Village of the Damned

A blackout hits the people of one small town. They all pass out for a while. When they come to, all the women of child bearing age are pregnant. They all deliver the babies on the same day.

The children are intelligent beyond their ages and have 'special powers', meaning they can make the adults do what they collectively want them to. The ultimate plan is to form a colony and multiply. Presumably to take over the world, eventually.

Similar events have happened in different remote parts of the world. But, wherever they children survived, the communities have been wiped out by their respective governments in surprise bombings...nobody in those towns was informed because the children can read minds (unless you block them out effectively by thinking of unrelated things rather intensely say, an ocean, for example).

Creepy kids. Creepy, creepy kids.

6/10

The Remains of the Day

This is based on the novel of the same name by Kazuo Ishiguro.

The story is set between the two world wars at Darlington Hall. Mr. Stevens (Anthony Hopkins) is the butler of the house, serving Lord Darlington (James Fox), who fancies himself a sort of mediator between his home country and Germany. Although a well-intentioned man, Lord Darlington will later be remembered as a friend of Nazi Germany.

The political discussions in the film, however, are merely the backdrop to the story of the servants and workers of the house, mainly Mr. Stevens and the housekeeper Miss Kenton (Emma Thompson), and their relationship...which could have been more than professional, were it not for the distant air of Mr. Stevens, who values his duties and loyalty above all else. Eventually, Miss Kenton leaves the house to marry.

Years later, after receiving a letter from her and after his Lordship has passed away and the house sold to an American congressman (Christopher Reeve, only a few years before his disastrous accident), Mr. Stevens takes a trip to meet with her to possibly arrange for her to come back into service at Darlington Hall.

The cast is impressive, to say the least. Along with the before mentioned Hopkins, Thompson, Fox and Reeve, it also features Hugh Grant and - in minor roles - Ben Chaplin and a young Lena Headly as a shy maid (a far cry from her turn as the scheming Queen Cersei on Game of Thrones).

A wonderful, wonderful film.

9/10