Despicable Me 2

IMDb
When Gru, the world's most super-bad turned super-dad has been recruited by a team of officials to stop lethal muscle and a host of Gru's own, He has to fight back with new gadgetry, cars, and more minion madness.


Plugged IN

MOVIE REVIEW

It hasn't been easy, but Gru is adjusting to his new life.

I mean, just figuring out a while back that he wasn't really rotten to the core was a difficult first step, one that hit him like a photon death ray. After all, training to be the most megalomaniacal meanie ever takes a certain dedication. And then there's all that investment in diabolical contraptions and dastardly thingamajigs. It's not like he can just put that lot up on eBay and get his money back.

But, hey, when it's right … it's right. And Gru—the former supervillain who once swiped the moon and left the world screaming while he postured and mwoohahaed—has come to grips with the fact that he's really a softy down deep. He's an average, bald-headed mastermind who simply lovesbeing a dad to three completely adorable adopted daughters.

And he's getting the swing of things, too. He knows the ins and outs of helping with school projects and kissing everyone goodnight at bedtime. His army of gibberish-spouting, goggle-wearing, yellow minions have successfully rejiggered his manufacturing plant from creating fearsome inventions to producing jellies and jams (though having the Mad Scientist who invented the so-called "fart gun" as your taste tester isn't always a win-win).

There is another sticky situation at hand, though, one that has Gru grimacing grimly. And, no, it's not just Margo's interest in boys or that nosey woman who's incessantly trying to set him up on dates. This is serious, folks! It's a big little something called the Anti-Villain League.

This secretive group wants Gru to track down the evil perpetrator of a fiendish heist. In fact, the Anti-Villain League is seeking a furtive fugitive felon who filched an entire arctic research lab to get his mitts on a transmutation serum that can turn innocent creatures into indestructible monsters. It's the kind of plot Gru himself might have cooked up not long ago. And it's a plot the Anti-Villain League thinks Gru can foil.

But does Gru really want to go out and fight crime? Hmmm. He's not so sure.

There are a few potential advantages, of course. First off, the girls really like the idea of their dad being a secret agent. Then, he would get the chance to break out a few of those old gadgets of his. And there's that lanky agent Lucy Wilde he'd be teamed up with. She's a little obnoxious and overbearing, but when she starts throwing those karate chops and zapping people with her lipstick Taser, it just makes Gru go all weak in the knees. (Especially when she's aiming all those chops and zaps at him!)

Well … the kids have been telling him he ought to date more. Maybe this is the best way to go about it.

Full movie on Pubfilm

And HDmovie14

Despicable Me

IMDb
When a criminal mastermind uses a trio of orphan girls as pawns for a grand scheme, he finds their love is profoundly changing him for the better.


Rotten Tomatoes
A mysterious criminal mastermind has stolen one of the pyramids in Egypt, sparking a fit of jealous envy in evil genius Gru (Steve Carell), who hasn't managed to make headlines since he and his minions swiped the Times Square JumboTron years back. Ever since Gru was a little boy, he dreamed of going to the moon. Now, if Gru can just build a rocket and get his hands on a powerful shrink-ray, he can cement his reputation as the greatest thief who ever lived by stealing the Earth's satellite right out of the sky. But immediately after Gru heists the shrink-ray, the cunning super-nerd Vector (Jason Segel) swoops in and snatches it right out of his hands. Now, in order to claim the moon, Gru must first reacquire the weapon from Vector. Armed with the knowledge that his nemesis has a mean sweet tooth, Gru adopts cookie-selling orphans Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Agnes (Elsie Fisher), and Edith (Dana Gaier) and commissions a new line of cookie robots from the evil Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand), his personal weapons specialist. But as Gru and his diminutive yellow minions prepare to carry out the biggest heist in history, something strange happens. Gru discovers that the three little girls who have come into his life are much more than simple pawns. They actually seem to care about Gru, and it turns out the scheming evildoer makes a pretty good father. When Gru realizes that his upcoming moon mission clashes with a ballet performance by the girls, he must decide what's more important -- being a present parent or cementing his nefarious reputation once and for all. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Full movie on Pubfilm
And HDmovie14

Spooksville

IMDb
The new kid in town discovers that he holds the key to a battle between good and evil that has been taking place for centuries in a bizarre small town that plays host to a wide array of supernatural and unexplained occurrences.



