Peter Mensah Movies

A paraplegic ex-marine finds a new life on the distant planet of Pandora, only to find himself battling humankind alongside the planet's indigenous Na'vi race in this ambitious digital 3D sci-fi epic from Academy Award-winning Titanic director James Cameron. The film, which marks Cameron's first dramatic feature since 1997's Titanic, follows Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a war veteran who gets called to the depths of space to pick up the job of his slain twin brother for the scientific arm of a megacorporation looking to mine the planet of Pandora for a valued ore. Unfortunately the biggest deposit of the prized substance lies underneath the home of the Na'vi, a ten-foot-tall, blue-skinned native tribe who have been at war with the security arm of the company, lead by Col. Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang). Because of the planet's hostile atmosphere, humans have genetically grown half-alien/half-human bodies which they can jack their consciousnesses into and explore the world in. Since Jake's brother already had an incredibly expensive Avatar grown for him, he's able to connect with it using the same DNA code and experience first-hand the joys of Pandora while giving the scientific team, led by Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) and Norm Spellman (Joel David Moore), some well-needed protection against the planet's more hostile forces.

On a chance meeting after getting separated from his team, Jake's Avatar is rescued by Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), a Na'vi princess, who brings him into her tribe in order to give the humans a second chance at relating to this new environment. When word gets out of his increasing time with the alien species, Quaritch enlists Jake to do some reconnaissance for the company, as they'd like to persuade the tribe to move their home before taking more drastic measures to harness the treasure hidden below. Yet as Jake becomes one with the tribe and begins to understand the secrets of Pandora, his conscience is torn between his new adopted world and the wheelchair-bound one awaiting him when the psychic connection to his Avatar is broken. Soon battle lines are drawn and Jake needs to decide which side he will fight on when the time comes. The film was shot on the proprietary FUSION digital 3D cameras developed by Cameron in collaboration with Vince Pace, and offers a groundbreaking mix of live-action dramatic performances and computer-generated effects. The revolutionary motion-capture system created for the film allows the facial expressions of actors to be captured as a virtual camera system enables them to see what their computer-generated counterparts will be seeing in the film, and Peter Jackson's Oscar-winning Weta Digital visual-effects house supervises Avatar's complex special effects. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi

Actor Viggo Mortensen made his first starring appearance in a film after his breakthrough performance in the Lord of the Rings trilogy with this period adventure. Frank T. Hopkins (Mortensen) is a U.S. Cavalry officer who earned a reputation as one of the fastest and most daring riders in the West; however, after taking part in the bloody massacre at Wounded Knee, Hopkins becomes disenchanted with the Cavalry, and once his hitch is up, he takes a job as a rider with a seedy touring Wild West show. During an engagement in New York, Hopkins meets Aziz (Adam Alexi-Malle), an associate of wealthy Bedouin Sheikh Riyadh (Omar Sharif), who knows of Hopkins' talents and wants him to take part in "The Ocean of Fire," an annual 3,000-mile desert horse race running from Arabia to Iraq. Hopkins accepts the invitation and sails to the Middle East with his trusty mustang Hidalgo without knowing just what he's getting himself into. Once he arrives, Hopkins learns that the punishing race course claims the lives of nearly half its contestants, and that most of his competitors ride pure-bred Arabian stallions and do not regard Hidalgo and his master as worthy adversaries. Temporarily exiled to a land where freedom eludes the multitudes and class and wealth define one's fate, Hopkins finds himself riding for both honor and principle, with the support of Riyadh and his beautiful, headstrong daughter, Jazira (Zuleikha Robinson), though the Sheikh's nephew Katib (Silas Carson) is equally determined to see Hopkins go down in defeat. Hidalgo was directed by Joe Johnston, who previously worked with animals on the run in Jumanji and Jurassic Park III. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Popular bogeymen Jason Voorhees terrorizes a group of nubile astronauts five centuries into the future in this sci-fi update of the Friday the 13th franchise. Early in the 21st century, Jason (actor/stunt man Kane Hoddar, filling the role for a fourth time) is experimented upon by army technocrats who hope to turn his supernatural invulnerability into a military application. Most of them meet a swift and bloody end -- except Rowan (Lexa Doig), a beautiful functionary, who traps the killer in a cryogenic stasis chamber. Unfortunately, she takes a machete blow in the process, gets frozen herself, and wakes up on a spaceship in the year 2455. The earth has long since been rendered uninhabitable, but the survivors include a group of archaeological students headed by Professor Lowe (Jonathan Potts), who hopes to make a quick buck by selling the corpse of the historical serial killer. The kids re-animate Rowan with the help of nanotechnology. Little do they know that a mere thaw job is enough to resuscitate Jason and reawaken his bloodthirst. Soon, the comely students and their space-marine protectors are being dispatched one by one. Help arrives in the form of a holographic chamber and an android named Kay-Em 14 (Lisa Ryder). Soon, though, Jason himself gets an upgrade -- just as the spaceship is getting ready to self-destruct. The tenth installment in the long-running horror series, Jason X was the first new entry to appear in almost a decade. In fact, the previous film, 1993's Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, was one of two installments whose titles erroneously contained the word "final." ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

Barbra Streisand and Cis Corman are the executive producers of this TV movie, filmed in Toronto by director Joseph Sargent (The Taking of Pelham One Two Three). The fact-based film recounts the aftermath of the night of December 7, 1993 when gunman Colin Ferguson (Tyrone Benskin) opened fire on a packed Long Island Rail Road commuter train, killing six and wounding 19. However, instead of re-creating that attack and focusing on Ferguson, this drama follows the life of suburban housewife Carolyn McCarthy (Laurie Metcalf), who entered politics on a gun-control platform after her husband of 30 years was killed and her 26-year-old son was wounded during the incident. McCarthy is depicted here as a crusading media personality appealing for assault weapon control, then a political candidate, and finally as the congressional representative from the fourth district of New York. Premiere April 19, 1998 on NBC. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi