Archive for October, 2006

When 20th Century Fox launched their new Fox Atomic division earlier this year, they did so under the auspices of making it their teen friendly appendage. But lets call it like it really is. Fox Atomic is their trend cash-in division. For proof look no further than the newly foaled studios first release, iTuristasi. Even a teenager can see its nothing more than a rip-off of iHosteli. The sick twisted minds of Americans and their youth lust for blood more than ever before, and movies like iTuristasi are only too eager to deliver.

The first book in Pullmans fan loved emHis Dark Materialsem is more The Hobbit than Lord of the Rings. What Im saying here is that theres nothing adult about it. Some books crossover. Lord of the Rings works even better for adults than it does for younger readers. Some of the Harry Potter books Im told, are great for older readers. But The Golden Compass should have kids adventure novel stamped right on the front of it. If the movie wants to cross over and appeal to broader audiences the way the other modern fantasy titans of its genre have, Chris Weitz is going to have to get creative.

Felon John Lyshitski Shepard has figured out the best way to get revenge on the now-dead judge who sent him to jail: watch the officials obnoxious son, Nelson Biederman IV Arnett, survive the clink. John strikes gold when Nelson is wrongly convicted of a crime and sent to the pen he used to call home. He gleefully gets sent back to become Nelsons cellmate and to ensure that his new buddy gets the full treatment. Let the games begin.

A single father, Monty Elba is a garage mechanic who lives in a poor neighborhood and struggles to make ends meet as he raises his three young daughters on his own. But when the courts award custody of his daughters to his corrupt, drug-dealing ex-wife, Monty desperately tries to win them back, enlisting the help of Julia Union, a beautiful and hard-nosed attorney he meets during his short stint as a chauffeur. While Monty and the Ivy-League-educated Julia couldnt be less alike, an unexpected romance blossomsand it soon begins to feel like true love. But in order for their relationship to survive, the couple must reconcile their two very different worlds and overcome the forces that threaten to tear Montys family apart.

After the death of his younger brother, a troubled 19-year-old street dancer from Los Angeles is able to bypass juvenile hall by enrolling in the historically black, Truth University in Atlanta, Georgia. But his efforts to get an education and woo the girl he likes are sidelined when he is courted by the top two campus fraternities, both of which want and need his fierce street-style dance moves to win the highly coveted national step show competition.

"Babel" possesses unusual aesthetic force, even if it does not seem to be tethered to any coherent idea or narrative logic.

Set against the backdrop of civil war and chaos in 1990s Sierra Leone, Blood Diamond is the story of Danny Archer Leonardo DiCaprio, a South African mercenary, and Solomon Vandy Djimon Hounsou, a Mende fisherman. Both men are African, but their histories as different as any can be, until their fates become joined in a common quest to recover a rare pink diamond that can transform their lives. While in prison for smuggling, Archer learns that Solomonwho was taken from his family and forced to work in the diamond fieldshas found and hidden the extraordinary rough stone. With the help of Maddy Bowen Jennifer Connelly, an American journalist whose idealism is tempered by a deepening connection with Archer, the two men embark on a trek through rebel territorya journey that could save Solomons family and give Archer the second chance he thought he would never have.

Dear Mickey Poo: I am crushed that you were crushed. You were hoping for another hit piece on President Bush and those dastardly Republicans, and "Man of the Year" failed to deliver. Buck up, old son, the Canadians will soon release their take on Bush's...

RWANDA REVISITED: The American Film Institute's AFI Fest begins Wednesday in Los Angeles with the Robert Kennedy Jr. biopic "Bobby," followed by David Lynch's three-hour opus "Inland Empire" (Friday) and "An Evening With Ed Zwick" (Nov. 8), focusing on his...

In these interlocking tales of high stakes and low lifes, Mob boss Primo Sparazza has taken out a hefty contract on Buddy Aces Israel Piven--a sleazy magician who has agreed to turn states evidence against the Vegas mob. The FBI, sensing a chance to use this small-time con to bring down big-target Sparazza, places Aces into protective custody-under the supervision of two agents Reynolds and Liotta dispatched to Aces Lake Tahoe hideout.