Bovie Movie

Director Peter Weir’s first turn behind the camera since 1998’s critically acclaimed The Truman Show, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is based on two Napoleanic War-era adventure novels in author Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin series, Master and Commander and The Far Side of the World. Russell Crowe stars as Captain Jack Aubrey, a high-seas adventurer who maintains a strong bond with ship-surgeon Stephen Maturin (Paul Bettany). After conquering much of Europe already, Napoleon’s forces have set their sights on taking Britain, so Aubrey and the crew of his ship, the HMS Surprise, take to the Pacific to intercept any attacking ships from the French fleet. When Aubrey eyes a renegade French super-frigate, the Surprise pursues, leading to an adrenaline-charged chase through the distant reaches of the sea. Edward Woodall, James D’Arcy, and Lee Ingleby also star as members of the Surprise’s crew.

Oliver Stone’s breakthrough as a director, Platoon is a brutally realistic look at a young soldier’s tour of duty in Vietnam. Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) is a college student who quits school to volunteer for the Army in the late ’60s. He’s shipped off to Vietnam, where he serves with a culturally diverse group of fellow soldiers under two men who lead the platoon: Sgt. Barnes (Tom Berenger), whose facial scars are a mirror of the violence and corruption of his soul, and Sgt. Elias (Willem Dafoe), who maintains a Zen-like calm in the jungle and fights with both personal and moral courage even though he no longer believes in the war. After a few weeks “in country,” Taylor begins to see the na?vet? of his views of the war, especially after a quick search for enemy troops devolves into a round of murder and rape. Unlike Hollywood’s first wave of Vietnam movies (including The Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now, and Coming Home), Platoon is a grunts-eye view of the war, touching on moral issues but focusing on the men who fought the battles and suffered the wounds. In this sense, it resembles older war movies more than its Vietnam peers, as it mixes familiar elements of onscreen battle with small realistic details: bugs, jungle rot, exhaustion, C-rations, marijuana, and counting the days before you go home. This mix of traditional war movie elements with a contemporary sensibility won Platoon four Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director, and a reputation as one of the definitive modern war films.

Tommy Lee Jones returns as United States Marshall Sam Gerard, the role that earned him an Academy Award, in this sequel to the 1993 blockbuster The Fugitive. Gerard has been assigned to escort a federal prisoner to a maximum security prison in Missouri. On the same flight is Mark Sheridan (Wesley Snipes), who has been arrested and charged with the murders of two Federal agents, though he insists he’s innocent. The plane is involved in an accident leading to a crash, and after helping to rescue some of the passengers, Sheridan escapes. The State Department informs Gerard that finding Sheridan and putting him back behind bars is a top priority, and Gerard sets out on his trail, with the very much uncalled-for assistance of eccentric FBI agent John Royce (Robert Downey Jr.). However, Gerard soon begins to wonder just how Sheridan became such an important man in the eyes of the government, while Sheridan is determined to find out who turned him in to the authorities. U.S. Marshals also features Joe Pantoliano, Daniel Roebuck, and Kate Nelligan.

Animal rights activists free a group of infected chimpanzees to horrifying results in this speculative sci-fi horror effort from Trainspotting director Danny Boyle. Waking from a coma in a deserted London hospital 28 days later, bicycle courier Jim (Cillian Murphy) takes to the deserted city streets in a state of mystified confusion. Joining forces with another group of survivors following a terrifying encounter in a seemingly abandoned church, Jim soon learns the truth behind the deserted streets and the menacing creatures that lurk in the shadows. It’s soon revealed that the chimpanzees had been harboring a deadly virus that sends its victims into a furious, murderous rage, and in the days following the initial exposure, the entire population was nearly wiped out due to the resulting homicidal rampage. Is there still a glimmer of hope for humanity — or has the deadly “rage” virus found its way to foreign shores and infected the entire planet?

The fourth film in the Alien series, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessen, The City of Lost Children) at a cost of 70 million dollars, takes place aboard an immense ship, the Auriga, where General Perez (Dan Hedaya) heads a staff of seven science officers and 42 enlisted, all employed by United Systems Military (replacing the Company of the earlier films). The time is 200 years after the events of Alien 3. Scientists researching the aliens need hosts, and they rely on space mercenaries who make spacecraft raids to acquire bodies. The research requires an Alien Queen specimen, so Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) has been cloned from preserved blood samples. The scientific team then removes the baby Alien Queen from Ripley’s chest. Since the Ripley clone has alien DNA mixed into her genetic structure, she is not totally human. Later, a commercial freighter, the Betty, arrives with a crew of mercenaries — Elgyn (Michael Wincott), pilot Hillard (Kim Flowers), paralyzed mechanic Vriess (Dominique Pinon), space jock Johner (Ron Perlman), and junior mechanic Annalee Call (Winona Ryder) — who deliver a load of human hosts with alien eggs. Problems begin when the mercenaries take over the Auriga, and aliens escape to massacre humans. As the aliens attack, Ripley and the mercenaries try to reach the Betty in order to escape. Cinematography by Darius Khondji features the same ENR process he used on Seven, adding silver to the printing process to heighten contrasts, making the dark colors richer. An electric-blue tint was employed during the underwater firefight between the mercenaries and the aliens. For the more physical aspects of her role, Ryder got in shape with six hours of daily workouts. Although all previous films in the series were shot at London’s Pinewood Studios, filming of Alien Resurrection took place West Los Angeles soundstages with special effects in California and Paris.

