cryptexcode/MPST huggingface dataset:
The World's Fastest Indian

Plot synopsis:
Burt Munro is a sort of folk hero in his home town of Invercargill, New Zealand, known for his friendly easy-going personality, for having the fastest motorcycle in New Zealand and Australia, and for being featured in Popular Mechanics magazine. However, that recognition is contrasted by his exasperated next-door neighbours, some of whom are fed up with his un-neighbourly habits; such as revving his motorbike early in the morning, urinating on his lemon tree, and not mowing his grass. Burt however has a long-time dream, to travel to the USA and test his motorbike's capabilities at the Bonneville Speedway.
Burt is finally able to save enough to travel by cargo ship to Los Angeles, but when he arrives, he experiences bureaucracy, skepticism, and the indifference of big city people. It is his blunt but gregarious nature which overcomes each hurdle. He wins over the motel clerk, a transvestite woman named Tina, who assists him in clearing customs and helps him in buying a car. The car salesman allows Burt to use his workshop and junkyard to build a trailer, and later offers him a job after Burt fine-tunes a number of the cars on the lot. Burt declines the offer, however, and shortly afterwards begins his long trip to Utah.
Along the way, Burt meets numerous helpful people, including highway police, a Native American who aids him when his trailer fails, a woman named Ada who allows him to repair his trailer and briefly becomes his lover, and an Air Force pilot who is on leave from military service in Vietnam.
He finally arrives at the Bonneville Salt Flats, only to be blocked by race officials for not registering his motorcycle for competition in advance, and not having the mandated safety equipment. In a show of sportsmanship, however, various competitors and fans in the Bonneville series intervene on his behalf, and he is eventually allowed to make a timed run. Despite various problems, he succeeds in his quest and sets a new land speed record at the 8th mile of his run; when he reaches 201.851 mph (324.847 km/h). By the end, his leg is burned by the exhaust, and he then falls with the motorcycle and skids to a stop, but he is able to return home to New Zealand a hero.

Tags: dramatic, sentimental, philosophical, inspiring, feel-good

Review:
Mexicali Shmoes

Plot synopsis:
Two sombrero-wearing cats, Jose and Manuel, are singing while relaxing on the "Avenida de Gatos" when they are taunted by Speedy Gonzales. After Manuel fails to catch Speedy, Jose informs Manuel that Speedy is "the fastest mouse in all Mexico" and that they will have to use their brains, not their feet, to catch him. The pair set off for Speedy's home in Guadalajara where they again fail to capture him. During their struggles, Manuel gets hit on the head by Jose with a guitar, Jose hooks Speedy with a fishing line and gets towed to Los Angeles, Manuel gets blown up by dynamite, and both cats get blown up in a minefield they constructed. Jose and Manuel are sitting on top of a wall after failing to outsmart and catch Speedy. Manuel laments they should have gone after Speedy's cousin, Slowpoke Rodriguez, the "slowest mouse in all Mexico". Jose is convinced to go after him and runs off. Manuel desperately tries to catch up to warn him about Slowpoke. No sooner than Jose arrives at the mouse house and catches him, Slowpoke shoots him. Manuel finally catches up and tells Jose exactly what he was trying to warn him about Slowpoke: "He packs a gun". Slowpoke blows steam off his gun and returns to his mouse hole, leaving the charred Jose to lament, "Now he tell me."

Tags: psychedelic

Review:
The Spook Who Sat by the Door

Plot synopsis:
The story takes place in the early 1970s in Chicago. The CIA has been required for political reasons to recruit African Americans for training. Only one of them, Dan Freeman (Lawrence Cook), secretly a black nationalist, successfully completes the training process. He becomes the first black man in the agency and is given a desk job—Top Secret Reproduction Center Sections Chief (which means he is in charge of the copy machine). Freeman understands that he is the token black person in the CIA, and that the CIA defines his function as providing proof of the agency's supposed commitment to integration and progress. Therefore, after completing his training in guerrilla warfare techniques, weaponry, communications and subversion, Freeman puts in just enough time to avoid raising any suspicions about his motives before he resigns from the CIA and returns to work in the social services in Chicago.
Upon his return, Freeman immediately begins recruiting young black men living in the inner city of Chicago to become “Freedom Fighters” teaching them all of the guerrilla warfare tactics that he learned from the CIA. They become a guerrilla group with Freeman as the secret leader. The “Freedom Fighters” set out to ensure that black people truly live freely within the United States by partaking in both violent and non-violent actions throughout Chicago. The “Freedom Fighters” of Chicago begin spreading the word about their guerrilla warfare tactics across the United States; as Freeman says, “What we got now is a colony, what we want is a new nation.” As revolt and a war of liberation continues in inner-city Chicago, the National Guard and the police desperately try to stop the “freedom fighters”.
The film provides discussions about black militancy and the violent reactions that took place by white America in response to the progress of the Civil Rights Movement.

