10-3-06 Releases

THANK YOU FOR SMOKING (R)
X-MEN 3: THE LAST STAND (PG-13)
THE WOODS (R)
GLASS HOUSE 2: THE GOOD MOTHER (R)
LEWIS BLACK: RED, WHITE & SCREWED (NR)
10TH & WOLF (R)
FIRECRACKER (NR)

• THANK YOU FOR SMOKING (R) - Aaron Eckhart, Mario Bello, Cameron Bright, Adam Brody, Sam Elliott, Katie Holmes, William H. Macy... Nick Naylor has a very unrealistic task -- promoting cigarette smoking in a time when the health hazards and dangers are just too difficult to ignore. Through an aggressive tactic of twisted logic and argument, he manages to portray the so-called victims as do-gooders and whiners. But when a beautiful news reporter threatens to break down the world he has worked so hard to create, the crafty lobbyist must pull out all the stops and stop the industry from sealing his fate.

• X-MEN 3: THE LAST STAND (PG-13) - Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Ian McKellan, Famke Janssen, Anna Paquin, Kelsey Grammer, Patrick Stewart... When a cure for the mutant revolution is found, the battle of survival begins between the integration-friendly X-Men, led by Professor Charles Xavier, and the human-hating mutants, led by the powerful Magneto. But when Magneto enlists the force of Doctor Jean Grey, uncontrollable by Xavier and transformed into the Dark Phoenix, the human-haters become almost invincible and it takes the might of all the X-Men to stop the war to end all wars.

• THE WOODS (R) - Agnes Bruckner, Patricia Clarkson, Bruce Campbell, Rachel Nichols, Ivana Shein, Lauren Birkell, Colleen Williams... Heather is a neglected teenager who has been sent by her family to an all-girls school deep in the woods. Tormented by her classmates and watched over by a sinister headmaster, she soon realizes what is really lurking in the woods… and that it won't let her out anytime soon.

• GLASS HOUSE 2: THE GOOD MOTHER (R) - Angie Harmon, Joel Gretsch, Jordan Hinson, Bobby Coleman, Jason London, Tasha Smith, Sarah Aldrich... Abby Snow and her younger brother Ethan have just lost their mother and father in a tragic accident, but find a new home with Eve and Raymond Goode. But their new family's remote mansion is not the place that they thought it was and the Snows' dream of a happy home soon becomes a terrible nightmare filled with cruelty, hate and terror.

• LEWIS BLACK: RED, WHITE & SCREWED (NR) - Comedian / author / playwright / pundit Lewis Black stars in his second HBO solo special, an all-new hour of frenetic, take-no-prisoners stand-up comedy, taped before a live audience at the Warner Theatre in Washington, DC. Lewis Black: Red, White & Screwed features Black's opinions and insights into such issues as the State of the Union, abortion, frozen embryos, defecation habits, fossils, bad language, FEMA and, of course, Dick Cheney's aim.

• 10TH & WOLF (R) - Giovanni Ribisi, James Marsden, Brad Renfro, Piper Perabo, Dennis Hopper, Lesley Ann Warren, Tommy Lee, Brian Dennehy, Val Kilmer, Dash Mihok... James Marsden stars as Tommy, an ex-Marine who gets roped into going undercover in the old neighborhood in this film from CRASH co-writer Robert Moresko. Giovanni Ribisi plays his cousin Joey, the slightly unhinged boss of the local crime family -- they've been friends since they were kids. Brad Renfro is Vincent, Tommy's dim-witted younger brother and Joey's right-hand man after Tommy left to join the Marines. There are lots of violent flashbacks to when all these guys brawled around the old neighborhood and went to mob funerals. Now there's a villainous Italian drug lord trying to seize control and a turf war is imminent. It's up to Tommy to take the drug lord down without getting his little brother killed or Joey indicted in the process. Piper Perabo (COYOTE UGLY) is Tommy's love interest, an attractive mob widow now tending bar at a strip club co-owned by the coke-snorting thug who killed her husband (Dash Mihok). Episodic and entertaining, 10th AND WOLF plays out like a greatest-hits collection of scenes from other mob movies, but this is not a bad thing. An array of well-known names show up in bit parts: Leslie Ann Warren is great as Joey's falling-down-drunk of a mother, Dennis Hopper is an old-time Mafia guy, Val Kilmer is a deranged bar patron, Tommy Lee (ex of Motley Crue and Pamela Anderson) is one of Joey's crew, and Brian Dennehy is an unscrupulous federal agent.

• FIRECRACKER (NR) - Karen Black, Mike Patton, Susan Traylor, Kathleen Wilhoite, Jane Wiedlin... FIRECRACKER is a bold and shocking true-to-life tale of murder in small town Kansas. Set against the stark beauty of Middle America, this astonishing story of abuse, suffering and denial reveals dreams of escape. The inevitable confrontation unleashes the truth concealed behind the pleasant façade of small-town U.S.A. Meek, reclusive and talented Jimmy is emotionally imprisoned by his abusive, alcoholic older brother, David, and fanatically religious mother Eleanor. With evil lurking in the shadows, the setting sun gives way to the blue of evening and Jimmy finds escape in the neon glow of a traveling sideshow carnival. Unlike its drab, depressing daytime reality, the carnival becomes a nightly glittering solitaire on the prairie, beckoning all around to its illusions and make-believe. With a guise of red satin and the lure of a heavenly voice, Sandra, billed as an “oddity of nature,” is the carnival’s premier attraction. Yearning for a way out, Jimmy befriends Sandra, unaware that her imprisonment and degradation, at the hands of Frank, the carnival owner, mirror his own. Sandra, taken by his innocence, finds her own inner strength and suppressed dreams. When David disappears, the metaphorical white-picket fences collapse, leaving raw emotions exposed to the spark of truth. FIRECRACKER pulls no punches nor hides from the ugliness that mars reality. It also reveals in its imagery a vividness and majesty that transcends mere mortality.

9-26-06 Releases

BEOWOLF & GRENDEL (R)
DROP DEAD SEXY (R)
THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS: TOKYO DRIFT (PG-13)
THE LAKE HOUSE (PG)
THE NOTORIOUS BETTIE PAGE (R)
FEED (NR)
DOWN IN THE VALLEY (R)
LADY VENGEANCE (R)

• BEOWOLF & GRENDEL (R) - Stellan Skarsgaard, Gerard Butler, Sarah Polley... This screen adaptation of the Anglo-Saxon poem brings the ultimate battle between warrior Beowulf and monstrous troll Grendel to vivid life. An all-star cast including Sarah Polley as Selma, an intriguing witch, and Ingvar Sigurdsson as Grendel, duel it out in a war of wicked revenge.

• DROP DEAD SEXY (R) - Jason Lee, Brad Dourif, Crispin Glover... Frank (Jason Lee) and Eddie (Crispin Glover) want nothing more than to get out of their dead-end Texas town, so when a local crime boss (Pruitt Taylor Vince) offers them an enormous sum to drive some bootlegged cigarettes to Mexico, they gladly agree. But by the end of the day, the pair find themselves enormously in debt rather than in the money, and they hatch a wacky scheme which involves grave robbing and ransom in order to pay the bills.

• THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS: TOKYO DRIFT (PG-13) - Lil Bow Wow, Lucas Black, Sung Kang, Zachery Ty Bryan, Brian Goodman, Brian Tee, Nathalie Kelley, Kario Salem... The third in the wildly popular THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS series -- a hybrid of fast cars, hot teens, and fetishized technology -- gets a new jolt of energy and style courtesy of young hotshot director Justin Lin, who won raves at Sundance in 2002 for his look at Asian-American teens in BETTER LUCK TOMORROW. Leading man in training Lucas Black stars as sensitive rebel Sean Boswell, who, despite hailing from the poor section of town, vamps up his used car to drag race against the best of them. After numerous racing challenges won, including one against his high school's popular, wealthy quarterback, Boswell gets in trouble with the law one too many times. To escape confinement to a juvenile detention center, Boswell's military father ships him all the way across the world, to that most futuristic, tech-savvy of cities, Tokyo. There, he meets his match in the powerful, cruel D.K. (Brian Tee), who is not only the car racing star of the Japanese underground, but also related to several dangerous Yakuzas (gangsters). Complicating matters is Sean's undeniable (and mutual) attraction to D.K.'s gorgeous girlfriend Neela (Nathalie Kelly). The racing style, he soon learns, is very different in this strange land; a practice known as "drifting" that is more elegant and virtuostic than American-style demolition. Yet if anyone can take on D.K. and his band of Yakuza yeomen, it's this racecar rebel. All the pieces of the action movie puzzle, including sexy stars, nonstop action, and heart-stopping thrills, combine with a stylish aesthetic and energetic soundtrack to make another fine addition to a fantastic franchise. And director Lin is adept at rendering Tokyo a full-dimensional, culturally rich location, rather than a video game backdrop.

• THE LAKE HOUSE (PG) - Sandra Bullock, Keanu Reeves, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Christopher Plummer, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Dylan Walsh... Directed by Alejandro Agresti (VALENTIN), THE LAKE HOUSE reunites Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves for the first time since 1994's smash hit SPEED in this love story that transcends the limitations of time. When Doctor Kate Forster (Bullock) moves from a unique glass lake house to Chicago, she leaves a note in the mailbox for the new tenant asking that they forward any stray mail and apologizing for some mild inconveniences at the house that were there when she arrived, including paw prints in the entryway. Architect Alex Wyler (Reeves) moves in and finds Kate's note in the mailbox, but is confused. He responds that there are no paw prints to be found, and as far as he knows, the house has been empty for quite some time. When a stray dog runs past him as he is working on the entryway and leaves the trail of paw prints that Kate mentioned, Alex realizes that they are living in different years.

• THE NOTORIOUS BETTIE PAGE (R) - Gretchen Mol, Guinevere Turner... Director Mary Harron (I SHOT ANDY WARHOL) and writer Guinevere Turner (GO FISH, THE L WORD) deliver a loving, whimsical biopic of the century’s greatest pinup queen. The film also offers a highly relevant commentary on the sexual mores of the 1950s, as well as stunning cinematography by W. Mott Hupfel III that perfectly captures the age. Played by the lovely Gretchen Mol (THE SHAPE OF THINGS) in a career-making performance, Bettie Page is portrayed as a sweet but strangely wise naif from Tennessee, buffeted by circumstances outside her control but buoyed by an innate, cheerful optimism. After an abusive marriage and a brutal gang rape, Bettie flees to New York and begins a modeling career, for which she has a natural talent and which she does with an uncommon joy and palpable enthusiasm. She also begins acting lessons, but what really changes her life are the bondage photographs she takes with Irving and Paula Klaw (Chris Bauer and Lili Taylor). Shot in the basement of the Klaws' celebrity photography business, Bettie’s photographs were among the first harbingers of a society’s awakening sexuality, and her ability to project boundless delight (no matter what activity she is engaged in) is truly remarkable to behold. Eschewing the sensational, the film instead unfolds at a leisurely pace, lacking much cohesive narrative and revealing the mundane realities of the life of a notoriously glamorous figure. The story is bookended by the trial the Klaws were subjected to for selling obscene materials, which led to Bettie’s retirement to her much-loved Miami getaway and a rediscovered devotion to Jesus.

• FEED (NR) - Alex O'Loughlin, Patrick Thompson, Jack Thompson... Intensely grosteque and shocking as hell, FEED is a heavyweight thrill ride through the depths of depravity. Australian cop Philip Jackson thought he'd seen everything there is to see in the world of cyberporn. But a fresh investigation into a website that pairs up fat-hungry men with overweight women unlocks a whole new world of sexual crime and perversion, a world so disturbing even this seasoned detective is shocked at what he finds. Tense, dark and deeply disturbing, director Brett Leonard takes the crime-thriller genre to a twisted, gut-wrenching new level.

• DOWN IN THE VALLEY (R) - Edward Norton, Evan Rachel Wood, Bruce Dern, Ellen Burstyn, David Morse, Rory Culkin... Director David Jacobsen’s DOWN IN THE VALLEY plays like a romantic, operatic lament for the disappearing cinematic and real-life icon: the American cowboy. Many of the elements that would fuse, say, a classic John Wayne character are present in Edward Norton’s character, Harlan Fairfax Caruthers: he’s polite, soft-spoken, yet stubbornly brave and handy with Colt steel and lead. While at home in Death Valley in the mid 1800s, these characteristics are positively anachronistic in modern-day San Fernando Valley. How else to explain the reaction of a gaggle of giggling teenagers to Harlan as he pumps their gas? One of the teens, Tope (Evan Rachel Wood), is immediately attracted to these charms and invites Harlan along to the beach. A whirlwind romance follows, much to the chagrin of Tope’s (short for October) father, Wade (David Morse), who senses there is more to Harlan than meets the eye. Indeed, things begin to unravel when Harlan lies about "borrowing" a horse from a local rancher that leads to a threat at gunpoint. To make matters worse, Harlan ingratiates himself more by spending time with Tope’s attention-starved younger brother, Lonnie (Rory Culkin). Eventually, as more of the dangerous demons beneath Harlan’s charming veneer reveal themselves, action must be taken and justice meted out, Old West-style. At times tense and, alternatively, quiet, DOWN IN THE VALLEY features some creative camera work from cinematographer Enrique Chediak that fits both moods. Also, be on the look-out for a scene-long quotation from TAXI DRIVER.

• LADY VENGEANCE (R) - Lee Yeong-ae... South Korean maestro Park Chan-wook concludes his Revenge Trilogy with the operatic, mesmerizing SYMPATHY FOR LADY VENGEANCE. Unlike the first two films in the trilogy, SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE and OLDBOY, this time around the hero is a heroine. On the heels of her release from prison, Lee Geum-ja (Lee Yeong-ae) embarks on a mission to track down the man responsible for her imprisonment, which also resulted in her being forced to give up her daughter for adoption. Hardened by years in the penitentiary and endlessly fantasizing about the right way to exact revenge, she enlists the help of former cellmates to accomplish her goal. But what she uncovers is a secret so horrifying that no revenge seems fitting.

9-19-06 Releases

THE PROPOSITION (R)
STAY ALIVE (NR)
THE NUGGET (R)
LOVERBOY (R)
HARD CANDY (R)
JOHNNY WAS (R)
DEVIL AND DANIEL JOHNSON (PG-13)
BOXED (NR)

• THE PROPOSITION (R) - Guy Pearce, John Hurt, Tom Budge, Emily Watson, Ray Winstone, David Wenham, Noah Taylor, Leah Purcell... Set against the harsh and unforgiving landscape of the 1880s Australian outback, The Proposition is a visually stunning tale of loyalty, revenge and the quest for justice in a lawless land. Charlie Burns (Guy Pearce) is a renegade. Along with his two brothers, Arthur (Danny Huston) and Mikey (Richard Wilson), he is wanted for murder. When Captain Stanley (Ray Winstone) captures Charlie and Mikey, he offers Charlie a proposition in an attempt to end the brutality that surrounds them -- the only way to save Mikey from the noose is for Charlie to track down and kill Arthur, his psychotic older brother. An impossible moral dilemma leads to a murderous climax.

• STAY ALIVE (NR) - Sophia Bush, Samaire Armstrong, Adam Goldberg, Frankie Muniz, Milo Ventimiglia, Maria Kalinina, Jon Foster, Jim Bishop... When a group of friends play a mysterious underground video game, they enter a waking nightmare -- when they die in the game, they die in real life in the same grisly manner.

• THE NUGGET (R) - Eric Bana... Three friends have developed a hobby of gold-mining. On the weekends they all dream of getting rich, but usually just end up getting drunk -- until one day when they stumble upon the world's biggest gold nugget and become instant millionaires. Instant wealth suddenly changes their lives -- it's not necessarily for the better, but at least the consequences are hilarious.

