Film Reviews

Alex Danko descends into the ultra-violent underworld of extreme martial-arts to find his brother's killer with the help of hardened Detective Ramirez and his brother's alluring ex-lover in this post-apocalyptic allegory of greed and revenge set in in 2050 Los Angeles.

Scooby and the gang visit Hawaii, but a monster disturbs their fun.

Ray Breslin is the world's foremost authority on structural security. After analyzing every high security prison and learning a vast array of survival skills so he can design escape-proof prisons, his skills are put to the test. He's framed and incarcerated in a master prison he designed himself. He needs to escape and find the person who put him behind bars.

An Italian war bride has problems dealing with her husband's possessive mother.

This sometimes confusing erotic drama about the incestuous relationship of a mother and daughter is based on the autobiography of Italian theater actress Piera Degli Esposti though it focuses more on her mother Eugenia.

A young woman, Eve, fights back and manages to escape a malicious abductor. However, after discovering she may not be the only victim, Eve unravels a darker truth and decides to turn the tables on her captor.

A westerner named Casey, studying Ninjutsu in Japan, is asked by the Sensei to return to New York to protect the legendary Yoroi Bitsu, an armored chest that contains the weapons of the last Koga Ninja.

Reporter Curt Devlin loves sob sister Ellen Garfield but believes women are "bum newspapermen". When she learns the identity of a murdered arsonist, he calls it luck. When she goes after the murderer he gets enough evidence to have Maitland Coulter arrested. She finds a bunch of "not guilty" ballots and publishes the wrong story; he eavesdrops on the jury and gets the correct verdict. After being fired she gets a confession from the real killer and gets Coulter released.

After the unexpected death of their daughter, a couple work to build a state of the art children's hospital where families are welcomed into the healing process.

An undercover MI6 agent is sent to Berlin during the Cold War to investigate the murder of a fellow agent and recover a missing list of double agents.

A heady brain teaser of a film with unexpected twists and turns, After School reels the audience in with wry humor, quirky characters, and a puzzling mystery. Character actors Oizumi Yo (Gegege no Kitaro), Sasaki Kuranosuke (Bokutachi to Chuzai-san no 700 Nichi Sensou), and Sakai Masato (The Wall Man) headline this laidback yet cerebral caper comedy, along with an always welcome appearance from beauty Tokiwa Takako (20th Century Boys). Seedy private eye Kitazawa (Sasaki Kuranosuke) shows up at gym teacher Jinno's (Oizumi Yo) school with a picture of Kimura (Sakai Masato), Jinno's longtime buddy who has gone missing. Reluctantly joining the puzzling manhunt of myriad twists and turns, Jinno realizes that he doesn't know his friend as well as he thought after some strange brushes with Kimura's boss, a yakuza boss, and a club hostess.

Ilsa, now a vicious warden, runs a mental-hospital for young women.

Year of the Comet is a 1992 romantic comedy adventure film about the pursuit of the most valuable bottle of wine in history. The title refers to the year it was bottled, 1811, which was known for the Great Comet of 1811, and also as one of the best years in history for European wine.

Documentarians Justine Shapiro and B.Z. Goldberg traveled to Israel to interview Palestinian and Israeli kids ages 11 to 13, assembling their views on living in a society afflicted with violence, separatism and religious and political extremism. This 2002 Oscar nominee for Best Feature Documentary culminates in an astonishing day in which two Israeli children meet Palestinian youngsters at a refugee camp.

In California, a group of women struggle with personal problems as their paths intertwine in unexpected ways. Dr. Elaine Keener, the sole caretaker for her aging mother, turns to tarot card reader Christine for spiritual aid. Christine grapples with her own angst due to her lover's debilitating illness. Meanwhile, a bank manager deals with an unwanted pregnancy, two sisters pursue romantic interests and a housewife gets back into the dating game.