THE BOX (PG-13)
Warner Bros
Stars: Cameron Diaz, James Marsden, Frank Langella, James Rebhorn
We are in 1976, where school teacher Diaz and NASA engineer Marsden are a married couple managing to get by. Then the strange Langella shows up at their doorstep with a terribly disfigured face. He has a box, and tells the couple that if they push the button on the box, somebody in the world will be killed, but they will receive one million dollars. They have 24 hours to decide what to do. What they don’t realize, is no matter what they decide, events are in motion that could kill many others, including themselves.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL (PG)
Buena Vista
Stars: (voices of) Jim Carrey, Robin Wright Penn, Gary Oldman
Using the latest in digital animation technology, and adding 3D as well, here is the classic Dickens tale once again, marking the start of the holiday movie season, though it is just early November. Carrey is the lead voice, and in addition to the special effects animation allows one, the script adds a touch of humor as well to fall in line with the current winning formula for animated children fare.
THE FOURTH KIND (PG-13)
Universal Pictures
Stars: Milla Iovovich, Will Patton, Elias Koteas
This is based on a series of events that happened in Alaska in October of 2000 involving several people who believe they were abducted by aliens. Iovovich portrays Dr. Abigail Tyler, the real-life psychiatrist who looked into the case at the time, and interweaves actual footage from her interview sessions with the real-life victims. Actors are then used for the dramatizations of what the victims say occurred to them, as Dr. Tyler put them under hypnosis in order to get their full stories. Rather creepy stuff.
THE MEN WHO STARE AT GOATS (R)
Overture Films
Stars: George Clooney, Jeff Bridges, Ewan McGregor, Kevin Spacey
Comedy based loosely on the military’s once super-secret program of having a unit of psychic soldiers who could read the enemies mind, walk thru walls, and kill goats just by staring at them. McGregor is a reporter after a story. He finds Clooney, who tells him he is one of those psychic soldiers who has been put back in action to find their former psychic leader Bridges. They eventually find Bridges being held in a camp run by competing psychic soldier unit director Spacey, and the grudge match is on.
2012 (PG-13)
Columbia Pictures
Stars: John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Oliver Platt, Thandie Newton
Director Roland Emmerich, who brought you “Independence Day,” and “The Day After Tomorrow,” continues destroying various landmarks around the globe with this movie, about December 21, 2012, the date ancients declared would be the end of the world. They were right, and various meteor showers, earthquakes, tsunami’s, wipe out every famous building and structure you can imagine. Of course, there is hope someone will survive, and that is centered around Cusack and Peet. Visually impressive.
PIRATE RADIO (R)
Focus Features
Stars: Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Rhys Ifans, Nick Frost, Kenneth Branagh
Latest ensemble comedy from Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Love Actually), this time spinning an irreverent tale of a seafaring band of rogue rock and roll deejays whose pirate radio station captivated and inspired 1960s Britain. The group boldly defies the government with tries to shut them down and in effect censor rock ‘n’ roll. Nighy is the station owner, Hoffman leads the ban of deejays, and Branagh heads the government effort to shut them down. Throw in a love story as well.
THE BLIND SIDE (PG-13)
Warner Bros.
Stars: Sandra Bullock, Kathy Bates, Quintin Aaron, Tim McGraw
Bullock runs across black teenager Aaron, who is virtually homeless, yet a classmate of her daughter’s. She takes him in, with the agreement of husband McGraw, and works to get his life straightened out, both by improving his grades and improving his performance as a lineman on the school’s football team. Bates is his tutor. This act of kindness presents many challenges, both for Aaron and for Bullock, but it appears we’re headed for a happy ending. Based on a true story.
PLANET 51 (PG)
Columbia Pictures
Stars: (voices of) Dwayne Johnson, Jessica Biel, Seann William Scott, Freddie Benedict
Animated comedy for the kids, featuring a pilot Chuck (voiced by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson), who lands on Planet 51 thinking he is the first living creature to ever set foot on it. Well, he was wrong. The planet is actually inhabited by little green creatures, who have only one fear, of an invading creature who takes over their planet. Thus, when Chuck arrives, they want him eliminated. So Chuck must navigate the planet with his trusty robot, stay alive, and convince the natives that his mission is one of peace.
THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON (PG-13)
Summit Entertainment
Stars: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner
In the second installment of the TWILIGHT series, we find Stewart and Pattinson separated during her senior year in high school, as his family has abandoned the town of Forks, WA, in order to protect her from the dangers inherent in their world. Broken-hearted, she meets up with Lautner, who is a member of the mysterious Quileute tribe, which holds some supernatural secrets of its own. Needless to say, she finds herself in perilous danger once again, and searches out Pattinson.. and oops, we have a triangle.
NINJA ASSASSIN (R)
Warner Bros
Stars; Rain, Naomie Harris
Martial arts flick where Rain is the deadliest assassin in the world, trained since a child by a secret Chinese criminal cult. However, the cult betrays him and kills his best friend, so Rain leaves them and waits for his chance to exact revenge. Meanwhile, Harris is investigating some political murders, and discovers that this same cult is behind it. They in turn, send their assassins out to silence her. This is Rain’s chance, and he joins Harris in a game at cat and mouse to silence the dangerous cult.
OLD DOGS (PG)
Buena Vista
Stars: John Travolta, Robin Williams, Seth Green, Matt Dillon, Kelly Preston
Bachelors Travolta and Williams, one a lady’s man, the other terrible with kids, are about to make the biggest business deal of their lives. Then Williams learns he has 6-year-old twins from ex-wife Preston, and because of circumstances, has to take immediate care of them. That runs havoc on their lives, and in this comedy we get a bunch of scenarios with our two stars in over their heads dealing with the kids. Big cast of comic actors. In addition to Travolta and Preston, their daughter Ella plays one of the twins.
THE ROAD (R)
Dimension Films
Stars: Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce, Robert Duvall
Screen adaptation of the best-selling, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about father Mortensen and son Smit-McPhee, as they travel across barren America after it was destroyed by a mysterious cataclysm. There are other survivors, who for whatever reason, want to kill the father-son team, before they reach the coast where they believe they will find safety. Theron plays the mother, who they must leave for the journey. In it is a story of the bond between father and son that fuels their survival.
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