Hallock Beals Movies
- 2011
- PG13
Bruce Davison stars in this rural thriller about a pair of police officers pursuing a dangerous maniac who may have murdered four teens as their small town prepares for its annual Scarecrow Festival. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bruce Davison, Randall Batinkoff, (more)
Miley Cyrus stars as a teenager who reconnects with her father years after her parents go through a nasty divorce in this adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks novel. The novelist also provides the screenplay for the production, which is directed by Julie Ann Robinson. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi
- Starring:
- Miley Cyrus, Greg Kinnear, (more)
A man learns too well that one shouldn't promise more than he can actually deliver in this independent thriller. Charlie (Joseph McKelheer) lives in Alaska with his wife, Rebecca (Jessica Ward), and young son, James (Ben Loosli). Charlie makes a modest living as a preacher and faith healer, but he's come to question his faith, and tries to dull the pain of doubt with alcohol and affairs with other women. Charlie's life is turned upside down when Rebecca and James are brutally murdered; six months later, he's living in isolation in a trailer in the wilderness, having turned his back on his old life and given up on religion. Charlie receives an unexpected visitor in Sarah (Courtney Halverson), a lovely young woman who tells him her father is severely ill and could use his help. Against his better judgment, Charlie agrees to join Sarah for the long trip back to her family's home, but when they arrive, her brothers, Luke (Cory Knauf) and Tim (Hallock Beals), make it clear they have some unpleasant business with Charlie. Directed by Robert Saitzyk, Godspeed received its world premiere at the 2009 CineVegas Film Festival, where it received a prize for "Exceptional Artistic Achievement." ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Joseph McKelheer, Courtney Halverson, (more)
After bringing the story of the American soldiers who fought in the battle of Iwo Jima to the screen in his film Flags of Our Fathers, Clint Eastwood offers an equally thoughtful portrait of the Japanese forces who held the island for 36 days in this military drama. In 1945, World War II was in its last stages, and U.S. forces were planning to take on the Japanese on a small island known as Iwo Jima. While the island was mostly rock and volcanoes, it was of key strategic value and Japan's leaders saw the island as the final opportunity to prevent an Allied invasion. Lt. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe) was put in charge of the forces on Iwo Jima; Kuribayashi had spent time in the United States and was not eager to take on the American army, but he also understood his opponents in a way his superiors did not, and devised an unusual strategy of digging tunnels and deep foxholes that allowed his troops a tactical advantage over the invading soldiers. While Kuribayashi's strategy alienated some older officers, it impressed Baron Nishi (Tsuyoshi Ihara), the son of a wealthy family who had also studied America firsthand as an athlete at the 1932 Olympics. As Kuribayashi and his men dig in for a battle they are not certain they can win -- and most have been told they will not survive -- their story is told both by watching their actions and through the letters they write home to their loved ones, letters that in many cases would not be delivered until long after they were dead. Among the soldiers manning Japan's last line of defense are Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya), a baker sent to Iwo Jima only days before his wife was to give birth; Shimizu (Ryo Kase), who was sent to Iwo Jima after washing out in the military police; and Lieutenant Ito (Shidou Nakamura), who has embraced the notion of "Death Before Surrender" with particular ferocity. Filmed in Japanese with a primarily Japanese cast, Letters From Iwo Jima was shot in tandem with Flags of Our Fathers, and the two films were released within two months of one another. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya, (more)
