Richard Moody's Mixture Of Favourite DVD's

1. Oceans Eleven (1960): A gang of World War II 82nd Airborne veterans are recruited by Danny Ocean and Jimmy Foster to rob five different Las Vegas] casinos (Sahara, Riviera, Desert Inn, Sands, and The Flamingo) on a single night. The gang plans the elaborate New Year's Eve heist with the precision of a military operation. Josh Howard takes a job driving a garbage truck while others work to scope out the various casinos. Sam Harmon entertains in one of the hotel's lounges. Demolition charges are planted on an electrical transmission tower and the backup electrical systems are covertly rewired in each casino. At exactly midnight, while everyone in every Vegas casino is singing "Auld Lang Syne" the tower is blown up and Vegas goes dark. The backup electrical systems open the cashier cages instead of powering the emergency lights. The inside men sneak into the cashier cages and collect the money. They dump the bags of loot into hotel's garbage bins, go back inside and mingle with the crowds. As soon as the lights come back on, the thieves stroll out of the casinos. A garbage truck driven by Josh picks up the bags and passes through the police blockade. It appears to have gone off without a hitch. Their ace electrician, Tony Bergdorf, however, has a heart attack in the middle of the Las Vegas Strip and drops dead. This raises the suspicions of police, who wonder if there is any connection. Reformed gangster Duke Santos offers to recover the casino bosses' money for a price. He learns of Ocean being in town and his connection to Foster, who is the son of Duke's fiancee. Santos pieces together the puzzle by the time Bergdorf's body arrives at the mortuary. Santos confronts the thieves, demanding half of their take. In desperation, the money is hidden in Bergdorf's coffin, with $10,000 set aside for the widow. The group plans to take back the rest of the money, making no payoff to Santos, after the coffin is shipped to San Francisco. Alas, this plan backfires when the funeral home talks Bergdorf's widow into having the funeral in Las Vegas, where the body is cremated -- along with all the money.

2. The Nutty Professor (1963): Professor Julius Kelp (Lewis) is a nerdy, unkempt, buck-toothed, introverted, socially inept university professor who always incurs the wrath of the university administration by continually destroying the classroom laboratory. When a football-playing bully humiliates him, Kelp invents a serum that turns him into the handsome, extremely smooth, cool, and obnoxious girl-chasing hipster, Buddy Love. (Lewis said that the two represented good and evil). This newfound persona gives him the confidence to pursue one of his students, Stella Purdy (Stella Stevens). At first she despises Love, but she finds herself strangely attracted to him. Buddy wows the crowd with his jazzy, breezy delivery and cool demeanor at the Purple Pit, a nightclub where the students hang out. He also mixes it up with the bartender, who is instructed on how to mix the latest drinks for the enigmatic entertainer.The formula wears off at inopportune times, often to Kelp's embarrassment. He must rush back to his laboratory in the hopes that no one will discover his secret. Although Kelp knows that his alternate persona is an arrogant person, he cannot prevent himself from continually taking the formula as he enjoys the newfound attention that Love receives. Buddy performs at the annual student dance, and while on the dais, the formula starts to wear off.In the end, his real identity is revealed during the prom, as the Love persona transforms to Kelp during a speech. He gives an impassioned plea that people must learn to like themselves before others can like them in return. He admits that he has learned a valuable lesson, and Purdy admits that she likes Kelp better than Love and they get married. Prompted by his formerly henpecked father's marketing of the formula, Kelp and Purdy decide to license the product and benefit from the profits.

3. Twin Dragons (1992): In the movie, Jackie Chan plays two roles, twins who were separated at birth and ended up with very different upbringings - one (John Ma) became a famous classical pianist while the other (Boomer) became a common crook. As is inevitable in such a situation, when Ma visits Hong Kong he and Boomer are mixed up with each other and are forced to assume each other's identity. Boomer eventually has to come to the rescue of Ma when he gets himself stuck in the middle of a gang war.

4. Mr. Nice Guy (1997): Television journalist Diana (Gabrielle Fitzpatrick) manages to record footage of a cocaine deal gone wrong, between the Italian mob and a street gang known as the Demons. The footage shows mob boss Giancarlo (Richard Norton) killing the Demon's leader. Diana's partner is captured and she bumps into TV chef Jackie (Jackie Chan), who helps her escape from the gangsters. Diana later accidentally switches the videotape of the drug trade with one of Jackie's cooking videos from a box of tapes. The mob, knowing that the tape is still out there, tracks Diana down to her home to force her to give them the tape. The gangsters search for Jackie but are unable to capture him, so they destroy his home and kidnap his girlfriend Miki (Miki Lee). Unauthorized to partake in the kidnapping issue, Jackie is told not to interfere by the police, but does not listen. Jackie is later captured and taken to Giancarlo, and forced into an unfair fight whereby Jackie's arms and legs are restrained with ropes held by the henchmen. After taking a serious beating, Giancarlo orders his men to kill Jackie at a construction site outside his home. Jackie escapes and destroys the gang boss' home by driving through it in a 120-ton mining vehicle from the nearby construction site. The authorities arrive, including Richard, but the police decided to state that they did not witness anything and that it was all just a gang battle, so Jackie goes free whilst the mobsters are arrested for possession of cocaine. The cars destroyed during the filming of this motion picture included a Ford LTD, BMW 7-Series Mercedes-Benz SLC, two Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow I cars, Cadillac Fleetwood, Lamborghini Countach Replica, Porsche 911 Carrera Targa, and a Lincoln Town Car Limousine.

