In “Next,” based on the Philip K. Dick story “The Golden Man,” Nicolas Cage plays a man with the unique ability to see future events and affect their outcome. Relentlessly pursued by the FBI, which is seeking to use his abilities to prevent a global terrorist threat, he is ultimately faced with the daunting choice of saving the world or the woman he loves - “Next.”
STARRING: Nicolas Cage, Julianne Moore, Jessica Biel, Thomas Kretschmann, Tory Kittles, Peter Falk
DIRECTOR: Lee Tamahori
STUDIO: Paramount Pictures
RATING: PG-13 (For intense sequences of violent action, and some language)
From the studio that brought you “The Sixth Sense,” “The Invisible” is a supernatural thriller about a teenager who finds himself trapped between the worlds of the living and the deceased. Nick (Justin Chatwin), is a high school senior with a bright future until, in a tragic case of mistaken identity, he is brutally attacked by a troubled girl, Annie (Margarita Levieva), and his body is left for dead. Now in limbo, not quite dead but invisible to the living, his spirit can only watch as his mother (Academy Award winner Marcia Gay Harden) and the police search frantically for him, unaware that he is only hours away from truly perishing - “The Invisible.”
STARRING: Justin Chatwin, Marcia Gay Harden
DIRECTOR: David S. Goyer
STUDIO: Disney/Hollywood Pictures
RATING: PG-13 (For for violence, criminality, sensuality and language - all involving teens)
Christmas break. A young woman catches a ride home from a stranger she meets through a college ride board. Racing to beat a severe winter storm, the two young travelers take a shortcut down a remote country road, only to find themselves forced into a snow bank by a mysterious vehicle that engages them in a dangerous game of chicken. Over the long night that ensues, an intense relationship develops between the pair as they must brave the elements and confront the road’s sinister legacy that dates back to the terrible events that occurred there in the 1950s.
STARRING: Ashton Holmes, Emily Blunt
He may have worn hi-tops and parachute pants instead of a top hat and tails, but 12-year old Justin “Rocket Shoe” Schumaker and his killer moves could dance his way into just about any girl’s heart. That was in 1985, when Justin and his break dance posse — the Funky Fresh Boyz — were competing in the school talent show. But after doing a super cool coffee grind, a spectacular head spin and a ferocious freeze, Justin decides to go for broke and pops into a bodacious back flip that sends him flying off stage. Luckily, the Rocket Shoe didn’t break his neck, but he did break his parents’ bank account when he landed in the hospital for the next 20 years.
Fast-forward through the ’90s, the new millennium and right into modern day — the poor Rocket Shoe is still lying in a hospital bed one lace short of knowing how to tie his own shoes. His parents are about to give up and pull the plug, flushing Justin’s minimal brainwaves down the proverbial drain forever, when suddenly Mr. and Mrs. Schumaker’s 30-something year old boy actually opens his eyes.
Awakening a grown man with a child’s spirit when he hears ’80s retro music blasting from the hospital janitor’s radio, Justin (Jamie Kennedy) might have suddenly regained consciousness, but he’s still way out of it. Lost in a high-tech time warp where hip hop and Gangsta Rap rule, the former Rocket Shoe is determined to prove that kickin’ it old skool can reign again when he finds out that D-Zone Videos is having a $10,000 dance off.
Rounding up his old crew - Darnell “Prince Def Rock” Jackson (Miguel A. Núñez Jr.), Aki “Chilly Chill” Terasaki (Bobby Lee) and Hector “Popcorn” Jimenez (Aris Alvarado) - Justin quickly finds out that his Funky Fresh Boyz have grown a little stale. Darnell doesn’t have time to think about dancing now that he and his wife Roxanne (Vivica A. Fox) are up to their ears in diapers. Former robot wizard Aki is so stiff he dances like CP3O with R2D2 up his - uh . . . well, you get the picture. And Hector has put on so much weight he looks like some dude who ate Hector.
But Justin, who’s really just learning to put one foot in front of the other without falling down, is not gonna give up. Not only does he want to win the prize money for his parents’ medical bills, but he also wants to win back his grade school sweetheart Jennifer Stone (Maria Menounos). She’s engaged to current scumbag and former grade school nemesis Kip Unger (Michael Rosenbaum), who now heads D-Zone Videos. Sleazier than ever, Kip is also hosting the dance contest . . . or should we say, rigging it so a group of his homeboys can win.
So . . . how can the Funky Fresh Boyz compete against kool krumping, hot hip-hopping, busta-new-move-a-minute groups like The MisFitz, The Mung-sters, Pink Sushi and Ice Cole Krew - especially when Kip is going to do everything he can to sway the audience? How can the Rocket Shoe tie up the $100,000 prize money plus a 1 year contract and nip Kip and Jennifer’s romance in the bud? Easy! By doggin’ it on the dance floor and kickin’ it old skool!
Featuring clever cameos from ’80s TV icons David Hasselhoff (Knight Rider), Eric Estrada (CHiPS), John Ratzenberger (Cheers) and Emmanuelle Lewis (Webster), and directed by award-winning music video director Harvey Glazer (Luv Me, Luv Me by Shaggy), Kickin’ It Old Skool will put a hip in your hop and a krump in your style. A hilarious fish-out-of-water story, this wickedly comic culture clash between the ’80s and today will have you break dancing out of the theater and laughing all the way home - “Kickin It Old Skool”
STARRING: Jamie Kennedy, Maria Menounos, Christopher McDonald, Migữel Nuñez, Aris Alvarado, Bobby Lee, Debra Jo Rupp, Alan Ruck, Michael Rosenbaum, Vivica Fox
DIRECTOR: Harvey Glazer
STUDIO: Yari Film Group
RATING: PG-13 (For crude and sexual content and language)
“Jindabyne” - On an annual fishing trip, in isolated high country, Stewart, Carl, Rocco and Billy (’the Kid’) find a girl’s body in the river. It’s too late in the day for them to hike back to the road and report their tragic find. The next morning, instead of making the long trek back, they spend the day fishing. Their decision to stay on at the river is a little mysterious — almost as if the place itself is exerting some kind of magic over them.
When the men finally return home to Jindabyne, and report finding the body, all hell breaks loose. Their wives can’t understand how they could have gone fishing with the dead girl right there in the water — she needed their help. The men are confused — the girl was already dead, there was nothing they could do for her.
Stewart’s wife Claire is the last to know. As details filter out, and Stewart resists talking about what has happened, she is unnerved. There is a callousness about all of this which disturbs her deeply. Stewart is not convinced that he has done anything wrong. Claire’s faith in her relationship with her husband is shaken to the core.
The fishermen, their wives and their children are suddenly haunted by their own bad spirits. As public opinion builds against the actions of the men, their certainty about themselves and the decision they made at the river is challenged. They cannot undo what they have done.
Only Claire understands that some-thing fundamental is not being addressed. She wants to understand and tries to make things right. In her determination Claire sets herself not only against her own family and friends but also those of the dead girl. Her marriage is taken to the brink and her peaceful life with Stewart and their young son hangs in the balance.
STARRING: Laura Linney, Gabriel Byrne, Deborra-Lee Furness
DIRECTOR: Ray Lawrence
STUDIO: Sony Classics
RATING: R (For disturbing images, language and some nudity)
An adrenalin-charged action thriller, “The Condemned” tells the story of Joe Conrad (Stone Cold Steve Austin), who is awaiting the death penalty in a corrupt Central American prison. He is “purchased” by a wealthy television producer and taken to a desolate island where he must fight to the death against nine other condemned killers from all corners of the world, with freedom going to the sole survivor - “The Condemned.”
STARRING: Stone Cold Steve Austin, Vinnie Jones
DIRECTOR: Scott Wiper
STUDIO: Lionsgate
RATING: R (For pervasive strong brutal violence, and for language)
Set in the middle of winter in Wawa, Ontario, “Snow Cake” is an engaging and original story which explores the odd friendship between a high-functioning autistic woman named Linda (Weaver) and Alan (Rickman), a quiet, brooding man traumatized after being involved in a fatal car accident. Alan comes into Linda’s life following a personal twist of fate - “Snow Cake”
STARRING: Sigourney Weaver, Alan Rickman, Carrie-Anne Moss
DIRECTOR: Marc Evans
STUDIO: IFC Films
RATING: Not Rated (Adult Situations, Language)Snow Cake
“Vacancy” - When David (Luke Wilson) and Amy Fox’s (Kate Beckinsale) car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, they are forced to spend the night at the only motel around, with only the TV to entertain them… until they discover that the low-budget slasher movies they’re watching were all filmed in the very room they’re sitting in. With hidden cameras now aimed at them… trapping them in rooms, crawlspaces, underground tunnels… and filming their every move, David and Amy must struggle to get out alive before whomever is watching them can finish their latest masterpiece. “Vacancy.”
STARRING: Kate Beckinsale, Luke Wilson, Frank Whaley, Ethan Embry
DIRECTOR: Nimród Antal
STUDIO: Screen Gems
RATING: R (For brutal violence and terror, brief nudity and language)
When 16-year-old Stephanie Daley (Amber Tamblyn) is accused of murdering her newborn, she claims she never knew she was pregnant and that the child was stillborn. A forensic psychologist, Lydie Crane (Tilda Swinton), is hired to determine the truth behind Stephanie’s continuing state of denial. Lydie is pregnant herself and grappling with her shaky marriage (Timothy Hutton) as well as a growing intuition that something may go wrong with her own unborn child. Her encounters with Stephanie soon lead her to believe that unraveling the teenager’s mystery is crucial to her own fate. The resulting parallel journeys lead each woman to a place of self-realization and acceptance.
STARRING: Tilda Swinton, Amber Tamblyn, Timothy Hutton, Melissa Leo, Jim Gaffigan, Denis O’Hare
DIRECTOR: Hilary Brougher
STUDIO: Regent Releasing
RATING: R (For disturbing material involving teen pregnancy, sexual content and language)
“The Tripper” is a political horror film set in the Redwood Forrest at an outdoor music festival. The story centers around a group of young hippies as they set out on a drug-induced weekend of debauchery. Little do they know, in the woods lurks a crazed madman that is obsessed with Ronald Reagan.
STARRING: Jamie King, Thomas Jane, Lukas Haas, Jason Mewes, Balthazar Getty, Paul Reubens, Brad Hunt, David Arquette, Courtney Cox-Arquette
DIRECTOR: David Arquette
STUDIO: Kinerase
RATING: R (For strong horror violence and gore, drug content, language and some sexuality/nudity)
