Posts Tagged ‘bittersweet’

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997)

Monday, March 17th, 2008
Genres: Crime | Drama | Mystery
Countries: USA
Actors: John Cusack | Kevin Spacey | Jack Thompson | Irma P. Hall | Jude Law | Alison Eastwood | Paul Hipp | Lady Chablis | Dorothy Loudon | Anne Haney | Kim Hunter | Geoffrey Lewis | Richard Herd | Leon Rippy | Bob Gunton
Directors: Clint Eastwood
Download: DivX iPod 

This panoramic tale of Savannah’s eccentricities focuses on a murder and the subsequent trial of Jim Williams: self made man, art collector, antiques dealer, bon vivant and semi-closeted homosexual. John Kelso a magazine reporter finds himself in Savannah amid the beautiful architecture and odd doings to write a feature on one of William’s famous Christmas parties. He is intrigued by Williams from the start, but his curiosity is piqued when he meets Jim’s violent, young and sexy lover, Billy. Later that night, Billy is dead, and Kelso stays on to cover the murder trial. Along the way he encounters the irrepressible Lady Chablis, a drag queen commedienne, Sonny Seiler, lawyer to Williams, whose famous dog UGA is the official mascot of the Georgia Bulldogs, an odd man who keeps flies attached to mini leashes on his lapels and threatens daily to poison the water supply, the Married Ladies Card Club, and Minerva, a spiritualist. Between being Jim’s buddy, cuddling up to a torch singer, meeting every eccentric in Savannah, participating in midnight graveyard rituals and helping solve the mysteries surrounding Billy’s murder, Kelso has his hands full.

Hero (2002)

Friday, March 14th, 2008
Genres: Action | Adventure | Drama
Countries: China | Hong Kong
Actors: Jet Li | Tony Leung Chiu Wai | Maggie Cheung | Ziyi Zhang | Daoming Chen | Donnie Yen | Liu Zhong Yuan | Zheng Tia Yong | Yan Qin | Chang Xiao Yang | Zhang Ya Kun | Ma Wen Hua | Jin Ming | Xu Kuang Hua | Wang Shou Xin
Directors: Yimou Zhang
Download: DivX iPod 

In ancient China, before the reign of the first emperor, warring factions throughout the Six Kingdoms plot to assassinate the most powerful ruler, Qin. When a minor official defeats Qin’s three principal enemies, he is summoned to the palace to tell Qin the story of his surprising victory.

Misérables, Les (1998)

Tuesday, February 26th, 2008
Genres: Crime | Drama | Romance
Countries: Germany | UK | USA
Actors: Liam Neeson | Geoffrey Rush | Uma Thurman | Claire Danes | Hans Matheson | Reine Brynolfsson | Peter Vaughan | Christopher Adamson | Tim Barlow | Timothy Bateson | David Birkin | Václav Chalupa | Ian Cregg | Ben Crompton | Zdenek David
Directors: Bille August
Download: DivX iPod 

Jean Valjean, a Frenchman imprisoned for stealing bread, must flee a police officer named Javert. The pursuit consumes both men’s lives, and soon Valjean finds himself in the midst of the student revolutions in France.

This Is England (2006)

Tuesday, February 19th, 2008
Genres: Drama
Countries: UK
Actors: Thomas Turgoose | Stephen Graham | Jo Hartley | Andrew Shim | Vicky McClure | Joseph Gilgun | Rosamund Hanson | Andrew Ellis | Perry Benson | George Newton | Frank Harper | Jack O'Connell | Kriss Dosanjh | Kieran Hardcastle | Chanel Cresswell
Directors: Shane Meadows
Download: DivX iPod 

Roland Rat, Margaret Thatcher; Rubik’s Cubes, the Royal Wedding; aerobics, skinheads… It’s 1983, and the schools are breaking up for summer. Shaun is 12 and a bit of a loner, growing up with his mum in a grim coastal town, his dad killed fighting in the Falklands War. On his way home from school where he’s been tormented all day for wearing flares, he runs into a group of skinheads, who against expectations turn out to be friendly and take him under their wing. Soon Shaun discovers parties, girls and snappy dressing, and finds some role models in Woody, Milky and the rest of the gang. But when an older, overtly racist skinhead returns home from prison, the easy camaraderie of the group is broken, and Shaun is drawn into much more uncomfortable territory. Based largely on his own experience as a youngster, this is Shane Meadows’ most mature and fully realised film. Handling the complexities of masculinity, violence and race with sensitivity and a lightness of touch, it’s hard to imagine a film that would better capture the mood of the time, or that could have any greater an understanding of the allure of being part of a gang.

The Crow (1994)

Sunday, February 10th, 2008
Genres: Action | Crime | Fantasy | Thriller
Countries: USA
Actors: Brandon Lee | Rochelle Davis | Ernie Hudson | Michael Wincott | Ling Bai | Sofia Shinas | Anna Levine | David Patrick Kelly | Angel David | Laurence Mason | Michael Massee | Tony Todd | Jon Polito | Bill Raymond | Marco Rodríguez
Directors: Alex Proyas
Download: DivX iPod 

A poetic guitarist Eric Draven is brought back to life by a crow a year after he and his fiancée are murdered. The crow guides him through the land of the living, and leads him to his killers: knife thrower Tin-tin, drugetic Funboy, car buff T-Bird, and the unsophisticated Skank. One by one, Eric gives these thugs a taste of their own medicine. However their leader Top-Dollar, a world-class crime lord who will dispatch his enemies with a Japanese sword and joke about it later, will soon learn the legend of the crow and the secret to the vigilante’s invincibility.

Dirty Dancing (1987)

Monday, January 21st, 2008
Genres: Drama | Music | Romance
Countries: USA
Actors: Jennifer Grey | Patrick Swayze | Jerry Orbach | Cynthia Rhodes | Jack Weston | Jane Brucker | Kelly Bishop | Lonny Price | Max Cantor | Charles 'Honi' Coles | Neal Jones | 'Cousin Brucie' Morrow | Wayne Knight | Paula Trueman | Alvin Myerovich
Directors: Emile Ardolino
Download: DivX iPod 

Set in the 1960s, Frances ‘Baby’ Houseman, a sweet daddy’s girl, goes to a very respectable summer camp in the Catskills. Baby has grown up in privileged surrounds with her doctor father and all expect her to go on to college, join the Peace Corps and save the world before marrying a doctor, just like her father. Unexpectedly, Baby becomes infatuated with the camp’s dance instructor, Johnny, a man whose background is vastly different to her own. Attempting to impress him, Baby borrows money from her father to pay for an illegal abortion for Johnny’s dance partner. She then fills in as Johnny’s dance partner and it is during the rigorous training that they fall in love. It all comes apart when Johnny’s friend falls seriously ill after her abortion and Baby is forced to seek her father’s medical assistance. Her father then learns what Baby has been up to, who with and worse - that he funded the illegal abortion. He bans his daughter from any further association with “those people”. In the first deliberately willful action of her life, Baby later sneaks out to see Johnny - ostensibly to apologize for her father’s rudeness - and ends up consummating her relationship with Johnny. A jealous fellow vacationer sees Baby sneaking out of Johnny’s bungalow the next morning and in an act of retribution, tells management that he is responsible for a theft that last evening, knowing he would not furnish his real whereabouts. Attempting to defend her lover, Baby confesses that they were together that night - all night. This revelation causes a huge rift in the family and Baby makes an impassioned speech to her angry and bereft father. At the closing night performances, and although he has been fired and banned from attending - Johnny returns and takes the stage to tell everyone about the woman who stole his heart and changed his life before they have one, final dance together.

The Green Mile (1999)

Monday, January 21st, 2008
Genres: Crime | Drama | Fantasy | Mystery
Countries: USA
Actors: Tom Hanks | David Morse | Bonnie Hunt | Michael Clarke Duncan | James Cromwell | Michael Jeter | Graham Greene | Doug Hutchison | Sam Rockwell | Barry Pepper | Jeffrey De Munn | Patricia Clarkson | Harry Dean Stanton | Dabbs Greer | Eve Brent
Directors: Frank Darabont
Download: DivX iPod 

Death Row guards at a penitentiary, in the 1930’s, have a moral dilemma with their job when they discover one of their prisoners, a convicted murderer, has a special gift.

Dragonheart (1996)

Friday, January 18th, 2008
Genres: Action | Adventure | Drama | Fantasy
Countries: USA
Actors: Sean Connery | Dennis Quaid | Julie Christie | David Thewlis | Pete Postlethwaite | Dina Meyer | Jason Isaacs | Brian Thompson | Lee Oakes | Wolf Christian | Terry O'Neill | Eva Vejmelková | Milan Bahúl | Peter Hric | Sandra Kovacicova | Kyle Cohen | Thom Baker
Directors: Rob Cohen
Download: DivX iPod 

Set in the 10th Century, a man (Bowen) teams up with the last dragon to remind the people of a long lost code of honor, and inspire them to fight for their freedom from a tyrannical king.

As Good as It Gets (1997)

Tuesday, December 18th, 2007
Genres: Comedy | Drama | Romance
Countries: USA
Actors: Jack Nicholson | Helen Hunt | Greg Kinnear | Cuba Gooding Jr. | Skeet Ulrich | Shirley Knight | Yeardley Smith | Lupe Ontiveros | Jill the Dog | Timer the Dog | Billy the Dog | Bibi Osterwald | Ross Bleckner | Bernadette Balagtas | Jaffe Cohen
Directors: James L. Brooks
Download: DivX iPod 

New York City. Melvin Udall, a cranky, bigoted, obsessive-compulsive writer, finds his life turned upside down when neighboring gay artist Simon is hospitalized and his dog is entrusted to Melvin. In addition, Carol, the only waitress who will tolerate him, must leave work to care for her sick son, making it impossible for Melvin to eat breakfast.

Reign Over Me (2007)

Wednesday, November 28th, 2007
Genres: Drama
Countries: USA
Actors: Adam Sandler | Don Cheadle | Jada Pinkett Smith | Liv Tyler | Saffron Burrows | Donald Sutherland | Robert Klein | Melinda Dillon | Jonathan Banks | Rae Allen | Paula Newsome | John de Lancie | Paul Butler | Camille LaChe Smith
Directors: Mike Binder
Download: DivX iPod 

Alan Johnson has everything he needs to get through life: a good job, a beautiful and loving wife, and their wonderful children. Yet he feels isolated because he finds having a hard-working job and managing a family too much to handle and has no one to talk to about it. Charlie Fineman, on the other hand, doesn’t have a job or a family. He used to have both until he lost his family on the fateful day of 9/11, and the grief he felt caused him to quit his job and isolate himself from everyone around him. As it turns out, Alan and Charlie were roommates in college, and a chance encounter one night rekindles the friendship they shared. They soon feel that their friendship is the one thing that allows them to forget about their problems.