Film Reviews

In the early 1960s, Henry Ford II and Enzo Ferrari went to war on the battlefield of Le Mans. This epic battle saw drivers lose their lives, family dynasties nearly collapse, and the development of a new car that changed racing.

Centring on the activities of a gang of assorted criminals and, in particular, their leader – a vicious young hoodlum known as "Pinkie" – the film's main thematic concern is the criminal underbelly evident in inter-war Brighton.

In the year 1885. After years of retirement West is called in from his Mexican home, and Gordon is taken off the road as a Shakespearian actor to track down and arrest Dr. Michelito Loveless, Jr. The evil son of their most famous opponent has kidnapped the heads of state of countries from around the world and replaced them with deplicates under his control. West and Gordon must stop him before President Cleveland is replaced, but the job won't be easy as the mad scientist has at his disposal a wide assortment of advanced weapons-ranging from robots to atomic bombs. Written by TrinaPreston3ao.com

Charlie Cox should have stopped for gas in California. While he's on a cross-country trip with his teenage daughter, Joleen, his car hits empty in a creepy town in Nevada. With nary a drop of fuel to be found, Charlie and Joleen stop for the night at a dilapidated trailer park. There, Joleen catches the eye of two teenage boys, Jimmy and Pinky -- either of whom could be the serial killer currently terrorizing the town.

Best-selling novelist Kosaku Igami has made a career out of using his family as fodder for his novels, much to their dismay. When his mother, the spirited family matriarch, is diagnosed with dementia, Igami must come to terms with the toll his own behavior has taken on his increasingly distant family and resolve his own long-simmering resentments. Evocative of classic Ozu, this gorgeously wrought epic family portrait explores the tenderness and trappings of familial bonds. (Chicago International Film Festival)

Three disaffected youths live in Datong in 2001, part of the new "Birth Control" generation. Fed on a steady diet of popular culture, both Western and Chinese, the characters of Unknown Pleasures represent a new breed in the People's Republic of China, one detached from reality through the screen of media and the internet.

Director Julien Temple (The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, The Filth and the Fury) surveys the past century of London's tumultuous history in this vibrant documentary. (TIFF)

A young MBA mistakenly interviews for the wrong job... and ends up as an Au Pair for a pair of snotty rich kids.

Dorian Gray, wishing to remain young and handsome for eternity, essentially sells his soul so that a portrait can age instead of him. Over the course of the years, Dorian commits every sort of sin, heavily influenced by his friend Lord Henry Wotton. But as his life goes on, he slowly realises the emptiness and evil which he has succumbed to.

Morris Buttermaker is a burned-out minor league baseball player who loves to drink and can't keep his hands to himself. His long-suffering lawyer arranges for him to manage a local Little League team, and Buttermaker soon finds himself the head of a rag-tag group of misfit players. Through unconventional team-building exercises and his offbeat coaching style, Buttermaker helps his hapless Bears prepare to meet their rivals, the Yankees.

A Giant Octopus, whose feeding habits have been affected by radiation from H-Bomb tests, rises from the Mindanao Deep to terrorize the California Coast.

Mike works on a boat in Acapulco. When the bratty daughter of the boat owner gets him fired, Mike must find new work. Little boy Rauol helps him get a job as a lifeguard and singer at a local hotel. Clashes abound when Mike runs into the rival lifeguard, who is the champion diver of Mexico.

Jimmy and Jon are a couple of Brooklyn guys who somehow never found their way into workaday society; they never found their way into big-time crime, either.

The film is set in the Tricity in 2003, ten years after the end of communism in Poland. The plot, apparently based on the real-life experiences of Kraków businessmen Lech Jerzorny and Paweł Rey, is about three young, talented businessmen who open a high-tech factory. This comes to the attention of the local state ‘mafia’, the local Prosecutor, played by Janusz Gajos, and tax office boss, played by Kasimierz Kaczor, who are both jealous and would like to make money for themselves. We are in Poland, so success must be punished.

Ten years after a band of mercenaries first battled a vicious alien, the invisible creature from another world has returned to Earth -- and this time, it's drawn to the gang-ruled and ravaged city of Los Angeles. When it starts murdering drug dealers, detective-lieutenant Mike Harrigan and his police force set out to capture the creature, ignoring warnings from a mysterious government agent to stay away.