Tags: violence, cult, avant garde, murder, blaxploitation

Review:
Private Benjamin

Plot synopsis:
Judy Benjamin (Goldie Hawn) a 28-year-old from a sheltered wealthy upbringing whose lifelong dream is to "marry a professional man", joins the U.S. Army after her new husband (Albert Brooks) dies on their wedding night during sex. Adrift, Benjamin meets a recruiting sergeant, Jim Ballard (Harry Dean Stanton), who leads her to believe military life will provide the "family" she seeks. He also tells her that the service is glamorous, comparing it to a spa vacation. She has a rude awakening upon arriving in boot camp. Judy wants to quit almost immediately, and is astonished to learn that she cannot, contrary to the assertions of her recruiting sergeant.
Army regulations and the continuing disapproval of Captain Lewis (Eileen Brennan) frustrate her, but when Judy's parents arrive at Fort Biloxi to take her home, she decides to stay and finish basic training, which she does with distinction after a wargames exercise. Upon completion of basic training, Judy meets Henri Tremont (Armand Assante), a French doctor, who is in Biloxi for a medical conference. They separate after a brief romance, Henri returns to Paris and Judy enters training for the Thornbirds, an elite paratrooper unit after basic training.
She quickly finds that she was chosen for paratrooper training because the unit's commander finds her attractive; he attempts to sexually assault her. When she refuses to comply, he attempts to have her transferred as far away from Biloxi as possible. Rather than accept what she sees as an undesirable post in Greenland or Guam, she negotiates an assignment to SHAPE in Belgium, and meets up with Henri again on a visit to Paris. He proposes marriage and she accepts, but when Capt. Lewis discovers that Tremont is a communist, Judy is forced to choose either her Army career or love.
After she chooses Henri and gets engaged, Judy discovers Henri's controlling side. He tries to "remake" her, and also forces her to sign a prenuptial agreement in his favor. Then, when she finds out Henri is still in love with his ex-girlfriend Clare, and has cheated on her with their maid, she realizes that she is capable of doing whatever she wants, and that she does not need Henri in her life. In the final scene, just as Judy is about to get married again, she walks out on Henri at the altar to go and live her own life.

Tags: revenge, satire, prank

Review:
National Lampoon's European Vacation

Plot synopsis:
The Griswald family competes in a game show called Pig in a Poke and wins an all-expenses-paid trip to Europe. In a whirlwind tour of western Europe, chaos of all sorts ensues. They stay in a fleabag London hotel with a sloppy, tattooed Cockney desk clerk. While in their English rental car, a yellow Austin Maxi, Clark drives the family around the busy Lambeth Bridge roundabout for hours, unable to maneuver his way out of traffic. His tendency to drive on the wrong side of the road causes frequent accidents, including knocking over a bicyclist, who reappears throughout the film. At Stonehenge, Clark backs the car into an ancient stone monolith, toppling all the stones like dominoes, which they do not even notice as they happily leave the scene.
In Paris, the family wears stenciled berets, causing Rusty to be teased by young women at the Eiffel Tower observation deck. Clark offers to get rid of the beret for Rusty, but when he throws it away, another visitor's dachshund mistakes it for a Frisbee and jumps off the tower after it. Later, Rusty meets an exotic dancer at a bawdy Paris can-can dance show. The family's video camera is stolen by a passerby whom Clark had asked to take a picture of the family. Clark also angers a French waiter with his terrible French, making him say, in French "Go fuck yourself".
Next, in a West German village, the Griswalds burst in on a bewildered elderly couple, who they mistakenly think are relatives but who end up providing them dinner and lodging anyway, not being able to understand the other's language. Clark turns a lively Bavarian folk dance stage performance into an all-out street brawl, after which, while fleeing, he hastily knocks down several street vendors' stands and gets their Citroën DS stuck in a narrow medieval archway.
In Rome, the Griswalds rent a car at a travel office, but unknown to them, the men in charge are thieves, holding the real manager captive. The lead thief gives them a car with the manager in the trunk, claiming he lost the trunk keys. The next day Ellen is shocked to discover that private, sexy videos of her from the family's stolen video camera have been used in a billboard advertising porn, leaving her completely humiliated. After screaming angrily at Clark (who had told her he had erased the video), Ellen storms off to their hotel, where she encounters the thief who rented them the car. She confesses her recent troubles, still unaware that he is a criminal. The man then tries to get the car keys, which are in her purse, but fails. When the police arrive at the hotel, he kidnaps Ellen, prompting Clark to rescue her. On the flight back to the U.S., Clark accidentally causes the plane to knock the Statue of Liberty's torch upside down.

Tags: satire

Review:
Paranoia

Plot synopsis:
Adam Cassidy is a low-level inventor who works for a corporation run by Nicholas Wyatt. After being fired for insubordination, Adam uses the company's credit card to pay for bottle service for his friends at a club. Wyatt and his enforcer, Miles Meachum, blackmail Adam into becoming a corporate spy for Wyatt by threatening to have him arrested for fraud.
Adam is trained by Judith Bolton and infiltrates a company run by Wyatt's former mentor, Jock Goddard. He provides Goddard, who stole several of Wyatt's ideas, with an advanced software able to hack into cellphones, with potential military applications. FBI Agent Gamble interrogates Adam, revealing that three other employees of Wyatt who transferred to Goddard's company were found dead, but Adam ignores him.
Adam finds out Emma Jennings, a woman he met during the party, is the Director of Marketing of Goddard's company. He initiates a relationship with Emma in order to steal files about Goddard's upcoming projects. Wyatt threatens to kill Adam's father, Frank Cassidy, if Adam doesn't steal a revolutionary prototype cellphone developed by Goddard. Adam later finds out Meachum and Bolton are monitoring him, so he destroys the cameras in his apartment. In retaliation, Meachum runs over Adam's friend, Kevin, with a car, nearly killing him. Adam is given 48 hours to steal the prototype.
Adam uses Emma's thumbprint lifted from a spoon to gain security access to the company's vault. He is confronted there by Goddard, who intends to take over Wyatt's company with evidence that Adam was acting as Wyatt's spy. Emma finds out Adam used her. Adam recruits Kevin to help him. A meeting is set with Wyatt and Goddard, where it is revealed that Bolton has spied against Wyatt on Goddard's behalf. Both men speak of the crimes they have committed to sabotage each other's companies.
Adam has secretly used software to transmit their conversation to Kevin, whose computer recordings are turned over to the FBI. Goddard, Wyatt, Bolton and Meachum are arrested by Gamble, while Adam is released for contributing to the FBI's investigation. He reconciles with Emma and opens a small startup company in Brooklyn with Kevin and their friends.

Tags: psychedelic, comedy, neo noir, murder, violence

Review:
Love Me, Love My Mouse

Plot synopsis:
Tom, in love with Toots, goes to her house, carrying Jerry in a ring box to woo her. Tom presents Jerry to his love interest, but Jerry pretends to be frightened of Tom and cuddles up with Toots, who instantly sympathises with him, taking sides with the mouse.
Later, Jerry waves Tom and then aims to gain more sympathy from Toots by framing Tom to jumping into his mouth repeatedly in 3 times and Toots coming to Jerry's rescue. And later, Tom tells the Toots wants to eat something but refuses and smash the door with his hand before Jerry laughs with him, causing an angry Tom to grab Jerry and attempts to drop the concrete block flattens with him, but Toots interferes and causing Tom to drop the block onto himself.
In the next morning, Toots is putting baby powder on Jerry while a bandaged Tom hobbles to the table. Toots kisses Jerry , but while doing so, she soon finds that in addition to being quite adorable, Jerry is also quite tasty. She suddenly has a change of heart and decides to eat Jerry, now taking sides with Tom, who reacts with joy. Toots blows a kiss to Tom (as though to thank him for giving her Jerry, after all), and prepares to kill and eat him. But Jerry, now seeing that Toots is no longer on his side, escapes to the exit door. The now-evil Toots chases him with a fork and knife while Tom limps out and slowly follows her.

Tags: psychedelic

Review:
I Me Wed

Plot synopsis:
Boston based home renovator Isabel Darden, is a successful, attractive 30-year-old woman. Isabel feels happy with her single life and loves herself. But her mother and friends are concerned, she will be a spinster if she doesn't find a husband soon. They constantly nag her about dating and finding the right man. When yet another blind date turns into a nightmare, Isabel decides to do something that will forever keep her friends and mother out of her hair. She announced that she will take their advice and marry the one person who knows her better than anyone else: herself. Much to her mother Lillian and her best friend Amy's disgust.
Isabel begins planning her wedding with the help of her very enthusiastic gay friend, Bill. As Isabel and Bill amuse themselves with the details of organizing her nuptials, Isabel is confident that she will finally get some peace from the wedding obsessed crowd, and she will also be making a statement for single women all over the world. What started as a small event starts to get out of hand, when the story hits the Internet. However, after meeting with her contractor's handsome and intelligent son, Colin. At first, she assumes that this man won't live up to her standards, but after a few romantic dates, it begins to dawn on Isabel that Colin may, in fact, be a better life partner for her than the one she's already planning to marry. As the wedding date approaches and the preparations escalate, Isabel knows that she must let Colin know about her wedding plans. Unfortunately, her numerous attempts to tell him about the wedding are overshadowed by their growing romance, and Colin soon finds out about Isabelle's plans to marry herself after it was announced on national television.
Colin wants her to put a stop to the wedding and save it for their wedding someday in the future. Although Isabel kind of wants to, she can't since she is already noticed by the media and inspiring to women all over the world. Frustrated by Isabelle's failure to tell him about her upcoming wedding and about the repercussions of being known by the public as that "schmuck" who wouldn't marry his girlfriend. Colin decides he can't date a woman who is about to marry herself and the pair splits up. When Isabel is about to get married, she explains to everyone about how she wanted a simple ceremony in the park with a sundress. Isabel runs out of the room and comes back with casual clothes instead of the wedding dress. At the end, Isabel is married to Collin.

Tags: romantic

Review:
Yo soy Bea

Plot synopsis:
Set in Madrid, the series tells the story of Beatriz "Bea" Pérez Pinzón (Ruth Núñez). She is a highly intelligent and well-educated young woman, but has trouble finding a job because of her unattractive appearance, which consists of oversized glasses, braces, big eyebrows, and a lack of fashion sense. She manages to get a job as a secretary at the coveted fashion magazine, Bulevar 21. She falls madly in love with her boss, Álvaro Aguilar (Alejandro Tous), the young, handsome newly appointed director of the magazine. Despite her mousy looks and social awkwardness, Bea earns the respect and friendship of many of her co-workers, including Álvaro, because of her hard work, dedication, and kindness. However, she still has to endure insulting comments from "the posh trio," made up of Cayetana de la Vega (Mónica Estarreado), Álvaro's longtime girlfriend, Richard de Castro (David Arnaiz), a photographer, and Barbara Ortiz (Norma Ruiz), Álvaro's other secretary. Bea documents her journey through love and work in an online blog entitled "Blog de una fea" ("Blog of an ugly girl").
Besides Bea's love for Álvaro, the main plot of the series is the power struggle between Álvaro and Diego de la Vega (Miguel Hermoso Arnao), Cayetana's evil brother. In order to keep Diego from taking the magazine's capital, Álvaro and his best friend and colleague, Gonzalo de Soto (José Manuel Seda), decide to set up a fake firm and move all of the capital into it. Álvaro convinces a reluctant Bea to head the firm by making her believe he is romantically interested in her. Bea believes she finally has the man of her dreams. During the course of their "relationship," Álvaro constantly mistreats Bea, cheats on her with Cayetana, and makes fun of her with Gonzalo.
Eventually, Álvaro, to his own amazement, genuinely falls in love with Bea. However, Bea overhears a conversation between Álvaro and Gonzalo discussing the set-up and breaks up with Álvaro. Álvaro tries repeatedly to get Bea to believe that he truly loves her, but to no avail.
Through the rest of the series, Álvaro and Bea endure many obstacles on their way back to each other: the firm being discovered and both Álvaro and Bea being arrested for embezzlement, Álvaro going to prison for a short time, various schemes and manipulations by Diego, other love interests, the death of Álvaro's father, and the revelation that Diego and Álvaro are half-brothers (Álvaro's father had an affair with Diego's mother). In the end, Bea becomes beautiful, Álvaro gets the magazine out of Diego's control, and Bea and Álvaro finally reunite and marry. Immediately after the ceremony, the two leave for Miami.
To replace Bea, a new protagonist, Beatriz "Be" Berlanga Echegaray (Patricia Montenero), is introduced. She wants to become a journalist and starts working at Bulevar 21. The other new protagonist is Roberto Vazquez (Àlex Adrover), the editor, who is later replaced by Cesar Villa (Miguel de Miguel), an investigative journalist.

Tags: romantic

Review:
Flicka och hyacinter

Plot synopsis:
A young woman is playing the piano at a wild party. When asked to play a special tune, she begins but stops abruptly and rushes out, visibly upset. Alone she starts to walk home through late night central Stockholm. Crossing a bridge, she has a conversation with a drunk artist, and after his persuasion, out of kindness, she gives him money for the sketch, but does not take it. Arriving at her apartment, she straps a rope to the ceiling and hangs herself. The next morning her body is found by a housekeeper.
The police arrives and ask questions to her neighbours. The young woman's name was Dagmar Brink, and she was something of a loner. Nobody knew much about her, although she had lived for a while in the building, but everyone states that she seemed like a sweet and nice girl. Her closest neighbours in the flat next door, writer Anders Wikner and his wife Britt, are both shocked by the girl's suicide. Soon Anders starts to investigate what happened. He contacts the few people who knew her and asks them questions. He meets artist Elias Körner who painted a portrait of her, an old bank manager who had a cold meeting with her, a woman who shared a room with her once, an ex-husband, and the singer whose party she attended the night of the suicide. Anders' wife also turns out to have a story about Dagmar and what happened one night in Dagmar's apartment. The different people's meetings with Dagmar are told in several flashbacks.

Tags: tragedy, flashback

Review:
Vamp

Plot synopsis:
Two college students, Keith and AJ, want to hire a stripper to buy their way into a campus fraternity. They borrow a Cadillac from lonely rich student Duncan, who insists on coming with them to scope out strip clubs in a nearby city. The three boys find themselves at a club in a shady part of town, and after being impressed by a surreally artistic stripper, Queen Katrina, AJ visits her dressing room to try and convince her to come strip for their college party. Katrina seduces AJ, then pins him down—killing him with a bite to the neck.
Keith becomes concerned at the delay and gets help from a waitress named Amaretto, who keeps insisting (to his confusion) that she knows him from their past. They search the neighborhood, and Keith is separated from her while trying to escape from both a psychotic albino street gang, as well as from vampires throughout the area. While hiding in a dumpster, he finds AJ's discarded body, but when he calls the police and returns to the club to accuse the owners, the vampires have preempted him by bringing AJ back as undead and bringing him back to the club. AJ confesses to Keith that he's now a vampire, and after realizing that Keith will not kill him and is willing to die for him, AJ stakes himself with a piece of broken furniture.
Keith, Amaretto, and Duncan flee the club, but their car is rammed by vehicles driven by vampires. After escaping, they realize that Duncan has been turned to a vampire, and they abandon him in a burning car. The couple attempt to escape through the sewers, as Amaretto breaks down and tells Keith that her real name is Allison, and she knows AJ from a game of spin the bottle back in high school. While they flee through the sewers, they find and burn a nest of vampires, but Allison is grabbed and held hostage by Queen Katrina. After an arrow to the face and pipe staked in the chest fail to stop Katrina, Keith kills her by opening a grating, allowing the sunlight to destroy her. Before they can escape to the surface, they are trapped by Vlad, the dead Katrina's vampire consort, until Vlad is staked from behind by a revived AJ, who sheepishly notes that the stake he tried to kill himself with turned out to be formica.
As Keith and Allison climb to the surface daylight, AJ remains in the sewers calling out to him his ideas to go to night school, or work a job on a graveyard shift.

Tags: cult, comedy, murder, violence

Review:
Shok

Plot synopsis:
The film starts by scenes in present-day Kosovo, in which the adult Petrit (Kushtrim Sheremeti) finds an old bicycle like Oki's in the middle of the road.
The story shifts back during the 1990s war in Kosovo and centers on two young boys, Petrit (Lum Veseli) and Oki (Andi Bajgora). At the start of the film, the two ride on Oki's new bicycle to see a group of Serbian soldiers, to whom Petrit gives several slips of paper for rolling cigarettes. The soldiers' leader, Dragan (Eshref Durmishi), pays Petrit for the papers, and Petrit splits the money with Oki. Oki stays the night with Petrit's family, and Petrit asks him about making another delivery the following day. Oki is at first reluctant, thinking the soldiers cannot be trusted; but Petrit assures him he is safe, showing him a pistol he keeps hidden away. He also says he will soon be able to buy his own bicycle with the money he is earning, and Oki agrees to help him again.
The boys arrive at the soldiers' hideout, first a soldier (Fisnik Ademi) asks them for what are they here and Petrit says to see Dragan, where Petrit brings Dragan more paper slips; but as they leave, one of the other soldiers demands Oki's bicycle, intending to give it to his nephew. At Petrit's insistence, Oki complies; but he later berates Petrit for cooperating with the soldiers, calling him a traitor. Oki does not speak to Petrit for several days, despite the latter's apologies, until a bus they are on is stopped by the soldiers. The boys and several others are removed from the bus and searched; and when a soldier finds Albanian schoolbooks in Oki's backpack, Petrit claims they are his. In response, Dragan hits Petrit in the stomach with the butt of his rifle.
Oki comes by later to thank Petrit, and the two reconcile. Oki again spends the night at Petrit's, but the house is invaded by soldiers the following morning. Petrit and his family are led outside and lined up along the wall, while Oki remains hidden inside. As a soldier threatens Petrit at gunpoint, Oki appears, pointing Petrit's pistol at the soldier. The soldier takes the pistol, which he finds is not loaded, and throws Oki in line with Petrit's family. Another soldier then orders them all to leave the town and not look back, or else they will be killed. As Petrit's family, Oki, and several other residents walk out of town carrying their possessions, they see a young boy riding Oki's bicycle. Oki looks back at him as he passes and is shot through the head and killed by one of the soldiers. Petrit who is splattered with Oki's blood keeps walking with his family
The film switches to the adult Petrit. He rides off on the bicycle and eventually reaches the now-empty town, looking out on it forlornly as the film ends.

Tags: violence, cruelty, murder, flashback

Review:
Mr. Popper's Penguins

Plot synopsis:
Mr. Popper is a house painter of modest means, living with his wife and two children (Bill and Janie) in the small town of Stillwater, Oklahoma. He has a happy life, but he is also a restless dreamer, spending his time reading of famous explorers in faraway places.
One day, the Popper family tunes in to a radio broadcast by an Admiral exploring polar regions. Mr. Popper had previously sent the Admiral fan mail, and the Admiral promises Mr. Popper a surprise. The surprise turns out to be a penguin, which comes in a large box. Mr. Popper names the penguin "Captain Cook" after the famous James Cook. Mr. Popper cleans out the icebox so that the penguin can sleep inside. As time goes by, the Poppers find that Captain Cook is growing large, but his health is failing. Mr. Popper writes to the curator of a large aquarium, asking for help. The curator replies that the aquarium has a female penguin, Greta, who unfortunately is also experiencing the same symptoms, and he suggests that perhaps the penguins are simply lonely. Soon after, the Poppers receive their second penguin in the mail.
The pair of penguins are revitalized by each other's presence. As both birds cannot fit into the icebox together, Mr. Popper opens the window to let in the cold winter air, creating a snow-covered habitat. As this solution will not work in springtime, Mr. Popper has the main things moved upstairs and a freezing plant installed in the basement for the birds. This makes for happy penguins, but strains the family budget.
As time passes, Greta lays eggs. She continues laying a new egg every three days until the total reaches ten. As penguins do not normally lay so many eggs, Mr. Popper attributes this to the change in climate the birds have experienced. When the eggs hatch, the Popper family now has twelve penguins to feed, and the contractor is looking for payment on the household changes.
Mr. Popper decides to raise money by training the twelve penguins and turning them into a circus act. The act debuts at the local theater, and soon the "Popper's Performing Penguins" are featured throughout the country. But in the theater in New York City, the penguins cause trouble; what's worse, they've accidentally shown up at the wrong theater. The manager of the wrong theater is extremely angry and has Mr. Popper arrested, along with the penguins.
Admiral Drake, having arrived to see Popper's Performing Penguins for himself, posts bail for Mr. Popper. After speaking with the Admiral, Mr. Popper decides that show business is no life for a penguin. Drake lets all of the twelve penguins go with him on his expedition to the North Pole, where they will be released experimentally into the Arctic. The Poppers are sad to see the penguins go, especially Mr. Popper himself — that is, until Admiral Drake invites Mr. Popper to accompany him on the trip. The Poppers wave goodbye as Mr. Popper and his penguins sail away towards the North Pole and Mr. Popper promises to be back in a year or two.

