Jan
24
Archive
Archive for the ‘Mystery’ Category
Jan
22
Description:
In 1891 London, Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey, Jr.) and Dr. John Watson (Jude Law) race to prevent a human sacrifice ritual conducted by Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong). Holmes and Watson stop the sacrifice just in time and neutralize Lord Blackwood while Holmes saves Watson from a glass shard Blackwood used to kill his enemies that he barely sees until the last second, after which the police, led by Inspector Lestrade (Eddie Marsan), arrive and arrest him.
Blackwood’s execution occurs three months later, during which Holmes has become bored without a new case. Watson prepares to leave 221B Baker Street to establish his own business, and he intends to marry Mary Morstan (Kelly Reilly). Blackwood requests Holmes’ presence on the day of his execution, and warns him that three more deaths will occur after his execution that will change the very nature of their world. Blackwood is executed by hanging, and declared dead by Dr. Watson himself.
Holmes is re-acquainted with Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams). She offers him a sum of money to pursue a case of a missing red-haired midget by the name of Reordan. Holmes disguises himself to find the identity of Adler’s employer, but can only surmise that he is a professor.
Cast:Robert Downey, Jr., Jude Law, Rachel McAdams, Mark Strong
Watch It Now – Sherlock Holmes
Jan
09
Description:
A writer, Ned Kendall (Mendelsohn), is asked to return to the remote and isolated family home by his sister Sally (Griffiths), to say goodbye to his father, Bruce (Brown), who is dying. Ned also brings his 21 year old aspiring actress fiancee, Toni (Dermody) who has trouble getting use to the isolation and harshness of rural Australia.
While back home, Ned (O’Donnell) starts having memories of his childhood, many involving his beautiful twin sister (Lowe) and his older brother Cliff (McFarlane). These memories awaken long-buried secrets from the family’s past.
After a drunken night out with friends, Ned goes for a swim in the family dam. He is joined by Kate, who seduces and subsequently has sex with him on the banks of the dam. Ned shows immediate remorse while Kate remains unperturbed.
After Ned’s refusal to have further sexual relations with Kate, Kate instigates a fight between Cliff and Ned by suggesting that Ned made unwanted advances towards her. As punishment, Bruce makes Ned accompany Kate to the Christmas dance. During the dance, Ned leaves Kate, who is left to go home with Cliff. Ned leaves separately and on his way home he finds his sister’s dead body in Cliff’s crashed car. Cliff later hangs himself.
Cast:Rachel Griffiths, Bryan Brown, Sophie Lowe, Ben Mendelsohn
Watch It Now – Beautiful Kate
Jan
04
Description:
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a fantastical morality tale, set in the present day. It tells the story of Dr Parnassus and his extraordinary ‘Imaginarium’, a travelling show where members of the audience get an irresistible opportunity to choose between light and joy or darkness and gloom. Blessed with the extraordinary gift of guiding the imaginations of others, Dr Parnassus is cursed with a dark secret. Long ago he made a bet with the devil, Mr Nick, in which he won immortality. Many centuries later, on meeting his one true love, Dr Parnassus made another deal with the devil, trading his immortality for youth, on condition that when his first-born reached its 16th birthday he or she would become the property of Mr Nick. Valentina is now rapidly approaching this ‘coming of age’ milestone and Dr Parnassus is desperate to protect her from her impending fate. Mr Nick arrives to collect but, always keen to make a bet, renegotiates the wager. Now the winner of Valentina will be determined by whoever seduces the first five souls. Enlisting a series of wild, comical and compelling characters in his journey, Dr Parnassus promises his daughter’s hand in marriage to the man that helps him win. In this captivating, explosive and wonderfully imaginative race against time, Dr Parnassus must fight to save his daughter in a never-ending landscape of surreal obstacles – and undo the mistakes of his past once and for all…
Cast:Heath Ledger, Christopher Plummer, Verne Troyer, Lily Cole
Watch It Now – The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Dec
22
Description:
Triangle (2009) is a British horror film, directed by Christopher Smith, and starring Melissa George, Rachael Carpani and Liam Hemsworth[1], the film was released in the UK on 16 October 2009
When Jess sets sail on a yacht with a group of friends, she cannot shake the feeling that there is something wrong. Her suspicions are realized when the yacht hits a storm and the group is forced to board a passing ocean liner to get to safety, a ship Jess is convinced she’s been on before. The ship appears deserted, the clock on board has stopped, but they are not alone… Someone is intent on hunting them down, one by one. And Jess unknowingly holds the key to end the terror.
