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maskmanusa — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 11:18:00 UTC

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The Bridge On The River Kwai

maskmanusa — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 16:45:00 UTC

The Bridge on the River Kwai is an Academy Award-winning 1957 World War II film based on the novel Le Pont de la Rivière Kwaï by French writer Pierre Boulle. The film is a work of fiction but borrows the construction of the Burma Railway in 1942-43 for its historical setting. It was directed by David Lean and stars Alec Guinness, Sessue Hayakawa, Jack Hawkins and William Holden.

In 1997, this film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected for preservation in the United States Library of Congress National Film Registry.

Synopsis

Two prisoners of war are burying a corpse in the graveyard of a Japanese World War II prison camp in southern Burma. One, American Navy Commander Shears (William Holden), routinely bribes guards to ensure he gets sick duty, which allows him to avoid hard labour. A large contingent of British prisoners' arrives, marching in defiantly whistling the Colonel Bogey March under the leadership of Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness).

The camp commander, Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa), addresses them, informing them of his rules. He insists that all prisoners, regardless of rank, will work on the construction of a bridge over the Kwai River as part of a railroad that will link all Burma.

The next morning, when Saito orders everyone to work, Nicholson commands his officers to stand fast. He points out that the Geneva Conventions state that captured officers are exempt from manual labour. Saito is infuriated and backhands Nicholson in the face, but the latter refuses to back down, even after Saito has a machine gun set up. Saito is dissuaded from shooting by Major Clipton (James Donald), the medical officer; instead, the Japanese commander leaves Nicholson and his officers standing in the intense heat. As the day wears on, one of them collapses, but Nicholson and the rest are still standing defiantly at attention when the men return from the day's work. After Colonel Nicholson is beaten in Saito's quarters, the British officers are sent into a punishment cage and Nicholson into his own box for solitary confinement.

When Clipton requests to be allowed to check the officers, Saito agrees on the condition that Clipton persuade Nicholson to change his mind. Nicholson, however, refuses to budge, saying "if we give in now there'll be no end to it." In the meantime, construction falls far behind schedule, due in part to many "accidents" arranged by the British.

Saito has a deadline; if he should fail to meet it, it would bring him great shame and oblige him to commit seppuku (ritual suicide). So Saito reluctantly releases Nicholson, telling him that he has proclaimed an "amnesty" to commemorate the anniversary of Japan's great victory in the Russo-Japanese War, using it as an excuse to exempt the officers from work. Upon their release, Nicholson and his officers proudly walk through a jubilant reception. Saito for his part breaks down in tears in private.

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Jet Li Fearless

maskmanusa — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 12:44:00 UTC

Fearless, known in Chinese as Huo Yuanjia (Chinese: 霍元甲; pinyin: Huò Yuánjiǎ) and Jet Li's Fearless in the United States is a 2006 Chinese film directed by Ronny Yu and starring Jet Li. It is loosely based on the life of Huo Yuanjia, a legendary Chinese martial artist who challenged foreign fighters in highly publicised events, restoring pride and nationalism to China at a time when Western Imperialism and Japanese manipulation were eroding the country. Jet Li stated in an interview that this film is his last wushu martial arts epic, a point also made in the movie's television promotions and other publicity. Fearless was released on June 23, 2006 in the United Kingdom, and on September 22, 2006 in the United States.

Plot

Jet Li loosely portrays the life of martial arts master Huo Yuanjia. The plot differs greatly from the actual life of Huo Yuanjia.

The movie starts off with Huo Yuanjia fighting 3 Westerners: a boxer, a spearfighter and a fencer. Huo Yuanjia beats them all, and makes it his habit to bow to the opponent. Just as he is about to fight Anno Tanaka, the final contestant, Huo Yuanjia has a flashback.

The story flashes back to when Huo Yuanjia was a small boy. His father, Huo Endi, was a great fighter but did not want his asthmatic son to follow in his footsteps, and hence refused to teach Yuanjia martial arts. Huo secretly watched his father's training and taught himself how to fight.

The young Yuanjia then witnesses his father "losing" a Lei tai match; in actuality, his father struck the winning blow of the match, because he delivered a fatal technique which he mercifully pulled short so that his opponent would not be killed. However, his opponent dishonorably struck back after Huo Endi's winning blow, causing Huo Endi to "lose" the match when he is knocked off the stage. Yuanjia is taunted by the son of the man who defeated his father and he steps up to defend the Huo family name. Yuanjia gets beaten up by the boy and he swears never to lose again.