Tags: humor

Review:
The Devil's Arithmetic

Plot synopsis:
The book is a little different from the film. Hannah Stern is a 13-year-old Jewish girl living in the present day (time of publication: 1980s). She is bored by her relatives' stories about the past, is not looking forward to the Passover Seder, and is tired of her religion. When Hannah symbolically opens the door for the prophet Elijah, she is transported back in time to 1942 Poland, during World War II. At that time and place, the people believe she is Chaya Abramowicz, who is recovering from cholera, the fever that killed Chaya's parents a few months ago. The strange remarks Hannah/Chaya makes about the future and her inability to recognize her "aunt" Gitl and "uncle" Shmuel are blamed on the fever.
At her "uncle's" wedding, the Nazis come to transport the entire population of the village to a concentration camp near Donavin, and only Hannah knows all the terrors they will face: starvation, mistreatment, forced labor, and finally execution. She struggles to survive at the camp, with the help of a girl named Rivka. Uncle Shmuel and some other men try to escape; the men are caught. Fayge, who was going to be married to Shmuel, is killed because she runs to Shmuel when he is about to be shot with the men that were caught. Yitzchak escaped and lived in the forest with the partisans, fighting the Germans.
Later, when Hannah, Rivka, Esther, and Shifre are working, a guard overhears them talking instead of working. Shifre tries to reassure the guard they have been working, but he takes them anyway and leaves Hannah by herself. As the three are about to leave, Hannah takes Rivka's place by putting on her babushka. Since the guards don't know their faces, this goes unnoticed by the officer. The women are led to the gas chamber. She is then transported back to her family's Seder. Aunt Eva calls her over. Hannah looks at Aunt Eva's number; it is the same as Rivka's.
Hannah (when she was Chaya) was really the woman she was named after, Rivka was Aunt Eva, and Rivka's brother, Wolfe, was Grandpa Will. (Aunt Eva said that they changed their names when they got to America.)
The epilogue at the end of the novel reveals that when the camp was liberated, the survivors were Gitl (weighing a mere seventy-three pounds), Yitzchak, Rivka, and Leye (a worker in the camp) and her baby. Gitl and Yitzchak immigrate to Israel where Yitzchak becomes a politician while Gitl organizes a rescue mission that is dedicated to salvaging the lives of young survivors and locating family members. The organization is named after Chaya, her niece that died a hero.

Tags: storytelling

Review:
Joshilaay

Plot synopsis:
The film revolved around two men Dara (Sunny Deol) and Karan (Anil Kapoor). Both were wronged by Jogi Thakur (Rajesh Vivek) and his partner Raja Singh (Kulbhushan Karbandha). Daara was separated from his family and left near a circus where he was brought up and Karan´s family was murdered in front of him. After Jogi and Raja rob a village they are nabbed by the police. In the chase Raja betrays Yogi and hands him over to the police running away with the loot himself.
Twenty years later, Raja Singh has become Raja Saab, a dreaded ruler of many village and a respected man. Daara and Karan are both grown men now thirsting for revenge. Where Daara is the fun and witty type Karan is the silent and angry type. Jogi Thakur is also released from jail and thirsts revenge against Raja. The twists incurs when Daara wants Jogi Thakur alive to find about who his parents were and Karan wants Jogi Thakur dead.

Tags: revenge, cult

Review:
Mission to Moscow

Plot synopsis:
The film chronicles ambassador Davies' impressions of the Soviet Union, his meetings with Stalin, and his overall opinion of the Soviet Union and its ties with the United States. It is made in faux-documentary style, beginning with Davies meeting with president Franklin D. Roosevelt to discuss his new appointment as United States ambassador to the Soviet Union. It continues to show the Davies' family's trip by boat to Moscow, with stops in Europe.
While in Moscow, the movie alternates between Davies' interpretations of Russian politics and communism and his family's impressions of Russian life. It includes a memorable scene with Mrs. Davies at a Russian department store. The movie gives Davies' perspective on various points in Soviet history. It begins with the real ambassador Davies stating, while seated in an armchair, “No leaders of a nation have been so misrepresented and misunderstood as those in the Soviet government during those critical years between the two world wars.” The film then cuts to the film Davies and begins its narrative.
Davies is shown witnessing the famous show trials conducted by Stalin in the 1930s (known as the Moscow Trials), which are portrayed as trials of fifth columnists working for Germany and Japan.
The voice-overs continue throughout the film, interspersing storyline with Davies' opinions. The film's narrative focuses on the journey of Davies and his family. First, their physical journey from the United States to the Soviet Union. And, second, their less tangible journey from skeptics of communism and the Soviet Union into converts and enthusiasts. The narrative of the movie and the book are almost identical.

Tags: alternate history

Review:
Incendiary

Plot synopsis:
A young woman (Michelle Williams) is married to bomb-disposal officer Lenny (Nicholas Gleaves); they have a four-year-old son (Sidney Johnston).
While the young mother has sex with reporter Jasper (Ewan McGregor), Lenny, their son, and about 1000 others are killed in a terrorist attack carried out by six suicide bombers at a football match. Both Jasper and Lenny's boss, Terrence Butcher (Matthew Macfadyen), who is in charge of the anti-terrorist division, try to comfort the mother; both are also romantically interested in her.
Through Jasper's investigation into the bombing, the mother discovers the identity of one of the terrorists. She befriends his teenage son (Usman Khokhar), who only knows that his father is missing since the attacks. When he finds out what his father did, he panics and runs, causing the police to suspect him to be a terrorist. When he tries to take something out of his pocket they think he has a gun or wants to trigger a bomb; they shoot at him, but he is unarmed. The mother, who tried to protect him, is wounded, but not severely. Later, the terrorist's wife and son apologize to the mother for his part in the killings.
Terrence confesses to the mother that he knew that a suicide attack was going to happen and could have stopped it, but he did not in order to be able to continue his investigation of the terrorist group. He says that he did not know in which stadium it would happen, and also thought it would be of a smaller scale. Although he knew Lenny and his son would be going, he did not warn them.
Sometimes the mother is confused, thinking that nothing has happened to her son. Throughout the film, for therapeutic reasons, she writes a letter addressed to Osama bin Laden, who is assumed to be responsible for the attack.
In the film's final scenes, the mother has another son by Jasper, who is seen running to the hospital and asking for her at the nursing station.

