Posts Tagged ‘based-on-novel’

Golden Compass, The (2007)

Wednesday, May 7th, 2008
Genres: Action | Adventure | Drama | Family | Fantasy | Thriller
Countries: UK | USA
Actors: Kidman, Nicole | Craig, Daniel | Richards, Dakota Blue | Walker, Ben | Highmore, Freddie | McKellen, Ian | Green, Eva | Carter, Jim | Courtenay, Tom | McShane, Ian | Elliott, Sam | Lee, Christopher | Scott Thomas, Kristin | de Souza, Edward | Bates, Kathy
Directors: Weitz, Chris
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Lyra Belaqua, living in Oxford’s Jordan College, is not but a young girl living among scholars. Her world may seem diverse, from physical embodiments of souls that take the shape of an animal, but similar with people around you to become friends and enemies. She is thrown into a perilous adventure when she overhears a conversation of an extraordinary microscopic particle, Dust. This particle is said to unite different worlds, and is feared by many who want to destroy it forever. As Lyra is flung into the middle of this horrible struggle, she meets wondrous creatures both big and small, and villains who are not what they seem. Gobblers, that kidnap children, will turn out in the most unexpected places. And a magical compass of gold that will answer any question if one is skilled enough to read it. Lyra’s adventure continues throughout these three books, and the first is about to be told.

Notes on a Scandal (2006)

Wednesday, May 7th, 2008
Genres: Drama
Countries: UK
Actors: Dench, Judi | Blanchett, Cate | Georgeson, Tom | Maloney, Michael | Scanlan, Joanna | Parkes, Shaun | Kennedy, Emma | Kumar, Syreeta | Simpson, Andrew | Davis, Philip | Nottingham, Wendy | Empson, Tameka | Skinner, Leon | Nighy, Bill | Temple, Juno
Directors: Eyre, Richard
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Barbara Covett is a veteran and cynical schoolteacher who is close to retirement. She is barely tolerated by her less brilliant and acerbic colleagues who know nothing about her private life which consists mainly of taking care of Portia, her aging cat, and spending countless hours alone. The only means she has found to take the edge off her desperate loneliness is writing in her journal. When Sheba Hart, a younger, attractive woman, joins the faculty as an art teacher, Barbara watches her from afar and has nothing but caustic things to say in her diary about her clothing and her care-free manner. Despite her disdain for this woman, Barbara finds herself reaching out to her. Sheba responds by inviting her to dinner at her house to meet Sheba’s lecturer husband, who is twenty years her senior, and their two children, a sexy and rebellious 16-year-old daughter and a younger boy with Downs Syndrome. Instead of opening herself to these people, Barbara immediately sees them as competition to be beaten in the battle for Sheba’s attention. Later, when Barbara discovers her new friend in a classroom having sex with Steven, a 15-year-old from the school who has artistic talent; she realizes that knowledge of this secret gives her power over Sheba which she can use for her own purposes. Barbara promises to not tell anyone but insists that the affair must end immediately. Sheba says she will but finds herself drawn back to the boy again and again. Sheba seems uneasy with Barbara’s friendship and is appalled when she discovers the older woman might have a sexual interest in her. The tenuous relationship between the two women reaches a crisis point when Barbara’s cat is dying and she asks Sheba to go with her to the vet. She chooses to go with her family to see their son in a play instead. In revenge, Barbara sets in motion the scandal that will rock both their lives in ways they never imagined.

Cape Fear (1991)

Wednesday, May 7th, 2008
Genres: Crime | Drama | Horror | Thriller
Countries: USA
Actors: De Niro, Robert | Nolte, Nick | Lange, Jessica | Lewis, Juliette | Baker, Joe Don | Mitchum, Robert | Peck, Gregory | Balsam, Martin | Douglas, Illeana | Thompson, Fred Dalton | Montero, Zully | Henne, Craig | Burton, Forest | Poe IV, Edgar Allan | Ball, Rod
Directors: Scorsese, Martin
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Sam Bowden is a small-town corporate attorney/”Leave It to Beaver”-esque family-man. Max Cady is a tattooed, cigar-smoking, bible-quoting, psychotic rapist. What do they have in common? Fourteen years, ago Sam was a public defender assigned to Max Cady’s rape trial, and he made a serious error: he hid a document from his illiterate client that could have gotten him acquitted. Now, the cagey, bibliophile Cady has been released, and he intends to teach Sam Bowden and his family a thing or two about loss.

Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, The (2007)

Monday, May 5th, 2008
Genres: Adventure | Family | Fantasy
Countries: USA
Actors: Chaplin, Ben | Cox, Brian | Etel, Alex | Hall, Craig | Kaczorowski, Mathew | KB, Forbes | Morrissey, David | Napier, Marshall | Shand, Erroll | Smith, Adam | Tobeck, Joel | Brophy, Geraldine | Kaczorowski, Jessica | Watson, Emily | Xi, Priyanka
Directors: Russell, Jay
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Based on a novel by Dick King-Smith, author of The Sheep Pig (from which Babe was adapted), the touching and often spectacular The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep ingeniously presumes to explain the truth behind “Nessie,” i.e., the Loch Ness Monster. The story, told in present day to a couple of American tourists by a kindly gentleman (Brian Cox) in a pub, begins with a lonely boy, Angus (Alex Etel), pining for his father, who is serving in the Royal Navy during World War II. Angus, along with his sister (Priyanka Xi) and mother (Emily Watson), live on an estate that has been billeted by soldiers in the Scottish Highlands, near Loch Ness. The troop’s commander (David Morissey) has an eye for mom, suspicions about a mysterious handyman, Lewis (Ben Chaplin), who is also a war hero, and an absurd contention that the Highlands are the real frontline in the war against Germany.

Into this intriguing drama comes a completely different element, a fantastical creature of Celtic mythology that befriends Angus and is, in fact, the sea-beast who will eventually be known as the Loch Ness Monster. Trying to hide the dinosaur-like fellow, nicknamed Crusoe, Angus enlists Lewis to transfer it to the lake, where boy and serpent have extraordinary adventures together until human stupidity threatens Crusoe’s existence. A true family film, there is a lot for adults to like about the grownup story in The Water Horse. Meanwhile, the wistful relationship between Angus and Crusoe—each of whom helps the other move past obstacles toward their individual destinies—will leave children feeling both happy and melancholy in the best possible sense. Directed by Jay Russell (My Dog Skip), The Water Horse is the best of a mini-genre of films about or inspired by old Nessie.

Jumper (2008)

Monday, May 5th, 2008
Genres: Adventure | Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller
Countries: USA
Actors: Christensen, Hayden | Jackson, Samuel L. | Lane, Diane | Bell, Jamie | Bilson, Rachel | Hulce, Tom | Rooker, Michael | Baek, Sean | Boland, Katie | Cox, Nathalie | Dunn, Teddy | Garrick, Barbara | Henderson, Meredith | Robb, AnnaSophia | Thieriot, Max
Directors: Liman, Doug
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A genetic anomaly allows a young man to teleport himself anywhere. He discovers this gift has existed for centuries and finds himself in a war that has been raging for thousands of years between “Jumpers” and those who have sworn to kill them.

War of the Worlds (2005)

Wednesday, April 30th, 2008
Genres: Adventure | Drama | Sci-Fi | Thriller
Countries: USA
Actors: Cruise, Tom | Fanning, Dakota | Chatwin, Justin | Otto, Miranda | Robbins, Tim | Gonzalez, Rick | Vazquez, Yul | Venito, Lenny | Walter, Lisa Ann | Robinson, Ann | Barry, Gene | Basche, David Alan | Abrams, Roz | Brownlee, Michael | Sanes, Camillia
Directors: Spielberg, Steven
Download: DivX iPod 

Ray Ferrier is a dock worker who is finishing a night of work in the morning, because he works the night shift. But when he gets home his young daughter Rachel and teenage son Robbie are staying with him at his house in Bayonne, New Jersey, while his pregnant ex-wife Mary Anne and her new husband Tim visit her parents in Boston for the weekend. But then the unthinkable and, ultimately, the unexpected happens to him in an extraordinary sense! Witnessing, and barely escaping the horror, first-hand, it’s up to Ray to protect his two kids from terrorist and races up to Boston before one of them gets murdered by a large tripod machine in its path!

