ABCs at the Movies: The Doubles Round!

[southendmd]

IMDb:  Staff and students at a rural school react to a warning of an imminent nuclear attack, not knowing whether it is real or mistaken.

Keyword:  home.

[memento]

IMDB: Jack and Caroline are a couple making a decent living When Jack suddenly loses his job. They agree that he should stay at home and look after the house while Caroline works. It's just that he's never done it before, and really doesn't have a clue...

[Fran]

From IMDb:  Unloved foster child and cheerleader Dixie Ann Dikes (Lisa Gaye) gets abducted, raped and thrown from a moving vehicle after a date -- and as a result gets put into a home for girls until she turns eighteen. Upon her release, Dixie moves to the big city and rooms with another alumni, Linda (Lynn Bernet), whose boss is sure Dixie has what it takes to become the next Miss America. Things start to happen fast after she's crowned Miss Colorado and gets swept off her feet by smooth-talking Chuck Logan (William Campbell). Dixie elopes despite pageant rules but is unaware Chuck is an escaped convict who robs a liquor store on their honeymoon. When he's arrested for kidnapping and the marriage comes to light, scandal erupts and Dixie spirals down into a seedy world of strip clubs, attempted suicide, armed robbery, a court trial, and imprisonment -- all before she turns twenty-one.

[oilgun]

Set in urban Auckland (New Zealand) this movie tells the story of the Heke family. Jake Heke is a violent man who beats his wife frequently when drunk, and yet obviously loves both her and his family. The movie follows a period of several weeks in the family's life showing Jake's frequent outburst of violence and the effect that this has on his family. The youngest son is in trouble with the police and may be put into a foster home while the elder son is about to join a street gang. Jake's daughter has her own serious problems which are a key element in the plot.

[southendmd]

AKA Christmas in August.

[Fran]

From IMDb:  Ever wonder what Earth would be like if we were invaded by Martians who all thought they were a bunch lousy comedians? Me neither! But for those who do there's "Martians Go Home," a laughless comedy that lives up to it's title. You'll be begging for the Martians to go home a mere 10 seconds after they first appear. The Martians are almost all played by stand-up comedians, among them Barry Sobel and Rob Schneider, people who know how to be funny, but you'd never know it here. About the only thing I enjoyed about this movie was seeing Dean Devlin, future producer of "Independence Day," playing a hot-shot director of sci-fi films. It was good for a short laugh.

=comments=

1.  One of the IMDb keywords for Brokeback Mountain is Home Schooling.  Huh?

2.  BBM's Randy Quaid starred in Martians Go Home.

[memento]

Storyline: Tommy faces responsiblity when Dil, his new baby brother is born. As with all newborns, the child becomes a bane to Tommy and the rest of his gang. Even Phil and Lil don't like them. So they decide to return Dil to where he came from, the hospital. But they get lost along the way, REALLY lost, and get into even more trouble with a circus. Can they find their way home and can Tommy and Dil just get along?

[oilgun]

One summer day in an upper class neighborhood of suburban New York City, middle aged Ned Merrill appears in the backyard of one of his friends and neighbors, who he has not seen in quite some time. Before the neighbors can welcome him, Ned jumps into their swimming pool with much energy and vitality. Ned learns that with the addition of a recent swimming pool in another neighbor's backyard, he can literally swim home, miles away, moving from swimming pool to swimming pool. He names the route Lucinda's River, after his wife. He is determined to make this journey despite some obstacles along the way. At each swimming pool, Ned stops and chats with his neighbors. Each stop reveals more and more of Ned's life journey until he reaches his final destination.

[Fran]

Plot keywords include:  Ancestral Home

From IMDb:  The story takes place in two periods in the past. In the first story, shot in black-and-white, a young man called Dayindi (Jamie Gulpilil) takes part in his first hunt for goose eggs in the Arafura swamp, in central Arnhem Land. As he learns how to build a bark canoe, his older brother tells him a story. This older man, Minygululu (Peter Minygululu) knows that Dayinidi fancies Minygululu's young and pretty third wife (Cassandra Malangarri Baker), so the story he tells is about the old laws and a young man who had no wife.

This second story is set in a much older time and shot in colour, with most of the parts played by the actors from the first story. In this story, Jamie Gulpilil plays Yeeralparil, who fancies the third wife of the warrior Ridjimiraril (Crusoe Kurddal). When this man's second wife, Nowalingu (Frances Djulibing), disappears, Ridjimiraril suspects a stranger who has been seen near the camp. By mistake, he spears the stranger, but it's the wrong man. Ridjimiraril must face the man's relatives in a ritual payback. He chooses his brother Yeeralparil to stand beside him for the payback. Ridjimiraril is mortally wounded by the spears. When he dies, the custom is that his brother inherits his wives, but these new responsibilities are more than the young man expects.

[memento]

From IMDB: Growing up in the 90's it was almost routine to watch a Van Damme movie where he jump kicks
everyone into oblivion and does a split in the process. This movie is quite different for he plays the vigilante crooked cop for once, maybe its either his age or the role but it was far from what I've gotten used to....and may I say this is for the better.

In this caper, Van Damme plays a down on his luck crooked cop who is gunned down by his former partner and put into a coma. When he comes out of it he realizes the error of his ways and vows to take out the man who put him in this position.

As the film progresses its unnerving to see Van Damme in a role that hit so close to home with his real life drug addiction, but still its quite a difference from his pretty boy savate kick days of the 90's.

Stephen Rea rocks the role he plays, but the real star was Van Damme for once. As he gets older his days of diving through windows and taking on Bolo Yeung are over, so roles like this should become more common.