TVguide
A new kid arrives in a peculiar small town full of supernatural occurrences, and he discovers he's vital to the long-standing battle between good and evil going on there.
Based on Books By  Christopher Pike


Season 1 
Episode 1 secret Path part 1
Episode 2 Secret Path part 2
Episode 3 The Evil House
Episode 4 The Howling Ghost
Episode 5 The Haunted Cave
Episode 6 The Thing in the Closet
Episode 7 The Fire inside
Episode 8 The WishingStone
Episode 9 The Wicked Cat
Episode 10 The No-ones
Episode 11 The Dark Corner
Episode 12 Shell Shock
Episode 13 Flowers of Evil
Episode 14 Phone Fear
Episode 15 Critical Care
Episode 16 Blood Drive
Episode 17 Fathers and Sons
Episode 18 Gnome Alone
Episode 19 Oh Monster, My Monster
Episode 20 The Maze
Episode 21 Run
Episode 21 Stone

Deadly Santuary

IMDb
A reporter, is drawn into an evil web of conspiracy working for a newspaper in an isolated small town, where she strives to uncover the horrifying secret of a vanished reporter, two dead teenage girls and an attractive cowboy.


NitOwlBooks

With a feeling of profound accomplishment and a hint of melancholy, we finished filming Deadly Sanctuary in the wee hours of the morning on Sunday, May 18th just as the faint light of dawn began to brighten the horizon.  

One of the greatest adventures of my life was over.  After16 years of countless fits and starts, disappointments and dashed hopes, my efforts to transform Deadly Sanctuary into a film finally paid off.  This was indeed a dream come true!

As my co-producer and director Nancy Criss said, “Independent filmmakers wear many hats."  Boy, was she right!  During the pre-production process and on the set, I wore a great many hats.  Not only was I the writer, I also served as the location scout, a producer, executive producer, stand-in, extra, production assistant, casting director, problem solver and major decision maker in many cases.  I worked 12 to 14 hours a day, 7 days a week.  And I’m not complaining for one second as I relished being an integral part of the movie making process.  It was interesting, exhausting, enlightening and hugely exciting to watch the process unfold and blossom before my eyes.  It was surreal to watch the actors breathe life into the cast of characters who have resided inside my head for such a long time and I can’t wait for my fans to share in the excitement of being able to view Deadly Sanctuary on the big screen.  How many authors ever get a chance to see their work produced?  How many authors get to play a major role in overseeing the actual film production?  Not many.

It was such a joy to watch actress Rebekah Kochan capture the quirky essence of Kendall O’Dell’s unique spirit and bring her to life.  It was equally amazing to observe Marco Dapper capture the serious personality of rancher Tally Talverson and create a compelling onscreen chemistry with Rebekah.  And Teri Lee.  Oh my!!  She had the whole cast and crew in stitches with her tongue in cheek characterization of Kendall’s best friend Ginger King.  She was absolutely delightful.

Actress Teri Minton slipped into the role of the naughty Lucinda with ease and obviously had a marvelous times playing the role of Kendall’s nemesis.  Paul Greene, who is a really gentle soul in person, as well as a fine guitar player and singer, transformed himself into bad-ass Eric Heisler and gave a terrific performance.  Eric Roberts slipped easily into his role as Morton Tugg and Dean Cain seemed to have a grand time playing sheriff Roy Hollingsworth.  Michael Emory had a lot of fun with the role of smarmy Deputy Duane Potts and last but certainly not least, Bobbi Jeen Olson’s transformation into the complicated personna of Claudia Phillips was nothing short of astounding.  What a fabulous performance. And everyone on the set had an absolute ball working with Daniel Baldwin as Dr. Price.  What a funny guy!  He has a real flair for comedy, even though the part called for him to play someone downright evil.  And all the rest of the cast in smaller roles did an amazing job as well.  You can check out the whole cast here:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3447876/combined

And I was totally impressed by the hard work and dedication of the film crew.  So many people stepped forward to help make this film a reality and my heartfelt thanks goes out to each and every one of them for helping to make this amazing experience possible.  So now that we have entered the post-production phase, we wait.  We wait for editing, sound, musical score, special effects and much more as the process continues until we have a finished product.  I hope that you will all be thrilled with the results!

Nandar Pictures

Feisty, flame-haired reporter, Kendall O'Dell is drawn into an evil web of conspiracy beyond anything she could have ever imagined when she accepts a position at a small newspaper in isolated Castle Valley, Arizona. In the mix is a vanished reporter, two dead teenage girls and an attractive cowboy. Kendall's life hangs in the balance as she strives to uncover the horrifying secret.

Overview

Deadly Sanctuary is the first title in Sylvia Nobel's popular mystery series, featuring spirited, flame-haired reporter Kendall O'Dell. The author's trademark style is to produce exciting, well-written, edge-of-your-seat, adventures with "knock your socks off" surprise endings. Her judicious use of language and lack of graphic sex and violence make her novels suitable from teens to seniors.

Author Biography: Sylvia Nobel is the award-winning author of the Kendall O'Dell mystery series and two romance novels, all set in Arizona. She is an accomplished public speaker and a member of Mystery Writers of America. She lives in Phoenix, AZ with her husband and seven cats.

Full Movie on Xmovie8

The Good Witch

IMDb
A darkly beautiful and mysterious woman comes in to town and inhabits the local haunted mansion, making everyone wonder if she's a witch or "The Grey Lady".


Hallmark
The Good Witch

Cassandra "Cassie" Nightingale is a raven-haired enchantress with a hint of magic who moves into the town of Middleton's haunted Grey House. As if that weren't unusual enough, she also opens "Bell, Book and Candle," a wondrous shop full of unique items. For some, including the captivated Police Chief Jake Russell, Cassie is a breath of fresh air and a love potion that spreads throughout the town. But before she can truly become part of Middleton, she will need to win over some of the more skeptical neighbors who don't approve of her unique ways. 

Is the town's new "witch" the real deal, or does her vibrant personality just have the neighborhood spellbound?


Full Movie on PopCornFlix

Eragon

Great Movie Heres A review my mother Would say
IMDb

Don't watch the movie-read the book

Author: Sven Županić from Croatia
25 December 2006

When I first heard that a movie is going to be made by the book "Eragon" by Christopher Paolini, I must say I was very delighted, and I was even more delighted when I heard that Stefen Fangmeier will be the director. I have read the book, and thaught:"What a great movie this is going to be". Unfortunately, I was wrong. First of all, I would dare to say that half of the events that happened in the book weren't shown in the movie at all(reason: Lord of the Rings has less then 400 pages and the movie lasts around 3 hours; Eragon has around 500 pages and it lasts around hour and a half). As a result, instead of complexed, unpredictable fantasy plot you get simple, one-way heading fairy tale. Characters that play very significent role in book(like Murtagh, Ajihad and Angela) are hardly even mentioned in the movie, so that it becomes centered on pretty much only 3 characters-Eragon, Saphira and Brom. Villains and locations lack imagination, so they look cheap and ordinary. Choice of actors is, in my opinion, good, except Edward Speleers. There are way too much "memorable quotes" in the movie, so that movie becomes kind of too much theatrical.Everybody, from director to actors failed, but still, I personally bealive that the biggest failure is Peter Buchman, screenwriter. Although he had a fantastic material to work on, he managed to ruin it, and make a pathetic screenplay from a fantastic bestseller. Only bright side of the movie is always top-of-the-class John Malkovich(King Galbatorix), pretty solid performance by Jeremy Irons (Brom), but most of all dragon Saphira (voice by Rachel Weisz, whose vocal abilities are on very desirable level)

But heres a Movie Review

CinemaBlend

When Peter Jackson finally found someone with enough courage to give him money to make Tolkien’s trilogy into movies, he essentially hoisted the entire fantasy film genre bandwagon up, slapped four wheels on it, attached a team of Clydesdales and sent it down the highway at a hundred miles per hour. Ever since then everyone seems to be trying to jump on and ride that fantasy gravy train. Eragon is the latest attempt to hop on board, but it falls off with a thud in the first fifteen minutes of its mediocre life. 

The story seems to have been meant to go something like this: a young, poor farm boy by the name of Eragon (Edward Speleers) comes across a strange blue stone while hunting in the woods. To his amazement the stone hatches and a magical dragon emerges, one of the last of its kind. A roguish old man from the village, Brom (Jeremy Irons), discovers Eragon’s little secret and reveals to him that the boy is the last of a dying breed of warriors known as the Dragon Riders. Eragon’s special bond with the dragon, named Saphira (Rachel Weisz), grants him the ability to use magic, and together the two will be able to defeat the evil King (John Malkovich) and his sorcerer henchman Durza (Robert Carlyle). Along the way he saves a warrior princess named Arya (Sienna Guillory) with the help of a mysterious ally, Murtagh (Garrett Hedlund).

