Today's Pick

Despite a career which has included a string of critical hits such as "My Left Foot" and "In the Name of the Father," the 60-year-old Irish director Jim Sheridan returns to cinemas this week with his latest film "Brothers," a depressing study in post-tramatic syndrome but a rewarding journey, is set to hit theaters today.
"Brothers" is an adaptation of the award winning Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier's "Brødre" in 2004, and it's about human frailty, and tells a story of how the two brothers find themselves changing roles. When a straight-arrow Marine Sam Cahill (Tobey Maguire, the "Spider-Man") returns to the war in Afghanistan, he leaves his wife Grace (Natalie Portman) and his children behind. He also leaves his black-sheep younger brother Tommy (Jake Gyllenhaal), who is having issues with their father. But when Sam is thought to be dead, Tommy steps up and begins to help Grace with the house, hoping to deal with both of their loss. Happily, Sam is not dead and he returns battered and bruised, but alive. Yet his return is only after he has suffered some painful experiences. And once he is back, he struggling to adjust to civilian life and suffers from guilt, anger, sadness and paranoia, leaving his family broken and afraid. As a result, the siblings whose lives have gone in completely different directions. One is a hero who returns from the front erratic and violent, and the other is an ex-con who learns self-control when he's handed responsibility.
The increasingly impersonal Jim Sheridan is doing his personal best to further the Irish tradition of storytelling. On the big screen or in conversation, the diminutive Irish filmmaker spins tales of a mesmerizing nature, covering politics, history, religion and literature, and sometimes all at once. With strong supporting performances from Oscar nominees, Sheridan's movie delves deep into the mental scars of war in a way that is reminiscent of Michael Cimino's 1978 classic "The Deer Hunter." "It's the difficulty of the warrior coming back to a civilian situation, and how he has to adjust," Sheridan says. As a melodrama, "Brothers" is a powerful statement on loyalty, love, calamity of the human heart and the cost of war. The movie stays with you long after leaving the theater...maybe forever.

There is a growing legend out there that the ancient Maya predicted the world would end on Dec. 21, 2012. It doesn't. But, as with other topics based on a whiff of truth and a hint of hysteria, Hollywood is all over it. The disaster-movie veteran Roland Emmerich has given movie watchers several apocalyptic sci-fi thriller films in the past in "Godzilla," "Independence Day," "The Day After Tomorrow" and "10,000 B.C.," and he offers another look at the end of the world in his latest exercise in global cataclysm that tells of the heroic struggle of the survivors "2012," opens theaters today.
People who view screenwriting as an art and don't particularly care about audience reaction to their films. But Mr. Emmerich , the hollywood's most successful one-trick pony, claims to favor "human stories" over spectacle, he has taken that very kind of formula writing and made a veritable empire out of it, returning every few years to destroy some corner of the earth and invent a handful of earnest heroes, wisecracking sidekicks and solemn old men to survive his newest take on the apocalypse. "2012" is crammed with state-of-the-art digital effects. A few teacups get chipped: California slides into the sea; Yellowstone Park blows straight up into the sky; disasters flattening Rio's Christ the Redeemer statue, St.Peter's Basilica and the White House; massive floods and fires; and a giraffe being rescued by helicopter. That's just the opening act.
In "2012," our premier Hollywood disastermeister Mr.Emmerich flips our entire planet on its head. Following an academic researcher who opens a portal into a parallel universe, making contact with his double in an effort to prevent the catastrophic prophecies of the ancient Mayan calendar from coming to pass. When a global cataclysm thrusts the world into chaos, divorced writer and father Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) uses his knowledge of the ancient prophecies to ensure that the human race is not completely wiped out. Chiwetel Ejiofor, Danny Glover, Amanda Peet, Thandie Newton, and Oliver Platt round out the cast of this thriller.
Mr. Emmerich claims that "2012" is his final disaster movie, unless "Independence Day 2" ever gets off the ground, and the movie is nothing if not an indulgent curtain call for the man who figured out how much we like watching cinematic portrayals of our own demise. It's all the reasons we've ever loved or hated his movies, but also a reminder of why it's high time to move on. Alternately eye-popping, brain-bruising, and certifiably insipid, "2012" will absolutely appeal to anyone who enjoys watching films ironically.

