Film Reviews

A reporter investigating the bizarre death of a woman who leaped from a building in flames finds herself mixed up in a cult of witches who are making her part of their sacrificial ceremony during the Christmas season.

A middle-aged, unemployed heroin-addict, Checkie, loiters on the Tbilisi street outside his son’s school, where he himself was once a promising student. His wife, meanwhile, struggles to pay the tuition and understand her husband’s lack of interest in the family’s survival—even as the bank repossesses their furniture. But when a group of policemen blackmails Checkie into entrapping the son of his wealthy friend, husband and wife are unified by the uncertainty of their deepening moral dilemma, and a series of worsening foul-ups, in Levan Koguashvili’s lightly humorous yet realistic drama about the fate of a generation left behind in Georgia’s post-Soviet era.

A 1950s author (Terumi Matthews) is transported to 1990s Brooklyn, where she meets a woman (Nicole Zaray) who reads about her life.

The film opens with narration by Jim Douglas and "memory" clips from the first film. The narration ends saying Herbie is now owned by an arrogant Scotsman named Simon Moore III (John Hannah), who abuses and insults Herbie until Herbie comes last in a race, not wanting to obey Simon. Furious, Simon sends Herbie to the junkyard. Meanwhile, Hank Cooper (Bruce Campbell), a mechanic in a small garage, is told to enter a race and persuaded to acquire Herbie. The judges are Donny Shotz (Micky Dolenz), a car enthusiast; Alex (Alexandra Wentworth), an old flame of Hank's; and Simon. When Herbie and Hank have won the race, Alex questions Hank, and he gives her a ride, wherein Herbie takes them to an isolated road. Meanwhile, Simon finds the engineer who created Herbie: Dr. Gustav Stumpful (Harold Gould), and requests a second such car: an evil, black edition, whom Simon names Horace.

Martin was a normal teenage boy before the country collapsed in an empty pit of economic and political disaster. A vampire epidemic has swept across what is left of the nation's abandoned towns and cities, and it's up to Mister, a death dealing, rogue vampire hunter, to get Martin safely north to Canada, the continent's New Eden.

An adventurous love story between two young women of different social and economic backgrounds who find themselves going through all the typical struggles of a new romance.

A four-year-old girl must come to terms with the loss of her mother and the reality of death in this award-winning French drama. Little Ponette (Victoire Thivisol) is riding in a car with her mother when they're involved in a serious accident; Ponette survives, but her mother does not. Her father (Xavier Beauvois) initially reacts with anger over his late wife's careless driving, while her Aunt Claire (Claire Nebout) tries to comfort the child by telling her about Jesus and the resurrection. However, none of this does much to reassure Ponette or clarify her confusion about the practical realities and spiritual dilemma posed by death. In time, Ponette and her cousins Matiaz (Matiaz Caton) and Delphine (Delphine Schiltz) are sent off to boarding school, where they have to resolve their confusion and loss on their own. ~Mark Deming, Rovi

A dozen foreigners are kidnapped by a terrorist group in the Philippines.

A rustic drama set in the early 20th century, Hound Dog Man is the simple story of a young man, Spud Kinney (Dennis Holmes) constantly in hot water for disobeying his mother (Betty Field). The lad should be watching the family farm, but he falls in with his older brother, Clint (pop music's teen heartthrob Fabian), and his reckless buddy Blackie Scantling (Stuart Whitman) who take him hunting in hillbilly country. The boy falls in love with a beautiful mountain girl (Carol Lynley), while Blackie has his own fling with another attractive hillbilly maiden, Nita Stringer (Dodie Stevens), and then becomes mixed up with an older, married woman, Sussie Bell (Margo Moore).

Daryl Davis has an unusual hobby. As a musician he has played with legends like Chuck Berry and Little Richard, but in his spare time he likes to meet and befriend members of the Ku Klux Klan. Join Daryl on his personal quest to understand racism.

Arn has served his term in the Holy land and returns home to be reunited with his beloved Cecilia. When he returns home, he discovers that political forces tries to separate him and Cecilia - but thanks to queen Blanka they can finally get married. Arn knows that war is looming and with his martial knowledge he starts to build an army at his new home at Forsvik.

Four fragile young people flee London to start an unconventional utopia, creating a world of fantasy that overwhelms them.

The film is notable for presenting a more human Jesus, compared to more solemn portrayals in earlier films; here Jesus laughs and cries like anyone else. Among other things, he weeps at Joseph’s funeral, throws stones in Lake Galilee when meeting Simon Peter and James son of Zebedee for the first time, dances at the wedding at Cana, and starts a water-splashing fight with his disciples as well. Satan is portrayed as a man in modern dress (and as a woman in red). During his temptation of Jesus, he shows him the Earth from the vantage point of space. Satan also shows Jesus images of wars and destruction carried out in his name. The film adds an apocryphal Roman historian named “Livio” who watches and comments as events unfold; he is presumably named after Livy.

A young woman's highly ordered and structured life is turned upside-down when she meets a handsome stranger at a party. Friendship soon develops into romance and for the first time in her life she is truly happy. This happiness is short lived, however, as little by little she discovers her partner has been lying to her about his past. It is soon revealed that he and his friends have been planning to rob the auction house that she works for and they require her inside knowledge in order to pull off the crime.

Stephen Fry travels through each of America's states in his black London taxi to discover, in his own charismatic style, what makes the country unique and to get under the skin of American life. His journey across the vast country takes him to a whiskey distillery in Kentucky, a brothel in Nevada, an Amish community in Wisconsin and the lava fields in Hawaii. He also goes hunting in New York State, sailing on an America's Cup yacht in Rhode Island, basket weaving with Navajo Indians and meets environmental activists in Oregon. Proud citizens show Stephen their country as he drives across the continent, uncovering the differences that make each state individual and the similarities that make America distinct.