• LOVERBOY (R) - Kyra Sedgwick, Kevin Bacon, Matt Dillon, Marisa Tomei, Oliver Platt, Campbell Scott, Melissa Errico, Sandra Bullock... Emily (Krya Sedgewick) has a single dream in life: to be the perfect mother to an exceptional child. With limitless funds from an inheritance, Emily has total freedom to follow her neurotic monomania. The first step is to conceive a child, and the film depicts her extensive promiscuous pursuits as she roams from city to city, a gamut of one-night stands. Finally her hunt for fertilization pays off, and she gives birth to Paul, her "loverboy." The majority of the story takes place when Paul is six, as Emily raises him with a fawning and sickening obsession. She struts around in various states of undress, kissing him constantly, and their relationship is less mother and child than freakish romance. She refuses to let Paul go to school, and in their allegedly Edenic isolation, they paint with their hands, whisper secrets to sheep, tell fairytales, and go on spontaneous trips to windswept islands. Paul, finally, with the precocious self-awareness typical of screenwritten children, rejects his mother's possessiveness and demands to join the other kids at school. This is more than Emily can handle, and in-between periodic flashbacks to her own traumatic childhood, the movie spirals down towards its inevitable and tragic conclusion.

• HARD CANDY (R) - Patrick Wilson, Sandra Oh, Jennifer Holmes, Ellen Page... Claustrophobic and brightly colored, this tightly wound psychological thriller is constantly pulling the rug out from under the viewer, mostly due to the tense, explosive performances of its two main characters. The tale opens with a coffee shop rendezvous between 14-year-old Haley (the fantastic Ellen Page) and 32-year-old fashion photographer Jeff (Patrick Wilson), who have previously met only online in a chat room. Despite his questionable enthusiasm at meeting a girl half his age, Jeff comes off as slightly awkward and shy; rather, it’s Haley who is unnervingly forthright in her flirtation. She suggests that they go back to his place, he complies, and, once there, Haley seductively convinces him to take pictures of her. She exhibits a beguiling mixture of innocence and precocious sexuality, but before anything happens between them, Jeff passes out under the influence of the drugs she’s slipped him. When he wakes up, Haley drops her innocent demeanor and begins to undertake a meticulously planned game of retribution against her captive pedophile. She hacks into his computer and ransacks his house while he watches helplessly, and she ultimately raises the ante with a surgical procedure sure to make audiences squirm. The exact nature of Jeff’s guilt remains nebulous, however, creating an intriguing uncertainty surrounding Haley’s own mental state, and just how psychotic she might be. Expectations are continuously thwarted as the two characters, neither of whom is terribly sympathetic, enact a psychological and physical game of cat and mouse that is as fascinating to watch as a train wreck.

• JOHNNY WAS (R) - Vinnie Jones, Eriq Lasalle, Lennox Lewis, Roger Daltrey... Johnny (Vinnie Jones), trying to escape his violent past, ends up in the least safe safe-house in the world. Sandwiched between a drug den run by a Jamaican drug-lord (Eriq LaSalle) and a pirate radio station belonging to a Rasta DJ (Lennox Lewis). When a former comrade shows up determined to drag Vinnie back into the fray, his actions ignite a simmering war on two fronts with his drug-dealing neighbor and his former boss.

• DEVIL AND DANIEL JOHNSON (PG-13) - Biographical documentary about Daniel Johnston, a multitalented man, a compulsively prolific cartoon artist, song writer and performer, whose bipolar disorder and drug abuse led to episodes of severe mental illness and destructive behaviors beginning in his early 20s in the 1980s; problems that stifled his career for many years, until consistent psychiatric care and kindly parental oversight effected a more stable course for him more recently. Now approaching age 45, Johnston has made a comeback of sorts, reaching a level of artistic self control and productivity that has swept him toward unprecedented recognition.

• BOXED (NR) - Tom Murphy, Darragh Kelly, Catherine Cusack, Brendan Mackey, Jim Norton... The IRA, when executing an informer, calls on certain "tame priests" to secretly provide last rites. Boxed is the story of what happens when they get the wrong priest. Based on published reports, never denied by the Church, this suspenseful hostage thriller involving IRA terrorists, murder and the priesthood explores the explosive moral and ethical conflicts on boths sides of an all-too-timely crisis situation. Will the idealistic priest risk his life for a just and righteous cause? And which cause will that be?

9-12-06 Releases

LUCKY # SLEVIN (R)
ARE YOU SCARED (R)
RAISING GENIUS (R)
THE MIRACLE MATCH (PG)
THE MAID (NR)
KILL THE POOR (NR)
I AM A SEX ADDICT (NR)
GOAL! THE DREAM BEGINS (PG-13)

• LUCKY # SLEVIN (R) - Josh Hartnett, Morgan Freeman, Ben Kingsley, Lucy Liu, Bruce Willis, Oliver Davis, Stanley Tucci, Michael Rubenfeld, Sam Jaeger, Dorian Missick, Kevin Chamberlin... Directed by Paul McGuigan, LUCKY # SLEVIN is a mistaken identity thriller starring Josh Hartnett as a guy who ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time. With boldly colored sets covered in graphic wallpaper, the film has an almost comicbook-like feel, the emphasis being on visual entertainment rather than believability. When Slevin (Hartnett) shows up at his friend Nick’s apartment in Manhattan, Nick is nowhere to be found. After meeting Nick’s sharp and flirty neighbor, Lindsey (Lucy Liu), Slevin is kidnapped by two thugs and taken to meet the Boss (Morgan Freeman). Explaining that he is not Nick gets him nowhere, as the Boss and his arch rival, the Rabbi (Ben Kingsley), both pull Slevin (a wiseguy who spends much of the film in a lavender towel) deeper and deeper into a complicated underworld of murder and revenge. The clever dialogue and romance that grows between Hartnett and Liu gives the film a lighthearted charm. Even when orchestrating cold-blooded murder, the film’s lead villains never seem too threatening. This is due in large part to the strong tongue-in-cheek performances of Bruce Willis, Ben Kingsley, and Morgan Freeman.

• ARE YOU SCARED (R) - Alethea Kutscher, Carlee Avers... A reality TV show turns deadly in this indie horror flick in the vein of SAW. Six teens find themselves trapped in a bleak warehouse, participating in the newest show, which charges them with finding their way out after passing numerous physical challenges. The catch? The odds are insurmountable, the games are gruesome and deadly, and nobody ever wins.

• RAISING GENIUS (R) - Wendie Malick, Justin Long, Ed Begley Jr., Stephen Root, Danica McKellar, Clint Howard... This critically acclaimed film festival hit stars the always watchable Wendie Malick (of JUST SHOOT ME) as Nancy, a proud, perfectionist housewife and the mother of high school valedictorian Hal (Justin Long of DODGEBALL and TV ED). Nancy can't wait for all the attention and congratulations she'll receive when Hal gets this honor -- but, unfortunately, Hal has been locked in a bathroom for months, trying to solve math equations and obsessing over the beautiful girl next door (Danica McKellar). Full of quirky, fleshed out characters, the movie earned comparisons to the offbeat comedy of NAPOLEON DYNAMITE.

• THE MIRACLE MATCH (PG) - Gerard Butler, Jay Rodan, Patrick Stewart, Terry Kinney, Wes Bentley... The Miracle Match is the amazing and inspiring tale of one of the greatest underdog stories in the history of sports. Ten days before the 1950 World Cup, a ragtag team of recreational players come together for the first time to represent the U.S.A. in Brazil. In an unimaginable and shocking upset, Team U.S.A. defeats England, the best team in the world.

• THE MAID (NR) - Alessandra de Rossi... Hailed as the first major horror movie to come out of Singapore, Kelvin Tong's chilling, harrowing thriller follows Rosa (Alessandra de Rossi), a young woman who leaves her home in the Philippines to find work as a maid. A practical young woman who doesn't put stock in superstitions, she violates the sacred rules of the Seventh Month of the Chinese calendar, and soon all Hell breaks loose -- literally.

• KILL THE POOR (NR) - Clara Bellar, Paul Calderon, Heather Burns, Larry Gilliard Jr., Cliff Gorman, David Krumholz... Set in 1982, KILL THE POOR finds Joe Peltz (David Krumholtz) and his pregnant wife, Annabelle (Clara Bellar), moving into a Lower East Side tenement building. But as the daily life of the building takes over their lives, with endless mind-numbing meetings about responsibilities and actions driving Joe and Annabelle crazy, the film builds to an explosive climax. A fascinating glimpse of how New York City used to be, KILL THE POOR is full of all the weird and wonderful characters who made the Lower East Side such a diverse and interesting community to live in.

• I AM A SEX ADDICT (NR) - Caveh Zahedi, Rebecca Lord, Amanda Henderson... Filmmaker Caveh Zahedi likes to turn the camera on himself, documenting his personal foibles in such independent films as I DON'T HATE LAS VEGAS ANYMORE and IN THE BATHTUB OF THE WORLD, blending fiction with nonfiction to create highly individualized works that feature his own rather unique sense of humor and frustration. (In addition to starring in his own movies, Zahedi has also appeared in such films as Richard Linklater's WAKING LIFE and Alexander Payne's CITIZEN RUTH.) More than 10 years in the making, I AM A SEX ADDICT is his most accomplished film, a self-described "autobiographical hybridization" about his own battle with sexual addiction. A hit at the Tribeca and Rotterdam Film Festivals, I AM A SEX ADDICT begins with Caveh, playing a man named Caveh, preparing to get married for the third time. His previous relationships failed primarily because of his obsession with sex, especially with prostitutes, and his deep-seated need to share every little detail of his exploits with his girlfriends and wives, knowing that it could destroy what they have together. Zahedi recreates his past abuses, walking down a Paris street trying to find just the right hooker. However, he couldn't raise enough money to film the scene in France, so he shoots it in San Francisco, facing the camera and asking the audience, in a very humorous way, to pretend he's overseas. In his tales of woe, featuring Rebecca Lord as Caroline, Emily Morse as Christa, and Amanda Henderson as Devin, he occasionally mixes in home-movie footage of the actual women in his life, walking the fine line between truth and fiction, between documentary and drama. I AM A SEX ADDICT is a very funny, insightful film, though it does show some graphic sex scenes. Influenced by such independent auteurs as John Cassavetes, Lars von Trier, Mike Leigh, and Jean-Luc Godard, Zahedi is not afraid to look into the mirror and bare his soul in this highly entertaining work, which also includes the excellent music of Jonathan Richman.

• GOAL! THE DREAM BEGINS (PG-13) - Kuno Becker, Alessandro Nivola, Marcel Iures, Stephen Dillane, Anna Friel, Kieran O'Brien, Sean Pertwee, Tony Plana, Miriam Colon, Gary Lewis, Frances Barber... Santiago Munez (Kuno Becker), an illegal Mexican immigrant living in Los Angeles, lives and breathes soccer, but seems destined to live his life as a day laborer. His father, Hernan (Tony Plana), a stern hardworking man, discourages Santiago from playing soccer, believing it is only a feckless fantasy. One day, a former British professional, Glen Foy, spots Santiago playing in a pickup game, and promises him a tryout for Newcastle United. With the support of his doting grandmother, Santiago travels to England, and finds himself in a world where "football" is king, and "footballers" are Gods. His path to soccer stardom is tortuous and paved with pitfalls. Santiago must overcome a terrible tryout, a secret asthma condition, and the animosity of some of his teammates. However, with the guidance of Glen, the love of a plucky and beautiful nurse (Anna Friel), and the unexpected support by Newcastle United's playboy star Gavin Harris (Alessandro Nivola), Santiago finally finds himself in a position to score a pivotal goal and live his dream.

9-5-06 Releases

UNITED 93 (R)
DISTRICT B13 (R)
UNKNOWN WHITE MALE (PG-13)
NATIONAL LAMPOON'S DORM DAZE 2 (NR)
DEAD MAN'S SHOES (NR)
KINKY BOOTS (PG-13)
THE PLAGUE (R)
POPULATION 436 (R)

• UNITED 93 (R) - Lewis Alsamari, J. J. Johnson, Gary Commock, Trish Gates, Polly Adams, Cheyenne Jackson, Opal Alladin, Starla Benford, Nancy McDoniel... UNITED 93, director Paul Greengrass's meticulous reconstruction of the events surrounding the crash, the result of a heroic struggle between the passengers and hijackers, of the fourth plane to be hijacked on September 11, 2001, is a landmark in filmmaking. Greengrass has chosen the most politically and emotionally charged source material available to an artist in the early 21st century, and shaped it into a psychologically draining, terrifyingly real, and technically brilliant film. Like his first feature-length work, BLOODY SUNDAY, UNITED 93 doesn't follow a traditional cinematic narrative structure; via hand-held cameras, grainy DV stock, and frenetic editing, it instead presents a visceral (at times sickening) in-the-moment documentary-style experience that maximizes the film's unavoidable air of tension and dread without being crassly manipulative. Yet, for all of its precision and craft, UNITED 93 still depicts one of the most terrifying ordeals the United States has ever had to face, and that it was released less than five years after those events took place plays an undeniably enormous role in how the film is received. It is impossible to watch UNITED 93 and not be profoundly moved, whether that emotion is fear, sadness, anxiety, or pure rage. And it is an emotional catharsis far removed from what is the filmmaker's delicate hand and deft touch. Greengrass, though, is quite fearless in his depiction of the chaos of the day -- the President is frustratingly missing; the FAC, NORAD, and local air-traffic control centers are shown in a disoriented panic; and the terrorists are brutal and remorseless -- and, to his credit, he avoids soft-pedaling any political agenda and doesn't blindly canonize the flight's passengers. Rather, their heroism is treated as the product of a logical decision made by ordinary men and women who found themselves in the most extraordinary and illogical of situations. And that, ultimately, is where the power of UNITED 93 lies.

• DISTRICT B13 (R) - Cyril Raffaelli, Tony D'Amario, Dany Verissimo, Bibi Naceri, David Belle... Both of the leads in the French action flick DISTRICT B13 practice parkour, a kind of urban gymnastics that looks a little like skateboarding without the skateboard, and the pleasure of this short frenetic film is watching the two lithe heroes leap through windows, run up walls, and jump off buildings. Like Jackie Chan, Cyril Raffaelli and David Belle, both stuntmen-turned-leading-men, perform their own acrobatic martial arts sans special effects or invisible wires, and the lo-fi fight sequences pack a gritty punch that is often missing in slick Hollywood fare. The plot involves a futuristic France where the worst ghettos have been walled off from the rest of society, their schools shut down, and the police force evacuated. The people in power simply want to ignore the plight of the disenfranchised, but this becomes difficult to do when the most notorious gang, led by the wild-eyed Taha (Bibi Naceri), gets its hands on a nuclear warhead and proceeds to demand a 20-million-Euro ransom, with the city of Paris as its hostage. Enter Damien (Raffaelli), a one-man police strike force, who has 24 hours to disarm the missile. To help him navigate the war zone of District B13, he springs a vigilante antihero, Leito (Belle), from jail. Lovers of action flicks could ignore the English subtitles completely and still relish the hyperkinetic beauty of the whip-quick combat.

• UNKNOWN WHITE MALE (PG-13) - Doug Bruce... This disquieting documentary follows the life of a former stock trader who suffered a bout of amnesia on the New York City subway in 2002 and never fully recovered his former identity. Eventually diagnosed with a rare condition known as "retrograde amnesia," Doug Bruce was transformed into a quiet photography student, a marked contrast to his former self, according to friends and colleagues who appear here. A tale of a man who has truly been born again, UNKNOWN WHITE MALE presents a thoughtful, bittersweet reflection on identity.

