Anna (2013) Mindscape

A man with the ability to enter peoples' memories takes on the case of a brilliant, troubled sixteen-year-old girl to determine whether she is a sociopath or a victim of trauma.

Director:

 Jorge Dorado

Writers:

 Guy Holmes, Martha Holmes (story), 3 more credits »

Stars:

 Taissa Farmiga, Indira Varma, Mark Strong |See full cast and crew »

A man with the ability to enter peoples' memories takes on the case of a brilliant, troubled sixteen-year-old girl to determine whether she is a sociopath or a victim of trauma.

Grumpier Old Men (1995)

Things don't seem to change much in Wabasha County: Max and John are still fighting after 35 years, Grandpa still drinks, smokes, and chases women , and nobody's been able to catch the ... See full summary »

Director:

 Howard Deutch

Writers:

 Mark Steven Johnson (characters), Mark Steven Johnson

Stars:

 Walter Matthau, Jack Lemmon, Ann-Margret |See full cast and crew »

Things don't seem to change much in Wabasha County: Max and John are still fighting after 35 years, Grandpa still drinks, smokes, and chases women , and nobody's been able to catch the fabled "Catfish Hunter", a gigantic catfish that actually smiles at fishermen who try to snare it. Six months ago John married the new girl in town (Ariel), and people begin to suspect that Max might be missing something similar in his life. The only joy Max claims is left in his life is fishing, but that might change with the new owner of the bait shop.

Grumpy Old Men (1993)

• A lifelong feud between two neighbors since childhood, only gets worse when a new female neighbor moves across the street.

  Director:

   Donald Petrie

  Writer:

   Mark Steven Johnson

  Stars:

   Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Ann-Margret |See full cast and crew »

John and Max are elderly men living next door to each other. They're continuously arguing and insulting each other, and have been this way for over 50 years. One day, Ariel, moves into the street. Both men are attracted to her, and their rivalry steps up a gear.

Flushed Away (2006)

The story of an uptown rat that gets flushed down the toilet from his penthouse apartment, ending in the sewers of London, where he has to learn a whole new and different way of life.

Directors:

 David Bowers, Sam Fell

Writers:

 Dick Clement (screenplay), Ian La Frenais(screenplay), 7 more credits »

Stars:

 Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Ian McKellen |See full cast and crew »

Roddy is a decidedly upper-crust "society mouse" who lives the life of a beloved pet in a posh Kensington flat. When a sewer rat named Sid comes spewing out of the sink and decides he's hit the jackpot, Roddy schemes to rid himself of the pest by luring him into the "whirlpool." Sid may be an ignorant slob, but he's no fool, so it is Roddy who winds up being flushed away into the bustling sewer world of Ratropolis. There Roddy meets Rita, an enterprising scavenger who works the sewers in her faithful boat, the Jammy Dodger. Roddy immediately wants out, or rather, up; Rita wants to be paid for her trouble; and, speaking of trouble, the villainous Toad - who royally despises all rodents equally, making no distinction between mice and rats--wants them iced... literally. The Toad dispatches his two hapless hench-rats, Spike and Whitey, to get the job done. When they fail, the Toad has no choice but to send to France for his cousin - that dreaded mercenary, Le Frog.

Not Safe for Work (2014)

An office worker is trapped inside the building where a killer is on the loose.

Director:

 Joe Johnston

Writers:

 Simon Boyes (screenplay), Adam Mason (screenplay)

Stars:

 JJ Feild, Max Minghella, Eloise Mumford | See full cast and crew »

"An office worker is trapped inside the building where a killer is on the loose." This is the summary for Not Safe for Work that is on IMDb. Nothing more is given about the plot and I assumed this film was sort of like a Halloween or Friday 13th movie with some maniac chasing a poor guy about the building trying to kill him. Fortunately, this is NOT what this film turned out to be and the plot is MUCH more complex and satisfying than just some maniac murdering folks. Instead, it's a pretty good little film—one that is not all about gratuitous violence. In fact, several times the film did have people killed but the director, Joe Johnston, chose not to show the violence in all its nastiness— something I really appreciated. Instead, this film is also about WHY all this was occurring instead of just about the killing—a smart decision in my opinion.

