oseph Gordon-Levitt gives the best performance of his career and Jeff Daniels is equally outstanding in writer/director Scott Frank’s The Lookout, an immensely entertaining and mesmerizing story about a guy with brain damage who becomes involved in a bank robbery. Frank’s rookie directorial effort (he wrote the screenplays for Out of Sight, Get Shorty, and The Interpreter) is an amazingly genuine and absorbing film that pulls you in from the get-go and doesn’t let up until the ending credits scroll by.

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Lauren, an impassioned American reporter for the Chicago Sentinel heads to Juarez, a Mexican bordertown, in order to investigate a series of mysterious slayings involving young factory women from all over Mexico. As she discovers hundreds of victims, she gains the trust of local factory workers but falls into danger. Written by Jlo-fan

Nine strangers - a priest; a dancer; a designer; an aspirant rapper; a former tennis pro; a woman on probation; an unsuccessful composer and his wife; and a detective - are randomly abducted, drugged and locked in a house by a wealthy maniac. They are informed through a public address system that there are seventy-five cameras following them, and only one will survive and win US$ 5,000,000.00 to keep quiet. The psychological game begins, with fear and greed affecting the participants. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Billy “The Kid” and his gang is wanted by the law, and when “Doc” Scurlock and Chavez are captured, Billy has to save them. They escape and set south for Mexico. “Let’s hire a thief to catch one”, John S. Chisum said, so he paid Pat Barrett, one of Billy’s former partners, $1000 for the killing of William H. Bonney aka Billy “The Kid”. Written by Lars J. Aas {larsa@colargol.edb.tih.no}

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In a city where streets are overrun by drug dealers, those who have sworn to uphold the law are breaking them to clean up the streets. Denzel Washington plays L.A.P.D detective Alonzo Harris, a veteran narcotics officer whose methods of enforcing the law are questionable, if not corrupt. ‘Training Day‘ follows Harris as he trains rookie Jake Hoyt (Ethan Hawk) over a period 24 hours. Ethical dilemmas arise for Hoyt as well as the audience as questions present themselves as to whether or not Harris’ methodology for ridding the streets of South Central Los Angeles of drugs is right or wrong. Written by Anna {dimenxia@yahoo.com}

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Rural Australia in the late nineteenth century: Capt. Stanley and his men capture two of the four Burns brothers, Charlie and Mike. Their gang is held responsible for attacking the Hopkins farm, raping pregnant Mrs. Hopkins and murdering the whole family. Arthur Burns, the eldest brother and the gang’s mastermind, remains at large has and has retreated to a mountain hideout. Capt. Stanley’s proposition to Charlie is to gain pardon and - more importantly - save his beloved younger brother Mike from the gallows by finding and killing Arthur within nine days. Written by Armin Ortmann {armin@sfb288.math.tu-berlin.de}

on Howard and Tom Hanks miss the boat with this uninspired and flat adaptation of Dan Brown’s controversial bestseller, The Da Vinci Code. It’s sad (even disturbing) to admit but those who’ve banned the film may actually have done potential ticket buyers a favor.

In World War II, the outcome of the battle of Guadalcanal will strongly influence the Japanese’s advance into the pacific. A group of young soldiers is brought in as a relief for the battle-weary Marine units. The exhausting fight for a key-positioned airfield that allows control over a 1000-mile radius puts the men of the Army Rifle company C-for-Charlie through hell. The horrors of war forms the soldiers into a tight-knit group, their emotions develop into bonds of love and even family. The reasons for this war get further away as the world for the men gets smaller and smaller until their fighting is for mere survival and the life of the other men with them. Written by Julian Reischl {julianreischl@mac.com}

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Ronin is the Japanese word used for Samurai without a master. In this case, the Ronin are outcast specialists of every kind, whose services are available to everyone - for money. Dierdre (undoubtedly from Ireland) hires several Ronin to form a team in order to retrieve an important suitcase from a man who is about to sell it to the Russians. After the mission has been completed successfully, the suitcase immediately gets switched by a member of the team who seems to work into his own pocket. The complex net of everyone tricking everyone begins to surface slowly, and deadly… Written by Julian Reischl {julianreischl@mac.com}

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