Film Reviews
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Tri bogatyrya i Shamakhanskaya tsaritsa |
This is the fourth and final of a series of animated films based on Russian folk legends. A bogatyr is an epic warrior from ancient Kievan Rus. Most are directed in the traditional bylinas, traditional Russian epic poems, as being endowed with enormous strength and cunning, although often not completely immune to human weaknesses. Here, our three heroes gather together once more to rescue the ruler of the land from the attempts of an evil foreign queen. She plans to make him fall in love with her so her youth and beauty can be renewed, but in exchange will destroy his kingdom. |
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Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India |
Lagaan tells the tale of the Indian village Champaner, beset by drought and British colonialism in the year 1893. Without a drop of rain in months, the worried villagers of Champaner decide to ask the local authorities for a temporary repeal of their taxes -- the hated lagaan. Led by the heroic Bhuvan (Indian superstar Aamir Khan) they bring their plight to the military governor, Captain Russell (Paul Blackthorne). But the sadistic Russell threatens to raise the lagaan threefold, unless the villagers can beat his men at a game of cricket, in which case he'll lift taxes on the entire province for a period of three years. Bhuvan accepts the challenge, but there's a problem -- no one in Champaner knows how to play cricket. A band of misfits come to the rescue, coached by Russell's soft-hearted sister Elizabeth (Rachel Shelley), and the race is on to be ready in three months' time. An epic reworking of Victory with eye-popping song-and-dance routines. |
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I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With |
Life has its downs for James, living with his mom in Chicago at 39, an aging performer at Second City, eating and weighing too much. A woman he's been dating drops him, as does his agent, her brother. James turns down roles in local TV, roles that make him sad. Someone's remaking his favorite movie, "Marty," a role he'd love, but he doesn't even get an audition. |
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Grayeagle |
A young Cheyenne warrior, who goes by the name Grayeagle, kidnaps the daughter of a grizzled frontier man John Colter who goes on an epic search for his daughter Beth, aided by a friendly native... |
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Westbound |
As the Civil War spills our nation’s blood, Capt. John Hayes (Randolph Scott) fights on a vital but little-known battlefront. He aims to ship gold to Union banks through a small Colorado town, defying Southern sympathizers who aim to stop him. At any cost. As chiseled and bone-lean as its star, Westbound is the sixth of seven Westerns Scott made with director Budd Boetticher, films that – along with the James Stewart-Anthony Mann Westerns – helped remake the genre in the 50s, substituting grit and veracity for white-hat heroics. |
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Mulholland Falls |
In 1950s Los Angeles, a special crime squad of the LAPD investigates the murder of a young woman. |
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Apartment Zero |
The owner of a failing cinema and his mysterious boarder are caught up in the political intrigue of Argentina. |
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Born Yesterday |
A businessman shows up in Washington to lobby agendas that are friendly to his construction plans. His ditsy ex-showgirl bimbo proves to be an embarrassment in social situations, so he hires a reporter to teach her how to appear more intelligent. Soon it becomes apparent to the reporter that she isn't so stupid after all, and things become more complicated as she begins questioning the papers her sugar daddy keeps getting her to sign, and the reporter begins falling in love with her. |
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Absent Minded |
A child's daydream during a school lesson is abruptly interrupted by the teacher. The instructor threatens to cut off the young pupil's ear to encourage concentration and prevent further escapes into the realms of imagination. |
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The Garage |
Two men who work as both automobile mechanics and firemen operate a garage in a fire station. A car has been left for them to clean, but they destroy it instead. In the second half of the film, Roscoe and Keaton have been called to a fire, but it turns out to be a false alarm. When they return, they find their own fire station on fire. |
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The Voice of the Moon |
Returning to themes he first explored in La strada (1954), Fellini crafts a parable on the whisperings of the soul that only madmen and vagabonds are capable of hearing. The odd couple, Ivo Salvini (Benigni), a fake inspector of wells, and Gonnella (Villaggio), a former prefect, wander through the Emilia-Romagna countryside of Fellini's childhood and discover a dystopia of television commercials, fascism, beauty pageants, rock music, Catholicism, and pagan ritual. |
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Yedyanchi Jatra |
Yedyanchi Jatra is an enjoyable portrayal of how villagers react to new developments in their locality like the launch of a Government sponsored "Village Sanitation and Cleanliness Drive" |
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Detour |
When Danny and his gang attempt to rob the warehouse of a mob boss, they find themselves on the run. Danny goes back to his hometown to find his mother has recently died leaving him the farm on the condition that he must open the dairy and run it for two years. However the gang is double crossed by Mo and the mob begin to hunt them down, meanwhile Danny and his gang consider robbing the mill in his town. |
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The Priests |
To save a girl in danger, a priest and deacon jump into a mysterious case. |
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Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius |
The story of golf icon and legend, Bobby Jones, who retired from competition at the tender age of 28. |