Bruce Willis is back to his action hero roots, and Disney is aiming to hunt down the top spot this weekend to challenge "Cloudy" with the opening of 54-year-old star Willis starring "Surrogates," the biggest budget film of the year for Disney Studios' adult-oriented Touchstone label, which previously released romantic comedies "The Proposal" and "Confessions of a Shopaholic." The $80-million sci-fi thriller blockbuster is adapted from the Top Shelf graphic novel of the same name by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele in 2005, a rough mystery about technological addiction.
Following a six-year absence, the director Jonathan Mostow is back in theaters with a much smaller property and a fraction of his "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" price tag, which made more than $430 million worldwide. Mr. Mostow is no stranger to filming cyborgs, his film is a clever blend of familiar elements and more inventive fare, including the unique premise and some quirky effects.
Welcome to the future! How do you save humanity when the only thing that's real is you? "Surrogates" is set in the not-so-distant future, where human beings stay at home and send robots out into the world as their surrogates in daily life. Desperate to avoid the perils of everyday living, humanity has turned virtual reality into actual reality. When the genius creator of the surrogates is murdered, FBI agent Greer (Bruce Willis) is forced to leave the safety of his own home for the first time in years and survive in the real world. Like most of the world's population, Greer has two halves: His better-looking surrogate is controlled by his stay-at-home, somewhat grizzled, real self. The Stepford-pretty robots have helped eliminate crime and racism, but things get complicated when surrogates begin dying and their hosts being dying too.
So "Surrogates" is meant as pure science fiction, right? Wrong. The filmmakers and futurists behind the movie say they're aiming for an only slightly enhanced version of present-day trends. The film has a solid and pretty original premise, a well-chosen cast and the special effects are top-notch and the visual look of the film is excellent.

With so many dark titles on their way, there must have been a full moon when this week's releases were scheduled. Marvel’s merry mutants are coming home and slashing its way into video stores today, with the release of the live-action film "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" and two more sets of the classic 1990s animated X-Men series. "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" was the first big blockbuster of the summer, and directed by Gavin Hood, and stars Hugh Jackman as the title character, along with Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston, will.i.am, Lynn Collins, Taylor Kitsch, and Ryan Reynolds. The Buena Vista animated version of Logan can be found in X-Men Vols. 3 and 4 continue to collect the popular Fox Kids series.
Fox came up with an ingenious way to make more money off its "X-Men" property — spin off not just another film, but another franchise. "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," the 4th installment of the X-Men film series am\nd the 8th-best-grossing film of the year so far, Hugh Jackman returns as the clawed mutant wolverine, who makes a shocking discovery about his family bloodline, and gains a brother in the process. Flash forward to find the mutant siblings battling side by side through two world wars and Vietnam.
DVD extras include two commentary tracks, a interview with Wolverine creators Stan Lee and Len Wein, a featurette on the making of the movie and deleted and alternate scenes. The Blu-ray has all those extras and more, including a look at the helicopter chase sequence, a trivia track and 10 character chronicles.

