Gwen also confirmes that in truth, she IS Sue Tenny. The original Pacifier weapon backfired on her, so she waited to grow up again and exact revenge. Will is disgusted- he's been in love with "an old lady!"Royal Pain smashes Will through the wall of the gym. Meanwhile, Penny is still fighting Layla. Layla is finally fed up with the battle and uses her powers to summon a massive growth of vines and ensnare Penny and all her duplicates. Penny reveals that Royal Pain is tampering with the schools' anti-gravity device and that in 10 minutes, Sky High will fall.Zach, Ethan, Layla and Magenta look at the blueprints for Sky High. They see a small opening to the anti-gravity room that none of them can fit through- except Magenta in her guinea-pig form.Will & Royal Pain are still fighting when she lands a devastating punch, sending Will flying out of a window and off Sky High. Seconds later, Will returns to the same spot- revealing his SECOND power!!!Royal Pain is loading a bus with the infant heroes when Ron Wilson notices and shuts down the bus, preventing their escape.Magenta reaches the anti-gravity device just as it shuts down, and she begins to chew through a wire. Will flies out and attempts to stop the school from falling. Magenta chomps through the wire seconds before Sky High slams into a residential neighborhood.With the school re-stabilized, Will & his friends wonder how to proceed. Mr. Medula (still possessing his fabulous intelligence despite being an infant) decides to re-program the Pacifier.As the heroes are gradually restored to normal, Will apologizes for letting Gwen into the Sanctum. The Commander and Jetstream decide that the "Hero of the Year" award should rightfully go to Will & his friends (including Ron Wilson) for stopping Royal Pain. With everyone returned to normal, they resume the Homecoming dance.Will gives a voiceover during the end credits, explaining "my girlfriend became my archenemy, my archenemy became my best friend, and my best friend became my girlfriend. But hey- that's high school!" | comedy, cute, good versus evil, action, revenge, entertaining | tt0405325 |
Horrible Bosses | Nick Hendricks (Jason Bateman) narrates about how he has been tied down to his job for months working from 6:00 a.m. to around 10:00 p.m. every day and has had no life, in an effort to receive a promotion. He hurries to his job one morning at a wealthy financial firm in order to make it in time at 6:00 am. He hurries into the building, briefly trades "Good Morning's" with the security guard at the front desk and waits at the elevator. Above the elevator door is a large electronic clock which reads 6:02 am. Nick makes it to his floor, runs to his cubicle and immediately gets to work. Two hours later his phone rings; his boss, Dave Harken (Kevin Spacey) wants to talk with him. Harken has been dangling a promotion over Nick's head for the past eight years, and Nick has been working 16 hour days to get it. Harken is a power-tripping sociopath that is too intelligent to ever be one-upped and reprimands Nick for being two minutes late that morning and tells Nick that tardiness doesn't lead to promotions. Nick apologizes and he is soon offered to share a drink with Harken. Nick reluctantly accepts (due to the hour) and is shocked to see Harken fill only one glass with scotch, almost to the brim. He forces Nick to drink it all by himself. Nick coughs and sputters as he downs the drink, but does it anyway for the promotion.Meanwhile, Dale Arbus (Charlie Day) is dropped off at work by his fiance Stacie (Lindsay Sloane). At work Dale repels constant sexual harassment by his man-eating dentist boss Dr. Julia Harris (Jennifer Aniston). She toys with Dale; tells him to have sex with her at all times of the day, and fondles her unconscious male dental patients. Dale refuses her advances, citing that he is engaged and he wouldn't want to betray his fiance.Elsewhere, Kurt Buckman (Jason Sudeikis) loves his job. He is the acting second-in-command at Pellitt Chemicals, owned by the warm and generous Jack Pellitt (Donald Sutherland). Kurt is well-liked by all of Jack's employees, except for Jack's rude, spoiled and rotten son Bobby Pellitt (Colin Farrell). Bobby frequents the company bathroom, where he snorts cocaine, and shows genuine disgust for his co-workers, especially Kurt. Jack and Kurt walk out to the parking lot, where Jack says that he hopes for Kurt to manage the company once he retires. Jack jumps into his car and suffers an immediate heart attack, killing him.That evening all three friends meet at a local bar where they trade horror stories about their bosses. Nick says he would quit, but his promotion is in the bag. Kurt loves his job, and he's just afraid of what Bobby will do to the company now that he's in charge. Dale wishes he could find a new dentist to work for but explains that finding a job is difficult because he is a wrongfully labelled sex offender (after taking a drunken leak on a vacant playground next to a bar one night, and getting busted by the cops for indecent exposure). Nick suggests that they all look for new jobs when their childhood, and most likely to succeed, classmate Kenny Sommerfeld (PJ Byrne) wanders into the bar and explains how tough life was after losing millions while working for Lehman Brothers. Now he can't even get hired as a waiter, and the only way he earns money is performing sexual favors in the bar bathroom. The three realize that the possibility of finding new work is slim and commit to keeping their jobs.The next morning Nick heads into work and is caught off guard by an emergency staff meeting. Nick has a feeling that the purpose of the meeting is to announce his promotion to company Vice President. It would mean more money, better hours, and more respect from Harken. Harken arrives, 15 minutes late, complains that his wife is cheating on him with every man in the neighborhood, and openly berates Nick for being a drunk before promoting himself to Nick's coveted job. Nick daydreams of throwing Harken out a window, but only ends up begging Harken for an explanation as to why he led Nick along for so many years. Harken rudely tells Nick that he likes him as his bitch and that he'll never be promoted. Nick angrily tells Harken that he will quit and get a better job elsewhere to which Harken retorts that he'll send out a fabricated letter of discouragement to every other financial firm in the country, saying that Nick is insubordinate, tardy, an alcoholic and very bad at his job. In short, Harken would blackball Nick from the industry if he decided to quit.Kurt heads into work three hours late, after spending the morning at Jack Pellitt's funeral. Bobby teases Kurt and reveals his intentions for the company: he intends to sell it, collect the profits and retire on a tropical beach filled with hookers and cocaine. He tells Kurt to fire all the fat and disabled people starting with the obviously pregnant "Large Marge".Dale heads into work and is called into Julia's office. She locks the door behind him and Dale