cryptexcode/MPST huggingface dataset:
An American Carol

Plot synopsis:
Left-wing activist and filmmaker Michael Malone (Kevin Farley), a parody of Michael Moore, campaigns to end the celebration of the Fourth of July holiday. Malone holds pronounced anti-American views and truculently argues that America's past and present are both offensive, and therefore should not be celebrated.
On the evening of July 3, Malone watches a speech from President John F. Kennedy and mistakenly interprets the speech to mean avoiding war at any cost. President Kennedy rises out of the television set, corrects Malone regarding the intent of the speech, and informs him that he will be visited by three spirits.
The following morning, Malone is visited by General George S. Patton (Kelsey Grammer), who shows him an alternate United States where slavery still exists because Abraham Lincoln (founder of the Republican Party) chose not to fight the Civil War. Malone later sees George Washington (Jon Voight) who gives a passionate speech about God's gift of freedom and the price many people pay for others to have it. Malone is visited by the angel of death (Trace Adkins), who takes him to a future Los Angeles completely taken over by radical Islamists. He is then taken to the ruins of his hometown in Michigan, which has been destroyed by a nuclear bomb planted by Al Qaeda. In a mortuary, Malone learns that he will be killed in this attack, leaving nothing behind but his trademark hat and "big ass." Facing his death, Malone pleads for his life with the Angel, promising to change. However, all is not well after Malone's revelation, for Aziz, a Middle Easterner he had interviewed, is actually a terrorist who will bomb a 4 July rally along with his underlings Ahmed and Fayed. However, when Fayed and Ahmed learn they are going to be detonated along with the planned bomb, they figure their slim chance of survival is by seeking out Malone.
Later, Malone arrives at an anti-Fourth of July protest rally and publicly renounces his former views. This triggers an outraged mob from which he is rescued, however, by American servicemen. Meeting up with Malone, Ahmed and Fayed defuse their own bomb, thus sparing the people at the anti-Independence Day rally and resulting in the capture of the terrorist Aziz. Safe inside a country music concert, the three are formally welcomed to "the real America" by Trace Adkins (this time as himself). A reformed Malone then goes to a Navy base to see his nephew Josh off to the Persian Gulf. He tells Josh how very proud he is of him and promises to look in on his wife and family during his deployment. In the final scene, Malone now decides to make films he feels people would appreciate, as well as Fayed and Ahmed as part of the crew, who have been pardoned for foiling the bombing. Malone is last seen working on a biographical film about President Kennedy.

Tags: absurd, satire, storytelling

Review:
YellowBrickRoad

Plot synopsis:
In 1940 the entire town of Friar, 572 people, abandoned their town and walked into the wilderness with only the clothes on their backs after a viewing of The Wizard of Oz, a film that the entire town was obsessed with. No one has ever been able to explain why they did this. Only 300 of the townspeople's bodies were recovered: some had frozen to death in the elements, while others were killed in horrific and bloody ways. The remaining 272 citizens were never found, and the government designated the trail that the townspeople took as classified. Despite this, the town was eventually repopulated, although the townspeople are cautious of the town's history.
In the present day, the trail's coordinates have been declassified, and a film crew has arrived to travel the trail to learn about the disappearances and deaths, as well as what lies at the end of the trail. Crew leader Teddy found the trail's coordinates via Friar's cinema. The crew befriends Liv, a townsperson who works at the local cinema, and she agrees to accompany them on their trip.
The journey goes well initially, but soon the crew is terrorized by loud and jarring music that appears to come out of nowhere. Then crew member Daryl brutally murders his sister Erin and flees in the only vehicle, which also contains their food supply.
Desperate, the crew begins to argue and turn on one another. Several of the group's members kill themselves, either out of despair caused by abandonment or because they have been driven mad by the music and associated events. Daryl returns and murders Teddy's wife Melissa, before being killed himself by Liv. A weary and visibly shaken Teddy crawls to the final portion of the trail, where the music finally stops. He finds himself at what appears to be the cinema from the beginning of the film. There, he meets a sinister Usher, who forces him to sit in a theater empty except for a brief glimpse of smiling theatergoers implied to be the spirits of the dead townspeople. On the screen is footage of his wife, who has been transported by the Usher into a hellish landscape. Horrified, Teddy begins to scream but is cut off.

