Good Movies to Watch

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Extraordinary Measures is a 2010 medical drama film starring Brendan Fraser, Harrison Ford, and Keri Russell. It is distributed by CBS Films and was released on January 22, 2010. It is about parents who form a biotechnology company to develop a drug to save the lives of their children, who have a life-threatening disease. The film is based on the true story of John and Aileen Crowley, whose children have Pompe’s disease. The film was shot in St. Paul, Oregon, Portland, the Corner Saloon in Tualatin, Oregon, and Beaverton, Oregon as well as Vancouver, Washington. It is the first film to go into production for CBS Films, the film division of CBS Corporation.

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Sleeping with the Enemy is a 1991 psychological thriller film directed by Joseph Ruben and starring Julia Roberts. The film is based on Nancy Price’s^[5] 1987 novel of the same name. Roberts plays a woman who escapes from her abusive, obsessive husband from Cape Cod to Cedar Falls, Iowa, where she captures the attention of a kindly college drama teacher.

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Pirates of Silicon Valley is a 1999 film based on the book Fire in the Valley: The Making of The Personal Computer by Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine. It is a made-for-television docudrama written and directed by Martyn Burke which documents the rise of the home computer (personal computer) through the rivalry between Apple Computer and Microsoft. The film stars Anthony Michael Hall as Bill Gates and Noah Wyle as Steve Jobs.

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A Beautiful Mind is a 2001 American drama film based on the life of John Nash, a Nobel Laureate in Economics. The film was directed by Ron Howard and written by Akiva Goldsman. It was inspired by a bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-nominated 1998 book of the same name by Sylvia Nasar. The film stars Russell Crowe, along with Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly, Paul Bettany and Christopher Plummer.

The story begins in the early years of a young prodigy named John Nash. Early in the film, Nash begins developing paranoid schizophrenia and endures delusional episodes while painfully watching the loss and burden his condition brings on his wife and friends.

The film opened in US cinemas on December 21, 2001. It grossed over $313 million worldwide, and went on to win four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actress. It was also nominated for Best Leading Actor, Best Editing, Best Makeup, and Best Score. It was well-received by critics, but has been criticized for its inaccurate portrayal of some aspects of Nash’s life.

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Confessions of a Dangerous Mind is a 2002biographical spy film depicting the life of popular game show host and producer Chuck Barris, who claimed to have also been an assassin for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Sam Rockwell portrays Barris and the film was directed by actor George Clooney and written byCharlie Kaufman.

Columbia Pictures had planned to produce a film adaptation of Barris’ memoir of the same name in the late 1980s. When the film rights were purchased by producer Andrew Lazar, Charlie Kaufman was commissioned to write a new script, which attracted various A-list actors and filmmakers to the project. AfterBryan Singer‘s version of Confessions of a Dangerous Mind with Johnny Depp in the lead role was canceled in February 2001, George Clooney took over directing duties.

Barris remained heavily involved in production in an attempt to portray the film from his point of view. To accommodate the $30 million budget, Clooney convinced actresses Drew Barrymore and Julia Robertsto lower their asking prices. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind was released with respectful reviews from critics, but did only mediocre at the box office. Rockwell, in particular, was praised for his acting, and won the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 2003 Berlin International Film Festival.

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Cocaine Cowboys is a 2006 documentary film directed by Billy Corben and produced by Alfred Spellman and Billy Corben through their Miami-based media studio Rakontur. The film explores the rise of cocaine and resulting crime epidemic that swept the American city of Miami, Florida in the 1970s and 1980s. The producers ofCocaine Cowboys use interviews with law enforcement, journalists, lawyers, former drug smugglers and gang members to provide a first hand perspective of the Miami drug war.

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Clear and Present Danger is a 1994 film directed by Phillip Noyce, based on the book of the same name by Tom Clancy. It is a subsequent release to the 1992 film Patriot Games, which in itself is a subsequent release to the 1990 film The Hunt for Red October.

It is the last film to feature Harrison Ford as Jack Ryanand James Earl Jones as Vice Admiral James Greer, and the final one directed by Phillip Noyce.

As in the novel, Jack Ryan is appointed Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Acting Deputy Director and discovers that he is being kept in the dark by colleagues who are conducting a covert war against drug lords inColombia.

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Chain Reaction is a 1996 American film starring Keanu Reeves, Rachel Weisz, Morgan Freeman, Brian Cox,Kevin Dunn and Fred Ward. It presents a fictional account of the invention of bubble fusion using sonoluminescence and the attempts by the United States Government to prevent the spreading of this technology. Released on August 2, 1996, Chain Reaction was directed by Andrew Davis with screenplay by J. F. Lawton and Michael Bortman based on a story by Arne Schmidt, Rick Seaman and Josh Friedman.

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Casino Jack is a 2010 biographical political satire film starring Kevin Spacey and directed by George Hickenlooper. The film focuses on the career of Washington, D.C. lobbyist and businessman Jack Abramoff, who was involved in a massive corruption scandal that led to the conviction of himself, two White House officials, Rep. Bob Ney, and nine other lobbyists and congressional staffers. Abramoff was convicted of fraud, conspiracy and tax evasion in 2006,^[2] and of trading expensive gifts, meals and sports trips in exchange for political favors.^[3][4] Abramoff served three and a half years of a six-year sentence in federal prison, and was assigned to a halfway house. He was released on December 3, 2010.

In 2010, Spacey was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for best actor for his depiction of Abramoff in the film, eventually losing to Paul Giamatti for his role in Barney’s Version.^[5]

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Burn After Reading is a 2008 black comedy film written, produced, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen.^[1] The film stars George Clooney, John Malkovich, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Richard Jenkins, and Brad Pitt. It was released in the United States on September 12, 2008, and it was released on October 17, 2008 in the United Kingdom. The film had its premiere on August 27, 2008, when it opened the 2008 Venice Film Festival.^[2]