• NATIONAL LAMPOON'S DORM DAZE 2 (NR) - James DeBello, Marieh Delfino, Tony Denman... This sequel involves the successful formula common to all teen sex comedies: scatological humor and gratuitous nudity. When the gang from Billingsley University takes to the open water on a study-abroad trip to Mexico, the hijinks and hilarity never stop.

• DEAD MAN'S SHOES (NR) - Paddy Considine, Gary Stretch, Toby Kebbell... Talented director Shane Meadows (A ROOM FOR ROMEO BRASS) teams up with fellow Brit Paddy Considine (IN AMERICA) for this exhilarating venture towards the dark edges of the human psyche. Considine plays Richard, a former military man who looks like life has chewed him up and spat him out in the most ugly way imaginable. As Meadows's film begins, Richard returns to his small home town along with his mentally challenged younger brother, Anthony (Toby Kebbell). It quickly becomes clear why Richard has returned: some years previously a gang of local thugs, led by the thoroughly unpleasant Sonny (Gary Stretch), tortured Anthony, and Richard is hell-bent on making them pay for their crimes. Meadows gradually allows Richard's psychotic tendencies and lust for revenge to unravel, crafting a number of scenes where Richard teasingly mocks Sonny and company before delving into scenes of shockingly relentless violence.

• KINKY BOOTS (PG-13) - Chjwetel Ejiofor, Joel Edgerton, Linda Bassett, Jemima Rooper, Nick Frost, Josh Cole, Kellie Bright... Following in the tradition of such charming British fare as THE FULL MONTY, WAKING NED DEVINE, and CALENDAR GIRLS, Julian Jarrold's very funny KINKY BOOTS tells the story of a small-town shoe factory fighting for its life. Inspired by a true story, KINKY BOOTS is set in Northamptonshire, England, where Harold Price (Robert Pugh), just as his father and grandfather did, runs Price & Sons, which makes traditional men's shoes. Although the proud Harold tries to interest his son in the family business, Charlie (Joel Edgerton) has decided to move to the big city, London, with his fiancee, Nicola (Jemima Rooper), to get as far away from shoemaking as he can. But his father dies of a sudden heart attack, forcing Charlie to at least temporarily take over the shop. Faced with mounting debts, he starts laying off the longtime staff until he meets Lola (Chiwetel Ojiofor), a hulking black drag queen with a major footwear issue. Along with Joel's just-canned employee Lauren (Sarah-Jane Potts), the trio comes up with a radical idea, making strong, sexy boots specifically for transvestites, with outlandish designs, bold colors, and unusual materials that would probably have the previous generations of Prices rolling in their graves. When Lola comes to Northamptonshire to help out, KINKY BOOTS becomes a fish-out-of-water tale as the straitlaced workers have to come to grips with some of their own issues. Both Edgerton and Potts are endearing in their roles, with good support from Nick Frost and Kellie Bright, but KINKY BOOTS belongs to Ojiofor (AMISTAD, DIRTY PRETTY THINGS, INSIDE MAN), who is simply fabulous as Lola, strutting his stuff both in the factory and in a London club where he performs such songs as "Whatever Lola Wants" and "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'."

• THE PLAGUE (R) - James Van Der Beek, Dee Wallace Stone... This horrific installment in Clive Barker's nightmarish oeuvre pits young against old in an unholy battle waged the world over. James Van Der Beek stars as Tom Russell, an ex-convict whose release from prison coincides with the awakening of teenagers all over the globe. Ten years before, children were universally afflicted by a mysterious plague that has since kept them trapped in a coma. Now, upon rejoining the living, the teens possess strange powers and a thirst for blood.

• POPULATION 436 (R) - Jeremy Sisto, Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst, Charlotte Sullivan, Peter Outerbridge, R.H. Thomson... Steve Kady (Jeremy Sisto) is a travelling census taker on his way to tiny Rockwell Falls, whose population has mysteriously stayed at 436 over the past 100 years. When he arrives, he is drawn to the idyllic nature of life there, until the truth that lurks beneath the peaceful veneer begins to emerge. Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst costars.

8-29-06 Releases

THE SENTINEL (PG-13)
TAKE THE LEAD (PG-13)
DUCK SEASON (R)
AKEELAH AND THE BEE (PG)
FRIENDS WITH MONEY (R)
LOOKING FOR COMEDY IN THE MUSLEM WORLD (PG-13)
AMERICAN GUN (R)
KEKEXILI: MOUNTAIN PATROL (PG-13)
LONESOME JIM (R)

• THE SENTINEL (PG-13) - Blair Brown, Kim Basinger, Ritchie Coster, Martin Donovan, Eva Longoria, Kiefer Sutherland, Michael Douglas... In the eyes of Special Agent Pete Garrison, a Neo-Nazi disciple has managed to inflitrate the White House, but when he is framed for a crime he didn't commit and an affair he never had, he ended up being relieved of his duties. As he tries to maintain his innocence and save the life of the president, he must come face-to-face with his protege, who might know more than he is leading on.

• TAKE THE LEAD (PG-13) - Jonathan Malen, Lauren Collins, Dante Basco, Alfre Woodard, Yaya DaCosta, Rob Brown, Antonio Banderas... Pierre Dulaine, an inspirational Manhattan dance teacher and competitor, volunteers his time to teach ballroom dancing to a diverse group of New York inner-city high school students serving detention. The students are initially skeptical of Dulaine, especially when they learn what he's there to teach them, but his unwavering commitment and dedication slowly inspire them to embrace his program. In fact, they even take it one step further and combine Dulaine's classical dance with their unique hip-hop style and music to create a high-energy, unique fusion. As Dulaine becomes a mentor for his students, many of whom haven't had much to strive towards in their lives, he inspires them to hone their craft for a prestigious city ballroom competition, and in return they share with each other valuable lessons about pride, respect and honor.

• DUCK SEASON (R) - Enrique Arreola, Diego Catano, Daniel Miranda, Danny Perea, Carolina Politi... Foreign/Spanish. With DUCK SEASON, writer/director Fernando Eimbcke lovingly brings a touching tale to life. Shot in black-and-white and on a minuscule budget, Eimbcke's film is a slice-of-life comedy that takes place over the course of one day in a Mexico City apartment. Flama (Daniel Miranda) and Moko (Diego Catano) are two bored teenagers who plan a day of unsupervised fun together in Flama's mother's humble abode. Videogames, Coca-Cola, and pizza are high on their list of priorities, but things don't quite go according to plan. First, a slightly older female neighbor, Rita (Danny Perea), arrives to bake a cake in the kitchen. Then the pizza man arrives and the boys challenge him to a soccer videogame as payment for the food. But when the power in the building cuts out mid-game the fun really starts as the foursome argue, clown around, and do anything they can to stave off the boredom that threatens to engulf them.

• AKEELAH AND THE BEE (PG) - Sahara Garey, Sean Michael, J.R. Villarreal, Curtis Armstrong, Angela Bassett, Laurence Fishburne, Keke Palmer... Akeelah Anderson is a precocious eleven-year-old girl from south Los Angeles with a gift for words. Despite the objections of her mother Tanya, Akeelah enters various spelling contests, for which she is tutored by the forthright Dr. Larabee, her principal Mr. Welch and the proud residents of her neighborhood. Akeelah's aptitude earns her an opportunity to compete for a spot in the Scripps National Spelling Bee and in turn unites her neighborhood while witnessing the courage and inspiration of one amazing little girl.

• FRIENDS WITH MONEY (R) - Scott Caan, Jason Isaacs, Greg Germann, Catherine Keener, Joan Cusack, Frances McDormand, Jennifer Aniston... A quartet of lifelong friends have achieved a level of comfort in their lives and have settled into a life of designer clothes, charity events, and caring for the men (and offspring) in their lives. But as they approach "a certain age," unsettling things are starting to throw their comfortable lives off balance.

• LOOKING FOR COMEDY IN THE MUSLEM WORLD (PG-13) - Albert Brooks, Amy Ryan, Penny Marshall, John Carroll Lynch, Jon Tenney... Courting controversy even before it was released, Albert Brooks’s LOOKING FOR COMEDY IN THE MUSLIM WORLD suffered a heady gestation period as the original distributor, Sony Pictures, balked at the title and refused to release it, leaving Warner Independent to pick up the reins. By using a mockumentary style, Brooks weaves a potent satire on the shaky relations between America and the Muslim world. The film begins with Brooks being called upon by the U.S. government to travel to India and Pakistan in order to discover what makes a 300-million strong Muslim community laugh. On arrival, Brooks hires an assistant, questions people in the street, and performs a hapless stand-up routine that only raises a few miserly chuckles. Floundering in an alien environment, Brooks' mission races towards its deadline with stress levels rising and precious little insight into the comic workings of the Muslim mind.

• AMERICAN GUN (R) - Donald Sutherland, Forest Whitaker, Nikki Reed, Marcia Gay Harden, Linda Cardellini... Through profiles of several individuals across many walks of life, Director Aric Aveline examines the ways in which gun use shapes American culture and powerfully depicts the direct impact of the richocet of consequences from the acts of gun violence in the past and present. American Gun is a gripping drama that reminds us that when a gun fires, much more than the silence is shattered.

• KEKEXILI: MOUNTAIN PATROL (PG-13) - Zhang Lei, Duobujie, Qi Liang, Zhao Xueying... Mainland China and Taiwan have a strained relationship, to put it mildly. And yet KEKEXILI, a Mainland Chinese movie, won Best Film and Best Cinematography at the 2004 Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan, which are the Chinese equivalent of the Oscars. Once you see the movie, this isn't such a surprise. The true story of one of the last expeditions conducted by Tibet's all-volunteer, anti-poaching patrols, this harrowing trip into the Chinese badlands is brutal and beautiful. You'll come out of it a different person than when you went in. In their desire to feed the lucrative Western market for pretty pashmina wool, impoverished Tibetans began poaching the endangered antelope, and the antelope population plummeted from 1 million to 70,000 in just 5 years. Unable to get official assistance in protecting Kekexili, the last virgin wilderness in China, locals formed volunteer patrols, locked and loaded their AK-47's, and engaged in a running, four-year war with the heavily armed poachers. A Beijing journalist, Ga Yu, went out on an incredibly dangerous 17-day patrol led by ex-military man, Ritai, and returned to Beijing to publish his account of what happened. His articles resulted in the Chinese government getting involved and rectifying the situation in 1997, but the human cost was enormous. This film is the story of that last patrol.

• LONESOME JIM (R) - Casey Affleck, Liv Tyler, Mary Kay Place, Seymour Cassel, Kevin Corrigan, Mark Boone Jr... With LONESOME JIM, director Steve Buscemi delivers another low-budget gem about small-town American life. Boasting a fresh script courtesy of James C. Strause, the film begins when 27-year-old Jim (Casey Affleck) returns to his small Indiana town after having failed to make a dent as a writer in New York City. Depressed beyond comprehension, Jim must contend with his actively suicidal brother (Kevin Corrigan), insane mother (Mary Kay Place), and dangerously clueless uncle (Mark Boone Jr). Along the way, he meets a too-good-to-be-true nurse, Anika (Liv Tyler), and begins coaching his niece’s hapless basketball squad. As time passes, the fog threatens to hang around forever, making Jim wonder if returning home might have been the worst mistake of all.

8-22-06 Releases

POSEIDON (PG-13)
SILENT HILL (R)
THE WICKER MAN (R)
SEA OF FEAR (PG-13)
THREE OF HEARTS (R)
ON NATIVE SOIL (NR)
KISSES & CAROMS (R)
PHAT GIRLZ (PG-13)

• POSEIDON (PG-13) - Mia Maestro, Mike Vogel, Emmy Rossum, Jacinda Barrett, Richard Dreyfuss, Josh Lucas, Kurt Russell... When a rogue wave capsizes a luxury cruise ship in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, a small group of survivors find themselves unlikely allies in a battle for their lives. Preferring to test the odds alone, career gambler John Dylan ignores captain’s orders to wait below for possible rescue and sets out to find his own way to safety. What begins as a solo mission soon draws others as Dylan is followed by a desperate father searching for his daughter and her fiance, a single mother and her wise-beyond-his-years son, an anxious stowaway and a despondent fellow passenger who boarded the ship not sure he wanted to live but now knows he doesn’t want to die. Determined to fight their way to the surface, the group sets off through the disorienting maze of twisted steel in the upside-down wreckage. As the unstable vessel rapidly fills with water each must draw on skills and strengths they didn’t even know they possessed, fighting against time for their own survival and for each other.

• SILENT HILL (R) - Jodelle Ferland, Tanya Allen, Kim Coates, Deborah Kara Unger, Laurie Holden, Sean Bean, Radha Mitchell... The eerie and deserted town of Silent Hill draws a young mother, desperate to find a cure for her daughter's bizarre illness. Unable to accept the doctor's diagnosis that her daughter Sharon should be permanently institutionalized for psychiatric care, Rose flees with her daughter, heading for the abandoned town in search of answers and ignoring the protests of her husband Christopher. It's soon clear this place is unlike anywhere she's ever been. It's smothered by fog, inhabited by a variety of strange beings and periodically overcome by a living Darkness that literally transforms everything it touches. As Rose searches for her little girl, she begins to learn the history of the strange town and realizes that her daughter is just a pawn in a larger game.

• THE WICKER MAN (R) - Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee, Britt Ekland, Diane Cilento, Ingrid Pitt, Lindsay Kemp, Russell Waters, Aubrey Morris... A notoriously troubled production notwithstanding, the controversial cult classic THE WICKER MAN is now regarded as a classic of British cinema. Off the coast of Scotland, the natives of a small island owned and run by a Lord Summerisle, immerse themselves in a religion based on pagan rites and rituals, totally antithetical to Catholic dogma. When a devout Christian police sergeant from the mainland comes to the island to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a local 12-year-old girl, he stirs up hatred and resentment among the locals to such an extent that for their annual May Day celebrations, to insure the crops don't fail for a second year in a row, he becomes their target to appease the heathen goddess of the harvest.

• SEA OF FEAR (PG-13) - Edward Albert, Katherine Bailess, Keiren Hutchinson, Burgess Jenkins, Christopher Showerman, Adam Mayfield, Caroline Walker... Five travelers embark upon a relaxing vacation on the open water, but when their navigator mysteriously disappears, they enter the uncharted waters of pure terror. Someone is picking off the passengers one by one, murdering them according to their individual, very specific, fears.

• THREE OF HEARTS (R) - Documentary. In his early twenties, Sam Cagnina, the oldest son of a Mafia hit man, meets Steven, a handsome 19 year old college student and they fall in love. They spend the next seven years looking for a woman they could both fall in love with. They find that special someone in Samantha, a struggling actress, who agrees to live with them in a “trio” relationship. Don’t miss this remarkable true story that explores one unique family as they negotiate their living arrangements, have children and open one of the hottest wellness centers in New York City. With amazingly candid discussions about love, sex and partnership, the “trio” turns to the camera and reveals absolutely every aspect of their lives to both the audience and, eventually, to themselves.

• ON NATIVE SOIL (NR) - This documentary of the 9/11 Commission Report is the riveting story of September 11th and the 9/11 Commission hearings, as they have never been presented before. On Native Soil faithfully captures the content of the book, revealing its strengths and weaknesses, while exposing provocative, explosive and emotional new details. Never-before-seen interviews were conducted with witnesses who testified for the commission behind closed doors. Demanding answers from your government is rarely easy. To accomplish this task, a loose collection of ordinary Americans - united by their single-minded passion for answers - challenged a vast and defensive bureaucracy and triumphed. As a result of their efforts, the tragedy that redefined a nation has been investigated and documented. The collective efforts of these heroes proved that democracy is more powerful than politics. On Native Soil is their story - it is America's story.

