**_Six women in a cabin-in-the-woods of SoCal and… something toxic_** "Chemical Peel" (2014) only cost $20,000, but it’s so proficiently made it doesn’t feel like a micro-budget Indie. It comes in the tradition of “Carriers” from five years earlier with the main difference being that this is a ‘confined location’ flick. In other words, the bulk of the runtime involves the house-in-the-sticks and the dramatics of the females. Speaking of which, blonde Natalie Victoria stands out on the beauty front as protagonist Rae. Meanwhile statuesque redhead Arielle Brachfeld is a real biyatch as Angela, but it happens. Leigh Davis is also worth a mention as Kimberly. Too bad the director didn’t know how to shoot women. At about the 18-minute mark the situation takes a life-or-death turn and the story becomes very compelling. It morphs into a body horror flick and is hampered by the one-dimensional location, but it’s worth checking out for those interested. It runs about 1 hour, 35 minutes, and was shot in the Greater Los Angeles area at Glendale, Ojai, Semi Valley and Hollywood. GRADE: B-
The inhabitants of the British Isles have lost their battle against the onslaught of disease, as the deadly rage virus has killed every citizen there. Six months later, a group of Americans dare to set foot on the isles, convinced the danger has come and gone. But it soon becomes all too clear that the scourge continues to live, waiting to pounce on its next victims.
The Mutou family leads a peaceful life: Kouichirou works at a construction site and his wife Mari is returning from an overseas trip. Their daughter Ayumu has just finished her track practice while their son Gou is playing video games at home. However, life as they know it is flipped upside down when a calamitous earthquake strikes the entire Japanese archipelago—obliterating the face of the country in an instant. With society crumbling around them and their nation gradually sinking into the ocean, the Mutou family must band together to survive the catastrophe. Treading the near-apocalyptic setting, they struggle not only to stay alive, but also to learn the difficulty of coping with loss.
The true story of pianist Władysław Szpilman's experiences in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. When the Jews of the city find themselves forced into a ghetto, Szpilman finds work playing in a café; and when his family is deported in 1942, he stays behind, works for a while as a laborer, and eventually goes into hiding in the ruins of the war-torn city.
Two teenagers set out on a 2000-mile sailboat journey from California to Hawaii and en route combat the natural challenges and their inner shortcomings.
This film is based on the novel, Mrs. Mike, which is based on the real life woman, Kathy O'Fallon Flannigan. A Boston teenager is sent to live with her uncle in frontier Canada because of her fragile health. She eventually falls in love with one of the few young, white males in the region. They marry and depart for the northern wilderness to set up house and home. The rest of the movie is about her struggles and joys of living and travelling in this rugged country.
A poor, elderly white woman living in a tenement in a black ghetto is befriended by a neighborhood boy, and the two of them form a mutually beneficial relationship: he provides her companionship and protection, and she becomes the mother he never had.
Terrorists hijack a 747 inbound to Washington D.C., demanding the release of their imprisoned leader. Intelligence expert David Grant (Kurt Russell) suspects another reason and he is soon the reluctant member of a special assault team that is assigned to intercept the plane and hijackers.
Parker Baldwin finds her Christmas plans upended when her network persuades her to spend three days in the wild with survivalist Finn Holt for a holiday television event.
The plane carrying wealthy Charles Morse crashes down in the Alaskan wilderness. Together with the two other passengers, photographer Robert and assistant Stephen, Charles devises a plan to help them reach civilization. However, his biggest obstacle might not be the elements, or even the Kodiak bear stalking them - it could be Robert, whom Charles suspects is having an affair with his wife and would not mind seeing him dead.
In 1931, three Aboriginal girls escape after being plucked from their homes to be trained as domestic staff, and set off on a trek across the Outback.
In the future, the Japanese government captures a class of ninth-grade students and forces them to kill each other under the revolutionary "Battle Royale" act.