Film Reviews · Backpex

Title	Overview		Toggle columns Title Overview
The Inhabited Island	On the threshold of 22nd century, furrowing the space, protagonist from the Free Search Group makes emergency landing on an unknown planet where he must stay. People who are living on this planet have remained at the stone level of the 20th century, with its social problems, miserable ecology and shaky world..
The Good Sister	Struggling with marital problems, a man begins a passionate affair with his wife's long-lost, twin sister.
Shadow People	Dan and Gretchen, a couple with a secretive past and a failing relationship, rent a guest house from another couple in California's San Fernando Valley. But jealousy and betrayal turn a casual friendship into a game of manipulation and deception.
Inequality for All	U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich tries to raise awareness of the country's widening economic gap.
Ax 'Em	A weekend retreat at a remote cabin in the woods for a group of childhood pals turns into a terrifying fight for survival, as a former friend whose family was killed years earlier comes along looking for revenge.
Dogs in Space	The place is Melbourne, Australia 1978. The punk phenomenon is sweeping the country and Dogs In Space, a punk group, are part of it. In a squat, in a dodgy suburb, live a ragtag collection of outcasts and don't-wanna-be's who survive on a diet of old TV space films, drugs and good music. And the satellite SKYLAB could crash through their roof at any moment...
Over the Hedge	A scheming raccoon fools a mismatched family of forest creatures into helping him repay a debt of food, by invading the new suburban sprawl that popped up while they were hibernating – and learns a lesson about family himself.
Kindar the Invulnerable	An evil bandit kidnaps a sultan's son and raises him but finds the son has magic powers.
Jessabelle	A young woman recuperating at her father's run-down home after a tragic accident soon encounters a terrifying presence with a connection to her long-deceased mother.
A Map of the World	School nurse Alice Goodwin lives with her husband and two daughters on a dairy farm in a small Wisconsin community. After an accident on her property involving a friend's child, the town turns against her and Alice finds herself fighting charges of child abuse.
That Man from Rio	Farce, spy spoof, and adventure. Swarthy thieves ignore jewels to steal an Amazon figurine from the Museum of Man in Paris' Trocadero Palace and kidnap the world's authority on the lost Maltec civilization. Cut to Agnes, the daughter of a murdered man who possessed one of two other such figurines. Moments after her sweetheart, Adrien, an Army private with a week's leave, arrives in Paris to see her, Agnes too is kidnapped, drugged, and loaded on a plane to Rio. Adrien is in hot pursuit, and before he can rescue her (with the help of a shoeshine boy), foil the murderous thieves, and solve the riddle of the Maltecs, he must traverse Rio, Brasília, and the Amazon heartland... all before the end of his week's leave.
Judith of Bethulia	The story is from the Biblical Book of Judith. During the siege of the Jewish city of Bethulia by the Assyrians led by the brutish Holofernes (Henry Walthall), a widow named Judith (Blanche Sweet) has a plan to stop the war as her people suffer starvation and are ready to surrender.
The Final Countdown	In 1980, the US Navy's most powerful warship, the USS Nimitz, is caught in a storm during routine manoeuvres in the Pacific. Enveloped by a strange green light, the ship passes through a vortex and when they emerge, their communications have been cut off. The ship's Captain (Kirk Douglas) sends out a patrol and the F-14 pilots are shocked to encounter vintage Japanese warplanes.
Gloria	Gloria is a 58-year-old divorcée. Her children have all left home but she has no desire to spend her days and nights alone. Determined to defy old age and loneliness, she rushes headlong into a whirl of singles’ parties on the hunt for instant gratification – which only leads to repeated disappointment and enduring emptiness. But when Gloria meets Rodolfo, an ex-naval officer seven years her senior, she begins to imagine the possibility of a permanent relationship.
In Praise of Love	Someone we hear talking - but whom we do not see - speaks of a project which describes the four key moments of love: meeting, physical passion, arguments/separation and making up. This project is to be told through three couples: young, adult and old. We do not know if the project is for a play, a film, a novel or an opera. The author of the project is always accompanied by a kind of servant. Meanwhile, two years earlier, an American civil servant meets with an elderly French couple who had fought in the Resistance during World War II, brokering a deal with a Hollywood director to buy the rights to tell their story. The members of the old couple's family discuss heatedly questions of nation, memory and history.

The Inhabited Island

On the threshold of 22nd century, furrowing the space, protagonist from the Free Search Group makes emergency landing on an unknown planet where he must stay. People who are living on this planet have remained at the stone level of the 20th century, with its social problems, miserable ecology and shaky world..

The Good Sister

Struggling with marital problems, a man begins a passionate affair with his wife's long-lost, twin sister.

Shadow People

Dan and Gretchen, a couple with a secretive past and a failing relationship, rent a guest house from another couple in California's San Fernando Valley. But jealousy and betrayal turn a casual friendship into a game of manipulation and deception.

Inequality for All

U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich tries to raise awareness of the country's widening economic gap.

Ax 'Em

A weekend retreat at a remote cabin in the woods for a group of childhood pals turns into a terrifying fight for survival, as a former friend whose family was killed years earlier comes along looking for revenge.

Dogs in Space

The place is Melbourne, Australia 1978. The punk phenomenon is sweeping the country and Dogs In Space, a punk group, are part of it. In a squat, in a dodgy suburb, live a ragtag collection of outcasts and don't-wanna-be's who survive on a diet of old TV space films, drugs and good music. And the satellite SKYLAB could crash through their roof at any moment...

Over the Hedge

A scheming raccoon fools a mismatched family of forest creatures into helping him repay a debt of food, by invading the new suburban sprawl that popped up while they were hibernating – and learns a lesson about family himself.

Kindar the Invulnerable

An evil bandit kidnaps a sultan's son and raises him but finds the son has magic powers.

Jessabelle

A young woman recuperating at her father's run-down home after a tragic accident soon encounters a terrifying presence with a connection to her long-deceased mother.

A Map of the World

School nurse Alice Goodwin lives with her husband and two daughters on a dairy farm in a small Wisconsin community. After an accident on her property involving a friend's child, the town turns against her and Alice finds herself fighting charges of child abuse.

That Man from Rio

Farce, spy spoof, and adventure. Swarthy thieves ignore jewels to steal an Amazon figurine from the Museum of Man in Paris' Trocadero Palace and kidnap the world's authority on the lost Maltec civilization. Cut to Agnes, the daughter of a murdered man who possessed one of two other such figurines. Moments after her sweetheart, Adrien, an Army private with a week's leave, arrives in Paris to see her, Agnes too is kidnapped, drugged, and loaded on a plane to Rio. Adrien is in hot pursuit, and before he can rescue her (with the help of a shoeshine boy), foil the murderous thieves, and solve the riddle of the Maltecs, he must traverse Rio, Brasília, and the Amazon heartland... all before the end of his week's leave.

Judith of Bethulia

The story is from the Biblical Book of Judith. During the siege of the Jewish city of Bethulia by the Assyrians led by the brutish Holofernes (Henry Walthall), a widow named Judith (Blanche Sweet) has a plan to stop the war as her people suffer starvation and are ready to surrender.

The Final Countdown

In 1980, the US Navy's most powerful warship, the USS Nimitz, is caught in a storm during routine manoeuvres in the Pacific. Enveloped by a strange green light, the ship passes through a vortex and when they emerge, their communications have been cut off. The ship's Captain (Kirk Douglas) sends out a patrol and the F-14 pilots are shocked to encounter vintage Japanese warplanes.

Gloria

Gloria is a 58-year-old divorcée. Her children have all left home but she has no desire to spend her days and nights alone. Determined to defy old age and loneliness, she rushes headlong into a whirl of singles’ parties on the hunt for instant gratification – which only leads to repeated disappointment and enduring emptiness. But when Gloria meets Rodolfo, an ex-naval officer seven years her senior, she begins to imagine the possibility of a permanent relationship.

In Praise of Love

Someone we hear talking - but whom we do not see - speaks of a project which describes the four key moments of love: meeting, physical passion, arguments/separation and making up. This project is to be told through three couples: young, adult and old. We do not know if the project is for a play, a film, a novel or an opera. The author of the project is always accompanied by a kind of servant. Meanwhile, two years earlier, an American civil servant meets with an elderly French couple who had fought in the Resistance during World War II, brokering a deal with a Hollywood director to buy the rights to tell their story. The members of the old couple's family discuss heatedly questions of nation, memory and history.