Film Reviews

The Twentieth Century Approaches is a 1986 Soviet film adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's stories about Sherlock Holmes. It is the fifth film in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson film series directed by Igor Maslennikov. The film is based on four stories by Conan Doyle - "The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb", "The Adventure of the Second Stain", "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans", "His Last Bow".

A man in a gleaming white suit comes to a small Southern town on the eve of integration. He calls himself a social reformer. But what he does is stir up trouble--trouble he soon finds he can't control.

Lucas Marsh, an intern bent upon becoming a first-class doctor, not merely a successful one. He courts and marries the warm-hearted Kristina, not out of love but because she is highly knowledgeable in the skills of the operating room and because she has frugally put aside her savings through the years. She will be, as he shrewdly knows, a supportive wife in every way. She helps make him the success he wants to be and cheerfully moves with him to the small town in which he starts his practice. But as much as he tries to be a good husband to the undemanding Kristina, Marsh easily falls into the arms of a local siren and the patience of the long-sorrowing Kristina wears thin.

The town's leading citizen is a man victim of homicidal impulses beyond his control. He is being controlled by his wife who had left him for another man. She was involved in a car accident that has left her brain damaged and is kept in the basement, in secret, by Kessler's gardener.

Based on a play by David Rabe, Hurlyburly is about the intersecting lives of several Hollywood players and wannabes, whose dysfunctional personal lives are more interesting than anything they're peddling to the studios.

From Wikipedia: "On the Road is a Japanese documentary from 1964 directed by Noriaki Tsuchimoto. The film focuses on the taxi drivers of Tokyo in the year before the Tokyo Olympics and the difficulties they face: construction obstructing traffic, poor working conditions, numerous accidents, and bad pay. It becomes a critique of a changing and modernizing urban Japan."

Friends Gary Black (Nathan Phillips) and Dumby Red (Luke Carroll) are on the same soccer team in their coastal Australian town. But to local racists, they're a world apart: Gary is white and Dumby is an Aborigine. This becomes an issue when one of the team's Aboriginal players becomes involved in a crime. In response, Dumby is demoted even though he's the star player, and Gary is given his place. Will Gary have the courage to speak out before tragedy results?

A rising young attorney successfully defends a man accused of murder, only to have the same type of murder then happen again. Right away the previously defended man hires the attorney again, and although the attorney is quite certain that he is the killer, he agrees to again defend him... much to the consternation of his friends. However, he explains that by being his attorney he will be better able to catch the man in a mistake... and on this the rest of the film develops, with the killer playing a cat and mouse game with the attorney until, at last, they both must recognize that they are not all that different.

Ballard's trail jumpers attack the Wyatt Company wagon train, killing young John's parents and kidnaping his brother, Jim. In post-Civil War California, John Wyatt, now a man, pulls together a vigilante posse, The Singing Riders, who all ride white horses, dress alike, and ride the trails singing and rounding up outlaw gangs. Meanwhile, John is ever on the lookout for the gang that murdered his parents As a youngster John Wyatt saw his parents killed and his brother kidnapped. On a wagon train heading West he meets his brother who is now a spy for the gang which originally did the dirty work. He and his brother both fall for Mary Gordon When Ballard and his men attack the Wyatt wagon train, they kill all except two young brothers. Twelve years later one brother John has organized a vigilante group. The other brother Jim is now part of Ballard's gang and the two are destined to meet again

During her freshman year in high school, Mika Tahara (Yui Aragaki) loses her cellular phone, but later finds it in the school library with the help of an unknown caller. Throughout the summer, Mika and the mysterious caller continue to communicate, and agree to meet each other once school starts again. The caller turns out to be Hiro (Haruma Miura), a delinquent-like boy Mika is initially afraid of, who shows proof of his identity as the caller with a photo of the sky on his cellular phone.

Two young children and an adult in a small town have an encounter with an alien spaceship. 25 years later the children are reunited as adults in the same town which is now beset by strange cattle mutilations. Matters become worse when the cattle mutilations are joined by human murders and mutilations.

Four unwitting heroes cross paths on their journey to the sleepy town of Silverado. Little do they know the town where their family and friends reside has been taken over by a corrupt sheriff and a murderous posse. It's up to the sharp-shooting foursome to save the day, but first they have to break each other out of jail, and learn who their real friends are.

The passionate affair of a young woman trapped in a marriage of convenience unleashes a maelstrom of murder and mayhem on a country estate.

Dr. Richard Sturgess leads a team of compassionate doctors at a veteran's hospital. Along with Drs. Morgan, Handleman and Van Dorn, he fights to deliver adequate care to needy veterans in the face of funding cuts and a corrupt administration. To succeed, the staff may have to bend the rules and circumvent the villainous "Article 99," a bureaucratic loophole that prevents veterans from receiving the benefits they deserve.

Guddu and Charlie are identical twins born and raised in the slums of Mumbai. They dream of leaving the squalor behind and moving into a life of prosperity and dignity. Though they look alike, the two are as different as chalk and cheese. One lisps, the other stammers. One is an honest, diligent social worker while the other hedges bets at a racecourse. The brothers want nothing to do with each other. But when Charlie gets mixed up in a deadly get-rich-quick scheme and Guddu realizes that the love of his life has unwittingly put a price on his head, their lives begin to collide. They find themselves facing rogue politicians, drug dealers and crooked cops. As they uncover a sinister plot laid out by the 'political-police-underworld' nexus, their stories finally converge to a point when they realize they only have each other.