Total Number of Movies in Joel’s Collection: 1,338 Page Number: 1 / 27
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(500) Days of Summer

Director: Marc Webb
Starring: Zooey Deschanel, Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Studio: Fox Searchlight
My Rating:
Rated: PG-13
Rating: 7.8 (221,537 votes)
Release: Aug 2009
Summary: After it looks as if she's left his life for good this time, Tom Hansen reflects back on the just over one year that he knew Summer Finn. Despite being physically average in almost every respect, Summer had always attracted the attention of men, Tom included. For Tom, it was love at first sight when she walked into the greeting card company where he worked, she the new administrative assistant. Soon, Tom knew that Summer was the woman with whom he wanted to spend the rest of his life. Although Summer did not believe in relationships or boyfriends - in her assertion, real life will always ultimately get in the way - Tom and Summer became more than just friends. Through the trials and tribulations of Tom and Summer's so-called relationship, Tom could always count on the advice of his two best friends, McKenzie and Paul. However, it is Tom's adolescent sister, Rachel, who is his voice of reason. After all is said and done, Tom is the one who ultimately has to make the choice to listen or not.
 

[Rec]

Director: Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza
Starring: Manuela Velasco, Ferran Terraza, Jorge-Yamam Serrano, Pablo Rosso, David Vert
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Studio: Sony Pictures
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 7.5 (84,165 votes)
Release: Jul 2009
Summary: From Executive Producers who brought you "Quarantine", comes the movie that inspired the terror. A beautiful TV reporter (Manuela Velasco, "Law of Desire") and her cameraman are doing a routine interview at a local fire station when an emergency call comes in. Accompanying the firefighters to a nearby apartment, the news team begins recording the bloodcurdling screams coming from inside an elderly woman's unit. After authorities seal off the building to contain the threat, the news crew, firefighters and residents are trapped to face a lethal terror inside. With the camera running, nothing may survive but the film itself.
 

[REC]³: Génesis

Director: Paco Plaza
Starring: Leticia Dolera, Javier Botet, Diego Martín, Ismael Martínez, Àlex Monner
Genre: Drama, Horror, Suspense, Thriller
Studio: Canal+ España
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 5.2 (13,166 votes)
Release: Mar 2012
Summary: The action now takes place miles away from the original location and partly in broad daylight, giving the film an entirely fresh yet disturbing new reality. The infection has left the building. In a clever twist that draws together the plots of the first two movies, this third part of the saga also works as a decoder to uncover information hidden in the first two films and leaves the door open for the final installment, the future '[REC] 4 Apocalypse.'
 

2 Fast 2 Furious

Director: John Singleton
Starring: Paul Walker, Tyrese Gibson, Eva Mendes, Cole Hauser, Ludacris
Genre: Action
Studio: Universal Studios
My Rating:
Rated: PG-13
Rating: 5.4 (97,650 votes)
Release: Sep 2003
Summary: Like the high-revving imports and American muscle cars that roar down the streets of its south Florida setting, "2 Fast 2 Furious" is tricked out to the max. While Vin Diesel opted for his "XXX" franchise, this obligatory sequel to "The Fast and the Furious" benefits from Diesel's absence, allowing returning star Paul Walker to shine while forging a lively partnership with rising star Tyrese, who fulfills his sidekick duties with more vitality than Diesel could ever muster. The Miami/Dade locations are another bonus, lending colorful backdrop to the most dazzling street-racing sequences (both real and digitally composited) ever committed to film. The plot is disposable--former cop Walker and jailbird Tyrese are recruited by the FBI to dethrone a thuggish kingpin --but director John Singleton keeps the adrenalin pumping, enlisting a rainbow coalition of costars to combine a hip-hop vibe with full-blown action while showcasing hot babes, edgy humor, and some of the coolest cars that ever burned rubber. Heed the movie's warning, kids: Let the stuntmen do the driving.
-KENTFLIX
 

2 Guns

Director: Baltasar Kormakur
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Denzel Washington, James Marsden, Bill Paxton, Paula Patton, Edward James Olmos, Robert John Burke, Tait Fletcher, Fred Ward, Alexandria Deberry
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
My Rating:
Rated: R
Release: Aug 2013
Summary: A DEA agent and an undercover Naval Intelligence officer who have been tasked with investigating one another find they have been set up by the mob -- the very organization the two men believe they have been stealing money from.
 

3:10 to Yuma

Director: James Mangold
Starring: Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Logan Lerman, Dallas Roberts, Ben Foster
Genre: Westerns, Action, Crime, Drama
Studio: Lions Gate
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 7.8 (164,678 votes)
Release: Jan 2008
Summary: Here's hoping James Mangold's big, raucous, and ultrabloody remake of 3:10 to Yuma leads some moviegoers to check out Delmer Daves's beautifully lean, half-century-old original. That classic Western spun a tale of captured outlaw Ben Wade (Glenn Ford)--deadly but disarmingly affable--and the small-time rancher and family man, Dan Evans (Van Heflin), desperate enough to accept the job of helping escort the badman to Yuma prison. Wade, knowing that his gang will be along at any moment to spring him, works at persuading the ultimately lone deputy to accept a bribe, turn his back on "duty," and go home safe and rich to his family. That the outlaw has come to admire his captor intriguingly complicates the suspense. All of the above applies in the new 3:10, but it takes a lot more huffing and puffing to get Wade (Russell Crowe this time) and Evans (Christian Bale) into position for the showdown. Mostly, more is less. To Mangold's credit, his movie doesn't traffic in facile irony or postmodern detachment; it aims to be a straight-up Western and deliver the excitement and charisma the genre's fans are starved for. But recognizing that contemporary viewers might be out of touch with the bedrock simplicity and strength of the genre--not to mention its code of honor--Mangold has supplied both Evans and Wade with a plethora of backstory and "motivations." At the overblown action climax, the crossfire of personal agendas is almost as frenetic as the copious gunplay. (By that point the movie has killed more people than the Lincoln County War.) Best thing about the remake is Russell Crowe's Ben Wade, a Scripture-quoting career villain with an artist's eye and a curiously principled sense of whom and when to murder. As his second-in-command, Ben Foster fairly pirouettes at every opportunity to commit mayhem, and Peter Fonda contributes a fierce portrait of an old Wade adversary turned bounty hunter for the Pinkerton detective agency. --Richard T. Jameson
 

9 (Nine)

Director: Shane Acker
Starring: Elijah Wood, John C. Reilly, Jennifer Connelly, Christopher Plummer, Crispin Glover, Martin Landau, Fred Tatasciore
Genre: Adventure, Animation, Drama, Action, Romance
Studio: A-film
My Rating:
Rated: PG-13
Release: Sep 2009
Summary: When 9 first comes to life, he finds himself in a post-apocalyptic world. All humans are gone, and it is only by chance that he discovers a small community of others like him taking refuge from fearsome machines that roam the earth intent on their extinction. Despite being the neophyte of the group, 9 convinces the others that hiding will do them no good.
 

12 Monkeys

Director: Terry Gilliam
Starring: Bob Adrian, Stephen Bridgewater, Michael Chance, Annie Golden, Frank Gorshin
Genre: Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Studio: Universal Studios
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 8.1 (287,537 votes)
Release: Feb 2009
Summary: Inspired by Chris Marker's acclaimed short film "La Jetée" (which is included on the DVD "Short 2: Dreams"), "12 Monkeys" combines intricate, intelligent storytelling with the uniquely imaginative vision of director Terry Gilliam. The story opens in the wintry wasteland of the year 2035, where a virulent plague has forced humans to live in a squalid, oppressively regimented underground. Bruce Willis plays a societal outcast who is given the opportunity to erase his criminal record by "volunteering" to time-travel into the past to obtain a pure sample of the deadly virus that will help future scientists to develop a cure. But in bouncing from 1918 to the early and mid-1990s, he undergoes an ordeal that forces him to question his own perceptions of reality. Caught between the dangers of the past and the devastation of the future, he encounters a psychiatrist (Madeleine Stowe) who is initially convinced he's insane, and a wacky mental patient (Brad Pitt in a twitchy Oscar-nominated role) with links to a radical group that may have unleashed the deadly virus. Equal parts mystery, tragedy, psychological thriller, and apocalyptic drama, "12 Monkeys" ranks as one of the best science fiction films of the '90s, boosted by Gilliam's visual ingenuity and one of the finest performances of Willis's career. "--Jeff Shannon"
 

12 Years a Slave (screener)

Director: Steve McQueen
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael K. Williams, Paul Dano, Benedict Cumberbatch, Garret Dillahunt, Ruth Negga, Sarah Paulson, Scoot McNairy, Paul Giamatti, Alfre Woodard, Adepero Oduye, Bryan Batt, Lupita Nyong'o, Taran Killam, Quvenzhané Wallis
Genre: Drama, History
Studio: Regency Enterprises
My Rating:
Rated: R
Release: Nov 2013
Summary: In the pre-Civil War United States, Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery. Facing cruelty as well as unexpected kindnesses Solomon struggles not only to stay alive, but to retain his dignity. In the twelfth year of his unforgettable odyssey, Solomon’s chance meeting with a Canadian abolitionist will forever alter his life.
 

13 Assassins

Director: Takashi Miike
Starring: Koji Yakusho, Takayuki Yamada, Yusuke Iseya
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama
Studio: Magnolia Home Entertainment
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 7.6 (32,397 votes)
Release: Sep 2010
Summary: In 1844, the peace of Feudal Japan is threatened by cruel Lord Naritsugu Matsudaira, who is politically rising and getting closer to his half-brother, the shogun. After the harakiri of the Namiya clan leader, samurai Shinzaemon Shimada is summoned by the shogun's advisor Sir Doi of the Akash Clan to listen to the tragedy of Makino Uneme, whose son and daughter-in-law have been murdered by Naritsugu. Then Sir Doi shows a woman with arms, legs and tongue severed by Naritsugu and she writes with her forearm a request to Shinza to slaughter Naritsugu and his samurais. Shinza promises to kill Naritsugu and he gathers eleven other samurais and plots a plan to attack Naritsugu in his trip back to the Akash land. But the cunning samurai Hanbei Kitou that is responsible for the security of his master foresees Shinza's intent. Shinza decides to go with his samurais through the mountain, where they find the hunter Koyata that guides them off the mountain and joins the group. Now the thirteen men prepare an ambush to Naritsugu and his army of two hundred samurais in a suicide mission to stop evil.
 

The 13th Warrior

Director: John McTiernan, Michael Crichton
Starring: Antonio Banderas, Diane Venora, Vladimir Kulich
Genre: Action, Adventure
Studio: Walt Disney Video
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 8
Release: Jan 2000
Summary: In AD 922, Arab courtier Ahmad Ibn Fadlan accompanies a party of Vikings to the barbaric North. Ibn Fadlan is appalled by the Vikings customs-- their wanton sexuality, their disregard for cleanliness, their cold-blooded human sacrifices. And then he learns the horrifying truth: he has been enlisted to combat a terror that slaughters the Vikings and devours their flesh.
 

20 Feet from Stardom

Director: Morgan Neville
Starring: Bette Midler, Mick Jagger, Sting, Sheryl Crow, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Darlene Love, Lou Adler, Stevvi Alexander, Patti Austin, Chris Botti, Merry Clayton, Lisa Fischer
Genre: Documentary, Music
Studio: Gil Friesen Productions
My Rating:
Rated: PG-13
Rating: 7.8 (1,192 votes)
Release: Jun 2013
Summary: The backup singer exists in a strange place in the pop music world; they are always in the shadow of the feature artists even when they are in front of them in concert while they provide a vital foundation for the music. Through interviews with veterans and concert footage, the history of these predominately African-American singers is explored through the rock era. Furthermore, special focus is given to special stand outs who endeavored to make a living in the art burdened with a low profile and more personal career frustrations, especially those who faced the very different challenge of singing in the spotlight themselves.
 

21 Jump Street

Director: Phil Lord, Chris Miller
Starring: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Brie Larson, Dave Franco, Rob Riggle
Genre: Action, Comedy, Crime
Studio: Columbia Pictures
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 7.5 (41,506 votes)
Release: Mar 2012
Summary: In high school, Schmidt (Jonah Hill) was a dork and Jenko (Channing Tatum) was the popular jock. After graduation, both of them joined the police force and ended up as partners riding bicycles in the city park. Since they are young and look like high school students, they are assigned to an undercover unit to infiltrate a drug ring that is supplying high school students synthetic drugs.
 

28 Days Later

Director: Danny Boyle
Starring: Ray Panthaki, Lisa I'Anson, Brendan Gleeson, Danny Boyle, Naomie Harris
Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Studio: 20th Century Fox
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 7.6 (193,676 votes)
Release: Jun 2003
Summary: Animal activists invade a laboratory with the intention of releasing chimpanzees that are undergoing experimentation, infected by a virus -a virus that causes rage. The naive activists ignore the pleas of a scientist to keep the cages locked, with disastrous results. Twenty-eight days later, our protagonist, Jim, wakes up from a coma, alone, in an abandoned hospital. He begins to seek out anyone else to find London is deserted, apparently without a living soul. After finding a church, which had become inhabited by zombie like humans intent on his demise, he runs for his life. Selena and Mark rescue him from the horde and bring him up to date on the mass carnage and horror as all of London tore itself apart. This is a tale of survival and ultimately, heroics, with nice subtext about mankind's savage nature.
 

28 Weeks Later

Director: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
Starring: Robert Carlyle, Rose Byrne, Jeremy Renner, Amanda Walker, Shahid Ahmed
Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Studio: Fox Atomic
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 7.0 (137,194 votes)
Release: May 2007
Summary: 28 Weeks Later picks up six months after the Rage Virus has decimated the city of London. The US Army has restored order and is repopulating the quarantined city, when a carrier of the Rage Virus enters London and unknowingly re-ignites the spread of the deadly infection and the nightmare begins... again.
 

30 Days - Season 1

Director: Morgan Spurlock
Starring: Morgan Spurlock
Genre: Documentary, Television
Studio: 20th Century Fox
My Rating:
Rated: Unrated
Rating: 6.5 (53 votes)
Release: Jul 2006
Summary: A reality show that's entertaining "and" smart? Sounds about as oxymoronic as it gets, but Morgan Spurlock has pulled it off with "30 Days". The premise: put "normal" middle-class Americans (in this case, all of them white) into situations where they are way out of their comfort zones, archetypal fish out of water who must spend 30 days experiencing how the other half lives.

Thus we have tales involving a Christian from West Virginia who lives with a Muslim American couple in Dearborn, Michigan; a straight dude from rural Michigan who moves in with a homosexual roommate in San Francisco's Castro District, "the gayest place on Earth;" and a mother in Phoenix who, concerned about her daughter's excessive drinking at college, goes on her own heavy alcohol binge. Spurlock himself is the subject of an episode in which he and his fiancé try to subsist on the minimum wage, while the only one that doesn't fit the mold concerns an out-of-shape 34-year-old man trying to find the fountain of youth by embarking on a strict regimen of exercise, diet, and major doses of steroids and Human Growth Hormone pills.

The stories don't all have happy endings: the Phoenix woman's drinking has no affect whatsoever on her daughter, and the steroid guy drops out when his sperm count almost immediately drops to zero. But the discomfort felt by the others seems genuine, as do the lessons in tolerance and cultural understanding they eventually learn, even given the artificial confines of reality TV. What's more, Spurlock provides some real information along the way, telling us how many drinks it takes to be over the legal limit in Arizona (five shots ought to do it) or how many passages in the Bible are interpreted as proscribing homosexuality (six), detailing the negative side effects of "anti-aging" medicines (too many to list here), and offering insight into such Muslim customs as prayer and fasting (the Christian dresses in Muslim garb and even learns a little Arabic). --"Sam Graham"
 

30 Days - Season 2

Director: Morgan Spurlock
Starring: Morgan Spurlock
Genre: Documentary, Television
Studio: Arts Alliance America
My Rating:
Rated: Unrated
Rating: 6.5 (53 votes)
Release: Jul 2008
Summary: 30 Days features a diverse group of participants, each given the opportunity to experience first-hand a world antithetical to their own, comfortable existence. Each episode examines a very different subject and is hosted by Morgan Spurlock. In the final episode, Spurlock is also a participant as he turns the camera on himself.

Episodes Include: "Immigration", "Outsourcing," "New Age", "Pro-Choice/Pro-Life", "Atheist/Christian" and "Jail"
 

30 Days - Season 3

Director: Morgan Spurlock
Starring: Morgan Spurlock
Genre: Documentary, Television
Studio: FX
My Rating:
Rated: Unrated
Rating: 6.5 (53 votes)
Release: May 2010
Summary: Created by Morgan Spurlock, "30 Days" is an unscripted, documentary-style program where an individual is inserted into a lifestyle that is completely different from his or her upbringing, beliefs, religion or profession for 30 days.

Season 3 Episodes include, "Working in a Coal Mine"; "30 Days in a Wheelchair"; "Animal Rights"; "Same Sex Parenting"; "Gun Nation" and "Life on an Indian Reservation."
 

30 Days of Night

Director: David Slade
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Melissa George, Danny Huston, Ben Foster, Mark Rendall
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Studio: Sony Pictures
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 6.6 (97,470 votes)
Release: Oct 2007
Summary: This is the story of an isolated Alaskan town that is plunged into darkness for a month each year when the sun sinks below the horizon. As the last rays of light fade, the town is attacked by a bloodthirsty gang of vampires bent on an uninterrupted orgy of destruction. Only the small town's husband-and-wife Sheriff team stand between the survivors and certain destruction.
 

30 Minutes Or Less

Director: Ruben Fleischer
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Danny McBride, Aziz Ansari, Bianca Kajlich, Nick Swardson, Michael Peña, Fred Ward, Dilshad Vadsaria, Brett Gelman
Genre: Action, Comedy, Adventure
Studio: Columbia Pictures
My Rating:
Rated: R
Release: Nov 2011
Summary: Two fledgling criminals kidnap a pizza delivery guy, strap a bomb to his chest, and inform him that he has mere hours to rob a bank or else...
 

The 40 Year Old Virgin

Director: Judd Apatow
Starring: Steve Carell, Catherine Keener, Paul Rudd, Romany Malco, Seth Rogen
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Studio: Universal Studios
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 7.2 (194,787 votes)
Release: Aug 2005
Summary: Cult comic actor Steve Carell--long adored for his supporting work on "The Daily Show" and in movies like "Bruce Almighty" and "Anchorman"--leaps into leading man status with "The 40 Year-Old Virgin". There's no point describing the plot; it's about how a 40 year-old virgin named Andy (Carell) finally finds true love and gets laid. Along the way, there are very funny scenes involving being coached by his friends, speed dating, being propositioned by his female manager, and getting his chest waxed. Carell finds both humor and humanity in Andy, and the supporting cast includes some standout comic work from Paul Rudd ("Clueless", "The Shape of Things") and Jane Lynch ("Best in Show", "A Mighty Wind"), as well as an unusually straight performance from Catherine Keener ("Lovely & Amazing", "Being John Malkovich"). And yet... something about the movie misses the mark. It skirts around the topic of male sexual anxiety, mining it for easy jokes, but never really digs into anything that would make the men in the audience actually squirm--and it's a lot less funny as a result. Nonetheless, there are many great bits, and Carell deserves the chance to shine. "--Bret Fetzer"
 

42

Director: Brian Helgeland"
Starring: Chadwick Boseman, T.R. Knight, Harrison Ford, Nicole Beharie, Christopher Meloni, Jon Bernthal, John C. McGinley, Ryan Merriman, Jud Tylor, Brett Cullen, Brad Beyer
Genre: Drama, Sport
Studio: Warner Bros.
My Rating:
Rated: PG-13
Release: Jul 2013
Summary: "42" is the powerful story of Jackie Robinson, the legendary baseball player who broke Major League Baseball's color barrier when he joined the roster of the Brooklyn Dodgers. The film follows the innovative Dodger's general manager Branch Rickey, the MLB executive who first signed Robinson to the minors and then helped to bring him up to the show.
 

48 HRS.

Director: Walter Hill
Starring: Nick Nolte, Eddie Murphy, Annette O'Toole, Frank McRae, James Remar
Genre: Action, Comedy, Crime
Studio: Paramount
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 6.9 (34,942 votes)
Release: Jan 1999
Summary: Before the action-oriented "buddy movie" formula settled into place in the 1980s and 1990s with the "Lethal Weapon" films, Walter Hill's "48 HRS." presented a much more irreverent and politically incorrect version of the genre. Eddie Murphy made an auspicious film debut alongside veteran Nick Nolte's consummate performance as a worn cop. Murphy plays a convict on a two-day furlough from prison to help capture his former partner (James Remar). The intense animosity between his character and Nolte's impatient detective is rude and violent--albeit in a comic way--and the film's racist and sexist banter is so ubiquitous that some viewers might be turned off. (This early, raw Murphy is not the Murphy of "The Nutty Professor".) Then again, sometimes deliberate overkill is funny in itself, which is certainly closer to Hill's intention. There are a couple of scenes for the ages in this film, especially Murphy's single-handed shutdown of the action in a redneck bar. "--Tom Keogh"
 

50/50

Director: Jonathan Levine
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Studio: Summit Entertainment
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 7.8 (159,135 votes)
Release: Sep 2011
Summary: Adam is a 27 year old writer of radio programs and is diagnosed with a rare form of spinal cancer. With the help of his best friend, his mother, and a young therapist at the cancer center, Adam learns what and who the most important things in his life are.
 

101 Dalmatians

Director: Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske, Wolfgang Reitherman
Starring: Rod Taylor, J. Pat O'Malley, Betty Lou Gerson, Martha Wentworth, Ben Wright, Cate Bauer, David Frankham, Frederick Worlock, Lisa Davis, Tom Conway, Tudor Owen, George Pelling, Ramsay Hill, Queenie Leonard, Marjorie Bennett, Mickey Maga, Barbara Beaird, Mimi Gibson, Sandra Abbott, Thurl Ravenscroft, Bill Lee
Genre: Adventure, Animation, Family
Studio: Disney Studios
My Rating:
Rated: G
Rating: 6
Release: Jan 1961
Summary: When a litter of dalmatian puppies are abducted by the minions of Cruella De Vil, the parents must find them before she uses them for a diabolical fashion statement.
 

127 Hours

Director: Danny Boyle
Starring: James Franco, Lizzy Caplan
Genre: Adventure, Biography, Drama
Studio: Fox Searchlight Pictures
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 7.7 (172,861 votes)
Release: Mar 2011
Summary: Aron Ralston (played by James Franco) is traipsing alone through Utah's Canyonlands National Park, minding his own sweet-natured, loosey-goosey business, when an errant step drops him into a crevasse. That in itself wouldn't be so bad if he hadn't managed to get his right hand stuck between a heavy boulder and the side of the cavern--a cavern that will be his grave, if he doesn't figure out how to get himself out. Danny Boyle's film of this real-life 2003 incident builds up to what we all know is going to happen: Ralston must sever his arm between his elbow and wrist, after a few long, lonely days of avoiding the idea. (Superb casual line delivery by Franco: "So I found this great tourniquet….") Because this is a film by the director of "Slumdog Millionaire" and "Trainspotting", we can expect a barrage of visual high jinks, despite the fact that this story would seem to be a simple tale of a man stuck in the desert. Boyle deploys flashbacks and fantasies to fill up the screen, plus he gets some mileage out of Ralston's video camera--and, of course, this director can't resist juicing the soundtrack with pop tunes, from Sigur Rós to Edith Piaf to "Slumdog" composer A.R. Rahman. Maybe Boyle is simply hyperactive, or maybe he's really onto something about what would happen inside the mind of a man left in extremis for an extended period (who wouldn't have a few Boyle-esque hallucinations, under the circumstances?). The cumulative effect is overbearing, but Franco's performance is spirited and endearing--he makes Ralston sufficiently "of life" that you definitely don't want to see this goofball soul be lost. "--Robert Horton"
 

300

Director: Zack Snyder
Starring: Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, Dominic West, David Wenham, Vincent Regan
Genre: Action, Fantasy, History
Studio: Warner Home Video
My Rating:
Rated: R
Rating: 4.0 (933 votes)
Release: Jul 2007
Summary: Like "Sin City" before it, "300" brings Frank Miller and Lynn Varley's graphic novel vividly to life. Gerard Butler ("Beowulf and Grendel", "The Phantom of the Opera") radiates pure power and charisma as Leonidas, the Grecian king who leads 300 of his fellow Spartans (including David Wenham of "The Lord of the Rings", Michael Fassbender, and Andrew Pleavin) into a battle against the overwhelming force of Persian invaders. Their only hope is to neutralize the numerical advantage by confronting the Persians, led by King Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro), at the narrow strait of Thermopylae.
More engaging than "Troy", the tepid and somewhat similar epic of ancient Greece, "300" is also comparable to "Sin City" in that the actors were shot on green screen, then added to digitally created backgrounds. The effort pays off in a strikingly stylized look and huge, sweeping battle scenes. However, it's not as to-the-letter faithful to Miller's source material as "Sin City" was. The plot is the same, and many of the book's images are represented just about perfectly. But some extra material has been added, including new villains (who would be considered "bosses" if this were a video game, and it often feels like one) and a political subplot involving new characters and a significantly expanded role for the Queen of Sparta (Lena Headey). While this subplot by director Zack Snyder ("Dawn of the Dead") and his fellow co-writers does break up the violence, most fans would probably dismiss it as filler if it didn't involve the sexy Headey. Other viewers, of course, will be turned off by the waves of spurting blood, flying body parts, and surging testosterone. (The six-pack abs are also relentless, and the movie has more and less nudity--more female, less male--than the graphic novel.) Still, as a representation of Miller's work and as an ancient-themed action flick with a modern edge, "300" delivers. "--David Horiuchi"
 

2001: A Space Odyssey

Director: Stanley Kubrick
Starring: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Daniel Richter, Leonard Rossiter
Genre: Adventure, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Studio: Warner Home Video
My Rating:
Rated: PG
Rating: 8.4 (250,750 votes)
Release: Apr 1968
Summary: When Stanley Kubrick recruited Arthur C. Clarke to collaborate on "the proverbial intelligent science fiction film," it's a safe bet neither the maverick auteur nor the great science fiction writer knew they would virtually redefine the parameters of the cinema experience. A daring experiment in unconventional narrative inspired by Clarke's short story "The Sentinel," "2001" is a visual tone poem (barely 40 minutes of dialogue in a 139-minute film) that charts a phenomenal history of human evolution. From the dawn-of-man discovery of crude but deadly tools in the film's opening sequence to the journey of the spaceship "Discovery" and metaphysical birth of the "star child" at film's end, Kubrick's vision is meticulous and precise. In keeping with the director's underlying theme of dehumanization by technology, the notorious, seemingly omniscient computer HAL 9000 has more warmth and personality than the human astronauts it supposedly is serving. (The director also leaves the meaning of the black, rectangular alien monoliths open for discussion.) This theme, in part, is what makes "2001" a film like no other, though dated now that its postmillennial space exploration has proven optimistic compared to reality. Still, the film is timelessly provocative in its pioneering exploration of inner- and outer-space consciousness. With spectacular, painstakingly authentic special effects that have stood the test of time, Kubrick's film is nothing less than a cinematic milestone--puzzling, provocative, and perfect. "--Jeff Shannon"