Film Reviews

A New York cop investigates a series of brutal deaths that resemble animal attacks.

Inspired by actual events, a group of fame-obsessed teenagers use the Internet to track celebrities' whereabouts in order to rob their homes.

After railroad agents forcibly evict the James family from their family farm, Jesse and Frank turn to banditry for revenge.

Depeche Mode 101 is a fascinating documentary codirected by the esteemed D.A. Pennebaker (The War Room, Down from the Mountain), focusing on backstage realities of art and business during the British synthesizer band's 1988 American tour. We see managers worrying over slow ticket sales for a stand at the Rose Bowl, observe sound checks at concert sites, get a tour of the group's multiple keyboard banks, and listen with some alarm to singer David Gahan describe his steroid-based throat treatments. There are plenty of performance clips, but for music alone, disc 2 in this package contains the uninterrupted Rose Bowl show, including the plaintive "Blasphemous Rumours," the exultant drama of "Stripped," and the dreamy "Somebody." Pennebaker's promotional video "Everything Counts" is also here, but don't miss the director's recent, touching, and informative interviews with the now 40-something, individual members of Depeche Mode. --Tom Keogh

Ourense, Spain, 1940. Every time that Elena locks the door, she locks her secrets. Her husband Ricardo spend years hidden in his house with his children (Elenita and Lorenzo), trying to dodge persecution. Salvador, a priest confused after battling in the front, returns to seminary in Ourense.

Young Tim Cornish's life has begun with great promise. Blessed with extraordinary good looks, Tim enjoyed much attention and cared little of broken hearts. At University he was a favored student in a prestigious creative writing course, but a chance meeting, a stolen kiss and a sudden flare of passion sets Tim on a journey of betrayal, heartbreak and murder. In a flashback, he tells his story of cruelty, love and a soul-destroying guilt that offers little chance for redemption.

Directed by Slavko Spionjak.

A dispossessed, violent man's life is a disastrous attempt to exist outside the social order. Successively deprived of parents and homes and with few other ties, Ballard descends to the level of a cave dweller as he falls deeper into crime and degradation.

Still Breathing and theft in a financial, Joseph (Hector Alterio), an old anarchist, and a young employee, Pedro (Leonardo Sbaraglia) live for four days violent and compassionate alternatives in their desperate flight from the Patagonia Argentina. Along the way they encounter Ana (Cecilia Dopazo), a teenager who accompanies them on the trip.

A boy is left alone in a Jewish neighborhood in the year of 1970, where both world cup and dictatorship happen in Brazil.

Chinese actor Liu Ye, who has portrayed a Forrest Gump-like character in the action-crime film “The UnderdogKnight” and its sequel, says he’d like to continue the role as long as he can. The sequel, entitled “He-Man”, is slated for release on April 1.Liu’s character, named Lao San, is a retired Marine veteran who lives in his world of innocence and optimism due to a brain injury. He assumes the role of a dedicated vigilante and fights people whom he considers bad. “He-Man” features Zhang Zilin, the 2007 Miss World champion, as Lao San’s love interest. Actors Vincent Chiao and Yoo Seung-jun are also in the cast..

The son of Emperor Franz Josef of Austria, Crown Prince Rudolf, is believed to have shot his female lover and himself in a tragic suicide pact in 1882 in Mayerling. Due to Imperial cover-ups, the full story may never be known. This story has been filmed several times, in French in 1935 and in English in 1968. Hungarian director Miklos Jancso recreates those events for his own purposes, continuing his favored theme of the rejection of paternal authority. In the film, which has very little dialog, Rudolf is a good-natured pan-sexual golden boy, who cavorts on his rural estate with a host of beautiful, aristocratic lovers and friends of both sexes. He refuses to leave his country idyll even though he has been ordered to by the Emperor, his father. Despite the fact that for a large part of the film, attractive young people go about unclothed and engaging in erotic encounters, the mood is one of melancholy rather than prurience.

Captain EO is a 3-D science fiction film starring Michael Jackson and directed by Francis Ford Coppola (who came up with the name "Captain EO" from the Greek, cf. "Eos", the Greek goddess of dawn) that was shown at Disney theme parks from 1986 through the 1990s.

For Robbing the Dead is a story of compassion - compassion toward those who may seem the least deserving of Christian love. It follows the story of Henry Heath, a law officer in 1862 Salt Lake City. Heath finds himself responsible for the well-being of a prisoner whom he despises - an impoverished French immigrant named Jean Baptiste who is convicted of robbing the graves of the recently deceased. Baptiste is exiled to Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake. With no one willing to look after this man, Henry Heath becomes Baptiste's sole defense against the hostile isolation of Antelope Island and the contempt of an entire community. Through his somewhat reluctant service, Heath's heart softens and his own sorrows find relief.

Based on the novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, a US soldier finds himself inexplicably transported to Mars in the midst of a war between two alien races.