Tags: insanity, murder

Review:
Duel in the Jungle

Plot synopsis:
American insurance investigator Scott Walters is sent to London to interview businessman Perry Henderson about his US$2 million insurance policy leaving his elderly mother as sole beneficiary. Walters meets and is taken with Perry's personal secretary Marian Taylor but wishes to speak to Perry. His brother Arthur Henderson explains that Perry is deep sea diving of the coast of Portuguese East Africa but doesn't tell Walters he is after deposits of diamonds on the sea bed. Alarmed by the danger, Walters tells Arthur to make Perry stop all dangerous activities or he will forfeit his policy.
Walters attempts to romance Marian, but when he is rebuffed he returns to America. Boarding the plane, he sees a newspaper headline that Perry was swept overboard off the SS Nigeria during a storm when the ship was off Lourenço Marques. Walters leaves the plane to inform Marian but her landlady is cleaning her recently vacated flat saying that Marian flew off to South Africa. His suspicions aroused, Walter flies to South Africa where he attempts to book passage on the SS Nigeria, a coastal tramp steamer. Walter finds the ship has departed, but he flies to Beira to board her there where he books accommodation sharing a compartment with Pitt, an English salesman.
During a storm Pitt and Walters are the only passengers well enough to leave their cabin to dine with the ship's captain. Keeping his occupation a secret, Walters attempts to question the Captain about Perry's death that infuriates the Captain. Walters suspicions are further aroused when he discovers that the only witnesses to Perry's death were employees of his firm, which also owned the SS Nigeria. The next day Perry finds a secret compartment aboard ship and finds a cigarette butt on the compartment's floor bearing the markings of Perry's bespoke cigarettes. Walter also discovers Marian is a passenger aboard. Marian informs the captain that she does not want Walters to bother her.
During a storm the next night Pitt borrows Walter's trench coat to go outside. One of the crew coshes Pitt and attempts to throw him overboard but his efforts are stopped when Marian screams. Walters deduces the crewman mistook Pitt for himself and wanted him dead. When Marian goes ashore the crew attempt to keep Walters on board but he literally jumps ship and tracks Marian to Northern Rhodesia. A safari is taking her into the jungle where she supposedly is going to meet Perry's mother. With the help of a police superintendent, Walters meets Perry's mother in the town and has no idea she is to meet Marian. Walters pursues Marian to discover the truth about Perry where he faces a variety of assassination attempts involving lions and the waters of Victoria Falls.

Tags: murder

Review:
August Underground

Plot synopsis:
Presented as a severely degraded home movie, the film opens with a man named Peter inviting his camera-wielding friend into his basement, where he is holding a woman named Laura captive. Having already killed her boyfriend (whose castrated body has been left in a bathtub to rot), Peter is keeping Laura alive so he and his accomplice can torture her at their leisure, committing sadistic acts such as slicing one of her nipples off, and covering her in feces and urine.
Next, the two are shown picking up a female hitchhiker, whom Peter coerces into performing oral sex on him. After climaxing, Peter beats the hitchhiker, and leaves her for dead on the side of the road. After returning to Laura, to whom they force-feed one of her now dismembered boyfriend's toes, the duo attend a concert (which they are kicked out of for rowdy behavior) and visit a farm, returning to the house afterward to find Laura has died.
After some mundane outings, such as touring a slaughterhouse and visiting a cemetery, Peter murders an old woman in her home, which he and the cameraman ransack. Later, the two harass and stab a convenience store clerk, and torment a pair of shoppers. The two try to take the wounded clerk or one of the bystanders with them, but abandon those plans when they hear police sirens approaching. The two then proceed to tour Roadside America, and visit a tattoo parlor. When the tattoo artist finishes giving Peter a tattoo, he and his twin brother are captured by Peter and the cameraman. The tattoo artist has a leg cut off with a meat cleaver, and is finished off by being bludgeoned with a hammer, his brother sharing his fate moments later.
The two are next shown at home doing drugs with a pair of prostitutes, with the cameraman going upstairs to have sex with one. When finished, the cameraman finds Peter in the basement, sodomizing the other prostitute while beating her with a hammer. Upon discovering the fate of her companion, the remaining prostitute tries to escape. In the chaotic chase that ensues, the camera is dropped and cuts off. There's dead silence as the credits roll.

Tags: murder

Review:
Jericho

Plot synopsis:
A World War I American troopship is torpedoed, and many soldiers are trapped below the deck. Jericho Jackson (Robeson), a medical student drafted into the war, heroically saves the trapped men, in defiance of his superior’s orders to abandon ship, but accidentally kills the officer in the melee. Despite his heroism, Jericho is court-martialed for refusing orders. Embittered, he escapes. Captain Mack is held responsible for his escape and court-martialed.
Jericho ends up in North Africa, where he meets the Tuareg people. When he uses his medical skills to heal the sick, the Tuareg welcome Jericho into their tribe, and he marries and raises a family. He eventually becomes the Tuaregs' leader. He leads his people to victory over rivals and brings peace and unity to the region through which the Tuareg trek annually to trade for salt. When an anthropology film crew’s coverage of the salt trek is shown in London, Captain Mack spots Jericho and vows to track him down. However, when the captain sees how much good Jericho has done for his adopted people, he relents and flies away alone.

Tags: suspenseful

Review:
Spotswood

Plot synopsis:
In late 1960s Melbourne, Errol Wallace (Anthony Hopkins) is a financial business consultant who we meet in the course of his being hired by the board of Durmack, an automotive component manufacturer, where he assesses a large work force redundancy and recommends major layoffs.
Balls, a moccasin factory located in the Melbourne suburb of Spotswood, is his next client. Mr. Ball (Alwyn Kurts), the owner of the company, is affable and treats his employees benevolently. Wallace on a factory tour finds the conditions wanting with shabbiness, old machinery and the workers lackadaisical.
A young worker at Balls, Carey (Ben Mendelsohn), who is finding his place in the world and life, is asked by Wallace to assist in his review, compiling worker condition and performance information. Carey is reluctant until he learns that Mr. Ball’s daughter Cheryl (Rebecca Rigg), whom he fancies, is part of the review staff.
Wallace learns that there is an instigator in the midst, his colleague Jerry (John Walton), who leaks the Durmack report, inflating the quantity of sackings as a means to demoralize the union.
Kim (Russell Crowe), a salesman at Balls who also has his sights set on the boss's daughter, shows his ruthlessness and ulterior motives when he comes to Wallace's home one night with a complete set of the company financial records that detail non-existent profit for years and reveal that Ball has been selling off company assets to keep the outfit afloat.
Wallace realizes that whatever productivity improvements have been implemented are not enough to save the company even with an elimination of workers and yet that is his recommendation. Mr. Ball responds, "It’s not just about dollars and cents. It’s about dignity, treating people with respect.”
Wallace's mind set starts to change when his car is vandalized and some Ball workers come to his aid, workers who then start to include him in their off-hours activities. Mr. Ball announces the work force redundancies and Wallace is clearly uncomfortable seeing them, knowing that it was his recommendation that sealed their fate.
The union at Durmack capitulates and management celebrates with a party at which Wallace becomes disenchanted by rash sackings and realises that product diversity can potentially make the company profitable since the skills set is in the workers.
Carey realises he has feelings for his work mate and friend Wendy (Toni Collette) and together they climb up onto the roof of the factory and hold hands as they look out over Spotswood.

Tags: storytelling

Review:
Take the Money and Run

Plot synopsis:
Virgil Starkwell's (Woody Allen) story is told in documentary style, using both stock footage and interviews with people who knew him. He begins a life of crime at a young age. As a child, Virgil is a frequent target of bullies, who snatch his glasses and stomp on them on the floor. As an adult, Virgil is inept and unlucky, and both police and judges ridicule him by stomping on Virgil's glasses.
Virgil falls in love with a young lady, Louise (Janet Margolin), a laundry worker, and they live together. They even have a baby.
Virgil is arrested for trying to rob a bank after handing to a teller a threatening note with the word "gun" misspelled. He is sent to prison, but attempts an escape using a bar of soap carved to resemble a gun. Unfortunately for him, it was raining outside and his gun dissolves. He does escape, but by accident. Joining a mass breakout plan, Virgil is the only inmate not warned that the scheme had been called off.
Outside but unemployed, Virgil finds no way to support himself and his family. Eventually he is rearrested and sent to a chain gang, where he is undernourished (the single meal of the day is a bowl of steam) and brutally punished (consigned to a steam box with an insurance salesman).
Virgil again escapes but is eventually captured when attempting to rob a former friend who reveals he is now a cop. He is sentenced to 800 years, but remains upbeat knowing that "with good behavior, I can get that cut in half". In the last scene, he is shown carving a bar of soap and asking the interviewer if it is raining outside.

Tags: comedy, satire, entertaining

Review:
Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects

Plot synopsis:
Hiroshi Hada, a Japanese businessman in a troubled marriage, sees a woman being groped in a crowded Tokyo subway. He is fascinated by the fact that she moans silently, involuntarily orgasms, but does not cry out or let people know she is being sexually molested. When Hada is transferred to Los Angeles, he has too much to drink at a business party and tries to imitate what he saw by groping a Caucasian school girl while riding a crowded bus. But unlike the Japanese woman that Hada saw in Japan, the American girl screams. Hada runs away, but is robbed and beaten by a mugger. Meanwhile, several innocent Asian men are beaten by bystanders who suspect that one of them is the man who groped the girl.
The girl happens to be Rita Crowe, the daughter of an LAPD vice-squad detective, Lt. Crowe (Bronson), an officer with a strong sense of justice who is very protective of her. Shortly afterward, Fumiko, Hiroshi Hada's daughter, is kidnapped into a child prostitution ring led by the infamous 'Pimp-King' Duke. Crowe, who has developed a general dislike to the Japanese due to his daughter's incident, is assigned against his will to find the girl. His feelings about Japanese people start to change when he realizes that the Hadas care about their daughter as intensely as he cares for his daughter.
Crowe and his partner, Eddie Rios, eventually find Fumiko and rescue her from the pimp and his gang. They kill one member of the gang, but the others escape. The Hadas visit Crowe's house with gifts to show their appreciation for his work. Rita recognizes Hiroshi as the man who groped her on the bus - and he recognizes her - but says nothing. However, despite this apparently happy ending, Fumiko has been so traumatized by her experiences as a prostitute - she was raped by Duke and his gang members and then sold to customers of both sexes - that she commits suicide by an overdose.
Crowe and Rios decide to find Duke and locate him on a boat in a harbor. In the ensuing fight, Duke and his remaining gang members kill Rios, but Duke eventually ends up in the harbor. Since Duke can't swim, Crowe has the choice of letting the gangster drown, but ends up dragging him out. However, as a way of "poetic justice", Crowe has Duke interred in a prison wing inhabited by sexually aggressive inmates, with his designated cellmate making blatant allusions as to what he is going to do with him. As Duke screams in anguish, Crowe walks away in deep satisfaction.

