Comedy, DramaJanuary 22nd, 2010admin
Description:
As young children, half-siblings Axel and Yanne are adopted to Norway. They are separated on arrival, he to material wealth on Oslo’s west side, she to an average family on the east side. In contrast to her younger brother, Yanne remembers their journey to Norway, but she has no idea where he might be now. All this is about to change, however, as Yanne’s Polish friend Maria starts working as a maid for Axel’s parents, there discovering a photograph of a young boy. Maria has seen the same picture on the wall of Yanne’s flat. She decides to reunite them. But before having time to realize the consequences, she sets in motion a chain of events which throws many people into emotional turmoil.
Cast:Hermann Sabado, Agnieszka Grochowska, Mads Sjøgård Pettersen, Yngvild Støen Grotmol, Ole Paus, Birgitte Victoria Svendsen
Drama, Horror, ThrillerJanuary 22nd, 2010admin
Description:
Four volunteers sign up for what initially appears to be a typical paid research study, only to discover that they’ve unwittingly become involved with a classified government program that was said to have been terminated nearly two decades ago, in this tense psychological thriller from director Jonathan Liebesman. The allure of a little extra cash proving too powerful to resist, four strangers decide to partake in a paid research study. As the study gets underway, the group is presented with a series of questions, and given a finite window of time in which each individual member must submit a unique numerical answer. At first, the participants all assume that the subject who gives the most obviously incorrect answer will be removed from the experiment, though it doesn’t take long for the group to realize that the correct answer isn’t always the answer that the researchers are looking for. Meanwhile, as the brooding Dr. Phillips (Peter Stormare) attempts to manipulate the study to get the answers he wants, the newest member of his team, military psychologista Ms. Reilly (Chloe Sevigny) begins questioning the ethics of such a diabolical experiment.
Cast:Chloë Sevigny, Nick Cannon, Timothy Hutton, Clea DuVall, Shea Whigham, Peter Stormare
Biography, Drama, RomanceJanuary 16th, 2010admin
Description:
London 1818: a secret love affair begins between 23 year-old English poet, John Keats (Ben Whishaw), and the girl next door, Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish), an out-spoken student of high fashion. This unlikely pair begin at odds, he thinking her a stylish minx, while she was unimpressed not only by his poetry but also by literature in general.
However, when Fanny heard that Keats was nursing his seriously ill younger brother, her efforts to help touched Keats and when she asked him to teach her about poetry he agreed. The poetry soon became a romantic remedy that worked not only to sort their differences, but also to fuel an impassioned love affair.
When Fanny’s alarmed mother and Keats’ best friend finally awoke to their attachment, the relationship had an unstoppable momentum. Intensely and helplessly absorbed in each other, the young lovers were swept deeply into powerful new sensations, “I have the feeling as if we’re dissolving,” Keats wrote to her. Together they rode a wave of romantic obsession that only deepened as their troubles mounted.
When Keats fell ill a year later, the two young lovers faced no marriage but separation. In Keats’ own poignant words, “forever panting and forever young.”
Cast:Ben Whishaw, Abbie Cornish, Paul Schneider, Kerry Fox, Thomas Sangster
Comedy, Horror, ThrillerJanuary 15th, 2010admin
Description:
Insecure Anita “Needy” Lesnicki (Amanda Seyfried) and popular flag girl Jennifer Check (Megan Fox) have been best friends since childhood, despite having little in common. One night, Jennifer takes Needy to a local dive bar to attend a concert by indie rock band Low Shoulder. A suspicious fire engulfs the bar, killing several spectators, and Jennifer is taken by the band despite Needy’s attempts to stop her. They take her into the woods, and offer her as a virgin sacrifice to Satan in exchange for fame and fortune. However, although the sacrifice and greedy exchange are a success, Jennifer is not a virgin, and when the lead singer Nikolai (Adam Brody) murders her, a demonic spirit takes over her body. Later that evening, Jennifer, covered in blood, appears in Needy’s kitchen and proceeds to eat food from the refrigerator. Unable to digest the matter, she vomits a trail of black fluid and then leaves in a hurry as Needy calls after her.
The next morning at school, Jennifer appears fine and shrugs off Needy’s concerns. While the small town is devastated by the eight deaths caused by the fire, Jennifer seduces the school’s football captain, and then attacks him in the woods, where his bloodied corpse is found later. The band gains popularity due to their rumored heroism during the fire.
