Archive
Archive for December, 2009
ThrillerDecember 23rd, 2009
Description:
A quivering voice begs to screenwriter, Joel Brandt, to pick up the phone on a message from his answering machine. Thinking it a prank, Joel deletes the message. The caller is found dead. Another caller leaves Joel a message; there is another murder…then another…then another. The killer has Joel’s attention, and Joel has the attention of the police. Now the prime suspect in a series of murders, Joel discovers this psychotic killer has targeted him for a reason found within his body of work. Will Joel be able to re-write his ending, or be forced to pay the ultimate price?
Cast:Matthew Lillard, Deborah Kara Unger, Gina Holden, Serge Houde
Action, Drama, Sci-FiDecember 23rd, 2009
Description:
In 1982, a large alien spaceship stops above Johannesburg, South Africa. Reports suggest that the ship became stranded after a command module separated from the ship and dropped to Earth, nowhere to be found. An exploratory team discovers a group of one million unhealthy and leaderless members of an arthropod-like extraterrestrial species who are given asylum on Earth. Some of these aliens engage in criminal and destructive activities, which lead to demands from the human population for more control. As a result, the aliens – derogatorily referred to as “prawns” – are confined to a government camp inside Johannesburg, called District 9. The camp is secured and, even with a massive police presence, soon turns into a slum. In the first decade of the 21st century, Multinational United (MNU) is placed in charge of policing and relocating the now 1.8 million aliens to District 10, a new camp 240 kilometres northwest of Johannesburg. They use a private military corporation, headed by Koobus Venter, to enforce the relocation effort with impunity.
Cast:Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope, David James, Mandla Gaduka, William Allen
Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi, ThrillerDecember 22nd, 2009
Description:
Loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart”, Tell-Tale sets a dark tone right from the start. Terry (Lucas) is the single parent to his small daughter Angela, who is stricken with a disease that threatens to calcify all her tendons, rendering her unable to function (and no, it’s not called boneitis). Horrible, huh? Adding insult to injury, Terry has life-threatening heart problems.
Normally I’d start moaning about forced empathy, but for all the heavy-handedness, these conditions are handled with impressive finesse, woven directly into the story. Angela’s doctor, Elizabeth (Headey), has bonded closely with her patient and reserves a portion of that love for her father. All appears to be shaping up for the makings of a fine Lifetime Channel movie about second chances when Terry is rushed to the hospital in need of an immediate heart transplant!
Cast:Josh Lucas, Lena Headey, Brian Cox
Drama, RomanceDecember 22nd, 2009
Description:
Burke Ryan (Aaron Eckhart), is a successful Ph.D. and author of a self-help book that gives advice about dealing with the loss of a loved one. He writes the book after his wife dies in a car accident as a way to deal with the grief. While giving a workshop in Seattle, where his wife was from, he meets Eloise (Jennifer Aniston), a woman who works as a florist. It seems, however, that Burke has not been following his own advice, and in fact has not been dealing with the loss of his wife. In the end, he confesses to an audience that he was driving the car, and not his wife, as he previously maintained. Due to this, he blames himself for her death. Eloise, along with his wife’s father, (Martin Sheen), help Burke move past his wife’s death.
Cast:Aaron Eckhart, Jennifer Aniston, Frances Conroy, Dan Fogler
ComedyDecember 22nd, 2009
Description:
Meet the Rizzos, a family that might get along a lot better if only they could tell each other the truth. Dad Vince is the worst offender. But since the prison guard won’t even admit that poker night is in fact acting class, how’s he ever going to explain about his illegitimate son? His daughter works as a stripper when she’s supposed to be in college, while young Vinnie Jr has a secret sexual fetish that involves a 24-hour webcam and the family’s 300-pound neighbour. Vince’s wife Joyce is the family’s rock, but it’s been a year since she enjoyed intimacy with her husband, and it’s no surprise she thinks poker night spells A-F-F-A-I-R. When former prisoner Tony enters the Rizzos’ lives, Joyce begins to suspect that the handsome young Tony isn’t who Vince says he is. City Island is a funny, touching and smart family tale about the secrets of the past catching up with the lies of the present, and accepting that nobody’s perfect – least of all your loved ones.
Cast:Andy Garcia, Julianna Margulies, Steven Strait, Emily Mortimer, Ezra Miller
Horror, Mystery, ThrillerDecember 22nd, 2009
Description:
Triangle (2009) is a British horror film, directed by Christopher Smith, and starring Melissa George, Rachael Carpani and Liam Hemsworth[1], the film was released in the UK on 16 October 2009
When Jess sets sail on a yacht with a group of friends, she cannot shake the feeling that there is something wrong. Her suspicions are realized when the yacht hits a storm and the group is forced to board a passing ocean liner to get to safety, a ship Jess is convinced she’s been on before. The ship appears deserted, the clock on board has stopped, but they are not alone… Someone is intent on hunting them down, one by one. And Jess unknowingly holds the key to end the terror.
Cast:Melissa George, Liam Hemsworth, Rachael Carpani
Drama, ThrillerDecember 22nd, 2009
Description:
The sudden appearance of exotic flowers in New Haven spawns an unprecedented epidemic rumored to be the result of a botched experiment by cosmetics giant, V-Zone. Paul and Lauren, a married couple, are caught between the catastrophe and their own troubled relationship when Lauren encounters one of the flowers and becomes infected. As her symptoms worsen, Paul’s denial of Lauren’s illness puts the couple in grave danger as the city is overrun with infected people, media frenzy, National Guard, protesters and a panicked populace. Struggling to maintain a normal daily life, Paul engages in a battle of wills with his best friend and business partner, Roger, as Paul tries to deny his wife’s condition and Roger tries to take matters into his own hands. As the epidemic reaches a climax, Paul must confront the reality of his situation as well as the monster his friend has become.
Cast:Michelle Chin, Deborra-Lee Furness, Lynda-Maree Gerritsen, Liam Goodes
ThrillerDecember 22nd, 2009
Description:
The film opens with the gang initiation, involving the taking of drugs and holding a pistol, of a boy on a council estate in South London, in another scene right after apparently filmed on a mobile phone, three gang members harass and shoot dead a mother walking her child while joyriding around the estate on a motorcycle. While fleeing the murder scene, they speed across a road in front of an oncoming truck and are also killed. The titular Harry Brown (Caine), an elderly former Royal Marine and Northern Ireland veteren and Royal Marines Commando, suffering from emphysema, wakes to news of these deaths over the radio. With his wife sick in hospital, in order to visit her Harry must cut through a public underpass which is a gathering spot at all hours by local thugs and gang members.
Though seeing the increasingly brutal facts of life on the estate (including a man beaten for attempting to intervene when his car is broken into by a gang of youths) Harry is unwilling to get involved. In fact, it seems his only real friend is Leonard (Bradley), another pensioner who complains that hooligans put dog faeces through his letterbox and spit on him. The pair play chess at a pub run by Sid (Cunningham), who takes kickbacks from a pair of drug and arms dealers, which Leonard cannot forgive but Harry is willing to ignore. That night Harry is informed his wife is dying, but in order to reach the hospital before she passes away he must go through the underpass, something he is scared enough not to do. By the time he finds an alternative route to the hospital his wife is already dead.
Cast:Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, Ben Drew, Charlie Creed-Miles
ComedyDecember 22nd, 2009
Description:
The story takes place at East Great Falls High, ten years after the first American Pie movie. The new protagonists of this movie are three brand new hapless virgins: Rob (Bug Hall), Nathan (Kevin M. Horton) and Lube (Brandon Hardesty). One night Rob accidentally sets fire to the school library, and finds the “Book of Love”, Mr. Levenstein’s (Eugene Levy) creation. Unfortunately for them, the book is ruined. The book had incomplete advice, and embarks them on a helpless journey to lose their virginity. After trying and failing for most of the time, they pledge to restore the book, and to do this, they must find the original author of the book (Levenstein) and all the other people who wrote on the book, and start the restoration.
Cast:Louisa Lytton, John Patrick Jordan, Kevin M. Horton, Brandon Hardesty
Comedy, FamilyDecember 22nd, 2009
Description:
Charlie (John Travolta) and Dan (Robin Williams) are best friends and co-workers. Seven years prior to the present time of the movie, Dan was once married and when he divorced he was very depressed. In order to cheer Dan up, Charlie takes him on a wild vacation where Dan meets a woman named Vicki (Kelly Preston) who he thinks is his soul mate. Along with Vicki is her equally beautiful but weird best friend Jenna (Rita Wilson) who is overly obsessed with her hands because she is a hand model. Dan and Vicki marry the same night they meet but their love affair is short lived. Seven years later, Vicki arrives back in town and announces to Dan that they have twins: Zach (Connor Rayburn) and Emily (Ella Bleu Travolta) together.
Dan offers to take care of the children the same day he meets them after Vicki has to go to jail for two weeks due to an activist crime. Originally, the kids were going to stay with Jenna but Dan severely injures her by mistake so she ends up in the hospital, nearly immobile and unable to watch the kids. Because Dan’s condo does not allow children, he has to board with Charlie. Whilst this is happening, Charlie and Dan are about to score their greatest gig in the history of their careers with a Japanese corporation.
