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Director: Rob Zombie Stars: Scout Taylor-Compton, Tyler Mane, Malcolm McDowell (Full Cast) Studio: Dimension Films The Plot: Laurie Strode (Taylor-Compton) struggles to come to terms with her brother Michael's deadly return to Haddonfield, Illinois; meanwhile, Michael prepares for another reunion with his sister.
THE BUZZ: All that industry talk about the Weinstein Company's lack of hits (and cash-flow) should be hushed temporarily now that RZ's sequel is following on the heels of QT's best-ever opening weekend. And even though H2 probably will open behind The Final Destination, the fact that Rob Zombie will now "complete his extreme vision of the terrifying legend" (we love that marketing-speak!), it makes the FD saga seem kinda wan and opportunistic in nature. That said, I do love that the summer is ending with a horror battle at the box-office, a woefully underrepresented genre this year. Message Boards: Nice Daughter? | My Half Assed Review :) Showtimes | Trailers | Photos | Message Boards | User Comments | Reviews | ||||||
Director: Ang Lee Stars: Demetri Martin (Full Cast) Studio: Focus Features The Plot: When Woodstock organizers have the plug pulled on their event, Elliot Tiber (Martin), a young man who is spending the summer working on his parents' farm, helps the event land a permit, and puts the organizers in touch with Max Yasgur (Levy), a dairy farmer whose plot of land could serve as a perfect spot for the concert.
THE BUZZ: A year after Milk, Ang Lee turns the clock back to the summer of 1969, when the Stonewall riots announced the season, and Woodstock ushered it out. The real Elliot Tiber was present for both events, though Lee's adaptation of his memoir (written by James Schamus, naturally) will focus more on the upstate action and less on the New York City grittiness. That isn't stopping Lee from focusing on queer themes, since the focus will also be on Tiber, who came out during the swirling weeks leading up to the concert. Wondering whether Demetri Martin can handle such a role? Read this interview and go from there. Message Boards: Compared with Ang's, what's your LSD trip at the 60s ? | Demetri Martin Offends LGBT Community with Tonight Show Appearance Showtimes | Trailers | Photos | Message Boards | User Comments | Reviews | ||||||
Director: David R. Ellis Stars: Nick Zano, Krista Allen, Andrew Fiscella (Full Cast) Studio: New Line Cinema The Plot: After Hunt's (Zano) premonition of a deadly race-car crash helps saves the lives of his peers, Death sets out to collect those who evaded their fate.
THE BUZZ: I admire this franchise for embracing its dumb-fun appeal by balancing out the camp/gore ratio in the third installment three years back. Here, however, I find the race-track scenario to be kind of a bore, especially in the hands of Snakes on a Plane director David R. Ellis (who also handled FD 2), who apparently couldn't/didn't push for a more out-there premise. Still, the footage I saw at Comic-Con -- some 9 or 10 deaths! -- lured me back in like a helpless victim of awesome marketing. Will this story be rebooted 10 or 20 years from now? Message Boards: Quentin Tarantino presents...FD 5!! | Escalator Scene Question Showtimes | Trailers | Photos | Message Boards | User Comments | Reviews | ||||||
Director: Robert D. Siegel Stars: (Full Cast) Studio: First Independent Pictures The Plot: Paul Aufiero (Oswalt), a hardcore New York Giants football fan, struggles to deal with the consequences when he is beaten up by his favorite player. THE BUZZ: Patton Oswalt's dramatic breakthrough with art-house audiences, or a hard-to-market misfire for First Independent Pictures, who brought Gigantic to us earlier this summer? Message Boards: Chicago release | No wide release? Shucks. Showtimes | Trailers | Photos | Message Boards | User Comments | Reviews |
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Director: David R. Ellis Stars: Nick Zano, Krista Allen, Andrew Fiscella (Full Cast) Studio: New Line Cinema The Plot: After Hunt's (Zano) premonition of a deadly race-car crash helps saves the lives of his peers, Death sets out to collect those who evaded their fate. User Rating:
THE BUZZ: I admire this franchise for embracing its dumb-fun appeal by balancing out the camp/gore ratio in the third installment three years back. Here, however, I find the race-track scenario to be kind of a bore, especially in the hands of Snakes on a Plane director David R. Ellis (who also handled FD 2), who apparently couldn't/didn't push for a more out-there premise. Still, the footage I saw at Comic-Con -- some 9 or 10 deaths! -- lured me back in like a helpless victim of awesome marketing. Will this story be rebooted 10 or 20 years from now? Message Boards: Quentin Tarantino presents...FD 5!! | Escalator Scene Question Showtimes | Trailers | Photos | Message Boards | User Comments | Reviews | ||||||
Director: Quentin Tarantino Stars: Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Eli Roth (Full Cast) Studio: Weinstein Company, The The Plot: An American-led killing squad known as "The Basterds" terrorize the Nazis in German-occupied France during World War II. User Rating:
THE BUZZ: To put this mother of a Methuselah project into perspective, Tarantino's finished three films since he first announced this one a decade ago (yes, we're counting Kill Bill as two). Those familiar with QT's attention-to-every-effin'-detail style know that that's a long-ass time. Originally due way back in 2004, the only thing keeping us from reaching the levels excitement we shared before Grindhouse is, well, Grindhouse. Still, a killer cast and way better source material (hopefully relying on The Dirty Dozen and Guns of Navarone instead of the original, properly spelled Bastards) has us praising Inglorious, hallelujah! Message Boards: How was a black man allowed to be in Nazi-occupied France? | Hilcox's Mistake? Showtimes | Trailers | Photos | Message Boards | User Comments | Reviews | ||||||
Director: Rob Zombie Stars: Scout Taylor-Compton, Tyler Mane, Malcolm McDowell (Full Cast) Studio: Dimension Films The Plot: Laurie Strode (Taylor-Compton) struggles to come to terms with her brother Michael's deadly return to Haddonfield, Illinois; meanwhile, Michael prepares for another reunion with his sister. User Rating:
THE BUZZ: All that industry talk about the Weinstein Company's lack of hits (and cash-flow) should be hushed temporarily now that RZ's sequel is following on the heels of QT's best-ever opening weekend. And even though H2 probably will open behind The Final Destination, the fact that Rob Zombie will now "complete his extreme vision of the terrifying legend" (we love that marketing-speak!), it makes the FD saga seem kinda wan and opportunistic in nature. That said, I do love that the summer is ending with a horror battle at the box-office, a woefully underrepresented genre this year. Message Boards: Nice Daughter? | My Half Assed Review :) Showtimes | Trailers | Photos | Message Boards | User Comments | Reviews | ||||||
Director: Neill Blomkamp Stars: Sharlto Copley, David James, Jason Cope (Full Cast) Studio: TriStar Pictures The Plot: In Johannesburg, South Africa, a government operative (Copley) becomes sympathetic to the extraterrestrial race living in slum-like conditions within the city's borders when he is exposed to their biotechnology. User Rating:
THE BUZZ: You might remember director Neill Blomkamp's name from Halo, which is on pause for the foreseeable future. With the launch of D 9's viral-y official site, a clutch of fans rejoiced with the confirmation the project is a feature version of Blomkamp's short film, Alive in Joburg. And at Comic-Con, the movie exploded into a mini pop culture phenomenon. Read our coverage if you will? Message Boards: Wikus F bomb count | This movie is intelligent because... Showtimes | Trailers | Photos | Message Boards | User Comments | Reviews | ||||||
Director: Stephen Sommers Stars: Dennis Quaid, Channing Tatum, Marlon Wayans (Full Cast) Studio: Paramount Pictures The Plot: An elite military unit comprised of operatives known as the Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity look to dismantle Cobra, an organization headed by a Scottish arms dealer. User Rating:
THE BUZZ: Despite the magazine-ready cast and built-in audience, it looks like cheesy CGI and an upset fanbase might result in a Van Helsing-like experience for director Stephen Sommers. I thought this was supposed to be heavier on the stunts and lighter on the visual-effects flash? Guess we'll have to wait and see how the fans respond to opening weekend. Message Boards: The worst movie in 2009 | This movie will make money this weekend..u know why Showtimes | Trailers | Photos | Message Boards | User Comments | Reviews | ||||||
Director: Nora Ephron Stars: Amy Adams, Meryl Streep, Chris Messina (Full Cast) Studio: Columbia Pictures The Plot: Frustrated secretary Julie Powell (Adams) tries to shake up her life by chronicling her attempt to cook all 524 recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking in a year's time. User Rating:
THE BUZZ: Another blogger gets a chance to turn her Internet archive into a motion picture, but the real-life Julie Powell has a leg up on the Diablo Codys of the writing world, since her memoir Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen became an enduring best seller since its debut in 2005. Two things I'm worried about here: The stiff hand of writer-director Nora Ephron (Bewitched) and the decision to cut back and forth between Powell's travails with marrowbones and lotsa butter and Julia Child's life circa 1949. But here's a question: Has Amy Adams been styled to resemble Cynthia Nixon, and does it look like the contemporary half of the movie was filmed in Carrie Bradshaw's old apartment? Here's an ace review of the inherent complexities of adapting this novel. Message Boards: Spot the apple crates | Question about a song (not Time After Time) Showtimes | Trailers | Photos | Message Boards | User Comments | Reviews | ||||||
Director: Robert Schwentke Stars: Eric Bana, Rachel McAdams, Ron Livingston (Full Cast) Studio: New Line Cinema The Plot: A romantic drama about a Chicago librarian (Bana) with a gene that causes him to involuntarily time travel, and the complications it creates in his marriage. User Rating:
THE BUZZ: With roles in Star Trek and Funny People, Eric Bana finally might become a movie star this year. Meanwhile, Rachel McAdams's star should be polished up thanks to her supporting turn in State of Play. (Scratch that, but we still love her!) New Line, now doing business under the Warner Bros. umbrella, is positioning this adaptation of Audrey Niffenegger's bestseller perhaps to catch some of the runoff of their combined celebrity, and I am wondering if, when it comes to marketing this late-summer romance, whether the story's sci-fi elements will be toned down so audiences might expect something along the lines of The Notebook? (Check!) Also, I think the studio could have ramped up the presence of beloved rock band Broken Social Scene, who cover Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart" and some of their original songs to the soundtrack -- this could have been the new indie-rock date movie of late summer, now that (500) Days has gone mainstream. Oh, and if you have no interest in seeing the film but want to know pretty much all of the details, watch Rachel McAdams spoil it all Message Boards: Why did Clare not leave shoe laces in the brown shoes for Henry? | What TRAILERS did you see? Showtimes | Trailers | Photos | Message Boards | User Comments | Reviews | ||||||
Director: Robert Rodriguez Stars: Jimmy Bennett, James Spader, Kat Dennings (Full Cast) Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures The Plot: Toe Thompson's discovery of a colorful, wish-granting rock causes a stir in the suburban town of Black Falls, and grand-scale chaos occurs when the object falls into the hands of local adults. Can Toe and his two newfound friends save the residents of Black Falls from themselves? User Rating:
THE BUZZ: A candy-colored, hyper-saturated family movie might not seem like the most bankable prospect in the post-Speed Racer era, but one of the obvious differences between this fantasy and that migraine-inducing blur is the notion of a story, theme, and desire to blend the real with the unreal. Plus, casting! And Robert Rodriguez's ability to work with actors, not just special effects. Maybe Warner Bros. won't lose their shirts and blouses on this one. P.S. Our interest in this one inched up a bit when we found out the title is a play on the movie's structure, which is broken up into short segments because the protagonist can't quite remember the sequence of events. Message Boards: I was the only one in my theater when I saw this... | Worst movie ever or ... Showtimes | Trailers | Photos | Message Boards | User Comments | Reviews | ||||||
Director: Ang Lee Stars: Demetri Martin (Full Cast) Studio: Focus Features The Plot: When Woodstock organizers have the plug pulled on their event, Elliot Tiber (Martin), a young man who is spending the summer working on his parents' farm, helps the event land a permit, and puts the organizers in touch with Max Yasgur (Levy), a dairy farmer whose plot of land could serve as a perfect spot for the concert. User Rating:
THE BUZZ: A year after Milk, Ang Lee turns the clock back to the summer of 1969, when the Stonewall riots announced the season, and Woodstock ushered it out. The real Elliot Tiber was present for both events, though Lee's adaptation of his memoir (written by James Schamus, naturally) will focus more on the upstate action and less on the New York City grittiness. That isn't stopping Lee from focusing on queer themes, since the focus will also be on Tiber, who came out during the swirling weeks leading up to the concert. Wondering whether Demetri Martin can handle such a role? Read this interview and go from there. Message Boards: Compared with Ang's, what's your LSD trip at the 60s ? | Demetri Martin Offends LGBT Community with Tonight Show Appearance Showtimes | Trailers | Photos | Message Boards | User Comments | Reviews | ||||||
Director: Hoyt Yeatman Stars: Will Arnett, Penélope Cruz, Zach Galifianakis (Full Cast) Studio: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures The Plot: A specially trained squad of guinea pigs is dispatched to stop a diabolical billionaire from taking over the world. User Rating:
THE BUZZ: Guinea pigs are this year's chihuahua, at least on the Disney lot. Truthfully, while I am not moved by such movies, there are much worse ways to spend 90 minutes with your kids. But I do wish the creative minds here rethought the idea of making animals appear "sexy." And it's interesting to note the normally filthy tongued Will Arnett is the main face here. Watch the trailer. Message Boards: How did this get such a hit on the box office? | Those of you who are trashing this movie, DID YOU ACTUALLY SEE IT? Showtimes | Trailers | Photos | Message Boards | User Comments | Reviews |
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