Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Quarantine 2: Terminal (2011)

 
Follows Quarantine (2008). Earlier tonight, a bizarre disease was unleashed in a run-down Los Angeles tenement... and no one got out alive. Yet something escaped. Now, aboard Flight 318, the first symptoms begin to show. As the infection begins to take root, innocent passengers suddenly transform into terrifying, bloodthirsty killers. Forced to land at an isolated terminal, and surrounded by armed government agents, the crew and passengers grow increasingly desperate. The only question now is how far they will go to survive. 

Director: John Pogue
Writer: John Pogue
Stars: Mercedes Masöhn, Josh Cooke and Mattie Liptak
More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1699231/

Monday, August 29, 2011

Hollywoodland (2006)

 
George Reeves was a journeyman actor who had played a small role in Gone With the Wind and appeared onscreen with the likes of James Cagney, Rita Hayworth, and Marlene Dietrich, but his career was not exactly booming when he was cast as comic-book hero Superman in a 1951 B-movie, Superman and the Mole Men. A year later, the producers of the movie launched a syndicated Superman television series with Reeves returning as "The Man of Steel." The show became a major hit, and Reeves was a star at last. However, on June 16, 1959, to the shock of many, Reeves was found dead of a gunshot wound. Police soon declared Reeves' death a suicide and closed the case, but his mother refused to believe her son took his own life, and hired Louis Simo, a private detective, to find out the truth about her son's passing. Simo found that many Hollywood insiders did not care to cooperate as he researched the Reeves case, but his digging uncovered plenty of evidence suggesting the actor did not take his own life, and he also revealed one of Reeves' deepest secrets -- while he was engaged to marry a pretty young starlet, Leonore Lemmon, Reeves was also carrying on an affair with the beautiful Toni Mannix, the wife of Eddie Mannix, a powerful and ill-tempered executive at MGM.

Director: Allen Coulter
Writer: Paul Bernbaum
Stars: Adrien Brody, Ben Affleck and Diane Lane
More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0427969/

Sunday, August 28, 2011

We Are the Night (2010)

 
A pretty Berlin thief gets a taste of immortality after being turned into a vampire by a charismatic club owner who leads a trio of ferocious female bloodsuckers. Lena was stalking the streets in search of her latest mark when she stumbled into a club owned by Louise, a powerful 250-year-old vampire. Along with the volatile Nora and the enchanting Charlotte, Louise has her fangs on the pulse of the city's vibrant underworld. The moment Louise meets Lena, she is smitten. Unable to resist, she transforms Lena into a vampire on their very first night together. At first intoxicated by her newfound abilities and heightened senses, Lena quickly learns that life among the undead can be a curse when the feeding frenzy gets out of hand and Berlin Police Commissioner Tom Serner follows the trail of blood straight to them.

Director: Dennis Gansel
Writers: Jan Berger and Dennis Gansel
Stars: Karoline Herfurth, Nina Hoss and Jennifer Ulrich
More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1692504/

Friday, August 26, 2011

Dead & Breakfast (2004)

 
A handful of twenty-somethings are driving to Galveston, TX, in an RV to attend the wedding of a close friend. After a long day on the road, the travelers find themselves in a tiny town called Lovelock, where the only available accommodations are at a bed and breakfast run by the eccentric Mr. Wise. One of the kids, Johnny, notices that Mr. Wise is carefully looking after a small box; curious about its contents, Johnny opens it, only to unleash a torrent of evil spirits who turn the local rednecks into bloodthirsty creatures hovering somewhere between life and death.

Director: Matthew Leutwyler
Writers: Matthew Leutwyler and Jun Tan
Stars: Jeremy Sisto, Erik Palladino and Bianca Lawson
More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0350774/

Virtuality (2009)

 
Twelve extremely talented men and women have been chosen to be part of the Phaeton mission, a 10-year trek to explore a distant planetary system. In order to endure the stress of being confined to their high-tech vessel, the crew passes the time using advanced virtual reality modules that allow them to take on various identities. But as the ship approaches a critical phase of their journey, a deadly flaw is discovered in the virtual system, forcing them to question if someone on board might be a killer.

Director: Peter Berg
Writers: Michael Taylor (teleplay) and Ronald D. Moore (story)
Stars: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Sienna Guillory and Clea DuVall
More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1219836/

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

The Killer Inside Me (2010)

 
Sadism and masochism beneath a veneer of revenge. Lou Ford is a mild-mannered sheriff's deputy in an Oklahoma oil town in the late 1940s. Lou has a bunch of problems. Woman problems. Law enforcement problems. An ever-growing pile of murder victims in his West Texas jurisdiction. And the fact he's a sadist, a psychopath, a killer. Suspicion begins to fall on Lou, and it's only a matter of time before he runs out of alibis. The district attorney suspects Lou, and Chester Conway, the town's wealthy king of construction, may have an inkling, but Lou stays cool. Is love, or at least peace, in the cards?

