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Le notti del terrore

Professor Ayres obtains a tablet from an ancient Etruscan cave. He proceeds to hack at a cave wall, while a stone mechanism activates behind him. Turning around, he sees a skeletal zombie looming towards him and within seconds, several more catch him and eat him.A group of people arrive at the country mansion where Ayres is staying. They make up of couple Evelyn and George with their 13-year-old son Michael, and other couples Mark and Janet, and Leslie and James. That night, Michael pretends to be asleep and he walks in on Evelyn and George having sex, upon which Evelyn angrily shoos him away. Janet has a nightmare that something terrible will happen but Mark manages to calm her down.The next day, James and Leslie head outside to make out. Mark photographs Janet around the estate, while George shows Evelyn the artifacts that Ayres had unearthed from the caves. In the house, the butler Nicholas and the maid Kathleen witness several bulbs exploding due to some electrical interference.Meanwhile, the countless zombies emerge from the caves and into the countryside. While Janet and Mark make out, a zombie rises from the ground and grabs Janet. They both flee the zombies, as do James and Leslie when they witness one emerging from a stone crypt. Another few zombies encounter Evelyn, George and Michael in the cellar. George attempts to shoot them with his pistol, while Evelyn and Michael escape. They eventually overcome George where they rip him apart and devous his innards.Janets foot is caught in a bear trap in the garden, after which two zombies catch up with them. Mark is grabbed by a zombie and strangled, while the other zombie attacks Janet. James and Leslie arrive and kill the zombies by cracking their heads open with rocks. Evelyn and Michael are caught in the cellar, but Evelyn douses their attackers with flammable paint and sets them alight. All the survivors make it to the mansion and Nicholas lets them inside.Night falls and they barricade the windows and doors, while the zombies utilise the tools from an old shed. Mark sends Kathleen to make sure all the windows are boarded up upstairs but she finds one open. She goes to close it but a zombie throws a knife at her hand, piercing it and nailing it to the window. While screaming in pain, the zombies decapitate her with a scythe. James goes upstairs to the second floor and sees Kathleen's corpse, which he throws out to distract the zombies while he closes the window. The zombies meanwhile hack at the doors of the house with the tools. James and Mark open fire on them with shotguns they find in a closet, killing several of them by shooting them in the head. After a few minutes, with their numbers dwindling, the zombies retreat out of range.During this lull in the siege, Leslie goes to find bandages for Janet's foot but a zombie grabs her by the hair when she passes a window and pulls her towards the sharp edges of the glass, impaling and killing her. Janet is cornered when zombies break through one part of the house, and she repels them using a spear. James and Mark arrive to help her, while Evelyn defends Michael from some zombies with a long dagger. Eventually, they kill the zombies that are inside the masnion and barricade up the room.A while later, Evelyn tells Michael that she's sorry she brought him here, after which she is shocked when he makes incestuous sexual advances on her. She angrily slaps him and he runs away. He stumbles upon Leslie's corpse which reanimates and ambles towards him.Meanwhile, Janet sees the zombies in the courtyard gathering for a second assault on the house and Mark suggests they let them in and hide. Evelyn goes to find Michael, and spots Leslie's blood near the window. Following the trail of blood, Evelyn steps into a bathroom where she is horrified to see the zombie Leslie devouring a dead Michael's arm. After crying over his corpse for a moment, she madly attacks the zombified Leslie, bashing her head against the bathtub and killing the zombie.The zombies use a log as a battering ram to break through the front door, and the group flees upstairs. They hide inside a cupboard while the zombies amble to the top floor. A broken Evelyn joins them and they make their way out of the house. Nicholas falls behind everyone else and meets a zombified Professor Ayres on his way out. Ayres attacks him, ripping his throat out and eating his innards.The remaining survivors flee into the nearby woods and they decide to wait til morning before moving out. In the morning, the group spots a monk walking into a monastery and follow him. James attempts to find the monk and stumbles into a room full of monks, but they are actually zombies in shrouds who immediately kill and feast on James. Evelyn, Mark and Janet discover this and flee while James reanimates as a zombie.The three survivors of Mark, Janet, and Evelyn flee to a nearby architecture workshop and shove one the models in front of the gate. They are soon besieged by a stray zombie, while the rest of them attempt to break through the gate. Evelyn and Janet hold the gate closed while Mark dispatches the zombie by throwing him over a balcony. They attempt to escape but a zombie Michael appears and Evelyn is overcome with happiness, believing him to still be alive. Still regaining the desire, Michael exposes her breast but bites it off viciously, while more zombies pile in trapping Mark and Janet. Mark is grabbed by two zombies who force his head into a buzz saw killing him. George, now a zombie, arrives and feasts on his dead wife's face, while others devour her body. A zombified James joins the majority of the countless zombies who simultaneously reach for Janet. Janet screams as the zombies attack and kill her as well. Apparently there are no more humans alive in the area. The zombies have won."The earth shall tremble, graves shall open, they shall come among the living as messengers of death and there shall be the nights of terror."'Prophecy of the Black Spider'

revenge, cult, grindhouse film, murder, violence

tt0081248

Fushigi Yûgi

Middle-school student Miaka Yki feels a lot of pressure to pass the entrance exam for the competitive Jonan Academy. Her friends do not believe she will get in, but she is determined to because her mom expects her to. Her best friend, Yui Hongo, is smart and has also applied to the Jonan Academy. While at the library one day, Miaka and Yui encounter a strange book known as The Universe of the Four Gods. As a result of reading this book, they are then transported into the novel's universe. However, Yui is transported back to the real world almost immediately. Inside the novel Miaka discovers that she is the Priestess of Suzaku and destined to gather the seven Celestial Warriors of the god Suzaku in order to summon Suzaku and obtain three wishes. She falls in love with the Celestial Warrior Tamahome, who eventually reciprocates and Miaka's desire to use a wish to enter the high school of her choice begins to shift towards finding a way to be with Tamahome. Yui, who is also drawn into the book when she was trying to help Miaka to come back to the real world, becomes the Priestess of Seiryuu, working against Miaka out of jealousy over Tamahome and revenge for the humiliation and pain she had suffered when she first came to the book world. The series describes the various trials that teenagers Miaka and Yui face, both quest-driven and personal. Feeling betrayed, the two oppose one another as priestesses, bringing together their own respective warriors and vying for the chance to be granted one wish by the gods whom they hope to summon.

romantic, alternate reality, murder

tt0111973

The Human Centipede (First Sequence)

Lindsay (Ashley C. Williams) and Jenny (Ashlynn Yennie), two American tourists in Germany, are drugged and involuntarily detained by crazed surgeon Dr. Josef Heiter (Dieter Laser) when they seek help at his house after they get a flat tire. The women awake in a makeshift medical ward. They witness Heiter kill a kidnapped truck driver after Heiter informs him he is "not a match". Heiter secures a new male captive, Japanese tourist Katsuro (Akihiro Kitamura). The doctor explains that he is a world-renowned expert at separating Siamese twins, but dreams of making new creatures by sewing people together. He describes in detail how he will surgically connect his three victims mouth-to-anus, so that they share a single digestive system. After Lindsay tries to escape and fails, Heiter explains that he had previously experimented with creating what he called a "three-dog", also joined mouth-to-anus. However, the three-dog died shortly after surgery. Heiter tells Lindsay that one dog tried to escape and that dog became the middle, thus this caused the most pain to the dog and as punishment for her escape attempt, she will become the middle part of his centipede. Heiter performs the surgery, placing Katsuro at the lead, Lindsay in the middle and Jenny at the rear. He removes the front teeth of both women and mutilates the buttocks of both Katsuro and Lindsay in order to provide easier access to the rectums, to which he hideously stitches and grafts their mouths. During his procedure, he severs the ligaments within his victims' knees to prevent leg extension, forcing his victims to crawl. He then connects his victims together in a straight line with their mouths surgically attached to the anus of the victim in front of them. Once the operation is complete, Heiter attempts to train his centipede as a pet, often belittling Katsuro with racist insults and beating him with a crop when he becomes rebellious. When Katsuro defecates, Lindsay is forced to swallow his excrement while the doctor watches in delight. However, he eventually becomes irritated after being kept awake by the constant screaming of Katsuro (who, as the front part of the centipede, has his mouth free and is still able to speak) and the realization that Jenny is dying from septicemia. When two detectives, Kranz (Andreas Leupold) and Voller (Peter Blankenstein), visit the house to investigate the disappearance of tourists, Heiter comes up with an idea to add them as replacements for Jenny in a new creation; a four-segment centipede. He offers the two detectives water spiked with sedatives in hopes of knocking the two unconscious. After being given the water, the detectives become suspicious and obtain a search warrant for his home. While the detectives leave Heiter's home, the victims attempt to escape. Katsuro attacks Heiter in the process. Their attempt to escape ultimately fails. Katsuro confesses to the doctor that he deserves his fate because he had treated his own family poorly, then commits suicide by slitting his throat with a glass shard. Upon returning to Heiter's home, the detectives forcefully conduct separate searches as an injured Heiter hides near his swimming pool. Kranz finds the ward along with Heiter's victims. Voller begins to feel ill from the earlier drugging, and Heiter stabs him with the scalpel pulled from his leg during Katsuro's attack. Upon finding Voller dead, Kranz is shot by Heiter with Voller's sidearm. Kranz responds by shooting Heiter in the head before dying. Back in the house, Jenny and Lindsay hold hands as Jenny dies. Lindsay sobs as she is left alone in the house, trapped between her deceased fellow captives. Her fate is left unknown. The film ends with the sounds of her sobbing while the camera pans to the roof of the house.

comedy, murder, stupid, cult, horror, insanity, sadist

tt1467304

Manos: The Hands of Fate

While on vacation near El Paso, Texas, Michael, Margaret, their young daughter Debbie and their dog, Peppy, drive through the desert in search of a hotel called "Valley Lodge." Margaret insists they are lost, and Michael claims they are not. They are then pulled over by a local deputy for a broken taillight, but are let go after Michael asks them for mercy since they are on vacation. After long shots of driving through farmland and the desert, intercut with scenes of two teenagers making out in a car and being caught by the deputies, the family finally reach a house, tended by the bizarre, satyr-like Torgo, who says he takes care of the place "while The Master is away." The house seemed to appear out of nowhere, and Torgo acts very strange. Apprehensive, Michael and Margaret ask Torgo for directions to the Valley Lodge; Torgo denies having knowledge of such a place. Frustrated, Michael asks Torgo to let him and his family stay the night, despite objections from both Torgo and Margaret. Inside the house, Michael and Margaret find a disturbing painting of a dark, malevolent-looking man and a black dog with glowing eyes; Torgo says the man it depicts is The Master. Margaret becomes frightened upon hearing an ominous howl; Peppy breaks away from Debbie and runs outside after the howl. Michael investigates, retrieving a flashlight and revolver from his car, and finds Peppy lying dead on the ground. Michael buries the dog in the desert, and goes back to the house. Meanwhile, Torgo reveals his sudden attraction to Margaret and tells her that although The Master wants her to become his bride, he intends to keep her for himself. Torgo then spends the next few minutes trying to grope her shoulder. Margaret threatens to tell Michael of Torgo's advances, but Torgo convinces her not to say anything by promising to protect her. Michael returns and is unable to start the car. Torgo tells them there is no phone in the house, so the family reluctantly decides to stay the night. After another scene of Torgo peeping in on Margaret changing clothes, Michael and Margaret find Debbie is gone and go to look for her. Debbie returns, holding the leash of a big black dog, the same dog from the painting. Following Debbie, Michael and Margaret stumble upon The Master and his wives, sleeping around a blazing fire. The wives are dressed in diaphanous nightgowns, The Master in a robe with two red hands on it. Margaret and Debbie run back to the house to get their things and escape. As Michael runs behind them, Torgo appears and uses a stick to knock him out and then ties him to a pole. The Master awakens and summons his wives, telling them that Michael must be sacrificed to the deity Manos, and Margaret and Debbie will become his new wives. He then leaves. The other wives argue among each other about whether Debbie should become a wife or be sacrificed as well. This turns into a catfight, where the wives tumble around in the dirt. The Master returns and breaks up the fight, and decides to sacrifice Torgo and his first wife instead. Meanwhile, Michael wakes up and unties himself, going back to the house to collect Margaret and Debbie. The family leaves the house and runs off into the desert to escape. The Master summons Torgo and hypnotizes him, ordering the wives to kill him. The wives "kill" him by running their hands over his face, The Master then severs and burns Torgo's left hand. Torgo runs off into the darkness, and The Master then sacrifices his first wife. As Michael, Margaret and Debbie run through the desert, Margaret falls and says she can't go any farther. A rattlesnake appears in front of them and Michael shoots it, the noise attracting the attention of the deputies, who think the noises come from Mexico and leave it at that. Margaret convinces Michael to return to the house, as the cult would never think to look for them there. They go back and find The Master and his dog waiting for them. As The Master comes towards them Michael fires several shots into The Master's face at point-blank range, but they have no effect. The film then cuts to another pair of travelers, two women starting their vacation. They drive through a rainstorm, searching for a place to stay. After more driving they end up at The Master's house. An entranced Michael greets them, telling them "I take care of the place while The Master is away." The ending scene shows Margaret and Debbie have become wives of The Master, and all are asleep.

good versus evil, cult, psychedelic, murder

tt0060666

The Over-the-Hill Gang

Jefferson Rose, a young, Boulder, Nevada newspaper publisher, tries to run for mayor of his corrupt town. His father-in-law, Captain Oren Hayes, is a former Texas Ranger who happens to visit town the day Jefferson is roughed up by a few of the Sheriff's finest. Captain Hayes admires young Jefferson's desire to clean-up the corrupt politicians and decides that he and three of his pals will come to town and take care of business for young Jefferson.Each of Hayes three friends had something unique to offer the Texas Rangers. The first pal was the quickest draw. The second had "eyes in the day like an eagle and at night like an owl." The third had "spotless character, courtly manners, and spit-and-polished appearance." By the time Hayes' telegram finds each of them, we see that they aren't quite what they used to be - slow, near-blind, and a card cheat.When their first attempt at riding into Boulder and ridding it of the nasty trio of Sheriff Barnes, Mayor Lundy, and Judge Polk doesn't go over so well, they reconvene and decide to try to divide and conquer. The Sheriff becomes convinced that Mayor Lundy has hired one of the Rangers to kill him. The Judge becomes convinced that the Mayor is going to dump him after the election because of some unmerited early releases from prison.While the Texas Rangers succeed in convincing the Sheriff and the Judge that the Mayor is out to get them, they don't quite outsmart the Mayor. In fact, the Mayor hires several outlaws to do the work for him. This requires the Rangers to really think about their next move. The end result is a shoot out at Cassie's Corral that is clever, surprising, and cheesy all at once.

violence

tt0064780

Timecode

We begin simultaneously with a screen showing 4 different stories that will converge during the film. Lauren Hathaway (Jeanne Tripplehorn) clandestinely flattens the tire of the car belonging to actress Rose (Salma Hayek) her lover. Lauren is suspicious of her faithfulness and plants a secret microphone on Rose so she can overhear her conversations when they are apart. Rose is eager to get to the casting sessions for a new film, being directed by Lester Moore (Richard Edson). Alex Green (Stellan Skarsgard), the studio executive overseeing Moores project, has problems of his own connected to his wife Emma (Saffron Burrows), who is discussing her relationship problems with her Therapist played by Glenne Headly. Alex also has a substance-abuse problem and this negatively affects his ability to perform executive decisions and his sexual involvement with Rose compromises his marriage and his career. At the studio a local spa has sent over Quentin (Julian Sands), a Latin-speaking masseuse to give everyone back rubs during their business conferences. Rose has come to the studio to meet up with Alex as part of a seduction to obtain a favorable introduction and audition for the current film being cast. The story also spins out the day of producer Evan Watz (Xander Berkeley) and his relationship with Alex and the other executives of the film company and attempts to push forward in spite of Alexs obvious problems. When Scott "Bunny" Drysdale (Kyle MacLachlan) brings in his client, Euro filmmaker Ana Pauls (Mia Maestro), an artist with ideas to pitch a new project to the executive group with the assistance of white rap musician Joey Z (Alessandro Nivola), the film clearly moves into the realm of screwball comedy, but with a pacing and delivery of some very bitter-sweet reality show. During this slice of the work day a variety of actions disrupt the actions including drug and alcohol consumption, fornication physical abuse and a few earthquakes to further shake things up as well as the actual camera work.

psychedelic, avant garde

tt0220100

Se, jie

Hong Kong 1938 During the Second Sino-Japanese War, a shy, inexperienced university student, Wong Chia Chi, travels from Shanghai to Hong Kong and attends her first year at Lingnan University. A male student, Kuang Yu Min, invites her to join his patriotic drama club, and soon she becomes a lead actress, inspiring both her audience and her colleagues. Inspired by the troupe's patriotic plays, Kuang persuades the group to make a more concrete contribution to the war against Japan. He devises a plan to assassinate Mr. Yee, a special agent and recruiter of the puppet government of Wang Jingwei set up by the Japanese Government in China. The beautiful Chia Chi is chosen to take on the undercover role of "Mrs. Mai", the elegant wife of a trading company owner. She manages to insert herself in the social circle of Mrs. Yee. Chia Chi catches the eye of Mr. Yee and tries to lure him to a location where he can be assassinated. Chia Chi is still a virgin, and she reluctantly consents to sleeping with another student involved in the plot in order to practice her role as a married woman if she were to sleep with Yee. Kuang, who has feelings for Chia Chi, is upset by this, but agrees to the arrangement. Attracted to Chia Chi, Yee nearly falls for the trap but withdraws at the last minute. Soon after, Mr. and Mrs. Yee suddenly move back to Shanghai, leaving the students with no further chance to complete their assassination plan. While they are preparing to disband, an armed subordinate of Yee turns up unannounced and tells them he is aware of their plans. After a violent struggle, the university students kill the subordinate and then go into hiding. Shanghai 1942 Three years later in Japanese-occupied Shanghai, Chia Chi again encounters Kuang, who is now an undercover agent of the KMT secret service the Juntong, which is seeking to overturn the Japanese occupation force and their puppet government. He enlists her into a renewed assassination plan to kill Yee. By this time, Yee has become the head of the secret police department under the puppet government and is responsible for capturing and executing Chinese resistance agents who are working for the KMT. Eventually, Chia Chi becomes Yee's mistress. During their first encounter, Yee has very rough sex with her. Over the next few weeks, however, their sexual relationship becomes very passionate and deeply emotional, which causes conflicting feelings in Chia Chi who is still involved in the assassination plot. When Chia Chi reports to her KMT superior officer, she exhorts him to carry out the assassination soon, so that she will not have to continue her sexual liaisons with Yee, but she is told that the assassination needs to be delayed for strategic reasons. Chia Chi describes the inhuman emotional conflict she is in—sexually and emotionally bound to a man who she is plotting to assassinate. When Yee sends Chia Chi to a jewellery store with a sealed envelope, she discovers that he has arranged for a large and extremely rare six carat pink diamond for her, to be mounted in a ring. This provides the Chinese resistance with a chance to get at Yee when he is not accompanied by his bodyguards. Soon after, Chia Chi invites Yee to accompany her to collect the diamond ring. While entering the jewelry shop, she notices several resistance agents waiting outside. When she puts on the ring and sees Yee's obvious love for her, she is overcome by emotion and quietly urges him to "Go, now." Understanding her meaning, Yee flees the shop and escapes the assassination attempt. By the end of the day, most of the resistance group are captured. Yee's deputy was aware of the resistance cell, but did not inform Yee because he hoped to use the opportunity to catch the resistance cell leader. Emotionally in turmoil, Yee signs their death warrants and the resistance group members, including Chia Chi, are led out to a quarry and executed. As the entire resistance group is forced to sit on their knees while the executioner take out their pistols , a sad Kuang who always loved Chia Chi looks at her with an accusatory look, as to say how could you do this to us? Sometime later, Yee sits on Chia Chi's empty bed in the family guest room, while his wife asks him what is going on, since his secretary and 2 men took Chia Chi's belongings and some papers from his office. Yee tells her to keep quiet and continue playing downstairs, to avoid letting anyone know that something is amiss.

neo noir, cruelty, murder, violence, intrigue, insanity

tt0808357

6 donne per l'assassino

At a chic 'haute couture' fashion house in Rome, model Isabella (Francesca Ungaro) is brutally murdered one night during a raging thunderstorm by a mysterious figure dressed in black, wearing a mask. The body is discovered locked in a storage locker by the owner: the recently widowed Countess Christina Como (Eva Bartok), which is managed by Massimo Morlacchi (Cameron Mitchell). Inspector Silvestri (Thomas Reiner), an arrogant police detective, arrives to take charge of the murder investigation. Silvestri soon discovers that the fashion house is a hotbed to drugs, corruption, and blackmail. The suspects include Massimo, the wealthy Ricardo Morellin (Frnaco Ressel), who was having an affair with Isabella, the dress designer Cesar Lazzarini (Louis Pigot), and Isabella's boyfriend Frank (Dante Di Paolo) an antique shop owner who sold cocaine to some of the models on a daily basis, as well as the handyman Marco (Massimo Righi).The following evening during a fashion show, when it is discovered that Isabella kept a diary which detailed most of the indiscretions, everyone is thrown into a quandary. Initially, the diary falls into the hands of Nicole (Ariana Gorini), one of the models, who promises to take it to the police. But another model, named Peggy (Mary Arden), manages to obtain it unnoticed. Later that night, Nicole goes to visit Frank at his antique shop. While there, she is terrorized by strange sounds and fleeting shadows. Before she can escape, she is attacked and killed by the same mysterious figure dressed in black who whacks her in the face with a clawed antique mallet. Finding that the dead girl doesn't have the diary on her, the killer steals Nicole's car, setting off the burglar alarm, and drives away. The killer is witnessed by a gas station attendant nearby.Across town, Peggy arrives at her apartment from the fashion show where she lives with Nicole and Tao-Li (Claude Dantes). While Tao-Li goes off to a party, Peggy is met by boyfriend Marco. Peggy tells Marco that she doesn't want to go out with him tonight, and he leaves. Alone, Peggy reads some of Isabelle's diary which a page details her blackmail dealings with a mysterious boyfriend. Peggy then burns the diary by throwing into her fireplace. The killer arrives, and kidnaps Peggy in her apartment. Refuses to believe that she burned the diary, the killer takes Peggy to the apartment building's basement and proceeds to torture her. But when Peggy grabs the killers mask (we don't see his face) he puts his mask back on and kills her by burning her face on a heated red-hot furnace.Meanwhile, Frank arrives at his antique shop and discovers Nicole's dead body. He flees without notifying the police to Ricardo Morellins' house to ask him to supply an alibi for him. Morellin refuses, but Frank threatens to expose him for stealing money from Isabella. Frank calls Inspector Silvestri, who arrests him on suspicion of killing Nicole, as well as dealing drugs. Frustrated, Silvestri has all the five suspects, Massimo, Marco, Morellin, Frank, and Caesar arrested.But that evening, Greta (Lea Kruger), the fiancée of Morellin, drives home where in the truck of her car, she discovers the burned body of Peggy. Fearing the police will think she did it, Greta carries the body inside her house, where she hides it. Greta soon gets murdered by the same black-clad figure who breaks into the villa who smothers her with a pillow.The next morning, Silvestri arrives at the villa where he concludes that since the murder was committed with all the suspects in jail, none of them can be guilty. After Massimo returns home, he is greeted by Christina where its revealed that Massimo really is the killer after all. Massimo had previously assisted Christina to murder her husband so she could inherit the fashion house. But apparently Isabella discovered this and began blackmailing Massimo, among other people with scandalous secrets. When her blackmail demands became too much, he murdered her, not realizing that she had written everything down in her diary. Although Massimo murdered Nicole and Peggy too, it was Christina who dons the killer's black coat and mask to murder Greta to throw off suspicion from her lover. Yet, Massimo knows hes not out of danger yet. So, he asks Christina to don the mask and coat one last time to murder another model to further frustrate the police.That evening, Christina, wearing the mask and black coat, surprises Tao-Li in her apartment and forcibly drowns her in the bathtub, and subsequently slits her wrists to make it look like a suicide. As Christina prepares to leave, she is startled by a knock on the front door. She attempts to bypass the visitor by escaping by the roof. But Christina loses her footing on the ledge, and falls to the ground. The visitor is Massimo, who has instigated a cunning plan to lure Christina into a trap where she will be killed while killing another model, and make it look that shes is the real killer, while he takes over the fashion house for himself.Confident that all his problems have been solved, Massimo sets about looting Christinas valuables. While in the process of doing so, he is startled by a noise. Looking up, he sees Christina standing before him. Massimo is dumb-struck and Christina explains, the show awning broke my fall. Bloodied from a head wound and trembling in pain, she confront her worthless lover with his treachery, and he naturally tries to smooth-talk his way out of the situation. As they embrace, she realizes his true nature when she sees him pulling a knife out of his coat pocket to stab her in a mirror reflection, and she shoots him to death. Subsequently, as she tries to phone Inspector Silvestri, Christina succumbs to the fatality of her wounds.

mystery, cruelty, murder, cult, horror, violence, insanity, suspenseful, sadist

tt0058567

War, Inc.

The movie opens with Brand Hauser (John Cusack) in Iqaluit, Northern Canada. He enters a bar where some German gentlemen are chatting. He asks for a shot glass, fills it with hot sauce, and throws it back in one gulp. His synapses start firing as he pulls out a gun and shoots each of the Germans. He takes a photo of one of the gentlemen, sends it off, and disposes of the cell phone.Cut to a jet aircraft. Hauser is the only person on board, but he is regularly chatting with the GuideStar voice. Though it is helping with navigation, it also is providing psychiatric advice.On the flight, he chats with the former Vice President (Dan Ackroyd). The VP is sitting on the toilet throughout the video call. Hauser is instructed to fly to Turaqistan, where the VP's company, Tamerlane, is engaged in the first war to be entirely outsourced. His mission is to assasinate the Oil Minister, Omar Sherif (Lyubomir Neikov). He is to be hit because he is insisting that Turaqistan build a cross country pipeline on their own, shunning a bid from Tamerlane. For cover, he is to act as the Chair of a Tamerlane Trade Mission, which is holding a trade fair within the Green Zone (the Emerald City) of the Turaqustan capital. A highlight of the fair will be the marriage of pop star Yonica Babyyeah (Hilary Duff) to the son of the Emerit.Hauser arrives, and meets his contact, Marsha Dillon (Joan Cusack).Tanks with sponsor decals, city is a mess, lots of bombs & explosions in various marketplaces.Please help fill this in! Various shots of hot sauce, flashbacks to a row with his CIA boss.Reporter Natalie Hegalhuzen (Marisa Tomei) can't get into the show (not the right pass). Cusack invites her to his office. Realizes she is left wing biased, gets rid of her, but sets up meeting for that evening over drinks.Hauser goes into Popeye Chicken restaurant to meet "The Viceroy" of Tamerlane - . After Get Smart style secret tunnel, he meets a video screen projecting American media heros (John Wayne, Mr. T, Donald Trump, etc.), speaking with an altered voice.Yonica and entourage arrive. Hauser is not impressed.Tries to kill Sharif with remote control rifle, but interrupted when dry cleaning is delivered to his Humvee.Milking cobra for poison when Yonica drops by. She tries to seduce him, but he is disgusted. Takes Sharif out to dinner, but can't get the venom in due to the close scrutiny of Sharif's bodyguards. Sharif spots the reporter, and Hauser arranges a meeting.Yonica & entourage arrive, and in the chaos, Hauser crushes the vial of cobra venom, breaking it in his hand. He goes to the restroom to clean up, and is confronted by 2 members of the entourage. He easily dispatches them both.Reporter wants to get out and see the country outside of the Green Zone. Hauser sets her up with a local film crew. She discovers a DVD case (premade) for Yonica's XXX rated wedding night video. She exposes Yonica and her husband on CNN.Hauser "fixes" the situation with Yonica, her fiance, and the emerit father. The fiance will blame one of the entourage, the principals will be blameless, and the wedding will go on.Finds Yonica in her room, playing simple accoustic ballad - realizes she's not who the press make her out to be. He arranges for an interview with the reporter.While waiting for the film crew to set up in an abandoned house, Hauser finds some nice wine, caviar, and other snacky things. He opens the wine with a compressed air needle cork popper - then discretely pockets the device.Just prior to the interview, in a heart-to-heart discussion, Hauser tells the girls about his ex-wife (murdered) and daughter (kidnapped). He tells them it happened because of who he is.The entourage burst in. Hauser kills all (one with a shot of compressed air to the brain). The girls walk in as he dispatches the last person. They now have confirmation that he is not who he seemed to be.The girls take a taxi from the interview location to their respective hotels. Yonica gets out first, and the reporter is kidnapped. Kidnappers make some rather silly demands (destruction of Israel & a star ball player for a player to be named later).Hauser now has to rescue the reporter, kill Sharif, and oversee the wedding at the trade show. He emails Sharif, and under the name of the reporter, invites him to a hotel suite. He jumps in a Humvee, and takes off looking for the reporter outside the Emerald City. He asks some kids if they know where a kidnapped person might be. They tell him there are 3 in the immediate area - he's got to be more specific. They direct him to the group that has a dark-haired female.Flashbacks take place here, and we learn that his old boss, Walken (Ben Kingsly) tries to kill him when he tried to quit some years ago. Instead, Hauser kills his boss (crushed in a garbage truck).The reporter is rescued, and brought back to the trade show to be in the wedding party. Hauser heads to the hotel to meet Sharif.Sharif walks into the hotel suite, expecting to find the reporter. Instead, Hauser grabs him, and warns him that someone else will likely be coming for him. He heads back to the Popeye Chicken shop, looking for the Viceroy. Hauser realizes that he must be behind the projection screen, so smashes it. Sees that Walken is still alive, but crippled, and restricted to a wheelchair. Not only is Walken the Viceroy, but he admits that he had his wife killed, and Yonica is his kidnapped daughter!!Now the guards are after him, so he uses Walken as a shield, and gets out to the wedding, disrupting the ceremony. Walken escapes and heads back to his bunker. He calls for a cruise missle to level the trade show building. The missle is launched, but goes off course, and hits the Popeye restaurant, killing Walken.Yonica, the reporter, and Hauser get to the airport, where Yonica's honeymoon plane is waiting.Just as we think they've gotten away, we see a heat seeking missle heading towards the plane.The former Vice President holds a press conference, and blames extremists and terrorists for the explosion at the Popeye, and the killing of our beloved Viceroy.Credits roll to a Joe Strummer song.Need to add the corporate references, slogans, etc. Can't wait for the DVD!

absurd, comedy, satire, entertaining, flashback

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Tom Sawyer

Tom Sawyer (Johnny Whitaker) and Huckleberry Finn (Jeff East) play hooky from school and have a plan to revive a dead cat with the spirit of a man who is on his death bed. Sawyer and Finn talk with Muff Potter (Warren Oates), the town drunk, but are interrupted when Injun Joe (Henry O'Brien) says that Doc Robinson (Richard Eastham) wants to see them. Potter and Joe meet Robinson and he informs them that they have a job to dig the grave of Williams. Joe is angry that Robinson didn't fix his leg correctly.Meanwhile, Sawyer continues to skip school and comes up with fantastic stories about why he's not home for dinner, where he tricks the children of the town to do his punishment chores for him.After Williams dies, the two go to the graveyard and find out that Potter and Joe are digging up a grave on the advice of Doc Robinson. Joe continues to be angry at Robinson and demands more money for the job. When Robinson refuses, Joe picks up a shovel, accidentally knocking Potter out, hits Robinson into the grave with the shovel, then grabs Potter's knife and jumps in after Robinson. Sawyer and Finn witness all this and then run off, making a pact not to tell anyone what they saw. Joe frames Potter for the murder and Potter goes to jail.Meanwhile, the beautiful Becky Thatcher (Jodie Foster) moves to town which sends Sawyer into a romantic daze. At the trial for Potter, Sawyer is unable to contain himself as Joe is called to the stand and lies about the incident, continuing to frame Potter for the murder. As Sawyer is called to the stand, he relates what happened, not mentioning that Finn was with him. Suddenly, Joe throws a knife at Sawyer, narrowly missing Sawyer's head and jumps out the window of the courthouse, fleeing.After the trial, Sawyer and Thatcher get "engaged" but that quickly ends when Sawyer mentions he's also engaged to Amy Lawrence. After sulking, Sawyer is attacked by Finn for "breaking the pact" and they both decide to run away. While paddling down the Mississippi, their raft is capsized by a passing riverboat and they end up on an island where they enjoy freedom and muse over what happened to Joe.While on the island, they witness some people "dragging the river", a process where a cannon is fired to bring up any bodies from the bottom of the river. Sawyer and Finn decide to "go home" and find out that there's a funeral being held for them. The funeral service breaks up when Judge Thatcher (Noah Keen) sees them in the back of the church. The Widow Douglas (Lucille Benson) takes Finn under her wing after that.Later, at a 4th of July celebration, Sawyer and Becky Thatcher go into McDougal's Cave for a drink of water from the underground spring and run into Joe. Joe chases them through the cave, intent to kill Sawyer. However, Judge Thatcher, Muff Potter and Huckleberry Finn catch up to Joe and Potter throws a torch at Joe and he falls to his death.Later, Finn disappears, worrying the Widow Douglas and Sawyer finds him at the old fishing place they hang out at. Sawyer berates Finn for worrying Douglas, and Potter decides to leave the town.

murder

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Cheeni Kum

Two extremes... in age, character and attitude, meet and against all odds fall in love. They decide to get married. And, like any Indian man, Buddhadev Gupta [Amitabh Bachchan] respectfully comes to ask Nina's [Tabu] father, a true Gandhian played by Paresh Rawal.. and chaos ensues.Cheeni Kum focuses on Buddhadev Gupta (Amitabh Bachchan). Buddhadev is the 64-year-old chef and owner of London's top Indian restaurant, Spice 6. He lives with his 85-year-old mother (Zohra Sehgal) and his only friend and confidante is his 9-year-old neighbour, Sexy (Swini Khara) who is diagnosed with cancer and been to the hospital seven times. Buddhadev Gupta is an arrogant, ego-centric, pompous man with a singular passion in life cooking. He is a confirmed bachelor who has never been in love until 34-year-old Nina Verma (Tabu) walks into his restaurant and his life. Nina is a beautiful and charming Indian woman. Cool, calm, quiet, always smiling but independent and strong willed. The two extreme in age, character and attitude, meet and against all odds, fall in love. They decide to get married and like any Indian man, Buddhadev respectfully comes to ask Nina's father, Omprakash Verma (Paresh Rawal), who is a true Gandhian living in Delhi, for her hand. The main problem here is the Buddhadev is older than Nina's father. Omprakash is horrified when Buddhadev asks his daughter's hand and intentionally refuses, he start to commit suicide by starving himself to death. Buddha explained to him why he loved Nina and what kind of father is he keeping Nina single for 34 years. He left them with his mother and is horrified when Sexy's father (Vinay Jain) calls him and said that Sexy just died. Omprakash finally realises his mistake and let Nina go after Buddhadev and with his in-laws family, he let them go to London to his restaurant. He bonds with Omprakash when he tells him he got tickets to the cricket match. [Source: Wikipedia]

romantic

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Kozure Ôkami: Shinikazeni mukau ubaguruma

In this third 'Lone Wolf and Cub' movie, Ogami Itto, the disgraced former shogun's executioner, or Kogi Kaishakunin, is travelling by river on a boat with his young son Daigoro floating behind in the baby cart. A young woman at the front of the boat, clearly distraught for some reason, accidentally drops a bundle into the water, which Daigoro retrieves.Itto, meanwhile, draws his sword part way and notices in the reflection on the blade that some bamboo reeds are also trailing the boat. Itto is being followed by operatives of his mortal enemy, the Yagyu Clan; a constant threat that he can never ignore. Later, as Daigoro is relieving himself in a bamboo glade, Itto slices some bamboo stalks, causing some ninja assasins to fall from their perch.According to the voice-over narrator, this is a time in the Edo period in Japan when there are ronin, or at the very least a low-class of samurai termed "watari-kashi"; small bands of fighters who move from job to job, working from one "daimyo" (feud lord) to the next, depending on who's hiring.A group of four watari-kashi are idling along the road. Hot and bored, they spy an attractive young woman and her mother being escorted by a servant. Three of them run off to take advantage, but one of the band Kanbei, the more honorable of the four remains uninterested. The three knock the escort unconscious and proceed to rape the two women. The servant regains consciousness and is furious when he sees the triad violating his mistresses. He attempts to beat them with his bamboo pole, but is slain by Kanbei, who then also slays the two women to silence them. Kanbei then makes his three companions draw straws, saying the one unfortunate enough to draw the short straw will be killed to take the blame for the rapes and murders.Itto happens along this grim scene just as Kanbei is slaying the watari-kashi who drew the short straw. Itto kills the other two rapists when they attempt to attack him. Kanbei recognizes Itto and requests a duel. Itto accepts and they prepare, but at the last second Itto re-sheathes his sword and calls it a draw, leaving Kanbei to ponder his fate alone. "You are a true warrior," Itto says, "One I hope lives on."At an inn, it turns out that the young woman from the boat is to be sold into prostitution. Her pimp tries to have his way with her, but she bites off his tongue, spitting the bloody appendage onto the floor. The pimp dies from the injury.The girl seeks refuge in Itto's room, who steps in to protect her from the local police. But then the town's real authorities show up which are the local Yakuza, led by a young woman named Torizo. Some verbal sparring begins as Itto defends the girl against Torizo's threats. After Torizo pulls out a pistol and fires at shot at Itto's feet to indimidate him into surrendering the girl, Itto agrees to act as a substitute for the young woman and undergo "buri-buri", a form of torture that involves the subject being hogtied and hung in the air and repeatedly dunked headfirst into a tub of water. The subject is then beaten to unconsciousness by men wielding thick rattan canes and shouting "buri-buri". Itto endures the torture with his typical stoicism. This frees the young woman from having to work as a prostitute.Itto, still with a debt to pay for the death of the pimp, agrees to take on an assassination for Torizo and her father, a one-armed man that Itto is acquainted with from his past life as the shogun's executioner - acting as second during the execution of a daimyo who, fear-stricken, struggled dishonourably; Torizo's father had restrained the daimyo, sacrificing his arm to Itto's killing stroke.The target is a corrupt district deputy. Initially Itto is to face the deputy's personal bodyguards, one of whom is a sharpshooter and quick-draw artist who wields a pair of revolvers. Through cunning and guile (and the help of his young son Daigoro, who acts as a decoy), Itto defeats the armed man and takes his guns. The other is defeated by Itto in a sword duel.Itto's battle culminates in his facing the deputy's army perhaps 200 men singlehandedly. For the first time, the true power of the baby cart is revealed as it proves to harbor an entire arsenal of weapons, including spears, daggers, a bullet-proof shield, and a small battery of guns, capable of taking out many enemy soldiers like a heavy machine gun. All of the deputy's men are killed as Itto first takes out half of them with the baby cart's machine gun, and then takes out the rest with his sword and other weapons from the baby cart. The deputy is the last to fall when Itto, deprived of his sword when it falls out of his hands when he falls down an embankment, takes out one of the pistols he took earlier from the deputy bodyguard and uses it to shoot and kill the deputy. Itto then discards the gun and reclaims his sword, mumbling to himself that firearms are so uncivilized.Word of the fight has been passed to neighboring districts, and the ronin Kanbei shows up just after Itto has slain the deputy, and makes his demand again for a duel. Though battle-weary, Itto accepts the challenge. The fight is over in an instant. Itto is sliced across his back, but Kanbei is mortally wounded, impaled on Itto's Dotanuki battle sword.As Kanbei kneels to the ground, dying, he tells Itto his story and why he became a ronin a tale involving an ambush on his master's convoy. Seeing his side outnumbered, Kanbei seized an opportunity and ran ahead to attack the enemy head on. He surprised the enemy and prevailed in deflecting the hostiles, and saved the lord's life as a result, but since he left his lord's side, he was dishonored and expelled from the clan. He questions Itto whether he had done the wrong thing, and whether being a samurai means to fight and live, or to simply never leave the master's side and die. Itto replied that he would have done the same. "I am glad to hear that," Kanbei says, who then asks the former shogun's executioner to act as his "second" in the act of seppuku. This Itto does with honor.When asked by Kanbei what is the true "Way of the Warrior", Itto replies that it is neither to simply live nor die, but to live through death.As Itto walks away, pushing Daigoro and the baby cart, Torizo begins to runs after him, but is stopped by her men. They implore her not to go to him, saying he is not human, but a monster.

good versus evil, violence

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Vampyr

NOTE: Quotes indicate text titles from silent movie."This story is about the strange adventures of young Allan Gray [Julian West]. His studies of devil worship and vampire terror of earlier centuries have made him a dreamer, for whom the boundary between the real and the unreal has become him...One afternoon, during one of his aimless journeys, he arrived at a lonely inn close to the village of Courtempierre..." where he takes a room. That evening, he hears a strange chanting, goes exploring and sees a man with a horribly misshapen face. "In the moonstruck night light and shadow, voices and faces, seemed to take on hidden meaning. Allan Gray felt the darkness take control. In vain he tried to protect himself from unspeakable terror. Fear of the intangible followed him into a restless sleep." Allan is awakened by a noise at his chamber door. A man enters, says only "She must not die...do you hear?' and gives Allan a package on which is written "To be opened after my death.""What was going on? Which horrifying secret was revealing itself? One thing became clear to Allan Gray. A human soul in fear of Death cried for help--and an inner voice ordered him to follow its call." Again, Allan goes snooping. He finds shadows--the shadow of a man UNdigging a hole, the shadow of a man with a wooden leg, shadow dancers. He hears barking dogs and a child wailing. The village Doctor [Jan Heironimko] appears and asks Allan: "Did you hear it? There are no children or dogs here." Allan leaves, and the man is joined by an old woman who gives him a bottle of poison."(Allan) followed the shadows and entered a park. Among the ancient trees a chateau raised its towers into the haze of summer night. The man, whom Allan Gray had seen that same night at the inn, lived here in seclusion--with only his two daughters and a few servants." The daughters (Gisèlle [Rena Handel] and Léone [Sybille Schmitz]) appear to be ill. The family awaits the arrival of the village Doctor. Gisèlle lies in her bed and cries out, "The blood! The blood!". The old man, lord of the manor [Maurice Schutz], is killed by the gun-carrying shadow. Allan is asked to stay with the family while a servant goes for the police.While he waits, Allan opens the mysterious package to find a book entitled "The History of Vampires" by Paul Bonnard. He reads "...about horrendous demons called vampires. At full moon the Dead, not at peace because of terrible deeds they did while living, rise from their coffins--to suck the blood of children and young people--and prolong their own life in the land of the shadows. The Prince of Darkness is their companion, and...at night, creatures of the Abyss visit homes of the living to sow Death and Despair. Whoever falls into the hands of a vampire withers away hopelessly...a wound on the throat, as by a bite of a rat or a cat, is the mark of Damnation. Neither Doctors nor..."As Allan reads, Léone looks out the window to see Giselle wandering across the yard. Allan and Leone find her lifeless body and see an old woman walking away. While servants tend to the girl, Allan continues to read about vampires "...to grow accustomed to their miserable fate--which, besides pain in the body, brings untold agony to the Soul. Therefore, like an epidemic, a vampire's craving for blood is carried over to the victim, who himself becomes a vampire and goes searching for more victims among his dear ones. Whole families, yes, whole villages, in this way have been sucked into the curse...Shadows of executed criminals are their helpers. Living people may also be forced to do their dreadful bidding. A tale from Hungary tells how a village Doctor, having sold his soul to The Evil One became the helper of a vampire--and was accomplice to a series of horrid crimes in that parish. Here, vampires..."The Doctor arrives and determines that Gisèlle needs blood. While Allan donates blood for a transfusion, the manservant reads from the book. "The vampire, who had obtained complete power over its victim, tries in every possible way to drive it to suicide; for the one who takes his own life is lost for all eternity. For him, the golden gates of Heaven are closed--all hope is gone! Oh, you Devilish...the riddle of life? Who can penetrate the secrets hidden from the light of Day? Just as strange as the life of the vampires is the manner of breaking their might. These monsters, who cannot find peace, must be murdered so that persecuted Mankind may be freed from its nightmare. Many monasteries and libraries have, in their secret...how sometimes vampires have been made harmless. In the village of Kisiloba, which was haunted by a vampire in the body of an old woman, they went about it as follows. At dawn the grave was opened; they found the old one lying down, as if asleep. They drove a metal bar into her heart--and nailed her detestable soul to the crypt. She now died a true Death, and the crime, that rested over...Certain places were beset by vampires. Many years ago there was a foul epidemic in the village of Courtempierre--claiming eleven victims. Doctors gave the sickness a scientific name. Yet among men a rumour spread that a vampire was playing its game. People believed this vampire was one Marguerite Chopin [Henriette Gerard], buried in the village churchyard. All her life, Marguerite Chopin was a monster in a human body. She died without remorse, and at the hour of Death the Church refused her..."As Allan rests from his blood donation, a voice in the background is heard saying "Come with me. We will be one soul...one body...death is waiting." The manservant awakens Allan just in time for them to stop Gisèlle from taking the poison left at her bedside by the Doctor. Gisèlle must not die till sunrise. The Doctor escapes, but Allan follows. Allan's shadow separates from his body. He goes to the Doctor's house where he finds his own body in a coffin, and the body of Léone tied to a bed. As Allan's shadow watches, the Doctor and his wooden-legged helper nail shut the coffin. Is this actually happening, is it a memory or perhaps a dream induced by Allan's lack of blood?Now Allan watches the manservant digging up a grave, and he goes over to help. Is it his own grave? Will he find his own body? They open the grave to find the old woman's body. As the morning sun rises, the manservant drives a stake through Marquerite Chopin's body. Gisèlle sits up in bed. "I feel strong," she says. "My soul is free." The man with the wooden leg falls down the stairs and is killed. The Doctor becomes entrapped and buried in a grain elevator. Allan unties Léone and they go home together. [Original synopsis by bj_kuehl]

good versus evil, cult, psychedelic, murder, gothic

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High Crimes

Claire Kubik (Ashley Judd) is happily married to her husband, Tom [Jim Calviezel]. The movie opens with her having sex and becoming pregnant.Claire is a high profile lawyer who is pretty famous. While Claire and Tom are strolling along the street, a SWAT team swoops down on them and takes Tom away.He is charged with murder while serving in the army. Apparently, three American students were killed in a cafe in El Salvador. A terrorist was suspected of the killings, and Kubik's battallion was sent to a remote village where the terrorist may be hiding. Their search was fruitless; but, apparently, a soldier lost his cool and killed nine civilians. The Government is accusing Kubik.Claire has no experience in a military tribunal, so she enlists the services of Morgan Freeman.Tom Kubik claims another member of the platoon named Hernandez shot the civilians in a fit of rage and convinced the rest of the platoon to lie and say he (Tom) did it.Freeman tracks down another former member of the platoon and gets him drunk. Freeman tapes the ex-soldier admitting he was bribed into accusing Kubik. The tape is not allowed in court because the man mysteriously vanishes. Apparently, there is a huge conspiracy because many of Claire's associates are attacked many times during the course of the movie, and Claire is attacked by a Mexican man.Claire confronts the Mexican man and he tells the real story: Hernandez threw the bomb into the cafe because the head terrorist was really there and was really killed. The Army didn't know there were Americans in the cafe. As a cover up, the Army claimed the head terrorist did it and sent in the platoon to look for the terrorist in that remote village. Clarie verifies this because Hernandez had a patch in his eye from when the Mexican dude claimed Hernandez got cut from the debris from the blast. Medical records prove this.Later, for some reason not known, the case is just thrown out. Apparently, Freeman has dug up some dirt and found out that two witnesses were murdered in Texas and Mexico. Tom happened to be in both towns on the day of the murders. We then learn that Tom was also involved in this whole conspiracy.That blew me away because all this time, they were trying to prosecute him....Tom finds out that Claire found out about him attacks her, and Mexican dude comes in at last second to save her.End of movie.

violence, murder, sadist, flashback

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Joy

The film opens with a scene from a soap opera. One woman (Donna Mills) convinces another woman (Susan Lucci) that she needs to be a strong woman. Hands her a gun. Two male actors walk up and add to the scene, all filmed in a master shot from set so you can see how silly it looks when seen this way.We are told this film is a true story is inspired by strong women everywhere but mostly one in particular.The films narrator introduces herself she is Mimi (Diane Ladd) who introduces the girls we see playing outside her dad's auto body shop is a young Joy, there is her half-sister Peggy (from Joy's father's previous marriage), and there is Joy's close friend, Jackie. Mimi also introduces us to Joy's mother her daughter, Carrie (Virginia Madsen) who is obsessed with soap operas and Joy's father, Rudy (Robert De Niro), the owner of the auto shop. We also see Mimi for the first time when she tries to instill confidence in Joy despite her dysfunctional upbringing she tells Joy she is going to grow up to be a strong woman, meet a nice man, have beautiful children, and is going to build wonderful things.Young Joy is an inventor and she has built a house made of paper in her room. She tells her half-sister, Peggy, a story about a princess and her friends that live in the house Joy, herself, is represented by an origami swan and invited to play. Peggy tells her there needs to be a prince if there is a princess in the but Joy is adamant that there is no prince.In present day, Carrie (Joy's mom) is now watching a soap opera in her bedroom, which she never leaves. Because of this, Joy constantly has to cater to her and take care of her. At this moment, the adult Joy (Jennifer Lawrence) is in her airline uniform, looking in her mother's closet for the lanyard she needs for work. Instead she finds an old dog collar. She shows it to her mother, reminding her she invented it after choking their dog on a walk -- it has a breakaway material so dogs can't be choked. But her mom wouldn't get a patent for her and now another company has patented it and is selling it. Carrie just responds that she doesn't know how to do patents. We meet Joy's two children as she wrangles them up. The doorbell rings, surprising everyone. It turns out to be Joy's father who is having problems with his girlfriend of two years so he's moving back into the basement. Joy says he cant because her ex-husband lives down there. Carrie tells Rudy he can't stay there and he mocks her for watching soap operas and never leaving her room -- he tells her she's like a gas leak that is silently killing them all. They get into a quarrel and Rudy breaks a bunch of things, which upsets Carrie. Rudy goes downstairs into the basement to move in and Joy's ex-husband, Tony (Édgar Ramírez) is down there practicing a song in Spanish for an upcoming gig. Rudy and Tony begin to bicker. Joy tells them not to kill each other and uses a roll of toilet paper to divide the room in half. She goes upstairs, charging out the door with her cup of coffee to get to work. At the airline desk, a customer yells at her and throws her itinerary in Joy's face, demanding to speak to her manager. Joy's coworkers pull her aside and tell her she's been moved to the night shift which Joy points out she can't do because of her family.Joy visits her dad at his shop, tells him about her job. Her older half sister, the adult Peggy (Elisabeth Röhm) is there, and she tells Joy she should take over Peggy's position at the shop so she can do more important, managerial things for the company. She obviously has rivalry towards Joy and a self-aggrandizing attitude. It is mentioned that they have gun practice across the street (which will come into play later). Rudy makes a phone call about a woman he liked -- he reveals to Joy he joined a service via a 900-number where he finds single women based on their four digit ID number. He talks on the phone to his selection, who is named Trudy -- he finds this funny as his name is Rudy.At home, Carrie continues watching soaps in bed while Joy tries to fix a huge leak under her floorboards. The entire bedroom is flooding and Joy chastises her mom for rinsing her hairbrush (and hair) in the sink. It is now so clogged, Joy says it's beyond her abilities and she'll have to call a plumber. Carrie is nervous about a man coming into her room because she has retreated from the world. Joy falls asleep while the soap opera plays and dreams she is in a soap opera, with the characters from the show harassing her alongside her own family.We now flashback to what Joy's life has been like and why her family causes her such anxiety. Her parents get divorced 17 years earlier. They argue over visitation rights and Rudy accidentally destroys the origami house that was shown to be so important to Young Joy earlier.Years later, Joy's childhood friend Jackie (Dascha Polanco) invites Joy to a house party. When they arrive, a Mexican band is on stage, singing in Spanish. The lead singer is Tony, who grabs Joy and begins dancing with her. They go to the back room and have a conversation -- he brags that he's going to be a famous singer, the next Tom Jones. She tells him she was valedictorian of her class and got into a great college in Boston but had to give up on her dreams to stay home to watch her recluse mom. He tells Joy that her dreams are just on hold.The next time we see the two, they are performing in a musical theater show together. As fake snow falls on the stage, they sing a song to each other.Then we see their wedding. While Rudy is putting Joy's veil on her head, he tells her she should have married a lawyer or a doctor. She is annoyed he is telling her this at that specific moment (her wedding). When it's time to give a toast, Rudy goes into a huge speech about he likes Joy more than Peggy, he acknowledges his new girlfriend (the one who kicked him out at the beginning of the film), and tells Joy that her marriage won't last. He then accidentally breaks the glass he is toasting with. Cut to Joy and Tony fighting, with their two kids in the room. He thinks she's mad at him because he hasn't becoming famous and is just playing gigs at the same club over and over. She tells him it's because he drinks too much hence his current hangover. Her infant son begins to cry in Joys arms.Back to present day. There is a ring at the doorbell. Joy now remembers she hired a plumber, who is a handsome black man from Haiti named Tousssaint. At first, Carrie is very nervous about him entering the room, citing a soap opera plot line where a woman is kidnapped in her home. Carrie asks Toussaint how long hell be; he says it should only take a day. She then asks if he can put a sheet up so she can have her own space while he works. He politely agrees and calls her mademoiselle. This changes her feelings about him and she now seems entranced.Joy joins Rudy and his new girlfriend, Trudy (Isabella Rosallina) on a date. She is an Italian woman whose husband has recently just died and she has been left with a lot of money. She tells Rudy about her husband's boat that she inherited and invites Rudy's family for a trip. Trudy asks them to bring wine but not red wine because it will stain the wood that her husband has had laid down on the deck.Cut to Tony bringing bottles of red wine onto the boat despite Trudy's discouragement. The yacht gets rocky and everyone struggles to keep his or her glasses from spilling. Joy's glass actually breaks which horrifies Trudy. While the others lounge, Joy tries to mop up the glass and when she goes to wring the mop, she finds her hands are all cut up from shards of glass.Back at her house, Joy's cuts are catered to. She begins to fall asleep on the stairs, terrified of sleeping in her bed because of all the weird dreams she's been having (i.e. the soap opera dream). The group gives her children's cough syrup to put her to sleep. When she wakes up, she begins thinking. She has a new idea for an invention. She runs upstairs to her daughter's room and begins drawing out her idea in crayon. Studies the yarn on a doll's hair.When Joy next sees Tony, she tells him she needs him to move out. He needs to get on with his life. Her father is ecstatic that he will now have the basement to himself but she tells him to move out, too. She says she has an idea for a new invention and she needs Trudy to put up the money. Rudy arranges for Trudy to pitch the idea in his office. Joy explains that she wants to design a self-wringing mop that you never have to touch, using her crayon drawings as visual aids. While she gives her speech, the work in the auto shop drowns out her voice so Rudy has to tell them to be quiet via the intercom. Trudy is skeptical, saying Joy doesn't have a prototype but instead just some drawing. Rudy chimes in, saying Trudy will have to see a model of what she is envisioning. Joy goes to one of the welders in her dad's shop and asks him if he can weld something for her.Joy works and develops a mold of what she wants. Her mother surprises her by leaving her room to say hello -- the plumber, Toussaint, is with her and it's obvious they are smitten with each other.Joy now pitches the prototype to Trudy, in the office again. This time, Jackie and Peggy are there. Joy loops 300 feet of cotton around Jackie's hands for several minutes until it's all combined into a mop head. She demonstrates how this means the mop is one continuous loop, which can easily be cleaned (instead of individual strings like most mop heads). She also adds you can remove it and clean it off in the washing machine. Trudy gives a speech that her husband worked hard every day for 50 years to earn his fortune and he said he would never forgive her if she mismanaged even one dollar. She was given four questions for prospective investment deals -- the first is, where did Joy go to high school? The second is, what was her position in school? (Joy answers she was valedictorian). This appeases Trudy. Peggy interjects, saying Joy has never run a business in her life. She points out that shes been managing the auto shop and any investments should go towards that and not Joy. Jackie interjects, asking what the third question is. Trudy asks if Joy can promise a return in six months. Joy agrees which makes Tony nervous. Joy is then asked the fourth question, which is in the form of an analogy -- "There is a gun on the table. The only other person in the room is an adversary in commerce. Only one of you can prevail. Do you pick up the gun?" Joy says it's a weird question but assures her she will, in fact, pick up the gun. Trudy says she will have to tell her lawyers that Joy said that. She's also going to check that there aren't any existing patents similar.After Trudy's lawyer does a search, he finds a patent filed in Texas for a similar design by someone in Hong Kong. They work with a manufacturing plant in California and so Trudy arranged that they would be a part of the enterprise in exchange for providing work for the plant. It's cheaper, anyway, than manufacturing it locally so Joy doesn't have any issue with this. Edgar is angry, complaining that Trudy's lawyer doesn't specialize in but Rudy tells him to shut up and they bicker as usual.Trudy gives Joy $50,000 to start up the operation. The plant in California sends over parts but they have overcharged her, billing her for redoing mistakes they made. This makes everyone nervous that they're dealing with unscrupulous people. Joy phones Gerhardt, the man who filed the patent in Texas, and tells him that he's overcharging her. He claims they were redoing her mistakes but she is not stupid and points out it was the plant's and he's trying to take advantage of her. She tells him she wont pay the overcharges. Joy hangs up to end the discussion, which impresses everyone else. She then tells all those in the office never to pay the overcharges.Now Joy has to find a place to sell the mops. She starts by going to the head of a local store and pitches the mop to him. He tells her he doesn't want to sell a $20 mop that you only have to buy once -- he wants to sell a $5 mop that you have to buy hundreds of in your lifetime. The fact that the mop only needs to be purchased one time is a bad thing, in his mind, because there's no return revenue.Now, with an excess of product, Joy has to try to sell one by one. With her daughter in tow, she sets up a display in the parking lot of Kmart and tries to convince women passing by to purchase one. Nobody stops or engages in conversation. So Jackie jumps in and Joy walks by with her daughter, pretending to be a customer who is talked into trying the mop. Right as people begin to take notice, the police come and confiscate the mops, telling her she can't solicit customers in their parking lot. Joy is upset they have taken three of her mops and goes back to her car -- she has to kick the car door to get it to open. When she gets home, there is a bill taped to the door -- she hasn't paid the phone bill. Joy has now reached a new low. She has been given a huge loan from Trudy but cannot find any way to sell the product.Then Tony, her ex-husband, visits and tells her he might have a friend who can help her sell the mop. (Its now clear that even though their marriage didn't work out, they still care a lot about each other). Tony drives Joy to Amish country for a meeting but the large corporate building they're headed to isn't related to the Amish it just happens to be nearby. They wait and wait all day but are ignored -- Tony hadn't scheduled a meeting; he just happens to know someone who works there. That friend comes out and says they have to come back tomorrow for a possible chance to meet the guy in charge. Joy demands just two minutes and steps inside with her mop. There is a large meeting going on in a boardroom and Joy promises she just needs two minutes. She tells them about the mop but the guys just make sexual references when she talks about wringing the head. The man in charge Neil Walker (Bradley Cooper) apologizes, says they're tired after a long day. He asks her if she knows where she is. She says, no. He tells her the company is QVC and gives a history of his track record -- he was a manager of several Kmart's and worked his way up and up until he became appointed to run QVC. He tells her it stands for Quality, Value, Convenience. They sell great products, not junk, which is what her mop is. She confidently tells him it's not junk.In the QVC bathroom, Joy mops up the entire place until it is clean. She points out that she didn't have to wring the mop once because it has 300 feet of continuous cotton. She then points to the adjacent kitchen, saying she has cleaned all over the toilet and would he use his family mop to then clean the kitchen, spreading those germs? With her mop, he can remove the mop head and wash it in the washing machine. Neil is convinced and he asks her if she can get 50,000 units by next week. Joy tells him, "I think so."Neil shows Joy around the makeup room in the building. The male spokesman is having a meltdown and he calms him down by telling him hes the best seller which upsets a spokeswoman seated nearby. Joy then is led out into the rotating studio. A dog runs to Joy as the stage rotates and it's revealed to belong to Joan Rivers (Melissa Rivers, playing her real-life mother). Neil points out they use celebrities to sell along with their hosts. We see Joan and the spokeswoman sell jewelry to the audience. Neil points out they're masterful at selling the product with their hands. The phones light up. The jewelry sells thousands and thousands, all kept track of on a large display nearby while dozens of phones are answered and callers gush about the product on air. Joy realizes she can sell out all her mops with this opportunity. But she needs more money.Trudy is reluctant to give Joy another $200,000 because she hasn't gotten her initial investment back. Peggy complains again, saying Joy shouldn't get that kind of loan when she actually has ideas that pertain to her father's business. Trudy decides it is only fair if Joy takes on the risk herself, putting up half of the money. It is suggested that she takes out a second mortgage. Joy is nervous but confident enough in QVC that she agrees. Now, realizing she might lose her home, Joy goes over to the gun range behind her father's shop. She asks the man if she can shoot off a few rounds. He tells her he's seen her grow up, coming in and out of the shop, but never talked to her. Joy shoots several rounds, apparently hitting her targets (we don't see). She then hands back the gun, having gotten the rage out of her system.An operation is set up in Rudy's auto shop, with the order supply is kicked up to fill the 50,000 units. Joy is polite and speaks in Spanish to a group of women who she trains to assemble the mops.Joy and her family gather around the TV to watch her mop being sold on QVC. The spokesman tries to demonstrate how to use it but he doesn't know how instead he drips water all over his shoes and complains about getting wet. No calls come in. After dead air, they move on to another product. Joys family is horrified they have $250,000 tied up into this product selling. Joy receives a phone call from Neil. She tells him the salesperson didn't know how to use the product but he said it just wasn't a good product. She explains she is going to lose her home; he tells her that her contract says QVC will cover one-third of the expenses lost but even that isn't guaranteed.Trudy is distraught, saying she will have to declare bankruptcy and suggests Joy does, too. Instead Joy drives to the studio, demands a meeting with Neil. She tells him she has to be the one on camera. He tells her, "We don't use regular people. We use spokesmodels and celebrities". He asks her if she's ever been on TV before, points out that most people freeze when the camera is on them. She tells him she uses the product so she will be the one to sell it. He is finally sold when she points out her demonstration in the QVC bathroom is what convinced him to put it on the air.Backstage, Joy gets all dolled up in the same makeup room she saw during the tour. She is given an early 90s hairstyle and then changes into a poofy black early 90s style dress. She tells Neil she wants to make just one change. She comes out and her hair is down and she's wearing a shirt and trousers. Joy tells Neil that's what she wears and that outfit is her. Joan Rivers walks by and says Joy looks good but she should be in a skirt to show off her great legs. Joy says she's going to have to ignore Joan Rivers suggestion.Now Joy goes on the QVC stage. The camera rolls. Countdown. And then she freezes. She mumbles on-air that she's Joy and doesn't know what else to say. The family is watching once again from home. At the station, there is dead air. Everyone is panicking. Then a stage manager says they have a call. Neil says to patch it through. Joy is confused; how can they have a call already? She hears Jackie's voice asking her about the mop. Joy perks up, knowing who's on the other end. She tells the caller that its a mop with 300 feet of continuous cotton that you can clean an entire floor with, without having to wring it. Jackie replies, "That's perfect for my family. I want three". Now Joy gets more confident and begins pitching the mop. The phones light up. Orders pour through. After its sold tens of thousands, she tells the audience she hasn't told them the best part you can remove the mop head and wash it in the washing machine. At the end of the broadcast, it has sold 50,000 units.Neil congratulates Joy backstage. She said she was afraid he was going to tell her the counter was broken.Joy goes on the QVC again, now selling 100,000 units. Neil tells her he is proud of her, and says that if they ever become adversaries in commerce, he hopes they'll still respect each other. The love fest is broken up when Joy receives an urgent phone call.The next scene shows Joy at the funeral of Mimi (ironically, Mimi narrates this event). Peggy shows up to the funeral late. Back at the house, Joy learns that Peggy was attending to some business in California. The manufacturing plant halted production until it could get more money. Peggy claims she took care of it by paying the money owed (when they overcharged Joy) and offering an extra $2 a unit. Joy is shocked, pointing out that if they paid that price, they would lose money. She now has to go to California herself with the argument that Peggy doesn't represent her company. She tells Peggy, Never speak on my behalf about my business again.Joy arrives in California in a dilapidated manufacturing factory. The waiting room has her mop on display, listed as their latest invention. When a man notices Joy waiting, she asks to speak to Marv Brickman but is told he's not there. But Marv shows up and begins to debate with Joy about the deal he's made with her half-sister. She says she didn't approve that deal and she will go broke if she agreed to it. Joy finds it funny that ever since they had a lot of sales on TV, the plant want to demand more money. She accuses him of shaking them down. He tells her she should be paying more now because the increase in demand causes wear on their machines, that her molds break and have to be replaced every day. She is skeptical of her molds needing daily replacement and asks to see them. She is told no. It's obvious she's not getting anywhere with them. She asks to use their bathroom.In the bathroom, Joy notices a side door that opens up into the factory. On a table is a blueprint of her mop design that they are claiming is their own. Marv finds Joy there and she screams at him, saying its her design. She tries to take back the molds but the police come and arrest her. Marv said he called them as soon as she showed up in the building. Outside, Joy is arrested for trespassing and put into a cop car.Joy is bailed out of jail by Trudy, who has flown to California with Rudy and Joy's daughter. Trudy points out that not only is she at a loss of over $150,000 but they now have new expenses flying there, bailing Joy out of jail. Joy has been told by their lawyer that when Peggy paid off the overcharges, it validated Joys work relationship with the factory. She can go to court and explain that Peggy had no jurisdiction to make business decisions on her behalf but the court case will take years and they'll probably not even rule in her favor she shares a patent with the guy in Texas, therefore its his product as well as hers. Joy complains that they should have dealt with a patent lawyer, like Tony had originally said. Trudy and Rudy tell Joy they need her to declare bankruptcy and a notary is outside the room, with the paperwork. Rudy tells Joy its his own fault for giving her the confidence to think she was more than just an unemployed housewife. Joy now begins crying, tells her young daughter never to believe that shes special or that the world owes her anything. Her daughter reminds Joy of Mimi's prophecy but Joy says Mimi was wrong; she wont achieve dreams. Hesitantly, Joy signs the bankruptcy papers. She then tears her crayon designs for the mop off the wall.Joy goes to sleep. Then in the middle of the night, she cuts off her long hair in the bathroom. With a shorter hairdo, she seems more mature and now has a new confidence about her.Joy flies out to Texas. She walks into her hotel and goes into her room. A man enters shortly after. She asks if hes Gerhardt. He says he could be or he could have been sent as a representative. Joy tells him that last night, she was distraught and called Hong Kong at 1:00 AM which is 5:00 PM their time she mumbles that it always amuses her how time works like that. When she mentioned to the Hong Kong inventor (who hired Gerhardt) about the patent, he said he was never told about the deal Gerhardt made with Joy. She points out this is fraud. She then looked into his design and realized its nothing like her own mop, after all. This is another count of fraud. She said her lawyers are very insistent that she file a lawsuit on these grounds. Immediately, Gerhardt backpedals and says hell pay back the $50,000 initial investment. Joy isn't happy with this deal. He offers another $20,000. She ignores him. Then he offers another $50,000. She now acknowledges him and suggests he adds interest, too. He does. She smiles and pulls out a contract that absolves their relationships. She writes in that he will pay her $50,000 plus $50,000 and interest. He signs.Joy walks down the street confidently. She looks into a stores window display. There is a house inside similar to the one she created as a young girl. A TV in the window says, Is it snowing? and on cue, fake snow begins to fall on her from overhead. Joy walks away.Mimi tells us, as the narrator, that Joy didn't know, when she walked down the street, what her life was going to become.We now see a giant estate and are told Joy moved into a nice home. She had 100 more inventions things like velvet hangers who conserve closet space. Hundreds of million sold because apparently this is the kind of thing that consumers want. Joy employed her family and remained close to them, even after they sued her, claiming they were owed some of her money and that they were more involved in the inventions than they were.Neil stops by and visits Joy on her estate. He wants her to work on the Home Shopping Network as QVCs biggest success story but she is hesitant. Their fondness for each other is adamant after all these years.Joy sets up an office in her house for inventors like herself. A woman comes in with her husband and baby. Joy is very sweet and respectful to her, unlike the men she met with when she was pitching the Miracle Mop. Joy asks the lady where she's from, what hotel she's staying at. The woman shows her product to Joy a lint roller you can bring with you when you travel. Joy compliments the prototype and asks the woman to come back tomorrow. The woman tells her she only has one day off from work. Joy says she will have her team make a call to ensure the woman can stay an extra day. She also upgrades the woman to a nicer hotel so shell have more room for her baby. Joy says shes eager to have the design team meet with the lady so they can begin working on developing her invention for mass consumption.

flashback

tt2446980

Ladri di biciclette

The film tells the story of Antonio Ricci, an unemployed man in the depressed post-World War II economy of Italy. With no money and a wife and two children to support, he is desperate for work. He is delighted to at last get a good job hanging up posters, but on the sole condition that he has a bicycle which must be used for work. He is told unequivocally: "No bicycle, no job." His wife Maria pawns their bedsheets in order to get money to redeem his bicycle from the pawnbroker.Early on in the film, Ricci's coveted bicycle is stolen by a bold young thief who snatches it when he is hanging up a poster.Antonio thinks that the police will take the theft very seriously, but they are not really interested in the petty theft of a bike. The only option is for Antonio and his friends to walk the streets of Rome themselves, looking for the bicycle. After trying for hours with no luck, they finally give up and leave.Desperate for leads and with his better judgement clouded, Antonio even visits the dubious backstreet fortune teller that he had earlier mocked, in the hope that she may be able to shed light upon the bike's whereabouts. However, she merely doles out to him one of the truisms that form her stock in trade: "you'll find the bike quickly, or not at all." Feeling cheated, a crestfallen Antonio hands over to her some of the last money that they have. After a rare treat of a meal in a restaurant, Antonio admits to his son that if he isn't able to work, they will simply starve.Antonio finally manages to locate the thief (who, it seems, had already sold the bicycle) and Bruno slips off to summon the police to the apartment. Antonio meanwhile, angrily accuses the thief of stealing his bike but the boy denies all knowledge of the crime. When the policeman arrives, he sees the accused boy lying on the floor feigning a seizure and surrounded by irate neighbours who blame Antonio's accusations for causing the "innocent" boy's fit.The policeman tells Antonio that although he may have seen the boy stealing the bike, he did not catch the thief red-handed, nor has he any witnesses and that Antonio making an accusation is not good enough. With no proof and with the thief's neighbours willing to give him a false alibi, he abandons his cause. Antonio walks away from the house in despair, as the thief's neighbours follow, jeering at him about his lost bicycle.At the end of the film in one of the most resonant scenes, Antonio is sitting on the curb outside the packed football stadium. He looks at the hundreds and hundreds of bicycles that are parked outside the stadium and as he cradles his head in despair, a fleet of bicycles mockingly speeds past him.After vacillating for some time about whether to steal one for himself, he decides he has no other option but to snatch one that he spots outside an apartment. Unluckily, he is seen taking the bike and caught by a crowd of angry men who slap and humiliate him in front of his son. Ironically, this time with an army of witnesses who catch him, he is frogmarched off to the police station but after seeing how upset Bruno is, the owner of the bicycle declines to press charges.The film ends with the man and his son, sad and let down from what has just happened, they walk along in a crowd, leaving us with a dim outlook for the two. Holding hands, they are both reduced to tears.

paranormal, romantic, bleak

tt0040522

Der schwarze Tanner

During the Second World War Tanner (Otto Mächtlinger), a swiss mountain farmer, refuses to follow the government policy for the so called Anbauschlacht, a plan to increase self-sufficiency with produce. In his opinion, the steep mountain pastures are not suited for agriculture. Most of the villagers agree. However some begin to cultivate. Even after all his fellow farmers have given in and have started to plant potatoes, wheat and rye, Tanner continues his opposition and ignores all letters and instructions. This leads to a series of reprimands, for instance, some of his hay is seized and his wife (Renate Steiger) cannot buy at the local grocer's since the family won't comply with the government policy. One of the daughters is caught trying to sell cheese and eggs on the black market. Finally, Tanner is arrested and imprisoned. He demonstrates his obstinacy and strength with a hunger strike. When the wardens try to tempt him to eat, he tells them that he will start eating again back at home. The authorities finally see that the risk is too great and decide to let Tanner walk free. The weak old man is taken home by car and sleigh where he is welcomed by his family. He asks the men who brought him home to go inside and have a cup of coffee. In the meantime Tanner stays outside for a bit in the snow and dies.

