cryptexcode/MPST huggingface dataset:
Tierra de pasiones

Plot synopsis:
In a beautiful valley where the most exquisite grapes are farmed, an intense and sizzling love story will flourish between Valeria San Roman, a beautiful woman with a strong character, which has given her the strength to face life's deceptions, and Francisco Contreras, renowned publisher, widower and a man of will.
Valeria, who manages the San Roman vineyard, hasn’t had an easy life. Her own father, Jose Maria `Chema` San Roman, the family's patriarch, has always hated her because she is the only one who doesn’t obey him. A man without scruples, selfish and womanizing, Chema arrived to the United States, married Valeria's mom to steal everything from her and later disposed of her. If that weren’t enough, Chema schemes a hideous plan causing Valeria to experience a horrible betrayal.
Meanwhile, Francisco arrives to visit his father at the ranch only to learn that he has married Marcia, a woman much younger than he who leads him to the brink of bankruptcy and drives him to suicide. At that time, Francisco decides to stay in the valley and save the family business from bankruptcy.
When Valeria and Francisco meet, their strong personalities undoubtedly clash, although it is evident that there is a strong chemistry between them. They team up to form a partnership convenient to both and are resigned to the idea of having to put up with each other. As they get to know one another, a love stems between them that will survive all the challenges they will encounter along the way.
But, when destiny finally gives Valeria this new opportunity, Pablo, an old flame she thought was dead, comes back from the past to change everything.

Tags: melodrama

Review:
Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak

Plot synopsis:
Dhanakpur village farmer Thakur Jaswant Singh (Alok Nath) and Dhanraj Singh (Dalip Tahil) are brothers. They have a younger sister Madhumati, who was used, made pregnant and ditched by Ratan Singh (played by Arjun), the son of Thakur Raghuveer Singh from a big Rajput family. The family refuses Jaswant Singh's request to get his sister married to Ratan. Ratan's family refuses to accept that he is guilty, as they are interested in their status.
Insulted, Jaswant leaves the village. Unable to tolerate the events, Madhumati commits suicide. Frustrated, Dhanraj kills Ratan at his wedding and gets imprisoned. The two families are now bitter enemies. Jaswant moves to Delhi, develops his business, and reaches good status; he also raises Dhanraj's kids. Years later, Dhanraj gets released from the prison. Upon release, Dhanraj receives a letter from his son, Raj (Aamir Khan), an ardent music lover, who completes his education in Rajput College. An emotional Dhanraj sneaks into Raj's college farewell party and is glad to see his son fulfill his dreams.
In a twist of fate, Raj and his buddy go to Dhanakpur to clear his family's land deal. While returning home, Raj falls for Rashmi (Juhi Chawla), a relative of Raghuveer Singh. Raj sneaks into Rashmi's birthday bash. The two meet again at a holiday spot. They become lost in the forest and fall in love while finding a way out. Raj finds out about Rashmi's family but is unable to tell her the truth. When Randhir Singh, Rashmi's father, finds out about the affair, he immediately arranges Rashmi's wedding. The lovers take on their families and elope, dreaming of an idyllic life together.
Furious, Randhir hires a contract killer to kill Raj. The lovers have a brief interval of happiness. They stay in a deserted fort, happy in their own paradise. When Randhir learns their whereabouts, he goes there to bring Rashmi home and ensure that Raj is killed. Randhir's mother does not wish for this so she goes to Dhanraj and tells him to save them. Raj leaves the fort to bring some wood for their house. While Raj is away, Randhir meets with Rashmi and tells her to come home; he has "accepted their love". Rashmi is overjoyed at her father's words, not knowing the truth. In the forest, Raj is chased by the henchmen.
Dhanraj reaches the fort and repeatedly asks about his son's whereabouts. They get in a fight and a gunshot is heard. Rashmi leaves the scene to make sure that Raj is okay. He is about to be shot but, on seeing Rashmi, the henchman shoots her instead. She is shot twice and rolls down the hill. Raj overpowers the henchman and reaches Rashmi's side, crying. They promise never to leave each other. On saying this, Rashmi breathes her last in Raj's arms. A grief-stricken Raj is devastated by Rashmi's death, and says that nothing can separate them. He commits suicide with a dagger given to him by Rashmi and dies with his head on her chest.
The final scene is both families running toward them; the lovers are together, never to be separated, as the sun sets behind them.

Tags: tragedy, revenge, murder, romantic

Review:
Stranded

Plot synopsis:
The episode begins with Jerry and George at a drug store to purchase medicine where George becomes involved in an altercation with the cashier (played by Gwen Shepherd), accusing her of short-changing him ten dollars. He is removed by the security guard. George gets invited to a party on Long Island and brings Elaine and Jerry with him. Jerry and Elaine have a bad time trapped in boring conversations, and Elaine confronts a woman because of her fur coat. At one point during the party, Elaine does a mock Australian accent from the film A Cry in the Dark and exclaims "Maybe the dingo ate your baby?"
When a co-worker starts coming on to George, he strands Jerry and Elaine at the party, leaving them to wait for a very late Kramer. As a sign of gratitude for allowing him and Elaine to wait at his home, Jerry suggests the hosts, Steve (played by Michael Chiklis) and Jenny, stop by his apartment if they are ever in Manhattan.
A week later, to Jerry's surprise, Steve takes him up on his offer just as Jerry is heading out the door. Jerry allows him to wait in the apartment until his return. However, Kramer stops by and he and Steve have a drink and bond. Eventually Steve hires a prostitute to come over to Jerry's apartment. Jerry and George meet at the drug store where they speak about George's coworker, whom he slept with after the party. Then, after Jerry picks a medicine, George puts it in his shirt under his jacket as retribution for the short-changing incident before. The security guard witnesses the whole event and takes him to jail.
Just as Jerry arrives, Steve leaves the apartment without paying the prostitute, who refuses to leave until paid. As Jerry is paying the girl off, cops arrive and he's "busted" for fomenting prostitution. Elaine arrives and prepares to squabble with the prostitute over her fur coat. In the final scene Jerry and George fondly reminisce about their time in jail.

Tags: revenge

Review:
Voleurs de chevaux

Plot synopsis:
The story of the film happens in 1810, somewhere in an Eastern country. Nineteen-year-old Jakub and his eighteen-year-old brother Vladimir have just joined the Cossacks. Jakub is strong and protects Vladimir, who is weaker and quite fragile. Jakub quickly angers and often being locked for punishment. While he is away, Vladimir is being beaten, abused and raped by other boys. After Jakub and Vlad graduate from training, they understand that being a Cossack is quite harsh and terrible. They participate in Cossack raid on a village during which many women and children are killed. They despise murdering behavior and pillaging that Cossacks did and go AWOL.
Elias, 17 and Roman, 30 are two brothers who live in the woods and steal horses. They saw Jakub and Vladimir swimming in the pool, and seizing a moment, steal Jakub and Vladimir's horses. Vladimir and Jakub pursue the thieves and Roman kills Vladimir during confrontation. Jakub is devastated and cannot think about anything but revenge. Determined to avenge the death of his brother, he stalks Roman and Elias in order to get his revenge, finding that he may harm Roman by killing Elias. The events are drawn to a closing dramatic finale.

Tags: revenge, cruelty, murder, violence, flashback

Review:
Devil's Canyon

Plot synopsis:
Arizona, 1897: A female outlaw, Abby Nixon, warns a lawman, Billy Reynolds, that her accomplices Bud and Cole Gorman are nearby. Reynolds manages to kill both in a gunfight, but finds himself arrested for murder, convicted and sentenced to a desert prison known as Devil's Canyon.
One of the prisoners there is a third Gorman brother, the ruthless Jesse, who intends to gain revenge for Reynolds having killed his kin. Jesse is also romantically involved with Abby, but is unaware that she's the one who tipped off Reynolds as to his brothers' whereabouts.
Reynolds is treated fairly by Morgan, the warden, but not by Captain Wells, a sadistic guard. Abby ends up sent to Devil's Canyon herself for a robbery. To keep her as far as possible from the male inmates, Abby is assigned to work with Dr. Betts in the prison infirmary. She treats Reynolds' wounds after Jesse injures him in a fight.
Abby plots a jailbreak. Sneaking guns to Joe and Red, outlaw partners of Jesse, she tries to persuade Reynolds to join them. He refuses, respecting the law and also not trusting Jesse a bit. Wells finds knives in Reynolds' cell, planted there by Jesse.
The warden and Wells are tipped off about the breakout, but Jesse guns down Wells in cold blood. Guards are taken hostage and the other prisoners are set free. Abby, now afraid of Jesse and his violent ways, is slapped by him and left behind. She manages to free Reynolds, who takes over the guards' machine-gun nest, kills Jesse and orders the others back to their cells. The warden vows to do everything in his power to grant Reynolds and Abby a pardon for their crimes.

Tags: revenge

Review:
The Big Bus

Plot synopsis:
Coyote Bus Lines' scientists and designers work feverishly to complete Cyclops, a state-of-the-art articulated jumbo bus, enabling man to achieve a new milestone in bussing: non-stop service between New York City and Denver. Almost immediately after the bus's engine is equipped with nuclear fuel, a bomb goes off, critically injuring Professor Baxter, the scientist in charge of the project. Cyclops itself is undamaged, but Coyote Lines has lost both its driver and co-driver.
Kitty Baxter, the professor's daughter and the Cyclops designer, is forced to turn to Dan Torrance, an old flame. Once a promising driver, Torrance was disgraced after he crashed his bus atop Mount Diablo, and was accused of saving his own life by eating all of his passengers. (Torrance blamed his co-driver for cannibalism, insisting that he himself survived by eating the seats and the luggage, and only ate part of a passenger's foot by accident.) Narrowly surviving an assault by vindictive fellow drivers with the help of "Shoulders" O'Brien, Torrance is recruited to drive Cyclops.
Meanwhile, a sinister tycoon plots with oil sheikhs to destroy the bus. Known as "Iron Man," he is encased in a huge iron lung while directing his brother Alex to sabotage Cyclops using timebombs. Alex would prefer to use a manmade earthquake, but Iron Man insists that the bus be destroyed and discredited. Before its maiden voyage, Alex sneaks aboard and hides a bomb within the bus.
Amid public fanfare, the bus finally leaves New York bound for Denver. Among the passengers are the Cranes, a neurotic married couple waiting for their divorce to finalize; Father Kudos, a priest who has lost his way; Dr. Kurtz, a disgraced veterinarian; Emery Bush, a man with only a few months to live; and Camille Levy, whose father died in the aforementioned Mount Diablo bus crash.
At first, Cyclops journey is a success, and Torrance triumphantly breaks the 90 mph "wind barrier" (referenced as "breaking wind"). Soon, however, disaster strikes. Investigating a mechanical problem, Dan finds Alex's bomb. He disarms it only before an explosion rips through another part of the bus. Now unable to stop, Cyclops speeds across America. Dan is determined to achieve Cyclops historic goal of non-stop service to Denver, but he also needs to surpass a treacherously curvy road where his father died. Dan almost succeeds, but not before a truck collides into the upper deck windshield, and the bus runs partially off the road, finding itself teetering over a cliff. To save the bus, Dan and Shoulders shift all weight to the back of the bus by pumping all of the vehicle's storage of carbonated beverages into the opposite end of the bus into the galley, as well as jettisoning all of the passenger luggage.
Knowing he has only one more chance to destroy Cyclops, Iron Man is finally persuaded by Alex to use the earthquake. Unfortunately for Iron Man, Alex has somehow set the coordinates for Iron Man's house instead.
Back on the road, Cyclops is once again headed to its destination, when, only 25 miles outside of Denver, the front and rear halves of the bus split from each other.

Tags: absurd, comedy

Review:
Shock

Plot synopsis:
The film revolves around Vasanth (Prashanth), a stock analyst, and his wife Malini (Meena). The two are in search for a flat in Chennai. Vassanth finds the perfect place on the 12th floor of a high-rise apartment building. However, the apartment has a horrifying past. The previous occupant of the flat, a young woman Manju who had killed her child and jumped from the balcony and died. Malini learns about this incident shortly after moving in and becomes oddly fixated with the story. Then, a series of inexplicable experiences drive Malini to near madness.
Vasanth becomes helpless and convinced his wife has developed some sort of psychological disorder. He consults a psychiatrist, Dr. Ranjan (Sarath Babu) after his treatment fails Vasanth begins to doubt that his wife is suffering from a psychological disease. The couple’s maid (Kalairani) believes Malini to be possessed, and calls in an exorcist (Suhasini).
Meanwhile, other seemingly unrelated events take place around the building. The watchman was gruesomely murdered with his head completely twisted, one of the residents Ajay (Abbas) is behaving erratically, and a murder occurs. The Inspector (Thiagarajan) is sent to investigate the murder at the building. The Exorcist spends time with Malini and learns that Malini is in fact possessed by the Manju. For more help, Vasanth goes to the Manju's mother (K. R. Vijaya). With the mother's help, the possessed Malini lets everyone know that Ajay lusted after Manju and forced himself on her, and to save herself she jumped from her balcony. Later, Ajay realised that her son had witnessed the murder, and got the watchman to throw the little boy from the balcony, and creating a fake story that the woman had killed her son and then committed suicide.
By killing the watchman via Malini, the Manju takes revenge for her son's death and now wants to kill Ajay. At the last minute, the mother comes and tells her dead daughter's soul that she cannot take revenge from Ajay by making Malini a murderer, so the woman leaves Malini's body and Ajay is lifted above ground and thrown about in front of everyone, including Dr. Ranjan and the inspector (who first ridiculed the story). The story ends with Ajay going to prison and the inspector telling him how people like Ajay make him sick and tells him to rot in a jail cell forever. After the inspector leaves the darkened cell, Ajay finds himself face to face with Manju. He starts begging for mercy, but his voice soon fades out as Manju draws closer; it is implied that she kills Ajay.

Tags: romantic

Review:
Rhythm of the Saddle

Plot synopsis:
The owner of the Silver Shadow ranch, Maureen McClune (Peggy Moran), runs the Frontier Week rodeo every year, relying on the financial success of the event to support the ranch. The current rodeo is the most profitable in the event's history, but Maureen is told by the rodeo organizers that she must do even better if she hopes to get her contract renewed. Maureen's main competition is Jack Pomeroy (LeRoy Mason), who owns a rival ranch and a local nightclub and gambling house.
Following a series of "accidents" apparently caused by negligence during the rodeo, Maureen's foreman, Gene Autry (Gene Autry), sets out to prove that Pomeroy is responsible. Maureen's Aunt Hattie (Pert Kelton) wins some money at a roulette table at Pomeroy's club, thanks to Gene's disabling of the rigged mechanisms. Returning home, they are ambushed by Pomeroy's men. Later, Gene breaks into Pomeroy's office to get additional proof of his guilt.
On the last day of the Frontier Week rodeo, Gene rides against one of Pomeroy's men in the final event, a stagecoach race. Aunt Hattie bets everything she has on Gene, hoping to save the ranch. When Gene discovers his friend, Frog Milhouse (Smiley Burnette), making a recording of a proposal to Hattie, he realizes that Frog's recorder could entrap Pomeroy. He instructs Frog to place the device below Pomeroy's seats at the rodeo just before the start of the race.
Pomeroy persuades the sheriff that Gene has committed a murder, but Gene is able to escape. With Frog's help, Gene is able to make it to the race on time. While Gene rides furiously, nearly losing his life, Frog records Pomeroy and his men discussing the "accidents" they created during the rodeo. Gene ends up winning the race, Hattie wins her bet, and Pomeroy and his henchmen are arrested. With their financial worries behind them, Gene and Maureen are free to marry, as are Frog and Hattie.

Tags: murder

Review:
The Blue Bird

Plot synopsis:
When poor old widow Berlingot asks Tyltyl and Mytyl, the young son and daughter of her more prosperous neighbors, for the loan of their pet bird to cheer up her ill daughter, Mytyl selfishly refuses. That night, when the children are asleep, the fairy Bérylune enters their home in the semblance of Berlingot, before transforming into her true beautiful appearance. She insists that the children search for the bluebird of happiness. She gives Tyltyl a magical hat which has the power to show him the insides of things. As a result, the souls of fire, water, light, bread, sugar and milk becoming personified, and their pet dog and cat can now speak with their masters. Before they all set out, Bérylune warns the children that their new companions will all perish once their quest is achieved.
The fairy then takes them to various places to search. At the Palace of Night, the traitorous cat forewarns the Mother of Night, having heard the fairy's prediction. The dog saves Tyltyl from one of the dangers of the palace. In a graveyard, the dead come alive at midnight, and Tyltyl and Mytyl are reunited with their grandmother, grandfather and siblings. They receive a blue bird, but when they leave, it disappears. Next, they visit the Palace of Happiness. After seeing various lesser joys and happinesses, they are shown the greatest of them all: maternal love in the form of their own mother. Finally, they are transported to the Kingdom of the Future, where children wait to be born, including their brother. Nowhere do they find the bluebird.
Returning home empty-handed, the children see that the bird has been in a cage in their home the whole time. Mytyl gives the bird to Berlingot. She returns shortly afterward with her daughter, now well. However, the bird escapes from the daughter's grasp and flies away. Tyltyl comforts the upset neighbor girl, then turns to the audience and asks the viewers to search for the bluebird where they are most likely to find it: in their own homes.

Tags: fantasy

Review:
Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Plot synopsis:
In Southey's tale, three anthropomorphic bears – "a Little, Small, Wee Bear, a Middle-sized Bear, and a Great, Huge Bear" – live together in a house in the woods. Southey describes them as very good-natured, trusting, harmless, tidy, and hospitable. Each of these "bachelor" bears has his own porridge bowl, chair, and bed. One day they make porridge for breakfast, but it's too hot to eat, so take a walk in the woods while their porridge cools. An old woman named silver hair approaches the bears' house. As she has been sent out by her family, she is a disgrace to them. She is impudent, bad, foul-mouthed, ugly, dirty, and a vagrant deserving of a stint in the House of Correction. She looks through a window, peeps through the keyhole, and lifts the latch. Assured that no one is home, she walks in. The silver haired old lady eats the Wee Bear's porridge, then settles into his chair and breaks it. Prowling about, she finds the bears' beds and falls asleep in Wee Bear's bed. The dark end of the tale is reached when the bears return. Wee Bear finds his empty bowl, his broken chair, and silver hair in his bed and cries, "Somebody has been lying in my bed, and here she is!" silver hair starts, runs away, breaks her neck and goes to the hospital.

Tags: fantasy

Review:
Sureiyâzu

Plot synopsis:
The powerful teenage sorceress Lina Inverse and her traveling companion and self-styled archrival Naga the Serpent, having been reunited after Naga was (once again) hired against Lina, obtain two discounted tickets for a tour to the fabled hot springs of Mipross Island. However, they discover almost immediately that those hot springs are fake and the island is controlled by a group of bandits. The two heroines clean up the island from them but learn they have been sent by someone called "the Great Master".
Meanwhile, Lina is repeatedly visited during sleep by an old insistent man that narrates about the love between a heroic boy Rowdy and a young elf girl Meliroon, tragically interrupted by the appearance of a mazoku (demon) named Joyrock that destroyed the city of elves and killed Meliroon. In another dream, between an event and another, Lina discovers that the old storyteller is the young hero himself and he gained the power of elves, with the ability of seeing the future, and that he was the owner of the legendary Sword of Light.
Lina and Naga deliver the most dangerous bandits to the king, who asks Lina to take action against Joyrock. He and the queen were contacted by the old sage Rowdy in dream and he told them the demon came back again to Mipross and is wreaking havoc in the northern part of the island, blocking the natural flux of hot spring's water, so the girl named Lina Inverse is the only able to beat him. Lina is initially reluctant, but in exchange of a reward (and Rowdy's promise to reveal the secret location of a hot spring that make things growing up) she and Naga decide to take action against the demon.
Joyrock shows himself in the form of a frog, then turns into a reptile-like creature and reveals to be the Great Master who pulled the strings of the events that took place on the island. Lina attempts to slay him with her destructive Dragon Slave spell, but he disappears and reappears from the astral plane and injures Lina, who luckily is rescued by Naga and Rowdy. The old sage heals Lina and tells them he could use his magic to get back in time and change history, but the two sorceress must help him defeating the Joyrock from the past. At the same time he casts the spell, the demon appears and kills Rowdy. Luckily, Lina manages to travel in the void of time (Naga is missing at this moment), she meets the young Rowdy and, with the help of the Sword of Light combined with Dragon Slave, they finally destroy the demon. Along with coincidentally rescued Naga, they return to present time.
Before going back to the mainland, Lina remembers she has to visit the hidden hot spring promised by Rowdy, but there she discovers it is a magical water that makes things like vegetables growing older, and not growing bigger as she hoped for her breasts. Shouting angrily to the ghost of Rowdy, Lina runs away in shame, followed by Naga, and they keep on running until late night. During the end credits, it is shown that the inhabitants of Mipross have erected a statue in honor of the two heroes of the island: the young Rowdy and Lina Inverse.

