Stacy (Nikki Limo) is told the story of Smiley, an internet urban legend. Stacy gets mysteriously and violently killed while chatting with a stranger online.
Ashley (Caitlin Gerard) and Proxy (Melanie Papalia) move into a house together. After getting acquainted they go to a party hosted by Zane (Andrew James Allen), an internet hacker, and meet Binder (Shane Dawson). At the party Ashley hears the story of Smiley and doubts its reality. The next day Ashley and Proxy decide to try the Smiley test by typing "I did it for the lulz" three times in a video chat with a random user named Flasher (Jason Horton). Flasher gets mysteriously murdered. The girls are terrified but decide not to report the incident to the police.
Days later Proxy and Ashley attend another party and Ashley asks for more information about Smiley. Intoxicated, she runs into Smiley, who teases her and rips her dress. She wakes up the next morning in her bed. She tells Proxy what happened, but Proxy dismisses it as a dream. They visit Zane, who tells them that, despite Zane pulls her away and confronts her about what she did. She decides to leave, but while walking home his ability to retrieve most information on the web he has no clue as to what's happening.
Terrified and paranoid, Ashley tries to convince Proxy of what is happening, but her roommate leaves. She goes to one of her college professors, Clayton (Roger Bart), who scares her further. She tries to get help from a cop, Diamond (Keith David), who thinks she's crazy and shrugs her off. She goes to Zane’s house and is shocked to find him dead. Ashley grabs Zane's gun just as Smiley appears and chases her.
Back at her house Ashley shoots at an intruding figure, only to discover it’s Binder. She tries to help him, but Smiley comes in and slashes his throat. Smiley chases her upstairs to her room, where she finds other Smiley killers. Backed to a window, she jumps to her death. Zane, Flasher, and others presumably killed by Smiley are revealed wearing smiley costumes. Binder tells them that Smiley is alive and that many others are copying him.
Zane talks to Proxy via video chat and tells her "I did it for the lolz" three times. Smiley appears on the video and kills Proxy.
Development began in 2005 when RZA shared his idea for the film with Roth. After nearly two years of development, Roth and RZA secured financial backing in May 2010. Filming began in December 2010 on a $20 million budget and concluded by March 2011. The film was shot in Shanghai and at other locations in China. RZA and Howard Drossin composed the film's musical score, and RZA developed its soundtrack, which featured several new songs by various artists. A series of concerts featuring music from the soundtrack were held to promote the film.
The film was released in North America on November 2, 2012. Critics were divided over the film's homage to martial-arts films, considering it well-choreographed and representative of the genre, but offering nothing original, and the direction was criticized for a lack of refinement. The performances of Crowe and Mann were well received. As of February 2013, the film has earned over $19 million.
In nineteenth century China, Jungle Village is home to several warring clans. The village blacksmith creates deadly weapons for the clans, intending to use his payments to purchase the freedom of his lover Lady Silk, and leave the village. The region's governor tasks the Lion Clan's leader Gold Lion with protecting a large shipment of gold that must pass through the village. Gold is betrayed by his lieutenants Silver Lion and Bronze Lion, who plan to steal the gold. They use the chaos ensuing from a fight with the Hyena Clan to allow their co-conspirator Poison Dagger—the governor's aide—to assassinate Gold, after which Silver becomes the Lions' leader. Gold's son Zen-Yi learns of his father's murder and sets off to the village to seek revenge.
The Emperor's undercover emissary Jack Knife arrives in the village to monitor the gold and takes up residence in the Pink Blossom, a brothel run by Madam Blossom, Lady Silk's madame. Silver sends members of the Rodent clan to kill Zen-Yi before he can reach the village, but Zen-Yi kills them. The mercenary Brass Body arrives in the village and meets with Silver; he is sent to kill Zen-Yi. The blacksmith meets with Silk in the brothel and delivers the final payment needed to free her. After arriving in the village, Zen-Yi and his men are confronted by Brass and find that they cannot physically harm him because his skin turns to metal on impact. Brass beats Zen-Yi and destroys his blade-laden armor. Zen-Yi's last surviving man sacrifices himself to pull a canopy support beam loose, burying Brass under heavy stone. The blacksmith is watching the fight; he rescues Zen-Yi and helps him recover as penance for crafting the weapon that killed Zen-Yi's father.
Meanwhile, the gold shipment arrives in the village, accompanied by two skilled warriors; the Geminis. The Lions soon confront the Geminis and their men, and in the ensuing fight, Poison Dagger assassinates the Geminis and the Lions capture the gold. Jack later arrives to investigate the incident and learns that the Geminis were poisoned with mercury-tipped weapons, leading him to the blacksmith. The Lions' theft prompts the governor to send his Jackal troops to recover the shipment or destroy the village. Zen-Yi asks the blacksmith to craft him a new suit of weaponized armor. The Lions suspect that the blacksmith is helping Zen-Yi and have him tortured for information. The blacksmith refuses to talk and Brass cuts off his forearms. Jack, who had been following the blacksmith, saves him. While the blacksmith recovers, he tells Jack of his past as an emancipated American slave who accidentally killed a white man who refused to let him go. He fled America by boat and went to China, where monks trained him to use his body's energy to perform superhuman feats. Jack and the blacksmith craft his greatest weapon; a pair of iron forearms that he can animate using this energy.