• KISSES & CAROMS (R) - Nicole Rayburn, Drew Wicks, Nikki Stanzione, Ginger Lynn Allen... KISSES AND CAROMS finds an ex-girlfriend conjuring up a unique way of luring her former boyfriend back, all executed in a similar gross-out style found in the likes of AMERICAN PIE and DUDE, WHERE'S MY CAR? Jen (Nikki Stanzione) is the hurt ex with a plan to seduce Zack (Drew Wicks) back into her life -- by proposing a threesome with his hot coworker, Tara (Nicole Rayburn). Hot-blooded Zack is only too quick to accept, but still isn't keen to get back together with Jen. But when Zack suddenly changes his mind about Jen he may have left it a little too late for reconciliation.

• PHAT GIRLZ (PG-13) - Eric Roberts, Jack Noseworthy, Joyful Drake, Kendra C. Johnson, Jimmy Jean-Louis, Mo'Nique...Jazmin Biltmore, a smart-mouthed aspiring fashion designer, and her plus-sized women friends are obsessed with their weight while struggling to find love and acceptance in a world full of "hot bodied" babes. The Phat Girlz are thrown a major curve ball when they meet the men of their dreams who come from a culture where big is better.

8-15-06 Releases

SCARY MOVIE 4 (UNRATED)
RV (PG)
I'LL ALWAYS KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER (R)
THE HARD CORPS (R)
MACHINED (R)
LAND OF THE BLIND (R)
WALK ON WATER (R)

• SCARY MOVIE 4 (UNRATED) - Anna Faris, Regina Hall, Craig Bierko, Cloris Leachman, Molly Shannon, Carmen Electra, Anthony Anderson... Seeking a career in home healthcare, loveable, dim-witted Cindy Campbell finds work with a creepy old lady in an even creepier old house haunted by a ghostly presence. Throw in a good-looking guy next door and the threat of aliens intent on global domination and Cindy's instantly up to the top of her extremely blonde head in danger. Our fearless heroine catapults into action once again struggling to decipher ominous messages from beyond, looking for love in some very weird places and trying to save the world from mass destruction along with her savvy, outrageously promiscuous pal Brenda.

• RV (PG) - Hunter Parrish, Kristin Chenoweth, Jeff Daniels, Josh Hutcherson, Joanna 'JoJo' Levesque, Cheryl Hines, Robin Williams... An overworked Bob Munro, his wife Jamie, their 15-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son are in desperate need of some quality time together. After promising to take them on a family vacation in Hawaii, Bob abruptly changes plans without telling them. Instead of a week in a tropical paradise, they're going on a road trip to Colorado in a recreational vehicle. Everything that can go wrong, does. Bob's lame attempts to navigate the unwieldy, oversized vehicle are met with silence and scorn from his resentful family. The RV life is a far cry from their comfortable life in Los Angeles, and every attempt Bob makes to get them into the spirit of the vacation threatens to tear them further apart. But adversity has a way of uniting even the most dysfunctional family members and each setback the Munros experience inadvertently helps them become a true family again.

• I'LL ALWAYS KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER (R) - Brooke Nevin, Britt Leary, Star LaPoint, Ben Easter, Torrey DeVitto, K.C. Clyde, Sally Ann Brooks... The latest installment in the "I Know What You Did Last Summer" franchise brings in a whole new cast of young stars, struggling to hide the truth of their role in their friend's death while fighting off a mysterious menace bent on finishing them off.

• THE HARD CORPS (R) - Jean-Claude Van Damme, Vivica A. Fox, Raz Adoti, Peter Bryant, Mark Griffin, Ron Selmour, Aaron Au... Former Desert Storm special forces solider Philip Sauvage is hired by a retired World Heavyweight Champion turned wealthy entrepreneur, Wayne Barclay, to protect him and his family against a powerful rap music mogul and thug who has just been released from prison and is out to seek revenge against Barclay - the person that put him behind bars. To assist in the protection of the family, Sauvage sets up a team of young fighters and former soldiers who become 'The Hard Corps."

• MACHINED (R) - David C. Hayes, Jose Rosete, Eleni Krimitsos... Motorman Dan (David C. Hayes) runs a dilapidated mechanic shop in the middle of the desert, and as a hobby collects memorabilia from serial killers. His isolation pushes him to the limits of sanity, however, and when he hits the stranded Ryan (Jose Rosete) with his car, reducing his mental capacity to that of a child, Dan reconstructs him as a killing machine.

• LAND OF THE BLIND (R) - Tom Hollander, Ralph Fiennes, Donald Sutherland, Lara Flynn Boyle, Mackenzie Crook, Laura Fraser... There's no shortage of trenchant political satire in this film starring Ralph Fiennes and Donald Sutherland, written and directed by Robert Edwards. The story is set in an alternate reality amalgam of Great Britain and the U.S.A., where film and TV celebrities run the government and Max (Tom Hollander), the leader of the "free" world, is a sado-masochistic freak who spends the nation's money on gaudy action movies. Outside the palace walls, the nation is being overrun by violent rebels while their idealistic leader, Thorne (Sutherland), resides in jail, quoting William Butler Yeats and being regularly tortured. Fiennes plays Joe, a sympathetic prison guard who gradually adopts Thorne's views and joins a plot to assassinate Max. But then, when the revolution succeeds, Joe finds a whole new nightmare awaiting him. Edwards plunders the history books for this jet black allegory, with references to everything from Mussolini's Italy, Stalin's Russia, and Cambodia's Khymer Rouge all the way up to President Bush, and North Korea's Kim Jong III. In its cockeyed way, the film resembles a more violent and disturbing version of the Marx Brothers' DUCK SOUP crossed with Terry Gilliam's BRAZIL. There are costumes from all different historical periods, hyper-gaudy architecture, semiotic brainwashing reminiscent of Orwell's 1984 and some extraneous bathroom humor.

• WALK ON WATER (R) - Lior Loui Ashkenazi, Knut Berger, Caroline Peters, Gideon Shemer, Eyal Rozzales... Eytan Fox's follow-up to his acclaimed YOSSI & JAGGER is a profound, multilayered drama hidden in the guise of a genre picture. Eyal (Lior Ashkenazi of LATE MARRIAGE) is a successful Mossad special agent whose heartlessness makes him an exceptional hit man. It also hinders his ability to connect with those closest to him. When his wife commits suicide, Eyal is thrown into a mental tailspin. His latest assignment finds him playing tour guide for two German siblings whose Nazi grandfather may or may not still be alive. Pia (Carolina Peters) has left her homeland and family out of shame for what her grandfather did, while Alex (Knut Berger) is an easygoing liberal whose open-mindedness bothers Eyal. Without realizing it, Eyal finds himself forming a close bond with Pia and Alex, until he realizes that Alex is gay. After a bitter farewell, Eyal manages to swallow his pride and visit Alex in Berlin, where he confronts his family's own awful past. In the process, the mystery surrounding Alex's criminal grandfather is revealed.

8-8-06 Releases

INSIDE MAN (R)
DON'T COME KNOCKING (R)
LARRY THE CABLE GUY: HEALTH INSPECTOR (PG-13)
BRICK (R)
SORRY, HATERS (NR)
THE HIDDEN BLADE (R)
MANDERLAY NR)
HAUNTED HIGHWAY (R)
C.S.A. THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA (PG-13)
THE LOST CITY (R)

• INSIDE MAN (R) - Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Jodie Foster, Christopher Plummer, Willem Dafoe, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Ken Leung... It all starts out simply enough: four people dressed in painters’ outfits march into the busy lobby of Manhattan Trust, a cornerstone Wall Street branch of a worldwide financial institution. Within seconds, the costumed robbers place the bank under a surgically planned siege, and the 50 customers and staff become unwitting pawns in an airtight heist. But things don’t progress as planned. The robbers appear to consistently be one step ahead of the police, outwitting them at every turn. But just what are the robbers after? Why has nothing worked to alleviate the standoff, which stretches on hour after hour? With loyalties and motives called into question, a detective engages in a risky game of cat-and-mouse—but with the rules of the game ever changing, one wrong move may take the volatile match closer to a disastrous and deadly conclusion.

• DON'T COME KNOCKING (R) - Sam Shepard, Jessica Lange, Tim Roth, Gabriel Mann, Sarah Polley, Fairuza Balk, Eva Marie Saint... Sixty-year-old former movie star Howard Spence uses drugs, alcohol and young girls to avoid the painful truth that there are only supporting roles left for him to play. One day he realizes that nobody in the world would miss him if he died. He returns to Elko, Nevada, the place he ran away from years ago and where his 80-year-old mother still lives. She tells him that he may be a father. Though shocked by the thought that he has a grown son somewhere, this brings a ray of hope to Howard’s otherwise narcissistic and meaningless life and he sets out to search for him. He soon finds out that not only is he the father of a son, but also of a daughter, the product of another short fling that happened at about the same time. These siblings do not know about each other. That’s when the real complications of this American family reunion begin.

• LARRY THE CABLE GUY: HEALTH INSPECTOR (PG-13) - Joe Pantoliano, Tony Hale, Joanna Cassidy, Bruce Bruce, Iris Bahr, David Koechner, Larry the Cable Guy... A big city health inspector is happy with his usual beat of greasy spoon diners and low-rent restaurants, but his easygoing life is turned upside-down when he’s saddled with a straight arrow rookie partner and assigned the biggest case of his career: investigating an outbreak of mysterious food poisonings at the city’s swankiest restaurants. Infuriating restaurateurs with his bad manners, Larry still manages to charm a sweet, shy waitress into a budding romance. But when his unorthodox methods cost him his job, Larry has to go undercover to bring the conspirators to justice and ‘Git-R-Done’!

• BRICK (R) - Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Lukas Haas, Nora Zehetner, Meagan Good, Emilie de Ravin, Noah Segan, Noah Fleiss, Jonathan Cauff, Lucas Babin... A detective story set around a contemporary California high school, BRICK dares to combine the teen and film noir genres. In mixing these two disparate worlds, Director Rian Johnson creates many comically jarring and ironic moments. When loner Brendan Frye (a barely recognizable Joseph Gordon-Levitt of THIRD ROCK FROM THE SUN) gets a desperate-sounding call from his ex-love Emily (Emilie de Ravin), he feels compelled to help her, plunging himself into the seedy world of teenage crime that pulled her away from him in the first place. Throughout this journey, Brendan plays a hard-boiled type reminiscent of Humphrey Bogart's iconic Sam Spade character. Johnson's script invests heavily in the fiction of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, and is filled with other archetypical characters like the femme fatale (Nora Zehetner), the eccentric crime lord (a brilliant Lukas Haas), and the dame in distress. As teens trade in their cell phones for things as old-fashioned as pay phones and 1940s gangster vocabulary, occasional references to detention and first period provide a humorous contrast with the otherwise unbelievable complex, precocious, and largely parentless world that these teens inhabit.

• SORRY, HATERS (NR) - Robin Wright, Sandra Oh, Abdellatif Kechiche, Elodie Bouchez, Assif Mandavi... It’s a post 9/11 era story of anger, revenge and retribution... so timely, it could be true. It begins when Ashade, a Muslim cab driver (Abdellatif Kechiche), picks up Phoebe (Robin Wright Penn), a well-heeled professional woman. Although Ashade and Phoebe have nothing in common, each holds troubling urges and secret motivations. Phoebe hails a taxi in midtown. Her driver Ashade is happy for the big fare, but shocked to see Phoebe get out at her destination, pick up a rock and scrape it hard along the side of a parked minivan. Ashade has just stepped into his own New York story, and the middle of a revenge drama. Phoebe works on a TV show about the hip-hop lifestyle, in which nouveau-riche entertainers show off their extravagant bling, then dismiss all criticism with the catchphrase, "Sorry, haters!" She is disgusted by her job. Worse, she blames Phyllis MacIntyre for her degrading failures in work and in love. The van belongs to Phyllis. None of this should mean much to Ashade, but this is New York City: when strangers collide by chance, they often leave their marks on each other.

• THE HIDDEN BLADE (R) - Masatoshi Nagase, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Takako Matsu, Yukiyoshi Ozawa, Tomoko Tabata... Set in the mid-19th century, HIDDEN BLADE follows a samurai named Yaichiro on a journey away from his family and to Edo, Japan. Needed there for work, Yaichiro has no choice but to leave his loved ones behind to be looked after by his close friends and fellow samurais, Munezo and Samon. What happens in his absence forms the substance of the film.

• MANDERLAY (NR) - Bryce Dallas Howard, Isaach de Bankole, Danny Glover, Willem Dafoe, Michael Abiteboul, Lauren Bacall, Jean-Marc Barr, Udo Kier, John Hurt, Chloë Sevigny... The second film in Lars von Trier's American trilogy, picking up where DOGVILLE left off, is another technically audacious, gleefully brash condemnation of American society, this time focusing on the horrific legacy of slavery. in MANDERLAY, Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard, replacing Nicole Kidman) and her father (Willem Dafoe, replacing James Caan) have arrived at the gates of a plantation in Alabama. When an elderly black woman knocks on the car door asking for help, Grace sees an opportunity to become a heroic woman of action. Sending her father away, Grace settles in Manderlay, where she tries to get the African-American workers to embrace their freedom once and for all. But for some reason, it appears that everyone -- from the wise Wilhelm (Danny Glover) to the stubborn Thomas (Michael Abiteboul) to the strong Timothy (Isaach de Bankole) -- is content to live a life of subservience. Her futile attempt to instill pride in the group takes its toll, rendering Grace exhausted, defeated, and hopeless. Like DOGVILLE, von Trier's film is shot on a soundstage in a theatrically stylized manner that will confound many viewers, but the committed performances humanize the film and give it its cold, bitter heart. This film screened as part of Lincoln Center's 2005 New York Film Festival.

• HAUNTED HIGHWAY (R) - Rand Gamble, Hinano Yoshikawa, Laura Putney... Fashion photographer Greg Ross's (Rand Gamble) dalliance with a Japanese supermodel (Hinano Yoshikawa) has grave consequences when discovered by his wife, Amanda (Laura Putney). Amanda's accidental death forces Greg on a long drive through the California wilderness to dispose of the body, and as he travels to the lake where he and Amanda were first married, he is plagued by more and more horrific visions.

• C.S.A. THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA (PG-13) - Charles Frank, Shaun Toub, Jeris Poindexter, Rhonda Stubbins White, Gloria Stuart, Sean Blake, Ryan L. Carroll, Rupert Pate... Kevin Willmott's funny and alarming mockumentary, C.S.A.: THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, springs from an ingenious premise: the South defeated the Union army and won the Civil War. The film presents itself as a British television series about the history of the C.S.A. In Willmott's faux history, British and French troops joined with the Confederates to rout the Northern armies. With Lincoln jailed and Jefferson Davis in the White House, the C.S.A. goes on to invade Mexico and South America, sides with Hitler in World War II, and builds a giant wall between itself and Canada. Breaking up the "history" lesson are commercials from the modern day C.S.A., slick ads for the Slave Shopping Network (imagine QVC pitching "pickaninnies"), and Coon Chicken Inn (an actual 1950s restaurant). Presented by Spike Lee, C.S.A.: THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA clearly has done its historical homework. Though the film will invariably be linked with such mockumentaries as WAITING FOR GUFFMAN and THIS IS SPINAL TAP, Willmott's film is not character-driven (with the exception of the privileged and smug presidential candidate, John Ambrose Fauntroy V, played to perfection by Larry Peterson), and the jokes are much more historical and even academic in nature. Willmott clearly knows the hidden truths of the real African-American experience, and the movie's most startling and disturbing moments are when the "parallel universe" seems awfully familiar. One of the most unnerving scenes is an advertisement for "Runaways," a TV show about catching runaway slaves that looks almost identical to COPS. Other times, the humor is so broad and audacious that the film shares similarities to the should-I-laugh-or-grimace comedy style of SOUTH PARK. However, unlike SOUTH PARK, Willmott has a real agenda: beneath the wit and the quips, he launches a powerful attack on both the C.S.A. and the U.S.A.