is surprised to find that she is practically naked, save for a pair of panties and a lab-coat. She implores that Dale have sex with her and berates him with offensive names. Dale ignores her come-ons and explains that he has a fiance and that he would never betray her trust. Dale threatens to quit, until Julia brings up that he is a sex offender and nobody else would ever hire him. Dale storms out of the room, to Julia's delight.That evening the three meet again. Kurt and Nick joke about their desire to kill their bosses while Dale, who is disgusted with Julia, would never consider murdering her. Dale storms out, while the other two re-enforce that the thought was simply a joke.Dale returns to work the next morning and is surprised to see his fiance, Stacie, in Julia's office. Stacie explains that Julia called her up and offered some free dental work as a wedding gift. Dale attempts to turn down the offer, but is unable to do so without letting on to his and Julia's relationship. With Stacie passed out in the dentist's chair, Julie goads Dale into having sex with her ON TOP of Stacie. Dale refuses again, which prompts Julia to pull out an iPad filled with risque photos of Dale and Julia taken by Julia while Dale was unconscious. She threatens to show the images to Stacie unless Dale has sex with her. Dale escapes her office yet again.That evening the three meet at Kurt's house. Dale arrives and shouts "I'm in! Let's kill this bitch!" The other two, who were both under the impression that their conversation of murder was only a joke, try to calm Dale down, but Dale is still infuriated by Julia's actions and explains that he already has a plan.The following evening, the three meet at a run-down motel room. Dale has gone on Craigslist and hired a "Wet Work" specialist on the men-seeking-men section. Nick and Kurt are surprised that Dale not only found an assassin on Craigslist, but managed to secure his services for only $200. The Wetwork Man (Ioan Gruffudd) pulls his car into the parking lot. He is well dressed, drives an expensive European sports car, and speaks in an English accent. The Wetwork Man enters the motel room and after a moment of confusion, explains that he is no assassin, but rather a gigolo for fetishists and that "Wetwork" is a code-name for a man who urinates on other men for arousal. The three pay the man for his time, but not his services, and flee the motel.In Kurt's car the three accuse one another of being amateurs and decide that the next course of action is to find a killer-for-hire in person. Kurt turns on his OnStar-like GPS service and is answered by an Indian phone-operator named "Gregory". Kurt asks for directions to the most dangerous part of town. Gregory leads them to a dangerous neighborhood, where they find a bar full of thugs and gang-members. Kurt asks the bartender if he knows any killers-for-hire. The three are run out of the bar by the patrons, and just before leaving they're confronted by Dean "Motherfucker" Jones (Jamie Foxx). Jones explains that he just finished a ten year stint in prison and can help take care of their problem for $30,000. The three reject his offer as too expensive, and are about to drive away when Jones lowers his asking price to $5,000. The three withdraw all of their collective savings and meet Jones the next night, and are ready to give him the addresses of their bosses. Jones changes the details of the plan, saying that instead of having him kill their bosses, the three should kill each other's bosses, and that for the low $5K fee, he will act as their murder consultant. The three are clearly upset and want their money back, but they feel threatened by Jones, and accept the arrangement. Jones gives them a few tips on killing their bosses: make their deaths look like an accident, stake out their homes, learn their daily routines, don't leave DNA evidence, etc.The following day Nick feigns illness by throwing up in a trash can in the middle of the office. Harken, disgusted by Nick, tells him to finish his work at home and to have it ready for Monday morning. Nick then meets with Dale and Kurt and the three of them head to Bobby's house first. As Bobby leaves, the three sneak in. Despite telling one another to leave zero impact in the house, the three make a mess. Dale and Nick accidentally knock over a shoe-box full of cocaine onto the floor while Kurt rubs all of Bobby's toothbrushes, razors and floss on his butt-crack. Dale and Nick manage to vacuum up the spilt cocaine and Kurt steals Bobby's cell phone with all his schedules, addresses, etc.The three jump into Kurt's car and head over to Harken's mansion to look for more dirt on him and to learn his routine. Dale, who is still reeling from the cocaine he inhaled is told to sit in Kurt's car and act as a lookout. Inside, Nick and Kurt look for anything they can use to kill Harken but only find that he has a thing for cats and that his wife (Julie Bowen) is much younger and more attractive than Harken, which excites the always-horny Kurt.In Kurt's car, Dale inhales a peanut butter and jelly sandwich while he plays video games on his cell phone. Unbeknownst to him, Harken is taking his nightly jog around the neighborhood. Dale tosses his peanut butter and jelly wrapper out the window. Harken lifts it up and shouts obscenities at Dale, but soon inhales a few peanut particles and goes into anaphylactic shock. Upstairs, in Harken's bedroom Nick and Kurt watch as Harken keels over in the street. Dale exits the car and not knowing that Harken is Harken, he takes Harken's epipen and repeatedly stabs him in the chest and neck. From upstairs Nick and Kurt watch in horror as Dale apparently stabs Harken to death; they both escape, but not before accidentally dropping Bobby's cell phone in the master bedroom. Eventually the shock wears off, just as Harken's wife arrives. She thanks Dale for saving Harken's life while Harken accuses Dale of being there to sleep with his wife, and threatens to kill him. Dale drives off, tracks down Nick and Kurt and the three escape, now knowing that Harken has a severe peanut allergy: something they can use to their advantage.The following day, the three head to the supermarket. Dale loads up on peanuts and Nick buys rat poison, which he intends to mix into Bobby's cocaine. Afterward the three head in three separate directions. Dale will kill Harken, Kurt will kill Julia, and Nick will kill Bobby.Kurt watches as Julia drives home and seductively undresses in her front window. She eats various sexually suggestive foods before inviting the woman-crazy Kurt into her home where the two have sex.Nick watches as Bobby exits his home with a couple of hookers. He waits for the most opportune moment to sneak in and tamper with Bobby's cocaine.Outside the Harken residence, Dale watches "The Notebook" on his DVD player and waits for Harken to emerge. Inside his mansion Harken searches for residue of any man that might have been in his room with his wife. He hears Bobby's phone ring; he picks it up, checks Bobby's address on