the big picture
Now in Theatres
January 4
THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY
Who’s In It? Mathieu Amalric, Marie-Josée Croze
Who Directed? Julian Schnabel (Before Night Falls)
What’s It About? Get out the hankies for this heartbreaking bio-pic of Elle France’s editor Jean-Dominique Bauby (Amalric), who at the age of 43 suffers a stroke that leaves him paralyzed everywhere except his left eye. By mastering a blinking pattern he is able to dictate his memoirs to his therapist (Croze), which form the basis of the film. See Marie-Josée Croze interview.
THERE WILL BE BLOOD
Who’s In It? Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano
Who Directed? Paul Thomas Anderson (Punch-Drunk Love)
What’s It About? Admitting he was burned out after his last film, 2002’s Punch-Drunk Love, director Anderson spent years recharging his batteries and writing this loose adaptation of Upton Sinclair’s 1927 novel Oil! The story follows a cutthroat oil prospector named Daniel Plainview (Day-Lewis), who strikes a gusher in a California town. The richer he becomes, the greedier he gets, earning the disgust of the town’s young preacher, Eli (Dano). See pictorial.
ONE MISSED CALL
Who’s In It? Shannyn Sossamon, Edward Burns
Who Directed? Eric Valette (Maléfique)
What’s It About? Your cellphone rings, you answer it and hear your own voice moments before your death. (Does that mean you’re getting charged for the minutes you haven’t used yet?) Anyway, that’s the premise behind this thriller starring Sossamon as the cute, plucky heroine intent on stopping the death-dialing and Burns as the hardened — but still cute — cop helping her. See Edward Burns interview.
January 11
PERSEPOLIS (pictured above)
Voices: Catherine Deneuve, Chiara Mastroianni
Who Directed? Vincent Paronnaud, Marjane Satrapi
What’s It About? France’s official submission for Best Foreign-Language
Film at this year’s Oscars is an animated tale of an Iranian girl’s
coming-of-age during the country’s 1979 Islamic revolution. The film
amalgamates all four of Satrapi’s award-winning graphic novels, which depict her growing up in a progressive household, battling to hold onto her individuality during the revolution and her eventual flight to France as a 24-year-old woman.
27 DRESSES
Who’s In It? Katherine Heigl, James Marsden
Who Directed? Anne Fletcher (Step Up)
What’s It About? Having happily served as a bridesmaid 27 times, Jane (Heigl) possesses an awesome collection of sea-foam green, lilac purple and Dijon yellow dresses. However, she’s dreading putting on her 28th dress, the one she’ll wear for her sister Tess’s (Malin Akerman) wedding to George (Edward Burns), the guy she secretly loves. See Katherine Heigl interview.
FIRST SUNDAY
Who’s In It? Ice Cube, Tracy Morgan
Who Directed? David E. Talbert (A Woman Like That)
What’s It About? Durell (Ice Cube) and LeeJohn (Morgan) are two blundering criminals who need to come up with $17,000 in order to save Durell’s ex-wife’s business. Their plan to rob the neighbourhood church goes awry when they discover someone else has already grabbed the loot.
PIRATES WHO DON’T DO ANYTHING: A VEGGIE TALES MOVIE
Voices: Phil Vischer, Mike Nawrocki
Who Directed? Mike Nawrocki (Jonah: A Veggie Tales Movie)
What’s It About? The Veggie Tales series of films and TV shows feature talking fruits and vegetables and focus on teaching kids positive morals. In this film, Larry the cucumber, Pa Grape and Sedgewick the gourde are the verbose food products who travel back in time to become pirates aboard a 17th-century ship.
IN THE NAME OF THE KING: A DUNGEON SIEGE TALE
Who’s In It? Jason Statham, Burt Reynolds
Who Directed? Uwe Boll (BloodRayne)
What’s It About? The role-playing computer game comes to the big screen with Statham playing a farmer who joins the noble king’s (Reynolds) forces to turn back an army of orc-like creatures called the Krug.
January 18
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FANBOYS
Who’s In It? Sam Huntington, Kristen Bell
Who Directed? Kyle Newman (debut)
What’s
It About? It’s Halloween 1998 and four rabid Star Wars fans, now in
their 20s, reconnect to celebrate the fact that Episode 4 is coming out
the following May. But one of the guys is dying of cancer and won’t be
alive to see the movie. So the group decides to travel to George Lucas’
Skywalker Ranch to steal a copy of the film for their pal to watch. The
script was actually written in 1998 and there was interest in making
the film before the release of Episode 4, but that didn’t pan out and
it’s taken nearly 10 years for the comedy to make its way to the big
screen.
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CITY OF MEN
Who’s In It? Douglas Silva, Darlan Cunha
Who Directed? Paulo Morelli (Viva Voz)
What’s It About? This film, based on a Brazilian TV series that ran over four years and was watched by 35 million Brazilians, tells the story of Acerola (Silva) and Laranjinha (Cunha), best friends living in one of Rio’s many favelas (shanty towns). The friends are about to turn 18 when Laranjinha decides to track down his absent father. What he learns about his dad taints his relationship with Acerola and the friends become enemies, caught on opposite sides of the violent drug-dealing wars taking place in their neighbourhood.
CLOVERFIELD
Who’s In It? Michael Stahl-David, Jessica Lucas
Who Directed? Matt Reeves (The Pallbearer)
What’s It About? The internet was buzzing last summer when producer J.J. Abrams released a grainy, untitled trailer in front of Transformers. It showed a bunch of 20-something New Yorkers at a party when the city suddenly starts to shake and rattle as an unseen monster attacks. Shot with hand-held cameras and without A-list actors, Cloverfield has a bit of the Blair Witch Project vibe about it — intense and scary — but you can bet the destruction of New York will be a special-effects extravaganza.
STEEP
Who’s In It? Andrew McLean, Glen Plake
Who Directed? Mark Obenhaus (debut)
What’s It About? See what it’s like to descend a steep mountain face at a breakneck speed with this documentary about extreme skiing. The movie covers the emergence of the sport in the 1970s and its growth in popularity and danger, as more and more skiers seek out perilous runs in far-off places such as Iceland and Tibet.
MAD MONEY
Who’s In It? Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah
Who Directed? Callie Khouri (Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood)
What’s It About? Three women (Keaton, Latifah and Katie Holmes) working at the U.S. Federal Reserve hatch a scheme to steal money that is about to be destroyed.
January 25
MEET THE SPARTANS
Who’s In It? Sean Maguire, Carmen Electra
Who Directed? Jason Friedberg, Aaron Seltzer
What’s It About? The directors of Epic Movie and Date Movie are back with a spoof of the über-macho 300. British actor Maguire plays Spartan King Leonidas, who leads his army of silly soldiers against the Persians.
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) is feeling when his pal Jerry (Black) manages to demagnetize every VHS cassette in his small video store. To keep his most loyal customer happy — a woman (Mia Farrow) suffering from dementia — the pair decide to re-enact her favourite films, including Ghostbusters, RoboCop and Driving Miss Daisy. See Jack Black interview.
UNTRACEABLE
Who’s In It? Diane Lane, Colin Hanks
Who Directed? Gregory Hoblit (Fracture)
What’s It About? A serial killer tortures his victims online, and the more people who visit his site, the faster the victim dies. FBI cyber investigator Jennifer Marsh (Lane) and her team must track down the killer before he comes looking for them.
RAMBO
Who’s In It? Sylvester Stallone, Julie Benz
Who Directed? Sylvester Stallone (Rocky IV)
What’s It About? Former mercenary John Rambo (Stallone) has retired to a hut in northwest Thailand where he’s content to keep snakes and remain zen-like. However, when a group of aid workers are kidnapped by soldiers in neighbouring Myanmar, Rambo straps on his big guns and goes into the jungle to rescue the good folks. Look for lots and lots of blood and gore in this fourth Rambo flick.
HOW SHE MOVE
Who’s In It? Rutina Wesley, Dwain Murphy
Who Directed? Ian Iqbal Rashid (Touch of Pink)
What’s It About? Raya’s (Wesley) family suffers a tragedy that forces the teen to leave her prep school and enroll in her former high school in Toronto’s tough Jane-Finch neighbourhood. Desperate to earn enough money to get out, Raya joins Bishop’s (Murphy) all-male dance crew, who’ve entered the popular Step Monster dance competition. The Canadian indie film was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. See Dwain Murphy interview.
THE GO-GETTER
Who’s In It? Lou Taylor Pucci, Zooey Deschanel
Who Directed? Martin Hynes (The Big Split)
What’s It About? A grieving young man (Pucci) steals a car not realizing that the car’s owner (Deschanel) has left her cellphone inside. She calls it, he picks up, and the pair gets to know each other while he sets out on a cross-country road trip.
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THE METROPOLITAN OPERA
Watch live (and encore) performances straight from New York’s Metropolitan Opera.
HANSEL AND GRETEL (HUMPERDINCK)
Tuesday, January 1, 1 p.m. EST
(Encore: Saturday, January 26, 1 p.m. EST)
MACBETH (VERDI)
Saturday, January 12, 1:30 p.m. EST
Check www.cineplex.com for a list of theatres where you can watch them live, and to buy tickets.
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THE NHL ON SCREEN
Pucks are flying and goals are being scored. Don’t miss your favourite Canadian NHL team in action on the big screen — and in high definition to boot. For game dates, a list of participating theatres, and to buy tickets go to www.cineplex.com