The film is told from the viewpoint of Tom (Max Minghella)—a lowly paralegal at a HUGE law firm. Because Tom is ambitious, however, he's gotten on the bad side of his bosses. They just want him to shut up and do his job. His desire to rise above the masses of paralegals gets him fired early on in the film. However, as he's leaving the RBE law firm for, supposedly, the last time, he notices something strange—a hand off between two folks in the lobby. In other words, as one guy is leaving the building, another brings him an attaché case and 'accidentally' leaves it behind and the guy entering picks it up and proceeds up the elevators to the firm. That's certainly odd and Tom follows to see what's happening. Once there, he's shocked to see it's MUCH more serious than he thought, as he sees this man with the briefcase shoot one of the office workers in cold blood. Fortunately, the place is just about empty and the body count is low…and perhaps that is why the man is there at that time. Regardless, Tom is scared to death but cannot leave as well because the killer somehow has managed to disable most of the electronics in the building. The killer's very systematic and he clearly is NOT some random maniac—some sort of conspiracy is clearly afoot. So how is poor Tom to survive—especially when the killer realizes that there is someone else in the office?

Not Safe for Work turns out to be a very taut and well executed thriller that is much more like Die Hard than Friday the 13th! The direction is very nice and the acting quite believable and I do recommend you see it. I especially appreciate the rather dark conspiratorial angle about the film and the ending that is a bit reminiscent of the old Warren Beatty film The Parallax View. 

My only complaint, and you may not notice or care (since I am an obsessive detail person when it comes to film plots), but at one point in the film another woman is shot and killed by the killer. However, she tried to fight back and tried to shoot the guy a gun hidden in her purse. The killer did not know that Tom was hiding in the room. So after the killer left the room, why didn't Tom bother to get the gun from the dead woman?!?! This is the sort of thing that doesn't ruin the film but makes me wonder how they missed this. Unfortunately, this sort of thing happens a lot in films and it's a cliché I really dislike.

Despite my small rant, see the film. It's worth your time and is awfully good and just goes to show you that you don't need mega-stars and mega-budgets to make a good film.

3 Days to Kill (2014)

A dying CIA agent trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter is offered an experimental drug that could save his life in exchange for one last assignment.

Director:

 McG

Writers:

 Adi Hasak (screenplay), Luc Besson (screenplay),1 more credit »

Stars:

 Kevin Costner, Hailee Steinfeld, Connie Nielsen |See full cast and crew »

A dangerous international spy is determined to give up his high stakes life to finally build a closer relationship with his estranged wife and daughter, whom he's previously kept at arm's length to keep out of danger. But first, he must complete one last mission - even if it means juggling the two toughest assignments yet: hunting down the world's most ruthless terrorist and looking after his teenage daughter for the first time in ten years, while his wife is out of town.

Lone Survivor (2013)

Marcus Luttrell and his team set out on a mission to capture or kill notorious Taliban leader Ahmad Shah, in late June 2005. Marcus and his team are left to fight for their lives in one of the most valiant efforts of modern warfare.

Director:

 Peter Berg

Writers:

 Peter Berg, Marcus Luttrell (book), 1 more credit »

Stars:

 Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch |See full cast and crew »

Peter Berg seems to be trying to hard to imitate Michael Bay. Whereas Battleship was effectively a Bay version of a film based on a toy, here we see the same type of bombastic and patriotic tones that Bay likes to indulge in.

Based on true events, Lone Survivor follows Marks Wahlberg and his Navy SEAL team try to hunt down a Taliban Leader. However they encounter some goat herders and decide whether to kill them or not. However these scene itself causes discomfort as the herders are civilians and therefore killing them is in breach of the Geneva convention, yet the film wants to enter a debate on war ethics. These are professional soldiers, surely this was mentioned in their training? Hold on it was mentioned in the mission briefing a few minutes earlier!

As they have to abort the mission the SEALs encounter the Taliban forces and get involved in a brutal and visceral gunfight in the wild Afghan terrain which suspiciously looks like somewhere in America.

Mark Walhberg, Ben Foster and Taylor Kitsch give strong performances but the film although starts off slowly then becomes scenes of constant blood-soaked fighting and running or more accurately falling down the mountain from the Taliban.