Tags: good versus evil, psychedelic, fantasy

Review:
Badman's Territory

Plot synopsis:
Just north of Texas and west of the Oklahoma border is "Badman's Territory", a region not yet governed by statehood. This is where Jesse James and brother Frank head after a train robbery, along with their partner, Coyote.
Mark Rowley, a lawman, and his deputy brother Johnny are after the James gang. So is a ruthless U.S. marshal named Hampton who shoots anybody who gets in his way. He even wings Johnny Rowley just to take the newly captured Coyote away from him.
In the town of Quinto, newspaper editor Henryetta Alcott is a crusader for law and order. Mark takes an immediate liking to her. He also helps Belle Starr's horse win a big race.
Johnny's injuries mend, but the Dalton gang persuades Johnny to go bad and join them. Mark tries to dissuade him. He shoots a man named McGee who stole his horse. Hampton puts up wanted posters on both Rowleys.
Henryetta spreads the word that Oklahoma has annexed this territory into the union. Mark is appointed a "regulator" and proposes marriage to Henryetta before he rides to Coffeyville, Kansas, where the Daltons are about to pull a job with Johnny as part of the gang.
Johnny is shot and killed, and Hampton also kills Coyote. A determined Mark Rowley must deal with Hampton once and for all if Henryetta and he are to have a future together.

Tags: violence, murder

Review:
Captain America: Super Soldier

Plot synopsis:
The game begins in France in 1944, where two U.S. soldiers are getting attacked by HYDRA forces. Captain America arrives to save them and manages to fend off the Hydra forces before contacting Howard Stark with regards to the new threat.
While in communication with Peggy Carter, Captain America learns that the munitions recovered from the battle came from the mountains of Bavaria based on the rare metal used. Captain America is briefed on Project: Master Man and how Dr. Arnim Zola has unlocked the secrets of the human genome as one step towards immortality. He drops down in a village near the castle and disables anti-air forces so that the Invaders can enter the village. He then proceeds towards the armory in order to destroy the weapons before they are sold to the Nazis.
While Captain America makes his way through the enemy forces led by Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker, he is surprised by Strucker, who manages to knock him unconscious as they both fall from the exploding tower. Captain America is then taken to Zola's lab by Iron Cross and sees Madam Hydra give orders for an analysis of Captain America's shield. After a brief talk of how his blood was taken, Zola shows his new project involving more test subjects containing the Super Soldier Serum from the Captain's blood. He shortly breaks free and proceeds through the base to destroy the samples of Zola's experiments for an army of Super Soldiers. He learns that some of his friends are being held near his present location. As he makes his way to rescue Dum Dum Dugan and Falsworth, Zola's experimental Super Soldiers escape.
After freeing Dugan, he pursues Madam Hydra who has taken Falsworth. He catches up to her and in the exchange, but she managed to flee. Captain America decides to pursue Red Skull instead, who is intended to use the Cosmic Cube to activate the Sleeper. Captain America uses a train to enter Zola's special lab where he is building the Sleeper. Red Skull arrives wanting the upgraded Super Soldier serum Zola synthesized from the Captain's blood. Captain America follows and destroys the sample, enraging Red Skull who orders Iron Cross to kill him. Captain America defeats Iron Cross and pursues Skull, only for the Sleeper to awake and crumble the lab. Zola escapes and activates a robot body for a later use. Captain America awakens and finds a map of his location, using it to locate Falsworth.
Having finally located Falsworth, Zola's robot arrives and attempts to kill Captain America. After defeating the Zola Bot, he frees Falsworth. Falsworth reveals that something big is underground that not even the planes can stop. Captain America makes his way to the courtyard to confront the Sleeper which shoots down one of the airplanes. With Dugan's help, he manages to destroy the Sleeper. Upon escaping the exploding castle, Captain America rendezvous with Bucky, Dugan, and Falsworth.
In the post-credits Arnim Zola unplugs from his defeated Zola Bots. Red Skull orders him to get back to work, stating that they will be seeing Captain America again soon enough.

Tags: good versus evil, violence

Review:
Boston Blackie and the Law

Plot synopsis:
When Boston Blackie performs magic tricks at a Thanksgiving Day party for the inmates of a women's prison, Dinah Moran (Constance Dowling) volunteers to enter a booth. She disappears after he draws the curtain, but as a former magician's assistant, uses the opportunity to escape. Police Inspector Farraday (Richard Lane) takes Blackie into custody as an accomplice, but Blackie easily gets away himself.
A trip to the library reveals that Dinah was sent to prison for three years for a robbery that netted $100,000 (which was never recovered) and a dead victim. Her magician former husband, John Lampau, was acquitted. Blackie tracks Lampau down, still performing magic, but now under the name of Jani, to warn him. Dinah shows up minutes later, having heard that Jani intends to marry his new assistant, Irene (Trudy Marshall). Dinah has come to make sure she gets her half of the loot. In a scuffle, she grazes Jani's right hand with a gunshot before fleeing. Blackie arranges to impersonate Jani, while the magician hides in Blackie's absent friend's apartment.
That night, Blackie is awoken by sounds in Jani's apartment. When he investigates, a woman runs out of the unlit room.
Blackie eventually locates the money in Jani's safety deposit box and takes it, still disguised as Jani. Outside, Dinah forces him at gunpoint to give her the envelope containing the loot, but when she opens it, it is empty. Blackie had taken the precaution of pocketing the money. In the meantime, Blackie's friend returns home from a trip early and finds Jani's body in the closet. Farraday corners and arrests Blackie and his sidekick, "the Runt" (George E. Stone), for murder. Blackie easily escapes from his cell.
Returning to the theatre where Jani performed, he finds an armed Irene over Dinah's lifeless body. She admits she herself was after the money all along. She makes Blackie hand it over, before calling the police. When Farraday and his dimwitted assistant, Sergeant Matthews (Frank Sully), arrive, Blackie tells them he recorded Irene's confession when he turned on the radio for some music. When he plays it for them, Irene tries to run, but is caught and taken away. Blackie then informs Farraday that there was no recording; he merely used ventriloquism to reenact his part of the prior conversation to fool Irene.