the phone, and heads out. With Harken gone, Dale sneaks into Harken's house, up to his shower and intends to put peanuts in all of his shampoos and soap. He calls Nick, saying that he can't go through with it. Just then Harken arrives at Bobby's house; he doesn't notice Nick's car as he walks to Bobby's front door, rings the doorbell and shoots Bobby twice, killing him. Nick and Dale witness the killing and are freaking out. Shortly after Harken leaves, Nick peels out in his Prius and blows through a couple red traffic lights and is photographed by traffic light cameras.The three head back to their hangout. Nick and Dale are freaking out while Kurt is happy and content. Nick explains that Harken killed Bobby for them, while Kurt explains that he slept with Julia. The three fear that their DNA is all over Bobby's apartment and agree that their only course of action is fleeing the country. As they head out to Kurt's car, the three are quickly arrested by the police. At the police station, the interviewing officers ask why Nick was photographed fleeing a crime scene at such a high rate of speed. Nick fibs, saying that he was drag-racing. The two officers have a hunch that the three are connected to Bobby's slaying, but don't have enough evidence to keep them at the station. As they leave, the arresting officer tells them that they're going to send crime scene examiners to Bobby's apartment. This freaks out Kurt who had playfully rubbed all of Bobby's brushes up and down his butt.Kurt drives them back to his apartment and are shocked to see two patrol cars parked in front of it; the cops ran the DNA evidence and now there must be a warrant out for his arrest. Finding no other recourse, the three return to see "Motherfucker" Jones. They tell him about Harken murdering Bobby, and while their actions have been suspicious they haven't actually killed anybody. Jones tells them that for his advice they would need to pay him an additional $5,000. They refuse stating that the first $5K was enough. Jones breaks down, revealing that he did not go to jail for murder, but rather for video-taping "Snow Falling on Cedars" in a movie theater ten years earlier. Despite no longer having credibility, Jones tells them to get Harken to confess to the crime and to record it. The three agree that this is the best course of action.They sneak back into Harken's house, with Kurt manning a tape recorder and are surprised as a few dozen people, including Harken's wife jump out shouting "Happy Birthday!" They soon realize that the three are not Harken. Harken's wife recognizes Dale and assumes that during the prior meeting that she must have invited Dale to the party. The three make their way into the crowd and wait for Harken to arrive. Harken arrives soon thereafter and is annoyed by the surprise birthday party. He heads into his private office and is followed by Dale and Nick while the ever-horny Kurt sneaks off with Harken's wife.In his home office, Nick and Dale confront the psychopath Harken. They successfully goad him into confessing for Bobby's murder, which excites them both, until they realize that Kurt, and the tape recorder, are not in the room. Harken walks over to his safe, takes out his revolver and tells them that he will kill them next. The three regroup and head out to Kurt's car. Harken jumps into his SUV and heads after them. Harken crashes into them repeatedly, prompting Kurt's Onstar-esque service to alert him. "Gregory" asks if they need assistance, to which Kurt says 'yes'. Gregory calls the police, making the three freak-out. They tell him not to call the police because they're already wanted by the cops. Hearing this, Gregory remote-shuts off the car, explaining that he is required by law to not aid fleeing fugitives. The three are soon broad-sided by Harken's SUV. Harken steps out, with his gun drawn, and orders the three to get out of the car. He explains that he would love to kill them, like he did Bobby, but he would rather frame them for Bobby's murder. He shoots himself in the leg, wipes his prints and tosses the gun to Dale, who stupidly catches it bare-handed and waits for the police to arrive. Once they arrive Dale drops the gun and Harken tells his falsified story to the same arresting officers as before. In the midst of the stories, Kurt reveals that his tape recorder must've been recording the whole time. He pulls it out and plays it aloud for all to listen. Instead of Harken's confession he plays the mistakenly recorded sounds of him and Harken's wife having sex in Harken's bathroom, followed by the sound of the car chase, but no confession. Harken laughs it off, telling the officers to arrest them as there is no confession. "Gregory" chimes in from Kurt's car and explains that he had been monitoring and recording Kurt's call ever since the first collision of the car chase. He plays back Harken's confession. Harken is soon cuffed, along with the others, and is dragged to jail.In the epilogue, Harken has just been sentenced to 25-to-life in prison. In his absence Nick has been promoted to Harken's job as President of the company. He arrives to work at a reasonable hour and has nothing but good things to say about his new boss, Company CEO Lou Sherman (Bob Newhart) who isn't nearly as domineering or aggressive as Harken was; that is until Nick hears the pleas of Lou's assistant trapped in his trunk.Kurt returns to his regular job at the Chemical Company where "Large Marge" has taken over Bobby's position. He playfully jokes with her, asking when her due date is, causing her to ask "Due Date?" (She's fat, not pregnant)However in the final scene, Dale is back at work at the nasty Julia's office as usual and on this day he's finally agreed to fulfill her nasty fantasies. He tells her that he's sedated the patient in the dentist's chair and that he wants to watch her fondle the patient. She immediately pulls the patients pants down and is about to do more when the patient begins to giggle. The patient pulls back the oxygen mask revealing himself to be Kenny Sommerfeld, who is delighted to be making a buck in such a naughty situation. More so Dale has Julia look out the window where she sees video-pirate "Motherfucker" Jones video-taping her encounter. Dale blackmails Julia, explaining that in exchange for keeping the video secret he will require an all-expenses paid two week honeymoon vacation and no more sexual advances in the office. Overpowered, Julia agrees.During the closing credits there is a blooper reel of various scenes throughout the movie. | entertaining, revenge, comedy, murder, flashback | tt1499658 |
Clash of the Titans | In ancient times, after defeating their predecessors, the Titans, the gods divided the Universe among themselves. Zeus took the skies, Poseidon took the seas, and Hades was left with the Underworld upon being tricked by Zeus. The gods created the mortals, whose faith and prayers fueled the gods' immortality. As time passed, however, mortals began to question and soon resist their creators, angering the Olympians.
