Shameless Self Expression

Unlike what you may have read, Alice (Mia Wasikowska) is a 19-year old woman about to be forced into a socially beneficial but loveless marriage. When she follows the White Rabbit (voice by Michael Sheen) down the rabbit hole and into Wonderland (or Underland), it's as much to escape from the reality of her current situation as it is to pique her curiosity. Once in Wonderland, she is greeted with interest by the likes of the Cheshire Cat (voice by Stephen Fry) and the Blue Caterpillar (voice of Alan Rickman), characters she has met before but has no recollection of. Ruled by the head-hunting, tantrum-throwing Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter), Wonderland is enduring dark times, waiting for Alice to return and fulfil her prophecy to slay the Queen’s monstrous pet, Jabberwocky (voice by Christopher Lee). Alice also encounters the eccentric Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), and the White Queen (Anne Hathaway), the perhaps equally vain, but far more even-tempered estranged sister of the Red Que...

Steven Seagal is a former CIA virologist who turned his back on that career after finding out what his work was really being used for. Now he’s a GP in small town in Montana, raising his young daughter (Camilla Belle) and favours more holistic medicines than those from the big pharmaceutical companies. Meanwhile, not far from Seagal’s ranch, nutbar militia leader Gailard Sartain (who has a loyal band of dead-head redneck followers) has just been captured by the FBI and jailed. Unfortunately, Sartain has also injected himself with a deadly virus as well as its antidote, infecting pretty much the whole town. Seagal, doctor, friend to the Native American community, and butt-kicker, is called in to save the day, with daughter Belle also playing an important part. Silas Weir-Mitchell is Sartain’s right-hand man, whilst western veteran L.Q. Jones plays Seagal’s grizzled old pal.   This 1998 direct-to-video actioner from Aussie journeyman Dean Semler (who directed the bland “Firestorm...