5. Who Am I? (1998): A member of a CIA-sponsored multinational black ops special forces unit is on a mission to kidnap several South African scientists working on a highly volatile extraterrestrial compound brought to Earth in a meteorite. According to the computer data showing the names of the participants of the operation, one of them was 'Jackie Chan' (Chan). He falls victim to a staged "incident" which results in the death of his colleagues. He survives, but is subsequently stranded in the African veldt with massive amnesia. When asked by natives for his name, he replies "Who am I?", which they take to be his real name. Experiencing flashbacks hinting at his true identity, 'Who am I?' proceeds to befriend two beautiful women - Christine (Michelle Ferre), a CIA agent working undercover as a journalist, and Yuki (Yamamoto Mirai). Renegade ex-US Army officers and black market arms dealers are illegally exporting the extraterrestrial compound, and 'Who am I?' is the only potential threat to their operations. Agents are sent out to stop 'Who am I?' before he can expose their criminal activities. He defeats numerous ex-renegade agents, and ultimately engages in a tightly choreographed roof-top fight scene in Rotterdam against Morgan's two top hitmen, and performing the film's signature stunt, sliding down the steeply-pitched glass roof. The CIA secures the villains' arrests, and 'Who am I?' comes to terms with his identity.

6. The Accidental Spy (2001): The opening of film shows a news reporter covering a story in Turkey where many people have mysteriously died, seemingly from pneumonia. The focus then moves to Hong Kong where Buck Yuen (Chan) works as an exercise equipment salesman. After an unsuccessful day at work, he heads out through the shopping mall and intuitively knows that a robbery is about to take place. Buck thwarts the robbers plans, relieving them of the money they have stolen and returning it to the police. Later, a stranger approaches Buck, eager to speak the hero who foiled the robbery. The stranger goes by the name of Manny Liu (Eric Tsang) and he tells Buck that he is rounding up several men of Buck's age and description, one of whom could be the son of a wealthy Korean man. As a child, Buck had been an orphan, but he has vague dreams seemingly recalling his parents cooing over him, his father clutching a shiny object. Buck goes to meet the Korean man in question, a former spy, who does not have long to live. After fending off an attack on the old man, Buck is given the opportunity to play a "game" with the old man. The old man gives him a crucifix, which appears to be the shiny object of his dreams, confirming this man to be his father. Once the old man has died, Buck finds the first clue to the "game" at his grave - a message saying "wait for me" in English. Eventually he realises that the letters of the phrase correspond to a telephone number and calls it. It turns out to be a bank in Turkey, so Buck sets out on his journey. Once in Turkey, Buck goes to the bank and receives the contents of the old man's safety deposit box - a large sum of money and a small package. Avoiding the attempted theft of his newfound wealth by a group of thugs who have commandeered a fleet of taxis, Buck eventually makes it back to his hotel. Along the way he meets two women - the first, Korean reporter Carmen (Kim Min-Jeong) and the second, a Chinese woman called Yong (Vivian Hsu), who sings sweetly and wears a scarf embroidered with the same phrase from the old man's grave. He catches up with the woman and they arrange to meet later. Buck then visits a Turkish baths, but is accosted by another group of thugs, and ends up being pursued, wearing nothing but a towel, through a Turkish bazaar. He soon loses his towel, and is forced to hide his nudity with a variety of implements from the various stores, all the while, avoiding attacks from the thugs. He hides in an alleyway and notices huge pieces of cloth hanging from above, so he rapidly performs acrobatic moves to twist the material around himself. Thus disguised in the makeshift clothing he finally manages to make his escape. Carmen Wong, who had appeared to be a reporter, turns out to be working for the CIA and she informs Buck that the item everyone seems so keen to get their hands on is a new biological weapon, Anthrax II, many times more powerful than regular anthrax. It is this that had killed the many Turkish people in the film's opening scene - Turkey had been chosen as the testing ground. When Buck meets up with Yong, he learns that her boss is crime lord Lee Sang-zen, (Wu Hsing-kuo) and a deal had been brokered between him and Buck's 'father'. Buck and Yong are then captured by a Turkish gang and tied up, but the gang themselves are subject to an attack from Lee's gang. Buck makes his escape and frees Yong, winding the winch cable of a crane all around the supporting wooden beams of the building and setting the crane to retract the cable. The cable rips through the wooden building, tearing it from its moorings and allows Buck and Yong to escape into the sea. Later the pair are picked up by Lee, and Buck learns that Yong is a drug addict, practically a slave to Lee and her life is in grave danger. Later, as they part, Lee offers Buck a new deal, more money and Yong's freedom if he gives Lee what he wants. Realizing that if he saves Yong's life, many others may die, Buck seeks the advice of a Turkish priest. The priest knows the various East Asian languages, and was an associate of the old man. He leads Buck to a basement room and gives him the item that everyone has been trying to get their hands on - 2 vials of Anthrax II. He advises Buck to save the one he can and leave the consequences up to God. Buck relents, following the advice of the priest, hands over the vials over to save Yong. However, he soon learns that she has already been given a fatal dose of drugs and is soon dead. Buck tells Carmen that he gave the vials up for Yong's life and a desperate race to get them back ensues. At the height of the action, the thugs' car becomes lodged into the rear of a large oil tanker, which catches fire. In scenes reminiscent of Speed, the driver is told he must keep the tanker traveling at 80 km/h or else the fire will spread forward, blowing up the tanker and a huge blast radius around it. Buck pulls the family from the tanker to safety one by one, but cannot escape himself. At the last moment, as the tanker heads towards the edge of a disused bridge, Buck leaps from the tanker. As he flies over the edge of the bridge, he grabs the plastic barrier, which is quickly uprooted sending him swinging down towards the ground, as the flaming oil tanker crashes into the ground below and explodes. Later on, while Buck was in the hospital to recover from his injuries, it was revealed that his entire adventure was actually an intelligence mission for an undisclosed intelligence agency, performed by Buck as an informal, non-official agent (thus the movie title, accidental spy). His background as an orphan, combined with his talents of extremely sharp intuitions and excellent martial arts skills had made him a perfect candidate for a freelance agent who could perform special missions. The mission was set as a "game" for Buck since he was not an official agent and therefore cannot be briefed about it. His sharp intuition enabled him to interpret his "clues" correctly, thus enabling him to perform his mission successfully. As the end credits are rolling, Buck is shown as getting involved in another "adventure", another way of saying that he's performing another intelligence mission-as an "accidental" spy.

7. The Medallion (2003): Eddie Yang is a Hong Kong police officer cooperating with Interpol in the capture of a crimelord named AJ "Snakehead" Staul. The operation is headed by the officiously paranoid Agent Arthur Watson and also involves a former girlfriend of Eddie's, a British agent named Nicole. The investigation leads the team to the kidnapping of a young boy named Jai, who holds the secret to a powerful medallion that gives its possessor superhuman powers and immortality. After a near-death rescue of Jai from drowning, Eddie is given supernatural martial arts powers, which assists him in tracking down Snakehead and putting an end to the arch-criminal's scheme.

8. Around the World in 80 Days (2004): The film starts with a man (later known to be Lau Xing) (Jackie Chan), robbing and escaping from the Bank of England. To evade the police, he hides in Phileas Fogg's house. From a window he observes police officers searching for him, asking foreign-looking men in the street for identification; so when Phileas Fogg (Steve Coogan) asks him for his name he responds "Passport...too". Phileas takes his name to be "Passepartout" (pronounced Pass-port-too), and takes him on as a valet. Phileas Fogg is trying to break the 50-mph speed barrier, and after succeeding with the help of Passepartout and managing to avoid the police, they head to the Royal Academy of Science. There Fogg is insulted by the other 'brilliant minds', in particular the bombastic William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin (Jim Broadbent), who believes that everything worth discovering has already been discovered and there is no need for further progress. The bank robbery is also discussed. In his blind rage, Phileas says that he is glad the bank was robbed, because it is outdated and says that the thief could be in China in little over a month, which interests Passepartout. Phileas Fogg is pressured into a bet to see whether it would be possible, as his calculations say, to travel around the world in 80 days. If he wins, he would become Minister of Science in Lord Kelvin's place; if not, he would have to tear down his lab and never invent anything again. Passepartout and Phileas retreat to Phileas's home, where he mourns on his rash decision to take the bet; yet Passepartout says that to bet on something he believes in, means the bet is in no way foolish. That sets Phileas on the start of his journey around the world. Without losing a moment, they take a carriage and leave London, after crossing with Inspector Fix (Ewen Bremner), a corrupt officer who was hired by the Royal Academy of Science to stop them travelling round the world. They then journey to Paris, where Passepartout must evade warriors sent by the murderous female soldier General Fang, who is after the precious Jade Buddha that he stole. She had previously given the Buddha to Lord Kelvin, in exchange for military assistance in her enterprises to conquer Lau Xing's village. [Remember at this point that Passepartout'real name is Lau Xing!]. Pretending to take Phileas to a convention with Thomas Edison, Passepartout leads him instead to an Art School, where Phileas meets Monique (Cécile de France), a would-be impressionist. Realizing how busy his boss is, Passepartout fights the minions using every material available: canvas, brushes and buckets of paint, etc, while in the process of accidentally making a painting. Meanwhile, Phileas and Monique discuss Monique's paintings of 'impossible things', such as dogs playing poker. Moments later, Phileas sees a painting of a man with wings. To make a machine that could allow men to fly was always Phileas's dream; he therefore feels touched. All of a sudden, Passepartout returns and tells his boss that they are running late. The two men, accompanied by Monique, depart in a hot-air balloon, while being chased by General Fang's warriors. Phileas initially refuses to allow Monique to travel with them due to a misunderstanding in allowances, but after consulting him, he does allow her. Then they travel to Turkey, where they are greeted by Prince Hapi (Arnold Schwarzenegger). Here, they were entertained for some hours in a swimming pool, in which they also chat about their ideas of better mankind and tuck into a delicious feast. The Prince, having become infatuated with Monique, ordered her to stay as his seventh wife, (one for each day of the week), while the men were ordered to leave. The men leave, but blackmail Prince Hapi into releasing Monique, using a prized but apparently flimsy 'The Thinker' statue of the Prince as a bargaining counter. The statue is ultimately destroyed, though the three travelers escape. Lord Kelvin, hearing of all this and of the theft of the Jade Buddha, becomes angry; he is later contemptuous, when he learns that Phileas has been involuntarily abetting a thief's escape. Using this as an excuse to delay Phileas, he and his aides order the British colonial authorities in India to arrest both men. In India, Passepartout sees notice of the price on his head and warns his companions. Disguised as local women, they evade the police, but are attacked by General Fang's warriors again. Using Inspector Fix and a sextant as weapons, Phileas and Passepartout defeat their assailants and flee to China. Guided by knowledge of China, Passepartout leads his friends to a village, where they are happily greeted. They spend several days here, during which Phileas discovers that Passepartout is in fact Lau Xing, a local warrior, and that the repeated attacks by General Fang's (Karen Joy Morris) militia, the Black Scorpions, are part of a power struggle centred around the Jade Buddha. Phileas is disappointed by this and more so, by the revelation that Monique has known the truth for many weeks. Later, the village is attacked by the Black Scorpions. Phileas, Monique and Lau Xing are held captive. In the next morning, Lau Xing challenges the arrogant young leader of the group that has seized him to a fight. Lau Xing at first fights alone and is defeated (when the leader cheats); moments later, he is joined by the martial arts masters of the "Ten Tigers of Canton", of which he is one. The Tigers, though outnumbered, drive the Black Scorpions from their village and free the Westerners. The Jade Buddha is then reinstated in the village's temple. Phileas now desires to continue alone, having been disappointed by his companions. He travels to San Francisco, where he is tricked out of his money. He attempts to replenish his supply with the aid of a beggar (Rob Schneider), but fails, as he is punched by a passerby as he begs for money. He is soon, however, recognized by Lau Xing and Monique, who have come to find him. In the desert, they find the Wright brothers (brothers Owen and Luke Wilson), and the 3 inventors discuss the flying machine. Taking a look at the plans (which Wilbur Wright claimed to be his silly brother's doing), Phileas finds them brilliant and suggests a few mere changes (Wilbur says he was proud of his brother and had always believed in him). Lau Xing (still called Passepartout because of force of habit on the other people's part), Monique and Phileas' next stop is New York City, where a massive crowd who had placed bets for or against Phileas winning, greet them and make it impossible for them to pass and reach their ship. A policeman allows this to be possible, by taking them through a building he called a shortcut. Here more minions await them, ready for one last face-off. They made arrangements with Lord Kelvin to take Lau Xing's village and tap the jade reserves underneath it, but if Phileas wins the bet, Lord Kelvin will not have the means to help them. A major battle between the three friends and General Fang and her minions commences in the workshop, where the Statue of Liberty was constructed, with Lau Xing using his skill to stop his enemies and the other two using luck. Fang is crushed to death by the statue's tablet. In the end, the three friends are victorious or so it seems, as the minions had stalled them enough to make them lose their ship to England. Though Phileas could have gotten to the boat, he decides to miss it to help Lau Xing. Phileas feels like he had lost, but the other two say they might still make it, if they caught the next ship. Phileas knows the unlikelihood of this, yet chooses to carry on. The old ship was owned by a sailor, who had lost both his nipples in an attack by a great white shark. Phileas tells the captain they weren't going fast enough and run out of coal, and after a lot of talking, he manages to convince the captain to let him build a plane out of the old wood from the ship, in exchange for a new ship and a surgery to give him new nipples. Using the changed Wright brother's plans, Phileas builds the machine. On it is Passepartout/Lau Xing (pedalling), Phileas (driving) and Monique (commenting). The machine seems to be working fine and soon they reach London. Then, the machine begins to fall apart and they have a crash-landing right in front of the RAS (Royal Academy of Science). Lord Kelvin sends police to stop them from making it to their actual destination, the top step of the Royal Academy of Science and the clock soon strikes noon, which is the time Phileas started.Lord Kelvin proclaims himself the victor. Several people, such as Monique, Fix and other ministers, begin attesting to Kelvin's unfair methods and his bullying nature, but Kelvin scoffs at them. However, in the process, he insults Queen Victoria (Kathy Bates), who is nearby listening. She had found out he had sold her arsenal to Fang (in exchange for jade mines in China), thanks to one of his aides, and soon realizes this fate. Kelvin tries to run away, but is apprehended. Phileas is also lucky enough not to have lost the bet; he is one day early, thanks to crossing the international date line, yet believed himself late, because of an error on the part of Passepartout. He ascends the stairs of the Academy and there, embraces Monique, victorious in his bet.

