Dr. Will Caster (Johnny Depp) is a leader in the field of Artificial Intelligence, working to create a sentient machine that combines mankind's collective intelligence with true human emotion. Anti-technology extremists will kill to stop him, but their attempt forces Will to record and upload his own mind to a supercomputer to achieve transcendence. Success brings him omniscience... and nearly unstoppable power as the fate of the world rests on Will's now questionable humanity.
Two cultures collide when East meets West in Shanghai Noon, a wildly hilarious, stunt-filled action-adventure-comedy starring the death-defying action hero Jackie Chan (Rush Hour), Owen Wilson (Armageddon, The Haunting) and Lucy Liu (Payback, TV's Ally McBeal). Chan plays Chinese Imperial Guard Chon Wang (say it out loud) who hightails it to the wild and woolly West to rescue the beautiful kidnapped Princess Pei Pei (Liu).
Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson and Demi Moore star in Rob Reiner's unanimously acclaimed drama about the dangerous difference between following orders and following one's conscience. A brash Navy lawyer who's teamed with a gung-ho litigator in a politically-explosive murder case. Charged with defending two Marines accused of killing a fellow soldier, they are confronted with complex issues of loyalty and honor - including its most sacred code and its most formidable warrior.
You know that old dramatic principle of suspension of disbelief? You'll have to rely on it for this box-office smash, but you won't be disappointed. Harrison Ford plays a U.S. president who single-handedly employs his rigid antiterrorism policy when a band of Russian thugs hatch a mid-flight takeover of Air Force One. Gary Oldman, who chews the scenery as the lead terrorist, will shoot a hostage at the slightest provocation. Glenn Close plays the sternly pragmatic vice president who negotiates with Oldman from her Washington seat of power.
Framed for assassinating the U.S. president at the end of Season Three, Nikita is the world's most wanted woman - alone, on the run and trying to clear her name. When she unexpectedly reunites with her old team - ex-fiance and mentor Michael, former protege Alex, tech genius Seymour Birkhoff and ex-CIA analyst Ryan Fletcher - they struggle to heal past betrayals while attempting to take down their nemesis Amanda, discovering in the process a vast conspiracy that threatens a global catastrophe.
In a game-changing turnaround, Division is now run by Nikita, Michael and former CIA analyst Ryan Fletcher, who has been tasked by the U.S. President to clean up after the previous regime... or else. With punk rock hacker Seymour Birkhoff hardwired to the cause, Nikita's protege Alex and ex-Navy SEAL Sean Pierce in the fold, and Owen back from a Russian prison, the new team has all the tech, muscle and spy power they need to round up the Dirty Thirty - rogue assassins who remain at large around the globe.
The pedigree and history of Nikita's birth and development are easily researched elsewhere--see the season-one review for backstory and exposition. And for lucky fans of the show, season two continues the exceptional storytelling and movie-like feel of new installments about the rogue government spy organization known as Division. Maggie Q stars in the title role, a former Division agent now bent on destroying its evil reign by flipping her legs and firing her weapons at her avowed enemy, with a couple of devastating hair tosses and mega-toned body blows thrown in for good measure.
In Nikita, the CW Network has developed another resounding hit on its roster of solid dramatic series that do a nice job of grabbing viewers from a variety of demographics. With season two starting in late September 2011, this slick package of the 22 episodes of season one is a great way of diving into a show that's among the best looking, most tightly produced, and intensely cinematic on the small screen. The title and the premise both come from the 1990 French feature film and early style-setter from writer-director Luc Besson, La Femme Nikita.
