“Angelenos Doug Billings and Tracy Garner are about to get married. Two days before the wedding, the four men in the wedding party – Doug, Doug’s two best buddies Phil Wenneck and Stu Price, and Tracy’s brother Alan Garner – hop into Tracy’s father’s beloved Mercedes convertible for a 24-hour stag party to Las Vegas. Phil, a married high school teacher, has the same maturity level as his students when he’s with his pals. Stu, a dentist, is worried about everything, especially what his controlling girlfriend Melissa thinks. Because she disapproves of traditional male bonding rituals, Stu has to lie to her about the stag, he telling her that they are going on a wine tasting tour in the Napa Valley. Regardless, he intends on eventually marrying her, against the advice and wishes of his friends. And Alan seems to be unaware of what are considered the social graces of the western world. The morning after their arrival in Las Vegas, they awaken in their hotel suite each with the worst hangover. None remembers what happened in the past twelve or so hours. The suite is in shambles. And certain things are in the suite that shouldn’t be, and certain things that should be in the suite are missing. Probably the most important in the latter category is Doug. As Phil, Stu and Alan try to find Doug using only what little pieces of information they have at hand, they go on a journey of discovery of how certain things got into the suite and what happened to the missing items. However they are on a race for time as if they can’t find Doug in the next few hours, they are going to have to explain to Tracy why they are not yet back in Los Angeles. And even worse, they may not find Doug at all before the wedding. Written by Huggo”

• Director: Todd Phillips
• Release Date:
  5 June 2009 (USA)
• Run Time:
  100 min | 108 min (unrated version)
• Country: USA , Germany
• Genre: Adventure , Comedy , Crime
• MPAA:
  Rated R for pervasive language, sexual content including nudity, and some drug material.

Tagline: Feel it June 5

Trivia: Three sets of twins and a dummy were used to portray the baby.

Goofs: Continuity: Right after the scene where the guys let Mr. Chow out of the trunk. Alan was sitting against the front wheel of the car. As the camera angle changed he was sitting against the door. And as the camera angle changed once , he was sitting in front of the wheel again.

“Trained since childhood to be a lethal killer, Raizo has since turned his back on the Ozunu clan that raised him and now seeks revenge for their heartless murders. Teaming up with Europol investigator Mika, Raizo steadily butchers his enemies while inching ever closer to the long-awaited bloody reunion with his former master. Written by The Massie Twins”

• Director: James McTeigue
• Release Date:
  25 November 2009 (USA)
• Run Time:
  99 min
• Country: USA , Germany
• Genre: Action , Crime , Drama , Thriller
• MPAA:
  Rated R for strong bloody stylized violence throughout, and language.

Trivia: After Raizo – played by Rain – is first captured and chained to the wall, one of his captors looks at him through the camera monitoring him and says, “He looks like he should be in a boy band.” Rain started his career in the boy band Fanclub before becoming a superstar solo artist whose initial popularity in Asia has spread to other continents.

Goofs: Continuity: In the scene where Mika is having lunch with Maslow in the park, the amount of Maslow’s drink keeps changing between takes.

“Special Agent Strahm is dead, and Detective Hoffman has emerged as the unchallenged successor to Jigsaw’s legacy. However, when the FBI draws closer to Hoffman, he is forced to set a game into motion, and Jigsaw’s grand scheme is finally understood. Written by Anonymous”

• Director: Kevin Greutert
• Release Date:
  23 October 2009 (USA)
• Run Time:
  90 min
• Country: Canada , USA , UK , Australia
• Genre: Crime , Horror , Mystery , Thriller
• MPAA:
  Rated R for sequences of grisly bloody violence and torture, and language.

Tagline: The Game Comes Full Circle

Trivia: The movie contains storylines that are fully explained in Saw (2009) (VG).

Goofs: Continuity: When Hoffman raises the lid to the glass box after escaping the Crushing Room, the blood remains on the lid in a fixed pattern, showing it is dry, even though it was only spurted on to it seconds before.

“A serial killer in the San Francisco Bay Area taunts police with his letters and cryptic messages. We follow the investigators and reporters in this lightly fictionalized account of the true 1970’s case as they search for the murderer, becoming obsessed with the case. Based on Robert Graysmith’s book, the movie’s focus is the lives and careers of the detectives and newspaper people. Written by tom day”

• Director: David Fincher
• Release Date:
  2 March 2007 (USA)
• Run Time:
  157 min | 162 min (director's cut)
• Country: USA
• Genre: Crime , Drama , Mystery , Thriller
• MPAA:
  Rated R for some strong killings, language, drug material and brief sexual images. (also director's cut)

Tagline: There's than one way to lose your life to a killer

Trivia: Scenes of Dave Toschi and Robert Graysmith watching Dirty Harry (1971) were filmed inside the Mann National Theatre in Westwood, CA. The garish color schemes of the movie theater were not added by the art department. The very retro interiors of the theater have remained unchanged since 1969, when the National was first built. Interestingly, “Zodiac” played at the Mann National Theatre in mid March of 2007. Thus, moviegoers watched other moviegoers occupy their seats – on the National’s trademark large screen. The theater has since been torn down.

Goofs: Incorrectly regarded as goofs: In the store there is a calendar behind the desk that indicates it is February 1980. However, as Graysmith is entering the store, the caption says it is Dec. 20, 1983. The prominent out-of-date calendar may just be a way of showing that the store that Allen works in is a sleepy place where they’ve forgotten to change the calendar for four years.

“Rancher Dan Evans heads into Bisbee to clear up issues concerning the sale of his land when he witnesses the closing events of a stagecoach robbery led by famed outlaw Ben Wade. Shortly thereafter, Wade is captured by the law in Bisbee and Evans finds himself one of the escorts who will take Wade to the 3:10 to Yuma train in Contention for the reward of $200. Evans’s effort to take Wade to the station is in part an effort to save his land but also part of an inner battle to determine whether he can be more than just a naive rancher in the eyes of his impetuous and gunslinging son William Evans. The transport to Contention is hazardous and filled with ambushes by Indians, pursuits by Wade’s vengeful gang and Wade’s own conniving and surreptitious demeanor that makes the ride all the more intense. Written by commanderblue”

• Director: James Mangold
• Release Date:
  7 September 2007 (USA)
• Run Time:
  122 min
• Country: USA
• Genre: Action , Crime , Drama , Western
• MPAA:
  Rated R for violence and some language.

Tagline: Time waits for one man

Trivia: At one point, Tom Cruise and Eric Bana were pursuing the starring roles in this film. But when Columbia Pictures put this film in turnaround, the actors left to pursue other projects.

Goofs: Errors in geography: In the shots at the train station you can clearly see all of the land in the background is covered in snow. There’s even snow on the tracks. Not only is it evident that it’s spring or summer time but there is a drought. Even though Contention is a distance away from Bisbee there would have never been a drought at one town while there’s a blizzard at another.

“In rural Texas, welder and hunter Llewelyn Moss discovers the remains of several drug runners who have all killed each other in an exchange gone violently wrong. Rather than report the discovery to the police, Moss decides to simply take the two million dollars present for himself. This puts the psychopathic killer, Anton Chigurh, on his trail as he dispassionately murders nearly every rival, bystander and even employer in his pursuit of his quarry and the money. As Moss desperately attempts to keep one step ahead, the blood from this hunt begins to flow behind him with relentlessly growing intensity as Chigurh closes in. Meanwhile, the laconic Sherrif Ed Tom Bell blithely oversees the investigation even as he struggles to face the sheer enormity of the crimes he is attempting to thwart. Written by Kenneth Chisholm (kchishol@rogers.com)”

• Release Date:
  21 November 2007 (USA)
• Run Time:
  122 min
• Country: USA
• Genre: Crime , Drama , Thriller , Western
• MPAA:
  Rated R for strong graphic violence and some language.

Tagline: There Are No Clean Getaways

Trivia: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen share the record of four Oscar nominations for a single person for the same film (in this case, shared by the two) with Orson Welles’ four nominations for Citizen Kane (1941) and Warren Beatty’s for Reds (1981). The Coens’ four nominations are for Best Picture (as producers with Scott Rudin), Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Editing (under the pseudonym Roderick Jaynes). Welles was nominated both Best Picture (also as producer) and Best Director, as well as Best Original Screenplay (won, and shared with Herman J. Mankiewicz), and Best Actor. On the other hand, Beatty was nominated for Best Picture (also as producer), Best Director (won), Best Original Screenplay with Trevor Griffiths and Best Actor.

Goofs: Anachronisms: The weapon Moss picks up in the drug dealers truck is a Heckler and Koch SP89, so named because it was introduced to the American market in 1989. It was also a unique variation and was not sold in that form outside the US but modified specifically to conform with US gun laws.

“Toxic waste bubbles in a ship waiting permission to dock in Odessa. Frank Martin turns down a job in Marseilles, referring it to a pal. A short time later, the pal, wounded by gunfire, crashes his car into Frank’s living room and dies, leaving a young woman in the back seat. The employer of the dead man shows up, forces Frank to take the job, snaps a bracelet on his wrist that will explode if Frank gets more than 75 feet from his car, and sends Frank on a journey east with the young woman and a trunk full of something. She’s Valentina, nearly mute. Can Frank figure out what’s going on, deliver the package, and escape alive? And what does the ship have to do with it? Written by {jhailey@hotmail.com}”

• Director: Olivier Megaton
• Release Date:
  26 November 2008 (USA)
• Run Time:
  104 min
• Country: France , UK
• Genre: Action , Adventure , Crime , Thriller
• MPAA:
  Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense action and violence, some sexual content and drug material.

Tagline: This time, the rules are the same. Except one.

Trivia: One of the promotion posters for the film shows Valentina (Natalya Rudakova) posed holding a gun, despite the fact that nowhere in the film does she do so.

Goofs: Continuity: When Frank is being chased in the woods by the Mercedes he slams on his brakes to disarm the machine gun from the gunman in the rear passenger seat. (about 59min 30sec). When the machine gun hits his rear bumper it breaks the gunners arm but not before it takes off the Audi’s driver’s side mirror. The next clip just a few seconds later has the side mirror back in perfect condition.

“Walt Kowalski is a widower who holds onto his prejudices despite the changes in his Michigan neighborhood and the world around him. Kowalski is a grumpy, tough-minded, unhappy an old man, who can’t get along with either his kids or his neighbors, a Korean War veteran whose prize possession is a 1972 Gran Torino he keeps in mint condition. When his neighbor Thao, a young Hmong teenager under pressure from his gang member cousin, tries to steal his Gran Torino, Kowalski sets out to reform the youth. Drawn against his will into the life of Thao’s family, Kowalski is soon taking steps to protect them from the gangs that infest their neighborhood. Written by alfiehitchie”

• Director: Clint Eastwood
• Release Date:
  9 January 2009 (USA)
• Run Time:
  116 min
• Country: USA , Germany
• Genre: Crime , Drama
• MPAA:
  Rated R for language throughout, and some violence.

Trivia: Eastwood’s son, Scott Eastwood plays Trey. And his oldest son, Kyle provided the music score.

Goofs: Factual errors: Although not specifically stated, Walt appears to have lived in the house for many years. He also says he “put the steering column” in his Gran Torino. Gran Torinos were never produced in the Detroit area.

“Batman raises the stakes in his bourgeois war on crime. With the help of Lieutenant Jim Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman sets out to dismantle the remaining criminal organizations that plague the city streets. The partnership proves to be effective, but they soon find themselves prey to a reign of chaos unleashed by a rising criminal mastermind known to the terrified citizens of Gotham as The Joker. Written by Peteagassi”

• Director: Christopher Nolan
• Release Date:
  18 July 2008 (USA)
• Run Time:
  152 min
• Country: USA , UK
• Genre: Action , Crime , Drama , Thriller
• MPAA:
  Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and some menace.

Tagline: Why So Serious?

Trivia: Maggie Gyllenhaal also appeared in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002), which was directed by and featured previous Batman George Clooney, as well as Drew Barry, who had played one of Two-Face’s girlfriends in Batman Forever (1995).

Goofs: Continuity: In the opening shot of the film a large shadow is cast over the Gotham bank’s roof where the goons intend to grapple onto. In all subsequent shots the shadow is gone and what appeared to be a clear sky in the opening shot is now an overcast, darker sky.

“Seventeen year-old Kim is the pride and joy of her father Bryan Mills. Bryan is a retired agent who left the Secret Service to be near Kim in California. Kim lives with her mother Lenore and her wealthy stepfather Stuart. Kim manages to convince her reluctant father to allow her to travel to Paris with her friend Amanda. When the girls arrive in Paris they share a cab with a stranger named Peter, and Amanda lets it slip that they are alone in Paris. Using this information an Albanese gang of human traffickers kidnaps the girls. Kim barely has time to call her father and give him information. Her father gets to speak briefly to one of the kidnappers and he promises to kill the kidnappers if they do not let his daughter go free. The kidnapper wishes him “good luck,” so Bryan Mills travels to Paris to search for his daughter and her friend. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil”

• Director: Pierre Morel
• Release Date:
  30 January 2009 (USA)
• Run Time:
  93 min
• Country: France
• Genre: Action , Crime , Drama , Thriller
• MPAA:
  Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence, disturbing thematic material, sexual content, some drug references and language.

Tagline: They took his daughter. He'll take their lives.

Trivia: In the film, Katie Cassidy’s character (Amanda) is 19 years old and Maggie Grace’s character (Kim) is 17 years old. In real life, Maggie is 3 years older than Katie.

Goofs: Revealing mistakes: When the girls are in the apartment in France, they turn the music up loud so they do not hear Kim’s mobile phone ringing. When the camera pans over to her handbag, you can clearly hear the phone ringing, however the phone shows the “Silent” mode is selected.