The General who became a Slave, the Slave who became a Gladiator, the Gladiator who defied an Emperor...
Ridley Scott takes us back to the height of the Roman empire. The Roman General Maximus (Russell Crowe) has once again led the legions to victory on the battlefield. The war won, Maximus dreams of home, wanting only to return to his wife and son; however, the dying Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris) has one more duty for the general - to assume the mantle of his power.
Jealous of Maximus’ favor with the emperor, the heir to the throne, Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), orders his execution—and that of his family...
This is an epic masterpiece, with tremendous performance from all leading characters; Russell Crowe, Richard Harris, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Oliver Reed. The soundtrack by Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard is huge!

Computer hacker Thomas Anderson has lived a relatively ordinary life--in what he thinks is the year 1999--until he is contacted by the enigmatic Morpheus who leads him into the real world. In reality, it is 200 years later, and the world has been laid waste and taken over by advanced artificial intelligence machines. The computers have created a false version of 20th-century life--the "Matrix"--to keep the human slaves satisfied, while the AI machines draw power from the humans. Anderson, pursued constantly by "Agents" (computers who take on human form and infiltrate the Matrix), is hailed as "The One" who will lead the humans to overthrow the machines and reclaim the Earth.

A boat, believed to have $91 million in cocaine on board, is docked at a pier in San Pedro, just south of L.A. Suddenly an enormous explosion rips through the still of the night and you know that whatever or whoever was unlucky enough to be on that boat was blown halfway to hell. Within hours, a charred floating carcass is all that's left. That, and twenty-seven dead bodies.

Miraculously, there are two survivors: a Hungarian gangster who lies, clinging to life and burnt to a crisp, in a hospital bed; and Roger "Verbal" Kint, a crippled con-man from New York.
As U.S. Customs Special Agent David Kujan conducts his grueling inquisition, Kint weaves a tale that begins six weeks earlier, at a police lock- up in New York. Five felons, accused of hijacking a truckload of gun parts in Oueens, are brought in for a line-up. The cops don't have much in the way of evidence, so the five are held overnight. Five criminals. Five criminal minds. One night. One plan evolves. Five usual suspects, with one thing in common: Keyser Soze...
And so, Verbal Kint contnues to tell the story to agent Kujan, and we get to know what happened after the line-up.

A terrific tale told and performed at the very best, with Kevin Spacey as "Verbal" Kint.

 The Empire strikes back, the second movie and chapter V in the Star Wars saga, is the most powerfull of the SW films so far. Here evil is dark, mighty and fearfull - of course in the shape of Darth Vader.
The battle between good and evil forces goes on and with evil on the up side for once.
Here Luke Skywalker meets Yoda for the first time.
Along that, Han Solo gives the story action and the humorous touch.

 "Mel Gibson stars on both sides of the camera, playing the lead role plus directing and producing this brawling, richly detailed saga of fierce combat, tender love and the will to risk all that's precious for something more precious: freedom. In an emotionally charged performance, Gibson is William Wallace, a bold Scotsman who used the steel of his blade and the fire of his intellect to rally his countrymen to liberation. Filled with sword-clanging spectacle, Braveheart is a tumultuous tapestry of history come alive, "the most sumptuous and involving historical epic since Lawrence of Arabia" (Rod Lurie, Los Angeles Magazine)."

 Sam "Ace" Rothstein (Robert De Niro) has come up through the ranks of the Midwestern mob to be picked by the bosses to front their entry into Vegas. In charge of four casinos, he insures that the money keeps coming. Ace lives and breathes the odds. He eventually doubles the mob's take and finally changes the very rules of how the casinos are run. Now he is ruler and high priest of all he surveys in his magic kingdom.

But Ace can't control the odds when it comes to Ginger McKenna (Sharon Stone), the chip-hustling vamp who charms him and becomes his wife. She then turns to the bottle and pill box for consolation in her gilded cage.

The third member of this triangle of intrigue and obsession is Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci), Ace's best friend and fellow graduate of the city streets. Nicky is the hit man, and together Nicky and Ace run the perfect operation, with Ace in charge and Nicky providing the muscle. But as Nicky expands his interests and each man gains power, their lives become entangled in a story of hot tempers, obstinacy, money, love and deception. The giant machine they have created runs out of control toward an explosive conclusion. Their lives once again are remarkably transformed.

Based on a true story.

 We finally make Contact! An alien intelligence is sending a blueprint to us to build an extraordinary machine. In this we will have the chance to travel to meet our fellow inhabitants of the universe... or will we?
At the same time, human society goes through a crisis, not quite sure how to interpret the fact that we´re not alone. Is this the proof that God doesn´t exist? Or is the message actually from God?
Based on the book by Carl Sagan.

 A spectacular mix of explosive action and wickedly funny humor. Quentin Tarantino delivers an unforgettable cast of characters - including a pair of low-rent hit men (John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson), their boss’s sexy wife (Uma Thurman) and a desperate, last-chance prize-fighter (Bruce Willis in one of his better performances). Several plots are entangled and interact with each other, and the loose ends can be hard to follow. A film to love or hate.

 As a reluctant "blade runner," Harrison Ford must kill escaped replicants--angry genetically engineered slaves. David and Janet Peoples' script--based on the legendary Philip K. Dick novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?--has much to say about self-identity, fate, and what it means to be human. Vangelis's dreamy electronic soundtrack is a favorite

 The year is 2035 and human kind subsists in a desolate netherworld following the eradication of 99% of the Earth's population, a holocaust that makes the planets surface uninhabitable and mankind's destiny uncertain. Bruce Willis plays Cole, a reluctant "volunteer", who is sent forty years into the past to discover the origin of the disease responsible for the decimation. Soon after Cole arrives in the past, he is committed to an insane asylum where he escapes with the help of a mysterious patient (Pitt). Cole forcibly enlists the aid of psychiatrist Dr. Kathryn Reilly (Stowe) to help him decipher the clues he has to the puzzle of the Twelve Monkeys, which threatens to completely erase humanity from the planet.

 Brandon Lee plays Eric Draven, a young rock guitarist, who, along with his fiancee, is brutally killed by a ruthless gang of criminals. Exactly one year after his death, Eric returns - watched over by a hypnotic crow - to seek revenge, battling the evil crime lord and his band of urban thugs, who must answer for their crimes.

 Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, and Gary Oldman star in director Luc Besson’s outrageous and humouros sci-fi adventure, an extravagantly-styled tale of good against evil set in an unbelievable twenty-third century world. "Is mankind really worth saving?"

 In 2013 there are no highways, no I-ways, no dreams of a better tomorrow - only scattered survivors across what was once the United States. Into this apocalyptic wasteland comes an enigmatic drifter with a mule, a knack for Shakespeare and something yet undiscovered: the power to inspire hope. Kevin Costner directs and plays a wayfarer in a world where might makes right - but destined to lead a heroic rebellion where right makes right. Based on the book by David Brin.

In the near future, our ever advancing technology has resulted in a nuts-and-bolts revolution. The machines are now in power. Our former slaves are now our masters. The only threat to their world domination comes in the form of rebel leader John Connor, unseen freedom fighter and keeper of the human spirit who stirs the people into fighting back. At the brink of defeat in 2029, the machines are forced to play their ace. Using time displacement equipment, they send an indestructible cyborg, the Terminator, a robot clothed in human tissue, back to 1984 to murder Connor's mother, Sarah Connor, before he can be conceived. Learning of this plot, Connor sends a warrior of his own, Kyle Reese, after the Terminator in the hope of saving Sarah and assuring a future for mankind.

The musical score is beautiful, and the story has a bit deeper twitch than first meets the eye...

 "A desperate village hires seven samurai to protect it from marauders. The film weaves philosophy and entertainment, delicate human emotions and relentless action. Featuring Japan’s legendary star, the great Toshiro Mifune, Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai is an inspired epic."
And they yell... ALL the time!! :>)

There isn't much that turns me on when I turn on the TV, but below are the exceptions

MURDER ONE became the first courtroom drama series to follow a single case for the entire season. MURDER ONE lays bare the judicial system by exploring every facet of a scandalous high-profile murder trial, both inside the courtroom and behind the scenes, from the first arrest to the final verdict. Covering the whole array of players in the trial from prominent defense attorney Theodore Hoffman (Daniel Benzali) and his team of legal experts to the prosecutors, detectives, witnesses and media, MURDER ONE depicts the judicial system in all its diversity.
Daniel Benzali´s character is 50% of the reason to enjoy this series, the other 50% is the tremendously well written script.
Read the whole synopsis, episode by episode

North Jersey mob boss, Tony Soprano, self-described "waste management consultant," reluctantly seeks a psychiatrist's help after blacking out. Lest he appear weak, he must keep his therapy a secret from the rest of the Mob. He's stressed: his teenage daughter is giving his wife fits; his mean-spirited mother refuses to move to a retirement community; his aging Uncle Junior, jealous of Tony's rise to the top, won't stay in line and engineers a plot to kill Tony; and the feds, armed with RICO, are circling. In therapy, Tony must come to terms with the circumstances of his father's death, with his mother's manipulations, and with his fears of death and loss of family.