Larry Drake

The Royal National Gallery of London sends Mr. Bean, their most inept and detested employee, to California for the transfer of a painting in a desperate attempt to get rid of him.

The journey that August King takes is one of faith. He is conflicted with what the world tells him in the here and now and resists any idea that he is connected to the plight of this young woman. His journey is a metamorphosis. During this journey he changes and grows in his faith without ever realizing it -- at each turn he is making the critical decision to not only help someone, but to take a leap of faith -- a faith that his wife tried to persuade him exists but one in which he does not immediately believe. He is called upon by a higher power and sees this only at the moment he loses everything. The beauty of it is that he gains everything in the interim. This film is full of symbolism and Biblical references that integral to the plot and affords the viewer an opportunity to experience what it means to chose between right and wrong, good and evil in an almost alcoholic way -- day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, second by second. We cannot know in advance, what our mission is in life we can only make critical decision one at a time until the entire mission is revealed. Jason Patric's performance is excellent as well as a performance by Thandie Newton -- before she becomes well known through other films yet to come. As a person involved in the slavery film 12 Years a Slave, I must say that this film in many ways is just as riveting and important in the telling of American History and the nation in which we live past and present. There are some strong images but this film is well worth watching. Renee Moore, themoor78@yahoo.com

A brilliant scientist left for dead returns to exact revenge on the people who burned him alive. Mild-mannered scientist Peyton Westlake, who works out of a lab set up in his loft apartment, is beaten within an inch of his life but assumed dead by criminal Robert Durant and his thugs, Durant solely wanting to retrieve a document discovered by Peyton's lawyer girlfriend Julie Hastings implicating Durant's developer associate Louis Strack, Jr. of offering bribes to get his latest waterfront development passed by the zoning commission, and about which Peyton ostensibly knew nothing. In the aftermath of the lab being destroyed in an explosion set by Durant, Julie knows nothing about Strack being behind what happened let alone that Peyton was targeted or that Peyton survived in only fragments of his body being discovered in her assumption that he perished in the explosion. She further believes that the document was also destroyed in the explosion, while in reality Durant was able to locate it in the loft. Peyton's still alive body is discovered, he only a John Doe, and is operated on by an experimental burn unit whose operation is able to keep him alive albeit permanently physically scarred, but change him fundamentally in three ways: that he no longer is able to feel physical pain; that he has increased physical strength; and that he is emotionally more aggressive to the point of being violent if pushed. Able to escape, Peyton returns to his work in developing synthetic skin. He plans to use this synthetic skin to don disguises in exacting revenge not only on Durant and his entire team of thugs, but on Strack. The problem for Peyton is that he is only able to maintain the skin for ninety-nine minutes in open light in the discovery that the material is light sensitive. —Huggo Peyton Westlake is a scientist who has discovered a way to produce synthetic skin. This could revolutionise skin grafting, except for one minor glitch; the synthetic skin degrades after 100 minutes of exposure to light. When gangsters attack Peyton, he is horrifically burnt, and assumed dead. In his quest for revenge, Peyton, aka the Darkman, is able to take on the appearance of anyone (using the synthetic skin,) but he only has 100 minutes per disguise. —Rob Hartill Scientist Peyton Westlake is working on a project to create synthetic skin. Now the skin he has developed has a flaw--it will not remain stable for more than 99 minutes. His girlfriend, Julie, a lawyer is investigating a developer. She leaves some incriminating documents at Peyton's. One night Peyton was working when the lights in his lab went out, he then discovers that the synthetic skin has remained stable past 99 minutes, he deduces that it's because of light that the skin doesn't remain stable. And it is at that moment that a psychotic criminal, Robert Durant appears demanding the documents that Julie left there. They beat up Peyton, and after finding the documents they blow up Peyton's lab. Peyton was blown away and everybody believes he is dead but in reality, he was found, burned seriously and a new procedure was performed on him that renders him unable to sense pain, he also now has tremendous strength and is now prone to violent outbursts. He is now working on perfecting the synthetic skin and at the same using his technology to make synthetic skin masks of the men who attacked him so that he could strike back at them. —rcs0411@yahoo.com