Tags: violence

Review:
Zazie dans le métro

Plot synopsis:
While her mother is away with her latest lover, 11-year-old Zazie comes to Paris to spend 3 days with her Uncle Gabriel. The child's scandalous language and disrespectful attitude toward her elders quickly convinces Gabriel that this will not be a routine visit. When Zazie learns that she will not be able to ride the Metro because of a labor strike, she blames all adults for the situation and decides to make the best of her vacation. After a wild excursion in a taxi, she romps through the flea market and gets her uncle to take her to the Eiffel Tower. They become entangled in a group of tourists, and Zazie races down the tower steps while her uncle grabs a balloon and parachutes to the street. Together again, they get embroiled in a traffic jam and a mad chase through the streets of the city. That night her uncle takes Zazie to the nightclub where he works. Once more a brawl breaks out, and Zazie escapes with her uncle's wife, Albertine. When the Metro strike is over, Zazie's wish to ride the train is at last fulfilled, but, exhausted from the day's events, she sleeps all the way home. Returned to her mother, who asks her what she did in Paris, Zazie replies that she has grown older.
In the film, Zazie is younger than in the book (in which her mother is worried about Zazie's virginity).

Tags: absurd, psychedelic

Review:
Black Road

Plot synopsis:
William Nessen, an American freelance journalist, travels to Aceh, Indonesia to cover the conflict which was taking place there at the time. Shot over a period of four years, The Black Road follows Nessen as he transforms from being an objective journalist to a supporter of the Free Aceh Movement (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka, or GAM).
While the 2004 tsunami made Aceh, an Indonesian Province on the northern tip of Sumatra, well known across the world, most people remain ignorant of its 27-year struggle for independence.
William Nessen first travelled to Aceh in 2001, as a print journalist. At this point, Nessen had no plans for a film, but recorded footage which he intended to sell to television networks. He began to visit General Bambang Darmono, the leader of the Indonesian military in Aceh. Gaining the trust of General Darmono, Nessen was able to obtain information and shooting opportunities that would have been unavailable to most other journalists. During this period he fell in love with a trusted military translator, Sya’diah Syeh Marhaban, who was a spy for the separatist movement. They worked together, continuing to extract sensitive information from General Darmono. Nessen, as his collection of footage grew, thought of making a film. This idea would later evolve into The Black Road.
Nessen and Marhaban were married in Aceh. Only a few days after the wedding Nessen’s best man, a human rights activist, was kidnapped and murdered by Indonesian security forces. It became clear to Nessen that the independence movement was supported by the majority of the Acehnese. As his personal experiences began to influence him, he too began to support the GAM. He went to live on the front lines with the rebels many times, travelling between General Darmono and the guerrillas in secret. In total, Nessen spent more than a year with the GAM before the military realised what he was doing. He was hunted and almost killed by the Indonesian military, who accused him of espionage. After being ordered to stop reporting from rebel held areas, Nessen spent weeks running from the authorities. After many near-death experiences, he turned himself into the military and was then imprisoned for forty days. Following this he was deported to Singapore and banned from entering Indonesia for one year, a ban that has been renewed each year since 2004.

Tags: cult, sci-fi

Review:
I'm Mad

Plot synopsis:
Most of the dialogue in this short is spoken in time with the music, with the rest being sung.
It all starts at the Warner Bros. studio. In the water tower Yakko, Wakko and Dot are asleep in their bunk beds. The music starts when Dr. Scratchansniff runs in and wakes up the three Warner siblings because they are running late and going on a day trip, cajoling them to get something to eat before they go. An argument starts between Yakko and Dot after Yakko hits the ladder while Dot is coming down. Meanwhile, Wakko complains about breakfast, saying he wants pancakes or waffles instead of the scrambled eggs he's served, and then complains about his clothes. In the bathroom Dot accuses Yakko of using her toothbrush, creating another argument that is only broken up by Scratchansniff to pull them out so they can go.
Down at the parking lot the Doctor has great trouble getting the siblings into the car and when he finally gets them inside, they lock him out. On the road Dot, states "I'm mad, I'm mad, I'm really, really, really mad" because Yakko nudged her with his elbow. Yakko claims to be innocent and they start to argue once again while Scratchansniff begs them to be quiet because he is trying to drive the car. However, that doesn't work so Scratchansniff forbids them both to say another word. Wakko meanwhile complains himself by wondering "Are we there yet? I'm tired, I'm hungry. How far? My nose is snotty, need to move my body. Gotta use the potty, better stop the car."
Yakko and Dot have once again started fighting. When asked to stop they both blame each other for starting it, making Scratchansniff lose his temper and yelling at them both to be quiet. With Yakko and Dot fighting in the backseat Scratchansniff complains that every time they take a trip it's "always just the same". They all fight each other and when they finally arrive everyone's a wreck.
They finally arrive at their destination, which is a circus. Scratchansniff wonders if they aren't happy and the Warner siblings quickly state that indeed they are. They all run into the amusement park and come out again when the sun is setting. Dot states that "I'm glad, I'm glad. What a really great time we had". Both Yakko and Dot seem to be getting along well again and they treat each other nicely. They all get into the car again they and drive of into the sunset. All of a sudden Dot breaks the silence, telling Yakko that he hit her. He claims to be innocent and the whole fight starts all over again.

Tags: psychedelic

Review:
The Wild Swans

Plot synopsis:
In a faraway kingdom, there lives a widowed king with his twelve children: eleven princes and one princess. One day, he decides to remarry. He marries a wicked queen who was a witch. Out of spite, the queen turns her eleven stepsons into swans (they are allowed to become human by night) and forces them to fly away. The queen then tries to bewitch their 15-year-old sister, Elisa, but Elisa's goodness is too strong for this, so the queen has Elisa banished. The brothers carry Elisa to safety in a foreign land where she is out of the reach of her stepmother.
There, Elisa is guided by the queen of the fairies to gather stinging nettles in graveyards to knit into shirts that will eventually help her brothers regain their human shapes. Elisa endures painfully blistered hands from nettle stings, and she must also take a vow of silence for the duration of her task, for speaking one word will kill her brothers. The king of another faraway land happens to come across the mute Elisa and falls in love with her. He grants her a room in his castle where she continues her knitting. Eventually he proposes to crown her as his queen and wife, and she accepts.
However, the Archbishop is chagrined because he thinks Elisa is herself a witch, but the king will not believe him. One night Elisa runs out of nettles and is forced to collect more in a nearby church graveyard where the Archbishop is watching. Ghoulish spirits that devour the bodies of the dead are also in the churchyard, and the archbishop believes that Elisa is in league with them. He reports the incident to the king as proof of witchcraft. The statues of the saints shake their heads in protest, but the Archbishop misinterprets this sign as confirmation of Elisa's guilt. The Archbishop orders to put Elisa on trial for witchcraft. She can speak no word in her defense and is sentenced to death by burning at the stake.
The brothers discover Elisa's plight and try to speak to the king but fail, thwarted by the rising sun. Even as the tumbril bears Elisa away to execution, she continues knitting, determined to keep it up to the last moment of her life. This enrages the people, who are on the brink of snatching and destroying the shirts when the swans descend and rescue Elisa. The people interpret this as a sign from Heaven that Elisa is innocent, but the executioner still makes ready for the burning. When Elisa throws the shirts over the swans, her brothers return to their human forms. (Sadly, the youngest brother has a swan's wing instead of an arm, as Elisa did not have time to finish one sleeve of his shirt.) Elisa is now free to speak and tell the truth, but she faints from exhaustion, so her brothers explain. As they do so, the firewood around Elisa's stake miraculously takes root and bursts into flowers. The king plucks the topmost flower and presents it to Elisa, and they are married.

Tags: fantasy

Review:
Daydream Nation

Plot synopsis:
Seventeen-year-old Caroline Wexler (Kat Dennings) and her father move from a large city to a small town where an industrial fire burns endlessly and many of the students in her new high school seems to be permanently stoned. One of Caroline's classmates, Thurston Goldberg (Reece Thompson), quickly falls for her after they first meet at a party. Caroline is attracted to her high school English teacher Mr. Anderson (Josh Lucas) and the two begin to have sex.
On Halloween, Thurston and his best friends Paul (Landon Liboiron), Charles (Jesse Reid) and Craig (Calum Worthy) spend most of the day getting stoned and inhaling cleaning products which later causes Craig to have a violent seizure during health class. Afterwards, Mr. Anderson cancels his plans with Caroline in order to help the health teacher Ms. Budge (Rachel Blanchard). Mr. Anderson tells Caroline that they should probably go out with other people to avoid looking suspicious, and blows Caroline off on the phone. Feeling upset, Caroline goes out with Thurston where they end up having sex in her car. He admits to her that he was a virgin until that night.
The next day, Mr. Anderson apologizes to her, but says that their relationship must be as discreet. They make up and Caroline spends the night after reading Mr. Anderson's draft of his new novel. Thurston continues to try to pursue Caroline, coming to her home with cupcakes. After he is rejected at the door by Caroline's father (Ted Whittall), Thurston's mother (Andie MacDowell) intercedes on his behalf, which leads to her and Caroline's father sharing intimate moments over drinks. Caroline eventually realizes that Mr. Anderson is deeply dysfunctional, and breaks off the relationship in favor of Thurston. In return, Mr. Anderson does everything to sabotage the budding romance, and Caroline's life descends into chaos. Meanwhile, the local TV station, KCRR reports that there is a serial killer who killed a high school cheerleader.
As Caroline and Thurston's relationship develops, Mr. Anderson becomes even more unstable. He tells Thurston that he was just a cover, and on a rampage, Thurston breaks up with Caroline. Caroline leaves and goes to confront Mr. Anderson, who is on the verge of a mental breakdown. After Caroline leaves, he tries to commit suicide but shoots himself in the leg instead. Caroline goes to try to find Thurston and calls him while driving, leaving a message telling him to stay at the Christmas party where she will go to find him and that she loves him.
In the meantime, Thurston goes to the Christmas party and almost has sex with another girl, Jenny (Katie Boland) who is obsessed with him. Caroline inadvertently crashes her car into the serial killer, who dies from his injuries. She is thought to be a hero and gets back together with Thurston. Ms. Budge shows up at Mr. Anderson's home to tell him the serial killer is dead and takes him to the hospital to treat his injured leg.

Tags: comedy, mystery, psychedelic

Review:
The Brian Conley Show

Plot synopsis:
The show was commissioned following Conley's last successful comedy series, Brian Conley: This Way Up. The show lasted for four series, although a live special was shown a year after the series ended, and a Christmas special aired a year after that. Shows were broadcast Saturdays on ITV between 22 February 1992 and 22 July 1995. Repeats began to show a few years later on the now defunct Granada Plus, though episodes stopped showing on the channel a few years before it closed, and has since never been broadcast again. Extracts from various episodes were uploaded to a dedicated YouTube channel, but was subsequently closed due to copyright claims.
The show was a mix of comedy, music, sketches, and variety acts. The first two series were recorded in the Churchill Theatre in Bromley rather than a television studio, giving the show a "live" feel. Conley would perform musical numbers, stand-up routines and sketches, the latter of which were performed on sets that were wheeled out onto the stage, and he'd often change costume in front of the audience. Series three and four were filmed in The London Studios and given a new look. Sketches were now performed on a rotating platform that switched between different sets as it spun. However, Conley's trademark characters were either performed on their own set or were pre-recorded.
Conley decided that the fourth series would be the last when, in an interview with TV Times, he decided to pursue a career on stage. However, after Conley compered the Royal Variety Performance in 1999, the show returned in 2000 albeit in a chat show format, dramatically different to the original show. Whilst it retained Conely's stand-up sets at the beginning of the show, as well as his special guests, sketches and Conley's characters were removed from the show. Whilst this had some fans unhappy, the show managed to pull in some famous guests including Leslie Nielsen and Kathleen Turner. The revival lasted for three series.

Tags: comedy

Review:
Taxi 3

Plot synopsis:
A group of thieves calling themselves the Santa Claus gang are wreaking havoc, using Santa Claus costumes to commit heists, and the Marseille police are, as usual, unable to keep up. Superintendent Gibert (played by Bernard Farcy) is distracted by a Chinese journalist (Bai Ling) writing a story on his squad, and is unable to stop the robbers.
Detective Emilien's wife, Petra, has just announced that she's pregnant and taxi driver Daniel (Samy Naceri) is in the midst of a relationship crisis. His long-suffering girlfriend Lilly has walked out on him after finding him customising his taxi at four o'clock in the morning, and complaining that their house has become a mere garage and how Daniel stopped paying attention to her.
After a string of mistakes in which the thieves outsmart the police time and time again, the journalist is kidnapped. It is revealed that the journalist is the leader of the Santa Claus gang. The police go in search, but Emilien is captured after another botched attempt to arrest them. The journalist sets a trap; she leaves Emilien tied to a chair in an old warehouse, directly in the path of a giant ball which will crush him five minutes later. At the very last moment, Daniel rushes in with his taxi and rescues him. They track the gang to their hideout in the Swiss mountains, where the journalist and her accomplices are arrested by a crack team of Alpine troops. Gibert lands in an ice-bound lake after leaping from an aircraft with them. Petra gives birth, Daniel proposes to Lilly and a Gibert is seen being pushed around in a wheelchair covered in ice.

Tags: humor

Review:
La gloire de mon père

Plot synopsis:
This film is set in the period between 1900 and the First World War in 1914. Young Marcel was born in the country but raised in Marseilles. His father, Joseph, is a hard-working strongly atheist public school teacher in Marseilles. Marcel's Aunt Rose marries the round, jovial, and very theistic and Roman Catholic Uncle Jules. Joseph and Uncle Jules come into conflict over religion.
Over summer break, Joseph and Jules decide to take their respective families to a house in the country. Here, Jules decides to educate Joseph on hunting. Marcel wants to come hunting with them, but the two adults lie to him and leave the house while he is still just waking up. He follows them stealthily and is angered by the way Jules makes a fool of Joseph with his hunting prowess. Marcel is lost in the wilderness when he meets a boy called Lili, who tells him where the hunting party is. Joseph takes potshots at two rock partridges and they fall to ground beside Marcel. He watches as Jules reprimands Joseph for shooting at and missing the birds. At this point, Marcel reveals himself and the partridges.
Later, Lili, who knows everything about the countryside, becomes Marcel's friend and teaches him about the ways of the countryside. They regularly go exploring in the countryside of Provence, in southern France.
As the holiday comes to an end, Marcel plans with Lili to hide himself in a cave, and live there as a hermit, in order to continue living in Provence, which he has grown very fond of. On the day of their departure, Marcel gets up early in the morning. He has written a letter for this purpose earlier, explaining his disappearance to his parents, and excusing his behaviour. He warns them that they will not be able to find him in his "new home," and should not bother searching. He then walks to the cave with Lili, who was waiting for him near his house. As they arrive, Marcel begins to become afraid of living alone. He invents all kinds of excuses to avoid living in the cave. He then runs home quickly to prevent his parents reading the letter, which he had placed on his pillow. As he returns home, everyone is already busy loading up a carriage for the journey home. He runs up to his room, and discovers that the letter is still on his pillow, and he assumes that no one has read it. As he gets ready to leave the house for a last time, his parents make a remark which indicates that they in fact did read the letter. The film ends with Marcel and his family departing in a coach, and Lili looking on.

Tags: romantic, storytelling

Review:
Saiba shiti oedo 808

Plot synopsis:
To combat computerised crime more effectively, the Cyber Police unit of the future Japanese city of Oedo has restarted the feudal practice of hōmen (放免), employing hardened criminals with a history of hi-tech offences and other crimes such as murder as officers themselves.
Three such criminals are Sengoku, Gogol and Benten who are serving their 300-or-more year sentences in an orbital penitentiary. For duty served, each criminal will receive a reduction in their prison time. Desperate to get away from the boredom and monotony of jail life, they half-heartedly agree to the deal. They answer to police chief Hasegawa who keeps them in check thanks to an explosive collar that each criminal wears around his neck. Hasegawa can blow this collar remotely and it will also explode if they fail to complete their missions within an allocated time period. Each one is also armed with a jitte (the traditional weapon and symbol of authority of the ancient Edo Police), although they also have access to more powerful weaponry.
Although there are no specifics to what kind of society the series is based in, it is presented as very high-tech but with a rather dystopian feel. In the first episode for example, a man under pressure confesses to a murder (which he did commit) and which is responsible for the present crisis. This is enough for Hasegawa to order Sengoku to kill the man there and then without so much as a trial. When Sengoku fails to do so his sentence is increased.
There are three episodes, each one serving to focus more on the personal exploits of one of the three-man team. The UK release had different titles for these episodes than other markets did.
Episode 1; "Virtual Death" (a.k.a. "Time Bomb" or "Memories Of The Past"): Sengoku is sent to save 50,000 people trapped in Oedo's largest skyscraper after its central computer is mysteriously taken over. Along the way, he finds that the only suspect is a dead man.
Episode 2; "Psychic Trooper" (a.k.a. "The Decoy" or "The Decoy Program"): Gogol's investigation of a murder pits him against an experimental military cyborg as he tries to rescue his ex-partner. Of note is that during this episode we see at least one other cyber-criminal trying to (unsuccessfully) remove his collar, so it is known that there are more than the three anti-heroes being employed by the Cyber Police unit.
Episode 3; "Blood Lust" (a.k.a. "The Vampire" or "Crimson Media"): The freak murder of three geneticists leads Benten to investigate one man's quest for immortality, as well as finding a young woman transformed into a vampire with telekinesis because of this quest.