• THE LOST CITY (R) - Andy Garcia, Dustin Hoffman, Bill Murray, Ines Sastre, Jsu Garcia... Andy Garcia stars in, directs, and produces this highly personal movie, a lengthy tale about his native Cuba. THE LOST CITY, a labor of love that Garcia has attempted to film for almost 20 years, was penned by his writer friend, the Cuban exile Guillermo Cabrera Infante, who didn't live to see the film completed. The film is set in Havana, where Garcia plays nightclub owner Fico Fellove, whose life revolves around the thriving scene that unfolds there on a nightly basis. But trouble looms when one of his brothers, Luis (Nestor Carbonell), is killed after a violent raid on the presidential palace. Matters get worse as Fellove's other brother, Ricardo (Enrique Murciano), harboring revolutionary ideas in retaliation for Luis's death, heads out to join the forces gathered by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. Meanwhile, Meyer Lansky (Dustin Hoffman), a tough American gangster, puts pressure on Fellove to sell his club and build a new one with mobster money.

8-1-06 Releases

V FOR VENDETTA (R)
MRS. HARRIS (NR)
THE SHAGGY DOG (PG)
DIAS de SANTIAGO (NR)
THE GREAT CHALLENGE (PG-13)
CHAPPELLE'S SHOW: LOST EPISODES (NR)

• V FOR VENDETTA (R) - Natalie Portman, Hugo Weaving, Stephen Rea, Stephen Fry, John Hurt, Tim Pigott-Smith, Rupert Graves... Set against the futuristic landscape of totalitarian Britain, V For Vendetta tells the story of a mild-mannered young woman named Evey who is rescued from a life-and-death situation by a masked vigilante known only as "V."

• MRS. HARRIS (NR) - Annette Bening, Ben Kingsley, Frances Fisher, Cloris Leachman, Chloe Sevigny, Lawrence O'Donnell, Frank Whaley... Dr. Herman Tarnower has become an overnight sensation, thanks to his "Scarsdale Diet" and its "lose one pound per day" guarantee. Unfortunately, the wealth of beautiful woman he is creating is beginning to try the patience of Jean Harris, his jealous, prescription drug-taking lover. After fourteen years of romance that doesn't result in marriage and the good doctor's status as a shameless ladies man, things come afront in a violent and utterly desperate way.

• THE SHAGGY DOG (PG) - Tim Allen, Kristen Davis, Zena Grey, Spencer Breslin, Danny Glover, Robert Downey Jr., Joshua Leonard... When an accident turns him into a dog, Dave Douglas must find a way to become human again, all while learning what it really means to be man’s -- and his family’s -- best friend.

• DIAS de SANTIAGO (NR) - Pietro Sibille... Unfolding in alternating color and black-and-white, this prescient Peruvian drama tells the story of Santiago (Pietro Sibille, PROOF OF LIFE), a 23-year-old former soldier who has recently returned home after serving in the army. Haunted by his past and filled with pent-up rage and paranoia, he is increasingly alienated from his family and his young wife, and unsure of how to make his way in the world. Although he wants to pursue his education, he takes a job as a Lima taxi driver, while his friends and fellow ex-soldiers try to convince him to join them in a life of crime. When his equally violent brother's girlfriend turns to him for help and possibly something more, Santiago finds himself on an inescapable path of destruction. Recalling Martin Scorcese's TAXI DRIVER in its gritty portrayal of the effects of war on the individual psyche, DIAS DE SANTIAGO brings to light the crucial predicament of Peru's "lost generation," boys who became men under the auspices of war. DIAS DE SANTIAGO won numerous awards on the festival circuit.

• THE GREAT CHALLENGE (PG-13) - This sequel to the popular 2001 French production YAMASAKI is set in the mean streets of Bangkok, where our seven heroes have traveled in order to teach their techniques to a younger generation. They encounter resistance, however, in the form of a Japanese yakuza family and their Thai associates who are attempting to take over the city.

• CHAPPELLE'S SHOW: LOST EPISODES (NR) - Dave Chappelle... Comic genius Dave Chappelle trained his satirical eye on the vagaries of pop culture and race relations in his brilliant but short-lived Comedy Central series CHAPPELLE'S SHOW. The edgy funnyman brandished his unique style of streetsmart comedy to skewer everything from car commercials to the KKK, blending sketches, parodies, standup, and musical guest performances into a hilarious sendup of modern American life. Though the show was cancelled after only two seasons, Chappelle did record a handful of skits for a possible third season, presented here as a collection of "lost episodes."

7-25-06 Releases

ASK THE DUST (R)
FINAL DESTINATION 3 (PG-13)
THE BENCHWARMERS (PG-13)
ON A CLEAR DAY ( (PG-13)
RED DUST (R)
DEEP WATER (R)
WHITE COATS (R)
THE HADES FACTOR (NR)

• ASK THE DUST (R) - Produced by Tom Cruise. Colin Farrell, Salma Hayek, Donald Sutherland, Eileen Atkins, Idina Menzel, Justin Kirk, Dion Basco... Set in depression-era Los Angeles and based on the John Fante novel of the same name, Ask the Dust is the story of an unlikely love affair between a struggling writer and a forlorn barmaid. In this romantic drama, lives are turned upside-down when their love becomes obsessive, threatening to hurt everyone around them.

• FINAL DESTINATION 3 (PG-13) - Gina Holden, Jesse Moss, Sam Easton, Alexz Johnson, Kris Lemche, Ryan Merriman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead... On what should be one of the happiest days of her life, high school senior Wendy joins her friends for a graduation night celebration at a local amusement park. As they're about to board a roller coaster, Wendy experiences a vivid premonition of a fatal accident in which the roller coaster becomes a death trap for her and her friends. Wendy freaks out and demands to be let off. Her classmate, Kevin feels compelled to accompany Wendy. As they watch from below, Wendy's premonition proves nightmarishly true - the coaster careens out of control, and all those aboard perish. But that's only the beginning... Those who survive the disaster discover that fate is hard to escape. They were meant to die, and death is not so easily cheated!

• THE BENCHWARMERS (PG-13) - Tim Meadows, Molly Sims, Craig Kilborn, Jon Lovitz, Jon Heder, David Spade, Rob Schneider... Three guys try to make up for their lack of athleticism when they were younger by forming a three-man baseball team to challenge a full squad of elementary school baseballers. They develop a large following of left-out kids as they head into a high-stakes, winner-take-all game with the best team of kids in the state.

• ON A CLEAR DAY ( (PG-13) - Peter Mullan, Brenda Blethyn, Billy Boyd, Sean McGinley, Jamie Sives, Ron Cook, Benedict Wong, Jodhi May... After 40 years of working as a shipbuilder, the somewhat taciturn Frank has been "made redundant" and let go from his job. He finds himself utterly unmoored without the routine and trappings that have defined his existence for so long, and suffers a loss of self-respect that he is unable to talk about with his loving wife, Joan (Brenda Blethyn, PRIDE & PREJUDICE), and son, Rob (Jamie Sives). Floundering, Frank becomes obsessed with the idea of swimming the Channel, and undertakes the project with the help of Chan (Benedict Wong, DIRTY PRETTY THINGS), the owner of the local fish-and-chips shop, who becomes Frank’s personal trainer. His three best mates (Billy Boyd, Sean McGinley, and Ron Cook) sign on for the ride as well, each discovering new strength in themselves along the way. But it is Frank’s relationships with his family that are the most moving part of the film, as he deals with the demons that have hounded him for over 20 years and rediscovers the bonds he shares with his wife and his long-estranged son.

• RED DUST (R) - Hilary Swank, Chjwetel Ejiofor, Jamie Bartlett, Ian Roberts, Nomhle Nkonyeni... Produced by HBO, RED DUST stars Hilary Swank as Sarah Barcant, a human rights lawyer in South Africa. In the small town of Smitsriver, Barcant and her colleague, Alex Mpondo (Chiwetel Ejiofor), attend the trial of police officer Dirk Henricks (Jamie Bartlett), who is seeking to clear his name of atrocities committed when apartheid still poisoned the country. In an added twist, Mpondo was one of Henricks's victims. Packed full of drama and intrigue, RED DUST contains plenty of surprises.

• DEEP WATER (R) - Lucas Black (II), Peter Coyote, Mía Maestro, Lesley Ann Warren, Xander Berkeley... An orphaned drifter recently released from the hospital and seeking gainful employment finds that sometimes fate can play cruel tricks on the desperate in a tightly-wound tale of adultery, deception, and murder starring Peter Coyote and Lucas Black. Nat Banyon (Black) is an orphan just looking to get back on his feet after an extended convalescence in a Wyoming hospital. When by chance Nat spots a bad car accident and bravely acts to save the life of the car's eccentric driver Herman Finch (Coyote), the grateful wheel-man kindly extends an offer of work to the young drifter with the understanding that room and board will be provided free of charge. Assigned the task of cleaning up Finch's rundown Deepwater motel in exchange for a street-worthy car, Nat sets about performing his duties while slowly becoming aware that, in this ramshackle hotel, nothing is as it seems and no one can be trusted.

• WHITE COATS (R) - Dave Foley, Dave Thomas, Dan Aykroyd... St. Albert's Hospital is in trouble and their best doctors are abandoning their posts. That leaves six young interns on medicine's front line to learn by experience. Surgical slip-ups, lost patients, hot tub parties in physiotherapy, mayhem in the morgue and sex in the halls help keep morale high in the worst hospital in the world.

• THE HADES FACTOR (NR) - Stephen Dorff, Mira Sorvino, Blair Underwood, Sophia Myles, Danny Huston, Colm Meaney, Josh Hopkins, Anjelica Huston... Made-for-TV spy thriller based on the best-selling book series by Robert Ludlum. When a few people across the globe come down with a mysterious, deadly illness, Col. Jonathan Smith, his fiancee Dr. Sophie Amsden, and the U.S. special force Covert One, must find a solution before the disease wipes out millions.

7-18-06 Releases

ATL (PG-13)
EDISON FORCE (R)
SHE'S THE MAN (PG-13)
TSOTSI (R)
TOUCHED (R)
SUBJECT TWO (R)
THE SECOND CHANCE (PG-13)
MR. JINGLES (R)
A PERFECT FIT (R)

• ATL (PG-13) - Keith David, Jackie Long, Albert Daniels, Mykelti Williamson, Lauren London, Evan Ross, Tip "T.I." Harris... Loosely based on Dallas Austin and Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins' experienced growing up in Atlanta, ATL is the story of four teens in a working class neighbourhood where hip-hop music and roller skating rule. With life after high school fast approaching, the group must face challenges on and off the rink and come to terms with the inevitability of a life in the real world.

• EDISON FORCE (R) - Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey, Justin Timberlake, LL Cool J, Dylan McDermott, Cary Elwes, Piper Perabo... An all-star cast led by Morgan Freeman and Kevin Spacey, Edison Force is the tale of a wide-eyed journalist who must make shaky alliances with a jaded reporter and an investigator for a powerful DA after discovering a group of corrupt policemen.

• SHE'S THE MAN (PG-13) - Vinnie Jones, Alex Breckenridge, Jonathan Sadowski, Robert Hoffman, Laura Ramsey, Channing Tatum, Amanda Bynes... Duke wants Olivia who likes Sebastian who is really Viola whose brother is dating Monique so she hates Olivia who's with Duke to make Sebastian jealous who is really Viola who's crushing on Duke who thinks she's a guy. Confused? In this updated version of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night," Amanda Bynes plays Viola, who dresses up as her brother to attend his boarding school and ends up falling in love with one of the soccer teammates.

• TSOTSI (R) - Nambitha Mpumlwana, Benny Moshe, Jerry Mofokeng, Percy Matsemela, Israel Makoe, Mothusi Magano, Presley Chweneyagae... In a shantytown on the edges of Johannesburg, South Africa, 19-year-old Tsotsi has repressed any memory of his past, including his real name; "Tsotsi" simply means "thug" or "gangster" in the street language of the ghetto. Orphaned at an early age, Tsotsi has lived a life of extreme social and psychological deprivation. One night, after an alcohol-fueled evening at a local bar, he steals a BMW from the affluent suburbs of the city. As he races away in the car, he realizes there’s a three-month-old baby crying in the back. Determined to take care of “his baby," Tsotsi finds a young widow with a baby to help him and, as their relationship tentatively progresses, Tsotsi is compelled to confront his own violent nature and to reveal his past.

• TOUCHED (R) - Jenna Elfman, Randall Batinkoff, Samantha Mathis, Diane Venora, Bruce Davidson... Scott's life was a fulfilling one. He loved his son, he loved his job; his life was working. But when an accident takes the life of his son and puts Scott in a coma, the impossible loss leaves him without the ability to feel. With barely the desire or energy to move on, Scott's chances of picking up the pieces rest upon Angela's faith and good will. As the nurse who has been tending to him after the accident, Angela is a kindred soul who has seen her own share of pain, and who has her own reality to confront. In the tradition of "Ordinary People" and "Terms of Endearment," Touched is a journey of love, loss, and the life we live between.

• SUBJECT TWO (R) - Christian Oliver, Dean Stapleton, Courtney Mace, Jurgen Jones... High atop the Rocky Mountains, a visionary scientist, Dr. Vick, along with his unwitting medical student assistant, Adam Schmidt, engage in controversial and gruesome research on death and resurrection. A modern take on the classic Frankenstein tale of horror, Subject Two will raise the hair on the back of your neck, and leave you with a lasting impression of life and mortality.

• THE SECOND CHANCE (PG-13) - Michael W. Smith, J. Don Ferguson, Jeff Obafemi Carr, Jonathan Thomas... Acclaimed Christian rock singer Michael W. Smith stars in this uplifting drama about an idealistic associate minister named Ethan, who works at a well-to do Tennessee Ministry run by his father (J. Don Ferguson). The ministry seems to be more interested in opening up new churches in other countries than it is in taking care of its own African-American poor right there in Tennessee, much to the chagrin of Jake (Jeff Obafemi Carr) who runs the struggling inner-city ministry named the Second Chance. He's dealing with helping prostitutes, drug addicts and the homeless, and all the charity donations aren't enough; these people need emotional support to stand on their feet, not hand outs. When Ethan lets him tell off the congregation (on television, no less), the "Rock Star" minister is sent to work with Jake at the Second Chance. Of course the pair are bound to butt heads at first, but the deeply felt humanity they share is just as bound to manifest sooner or later. Director Steven Tyler mixes some good urban grit and hope into the formula and it's refreshing that no one character is free of flaws or all bad -- everyone's got problems and the miracle comes from working together and forgiving rather than smiting the evildoers or passing judgement. This will be a must-see for Christian audiences, but anyone with a heart should be able to relate and glean a lot from its message of humility and brotherhood. Smith also did the score, and there are several of his songs featured.

• MR. JINGLES (R) - A sequel to the 2003 direct-to-video killer-clown movie S.I.C.K., this low-budget horror flick begins with the transformation undergone by a falsely convicted man while incarcerated. Emerging with a heart full of vengeance and a sickly clown visage, the newly christened Mr. Jingles wreaks bloody revenge on those who put him away. One survivor has spent years in an asylum to recover from what she saw, but upon her release, Mr. Jingles returns to finish what he started.