A fisherman named Spyros finds a coffin adrift in the sea, discovering a baby, Perseus, and his mother, Danaë. Spyros and his wife, Marmara, raise Perseus as their own son, alongside their daughter, Tekla. One day, an adult Perseus and his family watch soldiers from the city of Argos destroying the statue of Zeus. Infuriated at this, the Gods unleash the Furies who attack the soldiers and destroy the family's fishing vessel. Only Perseus survives and is found by a group of the soldiers.
Perseus is brought before King Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia, who are celebrating their campaign against the gods. Queen Cassiopeia compares her daughter Andromeda to the gods and boasts that she is more beautiful than Aphrodite. The revelry is cut short by the arrival of Hades, who has been given leave by Zeus to punish the mortals for their defiance. Hades threatens to unleash his monster, the Kraken, against Argos, unless Andromeda is offered as a sacrifice. Before leaving, he reveals that Perseus is a demigod and the son of Zeus. Perseus meets Io, who confirms his origin. According to Io, a king of Argos named Acrisius defied the Gods and laid siege on Olympus. Zeus wanted to teach him a lesson, but he could not kill the humans because he loved them so much. Instead, he decided to make an example out of Acrisius and disguised himself as the king, and then had sex with Queen Danae. When Acrisius realized this, he executed his wife and son, while cursing Zeus and denying him their bodies. Zeus punishes him further by changing him into the deformed creature Calibos. Though Queen Danae dies, her son, who turns out to be Perseus, survives.
Perseus leads the King's Guard to the Stygian Witches, looking for a way to kill the Kraken. After being betrayed by the power-hungry Hades, Zeus gives Perseus a sword forged on Mount Olympus and a winged horse named Pegasus. Perseus refuses both, but the captain of the King's guard, Draco, keeps the sword for when Perseus needs it. Soon after, they are attacked by Calibos. Draco severs Calibos's hand and forces him to flee. The band give chase but are attacked by giant scorpions called Scorpioxs that spring from spilled drops of Calibos's blood. They are saved by a band of Djinn, non-human desert sorcerers led by Sheik Suleiman, who tame the remaining Scorpioxs. Also wishing for the gods' defeat, the Djinn lend their aid to Perseus and his band.
The group arrives at the lair of the Stygian Witches and learn that to kill the Kraken, they must obtain and use the head of Medusa, a gorgon who resides in a temple in the Underworld. Any living creature that looks on Medusa's eyes turns into stone. Perseus, Io, Suleiman, Draco, and their remaining men cross into the Underworld. The men enter Medusa's temple lair while Io, being a woman and forbidden from entering, remains outside. Medusa kills everyone but Perseus, who manages to behead her by using his reflective shield to see her with his back turned. As he leaves the temple, Calibos appears behind Io and fatally stabs her. As Perseus and Calibos fight, Perseus accepts that he is a son of Zeus, picks up the Olympian sword, and stabs Calibos through the chest, which restores him to his human form. With his last breath, Calibos urges Perseus not to become a god. Before dying, Io urges Perseus to leave her and save Andromeda and Argos. Pegasus takes Perseus back to Argos as the Kraken is released. The people of Argos seize and bind Andromeda to offer her to the Kraken. Meanwhile, Hades reveals he does not require the faith or worship of mortals as Zeus does, as he has learned to survive on their fear. Hades then subdues the weakened Zeus.
Perseus arrives at Argos and exposes Medusa's head to the Kraken, which makes eye contact just before it is able to reach Andromeda. The Kraken, petrified, slowly turns to stone and shatters. Prokopion, the insane leader of the Cult of Hades, tries to kill Perseus, but Cepheus stops him and is stabbed, before both are killed when the Kraken's petrified hand falls on them. Hades appears, intending to kill Perseus, but Perseus, calling upon Zeus, throws his sword at Hades, forcing him back to the Underworld. Perseus rescues Andromeda, who is now crowned Queen of Argos. She asks Perseus to stay by her side as King, but he declines. Perseus also refuses another offer of godhood from Zeus, who then proclaims that if Perseus is to live as a human he should not be alone and subsequently revives Io. Thus, Perseus and Io become lovers. | fantasy, violence, flashback, good versus evil, psychedelic, action, philosophical, revenge | tt0800320 |
The Frighteners | Important note - There is a Theatrical version and a Director's Cut of the movie. The Director's cut runs 14 minutes longer and this synopsis caters for both versions.A thunderstorm filled, rainy night in the small town of Fairwater. A woman called Patricia Bradley (Dee Wallace) is been chased by a mysterious entity around the old-looking house in which she lives with her mother (Julianna Mcarthy). Patricia is screaming and fearing for her life. Her mother appears from her bedroom with a pump action shotgun and shoots the mysterious figure as its shape appears through the carpet at the top of the stairs.Some of the residents of Fairwater are gathering for a funeral in the community as the local newspaper editor Magda Rees Jones (Elizabeth Hawthorne) and her assistant are reporting the story of another seemingly innocent death amongst the residents. Psychic investigator Frank Bannister (Michael Andrew Fox) arrives at the funeral trying desperately to advertise his services. As he leaves in his wrecked and dirty looking Volkswagen, his reckless driving causes him to nearly hit an on-coming truck. As he swerves to miss it, he crashes straight through a garden fence. Ray Lynskey (Peter Dobson) comes out of his house infuriated and threatens to sue him for the damages. Frank gives him his business card and drives off after deliberately driving over one of Ray's garden gnomes.On the other side of town Ray's wife Doctor Lucy Lynskey (Trini Alvarado), visits the Bradley house to treat Patricia's cuts. She bandages her hand and tells her that she needs to take her to hospital but her mother (Julianna McCarthy) refuses to let her go. She tells her that she never leaves the house and to just give her some antibiotics. Lucy notices how timid and fragile Patricia is and as she gets ready to leave, she notices some bruising around her neck. Patricia's mother rushes Lucy out of the house and tells her that her daughter is not to be trusted. She was involved in cold-blooded murder.Becoming intrigued by Patricia's history, Lucy watches a documentary about the notorious serial killer Johnny Bartlett (Jake Busey)."In the space of 27 blood-soaked minutes, 12 innocent people gunned down by hospital orderly John Charles Bartlett. Patients, medical staff, visitors, no one was spared in this madman's rampage through Fairwater Sanatorium.Not even the hospital chapel provided sanctuary,as those in prayer were gunned down on their knees. A seemingly senseless crime, Bartlett's motive remains a mystery to this day. Six years earlier Charles Starkweather had murdered 11 people in a Nebraska killing spree".The black and white footage shows the horrific scenes at the hospital of the victims and the families, as well as the footage of Bartlett being escorted to court by the police boasting about his disgusting act."Fifteen year-old Patricia Ann Bradley, daughter of the hospital administrator, was also implicated in the killings. She was madly in love with the psychopath Bartlett. 2,200 volts of electricity ended the life of Johnny Bartlett, the unrepented killer. As they threw the switch he was heard to scream: I got me a score of twelve. Beat that!" In what some consider a miscarriage of justice, Patricia Ann Bradley was sentenced to life imprisonment although it was never proven that she actively participated in the killings. Five years ago, Patricia Bradley was granted a conditional release by the State Governor. Today she lives a reclusive life back in the family home"....Ray gets sick of listening to it and switches off the TV. He joins Lucy on the bed.(Director's cut) He tells her that he's booked their most favorite table at the Excalibur themed restaurant for their wedding anniversary.He starts to kiss her ,but he sees Frank's card that he's positive he tore up and the bed starts rocking and shaking with Lucy on it. It hovers up in the air as the couple panic. Objects start flying everywhere in the kitchen.Lucy calls Frank and he arrives to rid the house of the supernatural. Instead of charging the couple,he offers to do it in return for not having to pay for the damaged fence.Ray reluctantly agrees and Frank uses his "equipment" to capture the spooks and pours them down the sink. As he is packing his stuff up,he is shocked to see a glowing number 37 on Ray's forehead. Lucy cannot see this and Ray kicks Frank out of the house.Frank arrives at his home to his half-built house that he hasn't finished working on. As he gets out of is car,a spirit exits the trunk - a young, 1950's nerd called Stuart (Jim Fyfe), followed by a 1970's, afro-haired ghost called Cyrus (Chi Mcbride). The ghosts are Frank's associates who help him con the local residents by haunting their homes, so that Frank can step in and reap the rewards. While Stuart is just about to join them in the house, Frank closes the door and he gets stuck because his ectoplasm has become too stiff. Frank asks them if they had anything to do with the glowing number appearing on Ray's head but the spirits don't know what he's talking about.(Director's cut) Cyrus helps pull Stuart through the door. The pair of them moan about Frank took their helps as granted and had not giving them enough respect.The next morning,Frank is having a shower and Cyrus pops his head up through the plughole and tells him that he and Stuart want a business meeting in the kitchen.Cyrus and Stuart are talking to Frank in the kitchen about how he doesn't appreciate their loyal service. As they are talking, gunshots go off, as another spirit, a judge from the 1800's (John Astin) enters the room trying to shoot the ghost dog Rhustler as he gnaws on his jawbone. Frank gets his jaw back and tells him to put his guns away.(Director's cut) Frank cuts some wood off from the roof of his house for his fireplace.He sits looking through the newspaper, trying to find people that have recently lost family, while The Judge contemplates going off into the graveyard to rest his decrepit body. Frank tells him he needs him his help in order to finish his house but The Judge tells him to stop with his scheming ways and to stop using death to make a living.(Director's cut) Frank walks out of the living room and is horrified to see a Grim Reaper figure moving down the stairs towards him. The figure moves in close to him but it is only Cyrus and Stuart underneath a cape. They tell him they are trying to figure out different ways to scare people but Frank isn't amused and walks off angry. The next morning Frank receives a letter from his bank informing him that he owes $16,000 dollars. He needs some money fast and he calls the spirits for a meeting demanding that they up their antics to really frighten people.Cyrus and Stuart arrive at a rich woman's house and start causing fear by picking up the resident's babies and scaring the mother and her maid as they see the babies hovering through the air. Again they leave one of Frank's business cards. Frank gets the phone call and sets off.(Director's cut) Frank is trying to drive to the house as fast as he can but he keeps getting stuck in traffic because the roads are blocked with funeral cars. The Judge is sat in the passenger's seat and tells him that there is something very sinister dawning over Fairwater. But Frank isn't interested in what he's saying.He impatiently and recklessly pulls out into the line of funeral cars and dodges around the traffic. He pulls up outside the house and tells Judge to wait for him.Frank walks into the house and attempts to pull off his scheme but the woman is not interested. She has in her hand the local newspaper which shows a picture of Frank with the headline "Local conman haunts cemetery". Frank is angry. He confronts Magda Rees Jones at the local Gazette about printing the story but she tells him he is a parasite who makes money off of the bereaved and she has every right to let people know about him. He leaves and he sees that another funeral is taking place.He sees Lucy in one of the cars crying. As he walks off down the street he is shocked to see Ray running towards him. But not in human form. Ray is now dead. His spirit runs straight into him. Ray is panicking and can't understand how he's died so young and fit. He tells Frank that just before he died he felt his heart been crushed while he was working out. Frank tries to explain the rules of the afterlife to him. Ray asks Frank to give him a ride to his funeral.(Director's cut) As Frank pulls up to the graveyard in his car, Ray (not yet used to being a spirit) has trouble grabbing hold of the door handle to get out. Frank pushes him through the car door and he lands on the ground.They walk through the graveyard and Ray is petrified as he witnesses many spirits roaming the grounds. Drill Sergeant Hiles (R.Lee Ermey), the watchful spirit of the other ghosts, walks out of his tomb and orders the ghosts to get back in their graves. Frank knows there will be trouble. He tells Ray to go on ahead while he talks to the angry sergeant. The two have a fight but with Hiles's supernatural abilities, Frank has no chance.While Hiles shouts to tell the inhbitants of the graveyard who's in charge, Frank goes off to join Ray at his funeral. As Ray becomes very emotional at his tragic death, he falls into the grave as he tries to put his arms around Lucy. He is horrified as he lays on top of his own corpse. As the mourners start to leave the graveside,sheriff Walt Perry (Troy Evans) arrives to talk to Frank. Apart from