Index of My Movies

Full Synopsis

Two men cut off from the world in different ways become unlikely friends and protectors in this offbeat action drama. Danny (Jet Li) is a physically powerful but emotionally stunted man; never given any sort of proper education, Danny has learned little in his lifetime but how to fight, and his minder, Bart (Bob Hoskins), treats him more like a guard dog than anything else, using him in illegal no-holds-barred brawls that earn Bart plenty of money but only reinforce Danny's violent alienation. When Bart is injured in an auto accident, Danny is left to fend for himself, and stumbles upon Sam (Morgan Freeman), an elderly piano tuner who has lost his sight. Sam is the first person to treat Danny with kindness, and the music he plays soothes the troubled soul of the fighter. However, Danny's fighting skills soon come in handy when Sam runs afoul of a pack of small-time crooks who believe he knows too much about their operations.

Unstoppable PG 13,1 hr 38 Synopsis

In this action thriller from director Tony Scott, rookie train operator Will (Chris Pine) and grizzled veteran engineer Frank (Denzel Washington) learn that a runaway locomotive carrying carloads of dangerous chemicals is headed for Will's small Pennsylvania hometown, where his wife and child live. In order to save the day, they must figure out how to catch up to the rogue engine, and stop it before harm comes to the town. Standing in their way is Galvin (Kevin Dunn), the head of the company who is more interested in saving the stock price than lives. On the plus side, the duo have competent corporate employee Connie (Rosario Dawson) on the radio, talking them through their various attempts to corral and then stop the potentially lethal locomotive.min

Untraceable: R, 1 hr 40 min

Starring: Diane Lane, Billy Burke, Colin Hanks

Synopsis:

Faced with the most baffling and menacing case of her life, FBI agent and cybercop Jennifer Marsh (Diane Lane) must race against the clock to stop a deadly Internet predator in his tracks -- before more innocent lives are extinguished. So begins director Gregory Hoblit's (Primal Fear) heart-stopping thriller Untraceable. The psychopath at hand is far from an ordinary villain; a megalomaniacal showman with a flair for sadistic braggadocio and astonishing technical knowhow, his expertise makes it infinitely more difficult for Marsh to track him down. Marsh is assisted in her pursuit by a fellow agent (Colin Hanks), while a detective (Billy Burke) and Marsh's mom (Mary Beth Hurt) watch with great trepidation.

Up in the Air R 1 hr 49 min

Starring: George Clooney, Vera Farmiga

Synopsis

Jason Reitman's adaptation of the novel Up in the Air tells the story of Ryan Bingham (George Clooney), who makes his living personally handing out pink slips -- he's the top hatchet man at a company that other companies hire when they are downsizing. And since business is booming, his job keeps him on the go constantly. He flies all across the country, staying in a series of nice hotels. And although this itinerant lifestyle prevents him from having any kind of stable, regular life, this doesn't bother him in the slightest -- he's thrilled to be a boy in a traveling bubble. During one particular layover, he strikes up a conversation with Alex Goran (Vera Farmiga), a fellow savvy traveler. They bond over the ins and outs of various airlines and hotels, and quickly fall into bed. By morning, they are figuring out when their schedules will allow them to meet up again, even though they both make it clear that there are no strings attached. When Ryan arrives back in the home office, he meets no-nonsense career-oriented twentysomething Natalie Keener (Anna Kendrick), a fast-rising up-and-comer who wants to change the company's practices and save millions by having the staff fire people remotely via webcams. Furious at the thought of losing a lifestyle he's grown quite comfortable with, he convinces his boss (Jason Bateman) to let him take Natalie on a few trips so that she can learn what it's really like to fire someone. Melanie Lynskey, Danny McBride, and J.K. Simmons co-star in this Best Picture Academy Award nominee.

Upside of Anger (2005)

Cast: Joan Allen, Joan Allen, Kevin Costner

Director: Mike Binder, Jack Binder

Category: Comedy, Drama, Romance

Running Time: 1 hour 57 minutes

DVD Release: 07/26/2005

Full Synopsis

Two friends wonder if there might be more between them when their lives both take a left turn in this romantic comedy. Terry (Joan Allen) is a middle-aged housewife and mother of four teenaged daughters and gets the shock of her life when her husband, without a word of warning, leaves them behind to move to Sweden with his secretary. Going through a bender of depression and alcohol, Terry finds herself commiserating with Denny (Kevin Costner), a former baseball star turned unenthusiastic radio personality who was her husband's best friend and a frequent presence at the house. With both Terry and Denny feeling down in the dumps about recent events in their lives, the two find themselves drawn to one another, and while Terry fights the notion of a new romance, her daughters -- Andy (Erika Christensen), Hadley (Alicia Witt), Emily (Keri Russell), and Lavender (Evan Rachel Wood) -- have different ideas. The Upside of Anger was written and directed by Mike Binder, who also plays a supporting role as the producer of Denny's radio show.

Usual Suspects [Special Edition] (1995)

Cast: Gabriel Byrne, Stephen Baldwin, Chazz Palminteri

Category: Mystery & Suspense

Running Time: 1 hour 46 minutes

Full Synopsis

Near the end of The Usual Suspects, Kevin Spacey, in his Oscar-winning performance as crippled con man Roger "Verbal" Kint, says, "The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist." This may be the key line in this story; the farther along the movie goes, the more one realizes that not everything is quite what it seems, and what began as a conventional whodunit turns into something quite different. A massive explosion rips through a ship in a San Pedro, CA, harbor, leaving 27 men dead, the lone survivor horribly burned, and 91 million dollars' worth of cocaine, believed to be on board, mysteriously missing. Police detective Dave Kujan (Chazz Palminteri) soon brings in the only witness and key suspect, "Verbal" Kint. Kint's nickname stems from his inability to keep his mouth shut, and he recounts the events that led to the disaster. Five days earlier, a truckload of gun parts was hijacked in Queens, NY, and five men were brought in as suspects: Kint, hot-headed hipster thief McManus (Stephen Baldwin), ill-tempered thug Hockney (Kevin Pollak), flashy wise guy Fenster (Benicio Del Toro), and Keaton (Gabriel Byrne), a cop gone bad now trying to go straight in the restaurant business. While in stir, someone suggests that they should pull a job together, and Kint hatches a plan for a simple and lucrative jewel heist. Despite Keaton's misgivings, the five men pull off the robbery without a hitch and fly to Los Angeles to fence the loot. Their customer asks if they'd be interested in pulling a quick job while out West; the men agree, but the robbery goes horribly wrong and they soon find themselves visited by Kobayashi (Pete Postlethwaite), who represents a criminal mastermind named Keyser Soze. Soze's violent reputation is so infamous that he's said to have responded to a threat to murder his family by killing them himself, just to prove that he feared no one. When Kobayashi passes along a heist proposed by Soze that sounds like suicide, the men feel that they have little choice but to agree.

V for Vendetta [WS] (2006)

Cast: Natalie Portman, Hugo Weaving, Stephen Rea

Director: James McTeigue

Category: Action & Adventure, Classics, Drama

Running Time: 2 hours 11 minutes

DVD Release: 08/01/2006

Full Synopsis

Based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore, V for Vendetta takes place in an alternate vision of Britain in which a corrupt and abusive totalitarian government has risen to complete power. During a threatening run in with the secret police, an unassuming young woman named Evey (Natalie Portman) is rescued by a vigilante named V (Hugo Weaving) -- a caped figure both articulate and skilled in combat. V embodies the principles of rebellion from an authoritarian state, donning a mask of vilified would-be terrorist of British history Guy Fawkes and leading a revolution sparked by assassination and destruction. Evey becomes his unlikely ally, newly aware of the cruelty of her own society and her role in it.

Valentine's Day PG 13, 2 hrs 3 min

Synopsis

Gary Marshall's ensemble romantic comedy Valentine's Day follows nearly two dozen people as they find and lose love in all its many forms over the course of the title holiday. The numerous characters include a very busy florist (Ashton Kutcher) and his schoolteacher best friend (Jennifer Garner). She's having an affair with a married doctor (Patrick Dempsey). Meanwhile, a businessman (Bradley Cooper) and a military captain (Julia Roberts) on leave share a long conversation during an international flight. There's also an elderly couple (Hector Elizondo and Shirley MacLaine) who are caring for their elementary school-age grandson, who is pining for a classmate and missing his mother. The huge cast also includes Jamie Foxx as a local TV personality, Topher Grace, Queen Latifah, and Anne Hathaway.

