L I M I T E DOut of the Blue -Busy Eomer (aka "Karl Urban") stars in this film about a gun collector who killed thirteen people in New Zealand.
Reservation Road -Joaquin Phoenix & Jennifer Connelly lose their son in a hit and run. Mark Ruffalo is to blame. The trailer, one of those tells-you-too-much affairs, makes it look like a one note slog. But perhaps that has unintentionally done us all a favor. If they show everything in 2 minutes do you really need to spend another 100 with it when word is dismal?
Wristcutters: A Love Story -A comedy set in the after-life. Heathers successfully mined black comedy from teen suicide but degree of difficulty with that feat is a 9.9 so good luck Patrick Fugit (Almost Famous) and Shannyn Sossamon
W I D E
30 Days of Night -(based on the graphic novel) They only come out at night. But what if it's always night? Josh Hartnett's Alaskan town is overrun by vampires. Things will get very bloody. As someone who has actually spent time above the arctic circle in the winter, the concept alone terrifies me. It is already freaky enough when there's no daylight where there outta be ... even without a vampire invasion [shudder]
The Comebacks -sports movie spoof. I guess the timing is right
Gone Baby Gone -Ben Affleck's directorial debut stars his kid brother Casey Affleck (an excellent actor: see also Gerry and the current The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford for proof) in a crime drama about a missing girl in working class Boston. It doesn't remind you of Mystic River on accident. It's also adapted from a novel by Mystic author Dennis Lehane. Reviews are strong. Can this film emerge as an Oscar contender? Stay tuned
Rendition -Jake Gyllenhaal has a troubled conscience. Reese Witherspoon has a missing husband. Meryl Streep has a dark side. Throw them all together for a tortured political drama. Get mixed reviewsSarah Landon and the Paranormal Hour -This is billing itself as the first movie in a series of mysteries. No one told them that episodic detective work is the bread and butter of the small screen?
The Ten Commandments -For people who hated The Prince of Egypt but still feel the need to see a cartoon version of the beloved Bible story? The animation looks as cheap as the CG type that you sometimes see in locally produced TV commercials and they've condensed the whole story into 88 minutes. Famous actors eager for a quick buck (Ben Kingsley, Christian Slater, Alfred Molina) provide the big voices. I don't want to see any Moses movie unless Anne Baxter is there to drool on him "Oh Moses, Moses, you stubborn, splendid, adorable fool!"
Things We Lost in the Fire Susanne Bier (Brothers) directs Halle Berry as a new widow and Benicio Del Toro as a recovering junkie in this drama. I thought the plot sounded similar to Brothers (top ten list 2005) --apparently it's not as much as I feared --but Brothers is being remade. I hope for this Danish director's next project, she steps out of her comfort zone and really surprises.
P L U STim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3-D returns after a successful mini holiday run last year and I guess so will I (had fun last year and I do love the stop motion).
Sean Penn's Into the Wild takes its magic bus to hundreds of new locations this weekend so you can see what the fuss is about. If the AMPAS voters enjoy it Hal Holbrook's late in film supporting role is a real tearjerking contender. There's also 100+ new screens for haunted western killers and troubled white rich kids in India. And speaking of troubled kids... The Seeker: The Dark is Rising has just set a dubious record: the largest theater drop in history. It's losing 2,338 theaters only three weeks into it's run (10 bucks says this becomes a stand alone --franchise begone)
What are you seeing this weekend?
