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February 2007 Releases
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The Grudge 2
The titular curse expands along with the franchise in the sequel to THE GRUDGE, which itself was a remake of the Japanese original for American audiences. The film has an ensemble cast and an extensive number of subplots that further reflect this tendency towards expansion. The story picks up right where the last one ended, with Karen (Sarah Michelle Gellar, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER) in the hospital, the only survivor of an ill-fated encounter with a cursed house. She has not emerged unscathed, however, and it's up to her estranged sister, Aubrey (Amber Tamblyn, JOAN OF ARCADIA), to figure out the mystery behind the strange-goings-on related to the now half-demolished house. In doing so, she teams up with a journalist named Eason (Edison Chen), who has been following the case from the very beginning, and the pair embarks on a trip to the decidedly creepy Japanese countryside, hoping to visit the mother of one of the house's original inhabitants. Meanwhile, three teenage girls who attend a local international high school are haunted with nightmarish encounters, which begin after they venture inside the house to pull a mean prank on the new girl. When one of the girls returns home to Chicago, the curse spreads to her apartment building, where members of a family that have recently acquired an unexpected new stepmother (Jennifer Beals, FLASHDANCE, THE L WORD) violently turn on one another. Symptoms of the curse begin to turn up everywhere, while a horrified Aubrey learns that there is no way to stop it from spreading.
Street Date: 2/06/2007
Genre:
Horror
Rating:
NR/13
Starring:
Sarah Michelle Gellar, Amber Tamblyn, Jennifer Beals, Edison Chen
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Flags of Our Fathers
February 1945. Even as victory in Europe was finally within reach, the war in the Pacific raged on. One of the most crucial and bloodiest battles of the war was the struggle for the island of Iwo Jima, which culminated with what would become one of the most iconic images in history: five Marines and a Navy corpsman raising the American flag on Mount Suribachi.
The inspiring photo capturing that moment became a symbol of victory to a nation that had grown weary of war and made instant heroes of the six American soldiers at the base of the flag, some of whom would die soon after, never knowing that they had been immortalized. But the surviving flag raisers had no interest in being held up as symbols and did not consider themselves heroes; they wanted only to stay on the front with their brothers in arms who were fighting and dying without fanfare or glory.
Street Date: 2/06/2007
Genre:
Drama
Rating:
R
Starring:
Ryan Phillippe, Adam Beach, Jesse Bradford, Paul Walker
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Flicka
Based on Mary O'Hara's classic coming-of-age novel, MY FRIEND FLICKA, this 2006 drama follows Katy (Alison Lohman), a rebellious Wyoming teen, as she contends with her parents (country singer Tim McGraw and lauded actress Maria Bello) and struggles to tame the willful and wild horse of the title. When her frustrated father opts to sells the rambunctious Flicka (whose Swedish name roughly translates as "beautiful girl"), Katy must take drastic action for the sake of both herself and her equine companion.
Street Date: 2/06/2007
Genre:
Drama
Rating:
PG
Starring:
Alison Lohman, Maria Bello, Dallas Roberts, Tim McGraw
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Hollywoodland
Playing Superman on TV brought aspiring film actor George Reeves stardom, but it also held him back as far as more serious acting roles went. When a 45-year-old Reeves was found dead in his home in 1959, his death was ruled a suicide, and attributed to this b-level frustration. The result of a single bullet wound, Reeves's death caused controversy in and around Hollywood, where popular theories related his death to either his starlet fiancé, Leonore Lemmon (Robin Tunney), or his famously ongoing and unique relationship with Toni Mannix (a fabulous Diane Lane), the wife of mob-connected MGM head Eddie Mannix (Bob Hoskins). HOLLYWOODLAND explores Reeves's life and tragic end from the perspective of Louis Simo (Adrien Brody), a private investigator hired by Reeves's mother shortly after his death. Cutting back and forth between scenes of Reeves's life and Simo's detective work, the film draws parallels between two men kept from appreciating the present by dreams of future grandeur.
Street Date: 2/06/2007
Genre:
Drama
Rating:
R
Starring:
Adrien Brody, Ben Affleck, Diane Lane, Bob Hoskins
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Running with Scissors
Running with Scissors is based on the personal memoir by Augusten Burroughs. Growing up in the 1970's young Augusten (Joseph Cross) was living a middle-class existence with an alcoholic father (Baldwin) and a bipolar mother (Bening), an unpublished poet with delusions of becoming famous. When his parents divorced, Augusten's mother sends him to live with her wildly unorthodox psychiatrist and his eccentric extended family. The story portrays an outlaw childhood where rules were unheard of, the Christmas tree stayed up all year round, where Valium was consumed like candy, and if things got dull, an electroshock-therapy machine could provide entertainment.
Street Date: 2/06/2007
Genre:
Comedy
Rating:
R
Starring:
Annette Bening, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jill Clayburgh, Brian Cox
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Incubus
Cult sex/horror auteur Jess Franco returns with this tale of an artist who is approached by a beautiful woman of unearthly origins. She grants him riches beyond his wildest dreams. The bountiful times, however, end when his young daughter reaches maturity--at which time Lorna comes for Lucy's soul.
Street Date: 2/06/2007
Genre:
Horror
Rating:
R
Starring:
Tara Reid, Akemnji Ndifernyan, Alice O'Connell, Russell Carter
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Trust the Man
A lighthearted meditation on the cares and commitments of adulthood, Bart Freundlich's rom-com drama is a witty, ultra-contemporary vision of urban love. Two Manhattan couples enjoy complicated relationships: Tom and Rebecca (David Duchovny and Julianne Moore) are a glamorous married couple with two kids and a troubled sex life; Rebecca's best friend, Elaine (Maggie Gylenhaal), is in a long-term relationship with Rebecca's brother, Tobey (Billy Crudup), who is also Tom's best friend. Tom has recently quit his advertising job to be a stay-at-home dad, and Rebecca is a successful actress with a depleting libido; thus, despite the couple's obvious closeness, Tom's porn consumption and general distraction have increased considerably. Meanwhile, Elaine juggles a stressful job in publishing and a fledgling career as a children's-book author, while Tobey's job as a copywriter is considerably less demanding. It is soon evident that Tobey has never quite grown up, and when Elaine decides that she wants to get married and have kids, she realizes she'll have to do it with someone else. The turmoil that ensues contains a number of hilarious, emotionally charged encounters between friends and lovers, and an undeniably romantic conclusion. The tale unfolds anecdotally in a style of verbal sparring that recalls Woody Allen; so too does the preponderance of recognizable New York locations, in a view of the city that makes the most of its charms. The movie also boasts well-executed cameos by Ellen Barkin as an imperious publisher, James LeGros as an eccentric songster, Eva Mendes as a temptress from Tobey's past, and Gary Shandling as an earringed therapist.
Street Date: 2/06/2007
Genre:
Comedy
Rating:
R
Starring:
David Duchovny, Julianne Moore, Billy Crudup, Maggie Gyllenhaal
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The Departed
Director Martin Scorsese returns to his trademark style with the violent, bruised, and bloody feature THE DEPARTED. Scorsese filched the basic storyline from Wai Keung Lau and Siu Fai Mak's masterful 2002 Hong Kong action film, INFERNAL AFFAIRS, which saw a policeman going undercover as a mob member and a mob member infiltrating the police force. Scorsese transfers the action to Boston, positioning Leonardo Di Caprio as undercover cop William Costigan and Matt Damon as undercover mobster Colin Sullivan. While Costigan and Sullivan get into plenty of nail-biting situations that almost reveal their true identities, Scorsese gradually unravels his strong supporting cast, including Jack Nicholson as Sullivan's mob boss, Frank Costello; Ray Winstone as Costello's meat-headed muscle; Mark Wahlberg as a hot-headed police sergeant; and Vera Farmiga as a love interest for both Damon and Di Caprio's characters.
