Lakeview Terrace
SONY Street: Jan. 27 Prebook: now > Engaging thriller takes an easy way out in its last third. Interracial newlyweds (Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington) move into a suburban Los Angeles neighborhood and quickly earn the displeasure of their autocratic neighbor (Samuel L. Jackson), a tough cop who wages a campaign of intimidation against them.
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The Secret Life of Bees
FOX Street: Feb. 3 Prebook: Jan. 7 > Superb ensemble acting distinguishes this period drama. The preternaturally gifted Dakota Fanning registers solidly as a traumatized teen who lives with three African-American sisters in this schmaltzy but earnest drama based on a best-selling novel by Sue Monk Kidd.
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Flash of Genius
UNIVERSAL Street: Feb. 17 Prebook: Jan. 6 > Capra-esque fable pits average Joe against big corporation. Flash of Genius recounts the true-life story of Detroit mathematics professor Robert Kearns (played by Greg Kinnear), whose ’60s workshop tinkering led to the invention of the intermittent windshield wiper.
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Soul Men
WEINSTEIN/GENIUS Street: Feb. 3 Prebook: now > Star power of Mac and Jackson trumps warmed-over gags and situations. An African-American Sunshine Boys (with a little Grumpy Old Men thrown in for good measure), Soul Men offers a few good musical numbers and palpable chemistry between co-stars Bernie Mac and Samuel L.
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Pride and Glory
WARNER Street: Jan. 27 Prebook: Dec. 23 > Cops on the take in NYC—nothing new, but palatable entertainment. This adequate thriller centers on a family of New York cops and pits brothers against each other. Emotionally and physically scarred detective Ray (Edward Norton) learns that his uniformed brother-in-law Jimmy (Colin Farrell overdoing a Noo Yawk accent) heads a group of dirty cops.
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The Express
UNIVERSAL Street: Jan. 20 Prebook: now > Cliché-ridden story of the first African-American Heisman Trophy winner. Rob Brown is earnest and likeable as gridiron great Ernie Davis, who left his poverty-stricken background behind after succeeding Jim Brown as the star running back of Syracuse University’s football team in 1959.
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My Best Friend’s Girl
LIONSGATE Street: Jan. 13 Prebook: now > Bawdy rom-com lives up to its 'crude, lewd, rude’ tagline. Stand-up comic Dane Cook plays a lout named Tank, a notorious underachiever who earns extra money as a professional rebound—someone who dates newly single girls and convinces them by virtue of his obnoxious behavior that their ex-boyfriends (who are paying Tank) weren’t so b...
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Tyler Perry’s The Family That Preys
LIONSGATE Street: Jan. 13 Prebook: now > Occasionally florid melodramatics don’t mar Tyler Perry’s ambitious drama. More ambitious dramatically than Tyler Perry’s earlier films, The Family That Preys nearly sinks beneath the weight of its plot complexities, but provides solid entertainment.
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Appaloosa
REVIEW: WARNER Street: Jan. 13 Prebook: now > Top-notch western with appealing stars, straightforward narrative and vigorous action.
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Henry Poole is Here
REVIEW: ANCHOR BAY/STARZ Street: Jan 20 Prebook: Dec. 18 > Good-natured and innocuous but still offbeat yarn.
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The Lucky Ones
REVIEW: LIONSGATE Street: Jan. 27 Prebook: Dec. 30 > Non-ideological film about returning Iraq War vets.
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Ghost Town
REVIEW: PARAMOUNT Street: Dec. 27 Prebook: now > Gifted comic actor Ricky Gervais displays real panache in his first Hollywood starrer.
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The Duchess
PARAMOUNT Street: Dec. 27 Prebook: now > Sturdily mounted period romance lacks passion. Keira Knightley is back in a corset, this time as 18th century free spirit Georgiana Spencer, whose arranged marriage to the cruel Duke of Devonshire (Ralph Fiennes) is intended only to produce a male heir. Being headstrong, Georgiana refuses to confine her activities to the prescribed social limits, cam...
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Mirrors
FOX Street: Jan. 13 Prebook: Dec. 17 > So-so remake of Asian chiller uses gory effects to advantage but drags. Yet another American remake of an Asian horror film, Mirrors follows former policeman and recovering substance abuser Ben Carson (Kiefer Sutherland) who, separated from his wife (Paula Patton) and temporarily living with his sister (Amy Smart), takes a night-watchman job in an old,...
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Palo Pinto Gold
MONARCH Street: Jan. 20 Prebook: Dec. 29 > Cheap but ambitious horse opera that tries to emulate such westerns as Open Range. Although this low-budget oater aspires to be another Open Range, it more closely resembles the grade-B westerns of yore: unpretentious formulaic actioners with clearly defined heroes and villains.
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Yeti
GENIUS Street: Jan. 13 Prebook: Dec. 9 > Corny but fun Sasquatch movie. In this cheesy Sci Fi Channel original, college students are stranded in the snow-covered Himalayas when their plane crashes. With the possibility of rescue becoming remote, the survivors turn to cannibalism. But they aren’t the only hungry ones in the area—a massive hairy beast stalks and kills them one by ...
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Choose Connor
STRAND Street: Jan. 13 Prebook: Dec. 18 > Promising political drama gets sidetracked by a sleazy plot turn. After a promising start, this political drama becomes so unnecessarily tawdry that it dilutes its powerful message about the perils of youthful idealism. Socially awkward but bright 15-year-old Owen Norris (Alex Linz) impresses local politician and Senatorial candidate Lawrence Connor...
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Bangkok Dangerous
LIONSGATE Street: Jan. 6 Prebook: Dec. 10 > Remake of decade-old thriller will please Nicolas Cage fans but seem old to others. Hong Kong-based sibling filmmakers Oxide Pang Chun and Danny Pang have retooled their 1999 hit thriller for American audiences by casting Nicolas Cage in the lead. Cage plays a dour hit man named Joe, who arrives in Bangkok to commit a series of killings.
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Towelhead
WARNER Street: Dec. 30 Prebook: NOV. 25 > Provocative drama about a beautiful 13-year-old has off-putting sequences. In his incendiary directorial debut, American Beauty scripter and Six Feet Under creator Alan Ball serves up a spicy mix of political satire, racial sensitivity and sexual exploitation.
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