Cast:Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried, Adam Brody, Johnny Simmons
Biography, DramaJanuary 15th, 2010admin
Description:
On July 2, 1937, Amelia Earhart (Hilary Swank), along with her navigator Fred Noonan (Christopher Eccleston), is on the last leg of an around-the-world flight. Moving in vignettes from her early years when Earhart was captivated by the sight of an aircraft flying overhead on the Kansas prairie where she grew up, her life over the preceding decade gradually unfolds. As a young woman, she is recruited by publishing tycoon and eventual husband George Putnam (Richard Gere) to become the first woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean, albeit as a passenger. Taking command of the flight results in a success and she is thrust into the limelight as the most famous woman pilot of her time. Putnam helps Earhart write a book chronicling the flight, much like his earlier triumph with Charles Lindbergh’s We, gradually falling in love with his charge, and they eventually marry, although she enacts a “cruel” pledge as her wedding contract.
Cast:Hilary Swank, Richard Gere, Ewan McGregor, Christopher Eccleston
Watch It Now – Amelia
Comedy, DramaJanuary 15th, 2010admin
Description:
My Year Without Sex is a title both straight-up and misleading: the story is about a character who abstains for a year but sex (or a lack thereof) is not a significant part of the story. After developing a brain aneurism, Natalie (Sascha Horler) is warned to avoid bursts of energy such as lifting, sneezing and you-know-what. This inevitably puts pressure on her relationship with hubby Ross (Matt Day) and the nuclear family synergy shared with their two young children. On the slow mend, Natalie joins a community choir run by a born again 80s rocker while Ross frets over the future of his job and the kids deal with the death of a goldfish. Like its characters, the film ambles along with a kind of day-to-day sincerity, and while the family goes through tough times the story maintains a soft-edged sweetness that coyly avoids falling even temporarily into doldrums of grief and despair.
My Year Without Sex is well acted. Sascha Horley and Matt Day contribute earthy and unassuming performances, creating an endearing partnership.
After the tumultuous breakthrough that was Look Both Ways, however, there is a sense that Watts is running at half or quarter speed in My Year Without Sex, the film a little too modest and soft-pedalled to register a strong impact. Still, it’s intelligent, endearing and pleasantly handled.
Cast:Sacha Horler, Matt Day, Jonathan Segat, Portia Bradley, Roy Davies, Catherine Hill
Biography, DramaJanuary 14th, 2010admin
Description:
English naturalist Charles Darwin has many children, but is especially fond of his eldest daughter Annie. He teaches her about his evolution theory, and tells her true stories; her favorite story, in spite of the sad ending, is about young orangutan Jenny, who is brought from Borneo to the London Zoo, where she finally dies of pneumonia, in the arms of her keeper. Darwin is furious when he learns that their clergyman has made her crawl on rock salt as punishment for defending her father’s theory, which the church opposes.
Darwin visits the town of Malvern for James Manby Gully’s water cure therapy, to cure his chronic illness. He has a water tower built in his garden to continue the therapy. When Annie gets seriously ill he takes her in 1851 to Gully to get the water cure too, against his wife Emma’s will, but Annie dies anyway, peacefully, after her father, at her request, tells her Jenny’s story once more. Darwin is devastated. The film shows her in flashbacks and hallucinations. For a long time Annie’s death is a taboo subject to talk about between Darwin and Emma, as Darwin fears that Emma blames him for the girl’s death. Later Emma denies this, she has felt guilty herself for not stopping him, and not travelling after them.
Cast:Paul Bettany, Jennifer Connelly, Jeremy Northam, Toby Jones, Benedict Cumberbatch
Comedy, DramaJanuary 14th, 2010admin
Description:
“A Serious Man is the story of an ordinary man’s search for clarity in a universe where Jefferson Airplane is on the radio and F-Troop is on TV. It is 1967, and Larry Gopnik (Tony Award nominee Michael Stuhlbarg), a physics professor at a quiet Midwestern university, has just been informed by his wife Judith (Sari Lennick) that she is leaving him. She has fallen in love with one of his more pompous acquaintances, Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed), who seems to her a more substantial person than the feckless Larry. Larry’s unemployable brother Arthur (Richard Kind) is sleeping on the couch, his son Danny (Aaron Wolff) is a discipline problem and a shirker at Hebrew school, and his daughter Sarah (Jessica McManus) is filching money from his wallet in order to save up for a nose job.”
“While his wife and Sy Ableman blithely make new domestic arrangements, and his brother becomes more and more of a burden, an anonymous hostile letter-writer is trying to sabotage Larry’s chances for tenure at the university. Also, a graduate student seems to be trying to bribe him for a passing grade while at the same time threatening to sue him for defamation. Plus, the beautiful woman next door torments him by sunbathing nude. Struggling for equilibrium, Larry seeks advice from three different rabbis. Can anyone help him cope with his afflictions and become a righteous person — a mensch — a serious man?”
Cast:Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind, Sari Wagner Lennick, Fred Melamed, Aaron Wolff
DramaJanuary 14th, 2010admin
Description:
Inspired by a true story, THE BOYS ARE BACK is a deeply moving, wryly confessional tale of fatherhood, that intimately evokes both the fragility and wonders of family life. It follows a witty, wisecracking, action-oriented sportswriter (Academy Award® nominee and Golden Globe winner CLIVE OWEN) who, in the wake of his wife’s tragic death, finds himself in a sudden, stultifying state of single parenthood. With turbulent emotions swirling just below the surface, Joe Warr throws himself into the only child-rearing philosophy he thinks has a shot at bringing joy back into their lives: “just says yes.” Raising two boys – a curious six year-old (NICHOLAS MCANULTY) and a rebel teen (GEORGE MACKAY) from a previous marriage — in a household devoid of feminine influence, and with an unabashed lack of rules, life becomes exuberant, instinctual, reckless . . . and on the constant verge of disaster. United by unspoken love, conflicted by fierce feelings and in search of a road forward, the three multi-generational boys of the Warr household, father and sons alike, must each find their own way, however tenuous, to grow up. Their story is not just about the transforming power of a family crisis — but the unavoidable grace of everyday life and love that gets them through. Academy Award® nominee Scott Hicks (”Shine”) directs from a screenplay by Allan Cubitt based on the acclaimed 2001 memoir by Simon Carr, The Boys Are Back, an unflinchingly funny and honest recounting of his journey from grieving husband to full-contact fatherhood in the aftermath of profound loss. Shot on location in the stunning countryside of South Australia, the film is produced by Greg Brenman (”Billy Elliot”) and Tim White (”Ned Kelly”). The executive producers are Peter Bennett-Jones and Clive Owen.
Cast:Clive Owen, Laura Fraser, Emma Lung, Nicholas McAnulty, George MacKay, Julia Blake, Emma Booth
Animation, Comedy, Family, RomanceJanuary 11th, 2010admin
Description:
During the Chipmunks’ “Save the Music” benefit concert, sponsored by VH1, in Paris, where they perform “You Really Got Me”, David Seville (Jason Lee) tells Alvin (voiced by Justin Long) to take it easy, but Alvin has a difficult time listening. Then, Alvin jumps on top of a scaffolding and accidentally causes a billboard to fall. Alvin warns Dave, but the billboard sends Dave flying across the stage and crash into electric devices. After the accident, he is rushed to the hospital. Although he survives, he must stay for a few days to recuperate. The nurse gives him a sedative that will make him fall asleep in a minute, so he tells his boys that he’s leaving his Aunt Jackie (Kathryn Joosten) in charge of the Chipmunks until he returns. Also, he tells Alvin, Simon (voiced by Matthew Gray Gubler), and Theodore (voiced by Jesse McCartney) that while he’s away, he wants them to have a normal childhood, and that he has also made arrangements for them to go to school. They head to the airport, where the Chipmunks meet up with Aunt Jackie, who introduces her grandson Toby (Zachary Levi), a former high school dropout. He is playing on a Nintendo DS, paying no attention to them. Toby then accidentally knocks Jackie’s wheelchair down some stairs while getting the boys’ luggage, and an airport luggage trolley crashes into her. She is also sent to the hospital, so Toby is left in charge.
Cast:Jason Lee, Zachary Levi, David Cross, Wendie Malick, Justin Long
Action, Comedy, CrimeJanuary 10th, 2010admin
Description:
Smokin’ Aces 2: Assassins’ Ball is a film being released straight to DVD on January 19, 2010 starring Vinnie Jones and Tom Berenger. The film is a prequel to Joe Carnahan’s 2007 film Smokin’ Aces.
Walter Weed (Berenger) is an unassuming desk jockey at the FBI when the Bureau uncovers a plot to assassinate him. A team of degenerate, psychotic assassins dispatched by mystery man Hal Leuco to win a huge bounty. The assassins include a resourceful beauty who has a unique method of killing her prey, a power-tool wielding psychopath and a deadly master of disguise.
Cast:Tom Berenger, Vinnie Jones, Tommy Flanagan, Michael Parks, Ernie Hudson
Comedy, Drama, RomanceJanuary 10th, 2010admin
Description:
Youth in Revolt is an American film adaptation of C.D. Payne’s epistolary novel of the same name starring Michael Cera.
