The Dark Knight


            The film opens with Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) appearing on Joan Lunden's daytime talk show, along a doctor, a senator's aide, and a teenage boy with cancer. As he's introduced, the audience spits at him. The screen freezes, spittle in midair, while Naylor explains what he does for a living in a voice over. He works for the Academy of Tobacco Studies, and he represents Big Tobacco. The Academy is supposed to research links between disease and smoking, and has never been able to find anything conclusive.On the show and throughout the film, he takes the offensive position (in both senses). On Joan Lunden's show, he protests that in no way would he want a potential customer to die, and accuses the doctor of profiting off cancer patients.His immediate nemesis is Senator Ortolan Finisterre (William H. Macy), a Birkenstock-wearing Vermonter whose office is decorated with cheese and bottles of maple syrup. Senator Finisterre wants to plaster a graphic skull-and-crossbones picture on every pack of cigarettes.Through all of this, Naylor is also trying to maintain a relationship with his son Joey (Cameron Bright). Naylor's boss BR (J.K. Simmons) wants ideas on how to make smoking sell. "We don't sell Tic Tacs, we sell cigarettes. And they're cool, available, and addictive. The job is almost done for us." Naylor has the idea of product placement in movies.He takes Joey on the trip to Los Angeles to meet with an agent about putting more smoking in movies. Naylor is divorced, and shares custody of his son. His son is rather uncomfortable with his father's profession, but Naylor is as great arguing with his son as he is with the press and starts to win him over. Naylor portrays himself as being on the side of freedom and personal choice.On a side trip, Naylor takes a briefcase full of cash to the original Marlboro Man Lorne Lutch (Sam Elliott) who is dying of cancer. There's no strings attached; Lutch can just keep the money. A suspicious Lutch asks why he can't just go to the press. Naylor suggests he do exactly that, and recommends which reporter to talk to. Lutch can go on TV, denounce the tobacco industry, and donate the money to a worthy cause. Donate? Well, if he denounces them he can't keep any of the blood money. Naylor leaves, confident that Lutch will keep quiet.Back in DC, he debates Senator Finisterre on Dennis Miller's show. A caller threatens Naylor with death for being responsible for millions of deaths. Naylor brushes the threat off, but he's kidnapped. The kidnapper (Jeff Witzke) covers Naylor in nicotine patches and leaves him naked in the lap of the Lincoln Memorial. Ironically, his smoking gave him a resistance to the nicotine, otherwise he would have died.Naylor is interviewed by a reporter for a Washington paper, but ends up seducing her. He's confident of some positive press, but is shocked when she gives away all of his secrets. She was having sex with him to get the story. She tells about the hush money to Lutch, the movie deal, and his weekly meeting with the MOD Squad: the Merchants of Death, gun and liquor lobbyists (there's a funny bit where he one-ups them on how many people his industry kills).The Academy distances itself from Naylor, who is shattered for a while. Some supportive words from his son inspire him to fight back. He reveals that the reporter was having sex with him to ruin her career, and agrees to appear in front of Senator Finisterre's committee. He comes out swinging again, accusing Vermont's cheese of clogging arteries and causing heart disease. When asked if he would let his own son smoke, he points out that his son is under 18 and that would be illegal. Pressed for what he would do on his son's 18th birthday, he says that if his son wants a cigarette, he'll buy him one.Outside the hearing, BR offers him his job back but Naylor turns him down. Good timing: shortly thereafter, the tobacco industry settles for billions and the Academy is shut down. Joey wins the school's debating contest, and Naylor finds new clients: "Look into the mirror and repeat: 'There is no conclusive scientific evidence linking cell phone usage and brain cancer.'"Apart from the plot, the film is filled with absurd little cutaways. Naylor has a weird fantasy where's he's starring in a hotel safety video. The gun lobbyist has some trouble with the Senate metal detector. Naylor imagines other industries that can use help, like seal clubbers.
    

Thank You for Smoking


            The film opens with Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger (Tom Hanks) trying to maneuver a plane above New York City. The plane's engines have both failed, and the pilot is trying to find a safe place to land. Sully loses control and crashes the plane into a building, resulting in a fiery explosion. This is just a nightmare, and Sully wakes up sweating and gasping for breath.It's been barely a week when Sully successfully landed U.S. Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River, saving the lives of all 155 passengers in what the media has dubbed "The Miracle on the Hudson". However, Sully remains haunted by the incident.Sully and his co-pilot/friend Jeff Skiles (Aaron Eckhart) are called in to meet with a board of people investigating the incident. One of the men, Charles Porter (Mike O'Malley), questions Sully over basic things such as if he had gotten enough sleep, whether or not he had taken any drugs or alcohol, or if he has been having troubles at home. The big question is why Sully chose to land on the Hudson instead of simply returning to LaGuardia Airport. Skiles defends Sully's actions as he was right next to him when the incident occurred. It is argued that the left engine had been determined to be idle and still functioning, but Sully disputes that and says that he felt both engines die.Sully keeps in touch with his wife Lorraine (Laura Linney), who lives with their two daughters. Lorraine has been worried about Sully's well-being ever since the incident.The media also looks into the incident, with Sully being questioned by reporters. He sits for an interview with Katie Couric, who asks him what it feels like to be seen as a hero. Sully says he doesn't feel like a hero. Following the interview, Sully looks out the window and experiences another hallucination of his plane crashing into the city.We see a brief flashback of Sully as a teenager when he was first learning to fly under LT Cook (Jeff Kober).Sully and Skiles meet with the board again. They inform the pilots that several tests were run on a simulator that proved that it was possible and probable to return to LaGuardia.We go back to the day of the incident on January 15, 2009. Sully and Skiles take off, but roughly two minutes into the flight, a large flock of geese fly head-on into the engines, causing both of them to falter. Sully maintains contact with the people at the control center, but the flight is lost from the radar. Sully then warns everyone on board to brace for impact. The flight attendants mind the passengers and repeat instructions for them to be careful. Sully and Skiles then make their descent onto the Hudson.In the present day, Sully and Skiles make an appearance on David Letterman's show with the three flight attendants who were with them during the incident.Sully goes jogging through Times Square and runs by the base where an old plane that he flew rests. We see another quick flashback of him flying that plane over a field. Afterwards, Sully goes to a bar where the bartender (Michael Rapaport) gives him a drink named after Sully - grey goose with a splash of water. Sully then watches coverage of the incident on the TV.We see another flashback to that day, but with a more extensive look at the passengers. There's a woman with her elderly mother that wants to bring back a souvenir for her grandchildren. Two grown men are traveling with their father, and they just barely make it onto the plane before it departs. There is a woman with her baby and a polite man sitting next to her. We even meet the flight attendants joining the trip. As the plane malfunctions and begins its descent, the passengers brace themselves for the worst. Some are texting their loved ones, while others are holding on tight. The polite man holds the woman's baby for her. The plane lands on the river, and soon starts to fill up with water. Sully orders everyone to evacuate as the doors are opened and the rafts are inflated.A ferry team led by Captain Vincent Lombardi (playing himself) heads out into the Hudson to rescue the passengers, who have been separated onto both wings. At least two people have jumped into the freezing cold water, but both are recovered. The ferry team starts pulling people on board. Some people are brought to Jersey. One of the men that almost missed the flight calls his father, who is with his other son since they were separated, but they are elated to know that they're all okay.Sully is brought to a hospital, and he is told that all 155 souls on board had survived. He is later brought to a hotel to stay, and one of the employees gives him a big hug, leaving him stunned. He calls Lorraine to let her know he is okay, even though she has no idea just yet of what has happened until Sully tells her to turn on the TV with their daughters.Back in the present, Lorraine calls Sully in tears as it just hits her that he was one of the 155 people on board, and how terrified she is to realize that.At the film's climax, Sully and Skiles attend a hearing with the board and other officials to discuss the incident. Again, it is brought up that all test pilots in the simulators were able to successfully make it back to LaGuardia without a problem. Sully argues that what they did not take into account was the "human factor", in that it was a matter of life and death, and that none of the test pilots were under the same pressure that he and Skiles were facing. The directors run tests again with the apparent reaction time of 35 seconds (Sully repeatedly mentions that he acted within 208 seconds), which show that had the test pilots reacted under the same circumstances, they all would have crashed into the city if they tried going back to LaGuardia. Even attempts at making it to Teterboro Airport would have proved fatal. Everyone then listens to a recording of Sully and Skiles on the flight as they made their moves. It is enough to prove to the board that Sully and Skiles acted properly. Dr. Elizabeth Davis (Anna Gunn) comments that if Sully had been removed from the equation, everything would have gone wrong. Sully disagrees, saying that Skiles and the flight attendants also deserve credit for the landing. Davis asks Skiles what they would have done differently. Skiles replies that he would have done this in July. Everyone laughs.The final text states that it took about 24 minutes for the ferry team to rescue everyone from Flight 1549. The end credits feature photos from the real event.
    

Sully


            Set in an unnamed Midwestern American city, Chad (Aaron Eckhart) and Howard (Matt Malloy) are two middle management employees at a corporation, temporarily assigned to a branch office away from their home city for several weeks. Howard is assigned to head up the new project and Chad is to assist. After their first meeting at the local airport and after having dinner and drinks, they talk about the history about their failed relationships. Embittered by bad experiences with women, they form a mean-spirited revenge scheme to find an insecure woman, romance her simultaneously, and then break up with her at the same time. Chad, who is cruel, manipulative, duplicitous, misogynist, and abusive to his subordinates and co-workers, is the originator and driving force behind the scheme, while Howard is the more passive of the two, which leads to a later conflict with the scheme.Chad decides upon Christine (Stacey Edwards), a deaf co-worker who is so self-conscious that she wears headphones so people, thinking that she is listening to music, are compelled to get her attention visually or tactilely without immediately learning that she is deaf. Chad and Howard decide to each ask her out, and out of her lonelienss, she accepts. Over the course of several weeks, both of them date her simultaneously.In the meantime, things with the project go wrong; a fax Chad is supposed to have sent to the home office is "lost" and a presentation Chad is supposed to deliver to the home office is unable to be carried out successfully after some documents are allegedly printed so lightly that they are illegible. These mishaps culminate in Howard being demoted and Chad taking his place at the head of the project after he places the blame for most of the mishaps on the unknowing and nebbish Howard.Chad eventually sleeps with Chistine, and she falls in love with him. When Christine eventually breaks this news to Howard that she's dating his co-worker Chad, Howard tells Christine the truth about their scheme, and tells her that he loves her. Christine is shocked by the revelation, and refuses to believe that Chad would do this. When she confronts Chad, he admits the truth. Christine angrily slaps Chad, but he is so unashamed of his behavior, and cruelly taunts Christine, who collapses into tears after he leaves her.Several weeks later. Howard confronts Chad back home at his apartment. Howard is now apparently in the bad graces of the company, being moved to a lower floor while Chad is doing well. Chad offers to go to higher managerment to say something on Howard's behalf. Nevertheless, Howard is not worried about work, he confesses to Chad that he really loved Christine and feels ashamed at what they did to her. At this point Chad, despite having previously told Howard that his girlfriend, Suzanne, had left him, shows Howard that she is still there, asleep in his bed. Chad says that he carried out the entire plan "because I could," and he asks Howard how it feels to have truly hurt someone.Howard, who had never done anything like that before, leaves, horrified and angry that Chad used him just so he could steal his promotion as well as hurt an innocent woman just for the hell of it... and now has completely gotten away with it.Howard travels back to the nameless city and to a local bank where he sees Christine now working as a clerk. Howard tries to speak to her, but she ignores him. He loudly pleads with her to "listen" to him, but his pleas literally fall on deaf ears.
    

In the Company of Men


            
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My All-American


            The movie opens in a convenience store one late night, with a smalltime drug dealer named Nick (Aaron Eckhart) is trying to decide what coffee brand to buy. His ex-lover Dallas (Paulina Porizkova) and fellow hitman Billy Hill (James LeGros) are getting impatient and tell him to hurry up. Nick finally choose Chocolate Macadamia, but the dispenser is empty. He complains to the cashier.The next morning, Nick shows up on the doorstep of Casey Wells (Thomas Jane), an old partner from his days as a drug dealer in Los Angeles. Casey has cleaned up his life. He is now a married architect and is looking to adopt a child with his wife. Nick leaves a couple of suitcases in Casey's guest room before leaving to run some errands. After Nick leaves, Casey becomes suspicious of one of the suitcases and eventually opens it to find it filled with heroin. After calling Nick to yell at him for bringing drugs into his home, he disposes of all of it in the kitchen sink.Ice (Glenn Plummer), a Jamaican Rasta hitman, enters Casey's house and is about to kill him, but Casey manages to persuade him to have a last smoke of marijuana. After having smoked, Ice is about to kill Casey when Ice's cell phone rings. Ice begins to rap over the phone in an effort to clinch a record deal, and Casey seizes the moment and knocks him out. Casey then ties him up and leaves him in his garage.A representative from the adoption agency comes to interview Casey about his fitness to be a father. The representative is particularly curious to know what Casey did for several years when he lived in L.A. as there is no account of his time there. Casey tries his best to cover up his past as well as his recent encounter with the hitman.
During the interview, Dallas, who wants the money that she believes Nick left with Casey along with the heroin, shows up. She scares away the representative from the adoption agency by telling a story about Casey's drug-dealing and murdering past.When left alone with Casey, Dallas questions him about the money's whereabouts. Angry that he cannot help her, she decides to kill him. But not before she ties him up to a chair, fellates him to force an erection, gets naked and proceeds to mount and rape him. She tells him she will not kill him until he orgasms and she plans to go on until she makes him get an orgasm. Delivering on her word, she reaches multiple orgasms, but gets no results from him.While Dallas reaches a third orgasm, Hill breaks in and shoots her, splattering her blood all over Casey, his walls and his floor.Billy believes Casey when told that he does not have the heroin, but plans on torturing him with a saw and a blow torch anyhow, while he brags about his prowess and technique of cauterization as he sets to work. Hill is interrupted by cops ironically raiding the house next door. As Billy checks on it Casey is able to loosen the tape around his wrists and grabs a frying pan and sits back down. Billy returns and tells Casey the cops got the wrong house. As he is about to proceed, he notices something is wrong. But catching Billy off guard, Casey overpowers him, and leaves him in the garage.Nick calls Casey from a pay phone, apologizes for everything and admits he had stolen the heroin and money from the police. After he hangs up, it is revealed to us that Nick has been shot, and is bleeding severely, seemingly about to die.Finally, a corrupt cop (Mickey Rourke) arrives with a bag which contains Nick's head. He gives Casey until 7 p.m. to find the money but tells him that he does not care about the heroin. The cop then sees the garage with Ice and Billy tied up and Dallas dead and unloads a magazine into Ice and Billy. He then tells Casey to throw them out as it is garbage day.In the end, Casey calls Ice's boss and tells him that the heroin is being auctioned off at 7 p.m. at his house. He recalls Nick's earlier words which promptly lead him to find the money and a wedding present in the spare tire of his car. He takes them, puts them in Dallas' Lamborghini Diablo car and goes to pick his wife up at the airport to presumably escape the country. The movie ends as we see the cops and the Jamaicans, both armed, about to meet each other at the house.
    

Thursday

Rabbit Hole

The Romanoffs


            Towelhead follows the dark, vulnerable, and shocking story of Jasira, a 13-year-old Arab-American girl, as she navigates the confusing and frightening path of adolescence and her own sexual awakening.When Jasira's mother sends her to Houston to live with her strict Lebanese father, she quickly learns that her new neighbors find her and her father a curiosity. In addition, her budding womanhood makes her traditional and hot-tempered father uncomfortable, confusing her more. Lonely in this new environment, Jasira seeks friendship and acceptance from her neighbors. Mr. Vuoso, an Army reservist; and Melina, a liberal expectant mother who reaches out to Jasira.Thrown into an unfamiliar suburban world, Jasira must confront racism and hypocrisy both at home and at school, and at the same time struggle to make sense of her raging hormones and newfound sexuality. While her boyfriend, Thomas, provides some comfort, even that relationship causes problems when her father discovers that Thomas is black. Surrounded by adults who are as lost as she, Jasira yearns for understanding, even amidst often brutal acts.
    

Towelhead

Conversations with Other Women

Bleed for This


            The film starts before Christmas at Camp David. President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart) is preparing to attend a fundraiser with his wife Margaret Asher (Ashley Judd), and son Connor (Finley Jacobsen). Also on the President's security detail is Secret Service agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler). Banning is on good terms with the family, sparring with Benjamin in a private boxing ring, helping Margaret deciding on earrings to wear, and on friendly terms with Connor, whom Mike has been giving tips on being a good agent.As the group leaves the Camp for the fundraiser, the snowfall outside begins to come down harder. While Ben and Margaret ride in the Presidential Limo, Connor is riding with Mike in an SUV following them. As they near a bridge over a river near the camp, the lead vehicle in the convoy hits a deer, causing a chain reaction of vehicular damage. One Secret Service SUV plows through the side of the bridge and crashes into the waters below. The Presidential Limo ends up skidding near the edge, balancing precariously.Mike and several other agents rush to Ben and Margaret's aid, but Margaret's door is jammed, and the limo is still sliding over the edge. Several agents attempt to try and keep the vehicle from going over, but, as their attempts fail, Mike makes a split-second decision, and cuts Ben out of his seatbelt, saving him, but is unable to save Margaret, who goes over the edge in the limo.The film then cuts to 18 months later. Since that time, Mike has taken a desk job with the US Treasury, still upset regarding the Camp David incident. He is unable to concentrate when his girlfriend attempts to tell him something, and he decides they should see a movie later that evening.Mike meets with Secret Service Director Lynne Jacobs (Angela Bassett), who knows Mike is still distressed over his failure to rescue the President's wife. She assures him that he did what was necessary, and even the President knows that.Asher is with Connor, who are preparing to go back to Camp David for a retreat, but Connor would rather go to the beach. Asher invites him to get some ice cream, but he is called in immediately. He meets with Secretary of Defense Ruth McMillan (Melissa Leo), Speaker of the House Allan Trumbull (Morgan Freeman), and Vice President Charles Rodriguez (Phil Austin) over their impending meeting with the Korean Prime Minister.Prime Minister Lee (Keong Sim) and his aide, Kang Yeonsak (Rick Yune) arrive at the White House. Somewhere over West Virginia, a large AC-130 gunship comes in and shoots down two American jets. Asher is taken out of his meeting with Lee and moved somewhere safer as he is alerted of the situation. He asks for Connor, but he is nowhere to be found. The enemy plane begins to open fire on civilians before making its way toward Washington DC and finally toward the White House.Mike sees the chaos from his office. He rushes into the streets to protect civilians while other troops attempt to shoot down the enemy plane. The shooters even manage to blow up oncoming missiles, but it is finally shot down, crashing its wing into the Washington Monument before finally crashing and exploding. The top of the monument collapses and falls, killing several tourists.While Asher, McMillan, Rodriguez, and others are taken down to the bunker, Mike runs toward the White House, where he finds suicide bombers blowing open the front gates. Other Korean terrorists begin coming in, firing on the Secret Service, who return fire and manage to kill some of them.Jacobs meets with General Clegg (Robert Forster) and others at the Pentagon where they are briefed on the situation, namely that the President is hiding in the bunker. Inside the bunker, however, Kang and several other terrorists, along with ex-Secret Service agent Dave Forbes (Dylan McDermott), take Asher and the others hostage.Outside, Agent Roma (Cole Hauser) and other men continue fighting off the incoming terrorists. Roma declares "Olympus has fallen" to signify that the White House has been invaded. He manages to kill one goon before getting killed himself.Trumbull comes into the Pentagon, where he is made acting president. Kang patches through to the Pentagon and begins by executing Prime Minister Lee in front of them. He orders the Americans to pull back the Seventh Fleet from Korea immediately.In the bunker, Kang tells Asher this is retaliation for all the damage that was brought upon Korea by Americans. Forbes is in on it, since he is against Asher's policies. Asher headbutts him in response.Mike discovers that the terrorists know about Connor and that they are looking for him. He manages to override Kang's security system and make it into the Oval Office, and patches through to the Pentagon. He gets in contact with Jacobs, who is surprised to hear from him, but she assures the other men that they can trust him. An assassin enters the room, but Mike takes him down and bludgeons him with a bust of Lincoln's head.Kang interrogates Admiral Hoenig (James Ingersoll) for a code. He nearly slits his throat, but Asher tells Hoenig to give it up. The Pentagon learns that a Cerberus code has been activated. When Mike sends them a tattoo on the neck of the assassin he killed, he is informed of the Cerberus code, which would allow the terrorists to deactivate all of the country's nuclear weapons.Mike continues moving forward to look for Connor. He finds the boy hiding in a room and safely gets him out just as more goons come in firing at them. Mike assures Connor that his father is going to be okay, and he gets him up a ventilation shaft to get out safely. Connor is rescued by some troops as Mike takes down other goons. He interrogates them, and they laugh in his face. He responds by stabbing one of them in the throat until he gets an answer. He lets Jacobs know Kang's name and to learn something about him.Kang learns about Mike's presence from Forbes, and so he is sent to get rid of him. Forbes comes across Mike, who is still unaware of his deception. When he accidentally slips Kang's name, Mike realizes the truth and the two get into a fight. Forbes tries to stab him, but Mike gets the knife from him and stabs him. As he lies dying, Mike asks him why he did this. Forbes reveals it was because he lost his son. Mike has him tell Kang that he got Mike, which he does before Mike fatally stabs him in the throat.Kang attempts to get another code from McMillan, who is utterly defiant. Kang starts to brutally assault her, but she still won't give up the code. When she is nearly beaten to death, Asher orders her to give up her code, which she does. The second Cerberus code is activated, and the Pentagon becomes aware of this. They also learn that Kang is a well-known terrorist who lost his mother to an American landmine and is very much infamous.Mike manages to get through to Kang's security and taunts him. He lets Kang know that Connor is safe and that he is going to put his knife through his brain. Asher listens to all of this.Several troops start flying into Washington to retaliate. Mike informs General Clegg that the terrorists possess Hydra Six - more powerful weapons than what the Americans have. Regardless, Clegg has the troops come in, but the terrorists shoot down one helicopter that crashes into the White House and causes a big explosion that severely damages the building.Kang gets through to the Pentagon, and executes Vice President Rodriguez. He orders them to finally recall the Seventh Fleet and to have a helicopter filled up and ready to get them out of there by dawn. He pulls McMillan out and takes her outside.As the news media are getting coverage of the situation, they inform viewers of South Korea's response to the situation, as well as getting footage of McMillan slowly stepping out into plain sight. With her back turned, Kang nearly shoots her, but Mike gets there first and opens fire, distracting Kang and allowing McMillan to run out and be rescued by troops.Kang makes it back to the bunker and has several hostages, including Asher, with a bag over their heads, along with the terrorists, just as their requested helicopter is coming down. The Seventh Fleet is called out from Korea as well.The hostages and terrorists get into the helicopter just as troops are locked on them. They are unable to fire, fearing they will hit the President. Just as the helicopter takes off, it explodes in mid-air and crashes to the ground. The Pentagon panics and they fear the worst - that Asher was killed in the explosion with everybody else. Mike is informed, but he knows that it doesn't add up, since Kang would not try and go out that way.Sure enough, it was a diversion. Kang and the other remaining terrorists are holding Asher in the bunker and get the final Cerberus code out of him. Kang's true plan is revealed - he plans to detonate ALL of the nuclear weapons to completely obliterate the United States.Mike is heading back down, but Clegg orders him to stand down. However, Clegg is put in his place by Trumbull, and Mike proceeds down to the bunker. Just as the terrorists are getting out, Mike shoots some of them. Asher knocks two of them down and struggles in a fight with Kang. He gets shot in the side as Mike attacks Kang. The two engage in hand-to-hand combat, with Kang nearly overpowering him. Kang taunts Mike and tells him he's failed again, but Mike gets the upper hand and takes Kang down. True to his word, he grabs his knife and sticks it in Kang's head, killing him.Mike rushes into the bunker and informs the Pentagon that Asher is alive, but he needs to stop the detonation sequence as there is barely a minute left. Jacobs, Trumbull, and Clegg rush to give Mike the deactivation code, and, with seconds to spare, Mike successfully shuts down the detonation sequence, much to the relief of everybody else. Mike takes Asher outside, where he is reunited with Connor, and Mike is reunited with Leah.Asher delivers a speech to the nation, commemorating those who were killed in the terrorist attack, but assures them that the attack gave them the hope and confidence to stand up and rise from fear to defend themselves. As he concludes, he walks off the stage and shakes Mike's hand. Mike stands proudly, knowing he has finally redeemed himself.
    

Olympus Has Fallen


            Zach Riley (Aaron Eckhart) is a psychiatrist, who leaves a job at a prestigious university, to take up a job at the privately run mental institution, 'Millwood', belonging to Dr. Reed (William Hurt). What he doesnt reveal at the time of his appointment is that this was the very place where his novelist father, T.L. Pierson (Nick Nolte), spent many years of his life, and later wrote a popular childrens classic, Neverwas.Once there, he meets a schizophrenic patient, Gabriel Finch (Ian McKellen), and soon finds that more things linking him to the story, and to the book than he ever thought, and also to the recovery of the patient, who believes himself to be a character from the tale
    

Neverwas


            For story & plot see "Mostly Martha" [English title for "Bella Martha"], a delightful 2001 German film set in Hamburg about an accomplished female [single] chef who suddenly, tragically finds herself the guardian of her dead sister's young daughter... The original film is excellent and most charming.Kate (Catherine Zeta-Jones) is the master chef at the trendy 22 Bleecker Street Restaurant in Manhattan. She runs her kitchen at a rapid pace as she coordinates the making and preparing of all the fantastic meals and personally displays the food to perfection on every dish. She intimidates everyone around her, so her boss sends her to therapy. Kate hates to leave the kitchen when a customer wants to compliment her on one of her special dishes, but she is ready to leave the kitchen in a second when a customer insults her cooking. Kate's sister is killed in a car accident and her nine-year old daughter Zoe (Abigail Breslin) moves in with Kate. With all of Kate's problems, the boss hires a new chef to join the staff. Nick (Aaron Eckhart) is a rising star in his own right and could be the head chef of another restaurant, but he wants to work under Kate. Kate begins to feel threatened by Nick, because he has a different style of running the kitchen. Nick loves to listen to opera when he cooks and to make the staff laugh. With all that is going on in Kate's life, falling for a man is the last thing she was looking for. There is some kind of chemistry between Kate and Nick that can only go one way. Yet life will hit her in the head when Kate's boss offers Nick the head chef job. Douglas Young (the-movie-guy)
    

No Reservations


            In the near future, Michael Jennings is a reverse engineer; he analyzes his clients' competitors' technology and recreates it, often adding improvements beyond the original specifications. To protect his clients' intellectual property and himself, Jennings, with the aid of his friend Shorty, undertakes a memory wipe to remove knowledge of his engineering.Jennings is approached by his old college roommate, James Rethrick, the CEO of the successful Seattle technology company Allcom. Rethrick proposes a lengthy three-year reverse engineering job to Jennings, requiring him to live on Allcom's secured campus until its conclusion but rewarding him handsomely with company stock. Jennings agrees, and after arranging for his long-term absence, arrives at Allcom, turns in his personal possessions, and is given a brief tour of the facility where he meets and flirts with botanist Dr. Rachel Porter. He is injected with a long-term memory marker for the post-job memory wipe.Three years later (June 2007), at the conclusion of the memory wipe, Jennings is sitting in Rethrick's office, being thanked for a successful job. On returning home, Jennings finds that while the Allcom stock has become quite valuable (around 500 billion dollars), he had signed away his share near the end of his tenure. Furthermore, he finds that his personal possessions have been replaced with an envelope containing a random assortment of everyday items. He is soon captured by the FBI on charges related to the death of physicist William Dekker. Jennings is able to escape custody, finding that the items in the envelope can be used at the right time to evade capture. After warning Shorty of his plight, he finds the items pointing him to a cafe meeting with Porter. Rethrick, who has been watching Jennings' movements, discovers a message to Porter of this meeting and sends a body double to take her place to try to recover the envelope. The real Porter shows up and helps Jennings escape from both the FBI and Rethrick's men.They take shelter at a local school, examining the remaining items in the envelope while Porter tries to convince Jennings of the relationship they shared during his tenure at Allcom. One of the stamps holds a microdot that, on enlargement, reveals several pictures taken from a machine's display showing Allcom becoming financially successful with a device that can see the future, but ultimately leading to political strife and nuclear war. Jennings realizes he must have built this device using Dekker's knowledge, and on realizing the horrors that will come, prepared the envelope using the forecasts from the machine to allow his future self to return to Allcom and destroy the unit. Furthermore, as Rethrick shortly discovers, Jennings rigged the device to malfunction, preventing Rethrick from anticipating Jennings' actions.Jennings and Porter return to Allcom and make their way to the machine room undetected, jamming the door behind them. Jennings determines the location of the defective circuit and removes it, subsequently rigging the machine to explode in a few minutes. Jennings uses the machine one last time, seeing a vision of himself being shot by an FBI agent in the catwalks above the machine. Soon, Rethrick's men storm the room, and after a brief firefight, Jennings and Porter escape to the catwalks. Rethrick is waiting there, holding them at gunpoint, the same tableau Jennings previously saw. When Jennings' watch, taken from the envelope, beeps, Jennings ducks in time to avoid the FBI agent's bullet which ends up killing Rethrick. The machine is destroyed, and Jennings and Porter escape from the FBI in the chaos. When the FBI agents arrive and investigate, they take sympathy and report Jennings killed in the destruction.In the film's conclusion, Jennings, Porter, and Shorty have opened a greenhouse nursery. Jennings recalls a fortune cookie note from the envelope, and discovers one last act he had done with the machine, predicting the results of a 90 million dollar lottery and leaving the winning ticket in Porter's birdcage.
    

Paycheck

Possession


            Set in an unnamed Midwestern American city, two urban, middle-class couples deal with their unhappy relationships and shamelessly lie and cheat on one another in their selfish quest for happiness. Jerry (Ben Stiller), is a loathsome, flirtatious theater instructor whom is married to Terri (Catherine Keener), a writer whom is alienated and unfulfilled with his macho love-making skills. Jerry and Terri have dinner with Mary (Amy Brenneman), a writer friend of Terri's, and Barry (Aaron Eckhart) a sad-sack business executive whom is oblivious to his wife's unhappiness with him. During dinner, Mary talks about writing for a local newspaper column about bickering couples and the troubles they have, while Barry does not think that other couple problems are anyone else. After dinner, the lothario Jerry secretly makes a discreet pass at Mary whom he asks her out on a date. Marry, out of frustration in her unsatisfied life with Barry, accepts.The next day, Terri, after going to a local art gallery, meets and begins a secret romance with Cheri (Nastassia Kinski), a lesbian art gallery worker whom Terri feels satisfied with the lovemaking with her and of the quiet of it compared with Jerry's loud and macho performance.Meanwhile, Cary (Jason Patric) is a mutual and caddish doctor friend of Barry's whom is also a devious, sexual predator whom targets naïve and emotionally vulnerable young women whom he picks up, has sex with, and dumps just for the sole purpose to watch them cry. Aware of the distance between Barry and Mary, Cary persuades Barry to leave his wife to have his own swinging, non-monogamous lifestyle that Cary has built for himself. Barry thinks that his marriage can be saved.During Jerry and Mary's rendezvous at a local hotel, Jerry fails to get aroused during foreplay. As a result, he takes out his frustrations on Mary, believing that she has made him impotent. Angry and offended by Jerry's misogynist outburst, Mary abruptly ends their "affair." She feels more miserable a few days later, when Barry unwittingly takes her to the very same hotel room to rekindle their romance. Mary realizes that Jerry had told Barry about being in the room. Barry fails to understand Mary's unhappy attitude and thinks he might somehow be responsible for it.Jerry, Barry, and Cary get together to work out and, in the steam room, Barry tries to get them to reveal their best sexual experiences. Barry tells them that he only feels satisfied with himself. Cary then delivers a chilling monologue about his best sexual experience: partaking in a gang rape 20 years earlier in forcibly sodomizing a male high school classmate in the locker room at his boarding school. Both Barry and Jerry are stunned but fascinated by Cary's sordid and evil story. When Barry tries to persuade Jerry to reveal his best sexual experience, Jerry refuses. After being goaded in the locker room, Jerry angrily responds that his best sexual experience was with Barry's wife. He then leaves, with Barry too stunned to respond. Cary, also caught off-guard, says: "That beats my story."After returning home from the gym, Barry confronts Mary over dinner about her affair with Jerry just as Terri accidentally finds out about Jerry's indiscretion and eventually confronts him too while they are shopping at a local bookstore. Mary and Jerry are both unapologetic for their unfaithfulness and express dissatisfaction to both of their spouses. Terri accidentally reveals her own lesbian romance with Cheri, but does not display any guilt for her infidelity. Jerry confronts Cheri at the art gallery over his wife's affair with her. Cheri also shows no remorse or regret for her relationship with Terri, or with interfering with Jerry and Terri's troubled marriage. Cheri tells Jerry that Terri can do much better than being with him.Both of the couples split up. Terri moves in with Cheri, although she finds her emotional neediness irritating. Jerry continues his philandering lifestyle with his female theater students. Barry becomes miserable because he is no longer able to give himself an erection during masturbation. Mary is revealed to have moved in with Cary, who treats her as coldly as the other women in his life even though she is pregnant with his child. The film closes on Mary and Cary in bed, as Mary realizes that she is even more unhappy in her new relationship with the catty, heartless, misanthropic and misogynistic Cary than she had been with her clueless husband Barry.
    

Your Friends and Neighbors


            Fed up with his job, his wife, and his life, Bill (Aaron Eckhart) finds himself the reluctant mentor of an unruly, but curiously wise, teenager (Logan Lerman). Bill's life hits an all time low when he catches his wife (Elizabeth Banks) having an affair with a local news anchor (Timothy Olyphant). With nothing left to lose, he turns to the kid for inspiration and regains his lost sense of self.
    

