Richard Burgi

A look at the inspiration behind Thomas Kinkade's painting The Christmas Cottage, and how the artist was motivated to begin his career after discovering his mother was in danger of losing their family home. Necessity is the mother of invention. In the weeks leading up to Christmas 1977, Maryanne Kinkade has fallen behind in her mortgage payments and is about to lose her small house in Placerville, a town in California's gold country in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Her son Thom, who attends art school and is in his 20s, determines to make the transition from amateur to professional painter to help save the family's home. He seeks advice from an aging mentor. —<jhailey@hotmail.com> Inspired by true events. It's 1977, and college student and aspiring but struggling artist Thomas Kinkade, without his big city girlfriend Hope, is heading home to Placerville, CA with his younger brother Pat Kinkade for Christmas. Tom is expecting it to be a typical Placerville Christmas with their single mother, Maryanne Kinkade, being her community-minded, helpful self directing the children's choir for the Christmas pageant among other things, and all the town's eccentrics being their eccentric selves. But their Christmas may end up not being a very merry one when the boys inadvertently learn that the bank will foreclose on the mortgage at the end of the year, Maryanne not even having the money to make repairs on what is the crumbling family cottage. They later learn that the reason for the non-payment is that Maryanne lost her job in the town not drawing the tourists, Ernie, the major town booster, who is trying to market the town as the Christmas tree capital, including a planned prime time televised event. Especially with their father Bill Kinkade being a non-entity in their lives in he long ago having abandoned them in pursuing his adventurous life, both Tom and Pat want to do whatever they can to help Maryanne, Tom accepting a job, one he believes beneath him in wanting ultimately to be known as a serious artist, to paint a mural depicting Main Street at Christmas, the fee not even close to the money needed for the mortgage back payments. As the town marches on toward Christmas including Tom with this job, a combination of the change in focus of the mural as well as Maryanne helping Tom's artist mentor, Glen Wesman, as he seems to be slipping away both mentally and physically as he pines for his long lost love Nicole, may be the impetuses to turn the tide for all concerned. —Huggo

Three American college students studying abroad are lured to a Slovakian hostel and discover the grim reality behind it. Three female college students take a detour from their partying, enticed by a beautiful European woman who promises seclusion, safety, and maybe even romance. What they get is a living hell in which they are sold to the highest bidder, whose fondest wish is to kill them slowly. Hostel 2 also follows two American men who are willing to pay to join an exclusive club where a life will end at their hands--any way they like. It's a story of human monsters and the almighty dollar as only Eli Roth could tell it. —Paul Nomad of Dreadcentral.com Three pretty college students are tricked into entering a hostel where the 'hosts' like to torture, rape, and murder. Following a geographical tour of Slovakia, three women are lured into a hostel by a seductive young woman who sells them to the twisted masters, who tie them up and bring upon an unthinkable world of pain. Three young college students enter a hostel in Slovakia on the behest of a beautiful Eastern European woman. However, following a festival in the small village in which they are staying, the woman are turned over to a group that allows the highest bidder to kill. —Anonymous Rome, Italy. Lured into a deadly trap by the offer of an unforgettable weekend at a luxurious spa in Slovakia, American art students Beth, Whitney, and Lorna join their statuesque model friend Axelle on a trip to Eastern Europe. Instead, in the aftermath of the horrors of Hostel (2005), the unsuspecting companions will soon fall prey to the sick desires of the privileged few who can pay big money to inflict pain on others. And now, sold off to the highest bidder, the captives' nightmare begins. But how much is a human life worth? —Nick Riganas

In January 2000, Dick Harper (Jim Carrey) is promoted to VP of Communication for his company, Globodyne. He convinces his wife Jane to quit her job as a travel agent to spend more time with their son Billy, as Dick's salary would be able to cover their expenses. Soon after, he is asked to appear on the show Money Life, where host Sam Samuels and then independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader dub him and all the company's employees as "perverters of the American dream" and claim that Globodyne helps the super-rich get even wealthier. Dick discovers that his CEO covertly sold 80 percent of his shares in the company. As they speak, the company's stock goes into a free-fall and is soon worthless, along with all the employees' pensions, which are in Globodyne's stock. Dick tries to confront CEO Jack McCallister, but he smugly dismisses his former employee and flies away in a helicopter. Dick arrives home to find his excited wife Jane (Tea Leoni), who informs him that she took his advice and quit her job in order to spend more time with their son Billy (Aaron Michael Drozin). Dick has to break the news over dinner, instantly alarming Jane. Dick tries to think positively and tries for a few months to get a Vice President job at other corporations. However, he soon finds that Globodyne's collapse has sent the overall economy into a recession, dashing any hope of finding a lucrative new position. In addition, the television interview has tarnished his reputation as being incompetent, rendering him not suitable for hiring in his field of profession. After getting no job anywhere, Jane reveals that they'll end up declaring bankruptcy in the next couple of months. Even worse, Jane discovers that, because their pension and all their savings and investments were tied up in Globodyne's now-worthless stock, the family now has no assets and can no longer afford their mortgage payments. After coming to terms with the prospect of being poor, Dick and Jane both apply for low-paying jobs. Dick and Jane get jobs as a retail associate and a workout instructor, respectively, but Dick is fired for harassing an elderly customer and Jane is dismissed after unintentionally assaulting a client. Their utilities are soon cut off, and the couple have no choice but to pawn their valuables to their maid and take illegal off-the-books employment. This results in Dick being deported to Mexico by federal immigration officers and having to sneak back across the border while Jane suffers a severe allergic reaction while testing makeup. The last straw comes when the bank sends them an eviction notice. Dick turns to crime and persuades his wife to help him. Dick borrows Billy's squirt gun and decides to rob a local convenience store but loses his nerve and merely gets away with a slushy. After several failed attempts, they finally rob a head shop. Realizing that they get a thrill out of stealing, they begin going on nightly robbing sprees. They climb their way up the crime ladder, becoming more professional with each passing night, even stealing from people who wronged them during their job search, and eventually steal enough money to redeem the loans on their house and car, both of which were on the verge of repossession. Dick and Jane's last "job" is to rob a local bank by going undercover as corporate security personnel. All goes as planned, until another couple who used to work for Globodyne, Oz (Carlos Jacott) and Debbie Peterson (Stephanie Weir) make an amateurish attempt to rob the bank at gunpoint. The Petersons are arrested almost as soon as they appear, while Dick and Jane escape, unharmed, though without any money. Watching a news report on the arrests of the Petersons and other former Globodyne employees who desperately turned to crime, the Harpers decide to cease their criminal lifestyle. However, Dick finds that his interview with Ralph Nader has caused him to be indicted for his unwitting role in the company's collapse. While drowning his sorrows at the local bar, Dick encounters a drunk Frank Bascombe (Richard Jenkins), the former CFO of Globodyne, who reveals that the company's crooked CEO, Jack McCallister (Alec Baldwin) siphoned off all of Globodyne's assets, then dumped the entire stock, thus ruining the company while getting away Scott-free with a $400 million fortune. Bascombe, who is going to jail for his role in the collapse, got a $10 million bribe from McCallister to keep his mouth shut. After learning about McCallister's scheme, Dick and Jane decide to get revenge, with Frank's help. He tells them that McCallister plans to transfer his $400 million in bearer bonds to an offshore account in the Caymans. All Dick and Jane have to do is intercept the transfer from inside the bank and substitute a fake, transferring the funds to another account. Things go wrong when Dick accidentally loses the form, forcing him to print a new one in the bank while McCallister is there making the transfer, with Jane making the switch. McCallister realizes there are errors on the form and spots Dick. Finally, Dick holds McCallister discreetly at gunpoint, demanding he sign a paltry check, which he does. Knowing that Dick's threats are empty, McCallister mockingly cuts him a check for $100 and leaves the bank. Dick reveals to Jane it was a ruse to get his signature, so Jane (who studied calligraphy in college) can forge it. The next day, as McCallister leaves his mansion, he is mobbed by reporters and former Globodyne employees, all praising him for his generosity. Dick appears and hands him a prepared statement. Reading it on live television, McCallister is shocked to announce that "he" transferred $400 million to a trust fund to support Globodyne's defunct pension plan, in gratitude to all his former employees. As Dick and Jane lead the cheers from the crowd, there is nothing McCallister can say without revealing his own fraud. A news report later shows Dick and Jane delivering pension fund checks to former Globodyne employees (including the now-imprisoned Oz and Debbie), while reporting that McCallister's net worth has been reduced to just $2,238.04. The film ends with the wealthy Harper family driving along the highway in a Volkswagen and into the sunset. While Billy is teaching his parents Spanish words, a Bentley drives up to them. In the car is Dick's friend Garth (John Michael Higgins), who tells Dick he's got a great new job at a company called Enron.