Painfully shy Todd Anderson has been sent to the school where his popular older brother was valedictorian. His room-mate, Neil, although exceedingly bright and popular, is very much under the thumb of his overbearing father. The two, along with their other friends, meet Professor Keating, their new English teacher, who tells them of the Dead Poets Society, and encourages them to go against the status quo. Each, in their own way, does this, and are changed for life. Written by Liz Jordan {c9310494@alinga.newcastle.edu.au}

New York cop John McClane, who has been a cop for 11 years, has just arrived in Los Angeles on Christmas Eve. For the past six months, John’s wife Holly and their two kids Lucy McClane and John McClane Jr have been living in Los Angeles without John. In New York, Holly had a good job that turned into a career, and Holly was promoted to a powerful position in the Nakatomi Corporation. The promotion called for Holly to move to Los Angeles to work in the Nakatomi Plaza, a 40 story building. John stayed in New York because he didn’t think Holly would make it out in Los Angeles, and that she would come crawling back to him in New York, so John figured that there was no reason to pack his things for the move to Los Angeles. A limo driver named Argyle drives John to the Nakatomi Plaza, and John heads to the 30th floor, where a Christmas party is going on. John gets into an argument with Holly in the office of her drug-snorting co-worker Harry Ellis because Holly uses her maiden name Gennero instead of the name McClane on her nameplate in her office. Holly leaves the room to give a speech. While John is by himself in the office, John is wishing that the argument hadn’t happened. A few minutes later, a group of German terrorists led by Hans Gruber and his right hand man Karl enter the building and take everyone hostage on the 30th floor. John is able to avoid being taken hostage because Hans and his men don’t even know that John is in the building. John heads to the upper floors, which are still under construction. Hans takes Holly’s boss Joseph Yashinobo Takagi to an office, where Hans demands that Takagi give him the computer code key that will allow Hans and his men to start opening the building’s safe so they can steal the $640,000,000 in negotiable bearer bonds that are in the safe. Takagi refuses to cooperate with Hans, so Hans kills Takagi, and John witnesses it. Hans tells his technology expert Theo to start working on getting the safe opened, and Theo thinks it’ll take a couple of hours to do it. John frantically tries to find a way to alert the LAPD, realizing that the main phone lines in the building have been cut. Once the police do arrive, they prove to be incompetent under the command of arrogant deputy chief Dwayne T. Robinson, so it’s up to John to rescue the hostages. Written by Todd Baldridge

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Retelling of the Robin Hood legend with animals for the characters. Robin Hood is an outlaw who starts to form a gang in Sherwood Forest to fight the injustices of the Sheriff of Nottingham, who levies unpayable taxes upon the people. Written by Tim Pickett {quetzal@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au}

“Serenity” is a wild, white-knuckle roller coaster ride set in the future where the heroes are deeply conflicted, people do whatever they have to – even if it’s illegal - just to survive, and if you want to cuss at someone, you do it in a foreign language so there’s no need to cover the ears of small children.

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Director Peter Jackson had big shoes to fill in creating “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” - his own (albeit in reality said shoes were most often missing, exposing feet that have been described as ‘hobbit-like’). With the first film garnering 13 Academy Award nominations, picking up American Film Institute and Screen Actors Guild Awards, doing boffo business at the box office, and accomplishing the near impossible - exceeding many Tolkien fanatics’ fantasies of a live action trilogy - Jackson set the bar incredibly high. Fortunately, this short, stout, visionary director turns out to be quite a high jumper.

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Action/war drama based on the best-selling book detailing a near-disastrous mission in Somalia on October 3, 1993 where nearly 100 U.S. Army Rangers, commanded by Capt. Mike Steele, were dropped by helicopter deep into the capital city of Mogadishu to capture two top lieutenants of a Somali warlord which lead to a large and drawn-out firefight between the Rangers and hundreds of Somali gunmen which led to the destruction of two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters in Mogadishu, and the heroic efforts by various Rangers to get to them, centering on Sgt. Eversmann, commanding one Ranger unit named Chalk Four, leading Rangers to the first black hawk crash site, to Warrant Officer Durant who was only survivor of the second black hawk crash site and whom was captured, to Col. McKnight who leads a rescue convoy for the Rangers only to get lost within the hostile city, to Sgt. Sanderson desperately trying to get to the first crash site, to Staff Sgt. Yurek who leads two fellow Rangers, Nelson and Twombly to meet with up their squad, Chalk Four, at the first crash site, to many others involved who where either killed or survived. Written by Matthew Patay

A prototype enhanced human, on the run from Chinese-hired hit men, hooks up with a dread-locked bystander, and the two of them elude their pursuers narrowly each time. Written by Steven Feldman {ar402004@brownvm.brown.edu}

After being captured by Turks during the Crusades, Robin of Locksley and a Moor, Azeem, escape back to England where Azeem vows to remain until he repays Robin for saving his life. Meanwhile, Robin’s father has been murdered by the Sheriff of Nottingham and when Robin returns home he vows to avenge his father’s death. Even though Marian, his childhood friend, cannot help him, he escapes to the Forest of Sherwood where he joins a band of exiled villagers and becomes their leader. With their help he attempts to cleanse the land of the evil that the Sheriff has spread. Written by Graeme Roy {gsr@cbmamiga.demon.co.uk}

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