Film Reviews

German apparently disavowed this, his first film, because of his co-director Grigori Aranov's more classical approach (and his kowtowing to Soviet authority); too bad, because it's something of a knockout. A brilliant, gripping portrait of the era of "Red Terror" during the civil war that followed the Bolshevik revolution, The Seventh Companion offers a superlative character study in General Adamov (Andrei Popov), a law professor in the tsarist army, who is incarcerated by the Bolshevik secret police along with many other members of the bourgeoisie. Finally released into the new world of the Soviet Union, the resigned officer finds that he has lost everything from his old life except a mantel clock that he carries through the night from place to place, until he ends up, like Rossellini's inmate seeking readmission to prison in Dovè la liberta?, back where he started.

The story recounts the early life of Genghis Khan, a slave who went on to conquer half the world in the 11th century.

Gary, a musician, is trapped in an unhappy relationship with his live-in lover, Dora. He becomes enthralled with a beautiful seductress who enters his dreams, and tries to control his dream-state so he can spend more and more time with her. When Gary sees his mystery woman's face on a bus billboard, he discovers she is real, and fate brings him an opportunity to meet her.

The spaceship AAB-Gamma is dispatched from FAFC headquarters in Japan to make a landing on the planet Mars and investigate reports of UFOs in the area. As they near the red planet, they encounter a mysterious UFO that coats the ship's hull with unusual spores. Taking one of the specimens back to earth, it soon develops and grows into a giant chicken-lizard-alien monster that tramples Japan.

Three vicious thugs are on the run in rural America after robbing a local bank. They seek refuge at the home of a reclusive farmer, but he is prepared for their arrival and holds them at gunpoint. Unable to let them simply wait for the law, he decides to take them into into his cellar and torture them a little before the police arrive.

Andrew (Jase Blankfort) and his older brother Carl (Trey Rogers) enjoy listening to ghost stories that the local undertaker (Frank Langella) tells them. One night he tells the tale of a local farmer whose wife gave birth to Siamese twins, one being good natured while the other was clearly evil. The farmer, ashamed of them, kept the twins locked in their room. Eventually the twins got sick and died together, so the farmer sawed them in half and buried the good twin in a cemetery and the bad twin in a shallow grave near the house. Later, Carl and his friends decide to hold a séance in the cemetery where the good twin is buried, but they unintentionally awaken the bad twin instead. Gradually, he possesses nearly everyone in town and it is up to young Andrew to stop him.

An American soldier deployed at Abu Ghraib finds himself behind the walls of the infamous Hard Site, where he develops a secret friendship with an Iraqi detainee.

The Live action adaptation of a Disney Classic. When a litter of dalmatian puppies are abducted by the minions of Cruella De Vil, the parents must find them before she uses them for a diabolical fashion statement.

Set against a backdrop of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Palestinian rapper Kareem and his singer girlfriend Manar struggle, love and make music in their crime-ridden ghetto and Tel Aviv's hip-hop club scene.

Anton is a cheerful but exceedingly non-ambitious 17-year-old stoner who lives to stay buzzed, watch TV, and moon over Molly, the beautiful girl who lives next door. However, it turns out that the old cliché about idle hands being the devil's playground has a kernel of truth after all.

A group of young people leave Harlem for a bus trip down to Miami. The voyage starts off with problems, but it ends up becoming a learning experience, as they end up learning things about each other they had not previously known.

Sully (Ethan Hawke) is desperate to give his unborn son the chance he never had. Jasper (Seymour Cassel) wants to escape the mobsters that have infiltrated his life and business. Parmie Tarzo (Vincent D'Onofrio), a local mob boss, dreams of crushing the competition. All three men live in Staten Island... once their lives intersect, nothing will ever be the same.

Like some other kids, 12-year-old Trevor McKinney believed in the goodness of human nature. Like many other kids, he was determined to change the world for the better. Unlike most other kids, he succeeded.

Hoffa floats ashore in Estonia after his stolen getaway boat has exploded. He tries to begin a new life in Estonia, but the longing for his family back home becomes too big and he decides to get back to Sweden. Now a tough struggle begins to get himself home to the family, a family that has moved on with their lives and also thinks that he's dead. A past as a bank robber and a fugitive is not making the journey easier. Along the way back to Sweden more problems arise that makes it even harder for him to meet his family again. Meantime back in Sweden his family is struggling with difficulties which they don't know how to solve. The time is running out and things don't look good at all.

Uuno disguises as an old man and infiltrates a nursing home for rich old people, where his father-in-law also lives. The ever-hungry Uuno is seduced by the table groaning with food, but as it happens, he never manages to be there at dinnertime. Meanwhile Sörsselssön enters Uuno for a TV competition named This Is My Life, where contestants tell about their life as viewers vote them either to continue or out of the show. The nursing home elderly watch on TV as Uuno tells the show's host his life story.