There is an element of war porn in this film with the prolonged battle scenes as the SEALs are repeatedly getting shot. It starts as soldiers goofing around but once the action begins there is an emphasis of a band of brothers but there is something hollow about this film even with the latter storyline of getting help from Pushtun villagers does not overcome.

Copperhead (2013)

An Upstate New York family is torn apart during the American Civil War.

Director:

 Ronald F. Maxwell

Writers:

 Harold Frederic (novel), Bill Kauffman (screenplay)

Stars:

 François Arnaud, Lucy Boynton, Casey Thomas Brown | See full cast and crew »

All of the characters are well drawn and express their views without restraint. The movie is built around a love story between a boy (Casey Thomas Brown as Casey Brown) whose father (Billy Campbell as Abner Beech) opposes the war and a girl (Lucy Boynton as Esther Hagadorn ) whose father (Angus Macfadyen as Jee Hagadorn) is a religious abolitionist fanatic. The boy volunteers to join the army, along with many other young men from the town. With the young men off at war, conflicts threaten to tear the town apart and in some respects do.

The war itself is far away, but shows up as casualty lists are posted in the newspapers (and eventually as the dead and wounded return). The scenes of family members scanning the lists of dead, wounded, and missing looking for their sons, brothers, fathers, etc. are as sad, as they historically accurate.

The battles in the town end with both tragic and positive consequences. The movie if beautifully filmed and well acted. A great piece of American history. Well worth seeing.

Vampire Academy (2014)

Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir, half human-half vampire, a guardian of the Moroi, peaceful, mortal vampires living discreetly within our world. Her calling is to protect the Moroi from bloodthirsty, immortal Vampires, the Strigoi.

Director:

 Mark Waters

Writers:

 Richelle Mead (novel), Daniel Waters (screenplay)

Stars:

 Zoey Deutch, Lucy Fry, Danila Kozlovsky |See full cast and crew »

Rose Hathaway is a dhampir, half-vampire and half-human, who is training to be a guardian at St Vladimir's Academy along with many others like her. There are good and bad vampires in their world: Moroi, who co-exist peacefully among the humans and only take blood from donors, and also possess the ability to control one of the four elements - water, earth, fire or air; and Strigoi, blood-sucking, evil vampires who drink to kill. Rose and other dhampir guardians are trained to protect Moroi and kill Strigoi throughout their education. Along with her best friend, Princess Vasilisa Dragomir, a Moroi and the last of her line, with whom she has a nigh unbreakable bond, Rose must run away from St Vladimir's, in order to protect Lissa from those who wish to harm the princess and use her for their own means.

Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)

After a bitter divorce, an actor disguises himself as a female housekeeper to spend time with his children held in custody by his former wife.

Director:

 Chris Columbus

Writers:

 Anne Fine (novel), Randi Mayem Singer(screenplay), 1 more credit »

Stars:

 Robin Williams, Sally Field, Pierce Brosnan |See full cast and crew »

Daniel Hillard is an eccentric actor who specializes in dubbing voices for cartoon characters. Daniel is a kind man and a loving father to his three kids Lydia, Chris, and Natalie, but Daniel's wife Miranda sees him as a poor disciplinarian, and a bad role model. After Daniel throws an elaborate and disastrous birthday party for Chris, Miranda reaches the end of her limited patience, and files for a divorce. Daniel is heartbroken when Miranda is given custody of the kids and he's only allowed to visit them once a week. Determined to stay in contact with his kids, Daniel discovers that Miranda is looking for a housekeeper, and with help from his brother Frank, a makeup artist, Daniel gets the job, disguised as Mrs. Iphegenia Doubtfire, a Scottish nanny. Daniel pulls off the ruse so well that neither Miranda nor his children recognize him, and in the process, he learns some parenting tips. Daniel also has to deal with Miranda's new boyfriend, a jerk named Stu Dunmeyer. 

Pompeii (2014)

A slave-turned-gladiator finds himself in a race against time to save his true love, who has been betrothed to a corrupt Roman Senator. As Mount Vesuvius erupts, he must fight to save his beloved as Pompeii crumbles around him.

Director:

 Paul W.S. Anderson

Writers:

 Janet Scott Batchler (screenplay), Lee Batchler(screenplay), 1 more credit »

Stars:

 Kit Harington, Emily Browning, Kiefer Sutherland |See full cast and crew »