Meet Bill


            Paul Kemp (Johnny Depp) is an aspiring author who hasn't been able to sell a book. Instead, he applies for a job at a newspaper in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He gets the job and meets Sala (Michael Rispoli), who gets him acclimated and tells him he thinks the newspaper will fold soon. Kemp is given the horoscope section. He's staying at a hotel and meets Chenault (Amber Heard), who's avoiding a Union Carbide party there. Kemp is immediately smitten with her.Kemp is an alcoholic and his boss Lotterman (Richard Jenkins) tells him to stop drinking. Kemp also meets Moberg (Giovanni Ribisi), a deadbeat who can't be fired. Waiting for an interview, Kemp meets Sanderson (Aaron Eckhart), a freelance realtor, who takes him home to discuss Kemp writing ads for him. Chenault is Sanderson's fiancee, but pretends not to know him.Kemp moves in with Sala, who also rooms with Moberg. The place is horribly unkempt and poor. Sala keeps cockerels for cockfighting. Kemp begins to see the poverty of San Juan, but his boss doesn't want him to write about it, as it's bad for tourism. Moberg returns with leftover filters from a rum plant containing high-proof alcohol. Moberg has been fired, and wants to kill Lotterman. He also likes Nazi records.Kemp visits Sanderson and spies him making love to Chenault. He meets Zimburger (Bill Smitrovich) and Segarra (Amaury Nolasco), who want him to help with a real estate scam. Sanderson yells at some locals who are walking onto his beach. Later, Sala and Kemp are driving, and the locals attack them. The police arrive and break up the fight, then throw Sala and Kemp in jail. Sanderson gets them out.The next day, Kemp meets with Sanderson's crew, who tell him that the US military is relinquishing the lease on some prime real estate, and he is asked to pick up Chenault from her house. They share a moment.Zimburger takes Kemp and Sala to see the island property, then they head to St. Thomas for Carnival. He finds Chenault, and they wind up on Sanderson's boat. Sanderson is unhappy that Sala is involved. At night, they go to a club, and Chenault dances with locals, which enrages Sanderson even more.The next day, Chenault is gone, and Sanderson tells Kemp that he blew it. When Salas and Kemp return home, Moberg tells them that Lotterman has left. He also sells them some drugs, which they take. In an rum- and drug-induced stupor, they wander about the docks. Kemp works on a newspaper story.Lotterman returns, but won't publish Kemp's story. Chenault shows up at Kemp's place, and Sanderson disowns her. Sanderson withdraws his bail, and Kemp and Sala are wanted. Moberg also tells them that Lotterman has closed the paper. Kemp decides to print a last issue, telling the truth about Lotterman and Sanderson, as well as the stories Lotterman declined.To gain money to print the last edition, Kemp, Sala, and Moberg place a big cockfighting bet. They visit a hermaphrodite witch doctor to lay a blessing on their cockerel. They win, but the newspaper machines have been confiscated. The dream dies.Kemp continues his quest, stealing Sanderson's boat. The end credits explain that Kemp made it back to New York, married Chenault, and became a successful journalist.
    

The Rum Diary

Erased


            The opening scene is set somewhere in Pakistan where terrorist mastermind and financier Aamir Barkawi (Alon Aboutboul) is reportedly responsible for a bombing in Europe. He is throwing a wedding celebration for his daughter at his compound. Barkawi talks with two of his sons about one of them finding a mole, a German agent, in one of their terrorist cells in Lebanon. When he learns that the mole had been killed, he tells his sons to be "absolute" with removing the threat (implying to not only kill the spy but kill the spy's whole family as well). As the celebration is underway, an informant working as one of the waiters leaves a text message to the United States government to Barkawi's location. The military located in Nevada launches a drone strike against it just as the informant leaves. The compound blows up, supposedly killing Barkawi along with his family.Two years later.President Benjamin Asher (Aaron Eckhart) and his top Secret Service agent/best friend Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) are jogging together near the White House in Washington (which is still recovering from the terrorist attack in the previous film). Mike returns home where it is revealed that he is currently expecting his first child with his wife Leah (Radha Mitchell). He is hoping to take some time off to spend time with his family and to finish setting up the nursery. She clearly becomes irritated by the number of security cameras in the room that he has installed.In Yemen, we see Barkawi is still alive (but walking with a limp), and he meets with his son Kamran (Waleed Zuaiter). They begin to set in motion plans for revenge.Back in Washington, Asher and Mike are both informed that the British Prime Minister James Wilson has recently passed away. They, along with Asher's staff, including now Vice President Allan Trumbull (Morgan Freeman) and Secret Service Director Lynne Jacobs (Angela Bassett), travel to London to join all the other world leaders for Wilson's funeral. Believing it to be heavily secured, they are proven wrong when several mercenaries under Barkawi's commands initiate an attack, starting with a bomb destroying the Canadian prime minister's leader's limo. Soon, the mercenaries disguised as royal guards and police officers begin opening fire on civilians and other world leaders. The female German chancellor is killed by two assassins at Buckingham Palace before they are killed. The Japanese prime minister and his driver are killed on a bridge when two suicide bombers blow up both support spans and allowing the bridge to fall into the river. The Italian prime minister is killed with his mistress while standing atop Westminister Abbey. The French president is killed in his boat when another suicide bomber sails a barge containing explosives close to the boat. At St. Paul's Cathedral, Mike takes Asher and Jacobs with him to safety while shooting the mercs in the street.Quickly, the terrorists start to hit London's landmarks, including Big Ben and the Tower Bridge over the River Thames, setting off explosives that kill even more people. Mike, Asher, and Jacobs head into a chopper to safety. However, the terrorists launch Stinger ground-to-air missiles at the choppers, taking out the two security choppers before striking the presidential one. The presidential chopper crash-lands to the ground, resulting in Jacobs being fatally impaled. Before dying, she tells Mike to "make those fuckers pay". Mike and Asher then go on the run, while being chased by more assassins on motorcycles.Back in Washington, the president's staff sits in horror, fearing that their friends are dead. Mike attempts to contact Trumbull and send a message to let them know that he and Asher are still alive. He and the president are forced to venture to an underground station and after killing the terrorists pursing them, walk on foot through one of the abandoned metro tunnels. As Mike and Asher are running through the tunnels, Asher notes that the terrorists want him dead, and if it must come down to it, he orders Mike to kill him. Mike reluctantly agrees.Back in Washington, Trumbull and his staff receives a threatening call from Barkawi to let them know that he is out for revenge for the death of his family. They are informed that Wilson's autopsy report detected poison in his body, meaning he was intentionally murdered with the plan for all the world leaders to come together to be killed off.With the city on lock-down, Mike and Asher run to the home of MI6 agent Jacqueline "Jax" Marshall (Charlotte Riley), whom Mike knows well. Jax gets onto her computer and learns that Barkawi is behind the whole plot. She plays back a message from Trumbull confirming that they received Mike's message and are sending help. On the security cameras, the three see several armed men arrive in what is supposedly the Delta team there to rescue Mike and Asher, until Mike notices that the men are not sweating despite wearing heavy gear. They realize that the terrorists intercepted their message and are there to attack. The terrorists storm in and fire on the three. Mike shoots some of them and manage to kill all of them, with some help from President Asher. Mike and President Asher then take a car and drive through the streets until they are again ambushed by more terrorists, leading to their car being rammed by a truck. Despite being dazed, Mike manages to shoot and kill one of the terrorists who tries to finish him off, but Asher is abducted by the rest of the terrorists who then escape.Asher is taken to a private location where Kamran is setting everything up for him to be publicly executed. He punches Asher several times to make him suffer beforehand. Meanwhile, Mike is already on his way to rescue him with the real Delta team.The terrorists set up the cameras and broadcast it to every network around the world, so it's shown around places like Times Square. Kamran tells Asher to say some final words. Kamran readies his machete to decapitate Asher until Mike bursts in and shoots all but Kamran. He engages in a fistfight with Kamran and lets him know that no matter how many times enemies try to attack America, they'll still be there in a thousand years. Kamran manages to make a run for it. Mike orders the Delta team leader to blow the place up. Mike takes Asher and they jump down a shaft as the place goes up in flames, killing Kamran and the surviving terrorists. The Delta team finds Mike and Asher and reports to the staff that they're alive.Barkawi's compound is located in Yemen. Trumbull calls him to let him know that he's lost. Another drone strike is launched against Barkawi, and this time, he's taken out for good.Mike returns home and is spending time with Leah and their newborn child. He's looking at the letter of resignation to Asher he'd previously written. On TV, Trumbull speaks regarding the recent events, leaving an inspiring message that America will prevail. This convinces Mike to delete the letter.
    

London Has Fallen


            FBI Agent Thomas Mackelway (Aaron Eckhart) has been put on leave for 6 months, demoted, and reassigned to Albuquerque, because he violated the civil rights of a serial killer, Raymond Starkey. Starkey was living in Mexico at the time, when Mackelway brought him back to America in the trunk of his car. Starkey was eventually set free upon the world. Mackelway arrives in Albuquerque, and his first case is the murder of a traveling salesman, Harold Speck, who has a zero mark on his body. The FBI was called to the scene, because the body was in a car located just across the state line. Soon afterwards, he investigates two other murders. Raymond Starkey was the third victim. All the victims had the same zero mark on their body.At first, the murders looked random, and then Mackelway begins to connect the dots. The victims are all serial killers, and someone is going around killing them. He gets a lead that Benjamin O'Ryan (Ben Kingsley) may have some connection to the murders, and he begins to track down O'Ryan. He finds out that O'Ryan was once an FBI agent with special skills, trained to use 'remote viewing' to see what the serial killer sees. Douglas Young (the-movie-guy)
    

Suspect Zero


            Aug 12, 2011. Los Angles is under attack by an unknown enemy. Marines in full combat gear scramble to their helos. Staff Sgt Nantz (Aaron Eckhart) and his platoon sit nervously as they fly through gunfire along the city.24 hours earlier:Nantz and his buddies exercise on the sunny beach. Younger men leave him in the dust, panting and sweating. He drives to Camp Pendleton and listens to a radio report about a meteor shower. In the office another Sgt can't believe Nantz has filed his retirement papers.The platoon is in a flower shop, one of the men is getting married. They joke around. In the barracks rec room others joke around and relax. Lance Cpl. Kerns (Jim Parrack) is meeting the Psych Doctor and claims he's fine. Cpl. Lockett (Cory Hardict) talks to his dead brother at a cemetery. That night, the boys play golf and have beer. Corpsman Jibril (A. McCormack) wants to be a doctor.The TV news says there are evacuations along the coastline, the meteors should hit a few miles offshore. The next day Nantz trains a platoon in a sandpit when they are ordered to mobilize. Nantz is needed. Lt. Martinez (Ramon Rodriguez) of 1st Platoon is right out of OCS and asks one of his men what they know about Nantz, who will be filling in as platoon sgt. The man hints at a shady past. The men gear up as reports of meteor showers around the world come in. In Iraq it turns out Nantz was a hero but got a couple of guys killed in action.The meteors hit off Santa Monica. A briefing officer says they slow down before hitting and are mechanical in nature. It is threat con delta! The TV shows panic on the beaches as large figures walk toward the shore firing laser guns and guided rockets at the humans. Martinez gives the men the gung-ho speech and they board the helo. Bravado slowly turns to fear and Martinez writes a letter to his wife. Over Santa Monica beach, they look down at fiery wreckage and the helicopters fly though incoming and outgoing barrages as well as enemy ground fire. They land at Forward Operating Base, Santa Monica Airport.An officer gives a sitrep and briefs them on their task, Santa Monica is going to be levelled to stop the infestation of the invading aliens at 19:30 hours. Lt. Martinez is to take his squad to a police station at Venice and Amorosa, to save some civilians. They have exactly three hours before bombing starts.The troops move out as panicked people run the other way. They walk warily through smoke and destruction. Suddenly they are under attack from bolts of tracer-laser fire from all directions by unseen hostiles. One alien soldier is seen on a nearby rooftop of a house and shooting down at them, as the Marines scream and regroup. Martinez freezes up as the squad is boxed in. They manage to break thru a fence and escape and take cover in a house. Linehan is missing, Nantz goes back to get him with two others. Lineham is cornered in a laundry room. Linehan comes face to face with an alien and manages to wound it by shooting at it and throwing it into a swimming pool. The other three arrive and all four empty their mags into the creature. They grenade the pool for good measure.The squad keeps moving toward the police station and some are injured. They have to take cover again when they come under fire again from bearly seen alien troops in which three more marines from another squad join them. Tech Sgt Santos (Michelle Rodriguez) is one of them. They proceed to the police station. After a quiet walk for about 15 more minutes, the Marines finally arrive at the police station only to see the place all shot up. They find five civilians, a couple and three kids. An evac helicopter arrives and some of the squad get in but are immediately blasted by enemy aircraft which now appear out of the skies. Martinez is panicky but Nantz settles him down. They take to the roof of the police building to plan a way back to the FOB (Forward Operating Base). Nantz introduces himself to the civilian Joe Rincon (Michael Pena) and his son Hector (Bryce Cass). The marines on the roof watch a squad of aliens setting up on a roof 300 meters to the north. On a TV screen, the CNN expert says Earth is being colonized for its resources. The aliens apparently want the water which they use as fuel for their spaceships and weapons.The marines plan to escape using a bus, but they have less than an hour before the airstrike hits. As two go to hotwire the bus, the others find a wounded alien. Nantz wants to find out where their weak point is. The civilian Michele (Birdget Moynahan) is a veterinarian and helps as they rip into the body through its binary mechanical suit which has its assault weapon emplanted in it. Just then, the alien reinforcement soldiers attack the police station. Nantz uncovers a translucent organ and bayonets it, just to right of the heart, thus killing the captive alien at last.Everyone piles into the bus and off they go. They need to travel six blocks in 35 minutes. They hear a funny noise and stop as a large squadron of enemy aircraft fly overhead heading east to downtown LA. They realize the aliens are homing in to their radio transmissions, Nantz grabs a radio and runs ahead, he sets it on to draw a flying craft close, then blows it up as it passes by a gas station. He investigates the wreckage and discovers it is a UAV (an unmanned aircraft). The marines cheer his "John Wayne" heroism.Nantz and Santos quietly discuss the aliens must have a command and control center. They have 25 mins and must detour on to the elevated freeway. Getting close, the off ramp is blown up and the bus is attacked by alien soldiers on another overpass whom are shooting at an engaging battle tank. Two marines try to set up a rappel to get down to the ground as the rest provide cover fire. After brief success, a large alien walking tank comes towards them after detroying the M1 Abrams tank. The marines pull back and place bombs in damaged cars. Rincon grabs a gun and shoots an alien but is mortally wounded. Martinez is badly wounded and tells Nantz to save the rest. He gives the SSgt the letter to his wife. As the aliens approach, Martinez triggers the bombs in suicide and saves the squad. The surviving marines whisper that Nantz left the Lt. to die.Once again they all take a rest in an abandoned building which is a local supermarket. Nantz tries to relieve the dying Rincon. Santos finds a landline. Turning on a TV set in the store, the CNN TV experts say the aliens are already drawing down the ocean levels. There are 20 large alien ships off each major coastal city. Santos and Nantz plan to take it out. There is one minute to the deadline. Countdown 3-2-1-0....nothing happens. At nightfall, they arrive at the Santa Monica airport FOB, it is deserted and in complete ruins after an alien airstrike. Hector cries by his father's body, Nantz comforts the boy. A marine calls out Nantz and his apparent disregard for others. Nantz proves each time one of his men died has deeply affected him, including the Corporal's brother back in Iraq. They find a LAV armoured vehicle and Humvee and head to the next evac site.The LAV runs over a group of aliens as they travel and shoot at high speed. A Huey comes to rescue them. The pilot says they are abandoning Los Angeles. In the air, Nantz looks solemnly at LA in flames. They fly over an area of high RF interference, Nantz wants to go down and recon. He gives Martinez' letter and rappels down alone, shortly after the rest of the Marines follow him.They sneak up and observe the aliens entrypoint to the underground Command and Control point. They move in through the sewer and get close to a huge mechanical device. Now they go up to the surface and plan their tactics. Kerns calls in the target co-ordinates and the Marines defend their position as they aim a laser. Just then, a huge alien craft begins to break out of the ground ascend and the marines try to keep the laser aimed at it. Santos takes out an alien defensive drone with her Stinger missle and finally a copperhead laser guided missle hits the alien c&c craft which explodes. The alien troops retreat.Nantz and his squad are evac'd to the Mojave Desert. After informing forward command of their success, it is relayed to the armies of the rest of the world which will copy the technique to defeat the aliens. Nantz starts to reload his magazine, the others join him to go back into the fight and take back LA.
    

Battle Los Angeles

Molly


            The movies starts with a few image of a person cutting lemons and squeezing lemons into a glass, Burke Ryan, (Aaron Eckhart) author of the A-Okay self-help book (about moving on from grievance of death of loved ones) recited his first chapter while doing so: Chapter one, if life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. Only he mixes half a glass of vodka with it.Burke packs up and heads to the airport in a sequence of scenes, but the day already started badly for him, where there was traffic on the way to the airport; his luggage never arrived at the airport, and while walking in his nice suit, it began to pour rain. He is in the city, Seattle, where he is hosting a seminar based on his book.At the hotel, his manager, Lane (Dane Fogler) already provided a suit and had everything prepared for Burke. Burke has a fear for elevators, so he took flights of stairs to his room to change, despite staying at what seems like one of the tops floors.As Burke changed out of his wet clothes, drank some more vodka to cool his nerves, he heads out and bumps into Eloise (Jennifer Aniston), who seemed unusually startled, yet she was simply just providing flowers for the hotel hallways and lobby. Eloise rushed off without saying a word. Burke noticed the painting on the wall was not leveled, and he noticed that Eloise had used a Sharpie to write the work QUIDNUNC on the back wall (which then Burke went to the hotel gift shop and used a dictionary to find that the word means a busy person; busybody, gossip).Then we see Burke have a photo shoot at the rooftop to promote his book. The photographer asks a bunch of question about the reason for the book, and this is when we find out that Burke wrote this book trying to push himself to move on from the death of his wife three years ago in a car accident. During the photo shoot, we can see that there is still very much sorrow in Burke's eyes.Next Lane is introducing Burke to a big crowd of people who are in the city for the seminars. Burke was nervous and frowning while waiting outside, but once his name was announced, he hopped into the big conference room with the biggest smile and confidence and shook people's hands and asked if they are A-Okay, etc. Burke then goes on to tell a story about a football coach who was on the line of getting replaced, but decided to put in effort and wrote playbooks and ran practices and eventually went on to win a national championship with his effort. But on the night of the championship, the coach went home and put a bullet in his head. Turns out, this coach had a brother who coached with him but had died during his almost replaced days. What Burke wanted people in the room to understand is that they cannot underestimate the power of grievance; nothing can be healed with just a Band-Aid or a sudden success; but a more in-depth sense of revelation and coming forth to face your fear and your pain. During this week-long seminar, there will be activities, group sessions, and a bunch of other events that will help promote his book and also help these people get over their pains of losing loved ones.One of the first thing Burke did was took the first group of people to the streets; he stopped traffic with the group in the middle of the road. Cars were honking, and people were screaming for them to get out of the way. Burke patiently asks the group what they hear and see, and the group named everything they can see, including one saying middle fingers. Then Burke took the same group to the hotel rooftop, and asks them again what they see as we are able to see the beautiful shots of Seattle with the space needle and the rivers and the mountains in the background. Burke's point is that they have not changed venue, all they did was simply changed their perspective of the same location. And this is a very important step to their recovery.After the session, Burke joined Lane in the lobby for a drink. Lane tells Burke to live a little on his off-time, and that is when Burke sees Eloise arranging flowers at the lobby. Burke downs his shots and goes to ask Eloise to have a cup of coffee with him. But Eloise signaled in sign language, making Burke understand that she is muted, so Eloise walks away and out the hotel. But while outside, Eloise says bye loudly to a bellman and drives off. Burke does not hear that and is puzzled and feels dejected as he goes to his room.Next day we see a big man who is asking one of the personnel of the seminar for a refund, and Burke overhears the commotion and comes to talk to the man. The man, Walter, unwillingly explains to Burke that his sister had signed him up for this seminar due to the death of his own son, and he had driven all the way up here from Montana. Burke tells Walter that he is surrounded by people who understand this exact same pain, and he should give this place a chance. We later see Walter with a seminar pass stating that he has agreed to stay for the classes.Eloise now brings food to her rock band boyfriend at his house, but she notices two wine glasses out and one of them was covered in lipstick. Eloise did not even bother to listen to her boyfriend explain, and she stormed out and went to her office. Eloise has a little flower shop and she has one employee Marty (Judy Greer), who is a sassy and not-so-serious-about-life kinda gal. They chatted about her cheating boyfriend, and Eloise takes some anger out at Marty before getting on with her day.Back in the hotel, while Burke was signing books for people, one of the people was Burke's father-in-law (Martin Sheen, he has no name in the movie so let me just call him F-I-L). FIL mockingly tells Burke how wonderful it is to see him do so well after such a tragic accident, killing his daughter. FIL asks how can Burke make so much and look so happy after only three years since the accident, and all the while Burke was breathing hard and almost to tears. FIL calls Burke a hypocrite that he himself still has not gotten over the death of his own wife, how can he tell all these people how to do so. FIL walks away and Burke panicked.While panicking, Burke sees Eloise at the front desk speaking to the receptionist, which fueled up his anger even more. Burke interrupted their conversation and goes on to make a speech about how pathetic it is for Eloise to have to fake a handicap to avoid any sort of human interactions with an interesting human being, and then Burke storms off to the men's restroom. Eloise comes in and makes her own speech about sorry about bruising his ego but does he expect that she falls for him and then they proceed to make some kind of hotel porn together, etc. She assumed that he is married and is attempting to cheat, like her boyfriend, and storms off saying she just did both of them a favor by walking away the first time.Burke then held a seminar about facing and confronting fears. One of the activities is to walk through a burning hot coal that is laid out on the floor. People line up and take off their shoes as everyone participates and walks through it quickly and are supported by everyone else in the room. Then it is Walter's turn, and he backs down and says that he is not going to get over his son's death by walking through stupid hot coals. Burke emphasizes that this is a step, as Burke jumps on the hot coal and stood there, asking Walter to join him as we see his feet burn. Walter hesitates, and then storms off, as Burke jumps off the coals and we see his feet badly burnt as Lane later puts a lot of aloe on it. This entire event is witnessed by Eloise while she stands outside the door and takes one of Burke's books with her.Burke and Lane have a meeting with some corporate executive who are very impressed with Burke and his accomplishment and want to make it a franchise which includes television and weight losing products (tying the fact that people who are depressed gain weight). Burke was not attentive, but was there to listen while thinking about Eloise.Burke then heads up to his room, but before so, he checks every wall painting to see if there are any more words written behind them. At last, Burke finds one Poppysmic, which he later checks meant the sound of smacking lips together. Burke ordered a flower at Eloise's shop with the same word on the card and asks for a dinner date. Eloise smiles and agrees.Burke takes Eloise to a really fancy restaurant and they go on to have a really awkward date. As the date ends, Eloise could not wait to say good-bye and walks away. Burke then chases after her and first apologizes to her about how bad the date was, and then explains that this is his first date in three years but he doesn't get to explain that it was because of the death of his wife. Eloise then understands his reasons and invites him to join her at her office because she has to presoak some flowers. They got to chat while Burke flips through a small box that Eloise explains are her top tens written by customers to their loved ones. Some are sad such as a father sending a wedding flower to the daughter who does not know of his existence, or the marine promising to be back in time to see the flowers bloom but never did; and the funny ones such as the 80-year-old man apologizing to his wife about the rug-burn last night.Eloise and Burke become really great friends, so good that Burke was even willing to ditch a corporate meeting with the boss just to hang out with Eloise. Lane is very hurt because he is not appreciated of all the hard work in getting Burke to where he is right now. Burke apologizes, but still continues to see Eloise. One night, Eloise takes Burke home to pick up the keys to a truck, and he meets Eloise's mother. The mother is so excited, like a teen-aged girl, seeing Burke Ryan in person. Eloise underestimated Burke's popularity. Eloise then drives Burke in a truck, which has one of those elevators in the back. She parks the car at a location and explains to Burke that she wanted to get tickets to see this concert for Burke, but it was sold out, so she borrows this truck from Bob and they go into the elevator and raise to the top, just enough to oversee the entire concert from the parking lot. They have a wonderful time, and they later part ways with just a simple hug. This gesture makes Eloise very comfortable with Burke, but also shows how Burke is not at all over with his wife.One night out, when Burke was with Eloise and Marty at a hookah bar, Lane walks in and asks what is going on, Burke just said he is living a little, and Lane becomes happy and joins the party and went on to have a great night. But while walking home, the group of them and some other locals walked around some pretty famous places in the Seattle city, such as a wall where millions of wads of gum are stuck on which looks like a beautiful canvas. They visit the graves of Bruce Lee and his son Brandon Lee at a cemetery. As they are walking away, Marty says funerals are so tacky, but Burke disagrees stating that a funeral is a very important step for people to move on. Burke says that his wife's funeral was a celebration and not a mourning. It was right here in Seattle and he says it rained all week in the March weather but that day happened to be clear skies and had his wife's favorite specific flower bloomed that same day. But knowing flowers, Eloise says those flowers do not bloom till fall, which everyone then realizes that Burke did not even attend the funeral of his wife because he was just too sad. Burke walks home with Lane following in the back.Back at the seminar, a small group session is not really speaking out much, probably because Burke's mood is extremely bad and is very strong and harsh on some of the attendees. So Burke points out Walter and asks Walter to share his sad stories. Walter bursts into tears and sobbed while telling everyone that he was a contractor and he has not gone anywhere near a construction site ever since the death of his son. He lost his job, his wife and cannot even go to a Home Depot to shop. Walter's son died of an accident at a construction site at a very young age. Burke feels for this story, and books a bus and takes the small group to a nearby Home Depot as the step that Walter needs to take. At the store, Walter is very scared and traumatized. But as the group individually picks up items and tools for Walter, he becomes familiar with his surroundings again and goes onto purchase a full cart of tools, paid for by Lane. Walter realizes that is it time to move on, and thanks Burke and gives him the only picture of his son. Burke stands there in the Home Depot thinking of his own fear.Burke visits Eloise and explains that he is still not over the death of his wife, and tells her that he has not even seen his in-laws ever since the accident. One of the wife's wishes was to set their parrot free if she is no longer in this world. So Eloise takes that as her mission and drives Burke to the in-laws. Burke chickens out, and sneaks in the house from the backdoor to retrieve the bird. FIL is there but did not see Burke. Burke grabs the bird and goes to a nearby forest and sets the bird free. The bird does not go willingly, but when Burke changes his mind about letting go and runs back to retrieve the parrot, the parrot looks at him and then flew away peacefully. It is a sad moment for Burke, so he goes on to take it out on Eloise. He criticizes her for pushing him and pushing him, forcing him to do things he does not want to do. He chooses to walk home, and Eloise complies and drives off.When he finally gets back, Lane is worried, but tells him that tomorrow is such a big day because the head executive of the corporate is going to make a personal visit to see Burke. Burke then mans up and tells Lane to take the offer and that he will personally make this deal go through.On the last day of the seminar, with the executives watching, Burke bursts into the room with the same smile and greetings and received the very same welcome. But this time was different; Burke begins to cry and tells the crowd that he cannot lie to them anymore. In the meantime, FIL is furious to find out that the parrot was stolen and he is in the same room to confront Burke. Burke says that he is standing here telling everyone what to do to move on, and the only person that has not moved on was himself. He is a hypocrite and he asks for forgiveness. Burke says he was the one driving that night, while arguing and it was pouring rain, a dog ran onto the road and he swerved and the car ran into a pole, killing the wife instantly. Burke keeps on blaming himself, and then FIL shouts out from the back saying that it was just an accident, and nothing more. FIL walks to the stage and hugs Burke, tells him that they never blamed him for the death of their daughter, they just wanted to mourn with him together. They said they did not just lose their daughter that night, but they lost their son as well. They both cried and hugged, while the crowd erupted into loud applause and everyone in the room cried.After the session, people congratulated everyone, FIL asks Burke to please visit because they miss him. FIL also says thanks because Burke got rid of the damn noisy bird for him. Burke also is congratulated by the executive, who loves his style and wants to make this deal go through. Burke then leaves to pack his bag goes to find Eloise, not before finally taking the elevator.At the store, Eloise finds a note sticking outside. (I forgot the word, but it means a person who is obsessed with big vocabs in sentences.) {The word is "sesquipedalianist."} Burke walks in and tells Eloise that all this time she had been knowing a person that was still clinging onto the past and was bitter and sad, but it is a different Burke now and he is wondering if Eloise would give him a chance to know this new Burke. Marty says yes for Eloise and hides again. Burke and Eloise hug and kiss, and Eloise says yes.We see FIL limping out to pick up the morning papers, and then the parrot flies back and lands on his shoulder. FIL sighs and accepts the parrot and they walk into the house together with them keep saying hello to each other.
    

Love Happens

The Black Dahlia


            After a series of strange events around the world connected by variances in the Earth's electromagnetic field, scientists, led by Dr. Josh Keyes (Aaron Eckhart), a geology professor, and Conrad Zimsky (Stanley Tucci) an egotistical researcher, discover that the Earth's rotating molten core is slowly coming to a stop; without its movement, the electromagnetic field around the earth will disappear, exposing the surface to unfiltered solar radiation and will incinerate anything or anyone exposed to it. Keyes and Zimsky are charged to find a way to restart the core, which requires traveling deep into the Earth and setting off nuclear charges to induce rotational force.The story opens with a small group of people at a business meeting. One of the group, a younger man, suddenly passes out on the board room table. Outside the building, flocks of birds begin to crash into nearby buildings and other stationary objects. At the University of Chicago, Dr Josh Keyes (Aaron Eckhart), a geology professor, is teaching his class about how sound waves move through solid rock when he's approached by two government officials and asked to leave with them, no questions asked. He's taken to a government facility where he meets a friend, Dr. Serge Leveque (Tchéky Karyo), a nuclear weapons expert. The two are shown into a large hangar where they're astonished to see the room is full of bodies draped in white sheets. An Army general, Purcell (Richard Jenkins) tells them that everyone in the room suddenly died at the exact same moment. After a few seconds of speculation, Keyes and Leveque conclude that all the victims had pacemakers. Purcell is impressed, telling them they figured out the mystery faster than anyone else he'd spoken to.While in it's re-entry procedure, the crew of the space shuttle Endeavor find themselves several miles off course. Instead of being aligned with Edwards Air Force Base, they are heading directly for downtown Los Angeles. The shuttle makes an emergency landing in the L.A. River, avoiding a catastrophic accident. Major Rebecca "Beck" Childs (Hilary Swank) was the navigator for the mission and is nearly court-martialed before it's determined that she performed her duties perfectly and that the strange magnetic anomalies around the world were responsibleKeyes, Leveque, Purcell and Zimsky seek the help of Ed "Braz" Brazzelton (Delroy Lindo). Brazzelton reveals a means of not only drilling through the Earth at high speeds using a series of high-powered lasers, but also has devised a material, "unobtainium", which is capable of withstanding the pressures deep inside the planet as well as generating energy from them. Braz also reveals that he and Zimsky have a checkered past: Zimsky stole a few research ideas from Braz and it led to a falling out between the two. Braz is willing to work with Zimsky again if it means saving the Earth. Though funding for his research has been hard to find, Purcell tells him he'll give him all the money he needs to complete work on a ship made of his compound in a few short months.Keyes himself works to create a means to visualize their path through rock structures via x-rays. To avoid creating a worldwide panic, an expert hacker, Theodore Donald Finch (DJ Qualls), known by his hacking handle "Rat", is found by an FBI agent (John Shaw) and is brought to monitor the Internet and erase any rumors to the potential fate of the planet. However, there is a hint that the Army is hiding the real reason of the impending catastrophe.Braz' ship becomes a snake-like vessel named Virgil. It is made up of several compartments and will be launched over the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean, the deepest such area on Earth. If any compartment of the ship is damaged, the operating system will eject that compartment to avoid risk to the rest of the ship. Keyes, Zimsky, Leveque, and Brazzelton are joined by Commander Robert Iverson (Bruce Greenwood) and Beck, who will pilot the ship.The launch goes successfully and the team finds their equipment is working to expectations as they begin their descent. After successful descent, they run into a snag when they breach a gigantic geode-like structure. The ship falls through the open space, crash-landing and damaging the laser drilling device. Keyes and Zimsky find out that they are in fact inside a cobalt cocoon full of amethyst. During the repairs, Iverson is killed by falling crystal shards leaving Beck to pilot the ship to the Earth's core. They repair the ship and escape just before the geode collapses and magma pours in.As they dive further, a large diamond breaches the hull of the last compartment where Leveque is preparing the nuclear devices for activation; he sacrifices himself to make sure that Keyes has the launch codes as the compartment, no longer able to withstand the pressure, is ejected and crushed. When they finally breach the molten core, the team performs a series of calculations and find that their original plan would fail to restart the core due to unexpected physical property differences concerning density of the fluid. The team calculates that they can still restart the core by decoupling each compartment of Virgil at precise positions, timing the nuclear devices in each to go off to obtain the best force they can impart to the core. However, in order to separate the individual compartments, one member will have to enter the open area at the front of Virgil, which is exposed directly to the heat of the molten core and likely will not survive. Brazzelton offers to do so and sacrifices himself to the cause, successfully throwing the switch.Meanwhile, on the surface, the public become aware of problems after a lightning superstorm appears over Rome and destroys the Colosseum and a patch of unfiltered sunlight over San Francisco melts the Golden Gate Bridge. Rat is unable to stop the release of the news, but learns of a device called "D.E.S.T.I.N.I." (Deep Earth Seismic Trigger Initiative), the news of which he relays to Keyes. Keyes learns that the DESTINI project was an attempt to propagate earthquakes through Earth's core as a weapon, but instead was the cause for stopping its rotation, and that Zimsky was a critical figure behind its design. Zimsky reveals that the government will attempt to use the device again to try to restart the core, which could have disastrous results.Keyes gets Rat to disable the power to the device while they attempt to plot the proper locations for the detonations, long enough for the Virgil team to detach each compartment, planting the nuclear devices at key points in the molten core. While Keyes and Zimsky activate the bombs, they realise that the blast won't be effective enough so they decide to restart the timers. While they do so, Zimsky is trapped in one of the compartments and must be left behind by Keyes and Childs. Before the compartment with Zimsky is disconnected, he reveals to Keyes that the explosion can be effective only if he uses the Virgil's plutonium fuel core to increase the blast power of the last bomb. While the timer for the nuclear explosions ticks down, the two find they are within the blast radius of the devices, and are forced to rig the ship, using the power generated by the unobtainium, to move themselves out of the way in time.As they speed out of the core, the series of nuclear explosions goes off successfully restarting the core's rotation. Keyes and Childs are able to safely make it to the ocean floor in Virgil but without heat, they are unable to get to the surface. However, their position is found by the military by tracking whalesong singing over their ship. Shortly after they are recovered, Rat, through Keyes' directive, releases full information of Project DESTINI and of their mission to the Internet, which reveals the truth to all, and ensures that Iverson, Serge, Braz, and Zimsky are not forgotten, but rather lauded as heroes.
    

Aaron Eckhart

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