Zen-Yi recovers and joins Jack and the blacksmith. Meanwhile, Blossom offers to let Silver hide the gold in a secret tomb beneath the brothel in return for payment. The gold is stored in a coffin which is raised up to the rafters. That night, Blossom has her girls serve the Lions, and Silk serves Brass. At Blossom's signal, the girls use weapons hidden in their mouths to poison many of the Lions and they join with Blossom as the Black Widows. When Silk tries to poison Brass, his skin protects him and he beats and almost kills her. The Black Widows fight the remaining Lions while Blossom and Bronze fight and kill each other. While fighting Jack, Poison Dagger is crushed between large moving gears. Silver and Zen-Yi fight in the tomb; Zen-Yi cuts the coffin free and it crushes Silver. The blacksmith finds Silk, who dies in his arms. He confronts Brass and his iron fists prove capable of inflicting damage on Brass' seemingly invincible body. While Brass is in metal form, a powerful punch from the blacksmith shatters him to pieces. Jack runs outside in time to stop the Jackals from decimating the building with a Gatling gun.
In the epilogue, Jack leaves the village to accompany the gold and Zen-Yi tells the blacksmith that he has gained a brother. With the clans destroyed and the village safe, the blacksmith vows to keep it that way and destroys the sign pointing to his weapon shop.
Based on the poignantly optimistic autobiographical writings of California-based journalist and poet Mark O'Brien, The Sessions tells the story of a man confined to an iron lung who is determined - at age 38 - to lose his virginity. With the help of his therapists and the guidance of his priest, he sets out to make his dream a reality. -- (C) Fox Searchlight
Cloud Atlas is a 2012 German drama and science fiction film written, produced and directed by Lana and Andy Wachowski and Tom Tykwer. Adapted from the 2004 novel by David Mitchell, the film features multiple plotlines set across six different eras. During four years of development the project met difficulties securing financial support; it was eventually produced with a $102 million budget provided by independent sources, making Cloud Atlas one of the most expensive independent films of all time. Production began in September 2011 at Studio Babelsberg in Potsdam-Babelsberg, Germany.
The official synopsis for Cloud Atlas describes the film as:
An exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution.
The film consists of six interrelated and interwoven stories that take the viewer from the South Pacific in the 19th century to a distant, post-apocalyptic future. Unlike the original novel, the film is structured, according to novelist David Mitchell, "as a sort of pointillist mosaic: We stay in each of the six worlds just long enough for the hook to be sunk in, and from then on the film darts from world to world at the speed of a plate-spinner, revisiting each narrative for long enough to propel it forward."
The six stories are:
South Pacific Ocean, 1849: Adam Ewing, a young American lawyer from San Francisco during the California Gold Rush, has come to the Chatham Islands to conclude a business arrangement with Reverend Gilles Horrox for his father-in-law, Haskell Moore. He witnesses the whipping of a Moriori slave, Autua, who stows away on Ewing's ship, and convinces Ewing to advocate for him to join the crew as a freeman. Meanwhile, Dr. Henry Goose slowly poisons Ewing, claiming it to be the cure for a parasitic worm, aiming to steal Ewing's valuables. When Goose attempts to administer the fatal dose, Autua saves Ewing. Returning to America, Ewing and his wife, Tilda, denounce her father's complicity in slavery.
Cambridge, England and Edinburgh, Scotland, 1936: Robert Frobisher, a 23-year-old bisexual English musician, finds work as an amanuensis to famous composer Vyvyan Ayrs, allowing Frobisher the time and inspiration to compose his own masterpiece, "The Cloud Atlas Sextet". At Ayrs' house, Frobisher reads a copy of Ewing's journal. Ayrs wishes to take credit for the piece, and threatens to expose Frobisher's scandalous background if he does not comply. Ayrs is shot by Frobisher, who flees to a hotel. There, he finishes his masterpiece and shoots himself only moments before his lover Rufus Sixsmith arrives to deter him.
San Francisco, California, 1973: Luisa Rey is a journalist who by chance meets an older Sixsmith, now a nuclear physicist. Sixsmith tips off Rey to a conspiracy regarding the safety of a new nuclear reactor run by Lloyd Hooks, but is killed by Hooks' hitman Bill Smoke before he can give her the report that proves it. Rey finds and reads Frobisher's letters to Sixsmith. Isaac Sachs, another scientist at the power plant who seems to find her familiar, passes her a copy of the Sixsmith report. However, Smoke kills Sachs and also runs Rey's car off a bridge. With help from the plant's head of security, Joe Napier, she evades another attempt against her life, that results in Smoke's death, and exposes the plot to use a nuclear accident for the benefit of oil companies.
United Kingdom, 2012: Timothy Cavendish, a 65-year-old publisher, has a windfall when Dermot Hoggins, the gangster author whose book he has published, infamously murders a critic and is sent to jail. When the author's associates threaten Cavendish's life to get his share of the profits, Cavendish turns to his brother Denholme for help. Denholme tricks him into hiding in a nursing home, where he is held against his will and treated poorly by the tyrannical Nurse Noakes. Cavendish and a few of his fellow "inmates" then plot a successful escape. Cavendish receives a manuscript of a mystery novel based on Rey's life.
Neo Seoul, (Korea), 2144: Sonmi-451, a genetically-engineered fabricant (clone) server at a fast-food restaurant, is interviewed before her execution. She recounts how she was released from her compliant life of servitude by Hae-Joo Chang, a member of "Union", a rebel movement. While in hiding, she watches a movie based on Cavendish's adventure. The Union rebels reveal to her that fabricants like her are "recycled" into food for future fabricants. She decides that the system of society based on slavery and exploitation of fabricants is intolerable, and is brought to Hawaii to make a public broadcast of her manifesto. Hae-Joo and the other Union members are killed in a firefight ending in Sonmi's capture. After telling her story, she is executed.
The Big Island of Hawaii on post-apocalyptic Earth (dated "106 winters after "The Fall", identified as 2321): Zachry lives with his sister and young niece Catkin in a primitive society called "The Valley" after most of humanity has died during "The Fall"; the Valley tribesmen worship Sonmi as a goddess. Zachry is plagued by visions of his people's perception of the devil, "Old Georgie" who manipulates him into giving in to his fear, leading to the murder of his friend and friend's son by the cannibal Kona tribe. Zachry's village is visited by Meronym, a member of the "Prescients", a society holding on to remnants of technology from before the Fall. In exchange for saving Catkin from a stonefish sting, Zachry agrees to guide Meronym into the mountains in search of Cloud Atlas, a communications station where she is able to send a message to people who have left Earth and now live on other planets. At the station, Meronym says that Sonmi was a human and not a goddess as the Valley tribes believe; Old Georgie almost convinces Zachry to kill Meronym for blasphemy but Zachry changes his mind after seeing a video of Sonmi. After returning, Zachry discovers the slaughter of his tribe at the hands of the Kona. Zachry kills the Kona Chief and rescues Catkin, but they are attacked by more Kona warriors and have to be rescued by Meronym. Zachry and Catkin join Meronym and the Prescients in a journey to a new world.
A seventh time period, several decades after the Hawaiian one, is featured in the film's prologue and epilogue. In the prologue, a lone, elderly Zachry delivers a monologue, and his location is not revealed. In the epilogue, Zachry is revealed to have been telling these stories to his numerous grandchildren on an alien planet with two moons in the night sky. Meronym emerges from their home and they embrace.
Hotel Transylvania is a 2012 American 3D computer-animated comedy film produced by Sony Pictures Animation and distributed by Columbia Pictures. It was directed by Genndy Tartakovsky, the creator of Samurai Jack, Dexter's Laboratory, and Sym-Bionic Titan, and produced by Michelle Murdocca. The film features the voices of Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, Fran Drescher, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon, David Spade and Cee Lo Green.
The film tells a story of Dracula, the owner of Hotel Transylvania, where the world's monsters can take a rest from human civilization. Dracula invites some of the most famous monsters, including Frankenstein's monster, Mummy, a Werewolf family, and the Invisible Man, to celebrate the 118th birthday of his daughter Mavis. When the hotel is unexpectedly visited by an ordinary 21-year-old traveler named Jonathan, Dracula must protect Mavis from falling in love with him before it is too late.
Released on September 28, 2012, the film was met with mixed critical reception, while the general population received it very favorably. Despite mixed reviews, Hotel Transylvania set a new record for the highest-grossing September opening weekend ever, earning a total of $324 million on a budget of $85 million. The film was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film. A sequel, titled Hotel Transylvania 2, is scheduled to be released in theaters on September 25, 2015. Dracula (Adam Sandler) is the owner and creator of Hotel Transylvania, a five-star resort where the world's monsters can be safe from human civilization. Dracula invites some of the most famous monsters like Frankenstein (Kevin James) and his wife Eunice (Fran Drescher), Murray the Mummy (Cee Lo Green), Wayne and Wanda Werewolf (Steve Buscemi and Molly Shannon), Griffin the Invisible Man (David Spade), Bigfoot, Steve the Blob, and other monsters to celebrate the 118th birthday of his daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez). However, Mavis prefers to explore the outside world with her father's permission, but the village he directs her to is actually an elaborate deception to convince her of the threat of humans enough to coax her back.
