Film Reviews

For nearly five years, acclaimed German filmmaker Werner Herzog desperately tried to complete one of the most ambitious and difficult films of his career, Fitzcarraldo, the story of one man’s attempt to build an opera house deep in the Amazon jungle. Documentary filmmaker Les Blank captured the unfolding of this production, made more perilous by Herzog’s determination to shoot the most daunting scenes without models or special effects, including a sequence requiring hundreds of native Indians to pull a full-size, 320-ton steamship over a small mountain. The result is an extraordinary document of the filmmaking process and a unique look into the single-minded mission of one of cinema’s most fearless directors.

Jimmy Alto is an actor wannabe who stumbles into the role of a lifetime. He becomes a vigilante crime-fighter, aided by his sidekick William, who has suffered a head wound and has problems with short-term memory. Jimmy's vigilante alter ego soon becomes a media wonder--but Jimmy remains a total unknown and his long-suffering girl friend Lorraine is getting fed up with the whole situation.

A haunted Afghanistan war veteran attempts to come to terms with his past while searching for his family in a post-apocalyptic America.

Sonja is struggling to deal with her parent separation, and find her feelings for her best friend might not just be a phase.

A thriller centered around a widower who moves into a seemingly perfect new home with his daughter and new wife.

During a New Year's Eve celebration, a punk-rock singer gets a phone call saying that when New Year's strikes in each time zone, someone will be murdered--and she will be the last one.

A man (Howard Keel) framed for murder escapes from prison during a flood and helps a young woman (Anne Heywood) in distress.

At Payden Farms, Rose meets Tom Novak — a handsome “flower broker” who acts as a liaison between the farm and local distributors — and discovers that the farm is faltering financially and that her parents are considering selling it to a ruthless competitor. As a last-ditch effort, Tom arranges for Frank to enter his most special tulip in an upcoming flower contest with the hopes of achieving national recognition and generating business. But when Frank’s flowers are mysteriously sabotaged, Rose struggles to find a way to get them to bloom in time for the competition. Along the way, she finds herself appreciating her humble beginnings, reconciling with Frank, and falling into a blossoming romance with Tom. With time running out, Rose must rediscover her green thumb to save her family’s farm, and decide whether she’ll find true happiness — and true love — by staying in Los Angeles or returning to her folksy hometown.

In 17th-century Salem, Hester Prynne must wear a scarlet A because she is an adulteress, with a child out of wedlock. For seven years, she has refused to name the father. A vigorous older stranger arrives, recognized by Hester but unknown to others as her missing husband. He poses as Chillingworth, a doctor, watching Hester and searching out the identity of her lover. His eye soon rests on Dimmesdale, a young overwrought pastor. Enmity grows between the two men; Chillingworth applies psychological pressure, and the pastor begins to crack. A ship stops in Salem, and Hester sees it as a providential refuge for her daughter, herself, and her lover. But will Dimmesdale flee with her?

This is the story of David Marshall 'Marsh' Williams, the real life inventor of the world famous M-1 Carbine automatic rifle used in WWII. It all started when Marsh, who was one to do things his way, was caught distilling moonshine, and was accused and convicted of shooting a federal officer in the process. This at first placed him in the chain gang which labeled him as a hard case. Later, to make room for those more deserving, he was moved to a prison farm, where he came under the direction of Captain H.T. Peoples. The Captain was a mild mannered warden, who did not shy from discipline when necessary, but also believed that given the opportunity, most men will respond to good. Believing that Marsh was just such a person, the Captain gave him every opportunity to reform, so much so, that he eventually allowed Marsh to work in the tool shop on his spare time to develop and build by hand, a working riffle, inside the prison farm itself.

A psychological thriller. One quite ordinary summer morning five different and unacquainted people leave their apartments at different floors and enter the lift. The doors close behind the last passenger and the lift starts descending. The moments pass, but the lift is not going to stop, the impression of endless moving appears and grows. Panic transforms into fear with every passing minute, situation is getting out of control. The lift cage transforms into closed space, into moving rattrap from which there is no escape. How would the five people behave in such hopeless situation? Their souls are assaulted by doubts and fear, they are filled with overwhelming feeling of inevitability and despair as around them the ordinary is turning into the unreal. Have you ever wondered what your companions in the lift are? Are they really what they claim to be? Or maybe you should fear them?

"Tallahatchie Bridge": With those two simple words, the powerful images of a lost innocence, a murky river and a mysterious suicide spring to mind. Scorning the demands of her overbearing family, Bobbie Lee Hartley and Billy Joe McAllister meet at their usual Choctaw Ridge trysting place and attempt to consumate their forbidden love. Using the storied love of Bobbie Lee and Billy Joe as its crucial metaphor, ODE attempts to reconcile modern moralites with a tradition-bound faith, and asks whether it's possible to commit a sin against a religion that won't even have you as a member.

Vampire Count Orlok is interested in a new residence and in real estate agent Hutter's young wife. Silent horror classic based on the Bram Stoker novel "Dracula".

A chance meeting between two strangers who share a disdain for Christmas results in The Mistletoe Promise, a pact to help them navigate their holiday complications - together. But as they spend more time with each other and experience the magic of Christmas the phony couple discovers there may be more to their contract than business.

Henry likes to kill people, in different ways each time. Henry shares an apartment with Otis. When Otis' sister comes to stay, we see both sides of Henry: "the guy next door" and the serial killer.