“The Italian Job” is smart, sophisticated, funny, and completely entertaining. Between hot action sequences featuring wild boat rides through the canals of Venice, chase scenes involving the coolest little cars on wheels, and an intricately planned act of revenge lies a film filled with snappy dialogue and smart acting.

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A group of thieves steal a rare gem, but in the process, two of the men double cross the leader of the thieving group, Patrick (Sean Bean), and take off with the precious stone. Ten years later, prominent psychiatrist Nathan Conrad (Michael Douglas) is invited to examine a disturbed young woman named Elisabeth (Brittany Murphy). Patrick immediately kidnaps Nathan’s daughter, forcing Nathan to attempt to get Elisabeth to reveal a secret number which will ultimately lead Patrick to the whereabouts of the precious gem that has eluded him. Written by Anna {dimenxia@yahoo.com}

Frank Martin is the best in the business. The ex-Special Forces operative hires himself out as a mercenary “transporter” who moves goods–human or otherwise. Very simple, he delivers, no questions asked. Frank has relocated from the French Mediterranean to Miami, Florida, where as a favor to a friend, Frank is driving for the wealthy Billings family. There’s very little that can surprise The Transporter, but young Jack Billings has done just that; Frank has unexpectedly bonded with Jack, age 6, who he drives to and from school. But when Jack is kidnapped, Frank must use his battle-tested combat skills to retrieve the boy and thwart the kidnappers’ master plan to release a virus that will kill anyone with whom it comes in contact. Written by Anthony Pereyra {hypersonic91@yahoo.com}

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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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Part four in the Hannibal Lecter Quadrilogy. Having escaped the asylum in “Silence of the Lambs,” Dr Lecter goes into hiding in Florence, Italy. Back in America, Mason Verger, an old victim of the doctor’s, seeks revenge. Disfigured and confined to a life-support system, he plans to draw Lecter out of his hiding place, using the one thing he truly cares for: Clarice Starling. Written by James McManus

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Whether or not you are a fan of the 1986 “Manhunter” (also based on Thomas Harris’ “Red Dragon“), you’ve got to admit that seeing Sir Anthony Hopkins crawl into Hannibal Lecter’s skin one more time makes for gripping entertainment.

“Manhunter” was a different film - different cast, different script, different. Period. End of statement. For the benefit of this review, let’s allow “Red Dragon” to pass or fail on its own merits. There are countless books that have been made into multiple films by different filmmakers and hundreds of movies that are simply remakes of earlier versions. What’s the point of debating whether or not Brett Ratner’s “Red Dragon” needed to be made in the first place? It’s done already; let’s get past it.

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Ex-Special Forces operator Frank Martin lives what seems to be a quiet life along the French Mediterranean, hiring himself out as a mercenary “transporter” who moves goods–human or otherwise–from one place to another. No questions asked. Carrying out mysterious and sometimes dangerous tasks in his tricked-out BMW, Frank adheres to a strict set of rules, which he never breaks. Rule One: Never change the deal. Rule Two: No names–Frank doesn’t want to know whom he’s working for, or what he’s transporting. Rule Three: never look in the package. Frank’s newest transport seems no different from the countless ones he’s done in the past. He’s been hired by an American known only as “Wall Street” to make a delivery; but when Frank stops along the route, he notices his package is moving. Violating Rule Three, Frank looks inside the bag, finding its contents to be a beautiful, gagged woman. Frank’s steadfast adherence to his other two rules–which make up his basic code of survival–also quickly fails, hurtling him and his new companion on a road leading to shocking secrets, deadly complications, and the last thing that Frank ever expected to come to believe: that rules are made to be broken. Written by Anthony Pereyra {hypersonic91@yahoo.com}

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Hunters and their prey–Neil and his professional criminal crew hunt to score big money targets (banks, vaults, armored cars) and are, in turn, hunted by Lt. Vincent Hanna and his team of cops in the Robbery/Homicide police division. A botched job puts Hanna onto their trail while they regroup and try to put together one last big ‘retirement’ score. Neil and Vincent are similar in many ways, including their troubled personal lives. At a crucial moment in his life, Neil disobeys the dictum taught to him long ago by his criminal mentor–’Never have anything in your life that you can’t walk out on in thirty seconds flat, if you spot the heat coming around the corner’–as he falls in love. Thus the stage is set for the suspenseful ending…. Written by Tad Dibbern {DIBBERN_D@a1.mscf.upenn.edu}

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There’s an eerie, otherworldly feel to the way director Michael Mann (“The Insider,” “Heat”) has portrayed the City of Angels in “Collateral.” Los Angeles at night is a whole different beast and in Mann’s hands, the city itself becomes a living, breathing character. Dark and brooding, the LA depicted in “Collateral” provides the perfect backdrop to this intense action thriller.

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Narcotics cops Mike Lowrey (Smith) and Marcus Bennett (Lawrence) head up a task force investigating the flow of ecstasy into Miami. Their search leads to a dangerous kingpin, whose plan to control the city’s drug traffic has touched off an underground war. Meanwhile, things get sexy between Mike and Syd (Union), Marcus’s sister. Written by Anonymous

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