Rampart
February 6, 2012 by Maura Reilly
Filed under 2012 Releases, Featured Movies
Los Angeles, 1999 — Officer Dave Brown (Harrelson) is a Vietnam vet and a Rampart Precinct cop, dedicated to doing “the people’s dirty work” and asserting his own code of justice, often blurring the lines between right and wrong to maintain his action-hero state of mind.
When he gets caught on tape beating a suspect, he finds himself in a personal and emotional downward spiral as the consequences of his past sins and his refusal to change his ways in light of a department-wide corruption scandal seal his fate.
Brown internalizes his fear, anguish and paranoia as his world, complete with two ex-wives who are sisters, two daughters, an aging mentor dispensing bad advice, investigators galore, and a series of seemingly random women, starts making less and less sense.
In the end, what is left is a human being stripped of all his pretense, machismo, chauvinism, arrogance, sexism, homophobia, racism, aggression, misanthropy; but is it enough to redeem him as a man?
In theaters Friday, February 10, 2012.
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The Grey
January 23, 2012 by Maura Reilly
Filed under 2012 Releases, In Theaters
In The Grey, Liam Neeson leads an unruly group of oil-rig roughnecks when their plane crashes into the remote Alaskan wilderness. Battling mortal injuries and merciless weather, the survivors have only a few days to escape the icy elements – and a vicious pack of rogue wolves on the hunt – before their time runs out.
Opens Friday, January 27, 2012.
Red Tails
January 16, 2012 by Maura Reilly
Filed under 2012 Releases, In Theaters
1944. To help win the war, the Pentagon brass has no choice but to consider the untested African-American pilots of the experimental Tuskegee training program.
Just as the young Tuskegee men are about to be shut down and shipped back home, they are given the ultimate chance to show their courage. These intrepid young airmen take to the skies to fight for their country – and the fate of the free world.
Opens Friday, January 20, 2012.
The Iron Lady
January 9, 2012 by Maura Reilly
Filed under 2012 Releases, In Theaters
THE IRON LADY tells the compelling story of Margaret Thatcher, a woman who smashed through the barriers of gender and class to be heard in a male-dominated world. The story concerns power and the price that is paid for power, and is a surprising and intimate portrait of an extraordinary and complex woman.
The film stars Academy Award-winners Meryl Streep as Lady Thatcher and Jim Broadbent as Denis Thatcher. Their young selves are played by Alexandra Roach and Harry Lloyd. The rest of the cast of family and friends, politicians and advisers, is made up of the very best of British acting talent, including: Olivia Colman, Nicholas Farrell, Susan Brown, Roger Allam, Anthony Head, Julian Wadham, Pip Torrens, Nick Dunning, Richard E Grant, David Westhead, Angus Wright and John Sessions.
Now playing in the US and the UK.
Official Site US
Official Site UK
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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
December 15, 2011 by Maura Reilly
Filed under 2011 Releases, In Theaters
Hopeing to distance himself from fallout from a libel conviction. journalist Mikael Blomkvist retreats to a remote island in Sweden’s far north where the unsolved murder of a young girl still haunts her industrialist uncle fourty years later. Ensconced in a cottage on the island where the killer may still roam, Blomkvist’s invesitgation draws him into the secrets and lies of the rich and powerful, and throws him together with one unlikely ally – tattooed, punk hacker , Lisbeth Salander.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is the first film in Columbia Pictures’ and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures’ three-picture adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s literary blockbuster The Millennium Trilogy. Directed by David Fincher and starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara, the film is based on the first novel in the trilogy, which altogether have sold 50 million copies in 46 countries and become a worldwide phenomenon. The screenplay is by Steven Zaillian.
Opes in theaters, Wednesday December 21, 2011.
Carnage
December 2, 2011 by Maura Reilly
Filed under 2011 Releases, In Theaters
Set in contemporary Brooklyn, New York, Carnage centers on two pairs of parents one of whose child has hurt the other at a public park, who meet to discuss the matter in a civilized manner. However, as the evening goes on, the parents become increasingly childish, resulting in the evening devolving into chaos.
Opens in NY and LA Friday, December 16, 2011.
I Melt With You
December 2, 2011 by Maura Reilly
Filed under 2011 Releases, In Theaters
Richard (Thomas Jane), Ron (Jeremy Piven), Jonathan (Rob Lowe) and Tim
(Christian McKay) are old college friends that gather annually for a week in Big Sur to celebrate their friendship and catch-up on each others lives. They seem like typical men in their forties all with careers, families, and enormous responsibilities but like most people there is a lot more beneath the surface.
As the week progresses, they go down the rabbit hole of excess as mountains of drugs are consumed to a blaring rock ‘n’ roll soundtrack. Parties with much younger women spin out of control. Exhausted and run ragged, they bare their souls to one another revealing the disillusionment with their lives. As the truth emerges, the reunion takes a much darker turn when a promise from their past is brought to light. From director Mark Pellington, I MELT WITH YOU is a visually dazzling, wild and wooly trip deep into the male psyche, driven by four amazingly committed and profound performances.
Available on On Demand and opens in theaters Friday, December 9, 2011.
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Director Mark Pellington’s official site
Shame
December 2, 2011 by Maura Reilly
Filed under 2011 Releases, In Theaters
Brandon (Michael Fassbender) is a New Yorker who shuns intimacy with women but feeds his desires with a compulsive addiction to sex. When his wayward younger sister (Carey Mulligan) moves into his apartment stirring memories of their shared painful past, Brandon’s insular life spirals out of control.
Opens in select theaters Friday, December 2, 2011.
The Artist
November 11, 2011 by Maura Reilly
Filed under 2011 Releases, In Theaters
Hollywood 1927. George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) is a silent movie superstar. The advent of the talkies will sound the death knell for his career and see him fall into oblivion. For young extra Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo), it seems the sky’s the limit – major movie stardom awaits. THE ARTIST tells the story of their interlinked destinies.
In theaters Friday, November 25, 2011.
The Descendants
November 11, 2011 by Maura Reilly
Filed under 2011 Releases, In Theaters
From Alexander Payne, the creator of the Oscar-winning SIDEWAYS, set in Hawaii, THE DESCENDANTS is a sometimes humorous, sometime tragic journey for Matt King (George Clooney) an indifferent husband and father of two girls, who is forced to re-examine his past and embrace his future when his wife suffers a boating accident off of Waikiki. The event leads to a rapprochement with his young daughters while Matt wrestles with a decision to sell the family’s land handed down from Hawaiian royalty and missionaries.
Opens Wednesday, November 16, 2011.
J. Edgar
November 11, 2011 by Maura Reilly
Filed under 2011 Releases, In Theaters
As the face of law enforcement in America for almost fifty years, J. Edgar Hoover was feared and admired, reviled and revered. But behind closed doors, he held secrets that would have destroyed his image, his career and his life.
Under the direction of Clint Eastwood, Leonardo DiCaprio stars in the title role of “J. Edgar,” a drama that explores the public and private life of one of the most powerful, controversial and enigmatic figures of the 20th century.
Opens in select cities November 9, everywhere Friday November 11.
My Week With Marilyn
October 31, 2011 by Maura Reilly
Filed under 2011 Releases, In Theaters
In the early summer of 1956, 23 year-old Colin Clark, just down from Oxford and determined to make his way in the film business, worked as a lowly assistant on the set of “THE PRINCE AND THE SHOWGIRL”, the film that united Sir Laurence Olivier with Marilyn Monroe, who, whilst shooting, was also on honeymoon with her new husband, the playwright Arthur Miller.
Nearly 40 years on, his diary account “THE PRINCE, THE SHOWGIRL AND ME” was published, but one week was missing, and this is the story of that week: an idyll in which he escorted a Monroe desperate to get away from her retinue of Hollywood hangers-on and the pressures of working. When Arthur Miller makes a brief trip to Paris, the coast is clear for Colin to introduce her to some of the pleasures of British life.
The collision of the two worlds – old England and new Hollywood – is as incongruous as it is delightful. Slowly Marilyn begins to shake off the dark fog of insecurity and fear always hovering around her. She reacts with lovely naturalness to this alien world and as she relaxes she offers Colin fleeting insights into her own background – one of family madness, single-minded ambition and uninhibited sexuality. Simply and without self-pity, she relates the tale of her rise to the top in Hollywood; a story involving abuse of one form or another at the hands of almost every man she has ever known, abuse that has left her with only the thinnest of protective layers.
She is not without her contradictions – everyone wants something from her, but she too is fixated on the life she has chosen and is quite unable to leave it, even though the pressure is crushing her…
… and yet, for a moment, lost in the English countryside, it seems she might finally escape.
Opens Wednesday, November 23, 2011.
Like Crazy
September 29, 2011 by Maura Reilly
Filed under 2011 Releases, In Theaters
A love story is both a physical and emotional tale, one that can be deeply personal and heartbreaking for an audience to experience. Director Drake Doremus’ film Like Crazy beautifully illustrates how your first real love is as thrilling and blissful as it is devastating. When a British college student (Felicity Jones) falls for her American classmate (Anton Yelchin) they embark on a passionate and life-changing journey only to be separated when she violates the terms of her visa. Like Crazy explores how a couple faces the real challenges of being together and of being apart. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Best Picture at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and of the Special Jury Prize for Best Actress for Felicity Jones, Like Crazy depicts both the hopefulness and the heartbreak of love.
Opens Friday, October 28th.
The Rum Diary
September 29, 2011 by Maura Reilly
Filed under 2011 Releases
Based on the debut novel by Hunter S. Thompson, “The Rum Diary” tells the increasingly unhinged story of itinerant journalist Paul Kemp (Johnny Depp). Tiring of the noise and madness of New York and the crushing conventions of late Eisenhower-era America, Kemp travels to the pristine island of Puerto Rico to write for a local newspaper, The San Juan Star, run by downtrodden editor Lotterman (Richard Jenkins).
Adopting the rum-soaked life of the island, Paul soon becomes obsessed with Chenault (Amber Heard), the wildly attractive Connecticut-born fiancée of Sanderson (Aaron Eckhart). Sanderson, a businessman involved in shady property development deals, is one of a growing number of American entrepreneurs who are determined to convert Puerto Rico into a capitalist paradise in service of the wealthy. When Kemp is recruited by Sanderson to write favorably about his latest unsavory scheme, the journalist is presented with a choice: to use his words for the corrupt businessmen’s financial benefit, or use them to take the bastards down.
Opens Friday, October 28th.
Margin Call
September 29, 2011 by Maura Reilly
Filed under 2011 Releases
Set in the high-stakes world of the financial industry, Margin Call is an entangling thriller involving the key players at an investment firm during one perilous 24-hour period in the early stages of the 2008 financial crises. When an entry-level analyst unlocks information that could prove to be the downfall of the firm, a roller-coaster ride ensues as decisions, both financial and moral catapult the lives of all involved to the brink of disaster. Writer/director J.C. Chandor’s enthralling first feature is a stark and bravely authentic portrayal of the financial industry and its denizens as they confront the decisions that shape our global future.
Opens Friday, October 21st.
Trespass
September 29, 2011 by Maura Reilly
Filed under 2011 Releases
In a private, wealthy community, priority is placed on security and no exception is made for the Miller family’s estate. Behind their pristine walls and manicured gardens, Kyle (Nicolas Cage), a fast-talking businessman, has entrusted the mansion’s renovation to his stunning wife, Sarah (Nicole Kidman).
But between making those big decisions and keeping tabs on their defiant teenage daughter (Liana Liberato), Sarah often finds herself distracted by a young, handsome worker (Cam Gigandet) at their home. Nothing is what it seems, and it will take a group of cold-blooded criminals led by Elias (Ben Mendelsohn), who have been planning a vicious home invasion for months, to bring the Miller family together. When they storm the manor, everyone is tangled up in betrayal, deception, temptation and scheming. Kyle, Sarah and Avery will take the ultimate risk to make it out with their lives – and their family – intact.
TRESPASS is directed by Joel Schumacher and stars Nicolas Cage, Nicole Kidman, Ben Mendelsohn, Cam Gigandet, Liana Liberato, Jordana Spiro, Dash Mihok, Emily Meade and Nico Tortorella. The film was written by Karl Gajdusek, produced by Rene Besson, Irwin Winkler and David Winkler and was executive produced by Avi Lerner, Danny Dimbort, Trevor Short, Boaz Davidson and John Thompson.
Millennium Entertainment will release TRESPASS on October 14, 2011 in theaters and at home – rent it with your remote control.
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Texas Killing Fields
September 29, 2011 by Maura Reilly
Filed under 2011 Releases
Inspired by true events, this tense and haunting thriller follows Detective Souder (Sam Worthington), a homicide detective in a small Texas town, and his partner, transported New York City cop Detective Heigh (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) as they track a sadistic serial killer dumping his victims’ mutilated bodies in a nearby marsh locals call “The Killing Fields”.
Though the swampland crime scenes are outside their jurisdiction, Detective Heigh is unable to turn his back on solving the gruesome murders. Despite his partner’s warnings, he sets out to investigate the crimes. Before long, the killer changes the game and begins hunting the detectives, teasing them with possible clues at the crimes scenes while always remaining one step ahead. When familiar local girl Anne (Chloe Grace Moretz) goes missing, the detectives find themselves racing against time to catch the killer and save the young girl’s life.
Opens in limited release Friday, October 14th.
Footloose (2011)
September 29, 2011 by Maura Reilly
Filed under 2011 Releases
Writer/Director Craig Brewer (“Hustle & Flow,” “Black Snake Moan”) delivers a new take of the beloved 1984 classic film, “Footloose.” Ren MacCormack (played by newcomer Kenny Wormald) is transplanted from Boston to the small southern town of Bomont where he experiences a heavy dose of culture shock. A few years prior, the community was rocked by a tragic accident that killed five teenagers after a night out and Bomont’s local councilmen and the beloved Reverend Shaw Moore (Dennis Quaid) responded by implementing ordinances that prohibit loud music and dancing. Not one to bow to the status quo, Ren challenges the ban, revitalizing the town and falling in love with the minister’s troubled daughter Ariel (Julianne Hough) in the process.
Opens Friday, October 14th.
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Real Steel
September 29, 2011 by Maura Reilly
Filed under 2011 Releases
A gritty, white-knuckle, action ride set in the near-future, where the sport of boxing has gone hi-tech, “Real Steel” stars Hugh Jackman as Charlie Kenton, a washed-up fighter who lost his chance at a title when 2000-pound, 8-foot-tall steel robots took over the ring. Now nothing but a small-time promoter, Charlie earns just enough money piecing together low-end bots from scrap metal to get from one underground boxing venue to the next. When Charlie hits rock bottom, he reluctantly teams up with his estranged son Max (Dakota Goyo) to build and train a championship contender. As the stakes in the brutal, no-holds-barred arena are raised, Charlie and Max, against all odds, get one last shot at a comeback.
“Real Steel” is directed by Shawn Levy (“Night at the Museum” franchise and “Date Night”).
Opens Friday, October 7th.
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Moneyball
September 15, 2011 by Maura Reilly
Filed under 2011 Releases
Brad Pitt stars in the real-life tale of Major League Baseball general manager Billy Beane, who built up a winning team despite a decreased budget thanks to his sly use of statistical data to calculate the best — and cheapest — players for his roster. Aaron Sorkin updates Steve Zaillian’s adaptation of Michael Lewis’ fly-on-the-wall novel for Columbia Pictures, with Robin Wright, Jonah Hill, and Philip Seymour Hoffman co-starring. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi
Opens Friday, September 23rd.
50/50
August 29, 2011 by Maura Reilly
Filed under 2011 Releases
Inspired by personal experiences, 50/50 is an original story about friendship, love, survival and finding humor in unlikely places. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Seth Rogen star as best friends whose lives are changed by a cancer diagnosis in this new comedy directed by Jonathan Levine from a script by Will Reiser.
“We worked with Will on Da Ali G show, and it was shortly after that we learned he was sick.” Rogen recalls. “As shocking, sad, confusing and generally screwed up as it was; we couldn’t ignore that because we were so ill-equipped to deal with the situation, funny things kept happening. Will got better, and when he did, we thought the best way to pull something good out of the situation was to get him to write a screenplay. Ideally we wanted to make a film that would be as funny, sad, and hopefully as honest as the experience we went through. As soon as the script was completed, it quickly became a passion project for all of us. It helped us come to terms with Will’s struggle as well as our own experiences.”
50/50 is the story of a guy’s transformative and, yes, sometimes funny journey to health — drawing its emotional core from Will Reiser’s own experience with cancer and reminding us that friendship and love, no matter what bizarre turns they take, are the greatest healers.
Opens Friday, September 30th.
Machine Gun Preacher
August 26, 2011 by Maura Reilly
Filed under 2011 Releases
Machine Gun Preacher is the inspirational true story of Sam Childers, a former drug-dealing criminal who undergoes an astonishing transformation and finds an unexpected calling as the savior of hundreds of kidnapped and orphaned children. Gerard Butler (300) delivers a searing performance as Childers, the impassioned founder of the Angels of East Africa rescue organization in Golden Globe-nominated director Marc Forster’s (Monster’s Ball, Finding Neverland) moving story of violence and redemption.
When ex-biker-gang member Sam Childers (Butler) makes the life-changing decision to go to East Africa to help repair homes destroyed by civil war, he is outraged by the unspeakable horrors faced by the region’s vulnerable populace, especially the children. Ignoring the warnings of more experienced aide workers, Sam breaks ground for an orphanage where it’s most needed—in the middle of territory controlled by the brutal Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a renegade militia that forces youngsters to become soldiers before they even reach their teens.
But for Sam, it is not enough to shelter the LRA’s intended victims. Determined to save as many as possible, he leads armed missions deep into enemy territory to retrieve kidnapped children, restoring peace to their lives – and eventually his own. The explosive, real-life tale of a man who has rescued over a thousand orphans from starvation, disease and enslavement, Machine Gun Preacher also stars Michelle Monaghan (Due Date), Kathy Baker (Cold Mountain), Madeline Carroll (Mr. Popper’s Penguins), Academy Award® nominated Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road) and Souleymane Sy Savane (“Damages”).
Opens Friday, September 23rd.
Warrior
August 25, 2011 by Maura Reilly
Filed under 2011 Releases
Rising stars Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton command the screen as two estranged brothers facing the fight of a lifetime in Lionsgate’s WARRIOR, a moving, inspirational action drama from acclaimed director Gavin O’Connor (Miracle).
Haunted by a tragic past, Marine Tommy Conlon (Hardy) returns home for the first time in fourteen years to enlist the help of his father (Nick Nolte) to train for SPARTA, the biggest winner-takes-all event in mixed martial arts history. A former wrestling prodigy, Tommy blazes a path toward the championship while his brother, Brendan (Edgerton), an ex-fighter-turned teacher, returns to the ring in a desperate bid to save his family from financial ruin. But when Brendan’s unlikely, underdog rise sets him on a collision course with the unstoppable Tommy, the two brothers must finally confront each other and the forces that pulled them apart, facing off in the most soaring, soul stirring, and unforgettable climax that must be seen to be believed.
A rousing ode to redemption, reconciliation and the power of the human spirit, WARRIOR is also a moving testament to the enduring bonds of family. WARRIOR stars Tom Hardy (the upcoming The Dark Knight Rises, Inception, Black Hawk Down), Joel Edgerton (Animal Kingdom, Star Wars: Episode III), Jennifer Morrison (“House”, Star Trek) and Nick Nolte (Tropic Thunder, The Thin Red Line). The film is directed by Gavin O’Connor; screenplay by Gavin O’Connor & Anthony Tambakis & Cliff Dorman and story by Gavin O’Connor & Cliff Dorfman.
Opens Friday, September 9th.
Contagion
August 25, 2011 by Maura Reilly
Filed under 2011 Releases
“Contagion” follows the rapid progress of a lethal airborne virus that kills within days. As the fast-moving epidemic grows, the worldwide medical community races to find a cure and control the panic that spreads faster than the virus itself. At the same time, ordinary people struggle to survive in a society coming apart.
Opens Friday, September 9th.
The Debt
August 1, 2011 by Maura Reilly
Filed under 2011 Releases
The espionage thriller begins in 1997, as shocking news reaches retired Mossad secret agents Rachel (Academy Award winner Helen Mirren) and Stephan (two-time Academy Award nominee Tom Wilkinson) about their former colleague David (Ciarán Hinds of Focus’ “Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day”). All three have been venerated for decades by their country because of the mission that they undertook back in 1966, when the trio (portrayed, respectively, by Jessica Chastain [soon to be seen in “The Tree of Life”], Marton Csokas [Universal’s upcoming “Dream House”], and Sam Worthington [“Avatar,” “Clash of the Titans”]) tracked down Nazi war criminal Vogel (Jesper Christensen of “Casino Royale” and “Quantum of Solace”) in East Berlin. At great risk, and at considerable personal cost, the team’s mission was accomplished – or was it? The suspense builds in and across two different time periods, with startling action and surprising revelations.
Opens Wednesday, August 31st.






















