Warchild

Summary: In the civil wars of 16th century Japan, two ambitious peasants want to make their fortunes. The potter Genjuro intends to sell his wares for vast profits in the local city, while his brother-in-law Tobei wishes to become a samurai. Their village is sacked by the marauding armies, but Genjuro's kiln miraculously survives, and they and their wives head for the city. However, Genjuro soon sends his wife Miyagi back home, promising to return to her soon, and Tobei, in his keenness to follow the samurai, abandons his wife Ohama. Meanwhile, a wealthy noblewoman, the Lady Wakasa, shows an interest in Genjuro's pots, and invites him to her mansion.

Summary: Mujer más fea del mundo, La

Languages: English

Sound: AAC

Comments: A HAPPY HONEYMOON GOES TO THE DOGS!...When a Great Dane disguised as a Dachsie crashes the party!

Summary: Fran Garrison's all in a tizzy because her prize Dachshund, Danke, is having pups, and she has hopes of one of the pups becoming a champion. But at the vet's, her husband Jim is talked into letting Danke wetnurse a Great Dane pup that's been abandoned by his mother. And Jim wants to keep the Great Dane. But Brutus has this problem: he thinks he's a dachshund and he's too big to be a lapdog. But when Fran ridicules Brutus one too many times, Jim's got a plan to prove to everyone (and Fran) that a great dane can be far more than just an ugly dachshund.

Languages: English

Sound: Dolby

Comments: TV as it was meant to be seen. In a movie theater.

Summary: "Weird Al" Yankovic, Kevin McCarthy (Innerspace), Michael Richards ("Seinfeld"), David Bowie (The Cable Guy), Victoria Jackson ("Saturday Night Live") and Fran Drescher ("The Nanny") star in this inspired comedy about an offbeat guy who turns a deadbeat TV station into a raging success! Broadcasting Weird Al's uniquely strange brand of humor, UHF's Channel 62 is a place you'll want to visit...with increasing frequency! George Newman (Weird Al) is a daydreamer whose hyperactive imagination keeps him from holding a steady job...until his uncle hires him as manager of Channel 62, a TV station that's losing money and viewers fast. But when George replaces the station's reruns with bizarre programs like "Wheel of Fish," "The Wonderful World Of Phlegm" and "Raul's Wild Kingdom" (where poodles fly from third-story windows), ratings begin to soar! But as the ratings rise, so does the wrath of TV mogul R.J. Fletcher (McCarthy), who wants to turn the station into a parking lot. Can George find the money he needs to stay on the air? Stay tuned!

Languages: English

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Comments: Death is the only option...

Summary: Two friends end up in jail and are now at the hands of a Doctor who plans on turning them into ultimate killing machines. -A bone-crunching bloodfest that will shock your senses -Starring genre favorite Michael Madsen

Sound: AAC

Comments: A Film of the Future

Summary: Only a few people still live in New York in 2012. They are organised in gangs with their own turf. One of them is led by Baron, another one by Carrot, and they are constantly at war with each other.

Summary:

Comments: When super just isn't enough... get ultra!

with A Prarie Home Companion, Mr Gaas Victory, Five Elements Of Kung Fu, The Long Chase

Summary:

Languages: English

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Comments: The Blood War is On

Summary: Human society has been decimated by a holocaust caused by biological warfare research gone wrong: instead of creating super-soldiers, a genetically-engineered virus turns infected humans into Hemophages, a vampire-like sub-species with enhanced physical abilities. In the infection-paranoid and technologically advanced society that follows, Violet is a singular Hemophage warrior battling the totalitarian dictator who is determined to wipe out her species at any cost.

Sound: AAC

Comments: One of the greatest adventures of world literature! Packed with fury...excitement...cunning and tempestuous love!
Ulisse

Summary: This vintage Italian production of "Ulysses" is best enjoyed as Homeric adventure for kids. While "The Odyssey" is handled with admirable fidelity, you may suppress a chuckle when Kirk Douglas, as the titular Greek hero, speaks English "and" Italian, dubbing himself in English! Looking like a "Spartacus" wannabe, Douglas brings appropriate gravity to his classically mythic exploits. Having sacked Troy, Ulysses and his stalwart crew set sail for Ithaca, only to be delayed for a decade by such epic distractions as a giant Cyclops (a memorable highlight), the madness-inducing Sirens, and the deceptive Circe, who turns men into swine. Meanwhile, Ulysses's loyal wife Penelope (Silvana Mangano) is being wooed by suitors (including Anthony Quinn, fresh from Fellini's "La Strada"), making Ulysses's homecoming an urgent necessity. Resembling a Ray Harryhausen fantasy without "dynamation," this ambitious film boasts impressive special effects (for its time), and the kind of lavish sets and costumes that were once an Italian specialty. "--Jeff Shannon"

Languages: English

Sound: Dolby

Comments: One man alone understood the savagery of the early American west from both sides.