Tags: murder

Review:
Behind Green Lights

Plot synopsis:
Police Lieutenant Sam Carson spots Walter Bard's bullet-ridden corpse in a car brazenly left in front of the police station. Carson questions Janet Bradley after finding her name in the dead man's appointment book. She admits that the Bard had been blackmailing her friend for $20,000, and that she went to see him, though she had been able to raise only half the money. When he refused to settle for that, she claims she took what she came for at gunpoint. Max Calvert, a newspaper owner, pressures Carson to arrest Bradley to hurt her father's election campaign for mayor. Carson declines.
When Dr. Yager, the corrupt medical examiner, informs Calvert that Bard actually died from poison, Calvert orders him to get the body out of the police station and substitute another corpse for it before anyone else finds out.
Meanwhile, Carson interviews Bard's estranged wife, Nora, who is accompanied by her lawyer and boyfriend, Arthur Templeton.
Complications ensue when a prisoner pulls his own switch, taking the place of Bard's body to escape from the police station in an ambulance. Johnny Williams, the new reporter on the police beat, finds the missing body in a closet. He gets a scoop for his newspaper, and Carson gets his corpse back. The lieutenant notices there is very little blood for a fatal gunshot, so he orders another autopsy, by someone other than Yager.
Then Nora Bard and Arthur Templeton voluntarily confess to him that they lied before. Nora was in her husband's apartment when he died. She had gone to plead for a divorce, and hid in another room when Janet Bradley arrived. After Janet left, Nora found Walter dying after drinking some liquor. When she ran out, she was seen by Templeton. He went into the apartment, assumed Nora had committed the crime, and staged the fake suicide to protect her.
Noticing a fresh flower among Bard's effects, Carson questions flower seller Flossie. She mentions that when she went to try to collect what Bard owed her, she saw Yager unlock and enter Bard's apartment. Carson confronts Yager. Knowing that Bard had been investigating Yager for a malpractice suit, the policeman guesses that Yager stole the evidence Bard had found and poisoned the liquor. Yager makes a break for it, but is caught. At Detective Oppenheimer's suggestion, Carson then takes Janet Bradley out.

Tags: murder

Review:
The Dreamers

Plot synopsis:
Matthew (Michael Pitt) is an American exchange student who has come to Paris to study French. While at the Cinémathèque Française protesting the firing of Henri Langlois, he meets the free-spirited twins Théo (Louis Garrel) and Isabelle (Eva Green). The three bond over a shared love of film.
After dinner with their parents (Anna Chancellor and Robin Renucci), Théo and Isabelle offer Matthew the chance to stay with them while their parents are on a trip. Matthew accepts, considering them his first French friends.
Matthew becomes suspicious of their relationship after seeing them sleeping nude together; he soon discovers that they accept nudity and sexuality liberally. After Théo loses at a trivia game, Isabelle sentences him to masturbate to a Marlene Dietrich poster in front of them. After Matthew loses at another game, he is forced to take Isabelle's virginity. The two then become lovers.
Matthew begins to accept Théo and Isabelle's sexuality and his time living with them soon becomes idyllic. The three re-enact a famous scene from Bande à part by "breaking the world record for running through the Louvre", and Matthew and Théo engage in playful arguments about Charles Chaplin and Buster Keaton, Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix, as well as the subject of Maoism, which Théo fervently believes in. Matthew and Isabelle also continue their relationship, although Matthew attempts to take her on regular dates, which she has not experienced before.
One night, while the three are sleeping naked together in the living room, Théo and Isabelle's parents arrive to leave a cheque for groceries. They are startled and disturbed by what they find. After they leave, Isabelle wakes up and discovers the cheque, realizing that their parents have found them. Wordlessly, she attaches a hose to the gas outlet and lies back down with Théo and Matthew, attempting to commit suicide. After a few moments, however, they are woken by a brick being hurled through the window; they discover hundreds of students rioting in the streets. All three of them are overjoyed and proceed to join the protesters. Later on, Théo joins a small team of protesters preparing molotov cocktails. Matthew stops him, arguing against violence, but he is shunned by both Théo and Isabelle.
As Matthew mournfully walks away through the chaos, Théo takes Isabelle's hand and hurls a molotov cocktail at a line of police. The film ends as the police charge the crowd.

Tags: romantic, sadist

Review:
The Velveteen Rabbit

Plot synopsis:
A stuffed rabbit sewn from velveteen is given as a Christmas present to a small boy. The boy plays with his other new presents and forgets the velveteen rabbit for a time. These presents are modern and mechanical, and they snub the old-fashioned velveteen rabbit. The wisest and oldest toy in the nursery, the Skin Horse, who was owned by the boy's uncle, tells the rabbit about toys magically becoming Real due to love from children. The rabbit is awed by this idea; however, his chances of achieving this wish are slight.
One night, the boy's nana gives the rabbit to the boy to sleep with, in place of a lost toy. The rabbit becomes the boy's favorite toy, enjoying picnics with him in the spring; and the boy regards the rabbit as 'REAL'. Time passes, and the rabbit becomes shabbier but happy. He meets some real rabbits in the summer, and they learn that he cannot hop as they do and say that he is not real.
One day, the boy comes down with scarlatina, and the rabbit sits with him as he recovers. The doctor orders that the boy should be taken to the seaside and that his room should be disinfected—all his books and toys burnt, including the velveteen rabbit. The rabbit is bundled into a sack and left out in the garden overnight, where he sadly reflects on his life with his boy. The toy rabbit cries, a real tear drops onto the ground, and a marvelous flower appears. A fairy steps out of the flower and comforts the velveteen rabbit, introducing herself as the Nursery Magic Fairy. She says that, because he is old and shabby and Real, she will take him away with her and "turn [him] into Real" - to everyone.
The fairy takes the rabbit to the forest, where she meets the other rabbits and gives the velveteen rabbit a kiss. The velveteen rabbit changes into a real rabbit and joins the other rabbits in the forest. The next spring, the rabbit returns to look at the boy, and the boy sees a resemblance to his old velveteen rabbit.

Tags: romantic

Review:
Blue Juice

Plot synopsis:
JC seems to have it all figured out. By day he runs a surf school, at night he lies down next to his beautiful girlfriend Chloe, his lifelong dream is to travel the world surfing. However, when old mates arrive from London unannounced it releases tensions which have long been simmering under the surface of JC and Chloe's seemingly perfect relationship. Chloe decides to buy the local surfer cafe and settle down, His friends, especially drug-dealer Dean are intent on causing mischief and sucking JC back into surfing a dangerous reef, which he had attempted before, seriously injuring his back.
It turns out that Dean had a job as a journalist, and setting up JC was to get a story.
As a requirement for keeping his job, he had to get a big story, preferably with a life or death situation involved. JC refuses to surf the 'boneyard' which prompts Dean to try it himself as he had already arranged media coverage, and his boss had decided to watch. Dean fails to surf the reef, hitting his head when smashed under by a huge wave. JC then dives in to rescue Dean and in doing so, successfully surfs the 'boneyard' therefore saving Dean's life and job at the same time. However Dean's boss gets knocked out by the local guru for his highly offensive attitude and remarks.
JC's friend Terry, having been given drugs by Dean, has radically rethought his life, and buys JC's round the world tickets for him and his fiancé. JC then uses the money to buy a cafe for him and Chloe, deciding that his relationship with Chloe is more important than impressing his friends.

Tags: romantic

Review:
The Trip

Plot synopsis:
Paul Groves (Peter Fonda), a television commercial director, takes his first dose of LSD while experiencing the heartbreak and ambivalence of divorce from his beautiful but adulterous wife (Susan Strasberg). He starts his trip with a "guide," John (Bruce Dern), but runs away and abandons him out of fear.
Experiencing repetitive visions of pursuit by dark hooded figures mounted on black horses, Paul sees himself running across a beach.
As Paul experiences his trip, he wanders around the Sunset Strip, into nightclubs, and the homes of strangers and acquaintances. Paul considers the roles played by commercialism, sex, the role of women in his life. He meets a young woman, Glenn (Salli Sachse), who is interested in people who take LSD. Having learned from Paul recently that he would be taking LSD, she has been looking out for him. Max (Dennis Hopper) plays a role as another friendly guide to his trip.
Glenn drives Paul to her Malibu beach house, where they make erotic love, interspersed in his mind with a kaleidoscopic riot of abstract images intercut with visions of pursuit on a beach, a scene that is a sly homage to Bergman's, The Seventh Seal. Driven into the surf by his pursuers, Paul turns and faces both of them, and they reveal themselves to be his wife and Glenn.
As the sun rises, Paul returns to his normal state of consciousness now transformed by the trip and steps out to the balcony to get some fresh air. Glenn asks him whether his first LSD experience was constructive. Paul defers his answer to "tomorrow." His face is frozen in close-up, and his image cracks like glass through an animation special effect.

Tags: cult, psychedelic, flashback

Review:
Bird on a Wire

Plot synopsis:
Rick Jarmin (Mel Gibson) helped convict a drug-dealing DEA agent named Eugene Sorenson (David Carradine) and was placed in the witness protection program. Fifteen years later his former fiancée Marianne Graves (Goldie Hawn) crosses paths with him at a gas station in Detroit, Michigan. Rick refuses to recognize Marianne as the witness protection program does not allow contact with people from the witness' previous life. If she recognizes him it may lead to Sorenson finding and killing him.
Sorenson has been let out of the United States penitentiary in fictional Hudolin, Pennsylvania, after serving his sentence. With his partner Albert Diggs (Bill Duke), they are out to kill Rick in order to smooth the passage of their latest deal with drug dealers. Marianne has blown Rick's cover and he makes a frantic call to his relocation officer for a new identity, only to discover that his old contact has retired and is later revealed to have Alzheimer's.
His new contact is Joe Weyburn (Stephen Tobolowsky), a dirty cop in league with Diggs and Sorenson. Just as Marianne prepares to confront Rick they are surprised by Sorenson and Diggs, who show up at the gas station with guns blazing.
They shoot Rick's kindly old boss at the gas station, pinning the murder on Rick and Marianne, and Rick is shot in the buttocks. A witness sees them and her rental car, a blue BMW, and they are forced to go on the run, which occupies most of the movie, during which they revisit some of Rick's former life-in-hiding, including a beauty salon where he was a star employee, an old flame of a veterinarian who still wants to marry him, who owns an animal farm and operates on the wound in his behind, in her operating room.
Rick and Marianne spend a night in a hotel room, where they later share their feelings and have passionate sex.
The climax of the film takes place the next night in a zoo where Rick used to work and knows his way around. He releases the various large cats and other animals from their cages, and these and crocodiles and piranhas complicate the pitched battle with Sorenson, Diggs and Weyburn, who meet various ends. At the end Rick is suspended over a large cat in a pit and Marianne can't quite reach him. He offers her the extra incentive of marriage and children, which does the trick. To tease her afterwards, he pretends to back out of his promise, but the next scene shows them boating in the Caribbean, and their repartee suggests that they have tied the knot.