Tags: flashback

Review:
Taxi

Plot synopsis:
Taxi portrays director Jafar Panahi as he courses through the streets of Tehran while pretending to be a share taxi driver. He wants to hear a piece of his passengers' life and declines any payment for the services. His earliest passengers include a conservative-minded man who supports capital punishment and a woman supporting its abolition, a pirated video vendor named Omid who once lent foreign films not available in the country to Panahi, an injured man and his wife who both insist on recording a last will due to their panic, and a pair of superstitious old women wanting to release their goldfishes to a holy spring.
Eventually, Panahi picks up his niece Hana at her school. She discusses about filmmaking and wants Panahi's advice on creating a short film for a school project; her teacher has said about several rules on creating films in Iran, including the avoidance of siahnamayi, or portraying a dark image about the country. However, Hana's teacher also stated that people should create film as they see fit. The two stop near a coffeehouse where Panahi meets with a family friend he has not seen for 7 years. The latter inquires about a burglary he recently experienced and his dilemma of not informing the authorities about the thieves, whom he personally knows, as they are poor and have nothing else to lose. Meanwhile, Hana films a case of siahnamayi herself when she spots a boy who steals money from a couple of newlyweds and refuses to return them.
Finally, Panahi and Hana meet with Nasrin Sotoudeh, a human rights lawyer about to see the imprisoned Ghoncheh Ghavami and possibly convince her to give up her hunger strike. While adjusting her seat, Hana stumbles upon a purse belonging to one of the old women with the goldfishes. Sotoudeh decides to leave early so Panahi can deliver the purse, but not before giving him a rose as a goodwill for filmmakers. Panahi and Hana proceed to the springs and are able to return the purse; at the same time as this happens, a pair of thieves ransack the taxi, before the film cuts off.

Tags: violence

Review:
Hot Summer Night

Plot synopsis:
Out of work but on his honeymoon, Bill Partain, a newspaper reporter, reads about a bank robbery in Sedalia, Missouri pulled off by notorious criminal Tom Ellis and his gang. Having once interviewed Ellis's girlfriend Ruth Childers for a Kansas City paper, Partain figures an exclusive interview with Ellis could assure him of landing a new job.
Lying to his new wife Irene about where they are going, Bill drives them to a small Ozarks town where he believes Ruth is living. Townspeople are reluctant to help Bill locate her, and deputy Lou Follett warns him that almost everyone in the community is afraid of Ellis.
Bill finally finds Ruth, who remembers him favorably. She manages to arrange his being taken to Ellis by a young man named Kermit who is not in the gang, but sometimes works for him. Ellis grants him an interview, boasting of his crimes, to the consternation of gunman Elly Horn, who suddenly shoots both Ellis and Kermit. He also shoots his own gang member, Oren, by mistake.
Irene, left behind, is desperate to find her husband, who is now being held by Elly for a ransom of $50,000. She gets the address from Ruth, hitchhikes to Ellis's hideout and notifies the police, who arrive just in time to rescue Bill.

Tags: murder

Review:
Les deux Anglaises et le continent

Plot synopsis:
The film begins in Paris around the year 1902 when Claude Roc and his widowed mother are visited by Ann Brown, daughter of an old friend. Ann invites Claude to spend the summer on the coast of Wales with her widowed mother and sister Muriel. While she enjoys Claude's company, her hope is that he may be a husband for her introverted sister. In the event, Claude and Muriel do start to fall in love and Mrs Brown, with the agreement of Madame Roc, says they must live apart for a year.
Returning to France, Claude moves in artistic circles and meets many attractive women while Muriel gets increasingly despondent in Wales. Ann leaves home to study art in Paris, where she falls into an affair with Claude, only to leave him for Diurka, a dashing publisher who takes her off to Persia. When Muriel is told of the affair, she collapses into deep depression. Ann falls ill and returns to Wales, dying among her family with Diurka at her side.
Diurka tells Claude that Muriel is leaving home to take a job in Belgium. Claude meets her ship at Calais and they spend that night together in a hotel. In the morning she says they must now part for ever. Later she writes to say she is pregnant, raising Claude's hopes of marriage, but a second letter says she has miscarried and their relationship is truly at an end.
In an epilogue set in the 1920s, the unmarried and orphaned Claude, now a successful author, still dreams of the artistic gifts of Ann and the children Muriel might have had.

Tags: romantic

Review:
Vabank

Plot synopsis:
The film begins in 1943 at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, with newly commissioned Lt. Michael Grayson (Johnson) reporting for duty with the 442nd, then in training. He discovers that he has been sent to a unit composed of Nisei; he had expected to return to the U.S. 36th Infantry Division, a Texas National Guard unit with which he had served as an enlisted man. Having joined the war to fight against the Japanese, he is disturbed to find he is expected to fight alongside people whom he sees as Japanese, rather than Americans. From the outset, Grayson runs his platoon rather harshly, including an almost martinet-like insistence upon the strict observance of regulations.
He (and the audience) learn that "Go for broke" is a pidgin phrase (used in Hawaii) meaning to gamble everything, to "shoot the works"—to risk "going broke" or bankruptcy. Eventually Grayson also learns the meaning of the frequently repeated expletive Baka tare, which, loosely translated, means "very stupid."
There is only brief mention of the internment camps from which most of the men have come, but throughout the film there are references to the camps. There are also a few brief references to the distinctions between the Nisei from Hawaii ("Buta-heads") and those from the mainland ("Katonks"). While Buta-heads (the phrase later devolved to "Buddha-Heads") were a key part of the Hawaiian economy and society, Katonks were largely distrusted and disliked by their neighbors.
Arriving in Italy, the unit is joined by the 100th Battalion, the Nisei unit formed in Hawaii before the 442nd was created on the mainland. The troops of the 100th are seasoned veterans and the new arrivals look to them for advice. On the march to the front lines, Grayson inadvertently gets left behind while fraternizing with a signorina, but when he catches up he finds that his platoon has covered for him during an inspection of their positions by the colonel.
Through fighting in Italy and France, Grayson eventually comes to respect the Nisei, and his bigotry fades. Eventually he is transferred back to his old unit, the 36th as a liaison—over his objections—when the 442nd is attached to the larger unit. As he has misjudged the Nisei, they have misjudged Grayson. They eventually learn that he has defended them against bigotry, even getting into a fistfight with an old friend of his from the 36th who had insulted them.
The climax of the movie comes with the "Buddha-heads'" famous rescue of the "Lost Battalion", after the 36th is surrounded by the German army. Then comes their return home, and the award of the eighth Presidential Unit Citation.

Tags: revenge, suspenseful, murder

Review:
Radio Flyer

Plot synopsis:
Mike (Tom Hanks) is observing his two sons fighting; with one insisting that a promise doesn't mean anything. To make them understand that a promise does mean something, he tells them the story of his youth. Young Mike (Elijah Wood), his little brother Bobby (Joseph Mazzello), their mother Mary (Lorraine Bracco) and their German Shepherd Shane move to a new town after their father/husband leaves them. There, Mary marries a new man named Jack (Adam Baldwin), who likes the others to call him "The King". Unbeknownst to Mary, the King is an alcoholic who often gets drunk and beats Bobby.
The two boys, seeing that their mother has found happiness at last with the King, are reluctant to tell either her or the police about the abuse. They instead try to avoid the King by exploring and having adventures amidst the turmoil and traumatic experiences. In the process, the two devise a plan for Bobby to escape the King once and for all.
Inspired by the urban legend of a boy named Fisher who attempted to fly away on his bicycle, the two convert their eponymous Radio Flyer toy wagon into an airplane. With it, Bobby flies away. Though Mike never sees him again, he continues to receive postcards from him from places all over the world.

Tags: flashback

Review:
That's Incredible!

Plot synopsis:
The show was co-hosted by Fran Tarkenton, John Davidson, and Cathy Lee Crosby, and was produced by Alan Landsburg Productions. Originally aired as an hour-long program, episodes were later re-edited into 30 minute segments for syndication. It debuted on March 3, 1980.
A number of the stunts performed were dangerous, including juggling knives, staying inside a small box for hours, and one involving a man supposedly catching a bullet between his teeth. The dangerous nature of these stunts eventually prompted producers to augment the footage with the caption "Do Not Try This Yourself". Steve Baker also known as "Mr. Escape", was frequently featured on the show.
The show has been cited as an influence on hip-hop culture in New Zealand, where much television programming in the 1980s was American. In 1983 the show featured several dancing crews, giving youth of Pacific Island and Maori heritage, many of whom were interested in hip-hop culture and dance, a sense of connectedness to global youth culture. In the early 1980s, Army Lt. Col. Earl Woods (Ret.) brought his son Eldrick to That's Incredible, showing his ability to putt a golf ball into a hole from different areas. Eldrick is now better known by his nickname Tiger.

Tags: non fiction

Review:
Hour of the Gun

Plot synopsis:
Outnumbered but determined, Wyatt Earp (James Garner), his brothers Virgil (Frank Converse) and Morgan (Sam Melville) and ally Doc Holliday (Jason Robards) confront and clearly get the best of the Ike Clanton gang in a violent shootout at the O.K. Corral in the Arizona town of Tombstone.
Ike (Robert Ryan), a rustler, conspires to have the Earps charged with murder and tried in a court of law. When they are cleared, Virgil runs for Tombstone City Sheriff, but is ambushed and maimed by some of Clanton's hired guns. Morgan elects to take the job in his brother's place, but, unlike his brother, he is killed.
Doc Holliday, a gambler who has been on the wrong side of the law himself more than once, is terminally ill with tuberculosis and is admitted into a Colorado sanitarium. Earp intends to clear out of Tombstone with what's left of his family and move to California, but changes his mind upon being appointed a federal marshal for the territory.
Guns blazing, Earp and his posse ruthlessly hunt and kill various members of Clanton's gang. He rides to Mexico for a final showdown with Ike, shooting him dead. He makes one last trip to Holliday's death bed to say goodbye to his unlikely friend, then hangs up his badge and guns for good.

Tags: good versus evil, revenge, murder, violence

Review: