Silver Screen Fiend: Learning About Life From An Addiction To Film

An ordinary man sees a bright light descend from the sky, and discovers he now has super-intelligence and telekinesis.

A gambler discovers an old flame while in Argentina, but she's married to his new boss.

Unable to move on from the loss of his daughter, Freddy, now a shell of the person he was before, swears to kill the man responsible for her death.

1996 film by Mike Nichols

1976 French film directed by Roman Polański

The Nazis, exasperated at the number of escapes from their prison camps by a relatively small number of Allied prisoners, relocate them to a high-security 'escape-proof' camp to sit out the remainder of the war. Undaunted, the prisoners plan one of the most ambitious escape attempts of World War II. Based on a true story.

IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE is unquestionably on my top 3 from the many sci-fi movies made in the 1950s. I review many sci-fi films from the 50s, both B-movies AND classic. THIS film would definitely go down as one of the all-time classics. Even more rich with every viewing, IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE is about a couple who live in a desert, one a scientist. One night, the scientist and his girlfriend are stargazing when they see some strange thing crash into a crater. When they go there, the scientist decides to go down, and sees a strange ship right before an avalanche falls over the specimen. Soon those two are the only ones who believe it is a ship from outer space, until strange things begin happening. The scientist must solve the mystery of why the aliens have arrived, and what they want. A science fiction classic worth buying on DVD. (Don't be fooled...the alien looks nothing like the one on the DVD cover.)

In 1915, Atlantic City is a sleepy seaside resort, but Brad Taylor, son of a small hotel and vaudeville house proprietor, has big plans: he thinks it can be "the playground of the world." Brad's wheeling and dealing proves remarkably successful in attracting big enterprises and big shows, but brings him little success in personal relationships. Full of nostalgic songs and acts, some with the original artists. Reissued in 1950 as "Atlantic City Honeymoon".

When petty criminal Luke Jackson is sentenced to two years in a Florida prison farm, he doesn't play by the rules of either the sadistic warden or the yard's resident heavy, Dragline, who ends up admiring the new guy's unbreakable will. Luke's bravado, even in the face of repeated stints in the prison's dreaded solitary confinement cell, "the box," make him a rebel hero to his fellow convicts and a thorn in the side of the prison officers.

Hud Bannon is a ruthless young man who tarnishes everything and everyone he touches. Hud represents the perfect embodiment of alienated youth, out for kicks with no regard for the consequences. There is bitter conflict between the callous Hud and his stern and highly principled father, Homer. Hud's nephew Lon admires Hud's cheating ways, though he soon becomes too aware of Hud's reckless amorality to bear him anymore. In the world of the takers and the taken, Hud is a winner. He's a cheat, but, he explains, "I always say the law was meant to be interpreted in a lenient manner."

An innocent man turns fugitive as he reconstructs events that implicate him for a murder and robbery he did not commit.

In Japan, scientifically advanced invaders from the war-destroyed planet Mysteroid cause an entire village to vanish, then send a giant robot out to storm the city by night, after which they request a small patch of land on Earth and the right to marry earthling women, claiming to be pacifists. Mankind must decide whether to capitulate or to resist.

In a small English village everyone suddenly falls unconscious. When they awake every woman of child bearing age is pregnant. The resulting children have the same strange blond hair, eyes and a strong connection to each other.

In 1965, the space station JSS-3 is destroyed by a fleet of UFOs, which then begin a global siege on Earth, using rays to manipulate gravity and control the minds of men. In response, a global council meeting is held to determine the source of the attacks and prepare a rocket ship armada for a counter-attack, a true battle in outer space. . . The film is a sequel of sorts to Toho's THE MYSTERIANS in the reprise of the Etsuko Shiraishi character of that film as its heroine. It was edited to 74 minutes for its American release.

When the first manned flight to Venus returns to Earth, the rocket crash-lands in the Mediterranean near a small Italian fishing village. The locals manage to save one of the astronauts Colonel Calder, the mission commander. A young boy also recovers what turns out to be a specimen of an alien creature. Growing at a fantastic rate, it manages to escape and eventually threatens the city of Rome.

Heroin addict Mark Renton stumbles through bad ideas and sobriety attempts with his unreliable friends -- Sick Boy, Begbie, Spud and Tommy. He also has an underage girlfriend, Diane, along for the ride. After cleaning up and moving from Edinburgh to London, Mark finds he can't escape the life he left behind when Begbie shows up at his front door on the lam, and a scheming Sick Boy follows.

In San Francisco, two men kill a Chinese woman after robbing her store. One of the thieves has the same characteristics of the Italian immigrant Eddie Pedak and he becomes the prime suspect of Inspector Mike Vido. Eddie is an ex-thief that was found not guilty for shooting Vito in a bank heist, but the inspector blames him. Presently Eddie is married with a child with Kristine Pedak, works as a truck driver and has put a down payment on a fishing vessel with his savings. Out of the blue, Eddie's brother and gangster Walter Pedak and his henchmen Arthur Sargatanas and Cleveland 'Cleve' Shoenstein visit Eddie to invite him to participate in a one-million dollar heist. Eddie loses his job and his personal life is deeply affected by Vito since he can not find another job. He decides to meet his brother and accepts to participate in the hold up. Meanwhile Vito discovers that Eddie was actually framed in the Chinese murder. He visits Eddie to disclose his findings to him but Eddie has already participated in the plan. What will happen to him?

During a routine prison work detail, convict Piper is chained to Dodge, a cyberhacker, when gunfire breaks out. Apparently, the attack is related to stolen money that the Mafia is after, and some computer files that somebody wants desperately to bury. The pair, who don't exactly enjoy each other's company, escape and must work together if they are to reach Atlanta alive. Luckily, they meet a woman who may be willing to help them.

A Hong Kong detective teams up with his female Red Chinese counterpart to stop a Chinese drug czar.

The editor of a New York exploitation newspaper meets the wife he had abandoned years ago, while using another name, at a LonelyHearts ball sponsored by his newspaper. She threatens to expose him as a wife-deserter, wife-beater and an impostor, and, in anger, he hits her with his fist and accidentally kills her. Later, when her body is found, he assigns his protégé reporter to the story, as a good, exploitable follow-up story to the ball. And, then, he is forced to sit back and watch while the reporter slowly tracks down the killer.