Summary: Report reaches the US cavalry that the Apache leader Ulzana has left his reservation with a band of followers. A compassionate young officer, Lieutenant DeBuin, is given a small company to find him and bring him back; accompanying the troop is McIntosh, an experienced scout, and Ke-Ni-Tay, an Apache guide. Ulzana massacres, rapes and loots across the countryside; and as DeBuin encounters the remains of his victims, he is compelled to learn from McIntosh and to confront his own naivity and hidden prejudices.

Languages: Italian

Subtitles: English

Sound: MP3

Summary: Umberto Domenico Ferrari, an elderly and retired civil servant, is desperately trying to maintain a decent standard of living on a rapidly dwindling state pension. But he's up against his tyrannical landlady, who keeps demanding rent that he can't pay (while renting his room out to prostitutes during the day), and his only friends are the pregnant housemaid and his little dog Flike...

Summary: In a dream-like sequence, a woman's eye is slit open--juxtaposed with a similarly shaped cloud obsucuring the moon moving in the same direction as the knife through the eye--to grab the audience's attention. The French phrase "ants in the palms," (which means that someone is "itching" to kill) is shown literally. A man pulls a piano along with the tablets of the Ten Commandments and a dead donkey towards the woman he's itching to kill. A shot of differently striped objects is repeatedly used to connect scenes.

Languages: Japanese

Subtitles: English

Sound: MP3

Summary: White-collar worker Yamashita finds out that his wife has a lover visiting her when he's away, suddenly returns home and kills her. After eight years in prison, he returns to live in a small village, opens a barber shop (he was trained as a barber in prison) and talks almost to no-one except for the eel he "befriended" in prison. One day he finds the unconscious body of Keiko, who attempted suicide and reminds him of his wife. She starts to work at his shop, but he doesn't let her become close to him.

Languages: English

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Comments: It's not a job...It's an Adventure!

Summary: The battleship Missouri is about to be decomissioned. Casey Ryback is Captain Adam's personal cook. And Ryback is always butting heads with the ship's XO Commander Krill but the Captain always intercedes. One day, after the President visits the Missouri, which is also the Captain's birthday, the Captain learns that a helicopter has been cleared to land on the ship by Commander Krill, which he was not informed of. When questioned Krill tells the Captain that it's a surprise for his birthday, the Captain then allows it. Later after another one of their scuffles, Krill has Ryback locked in the freezer. During the party, the rock band reveals themselves to be mercenaries, led by William Stranix, a CIA operative, who is in league with Krill to unload all of the ship's nuclear warheads. They lock up all of the crew and make preparations to remove the warheads. And Krill remembers Ryback, Stranix sends two of his men to take care of Ryback, only thing is that Ryback took care of them. Upon discovering their bodies, Stranix deduces that Ryback is more than a cook. He then sends Krill to check on him, and Krill discovers that Ryback's a NAVY SEAL, who got busted down to a cook after an incident in Panama. And Ryback continues to create trouble for them, so Stranix tries to hunt him down. Along the way, Ryback meets Jordan, a former playmate, who was supposed to entertain at the party but was also forgotten.

Languages: English

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Comments: Everyone has secrets. Some of them are crimes.

Summary: A lawyer is asked to come to the police station to clear up a few loose ends in his witness report of a foul murder. This will only take ten minutes, they say, but it turns out to be one loose end after another, and the ten minutes he is away from his speech become longer and longer...

Languages: Japanese

Subtitles: English

Summary: This is probably my favorite film out of the number of recently released Shinoda DVDs (R2 Japan, TOHO ltd. with English subtitles). Shinoda worked for Shochiku with a few of the other Japanese new wavers (in my opinion, giants of cinema) before the exodus into a more independent film-making, and in some ways he's the most conservative of the bunch (which is to say, not very conservative at all). Written by the extremely controversial author Sakaguchi Ango (an essay about his key work will be linked to at the end of the review) but to me this film didn't seem "politically" very daring at first glance. Though in a broader auteur context it does, like many Shinoda films, deal with woman's place in Japanese society in fact, it's largely a ghost story, fitting into a genre relatively defined (with a few notable examples being Kobayashi's Kwaidan, Jigoku, Mizoguchi's Ugetsu Monogatari, Shindo's Onibaba, and Kuroneko). You could call this genre a lyrical Twilight Zone riff, without the robust voice over work (usually), but more extremely stylized. Some of it's points are made very clear when you do some checking, which I'll get to a paragraph down.

Beginning in present day (1975, in a park with people dancing and singing) with a child's voice telling the viewer that Cherry blossoms are now celebrated but we're told that before the Edo period, they were greatly feared, and to be under them alone would lead to madness. We're then brought hundreds of years into the past, through a forest of blossoming cherry trees, blossoms blowing in the wind, and breezes moving the branches as if breathing (unintended plentiful "B" use). It's easy to understand why they were feared, they seem mystical, powerful, and Shinoda presents them as a force. The plot is filled with a beautiful woman (Iwashita Shima, Shinoda's wife) bending a fairly unattractive, bloodthirsty and blustery man (Tomisaburo Wakayama, recognizable from Shinoda's Captive's Island a decade earlier) to her will. Many beheadings, murder, sexual perversion (I won't go into detail here, but there are some moments that will lead to serious eyebrow raising and head scratching), and ambitious city-dwelling fill the story. And falling right in line with the ghost story genre, you have your twist ending.

You'll find a woman as man-eater ("Spider woman", that is) and man as a lust-filled animal, with plenty of tragedy thrown around. I call her a Spider-woman, yet unlike the category defining heroine of Imamura's Insect Woman, she does placate herself to a man's will at some point. She also holds up the definition in that she is sexually "free", and prone to putting pleasure at the foremost of concerns (these concerns become that of the audience as well, due to the morbid nature of her beast.) Sakaguchi wrote in his 1946 essay Darakuron ("On Decadence") that "…both the Emperor System and Bushido state that 'the virtuous widow never looks at another man.' This prohibition itself is not merely inhuman, it directly contradicts human nature." At the beginning of the film, Shima's husband is killed by Wakayama, and she immediately adapts (in this way she exhibits strongly the qualities of the "spider-woman") and places herself at the "head of the table" in her new home. I suppose you could also read the subtext of the trees bringing madness as the old way of life, and Japaneseness, having a similar result. This point comes through even more clearly when a troupe of monks are seen flailing about as if under a spell.

The cinematography is outstanding (maybe there's a listing for the individual responsible at jmdb), and the Takemitsu score adds to the dreamy flow of the film. I'll not soon forget the close-up of Iwashita with blossoms fluttering against her face as she smiles ambiguously. It's unfortunate that Desser dismisses the film as "minor", in my opinion it seems one of his best works (extremely accessible to those in need of exoticism, but a fantastic film no matter how you see it.) This, Himiko, and Ballad of Orin all seem to have similarities, which I'll give some thought to (I only have an unsubtitled version of Himiko, but it's fantastic to look at even though crippled by a language barrier).

Languages: English

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Comments: One Nation, Under Dog.

Summary: What happens when mad scientist Dr. Simon Barsinister (Peter Dinklage) and a former police beagle Shoeshine (voiced by Jason Lee) are involved in a fiery lab accident? A dog with superpowers is born (soon to be dubbed Underdog) and Dr. Barsinister becomes a man obsessed with revenge and bent on genetically modifying the entire population of Capital City. An unwitting former policeman Dan (James Belushi) and his son Jack (Alex Neuberger) adopt Shoeshine in hopes of improving their strained relationship and what follows is a typical scene of home destruction by a young dog multiplied exponentially by the incredible strength, speed, and newly developed language skills of one super dog. While Jack and Shoeshine struggle with the conflict between Shoeshine's desire to be a regular dog and Jack's insistence that he use his newfound powers to help people, mayhem reigns in Capital City as Barsinister and his henchman Cad (Patrick Warburton--"Emperor's New Groove") wreak havoc on the entire city and Jack's dad, schoolmate Molly (Taylor Momsen), and her dog Polly (voiced by Amy Adams--"Enchanted") are all unwittingly dragged into the conflict. Underdog dedicates himself to good, quickly becoming revered as a superhero, but ultimately it will take the combined efforts and understanding of Underdog, Jack, Dan, Molly, and Polly to defeat Barsinister and save Capital City from destruction. Based on the original animated "Underdog" television series, this live action film is entertaining, if not great.

Languages: Chinese

Subtitles: English

Sound: AAC

Summary: Lao San is a young veteran high in Kungfu power but low in intelligence. After landing on a job as a body guard for a wealthy antique collector, Lao San finds out his boss’s plot to rob the National Art Museum.

Sound: MP3

Comments: There can be only one winner...

Summary: In the UK suburbs, an underground tournament is set to challenge twelve fighters from different backgrounds to compete for the price of £500,000. They have been handpicked for a no-holds barred competition that will push each fighter to their limit. Each fighter has their own reason for competing, and each will give everything they've got to take the prize...but there can be only one winner.

Languages: Japanese

Subtitles: English

Comments: Ankokugai no bijo

Summary:

Languages: English

Sound: AAC

Comments: A Sensational Film That Puts the Finger On Today's Biggest Business... Crime!

Summary: Fourteen-year-old Tolly Devlin sees four hoods beat his father to death. Twenty years later, the killers have risen to the top of the crime syndicate and Tolly has a plan for revenge.

Languages: English

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Comments: At Sweetwater Prison, The World Heavyweight Champion Is About To Meet His Match.

Summary: George "Ice Man" Chambers (Rhames) is a top ranked heavyweight boxer. However Chambers has his world turned upside down when he is accused of rape and sent to prison. Upon his arrival he hears talk about Monroe Hutchen (Snipes) who is the top ranked prison boxing champ 10 years running. Immediately there is bad blood with Chambers not wanting to be second to no one which leads to a lunch room fight between the men. Figuring it will be a good way to make money fellow convict Emmanuel 'Mendy' Ripstein (Peter Falk) sets up a prison boxing match between the two men to decide who is the real UNDISPUTED champ. Michael Rooker plays a guard, Fisher Stevens, John Seda, and Master P co star.

Languages: English

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Comments: He's not fighting for a title... He's fighting for his life.

Summary:

Sound: Dolby

Comments: HORROR to make you GASP!

Summary: A rarely seen movie about a werewolf who prowls around at night but only kills certain members of one family. It seems like just a coincidence but the investigating Inspector soon finds out that this tradition has gone on for generations and tries to find a link between the werewolf and the family, leading to a frightening conclusion.

Sound: Dolby

Summary:

Languages: English

Sound: Dolby

Comments: Will somebody "get her" tonite?

Summary: Sir Alfred De Carter suspects his wife of infidelity. While conducting a symphony orchestra, he imagines three different ways of dealing with the situation. When the concert ends, he tries acting out his fantasies, but things do not go as well in reality as they did in his imagination.

Languages: English

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Summary: The town of Big Whisky is full of normal people trying to lead quiet lives. Cowboys try to make a living. Sheriff 'Little Bill' tries to build a house and keep a heavy-handed order. The town whores just try to get by.Then a couple of cowboys cut up a whore. Unsatisfied with Bill's justice, the prostitutes put a bounty on the cowboys. The bounty attracts a young gun billing himself as 'The Schofield Kid', and aging killer William Munny. Munny reformed for his young wife, and has been raising crops and two children in peace. But his wife is gone. Farm life is hard. And Munny is no good at it. So he calls his old partner Ned, saddles his ornery nag, and rides off to kill one more time, blurring the lines between heroism and villainy, man and myth.

Sound: MP3

Summary:

Languages: English

Comments: The future has a bad attitude.

Summary: NOW I COULD EASYLY SAY THIS WILL GO DOWN AS ONE OF THE GRATEST MOVE EVER MADE IN THE WORLD THAT IS SO FOR SHORE & THAT IS PUTTING IT LIGHTLY

Languages: English

Subtitles: Spanish, French

Sound: AAC

Summary: Long before teams of technicians used computers to bring monsters and superheroes to the screen, one man equipped with little more than a makeup kit and a remarkable acting talent dazzled moviegoers with his ability to transform himself into all manner of men, monsters and outcasts. That man was Lon Chaney. This 2-Disc Chaney celebration includes three of his major works. The Ace of Hearts, - a tale of murderous intrigue, Laugh, Clown, Laugh - Chaney as a love-smitten circus clown, and The Unknown - where Chaney is a armless knife thrower. These are in their most complete surviving versions. Narrated by Kenneth Branagh, Turner Classic Movies' compelling documentary Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces explores Chaney's diverse career and very private personal life. They are a few of this genius's thousand faces - faces that continue to amaze and entertain

Languages: English

Sound: MP3

Comments: Luck never gives. It only lends.

Summary: Somewhere, between the boundaries of life and death, lays the darkest places in the human heart. In these dimly lit recesses crouch fears older than mankind itself. Yet only by visiting this netherworld from time to time can we hope to unearth what lurks just beyond the grasp of our imaginations. The Unknown Trilogy dares to navigate these shadowy passages in three chilling tales that will make you glad you decided to come along for the ride...

Languages: English

Sound: Dolby

Comments: Drilling into the forbidding depths of the earth!

Summary: Dr. Jerimiah Morley becomes convinced that the world is headed to an inevitable worldwide nuclear war. He organizes an expedition made up of a team of expert scientists and an atomic-powered rock-boring vehicle called a "cyclotram" to find a subterranean environment where holocaust survivors could live indefinitely. When funding falls through, independently rich adventurer Wright Thompson underwrites the project under the condition that he be allowed to go. As the group goes deeper beneath the Earth's crust, personalities clash, tempers flare, and the dangerous journey claims the lives of several expedition members. When they come upon an enormous underground expanse with its own ocean and phosphorescent light, it appears that their goal has been achieved.

Languages: English

Sound: AAC

Summary: Sisters Jane and Penny are arrested for hitchhiking on their way to Los Angeles when they stop for a quick skinny dip in a rural town. Local agricultural magnate Trump is a sponsor for a local prison work program and the women get put in the fields to work off their sentence. Trump is dating the widowed judge in order to ensure a stable supply of cheap labor in order to undercut his competition. The prisoners suffer ill treatment, but the judge's son has signed on as a hired hand and begins to figure out the scam as he begins falling in love with Jane, and Penny dreams of making it big in showbiz.

Comments: They put him in a coma, now he's going to put them out of their misery.

Summary: Jean-Claude Van Damme stars in this bone-chilling, Dark action-packed thriller as Anthony Stowe, a down-and-out detective addicted to heroine whose days always seem to go from bad to worse. Lowe is coming off of a drug deal, in which two officers were killed, and the primary villain, the drugs, the money and the surveillance tapes are still at large. He is also dealing with his wife, who has just informed him that she is pregnant - but the child is not his. After a gunfight in which Stowe comes very close to death, After being severely wounded and losing all will to live, His body gives up and falls into a coma. After an inner battle with himself, He gains again the spirit to live again. While on the road to recovery, Stowe finds himself in a very personal battle to make amends with his kidnapped wife and to take revenge on his assailant once and for all.

Languages: English

Subtitles: English

Sound: DTS

Comments: AL CAPONE. He ruled Chicago with absolute power. No one could touch him. No one could stop him. - Until Eliot Ness and a small force of men swore they'd bring him down.

Summary: Federal agent Elliot Ness assembles a personal team of mob fighters to bring Chicago crime boss Al Capone to justice using unconventional means during the mob wars of the 1920s. This fictionalized account of the arrest of Al Capone is heavy on style and gunfire. The end shootout combines a baby carriage and stairs with a nod to Eisenstein's _The Battleship Potemkin_.

Languages: English

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Summary: A young Carl Fredrickson meets a young adventure spirited girl named Ellie. They both dream of going to a Lost Land in South America. 70 years later, Ellie has died. Carl remembers the promise he made to her. Then, when he inadvertently hits a construction worker, he is forced to go to a retirement home. But before they can take him, he and his house fly away. However he has a stowaway aboard. An 8 year old boy named Russell, whose trying to get an assisting the elderly badge. Together, they embark in an adventure, where they encounter talking dogs, an evil villain and a rare bird named Kevin.

Languages: English

Sound: AAC

Comments: They get funny when you mess with their money.

Summary: Steve Jackson and Wardell Franklin sneak out of their houses to visit Madame Zenobia's: a high-class but illegal nightclub. During their visit, however, the place is robbed and they are forced to hand over their wallets. Steve's wallet turns out to have contained a winning lottery ticket, and together they must recover their stolen property.

Languages: English

Sound: Dolby

Summary: While Urban Justice is not without it's problems, the most obvious being the embarrassing DVD cover art, this is the first Steven Seagal film since Exit Wounds to actually remind me that at one point in the action movie world, Seagal was king. It's a low budget DTV and as such it suffers. Most notably the script with some dreadful dialogue scenes also interior locations looking like the cheaply dressed sets they are and second rate actors filling out the cast. Concentrating on Seagal, he delivers in the action department. His fight scenes are all Seagal, no body doubles in this one. Arm's and necks are broken, opponents are thrown across rooms and into objects, Seagal is fast without speeded up camera tricks making him all the more believable. I can't remember the last time I saw Seagal lift his leg above knee height, in Urban Justice he kicks several opponents and actually kicks one opponent in the face. I also did not see the large gut so prominent in past DTV's. As for Seagal's acting, as anyone will know, he will never win Oscar but he can deliver a believable performance as much as is expected in a martial arts action movie when he feels like it. In Urban Justice, I did not get anything except Seagal playing Steven Seagal for the first 50 minutes or so but in the last half hour he seemed to make an attempt at giving some kind of dramatic performance and I did begin to believe that his character had lost a son and he was hell bent on revenge. There is also no voice dubbing in this, roughly 5 fight scenes involving Seagal spread out over the running time but the camera at times is to close to see Seagal in his full martial arts splendor which has been diluted with some choppy editing, one very badly edited and unimaginative boring car chase that made no sense, one very brutal and bloody shot out involving Seagal and an entire gang coming to wipe him out and the main one on one showdown at the end with the villain who killed Seagal's characters son. One thing I was disappointed with was that there was no dialogue during the final fight. I would have thought that Seagal's character would have taken some pleasure in torturing the man who murdered his son but it wasn't to be. Eddie Griffin did ok as the villain but the script did not give him any room to do much with his character and he became annoying towards the end. Danny Trejo, looking like a Mexican Charles Bronson appears for about 3 minutes and almost steels the film from everyone and ended up having the best line when one of his girls serves him some drinks. It was good to see Seagal and Trejo back on screen together again since Marked For Death. I have mixed feelings about Urban Justice. I can not stress enough how much of an improvement this is compared to Seagals past DTV's but it's also a low budget DTV with a very generic dead son revenge plot with so so direction, a bad script, and some inferior acting. The dreaded fake driving sequences with rear projection also shows it's ugly head again. There were rumors that Urban Justice could get a limited theatrical release but in my opinion it is strictly of DTV quality and nothing more. It's hard to believe that it's now 15 years since Under Siege but Seagal actually showed with Urban Justice that he is still up to the action challenge so it leaves a bitter sweet taste to see what he can do in an action film but to have to see glimmers of it in some dreadful DTV's that he has been involved with in the past. If Seagal had been making DTV's up to this production level standard this past 6 years I'd say give him another shot at a theatrical release and I'll put my money down and go see it. Urban Justice deserves to do better financial than it is going to do but Seagal has only himself to blame for that as fans left in droves because of the terrible films he has at times been involved with since Half Past Dead. Martial Arts action performance wise this is Seagal's best DTV so far however Urban Justice taken as a whole, I'd have to say Mercenary For Justice and Belly Of The Beast are still Seagal's best DTV's for my viewing enjoyment with Urban Justice slotting into the third spot.

Languages: English

Summary: If you're a fan of small, grittily made cinema, Urchin is definitely a film you should check out. The story follows a young misfit orphan who belongs to an underground "Mole People" cult of sorts led by the Old Man. The Kid is recruited to be the lackey for this group in their endeavor to make money by selling drugs. Caught between the comical mobsters who are the buyers and a dying serial killer who is trying to "collect" good souls to get to the underground paradise, The Kid struggles to stay alive and find a better life for himself and those around him. Despite the film's dark tones, in its heart is the belief that some people just have goodness in their core (even if they're just a kid). To the writer/director's credit, the film is thematically taut.

At times, the story-line can be a little hard to follow (multiple character stories interact), but the film isn't about plot twists and turns. Urchin is about tone and atmosphere - when watching it, you feel like The Kid, everything is scary and you don't have the answers, but damn if you'll figure out a way.

Lastly, the acting is some of the best I've seen in an independent film in a long time.

Summary: