Film Reviews

A loose adaptation of Dostoyevsky's novella White Nights, with the action transposed from 19th century Russia to modern-day France. One night, Jacques, a young man with artistic aspirations, sees a girl trying to commit suicide by jumping from a bridge. When he prevents her from jumping, Marthe tells him that she has become desperate waiting for her lover, who left her almost a year ago but promised to return. Jacques asks Marthe to meet him by the bridge the next night and the girl agrees. They spend the following three nights wandering through Paris, and Jacques tries in vain to cure Marthe of the memories of her elusive lover.

Two young Russian historians are going to Ukraine to take part in the reconstruction of the Lvov-Sandomierz operation in July 1944. On sight they fall into conflict with Ukrainian nationalists, and some magical twist of fate, move into the middle of real warfare from more than 60 years. Miraculously avoiding death at the hands of Ukrainian nationalists, caught in the middle of fighting between the Red Army and the Nazis.

Ray is an aging ex-socialist who has become a bankrobber after seeing the demise of socialism in 1980s Britain. Teaming up with a gang of other has-beenish crims, he commits one bank job too many. The gang dissolves in a murderous flurry of recriminations.

David Bradley, stars as the roguish soldier Anthony Rand, who follows a ruthless general back through time in a last ditch attempt to save the universe.

Poet/lecturer Charles Serking awakens from his alcoholic haze long enough to take a bus back to L.A. and plunge into an orgy of drink and sexual depravity.

A nurse in a Japanese women's POW camp during World War II masterminds an escapee.

A Swedish princess boards an ocean liner in Europe en route to an acting career in America, and finds herself getting inconveniently attached to a bandleader returning home. To complicate matters, a blackmailer on board apparently knows she is not who she claims to be - and he has his sights set on other passengers with secrets of their own. In the meantime an escaped killer has stowed away under someone else's identity, and is killing again to cover his tracks; five international police detectives on board are heading the investigation to find him. When evidence points to the princess and bandleader, they must find the killer themselves - before he finds them.

Rei is a freelance writer embattled by personal demons. We first meet her in a convenience store where she is buying too much alcohol and not enough food. At the magazine rack she pauses to contemplate the happiness of the glamour girls on the glossies for which she writes. Only later do we realize that this is self-reflection. A chance encounter with truck driving Takatoshi, leads to a two day romp of sex, friendship and introspection. It's unclear if what happens to her is the product of her writer self imagining it all as a magazine serial (hence the inter-titles and voice of the narrator).

If the mysterious plague sweeping the nation wasn't bad enough, Dean is still going ahead with his doomed wedding tomorrow morning. That leaves him with a choice. Pick up the button holes and chocolate fountain as instructed by bridezilla, Elaine, or go with five mates (and a stripper) to play "Zomball" at a top secret military compound where you get to shoot zombies with huge stun guns. Disobeying the golden rule of Zomball ('never never humiliate a zombie') the stags face overwhelming odds from the massed undead and each stag is hunted down. The truth about Zomball is finally revealed and suddenly the mother-in-law is the least of Dean's problems....

British comedian Jimmy Carr unleashes his deadpan delivery and wickedly funny one-liners to a sold-out audience at the UK's Hammersmith Apollo.

Judith Traherne is at the height of young society when Dr. Frederick Steele diagnoses a brain tumor. After surgery she falls in love with Steele. The doctor tells her secretary that the tumor will come back and eventually kill her. Learning this, Judith becomes manic and depressive. Her horse trainer Michael, who loves her, tells her to get as much out of life as she can. She marries Steele who intends to find a cure for her illness. As he goes off to a conference in New York failing eyesight indicates to Judith that she is dying.

Lead postal detective Oliver (Eric Mabius) and his associate Shane (Kristin Booth) have been doing a figurative dance with each other, swaying back and forth with the possibility of a relationship. Finally, on their first date at a romantic supper club, Shane begins wondering if it's a date or not, as she sees the contrast of their relationship next to the extraordinary dance performances of a couple who express the longing of her heart. As Norman (Geoff Gustafson) and Rita (Crystal Lowe) work alongside each other, their personal relationship hits a bump in the road.

Greedy heirs wait in a mansion for a rich cat lover to die, only to learn her cats come first.

A radio talk show host unravels a conspiracy about encounters with mysterious beings known as The Shadow People and their role in the unexplained deaths of several hundred victims in the 1980s.

With many idea rich comic situations French director Jacques Tati uses his poetic ways and knowledge of the discrepancy between heart and technique to tell a gentle business satiric tale that won him the Oscar for best foreign film in 1959.