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Director: Jorge Blanco Javier Abad Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Seann William Scott, Jessica Biel (Full Cast) Studio: TriStar Pictures The Plot: The inhabitants of Planet 51 live in fear of alien invasion. Their paranoia is realized when astronaut Chuck Baker (voice of Dwayne Johnson) arrives from Earth. Befriended by a young resident, he has to avoid capture in order to recover his spaceship and try to return home.
THE BUZZ: A trio of videogame directors are handling this story from one of the dudes who wrote Shrek. Powered by Sony worldwide, we think audiences will embrace the human-as-alien spin here, especially since rendering here reminds us of an animated Pleasantville. Blockbuster? We don't think so. Solid performer that won't annoy you in the SUV Hybrid? You bet. Message Boards: This movie looks terrible. | This movie will be fun Showtimes | Trailers | Photos | Message Boards | User Comments | Reviews | |||||
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Director: Chris Weitz Stars: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner (Full Cast) Studio: Summit Entertainment The Plot: When Bella's blood is shed at her birthday celebration, Edward's intense reaction to the event causes his parents to pull up stakes and leave Forks, Washington for the sake of the young lovers. Heartbroken, Bella finds a form of comfort in reckless living, as well as an even-closer friendship with Jacob Black (Lautner). Danger in different forms awaits.
THE BUZZ: There's nobody hotter on IMDb -- or anywhere in general pop culture? -- than Edward and Bella. Even their real-life counterparts, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, are making indie-cool choices which make them appealing to those of us who might not be the biggest fans of Stephenie Meyer's novels, or their adaptations. Boosting the appeal of Twilight is the studio behind the franchise, Summit Entertainment, who listens to their fan base (We heart Jacob Lautner!) and is pulling a Disney move by investing in their stars (Kristen Stewart will co-star in the biography of seminal 1970s all-female rock band The Runways, while Robert Pattinson is shooting Remember Me) after New Moon wraps). We're interested to see how underdog director Chris Weitz meshes with this material, and, whether or not this second installment will boost its appeal to non-U.S. audiences. Message Boards: I'd Rather True Blood Than Twilight | what the hell did jacob say to bella? Showtimes | Trailers | Photos | Message Boards | User Comments | Reviews | |||||
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Director: John Lee Hancock Stars: Quinton Aaron, Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw (Full Cast) Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures The Plot: A disadvantaged teenager is taken in by a conservative family who see tremendous promise in the young man. Despite certain obstacles, the attention and inspiration he receives helps him mature into an athletically and academically successful NFL prospect.
THE BUZZ: This is the true story of Michael Oher, whose first season in the NFL will be underway by the time Sandra Bullock blitzes (?) the big screen with her third movie of the year. If Oher and the Baltimore Ravens, who selected the young man in the first round of this year's draft, are both performing well, some sort of uncharted cultural zeitgeist could occur at the box office. This is also great counterprogramming for all the non-Twilight moms out there. Message Boards: do we no longer see art in life? | not for republicans or conservatives Showtimes | Trailers | Photos | Message Boards | User Comments | Reviews | |||||
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Director: Pedro Almodóvar Stars: Penélope Cruz, Lluís Homar, Blanca Portillo (Full Cast) Studio: Sony Pictures Classics The Plot: Blind screenwriter Harry Caine (Homar) reveals the secrets of his past to a young associate, from his former life as a filmmaker working under his given name, to the accident which claimed his sight and led to a break-up with Lena (Cruz), a now-famous actress who lives in a gilded cage with her wealthy older partner.
THE BUZZ: Almodóvar's 17th feature is also his costliest production to date, and it seems to be a love letter to his die-hard fellow cinephiles. Initial reactions saw critics distance themselves from Almodóvar's advances, but the public's anticipation for the film in the States seems to have relegated those negative reviews to the past. I got excited when a reviewer indicated that Cruz's character lives in a "gilded Xanadu"! That imagery, folded in with the filmmaker's love for melodrama, repression, and noir aesthetics have those of us who overuse the word "sumptuous" primed for November. Message Boards: Your thoughts? | Who caused the accident ? (spoilers) Showtimes | Trailers | Photos | Message Boards | User Comments | Reviews | |||||
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Director: John Woo Stars: Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Fengyi Zhang (Full Cast) Studio: Magnet Releasing The Plot: Set during the end of China's Han Dynasty, two rivaling warlords make a pact to turn their respective armies against a power hungry general bent on taking over their kingdoms.
THE BUZZ: The most expensive Asian production to date was also a huge international hit (it's now the #1 domestically made film in China). U.S. audiences aren't getting John Woo's military epic in two parts; instead, Woo himself is editing both works into a single two-and-a-half-hour film. Message Boards: Condensed western version good? | Do we need Peter Jackson for this movie ? Showtimes | Trailers | Photos | Message Boards | User Comments | Reviews | |||||
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Director: Lukas Moodysson Stars: Gael García Bernal, Michelle Williams, Marife Necesito (Full Cast) Studio: IFC Films The Plot: Leo (Bernal) is a web entrepreneur on a business trip to Thailand. When his life takes an unplanned turn, the ripples reach back to his family in New York City, where his wife (Williams) and daughter have a close relationship with their Filipino nanny (Necesito).
THE BUZZ: With this first three films, Swedish filmmaker Lukas Moodysson built up quite an international fanbase -- Show Me Love perhaps is his best-known work (but isn't Together his best thus far?). Then came the blacker than black drama A Hole in My Heart, which caused many of his fans to desert him; in fact, was the follow-up, Container, even released in the U.S.? I feel like it never made it here. For Moodysson's new work, his first English-language project (grumble), he nabbed two of the most beloved film-world performers in the States, though does this feel like an exercise in Babel-esque melodrama? Festival audiences, for what it's worth, haven't exactly warmed to Moodysson's take on globalization. Message Boards: Pointless movie | Will this film be released in other U.S. Cities besides LA and New York Showtimes | Trailers | Photos | Message Boards | User Comments | Reviews | |||||
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Director: Werner Herzog Stars: Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Russell M. Haeuser (Full Cast) Studio: First Look Pictures The Plot: Terence McDonagh (Cage) is a drug- and gambling-addled detective in post-Katrina New Orleans investigating the killing of five Senegalese immigrants.
THE BUZZ: Chances are this is the weirdest American-made movie to earn a general release this year, what with Werner Herzog deconstructing the beloved and abused cop/action genre while allowing a pair of Hollywood A-listers to snort and fornicate their way through the city that represents complete failure on the part of the U.S. government. Major studios wouldn't touch this one even with all the positive and negative buzz the project garnered from the moment it was announced to its triumphant and newsmaking festival screenings. That said, I sense this might become Herzog's biggest critical/commercial success to date. Really, I think it comes down to how effectively distributor First Look converts audience awareness into box office; when the indie studio has the right project - highlights from the dicey roster include Paris, je t'aime, Transsiberian, and the Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie - they causes waves, and the industry needs breakout hits now more than ever. Too bad the iguana doesn't talk to Nic Cage or Val Kilmer ... Message Boards: If its not a remake, is it similar to the 'original'? Gritty? Shocking? | N*gga Elk Clip Showtimes | Trailers | Photos | Message Boards | User Comments | Reviews | |||||
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Director: Roland Emmerich Stars: John Cusack, Thandie Newton, Chiwetel Ejiofor (Full Cast) Studio: Columbia Pictures The Plot: Academic researcher Jackson Curtis (Cusack) leads a group of people in a fight to counteract the apocalyptic events that were predicted by the Mayan calendar. User Rating:
THE BUZZ: After 10K BC's middling success, Roland Emmerich probably sensed that movie-going audiences worldwide prefer him in present-tense mode, heavy on apocalyptic imagery. I've heard rumors that 2012's script, which Emmerich wrote with composer-turned-screenwriter Harald Kloser, contains an incredibly cheesy twist of Shyamalanian proportions, but I'm not one to seek out (or deliver) spoilery goods. I will say that part of me hopes this end-of-the-world scenario could mint Emmerich as the slightly higher brow Uwe Boll, if only he thought to cast Tara Reid as an anthropologist here. Said differently: This A-and-B-list cast is slumming! P.S. Have you heard the one about Emmerich's planned 2012 TV spin-off? Message Boards: love it | 'Everyone has relatives in Wisconsin' ?! BS! Showtimes | Trailers | Photos | Message Boards | User Comments | Reviews | |||||
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Director: Robert Zemeckis Stars: Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman, Colin Firth (Full Cast) Studio: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures The Plot: An animated retelling of the Charles Dickens novel about Ebenezer Scrooge (Carrey), a Victorian-era miser who is taken on a journey of self-redemption, courtesy of several mysterious Christmas apparitions. User Rating:
THE BUZZ: Could it be that Robert Zemeckis has finally found source material that perfectly suits his creepy mo-cap fantasies? Initially we were unsure, but ever since Comic-Con we've been behind this movie way more so than our affection for Monster House and Beowulf combined. However, this does not mean we're behind Who Framed Roger Rabbit 2 ... Message Boards: Anyone seen it first in 2d and then in 3d afterwards? | Traumatized forever! Showtimes | Trailers | Photos | Message Boards | User Comments | Reviews | |||||
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Director: Lee Daniels Stars: Gabourey 'Gabby' Sidibe, Mo'Nique, Paula Patton (Full Cast) Studio: Lionsgate The Plot: In Harlem, an overweight, illiterate teen (Sidibe) who is pregnant with her second child is invited to enroll in an alternative school in hopes that her life can head in a new direction. User Rating:
THE BUZZ: Mo'Nique is going to win the Best Supporting Actress for her role in this terrifying realistic drama from Lee Daniels. (Or maybe she won't?) A pivotal scene between Mo' and star Gabby Sidibe literally made crowds gasp at Sundance earlier this year, and it is sure to illicit similar reactions from general audiences this winter. What Daniels has done here is rather remarkable: His take on the hardships faced by the titular character is only semi-sentimental, and it implies that a person's conviction is the one thing that remains when their circumstances are remarkably bleak. Amazingly, his story is also funny. This is, quite simply, a great film. And if you need your mood lightened while watching it, squint just a bit and Mariah Carey's mustache really comes into focus. Message Boards: MS. Weiss 'Are you some kinda black or something?' | Audience reactions Showtimes | Trailers | Photos | Message Boards | User Comments | Reviews | |||||
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Director: Grant Heslov Stars: Ewan McGregor, George Clooney, Kevin Spacey (Full Cast) Studio: Overture Films The Plot: In Iraq, reporter Bob Wilton (McGregor) meets Lyn Cassady (Clooney), whose seemingly wild claim - that he's a member of the U.S. Army's First Earth Battalion, a unit that employs paranormal powers in their missions - causes Wilton to join Cassady's hunt for the battalion's founder, whose gone missing. User Rating:
THE BUZZ: I like it when Clooney has a full-fledged character to play and isn't just in leading-man mode, and Kurt Wimmer's book is too against-the-grain for any established studio to be interested in the adaptation, which is being handled by Clooney's producing partner, Grant Heslov (his second picture as director). Enter Overture Films, who's gunning for awards-season recognition with this project as well as Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story. Meanwhile, over at Sony, Clooney and Heslov will develop more mainstream fare after severing their decade-old relationship with Warner Bros. back in June. Message Boards: Horrible Title For A Movie | Audience members are the highest people I've ever seen in my life Showtimes | Trailers | Photos | Message Boards | User Comments | Reviews | |||||
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Director: Kenny Ortega Stars: Michael Jackson (Full Cast) Studio: Columbia Pictures The Plot: A compilation of interviews, rehearsals and backstage footage of Michael Jackson as he prepared for his series of sold-out shows in London. User Rating:
THE BUZZ: For the millions of MJ fans who bought tickets to his sold-out series of 50 comeback concerts before he died last June, this is definitely not it. But, it's the best the promoters could do to recover some of its losses and offer grieving fans a glimpse of what might have been. Sony and the Jackson family have apparently pulled out all the stops to make sure this lives up to the Gloved One's glittery standards -- featuring rare rehearsal and behind-the-scenes footage (shot in HD!), state-of-the-art digital sound and 3-D sequences intended for use in the live concerts -- building up to what will most likely be a spectacular celebration of the late entertainer's talents, but also a bittersweet reminder of them as well. Message Boards: This Is It. This is why they murdered him. | MJ's final words in the movie... Showtimes | Trailers | Photos | Message Boards | User Comments | Reviews | |||||
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Director: Olatunde Osunsanmi Stars: Milla Jovovich, Elias Koteas, Will Patton (Full Cast) Studio: Universal Pictures The Plot: An investigator (Jovovich) is dispatched to Nome, Alaska to puzzle out a 40-year-long mystery involving an extraordinary number of unexplained disappearances in the town. Her videotaped evidence looks to present the most convincing evidence of alien abduction ever documented. User Rating:
