The acting duo of Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake was first teamed in the superb early noir thriller This Gun For Hire (1942) (with the tagline: "He's dynamite with a gun or a girl"). From the novel A Gun For Sale by renowned British novelist Graham Greene, the moody noir featured Ladd in a star-making role (his first lead role) as a ruthless, cat-loving, vengeful, unsmiling San Francisco professional hit-man named Raven working for a peppermint-candy loving fat man Willard Gates (Laird Cregar) and his wheelchair-bound Nitro Chemicals executive Alvin Brewster (Tully Marshall) - both double-crossers who were selling secrets to foreign agents (the Japanese). Ladd was paired with popular wartime pinup star Lake as nightclub showgirl singer Ellen Graham, his hostage (and unbeknownst to him working as a federal agent).

Adventure Films are exciting stories, with new experiences or exotic locales. Adventure films are very similar to the action film genre, in that they are designed to provide an action-filled, energetic experience for the film viewer. Rather than the predominant emphasis on violence and fighting that is found in action films, however, the viewer of adventure films can live vicariously through the travels, conquests, explorations, creation of empires, struggles and situations that confront the main characters, actual historical figures or protagonists.

Dana Andrews, an obsessed detective who is assigned to investigate the murder of a beautiful woman (Gene Tierney) and question suspects (Vincent Price and Clifton Webb) in Otto Preminger's classic Laura (1944), falls in love with a painting of the victim. In the second film version of Dashiel Hammett's novel about political corruption, The Glass Key (1942), Alan Ladd in one of his earliest films starred opposite Veronica Lake as a deadpan hero. He was often beat up by sado-masochistic gangster William Bendix during his pursuit of the truth. Glenn Ford portrayed an unrestrained police detective in pursuit of his wife's killers and corrupt cops in Fritz Lang's film noirish The Big Heat (1953). In William Wyler's seminal cop film Detective Story (1951), bitter, tough, and by-the-book NYC detective Kirk Douglas discovered that his wife (Eleanor Parker) had a guilty secret.

In terms of genre categories, the following films (in chronological order) have consistently ranked high on various lists:

* Battleship Potemkin (1925) - has regularly appeared in the top 10 of every Sight & Sound polling, also voted the greatest film ever by a panel of experts at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair
* All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) - Received Best Picture Oscar; Ranked # 54 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies polling in 1998, a list of the 100 greatest English-language movies Ranked # 33 in 2005 in the Channel 4 poll of the "100 Greatest War Films"

Robots in the Movies - Film History: Throughout cinematic history, especially in science-fiction tales, robots have always played a primary role. Throughout history and popular culture, robots have reflected the mood, social and cultural issues, and technology of their times. For example, in the Cold War 1950s, robots were generally viewed as threatening forces, but in later years reflected both the conflict and the continuity between man and machine. Robots have also functioned as both servant-helpers or oppressors of humanity, portraying the good and evil sides.

A visual effects artist who worked on several Dreamworks films like "Shrek" faces more than 4 years in prison -- after he was accused of beating his neighbor's puppy to death ... with a hammer.

The gentlemanly, artistocratic, independently-wealthy New Yorker, amateur detective Philo Vance was introduced in the works of Willard Huntington Wright (S.S. Van Dine), first in his 1926 novel The Benson Murder Mystery. Thin Man star William Powell and others portrayed Philo Vance from 1929 to 1947:

Indians are known for their risk aversion and lack of challenges. There are two things that can draw an image totally different from this presumption and prejudices. They are Cricket and Bollywood known to make mood and personality of every Indian lively. After work the most sought activities are either going to movies or watching cricket (repeat telecast of historical matches or live cricket matches if any event is there). Cricket news and Hindi Bollywood news have potential to move the whole nation. Energy levels are something people like to talk about when any cricket event is on the show and Bollywood movies always comes as a refreshing break for people looking for it. Hindi news tries to catch all the buzz of these two hot and entertaining topics.

Cast:

John Cusack, Minnie Driver, Dan Aykroyd, Joan Cusack, Alan Arkin, Jeremy Piven, Hank Azaria, Mitchell Ryan

Review:
Grosse Pointe Blank should come with a warning against advertisement-induced expectations which might diminish a viewer's appreciation of the film. The previews and TV commercials make the movie look like a frothy romantic comedy. In
Martin's profession is a bit more exotic than that of any of his former schoolmates. After joining the army and spending five years as a covert operative for the CIA (during this stint, he killed the President of Paraguay with a fork), he went into business for himself as a hit man. Over the years, Martin has developed quite a reputation. His latest job requires him to return to Grosse Pointe, Michigan during the weekend of his ten-year high school reunion. So, on the advice of his reluctant therapist (Alan Arkin), he agrees to try to patch things up with his one true love, Debi (Minnie Driver), and attend the event. Things don't exactly go as planned, however. A rival hit man (Dan Aykroyd) shows up, and soon bullets are flying all over Grosse Pointe.

Filmmaker Woody Allen launched the 64th Cannes Film Festival with his latest comedy Midnight in Paris starring Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams and Marion Cotillard but he made bigger news when he told the assembled press corps at the opening conference for his film that he did not consider himself an artist.