Rating:

Rent at Netflix
Rent at Blockbuster

Rogue Trader is the 1999 drama about Nick Leeson (Ewan McGregor), a banker who’s reckless and unchecked trading leads to the demise of one of the world’s oldest banks.

Based on a true story, Leeson is a young, charming, intelligent man hell bent on making himself a financial success in the trading world. After years of being a clerk with Barings, they promote him to the head of the trading floor in Singapore. There, under heavy pressure from his superiors, he begins to make risky and illegal trades in an effort to cover his losses. The losses start small, but eventually grow to insurmountable amounts as his actions start to draw the ire from his employer and local authorities.

Rating:

Rent at Netflix
Rent at Blockbuster

It’s been twenty years since Sylvester Stallone donned the crazy mullet and patented bandana that made him John Rambo, a psychologically damaged Green Beret who just couldn’t make the adjustment back to civilization. A lot has changed since then. The cold war is over, Vietnam has passed the torch to another unpopular war, and the mullet is no longer an acceptable hair style. Undaunted, Stallone has re-ignited one of the most violent movie series’ of all time with his latest installment of Rambo.

Rating:

Rent at Netflix
Rent at Blockbuster

I watched Me and You and Everyone We Know tonight based on a friend telling me I would think one part of it was hilarious. He was correct in his recommendation, I really enjoyed this movie.

I actually saw the part in question a year or so ago on the interweb as a viral video and thought it was hilarious, so when that part popped up I was really happy since I totally had forgotten that this is something that I have wanted to watch for a while.

Rating:

Rent at Netflix
Rent at Blockbuster

In 2002, horror fans were taken back by the surprise hit 28 Days Later. This independent film used new methods of filmmaking mixed with a fresh twist to the flesh-eating zombie line story found in classics such as Dawn of the Dead. The film kept audiences on the edge of their seats and brought a new, darker side to horror films that was a refreshing change in this genre. 28 Weeks Later is the anticipated sequel to the original hit, and it comes filled with the same intensity that turned audiences on their heads.

Rating:

Rent at Netflix
Rent at Blockbuster

The first time I saw Rambo, I must have been 7 or 8 years old. I remember watching it with my parents. The same time we were watching the movie we actually caught a mouse in a trap. It was on cable television and I was young…

Anyhow I grew up on the other Rambo movies and only knew them as John Rambo is a hard MF. I heard how the original Rambo movie had an entirely different ending (I will not spoil it for you). My buddy let me barrow his copy of the movie and I watched it last night and was blown away. Obviously I never understood the movie, or that it was about something bigger than a crazy military vet shooting up a town.

Rating:

Rent at Netflix
Rent at Blockbuster

Evelyn Mercer (Fionnula Flanagan) innocently walks into the local convenient store to scold one of her foster children for attempting to shoplift. She’s an angel of sorts, a kind old lady living in the roughest part of Detroit taking in the lost souls of the foster children in the city. It is at this convenient store that she meets her untimely fate as a suspicious robbery goes awry.

Rating:

Rent at Netflix
Rent at Blockbuster

Brad Jr. (Sean Penn) is a young outcast going nowhere in life. Living with his mother, grandmother, and stepbrother Tommy in a broken down home, his days are spent drinking Colt 45’s and smoking weed on the couch. Then one day everything changes when his estranged father (Christopher Walken) stops by with a wad of cash, a fast car, and a seducing lifestyle.

Rating:

Rent at Netflix
Rent at Blockbuster

Norway, Iowa sits in the heart of Iowa. A small town with a high school of only 100 kids, the school managed to put together a remarkable history in baseball that encompassed 19 straight State Championships in a 24 year run. They went toe to toe with school’s 10 times their size and came out on top. The town embraced them and the tradition reigned down from generation to generation. That is until the day the powers to be decided to merge tiny Norway High School with a larger school, and thus destroy the storied tradition that had touched so many lives.

Rating:

Rent at Netflix
Rent at Greencine

I did not really know what to expect when I rented Manda Bala. I saw it mentioned on the Green Cine blog and figured I would rent it. I am glad I did.

Manda Bala is a Brazilian documentary that I guess is illegal to view in Brazil. The main subject of this movie is the crime / corruption that is rampant in Sau Paulo and all of Brazil, and gets interviews with both victims of crime, and those that commit the crime, as well as any other party involved.

Rating:

Rent at Netflix
Rent at Blockbuster

This Is England is a film featuring a young actor by the name of Thomas Turgoose; he plays a boy named Shaun growing up in 1983 England. Shaun comes from a working class, single parent family; his father was a soldier serving in the Falkland war and lost his life there, leaving Shaun’s mother to raise him on her own.

The combination of Shaun’s lack of a father figure and his adolescent search to find an identity lead Shaun to be befriended and adopted into a local clique of skinheads.