Predators
After years of lousy pseudo sequels(Alien vs. Predator), dirctor Nimrod Antal and producer Robert Rodriguez combine for the first Predator film in years that actually feels like it belongs. Unlikely action hero Adrien Brody leads a team of hardcore killers trapped on a planetary game reserve where they are the prey. Much like the 1987 original, Predators is pure adrenaline and action, nothing more. In other words: perfect.
Agora
We haven't seen much from director Alejandro Amenabar since 2004's The Sea Inside, and has return has flown right under ourradar. Agora stars the lovely Rachel Weisz as Hypatia, a brilliant astronomer and philosopher in 4th Century Roman-Egypt. Her beliefs and opinions fly in the face of the male dominated Ptolemaic system. Agora was screened at the Vatican prior to it's release to some praise, then went on to be Spain's highest grossing film of 2009.
Night of the Demons
The original 1988 Night of the Demons was so gorey that most theaters wouldn't show it. Not until it was trimmed down and the violence relaxed a bit. Whether or not this remake, starring Ed Furlong(Terminator 2
) and Shannon Elizabeth(remember her?) is just as rough remains to be seen. DisneyNature: Oceans
These Disney Earth Day nature documentaries have become a pleasant yearly event. In this follow-up to Earth, director Jacques Perrin turns his attention to the creatures of the deep blue sea. Why did I avoid seeing this? Because Perrin is the guy who directed Winged Migration
, which bored me to tears some years ago. By all accounts this is a much better flick than that was. Mirrors 2
The makers of Mirrors 2 would like you to know that their sequel to 2008's ho-hum horror flick was simply too much for theaters to handle. It has nothing to do with it losing all of it's star power(the original had Kiefer Sutherland and Paula Patton atleast) and budget. Nick Stahl and Christy Carlson Romano(wasn't she a Disney Channel staple not long ago?) are the victims this go'round.
Assault Girls
I wrote about Ghost in the Shell
creator Mamoru Oshii's Assault Girls last year, and was genuiniely excited about it. Not only because of his anime pedigree, but because Assault Girls stars my future wife, Rinko Kikuchi(Babel
, The Brothers Bloom
). Kikuchi stars as one of three battle-tested, war hardened women who enter a violent video game landscape to destroy an army of mutant sandwhales. Sounds crazy, doesn't it? Bought.Please Give
Leave it to Nicole Holofcener(Friends with Money
) to always make me feel bad for those downtrodden upper class white suburbanites. In Please Give she makes her most well-rounded, emotional film to date as Catherine Keener and Oliver Platt star as a couple who make a living buying and selling furniture acquired from the recently deceased. One of them is guilty about it, the other not so much. Add in Rebecca Hall as an all too perfect neighbor, and Amanda Peet as her narcissistic sister and you have a recipe for success.
