Film Reviews

Like in many other Monicelli movies, the main theme of Amici miei is friendship, seen from a rather bitter point of view. It tells the story of four middle-aged friends in Florence who organize together idle pranks (called zingarate, "gypsy shenanigans") in a continuous attempt to prolong childhood during their adult life.

In 2001, Andrew Bagby, a medical resident, is murdered not long after breaking up with his girlfriend. Soon after, when she announces she's pregnant, one of Andrew's many close friends, Kurt Kuenne, begins this film, a gift to the child.

A woman lies on the sand, left there by the tides and waves (and in a pose that would be copied in From Here to Eternity). She reaches up across tree roots and makes a difficult climb. Only to discover herself climbing horizontally along a long dinner table as bourgeoise black-tie guests chat and drink and smoke, oblivious to her. At the top of the table, a man is playing chess but abandons the game. Fascinated, she gazes at board, the pieces moving unaided. The woman chases a pawn as it falls to the floor. Falls down a waterfall. Is lost.

Friends since high school, 20-somethings Kaleil Isaza Tuzman and Tom Herman have an idea: a Web site for people to conduct business with municipal governments. This documentary tracks the rise and fall of govWorks.com from May of 1999 to December of 2000, and the trials the business brings to the relationship of these best friends. Kaleil raises the money, Tom's the technical chief. A third partner wants a buy out; girlfriends come and go; Tom's daughter needs attention. And always the need for cash and for improving the site. Venture capital comes in by the millions. Kaleil is on C-SPAN, CNN, and magazine covers. Will the business or the friendship crash first?

Den här gången är Jönssonligan verkligen illa ute. Charles-Ingvar Jönsson, "Sickan" kallad, har dragit sig tillbaka. Vanheden och Dynamit-Harry är lämnade åt sig själva. Polisen jublar förstås, men Jönssonligan avskriver man inte så lätt! De är tillbaka... Fräckare!... Roligare!... tidigare! Denna gång anförda av den genialiske doktor M.A. Busé - och målet är Romanoffs diamant som nu ställs ut på Nationalmuseum i Stockholm...

Husband (senior ministry official) and wife find their house is riddled with listening devices put there by his own ministry. A harrowing night follows (reminiscent of 'Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf'), and the resolution is worse than being carted off to jail

Broadway producer, Max Bialystock and his accountant, Leo Bloom plan to make money by charming little old ladies to invest in a production many times over what it will actually cost, and then put on a sure-fire flop, so nobody will ask for their money back – and what can be a more certain flop than a tasteless musical celebrating Hitler.

Adaptation of Thomas Hardy's novel.

Officer Chris McCullers was gravely injured in a shootout and now works on 911-dispatch. Resentful that her career has ended up here, Chris receives a call from a scared kid and dismisses it as a prank. The next day, she learns that the call was all too real: there's been a murder.

School's out, exams are over, and it's time for real life to begin. But before 12 friends from the International High School in Prague disappear to the four corners of the earth, they intend to throw the best party of their lives. The idea to stage the party in Prague's biggest swimming pool is illegal but cool. And when Gregor, the laid-back leader of the group thinks an idea is good, then no-one else from the group objects. But what begins as the night of all nights quickly turns into a life and death struggle, as the friends come to realise that death itself is on the guest list... A mysterious masked killer sets a hunt in motion that ranges through the facility's halls and corridors. As the kids panic it begins to dawn on them that the killer must be one of them...

The film concerns a sleepy town that is populated mostly by aliens who have been pretending to be humans for a lengthy period of time in order to eventually strip the planet of resources they need to live.