In Theatres
Your monthly guide to new releases
By Ingrid Randoja
JANUARY 2
REVOLUTIONARY ROAD (pictured above)
Titanic’s lovers Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet reunite for this less starry-eyed romantic drama set in 1950s Connecticut, where the once-ambitious Frank Wheeler (DiCaprio) commutes to his white-collar office job in the city, and his high-strung wife April (Winslet) settles into her role as a mother and housewife. It’s only a matter of time before smothering suburbia takes a toll on their relationship.
The Unborn
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JANUARY 9
THE UNBORN
Don’t blame Casey Beldon (Odette Yustman) if she seems a little moody,
it’s just that she’s discovered the soul of her twin brother — who died
as a fetus inside their mother’s womb — is trapped within her, and he’s
dying to get out. It’ll take the mad exorcism skillz of Rabbi Sendak
(Gary Oldman) to rid Casey of her bothersome bro’.
BRIDE WARS
Two soon-to-be-married best friends (Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson)
somehow manage to schedule their weddings on the very same day, at the
very same location (New York’s swanky Plaza Hotel). Since neither bride
will reschedule, they both set out to sabotage their BFF’s perfect day.
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JANUARY 16
NOTORIOUS
Sean Combs produced this bio-pic about his deceased friend and protégé The Notorious B.I.G (played by hip-hop artist and acting newbie Jamal Woolard), a Brooklyn rapper who was gunned down in L.A. in 1997. Biggie Smalls (as he was known to friends) sold crack as a teen and served time in jail before finding his niche as an outspoken rapper who feuded with West Coast peers such as Tupac Shakur (Anthony Mackie). Derek Luke stars as Puff Daddy himself, while Angela Bassett is Biggie’s mom, Voletta Wallace.
HOTEL FOR DOGS
When siblings Andi (Emma Roberts) and Bruce (Jake T. Austin) discover some stray dogs living in an abandoned hotel, they get the bright idea to open the place up to all the homeless pooches they can find. But their canine retreat draws the attention of suspicious neighbours and Animal Control officers.
Defiance
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DEFIANCE
Daniel Craig puts down his martini glass and heads to the woods of
Poland to portray one of three Jewish brothers (Liev Schreiber and
Jamie Bell play his siblings) who not only hide more than a thousand
Jews deep within a sprawling forest during WWII, but carry out attacks
against the Nazis. The film is based on the true story of the Bielski
Brothers, who are revered as Jewish heroes, but are looked upon as
traitors by some Polish who believe the family killed innocent Poles
during the war.
PAUL BLART: MALL COP
When his breakout TV show The King of Queens went off the air in 2007,
Kevin James laid low (his single film was the ill-fated I Now Pronounce
You Chuck & Larry). Now the big guy steps back into the spotlight
with this Die Hard-inspired comedy about a nerdy security guard (James)
who must thwart a group of thugs who take over a suburban mall during
the Christmas shopping season. |
MY BLOODY VALENTINE 3D
Nothing cures the January blahs like a good dose of in-your-face frights. That’s what you’ll get with this 3D horror pic set in a mining town where a homicidal killer dispatches townsfolk with his flying pickaxe.
THE CLASS
In this French film — which picked up the top prize at last year’s Cannes Film Festival — a charismatic teacher tries to make a difference in the lives of the students attending a junior high school located in a rough Parisian neighbourhood.
JANUARY 23
LAST CHANCE HARVEY
Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman had a brief scene together in Stranger than Fiction, an experience that whetted their appetites to work together again. The result is this romantic dramedy that casts Hoffman as Harvey, an American jingle writer who travels to London to attend his estranged daughter’s wedding, only to have his daughter shun him and then to lose his job. But his outlook is cheered when he meets the witty — yet emotionally cautious — Kate (Thompson).
Inkheart |
INKHEART
Cornelia Funke’s best-selling kids’ book comes to the big screen with
Brendan Fraser playing Mo, a father who reads the novel Inkheart aloud
to his daughter (Eliza Bennett), and in doing so brings the book’s
dastardly characters — including a dictator (Andy Serkis) and a
fire-eater (Paul Bettany) — to life.
THE ART STAR AND THE SUDANESE TWINS
If you think there’s something not quite right about celebrities
adopting Third-World children then you should see this provocative
documentary about eccentric visual artist Vanessa Beecroft, who is
utterly determined to adopt Sudanese twin orphans even though she lives
a chaotic, unsettled life. The film raises questions about
exploitation, cultural appropriation and the rights of children.
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OUTLANDER
Eighth-century Vikings get the surprise of their
lives when a spaceship crash-lands near their settlement and out pops
an alien (Jim Caviezel) and a mysterious evil entity. Spaceman and
Norsemen must work together to kill the entity before it wipes out the
colony.
KILLSHOT
Based on an Elmore Leonard novel, this thriller stars Diane Lane and Thomas Jane as a married couple put in the FBI witness protection program after Lane stares down a Mafia hitman (Mickey Rourke). But the Feds can’t protect the pair when the hitman and his young protégé (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) come looking for them.
UNDERWORLD: RISE OF THE LYCANS
This prequel to the first two Underworld films is set in the Dark Ages and stars up-and-coming action star Rhona Mitra (Doomsday) as Vampire Sonja, who joins with her Lycan lover Lucian (Michael Sheen) to overthrow the Vampires who rule the Lycan nation.
WENDY AND LUCY
Michelle Williams is earning rave reviews for her turn as Wendy, a young woman whose car breaks down while heading to Alaska. With her vehicle kaput and her small bankroll used up, Wendy and her dog Lucy must fend for themselves in a world that treats them with contempt.
TAKEN
Slave traders get more than they bargained for when they kidnap the daughter (Maggie Grace) of a former spy (Liam Neeson). Daddy vows not only to rescue his daughter, but to execute her assailants. Famke Janssen, who plays Neeson’s ex-wife, was so disturbed by the film’s content that upon completing the movie she became Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Office against Drugs and Crime.
THE UNINVITED
Anna (Emily Browning) and her sister Alex (Arielle Kebbel) hate the fact that their father (David Strathairn) is engaged to Rachel (Elizabeth Banks), the nurse who looked after their mother before she died. Their hatred turns to fear when Anna starts to see the ghost of a little girl who says Rachel murdered her and her family, and warns them the perky nurse is after them as well.
NEW IN TOWN
A Miami-based executive (Renée Zellweger) gets a cold reception when she arrives in a snowy Minnesota borough to oversee a manufacturing plant. But the locals slowly warm up to the new girl in town.
SPECIAL EVENTS ON THE BIG SCREEN
WWE-PAY-PER-VIEW
Royal Rumble
Sun., Jan. 25, 8 p.m. ET
The WWE’s most unpredictable event hits Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena.
METROPOLITAN OPERA
La Rondine (Puccini)
Live: Sat., Jan. 10, 1 p.m. ET
La Damnation
de Faust (Berlioz)
Encore: Sat., Jan. 17, 1 p.m. ET
Orfeo ed Euridice (Gluck)
Live: Sat., Jan. 24, 1 p.m. ET
STRATFORD FESTIVAL
Caesar and Cleopatra (Shaw)
Sat., Jan. 31, 1 p.m.
Shot over three days at Stratford’s Shakespeare Festival, the production stars Christopher Plummer as Caesar
and Nikki James as Cleopatra.