Film Reviews

Don Pablo Salazar steals a fortune in jewels from an Indian tribe and an Aztec medicine man puts a curse on the jewels until they are returned. Years later, an American insurance man promises to deliver the Salazar fortune to the rightful heir...

A young girl is sold into the red-light district Yoshiwara and is put under the care of the oiran (lead prostitute) of the Tamakiku house. The girl is rebellious, but the more experienced people in the household begin to think that she will be one day a great oiran, since an oiran needs not only beauty and talent, but she should also have the tenacity to maintain the position.

A drama centered around the employees of a Nanjing massage parlor who share a common trait: they are all blind.

A Scotsman, Jim MacKenzie, living on a primitive homestead in Nova Scotia, is raising his two grandsons, Harry and Davy, following the death of their father in the Boer War. His son's death has developed antagonism by MacKenzie toward all Dutchmen, which leads to Harry brawling at school with the son of a Dutchman. Harry falls down a cliff and is helped home by the community doctor, Willem Bloem, a Dutchman in love with MacKenzie's daughter, Kirsty. Due to the old man's feelings, they must carry on a clandestine romance. Forbidden by their grandfather to have a dog, Harry and Davy "kidnap" an unattended baby and care for the child in a lean-to shack. When found, the baby proves to be the child of MacKenzie's most-bitter Dutch enemy.

A depressed section of Monterey, California is the backdrop for an offbeat romantic comedy about a pair of mismatched lovers. Doc is a lonely marine biologist and former baseball star. Suzy is a scrappy, abrasive drifter who can't even succeed as a prostitute. Add Cannery Row's band of resident drunken derelicts to the mix and fireworks result, though not the romantic kind.

The grass might not be as green as one might think on the other side of obesity. Pretty Ugly People takes a wickedly comedic look at body image, self-loathing and sex within a group of estranged friends in their mid-30s. Lucy was obese her entire life and had always longed to be a thin so she could finally lose her virginity.

Control is the biography of Joy Division lead singer Ian Curtis, taking his story from schoolboy days of 1973 to his suicide on the eve of the band's first American tour in 1980.

Milton is a hardened felon who has broken out of Hell, intent on finding the vicious cult who brutally murdered his daughter and kidnapped her baby. He joins forces with Piper, a sexy, tough-as-nails waitress with a 69 Charger, who's also seeking redemption of her own. Caught in a deadly race against time, Milton has three days to avoid capture, avenge his daughter's death, and save her baby before she's mercilessly sacrificed by the cult.

Camille, a mercurial César-winning actress, has seen better times. Estranged from her husband, she's with her children only every other weekend. It's her weekend, but her agent has booked her to MC a Rotary club dinner in Vichy. She takes them with her, and when her husband learns this, he demands to pick them up at once. She bolts in a rented car to the seaside, trying to improve her relations with the children, especially the precocious and distant Vincent. He loves astronomy. A rare meteor shower is due in a few days, so she suggests they go to a plateau in Spain hoping to see it. He agrees, but the relationship remains difficult, and her husband is on their trail.

SOUL KITCHEN film centers on a likable but hopelessly disorganized restauranteur, Zinos, whose cafe is second home to a motley crew of lovable eccentrics. When his girlfriend Nadine up and moves to Shanghai, a love-sick Zinos decides to fly after her, leaving his restaurant in the hands of his unreliable ex-con brother Illias. Both decisions turn out disastrous: Illias gambles away the restaurant to a shady real estate agent, and Zinos finds Nadine with a new lover. If the brothers can stop arguing and get it together, the Soul Kitchen might still have one last chance at staying in business. The mayhem that follows is a hilariously entertaining story of self-realization, set to an irresistibly soulful soundtrack.

Three sisters (Sister and the Sisters) from Harlem who become singers Sister (Lonette McKee) becomes involved with drugs and Sparkle ends up being the one who gets famous. This movie tells about how drugs ruined Sister's relationships and eventually ended her life.

Kiek is worried as her father works in a war zone. To lengthen the odds of her father getting hurt, she comes up with a strange and unique idea: she needs a dead dog and a dead mouse, because Kiek doesn't know one person who has a dead mouse, a dead dog and a dead father. Surely the odds against that are enormous?

The story of the civil rights heroine whose refusal to obey racial bus segregation was just one of her acts in her fight for justice.

An elite group of vice cops are fired from the L.A.P.D. for being over-zealous in their war against drugs. It is immediately apparent that some of their superiors are involved in the drug ring. Banded together, four of the banned cops (which quickly becomes three when one is killed early) band together to fight the drug ring undercover. They gain capital for weapons by ripping off minor drug dealers. Then well-armed they go after the kingpin (Boyd).

Based on the eponymous book by Boris Vasilyev, the film is set in Karelia (North-West of Russia, near Finland) in 1941 during WWII. In a beautiful and quiet wilderness far from the front-line there is an anti-aircraft artillery point, where corporal Vaskov is stationed with a group of many young women in training.