Drama/History/Thriller

Fox Searchlight Pictures

B

Cast:

Forest Whitaker (The Marsh)

James McAvoy (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe)

Kerry Washington ( Little Man)

Gillian Anderson ( Bleak House-TV)

Simon McBurney ( Friends with Money)

Story: Based on the events of the brutal Ugandan dictator Idi Amin’s regime as seen by his personal physician during the 1970s.

Director: Kevin Macdonald (Touching the Void)

Screenplay:  Jeremy Brock (Driving Lessons)

Novel:  Giles Foden

R/123 min.

Expectation:  Oscar bait performance from Forest Whitaker

The film answers the questions: “What was Idi Amin really like?”  What happened to Uganda under his regime?  Great acting illuminates a dark subject and makes the experience highly believable.

Critics:

An adequate thriller redeemed by Forest Whitaker’s sensational turn as Idi Amin.

Ella Taylor
Village Voice

I can’t think of a better actor to toggle between media-savvy jester and stone-cold killer than Forest Whitaker, who, even dressed in a kilt, conveys serious menace along with mania.

Lisa Schwarzbaum
Entertainment Weekly

Crime drama

Warner Bros.

B+

Cast:

Leonardo Dicaprio ( The Aviator)

Matt Damon ( Syriana)

Jack Nicholson (Somthings Gotta Give)

Mark Wahlberg (Invincible)

Martin Sheen (Bobby)

Ray Winstone ( Breaking and Entering)

Vera Farmiga (Breaking and Entering)

Story: 2 men from opposite sides of the law are undercover within the Boston State Police department and the Irish mafia, but violence and bloodshed boil when disoveries are made, and the moles are dispatched to find out their enemy’s identities.

Director: Martin Scorsese (No Direction Home: Bob Dylan)

Screenplay: William Monahan (Kingdom of Heaven)

Siu Fai Mak ( Moonligh in Tokyo)

R /149 min.

Expectation:  “popcorn crime classic”

Entertaining violent over the top cop thriller….the best in years for director Scorsese, but doesn’t have the emotional pull of “Goodfellas” or “Casino”.

Critics:

The Departed is Scorsese’s most purely enjoyable movie in years

David Ansen
Newsweek

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

It isn’t in the same league as the director’s best work, chiefly because it lacks the bravura flourishes of cinematic craft that helped make his name. But it’s so vital and bloody and funny and wicked and tense and unapologetic that it feels kin to those films, which little of the director’s work of the past decade has managed to pull off.

family fantasy

Walt Disney

B-

Cast:

Tilda Swinton (Broken Flowers)

James McAvoy (Wimbledon)

Jim Broadbent (Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason

Story: Four kids travel through a wardrobe to the land of Narnia and learn their destiny to free it with the guidance of a mystical lion.

Director: Andrew Adamson (Shrek 2)

Screenplay: Andrew Adamson ( Shrek 2)

Ann Peacock (In My Country

Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely (The Life and Death of Peter Sellers)

Book: C.L. Lewis

PG/143 min

Expectation: Children’s classic

Effective children’s entertainment….with something to say.

Critics

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Working for the first time in live action, under the constraints of a classic novel, he (Andrew Adamson) proves himself to be a capable visual storyteller but no Peter Jackson.

The film seems more like a Saturday at the movies than a magical event, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not a well-rendered version of Lewis’ endearingly slender novel.

Robert Denerstein
Denver Rocky Mountain News

Documetary

Lions Gate Films

C

focuses on the time in John Lennon’s life when he transformed from a musician into an anti-war activist.

Directed and Written by David Leaf and John Scheinfeld (Who is Harry Nilsson?( And Why Is Everybody Talkin’ About Him)

PG-13/ 99 min.

Expectation:  average

In terms of a documentary, nothing special, but a stunning reminder of John Lennon as a political force in America.

Critics:

Variety Phil Gallo

To track the transformation of John Lennon from adored Beatle to government-stalked peace advocate is David Leaf’s stated intention for The U.S. vs. John Lennon, and the pic persuasively chronicles an artist sticking to his guns through activism.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

A nice little documentary that provides a view of recent history for those who didn’t live through it, or a nostalgia trip for those who did. However, as vehicle for presenting anything new or surprising, it fails.

Political drama

Columbia

B

Cast:

Sean Penn (The Interpreter)

Jude Law (Lemony Snicket’s a Series of Unfortunate Events)

Anthony Hopkins (Bobby)

Kate Winslet (Little Children)

Mark Ruffalo (Rumor Has It)

Patricia Clarkson (The Woods)

James Gandolfini ( The Sopranos)

Story: The life of populist Southerner Willie Stark, a political creature loosely based on Governor Huey Long of Louisiana.

Director: Steven Zallian ( A Civil Action)

Screenplay: Steven Zallian (The Interpreter)

Novel: Robert Penn Warren

PG-13

120 min.

Expectation: Possibly miscast and a mess

Couldn’t resist this group of actors and they didn’t disappoint. Top notch direction, editing and cinematography.

Critics:

Three fine British actors, one grade-A U.S. ham, and writer-director Steve Zaillian bring Robert Penn Warren’s great American novel of political corruption and wrecked idealism to the screen in an adaptation that’s more faithful than, if ultimately inferior to, Robert Rossen’s 1949 Academy Award winner.

Ken Fox/TV Guide

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Zaillian (an Oscar winner for his “Schindler’s List” screenplay) has given us an intricate, subtly rewarding narrative whose uncompromising nature and undeniable moral seriousness make it far from business as usual, even in the ever-decreasing world of quality Hollywood filmmaking.

Comedy/drama

Dreamworks

C+

Cast:

Zack Braff (Garden State)

Jacinda Barrett (Poseidon)

Casey Affleck (Lonesome Jim)

Rachel Bilson (The O.C.-TV)

Blythe Danner ( Huff-TV)

Tom Wilkinson (Separate Lies)

Story: Domestic anxieties threaten young couple’s future.

Director: Tony Goldwyn (Grey’s Anatomy-TV)

Screenplay: Paul Haggis ( Million Dollar Baby)

Remake: L’ ultimo bacio

R/115 min.

Expectation: Along the lines of “Garden State”

Nothing blew me away, but cast is good enough to keep your interest covering tired territory.

Critics:

Christy Lemire, Associated Press
  If names like Tony Goldwyn and Paul Haggis weren’t attached, you’d swear The Last Kiss was just another Edward Burns movie.

In fact, it’s a lot like Burns’ last movie, The Groomsmen, even though it’s a remake of the Italian L’Ultimo Bacio. Four guys, longtime best friends, all reach crisis points in their respective relationships as they approach 30. And they’re all sensitive enough to express their fears and frustrations in hyperarticulate terms.

Salon.com Andrew O’Hehir

The Last Kiss is more a capable-craftsman film than a work of genuine dramatic insight, but here and there it opens a window onto the terror and wonder of grown-up life, one its characters don’t especially want to look through.

Crime drama

Universal

D

Cast:

Josh Hartnett (Lucky Number Slevin)

Scarlett Johansson (Scoop)

Aaron Eckart (Thank You For Smoking)

Hilary Swank ( Million Dollar Baby)

Story: Two L.A. detectives head the hunt for the killer of Hollywood starlet Elizabeth Short

Director: Brian De Palma (Femme Fatale)

Screenplay: Josh Friedman (War of the Worlds)

Novel: James Ellroy

R/121 min.

Expectation: Popcorn noir

This movie never hooked me…I was never engaged…never cared..terribly forced on every level. The acting was horrible except for Mia Kirshner who plays the Hollywood starlet murder victim Elizabeth Short.  You might want to call this effort: Camp Dahlia.

Critics:

The Black Dahlia, set in the 1940s, exists to make L.A. Confidential look like God’s gift to noir by comparison.

Michael Phillips
Chicago Tribune

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

A ludicrous mishmash undermined by ghastly performances and a hopelessly convoluted screenplay.

docudrama

A-

Universal

Director and Screenplay:  Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Supremacy)

Story: A real time account of the events on United 93 one of the planes hijacked on 9/11 that crashed near Shankville, Penn. when passengers foiled the terrorist plot.

R/111

expectation: powerful

Riveting from beginning to end.  It felt like you were there.  Smartly done.

Critics:

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

You’re unlikely to come across a more powerful film this year.

At no point during United 93 does it feel like you’re watching a movie. It feels like you’re there. And, yes, this is is a truly terrible, sickening feeling. The film is as raw as an exposed nerve–which is exactly how it should be.

Sean Burns
Philadelphia Weekly

i

drama

Focus Features

B-

Cast:

Ben Affleck ( Clerks II)

Diane Lane (Must Love Dogs)

Adrien Brody ( Gumball Rally 3000)

Bob Hoskins (Stay)

Story: Detective investigates the death of George Reeves, TV’s Superman

Director: Allen Coulter (Rome-TV)

Screenplay: Paul Bernbaum ( Halloweentown High-TV)

R/126 min.

Expectation: Good acting

You get two movies in one: George Reeves career and a detective’s investigation into his death. Actually, Adrien Brody’s detective story is emphasized. I would have preferred more screen time for Ben Affleck’s portrayal of TV’s Superman. Having said that, it’s still a well made flic. Loved the look, and enjoyed the performances. Affleck steps up, but my vote for outstanding performance goes to Diane Lane. Bottom line: Intriquing but lacks knock out punch..

Critics:

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

” Lane, perhaps the most underrated actress of those deemed employable in their 40s, wonderfully embodies the mogul’s wife.”

Say all you want about Ben Affleck’s bad movies. They at least give him the screen time he deserves. Here, his best performance in a long time is wasted in a well-acted, beautifully shot and wildly unfocused mystery-drama.

Nick Rogers
State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL)

drama/comedy/romance

C

Sony Pictures Classics

Cast:

Jennifer Aniston (Rumor Has It)

Frances McDormand ( Aeon Flux)

Joan Cusack (Ice Princess)

Catherine Keener (Capote)

Story: It’s about three married women, their husbands, and their lone single friend

R/88

Expectation: Uneven film with A-list cast……

Here’s one of those rare movies where the only likeable character is played by Jennifer Aniston….

Critics

USA Today Claudia Puig

The film is likable, with some funny moments and recognizable human conflicts. But the origin of the women’s friendship is not explained, and the nature of Olivia’s problems is not examined or taken very seriously, making her seem inexplicably lost and shallow.

Most crucially, we don’t learn what brought the four women together; Olivia’s so much younger than the others that there’s no reason to think they’d ever have befriended her.

Lawrence Toppman
Charlotte Observer