Nick Twisp (Michael Cera) is a cynical sex-obsessed 16-year-old who, while on vacation in a trailer park, meets Sheeni Saunders (Portia Doubleday), an intellectual and beautiful girl. The only things really standing in his way are Sheeni’s poetry-writing ex-boyfriend Trent (Jonathan B. Wright), Nick’s temperamental divorced parents (Steve Buscemi and Jean Smart), and Nick’s mom’s boyfriends (Zach Galifianakis and Ray Liotta). When Nick realizes she is not interested, he comes up with an alter-ego, named François, who resembles Nick, but has blue eyes, a mustache, a deeper voice, and a player/bad boy attitude to help him with his pursuit of Sheeni. But when Francois ends up making Nick a wanted criminal, everything spins out of control.
Cast:Michael Cera, Portia Doubleday, Jean Smart, Mary Kay Place
Comedy, RomanceJanuary 10th, 2010admin
Description:
The films starts off with a nice view of a neighborhood and the view of the ocean. We are then bought to a house party. Jake (Alec) proposes a toast to his friend’s anniversary (Ted & Ally). The four talk momentarily about their son’s graduation, and then Alec’s young wife (he divorced with Jane; played by Meryl Streep, 10 years ago) walks towards them. Jane seemed shock the way Agness approaches the group and the lack of clothing she had on. Jane leaves as Agness walk towards Jake, they exchange a few words of meeting up in New York at a hotel. Jane and Ally, to much dismay talked about Jane’s divorcement as they walk towards the door and how Ally didn’t seem to feel comfortable around the sight of Agness. As Jane closes the gate, Jake turns around just in time to take a glimpse of Jane, letting us know that he still has feelings for her, although they’re divorced for 10 years now.We then follow up to Jane’s middle child, Gabby (Zoe Kazan) who is moving out of the house. The oldest daughter, Lauren (Caitlin Fitzgerald) and her fiancee, Harley (John Krasinski) assists Gabby as Jane arrives home. Although reluctant to let Gabby move out of the house, she agrees. Lauren teases her mother, saying she must be lonely and afraid to sleep alone.
Cast:Meryl Streep, Steve Martin, Alec Baldwin, John Krasinski
Drama, MysteryJanuary 9th, 2010admin
Description:
A writer, Ned Kendall (Mendelsohn), is asked to return to the remote and isolated family home by his sister Sally (Griffiths), to say goodbye to his father, Bruce (Brown), who is dying. Ned also brings his 21 year old aspiring actress fiancee, Toni (Dermody) who has trouble getting use to the isolation and harshness of rural Australia.
While back home, Ned (O’Donnell) starts having memories of his childhood, many involving his beautiful twin sister (Lowe) and his older brother Cliff (McFarlane). These memories awaken long-buried secrets from the family’s past.
After a drunken night out with friends, Ned goes for a swim in the family dam. He is joined by Kate, who seduces and subsequently has sex with him on the banks of the dam. Ned shows immediate remorse while Kate remains unperturbed.
After Ned’s refusal to have further sexual relations with Kate, Kate instigates a fight between Cliff and Ned by suggesting that Ned made unwanted advances towards her. As punishment, Bruce makes Ned accompany Kate to the Christmas dance. During the dance, Ned leaves Kate, who is left to go home with Cliff. Ned leaves separately and on his way home he finds his sister’s dead body in Cliff’s crashed car. Cliff later hangs himself.
Cast:Rachel Griffiths, Bryan Brown, Sophie Lowe, Ben Mendelsohn
Adventure, Drama, ThrillerJanuary 9th, 2010admin
Description:
The Road follows the plot of the book of the same name fairly closely: An unnamed father (Mortensen) and his young son (Smit-McPhee) struggle to survive a number of years after an unspecified, devastating cataclysm has destroyed civilization, wiped out plant life, obscured the sun, and nearly wiped out all of mankind. Out of desperation, they try to make their way toward the coast for possible food and shelter, or to find other “good” survivors. Knowing the state to which humanity has fallen, the man carries a pistol with two bullets in case they need to hasten the end. Along the way, they find scarce shelter and resources available to them, and have to avoid bands of cannibals while trying to maintain their own sense of morality and humanity. Various flashback sequences occur in which the man recalls events prior to the catastrophe, many involving his believed-to-be-deceased wife, who has a much more expanded role in the film than in the book. It is revealed that his wife, depressed after delivering a child into a seemingly doomed world and having lost the will to go on, has left the family in the middle of the night without any supplies and into certain death. Meanwhile, the man coughs up blood and realizes he’s likely to die soon, but tries to instill values of self-preservation and humanity on his young son.
Cast:Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Robert Duvall, Guy Pearce
