cryptexcode/MPST huggingface dataset:
The Breaking Point

Plot synopsis:
Harry Morgan (John Garfield), is a sport-fishing boat captain whose business is on the skids and whose family is feeling the economic pinch. He begins to work with a shady lawyer, Duncan (Wallace Ford), who persuades him to run illegal immigrants into California. Harry also begins a flirtation with Leona Charles (Patricia Neal). When his plan with Duncan goes wrong, Harry comes even more under the influence of the lawyer, who blackmails him into helping the escape of a gang of crooks, who pull a racetrack heist, by using his fishing boat to get away from authorities. Harry convinces himself that his illegal activities will financially help his family. His wife, Lucy (Phyllis Thaxter), suspects Harry is breaking the law and urges him to stop for the sake of the family. Harry refuses and walks out.
As Harry waits for Duncan and the crooks on his boat, Harry's partner, Wesley Park (Juano Hernandez), arrives. Not wanting Wesley around when the crooks arrive, Harry tries to send him on an errand. The crooks arrive before Wesley leaves, and kill him. Harry is horrified, but is forced at gunpoint to transport the crooks out to open sea without drawing the attention of the Coast Guard. Harry also learns that Duncan was killed during the escape from the heist. Wesley's body is dumped overboard along with Harry's only firearm. Harry uses a ploy to access a gun and kills all the crooks in a dramatic shoot out.
Harry, however, is critically wounded. Authorities find his boat the next day and tow it to port. Lucy rushes to Harry's side and tries to convince Harry to allow his arm to be amputated to save his life. Harry reaffirms his love for Lucy and is taken to the hospital. In the final scene, Wesley's son, who was briefly introduced earlier in the film, stands alone on the dock looking around for his father.

Tags: murder

Review:
The Pathfinder

Plot synopsis:
At the beginning of the French and Indian War in 1754, the Mingo Indians allied to the French massarcre the Mohican tribe allied to British. Pathfinder and Chingachgook discover the only survivor, a child named Uncas. Angered that the British did not protect their allies the Mohicans, Pathfinder gains entry to the British fort and threatens the Scottish commander Colonel Duncannon until it is discovered that the British were unaware due to a Mohican messenger being killed before he could bring the news.
Colonel Duncannon enlists Pathfinder and Chingachgook to spy for the British by posing as French sympathisers. When Pathfinder says they would not be able to discover the plans of the French as they do not speak their language the Colonel assigns Alison, a fluent French speaker to them. Pathfinder is dismayed that Alison is a woman but she earns her place by killing a Mingo with a pistol and infiltrating French society when they arrive at the French fort. Alison discovers that the French have built a road along a mountain pass bringing supplies to the main French port that has a harbour for ships. Blowing up the mountain road with black powder would deny supplies to the French fort meaning all their smaller outposts would fall to the English due to a scarcity of provisions.
Alison came to the North American colonies to marry an English Captain who disgraced himself through alcoholism. She unexpectedly meets him again as he has turned renegade, married a Mingo princess and has a commission in the French army.

Tags: revenge, historical fiction

Review:
Colorful and nostalgic western. George Montgomery stars in a minor western matinée feature that is a takeoff of "The Last of the Mohicans". Here, the plot angle has the Pathfinder and his Indian sidekick on a mission to divine French plans for an attack on the U.S. colonies in the Great Lakes region. The French have enlisted hostile Mingo Indians to enlist them in ousting the colonists during the French and Indian War. The two heroes path is fraught with danger as they trek through the wilderness with a pretty French interpreter who supplies the romantic interest for the Pathfinder. The technicolor is good and in spite of a thin story line, the film is worth watching for the nostalgia the fine supporting cast offers.. Routine but fun James Fenimore Cooper tale. Bloodless battle scenes are interspersed with fairly well-written dialogue scenes in this inexpensive (but in good 50's color) tale of Indians, French and English conflict. George Montgomery and Jay Silverheels ("Tonto") are dashing, and the first Helena Carter is pretty and plucky. Like a TV dinner served in a tin tray, this film is pure "comfort". I haven't read the book, but I'd bet that the plot is pretty close except for the love story (in Cooper, romantic incidents are usually mental but never become physical). If you know Cooper better than I do (I've only read "Mohicans"), please add a comment.
Crying Freeman

Plot synopsis:
Yō Hinomura, a Japanese potter, comes into the possession of some film showing an assassination by an agent of the 108 Dragons, a powerful Chinese mafia. When he refuses to turn the film over to them, they kidnap him. Hypnotized, he is trained as an assassin for them and his body is tattooed with dragons. He is given the codename "Crying Freeman," because he cries after a kill and longs to be free.
One of his killings is witnessed by Emu Hino, a lonely and beautiful Japanese artist. Knowing he must kill her, she paints his portrait and waits for him to come. When he does so, she tells him that she is tired of being alone and wishes to end her life. She asks for a favor before he kills her - to make love to her, so that she will not die as a virgin. He grants her wish, but finds he cannot kill her and they fall in love. The killing she witnessed was of a yakuza boss, however, so the yakuza want to find her so that they can find the killer. One of the yakuza attempts to enter Emu's home and force her to disclose the name of the killer, critically injuring her. Freeman takes her to the hospital and tells her to meet him at Hinomura Kiln, where he intends to part with her. Instead, she accompanies him back to the 108 Dragons, where he tattoos her with tigers and they marry.
The heads of the 108 Dragons decide to name Freeman as their heir. He is given the Chinese name Lóng Tài-Yáng, and Emu is renamed Hǔ Qīng-Lán, as both pass the tests given to them. It proves not as easy as that, however, as they must contend with challenges to the leadership from Bái-Yá Shàn, the granddaughter of the leaders of the 108 Dragons, and attempts to destroy the Dragons from other underground organizations.

