USA

The two-part TV movie Inside the Third Reich was based on the extraordinary revelatory (if self-serving) autobiographical book by Albert Speer. Played herein by Rutger Hauer, Speer is a young man of privilege in pre-Hitler Germany who happens to be a brilliant architect. Becoming a member of Hitler’s inner circle, Speer is appointed the Nazi regime’s master builder. According to this film, Speer is egomaniacal and ambitious, but somewhat blinded to the inherent evils of Nazism. Though he’d later claim to be ignorant of Hitler’s horrific policies aimed at the Jews, he was certainly aware of the use of Jewish prisoners as slave labor: as Germany’s armaments minister during World War II, Speer exploited these enslaved unfortunates as much as anyone, if not more so. The cast includes Derek Jacobi as Hitler, Blythe Danner as Speer’s wife Margarethe, John Gielgud as Speer’s father, Ian Holm as Goebbels, Maurice Roeves as Hess, and George Murcell as Goering. Originally running 5 hours, Inside the Third Reich was filmed in Munich; it was first telecast on May 9 and 10, 1982. ~ Hal Erickson, RoviRead More »

Jenny and her six-year-old son, Tommy, are flying over the Belgian Congo when they are forced to bail out and become separated. Jenny lands in a dense jungle and is rescued by a safari headed by two wild-animal collectors, but Tommy is not found. He has amnesia and is lost, but is adopted by Zamba, a huge gorilla. He lives happily with his new family. Jenny comes back with a searching party, and Zamba, the gorilla mother, is determined to protect Tommy from his real mother.Read More »

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Mouse and Bird are a couple of sassy and sexy young hitchhikers who embark on a cross country trip in search of freedom, excitement, and independence. The lovely ladies use their bodies as currency and encounter a diverse array of libidinous folks on their journey.Read More »

A Vietnam vet returns home to his wife. His home is there, but his wife isn’t. When the authorities prove to be no help, he cuts a violent swath across the countryside in search of his missing missus.Read More »

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A movie about friendship, parallel universes, the internet, and genocidal coconuts.Read More »

Synopsis (by David Gregory Lawson – filmcomment.com)
Richard Linklater’s first feature, It’s Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books (88), is the travelogue of a young man, played by Linklater, riding the rails, hitching, and driving through the southwestern United States. The unnamed protagonist flounders about pleasantly in Austin, visits a friend in Missoula, and hoofs around San Francisco by his lonesome (chatting up strangers, though the conversations can’t be heard, covered by city noise, or waves crashing against rocks at a lighthouse by the bay). Then he returns to Austin, babysits his mother’s dog, and, finally, is given a cassette tape by Daniel Johnston, whom he does not know. During their spontaneous meeting Linklater reveals that the film’s title is written on one of the T-shirts he’s been wearing the whole time: “Old Russian proverb,” he says.Read More »

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In 2002, a group of young students at Northwestern University discover an abnormal number of flaws (confessions extracted under torture, false testimony, etc.) in trials having led to death sentences in Illinois. 13 prisoners on death row are then acquitted after their cases are reviewed. The Republican governor George Ryan, a former supporter of the death penalty, finds himself facing a dilemma a few months before leaving office: ignore this report, or fight to extensively reform the system while making an enemy of his political party. To make his decision, he orders hearings for pleas for mercy for the more than 160 prisoners who are sentenced to death in this state. Katy Chevigny and Kirsten Johnson film these hearings and interview convicts and capital punishment legal experts. By highlighting the flaws of a profoundly racist, sexist and classist judiciary system, Deadline dares to put its finger on the irreconcilable divergences regarding the death penalty, combined here in the figure of a governor holding the power of life or death.Read More »

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In this pulpy crime drama, a murder stirs up trouble at London’s Cotton Club, threatening the livelihood of its controlling owner. When Steve Marco (Jack LaRue) kills a club employee who was blackmailing him, he also steals a valuable string of pearls. Scotland Yard jumps on the case, and recruits club beauty Ruby Lane (Sandra Storme) to try to retrieve the pearls. Notable talent includes Jack LaRue and Bernard Lee (James Bond’s “M”).Read More »

Allan Quartermain leads an expedition into uncharted African territory in an effort to locate Elizabeth Curtis’ husband Henry, who was searching for King Solomon’s legendary treasure. Along the way they encounter a variety of wild animals including snakes, a leopard and a rhino. Quartermain isn’t keen on having a woman on the expedition and he and Elizabeth quarrel regularly. Elizabeth and her husband were not very fond of one another and her expedition is driven by her own guilt. She and Quatermain fall in love but survival becomes their goal when they meet dangerous tribesmen.Read More »