Cast:John Travolta, Robin Williams, Kelly Preston, Seth Green
Comedy, DramaDecember 22nd, 2009
Description:
Caleb Sinclaire is sitting in a diner, sulking and smoking a cigarette. He begins to break down, but composes himself when he sees his younger brother Peter, a college student on Thanksgiving break whom Caleb is giving a ride home, arrive. Peter has found a new girlfriend, Emma Gainsborough, a psychology major, and Caleb immediately grills him for details, beginning to show an apathetic attitude towards women. Emma and Peter met each other while Emma was on campus meeting some fraternity boys; while Peter says she’s a good girl and nothing happened, Peter immediately perceives her as a whore who was cheating on her boyfriend to be with Peter. After being rude to the waitress, they both drive off to Emma’s house who Peter wants to introduce. On the way, Caleb reveals he hasn’t managed to fall asleep in a week.
They arrive at Emma’s house; although she comes off as a sweet girl, Caleb is immediately antagonistic to her and smokes in the car, even though Peter says she doesn’t it. Caleb however, keeps his eyes on Emma when she’s not looking and drops both of them off at his father Donald’s house. Caleb however, refuses to come inside and calls his father by his first name; he also tells Emma that they probably will never see each other again.
Cast:Brittany Snow, Adam Scott, J.K. Simmons, Alex Frost
Crime, DramaDecember 22nd, 2009
Description:
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — You don’t have to be a native Staten Islander to understand the mind-set. Just spend a few minutes answering the phone at this newspaper and you’ll hear it in the callers’ voices, their hurt feelings.
That well-known reputation as “the forgotten borough” isn’t a badge of honor. It’s actually an insult.
Filmmaker James DeMonaco is a native, so it shouldn’t be surprising that “Staten Island,” his directorial debut, doesn’t just come with an implicit understanding of the borough’s mind-set. The movie is also kind of all about this.
To be honest, I approached this movie with the greatest of dread, expecting yet another cheapo effort starring bit players from “The Sopranos” cashing in on the Island’s reputation as a trashy place mobbed up with heavily accented Italian-Americans who don’t know how to make an honest living.
Cast:Ethan Hawke, Vincent D’Onofrio, Seymour Cassel
ComedyDecember 22nd, 2009
Description:
Meg Ryan is terrific as high-powered Manhattan lawyer Louise, who, visiting a day early the country house she and husband Ian (Timothy Hutton) share, discovers the premises strewn with lovely flower pedals. This, she soon learns after a startled Ian arrives, is in anticipation of his young mistress, Sara (Kristen Bell), whom he expects to whisk off to Paris the next day. Not a nice farewell gesture to his wife of 13 years.
Maybe we’ve seen Louise before, in characters played by Diane Keaton, Meryl Streep and others, but Ryan makes Louise a ballsy, believable bitch to behold. Upon her discovery, Louise takes action by duct-taping Ian and holding him prisoner in the house, hoping he’ll come to his senses. The back-and-forth that ensues isn’t just a war of the sexes but a war of wills as Ian tries to talk his way out of a bad situation and Louise holds firm, even baking the cookies Ian adores.
Cast:Meg Ryan, Timothy Hutton, Kristin Bell, Justin Long
ComedyDecember 22nd, 2009
Description:
The best part of any marriage is consummating it. However after 3 months of a sexless marriage Dan, in a moment of weakness, finds himself in the throws of casual sex with another woman. Dan decides the only way to morally rectify this is of course to get his wife to cheat on him and thus he sets out to find the right man to put the hurt on his old lady.
Cast:Danny Masterson, Patrick Warburton, Christopher Masterson, Bijou Phillips
ComedyDecember 22nd, 2009
Description:
Weather Girl is looking to explore larger issues around women past their early 30s begin to be perceived as running out of time, both in careers and relationships. Faced at the age of 35 with having completely start her life over at a time when YouTube has made her outburst about Dale’s affair fodder for public amusement and mockery (and, in the process, made a mockery of any serious job prospects for her), Sylvia’s at first at a complete loss for how to move forward. A date with a dorky accountant (Jon Cryer) pretty much lays out Sylvia’s situation: she’s past the age of being able to afford to be too picky, and her life has now been reduced to the possibility of considering a business-like relationship with guys like this. Or is it?
Cast:Tricia O’Kelley, Mark Harmon, Jon Cryer, Enrico Colantoni