Sleeping Murder (1987)

Wednesday, April 30th, 2008
Genres: Crime | Drama | Mystery
Countries: Australia | UK
Actors: Hickson, Joan | Alexander, Geraldine | Moulder-Brown, John | Treves, Frederick | Anderson, Jean | Hardiman, Terrence | Bennett, John | Newman, Geraldine | Watson, Jack | Scott, Joan | Heywood, Jean | Anderson, Georgine | Jewesbury, Edward | McAllister, David | Boxer, Amanda
Directors: Davies, John
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BBC TV adaption of the Agatha Christie’s novel. A young recently married woman, Gwenda Reed, comes back to England after living most of her life in New Zealand. While her husband, Giles, is out of the country she buys a house for them and starts recalling memories which make her start to think that perhaps she had lived in the house before. It’s only then, while dining out with friends, that a chance remark triggered off a frightening memory, as a little girl, looking down at a woman’s body and the murderer with “monkey paws” hands. Gwenda is determined to find out the sources of this memory. The killer, thought that he/she was safe after eighteen years and is prepared to kill to cover up the past. But Gwenda has help as one of her dining friends is Raymond West, who has a very special Aunt who is willing to help Gwenda - Miss Jane Marple…

At Bertram’s Hotel (1987)

Wednesday, April 30th, 2008
Genres: Crime | Drama | Mystery
Countries: UK
Actors: Hickson, Joan | Blakiston, Caroline | Michell, Helena | Cossins, James | Greenwood, Joan | Baker, George | Milvain, Douglas | Bretherton, Philip | Lockwood, Preston | Sutcliffe, Irene | McGrath, Brian | Phillips, Neville | Reynolds, Robert | Baldwin, Peter | Herley, Randal
Directors: McMurray, Mary
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Miss Jane Marple is staying at an elegant hotel from her childhood compliments of her nephew Raymond. Also there is international adventurer Bess Sedgwick and Lady Selena Hazy (Joan Greenwood in her next to last performance). A doorman working at the hotel turns out to be from Bess’ past, and when he is killed, she is the prime suspect. But what does his murder have to do with the disappearance of an elderly vicar staying at the hotel, and a string of robberies over the last few months? Miss Marple must find out before the murderer strikes again!!!

Pocket Full of Rye, A (1985)

Wednesday, April 30th, 2008
Genres: Crime | Drama | Mystery
Countries: Australia | UK | USA
Actors: Hickson, Joan | West, Timothy | Drake, Fabia | Merrison, Clive | Bell, Rachel | Davison, Peter | Low, Frances | Dorning, Stacy | Stanbridge, Martyn | Wilkinson, Tom | Glover, Jon | Cadell, Selina | Badland, Annette | Kendall, Merelina | Mills, Frank
Directors: Slater, Guy
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Wealthy business man Rex Fortescue collapses when he reaches his office. It is determined that he was poisoned. No one seems too upset, as everyone agrees that Rex was a tyrant. Soon however Rex’s young wife also turns up poisoned. The maid, Gladyes, whom Miss Marple trained, writes to Miss Marple asking for help. Miss Marple arrives too late, as Gladyses’ body is found strangled and strung up on the clothes line. Now it’s personal, and Miss Marple is determined to see the murderer punished.

Murder Is Announced, A (1985)

Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
Genres: Crime | Drama | Mystery
Countries: Australia | UK | USA
Actors: Hickson, Joan | Howells, Ursula | Asherson, Renée | Bond, Samantha | Shepherd, Simon | King, Nicola | Ives-Cameron, Elaine | Michael, Ralph | Syms, Sylvia | Solon, Matthew | Kerridge, Mary | Sims, Joan | Dionisotti, Paola | Moore, Vivienne | Collings, David
Directors: Giles, David
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A murder is announced in the Chipping Cleghorne Gazette to take place on October 5th, 7 PM at Little Paddocks cottage. The people living there, retired secretary Miss Blacklock, her companion Miss Bunner, Miss Blacklock’s two distant cousins, Patrick and Julia and Mrs.Haymes, a gardener, have no idea what the ad is about. Several villagers arrive at the house under the false pretenses of “just walking by” or “Was in the neighborhood”. At exactly 7 PM, the lights go out, and a man enters the room, and shines a flashlight in everyone’s face. Then shots are heard. As the lights come back on, they find the man who entered the room has been shot. Miss Marple must unmask the killer but soon more murders turn up.