Tags: flashback

Review:
Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd

Plot synopsis:
Oliver "Puddin' Head" Johnson (Lou Costello) and Rocky Stonebridge (Bud Abbott) are on their way to Death's Head Tavern, where they work. They encounter Lady Jane (Fran Warren), who asks them to bring a love note to the tavern singer, Bruce Martingale (Bill Shirley).
At the tavern, the notorious Captain Kidd (Charles Laughton) is dining with Captain Anne Bonney (Hillary Brooke), a female pirate. She accuses Kidd of raiding ships in her territory and is asking for restitution. Kidd informs Bonney that he has hidden the amassed treasure on Skull Island, and that only he has the map to its exact location. He agrees to take her, with her ship in tow, to the island so that she can receive her share. During the discussion, Oliver happens to be waiting on them, and inadvertently switches the map for the love note that he was carrying. Rocky discovers the mistake and goes to Captain Kidd, demanding a share of the treasure and a place on the voyage in exchange for the map. Kidd ostensibly agrees, but intends to kill Oliver and Rocky once he gets the map.
The voyage begins (with the addition of Bruce, who has been shanghaied), and Kidd unsuccessfully attempts to regain the map throughout the entire voyage. Meanwhile, Bonney mistakenly believes that Oliver wrote the love note and has now fallen for him (further complicating the whole situation)! Also during the voyage, Kidd raids another ship, which happens to have Lady Jane on board, and she is kidnapped.
The two ships finally arrive at Skull Island; Oliver and Rocky begin to dig up the treasure, when Kidd arrogantly declares his plans to dispose of them along with Captain Bonney. Bonney alerts the others to Kidd's true intentions, and her crew attacks. The treasure is recovered, and Bonney's crew wins the fight, with Kidd becoming her prisoner.

Tags: action

Review:
Postal 2

Plot synopsis:
In Postal 2, the player takes on the role of the Postal Dude, a tall and thin red-headed man with a goatee, sunglasses, a black leather trench coat, and a T-shirt with a grey alien's face printed on it. Postal Dude lives in a trailer park in the small town of Paradise, Arizona, with his nagging wife, who is identified in the credits as simply, the 'Postal Dude's Bitch'. The game's levels are split into days of the week starting Monday and finishing Friday.
At the beginning of each day, Postal Dude is given several tasks to accomplish, such as 'get milk', 'confess sins', and other seemingly mundane tasks. The object of Postal 2 is to finish all of the tasks throughout the week, and the player can accomplish these tasks in any way he or she wishes, be it as peacefully and civilly as possible, or as violently and chaotically as possible. It is possible, if occasionally difficult, to complete most tasks without engaging in battle, or at least, harming or killing other characters, as evidenced by the game's tagline: "Remember, it's only as violent as you are!". The daily tasks can be accomplished in any order the player desires, and the game also includes one task that is activated only when Postal Dude urinates, in which the player is tasked with getting treatment for gonorrhea after Postal Dude discovers he has the infection.
Throughout the course of the game, Postal Dude must put up with being provoked by other characters on a regular basis. He is given the finger, mugged, attacked by various groups of protesters, and is harassed by an obnoxious convenience store owner/terrorist and his patrons who cut before Postal Dude in the "money line". During the game, Postal Dude also encounters a marching band, a murderous toy mascot named Krotchy, the Paradise Police Department and its SWAT team, overzealous BATFE agents, the Arizona Army National Guard, an eccentric religious cult, cannibalistic butcher shop workers, fanatical Al-Qaeda terrorists, and former child actor Gary Coleman, among many others.
By Friday afternoon, the final day in the game, the apocalypse occurs and societal collapse soon follows, with all law and order breaking down. Cats begin to fall out of a darkly-colored sky, and almost everyone in town becomes heavily armed, with random gun battles breaking out in the streets. Despite this, Postal Dude returns home to his trailer as normal, where he then gets into an argument with his wife, who demands that Postal Dude explain why he never picked up the ice cream she asked for at the beginning of the game. Postal 2 then ends with a gunshot being heard, before being kicked to the end credits.

Tags: dark, murder, violence

Review:
La sconosciuta

Plot synopsis:
Irena (Kseniya Rappoport), a Ukrainian prostitute on the run, is determined to find a job in an elegant apartment building in northern Italy, and starts by cleaning the stairs. She does it in order to inch her way into working for a family residing in that building. She befriends Gina (Piera Degli Esposti), the nanny of the family's child, Thea (Clara Dossena), who also lives with them in their apartment. When the nanny is crippled in a fall—tripped by Irena—but presumed to be accidental, Irena is hired to take her place. Through flashbacks, viewers learn that Irena has been physically and emotionally abused, and forced to bear nine children, all taken away at birth to be sold to adoptive families. After stabbing her pimp and leaving him for dead, she sets out to find her youngest child, whom she believes is Thea; hence the plot to work for them. Adoption documents in the apartment convince her that Thea is indeed her daughter. The mother grows suspicious of Irena and fires her, despite the loving relationship that has grown up between Irena and the child. Irena's pimp stalks her and sends out thugs to beat her up as she walks down the street. He rigs her employer's car, leading to a crash in which Thea's mother is killed. The pimp forces Irena to drive him to a location that may or may not contain the money Irena stole from him when she left him for dead. During a struggle, he falls and is killed as his head hits a rock. Thea's father moves to a new apartment and prepares a room for Irena, but as the police suspect foul play around the death of Thea's mother, Irena is taken into custody. She reveals both that the true culprit is the pimp and that she killed him. She is tried, and sent to jail. Thea stops eating until the judge allows Irena to visit her in the hospital and feed her. DNA testing reveals that Thea is not her daughter after all. After she is out of jail, she finds Thea, a young lady now waiting for her.

Tags: violence, neo noir, murder, flashback

Review:
Camp Blood

Plot synopsis:
A guide and a tourist are birdwatching in the shades of Camp Blackwood and begin to have sex. Suddenly, a man in a clown mask appears and brutally murders them with a machete.
The story then focuses on four campers, who are planning a trip to Camp Blackwood. On the way, they meet the madcap Bromley Thatcher. After a brief exchange that includes a warning from Thatcher - "I'm not talking about a ghost here boy, I'm talking about a man, a REAL man, and he's in those woods!" - the group head into Camp Blackwood, now known to the audience as 'Camp Blood'.
In the woods, they meet their guide, a butch lesbian known as 'Harris'. After spending the day doing menial tasks such as collecting firewood and setting up camp, the group settle down into their respective tents to enjoy a session of late-night love making. The group awake in the morning to find the burnt-out carcass of Harris on the campfire (apparently murdered by the killer clown). The majority of the plot then revolves around the clown chasing the various characters through the woods and brutally murdering all of them but Tricia, who manages to run away from the clown.
In attempting to escape the murderous clown, Tricia runs to her deceased boyfriend's automobile. At this point, she meets Thatcher, who attempts to aid the clown by hindering Tricia's escape. In the ensuing melee, Tricia hacks Thatcher to death with the clown's machete, and enters the car and runs over the clown, who is revealed to be Harris. Just as Tricia is driving away safely, the clown appears in the back seat and strangles Tricia into unconsciousness.
When Tricia regains consciousness, she is in a mental asylum. After giving Tricia an injection, the 'doctors' depart from the room. It is at this point that Tricia hallucinates the clown entering the room.

Tags: violence

Review:
Waxwork II: Lost in Time

Plot synopsis:
The film opens with a reenactment of final scenes of Waxwork, with Mark and Sarah leaving the burning waxwork (the part of Sarah having been recast from the first film). The disembodied zombie hand from the first film follows Sarah to her run-down flat and kills her stepfather with a hammer, a murder for which Sarah is blamed. No one believes her story about the evil waxwork.
In the hope of gathering evidence, Mark and Sarah visit the late Sir Wilfred's home, where they find a filmreel of Sir Wilfred speaking of his and Mark's grandfather's adventures and of the artifacts they collected together. A secret switch in Sir Wilfred's chessboard opens a door to a room full of objects where Mark and Sarah find a small compass-like device. They learn this device was used in history by light and dark angels to travel through another dimension consisting of stories that have become realities (including homages to Frankenstein, The Haunting, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Dr. Jekyll, Alien, Godzilla, Jack the Ripper, Nosferatu, and Dawn of the Dead). According to exposition later given by Sir Wilfred in the form of a raven, these worlds comprise "God's video game," where God and the devil battle over the fate of the world, each victory being reflected in events occurring in the real world. When Mark or Sarah appear in each reality they take on the persona of characters in those stories, sometimes having their personalities and memories taken over by those characters until they regain their senses.
Mark plans to gather evidence of the reanimated dead to bring back to the real world as proof of Sarah's story in court. After several failed attempts and being lost in one world after another, they battle with an evil sorcerer and Mark is able to send Sarah home with an animated zombie hand as proof of her story. Unable to return with her, Mark instead arranges to have another compass delivered to Sarah after her trial ends so she can rejoin him.

Tags: murder, violence, cult, good versus evil, satire, romantic

Review:
Aag

Plot synopsis:
Nasik-based Heerendra Dhaan (Ajay Devgan) and Raj Ranade (Prashant Raj Sachdev) are bodyguards of a politician but, after their employer is implicated in a scam, they end up assaulting a police officer and flee to Mumbai. Once there they meet with Rambhabhai (Rajpal Yadav), who in turn, gets them employed with a gangster named Shambhu. After a short while the duo are apprehended by Police Inspector Narsimha, questioned, and after they agree to cooperate to bring down Shambhu, are let go. The two succeed in assisting the police arrest Shambhu, but they themselves are arrested, tried in Court, and sentenced to a year in jail.
After their discharge they are again met by Inspector Narsimha (Mohanlal), who, this time, wants to recruit them to capture and kill dreaded bandit Babban Singh (Amitabh Bachchan), who had slaughtered his wife, Kavita (Suchitra Krishnamoorthi), and son, Subbu (J.D. Chakravarthy), as well as cut his fingers off. Heerendra and Raj agree to carry out this task for 8 Lakh Rupees. They re-locate to Kaliganj where Heerendra falls in love with auto-rickshaw driver, Ghungroo (Priyanka Kothari), while Raj gives his heart to Subbu's widow, Durga (Sushmita Sen). They then set out to capture Babban and meet with some success during Diwali, but Babban manages to escape. Babban then starts to ambush and kill Kaliganj residents to compel them to surrender the duo to him. The question remains will the residents carry out Babban's wishes or will they permit themselves to be slaughtered?

Tags: flashback

Review:
Maximum Conviction

Plot synopsis:
It should be an easy day's work for former black ops operative Cross (Steven Seagal) and his partner Manning (Stone Cold Steve Austin). They and their group have been hired to oversee and orchestrate the decommissioning of a secret military penal facility, and organize the transport of the inmates to their new civilian prison.
Cross shows who's boss early on by beating up a large inmate who steps out of line, while Manning is given the task of running the prison's garbage facility. The day gets worse when a rolled up note is found that was accidentally dropped by an inmate, detailing times and locations for an attack on the facility.
Cross, on his way back to the prison from running an errand, and Manning, still dealing with that garbage facility, are suddenly involved in a foothold situation as Chris Blake (Michael Pare) and his mercenaries, posing as marshals, take over the complex.
Blake and his men are after the two newest inmates—Samantha Mendez (Steph Song) and Charlotte Walker (Aliyah O'Brien)—for their own purposes—Blake wants the information that's in an implant that's inside of Samantha, who is a CIA courier, because it could lead to a lot of money for Blake, and it turns out that Charlotte is working for Blake. It's up to Cross, Manning, and their team to stop Blake and his men.
MP Fields turns out to be a traitor and kills two of the others. Blake cuts off Warden Samuel's finger to force him to know where the detainees are. Manning is attacked Collins and his team. He manages to kill two and flee the area. Cross returns to the complex and kills two of Blake's men. Blake holds Warden Samuels hostage, forcing him to do anything so Blake can reach Charlotte. Later on Charlotte escapes as she wants to get paid. Eventually both sides meet up. Blake thinks he has Cross and Manning outgunned and then flees the scene, with Cross pursuing him. Manning catches up with Collins and kills him by impaling him on a bench. Samantha kills Charlotte, while the remnants of Blake's mercenaries including MP Fields are killed by Bradley and the others. Cross and Blake exchange gunshots till both run out of ammo. Blake attempts to strike Cross only to be thrashed around and badly injured. Cross talks to him about being a warrior in which Blake replies 'well that's me im the f***ing bad guy'. Cross says he's the good guy then hurls Blake into the laser trip wires, killing him. He reunites with Samantha and Manning. He jokes that 'in ain't over till we're dead'.

Tags: murder, violence, flashback, humor, suspenseful, sadist

Review:
Timesplitters 2

Plot synopsis:
TimeSplitters 2 starts off in the year 2401 in the midst of a war between humanity and the TimeSplitters, an alien race bent on the destruction of mankind. However, rather than use brute force to destroy humanity, they are using the special objects called time crystals to travel through time changing the course of history, bringing Earth to ruin.
Two space marines from Earth, Sergeant Cortez and Corporal Hart, are sent out to a space station overrun by TimeSplitters to retrieve the time crystals. However, when they reach the bridge, they are too late as they see the last few TimeSplitters take the time crystals into various time periods using the time portal. While Sergeant Cortez and Corporal Hart are preparing the time portal to follow the Timesplitters, they are attacked by another squad of Timesplitters. Corporal Hart decides to stay at the bridge to keep the Timesplitters at bay while Cortez goes into different periods of time to retrieve the time crystals.
Upon arrival at each time period, Cortez takes the form of a person from that particular period of time, similar to Quantum Leap. For example, when Cortez arrives in the Wild West, he takes the form of a bounty hunter. When he arrives in a 24th-century robot factory, he takes the form of a robot.
After Cortez retrieves all of the time crystals, he returns to the space station to rendezvous with Hart. The TimeSplitters outside finally manage to break into the bridge. Corporal Hart is killed in the ensuing battle. Cortez has little time to mourn, as the Timesplitters become relentless to retrieve the Time Crystals from him. Cortez manages to set the station to self-destruct and escape before its destruction. This leads into the events of TimeSplitters: Future Perfect.

Tags: dark, fantasy, gothic, murder, violence, psychedelic, alternate history

Review:
Kushi

Plot synopsis:
The film opens when Madhumati or "Madhu" (Bhoomika Chawla) and Siddartha Roy or "Siddhu" (Pawan Kalyan) are born. Madhu's family is based in Konaseema in Andhra Pradesh and Sidhu's family is from Kolkota (he has a Telugu father and Bengali mother). As babies, Madhu and Siddhu meet in a shopping complex.
Madhu and her father love each other dearly. Madhu's father wants her daughter to get married and wanted to keep his son-in-law with them and so that his daughter will not leave him. However, her groom elopes with his girlfriend, apologizing to Madhu that he did not want to ruin another girl's life.
Siddhu receives a visa for higher studies in Canada, his car met with an accident on his way to airport, which results him hospitalized for a period. Incidentally, he receives Madhu's blood. Madhu's convinces her father to go for higher studies and not be bothered with marriage. Sidhu cannot make it to Canada and joins the same college as Madhu. Incidentally, they meet in a temple. They become good friends, while also helping Madhu's friend, Shanti, and Siddu's friend, Babu (Sivaji), who are in love. Shanti's father is a big goon, and Madhu and Siddhu ensure that Shanti and Babu do not reveal their love to Shanti's father and get into any trouble. One day while Madhu is studying for exams, Siddhu happens to come. Madhu's sari moves in the breeze, revealing her navel. Siddhu ogles it. Madhu accuses Siddhu of ogling, and Siddhu denies it. An argument breaks out leading to them accusing each other of hiding their feelings for the other. They end their friendship.
After the summer holidays, Shanti's dad finds out about Babu. Madhu and Siddhu meet again for the sake of their friend's love. In the course of getting Babu and Shanti together, they realize they love each other. The movie ends happily, with the duo married and happily squabbling.

Tags: romantic

Review:
Joi Baba Felunath

Plot synopsis:
Feluda, his cousin Topshe and the thriller writer Jatayu visit Benaras during the pujas. There they meet a Bengali family. Upon hearing that Feluda is a private investigator, the Ghosal family head entrusts him with the task of finding out the thief of the attempted theft that took place in their house. Meanwhile, the arrival of a saint by the name of 'Machhli Baba' in Benaras quivers the excitement of the local people.
A very valuable property of the Ghosals, a golden Ganesh statue, about an inch height, was the target of the thief. On the other hand, Maganlal Meghraj, a wealthy Marwari businessman, had his eyes on the Ganesh for a very long time. He comes to know about the involvement of Feluda in this case. He invites Feluda, Topshe and Jatayu to his house and offers Feluda Rs.2000 so that he leaves this case. Feluda refuses, which angers Maganlal, and he sets up a knife throwing show, using Jatayu as the bait (much to the viewer's amusement). After the thrilling adventures in Maganlal's house, Feluda takes a vow - either he will avenge Jatayu's harassment, or quit being a sleuth.
Although warned by Maganlal, Feluda did not lose interest in the case, and deduces that Machhli Baba is actually a fraud working for Maganlal. A member of the Ghosal family, Bikash, was also bribed by Maganlal to steal the Ganesh and hand it over to him. Feluda gets hold of Bikash and makes him confess his involvement in the theft. But Bikash states that when he went to steal the Ganesh, it was not there. Several questions arise in Feluda's mind. Where is the Ganesh, then? Why the innocent idol-maker of the Ghosals Shashi Babu was murdered brutally? What plan did the Ghosal family head hatch upon with his grandson to save the Ganesh?
The story has two sub plots. On the one hand, it is the story of the acquisitive instinct of a greedy Marwari businessman, who would spare no expenses or ways to get what he desires, even if it is at the cost of murdering some innocents and bribing the willing. On the other, it is also the tale of cautionary foresight exercised by the family head. The sights and sounds and the brilliant cinematography and photographic imagery takes the nostalgic viewer to a lost world of the innocence, the beauty and the freshness of a north Indian town, that is at once, far from the madding corruptibility of big cities. Subaltern texts like the caste and the communal divide do make their presence felt, but they exist as subplots, that further enrich the viewer's understanding.

Tags: murder

Review:
Don's Party

Plot synopsis:
Don Henderson is a schoolteacher living with his wife Kath and baby son in suburban Melbourne. On the night of the 1969 federal election Don invites a small group of friends to celebrate a predicted Australian Labor Party (ALP) election victory, much to the dismay of his wife. To the party come Mal, Don’s university mentor, and his bitter wife Jenny, sex-obsessed Cooley and his latest girlfriend, nineteen-year-old Susan, Evan, a dentist, and his beautiful artist wife Kerry. Somehow, two Liberal supporters, Simon and Jody also come.
As the party wears on it becomes clear that Labor, who are supported by Don and most of the guests, are not winning. As a result, the drinking goes up a few notches, and the sniping between Don and his male friends about their failed aspirations gets uglier, as does their behaviour toward the women. Mack, a design engineer whose wife has just left him, pulls out a nude photo of her for his friends' approval. Crass womaniser Cooley pursues the available women. The disillusioned wives exchange tales of their husbands' subpar sexual performance. By the end of the night, Don and some of his friends have begun to grasp the emptiness of their compromised lives.

Tags: comedy

Review:
The Blood of Heroes

Plot synopsis:
Produced by Charles Roven and released by Kings Road Entertainment, the film is set in a post-apocalyptic future, where the wars waged in the 20th century have left the world barren and the past forgotten. Most live from hand to mouth in enclaves known as "market-towns" or "dog-towns", scrounging out a bare subsistence harvesting hardy crops, raising dogs as food, and trading in trinkets from the past.
What little entertainment exists comes primarily from a brutal sport known as The Game. It is played by bands of roving teams known as juggs, who challenge local teams. They might be considered professional athletes, as they make their living through the tribute paid by the town people, should they defeat the local team. Their trophy is the dog skull from the town. The Game involves two armoured teams of five attempting to score by placing a dog skull on the opposing team's goalpost. One unarmed player—the "quick"—runs with the skull while being protected by his/her teammates from attack by the opposing team.
However, not all in this time live so sparsely. The Nine Cities, buried deep underground, are home to affluent and powerful members of the aristocracy. Each of The Nine Cities fields its own team of juggs in an organization known as The League, and its membership is maintained with a fresh stream of new players who are proven veterans of the travelling "dog-town" games by their collection of trophy skulls.
Members of The League live in luxury almost equal to that of aristocrats. It is a dream among roving juggs to be good enough to get The League's attention and, with it, all of the luxuries afforded a League player.
The team consists of Sallow (Rutger Hauer), Dog-Boy (Justin Monjo), Mbulu (Delroy Lindo), Big Cimber (Anna Katarina), and Young Gar (Vincent D'Onofrio).
Sallow, the team leader, has played in the League of the Nine Cities before, but was cast out because of his indiscretions with an Overlord's concubine. Kidda (Joan Chen), an ambitious peasant girl, joins the team after a game in her dog town where she virtually destroyed her competition. She and Gar inspire Sallow to challenge The League and expunge his past.
But Kidda and Gar do not realise that the City games are for much more than honour and victory, they will need to fight for their very survival. The Game is played much harder and meaner in the Nine Cities.

Tags: revenge, violence

Review:
The Secretary

Plot synopsis:
Jerry is taking his mother's fur coat and his jacket to dry cleaning. George is going to hire a secretary; he says he'll pass over attractive women so he can concentrate on his work. He hires Ada, (Vicki Lewis) a very efficient secretary.
Kramer is in need of moisturizer with ultraviolet light absorber. Elaine bought a dress on sale at Barney's because it looked great in their mirrors, but now it looks awful. She thinks they are using "skinny mirrors" which make people look thinner. She wants to return the dress.
Jerry, Elaine and Kramer go to the movies. Kramer meets Uma Thurman and writes her phone number on Jerry's dry cleaning ticket. Jerry thinks he saw Willie, the dry cleaner, wearing his jacket at the movies. George and his secretary, Ada, feel attracted to each other and have sex at work. During sex, George accidentally screams: "I'm giving you a raise!" When George talks to Jerry about this problem, Jerry suggests George have sex with her again and 'take it back.'
At Barney's, Elaine and Kramer return the dress. Kramer has bought the moisturizer he wanted, and Elaine tries on another dress. At the store Kenny Bania (Steve Hytner) is looking for a new suit ("The Soup"), and he purchases Kramer's garments for $300. George goes to talk to George Steinbrenner to give Ada the raise he promised. Jerry confronts the dry cleaner about wearing his clothes. Jerry demands his mother's fur coat and the dry cleaner pauses looking to the side implying that it is not there. The dry cleaner asks for the ticket but Kramer has it so Jerry cannot pick up the coat.
Kramer is left in underwear in the women's dressing room. He tells Elaine to ask Jerry for clothes. Elaine goes outside the store looking for an unbiased mirror. Jerry asks Kramer for the ticket; however, it was left in Kramer's trousers which are now in Bania's possession. Kenny Bania wants his money back because the suit he bought from Kramer is stained by the moisturizer. Jerry only cares about the ticket, so he agrees to pay Bania two meals in exchange. However, both the dry cleaning number and Uma Thurman's phone are washed out. Then, Jerry spots Donna, the dry cleaner's wife, wearing his mother's fur coat.
As it turned out Steinbrenner gave Ada a $25,000 raise, which makes Ada's earnings greater than George's. Elaine is forced to buy the dress because she wore it outside the store. Kramer wears Jerry's mother's fur coat.
Again having dinner at Mendy's with Jerry, Bania orders a soup. Bania wrote the telephone number from the ticket before it was washed out; he got a date with this "Uma", and he hopes she is good looking.

Tags: revenge

Review:
I Think I Love My Wife

Plot synopsis:
Richard Cooper (Chris Rock) is a happily married and professionally successful man. He is perfectly content with his home life in suburban New York with his lovely wife Brenda (Gina Torres), a teacher, and his two young children. There is one problem in his marriage: their sex life has stagnated, leaving Richard frustrated and sex-starved. At one point, Brenda accuses Richard of being on the down-low. During those dull days at the office, he occasionally fantasizes about other women, but never acts upon his impulses.
An encounter with an attractive old friend, Nikki (Kerry Washington), suddenly casts doubt over his typically resilient self-control. At first she claims to just want to be his friend, but she begins to show up consistently at his Manhattan financial office just to talk or have lunch, which causes his boss, secretaries, and peers to view him with varying degrees of contempt. When Nikki begins to deliberately seduce Richard, he does not know what to do. Against his better judgment, he flies with her out of town for one day on an errand, where he is beaten by her boyfriend. Then he returns too late to make a sales presentation at an important business meeting, causing the loss of a lucrative contract. Later, when she and her fiancé are about to move to Los Angeles, Nikki asks Richard to come to her apartment later to say a "proper goodbye". When he gets to Nikki's apartment, he finds her in her underwear in her bathroom. In the moments before it seems Richard will consummate his attraction to Nikki, he realizes how grave the loss of his wife and children would be, so he walks out on Nikki. Richard returns home, surprising his wife, and, for the first time in the film, they begin to rebuild a genuine rapport, with a possible promise of good things to come.

Tags: pornographic, flashback

Review:
Anne of the Indies

Plot synopsis:
After seizing a British ship, the barefoot, female pirate captain Anne Providence (Jean Peters) spares Pierre LaRochelle (Louis Jourdan), a Frenchman captured by the British, from walking the plank. He agrees to join Providence's crew and soon she begins to fall for the handsome officer.
They travel to an island where they meet with her pirate mentor Captain Blackbeard (played by Thomas Gomez), who takes an instant dislike to LaRochelle although he, at first, holds back as he can see Anne has affection for him. Blackbeard eventually realises he has seen LaRochelle before in the French navy when a pirate was hanged. When he reveals this, LaRochelle claims he has left the French navy. Anne believes him, but when Blackbeard attacks him, she defends him and sends Blackbeard and his men away, making an enemy of Blackbeard. It eventually transpires that LaRochelle is working for the British as they have captured his ship, and he has a wife. He betrays Anne to the British who attack her ship. Anne escapes and takes his wife hostage. The British do not return LaRochelle's ship to him, as they did not capture Anne, so LaRochelle gets a ship of his own to go after Anne. In a battle, LaRochelle's ship is destroyed and he is captured. Anne then maroons LaRochelle and his wife on a remote island to die. She sails away, but a few days later her conscience compels her to return with provisions and a small boat. As she does so she is attacked by Blackbeard; instead of fleeing, to stop Blackbeard from finding LaRochelle she stays and fights, even though her ship is no match. Her ship is destroyed, and she is killed.

Tags: violence, action

Review:
Painted Desert

Plot synopsis:
Two cowboy friends, Jeff (J. Farrell MacDonald) and Cash (William Farnum), are traveling through the desert in the southwest U.S., when they come upon a baby who has been abandoned in the back of a covered wagon. They can't leave the defenseless child, so decide to take the baby with them, however, they argue over which of them would be better suited to raising the child. When Cash ends up prevailing in the debate, this creates a lifelong rift between the two friends.
Years later the baby has now grown into a young man, Bill Holbrook (William Boyd), who works with his adoptive father on their cattle ranch. Cash's erstwhile friend, Jeff, has remained in the area where the infant was found and has established his own ranch, centered on the water hole where the entire feud originally began, a feud which is still in full force. Jeff lives with his grown daughter, Mary Ellen (Helen Twelvetrees). The feud escalates when Cash wants to use the water hole on Jeff's property to water his cattle. Jeff is ready to confront Cash in a stand-off, preventing him from watering his cattle on the property Jeff has claimed, assisted by an itinerant cowboy, Rance Brett (Clark Gable), who has been smitten with Mary Ellen's beauty. The confrontation is temporarily avoided when Cash's herd unexpectedly stampedes.
When Bill discovers tungsten on Jeff's property, he attempts to use it to close the division between his father and Jeff, however this only results in his father kicking him out. He turns to Jeff, and begins a mining operation, which actually has the opposite effect of Bill's original intention, only exacerbating the tension between Jeff and Cash. Bill and Jeff's partnership also causes tension with Rance, since Mary Ellen now shows an interest in Bill. After a shipment of tungsten which was on its way to pay the loan they had taken out to develop the mine is waylaid, Bill works furiously with the miners to replace it with another load. He is successful. However, as he is celebrating the success of the mine, as well as his impending nuptials with Mary Ellen, the mine is sabotaged by a series of explosions.
Everyone believes the mine sabotage is the work of Cash, but it turns out to have been an act of jealousy on the part of Rance, who confesses, leaving the two old friends to reconcile, and their two children to marry.

Tags: murder

Review:
Crackerjack!

Plot synopsis:
Jack Simpson is a wise-cracking, directionless layabout who works at an inner-city telemarketing firm. For years, he has been a member at the Cityside Lawn Bowls Club (in fact he has three memberships). But he has never played a single game, having only joined to get the free parking spaces from which he makes extra cash by renting them to his work-mates. But Cityside is in dire financial trouble and a greedy developer, Bernie Fowler, wants to turn it into a soul-less pokies venue. The Club President, Len, decides that all existing members must now play and Jack reluctantly has to turn up on Saturdays to take part in the bowling matches. Jack proves to be a natural player but he soon annoys and upsets the older club members with his brashness and lack of tact. Veteran player Stan, sensing that Jack only needs some guidance, both in the game and in life, takes him under his wing, trying to teach him to think of other people apart from himself.
After losing his job and his girlfriend, the Bowls Club suddenly becomes all Jack has in his life and, despite himself, he grows fond of the older members. His flatmate Dave joins the club and he starts a relationship with Nancy, a journalist. Bernie, determined to take over the club, investigates Jack and exposes his illegal car-park hiring scam, which almost gets him expelled. Cityside enters a major tournament at Bernie's glitzy club, the prize money from which will save their independence. Jack's selfish show-boating almost costs them the first round but Stan and the others make Jack finally realize he is part of a team.
Police arrive to arrest Len as (in a tip-off from Bernie), they discovered marijuana stored at the club. The greenkeeper has been secretly growing it but Jack is blamed by the other members. Dave and two of the ladies Gwen and Eileen approach the State Governor and convince her to over-turn a lifetime ban on Cliff Carew, the club's best player, and the latter takes Len's place. Cityside fights their way into the lead and Stan throws the winning shot but he suffers a severe heart-attack as he does so and Bernie lodges a protest, meaning the shot is dis-allowed. Jack insists that the rules allows the team a re-shot and he takes his special shot- the 'Flipper'- which wins the tournament. To rub salt into the wounds, Nancy proves that, whilst spying on the club, Bernie paid Jack for one of his car-park spaces, an illegal act for which Bernie must be dismissed.
Cityside is saved and can continue in its old form. Stan passes away and the club names the green in his honour. The pot-growing greenkeeper is sacked and Jack takes over his job and he and Nancy begin a new life with their friends at the club. The film's end-credits feature a postscript with still images and a narration by Jack describing the later exploits of all the characters.

Tags: non fiction

Review:
The Pit and the Pendulum

Plot synopsis:
The unnamed narrator is brought to trial before sinister judges of the Spanish Inquisition. Poe provides no explanation of why he is there or of the charges on which he is being tried. Before him are seven tall white candles on a table, and, as they burn down, his hopes of survival also diminish. He is condemned to death, whereupon he faints and later awakens to find himself in a totally dark room. At first the prisoner thinks that he is locked in a tomb, but then he discovers that he is in a cell. He decides to explore the cell by placing a scrap of his robe against the wall so that he can count the paces around the room, but he faints before he can measure the whole perimeter.
When he reawakens, he discovers food and water nearby. He tries to measure the cell again, and finds that the perimeter measures one hundred steps. While crossing the room, he trips on the hem of his robe and falls, his chin landing at the edge of a deep pit. He realizes that had he not tripped, he would have fallen into this pit.
After losing consciousness again, the narrator discovers that the prison is slightly illuminated and that he is strapped to a wooden frame on his back, facing the ceiling. Above him is a picture of Father Time, with a razor-sharp pendulum measuring "one foot from horn to horn" suspended from it. The pendulum is swinging back and forth and slowly descending, designed to kill the narrator eventually. However, he is able to attract rats to him by smearing his bonds with the meat left for him to eat. The rats chew through the straps, and he slips free just before the pendulum can begin to slice into his chest.
The pendulum is withdrawn into the ceiling, and the walls become red-hot and start to move inwards, forcing him slowly toward the center of the room and the pit. As he loses his last foothold and begins to topple in, he hears a roar of voices and trumpets, the walls retract, and an arm pulls him to safety. The French Army has captured the city of Toledo and the Inquisition has fallen into its enemies' hands.

Tags: romantic, murder

Review:
One Nation Under God

Plot synopsis:
Austin, Lawson, Michael, and Will are four college-aged Christians who have grown up in the bubble of Christianity. They realize that their faith is more religion and less relationship. Because they have been in the rut of mindless faith, they decide to expand their views on God, the world, and eternity by traveling by car around the United States and Canada for the summer.
They depart from Texas and head west until they reach California, after stopping at The Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. They then head up to Portland and Seattle before turning east. On their journey through northern America, they pass through Glacier National Park, Yellowstone, Chicago, and Toronto. The last leg of the journey includes Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Atlanta, and New Orleans.
Along the way, they meet all kinds of people including beach bums, hippies, suburbanites, a clown, and a congresswoman, who each give them a unique perspective of eternal things. The trip is narrated with commentary by the four guys in a studio, and the footage cuts back and forth from studio to trip throughout the movie. As they come to the end of their journey, they conclude by stating that the most important thing they learned from the experience is to "never stop asking questions."

Tags: queer

Review:
Fool Coverage

Plot synopsis:
Porky answers the door to find Daffy, a pushy insurance salesman, who tries to convince Porky to purchase an insurance policy promising $1 million for a simple black eye. Although Porky is briefly tempted, he shows Daffy to the door. Daffy, unwilling to give up, returns and follows Porky around the house, warning him of the dangers of everyday domestic life. When Porky lights a match to retrieve a screwdriver from the oven, Daffy reminds Porky of the risk of explosion, urging him to use a flashlight instead. When Daffy demonstrates, the oven explodes in his face, prompting him to comment: "Must've been a short in my battery!".
Daffy then stuffs Porky's closet with a range of improbably objects. Daffy asks for each item in turn, only to be told by Porky that he owns no such thing. Finally, Daffy asks for a yo-yo; Porky tells Daffy to look in the closet. Forgetting the trap he has set, Daffy runs to the closet and opens the door, whereupon everything clatters down onto him. Another has him sawing a hole in the floor and covering it with a rug, only to fall down it himself, and replacing a candle with a stick of dynamite (though why such a thing would be in Porky's home is unknown) which results in the explosion sending him flying through the roof.
Ultimately, Porky is convinced that his home is indeed full of hazards, and he agrees to take out the insurance policy. Daffy soon reveals the fine print, according to which the $1 million will be paid only for a black eye incurred in the course of a stampede of wild elephants in his house between 3:55 and 4:00 pm on the Fourth of July during a hailstorm. Porky is momentarily chastened, but then a stampede of wild elephants comes through the living room. Daffy nervously looks at his watch, which reads 3:57 pm, and at the calendar, which reads July 4. Outside, hail is pouring down. Porky displays his black eye and demands to be paid, but Daffy refuses with the lie that the provision was in fact for a stampede of wild elephants and one baby zebra, whereupon a baby zebra follows the elephants through the room. Daffy proclaims "And one baby zebra!" and faints.

Tags: psychedelic

Review: