FanFare

A robotic boy, the first programmed to love, David (Haley Joel Osment) is adopted as a test case by a Cybertronics employee (Sam Robards) and his wife (Frances O'Connor). Though he gradually becomes their child, a series of unexpected circumstances make this life impossible for David. Without final acceptance by humans or machines, David embarks on a journey to discover where he truly belongs, uncovering a world in which the line between robot and machine is both vast and profoundly thin. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Feb 2, 2023 - 15 comments

Stanley Kubrick's take on the Vietnam War follows smart-aleck Private Davis (Matthew Modine), quickly christened "Joker" by his foul-mouthed drill sergeant (R. Lee Ermey), and pudgy Private Lawrence (Vincent D'Onofrio), nicknamed "Gomer Pyle," as they endure the rigors of basic training. Though Pyle takes a frightening detour, Joker graduates to the Marine Corps and is sent to Vietnam as a journalist, covering -- and eventually participating in -- the bloody Battle of Hué. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Jul 19, 2022 - 28 comments

The slave Spartacus survives brutal training as a gladiator and leads a violent revolt against the decadent Roman Republic, as the ambitious Crassus seeks to gain power by crushing the uprising. [more inside]
posted by Carillon on Dec 31, 2021 - 4 comments

Crooks plan and execute a daring race-track robbery. [more inside]
posted by MoonOrb on Jul 8, 2018 - 2 comments

In the future, a sadistic gang leader is imprisoned and volunteers for a conduct-aversion experiment, but it doesn't go as planned. [more inside]
posted by MoonOrb on May 22, 2018 - 19 comments

After refusing to attack an enemy position, a general accuses the soldiers of cowardice and their commanding officer must defend them. [more inside]
posted by MoonOrb on Jun 8, 2016 - 5 comments

An insane general triggers a path to nuclear holocaust that a war room full of politicians and generals frantically try to stop. [more inside]
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome on Nov 18, 2015 - 10 comments

An Irish rogue wins the heart of a rich widow and assumes her dead husband's aristocratic position in 18th-century England. [more inside]
posted by prize bull octorok on Sep 3, 2015 - 16 comments

"How did they ever make a movie of Lolita?" asked the film's notorious promotional material, as its young star peers out over the top of her cherry-red, heart-shaped glasses. An excellent question! Stanley Kubrick's 1962 take on Vladimir Nabokov's novel became an iconic film; by turns intimate, sardonic, comical, and tragic. By comparison, Adrian Lyne's 1997 version promised to be truer to the source material, but in spite of praiseworthy performances by its leads, it imploded at the box office. [more inside]
posted by churl on Jul 13, 2015 - 6 comments