Anthology of nine short anime (Japanese animation) films tied in to the 1999 blockbuster “The Matrix” and its sequels. “Final Flight of the Osiris”: The crew of the hovercraft Osiris attempt to warn their city of an imminent attack. “The Second Renaissance, Parts 1 & 2″: The story behind the war between man and the machines, how mankind scorched the sky, and the creation of the Matrix. “Kid’s Story”: A teenager is contacted by Neo, and manages to escape the Matrix. “Program”: Two warriors battle in a samurai training simulation when one decides to betray his crewmates and re-enter the Matrix. “World Record”: A champion sprinter manages to break free of the Matrix by sheer physical effort during a record attempt. “Beyond”: A young girl searching for her cat discovers a haunted house caused by a glitch in the system. “A Detective Story”: Private investigator Ash tracks a hacker named Trinity through the looking glass. “Matriculated”: A group of humans capture a machine scout and insert it into a ‘human matrix’. Written by Alexander Lum

Thirty years old and single, Beatrix Potter lives in London with her social-climbing parents, who are exasperated that she has turned down any number of eligible young men. Her only real friends are the animals which since childhood she has lovingly drawn and made up stories about. She finally succeeds in selling a book of the stories, and it becomes Norman Warne’s first project. He quickly falls in love with both the book and Beatrix and together they carefully arrange publication. This proves the first of many successes, offering her the possibility of escaping from both her parents’ way of life and London. Written by Jeremy Perkins {jwp@aber.ac.uk}

Fleeing the evil Galactic Empire, the rebels abandon their new base on Hoth. Princess Leia, Han Solo and the droids R2-D2 and C-3P0 escape in the damaged Millenium Falcon, but are later captured by Lord Darth Vader on Bespin. Skywalker, meanwhile, follows Ben Kenobi’s posthumous command and receives Jedi training by Yoda on Dagobah. Will Skywalker manage to rescue his friends from the dark lord? Written by James Pearce {james.pearce@cs.man.ac.uk}

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China, Later Tang Dynasty, 10th Century. On the eve of the Chong Yang Festival, golden flowers fill the Imperial Palace. The Emperor (Chow Yun Fat) returns unexpectedly with his second son, Prince Jai (Jay Chou). His pretext is to celebrate the holiday with his family, but given the chilled relations between the Emperor and the ailing Empress (Gong Li), this seems disingenuous. For many years, the Empress and Crown Prince Wan (Liu Ye), her stepson, have had an illicit liaison. Feeling trapped, Prince Wan dreams of escaping the palace with his secret love Chan (Li Man), the Imperial Doctor’s daughter. Meanwhile, Prince Jai, the faithful son, grows worried over the Empress’s health and her obsession with golden chrysanthemums. Could she be headed down an ominous path? The Emperor harbors equally clandestine plans; the Imperial Doctor (Ni Dahong) is the only one privy to his machinations. When the Emperor senses a looming threat, he relocates the doctor’s family from the Palace to a remote area. While they are en route, mysterious assassins attack them. Chan and her mother, Jiang Shi (Chen Jin) are forced back to the palace. Their return sets off a tumultuous sequence of dark surprises. Amid the glamour and grandeur of the festival, ugly secrets are revealed. As the Imperial Family continues its elaborate charade in a palatial setting, thousands of golden armored warriors charge the palace. Who is behind this brutal rebellion? Where do Prince Jai’s loyalties lie? Between love and desire, is there a final winner? Against a moonlit night, thousands of chrysanthemum blossoms are trampled as blood spills across the Imperial Palace. Written by Sony Pictures Classics

AMISTAD is about a 1839 mutiny onboard a slave ship that is traveling towards the Northeast Coast of America. Much of the story involves a court-room drama about the slave who led the revolt. Written by Michael Hatch

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P.D. James’ novel Children of Men comes alive onscreen (albeit with a couple of major plot changes) via the masterful filmmaking of Alfonso Cuaron (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Y Tu Mama Tambien). Cuaron skillfully weaves a fascinating story of nightmarish proportions by smoothly mixing high drama, dark humor, and one of the most riveting action sequences in recent history, into the tale of a dystopic society we can only hope is in no way prophetic.

Children of Men envisions a world in which women can no longer give birth. The youngest person on Earth has just died at the age of 18 and the fact that man will soon be extinct is a foregone conclusion. The world is one big war zone and no one feels safe or secure. A totalitarian government is in place in London and people who try to enter the country who aren’t residents are placed in holding pens and treated like cows.Theo (Clive Owen) exists in this world as an ex-activist-turned-bureaucrat. He begins most days by stopping in at a café to pick up his morning cup of coffee. But one particular day is unlike any others. Upon exiting the shop, a bomb goes off. Shortly thereafter, he’s kidnapped and reunited with his ex-lover, Julian (Julianne Moore in a restrained performance), a fearless, furious freedom fighter who needs help only Theo can provide.

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I’ve already established in previous reviews I’m not a comic book person (see “The Hulk,” “Spider-Man,” “Hellboy,” etc.). The same lack of knowledge of the source material extends to sci-fi films. I think I read Isaac Asimov years ago, but it didn’t stick with me. I didn’t know there were three laws robots must obey, and the title “I, Robot” reminded me more of a “Me, Tarzan, You, Jane”-type of thing than anything else.

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John Rambo’s former Vietnam superior, Colonel Samuel Trautman, has been assigned to lead a mission to help the Mujahedeen rebels who are fighting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, but the Buddhist Rambo turns down Trautman’s request that Rambo help out. When the mission goes belly up and Trautman is kidnapped and tortured by Russian Colonel Zaysen, Rambo launches a rescue effort and allies himself with the Mujahedeen rebels and gets their help in trying to rescue Trautman from Zaysen. Written by Todd Baldridge

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It is the year 2029: Astronaut Leo Davidson (Mark Wahlberg) boards a pod cruiser on a Space Station for a “routine” reconnaissance mission. But an aburupt detour through a space time wormhole lands him on a strange planet where talking apes rule over the human race. With the help of a sympathetic chimpanzee activist named Ari (Helena Bonham-Carter) and a small band of human rebels, Leo leads the effort to evade the advancing Gorilla Army led by General Thade (Tim Roth) and his most trusted warrior Attar (Michael Clarke Duncan). Now the race is on to reach a sacred temple within the planet’s Forbidden Zone to discover the shocking secrets of mankind’s past - and the key to its future. Written by Tim1370