Showing posts with label Biographic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Biographic. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Download Money Ball


Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) is upset by his team's loss to the New York Yankees in the 2001 postseason. With the impending departure of star players Johnny Damon, Jason Giambi, and Jason Isringhausen to free agency, Beane attempts to devise a strategy for assembling a competitive team for 2002 but struggles to overcome Oakland's limited payroll. During a visit to the Cleveland Indians, Beane meets Peter Brand (Jonah Hill), a young Yale economics graduate with radical ideas about how to assess players' value. Beane tests Brand's theory by asking whether he would have drafted him (out of high school), Beane having been a Major League player before becoming general manager. Though scouts considered Beane a phenomenal player, his career in the Major Leagues was disappointing. After some prodding, Brand admits that he would not have drafted him until the ninth round and that Beane should probably have accepted a scholarship to Stanford instead. Sensing opportunity, Beane hires Brand as the Athletics' assistant general manager.

The team's scouts are first dismissive of and then hostile towards Brand's non-traditional sabermetric approach to scouting players, most notably Grady Fuson (Ken Medlock) – who is fired by Beane after insulting their approach, and takes to the radio airwaves and doubts the team's future. Rather than relying on the scouts' experience and intuition, Brand selects players based almost exclusively on their on-base percentage (OBP). By finding players with a high OBP but with characteristics that lead scouts to dismiss them, Brand assembles a team of undervalued players with far more potential than the A's hamstrung finances would otherwise allow. Despite vehement objections from the scouts, Beane supports Brand's theory and hires the players he selected, such as unorthodox submarine pitcher Chad Bradford (Casey Bond). Following the free agent signings, Beane finds that he also faces opposition from Art Howe (Philip Seymour Hoffman), the Athletics' manager. With tensions already high between them because of a contract dispute, Howe disregards Beane and Brand's strategy and plays the team in a traditional style despite their unsuitability. Beane eventually trades away the lone traditional first baseman, Carlos Peña, to force Howe to use the new recruits.

Early in the season, the Athletics fare poorly, leading critics within and outside the team to dismiss the new method as a dismal failure. Beane convinces the owner to stay the course, and eventually the team's record begins to improve. The Athletics go on to win 19 consecutive games, tying for the longest winning streak in American League history. Beane's young daughter implores him to go to the A's final game against the Kansas City Royals, where Oakland is already leading 11–0 after the third inning and appears set to advance their winning streak to a record-breaking 20. Like many baseball players, Beane is superstitious and avoids attending or sometimes even following games as they are in progress, but upon hearing how well the game is going on the radio, he decides to go. Beane arrives in the fourth inning, only to watch the team go to pieces and eventually allow the Royals to even the score at 11. Finally, the A's do win, on a walk-off home run by one of Brand's picks, Scott Hatteberg. Then, despite all their success in the second half of the season, the A's lose in the first round of the postseason, this time to the Minnesota Twins. Beane is disappointed, but satisfied at having demonstrated the value of his and Brand's methods. Beane is later approached by the owner of the Boston Red Sox, who realizes that the sabermetric model is the future of baseball, and offers to hire Beane as the general manager of the Red Sox. Beane passes up the opportunity to become the general manager of the Boston Red Sox, despite an offer of a $12.5 million salary, which would have made him the highest-paid general manager in sports history. He returns to Oakland to continue running the Athletics. In 2004, two years after adopting the sabermetric model, the Boston Red Sox win their first World Series since 1918.

Download :

Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Download 12 Years a Slave



In 1841, Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is a free African-American man working as a violinist, who lives with his wife and two children in Saratoga Springs, New York. Two men (Scoot McNairy and Taran Killam) offer him a two-week job as a musician if he will travel to Washington, D.C. with them, but once they get there they drug Northup and he wakes up in chains, about to be sold into slavery.

Northup is shipped to New Orleans and is renamed "Platt", the identity of a runaway slave from Georgia. Beaten repeatedly, he is ultimately purchased by plantation owner William Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch). Northup manages to stay on good terms with Ford, a relatively benevolent master. Northup engineers a waterway for transporting logs swiftly and cost-effectively across a swamp, and Ford presents him with a violin in gratitude. Overseer John Tibeats (Paul Dano) resents Northup and begins verbally harassing him.

The tensions between Tibeats and Northup escalate; Tibeats attacks Northup, and Northup fights back. In retaliation, Tibeats and his friends attempt to lynch Northup, who suffers many hours standing on tiptoe while in the noose. Ford explains that in order to save Northup's life he must be sold to Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender). Northup attempts to reason with Ford, explaining that he is actually a free man. Ford states that he "cannot hear this" and responds "he has a debt to pay" on Northup's purchase price.

Epps believes his right to abuse his slaves is biblically sanctioned. The slaves must pick at least 200 pounds (91 kg) of cotton every day, or be beaten. A young female slave named Patsey (Lupita Nyong'o) picks over 500 pounds (230 kg) daily, and is praised lavishly by Epps. He also repeatedly rapes her, and seems to fall in love with her against his better judgement. Epps' wife (Sarah Paulson) is envious of Patsey and frequently humiliates and attacks her.

The abuse of Patsey worsens as Epps continues to rape her. Patsey wishes to die and asks Northup to kill her; he refuses. Sometime later, an outbreak of cotton worm befalls Epps' plantation; he decides that the new slaves are the cause, a plague sent by God. He leases them to a neighboring plantation for the season. While there, Northup gains the favor of the plantation's owner, who allows him to play the fiddle at a neighbor's wedding anniversary celebration, and to keep his earnings.

When Northup returns to Epps, he attempts to use the money to pay a white field hand and former over-seer, Armsby (Garret Dillahunt), to mail a letter to Northup's friends in New York. Armsby agrees to deliver the letter, and accepts all Northup's saved money. Northup is betrayed by Armsby, and Northup is narrowly able to convince Epps that the story of a letter is a lie. Northup tearfully burns the letter, his only hope of freedom.

Northup begins working on the construction of a gazebo with a Canadian laborer named Bass (Brad Pitt). Bass earns Epps' displeasure by expressing his opposition to slavery, by trying to explain to Epps that he could have a little compassion towards those working for him. Epps sees them as his property.

One day, Epps becomes enraged after discovering Patsey missing from his plantation. When she returns, she reveals she was gone to get a bar of soap from Mistress Shaw (Alfre Woodard), having become sick from her own stench as a result of being forbidden soap by Mary Epps. Epps doesn't believe her and orders her stripped and tied to a post. Encouraged by his wife, Epps forces Northup to whip Patsey. Northup reluctantly obeys, but Epps eventually takes the whip away from Northup, savagely lashing her.

Northup purposely destroys his violin, and while continuing to work on the gazebo, he asks Bass where he's from. Bass replies that he is from Canada. Northup confides his kidnapping to Bass. Once again, Northup asks for help in getting a letter to Saratoga Springs. Bass, risking his life, agrees to send it.

One day, Northup is called over by the local sheriff, who arrives in a carriage with another man. The sheriff asks Northup a series of questions to confirm his answers match the facts of his life in New York. Northup recognizes the sheriff's companion as a shopkeeper he knows from Saratoga. The man has come to free him, and the two embrace. Though Epps angrily resists and Patsey is distraught, Northup leaves immediately.

After being enslaved for twelve years, Northup is restored to freedom and returned to his family. As he walks into his home, he sees his whole family, including his daughter, who presents him with his grandson and namesake. Concluding credits recount the inability of Northup and his legal counsel to prosecute the men responsible for him being sold into slavery as well as the mystery surrounding details of Northup's death and burial.

Download :

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Download Fearless


The film starts with Huo Yuanjia fighting three Westerners: a British boxer, a Belgian lancer, and a Spanish fencer. Huo defeats all three of them and has a flashback before the next fight with a Japanese fighter called Anno Tanaka.

Huo Yuanjia watches his father Huo Endi teaching students martial arts and wants to participate, but his father is concerned about his asthma and refuses to allow him to practice martial arts. Huo Yuanjia then sees his father in a leitai match with another martial artist named Zhao, who won the fight dishonourably by retaliating when Huo Endi was distracted by seeing his son at the match. Huo Yuanjia feels humiliated by his father's defeat and vows to regain his family's honour and pride. He practices martial arts secretly behind his father's back. As the years pass, Huo Yuanjia defeats several opponents in leitai matches and becomes one of the most famous martial artists in Tianjin. However, as he becomes increasingly successful and popular, he also becomes more arrogant and ruthless towards his opponents. His late father, however, advocated the practice of showing mercy and not doing any serious physical harm to opponents.

When a rival martial arts master named Qin Lei injures one of his followers, Huo feels insulted and confronts Qin at the latter's birthday party. The confrontation escalates into a fight between Huo and Qin, in which Huo emerges as the victor by killing Qin with a fatal blow to the chest. However, Qin's godson seeks vengeance on Huo and kills Huo's mother and daughter in revenge. Guided by fury, Huo goes to Qin's house and Qin's godson admits to the murders before killing himself. Later, Huo learns that it was his follower who had provoked Qin earlier, which resulted in his beating from Qin.

Overwhelmed with grief and shame, Huo flees Tianjin and wanders aimlessly for many miles. A disheveled, graying wanderer, he nearly drowns in a river, but is saved by Granny Sun and her blind granddaughter Yueci. They bring him back to their village and Huo, guided by their simple acts of kindness, begins to learn the value of kindness and mercy.

In 1907, Huo returns to Tianjin and sees the changes that have taken place in his absence. He apologizes to the family of Qin and reconciles with his childhood best friend, the businessman Nong Jinsun, whom he offended earlier. He challenges the American wrestler, Hercules O'Brien, who has been making headlines by defeating Chinese martial artists and calling the Chinese "weak men of the East", and defeats O'Brien. He saves O'Brien from being impaled by some nails on the side of the ring which have become exposed during the fight and he wins the appreciation of O'Brien, who names Huo the victor. Huo's fame begins to spread with successive challenges with other foreign fighters. In 1909, with funding from Nong Jinsun, he founds Chin Woo Athletic Association in Shanghai.

The members of the foreign chamber of commerce fear that Huo's victories might fan anti-foreign sentiments among the Chinese people and thus become a disadvantage to them. They propose a match between Huo and four foreign champions. Huo takes up the challenge, even though it is an unfair one. Before the matches, Huo meets the Japanese champion Tanaka for tea and strikes up a friendship with him.

Back to 14 September 1910, Huo faces Tanaka in a titanic battle. In the first round, they fight with their weapons of choice. Huo uses a three-section staff while Tanaka uses a katana. The first round is a draw. Before the next round, Huo drinks from a teacup containing poison, which had replaced his original teacup. In the second round involving unarmed combat, Huo suddenly has difficulty in breathing and loses his strength. He collapses and starts coughing blood, dying from arsenic poisoning. Tanaka and Huo's supporters immediately demand that the match be halted and postponed, but Huo replies that he wants it to continue since he is going to die soon. Huo is dominated by Tanaka but he manages to deliver a blow to Tanaka's chest, similar to the one he used on Qin. Huo could have killed Tanaka with that blow but he refrained from doing so and collapsed. Tanaka declares Huo the victor moments before Huo's death. The final scene shows Huo's spirit practicing Wushu on the field as Yueci observes him with a tearful smile before he joined his wife and child in spirit.

Download :

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Download IP Man 2


Continuing from where the first film ended, Wing Chun master Ip Man and his family move to Hong Kong in the early 1950s after their escape from Foshan. There, Ip desires to open a school to propagate his art, as well as make a living during the difficult times, but he has difficulty attracting students due to his lack of reputation in the city. One day, a young man named Wong Leung appears and promptly challenges Ip to a fight, but is easily defeated. Wong leaves humiliated, only to return with some friends to gang up on him. Ip beats them as well. Stunned and impressed by his skills, Wong and his friends become Ip's first students, bringing more disciples to help the school thrive.

Wong is later caught posting promotional posters for the school by some Hung Gar students. One of them challenges Wong to a fight and loses, but his friends take Wong hostage in revenge and demand a ransom from Ip. Ip goes to the local wet market as directed, but the meeting ends in a confrontation with a growing mob of Hung Ga students. Ip and Wong fight their way outside to meet Jin Shanzhao — the martial artist and former bandit in the first film — who comes to their rescue with his own gang. The students' master and head of the coalition of Hong Kong martial arts clubs, Hung Chun-nam, arrives to break up the fight. Ip introduces himself, and Hung informs him that before setting up a school, he needs to attend a special fighting ceremony to test his worth. Ip, Wong and Jin are subsequently arrested by Officer Fatso for disturbing the peace but are later released on bail. Hung and Fatso are then shown to be acting as reluctant collectors for the martial arts schools (including Hung's) as part of a protection racket headed by Superintendent Wallace, a corrupt officer in the Hong Kong police.

Ip attends the ceremony and defeats his first challengers, before striking a draw with the last challenger, Hung. Ip is allowed to keep running his school on the condition that he pay his monthly protection fees, but he declines. Hung thus has his students loiter in front of the Wing Chun School and harass anyone interested, causing a street brawl between them and Ip's disciples. Ip is thus forced to close up and move the school nearer to home. Ip soon confronts Hung, who blames him since he wouldn't pay his protection fees, whereas Ip criticizes Hung's management of his students. Hung insists that he is doing what he must and also insists they finish their fight, but during this encounter, Ip stops Hung from accidentally kicking his son as he suddenly appears, earning respect from him. Ip leaves, and the next day, Hung invites him to a British boxing match he has helped to set up, quietly coming to terms with him.

The boxing competition allows for a demonstration by the various martial arts schools to help promote themselves and their Chinese culture. However, the event's star boxer, Taylor "The Twister" Milos, an arrogant, racist and brutal man, openly insults and attacks the students, causing chaos as the masters try to restore order. Hung accepts Twister's challenge to a fight so that he can defend his culture. Although Hung has the upper hand at first due to his wider range of skills, in the second round he suffers a misfortunate and devastating blow that severely disorientates him. As he fights on, he begins to weaken from his asthma and is eventually beaten to death by the British boxer, as he refuses to give up and allow the man to insult his culture and people. News of Hung's death rapidly spreads throughout the enraged Chinese populace, causing a scandal that spurs Wallace to hold a press conference, where he states that Hung's death was an accident, that Twister (who was lying) held back during Hung's challenge and that he was a weakling and overestimated himself (but in actuality was fighting to defend his culture) who died after a few punches. Twister announces that he will accept any challenge from the Chinese in order to get rid of his bad reputation, yet remorselessly gloats that he would murder every Chinese boxer in Hong Kong to prove the supposed superiority of western boxing. Ip Man has already arrived to challenge Twister to a fight.

As his wife goes into labor, Ip finishes training and begins his fight with Twister. Ip exchanges blows with the boxer and seems overwhelmed by the westerner's sheer muscle at first, but begins to make a comeback using his more diverse techniques and great speed. He receives an illegal punch from Twister after the second round's bell, and is also told he will be disqualified for using kicks due to the judges (thanks to Twister's manager) changing the rules during the match. When it looks like the end, Ip remembers Hung's patriotic spirit and is spurred to go on. He changes his strategy and attacks the boxer's arms to disable him. The fight is brought to a climactic finish as Ip Man rains blow after blow into the knocked-down Twister's face (reminiscent of the first film), with flashbacks reflecting the latter's killing of Master Hung. While the Chinese celebrate, Wallace is arrested by his superiors for corruption, as Fatso has secretly reported him. Ip then gives a speech to the audience, stating that despite the differences between their race and culture, he wishes for everyone to respect each other regardless of their status. Both the Western and Chinese audience give him a standing ovation while Twister's manager walks away, unhappy at the defeat. Ip goes home and reunites with his family, including his newborn second son, Ip Ching.

A final scene shows Ip being introduced to a boy named Bruce Lee who wishes to study Wing Chun in order to "beat up people he doesn't like". Ip smiles and simply tells the boy to "come back when he is older".

Download :

Friday, April 18, 2014

Download IP Man


Ip Man is set in the 1930s in Foshan, a hub of Southern Chinese martial arts, where various schools actively recruit disciples and compete against each other. Although the Wing Chun master Ip Man is the most skilled martial artist in Foshan, he is unassuming and keeps a low profile. As an independently wealthy man, he feels no need to accept any disciples and instead spends his days training, meeting with friends, and spending time with his family. However, his wife is often resentful of the time he spends training and discussing martial arts with friends and colleagues. Though not a professional martial artist, Ip is respected in Foshan due to the abilities he displays in friendly, closed-door competitions with local masters. Ip's reputation is further enhanced when he defeats an aggressive, rude, highly skilled Northern Chinese martial arts master, Jin Shanzhao, thus upholding the regional pride of fellow Southern stylists and others in Foshan.

The Japanese invasion in 1937 adversely affects the life of everyone in Foshan. Ip's house is claimed by the Japanese and used as their Foshan headquarters. Ip and his family lose their wealth and are forced to move into a decrepit house. Desperate to support his family, Ip accepts work as a coolie at a coal mine. The Japanese General Miura, who is a Karate master, establishes an arena where Chinese martial artists compete with his military trainees. The Chinese earn a bag of rice for every match they win. Li Zhao, a former police officer and Ip's acquaintance, is now working as a translator for the Japanese and is making the offer to the martial artists working as coolies. Ip at first declines to participate in the matches. However, when his friend Lin goes missing, he agrees to take part in order to investigate. He is enraged when he sees a fellow Foshan master (Master Liu) mercilessly executed for picking up a bag of rice from a prior victory after giving up in a second match against three karateka. He also comes to understand that Lin was killed in an earlier fight. Barely able to contain his rage, Ip demands a match with ten karateka at once. Despite having not practiced Wing Chun since the invasion began (in order to conserve what little food his family had to survive), he proceeds to mercilessly crush each of them with a brutal barrage of his martial art mastery, showing none of the restraint he exhibited in previous engagements. His skill arouses the interest of Miura, who seeks to learn more about Ip and see him fight again.

Ip visits his friend Chow Ching-chuen, who owns and runs a cotton mill in Foshan. Chow tells Ip that a highway robbery gang led by Jin Shanzhao is harassing his workers and trying to extort money from them. Ip trains the workers in Wing Chun for self-defense. Meanwhile, Miura grows impatient when Ip does not return to the arena and sends men to find him, prompting Ip to incapacitate them and go into hiding with his family at Li Zhao's house. Meanwhile, the robbers return to the cotton mill to demand money. The workers fight back using the techniques that Ip taught them, but Ip appears to take care of things personally and defeats Jin Shanzhao, warning him never to harass the workers again.

The Japanese soldiers eventually find Ip at the cotton mill. Miura tells Ip that his life will be spared if he agrees to instruct the Japanese soldiers in martial arts. Ip refuses and challenges Miura to a match, which Miura accepts, both because of his love for martial arts and because refusing the challenge would be a humiliation to the Japanese. The match between Ip and Miura is held in public in Foshan's square. At first, the two fighters seem equally matched, but Miura soon finds himself unable to penetrate Ip's impeccable defense and becomes overwhelmed by his relentless and direct blows. He is helpless to defend himself as Ip effortlessly uses him as a Wooden Dummy, inflicting a severe beating on him and clearly winning.

As the beaten general lies down after his defeat, Ip looks over to the cheering Chinese crowd and spots his wife and child with Chow. Suddenly, Miura's deputy Sato shoots Ip, sparking a scuffle between the Chinese audience and the Japanese soldiers. During the scuffle, Li Zhao kills Sato with Sato's own gun. Ip is taken away amidst the chaos. It is revealed that he survives and escapes to Hong Kong with his family. There, Ip establishes a Wing Chun school, where his students come to learn martial arts from him, including Bruce Lee.

Download :

Download Hachi : a Dog's tale


Students are giving oral presentations about personal heroes. Ronnie's subject is his grandfather's dog.

Years earlier, a puppy is sent from Japan to the United States, but escapes when his cage falls off the baggage cart at an American train station. Professor Parker Wilson finds the abandoned dog and when the station controller refuses to take the puppy, he takes it home with the intention of returning the animal to its owner. Initially, Cate Parker does not want them to keep the puppy. Parker learns that the dog is an Akita. The dog has not been claimed when he returns to the station the following morning, so he takes him to the college, where Ken, a Japanese professor, suggests that perhaps the two are meant to be together. He translates the symbol on the collar as 'Hachi'—Japanese for the number 8—signifying good fortune. Parker decides to call the dog Hachikō. Parker attempts to play fetch with Hachi, but he refuses to join in. Cate receives a call from someone wishing to adopt the puppy, but having seen how close her husband is with Hachi, she tells the caller, "Hachi has already been spoken for. "

Parker contiues to be mystified by Hachi's refusal to do dog-like activities like chase and fetch. One morning, Parker leaves for work and Hachi follows him to the train station; he refuses to leave until Parker walks him home. Later in the afternoon, Hachi walks to the train station, to wait patiently for Parker to come home. Parker relents and walks Hachi to the station every morning. After Parker's train departs, Hachi walks home, returning in the afternoon to see his master's train arrive and go home together. They continue to do this every day.

One day Parker gets ready to leave and Hachi barks at him and refuses to join him. When Parker does leave, Hachi chases him while holding his ball. Parker is surprised but pleased that Hachi is finally willing to play fetch the ball with him. Not wishing to be late for college, Parker catches his train despite Hachi's barking. Later that day Parker is teaching his music class, still holding Hachi's ball, when he suddenly suffers a fatal heart attack and dies.

At the train station, Hachi waits patiently as the train arrives, but there is no sign of Parker. He remains, lying in the snow, for several hours, until Parker's son-in-law Michael (Ronnie Sublett) comes to collect him. The next day, Hachi returns to the station and waits, remaining all day and all night. As time passes, Cate sells the house and Hachi is sent to live with her daughter Andy (Sarah Roemer), Michael, and their baby Ronnie. However, at the first opportunity, he escapes and eventually finds his way back to his old house and then to the train station, where he sits at his usual spot, eating hot dogs given to him by Jasjeet, a local vendor. Andy arrives soon after and takes him home, but lets him out the next day to return to the station.

For the next ten years, Hachi waits for his owner. His loyalty is profiled in the local newspaper. Cate comes back to visit Parker's grave where she meets Ken, and says she can't believe ten years have gone by. Walking past the station, she is stunned to see Hachi maintaining his vigil. Overcome with grief, Cate sits and waits for the next train with him. At home, Cate tells the now ten-year-old Ronnie about Hachi. Hachi continues his daily walk to the same spot in front of the railway station, until his final day when he continues to recollect those joyful moments of his life with his master. He imagines Parker emerging from the station and the two happily greeting each other. Hachi is then shown lying on the snow, alone and still.

Back in his classroom, Ronnie, forms his conclusion why Hachi will forever be his hero. Ronnie's story has clearly moved the class, with some students holding back tears, even those who had laughed at the beginning. After school, Ronnie is met coming off the school bus by his dad and his own puppy, also named Hachi. Ronnie and Hachi walk down the same tracks where Parker and Hachi had spent so much time together.

The closing cards reveal information about the real Hachikō, who was born in Ōdate in 1923. After the death of his owner, Hidesaburo Ueno, in 1925, Hachikō returned to the Shibuya train station the next day and every day after that for the next nine years. The final card reveals that the real Hachikō died in March 1934. But actually Hachikō died in March 8, 1935, not in 1934. A photo of his statue in front of the Shibuya train station is the last image shown before the credits roll.

Download :

Monday, April 7, 2014

Download Into the Wild


In May 1992, Christopher McCandless (Emile Hirsch) arrives in a remote area just north of the Denali National Park and Preserve in Alaska and sets up a campsite in an abandoned bus (The Magic Bus). At first, McCandless is content with the isolation, the beauty of nature around him, and the thrill of living off the land. He hunts wild animals with a .22 caliber rifle, reads books, and keeps a diary of his thoughts as he prepares for himself a new life in the wild.

Two years earlier in May 1990, McCandless graduated with high honors from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Shortly afterwards, McCandless rejects his conventional life by destroying all of his credit cards and identification documents. He donates nearly all of his entire savings of $24,000 to Oxfam and sets out on a cross-country drive in his well-used, but reliable Datsun B210 to experience life in the wilderness. However, McCandless does not tell his parents Walt (William Hurt) and Billie McCandless (Marcia Gay Harden) nor his sister Carine (Jena Malone) what he is doing or where he is going, and refuses to keep in touch with them after his departure, leaving them to become increasingly anxious and eventually desperate.

At Lake Mead, Arizona, McCandless' car is caught in a flash flood causing him to abandon it and begin hitchhiking instead. He burns what remains of his dwindling cash supply and assumes a new name: "Alexander Supertramp." In Northern California, McCandless encounters a hippie couple named Jan Burres (Catherine Keener) and Rainey (Brian H. Dierker). Rainey tells McCandless about his failing relationship with Jan, which McCandless would rekindle. By September, McCandless stops in Carthage, South Dakota to work for a contract harvesting company owned by Wayne Westerberg (Vince Vaughn), but he is forced to leave after Westerberg is arrested for satellite piracy.

McCandless then travels to the Colorado River and, though told by park rangers that he may not kayak down the river without a license, ignores their warnings and paddles downriver until he eventually arrives in Mexico. There, his kayak is lost in a dust storm and he crosses back into the United States on foot. Unable to hitchhike, he starts traveling on freight trains to Los Angeles, California. Not long after arriving, however, he starts feeling "corrupted" by modern civilization and decides to leave. Later, McCandless is forced to switch his traveling method back to hitchhiking after he is beaten by the railroad police.

In December 1991, McCandless arrives at Slab City in the Imperial Valley region of California, and encounters Jan and Rainey again. There, he meets Tracy Tatro (Kristen Stewart), a teenage girl who shows interest in McCandless, but he rejects her because she is underage. After the holidays, McCandless decides to continue heading for Alaska, much to everyone's sadness. While camping near Salton City, California, McCandless encounters Ron Franz (Hal Holbrook), a retired man who recounts the story of the loss of his family in a car accident while he was serving in the United States Army. He now occupies his time in a workshop as an amateur leather worker. Franz teaches McCandless the craft of leatherwork, resulting in the making of a belt that details McCandless' travels. After spending several months with Franz, McCandless decides to leave for Alaska despite this upsetting Franz, who has become quite close to McCandless. On a parting note, Franz gives McCandless his old camping and travel gear along with the offer to adopt him as his grandchild, but McCandless simply tells him that they should discuss this after he returns from Alaska; then departs.

Four months later at the abandoned bus, life for McCandless becomes harder and he becomes less discerning. As his supplies begin to run out, he realizes that nature is also harsh and uncaring. In the pain of realization, McCandless concludes that true happiness can only be found when shared with others and seeks to return from the wild to his friends and family. However, he finds that the stream he had crossed during the winter has become wide, deep, and violent due to the thaw, and he is unable to cross. Saddened, he returns to the bus, now as a prisoner who is no longer in control of his fate and can only hope for help from the outside. In a desperate act, McCandless is forced to gather and eat roots and plants, but he confuses similar plants and eats a poisonous one, thus as a result falls sick. Slowly dying, he continues to document his process of self-realization and accepts his fate, as he imagines his family for one last time. He writes a farewell to the world and crawls into his sleeping bag to die. Two weeks later, his body is found by moose hunters. Shortly afterwards, Carine returns her brother's ashes by airplane from Alaska to Virginia in her backpack.

Download (use Internet Download Manager or another downloader software) :

Friday, March 14, 2014

Download The Wolf of Wall Street

Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) narrates the film showing his monstrous success with his firm complete with ribaldry at work, a sumptuous home on the Gold Coast of Long Island and a trophy wife who is a former model. He then flashes back to 1987, where he began a low-level job at an established Wall Street firm. His boss (Matthew McConaughey) advises him to adopt a lifestyle of casual sex and cocaine to succeed. However, shortly after he passes his exam to become a certified stockbroker, he loses his job on account of the firm's bankruptcy as a result of Black Monday.

Now unemployed in an economy that is unaccomodating to stockbrokers and sufficiently discouraged to consider a new line of work, Jordan's wife Teresa (Cristin Milioti) encourages him to take a job with a Long Island boiler room dealing in penny stocks, which are also largely ignored by regulators. Belfort impresses his new boss with his aggressive pitching style, and earns a small fortune for the boiler room and himself as penny stocks have a much higher commission than blue chips. Jordan also befriends Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill), a salesman living in the same apartment complex and they decide to go into business together. To facilitate this, his accountant parents are recruited as well as several of Jordan's friends, some of them experienced marijuana dealers. The basic method of the firm is a pump and dump scam. To cloak this, Belfort gives the firm the respectable name of Stratton Oakmont. An article in Forbes dubs Jordan the "Wolf of Wall Street", and soon hundreds of ambitious young financiers flock to his company.

A decadent lifestyle of lavish parties, sex and drugs follows. Jordan regularly uses prostitutes and becomes addicted to cocaine and Quaaludes. FBI Agent Patrick Denham (Kyle Chandler) begins investigating Stratton Oakmont. When Jordan meets Naomi Lapaglia (Margot Robbie) at one of his parties, he begins an affair with her, resulting in his divorce from Teresa. Jordan makes Naomi his second wife in an extravagant wedding and gives her a yacht aptly named Naomi, and soon they have a daughter, Skylar. Meanwhile, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission works jointly with the FBI to intensify the Stratton Oakmont investigation.

Jordan instantly makes US$22 million on his securing the IPO of Steve Madden Ltd. To hide his money, Jordan opens a Swiss bank account with the corrupt banker Jean-Jacques Saurel (Jean Dujardin) in the name of Naomi's aunt Emma (Joanna Lumley), who is a British citizen and outside the reach of American authorities. He uses friends with European passports to smuggle cash to Switzerland. When Donnie gets into a public fight with Brad Bodnick (Jon Bernthal), who is one of their money couriers, and Brad is arrested, their scheme is nearly exposed.

Donnie offers Jordan a powerful brand of Quaaludes, hoping to ease the sting of the bad news. The pills are old and seem to have lost their potency, so they take huge doses to compensate. Jordan then receives a call from Bo Dietl, his private investigator, who insists Jordan call him back from a payphone. Jordan drives to a country club to phone Bo, who warns Jordan of Brad's arrest and that his house phone has been wiretapped. At this point, the Quaaludes finally kick in with overwhelming effect. Severely debilitated, Jordan drives back home to prevent Donnie from using his phone. When Jordan arrives home Donnie (who is also intoxicated) is on the phone with Saurel. Jordan fights Donnie to make him get off the phone and tells him he found out what happened between him and Brad. Donnie starts choking on ham and nearly suffocates. Jordan snorts cocaine to counteract the effect of the Quaaludes in order to help save Donnie's life.

With the shadow of law enforcement hanging over them, Jordan's father Max (Rob Reiner) attempts to convince his son to step down from Stratton Oakmont and escape the large amount of legal penalties. However, during his leaving party at the office, Jordan changes his mind and to the great acclaim of his employees vows to stay on.

Jordan, Donnie and their wives on a yacht trip to Italy learn that Emma has died of a heart attack. Over his grieving wife's objections, Jordan decides to sail to Monaco so they can drive to Switzerland without getting their passports stamped at the border and settle the bank account, but a violent storm capsizes their yacht. After their rescue, the plane sent to take them to Geneva is destroyed by a seagull flying into the engine, exploding and killing three people. Witnessing this, Jordan considers this a sign from God and decides to sober up.

Two years later, Denham arrests Jordan during the filming of an infomercial. Saurel, arrested in Florida over an unrelated charge, has told the FBI everything. Since the evidence against him is overwhelming, Jordan agrees to gather evidence on his colleagues in exchange for leniency.

Jordan is optimistic about his sentencing and expresses this to his wife. The encounter turns violent when Naomi tells Jordan she will divorce him and wants full custody of their children. Jordan throws a violent tantrum, gets high, and ends up crashing his car in his driveway during an attempt to abscond with their daughter.

The next morning, Jordan wears a wire to work. Jordan silently slips Donnie a note warning him about the wire. The note finds its way to Agent Denham, who arrests Jordan for breaching his cooperation deal. The FBI raids and shuts down Stratton Oakmont.

Despite this one breach, Jordan receives a much reduced sentence for his testimony and is sentenced to 36 months in a minimum security prison in Nevada. After his release, Jordan makes a living hosting seminars on sales technique in New Zealand.

Download :

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Download Jarhead

Jarhead.jpg

In 1989, Anthony Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal) is being trained in a U.S. Marine Corps boot camp, after which "Swoff" is dispatched to Camp Pendleton. In a flashback, he explains how going to college didn't work out, which is why he joined the military.
Swofford finds his training at Camp Pendleton tough as he struggles through making friends and living day to day, even pretending sickness, a trick Staff Sergeant Sykes (Jamie Foxx) does not fall for; Sykes is a Marine "lifer" who invites Swofford to his Scout Sniper course.
After training sessions that claim the life of one candidate, Swofford is one of the 8 remaining candidates who is trained as a sniper; his roommate Troy (Peter Sarsgaard) becomes his spotter. When Kuwait is invaded by Iraq, Swofford's unit is dispatched to the Persian Gulf as a part of Operation Desert Shield. Although eager to see combat, they spend their time waiting and training, with little more to do than ponder and discuss their typically unfaithful partners back home.
During an impromptu Christmas party instigated by Swofford, who has obtained unauthorized alcohol, Fergus (Brian Geraghty) accidentally sets fire to a tent and a crate of flares. Swofford gets the blame because he was supposed to be on watch but had Fergus sit in for him. Swofford is demoted from Lance Corporal (E-3) to Private (E-1) and is put on shit burning detail. The punishments, the heat and the boredom, combined with suspicions of his girlfriend's infidelity and feelings of isolation, temporarily drive Swofford to the point of mental breakdown - he threatens and nearly shoots fellow Marine Fergus, then turns the weapon on himself and orders the traumatized Fergus to shoot him. When Fergus refuses, Swofford leaves the tent.
After six months in the desert, Operation Desert Storm begins and the Marines are dispatched to the Saudi-Kuwaiti border. Just before, Swofford learns from Sykes that Troy concealed his criminal record when enlisting and will be discharged after the end of hostilities. Troy begins to keep distant from his fellow Marines. Knowing that Troy will never be allowed to re-enlist, the Marines attack him with a red-hot USMC branding iron, marking him as one of their own. Following an accidental air attack from friendly forces, the Marines advance through the desert, facing no enemies on the ground. The troops march through the Highway of Death, strewn with the burnt vehicles and charred bodies of retreating Iraqi soldiers, the aftermath of a U.S. bombing campaign. Later, the Marines suddenly catch sight of distant burning oil wells, ignited only moments before by the retreating Iraqis, and they attempt to dig sleeping holes as a rain of crude oil falls from the sky. Before they can finish, Sykes orders the squad to move upwind.
Swofford and Troy are finally given a combat mission. Their orders are to kill at least one of two high-ranking officers in Saddam's Republican Guard, holed up at a nearby airfield. At the last split second before Swofford takes the shot, Maj. Lincoln (Dennis Haysbert) interrupts them to call in an air strike. Swofford and Troy protest, but they are overruled and later look on in disappointment as the planes destroy the Iraqi airfield.
On returning home the troops parade through the towns in a jovial celebration of victory. Swofford returns home to his family and girlfriend but discovers her with a new boyfriend. Fowler is seen with a prostitute in a bar, Kruger (Lucas Black) in a corporate boardroom, Escobar (Laz Alonso) as a supermarket employee, Cortez (Jacob Vargas) as a father of three, and Sykes continuing his service as a First Sergeant in Operation Iraqi Freedom. An unspecified amount of time later, Swofford learns of Troy's death during a surprise visit from Fergus. He attends the funeral, reunites with some of his old friends and afterwards reminisces about the effects of the war.

Download :

Friday, March 7, 2014

Download Pirates of Silicon Valley


The film opens with the creation of the 1984 commercial for Apple Computer, which introduced the first Macintosh. Steve Jobs (Noah Wyle) is speaking with director Ridley Scott (J. G. Hertzler), trying to convey his idea that "We're creating a completely new consciousness." Scott, however, is more concerned at the moment with the technical aspects of the commercial.

The film then flashes forward to 1997 as Jobs, who has returned to Apple, is announcing a new deal with Microsoft at the 1997 Macworld Expo. His partner, Steve Wozniak (Joey Slotnick), is introduced as one of the two central narrators of the story. Wozniak notes to the audience the resemblance between "Big Brother" and the image of Bill Gates (Anthony Hall) on the screen behind Jobs during this announcement. Asking how they "got from there to here," the film turns to flashbacks of his youth with Jobs, prior to the forming of Apple.

The earliest flashback is in 1971 and takes place on the U.C. Berkeley campus during the period of the student anti-war movements. Jobs and Wozniak are shown caught on the campus during a riot between students and police. They flee and after finding safety, Jobs states to Wozniak, "Those guys think they're revolutionaries. They're not revolutionaries, we are." Wozniak then comments that "Steve was never like you or me. He always saw things differently. Even when I was in Berkeley, I would see something and just see kilobytes or circuit boards while he'd see karma or the meaning of the universe."

Using a similar structure, the film next turns to a young Bill Gates at Harvard University, in the early 1970s, with classmate Steve Ballmer (John DiMaggio), and Gates’ high school friend Paul Allen (Josh Hopkins). As with Wozniak in the earlier segment, Ballmer narrates Gates' story, particularly the moment when Gates discovers the existence of Ed Roberts' (Gailard Sartain) MITS Altair (causing him to drop out of Harvard). Gates' and Allen's early work with MITS is juxtaposed against the involvement of Jobs and Wozniak with the Homebrew Computer Club, eventually leading to the development of the Apple I in 1976 with the help of angel investor Mike Markkula (Jeffrey Nordling). The story follows the protagonists as they develop their technology and their businesses. At a San Francisco computer fair where the Apple II computer is introduced, Gates (the then-unknown Microsoft CEO), attempts to introduce himself to Jobs, who snubs him. This is followed by the development of the IBM-PC with the help of Gates and Microsoft in 1981.

It also follows Jobs' relationship with his high school girlfriend (Gema Zamprogna) and the difficulties he had acknowledging the birth and existence of their daughter, Lisa. Around the time his daughter was born, Jobs unveiled his next computer, which he named, The Lisa. The Lisa was then followed in 1984 by the Macintosh, a computer inspired by the Xerox Alto. The main body of the film finally concludes with a birthday toast in 1985 to Steve Jobs shortly before he was fired by CEO John Sculley (Allan Royal) from Apple Computer.

It also includes a brief epilogue, noting what happened afterward in the lives of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. The film ends in 1997 with Steve Jobs returning to Apple after its acquisition of NeXT Computer, and Bill Gates appearing live via satellite at a MacWorld Expo in 1997, during Jobs' first Stevenote keynote address, to announce an alliance between Apple and Microsoft.


Download :