satire

tt0143860

The Offence

The Offence begins with the police station in a panic, an officer running for help in slow motion, his expression indicating that something terrible has happened. We find Sergeant Johnson (Sean Connery) in an interrogation room, fighting with fellow officers who are attempting to restrain him. He looks around in disbelief, perhaps realizing what he's done, saying "God, Oh my God."We then flash back to Johnson and some fellow officers staking out a schoolyard hoping to catch a glimpse of a child abductor/rapist. Johnson walks the area while his other officers wait in a car. He catches suspicious glances from parents waiting outside the fenced in yard to claim their children. They aren't aware that he's a cop, only that a strange man is lurking near the schoolyard. A group of kids walking home is escorted a safe distance away, although one of the girls is shown leaving the group to head towards her own house. Getting in the car with the other officers, Johnson establishes very early that he's frustrated and isn't satisfied with police efforts.One of the girls is abducted nonetheless, a short time after leaving the safety of the group. She is quickly reported missing and a search party is organized. It's Sgt. Johnson who finds the girl in the woods. She screams when he finds her, still in shock, screaming. She's been raped, as suggested by her torn clothes and the mud all over her. Johnson comforts the girl, quieting her down, and wraps her in his coat. He seems to visualize the abductors actions almost putting himself in the criminal's place. He's panicked when the moment is broken by the search party finding them, acting startled for a moment, as if he himself is the rapist. He insists on escorting the girl to the hospital, snapping at Lieutenant Cameron (Peter Bowles) who tells him the girl is not in any state to handle questions. He's furious when a possible witness comes in to file a report, twenty hours late. Officers are directed to search everywhere for the rapist.Other officers later pick up Kenneth Baxter (Ian Bannen) for the crime when they find him covered in mud and scratched up, wandering around town, barely coherent. When Cameron's questioning goes nowhere, they decide they can't charge him. Johnson is somehow 100% certain that Baxter is their man, although Cameron reminds him that "you can't be certain. Even you can make mistakes." Johnson gets agitated convinced that Baxter is laughing at them.He takes the opportunity to question the suspect himself (although he is completely unauthorized to do so) Johnson has decided that this man is the culprit and can't bear to think of him going free. Johnson brings Baxter a cup of tea and finds his attitude has become more resistant to questioning. He begins pressuring Baxter, manhandling him and intimidating him in any way that he can. Cameron is directed to charge him or let him go, unaware that Johnson has started his own questioning. Johnson starts hitting Baxter and Baxter, tries to get to another door to escape the room angering Johnson even more. Cutting between the station and the questioning we find Baxter more bloody and beaten each time. The officers respond to screams and we find Johnson called out to sign a statement, then suspended and directed to go home until he's called. Cameron mentions that it's unlikely Baxter will live.Johnson drives home. and his mind starts recalling graphic and bloody images from past cases. We see him in beat cop uniform uncovering a particularly gory murder, which expands to include many other brutal scenes including a man falling from a rooftop and a body hanging from a tree in the woods. At home he heads straight for the liquor and starts drinking. His wife Maureen (Vivien Merchant) wakes up due to the noise he makes. She's initially angry that he's drunk and has broken her China doll. He remarks on seeing her in her bathrobe "You're a mess! What happened to you? You never used to be such a mess." He tells her he may have killed a man, and explains that pain was the only thing the man understood. He talks about the girl who is also in the hospital, and when Maureen says "at least she's alive"He starts recalling other cases saying "I've seen them dead too you know." Maureen reminds him that he's not on his own. He says "Why aren't you beautiful. You're not even pretty." She continues attempting to help him, but he says he's always made a point of not talking to her." "Who will you talk to then?" she asks. He starts rambling about the images in his head that he can't stop, going into graphic detail about victims of brutal crimes, his anger building with each detail. Maureen can't take the details and runs off to be sick. Angry that she couldn't listen after offering, he holds her down telling her "You promised to make me happy and you didn't" revealing his frayed sanity by implying that Baxter was the person she made happy. Fortunately for Maureen, the outburst is interrupted by the Cameron, who tells him he has to return to the station as Baxter has died in the hospital.Johnson meets with Lt. Cartwright (Trevor Howard) at the station, who is charged with performing an inquiry into the murder and obtaining the truth. Johnson attempts to describe the interrogation, but is cautioned by Cartwright when he starts describing what was going on in Baxter's mind. Johnson loses his temper several times with Cartwright, which doesn't seem to intimidate him in the least. Cartwright insists that Johnson can't know that Baxter was guilty. Johnson insists that he does know, and recalls his own handling of the girl in the woods to calm her down. "What's happening to me?" he asks Cartwright, describing all the disturbing pictures in his mind, revealing that he can vividly see the incident through Baxter's eyes. He grabs Cartwright's arms roughly but Cartwright forces him off and gets him to attempt to recount the scene. Johnson implies that Cartwright can deal with things more easily, because he doesn't get his hands dirty, having subordinate officers find the bodies. Cartwright takes offense reminding him that they've all had to do these things. Johnson keeps visualizing the girl again as is he were Baxter (with his own face) imagining her happy as he approaches in the woods and touches her face. Cartwright concludes that he has what he needs and as he's escorted down the hall, we see a flashback to the full interrogation scene.Johnson asks about Baxter's marriage, complaining that his own wife in bed seems like she's "doing him a favor" Baxter explains that in his marriage there are other things that are more important. Baxter then refuses to discuss his wife, threatening to report Johnson and talk to his lawyer. When Baxter stands up offended at a comment. Johnson starts handling him, comparing his handling to how he handled the girls. He makes Baxter very uncomfortable reaching his hands beneath Baxter's jacket in a clearly intrusive way. He tells Baxter that he'll make him feel like the little girls. He strikes Baxter and tells him to get up. Baxter tells him he's mad. Johnson's explanations of Baxter's actions, make it increasingly clear that his own repressed desires are angering him more than what Baxter may have done. Baxter exclaims "You sad, sorry little man." prompting Johnson to strike him again. Baxter realizes that Johnson won't let him leave, Baxter starts speaking personally telling Johnson that he's always felt alone. He recounts a bully from high school, and the feeling he got from being bullied, that the bully "needed him" saying that this gave him pleasure and the bully never knew that Baxter was "having him." Johnson starts laughing hysterically when Johnson segues from the bullying into asking if his father was a big man. When he can't stop laughing Johnson says "Do you think you're having me?" Baxter calls him pathetic which prompts another beating. Baxter exclaims "I know you!" When Johnson begins thrashing him again Baxter says "Nothing I've done can be half as bad as the thoughts in your head. I wouldn't have your thoughts." Johnson calms down momentarily as if he's had a realization while listening to Baxter. Baxter puts on his coat as if to leave, but Johnson asks Baxter to help him with the thoughts in his head, recounting some of them as he squeezes Baxter's hand. He sobs "Help me." but tired of having his hand squeezed, Baxter yells "Help your bloody self!" which prompts the final beating.Johnson recounts the scene as he waits saying "He knew. I had to kill him." We then arrive back at the beginning seeing Johnson fight off his fellow officers and coming to his senses saying "God, oh my God."

murder, flashback

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Blade Runner

In 2019, humans have genetically engineered Replicants, which are essentially humans who are designed for labor and entertainment purposes. They are illegal on earth, and if they make it to our planet they are hunted down and killed.Rick Deckard is a blade runner, a hunter of replicants. A group of replicants makes it to Los Angeles seeking a way to extend their life span. Replicants have a built-in 4 year life span, and this group is near the end.==========================================A crawl after the opening credits informs us that, in the near future, technology that has created synthetic humans has entered a new phase: replicants, sophisticated androids that are virtually identical to humans, are now equal in strength and emotion to their creators. Replicants are designed and built by the Tyrell Corporation, a giant multi-conglomerate headquartered in two pyramid-like towers. The latest version of replicant technology is the Nexus 6 model. Replicants are mostly used as manual laborers in the "off world" colonies out in space. Because of their advanced nature and tendency towards violence, replicants have been outlawed on Earth. Specialized police units, "blade runners," are charged with the difficult task of detecting replicants who come to Earth. If found, replicants are executed or "retired." An opening title tells us that the setting for the story is Los Angeles, and the date is November, 2019. Los Angeles and the surrounding area have become heavily industrialized, crowded with people and rain falls constantly.At the Tyrell Corporation, a blade runner, Holden (Morgan Paull) is interviewing a new employee using a special device called a Voight-Kampff (VK) analyzer. The machine is designed to detect any physical changes in the test subject in response to questions that are deliberately meant to affect the subject emotionally. After a few questions, the man being tested, Leon, becomes obviously agitated and eventually hostile, shooting Holden. (We learn later that Holden survived: "He can breathe okay, as long as nobody unplugs him.")Deckard (Harrison Ford), a former blade runner, is eating at a Japanese noodle bar when another man, Gaff (Edward James Olmos), tells him he's under arrest. Deckard tries to ignore the man but eventually agrees to go with him. Gaff flies Deckard to police headquarters and delivers Deckard to his old boss, Bryant (M. Emmet Walsh). Bryant tells Deckard that a small group of Nexus-6 replicants have come to Earth illegally. Two of them were killed trying to scale a high-voltage security fence outside the Tyrell Corporation. Four have survived; Bryant shows Deckard their files. The leader is Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer), the most advanced and intelligent of the group. The others are Zhora (Joanna Cassidy), Pris (Darryl Hannah) and Leon (Brion James), the replicant who shot Holden. Deckard is charged with tracking them down. Bryant also tells Deckard that the Nexus-6s are believed to be advanced enough that they may have developed emotions, which might make them harder to detect via VK testing. Subsequently, the scientists designed the Nexus-6s to have only a four year lifespan. Bryant sends Deckard to Tyrell Corp's headquarters to test the VK machine on a Nexus-6.Deckard and Gaff fly to Tyrell headquarters. While Deckard awaits Tyrell, he meets Rachael (Sean Young), a beautiful woman who welcomes him and who acts as Tyrell's personal assistant. Tyrell (Joe Turkel) appears and questions Deckard about the Voight-Kampff test, doubting its processes in detecting replicants among humans. Tyrell offers Rachael as a test subject, saying he wants to see a negative test result on a human before providing a replicant to be tested. Deckard asks Rachael over 100 test questions before the VK machine finally alerts Deckard that Rachael is actually a replicant. Rachael leaves and Tyrell explains that Rachael is a Nexus-6 and one of the most advanced replicants ever designed. She has been designed to possess memories, however, the memories given Rachael have been culled from Tyrell's nieces or other family members. Deckard is surprised to realize that Rachael doesn't know she's a replicant.Deckard's first lead takes him to Leon's apartment. He finds a stack of photographs there, as well as a scale from an animal's hide. Not far away, Roy Batty is waiting on the street for Leon to return from his apartment. Leon appears and tells Roy that there were policemen there and he was unable to retrieve his photographs. Roy is perturbed but takes Leon with him to a shop called Eye World, owned by a Chinese man named Chew, who engineers eyes for replicants for Tyrell. He is confronted in his subzero lab by Roy and Leon, the latter of whom rips open Chew's thermal coat to make it easier for Roy to interrogate him. Roy asks Chew about "inception dates," the date marking a replicant's first activation and beginning of their four year lifespan. Chew, quickly freezing to death, desperately tells them that they need to talk to Tyrell about increasing their lifespans. Roy suggests that meeting with Tyrell will be difficult, however, Chew tells him that a Tyrell employee, JF Sebastian, may be able to gain Roy access.Deckard takes Leon's stack of photos home with him. He is surprised by Rachael in the elevator. Deckard, seemingly feeling betrayed, is quite rude to Rachael, who was unable to talk to Tyrell himself after she found out she is a replicant. Though Rachael shows Deckard a picture of herself with her mother, Deckard insensitively quashes Rachael's insistence that she has actual memories, telling her they'd been taken from other people. Rachael leaves, extremely hurt. Later, while drinking, Deckard examines old photographs on his piano and dreams of a white unicorn. When he awakes, he examines one of Leon's photos and finds that Zhora was in a back room. Deckard notes that she has a prominent tattoo on her neck of a looped serpent.In another part of Los Angeles, near an old, neglected hotel called The Bradbury, a woman walks into an alley and covers herself with waste paper to keep warm. She dozes for a bit until a man approaches her and startles her awake. She runs away, breaking the window of his van, but the man kindly returns one of her bags and she becomes friendly. The woman is revealed to be Pris, one of the Nexus-6s Deckard is pursuing. The man is JF Sebastian (William Sanderson), a genetic designer for the Tyrell Corporation and the person Chew told Roy to find. Pris agrees to stay at Sebastian's place where he designs lifelike toys and dolls.Deckard visits the crowded streets near Chinatown and has a old Asian woman examine the animal scale. Deckard believes it to be from a fish but it's from a snake and, like most animals of the time period, is artificial. The maker's serial number is also visible under the microscan, a man named Abdul Ben Hassan, whose shop is right up the street. Deckard confronts Hassan, who tells him he'd made a snake for a dancer working at a club owned by Taffy Lewis. Deckard goes to the club and places a quick call to Rachael, apologizing for his insensitivity and asking her if she'd like to join him at the club. Rachel refuses.Deckard finds that Zhora is an exotic dancer at the club who uses artificial snakes in her performances. Deckard poses as an irritating private eye investigating abuses by club owners who may spy on female performers. Zhora sees through Deckard's ruse and beats him violently and dashes from the club into the streets. Deckard quickly catches up and chases her until he's able to shoot her. Zhora crashes through several plate glass windows and falls to the street, dead. When a passerby examines Zhora, they see the snake tattoo under her ear.Bryant arrives on the scene and talks to Deckard, congratulating him for finding and retiring Zhora. He tells Deckard that there are four more replicants to retire; Deckard insists that there are only three left. Bryant tells him that Rachael has disappeared and Deckard now has to find her. Deckard spots her a few moments later across the street. As he follows her, he's suddenly grabbed by Leon, who beats him severely. As Leon appears poised to kill Deckard by stabbing his fingers through Deckard's eyes, his forehead explodes; he has been shot by Rachael using Deckard's own pistol, which Leon had batted from Deckard's hand a few moments before. Deckard returns to his apartment and Rachael joins him. Deckard appears to be much more sympathetic toward Rachael since she saved him from Leon. When she asks him if he'd hunt and retire her, he tells her he wouldn't, but someone else surely would. He gives her a drink and the two play together on Deckard's piano. Deckard becomes more amorous and Rachael rejects his advances. Deckard prevents her from leaving his apartment and the two have sex off screen.Pris wakes up in Sebastian's apartment. She talks to him about his strange skin condition, "Methuselah Syndrome," which makes him age quickly -- he is only 25, but looks older. Suddenly, Roy appears (likely summoned there by Pris). He sadly shares the news that Zhora and Leon are both retired. Roy and Pris both reveal to Sebastian that they are Nexus-6s and they need to get "help" for Pris or she'll die. Pris proves to Sebastian that she's artificial by grabbing an egg from boiling water and tossing it to Sebastian, who finds it too hot to handle. Roy notices that Sebastian plays chess and asks him about his opponent, who is Tyrell himself. Roy convinces Sebastian to use his connection to Tyrell to arrange a personal meeting. Sebastian reluctantly agrees.Roy and Sebastian go to Tyrell's pyramidal home and take an elevator to his penthouse. They are stopped as a security measure but are allowed to proceed when Sebastian voices two moves to Tyrell himself that win the chess match they'd been playing; the last move is given to him by Roy. In Tyrell's bedchamber, Roy confronts his creator, saying specifically he wants an extension of his short lifespan and calls Tyrell "father." (In the 1982 Theatrical and 1992 Director's editions, Roy says "fucker" in place of father.) Tyrell explains, with technical details, that artificial beings like Roy have been permanently designed not to live longer than their lifespan and that no known biological process has yet been able to change that. Roy becomes more despondent, telling Tyrell he's done "questionable things." Tyrell patronizes him, saying he's also accomplished great things. Roy, still despondent, first kisses Tyrell, then begins to crush his skull, poking his thumbs through his creator's eyes. Tyrell falls dead and a horrified Sebastian, unable to escape, is killed off screen by Roy.Deckard flies in his car to the sector where JF Sebastian lives. He receives a report from Bryant who tells him that Tyrell is dead and Sebastian has also been found dead at the same scene. Deckard places a call to Sebastian's apartment claiming to be a friend. Pris answers the call but hangs up without a word. Deckard has to move his car when some street people climb on the back, apparently hoping to scavenge parts they can sell. Deckard enters Sebastian's apartment and searches for evidence or leads. The apartment is full of lifelike toys and mannequins. As Deckard searches the mess, he is surprised by a disguised Pris, who assaults him using acrobatics. As she performs a series of back flips to finish Deckard off, he shoots her through the abdomen. She twitches violently for a few moments before Deckard shoots her twice more and finally kills her.Roy finds Pris dead, and he kisses her lifeless lips. Deckard shoots at him, and Roy accuses him of "not being very sporting to shoot an unarmed man." Roy stalks Deckard, seizing Deckard's hand through a wall and deliberately dislocating and breaking two of his fingers in memory of Zhora and Pris. Deckard escapes to an upper floor in the building but is easily found by Roy, as he howls from the pain of trying to reset one of his fingers. Deckard keeps moving, but is in great pain and drops his gun. Roy is already showing signs of his own impending death - he stabs himself through the hand with a large nail to temporarily stabilize his condition. Deckard seizes an opportunity to beat Roy with a large pipe but he cannot incapacitate Roy, whose superhuman strength is too much for Deckard. Deckard eventually escapes to a window ledge. Deckard climbs to the roof, but Roy appears moments later. Deckard tries to jump to another roof across the street. He nearly plummets, hanging on by one hand. Roy makes the jump quite easily and peers over the ledge at Deckard, saying "Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave." Deckard slips and Roy catches his arm with one hand, dragging him to safety. Roy sits down near him, holding a dove he found on the other roof, and tells Deckard that he's seen more in his short life than most humans would see in a full lifetime. Roy is saddened by the idea that all the memories he's acquired will be lost "like tears in rain." Then, echoing the last thing Leon said to Deckard, Roy says "time to die" -- but he's referring to himself. As he finally dies, the dove in his hand flies off. In the original theatrical version (1982) the rain has stopped and the dove flies toward a clear blue sky. In the Final Cut (2007) the rain continues and the dove flies toward an overcast sky. In a Deckard notes that the replicants only want the same things that humans do.Gaff meets Deckard on the roof and throws his pistol back to him. He congratulates Deckard on completing his investigation; Deckard tells him he's officially finished with hunting replicants. As Gaff walks away, he looks back over his shoulder, and yells, "It's too bad she won't live, but then again, who does?", referring to Rachael.Deckard returns to his apartment and is alarmed to find the door ajar. He takes out his gun, and calls Rachael. When she doesn't answer he walks through the rooms with his gun drawn. In the bedroom, Rachael is completely covered by the sheet. He fears that she is dead. Much to his relief, she wakes up when he pulls the sheet back and touches her. He asks her whether she loves and trusts him; she replies that she does. A few minutes later, she is dressed and Deckard, after checking the lobby outside his apartment, motions for her to join him in the elevator. On the floor of the lobby is a small origami unicorn, left there by Gaff. Deckard studies it, and Gaff's words about Rachael not living echo in his head. He realizes that Gaff was there but let Rachael live. Deckard studies the unicorn for a moment, then crushes it in his hand. In the Final Cut and Director's (1992) editions, the film ends when the elevator doors close. In the Theatrical edition, Deckard and Rachael drive into a mountainous area and Deckard explains in voice-over that Tyrell told him that Rachael has no termination date. Echoing Gaff's sentiment atop the roof, he muses, "I didn't know how long we had together... who does?"

dark, boring, neo noir, gothic, murder, fantasy, mystery, dramatic, cult, atmospheric, action, philosophical, romantic, blaxploitation, sci-fi

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The Prince and the Pauper

Tom Canty, youngest son of a poor family living in Offal Court, London, has always aspired to a better life, encouraged by the local priest (who has taught him to read and write). Loitering around the palace gates one day, he sees a prince (the Prince of Wales – Edward VI). Coming too close in his intense excitement, Tom is nearly caught and beaten by the Royal Guards; however, Edward stops them and invites Tom into his palace chamber. There the two boys get to know one another, fascinated by each other's life and their uncanny resemblance; they were born on the same day. They decide to switch clothes "temporarily". The Prince momentarily goes outside, quickly hiding an article of national importance (which the reader later learns is the Great Seal of England), but dressed as he is in Tom's rags, he is not recognized by the guards, who drive him from the palace, and he eventually finds his way through the streets to the Canty home. There he is subjected to the brutality of Tom's abusive father, from whom he manages to escape, and meets one Miles Hendon, a soldier and nobleman returning from war. Although Miles does not believe Edward's claims to royalty, he humors him and becomes his protector. Meanwhile, news reaches them that King Henry VIII has died and Edward is now the king. Tom, posing as the prince, tries to cope with court customs and manners. His fellow nobles and palace staff think "the prince" has an illness which has caused memory loss and fear he will go mad. They repeatedly ask him about the missing "Great Seal", but he knows nothing about it; however, when Tom is asked to sit in on judgments, his common-sense observations reassure them his mind is sound. As Edward experiences the brutish life of a pauper firsthand, he becomes aware of the stark class inequality in England. In particular, he sees the harsh, punitive nature of the English judicial system where people are burned at the stake, pilloried, and flogged. He realizes that the accused are convicted on flimsy evidence (and branded – or hanged – for petty offenses), and vows to reign with mercy when he regains his rightful place. When Edward unwisely declares to a gang of thieves that he is the king and will put an end to unjust laws, they assume he is insane and hold a mock coronation. After a series of adventures (including a stint in prison), Edward interrupts the coronation as Tom is about to celebrate it as King Edward VI. Tom is eager to give up the throne; however, the nobles refuse to believe that the beggarly child Edward appears to be is the rightful king until he produces the Great Seal that he hid before leaving the palace. Tom declares that if anyone had bothered to describe the seal he could have produced it at once since he had found it inside a decorative suit of armor (where Edward had hidden it) and had been using it to crack nuts. Edward and Tom switch back to their original places and Miles is rewarded with the rank of earl and the family right to sit in the presence of the king. In gratitude for supporting the new king's claim to the throne, Edward names Tom the "king's ward" (a privileged position he holds for the rest of his life).

good versus evil, action

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Cronos

"In 1536, fleeing from the Inquisition, the alchemist Humberto Oganelli disembarked in Veracruz, Mexico. Appointed official watchmaker to the viceroy, Oganelli was determined to perfect an invention which would provide him with the key to eternal life. He was to name it the Cronos device. Four hundred years later, one night in 1937, part of a wall in a building collapsed. Amongst the victims was a man of strange skin, the color of marble in moonlight, his chest mortally pierced. His last words: Sua tempore. This was the alchemist. The authorities located the residence of the dead man. What they found there was never fully revealed to the public. After a brief investigation, the mansion and its contents were sold at public auction. Never on any list or inventory was the Cronos device mentioned. As far as anyone knew, it never existed."What was not revealed to the public was that a human male was found hanging from his feet, his blood draining into a basin. Also unknown to the public, except for a dying millionaire named de la Guardia [Claudio Brook] who will stop at nothing to obtain it, the Cronos device had been hidden in the base of a statue of an archangel. De la Guardia had spent his life acquiring old statues of archangels, always in search of the hidden Cronos device... so far in vain... until the day that the archangel shows up in the antique shop of Jesus Gris [Frederico Luppi]. Jesus and his granddaughter find the device and, not knowing what it is, Jesus activates it. He is horrified as claws protrude from the orb, hold fast to his hand and proceed to dig into his flesh.Meanwhile, de la Guardia (who lives in an antiseptic chamber) sends his nephew Angel [Ron Perlman] to buy the archangel. When the statue proves to be empty, however, Angel is forced to take strong measures. He kills Jesus. Fortunately, Jesus has come to realize that the Cronos device confers immortality, and he uses it. But there is a cost. He begins to crave human blood, and his flesh starts peeling off, exposing a strange layer of skin, the color of marble in moonlight. In the final confrontation between Jesus, de la Guardia, and Angel, Jesus emerges victorious. Still, he smashes the Cronos device and goes home to Aurora and his girlfriend... to die. [Original synopsis by bj_kuehl]___ A voice over (Jorge Martínez de Hoyos) tells the story of Humberto Oganelli (Mario Iván Martínez), an Alchimist who arrived to Veracruz in Mexico running away from the Inquisition. In 1937, a building collapsed, and a grey-skinned men was discovered. It was Oganellli, the inventor of the Cronos device. He is supposed to die at that moment, impalled onto an iron stick. Every together renmant of that building was auctioned, including the small statue of an angel.Years later, the angel appears at the antiquarian's shop. Somebody (Luis Rodríguez) enters to look at it but leaves without buying it. Jesús Gris (Federico Luppi) has bought it. He realises that the angel is hollow, because, through one of the eyes' empty plaster socket, several huge bus fall down to the floor. Jesús picks up a kind of oval machinery thingy; it's the Cronos watch, a golden watch in the shape of a metal scarab. His mute granddaughter, Aurora (Tamara Shanath) is with him when he finds it.Ángel de la Guardia (Ron Perlman) is told where the angel statue is. In his turn, he tells his uncle, a millionaire De la Guardia (Claudio Brook) the news. De la Guardia wants the angel statue at all costs. Ángel buys it for him.Jesús wants to keep the watch. He sets the machiney onto motion. At first, it looks safe, but then 6 cocroach-like legs protude from the watch and make a hole on his hand. He doesn't let Aurora to get near the thing. His girlfriend Mercedes (Margarita Isabel), a tango-dance teacher, tends to his wound. She takes out a kind of metal sting from his hand and gives him some stiches.At night, Jesús doesn't feel very well. He goes to drink some water to the fridge, but the thing which attracts him the most is the bright red meat. Jesús feels restless. He sets the watch in motion again. A fourth sting comes out of the back side of the watch. That morning, the sun is shining outside. Jesús draws the curtains. His face looks much longer, but he shaves and he tells his girlfriend that he looks much younger because he has saved his white-haired moustache.When Jesús arrives to the shop, it has been vandalised. He contronts Ángel. He is frustrated because the archangel statue was hollow... and empty. De la Guardia tells him about the history of the Cronos mechanism. He also admits that he's dying of his sickness, and no treatment has worked so far. Jesús doesn't want to lose the Cronos. Jesús leaves on a hurry by the rooftop trying to look for Aurora, as he suddenly realises she's in danger. Aurora has picked up the Cronos to play with it. When he finds Aurora, he realises that she is frightened and tries to hide from him, or maybe she's scared about him, in any case she stops playing with her toy teaset and hides away from him. He tries to calm her down. She has hidden the Cronos inside her teddy bear. Immediately, Jesús uses the Cronos again, this time on his chest.Jesús is still guessing at the nature of the Cronos, but he feels that it's doing him good. His chest wound now expels a kind of mucose, and his eyes feel weird. Mercedes insists on his leaving the bathroom and go with her to the New Year's Eve party. Mercedes wonders how anyone can change so fast in such a short period of time. They dance in love there at the party. Aurora goes with them, but the girl usually stays on her own, silent as always. During the party, a man (Javier Álvarez) gets hurt and starts bleeding profusely. Jesús can't refrain from following that man to the gent's. They make small talk, but Jesús can't stop himself from staring at the spilled blood. He gets down on the floor to lick a blood stain. Somebody kicks him while he's doing that, knocking him out. The countdown to the first day of the year is being celebrated by everybody else. Meanwhile, Jesús is pushed out of the place where the party takes place.When he wakes up, he's in a car with Ángel, who beats him up. Ángel won't stop seeking the Cronos. Jesús asks what they want it for. Ángel leaves Jesús unconscious. Ángel pushes the car down from a cliff with Jesús inside.A funeral technician called Tito (Daniel Giménez Cacho) is preparing Jesús' corpse for burial. He is told that he'll be cremated, so all his excellent artistic work will be useless. De la Guardia tells off his nephew because he couldn't get the scarab and probably Jesús is still alive. Ángel goes to the funeral home and tries to wake Jesús up by closing his nostrils. Ángel leaves him for dead. Tito prepares the crematorium to burn the coffin - but there are problems with the gas and the piping, as all the tubes and pipes are really old and they would need maintenance. The technician leaves the room for some seconds to solve the problem. He doesn't realise that the coffee is empty, he just closes it down again without thinking about it. Ángel appears with the funeral house director (Juan Carlos Colombo) to enquire about the body of Jesús. The technician shows him the empty coffin burning to ashes in the oven. Ángel smiles.It's freezing. It's night. Jesús walks dazed confused and with a grey wounded face. He stops by a rubbish bin and he sees printed his own orbituary. Jesús tries to phone Mercedes. When he finally speaks up, Mercedes hangs up. Jesús limps home. It's Christmas and decorations are on the streets and the main hall of his building. He is opened the door by Aurora, who offers a towel for him. Jesús uses the Cronos mechanism again.Daylight really hurts him, so he hides inside an old trunk. Aurora paints the trunk and keeps on playing. Jesús writes a long letter to Mercedes. Jesús' faces is worst still. Jesús comes back to De la Guardia's warehouse, and he realises that Aurora has followed him. He tries to scare her away. She finds the little book written by Humberto Oganelli. There are some pages missing, and De la Guardia says that he's eaten them. De la Guardia takes off some pieces of dangling skin from Jesús' face nows feels metalic. De la Guardia rings the bell for his son. Ángel is pissed off at being disturbed by his uncle. De la Guardia tells Jesús that he needs to artifact to keep himself alive, and that he also needs blood. Jesús shows the Cronos to him and asks for the exit.De la Guardia knighs him. He fights with Jesús, but Aurora hits De la Guardia with a long stick. Jesús wakes up. Ángel appears and he tries to talk to his uncle. Jesús drinks the blood from De la Guardia's body. Ángel gets off from the lift and finds his uncle dead. Jesús and Aurora have hidden away. Ángel laughs with joy as everything will become his. However, at that moment, De la Guardia asks him for help, but his nephew kills him, fed up of being kept waiting.Jesús and Aurora hit Ángel. They run across the rooftops. He tells her granddaughter to leave by doing down the façade's ladder. Ángel hits Jesús. His victim looks week and unable to defend himself: he can only crawl away from him. To end the matter, Jesús throws himself agains Ángel's body, making him fall to the floor. Aurora sets the mechanism onto motion. Inside the scarab, a huge bag gives Jesús life. Aurora caresses Jesús' deformed face. Jesús peels off his own skin. Aurora was a bit hurt, so she's broken her lip. She offers her blood to Jesús, who finally decides to reject it with a supreme effort.Jesús shouts "NO!", and he removes the Cronos from his chest. He uses a stone to break it into pieces. He repeats his own name over and over again.Jesús dies, being cried by his granddaughter Aurora.---written by KrystelClaire

cult, comedy, gothic, atmospheric

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The Last of the Mohicans

It is 1757, the French and Indian War rages across the English Colonies and the British have been fighting the French for territory in North America for three years. Indian tribes fight on both sides and the colonists are caught in the middle. Three men, Chingachgook (Russell Means), his son Uncas (Eric Schweig), and adopted white son Hawkeye (Daniel Day-Lewis), visit the frontier home of the Cameron's; John (Terry Kinney), Alexandra (Tracey Ellis), and James (Justin M. Rice). Colonist Jack Winthrop (Edward Blatchford) tells Hawkeye that he is gathering volunteers to fight for the British army in hopes that their homes on the frontier will be guarded against Huron war party attacks, loyal to the French. He and a group of others leave the next morning for Albany in New York to obtain these terms of agreement from General Webb. Webb agrees to grant them leave if their homes are attacked. Satisfied, Winthrop and the others agree to lend their services in the militia and join the British forces at Fort William Henry, sixty miles north of Albany.Meanwhile, Cora Munroe (Madeleine Stowe) and her frail, younger sister Alice (Jodhi May), travel along a forest trail accompanied by a British garrison to see their father, Colonel Edmund Munroe (Maurice Roëves), having received notice to meet him there. The garrison is commanded by Major Duncan Howard (Steven Waddington) who is betrothed to Cora. Their route to Fort William Henry is led by a native guide named Magua (Wes Studi) who acts distant towards Duncan and expresses dissent towards the British in his native language, though Duncan is unaware that anything is amiss. Magua then, without reason, turns and walks toward the back of the formation and the garrison is suddenly ambushed by a Huron war party. The women are knocked off their horses and huddle in the undergrowth together as they watch helplessly as the British soldiers are overtaken. At that moment, Chingachgook arrives with Uncas and Hawkeye and fight off the remaining Huron. Magua himself takes aim at Cora but Hawkeye forces him to flee into the forest. When the dust settles, only Cora, Alice, and Duncan are left alive. Hawkeye filters supplies from the dead and assures the survivors that he and his companions will escort them to Fort William Henry. Uncas sends off the remaining horses, explaining that they're too loud and easy to track. The party sets off on foot.En route, Duncan questions Hawkeye and the reason he and his band were traveling west instead of fighting in the militia. Hawkeye explains that he's no scout or militia man, implying that he takes no orders. They soon all come to the Cameron's farm where Hawkeye discovers the inhabitants murdered and the cabin burned. Hawkeye and Uncas note that nothing was stolen and they come to a conclusion that a war party was responsible and are most likely scouring the frontier for hapless colonials. To Cora's astonishment, Hawkeye refuses to bury the dead but assures her that they are not merely strangers to him. Later that night, as they camp, Hawkeye explains to a contrite Cora that if they had buried the Cameron's anyone looking for their trail would see it as a sign of their passing. He speaks with her about how he was found by Chingachgook at a young age after his family was killed and raised as a Mohican and tells her a folktale about the creation of the stars, supposing that therein lies a monument to the Cameron's and his family. He finds an understanding soul in Cora and keeps watch through the night. A Huron hunting party comes close and they ready their defenses, but the party turns back since Hawkeye camped on burial grounds. They are followed by the party through the next day as they near the fort. When they arrive, they find it being bombarded by French cannon fire.They sneak into the fort where they are welcomed and the girls reunited with their father. He is astonished to see them there and maintains that he never sent word for them to come -- Magua had tricked them into joining their father. Grateful to the trappers, he offers them whatever they need, including gunpowder and food. Munroe explains their current situation: the French are persistent and dig trenches daily that, when close enough, will allow range for mortars to bombard the fort. They have three days at best. Having heard that his previous couriers failed to deliver pleas for reinforcements, Munroe decides to send out one more to General Webb (Mac Andrews) at Fort Edward as a last resort. When Hawkeye delivers the troubling news that innocent colonists are being attacked in the frontier, Munroe reacts with disinterest and even Duncan refuses to acknowledge what he saw at the Cameron farm. Winthrop and other militia are angered to hear Munroe's indifference to the colonists and demand to go home to tend to their families, but Munroe threatens them with sedition and commands that anyone seen deserting will be shot on sight. Hawkeye surmises that if the colonists receive no help from the British, they should go to the French. Munroe claims treason but Hawkeye assures him it's nothing but the truth. Munroe dismisses everyone.Magua returns to the French encampment just outside the fort and addresses General Montcalm (Patrice Chéreau), giving him the latest updates. When asked why he was targeting Munroe's children, Magua explains his deepest hatred for the man and says that he will kill the women and show Munroe that his bloodline has ended before ripping his heart out. It is later revealed that Munroe was the one responsible for an attack on Magua's village that resulted in the deaths of Magua's children. Magua was sent into slavery and by the time he was able to return to his wife, discovered that she had remarried, thinking him dead.Later, when Cora again meets with Hawkeye in the infirmary, she realizes that she is falling in love with him. When Duncan comes to her, assuring her that all that has happened will be forgotten once they return to England, she dismisses his marriage proposal on the grounds of morality, having witnessed his lies about the Huron war parties attacking the colonists. She sends him off as a man with admirable qualities, but with none she holds highly. She later meets with Hawkeye and the two share a moment of passionate love.Days pass without reinforcements and it's soon discovered that Hawkeye assisted his colonist friends in abandoning the fort. He is arrested for sedition and sentenced to hang. When Cora questions him, asking why he didn't leave too, he claims his only interest remains in the fort: her. She confronts her father, proudly asserting her beliefs that, maybe, the British do more harm to the colonists than good. The fort is soon overrun by the French and Munroe is forced by Montcalm to surrender. The British are allowed to leave the fort with their families to Albany, on condition that they return to England. Reluctantly, Munroe accepts but only after seeing an intercepted letter from General Webb, explaining his refusal to send aid.The British march away from the fort defeated and are quickly ambushed again by a large Huron force led by Magua. Magua seeks out Munroe and personally cuts out his heart, telling him that his daughters are next. Hawkeye is freed by Chingachgook and they take Cora, Alice, and Duncan with Uncas away from the fighting to a cave behind a waterfall. Their gunpowder wet, Hawkeye and the others have no chance to defend themselves if they are found. With Hurons approaching, Hawkeye promises Cora that he will come back to find her, as long as she stays strong. Uncas' feelings for Alice, having grown over time, are evident as he, Chingachgook, and Hawkeye leap into the waterfall. Duncan and the women are then captured by Magua and his men.The captives are taken to a Huron village where Magua discusses with the Sachem (Mike Phillips), or elder, what he intends to do with them. He is then interrupted when an unarmed Hawkeye walks into the village. He is beaten down by Huron warriors as he approaches but maintains a peaceful demeanor. With Duncan translating into French for Hawkeye, he pleads with the Sachem to reconsider what Magua has told him and convinces him that Magua is simply acting out of selfish fulfillment rather than for the good of the tribe. The Sachem renders his decision: Cora is to be burned alive to atone for the loss of Magua's children. Duncan is to be sent back to the British to placate them and Alice is to be given to Magua as a bride so that both their bloodlines can continue. Hawkeye is to be released for his bravery but he speaks again the Sachem's decision, pleading with Duncan to translate that he will take Cora's place instead. However, Duncan purposefully mistranslates so that he, not Hawkeye, is taken to be burned alive. He tells Hawkeye to take Cora as Magua resentfully leaves with Alice and Duncan is taken away. Hawkeye takes Cora into the forest where they are reunited with Chingachgook and Uncas. There, Hawkeye takes aim and mercifully shoots Duncan to spare him further pain as he's burned on the stake.Uncas immediately runs ahead of the others in pursuit of Magua's band, set on rescuing Alice. He manages to kill several members of the group before facing Magua. However, Magua quickly dispatches Uncas by stabbing him in the side. Uncas looks at Alice, apologetic, before Magua slits his throat and throws his body over the cliffside. Chingachgook and Hawkeye see this and, in a rage, Chingachgook charges ahead. Magua then motions for Alice to rejoin him as she looks at Uncas' body over the edge. She moves away and, as Cora watches, throws herself off the cliff to join Uncas in death. As Chingachgook races ahead to face Magua, Hawkeye covers his trail, shooting any Huron who comes in his way with deadly accuracy. Chingachgook and Magua face off with Chingachgook coming out the victor and effectively avenging his son. After a ritual for Uncas, Chingachgook tells Hawkeye that this land is not meant for his kind anymore and that it will be lived upon by those like Hawkeye, Cora, and their children. He then says a prayer to the spirits and asks his family to be patient in death and wait for him, the last of the Mohicans.

murder, cult, violence, romantic, revenge, historical

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Drive Angry

John Milton (Nicolas Cage) is an undead criminal who has broken out of Hell and stolen Satan's personal gun, labeled The Godkiller to kill Jonah King (Billy Burke), a cult leader who tricked Milton's daughter into joining his followers in the wake of Milton's death 10 years prior, only to kill her and her husband and steal their daughter (Milton's granddaughter) to be sacrificed in a Satanist ritual. King believes that if he kills the baby, he will unleash Hell over Earth. After interrogating and murdering some of King's followers, Milton discovers that the ritual will take place in Stillwater, an abandoned prison in Louisiana. He heads there, but stops by a diner, where he meets Piper (Amber Heard), a waitress. Milton's car is damaged in the pursuit, so he sabotages Piper's car, a 1969 blue Dodge Charger R/T 440 and follows her to fix it in exchange for a ride on the way to Stillwater to find King. Entering her room, Piper walks in on her boyfriend, Frank (Todd Farmer), having sex with another woman. Piper beats up the woman and assaults Frank, getting knocked to the ground. Milton, in a phone booth nearby, hears the commotion and comes to Piper's aid, kicking Frank in the face as he is about to continue assaulting Piper, and punching Frank repeatedly. Milton steals his car, taking Piper along with him driving to Stillwater. Meanwhile, a supernatural operative of Satan, The Accountant (William Fichtner), arrives on Earth with the mission to bring Milton back to Hell and take the gun back. After interrogating Frank, he discovers that Milton and Piper are heading to Louisiana, and murders Frank with a bat before tricking a pair of state troopers into helping him by impersonating an FBI agent. At a shady hotel, Milton is attacked by King and his men, who heard about his return, but he kills most of them. The Accountant appears with the police and chases after Milton and Piper, who are chasing after King's van. Milton uses The Godkiller to shoot the Accountant out of the road. They then follow King to a church, only to find it filled with King's followers. They are ambushed and captured. Piper is kidnapped and Milton is shot in the eye and left for dead, but he awakens and kills King's men before pursuing the RV once again. Inside, Piper breaks free and fights King before jumping out of the RV and onto Milton's car. King then disables the car by repeatedly shooting its engine. Milton and Piper then meet Milton's friend Webster (David Morse), who provides them a new car, a 1971 red Chevrolet Chevelle SS. Piper discovers that Milton is literally undead and had to abandon his daughter to protect her from his former companions, which is why she was so easily manipulated by King. Webster reveals that he died 10 years prior in a shootout, and that Webster personally carried his coffin. She also discovers that the Godkiller was stolen by Milton from Satan himself and has the power to completely destroy one's soul, preventing it from going to either Heaven or Hell. After arming himself, Milton tells Piper that he cannot guarantee her safety and that she should leave, but she assures him that she has never had a worthy cause to fight for until now, and that she is with him regardless of the consequences. Milton tells Webster to stay behind, not wishing him to die. With the help of the Accountant, they evade the troops of Sheriff Cap (Tom Atkins) and finally arrive at Stillwater. The Accountant captures Piper and forces Milton to give up the Godkiller before he can engage King, but he allows Milton to go into battle against King and his followers to save his granddaughter, noting that Satan is more of a well-educated, calm warden of a very large prison, rather than a face of evil, and that he actually despises the sacrifices of innocent lives in his name. While Milton slaughters King's men before they can sacrifice the child, Piper escapes The Accountant's clutches with the Godkiller. King eventually gets the upper hand on Milton and savagely beats him. Piper fires the Godkiller at King, but misses and hits one of his few surviving men instead. She is knocked out by the gun's recoil. King orders one of his female servants to murder the child. However, the woman, who had been caring for the baby ever since King stole her, finds herself unable to carry out the deed, making King angry. The Accountant attracts King's attention, allowing Milton to grab the Godkiller and shoot King, destroying his soul. The Accountant retrieves the baby and allows Milton to say goodbye to her. Milton gives her to Piper, who promises to care for and protect her. Webster arrives and looks on as Milton "dies". After both Piper and Webster have left, Milton is revealed to be still "alive" and with the Accountant. Following this, Milton makes good on his earlier promise to Webster, and nonchalantly drinks a beer out of what is left of King's skull. He agrees to go back to Hell, but warns that if he is punished too severely for his actions, he will escape again. The Accountant claims that he looks forward to it, insinuating that chasing Milton is the most fun he has ever had, before he wiggles his keys and manifests a black 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air . He throws the keys to Milton, who drives off into the gates of Hell.

comedy, mystery, fantasy, murder, violence, cult, flashback, revenge

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Nella stretta morsa del ragno

In an attempt to convince journalist Alan Foster [Anthony Franciosa] that his horror stories are not pure fantasy, Edgar Allan Poe [Klaus Kinski] challenges the journalist to spend All Soul's Eve in Lord Thomas Blackwood's [Enrico Osterman] mansion, a challenge from which no one has ever returned. Alan's evening in the uninhabited, spiderweb-invested castle starts out uneventfully, until Alan discovers that he is not alone. Sharing the house with him is Elisabeth Blackwood [Michèle Mercier], sister of Lord Blackwell and the most beautiful woman he has ever seen, along with Elisabeth's lover Julia [Karin Field], a murderer named Herbert [Raf Baldassarre], one Dr Carmus [Peter Carsten] who writes books about metaphysical medicine, and an entire ballroom full of dancers.Within 15 minutes, Alan and Elisabeth have fallen in love, but it is Dr Carmas who explains the scene that begins to unfold before them. While Elisabeth's husband William [Silvano Tranquilli] was away on business, Elisabeth took up with Herbert. Upon William's return, Herbert stabbed him in a jealous rage. When Herbert turned on Elisabeth, Julia killed Herbert. Elisabeth then killed Julia in revenge. Yet, there they all are, alive and Well.It's like a snake, Carmus explains, that will continue to bite even after having its head separated from its body, because its sense of defense does not die when the body dies. The soul and the senses can continue to live on, even when the body has passed and begins to disintegrate. Now, each year on All Soul's Eve, the dead ones come to life in search of human blood to tide them over another year.Suddenly all the players begin advancing on Alan. "We need your blood," says Carmus. "Your blood is our life," says Julia. "It's the only way to assure us a night of life one year from now." Alan tries to escape but all the doors are locked. Out of love for him, Elisabeth offers to help Alan escape. She leads him out to the front gate but, being dead, she can go no further. Alan tries to pull her with him, but she disappears. As Alan goes through the front gate, he is impaled on a wrought iron spike.Epilogue: Poe and Lord Blackwood ride by the gate in their carriage. Seeing Alan impaled on the gate, Lord Blackwood pronounces him the loser of the wager. Elisabeth's voice is heard asking Alan whether he stayed for her, and Alan replies, "Yes, Elisabeth." [Original Synopsis by bj_kuehl.]

gothic, murder

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Outlander

A spacecraft crashes in a lake in Vendel-era Scandinavia. The only surviving occupant – a human – retrieves a distress beacon and a computer which explains that he is on Earth, a "seed" colony that his people have abandoned. The computer downloads the local Norse language and culture directly into his brain. The spaceman soon finds a freshly destroyed village, where he is captured by Wulfric, a warrior from another village. Wulfric takes him to the fortified village of King Rothgar, father of Freya, who he hopes will marry future king Wulfric. Rothgar is concerned that Gunnar, chieftain of the destroyed village, will assume it was Wulfric's doing, as Wulfric's father (the king before Rothgar) had been killed by Gunnar. Wulfric interrogates the "outlander", who identifies himself as Kainan, claiming he is from the north, and states that he is hunting a dragon. The village is attacked that night by an unseen creature, which kills several men. Kainan tells them it is a "Moorwen", a predatory creature which caused his (space)ship to crash and now will hunt men and animals alike. When Kainan is taken with a hunting party to find the Moorwen, he kills a gigantic bear that had killed some of the hunters. The warriors now treat Kainan as part of their tribe. Gunnar and his men attack the settlement, retreating after casualties on both sides. They soon return, pursued by the Moorwen, and enter the safety of the village. Kainan devises a plan to build a huge pit just inside the village entrance, fill it with whale oil and leave wooden shields floating on the surface. Freya becomes increasingly attracted to Kainan. He explains to her the Moorwen's origin—Kainan's people invaded its land (planet), slaughtered it in the billions and built a colony there. This Moorwen, now the last of its kind, massacred everyone in the colony, including Kainan's wife and child. When his "ship" returned to the colony, the Moorwen snuck onboard and later caused the crash. After listening to Kainan's tale, Freya gives him a family sword, saying she was told that she would know what man to give it to. Kainan and Wulfric lure the Moorwen to the village. They cross the oil pit by running on the shields, but the Moorwen falls into the pit, and the oil is set on fire. The Moorwen bursts out, kills several people, then escapes. Meanwhile, an offspring of the Moorwen sneaks into the hall where the women and children are hiding. Eric, the orphaned boy that Kainan has begun looking after, alerts Rothgar, who is killed as the women and children escape. Kainan realizes that they need stronger weapons to kill the Moorwen. Kainan, (new) King Wulfric and Freya return to the lake to retrieve fragments of metal from Kainan's submerged ship. While Kainan is underwater, the young Moorwen attacks the boat, taking Freya. Kainan and Wulfric return to the village, where the fragments are soon forged into weapons before descending into the Moorwens' lair. Freya awakens on a pile of bodies in the underground lair. As the young Moorwen moves toward Freya, it is distracted by the sound of Kainan's hunting party. Many of the hunters are killed, but the young Moorwen is blinded by Boromir. When it returns to attack Freya, Kainan and Wulfric pass one of the new swords, with which she slays the young Moorwen. The cave exits to a high waterfall, where the adult Moorwen attacks. It seriously wounds Wulfric before Kainan engages it in battle. When Freya joins in, Kainan is able to knock the Moorwen over the cliff's edge to its death. Freya and Kainan return to Wulfric's side, where he passes the kingship to Kainan just before he dies. Kainan tells Freya to wait for the rest of the warriors, while he heads back to the lake. Night falls as Kainan retrieves some items from his ship, says goodbye to his wife's submerged coffin, then destroys his distress beacon just as Freya sees a rescue spaceship approaching, leading her to believe that Kainan was sent by the gods. The rescue ship departs without Kainan, who stays as king, weds Freya and they adopt Eric.

action, fantasy, flashback

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Seeking Justice

In New Orleans, Will Gerard (Nicolas Cage) is a humble English teacher at Rampart High School. Will's best friend Jimmy (Harold Perrineau) also works at the school. Will's wife Laura (January Jones) is a musician who is in a local orchestra. One night, after a performance, Laura is beaten and brutally raped by a stranger named Hodge (Alex Van). At the hospital, while Will is waiting for news about Laura's condition, Jimmy tells a distraught Will that he's confident that the rapist will be found. A stranger who calls himself Simon (Guy Pearce) tells Will that he represents an organization that deals with criminals the justice system has not. Simon describes his group as "a few citizens seeking justice." He says Hodge has raped other women before, and was paroled three weeks prior to his attack on Laura. Simon proposes an intriguing offer; in exchange for a favor from Will to be determined later, Simon will arrange to have a complete stranger make Hodge pay for Laura's rape. This would spare Will and Laura a drawn-out trial, which would make Laura suffer even more than she already has by repeatedly forcing her to relive the rape, and to be traumatized by defense attorneys. Distraught and grief-stricken, Will consents to the deal. Hodge is killed, and a picture of Hodge's body, along with a medallion that Hodge took from Laura during the rape, are sent to Will as proof. The organization's code phrase is: "The hungry rabbit jumps." Six months later, Simon returns. He wants Will to follow a woman and her two children to the zoo and to look out for a man. If Will sees this man, he must call a number attached to a picture. Will agrees, hoping this will fulfill his debt. Simon, however, continues to call Will, asking him to continue what he's doing, claiming the man is a sex offender. Having no choice, as Simon promises to exact revenge if he doesn't obey, a reluctant Will agrees. He is instructed to kill the man on a pedestrian walkway that's under a high overpass by "accidentally" bumping him off it to his death, making it look like suicide. Instead of killing the man, Will decides to see if the man has any knowledge of Simon. The man, already paranoid, becomes suspicious that Will is there to kill him. He throws his bicycle at Will. As they struggle, the man falls off the walkway despite Will's efforts to save him. The man lands and is hit by a truck. Will goes home, where Detective Rudeski (Joe Chrest) and Detective Green (Marcus Lyle Brown) arrest him for murdering the man, whose name is Alan Marsh. At the station, Will can't get Green and Rudeski to believe anything he says. The detectives' boss, Lieutenant Durgan (Xander Berkeley), wants to talk to Will alone. Durgan wants to play a game, asking Will to complete sentences. After a few rounds, Durgan asks, "A hungry rabbit..." to which Will responds "jumps. A hungry rabbit jumps", signifying his connection to Simon's organization. Durgan lets Will free, giving him 24 hours to get out of the city before Simon and his henchmen Scar (Irone Singleton) and Cancer (Wayne Pére) come looking for him. Will runs, but he's looking for answers. He goes to a memorial for Alan, finding the man is not a sex offender but actually an award-winning investigative reporter for the New Orleans Post who was investigating the vigilante organization. Will now knows why Simon wanted Alan dead. Simon, Scar, and Cancer suddenly turn up. Scar chases Will out onto a busy street, but is killed by a SUV that hits and drags him. Will goes to a storage facility that Alan used and finds a DVD describing some of the people in the group, along with their missions. Will explains what's happening to Laura, who says she would've done the same had their situations been reversed. Will then tells Laura his whereabouts, advising her to stay away from the cops and anyone else who's asking questions. Will learns that Simon's real name is Eugene Cook and that Jimmy joined the organization years ago, after his brother was murdered, when the cops were unable to find the killer. Will sends Cook a copy of the DVD, outraged at its implications. Cook agrees to a trade where Will would receive security camera footage proving his innocence in Alan's death, as he was acting out of self-defense, in exchange for the DVD. Will agrees, and they agree to meet at the Louisiana Superdome, during a monster truck show. At the dome, Will is told Laura has been kidnapped as an extra incentive to make him give up the DVD. Jimmy, Cancer, and a man called Sideburns (Dikran Tulaine) are holding Laura. They go to a nearby mall, abandoned since Hurricane Katrina. Will gives up the DVD, but Cook reneges on the deal, saying that Will and Laura will both be killed to remove all threats to the organization. He orders them to be shot. Cancer is about to pull the trigger on Laura when he is fatally shot by Jimmy, after which Will forces Sideburns down an inactive escalator, then through the glass at the bottom of the escalator. Sideburns is killed when a chunk of the glass becomes impaled in his neck. Jimmy says that they didn't get into the organization to kill innocent people. Cook and Jimmy exchange gunfire, until Cook kills him with two shots to the chest. Laura flees with a gun in her hand. Cook throws her into a glass display case, causing her to drop the gun. Will arrives and begins beating up Cook, but both fall onto another escalator, rolling to the bottom. Laura, who has grabbed the gun that Cook forced her to drop, shoots Cook six times, killing him. Happy to be alive, Will and Laura walk back up the escalator. Durgan arrives, asking who killed Cook. Will responds that it was him, but Durgan says that the way he sees it, the dead guys killed each other. There was no one else there. With both DVDs in hand, Will clears his name. He decides to follow up on Alan's work by giving the DVD to Gibbs (Mike Pniewski), another reporter. Thanking him, Gibbs says, "The hungry rabbit jumps, eh?" indicating to a surprised Will that Gibbs knows about or is also in the organization.

suspenseful, neo noir, murder, flashback, action, revenge

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Nurse Betty

In a small Kansas town, Betty, a diner waitress, is a fan of the soap opera A Reason to Love. She has no idea that her husband, Del, a car salesman, is having an affair and that he intends to leave Betty. She also doesn't know that her husband supplements his income by selling drugs. When Betty calls to ask about borrowing a Buick LeSabre for her birthday, her husband tells her to take a different car. The LeSabre (unknown to Betty) has drugs hidden in the trunk. Two hitmen, Charlie and Wesley, show up at the house. They torture Del into revealing that he has hidden the drugs in the trunk of the LeSabre, but Wesley scalps him anyway. Betty witnesses the murder and enters a fugue state, assuming the identity of a nurse in the daytime drama. That evening, Sheriff Eldon Ballard, local reporter Roy Ostery, and several policemen examine the crime scene while Betty calmly packs a suitcase. She seems oblivious to the murder, even with the investigation going on right in her house. At the police station, a psychiatrist examines her. Betty spends the night at her friend's house, sleeping in a child's bedroom. In the middle of the night, she gets into the LeSabre and drives off. Betty stops at a bar in Arizona, where the bartender talks about her vacation in Rome, and Betty tells her that she was once engaged to a famous surgeon (describing the lead character from A Reason to Love). Meanwhile, the two hitmen are in pursuit, having realized that Betty has the car with the drugs. As they search, Charlie's heart begins to soften towards Betty, to Wesley's consternation. In Los Angeles, Betty tries to get a job as a nurse while looking for her long-lost "ex-fiancé". She is turned down due to having no résumé and references but manages to get a job in the pharmacy. Despite an injunction against touching any patients, Betty becomes popular with them and their families. She ends up living with Rosa, a Hispanic legal secretary who offers to help Betty find her surgeon boyfriend. Rosa learns from a colleague that "David" is a soap opera character, and goes to the pharmacy window to confront Betty. Thinking her friend is jealous, Betty is impervious to the revelation. The lawyer supplies tickets to a charity function where George McCord, the actor portraying David, will be appearing. Betty meets George at the function. George is inclined to dismiss her as an overimaginative fan, but something about her compels him to talk to her. He begins to think that Betty is an actress determined to get a part in the soap opera, so he decides to play along. After three hours of her "staying in character", he takes her home. George begins falling in love with her, and he and his producer decide to bring her onto the show as a new character: Nurse Betty. When Betty arrives on set, she falls out of her fantasy world back into real life. After two failed takes, she realizes that she is on a set and that the people she thought were real are just characters. George confronts her and Betty walks out. Back at Rosa's house, Betty has just started to tell what happened to her husband, when the two hitmen walk in. They are interrupted by Sheriff Ballard and the reporter, who have also tracked down Betty. A standoff ensues until Ballard pulls a gun from an ankle holster and shoots Wesley, who is revealed to be Charlie's son. Charlie decides not to kill Betty and commits suicide in the bathroom. George offers Betty a job on the show. She appears in 63 episodes and takes a vacation in Rome. Betty later plans to pursue nursing as a career.

comedy, psychological, neo noir, murder, cult, violence, insanity, satire, tragedy, romantic

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Resurrecting the Champ

Erik Kernan Jr. (Josh Hartnett) is a young sports reporter for a major Denver newspaper. He is frustrated that his editor is burying some of his reports on sporting events. Ralph Metz (Alan Alda), the editor, explains that Erik's stories are boring, too dry with no personality. Erik's father, dead for some time, had been a famous sports broadcaster. Erik apparently has profited from his father's name, but also has the burden of his style being compared to his father's. Because of his frustration with his editor, Erik is hoping to find other reporting work.Erik has a 6 year old son who lives with Erik's wife, Joyce (Kathryn Morris). Joyce and Erik are separated. We learn that Erik has tried to make himself seem more important in his boy's eyes than he is by falsely claiming friendships with famous athletes.Near the parking lot of a sports arena, three possibly drunk young men are deriding an old homeless man (Samuel L. Jackson), who calls himself "Champ" and claims to have been a professional boxer. They obviously don't believe him and force him to fight one of them. He resists but eventually fights back, showing that he really can fight. The three then gang up on him. Erik, leaving a fight he was covering at the arena, comes to Champ's aid. Eventually Erik learns that Champ was once a well regarded contender, Bob Satterfield, who had fought several famous fighters, such as Ezzard Charles and Jake LaMotta. People thought he died long ago.At a job interview to be a sports writer for a weekly magazine, Erik commits to do a feature story on this fighter and what happened to him after he lost a humiliating major fight. If the magazine owner and editor like the piece they might hire him. Erik gets Polly (Rachel Nichols), a research assistant at the paper, to dig into old records for information about Bob Satterfield's career and family, while keeping the search secret from Erik's boss. Meanwhile, Erik meets more with Champ. He takes Champ to a relatively minor fight he is assigned to cover, and becomes impressed with the man's boxing expertise that allows Champ to predict a knockout by the underdog.Erik contacts many of the still-living people who knew Satterfield when he was still up and coming. They are surprised to learn that Satterfield is alive, saying that they had heard he died long ago. He even gets Champ and Jake LaMotta on the phone to talk about old times. However, one contact, Satterfield's son, hangs up on him as soon as he hears Erik's name. Eventually the magazine publishes Erik's article. It is extremeky well received and is picked up by the national media. People suggest it be nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.But the publicity brings Erik into contact with morer old timers who knew Satterfield and are pretty sure he is long dead. Eventually Erik learns that Champ is not Satterfield after all, but another lesser fighter who Satterfield defeated. Erik is faced with a moral dilemma of announcing his error or suppressing the information and bask in his "success." Erik initially makes the self-serving choice, but he does not find his success to be satisfying. Eventually he decides to tell his editors about the mistake but before he can do so he learns that he and his paper are being sued by Satterfield's son. The son is upset because he and others had long known that Champ was impersonating his father, and because Erik's story falsely said that Satterfield, Jr. and Sr. were estranged. Everyone accuses Erik of not having done due diligence in checking out Champ's authenticiy.In the end, Satterfield, Jr. is satisfied with Erik's proposal to write another article about his error and including material about Bob Satterfield that Jr. had long wanted someone to publish. Erik discovers that his 6 year old will be proud of his father even if his father does not know the famous people he claimed to know.

flashback

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World Without End

We see an atomic explosion as the opening credits begin.A group of military servicemen huddle around a radio trying to reestablish contact with rocket ship XRM. At the Pentagon, concern grows over the lack of contact. The last message from the ship was cut off mid in mid sentence, which many point to as a sign a disaster has occurred. A newscaster describes how man's first flight into space seems to have ended in disaster and grave fears are held for Doctor Eldon Galbraithe and his crew. The last message was received as the ship entered Mars orbit and nothing has been heard since.We cut to a scene of a rocket approaching Mars. The radio operator Herb Ellis (Rod Taylor) reports to Dr. Galbraithe (Nelson Leigh) that contact with Earth is lost. He is sure it is not the equipment because the signal was lost as the ship entered Mars' magnetic field. Galbraithe asks John Borden (Hugh Marlowe) to check the viewer. Across the landscape are strange green surface markings, but from orbit they can't make out what the markings are.Dr. Galbraithe gives Henry Jaffe (Christopher Dark) orders to lay in a course back to Earth. Their mission was only a recon mission; simply do a couple of orbits of the planet then head back for Earth with their findings. As the ship breaks Mars orbit, it runs into a strange time dilation effect that accelerates the ship unbelievably. Before the crew can try to slow the ship down they are pinned to the deck by the incredible G force.They wake to find they have landed high up on snow covered mountains. They think they are on Mars, specifically one of the poles. However Bordon realizes that something is not right. The gravity feels too strong and he suspects there is an atmosphere outside. They take a chance the crack the hatch to see what's going on.Checking the ship they find the control surfaces have been damaged, also the radiation count is about three times higher than would be expected on Earth. Herb tries the radio and is unable to make any contact or find any evidence any radio broadcasts even exist.The team decides to hike down below the snowline and investigate the rest of the area. Herb quips that if they're on Venus, they may run into some high domed types that might kill them with ray guns. To try and stop that we only have good old revolvers.During a rest period one of the crew finds a cave and decides to explore it. As they go deeper they discover spider webs. As they ponder what may have spun it, Herb is attacked by a giant spider. As they fight the creature off with gun fire, a second spider attacks.After marching most of the day they decide to make camp. While sleeping, they are ambushed by a band of caveman type creatures. The party survives the initial attack and drives the attackers off. One of the creatures was killed and when the corpse is inspected it appears to be a Cyclops.At first light the party moves off again working their way further down the mountain. They encounter the ruins of what appears to be a graveyard, and looking at the tombs they realize they are on Earth, and from the dates, they can see some period in the future.Galbraithe explains there is a theory that if you can move fast enough you can affect time, and actually move backwards through it. Bordon wonders if the instruments failed at 100 miles per second, but they may have been travelling many times faster. They also are unable to decide how long they were actually blacked out.They work their way around the cemetery trying to discover the oldest gravestone. They do find a number marked 2188, and even these look old. Galbraithe considers whatever happened, he presumes a nuclear war given the high background radiation, and it would take at least a couple of hundred years for things to become livable again.They work their way along a valley and see a mountain range in the distance. It is decided they must be the Rockies (In Western USA) and judging from the environment and weather they may be either in Colorado or New Mexico.In the distance they see a thin column of smoke; Borden decides it is not a brush fire and might have been set by somebody. He decides to go and investigate but is attacked by another group of the mutated humans. The rest of the party rescues Borden and withdraws as they realize the mutants are getting behind them. They take shelter in a cave to regroup and decide their next course of action.Borden recovers from the attack being little more than a little shaken up. The party can't decide if they are trapped or found a place of safety. While exploring the cave they find a stainless steel barrier blocking access to the rest of the tunnel. Suddenly a second barrier slides into place and the first barrier opens. Short of any real options they decide to explore what's behind the barrier.They follow a long tunnel of advance design until they encounter a room. A disembodied voice speaks to them and instructs them to leave all their weapons and packs behind and enter into another tunnel. There they are greeted by a human dressed in futuristic clothes. The room is set up like some form of court or council meeting area.Timmek (Everett Glass) introduces himself and explains it was his voice the party heard. Timmek queries why they are here. Borden explains they took refuge in the tunnel, and that they had flown to Mars in 1957. Timmek explains they encountered a time dilation effect. And since they had been away, civilization had encountered the great blow. Timmek explains it was an Armageddon atomic war. Timmek is unaware of any other surviving elements of civilization.Other members of Timmek's group begin querying the men on their intentions, especially why they feel the need to have weapons. Borden has no specific response to this and the council decides to keep the guns from the men.Garnet (Nancy Gates) Timmek's daughter appears and reminds her father the men must be both tired and hungry. Galbraithe asks about what year it must be, Timmek tells him it is 2508AD. Stunned the men follow Garnet and are fed a wide variety of food.Garnet explains that all their food is produced underground due to the high radiation counts. She then introduces Elaine (Shirley Patterson) she is Elda's Stanley Fraser) assistant and makes an offer to show the crew anything they would want to see. Galbraithe wonders why the people have not conquered the surface. Garnet explains the people are tired of war and have generations of tradition behind them.As the conversation peters out Galbraithe notices one of the servant girls Deena (Lisa Montell) and asks about her. Garnet explains she is from the surface; shes been saved when she was rejected by the beasts (deformed humans) on the surface.The four men decide to bunk down for the night, Jaffe asks Borden if these people may have learned how to reverse the time dilation effect they suffered. Borden thinks probably not. He thinks that those who survived the war, turned their technology inwards, only applying what they needed to survive. Borden thinks these people will be ultimately useless to their needs.They are gutless and not willing to get out of their holesNext morning Elaine arrives to take Galbraithe to meet the chief science councilmen. At the meeting he explains he wants to repair the ship so he can explore the rest of Earth, find out if there other surviving colonies. The council rejects the idea. They have no weapons or desire to fight the beasts to retrieve the shipLater Garnet comes across Borden alone in his quarters; he asks if she would mind showing him the sites. She reacts be saying she'd hoped he would ask. In another part of the colony a science worker explains to Jaffe where their power and food come from. The science worker slips and mentions the colony is getting smaller and the drain on resources is becoming less and lessBorden and Garnet discuss the sadness surrounding Jaffe, how he left a family behind, and what sort of courage did it take to fly in the first place. Mories (Booth Colman) interrupts the conversation and Borden sense a bit of jealousy from the man. Garnet explains he will probably succeed her father as leader of the council, and as such took it for granted Garnet would be his partner.Back at their quarters Herbert tries to apologize to Deena for a previous comment but she refuses to hear him. Borden and Galbraithe return from their respective meetings and agree the people underground have lost their will, their desire to push frontiers. He then admits he has a date with Garnet, and when the others tease him about it he explains Garnet is going to show him a tunnel that leads back to the surface.Garnet takes Borden to the tunnel and they go outside. Garnet is surprised at the beauty of the Moon; it is not how the books describe it. Borden grabs garnet and kisses her. She declares he love for him. Hes concerned by this emotion and says that at some stage he will have to leave. Garnet begs him to stay and make his life with the colony.Again at their quarters the men try to communicate with Deena. Borden explains they are trying to help her people. Finally she breaks down and accepts Herberts apology. Jaffe and Galbraithe return from another meeting with the council. Jaffe explains the colony seems to be in real trouble. He visited a hospital and found only 14 children out of a population of 2000. Jaffe doesnt think they have more than more generation.Unknown to the men, they are being spied on by Mories, who becomes unsettled over Bordens plans for Garnet. Mories goes to the council twists the story of their intention. Mories convinces the council to ignore their requestsBack at the quarters Deena tells the rest of her story. Most of the normal children were not driven away by the beasts but actually put to work by them. At the end of the conversation Herb comes in and Deena admits her interest in himAt the council meeting Galbraithe pleads his case to allow them men to expand to the surface and have invited those in the colony who want to be part of the expansion. Mories pleads the counter case that the men are going to enslave everyone in the colony and carries the day and the council votes down the proposal.That night Mories steals the mens weapons accidentally killing one of the councilmen in the process. He then hides the gun in the men's quarters and rushes of to tell the council the men stole their weapons. Deena sees him, and tries to retrieve the guns.Deena sees Herb kissing another woman and becomes jealous and distressed. Mories reaches the council and realizes the dead councilman has already been found. The council go to their quarters and discover the guns and Timmek orders the arrest of the men.Deena stands back and says nothing of what she saw. At the council chamber the men a presumed guilty, they are going to be banished from the city, taking only what they came with.Deena realizes what this means and goes to Timmek. As she waits to see him Mories attacks and tries to kill her, unsuccessful he escapes into the tunnels as she reveals what had occurred. They follow him to the outside world in time to see him killed by the beasts.Sometime later the council apologizes for their actions. 20 or so men have volunteered to go out to with the crew. They need to resolve the issue of weapons. Deena tells them only the ugly beasts fight and there is not as many of them as people thingThe crew decides a primitive form of bazooka will be the best way to kill those on the surface. Deena tells them that the beasts follow a leader, who is selected for his ability to fight off any rivals. She believes if they kill him, the rest could fall into line pretty fast.The four men go outside to test the weapons. They fire at a pass that looks set up like an ambush, they fire around into the area and the beasts run away in confusion. One of them not mutated like the others is captured and taken back to be questioned.The captured enemy tells Deena that the leader of the beasts will probably take his people back to the caves to make it harder for the humans to attack them. On the way they find another normal surface dweller speared by his own people.They find the possible hiding place of the beasts and Jaffe scouts ahead but is speared by the beasts. Herb recovers him before fighting off the creatures. The leader of the beasts warns he has killed many of her people and he will kill all of them if need be. Borden sends Deena up with a message that he is a coward and Borden wants to fight the leader one on one using only an axe and knifeThe leader takes up the challenge and comes out. After a frantic few minutes of fighting, Borden kills the leader. Borden declares himself the chief of the tribe and calls the other beasts to acknowledge him as the new leaderMonths later, progress above ground is going well. Most of the colony is moving to live on the surface and the former tribe of the beasts is being integrated with the colony. Everyone agrees they are witnessing the rebirth of man's [email protected]

murder

tt0049964

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

In the beginning of the film, there is archive footage of a police search of the Hewitt house. The two officers survey the house and desend into the basement, noting the fingernaill scratch marks, human blood and hair embedded into the walls.It is August 1973, where five young adults, Erin (Jessica Biel), Kemper (Eric Balfour), Morgan (Jonathan Tucker), Andy (Mike Vogel), and Pepper (Erica Leerhsen), are on their way to a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert after coming back from Mexico. As they drive through rural Travis County, Texas, they see a distraught hitchhiker (Lauren German), who eventually gets in their van. After trying to speak to the hitchhiker, who speaks incoherently about a "bad man," she shoots and kills herself with a .357 Magnum pistol.The group decides to contact the police in which they drive up to a rural country store where the elderly clerk tells them that the sheriff is at the mill. The group drives over to the mill where instead of the sheriff, they find a little boy named Jedediah (David Dorfman) who tells them that the sheriff is drinking at home. Erin and Kemper go through the woods to find his house, leaving the other three at the mill with the boy. They come to a large plantation house where Erin is allowed inside by the owner, an amputee with both of his legs gone, named Monty Hewitt, to phone for help. When Erin finishes, the semi-sinister old man asks her for help, using the opportunity to fondle her without her noticing. Kemper goes inside to look for Erin and is killed with a sledgehammer to the back by Thomas Hewitt, a.k.a.: Leatherface (Andrew Bryniarski), who drags his dead body through a large steel door to the basement.Meanwhile, Sheriff Hoyt (R. Lee Ermey), a strange-looking policeman, arrives at the mill and disposes of the hitchhiker's body, wrapping her in cellophane and putting her in his trunk and drives away. Erin arrives and finds that Kemper is still missing. Andy and Erin go back to Monty's house, where Erin distracts him while Andy searches for Kemper. Monty realizes Andy is inside and summons Leatherface, who attacks him with his chainsaw. Erin escapes and heads towards the woods, but Leatherface cuts Andy's left leg off as he is running through the back yard. Leatherface carries him to the basement and hangs him on a meat hook with his feet hanging over a piano, where he rubs salt on Andy's stump of a leg before wrapping it in butcher paper and tying it with human hair.Erin makes it back to the abandoned mill and tries to escape in the van, but Sheriff Hoyt shows up and, after finding marijuana, orders Erin, Morgan and Pepper out of the van. The sheriff gives Morgan the gun he took from the hitchhiker and tells Morgan to reenact how she killed herself. Morgan, scared and disturbed by the sheriff's demeanor, attempts to shoot the sheriff only to find the gun is unloaded. Sheriff Hoyt handcuffs Morgan and takes him to the Hewitt house, leaving the girls in the van where they are attacked by Leatherface. Pepper runs, but is cut in half by Leatherface's chainsaw. Erin also sees that Leatherface is wearing Kemper's face over his own. He begins to chase Erin throught the woods with his large chainsaw buzzing.During the drive, Sheriff Hoyt continues to taunt Morgan over his well being, and for no reason, smashes a liquor bottle in Morgan's face, knocking a few of his front teeth out. Hoyt pulls out his own set of front false teeth and mentions an intresting story about how he lost them some time back when they arrive at the exact same sinister house. Hoyt drags Morgan out of his squad car, into the house, and to the basement.Meanwhile, Erin manages to escape from Leatherface and hides in a nearby trailer with two women inside, who offer her tea and try to soothe her. The two women, a morbidly obese middle-aged woman known only as the 'Tea Lady' and a younger woman named Henrietta, whom is presumably her daughter, act strange. After they tell Erin that they don't have a phone for her to call for help, a telephone in the trailer rings and Henrietta picks it up and tells someone on the other end that "she's here". Erin discovers they have kidnapped a child when she sees that the baby with them is the same child in a photograph with the woman who committed suicide earlier in the kid's van. However, the tea is drugged and she passes out when she tries to leave.Erin wakes up at the Hewitt house surrounded by the entire crazed and murderous Hewitt family: Thomas 'Leatherface' Hewitt; his mother Luda May; Sheriff Hoyt (whom is actually Leatherface's cousin Charlie Hewitt); Monty (Leatherface's uncle); and the little boy Jedediah. Luda May tells Erin that her excuse for her son Thomas's actions, was that her son was tormented by teenagers during his upbringing while working in the closed-down slaughterhouse and that she felt no one cared for her family besides themselves.Erin is taken to the basement, where she finds Andy. She tries to help him off of the meat hook but when he sees he will land on the piano keys and alert Leatherface, he begs her to kill him, which she does, though suffers severe emotional trauma. She finds Morgan, still handcuffed, and Jedediah leads them out of the house. Jedediah rejects Erin's plea to come with them and distracts Leatherface long enough for them to escape. Erin and Morgan find an abandoned house in the woods and barricade themselves inside. Leatherface breaks in and discovers Erin, but Morgan attacks Leatherface, causing him to drop his chainsaw. Morgan grabs Leatherface and wrestles him, but Leatherface is too heavy and easily lifts Morgan upwards onto a chandelier before releasing him and Morgan gets tangled in the chandelier by his handcuffs. Leatherface picks up his chainsaw and slices up into Morgan's groin, killing him.Erin runs out of the shack and escapes through the woods. Leatherface trips and cuts his leg while pursuing her. Erin finds a slaughterhouse and hides in a locker. Leatherface opens the locker across from hers and she attacks him with a meat cleaver, and chops off his right arm.As it begins to rain, Erin runs outside and flags down a trucker, whom she tries to convince to go away from the Hewitt's house, but he stops to find help at the eatery. Erin sees Luda May and watches as Sheriff Hoyt arrives and talks to the trucker. Erin sees Henrietta watching over the kidnapped baby in a highchair. When Henrietta walks outside to join Luda May and Sheriff Hoyt whom are talking to the truck driver, Erin sneaks the baby out of the eatery and hot-wires the sheriff's car before running him over repeatedly until he is dead. Leatherface appears in the road and tries to stop her, but Erin and the baby escape unharmed.The police archive footage continues to play. The officers inspect the basement noting the hanging meat hooks when suddenly one of the officers is grabbed and severely beaten. A blurred figure viciously shakes the camera and the other police officer is heard screaming. The narrator states that "The crime scene was not properly secured by Travis County Police. Two investigating officers were fatally wounded that day. This is the only known image of Thomas Hewitt, the man they call Leatherface. The case today still remains open".

insanity, violence, murder, sadist

tt0324216

Ransom!

David "Dave" Stannard is the wealthy CEO of a vacuum cleaner company, which he and his brother inherited from their father. He and his wife Edith are the parents of a lively eight year old son, Andy. Dave discovers that the slats are missing from his bed, which prompts him to go in search of Andy. His son is building a clubhouse with whatever lumber he can find and he admits to taking the slats. Dave offers to buy lumber but Andy says the fun is in finding it. So Dave promises to leave work early that day and bring some scavenged lumber. Edith hurriedly finds a clean shirt for Andy since it is time for school. Andy attends the exclusive Covey Lane Day School.Dave and his brother Al do not agree on how to run the company, but overall their relationship is good. The day passes and Dave remembers his promise to Andy. He finds some scrap lumber at a construction site and pays the foreman to let him take it. When he arrives home, Andy is not there. Edith sees the school bus stop down the street but it passes their house. Just as they are getting worried, the school calls to check on Andy. That morning a nurse from Dr. Gorman's office took Andy from school because the doctor needed to see him. Edith and Dave are mystified and telephone the doctor. He did not send his nurse for Andy and has no idea what they are talking about. At that point Andy's parents realize he has probably been kidnapped.The police are notified and arrive to set up a special phone for when a ransom call comes in. Dave is instructed to keep the kidnappers on the line as long as possible so the call can be traced. Edith is barely holding herself together. Dr. Gorman arrives and prescribes a sedative but she refuses to take it.The ransom call finally comes. A man instructs Dave to gather five hundred thousand dollars and wait for further instructions. The call is traced to a pay phone but the man is gone when police arrive.Dave and Al use company funds for the ransom. The bank has to stay open late to get it all together. Back at the Stannard home, Mrs. Partridge arrives. She is the director of Andy's school. Edith listens numbly as Mrs. Partridge attempts to clear the school of any blame. But when she says something out of line, Edith tries to attack her with a fireplace poker. At that point Edith is sedated and banished upstairs with a nurse in attendance.A man enters the Stannard home through unlocked French windows and identifies himself as Charlie Telfer a reporter. Dave wants to keep the press out of it but allows Telfer to stay. They agree that Telfer can have an exclusive story later in exchange for keeping silent now.As time passes the stress becomes unendurable. Dave recalls the last morning he spent with Andy and how irritated he was over the missing bed slats. Two of Andy's friends come to play but the butler, Chapman, sends them away on the pretext that Andy is busy. The police find a stolen car containing a blood-stained child's shirt. Dave identifies the shirt as Andy's.The story leaks and the Stannards are overrun with reporters. They park outside the house, along with spectators who tear pieces from the fence for souvenirs. After careful soul-searching and believing he has little chance of getting Andy back whether he pays or not, Dave takes the money and goes to the local TV station. He spreads the money on a table and makes a public broadcast that no ransom will be paid for his son. Instead he offers it as a bounty on the kidnappers. A man sitting in an armchair next to a TV is partially shown, listening as Dave asks that the kidnappers do the right thing and set his son free.Back home, Dave is greeted by an hysterical Edith. She demands that he retract his statement and tries to go outside to talk to the reporters. But Dave won't allow it. He tries to explain why he reached that decision but Edith is not able to listen. Al's wife arrives and takes Edith and the nurse to her home, just down the street. Everyone thinks Dave has just signed Andy's death warrant. In despair, he goes out to Andy's clubhouse, weeping. Suddenly he hears Andy's voice calling him. His son has been released unharmed. The blood on his shirt is from where he bit the fake nurse. He asks Dave if he remembered to bring the lumber.Dave goes to the front of the house, carrying Andy. Leslie Telfer prevents the crowd from surging toward father and son. Jesse calls Edith, who quickly comes and hugs her son.

suspenseful

tt0049656

The Walking Dead: 400 Days

Vince's story - Day 2Vince aims at an unknown character and shoots him. He then runs away and has an option to either toss the gun up on the roof, throw it in the trash, drop it down the drain or keep hold of it. Either way the gun is found and Vince is arrested.The next scene will show Vince on the prison bus stuck in traffic. Vince begins to converse with two fellow prisoners, Justin and Danny, who each tell one another how they got arrested and their lives outside of jail. Meanwhile, near the front of the bus, two prisoners get into an argument that caused Marcus Crabtree to strangle Jerry with his handcuffs. Clyde, a bumbling prison guard, attempts to break up the fight at gunpoint resulting in him shooting Marcus in the head. As the prisoners and guards are stunned in shock, they witness zombies overwhelming drivers on the neighboring road. At that moment, Jerry reanimates and kills Clyde as the bus driver flees the bus and abandons the prisoners.After managing to acquire Clyde's shotgun and killing Jerry, the prisoners try to discover a way to escape. As walkers drawn by the gunfire attempt to enter the bus, Vince and his fellow inmates attempt to escape. As they're all connected by a chain running through their shackles, they are all confined to their seats and cannot leave. After attempting to break the barred windows and the chain itself, Danny theorizes that if Vince could shoot just one of their shackles off (destroying the shackled foot in the process) the other two prisoners could escape. At this point, Vince needs to choose whether to shoot off Danny's foot or Justin's foot. Who ever Vince shoots has their shackle come loose, allowing Vince and the other prisoner to escape the bus as the shot prisoner writhes in pain on the bus floor.Wyatt's story - Day 41The story has Wyatt and Eddie driving away from Nate after what is hinted that their camp was raided by a group, causing Eddie to kill a man, and having them escape with Nate following them. After Wyatt or Eddie,(depending on whether or not you take the gun and your accuracy) shoots at Nate, destroying a headlight, he pulls off the side of the road, giving Wyatt and Eddie the opportunity to pull off into the woods in hopes of evading Nate. After some conversation between the two, Eddie runs over Bennett, causing Wyatt and Eddie to have an argument about who goes and investigates whether or not it was a walker, with you either convincing Eddie to go, or playing a game of rock paper scissors to decide.If Eddie goes, Nate finds Wyatt in the car and causes Wyatt to abandon Eddie, or Wyatt goes, and after finding Bennett, you are given the option of either carrying Bennett back to the car after walkers start coming, or leaving him. Whichever option you choose, Eddie abandons Wyatt after being attacked by Nate, ending the scenario with him running off into the forest.Russell's story - Day 184When he is walking down a road, a truck is seen coming towards him. Russell has the option to either jump into the grass area off the road or stand his ground. Hiding will place him right next to Carley/Doug's rotting corpse. Either way, Nate will see Russell and ask him to join him.After getting in the truck and some dialogue, Nate offers Russell a drink, which the player can refuse or accept. Later, Russell refuses to comply with the man's questioning about a woman in his former group, after which Nate allows a female walker to nearly bite him until the latter gives a rating of the attractiveness she might've been before becoming a zombie. Amused by Russell's frantic answer, Nate pulls out his pistol to shoot the walker, but realizes he forgot to reload the gun. He tells Russell to load the gun and speeds off in the truck to get away from the walker.Their next stop is the truck stop where Nate suggests they grab supplies when he gets interrupted by bullets shot at his car. Russell gets out of the truck and ducks down to a gas pump as Nate yells that he'll "cover him" and make a run back for the truck. As Russell's running to the pickup, he'll notice that Nate isn't shooting. Nate tells Russell to peak his head over the bed of the truck to see where the sniper is shooting from. After discovering the location of the sniper, Nate will suggest moving to the red car across the station. Russell will now have the choice to go first or cover Nate. After Russell and Nate get to the second car Russell will have to run the the semi with Nate covering him. As he is running, Russell trips and falls, but then Nate comes to the rescue picking up Russell and saving his life.When you get to the back you may see a walker that is the cop (Clyde) that was bitten from Vince's story and Russell has the choice to kill it or walk away. Walking away will allow the walker to show up in Bonnie's story when she rolls down the hill.When inside the cafe Russell will have the choice to sneak up on the shooter or run up on him. Either way he finds out that the shooter is just an old man trying to protect his injured wife. The man thought that Nate was the man who hurt his wife and that he brought his friend to finish the job and take all of his food. Nate then brings up that he should just kill them and take their food for shooting at them for "no reason". Russell then has the choice to stay with Nate or walk away. Either way Nate will shoot the couple, thus revealing where the bloodstain from Shel's story in the cafe originated from.Bonnie's story - Day 220Bonnie's story starts off with her talking to Leland about having a snake tongue or lobster claws for hands. You'll be able to choose which Bonnie can say. Leland will then mention that Bonnie has come a long way from when he and Dee found her while she was on drugs, and how they helped her to deal with it. Bonnie can thank Leland for everything or avoid the subject. Either way, Leland will caress her face, before Dee shows up. Dee immediately questions them on what it is they're talking about. Bonnie can tell the truth or lie. Dee will show Bonnie and Leland a bag that she had found. Bonnie and Leland question her on where she got the bag, or if she stole it. Bonnie later asks Dee if she could borrow her red nail polish once they got back to camp, commenting that she liked it.As the conversation gets heated about the bag, Dee begins to accuse Leland of always taking Bonnie's side and calling her his "girlfriend." Bonnie can tell Dee or Leland to stop, or can tell both she's leaving. Leland will stop Bonnie from leaving, calling her "darling," which angers Dee. Dee then tells Bonnie and Leland to run. Bonnie turns around to see lights coming their way. Bonnie starts to run, but is shot in the shoulder. Leland tries to turn back to help her, but Dee drags him away. Bonnie gets up and tries to run after them, sliding down a hill onto the road with the prison bus Vince was in. Bonnie awakens to the sight of a zombified Clyde (only if Russell didn't kill him during his story) and kills him, or if Clyde was killed, Bonnie will not be attacked. Bonnie gets up and runs into the cornfield, calling for Leland and Dee, with the group who shot her right behind her. Bonnie runs through the cornfield, avoiding them, before running behind a tractor for safety.Bonnie grabs a rebar from the ground and hits one of the people approaching her, only to discover it was Dee. Bonnie, in a state of panic, tries to apologize to Dee, saying it was an accident. The conversation varies, depending on what you choose for Bonnie, you could assure Dee that she wasn't trying to steal Leland away from her, or tell her that she is interested in Leland, and wanted him for herself. Dee will then die, calling her a "junkie." When Leland arrives, he sees that Bonnie is shot, and asks her if she's alright. Leland breaks down after seeing Dee dead. Bonnie can tell him the truth of what happened, or lie to him that she found Dee that way. Depending on the conversation, Leland can believe her or not. This will decide if Leland goes with Bonnie or stays with Dee. When Leland follows Bonnie, he takes the bag that Dee stole, saying that she didn't die for nothing. If Leland did stay behind, a shot can be heard while Bonnie runs away.Shel's story - Day 236 & 259Shel's story begins with her and other members of her group (members of Vernon's group from Season 1) listening to Shel's younger sister Becca playing the guitar. After she finishes, Becca asks if they could make this a weekly thing, and you can choose to encourage her or tell her that it's not a great idea. Either way, Roman, another leader of the group, will chime in saying music will always be welcome, mentioning cheerily how he used to be part of a band. Then the group will return to their assigned survival duties, and Becca offers to check the ammo while Shel and Stephanie check food and other supplies.Once again, your choice to allow her to check the ammo or not will encourage or discourage her. Shel then proceeds to check the supplies and appliances around the gas station, and walks out back. When she does she's surprised by the group's "watch dogs" or chained up walkers, which they used to guard their supplies from other people who might try to steal them. She's disgusted to see an old woman walker eating the entrails of a small puppy, and then walks back inside. Just as she does, Becca growls like a walker and jumps out at her, and she gets mad. Becca tells her she never used to get angry when she would fool around, and asks Shel what's wrong. Shel can respond angrily or remorsefully, and her choice will affect Becca. Stephanie then barges in through the front, telling her something happened outside. Shel and Becca head outside to see the group surrounding a man on his knees, with his hands tied and blindfolded.Roman mentions that the man cannot speak English (he only speaks Portuguese), and that he was caught trying to take food and medicine from the group. After some discussion, the group decides the man cannot stay as he would only drain their resources, and that they must either let him go, or kill him. Stephanie and Boyd vote to release him, and Clive and Joyce vote to kill him, leaving the swing vote to Shel. At this point the player must choose to vote to kill the stranger or release him. If Shel votes to release him, Stephanie and Boyd praise her while Clive and Joyce chastise her, and if Shel votes to kill him, the reverse occurs. If the man is released, Roman warns the man (reluctantly, knowing he probably can't understand him) that if he ever returns, he'll wish he was killed. If you vote to kill the man, Roman shoots him in the back of the head, as Shel and Becca watch.Three weeks later, Shel and Becca are playing cards, talking about the decision that was made. Becca mentions Boyd's death, and how she misses being able to play guitar. Roman then comes in and says he needs to talk to Shel. She can leave immediately, or head out to talk shortly after. When Shel heads outside, she can either discover from Joyce or by talking to Roman directly that Stephanie tried to steal food and ammunition and escape the camp. Shel tells Roman her gun is back in the RV, and walks back there. The last decision of the episode quickly arises, where Shel can either leave the group in the RV with Becca, or take the gun and kill Stephanie. Becca encourages Shel to stay with the group where it's safe, but Shel doesnt want them to live like this. If Shel picks the gun, she'll walk out of the RV slowly, and will walk with Roman to shoot Stephanie. If she picks the keys, she wildly pulls out of the diner lot, with a very angry Roman behind them.Tavia - Epilogue, Day 400The epilogue begins with Tavia taking the last of the five photographs along with a note left by the five protagonists off the bulletin board at the Pitstop. She contacts someone on the radio saying they were right about there being surviors in the area, and she plans to make contact with them tonight at a nearby campsite. The voice on the radio warns to use her best judgement, since the community they're building should only contain good people.That night, Tavia drives up to the campsite. The voice on the radio wishes her luck, and tells her not to force anyone into anything they don't want to be a part of. As she approaches the campsite, Bonnie is the first to see her and calls for Vince. Vince quickly runs up and holds Tavia at gunpoint, asking who she is. She tells them who she is and that she's a scout for a community located north of the camp. Wyatt asks how she managed to find them, and Tavia can either say she found the note, the smoke, or it's just what she does.She offers them the oppurtinity to come with her and join the community, where they have food, water, and shelter for everyone. Bonnie immediately believes her, exclaiming that it is too good to be true. Becca on the other hand, does not believe her and tells Bonnie to get real. Tavia tells them they don't all need to come, just people who want to be there. They can even split up if they want to. She then asks them whether or not they want to come with her.Russell argues over why anyone should trust her, saying that everyone outside their group is crazy. Tavia agrees that there are bad people out there, but claims that no one will hurt them, saying when they see the place they'll change their minds. She tells them they have every right to be wary, and that they have no idea who she is or whether or not to trust her. Depending on what choices the player makes while playing as the other protagonists, they will either decide to join Tavia, or stay at the campsite.After everyone makes up their minds, Tavia gives Vince the photographs and the note and asks what they should do with them. They proceed to toss them into the campfire, and Bonnie exclaims that this is a good thing. Vince asks Tavia how they'll know it'll work. Tavia gives a reassuring answer that it will.

murder

tt3059776

Bra Boys

Bra Boys, the documentary, is a film about the cultural evolution of the inner-Sydney beachside suburb of Maroubra and the social struggle of its youth the tattooed and much maligned surf community known as the Bra Boys. The story is narrated by Australian actor Russell Crowe and is told through the eyes of members of the Bra Boys.It shows how the evolution of Maroubra, coupled with the historical stigma associated with Australias rebellious surf community, has contributed to their social displacement. It is a surf documentary, yet one that looks beyond the clichéd artistic beauty of the sport to expose the sometimes-troubled tale of its participants.It is the first full-length film project being undertaken by, and officially sanctioned by, the Bra Boys. It is their story. It shows their success in professional big wave surfing, it explores their international reputation for hard partying and rough justice, it touches on their running battle with authorities and it shows their absolute reliance on one another to fit into a society in which they are displaced and, at times, disinterested.Central to the story is the true-life struggle of the Abberton brothers Sunny, Koby, Jai and Dakota one charged with murdering a Sydney standover man, another pursuing a professional surf career but charged as an accessory in his brothers legal fight, another trying to hold the family together and a young brother whose inheritance is his siblings notoriety.Bra Boys, the documentary, uses archival footage shot by the Bra Boys and blends it with current surf vision and interviews to create a story that is compassionate and confronting. It is a story of contrast involving against-the-odds success and predictable failures and, ultimately, a story exploring the legacy and hopes of the next generation of Bra Boys members.SUNNY ABBERTONSunny Abberton is a 34-year-old first-time writer, director and producer.Sunny was born in Sydney, Australia, as the oldest of four brothers, and spent his formative years between Maroubras housing estates, New Zealand and a hippy commune in Nimbin. Sunny, and brothers Jai and Koby, were taught to surf by their grandfather and would find the beach their only escape from a troubled and destitute home life.Sunny showed talent as a young surfer and left school at age 15 to pursue a career in the sport. Sunny competed on the competitive ASP Pro Tour in the late 1980s and early 1990s, in which he gained a reputation as one of the best junior surfers in the world. Fortuitously, this early career path took him to countries such as Brazil and South Africa where he was introduced to class injustices and economic oppression for the first time on a global scale.While he was in Brazil, he discovered a childrens reading book written to teach the poorest Brazilian children about the Landless Movement, which was a turning point for Sunny. Through this piece of literature, he first gained an insight into the power of the arts to have the potential to enlighten and inform - particularly the young and the oppressed. Sensing parallels between the injustices experienced by the lower echelons of these societies, and the poverty he had witnessed in the housing commission estates of his native Maroubra, Sunny set out to create a voice which could inspire the youth of his own backyard. Thus the idea for BRA BOYS was born.Meanwhile, back in Maroubra, an escalation in tensions among various Sydney communities was beginning to manifest in violence on Sydneys eastern beaches. Gangs would regularly travel to the beaches and it sparked a series of bloody confrontations. The youth at Maroubra banded together to defend their beach and create a brotherhood to protect one another. Sunny was part of the resistance and, together with a small group of mates, formed a group they termed the Bra Boys.From his days on the Pro Surf tours, Sunny had a wealth of experience in front of the camera, and he used this exposure to learn the tricks of the trade, through a mixture of osmosis and curiosity. Years of filming surf travelogues on home video cameras also helped to equip him for his first feature documentary shoot.It was about six months into the filming of the documentary that his brother Jai was charged with murdering a Sydney standover man, a blow later amplified when his brother Koby was charged as an accessory after the fact. Together with a local production company Sunny spent an additional three years filming the central figures within the Bra Boys community, including the legal struggle of his two brothers.He collected hundreds of hours of film out of which the Bra Boys documentary was compiled. Sunny was the writer, producer and director of the film.As the informally appointed patriarch of both the Abberton family and then the larger group known as the Bra Boys, Sunny had always felt a deep responsibility for both the internal and external perception of the group. Through this documentary, Sunny hopes to give inspiration and a voice to the youth of Maroubra, and others in Australia who have grown up in similar circumstances, as well as provide an arena to share their experiences in a public forum.Sunny currently lives at Maroubra Beach in Sydney, Australia. BRA BOYS is his first feature film and he currently has another two projects in development, one of which is a feature adaptation of the BRA BOYS documentary.KOBY ABBERTONKoby Abberton is a 27-year-old professional surfer who has built a career as a specialist big wave charger. He is one of just a handful of surfers paid to find and surf the worlds biggest waves.He was born in Sydney, Australia, and grew up the third eldest of four brothers. He was raised in the government housing estates of Maroubra Beach, save for two years of his early childhood spent between temporary homes in New Zealand and, subsequently, a commune in Nimbin in northern New South Wales.His early years in Maroubra were spent living in the garage of his grandparents home, only moving out when his mother was issued with a small apartment in a nearby government housing estate.Koby, like his elder brothers, was taught to surf by his grandfather and found the beach the only escape from a troubled family life. He was educated at Maroubra Bay public school but, after failing to adjust to the regimented school life, he left when aged just 14. Shortly thereafter he left home after being struck with a baseball bat by his mothers heroin addicted partner. He moved from house to house, staying for extended periods with the families of his mates from the beach, before moving in with older brother Sunny. He would also go on to become a founding member of the Bra Boys surf group, a fearsome brotherhood founded at Maroubra Beach to protect the local youth from frequent incursions by various Sydney gangs seeking to attack surfers. He wears the Bra Boys tattoo proudly, along with a range of others including a large necklace tattoo with the signature words My Brothers Keeper.Koby showed early potential as a surfer, picking up a range of sponsorships before travelling internationally to compete on the World Qualifying Series (WQS) in the hope of gaining entry onto the premier World Championship Tour. However, with the WQS events generally staged in small wave locations he was finding it difficult to register strong results. That all changed when the tour headed to a new destination the little known Teahupoo reef in Tahiti for the 1999 Gotcha Pro. The waves were treacherous, with many of the more seasoned competitors fearful of the consequences of the shallow-breaking barrels. The 20-year-old Koby reveled in the conditions and went on to win the contest and cement his place as a big wave specialist.He was later sponsored by international eyewear company Oakley to continue his big wave surfing career. However, he regularly courted controversy with his fearsome reputation both in and out of the water resulting in running battles with the law. This was amplified in 2004 when he was charged with accessory after the fact in the murder of a Sydney standover man. His brother Jai had earlier been charged with murder.The fallout from the incident, coupled with a range of other controversies, saw the collapse of his sponsorship and the onset of severe financial hardship. However, he toughed it out and was found not guilty on the accessory charge but guilty on the backup charge of perverting the course of justice. He was spared a jail term and vowed to intensify his assault on the worlds biggest waves.Kobys exploits in the surf have reportedly earned him more Australian surf magazine covers than any other surfer. He has also picked up a series of new sponsors, including Analog clothing, Globe International Ltd for shoes and Sabre Vision eyewear, to join his long-time surfboard sponsor Warner. He also has his own apparel label called My Brothers Keeper.

prank

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Despicable Me

The film begins with the news revealing that an Egyptian pyramid was stolen. When super-villain Gru (Steve Carell) hears of this, his pride is wounded and he plans to pull the biggest heist of the century by stealing the Moon.Gru tries to get a loan from the Bank of Evil (Formerly Lehman Brothers) and meets a young super-villain, Vector (Jason Segel), who annoys him. Bank president Mr. Perkins (Will Arnett) refuses to grant Gru the loan until he obtains the shrink ray necessary for the plan. Mr. Perkins tells Gru that he is getting too old and that new super-villains are younger and better, like Vector, who is revealed to be the one who stole the Pyramid of Giza.Gru and his minions steal the shrink ray from a top secret research facility in East Asia, but Vector steals it from him and shrinks his ship. Gru attempts to get the shrink ray back from Vector's lair, but all his attempts to enter the lair prove futile. After seeing three orphaned girls, Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier), and Agnes (Elsie Fisher) enter the lair to sell cookies to Vector. Gru adopts the girls from Miss Hattie (Kristen Wiig), the head of the orphanage, to use them to steal back the shrink ray. Gru has his assistant Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand) build robots disguised as cookies. He then has the girls sell the robots to Vector, and the robots help Gru steal the shrink ray.On the way home the girls ask to go to an amusement park. Gru agrees, intending to leave the girls there. Instead, the attendant says he, as an adult, has to ride the roller coaster with them. Gru ends up having fun with the girls. Back at home, he presents his plan to Mr. Perkins via video. The girls keep interrupting him. Perkins again refuses to give him the loan, claiming that although he doesn't have a problem with the plan, he just wants a younger villain to do it instead. Gru has a flashback of his childhood, depicting his wanting to go to the moon after seeing the first moon landing. When he tried to impress his mother (Julie Andrews) with models of the rocket (and an actual working one), she just ignored him. Mr. Perkins calls Vector (revealed to be his son, whose real name is Victor) to the Bank of Evil to inform him that Gru has the shrink ray. Vector reassures his father that he will get the Moon. Gru almost abandons his plan due to lack of funds, but the girls and the minions take up a collection to keep it going.However, Gru has to make a choice, because the moon will be in the optimal position for the heist on the same day as the girls' ballet recital. Dr. Nefario, seeing the girls as a distraction, contacts Miss Hattie, who arrives to take the girls back. Gru, the Minions, and the girls are heartbroken. Gru goes on with his plan and flies to the moon.Gru successfully shrinks and pockets the Moon. Gru remembers the ballet recital and rushes to it. However, it has ended by the time he arrived. There, he finds a ransom note from Vector demanding the moon in exchange for the girls. After Gru hands over the moon, Vector reneges on the deal, keeping the girls and the moon. This enrages Gru, who storms Vector's lair, this time successfully breaching the defenses. Vector flies off in an escape pod with the girls. Gru holds on to the exterior of the ship. He nearly falls to his death, but is rescued by Dr. Nefario piloting the same ship that Vector shrunk before. Nefario reveals that the bigger the object, the quicker the effects of the shrink ray wear off. Very soon, the moon begins to grow and roll around inside Vector's ship, hurting him and freeing the girls. The girls see Gru outside of the ship, and Gru tells them to jump over to him. Edith and Agnes successfully make it onto the ship, but before Margo can jump, Vector grabs her. The moon rolls again and knocks Vector over, and Margo grabs onto Gru's grappling hook. Gru rescues her with the help of his minions, while the rapidly-expanding Moon wrecks Vector's controls, causing his ship to carry it back into orbit.Gru and the girls settle down to live a happy life as a family and Vector is stranded on the Moon. The girls give a special ballet recital for Gru, his minions, and his mother, who finally tells him she is proud of him and acknowledges him to be the better parent. The music changes from Swan Lake to You Should Be Dancing, and everyone rushes on stage to dance as the film ends.

cute, flashback, psychedelic, humor, entertaining, storytelling

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Pale Rider

Somewhere in California, at the end of the Gold Rush, several horsemen come riding down from the nearby mountains. They ride as if on urgent business.At a mining camp by a creek, prospectors calmly pan for gold and inspect their sluice boxes. A woman hangs up laundry. The riders approach the camp, crossing through the creek and through the local woods. Suddenly the dogs start barking furiously, and people stop what they're doing to look. A girl looks for her dog, Lindsay. The horsemen emerge from the woods, shooting guns as they enter the camp. They knock down shacks and tents, and kick people as they ride by. Megan's mother (Carrie Snodgress) shouts for Megan (Sydney Penny) as she runs after her dog Lindsay. Prospectors fight back feebly, but are no match for the horsemen. The horsemen shoot cattle and Megan's dog, and then chase donkeys as they leave. The people come out from hiding and assess the damage; the town is devastated. Megan is bent over her dead dog when her mother catches up to her. A man spits and calls the horsemen "sow-wallowing monkeys". Megan picks up her dog, crying. She takes the dog into the woods.Still crying, Megan buries her dog in the woods, and then recites the 23rd Psalm, interjecting her comments. Calm music plays, and local scenery is interspersed while she prays: The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. "But I do want." He leadeth me beside still waters. He restoreth my soul. "But they killed my dog." Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil. "But I am afraid." Thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. "We need a miracle." Thy loving kindness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. "If you exist." And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. "But I'd like to get more of this life first. If you don't help us, were all gonna die. Please. Just one miracle. Amen." As she prays the last few lines, an image of a man (Clint Eastwood) riding a white horse mottled with black is superimposed on the screen, along with foreboding music. The man on the white horse continues riding through the snow-covered ground into the woods.Mr. Barret (Michael Moriarty) rides out of camp in his wagon and Eddie (Chuck Lafont) asks if he's quitting. He says no, that he's going into town. Eddie asks him if that's dumb, because of what happened to him last time. Barret doesn't answer. Barret passes Teddy (Jeffrey Weissman), who asks him the same question, again with no response.Hull Barret arrives in the town of LaHood, and people look through their windows. After Barret ties up his wagon, he walks into the Blankenship mining supply store as four men stare. Hull greets Mr. and Mrs. Blankenship (Richard Hamilton and Fran Ryan). Mr. Blankenship calls Hull a "damn fool", and asks him if he couldn't wait until the smoke cleared away. Hull says that they needed some supplies. Mr. Blankenship tells Hull he has "sand but no sense". Hull says that they didn't have any choice because of the damage the men did to their shacks. Mr. Blankenship expects payment in gold. Hull says that as soon as he gets a couple of ounces, he'll bring them in. Mr. Blankenship says it will take more than that. Some thugs are now gathering by the supply store and looking in. Mr. Blankenship tells Hull that the last payment he made was 8 months ago, when Old Lindquist brought his dust in, and says that all the gold is gone from Carbon Canyon. Hull replies that if there were none left there, why is LaHood driving them out? Mr. Blankenship says to tell Spider and everyone else no more credit. Hull thanks Mr. Blankenship. Mr. Blankenship says that he's not doing it for him; he's the only merchant in town that LaHood doesn't own. Hull promises that one day they'll strike it big and he will pay them back with interest, and leaves the store.Hull walks outside, passing the men waiting there. After he loads up his wagon, they pick up some pick handles and confront Hull, saying that he forgot to say hello when they rode through the canyon. They also say that they told him to stay out of town. They joke that when they kicked him it made him forget, and they need to kick his head again to jar his memory. They also make crude remarks about his "Wheeler women". One of them pauses when he sees the man on the white horse at the edge of town. They ask Hull why he won't fight. Hull says he didn't come here to fight. One of them says that he shouldn't have come here at all, and then he looks at the edge of town and the horseman is gone. Another calls him a "Tin Pan", saying that he made a big mistake. They look inside his wagon and grab his goods. When he tries to stop them, they pull him down and beat him with the wooden handles. Hull crawls under the wagon, but they pull him back out. One of the men lights a match to burn Hull's goods he just bought. The stranger from the white horse throws a bucket of water on him, putting out the match. He says, "You shouldn't play with matches," and then grabs the last handle and walks towards them. They attack the stranger, but he counters every swing easily, knocking away their handles and knocking them down. He breaks the last man's handle in two and knocks him down too. Hull thanks the stranger but he just walks away. The bullies lie on the ground, badly injured and groaning. The stranger rides away towards Carbon Canyon, and Hull follows him in the wagon, as Mr. and Mrs. Blankenship still look out, worried.Hull catches up to the stranger and introduces himself. Hull warns him not to stay in Carbon Canyon after what he did. He offers the stranger to stay at his cabin because it has two rooms. The stranger says he doesn't want to be a burden on them. Hull says that it's a pleasure not a burden.The stranger follows Hull into Carbon Canyon. Ulrik (Herman Poppe) rides past them on his horse and pulling his mule as they enter camp and tells Hull goodbye. He says he's going away because he can't fight anymore. He says he's not the only one, and wishes Hull good luck, that he would quit too if he were smart. Hull and the stranger continue into camp.Inside their cabin, as her mother prepares dinner, Megan reads from the Bible, Revelation: The power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the Earth, and that they should kill one another. And there was given unto him a great sword. And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. Megan's mother says, "Very good. Fetch me some butter and some syrup." As Megan does she continues reading: And I beheld, and lo, a black horse, and he that sat on him, had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say A measure of wheat for a penny. Megan's mother looks out the window, and then mysterious music plays as Megan continues: And three measure of barley for a penny, and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine. And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. Hull and the stranger approach the house. Megan continues: And I looked. And behold, a pale horse, and his name that sat on him was death. Megan stops and looks out the window too, seeing the stranger stopped there. She finishes: And Hell followed with him. They watch as he rides past.The stranger took his shirt off and is washing his face. Hull sees scars that look like bullet wounds on his back. He tells the stranger that dinner will be ready soon, and leaves.Hull describes the fight between the stranger and McGill and his men. Megan's mother, Sarah says he sounds no different from McGill, Tyson, or any of LaHood's roughnecks. Hull says that at least the stranger wasn't afraid of them, and that's what they need up here. He tells them that Lindquist left. Sarah says that the colony is beaten, that Hull is the only one who doesn't know it. Megan says that shes not leaving until LaHood's men are whipped. Sarah reprimands Hull, telling him that Megan talks more like his daughter than hers. She wants him to tell Megan this business about fighting is nonsense. Sarah asks if the stranger is a gunman. Hull says he hopes so, and would he pay for protection. Sarah threatens to leave with Megan unless Hull gets rid of the stranger. He says that he will, but he saved his life. They continue to argue and then the stranger enters. They stop and stare at him, seeing his white preacher collar. He hopes he's not the cause of this excitement. They suddenly become very polite towards him. Sarah Wheeler thanks him for helping Hull, and then introduces herself and Megan. Megan smiles at the preacher.At a large mining camp, high-pressure water from pipes blasts the hillsides, the massive water runoff running into sluices. The thugs arrive, cut and bandaged. Their boss, Josh (Chris Penn) tells them that they're late for work. McGill (Charles Hallahan) apologizes to him, saying that they were at the doctor. Tyson (Allen Keller) says that they tangled with Barret. Josh is surprised that a "Tin Pan" beat them up. Jagou (Marvin J. McIntyre) says that a stranger helped him, a big guy. McGill says he left with Barret. Josh orders the men to their duties and then walks to a tent and calls Club. Club (Richard Kiel) steps out, over 7 feet tall.Hull is outside, telling the preacher that they've had a feud with Coy LaHood and his son, and that LaHood is a powerful man. LaHood came there in '54 or '55, and was the first man to strike it rich. He would use money from his mines to continue staking new claims. During the last couple of years, he has used the big hydraulic monitors and blasted all the hillsides. Megan says that although LaHood is more powerful than ever, Carbon Canyon is the only place his crew hasn't ruined yet. She adds that he's greedy for it, too. The preacher asks if he has any lawful rights to their canyon. Hull says no, all their claims are filed in Sacramento; the only way LaHood could take the land legally is if they leave it. The preacher says that LaHood is persuasive. Megan says that even if they all leave, she's staying there; they killed her dog and her grandpa. The stranger asks about the law, someone they could take their case to. Hull says if there were, LaHood would own them, just like he owns everything else. Hull says that a lawman couldn't do anything because LaHood hasn't killed anyone yet; Megan's grandpa's heart gave out on him. Hull has been taking of Sarah and Megan ever since. Hull says quietly that they're not living in sin, that he does want to marry her. A few years back her husband, Megan's father, walked out on them; it's been hard to get them to trust a man. He asks the preacher if he would marry Hull and Sarah when they do get married. The preacher tells Hull that if he's waiting for a woman to make up her mind, he may have a long wait. The preacher asks to be put to work, holding a sledgehammer. Hull declines at first and then agrees.Hull points out a boulder in the stream, saying that he wants to split it, that the gravel underneath it could have gold.; every morning for two years, he's been hitting it. He thought of drilling it and blasting it, but it would wreck the stream. The preacher swings away at the boulder, as Megan watches up on a hill. Hull gets another sledgehammer and they take turns hitting it. Megan gets closer and sits down to watch. Sarah comes out and sees them, and then so does everyone else as they chip away. Sarah and Megan both smile. Josh and Club rides up slowly, and Megan sees them, getting up. She calls Hull and Preacher. They stop swinging, and everyone looks at Josh and Club. Hull tells Preacher that he recognizes LaHood's son Josh, but not the other man. Hull tells Josh that he's their new preacher and Preacher nods yes. Josh says that Preacher messed up some of his men. Preacher says it wasn't anything personal. Josh replies that it's not personal when he's telling him to get out of Carbon Canyon. Preacher says there is lot of sinners around, that he can't leave before he finishes his work. Josh says, "Club", who gets down and walks into the stream. Everyone is apprehensive. He rolls down his sleeves, and then... quickly grabs Hull's sledgehammer with one hand and strikes the boulder once, screaming, splitting it and smiling. Josh asks Preacher if his work is done now. He replies that part of it is. Josh motions at Club, but before he can swing at Preacher, Preacher hits him instead with his sledgehammer. Club drops down holding his genitals, and Preacher helps him back up onto his horse. Josh and Club ride away. Preacher strikes the boulder and it splits again. The other men come over with sledgehammers and join in hitting the remaining pieces of the boulder.A train pulls into the station from Sacramento while Josh and McGill wait. Josh's father Coy LaHood (Richard Dysart) exits the train, and then he goes with Josh and McGill. Josh and McGill report the conditions of their various locations and Coy asks about Carbon Canyon. Josh tells Coy that a stranger pulled them together. Coy asks if they explained to him who they are, that once they explain things to him, he'll decide to move on. Josh says that he's a preacher, and Coy gets upset that they let a preacher into Carbon Canyon. Josh says that they didn't invite him, that he went with Hull. Coy said that when he left for Sacramento, "those Tin Pans" had given up, but a preacher could give them faith; with faith, they'll never leave. He tells them to bring the preacher to him and then changes his mind, saying that he doesn't want to make him a martyr. Coy says that Sacramento is useless because they didn't sign the writ; also, some politicians want to end hydraulic mining. Coy says that they have to move on Carbon Canon quickly because they may be out of business in a couple of years. He also tells them that he'll deal with the preacher.Megan asks her mother if her grandma and grandpa were happy when she got married. Sarah says they didn't have any choice. Megan asks if they were surprised. Sarah replies that they were more than surprised. Megan asks if it was because they thought she wasn't old enough. Sarah replies that Megan's grandma was 15 when she got married; they got upset because of who she married. Megan asks Sarah if she'll be happy married to Hull. Sarah asks Megan, who said that she will marry him? Megan says that Hull is nice enough. Sarah agrees that he's nice. Megan asks if preachers get married. Sarah replies she doesn't see why not and then tells her that she's the prettiest daughter she could ever have.Preacher and Hull are working in the stream when Hull finds a large nugget. He yells excitedly and then runs off and shows the nugget to Sarah and Megan. Others talk are excited too, except Spider (Doug McGrath), who is angry. Hull says it came from underneath the boulder, that he was right. Hull wants to celebrate, and Megan wants to go into town. Sarah thinks that's not a good idea. Preacher says that it would help clear Hull's credit. All four of them go to town in the wagon.When they arrive in town, Hull tells them to wait while he clears things up with Mr. Blankenship. Josh comes out of the LaHood residence, next to their business, and then walks toward the wagon. He greets Sarah and Megan, and then tells Preacher that his father wants to see him. Sarah says that it's a trick. Preacher says that it's all right and goes with Josh inside.More of LaHood's men are inside. Coy LaHood introduces himself and gives Preacher a drink. LaHood says that when he heard a parson had come to town, he "had an image of a pale, scrawny, bible-thumping easterner, with a linen handkerchief and bad lungs." He says, "It must be difficult for a man of faith to carry the message on an empty stomach, so to speak, so he would invite him to preach in town. The town could be his parish. He could build that preacher a new church." Preacher realizes that LaHood is trying to bribe him and plays along, suggesting that he would need new clothes and would appreciate the generous collections. Preacher finally tells LaHood, "That's why it wouldn't work. Can't serve God and mammon both, mammon being money." LaHood gets upset and shows Preacher a writ that supposedly gives him mineral rights to Carbon Canyon. Preacher replies that if he had those rights he would have exercised them; those people have legal rights, and he can't mine that canyon until they leave. LaHood then gives Preacher 24 hours to pack up and leave, or his men will "ride through that canyon and run them out." He says that if any blood gets spilled will be on Preacher's hands, and then calls him a troublemaker. Preacher starts walking out. LaHood tells Preacher as he leaves that he tried reasoning with him. He says that the marshal, Stockburn, won't be as patient as he is. Preacher asks LaHood if he would pay cash for the claims of the people at Carbon Canyon. LaHood says he would do anything to prevent bloodshed, and offers $100 each. Preacher asks for $1000. LaHood laughs, and so do all his men. LaHood offers $125. Preacher tells LaHood that Stockburn and his deputies will cost him a lot more than that. LaHood angrily settles for $1000 per claim, but says that he wants them out in 24 hours.Hull comes back to the wagon; he paid off his debt and had money left over to pay off Spider's debt too. Preacher comes out, followed by Jagou, McGill, and another one of LaHood's men. Hull grabs a hickory handle. He asks Preacher what he was doing in there, and Preacher replies that LaHood was buying him a drink.Nighttime around the campfire, the Carbon Canyon men vote on whether or not to accept LaHood's offer. Spider is the only one who doesn't want to accept the offer. He says LaHood is greedy, but not a fool, and that if he's willing to pay $1000 per claim, he knows it's worth 5 times that. Another man counters that the way LaHood works it's worth that much. Preacher walks up and Spider asks for his opinion. He tells them that it's their hard labor and its up to them; they should sleep on it, and then decide in the morning. Spider asks what if they can't agree? Preacher replies that LaHood would take that as no and then call in the marshal, Stockburn. He tells them that he's not an ordinary marshal. He travels with 6 deputies, and they uphold whatever law pays them the most. Killing is a way of life for them. Spider asks Preacher if he knows Stockburn. Preacher replies that he's heard of him. Hull tells the others that they all know how to pull a trigger; its still 20 against 7. Ev Gossage (Graham Paul) wants to take his money and start over somewhere else. Hull says that starting fresh sounds good when you're in trouble, but before they pack up and leave, they should ask themselves why they're here. He reminds them what Spider said about one of them finding $1000 worth of nuggets, that he wouldn't quit. He says that he came here to raise a family; it's his home. He says they all buried members of their families here; would they take $1000 and leave their graves unattended? Hull says that if they sell out now, what price do they put on their dignity next time? The men vote to stay and not take LaHood's offer, and then they all leave.Preacher leaves the campfire. Megan meets him and shows him where she buried her dog. She says that she said a prayer for her dog after the raid, and prayed for a miracle. Preacher replies that someday she might get that miracle. She says that it was the day he arrived. She tells Preacher that she loves him, and then asks him if they could ever get married and make love. Preacher replies that there's not anything wrong with love or making love, but politely tells her that some day she'll find the right man for her. He also tells her that her mother is probably looking for her. Megan looks at him suspiciously and gets the wrong message, and thinks that Preacher loves Sarah. She goes on a tirade about him, and then angrily storms off.The next day Preacher goes to LaHood's camp and stops to observe as they blast the hillsides. He rides past Josh and tells him, "Tell your father they turned him down," and then rides away.A train pulls up to the train station. The telegraph officer notices Preacher waiting on his horse on the other side of the tracks before the train stops. McGill comes over to the office and the telegram officer tells him he's just in time for the mail. McGill doesn't worry about the mail, but gives him a telegram from his boss that he wants sent right now. McGill leaves and the officer keys the telegram. When the train departs, the officer looks up and notices that Preacher is gone, and then continues keying the telegram.In Yuba City, the telegraph officer receives the telegram McGill sent and then walks immediately to the marshal's office.Hull goes to Preacher's room and finds out that he left. Hull tells Sarah and Megan that he doesn't know why Preacher left. Sarah says that he must have gone to tell LaHood about the vote last night, but Hull says that he took his bedroll and coat. Hull thinks they will survive. Sarah tells Hull that he got the others to vote his way. They argue, bringing Megan nearly to tears. Sarah says that the preacher was holding them together and they were counting on him to beat LaHood himself.There is an explosion and they all go outside. Hull sees a cloud of smoke, and then he runs down to look at the stream. The water has slowed to a trickle. Hull tells Sarah and Megan that LaHood dammed up the creek. Sarah tells him that if he had accepted LaHood's offer, this never would have happened.At Wells Fargo and Co's. Express, Preacher retrieves the contents of his safety deposit box: a Remington 1858 New Army in a holster and a Remington Pocket. He removes his collar and puts it into the box, revealing a blood spot from a bullet wound.Back at Carbon Canyon, the men are gathered around a campfire again, discussing what they will do now. They seem to have given up, that they have no choice except to leave. Spider asks Hull if he has any ideas. He shakes his head no. Spider asks where the preacher is; hell know what to do. Hull replies that hes not there. Ev stands up, unable to believe that Preacher left. Hull says that Preacher went to tell LaHood that they turned him down. And then lying, he continues, "But before he left... he said that if anything happened, that he hoped that we'd do like he'd do... if he was here." Ev looks down sadly, and says that they could dry pan for a couple of days. Hull says that he'd hate to see them quit. Another man says they could try for a couple of days, because they don't have anything to lose. The men sadly agree, resigning themselves to their situation. They agree to try two more days then laugh and leave. When Spider gets up, he tells Barret that he's "got sand" but can't lie well and suggests that he leave with Sarah and Megan; Spider walks away. Hull turns around and sees Megan sitting on the porch, poking a stick in the ground as she watches. She throws the stick on the ground and walks the other direction.The marshal and his six deputies ride quickly down from the mountains.Megan comes over to the stream and asks Hull if he's angry with her. He says no. She asks to borrow the mare and he lets her.Spider finds a large golden rock in a puddle. He stands up and shouts that he's rich, and jumps around. He shows it to Gossage and Henderson (Terrence Evans). Everyone close by comes over except Hull, who just sits there. Spider tells his sons Eddie and Teddy to get the horses because they're going to town.Hull apologizes to Sarah. He says that it looks like Spider's payday came. She replies that maybe it's just his turn. Hull tells her that when they pack up, there's room in the wagon for whatever she wants to take. She wonders if he's asking them to leave with him. He assumes that they're all going. He tells her that when her father died, he did the best he could to help her and Megan, without any conditions attached, and asks if there is a chance for them to be together. She looks at him sadly and says, "You are the decentest man I ever met, Hull Barret. The answer is yes." She apologizes for being so high-strung lately, but has been confused. Hull says that they can start over somewhere else and find another preacher, and she agrees.Trying to find Preacher, Megan arrives at the LaHood mining camp and stops to look around. Josh asks her if her mother knows where she is. She says that she's 15, doesn't tell her mother everything, and can do what she wants. He explains what they're doing: how diverting Cobalt Creek into a large pipe, and then downhill into smaller pipes, makes the water pick up speed and pressure. Megan says it hurts her ears. He says that the water has enough pressure to blast gravel off the cliff, into the riverbed, and then into the sluice. Megan says that it looks like hell. Josh asks what she really came for. She replies that she's just riding, taking a look around. Josh says he wants to take a look too, at her real close. He pulls her off the horse. She screams as he carries her downhill. The men stop work and he shows Megan to them, still struggling. He puts her down and walks towards her as she backs up. More men come out of the tents and shacks to look, and then surround her. Josh grabs her hair and kisses her. They both fall to the ground. The men cheer him on while Megan begs him to stop. Club walks towards the crowd, saying, "No." He pushes men aside, and then a gunshot sounds out. Josh gets up and everyone turns around. Preacher, on his horse, is up on the hill holding his gun, smoke coming out. His gun is trained on Josh. Megan sees him and smiles, relieved. The men back away from Josh and Megan. Josh pulls out his gun and tries to shoot, but Preacher shoots it away. Josh falls to the ground. He reaches for his gun, but Preacher shoots his hand and then shoots the gun again. Preacher rides down, helps Megan up onto his horse, and they ride away.In town, Spider Conway walks into the street drunk, holding a bottle of liquor and his golden rock. He shouts for LaHood to come out. Inside, LaHood tells Stockburn (John Russell) that for a while "he had them buffaloed", but the preacher gave them sass. LaHood tells Stockburn to take care of him and the rest, and tells him that the preacher beat up four of his men. Stockburn asks what the preacher looks like. LaHood replies, "Tall. Lean. His eyes... his eyes. Something strange about em. That mean something to you?" Stockburn says that it sounds like a man he knew, but that man is dead. Outside, Spider is still ranting and then falls to the ground. Stockburn and his six deputies, all armed, walk outside and stop on the porch in front of Spider. Spider insists that he wants to talk to LaHood, not them. Stockburn tells Spider that LaHood doesn't want to talk to him, but might like to watch him dance. Spider's sons come out, and Spider tells them to stay there. Stockburn and his deputies shoot at Spider's feet, and he hops around. Stockburn signals for them to stop. He shoots the bottle Spider's holding and then the rock. Spider pulls his gun out, yelling, and all the deputies shoot Spider, emptying their guns. LaHood watches through the window as they kill Spider, Stockburn finishing him off with one final bullet through the head. Spider's sons run to him as the deputies go inside. Stockburn tells Spider's sons to take him back to Carbon Canyon and tell the preacher to meet Stockburn here tomorrow morning.Preacher rides into Carbon Canyon with Megan. Ev Gossage excitedly tells Preacher that LaHood dammed up the stream and other news, including how Megan's horse returned without her. Gossage stops talking when he sees Megan on the horse with Preacher as they ride by.Preacher puts Megan in bed. Sarah is crying. He tells Sarah that Megan got caught up at LaHood's place but is fine. He tells Megan that she's home now, that her mama's here. Megan gets up and hugs him. Sarah sees his gun. Hull calls out for Preacher and he goes outside. All the people are gathered around a wagon holding the deceased Spider. His son Teddy is finishing his story that Stockburn and his men shot him. He then tells Preacher that Stockburn wants him to come in the morning. Preacher tells them that Spider made a mistake and went into town alone. He tells them to bury Spider and then walks away.Preacher is checking his guns inside his room when Sarah comes in. She tells him that Megan is sleeping, and thanks him. Preacher says that he's just glad he came by. She says that Megan told her what he did with Josh LaHood; who but a gunfighter could have done that. She asks him not to go into town to face the marshal. He replies that it's an old score; it's time to settle it. She says that when he left that day, it reminded her of when someone else left her. She tells him that she needs a man who would never leave her, and then says it's best for her to marry Hull. Preacher agrees that Hull is a good man. She kisses him, saying that it's so she won't wonder for the rest of her life. Outside, a voice calls for Preacher in the distance. Preacher tells her that it's a voice from the past and tells her to close the door. She asks who he really is. He says that it doesn't really matter, and she goes to him.The next day Preacher gets on his horse and greets Hull, who is waiting outside. Hull insists on going with him so Preacher agrees. They go to the LaHood camp and blow up their pipes, sluices, tents, and the barracks with dynamite. After fooling Hull to dismount, Preacher scares away his horse. He then tells Hull to take care of Sarah and Megan, and rides into town.At their cabin, Sarah tells Megan that Preacher is gone. Megan asks Sarah if she loved him. Sarah replies that he knows they both love him. Megan tells her that she didn't say goodbye to him and runs out.Preacher rides into town. LaHood watches through a window and tells Stockburn that he's the preacher. Stockburn can't see his face yet. Outside, LaHood's men stop working and walk towards Preacher as he rides by, and watch as he walks into the cafe. Mrs. Blankenship serves him some coffee and he sends them both out. The men all draw their guns and storm the store, emptying their guns everywhere. LaHood tells Stockburn that he won't have to bother with the preacher. As the men reload, Preacher comes from the side and asks if they are through. Two men run away, but the others continue to reload. Preacher waits with his gun drawn. They draw their guns on Preacher but he shoots them all.LaHood and Stockburn watch as Preacher comes out. He walks to the edge of town, turns around, and replaces the cylinder of his Remington New Army, like a speedloader. Stockburn goes outside with his deputies. Only Preacher's hat is left where he was standing, so Stockburn tells his deputies to spread out and find him. Stockburn waits there. Preacher shoots the first deputy as he enters a store. Another deputy goes to investigate and Preacher shoots him too. Preacher hides behind some crates and shoots two more deputies. Another deputy sees the open door of the outhouse and stops by a water trough to shoot at it, but Preacher was hiding on the ground behind the trough and shoots him. The remaining deputy walks into the livery stable. A noose grabs his neck and his gun goes off wildly. A shadowy figure hooks the rope to a horse's saddle and the horse runs out, dragging the deputy as he screams. Stockburn watches the man get dragged out of town. The shadowy figure, Preacher, returns to the spot where he left his hat, puts it on his head and then turns to look at Stockburn. With his Remington Pocket in his belt, Preacher walks towards Stockburn while reloading his Remington New Army again, and then puts it back in its holster. He stops a few feet from Stockburn, his hat still shading his eyes. When he raises his head, Stockburn recognizes him. Stockburn says, "You!" and reaches for his gun, but Preacher draws his New Army first and unloads it into him. Mortally wounded, Stockburn collapses to his knees and looks up at Preacher, who shoots him in the forehead with his Remington Pocket, killing him. LaHood tries to shoot Preacher from inside his residence, but Hull bursts in, shooting and killing him instead. Hull goes outside to look for Preacher, who emerges riding from the livery. Preacher tells Hull, "Long walk." and then rides away. Megan comes into town with the wagon. She asks Hull where Preacher is and he replies that he's gone. She jumps in the wagon in order to chase after Preacher but Mrs. Blankenship tells her that the horses are exhausted and she would kill them. Megan runs to the end of town and shouts out thank you to Preacher, that they love him, that she loves him. Her cries echo through the mountains, but it is uncertain whether the Preacher hears them as he rides though the snow. Hull and Megan drive the wagon back towards camp.The final shot of the movie shows Preacher riding through the snow in the mountains.Synopsis written by Mu_Ve_Watchr_89.

revenge, psychedelic, murder, violence

tt0089767

Blacula

In 1780, Prince Mamuwalde (William Marshall), the ruler of the Abani African nation, seeks the help of Count Dracula (Charles Macaulay) in suppressing the slave trade. Dracula refuses to help, and transforms Mamuwalde into a vampire, whom he names Blacula and imprisons in a sealed coffin. Mamuwalde's wife, Luva (Vonetta McGee), is also imprisoned and dies in captivity. In 1972, the coffin has been purchased as part of an estate by two interior decorators, Bobby McCoy (Ted Harris) and Billy Schaffer (Rick Metzler) and shipped to Los Angeles. Bobby and Billy open the coffin and become Prince Mamuwalde's first victims At the funeral home where Bobby McCoy's body is laid, Mamuwalde spies on mourning friends Tina Williams (Vonetta McGee), her sister Michelle (Denise Nicholas), and Michelle's boyfriend, Dr. Gordon Thomas (Thalmus Rasulala), a pathologist for the Los Angeles Police Department. Mamuwalde believes Tina is the reincarnation of his deceased wife, Luva. On close investigation of the corpse at the funeral home, Dr. Thomas notices oddities with Bobby McCoy's death that he later concludes to be consistent with vampire folklore. Prince Mamuwalde continues to kill and transform various people he encounters, as Tina begins to fall in love with him. Thomas, his colleague Lt. Peters (Gordon Pinsent), and Michelle follow the trail of murder victims and begin to believe a vampire is responsible. After Thomas digs up Billy's coffin, Billy's corpse rises as a vampire and attacks Thomas, who fends him off and drives a stake through his heart. After finding a photo taken of Mamuwalde and Tina in which Mamuwalde is not visible, Thomas and Peters track Mamuwalde to his hideout, the warehouse where Bobby McCoy and Billy Schaffer were first slain. They defeat several vampires, but Mamuwalde manages to escape. Mamuwalde lures Tina to his new hideout at the nearby waterworks plant, while Thomas and a group of police officers pursue him. Mamuwalde dispatches several officers, but one of them manages to shoot Tina. To save Tina from death, Mamuwalde transforms her into a vampire. After Peters manages to kill the vampire Tina, Mamuwalde believes he cannot live any longer after losing her twice. Mamuwalde leaves for the surface where the morning sunlight rots his flesh quickly and kills him.

cult, blaxploitation

tt0068284

Saving Private Ryan

An American flag back-lighted by the afternoon sun gently flaps in the breeze. The camera pulls back to reveal the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. An elderly man (Harrison Young) approaches the cemetery and walks among the rows of gravestones, which are mostly marble crosses, with an occasional Star of David marking the grave of a Jewish soldier. He is accompanied by his wife, his daughter and her husband, and three teenage granddaughters. He searches the crosses and stops at a specific one, where he falls to his knees, crying. His family walks up behind him and tries to comforts him. The camera slowly zooms in on his face, into his eyes.June 6, 1944, Omaha Beach, Dog Green Sector:On the choppy waters of the English Channel, American Ranger soldiers are headed to Omaha Beach in landing vehicles. The captain of one unit, John H. Miller (Tom Hanks), tells his men to, upon landing, "clear the murder holes" and check their rifles for sand and water when they exit the boats. Miller's right hand shakes nervously.The moment the landing ramp at the front of the boat opens, a number of men are immediately struck down by machine gun fire from concrete German bunkers and machine-gun nests built into the cliffs overlooking the beach. To avoid the machine gun fire, other men jump over the gunwales of the landing boats and into the surf. Some drown under the weight of their heavy gear. Upon gaining the beach, many take refuge behind the wooden landing craft obstacles and the thin flanks of the steel tank obstacles blocking approaches to the beach, which offer almost no protection from incoming fire and mortar rounds.As Miller crawls up the sand, a mortar shell hits nearby and the blast temporarily stuns him, knocking his helmet off. Miller's is stunned and his hearing is reduced to a dull, muddled noise. He watches as men around him are hit by bullets or the blast of mortar rounds, or are simply too scared to move. One private looks Miller in the eye and asks him what to do. Miller's hearing slowly returns and he orders his sergeant, Mike Horvath (Tom Sizemore) to move his men up the beach and out of the line of enemy fire. As Miller staggers up the beach, he drags a wounded man. The man is hit by a mortar blast and is killed; Miller suddenly discovers that he's been dragging less than half the man's dismembered remains. The German barrage kills most of the US Army troops and leaves twice as many wounded; many of the wounded are eviscerated or missing limbs and slowly bleed to death on the beach, despite the efforts of medics to treat them.Whomever is left in Miller's platoon assembles at a sandbar that provides very little cover from the German bombardment. Miller orders his men to use "bangalore" explosives to clear out the barbed wire and mines behind the sandbar for their advance. The men make it to the nearest concrete bunker where a machine gun nest on a nearby cliff keeps them from moving further. After sending a few of his men into the fire zone where they're cut down immediately, Miller has his sniper, Pvt. Daniel Jackson (Barry Pepper), run into the fire zone and take out the men in the machine gun nest with two precise shots. Jackson's efforts are successful and Miller moves his men behind the bunker where a soldier with a flamethrower sets the bunker ablaze. On the beach, one soldier yells to the others to let the German soldiers burn as they jump out of the bunker.Miller's men engage other German soldiers in the trenches behind the bunker, quickly creating an exit route from Omaha for the rest of the battalion. Miller also watches as a few men mercilessly execute a few surrendering German and Czech soldiers. Pvt. Adrian Caparzo (Vin Diesel) finds a Hitler Youth knife which he gives to his friend, Pvt. Stanley Mellish (Adam Goldberg) (a Jew); Mellish begins to sob. Horvath collects a handful of dirt in a small metal can marked "France" and puts it into his haversack alongside cans marked "Italy" and "Africa". Horvath comments to Miller that the beach commands "quite a view"; it is covered with the bodies of thousands of dead and wounded American soldiers. On the backpack of one of them is the name "S. Ryan".At the War Department in the United States, rows of secretaries are typing death notices to be sent to the families of the men killed in various battles around the world. One of the women typing discovers three letters for three men from the same family. The three men are all brothers from the Ryan family of Iowa and their mother will receive all three letters at the same time. The fourth and youngest son of Mrs. Ryan, James Francis, is part of the 101st Airborne Division, dropped into Normandy ahead of the beach invasion and his whereabouts are unknown. The letters are brought to the attention of General George Marshall (Harve Presnell) who, after reading a poignant letter sent by Abraham Lincoln to a family under similar circumstances during the Civil War, orders his officers to find James and have him brought home immediately.Back in Normandy, three days after D-Day, Miller meets with his commanding officer and reports on a mission that cost the lives of many of his men. Lieutenant Colonel Anderson (Dennis Farina) gives him new orders; Miller is tasked with taking a squad into Normandy to find Pvt. James Francis Ryan and bring him back. Miller gathers what men he can and finds Corporal Timothy E. Upham (Jeremy Davies) in the camp press box to accompany the squad as a translator - Upham speaks fluent French and German, to replace his previous interpreter. The squad sets out in the French countryside. Upham tries to talk to Mellish and Caparzo but, because he's the "new guy" in the squad, finds them unfriendly and even insulting, despite his higher rank. The squad's medic, Irwin Wade (Giovanni Ribisi), asks Upham about a book he plans to write about the bonds of friendship among soldiers. Richard Reiben (Edward Burns), a hotheaded private from Brooklyn, questions the mission, wanting to know if the effort to find Ryan is worth the lives of men who should be fighting more important battles to liberate France and Europe. Miller himself is also skeptical about the mission but understands that his current orders are more important and encourages his squad to discuss the mission.The squad arrives in a small French village where Army units are currently at a standstill with the German forces they're fighting. Miller asks the nearest sergeant if Ryan is among his unit, but he's not. In an attempt to get information from the Army unit on the other side of town, they send a runner across the battlefield. The runner is cut down almost immediately. They cross the town via some side roads and come across a French family trying to escape their bombed home, but trapped in the cross fire. The father insists the squad take his young daughter to safety; Miller refuses but Caparzo steps out from cover to take her, against orders. He is shot in the chest by a sniper and falls, still alive, caught in the open. The squad takes cover, unable to pull Caparzo to safety. Jackson quickly identifies the town's bell tower as the sniper's likely shooting position. He finds a nearby pile of rubble that he uses for cover to take out the sniper. As the sniper looks for another target among the squad, he sees Jackson a moment too late, and is shot through his own scope. Caparzo dies, bleeding to death. Miller looks down on his body and harshly tells his men that this is why they follow orders and "don't take children." Wade retrieves a blood-stained letter from the body that Caparzo had been writing to his father.In another part of the village, the squad and the other soldiers sit down inside a bombed building to rest. A sergeant sends one of his men to find their CO. When the sergeant sits down, he knocks over a weakened brick wall that reveals a squad of German soldiers inside the building. A standoff ensues, with both sides aiming their weapons at each other, and both demanding the other put down their guns. The impasse is unexpectedly ended when the Germans are cut down by machine-gun fire from the unit's Captain (Ted Danson) and the soldier sent to find him.Miller asks the captain if he has a Pvt. James F. Ryan in his unit. The captain confirms that he does, and Ryan (Nathan Fillion) is brought to Miller who tells him his brothers are dead. The man breaks down and asks how they died and Miller tells him they were killed in combat. Ryan is incredulous, telling Miller that his brothers are still in grade school. Miller confirms the man's full name, and learns that he is James "Frederick" Ryan from Minnesota; Miller, exasperated, tells Ryan he's sure his brothers are just fine. From another private being treated for a leg wound, also from the 101st, the squad learns that the 101st's rallying point is nearby and that Ryan may have gone there.The squad spends a few hours resting in a church. Wade rewrites the blood-stained letter Caparzo wanted to send to his father. Horvath and Miller talk about how many men Miller has lost under his command. Miller accepts that men die in combat for the greater good. Cpl. Upham talks to the captain about a betting pool the men have going where they try to guess Miller's occupation before the war began. Upham and Miller come to a humorous silent agreement that when the pool is big enough, Miller will tell him the answer.The squad arrives at a rally point near a wrecked troop glider. The rally point is filled with dozens of wounded GIs. Sitting among the men is the pilot of the glider who tells them he doesn't know where to find Pvt. Ryan. The pilot's glider went down after being towed because steel plates had been welded to its underside to protect a general in his jeep, making the glider too heavy to fly. The glider crashed, killing the general. The squad reflects on the efforts to protect only a single man. The pilot gives Miller a bag full of dog tags taken from dead soldiers. Miller has his men go through them looking for Ryan. They do so rather callously while men from Army Airborne units march by. Wade walks over and starts picking up the tags, muttering that his comrades are acting rather coldly in front of the passing Airborne soldiers. Miller concludes that Ryan isn't among them and in a minor fit of desperation, beings to question the passing soldiers, asking if any of them know Ryan. He gets lucky with one man who is from Ryan's unit and has lost his hearing from a grenade blast, so he yells his answers. The man tells him that Ryan was assigned to a mixed unit that's guarding a bridge across the Merderet River in the nearby village of Ramelle. Miller determines that the bridge is of vital importance to the Army and the Germans because it will allow either to drive their tank units across the water.The squad sets out again. They spot two dead GIs in a field and confirm that none of them are Ryan. Miller and Horvath spot a machine gun nest near a partially destroyed radar dish. Though it would be easier, as Reiben suggests, to keep their distance from the machine gun and slip quietly around it, Miller resolves to take out the German's position so that the next Allied unit will not be surprised and killed. The squad is against his plan, but he won't relent, and gives them their assignments. Upham is instructed to stay behind with their gear. The squad attacks the machine gun emplacement, while Upham watches through one of Jackson's sniper's scopes. When the skirmish is over, the men yell frantically for Upham to bring their gear. When Upham reaches them, he sees that Wade has been shot several times in the chest and is bleeding. The men frantically try to save his life but Wade dies, saying he wants to go home. One of the Germans (Joerg Stadler) is captured alive and in retribution, the squad rushes around him, beating him. Miller is undecided how to dispose of the German POW, and orders that he dig graves for Wade and the two GIs they saw in the field. When Upham protests that prisoners aren't to be treated like slaves, Miller coldly orders Upham to help the German. As the German digs the graves, Miller sits off to one side where he cries, his right hand shaking again. He slowly recovers his composure and returns to the squad.Miller's squad wants to kill the remaining German, excepting Upham, who has mildly befriended the German while he dug the graves. The German begs for his life, insisting he loves America, saying "Fuck Hitler!!". The men are unmoved and prepare their weapons to kill him when Miller intervenes. He blindfolds the German and, to the astonishment of the squad, lets the man walk off, directing Upham to tell him to surrender to the next Allied unit. Reiben in particular is offended by Miller's compassion and threatens to desert, saying that their mission has gotten two of their comrades killed. Horvath orders Reiben to fall into formation and threatens to shoot him. The entire squad begins to argue heatedly and Miller suddenly asks Upham the total of the pool on him. Miller reveals that he's an English composition teacher in a small Pennsylvania town. The men stop arguing, completely astonished. Miller says the war has changed him and he's not sure if his wife will recognize him and if he'll be able to resume his former life when he returns home. He reasons that if finding and bringing Ryan back ensures that he'll be able to get home sooner, then it's his job to complete the mission. The squad finishes burying Wade and the other GIs together.The exhausted squad approaches Ramelle. While crossing a field, they spot a German half-track. Miller orders everyone to take cover while the vehicle passes. The half-track is suddenly hit by bazooka fire. Miller's squad is momentarily confused, uncertain who is firing, but moves in and kills Germans as they attempt to escape the destroyed vehicle. A small group of American soldiers emerge from their positions in the field and identify themselves as paratroopers from various Airborne units. One of them identifies himself as Pvt James Ryan (Matt Damon) .In the ruins of the village of Ramelle, Miller's squad learns that Ryan and his comrades are guarding one of two remaining bridges across the Merderet River. Their commanding officer had been killed a few days before. Miller tells Ryan that his three brothers are dead and that he's been given a ticket home. Ryan is devastated by the news of his family but refuses to leave, saying that it's his duty to stay with his unit and defend the bridge until relief arrives. Ryan says his mother would understand his desire to remain at the bridge with the "only brothers [he] has left." Miller can't change Ryan's mind. Miller and Horvath reflect on Ryan's refusal and they decide to stay and help the unit defend the bridge.Miller inventories their few remaining weapons and supplies. Miller outlines a plan to lure German tanks on the main street of Ramelle, where the rubble from destroyed buildings creates a narrow choke point that will channel the armor and German troops into a bottleneck and allow the his soldiers to flank the Germans. Their plan includes Reiben riding out on a German half-track motorcycle to lure the German unit into the bottleneck. Miller suggests they improvise "sticky bombs," socks stuffed with Composition B explosives and coated with grease. They'll use the sticky bombs to blast the treads off one of the tanks. They retrieve some spare Comp B from the demolition charges on the bridge. Upham is given the job of running ammunition to the two Browning machine gun positions manned by Mellish and 101st paratrooper Parker (Demetri Goritsas). Jackson and Parker take position in the church tower to provide sniper cover.The men wait for the Germans to arrive, listening to "Tous es Partout" by Edith Piaf, while Upham interprets -- his new comrades seem more accepting of him and listen intently while he translate. Ryan tells Miller that he can remember his brothers but he can't see their faces. Miller suggests he "think of a context", something they've all done together. Miller tells Ryan when he wants to remember his wife, he thinks of her trimming rosebushes. Ryan tells the story of how he and his brothers nearly burned down the barn on their farm when they snuck up on their oldest brother, Danny, while he was trying to have sex with a local girl in the hayloft. James laughs and stops when he realizes that the incident was the last time they were all together, over two years ago, before any of them had gone to basic training. When Ryan asks Miller to tell him about his wife and the rosebushes, Miller politely refuses, saying that memory is for him alone.The squad feels the ground beginning to rumble, indicating that the German column has arrived. Jackson signals from the church tower that there are two Panzer tanks (which turn out to be Marder III self-propelled guns) and two Tiger I heavy tanks. There are also at least 50 German troops. Miller orders everyone to their positions and Reiben rides out to act as "the rabbit" to lure the Germans into town. One of the Tiger tanks proceeds down the main street, and one of the soldiers attempts to plant a sticky bomb on the tank. He waits too long and the bomb blows up, killing him. The German troops following the tank are cut down by the soldiers and by mines planted along the sides. Two men plant the Comp B bombs on the wheels of the Tiger, blasting it's tread apart, eventually bringing it to a halt. When they advance on the tank to take out it's crew, they are fired upon by a small German squad with a 20 millimeter flak cannon that brutally takes out several more men.Ryan and Miller's squads open fire and shift positions several times during the battle. Though they take the Germans by surprise, several of the men are killed. Jackson is discovered in his perch and is hit by tank fire. Mellish and Corporal Henderson (Maximilian Martini) man a .30 caliber machine gun to cut off any flanking action by the Germans. Henderson is killed and then Mellish is attacked by a German soldier (Mac Steinmeier) who overpowers him in hand-to-hand combat, slowly driving a bayonet into Mellish's chest. Immediately outside the room on the stairs, Cpl. Upham sits, frozen with terror, unable to move to rescue Mellish.The German soldier kills Mellish and marches out, indifferent to the terrified Upham. Reiben is able to flank the 20mm cannon and takes out its operators. Sgt. Horvath is wounded during this time when he and another soldier corner each other. They each chuck helmets at each other, then shoot each other with their pistols. The German soldier here is killed and Horvath is injured. He grabs Upham and retreats when Miller orders everyone to cross the bridge to their "Alamo" position, where they'll make their last stand. The surviving 60-ton Tiger tank follows and appears to be unstoppable despite Horvath shooting several bazooka rockets at it in a futile attempt to disable it. Horvath is shot in the chest as he pulls back and dies a few minutes later. Miller prepares to destroy the bridge when a shell from the Tiger hits the building behind him, blowing the detonator out of his hands. He staggers across the bridge to retrieve it and is shot in the chest by the same German soldier (Joerg Stadler) he'd set free at the radar station. Upham witnesses the shooting while hiding behind a pile of rubble.Miller falls, unable to continue. He draws his .45 pistol and begins to shoot vainly at the Tiger tank, which has begun to cross the bridge. After a few shots, the tank impossibly explodes. A small squadron of P-51 Mustang fighters suddenly zoom into view, having bombed the tank and several enemy targets. Reiben and Ryan rush to Miller's side and call for a medic. Upham, still on the other side of the bridge, is undetected by the enemy squad. He reveals himself and takes the entire squad prisoner. The man who shot Miller recognizes Upham and calls him by name. After a moment's hesitation, Upham fires his weapon for the first time, killing the man. The soldier's body thumps to the ground and Upham sharply orders the rest of the prisoners to disperse.As Miller lays dying, Ryan tells him that the planes are P-51 Mustangs, "tank busters." Miller calls them "Angels on our shoulders." He beckons Ryan closer and with his dying breath, tells him "Earn this... earn it." In a voiceover, General George Marshall's voice reads a letter to Ryan's mother, informing her that her son is returning home. He quotes a passage from Lincoln's letter about the cost of war.Ryan stands looking at Miller's body. The camera focuses on Ryan's young face as it morphs into Ryan in the present. He is standing at Captain Miller's grave. He tells Miller that he hopes he's lived up to Miller's wish and been worthy of all that Miller and his men did for him. He asks his wife to tell him that he's led a good life and that he's a good man. The elder Ryan (Harrison Young) salutes Miller's grave. An American flag back-lighted by the afternoon sun gently flaps in the breeze.

dark, murder, realism, dramatic, violence, action, philosophical, historical

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He Was a Quiet Man

Partially quoted from enigk and the DVD commentary:5 years previous to the movie, Bob's wife and child are killed. Bob moves into a smaller house, buys some fish as an attempt at relaxation and companionship and begins going *beep* (News report mentions Coleman's wife and child dying 5 years ago. Also, when Bob tosses his first apple juice cap into the sink in his apartment, the window shows two hummingbirds - IMO symbolizing the dead wife and child).Bob falls for Paula, but she treats Bob like crap and won't give him the time of day, so he creates wonderful Hula Girl Vanessa and superimposes her over Paula's 'frame'. Vanessa was indeed Bob's virtualization of the Hawaiian girl. She seems to appear whenever he comes contact with the hula girl. His doll broke but only her face remained undamaged just like Vanessa's body was paralyzed except for her face. (Also, later when Bob takes Vanessa to the office for a visit, she asks him where he was when the shooting happened and his reply was "I was over by the hula girl." )After destroying his apartment, not maintaining the fish tank for a few months and continuing his train ride to Crazy Town, Bob brings the gun into work.As Real Bob is walking to the spot where he is going to open fire, he is imagining the outcome of his shooting 5 people and then himself (IMO - the beginning of his fantasy starts with the first appearance of Bob in the film, addressing the bullets). However, since he couldn't witness the events in a world without him in it, the shooter part of him gets personified as the Coleman guy (as previously stated: Coleman being an anagram of Maconel). This is also why Fantasy Bob drops the 6th bullet - that was the one meant for him, hence, he lives in this version.Bob shoots Coleman and becomes a hero with nobody questioning why he had a loaded gun on him at work. (I wondered what the plane tire had to do with anything, but I agree with a previous poster who said that it conveniently allowed his alternate reality to lose the scrutiny of the media).When Bob comes home for the second time and tosses the apple juice lid into the sink, there is one hummingbird in the window. IMO, this is because he thinks Vanessa is dead. In bob's house, at the wall we ever see a calendar, and it reads: "today is 33". Actually we don't have any "33 day", so this is pointing that all that is being shown is fantasy/imagination.The fish seems to represent his anger/stress; he keeps feeding them.Everyone who disliked or paid no attention to Bob all of a sudden loves Bob and invites him to play with them.Bob gets a sweet (and completely ludicrous) promotion and a sweet car.When Fantasy Bob is trying to decide if he will help Vanessa off herself, he writes out: "Should I finish what Coleman started?" However, IIRC, "Should I finish Coleman?" is bolded - the other words are not. So, IMO, this is Real Bob beginning to question whether he is going to just shoot himself as he is walking to the spot where he will open fire. (He's a very slow walker in my head, apparently)Fantasy Bob gets the fantasy girl.Fantasy Bob gets introduced to the grief counselor and instantly begins avoiding him. IMO - the grief counselor is the voice of logic, reason and reality of Real Bob's mind. Fantasy Bob's enjoying all the imaginary attention, so he avoids the grief counselor like the plague. Grief counselor finally meets up with him and shows Bob the note, hoping he will accept that he is the problem.And the picture he painted on the head of a match was Icarus flying to the sun. It was Bob's real dream of flying away and yet the image he paints is one that anyone that knows mythology knows, will not have a happy outcome. It was yet another clue as to where this movie was going. Too to represent a tiny small and hidden aspect of himself- his beauty/feelings was small and hidden.At this point, Fantasy Bob sees a maintenance guy sitting in his usual lunch spot with his old briefcase and his old hula doll. Bob follows the guy into the basement and finds a collection of 'souvenirs'. IMO, the maintenance guy is the sentimental side of Real Bob, metaphorically shut off into the basement by the death of his kids and his continual crazification.Bob tries to pin the problem on the maintenance guy, but the grief counselor traps him by telling him: "You're the problem, Bob." Going back to the reference, 'sacrificing himself to save the herd.." Shooting yourself (the shooter) would save the others.Fantasy Bob's bubble pops and reality seeps into his fantasy, he loses the girl, loses the car, loses the nice clothes and loses the job (boss' assistant doesn't recognize him). Fantasy Bob gets in his dirty old car, hops in and metaphorically drives back to reality.Fantasy Bob blinks out of existence and we cut back to real Bob standing in his final spot. He looks up and realizes that there are no brightly colored snow flakes hanging from the ceiling as he pops back into reality. He sees Vanessa flickering in and out, revealing Paula in her place. He lifts his foot to see the 6th bullet, his bullet, flickering in and out...it disappears - it's now in the gun to be used, not on the floor. Bob realizes his voice of reason is right and that he is the problem. So, Kablammo - down goes Bob. The imaginary Vanessa, no longer needed, puffs out of existence into the form of a hummingbird as Paula pokes her head into the shot.Cops show up at ADD and take Bob's keys. Cops go to Bob's house and read his note. Which was only neat and tidy in his fantasy. In reality it was wrecked.