• A PERFECT FIT (R) - Adrian Grenier, Leila Arcieri, Polly Draper... Adrian Grenier, who plays aspiring actor Vincent Chase in HBOs ENTOURAGE, gets a taste of real acting in A PERFECT FIT. Grenier is John Totersohn, a man wracked by paranoia and doubt. When Totersohn is faced with marriage and impending fatherhood, he completely cracks up, leading to some nail-biting drama as the film progresses.

7-11-06 Releases

BASIC INSTINCT 2 (NR)
GRILLED (R)
TRISTRAM SHANDY: A COCK & BULL STORY (R)
HIJACKED (NR)
MYSTERIOUS SKIN (NR)
BLACKBEARD (NR)
THE BUTCHER (R)

• BASIC INSTINCT 2 (NR) - Sharon Stone, Neil Maskell, Stan Collymore, Hugh Dancy, David Thewlis, Charlotte Rampling, David Morrissey... Sharon Stone reprises her steamy role as Catherine Tramell, who has relocated from San Francisco to London before finding herself on the wrong side of the law. She now finds herself at the mercy of a criminal psychologist from Scotland Yard who is asked to evaluate her before he is lured into her web of lies and deceit.

• GRILLED (R) - Ray Romano, Kevin James, Sofia Vergara, Tom Carey, Kim Coates, Juliette Lewis, Burt Reynolds... EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND star Ray Romano takes a lead role alongside Kevin James (THE KING OF QUEENS) in this comic buddy movie. Playing two meat salesmen, Romano and James's characters fall into a little bother and end up having to make a big sale in order to meet their quota on the hottest day of the year or else they end up in the same state as the goods they're peddling. Juliette Lewis and Burt Reynolds make brief appearances.

• TRISTRAM SHANDY: A COCK & BULL STORY (R) - Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon, Keeley Hawes, Shirley Henderson, Dylan Moran, David Walliams, Kelly MacDonald, Ian Hart, Jeremy Northam, Kieran O'Brien, Gillian Anderson... Barely stopping to breathe between productions, outrageously prolific director Michael Winterbottom follows his graphically intimate 9 SONGS with the raucously entertaining TRISTRAM SHANDY: A COCK AND BULL STORY. This time around, Winterbottom is out to film the unfilmable novel: an adaptation of Laurence Sterne’s sprawling 18th Century masterpiece of digression, THE LIFE AND OPINIONS OF TRISTRAM SHANDY, GENTLEMAN. What begins as a seemingly straightforward attempt to recreate the frenetic novel -- starring Steve Coogan as the title figure and Rob Brydon as his Uncle Toby -- quickly derails into a behind-the-scenes documentary of the film’s actual production. Working triple time (for he also plays Tristram’s father), Coogan is hilarious as the insecure "Steve Coogan," a shallow actor who is more interested in his cute assistant (Naomie Harris) than the mother of his newborn child (the always delightful Kelly MacDonald). Meanwhile, "Rob Brydon" is trying desperately to convince "Steve Coogan" that his role is a co-lead, not merely a supporting one. As the production threatens to spin out of control, the filmmakers hire Gillian Anderson (playing herself, of course) to fill a much-needed role.

• HIJACKED (NR) - Documentary Produced by Ilan Ziv... Thirty years before the tragic events of 9/11, another September bore witness to a spectacular airline hijacking that changed the course of history. On September 6, 1970, a radical militant group simultaneously hijacked four European passenger jets in an act of solidarity with the Palestinian cause. While no one died in the incident, the event not only ushered in the rash of 1970s-era hijackings but set the stage for the use of terrorism as a political tool. Produced by award-winning documentarian Ilan Ziv, this episode of PBS's American Experience series explores the repercussions of that historic September day through archival footage and interviews with actual participants.

• MYSTERIOUS SKIN (NR) - Joseph Gordon-Levitt, William Sage, Michelle Trachtenberg, Brady Corbet, Jeffrey Licon... In MYSTERIOUS SKIN, an unlikely director takes on an even more unlikely lead actor and crafts a deeply felt coming-of-age tale that pulsates with the scalding beauty of tragedy. The director, Gregg Araki, whose over-the-top, gay melodramas have been criticized as largely empty provocations, proves himself here to have great sensitivity. Yet it is the lead actor, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, best known for his work on the alien sitcom THIRD ROCK FROM THE SUN, whose unforgettable, nuanced performance makes the film. Based on the novel by Scott Heim, the story follows two teenage boys living in small-town Kansas: Brian (Brady Corbet), a clunky and awkward fellow with no discernable social life; and Neil (Gordon-Levitt), a rebellious gay youth whose fragile beauty and cruel indifference make him a successful hustler to the area's older men. Having suffered from blackouts as a child, Brian believes that these voids were actually alien abductions, and goes on a quest to confirm this. As his memories become increasingly vivid, Brian convinces himself that Neil, the star player on his childhood Little League team and a regular presence in his dreams, knows the truth. Neil does, in fact, know exactly what happened. The boys were sexually abused by their Little League coach. While Brian has suppressed the incident, Neil has held it deep within him like a treasure, considering it to have been a loving relationship of respect and tenderness, the absence of which has left him emotionally empty. The two strands of narrative are braided together elegantly, slowly leading up to a devastating final scene. Araki unifies the stories through an elegiac, celestial tone that manages to avoid preachiness via doses of appropriate humor.

• BLACKBEARD (NR) - Angus MacFadyen, Rachel Ward, Richard Chamberlain, Mark Umbers, Jessica Chastain, Stacy Keach... Kevin Connor's miniseries is an exciting, dramatic retelling of the famous pirate legend, starring Angus MacFadyen as the infamous Blackbeard.

• THE BUTCHER (R) - Myiea Coy, Allan Ritchson, Ashley Hawkins, Annie Mackay... En route to Las Vegas for a wild, raucous vacation, a group of youngsters are involved in a horrible accident. With one member dead, the rest are being pursued by a vengeful madman, and the home they seek refuge in happens to house his family.

7-4-06 Releases

THE MATADOR (R)
THE LIBERTINE (R)
STONED (R)
ROOM 6 (NR)
EVILENKO (NR)
WHY WE FIGHT (PG-13)

• THE MATADOR (R) - Pierce Brosnan, Greg Kinnear, Hope Davis, Adam Scott, Philip Baker Hall, Portia Dawson, Israel Tellez... Julian Noble is a hit man who's very good at what he does, but is losing his taste for the business. Danny is a salesman whose marriage and finances are in trouble. One night at the hotel bar, these two men meet and before long, they find themselves having an extremely unique Mexico City experience, one that will change them both forever. Julian the hit man and Danny the ordinary American businessman find that while they have nothing in common, they both need each other in ways they never knew they would.

• THE LIBERTINE (R) - Johnny Depp, Samantha Morton, John Malkovich, Rosamund Pike, Tom Hollander, Johnny Vegas, Jack Davenport... The scandalously decadent John Wilmot, second Earl of Rochester, is drawing acclaim with his daring writing and raising eyebrows as a gifted rogue with a lascivious lifestyle. A close confidante of the high-living King Charles II, the Earl delights in lampooning England's royals with his subversive wit and scandalizing London society with his sexual escapades -- all the while reveling in getting away with anything he can.

• STONED (R) - Leo Gregory, Paddy Considine, Monet Mazur, Luke De Woolfson... Director/Producer Stephen Woolley’s STONED is a dramatic attempt, researched for 10 years, to accurately portray the controversial events surrounding the death of Rolling Stones founding member and guitarist Brian Jones at age 27, on July 2nd, 1969. To create his work, Woolley synthesized the written memoirs and testimonials of the witnesses who were there. Beginning a few months before Jones's death, the film focuses on a relationship he forged with Frank Thorogood (Paddy Constantine), a builder hired to fix up the rock star's home. Alone, save for his girlfriend Anna, and ostracized from his band-mates due to drug problems and legal tangles, Jones draws Thorogood in as a part-time friend and part-time assistant. When Jones is summarily fired from the band, only weeks before his demise, Thorogood is also let go, and becomes jealous and enraged. Deftly placed flashbacks throughout the film catalog Jones's ascent and, more gratuitously, his drug-filled self-destructive descent. Coupling these with the volatile relationship with Thorogood, the film discreetly shows the complex causes of Jones’s untimely death. To capture the spirit of the times, Woolley fills his soundtrack with 1960s nuggets, including excellent covers of Stones material by modern British acts like A Band of Bees and Little Barrie. He also shoots the flashbacks and recreated concert footage with a hand-held 16mm camera, achieving a real-life documentary feel. In this film, Brian Jones and his unfortunate end (strangely ruled "death by misadventure" at the time) are cast further into the mythical and legendary status they have achieved -- and deserved.

• ROOM 6 (NR) - Christine Taylor, Jerry O'Connell, Shane Brolly... When Amy's fiance, Nick, nearly dies in a horrific accident, her life suddenly comes unhinged. Events take a truly macabre turn after she tracks his body back to a sinister hospital, and begins seeing strange visions of demons, including a terrifying version of Nick. This low-budget horror film has a stellar cast, amazing make-up (by Robert Hall of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER and X-FILES), and a commitment to genuine chills in the tradition of JACOB'S LADDER.

• EVILENKO (NR) - Malcolm McDowell, Marton Csokas, Ronald Pickup... The low-budget Italian shockfest EVILENKO dramatizes the true story of Russian serial killer A.R. Cikatilo (chillingly portrayed by Malcolm McDowell, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE), known as "the monster of Rostov" for killing and eating over 50 women and children in 1980s Communist Russia. Marton Csokas costars as the police detective assigned to track down the deranged killer, while David Lynch's regular composer, Angelo Badalamenti, provides an appropriately eerie film score.

• WHY WE FIGHT (PG-13) - Documentary. Director Eugene Jarecki... Released as the American military continues to make its presence felt in Iraq and across the globe, Eugene Jarecki's (THE TRIALS OF HENRY KISSINGER) WHY WE FIGHT asks some pertinent questions about the economic necessities of war. Speaking to a number of key figures including Republican Senator John McCain and author Gore Vidal, as well as lesser-know names such as Wilton Sekzer, a Vietnam veteran and ex-New York City cop who lost his son in the World Trade Center attacks, Jarecki's film is a bipartisan treatise that was inspired by Dwight Eisenhower’s 1961 farewell address to the nation. Eisenhower spoke of a burgeoning American military-industrial complex, which he believed would threaten democracy across the globe. Jarecki takes a look at whether this has occurred by questioning his subjects on the links between big business and the military, while also talking to people whose lives are inexorably tied to the business of war. Fascinating revelations unfold, from Sekzer's attempt to pay tribute to his son to the thoughts of the fighter pilot who dropped the first bomb on Iraq at the dawn of the second Gulf War. Each of them gives their own unique take on the American military machine, while Jarecki intersperses their discussions with rapid-fire scenes of the machine as it lumbers into action.

6-27-06 Releases

ANNAPOLIS (PG-13)
FAILURE TO LAUNCH (PG-13)
ULTRAVIOLET (NR)
CACHE (R)
EVIL (NR)
THE GRAVEYARD (R)

• ANNAPOLIS (PG-13) - McCaleb Burnett, Vicellous Shannon, Chi McBride, Donnie Wahlberg, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, James Franco... When he won a coveted admission spot to the Naval Academy at Annapolis, local kid Jake Huard thought all his dreams had come true -- but his battle to become the man he wants to be is only just beginning. Uncertain if a regular kid from a poor blue collar family can fit into the Academy’s pressure-cooker atmosphere, and barely making the grade as a Freshman "plebe," Jake has one last shot at proving he has what it takes to become an officer in an institution that boasts a venerable 137-year history of focused discipline and determined excellence.

• FAILURE TO LAUNCH (PG-13) - Kathy Bates, Terry Bradshaw, Bradley Cooper, Justin Bartha, Zooey Deschanel, Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew McConaughey... Tripp, 35, has never been able to leave the nest. He’s always had some reason or other, but now, his desperate parents have had enough. They hire the gorgeous and talented girl of his dreams to get him to move out of the house.

• ULTRAVIOLET (NR) - David Collier, William Fichtner, Ida Martin, Sebastian Andrieu, Nick Chinlund, Cameron Bright, Milla Jovovich... In the late 21st Century, a vampire-like disease has ravaged the world, creating a population of humans with boosted intelligence, speed and stamina. The "Hemophages" are targeted for destruction by the uninfected humans, leading to a worldwide civil war. Caught in the middle of this battle is Violet, an infected woman who finds herself protecting a nine-year old boy marked for death by the government who believe him to be a threat to the healthy population.

• CACHE (R) - Daniel Auteuil, Juliette Binoche, Maurice Benichou, Majid Annie Girardot, Bernard Le Coq, Walid Afkir, Lester Makedonsky, Daniel Duval, Nathalie Richard... Writer/director Michael Haneke delivers a masterpiece of unsettlement with CACHE. Life seems perfect for Georges and Anne, a bourgeois Parisian couple who live in a comfortable home with their adolescent son, Pierrot. But when an anonymous videotape turns up on their doorstep, showing their house under surveillance from across the street, their calm life begins to spiral out of control. Subsequent videotapes arrive, accompanied by mysterious drawings, and gradually Georges becomes convinced that he's being tormented by a figure from his past. But when he confronts him, the man assures Georges he is innocent. A growing sense of guilt begins to rise in Georges as he recalls his less-than-angelic childhood, yet for some reason he's unable to be completely honest with Anne. Soon, their happy home is an emotional battleground, leading to a climax that is breathtaking in its ferocity and ambiguousness.

• EVIL (NR) - Jesper Salen, Andreas Wilson, Henrik Lunstrom, Gustaf Skarsgard, Linda Zilliacus, Filip Berg, Fredrik af Trampe, Richard Danielsson, Martin Svane, Rustan Blomqvist... The Stjarsnberg Academy has a great reputation, but when Erik enrolls there after getting expelled from his previous high school he discovers an institution that is spiralling violently out of control. As the students inaugurate a reign of terror, Erik befriends his roommate, Pierre, and tries to stay out of trouble.

• THE GRAVEYARD (R) - Lindsay Ballew, Patrick Scott Lewis, Marcus Potter, Trish Coren, Chris Stewart... A group of young friends visit the grave of their friend on the anniversary of his death. But on this night, long-dead secrets are rising to the surface, determined to exact revenge.

6-20-06 Releases

SYRIANA (R)
EIGHT BELOW (PG)
THE HILLS HAVE EYES (NR)
NIGHT WATCH (R)

• SYRIANA (R) - George Clooney, Matt Damon, Chris Cooper, Christopher Plummer, Amanda Peet, Jeffrey Wright, Kayvan Novak... Syriana is a politcal thriller that bases itself around the intrigue of the global oil industry. From the award-winning writer of Traffic, the various plots of the film twist and turn to create a maze of wealth, power, greed and success. From a CIA operative who begins to uncover the truth about his life's work to the up-and-coming oil broker who faces an unimaginable tragedy and seeks redemption to the corporate lawyer to faces a moral dilemma in helping two powerful US oil companies, Syriana takes you deep inside the complex powers that run the industry and the impact it has on everyone around.

• EIGHT BELOW (PG) - Wendy Crewson, August Schellenberg, Gerard Plunkett, Jason Biggs, Moon Bloodgood, Bruce Greenwood, Paul Walker... Stranded in Antarctica during the most unforgiving winter on the planet, Jerry's beloved sled dogs must learn to survive together until Jerry -- who will stop at nothing -- rescues them. Driven by unwavering bonds of friendship, enormous belief in one another, and tremendous courage, Jerry and the dogs make an incredible journey to reunite in this triumphant and inspiring action-adventure the whole family will treasure.

