Film Reviews

Actor Walter Matthau directed his first and only feature film with the black-and-white crime drama Gangster Story. In an unusual noncomedic role, Matthau plays Jack Martin, a local gangster who wants to run his own crime syndicate in the neighborhood run by Earl Dawson (Bruce McFarlan). They eventually team up and plan a heist. Carol Grace plays the reform-minded girlfriend.

Gangacharan is the new Brahmin of a village, where he assumes various duties: teaching, organizing religious events, and trying to prevent epidemics. But in that year 1943, war is raging (as reminded by the planes occasionally heard flying over the countryside), and a major famine is under way. As food shortages reach catastrophic proportions, Gangacharan attempts to preserve his privileged situation, while his generous wife, Ananga, conversely tries to help and support the community.

Because of a technical defect an American bomber team mistakenly orders the destruction of Moscow. The President of the United States has but little time to prevent an atomic catastrophe from occurring. Director Sidney Lumet gives an atmospheric vision of the future with a Cold War backdrop.

The director of the enigmatic, entirely memorable feature Man Facing Southeast confronts viewers with another exhuberantly metaphysical movie in Ultimas Imagenes del Naufragio. In the story, Roberto (Lorenzo Quinteras) is a man whose inner life has gone dead. He has no interest in his job (selling life insurance) or his family. About the only thing that interests him is his writing, but he currently has writer's block. When he sees a lovely young woman on the verge of throwing herself in front of a train, he can't help himself: he has to stop her. It turns out that the woman, Estela (Noemi Frenkel), is only slightly addled: she is a prostitute who uses this rather dramatic technique to pick up men. Interested in her as a character for his novel, he accompanies her home.

Britain, A.D. 117. Quintus Dias, the sole survivor of a Pictish raid on a Roman frontier fort, marches north with General Virilus' legendary Ninth Legion, under orders to wipe the Picts from the face of the Earth and destroy their leader, Gorlacon.

Fast-talking Latino con artist Pestario "Pest" Vargas is the target of Scottish mobsters to whom he owes a considerable debt. Willing to do anything to raise money and avoid severe injury or death, Vargas agrees to a very unusual job -- he will be transported to a remote island and hunted by Gustav Shank, a racist German executive. If he can survive a full day and night, Vargas gets $50,000 and will be set free. Is he wily enough to elude Shank?

Nick (Jacot), whose life seemed to be going perfectly, realizes he may lose his girlfriend to a famous music producer (Priestley). He sets out on a roadtrip from the west coast to go to the MuchMusic Video Awards in Toronto, along with two buddies (Tyler and Dime), for the road trip of their lives.

An ex-Marine on the lam from a murder charge. He hitches a ride from glamor-magazine photographer, who is travelling cross-country with her principal model. Tensions rise when the woman realize the man with them may be a killer.

In 1857, at the height of his fame and fortune, novelist and social critic Charles Dickens meets and falls in love with teenage stage actress Nelly Ternan. As she becomes the focus of his heart and mind, as well as his muse, painful secrecy is the price both must pay.

Suryaveer Singh (Amitabh Bachchan) is a bitter man and ex-Army officer, hired by his friend Shekhar (Arjun Rampal) to protect a little girl, Anamika (Rucha Vaidya).

An old lighthouse keeper who lives with his daughter secretly keeps a prehistoric fish-man by feeding it scraps and fish. One day he misses the feeding and all hell breaks loose.

A male prison escapee heads for his hidden loot electronically attached to a female prisoner.

Deckard Shaw seeks revenge against Dominic Toretto and his family for his comatose brother.

After the Cuban Revolution, Che is at the height of his fame and power. Then he disappears, re-emerging incognito in Bolivia, where he organizes a small group of Cuban comrades and Bolivian recruits to start the great Latin American Revolution. Through this story, we come to understand how Che remains a symbol of idealism and heroism that lives in the hearts of people around the world.

A young priest speaks out against the Communist regime in Poland and is killed for it.