Labor Day weekend marks the end of the summer movie season. It's historically a sleepy time at the box office, that trend isn't likely to change this year. Hollywood does not save its best for last because that goes against the philosophy of what the summer is for studios. It’s now a few weeks yet until Oscar contenders hit theaters. So it's already off to a lukewarm start, but for those heading out to the theater this weekend, the Lionsgate's "Gamer", a movie abandoned on Labor Day weekend, hopes to break the losing streak of movies inspired by the gaming world. It should be the top draw I picked for you. However, "Gamer" is being launched in a less than advantageous release schedule, will open on Friday without benefit of press screenings with Labor Day releases usually struggling to gather audiences.
In the near future, you don't live to play... you'll play to live. “Gamer” is a high-concept futuristic action thriller set in a near future when gaming and entertainment have evolved into a terrifying new hybrid where human prisoners are forced into deadly combat through mind control. From the co-writers/directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, who gave us the "Crank" movies, succeeded in creating a kinetic brand of all sensation, all the time post narrative filmmaking, and make hyperactive cinematic freakouts that are both fun to watch and, on their own terms at least, logically cohesive. Gerard Butler stars as Kable, a real-life video game character and an unwilling participant in an online game and the star of a hot new videogame called "Slayers," a controversial form of entertainment that allows millions to act out their innermost desires and fantasies. Under the control of a young gamer, Kable tries to survive long enough to escape the game to free his family, regain his identity and save mankind.
Gerard Butler returns to this high-adrenaline action flick, mans up in the scary cyber reality of Gamer, still looks as ripped as when he starred in "300". And once again, Butler is looking seriously pumped up. The Scottish-born rising star is on top of his game, who have also cheered him in Guy Ritchie's "RocknRolla" and the 2001 TV series "Attila," his early breakthrough. But the 39-year-old actor has proven just as appealing to women. He has been labeled a full-fledged sex symbol after performances in the 2007 romance "P.S. I Love You" and this summer's romantic comedy "The Ugly Truth."
Non-stop action from the very start with awesome camera work and a unique story line. This movie takes video gaming to the extreme and makes you wonder if there are any boundaries to what man will do to amuse themselves! Also if you play video games you will enjoy the scenes in "Society" and the characters that are portrayed. This is without doubt a modern day action blockbuster with hints of the 80' and 90's classics. The Dread Central saying "Gamer is a top of the line action/terror trip with more exploding carcasses than the latest installment of Rambo." If you like action and something new go and see this you wont be disappointed! I don’t play video game. It’s not that I don’t enjoy video games, but they’ve just never really been something that was a big part of my life.

The film "State of Play" comes to us on DVD/Blu-Ray today. From director Kevin Macdonald of "The Last King of Scotland" and his committee of screenwriters have, like newsroom rewrite aces, based on the critically acclaimed BBC miniseries of the same name, "State of Play." The plot of the six-hour serial has been condensed to fit two hours, and shifting locales from London to U.S. capital. The film was released in North America on April 17.
Academy Award-winner Russell Crowe leads an all-star cast, including Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams & Helen Mirren in the blistering political thriller about deception, manipulation and corruption. When a street smart D.C. reporter Cal McCaffrey (Crowe), an old-school-style journalist is assigned to investigate the murder of an assistant to an up-and-coming U.S. Congressman (Affleck), who's also his best friend, he uncovers a conspiracy that threatens to bring down the nation's power structures. In a town of spin-doctors and wealthy power brokers, he will discover one truth: when fortunes are at stake, no one's integrity, love or life is safe.
Political thrillers are most effective when they deal with an issue that resonates with their audiences. It can be difficult to produce them in a timely matter because news happens constantly, and seemingly weekly, the world is on to the next story of corruption or injustice.
With this tense thriller "State of Play," the universal themes of greed and amoral politicians, it brings together gripping performances, riveting suspense and is "sophisticated, intelligent and powerful". It feels a little familiar as far as paranoid political thrillers go, but it's so nicely executed—well written, compelling and rich—with a stellar set of actors that it's easy to get engrossed in the story, and the current American political climate fits nicely with the story. The drama features terrific performances from its stars as well. The special extras for DVD include deleted scenes and behind-the-scenes making-of featurette.

What are hitting theaters this weekend to finish up the 2009 summer movie season? "The Final Destination" or often called "Final Destination 4" is franchise’s fourth and reportedly final installment of the gloriously schlocky thriller/horror flick series, and the first of the series in fusion 3D, which was shot over 60 days in New Orleans last summer, and opens today, comes three years after “Final Destination 3” made $113.3 million worldwide.
By making sure no one dies of natural causes, director David R. Ellis and screenwriter Eric Bress, who co-wrote "Final Destination 2," have clearly given plenty of ghoulish thought to the visceral thrill of the 3D format, which might give it an edge, and offers a new perspective on the horror franchise, and indeed on ideas of life, death and destiny. It's just as bloody and fun as the previous three films.
IF you have seen any of the previous three Final Destination movies, you probably already know how it all works, or at least you think you do. You won't need a sixth sense to know what is coming. As usual a group of teenagers dodge an early grave when one of them, Nick O'Bannon (Bobby Campo) can see the future and uses the power to help his friends cheat death. They try to escape their fates, but death always catches up, and then pursues them to their ultimate destination. The difference here is that those of you near a digital cinema will be able to see people being sliced in half in 3D, a format that should intensify the visceral experience.
Eat your heart out, this 4th installment brings no fresh ideas to the mix is not a problem; the added dimension is a hugely entertaining carnival ride of elaborate, and more than enough to reinvigorate interest in this enduringly and deservedly popular New Line's series.