A band of renegades on the run in outer space get in more hot water than they anticipated in this sci-fi action-adventure adapted from the television series Firefly. In the 26th century, the galaxy has been colonized by a military force known as the Alliance, but its leadership has not gone unquestioned. The Alliance was once challenged by a league of rebels known as the Independents, but the Alliance emerged victorious after a brutal civil war, with the surviving Independents scattering around the galaxy. Also wandering the edges of the galaxy are the Reavers, who have won few allies due to their violent behavior and habit of ripping apart their enemies and eating them before they’re dead. Capt. Malcolm “Mal” Reynolds (Nathan Fillion), who fought as an Independent in the galactic war, is the head of Serenity, a rogue frieghter ship whose crew includes Mal’s first mate, Zoe (Gina Torres), who fought alongside him in the war, her husband, hotshot pilot Wash (Alan Tudyk), sunny but dependable mechanic Kaylee (Jewel Staite), and hard-nosed gunman Jayne (Adam Baldwin). The crew of Serenity wander the galaxy, taking on whatever work they can get, from criminal activities like smuggling and stealing to legitimately offering transport to travelers. Passengers aboard Serenity include professional “companion” Inara (Morena Baccarin) and holy man Shepherd Book (Ron Glass), but the real trouble aboard the ship comes with the arrival of Simon (Sean Maher) and his teenage sister, River Tam (Summer Glau). In time, the crew discovers that River has remarkable psychic powers and was being held captive by Alliance forces until Simon came to her rescue. Now the Alliance is hot on the heels of Serenity and its passengers, with The Operative (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a sinister Alliance tracker, leading the chase. Serenity was written and directed by Joss Whedon (in his directorial debut), creator of Firefly, which only lasted 11 weeks on the air but gained a powerful cult following who rallied to get the show released on DVD after its cancellation, leading to impressive home-video sales and and an eventual motion picture deal. A couple of months prior to Serenity’s theatrical release, reruns of Firefly were picked up by the Sci-Fi channel, adding even more fans to its cult following.

A research team sent to investigate a distress signal sent from a top-secret oil rig makes a horrific discovery in this tale of maritime terror from genre specialist Jay Andrews. Upon arriving on the remote oil rig, Captain Jack Griffin (Billy Warlock) and Professor Anna Davis (Catherine Lough Haggquist) are perplexed to find no trace of life. As they venture ever deeper into the heart of the mysterious oil rig and crew members begin to disappear one by one, rumors of a mysterious creature said to lurk beneath the ocean floor appear to take on an element of reality.

This big budget “re-imagining” of the 1968 original departs somewhat from both that classic science fiction film and the source novel by author Pierre Boulle. Mark Wahlberg stars as Leo Davidson, an astronaut of the early 21st century whose unauthorized mission to rescue a chimp companion from a mysterious space storm goes awry when he and his ship are lost through a rip in the fabric of time. Leo crash-lands on a planet where intelligent, talking apes are the dominant species and humans a conquered slave class. Befriending both a chimpanzee activist named Ari (Helena Bonham Carter), who’s sympathetic to humans, and a beautiful human rebel, Daena (Estella Warren), Leo quickly becomes a prominent figure of resistance to his fellow humans. This makes him an instant source of irritation for the militant and ambitious General Thade (Tim Roth) and his trusted adjutant, Attar (Michael Clarke Duncan), who intend to hunt Leo down and crush the burgeoning human uprising. War looms between ape and human as Leo and his band head for a sacred site deep in an off-limits desert, where secrets about the planet’s ape and human ancestry wait to be revealed. Planet of the Apes is directed by Tim Burton and features the original film’s star, Charlton Heston, in a cameo role as the dying father of Thade.

Steven Spielberg followed Jaws (1975), his first major box-office success, with this epic science fiction adventure about a disparate group of people who attempt to contact alien intelligence. Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) is an electrical lineman who, while sent out on emergency repairs, witnesses an unidentified flying object, and even has a “sunburn” from its bright lights to prove it. Neary’s wife and children are at first skeptical, then concerned, and eventually fearful, as Roy refuses to accept a “logical” explanation for what he saw and is prepared to give up his job, his home, and his family to pursue the “truth” about UFOs. Neary’s obsession eventually puts him in contact with others who’ve had close encounters with alien spacecraft, including Jillian (Melinda Dillon), a single mother whose son disappeared during her UFO experience, and Claude Lacombe (celebrated French filmmaker Fran?ois Truffaut), a French researcher who believes that we can use a musical language to communicate with alien visitors. Lacombe’s theory is put to the test when a band of government researchers and underground UFO enthusiasts (including Neary) join for an exchange with alien visitors near Devil’s Tower, Wyoming. In 1980, a “Special Edition” was released. While its primary selling point was the addition of scenes inside the alien spaceship, Spielberg claimed that he also cleaned up some choppy editing in the second act.

A U.S. Army war correspondent is drawn into a deadly mystery in post-war Berlin as he seeks out his wartime mistress in this adaptation of author Joseph Kanon’s best-selling novel. The war is over, and Jake Geismar (George Clooney) is an American journalist assigned the task of covering the peace in Berlin — but he was once lovers with a mysterious woman named Lena Brandt (Cate Blanchett). Lena is a lady with many secrets to hide, however, and now that the fighting has ceased, she has every intention of burying her sins and escaping her dark past. As Jake searches for Lena in war-torn Berlin with the assistance of American Army motor pool driver Tully (Tobey Maguire), the complex web of deceit woven by the desperate woman soon leads all three into the black market, which could prove either the ticket to Lena’s ultimate escape or the downfall of both her and her pursuers. Filmed entirely in the style of such Hollywood classics as Casablanca, The Good German was shot by director Steven Soderbergh (under the pseudonym Peter Andrews) using 1940s era lenses, sound-recording techniques, and a decidedly less-mobile camera.