Film Reviews

Big Bang Love tells the story of two young prisoners from different backgrounds whose bond transcends their pasts. This stunning, imaginative film has been adapted from Masaki Ato's homoerotic graphic novel. Two beautiful young men become lovers in jail until one kills again. As they open their hearts to each other, life around them dissolves between the real world with a murder mystery and a surreal journey filled with images of a primitive past and an ambiguous future.

Somewhere behind the early 1960s cold-war iron curtain, the Hollander family cause an international spying incident when Walter photographs a sunset in a sensitive region. In order to stay out of jail, the Hollanders take refuge in the American Embassy, which is temporarily being run by the absent Ambassador's diplomatically incompetent son, Axel.

The comedic stylings of four sort-of famous funnymen are brought to the big screen courtesy of this 2002 documentary.

The obvious inspiration for this short film is Georges Méliès' 1903 A TRIP TO THE MOON, but while Méliès based his movie on a Jules Verne novel, this clearly is based on H.G. Wells' FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON -- with the names rubbed off and the site of the action changed to avoid lawsuits. Even though we see the same sort of mix of stage and movie magic that Méliès used, the purpose has shifted subtly from being special effects that the audience would gape at, to special effects that are used to get from plot point A to plot point B. When chairs float in the air, it is not to frighten and bewilder the audience and the movie's character, but to illustrate the invention of anti-gravity. When the scientist flails about while seeming to fly through outer space, it is to get to Mars. Special effects are no longer the point of the movie. They are part of the grammar.

A second-generation male maid fights to save the girl he loves and their historic hotel from the clutches of a hostile developer.

Harry and his pals are back for more adventure than ever when they face off against dark wizards, demented monsters, and the most horrible woman in the world, Dolores Umbridge! So strap on your diapers because it's time to go back to Hogwarts!

A terminally ill single mother is determined to reconcile her splintered family.

"A Whole Different Story..." sees Kevin take us on a journey of his under the radar infiltration into the middle classes, and about living in the West End of Glasgow where things aren’t quite as they used to be. Of course, with this comes the added novelty of having money for the first time and Kevin shares his views on that, as well as musing on politics, and the ever-topical Scottish referendum. The razor sharp wit on show here proves he is one of the UK’s brightest young talents and really makes this the DVD for any comedy fan this Christmas.

Essentially a two-person character study, the film stars Paul Muni as a down-and-out crook on the lam. Muni befriends a young street urchin (Vittorio Mazzunchelli, billed as "Manunta" in many prints) in an Italian port city. At first amused that the boy is a sneak thief, Muni tries to deflects the kid from a life of crime. Tipped off by a woman anxious to collect the reward for Muni (who is wanted for murder), the police pursue the two lost souls.

Tou former boxers meet in the ring again after years for a re-run of an old match. The old loser currently works as a factory executive and he is unwilling to reconcile with his old defeat. He challenges the old winner, whose job in a garage puts him on the opposite end ofthe career ladder. The match is a battle fought between two men who stand for two different attitudes to life. The confrontation results in the revelation that the winner is not always the one whose arm is raised by the referee after the last round.

When the crew of an American tugboat boards an abandoned Russian research vessel, the alien life form aboard regards them as a virus which must be destroyed.

The Planet Express crew return from cancellation, only to be robbed blind by hideous "sprunging" scam artists. Things go from bad to worse when the scammers hack Bender, start traveling through time, and take Earth over entirely! Will the crew be able to save the day, or will Bender's larcenous tendencies and their general incompetence doom them all?

The low budget film starring the young Bruce Campbell that influenced the Evil Dead films.

Harry and Willie are scammed into buying the Thomas Edison studio lot by a man named Gorman. They decide to follow Gorman's trail to Hollywood where, unbeknownst to them, he has taken the identity of a foreign film director. The lads wind up as stunt doubles in film the which Gorman is now shooting, while the conman tries to have the bungling pair done away with before they realize who he really is.

Comedy about Frank, a hermit with Tourette Syndrome who is thrust into the harsh realities of the world when his caregiver dies. After recognizing that Frank is despondent, the caregiver's teenage daughter, Laura, drags a reluctant Frank along on a life-changing road trip with Laura and her friends. - Garrett M. Brown, Rachel DiPillo, Mary Kate Wiles