Movies January 2004

MOVIES RELEASED JANUARY 2004

1 JANUARY
	Cold Mountain (M): National. Buena Vista (Miramax). Drama/ war. Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Renee Zellweger, Natalie Portman, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Giovanni Ribisi, Ray Winstone, Brendan Gleeson. D: Anthony Minghella (The English Patient). As the Civil War reaches its final days, Inman (Law), a wounded soldier, gets up out of what his doctors thought was his death bed, and begins the long, hard walk to his home in his North Carolina on Cold Mountain. Waiting there for him is Ada (Kidman), the sweetheart he left behind to go to war, trying to hold onto the farm of her deceased missionary father. Inman's long journey takes him through the crumbling confederacy, as he meets people of all walks of life who want to both aid and hinder his mission... During the course of his odyssey, he encounters many other people struggling to deal with the repercussions of a war that tore apart the very fabric of the country. Based on the novel of the same title by Charles Frazier.
	Infernal Affairs (TBA): Selected, Syd. Rialto. Action. Hong Kong. Opens Valhalla, Syd. 97 mins. Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Andy Lau Tak-Wah, Anthony Wong Chau-Sang, Eric Tsang Chi-Wai, Sammi Cheng Sau-Man, Kelly Chen, Elva Hsiao. D: Andrew Lau Kai-Keung (Ghost Lantern), Alan Mak Siu- Fai (Nude Fear). Number two and three are already on the way for this series, as well as a American re-make. Tony Leung Chiu-Wai stars as Yan, a police mole in the triads for the past ten years. He's been deep, deep undercover for so long that he's started to question his focus and sanity. Meanwhile, he has a mirror opposite on the other side. Andy Lau is Ming, a rising cop who's secretly a triad mole. For the same ten years, he's been feeding information to Sam (Eric Tsang), a ruthless triad kingpin who Yan currently works for. Sam's archenemy is Organized Crime and Triad Bureau Inspector Wong (Anthony Wong), who's Yan's only link to the police force. On a routine drug bust, both sides discover the presence of a mole within their ranks, and both sides charge their respective undercover with finding the offending party.
	Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over (TBA): National. Buena Vista (Dimension Films). Adventure. Antonio Banderas, Carla Gugino, Alexa Vega, Daryl Sabara, Cheech Marin, Sylvester Stallone, Ricardo Montalban, Holland Taylor, Danny Trejo, Courtney Jines, Matt O'Leary, Alan Cumming, Emily Osment, Ryan James Pinkston, Robert Vito, Sylvester Stallone, Bill Paxton, Steve Buscemi. D: Robert Rodriguez (El Mariachi). On their most mind-blowing mission yet, the Spy Kids are about to enter an entirely new dimension: the third dimension. In "Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over", state-of-the-art digital 3D technology puts something special into special effects action for the whole family. On their latest assignment, under-age Juni and Carmen Cortez (Sabara and Vega) journey inside the virtual reality wolrd of a cool but crazy video game, where anything is possible, including the impossible. Action film veteran Sylvester Stallone joins the cast as the power-hungry villain the 'Toymaker', who wants to take over the youth of the world, and Juni and Carmen must battle their way through tougher and tougher levels of a three-dimensional game ingeniously designed to outwit and defeat them.

