JULY, 29

MOVIES RELEASED

1-DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: THE SHATTERED ORB

Sci-Fi / Adventure
Directed and Produced by Peter Jackson
Starring Nicholas Cage, Bruce Willis, Claire Danes, Sean Connery, Natalie Portman, Andy Serkis, Thomas Jane, Christopher Lee. Voice of Judi Dench.

Box Office: 100 mill.
Net Gains: 67 mill.

CMP’s Reaction: Saved by the bell. What’s going on with blockbusters this Season? The major hits of the Season are not being the movies supposed to be. But, anyway, profits enough to go on with the franchise…

2-AMERICAN HEARTLAND

Drama / Courtroom
Directed by Sean Penn
Produced by Martin Scorsese
Starring Denzel Washington, Jodie Foster, Daniel Radcliffe, Haley Joel Osment, Shia Labeouf, Robin Wright-Penn

Box Office: 67 mill.
Net Gains: 31 mill.

CMP’s Reaction: Great movie and great box office breakdown for a low budget production. One of Harry Stark’s favourites of the Season.

3-THREE WOODEN CROSSES

Drama / Religious
Directed by Billy Bob Thornton
Starring Jude Law, Claire Danes, Jennifer Connelly, Chris Cooper, Billy Bob Thornton
Box Office: 16 mill.
Net Loss: 5 mill.

CMP’s Reaction: How do you make a movie like this work in box office worlwide? It was a hit in deep middle America, but that’s not enough.

THE CRITICS CORNER

1-DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: THE SHATTERED ORB

“Big show is back. This second episode develops a better storyline than the first one. Characters have gained personality and chemistry. It’s still so obvious the influence of what could be called as the ‘Star Wars spirit’, but this franchise is showing its own potential and will probably become a reference in epic adventure movies by itself. Great work.”
-Roy Winslow

“You can notice Jackson feels so comfortable with his new saga. The surprising thing is that moviegoers have not responded as well as expected. But you bet this movie has much more quality and deserve much more success than other pretentious but empty blockbusters recently seen on screen.”
-Anne Roman

2-AMERICAN HEARTLAND

“Brilliant. Penn gets his degree as movie director with this production. It works at all levels: the study of irrational violence, the corruption of the judicial system, the manipulation from the press, the analysis of the complex personality of the three convicted teenagers, the picture of a community shaken by violence… A piece of art. You bet Penn has learnt a lot from his teachers, from Scorsese to Eastwood”
-Charlie Kiggs

“The story told in the movie could be a mix between William Faulkner and James Ellroy. Penn has set up a major work from a modest production (made me think on ‘Mystic River’). And the cast shines in their perfect acting work, specially Shia Labeouf – as the mentally disturbed teenager – and Jodie Foster, as the lawyer seeking both justice and a truth she does not even know what it may be.”
-Wayne Hart

3-THREE WOODEN CROSSES

“The movie is like a church song. A fable with an obvious moral. Not much more can be said. I just wonder why big stars like Jennifer Connelly and Claire Danes were interested in working in this little movie that does not contribute in any way to their successful careers.”
-Lilly Stevens

“Probably, this movie’s destiny is to be shown in schools during Religion class. It is surprising that Thornton has been so politically correct. Froats kills again most of the cast but, besides that, this new screenplay has nothing to do with his previous brilliant works such as ‘Flashes Of Life’ or ‘Carousel’.”
-Bob Felton



AWAITING RELEASE

1-AN AMERICAN STROLL

The Cast: Tobey Maguire, Kate Winslet, Michelle Pfeiffer, Paul Giamatti, Chris Rock, Tommy Lee Jones, Winona Ryder, Sylvester Stallone

The Director: Ang Lee
The Screenwriter: James Bradley

The Plot: Meet ‘Les Toulleries Café’, a glamorous name for a little bar in the outsides of the smallest and most forgotten village in the desert of Arizona. Larry Nolan (T.Maguire), reporter from The New York Post, has just quitted from his job and decided to travel across the States for a while in an old caravan trying to find himself. When his caravan breaks and he visits the Café, he can’t imagine the people he is going to meet there and how they will enrich himself and show him a new perspective of life.
This is the story of a group of lost souls in the middle of nowhere. It is funny and sad, both hopeless and full of hope, melancholic and comical. It is a story without a beginning and without an ending. It is only a story about people. And those people are:
Frankie (Paul Giamatti): The owner of ‘Les Toulleries Café’. A pessimistic guy obsessed with the idea that misfortune rules the world. A dreamer without a dream to hold to.
Lana (Michelle Pfeiffer): She once won the local Miss Cactus beauty contest. But her life ruined due to a little problem: Any contraceptive works for her, not even condoms. That means that she has had a baby every time she has made love. And that means that she has only made love seven times in her whole life and she has seven kids to take care of and a really bad - and unfair - reputation. But still waits for true love to come.
Bumper (Sylvester Stallone): He used to be a rodeo star until he felt from a wild horse and bumped his head. Now, he just tells his old glory days stories once and again in Frankie’s bar. A sweet big guy that left his brains and his future in the sand of a rodeo.
Margarita (W.Ryder): She always wanted to be a dancer. But the problem is that she is deaf. She has no family and leaves by herself, continuously dancing a music nobody but her can hear. Larry will invent a way to make her at least ‘feel’ the real music.
Jonah (Chris Rock): The only black guy in the village. He is convinced that there’s petroleum somewhere under the village, so he spends his life digging around, talking to much and teasing Bumper at the Café.
Cooper (Tommy Lee Jones): The only cop in the village. He considers himself an essential part of the community although there has not been a crime in the village for decades. Cooper is waiting for her strict 105 years old mum to die to confess Lana he loves her and ask her to marry him.
…and Sarah (Kate Winslet): a young widow with a bad temper. She works hard her family’s land by her own to make a living for her two little kids. Never been in any other place but the village. Does not believe in love or romance anymore. But Larry will try to make her change her mind about that.
Come to ‘Les Toulleries Café’ and meet all of them. They are not important people. But you will never forget them.

The Comment: A beautiful story about ordinary – and not so ordinary – people. Once again, Bradley has written a story with a difference. Won’t be a big hit, but a certain kind of audiences will probably love it.


2-CELL MATES

The Cast: Johnny Depp, Jack Nicholson, Winona Ryder, Woody Harrelson, Elle Fanning

The Director: Joel and Ethan Cohen
The Screenwriter: Ted Froats

The Plot: Dante (Johnny Depp), bitter at "the man," is in jail, awaiting trial for a drug dealing sentence that could earn him 15 years in prison, when he is suddenly released because the overwhelming evidence against him has "disapeared."

He gets to his tiny apartment and receives a phone call from someone who introduces himself as Basho (Jack Nicholson) and speaks only in haiku. He reveals that he is the one who got Dante out of jail, and now expects a favor in return. He tells Dante that he runs a national "group of ideological revolutionaries" who want to make the world a better, peaceful, more loving, safer place...by any means necessary. And he wants Dante to run the Los Angeles cell.

Dante agrees, based on his anger at "the man" and his desire for a father figure since his own father abandoned him when he was 10, and begins following Basho's orders. He begins contacting old criminal friends, plus recruiting college students, Vietnam vets, everyone who seems to buy into the "clean living" mantra. He even quits doing and dealing drugs, per Basho's orders.

Basho tells Dante to begin training his "soldiers" in case they must ever defend themselves against invaders...but while running drills in the trailer park they all live in, the LA SWAT team arrives, concerned that they are a terrorist organization. A shootout begins, with minimal casualties, but Dante and his group are now on the run and are targetted by Homeland Security, etc.

Basho tells them over the phone that he owns a christmas tree farm nearby, which he uses to partially fund his revolutionary organization, and they can hide there. However, when the group arrives, they find that there are no Christmas trees...the farm is being used to grow marijuana. Angela, the woman running the farm (Winona Ryder) tries to stop him, but Dante calls Basho and reports this fact. Basho orders that the drug fields be destroyed so their group is not associated with crime...but the SWAT team arrives before Dante can follow the order. Everyone takes off on foot, but Dante sets out to burn the fields of marijuana first. What he doesn't realize is that Angela's daughter (Elle Fanning) is playing in one of the fields. She is quickly surrounded by the flames. Dante and Angela go running through the burning fields, chased by the SWAT team, and rescue the girl...however she has been badly burned.

The three escape the SWAT team, but Basho refuses permission for them to take the girl to the hospital. The group's mantra says that holistic medicine will heal her. However, Dante feels responsible for her injuries, so he decides to disobey Dante for the first time. He takes Angela and the girl to the hospital, but a doctor recognizes that the girl must have been burned in the drug farm raid that has been all over the news. Dante takes several doctors, nurses, and patients hostage and barricades the doors just as the SWAT team arrives once again. A hostage negotiator (Woody Harrelson) makes contact with Dante. Dante demands 100 thousand dollars in unmarked bills, to destract the SWAT team while he forces the doctors to heal the girl. To his surprise, the SWAT team delivers the money in exchange for a release of hostages. He releases everyone once the girl is healed...then he, Angela, and the girl escape by stealing an emergency E-VAC helicopter that was on the roof of the hospital. They have the money, and the girl is healed...but the entire cell has abandoned them, and they must now must face Basho's wrath.

To be continued...

The Comment: A weird storyline. The perfect story for the Cohen Brothers’ peculiar moviemaking style. Expectations? A cult movie for cool moviegoers that enjoy something different.


3-POWERHOUSE

The Cast: Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Demi Moore, Daniel Radcliffe, Bill Nighy, Christopher Eccleston, Hallie Kate Eisenberg

The Director: Gus Van Sant
The Screenwriter: Marcus Trax

The Plot: Sam Plunt is a simple middle aged man who works in the local coal fired power plant to make end meat for him and his family, but spends too much time out on the town. His wife Sally (Demi Moore) who drinks too much, and his children estranged Benjamin (Daniel Radcliffe) and May (Hallie Kate Eisenberg).
However when new legislation isn't pushed through government, that would see a modernisation of the plant, local environmental campaigners decide to make their voice heard and target the powerplant.
Sam bemused, along with his work collegues Frank (Christopher Eccleston), Edgar (Bill Nighy) and Polly-Anna (Eva Green), try to work past it. However things don't turn out that way when suddenly the campaigners start a personality campaign against the workers and their families. Making the local town turn against them, and the other workers at the plant, even though they work like everyone else; to put food on the table.
Under this pressure Frank decides to leave with his family, sacrificing job and friends. Edgar pushes for ealy retirement. And Polly-Anne stays with Sam as she has been trying for years to seduce him and in her own way cares for him.
As the plant is affected soon more than half the work-force has leftIt is only when Sam who isn't giving in and still going to work each day sees a report on his family specifically over allegations of abusing his son does he decide to fight back. Rallying the workers he clashes with the environmentalists in the media whilst still going to work. In celebrations of his sucesses he sleeps with Polly-Anne. When his house is firebombed by a group of the campaigners Sam is severly burned rescuing his family and he truely realises that he should have moved on. Sam quits his job and the entire affair to move on with his family, leaving all behind including Polly-Anne.

The Comment: A very ‘british’ story following the trail of the acclaimed ‘South East’. Hard to make it work beyond the British Islands frontiers. But the appeal of the cast may help.