Dito, a writer in L.A., goes home to Astoria, Queens, after a 15-year absence when his mother calls to say his father’s ill. In a series of flashbacks we see the young Dito, his parents, his four closest friends, and his girl Laurie, as each tries to navigate family, race, loyalty, sex, coming of age, violence, and wanting out. A ball falls onto the subway tracks at a station, small things get out of hand. Can Dito go home again?
Critically acclaimed comedian Frankie Boyle presents his hotly-anticipated first live stand-up DVD. Recorded live at London’s Hackney Empire, Frankie brings us his unique brand of observational comedy, there are no gimmicks to this set, just the sharp-suited Scotsman firing one-liners into the atmosphere with unparalleled finesse.
As the recognisable face of television series Mock The Week, Frankie shows us just a slice of what he’s capable of; in this DVD you get Frankie Boyle no-holds-barred, unleashing his razor-sharp wit upon the audience with jokes that are too near the knuckle for TV.
Using the torture and death in 2002 of an innocent Afghan taxi driver as the touchstone, this film examines changes after 9/11 in U.S. policy toward suspects in the war on terror. Soldiers, their attorneys, one released detainee, U.S. Attorney John Yoo, news footage and photos tell a story of abuse at Bagram Air Base, Abu Ghraib, and Guantanamo Bay. From Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Gonzalez came unwritten orders to use any means necessary. The CIA and soldiers with little training used sleep deprivation, sexual assault, stress positions, waterboarding, dogs and other terror tactics to seek information from detainees. Many speakers lament the loss of American ideals in pursuit of security.
Jimmy the Saint’s business is videotaping the terminally-ill, so that they will be around to give ‘Afterlife Advice’ to their survivors. He hasn’t been doing too well lately and has had to turn to loan-sharks to accomodate his failing business, as well as his expensive personal tastes. When an evil gangster-overlord buys up his note and demands a favor of Jimmy, in exchange for the interest that he can’t afford, Jimmy capitulates. Jimmy is to scare someone for the gangster-overlord—really rough them up. Without giving too much away (spoiler), the scene goes down badly and Jimmy and his crew all end up with contracts on their heads for their trouble.
Chris Cody is a top-ranked mercenary who took part in an undercover operation to stop a major terrorist strike on U.S. soil — a strike that the UN refused to believe was about to happen. However, Cody had to break a number of laws in order to do the job, and as a result, he’s in a military prison. At the U.S. Embassy in Montevideo, Uruguay, Secret Service agents are briefing the ambassador with information about a terrorist base when the agents suddenly go haywire and kill her, and then themselves. Later, in Washington DC, intelligence analyst Dr. Chappell concludes that some sort of mind control device must have been used. A Delta Force commando team is sent to Uruguay to investigate, but they’re quickly ambushed and captured. Taken to the terrorist base, they are brainwashed by Dr. Adrian Lehder, a scientist who heads a secret CIA experiment in mind control, programming soldiers to become virtually unstoppable killing machines when they’re given the right commands. The Navy recruits Cody and his crew to take Chappell and special agent Fletcher with them in an effort to destroy the facility and take down Lehder. Cody is promised that in exchange, he and his will be freed and cleared of the alleged misconduct that they were accused of and receive $100,000 each. Suspicious, Cody quickly removes Fletcher from the mission, and Fletcher turns out to be in league with Lehder. Fletcher tips off Lehder, and they quickly abandon Lehder’s facility, leaving behind a few American prisoners as Trojan horses. One team of Cody’s men commandeers a submarine while the others secure the base and rescue the prisoners. The team fights its way past a tank, destroys the base, and escapes on the sub. But they end up stuck on the sub with some of the mind-controlled soldiers. After fighting off the soldiers and escaping from the sub, Cody and his crew realize that they must race to bring down Lehder before the rest of his soldiers kill them all.
Chris Cody is a top-ranked mercenary who took part in an undercover operation to stop a major terrorist strike on U.S. soil — a strike that the UN refused to believe was about to happen. However, Cody had to break a number of laws in order to do the job, and as a result, he’s in a military prison. At the U.S. Embassy in Montevideo, Uruguay, Secret Service agents are briefing the ambassador with information about a terrorist base when the agents suddenly go haywire and kill her, and then themselves. Later, in Washington DC, intelligence analyst Dr. Chappell concludes that some sort of mind control device must have been used. A Delta Force commando team is sent to Uruguay to investigate, but they’re quickly ambushed and captured. Taken to the terrorist base, they are brainwashed by Dr. Adrian Lehder, a scientist who heads a secret CIA experiment in mind control, programming soldiers to become virtually unstoppable killing machines when they’re given the right commands. The Navy recruits Cody and his crew to take Chappell and special agent Fletcher with them in an effort to destroy the facility and take down Lehder. Cody is promised that in exchange, he and his will be freed and cleared of the alleged misconduct that they were accused of and receive $100,000 each. Suspicious, Cody quickly removes Fletcher from the mission, and Fletcher turns out to be in league with Lehder. Fletcher tips off Lehder, and they quickly abandon Lehder’s facility, leaving behind a few American prisoners as Trojan horses. One team of Cody’s men commandeers a submarine while the others secure the base and rescue the prisoners. The team fights its way past a tank, destroys the base, and escapes on the sub. But they end up stuck on the sub with some of the mind-controlled soldiers. After fighting off the soldiers and escaping from the sub, Cody and his crew realize that they must race to bring down Lehder before the rest of his soldiers kill them all.
Jayne and Laura are about to take on the first man they just might not be able to handle: their seventy-something-year-old father Joe. Dutiful daughters returning to the house they grew up in, Jayne and Laura are forced to take a closer look at their own not-so-perfect lives while dodging childhood memories. Laura suspects that Joe needs full-time care, but Jayne hopes that their father’s condition isn’t that serious. Joe is still singing and playing his old guitar, and the lively widower even has a new “ladyfriend,” shameless and sassy Shelly. But as the visible moments of their father’s impending senility increase, so do the dysfunctional family dynamics. Tensions flare as the close sisters must also juggle their own very different lives – Laura’s busy schedule as an environmentalist and mother of two small children, and Jayne, desperate to finally have a baby with her workaholic art-dealing husband Jackson. Their adventures back home are not without magic, mischief and mayhem, and even a search for buried treasure in the backyard! Any tears that Jayne and Laura might shed will be happy ones.
Director Jason Wulfsohn’s “Tracing Cowboys” is a story about self-deception as well as self-discovery. It is about honesty but also about betrayal of yourself and the betrayal of others. The film premiered at the 2008 AFI Dallas Film Festival winning Best Cinematography.
Teens in a holiday-camp. First love, first sex, first self-made theatre performance of “Romeo and Julliet” – quite interesting to have a look at the east-German youth in the seventies.
1965 South Vietnam, two American Soldiers find themselves trapped in the Jungle with a War surrounding them. The only thing keeping them alive is the promises in their hearts they kept to their families – to return home at any cost. One Soldier, Private David M. Church awakes from being rendered unconscious to find all of his squad killed by the Vietcong. Three Days by foot, he must travel to the Landing Zone for extraction. In the distant Jungle, Church comes across an injured VC and makes him pay for the lives of his squad. Payment comes in the form of a bullet to the VC shoulder. Moving closer Church finds out the farmer dressed VC is actually an American Tunnel Rat. Mentally broken, Church carries the Tunnel Rat closer to the LZ. Along the way Church finds other American Soldiers in need of help. Death follows as Church makes a gallant effort to save lives in dire desperation to reach the LZ. The VC, and one of his own claim anyone that attempts to leave the Jungle. Church reaches the LZ, but it costs him everything, including his promise. Save yourself, or save a life other than your own… full well knowing you won’t make it out of the Jungle alive.