8 JANUARY
	Haunted Mansion (TBA): National. Buena Vista. Animated. USA. V: Eddie Murphy, Terrance Stamp, Jennifer Tilly, Don Knotts, Nathaniel Parker. D: Rob Minkoff (The Lion King). Back Story (16^th Century): On the eve of her wedding, Elizabeth Henshaw is forced to abandon her true love and marry another. She curses her intended and all the wedding guests then kills herself. The bridegroom, Edward Gracey, kills all the guests and they are left to haunt the house for eternity. Present Day (2002): Jim generally neglects his wife and two children while working non-stop as a lawyer. He gets the job interview of a lifetime but the prospective employer wants to meet the entire family. They arrive at the derelict and rather creepy mansion and they experience the hauntings of the mansion. It transpires that the family have been brought to the mansion because Sara looks like Elizabeth and Gracey intends to marry her and bring her into the other world with him.
	Honey (TBA): National. UIP (Uni). Drama. Jessica Alba, Lil' Romeo, Mekhi Phifer, David Moscow, Zachary Williams, Joy Bryant, Lonette McKee, Missy Elliott (cameo), Genuine (cameo). D: Billie Woodruff (debut). In Universal Pictures' Honey, Jessica Alba (television's Dark Angel) stars as Honey Daniels, a dancer and choreographer working as a bartender and record store clerk until she gets that one break. When she finally succeeds, it feels too good to be true. And it is - until Honey gets a new dream fuelled by the exuberant energy of a group of neighborhood kids who bring her back to the sheer joy of letting it all out on the dance floor. Honey also stars Lil' Romeo, winner of the 2001 Billboard Music Award for "Rap Artist of the Year," as Benny, a kid who needs a break even more than Honey does. Mekhi Phifer (8 Mile) portrays Chaz, a good guy with the connections that count.
	Something's Gotta Give (TBA): National. Roadshow (Warner). Comedy. Jack Nicholson, Diane Keaton, Keanu Reeves, Amanda Peet, Frances McDormand, Jon Favreau. D: Nancy Myers (The Parent Trap). Academy Award® winners Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton star in a sparkling and sophisticated romantic comedy from acclaimed writer/director Nancy Meyers ("What Women Want," "Father of the Bride") which proves that in matters of the heart, sometimes you can teach an old playboy new tricks. Harry Langer (Nicholson) is a hip-hop music mogul with a libido much younger than his years. He has the world on a string -- and a string of beautiful young girlfriends to prove it. During a romantic rendezvous with his newest girlfriend, Marin, at her mother's Hamptons beach house, Harry's develops chest pains and eventually winds up being nursed by Marin's reluctant mother, Erica Barry (Keaton) -- a successful, divorced New York playwright.
	Welcome To The Jungle (TBA): National. Columbia. Adventure. The Rock, Seann William Scott, Christopher Walken, Rosario Dawson, Jon Gries. D: Peter Berg. In the always rough, have-to-be tough urban jungle of Los Angeles, there are men like Beck (THE ROCK)…well, not exactly like Beck—a man who uses whatever means are necessary to retrieve whatever he is paid to bring back. A marker, a late payment or a Super Bowl ring from a quarterback with gambling debts—Beck doesn’t differentiate and simply relies on his wits, his “let’s get this over with” attitude and his devastating physical prowess to get the job done. For him, it’s a simple, multiple-choice world: (A) Beck’s way, (B) Beck’s way with force, or (C)…there is no “C.” Beck doesn’t go looking for trouble, and he doesn’t like making trouble for anyone, either. Unfortunately, trouble is what he’s hired to clean up, and there’s one final mess he’s got to get out of before he can leave it all behind. And this one just keeps getting more and more tangled, like the Amazon jungle he’s been sent to in The Rundown.

15 JANUARY
	The Last Samurai (TBA): National. Roadshow (WB). Tom Cruise, Timothy Spall, Billy Connolly, Tony Goldwyn, Ken Watanabe, Hiroyuki Sanada, Shun Sugata, Shin Koyamada, Seizo Fukumoto, Schichinosuke Nakamura, Koyuki, Masato Harada, Sosuke Ikematsu, Aoi Minato. D: Edward Zwick. Set in 1870s Japan, this is the story of Capt. Nathan Algren, an American military officer hired by the Emperor of Japan to train the country's first army in the art of modern warfare. As the government attempts to eradicate the ancient Samurai warrior class in preparation for more Westernized and trade-friendly policies, Algren finds himself affected by his encounters with the Samurai.
	Step Into Liquid (TBA): Selected. Rialto.
	Stuck On You (TBA): National. Fox. USA. Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear, Cher, Eva Mendes, Terence Bernie Hines, Jackie Flynn, Skyler Stone, Samuel L Jackson, Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson. D: Peter Farrelly, Bobby Farrelly (There's Something About Mary). Bob (Damon) and Walt (Kinnear) Tenor are conjoined "Siamese" twins who are winners at everything -- from flipping burgers at the diner they own, or performing miraculous feats on ice for their local hockey team. They never leave each other's side ... and wouldn't have it any other way. That is, until Walt decides he wants to follow his dreams of making it as a Hollywood actor, and persuades his reluctant sibling to go along for the ride. Tinseltown may never recover as Bob and Walt find fame, romance and a new perspective on their inseparable bond.
	Veronica Guerin (MA): National. Buena Vista. 95 mins. Cate Blanchett, Colin Farrell, Brenda Fricker, Ciarán Hinds, Gerard McSorley. D: Joel Schumacher (The Lost Boys). In the mid-1990s, Dublin was nothing short of a war zone, with a few powerful drug lords battling for control. Their most fearsome opponent was not the police but the courageous journalist Veronica Guerin (CATE BLANCHETT), who covered the crime beat with unmatched intensity. As she investigated and exposed the “pushers,” balancing her home and family against her responsibility to her readers and her country, she became a national folk heroine to the people of Ireland; each attempt on her life only galvanized her legend. Her brutal murder in 1996 forced a dramatic revision of Ireland’s laws and led to the arrests of the nation’s top criminals. Based on a true story, this powerful, emotional film from producer Jerry Bruckheimer, producer of “Pearl Harbor” and “Black Hawk Down,” and director Joel Schumacher (“Bad Company,” “A Time to Kill,” “Falling Down,” “Tigerland”), gives unique insight into a fascinating and complex aspect of the Irish conflict and a poignant portrayal of a journalist who risked her life in search of the truth.

22 JANUARY
	Along Came Polly (TBA): Selected. UIP.
	Camp (TBA): Selected. Hopscotch. Drama. 114 mins. USA. Anna Kendrick, Daniel Letterle, Chris Spain, Don Dixon. D: Todd Gaff. From producer Danny Devito and the producers of One Hour Photo and Far From Heaven comes the directorial debut of actor-turned- writer Todd Graff. After a series of Broadway flops, songwriter Bert Hanley (Dixon) goes to work at a musical camp for young performers, Camp Ovation. Inspired by the kids, he finds an opportunity to regain success by staging an altogether new production. Not since “Fame” has so much fresh talent found its way to the screen in one fell swoop. This infectious film was the toast of Sundance and is set to be an audience favorite.
	'Captured' Hamburg Project (TBA): National. UIP. Comedy. USA. Ben Stiller, Jennifer Aniston, Debra Messing, Hank Azaria, Alec Baldwin, Bryan Brown, Jsu Garcia, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Mitch Silpa. D: John Hamburg. Ben Stiller portrays risk-averse Reuben Feffer, whose best-laid plans for life and love zoom wildly off track when his wife (Messing) dumps him on their honeymoon for a scuba instructor (Azaria). Stunned, humiliated and in the grip of acute indigestion, Reuben plans to play it safer than ever. But a chance encounter with an adventure-craving, globe-trotting friend from middle school (Aniston) shoots him into a whirlwind of extreme sports, spicy foods, ferrets, salsa dancing and living in the moment.
	Hildago (TBA): National. Buena Vista. aka Into The Fire. Western. Viggo Mortensen, Omar Sharif, Zuleikha Robinson, Louise Lombard, Said Taghmaoui, Adam Alexi-Malle, Peter Mensah, Malcolm McDowell. D: Joe Johnson. Based on the true story of the greatest long-distance horse race ever run, Into The Fire is an epic action-adventure and one man's journey of personal redemption. Held yearly for centuries, the Ocean of Fire - a 3,000 mile survival race across the Arabian Desert - was a challenge restricted to the finest Arabian horses ever bred, the purest and noblest lines, owned by the greatest royal families. In 1890, a wealthy Sheik invited an American and his horse to enter the race for the first time. Frank T. Hopkins (Mortensen) was a cowboy and dispatch rider for the US cavalry who had once been billed as the greatest rider the West had ever known.
	The Missing (TBA): National. Columbia. The Missing, starring Tommy Lee Jones and Cate Blanchett, is a bone-chilling suspense thriller from Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, the Oscar®-winning director-producer team of A Beautiful Mind. The Missing is the story of Maggie Gilkeson (Cate Blanchett), a young woman raising her two daughters in an isolated and lawless wilderness. When her oldest daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) is kidnapped by a psychopathic killer with mystical powers (Eric Schweig), Maggie is forced to re-unite with her long estranged father (Jones) to rescue her. The killer and his brutal cult of desperados have kidnapped several other teenage girls, leaving a trail of death and horror across the desolate landscape of the American Southwest. Maggie and her father are in a race against time to catch up with the renegades and save her daughter, before they cross the Mexican border and disappear forever.
	The Mother (TBA): Selected. Dendy. UK. 112 mins. Comedy/ Drama. Anne Reid, Daniel Craig, Steven Mackintosh, Zelda Tinska, Peter Vaughan. D: Roger Michell (Changing Lanes). Michel has teamed up with Hanif Kureishi (Author of My Beautiful Laundrette). When 65-year-old recently-widowed grandmother, May (Reid), visits her children in West London, she finds herself caught up in a passionate love affair with Darren (Craig), a man half her age who is renovating her son's house and who... also happens to be having an affair with her married daughter. Filming: Production of this movie took place in the United Kingdom in the summer of 2002 on a budget of $2.5 million.
	Out Of Time (TBA): National. Fox. Thriller. USA. Denzel Washington, Sanaa Lathan, Eva Mendes, Dean Cain, Antoni Corone. D: Carl Franklin (High Crimes). When the police chief (Washington) of a small Florida town "borrows" money from the evidence room so he can run away with a woman (Lathan) he's always been in love with, she quickly betrays him, revealing that she only began having an affair with him as a way to seek revenge... Now, with his reputation and career on the line, an otherwise good cop must resolve his life before he runs out of time.
	Sylvia (TBA): National. Icon. Drama. Gwyneth Paltrow, Daniel Craig, Michael Gambon, Jared Harris, Blythe Danner. D: Christine Jeffs. Gwyneth Paltrow stars as legendary American poet Sylvia Plath opposite Daniel Craig as Plath's husband, British poet Laureate Ted Hughes. The film explores the source and nature of creative genius, and the essence of love in all its madness and passion. Ted and Sylvia were a sensual, volatile, and brilliant couple who emerged as two of the most influential writers of the 20th Century. Sylvia is a story of love, passion, wit and despair between two of the 20^th century’s most brilliant minds. From their initial meeting they embarked on a tumultuous affair, igniting an epic and violently powerful love. Sylvia takes us beyond the myth of a legendary writer, behind the romance, and behind the tragedy, to recreate the most devastating love story of our time.
	Torque (TBA): National. Warner Bros (Roadshow). Action. Ice Cube, Martin Henderson, Matt Schulze, Gichi Gamba, Jay Hernandez, Will Yun Lee, Faizon Love, Justina Machado, Monet Mazur, Christina Milian, Jaime Pressly, Adam Scott, Fredro Starr, Eddie Steeples. D: Joseph Kahn (debut). This action movie tells the story of long-time motor bike rider (and non-gang member) Cary Ford (Martin Henderson) who is framed by Henry (Matt Schulze), the leader of a biker gang called Hellions, for the murder of Sleepy D Henry is brother's with Trey Wallace (Ice Cube) the leader of The Machine, the most notorious and feared biker gang in the country.

29 JANUARY

In America (TBA): Selected. Fox. Drama. Ireland. Samantha Morton, Paddy Considine, Djimon Hounsou, Juan Hernandez, Nye Heron, Rene Millian. D: Jim Sheridan (Bloody Sunday). Irish immigrant Johnny (Paddy Considine); his wife, Sarah (Samantha Morton); and their daughter, recovering from the death of their son, move to New York so Johnny can pursue his dream of being an actor. Acclimatization to the Big Apple is, as one might expect, not easy. The family uses ingenuity and sheer strength of will to make the most of their new life. Ultimately it is their kindness to a stranger and that stranger’s response in return that builds their new home in America.

JANUARY