The Take (2007)

After he's shot during a heist in East L.A., an armored-truck driver wrestles with rehabilitation and tracking down the man who committed the crime. But their lives are thrown into chaos after Felix miraculously survives a violent on-the-job hijacking led by Adell Baldwin, a merciless criminal driven by power and greed. Now facing a difficult recovery and struggling with a nasty new temper, Felix becomes obsessed with tracking down his attackers before they frame him for the crimes they committed. [imdb]

Press here to watch this movie in full screen mode.

Nights in Rodanthe (2008)

Adrienne Willis, a woman with her life in chaos, retreats to the tiny coastal town of Rodanthe, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, to tend to a friend's inn for the weekend. Here she hopes to find the tranquility she so desperately needs to rethink the conflicts surrounding her -- a wayward husband who has asked to come home, and a teen-aged daughter who resents her every decision. Almost as soon as Adrienne gets to Rodanthe, a major storm is forecast and a guest named Dr. Paul Flanner arrive. The only guest at the inn, Flanner is not on a weekend escape but rather is there to face his own crisis of conscience. Now, with the storm closing in, the two turn to each other for comfort and, in one magical weekend, set in motion a life-changing romance that will resonate throughout the rest of their lives. [imdb]

Press here to watch this movie in full screen mode.

21 (2008)

Ben Campbell is a young, highly intelligent, student at M.I.T. in Boston who strives to succeed. Wanting a scholarship to transfer to Harvard School of Medicine with the desire to become a doctor, Ben learns that he cannot afford the $300,000 for the four to five years of school since he comes from a poor, working-class background. But one evening, Ben is introduced by his unorthodox math professor Micky Rosa into a small but secretive club of five students, Jill, Choi, Kianna, and Jimmy whom are being trained by Professor Rosa of the skill of card counting at blackjack. Intriged by the desire to make money, Ben joins his new friends on secret weekend trips to Las Vegas where, using their skills of code talk and hand signals, they have Ben make hundreds of thousands of dollars in winning blackjack at casino after casino. Ben only wants to make enough money for the tuition to Harvard and then back out. But as fellow card counter, Jill Taylor, predicts, Ben becomes corrupted by greed and his arrogance at winning which lets his feelings get in the way, and it also puts Professor Rosa, as well as the group, on the radar of a brutal casino security enforcer, named Cole Williams, who holds a personal grudge of some kind against Rosa which threatens to undo everything the students have learned and earned. [imdb]

Press here to watch this movie in full screen mode.

ALTERNATE SOURCE

Turn the River (2007)

In the thriller TURN THE RIVER, Famke Janssen (Best Actress- Hamptons Film Festival) stars as Kailey a small town pool hustler in upstate New York. She ekes out a living playing poker, periodically driving into Manhattan to check up on her mentor, Quinn (Rip Torn), who runs Quinn's a hardcore pool hall. Kailey (Janssen) is determined to raise $50,000 to wrest her son Gulley (Jaymie Dornan), who she was forced to give up at birth, from the toxic clutches of her alcoholic ex-husband David (Matt Ross) and his domineering mother (Lois Smith) and move to Canada for a better life. In order to win the money, Kailey must score a match with the best player at Quinns, Duncan (John Juback). With this as her only hope for a future with her son, Kailey starts to play and the stakes have never been higher. [imdb]

Hooligans (2005)

Unjustly expelled from Harvard when a stash of cocaine is found in his possession, Matt (Elijah Wood) moves to London to live with his sister and her husband Steve (Marc Warren.) He is quickly introduced to Steve's chirpy, cock-sure younger brother Pete (Charlie Hunnam.) Initially, Pete is reluctant to get acquainted with Matt and allow him to tread around the capital city with him because he may be seen by others as an 'outsider', but after a heavy drinking session with him and his mates he quickly changes his opinion of him. On the way back from a football match, Matt is viciously accosted by a gang of Birmingham City thugs, until Pete and his friends step in and save him. It is from here that Matt learns the truth about Pete and his friends- they are football hooligans, operating the GSE (Green Street Elite) 'firm.' Initially afraid of the violence, Matt soon ends up becoming as desensitized to it as his new found friends- but as events roll on, suspicion, shocking revelations and unsettled scores combine to a devastating climax where London's most fierce football rivals- Millwall and West Ham United- are set to go head to head. [imdb]

Turtles Can Fly [Lakposhtha parvaz mikonand] (2004)

Set in Ghobadi's native Kurdistan, close to the Turkey-Iran border. Soran is a 13-year-old boy who orders other children around as he installs an antenna for villagers keen to hear of Saddam's fall. Eventually, he falls for Agrin but is disturbed by her brother Henkov, who was left armless after he stepped on a landmine and who can now seemingly predict the future. [imdb]

Atonement (2007)

A British romance that spans several decades. Fledgling writer Briony Tallis, as a 13-year-old, irrevocably changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister's lover of a crime he did not commit. [imdb]

Unforgiven (1992)

The town of Big Whisky is full of normal people trying to lead quiet lives. Cowboys try to make a living. Sheriff 'Little Bill' tries to build a house and keep a heavy-handed order. The town whores just try to get by.Then a couple of cowboys cut up a whore. Unsatisfied with Bill's justice, the prostitutes put a bounty on the cowboys. The bounty attracts a young gun billing himself as 'The Schofield Kid', and aging killer William Munny. Munny reformed for his young wife, and has been raising crops and two children in peace. But his wife is gone. Farm life is hard. And Munny is no good at it. So he calls his old partner Ned, saddles his ornery nag, and rides off to kill one more time, blurring the lines between heroism and villainy, man and myth. [imdb]

ALTERNATE SOURCE

My Family (1995)

Traces over three generations an immigrant family's trials, tribulations, tragedies, and triumphs. Maria and Jose, the first generation, come to Los Angeles, meet, marry, face deportation all in the 1930's. They establish their family in East L.A., and their children Chucho, Paco, Memo, Irene, Toni, and Jimmy deal with youth culture and the L.A. police in the 50's. As the second generation become adults in the 60's, the focus shifts to Jimmy, his marriage to Isabel (a Salvadorian refugee), their son, and Jimmy's journey to becoming a responsible parent. [imdb]

American Me (1992)

This epic depiction of thirty years of Chicano gang life in Los Angeles focuses on a teen named Santana who, with his friends Mundo and the Caucasian-but-acting-Hispanic J.D., form their own gang and are soon arrested for a break-in. Santana gets into trouble again and goes straight from reform school to prison, spending eighteen year there, and becoming leader of a powerful gang, both inside and outside the prison, while there. When he is finally released, he tries to make sense of the violence in his life, in a world much changed from when last he was in it. [imdb]

Baby Boy (2001)

This movie revolves around Jody, a young, unemployed, selfish, immature black man who won't leave the nest of his mama's home, even though he has a son and a daughter by two different women. Jody is a mama's boy and when his mom's new ex-con boyfriend moves in the house, Jody becomes very defensive and is continually challenging him. His Mom's previous boyfriend who moved in kicked his older brother out, who subsequently ended up dead on the streets and Jody doesn't want that to happen to him. Jody is a good man and is continually fighting these battles inside himself to do whats right by him and his family but just can't seem to get over the hump. That is until one night, tensions finally boil over between he and Rhames. Rhames has been telling Jody there is nothing Jody has done that he hasn't and more. Rhames tries explaining the way of life to Jody, but he won't have it and Jody takes a swing at Rhames, who in turn lays him out. Jody leaves the house and circumstances lead him to eventually having to kill a man, however when the opportunity arrives he can't do it and only shoots him in the legs. He returns home where Rhames helps him out and a bond is formed between them and after a talk with Rhames realizes he has a good life ahead of him with a great family and he needs to grow up. [imdb]

Chopper (2000)

Chopper tells the intense story of Mark "Chopper" Read, a legendary criminal who wrote his autobiography while serving a murder sentence in prison. His book, From the Inside, upon which the film is based, was a best-seller. [imdb]

August Rush (2007)

The story of a charismatic young Irish guitarist and a sheltered young cellist who have a chance encounter one magical night above New York's Washington Square, but are soon torn apart, leaving in their wake an infant, August Rush, orphaned by circumstance. Now performing on the streets of New York and cared for by a mysterious stranger, August uses his remarkable musical talent to seek the parents from whom he was separated at birth. [imdb]

Crash (2004)

Several stories interweave during two days in Los Angeles involving a collection of inter-related characters, a police detective with a drugged out mother and a thieving younger brother, two car thieves who are constantly theorizing on society and race, the white district attorney and his irritated and pampered wife, a racist white veteran cop (caring for a sick father at home) who disgusts his more idealistic younger partner, a successful Hollywood director and his wife who must deal with the racist cop, a Persian-immigrant father who buys a gun to protect his shop, a Hispanic locksmith and his young daughter who is afraid of bullets, and more. [imdb]

Adulthood (2008)

Powerful, disturbing and moving in equal measure, 2005's acclaimed "Kidulthood" took us deep into London's unseen underbelly, delivering a raw, hard-hitting reflection of what life is like for 21st century teenagers, where sex is currency, drugs are easy to come by and violence is a way of life. Six years after Sam Peel is released from jail for killing Trife, he soon realises that life is no easier on the outside than it was on the inside and he's forced to confront the people he hurt the most. Some have moved on, others are stuck with the repercussions of his actions that night, but one thing's for certain - everyone has been forced to grow up. Through his journey Sam struggles to deal with his sorrow and guilt and something else he didn't expect - those seeking revenge. As he's pursued by a new generation of bad boys, Sam sets about trying to get the message across to his pursuers that they should stop the violence, much like Trife tried to tell him all those years ago. Can Sam stop the cycle of violence and make something positive from the destruction he caused or will his journey into Adulthood end here? A positive tale disguised in the bleakness of its environment, Adulthood pushes home the moral lesson that crime doesn't pay. [imdb]

What Dreams May Come (1998)

Soul mates Chris and Annie couldn't be happier, having married each other and had two wonderful children. Unforutnately, tragedy strikes when they lose them both in a car accident, and then again for Annie many years later when Chris is killed in another accident. What Chris finds is a Paradise unlike anything he ever imagined, where he is guided by Albert, the first doctor he interned under and is helped to see his children once again. Unfortunately, when Annie takes her life in despair, she does not venture to the same plane of existence. Taking it upon himself to rescue her, Chris ventures into the pit of Hell with Albert and a Tracker to save his wife from the damnation she doesn't even know she is forcing on herself. [imdb]

ALTERNATE SOURCE

Jackie Brown (1997)

Jackie Brown is the name of a flight attendant who gets caught smuggling her boss' gun money on the airline she works for. Luckily for her, the Fed Ray Nicolet and the LA Cop Mark Dargus decide to team up in order to arrest the arms dealer she works for, whose name they don't even know. Here's when she has to choose one way: tell Nicolet and Dargus about Ordell Robbie (the arms dealer) and get her freedom -except that if Ordell suspects you're talking about him, you're dead- or keep her mouth shut and do some time. That's when she meets Max Cherry -her bail bondsman-, a late fifties, recently separated, burnt-out man, who falls in love with her. Then Jackie comes up with a plan to play the Feds off against Ordell and the guys he works with -Louis Gara and Melanie Ralston, among others- and walk off with their money. But she needs Max's help. No one is going to stand in the way of his million dollar payoff... [imdb]

Charlie Wilson's War (2007)

In the early 1980s, Charlie Wilson is a womanizing US congressional representative from Texas who seemed to be in the minor leagues, except for the fact that he is a member of two major foreign policy and covert-ops committees. However, prodded by his major conservative supporter, Joanne Herring, Wilson learns about the plight of the people are suffering in the brutal Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. With the help of the maverick CIA agent, Gust Avrakotos, Wilson dedicates his canny political efforts to supply the Afghan mujahideen with the weapons and support to defeat the Soviet Union. However, Charlie Wilson eventually learns that while military victory can had, there are other consequences and prices to that fight that are ignored to everyone's sorrow. [imdb]

ALTERNATE SOURCE


Press here to watch this movie in full screen mode.

Blood Diamond (2006)

In 1999, in Sierra Leone, the fisherman Solomon Vandy dreams on the day that his young son Dia Vandy will become a doctor. His dreams are shattered when the rebels invade his village and kidnap him to work in the diamond mines. Solomon finds a huge pink diamond and while hiding it, the commandant of the rebels sees, but the rebels are attacked and Salomon is arrested by the government army. While in jail, the wounded commandant tell the prisoners that Salomon found the stone, and the mercenary smuggler Danny Archer from Zimbabwe releases Salomon and proposes to exchange the diamond by his missing family. Using the idealistic American journalist Maddy Bowen, Danny locates the wife and daughters of Salomon in a refugee camp, but is informed that his son has been recruited by the rebels. Salomon and Danny consolidate a partnership, with Salomon looking for and finding his son, and Danny looking for the diamond and finding redemption. [imdb]

The Outsiders (1983)

Based on the S.E. Hinton novel of the same name. The tension between two groups: The Greasers and The Socials "Socs" puts Ponyboy Curtis (Howell) and his best friend Johnny Cade (Macchio) in a bad spot. One night at the movies, Ponyboy and Johnny fall in love with Sherri "Cherry" Valance (Lane) and Marcia (Meyrink) once they get Dally Winston (Dillon), the toughest and meanest of the Greasers to stop attempting to "score" Cherry and Marcia. What Johnny and Ponyboy don't know is that Cherry and Marcia are girls for the snobbish, popular, and rich group, the Socs. Once Johnny kills Bob Sheldon (Garrett), the toughest and meanest member of the Socs, this begins as the Socs demand a rumble against the Greasers. [imdb]