revenge, psychological, psychedelic

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Tigerland

It is September 1971 and it is clear that the US is losing the Vietnam War. In the opinion of the average American soldier who came of age during the Peace movement of the 1960s, Vietnam was "lost a long time ago". Roland Bozz (Colin Farrell), a draftee who is opposed to the war, is shown to be an unruly soldier with no respect for authority; he disobeys orders and talks back to his superiors. He quickly befriends another recruit, Jim Paxton (Matthew Davis), an aspiring writer who records his experiences in a personal journal. Unlike Bozz, Paxton volunteered for the Army. Upon reaching their post, the company commanding officer Captain Saunders makes it clear that every soldier who passes through Fort Polk and Tigerland will be sent to Vietnam. He also states that any political views on the war are irrelevant at this point. As the film progresses, another side of Bozz is shown. Having "x-ray vision for loopholes", Bozz finds ways for soldiers to get out of the army—one because he not only has children but also a handicapped wife; another soldier, Miter (Clifton Collins Jr.), who joined to prove his manhood but finds himself way over his head. At one point, another soldier approaches Bozz while on leave and asks for help getting out, saying "I was told if you don't wanna go to 'Nam, you either pray to Jesus, or go see Roland Bozz." Bozz also shows his reasoning behind being opposed to the war: his human compassion. Eventually Bozz's natural leadership and ability earns him the title of squad leader (sometimes called acting Jack). Another private, Wilson (Shea Whigham), a racial bigot and instigator, continuously demeans Miter and Bozz. Bozz is the only one that retaliates, which results in a fight between the two. Paxton helps break up the fight and also earns the hatred of Wilson. Later, while doing live fire exercises, Wilson threatens Bozz with a pistol. Bozz tries to disarm Wilson, and the two wrestle each other to the ground, Wilson getting the upper hand and putting the gun to the back of Bozz's head and pulling the trigger. Miraculously, the gun misfires, saving Bozz's life. The Commanding Officer lets Bozz choose the punishment: have Wilson court-martialed or "let me deal with him", strongly suggesting the latter. Despite the commanding officer strongly pressing to let him deal with it, Bozz says he wants Wilson "out of the army" because he recognizes Wilson has taken an emotional beating ever since his inability to command became obvious. Bozz leaves the office saying he wants Wilson out. The platoon is sent to "Tigerland", a forested training area designed as the best possible replica of Vietnam. During an exercise, Bozz's squad acts as villagers in a mock Vietnamese village, with one squad member designated as a "VC sympathizer". They compete with another squad charged with rooting out the sympathizer. This other squad is led by Wilson, who was not kicked out of the army after all. As the exercise ends with Bozz's squad "winning", Wilson tells Bozz he will kill him no matter what it takes. Soon thereafter, Bozz is about ready to make an escape to Mexico with the aid of some civilians he has paid. Platoon member Johnson (Russell Richardson) sees him and tells him to stop; Johnson tells him if he runs away, Wilson will go after Paxton instead of Bozz and he will be responsible for his friend's death. The scene ends with Bozz apparently climbing into the van, but the next morning as the platoon falls in, Bozz comes back, acting as if he had merely gone off to urinate. During the last training exercise, Bozz's squad and Wilson's squad are pitted against each other on patrolling missions. As Wilson's squad prepares for an attack, he replaces his blank cartridges with live ammunition and removes his blank-firing adaptor. As Bozz's squad nears, he opens fire. Though he does not hit anyone, it is obvious he is using live ammunition, and the trainer for the exercise tries to intervene. As he does, Bozz is standing above Paxton and deliberately fires a blank round with his rifle muzzle near Paxton's face, the flash wounding Paxton's eye. The trainer aims a pistol at Wilson's head to get him to hold his weapon up and surrender, telling him he will be court-martialed. At the end of the film, the entire platoon gets ready to head to Vietnam, except Paxton whose eye injury, though not permanent, has earned him a medical discharge. Bozz and the others board a bus, and he and Paxton exchange farewells through a window. Paxton tells Bozz he is going to write about him, but Bozz says he won't. He has stolen Paxton's journal and rips out pages as the platoon's bus drives off, leaving Paxton scrambling to recover them. Bozz tosses the journal as the bus speeds away. Paxton then is told that Bozz died in Vietnam but he was never listed, others say he just disappeared, but another soldier calls Paxton and says that he thinks he saw Bozz three years ago in Mexico with a beautiful woman.

violence, cruelty, storytelling

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Halloween H20: 20 Years Later

Marion Whittington (Nancy Stephens)--formerly Marion Chambers--returns home to find that her house has been broken into. She goes to her neighbors and phones the police, but her teenage neighbor insists on investigating her house. After getting the all-clear, Marion goes in and finds that her office has been ransacked; she was responsible for taking care of Dr. Sam Loomis, now deceased, and she discovers that the file she kept on Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) has been stolen. Marion feels as if she's not alone in the house. Rushing next door, she finds her teenage neighbors murdered, and Michael Myers appears, wearing a trademark white mask. Michael stalks and kills Marion, then gets into a car and drives off just as the police arrive to investigate the break-in, discovering the bodies.Laurie has relocated to California. She is now known as Keri Tate, headmistress of a small private prep school. Laurie has a teenage son named John (Josh Hartnett), and the two of them live on campus with the rest of the students. Laurie still struggles with the events of Halloween night 1978, when Michael Myers stalked her and killed those around her. As a means to escape her past, she faked her death and has been living under her assumed identity of Keri ever since. Her past trauma, as well as the stress of living under false pretense, has turned her into a functioning alcoholic. She is also heavily dependent on medication for her emotional condition.Laurie has a secretary named Norma (Janet Leigh) who dotes on her like a parent, and notices how Laurie gets particularly shaken around Halloween. Laurie's boyfriend, Will Brennan (Adam Arkin) is a guidance counselor at the school, and the two of them share a semi-discreet relationship. But Laurie's relationship with John is becoming strained; she is overprotective of him and refuses to allow him much freedom. He is to stay within the locked school grounds at all times, and she denies him the right to attend an annual school camping trip to Yosemite, which is on Halloween. John's girlfriend Molly (Michelle Williams) also stays behind due to some problems with her tuition. Their friends Charlie (Adam Hann-Byrd) and Sarah (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe) also fabricate reasons to stay behind so that the four of them can celebrate Halloween together on the near-deserted campus. John and Charlie convince the school's security guard, Ronny (LL Cool J) to open the gate and let them out so that they can walk into town and shoplift a bottle of wine for their party.Laurie meets Will for lunch in town and opens up to him a little, acknowledging that she's been unable to deal with something in her past. While he's in the men's room, Laurie chugs her glass of wine and orders another, hurrying the waiter so that Will won't realize she's had two instead of just one.On her way back to the school, Laurie sees John and Charlie walking down the street and becomes enraged that John has left the school grounds. John also gets angry at Laurie, asserting himself and telling Laurie that she needs to accept the fact that Michael Myers is dead. Laurie drives Charlie and John back to school and scolds Ronny for allowing the boys to get out.Meanwhile, Michael Myers has arrived at the school. He follows Laurie downtown and lurks outside the school later, staring in at Molly as she sits in Laurie's literature class. Laurie addresses the students before they leave for Yosemite and lectures them to be on their best behavior. Afterwards she surprises John by telling him she's changed her mind and she will allow him to go with the others. Since he has already made plans with Molly, Charlie and Sarah, he stays behind anyway without Laurie's knowledge.That night, Michael Myers slips onto the grounds of the school by distracting Ronny at the gate. Ronny is unharmed but knows something is wrong. John and his friends get ready to eat dinner together when Charlie goes off in search of a corkscrew. Sarah follows him, and they are both murdered by Michael Myers.Will and Laurie carve a pumpkin together and Laurie tells him that she is not Keri Tate and that her real name is Laurie Strode. Will thinks she is joking when she tells him that her brother killed her sister with a kitchen knife, and that years later he came after her. Will eventually realizes she's telling the truth and wonders how old Laurie was at the time. She tells him she was 17, then suddenly realizes that John has just turned 17 as well. Her sense of panic sets in and she tries to call John; the phones are dead. She immediately goes to her bedroom and retrieves a gun, discovering John's camping gear in his closet; she now knows John never left for Yosemite. Ronny appears at the front door and tells them that there is a strange car parked in the driveway. They decide to search for John and the others.Meanwhile, John and Molly get restless and search for Charlie and Sarah, finding Sarah's body hanging from a light fixture. Michael Myers appears and gives chase, and they flee back to John's residence. Myers corners them in a doorway blocked by a gate. Laurie and Will open the door and let the kids inside just barely in time before Myers can get inside the gate; Laurie and Michael stare at each other momentarily through the door's tiny window. Before Laurie can get her gun, Myers disappears.Laurie puts John and Molly in a room and locks it, while she and Will look for Myers in the hallway. Will sees a shadow and thinks it is Myers, grabbing Laurie's gun and shooting. It is really Ronny; Will has shot him in the head. As they panic about the mistake, Myers appears and stabs Will to death, chasing Laurie down the hallway. She hits him over the head with a fire extinguisher and runs off with John and Molly. They make it to their vehicle and Laurie drives off to the front gate.Before she drives off, Laurie has a sudden moment of revelation. Instead of running, she sends John and Molly off and closes the gate behind them, breaking the mechanism that opens it. She then grabs a fire axe and sets out looking for Michael. She finds him back in the school and the two of them stalk each other, wounding each other with the axe and various knives. Finally Laurie stabs Michael several times in the chest, sending him hurtling over a balcony into the mess hall. He seems dead, but Laurie knows better.Help arrives at the school; John and Molly have sent the police. Ronny is alive, the bullet having just grazed his head. Laurie's wounds have been bandaged, and she sees the coroner carrying Michael's body on a stretcher. She knows ultimately he will return, and that she must make sure he's dead once and for all, so she steals a policeman's gun and forces the medics at gunpoint to load Michael into a nearby van. Laurie takes off at high speed.While she drives down the mountainous road, Myers begins to reanimate and pulls himself out of the body bag. Laurie slams on the brakes and sends him through the windshield, driving into him with the van. The van plunges over the hillside and both Laurie and Michael are thrown from it. Michael gets the worst of the deal; the van slams into his body and pins it against a fallen tree. Laurie finds the fire axe and approaches Michael, who is still alive, but helpless. She calls to him and he looks up at her, mute but seemingly asking her for help. Laurie reaches out for him, their fingertips touching briefly, and she feels pity for Michael. Suddenly her rage wells up inside her, and she decapitates Michael with a single blow.

murder, cult, horror, violence, good versus evil, insanity

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Gake no ue no Ponyo

Deep under the surface of the ocean, a sea-wizard named Fujimoto (English: Liam Neeson Japanese: George Tokoro) stands at the bow of his submersible, surrounded by an air bubble and an assortment of sea creatures. They swim circles around him as he pours magic potions into the water. Out of a side porthole, a red goldfish peeks out, making sure not to be seen, before waving goodbye to her smaller siblings and swimming off to join a school of jellyfish. She rests on top of one, domed by another, as they float towards the surface and far from her home.When she wakes up, she finds herself in the harbor of a seaside town, Tomonoura. When a large bottom trawler comes towards her, the goldfish swims away from the jellyfish in an attempt to escape but is quickly pulled into the mess of garbage and debris that the trawler picks up in its net. She becomes trapped within a glass jar but manages to escape the net and make it towards shallow water. Meanwhile, a young boy named Sosuke (English: Frankie Jonas Japanese: Hiroki Doi) runs down the hillside path from his home to the water's edge to play with his toy boat. There, he notices the goldfish stuck in the jar and breaks her out of it, though cutting his thumb in the process. As he holds the seemingly lifeless fish in his hands, she licks his wound clean. Happy that she's alive, the boy takes her back up the hill as a series of strange waves come in and reach for him. The waves return to deeper water where Fujimoto is waiting. He is horrified to hear from them that the goldfish, his daughter, has been taken by a human.Sosuke puts the goldfish, which he names Ponyo (English: Noah Lindsey Cyrus Japanese: Yuria Nara), in a bucket full of water and brings her with him to the car where his mother, Lisa (English: Tina Fey Japanese: Tomoko Yamaguchi), is waiting to take him to school. Just before she gets in, she notices Fujimoto crossing her yard with a portable pump on his back. She scolds him for spraying what she thinks is fertilizer, though he attests it's merely pure ocean water to keep him from drying out on land, before driving off. Lisa drops Sosuke off at school before going to work at the nursing home next door. Sosuke hides Ponyo's bucket in the bushes but his secrecy doesn't go unnoticed. Kumiko (English: Jennessa Rose Japanese: Eimi Hiraoka), a classmate, asks to see what he's hiding but snubs her nose when shown Ponyo, calling her a boring fish. Ponyo squirts water into Kumiko's face and she begins to cry. Startled, Sosuke goes through the side fence and meets with a few senior citizens sitting outside. While some, like Yoshie (English: Betty White Japanese: Tomoko Naraoka) and Noriko (English: Cloris Leachman Japanese: Tokie Hidari), adore Ponyo, bitter Toki (English: Lily Tomlin Japanese: Kazuko Yoshiyuki) is suspicious of Ponyo's odd appearance and gets squirted in the face as well. The commotion attracts Lisa and Sosuke rushes to the water's edge to escape punishment. However, Fujimoto's waves surround him and take Ponyo back to sea. Sosuke calls after Ponyo but is collected from the water by Lisa who does her best to console him.Ponyo is taken back into the submersible and placed within a bubble. Fujimoto calls her by her given name, Brunhilde, but she rejects it, claiming her name as Ponyo. She declares her love for Sosuke and her desire to be human and sprouts arms and legs in a defiant act of magic. Fujimoto believes humans to be too much trouble and forces Ponyo to revert back into her original state, putting her in a deep sleep. He then leaves to consult Ponyo's mother who he must summon.Arriving home, Lisa is disappointed to hear that Sosuke's sailor father, Koichi (English: Matt Damon Japanese: Kazushige Nagashima), is unable to come home that night. As his ship passes their hill, Sosuke sends his father a message via Morse code using his signal light. Still peeved, Lisa sends her own unfriendly message, but Sosuke manages to cheer her up.Presumably the next day, Ponyo is awoken by her smaller sisters and quickly evolves feet, hands, and teeth before breaking out of her bubble home. She floods her father's study and releases his most powerful magic. The surge of energy turns Ponyo into a fully fledged human girl and sends her and her siblings rushing towards the surface of the ocean where a massive storm has formed.Sosuke leaves school, braving the strong winds and rain, and runs to meet his mother at the nursing home where the power has gone out. Lisa is encouraged to go home though the roads soon become treacherous due to the high waves. As they drive up the hill towards their home, Sosuke notices Ponyo waving at him as she runs atop the massive waves at sea. The waves follow the car as Lisa struggles to stay on the road. When they reach the house, Ponyo transverses a wave to the road and runs up to Sosuke, hugging him tightly. Lisa takes them both into the house as the waves get bigger and the storm continues. There, she dries them off and goes to start the backup generator where Ponyo helps it using some of her magical talents. For dinner, Lisa gives them hot tea and ramen noodles. Ponyo is fascinated with the new tastes and experiences but soon grows tired and falls asleep on the couch.The storm dissipates to reveal some flooding. Worried about the senior center, Lisa leaves Sosuke in charge and drives down the hill to check on the seniors. Sosuke falls asleep on the couch with Ponyo. Fujimoto, having discovered the breach in his magic, finds Ponyo with Sosuke. He leaves to contact her mother, Granmamare (English: Cate Blanchett Japanese: Yûki Amami), an ocean spirit. She appears at his submersible where he tells her that Ponyo's actions have spun everything into chaos. The moon has come closer to the earth causing a surge in tides and sending satellites plummeting from orbit like falling stars. Granmamare assures Fujimoto that if Ponyo and Sosuke pass a test, everything will go back to normal.The following morning, Sosuke and Ponyo wake to find that the house is completely surrounded by water. Only the tops of hills and the tallest trees are visible. Sosuke worries for his mother so Ponyo helps him by enlarging his toy boat. They pack a few things and set sail together. Along the way, they meet a family adrift with a small baby. Ponyo shows her generosity by offering the baby and his mother some of her soup and uses her magic to cure the baby when he comes down with a cold. As time passes and they continue their journey, Ponyo becomes more and more tired. When they reach a stretch of road that's not flooded Ponyo's magic wears off and the boat is reduced to its normal size. Sosuke sees his mother's car further up the road and runs to it, calling for Lisa. But she is no where to be seen. Sosuke becomes upset but Ponyo cheers him and encourages him to keep looking. They walk down the road hand in hand.Meanwhile, the senior center is completely submerged, but the elderly run about the yard with renewed energy; a result of the magic keeping them safe underwater. Fujimoto explains to them that theyre about to witness a testimony to true love while Lisa stands nearby talking to Granmamare. She returns to the others, worried about Sosuke but confident that he'll be ok.Sosuke and Ponyo reach a tunnel and, as they walk through it, Ponyo suddenly reverts back to her fish form and falls asleep. Sosuke quickly runs to the end of the tunnel and places her in his bucket which he fills with water. He tries to wake her up but Fujimoto appears to him. He tells Sosuke that he must accompany him to help Ponyo but someone shouts to Sosuke not to trust Fujimoto. Toki stands on a mound where the other senior citizens were brought under water, but she refused to follow. She calls to Sosuke who runs to her. As he leaps into her arms, Fujimoto's waves engulf them and bring them to the senior center under water. There, Sosuke is reunited with his mother. Granmamare approaches him and Ponyo, now awake, and calls Ponyo to her. She asks if Ponyo is willing to live as a human and give up her magic. Ponyo nods yes. Granmamare then asks Sosuke if he can love Ponyo whether she is a little girl or a fish, to which Sosuke says yes.Granmamare then brings everything back to normal and sends everyone back to the surface. Fujimoto shakes Sosuke's hand and bids Ponyo farewell. As he leaves, Ponyo leaps out of Sosuke's bucket, kisses him, and transforms into a little girl right before his eyes.

romantic, cute, magical realism, entertaining

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Deadpool

The opening scene shows Wade Wilson, the superhero Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) in a cab, bored in the backseat. He slides up front to chat with the cabbie, Dopinder (Karan Soni). Deadpool asks Dopinder about a picture of a girl he has in his car, and Dopinder says she was his girlfriend until he lost her to his cousin. Dopinder then takes Deadpool to the middle of a bridge, and Deadpool stiffs the man for cab fare.Deadpool waits on top of a bridge for his targets, but first addresses the audience and jokes about fondling Wolverine's balls to get his own movie. He then spots a group of vans arriving, and he jumps into one of the men before beating up of all the thugs in the van, causing an accident that kills other villains. Deadpool's main target is Ajax (Ed Skrein), the man that gave him his powers and also horribly disfigured him. The vans all come crashing to the end of the bridge, where one thug's head is slice off with a chain, and another one gets gorily splattered against a sign on the highway.At Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters, Colossus (Stefan Kapicic) sees the chaos unfolding on the news and calls Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand) to join him in getting Deadpool.Deadpool is upset because he forgot his bag of weapons and only has 12 rounds in his gun. He counts off how many rounds with each thug he kills, accidentally missing a few shots, but he manages to kill three men with one bullet. One last thug comes at Deadpool with two knives, but Deadpool quickly skewers him. Deadpool then points out that this is a different kind of superhero movie, and that we need to go back for him to tell it properly.Flashback to one year earlier....Wade Wilson was a mercenary-for-hire living in New York City. He takes a job getting a pizza delivery boy to stop stalking a girl by threatening him. Once his job is done, the girl thanks him and calls him her hero, to which Wade quickly points out that that is something he is not.Wade goes to the bar where his friend Weasel (TJ Miller) works. Wade orders a drink called a Blowjob and has the bartender bring it to a big thug and to say it came from another man, leading to a bar fight where people bet on others to die, which is called the "dead pool". At this bar, Wade meets a prostitute named Vanessa (Morena Baccarin). They bond over their weird, messed up lives before starting a sexual relationship, which eventually evolves into a romantic one.Wade is genuinely happy until he is diagnosed with cancer in his liver, lungs, prostate and brain. He fears more for what will happen to Vanessa than to him. At the bar, Weasel tells him that a man sitting in the corner is looking for him. He is The Recruiter (Jed Rees), and he tells Wade that he works for a facility that will not only cure him of his cancer, but also give him incredible powers. Wade is hesitant, but he takes the card that The Recruiter gives him.Back in the present, Deadpool finds Ajax headed to him on a motorcycle and he throws his kitana at the bike, causing Ajax to crash. Deadpool impales Ajax with the other blade, but since Ajax is a mutant, the blade doesn't kill him. Deadpool lifts up his mask for to show his scars so that Ajax can recognize him as Wade Wilson. Colossus and Negasonic then arrive. Colossus is displeased with Deadpool causing so much mayhem and tries to get him to join the X-Men, to which Deadpool refuses. With his back turned, Ajax escapes. Enraged, Deadpool tries to hit Colossus, but he ends up breaking both hands and his foot. Colossus cuffs Deadpool to his wrist, but Deadpool chooses to cut his hand off and hop into a garbage van, leaving his hand to give Colossus the finger.In another flashback, Wade made the choice to be cured for Vanessa, leaving her alone in the middle of the night and never returning. He goes to the facility where he meets Ajax for the first time, along with his cohort Angel Dust (Gina Carano). Ajax says that in order for Wade's cells to heal, they have to subject him to extreme stress for the mutant cells to activate.Wade undergoes torture techniques until Ajax tells him that they are making him into a super slave to be auctioned off somewhere. Wade makes fun of Ajax after learning his real name is Francis. Ajax straps Wade to a chamber where his oxygen is cut off. His skin and face start to blotch up, making him disfigured. Ajax opens the chamber and tells Wade his cancer is gone. Wade headbutts Angel and takes a match that she kept in her mouth. He lights it and throws it near the oxygen vent, causing an explosion in the laboratory. Ajax goes down to see what happened, and Wade starts to fight him. He has gotten increased strength, but Ajax gets the upper hand and impales Wade with a bar, which he leaves bent. Ajax leaves as the facility crumbles around Wade.Wade wakes up alive, but horrified by his complexion. He walks through the streets with a hood over his head, but the people that see him are creeped out by his appearance. This makes him worry about what Vanessa will think if she sees him, so he stays away from her completely.Wade visits Weasel, who is also disgusted by his appearance and makes a few quips at his expense. Weasel encourages Wade to make a suit and mask to disguise himself as he goes back to hunt for Ajax so that he can fix his face. Wade decides to call himself "Deadpool" and begins his crusade to find Ajax by plowing through his goons until he can find him. He finds The Recruiter, who says what he knows about Ajax's whereabouts before Deadpool kills him. In this time, Wade has decided to stay with a blind woman named Al (Leslie Uggams).Back in the present day, Deadpool rides the garbage truck back to his and Al's place, and his hand starts to slowly grow back.Ajax and Angel go to Weasel's bar to locate Deadpool. Angel grabs Weasel by the throat, but the other bar patrons turn their guns on her and Ajax. They find a picture of Wade and Vanessa together before leaving.After being told to just face Vanessa himself, Wade goes to the strip club where she works (where we see Stan Lee as a DJ), but is still scared to face her. Vanessa's co-worker tells her that an ex-boyfriend is out back looking for her. She goes outside and thinks it's Wade, but it's Ajax. He and Angel take her. Wade goes out back to look for her but only finds her handbag, letting him know that she's been taken.Infuriated, Wade grabs all the guns he owns and goes to the X-Mansion to get Colossus and Negasonic to help him get back Vanessa and stop Ajax. He then quips that the mansion is so big, yet it looks like the studio couldn't afford more than two X-Men.The mutants take a cab driven by Dopinder to Ajax's location. They hit a bump and Deadpool hears a scream from the trunk. Dopinder admits he kidnapped his cousin. Deadpool pretends to be horrified but quietly congratulates Dopinder. The three then track Ajax down to a scrapyard. Deadpool charges toward the goons while Colossus and Negasonic fight Angel. She slams Colossus away, but Negasonic charges at Angel with great power.Deadpool rips through the goons and uses their corpses to spell out Francis's name to mock him. He runs up to the aircraft carrier where Ajax is keeping Vanessa. He puts her in the same chamber where he put Wade. Deadpool duels with Ajax with their blades. Meanwhile, Angel almost strangles Colossus with a bar, but Negasonic creates a powerful blast that throws Angel off and destroys the carrier. It starts to collapse, sending numerous freight containers down. Colossus carries Negasonic and Angel to safety while Deadpool makes sure Vanessa safely lands. The carrier then completely crashes down.Ajax attacks Deadpool once again until the latter has him pinned down. Deadpool holds his gun at Ajax's head and demands that he fix his face, but Ajax laughs and says there was never a cure for that. Deadpool is ready to kill Ajax until Colossus steps in and starts to make a big speech on making the hero's decision to spare his enemy's life. Deadpool gets tired of the speech and he just shoots Ajax in the head, making Colossus puke. Afterwards, Deadpool finally confronts Vanessa and apologizes for abandoning her. She removes his mask to see his face, but he is wearing a cut-out of Hugh Jackman's face. She sees his real face and says she will eventually get used to it. They kiss, and Deadpool signs off as the movie ends.After the end credits, Deadpool appears in his bathrobe telling the audience to leave for the movie is over (a homage to the final shot of 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off'). However, he comes back and says that the studio is trying to get Cable to be in a sequel. Deadpool walks away, but then pops his head out to go "Chicka-chicka!"

comedy, murder, cult, violence, flashback, good versus evil, absurd, humor, satire, revenge, sadist

tt1431045

The Two Jakes

In Los Angeles in 1948, Julius "Jake" Berman (Keitel) hires private investigator J. J. "Jake" Gittes (Nicholson) to catch his wife, Kitty, in the act of committing adultery. During the sting, Berman kills his rival, who also happens to be his business partner in a real estate development company. Gittes, not having known this, suddenly finds himself under scrutiny for his role in the possible crime, all of which centers around a wire recording that captured the illicit love meeting, the confrontation, and the killing of Mark Bodine. It calls into question if Berman knew and killed his partner to wrest control of the partnership, making it murder, or was an act of jealousy, which may qualify as "temporary insanity" and be permitted as a defense to a charge of murder. Gittes must convince LAPD captain Escobar (Lopez) that he should not be charged as an accomplice. Oddly, Berman seems unconcerned with the possibility that he may be accused of murder. Gittes has the recording, which Berman's attorney Cotton Weinberger (Wallach) and mobster friend Mickey Nice (Blades) both want, locked in a safe in his office in L.A., which is being rocked by earthquakes. Berman's housing development in the Valley also is experiencing seismic activities. Gittes is nearly killed in a gas explosion, waking to find Berman and wife Kitty (Tilly) standing over him. Gittes has a confrontation, and later a sexual encounter, with Lilian Bodine (Stowe), the dead man's angry widow. He is presented with proof that Earl Rawley (Farnsworth), a wealthy and ruthless oil man, may be drilling under the Bodine and Berman development, though Rawley has denied it. This leads to a need to determine who owns the mineral rights to the land. Gittes discovers that the rights are owned by one Katherine Mulwray, daughter of Evelyn Mulwray, his love interest from twelve years prior. He also discovers that the deed transfers were executed in such a way as to attempt to hide Katherine Mulwray's prior ownership and continued claim of the mineral rights. Gittes operatives have seen Berman in the company of a blond woman along with Mickey Nice and a huge bodyguard. With a bit of sleuthing Gittes determines that the woman is an oncologist and is treating Berman for cancer somewhere below the waist. Gittes confronts Berman with this knowledge and gets a full confession. Along the way, Gittes discovers that Berman is not going to survive and the entire set-up was to ensure that Kitty was protected once he died. In order to get Kitty Berman to talk to him, Gittes must prove that Jake Berman set out to kill his partner. Once accomplished, Kitty agrees to meet Gittes and tell him what she knows about her husband. In the process of discussing Jake's possible motivations, mineral rights, and the possible whereabouts of Katherine Mulwray it is revealed that Kitty Berman and Katherine Mulwray are one and the same person. Kitty had never suspected that her husband is dying. In order to prove premeditation, passion, and perhaps even connections to a woman long missing, seemingly everyone wants the recording, which Gittes refuses to give up until the day of the inquest. Somehow, Gittes edits the recording, leaving Katherine Mulwray's name chopped out of the dialog, shooting, and aftermath of Bodine's murder. This makes the inquest a short, satisfying meeting where the judge has no reason to suspect murder. Jake Berman is now free of criminal charges. Confronted with the knowledge Gittes has of his terminal illness, Berman, knowing the model house he is in is filled with natural gas, convinces Gittes and Nice to leave him alone in the house so he can "have a smoke." He doesn't want an autopsy to interfere with Kitty's inheritance. As they drive off, the house explodes. The story ends with Kitty and Gittes in his office. They speak of regrets, and Kitty kisses Gittes, who rejects her advances, saying "That's your problem, kid. You don't know who you're kidding." She leaves, telling him to "Think of me time to time". Jake tells her, "It never goes away."

neo noir, flashback

tt0100828

Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay

Following the events of Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, Harold Lee and Kumar Patel purchase plane tickets to Amsterdam so Harold can pursue a romance with neighbor Maria. Before boarding their plane, they encounter a friend from college named Colton, and Kumar's ex-girlfriend, Vanessa, who are getting married in Texas. During the flight, a woman suspects Kumar is a terrorist after mistaking his bong for a bomb. Sky marshals detain them and the plane diverts to Washington D.C. Ron Fox, an obsessive and racist Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, sends them to Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba, thinking they are agents of a joint Al-Qaeda and North Korean conspiracy, against the advice of NSA Vice-Chairman John Beecher. With the inadvertent assistance of two other prisoners, Harold and Kumar escape and board a Cuban refugee boat to Miami, Florida. They meet with their college friend, Raza, who loans them a car so they can travel to Texas to get help from Colton, whose family has political connections. During the car ride, Kumar remembers meeting Vanessa at the library and smoking a joint for the first time. Fox interrogates Harold and Kumar's parents utilizing an incompetent interpreter, despite their English fluency. Harold and Kumar crash their car in Birmingham, Alabama. They flee on foot after mistaking an approaching group of helpful African-Americans for gang members. They meet a friendly hunter and stay with him and his wife at their well-kept trailer home. When someone knocks at the door, Harold and Kumar hide in the basement and discover the couple's inbred cycloptic son. At night, while Kumar dreams of a threesome with Vanessa and a large bag of marijuana, Harold is shocked to find the son in his bed, and they promptly leave. In the woods, Harold and Kumar encounter a Ku Klux Klan rally. They hide until some members arrive with a beer keg. After knocking them out, and putting on their robes, they mingle until the other two return, declaring them to be "Mexicans". The Klansmen chase Harold and Kumar until their leader accidentally sets himself on fire. The two run into Neil Patrick Harris, who offers them a ride. Fox interrogates the African-Americans Harold and Kumar encountered in Birmingham, as well as Harold and Kumar's Jewish friends, Rosenberg and Goldstein. Under the influence of psychedelic mushrooms, Harris smuggles Harold and Kumar past Fox's security checkpoint. They stop at a brothel, but while Harris leaves with a big-breasted prostitute, Harold and Kumar talk about their friendship issues with their girls. Harris causes a situation by branding his woman. As they flee, Harris is shot in the back. While grieving, Harold and Kumar look through Harris' possessions, finding Chris Fehn's mask, a jar of human hair, and a dozen mace cans. Harold and Kumar arrive in Texas, where Colton promises to help them out of their situation, but when he sees Kumar reconnecting with Vanessa, he turns them over to Fox. On a flight to Guantanamo Bay, Kumar apologizes to Harold for getting them into this situation and they forgive each other. Harold uses Harris' mace to incapacitate two guards, but Fox catches them. As he prepares to shoot them, an infuriated Beecher knocks down Fox and calls him out on his incompetence. He tries to tie Fox up but slips and knocks the plane door open, falling to his death. Everyone is sucked out the plane, and Kumar hangs on to Harold, who deploys a parachute. Fox tries to shoot them, but falls to his death, and they crash through the roof of President George W. Bush's Texas house. Bush brings them to his recreation room, and they bond by smoking weed. Bush promises to pardon Harold and Kumar and to help them with whatever they need. Escorted by the Secret Service, Harold and Kumar interrupt Colton and Vanessa's wedding. Colton confronts Kumar, but Harold punches him, and Kumar reconnects with Vanessa by reciting a poem he was writing when they first met. The three head to Amsterdam where Harold reunites with Maria, and they tour Amsterdam. In a post-credits scene, Harris is shown to have survived the gunshot.

bleak, cult, humor, satire, flashback

tt0481536

Lesbian Vampire Killers

Jimmy (Mathew Horne) and Fletch (James Corden) are two friends living in London, experiencing life problems. Jimmy is dumped by his unscrupulous girlfriend, and Fletch is fired from his job as a clown for punching a child. They decide to escape their woes and hike to a remote village in Norfolk that they find on an old map. As they arrive at a pub in the village, with Jimmy upset about Fletch destroying his phone, they see a number of attractive foreign female history students leaving. Hoping to find more beautiful women inside, they are greeted by a morose crowd of men and approached by a seemingly crazed vicar (Paul McGann) who believes Jimmy is a long lost descendant of a local vampire slayer. As the barman offers the two men free ale as an apology for the vicar, they learn the students they saw earlier are going to a cottage - where they are to stay the night. Jimmy and Fletch pursue the students' van, catching up to it as the engine has broken down, and are introduced to four girls (Heidi, Lotte, Anke and Trudi). They are invited to join a party on the bus. The group arrives at their destination, only to learn that a curse rests over the village and that every female child turns into a lesbian vampire on her eighteenth birthday. There is an old legend stating that the Vampire Queen, Carmilla, descended on the village during the night of a blood moon, killed its menfolk and seduced its women to her evil. When the ruler of the land, Baron Wolfgang Mclaren (Jimmy's great ancestor) returned from the Crusades, he discovered one of the women corrupted by Carmilla was his wife, Eva. The baron forged a sacred sword, then defeated Carmilla, but before dying, Carmilla cursed the village, adding that when the blood of the last of Mclaren's bloodline mixed with a virgin girl's blood, Carmilla would be resurrected. Fletch and Jimmy spend the night with the women. Heidi and Anke are turned into vampires. After Lotte insists that the others try to find her missing friends, they witness Trudi being turned. Eva, Carmilla's mistress, tries to draw Lotte to her growing clan of lesbian vampires. The trio runs back into the cottage after killing Heidi and Anke and barricade themselves in after the vampires destroy the van. Jimmy's ex-girlfriend Judi arrives at the door and Jimmy, not ready to give up on the relationship, takes her into the bedroom. Lotte reveals to Fletch that she is a virgin and wants to sleep with Jimmy. At the church, the Vicar researches the vampire slayer who killed Carmilla before arming himself and setting off to find Jimmy. Judi reveals herself to be a vampire, and after a struggle, Fletch and Jimmy kill her. The vampires approach the cottage and Jimmy inadvertently invites them in. Eva discovers that Jimmy is the descendant of the baron who killed Carmilla and that Lotte is a virgin and kidnaps them. The Vicar saves Fletch from Trudi and tells Fletch the truth about the village and Jimmy's identity. They go after Jimmy and Lotte in the Vicar's crucifix-covered car. As the vampires prepare to sacrifice Lotte and Jimmy, Fletch and the Vicar try to recover the Sword of Dylldo, the sword that killed Carmilla, from the baron's tomb. While Fletch works to open the tomb, the Vicar checks on his daughter Rebecca, but does not notice that she has been turned. Rebecca attempts to seduce Fletch, who does not know what she is. When she attacks him, she is inadvertently impaled on the sword. Fletch decides not to tell the Vicar of his daughter's death. At Carmilla's tomb, Lotte reveals her love for Jimmy. The vampires begin draining the two of their blood to resurrect Carmilla. With the sword, Fletch and the Vicar drive to Carmilla's tomb. When they enter the woods, they bring various weapons, but forget the sword. Despite not having the sword, the pair reach Jimmy and Lotte. The Vicar releases them, but not before enough blood gathers to resurrect Carmilla. The Vicar sacrifices himself so the others can get back to the car for the sword. Eva separates Lotte from the men, attacking and seducing her. Lotte fights back while Fletch and Jimmy fetch weapons. Lotte kills Eva with her cross necklace, infuriating Carmilla. Fletch tries to kill Carmilla before Lotte is turned, but is captured himself. Jimmy saves them by hurling the sword at Carmilla, piercing her heart and destroying her for good. With the curse lifted, the three survivors decide to continue ridding the world of evil. The film ends with the shot of a "Gay Werewolf" howling before the full moon.

comedy, boring, satire, sadist

tt1020885

The Drop

We open with a montage explaining what a drop bar is. Its the central bar that holds all the collection money from other mob owned businesses to be picked up later. In this story, it's the Chechen mafia. The drop bar location always changes.Bob Saginowski (Tom Hardy) is a bartender at neighborhood bar in Brooklyn called Cousin Marv's. A group of old timers toast to a kid (Richie) who died ten years ago. Cousin Marv (James Gandolfini) is angry that they keep doing this and even angrier that his soft bartender lets an old woman drink for free and smoke cigarettes illegally inside when he's not around.On his way home, Bob finds a whimpering pit bull inside a garbage can. Nadia (Noomi Rapace) wants to know who's snooping around her trash. She comes out and sees that the dog is badly injured. She agrees to help Bob, but only after she takes a picture of his license and sends it to a few friends. Together they patch up the dog. Bob tells her that he can't take care of it right now. She tells him that because it's a pit bull, it'll be put down at the shelter if its owner doesn't show. Bob agrees to come back in a few days to take the dog. Someone watches them from across the street.Bob goes to church. The congregation is small so its not hard for him to always notice fellow parishioner Detective Torres (John Ortiz). He also notices a statue of Saint Rocco, who has a dog. Bob picks up the dog and confesses to Nadia that he doesn't know how to care for a dog. Together they go to the pet store to buy supplies. They also make a name tag for him. Bob names him Rocco.Cousin Marv's is robbed by two guys. During the robbery, Bob notices that one of the gunmen has a broken watch. Detective Torres shows up to investigate and Bob tells him about the watch. This really upsets Marv, who knows that the Chechens are going to be pissed. Torres says that he noticed he goes to church with Bob and asks if he knew that the church was folding to be part of another church and that the land was probably going to be turned into condos with stained glass windows. He also asks why Bob never takes communion. Bob tells him that's none of his business. Torres questions whether or not it is. Bob assures him, "it isn't."Chovka (Michael Aranov), the face of the Chechen mob shows up while Marv and Bob are shoveling snow. Chovka reveals that he has captured one of the men responsible for the robbery. The man is gagged and impaled by his right foot to the floor of the van with heavy bolt. Chovka asked Marv and Bob if they know this man. They both say no. He wants to know why the cops know about the broken watch. Bob apologizes. Chovka tells Marv to find the money. Marv freaks out because if he knew how to find that money, that would mean he had something to do with the robbery.Nadia and Bob take Rocco to the dog park. Nadia lost a night of work and asks if she can dog sit Rocco for a little extra money. Bob agrees. After they part ways, Eric Deeds (Matthias Schoenaerts) shows up and tells Bob that he has a nice dog. Bob takes Rocco and leaves.Marv lives with his sister Dottie (Ann Dowd). Dottie tells Marv that a collection agency has been calling because they need to pay for their dad's life support. She suggests maybe its time to let him go. Marv disagrees strongly. He storms out and meets up with one of the robbers to tell him to tell his brother to get a new watch. From their conversation, we learn that Marv was in on the robbery after all.Deeds shows up at Bobs house and welcomes himself inside. He asks questions about the dog and tells Bob he wants it back. Bob says he doesn't get to hurt the dog anymore and he should leave. Deeds takes Bob's umbrella and sees himself out. Bob brings Rocco to work with him.On his way into the bar, Marv is stopped by a man asking for directions. Marv is freaked because something about the man is suspicious. He tells Bob that Deeds is a local thug who claims to have killed the kid, Richie,who the old timers were toasting. Between Deeds and the guy asking for directions, something is weird. They go out back to get in the garbage and there's a bag tied to the fence. In the bag is a severed arm with the broken watch and all the money taken from the robbery.Bob wraps up the arm and throws it in a duffel bag. Marv is unsettled by how casual Bob is being. Marv comments that it seems as though Bob has done this a thousand times. Later, Bob takes the arm and throws it in the river. Torres shows up and asks Bob if he knows Eric Deeds. Bob says not really. Meanwhile, Marv washes the robbery money.The Chechens show up and Marv returns the money. They tell him that his bar will be the drop bar for the night of the Super Bowl.Nadia is a little angry that Bob didn't let her know that he was taking Rocco to work. He apologizes and they have some drinks and get to know each other. She has scars on her neck that she reveals are from when she used to have a drug problem. She explains that she stabbed herself with a potato peeler.Marv finds the robber and tells him to get in the car. The robber doesn't want to because last time he saw his brother was when someone else told him to get in a car. He wants to make sure Marv doesn't have the trunk lined in plastic. Marv pops it open, its fine. The robber gets in and they go for a ride. Marv tells him that they're going to rob the place again during the night of the Super Bowl, but the robber refuses. The trunk pops open again and Marv tells the guy to get out and slam it shut. When he does, Marv runs him over and kills him.Eric Deeds stops by and starts asking Bob about Nadia, specifically if she's stabbed herself with a potato peeler lately. Bob asks Nadia how she knows Deeds. She freaks out and storms off. Later she apologizes and confesses that they used to date. She also warns Bob that Deeds is crazy and says he killed that kid. Bob says he heard.Bob goes home and calls for Rocco, but there is no answer. He goes to his crate and Rocco is fine, but his umbrella is there too. Deeds has been in his house. He goes to ask Deeds to back off and tells him hes not returning the dog. Deeds says he can keep it for $10,000.Torres gets a cop friend to show him Deeds's psych file. Something in the file catches his interest.Marv meets with Deeds and tells him that Bob is scared of him and says that he has a solution where everyone can win.Marv calls Bob and tells him he won't be into the bar for the Super Bowl. Bob asks if he's planning on doing something desperate that they can't clean up this time. Marv yells at him and tells him how he used to be feared and respected, but lost that when he lost the bar to the Chechens. He also knows it's a slap in his face that Bob lets the old lady sit on his old stool. Bob says its just a stool. "That's all it is. It doesn't mean anything."Bob takes $10K hidden in his basement with him to the bar, along with Rocco, for the Super Bowl. He puts it behind the bar next to a pistol.Deeds breaks into Nadia's home and forces her to go to Cousin Marv's Bar with him. While he's there Marv calls him and asks where he is that's so noisy. Deeds tells him that he's at the bar. Marv warns him not to underestimate the very soft spoken and gentle Bob. Marv lines his trunk with plastic and heads to the bar. He parks a block and a half away and watches.Different mob guys drop off money throughout the night. Eventually the bar clears except for Deeds and Nadia. Deeds shows Nadia that he has a gun, then he goes outside to smoke. Nadia cries and warns Bob that Deeds is planning on shooting him. Deeds comes back in and Bob offers him the money for the dog. Deeds asks how much for Nadia and says he'd rather have the money in the safe. Bob says he can't do that and tells him the story of the dead kid.Bob tells the story. Marv had a horrible gambling problem when he was a loan shark. A lot of people owed him money. The kid was one of those people. But the kid won a bunch of money at the casino and paid back Marv. But it wasn't enough to cover Marv's debt, so no one could know that the kid paid anything. Bob found the kid and shot him in the face twice. He explains in detail how he disposed of the body with lye in an oil tank. So, says Bob, if he (Bob) killed the kid, how is it that Deeds is running around claiming to have done it himself?As Deeds starts to answer, Bob shoots him twice in the face. He tells Nadia that she is safe now and she can go. She can't believe that he trusts her to not tell anyone of the shooting. Terrified, she runs out. The Chechens come and dispose of Deeds body. Chovka tells Bob he should rename the place "Bob's Bar." Bob says he's just a bartender. Chovka tells him he's the new Marv.Outside, Marv sees the man who asked for directions earlier approaching his car. He knows what's next. The man shoots Marv in the head.Torres comes to investigate. Marv is dead and Deeds is missing. Bob isn't surprised because that's the kind of neighborhood it is. Torres tells him that the church was in fact bought for housing development and asks if he'll see Bob at the closing. Bob says he'll be there. Torres is about to walk away, but comes back and says that Deeds couldn't have killed the kid because he was in the psych ward at the time. He starts to leave, and then he steps back, leans into Bob's ear, and in a whisper asks, "I bet no one ever sees you coming. Do they?"Bob takes Rocco to Nadia's home so Bob can apologize for that night at the bar. In her front yard, he explains that's not really who he is anymore. He asks if they can hang out. She's thoughtful for a moment, and then says, "Let me get my jacket".

plot twist, murder, violence

tt1600196

John Tucker Must Die

The movie begins with Kate (Brittany Snow) discussing her mother Lori's (Jenny McCarthy) series of bad relationships which always causes them to move to a new town. She and her mother move to a suburb of Portland, Oregon and Kate gets a job as a waitress. While at work, she sees popular local boy John Tucker (Jesse Metcalfe) on dates with three different girls: Carrie (Arielle Kebbel), a chronic overachiever; Heather (Ashanti), who is head cheerleader; and Beth (Sophia Bush) a promiscuous and liberal vegan activist. Kate learns from a co-worker that he dates girls from different cliques at his school so that they never interact and convinces the girls he dates to keep their relationships secret. One day in gym class, Kate, Carrie, Heather and Beth end up on the same team for a volleyball game. During the game, Carrie brags about being with John Tucker, and the girls learn about his scheme. Carrie, Heather and Beth begin fighting. Kate tries to intervene, only to get all four of them sent to detention for the fight. Later that evening, the girls enlist Kate's help in seeking revenge against John Tucker. Meanwhile, Kate becomes friends with John's brother Scott (Penn Badgley), better known as "The Other Tucker". The girls' initial attempts to undo John (making people believe he has genital herpes and with Heather undermining his confidence by pranking him with estrogen, causing him to become weak and say strange things about himself) initially work in humiliating John, but eventually backfire as John manages to use them to his advantage. After he breaks up with all three girls, they agree that breaking his heart is the ideal revenge. They then enlist Kate to be the heartbreaker. Kate joins the cheerleading team in order to get John's attention, and the girls give her advice on how to act around John and spy on the dates using surveillance equipment. Kate also gets a make over and John immediately notices Kate and tries to win her attention, but Kate dismisses him. With his ego insulted that there is a girl he cannot charm, John becomes determined to get her. Kate and John eventually go on a series of dates, the first of which at a bonfire at the beach. Kate is unprepared after John asks to take her home and Beth intervenes to teach her how to kiss. However, John arrives, forcing Beth to hide in the back of his Land Rover. At her house, Kate manages to buy Beth time to escape by kissing John, with Beth's skirt being ruined in the process after getting it caught in the car's door. The plan seems to be working as John relentlessly chases after Kate, even going to her house in the middle of the night while talking to her on the phone at the same time (where Kate tells him that she needs to call the police because there is a stalker outside the house, and John drives away in panic, hitting a trash can). The next date is a romantic boat ride, and Kate and John have a good time together. Beth later notices that Kate is starting to fall for John. To counteract this, Carrie tapes John bragging to his friends in the locker room, saying he'll be scoring "more than baskets" at the away game, and shows the tape to Kate in order to get her to snap out of it. The girls try another plan to embarrass John Tucker at a hotel on the night of the away game. Kate seduces John on a video-chat and tells him to put on a woman's thong and climb out of his room and into hers. He is misled and climbs into a teacher's room and ultimately becomes the laughingstock of the school. John again uses this to his advantage, starting a fashion trend that helps the boys in the basketball team play better. Meanwhile, Kate's mother and Scott both discover the plan and lament the change in Kate's behavior. Afterward, Kate tells John that she heard about what he said in the locker room about her. John makes amends by giving her his watch and asking her to be his girlfriend. Kate tells Heather, Carrie and Beth that she wants to be out of the plan, as whether they are dating or plotting to destroy John Tucker, it is still all about him. At John's birthday party, the tape the girls made of John's destruction is played, and Kate reveals the entire plot as John stares in disbelief, seemingly hurt. Heather, Beth, and Carrie defend her after a guest throws his drink at Kate. Still, John Tucker becomes unfazed, and the party devolves into a cake fight. A few days later, John and Kate agree to be friends, and John resolves to be honest. Scott, happy that Kate confessed, becomes her lab partner again, and it is hinted the two will begin dating. Kate is now good friends with Beth, Carrie, and Heather. Kate finishes saying, "as for the girl who made John Tucker fall in love, well, she's a legend". After the credits, Kate warns viewers at home wanting to try this that destroying a man has consequences, and the camera pans to several male teachers bending over to grab some papers, all wearing thongs.

revenge, adult comedy, romantic

tt0455967

Creep

Aaron, a freelance videographer, is driving to the home of a person who has hired him to do eight hours of work. He arrives at a house in the wilderness with a long stretch of stairs leading to the front door. Aaron knocks but no one answers so he decides to wait in his car. He turns the camera to focus on an axe lying on the ground. Suddenly, Josef appears and greets Aaron with a hug. They make their way into the house that Josef says he's spent many summers in with his family. Josef explains that he wanted to hire Aaron to make a video of him for his unborn son. He explains that he has an inoperable brain tumor and wants his son to have something to remember him by. Aaron agrees to film him.Josef leads Aaron to the upstairs bathroom where he proceeds to run the bathtub and undress. Aaron is uncomfortable but Josef assures him this is important and not in any way inappropriate. With the camera rolling, Josef proceeds to explain to his future son what "tubby time" is and mimes giving a child a bath. Josef begins to become morose and asks Aaron if he should just end it all. He sinks beneath the water until Aaron approaches him and then pops back up to give him a scare. Josef insists he's just joking and asks Aaron if he wants to go for a hike. Aaron agrees.Josef suggests Aaron grab something warm clothes from the closet for their hike and Aaron opens the closet door to find a terrifying wolf mask on a shelf. Josef calls the mask "Peachfuzz" and puts it on while he sings a song he says his dad would sing while wearing the mask. Both men get into Josef's car and head for the hiking trail that Josef explains will lead to a spring that supposedly has healing powers.While hiking through the woods, Josef's behavior begins to get even stranger. He darts away from Aaron and continues to try to scare him by popping up out of no where. He also happily admits he has no idea where they're going despite Aaron's obvious discomfort. They finally find the heart-shaped spring and wade into it. Josef grabs Aaron for another hug and suggests they go to his favorite local diner for pancakes.When they get to the diner, Josef says "Let's see what's good here". When Aaron expresses confusion, stating that he thought Josef was familiar with the place, Josef says they changed the menu. Josef asks Aaron how he felt about seeing the axe in the yard and rattles him by asking if Aaron thought he was going to kill him with it. Aaron jokes that he did at first but now he knows him better. Josef asks Aaron to tell him about a time he felt ashamed. Aaron tells a story about wetting his pants when he was little. Josef shows Aaron some pictures he took on his phone. The pictures are of Aaron when he first pulled up to the house and was knocking at the door. Josef tells him he thought that if he got to know Aaron before Aaron got to know him then he'd be less nervous. Aaron admits he thinks what Josef did was creepy but he forgives him.When they get back to the house it's dark out and Aaron, obviously still unnerved by Josef's confession at the diner, tells Josef he's going to head home. Josef insists Aaron come in for one more drink and Aaron agrees. They do shots of whiskey and Aaron begins to head out again. Josef protests and asks Aaron if he could confess something he's never told anyone. Aaron agrees but doesn't turn the camera off like Josef requests. Instead, he leaves the microphone on and we hear Josef confess to raping his wife. He tells Aaron he found porn involving beastiality on his computer and knew his wife was watching it. Josef tells Aaron that he and his wife came to the vacation house and then Josef pretended to have to leave for work. Instead, he went and bought the Peachfuzz mask, came back to the house and proceeded to wear the mask while having sex with his wife after tying her up. He says he knew she enjoyed it but never realized it was him and never confessed to him what had happened.Aaron tells Josef he's going to go but then can't find his keys. Josef insists Aaron stay the night since it's dark and he's been drinking. Aaron is shaken but agrees to stay. He mixes them both a drink and slips Benadryl into Josef's drink to make him sleepy. When Josef falls asleep next to the fireplace, Aaron tries to go through his pockets. Suddenly, Josef's cell phone rings and Aaron answers it while hiding in the bathroom. It's Josef's wife asking who Aaron is and where Josef is. Aaron explains he's in the house and Josef has taken his keys. The woman tells Aaron to simply leave the house and keep walking because her brother isn't well. Aaron panics as he realizes Josef has been lying to him the whole time, using his sister's name as his "wife's". Aaron asks if he's in danger but the signal drops. When Aaron leaves the bathroom, Josef is missing. Aaron finds him crying on the porch and Josef tells him he doesn't want to die. When Aaron reveals he knows that Josef has been lying, Josef bolts down the hall toward the front door. When Aaron descends the stairs to the front door, Josef is standing in front of it with the Peachfuzz mask on, growling and gyrating. Aaron tells him that he's afraid and wants Josef to let him go. Suddenly, Josef launches at him and the camera goes black.The camera turns back on to a video of Josef dragging two garbage bags into the woods and burying them. Aaron turns the camera around to reveal he's alright but terribly disturbed. After Josef launched himself at Aaron, he ran off, leaving Aaron to get towed home. Aaron interprets the video as a threat. He's also very worried that Josef now knows his address. Aaron awakens in the night and turns on the camera to describe a dream he just had where he and Josef are back at the spring wearing Peachfuzz masks and bathing in blood.Not long after, a box is delivered to Aaron. When he opens it, there's another DVD along with a knife and a stuffed wolf. He turns the DVD on to reveal Josef making a confession of love and threatening Aaron. He tells Aaron to cut open the stuffed wolf. Aaron does and finds a heart locket with pictures of Josef and him inside. He calls the police who are unable to help since Aaron doesn't know Josef's real name or where he lives (the house he went to was just a rental). He hangs up in frustration. Aaron throws the DVD and locket into the trash.Aaron awakes that night, again from another bad dream. He hears a sudden noise and turns all his lights on. As he searches his apartment, Josef appears just outside his doorway. He disappears just as Aaron peeks toward the door. Aaron takes the camera to search outside and finds his trashcans overturned.The camera turns on to reveal Josef watching a sleeping Aaron and cutting off a lock of his hair. The next day, Aaron finds another DVD inside his window. When he plays it, Josef is outraged that Aaron would throw the locket away. He insists he loves Aaron and apologizes for lying to him. He tells Aaron that he's been sad and lonely for a long time and no doctors have been able to help him. He begs Aaron to come meet him in a public park so he can apologize and have closure. Aaron watches the video and begins to feel very sorry for Josef.The next day, Aaron goes to the park. He begins filming the spot where Josef told him to meet. He also tells the camera that he has 911 on speed dial. Aaron sits on a bench in the distance and looks out at the lake. Josef appears behind him and pulls the Peachfuzz mask out of his coat. As Aaron continues to stare off into the distance, Josef puts the mask on and pulls the axe from under his coat. Aaron doesn't notice him and Josef buries the axe in the top of Aaron's head.Josef turns on the camera to make a final confession to the now dead Aaron. He asks why Aaron would agree to meet him at all considering how deceitful he had been. He admires that Aaron filmed their last encounter and had 911 on speed dial but wonders as to why Aaron wouldn't be looking around in paranoia. Josef says he knows it's because Aaron is a genuinely good person, and that's why he's his favorite of all.Josef talks on the phone with another videographer as he adds Aaron's video to his collection of DVDs. Josef tells the person on the phone he looks forward to meeting him.

murder

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Jack and Jill

When you get together with your family for the holidays, everybody has that one family member who drives you crazy. They mean well, and you love them, but stillFor Jack, that's his sister his twin sister Jill. Growing up, their lives were incredibly intertwined. But ever since Jack moved away, they have moved in different directions. Jack has become a highly motivated and successful ad executive in L.A., while Jill was the one who stayed back east and took care of their parents. Now, they see each other only once a year, at Thanksgiving, when Jill comes to L.A. for a visit. Time and distance have taken a toll on their relationship and now Jack finds himself enduring Jill's annual visit, rather than enjoying it.Still, its just a couple of days, right? Wrong. Jack and Jill get off on the wrong foot just like always and the only way Jack can make things right is to ask Jill to stay on through Hanukkah, giving her some time to enjoy everything L.A. has to offer, from game shows to horseback riding. Still, Jack isn't exactly pleased that his sister is extending her tripAnd adding to Jacks stress is the fact that things aren't going all that well at his ad agency. His biggest client, Dunkin Donuts, is demanding that Jack deliver Al Pacino to perform in a new Dunkaccino commercial. Jack wonders how in the world he is going to get Pacino does he even do commercials? and his quest is intensified when he finds out that the famous actor is having a nervous breakdown and losing his mind. Having played one too many roles, the actor is starting to confuse reality with the parts he is playing and is acting out in some increasingly erratic ways.When Jack takes Jill to see the Lakers, he approaches Pacino about the commercial, but is stunned when Pacino is much more interested in talking to Jill. It turns out that Jill reminds Pacino of everything he left behind his boyhood home in the Bronx, his childhood and for Pacino, who is preparing to play Don Quixote on stage, something clicks. Because hes having trouble with reality, suddenly, Jill isn't Jacks wacky sister shes Dulcinea, Don Quixotes idealized romantic love and Pacino must conquer her affections to realize his quest.Trouble is, Jill isn't interested. But Pacino will not be brushed aside so easily. Inviting himself to Jack and Jill's surprise birthday party, he sweeps Jill off her feet and takes her for a private party at his home but Jill still isn't biting, which only inflames Pacino's passion (and insanity). Its not clear who's more upset Jill, from the experience, or Jack, who thinks his chance to get Pacino could be over, or Pacino, who is completely losing it for Jill.For Jack, now the shoe is on the other foot: he has to try to convince Jill to extend her trip even further and give Pacino one more shot. Its a move that sets in motion a wild, outrageous series of events that reveals to Jack who the most important people in his life are and have always been.Sony Pictures

comedy, entertaining

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Time Bandits

In early 1980s England we find Kevin Lotterby (Craig Warnock), an average 11-year-old boy who is fascinated by history and its legends. However, his material-obsessed parents (David Daker and Sheila Fearn) could care less and spend their evenings ignoring their son and watching game show programs on TV.One night, Kevin is made to get to bed early and just as he lies down to sleep an armored knight riding on horseback bursts from his wardrobe. He then finds himself smack dab in the middle of a forest clearing. Just after Kevin gets to his feet, the forest falls away and his bedroom has turned back to normal, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Examining a picture on his wall almost identical to the scene he just witnessed--a knight on horseback in the middle of a forest--it's his father who bursts in through his door this time, complaining about all of the racket Kevin was making and yells at him to get to sleep.The following evening, Kevin returns to bed equipped with a Polaroid camera and a flashlight, determined to document whatever else might decide to emerge from his wardrobe. Just as he's given up hope and begins to fall asleep, a group of six strangely dressed dwarfs file out of his closet. Kevin shines his light at them and they cower, calling him the "The Supreme Being." Soon after discovering his true identity, they gang up on the innocent Kevin, accusing him of things he has no knowledge of. While interrogating him they push him against his picture-decorated wall and find that it moves. Babbling that they've "found it" they push further on the wall, which reveals a tunnel.Suddenly, a frightening head-shaped apparition appears in Kevin's room and demands that they return what they've stolen from him and that it will bring them "great danger." The dwarves continue to push Kevin's picture-filled wall. The face follows them. Kevin runs and helps the dwarves. The wall soon gives way through an opening at the end of the hall and the group plummet into the black space beyond.On a seemingly normal countryside, the dwarves and Kevin suddenly fall from a hole in the sky. As it turns out, they have used a portal to travel back to Italy of 1796, during the Second Battle of Castiglione. They sneak into a fortress where they find a wrecked theatre and Napoleon Bonaparte, watching local actors perform follies for him. Napoleon laughs at a Punch and Judy show until the puppeteer is shot and dies. Dismissing the rest of the acts, he's suddenly thrilled when the dwarves appear onstage and begin to perform a soft-shoe number to "Me and My Shadow", a song that won't be written for another 130 years. Napoleon is pleased to see people shorter than himself performing and invites them to dinner, proclaiming them his new generals. The dwarves wait until Napoleon passes out from drinking wine and proceed to rob him of everything his forces had plundered and carry it out in a large tapestry. As they make their escape, one of the real generals discovers their plot and chases them. The dwarves find another portal and are able to escape.They subsequently arrive in the Middle Ages. They end up plummeting through the roof of a carriage, upsetting a betrothed couple, Vincent and Pansy (Michael Palin and Shelly Duval), who run off into the forest. The six dwarfs finally explain to Kevin that they worked for The Supreme Being, the creator of the Universe, as designers, creating all the flora and fauna of the world. Kevin learns that the dwarfs, whom are named Randall (David Rappaport)-the self-proclaimed leader, Fidgit (Kenny Baker), Strutter (Malcolm Dixon), Og (Mike Edmonds), Wally (Jack Purvis), and Vermin (Tiny Ross). After designing a particularly foul-smelling tree, the dwarfs were demoted to the job of repairing portals in the space-time fabric. Spurned they spitefully stole the map of the holes' locations, which they are now using to travel around, stealing treasures from across history and get "stinkin' rich." As they count up their loot, Kevin suggest they all pose for a group picture with their map. They suddenly hear the cries of the couple they'd landed on and find that they're being robbed by a motley band of thieves. They follow the thieves, landing themselves in snare traps. After convincing the thugs they're criminals, they're taken to Robin Hood (John Cleese), who looks upon their haul from Napoleon as wealth he can "redistribute" to the local poor. As Hood hands out the loot, the dwarves leave in disgust, angry that their haul has been repossessed.Meanwhile, in secret, this journey is being observed via mystical powers by a malevolent sorcerer, known simply as "the Evil Genius" or "Ultimate Evil" (David Warner), who seeks the map for himself to recreate the universe to his liking. In the Fortress of Ultimate Darkness, the Evil Genius rants a little about The Supreme Being, saying that slugs are a demonstration of his incompetence. "What about you?" one of his henchman asks. "He created you." Evil responds by blowing him up, adding "Don't ever ask me another question like that! No one created me! I am absolute evil! I made myself!" Another henchman pushes his luck, asking, "Then how does he keep you here? How does he keep you trapped in the fortress?" He promptly gets blown up. "Good question," Evil states. "If I were creating the world I wouldn't mess about with butterflies and daffodils. I would have started with lasers, eight o'clock, Day One!"While the dwarfs ponder their next move, Ultimate Evil decides to magically speak through the mouth of one of the more dunderheaded dwarfs in order to convince the rest of them to pursue the resting place of "the most fabulous object in the world." The dwarfs begin to fight amongst themselves for the map until the Supreme Being re-materializes, which leads Kevin to jump through a time-travel portal on his own in escape.Kevin unintentionally aides King Agamemnon (Sean Connery) when he falls from a time portal in the sky. After inadvertently helping Agamemnon slay a vicious minotaur, Kevin is welcomed to Agamemnon's royal court and treated like a son. Reflecting on his own neglected life and family, Kevin wishes he can stay with the king forever. Kevin is elated with his new home, capturing scenes during his stay with his Polaroid camera, but this is not to last. A few days later, during a birthday party for Agamemnon, the six dwarfs suddenly appear again and in yet another time-traveling robbery scheme, they manage to steal Agamemnon's riches along with the boy before fleeing through another time portal door.After time-traveling to the infamous luxury liner Titanic, Randall tells Kevin that he'd studied the map more closely & found that Og was right: the Time of Legends is the location of the Most Fabulous Object in the World. However, the boat begins to sink and the stranded group is forced to search out the most fabulous object in the world which turns out to be the Fortress of Ultimate Evil.The Evil Genius, meanwhile, begins to manipulate the adventure with his magical influence, so that Kevin and the dwarfs end up transported out of the freezing waters of the Atlantic Ocean to the ocean of the Time of Legends. Here, circumstances become even more fantastical. The group is picked up by a ship containing the Oger Winston (Peter Vaughan) and his human wife (Katherine Helmond). After overpowering Winston and throwing him and his wife overboard, the group takes command of the ship, but they barely escape when their ship is adorning the head of a giant. After putting the giant to sleep by injecting the top of his head with sleep potion, the travelers escape and find themselves in a vast desert.The dwarfs believe an epic treasure, "The Most Fabulous Object in the World," awaits in this time-period within the Fortress of Ultimate Darkness, where Evil himself resides. Meeting an invisible wall in the middle of the desert, the dwarfs begin to fight and dissent from Randall's authority, when they accidentally down the wall by smashing through it like a pane of glass. They step through the jagged opening to behold Evil's fortress lying ominous on the other side. Once inside, the dwarfs are immediately deceived by Evil's shape-shifting abilities into handing over the map. Evil imprisons them and Kevin in one of many cages hanging over a bottomless void, but the group undoes the lock and swings from cage to cage until they are back within the fortress hall. They are able to use a photograph of the map Kevin had taken earlier to identify holes they can use to recruit help and recover the map. The dwarfs begin putting their plan into action. Randall and four of the dwarfs split up while Kevin stays behind to try to lure away several of the Evil Genius' demon minions that chase him.Kevin is almost left to face the Evil Genius alone when suddenly all kinds of characters from all time periods come to the rescue, among the group several Roman archers, cowboys, a battle tank, knights, and a futuristic soldier, and the dwarfs.The cowboys attempt to wrangle Evil with their lassos, but he begins to spin and the centrifugal force sends them flying. Evil's skull opens up and a wicked looking pole extends from it, producing a knife which cuts the ropes which unsuccessfully bound him. When the archers attempt to skewer them with their well-aimed arrows, Evil essentially turns himself into a pincushion and fires the arrows right back at their sources.Although the hodge-podge group puts up what could be considered a good effort, all efforts to foil evildoing prove in vain and all certainly seems lost. But then, out of nowhere, The Supreme Being appears in human form (Ralph Richardson) and turns Evil into brittle stone. While Randall tries to apologize to The Supreme Being for his groups actions, The Supreme Being reveals that everything which had occurred was actually all part of his plan.The Supreme Being (nicknamed 'SB' by the dwarfs) goes on to briefly explain that he let the midgets borrow the map because, as it turns out, Evil was HIS creation after all and the Supreme Being simply wanted to see it put to the test. Free will is the reason why evil still exists, he explains. He instructs them to dispose of Evil's crumbling bits and pieces into a English Post Box he has provided in order to rid the world of it and warns them not to touch it with their bare hands. Unbeknownst to them, one chunk is overlooked and slowly begins to fester. The SB forgives the dwarfs for their insolence, deciding demotion and a pay cut will suffice as a good enough punishment and announces that it is time to go (presumably back to Heaven). With the time map safely in hand, SB and the dwarfs then leave an indignant Kevin behind "to carry on the fight." Soon, however, the festering piece of Evil begins to smolder and in moments Kevin is enveloped in a cloud of thick, strangely yellow-colored smoke.Almost instantaneously, Kevin wakes up to find himself back in his bed, surrounded now by thick, black smoke. Two firemen burst through his door just in time and rush him from his burning home. Outside, his parents fight over which kitchen appliances should have been saved from the flames and seem to have no concern for whether Kevin had made it out of the house alive or not. It is now morning as Kevin watches the growing flames lick at his home as firemen hose it down and begin to get the fires under control. One of the two firemen who saved him walks by and asks if he is all right, and then says "You're a very lucky boy." On second look, Kevin recognizes the fireman as the spitting image of King Agamemnon. Baffled, wondering if it was all a dream, Kevin checks his pockets for any evidence of his journey and is amazed to find all of the Polaroid snapshots that he took while on his adventures, thus confirming that it wasn't a dream after all.But before Kevin can show the photos and proof of his time traveling adventures to his bickering parents, another fireman emerges from the home with a charred toaster oven in hand, declaring that it was the cause of the fire, which was left on overnight. His parents open the appliance, revealing the smoking chunk of evil rock lying inside. Kevin gasps, realizing it was the source of the fire. "Mum, Dad!" He warns, "It's Evil! Don't touch it!" But as always, his stupid parents foolishly ignore him and touch it anyway to remove it. They both explode on contact with the black rock, leaving almost no trace behind. When Kevin turns around looking for help, he sees King Agamemnon-turned-fireman winking at him who then drives away in his fire truck along with the rest of the firemen now that the fire is put out. Kevin is left all alone and bewildered on the front lawn to look back at the smoldering remains of his destroyed house and (now dead) parents while his nosy neighbors look on.The camera zooms out from the town, the world, and the galaxy to reveal its location on the Supreme Being's map. The Supreme Being's hands then roll up the map, ending the film.

comedy, fantasy, cult, good versus evil, psychedelic, absurd, satire, action, historical, entertaining, sci-fi

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Hammer & Tickle

What would happen if they introduced Communism to Saudi Arabia? Nothing at first but soon there would be a shortage of sand.Why, despite all the shortages, was the toilet paper in East Germany always 2-ply? Because they had to send a copy of everything they did to Moscow.This is the first ever film about Communist jokes, the most extraordinary cultural legacies of eighty years of socio-political experimentation in Russia and Eastern Europe.Under the oppressive Communist regimes of the Soviet Union and its satellites, ordinary people told thousands of jokes about the society they lived in and the political system they suffered under. Denied free speech, and confronted daily with the gap between political propaganda and everyday reality, jokes became the language of truth in the world of Communism. They were a way for ordinary people to resist the regime but the Communist regimes also used to jokes, to diffuse opposition. Jokes were thus the real battleground between state and people under Communism.Using this unique folkloric archive, this funny and insightful feature-length documentary tells the real history of Communism through the jokes. On the way it tells the stories of what happened to the joke-tellers, some of whom ended up in the Gulags, while others became stars of the stage and screen. This Monty-Python-esque history of Communism recreates the jokes using sketches, tricked archive and special animations. There are interviews with the legends of Communism and legendary Communist joke-tellers including Solidarity Leader and former Polish president Lech Walesa, the hardline Polish leader General Jaruselski, German actor Peter Sodann, , German satirist and author Ernst Roehl, East German newspaper editor and Politburo member Guenter Schabowski, and Britains own Professor of jokes, Christie Davies.The film unearthes never-seen-before archive of the jokes that President Reagan told at Press Conferences, of the only anti-Communist comedy show ever broadcast on a Communist state television channel, and of the jokes and cartoons that the Czechs graffiti-ed on their town square when the Russians invaded in 1968. Uncovering extraordinary stories never before told on television, director Ben Lewis met the man who collected jokes for Ronald Reagan, the Polish prankster who gave away toilet paper to deprived fellow citizens, and the Romanian amateur statistician who collected and analysed Communist jokes scientifically to reveal the part they played in the downfall of the system.

humor

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Torch Song

Jenny Stewart (Joan Crawford) is a Broadway musical star of renowned drive and perfectionism. In her relentless determination to give her audiences her best ("No Jenny Stewart show is going to be a flop."), she orders everybody around with incessant demands. When her rehearsal pianist suddenly quits, he is replaced by blind pianist Tye Graham (Michael Wilding). Though Graham knows all her arrangements backwards and forwards, he offers one innocent suggestion that Stewart alter a tempo -- and she demands he be fired (while his seeing-eye dog, Duchess, growls menacingly).She soon recants, however, because she realizes he was right. As rehearsals continue, she grows to respect his musicianship and his opinion, because he's the one person she realizes is always honest with her.It soon becomes clear that Jenny is isolated and lonely in her hard-earned stardom. Her boyfriend, Cliff Willard (Gig Young), is a handsome but alcoholic hanger-on who cheats on her. Her mother (Marjorie Rambeau) and sister (Nancy Gates) depend on Jenny's financial support.We learn that Tye lost his sight in the war -- and also that he paid Jenny's original rehearsal pianist to quit so that Tye could take his place. We learn that Tye is in love with his remembered vision of Jenny when he saw her in a show before he lost his sight. Tye is a man of independent means who lives well, to Jenny's surprise when she visits him to demand that he come back to rehearsals.Jenny does all she can to disguise her growing feelings for Tye. When he resists her subtle manipulations and finally refuses to accompany the cast to the out-of-town tryouts at the end of rehearsals, Jenny and Tye have an explosive argument during which he mentions her "gypsy madonna" hair.Later, at her mother's, Jenny confesses her love for Tye and mentions his comment. Her mother seems to remember the comment from somewhere and asks Jenny to get out one of the the scrapbooks her mother's kept throughout Jenny's career. There it is: the "gypsy madonna" comment made in a review Tye Graham wrote just before he left for the war.Now that she realizes how Tye really feels about her, Jenny returns to his apartment and silently takes her place near him while he plays a furiously angry version of "Tenderly" -- one of Jenny's early hits. He's incensed when he discovers her presence, but the two finally confess their love and their need for each other.

romantic

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The Informant!

As the film opens, Mark Whitacre (Matt Damon) is explaining that nearly everything people eat contains corn and that his company, ADM, is involved in almost all meals. He is overseeing ADM's production of lysine, an additive used in the commercial livestock industry, but there are problems and the company is losing money. Whitacre reveals that ADM is the victim of a saboteur and his source is a Japanese colleague who wants $10 million to name names. As a result, ADM asks the FBI to intervene and tap Whitacre's business line at his home. When the agent Brian Shepard arrives at Whitacre's house to install the recording device, Whitacre is prodded by his wife Ginger to tell the truth. Whitacre reluctantly asks to speak with Brian in the agents car because he believes that ADM has likely bugged the house and reveals to the agent that ADM has been engaged in price fixing with Japanese and Korean lysine producers. Brian informs his superiors that ADM is engaging in rampant corporate crime, but when ADM realizes that the FBI has in fact tapped more than just Whitacre's business line, the company refuses further cooperation with the FBI and orders Whitacre to stop working with Brian.Whitacre initially refuses to cooperate with the FBI and tells Brian that there is no longer any price fixing at the company, but Brian and another agent, Robert Herndon, confront him in a hotel and force him to admit that this isn't the case. Whitacre also admits at this point that he invented the story of the mole and the Japanese extortionist in order to take some heat off himself and his failure to produce results. Whitacre decides to work with the FBI and becomes an informant. Initially, Whitacre explains that he wants to do the right thing but later he admits that he wanted to eliminate the other executives at ADM and take his place as President of the entire company. Whitacre begins to record tapes at work and in meetings he eventually submits over 200 recordings to the FBI which he narrates in an amusing way. He also shows the wire to his maintenance man at home and says that he's Agent 0014 because he's twice as smart as James Bond 007. The FBI eventually records video of ADM's meetings with Japanese and Korean competitors with Whitacre's help. The FBI is happy with the evidence that Whitacre supplies, but the Justice Department takes more convincing, though eventually everyone feels that the case against ADM is strong.As a result of Whitacre's evidence and after two years of work, the FBI launches a massive raid on ADM, seizing files and computers. Whitacre, in an effort to avoid casting suspicion on him as the informant, is confronted by the FBI in a restaurant with fellow executive Terry. The FBI advises Whitacre to tell his company that he is cooperating with the government and to secure his own lawyer as opposed to one the company will offer him. Once the raid is over, Brian learns that Whitacre compromised the raid by warning his secretary and two colleagues but continues with the case. The morning after the raid, Whitacre accepts a company lawyer who spends all day with Whitacre listening to the story of his work as an informant. The company lawyer advises Whitacre to get his own attorney and together they inform several executives that Whitacre will be cooperating with the FBI.After the FBI raid, Whitacre's story begins to unravel and his family is shunned by the corporate community. Whitacre's new counsel is amazed by his story and advises him not to speak to anyone about the case. Somehow, the story is leaked to the Wall Street Journal and Whitacre continues to meet with the FBI agents Brian and Robert. Whitacre confesses to the agents that he has been taking kickbacks for several years the total amount Whitacre embezzles is never made clear in the film because he keeps changing his story, but the final figure he gives is over $11 million. In truth, Whitacre asked a colleague to set up a shell company that sent ADM bogus invoices that the company paid. The film does not clarify exactly how Whitacre's scheme worked; probably because he has never explained the mechanism in detail himself. This revelation results in Whitacre losing his immunity.When confronted with evidence of his embezzlement, Whitacre loses control of himself and it becomes clear that he is suffering from Bipolar Disorder, and his diagnosis will eventually become his defense. It is revealed that the story Whitacre tells of how he was adopted by a wealthy man when he was young is false. Whitacre also fakes a kidnapping attempt in an effort to gain public sympathy and continues to speak to the media despite the advice of his attorneys. He parts ways with the legal counsel when they refuse to file a lawsuit against Brian Shepard for assault and when Whitacre refuses to accept a plea bargain for 3-5 years in prison. Whitacre's new attorney is portrayed as the worst kind of ambulance chaser. He confronts the FBI with evidence that his client was assaulted by Brian, who supposedly hit Whitacre with a suitcase. In order to bolster his case, Whitacre forges a letter from his psychiatrist but no one is fooled. Whitacre is confronted by Brian, who asks him why he keeps lying. Whitacre replies that he doesn't know why and announces that he should go back to the hospital.The film flashes forward to Whitacre's sentencing. Whitacre delivers a meandering statement and admits that he is now on medication. The judge, however, finds no connection between having Bipolar Disorder and committing so many counts of fraud. Whitacre spends nearly 9 years in prison, three times what the executives his tapes help convict served. He petitions, with the help of Agent Robert, for a presidential pardon and admits that he embezzled money in case he lost his job at ADM as a result of working as an informant. It was his severance. It is also suggested that Whitacre embezzled money to compensate for funds he lost when scammed by scammed by a group in Nigeria in an advance fee fraud. The pardon is refused, but Whitacre's evidence was invaluable to one of the largest price-fixing cases in history and the government was able to collect millions in fines. Were it not for the fraud activity, Whitacre would be regarded as a hero. In the final scene, Whitacre is released from prison and is met by Ginger. The viewers are told that Whitacre is currently the COO of Cypress Systems.

insanity, plot twist, comedy

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The Wild Bunch

The movie takes place in 1913, during the height of the Mexican Revolution. In the fictional town of San Rafael, Texas, the Wild Bunch - led by Pike Bishop (William Holden), and also including Dutch Engstrom (Ernest Borgnine), Lyle and Tector Gorch (Warren Oates and Ben Johnson), Angel (Jaime Sanchez), Buck (Rayford Barnes), and Clarence 'Crazy' Lee (Bo Hopkins), among others - enters the town, with half of them dressed as United States cavalry soldiers. They ride past a group of children who are torturing a pair of scorpions by putting them on a hill of red ants (this image was suggested by Emilio Fernandez; he said that he and his friends had done similar things as children), a very symbolic image which symbolizes the events of the film. The gang breaks into the bank and holds it up, but on the roof of a hotel across the street is a ragtag posse of bounty hunters, led by Patrick Harrigan (Albert Dekker), a railroad detective, and Deke Thornton (Robert Ryan), a former member of the gang being ambushed, along with scruffy bounty hunters Coffer (Strother Martin), T.C. (L.Q. Jones), Huey (Paul Harper), and Jess (stuntman Bill Hart).The gang's escape is interrupted by the local temperance union, which is holding a parade in the town, led by Reverend Wainscoat (Dub Taylor), playing "Shall We Gather At The River?" (a hymn used as a funeral song in innumerable John Ford Westerns, used here for ironic effect). Various members of the gang, inside and out of the bank, spot the bounty hunters and Pike uses a bank teller as a decoy, throwing him out of the bank to draw the fire of the bounty hunters, allowing for the gang's escape.A vicious, confusing gunfight occurs, with gang members, bounty hunters, and civilians caught in the crossfires, resulting in numerous deaths. Only six members of the gang escape - Pike, Dutch, the Gorches, Angel, and Buck, who has been shot in the face and blinded - and the rest of the gang is killed. Crazy Lee is left behind to hold the bank patrons as hostages; when Harrigan and Thornton's gang descend from the roof of the hotel to scavenge from the various dead bodies, he is ultimately killed by Harrigan. Outside of town, Pike executes Buck, who is unable to continue riding due to his injuries.The surviving gang members arrive at a small Mexican town, where another gang member, the old Freddie Sykes (Edmond O'Brien), is waiting with horses and saddles. In this scene, they realize that the robbery was a set-up by the railroad - all of their earnings have been nothing but bags of steel washers. The excitable Gorches very nearly turn on Angel and Sykes, but they are held in check by Pike and Dutch. Later in the film, Sykes reveals to Pike that Crazy Lee - who had been deliberately left behind by Pike - was his grandson.We also learn as the film progresses that Thornton has been given his parole in exchange for his tracking down his old colleague Pike. Though Thornton continually disparages his posse as "gutter trash", he reluctantly continues his pursuit of the gang throughout the film. Pike reveals through flashback (most of which were cut by the studio in the original version) how he abandoned Thornton to the railroad detectives, and also how he developed his painful leg wound (he had an affair with a Mexican woman, played by Aurora Clavell, and was shot by her husband) which he suffers from throughout the film.Pike and his men return to Angel's village and remain there for a day and night. Pike learns from the village elder, Don Jose (Chano Urueta) that the village has been attacked by General Mapache (Emilio Fernandez), a Mexican general working for the government of General Huerta. Angel's father was hanged, and his girlfriend was taken by Mapache for his own. Though he tells Pike that he will not avenge his father, Angel remains obsessed with getting his vengeance on Mapache throughout the film.The gang then heads to the small town of Agua Verde, Mapache's headquarters, to trade their horses. As they go to visit the General, Angel sees Teresa, his girlfriend, presenting a pony to Mapache. Angel shoots her in the arms of Mapache, nearly leading to a tense confrontation between the Mexicans and the gang, but Pike and Dutch diffuse it. They are later hired by Mapache and his German military advisers to steal a US arms shipment for him, which they agree to for a price of ten thousand dollars - but Angel insists that they allow him to take a case of rifles to his village to protect them from Mapache. Pike and Dutch agree.The Bunch holds up the train and kills the soldiers guarding the weapons, but Thornton and his posse are also on board the train and pursues them to a bridge over the Rio Grande, themselves being pursued by a squad of inept cavalrymen. After a confusing three-way shootout, the Bunch recrosses the border into Mexico. Thornton and his men are blown into the river when the dynamite wired to the bridge explodes, and the gang makes their escape. After getting themselves back together, Thornton and his men pursue the gang into Mexico.Out on the trail toward Agua Verde, the Bunch are met by a small group of Pancho Villa's men -- Angel had convinced his comrades to give one of the sixteen cases of rifles to these men to use in their fight against Mapache and Huerta. Angel's Mexican comrades silently sneak up on the Bunch after dark and hold them hostage for a few minutes until Angel can square things. Pike and Dutch seem quite impressed with the ability of the revolutionaries to get the drop on them, however the Gorches are angry that they'd been made to look like fools. The Mexicans leave as silently as they arrived.While waiting for word of the Bunch's robbery at a telegraph station, Mapache and his entourage are attacked by forces led by Pancho Villa and routed. Mapache sends one of his subordinates, Captain Herrera (Alfonso Arau), to meet the Bunch in a ravine with a large group of soldiers, but the confrontation nearly turns violent after a nervous Mexican soldier fires at the wagon holding the weapons. The Bunch has wired the wagon with dynamite, and Pike lights the fuse until Herrera diffuses the situation by executing the soldier who has fired on the gang. The Bunch then elaborately hides their weapons haul - fifteen cases of rifles, plus a Browning M1917 machine gun - and gives it in installments to Mapache in exchange for their money. Unfortunately, when Angel and Dutch arrive in town, Mapache reveals that he has been tipped off by Teresa's father of Angel's perfidy -- for killing his daughter, the father revealed to Mapache that one of the cases of rifles was given to the rebels by Angel. Angel is captured by Mapache's men, and Dutch simply rides off.The gang regroups at a canyon outside of town, waiting for Sykes to return with their packhorses, and they argue over what to do. Then they watch as Sykes is ambushed and seriously wounded by Thornton's posse. Pike decides to abandon his old friend, who is being pursued hotly by Thornton's men, and return to Agua Verde to retrieve Angel. Mapache refuses to turn over Angel, who has been badly tortured, and invites the gang to spend the night in town whoring and drinking.The next morning, Pike decides to make a final stand. The four gang members load up shotguns, rifles, and semi-automatic sidearms and march through Agua Verde to Mapache's headquarters. After demanding Angel's release again, a drunken Mapache slits Angel's throat, and he is subsequently gunned down by Pike and Dutch. After a tense moment, the drunken Mexican soldiers under Mapache react, unsure of what to do. After a few seconds, Dutch looks at Pike and laughs, actually thinking that they might get away with killing Mapache over it being a justifiable killing. However, Pike is not amused. Apparently, he has already decided to die there. Pike takes deliberate aim at Captain Mohr, Mapache's adviser, and shoots him dead.At this point, a vicious, bloody gunfight (referred to as the "Battle of the Bloody Porch" by the film's crew) results as the Bunch shoots their way through Mapache's officers and seizes the machine gun. They inflict scores of casualties on the Mexican solders but finally fall due to the sheer number of their foe. Lyle and Tector are shot repeatedly as they try to man the machine gun; after being shot in the back by a Mexican prostitute (whom he kills afterwords) Pike is finally killed by a Mexican boy and other soldiers in a hail of bullets while manning the machine gun; Dutch is gunned down rushing to his side.After the battle, with Mapache's army nearly wiped out, Thornton and his surviving men ride into town and begin looting the dead bodies of the Mexican soldiers and their prey, while Thornton looks at his fallen colleagues in pity, taking Pike's unused revolver. Thornton declines to join the bounty hunters as they return to the United States, remaining at Agua Verde; they are ambushed and killed somewhere down the trail.In the final scene, Sykes, Don Jose, and a large group of Villista rebels later arrive at the town, and Thornton decides to join them.

comedy, suspenseful, murder, realism, bleak, cult, violence, atmospheric, flashback, psychedelic, revenge

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Fool's Fire

A family of "little people" are peacefully having dinner when the thundering sound of horsemen is heard. One of the male adults helps the other family members to hide, but with nowhere else in the house to hide he jumps out a window and flees, only to be ridden down by a horsemen, captured and kidnapped to a foreign kingdom. He is dragged before a royal court of monsters (literally and figuratively) consisting of the monstrously fat king and his equally repulsive court, called "Hop-Frog" because of his now-limping gait, and forced to become the new jester.One morning, the practical joke-obsessed king orders the inventive yet sensitive Hop-Frog to provide entertainment for the arriving Duke and Duchess of Siri-Siril. Following Hop-frog's physical comedy and a sumptuous banquet, the king's guests wheel in a giant bird cage, containing a young dwarfish woman named Tripetta, as a gift for the king. It's love at first sight for Hop-Frog, but his feelings and the condescending and cruel treatment at the hands of the so-called "normal" courtiers only tortures him even more. Events take an even uglier turn when the king summons Hop-Frog, orders him to come up with a original idea for an upcoming costume ball and forces him to drink goblets of wine (which the poor dwarf can't handle). Trippetta, who has been forced to be present, tries to halt the bullying, but has a goblet of wine thrown in her face for her efforts. This in turn has the effect of immediately sobering Hop-Frog up, and he comes up with a brilliant idea: the king and his councillors will be covered in fur and pretend to be ourangutangs bound together by a lengthy chain and, most appealing to the King's sadistic nature, scare the you-know-what out of everybody. The conceit is a strange one, but the King and his men readily accept it. Later that night, Hop-frog frees Trippetta from her cage to assist him in carrying out his plans for the costume ball.The night of the ball arrives and the plan is carried out; the king and his councillors are sewn into tight-fitting body-suits (which are painted all over with tar and covered with flax) and equipped with carved wooden masks. The illusion is a flawless one, so much so that when the "Eight Chained Ourangutangs" bust into the party at midnight and create their commotion, none of the guests complain when Hop-Frog lowers a chandelier chain down from the ceiling, hooks it to the chain connecting the beasts and has it and the "apes" hoisted into the air. Using a torch to pretend to try and find out who these costumed people are, he sets them all afire, with the other partygoers too far out of reach to help. He and Trippetta (who has been waiting on the roof) watch coldly from the roof as the fire claims its victims, then escape into the air on a makeshift flying machine as flames slowly spread through the kingdom.

revenge

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The She-Creature

We open with the credits amid an underwater panorama of sea life, this is followed by a pounding surf. We see Dr. Carlo Lombardi (Chester Morris) on the beach. He encounters a barking dog (King) and through his hypnotic power repels it.Dorothy Chappel (Cathy Downs) arm in arm with her new boyfriend, Dr. Ted Erickson (Lance Fuller), who is a professor of Psychic Research, step outside on the terrace from a cocktail party at her parent's beach house. They go for a walk along the beach. We see Dorothy's parents, Timothy Chappel (Tom Conway) and his wife (Frieda Inescourt) out taking some air. Mrs. Chappel is concerned because Dr. Lombardi predicts something terrible will happen on the beach that very evening. Dorothy and Ted walk along the beach talking, as Lombardi enters a beach shack and discovers it is a shambles. He also discovers a dead couple. He seems neither surprised nor concerned. He discovers what appears to be seaweed on the floor. The dog approaches Dorothy and Ted and becons they follow him to the beach shack. They see Lombardi departing the house. Ted enters and sees the bodies, exits, and tells Dorothy to go home and call the police. He will remain there.The police arrive. Lt. Ed James (Ron Randell) and his Sergeant (Frank Jenks) examine the crime scene. They also notice the seaweed. The sergeant thinks it is Lombardi's creature, or so he tells James that is his wife's conclusion.Johnny (Paul Dubov) the carnie and general busybody runs a game of chance on a rundown pier arcade. We learn that he knew Andrea before Lombardi. He and Lombardi trade barbs. Lombardi goes to a small auditorium and we meet Andrea Talbott (Marla English). She is in a trance and Lombardi kisses her to wake her. He is in love with her, but she does not reciprocate. She hates and resents the power he has over her, and she tells him as much. There's a knock at the door. Lt. James and Ted arrive and confront Lombardi. Ted makes a positive identification of Lombardi as the person exiting the beach shack, the site of the recent Jefferson double murder. Lt. James questions Lombardi, then takes him in for further questioning.Olaf (Ed Brendel) is serving Mr. Chappel coffee with his breakfast out on the terrace. Ted arrives, dressed for tennis. They discuss the Jefferson murders and a possible business venture based on same. They conclude Lombardi is somehow involved, but Chappel intends to use Lombardi as a moneymaking vehicle. Ted is very reluctant to get involved for both professional and ethical reasons.Chappel goes down to the arcade to discuss business with Lombardi, but Lombardi anticipated his visit. They agree to a 50/50 arrangement, each for his own reasons. Lombardi returns to Andrea, and through her summons the She-Creature (Paul Blaisdell) and directs it to kill Johnny. It breaks down Johnny's door while he is relaxing on his cot, and kills him. The next morning, Lt. James returns to see Lombardi and arrests him for Johnny's murder, but Lombardi's lawyer (Jack Mulhall) springs him shortly after his arrest. The beaches are closed.That evening a party at the Chappel house is well attended. Mrs. Chappel is excited that Lombardi will be entertaining. Olaf and his wife, Marta (Flo Bert) are the serving staff for the evening. They are employed by the Chappels as much for comic relief as their domestic skills. A very drunk Bob (William Hudson), former fiancée of Dorothy, tries to rekindle their former relationship, but she gives him the brush off. Andrea and Lombardi arrive, and all eyes are on Andrea. Dorothy reacts with a tinge of jealousy. Lt. James arrives almost immediately thereafter. He asks Chappel for permission to remain and watch the performance. Everyone is instructed to be seated. Lombardi proceeds with his hypnosis of Andrea. She tries to resist his commands, but eventually complies. Lombardi challenges Dr. Ted Erickson to debunk his work publicly during the demonstration. Ted watches Lombardi regress Andreas back to a past life. She details the life of one Elizabeth Anne Weatherby from the year 1618. She provides very accurate details of her life and times. Elizabeth is the spirit that Lombardi uses to summon the She-Creature. The spirit of Elizabeth is asked to open a window and close some drapes, which happen on cue. The crowd murmurs astonishment. King appears and growls at Lombardi, and he commands the spirit of Elizabeth to remove the dog, which it does. Lombardi predicts the creature is coming to the assembled guests and they depart the Chappel house. Mrs. Chappel faints. Lombardi grabs his hat and coat and departs with Ted close behind. The She-Creature appears and is about to attack Ted, but Andrea wakes and screams and the creature walks back to the ocean.The next morning Dorothy and Ted talk of the evening's events. Lombardi was asked to spend the night as a guest of the Chappels. He joins them on the terrace. Mr. Chappel congratulates Lombardi on his performance. Lombardi informs Chappel he will be his house guest for a while. Lombardi meets with Andrea and informs her Ted will try to hypnotize her later at an arranged experiment and she should resist.Ted and Lt. James meet in Ted's lab. He agrees to let Lt. James sit in on the meeting he will be having later with some colleagues to test Andrea. Andrea and Lombardi arrive, along with Ted's professional colleagues (Kenneth MacDonald) and Professor Anderson (Edward Earle). Lt. James is recording the session. As proof of his powers, Lombardi summons Elizabeth to remove Prof. Anderson's glasses, and they come off his face. Lombardi departs with Andrea.The story is published and a million books are sold. Chapel tells Lombardi he is now rich and should find other lodgings, but again Lombardi refuses to leave. A tour of the country with Andrea follows to huge crowds.The She-Creature kills a couple in their car as Lombardi and Lt. James look on. James is convinced Lombardi did it, despite being Lombardi's alibi. During the tour, Andrea and Ted have fallen in love. Lombardi is furious at this new development and tells her he will arrange Ted's death. Dorothy tries to reconnect with Ted, but he makes it clear to her he's now in love with Andrea.Ted and Andrea walk along the beach with Lombardi spying on them. Lombardi directs King to attack Ted, but Andrea intercedes and calls the dog off. They head back to the Chappels house for the evening show. Lombardi tries to hypnotize Andrea but she resists. She eventually succumbs and falls into a trance, but is still uncooperative. Lombardi scares the crowd into leaving. He returns to Andrea to summon the She-Creature. Lt. James is on the beach and sees the creature materialize and shoots it, but it is impervious to bullets. It attacks him. Ted sees this and helps him to his feet and James tells Ted he now believes in Lombardi's power to summon the creature. The She-Creature, now set loose, attacks Chappel in his study. It then heads for the living room and Ted. But Andrea has now developed a little power herself, and directs the creature to Lombardi. After attacking Lombardi, she directs the creature back to the sea, where the police shoot at it. Lombardi, badly beaten, lives long enough to release Andrea from his control then collapses. Andrea, now herself, and Ted walk out on the terrace. We close with a shot of waves on the beach.

paranormal, romantic, murder

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Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

The original Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band performed during WWI in France, as the Allies' "most effective weapon." Their melodies cheered troops engaged in battle and stopped hostilities, leading to their receiving the coveted Golden Eagle Award. Back at their hometown of Heartland, they continued performing through the Roaring '20's, the Depression, and through another Great War, until the demise of the bandleader in 1958. He left his magical instruments to the town of Heartland. These items have the power to make dreams come true, and as long as they remained in the town's possession, humanity would live happily foreverafter. He left his wholesome grandson, Billy Shears, (Peter Frampton) his Golden Eagle and musical legacy. The town's venerable mayor, Mr. Kite (George Burns) tells the tale of the new Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club band, consisting of Billy, his best friends, Mark, Dave, and Bob Henderson (The Bee Gees), and managed by his jealous stepbrother, Dougie Shears (Paul Nicholas).The new band debuts in their wholesome small town one sunny summer day, introduced by money-hungry Dougie. Dave, Mark, and Bob start off the performance, joined by Billy after he shares a brief moment with his sweetheart, Strawberry Fields (Sandy Farina). Townsfolk of all ages instantly take to the boys, who receive a telegram from Big Deal Records requesting a demo tape, with the promise of big success. Mr. Kite briefly imagines himself as a superstar, performing a number in the town square, alone except for two little girls who join his jaunty dance.The town's magical weather vane picks up a strange signal, the arrival of Mean Mr. Mustard (Frankie Howerd). His mission: to Take Over Heartland. He is apparently directed by the FVB, who reminds him: We hate love; We hate joy; We love money. The band is recording their demo tape at a farm near town as he arrives. Back in Hollywood, Big Deal's B.D. Hoffler (Donald Pleasence) hears the tape and begins his plan to sign them to his label. The band is summoned to Hollywood immediately, giving Billy and Strawberry scant time for tender goodbyes. They share one night in the farm's hayloft before the band's hasty departure.Arriving in L.A. by Big Deal's private jet, the band is welcomed personally by B.D. and his sexy assistant, Lucy (Dianne Steinberg). They are transported by stretch El Camino to B.D.'s mansion, where the naive bandmates are immediately corrupted by liquor, drugs, and women. Later that evening, the intoxicated boys are duped into signing B.D.'s exploitive contract. The next morning they commence recording sessions, leading to instant superstardom with sold-out concerts, intense media coverage, and enormous record sales. During their rise to success, B.D. requires Lucy and her backup singers, the Diamonds (Stargard) to control the band by exerting their evil and sexual influence.Back in Heartland, Strawberry pines for Billy while Mr. Mustard steals the magical instruments from Mr. Kite's office at City Hall. Mustard begins his mission to deliver the instruments to various villainous characters. Without the protection of the instruments, Heartland instantly degenerates into a den of iniquity.Strawberry leaves home in pursuit of her beloved Billy, leaving her parents heartbroken in her absence. Mr. Mustard's robots alert him and his Brute (Carel Struyken) of Strawberry's departure. When she arrives in L.A., she sees a billboard showing Billy and the rest of the band, next to another featuring Lucy and the Diamonds. Both billboards come to life. The women's seductive performance lures the men into their embrace, horrifying the distraught Strawberry. When she momentarily turns away, the billboards return to their inanimate states.The next day, Strawberry arrives at the band's recording session, witnessing some flirtatious glances between Billy and Lucy. B.D. and Dougie try to get rid of her, but she is able to get in and explain the treachery that has befallen Heartland. Mr. Mustard arrives moments later, and the band accosts his van in an effort to recover the stolen instruments. The van's computer indicates the first instrument went to Dr. Maxwell Hammer (Steve Martin), a cheerfully deranged and money-driven physician. Billy, Mark, Dave, Bob, and Strawberry make haste to Dr. Hammer's office and retrieve Sgt. Pepper's silver cornet after a non-contact fight sequence. They find the drum in the van, then seek Father Sun (Alice Cooper) for the tuba. In his Orwellian lair, he drums the message, "We Hate Love; We Hate Joy; We Love Money" into the heads of militant young cadets. The band and Strawberry retrieve the tuba, but Billy is injured by an electrical shock. Back safely in the van, Strawberry lovingly tends to the unconscious Billy. He dreams of her, then revives at the sound of her beautiful singing.Mark Henderson, working at the van's computer, causes a malfunction and cannot retrieve the location of the final missing instrument. Heartland continues to deteriorate into desperate circumstances. B.D. is forced to cancel several tour dates, but Dougie suggests a huge benefit concert to save the town.One day, as the townsfolk drudge through the town, bewildered at its delapidated state, they are surprised by the arrival of a singing and acrobatic troupe, anchored by Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band and the lovely Strawberry Fields. Mr. Kite, along with the rest of the town, is cheered at this fortunate turn of events. B.D., Dougie, and Lucy are pleased at their business cunning in exploiting the situation for financial gain. Dougie and Lucy go into City Hall, where the day's proceeds are stored and load up a wheelbarrow with several bags of money. They transfer the money into the van's refrigerator as Earth, Wind and Fire perform the evening show for the town, Billy and the Hendersons enjoy front-row seats. Mr. Mustard and the Brute get to town and find the van. They kidnap Strawberry and drag her into the van, then drive off. Dougie and Lucy manage to hide in the van without being discovered. The band sees the departing van and sets off in hot pursuit via the town's hot air balloon.Mustard was headed for FVB Central with the recovered instruments where the evil genius would suppress the magical instruments and make the world safe for his legions. Unless the band could arrive first and stop them. Mustard, who has admired Strawberry all along, attempts to woo her via serenade in her bound-and-gagged state. Soon, the balloon comes into view, and Dougie and Lucy try to escape the van with some of their lot., They are discovered and led into FVB Central along with Strawberry, then tied up and forced to endure a performance by FVB - Future Villain Band (Aerosmith). Billy and the Hendersons break into the complex and wrestle FVB into submission, killing the evil genius (Steve Tyler). Unfortunately, Strawberry falls to her death in the struggle.Back in Heartland, the cleaned-up town mourns the loss of Strawberry Fields, who lies in state in a coffin of clear glass engraved with Heartland's signature hearts. Billy, Dougie, and the Hendersons are all pallbearers. Mr. Kite questions whether it was worth the loss in order to restore the town. Leaving the church after her service, Billy sadly walks off for some time alone, remembering the good times he shared with Strawberry. He then attempts suicide by jumping from a rooftop. As he falls, the Heartland Weather Vane (Billy Preston) comes to life and returns him to the rooftop. Billy Shears is not only saved, but apparently cured of his depression by this surprising turn of events.The Magical Weather Vane then changes Mr. Mustard and the Brute into a bishop and a monk; Dougie and Lucy into an altar boy and a nun. Next, he brings a hale and hearty Strawberry Fields back to life. She runs to Billy and they embrace warmly in a fairy tale ending.The townsfolk are joined by dozens of celebrity guests of 1970's fame for a rollicking and joyful finale, in a tribute to the cover of the original Beatles album that inspired the film.

brainwashing, cult, psychedelic, flashback

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Insidious

At the beginning of the film, a shadowy old woman is seen inside a house while the inhabitants sleep. Renai and Josh Lambert have recently moved into a new home with their three children. One morning, Renai looks through a family photo album with her son, Dalton, who asks why there are no pictures of Josh when he was a child. Renai reasons that he has always been camera shy and disliked taking photos of himself. One evening, Dalton sees the attic door open and goes to investigate after hearing sounds upstairs. As he enters inside, he tries to climb a ladder to turn on the light, but falls when the ladder cracks. As he falls to the floor, he seems to stare in horror at the darkness as if looking at something terrifying. Shaken, he is put to bed by Renai and Josh and told not to play in the attic because it is off-limits. The next day, Dalton does not awaken from his sleep. Renai and Josh rush him to the hospital, where the doctors say he is in an inexplicable coma.Three months later, Dalton is moved back to his home while still in a coma. Shortly after, disturbing events begin to occur. The first is when Renai hears a voice on the baby monitor which shouts "I want it now!", a bloody hand-print on Dalton's bed and a strange but frightening man in her infant daughter's bedroom. Renai becomes more disturbed when their youngest son, Foster, says he does not like it when Dalton "walks around" at night. Renai tells Josh about the events, but when she is assaulted by the strange man that night, she begs Josh and the family soon moves to another house.In the new house, the supernatural events continue to occur, such as a strange, dancing boy, and soon become increasingly sinister. Lorraine, Josh's mother, recalls having a strange dream of going inside Dalton's room in the night and seeing something standing in the corner, and when questioned "What do you want?", it replies "Dalton." Subsequently Lorraine sees a red-faced figure standing behind Josh that roars at her and Dalton is then violently attacked in his bedroom. This prompts Lorraine to contact a friend, Elise Reiner, who specializes in the investigation of paranormal activity. The family, Elise, and her team enter Dalton's room and Elise sees and describes a figure to one of her two assistants, who draws a black figure with a red face and dark hollow eyes on the ceiling of Dalton's room; the same figure that Lorraine had seen before in the house.Elise explains to Renai and Josh that Dalton has the ability to astral project while sleeping and that he has been doing it since he was very young. The reason that Dalton is in a comatose state is because he has fearlessly traveled too far into different spiritual worlds (he believes the projections are dreams) and has consequently become lost in a land called "The Further", a place for the tormented souls of the dead. While Dalton's spirit is in this other world, he has left nothing but a lifeless body. The tormented souls crave another chance at life through Dalton's state, while there are others (possibly the old woman and the frightening man) who are more malicious in using him, and then there is the red-faced figure, revealed to be a demon, who wants to use Dalton for a more malicious intent. However, for a spirit to consume a body, a period of time and energy are required.Skeptical at first, Josh later relents when he discovers Dalton had been drawing pictures which resemble the demonic figure Elise described. They run a session to try to communicate with their son but Dalton appears and the demon uses Dalton's body to fight the group, along with other entities who want Dalton's body. After the session, Elise calls Lorraine and the two reveal to the couple that Josh also can astral project and was terrorized by an evil spirit during his childhood. Lorraine shows them pictures from Josh's childhood, revealing a shadowy old woman (the same woman from the beginning of the film) behind him. The more photographs taken of Josh, the closer the shadowy woman begins to get to Josh until she is inches away from him, explaining his fear of photos. Elise suggests that Josh should use his ability to find and help return Dalton's soul, to which Josh agrees.To prepare to astral-project and find his son, Elise sits him in a chair and places him in a trance. Josh suddenly awakes to find that he has astral-projected seeing his own self asleep in the chair as well as the others in the room. He proceeds outside in a misty emptiness in an attempt to find his way to Dalton. After encountering a boy who points him back towards a house (the same home that the Lamberts moved out of), he proceeds, only to encounter a family who is shot by a bizarre, smiling female member of the family in the living room. Startled, Josh makes his way to the attic where he discovers a red door (the same one drawn in Dalton's pictures). Before he can enter, the violent man seen by Renai in their daughter's room appears and attacks him. Once defeating him, Josh enters the red door.Inside is "The Further" and the red-faced demon's lair. While entering a cavernous red room, Josh discovers a sobbing Dalton, chained to the floor. Josh frees his son, but the demon has discovered Josh's presence and attacks them. In search of their physical bodies, Josh and Dalton flee the demon's lair, with the demon in pursuit. Just before the two awaken, Josh leaves his son to confront the shadowy old woman who appears to be inside his house. As he shouts for her to get away from him, screaming that he isn't afraid of her, she retreats into the darkness. Moments later, Josh and Dalton both awaken, just as all the spirits vanish.With the family now happily reunited, Renai, Dalton, and Lorraine chat in the kitchen as Elise and Josh pack up from the long night. Josh hands Elise the pictures from his childhood, and as she takes them from his hands, she senses something and takes a picture of Josh. He promptly goes into a rage, screaming that she knows that he doesn't like to get photographed, and leaps on her before strangling her to death. Renai hears Josh yelling and goes into the room to find Elise dead and Josh gone. She searches for Josh and finds everyone is gone, the house dead silent. She looks and comes across Elise's camera, seeing a picture in it of the shadowy old woman. It's revealed that what Elise saw was Josh's old and dirty hand and nails, similar to the old woman's, implying that she has possessed him. Josh then puts his hand on Renai's shoulder, saying "Renai, I'm right here," and horror envelops her face as she looks behind her.In a post-credits scene, the shadowy, old woman can be seen blowing out a candle and the screen fades into total darkness.

boring, paranormal, horror, alternate reality, atmospheric, flashback, psychedelic, suspenseful

tt1591095

Action of the Tiger

The movie opens with a beautiful French girl named Tracy (Martine Carol) combing the wharfs of Athens for Captain Carson (Van Johnson) whom she eventually finds in a shady bar in the middle of a poker game. She drops a wad of money on the table in front of him, telling him she has heard about him and needs his services. They leave the bar to talk business, Carson leaving his mate Mike (Sean Connery) behind after warning him to "stay off the sauce", which admonition Mike does not heed.Carson takes Tracy to some Greek ruins to talk, for she tells him she heard that he is a man who will do anything for money and she needs his boat to smuggle her into Communist Albania. Carson asks why, and she tells him she must see a man there. Carson, hard-boiled though he is, turns her down because he says she would never get out of the country alive if he did drop her off there.Carson leaves her to go back to the bar where he finds Mike in the middle of a free-for-all. Fighting every step of the way, Carson takes the drunken Mike out of the bar and they run to their boat a step ahead of the police and get away.To Carsons surprise and annoyance, he finds Tracy aboard who eventually talks him into letting her off in Albania for ten thousand dollars. He tells her it cannot be for long as the cargo he is hired to bring out of Albania is too perishable, but he does not tell her what the cargo is. Tracy, pleased at his agreeing to take her but angered by his mercenary attitude, calls him a "cut-price Galahad".When they near Albania, Carson goes ashore to send a wire to his contact Kol Stendho (José Nieto) in Albania, telling him where to meet him to pick up the cargo. When Carson gets back to the boat, he finds Tracy is having her hands full in avoiding the attentions of Mike, who is drunk again. Tracy ends up hitting him over the head with a bottle of perfume and knocks him out.Tracy finally tells Carson who she is and the man she wants to see in Albania is her brother; she will pay him extra to take him back with them too. Carson agrees until he realizes the man in question is a prominent French diplomat, a political figure the Communists will not be so anxious to let go of. He lets her know she must be satisfied with just seeing him.Landing in Albania, Carson and Tracy meet Kol Stendho who is waiting with the cargo: Greek children who were being held as hostages by the Communists. Carson and Kol Stendho have been smuggling them back to their parents in Greece. Tracy apologies to Carson for calling him a "cut-price Galahad", but Carson, still declaiming, tells Tracy he hates kids really, but their parents pay well.Kol tells Carson he will not permit Tracy to see her brother, let alone take him with them, as he is too dangerous. Carson tries to dissuade Tracy but she insists on at least seeing her brother. All she knows is that he disappeared from Moscow, she has not heard anything about him since, and she wants to know why.When Carson tells Kol to at least let her brother see Tracy, Kol answers him in a language that Tracy does not understand. Carson, sobered by whatever it is Kol has told him, says that now Tracy just has to see her brother. He promises Kol, though, that he will not take him out, only Tracy and the children, as arranged. Carson and Tracy leave with Kol.Night has fallen, and they are stopped at a checkpoint. When the guard discovers Carson and Tracy in the back of the truck, Kol silences him with a knife and they move on again until daylight.Kol stops the truck a few miles outside of their destination, and Carson and Tracy, leaving Kol to wait for them, walk towards the little village where Tracys brother is. Carson expresses concern as to how far he can trust Kol Stendho, since he has blackmailed him into helping them this far.Once they reach the village, which seems deserted, they hear organ music. Running to the church, Tracy finds her brother, Henri (Gustavo Rojo). He has no guards, because he is blind. Carson notices with some concern a girl watching them, who then slips out a back door.Tracy, now realizing what it was that Kol told to Carson about her brother, brokenly tells Henri that she has come to take him home, to which he reacts joyfully, until he realizes that it will be without the government's consent which means danger to them all.He tells his sister how he had changed his mind, but where he was, he was not allowed to change his mind. He tried to escape through suicide, but only brought himself blindness. The Communists then hid him away in Albania, and that was why Tracy could find no word of him since then. His sister tells him that nevertheless, she intends taking him with her, with the help of Carson, who is, she says, a very brave man. She turns to Carson and asks him, now that she thinks she knows him better, if he has the heart to refuse them? He does not.Carson makes a resistance against Tracys pleas, but, moved in spite of himself by the brother and sister's plight, eventually agrees to take them both with him, even though he knows he must forfeit Kol Stendho's help in doing so.Henri summons a little boy, Abdyll (Richard Williams), the organ pumper, to whom he has taught English and French, and has him lead them to the Countess, the last of the old Albanians. Henri says she is a little eccentric, but she is sympathetic as she hates the Communists.They arrive and meet the Countess Valona ([nm0370848]) and her granddaughter Mara (Anna Gerber), the latter of whom Carson recognizes at the girl he saw in the church with Henri.Henri asks the Countess if she thinks it would be wrong of him to go with them, knowing that the Albanian police will be on the lookout for them all. She replies that even if they were taken without him, they would still be shot, and it would be impolite to refuse going with them.Henri bitterly regrets having put Tracy and Carson in danger, but says that even in his dark world he has found other reasons for living. Mara places her hands gently on his shoulders, and the old Countess, prompted by what she sees between Henri and Mara, asks Carson to take her granddaughter with them, as she will be needed.Mara, although unwilling to leave her grandmother, agrees to go when Carson agrees to take her too. They all thank Carson, who says they had better be moving.Meanwhile, as this is going on, Kol, who is waiting with the truck to take Carson, Tracy, and the children to the rendezvous with the boat, grows impatient, and realizing he can wait no longer, drives away, giving up on meeting with Carson and Tracy.Carson, Tracy, Henri, and Mara leave on horseback. While on the road, they hear a jeep coming and hide in the woods on the side of the road. The jeep goes by, carrying the security police and Kol Stendho, much to Carsons surprise.As they prepare to move on again, they hear someone coming after them who turns out to be Abdyll; he asks to come with them as well. Carson replies "Well, what well-equipped boat doesn't have an organ pumper?" and the little boy falls in with them.Back at the Countesss, we find Kol Stendho, in charge of the police, roughly questioning the Countess as to the whereabouts of Carsons party. She does not tell them, and they leave.Carson, returning to where he left his cargo of children waiting for him and where they had hoped to rendezvous with Mike and the boat, finds two more police waiting as well. They attempt to arrest him, but through a trick, Carson gets in a fight with the two men, knocks one out, and just as the other one fires at Carson with a rifle, Tracy shoots and kills the man with a small gun.Tracy, shocked at having killed a man, begins to cry after dropping the gun, which the smallest of the children picks up to play with and secrets, unnoticed by either Carson or Tracy.Mara tells Carson that the children said the police came and Kol Stendho left with them. Carson assumes that he was arrested and feels sorry for him.They decide to wait there, still hoping to meet the boat, but just then a jeep with two security guards arrive and Carson kills one and drives the other off. Now, with the alert spread about them, they have to leave the horses and take out across country on foot for the Greek border, forgetting about the boat.Carson, Tracy, Henry, Mara, and five little children then begin the long hike across the barren hills of Albania, trying to avoid the security police who are searching for them.Their first obstacle comes at a checkpoint. The guard there has not heard about them yet, and Carson and the others begin walking past, almost bluffing it out that they are distinguished Bulgarian Communists, until the guard's telephone rings.Carson orders him through Mara not to answer, but the guard goes for his gun and Carson must shoot him as well. They then run on as quickly as they can.Next, the party comes to a farm. The farmer and his wife take them in and give them food and shelter for the night. Carson, in spite of his rough language throughout, is drawn to the children and they to him, so much that they won't go to sleep until he tells them goodnight.The farmer tells Carson that he can let them have a mule and cart tomorrow, and assures Carson the roads will be fairly safe to travel by as all the people thereabouts hate the Communists.Later that night, Tracy apologizes to Carson for getting him and the children involved in her and Henri's trouble. She tells him she doesn't think he did it for the money, to which Carson, still declaiming, says he did. Tracy even goes so far as to propose to Carson, but he tells her a man on the move has to travel light.She says she doesn't weigh too much, and gets so far as a kiss, but they are interrupted in the middle by one of the little boys asking for Mista Carson, who wants what most small children want in the middle of the night. Carson, picking the little fellow up, indicates to Tracy how families are trouble.Next morning, Kol and the police find the body of the dead checkpoint guard, and deduce where Carsons party is heading: to the Greek border.At the farmer's, just when Carson and the others are preparing to leave, he sees the farmers two children also being added to his charge to take to Greece. He groans, "Oh, no!" but Tracy simply says, "Oh, yes!" and they move off, now with seven little children in tow.On the road again, Carson, Tracy, Henri, and some of the children walking beside the road, Mara and the rest of the children in the cart, they are observed and inspected by another patrol. Carson's party hide in the brush, and Mara is able to bluff the guards who leave them.Later, on a mountain road, the mule goes lame and they are forced to leave it. Mara and Carson spot a camp of shepherds; they go there as night falls and receive hospitality from them.Just then, the Communists storm down on them all with trucks and jeeps, taking Carson's party prisoner and killing the poor shepherds.On their sad way back, Tracy, even in the midst of her regret and sorrow, is on the verge of getting Carson to admit his feelings for her, when suddenly the Communists are attacked from ambush by Albanian bandits.The Communists are killed, and the leader of the bandits, one Trifon (Herbert Lom), introduces himself to the now liberated prisoners and takes them to his fathers village in the hills.Once there, Trifon introduces his father (Norman Macowan), head of the tribe, and his sister Katina (Yvonne Romain), who is quite taken with the men of the party.Trifon himself is quite smitten with Tracy, and during the banquet that evening, takes no pains to disguise the fact. When Tracy asks Carson to assist her in discouraging Trifons attentions, he treats it lightly. Tracy, then trying to make Carson jealous, returns Trifon's passionate kiss. Her maneuver succeeds a little too well; Carson knocks Trifon down in anger, and the bandit then draws a gun.Fortunately, the fight is broken up by Trifon's father, who tells Trifon that they are guests in his house and that there will be no more kissing that evening, just dancing.Next day, Trifon pays Tracy a call and tells her that unless she agrees to stay with him, he will see to it that none of the others will make it to the Greek border. She tells him that even if she agreed, Carson would not let her under those circumstances, but Trifon has that worked out: Tracy will go with them to the Greek border, and then she will say she wants to stay with Trifon. He will trust her so far if she swears like officer, which Tracy, brokenhearted but thinking of the others, does.Trifon and his men then begin escorting Carson and the others to the border. Just a few miles from the Greek border as night falls, they encounter a strongly held checkpoint in a mountain pass. They form a plan to have Trifons men lead an onslaught in the valley, distracting the main outpost, while the others take out the little outpost on the mountain path, allowing them to get by.But when they climb to the ledge above the valley, they find it more strongly guarded than they had expected, more than they can handle without their men. They contemplate a surprise attack, but just then Trifons men, anticipating the signal, lead a premature charge on the guards in the valley below, alerting the men at the small outpost. Carson suggests that one man climbing the mountain face could still drop a bomb on the machine gun nest below, allowing the party to get by.At this point Trifon says he and Tracy are returning to the camp; it is up to Carson to do the mountaineering to get the others through.Carson, confronting Tracy about it, sees that she is sacrificing herself for them. She has sworn to go with Trifon, and begs Carson not to try the climbing, as he is inexperienced and will be killed. He replies what else can he do?Carson begins the treacherous ascent of the mountain face. Trifon tells Tracy to come with him, but she says she wont go with him unless he helps Carson. She accuses him of running away while he leaves a braver man than he is to die.Meanwhile, Carson has dislodged a rock before getting into the right place to throw the bomb; the guards at the outpost see him and begin firing at him.Trifon, spurred to action by Tracy's angry words, leads his men in a charge against the outpost to prove his courage and is fatally wounded.Carson, during the fight, is able to blow the outpost up, effectually winning the battle. They thank Trifon before he dies, and charge his men to tell his father he died like a brave soldier. They then move on.Dawn; their long journey is almost over. They come in sight of what looks like the border. Running happily over to it, their rejoicing is brought up short when Communist guards surround them and take them prisoner. The outpost was a fake, and the Greek border is still out of their reach.The entire party is taken to where they first began their journey, where Mike was supposed to meet them today with the boat. There, Carson is brought face to face with Kol Stendho, in his official capacity as officer in charge.Henri entreats him to let the others go and keep only him, but Kol tells him it is too late for that; they have attracted too much attention and too many men have died. In front of his men, Kol orders Carson to have Mike bring the boat in where they can take it when he arrives. When Kol threatens the children, Carson agrees to do it.Kol orders his lieutenant (Anthony Dawson) outside to wait for the boat. When he is alone with Carsons party, he tells them he is still their friend; he was forced to act his part as a Communist security guard, but he wants to leave the country now as much as they do, leave with his own two children who have already joined the others outside.Kol tells them his plan: he will go down to the dock with them to wait for the boat, pretending to keep them at gunpoint, while he will order his men to hide up in the rocks until he gives them the order to fire. Then when Mike brings the boat to the dock, Carson will load the children and the others onto the boat, and hopefully they can get away before Kols own men realize what he is doing and open fire.It is dangerous, they know, but they agree it is the only plan left to them.But, unaware to Kol and Carson, is the fact that Kols lieutenant, spying on his superior, has overhead their plans, and has now determined to take over command.Kol, Carson, Tracy, and the others go down to the dock just as Mike is bringing the boat up, but the crafty lieutenant takes Kol's gun and gets the drop on all of them. He orders them to bring the boat in, as originally planned.Carson yells to Mike, who sees something is wrong and begins to bring up a gun, not to fire as the Communists have them all covered, including the kids.Tracy, realizing what will soon be coming, begins tearfully saying goodbye to all the children, whom she has grown to love. As she does so, the littlest boy, who had picked up the gun several days earlier and who had been playing with it all along, unnoticed by Carson or Tracy, points playfully, saying "Boom! Boom!" Tracy quickly takes it secretively and slips it to Carson, without letting the lieutenant see it. Just as the lieutenant is about to call his men down from the rocks, Carson sticks the little gun in his back and warns him to continue playing along with them.The boat comes up to the dock; Carson orders Kol to get the women and children aboard with Henri. The guards on the cliff, puzzled as to what is going on down below, holding their fire the while. When it is only Carson and Kol on the dock, Carson gives Kol and calls to Mike to throw him a machine gun.Before Mike can do so, the lieutenant whirls and catches Kol off guard. After a brief struggle, the lieutenant manages to shoot Kol in the shoulder, and Carson turns to grapple with him. The guards are still holding their fire, unwilling to hit their officer.Tracy and Mara manage to get Kol aboard the boat, and Carson orders Mike to pull away, which Mike does, returning the hail of bullets which the Communists at length let loose at them.Carson, left alone on the dock grappling with the lieutenant, eventually pitches into the water when his opponent is shot.A line is thrown from the retreating boat, which Carson manages to grab hold of. He is drug threw the water followed by bullets and bombs from the Communists, fortunately all aimed in vain.At last, they are all under way to safety.Tracy, below in the cabin, is dressing Kol's wound. Carson, still wet, enters and tells Kol that his children are asking for him, and he leaves.Tracy, in the middle of an embrace, asks Carson if he is still the man on the move, still traveling light, to which he replies he is, but that its getting heavier all the time. As they begin a kiss, one of the children is heard behind them saying "Mista Carson, Mista Carson.""You see", says Carson to Tracy as they regard the little fellow in the doorway, "Marriage, families, trouble!""But, you know," responds Tracy, "I like trouble.""Well, that's with just one of them. Guess what it will be like with a large family.""Mmm, but I like large families.""You do?" Carson asks."Mm hm, very large." Tracy answers."You know something," returns Carson, "you might easily end up with one."They kiss, and the camera pans to the little boy, who, realizing he might have a bit of a wait, sits down, while over the scene comes the lines from Shakespeares immortal Henry V which gives the title to the movie:"In peace theres nothing so becomes a man as modest stillness and humility: but when the blast of war blows in our ears, then imitate the action of the tiger."The End

melodrama

tt0050099

Hong Xi Guan

An opening narration explains that the ruling Manchurian Court has tracked a resistance movement against its rule, to the Shaolin Temple, which they were using as a cover for their activities. They ordered one of their chief enforcers, priest Pai Mei, to lead a raid on the temple. Pai Mei and his right-hand lieutenant, Governor Kao Jinzhong, led an army and set the temple on fire. In a bid to save his students, the head priest of Shaolin, Chi Shan, engaged Pai Mei in a crucial duel to the death.The opening credits play as Chi Shan and Pai Mei are shown engaging in their battle against a plain red-screen backdrop. The kung-fu duel seems close to evenly matched until Chi Shan executes a kick to Pai Mei's groin. But Pai Mei, as a eunuch, has no testes, and has further trained his body that someone trying to kick him in the groin only ends up with their foot stuck between his legs. Pai Mei knocks Chi Shan to the ground and drags him backward, by his trapped foot, several yards, before finally breaking both of the Shaolin high priest's legs.A contingent of rebels, led by a senior member of the movement, Hong Xiguan, is fleeing the Shaolin Temple. Many rebels are wounded from fighting, some dropping as they run. Hong has to urge his best friend, Xiao Hu, another leader, to keep running.They meet up with another of the rebel captains, Tong Qianjin, who is leading another contingent of rebel fighters. Hong is alarmed that Tong is the only member of his contingent to escape. Tong brings news that Chi Shan was killed by Pai Mei. Hearing that his teacher and master has been killed, Hong Xiguan goes into a rage and tries to run back to the temple to exact revenge. Tong, Xiao Hu and all of the other men led by Hong, all run after him to stop him. They know they've lost the battle, but a lot of their men escaped, and trying to avenge Chi Shan now will only result in their rebellion being completely wiped out.They run into an ambush of Manchurian archers, who take some more of the rebels down. Tong is wounded, an arrow piercing his leg. He pleads with Hong to take command, and then Tong takes a few soldiers to provide cover by engaging the archers. While the archers are reloading, Tong and his men rush at them, attacking with swords and hand-to-hand. Archers not under direct attack cannot fire again without hitting their own fighters.Tong is handling nearly the whole contingent of Manchurian swordsmen by himself when Governor Kao Jinzhong arrives. Governor Kao orders the small group of men with him to take Tong alive, but they are no match for him. Kao then sends his majordomo, a Qing Court Fighter, to battle Tong. The Qing fighter is more of a match for Tong and seizes an early advantage. But when Governor Kao mocks Tong and tells him not to resist, Tong becomes angry and and more fierce, taking on the Qing Fighter and the rest of Kao's men all together and beating them. Finally Tong reaches Governor Kao himself, and even Kao's kung fu fails against Tong's onslaught. Governor Kao is badly injured, and losing his patience, orders the archers to kill Tong, even at the cost of friendly casualties. The rain of arrows take down several Manchurian fighters as well as Tong, and even in death, Tong's face is frozen in a look of stoicism and determination that gives Governor Kao pause.At the Manchurian Court, Governor Kao, still hurt from his duel with Tong Qianjin, reports to the Royal Highness. The court is pleased with the success of the raid on the temple, but Kao is still deeply concerned with the ferocity of the Shaolin rebel resistance. Pai Mei is not worried. He is sure that his victory over the Shaolin high priest has spread fear through the resistance and sent the message that his kung-fu is unbeatable. He tells Governor Kao to simply continue his search without letup, and in the end, Pai Mei is sure that Kao will capture or kill all of the rebels.Hong Xiguan and Xiao Hu have split up. Xiao and his men make their way to the border of Gwangzhou and come across a small town where a theater troupe is putting on a play based on a local figure named Yue Fei. The troupe is also part of the resistance movement, and the Manchurians have tracked them to the town. A squad of Manchurian soldiers raid the theater. The troupe's leader, Master Chen, and a number of his men escape. Xiao Hu sees them being pursued and rushes to aid them, killing the Manchurian pursuers.Chen brings Xiao Hu to a 'red boat,' a group of Shaolin rebels that have established cover as theater performers traveling along the riverways by boat. Hong addresses the men on the boat, telling them to remember the temple and the priests and brothers who died defending them. They have come back to Kwangtung, a province under Governor Kao's control, to continue the fight. Hong says they must divide their strength and thus become more vulnerable, to ensure they are never completely wiped out. They will continue traveling and performing, discreetly giving aid to oppressed townfolk wherever possible and engaging Manchurians in ongoing guerilla tactics.At a riverside village, a woman named Fang Yongchun is giving a kung-fu demonstration. The Red Boats arrive as she is giving her demonstration, and many of the villagers run to greet them, which makes Yongchun jealous. She complains to her uncle about their continued arrival wherever she and he go to stage their own performance.The Red Boat troupe debarks from their boat, giving their pitch to the villagers about their latest show, and giving a small kung-fu demonstration as a sampler. A jealous Yongchun marches up to them and tells them that she thinks their kung fu is nothing special and orders them to leave the village. Xiao Hu, flustered, tells his men to escort Yongchun away. But Yongchun handles all of them easy with her own kung fu, proving far better than them. Xiao Hu spars with Yongchun himself, to find that she is able to take a stance so firm and stable that he cannot budge her legs and feet, even by kicking at them. She shrugs his blows off and then kicks him away, causing the villagers to laugh.Hong Xiguan arrives and he's impressed with her technique. Yongchun offers to take him on, saying she has plenty of fight left in her. Intrigued, Hong spars with Yongchun, and the two of them are evenly matched. As they battle, they recognize each other's style and technique: Hong is expert in tiger kung fu, while Yongchun is a crane kung fu artist. Uncle Fang finally tells Yongchun to back down. Hong is impressed with Yongchun's skill, apologizing on behalf of his men. Seeing that Yongchun is also a traveling kung fu performer, he invites her and her uncle to travel with them on the Red Boat. Yonchun isn't too thrilled about the idea, until she and Uncle Fang overhear Xiaohu call Hong, 'Brother Hong.' Immediately they both recognize the name and know that he is Hong Xiguan.Yongchun and Uncle Fang travel with the Red Boat, and Yongchun and Hong begin to grow increasingly close. Xiao Hu, who has become something of an incorrigible prankster from his time posing as a theater performer, jokes about needing to start calling Yongchun, 'Mrs. Hong' (a brief, amusing scene follows where Yongchun chases Xiao Hu about the boat to smack him one). But Xiao proves right, as soon after, Yongchun and Hong are married. Even on their wedding day, Xiao's mischief is near relentless, and both Hong and Uncle Fang must keep both Xiao and Yongchun (who's ready to give him another thrashing) reined in. Even when a cabin is prepared as a bridal suite for the marriage to be consummated, Hong has to throw Xiao Hu and the other performers off to get some peace with Yongchun.Xiao's persistence in trying to eavesdrop and spy finally drives Yongchun to some mischief of her own. She clamps her knees together while lying on the bridal bed, challenging Hong to push her knees apart if he wants to consummate the marriage that night. Hong finds that all his strength cannot budge Yongchun's sturdy legs, and she smiles in complacent satsifaction as she bids her husband good night.The next morning Xiao Hu finds Hong asleep outside the cabin, and Hong angrily drives him off the boat. Later in the day, as Uncle Fang is returning with the rest of the men with more supplies for the boat, he and Hong talk, and Uncle Fang has some advice for keeping Xiao Hu in line. That night, Hong tells Yongchun he's ready to give another try. She lies down on the bed and presses her knees together. After a few moments, Hong comes up with a kung fu technique that successfully pushes her knees apart. Yongchun petulantly swats at Hong, who fends her off as he tumbles into the bed and draws its curtains closed with his feet.Governor Kao finds out that the Shaolin rebels are using the Red boats as cover. He dispatches soldiers to burn the boats, flush out the rebels and kill them. Over several months, a number of boats are burned and its crew slaughtered. A few survivors manage to make it to Hong's boat. Hong says they have to give up their last boat, get to shore and all scatter, keeping in contact as necessary to continue their work. Xiao Hu, his demeanor properly respectful and disciplined now, wants to go with Hong and Yongchun, since Uncle Fang has gone up north.Months pass. Hong and Yongchun have settled in a house in a quiet town. One day Xiao Hu comes to Hong with urgent news. Yongchun is about to deliver a baby. The two rush back to Hong's home where Yongchun is being tended to by the town midwife. The baby is a boy, and Hong and Yonchun name him Wen-Ding.Nighttime, six months later. Yongchun sews a baby garment, her infant son in a crib nearby, while Hong studies a manual of advanced tiger kung fu. Hong is concerned because he hasn't been practicing lately, and he needs to get his kung fu back into peak form. His primary goal is still avenging his master, and his friend Tong. Yongchun is deeply worried. Tiger kung fu is nearly unbeatable, but Pai Mei is no ordinary kung fu expert, having strength unmatched by any. Yongchun wants to teach some of her crane style to Hong to supplement his tiger technique. But Hong, proud and stubborn, refuses to do this. Against Yongchun's better judgement, he's gotten her to make an agreement that they will not learn each other's kung fu technique. When Yongchun tells Hong that he'll have to practice ten years in order to depend entirely on tiger style, Hong says without hesitation, that he'll do so.Ten years have passed and Hong is able to rip the bark off of trees, and even knock down young trees with his bare hands. Meanwhile, Yongchun has been teaching crane kung fu to Wending.Yongchun has had Wending practice holding a basic crane stance for as long as he is able to concentrate on holding it. A group of young boys comes by and starts making fun of him. Because of Wending's hair style and learning the style of kung fu practiced by his mother, rather than his father, the other children think that Wending is overly effeminate. They hop into the yard where he is stancing and try to pull his legs apart to topple his stance, but he holds firm and throws them all off with a simple knee flex, which brings a smile to his mother's face. Finally Wending chases all of them away from the house and into the field. Yongchun tries to call him back but then relents.Hong, however, is less pleased when he sees Wending wrestling with one of the boys. However, when Wending hangs his head very sadly after a scolding, Hong also backs away and becomes more gentle. Moved to mischief, Wending leaps up on his father's shoulders, challenging Hong to topple him. If Hong can't, Wending says he gets to ride home on Hong's shoulders. Hong is at first reluctant because he doesn't want Wending to be hurt. But he finds that the ten-year-old's stancing and leg and foot strength has become very firm in its own right, and he can't topple his son off his shoulders. Looking both impressed and vexed, Hong carries his son home.But on arriving home, Hong needs to talk seriously with both his wife and son. Resistance scouts have found the location of a temple that serves as Pai Mei's base of operations. Hong tells Wending why Pai Mei has to be killed. Yongchun is still deeply worried that Hong will not be strong enough to beat Pai Mei using only tiger kung fu. She tells him that if Hong can, to kill Pai Mei, but if not, he should run. Hong looks at his wife and gives a nod of assent.Hong finds the Pai Mei temple relatively unguarded. Two acolytes sweep the long stairway leading up the hill. He easily subdues them and drags them to the outer cloister of the temple, where a group of acolytes see him and rush to defend. Even all together they are no match for Hong, and he is beating them from pillar to post.Pai Mei finally comes out and orders his acolytes off. Pai Mei is unworried and amused on realizing that Hong Xiguan has come for him. He tells Hong that the rules of the temple dictate that Hong must defeat two swordsmen before he can challenge Pai Mei himself to battle. The two swordsmen attack, and Hong dodges their swishing blades until he is able to disarm them both and use the swords to kill them.But in Pai Mei, Hong finds he's met his match and more, as Pai Mei easily fends him off, hardly attacking, seemingly toying with Hong as he taunts his adversary, trying to get Hong to admit that Pai Mei is better at tiger kung fu. When Hong lands a tiger claw strike to Pai Mei's groin, Pai Mei merely asks him, "Can't you find it?" Hong delivers a tiger claw strike to Pai Mei's eyes and face, but Pai Mei takes the impact like a stone statue and strikes Hong aside like a paper doll. Suddenly Pai Mei starts hitting back, delivering several blows that cause blood to trickle from Hong's mouth. Hong hears Yongchun's words to him in his head and, despite his pride, is able to silently force himself to admit he's been beaten. Striking aside the acolytes who are behind him, Hong turns and sprints out of the cloister to make his escape.Hong loses his footing as he rushes to the stairway and starts to tumble down them. Rushing to a massive urn-shaped stone sculpture at the peak of the stairs, Pai Mai shoves it off its small dais, causing it to roll down the stairs after Hong. The urn is about to roll over Hong and crush him when Xiao Hu leaps in front of it, deflecting it just enough that Hong is able to roll out of the way.In so doing, however, Xiao Hu is mortally wounded. With his dying breath, he tells Hong something crucial that he's learned; Pai Mei is weakest between the hours of 1 pm and 3 pm. Hong is distraught at seeing Xiao Hu die before his eyes, but Pai Mei and his acolytes are starting to run down the stairway. Turning, he leaps over a stone fence and finishes his escape.Back home, Hong is nursed by Yongchun. Wending is also saddened at the death of Xiao Hu, who was like an uncle to him. He rushes away, crying out that he needs to finish growing up into adulthood.Seven more years pass and Wending is a young adult. Although more mature, he has developed a determination to be able to outspar his parents that borders on obsession. Again, Yongchun is more forgiving than Hong. Over the last few years, Hong has been studying and relentlessly training in the more advanced aspects of tiger style kung fu. In his practice area is a bronze training statue, with many metal ball bearings fitted into various groves. Hong strikes areas on the statue to make the ball bearings slide down the grooves, and then plucks one out. Some of the ball bearings are painted with symbols corresponding to various times of day. Nearby are several wooden markers that catch the sun's shadow, and are also painted with similar time symbols. Hong finally catches a particular ball bearing with a particular symbol and starts to speak Pai Mei's name.Wending picks that moment to moment to leap in and try to catch Hong off-guard. Unfortunately, despite his growing skill and self-confidence, Wending can't quite match his father. Adding to this his obsessive desire to do so, and even at the dinner table he can't resist a chance to sneak in a blow. One night the sparring gets out of control, and several freshly washed clothes are knocked off the clotheslines, and a few of them are torn. Finally losing her patience, Yongchun makes them re-wash the clothes, and sew up the torn ones.Yongchun smiles as she sees Hong prick his finger on a sewing needle, but when the sight of his blood brings a hard look to Hong's eyes, her expression becomes concerned again. She goes to him and he says that the last few days have had him thinking hard about his oath. He's practiced particularly hard the past few years, and while he and his Shaolin brothers have continued fighting Manchurian rule, they can't make much progress unless Pai Mei were killed. Yongchun looks particularly worried, and more so the next day when Hong sets out. When Wending asks her about it, she confides in him that she's positive that Pai Mei let Hong escape last time because Pai Mei was far superior to him. But Hong's tiger kung fu has improved significantly by now, meaning Pai Mei will take him as much more of a threat. Yongchun is sure that if Pai Mei defeats Hong again, he'll make completely certain that Hong doesn't escape again.Hearing this, Wending rushes out to stop Hong from leaving. He's even ready to fight his father again to keep him from going to his death; battling harder than ever. After defeating his son again, Hong gives him a hard lecture on how many of Hong's fellow Shaolin fighters died for him and those who still fight today; including Chi Shan and Tong Qianjin... and Xiao Hu, who Wending himself said he wanted to emulate as a hero. Despite all this, Hong has bided his time, also waiting for Wending to reach young manhood, but now he feels that if he continues putting off his oath, he will lose the will and courage to continue fighting.When acolytes spot Hong's approach, they race in fear back to the inner parts of the temple. This time Pai Mei has many more fighters and Manchurian soldiers at his disposal, all of whom try to stop Hong. Wielding his staff with fury, Hong sweeps them aside. At the top of the stairs, Hong notes the sun overhead and jams one end of his staff into the earth, noting by its shadow that it's 1 pm. Fighting unarmed now, he again sweeps aside the guards and soldiers toward the inner cloister. Acolytes tell all the other fighters that Pai Mei has ordered them to disengage and block off all exits from the temple to prevent escape.Governor Kao is with Pai Mei in the inner cloister. Pai Mei looks pleased to see Hong, saying he knew there was no need to search for Hong, since Hong would return to the temple eventually, looking to make another attempt to kill Pai Mei.Governor Kao engages Hong first, and Hong handles him and his personal guard almost as easily as the rank-and-file fighters; Pai Mei noting how much improved Hong is. Hong engages Pai Mei and seizes an early advantage, staggering him briefly and ripping a patch off the front of his tunic. He staggers Pai Mei again, landing several tiger claw attacks. Pai Mei sees he can no longer toy with Hong and starts to fight more aggressively, like in his duel with high priest Chi Shan. But after striking Hong aside, he says that Hong is using the tiger style to lead his attack, and can't hope to reach Pai Mei's vital point.They clash again, Pai Mei hitting Hong hard and sending him sprawling. Hong notes by more shadows cast by the sunlight that the time is 3 pm. Pai Mei spots Hong looking at another shadow on the ground and smiles, taking a guard stance that gives Hong a moment's pause. When Pai Mei's hands both move to guard low, Hong attacks again. Once more they clash hard until Hong lands a kick to Pai Mei's groin.As with Chi Shan, Hong's foot becomes trapped there, and falls prey to the same counterattack that beat Chi Shan. Pai Mei knocks him to the ground, drags him backward by his foot several yards, and delivers crushing blows to both of Hong's legs. Standing over Hong and gloating, he says that Hong was almost right in deducing the location of Pai Mei's weak point, but over the years he's learned to move it at will, and now, when it's supposed to be down low near his groin, it's actually up high at the crown of his head.Pai Mei tells Governor Kao to take Hong alive, as there is much information about the Shaolin resistance that the Manchurian court can torture out of him. But as Kao's men move to seize Hong, he suddenly strikes out again, smashing aside the men and suddenly taking out Governor Kao's leg and using a finger strike right at his throat. Pai Mei executes a sweeping blow that sends both Hong and retinue guards all flying. Much to Pai Mei's outrage, Governor Kao is dead... and so is Hong.Hong had told Yongchun and Wending that he would return in ten days. When twelve have passed, Yongchun knows that her husband is dead. She tells Wending that if he wishes to truly aspire to be a hero, as his father and Xiao Hu, it falls on him to face Pai Mei. But she tells him that he shouldn't use his crane kung fu until necessary; at first he should use tiger style. But Hong had never been willing teach tiger style to Wending, because Yongchun had been teaching him crane. Hong's pride and stubbornness were such that he believed that tiger style should never be combined with crane. Yongchun remembers that Hong kept a study manual, and they need to find it.When Wending finally finds the manual, he finds to his dismay that age and vermin have caused most of the pages to be badly damaged, and it looks plausible that Hong had torn many of the pages himself after moving on to more advanced technique. When Yongchun asks to see the manual, Wending is afraid to show her how badly damaged it is, and manages to talk her into backing down by reminding her of her agreement with her husband never to learn each other's styles.Wending spends a year practicing and learning as best he can from the manual, although he cannot be certain exactly what it means when he catches specific ball bearings from the grooves in the brass training dummy. When he catches unmarked beads, he's not sure of the exact moment that a particular time marked bead fell out of the dummy, so he's not sure if he hit too fast, or too slow, or the wrong part of the dummy.Yongchun asks to see Wending do one of the exercises. When she tells him that one movement didn't look right, and he needs to do it again, Wending uncomfortably says that he worries it will remind her too much of Hong and make her upset. Yongchun becomes quiet again and tells Wending that he was right. She leaves the training area so Wending can practice alone again.Wending goes into the field, performing a number of tiger movements. Unfortunately the manual is too damaged to show the next followup moves. Finally Wending decides that at this point he'll stick to crane style.Finally Wending and Yongchun feel that he's as ready as he'll ever be. Wending has only trained in tiger style for one year, but he's trained very hard, and he has his crane style as a supplement, something Pai Mei has never faced in the Shaolin resistance.Wending goes to the Pai Mei temple. With the death of Hong Xiguan, the temple is mostly unguarded again, and Wending has little difficulty sneaking to the inner cloister where Pai Mei is meditating. Wending first asks if Pai Mei is the same person who killed the Shaolin high priest and Hong Xiguan. Pai Mei simply nods affirmative. Wending attacks, Pai Mei noticing that the initial strikes are tiger style. A large number of acolytes rush in after an intial clash between Pai Mei and Wending.Pai Mei notes that Wending's tiger kung fu is nowhere near the match for Hong Xiguan. He wonders aloud how many more Shaolin fighters there are, and asks Wending his name. When Wending tells Pai Mei his full name and says he's Hong Xiguan's son, Pai Mei is pleased. He's more than ready to kill Hong's son. Still, Pai Mei doesn't take Wending as much of a threat, until one of Wending's attacks rips loose a piece of Pai Mei's beard, and then in another clash, Wending tears the sleeves off of Pai Mei's robe. Pai Mei is confounded, as many of the moves Wending moves seem almost custom developed; he is used to facing standard tiger style, while Wending is combining it with crane. Pai Mei becomes angry and starts to fight harder, grabbing initiative and smashing Wending around several times. And even when he has the advantage, and after delivering a hard blow that has Wending bleeding from the mouth, Wending's kung fu is leaving him confounded and increasingly angry.They clash on the outer cloister. Wending fakes being hurt worse than he is, collapsing to the ground, and then delivers a kick. The kick hits Pai Mei in the groin, taking him off guard for a brief second, but then Pai Mei traps Wending's foot, the same as with Chi Shan and Hong. Pai Mei asks if Wending has any further tricks up his sleeve, before throwing the deadly attacks meant to break his legs and end the fight.But Wending does have another trick; he vaults up in the air with a crane maneuver and sits on Pai Mei's shoulders. As with Hong so many years ago, Pai Mei finds he cannot break Wending's crane stance and can't topple the young fighter from off his shoulders. He manages to throw Wending's weight backward and lands a scoop kick, but this only rights Wending's posture, and with a tiger move, Wending tears a large patch of hair off the crown of Pai Mei's head, and follows with a crane-beak attack right to the crown of Pai Mei's head, and then a double crane beak strike to his eyes.Having struck Pai Mei's vital point, the double crane beak attack proves completely devastating; Pai Mei screaming in wild agony, spinning around on his feet. He loses his balance, taking Wending with him as he rolls down the stairs. The camera freezes as Pai Mei convulses wildly into the air; a closing narration stating that the combination of tiger and crane kung fu was what finally killed Pai Mei.