• THE HILLS HAVE EYES (NR) - Michael Bailey Smith, Ted Levine, Kathleen Quinlan, Emilie de Ravin, Aaron Stanford, Dan Byrd, Vinessa Shaw... Based on the 1977 film of the same name, directed by Wes Craven, The Hills Have Eyes follows the Carter family and their travels through the great Southwest. When their car breaks down in the middle of the desert, they appear to be stranded and far away from society but as they soon realize, this supposed "accident" might be a ploy by a group of inhabitants hoping to plan a gruesome massacre.

• NIGHT WATCH (R) - Konstantin Khabensky, Vladimir Menshov, Valeri Zolotukhin, Mariya Poroshina, Galina Tyunina, Yuri Kutsenko, Aleksei Chadov... Among normal humans live the "Others," possessing various supernatural powers. They are divided up into the forces of light and the forces of the dark, who signed a truce several centuries ago to end a devastating battle. Ever since, the forces of light govern the day while the night belongs to their dark opponents. In modern day, the dark Others actually roam the night as vampires while a "Night Watch" of light forces try to control them and limit their outrage.

6-13-06 Releases

END OF THE SPEAR (PG-13)
THE WORLD'S FASTEST INDIAN (PG-13)
16 BLOCKS (PG-13)
A GOOD WOMAN (PG)
GREEN STREET HOOLIGANS (R)
KISS KISS BANG BANG (R)
THE PINK PANTHER (PG)

• END OF THE SPEAR (PG-13) - Louie Leonardo, Chad Allen, Chase Ellison, Christina Souza, Jack Guzman... Mincayani lives in the violent surroundings of mid-20th-century Ecuador, but comes under threat when he and his family murder five missionaries. Incredibly, this causes a series of events that change Mincayani's life for the better, and END OF THE SPEAR is packed full of action and drama as the great warrior learns his lesson.

• THE WORLD'S FASTEST INDIAN (PG-13) - Anthony Hopkins, Diane Ladd, Paul Rodriguez, Aaron Murphy... Based on one hell of a true story. The life and triumph of Burt Munro, the elderly Kiwi man who, at the far from spritely age of 68, broke motorcycle racing records in Utah, has fueled director Roger Donaldson's creative energy for years. In the early 1970s, just a few years after Munro's incredible triumph, Donaldson directed OFFERINGS TO THE GOD OF SPEED, a documentary on the sensational senior. Here, with the help of the fine actors Anthony Hopkins and Diane Ladd, the director brings the story to vivid, dramatic life yet again, constructing a gripping and inspirational narrative. Besides telling a classic tale of individual triumph, THE WORLD'S FASTEST INDIAN offers a sociological look at the American West of the late 1960s, an iconic landscape peppered with colorful characters that include a wizened Native American and a generous drag queen, both of whom help the eccentric elder on his quixotic quest.

• 16 BLOCKS (PG-13) - Bruce Willis, Mos Def, David Morse, Jenna Stern, Casey Sander, Cylk Cozart, David Zayas... Jack Mosley is an aging cop who is assigned to the mundane task of escorting a fast talking young witness named Eddie Bunker. But unknowing to them as they travel from police custody to the New York City courthouse 16 blocks away there are forces trying to stop the pair from making it.

• A GOOD WOMAN (PG) - Helen Hunt, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Wilkinson, Milena Vukotic, Stephen Campbell Moore, Mark Umbers, Roger Hammond... Based on the seductive play "Lady Windermere's Fan" by Oscar Wilde, a notorious courtesan enters a gossipy society and seduces the husband of a faithful young woman. When scandal ensues, the matter delights the gossips and leads to a series of unexpected consequences.

• GREEN STREET HOOLIGANS (R) - Elijah Wood, Charlie Hunnam, Claire Forlani, Marc Warren, Henry Goodman... In 1988, British director Alan Clarke set a high benchmark for movies about soccer hooliganism with a brutal, unflinching drama called THE FIRM. Few dared follow in Clarke's estimable footsteps. But filmmaker Lexi Alexander, who joined a gang of soccer thugs during her childhood in Germany, seems well placed to be the director of GREEN STREET HOOLIGANS, which returns to the controversial subject matter some 17 years after Clarke's film. Matt Buckner is a student who travels to London after getting kicked out of Harvard. Ostensibly there to visit his sister, Matt instead forms an unlikely bond with her husband's brother, Pete Dunham, who takes him to a soccer match to see his team, West Ham. At the game, the inevitable happens, and Matt's initial trepidation at the violence swelling around him soon turns into a pulse-racing, visceral thrill. Suddenly finding a taste for the hooligan life, Matt joins Pete's "firm," the Green Street Elite, leading to further booze-fueled confrontations and providing an opportunity for Matt to keep a journal explaining why he's attracted to such a violent pursuit.

• KISS KISS BANG BANG (R) - Robert Downey Jr., Val Kilmer, Michelle Monaghan, Corbin Bernsen, Dash Mihok, Shannyn Sossamon, Rockmond Dunbar... When a petty thief is brought to Los Angeles for an unlikely audition, he finds himself in the middle of a high profile murder investigation. He must uncover the truth with his high school sweetheart and a detective who has been training him for his upcoming role.

• THE PINK PANTHER (PG) - Steve Martin, Kevin Kline, Beyonce Knowles, Jean Reno, Emily Mortimer, Henry Czerny, Jason Statham... Inspector Closseau is a man whose powers of deduction are limited, whose language skills are dismal and whose investigate approach leaves much to be desired. Still, in spite of himself, he always manages to get his man. In his latest adventure, he must solve the mystery of a murdered soccer coach and find out who pilfered the famous Pink Panther diamond.

6-6-06 Releases

FIREWALL (PG-13)
GLORY ROAD (PG)
THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA (R)
UNDERWORLD: EVOLUTION (R)
SHADOW MAN (R)
BEYOND THE WALL OF SLEEP (R)
THE BIG WHITE (R)
RUNNING SCARED (R)

• FIREWALL (PG-13) - Harrison Ford, Paul Bettany, Virginia Madsen, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Robert Patrick, Robert Forster, Alan Arkin... When his family is held for ransom by kidnappers, the head security executive for a global bank is forced to loot his own business for millions in exchange for his wife and children's safety. He must then face the daunting task of thwarting his kidnapper's scheme; a scheme that makes him the fall guy guilty of embezzlement.

• GLORY ROAD (PG) - Josh Lucas, Patrick Blanchard, Tatyana Ali, Derek Luke, Jon Voight, Wes Brown, Wilbur Fitzgerald... Glory Road is based on the true-life story of Hall of Fame coach Don Haskins at tiny Texas Western University, a university that bucks the trend by starting the best players they can find. Unforunately, the team is all African-American and the turbulent social and politcal time is further fueled by the unlikely success. With the national championship on the line, the ultimate showdown is set between the underdogs of Texas Western and the all-white, #1 ranked team from Kentucky.

• RUNNING SCARED (R) - Chazz Palminteri, Paul Walker, Cameron Bright, Ivana Milicevic, Johnny Messner, Vera Farmiga... Not the 1986 Billy Crystal-Gregory Himes buddy cop movie of the same name, 2006’s RUNNING SCARED is writer/director Wayne Kramer’s take on the violent gangster crime genre. Paul Walker plays Joey Gazelle, a low-level Mafia thug who finds himself in the middle of a drug deal gone wrong, with a hail of gunfire and some dead undercover cops as the net result. Fleeing from the scene, Joey is charged with getting rid of one of the steel snub-nosed revolvers used to kill the cops. Instead, he stashes the gun in his own basement, just in case he ever needs insurance against his own gang. Unfortunately, Joey’s 10-year-old son, Nicky, and his best friend, Oleg, see where the weapon is hidden. Oleg, whose Russian mob-connected stepfather is physically abusive towards him and his mother, steals the gun to exact revenge. Shooting his father in the shoulder, he runs away with the "hot" gun. This forces Joey to embark on a nightmarish 18-hour journey to locate Oleg and the gun before his own gang, the Russian Mafia, or bad cop Detective Rydell finds them or the true link between the gun and the crimes. In a film dedicated to directors Sam Peckinpah, Walter Hill, and Brian De Palma in the closing credits, Kramer splatters the screen with a level of violence that would make those masters proud. Drained of bright colors, stylish, and feverishly fast-paced, RUNNING SCARED is one bloody thrill-ride.

• THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA (R) - Tommy Lee Jones, Barry Pepper, Julio Cedillo, Dwight Yoakam, January Jones, Melissa Leo, Levon Helm... Peter Perkins is a veteran cowboy who embodies the values of the old west, living in a small Texas town bordering the U.S. and Mexico. He hires Melquiades Estrada as a ranch hand and quickly befriends the man. But when Estrada is gunned down under mysterious circumstances, Perkins takes justice into his own hands and kidnaps a trigger-happy border patrolman, forcing him to unearth Estrada's body and accompany Perkins on horseback on the long and treacherous journey through the frontier mountains and back roads of Mexico to bring his friend's body home.

• UNDERWORLD: EVOLUTION (R) - Kate Beckinsale, Scott Speedman, Tony Curran, Shane Brolly, Derek Jacobi, Bill Nighy, Steven Mackintosh... The sequel to the original Underworld promises to be bigger, better and badder than ever! In a centuries old battle between vampires and werewolves, Selene and Michael return as they try to discover the secrets of their bloodline. In the end, it takes them into the battle to end all wars as the immortals must finally face their retribution.

• SHADOW MAN (R) - Steven Seagal, Garrick Hagon, Skye Bennett, Werner Daehn, Vasile Albinet, Zoltan Butuc, Eva Pope... Jack Foster, a former covert agent, must search for his kidnapped 8-year-old daughter while being pursued by Russian officials who believe he has the power to kill millions of innocent people.

• BEYOND THE WALL OF SLEEP (R) - William Sanderson, Tom Savini, Rick Dial... Based on a short story by horror master H.P. Lovecraft, this tale, set in the Catskill Mountains, follows the psychological unravelling of young asylum intern Edward Eischel, who becomes obsessed with the case of Joe Slaader, who has arrived at the asylum after violently murdering his family. Slaader was raised in a remote and backwards mountain community, where he made a pact with powers beyond his understanding. Now Edward is obsessed with harnessing the potential of Slaader's contact with what exists beyond the wall of sleep.

• THE BIG WHITE (R) - Robin Williams, Holly Hunter, Giovanni Ribisi, Woody Harrelson, Tim Blake Nelson, Alison Lohman... This little-known feature consists of an all-star cast including Robin Williams and Holly Hunter. THE BIG WHITE is a dark comedy that explores the relationship between an Alaskan travel agent and his mentally unstable wife.

5-30-06 Releases

FREEDOMLAND (R)
DATE MOVIE (NR)
THE WORK & THE GLORY: AMERICAN ZION (PG-13)
CANNIBAL (R)

• FREEDOMLAND (R) - Julianne Moore, Samuel L. Jackson, Edie Falco, William Forsythe, Ron Eldard, Anthony Mackie, Aunjanue Ellis, Latanya Richardson, Clark Peters, Peter Friedman, Dominick Lombardozzi, Philip Bosco... Richard Price’s novel FREEDOMLAND is brought to life in this 2006 adaptation. A carjacking turned kidnapping provides the set-up for a complex story of racial and class divide, as black detective Lorenzo Council (Samuel L. Jackson) attempts to uncover the truth in victim Brenda Martin’s story. Bleeding and dazed in an inner city ER, Brenda (Julianne Moore) explains that on her way home from work in the projects of fictional Dempsey, New Jersey, a black man assaulted her and stole her car. Matters are intensified when it’s revealed that her 4-year-old son was asleep in the backseat.

• DATE MOVIE (NR) - Alyson Hannigan, Jennifer Coolidge, Fred Willard, Adam Campbell, Eddie Griffin, Tony Cox... This spoof of romantic comedies is directed by SCARY MOVIE screenwriters Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, and features the comedic talents of Jennifer Coolidge, Fred Willard, and BUFFY's Allyson Hannigan.

• THE WORK & THE GLORY: AMERICAN ZION (PG-13) - Sam Hennings, Brenda Strong, Eric Johnson, Alexander Carroll, Brighton Hertford, Kimberly Varadi, Colin Ford, Sera Bastian... In November of 1833, the state of Missouri turned a blind eye as hundreds of its peaceful inhabitants were hunted down and driven from their homes in the dead of night. Against this impending strife, a young man with a divine vision leads a people against the aggression of an anti-hero with a vulnerable past. With more than two million copies sold, the second volume of Gerald N. Lund's epic series The Work and the Glory now brings a pivotal moment in American history to the big screen. "The Work and The Glory: American Zion" sets the story of the fictional Steed family against the historically factual backdrop of the Mormon people's move into the West. Divided by their diverse reactions to a nascent ideology, the Steeds struggle to hold together as the strength of their convictions and their filial bonds are tested. The stirring narrative of the faith that led a persecuted people to Missouri and beyond is one of the most poignant untold tales of American history.

• CANNIBAL (R) - A young man falls in love at first sight with a stunning redhead he spots in the university cafeteria, but their ensuing affair is riddled with bloodcurdling details. Foremost among these is the woman's beauty secret, which entails the consumption of human flesh. This stylized horror film won the prize for Best Canadian First Feature at the Toronto International Film Festival.

5-23-06 Releases

CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN 2 (PG)
LONDON (R)
TRANSAMERICA (R)
GAME 6 (R)
WHIRLYGIRL (R)
ONE LAST THING (R)
MOTOR HOME MASSACRE (R)

• CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN 2 (PG) - Steve Martin, Bonnie Hunt, Tom Welling, Piper Perabo, Eugene Levy, Carmen Electra, Hilary Duff... Tom Baker and wife Kate, hoping to bring their family together for a memorable summer vacation, take their 12 offspring to the rustic Lake Winnetka. But their retreat soon becomes cutthroat when they enter into a competition with the over-achieving members of a large family headed by Tom's long-time rival, Jimmy Muraugh.

• LONDON (R) - Chris Evans, Jessica Biel, Jason Statham, Joy Bryant, Kelli Garner, Isla Fisher, Dane Cook... After a massive binging and drug spree, Syd awakes to the news that he is about to lose his "one true love," London, forever -- she's moving from New York to Los Angeles. Syd has one more chance to win her back, tonight, at her going-away party. Syd stocks up on cocaine and goes off to the party with Bateman, a young English banker/part time drug dealer he's just met. Throughout the evening, however, punctuated by regular drug breaks in the bathroom, we discover that Syd's relationship problems involve more than friction with his girlfriend. Is there a light at the end of his tunnel?

• TRANSAMERICA (R) - Felicity Huffman, Kevin Zegers, Fionnula Flanagan, Elizabeth Pena, Graham Greene, Burt Young, Carrie Preston... Bree is days away from a dream she has focused on for years -- the completion of her gender reassignment surgery. Her plans come to a grinding halt when she receives a call from New York and discovers she has a son, and that he has been picked up by the police. Bree’s closest friend and therapist, Margaret, tells Bree she has to deal with her past before she can move into her future. Reluctantly, Bree springs Toby from jail under the pretense that she’s a missionary worker. Toby begs Bree to take him with her to Los Angeles, and so they set out, each hiding their true motives and identities.

