Tom Berenger leads an outstanding cast in this bone-crunching dramatization of legendary college football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant's debut at Texas A&M in the summer of 1954. The often unnerving story finds Bryant ducking the school's good ol' boy network of rich, influential alumni by spiriting his new team away to a makeshift training base in a tiny town called Junction. There, Bryant runs the equivalent of a POW camp, brutalizing an oversized, underdeveloped bunch of rowdy young men and tormenting those who seek medical attention for cracked spines and deadly heat exhaustion. Berenger delivers a warts-and-all performance as the vulgar, monstrous, yet much-respected Bryant, and the direction by seasoned television vet Mike Robe is brisk and almost explosively charged. Whatever one thinks of Bryant's punishing methods, the film does not flinch from telling its powerful tale. --Tom Keogh
Tom Berenger leads an outstanding cast in this bone-crunching dramatization of legendary college football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant's debut at Texas A&M in the summer of 1954. The often unnerving story finds Bryant ducking the school's good ol' boy network of rich, influential alumni by spiriting his new team away to a makeshift training base in a tiny town called Junction. There, Bryant runs the equivalent of a POW camp, brutalizing an oversized, underdeveloped bunch of rowdy young men and tormenting those who seek medical attention for cracked spines and deadly heat exhaustion. Berenger delivers a warts-and-all performance as the vulgar, monstrous, yet much-respected Bryant, and the direction by seasoned television vet Mike Robe is brisk and almost explosively charged. Whatever one thinks of Bryant's punishing methods, the film does not flinch from telling its powerful tale. --Tom Keogh
2002-12-14
5.9
Victory is the prize, Pain is the price.
A documentary primarily focusing on the filming and release of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
This five part epic war drama gives a dramatized detailed account of Soviet Union's war against Nazi Germany during world war two. Each of the five parts represents a separate major eastern front campaign.
The film tells the story of three best friends named Ako, Aki and Awang, who are well-known in their village for their mischievous and humourous pranks. The trio work for Pak Man. One day, they are assigned to pick up his daughter Misha, who has just returned from overseas and dreams of becoming a doctor. The trio have been in love with her for a long time but she does not pay them any heed. When Misha is robbed by a snatch thief one day, she is rescued by a doctor named Shafiq. Her face reminds the doctor of his late wife, and he begins to pursue her, which annoys the trio.
Brent Weinbach is weird. In this show, Brent attempts to adjust his quirky personality so that he can fit in with the world around him, which would be valuable to his career as a comedian and entertainer. Through an absurd and abstract discourse, Brent explores the ways in which he can appeal to a broader, mainstream audience, so that ultimately, he can become successful in show business.
Filmed April 12, 2003 at a benefit concert held at and for The Anthology Film Archives, the international center for the preservation, study, and exhibition of avant-garde and independent cinema. In addition to screening films for the public, AFA houses a film museum, research library and art gallery. The event, which raised money for the Archives and celebrated the life and work of avant-garde film maker Stan Brakhage, featured Sonic Youth providing an improvised instrumental collaboration with silent Brakhage’s films. The band performed with drummer/percussionist Tim Barnes (Essex Green, Jukeboxer, Silver Jews).
In celebration of Asian Heritage Month, HBO presents a collection of perspectives from a diverse group of Asian Americans.
Photographer Grigory Yaroshenko gets a chance to visit Antarctica and learn about the life of polar explorers. But his wife is expecting their second child, and life changes. Gregory is faced with the question of male self-identification and acceptance of new family circumstances.
The Venice Hongwanji Buddhist Temple had an opportunity to take part in an episode of East of Main Street, an HBO documentary series that has been produced for the past three years to celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. This year’s episode, Milestones, focuses on how different groups of Asian Americans mark the milestones throughout their lives.
Jesse becomes reunited with Willy three years after the whale's jump to freedom as the teenager tries to rescue the killer whale and other orcas from an oil spill.
Detective James Knight 's last-minute assignment to the Independence Day shift turns into a race to stop an unbalanced ambulance EMT from imperiling the city's festivities. The misguided vigilante, playing cop with a stolen gun and uniform, has a bank vault full of reasons to put on his own fireworks show... one that will strike dangerously close to Knight's home.
Divers go to work on a wrecked ship (the battleship Maine that was blown up in Havana harbour during the Spanish-American War), surrounded by curiously disproportionate fish.
Sakurano plays a girl named Kimika who wakes up chained up in a dark boiler room, unsure of how she got there. She’s soon approached by a strange large man wearing a mask and using a creepy voice changer. The girl is the daughter of Daisuke (Kenji Ezure), the shrewd president of a general contracting company. Daisuke was too occupied with an ongoing sexual fling with his secretary (Asami) to notice that his daughter was missing at first, and his relationship with her was already strained due to a certain incident in the past, but when he receives a threatening phone call he eventually recognizes the gravity of the situation. Eventually, Kimika begins to calm down as her fear slowly turns into a perverse attraction to this strange person holding her captive. What is the kidnapper’s motive? And what is his true form? In the basement of a certain building, insanity merges with obscenity as the plot unfolds.
As a result of a successful conspiracy against Menshikov, Peter II is prematurely recognized as an adult and is in a hurry to be crowned in Moscow. The Dolgoruky brothers gather for this celebration. There were eight of them - all-powerful and influential representatives of the ancient Rurikovich family - and among them the beautiful Ekaterina, the daughter of the huntsman Alexei.
The two remaining puppets learn about eating healthy, but things go awry when they receive a mysterious phone call.
Cheah Liek Hou is a prodigious badminton player but discovers that he is afflicted with brachial plexus paralysis. Undeterred by this setback, he joins the ranks of disabled badminton players. When the Paralympic Games announce the inclusion of badminton as a sport, Cheah rises to the occasion and is coached by legendary badminton player Rashid Sidek. He overcomes numerous hurdles to triumph in the Paralympic Games, ultimately winning the coveted gold medal and etching an important historical moment for Malaysia.
Two triathletes battle their personal demons while they train for the biggest event of their lives.
After a series of pipe dream ventures go belly up, retired pro soccer player Kim Won-kang happens to visit East Timor, where he finds children playing the game barefoot on rocky pitches. Sensing a new business opportunity on finding the country doesn't have a single sporting goods store, he embarks on a scheme to get rich quick by purveying athletic shoes to the unshod youngsters. Sadly, no one there can afford to pay $60 for a pair of shoes, even on a generous installment plan, and before he knows it, he is reduced to coaching a team of ragged 10-year-olds and prospects are looking grim. Written by Palm Springs Internation Film Festival
A former volleyball star, Woo-jin has been struggling to keep his children's volleyball school that's about to go out of business. Left without much choice, he agrees to coach a women's volleyball team that is the worst in the league, with only second rate players and an eccentric club owner. According to Woo-jin's contract, all he needs to do is win just one game.
A film about sumo wrestler Wakanohana Kanji I. He was nicknamed "Devil of the dohyo" due to his excellent fighting spirit and endurance.
Jackie Justice is a mixed martial arts fighter who leaves the sport in disgrace. Down on her luck and simmering with rage and regret years after the fight, she's coaxed into a brutal underground fight by her manager and boyfriend Desi and grabs the attention of a fight league promoter who promises Jackie a life back in the Octagon. But the road to redemption becomes unexpectedly personal when Manny - the son she gave up as an infant - shows up at her doorstep. A triumphant story of a fighter who reclaims her power, in and out of the ring, when everyone has counted her out
The school’s handball club is about to close down. Can social media bring it back to life? Masao Kiyota is a high school student living in Japan’s southern Kumamoto Prefecture. Lacking passion for anything in life, he spends his days like so many youth on his smartphone along with his childhood friend, Okamoto. One day, they upload a photo taken three years previously when they were both part of their school’s handball team. To their surprise, the post goes a little viral. Encouraged, they add the hashtag: “#Handball Full Power” and are swarmed with “likes” from around the country. Amidst the sudden social media attention, Masao and Okamoto set to resuscitating a nearly defunct men’s handball team.
Travis Elliot, a star high school basketball player from Memphis, Tennessee must save his older brother but is torn between playing the sport that he loves or living a life of crime.
Maurice Flitcroft, a dreamer and unrelenting optimist, managed to gain entry to The British Open Golf Championship qualifying in 1976 and subsequently shot the worst round in Open history, becoming a folk hero in the process.
Famous auto racing champion Joe Greer returns to his hometown to compete in a local race, discovering that his younger brother has aspirations to become a racing champion.
Twin girls cope with the pressure of tennis stardom and the absence of their mother in an unstable society.
Based on the book “The Legend of Mickey Tussler”, this film follows the story of eighteen-year-old Mickey Tussler, who lives on a farm with his father and mother and who has Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of autism. But he can throw apples at an amazing speed. When a chance meeting occurs with the baseball manager of the semi-pro team the River Rats, from Clayton, Ohio, Mickey gets a chance to pitch for the team and to prove to his father he can do more than live hidden away on the family farm, taking care of his pig Oscar.
A boy from the farm with amazing running speed is asked to join a newly formed national soccer team and discovers a natural talent for the game. The movie is inspired by Japan's hosting of the 1979 FIFA World Youth Championship.
A native-American lacrosse team makes its way through a prep school league tournament.
In 1946, Branch Rickey, owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, took a stand against Major League Baseball's infamous color line when he signed Jackie Robinson to the team. The deal put both men in the crosshairs of the public, the press and even other players. Facing unabashed racism from every side, Robinson was forced to demonstrate tremendous courage and let his talent on the field wins over fans and his teammates – silencing his critics and forever changing the world by changing the game of baseball.
After discovering a once-in-a-lifetime player with a rocky past abroad, a down on his luck basketball scout takes it upon himself to bring the phenom to the States without his team's approval. Against the odds, they have one final shot to prove they have what it takes to make it in the NBA.
The story of the NHL in the 1950's, focusing on the battle between the players, led by Hall of Famer Ted Lindsay, and the owners, over issues of benefits and pensions. A dramatization based on the true story from the book of the same title.
Hardflip follows the story of Caleb (Randy Wayne) a young skater whose ill mother (Rosanna Arquette) and absent father (John Schneider) leave him reaching for the only hope he has...becoming a sponsored skater. After his mother falls ill, Caleb finds a stack of old love letters. He sets out to find the father he never knew and inadvertently begins a journey he never could have expected. This story explores what happens when we let go of our anger and pain and forgive those who have hurt us most.