Cast:Melissa George, Liam Hemsworth, Rachael Carpani
Watch It Now – Triangle
Dec
22
Description:
A mysterious love story between Hamburg and Taipeh. The unsolved murder of her young Taiwanese lover Ai-ling leaves the Hamburg artist Sophie Schmitt completely disoriented. She dedicates a video-installation to her and shows it in Taipei. During the opening she is approached by a mysterious journalist. Sophie is fascinated at first glance by Mei-li, the young journalist. Mei-li takes her to visit the famous Taipei night markets and tries to seduce the artist. Sophie, still mourning her lost lover, rejects Mei-li and returns immediately to Hamburg. Shortly afterwords Mei-li shows up on her doorstep, unannounced. Sophie takes her in and finally falls for her. But soon she realizes that her new lover is secretly investigating Ai-ling’s death. Strange happenings occur, sudden flashes of recollection come and go, and then Sophie finds out that there is no Mei-Li working for a Taiwanese newspaper and that no one by that name ever entered Germany. Who is the mysterious Taiwanese woman?
Cast:Inga Busch, Huan-Ru Ke, Ting Ting Hu, Jana Schulz
Watch It Now – Ghosted
Dec
22
Description:
In 1959 at William Dawes Elementary School in Lexington, Massachusetts, a time capsule containing students’ drawings of their ideas of the future is buried and set to be ceremoniously opened 50 years later. A girl named Lucinda Embry contributes a page full of seemingly random digits. That night Lucinda is found in a school closet, where her fingers are bloodied from scratching at the inside of the door, and she complains about hearing voices.
In 2009, the time capsule is opened and the drawings are given to the current students. A boy named Caleb receives Lucinda’s envelope. His father, John Koestler, a widower and professor of astrophysics at MIT, takes interest in the paper and soon realizes some of the digits represent the dates and death tolls of every major disaster over the past fifty years, and suggests three disasters still to come. Meanwhile Caleb begins receiving visits from mysterious figures in overcoats, “The Strangers”. During these encounters he hears their overlapping telepathic whispers.
Cast:Nicolas Cage, Rose Byrne, Liam Hemsworth, Chandler Canterbury, Lara Robinson
Watch It Now – Knowing
Dec
21
Description:
Eleven years ago, a cave-in on the north side of a mine trapped six miners. Six days later when rescue teams arrived, they found five dead miners and Harry Warden, who survived by killing the other miners with a pick-axe, in a coma. Tom Hanniger is under suspicion to have committed the crime. Finally, he is blamed for the mine disaster because he forgot to vent the methane lines.
The following year on Valentine’s Day, Warden wakes up from his coma, killing many in the process. At the abandoned mineshaft that was the site of the disaster, a party is in full swing, attended by many teens, including Axel, his girlfriend Irene, Tom Hanniger, and his girlfriend, Sarah. Sarah goes in alone and gets lost looking for Axel and Irene. She runs across a teen and a few seconds later he is stabbed in the back of his head through his eye. She is confronted by Harry Warden in full miner’s garb, carrying a bloody pick-axe, and flees for safety; Axel grabs her and they along with Irene hide from the killer. He also kills someone with a shovel by cutting her head off in half via the jaw. He eventually sees Sarah, Axel and Irene, and they run out of the mine, where they run into Tom coming in. The killer hits him with the pick axe, injuring him, while the other three run for the car and leave him behind. Tom runs back into the mine in an attempt to get away from the killer; just as he’s about to be killed, the police arrive and shoot the killer, but he makes his getaway back into the mine.
Cast:Jensen Ackles, Jaime King, Kerr Smith, Tom Atkins
Watch It Now – My Bloody Valentine 3D
Dec
20
Description:
One evening, Cleveland Heep (Giamatti), who became a handyman at a Philadelphia apartment complex after his family was murdered, discovers Story (Howard), a sea nymph from the Blue World, in his building’s pool, immediately rescuing her from an attack by a “Scrunt”[1], a grass-covered lupine that lays preternaturally flat.
Story is here to find a specific writer whose book will better humanity’s future. After questioning residents Farber (Balaban), Bell (Hurt), Dury (Wright), and five nameless smokers, Heep discovers the author, Vick Ran (Shyamalan), who is writing The Cookbook, containing views and ideas so significant they will inspire a future President, a great Midwestern orator, to greatly change the world for the better. Ran meeting Story eliminates his fear and sharpens his inner voice, but he learns he will be assassinated due to his ideas’ controversial nature.
Cast:Paul Giamatti, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jeffrey Wright, Bob Balaban
Watch It Now – Lady in the Water
Dec
18
Description:
Simone and Eddie (Tanedra Howard and Marty Moreau) awaken in a room with a caged-in scale in the center, wearing head harnesses with screws at their temples. The person who cuts off more flesh weight in sixty seconds will live, while the other will be killed by the screws. The overweight Eddie cuts fat from his body, but Simone chops her left arm off and tips the scale in her favor, saving herself. Lieutenant Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) is called to the scene by Dan Erickson (Mark Rolston), who found Peter Strahm’s fingerprints around the room. Erickson also reveals that Lindsey Perez (Athena Karkanis) is alive; he explains that he protected Perez after her incident in Saw IV due to her being a target of an unknown accomplice, now believed to be Strahm. Jill Tuck (Betsy Russell) meets with Hoffman at her clinic; he informs her that he is taking control of the games, and Jill hands him five envelopes received in the box from John’s will, keeping the sixth to herself.William Easton (Peter Outerbridge), a health insurance executive, talks with his company’s attorney about Harold Abbott (George Newbern), whose insurance policy was revoked after a discrepancy was found on his application and who later died from his illness. In his office, William is kidnapped and placed in a trap. A large vise encloses his torso, his wrists bound and a breathing mask covering his face. Hank (Gerry Mendicino), his janitor and a smoker, is in the same situation across from him. Hank is killed when he fails to hold his breath for long.
Cast:Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, Shawnee Smith, Tanedra Howard
Watch It Now – Saw VI
Dec
18
Description:
Michael Harding (Penn Badgley) returns home from military school to find his mother Susan (Sela Ward), happily in love with a man known as David Harris (Dylan Walsh). He seems like the perfect father and husband to everyone; except Michael, who suspects that he isn’t quite the man he seems to be. Along with his girlfriend Kelly (Amber Heard), his father Jay (Jon Tenney), and Susan’s friends (Paige Turco and Sherry Stringfield), they slowly start to piece together the mystery of the man who is set to become his stepfather, but they may be too late in getting to the truth. As people who realize of the inadequacies of David’s story start mysteriously dying or disappear systematically, Michael is convinced his soon-to-be stepfather is behind them. After finding his father’s body in the basement, Michael sets out to save his family and girlfriend before they become David’s latest victims. In the end of their fight, David pulls Michael off the roof of their house and both are left unconscious. After being in a coma for a month Michael finds out from his girlfriend and his mom that David escaped when the police showed up. The scene switches to The Stepfather working in a different area with a different name and he ends up meeting another woman with children.
Cast:Penn Badgley, Dylan Walsh, Amber Heard, Sela Ward
Watch It Now – The Stepfather
Dec
18
Description:
Under the watchful eyes of Father Silvano Bentivoglio and Dr. Vittoria Vetra, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) initiates the Large Hadron Collider and captures three vials of antimatter. Immediately afterward, someone kills Father Silvano and steals a vial.
The Roman Catholic Church mourns the death of Pope Pius XVI in Rome. Vatican City prepares for the papal conclave which will elect the next Pope. Camerlengo Patrick McKenna assumes temporary control of the Vatican while faithful members of the Church crowd into Saint Peter’s Square, waiting for a successful vote. The Illuminati kidnap the ‘preferiti’ (the four most likely candidates to be elected pope) before the conclave enters seclusion. They threaten to kill one every hour and then destroy the Vatican in a burst of light at midnight. A stolen security camera shows the missing antimatter vial, which will catastrophically explode when the vial’s battery dies and the magnetic containment field fails.
The Vatican summons symbologist Robert Langdon from Harvard University and Vittoria Vetra from CERN to help them solve the Illuminati’s threat, save the four preferiti, and replace the vial’s batteries. Langdon listens to the Illuminati message and deduces that the four cardinals will die at the four altars of the “Path of Illumination.” However, no one knows where these altars are located.
Cast:Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor, Ayelet Zurer, Stellan Skarsgård
Watch It Now – Angels & Demons
Dec
17
Description:
The film begins with a CIA internal memo being typed across the screen. It states that a man named Arlington Steward has recovered from severe burn wounds and is delivering units related to the Mars project.The film then opens up in 1976 Richmond, Virginia with Norma and Arthur Lewis cuddling in bed after a night of passionate lovemaking (this scene has been removed from screenings in North America to obtain a PG 13 rating), and awaking at 5:45 am as the doorbell rings. Norma goes downstairs and looks through the peephole seeing a black car drive off. Upon opening the door, she sees a package on her doorstep. Inside, she and her husband find a wooden box with a button protected by a glass dome, locked with a key, and a note, reading Mr. Steward will come at 5:00 pm.
Cast:Cameron Diaz, James Marsden, Frank Langella
Watch It Now – The Box
Dec
17
Description:
High profile lawyer, Martin Hunter (Michael Douglas) has an impeccable record putting criminals behind bars and is a shoo-in for governor in the upcoming election. But when ambitious rookie journalist, C.J. Nichols (Jesse Metcalfe) begins investigating Hunter for tampering with evidence to secure his convictions, the district attorney’s perfect record is up for scrutiny.Commencing a risky game of cat and mouse with Hunter, C.J. frames himself as a murder suspect to catch the corrupt D.A. in the act.Romantically involved with C.J. but unaware of his assignment, Assistant D.A. Ella (Amber Tamblyn) becomes caught between her boss’s political ambitions and C.J.’s dangerous expose. As mounting evidence stacks up against both men, Ella’s own life becomes threatened as she discovers incriminating proof that puts the fate of both Nichol’s innocence and Hunter’s reputation in her hands.
Cast:Michael Douglas, Amber Tamblyn, Jesse Metcalfe, Orlando Jones, Joel David Moore
Watch It Now – Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
Dec
17
Description:
Actress Milla Jovovich introduces herself, and explains that she will play Dr. Abagail Tyler, a psychiatrist, in the re-enactment scenes of the movie, and they will be mixed in with the actual real videotaped events. She warns us that what we are about to see is “very disturbing”, and that at the end, we must choose what to believe.The real Dr. Abigail Tyler has a taped interview in 2002, at Chapman University, and begins to retell her story. Two years prior to the taped interview, we pick up her story in Anchorage, Alaska, as she is telling her friend and fellow psychiatrist, Dr. Abel Campos (Elias Koteas), what happened to her and her family, and he puts her under hypnosis so that she can remember what has happened. She goes back to a night, where after making love with her husband, Will (also a psychiatrist, and doing research on unexplained phenomenon in his patients), they fall asleep. She is awakened by a sound, and while groggy and still not quite awake, her husband is brutally, repeatedly stabbed, right next to her in bed. She screams, and yet cannot see who it is. Terrified and hysterical, Dr. Campos brings her out of hypnosis. It has been just 2 months since her husband’s death, and the case is still unsolved. Dr. Campos encourages her to take some time off, but she refuses, explaining that Will’s research meant a lot to him, and she needs to finish it for him.
Cast:Milla Jovovich, Elias Koteas, Will Patton