Tags: violence, comedy, action

Review:
Daffy Duck in Hollywood

Plot synopsis:
At Wonder Studios, producer I.M. Stupendous is interrupted in his office by Daffy asking for an acting position, and quickly responds "No!" and breaks the fourth wall by stating, "Y'know, that duck's screwy!" The phone rings and Daffy pops out of it saying "You're correct, absolutely correct!", pinching Stupendous's nose. Stupendous then phones Director von Hamburger (a parody of Josef von Sternberg) and orders him to finish the picture he's working on that day.
On the set, all the crew rushes to follow Hamburger's order for a close-up, who starts smoking a cigarette. Daffy then swipes and starts smoking the cigarette, spelling out Warner Bros. with the smoke ("Just givin' my bosses a plug", he tells the audience. "I've got an option coming up!"). Hamburger asks how the sound is, and Daffy whistles into the microphone. He orders the lights turned, which Daffy has connected the emergency fire hose to, causing water to gush out of the lights and down on the set. When the camera rolls, it starts shooting bullets Daffy planted. Hamburger begins crying. Daffy sympathetically gives him a gift, promising to stop being screwy, and walks away. However, Daffy then pops up out of the gift box, bites Hamburger's nose and starts jumping around.
As filming begins, a typical romantic scene between a rooster and hen plays out. When the inevitable kiss comes up, Daffy jumps in and kisses the hen; he is so excited that he does it again. Hamburger declares the scene ruined and gives orders to cut the scene. The time being noon, Hamburger asks for lunch: turkey with all the trimmings. However, Daffy is under the platter and bites Hamburger's nose beak again, then jumps away. Then, in the film room, Daffy begins clipping and pasting together random film clips, which he switches out with Hamburger's film when Hamburger tells Stupendous that his film is finished. Hamburger shows the "film". At first the title card reads "Gold Is Where You Find It" (a movie produced by Warner Bros. the same year), showing film clips of gold mining, but then suddenly plays humorous live action clips of random scenes, such as square dancing, the World Championship Fight in Madison Round Garden, etc. Despite Hamburger's obvious (and justified) fear, Stupendous approves highly of the film.
As a result, Daffy is now the director, uttering the same line asking for turkey at lunchtime as Hamburger, complete with Hamburger's accent and clothing. Hamburger is now the screwball, hiding under the platter, biting Daffy's nose, then jumping away, as Daffy did earlier.

Tags: psychedelic

Review:
Yeelen

Plot synopsis:
Nianankoro's father Soma is a part of the order of Komo, who practice magic, but he uses his powers for self-gain. He becomes determined to kill his son after receiving a vision that his son will cause his death. Aided by his mother, Nianankoro leaves his village to seek out his uncle for help. Soma pursues him with the aid of an enchanted pylon that tracks his son's location and breaks all barriers that deter it.
As he travels, Nianankoro encounters a hyena who tells him his destiny is to be great. Passing through the territory of the Peul, he is thought to be a thief and captured. Their king Rouma Boli orders him killed, but Nianankoro creates magic that freezes his guards and declares they cannot kill him. Impressed, King Rouma offers Nianankoro his freedom in exchange for aid against a rival tribe. When the tribe attacks, Nianankoro summons a swarm of bees and a fire that drives their attackers away. The king thanks Nianankoro and asks him to cure his wife Attou's infertility. Nianankoro creates an enchantment, but he and Attou are overcome by lust and sleep together. That night they return to Rouma to confess their crime, and the king reluctantly orders them married and to leave.
Nianankoro and Attou continue their travels while his father remains in pursuit. Soma sacrifices an albino man and a wild dog to appease the gods who grant him power to hunt his son. He then meets with the Komo and warns them that Nianankoro intends to disperse their magic for all the people to use. Nianankoro and Attou reach his uncle Djigui, who was blinded long ago when he chose to use the artifact of Kore's Wing for his people. He gives the relic to Nianankoro and tells him and Attou, who is pregnant, that their children will become a nation who will face hardship but prosper. Taking Koe's wing, Nianankoro leaves to confront his father and gives his cloak to Attou to in turn give to his son. She takes refuge with Djigui as they prepare for incoming devastation.
Reaching his father, Nianankoro attempts to reason with him but is dismayed to find his father cannot bear to share his power and only wants him dead. They call upon the power of their artifacts, Soma with his pylon and Nianankoro with Kore's Wing, turning themselves into an elephant and a lion, respectively. The power of Kore creates a blinding wave that kills them both and transforms the land around them into sand. After their deaths, Attou and her young son come to the site and find two eggs. Her son takes the egg of his father and his mother gives him Kore's Wing, and they leave the desert.

Tags: revenge

Review: