Movies Opening 09.05.2008

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The Babysitters

Studio: Peace Arch Entertainment
Director: David Ross
Screenwriter: David Ross
Starring: John Leguizamo, Katherine Waterston, Cynthia Nixon, Andy Comeau, Lauren Birkell, Louisa Krause
Genre: Comedy, Drama
MPAA Rating: Not Available
Official Website: TheBabysitters.com

Plot Summary: Shirley Lyner (Katherine Waterston) is a typical high school teen—she worries about her grades and the SAT's; she wonders if her best friend's step-brother likes her, she baby-sits a few nights to make some extra cash. Shirley even has a little crush on one of her new clients; the dad, Mr. Beltran (John Leguizamo), makes her blush when he comes to pick her up.

But when Mr. Beltran kisses Shirley before taking her home, Shirley kisses back. And the extra big tip Mr. Beltran gives Shirley on top of her babysitting fee feels less like a guilty payoff and more like a little of surge of electricity. So when Mr. Beltran's friend wants to know if Shirley has any friends who can also "baby-sit," Shirley sees a way she can make a quick twenty percent. Before long, Shirley realizes, the more girls she has "babysitting," the bigger her college fund.

Unfortunately for Shirley, the seven deadly sins are deadly for a reason. Soon greed, envy, jealousy have Shirley caught up not in love, not even in lust, but in a high stakes game of commerce where the buying and selling may look like fun, but the consequences can be fatal.

A cautionary tale about the risky and unintended consequences of living out one's fantasies, The Babysitters stars John Leguizamo (Michael Beltran), Katherine Waterston (Shirley), and Cynthia Nixon (Gail Beltran) and is written and directed by David Ross.

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Noise

Studio: THINKFilm
Director: Henry Bean
Screenwriter: Henry Bean
Starring: Tim Robbins, Bridget Moynahan, William Baldwin, William Hurt, Gabrielle Brennan
Genre: Comedy

Plot Summary: From the creators of "The Believer," winner of the 2001 Sundance Grand Jury Prize, comes a black comedy about a man caught in the most impossible of conundrums: in love with his hometown, New York City, but driven mad by its noise. Transforming himself into "The Rectifier," David takes on everyone from the schmuck who ignores his own car alarm to the city's most powerful citizen, the Mayor. As his daring grows, New Yorkers rally behind him inspiring David to win this fight by the most ingenious of schemes.

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Speed Racer

Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
Director: Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski
Screenwriter: Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski
Starring: Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci, John Goodman, Susan Sarandon, Matthew Fox, Hiroyuki Sanada, Richard Roundtree, Ji Hoon Jung, Benno Furmann, Kick Gurry, Paulie Litt, Roger Allam
Genre: Action
MPAA Rating: PG (for sequences of action, some violence and language)
Official Website: SpeedRacerthemovie.com

Plot Summary: Born to race cars, Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch) is aggressive, instinctive and, most of all, fearless. His only real competition is the memory of the brother he idolized—the legendary Rex Racer, whose death in a race has left behind a legacy that Speed is driven to fulfill. Speed is loyal to the family racing business, led by his father, Pops Racer (John Goodman), the designer of Speed’s thundering Mach 5. When Speed turns down a lucrative and tempting offer from Royalton Industries, he not only infuriates the company’s maniacal owner (Roger Allam) but uncovers a terrible secret—some of the biggest races are being fixed by a handful of ruthless moguls who manipulate the top drivers to boost profits. If Speed won’t drive for Royalton, Royalton will see to it that the Mach 5 never crosses another finish line. The only way for Speed to save his family’s business and the sport he loves is to beat Royalton at his own game. With the support of his family and his loyal girlfriend, Trixie (Christina Ricci), Speed teams with his one-time rival—the mysterious Racer X (Matthew Fox)—to win the race that had taken his brother’s life: the death-defying, cross-country rally known as The Crucible.

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Surfwise

Studio: Magnolia Pictures
Director: Doug Pray
Screenwriter: Doug Pray
Starring: Dorian Paskowitz, Juliette Paskowitz, Israel Paskowitz, Jonathan Paskowitz
Genre: Documentary, Sports
MPAA Rating: Not Available
Official Website: Surfwisefilm.com

Plot Summary: "Surfwise" follows the odyssey of 85-year-old, legendary surfer Dr. Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz, his wife Juliette, and their nine children—all of whom were home-schooled on the beaches of Southern California, Hawaii, Mexico and Israel; they surfed every day of their lives, and were forced to adhere to a strict diet and lifestyle by their passionate and demanding, health-conscious father.

In the mid-1950s Dorian Paskowitz was a successful doctor living the good life in the territory of Hawaii, until two devastating divorces and the realization that he had no interest in money or status caused him to completely upend his life. Dorian dropped his practice and traveled to Israel for a year where he lived among the Bedouins and developed a lifelong obsession with a healthy diet. He introduced surfing to Israel and became a hero in the burgeoning Tel Aviv beach scene. Returning to the States, he met his wife Juliette, and the rest was history. They fell madly in love, steered clear of society, lived out of a tiny camper on the beach, and had 7 sons in rapid succession: David, Jonathan, Abraham, Israel, Moses, Adam, and Salvador Daniel. Then they had one daughter, Navah, and their ninth child, Joshua.

The children were raised in the Jewish tradition, complete with Shabbat on the beach every Friday night. But that's where similarities with a normal societal upbringing end. Doc's absolute determination was to raise his children according to the strictest standards of nature. They ate only organic and/or raw foods with no sugar or fat. Their community was their family. They didn't need money or have to pay bills or taxes. Their home was anywhere the crowded camper was parked.

What happens to eight brothers and a sister that are raised under such extraordinary circumstances? "Surfwise" is the story of a man who pursued his dreams and dragged his family along for the wild ride.

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The Tracey Fragments

Studio: THINKFilm
Director: Bruce McDonald
Screenwriter: Not Available
Starring: Ellen Page, Ari Cohen, Max McCabe-Lokos, Erin McMurtry, SlimTwig, Julian Richings
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: Not Available
Official Website: TheTraceyFragments.com

Plot Summary: Based on screenwriter Maureen Medved's novel of the same name, "The Tracey Fragments" uses highly inventive and dynamic Mondrian-like split screens to tell the story of why 15-year-old Tracey Berkowitz (Page) is riding out a blizzard in the back of a city bus, naked except for the tattered curtain she's wrapped in, and looking for her missing brother (whom she fears she has hypnotized). On screen for nearly every frame of the film, Page delivers a tour-de-force performance that cements her status as one of the most exciting young actresses on screen today.

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What Happens in Vegas

Studio: 20th Century Fox
Director: Tom Vaughan
Screenwriter: Dana Fox
Starring: Cameron Diaz, Ashton Kutcher, Rob Corddry, Treat Williams, Dennis Farina, Jason Sudeikis, Lake Bell, Queen Latifah
Genre: Comedy, Romance
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for some sexual and crude content, and language, including a drug reference)
Official Website: WhatHappensinVegasmovie.com

Plot Summary: The popular expression, "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" conjures up a veritable jackpot of shed inhibitions, insane indulgence, and gleeful debauchery. And if you can remember any of it, you probably weren't there.

But what would happen if a few crazy--okay, hugely inebriated--moments in Sin City not only didn't "stay" there but also followed you all the way back home and threatened to turn your life upside down? That's the setup that explodes into a series of outrageous consequences for two sexy, if wildly mismatched, strangers in the comedy "What Happens in Vegas."

For charismatic party guy Jack Fuller (Ashton Kutcher) and buttoned-up commodities trader Joy McNally (Cameron Diaz), a rowdy weekend coincidentally shared in Las Vegas should have, by all rights, ended up being little more than a random blur. That is, if these two vacationing New Yorkers didn't have a signed marriage license staring them in the face to shockingly remind them of the giant misstep they took while feeling no pain, Vegas-style.

Stacking the deck, not only did Jack and Joy tie the knot after tying one on, but later scored a mind-blowing three million bucks in a slot machine bonanza. Well, Jack won it with Joy's quarter. At the machine she'd already been playing. Or was it the other way around? And whose loot is it anyway?

Therein lies the weird hand dealt this bickering duo who take their predicament back to Manhattan only to be sentenced by the intractable Judge Whopper (Dennis Miller) to "six months hard marriage." Despite the hapless protests of Jack's best friend and legal counsel Steve "Hater" Hader (Rob Corddry), Whopper refuses to grant Jack and Joy an annulment, freezes the prize booty, and forces the irresponsible couple to prove they have done everything humanly possible to make their impromptu marriage work. This includes co-habitation, weekly counseling sessions, and doing something the old school Whopper believes Jack and Joy's "generation" hates to do: try. Otherwise, the judge guarantees, the three million bucks will stay caught up in a legal battle so long and expensive no one but the lawyers will ever see a penny of it.

I now pronounce you man and wife. For real.

Jack and Joy figure, "Fine, how hard can it be" and take the bait only to find themselves locked in a hilarious, patience-testing, panties-twisting game of wild one-upmanship--may the best "pretend spouse" win.

The battle of the sexes has never had a pair of gladiators like Jack and Joy, not to mention their partners in crime--Jack's hair-trigger buddy "Hater" and Joy's take-no-prisoners gal pal Tipper (Lake Bell), who despise each other with almost as much venom as do Jack and Joy. Throw in Jack's demanding father, Jack, Sr. (Treat Williams); Joy's hard-driving boss, Banger (Dennis Farina); her snooty ex-fiance, Mason (Jason Sudeikis); and a savvy shrink named Dr. Twitchell (Queen Latifah), and pretty soon there's a whole team of folks making Jack and Joy's frantic charade that much crazier.

Can Jack and Joy survive their six months of "wedded bliss"--without killing each other first--and ultimately cash in for the big payoff? Or will the fiery sparks that ricochet between them actually ignite, turning a fake relationship into something astonishingly real?

In the end, what happens in "What Happens in Vegas" may prove the biggest surprise of all.


A Previous Engagement

Studio: Buccaneer Films
Director: Joan Carr-Wiggin
Screenwriter: Joan Carr-Wiggin
Starring: Tchéky Karyo, Tcheky Karyo, Daniel Stern, Valerie Mahaffey
Genre: Comedy, Romance
MPAA Rating: Not Available
Official Website: APreviousEngagement.com

Plot Summary: When Seattle librarian Julia Reynolds (Juliet Stevenson) talks her unadventurous, jigsaw-obsessed husband Jack (Daniel Stern) into a once-in-a-lifetime vacation on the Mediterranean island of Malta she has a secret agenda: a date made twenty-five years earlier with her first love Alex (Tcheky Karyo). But she's stunned when the sexy Frenchman not only shows up but insists she's his true love, even though he brought his latest young girlfriend (Kate Miles) along. Did they really live the wrong lives? When Alex storms their holiday villa shouting his love, fantasy becomes reality. What happens when your husband discovers you've been sneaking kisses under the bed with an old boyfriend? The absent-minded, flat-footed insurance man takes action, transforming himself into a new man and getting dance lessons inside and out of the bedroom from an ex-chorus girl (Valerie Mahaffey). With one last day in Malta Julia must choose between the husband she never really knew and the man she's dreamt of for twenty-five years.


The Fall

Studio: Roadside Attractions
Director: Tarsem Singh
Screenwriter: Tarsem Singh, Dan Gilroy
Starring: Lee Pace, Catinca Untaru, Justine Waddell, Julian Bleach
Genre: Drama, Fantasy
MPAA Rating: R (for some violent images)
Official Website: TheFallthemovie.com

Plot Summary: Los Angeles, circa 1920's, a little immigrant girl (Catinca Untaru) finds herself in a hospital recovering from a fall. She strikes up a friendship with a bedridden man (Lee Pace) who captivates her with a whimsical story that removes her far from the hospital doldrums into the exotic landscapes of her imagination. Making sure he keeps the girl interested in the story he interweaves her family and people she likes from the hospital into his tale.


Frontier(s)

Studio: After Dark Films
Director: Xavier Gens
Screenwriter: Xavier Gens
Starring: Karina Testa, Samuel Le Bihan, Estelle LeFebure, Aurelian Wilk, David Saracino, Chems Dahmani, Maud Forget, Amelie Daure, Rosine Favey, Adel Bencherif, Joel Le Francois, Patrick LeGardes
Genre: Horror
MPAA Rating: Not Available
Official Website: FrontiersUnrated.com

Plot Summary: Alone in a Paris plagued by deadly race riots, the young and beautiful Yasmine is looking for a way out. In her desperation, she turns to her shady ex-boyfriend. Together with his two thug friends, they pull off a bold heist and head for the border. With the police close behind, they hide out in a seemingly peaceful inn. But the mysterious innkeeper is hiding a secret more terrifying than anything they could ever imagine. Trapped in an endless maze of tunnels crawling with hungry subhuman cannibals, they must fight to survive their bloody initiation into the innkeeper's evil family cult.


Vice

Studio: 41 INC.
Director: Raul Sanchez Inglis
Screenwriter: Raul Sanchez Inglis
Starring: Michael Madsen, Daryl Hannah, Mykelti Williamson, Mark Boone Junior
Genre: Crime, Drama
MPAA Rating: R (for violence, pervasive language, strong sexual)
Official Website: VicetheMovie.com

Plot Summary: Detective Max Walker (Madsen) was once a highly respected cop until he lost his wife and his life unraveled. Haunted by her memory and harboring his rage, Walker has nothing left to lose. He is a loose cannon waiting for an excuse to explode.

A drug bust operation goes awry. A large haul of heroin is discovered by Walker and his team; including Salt (Hannah) and Sampson (Williamson). The bust attracts a great deal of heat after several people are killed and one gang member escapes from the scene.

Murder and mayhem ensue. The officers involved in the bust are being killed off one by one. No cop is safe. With no suspects in sight, a bewildered Walker joins forces with Salt to investigate the slaughter of his team.

What follows is a series of twists, intrigue and foul play. When it is discovered that some drugs from the bust went missing the cops start to look amongst themselves for the killer. Trust is compromised, comradeship dissolves and friends turn their guns on one another until the last man is standing and the truth is revealed.
 
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