Valkyrie PG 13,2 hrs

Starring: Tom Cruise, Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy

In a country in the grips of evil, in a police state where every move is being watched, in a world where justice and honor have been subverted, a group of men hidden inside the highest reaches of power decide to take action. Tom Cruise stars in the suspense film, VALKYRIE, based on the true story of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (CRUISE) and the daring and ingenious plot to eliminate one of the most evil tyrants the world has ever known. Director Bryan Singer (THE USUAL SUSPECTS, X-MEN, SUPERMAN RETURNS) re-teams with Academy Award®-winning USUAL SUSPECTS screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie to bring to life the story of the men who led the operation to assassinate Hitler. The film also stars an acclaimed cast including Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, Tom Wilkinson, Carice van Houten, Thomas Kretschmann, Eddie Izzard, Christian Berkel and Terence Stamp.

A proud military man, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg is a loyal officer who serves his country all the while hoping that someone will find a way to stop Hitler before Europe and Germany are destroyed. Realizing that time is running out, he decides that he must take action himself and joins the German resistance. Armed with a cunning strategy to use Hitler s own emergency plan known as Operation Valkyrie these men plot to assassinate the dictator and overthrow his Nazi government from the inside.

With everything in place, with the future of the world, the fate of millions and the lives of his wife and children hanging in the balance, von Stauffenberg is thrust from being one of many who oppose Hitler to the one who must kill Hitler himself.

Vantage Point PG 13,1 hr 29 min

Starring: Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, Forest Whitaker

Synopsis

Forest Whitaker, Dennis Quaid, William Hurt, and Matthew Fox star in director Pete Travis' Rashomon-style thriller in which an assassination attempt on the president of the United States is detailed from five unique perspectives. As the president arrives in Salamanca, gunshots ring out. An American tourist (Whitaker) has captured footage of the would-be assassin on videotape, and now, as the stories of the other four witnesses unfold, each essential piece of the puzzle quickly falls into place. Only when all of the stories are told will the chilling truth to this shocking crime finally emerge.

Vera Drake (2004)

Cast: Imelda Staunton, Philip Davis, Peter Wight

Director: Mike Leigh

Category: Drama, Foreign

Running Time: 2 hours 5 minutes

Language: English

DVD Release: 03/29/2005

Full Synopsis

Written and directed by Academy Award-nominee Mike Leigh and set in England during the 1950s, this movie revolves around Vera Drake (Imelda Staunton), whose unrelenting dedication to her family is well known throughout her blue-collar town. However, there are more people than her rapidly aging mother and ill neighbor who depend on Vera's care. Though abortion was illegal and, of course, widely frowned upon in the '50s, Vera sees women going through unwanted pregnancies the same as she would anyone else -- human beings deserving of treatment. With this in mind, she regularly induces miscarriages for those who need them, and her patients are consistently grateful for her gentleness and understanding. Unfortunately for Vera, the law doesn't see her as aiding those in need; they interpret the abortions as murder, as do most of the other people in her life. When Vera's activities are revealed, her family life and relationships with those around her -- including the ones she helped nurse back to health -- are put in jeopardy. Vera Drake also features performances from Jim Broadbent, Heather Craney, and Philip Davis.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona PG 1 hr 36 min

Starring: Penélope Cruz, Scarlett Johansson, Javier Bardem

Synopsis

Woody Allen's romantic drama Vicky Cristina Barcelona stars Rebecca Hall and Scarlett Johansson as best friends Vicky and Cristina. As the movie opens, the pair of twentysomethings travel to Barcelona so that Vicky can work on her post-graduate degree. The two meet the charming artist Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem), who offers to take them on a vacation and make love to them. Vicky, being a happily engaged young woman, refuses, but Cristina is eager for this life experience. A love triangle begins to coalesce, and things grow more complicated when Juan Antonio's passionate, unstable ex, Maria Elena (Penélope Cruz), arrives to stay after a suicide attempt.

Virginia's Run (2002)

Cast: Gabriel Byrne, Joanne Whalley, Joanne Whalley

Director: Peter Markle

Category: Drama

Running Time: 1 hour 45 minutes

Language: English

DVD Release: 03/01/2005

Full Synopsis

In the tradition of such timeless stories as My Friend Flicka, Black Beauty, and The Black Stallion comes this touching tale of friendship between a young girl devastated by the loss of her mother, and the young colt who gives her hope when all seems lost. Following the death of his wife in a tragic riding accident, Ford Lofton (Gabriel Byrne) sells the horse and forbids his two daughters from ever riding again. In a conscious and deliberate act of defiance, 13-year-old Virginia (Lindza Letherman) nurses the new horse's colt, Stormy, to health and secretly sneaks out at night to train him. When Ford decides to sell Stormy, it's up to Virginia and sympathetic trainer Jessie Eastwood (Joanne Whalley) to convince the stubborn father to allow his daughter room to learn and grow on her own.

