Film Reviews

A surreal blackbird made of lines is dancing to the music

Chu Liu-hsiang, the charming, capable, and, yes, sentimental, swordsman is back in action for this extremely well-named third in the hit box-office series. The titanic team of director Chu Yuan and novelist Ku Lung wisely choose to give their hero a whole new, non-stop, cliffhanger-fraught adventure featuring a mystery swordsman, a sensual swordswoman, an imperial assassin, a Ghost Mansion, the Bat Island, a booby-trapped tunnel, double crosses, and secret missions. And there are no fewer than three martial arts choreographers on hand to guide the amazing mayhem.

An adventure set in the early part of the 20th century, focused on a popular novelist and her dealings with would-be suitors, the cops, monsters, and other distractions.

Csontvary Kostka Tivadar was a Hungarian painter, and the actor Latinovitsj Zoltan, who was originally slated to play him in the film, committed suicide during the preliminary planning.

After spending several months in an orbiting lab, three astronauts prepare to return to earth only to find their rockets wont fire. After initially thinking they might have to abandon them in orbit, NASA decides to launch a daring rescue. Their plans are complicated by a Hurricane headed towards the launch site and a shrinking air supply in the astronauts capsule.

When the daughter of a powerful senator is kidnapped by a psychopath, the senator requests a particular homicide detective, Caitlyn Conner, to head up the case. She knows the kidnapper better than anyone else - he just killed her husband. Against the advice of her closest friend, a police psychologist, Caitlyn enters the killer's web of sadistic games and discovers the crime is far more twisted than anyone imagined.

Barney, Christmas and the rest of the team comes face-to-face with Conrad Stonebanks, who years ago co-founded The Expendables with Barney. Stonebanks subsequently became a ruthless arms trader and someone who Barney was forced to kill… or so he thought. Stonebanks, who eluded death once before, now is making it his mission to end The Expendables -- but Barney has other plans. Barney decides that he has to fight old blood with new blood, and brings in a new era of Expendables team members, recruiting individuals who are younger, faster and more tech-savvy. The latest mission becomes a clash of classic old-school style versus high-tech expertise in the Expendables’ most personal battle yet.

A woman wakes up in a room with no memory of who she is or how she got there...

Victor Hugo's monumental novel Les Miserables has been filmed so often that sometimes it's hard to tell one version from another. One of the best and most faithful adaptations is this 240-minute French production, starring Jean Gabin as the beleaguered Jean Valjean. Arrested for a petty crime, Valjean spends years 20 in the brutal French penal system. Even upon his release, his trail is dogged by relentless Inspector Javert (Bernard Blier). Valjean's efforts to create a new life for himself despite the omnipresence of Javert is meticulously detailed in this film, which utilizes several episodes from the Hugo original that had hitherto never been dramatized. Originally released as a single film, Les Miserables was usually offered as a two parter outside of France.

A young man's life is turned upside down when his violent dreams begin to blend with reality.

The inspiring and tumultuous story of 85-year old surfer, health advocate and sex guru, Dr. Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz, his wife Juliette, and their nine children who were all home-schooled and raised in a small camper on the beach, where they surfed and had to adhere to the strict diet and lifestyle of animals in the wild.

Abandoned in a park, the two-year-old girl Asia is found by Patty, a circus woman living with her husband Walter in a trailer park in San Basilio on the outskirts of Rome. With the help of Tairo, a teenager who lives with his grandma in an adjacent container, Patti gives the girl a new home for an uncertain period of time. However, Walter is concerned that they may be accused of kidnapping the girl, and he plans to report Asia's presence to the police. . Patty receives a letter from the mother in which she announces that she will collect the girl two days later. They have a farewell party, but the mother does not show up.

Four old school friends reunite to attempt the epic coast to coast walk, across the United Kingdom. As their journey unfolds, this comically incompatible foursome walk full tilt into their mid-life crises.

Abandoned by his prostitute mother in 1920, Douzi was raised by a theater troupe. There he meets Shitou and over the following years the two develop an act entitled, "Farewell My Concubine," that brings them fame and fortune. When Shitou marries Juxian, Doutzi becomes jealous, the beginnings of the acting duo's explosive breakup and tragic fall take root.

Michael ‘Jay’ Cochran has just left the Navy after 12 years and he's not quite sure what he's going to do, except that he knows he wants a holiday. He decides to visit Tiburon Mendez, a powerful but shady Mexican businessman who he once flew to Alaska for a hunting trip. Arriving at the Mendez mansion in Mexico, he is immediately surprised by the beauty and youth of Mendez’s wife, Miryea.