In the history of Romanian cinema, Sergiu Nicolaescu’s name stands for “prolific, highly commercial and professional”.
At the age of 80, the director launched in April his latest production, which is also his second comedy in a long row of action and historic films. “Poker” is a cinema adaptation of Adrian Lustig’s theatre play with the same name, and focuses on four male friends, representatives for the social canvas: a doctor without a moral conscience, an unscrupulous politician, a chief of the local mafia, and a businessman who made a fortune in America. Nicolaescu says the subject is “more contemporary than ever and reflects the political reality perfectly,” even if it had to be delayed due to other director’s projects.
Made by MediaPro Pictures, ‘Poker‘ looks at immorality and intrigues in politics, hinting at the fact that contemporary Romania is a day to day jungle where strings are pulled by those in power, so everything turns into a poker round, where those who have the right aces in their sleeve can win.
Born in April 1930, Sergiu Nicolaescu is a Romanian film director, actor and politician. He is best known for his historical movies, such as Mihai Viteazul (1970, released in English both under the equivalent title Michael the Brave and The Last Crusade), Dacii (1966, Warriors), Razboiul Independentei (1977, War of Independence), as well as for his series of thrillers that take place in the Kingdom of Romania, such as Un comisar acuza (1973, A Police Inspector Calls). He is one of the most popular film directors in Romania. Nicolaescu’s debut as a director was in 1962 with the short film Scoicile nu au vorbit niciodata (Shells Have Never Spoken). His first feature film was the 1966 French-Romanian co-production Dacii (Les Guerriers). Nicolaescu continued his film-making career by directing a large number of movies and also starring in many of his own movies.
Having resolved their situation and with an ample supply of breathable air, Dr. Rush turns his attention to their limited power supply. His short temper – not to mention his tantrums – is grating on everyone and Col. Young tries to establish some control over the scientist’s activities. Rush has been working virtually non-stop, leading him to collapse. When the power fails completely the occupants find themselves hurtling into a new solar system. Elsewhere, several of the refugees record messages and some are on the verge of rebellion thinking information is being withheld from them. Eli is forced to help calm them.
Tensions rise as the new arrivals explore the ship. Dr. Rush comes under suspicion with his secretive behavior and attitude. He determines however that the ship is losing air. They find a damaged room that is partly exposed to space but the problem is that the door can only be closed from the inside. Who is prepared to sacrifice their life for the others? Once that problem is solved, Rush determines that the level of carbon dioxide is rising rapidly. The ship comes out of hyperspace however near a planet that will have the materials needed to fix the scrubbers. They are given only 12 hours however to get what they need.
Ep. 3
With the ship out of hyper-space for twelve hours, Lt. Scott, Sgt. Spencer, Ian, Dr. Rush and others travel down to the planet to find the minerals necessary for the scrubbers to provide them with breathable air. They find a desert planet that should have what they need but they will have to locate a dried lake bed as it will be the likely source. Scott recalls some of his troubled past. As time winds down, some of the team decide to use the gate to transport themselves to a habitable planet, despite Ian’s advice to the contrary. Chloe Armstrong communicates with her mother to tell her about what’s happened to her father.
Ep. 4
Having resolved their situation and with an ample supply of breathable air, Dr. Rush turns his attention to their limited power supply. His short temper – not to mention his tantrums – is grating on everyone and Col. Young tries to establish some control over the scientist’s activities. Rush has been working virtually non-stop, leading him to collapse. When the power fails completely the occupants find themselves hurtling into a new solar system. Elsewhere, several of the refugees record messages and some are on the verge of rebellion thinking information is being withheld from them. Eli is forced to help calm them.
Ep. 5
As destiny is flying directly into the sun, unable to change it course, the crew decides to abandon ship and attempt to survive on a nearby planet. However the shuttle they need to escape can only hold a fraction of the crew on Destiny. Colonel Young decides to hold a lottery to choose who will go on the shuttle, Scott and Johanson are chosen by Young to lead the evacuation and Young and Rush remove themselves from the lottery. Those left on the ship wait for death, but are surprised to find that instead of being destroyed the ship regains power. Relief last shortly, however, when they realize that the shuttle is unable to meet up with destiny again. All is saved with the quick thinking of Colonel Young.
Ep. 6
The water reserves are mysteriously disappearing, in massive amounts, and members of the crew are quick to blame others. When Destiny drops out of FTL the only planet in range is an ice planet with a toxic atmosphere and only two of the space suits are operational. Colonel Young and Luitenenant Scott gate to the planet and start the search for pure ice, using Eli’s new invention, a hover cart. When the Colonel is away, Johansen, who is currently in charge, discovers that the dust aliens Scott found on another planet, followed him to destiny and are using up massive amounts of water. The aliens seem harmless until aggravated by a startled crew member and attack him. Meanwhile, Scott and Young have found pure ice a ways from the gate and have returned for a second load. Johansen has a plan to trap the aliens in an air locked room, but when they do the now angered aliens begin to look for a way out. Back on the planet, while returning to the stargate with another load of ice, lieutenant Scott fall into a crevice, during a tremor, and becomes stuck. With Young attempting to dislodge him and pull him out another tremor causes the crevice to enclose tighter and rupture Scotts suit, slowly causing him to loose consciousness. With time running out Young must decide weather or not to leave Scott behind and get the ice back to Destiny. On Destiny the trapped aliens find a way out of the locked room, so Johansen comes up with a plan to lure them into a container of water and lock them in. Another tremor occurs on the planet and releases Scott to fall farther into the crevice but Young is able to catch him just in time and pull him out, just in time to rush to the gate to see the container of aliens being hurdled out through the Stargate and gate back before destiny goes back into FTL. The ice provide some water but the problem remains, there not enough water to survive.
