It was an ingenious enough plan: rob the Riviera Casino’s count room during an Elvis impersonator convention. But Thomas Murphy decided to keep all the money for himself and shot all his partners, including recently-freed ex-con Michael Zane. With $3.2 million at stake, the Marshals Service closing in, and single mom Cybil Waingrow and her son Jesse constantly confounding things, Michael must track down Murphy. Written by Jeff Cross {blackjac_1998@yahoo.com}

Elspeth McGillicuddy, an old friend of Miss Marple’s, witnesses a strangulation murder in a passing train through the window of her coach compartment. When Police Inspector Slack can’t find a body along the tracks and doubts the validity of the story, Miss Marple and Elspeth locate the area where the body was probably thrown from the train, the isolated manor house of an aged, cantankerous millionaire, Luther Crackenthorpe. Miss Marple’s niece Lucy is recruited to apply for a job on the estate in hopes of locating the corpse. When she finds it in an ancient sarcophagus in an outbuilding housing Egyptian and Etruscan art treasures, the police and Miss Marple are brought in. Obviously someone in the large household is involved, but who? Written by Gabe Taverney (duke1029@aol.com)

The idea for “40 Days and 40 Nights” sprang from the real-life diary of screenwriter, Robert Perez. Described as a “no sex” sex comedy, the film’s leading man (Josh Hartnett) swears off not just sex, but kissing, touching, self-gratification - all things sexual - for Lent (hence the title).

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Oddball cop and tough guy, Jack Cates is the only survivor of a cop shooting and in hunting down the murderer collects Reggie Hammond from jail for 48 hours. Hammond is oddly motivated to help. The killer is searching for his stash of cash. Cates and Hammond who have the Black-white, cop-crook thing to work out make surprisingly good partners as they navigate through the city looking for their suspect. Written by John Vogel {jlvogel@comcast.net}

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The end and beginning of the love of the French couple Marion (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi) and Gilles (Stéphane Freiss) is disclosed backwards through five moments in their lives: 1st moment: They divorce and have one last brutal intercourse without love. 2nd moment: With their relationship shaken, they have a dinner party with Gilles’s gay brother Christophe (Antoine Chappey) and his younger mate, when an infidelity is disclosed at the dinner table. 3rd moment: The troubled pregnancy of Marion and the delivery of their premature son Nicolas, with the total absence of Giles. 4th moment: Their wedding, when Marion commits adultery with an unknown guest of the hotel. 5th moment: When they meet each other in an Italian resort and begin their relationship. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

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A rap version of “Saturday Night Fever.” B-Rabbit, a wannabe rapper from the wrong side of Detroit’s 8 Mile, has problems: he dumps his girlfriend when she tells him she’s pregnant; to save money to make a demo tape, he moves into his alcoholic mom’s trailer; his job’s a dead end, and he’s just choked at the local head-to-head rap contest. Things improve when he meets Alex - an aspiring model headed for New York - and a fast-talking pal promises to set up the demo. Then new setbacks: Alex isn’t faithful, mom rejects him, rifts surface with his friends, and he’s mugged by rivals. Everything hinges on the next rap showdown at the club. Can B-Rabbit pull truth out of his cap? Written by {jhailey@hotmail.com}

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88 Minutes is destined to go down as one of the worst choices of Al Pacino’s lengthy career. The plot might have sounded enticing on paper, but the execution is all wrong. If there’s 10 minutes of realistic dialogue in this movie, it must have occurred when I went to stretch my legs and clear my head. There are bizarre twists that don’t add up, improbable set ups, and such an utter disregard for logic that sitting through 88 Minutes is 105 minutes of pure torture. (more…)

David Huxley is an American politician living in Hungary whom gets blackmailed by an unknown party after being videotaped having sex with his fiancée Tish and a local supermodel. Desperate to find the extortionists, David goes into the sordid Red Light district of Eastern Europe, only to end up kidnapped, leaving Tish to try to come up with a $5 million ransom on her own. Written by Anonymous

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Hoping to make a killing on the insurance money, oil refinery owner Wendell Mays decides to burn the place to the ground. His greed endangers the lives of the entire town as the fireball creates a spreading inferno threatens to engulf the entire city, and stretches the abilities of the fire department and the local hospital to their breaking points. Written by Jean-Marc Rocher {rocher@fiberbit.net}

“About a Boy” is an adorable romantic comedy complete with the requisite adorable kid, though thankfully he’s not annoyingly cute. Based on Nick Hornby’s popular novel, this film delivers on all of its promises and then goes that extra mile to totally captivate and amuse both female and male moviegoers.

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