Plot Summary: In the course of one chaotic week, the lives of three conflicted New York City police officers are dramatically transformed by their involvement in a massive drug operation in “Brooklyn’s Finest,” a searing new crime drama from acclaimed director Antoine Fuqua (”Training Day”).

Burned out veteran Eddie Dugan (Golden Globe®-winner Richard Gere) is just one week away from his pension and a fishing cabin in Connecticut. Narcotics officer Sal Procida (Oscar® nominee Ethan Hawke) has discovered there’s no line he won’t cross to provide a better life for his long-suffering wife and seven children. And Clarence “Tango” Butler (Oscar® nominee Don Cheadle) has been undercover so long his loyalties have started to shift from his fellow police officers to his prison buddy Caz (Wesley Snipes), one of Brooklyn’s most infamous drug dealers. With personal and work pressures bearing down on them, each man faces daily tests of judgment and honor in one of the world’s most difficult jobs.

When NYPD’s Operation Clean Up targets the notoriously drug-ridden BK housing project, all three officers find themselves swept away by the violence and corruption of Brooklyn’s gritty 65th Precinct and its most treacherous criminals. During seven fateful days, Eddie, Sal and Tango find themselves hurtling inextricably toward the same fatal crime scene and a shattering collision with destiny.

The film captures the volatile and deadly world of one of New York’s most dangerous precincts through the eyes of the men and women pledged to protect and serve, as they face the wrenching choices that make them “Brooklyn’s Finest.”

Plot Summary: Adam Buckley finds himself having to rob a convenience store on the last night of pledging a college fraternity. But when the initial ritual goes horribly wrong, and every subsequent move proves disastrous, Adam must take a stand to save a friends life.

Trailer:
Coming Soon!

Plot Summary: David Goyer is now writing the next Batman installment with Chris Nolan’s brother Jonah. No plot details, villains or cast have been announced.

Trailer:
Coming Soon!

Studio: Walt Disney Pictures
Director: Tim Burton
Screenwriter: Linda Woolverton
Starring: Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Crispin Glover, Matt Lucas, Mia Wasikowska, Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry, Michael Sheen, Timothy Spall, Christopher Lee, Paul Whitehouse, Barbara Windsor
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy
MPAA Rating: PG (for fantasy action/violence involving scary images and situations, and for a smoking caterpillar)
Official Website: Disney.com
Review: 6.5/10 rating | 5.5/10 rating | 6/10 rating

From Walt Disney Pictures and visionary director Tim Burton comes an epic 3D fantasy adventure “Alice in Wonderland,” a magical and imaginative twist on some of the most beloved stories of all time. Johnny Depp stars as the Mad Hatter and Mia Wasikowska as 19-year-old Alice, who returns to the whimsical world she first encountered as a young girl, reuniting with her childhood friends: the White Rabbit, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, the Dormouse, the Caterpillar, the Cheshire Cat, and of course, the Mad Hatter. Alice embarks on a fantastical journey to find her true destiny and end the Red Queen’s reign of terror. The all-star cast also includes Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter and Crispin Glover; Linda Woolverton wrote the screenplay. Capturing the wonder of Lewis Carroll’s beloved “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” (1865) and “Through the Looking-Glass” (1871) with stunning, avant-garde visuals and the most charismatic characters in literary history, “Alice in Wonderland” comes to the big screen in Disney Digital 3D™ on March 5, 2010.

The creative team includes director of photography Terry Stacey (”The Nanny Diaries,” “Dexter”), production designer Stephen Beatrice (”Then She Found Me,” “Sherrybaby”), costume designer Melissa Toth (”No Reservations,” “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”), and editor Anne McCabe (”Maria Full of Grace,” “You Can Count on Me”).

Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures

Director: John Lee Hancock

Screenwriter: John Lee Hancock

Starring: Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw, Kathy Bates, Quinton Aaron, Lily Collins, Jae Head

Genre: Drama, Sports

Official Website: TheBlindSidemovie.com

Review: 6/10 rating

Plot Summary:

Sandra Bullock (”The Proposal”), Tim McGraw (”Friday Night Lights”) and Oscar®-winner Kathy Bates (”Misery,” “Revolutionary Road”) star in Alcon Entertainment and Warner Bros. Pictures’ “The Blind Side,” which depicts the remarkable true story of All-American football star Michael Oher.

A homeless African-American youngster from a broken home, Oher (Quinton Aaron) is taken in by the Touhys, a well-to-do white family who help him fulfill his potential on and off the football field. At the same time, Oher’s presence in the Touhys’ lives leads them to some insightful self-discoveries of their own.

Living in his new environment, the teen faces a completely different set of challenges to overcome. As a football player and student, Oher works hard and, with the help of his coaches and adopted family, becomes an All-American offensive left tackle

Studio: Summit Entertainment

Director: David Bowers

Screenwriter: Timothy Harris, David Bowers

Starring: Freddie Highmore, Nicolas Cage, Kristen Bell, Nathan Lane, Bill Nighy, Eugene Levy, Matt Lucus, Donald Sutherland, Charlize Theron

Genre: Animation, Action, Family, Comedy, Sci-Fi

Official Website: AstroBoy-themovie.com

Review: 6.3/10

Plot Summary:

Few characters have made as powerful or as lasting an impression on international popular culture as Astro Boy. The little robot first appeared in 1951 as a character in the celebrated artist and animator Osamu Tezuka’s legendary manga (Japanese comic book) and became an instant icon. He was subsequently featured as the star of his own television series in both black-and-white and in color, eventually airing in over 40 countries. Astro Boy created the standard for a new form of animation that has become world famous as anime. Now for the first time, Astro Boy will be brought to life on the big screen. Created with breathtaking computer animation from Imagi Studios, the film “Astro Boy” is a thrilling tale of a true hero. The film is set to debut in theaters on October 23, 2009. Set in futuristic Metro City, “Astro Boy” is about a young robot with incredible powers created by a brilliant scientist named Dr. Tenma (Nicolas Cage). Powered by positive “blue” energy, Astro Boy (Freddie Highmore) is endowed with super strength, x-ray vision, unbelievable speed and the ability to fly. Embarking on a journey in search of acceptance, Astro Boy encounters many other colorful characters along the way. Through his adventures, he learns the joys and emotions of being human, and gains the strength to embrace his destiny. Ultimately learning his friends and family are in danger, Astro Boy marshals his awesome super powers and returns to Metro City in a valiant effort to save everything he cares about and to understand what it means to be a hero.

Studio: Lionsgate

Director: Pierre Morel

Screenwriter: Luc Besson, Adi Hasak

Starring: John Travolta, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Kasia Smutniak, Richard Durden

Genre: Action

Official Website: FromParisWithLovefilm.com

Review: 7/10 rating

Plot Summary:

A personal aide to the U.S. Ambassador in France, James Reese (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) has an enviable life in Paris and a beautiful French girlfriend, but his real passion is his side job as a low-level operative for the CIA. All James wants is to become a bona fide agent and see some real action. So when he’s offered his first senior-level assignment, he can’t believe his good luck – until he meets his new partner, special agent Charlie Wax (John Travolta).

A trigger-happy, wisecracking, loose cannon who’s been sent to Paris to stop a terrorist attack, Wax leads James on a white-knuckle shooting spree through the Parisian underworld that has James praying for his desk job. But when James discovers he’s a target of the same crime ring they’re trying to bust, he realizes there’s no turning back…and that Wax himself might be his only hope for making it through the next forty-eight hours alive.

Release Date: June 26, 2009 (NY, LA)

Studio: Summit Entertainment

Director: Kathryn Bigelow

Screenwriter: Mark Boal

Starring: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Ralph Fiennes, Guy Pearce

Genre: Action, Drama

Official Website: thehurtlocker-movie.com/

Review: 8.5/10 rating

Plot Summary:

“The Hurt Locker” is a riveting, suspenseful portrait of the courage under fire of the military’s unrecognized heroes: the technicians of a bomb squad who volunteer to challenge the odds and save lives doing one of the world’s most dangerous jobs. Three members of the Army’s elite Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) squad battle insurgents and one another as they search for and disarm a wave of roadside bombs on the streets of Baghdad—in order to try and make the city a safer place for Iraqis and Americans alike. Their mission is clear—protect and save—but it’s anything but easy, as the margin of error when defusing a war-zone bomb is zero. This thrilling and heart-pounding look at the psychology of bomb technicians and the effects of risk and danger on the human psyche is a fictional tale inspired by real events by journalist and screenwriter Mark Boal, who was embedded with a special bomb unit in Iraq. In Iraq, it is soldier vernacular to speak of explosions as sending you to “the hurt locker.”

Acclaimed director Kathryn Bigelow brings together groundbreaking realistic action and intimate human drama in a landmark film starring Jeremy Renner (”Dahmer,” “The Assassination of Jesse James”), Anthony Mackie (”Half Nelson,” “We Are Marshall”) and Brian Geraghty (”We Are Marshall,” “Jarhead”), with cameo appearances by Ralph Fiennes (”The Reader”), David Morse (”John Adams”), Evangeline Lilly (”Lost”) and Guy Pearce (”Memento”). “The Hurt Locker” is produced by Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Greg Shapiro and Nicolas Chartier. The screenplay is written by Mark Boal (”In the Valley of Elah”). Barry Ackroyd, BSC (”United 93,” “The Wind That Shakes the Barley”) is director of photography. Production designer is Karl Juliusson (”K19: The Widowmaker,” “Breaking the Waves”). Editors are Bob Murawski (”Spider-Man 2,” “Spider-Man 3″) and Chris Innis. Costume designer is George Little (”Jarhead,” “Crimson Tide”). Music is by Academy Award Nominee Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders (”3:10 to Yuma”), and sound design by Academy Award Nominee Paul N.J. Ottosson (”Spider-Man 2,” “Spider-Man 3″).

In the summer of 2004, Sergeant J.T. Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and Specialist Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty) of Bravo Company are at the volatile center of the war, part of a small counterforce specifically trained to handle the homemade bombs, or Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), that account for more than half of American hostile deaths and have killed thousands of Iraqis. The job, a high-pressure, high-stakes assignment, which soldiers volunteer for, requires a calm intelligence that leaves no room for mistakes, as they learn when they lose their team leader on a routine mission.

When Staff Sergeant William James (Jeremy Renner) cheerfully takes over the team, Sanborn and Eldridge are shocked by what seems like his reckless disregard for military protocol and basic safety measures. And yet, in the fog of war, appearances are never reliable. Is James really a swaggering cowboy who lives for peak experiences and the moments when the margin of error is zero – or is he a consummate professional who has honed his craft to high-wire precision? As the fiery chaos of Baghdad threatens to engulf them, the men struggle to understand and contain their mercurial new leader long enough for them to make it home. They have only 38 days left in their tour, but with each new mission comes another deadly encounter, and as James blurs the line between bravery and bravado, it seems only a matter of time before disaster strikes.

With a visual and emotional intensity that makes audiences feel like they have been transported to the dizzying, 24-hour turmoil of life in the bomb squad, “The Hurt Locker” is both a gripping portrayal of real-life sacrifice and heroism, and a layered, probing study of the soul-numbing rigors and potent allure of the modern battlefield.

Director: Bruce Beresford

Screenwriter: Jan Sardi (adaptation) and Cunxin Li (memoir)

Starring: Kyle MacLachlan, Bruce Greenwood, Amanda Schull, Joan Chen, Alice Parkinson

Genre: Drama

Official Website: maoslastdancermovie.com

Review: 7.6/10

Plot Summary:

Li Cunxin’s best-selling 2003 autobiography told of his barely credible journey from poverty-stricken peasant childhood in rural China during the Cultural Revolution to becoming one of the West’s leading classical ballet stars. Bruce Beresford’s handsome movie version captures the epic simplicity of Li’s story — astonishing luck coupled with a fierce determination — and stirs strong primal emotions about love of family, country, personal freedom.

With many passionate and colourful dance sequences expertly choreographed by Graeme Murphy, the film is a must for ballet-lovers and a strong arthouse contender likely to appeal more to a female audience. Success with a broader audience is less certain, though everything has been done to present Li’s world of ballet as tough, athletic and definitely heterosexual.

It’s officially an Australian product — much studio work plus the many on-stage sequences were shot in Sydney — though the casting and extensive location work in China and Houston make this the most international of movies. Following its world premiere at Toronto, the movie opens locally on October 1.

When Li Cunxin (pronounced “Lee Schwin-sing”) finished his dancing career he settled in Melbourne, becoming a stockbroker and motivational speaker. The book’s huge success lead him to plan the film, for which he raised much of the undisclosed budget. Potential deals in the UK and US were mooted, but he went for the Australian team that made the award-studded 1997 biopic Shine — producer Jane Scott and writer Jan Sardi.

Sardi uses the device that worked so well in Shine: three actors play the prodigy hero. Li is first seen as a 10-year-old (Huang Wen Bin), one of the seven undernourished sons of his overworked mother (Joan Chen) and father (Wang Shuang Bao).

Chosen by visiting officials, for no apparent reason, to be sent to Beijing to study at Madame Mao’s Dance Academy, Li endures unhappiness and iron discipline before becoming his teenaged self (Chengwu Guo, a powerfully talented young dancer). Through a politically incorrect tutor, he discovers western ballet techniques via secret videos of a soaring Mikhail Baryshnikov.

The adult Li (Chi Cao) is the standout student when Ben Stevenson (Greenwood), Artistic Director of the Houston Ballet, visits the academy. With Stevenson’s enthusiastic backing, Li is awarded a rare short-term cultural scholarship to visit America and join the Houston company.

At first gobsmacked by skyscrapers, cash machines and kitchen appliances, Li soon settles in, Chinese-English dictionary to hand (“Upon my soul,” he ventures). He grabs the career chances that come his way and falls for pretty blonde dancer Liz (Schull). When the Chinese delegation starts to worry about their flighty citizen, a tug-of-war develops that soon challenges Li’s ingrained values and desires.

Sardi and Beresford marshal this rich material with precision, treating it as a ‘hero journey’, a mythic tale of victory over impossible odds. If this goodies v baddies approach reduces credibility and leaves many unanswered questions, it certainly heightens Li’s cinematic adventure and ensures, against all odds, a happy ending for everyone involved.

And how fortunate were they to find a dancer/actor/looker like Chi Cao to play the seemingly impossible-to-cast lead role. Cao, Chinese-born-and-trained Principal Dancer of the Birmingham Royal Ballet, leaps, soars and spins just as brilliantly as the movie requires. Bruce Greenwood is sensitively sympathetic as the American mentor; Amanda Schull gives the underwritten girlfriend a warm reality.

Graeme Murphy’s choreography is a big factor in the film’s strong emotional impact, with excerpts from many ballets including his brilliant interpretation of Swan Lake. The ludicrous revolutionary ballet staged at the Beijing academy for a rapt Madame Mao is a highlight.