Tag Archives: USA

A Brief History of Time (1991) Errol Morris, Stephen Hawking, Isobel Hawking, Janet Humphrey, Documentary, Biography

A Brief History of Time (Errol Morris, 1991)
A documentary film based on the life of scientist Steven Hawking. The film explores the intimate life of Steven Hawking through him, his friends and his family, as he goes through school, is diagnosed with a degenerative disease, and discovers revolutionary theories about time, black holes, and the origin of the universe. A visually interesting and at times funny film about a extraordinary life.
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Star 80 (1983) Bob Fosse, Mariel Hemingway, Eric Roberts, Cliff Robertson, Biography, Drama

Star 80 (Bob Fosse, 1983)
Paul Snider is a narcissistic, small time hustler who fancies himself a ladies man. His life changes when he meets Dorothy Stratten working behind the counter of a Dairy Queen. Dorothy is a pretty but naive high school senior. Paul immediately falls for Dorothy, who sees in Paul a wise, worldly person unlike herself. Paul believes Dorothy is Playboy material, the magazine he sees as only a springboard to bigger and better things. Paul’s dream does become a reality: not only does Dorothy eventually marry him, she becomes the August 1979 Playboy Playmate and ultimately Playboy Playmate of 1979, which does indeed lead to the start of an acting career. As Dorothy’s star rises, Paul’s life is one of a hanger-on as those in Dorothy’s new circle, including Playboy publisher Hugh M. Hefner and movie director Aram Nicholas, don’t much like Paul. Paul is unable to eke out a life of his own without using Dorothy’s name, which she increasingly is reluctant to provide to her husband.
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The Turning (1992) L.A. Puopolo, Karen Allen, Raymond J. Barry, Michael Dolan, Drama

The Turning (1992)
After 4 years, Clifford Harnish returns to his hometown of Pocahontas, Virginia, hoping to save his family and make for himself the happy childhood he never had. Unfortunately, he has arrived just in time to see his parents’ divorce made final. He also gets to watch his mother sink into an alcoholic depression while his father builds a new life with a new woman. Soon Cliff decides to take matters into his own hands, using the methods he learned while traipsing the country with Neo-Nazis. Adapted from the play “Home Fires Burning.”
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Le violon rouge / The Red Violin (1998) François Girard, Carlo Cecchi, Jean-Luc Bideau, Christoph Koncz, Drama, Romance, Mystery

Le violon rouge (Francois Girard, 1998)
Spans 300 years in the life of one famed musical instrument that winds up in present-day Montreal on the auction block. Crafted by the Italian master Bussotti (Cecchi) in 1681, the red violin derives its unusual color from the human blood mixed into the finish. With this legacy, the violin travels to Austria, England, China, and Canada, leaving both beauty and tragedy in its wake.
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Gothika (2003) Mathieu Kassovitz, Halle Berry, Penélope Cruz, Robert Downey Jr., Horror, Mystery, Thriller

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Dr. Miranda Grey is a psychiatrist who works in a penitentiary, in the mental institution sector. She is married with Dr. Douglas Grey, the chief of department where Dr. Pete Graham also works. Chloe Sava, a patient of Dr. Miranda formerly abused by her stepfather, claims that she is frequently raped by the devil in her cell. After leaving the asylum in a stormy night, Dr. Miranda has a car accident, and when she wakes up, she is an inmate of the institution, being accused of an horrible crime and having no memory of the incident.
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The Fortune (1975) Mike Nichols, Stockard Channing, Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, Comedy, Crime, Romance

The Fortune (1975)
The early 1900’s with its Mann-Act (disallowing women to be transported across State lines for immoral reasons) brings a married man to devise a scheme for taking his upper-class girlfriend away with him… he simply has her marry his unmarried buddy. However, it doesn’t take very long before both men start laying claim to her affection… until, that is, she’s about to be cut out of her parent’s fortune. So, a new scheme is devised, which only adds to their problems, as well as to the sly whimsy of this film.
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Berlin Correspondent (1942) Eugene Forde, Virginia Gilmore, Dana Andrews, Mona Maris, Drama, Thriller

Berlin Correspondent (Eugene Forde, 1942)
American correspondent Bill Roberts is a thorn in the side of the Nazis, as his paper always scoops the world with the truth about Germany. Gestapo Captain Carl Von Rau means to plug the leak and assigns Karen Hauen, who he attends to wed, to the case. Roberts is obtaining his information for his stories and broadcasts from an elderly stamp collector who, defiantly opposed to the Nazis, sells the “proper” stamps to Roberts, giving him the information. Attracted to Karen, Roberts invites her to his apartment where she learns his secret. The old philatelist is sent to a concentration camp, and then Karen learns that he is her father. She appeals to Roberts for help and he, in loyalty to the old man and now in love with Karen, agrees to help.
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The Wraith (1986) Mike Marvin, Charlie Sheen, Nick Cassavetes, Sherilyn Fenn, Action, Horror, Romance

The Wraith (1986)
Packard Walsh and his motorized gang control and terrorize an Arizona desert town where they force drivers to drag-race so they can ‘win’ their vehicles. After Walsh stabs the decent teenager Jamie Hankins to death for being intimate with a girl whom Walsh wants for himself, the mysterious Jake Kesey arrives, an extremely cool motor-biker with an invincible car. Jake befriends Jamie’s girlfriend Keri Johnson, takes Jamie’s sweet brother Billy under his wing and manages what Sheriff Loomis can not – the methodical and otherworldly elimination of Packard’s criminal gang.
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Strange Cargo (1940) Frank Borzage, Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Ian Hunter, Drama, Romance

Strange Cargo (Frank Borzage, 1940)
Verne wants nothing more than to escape from a penal colony located off the northern coast of South America. He tries to involve Julie, a saloon girl, in his plans but she turns him in to the authorities. On Verne’s next try, he piggybacks on the escape of six other convicts and runs into Julie again in the process. One of the convicts is a spiritual figure who seems to know what will happen before anyone else. The group attempts to travel through the jungle, board a boat, and make it to the mainland.
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