the big picture
Now in Theatres
February 1
STRANGE WILDERNESS (pictured above)
Who’s In It? Steve Zahn, Justin Long
Who Directed? Fred Wolf (debut)
What’s It About? When his crappy wilderness TV show is about to be cancelled, host Peter Gaulke (Zahn) and his crew set out to find, and film, the elusive Bigfoot.
HANNAH MONTANA/MILEY CYRUS: BEST OF BOTH WORLDS CONCERT TOUR
Who’s In It? Miley Cyrus, Jonas Brothers
Who Directed? Bruce Hendricks (debut)
What’s It About? For those who didn’t sell an organ to pay for a ticket to see teen singing sensation Cyrus in concert, here’s your chance to check out her gig, in 3-D no less. However, it’s only playing in theatres for a single week so don’t dawdle.
THE EYE
Who’s In It? Jessica Alba, Alessandro Nivola
Who Directed? David Moreau, Xavier Palud
What’s It About? This remake of the Hong Kong horror flick Jian gui casts Alba as a blind woman who regains her sight when she receives an eye transplant. However, her new eyes seem to be playing tricks on her when she glimpses supernatural beings and strange events.
OVER HER DEAD BODY
Who’s In It? Eva Longoria Parker, Lake Bell
Who Directed? Jeff Lowell (debut)
What’s It About? Chloe (Lindsay Sloane) is dating Henry (Paul Rudd), who believes he’s being haunted by his dead fiancée, Kate (Parker). So Chloe hires phony psychic Ashley (Bell) to pretend to chase away the ghost. Things get really complicated when Ashley falls for Henry and actually starts to communicate with Kate, a very jealous spirit who’s determined to ruin any budding romance involving Henry.
February 8
WELCOME HOME ROSCOE JENKINS
Who’s In It? Martin Lawrence, Cedric the Entertainer
Who Directed? Malcolm D. Lee (Roll Bounce)
What’s It About? R.J. Stevens (Lawrence) is an L.A. talk-show host who conveniently forgot all about his country roots when he made it big in showbiz. He reluctantly agrees to return home to Georgia to attend his parents' 50th wedding anniversary, and you just know his down-home family is going to show uppity R.J. some special southern hospitality.
VINCE VAUGHN’S WILD WEST COMEDY SHOW
Who’s In It? Vince Vaughn, Ahmed Ahmed
Who Directed? Ari Sandel (debut)
What’s It About? Vaughn and four stand-up comedians — Ahmed, Bret Ernst, John Caparulo and Sebastian Maniscalco — hit the road and travel 6,000 miles across America to perform 30 shows in 30 nights.
IN BRUGES
Who’s In It? Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson
Who Directed? Martin McDonagh (debut)
What’s It About? Two Irish hitmen (Farrell, Gleeson) are instructed to lay low in the picturesque Belgium city of Bruges. But their under-the-radar existence is spoiled when nutbar Harry (Ralph Fiennes) shows up wanting to kill them both.
FOOL’S GOLD
Who’s In It? Matthew McConaughey, Kate Hudson
Who Directed? Andy Tennant (Hitch)
What’s It About? What could rekindle an estranged couple’s passion? Why sunken treasure, of course. McConaughey plays a beach bum/treasure hunter who convinces his ex-wife (Hudson) to help him search for the fabled Queen’s Dowry — 40 chests of 18th-century Spanish gold and jewels.
NORMAL
Who’s In It? Carrie-Anne Moss, Kevin Zegers
Who Directed? Carl Bessai (Emile)
What’s It About? After a teenage boy is killed in a car crash, a driver involved in the accident (Callum Keith Rennie), the boy’s mother (Moss) and his best friend (Zegers) deal with the aftermath. See Kevin Zegers interview.
EMOTIONAL ARITHMETIC
Who’s In It? Susan Sarandon, Max von Sydow
Who Directed? Paolo Barzman (Time is Money)
What’s It About? It’s 1945 and Jakob Bronski, a prisoner inside a Nazi detention centre, finds himself caring for two orphaned children — Melanie and Christopher. Flash forward to the mid-1980s when the now mature Melanie (Sarandon) discovers Jakob (von Sydow) is alive and invites him to live with her and her family in Canada.
February 14
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Freddie Highmore in
The Spiderwick Chronicles
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THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES
Who’s In It? Freddie Highmore, Sarah Bolger
Who Directed? Mark Waters (Just Like Heaven)
What’s It About?
The Grace family — mom and her three kids, Jared, Simon and Mallory —
move into the Spiderwick estate where Jared stumbles across a book
titled Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide. The tome describes the various
fairies, ogres and magical beings that exist in the invisible world
around the estate, and when Jared opens the book he is able to see the
creatures, which makes some of them very, very angry.
STEP UP 2 TO THE STREETS
Who’s In It? Robert Hoffman, Briana Evigan
Who Directed? Jon M. Chu (debut)
What’s It About? The step-dancing phenomenon continues on screen with this sequel to the 2006 dance flick Step Up.
This time around a feisty street dancer named Andie (Evigan) enrolls in
the Maryland School of the Arts and catches the eye of Chase (Hoffman),
the school’s hottest hunk and best hoofer.
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JUMPER
Who’s In It? Hayden Christensen, Samuel L. Jackson
Who Directed? Doug Liman (Mr. & Mrs. Smith)
What’s It About? Davey (Christensen) foolishly believes he’s the only person in the world who possesses the ability to transport himself through time and space. He eventually realizes there are others like him, in fact, there’s a war going on between the “jumpers” and the people who want to stop them, including a government operative (Jackson). See Samuel L. Jackson interview.
DEFINITELY, MAYBE
Who’s In It? Ryan Reynolds, Abigail Breslin
Who Directed? Adam Brooks (Almost You)
What’s It About? The soon-to-be-divorced Will Hayes (Reynolds) recounts the history of his love life to his 11-year-old daughter (Breslin), who is curious to know the identity of her biological mother, a secret Will won’t divulge.
February 17
WWE-PAY-PER-VIEW
NO WAY OUT
The WWE heads to Las Vegas for its annual February bust-up. Check www.cineplex.com for a list of theatres where you can watch it live, and to buy tickets.
February 22
BE KIND REWIND
Who’s In It? Jack Black, Mos Def
Who Directed? Michel Gondry (The Science of Sleep)
What’s It About? You know what a pain it is when you demagnetize one of your credit cards. Imagine the pain Mike (Def) feels when his pal Jerry (Black) demagnetizes every VHS cassette in his small video store. To keep his most loyal customer happy — a woman (Mia Farrow) suffering from dementia — the pair decides to re-enact her favourite films, including Ghostbusters, RoboCop and Driving Miss Daisy.
POSSESSION
Who’s In It? Sarah Michelle Gellar, Lee Pace
Who Directed? Joel Bergvall, Simon Sandquist
What’s It About? This remake of the Korean thriller Jungdok (Addicted) stars Gellar as Jess, a woman married to the sweet-natured Ryan (Michael Landes), who’s the complete opposite of his troubled brother Roman (Pace). A car accident leaves both brothers comatose, and it’s Roman who wakes up believing he’s Ryan and possessing his brother’s memories.
THE BAND’S VISIT
Who’s In It? Sasson Gabai, Ronit Elkabetz
Who Directed? Eran Kolirin (Tzur Hadassim)
What’s It About? This sweet, feel-good comedy finds an Egyptian police band travelling to Israel to play at an Arab cultural centre. However, a travel mix-up strands them in a remote small town where they awkwardly mingle with the locals.
L’ÂGE DES TÉNÈBRES
Who’s In It? Marc Lebrèche, Diane Kruger
Who Directed? Denys Arcand (The Barbarian Invasions)
What’s It About? Arcand paints a bleak picture of life in the modern world with this tale of a bored Québécois civil servant (Lebrèche) who slips into elaborate fantasies to escape his dull life.
VANTAGE POINT
Who’s In It? Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox
Who Directed? Pete Travis (debut)
What’s It About? Seeing is not necessarily believing when it comes to this thriller about eight people who witness an assassination attempt on the U.S. President (William Hurt) during an anti-terrorist conference in Spain. Eye-witness accounts of two secret service agents (Quaid, Fox), an American tourist (Forest Whitaker) and a TV news producer (Sigourney Weaver), among others, are used to piece together what happened.
WITLESS PROTECTION
Who’s In It? Larry the Cable Guy, Eric Roberts
Who Directed? Charles Robert Carner (debut)
What’s It About? Larry the Cable Guy plays a small-town sheriff protecting a whistle-blowing witness on her way to a big-city trial.
CHARLIE BARTLETT
Who’s In It? Anton Yelchin, Robert Downey Jr.
Who Directed? Jon Poll (debut)
What’s It About? Rich kid Charlie Bartlett (Yelchin) is having trouble fitting into his new high school. But his charm and keen powers of observation serve him well, and before you know it Charlie has become the school’s unofficial guidance counsellor and therapist, even doling out advice to the school’s passive principal (Downey Jr.).
THE SIGNAL
Who’s In It? A.J. Bowen, Anessa Ramsey
Who Directed? David Bruckner, Dan Bush, Jacob Gentry
What’s It About? On New Year’s Eve, a mysterious signal is suddenly transmitted into every TV, radio and cellphone, causing people to become violent toward one another. This horror pic is unique in that the story is told from the perspectives of three characters, and their tales are directed by three different filmmakers.
February 29
SEMI-PRO
Who’s In It? Will Ferrell, Woody Harrelson
Who Directed? Kent Alterman (debut)
What’s It About? Basketball in the ’70s was defined by short-shorts, tube socks, guys with big afros and an upstart league called the ABA, which challenged the established NBA and looked to add fun — slam dunks! — into the game. This comedy’s about the last-place ABA Flint Tropics, led by owner-player-coach Jackie Moon (Ferrell), who needs to turn their game around if they’re to be one of the teams that merge with the NBA. See Will Ferrell interview.
THE DUCHESS OF LANGEAIS
Who’s In It? Jeanne Balibar, Guillaume Depardieu
Who Directed? Jacques Rivette (Va savoir)
What’s It About? The 79-year-old Rivette adapts Balzac’s 19th-century novella about the doomed love affair between an arrogant soldier and a coquettish Duchess.
THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL
Who’s In It? Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson
Who Directed? Justin Chadwick (Sleeping with the Fishes)
What’s It About? Philippa Gregory’s historically flawed but oh-so juicy page-turner becomes a Hollywood drama starring Portman as Anne Boleyn and Johansson as Mary Boleyn, two sisters vying for the attention of randy King Henry VIII (Eric Bana). Guided by their crafty uncle (David Morrissey), the sisters jump in and out of Henry’s bed until one finally marries the King, and then the real rivalry begins. See David Morrissey interview.
PENELOPE
Who’s In It? Christina Ricci, James McAvoy
Who Directed? Mark Palansky (debut)
What’s It About? Penelope Wilhern (Ricci) carries the mark of her family’s curse — she was born with a pig’s nose. Kept in the family mansion her whole life, Penelope does the unthinkable and runs away.
BONNEVILLE
Who’s In It? Jessica Lange, Joan Allen
Who Directed? Christopher N. Rowley (debut)
What’s It About? Three old friends — Lange, Allen and Kathy Bates — hop in a convertible and head out on a road trip to scatter one of their husband’s ashes.
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THE METROPOLITAN OPERA
Enjoy productions direct from New York’s renowned Metropolitan Opera.
Macbeth (Verdi)
Encore performance: Saturday, February 9, 1:30 p.m. EST
Manon Lescaut (Puccini)
Live performance: Saturday, February 16, 1 p.m. EST