Friday, August 31, 2018

RETURN TO PARADISE (1998)



Directed By: Joseph Rueben 
Written By: Wesley Strick & Bruce Robinson 
Based on the original Screenplay FORCE MAJEURE by: Pierre Jolivet & O. Schatzky Cinematography By: Reynaldo Villalobos 
Editor: Craig McKay & Andrew Mondshein 


Cast: Vince Vaughn, Jada Pinkett Smith, Anne Heche, Joaquin Phoenix, David Conrad, Vera Farminga, Nick Sandow, David Zayas, Richard Yang, Elizabeth Rodriguez 


Three friends share an exciting vacation in Malaysia, full of fun, drinks, women and hash. When the vacation is over, each have dreams of continuing their lives, and they all go their separate ways. One of them remains on the tropical paradise to fulfill a dream of working with apes for research. Two years later, a lawyer comes to New York and hunts down the other two friends to give some sad news. A few days after they left the island, police raided their camp and found amazingly large quantities of hash left about. Phoenix was still residing there, so he had to take the blame. He is set to be put to death in 8 days, and the only way the charges can be decreased is if the two friends come back to paradise and take their share of the responsibilty. If they do, they both will spend three years in prison. If only one does, he will spend six years behind bars.

Friday, August 24, 2018

LEMONY SNICKET'S: A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS (2004)


Directed By: Brad Silberling 
Written By: Robert Gordon 
Based On The Books written By: Lemony Snicket aka Daniel Handler 
Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezski 
Editor: Michael Kahn 

Cast: Jim Carrey, Liam Aiken, Emily Browning, Meryl Streep, Timothy Spall, Billy Connelly, Catherine O’Hara, Cedric The Entertainer, Jennifer Coolidge, Luis Guzman, Jane Adams, Craig Ferguson, Lenny Clarke 


Three children - Violet , Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire - are left orphaned when their house burns down, with their parents in it, in mysterious circumstances. They are left in the custody of a distant relative, Count Olaf. It is soon apparent that Count Olaf only cares about the children for their large inheritance.

HOT SUMMER NIGHTS (2018)


Written & Directed By: Elijah Bynum 
Cinematography: Javier Julia 
Editor: Dan Zimmerman, Tom Costantino & Jeff Castelluccio 


Cast: Timothee Chalamet, Maika Monroe, Alex Roe, Maia Mitchell, Emory Cohen, Thomas Jane, William Fichtner 


A boy comes of age during a summer he spends in Cape Cod.

LOCKOUT (2012)



Directed By: James Mather & Stephen Saint Leger 
Written By: James Mather, Stephen Saint Leger & Luc Besson 
Based On A Story By: Luc Besson 
Based on “ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK” By: John Carpenter & Nick Castle 
Cinematography: James Mather 
Editor: Eammon Power & Camille Delamarre 


Cast: Guy Pearce, Maggie Grace, Lennie James, Vincent Regan, Joseph Gilgun, Jacky Ido, Peter Stomare 


In 2079, in Washington, the ex-CIA Operative Snow is brutally interrogated, accused of treason against the United States. The chief of the secret service Scott Langral believes that he shot the agent Frank in a hotel room. Meanwhile, the idealistic daughter of the president of the USA, Emilie Warnock, is visiting MS One, a maximum security prison in outer space expecting to find evidence that the prisoners are actually guinea pigs of a huge corporation. When one of her bodyguards loses a hidden pistol to the dangerous prisoner Hydell, he subdues the staff in the central control room and releases the prisoners, including his brother Alex who becomes the leader of the riot. Now the veteran agent Harry Shaw offers freedom to Snow if he succeeds in rescuing the president's daughter. But the idealistic Emilie does not want to leave MS-One without the hostages.

ELEPHANT SONG (2014)



Directed By: Charles Biname 
Written By: Nicolas Billon 
Cinematography: Pierre Gill 
Editor: Dominique Fortin  

Cast: Bruce Greenwood, Xavier Dolan, Catherine Keener, Carrie Anne-Moss, Colm Feore 


A psychiatrist is drawn into a complex mind game when he questions a disturbed patient about the disappearance of a colleague.

Thursday, August 16, 2018

POINT OF NO RETURN (1993)



Director: John Badham 
Written By: Robert Getchell & Alexandra Seros 
Based on the original Screenplay By: Luc Besson 
Cinematography: Michael Watkins 
Editor: Frank Morriss 
Music By: Hans Zimmer 


Cast: Bridget Fonda, Gabriel Byrne, Anne Bancroft, Miguel Ferrer, Dermot Mulroney, Harvey Keitel, Olivia D’Abo, Richard Romanus, Geoffrey Lewis, Lorraine Toussaint, Michael Rapaport 

Drug addict Maggie Hayward's consistent violence, even in police custody, ends in the execution chamber. However, top secret U.S. government Agent "Bob" arranges a staged death, so Maggie can be elaborately trained as a killer. She gets a new cover identity as saleswoman Claudia Anne Doran. She also finds a housemate, building super J.P., a broad-minded, gentle photographer. The two fall in love, and that complicates her government assignments. His influence extends to breeding in her a conscience that supplants her violent tendencies, and desire to continue work for the agency.

