Get The Gringo (How I Spent My Summer Vacation) directed by Adrian Grunberg is one of the finest movies to come out in the mid-2012 and one of the best Mel Gibson movies. A career criminal (Mel Gibson) nabbed by Mexican authorities is placed in a tough prison where he learns to survive with the help of a 9-year-old boy (Kevin Hernandez).
There is only one word that comes close to accurately describing the enchanting Mary Poppins, and that term was coined by the movie itself: supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! Even at 2 hours and 20 minutes, Disney’s pioneering mixture of live action and animation still holds kids spellbound.
Julie Andrews won an Oscar as the world’s most magically idealized nanny (“practically perfect in every way,” and complete with lighter-than-air umbrella), and Dick Van Dyke is her clownishly charming beau, Bert the chimney sweep. The songs are also terrific, ranging from bright and cheery (“A Spoonful of Sugar”) to dark and cheery (the Oscar-winning “Chim-Chim Cheree”) to touchingly melancholy (“Feed the Birds”). Many consider Mary Poppins to be the crowning achievement of Walt Disney’s career–and it was the only one of his features to be nominated for a best picture Academy Award until Beauty and the Beast in 1991.
Capernaüm (“Chaos”) tells the story of Zain (Zain al-Rafeea), a Lebanese boy who sues his parents for the “crime” of giving him life. The film follows Zain as he journeys from gutsy, streetwise child to hardened 12-year-old “adult” fleeing his negligent parents, surviving through his wits on the streets, where he meets Ethiopian migrant worker Rahil, who provides him with shelter and food, as Zein takes care of her baby son Yonas in return. Zein later gets jailed for committing a violent crime, and finally seeks justice in a courtroom.
BRITT MacMASTERS, a U.S. Marshal who rarely brings them back alive, returns home from the trail to discover his 12-year-old son, CHAD, has been kidnapped by outlaws – JED BLAKE and his gang. Enlisting the help of Indian guide, CHASKA, along with CLAY TUCKER, a prejudiced deputy who doesn’t trust the guide, Britt sets out into dangerous Sioux territory. As Jed lures the Marshal into his deadly ambush, he finds the captive boy a formidable and slippery opponent, with several escape attempts that return vicious beatings for Chad, and an unexpected tree branch thrust into Jed’s eye. Furious with revenge, and with the threat of the merciless Sioux warriors around the bend, Jed’s bloody injuries leave him a man crumbling on the brink of insanity. As the search party moves deeper into the Red Desert, Tucker’s racist views towards Britt’s Indian friend is deeply challenged when Chaska saves him from a close call with a Sioux warrior’s knife. With both sides succumbing to brutal attacks and scalped heads, Britt races against time to confront the crazed outlaw and save his dying son. Meanwhile, spiraling further into madness, and fearing the Marshal may have fallen prey to the warriors, Jed turns his pistol to his young captive for a game of “Catch the Bullet.” Before Chad can answer, an unseen Britt responds: “I’ll play with ya.” Trembling with crazed delight, Jed is face to face with his enemy.
Carl Casper is an acclaimed chef with a family life that seems as decaying as his artistic freedom. Those frustrations boil over into a raucous viral-videoed public confrontation against a restaurant critic who panned his cooking of food that his boss ordered him to make against his instincts. Now with his career ruined, Carl’s ex-wife offers an unorthodox solution in Miami: refit an old food truck to offer quality cooking on his own terms. Now with his young son, Percy, and old colleague, Tony, helping, Carl takes a working trip across America with that truck to rediscover his gastronomic passion. With Percy’s tech savvy and Tony’s enthusiasm, Carl finds that he is creating a traveling sensation on the way home. In doing so, Carl discovers he is serving up more than simply food, but also a deeper connection with his life and his family that is truly delicious in its own way.
After surviving the slaughter of her entire squad in a drug raid compromised by dirty cops, anti-narcotics special operative Nina Manigan (Anne Curtis), is eager to go head-to-head with the drug cartels that hold a bloody grip on Manila. But when her new mission in the city’s most dangerous slum goes south, the angry civilians turn on her squad. Trapped between a brutal drug gang and hordes of bloodthirsty citizens, their only option is to fight their way out, turning one claustrophobic street at a time into a symphony of apocalyptic violence.
David Cuevas is a family man who works as a gangland tax collector for high ranking Los Angeles gang members. He makes collections across the city with his partner Creeper making sure people pay up or will see retaliation. An old threat returns to Los Angeles that puts everything David loves in harm’s way.
An aimless ne’er-do-well becomes a tour guide in a historic estate and winds up befriending the manor’s resident ghost.
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back is a tale of adventure on the open road. When Dante and Randal (of Clerks fame) get a restraining order to keep the punchy Jay and his hetero life-mate, Silent Bob, from selling drugs in front of the Quick Stop convenience store, their lives are suddenly empty. They find new purpose when their friend, Brodie, informs them a movie is being made featuring two infamous characters based on their likenesses. After visiting one of the creators of the Bluntman and Chronic, Holden McNeil, they set out to get what fat movie cash they deserve and hopefully put an end to people slandering them on the Internet.
A writer in a creative crisis befriends a retired serial killer, who becomes his marriage therapist and consultant for a new book. But his wife begins to suspect she might be a target.
A food delivery driver gets caught in a deadly chase in the icy Minnesota wilderness, pursued by a crazed snowplow driver for unknown reasons, facing life-threatening situations and forced to outsmart his relentless pursuer alone.
In AD 922, Arab courtier Ahmad Ibn Fadlan accompanies a party of Vikings to the barbaric North. Ibn Fadlan is appalled by the Vikings customs – their wanton sexuality, their disregard for cleanliness, their cold-blooded human sacrifices. And then he learns the horrifying truth: he has been enlisted to combat a terror that slaughters the Vikings and devours their flesh.
