Film Reviews

Shoot the Messenger follows one man's painful journey towards self-discovery. On the way he finds both his own attitudes and the expectations of his community challenged.

Footage shot in and around the Sahara Desert, accompanied only by a spoken creation myth and the songs of Leonard Cohen.

Hollywood, 1927: As silent movie star George Valentin wonders if the arrival of talking pictures will cause him to fade into oblivion, he sparks with Peppy Miller, a young dancer set for a big break.

An artist, Steve Rogers, is nearly murdered by spies, looking for his late father's national secrets. He is saved during surgery when a secret formula is injected into him; this serum not only heals him but also gives him fantastic strength and lightning reflexes. To help him solve the mystery behind his father s murder and bring those guilty to justice, a government agency equips him with a special motorcycle loaded with gadgets and an indestructible shield. Now armed, he battles against the nation's enemies as the Sentinel of Liberty, Captain America.

Two guys, one of them a magician, are transporting an ancient chinese vampire who can only be controlled by a series of yellow tapes, and is the ancestor of the other guy. On the way, while flying over Africa, their plane stalls. And of all places, where do they land? That's right, in the village of the tribe of "The Gods Must Be Crazy".

The employees of a radio station in Moscow are forced to organize the elections campaign for a future governor in one of Russia districts.

The factories, pubs, clubs, hotels and streets of 1980s Liverpool form the backdrop for this tale of love, friendship, sex and a letter to the Soviet leader, Leonid Brezhnev. Two Liverpool lasses, Teresa and Elaine meet two Russian sailors, Sergei and Peter and hook up for a night of fun and frolics. Teresa is looking for sex and a smile, Elaine wants love, romance and the dream of a life far away from the grime of the Liverpool docklands. A classic British romantic comedy filled with new wave tunes, 80s fashion, a little politics and a lot of heart.

A woman is being watched in her apartment by a stranger, who also calls and torments her. A cat-and-mouse game begins.

The first Russian emo-movie, Closed Spaces is a story about the newest generation of Russians. Having grown up in Russia's crazy 1990s, an era filled with constant and drastic change, these teenagers have no solid ground beneath their feet. They are trapped in a strange world in which their money-obsessed parents lead senseless lives and even kill each other. Vika is twenty years old. She has black fingernail polish, wears pink dresses, and is constantly depressed. While working at a pizza place, she gets an order for a pizza delivery from Venya, a strange twenty year old boy who lives all alone in a deserted apartment in the middle of Moscow. Venya suffers from agarophobia, the fear of open space. When Vika arrives Venya lets her in and locks the door behind her.

After Zane Ziminski is found dead five people received envelopes with details of an alien invasion. This group of five includes 3 scientists, Zane's brother Jack, and a reporter. Quickly, the group is down to three and then Jack and Bridget, the reporter. With a small piece of alien technology, they must escape from the aliens, who take human form, and try to convince others that aliens exist.

Charlie Murphy: I Will Not Apologize is a live stand-up performance by Murphy in Boston. During his 1-hour set, Charlie covers a spectrum of topics, such as a discussing the male ego as well as a politically incorrect bit about people, including a certain former president of the United States, that he believes are "functionally retarded." He also does an amusing re-enactment of some scenes from 300. Murphy goes on to criticize the usual rehabilitation treatments ensuing from celebrity meltdowns (e.g., Mel Gibson and Michael Richards), arguing that an experience with Jigsaw from Saw is the only way to cure these people of their prejudices. Sticking with celebrities, he claims that Britney Spears's strange behaviour in 2007-08 was caused by her being possessed by the spirit of Rick James. In addition, Charlie hits on reality television, making fun of the courage (or lack thereof) of Dog the Bounty Hunter as well as an obsession with The Dog Whisperer.

A young, white teacher is assigned to an isolated island off the coast of South Carolina populated mostly by poor black families. He finds that the basically illiterate, neglected children there know so little of the world outside their island.

A group of Australian SAS regiment soldiers are deployed to Vietnam around 1967/8 and encounter the realities of war, from the numbing boredom of camp life and long range patrols, raids and ambushes where nothing happens, to the the terror of enduring mortar barrages from an unseen enemy. Men die and are crippled in combat by firefights and booby traps, soldiers kill and capture the enemy, gather intelligence and retake ground only to cede it again whilst battling against the bureaucracy and obstinacy of the conventional military hierarchy. In the end they return to civilization, forever changed by their experiences but glad to return to the life they once knew.

Psychiatrist Dr. Lila Colleti is divorcing her husband and is devastated when he wins custody of their two little girls, whom he gets largely because Lila's job, being a psychiatrist for the criminally insane at the local prison, is a potentially dangerous one that forces her to keep long, erratic hours. When one of Lila's patients, Ed Baikman, is released into a half-way house, he decides under the delusional influence of his psychosis to help her out by murdering her ex-husband and his girlfriend, and then threatening to tell the cops they'd planned it together when she refuses to become romantically involved with him. Though Lila's lover, police detective Macy Kobacek, stands by her loyally, Baikman does such an ingenious job of implicating Lila in the crime that even Macy begins to have his doubts about Lila's innocence

Alcoholic newspaperman Steve Bramley boards the San Capador for a restful cruise, hoping to quit drinking and begin writing a book. Also on board are Steve's friend Schulte, a private detective hoping to nab criminal Danny Checkett with a fortune in stolen bonds. Steve begins drinking, all the while observing the various stories of other passengers on board, several of whom turn out not to be who they seem to be.