Frankie Machine is a skilled card dealer and one-time heroin addict. When he returns home from jail, he struggles to find a new livelihood and to avoid slipping back into addiction. Written by Mike Campanelli {mjc@rubinbaum.com}

Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell and director Ridley Scott team up for the first time and the result is one of 2003’s most entertaining movies. “Matchstick Men” is a fast-paced comedy/drama with a snappy script full of well-disguised plot twists. You don’t know where the story’s going, but you do know you want to go along for the ride. It’s refreshing to be able to sit through an entire movie where the plot isn’t telegraphed ahead of time.

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Pollyanna is a young orphan with a positive, cheerful personality who comes to live with her wealthy, embittered, spinster aunt. She introduces everyone to her preacher father’s favorite “Glad Game” and ends up transforming not only her aunt’s life but the entire town. When the selfless, caring Pollyanna is severely injured in an accident, her spirits dip uncharacteristically, and the townsfolk rally around to help her regain her perspective, to rejoice in God and look for the good.

Derek Vinyard returns from prison to find his younger brother, Danny, caught in the same web of racism and hatred that landed him in prison. After Derek’s father is killed in the line of duty by a minority, Derek’s view of mankind is altered, but while in prison, he discovers that there is good and bad in every race. The task before him now is to convince Danny of his newfound enlightenment. Written by Robin {soonerzs@yahoo.com}

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Lelia (Lauren Lee Smith) is a happily unattached, sexually voracious young woman who satisfies her instable appetite for sex with a host of young male bed partners. But all that changes when a chance encounter has Lelia meets and beings an affair with David (Eric Balfour) an artist looking for a committing relationship. David is just as sexually aggressive and ravenous as Lelia and whenever they get together, they grow more hopelessly entangled, both physically and emotionally. Written by Matt Patay

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Dr. John Dolittle has the world in his hands: A beautiful wife at his side, two adorable daughters and a career that could not go better. One night, he nearly runs over a dog with his car. The dog yells “bonehead” and disappears. From then on, his childhood ability is back: To communicate with animals. Unfortunately, the word of Dolittle’s ability is spreading quickly. Soon, many animals from rat to horse flock to his place to get medical advice. But his colleagues suspect he’s going mad, and as the clinic Dolittle used to work for is about to being taken over for a huge amount of money, many decisions have to be made. Believe him? Put him into a mental institution? Sell the clinic? But also his family is close to breaking apart. Until a circus tiger falls seriously ill. Written by Julian Reischl {julianreischl@mac.com}

A young Bangladeshi woman, Nazneem, arrives in 1980s London, leaving behind her beloved sister and home, for an arranged marriage and a new life. Trapped within the four walls of her flat in East London, and in a loveless marriage with the middle aged Chanu, she fears her soul is quietly dying. Her sister Hasina, meanwhile, continues to live a carefree life back in Bangladesh, stumbling from one adventure to the next. Nazneen struggles to accept her lifestyle, and keeps her head down in spite of life’s blows, but she soon discovers that life cannot be avoided - and is forced to confront it the day that the hotheaded young Karim comes knocking at her door. Written by Sony Pictures Classics

After Frances’s seemingly happy San Francisco marriage ends abruptly, she goes into a funk. Urged by her friends to move on, she joins a bus tour of Tuscany where, on the spur of the moment, she buys a crumbling villa. She assembles a crew of oddballs and immigrants to repair the house; over the next year, as they work, she welcomes one of her New York friends who’s pregnant and at loose ends, and she seeks love, first (tenuously) with her married real estate agent, then with a charming stranger. Although life gets in the way of love, Frances’s wishes come true in unexpected ways, and there’s always the Tuscan sun. Written by {jhailey@hotmail.com}

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Robbins is sent to prison for the assassination of his general officer, a prison you only get out of when you die. Since nobody ever gets out of the prison, nobody knows how the prison is like. The prison manager has realized this and bought himself an island (playground) called “Absolom” where the worst prisoners are let lose to create an isolated barbaric society where the strongest men rule - a living hell. This is where Robbins is dropped off after he almost kills the prison manager. Written by Lars J. Aas {larsa@colargol.edb.tih.no}

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Miss Marple is invited to London to see her old friend Ruth. Miss Marple was a sort of traveling companion to Ruth and her sister, Carrie Louise. Ruth is worried about Carrie Louise. She doesn’t know why, though. Ruth asks Miss Marple to come with her to her sister’s estate, Stonygates. Stonygates is a huge manor house, and some of the buildings and the grounds are used by Carrie Louises’ current husband, Lewis, as a reformatory for juvenile criminals. Miss Marple meets the people who live there - Carrie Louise’s grand-daughter Gina and her malcontent American husband Walter; Stephen and Alex Restarick, Carrie Louise’s stepsons by her first marriage; Edgar Lawson, Lewis’ mentally unstable secretary; and Carrie Louise’s daughter, Mildred, who is jealous of Gina. Soon, Carrie Louise’s stepson by her second marriage shows up. He is Christian Guldbrandsen, and he runs the trust which contributes a fraction of the funds used to run Stonygates. He and Lewis talk in private. Later that night, Edgar begins waving a gun around and ranting that Lewis is his father. Lewis takes him to his office where the argument becomes even more heated. After a few minutes, two shots are heard, and then hysterical crying. The door opens to reveal Lewis, unhurt. Edgar missed him. However, the body of Christian Guldbrandsen is discovered, shot. Miss Marple sets out to find the murderer before it is too late for her good friend Carrie Louise. Written by {hatchetts13@webtv.net}