Film Reviews

On the eve of the founding of the Joseon Dynasty, a whale swallows the Emperor's Seal of State being brought to Joseon by envoys from China. With a big reward on whoever brings back the royal seal, mountain bandits led by Jang Sa-jung go out to sea to hunt down the whale. But he soon clashes with Yeo-wol, a female captain of pirates, and unexpected adventure unfolds.

With dreams of becoming a successful entrepreneur just like his beloved Richard Branson, Lemon bids farewell to his hometown of Leeds and heads for the capital. When he becomes an overnight billionaire, it seems everything is going his way, but it's not long before he discovers that life can be just as cruel as it is kind.

Inspired by the song Tenderly Jack Lawrence and Walter Gross, a tender animation on a florist and a sweeper that she falls madly in love.

An agit-prop edutainment ho down featuring a bevy of warrior lapdancers struggling to overthrow corporate state capitalism and rancid criminal globalisation through amateur wrestling, gun juggling and anarchist debate.

Begoña is a thirty something consultant who has rebelled against her upper middle class background and has overdone it with sex ever since her youth. On recommendation of her psychoanalyst she keeps a video diary of her encounters using a palm-sized video gadget called "The Owl". On Christmas Eve, reluctantly, Begoña goes to have dinner with her dysfunctional family: her stern mother, her married brother and her younger sister. Soon, Begoña, the family’s black sheep, clash with her relatives. She leaves abruptly in disharmony, only her sister seems sympathetic towards her. The same night in a bar, Begoña is befriended by Daniel a solitary handsome man in his late teens. The attractive and self assure Begoña draws his attention, but when her on and off ex boyfriend Elio, and adventurous biker, shows up at the bar, an argument ensures between Elio and Daniel.

In a span of ninety minutes the film aims to show how the Netherlands administered its colony as a colonial enterprise and what the relations were like at the time. The usual commentary has been omitted and in its place poems and songs in Bahasa Indonesia have been included in a digital sound composition. In Mother Dao the Turtlelike, the viewer sees how the colonial machinery in the 1920s was implanted in a world so different from Western Europe.

Lost Caverns Hotel bellhop Freddie Phillips is suspected of murder. Swami Talpur tries to hypnotize Freddie into confessing, but Freddie is too stupid for the plot to work. Inspector Wellman uses Freddie to get the killer (and it isn't the Swami).

Billy Bigelow has been dead for 15 years. Now outside the pearly gates, he long ago waived his right to go back to Earth for a day. He has heard that there is a problem with his family: namely with his wife Julie Bigelow, née Jordan, and his child he hasn't met. He would now like to head back to Earth to assist in rectifying the problem; but before he may go, he has to get permission from the gatekeeper by telling him his story. Adapted from the Rodgers and Hammerstein hit Broadway musical.

In Africa, many years ago, Slim and Tom don't like it when a German tyrant, starts selling all of the African wildlife to Canadian Zoo's! Slim and Tom must teach this guy a lesson by beating the hell out of him and his gang, left and right! Written by Mark MacIntyre {page13@fastmail.ca}

Three soldiers get trapped in an elevator when terrorists set off a dirty bomb. But when White escapes, her world turns upside down as she realizes nothing is what it seems.

Dr. Malcolm Sayer, a shy research physician, uses an experimental drug to "awaken" the catatonic victims of a rare disease. Leonard is the first patient to receive the controversial treatment. His awakening, filled with awe and enthusiasm, proves a rebirth for Sayer too, as the exuberant patient reveals life's simple but unutterably sweet pleasures to the introverted doctor.

A young writer called Mati is stalking his ex-wife, while also trying to make unsuccessful passes at other women. Augusti is a barber living a dreary bachelor life who forms a bond with little girl, but his approaches are misconstrued as pedophilia. Laura, a single mom, tears up over sappy soap operas, but refuses real-life advances from clueless men, because her ability to trust has been ruined by her violent drunk of an ex-husband. Maurer, the architect, worries about the wellbeing of humanity, but ignores his own wife Ulvi, who in turn looks for solace in the arms of a coatroom attendant named Theo. Women have always liked Theo, but due to his low social status, they don't take him seriously. All of these people might inhabit identical tower blocks, but they couldn't feel more alienated from each other if they tried.

Jacob Fisher, an Orthodox Jewish Cantor and amateur songwriter who resides in Brooklyn, New York, witnesses the senseless murder of his wife and three children. Catatonic, Jacob walks out on his Jewish mourning ritual, leaving behind his Jewish garments, wallet and keys. Abandoning his identity, he wanders aimlessly, hoping somehow to understand his tragedy. Fortuitously, he lands in Brent, Alabama (population 2,500), where he is embraced by Nina, a single mother and the lead singer of a small gospel choir, her Uncle Moe and their gospel community.

Quickie-mart employee Melissa and paraplegic Richie are very much in love. Supported only by Melissa’s small hourly wage, they are nevertheless thrilled to learn that Melissa is pregnant. Then their situation deteriorates, and their tenuous financial situation threatens to bring their happy life crashing down.

Three college students, another couple, their housekeeper are besieged at a remote Brazilian plantation by a group of zombies raised by a voodoo curse.