Film Reviews

After stealing a fortune in unclaimed jewelry, ex-detective Barney Rickert arrives at a run-down dude ranch in Arizona to hide out. When the owner, Dewey Hoople, refuses to sell the land to Rickert, he proceeds to win over the female inhabitants by seducing them one by one which leads to one refusing his advances and a dangerous game played out in which Rickert ruthlessly sets out to get what he wants.

A new film about Erwin Rommel has been shown on German television, depicting the general as a weak man undone by his links to Adolf Hitler.

Every year in the ruins of what was once North America, the nation of Panem forces each of its twelve districts to send a teenage boy and girl to compete in the Hunger Games. Part twisted entertainment, part government intimidation tactic, the Hunger Games are a nationally televised event in which “Tributes” must fight with one another until one survivor remains. Pitted against highly-trained Tributes who have prepared for these Games their entire lives, Katniss is forced to rely upon her sharp instincts as well as the mentorship of drunken former victor Haymitch Abernathy. If she’s ever to return home to District 12, Katniss must make impossible choices in the arena that weigh survival against humanity and life against love. The world will be watching.

A journalist named Lee Custler (William Katt) is out jogging when a flying object passes behind him and crashes. Sheriff Joel Armstrong (Collin Brock) picks him up and they go to check it out. They find an abandoned caravan close to where the object crashed. As they discover the object and realize it is a spaceship, an Alien emerges. The Alien (resembling a giant spider with a lizard-like head and torso) then chases them, after which Lee flees to the car. However Armstrong makes a stand, trips, falls and is killed by the Alien that then leaves. A terrified Tammy finds Lee and they call the local authorities but their car is destroyed by the Alien.

In an attic full of discarded junk, a pretty doll called Buttercup lives in an old trunk together with her friends, the marionette Prince Charming, lazy Teddy Bear and the plasticine creature Schubert. When Buttercup is snatched and taken off to the Land of Evil, her pals set out to rescue her.

Learning of his family's collapse, acolyte Goichi, sent to study silently at the Temple of the Golden Pavilion, must endure acute psychological distress.

Cheated on, mistreated and stepped on, the women are holding their breath, waiting for the elusive "good man" to break a string of less-than-stellar lovers. Friends and confidants Vannah, Bernie, Glo and Robin talk it all out, determined to find a better way to breathe.

During the 16th century, Japanese pirates proliferate along the Chinese coastline. In 1557, the pirates take over Cengang in Zhejiang. After months of futile advances, Commander Yu (Sammo Hung) finally defeats them under the leadership of newly promoted General Qi (Vincent Zhao). The pirates, however, manage to escape. In 1561, the pirates regroup and once again attack the coastal cities of China. With both the cities of Xinhe and Taizhou under attack, Qi's army is caught between two fires. Even though most family members of his soldiers are located in Xinhe, Qi makes the tough decision to go to Taizhou and leaves his wife in charge of the fight against the pirates in Xinhe, knowing that the defeat of the pirates' elite team in Taizhou will bring long lasting peace to the coastal cities.

Peaches, a hair stylist from Baltimore, and her estranged sister, Angela, the owner of an upscale salon in Beverly Hills, get reacquainted when Peaches decides to attend a celebration for Angela in LA. The reunion is bittersweet and worsens when Angela finds out that Peaches is on the run from the IRS and has only a few days to pay $50,000 in back taxes. After some hilarious moments and passionate exchanges, the two sisters join forces to fight off a pesky rival salon owner Marcella and save Peaches from her troubles by competing for a lucrative cash prize and bragging rights at the city's annual hair show. BEAUTY SHOP proves that blood and family run thicker than water.

Nearing retirement, Dabney Coleman finds that he has a disease that will kill him within days. He then finds that his life insurance only pays off if he is killed in the line of duty. In order to leave something to his wife and children, Coleman becomes supercop, ignoring danger and trying his best to get killed.

Infidelity, murder, and betrayal lies at the center of this violent Spaghetti western. A scheming wife does away with her husband, causing the man's heir to seek revenge. A number of double-crosses and bloody gun battles follow, eventually driving the woman to flee into the desert.

American documentary film-maker George C. Stoney visits the Aran Islands to try and unravel some of the myths surrounding a film that had engrossed him as a youngster - Robert Flaherty's famous documentary "Man of Aran" released in 1934.

When a recently retired military officer Colonel is tapped by his old friend to take over the military division to help save declining Stone Creek Academy, he immediately clashes with academics dean, a civilian woman whose "touchy-feely" methods are at complete odds with his.

A comedy romance in which breezy Haines, as a young lady killer, tries to capture the heart of Hyams who has turned him down for Bushman. Haines plots dozens of extreme measures to win her over, and finally goes so far as to drag her from the altar, bound and gagged.

A 24 hour period in the lives of Fausto and Jesus, two undocumented Mexican day-laborers in L.A. Each day another task, each day the same pressure to find money. They go about their daily routine, standing on the corner at the Home Improvement Store waiting for work to come. Today, the job they are given is well paid compared to their poor usual wages.