American Beauty: Beyond Italian Upholstery

Mena Suvari. Photo: DreamWorks The story of how American Beauty, one of the most celebrated films of the 1990s, was made is the story of how a struggling TV writer…

On the Waterfront: The End of Mob Rule

Marlon Brando. Photo: Columbia In 1949, investigative journalist Malcolm Johnson won a Pulitzer Prize for a series of articles he had written for the New York Sun. Titled "Crime on…

Pet Sematary 

A family moves to a house in Maine that lies next to a highway... and a creepy pet cemetery hiding the secrets of life and death. Stephen King adapted his…

From Here to Eternity: Before Armageddon

Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr. Photo: Columbia This is what Michael Bay was aiming for when he made Pearl Harbor (2001) – a hopefully engaging romance that's suddenly interrupted by…

Il Capitano: Drifting

Antti Reini and Maria Heiskanen. Photo: Sandrews On July 3rd 1988, a married couple and their 15-year-old son were murdered in a small community called Åmsele in northern Sweden. Father…

The Raid

A 20-man elite squad arrive at an apartment block in Jakarta, determined to kill a crime lord who has made it his headquarters, but never expected a battle floor by…

Rio Bravo: A Sheriff Takes a Chance

John Wayne. Photo: Warner For purely political reasons, John Wayne was not a fan of High Noon (1952). In his view, that film celebrated collectivism, having Gary Cooper's sheriff come…

RoboCop 

In 2028, a corporation that specializes in robot technology finds the perfect candidate for their new part-man/part-machine product in a cop (Joel Kinnaman) who was almost killed by a bomb.…

Saving Mr. Banks

In the early 1960s, P. L. Travers (Emma Thompson), the author of "Mary Poppins", finally gives in to Walt Disney's (Tom Hanks) relentless requests to make a movie out of…