» Movies Catalog
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THE BUZZ: I've watched the trailer a few times, and I have to say that I wish RK's premise excited me as much as the long-awaited pairing of these two acting legends. That said, I have to keep in mind that the script was written by Russell Gewirtz, the pen behind Spike Lee's excellent Inside Man, so I imagine there are more twists in store than the one I already know. (And it's a good one, even if you have seen it before.) | |||||
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Director: Diane English Stars: Meg Ryan, Eva Mendes, Annette Bening Studio: Picturehouse Entertainment The Plot: Happily married Mary (Ryan) finds her world shaken when she discovers that her husband is cheating on her with shopgirl Crystal (Mendes) -- and she was pretty much the last to know. Crying, divorce, recriminations, and revenge follow. Based on the star-studded 1939 classic starring Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford and Rosalind Russell and updated to the present day. THE BUZZ: Like the original, no men were harmed -- er, employed! -- in front of the camera for this film. Hard core fans will want to know how the movie has been updated: Mary is now a clothing designer, frenemy Sylvia (Annette Bening -- perfect casting!) is a magazine editor, and Crystal is... still a perfume salesgirl. Writer-director Diane English (of Murphy Brown fame) has been working on this script for over ten years, and Ryan's availability finally got it made, albeit on an indie-shoestring budget (which is why you saw Ryan at the recent Independent Spirit Awards). The original, after almost 70 years, is still juicy as ever, and we'd call this superfluous if it weren't for English's much-ballyhooed script, which many thought would never get made.
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Director: George C. Wolfe Stars: Diane Lane, Richard Gere, James Franco Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures The Plot: A doctor (Gere) who is traveling to see his estranged son sparks with an unhappily married woman (Lane) at a North Carolina inn THE BUZZ: After The Notebook became one the best recent examples of a sleeper hit, producers fought for the rights to the unoptioned novels of Nicholas Sparks. Superproducers Denise Di Novi and Bruce Berman secured Rodanthe and assembled an ace cast as well as an interesting director pick in George C. Wolfe (Lackawanna Blues). Though we love Richard Gere and Diane Lane so much, the question remains whether they can help reignite the romantic drama by pulling in a big audience on opening weekend or, a la The Notebook turning favorable word-of-mouth into staying power at the box office. | |||||
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Director: Neil LaBute Stars: Samuel L. Jackson, Patrick Wilson, Kerry Washington Studio: Screen Gems The Plot: An LAPD officer (Jackson) will stop at nothing to force out the interracial couple (Washington and Wilson) who just moved in next door ... THE BUZZ: It'll be fun to see Patrick Wilson in thriller mode (one of two genre flicks this month for the former phantom and soon-to-be owl), and I'm pro Kerry Washington (Ray) getting more notice, but if Neil LaBute isn't careful, he's going to find himself, like, rebooting a franchise or remaking his own early film for his next project. And if he tries to pass this off as anything but a cheap-and-easy mainstream release, we're going to laugh at him just like we laughed at Roland Joffe when he tried to promote Captivity as a film with a message. | |||||
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Director: D.J. Caruso Stars: Shia LaBeouf, Michelle Monaghan, Rosario Dawson Studio: DreamWorks SKG The Plot: A young man (LaBeouf) and his mother (Monaghan) become unwitting members of a terrorist cell plotting a political assassination. THE BUZZ: When Disturbia surpassed everyone's expectations last spring, DreamWorks execs quickly reunited Shia LaBeouf and director D.J. Caruso for a second project, and it'll be interesting to see if all the kids who swooned for Shia in a retooled Hitchcock thriller will be as engaged by our hero trying to prevent political terrorism. By the way, there are a lot of screenwriters present here -- perhaps an indication of how quickly this was rushed into production, which is confirmed by the release-date slippage from August (summer vacation) to late in the back-to-school season. | |||||
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Director: Fernando Meirelles Stars: Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Gael García Bernal Studio: Miramax Films The Plot: A thriller set in a city that is suffering from an epidemic of sudden blindness, where only one woman (Moore) remains able to see as the rest of her society is pushed to its limits. THE BUZZ: Fans of writer José Saramago have given their blessing to Fernando Meirelles as the director selected to handle the adaptation of Saramago's seemingly unfilmable novel. City of God proved that Meirelles can handle violence artfully and The Constant Gardener showed us his mysterious angles -- two elements crucial to successfully bring this story to life. Helping in front of the camera will be the alluring match up of Ms. Moore and Mr. Ruffalo, who play wife and husband (pretty on paper, but we SO don't buy it) and two of the only people who might be able to put an end to the epidemic. What we're most interested in seeing is how much of the first half of the novel, which is set in an asylum where those who have been stricken blind encounter even worse scenarios, is depicted in the film; if Miramax learned anything from marketing No Country for Old Men, it's that literary violence can equal critical and popular success and plenty of awards. | |||||