The Visitor PG13 1 hr 48 min

Cast: Richard Jenkins, Hiam Abbass,Amir Arison, Haaz Sleiman

Synopsis:

The second directorial effort from Tom McCarthy ("The Station Agent") is a lovely little character piece about a widowed college academic (Richard Jenkins) going through the motions of life until he meets a young foreign couple (who happen to be living in his otherwise empty New York apartment). The connection that Jenkins' insular Walter makes with Syrian musician Tarek (Haaz Sleiman), an open, generous fellow who teaches Walter to play the djembe (an African drum), feels natural and necessary, as does Walter's devotion to Tarek when he lands in the labyrinth of Homeland Security. It's a quiet screenplay of a life suddenly awakened by friendship and music, and a film full of sublime moments of intimate observation. Features laid-back commentary by writer/director McCarthy and star Jenkins, the brief promotional featurette "An Inside Look at The Visitor," a featurette on the djembe, and four brief deleted scenes with optional commentary.

Vitus (2006)

Starring:

Teo Gheorghiu, Bruno Ganz, Fabrizio Borsani

Starring:Teo Gheorghiu, Bruno Ganz, Fabrizio Borsani

A young boy whose remarkable, almost supernatural capacity for learning prompts his parents to anticipate a brilliant future as a pianist rebels to take his fate into his own hands in director Fredi M. Murer's contemplative family drama. By kindergarten Vitus is reading encyclopedias, and by age five he is a piano prodigy. Despite the fact that his parents do their best to nurture the young boy's natural talent for music, Vitus seems strangely disinterested in refining his exceptional talents on the ivory. In fact, the only place where Vitus seems to be in his element is in his eccentric grandfather's cluttered workshop. Now, as the young boy begins to display a keen interest in aviation, one fateful leap will set his entire future into motion, and offer a compelling preview of things to come.

Waitress (2007) PG13 104 minutes

Starring: Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion, Cheryl Hines

Trapped in a miserable marriage and blessed with the ability to transform her misery into delicious desserts, a small-town waitress finds her life forever changed by an unplanned pregnancy. Every day, Jenna (Keri Russell) ties on her apron and serves her customers with a smile, and every night she goes to bed knowing that she is one step closer to the day that she can kiss her scarily domineering husband (Jeremy Sisto) goodbye forever. A smart and sassy baker whose extraordinary pies are inspired by her daily trials and tribulations, Jenna fears that her dreams are all but dead when handsome Dr. Pomatter (Nathan Fillion) reveals that she is soon to become a mother. As Jenna begins penning a series of letters to her unborn baby, her life starts to change for the better in ways she never could have imagined. The final film from actress/filmmaker Adrienne Shelly, Waitress debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah just months after the director was discovered dead in her New York City apartment -- the victim of a homicide.

Waking Ned Devine (1998) 1 hour 31 minutes 06/01/1999

Cast: Ian Bannen, David Kelly, Fionnula Flanagan

Director: Kirk Jones, Kirk Jones

Category: Comedy, Foreign

Full Synopsis

Just as the charming British film The Full Monty told the story of simple

men willing to shed their clothes for money, Waking Ned Devine is the

story of older Irish men who pursue money and take off their clothes.

Commercial director Kirk Jones makes his feature directing debut with a

story about a small town in Ireland called Tulaigh More, where one of

their 52 inhabitants wins the lotto jackpot of nearly seven million pounds.

When nobody claims it, the town goes on a search to find out why. They

find the winner, old Ned Devine, dead -- a smile on his face, clutching the

winning ticket. Well, in Ireland, the lottery winnings must be claimed by

the purchaser, which puts the town in a spot -- if the lottery officials

discover Devine dead, he forfeits his money. What ensues is a community

coming together in hopes of getting his money to split 51 ways. What

they learn is the importance of friendship and the true value of money. To

reveal any more would spoil some major surprises, but suffice it to say, it

involves aging actors David Kelly, 69, and Ian Bannen, 70, naked.

A Walk to Remember 2002 PG 102 minutes

Starring: Mandy Moore, Peter Coyote, Shane West, Al Thompson

Full Summary:

The best-seller by sentimental novelist Nicholas Sparks becomes this teen melodrama set in a coastal North Carolina port. Cocky, popular high school student Landon Carter (Shane West) is the big man on campus at Beaufort High School until a hazing incident leaves a fellow student paralyzed. Sentenced to community service and membership in his school's drama club, Landon is forced to seek help from Jamie Sullivan (pop singer Mandy Moore), the conservative, religious, plain-Jane daughter of the town's Baptist minister (Peter Coyote). When the two students begin to fall in love, Landon struggles with the drop in popularity that his new friendship brings, while Jamie is forced to deal with her strict father and a secret that she's keeping from her schoolmates. A Walk to Remember, which co-stars Daryl Hannah, is the second of Sparks's novels to make it to the big screen after Message in a Bottle (1999).

Walk the Line (2005) 02/28/2006 2 hours 16 minutes

Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon, Ginnifer Goodwin

Full Synopsis

James Mangold's Walk the Line tells the life story of country music legend Johnny Cash (Joaquin Phoenix), focusing primarily on the long courtship he had with June Carter (Reese Witherspoon). The film is structured as an extended flashback opening with Cash readying to take the stage at his historic Folsom Prison Concert. The film touches on his childhood, relating a horrific early incident from his life and establishing the troubled relationship he would have with his father (Robert Patrick). Cash joins the military and leaves home. During his time in the armed services he begins writing songs and romances a hometown girl (Ginnifer Goodwin). After the end of his duty he settles down and attempts to begin a music career, but his wife has trouble adjusting to his dreams. Cash auditions for Sam Phillips (Dallas Roberts), signs to Sun Records, and soon finds himself on tour with a roster of young soon to be legends that includes Elvis Presley (Tyler Hilton) and Jerry Lee Lewis (Waylon Malloy Payne). On this tour he meets June Carter, the daughter of the famous Carter family, and they take a liking to each other although she refuses any serious advances from him. Cash gains world wide fame thanks in part to the inspiration he gets from June, but eventually his marriage crumbles and he develops a serious drug addiction. The film is based on Cash's autobiographies. Phoenix and Witherspoon performed all of their own singing in the movie, just as Sissy Spacek and Beverly D'Angelo did in Coal Miner's Daughter a quarter-century before.

Wall Street Never Sleeps PG 13, 2 hrs 16 min

Synopsis:

Ambitious young investment banker Jacob Moore (Shia LaBeouf) discovers that greed is still the name of the game when he forges a fragile alliance with onetime Wall Street hotshot Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) shortly after Gekko is released from prison. Having served eight years for securities fraud, money laundering, and racketeering, Gekko emerges from prison to find that his daughter, Winnie (Carey Mulligan), prefers to remain estranged, and that his former Wall Street cohorts are still raking in the cash. Flash-forward to 2008, and Winnie is dating a proprietary trader named Jake Moore (LaBeouf), who expresses a passion for green energy while working for his mentor Louis Zabel (Frank Langella), of Keller Zabel Investments. Despite heading up one of the most prominent investment firms in the country, Louis Zabel is forced to personally fight for the future of Keller Zabel before the Federal Reserve after the company's stock takes a hit due to persistent rumors that it's being dragged down by debt. Denied a bailout from the government, Keller Zabel soon falls victim to a hostile takeover lead by powerful investment bank partner Bretton James (Josh Brolin), of Churchill Schwartz. His job on the line and his mentor out of the picture, Jake discovers that Gordon Gekko is out promoting his new book "Is Greed Good?" and decides to attend a lecture being given by the author at Fordham University. According to Gekko, greed is now sanctioned by the government, and the U.S. economy is on the verge of collapse as a direct result of leveraged debt and wild conjecture. When Jake goes behind Winnie's back to try and repair her relationship with her father, Gekko reveals his compelling theories on the likely reasons for Zabel's downfall. Later, as Jake begins plotting to avenge his mentor, Gekko starts to reveal his true colors.
Wanderlust R 1hr 32 min

Starring: Tracy Fraim, Christian Meoli, Amzie Strickland