This is a remake of the 1972 film of the same name that originally starred Charles Bronson and Jan Michael Vincent. This new movie stars Jason Statham in the title role as Arthur Bishop, a hit-man who is so skilled at assassinations that sometimes no one even knows that he was there. He ends up with the unfortunate task of having to kill his mentor Harry McKenna (Donald Sutherland). After the fact, Bishop feels regret and ends up trying teaching McKenna's deadbeat son Steve (Ben Foster) the trade of a contract killer.
While the original film was an existentialist story, this one is just pure action. It is fascinating how they can take the story of an hired gun that kills with no trace of violence into a gratuitously brutal and bloody adventure.
This is the second sequel to the film The Magnificent Seven. This time George Kennedy plays gun-for-hire Chris Adams. Chris is recruited by Mexican revolutionary Max (Reni Santoni) to rescue their leader Quintero (Fernando Rey) who has been captured and imprisoned by the Federales. Chris gathers up his band of gunfighters which includes James Whitmore as the wise older man, Bernie Casey as the freed slave and Joe Don Baker as the troubled cripple. Together this group of men do their duty and go after sadistic Colonel Diego (Michael Ansara) who tortures his political prisoners in barbaric ways.
Jason Statham returns as Frank Martin. This time he is unwillingly recruited by Johnson (Robert Knepper) to drive his car to an unknown destination. He will be accompanied by Valentina (Natalya Rudakova), a young attractive Ukrainian woman and the daughter of the head of the Ukrainian Environmental Protection Agency. Both Frank and Valentina are fitted with bracelets that prevents them from being more than 75 feet from the car. With the help of Inspector Tarconi (François Berléand), Frank tries to get out of the desperate situation he is in and at the same time foil the plot of whomever is behind it all.
When I saw this movie in the theater when it was initially released, it was my first real exposure to the guys of Monty Python. Needless to say, it totally blew my mind as I had never seen anything like it in my life. It still works.
Like their debut film "And Now For Something Completely Different", this film is basically a series of unrelated sketches. Unlike that film, these vignettes are brand new and are utterly inappropriate for television viewing. It includes Michael Palin as a Catholic father with too many children singing about how "Every Sperm Is Sacred"; John Cleese as a public school teacher trying to teach bored schoolboys the ins and outs of sexual intercourse; and the now classic Mr. Creosote (Terry Jones) exploding after having a "wafer-thin" after-dinner mint. What's your favorite?
Bandai (Koichi Sato) is a disco club owner in Tokyo whose business in not doing very well after the economic bubble collapse. He owes a lot of money to the Yakuza and has to find a way to pay. He quickly puts together an eclectic gang of losers to help him steal the money from the gangsters themselves. The other members include a disgraced cop, a young pretty-boy club goer, an unstable unemployed businessman, and a drugged out pimp. Once the gangsters get wind of who pulled the job, they send out a couple of gay assassins who are totally ruthless in their methods of revenge.
This epic movie, from the Master of Disaster Irwin Allen, is based on two different novels, The Tower and The Glass Inferno. The story starts on the day of the big gala opening of the tallest building in the world. During a check of the systems, the electric wiring overloads and starts a fire in a storage room on the 81st floor. Architect Doug Roberts (Paul Newman) realizes something is faulty with the electrics (although he is unaware of the fire) and confronts Simmons (Richard Chamberlain) who was not only was contracted to the electrical work but is the son-in-law of the building's owner James Duncan (William Holden).
Since no one is aware of the impending danger, the Gala party goes on as planned with lots of dignitaries including the mayor and his wife and Senator Parker (Robert Vaughn). Soon though the building's security (O.J. Simpson) becomes aware of the fire and alerts the fire department. Chief O'Hallorhan (Steve McQueen) quickly takes control of the situation and orders the party guests down to the lobby. Reluctantly Duncan does as he is told, however by this time it is too late. The 300 party guests on the 135th floor are trapped above the fire with no means of escape from the world's tallest highrise.
Nicolas Cage stars as Stanley Goodspeed, an FBI chemical weapons expert who is called in to help in a domestic terrorist situation. It seems that Vietnam War hero Brigadier General Hummel (Ed Harris) has taken control of Alcatraz prison. Along with a team of crack military personnel, he plans to fire rockets filled with poisonous VX gas into the heart of San Fransisco. He demands $100 million in reparation for the soldiers under his command that have died with no honors or acknowledgement from the government. The FBI is forced to enlist the help of Federal prisoner John Mason (Sean Connery) who can get out of any prison he's been incarcerated in, including Alcatraz. Mason must lead a team of Navy SEALS into the bowels of the penitentiary before time time runs out.
British man Colin Frampton (Andy Nyman) wants to kill himself after his wife dies in a freak accident while they are vacationing in Prague. He pays his hired driver Mr. Zeman (Karel Roden) to do the deed for him. Unfortunately the method that Zeman utilizes does not do the job so Colin shows up at his house expecting him to get it right. When Zeman decides to exterminate Colin by angering a gangster that is sure to annihilate him, things get really hairy as the body counts mounts. Regretfully, Colin never seems to be one of the deceased.
This film written, directed and starring Ricky Gervais takes place in an alternate reality. It is a world where the human race has never learned to tell a lie. There is no fiction, no religion, everyone is up front with what they are thinking. Suddenly one day, chubby loser Mark Bellison (Gervias) tells an untruth and it changes his life forever. He uses his new power to not only improve his own life, but the lives of other unhappy people. Things get complicated though when he tells his dying mother about a life after death. Unexpectedly, Mark becomes a kind of Messiah. He also becomes very rich and famous. However, this celebrity does not bring him what he wants most, which is to marry Anna (Jennifer Garner). No matter what Anna feels for Mark, she does believe him to be her perfect genetic match. And as much as Mark wants to be with her, he cannot lie to her.
This most famous of the beach movies is actually the fifth in the series. It again stars Annette Funicello as Dee Dee and Frankie Avalon as Frankie, a clean-cut couple of teenagers. Their surfing activities are slightly sidetracked this time by some skydiving adventures as they frequent the skydiving school run by Big Drop (Don Rickles). Big Drop also runs the local hang-out joint where new teen singing sensation Sugar Kane (Linda Evans) has been making nightly appearances. Her manager Bullets (Paul Lynde) is making sure that she is kept on the front page of the papers by staging various stunts that usually involve someone's life being saved. A stunt he doesn't expect though is for Sugar Kane to be kidnapped by the local hood Eric Von Zipper (Harvey Lembeck). Lucky for the kids, a mermaid named Lorelei (Marta Kristen) points them in right direction in time to save Sugar.
