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Title:
Beverly Hills Chihuahua
Stars:
Drew Barrymore, George Lopez
Studio:
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Plot:
While on vacation in Mexico, Chloe (Barrymore), a pampered Beverly Hills chihuahua, finds herself lost and in need of assistance in order to get back home. Coming to Chloe's aid is a a macho Chihuahua named Papi (Lopez), a spirit guide (Hayek) who endeavors to help Chloe discover her true heritage.
Buzz:
I'm wondering if Disney employees think BHC looks kind of kinda juvenile after the refreshing Enchanted became a worldwide hit and was nominated for 3 Oscars. Chihuahua! Or why the trailer, which reveals nothing about the movie, also doesn't indicate that Drew Barrymore's voice is the star of the show. Chihuahua! Or if Raja Gosnell will ever make a non-syrupy movie. Chihuahua!
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Title:
Eagle Eye
Stars:
Shia LaBeouf, Michelle Monaghan, Rosario Dawson
Studio:
DreamWorks SKG
Plot:
Two strangers (LaBeouf and Monaghan) become the pawns of a mysterious woman they have never met, but who seems to know their every move. Realizing they are being used to further her plot for a political assassination, they must work together to outwit the woman before she has them killed.
Buzz:
How awesome is this teaser trailer?When Disturbia surpassed everyone's expectations last spring, DreamWorks execs quickly reunited Shia LaBeouf and director D.J. Caruso for a second project, and it'll be interesting to see if all the kids who swooned for Shia in a retooled Hitchcock thriller will be as engaged by our hero (who lost his real life, real-world innocence this year) trying to prevent political terrorism. By the way, there are a lot of screenwriters present here -- perhaps an indication of how quickly this was rushed into production, which is confirmed by the release-date slippage from August (summer vacation) to late in the back-to-school season.
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Title:
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
Stars:
Michael Cera, Kat Dennings
Studio:
Columbia Pictures
Plot:
Nick (Cera) asks Nora (Dennings) to pretend to be his girlfriend for 5 minutes so he won't have to feel as awkward around his ex-g.f., who just walked into the club where Nick's band is playing ... with a new guy. But when the fake couple decides to kiss, sparkage occurs, leading to a first date which seems to span all of New York City.
Buzz:
Wow, a mainstream movie set in NYC's queercore punk scene? Those Weitz brothers (producers Chris and Paul) sure know how to work the studio system, even if their last teen-skewing comedy, Bickford Shmeckler's Cool Ideas, didn't get much attention. Bickford couldn't boast Michael Cera in a starring role, however, or a long-awaited second film from a promising indie director (Peter Sollett turned heads back in '02 with Raising Victor Vargas). Assuming Sollett knows how to handle an awkward boy, a hot girl, and lots of swearing and cool music, we can see the iPod generation embracing this as their own sort of High Fildelity. (Look at that, not one mention of Juno.)
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Title:
Nights in Rodanthe
Stars:
Diane Lane, Richard Gere, Christopher Meloni
Studio:
Warner Bros. Pictures
Plot:
A doctor (Gere) who is traveling to see his estranged son sparks with an unhappily married woman (Lane) at a North Carolina inn
Buzz:
After The Notebook became one the best recent examples of a sleeper hit, producers fought for the rights to the unoptioned novels of Nicholas Sparks. Superproducers Denise Di Novi and Bruce Berman secured Rodanthe and assembled an appropriate cast, as well as an interesting director pick in George C. Wolfe (Lackawanna Blues). Though we love Richard Gere, Diane Lane, and their Hollywood misses and hits, the question remains whether they can help reignite the romantic drama by pulling in a big audience on opening weekend or, a la The Notebook turning favorable word-of-mouth into staying power at the box office. If you listen closely to the trailer, after the part where Diane says, "We saved each other," Richard whispers, "from career oblivion." Meanwhile, we wish Diane's hair was just a little longer here.
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Title:
Appaloosa
Stars:
Ed Harris, Viggo Mortensen, Renée Zellweger
Studio:
New Line Cinema
Plot:
A pair of lawmen (Harris and Mortensen) out to save a Western town from a rancher's tyrannical reign find their bond, and their mission, tested by the arrival of a double-dealing widow (Zellweger).
Buzz:
Ed Harris returns to the director's seat some 8 years after his award-winning Pollock, but I'm more excited for his reunion with his A History of Violence co-star, Viggo Mortensen. Both men are fit for the material, an adaptation of the novel by Robert B. Parker (whose Jesse Stone TV movies have been a boon for Tom Selleck's career), but I'm not so sure about the Zellweger's ability to be anything but comical as she makes her return Cold Mountain-ish territory. Does this photo earn your confidence?
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Title:
Lakeview Terrace
Stars:
Samuel L. Jackson, Patrick Wilson, Kerry Washington
Studio:
Screen Gems
Plot:
An LAPD officer (Jackson) will stop at nothing to force out the interracial couple (Washington and Wilson) who just moved in next door ...
Buzz:
It'll be fun to see Patrick Wilson in thriller mode (one of two genre flicks this season for the former phantom and soon-to-be owl -- look for him in Passengers next month), and I'm pro Kerry Washington (Ray) getting more notice, but if Neil LaBute isn't careful, he's going to find himself, like, rebooting a franchise or remaking his own early film for his next project. And if he tries to pass this off as anything but a cheap-and-easy mainstream release, we're going to laugh at him just like we laughed at Roland Joffe when he tried to promote Captivity as a film with a message.
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Title:
Burn After Reading
Stars:
Brad Pitt, Frances McDormand, George Clooney
Studio:
Focus Features
Plot:
A disk containing the memoirs of a CIA agent ends up in the hands of two unscrupulous gym employees who attempt to benefit from the discovery.
Buzz:
The Coens want to make you laugh again, less than a year after bringing Anton Chigurh to life and saddling away with 4 Oscars for their efforts. While I don't think BAR will reach the same level of pop culture-saturation as NCfOM, I guess there's something to be said for a movie in which most everyone in the theater will understand the ending? Sigh ... The word from Venice is: The only problem with the film is that, at 96 minutes, it leaves you wanting so much more.
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Title:
Fireproof
Stars:
Kirk Cameron, Erin Bethea
Studio:
Samuel Goldwyn Films
Plot:
A firefighter (Cameron) and his wife (Bethea) begin a 40-day experiment known as "The Love Dare" in an attempt to save their marriage.
Buzz:
While we all snicker at the notion that Kirk Cameron won't kiss anyone but his wife, Fireproof has quietly because one of the must-see movies of a busy fall weekend. Don't be surprised if Cameron's faith leads to a Top 10 debut come Monday morning.
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Title:
An American Carol
Stars:
Kevin P. Farley, Kelsey Grammer, Leslie Nielsen
Studio:
Vivendi Entertainment
Plot:
An anti-American filmmaker who's out to abolish the July Fourth holiday is visited by three ghosts who try to change his perception of the country.
Buzz:
Former liberal David Zucker believes that it's "almost illegal" to make a conservative film in Hollywood today, so he's used his decades of influence to skewer the Michael Moore set as the presidential and Oscar races shift into fifth gear. The problem here: Looks like Zucker has had to dumb down his political satire in order to entice the movie-going masses, because Carol looks tepid in comparison to his YouTube salvos that even stupefied the GOP two years ago (remember this?). Plus, those Disaster Movie wanks pretty much ruined the spoof genre for a few years. Do you want to know more about Zucker and his "Friends of Abe?" Then go here.
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Title:
Religulous
Stars:
Bill Maher
Studio:
Lionsgate
Plot:
Atheist Bill Maher looks to understand the beliefs behind different world religions.
Buzz:
Bill Maher has embraced controversy all of his career, and I'm primed to see what he and Borat director Larry Charles have created with their guerilla-filmmaking approach to documenting the beliefs and tenets of Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, et al. I believe (I bee-LEAVE!) Maher and co. have already gone viral with their intent to expose the truths, untruths, and misconceptions to be found in Vatican City, Jerusalem, Salt Lake City, and elsewhere around the world. However, it remains to be seen if Maher can parlay all the attention into box-office dollars.