Lucy, he was the last person to see Ray alive and he wants to know what condition he seemed to be in when he saw him. He says that the FBI are becoming very concerned about the amount of deaths that are happening in the town - many of the victims are healthy and have clean arteries when the autopsy has taken place but their hearts look as though they have been squeezed. Frank tries to get rid of Walt by pretending that he wants to pay his respects to Ray, in order to pull Ray's spirit out of his grave. Walt is alarmed to see Frank physically grappling with thin air and seemingly talking to nothing. As Frank and Ray get ready to leave, an emotional Lucy approaches and tells Frank that she believes in his paranormal gifts. He tells her that he has in fact communicated with Ray.Frank has dinner with Lucy and the deceased Ray at the Excalibur themed restaurant and acts as a communicator between the two of them. But Ray becomes increasingly frustrated as his wife seems to start bonding with Frank throughout the evening. She asks him why he can see spirits and Frank tells her that he was in a car accident five years earlier and sometimes a traumatic experience can alter a person's perception. Lucy opens up too. She tells Frank that her and Ray's marriage was not a happy one and just as Frank tries to console her by grabbing her hand, Ray angrily knocks over a glass of wine into Frank's lap. Thrilled that he can now use make physical contact with the real world, Ray threatens Frank and disappears. Frank goes to the bathroom to dry his trousers. A man enters and Frank is shocked to once again see a glowing number on the man's head reading 38. Frank becomes increasingly edgy as he sees The Grim Reaper figure appear and kill the man by reaching into his chest and squeezing his heart. The man's corpse drops to the floor and Frank watches as the gateway to Heaven opens up and the man's spirit goes off to the other side. Frank rushes out of the restaurant and pursues The Reaper.Lucy is escorted to the Sheriff's office by one of Sheriff Perry's deputies as a witness to the situation. Walt is told that witnesses saw Frank rushing out of the restaurant before the dead man was found. He tells his men to bring Frank in.Frank chases the Reaper in his car with Stuart, Cyrus and The Judge. He tries his best to kill it but his car just goes straight through the caped figure and it once again eludes him.FBI agent Milton Dammers (Jeffrey Combs) arrives at the Sheriff's office to meet Walt and Lucy. He believes that Frank is behind the killings. He tells them about the incident that happened five years earlier when Frank and his wife had the car crash. They discovered that Debra's dead body was found 15 yards from the car with a number 13 carved in her forehead and after the body was found, Frank was picked up wandering the forest claiming to have no recollection of the incident.Frank tracks down The Reaper at the museum where the 39th life has been taken. Frank sees on Magda Reese-Jones's forehead a number 40 glowing. She is going to be the next target. He tries to warn her but two deputy sheriffs arrive to arrest him. The Reaper appears but the officers have their guns pointed at Frank. The Judge appears and shoots The Reaper and it disappears. Cyrus and Stuart start to make people scared in the museum in order to cause a diversion for Frank to get away. In the commotion, Frank punches Magda and knocks her out, in order to carry her out to his car to safety. He drives away but The Reaper is in pursuit and forces Frank to crash his car in the vicinity where Debra died years earlier. Magda crawls from the car trying to escape from Frank who she believes to be psychotic. Frank tries to get her to listen to him but he is dazed and confused as the Reaper plunges towards her and crushes her heart. Frank jumps towards it but it disappears again and he is lying face down on her corpse. The gateway to Heaven opens and Magda's spirit jumps from her body and accuses of Frank of being a sick murderer who is responsible for her and his wife's death.Frank arrives at the sheriff's office and tells them what has happened. When Walt asks him if he had anything to do with Magda's death, he doesn't answer and he is arrested on suspicion of murder. Lucy doesn't believe it and storms out as Frank is taken through to the interrogation room followed by Dammers.(Director's cut) Lucy goes out to her car and sits inside trying to get her head around things. Ray appears on the back seat - his spirit now decaying from dripping ectoplasm.Dammers and Walt are sat in the interrogation room with Frank who looks demoralized. Dammers calls him a dangerous man but Walt refuses to believe that Frank is behind the murders. Dammers uses his power of authority to tell Walt to get out of the room while he questions Frank. Frank tells Dammers that he is not a murderer and that he can communicate with the other side. He has seen the figure of Death killing people by reaching into their chests but Dammers doesn't believe any of it and believes Frank to be responsible for the crimes.(Director's cut) Cyrus and Stuart walk into the sheriff's and start to walk through the walls of the cells to find Frank. They eventually get to his cell and try to talk to him but Frank is silent. Cyrus tells Stuart that he can't even see them anymore. He's so traumatised he's stopped believing. Dammers looks through the narrow opening of the prison door observing Frank. He tells the deputy that he doesn't even expect him to make it until the trial. He's expecting him to commit suicide.Lucy goes to Frank's house to see if she can find any evidence to clear his name. As she wanders around, Ray is looking too.(Director's cut) Ray sees on the fridge some labels describing the layout of his and Lucy's house. He realises that Frank was using his psychic abilities to con them. One of the sticky labels gets stuck to his fingers.He tries to shake it off and as he does, Lucy sees it floating towards the back garden in the wind.She walks outside and sees a nice looking garden, which Frank has made in memory of his wife in place of the basketball court. The phone rings and the answering machine picks up the message. It's Old Mrs.Bradley trying to tell Frank about her fears for her daughter Patricia. Lucy believes the mother to be dangerous and after hearing her message, heads over to their house.She hides in the bushes outside as the old lady walks out to get rid of the garbage bags. She sneaks inside, looking for Patricia. Ray walks to the house and because of his abilities the house transforms into a weird shape from his point of view. He can sense there is danger lurking inside. Patricia is at the top of the stairs and tells Lucy they need to hide. As her mother walks back in, the two of them rush into her bedroom. Lucy tells Patricia that she needs to get away and start a new life for herself. She sees an urn on the side. They are Patricia's father's ashes. He had killed himself after discovering that Patricia had been involved with a serial killer. She hears her mum coming up the stairs and tells Lucy to hide in the wardrobe. She just gets inside as her mother enters. Patricia offers to make her a cup of tea and they walk out. Lucy finds a Stanley knife in the wardrobe with the initials F.B. She realises that it's Frank's that Dammers had told her had gone missing after Debra's death. Lucy slowly walks down the stairs to sneak out. The Urn starts to glow and a figure appears in the wall behind Lucy trying to sneak up. Lucy, oblivious to the threat, rushes out of the house as Ray walks in to try and protect her. His face is sliced off by the figure's hand and as Lucy gets into her car, Ray's deformed spirit is tossed onto the hood of the car.Lucy goes to see Frank in his cell and tells him that Old Mrs. Bradley must be responsible for Debra's death. She's found his knife in her bedroom and she's crazy enough to do something like that. Frank is still in a quiet, depressed state. He hugs Lucy and he sees Cyrus and Stuart enter the room. But as he looks Lucy in the face, the number 41 glows on her forehead. He realises she is the next victim. The Reaper appears through the cell door and tries to kill her. With the help of Stuart and Cyrus, he tries to protect her in the confines of the cell. Lucy shouts for the deputy to come and unlock the door. Stuart is dissolved by the Reaper's sythe. As Frank hears the cell door unlock, he kicks the door into the deputy's head and knocks him out, so that he can escape with Lucy. Dammers walks around the corner and draws his gun. Lucy rushes up to him and tells him that Frank is crazy, as Cyrus battles the Reaper. Lucy uses a fire extinguisher to spray at Dammers to protect Frank. Cyrus's soul is taken by the Reaper and Frank takes Dammers's gun and runs out of the precinct with Lucy. He tells her that he must kill himself in order to become a spirit and protect her. He is ready to put a bullet in his head, but she tells him not to and instead helps him have a near death experience by means of hypothermia and using barbiturates to slow his heart rate.At the medical centre, Frank goes to sit in the cryogenics room and waits to slowly die as Lucy gets the equipment prepared to revive him within several minutes. But Dammers appears in the room armed with an uzi machine gun. He thinks Frank deserves to die for his supposed crimes and abducts Lucy to stop her from reviving him. Frank's spirit emerges from his dead body and the gateway to Heaven opens for him but he walks away to try and find Lucy. Dammers handcuffs Lucy in the back of one of the sheriff's cars and drives off. Frank pursues them. As he tries to get used to his abilities, he sees he Reaper rapidly jumping and flying through the town to try and approach Lucy in the car. Just as the Reaper launches onto the roof of the car, Frank flies down and knocks it onto the road. A car zooms down the road and crashes into Frank and smashes him into tiny pieces of ectoplasm. The Reaper approaches him with his scythe as Frank's spirit moulds back together. A truck approaches and rams straight into the Reaper and it is taken down the road clinging onto the front of the vehicle.Dammers takes Lucy to the graveyard and parks the car up. She desperately wants to get back to the medical centre to revive Frank's body but he tells her that he is not going to return her for several hours until there's no chance of Frank coming back. She shouts at him and he starts to freak out again.(Director's cut) As he tries to cover his ears with his hands, Lucy notices one of his wrists the swastika sign. He tells her that he was undercover with the Manson family for six months disguised as a hippy and he was used as the family's sex slave.He gets out of the car and walks several yards away and stands in front of the car breathing nervously and uncontrollably. He opens up his shirt and reveals his deeply scarred body.(Director's cut) He starts to reveal to her his experiences in the many bizarre undercover assignments over the years that he has been part of. All of the weird cults and sects he has had to be involved in, including drinking goat's blood. He says that he has suffered for his country.He says that the pain he has suffered in the different religious groups has its rewards and tries to prove that he has some psychic sensibilities. He and Lucy are both shocked as the car engine starts up. The gear stick and steering wheel move and Lucy knows that it's Frank. Frank starts to reverse the car away from Dammers as Dammers chases after it. Sergeant Hiles reaches in through the car window to grab Frank and throws him to the ground. The car crashes into a sarcophagus and coffins fall out. The Reaper approaches and slices Hiles in half with its scythe. Frank uses the sergeant's machine guns to shoot it. Lucy gets out of the car to get into the driver's seat and Dammers jumps out to grab her.She uses the skull from a skeleton to hit him and quickly gets in the car and drives off. While Dammers chases after her, Frank rips the Reaper apart with the bullets and turns it into pieces ectoplasm. He grabs the face of the Reaper and as he slams it down onto a grave a few times, the face gradually morphs into a human face and reveals itself to be Johnny Bartlett. He has returned from beyond the grave to continue his killing spree. Spirits start wandering around in the vicinity, all of who appear to be Johnny's victims satisfied that their deaths have been avenged. A spirit with the number 1 carved in his head approaches Frank and tells him he was a doctor and the first of the victims. He thanks Frank for what he's done. But while Frank is distracted, the pieces of Johnny's ectoplasm start to drip down into a tomb and gradually morph back together. Frank dives down into the ground and wrestles with him. He picks up the scythe and as he brings down the handle onto the ectoplasmic figure, Johnny's full human formed spirit is revealed. Frank is just about to destroy him with the scythe but Lucy revives his body with chest plates. He wakes up panting for breath. He tells her that Johnny's back and that she needs to go and get Patricia out of the house and save her from him.Lucy arrives at the house but her mother tells her that there's no way her daughter is going anywhere. Lucy confronts her about Frank's knife in her closet and the old lady angrily storms off upstairs. Patricia runs up after her. Lucy waits in the living room and moments later, Patricia comes back down and says that her mother is going with them. Lucy tells Patricia that Johnny's ghost has returned and is on the loose. She tells Lucy she knows and that his spirit often visits her. As Lucy stands in the doorway of the living room, Johnny appears behind her threatening to kill her. He says that she and Frank have been causing a lot of problems. Patricia goes to the kitchen and Johnny points to the knives on the wall. He wants to watch her kill Lucy.