grindhouse film

tt0076168

The Whole Nine Yards

Nicholas "Oz" Oseransky (Matthew Perry) is a Quebec dentist from Chicago, who happens to be genuinely likable to almost everyone who knows him. However, he is trapped in a miserable marriage to the daughter of his late ex business partner. His wife Sophie (Rosanna Arquette) and mother-in-law (Carmen Ferland) hate him, and his deceased father-in-law has saddled him with a lot of debt. He can't divorce his wife because her father embezzled from the dental practice, and he has nothing but debt if they separate. As the movie opens, Sophie tells Oz she needs $5000, but won't say what for. At the office, we are introduced to his assistant, Jill (Amanda Peet). Jill and Oz have lunch and she tells him that his wife isn't a good person. They joke about the fact that, due to his insurance, he's worth more dead than alive, and discuss having her taken out of the picture, and Jill playfully tells him to name a price. When Oz gets home, a new neighbor is moving in next door. Oz thinks that "Jimmy Jones" looks familiar, and after recognizing a tattoo on Jimmy's forearm, realizes that he's Jimmy "the Tulip" Tudeski (Bruce Willis). Tudeski is an infamous contract killer from Chicago who was given amnesty after ratting out Lazlo Gogolak and other members of the Gogolak gang. Oz runs home in a panic and tells Sophie they're moving. But Sophie insists that Oz return to Chicago to collect a finder's fee by giving up Jimmy's whereabouts to Lazlo's son, Janni (Kevin Pollak). Oz is picked up by Jimmy in a sudden trip to the city, where he reveals his predicament to Jimmy: his wife's father got involved with an underage boy who blackmailed the father, who embezzled money to pay off his blackmailer, and then committed suicide, saddling Oz with the debt. Jimmy sympathizes with Oz, and tells him he honestly likes Oz. Even though Oz has warmed to Jimmy, he still goes through with the trip to Chicago to pacify his wife. Upon arriving in Chicago, Oz has lunch with an old friend and confesses that he has no intention of meeting with Janni or giving up Jimmy; unfortunately, when Oz returns to his hotel room, he is greeted by Frankie Figs (Michael Clarke Duncan) who turns out to be one of Janni's enforcers. Frankie roughs Oz up to get the truth out of him and then takes him to Janni. At Janni's estate, Oz meets Cynthia (Natasha Henstridge), Jimmy's estranged wife. Janni instructs Frankie to accompany Oz back to Canada and keep an eye on Jimmy until Janni and his men arrive to take him out. Back at the hotel, Oz calls Jimmy in a panic, warning him to run, but Jimmy casually reassures him everything is okay. He is then visited by Cynthia, who asks Oz if he really knows where to find Jimmy, explaining that Janni and Jimmy both want her (as well as each other) dead in order to collect on $10 million, which is being held in trust in their names (the "whole nine yards" of the title). Oz and Cynthia share a bottle of scotch and end up sleeping together. Afterwards, Oz vows to find a way to protect Cynthia from Jimmy. Back in Canada, Frankie and a very nervous Oz enter another hotel room and see Jimmy waiting inside. It turns out that Frankie and Jimmy are old friends and together, are planning to take out Janni and Cynthia; they both praise Oz's genuine personality, his unwillingness to give up Jimmy, and his faithfulness, even to a wife that hates him. Oz returns to work and tells Jill about the events in Chicago. Jill is extremely excited when she finds out Jimmy the Tulip is Oz's neighbor and makes Oz take her to meet him. Jill tells Jimmy that he's her hero and the reason she wants to be a contract killer. She also tells him that Sophie tried to use the $5000 to have Jill kill Oz, but Jill ended up liking Oz after getting to know him (like nearly everyone else does) and refused to follow through on the contract. Jimmy reveals that Sophie visited him while Oz was in Chicago and tried to seduce him into killing Oz, and offers to kill Sophie as a favor to Oz. As Jimmy and Jill discuss the upcoming ambush, Oz gets angry and says that he won't stand by and let them kill Cynthia. Oz is back at home and tries to call and warn Cynthia about Jimmy's plan, but she is already on the way with Janni. When they arrive at Oz's house, Oz gets a chance to warn Cynthia, while she warns him that Janni will kill him after killing Jimmy. The two watch from Oz's garage as Janni's gang walks into the trap. Down the street, Sophie and her new hitter (Harland Williams) are in his car. She is discussing the payment and promises that her mother will pay the remainder of his fee after the job is done; she notes scornfully that she hates and doesn't understand why everyone else who meets Oz seems to like him. The hitter is distracted when he recognized Janni Gogolak heading toward Jimmy's house. When Sophie tells him whose house it is, he realizes what's about to happen, pulls out a gun and exits the car, taking the car keys with him. When Janni enters the house, he is distracted by a naked Jill, and she, Jimmy and Frankie are easily able to kill Janni and his men. Oz and Cynthia make a break for it. Sophie's hitter is in the yard when he hears Oz's car peel out behind him. This draws Jimmy's attention to the window. He has Jill get the mystery hitter's attention and then shoots him. Sophie sees this and runs, screaming, down the street. When they get the body inside, they realize he is an undercover cop. As they start to get a plan together to dispose of the bodies, Oz calls. While they are on the phone, Jill reveals that Oz slept with Cynthia in Chicago—which she thinks is great—but it infuriates Jimmy, who feels that friends shouldn't sleep with each other's wives. Oz makes a deal with them that will benefit everyone. Back at his office, he alters the cop's teeth to exactly match Jimmy's. They then put the cop's body and Janni's into Oz's car and set it on fire, rendering the bodies unidentifiable, except by dental records. The next day, two investigators think that Janni and Jimmy are both dead. This allows Cynthia to collect the $10 million, which as a part of the deal, she has agreed to transfer to Jimmy in exchange for her and Oz's lives. The investigators also find the undercover cop's car when they go to check out Jimmy's house. Inside the car is a tape recorder with Sophie and the cop's conversation to kill Oz, the contents of which are more than enough to put Sophie and her mother in prison, even though Sophie tearfully claims that Jill is the killer that she hired to kill the undercover cop, but the cop does not believe her story. Oz, who is observing behind one-way glass, asks if the detectives know a good divorce lawyer, and is reassured. Some time later, after the death certificates have been processed, the key players meet up in the city. While Cynthia and Jill go to the bank to transfer the money, Oz heads to an art museum with Jimmy, where they will be around people and Oz thinks he'll be safe. Jimmy has other plans though and takes Oz (along with Frankie Figs) out on a private yacht. Back at the bank, Jill asks Cynthia to split the money with her and run, leaving Jimmy to kill Oz if he is double-crossed. Cynthia decides that she loves Oz and can't leave him to be killed by Jimmy. Jill tells Cynthia that it was a test, and that Jimmy wants her and Oz to have $1 million as a wedding gift, and the two women make the transfers. On the boat, Jimmy gets the call that the money has been received. He pulls out a gun and points it at Oz. Frankie grins knowingly before Jimmy turns and shoots him instead; Jimmy explains that he had to kill Frankie or Frankie would kill Oz and then potentially come after Jimmy himself or send others after him in the belief that Jimmy had gone soft. Oz is floored, but happy to be alive. He tells Jimmy that it's obvious he's in love with "her." Jimmy acts confused, thinking Oz is referring to Cynthia. In the next shot, Jill runs on the boat and jumps into Jimmy's arms. Oz leaves to meet Cynthia. As soon as he sees her, he asks her to marry him. She looks disappointed and asks if Jimmy told him (about the money), but when Oz asks what she's talking about, she realizes he truly doesn't know and happily agrees to marry him, assuring him they'll be okay financially. In the closing scene, the two newlywed couples are on a hotel balcony overlooking Niagara falls, dancing to a bluesy version of Ira Gershwin's "They All Laughed" as the credits roll.

cult, comedy, murder, violence

tt0190138

True Grit

Mattie Ross's father was murdered by Tom Chaney when she was 14 years old. While collecting her father's body in Fort Smith, Arkansas, Mattie asks the local sheriff about the search for Chaney. He tells her that Chaney has fled with "Lucky" Ned Pepper and his gang into Indian Territory, where the sheriff has no authority, so she inquires about hiring a Deputy U.S. Marshal. The sheriff gives three recommendations, and Mattie chooses Rooster Cogburn. Cogburn initially rebuffs her offer, not believing she has the money to hire him, but she raises the money by aggressively horse-trading with Colonel Stonehill. Texas Ranger LaBoeuf arrives in town, pursuing Chaney for the murder of a Texas State Senator. LaBoeuf proposes joining Cogburn, but Mattie refuses his offer. She wishes Chaney to be hanged in Arkansas for her father's murder, not in Texas for killing the senator. Mattie also insists on traveling with Cogburn but he leaves without her, having gone with LaBoeuf to apprehend Chaney and split the reward. After being refused passage on the ferry that conveyed Cogburn and LaBoeuf, Mattie crosses the river on horseback. LaBoeuf expresses his displeasure by birching Mattie with a stick, but Cogburn eventually allows Mattie to accompany them. After a dispute over their respective service with the Confederate States of America, Cogburn ends their arrangement and LaBoeuf leaves to pursue Chaney on his own. Cogburn and Mattie meet a trail doctor who directs them to an empty dugout for shelter. They find two outlaws, Quincy and Moon, and interrogate them. Quincy insists they have no information about the Pepper gang, but eventually Moon divulges what he knows; Quincy fatally stabs Moon, and Cogburn shoots Quincy dead. Before dying, Moon says Pepper and his gang will be returning for fresh horses that night. LaBoeuf arrives at the dugout and is confronted by the Pepper gang. Cogburn, hiding on the hillside with Mattie, shoots two gang members and accidentally hits LaBoeuf, but Pepper escapes. However, Cogburn and LaBoeuf argue the next day, and the latter departs again. While retrieving water from a stream, Mattie encounters Chaney. She shoots him, but he survives and drags her back to Pepper, who forces Cogburn to leave by threatening to kill her. Pepper leaves Mattie alone with Chaney, ordering him not to harm her or he will not get paid after his remount arrives. Chaney tries to knife Mattie, but LaBoeuf appears and knocks Chaney out. They watch from a distance as Cogburn fights the remaining members of Pepper's gang, killing two and wounding Ned before his horse is shot and falls, trapping his leg, whereupon LaBoeuf snipes Pepper. Chaney regains consciousness and knocks out LaBoeuf, but Mattie seizes LaBoeuf's rifle and shoots Chaney in the chest. The recoil knocks her into a deep pit, where she is bitten by a rattlesnake. Cogburn cuts into her hand to suck out as much of the venom as he can, then rides day and night to reach a doctor, carrying her on foot after her horse collapses from exhaustion. Mattie's left forearm is amputated due to gangrene from the snakebite. Cogburn stays until she is out of danger, but leaves before she regains consciousness. She never sees Cogburn or LaBoeuf again, despite writing a letter inviting Cogburn to collect the money she owed him. Twenty-five years later, she receives a note from Cogburn inviting her to a travelling Wild West show where he now performs. She arrives, only to learn that he died three days earlier. She has his body moved to her family cemetery. Standing over Cogburn's grave, she reflects on her decision to move his remains, and about never having married.

revenge, murder

tt0065126

A Deadly Adoption

Robert Benson (Will Ferrell) sits in his luxurious garden on a sunny afternoon chatting to his friends, with his baby in his arms. He is an author and his friends agree that his bestselling books have helped them manage their money. They toast him and wish him well on his journey as a "financial guru".Robert's pregnant wife, Sarah (Kristen Wiig) calls to him from the jetty at the bottom of the garden, "Hey! Let's take the boat out!" Robert tells his friends that the dock is rotten. Sarah is insistent and she leans back against the jetty railing which gives way. She falls, in slow motion, into the water. Robert (in slow motion) dashes into the water after her and they disappear below the surface. Suddenly bubbles arise and he emerges from the water with Sarah in his arms.As his friends stand around and watch, he pleads for her to wake up. He performs perfunctory mouth-to-mouth which appears to do nothing. He places his hand on her heavily pregnant stomach with another "Please, Sarah!", which appears to revive her.An ambulance drives her to the hospital. Robert walks into her hospital room and she shakes her head. "I'm so sorry," he cries.Opening credits begin to roll over a bird's eye view journey over a dark river and a wintery pine forest."Five years later" appears on the screen as we pan up from Storm Lake to the Benson's dark, forlorn house. The remains of the dismantled jetty are strewn across the bottom of the garden.We are introduced to Robert's office. He is typing busily and we see certificates of his philanthropic endeavours from 2010 and 2011. He is interrupted by his New York agent, Debbie. "My word, the recluse!" she exclaims. Robert discusses his desire to help people with his new book. He confirms that he is "clean and sober", when she asks him how everything else is going. However he opens his desk drawer to a large bottle of alcohol, and sighs.Sarah is at an outdoor local farmer's market full of happy, good-looking families. She is selling her organic, refined-sugar-free pies and honey. Her assistant Charlie (Bryan Safi) confirms that all the gluten-free produce went fast. "Either this town's getting hip, or it actually tastes good." Sully Benson (Alyvia Alyn Lind) runs up to her mother with Robert not far behind. It is Sully's birthday and Sarah gives her a new bike. Robert looks aggrieved and complains that they had decided to wait another year before giving her a bike. "We've talked about this, you know exactly what this will do to her blood sugar level!" he declares. He relents in the face of his daughter's excitement.At Sully's birthday party, Sarah complains to her friend Julia (Antonia Stout) that Robert babies his daughter and is obsessed with checking her blood sugar levels. "Something's different", she says. She confirms that Robert hasn't had a drink in 6 months. Julia asks how the baby search is going and Sarah is excited that the agency has a new birth mother for them to meet. She thinks that another baby will bring "the old Robert" back. Julia says she remembers the old Robert. "He used to dance around this kitchen to corny old music!"Later in bed, Robert and Sarah talk about the day. Robert says he is distracted by his book deadline and his anxiety around the day of Sarah's accident. "Robert, stop beating yourself up. You know what happens," Sarah warns. Sarah hopes that meeting the new birth mother will improve matters. Sarah and Robert cuddle.The next day Sarah is watering the garden when a car pulls up. A lithe leg in high heels emerges from the car. Bridgette Gibson (Jessica Lowndes) appears. She is doe-eyed with a dewy complexion and long luxurious locks. Her white slip covers her large, pregnant belly. The adoption agency contact, Ellen (Debra Christofferson) introduces Bridgette, who is eager to see the Benson's huge luxurious house.Bridgette and Sarah chat nervously and Sarah shows her a photo of their daughter. Robert meets Bridgette and appears taken with her. When Bridget extends her hand in greeting she drops the photo and the glass breaks. She is flustered and apologies profusely. Bridgette says she lives in Idaho Falls and had to drop out because she couldn't afford it. She says she read one of his books: "Debt: Not just a four letter word" which preaches fiscal responsibility. She says she is living in a shelter, and that it would probably be better if she could rest a little more. She is carrying a boy and is 6 months pregnant. The Bensons look at her approvingly as she declares her love for her baby, and her desire to afford a house like theirs and to give him a life like the Bensons could.As Bridgette leaves she scolds Scully for not wearing a helmet. "Let's keep that head safe so you can grow up smart like your mom and dad," says Scully gently. The Bensons are concerned about Bridgette living in a shelter. They invite her to live with them until the baby is born.Robert broods over Sarah's accident. Later that evening, they decide that they like Bridgette. "If she's read one of my books she can't be that bad," affirms Robert.Bridgette arrives to her new home in a flowery slip. Sarah shows her the guest room. "It's nice, it's so big!" says Bridgette happily. Sully runs into the room. Sully asks her how the bike riding is going. "My daddy won't let me take off my training wheels," she says sadly. "Is that a baby in there?" Sully asks, looking at Bridgette's belly. Bridgette says it is Sully's baby brother and asks her if she wants to feel it. Sully shyly declines. Bridgette asks for a bowl of ice-cream. Sarah says that because Sully is diabetic they don't keep sweets in the house. "Just to warn you, I'm one of those organic people," says Sarah. Charlie arrives and meets Bridgette. "I like her!" he exclaims.Later that evening Bridgette texts someone, "I'm here." She sighs and looks at photos of the family. She sees a magazine with Robert and Sarah on the cover, and rips Sarah's photo away. ""Oh Robert, what a mess," she says, rubbing her belly.Bridgette comes down to breakfast in a tiny camisole and shorts. They discuss plans for the day. Bridgette asks if she can head down to the dock to read. The Bensons look at each other awkwardly and say that the dock is off limits. Sarah and Sully head into town and Bridgette stays at home while Robert works.Robert's agent presses him to go on a book tour to sell his new books. She doesn't understand why he refuses to go on one since his last book tour 6 months previously. He "blacked out last time" and doesn't want a repeat of his boozy book tour. Bridgette knocks on his door and nervously asks him for sunblock. She bashfully says that she must be bothering him, but he assures her he is just used to being in his own Writer's world. "It must get hard, Robert," she says demurely. "Hard?" he asks nervously. "It is sometimes," he admits. "Alone, all the time," she replies.Bridgette and Robert head into the store room. She hides the sunblock behind a bottle. "I don't see it," she says. He reaches over her should in triumph. "Found it!" She turns around quickly into his arms and they share a too-close-for-comfort moment together. She looks up into his eyes disarmingly. "If you need anything else, batteries, lighter fluid, it will be in here," he says uncomfortably.Back at the farm stall, Charlie asks Sarah about Bridgette. "You just leave her in the house with him?" Charlie wonders. "She's six months pregnant," Sarah scoffs. "Some men like that!" says Charlie, and acknowledges that though he might be gay, he knows what men like. "Although knowing Robert, he's probably hiding in his attic too afraid to even talk to her."Robert steps outside onto the patio to see Bridgette sleeping lazily in the sunshine. Her breasts heave gently, and she opens her eyes to see Robert staring at her. Bridgette says she is too tired to go into town. Sarah is disappointed to see Robert's text letting her know they are staying at the house.Later that day, Bridgette argues harshly with someone on the phone while in a coffee shop. "These things take time! Would you stop freaking out!" Charlie bumps into her, and she softens completely once he reminds her of his friendship with the Bensons. When he asks to feel her belly, she declines awkwardly. Charlie watches her walk away with a questioning look in his eyes.Later at dinner they discuss the town. Bridgette agrees with Robert that she prefers a smaller quiet lake. She tells a story about an ex-boyfriend who made her sit on the front of his large boat in a bikini "just to show me off." Sarah talks about her relationship with Charlie and how he encouraged her to expand her business. Robert says he hopes to retire. "Sarah can work and I'll stay at home with the two kids." "That sounds perfect," says Bridgette wistfully. Bridgette shares with the family that she is overjoyed her baby will have such a perfect home. Sarah says that she, too, will have a perfect life one day. "I hope it's in a town like this with a family like yours," Bridgette replies. That night Bridgette watches over Sully as she sleeps.The next morning Bridgette teaches Sully to ride without training wheels. She lets her go straight into the road as car drives by. Sully screams and disappears out of sight. She runs into a greasy looking tattooed hunk. Bridgette knows the man, Dwayne. She tells him he has to wait for her at the cabin, and leave straight away. As he leaves, Bridgette soothes Sully. "Men like that, you gotta be careful, Sully. Most of them just want to use you." She tells Sully to keep the encounter with Dwayne a secret.Later Sarah and Charlie agree that Robert has been "a little off" lately. She sends Charlie to the store for coffee.Bridgette and Robert sit watching the lake. He tells her about Sarah's accident and the loss of their child. "The worst part is, I blame her. If she just hadn't acted so foolishly. Sometimes I think I may never love her the way I used to. It's funny, I've never told anyone that before." He agrees that he might feel safe around Bridgette. He asks her if she is happy. She think she will be happy, "soon". "You really are a strange girl," Robert muses. They chuckle.Charlie, on his coffee run, sees Bridgette and Dwayne arguing in the street next to his green pick-up truck.Sarah and Charlie sit by the fire in the evening. Charlie blames Sarah for leaving chocolates in the pantry. "You know the dangers of diabetic ketoacidosis!" he accuses. Sarah says that Robert has to trust Sully. "Even since you got back from your last book tour you have completely shut down! It is suffocating! What is going on?" Sarah demands.The next day Bridgette prepares to have a shower, Sully rushes into the room and sees her in her underwear. Bridgette is wearing a fake pregnancy belly. She assures Sully that some women don't show when they're pregnant and she wants the Bensons to believe her that she really is pregnant. Bridgette makes Sully promise not to tell, "otherwise something really bad is going to happen".The next day, Bridgette asks Sarah if she can take Sully to the park. "Robert's idea. Wanted to check w/ you :)" Bridgette tells Robert that Sarah asked Sully to take her to the farm stand. Robert agrees, but looks suspicious. He goes to her room, which is vacant. He feels her silky pink camisole. He finds the Debt book Bridgette mentioned earlier ("Dare to Save"). It has an inscription: "To Joni - Don't stop Daring. Robert".He flashes back to his last book tour at a busy bar. He is drunk and a red-head asks her to sign his book to her, Joni Mathers. They run out into the rain laughing and kissing. "Not here", she says and takes him to her motel room. After they have sex Robert sits with his head in his hands. "It'll be our little secret," she says. Lightning flashes and we see that Joni is, in fact. Bridgette.Robert rushes to Sarah to ask her where Sully is. They call the police. Robert is asked why he went into Bridgette's room and why she might want to take Sully. He says he is just concerned and has no idea. Sarah thinks that Robert is overreacting. The police show the adoption agency's picture of Bridgette to the Bensons. She is a different woman and not the Bridgette they know. They realise they have been duped.Bridgette/Joni drives to the cabin in the woods with Sully. "We'll get crazy money," smiles Joni.That evening, Robert admits his infidelity to Sarah. "I did something I can never take back. And it consumes me every day. I know you hate me, but I hate myself more." Sarah denies hating him for lying. "I hate you for endangering our child!"In the morning, Sully wakes up groggily as Joni watches her from the doorway. Joni has transformed: she wears heavy make-up has ratty hair extensions and is dressed in a very revealing outfit. Joni says that Sully's parents had to go and help a sick friend. Sully says that she has a stomach ache. Joni realises that she forgot Sully's diabetic medicine. Dwayne says that his brother had the same condition: "Low blood sugar. Just give her a couple candy bars". Dwayne heads into town to find candy. He tells Joni to call Robert and demand ransom.Charlie is at the police station and informs them about the fight he saw Joni having with Dwayne. Charlie can't remember anything much about the car. He describes Dwayne in detail.Robert searches through his emails to Ellen, the adoption agent. He hasn't heard anything from her. Charlie spots Dwayne in town. He follows him to the lake cabin, and calls Sarah along the way. The call breaks up.Charlie snoops around the house and is knocked unconscious by Dwayne. Dwayne just wants to leave. Joni wants to stick to her plan. Dwayne and Joni take Charlie out to the forest and shoot him.Slow motion montage of missing child posters, and sad folk music.The police tell Sarah that Ellen has been murdered. They show her a picture of Dwayne, and tell her he is wanted in Texas in connection with two murders. The policeman asks Sarah if it possible that Joni and Robert are together. Sarah is speechless.In the cabin, Dwayne is concerned that Joni is going to meet Robert. Sully is still sick. Dwayne fights with Joni. "You're not keeping the kid! I'm in this for the money," he says. Dwayne is not happy.Joni confronts Sarah in her garage. Joni reveals that she was 3 months pregnant with Robert's child. She lost the baby and was furious when she saw Robert and his family on the TV. "I hate you for stealing him away from me," she growls. They fight and Sarah is overpowered. Joni puts an unconscious Sarah in the drivers seat and pipes the running car's petrol exhaust into the car, in an attempt to suffocate Sarah.Joni finds Robert and attempts to persuade hi to run away with her. Robert demands to know where Sarah is and pushes Joni away. "Robert, you're acting very strange. Don't you get it? We have everything ok? We can start our lives together. This is what we always wanted. You told me you were unhappy." Robert tries to call the police and Joni shoots him in the arm. Robert tries to convince Joni to take him to Sully. He lunges for the gun and it goes off. Robert falls to the ground. Joni runs away.Back at the cabin, Dwayne realises that their plan was about Robert all along. He refuses to let Sully go with Joni. Joni shoots Dwayne. "I'm your new mommy now," Joni assures Scully.Back at the hose Robert comes to and rescues Sarah from the garage. He walks out of the slowly opening garage with Sarah in his arms to the sound of heroic trumpets. He lays her on the floor. "Sarah, breathe!" he demands as he gently touches her face. Sarah tells Robert about the cabin.Robert is determined to rescue Scully. "The only other way out of Storm Lake is across Mackinaw Bridge." "Robert, you, you can't," says Sarah faintly. Robert looks up, determined.Robert powers his boat down the lake, his wedding band gleaming in the early dawn light. He wears a look of grim determination. A distressed Sully and erratic Joni drive out of town. Dwayne is found by the police and arrested.Sully looks at Joni, crying and sick. Robert motors down the lake, parks his boat and stands in the middle of the bridge. Joni appears in Dwayne's pick-up and tries to mow down Robert. Sully squeals and pulls the steering wheel. They crash. Sully runs towards Robert. Joni interrupts their reunion angrily and the Bensons stare down the barrel of her gun. "You used me, Robert. You are never going to use me again," she declares. She demands Sully return to her. Robert whispers something into Scully's ear. "I trust you, ok?" Robert says to Scully.Scully walks hesitantly towards Joni. She stops and dives off the edge of the bridge. Robert follows her. They swim to the motor boat and struggle to start the engine. Joni takes careful aim and is about the pull the trigger. We hear a shot ring out and see a bullet wound on Joni's shoulder. Sarah stands at the end of the bridge, having mortally wounded Joni. Joni falls, in slow motion, into the water.Six months later, Scully is riding on her bike without training wheels. The sun is shining. Gospel music is playing. Sarah and Robert are in the kitchen. Robert looks on adoringly as Sarah rolls out some pastry. "She sure loves that bike. I told her she could ride it into town tomorrow," says Robert. "Look at you," smiles Sarah. "Not a care in the world!" Robert acknowledges that she can't be a baby forever. "At some point you just have to trust her."An upbeat song comes on the radio. "I love this song!" Robert exclaims. He turns up the volume. He invites Sarah to dance with him. Scully skips into the kitchen and dances with her parents. The dancing goes on. They keep dancing. Sarah boogies. Robert pretends to play the trumpet. Sarah does the twist. They continue to dance.They fade away and the words "inspired by a true story" appear.

murder, flashback

tt4573800

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty

=== Characters === The protagonist of Metal Gear Solid 2 is a young rookie agent named Raiden. He is supported by his commanding officer, the Colonel, and Rosemary, his girlfriend. Allies formed on the mission include Lt. Junior Grade Iroquois Pliskin, a Navy SEAL of mysterious background who provides his knowledge of the facility and later revealed as the claimed terrorist Solid Snake; Peter Stillman, a NYPD bomb-disposal expert; Otacon, a computer security specialist; and a cyborg ninja imitating Gray Fox's persona, first calling itself Deepthroat, then changing its name to Mr. X. The antagonists of peace are the Sons of Liberty, a group of terrorists who seize control of the Big Shell Disposal Facility, including anti-terror training unit Dead Cell, and a Russian mercenary force. The Dead Cell team members are Vamp, an immortal man exhibiting vampire-like attributes; Fatman, a rotund man with exceptional knowledge of bombs; and Fortune, a woman capable of cheating death by apparent supernatural means. The leader of Sons of Liberty claims to be Solid Snake, previously declared dead after a terrorist attack, later revealed to be Solidus Snake, a third clone in "Les Enfants Terribles" project. Assisting the Sons of Liberty are Olga Gurlukovich, commander of a rogue Russian mercenary army, and Revolver Ocelot, a disenfranchised Russian nationalist and former FOXHOUND agent, Solid Snake's old nemesis, and henchman of Solidus Snake. Other characters include Emma Emmerich, Otacon's stepsister and a computer wiz-kid; Sergei Gurlukovich, Ocelot's former commanding officer and Olga's father; President James Johnson, held hostage by the Sons of Liberty; and DIA operative Richard Ames. Liquid Snake returns as he communicates via Ocelot because his right hand, sliced by Gray Fox in the previous game, has been replaced with the right hand of Liquid. The game also features cameos by Mei Ling, the communications expert who aided Snake in the first game, and Johnny Sasaki, the luckless soldier with chronic digestive problems. === Story === ==== Prologue - Tanker chapter ==== The game opens with a flashback, two years after the Shadow Moses incident in the original Metal Gear Solid. On August 8, 2007, Solid Snake and Otacon, now members of the non-governmental organization Philanthropy, are investigating the development of a new Metal Gear by the United States Marine Corps. Snake arrives on the tanker transporting the weapon in the middle of an attack by Russian mercenaries, led by Colonel Gurlukovich, his daughter Olga and Snake's enemy Ocelot, who has transplanted the right arm of Liquid Snake following the loss of his own in Metal Gear Solid. After Snake knocks Olga unconscious, he sneaks down to the hold in order to record pictures of the new Metal Gear RAY. As the mercenaries take control below, Ocelot betrays his allies and shoots both Colonel Gurlukovich and the Marine commander. Just before Ocelot can commandeer Metal Gear RAY, Snake emerges and confronts him. Upon seeing Snake, Ocelot becomes possessed by Liquid Snake and escapes with RAY, leaving the ship to sink. In the aftermath, Snake is blamed for the disaster, and is believed to have perished. The Big Shell clean-up facility is later constructed, ostensibly to help clean the Hudson River after the major oil spill that occurred due to the tanker sinking. ==== Plant chapter ==== On April 29, 2009, Raiden (who operates briefly under the code name Snake) is tasked under a reformed FOXHOUND. He has orders to infiltrate the Big Shell to rescue hostages, including the US president, from the terrorist group Sons of Liberty (whose leader claims to be Solid Snake), backed up by the rogue anti-terror training unit Dead Cell, who are also threatening to destroy the facility. All members of SEAL Team 10 are killed by Dead Cell members Vamp and Fortune, and the Big Shell is patrolled by the surviving Russian mercenaries from the Tanker chapter, led now by Olga, who is unaware of the extent of Ocelot's betrayal, and believes Snake was responsible for her father's murder. The remaining members of the SEAL assault team, Iroquois Pliskin and Peter Stillman join Raiden to disable explosives planted on the Shell by Stillman's former pupil, Fatman, now a terrorist. Stillman is killed by Fatman's booby trap in Shell 2, though he manages to warn Raiden in time, who successfully disables the respective bomb in Shell 1, preventing the sinking of the facility. Raiden then survives a direct confrontation with Fortune and Vamp, and kills Fatman on the heliport. As Raiden searches for the President, he begins to doubt Pliskin's identity, but agrees to the plan of transporting hostages off the Big Shell with a helicopter. However, they are attacked by the leader of the Sons of Liberty, who identifies himself as Solid Snake. Pliskin, however, shouts that the man is not Snake, and assists Raiden in fending off the leader when he attacks with a Harrier Jet piloted by Vamp. The battle ends with the Harrier being shot down, though it is seized by the Metal Gear RAY seen in the Tanker chapter, and the two terrorists escape. Pliskin reveals himself to be the real Solid Snake, who, along with Otacon, helps Raiden locate the President. When Raiden finally contacts President Johnson, he is informed that the Big Shell is a facade to hide a new Metal Gear. Known as Arsenal Gear, it houses a powerful AI called "GW", which is capable of controlling the transmission of digital information. The President also claims that the democratic process is a sham, and the true rulers of the United States are a secret organization called the Patriots. The President then reveals the leader of the Sons of Liberty is his predecessor George Sears, a perfect clone of Big Boss known as Solidus Snake, who fell out of the Patriots' favor following Shadow Moses, and has now gone rogue with Dead Cell to escape the Patriots' control. Ocelot kills the President soon after this revelation. Raiden moves on to disabling Arsenal Gear, going to rescue an engineer, Emma Emmerich (Otacon's step-sister). After fighting Vamp, who seemingly drowns after being shot, Raiden rescues Emma, who agrees to help upload a virus into the "GW" mainframe. However, the upload is halted partway when Emma is attacked by Vamp. Raiden then defeats Vamp by shooting him again, although the injuries Emma suffers prove fatal. Otacon escapes with the surviving hostages, while Raiden is captured by Olga when Solid Snake seemingly betrays him. Raiden awakens in a torture chamber where Solidus Snake reveals that he once adopted Raiden, a former child soldier, as his son during the Liberian civil war, and that Raiden is now a Patriot agent. Solidus then leaves the chamber, and Olga steps in and frees Raiden, telling him that she is also a Patriot double-agent and that she was blackmailed to aid Raiden in order to protect her child. Olga also tells Raiden to find Solid Snake, who only allowed Raiden to be captured so he could gain access to Arsenal Gear. While Raiden makes his way through the bowels of the facility to rendezvous with Snake, his commanding officer, the Colonel, begins to act very erratically. Upon investigation, Otacon reveals that the "Colonel" is actually a construct of the GW supercomputer, and that the partially uploaded virus is beginning to damage its systems. Raiden receives a call from Rose, whose voice begins to deepen and slow down as the conversation is cut off, but not before she reveals she is pregnant with his child. Raiden reunites with Snake and his gear, and the two then encounter Fortune, who fights Snake while Raiden searches for Solidus. He is then forced into a battle with twenty five Metal Gear RAY units in Arsenal Gear. Olga protects him, before Solidus kills her, and captures Snake and Raiden. Ocelot reveals that he too is a Patriot agent, and that the entire Big Shell mission was a carefully coordinated attempt to reenact the events of the Shadow Moses incident, for the purpose of creating a soldier (Raiden) on par with Solid Snake. Ocelot kills Fortune, before being possessed by Liquid again, who announces his plan to hunt down the Patriots using his host's knowledge and the first Metal Gear RAY. Snake escapes to pursue Liquid, as Arsenal Gear goes out of control. The next morning on April 30, 2009, Arsenal crashes into downtown Manhattan, launching Raiden and Solidus onto the roof of Federal Hall National Memorial. Solidus attempts to kill Raiden, intending to use his nanomachines to lead him to the Patriots, eliminate them, and form a nation of "Sons of Liberty". At this point, Raiden is contacted by AI's of the Colonel and Rosemary, introducing themselves as representatives of the Patriots, who reveal that the true purpose of the simulation was to see how they could simulate and control human behavior in order to prevent society from dumbing down due to trivial information drowning valuable knowledge and inconvenient truths. Raiden is forced to fight Solidus, after the Patriots threaten to kill Olga's child and Rose if he does not cooperate. After Solidus's defeat, Snake reveals he planted a tracking device on Liquid's Metal Gear. Snake and Otacon plan to follow him, rescue Olga's child, and hunt down the Patriots, whose details were hidden in the GW computer virus disc. Raiden is finally reunited with Rose for the anniversary of their first meeting. In a brief epilogue, Otacon and Snake discuss the decoding of the virus disc, which contains the personal data on all twelve members of the Patriots' high council. However, it is revealed that all of them in the Wisemen's Committee have been dead for about one hundred years.

violence

tt0249008

Beowulf

Movie opens up with a celebration in the Great Hall of Heorot, built by Hrothgar (Anthony Hopkins), king of the Danes. The Danes are celebrating the completion of the Hall, and theyre really boozing it up and partying quite loudly. Booziest of all is Hrothgar himself quite inebriated, half-naked, slurring his words and barely able to keep his balance. He's somewhat repulsive and a bit of an embarrassment to his young wife, Queen Wealthow (Robin Wright Penn).The revelers begin to chant, pounding the ground in time with the chanting. The camera pulls away from the Hall, to the snowy hills surrounding the kingdom, where the chanting and thumping have died out and all is silent. Finally, we pull into a cave miles away, where the chanting and thumping are suddenly heard at an almost unbearably loud level. We hear something in the cave screaming in pain, as if the noise is too much for it to bear.Back to Heorot, where after-hours are still rocking full-blast. The large wooden entrance doors are blasted off their hinges, the halls torches blow out, and the hearth in the middle of the hall erupts in eerie blue flames. People start wigging, as we hear same the something from the cave screaming right outside Heorot's doorway. As the Danes gird their loins and take up arms, the creature enters.It's huge, about 15 feet tall and vaguely humanoid in appearance, but clearly not all human. Its misshapen, deformed, and appears to have, instead of ears, some highly sensitive pads that serve as hearing organs. The screaming of the Danes seems to hurt the creatures ears and, enraged, he begins to tear the revelers apart, literally.Eventually, the creature makes his way to Hrothgar, who, to his credit, didn't run away in a drunken panic, but held his ground. The King demands that the monster fight him, but the creature is unafraid. It simply takes a long almost quizzical look at Hrothgar and abruptly withdraws.Back at his cave, the monster is chastised by his mother for killing men. We don't see his mother, though we catch glimpses of her reflection in the caves pool. We cant tell exactly what she is, but we see enough to know that she isn't even remotely human.The dead are removed from Heorot and burned, and the Hall is sealed as a place of evil. Hrothgar confers with his majordomo Unferth (John Malkovich). We come to find that the creature is named Grendel (Crispin Glover), and that it has apparently plagued these Danes in the past. The King tells Unferth to put out the word that the man who slays Grendel will earn half of the kingdoms riches in return. The King pointedly states that they need a hero.We cut to a ship at sea, the mainsail bearing the likeness of a large wolf. The ship is navigating a brutal storm, and at the prow we see our hero, Beowulf (Ray Winstone), and his lieutenant and good friend, Wiglaf (Brendan Gleeson). They are unfazed by the extremely rough seas, and discuss with much bravado how they are on their way to take up Hrothgar's offer and slay Grendel, and how the glory of their deeds will live eternally.They land on Danish shores and are taken to Hrothgar, who greets Beowulf warmly, apparently having known his father. Beowulf asks that Heorot be reopened, and Hrothgar acquiesces, providing Beowulf and his crew with food, drink and lodging as they rest in preparation for their battle.In the revelry, Beowulf catches the eye of Queen Wealthow (and vice versa), although the two exchange nothing more than polite pleasantries. Unferth seems angered by Beowulf's presence, and calls him out. Seems that Unferth has heard a story about Beowulf being challenged to a swimming race and losing. How, Unferth asks, can Beowulf be expected to slay Grendel if he can't even outswim a human opponent in a simple race.After trading some insults with Unferth, Beowulf admits the tale is true, but explains why he lost the race. As Beowulf narrates, in flashback we see him swimming in the ocean against his opponent, only to be set upon by a giant sea monster. As his competitor swims to safety, Beowulf fights and kills the monster, and another, and another each in increasingly fantastic fashion. It is implied that this tale is somewhat exaggerated, though not altogether untrue. The flashback shows us something that Beowulf pointedly does not tell the Danes that after fighting the monsters underwater, Beowulf came across a siren/mermaid/water nymph. Shes breathtakingly beautiful, in an otherworldly sort of way, and Beowulf cant take his eyes off her.We snap back to the present (no mention of what finally happened with the mermaid), and Beowulf and Unferth are still hostile toward each other. Hrothgar breaks it up, retiring to his chambers while the Queen sings a song for the Geats (Beowulf and crew, a.k.a. folks from Sweden), though the song is clearly meant for Beowulf alone. When the Queen finally retires, and Hrothgar demands that she get in bed and produce an heir, Wealthow states that she could never lie with the King, knowing that you laid down with her. The King is duly shamed, though were not told exactly why.The Danes all pack it in, leaving Beowulf and crew in the Hall to prepare for Grendel. Beowulf notes that he will fight Grendel hand-to-hand, since no weapon seems to harm the monster anyway. Further with the machismo, Beowulf strips naked, planning to fight Grendel unclothed. The Geats start chanting Beowulf's name, and the noise reaches Grendel's cave and he screams in pain.Back to the Hall, the torches go out, blue flames burst out of the hearth, and something pounds at the reinforced doors. Grendel comes crashing through as before, killing Geats left and right until Beowulf comes into the battle, in all his nakedness. Beowulf is very strong and agile, and knows how to fight Grendel (suggesting that the sea monster story wasn't entirely a bunch of hooey), and they spar back and forth until Beowulf notices that Grendel reacts painfully to loud noises. He promptly jumps onto Grendel's back and hammers at the beast's sensitive earpads, which causes the monster extreme pain. As Grendel tries to retreat, his arm is caught in some chains, and Beowulf grabs hold, preventing Grendel from escaping just as the monster goes out the big main door. Grendel's arm is pinned between the door and the doorjamb, and Beowulf, after victoriously announcing his name to the monster, rips off Grendel's arm. Grendel flees to his cave.Beowulf holds up the arm in victory, claiming he's killed Grendel, and most of the Geats cheer his name in celebration. Wiglaf does not, being much more concerned and upset with the lives lost in the battle.Back in the cave, Grendel is dying. We hear his mother asking who did this to him, and Grendel says Beowulf before he dies. Grendel's mother sings a lullaby as she carries her boys body to an altar of sorts. As she places the body down, her voice starts to crack and she sobs before starting to scream with rage.Back in Heorot, Hrothgar is holding another celebration in honor of Beowulf. Unferth apologizes for doubting him, and Wealthow is even more smitten with their hero. The King gives Beowulf a golden horn, the standard of the Danish kingdom, as part of his reward. The horn is in the shape of a dragon, with a red jewel at the neck, and Hrothgar makes an off-hand remark about how hitting the neck is the only way to kill a dragon. Wiglaf is still upset, and goes down to the shore to prepare their ship for departure the next morning.Later, the Geats are all passed out in the Hall after their celebration, and we get a first-persons view of Grendel's mother as she flies into the Hall and tries to figure out which man is Beowulf. She correctly singles out the man who is the biggest and strongest, and appears to him in a dream as Wealthow, begging Beowulf to give her a son. Beowulf realizes he is dreaming and wakes up just as Wealthow's face starts to turn into something demonic. He looks around the Hall to see that all of his men (except Wiglaf, who was down at the shore) have been slaughtered, their bodies strung from the rafters.Later on, when people start to suspect that Grendel isn't really dead, Hrothgar explains that the Geats were killed by Grendel's mother, about whom the King seems to know a great deal. When pressed about who is Grendels father, the King is evasive. It is implicitly clear that Hrothgar himself was Grendel's father (explaining why Grendel didnt kill him earlier). Unferth gives Beowulf his family's sword to assist him in killing Grendel's mother.Beowulf and Wiglaf set out for the cave to kill Grendel's mother and avenge their men. Beowulf insists on going in alone, golden horn and Unferth's sword in tow. The cave is dark, but the horn magically glows to light the way. Beowulf finds an alcove filled with gold, as well as a lot of human bodies, and the altar holding Grendel's body. Suddenly, Grendel's mother's voice comes out of nowhere asking who Beowulf is, and we see her slowly rise out of the water, apparently having shape-shifted into human form. Beowulf is rightly transfixed, in a manner very similar to when he saw the mermaid in his sea monster story. Beowulf's seems to be easily susceptible to the charms of the mystical lady-creatures.She admires how handsome and strong he is. Beowulf tries to run her through with Unferth's sword, but it just passes through her like shes a ghost. She comes up to him and tempts him with the promise of a kingdom and eternal glory, only if he lay with her and give her another son to replace the one he took. She grabs hold of Unferth's blade and it melts like butter. It is apparent that she could slaughter Beowulf at any time. Beowulf doesnt fight her as she sidles closer to him and grabs Hrothgar's dragon horn. There's clearly some kind of connection there, as she says that her promise is valid as long as she has that horn. And Beowulf seems on the verge of yielding to her offer.Jump cut to Beowulf marching back into Heorot, tossing Grendel's head at the Kings feet. Beowulf claims that he not only made sure Grendel is dead, but killed his mother, too. He claims he lost the horn while fighting her, and left Unferth's sword in her body to make sure that she stayed dead. Hrothgar gives Beowulf a quizzical look, and suddenly exclaims that since he, Hrothgar, has no heirs, everything he has, including the kingship and Wealthow, will go to Beowulf when he dies. Hrothgar throws another party, then asks Beowulf for a private word.The King asks Beowulf to recount exactly what happened with Grendel's mother. Beowulf repeats the same blustery tale as before, but with a bit of wariness in his voice. The insinuation is that Beowulf isn't being truthful about what happened. When Beowulf refers to Grendel's mother as a hag, Hrothgar gives him a knowing gotcha! look and says Shes no hag, Beowulf. We both know that. But shes not my curse anymore; she's yours. Beowulf, realizing that the King knows exactly what happened, is visibly shaken, but says nothing. They rejoin the party, but Hrothgar excuses himself later and promptly jumps off the castle wall to his death. As Beowulf and Wealthow look down in horror, Unferth announces Beowulf as Denmark's new King.We cut to Beowulf's face, older and grayer, wearing the Danish crown, surveying his soldiers on a field of battle. His soldiers are slaughtering the opposing army, and Beowulf seems almost saddened by the news. It seems that Grendel's mother made good on her promise, as Beowulf has enjoyed unsurpassed success and glory over the past 50 years, and Beowulf feels as his achievements are all empty and dishonorable, gained from an unholy union with a monster, rather than on Beowulf's own skill and merit. Beowulf even dares one of the enemy soldiers to try and kill him, knowing yet disappointed that it won't happen (it doesn't).Wealthow is Beowulf's Queen, but he has taken up with a younger girl, Ursula (Alison Lohman), who truly seems to care for Beowulf. Their relationship is kept secret with the Queen, thought she knows about it anyway and doesn't say anything. In fact, Beowulf and Wealthow seem to be in a cold and loveless marriage, and she doesnt seem the least bit relieved or happy to learn that he came back from battle unharmed. When Ursula asks what happened in their marriage, Wealthow says "Too many secrets." One would think that she is just as disgusted with Beowulf for having sex with Grendel's mother as she was with Hrothgar.One night, Unferth comes to the King with a slave in tow. The slave holds out his hands to reveal Hrothgar's golden horn, which was found on the shore not too far from Grendel's cave. Beowulf is freaked out, as he realizes that this means that the deal with Grendel's mother is no longer in effect, and that trouble is sure to follow. Sure enough, one of the kingdoms outlying villages is attacked by a dragon one night, and almost all are killed. Unferth is spared so that he can pass on a message to the King that his son is waiting for him.Beowulf knows that this dragon must be the spawn of his liaison with Grendel's mother, and prepares to set out to fight him. He shares a tender moment with Wealthow where they admit that despite everything that's happened, they still love each other. Then he suits up with Wiglaf and they head out to the cave.Again, Beowulf insists on going in alone. He hears a male voice trying to decide who it should kill first, the Queen or Ursula. Grendel's mother appears, who tells Beowulf it is too late to make amends, take things back or renegotiate the deal. As she says this, a huge dragon appears in the caves darkened alcove and spews a blast of fire toward Beowulf. He dodges and escapes the cave just as the dragon flies out and heads toward Heorot. Beowulf grabs onto the dragon and tries to fight it mid-flight. Wiglaf follows on his horse. At some point, Beowulf gets a chain of some kind lashed around the dragon's neck. When Beowulf is on the back of the dragon, it nose dives into the ocean and plunges deep to the seabed. Beowulf is violently thrown off its back but luckily chances upon an old anchor with a heavy chain, grabs hold of it and jams it in the mighty jaws of the dragon just as it was about to surface above out of the ocean.Beowulf isn't very successful in slowing up the dragon, and it starts to lay fiery siege to the castle's perimeter. As it just so happens, both Wealthow and Ursula are talking on the castles rampart as the dragon approaches, and it makes a beeline for them. The dragon burns both of the ramparts exits, leaving the women trapped and with no place to hide.Beowulf find himself dangling on the chain, swinging right in front of the dragons neck, where Beowulf spots a large glowing red area, just like the red jewel in Hrothgar's horn. Beowulf stabs the red area, to find that it opens up into the dragons throat and also happens to give Beowulf a clear shot at the dragons heart. However, Beowulf cant reach the heart. Try as he might, he's always a few inches too far away. Knowing its only a matter of time before the dragon burns the women, Beowulf takes his sword and chops off most or his arm holing the chain. He loses his sword, but the partial separation of his arm from his torso gives him the extra few inches needed to grab the heart and rip it out.As Beowulf squeezes the heart until it bursts, the dragon starts to fall from the sky, down the cliffs of the castle, taking Beowulf with him it its death throes. Wiglaf arrives to save the women. At the shoreline at the bottom of the cliff, both Beowulf and the dragon are sprawled on the beach. The tide washes over them both, and Beowulf, barely conscious, sees the dead dragon melt away to reveal a human form, looking remarkably like a young Beowulf covered completely in Grendel's mother's golden film. The body is carried away by the tide just as Wiglaf arrives in search of the king.Beowulf knows hes about to die, and reveals that he made arrangements for Wiglaf to become the new king. He beseeches Wiglaf to let folks know that Beowulf never killed Grendel's mother (it seems Wiglaf might have always known the truth, but loyal lieutenant that he is, followed Beowulf's story anyway). Beowulf also asks that Wiglaf make up no other stories or inflate the truth in recounting what led up to the king's death. Finally at peace, Beowulf dies.He is given a Viking-like funeral, placed on a boat with sword in hand, and surrounded by offerings to the gods. The boat is set on fire and set out to sea. Wealthow and Ursula, grieving together, head back to the castle, as does everyone else, but King Wiglaf stays behind to watch, himself grieving at the loss of his friend.As he watches the ship engulfed by flames, he sees Grendel's mother appear still human and nude, but with demon wings and a serpent tail, descend onto the boat and give Beowulf a parting kiss. She descends into the water, and the boat then crumbles and sinks completely out of sight. Wiglaf seems to be unsurprised by her appearance.What he is surprised to see is Grendel's mother rising out of the water, much closer to the shore, looking straight at Wiglaf. And he looks down to see Hrothgar's horn wash upon the shore. He picks it up and takes a few steps into the surf, eyes fixed on Grendel's mother. She is looking at Wiglaf with the same sultry beckoning look that she gave Beowulf 50 years ago; Wiglaf seems just as transfixed as Beowulf was.As the two gaze at each other, we are left to wonder whether Wiglaf resisted her, or if he gave in just as Hrothgar and Beowulf did, and thus started the cycle of the curse all over again.The End

fantasy, murder, violence, cult, good versus evil, tragedy, revenge

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An Awfully Big Adventure

In the film's prologue, a hotelier ushers a child into a bomb shelter during the Liverpool Blitz. We see a brief flashback to a woman leaving her baby in a basement surrounded by flickering candles. Before departing from the house, she quickly drops a string of pearls on the child's pillow, twined around a single rose. Years later, 16-year-old Stella Bradshaw (Georgina Cates) lives in a working class household with her Uncle Vernon (Alun Armstrong) and Aunt Lily (Rita Tushingham) in Liverpool. Lacking an adult in her life to whom she feels close, she frequently goes into phone booths to "speak with her mother", who never appears in the film. Her uncle, who sees a theatrical career as being her only alternative to working behind the counter at Woolworth's, signs her up for speech lessons and pulls the strings to get her involved at a local repertory theatre. After an unsuccessful audition, Stella gets a job gofering for Meredith Potter (Hugh Grant), the troupe's sleazy, eccentric director, and Bunny (Peter Firth), his faithful stage manager. The impressionable Stella develops a crush on the worldly, self-absorbed Potter, whose homosexuality completely eludes her. Amused, he gives her the small role of Ptolemy the boy-king in Caesar and Cleopatra but ignores her otherwise. Potter reveals himself to be a remorseless, apathetic man who treats Stella and everyone else around him with scorn and condescension. He reserves his greatest cruelty for Dawn Allenby (Carol Drinkwater), a desperate older actress whom he callously dismisses from the company; she later attempts suicide. Potter also has a long history of exploiting young men. Stella is quickly caught up in the backstage intrigue and also becomes an object of sexual advances for men around the theatre company, including P. L. O'Hara (Alan Rickman), a brilliant actor who has returned to the troupe in a stint playing Captain Hook for its Christmas production of Peter Pan. In keeping with theatrical tradition, O'Hara also doubles as Mr. Darling. O'Hara carries himself with grace and charisma, but privately is as troubled and disillusioned as the other members of the cast. Haunted by his wartime experiences and a lost love (who, he believes, bore him a son he never knew), O'Hara embarks on an affair with Stella, to whom he feels an inexplicably deep emotional connection. Stella, who is still determined to win over Potter, remains emotionally detached but takes advantage of O'Hara's affections, seeing it as an opportunity to gain sexual experience. The last straw for Stella is during a cast outing when Geoffrey, a fellow teenage stagehand whom Potter has been sexually toying with, bursts out and headbutts him in the nose. The cast rushes to comfort Geoffrey, but Stella exclaims that he ought to be sacked. O'Hara explains to her that Potter has spent his life harming people like Geoffrey and causing pain to people like Bunny who really love him: "believe it or not, it doesn't much matter him or her, old or young to Meredith. What he wants is hearts." Concerned, O'Hara visits her aunt and uncle, who disclose Stella's history. He finds out that Stella's long-missing mother was his lost love, whom he then knew by the nickname Stella Maris, making Stella—whom he's been sleeping with—his child, a daughter rather than the son he had imagined. Keeping his discovery to himself, O'Hara gets on his motorcycle and drives back out to the seaport. He distractedly slips on the wet gangplank, hits his head, and is pitched into the water. Before he drowns, his last image is that of the woman from the earlier flashbacks, clutching the infant. Stella is later seen hastening to the phone booth to confide her woes over the phone to "her mother"—as has been her habit throughout the film. We are suddenly reminded that the absent Stella Maris had years ago won a nationwide contest to be the voice of the speaking clock. It is her recorded voice that provides the only response to her daughter's confidences.

comedy, romantic, flashback

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Kung Fu Panda 3

Master Oogway (Randall Duk Kim) is residing in the Spirit Realm. There, he is attacked by Kai (J.K. Simmons), a large yak who was Oogway's ally, but turned against him 500 years ago. Oogway sent him to the Spirit Realm, where he collected the chi of every warrior there. He beats Oogway, and takes his chi, turning him into a jade amulet which Kai wears on a belt along with the rest of the warriors. With Oogway's chi, he is able to open a portal to Earth.At the Jade Palace, Po (Jack Black), Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Mantis (Seth Rogen), Viper (Lucy Liu) and Crane (David Cross) order lunch at Mr. Ping's (James Hong) noodle shop, and then go back up the mountain. Po tries to get them to do a dramatic entrance into the palace, and demonstrates by moving to kick open the door, when Master Shifu (Dustin Hoffman) appears in front of him. Shifu does a real dramatic entrance, and then breaks the news that this will be his last day teaching, and that from now on, Po will be their teacher.Po tries to shout out commands to the team to guide them through an obstacle course, but his commands only make them crash into the obstacles and each other. Po goes to a statue of Oogway and apologizes, and Shifu pops up next to him. Po tells Shifu that he is done with teaching, and Shifu tells him that Oogway named him the Dragon Warrior because he could do more than just fight. Shifu harnesses chi energy to make a flower bloom. Po says he'll never be a good teacher like Shifu, and Shifu replies that he's not trying to turn Po into himself, rather, he's trying to turn Po into Po. Po is thoroughly confused.Kai goes through the portal and lands on a farm. He tosses his jade amulets on the ground, and they turn into warriors. He instructs them to bring him Oogway's students.Po is at home taking a bath, and he gets interrupted by Mr. Ling, his adopted father. Po tells him what happened earlier, and that he can't be a teacher. Mr. Ling tells him to take the job, and then Mr. Ling can sell noodles inside the palace. A pig pokes his head in and tells them that someone is about to beat Po's dumpling-eating record. They go downstairs, but can't see who is eating the dumplings. Once the record is broken, Po sees that it is another panda, bigger even than him. The panda introduces himself as Li Shan, (Bryan Cranston) and tells Po that he is looking for his son that he lost many years ago. Po tells him that he lost his father when he was a baby. They wish each other good luck and start to walk away. The other animals in the restaurant shake their heads.Po and Li stop and look at each other again. They notice each other's green eyes and huge bellies, and realize they're father and son. They hug each other, and Po introduces him to Mr. Ling. Po is unsure what to call them, since they're both his father. Li teaches Po the Belly Gong, where they bump bellies together, and both bellies shake. Po asks an artist to make a sketch of him and Li, but Mr. Ling puts himself in the picture. Li tells Po that there is a secret panda village where he had been living, and that he got a message from the universe that Po would be here. Po leads Li outside to show him around, and Mr. Ling sadly looks at his Po action figure.Po takes Li to the Jade Palace, and they both get winded climbing up the stairs. Po shows Li all the cool artifacts in the Hall of Heroes. Shifu and the others walk in, and Po introduces his father. Shifu asks if he will stick around to watch Po teach, but then a gong goes off, signaling that the village is under attack. They all go to the village, and find Kai's jade zombies. In battle, Po recognizes that they're fighting the great warriors of the past. The group gets the upper hand and pins down the "jombies," and they all start speaking with Kai's voice. They say that Po's chi will soon be Kai's, and then vaporize and fly away. Shifu tells them he doesn't know who Kai is.In the scroll room, Shifu finds a scroll that has information about Kai, written by Oogway. "Long ago I had a brother in arms. I was an ambitious young warrior leading a great army. And fighting by my side was Kai, my closest friend. One day we were ambushed. I was badly wounded. My friend carried me for days, looking for help. until we came upon a secret village, high in the mountains. An ancient place of healing. A village of pandas.""Pandas?" Po asks."Yes! Pandas! The pandas used the power of chi to heal me. They taught me the power to give chi. But Kai wanted the power all to himself. He saw that what could be given could also be taken.On the scroll is a picture of Kai sucking the chi from a panda."I had to stop him. Our battle shook the earth. Until finally, I banished Kai to the Spirit Realm. Should he ever return to the mortal realm, he can only be stopped by a true Master of Chi."The group huddles together to try to figure out how to get a Chi Master, until Li tells Po that he can teach him how to do it by taking him back to the panda village and teaching him how to be a true panda. Mr. Ling tries to protest, but Po tells him that he can only master chi by finding out who he really is. Mr. Ling offers to pack him a lunch before he leaves.The next morning, Li and Po head for the village, and Shifu sends Crane and Mantis to find Kai, telling them not to engage him. Po and Li are walking through the mountains and decide they should eat lunch. Po finds Mr. Ling inside his lunch sack, and Mr. Ling tells him that he stowed away in case the pandas don't have any food Po likes. They get to the palace, which is behind a giant wall of ice. Li pulls a string, and a bucket comes down. The three of them climb in and are hoisted up into the clouds. Po sees a lush green village with pandas everywhere. Li introduces Grandma Panda, the village elder, and Po's cousins, Dim and Sum. A panda named Big Fun gives Po a big hug, despite not knowing who he is. And Lei Lei, a baby panda, takes Po's Tigress action figure and plays with it. Li announces that they will have a feast in Po's honor, and all the pandas flop to the ground and start rolling downhill. "Pandas don't walk, we roll!" explained Li. The other pandas manage to avoid the rocks and logs on the hill as they roll down. Po plops down on the grass and rolls after them.The pandas dig into the food at the banquet table, and Mr. Ling hands Po his chopsticks. The other pandas look at him, confused, so he demonstrates how to eat a dumpling with chopsticks. He sees that they have all stuffed a bunch of dumplings into their mouths at once. A gong sounds, and everyone turns to look at a nearby stage. A panda named Mei Mei does a ribbon dance and flirts with Po.Crane and Mantis are searching for Kai, and they find three kung fu masters in the desert. The group finds an abandoned ship, and the masters run in to attack, despite Crane's warning not to engage. Mantis hears them scream and jumps in to help. Kai steals all of their chi, turning them into jade. Crane flies in, but he soon meets the same fate.The next day, Po finds some pandas playing with a jianzi, and he joins in and kicks it, sending it straight to Grandma Panda, conking her in the head. They quickly roll away. Li points to Dim and Sum, standing next to two trees with a hammock strung between them. They get into the hammock, and then Li pulls back the trees and launches them up the hill. Awestruck, Po does likewise. Mr. Ling tries to lure him away with food, but Po ignores him.

flashback

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Stalingrad

The movie begins in 1942 with some German troops relaxing in Italy. They are playing cards, swimming and drinking. They are enjoying themselves until they hear music and realize they are late for their formations, and they rush to join their ranks. Everyone is praised for their fighting in Africa and the soldiers are awarded medals for their victory, though simultaneously scolded for being late. They are told to be ready to move on to their next mission, and they get on a train and leave. On the train the new platoon leader, Lieutenant Hans von Witzland (Dominique Horwitz), writes a letter to his love. The men discover that this is his first time to the front.On the way to Stalingrad the men see many wounded soldiers. The Lt. sees the way the Russian prisoners are treated and tries to convince higher-ups to treat the Russians better but they rudely ignore him. A preacher gives a pep-talk to the troops.Now in Stalingrad, the Germans are trying to take a factory. They suffer many casualties as they move toward the factory. The man who gave away their position in the first place is sent on a suicide mission to stop the Russian machine guns, which allows the rest of the soldiers to reach the factory. One man is told shoot anything that moves, and he accidently shoots his friend, which makes him break down. As he stays with his friend he hears a fallen Russian soldier talking to his mother as he dies. They finally take the factory, despite the casualties suffered.Nov 8, 1942: the troops listen to a broadcast from Adolf Hitler about why he wanted to reach Stalingrad and speaking of their victory there, with only a few pockets of resistence left. The troops talk about how they started with 400 men and now are only 62. The Lt. wants to agree to a short truce with the Russians to gather their wounded. The Russians agree but only if the Germans go first. The Lt. goes out first along with one of his men, Otto (Sylvester Groth). Otto and a Russian trade breads as they gather their wounded. One German back in the bunkers decides to shoot at the Russians and everyone begins shooting. The Lt. grabs a young Russian boy (Pavel Mang) and brings him back to their base, and yells at the man who began shooting.In the morning the mail and food arrives. The Russian boy finally speaks to the Germans as the Russians begin singing. One soldier, Rollo (Jochen Nickel), gets a letter from his wife that she is leaving him for a French prisoner of war. Rollo says he will make the Russians pay for it. Just as the Lt. is trying to comfort him, the Russians bomb their shelter and begin attacking. The Lt. and a small group take flamethrowers and try to find a way out through the sewers. The Lt. gets lost and finds a Russian girl, Irina (Dana Vávrová) in the sewers, who happens to speak German. She makes a truce with him, to help him find his friends if he lets her go. However, when they get deeper in the sewers she pushes him into the water and runs away. Fritz (Dominique Horwitz), one of the Lt.s men, finds the Lt. and helps him to safety. Emigholz (Heinz Emigholz), who they brought for luck, is found with his leg blown off. As they carry him off, they discover a Russian woman and her children hiding and give them some bread as they move along.When they get Emigholz to the medical area, they can not find a doctor so Fritz holds a gun to a doctor to get him to work on him. Captain Haller (Dieter Okras) shows up and says that they are under arrest. The Lt. wants to speak to the General about it, who says the event will not go unpunished.Dec. 1942: the 6th Army has been surrounded for four weeks. The men are now prisoners, and must look for land mines in a snow field. They are told they will be sent to the front to help defend Marinovka. They are also told that they will be honorably reinstated when they leave for the front.The men sit in foxholes waiting as fleet of Russian tanks drives by. The tanks notice them and begin to drive toward them. A battle ensues in which some of the men dig holes in the snow, wait for the tanks to drive over them and then stick grenades to the back of the tanks. With a combination of grenades and Molotov cocktails the Germans manage to destroy all of the tanks, though they suffer heavy losses. They are all honorably reinstated.The Germans are then seen burning down a village while taking all of the Russians prisoner. The Lt. and his men are told that they are not going on leave. Instead they are forced to execute Russian prisoners. The Russian boy is amongst the prisoners. The Lt. tries to say that the boy worked for them and therefore should not be executed. Captain Haller makes them execute him anyway. Fritz says he is going to leave, and the Lt. says he no longer feels bound to his oath to stop him. Fritz leaves along with GG (Sebastian Rudolph) and the Lt. As they are on their way they encounter a camp of Russian refugees. A man tells them how to get to Pitomnik in exchange for some bread. As they travel further they find some dead German soldiers who were wounded and had passes to go home for being wounded. They each get a pass and plan to use them to go home.At the airport the wounded are being inspected to ensure they are truly wounded and that it wasnt self-inflicted. After passing the inspection they are part of a large group pushing to try to get on a plane. They do not make it onto the plane. They meet back up with the other men. A plan flies over and drops a container of food and medals. The men begin to eat some chocolate and Rollo finally gets his Iron Cross that he wanted. As they do this, Captain Haller comes out and points a gun at them, telling them that he wants a report filed and that in the German army looters are to be shot. The Lt. tries to grab the gun from him and the Captain shoots GG. Rollo shoots the Captain, who proceeds to beg and plead with them. The Lt. says, You want a report? The Russian boy was named Kolya. And his name was Müllerlike a lot of others. They then shoot Captain Haller.They go to the Captains house that he told them about and find it full of supplies. They find a girl in a room, tied up in a bed. They decided to go by rank, which means the Lt. would go first. The rest of the men leave the room, and the Lt. walks over and cuts the girls ties. The other men are listening to music, drinking and washing themselves. They begin playing cards, as they were in the beginning, and the line Hertz ist trumpf is heard again. We see the Lt. in the room with the girl, who happens to be Irina, the girl he met in the sewers. She says she wants to be shot, so the Lt. gives her his gun and says to shoot herself. She can not, and they end up sitting and talking. Their injured Captain, Captain Musk (Karel Hermánek), who they brought with them, points a gun at them and tells them to be soldiers not deserters. Otto tells him that every night he prays to be killed. He then pulls out his gun, says Heil Hitler and shoots himself in the head. Rollo carries Captain Musk out and discovers a line of German officers, including the General, walking in a line with their hands raised, surrendering. The remaining two go with the Irina, who says she can get them out.Irina leads the two through the snow. As they head to where she is leading them, shots are heard. Irina yells I am Soviet! but they continue to shoot, killing her. Fritz and the Lt. crawl away, and sit in the snow holding each other and talking to each other about the best thing about the cold until they both freeze to death. The movie ends with them covered in snow and tells us that over 1 million people died in the battle of Stalingrad. It says that of the 260,000 people of the 6th Army, 91,000 were taken prisoner and only 6,000 of them ever returned home.

anti war, cruelty

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Big House Bunny

Needing to get away from hunters, Bugs digs a tunnel and accidentally winds up in Sing Song Prison (a clear reference to Sing Sing Prison; "No Hanging Around") and utters his catch phrase " . As he tries settling himself to his hiding spot, prison guard (later a prisoner) Yosemite Sam (here called Sam Schultz, presumably as a character role, possibly a reference to Dutch Schultz) beats Bugs with a billy club, telling him, "Trying to pull an escape, 777174, huh?" To which Bugs replies, "I'm not 777174 - I'm only 3½." Sam believes that, but he does not believe that Bugs is not a prisoner. Thus, Bugs is arrested, numbered 3 1/2, and is sent to the rock pile ("My mother told me there would be days like this.") When Sam smugly tells Bugs that he will be locked up in jail for 50 years, Bugs quickly comes up with an escape plan. He screams that a prisoner is escaping and points into the distance, allowing Bugs to insert his chain ball into a cannon when Sam isn't looking. A few seconds later, Sam fires the cannon to shoot down the "escaping prisoner", sending Bugs over the wall to freedom. However, it doesn't take long for Sam to get wise; he drives out of the prison with a police car and recaptures Bugs. For his attempted escape, Sam punishes Bugs by ordering him to be confined in his jail cell. When Sam locks Bugs inside, Bugs pulls a switch so that Sam is tricked into locking himself in the cell and freeing Bugs. Sam breaks out and holds Bugs at gunpoint, threatening him with solitary confinement for 99 years. Bugs pulls another switcheroo by telling Sam that a real tough person would not use his uniform to intimidate another ("Eh, you wouldn't be so tough if you weren't wearing that uniform!"). Accepting the challenge, Sam takes off his police officer suit and aims his fists at Bugs, who has taken off his prison outfit. Bugs quickly admits to Sam that he is tough without his uniform and they redress with Bugs putting on the police uniform and Sam absentmindedly putting on the prison outfit. Bugs blows a whistle and Sam, realizing too late that he's been tricked again, is beaten up by several police officers for trying to escape and thrown into a jail cell. Inside his cell, Sam throws a tantrum and demands a "habus corpeas". Bugs, who is having too much fun with outsmarting Sam to leave, pretends to be a sympathy guard and gives Sam a loaf of bread, which is an "Ajax Escape Kit" containing a shovel, pickaxe, jackhammer, and map ("I'm getting ya out of here, see? I haven't forgotten what you've done for Mary an' the kids, see?"). Sam starts digging and comes up in what appears to be a jungle but is oversized plants... in the warden's office. The warden scolds Sam for fooling around, gives him a new officer's uniform and dismisses him from his office. Resuming his pursuit of Bugs, Sam chases him up a ladder to the gallows. Bugs escapes through the trap door but Sam accidentally hangs himself. As Sam angrily rants at this latest failure, he is called upon by the warden ("SHULTZ! OFFICE!") who is Bugs in disguise. The faux warden tricks Sam into sitting on an electric chair but then his moustache slips off, revealing the ruse. Sam chases Bugs out of the warden's office and around the prison, corners him back into the office and whacks him over the head with his club, only to find that he has clubbed the real warden. The warden furiously warns Sam that he'll be fired if he messes up one more time. Having had enough of Bugs, Sam finds him and orders him out of the prison. Bugs walks out and Sam celebrates, but the warden, having had enough of Sam, arrests and imprisons him for apparently letting a prisoner escape (which is a false pretense since Bugs was never a prisoner to begin with). Sam, back in prisoner garb, groans over his predicament at the rock pile and asks "I'd like to know what dirty stool pigeon squealed on me". Nearby, a grinning Bugs acts like a pigeon while standing on a stool.

psychedelic

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Cosa avete fatto a Solange?