As the years pass, Yuanjia grows into a powerful fighter, winning fight after fight on the Lei tai until he becomes known as one of the greatest fighters in Tianjin, China. However, as his success grows, he becomes arrogant and increasingly ruthless, unlike his late father. When a rival martial arts master named Qin Lei (Master Chin in the US version) apparently injures one of Huo's followers, Huo forces Qin to fight him to the death during Qin's birthday celebration. Yuanjia's businessman friend, Nong Jinsun, urges him to settle the matter later, but Yuanjia refuses, insulting Nong. After much effort, during which the fighters demolish a restaurant, Huo—unlike his father who had previously held off during the Lei tai match—kills Qin with a fatal blow. However, when he returns home, he realizes that his mother and daughter (Jade in the US version) have been killed in revenge. Guided by fury, he goes to Qin's home and finds Qin's Godson, who admits to slaughtering Huo's family, and that he alone was responsible. Qin's Godson then commits suicide before Huo can kill him.As he leaves, his pupils approach, and force the pupil that was injured by Qin to tell Huo that the reason Qin attacked his pupil was because the pupil had slept with Qin's concubine (in the American version he insults Qin's mistress). Crazed with grief and shame, Huo flees Tianjin and wanders aimlessly for many miles, no longer caring about himself. A disheveled, greying wanderer, he nearly drowns in a river, but is saved by Granny Sun (Grandma in the US version) and her blind granddaughter, Yueci (Moon in the US version). They bring him back to their village and guided by their simple acts of kindness, Huo begins to learn the value of kindness and mercy.

In 1907, Huo Yuanjia returns to a very different Tianjin than the one he had left. No longer a comfortable rural village, it is now a bustling city, crowded with foreign troops and merchants. There, he makes peace with his past—visiting the graves of his family and apologizing for his faults, and paying his respects to the family of Master Qin.

He then reconciles with Nong Jinsun and challenges the American fighter, Hercules O'Brien, who was making headlines defeating Chinese fighters and dismissing them as the 'Weak men of the East'. To the astonishment of the foreigners, Huo not only wins the fight, but the admiration of O'Brien in the process by saving O'Brien's life. Huo Yuanjia's fame begins to spread with successive challenges with other foreign fighters, and with funding from Nong Jinsun, he sets up Jing Wu Men, a martial arts school in Shanghai.

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Shaft

maskmanusa — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 19:08:00 UTC

Shaft is a 2000 movie that was directed by John Singleton. It is the remake of the 1971 original. The movie stars Samuel L. Jackson (as John Shaft), Toni Collette, Busta Rhymes, Vanessa L. Williams, Jeffrey Wright, Mekhi Phifer and Christian Bale. The actor from the original movie, Richard Roundtree, also briefly reprises his role as John Shaft, the uncle to Jackson's character.

Plot

John Shaft is called in to investigate a racially motivated murder committed by Walter Wade (Christian Bale), the son of a wealthy tycoon. However, eye witness Diane Palmieri (Toni Collette) disappears without a trace. Having been let off on bail, Wade flees to Switzerland. Two years later, he returns confident that his connections and wealth will acquit him, so long as the waitress witness doesn't testify against him. Wade then enlists the help of a Dominican drug lord, Peoples Hernandez (Jeffrey Wright), to do his dirty business for him. Shaft must, with the help of his fellow detective Carmen Vasquez (Vanessa L. Williams), find Diane whilst having to fight off Wade, Peoples, several shot guns, and a host of corrupt officers in order to bring Wade to justice.

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Double Jeopardy

maskmanusa — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 15:14:00 UTC

Double Jeopardy is a film made in 1999 starring Tommy Lee Jones and Ashley Judd, about a woman who is framed for the murder of her husband.

Plot

Elizabeth 'Libby' Parsons (Judd) holds the belief, subsequently proven correct, that her husband Nick Parsons (Bruce Greenwood) is still alive and staged his own death for the purpose of falsely convicting her of murder. She serves six years in prison before being paroled, and emerges bent on finding her husband and son so as to take her revenge on the former and rescue the latter.

The movie explores the ramifications of a misinterpretation of the legal doctrine of double jeopardy which is a constitutional right in the United States granted by the Fifth Amendment to the US constitution. A fellow prison inmate advises Libby she could kill her husband in the middle of Times Square and the police would be powerless to do anything about it because of double jeopardy, because she had already been convicted once for his murder and served time. Both Libby and Lehman (Jones) repeat this theory later in the movie in order to frighten Nick in the climactic confrontation scene.

