history-light's - Favourites List

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They say love and money don't mix, but you can't blame Harry Lockhart for trying. He's been whisked from a life of petty crime to Hollywood, where he'll audition for the role of a movie detective and be tutored for the part by a private eye.

Now all he has to do is convince the dream girl he meets that he's a real detective. And not stumble over the corpses as reel life abruptly gives way to the real.

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When the government of Indonesia was overthrown by the military in 1965, more than one million people were killed in less than a year. Anwar and his friends were promoted from ticket scalpers to death squad leaders, and Anwar killed hundreds of people with his own hands.

In 'The Act of Killing', Anwar and his friends agree to tell us the story of the killings. But their idea of being in a movie is not to provide testimony for a documentary: they want to be stars in their favourite film genres - gangster, western, musical. They write the scripts. They play themselves. And they play their victims. 'The Act of Killing' is a nightmarish vision - a journey into the memories and imaginations of the unrepentant perpetrators and the shockingly banal regime of corruption and impunity they inhabit.

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The shocking, moving, controversial and critically acclaimed documentary of the year delves into the murky world of International whaling revealing a sinister and a most unbelievable story of government corruption, mismanagement and manipulation.

Back in the 1960's, Ric O'Barry captured and trained 5 dolphins that played the title character in the international television sensation "Flipper". One fateful day, a Heartbroken O'Barry came to realize that these deeply sensitive, highly intelligent and self-aware creatures must never be subjected to human captivity again. Now on a mission of self-redemption O'Barry enlists the help of a crack team who travel to Taiji, a sleepy lagoon off the coast of Japan, where a shocking secret lies deep within its shallow waters. It is here, under cover of night, that the fishermen of Taiji, driven by a multi-billion dollar dolphin entertainment industry and an underhanded market for mercury-tainted dolphin meat, engage in a chilling and inhumane hunt they and the authorities will stop at nothing to keep hidden.

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From the creators of Shrek and Madagascar comes the funniest movie of the year! Prepare for awesomeness with DreamWorks Animation's "Kung Fu Panda".

Jack Black is perfect as the voice of Po, a noodle slurping dreamer who must embrace his true self-fuzzy flaws and all-In order to become the legendary Dragon Warrior. With high-kicking humour, tons of kung fu action, and groudbreaking animation, "Kung Fu Panda" is a heart-warming story of courage for the whole family!

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One Day in September is a new kind of thriller - one where real lives are at stake and every event is true. They were billed as the "Olympics of Peace and Joy" but became the Olympics of terror - Munich 1972.

An extreme Palestinian group called Black September held 11 Israeli athletes hostage in the Olympic village while the world looked on, incredulous. Using extraordinary archive footage, music and interviews with those who took part (including the only surviving member of the Black September group), One Day in September tells the dramatic story of what happened in Munich during those 21 hours. Only now, almost 3 decades after the event, can the whole world-changing story be told - and the truth is far more shocking than anything we could have imagined.

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Rookie cop Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) grew up in crime. That makes him the perfect mole, the man on the inside of the mob run by boss Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). It's his job to win Cosello's trust and help his detective handlers (Mark Wahlbery and Martin Sheen) bring Costello down.

Meanwhile, SIU officer Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) has everyone's trust. No one suspects he's Costello's mole. Now these covert lives cross and collide is at the ferocious core of the widely acclaimed The Departed. Martin Scorsese directs, guiding a cast for the ages in a visceral tale of crime and consequences. This is searing, can't-look-away filmmaking: like into the eyes of a con - or a cop - with a gun.

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Welcome to the world's most notorious slum: Rio de Janeiro's 'City of God'. A place where combat photographers fear to tread, where police rarely go, and residents are lucky if they live to the age of 20.

This is the true story of a young man who grew up on these streets and whose ambition as a photographer is our window in and ultimately may be his only way out.

"Schindler's List" tells the incredible true story of the enigmatic Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson), who saved the lives of more than 1,100 Jews during the Holocaust and whose lessons of courage continue to inspire generations.

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Wrongly accused city banker Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) arrives at Shawshank Prison in 1947 after receiving a double life sentence for the brutal murders of his wife and her lover. He discovers that when they send you to Shawshank for life...that's exactly what they take.

His quiet strength slowly earns him the respect and friendship of the prison fixer Red (Morgan Freeman). He also becomes popular with the warden and prison guards, as he is able to use his banking experience to help the corrupt officials amass fortunes. But Andy's seemingly stoic acceptance of his unjust imprisonment hides a fierce determination for freedom and provides a unique chance to change his fate.

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In this action-packed sequel to Alien, Sigourney Weaver returns as Ripley, the only survivor from mankind's first encounter with the monstrous Alien.

Her account of the Alien and the fate of her crew are received with scepticism - until the mysterious disappearance of colonists on LV-426 lead her to join a team of high-tech colonial marines sent in to investigate.

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"Alien" is the first movie of one of the most popular sagas in science fiction history, and introduces Sigourney Weaver as Ripley, the iron-willed woman destined to battle the galaxy's ultimate creature.

The terror begin when the crew of the spaceship Nostromo investigates a transmission from a desolate planet and makes a horrifying discovery - a life form that breeds within a human host. Now the crew must fight now only for its survival, but for the survival of all mankind.

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A team of local TV reporters are following a squad of firemen on night duty. The footage is completely live and their task is to make show about on the life of these professionals who work while we are sleeping.

The first job of the night is to rescue an old lady who is trapped inside her apartment but the routine rescue soon takes a sinister turn. Something evil is spreading throughout the building, out of control. Trapped inside, the firemen and the TV crew have to confront an unknown and lethal horror. Now, the only thing that matters is hiding, surviving and trying desperately to escape. They must keep on recording. No matter what happens. Until the very last moment.

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When an intergalactic transport ship crashes on a remote desert planet with no sign of help on the horizon, the survivors, led by Fry (Radha Mitchell), band together to find a way back home.

Among the passengers is Riddick (Vin Diesel), a convicted murderer being transported by marshal Johns (Cole Hauser) - and now freed of his chains and on the loose. But as a solar eclipse plunges the planet into total darkness, a threat even worse than Riddick reveals itself, and the last humans standing may have to form an uneasy truce with the cunning fugitive (whose eyes have been surgically altered to see in the dark) to last the long night.

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Arnold Schwarzenegger stars in this action-packed story of fighting men pitted against an unseen enemy, a force more powerful than their fiercest weapons.

Recruited by the CIA to rescue hostages held by guerrilla fighters in a Central American country, Schwarzenegger and his men encounter an enemy unimaginably more deadly than any on Earth - because the Predator is not of the Earth.

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Whilst visiting a secluded, broken down cabin in the woods, teenagers Ash (Bruce Campbell) and hid girlfriend Linda (Denise Bixler) play their professor's tape of recitation of passages from 'The Book of the Dead'.

Evil supernatural powers are unleashed that turn Linda into a monstrous deadite and threatens Ash's life. When the professor's daughter and her friends arrive at the cabin, the night turns into a non-stop bloodbath with chainsaws, shotguns and flying eyeballs.