B.J. Hogg Movies
Monster House director Gil Kenan takes the helm for this children's fantasy about two young heroes who attempt to solve an ancient mystery in time to prevent their underground city from being swallowed by darkness. The City of Ember was built over 200 year ago, deep below the earth, where the destruction of a mass-scale disaster couldn't reach it. Equipped with a massive generator and vast supplies, the people of Ember have thrived happily for generations -- but the city wasn't meant to be lived in forever. The generator is breaking down and the supplies are running out, but two centuries in isolation have robbed the Emberites of their knowledge -- nobody knows how the electric lights work anymore, and nobody understands that there's something beyond the city besides darkness. Nobody, that is, besides Lina (Saoirse Ronan) and Doon (Harry Treadaway), two teenagers who still have the hope that everyone else has lost to ignorance and apathy -- not to mention a sheet of instructions left by the Builders themselves explaining how to leave the city. But the 200-year-old paper is falling apart, and pieces are missing. So with the lights threatening to flicker out for the last time and leave Ember in darkness forever, Lina and Doon set out on an adventure through the streets, sewers, and dark caverns of Ember to put the pieces back together. To solve the mystery, they'll have to get inside the Builders' heads, and avoid the grasp of corrupt Mayor Cole (Bill Murray), who wants to keep Ember the way it is -- no matter what the cost. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Saoirse Ronan, Harry Treadaway, (more)
Sixty-five years after making his screen debut as a young stoker in co-directors Noël Coward and David Lean's World War II drama In Which We Serve, Richard Attenborough perfects the balance between epic story and intimate tale with this drama starring Shirley MacLaine and Neve Campbell as a mother and daughter who find a relic from the past sparking an incendiary series of events. The year is 1991, and as a small American town mourns the passing of beloved World War II veteran Chuck Harris, his wife Ethel (MacLaine) numbs herself with alcohol to the point where she completely neglects her grieving daughter Marie (Campbell). Later, after Marie receives a telephone call from a boy in Northern Ireland who claims to have recently discovered a ring belonging to Ethel, a mystery nearly five decades in the making comes slowly into focus as the story drifts back into Chuck's wartime past and the days when he and Ethel first formed their powerful bond. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shirley MacLaine, Christopher Plummer, (more)
- 2005
Terry Loane's period comedy-drama Jonjo and Mickybo (also released under the title Mickybo and Me) unravels in Belfast, Ireland circa 1970, at the outset of the violence that began to erupt at that time and plagued the country for decades. It observes the allegorical friendship that develops between two young boys living on radically opposed sides of the city: Micky Boyle (nicknamed Mickybo and played by John Joe McNeill) - a consummate troublemaker and one child of many in a large Catholic family - and Johnjo (Niall Wright), an only child torn between the attentions of his mother and his maritally unfaithful father. The two boys hatch a plot to swipe a gun and go on the lam to Australia, as outlaws ala Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adrian Dunbar, Ciarán Hinds, (more)
- 2002
Based on the best-selling novel by Irish comedian Spike Milligan, Puckoon is a political satire about a town cut in half by the partitioning of Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State in 1924. The action takes place in a town known as Puckoon where an ordinary fellow named Dan Madigan wakes up one day to find barbed-wire fences running right through his neighbors' houses. All at once, Madigan's friends begin altering their personalities to suit the side of the fence they've found themselves on. So it's up to Madigan, the last sane man in town, to restore order. Originally written in 1963, Puckoon is considered the forerunner of anti-humor comedy which became the staple of shows like Monty Python and Saturday Night Live. ~ Connor McMadden, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sean Hughes, Elliott Gould, (more)
On the eve of near-future Northern Ireland's first general election, well-marketed reformer Michael Brinn (Robert Lindsay), a shoo-in for prime minister, has newspaper columnist Dan Starkey's dander up. Working the election beat alongside visiting Boston Globe writer Charles Parker (Richard Gant), Starkey (David Thewlis) watches his pointed barbs slide off Brinn's Teflon-coated backside. Drowning his troubles in drink in a Belfast park, Starkey invites beautiful art student Margaret (Laura Fraser) to a friend's party, unaware of her ties to both the IRA and to Brinn's political party. When Starkey's wife (Laine Megaw) catches him canoodling with Margaret, she kicks Starkey out and he ends up in Margaret's bed. When the girl turns up mortally wounded a mere day later, mouthing the words "divorcing Jack" just before her death rattle, Starkey finds himself a suspect in the murder. Donning a ridiculous wig and going on the lam, he must fend off a nationwide manhunt while tracing the connection between Margaret's death and the upcoming election. Shown at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival, this British/French co-production marked director David Caffrey's feature debut. Irish writer Colin Bateman adapted his own novel, one of several to feature Starkey as a protagonist. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Thewlis, Rachel Griffiths, (more)
- 1997
- PG
- Add The Second Jungle Book: Mowgli and Baloo to QueueAdd The Second Jungle Book: Mowgli and Baloo to top of Queue
A prequel to The Jungle Book, this live-action kids' film follows the young wild boy Mowgli (Jamie Williams) as he's pursued through the late 19th century Indian jungle by a variety of "civilized" men, each seeking him for their own nefarious purposes. When Mowgli is spotted by the passengers on a train, Harrison (Bill Campbell), an employee of P.T. Barnum, immediately orders his underlings to capture the kid, who will make a first-rate sideshow attraction for his boss. Joining the hunt for Mowgli is Buldeo (Gulshan Grover), a local nobleman who is secretly Mowgli's uncle and wants the boy dead so that he can inherit his brother's vast fortune. Also on the hunt is Chuchundra (David Paul Francis) and his trained monkey, and the evil tracker Karait (Dyrk Ashton), who has trained a giant python to locate whatever prey its master chooses. Trying to evade the determined hunting party with the help of his animal pals like the bear Baloo and the panther Bagheera, Mowgli stumbles upon a great lost city in the jungle, where the mad King Murphy (Roddy McDowall) rules over a monkey empire and becomes Mowgli's unlikely ally. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jamie Williams, Bill Campbell, (more)
- 1997
The life of Ferdinand, an aspiring German novelist, changes dramatically on the day he spies a beautiful harpist floating upon a seashell off the shore of the Baltic island where he lives. It is not a vision he sees, but a photo shoot featuring Rebecca, a popular Irish musician. He decides to try to be near her but is constantly thwarted. When she goes to Hamburg to give a concert, the young writer follows. It is the enigmatic and sinister Henry who gives him a ride. With Henry's entrance, the story becomes a thriller as both men seem to be obsessed with Rebecca. The difference is, while Ferdinand simply wants to meet her, Henry has much darker intentions. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1997
- R
Eoin McNamee based the screenplay for this drama on his own novel, which was itself based on real-life Protestant paramilitaries known as "The Shankill Butchers," who used the cover of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland to mask their often homicidal crimes. Set in Northern Ireland of 1975, the story opens with a killing by young psycho Victor Kelly (Stuart Townsend) and his gang, known as the Resurrection Men. The city lives in fear, and TV coverage perks the interest of journalist Ryan (James Nesbitt) and his associate Coppinger (James Ellis). Older hood McLure (Sean McGinley) hires Victor and his gang to do some dirty work, but local cop Herbie (Derek Thompson) enters the picture to put pressure on gang member Hascksaw (B.J. Hogg). As Victor's wildness escalates, Ryan uses words to weave a media myth around Victor's behavior. Meanwhile, McLure makes plans to destroy Victor. The Irish settings for this film actually were shot in Manchester, Warringon, and Liverpool. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stuart Townsend, Geraldine O'Rawe, (more)
- 1996
- PG13
Many may not know that Ireland maintained its neutrality during World War II, so that any soldiers from that conflict who found themselves on Irish soil had to be kept in captivity until the war's end. For a variety of aeronautical reasons, quite a few Axis and Allied pilots found themselves having to bail out over Ireland. In this film, captives Miles Keogh (Bill Campbell), a Canadian pilot, and Count Rudolph von Stegenbek (Angus Macfadyen), a German pilot, are rivals for the affections of Mattie Guerin (Jean Butler), a local Irish girl. How this rivalry continues is just part of the story of this exciting and romantic film. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bill Campbell, William McNamara, (more)
