Film News & Trailers

So what’s out there this week.  Well today we’ll take a look at the films scheduled to be released this week including Spike Lee’s latest with Denzel Washington, yet another low budget horror movie and Larry the Cable Guy gets his own flick .  Read on…

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Here’s what’s scheduled to hit theaters this week.  Want to know more, just click on the title for film info including a full cast list.  Want a closer look, just click on the poster to watch the trailer.

Inside Man

Spike Lee makes a generic thriller?  The film pits criminal Clive Owen battling wits with cop Denzel Washington.  A botched heist leads to a hostage situation stand-off.  Seems like a rather odd choice for Lee going where many have gone before.  Still with Washington, Owen, Jodie Foster and RazorFine favorite Chiwetel Ejiofor this one’s got some definite star power (sadly though last year’s Flightplan did too).  Written by first timer Russel Gewitz.  Can Lee breathe life into such a well-worn tale?

Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector

The one-joke redneck blue collar comedian gets his own film playing a health inspector(?) teamed up with a rookie partner (Iris Bahr) trying to uncover the cause of food poisoning at all the top restaraunts while wooing (can a cable guy woo?) a waitress (Megyn Price).  Can he Get ‘er done?  Does anyone care?  Written by the team of Jonathan Bernstein and James Greer who gave us Max Keeble’s Big Move (yeah, I don’t remember it either).  For Arrested Development fans both David Cross and Tony Hale are credited with small parts in the film.

Stay Alive

Yet another horror flick stuck into the winter season.  This one is about teens who play an online video game known as “Stay Alive.”  As they play those who end up dying in the game start dying in real life (if you can refer to anything as retarded as this as real).  Of course they keep playing deciding the only way to survive is to beat the game and the evil Blood Countess.  Yeah.  Written and directed by William Brent Bell (Sparkle and Charm) and starring a cast of nameless teen actor monster food that you’d expect from a flick like this.

American Gun (opens Wednesday in limited release)

Intertwining tales of “how the proliferation of guns in America dramatically affect and shape the very day lives of its citizens.”  The stories include a gun shop owner (Donald Sutherland) and his granddaughter (Linda Cardellini), a single mother (Marcia Gay Harden) with a troubled son (Christopher Marquette), a high school principal (Forest Whitaker) and an A-student (Arlen Escarpeta).  Written and directed by first-timer Aric Avelino.  Early comparisons to recent Academy Award Winner Crash and early reviews have been just as divisive. 

l’enfant (Los Angeles and New York only)

Blegian film in French and presented with Enlish subtitles about theives and new parents living off the bounty from their heists and decide to auction of the child as a new way to make some easy money.  Written and directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne the film won the Golden Palm at Cannes but the film is getting a very narrow US release (Los Angeles and New York only).  We’ll have to see how it does and if it can survive long enough to make the art house circuit across the country.

Lonesome Jim (New York only)

Steve Buscemi (yes, that Steve Buscemi) steps behind the camera for this one to direct the story of Jim (Casey Affleck) a down on his luck twenty-eight year-old who leaves New York and moves back home to Indiana to live with his dysfunctional family and begins a relationship with a local woman (Liv Tyler) and her son.  Sounds like it could be a little too sappy, but Buscemi’s odd touches might make this worth seeing (for example the cast list includes a character named Evil).  As a side note Tyler sure seems to love those Affleck boys (she played the love interest to Ben in both Armageddon and Jersey Girl).

When asked how long the Oscars where going to last this year, my response was 3 hours 25 minutes and 15 seconds, I was off by a few minutes, but if I would have known about all the film montages and plugging going to the theaters I would have changed my guess. Long and dry at times, but a few funny moments between John Stewart and the presenters, the Oscars played up to the films of substance. I agree with John Stewart, Oscar host, people go to the movies to escape reality not have it spoon-fed to them. Jon Stewart made a comment about all the themes for film this year runs close to the collar on censorship, racism, corruption, war and the overall shitty things that happen in life, glad we go to the movies to escape life aren’t you?

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Oscar Crashed This YearRead More »

Haven’t had enough Frank Miller?  I loved the adaption of Sin City and now another of Miller’s graphic novels, 300, is in production and the official site is posting video journals for us fans.  For those of you unfamiliar to the story it retells the historic Battle of Thermopylae where 300 Spartan soldiers held off the entire Persian army numbering in the hundreds of thousands for longer than any believed possible.  The time gained by such a heroic stand allowed Greece to mobolize and stand against the Persians and without their sacrifice the dream of democracy may have died.  The third video journal was just posted last week.  Check it out.

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So what’s out there this week.  Well today we’ll take a look at the films scheduled to be released this Friday including a second week in a row with a film starring Paul Walker and a new animated film from the Weinstein Company.  And make sure to check back tomorrow when we’ll check out the new DVD releases (which includes on of my ton ten films of 2005 and one of my hidden gems).  Read on…

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Here’s what’s scheduled to hit theaters this Friday.  Want to know more, just click on the title for film info including a full cast list.  Want a closer look, just click on the poster to watch the trailer.

Running Scared

Paul Walker plays a mob flunkie given the task of getting rid of murder weapons but instead decides to collect them and hide them in his basement where his son’s friend finds them and uses on to shoot his abusive step-father.  Written and directed by Wayne Kramer who gave us The Cooler but is also responsible for the screenplay for Aaron’s worst film of 2005 Mindhunters.  Chazz Palminteri and Cameron Bright also star.

Doogal

UK animated film about a dog named Doogal who loves candy and bands together with friends to stop an evil sorcerer who escapes his prison and plans to exact revenge on the earth by freezing the sun.  Voices include Danile Tay, Juid Dench, Chevy Chase, Jimmy Fallon, William H. Macy, Ian McKellen, Kevin Smith, Whoppi Goldberg, and Jon Stewart as the wizard.  Can they save the day?  Well, it’s a kids film after all.

Madea’s Family Reunion

Comedy about a gun-totting grandma who attends the reunion of her dysfunctional family that includes a runaway and a pair of love-troubled neices.  The latest from director Tyler Perry (Diary of a Mad Black Woman which had a divided reaction with both critics and movie watchers).  The cast includes Lynn Whitfield, May Angelou, Keke Palmer, Cicely Tyson, Blair Underwood, China Anderson, and Tyler Perry himself in drag for the role of Mable “Madea” Simmons.

Night Watch (limited release)

Russian film about the others (vampires, witches and sorcerers) who live amongst humanity in present day Moscow.  They are divided into a group of light (good) and dark (evil) who live acoording to a centuries old truce.  The night watch is a group of the light who watch over the dark forces during the night trying to control and limit their effect on the world.  The film has been hugely successful in Russia since its release in 2004 and already has a hit sequel (2006’s Day Watch) and a new Enlgish language sequel in production now.

Tsotsi (limited release)

South African film showcasing a week in the life of a violent gang leader in Johannesburg.  The crime drama won the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival, got nominations from The Golden Globes, BAFTA, and is in contention for Best Foreign Language Film at this year’s Academy Awards.  The film is in various tribal dialects and presented with English subtitles.  Presley Chweneyagae, Mothusi Magano, Israel Makoe, and Percy Matsemela star.

Unknown White Male (Los Angeles & New York only)

A documentary look at Doug Bruce who woke up in Coney Island with no memories and is diagnosed with amnesia.  The film focuses on Doug’s rediscoving the world around him and his retun home to Europe in an attempt to reconnect with both friends and family.  Mixed early reactions to the film, but it was nominated at last year’s Sundance and first time director Rupert Murray got a nomination for his direction from the Directors Guild.

Marvel CEO Avi Arad has announced that one of the new projects for Marvel Studios will be a full length theatrical version of Captain America.  God Bless America!  Finally we can wash the taste of the 1991 straight to video version out of our mouths (unless of course this is even worse – see Fantastic Four).  David Self (Road to Perdition, Thirteen Days) has been tapped to write the script.  No word yet on whether Cap’s WWII origin, life as an icecube, and freeze thaw by The Avengers, will be left intact but early talks seem to put most of the story in the present day (Cap vs. Iraq?).  Development stage could take awhile so don’t expect to see the film before 2009.  In the meantime we can speculate on who Marvel should get to play the Cap’n.  Well let’s see Steve Rogers (Cap’s real name) is a white, blonde, blue-eyed, straight faced, square jawed, buff, slightly gay (anyone remember “Bucky”), humorless type of guy.  Am I the only one that thinks Paul Walker would be perfect for this role?

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