Film Reviews

I Died a Thousand Times is essentially a remake of the 1941 crime-drama classic High Sierra. Jack Palance steps into the old Humphrey Bogart role as Roy "Mad Dog" Earle, the ageing bank robber who intends to pull off one last heist before retiring. Sprung from prison by likeable crime boss Big Mac (Lon Chaney Jr.), Earle is commissioned to mastermind the robbery of a resort hotel. His partners in crime include the hotheaded, immature Babe (Lee Marvin) and Red (Earl Holliman), as well as "inside man" Mendoza (Perry Lopez). Also along for the ride is Marie (Shelley Winters), a dance-hall girl whom Babe has picked up. Marie falls in love with Earle, but he has eyes only for Velma (Lori Nelson), the club-footed daughter of a farmer (Ralph Moody) whom Earle had earlier befriended. While the 1955 film cannot match the excellence of its 1941 role model, I Died a Thousand Times works quite well on its own terms.

The leader of a marching band demonstrates an unusual way of writing music.

The Night Before is a 1988 film starring Keanu Reeves and Lori Loughlin. Reeves plays Winston Connelly, the so-called high school nerd and vice president of the Astronomy club. Loughlin plays Tara Mitchell, the pretty and popular head cheerleader who also happens to be the local police chief's daughter. The Tagline was: "You lost your father's car. Sold your prom date. And a guy named 'Tito' wants you dead." It was filmed and set entirely in Los Angeles, California.

Due to a revolution in his country, King Shahdov comes to New York - almost broke. To get some money he goes to TV, making commercials and meets the child from communist parents. Due to this he is suddenly a suspected as a communist himself and has to face one of McCarthy's hearings.

Ewa lives in Poland, Jakub in Germany. Her world is a TV newsroom; his a science lab and lecture hall. They have met once before on passing trains at Berlin ZOO Station, but neither of them remember this encounter. They accidentally meet again--they both take a liking to the same painting on an internet auction. From that moment on they start meeting on the net and become closer and closer to each other. Safely, from a distance, they take a chance and it seems they are close to a win. Eventually they decide to meet in person. He makes the journey from New Orleans, she takes off from Warsaw. This time their tracks cross in Paris. But fate likes to play a hand too and she turns out to be a sophisticated player.

Wartime romance about a lonely man and woman who meet one rainy afternoon in New York.

The Waiting Room is a character-driven documentary film that uses extraordinary access to go behind the doors of an American public hospital struggling to care for a community of largely uninsured patients. The film - using a blend of cinema verité and characters' voice over - offers a raw, intimate, and even uplifting look at how patients, executive staff and caregivers each cope with disease, bureaucracy and hard choices. It is a film about fighting for survival when the odds are stacked against you.

Robert Drew shows various faces during John F. Kennedy's funeral.

The story of writer William Seward Burroughs and his wife.

The Angels are charged with finding a pair of missing rings that are encoded with the personal information of members of the Witness Protection Program. As informants are killed, the ladies target a rogue agent who might be responsible.

After being cut from the USA softball team and feeling a bit past her prime, Lisa finds herself evaluating her life and in the middle of a love triangle, as a corporate guy in crisis competes with her current, baseball-playing beau.

Henry Jekyll is a young science student who, along with his friend Mary, experiments with various drugs and compounds in order to create a personality-enhancing drug that he believes will turn him into the successful and popular person he so craves to be. But after testing the drug on Mary and himself, Jekyll discovers it has horrific consequences - ones that he might not be able to control.

A woman dressed elegantly walks purposely through the water gardens at the Villa d'Este in Tivoli, as the music of Vivaldi's Winter movement of The Four Seasons plays. Heavy red filters give a blue cast to the light; water plays across stone, and fountains send it into the air. No words are spoken. Baroque statuary and the sensuous flow of water are back lit. Anger calls it water games.

A real-time dark comedy about a science geek who tangles with a clutch of Russian gangsters after he delivers them the wrong computer disk.

Suburban housewife Liz discovers that husband Stephen is abusing their daughter. She confronts him and reports him to the authorities, but also decides to try to help him recover from what must be "a sickness". Stephen is tried and imprisoned. When he leaves prison, Liz arranges for him to receive treatment at a residential clinic for sex offenders, where he undergoes intensive therapy. Stephen finally faces his guilt and the consequences of his abuse. The family decide to rebuild their lives together. Is this right? Is it even possible? And – if they do - what's the emotional cost?