Film Reviews

Crippled Avengers is a 1978 Shaw Brothers kung fu film directed by Chang Cheh and starring four members of the Venom Mob. It has been released in North America as Mortal Combat and Return of the 5 Deadly Venoms. The film follows a group of martial artists seeking revenge after being crippled by Tu Tin-To (Chen Kuan Tai), a martial arts master, and his son (Lu Feng).

Four young officers of the Hong Kong Police are joined together to fight against organised crime using all possible means, even if this would lead them to break the law… Their first assignment is to eliminate a gang of criminals who have stolen a shipload of explosives.

Three stories are told, respectively set in Tokyo, Taipei, and Shanghai. The first two stories are about a Japanese person and a Taiwanese person. The last one is set in Shanghai with a story about a Japanese man and a Chinese woman. Some of the characters can speak Japanese and some of them Mandarin. Each story encompasses an experience of a foreigner, either from Japan ,Taiwan or China, with a native of the opposite country.

In this evocative story told ingeniously with minimal dialogue, men and women from various backgrounds and places each deal with the loss of a loved one.

A chronicle of an eccentric Italian-American family in New York City in the 1950's and 60's. Young Teresa dreams of joing the convent, over the objections of her family.

Kiwi black-comedy about Nige and best mate Deano (Flight of the Conchord's Brett McKenzie and Hamish & Andy's Hamish Blake). Directed by Robert Sarkies (Scarfies, Out of the Blue), based on the book written by brother Duncan Sarkies. Nige (McKenzie) runs over and accidently kills a Scandinavian soccer star in an unfortunate incident involving a hot meat pie, a ginger cat and a policeman. He chucks the body in a nearby road works hole and runs to his best mate of fifteen years, Deano (Blake). But Deano's not the guy you should turn to in a crisis...

An inexplicable crack in the Pyrenees Mountains provokes excitement and scientific curiosity. As the geological fracture deepens and widens, the European community begins to disassociate itself from the calamity, and panic ensues among tourists and residents attempting to escape. When Spain and Portugal physically separate from the continent, the detached Iberian peninsula aimlessly floats off to sea, becoming home to a group of god-like humans.

In 1994 two young twins are found brutally murdered in a summer cottage. A number of clues points in the direction of a group of young upper class students from a nearby boarding school, but the case is closed as a local outsider pleads guilty and is convicted for the murders. When the case ends up on Carls Mørck’s desk 20 years later, he soon realises that something is terribly wrong. As Carl and Assad start investigating the case, they are led on to an old emergency call from a desperate girl who seems to know the secrets of the murders. Soon they are plunged into an intense search for the girl, Kimmie, who has been missing since the murders happened. But Carl and Assad are not the only ones trying to track her down as the girl’s testimonial is of great danger to a group of influential men at the top of society who will do all they can to keep her silent.

In Paris, a young American who works as a Michael Jackson lookalike meets Marilyn Monroe, who invites him to her commune in Scotland, where she lives with Charlie Chaplin and her daughter, Shirley Temple.

A tough-as-nails detective embarks on a relentless pursuit to free his son from a nightmarish alien warship.

Riding Giants is story about big wave surfers who have become heroes and legends in their sport. Directed by the skateboard guru Stacy Peralta.

When Ripley's lifepod is found by a salvage crew over 50 years later, she finds that terra-formers are on the very planet they found the alien species. When the company sends a family of colonists out to investigate her story, all contact is lost with the planet and colonists. They enlist Ripley and the colonial marines to return and search for answers.

Cassie works as a teller at the bank where her mother is the branch manager. When the bank is robbed, Cassie is taken hostage. She soon finds out that the bank robbers are teenage girls, one of whom is her best friend, Abbie. In this propulsive real time, ticking clock thriller, as the girls are on the run from the police, we learn that the real motivation behind the robbery is something unexpected.

Criminal psychiatrist, Jake Nyman is taking a much needed vacation from responsibility. An experimental road trip during which ever decision will be made on a flip of a coin. Meanwhile, Sandra Thomas, disenchanted professional, is en route to pick up her flunked out sister, Alice, at a cheap motel before continuing on to visit their ailing mother. After being forced off the road by a mysterious assailant, however, Sandra is picked up by Jake, who's coin flipping amoral attitude quickly excites her own desire to break a few rules. Or worse. Jake and Sandra's romance is soon driven by chance acts of crime and kindness, all governed by the flip of a coin - at least until Sandra mysteriously disappears and Jake unwittingly picks up her suspicious sister, Alice ...

In the fifth century, constant civil war scars western China. To escape death, Ti, a young scout, jumps through a crevice in the Zu mountains where he meets and becomes the apprentice of Ting Yin, a spiritual man with great fighting powers. They encounter a monk, Hsiao Yu, also a great fighter and a good man, but unfriendly to Ting. Because Ting and Hsiao can't work together, it falls to Ti to team with Hsiao's acolyte Yi Chen: they have 49 days to travel far to claim two swords that are the only weapons that can defeat the Blood Demon, who has decided the wreak havoc on the world. They get help from Long Brows, Ting falls in love with a countess, and civil war still rages.