Cast

* Tommy Lee Jones - Travis Lehman
* Ashley Judd - Elizabeth 'Libby' Parsons
* Bruce Greenwood - Nicholas Nick' Parsons
* Benjamin Weir - Matty Parsons age 4
* Jay Brazeau - Bobby Long
* John MacLaren - Rudy
* Ed Evanko - Warre
* Annabeth Gish - Angela 'Angie' Green

Dante's Peak

maskmanusa — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 15:08:00 UTC

Dante's Peak is a 1997 action-adventure film starring Pierce Brosnan and Linda Hamilton. It portrays the effect of a volcano erupting in a small town in the Pacific Northwest portion of the United States. It was released a few months before Volcano and received wider success. It has also been acclaimed for its scientific accuracy, which Volcano lacked.

Plot

The film is set in the fictional town of Dante's Peak, Washington, located in the northern Cascade Mountains, but was actually filmed in and around Wallace in northern Idaho. The film is somewhat based on the real-life eruptions of Mount St. Helens in 1980 and Mount Pinatubo in 1991. The film is noted to have put emphasis on trying to accurately depict a volcanic eruption.[2] The film begins with the volcanic eruption of an unnamed volcano in Colombia (the script says this is Galeras, and the eruption is presumably the 1993 eruption which killed several volcanologists) where volcanologist Dr. Harry Dalton (Brosnan) attempts to evacuate with his fiancée Marianne. As they begin heading out of the town, large pieces of volcanic rocks begin to crash onto the small town, one of which penetrates the vehicle and kills Marianne.

Four years later, Harry is called in from vacation by his boss to investigate activity going on in the Northern Cascades region near the town of Dante's Peak. Meanwhile, a couple of backpackers went to the hot spring. A few minutes later, a small amount of volcanic activity had turned the hot spring sulfric, thus slowly chewing away and boiling the couple. At Dante's Peak, the town is receiving an award for being "The second most desirable place to live in the United States, population under 20,000" and celebrating its annual "Pioneer Days Festival". Harry meets with the town's mayor, Rachel Wando (Hamilton), who accompanies him with her two children, Graham (Foley) and Lauren (Smith), up to the mountain's "high lake" (high altitude lake located near the summit) to check the acidity in the water. After checking the acidity and picking up the mayor's ex-mother in law, Ruth (Hoffman), the five of them head to the town's hot springs where they discover the bodies of two dead backpackers, seared by the volcanic activity under the hot springs.

Never Die Alone

maskmanusa — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 15:02:00 UTC

Never Die Alone is a 2004 crime thriller / drama film, directed by Ernest R. Dickerson. It is an adaptation of the novel of the same name, written by Donald Goines.

Plot

Hardened criminal and drug dealer King David (played by DMX) is returning to New York, where he can find redemption by settling an old score with drug lord Moon (played by Clifton Powell) and always talking about a woman named Edna. As David walks through New York, he meets up with old acquitances and momentarily passes by Paul (David Arquette), a failing journalist.

Mike (Michael Ealy) is assigned to collect Moon's money from David, appearing to be very interested in him for some reason. He, Blue (Antwon Tanner) and his sister go to David and collect the money, but then Mike stabs David when he doesn't know who he is. David stabs Blue in the eye with an ice pick before they abandon him (King David)in a gutter. Paul, who was passing by at that moment, drives David, a total stranger, to the hospital.

Meanwhile, Moon tells Mike to bring everyone to a parking garage, where Blue and Mike's sister are killed. Mike kills the henchmen and goes to take revenge on Moon. Back at the hospital, Paul is informed that King has died, but that he left him all his personal possessions. These include jewelry, his car, and a collection of audio tapes, which turn out to be the audio journal of his life that was recorded on the drive from Los Angeles to New York.

By listening to the journal, the story of David's life is told: After a particularly bad drug experience in the east, David returned to the west in search of a second chance. He finds assistance with the Vietnamese and even a new girlfriend, Janet (Jennifer Sky). A television star, she turns to David's heroin and becomes sick and detached in the process. David abandons her as she presumably turns to selling his drugs to pay the bills and for her drug habit.

In the present, Mike hunts down Moon while Moon hunts down Mike. Additionally, word of a white man that accompanied David to the hospital gets out, and Moon starts to hunt him down as well. Paul, meanwhile, listens some more: After Janet, David moved on to Juanita (Reagan Gomez-Preston), a college girl with a lot of talent. Their relationship goes well as David starts to make a lot of money, but then Juanita tries his drugs. She doesn't get addicted, but she does turn out to be very selfish by refusing to move in with David, insisting that $250,000 isn't enough to retire on. Angry, David secretly switches her cocaine with heroin, getting her addicted.

Paul realizes that the money David talked about might be in David's trunk. It is, but at the same time, Moon's henchman are sprawling all over New York in search of him. Mike finally hunts down Moon and kills him when he is in the tub with two blonde women.

Back with Paul, he listens to the last tape: David leaves Juanita, but she soon comes back, addicted to heroin and begging for help. He agrees to help her out in exchange for anal sex. This brings down her dreams and causes her severe emotional distress, thus making her addictions even stronger. After awhile, she demands that he pay for her entrance to rehab or else she'll call the police.

Enraged, David decides to do the same thing he did to Edna: Mix her heroin with car battery acid, resulting in a fatal seizure for her. Through a flashback, it is revealed that David is the father of Mike, who is also Edna's child, and that David brutally hit him before poisoning Edna. The tape ends with David speculating on how his return to New York will bring about his redemption with Moon and tie the loose end with Edna's child.

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Broken Arrow

maskmanusa — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 14:58:00 UTC

Broken Arrow is a 1996 American action film directed by John Woo and starring John Travolta and Christian Slater.

Plot

Major Vic 'Deak' Deakins (John Travolta) and Captain Riley Hale (Christian Slater) are pilots in the United States Air Force. Early in the film, Deakins and Hale take off from Whiteman Air Force Base in a B-3 Bomber (a fictional advanced version of the actual B-2 Spirit stealth bomber) carrying two live nuclear weapons on an evening exercise over Utah.

During the flight, Deakins goes rogue and fights with Hale inside the cockpit, attempting to shoot him with his sidearm. After momentarily stunning Hale, Deakins ejects Hale from the cockpit, then releases the two nukes. Deliberately sabotaging the plane, Deakins notifies Colonel Max Wilkins (Delroy Lindo) that Hale 'lost it' before ejecting himself.

Natural preserve ranger Terry Carmichael, played by Samantha Mathis, finds Hale after seeing the pilot eject from the stricken aircraft. She is suspicious at first and pulls a revolver on the pilot. After a brief scuffle, Terry gives in and accepts Hale's story.

Deakins' plan is to detonate one of the weapons deep in an abandoned copper mine, then demand a ransom of $250 million to return the other, otherwise he will destroy Denver.

The race is now on to recover the bombs and stop Deakins. Hale knows Deakins better than anyone, but matching wits with a major strategist may be easier said than done.

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The Godfather Part 3

maskmanusa — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 14:54:00 UTC

The Godfather Part III (1990) is the third and final film in the Godfather trilogy written by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola, and directed by Coppola. It completes the story of Michael Corleone, a Mafia godfather who tries to legitimize his criminal empire. The movie also weaves into its plot a fictionalized account of real-life events — the mysterious 1978 death of Pope John Paul I and the Papal banking scandal of 1981-1982 — and links them with each other and with the affairs of Michael Corleone. The film stars Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Andy Garcia, Eli Wallach, Joe Mantegna, George Hamilton, Bridget Fonda, and Sofia Coppola.

Plot summary

The movie begins in 1979, with a brief flashback establishing the long and tragic history of criminal activity within, and by, the Corleone family. Much has changed. Michael Corleone is now approaching 60 and feels tremendous guilt for indulging in his ruthless ambition many years ago. Although his previous conquests have made him a very rich man, the thoughts of his children, their future, happiness, and his legacy are the only things keeping him going. His adopted brother Tom Hagen is now dead. The Corleone compound at Lake Tahoe is abandoned and in disrepair. Michael and Kay divorced in 1959, and Michael gave her custody of his children, Anthony and Mary.

Michael has returned to New York City, where he is using his enormous wealth and power to restore his dignity and reputation in the eyes of the public. The violent criminal element of the Corleone family has been largely abandoned, ostracized by Michael as well as the public, which no longer romanticizes the gangster lifestyle. Michael has embraced corporate America, which is now more tolerant of Michael's nihilism. He has rebuilt the Corleone interests as a legitimate enterprise using the blood money from his gangster years. The thugs and sociopathic soldiers from Michael's past have either gone into the underground, or have been relegated to the background, serving as bodyguards for Michael and his family. Michael now struggles between repairing his fragile relationships while trying to contain the violent sociopaths that are still a part of his decaying criminal empire. In an attempt to break with the past, Michael creates a charity, the Vito Corleone Foundation, in memory of his father. At a ceremony in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, presided over by Archbishop Gilday, Michael is named a Commander of the Order of St. Sebastian. Kay, who has remarried, sits with Michael's children at the ceremony.

At the lavish party following the ceremony, Kay and Michael have a somewhat uneasy reunion. Anthony tells his father that he is going to drop out of law school to pursue a career as an opera singer. Kay supports his choice, but Michael disagrees, wishing that his son would finish law school or join the family business. Michael eventually acquiesces to Anthony's wishes. Meanwhile, Vincent Mancini, Sonny Corleone’s illegitimate son, shows up at the party. He is embroiled in a feud with Joey Zasa, the Corleone family's mafioso muscle. What remains of the old Corleone criminal empire is now under Zasa's stewardship. However, the Corleones old neighborhood in New York City is in ruins, and has become lawless. In Michael's study, Vincent and Zasa tell him about their feud. The discussion grows violent, with Vincent accusing Zasa of being an out-of-control monster who mocks Michael behind his back. Michael makes it clear that he is not "a gangster" and that whatever bad blood exists between Vincent and Joey Zasa is none of his business, and must be settled between only them. He asks the two men to make peace with one another. The two men embrace, but Zasa insults Vincent by whispering "bastardo" in his ear. Enraged, Vincent bites off part of Zasa’s ear. Zasa is escorted out and Michael scolds Vincent for his violent ways. But impressed by Vincent's passionate loyalty to protect him, Michael agrees to take his nephew under his wing. The party concludes with a family picture where Michael asks Vincent to join the rest of the family.

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The Godfather Part 2

maskmanusa — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 14:51:00 UTC

The Godfather Part II is a 1974 motion picture directed by Francis Ford Coppola from a script co-written with Mario Puzo. The film is both a sequel and a prequel to The Godfather, chronicling the story of the Corleone family following the events of the first film while also depicting the rise to power of the young Vito Corleone.

It is ranked as the third best movie of all time by the Internet Movie Database, with the movie's predecessor, The Godfather, ranked as #1, and the American Film Institute lists it as #32. The Godfather Part II is considered by many as the greatest sequel of all-time, being nominated for 11 Academy Awards and winning 6, including the Best Picture Award and the Best Supporting Actor Award. It is considered by some critics to be better than the original.

The Godfather Part II has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

Plot

The Godfather Part II presents two parallel storylines. One involves Mafia chief Michael Corleone following the events of the first movie; the other is a series of flashbacks following his father, Vito Corleone, from his childhood in Sicily (1901) to his founding of the criminal Corleone Family in New York City while still a young man (1917-1925).

The film begins in 1901, in the town of Corleone in Sicily, at the funeral procession for young Vito's father, Antonio Andolini, who has been ordered killed by the local Mafia chieftain, Don Ciccio. During the procession, Vito's older brother Paolo is also murdered because he swore revenge on the Don. Vito's mother goes to Ciccio to beg him to let young Vito live. When he refuses, she holds a knife to his throat, sacrificing herself to allow Vito to escape, and Ciccio's gunmen shoot her. They scour the town for Vito, warning the sleeping townsfolk that they will regret harboring the boy. With the aid of a few of the townspeople, Vito finds his way by ship to New York. Arriving at Ellis Island, an immigration agent, mishearing Vito's hometown of Corleone as his surname, registers him as "Vito Corleone".

The film then moves into the late 1950s, to a scene similar to the opening of the first film, where Michael Corleone, Godfather of the Corleone Family, deals with various business and family problems at his Lake Tahoe, Nevada compound during an elaborate party celebrating his son's First Communion. He meets with Nevada Senator Pat Geary, who despises the Corleones, but has shown up with his wife to accept a large endowment to the state university from Michael in his son's name. During a tense negotiation, Senator Geary demands a grossly exaggerated price for a new gaming license and a monthly payment of 5% of the gross profits from all of the Corleone Family's Nevada gaming interests, to which Michael responds with a counter-offer of "nothing".

Michael also deals with his sister Connie, who, although recently divorced, is planning to marry a man with no obvious means of support, who Michael disapproves of. He also talks with Johnny Ola, the right hand man of Jewish gangster Hyman Roth, who is supporting Michael's move into the gambling industry. Finally, Michael meets with Frank "Five Angels" Pentangeli, who took over Corleone caporegime Peter Clemenza's territory after his death, and now has problems with the Rosato Brothers, who are backed by Roth. Michael refuses to allow Pentangeli to kill the Rosatos, due to his desire to prevent interruption of his business with Roth. Pentangeli leaves abruptly, after telling Michael "your father did business with Hyman Roth, your father respected Hyman Roth, but your father never trusted Hyman Roth."

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