Blade Runner is a 1982 American science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young. The screenplay, written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, is based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. The film depicts a dystopian Los Angeles in November 2019 in which genetically engineered organic robots called replicants visually indistinguishable from adult humans are manufactured by the powerful Tyrell Corporation as well as other mega manufacturers around the world. Their use on Earth is banned, and replicants are exclusively used for dangerous, menial or leisure work on Earth's off-world colonies. Replicants who defy the ban and return to Earth are hunted down and "retired" by police special operatives known as "Blade Runners". The plot focuses on a brutal and cunning group of recently escaped replicants hiding in Los Angeles and the burnt out expert blade runner, Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), who reluctantly agrees to take on one more assignment to hunt them down...

Sleuth is a 1972 mystery film, an adaptation of the Tony Award-winning play of the same title by British playwright Anthony Shaffer. The screenplay was adapted by Shaffer. Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, the film stars Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine. Andrew Wyke (Olivier), a wealthy writer of crime detective fiction, invites to his country manor house the hairdresser whom he knows is having an affair with his wife, Marguerite. Wyke explains to the other man, Milo Tindle (Caine), that he is aware of the affair, no longer loves his wife, and suggests that Milo run off with her, so that he may be rid of her. However, he explains that Margurite has grown accustomed to an affluent lifestyle, and suggests that he and Milo stage a mock burglary to steal Margurite's jewelry from the safe at Andrew's house (so that Milo can afford to support Marguerite, and Andrew can collect the insurance money for the "stolen" jewelry). Milo agrees and dresses as a clown, and attempts break into Wyke's house, per their plan, but is ambushed by Andrew who reveals this was a charade, done to set up the circumstances in which Andrew can kill Milo, and be able to claim self-defense...

André, a small-time ex-convict, seems to owe money to everyone in Paris, including a crime boss who promises to kill him if he doesn't repay him by midnight. After failing to find protection from the American embassy and the French police, a despairing André scrambles onto a bridge over the Seine, intending to leap to his death. He is surprised to see a tall, beautiful girl clinging to a rail on the same bridge, apparently preparing to end her life as well. She jumps, and he jumps too, suddenly resolving to save her life. After scrambling ashore, she tells him her name is Angel-A. Together, they take a cruise on the Seine, repay André's creditors, visit a Parisian nightspot, and more, as Angel-A helps André. He learns that for this purpose she has fallen out of the sky and into his life. André finds himself falling in love with this mysterious beauty. Written by Charles Delacroix.

Slumdog Millionaire is a 2008 British epic romantic drama adventure film directed by Danny Boyle, written by Simon Beaufoy, and co-directed in India by Loveleen Tandan. It is an adaptation of the novel Q & A (2005) by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup. Set and filmed in India, the film tells the story of Jamal Malik, a young man from the Dharavi slums of Mumbai who appears on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (Kaun Banega Crorepati in the Hindi version) and exceeds people's expectations, thereby arousing the suspicions of the game show host and of law enforcement officials. After its world premiere at Telluride Film Festival and later screenings at the Toronto International Film Festival and the London Film Festival, Slumdog Millionaire had a nationwide grand release in the United Kingdom on 9 January 2009 and in the United States on 12 November 2008. It premiered in Mumbai on 22 January 2009. Slumdog Millionaire was nominated for 10 Academy Awards in 2009 and won eight, the most for any film of 2008, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. It also won seven BAFTA Awards (including Best Film), five Critics' Choice Awards...

Oldboy (Hangul: ; RR: Oldeuboi; MR: Old boi), the phonetic transliteration of "old boy") is a 2003 South Korean film directed by Park Chan-wook. It is based on the Japanese manga of the same name written by Nobuaki Minegishi and Garon Tsuchiya. Oldboy is the second installment of The Vengeance Trilogy, preceded by Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and followed by Sympathy for Lady Vengeance. The film follows the story of one Oh Dae-su, who is locked in a hotel room for 15 years without knowing his captor's motives. When he is finally released, Dae-su finds himself still trapped in a web of conspiracy and violence. His own quest for vengeance becomes tied in with romance when he falls for an attractive sushi chef. The film won the Grand Prix at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and high praise from the President of the Jury, director Quentin Tarantino. Critically, the film has been well received in the United States, with an 80% "Certified Fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Film critic Roger Ebert has claimed Oldboy to be a "...powerful film not because of what it depicts, but because of the depths of the human heart which it strips bare". In 2008, voters on CNN named it one of the ten best movies...

The Fifth Element is a 1997 French/American science fiction film directed, co-written, and based on a story by Luc Besson, starring Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, and Milla Jovovich. Mostly set during the twenty-third century, the film's central plot involves the survival of humanity which becomes the duty of a taxicab driver (and former special forces Major) named Korben Dallas (Willis) when a young woman (Jovovich) falls into his taxicab. Upon learning of her significance, Dallas must join efforts with the girl to recover four mystical stones essential to defending Earth from an impending attack. In 1914, the extraterrestrials known as Mondoshawans arrive at an ancient Egyptian temple and collect the only weapon capable of defeating the Great Evil which appears every five thousand years. The weapon consists of four stones, representing the four classical elements, and a sarcophagus that contains a Fifth Element in the form of a human, which combines the power of the other four elements into a "Divine Light" that can stop the Great Evil. The Mondoshawans promise to their human contact, a priest, that they will return with the Elements in time to stop the Great Evil, but an accident...

D j Vu is a 2006 American crime action thriller with elements of science fiction, directed by Tony Scott, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, and co-written by Bill Marsilii and Terry Rossio. The film stars Denzel Washington, Bruce Greenwood, Matt Craven, Jim Caviezel, and Paula Patton as the main characters, but also includes actors Val Kilmer and Adam Goldberg. D j Vu involves ATF agent Douglas Carlin, who travels back in time in attempts to prevent a domestic terrorist attack that takes place in New Orleans and to save a woman with whom he falls in love, Claire Kuchever. Filming took place throughout post-Katrina New Orleans. The film premiered in New York City on November 20, 2006, and was released broadly in the United States two days later. The film was released to Mexico and Canada by the end of November, and worldwide by the early months of 2007. It received mixed reviews from critics, and the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes' compiled ratings give the film a below average rating of 55%. While earning $64 million in the United States, the film went on to gross $180 million worldwide; D j Vu was the 23rd most successful film worldwide for 2006...

16 Years of Alcohol is a 2003 drama film written and directed by Richard Jobson, based on his 1987 novel. The film is Jobson's first directorial effort, following a career as a television presenter on BSkyB and VH-1, and as the vocalist for the 1970s punk rock band The Skids. The cover of the DVD describes it as influenced by A Clockwork Orange and Trainspotting. The soundtrack features 1960s ska and skinhead reggae acts such as Desmond Dekker and Claudette and the Corporation, and 1970s rock bands such as Roxy Music, Velvet Underground, Iggy & The Stooges and The Skids. At the 2003 British Independent Film Awards, the film was nominated for best independent film, and Susan Lynch won the best supporting actor/actress category. Kevin McKidd plays the central character Frankie, a violent alcoholic who is partially based on Jobson's brother and on Jobson himself. The movie was set and filmed in Edinburgh and Aberdour.

Groundhog Day is a 1993 American comedy film directed by Harold Ramis, starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. It was written by Ramis and Danny Rubin, based on a story by Rubin. Murray plays Phil Connors, an egocentric Pittsburgh TV weatherman who, during a hated assignment covering the annual Groundhog Day event in Punxsutawney, finds himself repeating the same day over and over again. After indulging in hedonism and numerous suicide attempts, he begins to re-examine his life and priorities. In 2006, the film was added to the United States National Film Registry as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." Self-centered and sour TV meteorologist Phil Connors (Bill Murray), news producer Rita (Andie MacDowell) and cameraman Larry (Chris Elliott) from fictional Pittsburgh television station WPBH-TV9 travel to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, to cover the annual Groundhog Day festivities with Punxsutawney Phil. Having grown tired of this assignment, Phil grudgingly gives his report and attempts to return to Pittsburgh when a blizzard shuts down the roads. Phil and his team are forced to return to Punxsutawney and stay in town overnight. Phil wakes up...