Following up his acclaimed legal thriller "Michael Clayton" and "Bourne" movies, writer/director Tony Gilroy takes a vacation with the deceptively lightweight "Duplicity," is supposedly one of the smartest screenwriters we've got. The film was released on March 20, and it's DVD/Blu-ray with featuring commentary will be available today.
The allure of this romance caper, Oscar winner Julia Roberts and Clive Owen star as two sexy spies-turned-corporate operatives in the midst of a clandestine love affair. When they find themselves on either side of an all-out corporate war between rival manufacturers, they'll put everything on the line to remain one double-cross ahead in a high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse.
Carol Hemphill & Kent Tentschert Merriam-Webster defines the word, "duplicity," as "contradictory doubleness of thought, speech, or action," and Gilroy must love these contradictions. The ways in which the paranoid pair interact are complicated, and any clear description would introduce spoilers. Suffice it to say that this witty thriller-cum-romance explores the seductive power of the almighty dollar. It’s that great Julia and Owen chemistry dancing through Gilroy’s clever dialogue that makes this a crowd-pleaser.
"Duplicity" is well-crafted, smart, and often funny, but it’s mostly more cerebral than visceral and features far too many plot twists. As silly as the convoluted plot turns out to be, the movie is about the journey, not the destination. All moves, countermoves and double crosses keep you guessing until the finale.

Yahoo! Movies has just officially premiered the teaser trailer online today for "The Dark Knight" and "Batman Begins" director Christopher Nolan's upcoming sci-fi thriller film, "Inception". Just a few days after an IMDB report which described it appeared online that it involves "A CEO-type involved in a blackmail scandal." and after playing before "Inglourious Basterds" in some theaters during the weekend, we now have the first look for ourselves!
It's just a teaser in every sense of the word running about one-minute long with only a few snippets of footage. You won't get much else from it, and certainly nothing that tells you anything about a plot. The tagline says "Your mind is the scene of the crime," and Nolan himself has called it "a contemporary sci-fi actioner set within the architecture of the mind." It all looks wild though, particularly the glimpses we get of a fight sequence in a hallway, a very Dark Knight, chilling and Matrix-style.
In fact, with Nolan on board as the driving force, an estimated budget of $200 million, and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Marion Cotillard, Cillian Murphy, Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ken Watanabe, Tom Hardy and Michael Caine. While we still don't really have much of an idea of what the film is about, the teaser is certainly intriguing. The movie is due for release on July 16, 2010 by Warner Bros Pictures, and could be the dark horse of summer 2010, so keep your excitement to a minimum for now.

After all the waiting, the first trailer in blue for James Cameron's hyped new movie "Avatar" is finally here, went online on Apple.com today. It has been a movie ten years in the making, or so we can assume since we haven’t heard much from director James Cameron since the hit "Titanic" in 1997. Now, his highly anticipated creation "Avatar" is about the hit the big screen on December 18.
Tomorrow is Fox’s “Avatar Day” promotion, so get your tickets (crashed on avatarthemovie.com) to preview 15-minute of the new movie in 3D for free at a Imax theater near you worldwide. I expect more coverage and footage to pop up online at some point. Until then, this teaser should tide you over. And already, there are whispers that it could change the course of film-making forever.
The upcoming blockbuster "Avatar" was first conceived by Cameron 14 years ago. It has been in production for four years, and the filming of it reportedly involves "revolutionary technology". The 3D sci-fi adventure also reunites movie director James Cameron with actress Sigourney Weaver, as they worked together on Aliens. The film centers on an ex-Marine Jake Sully, who submerges himself into the culture of an alien race. With the help of his Avatar body, he's able to adapt to his new environment even though he’s still present in his human mind.
Meanwhile, the trailer is just two minutes long, but it offers just enough footage to wet your appetite, and blow your mind.

First "Star Trek," then "Transformers 2," and now the team of Paramount and game maker Hasbro action figure toy line proved again that toys are serious business at the box office. "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" went on to dominate the world by topping out over $100 million around the globe on its opening weekend for one of the best August debuts ever, albeit the smallest one.
The film not only exceeded expectations, overcame bad buzz and scathing reviews, and has also blown away the competition and stands tall to win the opening weekend with earning $56.2 million in the States, and grabbing another $44 million for a worldwide total of over $100 million in three days! According to THR, the film is still scheduled to debut in about 28 more foreign territories, including key markets, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, and Scandinavia.
"G.I. Joe" stars Channing Tatum and Marlon Wayans as two young soldiers recruited by the international G.I. Joe military force to help save the world. It was directed by Stephen Sommers of "The Mummy" fame. Given the wide awareness of the brand, fans were underwhelmed by a trailer that premiered in February during the Super Bowl football championship, the most-watched television event of the year in the US.
“This is a very strong opening,” critics who went to see "G.I. Joe" after it opened gave it mixed reviews at best, with many branding it mindless action but some finding it fun and entertaining. Looks like Steven Sommers will get his sequel after all. Be sure to check back next week to see if G.I. Joe can hold off the invasion of "District 9."

The brand-new official trailer for the upcoming Kate Beckinsale's new ice-cold thriller 'Whiteout' has finally surfaced on IGN. The Warner Bros's new thriller, based on the 1998 graphic novel, directed by Dominic Sena, Shooting in Quebec, Canada has been one of the most weirdly under-publicized movies of the year since early summer of 2007, and will hits theaters on September 11.
Kate plays a lone U.S. marshal, Carrie Stetko, who is as anxious as anyone to be going home, but the only one assigned to Antarctica's South Pole research base, where “nature never intended you to survive, the most isolated landmass on the planet, no permanent population, 120 Below zero temp, 200 mph of wind, no horizon, no shadows, there is only...WHITE!" to investigate the continent's 1st homicide. However, more importantly, “Nature is not the only thing to fear…” Now with only 3 days until the onset of a 6-month winter, and everyone around her packing up and getting out, Carrie must solve the crime before Antarctica is plunged into 6 months of darkness winter, and she is stranded with the killer on a land where nothing comes in and no one gets out. 'Whiteout' definitely ratchets up the suspense a notch or two. Enjoy!

Devastated by the tragic loss of their unborn child, and struggling to regain some semblance of normalcy in their lives, the couple decides to adopt a child. At the local orphanage, both find themselves strangely drawn to a young girl named Esther. But when an alarming series of events begins to unfold, leading wife, Kate to believe that there's something wrong with Esther ... Can you keep a secret? You'll never guess her secret ... don't even try it since it may be too late ... for everyone.
Dark, edgy, effective, clever, intense, and blackly comic - one of the best evil-kid movie with a fresh, inventive twist, and the most terrifying horror endings. The experience becomes more entertaining because of what we don't see coming. It's so strongly and brilliantly cast - Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard are top-notch as usual, and 12-year-old Isabelle Fuhrman delivers a title performance so unsettling that it's left Warner Brothers convinced that it has a sleeper hit on its hands. With all that said, "Orphan" proved to be one of the more entertaining movies of the year, though not, I'm afraid, for all of the reasons the filmmakers surely intended.

"Watchmen", Zack Snyder's big-screen version of Alan Moore's beloved graphic novel gets the broad strokes right, telling a sexy, blood-spattered story about a band of discredited heroes who reunite to solve the murder of one of their own. The film is set in a gritty and alternate 1985 America, the glory days of costumed vigilantes have been brought to a close by a government crackdown, but after one of the masked veterans is brutally murdered, an investigation into the killer is initiated, which begins to lead to a much more terrifying conclusion. The reunited outlaw heroes -- including Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup), Silk Spectre (Carla Gugino), Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley) and Nite Owl (Patrick Wilson) -- unite to defend themselves, and to prevent their own destruction, but in doing so discover a deeper and far more diabolical plot.
Comic books and movies both tell stories with pictures, but "Watchmen" demonstrates that the animating spirit of a rich, fully realized graphic novel may be as hard to transfer to the screen as that of any other type of successful literary work. "Watchmen" shows it's time for the superior superhero. First "The Dark Knight", now the even darker "Watchmen" - is the serious side of comic book heroes the future for movies?
The new "Watchmen" DVD is no change in popularity this week, with Director’s cut, boasts an additional 24 minutes of footage not previously seen in theaters as well as a second disc loaded with special features.