THE BUZZ: Mystery and potential government conspiracies await Jovovich on her visit to Palin-ville. This thriller was scooped up by Universal during the summer when post-production on The Wolf Man pushed that film's release date to 2010. Before Paranormal Activity mania struck, I thought this movie was a goner -- another round of bad luck for Milla (and Universal) who saw her critically well-received thriller A Perfect Getaway fade away like a hazy summer memory. Now, it just might connect with audiences who are craving caught-on-tape horrors. Message Boards: The Actress as Abigail | Can Aliens and Christianity co-exist??? Showtimes | Trailers | Photos | Message Boards | User Comments | Reviews | |||||
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Director: Peter Billingsley Stars: Vince Vaughn, Malin Akerman, Jon Favreau (Full Cast) Studio: Universal Pictures The Plot: Four couples settle into a tropical-island resort for a vacation. While one of the couples is there to work on their marriage, the others fail to realize that participation in the resort's therapy sessions is not optional. User Rating:
THE BUZZ: Whether Retreat's mainstream-cool cast was handpicked by former swingers Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau or assembled by Universal's business-development execs, the crossover factor is off the PowerPoint charts here. Though the Industry has been riding the studio hard for its series of flops and underperformers (Public Enemies is the closet thing to a hit in a losing streak which includes Land of the Lost, Funny People, Brüno, and, most recently, The Invention of Lying), it would take a miscue of maximum incompetence for this date movie to tank. Message Boards: Salvadore's yogo lessons - bad on purpose | where was this filmed? Showtimes | Trailers | Photos | Message Boards | User Comments | Reviews | |||||
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Director: Oren Peli Stars: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat, Michael Bayouth (Full Cast) Studio: Paramount Pictures The Plot: While settling into her new home, Katie (Featherston) is disturbed in her sleep by a mysterious presence. Her husband, Micah (Sloat), tries to ease her fear by installing video cameras in an attempt to capture the strange behavior on tape. Bad idea. User Rating: THE BUZZ: The found-footage story idea has served writer-director Oren Peli well, since Paranormal Activity has been buzzing for almost two years now. Paramount scooped up U.S. rights and scrapped the original idea to remake the movie for general audiences. No wonder the online scene has embraced the minimalist horror-thriller (it's a zero-budget affair shot with a barebones crew) and the studio subsequently will focus their marketing efforts to genre sites, Facebook, etc.; in fact, check out the movie's unique "Demand It" feature -- essentially a contest for screenings to occur in your area. Elsewhere, according to reviews, unlike recent horror bomb Sorority Row, this movie features a protagonist (Katie Featherston) you actually care about! Message Boards: this film was brilliant (spoilers) | To all the haters Showtimes | Trailers | Photos | Message Boards | User Comments | Reviews | |||||
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Director: F. Gary Gray Stars: Gerard Butler, Jamie Foxx, Leslie Bibb (Full Cast) Studio: Overture Films The Plot: After family man Clyde Shelton (Butler) is failed by the court system, he concocts a series of events designed to exact his revenge on the killers of his wife and daughter. And from inside his jail cell, the mastermind lures the prosecutor (Foxx) who orchestrated the unjust deal into his deadly plan. User Rating:
THE BUZZ: Working chronologically backwards, notions of Jigsaw, Hannibal Lecter, and Charles Bronson's Paul Kersey come to mind for what shaping up to be one of the year's most guilty pleasures; "to not crave it is to not crave cheesesteaks," as one descriptive insider put it. Message Boards: WORST ENDING IN MOVIE HISTORY | Beginning and Middle *spoilers* Showtimes | Trailers | Photos | Message Boards | User Comments | Reviews | |||||
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Director: Richard Kelly Stars: Cameron Diaz, James Marsden, Frank Langella (Full Cast) Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures The Plot: A young couple is gifted with a mysterious box that promises them a handsome windfall with deadly consequences. User Rating:
THE BUZZ: Director Kelly's totally in his element here (and playing it much safer than his last movie) with this Twilight Zone-inspired thriller. Expect dark, supernatural elements, requisite non sequiturs, Hitchcocky plot twists and an indier-than-thou soundtrack (replete with Mellotron and tambourines). But, what's with the studio bumping this -- from March to November, back to October, etc. -- when it was supposedly a done deal and what's with all those Cameron Diaz ascots? Message Boards: Seriously, who wouldn't push the button? | A temporary state of being (spoilers) Showtimes | Trailers | Photos | Message Boards | User Comments | Reviews | |||||
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