Telling a friend you’ve set her up on a date with a sweet guy who has a good personality is like giving the dating candidate the kiss of death. But thankfully there’s no such stigma attached to the word ’sweet’ when it’s used to describe a romantic comedy. “Just Like Heaven” is the movie equivalent of a harmless first date: polite and sweet. It’s a pleasant enough way to spend an evening, yet ultimately totally forgettable.

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A dark tale based on the true story of Aileen Wuornos, one of America’s first female serial killers. Wuornos had a difficult and cruel childhood plagued by abuse and drug use in Michigan. She became a prostitute by the age of thirteen, the same year she became pregnant. She eventually moved to Florida where she began earning a living as a highway prostitute–servicing the desires of semi-truck drivers. The tale focuses on the nine month period between 1989 and 1990, during which Wuornos had a lesbian relationship with a woman named Selby. And during that very same time, she also began murdering her clientele in order to get money without using sex. This turned the tables on a rather common phenomena of female highway prostitutes being the victims of serial killers–instead Wuornos, herself, carried out the deeds of a cold-blooded killer. Written by Sujit R. Varma

A young man transporting a car to another state is stalked along the road by a cunning and relentless serial killer who eventually frames the driver for a string of murders. Chased by police and shadowed by the killer, the driver’s only help comes from a truck stop waitress. Written by Keith Loh {loh@sfu.ca}

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Igby goes down is a personal tale about a 17 year old misfit boy who copes with his mother’s cancer and his father’s insanity by pursuing relationships with older women. Truly an intellectual, Igby is a modern day Holden Caulfield, and the world he lives in is far removed from the high standards of expectation he holds for it. Written by Dan Bloggs

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After three weeks chatting with the thirty-two years old photographer Jeff Kohlver in Internet, the fourteen years old Hayley Stark meets him in the Nighthawks coffee shop. Hayley flirts with him in spite of the difference of ages and proposes to go to his house. Once there, she prepares screwdriver for them and Jeff passes out. When he awakes, he is tied up to a chair, and Hayley accuses him of pedophilia. Jeff denies, and Hayley begin to torture him, in a mouse and cat game. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

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Regina is about to divorce her husband when she finds that he has been murdered after converting every penny they owned to cash, which is also missing. She meets Cary Grant who changes his name every 15 min. or so and is interested in her husband’s money, which seems to have come from a WWII payroll he stole. His partners in crime are also very interested in where the money is, as he stole it from them as well. Everyone assumes Regina MUST know where the money is. The situation becomes more tense when the searchers begin turning up dead. Written by John Vogel {jlvogel@comcast.net}

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The killer doll is back! The all-new film is the fifth in the popular series of Chucky (”Child’s Play”) horror comedies. Making his directorial debut is the franchise creator and writer of all five films, Don Mancini. The film introduces Glen (voiced by “The Lord of the Rings” star Billy Boyd), the orphan doll offspring of the irrepressible devilish-doll-come-to-life Chucky (again voiced by series star Brad Dourif) and his equally twisted bride Tiffany (again voiced by Jennifer Tilly). When production starts on a movie detailing the urban legend of his parents’ lethal exploits, Glen heads for Hollywood where he brings his bloodthirsty parents back from the dead. The family dynamics are far from perfect as Chucky and Tiffany go Hollywood and get rolling on a new spree of murderous mayhem; much to gentle Glen’s horror. Chucky can’t believe that his child doesn’t want to walk in his murdering footsteps, and star-struck Tiffany can’t believe that the movie will star her favorite actress, Jennifer Tilly (playing herself), who soon becomes an unwitting hostess to this new family in more ways than one… Written by nathan bradley

After a long prison sentence Smiler Grogan is heading at high speed to a California park where he hid $350,000 from a job 15 years previously. He accidentally careers over a cliff in view of four cars whose occupants go down to help. The dying Grogan gives details of where the money is buried and when the witnesses fail to agree on sharing the cash, a crazy chase develops across the state. Written by Col Needham {col@imdb.com}

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Dr. David Gale, an advocate of eliminating the death penalty, is falsely accused of rape and murder. Once convicted, he ends up on death row in Texas himself, telling his story to a reporter through a series of flashbacks. Written by Jason Smith

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“Exorcist: The Beginning” has a firm grip on the title ‘Worst Movie of 2004.’ And it’s in strong contention for Worst Movie of the Decade, a title currently held on my list by “Gigli.” “The Beginning” is a disjointed, unintelligible mess that’s a very poor relation to the classic “The Exorcist.”

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