• GAME 6 (R) - Michael Keaton, Robert Downey Jr., Griffin Dunne, Bebe Neuwirth, Catherine O'Hara, Ari Graynor, Shalom Harlow, Nadia Dajani, Harris Yulin... Written by award-winning novelist Don DeLillo (WHITE NOISE, UNDERWORLD) and directed by Michael Hoffman (SOAPDISH, ONE FINE DAY), GAME 6 is a smart psychological study of a man unable to face the reality of his life. Michael Keaton stars as Nickey Rogan, a successful playwright of Broadway fluff whose new, serious play is scheduled to open on October 25, 1986 -- the same night his beloved Boston Red Sox have a chance at winning the World Series, playing Game 6 against the New York Mets at Shea Stadium. Despite his popular success, Rogan sees his life as being as futile as the Red Sox, who have not won the baseball championship since 1918. He's not very close with his daughter (Ari Graynor), his wife (Catherine O'Hara) is divorcing him, his girlfriend (Bebe Neuwirth) doesn't understand him, and his lead actor (Harris Yulin) has a parasite in his brain that is causing him to forget his lines. Meanwhile, Rogan is terrified that hated theater critic Steven Schwimmer (Robert Downey Jr.) will tear his play apart, leaving him a shell of a man, like his friend Elliot Litvack (Griffin Dunne). A former cabdriver, Rogan spends much of the day stuck in taxis in heavy traffic, attempting to engage the hacks in conversation, and bonding better with strangers than with his friends and family. As the curtain approaches, he can't decide whether he'd rather be at the play or watching the game on television, afraid that both might fail him. Hoffman sets the film in a tight-knit New York City community that moves at a snail's pace, where coincidences both welcome and not abound. Keaton excels as the tortured soul who is looking for that critical hit -- in both Broadway and baseball parlance. He just can't face another ball going through his legs. Hoboken's Yo La Tengo composed the movie's excellent score.

• WHIRLYGIRL (R) - Monet Mazur, Julian Morris, J.A.Q. ... Typically responsible prep-school student James has always played it safe. But things change drastically one night when fate brings him dangerously close to an exotic dancer with a mysterious appeal. Transfixed by this woman's intriguing presence, young James drops everything and follows her to New York City. In the hustle and bustle of the Big Apple, James encounters many new and shocking things that no amount of studying could have prepared him for. Inspiring comparisons to the classic teen film RISKY BUSINESS, WHIRLYGIRL is based on a true story.

• ONE LAST THING (R) - Cynthia Nixon, Michael Angarano, Sunny Mabrey, Gina Gershon... When he gets a chance to make a wish on national television, the terminally ill Dylan (Michael Angarano, WILL AND GRACE) surprises everyone when he requests a weekend with his favorite swimsuit model (Sunny Mabrey). As Dylan prepares for his big weekend, his mother Carol (Cynthia Nixon, SEX AND THE CITY) tries to deal with losing her son.

• MOTOR HOME MASSACRE (R) - Shan Holleman, Nelson Bonilla, Justin Geer, Tanya Fraser, Breanne Ashley, Greg Corbett, Lane Morlote... A lighthearted vacation in a vintage RV turns into a deadly roller-coaster ride for seven young friends in this gorefest tinged with touches of camp. A psychopath armed with night vision goggles and a machete stalks his prey, and there seems to be no escaping his brutal intentions.

5-16-06 Releases

THE PRODUCERS (PG-13)
THE RINGER (PG-13)
WHEN A STRANGER CALLS (PG-13)
THE WHITE COUNTESS (PG-13)
WINTER PASSING (R)
NEW POLICE STORY (R)
CLAWED: THE LEGEND OF SASQUATCH (R)

• THE PRODUCERS (PG-13) - Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, Uma Thurman, Will Ferrell, Roger Bart, Gary Beach, Michael McKean... Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom, a scheming theatrical producer and his mousy CPA, hit upon the perfect plan to embezzle a fortune: raise far more money than you need to produce a sure-fire Broadway flop and then (since no one will expect anything back), pocket the difference. To do this, they need the ultimate bad play, which they find in the musical "Springtime for Hitler," written by neo-Nazi playwright (and pigeon fancier) Franz Liebkind. Their plans come to naught and the duo is taken completely by surprise when their new production is hailed as a toast-of-the-town hit.

• THE RINGER (PG-13) - Johnny Knoxville, Brian Cox, Katherine Heigl, Geoffrey Arend, Edward Barbanell, Bill Chott, Leonard Flowers... When Steve Barker finds himself running dead last in the corporate rat race, he sinks to an all time low... he attempts to rig the Special Olympics by pretending to be intellectually challenged. But, Barker is completely out-classed by his fellow Olympians, who are not only better athletes; they're just plain better people. And they're on to him. But rather than rat-out the rat, they join forces with him to once and for all beat Jimmy, the cocky reigning champion of the annual games. With a work-out regime uniquely their own, they train Barker to go for the gold and, in the process, show him what's at the heart of a true winner.

• WHEN A STRANGER CALLS (PG-13) - Camilla Belle, Tommy Flanagan, Katie Cassidy, Tessa Thompson, Clark Gregg, Derek de Lint, Brian Geraghty... In a remote hilltop house, high school student Jill Johnson settles in for a routine night of babysitting. With the children sound asleep and a beautiful home to explore, she locks the door and sets the alarm. But when a series of eerie phone calls from a stranger insist that she "check the children," Jill begins to panic. Fear escalates to terror when she has the calls traced and learns that they are coming from inside the house. Jill must summon all of her inner strength if she is going to fight back and make it out of the house alive.

• THE WHITE COUNTESS (PG-13) - Ralph Fiennes, Natasha Richardson, Vanessa Redgrave, Hiroyuki Sanada, Lynn Redgrave, Allan Corduner, Da Ying... 1930s Shanghai. After an encounter with Sophia, an exiled Countess employed as a bar girl, Todd Jackson, a diplomat blinded in a bombing, is inspired to open his own club but only if she will work for him. Sophia's in-laws greedily pocket her income, but denounce her as a bad influence on her daughter. When Japanese troops invade the city, a mass exodus ensues! Alone and afraid, Sophia clings to the only hope left to her - finding her missing daughter!

• WINTER PASSING (R) - Zooey Deschanel, Will Ferrell, Amy Madigan, Rachel Dratch, Amelia Warner, Ed Harris... Actress Reese Holden (Deschanel) has been offered a small fortune by a book editor if she can secure for publication the love letters that her father (Harris), a reclusive novelist, wrote to her mother, who has since passed away. Returning to Michigan, Reese finds that an ex-grad student (Warner) and a would-be musician (Ferrell) have moved in with her father, who cares more about his new friends than he does about his own health and well-being.

• NEW POLICE STORY (R) - Jackie Chan, Nicholas Tse... Massive explosions and incredible stunts abound as Jackie Chan makes what many refer to as a comeback with this Chinese release. He plays the burned-out Inspector Wing, whose motivation died when the rest of his police team was wiped out at the hands of a wily and brutal new gang. When, against the odds, a rookie cop rouses the weathered Inspector to go after the gang, however, there is no stopping him until justice has been served.

• CLAWED: THE LEGEND OF SASQUATCH (R) - Jack Conley, Miles O'Keefe, Michael Baily Smith, Brandon Henschel,Dylan Purcell, Nathaniel Arcand... Fear grips a bunch of people in a small, sleepy mountainside town in this tightly wound drama. When the group encounters the slain corpses of fellow villagers, they soon realize that a terrifying presence is lurking nearby, leading to a frenetic race to escape with their lives intact.

5-9-06 Releases

MUNICH (R)
THE NEW WORLD (PG-13)
GRANDMA'S BOY (NR)
RUMOR HAS IT... (PG-13)
PUFF, PUFF, PASS (R)
BIG MAMA'S HOUSE 2 (PG-13)
PROUD (PG)
IF ONLY (PG-13)

• MUNICH (R) - Eric Bana, Daniel Craig, Ciaran Hinds, Hanns Zischler, Mathieu Kassovitz, Geoffrey Rush, Ayelet Zorer... Set in the aftermath of the 1972 massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics, Munich recounts the dramatic story of the secret Israeli squad assigned to track down and assassinate 11 Palestinians believed to have planned the 1972 Munich massacre -- and the personal toll this mission of revenge takes on the team and the man who led it. Inspired by actual events, the narrative is based on a number of sources, including the recollections of some who participated in the events themselves.

• THE NEW WORLD (PG-13) - Colin Farrell, Christopher Plummer, Christian Bale, August Schellenberg, Wes Studi, David Thewlis, Q'Orianka Kilcher... April of 1607, three diminutive ships carrying 103 men sail to a new land from their distant home in England. On behalf of their sponsor, the royally chartered Virginia Company, they seek to establish a cultural, religious, and economic foothold on the coast of what they regard as the New World. Captain Newport and his band of British settlers land in the midst of a sophisticated Native American empire ruled by the powerful chieftain Powhatan. The English struggle from the beginning, unable, or in some cases, stubbornly unwilling to fend for themselves. Searching for assistance from the local tribesmen, Smith chances upon a young woman who at first seems to be more woodland sprite than human being. A willful and impetuous young woman whose family and friends affectionately call her "Pocahontas" (translation is Playful One); she is the favorite of Powhatan's children. Before long, a bond develops between Smith and Pocahontas, a bond so powerful that it transcends friendship or even romance, and ultimately becomes the basis of one of the most enduring American legends of the past 400 years.

• GRANDMA'S BOY (NR) - Allen Covert, Linda Cardellini, Frank Coraci, Peter Dante, Kevin Nealon, Rob Schneider, David Spade... Alex has one sweet life. After walking away from his death-by-accounting job, he’s now a video game tester at Brainasium, the company responsible for the worldwide gaming phenom of “Eternal Death Slayer.” At 35, he may be the oldest tester in the business (he’s called “Gray Bush” by his co-workers), but he’s also the best. But when his roommate fails to pay the rent for six months because he’s spent every last cent at Madame Wu’s Filipino Palace, Alex unfortunately finds himself on the street. Alex’s last resort is to move in with three hot babes, that’s what he tells his friends, at any rate. In actuality, the 35-year-old finds himself living with his sweet and loving 80-year-old grandma Lilly, along with her two roommates.

• RUMOR HAS IT... (PG-13) - Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Costner, Shirley MacLaine, Mark Ruffalo, Richard Jenkins, Mena Suvari, Christopher McDonald... Sarah Huttinger's life is in a tailspin, an aspiring journalist, Sarah's career has stalled at the New York Times obituary column. Her love life life isn't much better. She's finally agreed to marry her boyfriend Jeff, but isn't at all sure that marriage is what she really wants. To top it all off, she's on her way home to attend her sister's wedding, which means spending a lot of time with her tennis-obsessed Pasadena family. Somewhat of a black sheep, Sarah's never quite felt a part of things when it comes to her relatives. But when she meets Internet millionaire Beau Burroughs, their encounter unexpectedly unlocks some well-kept secrets that may help Sarah uncover the truth about her family and finally discover who she truly is.

• PUFF, PUFF, PASS (R) - Danny Masterson, Ronnie Warner, Mekhi Phifer, Ashley Scott, Darrell Hammond, Terry Crews, Constance Marie... Distressed after their disagreeable landlord demands three months of overdue rent by the end of the day, couch-potato stoners Larry and Rico resolve to ignore the late rent issue and instead set out to find an alternate place that has cable television access. They will not risk missing the upcoming marathon of their favorite movie, Shawshank Redemption (aka ""The Shank""), even if it means getting evicted. Larry and Rico embark on an adventurous and mischievous journey through rehab to mansions, all to fulfill their need for "The Shank!"

• BIG MAMA'S HOUSE 2 (PG-13) - Martin Lawrence, Nia Long, Emily Procter, Zachary Levi, Mark Moses, Kat Dennings, Chloe Moretz... FBI agent Malcolm Turner transforms himself into Big Momma once again to avert a national security disaster. But saving the country is the least of Big Momma’s problems, as he takes on his ultimate challenge -- being the nanny/housekeeper to the suspect’s dysfunctional family.

• PROUD (PG) - Ossie Davis, Stephen Rea, Darnell Williams... Based on the book PROUDLY WE SERVED: THE MEN OF THE USS MASON, PROUD tells the true story of an all-black contingent that served in WWII and was belatedly recognized for heroism in 1994. The stellar cast features Ossie Davis (DR. DOOLITTLE), Albert Jones (LAW & ORDER), Erik LaRay Harvey (ROUNDERS), Darnell Williams (S1M0NE), and Stephen Rea (V FOR VENDETTA, THE CRYING GAME).

• IF ONLY (PG-13) - Jennifer Love Hewitt, Paul Nicholls, Lucy Davenport, Tom Wilkinson... Shortly after a painful fight with her boyfriend Ian (Paul Nicholls), Samantha (Jennifer Love Hewitt) dies in a terrible accident. Miraculously, Ian gets an opportunity to live the fatal day all over again and possibly prevent her death.

5-2-06 Releases

THE FAMILY STONE (PG-13)
END GAME (R)
HOODWINKED (PG)
LAST HOLIDAY (PG-13)
SECOND IN COMMAND (R)
PLAN B (R)

• THE FAMILY STONE (PG-13) - Claire Danes, Diane Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Dermot Mulroney, Craig T. Nelson, Sarah Jessica Parker, Luke Wilson... This year the holiday gathering of a New England family, the Stones, get's a little interesting. The eldest son brings his girlfriend home to meet his parents, brothers and sisters. The bohemian Stones greet this high-powered, controlling New Yorker with a mix of awkwardness, confusion and hostility. Before the holiday is over, relationships will unravel while new ones are formed, secrets will be revealed, and the family Stone will come together through its extraordinary capacity for love.

• END GAME (R) - Cuba Gooding Jr., James Woods, Angie Harmon, Anne Archer, Christa Campbell, Burt Reynolds... Thriller about a secret service agent and a political journalist racing against time to head off an assassination attempt on the president.

• HOODWINKED (PG) - Glenn Close, Anne Hathaway, James Belushi, Patrick Warburton, Anthony Anderson, Xzibit, David Ogden Stiers... In the re-telling of the classic fable Little Red Riding Hood, the story begins at the end. Chief Grizzly and Detective Bill Stork investigate a domestic disturbance at Granny’s cottage, involving a karate-kicking Red Riding Hood, a sarcastic wolf and an oafish Woodsman. The charges are many: breaking and entering, intent to eat, wielding an axe without a license, but these unusual suspects have their story to tell first.

• LAST HOLIDAY (PG-13) - Queen Latifah, LL Cool J, Timothy Hutton, Giancarlo Esposito, Alicia Witt, Gerard Depardieu, Jane Adams... Georgia Byrd lives a small life tucked inside big dreams. A shy cookware salesperson for a New Orleans retail outlet, she handles knives and skillets with the flair of a master chef. But when Georgia learns her days are numbered, she throws caution to the wind and embarks on a dream holiday vacation to a grand resort in Europe. There, thinking she has nothing to lose, Georgia undergoes a metamorphosis... and her transformation affects everyone around her. From snowy slopes to spectacular spas, delectable dinners to midnight balls, Georgia is going to live a lifetime of fun in just a few weeks.

• SECOND IN COMMAND (R) - Jean-Claude Van Damme, Julie Cox, William Tapley, Alan Mckenna, Raz Adoti, Warren Derosa, Velibor Topic... When local insurgents attempt a coup d'etat, the nation's President takes refuge inside the embassy. The embassy is then besieged by the well-armed insurgents. The U.S. Ambassador is killed in the ensuing action, and now it's up to the Second in Command to the U.S. Ambassador and the embassy's small detachment of U.S. Marines to fend off the attackers.

• PLAN B (R) - Bob Balaban, Burt Young, Diane Keaton, Maury Chaykin, Natasha Lyonne, Paul Sorvino... Academy Award-winner Diane Keaton ("Something's Gotta Give," "The First Wives Club") stars in this "Married to the Mob" farce. A meek bookkeeper, and widow of a New York Mob victim, must become the hit man for the Mob boss in order to pay back her husband's debt. Instead of carrying out the deeds, she drives each of her proposed victims down to Florida to hide at her estranged brother's house. The boss gets wind that the victims may not be dead, and pays a visit to Florida, where he uncovers her flimsy plan and the hilarity ensues.