CRUDE: Cancer victim Maria Garofalo reflected in the stream behind her home in the Ecuadorean Amazon
In the documentary Crude, Brothers Keeper director Joe Berlinger presents a courtroom drama that never takes place in a courtroom. The grim but engrossing film recounts the tactics and history of a civil lawsuit filed by thousands of native Ecuadoreans who allege that Texaco (now Chevron) polluted vast areas of the rain forest with oil, leading to contaminated drinking water and high cancer rates.
Crude primarily follows two lawyers, towering Manhattanite Steven Donzinger and diminutive Ecudorean Pablo Fajardo, as they try to keep the case alive following more than a decade of legal maneuvers and stalling tactics. Since part of the trial process includes judicial inspections in the rainforest’s polluted areas, Crude features unusual scenes of Fajardo arguing his case against Chevron’s counsel in open-air clearings before dilapidated-looking pipes and thick underbrush.
NINJA ASSASSIN: Battle-worn Raizo (Rain) holds his own against a horde of killer ninjas.
GENRE: Super-violent martial arts action flick
THE PITCH: One-man army Raizo (RAIN) exacts revenge against the Ozunu clan who taught him his deadly craft while simultaneously safeguarding Europol agent Mika Coretti (Naomie Harris) after she uncovers its existence.
MONEY SHOTS: It’s a toss up between the CGI-heavy kusari gama fight sequence and the movie’s cumulative carnage. During the final fight sequences, Raizo battles two of his former clansmen with a katana sword while they attack him with their long-chained kusari’s in an all-out brawl. There’s no way to describe the various methods the ninjas used to kill their targets without spoiling the murderous highlights that make this movie fun to watch. I can mention, however, that explosive blood splatters are punctuated in most of the various kills scenes in the film.
BEST LINE: While trying to come to grips with her morbid circumstance, Coretti notes, “I’ve taken a Tae Bo class, that’s the extent of my martial arts training” to Raizo.
Its been five years since Eve released an album, but that doesn’t mean she hasn’t been busy. The multi-talented rapper and actress has cameoed on several chart-topping songs, flexed her acting chops in a few films and had a successful television series “Eve,”which ran for three seasons on UPN. Earlier this year, Eve appeared along side Drew Barrymore and Ellen Page as a roller derby girl in Whip It.
Tonight marks Eve’s return to the small screen with a guest role on Fox’s hit high school musical dramedy “Glee.” On the show, Eve plays Grace Hitchens a rival glee club coach at a reform school for girls. Eve, who’s currently on a club tour in Dubai, answered questions from the press about the success of “Glee” and her role on the show. The “Glee” episode “Hairography” airs tonight at 9 p.m. on Fox.
Tell us about your character on the show and how she fits into Sue’s plan to destroy the glee club.
Well, in this episode you actually see her as an administrator and she definitely gets approached about getting rid of the glee club at the school but you basically see her being a teacher and administrator for these reform school girls. You see her take the girls to the school and see them do this “Bootylicious” number, which kinda blows the competition away. It’s a real funny episode.
What songs, if any, will you personally be singing in this episode?
I won’t be singing at all actually. I don’t sing. Which is fun. It was really fun to just sit back and watch other people sing. I was kinda like the choir director that was pretty cool.
RED CLIFF: Fengyi Zhang as Napoleonic Prime Minister Cao Cao
The Chinese war epic Red Cliff loses something in the translation. Specifically, it loses about half of its running time. In its native China and other countries, Red Cliff comprises two sprawling parts totaling well over four hours, but the American edit clocks in at 148 minutes. The compression particularly punishes Red Cliff’s first half hour, a baffling series of introductions and combat scenes, scarcely clarified by English-language narration and titles identifying rival generals.
The Red Cliff viewing experience resembles seeing one of the latter Lord of the Rings movies without having seen the first one. But since Lord of the Rings was awesome, that’s not such a bad thing. Red Cliff marks an explosive comeback for director John Woo, who crafted deliriously operatic Hong Kong shoot-’em-ups before going Hollywood in the 1990s. After peaking with Face/Off, Woo shot a lot of celluloid blanks, but Red Cliff celebrates the return of the king.
WILD THINGS: Wes Anderson gives woodland beasts human hearts.
The title mammal of Fantastic Mr. Fox often punctuates his remarks with a jaunty little whistle-click-click combination, to emphasize his devil-may-care attitude. When his opossum sidekick asks about the habit, Mr. Fox replies, “That’s my trademark!” For a footloose rascal and self-described “wild animal,” Mr. Fox seems suspiciously image-conscious, as if he’s trying to live up to an ideal of himself.
The films of Wes Anderson, director of Fantastic Mr. Fox, contain more bells, whistles and trademarks than you could count on one paw. With his reasonably naturalistic debut, Bottle Rocket, Anderson established his fondness for deadpan comedy and the transcendent power of obscure 1960s and ’70s pop songs. Since then, his childhood-obsessed cinematic settings have become increasingly artificial, at once lovely and fussed-over, like intricate models or shop windows. Rather than break out of Andersonville and into the real world, the filmmaker burrows further into the fantasy realm with Fantastic Mr. Fox. Ironically, Anderson’s latest turns out to be his most heartfelt, human movie since Rushmore, despite its cast of woodland beasts.
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MAN: Viggo Mortensen stars in John Hillcoat's The Road.
The end of the world is no fun at all in The Road. The bedraggled survivors of an unidentified cataclysm possess no mohawks, leather outfits or supersonic dune buggies. A nameless father and son (Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee, respectively) spend their days struggling to find food in post-apocalyptic America, and have no time for kingly wish-fulfillment fantasies like, say, playing golf with Faberge eggs.
The Proposition’s John Hillcoat directs and co-writes a scrupulouslyfaithful adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s book, possibly the most downbeat and unlikely Oprah novel ever chosen by the daytime demigoddess. As the Coen brothers demonstrated with their adaptation of McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men, the author’s spare prose can translate to eloquently straightforward movie dialogue. “One for you, one for me,” the father tells his son in reference to the two remaining bullets in his revolver, while resisting the urge to take the easy way out. The Road’s picaresque episodes dramatize the father’s attempts to keep his son alive in the bleakest possible surroundings without succumbing to savagery.
Is anyone else salivating at the chance to see Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans? The improbable pairing of German auteur Werner Herzog and financially troubled space cadet Nicolas Cage is causing critics to spew all sorts of qualified, conflicted, and adoring statements. Christian Science Monitor is calling the Herzog-Cage pairing a “match made in looney-tunes heaven” and The Washington Post is calling the film a “freaky-deaky home run.” Yeah, whatever that means.
Salon.com is totally owning the ambivalence. Thursday’s review called the movie “so bad it’s good.” In an interview published the next day, Herzog claims, among other things, that he hasn’t seen Taxi Driver, doesn’t remember Chinatown, and never got around to watching the 1992 movie that Port of Call New Orleans remakes. Amazing. The post-Katrina, coke-addict cop drama doesn’t open in Atlanta until December 11.
THE HORSE BOY: Rupert Isaacson (from left), Rowan and Ghoste in Mongolia
Medical narratives often depict ordinary people who turn to alternative healing methods when traditional Western health care fails. Seldom can you find families that go to the lengths of Rupert Isaacson and Kristen Neff, who traveled from Austin, Texas, to the steppes of Mongolia with the hopes of improving their son Rowan’s autistic condition.
Narrating the documentary The Horse Boy, Isaacson justifies the trip early in the film. At his worst, 5-year-old Rowan’s cognitive problems make him the equivalent of “a giant 18-month-old” with poor social skills, incomplete toilet training, and seemingly endless, inexplicable tantrums. Isaacson’s research into shamanism and Rowan’s affinity for animals, especially horses, inspire the father to see if the two in combination could have therapeutic value. He discovers that Mongolia combines shamanic traditions with horsemanship, so he, Neff and Rowan embark on a journey a world away.
THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON: Thrill-seeking Bella (Kristen Stewart) receives warmth and support from Jacob (Taylor Lautner) after a failed cliff-jumping encounter.
GENRE: Supernatural teenage drama
THE PITCH: To prevent a frenzy for Bella’s (Kristen Stewart) blood, the Cullens, including her soulmate Edward (Robert Pattinson), cut all ties and leave Forks, Wash. Devastated Bella eventually turns to longtime friend Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) to mend her broken heart, unintentionally stoking Jacob’s fiery passion for her and uncovering his true nature. Unable to forget her first love, Bella sets off a reckless chain of events that ultimately sends her on a mission to save a lovelorn Edward.
MONEY SHOTS: Jacob’s lycanthropic nature is revealed when he morphs into his wolven form to protect Bella from an attack by friend and packmate Paul (Alex Meraz). A savage, snarly, teeth-gnarling fight ensues between the two werewolves.
BEST LINES: Almost anything from classmate Jessica (Anna Kendrick) when talking to dazed Bella during a girl’s night out. As Jessica compares zombies to lepers, she notes, “My cousin had leprosy, so it’s not funny.” Best friend Alice Cullen (Ashley Greene) declares, “I have never known anyone more prone to life-threatening idiocy” when she comes to check up on Bella after a tragic prophetic vision.
SPORTS AUTHORITY: Leigh Anne Touhy (Sandra Bullock, right) coaches Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron)
The prologue to the warm-n-fuzzy sports story The Blind Side plays so well, it’s like seeing a team return an opening kickoff to score a touchdown. A Southern-accented Sandra Bullock narrates an insider’s perspective on the five fateful seconds that cost the Washington Redskins’ Joe Theismann his career. Michael Lewis’ book The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game provides the film with tasty tidbits about football machinations on and off the field, but director John Lee Hancock fumbles the rags-to-riches story of Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron).
The film’s early scenes find mountainous Michael adrift in the impoverished corners of Memphis with a crack-addicted mother and no real home. When a Christian school bends the rules to enroll him, Michael attracts the notice of Leigh Anne Touhy (Sandra Bullock), the take-charge socialite wife of a fast-food mogul (Tim McGraw). Leigh Anne whisks Michael to the family McMansion and offers him clothes, a Thanksgiving invitation, and even a strategy for success on the gridiron.
THE MESSENGERS: Captain Tony Stone (Woody Harrelson, from left) and Staff Sergeant Will Montgomery (Ben Foster) deliver the news.
Staff Sergeant Will Montgomery (Ben Foster) receives new orders in the first scenes of The Messenger. Will endured injuries to his eye and leg in an Iraqi firefight, and has the wounds and decorations to prove it, but his latest assignment will leave its own kind of scars.
Will finds that becoming part of the U.S. Army’s casualty notification team is the toughest job he’ll ever loathe. Will joins the soldiers tasked to regretfully inform the closest relatives of their loved ones’ deaths during military service. Many movies feature iconic scenes of formally dressed officials bearing ill tidings on the front stoops of heartland homes. Director/co-writer Oren Moverman finds a rich, original premise by presenting the perspective of these “angels of death,” and critiques war in general without taking sides over current military conflicts. At times, however, The Messenger proves derelict in its duties as a screen narrative.
Casting calls are out for extras for Stomp The Yard 2: Homecoming. While 10-12 hour days are expected, curiously no pay is offered. Although lunch is being served and prizes will be raffled off, for what it’s worth.
Attire: NO RED, NO WHITE, NO LOGOS. Clothing with purple and yellow in it are highly encouraged on this day. Also come camera ready (ladies, hair and make-up ready, fellows looking your best) as you will be on camera.
No children under the ages of 10 years old will be allowed on set.
The shoot is at Center Stage on Sunday, followed by shoots at Morris Brown and the nightclub Opera on various days over the next couple of weeks.
The Plaza Theatre joins with ASIFA-Atlanta to present Mary and Max,the Claymation comedy of mismatched pen pals. Director Adam Elliott, who won the Oscar for Best Animated Short for “Harvie Krumpet” (narrated by Geoffrey Rush) explores the 18-year friendship between a lonely Australian girl (Toni Collette) and an obese New Yorker with Asperger’s Syndrome (Phillip Seymour Hoffman). The opening film of the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, Mary and Max screens at 8 p.m. Monday, Nov. 16.
Its been five years since Eve released an album, but that doesn’t mean she hasn’t been busy. The multi-talented rapper and actress has cameoed on several chart-topping songs, flexed her acting chops in a few films and had a successful television series “Eve,” which ran for three seasons on UPN. Earlier this year, Eve appeared along side 
