Young, Aden

Black Robe

Forget about Kevin Costner's sun-kissed, water-colored, Oscar-winning Dances with Wolves. Black Robe, which was directed by Bruce Beresford, a director who gave the world the finest film of the early '80s Australian new wave, Breaker Morant, and who continually collides cultures and ethnicity in his films (Mister Johnson, Driving Miss Daisy), matches and surpasses the Costner epic as an expertly crafted, brutal saga of redemption and salvation. In 1634 a young French Jesuit missionary is assigned to trek 1,500 miles through the New France wilderness to a mission settled in Huron Indian country. Black Robe chronicles the journey of Father Laforgue (Lothaire Blutheau) as he leaves his Jesuit brothers and, with the aid of a young translator and guide, Daniel (Aden Young), and eight canoes of Algonquin Indians, moves into the uncompromising Canadian northern territory on a die-hard mission to convert the natives. Mixing elements of Michael Mann's The Last of the Mohicans and Roland Joffé's The Mission, Beresford offers a restless tale of Laforgue's conflicted faith juxtaposed against the sublime spiritual harmony with the land that the Huron and Algonquin already hold. Black Robe dances to its own drummer and is tuned into the precarious balance between nature's mystery and spirit and the strident, unyielding religious ethic. The cinematography by Peter James is relentlessly cruel and bleak, but it absolutely conveys the obstacles that face the idealistic and blind young priest, who by the end, has faced his own awakening. The film also features one of the late, great composer Georges Delerue's most noble scores. --Paula Nechak

Sniper

Tom Berenger and Billy Zane head the cast in this silly action film about a tough Marine and an Olympics marksman who team up in the Panamanian jungle to take out a rebel leader and the drug kingpin financing him. Berenger's done this switched-off soul bit before, but Zane doesn't seem quite ready for his part. In any case, the acting doesn't matter as much to director Luis Llosa as fancy camerawork to give viewers the sense of a bullet hurling along its trajectory. --Tom Keogh

Tough guy thomas beckett is a us soldier working in the panamanian jungle. His job is to seek out rebels and remove them using his sniper skills Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 07/19/2005 Starring: Tom Berenger Jt Walsh Run time: 99 minutes Rating: R Director: Luis Llosa

Black Robe

Forget about Kevin Costner's sun-kissed, water-colored, Oscar-winning Dances with Wolves. Black Robe, which was directed by Bruce Beresford, a director who gave the world the finest film of the early '80s Australian new wave, Breaker Morant, and who continually collides cultures and ethnicity in his films (Mister Johnson, Driving Miss Daisy), matches and surpasses the Costner epic as an expertly crafted, brutal saga of redemption and salvation. In 1634 a young French Jesuit missionary is assigned to trek 1,500 miles through the New France wilderness to a mission settled in Huron Indian country. Black Robe chronicles the journey of Father Laforgue (Lothaire Blutheau) as he leaves his Jesuit brothers and, with the aid of a young translator and guide, Daniel (Aden Young), and eight canoes of Algonquin Indians, moves into the uncompromising Canadian northern territory on a die-hard mission to convert the natives. Mixing elements of Michael Mann's The Last of the Mohicans and Roland Joffé's The Mission, Beresford offers a restless tale of Laforgue's conflicted faith juxtaposed against the sublime spiritual harmony with the land that the Huron and Algonquin already hold. Black Robe dances to its own drummer and is tuned into the precarious balance between nature's mystery and spirit and the strident, unyielding religious ethic. The cinematography by Peter James is relentlessly cruel and bleak, but it absolutely conveys the obstacles that face the idealistic and blind young priest, who by the end, has faced his own awakening. The film also features one of the late, great composer Georges Delerue's most noble scores. --Paula Nechak

From acclaimed director Bruce Beresford (Driving Miss Daisy, Tender Mercies) and adapted by screenwriter Brian Moore from his novel of the same name, Black Robe is "amazing an adventure film that is as intelligent as it is enthralling" (US)! French Jesuit missionary Father Laforgue travels to the magnificently austere Canadian wilderness to save the souls of a "savage and godless" peoplethe native tribes of the Huron and Algonquin. But the natives, who have their own spiritual value system that differs drastically from Christianity, are immediately suspicious, resentful and openly hostile toward the intrusive "Black Robe." And when Laforgue hires a reluctant group of Algonquin to escort him on a harrowing 1500-mile journey up the broad and sinuous St. Lawrence River, a devastating chain of events not only causes him to question his deeply held beliefs but also forever changes the course of history for the natives' way of life.