(Director's cut) Patricia repeatedly stabs the knife through Johnny's torso as they both laugh and become increasingly excited by it, almost in an arousing way.Lucy goes upstairs to see if Mrs Bradley is going with them. She sees her bedroom door open a jar and when she opens it she is horrified to see the old lady's dead body spread out on the bed covered in blood. Patricia pops up behind her and tries to stab her. Lucy tries to shut the door and the blade of the knife goes into it. Lucy punches her and they both grapple to the floor. Lucy gets up and runs out of the door, after she gets the key out of the lock and locks it from the outside. She sits on the landing stairs trying to get over the shock but bullets start exploding through the door. Patricia has got hold of her mother's pump action shotgun. Lucy tries to run down the stairs but Johnny's figure appears from under he rug and tries to strangle her. Frank arrives in time to save Lucy. He grabs hold of the rug and throws Johnny off of the landing. Patricia gets out of the bedroom firing at them maniacally. Frank and Lucy get into Patricia's bedroom and Johnny appears in the room through the portrait of her father. He tries to kill Lucy once again but Frank smashes the portrait onto the bed post and Johnny's spirit cries out as he is sucked into the urn on the bedside table. Frank puts the lid on and sees Johnny's name on the urn. He tells Lucy that they need to get to a chapel and get the ashes to the "other side". Realising that there's a chapel in the old psychiatric (now derelict) hospital, which is located just behind the Bradley house, the pair head off there on foot.They make their way into the murky looking building and walk through the hallways looking for the chapel. Patricia follows them armed. As Frank looks around, he starts to have psychic episodes where he is able to see the events that transpired on the fateful day when Johnny and Patricia went on their killing spree. He sees Johnny pushing a trolley around and he uncovers a gun and blows away the doctor who thanked Frank in the graveyard. He sees the teenage Patricia walking around with a knife ready to carve into the victims' foreheads. Through his flashbacks, Frank hears one of the doctors say that the chapel is on the fourth floor.Still believing Frank to be the murderer, Dammers enters the hospital. Frank and Lucy are forced to split up when Patricia appears in the hallways and starts shooting at them both again. Lucy has the urn but Dammers gets hold of her and throws her head into the wall. Lucy punches him and gets away from him and manages to get into the elevator before he can reach her. She starts going up to the fourth floor but it breaks down. Frank is still running upstairs and comes across the chapel. He hears Lucy cry. He tries to pry the elevator door open to no avail but she manages to pass him the urn through the door to take to the chapel.Frank puts the urn down to smash the door in but as he turns around he bumps into a statue of the Virgin Mary and it falls onto the table and sends the urn flying to the other side of the hall. Dammers catches it. Frank angrily and desperately asks for it back but Dammers opens it and releases Johnny's ashes. His spirit laughs as the dust breezes away. Frank picks up a metal bar ready to give Dammers a beating but Dammers pulls out a machine gun and shoots him in the arm. Facing away from him and holding his bloody arm, Frank sees Patricia walk around the corner in the distance ready to shoot him with the shotgun. Dammers orders him to turn around. Frank does and falls backwards as Patricia fires and the bullet blows Dammers's head off. Frank crashes through four wooden floors down onto the ground floor. Patricia starts to shoot at Lucy in the elevator. She avoids the bullets,and the elevator starts automatically going again. Bloodied, bruised and half unconscious, Frank starts to crawl along the floor of the vivisection room.(Director's cut) In his psychic flashbacks, Frank sees Johnny chasing the teenage Patricia around dead bodies as she screams "please don't hurt me". As they have a playful game of chase, covered in blood. He grabs her and they start making out on the coroner's trolley.Lucy makes it to the ground floor and rushes to Frank. But Frank is nearly unconscious. Patricia appears behind her and hits her over the head with the butt of the gun. Frank flashes back to the moment when his wife Debra died and he finally remembers exactly what happened in that moment. He sees The Reaper transform into Johnny as he's stood over his wife's body and Patricia is holding his Stanley knife.Patricia points the shotgun at Frank, ready to kill him but she is out of bullets. She kicks him and lifts him up off of the floor with the gun around his neck. Lucy tries to help but Johnny is pinning her down. Frank struggles with Patricia but Patricia has the advantage and she strangles him to death. Frank's dead body drops to the floor, as Lucy cries out. Johnny excitedly waits for Patricia to take Lucy's life as well. She picks up an axe from the vivisection area ready but Frank's spirit jumps out at her and rips Patricia's spirit from her body and takes her through the tunnel to the "other side". Johnny chases him up through the tunnel of light, and as they get half way through, he manages to pull her away from Frank's grasp. Frank carries on floating towards Heaven, as Johnny and Patricia stay hovering in the middle of the tunnel. He shouts to Frank that they're returning to Earth to get some more victims. Frank is just about to leap down after them but a voice stops him. It's Cyrus with Stuart. Frank looks down at Johnny and Patricia as their laughing turns to fear and panic. The spiritual looking, electric like portal gradually turns into the inside of a huge worm, with dozens and dozens of smaller worms wrapping themselves around them,strangling them and gouging out their eyes. The huge worm swallows them up and takes them down into the burning flames of Hell. Frank watches in disbelief and turns around to have a look around Heaven. Cyrus and Stuart tell him that it's really something. Frank sees his wife Debra approach him smiling. She tells him it's time to go home. The higher powers have said that it's not his time to die yet. Cyrus pushes him and he starts to float along the clouds. He wakes up in the derelict hospital in Lucy's arms.He demolishes his old house in order to start a new life with Lucy. Walt pulls up and tells Frank that the investigation is over. They found a stash of Ouija boards at the house and Patricia was using them to bring Johnny back from the dead. Her mother was trying to do her best to keep her sedated but there was no chance of her stopping Johnny. As Walt gets into his car and drives off, Frank sees the ghost of Dammers in the back seat. To his surprise Lucy can see him as well. She says to Frank "sometimes when you've had a traumatic experience it can alter your perception". Then Lucy uses a blanket to imitate the Reaper and laughingly chases Frank as the movie ends. | paranormal, cult, comedy | tt0116365 |
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