Melvin Udall is a misanthrope who works at home as a best-selling novelist in New York City. He suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder which, paired with his misanthropy, alienates nearly everyone with whom he interacts. He eats breakfast at the same table in the same restaurant every day using disposable plastic utensils he brings with him due to his pathological mysophobia. He takes an interest in his waitress, Carol Connelly (Helen Hunt), the only server at the restaurant who can tolerate his behavior. One day, Melvin's neighbor, a gay artist named Simon Bishop (Greg Kinnear), is assaulted and nearly killed. Melvin is forced to care for Simon's dog (Verdell) while Simon is hospitalized. Although he initially does not enjoy caring for the dog, Melvin becomes emotionally attached to it. He simultaneously receives more attention from Carol. When Bishop is released from the hospital, Melvin is unable to cope emotionally with returning the dog. Melvin's life is further altered when Carol decides to work closer to her home in Brooklyn so she can care for her acutely asthmatic son (Jesse James). Unable to adjust to another waitress, Melvin arranges to pay for her son's medical expenses if Carol agrees to continue working at her previous restaurant in Manhattan.

Papillon is a 1973 drama/adventure film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, based on the best-selling autobiography by the French convict Henri Charrière. The film starred Steve McQueen as Henri Charrière ("Papillon"), and Dustin Hoffman as Louis Dega. Due to remote locations, the film was quite expensive for the time ($12 million), but readily earned more than twice that in the first year of public distribution. Henri Charriere befriends fellow convict, Louis Dega, while serving a sentence on Devil's Island (a hellish, notorious island prison). He plots his escape. The petty criminal known as Papillon is unjustly convicted of murder (specifically, murdering a pimp) in the 1930s and sentenced to life imprisonment in a French penitentiary on Devil's Island in French Guiana. He attempts several escapes, which result in many punishments, but after more than a decade (at least seven years of which were spent in solitary confinement as punishment for his escape attempts), he eventually succeeds in escaping to freedom.

All That Jazz is a 1979 American musical film directed by Bob Fosse. The screenplay by Robert Alan Aurthur and Fosse is a semi-autobiographical fantasy based on aspects of Fosse's life and career as dancer, choreographer and director. The film was inspired by Bob Fosse's manic effort to edit his film Lenny while simultaneously staging the 1975 Broadway musical Chicago. It borrows its title from a Kander and Ebb tune in that production. Joe Gideon is a theatre director and choreographer trying to balance work on his latest Broadway musical with editing a Hollywood film he has directed. He is a workaholic who chain-smokes cigarettes and "chain-sleeps" with his dancers. Without a daily dose of Vivaldi, Visine, Alka-Seltzer, Dexedrine and sex, he wouldn't have the energy to keep up the biggest "show" of all his life. His girlfriend Katie Jagger, his ex-wife Audrey Paris, and daughter Michelle try to pull him back from the brink, but it is too late for his exhausted body and stress-ravaged heart. Decades of overwork and constant stress have gotten to Gideon. In his imagination, he flirts with an angel of death named Angelique. Gideon's condition gets progressively worse...

Evita is the 1996 film adaptation of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical of the same name based on the life of Eva Per n. It was directed by Alan Parker and written by Parker and Oliver Stone. It starred Madonna, Antonio Banderas, and Jonathan Pryce. The film was released on December 25, 1996 by Hollywood Pictures and Cinergi Pictures. Evita traces the life of Eva Duarte (later Eva Duarte de Per n) (Madonna) from a child from the lower class to becoming the first lady and spiritual leader of Argentina. The film, which consists almost entirely of singing, begins with the announcement of Eva's death and public funeral as the audience is introduced to the film's narrator, Ch (Antonio Banderas), an everyman who tells the story of Eva's rise to power and subsequent illness and death, appearing in many different guises and serving as Eva's conscience and critic. The film flashes back to Eva's childhood, and she is seen as a young girl attempting to attend her father's funeral in the town of Jun n with her mother and siblings. But her father's wife and other family (who are middle class) ban Eva's family from entering and carry Eva out screaming and claiming that he's her "papa"..

The Fisher King is a 1991 American comedy-drama film written by Richard LaGravenese and directed by Terry Gilliam. It stars Jeff Bridges, Robin Williams, Mercedes Ruehl, Amanda Plummer and Michael Jeter. The film is about a radio shock-jock who tries to find redemption by helping a homeless man whose life he inadvertently shattered. Jack Lucas (Jeff Bridges), a cynical, arrogant talk radio host, becomes suicidally despondent after his insensitive on-air comments inadvertently prompt a depressed caller to commit a mass murder at a popular Manhattan bar. Three years later, while heavily intoxicated and depressed, he attempts suicide. Before he can do so, he is mistaken for a homeless person and is attacked and nearly set on fire by thugs. He is rescued by Parry (Robin Williams), a deluded homeless man who is on a mission to find the Holy Grail, and tries to convince Jack to help him. Jack is initially reluctant, but comes to feel responsible for Parry when he learns that the man's condition is a result of witnessing his wife's horrific murder at the hands of Jack's psychotic caller.

Conspiracy Theory is a 1997 American action thriller film directed by Richard Donner. The original screenplay by Brian Helgeland centers on an eccentric taxi driver (Mel Gibson) who believes many world events are triggered by government conspiracies, and the U.S. Justice Department attorney (Julia Roberts) who becomes involved in his life. The movie was a financial success, but critical reviews were mixed. Jerry Fletcher (Mel Gibson), an obsessive compulsive New York City taxi driver who lectures his passengers on various conspiracy theories, visits his friend Alice Sutton (Julia Roberts), who works for the U.S. Attorney, at the Justice Department. She is trying to solve her father's murder. Jerry tells her that NASA is trying to kill the President using a secret weapon on the Space Shuttle that can trigger earthquakes. Jerry identifies some men on the street as CIA, follows them into a building, and is captured by them. He wakes up in a mental hospital bound to a wheelchair. A doctor (Patrick Stewart) tapes his eyes open, injects him with a drug (LSD), and interrogates him using torture. As the LSD kicks in Jerry remembers many previous sessions, which he sees as terrifying...

La Vie En Rose (French pronunciation: [la vi oz], literally Life in Pink; released in France as La M me, referring to Piaf's nickname "La M me Piaf," (meaning "baby sparrow, birdie, little sparrow") is a 2007 French biographical film about the life of French chanteuse dith Piaf co-written, and directed by Olivier Dahan. Marion Cotillard stars as Piaf. The title La Vie en Rose comes from Piaf's signature song. The film won five C sars, including one for Best Actress, and Cotillard won an Academy Award for her performance, marking the first time an Oscar had been given for a French-language role. She is also the first French actress to win a Comedy or Musical Golden Globe for a foreign language role. It also became the first French film to win more than one Oscar; the other being for Makeup. The film's narrative structure is a largely non-linear series of key events from the life of dith Piaf, many of which the audience ultimately learns are evoked as flashbacks from within dith's own memory as she dies. Despite the fractured narrative approach, the film is anchored at the beginning by predominance of elements from her childhood, and at the end with the events...

The Departed is a 2006 American crime thriller film, fashioned as a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs. The film was directed by Martin Scorsese and written by William Monahan. Like Infernal Affairs before it, The Departed is noted for its star-studded cast, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone, Vera Farmiga, Anthony Anderson and Alec Baldwin. It won several awards, including Oscars at the 79th Academy Awards; Best Picture, Best Director (Scorsese), Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film Editing. Wahlberg was nominated for Best Supporting Actor but lost to Alan Arkin for his role in Little Miss Sunshine. The film takes place in Boston, Massachusetts, where Irish Mob boss Francis "Frank" Costello plants Colin Sullivan as an informant within the Massachusetts State Police. Simultaneously, the police assign undercover cop William "Billy" Costigan to infiltrate Costello's crew. When both sides realize the situation, each man attempts to discover the other's true identity before his own cover is blown. Colin Sullivan (Damon) is introduced to organized crime by Irish mobster Frank Costello (Nicholson) ...

Lions for Lambs is a 2007 American drama film about the connection between a platoon of United States soldiers in Afghanistan, a U.S. senator, a reporter, and a California college professor. It stars Tom Cruise, Robert Redford and Meryl Streep. It was the first Cruise/Wagner Productions film since the company joined with United Artists subsequent to Cruise's falling out with Paramount Pictures in 2006. With a title that alludes to incompetent leaders sending brave soldiers into the slaughter of battle, the film takes aim at the U.S. government's prosecution of the wars in the Middle East, showing three different simultaneous stories: a senator who launches a new military strategy and details it to a journalist on the edge of a mental breakdown, two soldiers involved in said operation, and their college professor trying to re-engage a promising student. The film was written by Matthew Michael Carnahan, and directed by Redford. It was released in North America on Friday, November 9, 2007, to negative reviews and disappointing box office receipts. Two determined students at a West Coast university, Arian (Derek Luke) and Ernest (Michael Pe a), at the urging of their idealistic...

Echelon Conspiracy (formerly titled The Gift) is a 2009 science fiction action thriller film directed by Greg Marcks and starring Shane West, Edward Burns, and Ving Rhames. A young American computer engineer (Shane West as Max Petersen) acquires a mobile phone that receives strange text messages. First they encourage him to miss his flight which he then learns crashed soon after takeoff. Then the messages direct him to buy a certain stock, which he then learns increases by 313%. Next, he is directed to a hotel/casino in Prague to gamble. He first wins one-hundred thousand Euro on a slot machine and then bets the entire amount on a hand of blackjack, which he wins. Both bets are made on the basis of further text messages he receives on his new phone. Max then has an altercation with a beautiful woman (Tamara Feldman) and her jealous boyfriend in the hotel corridor, where he is knocked-out and his mysterious phone is apparently scanned. Max wakes up with the woman, Kamila, smiling above him. He immediately asks her out for a drink. To further his new-found career in gambling, Max enlists the aid of a Russian cabbie/apparent e-gadget enthusiast, Yuri (Sergey Gubanov), who outfits him...

Mamma Mia! is a film adaptation of the West End stage musical, based on the songs of successful pop group ABBA, with additional music also composed by ABBA member Benny Andersson. Despite opening in the USA on the same date as the critically acclaimed Batman sequel The Dark Knight on July 18, 2008, the film did very well at the box office and had the largest opening weekend of any musical film in U.S. history. Like the stage musical, the film's title originates from the group's 1975 chart-topper Mamma Mia, and its plot is loosely based on the 1968 film Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell. It was produced by Universal Pictures in partnership with Playtone and Littlestar.[3] It was released on July 3, 2008, in Greece,[4] July 10, 2008, in Australia and the United Kingdom, July 11, 2008, in Sweden,[4] and on July 18, 2008, in the United States and Canada.[5]Meryl Streep heads the cast of the film, playing the role of single mother Donna Sheridan. Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard play the three potential fathers to Donna's daughter Sophie (Amanda Seyfried).

Charlie Wilson's War is a 2007 American biographical comedy drama film recounting the true story of U.S. Congressman Charlie Wilson (D-TX) who partnered with "bare knuckle attitude" CIA operative Gust Avrakotos to launch Operation Cyclone, a program to organize and support the Afghan mujahideen in their resistance to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. The film is adapted from George Crile's 2003 book Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History. It was directed by Mike Nichols, written by Aaron Sorkin, and stars Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Om Puri, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Ned Beatty and Emily Blunt. It was nominated for five Golden Globe Awards, including "Best Motion Picture", but did not win in any category. Philip Seymour Hoffman was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. In 1980, Congressman Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks) is more interested in partying than legislating, frequently throwing huge galas and staffing his congressional office with young, attractive women. His social life eventually brings about a federal investigation into allegations of his cocaine use, conducted by then-federal prosecutor Rudy

My Blueberry Nights is a 2007 romance / drama / road film directed by Wong Kar Wai, his first feature in English. The screenplay by Wong and Lawrence Block is based on a short Chinese-language film written and directed by Wong. This film was the debut of jazz singer Grammy-winner Norah Jones as an actress, and also starred Jude Law, David Strathairn, Rachel Weisz, and Natalie Portman. Jeremy is an émigré from Manchester who owns a small New York City cafe. The cafe becomes a haven for Elizabeth as she tries to recover emotionally following the end of an affair. She finds comfort in the blueberry pie he bakes daily despite the fact that none of his other customers ever order it. Elizabeth, now calling herself Lizzie, eventually drifts to Memphis, Tennessee, where she takes two jobs, waitress by day and barmaid by night, in order to earn enough money to finance the purchase of a car. She regularly sends postcards to Jeremy without revealing where she lives or works and, although he tries to locate her by calling all the restaurants in the area, he fails to find her. Later on, he decides to send out postcards to any restaurants she may be to try to find her...