Archive for February, 2009
My Daughter’s Secret (2007)
When the bad-news boyfriend (Steve Byers) of 17-year-old Justine (Nina Dobrev) robs the store where her mother, Denise (Jennifer Grant), works, Justine is torn between telling the truth and sending her boyfriend to prison, or keeping the secret from her mother, which soon starts to tear her apart.
The Hobbit (1977)
Bilbo Baggins the Hobbit was just minding his own business, when his occasional visitor Gandalf the Wizard drops in one night. One by one, a whole group of dwarves drop in, and before he knows it, Bilbo has joined their quest to reclaim their kingdom, taken from them by an evil dragon named Smaug. The only problem is that Gandalf has told the dwarves that Bilbo is an expert burglar, but he isn’t….
The City of the Dead (1960)
On 03 March 1692, in Whitewood, Massachusetts, the witch Elizabeth Selwyn (Patricia Jessel) is sentenced to be burned at the stake, and her partner Jethrow Keane (Valentibe Dyall) asks Lúcifer to save her. About three hundred years later, the college student Nan Barlow (Venetia Stephenson) decides to spend her vacation in the town to research witchcraft. Her professor Alan Driscoll (Christopher Lee) suggests Nan to lodge in the Ravens Inn, managed by Mrs. Newless. Once in the village, the naive Nan is advised by the local priest, Reverend Russell (Norman Macowan), to immediately leave the place, where devil has ruled over for three hundred years, but she decides to stay and find that she is in a coven of evil witches. Nan vanishes, and the granddaughter of Reverend Russell, Patricia Russell (Betta St. John), pays a visit to Nan’s skeptical brother, Richard Barlow (Dennis Lotis), and her boyfriend Bill Maitland (Tom), and they decide to follow her steps. Once in New England, they realize that a group of immortal witches have to sacrifice two beautiful women per year, one on Candleman Eve on February 1st, and the other on the Witch Sabbath, to stay alive forever, and only the shadow of a cross would be able to destroy them.
My Bloody Valentine (1981)
On Valentine’s Day 20 years before, an explosion of methane gas took the lives of a group of coal miners working in the Hanniger Mine near the small Nova Socia town of Valentine Bluffs. The accident occurred because supervisors left their posts to attend the annual Valentine’s Day dance. A year afterward, Harry Warden – the only survivor of the accident – retaliated by killing the two supervisors, and leaving a terrifying warning never to hold another Valentine’s Day dance. Now, a group of young adults decides to hold another dance, despite warnings. When a blood-soaked heart arrives at the police station, accompanied by an ominous message, the dance is canceled. But a Valentine party is held in its place… at the coal mine, and it isn’t long before the town’s young people begin dying violently. It appears Harry Warden has returned to punish those who did not heed his warning…
Election (1999)
Jim McAllister (Matthew Broderick) is a Social Studies teacher at Carver High. A student of his, Tracy Flick (Reese Whiterspoon), tends to rub him the wrong way. Flick, a loner and ambitious girl, decides to run for class president. McAllister convinces football player Paul (Chris Klein) to run against her. His lesbian sister Tammy (Jessica Campbell) joins the election after her girlfriend starts going out with Paul. During the campaigns, Tracy plays dirty, plying students with muffins and gum. Tammy adopts an anarchist attitude that the student body responds to. Paul has few skills to offer the position. Meanwhile, McAllister’s going through a bad time with his wife.
Rachel Getting Married (2008)
When Kym returns to the Buchman family home for the wedding of her sister Rachel, she brings a long history of personal crisis and family conflict along with her. The wedding party’s abundant cast of friends and relations have gathered for an idyllic weekend of feasting, music and love, but Kym — with her black-comic one-liners and knack for bombshell drama — is a catalyst for long-simmering tensions in the family dynamic.
Mindhunters (2004)
On a remote island, the FBI has a training program for their psychological profiling division, called “Mindhunters”, used to track down serial killers. The training goes horribly wrong, however, when a group of seven young agents discover that one of them is a serial killer, and is setting about slaying the others. Can the few that are left figure out who the killer is in time?
Memoirs of a Geisha (2005)
A young nine year old girl, Chiyo, lives in a rather poor fishing village, Yoroido, on Japan’s coast. Along with her older sister, Satsu, she is sent to the geisha (Japanese for artisan) district called Gion. Split from the only family she has left Chiyo is sent to the Nitta Okiya while her sister is transported else where and becomes less of a role. And Okiya is a house (sort of a compound) where a geisha lives and is taken care of. Here at the Nitta Okiya Chiyo meets another girl about her age nicknamed Pumpkin. Together Pumpkin and Chiyo struggle through the daily life of being treated as nothing more than slaves to the resident geisha, Hatsumomo. Hatsumomo, the story’s resident villain, tries her hardest to make Chiyo’s life as miserable as possible. On one particular occasion Chiyo feeling so depressed collapses on a bridge in tears over her life’s woes. Much to her surprise a high society passer by stops to question why she is so sad. Here little Chiyo meets The Chairman for the first time. He shows her kindness in a world which has been naught but cruel to her and from that point on Chiyo makes it her goal to break free from the social class she was born into and become a geisha worthy of The Chairman. After much work and hardship Chiyo is allowed to attend school where young girls are taught all the important practices associated with the life of a geisha. She learns tea ceremony, how to play the shamisen (like a little banjo or acoustic guitar), as well as quite possibly the most important act, how to dance. The word geisha in Japanese is derived from a term referring to art so a geisha is like an artisan, or an artist. After some more altercations with Hatsumomo, Chiyo is taken under the wing of one of Gion’s most popular geisha, Mameha. Mameha also happens to be Hatsumomo’s arch-rival as a geisha. Mameha takes a long time to introduce Chiyo as her apprentice however once she does she is already blessed with fame for being associated with someone of Mameha’s class. Here is the part of the story where Chiyo’s name changes to Sayuri (her geisha name). Mameha introduces Sayuri is many numerous figures in Gion life and it come to a point where men are fighting for the highest bid on Sayuri’s mizuage. All this time Sayuri is struggling with the common life lessons learned when one is growing up into a young woman. It is very much a coming of age story. Through all trials of adversity Sayuri faces her one goal is always to see The Chairman again. Finally the day comes when she is invited, along with Mameha, to a party at a teahouse at which The Chairman is attending. For the next couple of weeks she attends multiple parties which the chairman attend all the while seemingly coming closer to achieving her goal. Tension has been growing concerning World War II and the society in Gion is beginning to feel the effects of war. Rations are set up and many part of the giesha district have begun to close. Geisha are fleeing to other parts of the country hoping to avoid getting caught in an attack. Sayuri and all of her friends are split apart until after the war and once everyone returns to Gion it is realized the effects of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. All geisha who fled to these cities obviously died and it is a loss greatly felt by the community. Sayuri desperately attempts to attain the love of the Chairman and the climax of the story is whether or not she does meet her goal.