Alun Armstrong

1916. As war rages on the Western Front, the Choral Society in Ramsden, Yorkshire, has lost most of its men to the army. The Choral's ambitious committee, determined to press ahead, decides to recruit local young males to swell their ranks. They must also engage a new chorus master, and despite their suspicions that he has something to hide, their best bet seems to be Dr. Henry Guthrie (Ralph Fiennes), driven, uncompromising, and recently returned from a career in Germany. As conscription papers start to arrive, the whole community discovers that the best response to the chaos that is laying waste to their lives is to make music together.

Gabriel Van Helsing (HUGH JACKMAN) is a man cursed with a past he cannot recall and driven by a mission he cannot deny. Charged by a secret organization to seek out and defeat evil the world over, his efforts to rid the world of its nightmarish creatures have been rewarded with the title that now follows him: murderer. Van Helsing roams the globe an outcast, a fugitive, a loner, himself hunted by those who don't understand the true nature of his calling. When dispatched to the shadowy world of Transylvania, Van Helsing finds a land still mired in its past.where legendary creatures of darkness come to life.a place ruled over by the evil, seductive and undefeatable vampire, Count Dracula (RICHARD ROXBURGH).and it is Dracula that Van Helsing has been sent to terminate.

Rick and his wife Evelyn find that a re-resurrected Imhotep has kidnapped their son, Alex. They set off to save him, facing everything from skeletal pygmies to the Scorpion King!

Simon "The Saint" Templar (Val Kilmer) is a thief for hire whose latest job to steal the secret process for cold fusion puts him at odds with a traitor bent on toppling the Russian government, as well as the woman who holds its secret. Simon Templar has no real family or home, and Simon Templar isn't even his real name. Yet, Simon Templar, also known as the Saint for his use of creating false identities using the names of Catholic saints, is one of the world's most successful thieves. Slick, debonair, and a master of disguise, Simon manages to outwit the police again and again. On his next job, he is hired by the Russian Mafia to steal a cold fusion energy formula from scientist Emma Russel. However, the mission backfires as he falls for the pretty, intelligent scientist. Simon and his new love must now manage to outwit the Russian Mafia and work out the energy formula before the worst happens, and the U.S. is affected forever. —LadyN1 Simon Templar, a fictitious name a young orphan boy invented for himself in a Hong Kong orphanage years ago, is now a suave, debonair, international thief who needs to pull off just one more exuberant heist to put him at the fifty million dollar mark in his Swiss bank account (his goal amount for retirement). An easy job: simply steal Dr. Emma Russel's formula for cold-fusion, and deliver it to a Russian billionaire bent on sending Russia back to Communism. No problem, right? Wrong! There's one thing Mr. Templar, master of disguise didn't count on, falling in love. —Shannon De Lacy <delacy@execpc.com> As a young orphan, a boy refuses to accept the name given him by Priests and instead chooses to take on the name of Simon Templar after the Saint of magic. Speed ahead and the young boy is now a master thief in bidding wars with countries for his services. Using his skills of master disguise, he eludes all pursuers as he assumes names associated with the various Saints. In this role, after stealing from a Russian industrialist, the industrialist hires The Saint to steal a formula for cold fusion being developed by a young female scientist. Cold fusion is said to permit a nation to heat its citizens with only a few gallons of water. However, on this case, The Saint falls in love with the scientist placing him in a quandary of fulfilling his professional obligations or staying with the innocent young scientist. When she becomes threatened by the Russian Mafia, he has no choice but to go ahead with his job. However, she follows him to Moscow, setting off a chase across the city and through their sewers. —John Sacksteder <jsackste@bellsouth.net> Ivan Tretiak is a Russian Mafia boss who wants to create an oil crisis in Moscow and seize power. As a result, he sends Simon Templar, great international criminal, to England to get a secret formula for cold fusion from U.S. scientist Emma Russell. That formula will give Tretiak a source of cheap energy and a lot of money as result. Templar falls in love with Emma and they try to outwit Tretiak and his guerrillas, hiding from them in Moscow.

In outer space a large asteroid-like object floats above the planet Krull. It suddenly changes course and lands on the planet. From fissures in the rock pour out a vast army of strange and fearsome creatures called Slayers. They fan out and begin to terrorize villages and cities. The ruler of the Slayers and inhabitant of the asteroid, called the Black Fortress, is a hulking alien being called the Beast. A voice, belonging to an old man named Ynyr speaks of a prophecy that one day a young prince will possess the power to defeat the Beast. Until the prophecy can be fulfilled, Krull will endure many more years of terror from the Beast and his armies. The young prince believed to be Krull's savior is Colwyn. He is betrothed to a young woman, Lyssa. The prophecy also speaks of the prince's bride being born with an ancient name and that she and her husband shall rule the galaxy if the Beast is defeated. Colwyn rides to his bride's father's castle for the wedding. He and his father & their party are delayed because the roads they travel are dangerous and there are regular patrols of Slayers. When they arrive, the marriage ceremony is put into motion. Just as the bride and groom are about to complete a tradition of exchanging a magical flame the Slayers attack the castle and interrupt the ceremony. Colwyn and his father and his father-in-law-to-be mount a valiant defense but they are vastly outnumbered. Lyssa is captured, Colwyn's father and the bride's father are slain and Colwyn himself is wounded and left for dead. Some time later Colwyn is found by Ynyr, who takes him to a hidden location to tend to his wounds. He tells Colwyn of the prophecy and that he is the prince that will save the planet. However, Colwyn must save Lyssa from the clutches of The Beast, who has taken her back to the Black Fortress. Colwyn scoffs at the plan since it is widely known that with each sunrise on the planet the Black Fortress changes location and never appears in the same place twice. Ynyr seems undaunted by the ubiquitous nature of the Black Fortress -- he believes that an old wizard named the Emerald Seer can predict the next location. Ynyr also tells Colwyn that he'll need an ancient weapon to complete the mission: the Glaive, a five-bladed star-shaped device. To retrieve it the two travel to the Granite Mountains. Colwyn makes a difficult and dangerous climb into a volcanic crevice. He finds the Glaive lying in a stream of lava. He pulls it out and the sooty coating falls off, revealing an ornate weapon. When he returns to Ynyr, the old man tells him not to make use of it until he knows he needs it. As they make their way to the Emerald Seer's home, they suddenly see a meteor-like object fly by. It turns out to be a man who introduces himself as Ergo the Magnificent, a would-be sorcerer. After a seemingly confrontational conversation, Ergo decides to join Colwyn and Ynyr when he sees a large and imposing cyclops. Some time later the party encounters a small group of bandits who all still wear shackles indicating that they are actually escaped prisoners. Colwyn recognizes that they are criminals but not without honor and that they can help him in his quest. He frees them from their shackles and appoints their leader, Torquil, his new Lord Marshal. A short time later, Ergo is nearly killed by a Slayer; he is saved by the same cyclops he'd seen when he'd joined with Colwyn and Ynyr. The cyclops tells them his name is Rell. His race has a long history with the Beast -- they'd previously been a two-eyed race of giants who'd been offered the ability to see the future. However, the Beast had tricked them into giving up one of their eyes for the ability to see only their own deaths. The band arrives at the Emerald Seer's home in a thick forest. The old man has a small apprentice, Titch, whom is befriended by Ergo. The Seer uses a large emerald to predict the next location of the Black Fortress but is violently thwarted by the Beast, who crushes the gem from his location. The Seer says that he can try again from his own temple deep in a nearby swamp where the Beast's power cannot reach. In the Black Fortress, Lyssa wanders through many bizarre chambers. She is taunted by the grumbling voice of the Beast. When one of the hallways closes in on her, she enters the fortress' central chamber where The Beast himself lives. He tells her that she must marry him so he can secure his power. She refuses and he threatens to kill more of Krull's inhabitants until she agrees. While traveling through the swamp Colwyn's band is attacked by Slayers, a distraction from the Beast's real plan, sending a creature called a Changeling to kill the Seer and take his place. The Seer's body is found by Rell, who rushes to find the party. He stops the Changeling from killing Colwyn. With no seeming way to find the Black Fortress, the party settles in for the night in a nearby forest. One of the bandits' wives provides them with food. Ynyr tells the group that he will seek the counsel of an old woman, the Widow of the Web, who can also see into the future. When Torquil scoffs at the plan, citing the fact that no one has entered the Widow's lair and lived, Ynyr tells them that he knows the Widow's real name and he may be able to speak to her and live. Ynyr enters the Widow's cave which contains a giant spider web. He is immediately pursued by the Widow's guardian, a large white spider. He calls out the Widow's name, which is the same as Colwyn's bride, Lyssa, and the Widow turns over an hourglass, stopping the spider until Ynyr can enter her chamber at the center of the web. Ynyr and the Widow have a history of unrequited love and the Widow reveals that she is trapped forever in the web because she killed the newborn son that resulted from their romance. She agrees to help Ynyr and tells him that the Black Fortress will appear the next day on the Iron Desert and will remain there until sunset. For Ynyr to leave the web alive, she gives him the sand from the hourglass. Ynyr cannot stop the sand from leaking out of his hands and the widow gravely warns him that his own life will run out when all the sand has run out. Ynyr is able to leave the cave and the spider attacks the Widow's home, destroying it. Ynyr returns to the camp and calls out the next location of the Black Fortress to the band, dying shortly after. Colwyn and Torquil puzzle over how to reach the fortress in time. Rell tells them that a species of horse, fire mares, can cross the distance. The band finds a herd of the animals and sets out, leaving Rell behind at his request: his own time of death is near and he wants to be left alone. The band rides out to the Iron Desert just in time to catch the fortress. They fight Slayers while scaling the fortress' rocky exterior. Just when it seems they will not make it inside, Rell appears and holds a closing door open for them. After they are all inside, the door finally shuts, crushing Rell. Inside the fortress, the band is separated by attacking Slayers. They encounter various traps in the many chambers of the fortress. Colwyn is able to find the central chamber where Lyssa is held captive. He uses the Glaive to cut a doorway, however the process is slow. Most of his band are able to avoid being killed by traps, however some of them die. When he finally gains entry, Colwyn again uses the Glaive to fight the Beast and finally lodges the weapon in its chest. When he gestures to retrieve it, the Glaive will not return to his hand. The Beast attacks again, seemingly invincible until Lyssa reminds Colwyn that the power of the flame used during their marriage ceremony can be used as a weapon. Colwyn fires it at the Beast repeatedly until the monster is destroyed. The traps that ensnared his comrades deactivate and they join up to escape. Colwyn uses the flame to blast a hole in the wall of the fortress, allowing them to exit. The fortress sits on a lush, open field, and begins to crumble, the pieces of it flying into outer space. Colwyn and Lyssa are officially married and we hear Ynyr's voice saying they shall rule the galaxy with benevolence.

"The Duellists" is based on a story written by Joseph Conrad, which, according to the author, was itself based on a true story whose origins sprang from a ten-line paragraph in a small Southern France local newspaper. That brief paragraph reported the fatal ending of a duel between two officers in Napoleon's Grand Army. The two officers had fought a series of duels in the midst of great wars on some futile pretext. As the pretext was never disclosed, Conrad invented one. We are in 1800, in the garrison town of Strasbourg, on the Rhine. There is a lull in the Napoleonic wars, and the French soldiers are enjoying a moment of peace before resuming the slaughters. As the film opens, a young girl driving a gaggle of geese happens upon two men dueling in a meadow. Lieutenant Gabriel Féraud (Harvey Keitel), from the 7th Hussar Regiment, is in the process of settling a score with an unknown man who soon ends up skewered on the Lieutenant's épée. We learn that this man is the nephew of the Mayor of Strasbourg, and is seriously wounded, when General Treillard (Robert Stephens), Commandant of the garrison, enters his officers quarters and makes inquiries about this Lieutenant Féraud. Lieutenant Armand d'Hubert (Keith Carradine), from the 4th Hussar Regiment, admits to vaguely knowing the gentleman, and he is immediately "volunteered" by his Commandant to find him and bring him back to the barracks, where he will be put under house arrest. General Treillard, who must see that his soldiers obey the Emperors rules prohibiting combat with civilians, needs to investigate what happened in the meadow. It is somewhat ironical that Bonaparte, who spent a large part of his life dueling with the rest of Europe on a rather grand scale, involving tens of thousand of participants on both sides (but was somewhat of a dilettante when judged by present day's standards), had little respect for the same tradition on an individual level. D'Hubert, after looking all over town, ends up at Féraud's private quarters, where he learns that the Lieutenant is attending a soirée at the salon of Madame de Lionne (Jenny Runacre). At the salon, d'Hubert meets with Féraud and informs him of his mission. Féraud, having judged himself the insulted party in his morning duel, cannot comprehend the reason for his arrest. Further, he determines that d'Hubert has in turn insulted him by bursting into the salon of Madame de Lionne, disturbing him with the General's orders as he was talking to the lady. Féraud immediately challenges d'Hubert to a duel with sabers, which ends when Féraud is wounded. Now, not only has Féraud's forearm been injured, but his wounded pride demands satisfaction. From then on, for the next fifteen years, Féraud will be obsessed with the idea of settling his dispute with d'Hubert, holding him captive by Férauds tragic, ironic concept of honor. D'Hubert goes to meet his friend, an army surgeon (Tom Conti), asking his advice on how to get out of this messy situation. The surgeon tells him first, to keep away from Féraud, second, to always stay ahead of Féraud in military rank, since only duels between soldiers of equal ranks are tolerated and third, to rely on Napoleon for keeping the wars going, as there is no dueling during a state of war. Augsburg, one year later. Lieutenant d'Hubert meets an old girl friend, Laura (Diana Quick), one of the camp followers. She tells him she has an offer of marriage from a one-armed veteran, but they nevertheless resume their relationship. It happens that Lieutenant Féraud is in the same town, and of course they will duel again. Epées, this time. This encounter is not so lucky for d'Hubert, who ends up gravely wounded. Their seconds propose that now the honor of both parties has been saved, but The Duellists both refuse the opportunity for reconciliation. Laura nurses d'Hubert back to health, but after a face-to-face with Féraud and a subsequent consultation with a fortuneteller, she realizes that these duelists will go on until one of them is killed. If it is d'Hubert who is to die, she cannot see any future in their relationship. She decides to leave him and go and marry the disabled ex-soldier. Captain Féraud (he caught up in rank with d'Hubert, who was promoted earlier) and Captain d'Hubert meet in a third duel, again with sabers, in a cellar. The two combatants fight to total exhaustion in an inconclusive duel, and eventually, dirty and bleeding, must be separated by their seconds. Lubeck, 1806. Captain d'Hubert and Captain Féraud duel a fourth time, on horseback. It is Féraud's turn to be wounded, seriously enough to not be able to continue the fight to its conclusion. Laura reappears on the scene. She is now a widow, and had hoped to settle with her ex-lover, Captain d'Hubert, but she sees that this is just wishful thinking. D'Hubert, too involved in this dueling matter, remains deaf to her subtle suggestion that they resume their affair. Russia, 1812. The Emperor's Grand Army, defeated by the terrible Russian winter and the Russian battle tactics, is in retreat. Colonels Féraud and d'Hubert are now like grunts in the "sacred battalion," consisting of officers of all arms who had no longer any troops to commend. One night, around a campfire, they find themselves again face to face. They silently recognize each other. The next day, Féraud requests a volunteer to go investigate some Cossack activities in the nearby woods. The soldiers are so exhausted and despondent that Féraud had guessed rightly that d'Hubert would be the only one to follow him, with the ulterior motive of finishing their endless confrontation. Far from the camp they come face to face, each with a pair of pistols, but at that moment, a group of Cossacks appears and the two adversaries present a common front to fight them off. Following this, in a gesture of reconciliation, d'Hubert offers Féraud a drink from his hip flask, but the latter disdainfully walks away: "Pistols, next time," he says. Tour, 1814. Napoleon is in exile on the Island of Elba and the Bourbons are back in power with Louis XVIII. General d'Hubert is convalescing at his sister Leoni's home from a bad leg wound sustained during the campaign in France, fighting the Prussians. She suggests to her brother he ought to get married, and offers to introduce him to Adele (Cristina Raines), the niece of her neighbor, the old aristocrat Chevalier de Riverol (Alan Webb). After a short courtship, the two marry. D'Hubert is visited by a Bonapartist gentleman (Edward Fox), a friend of General Féraud, who tries to recruit him to aid in the planned return of the Emperor, but d'Hubert refuses. Following the "Hundred Days," the return of Napoleon to French soil, the Emperor is defeated at Waterloo, and definitively exiled to the Island of St. Helena. Louis XVIII is returned to the throne. Many known Bonapartists are arrested, including General Féraud, and these will be executed as examples. Upon hearing the news, d'Hubert meets with the Police Minister of the Second Empire, Fouché, now Duke of Otranto (Albert Finney), and requests Férauds pardon, a request that is granted. D'Hubert asks only that his intervention on Férauds behalf be kept secret. Having discovered d'Hubert's whereabouts, Féraud sends two of his ex-companions in arms to set up yet another, and hopefully, final duel. The Duellists meet at dawn, on d'Hubert's property, with pistols. Two shots each, fire at will. D'Hubert gets to fire the last shot, but instead of killing Féraud, he fires a bullet into the ground, and with this gesture becomes the rightful owner's of Féraud's life: "I shall simply declare you dead," says d'Hubert. The final scene shows Féraud, from the back, standing on a bluff overlooking the Dordogne River winding through the beautiful valley below. He stands wearing a two-pointed cocked hat and a long black, straight military capote, reminiscent of his Emperor's portraits on the Island of St. Helena - could it be "le petit caporal" (the little corporal), the Emperor himself, humiliated and defeated? It is the "end of the road" for Féraud: finally at peace, as he meditates on what has been his life.