In “Exiled,” the 1999 turnover of the Portuguese colony of Macau to China is investigated here through the unique rites of passage of a group of cold-blooded hit men as they wonder what the future has in store for them, try to make quick money or simply hope to retire. Thus, the story of “Exiled.” A Chinese film from Magnolia Pictures.
STARRING: Simon Yam
DIRECTOR: Johnny To
STUDIO: Magnolia Pictures
RATING: R (For violence, language and adult situations)
John August’s “The Nines” consists of three short films, each featuring the same actors in different — and sometimes overlapping — roles.
“The Prisoner” tells the story of a troubled television star (Ryan Reynolds) who finds himself under house arrest, with his chipper publicist (Melissa McCarthy) and disillusioned next door neighbor (Hope Davis) providing his only links to the outside world. Mysterious events lead him to question whether one or both women are deceiving him about the nature of his incarceration.
“Reality Television” is a half-hour episode of “Behind the Screen,” a Project Greenlight-style documentary series tracking the process of creating a network television drama. Having shot the pilot, creator/ showrunner Gavin Taylor (also Ryan Reynolds) faces post-production with the help of his best friend (and lead actress) Melissa McCarthy and development VP Susan Howard (Hope Davis).
“Knowing” finds an acclaimed videogame designer (also Ryan Reynolds) and his wife (Melissa McCarthy) facing car trouble deep in the woods. Their daughter (Elle Fanning) uncovers information which leads to a difficult and irrevocable choice.
Together, the three stories in “The Nines” form a single narrative that explores the relationships between author and character, actor and role, creator and creation. Alternately funny and unsettling, “The Nines” is like a riddle where the answer is the question: “How does it all add up?”
STARRING: Ryan Reynolds, Hope Davis, Elle Fanning
DIRECTOR: John August
STUDIO: Newmarket Films
RATING: R (Adult situations, language, violence)
“Self Medicated” begins on the edges of Las Vegas, where 17-year old Andrew (Monty Lapica) is spiraling out of control. Unable to cope with the loss of his father, Andrew’s descent into drugs and violence is gaining momentum, and the once promising young man is heading for self-destruction. Andrew’s mother (Golden Globe nominee Diane Venora), helpless to control her son and fighting an addiction of her own, refuses to watch idly as her only child destroys himself. As a last resort, she hires a private company to forcibly kidnap and confine him in a locked-down (and corrupt) psychiatric hospital. As Andrew is subjected to the the physical and emotional abuses of the program, something inside of him is re-awakened. He decides that it is time to rebuild his life, but in order to do so, he must face his demons head-on. Based on true events, and winner of 39 international film awards, “Self Medicated” is the most award-winning independent film of 2006.
STARRING: Diane Venora, Monty Lapica, Michael Bowen, Greg Germann
DIRECTOR: Monty Lapica
STUDIO: THINKFilm
RATING: R (For substance abuse, language, and some sexual material)
In “Death Sentence” Nick Hume (KEVIN BACON) is an Everyman with a stable, comfortable life. He goes to work every day at his middle-management job at an insurance company. He goes home every night to his beautiful wife, Helen (KELLY PRESTON), and his two teenage sons, Brendan (STUART LAFFERTY) and Lucas (JORDAN GARRETT).
The Humes are a middle-class family who are the epitome of suburban bliss. And Nick is content. He pitches in with chores around the house. He relishes the intimacy he shares with Helen. She is his confidant and equal. And he is very involved in his boys’ lives. Brendan, the eldest son, is confident and headstrong. He is popular, he is an athlete and he is on his way to college to begin a promising life of his own. Lucas looks up to his brother, but is cognizant of the shadow Brendan casts. Lucas still hasn’t found himself, and he feels a little left out because of the adoration given to Brendan. All in all, the Humes are a typical all-American family – morally upright and humble.
And then one day, their perfect life comes to a screeching halt. One night when Nick is driving Brendan home from a hockey game, he stops for gas. While he is filling up the tank on the family car, Brendan goes inside to get a drink. Moments later, a gang of thugs enter the store in ski masks, armed with various weapons. But it is not your typical convenience store robbery: this is a rite of passage for Joe Darley (MATTHEW O’LEARY), the younger brother of Billy Darley (GARRETT HEDLUND), the ruthless street leader of the gang. After terrorizing and killing the store clerk, they turn their attention to Brendan.
It is at that moment when Nick turns from the pump and looks inside the store, only to witness Joe deliver the fateful blow that ends all of the promise of Brendan’s future, and leaves him lying in a pool of blood as the gang begins to flee. But when Nick runs to help his son, he clashes with Joe and they fall to the ground. Joe is unmasked, and his own future marked.
Joe is arrested, but despite assurances from the lead investigator, Detective Wallis (AISHA TYLER), the system ultimately fails the Humes and Joe is put back on the street. Driven by a heightened sense of justice and keen grief, Nick takes matters into his own hands by seeking out his son’s killer. In his confrontation with Joe, Nick finds himself at the mercy of his emotions and ultimately kills him. Unsure what to do, Nick runs back to the life that has always been his shelter: his wife, his surviving son and his job.
Nick thinks that all is at an end – an imperfect resolution to a horrible tragedy, but fitting. Except there is blood, now, on Nick’s hands and it will not come off … Billy Darley is on the prowl, and the stage is set for a violent exchange that only escalates with each pounding beat of their hearts. How far will Nick go to protect his family? How far will Billy go to protect his own?
STARRING: Kevin Bacon, Garrett Hedlund, Kelly Preston, John Goodman, Aisha Tyler
DIRECTOR: James Wan
STUDIO: 20th Century Fox
RATING: R (For strong bloody brutal violence and pervasive language)
“September Dawn” is a fictional Romeo and Juliet relationship love story set against the background of the controversial real-life massacre of 120 men, women and children traveling through Utah in the nineteenth century. The Mountain Meadows Massacre, as it is known, occurred on September 11, 1857, and was the first known act of religious terrorism on U.S. soil. A group of Mormons, many disguised as Paiute Indians, slaughtered all but 17 small children on a wagon train on its way to California. One man, the adopted son of Mormon leader Brigham Young, was eventually executed for the crime — 20 years after the event. The film is deemed controversial because it presents a point of view held strongly by hundreds of direct descendants of the massacre: that the iconic Brigham Young had complicity in the massacre, a view denied by the Mormon Church, even today.
STARRING: Jon Voight, Trent Ford, Tamara Hope, Terence Stamp, Lolita Davidovich, Dean Cain, John Gries, Taylor Handley, Krisinda Cain, Shaun Johnston
DIRECTOR: Christopher Cain
STUDIO: Slowhand Releasing
RATING: R (For violence)
After the gangsters who killed his father come to settle a score, a teenage boy and his mother turn the tables on the killers – in “Illegal Tender.”
Producer John Singleton (”Four Brothers,” “Hustle & Flow”) and writer/director Franc. Reyes (”Empire”) join forces to tell the story of one Latino family’s quest for honor and revenge as the hunted become the hunters in the new thriller “Illegal Tender.”
Wilson De Leon, Jr. (Rick Gonzalez) is an exceptional college student with an adoring girlfriend, doting mother and a future full of promise. He has never wanted for anything, and he has never been forced to stand his ground. But when ghosts from his mother’s past come back to haunt his present, he must defend his family…and quickly turn into the strong man his father prayed he’d become. Nothing could stop Wilson’s mother, Millie (Wanda De Jesus), from protecting her two boys. Forced to flee her home after gangsters killed her husband, she made an oath to give her children only the best. But all that changes when an enemy from the past catches up with them. It’s finally time to take action–and now, they’re done running. Weapons at the ready, Wilson, Jr. and Millie prepare for a final showdown with the murderer who robbed him of a father and her of a husband. Now, in a battle fueled by family ties and blood feuds, it will become very clear what happens when anyone tries to come between this son and his mother.
STARRING: Rick Gonzalez, Wanda De Jesus, Dania Ramirez, Tego Calderon, Manny Perez, Gary Perez
DIRECTOR: Franc Reyes
STUDIO: Universal Pictures
RATING: R (For violence, language and some sexuality)
Erik (Josh Hartnett), an up-and-coming sports reporter, rescues a homeless man only to discover that he is, in fact, a boxing legend (Samuel Jackson), believed to have passed away. Erik sees an opportunity to resurrect the Champ’s story and escape the shadow of his father’s success. Directed by former movie critic Rod Lurie, whose last two movies were box office bombs.
STARRING: Samuel L. Jackson, Josh Hartnett, Teri Hatcher, Kathryn Morris, Dakota Goyo, Alan Alda, Rachel Nichols, Glenn Hunter, David Paymer, Ryan McDonald, Harry J. Lennix, Peter Coyote, Chris Ippolito, Stephen Strachan, Eugene Clark
DIRECTOR: Rod Lurie
STUDIO: Yari Film Group
RATING: PG-13 (For some violence and brief language)
Adapted by Ethan Hawke from his own novel of the same name, “The Hottest State” is a bittersweet romance that distills the joy, pain, erotic highs, and emotional lows of first love. Ethan Hawke directs and co-stars in the film along with Mark Webber, Catalina Sandino Moreno, and Laura Linney. Days before his 21st birthday, William (Mark Webber), an actor, meets and quickly falls madly in love with Sara (Oscar-nominee Catalina Sandino Moreno), a seductive yet elusive singer/songwriter. The film follows William from a Lower East Side tenement to a Mexican hotel room to a snowbound weekend in Connecticut to a sweltering homecoming in the hottest state of all – Texas – in the pursuit of Sara. His stubborn and sweetly innocent quest to find someone who loves him as much as he loves her may not lead to happiness, but surely leads to newfound maturity.
STARRING: Catalina Sandino Moreno, Laura Linney, Mark Webber, Michelle Williams, Sonia Braga, Ethan Hawke
DIRECTOR: Ethan Hawke
STUDIO: THINKFilm
RATING: R (For sexual content and language)
It seems the world needs a new, updated “Revenge of the Nerds” movie. This 2007 version of “Revenge of the Nerds” is a raucous re-imagining of the comedy classic. Adams College is turned upside down by a group of freshmen misfits who redefine the term “nerd.” As they try to form their own frat, the nerds incur the wrath of the ultimate alpha males, the infamous Alpha Beta fraternity. The nerds refuse to go down without a fight, waging an all-out battle against the notorious jocks during Greek Week.
STARRING: Jenna Dewan, Ryan Pinkston, Nick Zano, Katie Cassidy, Christopher Marquette, Kristin Cavallari, Dan Byrd, Efren Ramirez
DIRECTOR: Kyle Newman
STUDIO: Fox Atomic
RATING: R (For nudity, sexual situations, drug use, and strong language)
Based on Nicola Kraus and Emma McLaughlin’s popular satirical novel, “The Nanny Diaries” stars Scarlett Johansson as a working-class woman from New Jersey who becomes a nanny to a wealthy Manhattan family – “The Nanny Diaries.”
STARRING: Scarlett Johansson, Laura Linney, Paul Giamatti, Donna Murphy, Alicia Keys, Chris Evans
DIRECTORS: Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini
STUDIO: MGM & The Weinstein Co.
RATING: PG-13 (For strong language, adult situations)