In 1184, French village blacksmith Balian just lost his wife trough suicide grief-stricken by their childs death the crusader lord Godfrey, baron of Ibelin, reveals himself as Balians father and offers him a crusader life, which the youngster spontaneously rejects but after the local priest taunts him till his sword strikes fatally accepts, fleeing the French bishops bloody justice and seeking divine forgiveness as promised to crusaders in Jerusalem. On the way, Balian is instructed the skills of war and chivalric honor code and dubbed a knight in Messina by his father, who was fatally wounded fighting off the bishops men. After shipwreck on the Levantine coast, Balian soon proves himself a superior knight as fighter and noble idealist in the loyal service of leper king Baldwin, whose pragmatic right hand, the count of Tiberias, fails to convince Balian the ruthless knight Reynald de Chatillon and his traitorous master, candidate-heir to the throne Guy de Lusignan, must be stopped by all means before they plunge the crusader kingdom in a fatal war against the noble, militarily far superior Saracen king Saladin. When Tiberias is proven right, he leaves for Cyprus, brave Balian stays to defend besieged Jerusalem against impossible odds. HD 720p PC, Mac, PS3 and XBOX 360 COMPATIBLE

It’s the near future, and the USA is yet again in a state of high alert. Terrorism, crime, disorder and all that jazz have resulted in the passing of the Freedom Of Observation Act, which legally feeds every sound and image from every recording device in the country into a single national security dubbed ODIN; the Optical Defence Intelligence Network, naturally. It’s where the cops and the courts get their evidence. But as well as those old players, there are some new guys on the law enforcement scene; fleets of surveillance robots, essentially CCTV cameras on legs, whose name you may have already ascertained from the title. But how do we know that the images they show are the absolute truth…? And what if… gulp… these little robots didn’t just make videos, but killed stuff too?

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.

What happens when a gorup of friends on a picnic tread into an unfamiliar territory? Well, the imminent answer is that they are into deep trouble. Vertige is one such movie that deals with the same scenario where five friends venture on a mountain trail in Croatia that is closed to the public. Fred (Nicolas Giraud) fully aware of the situation convinces the others to take an alternate route which ends up in disaster for the group. The group initially calculating that they can be back to the base before sunset take on the tread very enthusiastically. In one such event the connecting wooden bridge from one mountain to another snaps up and the team is forced to take a detour to reach the base.

Vampires, it would seem, are no longer what they used to be. Actually that’s not true at all. Thanks to a certain franchise they have been dragged kicking and screaming into the mainstream, and devoured by a bloodthirsty public that are seemingly happy with whiny vampires. Fair play to them, they are what they are.

For me though vampires have always been a charming yet vicious breed. Growing up with Christopher Lee’s Dracula and Salem’s Lot and then later on Fright Night’s Jerry Dandridge (soon to be Farrellized in the remake), The Lost Boys and Near Dark. These were killers whichever way you sliced them.

In Gotham City, Batman and Robin attempt to stop Mr. Freeze from stealing a cache of diamonds, but he escapes. The Dynamic Duo soon learn that Mr. Freeze was once a scientist named Victor Fries who became dependent on a diamond-powered subzero suit following an accident in a cryogenics lab he was using to find a cure for his wife, Nora, who was suffering from a terminal illness called MacGregor's Syndrome.

You've seen it all before. Guy becomes a fighter. Guy moves up in the ranks. Guy signs with an exuberant, and probably evil, promoter. Guy gets betrayed by evil promoter. Guy fights his way out of the problem and saves his girlfriend (and/or friend) along the way. Toss in a few fights, a few stunts, a bevy of naked women, some unnecessary sex scenes and enough steroids to kill a farm of cows and voila, you've just made every crappy '80s and '90s low-brow fighting movie ever made. Hell, even The Karate Kid Part III employs certain aspects of this plot. Same goes for Stallone's Rocky V.

The horror remake train makes another stop with "It's Alive," an update of the 1974 Larry Cohen cult shocker. It almost goes without saying that the 2009 pass at the material doesn't match Cohen's austere initial take, but the absence of suspense or even basic waves of dread deflates this remake upon liftoff. A killer, bloodsucking baby film shouldn't be this passive and tedious.

With nothing more than his fists and black trunks, Mike was able to, in his words, "win all the championships." With nothing more than Mike's stories filled with brutal honesty, a couple of HD cameras and footage of "Iron Mike" both in and out of the ring, Tyson has won over critics, festival committees (Regard Knockout Award winner at Cannes in 2008) and fans alike.

Why has a film that is essentially a 90 minute long interview with a retired prizefighter/convicted rapist/ear biter garnered such praise? Because it is absolutely entertaining, or in the words of GQ's Tom Carson, one of the few critics who didn't give the film high marks, "It's never boring."

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.

The beige square on the Sundance schedule for today -- "Sneak Preview," 6:15 at the Eccles -- was, over the past few days, filled in with a thousand brushstrokes of rumor and intimation and heard-it-from-a-friend-who-heard-it-from-a-friend whisperings. The first murmuring I heard to make that "Sneak Preview" a must-see was that the presentation was going to be an evening with Steven Soderbergh, a night of clips and conversation -- until that proposition, exciting as it was, was supplanted by another rumor: That the Eccles Sneak was going to be Soderbergh showing The Girlfriend Experience, his new run-and-gun, shot-with-the-4K-Red-digital-camera, adult-actress-in-the-lead-role, largely-improvised drama about the life of a New York escort. The rumors, for once, were true.

Don't f*** with old ladies, especially if they have bad teeth and an evil curse up their sleeve. If there's anything new to be learned from Drag Me to Hell, director Sam Raimi's return to horror, it's that loan officers will have hell to pay if they dare to foreclose on your mortgage. It's a lesson that should make everyone stand up and cheer.

The film screened as a "work in progress" late last night at the completely packed Paramount Theater in Austin to a loud, raucous reaction. Some of the finer technical points clearly remain to be tweaked (sound, visual effects, maybe a little editing here and there) and end credits need to be added before its wide theatrical release on May 29. And in its present version, the ratings issue is still cloudy -- PG-13 or R?

Mathieu Almaric writes, directs and stars in this award winning and titillating comedy-drama called On Tour (Tournée). Joachim (Almaric) is a down and out producer on tour in France with real life Burlesque performers: Mimi Le Meaux, Kitten on the Keys, Dirty Martini, Julie Atlas Muz, Evie Lovelle and Roky Roulette. They are promised the big glitzy lights of Paris, but spend the entire trip in taxis, trains and hotels, giving the audience a view of France rarely seen – the behind the scenes backdrops to the cultural wonders that lie within.

At the beginning of their coastal tour of France, Joachim receives a phone call telling him that the Paris gig has been cancelled. Joachim neither has the heart nor bottle, to tell them that they will not be performing in the city that put Burlesque on the map. When the troupe do bring up Paris, Joachim glides over the issue or falls silent. Throughout the trip Joachim’s French past begins to come back. We see his children, ex-wife with breast cancer and his former collaborators, who see Joachim as a joke. Joachim’s dealings with his past are directly juxtaposed to the bickering and champagne-party swilling lives of the performers.