Serenity offers perfect proof that Firefly deserved a better fate than premature TV cancellation. Joss Whedon's acclaimed sci-fi Western hybrid series was ideally suited (in Browncoats, of course) for a big-screen conversion, and this action-packed adventure allows Whedon to fill in the Firefly backstory, especially the history and mystery of the spaceship Serenity's volatile and traumatized stowaway, River Tam (Summer Glau).
Walker (Lee Marvin) strides through Los Angeles with the steel-eyed stare of a stone-cold killer, or perhaps a ghost. Betrayed by his wife and best friend, who gun him down point-blank and leave him for dead after a successful heist, Walker blasts his way up the criminal food chain in a quest for revenge. Did he survive the shooting or return from the grave, or is it all a dying dream?
Philadelphia wasn't the first movie about AIDS (it followed such worthy independent films as Parting Glances and Longtime Companion), but it was the first Hollywood studio picture to take AIDS as its primary subject. In that sense, Philadelphia is a historically important film. As such, it's worth remembering that director Jonathan Demme (Melvin and Howard, Something Wild, The Silence of the Lambs) wasn't interested in preaching to the converted; he set out to make a film that would connect with a mainstream audience. And he succeeded.
The Untold True Story That Inspired The Legend. Now, from the producer of Pearl Harbor and the director of Training Day... experience the extended unrated director's cut of this hard-hitting action epic! Prepare for more thrills, more adventure and more intensity, as the heroic true story behind one of history's greatest legends explodes onto the screen! It is the valiant tale of Arthur (Clive Own) and his bond of brotherhood with Lancelot (Ioan Grufford), and the loyalty of the Knights Of The Round Table as they fight for freedom and those they love.
The 1970s were difficult years for the great Japanese director Akira Kurosawa. Following the box-office failure of his 1970 film Dodes'ka-den and an unsuccessful suicide attempt, Kurosawa was unable to find financial backing in Japan, and he made his acclaimed 1975 film Dersu Uzala in Siberia with Russian financing.
When you add up all the best things about The Island, you might just conclude that there's hope yet for Hollywood's most critically reviled hit-maker, Michael Bay.
Cinderella Man is a wholesome slice of old-fashioned Americana, offering welcomed relief from the shallowness of many summer blockbusters. In dramatizing the legendary Depression-era comeback of impoverished boxer Jim Braddock, director Ron Howard benefits from another superb collaboration with his A Beautiful Mind star Russell Crowe, whose portrayal of Braddock is simultaneously warm, noble, and tenacious without resorting to even the slightest hint of sentimental melodrama.
Tim Burton's splendidly imaginative adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory would almost surely meet with Roald Dahl's approval. The celebrated author of darkly offbeat children's books vehemently disapproved of 1971's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (hence the change in title), so it's only fitting that Burton and his frequent star/collaborator, Johnny Depp, should have another go, infusing the enigmatic candyman's tale with their own unique brand of imaginative oddity.
Akira Kurosawa's brilliantly conceived retelling of King Lear combines Japanese history and Shakespeare's plot with the director's own feelings about loyalty and betrayal. In 16th century Japan, the aging Lord Hidetora (Tatsuya Nakadai) passes the decree that his land be divided among his three children. Blinded by the false flattery of his two older songs, he banishes his younger son for speaking the truth. The remaining heirs, driven by power and greed, wage war upon each other.
A pampered life in London collides with the stark realities of poverty and hunger in the world's most dangerous hot spots in Beyond Borders, a sweeping romantic adventure starring Academy Award winner Angelina Jolie (Lara Croft Tomb Raider). While attending a fundraising gala, Sarah Jordan (Jolie), a naive, married American socialite living in England, witnesses a fiery plea delivered by an intruder-a renegade humanitarian, Dr. Nick Callahan (Clive Owen, The Bourne Identity). His plea, made on behalf of impoverished African children under his care, turns Sarah's life upside down.