Ep. 7
The Ancient’s communication’s stones are used to allow certain crew members to return to Earth via compos mentis using volunteers on Earth. A risky plan is then hatched that might bring the crew home, and Rush is certain it is doomed to fail.
Ep. 8
The travelers aboard the Destiny find a kino recording a visit they have made to a planet. The only problem is that haven’t visited it yet. It seems that at some point in the near future several members of the crew use the gate to travel to a nearby planet but soon after their arrival, some begin to fall sick. Fearing that they may have contracted a communicable disease TJ decides they must remain on the planet or risk spreading the disease to other aboard the ship. They soon learn they are not alone on the planet and come under attack. Aboard the Destiny, Dr. Rush tries to learn just what has happened but when crew members fall ill, as they would have if they had gone to the planet below, TJ finds there is another explanation to the illness they have contracted.
Ep. 9
Exploring Destiny the team finds a chair similar to the one found in Antarctica by General Jack O’Neil. Young orders no one to sit in it, the neural interface can be very dangerous. Rush has found an Icarus like planet filled with naquadria in Destiny’s database, only a year away. The news heightens crew moral, evident in the Pshyc evaluations preformed from Johansen. On a trip to the planet Matthew Scott gets a letter from an old friend and when he goes to visit her he discovers that she has an eight year old child that he fathered. Camille goes to the planet to visit her girl friend, an emotional reunion ensues. When Scott returns to Destiny he has a vision of Telford visiting Emily Young, Everett Young’s wife. Young goes to the planet to see Telford with his wife and attempts to attack him but the stones are pulled before he can. It is discovered that Rush has planted the information about the planet, and there is no way to dial home yet. Rush claims that this is because he wanted to boost moral on the ship. In the end Young surprises Telford on the planet and beats him.
Ep. 10
When Sgt. Spencer is found shot in his quarters, Lt. Scott conducts a room to room search for any evidence. It looks bad for Col. Young when Scott and Eli find the murder weapon in the Colonel’s room. He asks Chloe to represent him at a hearing that will be held on board. The military members of the crew are prepared to back-up their commanding officer with force if necessary but Young insists they all calm down and let the process continue. Eli manages to find conclusive evidence about what exactly happened to Spencer and who put the gun in Young’s room. Knowing who is behind the deception, Young takes action.
Lightyears in space, the space transport shuttle ‘Hunter-Gratzner’ is met with a deadly meteor shower and crash lands on a baron wasteland with absolutely no life in sight. After their captain dies from a ‘fatal impact’ upon crash landing, second-in-command Carolyn Fry assumes responsibility of the ten survivors who managed to escape the wreck with their lives, but the death of her captain has her mind deeply troubled and she lacks the will to help the people in need of her assistance. Among these survivors is Richard B. Riddick, a dangerous criminal who was being transported to another prison colony by bounty hunter William Johns but managed to escape after the wreck. After Riddick is recaptured, following the mutilation of colonist Zeke, everyone assumes that he’s responsible and after doing a little more investigating, the survivors realize that the colonists who lived on the planet didn’t leave or vanish at all: they were eaten by a pack of carnivorous (sometimes cannibalistic) raptors, nocturnal creatures who can’t stand the light and so must stay below the surface to avoid getting scorched. Johns assumes that if the raptors are phobic about the daylight, then all they have to do is stick to three suns shining their light on the planet and they’ll be fine until an ‘evac’ arrives. That’s easier said than done when Fry examines a solar system model and discovers that the planet they’re on falls into a total eclipse every twenty two years and when the lights go out, the raptors will come to surface to feast on whoever is on their homeworld. With tensions mounting, trust dwindling and people dying left and right, Fry and the others launch a plan to find an escape shuttle to try and escape the planet in one piece: but to do so, they’ll need Riddick’s surgically enhanced eyes to see and guide them through the darkness. But the question is, can Riddick be trusted? And can they hold together long enough to avoid becoming the raptors’ next meal?
Trailer
Cast
Vin Diesel - Richard B. Riddick
Radha Mitchell - Carolyn Fry
Cole Hauser - William J. Johns
Keith David - Abu ‘Imam’ al-Walid
Lewis Fitz-Gerald - Paris P. Ogilvie
Claudia Black - Sharon ‘Shazza’ Montgomery
Rhiana Griffith - Jack / Jackie
John Moore - John ‘Zeke’ Ezekiel
Simon Burke - Greg Owens
Les Chantery - Suleiman
Sam Sari - Hassan
Firass Dirani - Ali
Ric Anderson - Total Stranger
Vic Wilson - Captain Tom Mitchell
Angela Moore - Dead Crew Member
Watch Ballte Planet full movie on-line
Watch The Chronicles of Riddick full movie on-line
