Tanggal Keluar Complete Serial Korea

(jika di korea tidak diperpanjang) :

School 2017 7 September,

Falsify 14 September,

Reunite Worlds 21 September,

The King Loves 21 September,

Strongest Deliveryman 25 September,

Save Me 26 September,

Manhole Feel So Good 30 September,

Criminal Minds 30 September,

Single Wife 30 September,

Unni Is Alive 2 Oktober,

Age Of Youth2 2 Oktober,

Deserving Of The Name 3 Oktober,

Hospital Ship 21 Oktober,

Bad Thief Good Thief 31 Oktober.



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Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Smile Again


  • Judul : Smile Again
  • Genre: Drama, Romance Comedy
  • Episodes: 16 (4 DVD)
  • Broadcast network: SBS
  • Tahun : 2006
  • Pemain : Lee Dong Gun (Ban Ha Jin), Kim Hee Sun (Oh Dan Hui),
  • Lee Jin Wook (Yoon Jae Myung), Yoon Se Ah (Choi Yoo Kang)


Synopsis :

Ban Ha Jin adalah seorang yatim piatu dan putus sekolah sewaktu SMU, dia adalah seorang yang penuh perhitungan dan ambisius. Meskipun dia putus sekolah dan hidup dengan Choi Yoo Kang selama hidup bersamanya dia menjadi lebih lunak, dia berharap dapat kuliah. Secara kebetulan dia bertemu dengan Yoon Jae Myung, mantan pemain baseball yang terkenal saat SMU dulu, di sebuah bar di Swiss. Ha Jin memanipulasi beberapa kejadian supaya dapat menjadi teman baik Jae Myung. Dan karena hal itu dia bertemu denga Oh Dan Hui, gadis yang dia cintai dan sakiti sewaktu SMU dahulu. Oh Dan Hui bermain baseball dalam tim yang seluruhnya laki - laki akan tetapi sekarang di kampus dia bermain softball. Oh Dan Hui sangat mengidolakan Yoon Jae Myung. Mereka bertiga bertemu kembali di swiss dan kemudian bertemu lagi di korea. Ha Jin mulai bekerja di perusahaan ayah jae Myung dan melakukan segala upaya untuk membuat dirinya di sukai oleh ayah Jae Myung. Jae Myung mulai bekerja sebagai pelatih softball di tim perusahaan ayahnya, akan tetapi kemudian di pindahkan. Dia jatuh cinta pada Dan Hui yang keras kepala dan selalu optimis. Jae Myung meminta nasehat Ha Jin untuk hal ini, akan tetapi Ha Jin tidak dapat begitu saja membiarkan Jae Myung mengambil cinta sejatinya.....

The Return of Iljimae


  • Judul : The Return of Iljimae
  • Judul Alias : Iljimae Returns / Moon River
  • Genre: Historical, romance
  • Episodes: 24 (6 DVD)
  • Broadcast network: MBC
  • Tahun : 2009-Jan-21 to 2009-April
  • Pemain : Jung Il Woo (Il Ji Mae), Yoon Jin Suh (Dal Yi / Wal Hee),
  • Kim Min Jong (Goo Ja Myeong), Jung Hye Young (Baek Mae)

Synopsis :

Kisah tentang seorang pria yang berjuang melawan keserakahan dan korupsi dan menolong rakyat miskin.

Serial ini beda dengan "Iljimae" yang di mainkan oleh Lee Jun Ki dengan produksi SBS, karena "iljimae" di buat berdasarkan komik Jepang, sedangkan "The Return Of Iljimae" dimainkan oleh Jung Il Woo produksi MBC di buat berdasarkan versi korea karangan Ko Yeong Woo.

Monday, February 23, 2009

My Life's Golden Age


  • Judul : My Life's Golden Age
  • Judul Alias : The Golden Period of My Life / Golden Years of My Life / All About My Family
  • Genre: Romance, family
  • Episodes: 56
  • Broadcast network: MBC
  • Tahun : 2008-Aug-30 to 2009-Mar-08
  • Pemain : Moon So Ri (Lee Hwang), Lee So Yeon (Lee Geom), Jin Yi Han (Lee Ki),
  • Shin Sung Rok (Go Kyung Woo), Lee Jong Won (Yoo Tae Il)

Synopsis :

19 tahun yang lalu sebelum mereka berdua bercerai, mereka membesarkan anak - anak mereka bersama - sama. Akan tetapi ketiga anak tersebut tumbuh besar dengan di adopsi oleh keluarga yang berbeda gaya hidupnya maupun kekayaan yang berbeda.

Penceraian Hwang menyebabkan beberapa kejadian sial yang dia bawa bagi keluarganya, seperti sedang naik sebuah roller coaster yang naik dan turun. Serial ini mengisahkan tentang hubungan antara orang tua dan anak, dan antara saudara laki - laki dan perempuan. Ini sangat menyentuh karena menceritakan dari sisi romantis, pernikahan, penceraian, pengangguran, penyakit, cita - cita, kekecewaan, harapan, keberanian, dan lain sebagainya. Serial ini juga mengisahkan kejadian yang menghebohkan di suatu keluarga dalam menjalankan kehidupan sehari - hari.

Friday, February 20, 2009

I Love You, Don't Cry


  • Judul : I Love You, Don't Cry
  • Genre: Romance, family
  • Episodes: TBA
  • Broadcast network: MBC
  • Tahun : 2008-Nov-17 to 2009
  • Pemain : Lee Yu Ri (Jo Mi Soo), Lee Jung Jin (Han Young Min),
  • Oh Seung Hyun (Min Seo Young), Lee Sang Yoon (Jang Hyun Woo)

Synopsis :

Han Young Min dan Min Seo Young akan segera menikah, akan tetapi di hari pernikahan mantan pacar Young Min yang bernama Jae Hee, menyerahkan anak mereka yang bernama Jun pada Young Min. Mengetahui hal ini Seo Young memutuskan untuk memutuskan hubungan dengan Young Min. Jo Min Soo seorang pengangguran yang sedang mencari pekerjaan, di perkerjakan oleh Young Min untuk mengasuh anaknya, karena dia tidak dapat merawat sendiri. Young Min adalah seorang arsitek dan sebagai pekerjaan tambahan dia menjadi dosen di sebuah universitas.

The Way Home


  • Judul : The Way Home
  • Judul Alias : On The Way Home
  • Genre: Romance, family
  • Episodes: 100+
  • Broadcast network: KBS1
  • Tahun : 2009-Jan-12 to 2009-May
  • Pemain : Lee Sang Woo (Yoo Hyun Soo), Park Hye Won (Yoo Ji Soo),
  • Shim Hyung Tak (Yoo Min Soo), Jo Yeo Jung (Jang Mi Ryung),
  • Jang Shin Young (Han Soo In), Otani Ryohei (Hero)


Synopsis :

Yoo Min Soo adalah anak tertua dari seorang CEO sebuah rumah sakit. Istrinya bernama Jang Mi Ryung, mengambil anak hasil dari hubungan di luar pernikahan, dan membesarkannya dengan penuh kasih sayang.

Serial ini menceritakan gambaran tentang sebuah keluarga di masa kini.

Family's Honor


  • Judul : Family's Honor
  • Judul Alias : Glory of the Family / Marrying the Mafia
  • Genre: Romance, family Comedy
  • Episodes: 50 (7 DVD)
  • Broadcast network: SBS
  • Tahun : 2008-Oct-11 to 2009-Apr-30
  • Pemain : Yoon Jung Hee (Ha Dan Ah), Jun No Min (Ha Soo Young),
  • Kim Sung Min (Ha Tae Young), Park Shi Hoo (Lee Kang Suk),
  • Lee Hyun Jin (Jung Hyun Kyu)

Synopsis :

Ha Dan Ah sangatlah anggun dan tidak begitu cantik akan tetapi terlihat kasihan. Dan Ah menikah pada usia 20 tahun, tapi hal tak terduga terjadi, suaminya meninggal dalam kecelakaan mobil ketika mereka sedang berbulan madu. Dan Ah di dekati oleh 2 orang pria, seorang berasal dari keluarga kaya bernama Lee Kang Suk dan seorang lagi pria yang umurnya lebih muda di bandingkan dengan Dan Ah bernama Jung Hyun Kyu. Drama ini akan mengisahkan tentang keluarga Ha dan bagaimana mereka berusaha menjaga reputasi nama baik keluarga. Drama ini juga akan mengisahkan tentang kembar 3, terdiri dari 2 pria dan 1 wanita, mereka adalah Soo Young, Tae Young dan Dan Ah..