By Richard Moody & Rachel Sutcliffe

Richard Moody's Complete Childhood Oggy and the Cockroaches DVD

1. Oggy et les Cafards AKA Oggy and the Cockroaches (1999): The show centers on Oggy, a content and lazy, albeit very tender fat blue cat, who would usually spend his days watching TV and cooking - if it wasn't for the three pesky roaches in the household: Joey, Dee Dee and Marky (named after members of the punk group Ramones). The trio seems to enjoy generally making Oggy's life miserable, which involves mischief ranging from (in most cases) plundering his fridge to such awkward things like hijacking the train Oggy just boarded. The cartoon itself relies on slapstick humour, much like its "ancestor", Tom and Jerry, only amplifying the level of extremities up a notch; while "traditional" slapstick cartoon characters prefer dropping anvils and pianos on each other, this show sometimes uses even buses or submarines. Despite these however, most gags are easily accessible and enjoyable for younger viewers. Since dialog is kept to a minimum the humour is entirely visual. The additional voices for characters were done by Mark Waterworth, Lizzie Waterworth, Richard Herman, and Hugh Laurie.

By James Ross & Duane Ross

Richard Moody's Complete Childhood Videos Part 2

1. MouseHunt (1997): Lars (Lee Evans) and Ernie (Nathan Lane) Smuntz are two hapless brothers, and sons of wealthy string manufacturer Rudolf Smuntz (William Hickey). Pop, as they called him, dies, leaving them his vintage string factory and a handful of personal items including a box of cigars, which Ernie quickly takes, and the deed to an old mansion with a bank debt. Later that day, a couple of representatives from company called Zeppco International offers to buy the factory from Lars. Lars then remembers he and his brother, after being given a lucky piece of string, had promised their dying father to never sell the factory. He declines the offer (without first telling Ernie) but accepts a business card from the Zeppco representatives. That night, his wife April (Vicki Lewis) discovers this and throws him out in a rage. Meanwhile, Ernie, who never cared for his father's business, serves the mayor at his restaurant Chez Ernie. A cockroach crawls out of the box of cigars into one of the dishes. The mayor accidentally eats it and dies of a heart attack, and due to the publicity, Ernie loses his restaurant and home. He meets Lars in a diner, where they reconcile and decide to investigate the old mansion, since both of them have nowhere else to live. They find the mansion to be "... just like him: cold and spooky". Their first night in the only bed there is a noise, which they attribute to a mouse that they find in the attic. They also find the mansion's blueprints, which show that it was built in 1876 by a famous architect, Charles Lyle LaRue. The find attracts immediate interest, including a collector of LaRue items, Alexander Falko (Maury Chaykin), who offers to buy the mansion right then for $10 million. However, Ernie greedily convinces Lars that they can make more money if they restore it and then auction it off. April reconciles with Lars and finances the restoration. The brothers begin renovating, which destroys the mouse's home behind a wall. The mouse subsequently sabotages their efforts, invoking numerous attempts by them to kill it, which injure only themselves and coincidentally destroy prominent portions of the house. They cover the floor with mousetraps, which the mouse triggers with a cherry. they try to suck it up with a vacuum cleaner but gets stuck in a sewage pipe, causing the bag in the vacuum cleaner to explode. They acquire a deranged cat, named Catzilla, which the mouse tricks into falling down a Dumbwaiter shaft. Finally they hire an eccentric exterminator named Caesar (Christopher Walken). Meanwhile, Ernie finds the Zeppco business card in the string factory and surreptitiously arranges a meeting (without telling Lars), which never occurs because he flirts with two Belgian women and gets hit by a bus. The brothers return to the house as Caesar, injured and insane, is taken away by paramedics, who found him locked in a trunk in the attic, like the previous owner. After another chase after the mouse, the two brothers result in being burnt/injured with Ernie being blasted out of the chimney and into a frozen lake in a ball of fire. Completely berserk, Ernie grabs a shotgun and fires at the mouse, missing each time and causing the floor to collapse by accidentally shooting a bug bomb dropped by Caesar. In the ensuing calm, the answering machine plays a message from Zeppco, withdrawing their offer to buy the factory. The brothers begin to argue about each betrayal, and Lars, enraged, throws an orange at Ernie, missing and knocking the mouse unconscious. Finding the opportunity, the brothers wanted to finish the mouse off, but their consciences desists them despite all the mayhem the mouse contributed. Instead, the brothers happily mail the mouse to Cuba. They finally finish restoring the mansion and host a lavish auction at the premises. The bidding rises into millions, when Lars discovers the mouse parcel, returned due to insufficient postage, with a hole chewed through. In horror, the brothers immediately attempt to find and kill the mouse. They feed a hose into the walls to try and flood the mouse out. Meanwhile, Alexander Falko bids $25 million, but before the auctioneer's gavel drops, the walls collapse under the water pressure. The water flushes out all the people inside the house before the house finally collapses to the ground. The brothers' only consolation is the apparent certainty that the mouse has finally been killed, and they assumed so when they found their father's lucky piece of string, which the mouse ate earlier. Ruined again, the brothers spend the night in the string factory, unaware that the mouse has survived and followed them. The mouse activates the factory machinery and drops a slab of cheese into the wax receptacle. The noise awakens the brothers, who find a ball of string cheese at the end of the production line. The film switches to Lars giving his new girlfriend a tour of the highly modernised factory, which now manufactures string cheese very profitably. Ernie is the top chef for new blends, but accepts them only after quality control by the mouse, telling it, "We want you to be our spokesperson. I'm sure people have had a mouse as a spokesperson before and it turned out pretty well." The film ends with the portrait of Rudolf Smuntz beaming (his expression in the portrait has been changing throughout the entire film), and his lucky piece of string laminated, framed and hung beside the portrait, with his famous quotation written under it, "A world without string is chaos."

2. Tarzan (1999): In the late 1880s off the coast of Africa, a young couple and their infant son escape a burning ship, ending up on land near uncharted rainforests (presumably West Africa). The couple craft themselves a treehouse from their ship's wreckage. The couple are killed by a savage female leopard named Sabor. Kala (Glenn Close), a gorilla who recently lost her own child to the vicious leopardess, hears the cries of the orphaned infant, and finds him in the ruined treehouse. Kala is attacked by Sabor, who wants to kill and eat the baby, but Kala manages to get her tangled in the ropes holding the derelict rowboat, and she and the baby escape. The kindly Kala takes the baby back to the Gorilla troop to raise as her own, despite her mate Kerchak's (Lance Henriksen) disapproval. Kala raises the human child, naming him Tarzan (Alex D. Linz as a young boy, Tony Goldwyn as a young adult). Though he befriends other gorillas in the troop and other animals, including the young female gorilla Terk (Rosie O'Donnell) and the male elephant Tantor (Wayne Knight), Tarzan finds himself unable to keep up with them, and takes great efforts to improve himself, including occasionally fashioning crude tools, to put him on par with the other gorillas. As a young man, Tarzan is able to kill Sabor with his crude spear and protect the troop, earning Kerchak's reluctant respect. The gorilla troop's peaceful life is interrupted by the arrival of a team of human explorers from England, including Professor Porter (Nigel Hawthorne), his daughter Jane (Minnie Driver) and their hunter-guide Clayton (Brian Blessed). Jane is accidentally separated from the group and chased by a pack of baboons. Tarzan saves her from the baboons, and recognizes that she is the same as he is, a human. Jane leads Tarzan back to the explorer's camp, where both Porter and Clayton take great interest in him—the former in terms of scientific progress while the latter hoping to have Tarzan lead him to the gorillas so that he can capture them and return with them to England. Despite Kerchak's warnings to be wary of the humans, Tarzan continues to return to the camp and be taught by Porter and Jane to speak English and learn of the human world, and both he and Jane begin to fall for each other. However, Clayton cannot convince Tarzan to lead him to the gorillas, due to Tarzan's fear for their safety from the threat of Kerchak. When the explorers' boat returns to pick them up, Clayton makes Tarzan believe that if he shows the group the gorillas, then Jane will stay with him forever. Tarzan agrees and leads the party to the gorilla troop's home, while Terk and Tantor lure Kerchak away to avoid having him attack the humans. Porter and Jane are excited to mingle with the gorillas, but Kerchak returns and threatens to kill them. Tarzan is forced to hold Kerchak at bay while the humans escape, and then leaves the troop himself, now alienated by his actions. Kala takes Tarzan back to the treehouse she found him in, and shows him his true past (including an old photograph of Tarzan's biological parents, and himself as a baby). Kala encourages him to follow his heart, and leave with Jane and Professor Porter (although it will break her heart to see him go). When they return to the ship, they are ambushed by pirates, led by Clayton, who desires to capture and sell the gorillas in England for a fine price. He orders them locked below with the Captain and his crew, but Tarzan manages to escape with the help of Tantor and Terk, and races back to the gorilla home. Kerchak and Tarzan together battle Clayton; Kerchak is fatally shot, while Clayton chases Tarzan into the vine-covered trees, where Tarzan gets the drop on him, destroying Clayton's gun. Clayton, in his haste to kill Tarzan, ignores his warning about the vine wrapped around his neck, and Clayton's neck is broken in the drop when he cuts himself free. Kerchak, in his dying breath, accepts Tarzan as his own son finally, and names him the leader of the gorilla troop. The rest of the gorillas (including Kala) are freed by Jane, Professor Porter, Terk and Tantor, and other of Tarzan's miscellaneous animal friends (baboons, rhinos, etc.), after fighting and/or scaring away the rest of Clayton's men, imprisoning them in the very same cages they planned to imprison the gorillas in. The next day, as Porter and Jane prepare to leave on the ship, Tarzan reveals that he now plans to stay with the gorilla troop. As the ship leaves shore, Porter encourages his daughter to stay with the man she loves, and Jane jumps overboard to return to shore; Porter shortly follows himself. The two are accepted into the gorilla troop where, as the song says, they are all finally "Two Worlds, One Family".

3. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001): Harry Potter is a seemingly ordinary eleven-year-old boy, living with his negligent relatives, the Dursleys. On his eleventh birthday, Harry learns from a mysterious stranger, Rubeus Hagrid, that he is actually a wizard, famous in the Wizarding World for surviving an attack by the evil Lord Voldemort when Harry was only one year old. Voldemort killed Harry's parents, but his attack on Harry rebounded, leaving only a lightning-bolt scar on Harry's forehead and rendering Voldemort powerless. Hagrid reveals to Harry that he has been invited to begin attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry defies his aunt and uncle, and attends Hogwarts where he begins to learn magic and make new friends, as well as enemies, among the Hogwarts students and staff. Voldemort has been near death, and in hiding, since the attack on Harry ten years earlier, but a plot is brewing for the Dark Lord to regain his power and strength through the acquisition of a philosopher's stone, which grants immortality to its owner. Harry and his friends, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, discover the plot and seek to prevent the theft of the stone, which is hidden in a protected chamber at Hogwarts. The three friends suspect Professor Snape, a teacher who for unknown reasons despises Harry. The culprit is actually the seemingly cowardly teacher, Professor Quirrell, who is acting on Voldemort's orders. Harry manages to defeat Quirrell, and the stone is forever destroyed by Albus Dumbledore and Nicholas Flamel, crushing the chance of Voldemort returning to power

4. The Haunted Mansion (2003): The prologue shown over the opening credits is a series of vignettes which sketch the story eventually told later in the film: sometime in the 19th century, a young landowner by the name of Edward Gracey fell in love with a woman named Elizabeth Henshaw. The two were to marry, but Elizabeth unexpectedly committed suicide (by taking poison), and Edward, having received a note, (supposedly written by his fiancee,) hanged himself in despair. In modern-day Louisiana, Jim Evers (Murphy) operates a successful and growing real estate partnership with his wife, Sara (Thomason). Jim's workaholic habits often cause him to put work ahead of his family, but he promises to make it up to them with a weekend trip to a nearby lake. Before leaving, however, Sara receives a telephone call asking her to appraise an old mansion in the remote swamps of New Orleans. Jim jumps at the chance to handle the selling of the house, and takes his entire family, including his children Michael and Megan, to the old Gracey Manor, which seems completely deserted except for the owner, Edward Gracey (Parker), his creepy butler Ramsley (Stamp), and two servants, Ezra (Shawn) and Emma (Waters). What is supposed to be a brief stop turns into an overnight stay when a sudden rainstorm blocks the road, and the Evers are offered shelter for the night. After an argument between Jim and Sara, Ramsley leads Jim to the library, where Jim discovers a secret exit and becomes trapped wandering through the passageways. Elsewhere, Gracey approaches Sara and offers her a tour of the mansion. Meanwhile, a strange, glowing ball appears in Megan and Michael's room, and leads them to the attic, where they discover an old portrait, and realize that Sara is the spitting image of Elizabeth Henshaw. Jim stumbles on a crystal ball with the spirit of a gypsy, Madame Leota (Tilly) inside. Leota guides him to Michael and Megan, accompanied by Ezra and Emma, who explain that they, and the rest of the house's inhabitants, are ghosts: since Master Gracey's suicide, the mansion has been cursed and their spirits have been trapped there. Believing that Sara is a reincarnated Elizabeth, Gracey seeks to marry her, ending his despair and breaking the curse. Jim asks how they can escape, and Leota tells him to find a key in the adjacent graveyard. After a narrow escape from a crypt full of zombies, they use the key to open a locked trunk in the attic: inside, they find a letter from Elizabeth to Edward, accepting his proposal of marriage. Stunned, Ezra and Emma realize that Elizabeth didn't kill herself. Ramsley's ghost appears and reveals the truth: feeling that marriage to Elizabeth would have ruined his master, Ramsley poisoned her, and then sent Edward a fake suicide note. He did not expect Edward's suicide, or the curse it caused. Now, in order to break the curse, he has lured Sara to the mansion, so Edward can "marry" her and finally be at peace. When Jim objects, Ramsley uses his powers to take Megan and Michael prisoner, throw Jim out of the mansion, and then seal it off. Inside, Edward pleads with Sara to remember who she really is. Frightened, and realizing that he is a ghost, she runs away and locks herself in her room. Ramsley then confronts her, telling her to play her part and go through with the wedding, or else Megan and Michael will die. Outside the mansion, Jim has almost given up hope, but Madame Leota tells him to "try again." Jim crashes his car through the mansion's windows, rescues Megan and Michael, and then confronts the ghosts in the middle of the "wedding," just before Sara is about to join Edward in death by drinking a cup of poison. Jim gives Edward the real letter from Elizabeth, and Ramsley, when confronted, admits to murdering her. When all is revealed, Ramsley becomes enraged and envokes the powers of Hell. Windows shatter as evil spirits fly around the room. At that, flames erupt from the fireplace and drag Ramsley down to his rightful place: in Hell. Then the mysterious ball reappears, and reveals itself to be the ghost of Elizabeth; she and Edward reunite, and together they, and the rest of the mansion's ghosts, ascend to Heaven. The only inhabitants of the mansion left behind are Madame Leota and four singing busts, which the Evers adopt into their family and take with them on their vacation.

5. Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005): Tottington Hall's annual Giant Vegetable Competition is approaching. The winner of the competition will win the Golden Carrot Award. All are eager to protect their vegetables from damage and thievery by rabbits until the contest, and Wallace and Gromit are cashing in by running a vegetable security and humane pest control business, "Anti-Pesto". However, they are faced with two problems: the first is Wallace's growing weight and the second is inadequate space for the captured rabbits. Wallace comes up with an idea — use his Mind Manipulation-O-Matic machine to brainwash the rabbits, allowing them to run freely without harming everyone's gardens. While performing the operation, he kicks the switch and something goes terribly wrong, leaving them with a semi-intelligent rabbit who (in a slow metamorphosis) starts to behave like Wallace (down to his fondness for cheese) and whom Wallace names "Hutch". Soon the town is threatened by the "Were-Rabbit", a giant rabbit-like monster which eats vegetables of any size. During a chaotic yet hilarious town meeting, Anti-Pesto enters into a rivalry with Lord Victor Quartermaine to capture the Were-Rabbit and to win Lady Tottington's heart. After the first night of the Were-Rabbit, the townsfolk start to argue about what to do. After a hectic night-time chase, Gromit discovers that the Were-Rabbit (whom he assumed was Hutch at first) is, in fact, Wallace, suffering from the effects of the accident with the Mind Manipulation-O-Matic having caused him and Hutch to each take on aspects of the other; Hutch even displays Wallace's knack for inventions and regularly repeats some of Wallace's old phrases. Victor corners Wallace during the night, jealous of Lady Tottington's growing fondness for him because of his humane practice of pest control (whereas Victor thinks it's more effective to shoot and kill them). But then Wallace falls into the path of moonlight and transforms. Victor, having identified the Were-Rabbit, goes to Reverend Clement Hedges and gains access to "24-carrot" gold bullets - supposedly, the only things capable of killing a Were-Rabbit. During the final showdown, Victor and his dog Philip capture Gromit, who subsequently escapes and decides to make the ultimate sacrifice by using the melon he had been growing for the competition as bait for Wallace who, in his rabbit form, has burst in upon the vegetable contest, causing panic. Victor tries to shoot what is apparently the monster, but Gromit is one step ahead of him, using a rabbit costume he and Wallace had created prior to the discovery of the Were-Rabbit's true nature as a trap. Unfortunately, the marrow cannot keep Wallace's attention as Victor tries to take the golden carrot award from a distressed Lady Tottington (The only vaguely bullet-like object left to him after he exhausted the gold bullets provided by the vicar). Wallace ascends to the rooftops, holding a screaming Lady Tottington in his hand. Discovering his identity, she promises to protect him, only to be interrupted by Victor. Meanwhile, in a mid-air dogfight in toy aeroplanes, Philip chases after Gromit. Gromit forces his foe out of the air in a fiery crash and explosion - but Philip manages to hold on to Gromit's plane and the two grapple with each other. The fight rages on and in the end, Gromit releases Philip, ironically, through the bomb doors and into a bouncy castle. On the roof of Tottington Hall, Gromit's toy biplane circles Wallace, who clings onto the flagpole at the top of the building for dear life. Victor, wielding the Golden Carrot trophy inside a blunderbuss he finds at an antiques table at the fair, tries one last time to shoot Wallace, but Wallace is saved by Gromit, who grabs onto a rope from a flagpole and swings his plane into the path of the improvised bullet. The enraged Victor throws down the blunderbuss and stamps on it screaming out "Potty poo!" Unfortunately, since it is a toy plane not intended for flying, when Gromit accidentally lets go of the rope, the plane begins to descend rapidly. Wallace jumps from the flagpole and catches the plane, thereby breaking Gromit's fall into the cheese tent below. Victor gloats, but is knocked unconscious by Lady Tottington, using a giant carrot. He falls into the tent too, where Wallace lies unconscious and seemingly dying of his injuries. To protect Wallace from the angry mob outside, Gromit dresses Victor up as the monster (using a marionette he used earlier as a lure for the Were-Rabbit), and throws him out of the tent. Philip, believing Victor to be the beast, bites his master, and the angry mob chases Victor away.Gromit and Tottington tend to Wallace who, seconds later, breathes his last and morphs back into his human form. Gromit, the rabbits, and Lady Tottington are saddened by their loss, but Gromit is able to revive Wallace with a slice of Stinking Bishop cheese. Gromit, for his bravery and his "brave and splendid marrow", was awarded the (now somewhat battered) competition trophy, and Lady Tottington turns Tottington Hall into a wildlife refuge where all the rabbits, including Hutch, can live in peace.

By Steven Harris, Vikrum Singh, Scott Hancock & Richard Moody

My Favorite Novels Of Twilight Series

1. Twilight (2005): Isabella "Bella" Swan moves from sunny Phoenix, Arizona to rainy Forks, Washington to live with her father, Charlie, while her mother, Renée, travels with her new husband, Phil Dwyer, a minor league baseball player. Bella attracts much attention at her new school and is quickly befriended by several students. Much to her dismay, several boys compete for shy Bella's attention. When Bella is seated next to Edward Cullen in class on her first day of school, Edward seems utterly repulsed by her. He disappears for a few days, but warms up to Bella upon his return; their newfound relationship reaches a climax when Bella is nearly run over by a fellow classmate's van in the school parking lot. Seemingly defying the laws of physics, Edward saves her life when he instantaneously appears next to her and stops the van with his bare hands. Bella becomes determined to find out how Edward saved her life, and constantly pesters him with questions. After tricking a family friend, Jacob Black, into telling her the local tribal legends, Bella concludes that Edward and his family are vampires who drink animal blood rather than human. Edward confesses that he initially avoided Bella because the scent of her blood was too desirable to him. Over time, Edward and Bella fall in love.Their relationship is disturbed when another vampire coven sweeps into Forks. James, a tracker vampire who is intrigued by the Cullens' relationship with a human, wants to hunt Bella for sport. The Cullens attempt to distract the tracker by splitting up Bella and Edward, and Bella is sent to hide in a hotel in Phoenix. There, Bella receives a phone call from James, who claims to be holding her mother captive. When Bella surrenders herself, James attacks her. Before she is killed, Edward, along with the other Cullens, rescues her and defeats James. Once they realize that James has bitten Bella's hand, Edward sucks the venom from her bloodstream before she is infected and becomes a vampire. After doing so, she is brought to a hospital. Upon returning to Forks, Bella and Edward attend their school prom and Bella expresses her desire to become a vampire, but Edward refuses.

2. New Moon (2006): On Isabella "Bella" Swan's 18th birthday, Edward Cullen, the vampire she loves, and his family throw her a birthday party. While unwrapping a gift, she gets a paper cut, which causes Edward's adopted brother, Jasper, to be overwhelmed by her blood's scent and attempt to kill Bella. To protect her, Edward decides to end their relationship, and the Cullens move away from Forks. This leaves Bella heart-broken and depressed. In the months that follow, Bella learns that thrill-seeking activities, such as motorcycle riding, allow her to "hear" Edward's voice in her head. She also seeks comfort in her deepening friendship with Jacob Black, a cheerful companion who eases her pain over losing Edward. Bella later discovers that Jacob is a werewolf. He and his fellow werewolves protect Bella from the vampires Laurent and Victoria, the latter of whom seeks revenge for her dead mate, James, whom the Cullens killed in Twilight. Meanwhile, a series of miscommunications leads Edward to believe that Bella has killed herself. Distraught over her supposed suicide, Edward flees to Italy to provoke the Volturi, vampire royalty who are capable of killing him. Alice and Bella rush to Italy to save Edward, arriving just in time to stop him. Before leaving Italy, the Volturi tell Edward that Bella, a human who knows that vampires exist, must either be killed or transformed into a vampire. When they return to Forks, Edward tells Bella that he has always loved her and only left Forks to protect her. She forgives him, and the Cullens vote in favor of Bella being transformed into a vampire, to Edward's dismay. However, Edward gives Bella a choice: either she lets Carlisle change her after her graduation, or, if Bella agrees to marry him, he will change her himself.

3. Eclipse (2007): The story opens with the revelation that Seattle, Washington is being plagued by a string of unsolved murders, which Edward suspects is caused by a young vampire that is unable to control its thirst for human blood. As Edward and Bella apply to colleges, Bella explains to Edward her desire to see her werewolf friend, Jacob Black, again. Although Edward fears for her safety, Bella insists that neither Jacob nor his werewolf pack would ever harm her, and she begins visiting him occasionally. Meanwhile, Alice Cullen has a vision that Victoria, a vampire who is hunting Bella for revenge, has returned to Forks. A few days later, Edward proposes to Bella and, despite having an aversion to marriage, she accepts. Bella and the Cullens realize that the murders in Seattle are being committed by an "army" of newborn vampires, controlled by Victoria. The Cullens join forces with the werewolf pack to combat this threat. As everyone else prepares for battle, Edward, Bella, and Jacob camp up in the mountains, hidden during the battle, where they are later joined by Seth Clearwater, a young member of the werewolf pack, to wait out the fight. In the morning, Jacob becomes upset when he overhears Edward and Bella discussing their engagement and threatens to join the fight and get himself killed. To stop him, Bella kisses Jacob and comes to realize that she also loves him. During the battle, Victoria tracks Edward's scent to where Bella is hidden in the woods, and Edward is forced to fight. After Victoria and her army are successfully destroyed, Bella explains to Jacob that while she loves him, her love for Edward is greater. After receiving a wedding invitation from Edward, Jacob runs away in his wolf form to escape his pain, angry and heartbroken at Bella's decision to become a vampire.

4. Breaking Dawn (2008): Breaking Dawn is split into three separate parts. The first part details Bella's marriage and honeymoon with Edward, which they spend on a private island off the coast of Brazil. Two weeks into their honeymoon, Bella realizes that she is pregnant and that her condition is progressing at an unnaturally accelerated rate. After contacting Carlisle, who confirms her pregnancy, she and Edward immediately return home to Forks, Washington. Edward, concerned for Bella's life and convinced that the fetus is a monster as it continues to develop with unnatural rapidity, urges her to have an abortion. However, Bella feels a pull towards the child and refuses to go through with the procedure. The second part of the novel is written from the perspective of werewolf Jacob Black, and lasts throughout Bella's pregnancy and childbirth. Jacob's Quileute werewolf pack, not knowing what danger the unborn child may pose, make plans to destroy it, even though they must kill Bella to do so. Jacob vehemently protests this decision and leaves, forming his own pack with Leah and Seth Clearwater. Bella soon gives birth, but the baby breaks many of her bones and she loses massive amounts of blood. In order to save her life, Edward changes her into a vampire by injecting his venom into her heart. Jacob, who was present for the birth, almost immediately "imprints"—an involuntary response in which a werewolf finds his soul mate—on Edward and Bella's newborn daughter, Renesmee. The third section of Breaking Dawn shifts back to Bella's perspective, finding her changed into a vampire and enjoying her new life and abilities. However, the vampire Irina misidentifies Renesmee as an "immortal child", a child who has been turned into a vampire. Because "immortal children" are uncontrollable, creating them has been outlawed by the Volturi. After Irina presents her allegation to the Volturi, they plan to destroy Renesmee and the Cullens. In an attempt to survive, the Cullens gather other vampire clans from around the world to stand as witnesses and prove to the Volturi that Renesmee is not an immortal child. Upon confronting the gathered Cullen allies and witnesses, the Volturi discover that they have been misinformed and immediately execute Irina for her mistake. However, they remain undecided on whether Renesmee should be viewed as a threat to vampires' secret existence. At that time, Alice and Jasper, who had left prior to the confrontation, return with a Mapuche called Nahuel, a 150-year-old vampire-human crossbreed like Renesmee. He demonstrates that the crossbreeds pose no threat, and the Volturi surrender. Edward, Bella and Renesmee return to their home in peace.

By Richard Moody