It’s a pleasant enough fantasy tale for younger teen audiences and even if that’s how it was meant to go, that’s not what comes across on the screen. The final product is the story of a young, poor, bizarre combination of Anakin Skywalker, Luke Skywalker and Harry Potter joined up with the female counterpart to Draco from Dragonheart. With the help of an Obi-wan meets Gandalf sort of mentor, he sets out to save the wizarding world and half of Middle Earth by using Elven magic to defeat the equivalent of Voldemort wearing Sauron’s Ring of Power and his right hand sidekick who is the perfect amalgam of Saruman, Wormtongue and a Balrog-riding Darth Maul. Oh, along the way he stops to save the love child of Arwen and Princess Leia with the help of Aragorn crossed with Han Solo. It’s free for all sci-fi/fantasy mad libs, only instead of verbs and adjectives the story substitutes in favorite character archetypes and plot from other films. And then comes the final battle scene. 

With time running out (both for the characters and the movie), all parties find themselves gearing up for some serious combat. As the audience you’re expected to be very concerned for the good guys, but you’ve been offered very little time to actually get to know anyone well enough to care. The heroes in the story are painfully underdeveloped and you don’t even meet the people they’re fighting to defend until the last possible second. It’s a horrific mess, an underwhelming ending to a poorly paced, overwrought movie. 

From what I know of the book it doesn’t sound like the movie does it justice. Rather than letting the story have its own life, director Stefen Fangmeier seems bent on telling it in the light of every other major fantasy movie out there. The problem may lie in the fact that this is Fangmeier’s first time in the director’s seat and he hasn’t had much experience in sculpting a story or directing actors. Prior to this he spent most of his time supervising visual effects work. While that lead toEragon having beautiful visual effects, none of that matters when the story is so mish-mashed and the characters are so one-dimensional that watching them feels like a chore. 

“I suffer without my stone,” says the evil King Galbatorix to Durza at the start of the story, lamenting that his prized dragon egg has been stolen. “End my suffering.” The king’s request quickly became my own. Of course, the book on which the movie is based is the first in a trilogy, and the ending of the film lets you know they have every intention of making the next two films. I sincerely doubts that Eragonwill generate the kind of interest and acclaim (and money) it will need for the further two films to be made. Thank goodness for small favors.

Full Movie on PutLocker

Maleficent

I found This a Great movie The hero be a Villain. Or Villain be the Hero.



Rotten Tomatoes

Movie Info

"Maleficent" explores the untold story of Disney's most iconic villain from the classic "Sleeping Beauty" and the elements of her betrayal that ultimately turn her pure heart to stone. Driven by revenge and a fierce desire to protect the moors over which she presides, Maleficent cruelly places an irrevocable curse upon the human king's newborn infant Aurora. As the child grows, Aurora is caught in the middle of the seething conflict between the forest kingdom she has grown to love and the humankingdom that holds her legacy. Maleficent realizes that Aurora may hold the key to peace in the land and is forced to take drastic actions that will change both worlds forever. (c) Walt Disney Pictures

RogerEbert

The "Sleeping Beauty" riff "Maleficent" is another overproduced summer spectacular, released into a world that has too many. It has sub-"Phantom Menace" landscapes and creatures, a bombastic and unmemorable score, and the sorts of chaotic images and fast cutting that signify a lack of true filmmaking imagination. It is truly a movie made by a committee: its direction is credited to Robert Stromberg, a longtime production designer, and its script to “Beauty and the Beast” scribe Linda Woolverton, but there have been reports of many studio-imposed rewrites, and reshoots by director John Hancock ("The Rookie"). But it's powerful anyway. As the title character, a misunderstood and wronged woman, Angelina Jolie has make-up enhanced cheekbones that could be registered as lethal weapons. Put them together with her wary cobalt eyes and ruby lips and the wings and horns that the character sports early in the picture, and you've got an image of female otherness as eerie as Scarlett Johansson wading into black goo in "Under the Skin." 