The Crocodile Hunter - Collision Course

This first movie from the Discovery Channel favorite opens with a plot of international intrigue over a downed satellite, but within four minutes Steve Irwin is belly flopping after a baby croc on the outback floor. Steve and his nerves-of-steel sidekick wife, Terri, are asked to relocate a cattle-chomping crocodile before it's shot by a local rancher. This same reptile happened to swallow the intelligence-gathering device that fell to earth, and so begins the goofball premise of this lark of a movie. The feds believe the Irwins are appropriating their classified info, and the Irwins think they're running from poachers. Quibblers may object to Irwin's frequent interruptions to introduce a bird-eating spider or paw through croc dung, but Crocodile Hunter fans wouldn't have it any other way. This 89-minute film is rated PG for action violence/peril and mild language. But unless you consider "crikey" an obscenity, it's a safe bet for family viewing. (Ages 4 and older) --Kimberly Heinrichs

Studio: Tcfhe/mgm Release Date: 08/14/2007 Run time: 89 minutes Rating: Pg

Molokai: The Story Of Father Damien

This biography of Father Damien, the Catholic priest who in 1873 volunteered for service on the eponymous Hawaiian leper colony, doesn't hesitate to idolize its subject, and why should it? For 15 years Damien ministered almost single-handedly to the quarantined community, supplying what medication he could procure while struggling against the red tape from organizations (religious and governmental) that would rather have forgotten all about the hundreds of people slowly dying in primitive conditions. He won some battles and lost others, finally succumbing to the disease himself in 1888. The film can't overcome the inherent weaknesses of projects such as this: high officials given to improbable speeches recapping the relevant historical events for us, a certain formlessness generated by skipping through the years and only hitting the high points, stock bureaucratic villains whose motives are never fairly explored. On the other hand, screenwriter John Briley has an Oscar on his shelf for Gandhi, so he knows how to string the lessons together and make them go down smoothly.

The earnestness of the project no doubt led to the who's-who supporting cast (Sam Neill, Derek Jacobi, Peter O'Toole, Leo McKern) (oh yes, and Kris Kristofferson), but it is David Wenham who must carry the film as Damien, which he does well enough--not spectacularly but with a touching humility not above a tetchy self-righteousness. Director Paul Cox was an inspired choice, however, bringing to the project his patient fascination with emotions at their most subtle and restrained; as a result, Molokai's low-key sense of conflict, often a fatal flaw in similar movies, becomes the film's saving grace, a manifestation of its subject's quiet, persistent faith. --Bruce Reid

To deal with the leprosy problem in the Hawaiian Islands in 1872, sufferers were relentlessly exiled to Molokai, a barren isle off the coast. There they lived in miserable surroundings, abandoned by the outside world. To alleviate their fate, Father Damien was the first priest to go to Molokai. His bishop's last words were that "he must not touch anyone."

Little by little, Damien earned the trust of the lepers, and eventually, his appeals for nuns and supplies resonated throughout the world, much to the displeasure of his superiors.

Even when Damien got sick himself, his energy did not abate, and he carried on working for the well-being of his "fellow lepers" to the end. When he crumbled during Mass, he was taken to his own hospital to die. All the residents gathered at the entrance to pray for their Father...

DVD FEATURES:
Languages: English
Subtitles: English **NO SPANISH AVAILABLE**
Viewing Format: Fullscreen
Sound:
Bonus Material:
Chapter titles for easy scene access
-Theatrical trailer and "The Making of Molokai"
-Biographical information on leading actors

Cousin Bette

Cousin bette is a bitter spinster who enlists the aid of a young sexual temptress named jenny to destroy those who have scorned and betrayed her. Soon jenny is sleeping with then discarding every man in paris leaving a trail of destruction in her wake. Who knew revenge could be so much fun? Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 04/15/2008 Starring: Jessica Lange Bob Hoskins Run time: 110 minutes Rating: R Director: Des Mcanuff

Cosi

Louis a young sydney amateur theater director is offered a job with a government program for mentally ill patients. One of the patients want to stage cosi fan tutte even though none of them can sing or speak italian - the language of the liberetto. Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 01/04/2005 Starring: Ben Mendelsohn Toni Collette Rating: R

This is another one of those Cuckoo's Nest mental patient liberation stories, but with a clever "let's put on a show" twist. A group of melancholy Australian patients dares to pull off a theatrical version of Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte. This film adaptation of Louis Nowra's play is quite absurd and quite erratic, yet quite affecting in the second half when the patients finally commit to the quixotic project. But how to relate to Mozart's 1790 opera about true love? By identifying with the theme of infidelity as a therapeutic exercise. And how do they pull of this madcap farce? By relying on their ability to pretend, of course. This is most difficult for the unimaginative and uncaring director (Mendelsohn), who finds himself in a life-imitates-art conflict with his curt girlfriend and a damaged yet flirtatious patient. However, it is the passionate patient (Otto) who won't let Cosi die who is the film's emotional center. He's a neurotic perfectionist and a delusional addict--a sad, desperate man with a dream to show the world how to love and be loved. --Bill Desowitz

The War Bride

Winner of the Grand Prize at the Heartland Film Festival, this World War II drama stars Anna Friel (Pushing Daisies) as Lily, a vivacious girl in war-torn London. She falls in love with Charlie (Aden Young, The Starter Wife, a Canadian serviceman. Impulsively, they marry, and Lily becomes pregnant before Charlie returns to the conflict. Lily and her infant daughter join the throngs of war brides offered the chance to start new lives in Canada. Lily discovers that the family "ranch" Charlie told her about is actually a weathered, worn-out farm house located 60 miles away from the nearest big city. Charlie's mother (Fricker) and sister (Parker) are hostile to the "big city" newcomer, but Lily is determined not to let them break her spirit.

Serenades

Studio: Bfs Ent & Multimedia Limi Release Date: 03/25/2008 Run time: 96 minutes Rating: R

Sniper (+ Digital Copy)

Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 08/12/2008 Run time: 99 minutes Rating: R