Movie blog

“Schindler’s List” is the based-on-truth story of Nazi Czech business man Oskar Schindler, who uses Jewish labor to start a factory in occupied Poland. As World War II progresses, and the fate of the Jews becomes more and more clear, Schindler’s motivations switch from profit to human sympathy and he is able to save over 1100 Jews from death in the gas chambers.

Writer/Director Dante Tomaselli merges two disturbing storylines into this visually arresting chiller. The first involves a band of five teens that escape from a drug rehabilitation center to cash in on a questionable promise of salvation from the psychopathic Reverend Salo Jr. (Vincent Lamberti). Leader of the pack Luck (Danny Lopes), fueled on major hallucinogens, transports the gang to the reverend’s isolated house where the basis of the second plot has been set simultaneously. Here lives Grace (Lizzy Mahon), Salo Jr.’s daughter, whom he and his equally bizarre wife (Christie Sanford) have enslaved through enforced drug addiction and psychic brainwashing. Grace’s only salvation appears to be by the guidance of her paternal grandfather Reverend Salo Sr. (The Amazing Kreskin). But this hope is quickly jeopardized when it becomes revealed that his comforting visitations may be being made from beyond the grave. Regardless, it is through Grace’s visions involving him that she learns of her parent’s demonic pastimes, which include abduction, murder, and possibly worse. Shortly after the arrival of the rehab escapees, Luck shoots and kills Salo Jr. and his wife. This eruption of bloody violence becomes the catalyst for the unleashing of dark forces with terrifying results.

Young poetess Rose Elliot buys a book from a local antique dealer, a diary in Latin of an architect, E. Varelli. She learns of the Three Mothers, and believes her apartment building is one of their houses. She pleads her brother Mark, who is studying musicology in Rome, to come, because she is afraid. Mark’s friend Sara reads her letter, which he left behind in class, and discovers the school is run by the Mater Lacrimarum, and is killed for this knowledge. The house of Mater Suspiriorum has already been destroyed, and by the time Mark arrives in New York City, he is investigating his sister’s murder.

In Gotham City, a dark knight known as Batman helps to defeat evil and keep the city’s citizens safe. When Jack Napier is transformed into the evil, Joker, he promises to take over Gotham City it is up to Batman to stop him in his tracks before it is too late.

Cruising is the fictional account of a series of gruesome killings in modern day New York City. Steve Burns, a “beat” officer still wet behind the ears, is recruited by Captain Edelson of the NYPD Homicide Unit to go undercover in search of the perpetrator. The victims in these killings are all homosexual men known to frequent “Leather,” S&M (Sadism and Masochism), and B&D (Bondage and Dominance) clubs so Burns, in “deep cover,” must mascarade as gay in order to attract the killer. He fits the victims’ profiles: dark hair, dark complexion, dark eyes. Cruising tells the story of his adventures and misadventures in this small subculture of gay society as he searches for the killer.

What if you spent your whole life wishing for something you didn’t know you already had? Hallie Parker and Annie James are about to find out. Hallie is a cool girl from California. Annie is a fair rose from London. When the two accidentally meet at summer camp, they think they have nothing in common except…they’re identical twins! Now they’re up to their freckles in schemes and dreams to switch places, get their parents back together and have the family they’ve always wished for!

Upon moving to Britain to get away from American violence, astrophysicist David Sumner and his wife Amy are bullied and taken advantage of by the locals hired to do construction. When David finally takes a stand it escalates quickly into a bloody battle as the locals assault his house.

Somewhere in the 80s, trucker Jack Burton arrives in a small town to deliver his cargo and win a few bucks playing cards with the locals down at the Chinese market. Practically bankrupting nearly all of his opponents, his friend Wang bets him a game of “double or nothing” to try and regain his cash and loses. Jack wants his well earned money, but Wang explains he doesn’t have the cash on him and that’ll he pay later because he’s due to pick up a long, lost girlfriend from the airport. Convinced Wang’s pulling something sly, Jack insists he drive Wang to the airport so they can stick together. However, at the airport Wang’s girlfriend is captured by the Lords of Death, a streetwise Chinatown gang. She is essential for an upcoming plan to revive a thousand year old Chinese sorcerer and bring him back to the world as a mortal again. So begins a daring adventure to rescue Wang’s girl and stop the ruthless operation that’s going on down in Little China. Teaming up with a cast of very different individuals, Jack and Wang delve deep into an uncovering conspiracy in which everything’s not exactly as it seems. Here comes big trouble…

Rookie Los Angeles cop Nick Styles is at a Los Angeles street fair, where hit man Earl Talbot Blake pulls a double cross on some drug dealers, killing four men. Minutes later, Nick shoots Blake in the knee, and Blake is grabbed by Nick’s partner and best friend Larry Doyle. Nick becomes the focus of the media, thanks to an amateur cameraman’s footage of Nick disarming Blake. Over the next few years, Nick’s career takes off: he’s offered a job in the district attorney’s office, and his hip media style keeps him in the public eye. Nick marries a woman named Alice and they go on to have two daughters named Lisa and Monica. While Blake is in prison, he vows revenge on Nick. When Blake comes up for parole, he orchestrates a bloody escape — which includes faking his own death. Blake doesn’t want Nick dead. He just wants Nick to suffer in spades. He wants to ruin Nick’s life as completely as possible, and then have Nick sent to prison for murder so Nick will know how Blake feels. Blake begins his vendetta by killing city councilman U. B. Farris and planting evidence to make everyone think Nick and Farris are running an underage pornography ring. Blake then kidnaps Nick, forces him to take drugs and have sex with a prostitute, videotapes the whole thing, and then releases Nick. Nick tells everyone that it was Blake who kidnapped him, but everyone refuses to believe Nick because everyone thinks Blake is dead. That night, Blake breaks into Nick’s house, and makes a threatening videotape with Lisa, Monica, and an ax in it, but Blake didn’t actually do anything to Lisa and Monica. Nick is then suspended from the DA’s office, with everyone thinking that Nick is mentally ill because he keeps saying that Blake is still alive. Blake then begins the final phase of his vendetta — he kills Larry and frames Nick for it. Blake also links Nick to misappropriation of public funds, specifically, the funds he’s supposed to be raising for a children’s center in a building at the base of the Watts tower. Nick is forced to turn to his childhood friend, gang leader Odessa, for help in clearing his name and stopping Blake once and for all.

This time, the Man of Steel has his hands full with a trio of super-powered villains who escape from their Phantom Zone prison (remember the weird flying diamond-shaped mirror that scooped them up from the planet Krypton?) and land on Earth, where all three have powers to rival Superman’s own. How does it all come out? With a fabulous duel above the streets of Metropolis, and a startling plot twist that neatly ties in Superman’s explosive past. Arch-criminal Lex Luthor plays both ends gleefully against the middle in hopes of a modest reward: Australia.

Five friends go up to a cabin in the woods where they find unspeakable evil lurking in the forest. They find the Necronomicon and the taped translation of the text. Once the tape is played, the evil is released. One by one, the teens become deadly zombies. With only one remaining, it is up to him to survive the night and battle the evil dead.

Retired FBI agent Will Graham (William L. Petersen) returns to action to hunt down a serial killer by using his ability to get inside the psychopath’s mind. However, it was this ability that drove him into retirement in the first place. The process of tracking and capturing the infamous Hannibal Lecter (Brian Cox) took a tremendous psychic toll on Graham, causing him to spent time in a mental hospital. With another madman on the loose, Graham has no choice but to return to duty, though he knows that it might cost him his family and his sanity.

To get the old mind-set back, Graham visits Hannibal Lecter in his high-security jail cell. However, the manipulative Lecter plays both sides and warns the new killer that Graham is on his trail, telling him to destroy Graham’s family to protect himself. In order to save his own family, Graham must risk everything to once again enter into the mind of the criminally insane.

With MANHUNTER, Mann raises the bar for serial killer films, imbuing his killer with an almost sympathetic quality while keeping him extremely menacing and clearly dangerous. Based on the Thomas Harris novel RED DRAGON, which serves as the prequel to THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, MANHUNTER is a masterpiece of gripping storytelling and psychological horror.

A giant structure found in the desert has studied by various scientist for nearly fifty years and are no where near discovering what it is. Until Daniel jackson, a language expert deciphers and reveals that it’s a Stargate. He also discovers how to make it work. They then learn that it’s some kind interstellar transport device. Now a group of soldiers led by despondent Colonel Jack O’Neill go to the planet, also accompanying them is Jackson, who said that he can reactivate the Stargate to send them back but he forgot to mention that he needs to find the symbols and they can’t find anything, so it appears that they are trapped. And if that isn’t enough, some aliens arrive and capture them and have nefarious plans for Earth.