Director: Michael Winterbottom
Writers: John Curran and Jim Thompson (novel)
Stars: Casey Affleck, Kate Hudson and Jessica Alba
More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0954947/

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Impostor (2002)

 
Spencer John Olham is a respected government scientist in the year 2079 trying to devise a secret weapon that will help his fellow humans win a decade-long war with invading aliens that are cloning human subjects and using the replicas as walking time bombs. Suddenly, Olham is accused of being an alien spy and a nationwide manhunt to capture him ensues. With even his doctor wife unsure that she can trust him, Olham must uncover the truth on his own, even as he's relentlessly pursued by Hathaway, a federal agent charged with destroying the clones.

Director: Gary Fleder
Writers: Philip K. Dick (short story) and Scott Rosenberg (adaptation)
Stars: Gary Sinise, Madeleine Stowe and Vincent D'Onofrio
More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0160399/

Monday, August 22, 2011

Wasabi (2001)

 
Hubert is a detective with the French police force who's the kind of cop who doesn't let little details get in the way of catching crooks -- and isn't afraid to speak with his fists if talking doesn't do the job. When Hubert gets in a dust-up with an innocent bystander while trying to apprehend a group of bank robbers, he learns the passerby was the son of the Chief of Police -- and Hubert is put on suspension for two months. Just as Hubert wonders what to do for the next 60 days, he learns that an old flame has died; 19 years ago, he was sent to Tokyo on assignment, and fell in love with a woman named Miko. Even though Hubert hadn't seen Miko in years, he was the sole beneficiary named in her will, and Hubert goes to Tokyo to sort out her effects. Once in Japan, Hubert meets Miko's daughter Yumi, who doesn't think much of Hubert and appears to be unaware that he is her biological father. As Hubert tries to bond with Yumi, he examines the facts behind Miko's death and begins to suspect her death was no accident, and with the help of his buddy Momo, he tries to find out the truth about her death.

Director: Gérard Krawczyk
Writer: Luc Besson
Stars: Jean Reno, Ryôko Hirosue and Michel Muller
More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0281364/

Sunday, August 21, 2011

The Midnight Meat Train (2008)

 
Leon Kaufman is just another struggling photographer in search of the perfect subject. Encouraged to explore the sinister side of humanity by a prominent art gallery proprietor who is set to display his upcoming debut, Leon goes against the wishes of his girlfriend, Maya, and begins stalking notorious serial killer Mahogany -- whose sadistic murder spree has been making headlines all across the country. As Leon's fascination with Mahogany gradually grows into obsession, his descent into the killer's putrid world of murder begins to corrupt his soul while simultaneously dragging his concerned girlfriend down a perverse path of darkness from which there is no return.

Director: Ryûhei Kitamura
Writers: Jeff Buhler (screenplay) and Clive Barker (short story)
Stars: Vinnie Jones, Bradley Cooper and Leslie Bibb
More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0805570/

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Irreversible (2002)

 
Events over the course of one traumatic night in Paris unfold in reverse-chronological order as the beautiful Alex is brutally raped and beaten by a stranger in the underpass. Her boyfriend and ex-lover take matters into their own hands by hiring two criminals to help them find the rapist so that they can exact revenge. A simultaneously beautiful and terrible examination of the destructive nature of cause and effect, and how time destroys everything.

Director: Gaspar Noé
Writer: Gaspar Noé
Stars: Monica Bellucci, Vincent Cassel and Albert Dupontel
More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0290673/

Thursday, August 18, 2011

A Serbian Film (2010)

 
Milos, a retired porn star, leads a normal family life with his wife Maria and six-year old son Petar in tumultuous Serbia, trying to make ends meet. A sudden call from his former colleague Layla will change everything. Aware of his financial problems, Layla introduces Milos to Vukmir - a mysterious, menacing and politically powerful figure in the pornographic business. A leading role in Vukmir's production will provide financial support to Milos and his family for the rest of their lives. A contract insists on his absolute unawareness of a script they will shoot. From then on, Milos is drawn into a maelstrom of unbelievable cruelty and mayhem devised by his employer, "the director" of his destiny. Vukmir and his cohorts will stop at nothing to complete his vision. In order to escape the living cinematic hell he's put into, and save his family's life, Milos will have to sacrifice everything - his pride, his morality, his sanity, and maybe even his own life.

Director: Srdjan Spasojevic
Writers: Aleksandar Radivojevic and Srdjan Spasojevic
Stars: Srdjan Todorovic, Sergej Trifunovic and Jelena Gavrilovic
More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1273235/

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

The Ward (2011)

 
In 1966, a young woman in a North Bend, Oregon mental institution becomes terrorized by malevolent unseen forces. Kristen, a beautiful but troubled young woman, finds herself bruised, cut, drugged with laughing gas. The other patients in the ward four equally disturbed young women offer no answers, and Kristen quickly realizes things are not as they seem. The air is heavy with secrets, and at night, when the hospital is dark and foreboding, she hears strange and frightening sounds. It appears they are not alone. One-by-one, the other girls begin to disappear and Kristen must find a way out of this hellish place before she, too, becomes a victim. As she struggles to escape, she will uncover a truth far more dangerous and horrifying than anyone could have imagined.

Director: John Carpenter
Writers: Michael Rasmussen and Shawn Rasmussen
Stars: Amber Heard, Mamie Gummer and Danielle Panabaker
More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1369706/

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Ultraviolet (2006)

 
In the late 21st a disease called Hemophagia has genetically modified nearly an entire race of people, leaving them with such enhanced speed, intelligence, and strength that they resemble vampires in nearly every way. Fear begins to breed within the power elite as the disease continues to spread and those infected prove to be truly superhuman, and now, a civil war is brewing between uninfected humans and those altered by Hemophagia. Caught dead in the center of it is an infected woman called Violet, who is bent on vengeance and has little left to lose. Provoked beyond reason by powers that will not rest until she and her people are dead, she will become everything her persecutors feared her to be.

Director: Kurt Wimmer
Writer: Kurt Wimmer
Stars: Milla Jovovich, Cameron Bright and Nick Chinlund
More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0370032/

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Reign of Fire (2002)



In present-day London, 12-year-old Quinn Abercromby witnesses the awakening of a hibernating dragon from a centuries-long slumber, the result of a construction dig supervised by his mother and an incident for which Quinn feels partially responsible. Twenty years later, the adult Quinn is the fire chief of a refortified castle community, responsible for dousing the blazes lit by the dragon's prodigious number of flame-spewing offspring, airborne juggernauts that have wreaked havoc across the globe, torching civilization and turning humans into an endangered species. Hope arrives in the form of Denton "Dragon Slayer" Van Zan, an American known to be the only man to ever kill one of the dragons, and Alex, a scientist/pilot who's a member of Van Zan's army, a zealous fighting force that includes a secret weapon: the Archangels, paratroopers using themselves as bait to attract and then dispatch the deadly beasts.

Director: Rob Bowman
Writers: Gregg Chabot and Kevin Peterka
Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Christian Bale and Izabella Scorupco
More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0253556/

Friday, August 12, 2011

Bitch Slap (2009)


A sex-bomb, a psycho-slut, and a stripper find their attempt to extort a powerful underworld kingpin spiraling out of control. They thought it was a foolproof plan, but these three bad girls are about to see just how bad things can get when the truth comes out, allegiances start to shift, and other desperate criminals attempt to muscle in on the take. Later, the stakes are raised when it's revealed that the entire plan was a setup. With the fate of the world resting in their not-so-delicate hands, these three violent beauties are about to discover that everything they thought they knew about the job is wrong, and that their may be an extraterrestrial invader lurking in their midst.

 Director: Rick Jacobson
Writers: Eric Gruendemann and Rick Jacobson
Stars: Julia Voth, Erin Cummings and America Olivo
More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1212974/

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Returner (2002)

 
In the year 2084, when humanity is decimated by a ruthless alien force, all hope lies in Milly, a hardened young soldier, as she goes back in time to stop the invasion before it's too late. Ending up in present-day 2002, she appears in the middle of a gunfight as Miyamoto, a mysterious mercenary, is breaking up a child-slave ring headed by Mizoguchi, a ruthless Triad member with an uncanny thirst for blood. With bullets flying left and right, Milly is shot by Miyamoto and is brought into his secretive ring of do-gooding with the smart-mouthed Kirin Kiki, an arms-dealing old woman that's helping Miyamoto on his quest for revenge against Mizoguchi. Through some coercing (by the form of a small, explosive device the size of a band-aid on his neck), Miyamoto unwillingly joins the mission, as they infiltrate the government base that holds a captured alien and its crashed spacecraft -- the first contact that eventually brings on the invasion. With Mizoguchi and the Triads moving in, seeking some of the alien advanced weaponry, Miyamoto may finally get the vengeance he seeks as Milly gets closer and closer to saving the entire human race. 

Director: Takashi Yamazaki 
Writers: Takashi Yamazaki and Kenya Hirata 
Stars: Takeshi Kaneshiro, Anne Suzuki and Gorô Kishitani 

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Battle Royale II (2003)

 
Follows Battle Royale (2001). Shuya Nanahara is now an internationally-known terrorist determined to bring down the government. His terrorist group, Wild Seven, stages an attack that levels several buildings in Tokyo on Christmas Day, killing 8000 people. Exactly one year afterward, the government enacts the "New Century Terrorist Counter-Measure Alternative" program, a.k.a. the BRII Act, and sends the forty-two students of Shikanotoride Junior High Class 3-B to hunt Nanahara and his cohorts down in their island stronghold. Shiori Kitano, the daughter of the late headmaster of Nanahara's Battle Royale, signs up for the program, to avenge her father. In order for the government to study the benefits of "teamwork," the new students work in pairs, with their collars electronically linked so that if one of them is killed, the other dies as well. They must kill Nanahara in three days -- or die. 

Directors: Kenta Fukasaku and Kinji Fukasaku 
Writers: Kenta Fukasaku and Koushun Takami (characters) 
Stars: Tatsuya Fujiwara, Ai Maeda and Shûgo Oshinari 

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