Victoria Smurfit Movies

A monk and a pickpocket become unlikely allies in this action adventure story. Sixty years ago, a nameless monk (Chow Yun-Fat) was appointed the guardian of a mysterious scroll that grants remarkable powers to those who possess it. After six decades of traveling the world to protect the scroll, the monk must find someone new to assume the responsibility, but as fate would have it, the new caretaker turns out to be Kar (Seann William Scott), a scruffy and distinctly non-enlightened petty thief living in San Francisco. As the monk attempts to educate Kar in the powers and responsibilities of the scroll and the ways of a monk's life, they discover they have a rival for the possession of the valuable scroll. As Kar and the monk fend off their mysterious adversary, they are aided by Bad Girl (Jaime King), a beautiful Russian mob affiliate with amazing martial arts skills and a vested interest in keeping the scroll in virtuous hands. Bulletproof Monk was based a comic book series published in 1999; Chow Yun-Fat's frequent collaborators John Woo and Terence Chang produced. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Scottish short film director David Mackenzie made his feature-film debut in 2002 with The Last Great Wilderness, the tale of two oddballs stuck in a sleepy Scottish town out in the middle of nowhere. The romantically jilted Charlie (Alastair Mackenzie) is headed to a remote location in the Highlands to burn down the house of the celebrity that stole his girlfriend away from him. On the way, he is forced to give a ride to a pseudo-Spaniard named Vincente (Jonny Phillips) who is on the run after sleeping with a violent thug's wife. En route, the car breaks down and the men are forced to stay at the Moor Lodge -- home to a group of similarly odd people that Charlie and Vince soon find themselves compelled to learn more about. The Last Great Wilderness premiered at the 2002 Edinburgh Film Festival. ~ Ryan Shriver, Rovi

For his first major project after the overwhelming success of Titanic, Leonardo Di Caprio took a risky path in this adaptation of Alex Garland's acclaimed novel, directed by Danny Boyle. Richard (Di Caprio) is an American backpacking through Asia with a handful of friends from Europe. While in Bangkok, he meets a mad Scotsman who calls himself Daffy Duck (Robert Carlyle). Shortly before Mr. Duck kills himself, he gives Richard a crude map to a place in Thailand that he claims is paradise on earth: beautiful, unspoiled, and uninhabited. For lack of anything better to do, Richard and his companions try to locate the spot, which, after a dangerous and taxing journey, takes them to a beach as beautiful as Duck said it would be. Richard and his friends settle in, but before long they discover that they are not alone; a large group of fellow travelers has already dug themselves in, and they have established a community with the same social evils that Richard was hoping to leave behind. Just as important, there is an army of natives who grow marijuana in the nearby hills and do not appreciate the presence of these visitors. The Beach proved controversial during production, partly due to production delays and shifting release dates, partly due to environmental concerns after crew members bulldozed parts of the Thai island of Phi Phi Le for the planting of non-native trees. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A century after the Normans conquer England, evil Prince John (Ralph Brown) seizes control of the realm in the absence of the rightful ruler, his brother Richard the Lion-Hearted (Rory Edwards), who has been crusading in the Holy Land. John means to replace Richard as king. John, a Norman, governs with cruelty and force of arms, and the Saxon natives despise him. Siding with John are fearsome warrior priests known as Templars. All seems lost for the Saxons. Then the Saxon hero Ivanhoe returns from the Crusades in disguise. Not far behind is Richard. Meanwhile, Ivanhoe's father, Cedric (James Cosmo), a Saxon lord who has disowned his son in the mistaken belief that he has betrayed Richard, betroths his beautiful ward, Rowena (Victoria Smurfit), Ivanhoe's beloved, to Saxon lord Athelstane (Chris Walker). If right is to prevail, the Saxons must unseat John, and Ivanhoe must restore his good name and win Rowena. John decides to sponsor a tournament between his Templar champions and Saxon knights. On the first day of the tournament, the disguised Ivanhoe heartens the Saxons by defeating the best of the Templars in a jousting match. On the second day, during sword-to-sword combat, he turns apparent defeat into victory with the help of a mysterious Black Knight (Rory Edwards). Ivanhoe suffers a wound, however, and Rebecca (Susan Lynch), a Jew, nurses him back to health. Ivanhoe had saved the life of her father, Isaac. The Templars capture Ivanhoe and other Saxons, as well as Rebecca and her father, and hold them in a castle. Then, Saxon men-at-arms led by Robin Hood (Aden Gillett) and the Black Knight storm the castle and free the prisoners. However, a Templar knight rides off with Rebecca, and his superior condemns her as a witch and sentences her to be burned at the stake. The film builds to its climax as Ivanhoe rides to save Rebecca, and viewers wonder about the ultimate fate of John, the identity of the Black Knight, and the future course of English history. ~ Mike Cummings, Rovi

One of two 1995 films from British director Peter Yates that shared strong thematic and story similarities (the other was Roommates), this drama intertwined political and generational conflict for an unusual tale of teen romance in Ireland. Albert Finney stars as a policeman in a tiny, boring County Cavan village just south of the border between northern and southern Ireland. Nothing much happens there, and the sergeant prays for one murder that he can solve and make himself famous. His real concern, however, is that his relationship with his 18-year-old son Danny (Matt Keeslar) has been strained since the recent death of his wife from a heart attack during a domestic quarrel. Danny blames his father for his mother's death and resents his father's bullying ways, so he moves in with his no-account best friend Prunty (Anthony Brophy). Danny then falls in love with Annagh (Victoria Smurfit), a beautiful, red-haired northerner, and their relationship, which becomes sexual, brings Danny's conflict with his bigoted father to a boil. Novelist Shane Connaughton, who also wrote My Left Foot (1989) and The Playboys (1992), adapted the script from his novel. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi