Tag Archives: rise and fall

21

IMDB Rating: 7.00
14314 votes

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Storyline
Ben Campbell is a young, highly intelligent, student at M.I.T. in Boston who strives to succeed. Wanting a scholarship to transfer to Harvard School of Medicine with the desire to become a doctor, Ben learns that he cannot afford the $300,000 for the four to five years of school since he comes from a poor, working-class background. But one evening, Ben is introduced by his unorthodox math professor Micky Rosa into a small but secretive club of five students, Jill, Choi, Kianna, and Jimmy whom are being trained by Professor Rosa of the skill of card counting at blackjack. Intriged by the desire to make money, Ben joins his new friends on secret weekend trips to Las Vegas where, using their skills of code talk and hand signals, they have Ben make hundreds of thousands of dollars in winning blackjack at casino after casino. Ben only wants to make enough money for the tuition to Harvard and then back out. But as fellow card counter, Jill Taylor, predicts, Ben becomes corrupted by greed and his arrogance at winning which lets his feelings get in the way, and it also puts Professor Rosa, as well as the group, on the radar of a brutal casino security enforcer, named Cole Williams, who holds a personal grudge of some kind against Rosa which threatens to undo everything the students have learned and earned.
Actors
Ben CampbellJim Sturgess
Prof. Micky RosaKevin Spacey
ChoiAaron Yoo

Boogie Nights

IMDB Rating: 7.70
45529 votes

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Storyline
Everyone's born with one special thing, and Eddie Adams uses his humongous "asset" to take the world of film pornography by storm. Things get ugly though when success leads to drugs and ruin. Will Dirk clean up and get back on top? Will Amber see her son? Will Rollergirl ever take off her skates?!
Actors
Maurice T. RodriguezLuis Guzmán
Jack HornerBurt Reynolds
Amber Waves/MaggieJulianne Moore

Blow

IMDB Rating: 7.30
40288 votes

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Storyline
A boy named George Jung grows up in a struggling family in the 1950's. His mother nags at her husband as he is trying to make a living for the family. It is finally revealed that George's father cannot make a living and the family goes bankrupt. George does not want the same thing to happen to him, and his friend Tuna, in the 1960's, suggests that he deal marijuana. He is a big hit in California in the 1960's, yet he goes to jail, where he finds out about the wonders of cocaine. As a result, when released, he gets rich by bringing cocaine to America. However, he soon pays the price.
Actors
George JungJohnny Depp
Mirtha JungPenélope Cruz
Barbara BuckleyFranka Potente

Bobby

IMDB Rating: 7.10
6138 votes

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Storyline
The Ambassador Hotel, 1968: the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy will soon take place here but none of the hotel residents and employees knows about it yet. Everyone at the hotel is busy with his own affairs, and their paths never seem to cross, not even in this closed space. However, it only seems so and twenty two individuals who will become unwitting witnesses to the tragedy will make a lot of startling discoveries and have strange meetings.

All the King’s Men

IMDB Rating: 5.90
3875 votes

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Storyline
In the 50's, in Louisiana, the smart populist, manipulative and wolf hick Willie Stark is elected governor with the support of the lower social classes. He joins a team composed of his bodyguard and friend Sugar Boy; the journalist from an aristocratic family Jack Burden; the lobbyist Tiny Duffy; and his mistress Sadie Burke, to face the opposition of the upper classes. When the influent Judge Irwin supports a group of politicians in their request of impeachment, Stark assigns Jack to find some dirtiness along the life of Irwin, leading to a tragedy in the end.
Actors
Willie StarkSean Penn
Jack BurdenJude Law
Judge IrwinAnthony Hopkins

The Aviator

IMDB Rating: 7.60
41695 votes

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Storyline
The script begins as a young Hughes directs one of Scorsese's favorite films, Hell's Angels. Hughes was so obsessed with perfection in the aerial sequences that he waits forever for perfect conditions, right down to cloud formations. The Aviator ends in 1946, when Hughes was still a dashing young man and romancing actresses like Ava Gardner and Katharine Hepburn.
Actors
Howard HughesLeonardo DiCaprio
Katharine HepburnCate Blanchett
Ava GardnerKate Beckinsale

City of God

IMDB Rating: 8.80
37754 votes

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Storyline
Cidade de Deus (City of God) is a housing project built in the 1960's that—in the early 80's—became one of the most dangerous places in Rio de Janeiro. The tale tells the stories of many characters whose lives sometimes intersect. However, all is seen through the eyes of a singular narrator: Busca-Pé, a poor black youth too frail and scared to become an outlaw but also to smart to be content with underpaid, menial jobs. He grows up in a very violent environment. The odds are all against him. But Busca-Pé soon discovers that he can see reality differently than others. His redemption is that he's been given an artist's point of view as a keen-eyed photographer. As Busca-Pé is not the real protagonist of the film—only the narrator—he is not the one who makes the decisions that will determine the sequence of events. Nevertheless, not only his life is attached to what happens in the story, but it is also through Busca-Pé's perspective of life that one can understand the complicated layers and humanity of a world, apparently condemned to endless violence.
Actors
Buscapé - RocketAlexandre Rodrigues
Zé Pequeno - Li'l ZéLeandro Firmino
Bené - BennyPhellipe Haagensen

Casino

IMDB Rating: 7.80
32821 votes

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Storyline
This Martin Scorsese film depicts the Janus-like quality of Las Vegas--it has a glittering, glamorous face, as well as a brutal, cruel one. Ace Rothstein and Nicky Santoro, mobsters who move to Las Vegas to make their mark, live and work in this paradoxical world. Seen through their eyes, each as a foil to the other, the details of mob involvement in the casinos of the 1970's and '80's are revealed. Ace is the smooth operator of the Tangiers casino, while Nicky is his boyhood friend and tough strongman, robbing and shaking down the locals. However, they each have a tragic flaw--Ace falls in love with a hustler, Ginger, and Nicky falls into an ever-deepening spiral of drugs and violence.
Actors
Sam 'Ace' RothsteinRobert De Niro
Ginger McKenna/RothsteinSharon Stone
Nicky SantoroJoe Pesci

Goodfellas

IMDB Rating: 8.60
81023 votes

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Storyline
This film views the mob lives of three pivotal figures in the 1960's and 70's New York. Ray Liotta plays Henry Hill, a local boy turned gangster in a neighborhood full of the roughest and toughest. Joe Pesci plays Tommy Devito, a pure bred gangster, who turns out to be Henry's best friend. Robert De Niro plays Jimmy Conway, the man who puts the two of them together, and runs some of the biggest hijacks and burglaries the town has ever seen. After an extended jail sentence, Henry must sneak around the back of the local mob boss, Paulie Cicero, played by Paul Sorvino, to live the life of luxury he has always dreamed of. In the end, the friends end up in a hell of a jam, and must do anything they can to save each other, and stay alive.
Actors
Jimmy ConwayRobert De Niro
Henry HillRay Liotta
Tommy DeVitoJoe Pesci