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entertaining u newspaper: your weekly guide to entertainment
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Seen, Heard, Noted & Quoted
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by rick grant rickgrant01@comcast.net
The winter season is upon us and movies are great way to overcome the winter doldrums. This January and February‘s 2007 releases are a potpourri of genres for every taste.
After the holiday season, with its creepy relatives and spoiled kids, people will be ready to get out of the house and enjoy the big screen experience, which is definitely the best way to view movies. Yeah, you may have purchased a 50 inch plasma flat screen TV, but it’s a far cry from viewing movies on the megaplex screens with an audience.
On the negative side, avid moviegoers complain about rude audience members talking and taking cell phone calls. Theatre chain managers have worked hard to cut down on audience misbehavior. Some theater chains are installing cell phone jamming equipment that renders cell phones useless while people are in the theatre. These problems are getting much better. I know because I see at least 8 to 10 movies in a month. Sense-around could be the answer. Electrify the seats and if someone talks or takes a cell phone, zap them senseless.
Nonetheless, it’s a good time to go out to the cinema and here are worthwhile new wide releases for January and February 2007.
January 5, Freedom Writers premieres starring Hilary Swank as a new teacher in a tough urban school that has all but given up on these ghetto kids. Swank’s character finds new and innovative ways to motivate her students. This scenario is based on a true story of a remarkable teacher. Swank’s character uses her own money to buy the students books and take them on important field trips to open their minds to what’s possible.
Also Jan. 5th, Code Name: The Cleaner opens starring Cedric the Entertainer as Jake, a regular guy who has no idea who he is after being beaten senseless. Now he thinks he is an undercover agent called The Cleaner. Co-starring Lucy Liu with Nicolette Sheridan and DeRay Davis. Happily N’Ever After also debuts. This animated feature stars a wizard who is in charge of Fairy Tale World. When he goes on holiday, Cinderella’s wicked stepmother takes over the land. Finally, Thr3e premieres on Jan. 5th. Innocent lives hang on the whim of an elusive psychopathic murderer who sends detectives complex riddles and impossible timelines to his murders. He forces three people into a mission to end the game before one or all of them die. Think Saw!
On January 12 Arthur And The Invisibles debuts. Ten-year-old Arthur has a lot on his plate: a real estate developer is about to snap up his grandma’s home--and there’s no way Arthur’s going to hang around for his parents or grandparents to sort out the problem. Maybe the solution lies in his grandpa’s treasure, which is hidden somewhere on the “other side” in the land of the Minimoys. The creatures that inhabit this world are just a tenth of an inch tall and live in perfect harmony with their environment. NomadThe Warrior is set in 18th-century Kazakhstan as a boy feels destined to one day unite the three warring tribes of the region.
Also Jan.12th, Alpha Dog premieres. It’s a drama based on the life of Jesse James Hollywood–a drug dealer who became one of the youngest men ever to be posted on the FBI’s 10 most wanted list. Stomp the Yard also opens. It is about a troubled 19-year old street dancer from Los Angeles who skirts juvenile hall by enrolling the all-black Truth University in Atlanta, Georgia. But his efforts to get an education are sidelined when he is courted by the top two campus fraternities, who want and need his street-style dance moves to win the coveted national step show competition.
January 19 The Hitcher opens. This action film stars C. Thomas Howell as a young man who escaped the clutches of a murderous hitch-hiker. Later he is stalked by the same man, then framed for the hitcher’s crimes, and his life is turned into a living hell.
On January 26 Ken Watnebe stars in Letters From Iwo Jima The story of the battle of Iwo Jima between the United States and Japan during World War II, as told from the perspective of two good friends serving in the Japanese forces, who watch helplessly throughout various battles as their comrades are killed. Also Blood & Chocolate opens. It’s a story about a young teenage werewolf who is torn between honoring her family’s secret and her love for a man.
Also Jan. 26th, Jennifer Garner stars in Catch and Release. She plays a young woman who struggles to accept the death of her husband and the secrets he kept from her as she rebuilds her life. This is Garner’s return to films after her long running Alias series ended. Clearly, her continuing career in films is riding on this project.
Dead Silence also opens as classic horror. It tells the story of Jamie Ashen, a man who has had the finger pointed at him by those who they are convinced he killed his wife. Events conspire to further incriminate him as he seeks to clear his name. The nutty gang that made Scary Movie have conjured up another spoof called Epic Movie sending up the big blockbuster epic movies. The Invisible, opens Jan. 26 also. It is about Nicklas, who lives a normal teenage life until one day, not far from graduation, a gangster from his school beats him into unconsciousness. The next day, when he returns to school, he notices that nobody sees him. Suddenly, he realizes that he is invisible and a ghost. Now he must find his killer. Finally, on Jan. 26th Smoking’ Aces premieres. It tells the tale of a Las Vegas performer turned snitch named Buddy Israel (Jeremy Piven) who decides to turn state’s evidence by testifying against the mob. Of course, the gangsters are trying to make him dead so he can’t testify.
February 2 Because I Said So premieres. It involves a mother Daphine (Diane Keaton) who loves her three daughters played by Lauren Graham, Piper Perabo, and Mandy Moore. In her efforts to save her daughters from the bad men mistakes she made, she inadvertently sets up hilarious comedic situations and finds someone herself.
Also, Feb. 2nd, The Messengers opens as yet another horror tale. An ominous darkness invades a seemingly serene sunflower farm in North Dakota. The Solomon family is torn apart by suspicion, mayhem, and murder. Rogue opens as a winter kung fu movie starring Jason Statam and Jet Li in a battle to the death.
February 9 Hannibal Rising opens. It’s a prequel featuring Hannibal as a teenager after his parents are killed in WWII. Also, Norbit opens about a mild mannered guy (Eddie Murphy) who is engaged to a monstrous woman (also Murphy). But while engaged, he meets the woman of his dreams and schemes to be with her, despite threats from his betrothed.
Music and Lyrics premieres on Valentine’s Day starring Hugh Grant as a washed up singer who is given a couple of days to compose a chart-topping hit for an admiring teen sensation. The only thing is, he’s never written lyrics in his life. Then he meets a woman (Drew Barrymore) who helps him write the lyrics.
Feb. 14th also features Tyler Perry with another original film, Daddy’s Little Girls. It’s a reverse Cinderella tale which involves a successful attorney Julia (Gabrielle Union) who falls in love with a financially challenged mechanic, who is a single father of three kids. Problems develop when the man’s ex-wife returns to make trouble for him.
February 16 Breach debuts. It is based on the true story of an FBI agent Eric O’Neill (Ryan Phillippe who engages in a power game with his boss, Robert Hanssen (Chris Cooper), who turned out to be the most notorious FBI mole in the history of the FBI. The real Hanssen sold important national secrets to the Russians for 16 years, compromising national security for years into the future until the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990. His betrayal shocked veteran FBI agents who couldn’t believe he had access to top secret documents for so many years.
Also on Feb. 16th, Bridge to Terabithia debuts. It tells the story of an 11-year-old boy has his life changed forever when he befriends the class outsider, a girl. Together they create the world of Terabithia, an imaginary kingdom filled with giants, trolls and other magical beings. Also, Ghost Rider premieres Feb. 16th. It involves an outlaw gang hanged by a posse in the late 1880s. The gang comes back from the grave to terrorize the descendants of the posse’s leader. The Last Sin Eater is the story of 10-year-old Cadi Forbes who discovers a secret sin haunting her community of Welsh immigrants in the 1850s in Appalachia. Finally, Starter for Ten debuts. Set in 1985, a working class student Brian Jackson navigates his first year at Bristol University.
February 23, The Astronaut Farmer premieres starring Billy Bob Thornton as Charles Farmer. As a NASA Astronaut, he is forced to retire so he could save his family farm. But Farmer can’t give up his dream of space travel. So he set out to build his own rocket under the government’s threat to stop him.
Feb. 23, Black Snake Moan also debuts starring Samuel L. Jackson as a struggling veteran blues artist. When he finds a wild young woman, he begins a relationship with her and finds out she was a victim of sexual abuse and has been looking in all the wrong places for love. Also on Feb. 23rd, Captivity premieres starring Elisha Cuthbert as a fashion model who, along with a chauffeur, gets kidnapped and held in a small room by a serial killer. While the killer terrorizes her, she takes strength from her co-captive, and they fall in love. The Number 23 also debuts. Jim Carrey stars as a man who becomes obsessed with a book that appears to be based on his life but ends with a murder that has yet to happen in real life.
Finally, the nutty Reno 911: Miami troupe shot a feature film that showcases the misfit cops in all their glory. They are called in to save the day after a terrorist attack disrupts a national police convention in Miami Beach, Florida during Spring Break. It is based on the Comedy Central series.
So, when you’ve got winter-time cabin fever, take in some of the great new movies scheduled. From high action and romanic comedies to bone-chilling horror and fantasy animation, your local multiplex has something for everyone.
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