Don Barnes Movies

While Microsoft may be the biggest software company in the world, not every computer user is a fan of their products, or their way of doing business. While Microsoft's Windows became the most widely used operating system for personal computers in the world, many experts took issue with Microsoft's strict policies regarding licensing, ownership, distribution, and alteration of their software. The objections of many high-profile technology experts, most notably Richard Stallman, led to what has become known as "the Open Source Movement," which is centered on the belief that computer software should be free both in the economic and intellectual senses of the word. Eventually, one of Stallman's admirers, Linus Torvalds, created a new operating system called Linux, a freely distributed software which many programmers consider to be markedly superior to Windows. Revolution OS is a documentary that examines the genesis of the Open Source Movement, and explores and explains the technical and intellectual issues involved in a manner understandable to computer aficionados and non-techheads alike. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Though Adventures in Dinosaur City predates We're Back, the two films make good companion pieces. The "live action" characters-a bunch of precocious pre-teens-are zapped back to prehistoric times. We've established that the kids idolize a group of animated TV-series dinosaurs, so guess who they meet in the flesh (so to speak)? In the manner of the "Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm" segments of the various 1980s Flintstones revivals, the kids help the dinosaurs solve Jurassic-era crimes. It's all a great deal of fun, but at 88 minutes it may be a bit too wearing for very small children. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Loosely based on the life and times of several R&B artists (The Dells, The Temptations, Frankie Lymon, Sam Cooke and others) The Five Heartbeats traces the rise and fall of a popular African-American 1950s singing aggregation. The story is told from the point of view of one of the "Heartbeats," played by Robert Townsend (who also co-produced, directed and co-wrote the script with Keenan Ivory Waynans). The film is an amalgam of anecdotes drawn from real-life experiences: the long struggle upward, the first rush of success, the dishonest record-company executives, the hard-nosed but nurturing managers, the sex, the drugs, the isolation and the precipitous downward slide. The film begins and ends in the 1990s, as the middle-aged "Duck" (Townsend) ruminates on the past and makes the best of the present. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide