.: the MARY PUMPKINHEAD experience :.

Thursday, February 24, 2005

Now Showing

A Tribute to my favorite movies...

My Sassy Girl







Based on a series of true stories posted by Ho-sik Kim on the Internet describing his relationship with his girlfriend. These were later transformed into a best-selling book and the movie follows the book closely. It describes the meeting of Kyun-woo (Cha) and an unnamed girl. Kyun-woo is shamed into assisting the girl because the other passengers mistakenly think she is his girlfriend. Once he helps her, Kyun-woo develops a deep sense of responsibility for her which enables him to tolerate (somehow) the girls abuses.


Amelie





Amelie is a young Paris waitress who discovers an old box of childhood treasures hidden beneath her apartment floorboards, anonymously returns it to its rightful owner and watches from a distance as his life is transformed by the discovery. Thus begins her odyssey: a series of inventive plans to straighten out other people's lives. Almost as if by magic, Amelie begins to transform the lives of her ordinary neighbors - mostly for the better if they've earned it and occasionally for the worse if they deserve it - but she always hides behind a veil of mystery and anonymity. This works for her until she meets an intriguing young man named Nino. Now the question is: will she have the courage to do for herself what she has done for others?

Happy Gilmore





A would-be hockey player who unfortunately can't skate transforms his slap-shot into a 400-yard golf drive in this slapstick comedy. Joining the pro tour to win enough money to get his grandma's house out of hock, this unsportsmanlike sportsman enrages the staid establishment with his on-course shenanigans.

Y Tu Mama Tambien







Abandoned by their girlfriends for the summer, rich teenagers Tenoch and Julio meet older woman Luisa at a wedding. Trying to impress Luisa, the friends tell her they are headed on a road trip to a beautiful, secret beach called Boca del Cielo (Heaven's Mouth). Intrigued with their story and desperate to escape, Luisa asks if she can join them on their trip. Soon the three are headed out of Mexico City, making their way towards the fictional destination. Along the way Luisa seduces the two young men, and they begin to argue over her. As they continue their journey, caught up in their own world, the wealthy trio all but ignores the harsh realities of poverty that surround them.

50 First Dates



Henry Roth (Sandler), a veterinarian at an aquarium in Hawaii, falls in love with a girl, Lucy (Barrymore), with short-term memory loss, but he has to keep getting her to fall in love with him every time they meet in order for them to have a relationship, since she never remembers the last time she met him.

Bridget Jones’ Diary



At the start of the new year, 32-year-old Bridget decides it's time to take control of her life-and start keeping a diary. Now, the most provocative, erotic and hysterical book on her bedside table is the one she's writing. With a taste for adventure, and an opinion on every subject-from exercise to men to food to sex and everything in between-she's turning the page on a whole new life.

Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason



In this follow-up to the worldwide hit, we find Bridget (Renée Zellweger) where we left her: blissful and besotted in the arms of gorgeous lawyer Mark Darcy (Colin Firth). Mark is accomplished, supportive and tolerant of (nearly) all of Bridget's tiny jealousies; why wouldn't every woman in London, including Mark's new long-legged, drop-dead-gorgeous, I-always-say-the-right-thing-at-all-times intern, want to lure him away from the plumpish, opinionated, sometimes inappropriate Bridget? With the entry of the leggy threat, Bridget's pink clouds begin to turn grey as her attacks of self-doubt sorely test her relationship with Darcy. And just when it seems that the waters couldn't get any more choppy, Bridget's former boss, womanizing heartthrob Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant) sails into view.

Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2





Uma Thurman is going to KILL BILL, in Quentin Tarantino's latest film about a former assassin betrayed by her boss, Bill (David Carradine). Four years after surviving a bullet in the head, the bride (Thurman) emerges from a coma and swears revenge on her former master and his deadly squad of international assassins, played by Lucy Liu, Daryl Hannah, Vivica A. Fox and Michael Madsen.

Mighty Ducks 2





The quack is back, this time invited to the Jr. Goodwill Games to represent the U.S.A. Taking pointers from a street hockey team, they prepare for the toughest challenge of their life.

The Cure



A sensitive 11-year-old boy with AIDS teams up with a teenage rebel to sail down the Mississippi in search of a cure. Their adventure becomes a celebration of life and friendship.

Kissed



Over the years, a child's romantic idea about death transforms into an appetite for necrophilia and embalming. When she gets her dream job in a mortuary, she meets a man who is intrigued by her 'flirtations' with death. Lynn Stopkewich's Canadian production was nominated for several awards on the 1997 festival circuit.

The Lion King





Wild Africa is the setting for this animated tale of a young lion cub whose evil uncle usurps his father's crown and lets hyenas overrun the kingdom. Dodging danger and befriending some oddball characters, the cub wanders until the day he's ready to return. Songs by Elton John and featuring the voices of Whoopie Goldberg, Cheech Marin, James Earl Jones, Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane and Jeremy Irons. Academy Award Nominations: 4, including 3 for Best Original Song. Academy Awards: 2, including Best Original Score and Best Original Song (Elton John and Tim Rice: "Can You Feel the Love Tonight").

Major Payne



Wayans plays a near-maniacal Army Major assigned to whip a detail of dysfunctional children into shape to win a war games competition, making for some hilarious moments of truly inspired lunacy. Remake of the 1955 movie "The Private War of Major Benson" starring Charlton Heston.

Cruel Intentions



Director Roger Kumble transfers the DANGEROUS LIASONS tale to Manhattan, where wealthy prep school student Kathryn (Sarah Michelle Gellar) bets her stepbrother Sebastian (Ryan Phillipe) that he can't deflower the virginal Annette (Reese Witherspoon) before the school year begins. If he fails to accomplish this task, Kathryn gets his Jaguar Roadster; if he succeeds, he gets an evening of pleasure with Kathryn.

Mirror Mirror



As the shy, new girl at school, Megan is constantly hassled by the cheerleader group. After she discovers an unusual mirror in her house, Megan's enemies at school start showing up dead.

School of Rock



Fired from his band, rock guitarist and vocalist Dewey Finn (Black) takes a job as a 4th grade substitute teacher at an uptight private school where his free livin' lifestyle, attitude, music and antics soon influences the students to explore other sides of themselves the school doesn't encourage. Finn's real goal in taking the job is to recruit a 9-year-old guitar prodigy, Yuki, to become the lead guitarist in a band that would be able to win a "battle of bands", solving Finn's money problems and re-establishing him as a respected rocker.


Dead Poets Society



An unconventional New England prep school teacher inspires his students with poetry and encourages them to embrace life. Academy Award Nominations: 4, including Best Picture, Best Actor--Robin Williams, Best (Original) Screenplay. Academy Awards: Best Original Screenplay.

The Baby-sitters Club



Friendship, secrets and prepubescent enterprise: The book series for girls comes to the screen with sweetness and morality and some pretty good performances. With Schuyler Fisk, Bre Blair, Rachael Leigh Cook, Brooke Adams, Peter Horton. Screenplay by Dalene Young, based on the books by Ann M. Martin. Directed by Melanie Mayron.

My Girl



Vada Sultenfuss (Anna Chlumsky) is an eleven year old girl in a small Pennsylvania town in the early 1970s, at the beginning of life even as she lives with the constant reminder of death; her father (Dan Ackroyd) is a mortician who runs his business out of the family home, and her mother died during childbirth complications. The father and daughter also live with Vada's grandmother, who suffers from Alzheimers and whose only vocalizations are belted-out showtunes from her youth. This life story, paired with Ada's precocious and imaginative mind, makes for some highly entertaining and eminently human eccentricities; a hypochondriac, Vada is a regular patron of her family doctor, constantly convinced that she is suffering from some obscure and fatal illness. Her best friend is Thomas J. (Mackaulay Culkin), a wide-eyed naif to whom she tells all her thoughts, fears, and dreams, including her romantic interest in her English teacher (Griffin Dunne) and her reservations regarding Shelly (Jamie Lee Curtis), her father's newly-employed makeup artist and love interest. Vada's world is eventually turned upside down when tragedy strikes, and she is forced to do some growing up along the way.


Untamed Heart



A tender tale about the romance between Adam, a severely introverted busboy with a congenital heart problem and Caroline, a waitress with a penchant for men who reject her. Walking home late one night from the Minneapolis diner where she and Adam work, Caroline is attacked by two thugs. Just as they are about to rape her, Adam miraculously appears and beats the living daylights out of the two guys. To her surprise, Caroline discovers that the shy, silent Adam has been infatuated with her from afar and has even followed her home every night to make sure nothing happens to her along the way. Won over by his sweetness and devotion, Caroline enters into a tentative relationship with Adam, gently guiding him through his first experience with physical and emotional intimacy.


Edward Scissorhands



In Tim Burton's EDWARD SCISSORHANDS, a suburban fairy tale with incredibly imaginative sets, an Avon lady, Peg Boggs (Dianne Wiest), discovers the half-finished experiment--a man/monster named Edward (Johnny Depp)--of a mad scientist (played magically by Vincent Price) living in the neighborhood's old abandoned castle. The scientist died before replacing the shy man's large shears with real hands. When Peg attempts to bring Edward into her suburban world, to live among her skeptical family (husband Alan Arkin and daughter Winona Ryder) and gossipy neighbors, his hands--dangerous yet capable of creating things of great beauty--make for some awkward, funny, and poignant situations: Edward as a topiary gardener, Edward as a cutting-edge hair stylist. EDWARD SCISSORHANDS is a story about tolerance, difference, and creativity as much as it is a story of a young man's coming of age (the young man in question is, of course, a monster). In the ironically surreal world of Edward's suburban community, he must try to find his place in it, and in the world at large.

A League of Their Own



In 1943 when the ranks of professional male baseball players were leaving for the war, a group of ladies left their homes to become part of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League and kept baseball alive for a grateful nation. This is their story. Dottie Hinson (Geena Davis) is the team's most gifted player,and the camaraderie and jealousy with her sister (Lori Petty) is part of this film's charm and complexity. Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks) is the drunken ex-player and slob manager who eventually brings the team to success. Directed by Penny Marshall (BIG, AWAKENINGS) and also starring Madonna, Jon Lovitz and Bill Pullman.

The Others



THE OTHERS begins with a close-up of a woman screaming. By the time this intense film ends, everyone watching it will be screaming and gasping. Nicole Kidman stars as Grace, a woman raising two children by herself in a creepy mansion. World War II is over, but Grace's husband never returned. Meanwhile, the two children, Anne and Nicholas, must constantly stay in the dark because they are deathly allergic to light. Then one day three people show up to take over for Grace's disappeared staff, and trouble starts to brew. The odd trio--an aging nanny, an elderly gardener, and a young mute girl--seems to have a slightly different agenda than Grace and the children do. But when Anne starts talking to strange, unseen people, the scares start building to an incredible climax.

The Professional



Leon (Jean Reno) is a precise, calculating hit man--a consummate professional, with no family and no friends. However, he has casually befriended Mathilda (Natalie Portman, in an auspicious debut), a 12 year-old neighbor whose entire family, including her adored 4-year-old brother, is wiped out by some crooked DEA agents. The girl pleads with Leon to teach her how to be a "cleaner" and avenge her little brother's death. However, once she learns a few skills, Mathilda saunters into the DEA offices with the sole intention of killing the psychotic agent (Gary Oldman) who actually masterminded the executions. But her intended victim turns the tables on her, and Leon must rescue her. LEON was French director Luc Besson's first film shot in America.

Now and Then



Four women who have been friends since childhood reunite when one of them is about to give birth. This gives them the chance to reminisce about the summer of 1970, a time when they first experienced puppy love, shared girlish secrets, discussed sex and boys, battled bullies, and attempted to solve a murder mystery. The strong bonds these young women forged back then endured despite the passing years and their different fates. Now they have the chance to reaffirm that powerful friendship on a joyous, special occasion.


Lord of the Rings



Set in mythic Middle Earth, a young hobbit named Frodo Baggins inherits a magic ring from his elderly cousin Bilbo. The dark Lord Sauron lusts for the powers that the magic ring holds, knowing it will enable him to enslave the people of land. In his effort to thwart Sauron, Frodo recruits the fellowship of a wizard, an elf, a dwarf and others on a mission to destroy the ring by casting it into the volcanic fires in the Crack of Doom. However, the ring unleashes its own power as a result of the struggle....

The Fifth Element



A cab driver in the 23rd century finds himself battling an evil force during an apocalyptic war as he tries to secure a mysterious fifth element.



(Note: Plots are taken from IMDb and yahoo movies)