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The 11th Hour
Narrated by: Leonardo DiCaprio
Animals are opportunistic. Man is greedy. While necessity drives animals, it's selfishness that prods humans – a species with an unsatiable desire to grab more than what is required to live.

We think we are a superior life form, separated from nature, the masters of all we survey. But after 200 years of the Industrial Revolution and the mindless exploitation of non-renewable resources, nature is getting back at us. Natural calamities, global warming, the degradation of soil, epidemics and new diseases – these are not isolated incidents but part of a pattern that's telling us that the earth is hurting.

The 11th Hour brings this into sharp focus. Produced and narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio, it presents the inconvenient truth that we are doomed if we do not act fast.

Experts from all over including former Soviet Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev, scientist Stephen Hawking, former head of the CIA R. James Woolsey and sustainable design experts William McDonough and Bruce Mau, among more than 50 interviewees, convincingly argue that we are at a critical point in time. Some troubling observations:

- Whether we believe it or not, we are heading for Armageddon.

- Some day the Earth could become like Venus. Temperatures will reach 250 degrees and it will be raining sulphuric acid.

- By the end of this century, or even in a few decades, the Arctic will be ice free.

- By the middle of this century, according to UN estimates, there will be 150 million environmental refugees because of climate change.

- So far 99.999 per cent of all species have become extinct, and even now thousands of species are disappearing every year.

- Desertification is spreading' 30 per cent of the soil has already degraded.

- We are an infant species. If we look at life on Earth till now in terms of a calendar year, we got here just 30 seconds to midnight on December 31.

So, we've got to save the environment. However, an optimistic expert points out, "In a way that's a misstatement." He believes the environment is going to survive. We are the ones who will not survive. "The Earth will regenerate. The seas and rivers will become pristine again. The land will become green. The Earth has all the time in the world. We don't."

Wait. Watch this DVD. All's not lost. As yet.

Rating: PG.

The Kite Runner
Cast: Khalid Abdalla, Homayoun Ershadi, Zekeria Ibrahimi, Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada
Can one right the wrongs of the past and redeem oneself? The Kite Runner from Marc Foster, who also directed Finding Neverland and Monster's Ball, makes a strong case that it is possible.

Kabul in 1978, just before the Soviet invasion, is a relaxed place where children have fun flying kites. Among them are 12-year-old Amir (Ibrahimi) and his close friend Hassan (Mahmidzada), the son of Amir's family servant.

While Amir is skilled in kite duelling, Hassan has the knack for knowing exactly where the cut kite will fall.

One day, running after a drifting kite, Hassan is accosted by three bullies and brutally assaulted. Amir witnesses the incident but doesn't intervene. He feels so guilty about it that he rigs a theft to get Hassan and his father to leave their house.

Then the Soviet tanks roll in and Amir and his father (Ershadi) flee to the US via Pakistan.

Fast forward 20 years. Amir (Abdalla) is now an accomplished novelist and about to embark on a book tour when he receives a call from an old Afghan friend. Come home, the friend pleads. "It's a bad time [the Taliban are ruling the roost now], but it's a time to be good again."

Realising that this could be the only opportunity for atonement, Amir returns to a scarred Kabul and undertakes a dangerous mission that could take his life.

Foster and screenwriter David Benioff have brilliantly pulled off the tough task of adapting Khaled Hosseini's best selling novel for the big screen. The acting also stands out, especially Mahmidzada's endearing performance as the innocent kid who will do anything for his friend.

Rating: PG13