Five Children and It

Gladiatress (2004)

IMDB rating: 4.20

Plot: This sword and sandals movie is an off-the-wall comedy adventure about three unlikely heroines, who set out to save Celtic Britain, by thwarting the Roman invasion in their own unique and outrageous style.

Lookout, The (2007)

IMDB rating: 7.40

Plot: An admired high school hockey player (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) with a bright future foolishly takes a drive in the night with his girl friend and two other friends with his headlights off with devastating results. The former athlete is left with a brain injury that prevents him from remembering many things for extended periods of time. To compensate, he keeps notes in a small notebook to aid him in remembering what he is to do. He also lives with a blind friend (Jeff Daniels) who aids him. Obviously, with the mental incapacitation, he is unable to have meaningful work. Thus he works as a night cleaning man in a bank. It is there he comes under the scrutiny of a gang planning to rob the bank. The leader (Matthew Goode) befriends him and gets him involved with a young woman (Isla Fisher) who further reels him in. After they get close and after reeling him in with his own failures, the bank plan unfolds. Confused but wanting to escape his current existence, he initially goes along with the scheme. After realizing he is being used, he attempts to stop the robbery, which of course immediately goes awry. Bruce McGill and Alberta Watson also co-star as the young man’s parents, who still search for the person that was there before the tragic crash.

Fire Down Below (1997)

IMDB rating: 4.30

Plot: EPA agent Jack Taggart is Stunned to hear from his boss Phil Pratt that his best friend and fellow agent Frank Elkins has been found dead in Kentucky after Frank’s truck plunged into a river. The Kentucky State Police believes that it was an accident, but the EPA believes it was no accident. It all began with an anonymous letter from the small town of Jackson, Kentucky. Frank was sent to Jackson to investigate what the letter described as some kind of pollution that is causing fish to die and causing people to get sick enough to die. Frank sent back water and soil samples that all tested off the charts for toxic substances. After Frank discovered that the Hanner Coal Company, owned by Orin Hanner Sr., is being paid to dump toxic waste into an abandoned coal mine shaft, Frank ended up dead. Jack is assigned to go to Jackson, where his contact will be Reverend Bob Goodall, who runs a church in Jackson. After arriving in Jackson, Jack finds out that he’ll be staying in a room in the church’s basement, and as Jack’s contact, of course Bob knows that Jack will be going undercover as a carpenter. Jack begins by repairing the roof at a house where he meets Henry Carr, his wife, and his kids Edie, Alberta, Christine, and Walter. Walter is sick because of the pollution. That night, Hanner’s son Orin Hanner Jr., also known as Junior, spies on the church along with corrupt Sheriff Lloyd, who is on Hanner’s payroll. On the next day, when Jack goes into downtown Jackson, he meets Betsy Hamill and her twin sister Patsy Hamill. Jack then walks down the street and introduces himself to Cotton Harry. Then Jack takes some water samples. At church on Sunday, Bob introduces Jack to everyone, and tells everyone that Jack is a carpenter. During lunchtime at the church, Jack introduces himself to Sarah Kellogg, a local outcast who is a beekeeper. Sarah has a brother named Earl. Jack goes to Sarah’s house and offers to repair the steps on her front porch. Over time, Jack comes to believe that something is bothering Sarah, and it’s something dark. Jack wants to save her from whatever it is, while trying to bring Hanner and his crew down.

Look, Up in the Sky: The Amazing Story of Superman (2006)

IMDB rating: 8.00

Plot: In 1938, two aspiring comic strip talents, Jerry Siegal and Joe Shuster, published a character that would create a new genre of fantasy, Superman, the first superhero. This film explores the creation of the character and his subsequent evolution over the decades through various media. With various interviews of noted creative luminaries, the film shows how the character has adapted to the times and bounced back from times when he felt irrelevant to always regain his prominence as one of the great heroes of popular culture.

Fantasia/2000 (1999)

IMDB rating: 7.20

Plot: In this update of Disney’s masterpiece film mixture of animation and music, new interpretations of great works of music are presented. It begins with an abstract battle of light and darkness set to the music of Beethoveen’s Fifth Symphony. Then we see the adventures of a Humpback Whale calf and his pod set to “The Pines of Rome.” Next is the humourous story of several lives in 1930’s New York City, scored with “Rhapsody in Blue.” Following is a musical telling of the fairy tale, “The Steadfast Tin Soldier” set to Dmitri Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2. Then a goofy Flamingo causes havoc in his flock with his yo-yo to the tune of the finale of “Carnival of the Animals.” This is followed by the classic sequence from the original film, “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” starring Mickey Mouse and followed by “Pomp and Circumstance” starring Donald Duck as a harried assistant to Noah on his Ark. Finally, we see the awesome tale of the life, death and renewal of a forest in a sequence featuring the composition, “The Firebird.”

Lookout, The (2007)

IMDB rating: 7.40

Plot: An admired high school hockey player (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) with a bright future foolishly takes a drive in the night with his girl friend and two other friends with his headlights off with devastating results. The former athlete is left with a brain injury that prevents him from remembering many things for extended periods of time. To compensate, he keeps notes in a small notebook to aid him in remembering what he is to do. He also lives with a blind friend (Jeff Daniels) who aids him. Obviously, with the mental incapacitation, he is unable to have meaningful work. Thus he works as a night cleaning man in a bank. It is there he comes under the scrutiny of a gang planning to rob the bank. The leader (Matthew Goode) befriends him and gets him involved with a young woman (Isla Fisher) who further reels him in. After they get close and after reeling him in with his own failures, the bank plan unfolds. Confused but wanting to escape his current existence, he initially goes along with the scheme. After realizing he is being used, he attempts to stop the robbery, which of course immediately goes awry. Bruce McGill and Alberta Watson also co-star as the young man’s parents, who still search for the person that was there before the tragic crash.

Pineapple Express (2008)

IMDB rating: 7.60

Plot: Lazy stoner Dale Denton has only one reason to visit his equally lazy dealer Saul Silver: to purchase weed, specifically, a rare new strain called Pineapple Express. But when Dale becomes the only witness to a murder by a crooked cop and the city’s most dangerous drug lord, he panics and dumps his roach of Pineapple Express at the scene. Dale now has another reason to visit Saul: to find out if the weed is so rare that it can be traced back to him. And it is. As Dale and Saul run for their lives, they quickly discover that they’re not suffering from weed-fueled paranoia; incredibly, the bad guys really are hot on their trail and trying to figure out the fastest way to kill them both. All aboard the Pineapple Express.

Vengeance (2006)

IMDB rating: 7.60

Plot: A young police officer, a local guide and his daughter follows the trail of a prison escapee, Nasor, into a mysterious forest with many hidden secrets, one of which directly relates to the death of Nasor’s father at the hands of the father of the officer. As the group ventures deeper into the forest, the eerie realm unleashes its spirits unto the intruders, killing them one by one. Still intent on bringing Nasor to justice, the officer relentlessly pursues the criminal in a race against time and the unseen forces of the ancient forest.

Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)

IMDB rating: 6.30

Plot: Set in 1914, young linguist orphan named Milo Thatch buries himself in books trying to unlock the secret to the destruction of Atlantis. Althouth his theories are ridiculed by his colleagues he is persistent in his dreams of one day discovering the lost isle. His dreams are realized when he is given a spot in an expedition, financed by a friend of his grandfather, to go in search of Atlantis following Milo’s guide: The Shepard’s Journal. But the Guardians of Atlantis await the explorers putting them in danger at every turn. And the deadly truth about Atlantis’s demise puts Milo, the royal family, and all of Atlantis in mortal jeopardy.