The film's story is an example of what The Guardian's film critic Peter Bradshaw calls "that emerging post-'Wicked' genre, the revisionist-backstory fairytale," but it's affecting. It has a primordial edge that the clumsy filmmaking can't blunt. There are moments in "Maleficent" that are profoundly disturbing, in the way that ancients myths and Grimm fairy tales are disturbing. They strike to the heart of human experience and create the kinds of memories that young children—young girls particularly—will obsess over, because on some level they'll know, even without the benefit of adult experience, that the film is telling them a horrible sort of truth.

And at this point I should give you the opportunity to step away from the review, see the film based on the above description, and read the rest later to see if you agree. Fair enough? Good.

The tale begins with a flashback to Maleficent as a young girl fairy, befriending a farm boy who's snuck into her forest on a mission of thievery. They grow close and continue to see each other, even after the king of a human stronghold on the outskirts of the forest tries to invade Maleficent's domain and then watches in shock as the heroine and her tree-warrior pals lay waste to his army. As teenagers, the fairy and the human share a silhouetted lip-lock on a hilltop—"true love's first kiss," in the Disney parlance. He stops coming around, breaking the girl's heart. Years later, the now adult Stefan (Sharlto Copley) overhears the now-dying king promising his realm to anyone who can kill Maleficent. And it's here that we head into the first of the film's magnificently disturbing sequences.

I've read reviews complaining that we don't know enough about Maleficent and Stefan's personalities, much less the details of their relationship, which means that Stefan's betrayal "comes out of nowhere," and so does not make dramatic sense. This is a fair description (or complaint); but to me, the lack of development makes the twist feel more like something that might happen in a fairy tale—not a clean-scrubbed Disney fairy tale in which every plot twist is clearly delineated, but an ancient story that kids might listen to, rapt and horrified, then interrupt to ask, "By why would the boy do that to someone he loved?", whereupon the adult storyteller would explain that sometimes people do cruel things to people they love because they want things. 

In any event, we know what's really going on in the scene. After snuggling with Maleficent on a hilltop, Stefan gives her a drink laced with a sleeping potion, prepares to murder her after she's passed out, then has a failure of nerve. He slices off her wings instead, and brings them to the king as "proof" that he did as promised. It's a symbolic assault with sexual overtones, specifically an attack that occurs after a woman has passed out. Maleficent doesn't just lose her wings; they're stripped from her, against her will. The attack is also a maiming or disfigurement that, in this context, feels like a gender specific physical "message," drawn from a continuum that includes everything from the punitive hacking off of a woman's long hair to clitoridectomy. (Jolie underwent a double mastectomy not long before the film was shot; it's hard to imagine her shooting this sequence and not putting it in a personal context.) 

The scene of Maleficent waking up on a hilltop with huge scars in her back, then weeping with rage, is the most traumatizing image I've seen in a Hollywood fairy tale since the Christ-like sacrifice of Aslan in 2005's "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." It strikes so deep, and its impact resonates for so long after, that it makes the film's numerous missteps seem less like deal breakers than irritants. The assault transforms Maleficent from an unabashed heroine into an anti-heroine—a straight-up bad guy, as far as the story's terrified humans are concerned—and warps Disney's vanilla 1959 film into a conflicted revenge story with an unmistakable feminist undertone. It's the deepest betrayal imaginable. Every subsequent action Maleficent takes—including casting a spell on Stefan's daughter Aurora (played as a teen by Elle Fanning) that will send her into a coma at age 16 after a finger-prick by a spinning wheel needle—is driven by the trauma of that betrayal. 

The film has a long way to go after that—plot-wise, I mean; at a sleek 98 minutes, this is a rare summer blockbuster that's as terse as the typical cartoon feature—and while "Maleficent" never rises to the peak of power that it attains when the heroine awakes without her wings, and its action sequences and ostentatious creature displays are murky CGI soup, it keeps the audience unbalanced in a good way. There's wasted motion in the plotting and a fair amount of confusion in how the script spells out what Maleficent can and can't do (if she can turn a raven into a male sidekick played by Sam Riley with a wave of her hand, and create a fire-breathing dragon with similar ease later on, why doesn't she just unleash an army of monsters on the kingdom and save herself a lot of bother?). But we always know what's at stake for her. We know where her head is at.  

Despite winning a slew of deserved awards for early performances, Jolie has never gotten the credit she deserves as both an old-fashioned glamorous movie star and a skilled, thoughtful actress; this part fuses both sides of her talent. Her mesmerizing stillness makes us pay closer attention to Maleficent's every word and gesture than the film's screenplay deserves. We feel close to Maleficent even when she's doing the ice-mask-of-death expression showcased in trailers and in stills. We feel her conflicted feelings as she pretends to be the young Aurora's godmother, playing a role and then slowly becoming that role, just as we felt her rage at being violated and mutilated, and her need to make the human kingdom (whose representatives are all male) pay for what was done in its name.  

I was looking forward to seeing Angelina Jolie play a Disney villain. That's not "Maleficent," obviously, but what she's asked to do is still fascinating. The character starts out good, turns bad for good reason, then tries to right the wrongs she committed in the name of righting wrongs. This is a film of Hollywood storytelling cliches, including the eat-your-cake-and-have-it-too villain death that lets the heroine seem noble while still satisfying the audience's bloodlust. But it's also a film of resonant gestures and dream logic, in which ancient and contemporary predicaments jostle against each other: romantic betrayal or sexual assault, and their psychological aftermath; the fundamental differences between male and female minds; the way that patriarchal culture fuses women's sense of self-worth to their bodies; even the tangled maternal impulses that independent single women who never wanted kids might experience when they have to care for a child. The movie is a mess, but it's a rich mess. It has weight. It matters. Years from now you'll hear teenagers or college students bonding over having seen it as child and lost sleep over it, and its title will have acquired three more words, plus punctuation: "Oh My God, Maleficent!"

Full Movie on Xmovie8

The Witches of Oz

AzCentral

Sometimes it's better to just leave well enough alone.

'DOROTHY AND THE WITCHES OF OZ'

Bad: 

Director: Leigh Scott.

Cast:Paulie Rojas, Eliza Swenson, Billy Boyd.

Rating: PG for sequences of fantasy action and peril, scary images and brief language.

 This week's new movie releases

L. Frank Baum's classic book "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" was made into one of the best-loved films of all time. If you don't choke up a little when Dorothy sings "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," you need to join the Tin Man and search for a heart.

Baum wrote other Oz books, including "Ozma of Oz" and "The Road to Oz." Those, along with the best-known, are used for source material for "The Witches of Oz." They just aren't used very well. The idea is intriguing -- that Dorothy, now grown up and living in New York, is a successful children's author, and her books are based not on her imagination but on repressed memories of Oz, some of which surface from time to time.

Good idea, poor execution. That's what plagues Leigh Scott's film. That and some bad acting, plus a disjointed feel that makes it difficult to follow what's happening and why. No doubt that is due at least in part to the film being a cut-down version of a miniseries.

Dorothy (Paulie Rojas) is working with her aggressive agent Billie (Eliza Swenson) on selling her next project. But the truth about her memories and then the identity of some of her friends and business relations -- and enemies -- is gradually revealed. It seems that when she was a child in Oz, the Wizard (Christopher Lloyd, overacting like a champ) made a deal with the Wicked Witch of the West, whose identity it's best not to reveal; now the witch is in New York, looking for a key Dorothy has that will give her power over our world.

Rojas tries mightily to bring something to Dorothy but isn't quite the actress to do it. Swenson rivals Lloyd in over-the-top acting. Billy Boyd, as a friend of Dorothy's, is OK, but only Mia Sara -- yes, from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" -- as a minion of the witch, and Barry J. Ratcliffe, as an associate of Dorothy's and, later, a familiar character from "Oz," seem to be having any fun.

That's too bad, but the whole thing was a risk. If you're going to tinker with a classic, you don't have much room for error. "Dorothy and the Witches of Oz" is proof.

Full Movie on PutLocker

The Monkey King

The Monkiey King page

"The Monkey King" The Legend Begins

(English Language Version) 

This is a classic story of the responsibilities of power, acquiring true wisdom and finding redemption through sacrifice.

In the English language version of the film, the legendary creation of The Monkey King is told by an Old Sage, a Western monk who traveled from Europe to China in the 7th Century. He tells the tale to two children, one Chinese, the other from the West who come across the monk in a cave on a remote mountainside above the Eastern Ocean. The monk is the current keeper of a hundred painted scrolls, each describing an event in the Monkey King’s life.

Played by a major Western actor, the Old Sage serves as the narrator of our tale. He opens the story with an epic battle in Heaven where the forces of the Jade Emperor (Chow Yun Fat) turn back the invading Demon Buffalo King (Aaron Kwok), banishing him to Earth. In the process the Heavenly Palace is virtually destroyed. A beautiful princess sacrifices herself by restoring it and building an impenetrable wall around Heaven from crystals from her own body. She gives every crystal of her being to rebuild and fortify Heaven -- all but one. That single crystal plummets to Earth, landing on Mount Huagao – The Mountain of Flowers and Fruit. There it sits until a kit fox discovers it glowing in a mountain crevice.

Inside she sees a tiny monkey. She enlists the aid of the Buffalo Demon King to use his power to break open the crystal and release the monkey. It is an event that will come back to haunt both the fox and the monkey as the Demon King will use them both in his insidious plans to conquer heaven. As the Silver Fox (Xia Zi Tong) and Sun Wu Kong (Donnie Yen) grow, their affection for each other grows as do their powers. The fox girl can transform into a beautiful almost human form, while the monkey (a handsome monkey with human features) has incredible strength and power.

But the playmates are separated when Silver Fox must return to her family village and Wukong joins the monkey tribe. Master Subhuti, one of the Ten Disciples of Buddha, is sent by the goddess Guanyin to find the Monkey Spirit, born of Heaven’s crystal, and train him in the ways of the gods. Despite his celestial destiny, young Wukong seems to be having trouble just being a monkey, let alone a “god-in-training.” He is vain, mischievous, overzealous and often just plain silly. Master Subhuti takes the monkey to The Tri-Star Cave and puts him in training with a class of human students. He names him Sun Wukong.

Although a difficult and insubordinate pupil, Sun obviously has powers far beyond his fellow trainees. It becomes apparent that his powers are, in fact, both amazing and frightening. En route to his goal of immortality, Wukong learns 72 transformations. He can transform into various animals, shrink or multiply himself into hundreds of clones, walk on clouds and somersault across thousands of miles through the air. He can transform completely into a human – except he can’t hide his tell-tale tail.

Wukong is sent back to his Mountain home to learn responsibility and to mature. There he saves his monkey tribe from the ferocious Rock Monster and leads them into a safe new home in The Water Curtain Cave. In return they declare him The Handsome Monkey King – their leader and protector. He loves the way it sounds.

Determined to find weapons to protect his tribe, Monkey King journeys under the sea to the Kingdom of the Dragon King where he obtains magic armor and flying boots. In the process he creates havoc. By lifting the immense Ruyi Cudgel out of the ocean floor he destroys the underwater palace, unleashing a powerful tsunami. The cudgel becomes the monkey's most powerful weapon.

The peaceful life of the animal kingdom of the Island of Flowers and Fruit is disturbed by the return of Demon King who is driven by a burning desire to avenge his defeat, drive the Jade Emperor from his throne and gain control of the Heavenly Armies. A witch has told him Sun Wukong is the key to that victory. The Demon enlists an unwitting Silver Fox to help turn The Monkey King against Heaven. Demon King convinces him that he is as great and powerful as any being in Heaven and names him Great Sage Equal of Heaven. Monkey loves it.

Reunited, Silver Fox and Wukong’s friendship begins to blossom into romance. Struck with the realization that his tribe and his true love are mortal, Wukong decides to use his heavenly connections to learn the secrets of immortality and the secret of Divine Breath. He is welcomed into Heaven by Master Subhuti and The Jade Emporer, who appoints him Keeper of the Heavenly Stables.

There, he is thwarted by the two-faced, three-eyed warrior Erlangshen. The “Great Sage” creates havoc in Heaven, eating the divine peaches of immortality, freeing the flying heavenly horses and stealing the magic elixir from the blazing furnaces. Driven from Heaven by Erlangshen and his army, Monkey King returns home to a scene of complete devastation. 

He is led to believe that the death and destruction is the work of the Jade Emporer. Bent on revenge he transforms from a “Great Sage” into a Great Warrior and attacks Heaven. Buffalo Demon King joins in the assault. Monkey King, Erlangshen, Master Subhuti, Jade Emporer, and Demon King become embroiled in a series of battles summoning all their incredible powers in pursuit of the throne of Heaven. In the midst of battle the truth is revealed to Wukong. He chooses right over wrong, good over evil and joins with Jade Emporer in defending Heaven. In the process he learns a great lesson. The lesson he must learn to set him on the path to becoming the great leader he is destined to be.

Along the way he will have to seek the wisdom that will prevent his great powers from ever again being subverted through deceit. In the end he faces divine retribution; but always the monkey, he pulls one last trick giving him the most meaningful victory of his magical life. 

We end where we began. As the Old Sage closes the last scroll we discover Wukong has been released from 500 years of captivity in Five Finger Mountain. The Monkey King is poised to start his next and most amazing journey 

The Full Movie on PutLocker

The Witches

This on Rotten Tomatoes 100 top horror movies number 7. I like this book in third grade. The movie did not do good book to movie to me in third grade.



Rotten Tomatoes

Movie Info

In Nicolas Roeg's adaptation of Roald Dahl's novel The Witches, a young boy is vacationing at the seaside with his grandmother when he discovers that the hotel he is staying at is hosting a convention of witches. Eavesdropping on the witches, he learns that the Grand High Witch (Anjelica Huston) has devised a plan to turn all of the children in England into mice. With creature-effects by Jim Henson's Creature Shop, The Witches was the last film Henson worked on before passing away in 1990.

Empire

Plot
When a recently orphaned young scamp named Luke happens upon a secret witches convention at an English hotel, he discovers they are plotting to rid the world of children. But before he can warn anyone they turn him into a mouse.

Robert Ebert

The best children's stories are the scariest ones, because to kids they seem most likely to contain the truth. A lot of stories end with everybody living happily ever after, but they're boring stories unless there seems to be a good chance that unspeakable dangers must be survived on the way to the ending. Roald Dahl's children's stories always seem to know that truth, and the best thing about Nicolas Roeg's film of Dahl's book "The Witches" is its dark vision - this is not only a movie about kids who are changed into mice, it's a movie where one of the mice gets its tail chopped off.

The film opens on an ominous note in Norway, with Luke (Chicago-born Jasen Fisher) being told stories about witches by his old grandmother (Mai Zetterling). They're real, she says, and they walk among us. But you can spot them if you get a good look at them, because they have square feet. They're also bald and have pointy noses, but the important thing is, they're not imaginary. The grandmother has even heard tell of a Grand High Witch who rules over the others, and is the most terrible of all.

Tragedy strikes. Luke's parents are killed in a car crash. He travels with his grandmother to England on family business, and they end up in a seaside hotel that is hosting a convention of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Somehow when you see the head of the society, Miss Ernst (Anjelica Huston), you don't feel good about your chances of having cruelty prevented to you if you're a child.

Huston, whose energy dominates the film, dresses like a vampire vamp with stiletto heels, a tight black dress, a severe hair style and blazing red lipstick. Roeg often photographs her using lenses that make her leer into the camera, and she's always towering over everybody, especially little boys like Luke. Wandering through the labyrinthine hallways of the old hotel, Luke stumbles upon a private meeting one day, and discovers to his horror that the Society is actually a convention of witches - and that Huston, the fabled Grand High Witch, has plans to turn all of the children in England into mice.

Luke is of course discovered while eavesdropping, and becomes the first child forced to drink a secret potion and become a mouse. And it's here that the genius of the late Jim Henson comes into play, as Henson and his special effects team create a world in which gigantic pieces of furniture tower over the little boy-mouse and some of his friends, as they try to survive cats and extermination and save the children of England.

Some of the sequences are predictable from other movies about people who shrink to microscopic size. Others are fresh, including the way Luke is finally able to convince his grandmother he is her grandson and not a mouse. Lucky for him she believes in witches already. The movie turns into a race against time, good against evil, and Roeg doesn't spare his young audiences the sinister implications of the plot.

This is the first so-called children's movie from Nicolas Roeg, that most unorthodox of directors, whose credits include "Don't Look Now," "Eureka" and "Insignificance." He almost always expresses a twisted, sinister sensuality in his films, and in this one that sensibility expresses itself in his willingness to let the child-mice face some of the real dangers of their predicament. The result is that the movie might be too intense for smaller viewers (although some of them these days seem hardened to anything). But "The Witches" is an intriguing movie, ambitious and inventive, and almost worth seeing just for Anjelica Huston's obvious delight in playing a completely uncompromised villainess.

Full Movie on VIOOZ
And TubePlus