AMERICAN ASSASSIN (2017)



Director: Michael Cuesta 
Written By: Stephen Schiff, Michael Finch, Edward Zwick & Marshall Herskovitz 
Based On The Novel By: Vince Flynn 
Cinematography: Enrique Chediak 
Editor: Conrad Buff IV 


Cast: Dylan O’Brien, Michael Keaton, Sanna Lathan, Taylor Kitsch, Scott Adkins, Charlotte Vega, David Suchet, Shiva Negar 


Twenty three-year-old Mitch lost his parents to a tragic car accident at the age of fourteen, and his girlfriend to a terrorist attack just as they were engaged. Seeking revenge, he is enlisted by CIA Deputy Director Irene Kennedy as a black ops recruit. Kennedy then assigns Cold War veteran Stan Hurley to train Mitch. Together they will later on investigate a wave of apparently random attacks on military and civilian targets. The discovery of a pattern in the violence leads them to a joint mission with a lethal Turkish agent to stop a mysterious operative intent on starting a world war in the Middle East.

Friday, August 10, 2018

FOXES (1980)


Directed By: Adrian Lyne 
Written By: Gerald Ayres 
Cinematography By: Leon Bijou, Michael Seresin 
Editor: James Coblentz 
Music By: Giorgio Moroder 


Cast: Jodie Foster, Cherie Currie, Marilyn Kagan, Kandice Stroh, Sally Kellerman, Lois Smith, Richard Romanus, Laura Dern, Scott Baio, Randy Quaid 

Four best friends, with four different personalities, have issues of their own. Deidre is fascinated by her sexuality and has many boyfriend problems. Madge is unhappily overweight and has overprotective parents. Annie boozes and does drugs, and runs away from her abusive father, a policeman. Jeanie has to take care of them and is fighting with her divorced mother. The only way to loosen up, and forget all the bad things happening in their lives, is to party and have fun. Jeanie is ready to grow up and wants to stop acting like a child. Annie is the worst of them all and Jeanie is worried about her the most. She risks her neck more than once trying to keep Annie clean and free from trouble. However, Annie's unstable behavior and flare ups keeps everyone on edge.

A FUTILE AND STUPID GESTURE (2018)



Directed By: David Wain 
Written By: John Abound & Michael Colton 
Based On The Book By: Josh Karp 
Cinematography By: David Atkinson 
Editor: David Egan, Jamie Gross & Robert Nassau

Cast: Martin Mull, Will Forte, Joel McHale, Camille Guaty, Domnhall Gleeson, Natasha Lyonne, Thomas Lennon, Mark Metcalfe, Emmy Rossum, Max Greenfield, Annette O’Toole, Harry Groener, Carla Gallo, Rick Overton, David Krumholtz, Mitch Hurwitz, Matt lucas, Lonny Ross, Joe Lo Truglio, Finn Wittrock, Rich Sommer 

An old version of humorist Douglas Kenney tells the story of how he and Henry Beard parleyed their success in their campus magazine, Harvard Lampoon, into the commercial magazine, National Lampoon. Drawing upon their checkered lives and an aggressively puckish sense of humor, the pair created a publication that would redefine American comedy with outrageous drollery that grabbed the zeitgeist of the decade that expanded across various media. Unfortunately, for all his success, Doug Kenney with his overhanging insecurities, ego and irresponsible appetites began to consume him until he alienates everyone who ever cared and supported him even as they imitated him. In the end, this iconoclastic funnyman would come to a tragedy that comes when your comedy doesn't have enough distance.

CHIPS (2017)



Written & Directed By: Dax Shepard 
Based on Characters Created By: Rick Rosner 
Cinematography By: Mitchell Amundsen 
Editor: Dan Lebental 


Cast: Dax Shepard, Michael Pena, Rosa Salazar, Jessica McNamee, Vincent D’Onofrio, Ryan Hansen, Kristen Bell, Maya Rudolph, Jane Kaczmarek, Adam Brody, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Richard T. Jones, Justin Chatwin, David Koechner, Ben Falcone, Megan Echikunwoke, Ed Begley jr Vida Guerra, Jermaine Williams, Mae Whitman 


An FBI agent goes undercover in the California Highway Patrol as officer Frank "Ponch" Poncherello. Members of the CHP have been robbing cash delivery vehicles and his job is to uncover the perpetrators. At the CHP he is partnered with a 30-something rookie, Jon Baker. Baker is a former professional motorcycle rider with a list of ailments and personal problems who is lucky to be in the CHP. They are very different people and immediately clash.