Street Date: 2/13/2007
Genre:
Crime
Rating:
R
Starring:
Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Vera Farmiga, Mark Wahlberg
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Marie Antoinette
Sofia Coppola follows up her Oscar-winning LOST IN TRANSLATION with her most ambitious effort yet. Based on the book MARIE ANTOINETTE: THE JOURNEY by Antonia Fraser, Coppola's film infuses modern pop-culture elements into a regal, historical biopic, resulting in a strikingly original work. Kirsten Dunst plays Marie Antoinette, a 14-year-old Austrian who is about to wed France's next king, Louis XVI (a fattened-up Jason Schwartzman). Her new life is a constant barrage of pomp and circumstance, which baffles the otherwise ordinary teenager. While love has nothing to do with the union between Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, producing an offspring does. Unfortunately, Louis XVI shows no interest in having a physical relationship with his willing wife. Instead, Marie Antoinette begins to embrace her life of royalty, biding her time by shopping and partying and living the life of a spoiled teenager. As time passes, Louis XVI works out his problems and soon the couple has begun to bear children. But eventually, the impoverished French people become fed up with the disparity of wealth between the royal family and the average Frenchman, unleashing a revolt that would change the course of history forever.
Street Date: 2/13/2007
Genre:
Drama
Rating:
PG13
Starring:
Kirsten Dunst, Jason Schwartzman, Rip Torn, Judy Davis
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Zoom - Academy for Superheroes
Peter Hewitt's (GARFIELD: THE MOVIE) family-friendly adventure film, ZOOM, stars Tim Allen as an aging former superhero who is reluctantly called back on the job. Years ago, Jack (Allen) was adopted for a government program that capitalized on the oddities of unusual children. Under the influence of super-strength-building Gamma rays, Jack became the lightning-fast Zoom, and joined the Zenith team, a group of other similarly cultivated superheroes that included his brother, Concussion (Kevin Zegers). But Concussion went bad, betrayed his fellows, and Zoom was the only one to survive; since then, he has rescinded his powers. Now the government, alarmed at Concussion's approach from another dimension, wants to put together another Zenith team with Jack as their leader. The officials, including Chevy Chase and Rip Torn, assemble a motley crew of youths that includes a six-year-old "princess" with superhuman strength (Ryan Newman), and an innocuous-looking chubby boy who can grow parts of his body at will (Spencer Breslin). Two teenagers (Michael Cassidy and Kate Mara) are also on hand, and they fall in love, while the initially reluctant Jack, who suffered much at the hands of the Zenith team and has since become bitter about the possibility of heroes, begins to open up to the kids. He also finds love with the bumbling, admiring child psychologist (Courtney Cox) who has been assigned to the case.
Street Date: 2/13/2007
Genre:
Kids
Rating:
PG
Starring:
Tim Allen, Courteney Cox, Michael Cassidy, Rip Torn
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Man About Town
Ben Affleck stars in this lighthearted comedy as Jack, a slick Hollywood agent with his work all in line but his personal life in shambles. When he signs up for a self-help course, his colleague gets wind of it, and he finds his attempts at self-improvement are the source of the world's laughter. Directed by Mike Binder, MAN ABOUT TOWN also stars Rebecca Romijn and John Cleese.
Street Date: 2/13/2007
Genre:
Comedy
Rating:
R
Starring:
Ben Affleck, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, John Cleese, Mike Binder
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Infamous
What starts out as the irreverent journey of the openly gay writer Truman Capote to the middle-class world of 1950's Kansas, where he goes--with his childhood friend Harper Lee--to research the murder of the Clutter family, turns to something altogether darker when Capote forms an intense and complex relationship with one of the murderers. In doing so, he produced his greatest work, "In Cold Blood," but at a devastating personal cost.
Street Date: 2/13/2007
Genre:
Drama
Rating:
R
Starring:
Toby Jones, Sandra Bullock, Daniel Craig, Gwyneth Paltrow
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Flushed Away
This computer-animated feature, directed by David Bowers and Sam Fell, explores a whole new world under London. A pet mouse named Roddy St. James (voiced by Hugh Jackman) is pretty much spoiled rotten. His owners live in a chic Kensington apartment, and Roddy has everything he could possibly want--except friends and a family. Everything changes for Roddy when his owners go away for a few days and their flat is invaded by a common rat, Sid (Shane Richie). Determined to reclaim his apartment and boot out the intruder, Roddy tries to talk Sid into enjoying the apartment "Jacuzzi," which is actually the toilet. But Sid is smarter than he looks, and soon Roddy is traveling down the pipes out of his sheltered life into a world that he never knew existed.
Emerged in Ratropolis and completely out of his element, Roddy is immediately caught up in an adventure. He meets Rita (Kate Winslet), a street-smart scavenger who travels the sewers by boat looking for riches that will help her care for her parents and multitude of siblings, and hires her to help him get above ground. But the villainous Toad (Ian McKellen) and his rodent henchmen, Spike (Andy Serkis) and Whitey (Bill Nighy), are constant problems. To make matters worse, the Toad is preparing to hatch an evil plot that promises to wipe out all the rats and mice dwelling underground, and he brings in his mercenary Parisian cousin Le Frog (Jean Reno) and his team to help get the job done. This comedy/adventure features first-class animation from the team that created WALLACE & GROMIT: THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT and is voiced by an all-star cast.
Street Date: 2/20/2007
Genre:
Kids
Rating:
PG
Starring:
Kate Winslet, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Andy Serkis
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The Prestige
British director Christopher Nolan's (BATMAN BEGINS) eclectic resume gains another interesting entry with THE PRESTIGE. The basic plot, which concerns the rivalry between two magicians in early 20th-century London, closely resembles a fellow 2006 movie--Edward Norton's THE ILLUSIONIST--and the two films are sure to be closely compared. In Nolan's film, Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale bring the characters of Rupert Angier and Alfred Bordon to life. Rupert and Alfred were young magician apprentices together, but became bitter rivals as their careers began to shape their adult lives and a terrible accident claimed the life of Rupert's wife. In the subsequent years Rupert has become wildly jealous of Alfred's superior talents, so in a last ditch attempt to steal some artistic ground he sends his assistant, Olivia (Scarlett Johansson), to infiltrate his rival's lair and steal the secret to a spectacular trick called "The Transported Man."
Street Date: 2/20/2007
Genre:
Drama
Rating:
PG13
Starring:
Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johansson, David Bowie
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Man of the Year
Robin Williams and writer-director Barry Levinson, who worked together on 1987's GOOD MORNING VIETNAM and 1992's TOYS, reunite for the political thriller/romantic comedy MAN OF THE YEAR. Williams stars as Tom Dobbs, the host of a comedy talk show who, fed up with the political system, suddenly decides to run for president. So off he goes on a national bus tour, joined by his manager, Jack Menken (Christopher Walken), and his head writer, Eddie Langston (Lewis Black), bringing his message of change to an eager public. Meanwhile, Eleanor Green (Laura Linney), who works for Delacroy, the company that has developed the voting machines being used by the government, discovers a serious glitch in the program that alters the results of the election. She tries to tell the company's CEO (Rick Roberts) and chief counsel/spokesman (Jeff Goldblum), but they want everything hushed up so their stock prices aren't affected and their upcoming international deal goes through. Unable to hold back the truth, Green looks to Dobbs for help while being hunted down by Delacroy.
Street Date: 2/20/2007
Genre:
Comedy
Rating:
PG13
Starring:
Robin Williams, Christopher Walken, David Alpay, Lewis Black
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Babel
Tragedy strikes a married couple on vacation in the Moroccan desert, touching off an interlocking story involving six different families.
Street Date: 2/20/2007
Genre:
Drama
Rating:
R
Starring:
Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Mohamed Akhzam, Peter Wight
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Crossover
Director and screenwriter Preston A. Whitmore II (THE WALKING DEAD) captures the phenomenon of streetball and brings it to the big screen in this tale about two old friends whose lives seem very different. Tech's (Anthony Mackie) dream is to play basketball, but he isn't quite right for the NBA and he can't play college ball since he served time in his senior year and is studying for the GED. Instead, he plays the occasional game in an abandoned Detroit train station and hustles players all around the city with his friend Up (Lil J.J.) for quick cash. Meanwhile, his best buddy, Cruise (Wesley Jonathan), is a talented player who has been sweet-talked by agents and left with nothing--except the realization that education is everything. He's counting on a basketball scholarship to a California university and a career in medicine--rather than his ball-playing ability--as the key to his future.
Life becomes more complicated when Cruise repays a favor to Tech and puts his scholarship at risk by playing streetball on his pal's team in a game arranged by Vaughn (Wayne Brady), a former sports agent. Amazed by what he sees on the court, Vaughn is soon trying to woo Cruise with NBA promises, much to the delight of his new girlfriend, Vanessa (Eva Pigford, winner of AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL), who can only see dollar signs. When the unthinkable happens, Cruise and Tech learn that they are not that different after all, and that their friendship can withstand anything. Real streetball players, including Phillip "Hot Sauce" Champion, who plays the greedy and arrogant local streetball champ, Jewelz, are used throughout the film and Alecia Fears also stars as Tech's girlfriend, Eboni.
Street Date: 2/20/2007
Genre:
Action
Rating:
PG13
Starring:
Anthony Mackie, Wesley Jonathan, Allen Payne, Lil JJ
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For Your Consideration
Three actors learn their respective performances in the film "Home for Purim," a drama set in the mid-1940s American South, are generating award-season buzz.
Street Date: 2/20/2007
Genre:
Comedy
Rating:
PG13
Starring:
Catherine O'Hara, Stephen Rannazzisi, Ed Begley Jr., Eugene Levy, Harry Shearer
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Open Water 2
Based on a true story, this sequel explores the horrible fate that meets a group of old high school friends who reunite for a weekend, only to have a casual swim turn into nightmare. Hopping into the sea for a spontaneaous swim, the friends forget to lower the ladder necessary for reboarding the boat and must fight to stay afloat.
Street Date: 2/20/2007
Genre:
Thriller
Rating:
R
Starring:
Susan May Pratt, Richard Speight, Eric Dane, Niklaus Lange
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Flight of Fury
John (Seagal), is sent in to recover a stolen Stealth Bomber. His trusty sidekick Rojar (ALki David) and John's ever faithful Jessica (Ciera Payton), fight the rebel forces of Banansistan, led by the vivacious Ellianna (Katie Jones).
Street Date: 2/13/2007
Genre:
Action
Rating:
R
Starring:
Steven Seagal
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Walking Tall - The Payback
Kevin Sorbo stars in this action-packed sequel to the hit film, Walking Tall, as the son of a small town sheriff who returns to home to discover the place in which he grew up is now overrun with crime, drugs and violence.
When his father is killed by the ruthless criminals who have taken over the town, he enlists the help of an FBI agent in an effort to seek out justice and revenge.
Street Date: 2/20/2007
Genre:
Drama
Rating:
NR
Starring:
Kevin Sorbo
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Guide to Recognizing your Saints
Writer Dito Montiel's highly cinematic memoir of his childhood in Queens, New York, makes the leap to the big screen, with the author himself getting behind the camera to helm this powerful, and at times gut-wrenching, adaptation. The film flits back and forth between the adult Montiel's (Robert Downey Jr.) emotional return to the neighborhood after a 15-year gap, and the childhood antics that led to his younger self (played by Shia LeBouf) fleeing to Los Angeles in 1986. Downey's older brother Montiel is an introspective, quietly successful author who comes home after he is informed of his father's (Chazz Palminteri) life-threatening illness. LeBouf's teenage Montiel is a young tearaway who runs into constant trouble with his gang of friends, falls in love with local looker Laurie (Rosario Dawson), and dreams of an escape from the city with his Scottish friend, Mike (Martin Compston).
Street Date: 2/20/2007
Genre:
Drama
Rating:
R
Starring:
Rosario Dawson, Robert Downey, Shia LaBeouf, Chazz Palminteri
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Stranger than Fiction
After ten years of painstaking work, novelist Karen Eiffel (Thompson) is nearing completion on her latest, and potentially finest, book. Her only remaining challenge is to figure out how to kill off her main character, Harold Crick.
Little does she know that Harold Crick (Ferrell) is inexplicably alive-and-well in the real world, and suddenly aware of her words. The bewildered and hilariously resistant Harold hears what she has in mind and realizes he must find the author and persuade her to change her (and his) ending.
An all-star cast headlines this wonderfully inventive new comedy.
Street Date: 2/27/2007
Genre:
Comedy
Rating:
PG13
Starring:
Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman
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Tenacious D - The Pick of Destiny
In Venice Beach, naive Midwesterner JB (Black) bonds with local slacker KG (Glass) and they form the rock band Tenacious D. Setting out to become the world's greatest band is no easy feat, so they set out to steal what could be the answer to their prayers -- a magical guitar pick housed in a rock-and-roll museum some 300 miles away.
Street Date: 2/27/2007
Genre:
Comedy
Rating:
R
Starring:
Jack Black, Kyle Gass, Colin Hanks, Tim Robbins
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The Return
In 2001 British director Asif Kapadia's debut feature, THE WARRIOR, a lyrical, beautiful movie set in the Himalayas, was named Best British Film at the BAFTA Awards. For his second film, Kapadia headed to Hollywood for the suspenseful horror flick THE RETURN, written by first-time screenwriter Adam Sussman. Sarah Michelle Gellar stars as Joanna Mills, an aggressive young woman who works as a successful saleswoman in the trucking industry. She pushes hard to go after a big deal in Texas, even though she had previously deemed the state off limits--something that happened to her when she was a little girl has kept her away from her hometown for many years. Filled with fear, trepidation, and determination, she goes back to Texas, even visiting her estranged father (Sam Shepard). As she sees familiar places, she has frightening flashes of deja vu, remembering bits and pieces of a tragic incident involving an ex-con (Peter O'Brien), an unseen man, and a bad traffic accident. The visions haunt her dreams, sending her back to her childhood (where she's played by Darrian McClanahan). Reunited with an old friend (Kate Beahan), Joanna tries to move forward, but her unfinished past keeps dragging her back.
Street Date: 2/27/2007
Genre:
Horror
Rating:
PG13
Starring:
Sarah Michelle Gellar, Peter O'Brien, Sam Shepard, Kate Beahan
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A Good Year
Ridley Scott (BLADE RUNNER, GLADIATOR) directs this romantic comedy based on the book of the same name by Peter Mayle. London banker Max Skinner (Russell Crowe) is a cutthroat workaholic who cares only about winning and making money. During his rise to the top, Max has forgotten the important life lessons that his favorite uncle, Henry (Albert Finney), taught him during summers at his vineyard in Provence. Estranged from Henry for years, Max is surprised to learn that his uncle has passed away and as his closest living relative, he is set to inherit the estate, La Siroque. True to form, Max tools down to Provence for a quick visit in order to assess the value of the property with dollar signs in his eyes.
Once immersed in Henry's world and the charm of La Siroque, Max begins to remember his visits and how much Henry and those summers meant to him. Other surprises--including a budding romance with fetching local café owner Fanny Chenal (Marion Cotillard) and a visit from a young American claiming to be Henry's illegitimate daughter (Abbie Cornish)--prolong Max's visit, making Provence more and more difficult to resist. Can Max be content leaving his fast-paced life in London for lazy days in a French vineyard? Or will he sell his estate to the highest bidder, memories and all, and return to his hectic lifestyle?
Street Date: 2/27/2007
Genre:
Drama
Rating:
PG13
Starring:
Russell Crowe, Albert Finney, Marion Cotillard, Freddie Highmore
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