Kayanya nih seru ceritanya... pengin nonton... tunggu keluar PAHE nya akhhh

Terroir


  • Judul : Terroir
  • Genre: Romance
  • Episodes: 20 (5 DVD)
  • Broadcast network: SBS
  • Tahun : 2008-Dec-01 to 2009-Feb-17
  • Pemain : Kim Joo Hyuk (Kang Tae Min), Han Hye Jin (Lee Woo Joo),
  • Ki Tae Young (Jo Yi Bak / Joey Park), Yoo Sun (Ahn Ji Seon)

Synopsis :

Lee Woo Joo bertemu Kang Tae Min, seorang pria yang ahli dalam merasakan minuman anggur (wine). Tae Min mendapat warisan sebuah pabrik minuman anggur dari keluarganya dan mebuat mata Woo Joo terbuka tentang dunia wine. Dia mempunyai hubungan yang kuat dengan pacarnya yang bernama Ji Seon, tetapi menjadi ragu - ragu ketika berjumpa dengan Woo Joo.

Joey Park mempunyai suatu rahasia jelek yang menghantui selama hidupnya. Dia secara tidak sengaja menyebabkan kebakaran yang membuat orang tua Tae Min meninggal. Bagaimana perasaan Tae Min ketika dia mengetahui bahwa temannya menyebabkan orang tuanya meninggal?

Star's Lover

  • Judul : Star's Lover
  • Judul Alias : Celebrity Sweetheart / Oh! My Goddess
  • Genre: Romance
  • Episodes: 20 (5 DVD)
  • Broadcast network: SBS
  • Tahun : 2008-Dec-10 to 2009-Feb-12
  • Pemain : Choi Ji Woo (Lee Ma Ri), Yoo Ji Tae (Kim Chul Soo), Lee Ki Woo (Jung Woo Jin),
  • Cha Ye Ryun (Choi Eun Young), Ki Tae Young (Son Ha Young), Choi Phillip (Kang Woo Jin)

Synopsis :

Lee Ma Ri adalah seorang artis terkenal yang di dekati oleh 4 orang pria. Ke-empat pria tersebut mempunyai latar belakang dan inspirasi yang berbeda. Kim Chul Soo adalah seorang mahasiswa sastra yang bercita - cita ingin menjadi seorang penulis. Kang Woo Jin adalah seorang fotografer terkenal. Son Ha Young seorang pewaris usaha keluarganya yang kaya raya. Jung Woo Jin adalah seorang eksekutif muda yang bekerja di sebuah perusahaan media.

Cain and Abel


  • Judul : Cain and Abel
  • Judul Alias : Dr. Stop
  • Genre: Romance, action
  • Episodes: 20 (4 DVD)
  • Broadcast network: SBS
  • Tahun : 2009
  • Pemain : So Ji Sub (Lee Cho In), Shin Hyun Joon (Lee Seon Woo),
  • Han Ji Min (Oh Young Ji), Chae Jung Ahn (Kim Seo Yeon)

Synopsis :

Cho In adalah seorang dokter yang sangat berbakat dan dapat meraih segala sesuatu yang diinginkannya, hal ini membuat kakaknya Seon Woo iri dengan semua perhatian yang Cho In terima. Seon Woo menyalahkan Cho In karena mengambil semua yang baik di dalam kehidupannya. Seon Woo menyalahkan Cho In karena lebih di sayangi oleh ayah mereka, menjadi lebih diperhatikan setelah menjadi dokter dan mencuri wanita yang Seon Woo cintai.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

The Scam


Title : The Scam

Release Date: 2009

Genre: Crime, Thriller

Starring : Park Yoon Ha, Kim Min Jeong, Park Hee Soon, Kim Moo Yeol


Synopsis :

Hyeon-su (Yong-ha Park) loses everything in the stock market only to spend the next five years glued to his computer screen as a day trader. While eating virtually nothing but instant noodles, Hyeon-su slowly recoups his losses and then some. He vows to quit once he makes enough to support his mother and younger brother.

Hyeon-su then hits the jackpot, while disrupting a stock market scam. This attracts the attention of a former gangster turned investor, Jong-ku Kwang (Hie-sun Park), who loses millions because of Hyeon-su's actions. Rather than seeking revenge, Jong-ku sees invites Hyeon-su to join his elite team as they attempt their biggest scam yet. The group then attempts to swindle $60,000,000 from the stock market.

Daytime Drinking


Title : Daytime, Drinking

Release Date: 2009

Genre: Comedy, Drama

Starring : Song Sam Dong, Kim Kang Hee, Tak Seong Jun, Lee Ran Hee, Yook Sang Yeob


Synopsis :

Hyuk-jin has just broken up with his girlfriend and decides to take a trip to Jeong-seon in the provine of Gangwon-do. The next day, his friends are too hung over to get up, so Hyuk-jin makes his way to his destination alone. A trip of opportunity takes a cruel and unexpected turn as misunderstanding and crossed paths occur over and over again.

Kiss Me, Kill Me



Title : Kiss Me, Kill Me

Release Date: 2009

Genre: Drama Romance

Starring : Kang Hye Jeon, Shin Hyeon Jun, Kim Hyeon A


Synopsis :

A quiet, professional killer, Hyun-jun, arrives at a house to kill a man in his sleep, only to discover a woman alone under the sheets. She shouts at the dazed Hyun-jun, "Whats the matter with you? I paid for you, so just kill me."

Jin-young has decided to kill herself after a traumatic break up with her lover of seven years, but she wants to go out with a bang, not with a miserable and lonely dose of commonplace sleeping pills.

Hyun-jun is furious at the woman and abandons the mission despite the fact that he has a contract to fulfill. "You should kill yourself, Im not your suicide assistant." This is how Hyun-jun and Jin-young first meet. The most

Kitchen


Title : Kitchen

Also known as: The Naked Kitchen

Release Date: 2009

Genre: Romantic Comedy

Starring : Sin Min Ah, Kim Tae Woo, Joo Ji Hoon


Synopsis :

Today is Mo-rae and Sang-in’s one-year wedding anniversary. After a busy morning preparing for the celebration, Mo-rae goes to an art gallery to find a gift for Sang-in. At the gallery, she meets a complete stranger and the two unexpectedly have sex. Mo-rae returns home feeling anxious and guilty about the incident and cannot help but confess it to Sang-in. That night, a visitor arrives at their house; Du-rae, who came from Paris to help Sang-in with his new business. To Mo-rae’s shock, he is the man from the gallery. He temporarily lives with the couple in their house and a risky love triangle begins.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Coffee Prince


  • Judul : The 1st Shop of Coffee Prince
  • Judul Alias : Coffee Prince
  • Genre: Romance, Comedy
  • Episodes: 17 (7 DVD)
  • Broadcast Network: MBC
  • Tahun : 2007
  • Pemain : Yoon Eun Hye (Go Eun Chan), Gong Yoo (Choi Han Kyul),
  • Lee Sun Gyun (Choi Han Sung), Chae Jung Ahn (Han Yoo Joo)

Synopsis :

Kehidupan Go Eun Chan tidaklah mudah, dia mengerjakan berbagai pekerjaan untuk membayar hutang dan bahkan rela terlihat tidak feminim. Choi Han Kyul adalah anak dari sebuah perusahaan besar yang bergerak dalam makanan, tapi neneknya ingin dia menetap, jadi neneknya mengatur banyak kencan dengan gadis - gadis pilihan neneknya untuk Han Kyul. Setelah Eun Chan bertemu dengan Han Kyul dan dia di kira seorang laki - laki, Han Kyul memutuskan merekrut Eun Chan untuk menjadi pacar gay nya, untuk menggagalkan acara kencan - kencan yang telah di atur neneknya. Karena sangat membutuhkan uang, Eun Chan tidak punya pilihan lain selain menerimanya. Nenek Han Kyul juga membuat Han Kyul bertanggung jawab untuk menjalankan sebuah kedai kopi yang hampir bangkrut. Eun Chan memohon untuk dapat bekerja di kedai kopi tersebut, dan seiring berjalannya waktu cinta mulai bersemi, sementara Han Kyul masih mengira Eun Chan adalah pria, sehingga dia mengira dirinya gay. Bagaimana kelanjutan kisahnya? Tonton sendiri ya... seru kok :)

My Prince


  • Judul : My Prince
  • Judul Alias : Lycra's Frog Prince
  • Genre: Romantic comedy
  • Episodes: 16 (8 DVD)
  • Broadcast network: Dragon TV
  • Tahun : 2007
  • Opening theme song: Tang Scald by Go Go Club
  • Ending theme song: Man Chang De Yue Hui / Endless Engagement by Go Go Club
  • Insert songs:
o An Hao / Signal by Go Go Club
o Cui Ruo / Weak by Wu Jian Fei
o Xiang Fei Yi Yang / Just Like Flying by HERO

  • Pemain : Yu Ya (Li Xiu Yun), Zhong Kai (Li Zhi Kai),
  • Wu Di Wen (Li Zhi Wen), Zhang Xiao Chen (Li Zhi Chen),
  • Song Xiao Bo (Li Zhi Xiao)

Synopsis :

My Prince menceritakan sebuah kisah dari sebuah keluarga, seorang ibu yang menyukai uang dan keempat anak lelakinya yang tampan.

Li Xiu Yun berharap anaknya yang tertua dapat menikahi gadis kaya. Dia seorang pemalas dan waktunya banyak di habiskan untuk berjudi atau bergosip dengan para tetangga, sementara anaknya sibuk membereskan rumah dan menjalankan toko bunga. Anak tertuanya bernama Zhi Kai, bekerja sebagai kepala bagian di sebuah perusahaan. Dia sangat serius dalam bekerja dan orang yang bertanggung jawab pada keluarga. Anak kedua bernama Zhi Wen adalah seorang model yang tidak terkenal. Dia hanya terkenal diantara para gadis - gadis dan suka menghabiskan waktunya di bar dan cafe. Tentu saja kakak tertuanya harus menjemputnya jika sedang mabuk. Zhi Chen adalah anak ketiga, dia adalah seorang pria pendiam. Dia bekerja di sebuah bar sebagai bartender. Anak paling bungsu bernama Zhi Xiao berkepribadian baik dan membantu ibunya menjalankan usaha toko bunga dengan baik, begitu juga dengan pekerjaan rumah, dia melakukannya dengan sangat baik. Ketika dia masih kecil, dia sakit demam, dan panas tinggi sekali, hal itu menyebabkannya menjadi tuli dan bisau. Tapi dia tetap tersenyum, sepertinya tidak ada apa - apa yang terjadi. Semuanya menyukai dan menyayanginya, saudara - saudaranya sangat melindunginya.

Sweetness in the Salt


  • Judul : Sweetness in the Salt
  • Judul Alias : Salt Traders
  • Genre: Ancient drama, Serial Silat
  • Episodes: 25 (6 DVD)
  • Broadcast network: TVB
  • Tahun : January 2009
  • Pemain : Steven Ma (Nip Chi Yuen), Tavia Yeung (Tau Sing Suet),
  • Raymond Wong (Wu Thing Hin), Kwok Fung (Wu Kin)

Synopsis :

Nip Chi Yuen, yang bekerja di kamp anti penyelundupan, bertekad untuk menghancurkan benteng Tau, yang di gunakan untuk sebagai markas para penyelundup. Dia menyamar menjadi seorang pelajar. TauSing Suet, adalah anak dari ketua penyelundup, simpati dengan Yuen dan mengajaknya tinggal ke dalam perkampungan para penyelundup. Dan mereka bahkan saling menyukai satu sama lain. Selama operasi anti penyelundupan Suet terluka parah dan terpisah dari Yuen, dan keluarganya. Untungnya dia di selamatkan oleh Wu Thing Hin anak dari perwakilan Wu Kin. Hin membawanya pulang ke rumah. Suatu hari Suet terkejut melihat mayat orang tuanya di gantung di tembok kota, dan petugas pemerintahan berdiri di atas tower dan mengatakan pada masyarakat untuk tidak menjual barang selundupan. Suet merasa hancur hatinya, dan sejak itu cintanya pada Yuen berubah menjadi benci.

Hin mencarikan pekerjaan buat Suet di sebuah perusahaan keluarganya, dan membantunya untuk melupakan kesedihannya. Untuk membalas budi Hin, Suet bekerja dengan sungguh - sungguh. Seiring berjalannya waktu, Hin mulai jatuh cinta pada Suet. Akan tetapi dia kurang mampu mengungkapkan perasaannya pada Suet. Identitas Suet yang sebenarnya mulai ketahuan ketika pamannya muncul. Hin yang merasa takut keluarganya akan melaporkan Suet, memutuskan untuk melamarnya.

Boys Over Flowers


  • Judul : Boys Over Flowers
  • Judul Alias : Boys Before Flower
  • Episodes: 24 (6 DVD)
  • Genre: Romance, comedy
  • Broadcast network: KBS2
  • Tahun : Jan 2009 - Mar 2009
  • Pemain : Koo Hye Sun (Geum Jan Di), Lee Min Ho (Goo Joon Pyo),
  • Kim Hyun Joong (Yoon Ji Hoo), Kim Bum (So Yi Jung),
  • Kim Joon (Song Woo Bin)

Synopsis :

Jan Di adalah seorang gadis biasa yang keluarganya memiliki sebuah toko laundry pakaian yang berlokasi dekat dengan sebuah sekolah elite dan terkenal Shin Hwa. Suatu hari Jan Di bertemu dengan 4 pemuda kaya dan manja yang mempunyai julukan F4, ketika dia sedang mengantarkan cucian ke sekolah. Setelah menyelamatkan seorang anak laki - laki dari tindakan bunuh diri, dia di ijinkan bersekolah di tempat tersebut. Sebuah kejadian melibatkan teman Jan Di bernama Min Ji, dan itu membuatnya mengumumkan perang pada pemimpin F4 yang bernama Goo Joon Pyo.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Sex Drive



Title : Sex Drive
Genre: Comedy and Adaptation
Release Date: October 17th, 2008 (wide)
Distributors: Summit Entertainment, LLC
U.S. Box Office: $8,396,942
Starring: Josh Zuckerman, Amanda Crew, Clark Duke, James Marsden, Charlie McDermott
Directed by: Sean Anders

Synopsis :

Ian Lafferty (Josh Zuckerman) is an 18-year-old recent high school graduate. He searches for a girl online making it look as if he's buff and suave, although he's sweet and unassuming. He soon meets "Ms. Tasty" (Katrina Bowden) and agrees to meet her in person. She lives in Knoxville, while he lives in Brookfield. With his best friends Lance (Clark Duke) and Felicia (Amanda Crew), they go in a Pontiac GTO borrowed without permission from Ian's arrogant homophobic older brother Rex (James Marsden).

On the way the car is damaged. It is repaired for free by Amish people, while they join a Rumspringa party at which Fall Out Boy is playing a concert. The three promise to come again on the way back to do some work in return. Lance falls in love with Amish girl Mary (Alice Greczyn).

They go to jail for accidentally damaging a police car, and are released after Mary pays the bail. They find a hotel that sports a wide variety of role playing rooms. Rex arrives angrily and insists that they go back and that Ian cannot visit Ms. Tasty. After Ian pretends to be gay, Rex allows him to see Ms. Tasty, hoping this encounter will change Ian's mind. However, they are scammed by Ms. Tasty and her psychotic boyfriend, who apparently do this to steal cars for chop shops. Ian saves the day, Ms. Tasty and her boyfriend are arrested, and Ian and Felicia realize they love each other. Lance refuses to go back home at the end of the trip and stays behind to marry Mary. Ian gives his virginity to Felicia, who both reveal their love for each other at the end of the film. Also we learn Rex's latent homophobia stemmed from the fact that he was harboring his own homosexuality. At the end of the film, a picture is shown of Lance and Mary being married, accompanied by Ian and Felicia. He's shown sporting a beard much like Ezekiel (Seth Green), one of the Amish people. During the credits there is a clip of Ezekiel and Fall Out Boy arguing over the fact that the Amish fixed Fall Out Boy's tour bus and all that they got in return was "a five song set."


Australia


Title : Australia
Genres: Romance and War
Release Date: November 26th, 2008 (wide)
Distributors: 20th Century Fox Distribution
U.S. Box Office: $48,955,455
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, David Wenham, Bryan Brown, Jack Thompson
Directed by: Baz Luhrmann

Synopsis :

In 1939, Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman) travels from England to northern Australia to force her (in her opinion) philandering husband to sell his faltering Australian cattle station, Faraway Downs. Her husband sends an independent cattle drover (Hugh Jackman), called simply "Drover", to Darwin to transport her to Faraway Downs. Lady Sarah's husband, who has been working hard to sell 1500 head of cattle to the military, is murdered shortly before she arrives. Meanwhile, treacherous FD cattle station manager Neil Fletcher (David Wenham) is trying to gain control of Faraway Downs, so that neighboring Lesley 'King' Carney (Bryan Brown) can have a cattle monopoly in the Northern Territory, which will give him negotiating leverage with the Australian army. Fletcher also claims to Lady Sarah that the murderer of her husband is an Aboriginal elder with magical powers, "King George" (David Gulpilil).

The childless Lady Sarah is captivated by the young boy Nullah (Brandon Walters), who was born to an Aboriginal mother and an unknown white father. Nullah tells her that he has seen her cattle being driven onto Carney's land — in other words, stolen from her. Because of this, Fletcher mistreats Nullah and threatens him and his mother, after which Lady Sarah fires Fletcher and decides to try and run the cattle station herself. When Nullah and his mother hide from the white authorities by entering a water tower, his mother drowns. Lady Sarah comforts Nullah by singing the song "Over the Rainbow" from the film The Wizard of Oz. Nullah tells her that "King George" is his grandfather, and that like "King George" he too is a "magic man".

Lady Sarah persuades Drover to take the cattle to Darwin for sale. Drover, a white man, is friendly with the Aborigines, and therefore shunned by many of the other whites in the territory. It is revealed that he had married an Aboriginal woman, but she had died after being refused medical treatment in a local hospital because of her race. Drover leads a team of six other riders, including Lady Sarah, Drover's Aboriginal brother-in-law Magarri (David Ngoombujarra), Nullah, and the station's accountant Kipling Flynn (Jack Thompson), to drive the 1,500 cattle to Darwin. Carney's men set large fires to make the cattle stampede, and Flynn is killed. However, at the last minute, Nullah stops the cattle from stampeding over a cliff, by apparantly using magic learned from his grandfather. Lady Sarah and Drover develop a romance, and she gains a new appreciation for the Australian territory. But Carney's men poison all the water sources along the cattle-drive route, so the group risks driving the cattle through the dangerous Never Never desert, which they accomplish with the help of "King George". Then, when at last delivering the cattle in Darwin, the group has to race them onto the ship before Carney's cattle are loaded.

Two years pass and Lady Sarah, Nullah, and Drover live together happily at Faraway Downs. However, Fletcher kills Carney and frames it as a tragic accident, marries his daughter Cath Carney, takes over Carney's cattle empire, and then continues to menace Lady Sarah. It is determined that Fletcher was the actual murderer of Lady Sarah's husband, and that Fletcher is also almost certainly the father of Nullah. Nullah is drawn to perform a ceremonial coming-of-age walkabout with his grandfather "King George", but is instead captured by the authorities and sent to live on Mission Island with the rest of the half-Aboriginal children (dubbed the "Stolen Generations"). Lady Sarah vows to find him again somehow, but first works as a radio operator in Darwin during the escalation of World War II. When the Japanese attack the island and Darwin in 1942, Lady Sarah fears that Nullah was killed.

Drover, who had quarrelled with Lady Sarah and had gone droving apparently never to return, hears (mistakenly) that she has been killed in the bombing of Darwin. (It is later revealed that the dead woman thought to be Sarah is in fact Catherine Fletcher, who had volunteered to take Sarah's shift at army radio headquarters so Sarah could go to Nullah earlier.) Drover finds out about Nullah's abduction to Mission Island, and sets out with Magarri and Ivan (the hotelier) to rescue Nullah and the other children from the island using a sailboat. Magarri sacrifices himself to buy the others more time during the escape, and is shot by the Japanese. The others all make it safely back to Darwin. Meanwhile, Lady Sarah has sold Faraway Downs to Fletcher, and is leaving the Northern Territory that morning, since she believes there is nothing more to hold her there. But when Drover and the children sail back into port at Darwin, Nullah plays his harmonica with the tune of "Over the Rainbow". Lady Sarah hears the music, abandons her trip, and the three are reunited. Fletcher, who knows Nullah is the one link to his disreputable past that can ruin him, and rails that the boy must have cursed him, attempts to shoot Nullah, but is speared by King George and falls dead. Lady Sarah, Drover, and Nullah return to the safety of remote Faraway Downs. On the way back to Faraway Downs, King George calls for Nullah, his grandson, to go walkabout. Lady Sarah embraces Nullah and then lets him go to his grandfather, who explains now they will return to his land, and then looking at Lady Sarah, says "our land".

College


Title : College
Genres: Comedy and Teen
Release Date: August 29th, 2008 (wide)
Distributors: Lionsgate, MGM Distribution Company
U.S. Box Office: $4,693,919
Starring: Andrew Caldwell, Camille Mana, Drake Bell, Andrew Caldwell, Drake Bell
Directed by: Deb Hagan

Synopsis :

After Kevin (Drake Bell), a high school senior, gets dumped by his girlfriend Gina (Alona Tal) for being too boring, he doesn't want to go to the freshman orientation weekend at Fieldmont University, where they had planned to go together. But his best friends Carter (Andrew Caldwell) and Morris (Kevin Covais) convince him that the weekend away will help get his mind off her. Once there, one of the rowdiest fraternities on campus pretends to recruit them as pledges in return for granting them access to the college party scene. Though forced to put up with the disgusting antics of fraternity brothers Teague (Nick Zano), Bearcat (Gary Owen), Josh Tenk (Himself) and Cooper (Zach Cregger), the guys meet sorority girls Kendall (Haley Bennett), Heather (Camille Mana), and Amy (Nathalie Walker), and sparks fly. But once Teague feels threatened by Kevin's new relationship with Kendall, he takes the pre-frosh humiliation to a greater level, forcing the guys to decide to fight back.

The Reader


Title : The Reader
Genres: Drama, Romance and Adaptation
Release Date: December 12th, 2008 (limited)
Distributors: The Weinstein Company
U.S. Box Office: $12,655,858
Starring: Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, Karoline Herfurth, Hannah Herzsprung, David Kross
Directed by: Stephen Daldry

Synopsis :

The story is told in three parts by the main character, Michael Berg. Each part takes place in a different time period in the past.

Part I begins in an unnamed West German city (Heidelberg) in 1958. After 15-year-old Michael becomes ill on his way home, 36-year-old tram conductress Hanna Schmitz brings him to her apartment and cleans him up before bringing him to his parents. He spends the next several months absent from school battling a pre-existing case of hepatitis.

On a subsequent visit to thank her for her help, he realizes he is attracted to her; embarrassed after she catches him watching her get dressed, he runs away, but he returns at a later date. After she asks his help retrieving coal from downstairs, he becomes dirty and she bathes him; then they engage in sexual intercourse. He begins returning to her apartment on a regular basis, and the two take part in an affair. They develop a ritual of bathing and having sex, before which she frequently has him read aloud to her, chiefly from works of German literature. Both remain somewhat distant from each other emotionally despite their physical closeness. Hanna also is at times physically and verbally abusive to Michael.

Months later, Hanna suddenly leaves without a trace. The distance between the two of them had grown while Michael spent more time with his school friends, and so he feels guilty and believes it was something he did that caused her departure. The memory of Hanna taints all his other relationships with women.

In Part II, eight years later, while attending law school, he is part of a group of students observing a war crimes trial. A group of middle-aged women who had served as guards at a satellite of Auschwitz near Kraków are being tried for allowing Jewish women under their ostensible protection to die in a fire at a church that had been bombed during the evacuation of the camp. The incident had been chronicled in a book written by one of the few survivors, who emigrated to America after the war; she is the star witness at the trial.

To Michael's surprise, Hanna is one of the defendants. This sends him on a roller coaster of complicated emotions. He feels guilty for having loved a criminal and is also mystified at Hanna's willingness to accept full responsibility for having supervised the other guards despite evidence proving otherwise. During the trial, Michael realizes that all her life Hanna has been protecting what is to her a more terrible secret than her Nazi past: she cannot read or write. A critical moment is when Hanna refuses to give a sample of her handwriting; at which point, if Michael had revealed that she could not write, then she was not guilty of writing the account of the church fire, in which case she would not have received a life sentence. This omission on Michael's part adds to the complexity of German guilt and is an important part of this review. This inability shaped all her actions, her original refusal of the promotion that put her in the position to directly kill these people, and also her panic the rest of her life over being discovered. During the trial, it comes out that she took the weak and sickly women and had them read to her before they were sent to the gas chambers. Michael decides she wanted to make their last days bearable; he later decides she sends them to the chambers so they won't reveal her secret. The reader is left to interpret her motives. She is convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

In Part III, Michael, trying to come to terms with his feelings for Hanna, begins taping readings of books and sending them to her without any correspondence. Years have passed, Michael is divorced and has a daughter from his brief marriage. Eventually Hanna learns to read by borrowing the books from the prison library and following along in the text. She writes to Michael, but he does not reply. When Hanna is about to be released, he agrees (after hesitation) to help find her a place to stay and gainful employment, visiting her in prison. On the day before her release in 1984, though, she commits suicide. Michael learns from the warden that she had been reading books by many prominent Holocaust survivors, such as Elie Wiesel, Primo Levi, Tadeusz Borowski, and histories of the camps. The warden is angry with him for not communicating with Hanna in any way other than the audio tapes.

In a dénouement, Michael visits the Jewish woman who wrote the book about the death march from Auschwitz and is now living in New York. She observes, for the first time in the story, how inappropriate Michael's and Hanna's relationship was, and how it damaged him, and draws parallels to Hanna's treatment of the poor and the weak at the camp. She insightfully asks whether he had a short, unloving marriage, and whether he had a child who was now away from him. She refuses to take the savings Hanna had asked Michael to convey to her, saying, "[Hanna] cannot buy my forgiveness so cheaply". She suggests he donate it to a Jewish charity of his choice. He chooses one that focuses on reducing adult illiteracy. The woman does, however, take the old tin tea box where Hanna had kept her papers and mementos, "to replace the similar tea box which she herself had until being sent to the camp" — a small ambiguous gesture towards her former guard. After this meeting, Michael visits Hanna's grave for the first and only time.

The Cottage


Title : The Cottage
Genres: Art/Foreign, Suspense/Horror and Crime/Gangster
Release Date: March 14, 2008
Distributors: Pathe Distribution Ltd
Starring: Andy Serkis, Reece Shearsmith (II), Jennifer Ellison, Steven O'Donnell, Logan Wong
Directed by: Paul Andrew Williams

Synopsis :

Two brothers, David and Peter (Andy Serkis and Reece Shearsmith), kidnap Tracey (Jennifer Ellison), the stepdaughter of Arnie, an underworld crime boss. The pair hold her for ransom in a secluded country cottage. Things begin to go wrong when Arnie's dimwitted son Andrew delivers the ransom. Instead of money, the bag is filled with napkins. David and Peter realize that not only have they been deceived, but Arnie knew about Andrew's involvement in the scheme all along.

After Peter breaks his phone by accidentally dropping it in water, David goes down to the village to use a telephone box to call in another ransom. While there, he happens across some sinister locals who, upon learning that he and his companions are staying at the Barnarby Cottage, warn him to keep his doors locked. Disturbed, David returns to the cottage to find that Tracey — who has proven to be highly intelligent and resourceful, albeit foul-mouthed and somewhat psychopathic — has incapacitated Andrew and abducted Peter.

Some distance away, Peter and Tracey arrive at an ominous looking farm. Upon entering the house, they soon discover it to be the home of an insane and hideously deformed serial-killer known only as "The Farmer". It is revealed throughout the rest of the film that some time ago, The Farmer was injured in a machinery accident and has begun to kill and mutilate anyone he finds trespassing on his land.

After opening a trapdoor in the kitchen to reveal a secret staircase leading down into the cellar, Tracey is stabbed through the stomach by The Farmer. Terrified, Peter flees upstairs and jumps out of the bedroom window. Tracey survives her injury and calls out for Peter to help her escape too, all with The Farmer in pursuit. Peter manages to incapacitate The Farmer with a shovel, saving Tracey's life. Tracey then urges Peter to kill the madman before he regains consciousness, but he is reluctant. As the two of them argue, The Farmer comes to and quickly amputates the end of Peter's foot with the shovel. As The Farmer is about to kill Peter, Tracey begins mocking him, ordering him to hurry up and do it. Frustrated, The Farmer suddenly turns around and gruesomely decapitates her at mouth-level with the shovel. He then knocks out a hysterical Peter and hangs him by his jacket from a meathook in the shed.

Meanwhile, Andrew and David, discover Andrew's hairdresser Steven (Simon Schatzberger), dying from being disembowled, before setting off through the woods in search of Peter and Tracey, when they stumble across the dead body of one of Arnie's henchmen, who has had his throat slit. Soon after, they arrive at the farm, where they discover a shed full of decapitated heads. The Farmer suddenly appears. David and Andrew hurry outside, where The Farmer pins David to the ground with a pickaxe through his leg. He then chases Andrew into the nearby horse stables, where he viciously attacks him with a hunting knife before ripping his spine out.

Peter comes to and manages to release himself from the hook and crawl across the ground to David. After making up for a lifetime of squabbling, they vow to fight on, and drag themselves back into the farmhouse in search of a phone. The Farmer soon reappears, tossing Andrew's severed head and spine through the window. David attempts to defend his brother, only to be suddenly impaled by The Farmer with the pickaxe. Outraged at seeing his brother murdered, Peter begins to throttle The Farmer to death by strangling him with a length of rope. The Farmer manages to toss Peter down into the cellar and slam the door shut. But Peter still has the end of the rope, and he continues tugging on it, eventually causing The Farmer to collapse on top of the trap door. With the weight of The Farmer's body on top of the door, Peter is unable to escape. With nowhere else to go, he descends down into the cellar. He flicks on his cigarette lighter to reveal The Farmer's equally insane and hideous wife and daughters standing all around him. He mutters defeatedly "You must be joking" before they set upon him.

After the credits, Arnie and his right-hand men are seen arriving at the farm. As they step up to the front door, The Farmer suddenly rushes out at them with the pickaxe raised above his head. As he swings at them with it, the image freezes and the screen fades to black.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button


Title : The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Genres: Comedy, Drama, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy and Adaptation
Release Date: December 25th, 2008 (wide)
Distributors: Paramount Pictures
U.S. Box Office: $116,473,266
Starring: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Jason Flemyng, Taraji P. Henson, Julia Ormond
Directed by: David Fincher

Synopsis :

The elderly Daisy (Blanchett) is on her deathbed with her daughter Caroline (Ormond) in a New Orleans hospital as Hurricane Katrina approaches in August 2005. Daisy tells the story of a blind clockmaker named Gateau (Koteas), who was commissioned to create a clock to hang in the New Orleans train station. After receiving news of his son's death in World War I, he continued work on his clock, but intentionally designed it to run backward, in the hope that it would bring back those who died in the war. After her cryptic story, Daisy asks Caroline to read aloud from a diary containing photographs and postcards written by Benjamin Button (Pitt). Caroline begins to read as the story transitions to Benjamin's narration.

On November 11, 1918, just as the people of New Orleans are celebrating the end of World War I, a baby boy is born with the appearance and physical limitations of a man who is 86 years old. The mother of the baby dies shortly after giving birth, and the father, Thomas Button, takes the baby and abandons him on the porch of a nursing home. Queenie (Henson) and Tizzy (Ali), a couple who work at the nursing home, find the baby. Queenie, who is unable to conceive, decides to take the baby in as her own, against Tizzy's wishes. She names the baby Benjamin.

Over the course of the story, Benjamin begins to biologically grow younger. In 1930, while still appearing to be in his seventies, he meets a young girl named Daisy (Fanning), whose grandmother lives in the nursing home. The children play together and listen to Daisy's grandmother read from a storybook.

A few years later, Benjamin goes to work on a tugboat on the docks of New Orleans for Captain Mike (Jared Harris). In their free time, the captain takes him to brothels and bars. For the first time, Benjamin meets Thomas Button, who does not reveal that he is Benjamin's father. Later, Benjamin leaves New Orleans with the tugboat crew for a long-term work engagement; Daisy asks him to send her postcards from his travels, which Benjamin does.

During a stay in Russia, Benjamin meets a British woman named Elizabeth Abbott (Tilda Swinton) and falls in love with her; Daisy is visibly hurt to receive this news via postcard. Elizabeth is already married, with her husband working as a spy for the British government, but she has an affair with Benjamin. The fling ends on the morning of December 8, 1941, the day after the Pearl Harbor attack, when Elizabeth abruptly departs, leaving a note behind: "It was nice to have met you."

Shortly thereafter, Benjamin gets caught up in World War II when Captain Mike's boat and crew are enlisted by the United States Navy. Happening upon the burning wrecks of an Allied convoy, the tugboat rams and sinks a German U-boat in the Atlantic Ocean. Most of the sailors on board the tugboat, including Captain Mike, die in the battle. As a rescued Benjamin departs the scene the next morning, a hummingbird--which Captain Mike had earlier described as a miracle--appears mid-ocean before flying away. After this, Benjamin sees death in a different way, as opposed to the retirement home where death seemed more natural.

In 1945, Benjamin returns to New Orleans, and again meets Thomas Button, who is dying. Thomas reveals to Benjamin that he is his father and bequeaths all of his assets to Benjamin, including the house and the family business. Initially overwhelmed and angry, Benjamin eventually makes peace with his father before the elder Button dies.

Benjamin learns that Daisy has become a successful dancer in New York City. When he travels to New York to meet Daisy at a performance, he finds Daisy has fallen in love with a fellow dancer, and tries to accept that their lives have separated. However, when Daisy later falls victim to a car accident during a dance tour in Paris, shattering her leg and abruptly ending her dance career, Benjamin immediately travels to Paris to find her. Daisy's first comment upon seeing Benjamin is "you're perfect", referring to his youthful appearance; frustrated and ashamed at her own injuries, she turns Benjamin away, telling him to get out of her life.

In 1962, Daisy returns to New Orleans and meets Benjamin again and falls in love. Benjamin sells the house he had inherited from Thomas Button and moves into a duplex apartment with Daisy, who later starts a dance studio for young girls. Now the same apparent age, the couple passes the 1960s together, in large part blissfully but increasingly aware of Benjamin growing younger while Daisy grows older.

A few years pass and Daisy gives birth to a girl, Caroline, named after Benjamin's mother. Benjamin, believing he can no longer be a "real father" to his daughter due to his continued reverse aging, decides to leave Daisy behind with his possessions and assets so that she will only have to raise one child, not two. When Caroline turns one, Benjamin departs with nothing but the clothes on his back, supporting himself with odd jobs as he travels various countries around the world.

Reading this account in the hospital room of 2005, Caroline learns that Benjamin is her father. She is upset that Daisy took such a long time to inform her of this, but finds that Benjamin sent her a postcard from everywhere for each of her birthdays expressing his love for his daughter.

In 1980, Benjamin - now looking like a 25-year-old - returns to meet Daisy in her dance studio. The aging Daisy is now married to a widower, a kind man who supports her well, to Benjamin's relief. Daisy introduces Benjamin to her husband and the 12-year-old Caroline as a long-time family friend. Daisy and Benjamin then meet privately in Benjamin's hotel where they share their passion for each other, but they mutually realize that Daisy has become too old for Benjamin.

Benjamin departs again and continues to grow younger until one day, Daisy receives a phone call from social workers. They inform her that they found Benjamin--now a young pre-teen just hitting puberty--living in a condemned building, and that they called her because they saw her name all over his diary. The social workers believe that he has dementia, but he exhibits symptoms more similar to Alzheimer's, as he often sometimes forgets that he had just eaten (a common symptom of Alzheimer's) and cannot remember Daisy or much of his past. Daisy moves into the nursing home where Benjamin grew up and takes care of him as he becomes a confused 5-year-old boy with a growing temper.

In 2002, Mr. Gateau's old clock is removed from the train station. Shortly afterward, in the spring of 2003, an infant Benjamin dies in Daisy's arms (unable to grow any younger, ironically dying of "old age"). At the moment before Benjamin dies, Daisy claims to have seen in his eyes that he still remembers her.

In the 2005 hospital room, the hurricane raging outside downs the electrical system. As Caroline briefly leaves the room, Daisy passes away, her wish of seeing Benjamin again seemingly answered by a hummingbird hovering outside the storm-drenched windows. Against the sounds of the city's emergency sirens and reports of breached levees, the backwards clock is shown in a basement, still working, as floodwaters begin to engulf it.

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans


Title : Underworld: Rise of the Lycans
Genres: Romance, Suspense/Horror, Thriller and Sequel
Release Date: January 23rd, 2009 (wide)
Distributors: Sony Pictures Releasing
U.S. Box Office: $33,165,746
Starring: Michael Sheen, Bill Nighy, Rhona Mitra, Shane Brolly, Kevin Grevioux
Directed by: Patrick Tatopoulos

Synopsis :

The film tells the story of the origins of Lucian (Michael Sheen), who was the first werewolf able to take human form - to be called Lycans [derived from the word lycanthrope]. Viktor (Bill Nighy), the ruthless king of the vampires, took him home after killing his werewolf mother in a raid. Viktor decides to create a race of werewolves who would be more sedate than the original breed, a viciously volatile kind that couldn't revert back to human form. Viktor envisions a race of slaves for his vampire clan that, conceivably, could keep guard during the daytime hours and toil for the vampires. As Lucian grows up at Viktor's home, his young daughter, Sonja, develops an attraction to the young Lycan, and Lucian becomes fond of Sonja as well.

It is revealed that Viktor has a tacit relationship with the human population of the area, whereupon he agreed to protect them from the wild werewolves that roam the countryside in exchange for a tithe. As a collection human nobles come to meet with the vampire council for protection from the werewolves in exchange for this aforementioned tithe, Sonja goes out to guard them. Lucian hears the Lycans near Sonja and steals a horse and sword from a nearby Death Dealer. Wild werewolves proceed to attack and kill the nobles, causing Lucian to engage in a battle with them. When Lucian takes off his collar and changes into a Lycan in order to protect himself, the wild werewolves back down to his howl and leave before Lucian is shot down by Viktor's men. Viktor, despite grudgingly acknowledging that Lucian saved his daughter, notes that Lucian still transgressed the laws of the coven by taking off the collar that kept him in check (by preventing him from changing into a Lycan) and feels betrayed by what he thinks of as his favorite pet. Subsequently, he locks Lucian away after having him whipped thirty times with a three pronged chain-bladed whip.

Lucian escapes, kills several of the Vampires and begins to liberate the other Lycans from what he perceives as their unfair imprisonment. The guards are alerted and start to slaughter the Lycans. When Viktor discovers that Sonja has an illegal relationship with Lucian, he imprisons his daughter. Lucian learns about Sonja's imprisonment and sets out to rescue her. On their way out they are attacked by the Death Dealers. Viktor is also involved in the chase and when it comes to the fight, it is Sonja who confronts Viktor. When Sonja discloses to him that she is pregnant with Lucian's child, Viktor overpowers her with a knife to the throat and imprisons both her and Lucian with renewed hatred. Sonja is sentenced to death for her crime against the coven at a trial presided over by her father and the Council. After Sonja's death, which Lucian is forced to bare witness to, Lucian attempts a further escape. Failing, he is able to verbally summon both the wild werewolves and the freed Lycans, who attack the coven and overwhelm it after a fierce battle.

Finally Lucian faces Viktor in a fight and they battle their way to the dungeons. The fight continues back and forth until Lucian knocks Viktor down a well. Lucian tears at chains hanging from above, making a hole in the roof and allowing sunlight in and cornering an enraged Viktor in the darkness. Viktor's 'final' words attest to his regret at not having killed Lucian the moment he was born, to which Lucian sarcastically agrees before forcing his sword through Viktor's mouth and head and letting the body fall into the water below. Lucian declares this victory as only the beginning of what will surely be a war between the races, one bred for slavery and the other born into privilege. In one of the closing scenes we see Tanis leading a very alive Viktor, who survived due to his status as an Elder, into a hibernation chamber on a boat.

The film ends with the opening scene of the first Underworld, with the audio from the scene where Kraven tells Selene that it was Viktor who murdered her family, rather than the Lycans. That Viktor spared her because she reminded him of Sonja, the daughter he condemned to death. The last word is played over the shot of her eyes: "Lies."

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Doomsday


Title : Doomsday
Genres: Action/Adventure, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Thriller and Politics/Religion
Release Date: March 14th, 2008 (wide)
Distributors: Rogue Pictures, Universal Pictures
U.S. Box Office: $10,955,425
Starring: Rhona Mitra, Bob Hoskins, Alexander Siddig, Adrian Lester, Sean Pertwee
Directed by: Neil Marshall

Synopsis :

In 2008, the Reaper virus infects Scotland, resulting in the country being walled off by the British government. A Scottish woman brings her little daughter, injured in one eye but otherwise healthy, to soldiers for rescue. The mother convinces them to airlift her daughter and gives her daughter an envelope. Years pass after the successful quarantine, with the contained population apparently dying off. Decades later, the virus, thought to be contained, reappears in London. Prime Minister Hatcher (Alexander Siddig) and his puppeteer Canaris (David O'Hara) share with domestic security chief Captain Nelson (Bob Hoskins) news of survivors in Scotland, believing a cure may have been found. They ask him to send a team into the walled-off country to find medical researcher Dr. Kane (Malcolm MacDowell), who was last known to be working on a cure when Scotland was quarantined. Nelson chooses Major Eden Sinclair (Rhona Mitra), the little girl now grown up with a cybernetic eye replacing her lost eye, to lead the team.

Inside the wall, while investigating Kane's last known location, Sinclair and her team are ambushed by plague survivors. As some team members are killed, Sinclair and Dr. Talbot (Sean Pertwee) are captured while Sergeant Norton (Adrian Lester) and Dr. Stirling (Darren Morfitt) manage to escape. Sinclair is tortured by the leader of the survivors, Sol (Craig Conway). Dr. Talbot is barbecued alive by the cannibalistic survivors. During the cookout, Sinclair escapes from her cell and comes across Kane's daughter, Cally (MyAnna Buring), also imprisoned. Freed by Sinclair, Cally leads her to a waiting train manned by her friend Joshua (Martin Compston), and Norton and Stirling meet up with them to escape from Sol and his men. The train takes them to the mountains, where they take a shortcut through a hidden military facility to the castle where Kane dwells. They are surrounded by Kane's medieval soldiers, Joshua is killed, and everyone else surrenders to Kane's medieval men. Sinclair discovers from Kane that the survivors are naturally immune and that he has been warring with his son, Sol. There is no cure for the virus. Sinclair defeats Kane's executioner, Telamon, in an open arena within the castle, and her teammates help her escape from the castle. They retreat to the facility and find a Bentley in storage to use as escape, though Norton is killed in the process.

In London, political leaders plan to seal off the "hot spot" where the virus is spreading. Canaris convinces Hatcher to let the infected population dwindle before sharing any cure Sinclair's team may provide so the population is more controllable against infection in the future. Although the government leaders are isolated, an infected man successfully infiltrates their location and infects Hatcher. Hatcher, knowing that he has the virus, commits suicide, and Canaris takes over Hatcher's position as Prime Minister.

In Scotland, Sinclair, Cally, and Stirling run into Sol's men on the highway and lead them on a car chase. Sol attempts to hijack the Bentley, but while he is on the roof, Sinclair plows the car through a roadblocked bus, decapitating him. Using a GPS cell phone also taken from the facility, Sinclair summons a government gunship and hands over the cure to Canaris: the immune survivor Cally from whose blood a vaccine can be replicated. Canaris, who arrives with the gunship, shares his plan with Sinclair to withhold the cure for political reasons and invites her back to London. Sinclair chooses to stay and goes to find her old home located at the address on the envelope her mother had left her. Nelson, having been given the envelope by Sinclair before she left on the mission, finds her there. Sinclair provides Nelson a video of her conversation with Canaris, which she recorded with her cybernetic eye. Nelson takes the recording back to London and gets it aired publicly, exposing Canaris' plan to hold back the cure. Sinclair returns to the location where she and her team were first attacked by the cannibalistic tribe and, presenting them with Sol's severed head, is cheered as their new leader.

The Day the Earth Stood Still


Title : The Day the Earth Stood Still
Genres: Drama, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Thriller and Remake
Release Date: December 12th, 2008 (wide)
Distributors: 20th Century Fox Distribution
U.S. Box Office: $78,781,466
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Connelly, Kathy Bates, Jon Hamm, Jaden Christopher Smith
Directed by: Scott Derrickson

Synopsis :

In 1928, a mountaineer (Keanu Reeves) encounters a glowing sphere while on an expedition in the snowy mountains of India. He then finds himself awakening after a sudden loss of consciousness, with the sphere now gone and a scar on his hand. In the present day, Dr. Helen Benson (Jennifer Connelly), a Princeton professor, and other scientists are hastily assembled by the government in order to formulate a survival plan when it is feared that a large unknown object with a speed of 3x107m/s[3] is due to impact Manhattan in over an hour. Nothing can be done about it because a vital military satellite has been disabled. The object is a large spherical biological spaceship, which slows down and lands gently in Central Park. A being (taking on the appearance of the man from the opening scene of the film) named Klaatu (Keanu Reeves) emerges from the sphere while accompanied by a large robot. Klaatu, a representative of a group of alien races, has come to assess whether humanity can reverse the environmental damage it has inflicted on planet Earth. In the ensuing confusion, Klaatu is shot, but survives. The large robot activates and proceeds to disrupt all electrical systems in the city of New York, including many of the defense systems that the military has mustered in a perimeter around the spaceship. Before it can do any further damage, Klaatu orders it to shut down. While recovering from the wound, Klaatu is detained by Regina Jackson (Kathy Bates), the United States Secretary of Defense, and is barred from speaking to the United Nations. Klaatu manages to escape, and he soon finds himself eluding the authorities throughout northern New Jersey, specifically Newark and the forested Highlands, with Helen and her stepson Jacob (Jaden Smith).

Meanwhile, the presence of the sphere has caused a worldwide panic and the military manages to capture the robot after it thwarts their attempts to destroy the sphere using unmanned aerial vehicles and Sidewinder missiles. Klaatu decides that humans shall be exterminated to ensure that the planet — with its rare ability to sustain complex life — can survive. He orders smaller spheres previously hidden on Earth to begin taking animal species off the planet, and Jackson, reminded of Noah's Ark, fears that a cataclysm is imminent. The robot, dubbed "GORT" (Genetically Organized Robotic Technology) by the government, is the subject of experiments within an underground facility in Virginia when it transforms into a swarm of self-replicating insect-like nanites that begin destroying everything in their path back to Manhattan, including a large contingent of the U.S. Army.

After speaking with Nobel Prize-winning Professor Barnhardt (John Cleese) about how his own species went through drastic evolution to survive its sun's demise, Klaatu is convinced by Helen and Jacob that humans can change their ways and are worth saving.[4] The three go toward the sphere in Central Park, where Klaatu warns that even if he manages to stop GORT, there will be a price to the human way of life. The nanobot cloud arrives before they can reach the sphere and they have to hide under a bridge. There, it is revealed that Jacob and Helen have been infected by the nanites. She pleads with Klaatu to save Jacob. Klaatu saves both of them by transferring the infection to his own body, then sacrifices himself to stop GORT by walking through the nanites to the sphere and touching it. His actions cause the sphere to emit a massive pulse which stops GORT, saving humanity, but at the price of all of Earth's technology becoming apparently useless and immobile. Klaatu disappears, and the giant sphere leaves Earth.

The Bank Job


Title : The Bank Job
Genres: Comedy, Drama, Thriller and Crime/Gangster
Release Date: March 7th, 2008 (wide)
Distributors: Lionsgate, Warner Bros. Pictures
U.S. Box Office: $30,028,592
Starring: Jason Statham, Saffron Burrows, Stephen Campbell Moore, Daniel Mays, James Faulkner
Directed by: Roger Donaldson

Synopsis :

Petty-criminal-gone-straight Terry Leather (Jason Statham) owns a failing car-sales garage and is being harassed by two debt-collectors. His old girlfriend Martine (Saffron Burrows) offers Terry a chance to earn enough money to never worry about debt again: a bank robbery in Baker Street, London. Terry gathers a bunch of petty-criminal friends to help execute the plan. They lease a shop two lots away from the bank and start digging a tunnel underneath the middle shop (a chicken fast-food restaurant) in order to reach the underground bank vault. Terry employs Eddie (Michael Jibson), a worker in his garage, as a "watchman" with a walkie-talkie to sit on the roof of the building opposite and keep a look out for trouble.

What they don't know is that Martine, who has been caught smuggling heroin into Britain and desperately wants to avoid jail, is setting them up on behalf of MI5, which wants the contents of a certain safe deposit box (No. 118) within the bank. This safe deposit box contains compromising photos of a female member of the British Royal Family (identified in the film as Princess Margaret) participating in a threesome. The photos are in a box belonging to a black militant who calls himself Michael X; he is using the photos to avoid trouble with the Metropolitan Police, and MI5 is desperate to keep the photos out of circulation.

As Terry and his crew dig, their radio chatter draws the attention of a local amateur radio operator, who listens in on the conversation and realises he's overhearing a bank robbery in progress. He calls the police, but with a ten-mile radius to search and a lack of concrete details, they fail to pin the robbery down.

After they have broken in and begin looting the vault, Martine goes for the deposit-box with the photos. A suspicious Terry opens the box with her and, upon seeing the pictures, knows that Martine has a hidden agenda. In addition to those photos, further photos of a number of high-ranking government officials are found, at the top a senior MP in compromising positions in a local S&M brothel. The robbers pocket these with the money and other valuables. Terry arranges for alternate transportation "to be safe", throwing off MI5 who had intended to immediately intercept them.

Guy (James Faulkner) and Bambas (Alki David), leave with their share of the spoils. When Terry confronts Martine over the photos, she explains their predicament. Meanwhile, the robbery is discovered, and the police — both corrupt ones receiving payoffs and honest ones — start their investigation. MI5 is likewise searching. Lew Vogel (David Suchet), a local club owner, is worried about the contents of his ledger, which lists every payoff he's made to the police, which by chance also was stolen during the robbery. He also phones Michael X to inform him that his box containing the royal 'portraits' has gone missing. Michael X starts to get suspicious of Gale Benson, a British spy who has befriended his brother and gone with the family to Trinidad.

The club owner manages to find one of the robbers, Dave (Daniel Mays) and tortures him for information with a sandblaster. When he eventually tells Vogel everything, Vogel goes to the garage where Terry worked and kidnaps Eddie, who was the lookout during the robbery, taking him to the same secret location and tying him down. At the same time, the senior MP is shown the photos of himself in the brothel, and agrees to try to help absolve the robbers of all wrongdoing and give them safe passage out of the country. Meanwhile, MI5 issues a D-Notice forbidding the press from reporting on the heist any longer. Police simultaneously release recordings from the walkie-talkie conversations, in the hope that someone will recognize the voices. These recordings are heard on the radio by Terry's family.

The club owner's accomplice eventually shoots Dave in the head and threatens to shoot Eddie also unless he gets his ledger book (with incriminating info about payoffs) back. Lew makes an agreement with Terry, agreeing to meet him at Paddington Station in London. During this time as well, Guy and Bambas are murdered by unknown people, and Michael X kills Benson in Trinidad. Terry has Kev give the same instruction to the officer in charge of the investigation, citing knowledge of corrupt officers under his control. He also convinces the club owner to go to Paddington Station at the same time, offering him the book with details of corrupt officers in return for the safe return of his mechanic. This results in a large meeting of all of the involved parties at the same time.

Terry stands on the platform waiting for the others, while Martine meets up with Tim Everett, her original contact within MI5, on a bridge overlooking the scene. The club owner and his corrupt police accomplices arrive with the mechanic, but recognize MI5 agents present and run. At the same time, the head of MI5 arrives (with Lord Mountbatten), handing over the documentation and passports that Terry bargained for, in return for the photos of the princess. Terry then chases the fleeing club owner and his henchmen. He starts to attack the club owner, and then fights with one of the aides, knocking them both out. The second aide appears with a gun, but Terry manages to avoid the shots and knock him out with a brick hastily dislodged from a wall.

The police officer in charge of the investigation then arrives, and sees the robbers being arrested. He speaks with the MI5 officers present, who direct police to let the robbers go. Terry gives the ledger to the police officer before he, Kevin, and Eddie go away. Vogel and the corrupt officers are arrested instead. Everett personally supervises Michael X's arrest in Trinidad and Tobago and has Benson's remains exhumed for reburial in Britain.

The final scenes have Terry and Martine say good-bye, and Terry and his family enjoying a relaxed and carefree life on a small sailing yacht of their own, near some sunny beach.

The epilogue states that the revelations about the brothel forces many government officials to resign. Scotland Yard starts investigating the corrupt officers named in the ledger. Michael X was hanged in 1975 for Benson's murder and his personal files are kept hidden in the British National Archives until 2054. Vogel gets imprisoned eight years for crimes that were unrelated to the robbery. The murderers of Guy and Bambas have never been found. About GBP 4 million worth of materials and money was stolen from the robbery. At least 100 safety-deposit box owners did not claim insurance nor identify their items in the boxes.