Valkyrie

In a country in the grips of evil, in a police state where every move is being watched in a world where justice and honor have been subverted, a group of men hidden inside the highest reaches of power decide to take action.   Tom Cruise stars in the suspense film, VALKYRIE, based on the true story of Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg (CRUISE) and the daring and ingenious plot to eliminate one of the most evil tyrants the world has ever known.  Director Bryan Singer (THE USUAL SUSPECTS, X-MEN, SUPERMAN RETURNS) re-teams with Academy Award®-winning USUAL SUSPECTS screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie to bring to life the story of the men who led the operation to assassinate Hitler

Genre: War, Drama

Director: Bryan Singer

Cast: Tom Cruise, Kenneth Branagh, Mill Nighy, Eddie Izzard, Terence Stamp

Slumdog Millionaire

Danny Boyle’s award-winning SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE will open in the UK on 9th January 2009, following its UK premiere on October 30 as the Closing Night film of The Times BFI London Film Festival.

Directed by Boyle (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later) and written by Simon Beaufoy (The Full Monty) SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE won the Audience Award at last month’s Toronto Film Festival.

Genre: Drama

Director: Danny Boyle

Cast: Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Anil Kapoor

Angels & Demons

The team behind the global phenomenon The Da Vinci Code returns for the highly anticipated Angels & Demons, based upon the bestselling novel by Dan Brown. Tom Hanks reprises his role as Harvard religious expert Robert Langdon, who once again finds that forces with ancient roots are willing to stop at nothing, even murder, to advance their goals. Ron Howard again directs the film, which is produced by Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, and John Calley. The screenplay is by Akiva Goldsman and David Koepp. When Langdon discovers evidence of the resurgence of an ancient secret brotherhood known as the Illuminati - the most powerful underground organization in history - he also faces a deadly threat to the existence of the secret organization’s most despised enemy: the Catholic Church. When Langdon learns that the clock is ticking on an unstoppable Illuminati time bomb, he jets to Rome, where he joins forces with Vittoria Vetra, a beautiful and enigmatic Italian scientist. Embarking on a nonstop, action-packed hunt through sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs, deserted cathedrals, and even to the heart of the most secretive vault on earth, Langdon and Vetra will follow a 400-year-old trail of ancient symbols that mark the Vatican’s only hope for survival.

Genre:Drama, Thriller
Director:Ron Howard
Cast:Tom Hanks, Ewan McGregor, Ayelet Zurer, Stellan Skarsgård, Pierfrancesco Favino

Special

Les Franken (MICHAEL RAPAPORT) is a kind-hearted and soft-spoken man who loves reading comic books. He’s the type of guy who most people walk by on the street without even noticing; in essence, he’s completely average and virtually invisible. However, everything changes for Les the day he is accepted into an experimental drug study for a new and exciting anti-depressant, Specioprin Hydrochloride. As Les begins to take the drugs an unexpected side effect occurs - he begins to develop special powers: the ability to levitate, to read peoples’ minds, and even walk through walls. Faced with the dilemma of how best to utilize his new “powers,” the answer seems obvious to Les. He puts together a homemade superhero suit and hits the streets to fight crime and protect the world from the forces of evil. Surveillance video soon exposes Les and his actions to the public via television news and therefore brings him to the attention of the businessmen developing the drug. Worried about the bad publicity Les is bringing to their new anti-depressant, they attempt to put an end to his superhero antics before too much damage is done. However, in typical comic book fashion, Les sees the men from the drug company as his evil arch nemeses - “The Suits”- men who want him to join them in their evil plan to use ‘Special’ to create an army of unstoppable assassins. Les refuses to play ball.

Genre:Drama
Director:Hal Haberman, Jeremy Passmore
Cast:Michael Rapaport, Paul Blackthorne, Josh Peck, Robert Baker, Jack Kehler

My Best Friend’s Girl

Smart, beautiful and headstrong, Alexis is the girl of Dustin’s dreams. But after only five weeks of dating, the love-struck Dustin is coming on so strong that Alexis is forced to slow things down – permanently. Devastated and desperate to get her back, Dustin turns to his best friend, Tank, the rebound specialist. A master at seducing – and offending – women, Tank gets hired by freshly dumped guys to take their ex-girlfriends out on the worst date of their lives – an experience so horrible it sends them running gratefully back to their beaus. But when Tank works his magic on Alexis, he ends up meeting the challenge of a lifetime. Alexis is the first girl who knows how to call his bluff, and Tank soon finds himself torn between his loyalty to Dustin and a strange new attraction to his best friend’s girl. An outrageous, sexy, no-holds-barred romantic comedy.

Genre:Comedy
Director:Howard Deutch
Cast:Dane Cook, Kate Hudson, Jason Biggs, Lizzy Caplan, Alec Baldwin

Bedtime Stories

BEDTIME STORIES is an adventure comedy starring ADAM SANDLER as Skeeter Bronson, a hotel handyman whose life is changed forever when the bedtime stories he tells his niece and nephew start to mysteriously come true. When he tries to help his family by telling one outlandish tale after another, it’s the kids’ unexpected contributions that turn all of their lives upside down.

Genre:Family, Comedy
Director:Adam Shankman
Cast:Adam Sandler, Guy Pearce, Keri Russell, Courteney Cox, Russell Brand

Zack and Miri make a porno.

Lifelong friends and roommates Zack (Seth Rogen) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks) are facing hard times and a mountain of debt. When the electricity and plumbing get cut off, they seize upon the idea of making a homegrown porno movie for some quick cash, enlisting the help of their friends. The two vow that having sex will not ruin their friendship. But as filming begins, what started out as a business proposition between friends turns into something much more.

Genre:Comedy
Director:Kevin Smith
Cast:Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks, Traci Lords, Ason Mewes, Ricky Mare

Monsters Vs. Aliens

When California girl Susan Murphy is unwittingly clobbered by a meteor full of outer space gunk on her wedding day, she mysteriously grows to 49-feet-11-inches tall. Alerted to the threat of this new monster, the military jumps into action and Susan is captured and secreted away to a covert government compound. There, she is renamed Ginormica and placed in confinement with a ragtag group of other monsters: the brilliant but insect-headed Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D.; the macho half-ape, half-fish The Missing Link; the gelatinous and indestructible B.O.B.; and the 350-foot grub called Insectosaurus. Their confinement is cut short, however, when a mysterious alien robot lands on Earth and begins storming the country. In a moment of desperation, The President is persuaded by General W.R. Monger to enlist the motley crew of Monsters to combat the Alien Robot and save the world from imminent destruction.

Genre:Family, Action and Adventure
Director:Rob Letterman, Conrad Vernon
Cast:Reese Witherspoon, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, Seth Rogen, Rainn wilson

Seven Pounds

Academy Award nominee Will Smith reunites with the directors and producers of The Pursuit of Happyness for the emotional drama Seven Pounds. In the film, Smith plays Ben Thomas, an IRS agent with a fateful secret who embarks on an extraordinary journey of redemption by forever changing the lives of seven strangers.

  • Genre:Drama
  • Director:Gabriele Muccino
  • Cast:Will Smith

Ice Age 3 - Dawn of the Dinosaurs

Ice Age has seen a big success with kids partly because of its lovable squirrel Scritch who’s always after the last acorn. Unfortunately I didn’t find the last of the Ice Age films that funny, which was disappointing as i thought the story line itself was pretty good. The first film had me almost splitting my sides with laughter at the antics of the hairbrained bunch, with their witty on-liners and their funny slapstic, part of me hopes that the writers have gone back to this winning formula for this latest pre-historic adventure.