Patrick Chamusso is an honest oil refinery foreman. When he is interrogated about a terrorist attack at the refinery on his shift, he produces false alibi, which worsen his condition. His jail time experience pushes him across the line, and he joins the African National Congress.

Ray Winstone is so amazing! This script is fantastic! Sadly, the film falls short. Because large-scale feature-length filmmaking is such a collaborative endeavour, you never know where the credit or blame lies. But in the case of Ian Sharp’s 2010 film Tracker, I’ll venture a guess by trying to separate the worthy and impressive elements of this film from the ultimately disappointing nature of the experience.

Silvia Broome (Nicole Kidman) is a South African U.N. interpreter who grew up in Matobo. She accidentally overhears a plot to kill the Matobo President Zuwanie (Earl Cameron), on his visit to New York, in a hushed after-hours conversation in the General Assembly Hall. President Zuwanie assassinating in America, could bring down the government… She reports what she heard to the Secret Service. Assigned to the case are Agent Tom Keller (Sean Penn) and Agent Dot Woods (Keener). However, will she survive long enough to get them to believe her?

Well, that wasn't supposed to happen. "District 9" was supposed to be another tired Man Versus Scary Alien late summer crapfest. Actually, when you think about the plot, it really should be a crapfest. "District 9" has absolutely no business being A Good Film. But, yet, here it is and here we are. We: the late summer movie going audience desperately seeking out... something... anything; one last eensy weensy morsel of precious, precious entertainment to use as an excuse to get out of the wretched heat of a mid-August sun . It: not content to be just A Good Film -- but, rather, A Great Film. And, on certain levels, maybe even An Important Film.

Jimmy and Paul are a carefully mismatched pair of New York City detectives who have endured nine years of partnership, which should put the ordeal of anyone who buys a ticket to “Cop Out” in some perspective. You will spend less than two hours in their wisecracking, undisciplined company, and that should be more than enough.

An early scene sets the tone for what will follow, even as it raises expectations just a bit. Paul (that’s the jumpy, fast-talking African-American partner, played by Tracy Morgan) persuades Jimmy (the grouchy white guy played by Bruce Willis) to let him be the one to question a suspect. The name Paul gives the technique he will use is “homage.” He says “HOMM-idge,” Jimmy says “oh-MAHZH,” and instead of calling the whole thing off, Paul storms into the interrogation room and reels off famous moments from as many other movies as he can think of, including “Die Hard.” “Not familiar with that one,” says Jimmy.

The "Hottentot Venus" was a freak show exhibition in the early 19th century, in which a black South African female, Saartjie Baartman (Yahima Torres), was displayed to European audiences curious about her anatomical differences, primarily her large hips and buttocks, a genetic trait common among her people. Not exhibited to the same spectators was another rumored physical feature, the elongated labia minora which hung down 3 to 4 inches from her vagina. As Black Venus (Vénus noire) begins, we see a plaster-cast figure of Baartman being examined at a scientific lecture, with particular attention being paid by the biologists to this feature, which they dubbed the "Hottentot skirt." This denigrating and sexist nickname is but one of the many indignities Baartman would suffer throughout her life, indignities which would continue even in death.

Something is stalking the waters off of…um, wherever this movie takes place, plucking fisherman right off their boats and dragging them beneath the waves, never to be seen again. Skipper Will McKenna, short on cash, but long on hair, knows that something fishy is going on, especially upon finding congealed pools of green slime all over his deck after the latest crew member goes missing. Pretty blond scientist Arden identifies the goop as venom, used by certain fish to paralyze their prey so they can feast at their leisure. With a reluctant assist from the town drunk and Will’s sheriff brother, a search party heads out to find the beast.

Ernie Davis was the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy. His number is retired by the Cleveland Browns, and he’s a member of the College Football Hall Of Fame. Now, he’s the recipient of his very own aggressively passable biopic. You can go ahead and order those achievements in any way you see fit.

The latest in a long series of black people breaking down barriers in a new field films, The Express is a B-movie barbeque sauce of been-there-done-that retreads. It borrows from and binges on better motion pictures like Remember the Titans; then again, all that clichéd rehashing isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Just because I love a delicately-cooked, rare filet mignon doesn’t mean a bacon cheeseburger from Wendy’s can’t effectively seduce me at one in the morning on a Tuesday.

Claire Denis is one of the world’s great filmmakers. The likes of Beau Travail, L’intrus and 35 Shots of Rum are at once blurry and precise, mood-rich driftworks that explore the psychology of alienation. White Material, co-written with Marie N’Diaye, is characteristically alluring and elliptical.

Set in an unnamed but French-speaking African country, it features Isabelle Huppert as Maria, a divorced woman trying to run a coffee plantation. Her son Manuel (Nicolas Duvauchelle) spends his days in bed. Her father-in-law Henri (Michel Subor) is sick. Her ex-husband André (Christophe Lambert) keeps telling her that she should return home. Civil war has broken out, and the violence it unleashes gets closer and closer.

Mende fisherman Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou) is captured by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels during a raid and subsequent massacre of his village in Shenge. Instead of cutting off his hands, Solomon is enslaved to work as a miner in the diamond fields under the command of warlord Captain Poison (David Harewood), while his son Dia (Kagiso Kuypers) is conscripted into the rebel forces and brainwashed into becoming a hardened, cold-blooded killer. The RUF use the diamonds to fund their war effort, often trading them directly for weapons. One day, Solomon finds an enormous, pink diamond but is caught by Capt. Poison as he secretly buries it in the ground nearby. Moments later, government troops attack the mine and Capt. Poison is injured before he can get to the stone. Both he and Solomon are taken to prison in Freetown along with the rest of the rebels.

The film begins with an animated introduction showing a plane crash in which George, then an infant, is lost in a jungle in "the Heart of Africa" (more specifically, a region called "Bukuvu"). Over 25 years later, George (Brendan Fraser) is a Tarzan-like man, the "King of the Jungle". His friends include a sophisticated talking gorilla named Ape (voiced by John Cleese), along with a toucan named Tookie, a small capuchin monkey (played by Crystal), and an African elephant named Shep, whom he calls his "dog" (all voiced by Frank Welker).

The good news? Two of Asia's biggest action superstars have teamed up for the first time. The bad news? It's 15 years too late. And what's with the white kid?

The Forbidden Kingdom is yet another picture in which we are meant to experience an exotic locale peopled entirely by "others" through the eyes of a Caucasian character. In this case, it's a fantasy world cobbled together from classic Chinese literature and period martial arts movies. As the latest entry in the category of "low expectation, Asian-themed, English-language movies written and directed by respectful American creative talent," the film is slightly above average entertainment. But I grow tired of having to lower my expectations in exchange for the pleasure of seeing talented Asian performers make an appearance on the big screen in America.

After failing the rescue attempt of a raccoon in the Himalayas (a parody of the opening to the film Cliffhanger), Ace Ventura undergoes an emotional breakdown and goes on a personal soul-searching quest by becoming a Tibetan monk. He is approached by Fulton Greenwall, a British correspondent working for a provincial consulate in the fictional African country of Nibia. Being that Ace's influence is disruptive to the monastery, the Grand Abbot eagerly gives Ace excuses by which to justify his departure.

South African cinema has been circling the drain for a while now, with a surge of pathetic teenage comedies in the vein of “American Pie” and politically correct melodramas that focus on the Apartheid struggle of the past and its repercussions in the present with as much insight as a badly made television movie clogging up screens nationwide – with the possible exception of Gavin Hood’s “Tsotsi.” Out of the blue, Ralph Ziman’s pulse-racing gangster film “Jerusalema,” based on real events, consciously goes against the tide, offering a uniquely clarifying look at the festering malevolence that plagues what has been called “the crime capital of the world,” Hillbrow. Audaciously poised in its impartial assessment of the contemporary landscape which most South Africans hear about but rarely see, “Jerusalema” is a first rate thriller, bursting at the seams with energy. Its vivid ambition is unlike anything I have seen come out of South Africa in ages.

Prachya Pinkaew is largely responsible for some of the best martial arts movies in recent memory. Films like “Ong Bak”, “Tom Yum Goong” (aka “The Protector”), and “Chocolate” are full to overflowing with flying knees, spinning elbows, and basically crazy Muay Thai freaks doing insane stunts, and that’s what makes them great. His latest movie, “Elephant White”, is his first English-language feature, and has just been released direct to video.

While there are some admirable qualities (any movie that begins with an exploding motorcycle gang can’t be all bad), “Elephant White” is an underwhelming experience. Pinkaew sticks to his standard criminal underworld fare, but this film makes abundantly clear that it was his collaboration with actors like Tony Jaa, who is essentially a gnarly little stunt dude, that really made his movies stand out. This time around Pinkaew works with more veteran actors, who happen to be much less accomplished fighters, and the movie suffers for it. In a movie like this you can forgive a lot in other aspects if the action is good enough (no one is going to accuse “Ong Bak” of having the greatest story ever told). However, in the case of “Elephant White”, while the action isn’t bad, it pales in comparison to Pinkaew’s other movies.