Tags: revenge, psychedelic, murder, violence, sci-fi

Review:
Blood Mania

Plot synopsis:
Dr. Craig Cooper, a physician, is caring for his dying employer, Ridgeley Waterman. A wealthy old curmudgeon, Waterman is cared for at home by his daughter Victoria, and a live-in nurse, Nurse Turner. Despite several attempts by Victoria, a nymphomaniac, to seduce Dr. Cooper, she has so far been unsuccessful. Dr. Cooper soon learns that an unnamed old connection is blackmailed with his past affiliation with illegal abortions. The blackmailer is demanding $50,000 in hush money. During one of his house calls to examine her father, Dr. Cooper expresses his "tax" problems to Victoria Waterman. She tells him that she can acquire the money, and seduces him. Their affair consummated, Victoria proceeds to poison and kill her father with the motive of paying Dr. Cooper's debt with her father's estate.
With Dr. Cooper's assistance, Victoria avoids suspicion (Cooper rules the death a stroke) and her estranged younger sister Gail returns from New York City for the reading of their father's will. With Gail is Kate, a middle-aged woman who lives with Gail, and who has an implied unreciprocated sexual interest in her. The group meet for the reading of the will by the family lawyer, and much to Victoria's surprise, Gail is the primary beneficiary of the estate. The will leaves Victoria only with the use of her deceased father's house and a small living allowance. Distraught, she becomes bedridden.
While caring for Victoria, Dr. Cooper learns of Gale's new status as a wealthy heiress, and begins seducing her. When Kate realizes Gail and Dr. Cooper have begun a relationship, she packs her things and returns to New York.
After spending an evening out with Dr. Cooper, Gail returns home, and offers to split the estate with Victoria, who refuses. Gail reveals that she has already offered to help Dr. Cooper with his "tax" issues, and Victoria learns of the budding relationship between her lover and her younger sister. She bludgeons Gail to death with a lamp in the bathroom. Dr. Cooper soon returns to the house and finds Gail dead, with Victoria stoically painting a canvas in the next room with her sister's blood. In the bathroom, he finds Gail's corpse in the shower. Attempting to help cover up the crime, he carries Gail's body to the car, placing it in the trunk.
Returning to the house, Dr. Cooper embraces Victoria just as she sees an apparition of Gail's corpse standing behind the door. It fades, revealing Dr. Cooper's blackmailer, grinning menacingly as the painting is revealed, showing Dr. Cooper with a skeleton draped across his arms.

Tags: cult, murder

Review:
Poodle Springs

Plot synopsis:
In 1963, an aging Philip Marlowe (James Caan) is newly married to young socialite Laura Parker (Dina Meyer). The private investigator leaves his Los Angeles apartment behind and sets up a new base of operations in Poodle Springs, an upscale community in the desert a couple hours from L.A. (a parody of Palm Springs), where he and his wife intend to live.
"I don't do divorces," Marlowe impatiently explains to potential clients in a peaceful, relatively crime-free town. His rich wife Laura would prefer that Philip get out of this line of work entirely and live off her money or come into business with P.J. Parker (Joe Don Baker), her politically connected father, but Marlowe isn't ready to permanently hang up his gun.
As might be expected, crime follows Marlowe wherever he may be. While looking into a matter at a gambling club just beyond the city limits, Marlowe sets out to find a photographer with a gambling debt and is soon mixed up in blackmail and murder.
Larry Victor, the photographer (David Keith), is a bigamist, two-timing Laura's wealthy friend Muffy (Julia Campbell) with a drug addict named Angel (Nia Peeples), and he is threatening to expose photos of a former stripper (La Joy Farr) who is now running with Muffy's billionaire father, Clayton Blackstone (Brian Cox).
As things progress, Marlowe realizes that his new father-in-law is involved in a land swindle on such a massive scale that it could end up altering the California/Nevada state border. And any further snooping on the detective's part could quickly put an end to his wedded bliss.

Tags: neo noir, murder

Review:
On a Clear Day You Can See Forever

Plot synopsis:
Act I
Quirky Daisy Gamble sees herself as an unremarkable person and has low self-esteem, even though she can (1) make plants grow remarkably, (2) predict when a telephone will ring or someone will drop in, and (3) tell where to find an object that someone else is looking for. Her current problem, though, is her nasty smoking habit, which will interfere with the chances of her fiancé, Warren, for a job with great benefits. She seeks help from a psychiatrist, Dr. Mark Bruckner, to stop smoking. When he hypnotizes her, she describes living a previous life in late 18th century England as "Melinda Wells", who died in her late twenties from circumstances beyond her control. Free spirited Melinda was in love with portrait painter Edward Moncrief. Dr. Mark keeps to himself what Daisy has revealed to him, and he tells her that she should not be ashamed of her ESP.
At their next session, Daisy, under hypnosis, relates scenes from the salacious London Hellrakers' Club where Melinda met Edward. Melinda and Edward eventually marry, but the painter is unfaithful to her, making love to his subjects. Mark, the psychiatrist, finds himself falling for "Melinda" and becomes convinced that Daisy is really the reincarnation of Melinda. Melinda finally left Edward and set sail for America, but the ship never reached Boston. Before Mark can save Melinda from shipwreck, Daisy wakes up.
Act II
Mark reports on the case to his fellow psychiatrists, who ridicule his findings. Greek shipping magnate Themistocles Kriakos learns of Mark's belief in reincarnation and offers to finance a study of the events of Melinda's life in exchange for Mark's help in discovering who he will be in his next life, which will allow him to leave his fortune to his future self. Daisy accidentally discovers that she is the "Melinda" at the center of the growing controversy and that Mark prefers Melinda to herself. In her angry confrontation with the psychiatrist about the matter, she tells him that she is "through being a go-between for you and your dream girl. You're not going to go on using my head for a motel."
Daisy goes to the airport, ready to return home. Her ESP powers warn her that the plane on which she plans to travel will crash. She realizes at last how special she really is. She leaves her starchy fiancé (Come Back To Me) and she and Mark unite to explore their extraordinary future.

Tags: romantic, psychological, murder, flashback

Review: