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Created by dipity on Jan 23, 2008
Last updated: 03/11/10 at 07:59 AM
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Gosford Park is an award-winning 2001 film, directed by Robert Altman. The screenplay is by Julian Fellowes, based on an idea by Altman and producer Bob Balaban. It features an ensemble cast including Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Kristin Scott Thomas, Jeremy Northam, Bob Balaban, Ryan Phillippe, Stephen Fry, Kelly Macdonald, Clive Owen, Helen Mirren, Eileen Atkins, Emily Watson, Camilla Rutherford, Tom Hollander, Alan Bates, Derek Jacobi, and Richard E. Grant.
The film is set in 1932 at an English country house. A party of wealthy Britons and Americans, all accompanied by their servants, gather at the home of Sir William McCordle for a weekend of pheasant shooting. A murder occurs in the middle of the night. The Plot presents the murder from the perspective of the servants. But rather than a simple mystery to be solved, the film uses the whodunit format to create a drama showcasing the tensions of the British class system. Many intertwining subplots detail the complex...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0280707
Moulin Rouge! is a 2001 Academy Award-winning Australian jukebox musical film directed by Baz Luhrmann. It tells the story of a young British poet/writer, Christian, who falls in love with the star of the Moulin Rouge cabaret actress and courtesan, Satine. It uses the colourful musical setting of the Montmartre Quarter of Paris, France. The film was nominated for eight Oscars, and won two; for art direction and costume design. It was shot at Fox Studios in Sydney, Australia.
Due to the film's international success, it has been widely credited with revitalizing the musical genre, setting the stage for films such as Chicago, Rent, Dreamgirls and The Phantom Of The Opera.[citation needed]In 2006 Moulin Rouge! ranked #25 on the American Film Institute's list of best musicals.
The year is 1900 and Christian (Ewan McGregor), a grizzled, unkempt British writer who came to the village of Montmartre, Paris at the height of the Bohemian movement a year before, sits in a garret...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0203009
Blow is a 2001 drama film about the American cocaine smuggler George Jung, directed by Ted Demme (who later died of a cocaine-related heart attack[citation needed]). David McKenna and Nick Cassavetes adapted Bruce Porter's 1993 book Blow: How a Small-Town Boy Made $100 Million With the Medellin Cocaine Cartel and Lost It All for the screenplay. It is based on the real-life story of George Jung, Pablo Escobar, Carlos Lehder and the Medellín Cartel. The film's title comes from a slang term for cocaine.
Tagline: Based on a True Story.
The film opens to a young George and his parents Fred (Ray Liotta) and Ermine (Rachel Griffiths). The boy's father supports his family in Weymouth, Massachusetts by running a small plumbing company. His mother is constantly complaining that the family has no money and badgers her husband, asking him what they are going to do. Finally, despite Fred's relentless efforts to keep the family afloat, they eventually have to file for bankruptcy and lose...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0221027
Donnie Darko is a 2001 drama/psychological thriller/science fiction cult film written and directed by Richard Kelly. It was rated R by the MPAA for language, violence and some drug content. The film had a small opening upon its release in the U.S., but gained new-found popularity upon its DVD release and a cult following over the years and currently ranks at #116 at the Internet Movie Database Top 250.
The story is set in the town of Middlesex, New York during the 1988 presidential election campaign. Donnie Darko is an emotionally troubled teenager who sleepwalks and visits a psychiatrist with whom he discusses his deepest thoughts throughout the film. One morning, an unidentified jet engine falls into Donnie's bedroom, which he unknowingly avoids by sleepwalking outside and following a voice in his head. This voice belongs to Frank, an (apparently) imaginary friend in a man-sized rabbit costume. Frank prophesies that the "end of the world" will occur in "28 days, 6 hours, 42 minutes...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0246578
The Luzhin Defence is a 2001 movie, directed by Dutch director Marleen Gorris. The screenplay was written by Peter Berry and based on the novel The Defense (or The Luzhin Defence) by Vladimir Nabokov. Nabokov in turn drew upon the events in the life of his friend Curt von Bardeleben who committed suicide in 1924. The movie stars John Turturro as the tormented Luzhin; Emily Watson plays the love interest, Natalia. Watson received best actress nominations at the British Independent Film Awards and the London Film Critics Circle Awards.
The chess position they play for the final between Turati and Luzhin is already a winning position for black (Luzhin), eventhough black is down on material. By playing Kg4? (as opossed to Kf2) white walks into a forced mate. After Kg4
leads to the forced mate with a rook sacrifice:
If white plays Kf2 instead of Kg4 this leads to a heavy material loss for white and an easy game for black. After Kf2:
and black is up by a rook.
...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0211492
Original Sin is a 2001 movie starring Angelina Jolie and Antonio Banderas. It is based on the novel Waltz into Darkness by Cornell Woolrich. Jolie was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award in 2001 for Worst Actress for her work in Original Sin and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Most of the interest in Sin comes from the controversial sex scene between Banderas and Jolie, two of modern cinema's most popular sex symbols
Luis Vargas (Antonio Banderas), a wealthy Cuban businessman who seeks out an American wife, believes Americans represent the future, and that his own countrymen - and women - are mired in the past and their traditions. After months of corresponding with Julia Russell (Angelina Jolie), the day comes when she sails to his country to be his bride. Julia departs from the ship, looking nothing like the photos she's sent prior to her voyage. Julia explains she wants more than a man who is interested in a pretty face, and that's why she's been deceptive - substituting a plain...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0218922
Traffic is an award-winning 2000 crime/drama film directed by Steven Soderbergh. It explores the intricacies of the illegal drug trade from a number of perspectives: a user, an enforcer, a politician and a trafficker, whose lives affect each other even though they do not meet. The film is an adaptation of the British Channel 4 television series Traffik. In 2004, USA Network ran a miniseries — also called Traffic — based on the movie.
Film scholar Alissa Quart has described Traffic as the first in a category of films that she calls 'hyperlink movies', in which multiple stories take place, each affecting the other in ways that characters are unaware of, all the while using radically different aesthetic and cinematics techniques to define the mise en scène of each storyline.
The film begins in Mexico, where police officer Javier Rodriguez Rodriguez (Benicio Del Toro) and his partner, Manolo, stop a drug transport and arrest the couriers. Their arrest is interrupted by General Salazar, a...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181865
The Family Man is a 2000 Brett Ratner film starring Nicolas Cage (as Jack Campbell) and Téa Leoni, about a man who is given a glimpse at what could have been, if he had made a different decision 13 years ago. It is similar to It's a Wonderful Life, in that it starts on Christmas Eve with a life and death situation involving an angel who tries to get the main character (Campbell) to take a long, earnest look at his life. In the end, the protagonists in both movies conclude that a quiet family life is preferrable to achieving huge success and wealth at work, although each movie's protagonist approaches the issue from opposite places initially.The film has also been compared to Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol because the protagonist is a greedy man who cares little about anyone except himself, who then has his life outlook completely changed after a series of real-life what-if experiences.Jack Campbell is a single, wealthy Wall Street merger and acquisition investment banker living...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0218967
Where the Heart Is is a 2000 drama/romance film directed by Matt Williams and produced by Susan Cartsonis, David McFadzean, Patricia Whitcher and Matt Williams. The film stars Natalie Portman and Ashley Judd. The screenplay, written by Lowell Ganz, is based on the best-selling novel by Billie Letts.
The film follows Novalee Nation, a pregnant seventeen-year old girl from Tennessee, who sets out for California with her boyfriend. When they stop in Oklahoma, her boyfriend abandons her. Since Novalee has only a few dollars, she secretly moves into a Wal-Mart store. She gives birth to her baby and attracts media attention and she sets up a new life with the help of new friends. The film was released by 20th Century Fox on April 28, 2000. It was filmed in Waco, TXSeventeen and pregnant, Novalee Nation (played by Natalie Portman) sets off on a road trip from Tennessee to California in a run down old car with her boyfriend, Willy Jack Pickens. En route, the pair stop at a Wal-Mart in Oklahoma...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0198021
American Beauty is a 1999 drama film that explores themes of romantic and paternal love, freedom, beauty, self-liberation, existentialism, the search for happiness, and family against the backdrop of modern American suburbia. The film was the screen debut for writer Alan Ball and director Sam Mendes and starred Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening; all four were nominated for Oscars. In 2000 it won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) is a 42-year-old man living in the suburbs. His wife Carolyn (Annette Bening) is an ambitious realtor; his daughter Jane (Thora Birch) is an average teenager but is unhappy with her physical appearance.
Dissatisfied with his average life and sexually frustrated by his wife, Lester finds motivation for transforming himself after meeting Angela Hayes (Mena Suvari), Jane's best friend and classmate. Angela, a beautiful, confident, and supposedly promiscuous cheerleader who aspires to be a model, captivates Lester the moment...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0169547
Eyes Wide Shut is a 1999 film directed and co-written by Stanley Kubrick, based on the novella Traumnovelle (in English Dream Story) by Arthur Schnitzler. The film stars Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. Kubrick died shortly after editing the film.
The film was released on July 16, 1999 to a mixed critical reaction.
The storyline, set in and around New York City, follows the surreal, sexually charged adventures of Dr. William "Bill" Harford (Cruise), who is shocked after his wife, Alice (Kidman), reveals that she had contemplated having an affair a year earlier.
The film begins in contemporary New York City in the apartment of wealthy, married couple Dr. William and Alice Harford. They are preparing for a Christmas party at the home of Victor Ziegler (Sydney Pollack), a friend and patient of Bill's. During the party, an older Hungarian man (Sky Dumont) tries to seduce Alice, while two younger models try to seduce Bill. Alice and Bill both resist their respective temptations. During the...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120663
All About My Mother (Spanish: Todo sobre mi madre) is an award-winning 1999 film written and directed by the Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar. The film deals with complex issues such as AIDS, transvestitism, sexual identity, gender, religion, faith, and existentialism, but always with his classical tragicomedy touch, the film presents these serious issues with an edge of dark humour.
All About My Mother is the story of Manuela, a single mother in Madrid. The film begins on the eve of her son Esteban's seventeenth birthday. They are watching the film All About Eve on television. Esteban comments that the Spanish translation of the title ("Eve Unveiled") is incorrect. He begins writing a story about his mother, titling it Todo sobre mi madre (All About My Mother).
On the night of Esteban's birthday, Manuela takes him to see a production of A Streetcar Named Desire. After the show, they wait in the rain so that Esteban can ask the leading actress, Huma Rojo, for her autograph. While they...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0185125
Cruel Intentions is a 1999 American feature film starring Ryan Phillippe, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Reese Witherspoon, and Selma Blair. The movie is a drama film based on the 18th century French novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses, but unlike other modern film versions of the novel (such as Dangerous Liaisons and Valmont), which are set in the France of that time, Cruel Intentions is set among the wealthy teens of modern-day New York society. The plot is mainly driven by a bet held between the two main characters, and it heavily involves manipulation, seduction, and love in a rich and sophisticated socially elite youth atmosphere. The film was released on March 5, 1999. It was later followed by two direct-to-video films one of which a prequel, Cruel Intentions 2 and then a sequal to the first Cruel Intentions 3.Though not a massive box office hit, the movie surpassed its budget by making an estimated $39 million on a budget of $11 million.The kiss shared between Sarah Michelle Gellar and...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0139134
Shakespeare in Love is an award-winning 1998 romantic comedy film. The film was directed by John Madden and co-written by playwright Tom Stoppard, whose first major success was with the Shakespeare-influenced play Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead.
The film is largely fictional, although several of the characters are based on real people. In addition, some of the characters, lines, and plot devices are references to Shakespeare's plays.
Shakespeare in Love won a number of Academy Awards in 1999, including Best Picture and Best Actress (for Gwyneth Paltrow). It was the first comedy to win the Best Picture award since Annie Hall (1977).
The film makes no pretence at historical accuracy and features many comic anachronisms (such as a psychotherapist, a mug marked "A present from Stratford-on-Avon", Shakespeare leaping into a ferry and saying "Follow that boat!", and Henslowe anticipating the phrase "The show must go on!"). Yet it must be remembered that this has been transfered...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0138097
Apt Pupil is a 1998 film, directed by Bryan Singer and starring Ian McKellen and Brad Renfro. The screenplay by Brandon Boyce is adapted from a novella of the same name by Stephen King, originally published in Different Seasons (1982). The endings of the two works differ drastically, however.
Todd Bowden is sixteen, a smart kid with good grades. He is studying the Holocaust in school. He begins to read everything he can get his hands on about World War II and Nazi concentration camps.
One day he recognizes an old man on a bus. He goes to his house and rings the bell. The sign on the door says "Arthur Denker," but when the door opens Todd calls him "Kurt Dussander." He has recognized him as the commandant of the (fictional) Nazi concentration camp at Patin. At first the old man denies everything, repeating that his name is Denker. As Todd gives him more and more details - especially how he obtained Dussander's fingerprints from his mailbox and came up with multiple positive results...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118636
Life Is Beautiful (Italian: La vita è bella) is a 1997 Italian language film which tells the story of a Jewish Italian, Guido Orefice (played by Roberto Benigni, who also directed and co-wrote the film), who must learn how to use his fertile imagination to help his son survive their internment in a Nazi concentration camp.
The title derives from Leon Trotsky's last testament; while in exile in Mexico, expecting to die shortly from high blood pressure, Trotsky wrote,
The first half of the movie is a whimsical, romantic comedy and often slapstick. Guido, a young Italian Jew, arrives in Arezzo where he sets up a bookstore. Guido is both funny and charismatic, especially when he romances Dora (Italian, but not Jewish), whom he steals – at her engagement – from her rude and loud fiancé. Several years pass, in which Guido and Dora have a son, Joshua (written Giosuè in the original script). In the film, Joshua is around six years old. However, both the beginning and ending of the film is...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118799
Good Will Hunting is a 1997 film directed by Gus Van Sant and written by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, who both star in the film. Set in Boston, Massachusetts, it tells the story of Will Hunting (Damon), a troubled prodigy who works as a janitor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, despite the fact that his knowledge of and facility with higher mathematics far outstrips that of anyone in the university. Will must learn to overcome his deep fear of abandonment in order to learn how to trust and love the people who care about him. Good Will Hunting is the story of a young man and his struggle with both himself and personal relationships, trying to work through his problems so that he can open up to others, and begin putting his immeasurable intellectual potential to work.
Affleck and Damon originally pitched the screenplay to Castle Rock Entertainment as a thriller: Young man in the rough-and-tumble streets of South Boston, who possesses a superior intelligence, is targeted by...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119217
Chasing Amy is a 1997 romantic comedy written and directed by Kevin Smith about two comic book artists: Holden McNeil (Ben Affleck), a heterosexual male, and Alyssa Jones (Joey Lauren Adams), a lesbian-identified woman.
The movie contains frank sexual dialogue, and was originally inspired by a brief scene from an early movie by a friend of Smith's, Guin Turner's Go Fish, wherein one of the lesbian characters imagines her friends passing judgment on her for "selling out" by sleeping with a man. Kevin Smith was dating Joey Lauren Adams while he wrote the script, which was also partly inspired by her.
The film won two awards at the 1998 Independent Spirit Awards (Best Screenplay for Smith and Best Supporting Actor for Jason Lee) and Joey Lauren Adams was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical.
Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum was the Musical Consultant/Producer on this film and wrote music for it.
Holden McNeil and Banky Edwards...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118842
Mrs. Brown (also released and advertised under the title Her Majesty, Mrs. Brown) is a 1997 British drama film starring Dame Judi Dench, Billy Connolly, Geoffrey Palmer, Antony Sher, and Gerard Butler. It was written by Jeremy Brock and directed by John Madden.
The film was produced by the BBC and Ecosse Films with the intention of being shown on BBC One and on WGBH's Masterpiece Theatre. However, it was acquired by (the now defunct studio) Miramax, and released to unexpected success, going on to earn more $13,000,000 worldwide.
After several screens of text giving some background, we see a bust flying over a palace wall and shattering into countless pieces. The film then begins.
The film tells the story of Queen Victoria (played by Dame Judi Dench) and her relationship with a Scottish servant, John Brown, and the subsequent uproar it provoked. Brown had been a trusted servant of Victoria's then deceased consort, Prince Albert; Victoria's chief servants thought Brown might help to...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119280
This article refers to the Hollywood film. For the 1940 popular song, see Fools Rush In (Where Angels Fear to Tread). For the source of the phrase, see Alexander Pope's An Essay on Criticism.Fools Rush In is a 1997 romantic comedy directed by Andy Tennant. Matthew Perry and Salma Hayek co-star.
Three months after a one night stand in Las Vegas, Alex and Isabel decide to get married because she is pregnant with their child. Problems soon arise as they meet each others families, deal with work colleagues, and most importantly, get to know each other.
The major crisis in the movie is the couple learning to adapt to the culture of their new partner. Isabel is from a Catholic Latino family, while Alex's comes from a WASP household.
...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119141
William Shakespeare's Hamlet is a 1996 film version of William Shakespeare's classic play of the same name, adapted and directed by Kenneth Branagh, who also starred in the title role. It stars Derek Jacobi as King Claudius, Julie Christie as Queen Gertrude, Kate Winslet as Ophelia, Richard Briers as Polonius, and Nicholas Farrell as Horatio.
It is notable for being the first unabridged screen version of the play, running for slightly over four hours. (The film also adds a single word: 'Attack!') A shorter edit, approximately two-and-a-half hours long, was shown in some markets.
Branagh set the film with Victorian era costuming and furnishings (it was later said to have been set during the Polack Wars). Blenheim Palace, built in the early 18th century, became Elsinore Castle in the external scenes. The film's budget was $18 million.
Hamlet was photographed in Panavision System 65 by Alex Thomson. It was the last feature film photographed entirely in the 65mm film format as of 2006.,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116477
The English Patient is a 1996 film adaptation of the novel by Michael Ondaatje. The film, directed by Anthony Minghella, won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Ondaatje worked closely with the filmmakers to preserve his artistic vision, and has stated that he is happy with the film as an adaptation.
The film is set during World War II and depicts a critically burned man, at first known only as 'the English patient', who is being looked after by Hana, a French-Canadian nurse in a ruined Italian villa. The patient is reluctant to disclose any personal information but through a series of flashbacks, viewers are allowed into his past. It is slowly revealed that he is in fact a Hungarian geographer, Count László de Almásy, who was making a map of the Sahara Desert, and whose affair with a married woman ultimately brought about his present situation. As the patient remembers more, David Caravaggio, a Canadian thief, arrives at the monastery. Caravaggio lost his thumbs while being...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116209
Trainspotting is a 1996 Academy Award-nominated, BAFTA-winning cult classic film directed by Danny Boyle based on the novel Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh. The movie is about a group of heroin addicts in Edinburgh and their passage through life. It stars Ewan McGregor as Mark Renton, Ewen Bremner as Spud, Jonny Lee Miller as Sick Boy, Kevin McKidd as Tommy, Robert Carlyle as Begbie and Kelly Macdonald as Dianne. Author Irvine Welsh also has a brief appearance as hapless drug dealer Mikey Forrester.
The screenplay was adapted from Welsh's novel by John Hodge. It does not contain any references to the non-drug-related hobby of train spotting. The title is a reference to an episode in the original book (not included in the film) where Begbie and Renton meet "an auld drunkard" in the disused Leith Central railway station, which they are visiting to use as a toilet. He asks them, in a weak attempt at a joke, if they are "trainspottin'". As they walk away, Renton realizes the drunk was...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117951
Sense and Sensibility is a 1995 film adaptation of the 1811 novel of the same name by Jane Austen. The screenplay was adapted by Emma Thompson and directed by Ang Lee. It was filmed at several locations in Devon: at Saltram House, the village church in Berry Pomeroy, Compton Castle, Mothecombe and the cobbled streets of Plymouth's Barbican.[1]The adaptation is relatively faithful to the novel, although some changes are made.
Sense and Sensibility won the Golden Bear for Best Film at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Thompson won the 1996 Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, as well as the 1996 Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay. The film was also nominated for the following Academy Awards:
...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114388
Leaving Las Vegas is a 1995 romantic drama film about a relationship between a suicidal alcoholic and a prostitute from Las Vegas, starring Nicolas Cage and Elisabeth Shue, respectively. The film was directed and written by Mike Figgis, based on a semi-autobiographical novel by John O'Brien. Two weeks after the production of the film had started, O'Brien committed suicide. A halt of the project was considered, but work on the film was continued as a memorial of sorts.
Leaving Las Vegas was filmed in super 16mm instead of 35 mm film format, which is the basic film gauge most commonly used for motion pictures, although it is common for some art house films. After a limited release in the United States on October 27, 1995, the film received high critical praise. It made its nation-wide release on February 9, 1996, with moderate box office receipts, presumably because the film did not have a big marketing scheme, and it was fairly unknown until after the Academy Awards Ceremony of 1996....,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113627
Showgirls is a movie directed by Paul Verhoeven and released in 1995 in North America by United Artists. It starred former teen actress Elizabeth Berkley as a drifter who wanders into Las Vegas and climbs the social ladder from stripper to showgirl. The movie was hoped to be a huge success for the film studio, its directors, and stars. Significant controversy and hype about the movie's seemingly gratuitous amounts of sex and nudity preceded the movie's release. In the U.S., the finally released movie was rated NC-17 for "nudity and erotic sexuality throughout, some graphic language and sexual violence." The film was hyped for being the first NC-17 rated film to be given a wide release in mainstream theaters.
Tagline:Leave your inhibitions at the door. The show is about to begin.Sexy, mysterious and temperamental Nomi Malone (Berkley) hitchhikes into Las Vegas hoping to make it as a Las Vegas showgirl. She's picked up by a "kind" man, but everything she owns is stolen by the driver....,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114436
Babe is an Academy Award-winning 1995 Australian film that tells the story of a pig who wants to be a sheep dog. The main animal characters are played by a combination of real and animatronic pigs and Border Collies. The film is based on the book Babe: The Gallant Pig (originally titled The Sheep Pig) by Dick King-Smith, and later spawned a sequel called Babe: Pig in the City.
The talking animal visual effects were done by Rhythm and Hues Studios.
Babe was filmed in Robertson, New South Wales, Australia.
The movie focuses on the story of a pig that is the runt of its litter. It is taken from the plant where his mother and siblings will be slaughtered to be in a "guess the weight" booth at a carnival. Farmer Hoggett, who makes a special bond with the pig once he looks
at it, guesses the correct weight and wins the pig. Babe is brought to the farm and is allowed to stay with the sheep dog, Fly, and her pups. After being told he isn't allowed the same privileges as the dogs, such as...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112431
Under Siege 2: Dark Territory is a 1995 action film, and is the sequel to Under Siege.
As in the film that preceded it, Steven Seagal plays Casey Ryback, an ex-Navy SEAL.
Casey Ryback (Steven Seagal) has now retired from the Navy, and is now a chef at the Mile High Cafe in Denver, Colorado.
Casey is taking his niece Sarah Ryback (Katherine Heigl) on a trip to Los Angeles to visit the grave of Casey's brother, who was Sarah's father. They board a train traveling through the Rocky Mountains from Denver to Los Angeles.
Travis Dane (Eric Bogosian) takes the train hostage, and starts using the train as a control center in his efforts to take control of Grazer One, a top-secret government super-weapon that is controlled by a satellite. Dane built Grazer One, but he was fired by the government before Grazer One was deployed.
Dane has since hooked up with Middle Eastern terrorists who have offered him $1,000,000,000 to use the satellite to blow up the Eastern seaboard by targeting a nuclear...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114781
Léon (aka The Cleaner, The Professional, or Léon the Professional) is a 1994 film written and directed by French director Luc Besson. It stars Jean Reno and Gary Oldman, as well as Natalie Portman in her first starring role.
Léon (Jean Reno) is a lonely and emotionally detached hitman. He lives a solitary life in New York City and spends his time watching musicals in between training and taking assassin jobs for Italian mafioso Tony (Danny Aiello). Léon is seen in a cinema, watching a musical with faint amazement at the joie de vivre depicted by the film's characters, something he himself is unable to express. He meets Mathilda (Natalie Portman), a twelve-year-old girl who lives with an abusive family in the same apartment building. After corrupt DEA agents, headed by agent Norman Stansfield (Gary Oldman), kill Mathilda's family, Léon saves Mathilda by grudgingly opening his apartment door to let her in with her groceries.
Mathilda then pressures Léon into taking her in, since she...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110413
The Shawshank Redemption is a 1994 American movie, written and directed by Frank Darabont, based on the Stephen King novella, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. The film stars Tim Robbins as Andy Dufresne and Morgan Freeman as Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding.
The film portrays Andy's twenty years in the cruelty of Shawshank State Prison, a fictional penitentiary in Maine, and his friendship with Red, a fellow inmate. Despite a poor box office reception, Shawshank Redemption received favorable reviews from critics and has enjoyed a remarkable life on cable television, home video, and DVD, and continues to be noticed by popular culture. It is consistently ranked amongst the greatest movies of all time.
The events in The Shawshank Redemption are told in voice-over by Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding (Morgan Freeman), and span from 1946 to 1967.
In 1946, Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) is a straight-laced, successful, but emotionally reserved banker. He is convicted of murdering his wife and her lover...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111161
Natural Born Killers is a 1994 satirical movie directed by Oliver Stone and starring Juliette Lewis and Woody Harrelson. It features appearances by Rodney Dangerfield, Robert Downey Jr., Tom Sizemore, and Tommy Lee Jones.
The original screenplay was written by Quentin Tarantino and revised by Stone, Richard Rutowski, and David Veloz. While much of the dialogue is word for word, the revisions change the focus of the film from journalist Wayne Gale (Robert Downey, Jr.) to Mickey and Mallory. The two went from being a normal married couple who suddenly decide to go on a killing spree to unwed social outcasts who were molested and beaten by their parents. Tarantino—unhappy with the rewritten version—publicly disowned the script and asked that his name be removed from the screenwriting credits. He subsequently received a "story by" credit.
Natural Born Killers is a uniquely-directed feature, because of the wide-range of camera angles, filters, lenses and special effects used during its...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110632
Schindler's List is a 1993 biographical film directed by Steven Spielberg, telling the story of Oskar Schindler, a Sudeten-German Catholic businessman who saved the lives of over one thousand Polish Jews during the Final Solution. It was based on the book Schindler's Ark by Thomas Keneally, and starred Liam Neeson as Schindler, Ralph Fiennes as the SS officer Amon Göth, and Ben Kingsley as Schindler's secretary Itzhak Stern. The film was a box office success, and won several Academy Awards, including Best Film and Best Director.The film begins with the relocation of Polish Jews from surrounding areas to Krakow in late 1939, shortly after the beginning of World War II. Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), an unsuccessful businessman, arrives from Czechoslovakia in hopes of using the abundant slave labor force of Jews to manufacture goods for the German military. Schindler, an opportunistic member of the Nazi Party, lavishes bribes upon the army and SS officials in charge of procurement....,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108052
Boxing Helena is the 1993 debut feature film by Jennifer Lynch, daughter of David Lynch. The film stars Sherilyn Fenn as the titular Helena and Julian Sands.Nick Cavanaugh (Sands) is a lonely Atlanta surgeon obsessed with Helena (Fenn). After she is injured in a grievous hit-and-run motor vehicle accident in front of his home, he kidnaps and treats her in his house surreptitiously, medically amputating both of her legs. Later, he amputates her healthy arms as well.Though Helena is the victim of Nick's kidnapping and mutilation, she dominates the dialogue with her constant emasculating ridicule of him for all of his shortcomings. After some time living together she becomes lonely and returns his affection.At the end, it is revealed that everything from the time of Helena's accident is merely a dream that Nick has been having.The film was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival. However, the media critically mauled it on its release. Helena is also...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106471
The Piano is a 1993 Academy Award-winning film about a mute pianist and her daughter, set during the mid-19th century in a rainy, muddy frontier New Zealand backwater. The film was written and directed by Jane Campion, and stars Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill and Anna Paquin. It features a score for the piano by Michael Nyman that became a bestselling soundtrack album. Hunter played her own piano pieces for the film, and also served as teacher for Paquin, earning herself three different screen credits. The film was an international co-production between Jan Chapman Films Australia and Ciby 2000 France.
The Piano tells the story of Scotswoman Ada McGrath (Hunter), who is sold into marriage by her father to frontiersman Alistair Stewart (Neill). She is shipped off with her young daughter Flora (Paquin) to live with Stewart as his wife in his native New Zealand. She has not spoken a word since she was six years old, expressing herself instead through sign language (for which her...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107822
Falling Down is a 1993 film directed by Joel Schumacher about the character William "Bill" Foster (played by Michael Douglas) also known as "D-Fens" (named for his license plate), an engineer, attempting to "go home" for his daughter's birthday after abandoning his car in traffic on the hottest day of the year. As he passes through the city of Los Angeles, California on foot he finds himself alienated, disgusted and angered by what he experiences as he is accosted, overcharged and rejected. He becomes a vigilante as he gradually begins to accumulate weaponry and starts to force people out of his way.The title of the film, referring to Foster's mental collapse, is taken from the title of the nursery rhyme London Bridge is Falling Down: Detective Martin Prendergast's wife's insists throughout the movie that she and her husband retire to Lake Havasu City, Arizona, where the old London Bridge was moved; a snowglobe purchased by Foster as a gift for his daughter also plays the tune of the...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106856
Groundhog Day is a 1993 comedy film directed by Harold Ramis, starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. It was written by Danny Rubin and Harold Ramis and based on a story by Rubin.
In the film, Murray plays Phil Connors, an egocentric Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania TV weatherman who, during a hated assignment covering the annual Groundhog Day event (February 2) in Punxsutawney, finds himself repeating the same day over and over again. Subsequent to his indulging in all manner of hedonistic pursuits, he begins to reexamine his life and priorities.
In 2006, Groundhog Day was added to the United States National Film Registry as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
TV Meteorologist Phil Connors, his producer Rita, and cameraman Larry from the fictional Pittsburgh television station WPBH-TV travel to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania (which, in real life, as in the movie, holds a major celebration for Groundhog Day) to cover the annual Groundhog Day festivities with,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107048
Scent of a Woman is a 1992 film which tells the story of a preparatory school student who takes a job as an assistant to an irascible blind, medically retired Army officer. It stars Al Pacino, Chris O'Donnell, James Rebhorn, Gabrielle Anwar, and Philip Seymour Hoffman. It is a remake of a movie made by Dino Risi in 1974, Profumo di donna, in which Vittorio Gassman played one of his best known roles.
The movie was adapted by Bo Goldman from the novel Il Buio E Il Miele ("Darkness and Honey") by Giovanni Arpino and from the 1974 screenplay for the movie Profumo Di Donna by Ruggero Maccari and Dino Risi. It was directed by Martin Brest.
It won the Academy Award for Best Actor (Al Pacino) and was nominated for Best Director, Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Portions of the movie were filmed on location at the Emma Willard School, an all-girls school in Troy, N.Y.The film revolves around Charlie Simms (Chris O'Donnell), a student at a private preparatory school, who comes from,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105323
A Few Good Men, a play by Aaron Sorkin, was acclaimed on Broadway and was subsequently made into a successful film in 1992. It tells the story of military lawyers at a court-martial who uncover a high-level conspiracy in the course of defending their clients, United States Marines accused of murder.
The play was originally presented at the Heritage Repertory Theatre of The University of Virginia's Department of Drama.
The original Broadway stage production opened at the Music Box Theatre in New York on November 15, 1989 in a production directed by Don Scardino, designed by Ben Edwards, and with music by John Gromada. It starred Tom Hulce as Lt. Kaffee, Megan Gallagher as Lt. Cmdr. JoAnne Galloway and Stephen Lang as Col. Jessep. (Replacement actors included Timothy Busfield and Bradley Whitford as Kaffee, Perry King, Michael O'Hare, and Ron Perlman as Jessep, and Pamela Blair as Galloway. Joshua Malina also appeared.) It ran for 497 performances.
The national touring company...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104257
Raise the Red Lantern (Simplified Chinese: 大红灯笼高高挂; Traditional Chinese: 大紅燈籠高高掛; pinyin: Dà Hóng Dēnglóng Gāogāo Guà; literally Hang High the Big Red Lantern) is an award-winning 1991 Chinese film, directed by Zhang Yimou and starring Gong Li. It is an adaption by Ni Zhen of the 1990 novel Wives and Concubines by Su Tong. The film was later adapted into an acclaimed ballet of the same title by the National Ballet of China, directed by Zhang Yimou himself.
The film tells the story of a young woman who becomes one of the concubines of a wealthy man during the Warlord Era. It is noted for its opulent visuals and sumptuous use of colors. The film was shot in Qiao's Compound in the ancient city of Pingyao, in Shanxi Province. Although the screenplay was approved by Chinese censors, the final version of the film was banned in China for a period. Some film critics have interpreted the film as a veiled allegory against Chinese communist authoritarianism. The film's popularity has also been...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101640
Until the End of the World (German: Bis ans Ende der Welt) is a 1991 film by the German-born film director Wim Wenders; the screenplay was written by Wenders and Peter Carey, from a story by Wenders and the late Solveig Dommartin. An initial draft of the screenplay was written by American filmmaker Michael Almereyda. Wenders, whose career had been distinguished by his mastery of the road movie, had intended this as the Ultimate Road Movie.The film takes place in late 1999; there is an out of control nuclear satellite in orbit that is apt to reenter the atmosphere at any time, contaminating large areas of the earth. This has caused an increasing degree of disorder, with large numbers fleeing the likely impact sites. Amidst a traffic jam, the impatient and disconnected Claire Tourneur (Solveig Dommartin) escapes the congestion by driving off the highway, is told by her Dashboard Computer System that she has left the Map Zone Database and is on her own, and subsequently has a couple of...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101458
The Prince of Tides is a 1986 novel by Pat Conroy. It tells the story of the narrator's struggle to overcome the psychological damage inflicted by his dysfunctional childhood in South Carolina. In 1991, it was adapted to film by producer/director Barbra Streisand from a screenplay by Conroy and Becky Johnston.
While the film was a box office smash and put Streisand on the map as a director, its numerous changes to the story upset some Conroy purists.
The Prince of Tides tells the story of Tom Wingo, a teacher and football coach who is reluctant to help his twin sister's psychiatrist unlock their dysfunctional family's secrets. When the sister, famous New York poet Savannah Wingo, attempts suicide again, Tom is torn from his safe and dull world and travels to New York to help her. Savannah, however, is in such a disassociated state that she is unable to help her psychiatrist, Susan Lowenstein, understand the extent of her problems. Susan asks Tom to act as his twin's memory and...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102713
The Godfather Part III (1990) is the third and final film in the Godfather trilogy written by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola, and directed by Coppola. It completes the story of Michael Corleone, a Mafia godfather who tries to legitimize his criminal empire. The movie also weaves into its plot a fictionalized account of real-life events — the mysterious 1978 death of Pope John Paul I and the Papal banking scandal of 1981-1982 — and links them with each other and with the affairs of Michael Corleone. The film stars Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Andy Garcia, Eli Wallach, Joe Mantegna, George Hamilton, Bridget Fonda, and Sofia Coppola.
The movie begins in 1979, with a brief flashback establishing the long and tragic history of criminal activity within, and by, the Corleone family. Much has changed. Michael Corleone is now a defeated, depressed old man who feels tremendous guilt for indulging in his ruthless ambition many years ago. The thoughts of his children,...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099674
Driving Miss Daisy is a 1987 play by Alfred Uhry about the relationship an elderly Southern Jewish lady shares with her African-American chauffeur, Hoke Colburn, over the span of several decades.
The original off-Broadway production starred Dana Ivey and Morgan Freeman. Ivey's performance garnered her an Obie Award as Best Actress.
The play was the first in Uhry's "Atlanta Trilogy" dealing with Jewish residents of that city in the early 20th century. Uhry's most successful play, it won him the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was performed in London's West End in 1988, with Dame Wendy Hiller as Miss Daisy Werthan.
In 1989, the play was adapted for a Warner Bros. film with Morgan Freeman reprising his role and Miss Daisy played by Jessica Tandy (who went on to be the oldest winner of the Academy Award for Best Actress for the role). The story defines Daisy and her point of view through a network of relationships and emotions by focusing on her home life, her synagogue, friends, family,...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097239
The War of the Roses is a 1989 American motion picture based upon the 1981 novel The War of the Roses by Warren Adler. It is a dark comedy about a wealthy couple with a seemingly perfect marriage. He is a successful lawyer and his wife is building her own catering business. When their marriage begins to fall apart, material possessions become the center of an outrageous and bitter divorce battle.
In both the novel and the movie, the married couple's family name is Rose. At the same time, the title of the book/film alludes to the battles between the Houses of York and Lancaster at the end of the Middle Ages (see Wars of the Roses). In the German-speaking world, since the release of the movie, the word Rosenkrieg (meaning "Roses war", or less literally, "War of the Roses") has come to denote such a bitter fight for material possessions (and maybe also for custody of the children) as depicted in the film, with most speakers completely unaware of the word's origins.
The film begins with...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098621
Do the Right Thing is a 1989 motion picture produced, written, directed by and starring Spike Lee and released by Universal Pictures. The film tells a tale of bigotry and racial conflict in a multi-ethnic community in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, on the hottest day of the year. It stars Lee, Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Richard Edson, Giancarlo Esposito, Bill Nunn, and John Turturro. Do the Right Thing marks the feature film debuts of both Martin Lawrence and Rosie Perez. It is the second film role ever for Samuel L. Jackson, who plays DJ Mister Señor Love Daddy, an alternative voice of the author to Spike Lee's character.
In 1999, the film was deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. A Criterion Collection DVD of Do the Right Thing has been released: it is no. 97 in the Criterion series. In 2007, the American Film Institute listed the film as the...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097216
Dead Poets Society is an Academy Award winning 1989 film, directed by Peter Weir. Set in 1959, it tells the story of an English teacher at a highly conservative and autocratic boys' school who inspires his students to make changes to their lives of conformity through his teaching of poetry and literature.The story is set at the fictional Welton Academy in Vermont and was filmed at St. Andrew's School in Middletown, Delaware. A novelization by Nancy H. Kleinbaum based on the movie's script has also been published.Seven boys, Neil Perry (Robert Sean Leonard), Todd Anderson (Ethan Hawke), Knox Overstreet (Josh Charles), Charlie "Nuwanda" Dalton (Gale Hansen), Richard Cameron (Dylan Kussman), Steven Meeks (Allelon Ruggiero) and Gerard Pitts (James Waterston) attend the prestigious Welton Academy prep school, which is based on four principles: Tradition, Honor, Discipline and Excellence. According to the boys, the four pillars of "Hellton" are Travesty, Horror, Decadence, and Excrement.On...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097165
Working Girl is an Academy Award nominee for Best Picture and an Academy Award winner for Best Song ("Let the River Run" by Carly Simon), which tells the story of a Staten Island-raised secretary, Tess McGill, working in the mergers and acquisitions department of a Wall Street investment bank. When her boss, Katharine Parker, breaks her leg skiing, Tess poses as Katharine in order to put forward her own bank deal ideas.
The movie was written by Kevin Wade and directed by Mike Nichols. It features a dramatic opening sequence following Manhattan-bound commuters on the Staten Island Ferry accompanied by Carly Simon's song "Let the River Run", for which she received the Academy Award for Best Song. The movie was marketed with the tagline "For anyone who's ever won. For anyone who's ever lost. And for everyone who's still in there trying."
Tess McGill is an intelligent, working-class young woman who has earned a college degree in business in night school and wants to succeed on Wall Street...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096463
Dangerous Liaisons is a 1988 film directed by Stephen Frears. It is based upon a play by Christopher Hampton which in turn is based on the classic eighteenth-century novel Les Liaisons dangereuses, by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos.Dangerous Liaisons was Frears' eighth feature film, and his first working with American studios. With seven Academy Award nominations, it was a very successful Hollywood debut.The film features widely acclaimed performances by Glenn Close, John Malkovich and Michelle Pfeiffer in the roles of the three major characters from Laclos' novel, the Marquise de Merteuil, the Vicomte de Valmont and Madame de Tourvel, respectively; Keanu Reeves, Uma Thurman and Swoosie Kurtz also appear in supporting roles.The movie was shot entirely on location in historical buildings of the French regions of Île-de-France and Picardie such as, among others, the famous Château de Vincennes. It was co-produced by Christopher Hampton, who also wrote the screenplay based on his adaptation...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094947
The film also stars Frances McDormand, Brad Dourif, R. Lee Ermey and Gailard Sartain, and was written by Chris Gerolmo and directed by Alan Parker. It won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, and was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Hackman), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (McDormand), Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Picture and Best Sound.
The film has been criticized by many, including historian Howard Zinn, for its fictionalization of history. While FBI agents are presented as heroes who descend upon the town by the hundreds, in reality the FBI and the Justice Department only reluctantly protected civil rights workers and protesters and reportedly witnessed beatings without intervening.Mississippi Burning was preceded in 1975 by a television docudrama titled Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan, depicting many of the same events. None of the movies used the real names of the murderers, due to legal considerations. Mississippi Burning never...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095647
1988's The Big Blue (French: Le Grand Bleu) is the first English-language film made by French director Luc Besson. The film stars Jean-Marc Barr, Rosanna Arquette, Jean Reno and depicts a fictionalized account of the sporting rivalry between two famed free divers. Amazon.com describes the film as having: "...endured as a minor cult classic for its gorgeous photography (both on land and underwater) and dreamy ambiance."
The film charts the competition and friendship of real-life champions Jacques Mayol (played by former model Barr) and Enzo Maiorca (renamed in the film to "Enzo Molinari", and played by Reno). The action is divided into two timelines - the nascent rivalry between the two divers as children, and (as adults) their final competition at the world free-diving championships at the Sicilian town of Taormina. Mayol's search for love, family, "wholeness" and the meaning of life and death is a strong undercurrent of the latter timeline.
With its extensive underwater scenes and...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095250
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