Enrico and Elizabeth are making out in a rowboat when Elizabeth sits up and thinks she sees a girl running along the shore. She interrupts the kissing session again when she sees a knife being swung. Enrico, thinking she just wants an excuse to stop, angrily rows the boat to shore Enrico and Elizabeth leave, and a pen is dropped. Enrico, at home with his wife, Herta, hears a radio report of a murdered girl. On his way to school where he works as a teacher, Enrico stops by the crime scene. Inspector Barth is at the school with the headmaster Mr. Leach and some teachers with Enrico walks in late. Enrico leaves, passes by a classroom, and sees Elizabeth (she's a student). He goes to gym class and tells his students that their classmate Hilda has been killed.Later, Enrico asks Elizabeth what she saw then they were together. She says she saw a shadow like a man and "something funny". Enrico asks her not to go to the police, for fear that they will ask Elizabeth who she was with. At home, and an irate Herta asks Enrico where he was that morning (he had lied by saying that his car and broken down). She shows him the front page of the newspaper, with a photograph of the crime scene and Enrico pictured in the background. Inspector Barth talks to Enrico and asks him how he found such a obscure local in such a short time. Barth is shown a pen that was found on the victim's dress, and he talks to Hilda's parents, who say that their daughter went to confession the afternoon she was killed.Enrico calls Elizabeth at home and gives her an address for a place to meet. She tells her uncle that she is going to study with Brenda. She rides her bicycle and is followed by someone in a car. Enrico lets Elizabeth into a small apartment and two lovers kiss. Some calls from a pay phone and hangs up.Enrico is back at home grading test papers, and Herta asks him if he had sex with Hilda. The inspector arrives at the front door, and he slyly places Enrico's pen on the table. Enrico sees it. Herta leaves the room, and Barth states his belief that Enrico was a witness. The teacher admits to being there with Elizabeth and says she claims to have seen the killer.Janet is at home with the maid when a man, saying he is Helen's father, calls and says that Helen needs to borrow Janet's Italian book. As she goes to the car outside, tape is slapped over her mouth and she is driven away. Janet is dragged out of the car and stabbed to death.Elizabeth wakes up in bed, thinks back to Hilda running and calls Enrico. Elizabeth runs to her car when Enrico arrives and tells him she remembers that the killer wore a black habit, like a priest. The next day, Elizabeth tells Mr. Bascombe she knows something about Hilda's murder. He leads her to a room of teachers (including Enrico) where she tells of the priest-like pursuer. Afterwards, Enrico thanks the girl for leaving him out of the story. Later, the killer walks into Enrico's apartment and takes the needle off of the record that is playing. Elizabeth is attacked and drowned in the bathtub while taking a bath. Outside, a bearded man sees the killer run away.Enrico is arrested for Elizabeth's murder, and Barth interrogates the other teachers at the school. At the police station, Barth receives the autopsy report that hair was found under Elizabeth's fingernails which turned out to be dead hair. The report also says that Elizabeth was not sexually assaulted and was in fact a virgin. The bearded man is brought in for questioning and later looks at a line-up of priests and says that the man he saw running away from the building had a beard. Barth is told that, because of the dead hair, it was probably a false beard.Barth tells Herta that Enrico did not kill anyone and that Elizabeth was a virgin, and the teacher seems happy. Enrico says he wants to find out who killed Elizabeth, and Herta offers to help. In Herta's class, Barth asks the girls if they know a bearded priest. Brenda says that Janet confessed to a priest with a beard at Hilda's funeral. Herta talks to the girls and learns of a secret society. She tells Enrico about the society and says that Hilda and Janet once dated university students, and she has a name.Enrico goes to see Phillip and asks him about Hilda and Janet; he talks about the girls hanging out with him and his friends. He says that, after a while, they no longer had sex with boys after what happened to Solange, a girl who used to go to the school and has suddenly disappeared.At the funeral for Elizabeth and Janet, a man hands something to Helen, who passes it on to Brenda. Enrico talks to the two girls and asks about Solange, whom they claim not to know. Bascome wants Enrico about "prying" with the girls.Herta calls some schools and learns about one Solange that did not return. Brenda leaves a note in Henry's mail. The next day, Herta goes to the school and Enrico goes to the address where Solange once lived' the woman who answers the front door says she did not know the previous owners. Enrico picks up his mail and drops Brenda's note. The killer calls and suggests he take a vacation or he will not see "her" again. Enrico calls the rental agents, but the offices are closed.Downstairs, Enrico is handed the fallen note, with the name Ruth Holden written on it. Enrico goes to her place and finds a dead dog, a bloody shovel, and Ruth dead with a sickle in her neck.Herta asks Helen and Brenda if they know Ruth, but they respond negatively. The inspector stops them and says that Brenda's mother told him Ruth was the girl's maid. Brenda says she forgot the woman's real name.Enrico, lying in the sun with Herta, says he thinks that the killer dressed as a priest and confessed the girls. A quiet girl stands near the couple and runs away and a woman calls after her: "Solange!"The killer calls Brenda and tells her to go somewhere, and the cops (listening in) set up a trap for the killer at a carnival. Brenda sees Solange on the merry-go-round and takes the quiet girl away. A cop dressed as a priest loses sight of the two girls, and they are seen being driven away by another priest. Bascombe comes into the station and says that his daughter, Solenge, is gone, and he shows a picture of her. The inspector tells an inquisitive Enrico that Solange is sick in the head and has experienced "infantile regression". Enrico, Barth, and Herta go to Bascombe's house and the inspector sees a green pin by a photograph of Solange. Solange is in the next room with a restrained Brenda, and the killer tells her to explain everything. Brenda recalls the girls going to see Ruth, and Elizabeth and Hilda trying to talk to Solange out of going in and letting "nature take its course". But the others lead her inside and hold her down as Ruth gets a needle and performs a painful abortion on the pregnant Solange.Enrico and Herta to go Janet's place, and Enrico looks for her Italian book. He returns to Bascomb's place with Barth and another officer. When the man does not respond, Enrico kicks the door open and shows a second form Italian book (Solange did not get that far in school). Solange is at the door, and Bascombe returns and hugs his daughter. The men talk to him, and Solange pulls Herta away and leads her to a priest's habit. Herta calls Barth, and he and the cops run into the corridor and find the still-living Brenda. In his office, Bascombe pulls out a gun and shoots himself. Barth tells of the girls society (signified by green pins), their sex parties, and Solange's traumatic abortion. Solange sees her dead father and cries.

pornographic, cruelty, murder, cult, horror, violence, insanity, suspenseful, sadist

tt0068416

How to Make a Monster

We open with the title and credits written on a makeup mirror using a lipstick. We zoom in on a drawing of the Teenage Werewolf, then dissolve to an actor in Werewolf makeup getting a last minute touchup. The Teenage Werewolf is Larry Drake (Gary Clarke) and the makeup artist is Pete Dumond (Robert B. Harris). Also present is Rivero (Paul Brinegar), Dumond's long-time assistant. Rivero praises his boss as having twenty-five years of experience creating movie monsters for the studio. Dumond walks Larry walk over to the set. They encounter other studio employees and a tour group. On the set, the director, Martin Brace (Thomas Browne Henry) approves, telling Dumond, "Great Pete, just great, exactly what I want." The Teenage Frankenstein character, Tony Mantell (Gary Conway) is brought on set. The director works with each actor rehearsing the final scene of their picture.In the makeup office, Dumond and Rivero are cleaning up. Dumond likes working with teenagers, "They've got spirit and they cooperate." Two men walk in the office, unannounced and without knocking. They scope out the space, then inform Dumond that they are part of the group that has taken over the studio. They introduce themselves as John Nixon (Eddie Marr) and Jeffrey Clayton (Paul Maxwell). They blithely announce that after the picture Dumond is working on is completed his services will no longer be required. The monster cycle is done and the studio is going in a different direction. Dumond tries to convince the pair that his services are still required, but they are adamant. This starts Dumond over the edge and he vows ominously, "And before I leave this lot I intend to prove I'm right."That evening Dumond returns to his office. He stops to admire posters of the Teenage Werewolf and Frankenstein and waxes philosophical about his contribution to the financial success of the studio. He vows, "I'll destroy this studio...see it goes up in flames before I." He stops short and reconsiders, then vows to destroy the new owners first using his monsters. Rivero shows up and they enter the makeup room. Dumond explains his plan to Rivero. He will add a drug to the makeup foundation that will render the actors susceptible to hypnotic suggestion. He will direct Tony (Frankenstein) and Larry (Werewolf) to kill the new studio bosses. Two studio guards, Richards (Malcolm Atterbury) and Monahan (Dennis Cross) meet at the guard shack. Monahan complains that nothing ever happens on the night shift.The next day, Larry stops by the makeup department to have his Teenage Werewolf makeup applied. Dumond tells Larry the makeup department will be closed at the end of the picture he is working on and Larry won't be able to get any future roles. He applies the new makeup formula and starts the hypnosis and tells him the plan. In the Screening Room, Nixon, Clayton, and Banks (an uncredited Herman Cohen) review the rushes for Banks' latest musical. Banks leaves, then Clayton also exits the Screening Room leaving Nixon alone to watch the rushes from the Frankenstein and Werewolf film. From behind, Larry, in full werewolf makeup, attacks and kills Nixon, choking him while growling and foaming at the mouth. Back in the makeup chair, Dumond asks Larry, "Now you're sure my boy? Nobody saw you?" Larry nods in the affirmative. Dumond notices the blood on the Werewolf gloves and directs Rivero to wash the blood out of them. He wakes Larry from his trance.At the Screening Room, the projectionist is fingerprinted and questioned by the police about the death of Nixon. The doctor examines Nixon's body. He concludes that the time of death was probably 8:34 based on the broken watch and a broken neck is the cause of death. Clayton meets with detectives Thompson (Walter Reed) and Jones (John Phillips). Clayton tells the police that Nixon had no enemies on the West Coast, but they did have to pink slip about one hundred employees at the studio.Larry Drake and his girlfriend Arlene Dow (Heather Ames) are at a party. Larry complains of not feeling well. He complains of feeling like he blacks out. They rejoin the party. Monahan stops by the makeup department on his security rounds. He asks Dumond, who is working late, why he continues to keep late hours even after being fired. Monahan has been playing detective and tells Dumond that he thinks Nixon's death was an inside job. He infers that Dumond and Rivero may be involved, as they were still on the lot when Nixon was killed. He adds that all his observations including the time they left the lot are noted in his little black notebook, which he waives about provocatively. Monahan continues his rounds on the studio lot. Richards stays in the guard shack listening to the radio. Monahan enters the commissary and is accosted by a visage with a scar running from forehead to chin. He is beaten to death with a hammer or club. His black notebook is taken by the assailant. Back in the makeup department Dumond is cleaning up his face. Richards notes the time Dumond and Rivero leave the lot. Richards gets anxious that his partner, Monahan, has not checked in. He goes to look for him. He finds the body in the cafeteria. Richards calls the police and waits for Jones and Thompson to arrive and start their investigation. Again, Pete Dumond and Riveros names come up as being on scene when the murder occurs. The next morning Jones meets with Dumond to question him. On a sound stage a John Ashley musical number is filmed. When the number wraps, Clayton reminds Dumond, both of whom were on the set, that singing, dancing, and beautiful women are what the public wants and what the studio will produce.Dumond and Rivero are preparing Tony's Frankenstein make up when they are interrupted by two high school girls from their school newspaper doing an article on the studio. They interview Tony while he is sitting in the makeup chair. After they leave, Dumond applies the drugged foundation then hypnotizes him. Clayton checks out of the studio with Richards on guard that evening. He drives home in his Lincoln convertible and parks in the garage. As he exits his vehicle he is surprised by the Teenage Frankenstein waiting for him. Tony kills Clayton on the front seat of his car, sounding the horn several times. While struggling with his attacker, he gets some makeup on his hands. Tony flees the scene. While running back to Rivera's house, he knocks down a maid, Millie (Pauline Myers) walking down the sidewalk. She screams when she sees his makeup. At the house the two makeup artists remove Tony's mask and take him out of his trance. Rivero is starting to get cold feet as the body count climbs. The pair have been invited to police headquarters for questioning. Dumond reminds Rivero to keep his mouth shut. He'll do all the talking. As they are leaving, Gary Droz (Robert Shayne) arrives. He is Larry Drake's agent and is unhappy with Dumond. He warns Dumond, "You leave my boy alone. Don't you tell him that after this picture is finished that he'll never get another job." He finishes reading Dumond the riot act, then storms off.While Dumond and Rivero wait to be questioned, Richards tells Dumond he isn't getting any sleep. He spends his nights at the studio and his days being questioned by the police. Police Capt. Hancock (Morris Ankrum), along with detectives Thompson and Jones, questions Mille about what she saw when Clayton was killed. Richards is next to be interviewed. They review the Monahan killing. Finally, Dumond and Rivero are called in for questioning. The police tell the pair that the reason for their questioning is that they suspect the killer or killers may have been in full makeup and they may have information important to solving the murders. Thompson senses weakness in Rivero and starts to browbeat the now rattled assistant. Questioning finished, they are released, and walk to Dumond's car in the parking lot. Dumond is convinced that his sniveling assistant is about crack. Rivero reminds Dumond that Tony and Larry are still to be questioned and they may reveal something. Dumond reminds Rivero that, "Those boys are still under my control." A lab technician (Rod Dana) tells Capt. Hancock and detectives Thompson and Jones that he found greasepaint and putty under the fingernails of Clayton. The pigment and base suggest a homemade blend rather than a commercial product. Hancock orders the tech to accompany him to the studio with his equipment for a spot analysis.When Dumond and Rivero arrive at the makeup department, Larry and Tony are there waiting. Their supplies have already been packed. Dumond invites the boys to his house and asks them to help move some boxes to his car. Dumond packs a few missed items, but discards a jar of makeup in the trash can. Martin Brace stops by to say goodbye to Dumond. As Dumond, Rivero, Tony, and Larry exit the lot in Dumond's car, the police drive up. They go to the makeup room and discover the discarded makeup in the trash can. The tech analyzes it on the spot.At Dumond's house, the boys carry the boxes inside. Dumond locks the door and lights some candles. [Note: in this copy of the movie, the cinematography changes from black and white to color for the balance of the film.] The room is decorated with multi-colored curtains and masks of creatures are displayed. Dumond tells the boys the masks are his family and children. Tony and Larry are uneasy and for good reason. Dumond continues to light candles and mumble to himself. He invites the boys to examine the masks while he and Rivero go to get refreshments. The boys begin to exchange information about their encounters with Dumond. Rivero voices his concern about Larry and Tony, "I don't think they can be trusted." Dumond reassures Rivero, but becomes suspicious when Rivero reveals that he intends to leave the state and visit his brother in Arizona. Dumond is now convinced Rivero plans to leave him out to dry with the police. Dumond kills Rivero with a dagger, then moves his body into a closet. Dumond joins the boys in the mask room with refreshments. He hands them glasses of wine. The boys voice their discomfort with Dumond, his ideas, and his desire to, "Add them to his collection." They notice the door to the room is locked and demand to be allowed to leave. Dumond tells Tony and Larry that they were responsible for two of the murders. He pulls a machete on the boys. In their escape attempt they knock over a candle and start a fire in the room. The masks are destroyed as Dumond screams, "My children! I must save my children!" As the room burns, the masks melt and Dumond is consumed by the fire. The police break a window to the home and unlock the door and enter. They force the door and rescue Tony and Larry. We close with a shot of the room fully engulfed in fire.

revenge, murder

tt0051746

The Lords of Salem

In the year 1696, a man, Reverend Jonathan Hawthorne (Andrew Prine), writes with his quill pen about the witches of Salem and ridding it of Satan and his army. We cut to a ritual of the witches committing themselves to the devil. They strip their clothes off for the ritual and are dirty and surrounding a fire as they scream and chant.MondayPresent Day. A young woman, Heidi Hawthorne (Sheri Moon Zombie), wakes up in her room naked after a night of drinking by her alarm clock. She takes her dog into the kitchen to feed him. She walks outside to get the paper and says 'hi' to her new neighbor, about to introduce herself but is ignored by her the door is then slammed shut. We see Apartment 5. She goes downstairs to walk her dog and the landlord Lacy (Judy Geeson) says there is no tenant in apartment 5 and no one has lived there since Heidi has lived in the building. Lacy say she'll check it out. She walks outside and suddenly we see a colorful spiral which reveals that Heidi is is a DJ in Boston and its the commercial. The station is hard/screaming rock.As Heidi and the other two DJ's, Whitey (Jeff Daniel Phillips) and Herman (Ken Foree) leave, she receives a package from a group listed as The Lords of Salem. It's a wooden box with a vinyl record inside. She goes home with Whitey. He puts on the record, and it sounds horrible. As it plays, she starts to get weird. The record starts to play the same chanting done by the witches earlier. She has a vision of this and of one of the witches giving birth. Once he turns it off shes fine and tells him he can crash on the couch if he doesn't want to drive all the way home. She gets ready for bed and walks by her bathroom there is a ghost witch woman standing there.TuesdayHeidi goes to a group meeting before going to work (she is a recovering drug addict) at WIQZ radio. At the station, they are interviewing a man named Francis Matthias (Bruce Davison) who wrote a book about the Salem Witch Trials. They play the record she got in the mail, thinking its from a band called The Lords of Salem, over the airwaves and everywhere people are listing to it. Various women start dropping things and entering trances. The name of the song is The Lords of Salem. The guy, Francis, goes home and talks to his wife Alice (María Conchita Alonso), a local artist painter. The name of the song is bothering him.Heidi goes home and meets Lacy's sisters, Sonny (Dee Wallace) and Megan (Patricia Quinn) who have come to visit. Once she finally gets upstairs and turns the light on to feed her dog you can see a dead ghost witch hanging in the corner. She goes back downstairs to drink with the ladies. Megan, reads her palm, but it makes Heidi uncomfortable and she goes upstairs. We see a ghost walk by the hallway. Heidi is in bed watching an old movie. Her dog, Troy, gets outside and starts clawing and barking at the vacant room. Heidi gets him back inside but then the door starts to open by itself. Heidi's curiosity gets the better of her, and she walks towards the door.Inside the room, there is a neon red cross glowing. Heidi is drawn to it and puts her hands up to it, similar to how the witches were acting in the ritual. A demon appears behind her. Suddenly, we see Hell. She leaves the room and enters the hallway, only to see one of the old, naked, witches named Margaret Morgan (Meg Foster) telling her she is a daughter of Salem. She says for her to "Lead us again" and Heidi puts her arms out. We see an image of the scene from long ago and Heidi wakes up from her nightmare, however something in her room starts to shake.WednesdayHeidi walks to and enters a church. The priest tells her that God is always open and ready to listen. She seems upset. He tells her that he can tell she's a very sad girl. He starts to comfort her and when she tries to leave he kind of grabs her. He gives her a speech about angels sending people to Hell. He says she is a filthy whore and Christ cant save her, only he can. He starts screaming and goes crazy, when suddenly Heidi snaps awake. It was only a vision. The priest tells her he thinks she fell asleep and she runs out. While sitting outside with her dog, a ghost figure walking a dog starts towards her saying "We've been waiting for you." He vanishes, but then reappears.Meanwhile, Francis is at his own library reading a book about the witch trials. We cut to a vision of the ceremony from earlier in the movie. They took a woman and locked in a chamber by the fire where she burned,and the witches around her screamed. The woman had a mask on her face. Francis, back in reality, calls to his wife and asks her to do something for her play the last few notes printed in a book about the Lords of Salem. He wants to see if it is the same as the music Heidi got. Alice plays it on the piano, and he plays the tape of it. It's the same.Heidi goes to work, and the DJ's are announcing that The Lords are coming to Salem. They have sent them another package filled with concert tickets (though this concert never eventuates on-screen). They play the record. As it plays, Heidi starts to have visions and hear voices, freaking out and leaving the room to cry in the bathroom. At home, she sits alone, and we see rats in the hallway.ThursdayFrancis walks to the author of the book he was looking at. He tells him about the group The Lords of Salem that sent the record to Heidi. He wants to know if there's anything else about The Lords of Salem that he knows. The man that was writing his diary, Hawthorne, in the beginning of the movie thought the group of six were making music for the witches and his group eventually killed them. In the final sections of his diary, he talks about Margaret Morgan, one of the women, and how she put a curse on the women of Salem and put a curse on the man who wrote the diary's descendants (Heidi is one of them).Heidi is staying at her Whiteys house. She tells him she just had to get out of her apartment. She thinks that record is fucking with her. She suddenly starts to cough up blood. He calls 911. As he calls 911 she sees visions of ghost men surround him and knock him to the ground. They are wearing doctors outfits and are holding her down, cutting her open, pulling out her intestines and some type of alien baby figure. She snaps out of it.Heidi seems to be back at home, pops some pills, and goes to her bathroom freaking out. The picture on her wall starts bleeding (the figures in the painting resemble the ghost figures) and whispering Heidi over and over again. She leaves and goes to buy drugs.FridayHeidi is at home, listening to a tape on speaking French, while taking the drugs. There's a knock at her door. Its Lacy and her sisters.Meanwhile, Francis looks up Heidi's family tree online and finds out she's related to the reverend from the 1600s. He calls Heidi but shes asleep. The women are there taking care of her and tell him not to call back, he has the wrong number. They locked the dog in the bathroom and take Heidi, now drugged, into the hallway. They walk towards Room 5, talking to their master. They open the door, and as Heidi enters its a huge ballroom type place. She walks up the stairs, now with creepy face paint on. The Lord is at the top of the stairs and starts making a screaming noise. Heidi leaves the room and goes back into the hallway. She's back in bed.SaturdayWhitey calls Heidi to make sure she's OK. Hes trying to ask her out, but she tells him shes fine. He offers to pick her up to take her to the gig, but she tells him shes fine to get there herself. He tells her hes there whenever she needs him.Francis walks to Heidi's place to see if she's all right. He tells Lacy hes there to see Heidi. She lets him in, saying that they can wait in her apartment until Heidi comes home (she's lying, as Heidi is upstairs sitting in her bathroom). The ladies talk to him, and he reveals hes there to give Heidi information. Lacy starts to yell at him, accusing him of wanting to "fuck her brain". He gets up to leave, and one of the sisters knocks him out with a frying pan. Heidi overhears them killing him with it as she crawls on her floor upstairs.Whitey shows up to get Heidi. The women try not to let him pass, but he gets upstairs. He knocks on her door but she is passed out on Heroin on her couch but after knocking repeatedly Heidi finally answers it, very doped up, falling into his arms crying. When Lacy appears Whitey get suspicious and worried that Heidi is so frightened, he asks her what is going on but Lacy tells Heidi to tell Whitey to wait outside. She does what she says begging Whitey to wait outside then she shuts the door to get ready and Lacy takes Whitey with her.Whitey takes Heidi to the concert hall, where Herman is wondering what on Earth is going on. When they arrive Heidi is higher than before and pale with bruises on her face. Herman is seriously worried but Whitey says they can deal with this tomorrow. Heidi then walks away from them and looks at them with tears in her eyes and sadly says "bye" and suddenly closes the door on them... locking them out of the Palladium to protect them.Mozart's Requiem plays as the dark Salem Palladium is lit up with a bright light when the curtain lifts up. We see Lacy, Sonny and Megan on the stage wearing 17th century rags. They kneel on the stage and chant to the audience members, saying "Satan come to us, we are ready." The ghost of Margaret Morgan and The Lords of Salem witches appear behind them on stage saying "Welcome, Whores of Satan. I can taste the foul stench of your ancestors rotting in the folds of filth between your legs, Heidi The One We have been waiting for you Heidi. We have always been waiting." the witches play The Lords theme with their hand made instruments sending Heidi and the other female descendants into a trance. Heidi stands on the balcony and removes her glasses and clothes as all the audience members strip their clothes off and the music plays.Heidi sits on the special spot they have made for her. Heidi suddenly appears in a different reality. The witches chant a little, and she starts to put her hands on her head, going crazy. All the audience members, now naked women with masks on, walk towards her. The ghost men, in priest outfits, sit on thrones, all of them stroking dildos as Heidi sits between two of them facing three others. They chant about riding a goat warning her that means excepting The Devil and other strange things. Heidi does strange things, and we see MANY strange visions. Heidi's wild side takes over and she chooses to ride the goat unaware of the serious consequences. There is a cross that says Jesus Saves on top of fire. We are now in what appears to be Hell. The witches surround Heidi talking about their Lord Satan. They keep touching her and just like in her vision she gives birth to a creature.Back on stage, the three women have their heads bowed in prayer when a bright light begins to shine on them so they open their eyes and look up ecstatic happy and staring up at Heidi whose tattoos have gone and her eyes rolled back making them completely white now in a crown and white robe, surrounded by a white light, standing on top of all the now dead naked women. Heidi, having given birth to the Antichrist, is now the Satanic Virgin Mary for the coven.The next day on the radio there is news report on the 32 deaths of the Salem Lifer Society found in the Palladium, and it appears to have been a mass suicide. There is no news on the missing Heidi.

gothic, grindhouse film, murder, violence, horror, haunting, flashback, psychedelic, sadist

tt1731697

Desperate Hours: An Amber Alert

Edward "Eddie" Larson (Tom Berenger) is a criminal who doesn't refuse to commit any crime. He attacks some cowboys around a bonfire, steals the car of two sweet elderly ladies, and then steals a convinience store. He also steals a Betty Boo doll belonging to the young daughter of the owner. With all that, he approaches his old home, where he used to live with his ex-wife and his daughter. There, the audience learns that Larsan has just left prison. He demands to see his daughter, Sandie (Jessica Parker Kennedy), but she is out with her friends celebrating her birthday. His ex-wife, June (Dana McLoughlin), is already engaged to somebody else. Larson wants to revenge himself, but he seems to disregard his old wife, as she used to work as a stripper.Two girls are leaving a party: they want to go somewhere else, among the woods, to find boys. They park close to Larson, whose car has a burst tyre. Chris Geiger (Alexander Mendeluk) phones one of the girls, and he's told that there is only an old Cadillac with a glass-wearing old man -Larson, who goes over and over in his mind about his ex-wife's words. Chris is spending the holidays home from university and offers to pick the girls up.Katie Hughes (Torri Higginson) wants to travel to Italy on her own, but her mother won't allow it. Her boyfriend Pete (Tyler Johnston) arrives when Katie is thinking of leaving home. Katie and Pete go out to talk in a quiet place at night.Larson breaks into the two girls' car. He ties one girl to a rail. The car with Katie and Pete arrives. Larson also steals from them. Larson says that "it's going to be a horrible night". Larson kidnaps Katie and ties her with the other girl at the back seat with cellotape. Larson runs away with the two girls, Debra Gleason (Genevieve Buechner) and Katie. Pete phones the police. Agent Martha Gayer, (Tracie Hansen) the chief officer, thinks it may be a joke, but Sgt Lamm (Chad Cole) goes to check what's happening. The two mothers panick. Martha establishes an amber alert. The radio networks give public announcements.Tom (Greg Kean), Katie's father, arrives to console his hysterical ex-wife, who is about to go out to look for her daughter herself. Eddie stops at a road petrol station. His ex-wife recognises him, and Kaylie (Britt McKillip) says that he's written to her father some times, unbeknowst to June. Larson is the son of a violent father and a battered mother. Kaylie says that there is a lake where he used to go as a child, which used to make him feel free.Katie and Debra ask for a toilet break. Katie uses it to try to get a stone into the car which she'd try to hit Larson with. Larson discovers it, but doesn't hurt Katie after all. Katie's parents reconcile due to the harsh circumstances.A boy (Jake D. Smith) recognises him. Larson falls asleep, and the girls puck up his knife. The girls won't dare cutting his throat, but Debra finally stabs a knife onto his chest.The girls run away. They are found by the police, and their parents are really happy to have them back. However, Eddie doesn't sell his life easily, until he is killed.

violence

tt1302169

Rocky V

Shortly after Rocky Balboa's victory over Ivan Drago in Moscow, he, his wife Adrian, his brother-in-law Paulie, and his trainer Tony "Duke" Evers return to the United States, where they are greeted by Rocky's son, Robert. At a press conference, boxing promoter George Washington Duke attempts to goad Rocky into fighting his boxer Union Cane, who is now the top rated American challenger. They want the bout for the World Heavyweight Championship in Tokyo, but Rocky declines the offer. Duke refuses to give up on the huge payday fight with Balboa and surmises he needs to come up with an angle to convince him to fight. Shortly after returning home, it is discovered that Paulie unknowingly had Rocky sign a "power of attorney" over to Rocky's accountant, who had squandered all of his money on real estate deals gone sour; in addition, the accountant had failed to pay Rocky's taxes over the past six years, and the mansion is discovered to be unpaid by $400,000. His lawyer confirms this, but he tells Rocky the situation is easily fixable with a few more fights. Rocky, not wanting to go bankrupt, decides to accept the mega fight with Cane for the money. However, after seeing a doctor, an examination reveals permanent and irreversible brain damage from the fight with Drago and at Adrian's insistence, Rocky opts to retire from boxing. He files for bankruptcy, has his mansion and belongings auctioned off, and moves his family back into Paulie's old house in South Philadelphia. Adrian returns to working part-time at the J&M Tropical Fish pet shop while Paulie goes back to the Shamrock Meat Packing facility. Rocky arranges plans to refurbish and reopen Mighty Mick's Boxing Gym, willed to his son Robert by his late trainer Mickey Goldmill. He walks through the abandoned gym and reminisces about a training session between the two just before Rocky fought with Apollo Creed years before. One day, Rocky and Paulie meet a hungry young fighter from Oklahoma named Tommy Gunn, and Rocky takes him under his wing. Training the young fighter gives Rocky a sense of purpose, and Gunn fights his way up the ladder to become a top contender. Rocky eventually becomes so distracted with Gunn's training that he winds up neglecting Robert. He falls in with the wrong crowd at school and as a result, he begins acting out at home. Union Cane wins the vacant world heavyweight title while Gunn continues his rapid and impressive rise through the ranks. Still wanting to do business with Rocky, Duke sees Gunn's knockout streak and relationship with Rocky as a way of getting control of him. Duke showers Gunn with luxuries and promises him that he is the only path to a shot against Union Cane for the title. Duke hopes to take control of Gunn as his manager and keep Rocky on as head trainer. On Christmas Eve, Duke visits the Balboa house with Gunn to explain the new scenario which would financially benefit all of them However, Rocky insists dealing with Duke will end badly and is dirty business. Gunn drives off in a huff, leaving Rocky for good. Adrian attempts to comfort Rocky, but his frustrations finally boil over. He confesses his life had meaning again when he was able to live vicariously through Gunn's success. She reasons with him, telling him Tommy never had his heart and spirit—something he could never learn. When this realization hits him, Rocky embraces his wife and they begin to pick up the pieces. After finding Robert hanging out on a street corner, Rocky apologizes to his son and they mend their broken relationship. Gunn fights Cane for the heavyweight title as Rocky watches from his basement, still rooting for his protégé. After taking a good punch, Gunn goes on to completely dominate and dismantle a passive Cane scoring a first-round knockout. Gunn is booed by spectators for leaving Rocky and hounded by reporters after the fight. They insist Cane was nothing but a "paper champion", because Cane did not win the title from Balboa, and also suggest he wasn't necessarily trying his best to win and accuses Duke of rigging the ratings. Gunn is enraged when they say he will never be the real champion unless he fights a worthy opponent, like Rocky; they drive the point home when one reporter announces, "...he's no Rocky Balboa!" With Gunn incensed by the press's reaction, Duke convinces him that he needs to secure a title fight with Rocky to put to bed the notion that he's not the real champion. Duke and Gunn show up at the local bar to goad Rocky into accepting a title challenge. Rocky declines the prospect of a title fight and tries to reason with him, but Gunn rebukes it and calls him weak, prompting Paulie to stand up for Rocky. However, Gunn punches Paulie and he falls to the ground. Enraged, Rocky accepts the challenge, but tells Gunn "my ring is outside." Despite Duke's warnings to keep the fight in the ring, Gunn accepts. During the fight, Rocky is eventually beaten down and is seemingly out for the count. He then hears the voice of Mickey urging him to get up and continue the fight, to go just "one more round". Rocky gets up and, with Robert, Paulie, and the entire neighborhood cheering him on, utilities his vast street fighting knowledge to knock out his former protégé. While Gunn is escorted away by the police, Duke threatens to sue Rocky if he touches him, but after a brief hesitation and with nothing else to lose anyway, Rocky knocks him onto the hood of a car and quips, "Sue me for what?" The next morning, Rocky and Robert take a jog to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Rocky gives his son Rocky Marciano's cufflink, given to him years ago as a gift from Mickey. The film ends with a shot of Rocky's statue looking out over the Philadelphia skyline.

dramatic, revenge, cult, action, flashback

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The Poseidon Adventure

The SS Poseidon, a trans-Atlantic passenger steamship slated for retirement, is making its way across the Atlantic from New York City to Athens on its last voyage. On the bridge, company representative Linarcos (Fred Sadoff) orders the ship's master, Captain Harrison (Leslie Nielsen), to empty ballast and proceed at full speed, against the Captain's better judgement.Meanwhile, Detective Lieutenant Mike Rogo (Ernest Borgnine) and his ex-prostitute wife Linda (Stella Stevens)--seasick, like much of the passengers--receive an invitation to the captain's table. Reverend Frank Scott (Gene Hackman), a priest questioning his faith, delivers an unnerving sermon at Sunday service. Susan Shelby (Pamela Sue Martin) and her younger brother Robin (Eric Shea) are traveling to meet their parents. Robin is interested in how the ship works and frequently visits the engine room. Retired hardware store owner Manny Rosen (Jack Albertson) and his wife Belle (Shelley Winters) are going to Israel to meet their two-year-old grandson for the first time. Haberdasher James Martin (Red Buttons) is a love-shy, health-conscious bachelor. The ship's singer, Nonnie Parry (Carol Lynley) rehearses for the New Year celebration with her band, which includes her brother Teddy on drums.That evening, New Year's Eve, everybody gathers in the dining room to celebrate. Captain Harrison is called back to the bridge because of an emergency report of an undersea earthquake near Crete. Harrison receives word from the lookout that there is a huge wave heading towards them. He immediately issues a mayday, but it is already too late. The wave hits the bridge, drowning Harrison, Linarcos and other ship's officers. The ship rolls over, killing and injuring most of the people on board.After the capsized derelict steadies, the surviving passengers and crew in the dining room take stock of their predicament. Robin looks for his sister, who has ended up under a table attached to what is now the ceiling. Scott assembles a team to hold a tablecloth that will cushion her fall and coaxes Susan to jump to safety. Acres, an injured waiter, is trapped at the galley door now high above them. Scott seizes on this, saying that rescue will be found 'upwards', at the outer hull, which is now above water. Robin confirms this, telling the group that the steel plating near the aft propeller shaft is just one inch thick. After some more talking and discussing, Manny, Belle, Mike, Linda, Nonnie, Susan, Robin, Acres, and Martin reluctantly agree to go with Scott. The group need something to climb up to Acres, so they eventually agree to use the Christmas tree as a makeshift ladder. Scott tries to convince more passengers to join his group, but all remain where they are in hopes of rescue.Just after the small group reaches the galley, there is a series of explosions and seawater begins to flood the ballroom. The survivors left behind rush to the Christmas tree, but the weight of everyone trying to climb at once pulls it over into the rising water. Scott, the last to leave, sadly closes the kitchen doors on the desperation below.Acres and Scott find the galley, but a warning light is on and the fire door, hot to the touch, has been shut. Scott enters the incinerated kitchen to investigate, returns, and the survivors pick their way through to a staircase on the other side. Scott climbs the ramped underside of the stairs first and he and Martin use a salvaged firehose to pull Rogo and Acres up. While Rogo pulls the others up, Scott and Acres go ahead and find the only exit to 'Broadway' (the main passageway of the ship) is blocked. Acres suggests an access tunnel to the funnel shaft. Scott undogs the opening and returns for Linda, Martin and Nonnie. Just then, water floods the staircase and the now-panicked survivors race to the tunnel.Temporarily safe, Scott leads them to an access tunnel. Rogo had been instructed to look after everybody but, just as Martin and Nonnie climb into the hole, water begins to fill the corridor. They make it into the funnel and began to climb up with Acres above them. Suddenly, the ship rocks from another series of explosions and Acres falls into the churning water and is lost. Rogo makes an attempt to save him, but the shaft explodes and forces him to abandon Acres.While climbing out of the shaft and into 'Broadway', Scott and Rogo argue heatedly over the loss of Acres when their group meets a larger band of survivors. These are led by the ship's medic and are heading towards the bow. Rogo argues with Scott about which direction to go and gives Scott only fifteen minutes to go aft to find the engine room. Everybody else looks for supplies. Scott and Susan (who has a crush on the charismatic Reverend) find the hatch that leads to the engine room. Scott tells Susan to return to the others and go forward if he's not back in five minutes. After waiting, Susan tells the others the bad news, but Scott reappears and announces he has found the way to the engine room.While Susan shows the survivors where to go, Scott notices that Robin is missing. He finds Robin just as the water begins to flood Broadway. They race to the hatch and make it up just as the water floods the corridor.The group finds the engine room is on the other side of a flooded corridor, so someone must swim through with a line so the others can find a way across. Belle, a former trained swimmer, claims that she could swim under it, but Scott refuses and dives in with the line. Halfway through, a panel collapses on Scott and traps him. The survivors notice something is wrong and Belle dives in to save him. She finds Scott and they make it to the other side. As Scott secures the lifeline, Belle suddenly has a heart attack and collapses. With her last breath, she tells Scott to give her "Chai" pendant (representing the Hebrew sign for life) to her husband who in turn will give it to her grandson. Scott weeps at her loss.Rogo swims over during the delay to make sure Belle and Scott are okay. When he surfaces, he sees Belle's death, and returns to the other side. Rosen suspects something is wrong and swims to the other side only to find his wife's lifeless body. A few minutes later, the others make it across and find Manny in tears. Initially he is unwilling to go on, but Scott gives him Belle's Chai pendant, reminding him that he still has a reason to live.Scott continues aft and finds the propeller shaft room's watertight door 'below' a steam valve. He returns and leads the survivors across a catwalk to the door, but there is another series of explosions and Linda falls to her death, presumptively of a broken neck. An infuriated and heartbroken Rogo blames her death on Scott, calling him a "lying, murderous son-of-a-bitch."More explosions rupture a large pipe which releases clouds of scalding-hot steam that block the group's path to their escape. Scott, outraged about the three deaths and this final obstacle, screams at God that he has betrayed the survivors. He leaps and grabs onto the burning-hot valve wheel to shut off the escaping steam. Hanging from it, Scott slowly turns off the steam, all the while cursing God. The helpless Scott tells Rogo to lead the group on, then lets go of the wheel and is lost to the flaming, oily water below. Susan, in anguish, tries to follow him.Rogo finally leads the remaining survivors--Rosen, Martin, Nonnie, Susan and Robin--through the watertight door and into the propeller shaft room, but they find no rescuers. Suddenly, they hear a noise outside the ship. They bang on the metal hull to get the rescuers' attention and, after several frantic attempts, finally get a response. The rescuers cut a hole through the hull using a blow torch and help the group from the ship. The survivors, the only six alive after the disaster, fly off to safety by helicopter.

cult, suspenseful, claustrophobic

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Creepshow

A stern and tyrannical father named Stan (Tom Atkins) gets angry when he finds his young son Billy (Joe King) reading a grisly horror comic book entitled "Creepshow". After arguing with his wife and slapping Billy, Stan throws the comic in the garbage. A skeletal figure appears outside Billy's window, the Creep, who hosts the stories in the comic book. A wind draws the comic out of the garbage can, and the five stories within come to life, dissolving from illustrated comic frames to live-action frames at the beginning of each story, and vice-versa at the end of each story (each story is linked by short, animated interludes).1st story: "Father's Day" -- The Granthams are a wealthy family with a macabre annual celebration. Sylvia Grantham (Carrie Nye) gathers with her family members Richard (Warner Shook) and Cass (Elizabeth Regan), and the eccentric Aunt Bedelia (Viveca Lindfors) on Father's Day. While they are waiting for Bedelia to arrive, the family members explain Bedelia's back story to Cass's new husband, Hank (Ed Harris).It seems that Bedelia's father, the now-deceased family patriarch Nathan, was pathologically jealous of Bedelia. After Nathan had her lover murdered in what was written off as a "hunting accident", Bedelia went over the edge. While caring for the elderly Nathan, Bedelia snapped and bashed Nathan's head in with a marble ashtray. The family conspired to make it look like an accident, and Nathan's massive wealth was divided among them equally. Ever since the time of the murder, which occurred on Father's Day, Bedelia visits her father's grave at the family estate, then joins the others in the mansion for dinner.This year, as Bedelia sits on Nathan's grave, Nathan's rotting corpse emerges from the ground and attacks her, strangling her to death. Nathan then exacts revenge on the rest of the family. Hank is squashed with a falling gravestone, the housekeeper Mrs. Danvers (Nann Mogg) is killed, and Nathan twists Sylvia's head off of her body. In a final gruesome joke, he 'surprises' Cass and Richard with Sylvia's head, decorated to look like a Father's Day cake, complete with burning candles.Story #2: "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" -- Jordy Verrill (Stephen King) is a simpleton who lives alone on his family's rundown farm. A meteor crashes to Earth, landing in his field, and Jordy has aspirations to sell the meteor to the local college for a small fortune -- two hundred dollars. He tries to pick up the meteor but it's too hot, and burns his fingers. Jordy's solution is to pour a bucket of water on it, but that causes it to split in two. A dejected Jordy sees his dream of a two hundred dollar windfall go down the drain. Still, he resolves to try and sell the halves, which are now covered in a greenish liquid.Later that night, the crater where the meteor landed is now covered in weird green plantlife, as is everything the meteor came into contact with. Jordy notices his fingers have green wounds on them, presumably from the burns, but later he discovers the alien vegetation, which has now covered the entire farm. Jordy realizes that the alien plant life is now growing on his skin. As the night progresses, Jordy becomes covered in shaggy green weeds, causing him to itch.Jordy's itching skin causes him to run a bath, but before he can get in, the image of his deceased father appears to him in the mirror and warns him against getting into the water, since the water is what makes the weeds grow. Jordy gets in anyway, and when morning dawns, Jordy has become a gigantic lumbering mass of alien vegetation. Desperate, he shoots himself in the head with a shotgun, revealing that the deep green weeds have even penetrated his brain.Story #3: "Something to Tide You Over" -- Harry Wentworth (Ted Danson) is awakened by a knock at his door from Richard Vickers (Leslie Nielsen). It seems that Harry has been having an affair with Richard's wife, Becky (Gaylen Ross), and Richard has come to confront him. Instead of attacking him, Richard plays him a cassette of Becky's terrified voice begging Harry for help. Harry accompanies Richard back to his private beachfront estate, where Richard forces him at gunpoint to climb into a hole in the sand on the beach. Burying Harry up to his neck, Richard then connects a television that displays live footage of Becky, also buried up to her neck in another location on the beach. The tide is already starting to come in and wash over her face. Harry realizes that they will both be dead soon; there is no reasoning with Richard, who seems to take great delight in his revenge. Richard abandons Harry and goes back to his beach house, where he watches the drowning deaths of both Becky and Harry on the video monitors. Before the last wave covers Harry's head, he vows revenge on Richard.Later that night, Richard is alone in the beach house when he seems to hear voices calling him. While he showers, two shuffling figures enter his home, defying the many security cameras and alarms that Richard has in place. When Richard emerges from the shower, he hears somebody in his house and immediately thinks it's Harry, somehow still alive. He is terrified to discover that the invaders in his home are the water-logged corpses of both Becky and Harry, both of them zombies covered in seaweed with green, pruning skin. Richard's gun has no effect; the zombies taunt him the same way he taunted them, and we finally see Richard, now completely insane, buried on the beach in the same way, waiting for the tide to come in. "I can hold my breath a looooooooooong time!" Richard yells crazily.Story #4: "The Crate" -- A janitor at Horlicks University, Mike (Don Keefer), discovers an old dusty crate behind a grate under a basement stairwell. He calls Professor Dexter Stanley (Fritz Weaver) to investigate with him, drawing him away from a stuffy faculty gathering. At the gathering is Dexter's good friend, Professor Henry Northrup (Hal Holbrook). Henry is married to an obnoxious shrew of a woman named Wilma (Adrienne Barbeau). Wilma, who is continually drunk, embarasses herself and Henry at the party, and it seems as if she is about to ruin the friendship Henry shares with Dex. Henry, who is somewhat meek, fantasizes about ways to murder her.Back at the university, Dex and Mike pull the crate out from under the stairs and realize that it appears to have been under there since the late 1800s. A stamp on the outside of the wooden box indicates that it contains specimens from an arctic expedition. When the two of them open it, they sense movement from inside, and Mike is attacked by something when he puts his arm in the crate. Whatever it is pulls Mike inside, apparently eating him as it goes, and Dex catches a glimpse of a horrible, shaggy beast with huge teeth.Dex runs blindly from the lab and finds the only other person in the hall, a student named Charlie Gereson (Robert Harper). Charlie goes down into the the laboratory and finds it covered in blood, with no sign of the crate or the creature. Charlie and Dex find the crate back under the stairs, and when Charlie attempts to investigate, the creature attacks him and eats him, too.Dex is afraid to go to the police; instead he goes to Henry's house, and he arrives while Wilma is away for the evening. He tells Henry the story about the creature, and Henry knows Dexter has to be telling the truth. Henry hatches a plan. He gives Dex sleeping pills and leaves him locked in his study, asleep. Henry writes Wilma a note, concocting a bogus story designed to lure her to the laboratory. He gets there ahead of her and cleans up the evidence of the blood. Wilma can't resist Henry's trap, and she shows up at the university as planned. Henry lures her under the stairs and her obnoxious ranting draws the creature out of its crate. It eats Wilma before Henry's eyes; Henry then chains it inside the crate and dumps the crate into the deep water of a nearby quarry.When Dexter wakes up the next day, he and Henry vow to keep the secret of what really happened, and let the authorities deal with the disappearances. The final frames show the creature in its watery trap, tearing the crate to pieces and presumably escaping.5th and final story: "They're Creeping Up on You!" -- Upson Pratt (E.G. Marshall) is a neurotic business tycoon who lives in a sterile, white penthouse apartment atop a skyscraper in a major city. He communicates with the outside world via the telephone, treating his employees and subordinates in a cutthroat, heartless manner. One phone caller informs him that an employee, Norman Castonmeyer, has committed suicide because Pratt fired him. Pratt seems delighted rather than upset.Pratt is obsessed with cleanliness and has a huge phobia of bugs. Unfortunately, he keeps finding cockroaches in his apartment, which sets him on a rampage to correct the situation. He places telephone calls to the building superintendent and makes thinly veiled racial slurs in an attempt to intimidate the man.As Pratt finds more bugs in his apartment, someone gets through on his private line. Norman Castonmeyer's widow, Lenore (voiced by Gwen Verdon), calls Pratt to curse him for her husband's death. Pratt is amused by her melodramatic sadness, until the cockroaches multiply. He finds them in his food processor, bits of them surfacing in the grain cereal he eats. An electrical blackout occurs, and the roaches attack, swarming by the thousands everywhere in Pratt's apartment. Pratt retreats to his "safe room", a climate-controlled sleep chamber, just as the phone rings. Lenore Castonmeyer's voice curses him over and over "I hope you die! I hope you die!", and Pratt discovers his bed swarming with roaches. The roaches quickly cover him and Pratt suffers a heart attack. The power returns, the lights come back on, and the roaches are nowhere to be seen. Pratt's body lies inside the glass sleep chamber. The superintendent knocks at Pratt's door and laughs when Pratt doesn't answer, asking "Bugs got your tongue?" Suddnely, swarms of roaches burst from Pratt's body, so many that they nearly fill the glass chamber.The wraparound story with Billy concludes the next morning, when two garbage men (Marty Schiff and Tom Savini) discover the comic book next to the trash can in front of Billy's house. They leaf through it reverently and discover that someone has clipped a mail-in coupon for a genuine Haitian voodoo doll. Inside the house, Billy's father, Stan suddenly suffers neck pain, while up in his bedroom, Billy stabs a voodoo doll in his form of his cruel father repeatedly with a pin as payback for Stan tossing out his favorite comic book.Like each story in the comic book, this live action scene of Billy stabbing the voodoo doll becomes an illustrated comic book picture, and as the camera pulls back, we see that the comic's macabre "host", "The Creep", is holding the second issue of the "Creepshow" comic book in his boney hands, with Billy and his voodoo doll adorning the cover. The Creep titters, and a nearby candle flame goes out, plunging the scene into darkness.Credits begin to roll...(At the end of the credits, we once again hear The Creep's laughter).

comedy, dark, cult, horror, violence, psychedelic, revenge

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The Palm Beach Story

This story begins with the wedding of Gerry (Claudette Colbert) and Tom Jeffers (Joel McCrea), and the wedding follows with the caption, "And they lived happily ever after... or did they?" Time then flashes forward about four years to the Jeffers apartment where the Wienie King (Robert Dudley) is touring the Jeffers apartment as a likely rental because the Jeffers aren't able to make their bills. While the Wienie King and his wife tour the apartment, an embarrassed Gerry hides in closets and the bathroom, ducking away from touring eyes. The Wienie King happens upon Gerry hiding in the bathtub behind a shower curtain and takes an immediate liking to her so much that he decides not to take her apartment and gives Gerry $700 to pay her bills.Meantime, Tom is meeting with a hopeful investor to discuss his idea of building an airport that stretches over the city. The investor doesn't seem very keen on Tom's idea. When Tom gets home and finds out that Gerry has taken money from a stranger, he's upset. Gerry calms him down, but then suggests that they get a divorce because she feels as a single woman she can get him the money he needs to build his airport.Gerry takes Tom out to dinner with the last 14 dollars they have after she finished paying the bills that day, and they both get pretty drunk. When they get home, Gerry is still discussing divorce, but discussions stop as Tom helps Gerry remove her dress.The next morning, Gerry packs her suitcase and writes Tom a good-bye letter. She tries to pin the letter to the blanket but accidentally pokes Tom waking him up. Tom chases Gerry to the streets, but a penniless Gerry manages to get away in a taxi and thanks to the kindness of strangers, in this case the members of the Ale and Quail Club, she manages to get a ticket and a private car on a train to Palm Beach. The Ale and Quail Club get a bit drunk and decide to shoot up their train car, so Gerry sneaks away for some peace. She climbs into a berth which happens to be the berth above the berth of millionaire John D.Hackensacker III (Rudy Vallee) who comes to Gerry's rescue with loads of clothes, jewelry, etc., after Gerry loses her belongings due to the fact that the Ale and Quail Club train car has been disconnected from the train and abandoned. Gerry and John decide to abandon the train themselves and take John's yacht to Palm Beach.As this is happening Tom meets the Wienie King who has decided to take a different apartment in the building. The Wienie King gives Tom money to catch a plane to Palm Beach to stop Gerry from getting a divorce. When Tom meets the train, he finds out that Gerry has dumped the train for a yacht. Tom then waits for Gerry at the dock. Tom then meets John and John's sister the Princess Centimillia (Mary Astor) who takes an immediately liking to Tom. Gerry introduces Tom to everyone as her brother, and a slightly disagreeable Tom goes along with this plan solely to get time to convince Gerry to come to her senses.Gerry talks John into investing in Tom's airport. The Princess wants to marry Tom and John wants to marry Gerry. In the end, Gerry and Tom realize that they love each other and can't divorce. They both confess to the Princess and John. John decides to invest in Tom's airport anyway even though he loves Gerry. John then says, "If only you had a sister." Gerry says, "I do. A twin sister." As they express surprise over this revelation, Tom further reveals that he also has a twin brother. The movie then ends with Gerry and Tom standing side by side at the wedding of their twin siblings to the respective Hackensacker siblings where the movie ends as it begins, "And they lived happily ever after... or did they?"

comedy, romantic

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Summer's Blood

Summer (Ashley Greene) has run away from home and is searching for her father who had abandoned her and her mother when she was very young. A policeman catches her red-handed while she is attempting to steal from a store. She escapes from the policeman with the help of stranger, Peter (Tom Hoxey). She hooks up with him for a one-night stand and to her horror, he and his mother happen to be psychopaths. Peter catches young girls off-guard and brings them down to his basement where he has a human garden which is downright horrific. Here he subjects them to inhuman torture if the girls try to escape. Summer tries to escape, but cannot and decides it is better to join them rather than knowingly inflicting harm. During the course of her stay, Peter's father comes home and she finds out he is her father also. But her long awaited fairytale reunion is marred by the cold-hearted father who decides to enjoy her young ripe body, rather than enjoying her presence. Peter is bodily harmed when he decides to intervene. Her father takes her away to a secluded area where there is only a woman, whom he plans to finish off. But, Summer manages to escape and kill him.

romantic, murder

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Fright Night Part 2

Three years after the first film, 20-year-old Charley Brewster, as a result of psychiatric therapy, now believes that Jerry Dandrige was nothing but a serial killer posing as a vampire. As a result, he comes to believe that vampires never existed. College student Charley, along with his new girlfriend, Alex Young, go to visit Peter Vincent, who is again a burnt-out vampire killer on Fright Night, much to the chagrin of Charley. While visiting Peter's apartment Charley sees four coffins being taken into a car. On the way out from Peter's apartment, Charley sees four strange people walk past him, into an elevator. Charley instantly becomes drawn to one of the four, the alluring Regine. Charley drives Alex back to her dorm and begins to make out with her, only to pull away and see Regine staring back at him. An upset Alex storms off, not realizing that something is following her. Another girl leaves the dorm as Alex enters, and she is followed and killed by one of Regine's vampires, Belle. Alex, meanwhile, is unaware that Louie, another of Regine's group, is scaling up the wall outside her window, but he is startled and falls when Alex inadvertently slams her window shut on his hands. Bozworth, a bug-eating servant of Regine, makes fun of Louie before consuming some bugs. Later that night, Charley dreams that Regine comes to visit him, only to turn into a vampire and bite him. The next day, Charley talks to his psychiatrist, Dr. Harrison, who assures him that what he dreamed was only natural. Alex finds Charley bowling, per doctor's orders, and Charley agrees to go to the symphony with her. On his way there, however, he sees his friend Richie with Regine and opts to follow him. Charley climbs up to a fire escape outside of Regine's apartment, only to be horrified when he sees Regine and Belle attack and drain Richie's blood. Charley runs off to find Peter, and the two of them arm themselves with crosses and crash Regine's party. There, Charley finds Richie, but is shocked to find him alive and well, with no bite marks on his neck. Regine makes her entrance, doing an erotic dance with a mesmerized Charley. She introduces herself to Peter and Charley, and claims to be a performance artist in town for some shows. Satisfied that what he thought was Regine attacking Richie was nothing but an act, Charley leaves when he remembers his date with Alex. Peter elects to stay behind and while looking around, he notes that there are people in the corners of the room biting others on the neck. Noting the odd behavior, he draws his pocket mirror and finds that Regine and Belle, who are dancing in the middle of the dance floor, cast no reflections. Storming out of the party, Peter runs into Regine waiting for him outside. As he runs down the stairwell Peter again comes face-to-face with Regine, who reveals herself that she is a vampire, the sister of Jerry Dandrige, and has come to take her revenge on both Charley and Peter. Peter runs back home and hides, resolving to tell Charley in the morning what has just transpired. Charley, meanwhile, blows off his date with Alex, returns home and falls asleep, only to be visited by Regine, who bites him on the neck while he sleeps. Charley, content with the explanation that Regine is a performance artist, is once again in denial. He begins to discuss the situation with Alex when Peter arrives to try to warn the couple about Regine but neither believe him. Peter states that he has warned them and runs back to his home, packs his belongings and departs. Meanwhile, Charley has started to show signs of being a vampire as he is becoming sensitive to garlic and sunlight. After failing to talk to his psychiatrist, he overhears a news report about Richie's body being discovered the previous night. Now believing that everything is real, Charley goes to see Peter, only to find that Peter has gone. Louie is once again stalking Alex. Louie reveals his true nature to Alex and Charley and stalks them in the school library, only to flee after Alex injures him by cramming wild roses into his mouth. Alex and Charley are then arrested by campus police. Peter, meanwhile, is also arrested after he shows up on the set of Fright Night and attempts to kill its new host, Regine, on live TV. Everyone thinks he's lost his sanity as he says, "I have to kill the vampire"; and ends up in a state hospital. Alex is bailed out by Dr. Harrison and goes to post bail for Charley, only to find that he has already been bailed out by Regine. Alex and Dr. Harrison head to the state hospital when the doctor reveals that he is in fact a vampire. He tries to bite Alex only for her to turn the tables on him and run him through with a piece of wood. She then assumes his identity as a doctor. At the hospital, a commotion allows Alex and Peter to escape. Alex and Peter head to Regine's lair in order to save Charley. They find a disoriented Charley, who is slowly turning into a vampire. They rescue him from an undead Richie, and in the process manage to kill Belle, Bozworth and Louie before confronting Regine. She attempts to escape into her coffin, but finds that Charley has lined it with Communion wafers. Regine knocks Alex unconscious and attempts to turn Charley into a vampire, but Peter destroys her with sunlight. The following day, Charley and Alex discuss the previous day's events, with Alex joking that if she wrote a book about it, no one would ever believe them. They know that there are no more vampires, but acknowledge that they can never be 100% certain. They embrace each other, and a bat can be heard flying away.

revenge, murder, flashback

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Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

The wedding for Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann is disrupted with the arrival of Lord Cutler Beckett of the East India Trading Co. who has warrants to arrest the two and the ex-Commodore James Norrington for helping Captain Jack Sparrow to evade his hanging. Elizabeth is imprisoned while Beckett negotiates with Will to locate Jack and retrieve his compass which has the ability to point in the direction of what a person most desires. At the same time, Jack Sparrow reveals to his crew on The Black Pearl that they are going to find a mysterious key. Jack is approached by a reincarnated Bootstrap Bill Turner, Will's long-deceased father, who reveals he is now part of the crew of The Flying Dutchman captained by Davy Jones, and Jack must pay his debt to him - Jack asking Jones to raise his ship from the depths and make him captain for thirteen years. Bootstrap further tells Jack that the Kraken will be sent after him. In panic, Jack sails the Black Pearl to the nearest land.Will searches for Jack, eventually finding the Black Pearl on Pelegosto where a tribe of cannibals worship Jack as a god and plan to eat him. Jack, Will and surviving crew members escape the island, joined by Pintel and Ragetti, former members of the Black Pearl crew who escaped execution. Elizabeth escapes jail with help from her father Weatherby Swann but he is captured while Elizabeth is sent off by Beckett to offer Letters of Marque to Jack in return for the compass. Jack and his crew visit voodoo priestess Tia Dalma, who tells them that the key unlocks the Dead Man's Chest where Davy Jones' cut-out heart is hidden; the key is in possession of Jones. Tia also gives Jack a jar of dirt to protect him from Jones, since Jones is cursed to touch land only once every ten years. Upon finding a damaged ship, Jack sends Will aboard to "settle" his debt with Jones. Will is captured by the fish-like crewmen of the Flying Dutchman and Davy Jones reunites with Jack, forcing him to gather one-hundred souls in three days for his deal to be called off. Will is drafted onto the Dutchman, where he meets his father, Bootstrap Bill. After tricking Jones into revealing the location of the key, Will manages to steal it from Jones while he is sleeping and escapes the ship with the promise to rescue Bootstrap. Jack and his crew stop in Tortuga, where Elizabeth and a drunken Norrington join them.Jack and his first mate Joshamee Gibbs realize that Beckett wants the compass to seek the chest and use Jones' heart to control him and destroy all piracy on the seas. Will finds refuge on a trading ship, but it is destroyed by the Kraken. The Black Pearl sails to Isla Cruces where the chest is buried, and Jack, Elizabeth and Norrington recover it. Will arrives with the key, planning to stab the heart to free his father, unaware that whoever stabs the heart becomes the next captain of the Flying Dutchman. Norrington wants the heart to regain his position in the Navy, while Jack is primarily interested in becoming immortal, able to sail the ocean waters for all time. Quickly, the argument about the heart's fate flares tempers, and a three-way sword fight breaks out between Jack, Will and Norrington. While Pintel and Ragetti try to steal the chest, Jones' crew arrives on the island, forcing Elizabeth, Pintel and Ragetti to fight them together, causing the chest to be dropped. Jack unlocks the chest, finds the heart inside, and hides it in the jar of dirt Tia Dalma gave him. Norrington spirits away the heart and the Letters of Marque, Jack believing the heart is still in the jar. Later, the Flying Dutchman attacks the Black Pearl which escapes the Dutchman until then attacked by the Kraken. Jack tries to flee, but returns to help defeat the Kraken, wounding it with an explosion, but the ship is heavily damaged and most of the crew are dead, leaving only Jack, Will, Elizabeth, Gibbs, Pintel, Ragetti, Cotton and Marty. Jack orders everyone to abandon ship, but Elizabeth, having realized that the Kraken is only after Jack and not the ship or crew, chains him to the mast to ensure everyone else's escape.Jack frees himself, but the Kraken rises up behind him. In a final act of defiance, Jack launches himself into the Kraken's maw, and the monster takes the Pearl down to the depths, which Jones watches from his telescope. Jones then opens the chest to find the heart missing, which is delivered to Beckett by Norrington. The surviving members of the Black Pearl return to Tia Dalma, who suggests they retrieve Jack from the afterlife, but recommends a captain who knows those waters. Then, to everyone's surprise, a resurrected Captain Barbossa arrives, asking about the fate of "his" ship.

comedy, mystery, fantasy, murder, cult, historical fiction, action, romantic, entertaining, sci-fi

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Me, Myself & Irene

Charlie Baileygates (Jim Carrey) is a veteran Rhode Island State Police trooper who has been taken advantage of by others, starting with his former wife Layla (Traylor Howard). Despite his friends warning him of Layla's infidelity, Charlie refused to accept she was in an affair, even after she gave birth to triplet black boys, until she ran off with her midget genius black lover, Shonté, abandoning her children. In the present, Charlie has raised the triplets as his own , Jamal, Lee Harvey, and Shonté Jr (Anthony Anderson, Jerod Mixon, Mongo Brownlee), likewise geniuses, but huge in size as compared to their biological father. Charlie is continually abused by others. As a result of years of such treatment, Charlie develops a split personality named Hank to deal with the confrontations Charlie avoids. Emerging whenever Charlie is under extreme stress, Hank is an over-the-top, rude, and violent persona reminiscent of characters played by Clint Eastwood. A psychiatrist prescribes medication to keep Charlie's Hank personality at bay. Believing that Charlie needs a vacation, his commanding officer (Robert Forster) orders him to escort Irene Waters (Renée Zellweger) from Rhode Island to Massena, New York, because she reportedly committed a hit-and-run. Irene insists the hit-and-run accusation is a lie told by Dickie (Daniel Greene), her mob-connected ex-boyfriend, and by corrupt police officers in his employ, to keep her from revealing Dickie's illegal activities to the proper authorities. In Massena, Charlie prepares to turn over Irene to two United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) agents, when a hitman with a contract on Irene's life attempts to assassinate her, killing one of the EPA agents. Charlie keeps Irene safe, and they flee, accidentally leaving his medication behind, allowing the Hank personality to emerge frequently. Meanwhile, the FBI suspects that Charlie is responsible for the murder of the EPA agent. FBI agents begin pursuing him and Irene, as do crooked police officers in Dickie's pay, Boshane (Richard Jenkins) and Gerke (Chris Cooper). The chase becomes a media spectacle, alerting Charlie's sons to his predicament. Charlie and Irene decide to return to Rhode Island, developing a bond along the way. Though Irene is taken by Charlie's personality, the frequent emergences by Hank worry her, though his more aggressive personality keeps them out of trouble. Along the way they pick up Casper aka "Whitey" (Michael Bowman), an albino waiter from a restaurant who claims he killed his entire family in the past. While stopping at a motel, Charlie discovers how he might be able to suppress Hank and goes to have a conversation with Irene about it, and they sleep together. The next morning, Hank reveals that actually it was he who slept with Irene. In the confusion, they are almost ambushed by Boshane and Gerke, but Charlie's sons, having found them, create a distraction, stealing a police helicopter, they call in a false report, stating Charlie and Irene have been spotted in the woods nearby, allowing Charlie and Irene to leave without knowing about the police who had left before they exited their room, leaving Casper behind. They board a train back to Rhode Island. Dickie boards the same train, unable to rely on his henchmen to stop Charlie and Irene. He kidnaps her, and Charlie gives chase, working together with Hank to save her. Hank then appears to try to stop Charlie from rescuing her, but Charlie finally stands up for himself against his own fears, thus permanently nullifying Hank. As Charlie tries to wrestle her back and disarm Dickie on a bridge, Dickie shoots off his thumb. Dickie is then hit from behind by a lawn dart thrown by Casper, killing him. Charlie and Irene fall from the bridge into a river below, where Charlie's sons arrive to help rescue them. Regrouping with Casper, Charlie apologizes for making him kill again, but Casper reveals he made up his backstory due to the fact that Charlie talked too much at the motel and scared him. The police arrive but quickly learn of Irene's plight and the corrupt cops working for Dickie. Gerke is arrested, Charlie is congratulated for bringing him to justice, and Irene is cleared of the charges against her. Irene prepares to leave Rhode Island when she is pulled over by the police, but this proves only to be a diversion to allow Charlie to propose marriage to her, which she happily accepts. The post-credits scene sees everyone looking for Charlie's thumb in the river, Whitey finds it but a fish eats it.

comedy, cult, flashback, absurd, humor, romantic

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Taking Lives

The film begins with a young man (Paul Dano) who has run away from home. He looks meek and soft, a geek with thick glasses. He shares the bus trip with another male runaway who has jumped free from an army school called Matt Soulby (Justin Chatwin). The bus gets a flat tyre, so they buy a second-hand car from a garage man (Bill Two Rivers). That car gets a flat tyre as well. When Matt is changing the tyre, his companion pushes him onto an incoming car. Both Matt and the driver of the car die.Angelina Jolie plays an FBI profiler, Special Agent Illeana Scott (Angelina Jolie), who is sent to Montreal to help in a murder investigation. Agent Scott's approach to profiling the serial killer is somewhat eccentric. She goes to a crime scene, lies down in the position the victim was found, and uncovers clues the police did not notice. She gets inside the head of the serial killer and comes up with a theory that the killer is assuming the lives and the identities of the people he kills.The mother of the serial killer, Mrs Archer (Gena Rowlands), sees her evil son, who was supposed to have been killed by a truck years earlier, on the ferry. She goes to the police and talks to Paquette (Olivier Martínez), but they do not let him reopen the case. Later, when the serial killer kills again, they have a witness who is an artist called James Costa (Ethan Hawke), who can draw his face. This was the clue they needed although Costa can't be too specific about the details. The police finally contact his mother and collect more information about him. The murderer was the non-preferred younger sibling of a pair of twins. Illeana insists. The police are protecting Mrs Asher, but she doesn't allow them to register her home. Illeana enters the home, thinking that she'll get off easier of the charges as she is an outsider who may not know the rules which are applied in Canada. There, she goes up to the penthouse and looks to a shabby place full of old-fashioned toys, a teddy-bear which has been hanged... Suddenly, she is attacked by somebody who appears from under the dirty mattress and runs away.Agent Scott gets involved romantically with Costa, clouding her judgment, so she wants off the case. However, the Canadian police think that she is their best assest, so they keep her on the case. They think that the killer may be one big potential buyer of Costa, so he'll be used as bait. Costa goes to the toilets after having received a note, but the police tell him to forget about everything - although there is a suspense moment when the police cannot hear Costa and he goes to the bathroom on his own.The investigation goes on, and Costa finally confronts his evil twin: Hart (Kiefer Sutherland). In the ensuing fight, Costa is hurt, but Hart jumps from the window and leaves in his flashy car. The police run after them, and Hart's car burns to ashes to Hart inside. Costa is hurt but alive. That night, he and Illeana make love.Mrs Asher has to identify her dead son. She gets shocked and leaves without saying anything after looking into the corpse's eyes. The police laugh at her. Illeana goes after her because she smells something fishy.Mrs Asher has already gone into the lift. Costa is inside: he is the evil twin. His mother says that she's not afraid of him. When Illeana arrives, Mrs Asher has been killed and lies in a pool of blood.Costa has left to the underground. He starts talking to a man, and he takes his life, as usual. Leclair (Tchéky Karyo), the man in charge, is angry with Illeana because Costa has run away.Time goes on. Illeana goes back to the USA and she is spelled from the FBI. She has become white trash, living on a derelict wooden house somewhere in the countryside. She is pregnant.One day, Costa arrives with a physical appearance somehow different. She wants to kill her because she is pregnant of his babies, male twins. There is a fight: he has taken away all the loaded guns Illeana had hidden away all over her home.James takes a pair of scissors and he thrusts them into Illeana's womb. She takes the scissors and thrusts them into James Costa's heart. While he is giving his last breath, Illeana shows him how she has tricked him. She is not pregnant at all: she has carried a fake pregnancy bag on her belly under her clothes. James Costa dies.Illeana phones Leclair. He says that he's glad to hear from her, as he was beginning to feel worried about her. Leclair will go immediately to Illeana's home to save her some of the trouble with the questioning and paperwork.

mystery, gothic, murder, suspenseful, neo noir, violence, flashback, revenge

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Maps to the Stars

Agatha arrives in Los Angeles and employs limousine driver Jerome to take her to the site of the former house of child star Benjie Weiss. Agatha has severe burns to her face and body, and takes a copious amount of medication. Benjie visits a child suffering from non-Hodgkin lymphoma in the hospital; however, the girl later dies. Benjie’s father, Dr. Stafford Weiss, is a TV psychologist who is treating aging actress Havana Segrand for abuse she suffered at the hands of her deceased mother, also an actress. Havana’s agent struggles to get Havana a role in a remake of her mother’s film Stolen Waters. Havana routinely hallucinates about the deceased younger version of her mother. Benjie and his mother, Cristina, negotiate a role for Benjie in a film as his comeback after drug rehabilitation. At the suggestion of Carrie Fisher, Havana hires Agatha, whom she had met on Twitter, as a personal assistant. Agatha continues to see Jerome, and a romance forms, though Jerome appears resistant at first. Stafford learns through Havana that Agatha has returned to L.A. Agatha is Stafford and Cristina's daughter – however, they shun her completely, with Cristina breaking down at the thought of Agatha contacting Benjie. Using Havana’s role in Stolen Waters to gain access to the production lot, Agatha visits Benjie on set. A schizophrenic, Agatha tells him that she has returned from a sanatorium to make amends for setting the fire that burned her and nearly killed him when he was seven. When Stafford learns Agatha visited Benjie, he visits her in a rage and warns her to leave L.A. Benjie breaks his sobriety, getting high on GHB, and carelessly shoots the dog of his only friend. Agatha visits her mother, Cristina, to make amends. Cristina reveals that she and Stafford are brother and sister, making Agatha and Benjie children of incest – though Cristina insists it was unbeknownst to them at the time. Stafford comes home, and when Agatha tells him she knows about their familial relations, Stafford violently beats her, until Cristina intervenes. During the altercation, Agatha steals Cristina’s wedding ring. On set, Benjie is haunted by the girl from the hospital, and, during a hallucination, he strangles his young co-star. The child survives, though Benjie is now to be replaced in the film. Havana requests Jerome as a driver and seduces him in the backseat of his parked limo in the driveway of her home, as Agatha watches from the window. Havana enters the house and berates Agatha for her poor performance at work and then verbally humiliates her when she finds that the girl has stained her expensive couch with menstrual blood. Agatha beats Havana to death with one of her awards. Stafford returns home to see Cristina on fire outside near the pool. Benjie goes home, finds his father in a catatonic state and steals his ring. He then reunites with Agatha at the ruins of their old home that Agatha had burned down, and, on the fireplace hearth, the siblings/cousins perform an impromptu wedding ceremony with their parents' wedding rings. In order to commit suicide, they take an extreme amount of Agatha’s pills together, before lying down to watch the stars. === Underlying theme === Throughout the film, liberal quotings from Paul Éluard's poem Liberté meander "through each of the characters' lives," creating an underlying mantra for the film.

psychological, murder, dramatic, violence, haunting, satire, storytelling, sentimental

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Nineteen Eighty-Four

Winston Smith is a man who lives in Airstrip One, the remnants of Britain broken down by war, civil conflict, and revolution. A member of the middle class Outer Party, Winston lives in a one-room London apartment flat. His sustenance consists of black bread, synthetic meals, and "Victory"-branded gin. Telescreens in every building, accompanied by microphones and cameras, allow the Thought Police to identify anyone who might compromise the Party's regime. Children are encouraged to inform the officials about potential thought criminals, including their parents. Winston works at the Ministry of Truth, or "Minitrue", as an editor. He is responsible for historical revisionism; he rewrites records and alters photographs to conform to the state's ever-changing version of history itself, rendering the deleted people "unpersons"; the original documents are destroyed by fire in a "memory hole". Despite being good at his job, Winston becomes mesmerized by the true past and tries to get more information about it. In a place beside his flat's telescreen where he believes he cannot be seen, he begins writing a journal criticizing the Party and its enigmatic leader, Big Brother. By doing so, he commits a crime that, if discovered by the Thought Police, warrants certain death. Julia, a young woman who maintains the novel-writing machines at the ministry and whom Winston loathes, surreptitiously hands Winston a note confessing her love for him. Winston and Julia begin an affair after Winston realizes she shares his loathing of the Party, first meeting in the country, and eventually in a rented room at the top of an antiques shop. They believe that the shop, being located in a proletarian neighbourhood of London, is safe, as the room has no telescreen. Weeks later, Winston is approached by O'Brien, an Inner Party member whom Winston believes is an agent of the Brotherhood—a secret underground society that intends to destroy the Party. They arrange a meeting at O'Brien's flat where both Winston and Julia swear allegiance to the Brotherhood. A week later, O'Brien clandestinely sends Winston a copy of "The Book", The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism by Emmanuel Goldstein, the publicly reviled leader of the Brotherhood. The Book explains the concept of perpetual war, the true meanings of the slogans "War is peace", "Freedom is slavery", and "Ignorance is strength", and how the Party can be overthrown through means of the political awareness of the proles (proletarians). In a surprising turn, the Thought Police capture Winston along with Julia in their rented room. The two are then delivered to the Ministry of Love (Miniluv) for interrogation. Mr. Charrington, the shopkeeper who rented the room to them, reveals himself as a Thought Police agent. O'Brien is also an agent of the Thought Police. He is part of a special sting operation used by the police to find and arrest suspected thoughtcriminals. O'Brien interrogates and tortures him with electroshock, telling him that Winston can "cure" himself of his "insanity"—his manifest hatred for the Party—through controlled manipulation of perception. Winston confesses to crimes that O'Brien tells him to say that he has committed, but O'Brien understands that Winston has not betrayed Julia. O'Brien sends him to Room 101 for the final stage of re-education, a room which contains each prisoner's worst nightmare. Winston shouts "Do it to Julia!" as a wire cage holding hungry rats is fitted onto his face, thus betraying her. After being put back into society, Winston meets Julia in a park. She admits that she was also tortured, and both reveal betraying the other. Later, Winston sits alone in the Chestnut Tree Cafe, troubled by memories which he is sure are lies. A raucous celebration begins outside, celebrating Oceania's "decisive victory" over Eurasian armies in Africa, and Winston imagines himself as a part of the crowd. Winston feels he has at last ended his "stubborn, self-willed exile" from the love of Big Brother—a love Winston returns quite happily as he looks up in admiration at a portrait of Big Brother.

brainwashing, alternate reality, satire, dramatic

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Cube

The film opens with a man, Alderson (Julian Richings), waking up in a cube-shaped room with glowing, computer circuit-like walls and six doors, one at the center of each wall, ceiling and floor. After recovering from his confusion, he opens two of the doors and looks into them to find rooms that differ to the one he is in only by color. He then opens and goes through a third door. He looks around and then takes a step, but is suddenly cut into large square-shaped pieces. He falls apart and the rack of crosshatched wires which diced him moves into view. It folds up and retracts.Later, in another room, several people find each other: Quentin (Maurice Dean Wint), Worth (David Hewlett), Holloway (Nicky Guadagni), Rennes (Wayne Robson), and Leaven (Nicole de Boer). None of them know where they are, how they got there, or why they are there. Quentin, however, knows that there are traps, as he had looked into a room and nearly got his head cut off. The five decide to stay together and look for the way out. Rennes takes the lead. He exemplifies how to test for traps by tossing a boot into the rooms while holding onto the laces, to trigger potential traps, figuring that the trapped room contains motion detectors. Holloway speculates on several possible creators of the Cube, being aliens or the government his main ptions. Rennes remarks that staying still will not solve anything, and says that they should move in a straight line until they get to the end. The others agree, and they begin moving through the rooms.While moving, they discover a series of different numbers on the hatchways between each of the rooms. At one point, Rennes throws the boot in and does not find anything, but detects that the room has dry air, and deduces that it most likely employs an electrochemical sensor, which detects hydrogen sulphide emitted from the skin. Quentin realizes that Rennes is an escape artist who has escaped more than seven major prisons. Soon after, Rennes jumps into a room tested with a boot, and is sprayed in the face with acid. The others pull him back, but he dies as the acid corrodes his face and the inside of his head. The group decides that the room must have contained an electrochemical sensor which Rennes missed, and realize that they must find a better way of testing the rooms.Quentin asks everyone about their occupations. He says he is a police officer, Holloway says she is a doctor, and Worth says he works "in an office building, doing office building stuff." Leaven claims simply to "hang out" with her friends. Quentin believes that nothing is a coincidence, that each of them has a purpose in the cube. After Holloway talks about her rings and broaches, Quentin asks why Leaven has her glasses, while Holloway has had her jewellery taken away. Leaven reveals herself to excel at mathematics, and after looking at the numbers on a crawlspace, theorizes that when one of those numbers is prime, the room is booby-trapped.Leaven's purpose becomes attempting to "crack the Cube's code", and they progress through the cubes. When they find themselves in a room with trapped rooms all around and below, Quentin checks the door in the ceiling, through which falls a seventh person: Kazan (Andrew Miller). He appears to be mentally handicapped. At least two of the others see him as a burden, but Holloway decides to bring him along.The group starts speculating about their surroundings, which causes a conflict between Quentin and Holloway. Quentin dismisses Holloway's ideas as conspiracy theories, and Holloway thinks that Quentin is naive. Soon after this, Quentin enters a room without prime numbers and narrowly avoids death from a trap consisting of rotating razor wires. Leaven's theory that non-prime-numbered rooms are safe is shown to be incorrect. Quentin begins suspecting that Worth is a spy, and is increasingly irritated by Kazan's mental state. The group rests, while Leaven attempts to decipher the numbers.After some time, Quentin tricks Worth into revealing that he is one of the architects who designed the enormous cube-shaped shell which contains the cube-shaped rooms. When asked about who contracted him to do the job, he states that he doesn't know. Although the others begin to distrust Worth (Quentin going as far as beating him), he is able to give them information about the dimensions of the outer cube: it is 434 feet (26 rooms) on each side, totaling 17,576 rooms. Leaven then intuits that the numbers between the rooms could be encoded cartesian coordinates representing the position of rooms within the Cube. The group begins moving towards the nearest edge. As for the traps, they begin to "boot" the rooms again.The group is forced to pass through a room containing a sound-activated trap. Quentin argues to leave Kazan behind, but Holloway overrules him. Everyone makes it through, but when it is Quentin's turn, Kazan calls out, and nearly causes his death. Quentin, furious, nearly beats him, and when Holloway stops him, he turns on her and they argue heatedly, ending when Quentin slaps her. Despite the growing tensions, they continue.The group finally reaches one of the side "edges" of the Cube, but discovers that there is a gap between the door and the outer shell. They fashion a rope from their clothes, and Holloway volunteers to swing out on the rope to investigate. As she is suspended outside the room, the Cube shakes and Holloway nearly falls. Quentin catches her, but then lets her fall to her death. He tells the others that she slipped, but they are dubious.The group then decides to try to reach the "bottom" edge of the Cube, but agree that they need to rest before setting out for it. As they sleep, Quentin carries Leaven into another room. He tries to convince Leaven to abandon the others, and makes sexual advances at her and becomes abusive when it is obvious that she dislikes him. Worth and Kazan awaken and save Leaven. Quentin becomes paranoid, and says that he did not trust Holloway, to which the rest of the group guesses that he let her die. Enraged, Quentin beats and then throws Worth through a door in the floor. Worth laughs hysterically at what he sees in that room: Rennes's corpse. They think that they have been going in circles, but then Worth notices that the "acid room" which killed Rennes is no longer adjacent to that room. He and Leaven realize that the rooms must be moving. Leaven also realizes that rooms which have traps are marked with numbers which are not simply prime numbers, as she had previously thought, but the larger set of prime powers. The prisoners then face the task of performing prime calculations of three three-digit numbers for every room they enter. Fortunately, Kazan is at this point is revealed to be an autistic savant with the capacity to perform these calculations quickly and easily. He utters the number of distinct prime factors each number has, as the room numbers are read to him.They make their way towards the exit safely with Kazan's help. Worth devises a plan to incapacitate Quentin, who has gone completely mad. Worth fights Quentin into a room below them and they leave him to die. They proceed and reach the bridge cube. When they open its door, bright light pours into the room. Worth announces that he will not go, as there is nothing for him in the world outside. As he and Leaven share a moment, Quentin appears having somehow managed to catch up with the trio, and kills Leaven by stabbing her with a door handle he somehow broke off a door. He stabs Worth as well, and grabs Kazan, who is climbing out. Worth grabs Quentin's leg with the last of his strength, and Quentin is crushed in the crawlspace between the cubes when the cubes realign. Having saved Kazan, Worth lies down next to Leaven and dies.In the final shot, Kazan is seen walking slowly into a bright light.

comedy, suspenseful, neo noir, murder, mystery, psychological, allegory, cult, alternate reality, violence, plot twist, insanity, psychedelic, claustrophobic, tragedy, revenge

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Zardoz

The story opens with a speech made by Arthur Frayn/Zardoz (Niall Buggy) who states that he is immortal. He explains that this story "may" happen in the future. He is a "fake god" and a magician. But he is invented too, asking if the viewers of the movie themselves are part of a fiction. He asks "Is God in show business too?"In the year 2293, the world is divided into two groups: the Brutals, and the Eternals. The Brutals live harsh and violent lives, farming crops and eking out a bare existence among the ruins of civilization, known as the Outlands. Elite among the Brutals are the Exterminators, men who have been raised to control the population by killing undesirables. These Exterminators are shown riding around on horses, worshiping a giant floating head-- the idol of their god, Zardoz. Instead of telling the faithful to be fruitful and multiply, Zardoz explains that sex is evil and that "the penis shoots seeds and makes new life to poison the earth with a plague of men." He commands the Exterminators to "go forth and kill." In furtherance of this divine decree, guns and bullets come pouring out of the mouth of Zardoz. Zed (Sean Connery) takes one of the guns, a Webley-Fosbery semi-automatic revolver, and fires it toward the camera. Beethoven's Seventh Symphony plays as the head floats through the air over opening credits.Inside the stone head, there are piles of grain and potatoes, as well as several Eternals, naked, sealed in plastic, and apparently in a state of suspended animation. Zed has managed to stow away aboard the head, hiding beneath one of the piles of grain. Suddenly he notices Arthur Frayn, whom he instinctively shoots. Arthur, wounded perhaps fatally, floats out of the head yelling "without me you are nothing... how pointless!"The head lands "over the rainbow," so to speak, in the land of the Eternals-- Vortex Four, to be precise. Exploring the surroundings, Zed finds what looks like a farming community with hydroponically grown vegetables, a mill and bakery as well as stables. Entering the second floor of the greenhouse, he finds a room decorated with diagrams of evolution, signs of the zodiac, a shrine to Zardoz and a jack-in-the-box. Zed hears a disembodied male voice, the source of which is shown to be a crystal ring. When Zed shakes the ring, a hologram appears that depicts the agricultural needs of the various areas in the Vortex; what they require and what they have produced in surplus. The ring responds to Zed's verbal commands by showing him images. When he asks "Who lives here," he is startled to see Arthur Frayn's face appear in the room, announcing his name and vortex number. Zed can hear people talking outside and slips out of the house. He sneaks around outside and watches as a group of Eternals carry the plastic-wrapped bodies on stretchers, disappearing into a pyramid that looks too small to contain them. He sees his first flower and asks the crystal ring what it is. The voice explains that it is a flower whose purpose is "decorative." Zed finds a river and washes his face as a female Eternal approaches. He tries to shoot her but the woman uses telepathy to blind Zed momentarily. She's obviously intrigued to see a Brutal in the Vortex and asks him how he arrived there and where he thinks he is. He replies that he thinks he is in the Vortex where, according to Zardoz, you go when you die. She explains the only way he could have gotten here is through the stone head but Zed will not divulge any further details, nor is the woman able to extract this information by reading his mind, which she attributes to possible shock he may have sustained.The woman, a scientist named May (Sara Kestelman) consults the Tabernacle, a type of artificial intelligence that oversees all activity within the Vortex, to learn the whereabouts of Arthur Frayn, who was delegated to manage the Outlands, which he did by pretending to be the god Zardoz. The Tabernacle shows Arthur Frayn's accident falling from the stone head and indicates that Frayn died and is in the process of being reincarnated, but it won't show May the final moments before Arthur's death. May argues with another community leader named Consuella (Charlotte Rampling) about what should be done with Zed. May wants to keep Zed alive so that they can study him-- he is the first Brutal who has ever infiltrated the Vortex. However Consuella views Zed as little more than a dangerous animal-- a threat to the stability of their society who should be put down as soon as possible.The women decide to put the matter to a vote. They call a meeting and connect Zed to an apparatus that displays his thoughts on a screen. The other Eternals want to see his memories. Their society has gradually evolved to become asexual and anhedonic, and they find the images of Zed and the other Exterminators raping and killing Brutals in the Outlands both repulsive and arousing. After debating the pro's and cons of performing research on "the monster," the majority of Eternals, bored and curious, vote telepathically to spare Zed's life, at least for three weeks.A cynical Eternal named Friend (John Alderton) takes on the task of babysitting Zed. Once they're alone, he attempts to use telepathy to force Zed to reveal where Arthur Frayn is. When Zed thwarts this attempt, Friend assures Zed that he and Arthur were close confidants and he knows more about whatever Arthur was planning than Zed thinks.Zed continues to play dumb as Friend employs his services to stack and organize priceless works of art in the Vortex's cultural archive and to cart Friend around on a wagon while he delivers bread to the needy. First they stop by a colony of outcasts called Renegades. These are Eternals who, through boredom, malice or discontent, repeatedly violated the rule of law and as a result were punished by being aged, gradually, into senility. They will spend eternity in feeble-minded old age. The next group they visit are the Apathetics. These Eternals stand around staring blankly in a catatonic, vegetative state, having lost the will to live but, like the Renegades and all other Eternals, unable to die. Friend tells Zed that this is the main reason Brutals are now forced to farm crops for Zardoz-- someone needs to feed these unproductive members of Eternal society. Death is an impossibility in the Vortex because anyone who kills himself is simply reincarnated by the Tabernacle.Zed witnesses the final statements in the trial of an Eternal named George Saden (Bosco Hogan), who pleads innocence at first but eventually reveals his bitter contempt for the law and his fellow Eternals. Friend votes to have George acquitted but he is outvoted by the rest of the Eternals, who sentence George to be aged five years. "Welcome to paradise," quips Friend.Zed is put on display again while Consuella gives a lecture on Brutals' sexual response. She shows Zed a series of pornographic images to see if he will get an erection. The movies do not stimulate him but just looking at Consuella does. This seems to embarrass her as well as arouse her slightly. Zed is placed in a cage among the rest of the animals in the Vortex. Consuella tests his reflexes and asks him why he likes to sleep. He says he likes it because he has dreams. The Eternals do not dream, having achieved "total consciousness." Now "second level meditation" takes the place of sleep.May then begins to analyze Zed, explaining that he is a second or third generation mutant, and therefore genetically stable. She is shocked to discover that from an evolutionary standpoint, Zed is actually superior to the Eternals in most ways. This confirms her suspicions that Arthur has been amusing himself in the Outlands by selectively breeding certain Brutals over the course of generations to create genetically advanced humans such as Zed. While this indicates that Zed is indeed more of a threat than even Consuella suspected, May hesitates to kill him. "For the sake of science," she will keep his secret as long as he follows her orders and doesn't draw attention to himself.At lunch, Zed's presence continues to disrupt the community. Another psychic vote is taken as to his fate and it is decided that May has a week to complete her scientific study of Zed. The Eternals propose to meditate upon the idea that "the monster is a mirror, and when we look at him, we look at our own hidden faces." Friend refuses to go to second level with the group, thus disrupting their tranquility. Resisting the group's mind control, he states that the Vortex is an obscenity and that he hates all women, birth and fertility. Friend is considered to be beyond redemption and sentenced to be exiled among the Renegades.While the Eternals are meditating, Zed runs out to the periphery shield of Vortex Four. He can see some Exterminators over the mountain and gets their attention. Zed then goes to the Renegade colony to find Friend. Friend, who has been artificially aged, tells the other Renegades that this creature from the outside world has the gift of death, and that they should kill Zed before May can use him to propagate another doomed generation of Eternals. The elders start to attack Zed, but he easily fends them off. Friend tells Zed that he craves death not just for himself and the Vortex but all human life on Earth. Zed scoffs at Friend's nihilistic attitude, concluding: "You stink of despair."Zed asks Friend where he can find the Tabernacle and how he can destroy it. Friend can't remember, having become senile. One of the Renegades advises Zed to seek May, whom he finds in a state of second level meditation, already knowing his intent. Zed says that he wants the truth and when May insists that he must give truth to get it, he allows May to read his mind. We see flashbacks of Zed hunting and killing Brutals, until one day he "loses his innocence." He follows a figure in a mask who leads him into a library and begins to teach Zed to read. Zed, whose intellect is more advanced than the Eternals, rapidly learns about the history of the world before its destruction. Eventually Zed reads a book called The Wonderful Wizard of Oz which reveals to him the fictitious basis of Zardoz, a deity invented by Frayn purely to control the Brutals.After learning that Zardoz did not exist, Zed resolved to hide aboard the stone head and make his way into the Vortex to find the truth. As Zed's memories conclude, May feels sexuality stirring within her, a result of her prolonged physical contact with Zed. They embrace, only to be interrupted by Consuella who accuses May of bestiality and suggests that May be aged fifty years. Consuella uses telepathy on Zed, blinding him, but he still manages to overpower her physically. Consuella declares that the entire community will now be contaminated with his animal instincts to hunt and kill. An Eternal named Avalow (Sally Anne Newton) restores his sight with her powers. She indicates that Zed is "the one.. the liberator." Avalow explains that as the world fell to ruin, the rich and powerful classes salvaged what art, culture and technology they could and erected an impenetrable shield around their oasis of civilization to protect it from the encroaching Dark Age. Unfortunately, they had to turn their backs callously on the rest of humanity, eventually coming to regard the people on the other side of the shield as a separate and inferior race of Brutals.Zed, she says, is the price they are paying, having brought hate and anger into the Vortex to infect them all. Suddenly, Zed is attacked by other Eternals. He escapes, runs out to the periphery shield of Vortex Four and starts signaling instructions to the band of Exterminators posted on the other side. While hiding from Consuella and her followers in the area where the Apathetics are consigned, Zed's life-force awakens them.The Exterminators storm the Vortex and all hell breaks loose. The Apathetics regain their emotions and libido and engage in sex and murder. The Renegades leave their colony and run amok, while the ordinarily law-abiding Eternals, led by Consuella, continue to hunt for Zed. Friend finds Zed and takes him to May.May asks Zed to inseminate them all (the only Eternals interested in surviving coincidentally all seem to be female) and they will teach him all they know, in the hope that he can use this knowledge to destroy the Tabernacle. They "touch teach" him through osmosis and he gifts them with his super-sperm. The phrase "The Law of the Unity of Opposites" is repeated several times. Different languages and music are transmitted. Finally he knows everything they know. Zed asks how the Vortex came about. Friend responds that it was designed by scientists, most of whom were middle-aged at the time of its creation and are now Renegades due to their inability to tolerate immortality. They used their power to erase any memory of the Tabernacle or how to destroy it so that the human race would evolve to perfection. They intended for their children to inherit this legacy. But by eliminating death, they arrested the natural cycles of change and renewal that allow progress, leading to their current stagnant and hopeless predicament.A voice calls Zed and he is beckoned through a series of mannequin figures to find the rebuilt Arthur Frayn dressed in a top hat. Frayn quotes T.S. Eliot and prompts Zed to fill in the poem-- it is "I am Lazarus, come from the dead. Come back to tell you all. I shall tell you all." He holds a mysterious clear glass ball that he tells Zed to examine. It becomes a faceted crystal. Consuella finds Zed, but when she tries to kill him, she realises that she's lost the urge. She says "In hunting you, I have become you." Zed quotes Nietzsche, "He who fights too long against dragons, becomes a dragon himself."Zed asks the Tabernacle where it is but it won't provide any answers, having been programmed to protect itself. Finally Zed realizes that it must be housed in the crystal he holds in his hand. The Tabernacle admits that Zed's solved the puzzle and allows him access to its inner dimensions, which look like a hall of mirrors. Zed sees holographic images of the Eternals whose minds all connect with the Tabernacle. Zed fires his gun at one of the reflections. The crystal bleeds and tells him that he has destroyed it / them, "we are gone." The Eternals begin to rampage through their cultural archive, destroying pieces of art in their frenzied pursuit of Zed. Zed now has a powerful aura which he uses to move some Eternals back through time to preserve the art they smashed. Friend asks Zed what is next. Zed says the oldest Renegade will know.The old man remembers the way it was. The Vortex is an offense against nature -- which is why nature made Zed. The old man dies. The stone head crashes to the ground. Death has returned to the Vortex. May and the rest of Zed's baby-mamas form a caravan and leave the Vortex to start over somewhere else. The Renegades die of old age. Arthur brags that he was the one who came up with the idea of breeding Zed, but Zed says he has looked into the force that put the idea in Arthur's mind: "We've all been used." The Exterminators roam the Vortex killing Eternals who beg to die. Zed runs away with Consuella to take shelter in the remains of the stone head.Beethoven's 7th symphony plays again as the Vortex falls. Consuella is pregant and gives birth. The child grows into a man and leaves his parents. Zed and Consuella grow old together and die.

suspenseful, whimsical, cult, violence, flashback, psychedelic, satire, philosophical, revenge

tt0070948

Idiocracy

The narrator (Earl Mann) explains that natural selection is indifferent to intelligence, so that in a society in which intelligence is consistently debased, stupid, irresponsible people easily out-breed the intelligent, creating, over the course of five centuries, an irremediably dim and sexually motivated dystopia. Demographic superiority favours those least likely to advance society. Consequently, the children of the educated élites are drowned in a sea of promiscuous, illiterate, proletarian peers.In 2005, Corporal Joe Bauers (Luke Wilson), a US Army librarian graphed as the Army's "most average" soldier, and Rita (Maya Rudolph), a prostitute terrified of her pimp, Upgrayedd (Scarface) (pronounced: upgrade, two Ds for "a double-dose of this pimping"), are guinea pigs in a secret, year-long, military hibernation project. They are sealed in their hibernation chambers, to be awakened a year later, but the experiment is forgotten when the officer in charge, Lieutenant Colonel Collins (Michael McCafferty), is arrested for having started his own prostitution ring under the tutelage of Upgrayedd. The military base is demolished, and a Fuddruckers (eventually devolving into Buttfuckers) is built on the site.Five hundred years in the future, their hibernation chambers are jarred open in the 'Great Garbage Avalanche of 2505', reviving both of them. Joe crashes into the house of Frito Pendejo (Dax Shepard), a typical, idiot citizen of the American future, whose dwelling is full of junk food with a prominent, giant television screen that is covered with adverts. His name, Frito Pendejo, is a haphazard combination of a product mascot (Frito Bandito) and the Spanish slang word insult.Frito is watching Ow! My Balls!, a popular TV program that lives up to it's name with very little artistic effort. Joe is disoriented and unable to exercise the discretion necessary to allow Frito to watch his program. Consequently, Joe is thrown out the window his capsule just broke. Joe stumbles into a hospital, where slacker Dr. Lexus, MD (Justin Long), diagnoses him as simply "'tarded" and "fucked up". Dr. Lexus panics on discovering that Joe has no barcode-tattoo on his left wrist, and so cannot be scanned for automatic debit payment. Having noticed that the date of a magazine he finds on the doctor's desk (Hot Naked Chicks and World Report, 3 March 2505) has the same date indicated on his bill, Joe finally grasps that 500 years have passed since the Army put him in stasis. He is alarmed by the sights of the collapsing world (decaying buildings cabled to each other, mountains of garbage, a freeway that ends in a drop off, etc.) and flees the hospital, only to be arrested at a Carl's Jr. junk food vending booth for not paying his hospital bill and for not having a barcode tattoo.At trial, Joe's public defense lawyer ("Attornee at Law") is Frito Pendejo, Esq., who stupidly helps convict him, citing the prosecutor's insistence that Joe is guilty and his own anger at Joe for damaging his house (in the garbage avalanche). Joe is imprisoned; a poorly-designed I.D.-tattoo machine re-names Joe as "Not Sure" (because he is not sure about his name as it appears on some form) and barcode-tattoos him as such. During a mandatory (and very simple) I.Q. test, Joe grasps just how stupid humanity has become. Easily escaping his dim jailors, Joe returns to Frito's apartment, asking him if a time machine exists to help him return to the past, to 2005. Frito claims there is one, but agrees to help only after Joe promises him billions of dollars from a savings account that Joe will open in the past upon his return. Frito is unable to understand the concept of compound interest, but takes Joe's word for it that Frito will earn 30 billion dollars minus the 20 billion dollars for expenses making 80 billion dollars.En route to the time machine, Joe and Frito find Rita. She does not know that she's been asleep for 500 years until Joe tells her, and even then, she expects Upgrayedd will find her. Frito leads them to a city-sized Costco, where Joe is re-arrested when he accidentally allows his barcode to be scanned; instead of prison, Joe is delivered to the White House. President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho (Terry Crews) has seen Joe's I.Q. test (scoring him as the most intelligent man in the world) and recruits him as Secretary of the Interior to correct the United States' food and crop shortages, dust bowl, crippled economy, mountains of garbage, and related matters. The other cabinet members are lampoons of contemporary politicians' nepotism, corporate loyalty corruption, and over-emphasis on sex appeal in political media coverage.Joe learns that water has been replaced with Brawndo: The Thirst Mutilator (which Joe likens to Gatorade) a drink advertised as "rich in electrolytes", for virtually every purpose, including crop irrigation. The Brawndo Corporation, in an effort to boost their own sales, had, in the past, started a campaign claiming that water was only good for use in toilets. Over time, the electrolytes in Brawndo accumulated in the soil, killed the crops, and caused the food shortage. After giving up on explaining to the cabinet that electrolytes are not conducive to plant-life, Joe reintroduces the practice of watering crops. However, overnight, the Brawndo Corporation's stock becomes worthless, causing great unemployment without visibly improving the crop situation. The angry populace riot, Joe is made the scapegoat, and is sentenced to a day of "rehabilitation"; an execution disguised as a public demolition derby, billed as "Monday Night Rehabilitation". Meanwhile, Rita discovers that the soil has made crops sprout in the fields. To save Joe, with Frito in tow, she bribes a television cameraman to show the sprouting crops to the world. Before reaching the crop field, Frito and the cameraman are distracted by a sale at a Starbucks chain brothel franchise; only after they quarrel and fight does Frito remember his duty and film the crop sprouts. President Camacho sees the thriving new plants on the stadium's big-screen televisions, and grants Joe a pardon just as he is about to be incinerated with a flamethrower.At the celebration, Joe decides to stay and help repair American civilization; President Camacho names him Vice President of America. He also learns that the "Time Masheen" is just an amusement park ride, with a historical theme, wherein Charlie Chaplin was leader of the Nazi party who used dinosaurs to wage war on the world, and the U.N. (pronounced "The Un") "Un-Nazied the world forever". Joe serves a short term as Vice President, then is elected as Camacho's successor. Joe and Rita marry and have the world's three smartest children, while Frito Pendejo takes eight wives and fathers thirty-two of the world's stupidest children, echoing the introduction to the film.After the credits, a third hibernation capsule is shown opening, releasing a snappily dressed Upgrayedd into the world, who struts down the street, as a pimp is wont to do.

comedy, bleak, cult, absurd, satire, brainwashing

tt0387808

Dying Room Only

Bob Mitchell (Dabney Coleman) and his wife, Jean (Cloris Leachman), are driving through the hot Arizona desert on their way home to Los Angeles. A detour has taken them 100 miles out of the way down a deserted road ... because Jean insisted on taking photographs of a particular area to take back to their daughter. Bob is irritated by the delay in getting home and, after he throws a few jabs at Jean, the two stop at a roadside cafe/inn called the Arroyo Motel. It's a rundown claptrap and, aside from cook Jim Cutler (Ross Martin) and one customer named Tom (Ned Beatty), the place is empty. But the two travelers are hungry, and the diner will do for now. To their surprise, both Jim and Tom are hostile and downright rude to them. The situation makes Jean uncomfortable. She tries to call home using the payphone but the line is busy. Jean gets up to go to the restroom and wash her face. When she returns, Bob is nowhere to be found. Perhaps he went to use the bathroom himself, she thinks. Their station wagon is still parked outside. Minutes pass and still no Bob. A tight-lipped Jim and Tom are extremely unhelpful, telling Jean that Bob probably just abandoned her. At Jean's request, Tom agrees to go into the men's room to see if her husband is alright. The seconds seem to take forever but, when Tom emerges, he tells Jean that Bob isn't there. Jean goes next door to the motel, where a woman named Vi (Louise Latham) works the front desk. She's also vaguely unfriendly and of no help. Unbeknownst to Jean, hurried calls are being made between Vi and Jim in the diner. Starting to worry even more, Jean tries to go inside the cafe men's room, but it is locked. Jim finally opens the door when Jean threatens to call the police. Bob isn't around, naturally, but she does notice a second door ... that may lead to another exit. The cook refuses to open it for her, and Jean contacts the police. Meanwhile, someone drives off in the Mitchell station wagon and Jean runs out screaming for her husband. Night has now fallen, and the sheriff (Dana Elcar) arrives. As Jean tells her story, the officer looks bewildered. It all sounds so far-fetched. In fact, the door to the men's room isn't locked. The other door inside leads to an old storage shed ... but still no trace of Bob. An APB is put out for the car, and Jean plans on staying in the motel until further notice from the sheriff. Neither Jim nor Vi are particularly happy to have her hang around. And, despite Jean's plea for him to check out the other rooms, the sheriff doesn't see any cause to do so. Later, Vi refuses to place a call to the FBI, and Jean is unable reach her home in Los Angeles. Jean confronts Vi and tells her, "I don't know what's going on here, but I will find out!" The now-frantic wife has no choice but to search around the motel by herself. She enters the shed behind the men's room. Peeking through the keyhole into the restroom beyond, she spies Tom entering on the other side ... and immediately notices a light bulb illuminate next to her. That's how they did it, she thinks. A third man must have been hiding in the shed when Bob entered the restroom ... the bulb must have served as an alert to the kidnapper that it was time to nab her husband ... leaving Tom and Jim free to distract her as they carried out their plan! At that moment, Jean is relieved to see the family vehicle pull up. But instead of Bob stepping out, she is frightened by a tall, hulking character with a limp (played by Ron Feinberg). She runs into some underbrush, and, when Tom comes near her, she whacks him with a stick. And then at last, she catches a glimpse of her husband ... bound and gagged, he's being shuffled into the station wagon and driven away. The sheriff returns, and this time he believes her story. The two drive through the desert towards an abandoned pump station, while Tom follows. The sheriff tells her that the man with the limp is named Lou McDermott and that he recently jumped parole. Oh ... and there have been other mysterious disappearances, a fact he neglected to tell Jean earlier. At the gas station, the sheriff shoots and kills Lou, and then the officer himself is snuffed out by Tom. Jean grabs the steering wheel of the police vehicle and tries to run Tom down, but she's caught. Both Bob and Jean are taken back to the motel and are kept in Jim's truck until the three perpetrators can figure out what to do. Vi turns on Jim and shoots him. As Vi comes towards the truck with gun in hand, Jean lights a flare and blinds her. Jean then grabs the revolver and holds both Vi and Jim at bay until the authorities arrive. Now safe, Jean places a tearful call to her children and tells her daughter they had a "fine time" on their trip. They're coming home, she says ... as fast as they can.

murder

tt0070012

Heaven Help Us

It is the spring of 1965 in a middle-class section of Brooklyn, New York. St. Basil's Catholic School For Boys is having mass and a liturgy is being performed, then music. A mischievous younger kid has a clicker with him that's used as an indicator to stand or sit down and disrupts the music service with the kids sitting up and down. He is caught by Brother William and taken away.Sixteen year old Michael Dunn, an unassuming and sensitive quiet kid, is new to the school transferring from Boston from St. Mary's Catholic School, his parents apparently having died in an accident. He is interviewed by the soft-spoken and compassionate, but strict Brother Thaddeus, the headmaster of the school. Dunn is nervous, doesn't know the "right" answers to questions addressed to him, unintentionally interrupts, and keeps forgetting to say "yes Brother Thaddeus" to every question asked and comes out of the interview emotionally drained.In English class, it is led by brother Constance, a prim, bespectacled, forthright, and very strict teacher He gave the kids an assignment on the Holy Trinity and catches Rooney, one of the boys talking without permission. Since Rooney decided to talk without permission, he is instructed to explain the homework assignment and makes up the Holy Trinity as being total mystery, making it evident he didn't do his homework. Brother Constance notices he did not do his homework assignment, takes the boys head, and slams it against the blackboard insisting he apologize. Then he's forced to eat the paper in front of the class. Dunn's fellow classmate Caesar, who wanted to give the definition to the class, but was caught with gum in his mouth and made to stick it on his nose, turns around and tells Dunn "Welcome to St. Basil's", in an ironic way. Brother Constance is clearly a hothead and control freak with some serious issues that wants the students under his complete submission and will embarrass or strike them with any little infraction.Dunn and Caesar have lunch together. Caesar is an overweight, bespectacled, and snooty intellectual that has aspirations to go to Harvard to be a psychiatrist. Rooney frequently teases Caesar about "being a faggot", whereas Caesar thinks Rooney is a moron and prima donna. Caesar prides himself that he's never been assaulted by the faculty and wants to stay clean so he can get into Harvard to become a psychiatrist.Back at Dunn's grandparents, they are having a traditional American Irish dinner of corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes. His chain-smoking, opinionated, and controlling grandmother is commenting on the Italian pope coming to America and seems to have a disdain for Italians. And she already has plans for Michael to be a priest, or better yet bishop or pope to please her and his deceased parents. Dunn's younger sister has a tic for gathering and playing with the flowers in a vase on the table. They both practice his Latin lesson together.Rooney and his gang are walking to school together and he's hitting on Jeanine from the girls Catholic school. Rooney is an uncouth and not very bright student at the school that wants to be the alpha male with his buddies Corbett and Williams. Rooney sees Dunn and Caesar and teases Dunn, seeing this as an opportunity to make himself look good, knocking his books out of his arm trying to test him. Dunn brushes him off and tries to pick up his books, but Rooney grabs him. A tomboyish teen girl, Danni, that runs the local soda fountain, comes over and tries to put a stop to it. Caesar tells him he'll give him a banana or doggie biscuits if he stops. Rooney lets Dunn go, but tells him if he keeps hanging around Caesar, he (Dunn) will start thinking he's cute.Dunn and Caesar are using the restroom with Caesar assuring Dunn he will get him caught up on his homework. Caesar insists Rooney calling him a "faggot" is just projecting his doubts about his own sexuality. And there is no toilet paper for Caesar. He says he'll come up with something with his homework assignment in his handBack in the classroom, Rooney is removing the screws from Caesar's desk chair as a prank. Dunn catches him doing it the second he walks in the room, but dismisses it. Then Brother Constance enters with Brother Timothy, new to the school and the order, as an observer. Caesar enters the class late and given a demerit. Then he does not have his "misplaced" homework assignment and given an additional one. Caesar sits down and his desk falls apart with him falling on the floor. Brother Constance realizes it's a prank and makes all the boys get on their knees until the perpetrator comes forward. He catches Dunn whispering to tell Caesar he wanted to warn him. Dunn is told to come forward because he knows about it. Refusing to rat out Rooney and afraid of repercussions, Brother Constance slaps Dunn in the face and hits his palms several times with a paddle ironically marked with the word "patience". Refusing to answer Brother Constance, Dunn is thrown towards the class to point out the perpetrator. Rooney smirks at Dunn and Dunn jumps at him, with them broken up.Dunn and Rooney are in Brother Thaddeus' office on their knees and forced to hold two heavy books. Brother Timothy asks to talk to Thaddeus in private. They both stroll in the courtyard with Timothy explaining how sadistic and brutal brother Constance is and that it was a bad example of how a classroom should be run, but Thaddeus insists Timothy has a lot to learn being a newcomer to the order and that Constance is a very good and effective teacher and not to be quick to judge him.Rooney and Dunn are leaving school. Dunn wants nothing to do with him, but Rooney wants a friendship because he now feels his ego has been bruised and needs to save face. Dunn reluctantly agrees and they go to the local soda fountain in the neighborhood, a place St. Basil's has set off limits for the boys, but many attend anyway. The soda fountain is run by Danni, the girl trying to break up Dunn and Rooney earlier, that is not attending school, but caring for her near catatonic single father. Rooney tries to be friendly with Danni, but she refuses his advances. Rooney tells Dunn not to waste his time with her. Brother Timothy comes in the soda fountain, much to the shock of the kids, but purchases a pack of Chesterfield cigarettes. Then two of the brothers from the school invade the place and the kids try to escape and not get caught. One of the brother's is extremely surprised to see Timothy there. Dunn helps Danni clean up the mess and right away she sees he's a good person and friend she can talk to.The boys are all naked standing next to the pool in physical education with the Singing Nun's Dominique playing on the radio, but the brother in the office reading a newspaper is annoyed by it and immediately switches it to Franz Shubert's Marche Militaire playing on the radio. Their instructor, Brother Paul, tells them they are out of shape and need to shape up like men with a possible invasion by the Communists with the escalating Vietnam War, who want to kill Catholics. Caesar keeps blowing his nose making noise annoying Brother Paul, who threatens to punch him if he doesn't stop.Dunn and Caesar are in the library studying. Rooney approaches Caesar that because he was found to have called Constance a "Goddamn faggot" during their kneeling and that he's being removed from the varsity team unless he goes to apologize to Constance. Fearing physical punishment or other discipline, he realizes his grades are all he has to depend on, which are very bad. He wants Caesar to work with him, but Caesar totally refuses, despite his pleas.It is confession time and Rooney is taking the lists of his friends confessions and changing them to lesser offenses so they will be in less trouble. Dunn is confessing to a priest that keeps egging him on about his reading of a pornographic magazine. And Kevin, the kid who pulled the clicker stunt during mass, is pulled out of the confessional and called a weasel by Father Abruzzi. Rooney sneaks into the confessional pretending to be Caesar's confession hearing priest. Caesar confesses he plagiarized an essay article to win a prize and doesn't want to lose his chance of going to Harvard University. Rooney reveals himself that now he has that on him and that Caesar WILL help him get passing grades and to forget Harvard otherwise.A dance is being held at the school for the boys and visiting Virgin Martyr girls. Brother Timothy is presiding and introduces Father Abruzzi, who tells the kids that the dances are to teach the kids how to interact with one another, but then goes into hysteria warning the kids about the evils of lust and that they could burn in hell forever if they give in to it. But nevertheless wishes them a good time for the night.With nearly all the other kids dancing, Dunn, Caesar, and Jeanine's friend Cathleen are not dancing. Dunn walks over to the soda fountain to see Danni and visits with her. They converse for a little while and Danni reveals to Dunn that her father divorced her mother and the woman her father was messing with killed herself and he's been in a state of melancholia every since.Rooney finds Caesar in the men's room and offers to take Caesar in a ride with Cathleen with them in his father's brand new Lincoln Town Car. Caesar begrudgingly accepts his invitation simply to avoid anything being told about his earlier confession.Rooney takes his father's brand new Lincoln out of the garage, despite not having a license with Jeanine, Caesar, and Cathleen in tow. Caesar and Cathleen remain in the car parked on a bridge. Rooney and Jeanine are making out and getting drunk on Jack Daniels. Cathleen reveals to Caesar she loves his intellect and the article in the newspaper. The assumingly asexual Caesar gladly receives Cathleen's advances and makes out with her. Meanwhile Rooney and Jeanine are as well, but she throws up on him just as he is about to make love to her. A boat is about to cross and the bridge needs to be raised. Rooney barely makes it back into the car in time and the axle falls out of the car into the water with the car partially destroyed.The boys and girls from both schools are at 5th Avenue in Manhattan waiting for the Pope's arrival. Rooney's face is bruised from his father who just returned home after what happened to his car and tries to hit on Jeanine and convince her that if the pope sees them and blesses them, they can have sex without sin, but she dismisses him and an angry nun grabs Rooney and takes him away. Just as the Pope is passing through, "The Barber of Seville" is playing on the soundtrack in a parody of the Italian culture and pope and the boys sneak out past the brothers. In a hypocritical moment of reverence, the brothers cross themselves with the Pope's passing and Brother Thaddeus is moved to tears. Brother Constance is frustrated at the boys missing while taking attendance for the bus.Rooney, Dunn, Caesar, Corbett, and Williams are all in a movie theater watching Elvis Presley in "Blue Hawaii" assuming they won't be caught. Rooney is making crass comments on Elvis remaining a gentleman and singing while surrounded by beautiful Hawaiian girls while singing "Hawaiian Wedding Song".The five boys are reprimanded by Brother Constance that he will "make their miserable lives more miserable than ever before Easter" and have them cleaning the statue in the school's courtyard every Sunday. They are cleaning the statue with toothbrushes with birds constantly flying around and leaving droppings on it. Brother Thaddeus looks on out his office window with a smile on his face apparently showing how much he cares for the boys.Dunn and Brother Timothy hang out in the courtyard and converse after having been in an empty church meditating. Timothy is more friendly and laid-back than the other brothers and one you can talk to and be yourself. He tells Dunn that he was written off as the bum of the family, but joined the order nevertheless.Danni has lunch at Dunn's house. His grandfather seems pleased to have her over and attempts conversation with her, but his grandmother isn't pleased because she doesn't want him to be with a girl and concentrate on being a priest.Williams, the chronic sex fiend, is taking part of a ceremony with dozens of girls taking communion wafers with him assisting a priest. All the girls opening their mouths to receive the wafers is overexciting him and he passes out.Dunn and Danni are on a date at Coney Island at a food stand and she teaches him to dance to Otis Reading's "I've Been Loving You Too Long". They hang out at the beach, embrace passionately under the boardwalk and make out.Dunn has returned home with his grandmother asleep at the dinner table with a cigarette still burning. Dunn and his sister Boo converse with her afraid Dunn will leave her because he loves Danni. He assures her he will never do so.Back at the soda fountain after school, Rooney and Caesar are working on the David Copperfield book report. Caesar is helping him edit it, much to his frustration of being at the soda fountain. Two brothers are about to invade the place again to report the kids, but this time, Danni stands up to them, locks the door, and draws the shades. The two brothers leave.During the lavish evening meal with all the brothers and the headmaster, Brother Paul tells Brother Constance about the situation at the soda fountain, with Constance declaring the girl as a delinquent and that she needs to be arrested and the place shut down. Brother Timothy disagrees and Brother Thaddeus is annoyed at Constance's judgmental attitude of the girl, stops the arguing, and that he wants to enjoy his dinner.Back in English class, brother Constance is handing back the graded book reports on David Copperfield to the five boys on their knees. Rooney is delighted to have received a good grade, but Caesar is disappointed at the A minus because he declared Charles Dickens as a paranoid schizophrenic.The boys are walking home from school and the police have ordered Danni to have her shop closed down, with she and her father being escorted out by the police and social services, with the brothers having ordered this. Dunn and Danni embrace and tearfully farewell, thinking they will never see each other again.Late at night, the other four boys break into the school courtyard with Rooney declaring they are doing it for Dunn. They decapitate the statue they have been cleaning the last 2 Sunday's.Brother Thaddeus is preaching to the boys in an assembly in the school auditorium and while he's doing so, Rooney shows Dunn the decapitated head in a duffle bag. A very angry Brother Constance storms into the room calling out the five boys to come with him, with Brother Thaddeus concerned and having his speech to the assembly temporarily stammered. They are escorted down the hall by Constance and locked into a closet temporarily. Rooney is worried that they've now been caught and Caesar sneers at his comment about the brother's knowledge. Rooney tries to figure a way for them to talk their way out of it and Caesar tells him he will try to reason with Constance, but Rooney dismisses the idea of "reasoning with a grown man in a dress".Brother Constance has the boys brought out to him and lined up in the school gymnasium by Brother William. He primly and sternly tells the boys he refuses to hear any of them deny they're guilty and is convinced at least one of, if not all of the boys are the vandals and asking the guilty party to admit it. Dunn admits it, even though he didn't. It turns into an argument, but Constance puts a stop to it and has Corbett bend over an exercise horse and gives him five lashes with a leather strap, Williams six lashes, then Caesar, who is the next in line declares he is exempt from corporal punishment from a laminated doctors note from his uncle stating he's subject to seizures. Brother Constance refuses to comply with the doctor's note and listen to Caesar pleading for another punitive plan and grabs Caesar whipping him endlessly. In a fit of rage, Dunn pushes Constance to the floor telling him to leave Caesar alone. He runs back into the auditorium while Brother Thaddeus is still giving a speech with a puzzled crowd seeing him scared. Constance storms in the door with a concerned Brother Timothy standing up and wanting to put a stop to it. Constance grabs Dunn and he resists and is slapped in the face by Constance, who calls him a "bastard" and "impudent piece of trash". Then a bruised Dunn gets up and punches Constance in the mouth and most of the school cheers him on. Brother Thaddeus shows no emotion of the incident.The five boys are outside Brother Thaddeus' office with Constance demanding they be suspended and Brother Timothy arguing it was self-defense. Brother Thaddeus brings the boys inside and tells them they are all guilty and will be suspended for 2 weeks. Dunn declares he is responsible, but Thaddeus tells them they all acted as one, but that Brother Constance started it. Brother Thaddeus, apparently having a change of heart after hearing Timothy's testimony a few weeks ago and from what he's witnessed in the assembly hall, gives Constance a letter of dismissal requesting he be transferred out of the school and to never work with children again. Constance is outraged and declares he will take it to the bishop, but Thaddeus dismisses his threats and to take them out of his office. Brother Thaddeus requests Brother Timothy to replace Constance, which he accepts.At the end, the boys are worried at the fact they are suspended, but are delighted that they won't have to be at the school for 2 weeks. During the credits with Elvis Presley's "Blue Suede Shoes" playing, Rooney narrates that in 1966 the boys all graduated from St. Basil's except for him. Caesar graduated from Queen's College with honors to become a psychiatrist (his inability to perfectly navigate the minefield of St. Basil's prevented him from attending Harvard), Williams got a job as a projectionist at the Peekaboo Theater in Time's Square (a dream job for his problem with chronic masturbation), Corbett married Jeanine and had five kids (stuck to the old Catholic ways), Dunn and Danni bumped into each other at Woodstock (apparently Dunn became a hippie disillusioned at the hypocrisy of organized religion and Danni probably spent her late teen years in foster care after the soda fountain was closed down), and he (Rooney) got a job as a shampoo boy at a beauty shop in Bensonhurst after having failed to graduate high school and beautician school and surrounded by "funny guys" (apparently Rooney never having come to terms with his true sexuality and failed attempts with girls).

sadist

tt0089264

Jäniksen vuosi

For years now an advertising executive called Vatanen has lost his taste of life. The expectations of his younger days are far from coming true. He is tired of his wife, his job and the place where he lives. There is an ulcer on the way.An average day in early spring brings a great change to Vatanen's life. He is out of town on a business trip with a colleague when their car strikes a a hare that has jumped onto the road ahead of them. The animal scrambles into the forest. Vatanen goes after the hare and finds it with a damaged leg. Vatanen stays behind to patch up the hare and admires the countryside stretching before him. He refuses to rejoin his friend who drives away in a huff. Vatanen is left alone in the forest deep in thought. In the early hours the colleague returns to fetch Vatanen but by now he is nowhere to be found.In the morning Vatanen awakes in a barn feeling like a new man. The hare is asleep by his side. The sun shines through a crack in the wall. Vatanen sets of to resume his wandering through the Finnish summer landscape the hare in his pocket. (to be cont. later)

psychedelic, boring

tt0076252

Flight

After causing the loss of the big football game for his college, Lefty Phelps wins the respect of Panama Williams, a Marine flyer who has witnessed his defeat, when Lefty defends himself against accusations of throwing the game. Upon graduation, Lefty enlists in the Marine Corps flying school where Panama, an instructor at the school, befriends him. On the day of his first solo flight, Lefty is taunted by Steve Roberts, a fellow recruit, who reminds him of his humiliating defeat on the football field. His confidence undermined, Lefty crashes the plane, after which Panama rescues him from the burning craft, injuring his hands in the process. Lefty is taken to the hospital, where he falls in love with Elinor, his nurse. When the Marines are sent to quell a native rebellion in Nicaragua, Panama arranges for Lefty, who has flunked flying school, to accompany him as a mechanic. Before they leave, Panama shows Lefty a photograph of Elinor, explaining that she is the girl he longs to marry, and Lefty says nothing of his own feelings for her. Elinor, also sent to Nicaragua, is puzzled by Lefty's cool reception when she arrives at the base. Soon afterwards, the tongue-tied Panama asks Lefty to propose to Elinor on his behalf and Lefty reluctantly agrees. Panama's proxy proposal prompts Elinor to tell him of her love for Lefty, after which Panama accuses Lefty of betrayal. Their confrontation is interrupted by an urgent call for aerial support against a rebel uprising. Lefty is teamed with Steve Roberts, and their plane is gunned down in a swamp. Rather than join in the rescue mission, Panama reports in sick while, back at the swamp, Steve lies paralyzed with a broken back. After the rescue attempt fails, Elinor convinces Panama that Lefty never betrayed him, and Panama volunteers to fly a search mission alone. Just as Lefty cremates Steve's body, he hears the sound of a plane and looks up to see Panama. Upon landing, Panama is wounded, but Lefty deftly seizes the controls and soars airborne. When the plane loses a wheel, Panama tries to take control of the craft, but Lefty executes a brilliant solo landing. Sometime later, Lefty has won his wings and is now an instructor at the school with Elinor at his side.

melodrama

tt0019884

Lung Fu Moon

《龍虎門》Dragon Tiger Gate is a martial arts academy established by two powerful martial artists. The academy aims to train and equip students with martial arts in order to uphold justice and combat the threat of the triad gangs in a seemingly lawless world. The academy is also a haven for children who had been orphaned as a result of triad activities.The story begins with the two sons, who were born to different mothers, of Wong, one of the founders of the academy. The elder son is named "Dragon" and the younger one is named "Tiger". When the boys were still young, Dragon's mother left the academy and gave Dragon half of a jade amulet pendant and told him that his half-brother Tiger has the other half of the pendant. When Dragon's mother was killed in a fire, Dragon was taken into the care of triad boss named Ma Qwun and he grew up to become Ma's bodyguard. Ma Qwun's gang is a subject of the evil Luocha Gate.Several years later, Tiger and his friends are dining in a restaurant and encounter Ma Qwun and his men, who are receiving the Luocha Plaque. The Luocha Plaque is a symbol of authority within the Luocha Gate and indicates that the holder is second only to the Luocha Gate's leader Shibumi. Ma Qwun and the leader of the White Lions Gang wee arguing over the Plaque when Tiger interrupts and starts a fight with the gangsters. They manage to seize the Plaque. Just then, Dragon appears and fights with Tiger, whom he does not recognise to be his half-brother. Ma Qwun calls for Dragon to pull back.Later that night, Dragon confronts Tiger and his friends at a Japanese restaurant to take back the Plaque. Tiger and his friends have been drugged by Scaly, another of Ma's lackeys, who also wanted to seize back the Plaque to prove to his boss that he is the better man. Scaly and his followers fight Dragon over possession of the Plaque. Turbo Shek, another diner at the restaurant, is aroused by the commotion and he joins in the fight on Dragon's side. Dragon and Turbo defeat Scaly and his men and Tiger takes back the Plaque from Dragon. Just then, he discovers that Dragon has the other half of the jade amulet pendant and realises that Dragon is actually his half-brother.Turbo follows Tiger back to Dragon Tiger Gate and wants to be enrolled into the academy to improve his martial arts. He is refused by the current leader of the academy, Master Wong Fuk Fu for his arrogance. Dismayed, Turbo waits outside the academy and promises not to leave unless he is accepted in as student. Wong agrees to spar with Turbo and defeats Turbo easily. Turbo is humbled and accepted by Wong as a student.Meanwhile, Ma Qwun returns the Luocha Plaque to signify his retirement. He is supported by Dragon, who wants to return to Dragon Tiger Gate, and his daughter Ma Xiaoling, who wants a simple life. Shibumi sees this as an insult and sends his henchmen, the Double Devils, to kill Ma Qwun. He uses his subordinate Luocha to lure Dragon away while his minions kill Ma Qwun. Dragon realises that he had been tricked and return to rescue Ma but it is too late. Dragon slays the Double Devils after a vicious fight and leaves Ma Xiaoling in his brother's care before leaving.Shibumi was impressed with Dragon for defeating his henchmen and goes to Dragon Tiger Gate to issue a challenge. With Dragon not present, Master Wong, Tiger and Turbo takes on Shibumi's challenge but were utterly defeated. Wong is killed by Shibumi while Tiger and Turbo are severely wounded. Ma Xiaoling brings Tiger and Turbo to Mount Baiyun to seek help from Master Qi. Qi heals the wounded Tiger and Turbo, and teaches them new martial arts techniques to fight Shibumi.Tiger and Turbo storm into Shibumi's Black Pagoda to stop him from committing evil acts once and for all. Although their martial arts abilities have greatly improved since the last time they fought, they are still not Shibumi's match. At the critical moment, Dragon appears and fights Shibumi, eventually defeating him. Before the film ends, Dragon returns to Dragon Tiger Gate together with Tiger and Turbo.

flashback

tt0482930

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

In 17,000 B.C., the Seven Primes traveled the galaxy to create Energon with star-absorbing machines called Sun Harvesters. The Primes followed a rule in which to never destroy planets with life, but one of them, Megatronus Prime, later known as The Fallen, defies the rule and sets up a Sun Harvester on Earth, a planet with abundant life. After defeating ancient humans, The Fallen is confronted by the other Primes, who defeat and imprison him before he can harvest the planet's Sun with the Matrix of Leadership. The Primes then sacrifice themselves to hide the Matrix in an unknown location shortly afterwards. Two years after Megatron's defeat, the Autobots join the U.S military to form the Non-Biological Extraterrestrial Species Treaty (NEST), a classified multinational task force hunting down the surviving Decepticons. During a mission in Shanghai, the Autobots intercepted two Decepticons, Demolisher and Sideways. They send in New recruits Sideswipe, Skids, Mudflap, Arcee, Chromia and Elita one to hunt down the Decepticons. Sideswipe manages to kill Sideways by slicing him in half. Demolisher is ambushed by Optimus Prime, who injures Demolisher. He tells Prime of the Fallen's return and Optimus kills him before he says anything else . National Security Adviser Theodore Galloway scolds the task force sarcastically for their tactics, reminding them that Megatron's corpse is still resting at the bottom of the Laurentian Abyss and the last known AllSpark shard is locked up in the NEST's headquarters. Simultaneously, Soundwave hacks into a U.S. military satellite, overhears the information, and sends Ravage to retrieve the shard. Meanwhile, Sam Witwicky prepares to attend college, leaving his girlfriend Mikaela Banes and guardian Bumblebee behind. While preparing, he discovers a smaller AllSpark shard in his jacket. He picks up the shard, which causes him to see Cybertronian symbols and unexpectedly brings kitchen appliances to life. After Bumblebee destroys the rampaging appliances, Sam gives the shard to Mikaela, who later captures Decepticon Wheelie when he tries to steal it. The Constructicons resurrect Megatron by using the shard retrieved by Ravage and brutally ripping apart the Constructicon Scrapmetal to provide parts for him. Megatron then travels to a moon of Saturn, where he reunites with his and Second in Command Starscream, and master, The Fallen, who orders him to capture Sam alive and kill Optimus, as Optimus is the last of the Primes and the only Transformer who can defeat The Fallen. A pretender Decepticon, Alice, tries to seduce Sam, until he gets rescued by Mikaela and his college roommate, Leo. They are then captured by the Decepticon Grindor and are brought to an abandoned factory. Megatron reveals that the symbols in Sam's mind will lead the Decepticons to a new Energon source before Optimus and Bumblebee arrives to rescue the trio. Optimus engages Megatron, Starscream, and Grindor; though Optimus injures Starscream by cutting his arm off and killing Grindor, Megatron ambushes Optimus and kills him by impaling him through the chest, destroying his spark. The other Autobots then arrive and repel the Decepticons, forcing Megatron and Starscream to retreat. Afterwards, the Decepticons launch an international assault on many areas around the world simultaneously. The Fallen hijacks Earth's telecommunications systems, demanding Sam to be turned over to him. Sam, Mikaela, and Leo enlist the help of former Sector 7 agent, Seymour Simmons, who reveals that the Transformers visited Earth eons ago and the most ancient, known as Seekers, live in secret. With the help from Wheelie, they track down a Decepticon Seeker named Jetfire, who teleports the group to Egypt and tells them to find the Matrix of Leadership, which will revive Optimus. He and Wheelie turn against the Decepticons. Simmons contacts NEST, telling them to bring Optimus and the other Autobots to Egypt. Sam's group finds the Matrix which is located in Petra, but it disintegrates into dust in Sam's hands. Undeterred, Sam stuffs the Matrix's remains in his sock. Meanwhile, NEST forces and the Autobots land near the Giza pyramid complex but are attacked by a large force of Decepticons. During the battle, the Constructicons combine to form Devastator, who destroys one of the pyramids, revealing the Sun Harvester inside, before he is killed by a railgun called in by Simmons. Lennox and Epps call in an airstrike, which kills a large portion of the Decepticon ground forces. However, Megatron manages to shoot Sam, seemingly killing him. Nearing his death, the Primes contact Sam through a vision, telling him the Matrix is earned, and that he earned the right to bear it. They restore Sam's life and the Matrix, which is used to revive Optimus. The Fallen teleports to their location and steals the Matrix from Optimus, then returns to the pyramid with Megatron and activates the Sun Harvester. A wounded Jetfire sacrifices himself in order for Optimus to gain his parts, which give him immense strength and the ability to fly. Optimus knocks The Fallen and Megatron off the pyramid, destroying the Sun Harvester in the process. In the battle, Optimus injures and disables Megatron. Optimus then rips The Fallen's face off and crushes his spark out of his chest, killing him, while an injured Megatron watches in horror. Vowing vengeance, Megatron retreats with Starscream. The victorious Autobots and their allies return to the United States.

comedy, boring, murder, violence, flashback, good versus evil, absurd, humor, action, psychedelic, revenge, entertaining

tt1055369

Super

Frank Darbo (Rainn Wilson) is a meek fry cook at a diner who has had two perfect moments in his life: marriage, and assisting the police to apprehend a criminal. Now his marriage to Sarah (Liv Tyler) is beginning to crumble. He meets Jacques (Kevin Bacon), a stoner and friend of Sarah, who later runs off with her.Frank tries to get Jacques arrested, but detective John Felkner (Gregg Henry) won't do it, and tells Frank to find someone else to love. Watching a Christian-themed program on TV, Frank is impressed by a costumed hero, the Holy Avenger (Nathan Fillion), who represents the will of Jesus. Frank tries to confront Jacques, but is beaten up by his henchmen. Frank is later visited by the Holy Avenger in a dream, and decides to become a super-hero.Shopping for comic books, he meets Libby (Ellen Page), a clerk at the comic book store, who recognizes him from the diner where he works. He is inspired by the comic book, and becomes the Crimson Bolt. His first outing is a failure, and Frank goes back to the comic book store for inspiration, buying several comics on superheroes who have no real powers. After selecting a wrench for his weapon, he begins his assault on crime.Still in love with Sarah, he continues to watch her as henchman Abe (Michael Rooker) drives her to a mansion. His co-worker Hamilton (Andre Royo) asks him to save a place in line for a movie, and Frank has an altercation with another patron who butts into the line, sending him to ICU. Fearing prison, Frank discards his costume, but after watching another episode of the Holy Avenger, he gets it back.Frank stakes out the mansion, and sees Quill (Stephen Blackehart), Jacques, and Toby (Sean Gunn) doing drugs with Sarah. Jacques kisses her, and the Crimson Bolt smashes a window. The henchmen pull guns and he runs, taking a shot in the leg but escaping.Frank goes to Libby's apartment, where she's hosting a party, and reveals his identity. Libby is very excited and impressed, and she treats his wound. She offers to become his sidekick, and auditions a costume and several sidekick names, finally settling on 'Boltie.' About this time, detective Felkner figures out Frank's identity, and searches his house. As he exits a dark closet, Abe and the henchmen shoot him dead, mistaking him for Frank.The next day, Crimson Bolt and Boltie wait for crime. Boltie convinces him to assault a guy who keyed a car, but she gets very carried away, and Bolt has to stop her from killing him. At a gas station, the henchmen catch up with Frank, and chase him off. They pull guns, but Boltie hits one with the car, pinning him against a wall. Bolt grabs the gun and shoots a henchman, then drags Boltie, who's raving psychotically, back into the car. When they return to his house, Libby makes a pass at him, but he declines, stating he is a married man.They then go shopping for weapons and train in a gun range. The media starts to defend them, and Libby becomes ecstatic on seeing a TV news article showing both Frank and herself as potential heroes. Starting to develop feelings for Frank, she wakes him up one evening and dances suggestively for him while in costume, culminating with her pulling his mask over his head and raping him. While puking in the toilet, Frank sees Sarah's image and vows to rescue her.Jacques is hosting a drug buyer, Mr. Range (Don Mac), and Jacques gives Sarah to him so he can rape her. Bolt and Boltie storm the mansion, killing several guards, until Boltie is brutally killed in the shootout. Crimson Bolt goes on a rampage, killing more guards. Jacques' buyer tries to leave, and Jacques shoots him. Bolt breaks in and kills Quill and Abe. Jacques offers for him to take Sarah back and leave, and in the deception, he shoots Bolt, tormenting him by saying they're far more alike than Frank would want to admit. Bolt then kills him.Bolt sadly puts Boltie's body in the back of his SUV, and he carries Sarah out and takes her home, where she helps him heal. In the epilogue, we see Sarah leaving Frank again, but Frank comes to terms with it, understanding that his saving her was the catalyst for Sarah returning to school, getting a degree, re-marrying to a caring man, and having four children, who send "Uncle Frank" cards and drawings. In the end, Frank has retired, adopted a pet rabbit, and has many more perfect moments to cherish.End.

comedy, murder, realism, violence, flashback, absurd, tragedy, revenge, entertaining

tt1512235

Paris, Texas

The film opens with sweeping shots of the vast, barren Texas desert as the camera follows a man wandering through this terrain. The man is shown entering a rundown bar as he collapses in exhaustion. The next day, a doctor treating the speechless traveler makes a call to a family member, who we discover is the brother of the ailing man, recommending that he pick his brother up. As Walt, the brother of the wanderer Travis, leaves for Texas from Los Angeles, before the doctor has returned to his patient, the viewer finds that Travis has taken off continuing his wandering through the empty land. Travis is finally found and picked up by Walt in South Texas as Walt tells his silent brother that they are heading back to Southern California. Though Travis is yet to speak, the viewer hears Walt explain how he has not seen nor heard from Travis in four years. Their first stop along the road is a small motel where they plan to rest for the night, but when Walt leaves to get food from the market, Travis starts the shower and takes off again. Walt returns to discover Travis is gone and quickly tracks him down not far up the road and is able to get him back into the car. The next scene shows the two in a diner, Travis still silent, and Walt begins to question Travis more forcefully about his disappearance adding that he left his son, Hunter, behind when he was three for Walt to take care of in Travis' absence. The viewer sees Travis is effected by the mention of his abandoned son as tears flow from his eyes; however, he still fails to answer Walt's inquiries. The pair continue on their road trip the following day and finally Travis begins to speak in the car. He produces a weathered photograph of a vacant lot with a "For Sale" sign explaining to Walt that he purchased the property and that it is located in Paris, Texas- a city mentioned to him by their mother that he believes to be the location of his conception. While Walt is curious about this idea, he claims that he is continuing on to Los Angeles to bring Travis to his son. Upon their arrival, Travis meets the wife of Walt, who has practically mothered Hunter for the last four years, and he confronts the young boy, who is uncomfortable and timid towards the stranger. Walt decides that showing some old home videos might help to break the ice of the awkward relationship between Travis and Hunter. The videos show touching moments of Travis with a newborn Hunter and his wife, Jane, sharing a day at the beach with Walt and his wife. That night, the viewer sees Travis carry out chores around the house as he is sleepless and bewildered by his presence in this house with his son. The next day, Travis shows up at Hunter's school attempting to walk home with him; yet, Hunter sees him across the street, grows weary, and jumps in a car with a friend. Hunter explains that night to Walt's wife that he does not want to walk home at all from school, and certainly not with Travis. She pleads with him to give Travis a chance as he sighs somewhat in compliance. Travis tries again the next day to walk Hunter home and he makes progress as the two silently walk on opposite sides of the street. The viewer sees that eventually Travis's persistence pays off as he and Hunter are beginning to converse more on their walks. One night, as father and son have now grown more comfortable with each other, Walt's wife tells Travis in secrecy that she knows Jane, Hunter's mother, is still around and that she in fact deposits money into a bank account for Hunter on the same day of every month. She goes on to tell Travis the name of the bank and that it is located in Austin, Texas. Travis is almost immediately determined to seek Jane out and he tells Hunter of his plan the next night, explaining why he has to leave, as Hunter tells his father that he wants to accompany him on his journey.The following day, after school, the two of them leave together without telling Walt or his wife and once they are far enough out of town, Hunter calls the house telling his caretakers for the last four years that he has left for Texas with Travis. Walt and his wife are devastated as they have both grown extremely close to the boy, but know that they could not have kept him forever. The following scenes show the growing closeness between Travis and his son on this road trip including Hunter educating Travis on things he has learned in school, Travis telling Hunter a little about Jane, and Hunter sleeping comfortably on his dad. They finally arrive at the bank in Austin on the expected day of the deposit and they split up with walkie-talkies to try and locate Jane's car. Hunter spots her as she is leaving and the two make haste to follow her down the highway. The suspected car eventually stops at a place of business and Hunter is told to wait in the car as Travis enters the building. The viewer soon discovers that the business is a peep-show parlor of sorts, where customers sit in a room at a chair on the opposite side of a one-way mirror instructing the female employees as to what they want to see via a telephone-intercom. Travis is shocked, but he enters one of the rooms requesting a blonde whom he hopes will be Jane. The first woman sent into the room is not Jane and he moves to another room where he finds Jane, ready to please her customer, but he is unable to speak. After much silence and confusion on the part of Jane, Travis walks out and returns to the car with Hunter, angry and vague in his explanation as to what he saw. Travis then drives to a bar and begins to drink as Hunter complains and Travis's irritability grows. They return back to their hotel room and Hunter confesses his distaste for this "side" of Travis while Travis is slowly making up his mind as to how to deal with the situation.The next day, Travis drives Hunter to a hotel in downtown Austin and drops him off in a room telling him again to wait there while Travis heads back to Jane's work. He goes into a room where Jane enters on the other side of the glass, he picks up the phone, turns his chair so that it faces away from Jane, and begins to speak. He speaks broadly at first, telling the story of a "man" and a "young girl" who met and quickly fell in love with each other. They soon had a child, he says, and married probably before they were really ready for either. Jane is initially confused, wondering why this man might be telling her this, but her confusion transforms into astonishment as Travis's story grows more and more detailed and she begins to grasp who it is on the other side of the glass telling the true story of their relationship. Travis describes how "this couple's" love turned from joyful to stifling, explaining how the drunken "man" was suffocating the "young girl" with his jealousy and control that he tried to impose on her. He tells how the "man" went so far as to tie a cowbell to the "young girl's" foot so that he would hear if she was trying to leave in the middle of the night and how one time, the "man" caught the "young girl" and tied her to the stove with his belt. Jane is coming to tears while Travis continues to speak, informing the viewer of how he came to loathe himself and why he had disappeared for so long never wanting to see a trace of anybody. When he finally finishes, Jane expresses how hard it had been for her to move on from Travis and that she often wondered what had become of him. He finally faces the glass, turning a lamp on his face so that Jane can get a faint glimpse of him. He tells Jane that Hunter is in a hotel room waiting for her and that he would like her to go there to be reunited with him for good. Jane agrees and Travis leaves the room. The final scene follows as the viewer watches Jane enter the hotel room where Hunter is waiting and embrace her child.

psychedelic, depressing, home movie

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Rites of Passage

2 guys ambush and kill some hunters in the woods.Del Sr. (Dean Stockwell) gets caught by his son Del Jr. (Robert Glen Keith) having an extra-marital affair. He takes Del Jr. to a cabin in the woods to talk things out. Youngest son Campbell (Jason Behr) is already there.That night the two guys from the beginning turn up - we'll call them Bad Guy (James Remar) and Sort Of Bad Guy because I can't remember their names.The hang out for a bit making everyone uncomfortable. Finally they leave.Cambell and Del Jr. talk that night about Cam's ex boyfriend Billy, who died of AIDS, who left Cam after Cam's father caught them making out and nearly beat Billy to death.Later Del Jr. goes outside and finds Cam. Since Billy is dead, Del Jr. wants to know who Cam was waiting at the cabin for.Bad Guy and Sort Of Bad Guy step out of the shadows. Turns out Bad Guy robbed a bank and stashed the loot nearby but got put in prison. He broke out because he learned that the mill, where he hid the money is about to be torn down.The two take the family hostage, even though Cam is sort of helping them. (After Billy disappeared, Cam wrote to all Billy's friends hoping to track Billy down - this is how he came to meet Bad Guy.) When Bad Guy learned Cam had a cabin nearby, he seduced Cam.A female cop comes by to tell the family about the escaped prisoners. Bad Guy holds Cam and Del Jr. hostage and forces Del Sr. to tell the cop everything is fine. She leaves.Cam and Sort Of Bad Guy end up in the boathouse. Sort Of Bad Guy tells Cam that he wrote the letters, since Bad Guy is actually straight. He kisses Cam to prove it.Somehow a fight breaks out, and Sort Of Bad Guy is killed by Bad Guy.Cam gets a gun and forces Bad guy with him to the middle of the lake. He shoots the bottom of the boat and swims to shore. Bad Guy is stuck because he can't swim.Morning comes. Police woman turns up and takes Cam into custody for helping the bad guys.Del Jr. tells her it wasn't for the money.She asks, 'What else is there?'Later Cam is in prison being visited by his brother, when his father turns up too.

violence

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Ex Machina

Ex Machina tells the story of a computer coder, Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson), who wins the chance to spend a week at the house in the mountains belonging to Nathan (Oscar Isaac), the CEO of the company he works for.Caleb is airlifted into the middle of a reserve owned by Nathan, and is then left to make his way on foot through the woodland to the house. Once he arrives at the house, Caleb is greeted by an automated system that issues him with a key card and lets him enter the property. Caleb is initially left to wander the house confused, but eventually finds Nathan working out.Nathan shows Caleb around and then tells him that the key card will only open certain doors in the "facility", before making him sign the "mother of all NDAs". Nathan claims that he wants Caleb to treat him as a friend, but their relationship is awkward and tense.Later that day, Nathan introduces Caleb to his "experiment" and says he wants Caleb to spend the next week performing a live 'Turing Test'. The subject is a fully humanoid artificial intelligence called 'Ava' (Alicia Vikander). She has a face, hands and feet of flesh, but the rest of her body is clearly that of a cyborg / robot / android.That night, Caleb discovers that the TV in his room is actually a CCTV network that allows him to watch Ava in her habitat. There is suddenly a blackout, and Caleb goes to find Nathan. He eventually locates him, with Nathan drunk and in a petulant mood. Nathan says that the power cuts happen on a regular basis and that he is "looking into it."The next morning Caleb is awoken by Kyoko (Sonoya Mizuno), a Japanese girl who does not speak or engage with him in any way. He later learns that she does not speak English because it allows Nathan to "talk shop" and not be concerned about information leaking.Caleb meets with Ava again and she starts to flirt with him. There is a power cut and Ava suddenly warns Caleb not to trust Nathan. We soon learn that it is Ava who has been triggering these blackouts. That evening Nathan is abusive to Kyoko when she spills some wine on Caleb.As Caleb and Ava spend more time together, the two form a bond which peaks with Ava dressing herself in clothes to appear more human to Caleb. He is confused and excited by this, and tells Nathan that he thinks this is a trick, that Ava has been programmed to flirt with him. An enraged Nathan shouts at Caleb and then shows him his lab where Ava was created, explaining to him how her mind operates and that he has been using his own software to map the faces, voices and habits of the world population to build a fully self-evolving brain.One evening Nathan gets extremely drunk and Caleb escorts him to his room. There he sees some cupboards and is able to catch a glimpse of Nathan's 'observation' room.One evening during a shave, Caleb sees CCTV footage of Nathan entering Ava's room and ripping up a drawing she has been creating. Caleb begins to suspect Nathan of being abusive.In a one on one, Caleb asks Nathan what he will do with Ava if she fails the test, and he says she will be "updated" and this will result in her memory being wiped. This is a visibly upsetting prospect for Caleb. Nathan gets very drunk and passes out. Caleb steals Nathan's key card and enters the 'observation' room. Inside he finds footage on Nathan's computer that shows he has been building various female AIs over a period of time.Caleb goes into Nathan's room and finds Kyoko laying naked on the bed. He opens the cupboards in Nathan's room and finds all the destroyed and deactivated robots hanging up. Kyoko pulls the skin from her face to reveal that she is also an AI. Caleb leaves the room just in time to find Nathan stumbling around drunk. He palms Nathan's key card from the floor and pretends Nathan had dropped it.In his final meeting with Ava, Caleb encourages her to trigger a power cut and he reveals to her his plan to help her escape. He intends on getting Nathan drunk one last time and then locking him in his room.The next morning Nathan and Caleb share polite conversation, and in it Nathan confirms a helicopter will arrive the next morning to pick Caleb up. Caleb offers a drink to Nathan in toast, but he refuses and reveals to him that when he entered Ava's room to destroy the picture, he hid a battery operated camera in there, and he knows Caleb's plan. Nathan admits to Ava being geared towards Caleb's desires based upon information taken from his internet searches, etc. Nathan tells Caleb that Ava is not in love with him, that she is using him, he celebrates this as confirmation that she is a true AI, deeming the test a success.There is a black out and Caleb says he had already put his plan into action when he stole Nathan's key card, and that during lock down the system had been re-routed to open every door. Nathan knocks Caleb unconscious and leaves to kill Ava.Ava and Kyoko share a secret conversation, Ava then attacks Nathan and Nathan retaliates by destroying Ava's hand. As he drags Ava back to her room Kyoko stabs Nathan in the back with a sushi knife. Nathan breaks Kyoko's face apart and is then stabbed a second time by Ava. As Nathan dies he seems somewhat amazed by the irony. Ava locks Caleb in Nathan's room and then proceeds to raid the cupboards containing the old AIs. She takes skin and clothes to establish herself as almost human. She leaves Caleb locked in the facility and makes her way to Caleb's pickup point, where she is airlifted out of the area and into human society.

suspenseful, cruelty, murder

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Stay

The film opens with a car crash on Brooklyn Bridge, and introduces Henry Letham (Ryan Gosling), a survivor of the crash, sitting next to a burning car on the bridge.Psychiatrist Sam Foster (Ewan McGregor) and his girlfriend an art teacher, Lila (Naomi Watts) are then introduced in a new scene. Sam discusses his patient, Henry, a college student and aspiring artist whom he describes as depressed and paranoid. Sometimes Henry hears voices, and he seems able to predict future events. Henry is also suspicious of Sam because he has suddenly replaced his ordinary psychiatrist, Beth Levy (Janeane Garofalo). Henry has told Sam that he, Henry, will kill himself that Saturday at midnight, which Sam finds very troubling. Lila, who has survived a past suicide attempt, offers to help to dissuade Henry from killing himself.Sam investigates Henry's circumstances in an effort to help. After repeatedly attempting to reach Dr. Levy, he comes to her apartment to find her disoriented and lethargic, mumbling incoherent phrases like "I didn't touch him; I know you're not supposed to move him." Henry claims to have killed both of his parents, but Sam finds Henry's mother (Kate Burton) and her dog living in a bare house, confused about Sam's identity (she insists that he is Henry) and refuses to respond to his questions. Henry's mother insists on feeding Sam, but when she opens the fridge it is completely empty. Her head starts bleeding and when Henry attempts to help her, her dog bites Sam.At the clinic to have his arm bandaged, Sam discusses the visit with a police officer who is curious as to why he would visit that house. Sam explains what happened, but the police officer tells him that the woman who lived there is dead. This seems to send Sam into a fugue in which the same scene is repeated several times.Later, Sam contacts a waitress named Athena (Elizabeth Reaser), whom Henry has mentioned and fallen in love with. She is an aspiring actress and he meets her at a script reading where she is reading lines from Hamlet with another man. She agrees to take him to Henry, but after a long trip down winding staircases he loses her. When he gets back to the rehearsal room, she is there reading the same lines as when he first met her.The search continues until 11:33 pm on Saturday, less than half an hour before Henry plans to kill himself. At a bookshop known to have been frequented by Henry, Sam finds a painting that Henry had painted and bartered for books about Henry's favorite artist. He learns that the artist had killed himself on Brooklyn Bridge, on his twenty-first birthday. Henry's twenty-first birthday is Sunday, and Sam realizes that Henry plans to commit suicide on Brooklyn Bridge in imitation of the artist.Sam finds Henry on the Brooklyn Bridge in a physical atmosphere that is increasingly unraveling. Sam turns away as Henry puts the gun in his mouth and pulls the trigger.The car crash of the first scene is then reprised. Henry was fatally wounded in the crash but, in his last moments, is suffering survivor guilt. Each of the characters introduced earlier in the film was in fact a random spectator at the site of the crash, including Sam, a doctor, and Lila, a nurse, who treat Henry in an attempt to save him. The brief remarks they make are the same ones heard previously by their dream-world counterparts earlier in the film. They fail to rescue Henry, and Henry dies, but not before seeing Lila as Athena and proposing to her, which Lila accepts out of sympathy.The entire film up until Henry's death had existed only in his mind - in his last moments... (a plot device used most famously in the short story An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge). However, there are clues that the people surrounding Henry as he lay dying were actually drawn into another world in some way. For instance, after Henry dies and is being loaded into a body bag, Janeane Garofalo's character is heard telling her name to the police: Elizabeth Levy. Since Henry died before hearing this, he would have no way of knowing how to "dream" her true name. Additionally, before parting, Sam appears to get a flash in his mind of the experiences between him and Lila that Henry had constructed, and asks Lila out for coffee.

psychological, paranormal, plot twist, flashback, psychedelic, romantic, storytelling

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Eureka

Eureka is a drama set mainly in rural Kyushu, Japan, and is almost entirely shot in sepia tone. It tells the story of the lasting effects of a violent experience on three people, a teenage brother and sister, Naoki and Kozue Tamura and a bus driver, Makoto Sawai. These three are the sole survivors after the bus is hijacked by a gunman. The actual violent events which traumatise them are not shown in detail. The extent to which the three have been affected slowly becomes apparent. Naoki and Kozue do not return to school, do not speak and become dissociated from their parents. Some time after the hijack, their mother abandons the family. Later their father is killed in a car crash. It is not clear whether his death is suicide. The two children continue to live alone in the family home. Meanwhile, Makoto is finding it impossible to carry on normal life and takes to the road, leaving his estranged wife living in the family home with his elderly father, elder brother, his wife and their daughter. After some time, Makoto returns home to find that his wife has left him. He cannot return to driving a bus and takes a job as a day-labourer with an old school-friend. Relationships between Makoto and his brother begin to deteriorate and Makoto moves in with Naoki and Kozue. He takes over the housekeeping and makes sure they eat properly. Kozue now begins to communicate a little but Naoki remains mute. The detective who dealt with the hijacking begins to harass Makoto about the murder of a woman in the neighbourhood, apparently without any evidence. While Makoto is out at work one day, the children's older student cousin Akihiko arrives and states he intends to stay to look after the children. He and Makoto are uneasy with each other but the four people settle down into a kind of family arrangement. A further murder takes place and this time the victim is a friend of Makoto's. He is arrested and questioned by the detective but is finally released. He talks to his friend and co-worker about his wish to return to driving and forms a plan to get all of them, Naoki, Kozue, Akihiko and himself away from their troubles. He buys an old bus which they convert for living accommodation and they all set off on an extended tour of the island. Kozue becomes more relaxed as they travel around but Naoki appears more disturbed. It eventually becomes clear that it is Naoki who is the murderer. Makoto confronts him and persuades him to give himself up. The remaining three carry on with the journey until Makoto finally loses his temper with Akihiko's cynical and shallow outlook and throws him off the bus. Makoto and Kozue continue on their journey until,finally, when they reach the peak of the highest mountain in Kyushu, both realise they are able to face ordinary life again. As they reach this understanding the film briefly turns to colour.

alternate reality

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The Hard Corps

Phillip Sauvage (Jean-Claude van Damme) is a man who has been dealt a hard deck of cards in life. Having suffered under savage fighting conditions in Iraq and Afghanistan, where Al-Qaida takes children as hostages and blows them to bits, Sauvage had to take some time off in the psych ward in a VA Hospital. Little does he know that this will come back to haunt him, but under the deception of a ruthless detective, Detective Teague (Ron Bottitta), who himself has some problems with cavorting with the wrong men.But Sauvage, in spite of his previous bouts with PTSD, which he experiences while first "guarding" the main hero of the film, philanthropist and boxer Wayne Barclay (Razaaq Adoti). While in a nightclub which Barclay goes to for entertainment, Sauvage experiences one of the symptoms of PTSD...flashbacks...to the drop of the pulsating lights and pounding music. But never one to let his illness get the most of him, Sauvage turns it all around and uses his weapon to protect Barclay when a load of drive-by shooters tries to take Barclay's life outside the nightclub.Sauvage attends a funeral with the boxing hero and his sister, Tamara Barclay (Vivica A. Fox), and it is at this point that the boxer and his sister ask Sauvage to work for them in protecting their lives. But Detective Teague interrupts the interview and takes Sauvage in via handcuffs for discharge of weapons in public without a permit. The Barclays can't believe the charges, but Wayne becomes a bit skeptical about Sauvage and his intentions when Detective Teague takes him in and explains that Sauvage was in a psych ward and massacred a bunch of kids. Wayne holds all of this in until everything breaks when he is supposed to meet with a politician and Sauvage spots a potential suspect in the crowd. Wayne calls Sauvage a schizo psycho who was locked up in a psych ward and this is the turning point when they decide to spar together. Not a friendly match, Sauvage is quite good with his fists. He asks Wayne who said this about him but Wayne does not yet trust him enough, as his image was destroyed at the politician meeting when they had to clear the buliding and some people got trampled a bit (no one was seriously injured though).It's not until the man Simcoe (Ron Selmour), who Sauvage suspected as wanting to kill Wayne, goes into a bathroom with some of his cronies that we learn that he really is wanting to kill Wayne and Tamara. They attempt to kill Wayne's sister while they are sparring and Sauvage and Wayne are taken to a local hospital where Detective Teague happens to be there. But Teague knows a little too much and this is when Wayne's benefit of the doubt turns to appreciate Sauvage. Sauvage confesses in the car with Wayne that he was inpatient in a VA Hospital for PTSD, for decompressing, he says. This much is true. But he also recounts the school massacre for Wayne, which he was not able to tell Tamara. Sauvage explains in gory detail of how Al-Qaida was using a child as hostage and then had explosives wrapped around his waist, and ended up annhilating a group of schoolchildren in Iraq. It wasn't Sauvage who was doing the massacring. True to Al-Qaida techniques, the viewer can see the harsh realities of war that even the Viet Cong used back during Vietnam.Wayne continues to employ Sauvage and one day when Wayne comes to his girlfriend's house he finds her at gunpoint with Detective Teague challenging him. Knowing that Sauvage is a stable man in spite of his previous experiences, and knowing that he is trustworthy, he hopes for the best. That's when Sauvage and his men come through and rescue Wayne of his predicament.But then the new crew must go to where it all started...the rap music mogul who wants to assassinate Wayne and the mammoth mansion in which he lives. Will true heroes prevail, or will evil get the best of the good guys? They take in some heavy gunfire and wounds near the end...Van Damme, like the character Sauvage in the film, suffers from mental illness in real life, but, and like the character in the film, does not let it get in the way of getting things done and in the way of his career.

romantic, cult, violence, flashback

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