However, this charade inadvertently attracts the attention of an ordinary young traveler named Jonathan (Andy Samberg) who was exploring the surrounding forest and followed the staff to the hotel. Once Jonathan enters the hotel, Dracula frantically attempts to hide him from the patrons such as disguising him as a Flesh Golem named Johnny-stein with the later hasty cover story of being a relative of one of Frank's body parts. Eventually, Jonathan is discovered by Mavis and company, and gets magically attracted to Mavis, forcing Dracula to claim he is going to arrange Mavis' birthday party with a fresher perspective. In doing so, Jonathan manages to charm everyone at the hotel, especially Mavis. Eventually, even Dracula begins to like the human taking him into his confidence about his family's traumatic past after the vampire notices the young man knows something about them in a respectful manner.
Unfortunately, ChefQuasimodo Wilson (Jon Lovitz) realizes Jonathan is human and captures him to cook him, forcing Dracula to directly intervene by magically freezing the chef. Eventually, the birthday party happens and it is a raucous success until Dracula freaks out when Mavis and Jonathan have an innocent kiss. A ranting Dracula accidentally lets it slip that he tricked Mavis at the fake village and Mavis is outraged at being manipulated by her own father. Things get worse when a still-frozen Chef Quasimodo interrupts the party as the Fly (Chris Parnell) translates his frozen language to the clientele which states that Jonathan is actually a human. Even as the clientele are revolted, Mavis still accepts and expresses her desire to be with Jonathan even though he is human. For his part, Jonathan feels obliged to reject Mavis for her father's sake and leaves the hotel. Afterward, Dracula realizes that in his efforts to protect Mavis, he has broken her heart and now she tearfully wants to stay at the hotel forever.
Wishing to undo his mistake, and learning from a present from his late wife to Mavis about a zing when two people meet and fall in love, Dracula persuades his friends to help him find Jonathan and even risks his destruction by venturing out in the daylight to do so. Learning that Jonathan is about to board a flight out of Transylvania Airport shortly, they race on and enter a town en route. At that town, Dracula and company are stunned to see the humans having a 'Monster Festival'. To clear a path, Frankenstein tries to scare them, but finds the humans are cheerfully welcoming them instead and even provide a shaded route through the town for Dracula to proceed at maximum speed.
However, Dracula finds that he is too late with Jonathan's plane taking off. With no alternative, Dracula desperately flies after it in broad daylight in his bat form despite being hurt by the sun. With much effort, Dracula manages to reach the plane and resorts to mind-controlling one of the pilots (Brian Stack) and tells Jonathan that he wants him to return to be with his daughter and about the zing they made. Jonathan accepts Dracula's apology and Dracula manipulates the plane back to the airport.
Later, Dracula returns Johnny to Mavis, who tells her that she's his 'zing' and the reason why he had to reject her. Dracula gives his blessing to their relationship, Johnny and Mavis kiss and the hotel has another party to celebrate his daughter's liberating coming of age before Johnny and Mavis set off on their travels.
The film ends with Dracula and his friends being shown in traditional animation (in the style of Genndy Tartakovsky's cartoons) during the credits, as well as a few paintings of Johnny and Mavis on their travels together.
Will Shaw (Henry Cavill) is a young man who works as an advisor in San Francisco. During the summer break, he decides to visit his family in Spain for a holiday he really doesn't want. He is picked up by his father, Martin Shaw (Bruce Willis), who works in various different countries for the government as an advisor himself. In the evening, phone calls put Will in a bad mood and he decides to go fishing the next day. Will is still preoccupied with the phone calls, resulting in an accident in which causes his brother's girlfriend hits her head on a winch when Will dives to save her from being hit by the boom. Will decides to swim into town to fetch medicine.
When he swims back, Will finds the boat gone, but after searching, he discovers it abandoned in a neighboring cove. Will runs to a local police station where he is met with indifference. When Will identifies himself, the officer in charge makes a phone call, and then asks to be taken to the boat. They are met there by Zahir (Roschdy Zem), who knows the whereabouts of Will's family, and invites him to show him the way. Will senses something is wrong with the situation, and attempts to escape in the police car. Martin shows up, beats the officers and helps Will escape.
Martin reveals to Will that he is a CIA agent, and explains that the people who have taken their family are after a briefcase he took. Martin calls his partner who agrees to meet him in Madrid. They go to the meeting and Will stays in the car while Martin talks to his partner, Jean Carrack (Sigourney Weaver), who says that she doesn't have the briefcase anymore. He doesn't believe her and thinks something isn't right. As he returns to the car, a sniper murders Martin, and Will is attacked. He leaves the car and he is chased through the rooftops of Madrid, but he manages to escape, and throws his dad's gun in the trash.
Going to the U.S embassy, Will discovers that he is wanted for killing a police officer which he denies, but they are not interested in finding his family. The embassy then tells him someone wants to meet him. Jean and Diego wait for him, and Jean says she wants to help. He doesn't trust her and fakes illness to escape. Looking through his father's phone, he sees that Diego's name comes up several times and calls it. He also gets a call from the kidnappers who want to speak to "Tom" and say they want the briefcase in exchange for his family. The kidnappers give Will a deadline of 21 and meeting point. During this call Will speaks to his mother and tells her Martin was killed.
He arrives at Diego's office and speaks to Lucia Caldera (Verónica Echegui), the girl who he spoke to on the phone. Suddenly, Diego appears and fights with Will, who kills him. Lucia and Will go to her uncle's apartment but find out that Jean and her hitman Gorman have killed her uncle. Will finds and confronts Jean and Gorman in the kitchen. She wants him to follow her but is interrupted by Lucia coming in. They escape through the rooftops and Will is shot. Instead of a hospital, she takes Will to a nightclub where her friend has medical experience. Will also finds out that Tom is Martin's alias in Spain, and that Lucia is his half sister, being Martin's illegilimate daughter.
Will recovers and goes to a meeting with the kidnapper on the phone. The man on the phone is Zahir who initially beats up Will for information. Once he realizes Will really is ignorant of what is happening, Zahir tells him the truth; The briefcase was stolen from a Mossad agent by Martin. Zahir is an Israeli agent determined to recover the case. He realises that Jean is the corrupt agent, not Martin, and she wants to sell the contents of the case. He decides to use Will to lure out Jean and the buyers of the briefcase. Zahir shows Will's family saying he must do as he says, and this must succeed or the family will be released and Jean will kill them.
Will has a plan to lure out Jean by using Lucia's credit card at the club. This lures out Gorman who is subdued by the bouncers at the club and tortured for information. Gorman gives nothing away and Will's next plan is to make him think he has escaped so they can follow him. This works and they follow him to Jean, who then lead them to an underground car park. The Israeli agents follow but a noise spooks Jean who kills the buyers and tries to escape. Gorman is killed trying to escape in his car, and Will and Lucia then pursue Jean. After a pursuit through Madrid, the roles are reversed and Jean chases them due to her frustration with their interference. The cars then collide, and Will's car is worse off. Just as Jean is about to deliver the final blow, she is taken out by Zahir, who retrieves the briefcase.
As Lucia recovers in hospital, she also meets her new half family, and Will is offered a job in the CIA. He accepts.
Patton Oswalt amusingly conveys both cheery optimism and anxious obsessiveness as Randy, an assistant scoutmaster... determined to maintain the troop once run by his ailing dad (John Tobias). Trouble is, the few boys in his group are tired of boring campouts in parking lots and opt to ditch the latest weekend outing in favor of a sleepover that Randy's estranged brother, Kirk (Johnny Knoxville), is hosting for his newly adopted African-born son, Dwande (Thiecoura Cissoko) (Source: mrqe.com)
Nobody Walks is a 2012 American independent film directed by Ry Russo-Young. The film premiered in Competition at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and won a special Jury Prize.
Magnolia Pictures released the film on VOD September 6, 2012 and in theaters October 12, 2012.
23 year old Martine (Thirlby) has just arrived in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles when she moves into a wealthy family's pool house, and begins working to complete work on her art film. Meanwhile, Peter (Krasinski), a laid-back father of two, agrees to his wife's request to help their young guest complete the project. The more time Martine spends with her surrogate family, however, the more apparent it becomes no one will walk away from this situation unchanged.
The Imposter is a 2012 British documentary film about the 1997 case of the French confidence man Frédéric Bourdin, who impersonated Nicholas Barclay, a Texas boy who had disappeared at the age of 13 in 1994.
Bourdin, who turned out to have a long record of impersonating various different children, real or imaginary, embellished his claim to be Nicholas by alleging that he had been kidnapped for purposes of sexual abuse by Mexican, European, and U.S. military personnel and transported from Texas to Spain. His impersonation fooled several officials in Spain and the U.S., and he was apparently accepted by many of Nicholas' family members, even though he was seven years older than Nicholas, spoke with a strange accent, and had brown eyes and dark hair rather than Nicholas' blue eyes and blond hair. The impersonation was eventually unearthed as a result of the suspicions of a private investigator, Charles (Charlie) Parker, and an FBI agent, Nancy Fisher. Bourdin subsequently made a full confession, and in the movie he elaborates on the various stages in his impersonation.
The film raises, but does not resolve, the question of how the family came so readily to accept the impersonation. Parker, Fisher and Bourdin himself suggest, but cannot provide conclusive evidence for, the possibility that some in the family may have known more than they revealed about (or even been directly implicated in) Nicholas' disappearance, in which case his purported "reappearance" could have proved convenient from their point of view.
Because many of the events depicted in the film were not filmed when they happened, the film re-creates some of them with actors.
The film is based on Sachs' own past relationship with Bill Clegg, a literary agent who published his own memoir about his struggles with addiction, Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man, in 2010.
Erik (Thure Lindhardt), a Danish artist, meets up Paul (Zachary Booth), a lawyer, after having phone sex in his apartment in New York. Clearly attracted to one another, they instantly share an intimate moment and have sex. While Paul is at work, Erik is more focused on his film career and simultaneously dates another man, Russ (Sebastian La Cause) whom he is attracted to. While with Paul, Eric shares his past relationship about how he broke up with his ex-boyfriend Paolo, who has AIDS. Erik confides to his friend Claire (Julianne Nicholson) on how he is happy now with Paul than he was with Paolo. Meanwhile, Paul shares Erik about his drug addiction and gets Erik high. Paul later sees his ex-girlfriend while in an art gallery with Erik. (Paul was closeted before meeting Erik) Paul goes to talk to his ex without Erik, although Erik persuades to let him introduce them to her. Erik later learns that he is HIV-negative while calling his doctor on the phone.
After a surprised birthday party of Erik, courtesy of Paul and Erik's family member, Paul finally catches Erik talking to another guy in the street. While confronting Erik about this, Paul argues with him but they somehow manage to get over it. Erik, away from home to make a film, feels desolate and does his phone sex routine. However, he is startled when he coincidentally calls Paul's phone. Erik is left upset. Back in New York, Erik argues again with Paul but they manage to rekindle in the night. While Erik is finishing his documentary film, he tends upon an unconscious Paul, apparently from his drug and alcohol habit, outside their apartment. Paul is sent to rehab and states that Erik ruined his life. Erik goes to gay club and ends up hooking with another man, Igor (Miguel del Toro).
With Paul's release from rehab and his success on his film, Erik assumes everything would be better. Erik's life is rocked when he learns that Paul hasn't been home while he was away for work. However, Erik gets a call from Paul and tells him to visit him in his hotel. Erik gets confused as to why Paul is acting such, since Paul hasn't improved during his stint in rehab. With Erik's conviction to go home together with him, Paul stays and hires a male prostitute who he could have sex with while Erik watches on. Erik goes to Russ' place and presumably have sex with him, in retaliation for what Paul has done.
After a few years, Erik meets Paul at a diner where both seem better than before. He then invites Paul to stay back with him at his apartment to which Paul agrees, but only to avoid having sex before going to sleep. Spending time in countryside, Erik asks Paul how he feels about their relationship only for Paul to turn aggressive and having Erik choose whether or not he would break up with him. Erik tries to beg Paul to stay with him but Paul wants to move on and allows Paul to go back to New York.
Erik visits Paul in his new home where Paul recounts of the good times they had together. He walks Paul to work and Erik admits that he still loves him although Paul is skeptical. Paul hugs Erik and tells him to be well.
One year ago, dirty cop Detective Callahan (Dorff) was shot in a drug bust gone wrong and saved by a stranger, giving Callahan a second chance to clean up his life. But when the stranger finally comes forward, seeking revenge against the men responsible for a string of assaults on young women at a local strip club, Callahan must go rogue to find the attacker in an effort to hide how his own past played a part in these crimes. His desperation to find the attacker and cover his tracks takes him down a violent road of deception and fraud. Can he play the "good cop" and track down the assailant, while still keeping his reputation clean? (Source: rottentomatoes.com)
The Paperboy is a 2012 American thriller film starring Matthew McConaughey, Zac Efron, John Cusack, and Nicole Kidman. Directed by Lee Daniels, it is based on the 1995 novel The Paperboy by American author Pete Dexter. The film competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.
An idealistic reporter, Ward Jansen, and his younger brother, Jack, investigate the events surrounding a murder to exonerate a man on death row, Hillary Van Wetter. Wetter has been jailed for the alleged murder of an unscrupulous local sheriff, Thurmond Call. Call had previously stomped Wetter's handcuffed cousin to death. Wetter is now on death row and awaiting execution. The Jansen brothers are helped by Ward's colleague, the ambitious Englishman Yardley Acheman and the seductive Charlotte Bless, a woman Wetter has never met but who has fallen in love with him and is determined that he should be released and that they should marry. In prison Wetter receives correspondence from her consistently.
Charlotte tries to prove Wetter's innocence by requesting the help of Ward and Yardley, who are both investigative reporters from the Miami Times and are hungry for a salacious story. Ward returns to his hometown to investigate the case but has mixed feelings about returning home to his estranged father,and his new girlfriend, Nancy, who distribute the Miami Times in their town. Both the Jansen brothers dislike their father's new girlfriend. Jack is the paperboy after having been expelled from college for vandalism. His only best friend is his maid, Anita, who narrates the story.
The evidence against Wetter is inconsistent and the writers are confident that if they can expose Wetter as a victim of redneck justice then their story will benefit them greatly. Meanwhile, Jack has fallen in love with Charlotte who only desires Wetter. Anita realizes that Jack can never stop thinking of Charlotte as she is his first love. One day, with some information from Wetter, the Jansen brothers travel to the swamp to meet Wetter's uncle, Tyree, who has evidence that he did not commit the crime.
Ward is soon revealed to be a closeted homosexual when he approaches a pair of sadistic men who rape and torture him. During Ward's time in the hospital, Yardley prints the news article despite not getting all the facts right. Jack tries to convince Yardley to stop, but instead discovers that Yardley is actually American, but had to pretend to be English because local black men could not be successful unless they lied about their backgrounds. Yardley had also given Ward sexual favors in return for position in the paper.
Wetter is eventually released from prison and takes Charlotte away to the swamp to live with him. She is unhappy and sends a letter to Jack telling how much she hates her new life. During their father's wedding, a recently recovered Ward and Jack go to save Charlotte. However, the escape plan is flawed and Charlotte and Ward are killed by Wetter, who is then arrested for their murder and executed on the electric chair as planned originally. Towards the end of the story, Anita reveals that Jack never forgot his first love.
Searching for Sugar Man is a 2012 Swedish/British documentary directed by Malik Bendjelloul, detailing the efforts of two Cape Town fans, Stephen 'Sugar' Segerman and Craig Bartholomew Strydom, to find out if the rumored death of American musician Rodriguez was true, an
d, if not, to discover what had become of him. Rodriguez's music, which never took off in the United States, had become wildly popular in South Africa, but little was known about him there. The film is produced by Simon Chinn and John Battsek.
Searching for Sugar Man tells the incredible true story of Rodriguez, the greatest '70s rock icon who never was. Discovered in a Detroit bar in the late '60s by two celebrated producers struck by his soulful melodies and prophetic lyrics, they recorded an album which they believed would secure his reputation as the greatest recording artist of his generation. In fact, the album bombed and the singer disappeared into obscurity amid rumors of a gruesome on-stage suicide. But a bootleg recording found its way into apartheid South Africa and, over the next two decades, he became a phenomenon. The film follows the story of two South African fans who set out to find out what really happened to their hero. Their investigation leads them to a story more extraordinary than any of the existing myths about the artist known as Rodriguez. -- (C) Sony Pictures Classics
Troy Billings is seventeen, overweight, and suicidal. Just as he's about to jump in front of a bus, he's saved by Marcus, a charming high school dropout/street musician. The two begin an uneasy friendship when Marcus enlists the musically challenged Troy to become the drummer in a newpunk rock band. As Troy's relationship with Marcus grows, Troy's father becomes increasingly concerned about his son's new friendship.
Despite receiving mixed reviews by critics, Taken 2 was a box office success, like its predecessor.
After the events in Paris in Taken, the cousins of the criminals whom Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) killed while searching for his daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace), arrive from France and return to their hometown of Tropojë, Albania, for the dead men's funeral. During the ceremony, Murad (Rade Šerbedžija), the employer of the men and father of Marko, whom Bryan killed by electrocution, states that they will find Bryan to avenge the deaths of their loved ones.
Kim and her mother Lenore (Famke Janssen), who is currently having relationship problems with her husband, surprise Bryan by joining him in Istanbul, where he is relaxing after a work assignment. While Kim remains at the hotel, Lenore and Bryan are being followed by Murad's men on the streets of Istanbul. The men capture Lenore, forcing Bryan to surrender, but before he does he calls Kim and warns her, allowing her to escape the men who were sent to find her.
Bryan wakes with his hands tied to a pole in a dark room. Using a communications device that he has hidden in his sock, Bryan calls Kim, instructing her to go to the US Embassy and tell them what happened, but she begs for a chance to help him and Lenore. Under Bryan's guidance, she opens up his weaponry suitcase and throws a live grenade out of the window. Bryan uses the time it takes for the sound of the explosion to reach him in order to deduce his location. He then has her take a gun and two more grenades and travel towards his location via the rooftops, while he frees himself from his restraints and sends steam up a chimney to mark his location. Kim tosses the gun down the Chimney and Bryan uses it to escape, rescuing her from the men who have been chasing her.
Bryan later returns to the building but Lenore has already been moved. Leaving Kim at the US embassy, he follows the route to Murad's safehouse he memorized from his abduction. After killing two men he confronts Murad who insists that his two remaining sons will seek revenge if Bryan kills him. Murad agrees to call off his vendetta in exchange for Bryan letting him live. Bryan drops his gun and walks away, but Murad seizes it and tries to shoot Bryan only to discover that Bryan has removed the bullets. Knowing that Murad would never abide by a truce, Bryan kills him.
Three weeks later, the Mills family eats at a diner to celebrate Kim's passing her driving test. They are joined, much to Bryan's surprise, by Kim's kind boyfriend Jamie, and Kim jokingly asks her overprotective father not to shoot him.
The Possession is a 2012 supernatural horror film directed by Ole Bornedal and co-produced by Sam Raimi. It was released in the US on August 31, 2012, with the film premiering at the Film4 FrightFest.
The story is based on the allegedly haunted dybbuk box. Bornedal cited films like The Exorcist as an inspiration, praising their subtlety.
The film starts with an old woman trying to open a strange box. She turns on old classic music and grabs holy water and a hammer. Before she is able to destroy the box, she is thrown violently around the room by an unseen force. When her son enters, she is unconscious on the floor.
Clyde and his daughters shop at a yard sale, where Em becomes intrigued by an old box which has Hebrew inscriptions engraved on it. Clyde agrees to buy the box for her. When Em walks around the yard carrying the box, she discovers the old woman lying in bed with her arms and head covered in bandages. Upon seeing the box, the old lady slams her hand against the window, screaming, until her nurse closes the window blinds.
Em asks her father to open the box, but he is unable to and concludes it is not meant to be opened. Em keeps the box in her bedroom and that night, begins to hear whispering coming from inside the box. She is successfully able to open it, and inside it finds a tooth, a corpse of a moth, and a ring, which she begins to wear. Em then falls asleep with the box.
After coming home the next day, Clyde, Hannah and Em hear an animalistic noise in their kitchen and discover food all over the floor. When the intruder escapes through their pet flap, Clyde assumes it was a raccoon.
Em becomes solitary and spends her spare time staring at the box. Her behavior grows increasingly sinister, to the point where she stabs her father in the hand with a fork. One night while Em is in the bathroom, she starts to vomit. She uses a flashlight and points it into her mouth. After a few seconds, a hand is seen crawling up from the back of her mouth. Em is startled, but she doesn't say anything and goes back to bed. The house later becomes infested with moths, mainly clustered in Em's room.
While at school, one of Em's classmates attempts to steal her backpack. He discovers the box inside, and begins to antagonize Em about it. She screams at him to give the box back, but when he refuses, Em strikes him multiple times. Clyde and Stephanie are summoned to a meeting with the principal and Em's teacher, where they discuss Em's growing violence and how she is becoming increasingly antisocial.
Em's teacher recommends that Em spend time away from the box, so it is left in Em's classroom. Later that night, Em's teacher, curious about the noises emanating from the box, tries to open it, but she dies when a malevolent force attacks her and throws her out a window.
Em tells Clyde about an invisible woman (dybbuk) who lives in her box and says Em is "special". Alarmed by her behavior, Clyde attempts to dispose of the box by throwing it in a trash bin. When he returns home, Clyde finds Em, crying, asking what he has done with the box. When Clyde refuses to tell her where the box is, an unseen force suddenly slaps Em, making it seem as if Clyde is abusing her. Em runs away to the exact area where Clyde had disposed of the box. She manages to retrieve it and begins to converse with the dybbuk. Suddenly, moths fly out of the box and into Em's mouth, symbolizing her full possession. Em faints before Clyde can get to her. Clyde carries Em's unconscious body back to his house, where the police and Stephanie wait to take Em away from Clyde. During this time, we also see Clyde returning to pick up the box left by Em.
Clyde, immensely disturbed, takes the box to a professor at the university. The professor tells him it is a dybbuk box that dates back to the 1920s; it was used to contain a broken spirit, an ancient Jewish evil or demon. Clyde sneaks over to Stephanie's house and enters after she and her boyfriend, Brett (Grant Show), leave. Clyde enters Em's room and begins to read the Torah to her. Em stares at him blankly, and the Torah is thrown out of Clyde's hands, causing him to retreat.
Clyde immediately travels to a Hasidic community in Brooklyn, and learns from a Jew named Tzadok (Matisyahu) that the possession has three main stages; in the third stage the dybbuk latches onto the host, becoming one entity with it. The only way to defeat the dybbuk is to lock it back into the box via a forced ritual. While further examining the box, Tzadok discovers the demon's name is Abizu, which he explains is the "taker of children".
At home, Brett finds Em in the garage, acting strangely. He notices that she has something in her hand and asks her to show it to him. He grabs Em's hand and opens it when she does not comply and discovers a molar. As Brett focuses on the tooth, Em begins to gag, and a hand is seen crawling up from inside of her cheek, but this ends before Brett notices.
Later that evening, Em violently attacks her mother when Stephanie discovers her gorging herself like an animal out of the refrigerator. Brett suggests that Em be examined by a psychologist.
The next morning, Brett prepares to take Em to the psychologist. However, when Em stares blankly at Brett, his mouth begins gushing blood and his teeth begin falling out, causing him to drive away frantically. Em then has a seizure on the front lawn and is discovered by Hannah and Stephanie, who call 9-1-1. Em is taken to the hospital for an MRI. During the procedure, the lights begin to flicker, and the machinery begins to malfunction, and Stephanie and Hannah are horrified when they see the dybbuk's face in the images, next to Em's heart.
Stephanie then realizes that Em is possessed. Clyde and Tzadok join the rest of the family at the hospital and attempt to conduct an exorcism in the physical therapy room. Before they begin, Tzadok requires everyone present to put a valuable item of his or hers into the box. The exorcism begins, but Em breaks free from her family and attacks Tzadok. Em escapes to the morgue with Clyde in close pursuit. Em attacks Clyde, and he survives but is now possessed by the dybbuk. Tzadok performs an exorcism which is successful; the dybbuk crawls out of Clyde and back into the box.
The family is reunited, with Clyde and Stephanie's love rekindled. Tzadok drives away with the box in Clyde's vehicle. Minutes after telling Clyde he will ask his rabbi father what to do with the box, his car is suddenly hit by a truck, apparently killing him.
As the camera pulls out from the car crash, the box is seen, having landed several feet from the wreckage.
