Film Reviews

Fresh from his role in the Broadway musical hit "Hairspray," self-effacing stand-up funnyman John Pinette delivers nonstop laughs at the Montreal Comedy Festival. An all-new routine covers topics from health food to family get-togethers, and backstage footage and hilarious outtakes add to the fun. Pinette's successful acting career extends to TV and the big screen as well as the stage; his films include Duets, Dear God and Junior.

It's Christmas Eve in Tinseltown and Sin-Dee is back on the block. Upon hearing that her pimp boyfriend hasn't been faithful during the 28 days she was locked up, the working girl and her best friend, Alexandra, embark on a mission to get to the bottom of the scandalous rumor. Their rip-roaring odyssey leads them through various subcultures of Los Angeles, including an Armenian family dealing with their own repercussions of infidelity.

In the near future, oil reserves are nearly depleted and Europe is connected by series of underground tunnels. While navigating these tunnels, Roger hears voices, one in particular. Seeking a way to rid himself of the voice only leads Roger deeper into a bizarre conspiracy of control - mind and body.

Black and white footage of performances, interviews, and conversations at the Newport Folk Festival, from 1963 to 1966. The headliners are Peter, Paul and Mary, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, and Bob Dylan, who's acoustic and electric. Son House and Mike Bloomfield talk about the blues; John Hurt, Howlin' Wolf, and Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee show its range. The Osborne Brothers perform bluegrass. Donovan, Johnny Cash, Judy Collins, Mimi and Dick Farina, and others less well known also perform. Several talk musical philosophy, and there's a running commentary about the nature and appeal of folk music. The crowd looks clean cut.

A young man awakens from a six-year coma with the ability to see into peoples futures. This is the first two episodes of the television series.

One man wronged by a racist law enforcement system takes a highly unusual route to street justice in this bizarre, expressive urban drama. Definitely not your ordinary '70s blaxploitation feature, Soul Vengeance (released theatrically as Welcome Home, Brother Charles) was one of three feature films Jamaa Fanaka wrote, produced, and directed while studying film production at U.C.L.A. (The other two were Black Sister's Revenge, also known as Emma Mae, and the first installment in Fanaka's popular Penitentiary series). ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Nazis take over an ancient fortress that contains a mysterious entity that wreaks havoc and death upon them.

Road movie about two children searching for their father who is supposed to live in Germany. Their obsession for this father figure will take them to the boundaries between childhood and adolescence.

For Shirin, being part of a perfect Persian family isn’t easy. Acceptance eludes her from all sides: her family doesn’t know she’s bisexual, and her ex-girlfriend, Maxine , can’t understand why she doesn’t tell them. Even the six-year-old boys in her moviemaking class are too ADD to focus on her for more than a second. Following a family announcement of her brother’s betrothal to a parentally approved Iranian prize catch, Shirin embarks on a private rebellion involving a series of pansexual escapades, while trying to decipher what went wrong with Maxine.

When his wife is killed in a seemingly random incident Harry (Turturro), prompted by mysterious visions, journeys to discover the true circumstances surrounding her murder.

A New York detective investigates a series of murders committed by random New Yorkers who claim that "God told them to."

Gino Felino (Steven Seagal) is an NYPD detective from Brooklyn who knows everyone and everything in his neighborhood. Killing his Partner was someone's mistake, because he's now Out For Justice.

Set in Middle America, a group of teens receive an online invitation for sex, though they soon encounter Christian fundamentalists with a much more sinister agenda.

Documentary following Chaz (formerly Chastity) Bono's gender transition. Includes interviews with family members and friends as the transition is followed.

Fabian Groys, a renowned journalist for a political news magazine, enjoys great freedom, since the stories he uncovers make for good sales. When he loses a hot story about the German army, the editor saddles him with a young female intern. Fabian hates teamwork and sticks the intern with what seems a classic tabloid story about the suicide of a man who had himself torn to shreds by a lion at the zoo. But thanks to the intern’s dogged determination, signs emerge that the story Fabian was working on and the gory zoo story are actually interlinked. Is it pure coincidence? And if it isn’t, how can Fabian fight a nebulous enemy?