Sypnosis

Frank Martin has been pressured into transporting Valentina, the kidnapped daughter of Leonid Vasilev, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency for the Ukraine, from Marseilles through Stuttgart and Budapest until he ends up in Odessa on the Black Sea. Along the way, with the help of Inspector Tarconi, Frank has to contend with the people who strong armed him to take the job, agents sent by Vasilev to intercept him, and the general non-cooperation of his passenger. Despite Valentina’s cynical disposition and his resistance to get involved, Frank and Valentina fall for each other, while escaping from one life-threatening situation after another.

Reviews

From the sound of it, they seem like they’ll put together another one a few years down the road. It’ll be some time as they each pursue other projects first, but it’s looking like a possibility. Honestly, the Transporter series seems like something they can easily throw together, almost like a straight-to-DVD type movie. The first Transporter was in 2002, the second one in 2005, maybe a third in 2008 or 2009. In addition, the director of the first two, Louis Leterrier, is directing the new Hulk “sequel” titled The Incredible Hulk, slated for released in 2008.

Here’s what we learned from the first trailer for “The Transporter 3?: Jason Statham is back, and yes, he does find a reason to take off his shirt to show us his rippling muscles, you’re welcome, ladies; a cute little freckled redhead who may or may not be French or European is involved; and someone slaps a bracelet doohickey on our man Frank Martin that he desperately wants to get rid of. Now here’s the second trailer for “Transporter 3?, in which we learn: that bracelet doohickey is set off to explode if Frank wanders more than 75 feet from his car ala “Speed”; the girl who may or may not be French is Frank’s latest package, to be delivered for bad guy Robert Knepper (aka T-Bag from Prison Break); and finally, Jason Statham once again finds a reason to take off his shirt for the ladies.

Jason Statham returns in his signature role as fearless ex-mercenary Frank Martin (aka The Transporter), a specialist in moving precious cargo of all kinds with a cool style and attitude. I liked the previous Transporter films and this one is the best out of all of them not mainly because of the action but because this one had a better story-line than the first two. The story is about Frank Martin has been pressured into transporting Valentina (by using a device which prevents him from moving 75 feet from his car or the bomb explodes) the kidnapped daughter of Leonid Vasilev the head of the Environmental Protection Agency for Ukraine, from Marseilles through Stuttgart and Budapest until he ends up in Odessa on the Black Sea.

Along the way, with the help of Inspector Tarconi, Frank has to contend with the people who strong armed him to take the job, agents sent by Vasilev to intercept him, and the general non-cooperation of his passenger. Despite Valentina’s cynical disposition and Frank’s resistance to get involved, Frank and Valentina fall for each other, while escaping from one life-threatening situation after another. Statham again drives an armoured Audi S8 in the film.

MPAA RATING: Not Rated
Starring Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, Beau Bridges, Chris “Ludacris” Bridges, and Olga Kurylenko
Genre(S):       Action  |  Crime  |  Drama  |  Suspense/Thriller
Written By:     Beau Thorne, Sam Lake (video game by Remedy Entertainment and 3-D Realms Entertainment)
Directed By:     John Moore
Release Date:     Theatrical: October 17, 2008
Running Time:     99 minutes, Color
Origin:     USA
Language(S):     Spanish | English

Synopsis

Rockstar Games’ double-gunned action franchise comes to the big screen thanks to director John Moore (The Omen) and Mark Wahlberg, who embodies the title character of Max Payne, a widowed cop hell-bent on delivering justice no matter what the cost as he investigates a string of killings in his city. Mila Kunis and Chris O’Donnell head up the supporting cast, with Beau Thorne adapting the screenplay for the 20th Century Fox production. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide

Reviews

While Max Payne definitely culls several plot elements and characters from the videogame, gamers will no doubt be disappointed at how humdrum the film’s action scenes are when compared to the game. There are no memorable kills here, save for the one that actually happens off-screen near the end of Act One. The gunfights — the few there are — offer nothing we haven’t seen in other action flicks, especially those that inspired the game. For a movie about a guy named Payne, this film could have used a lot more pain to help rouse it to life. As it is, Max Payne simply lies there on-screen, drab and lifeless.

Look I don’t care if Marky Mark is Max Payne; not even Uwe Boll can screw this up (thankfully they didn’t give him a chance). All I can say is if that motherfucker doesn’t pop down several bottles of pain killers before slow motion diving into a room and blasting up some fat mafioso sons of bitches I am going to be pissed out of My Mind.

Release Date: July 25th, 2008 (Limited)
Director: Nanette Burstein
Writer: Nanette Burstein
Starring: Hannah Bailey, Colin Clemens, Megan Krizmanich, Mitch Reinholt, Jake Tusing
Studio: Paramount Vantage
Genre: Documentary, Drama
Official Site: americanteenthemovie.com
Reting: PG-13 for for some strong language, sexual material, some drinking and brief smoking–all involving teens
Runtime: 101 minutes

Sypnosis

“American Teen” is the touching and hilarious Sundance hit that follows the lives of five teenagers - a jock, a popular girl, a heartthrob, an artsy girl and a geek – in one small town in Indiana through their senior year of high school. We see the insecurities, the cliques, the jealousies, the first loves and heartbreaks, and the struggle to make profound decisions about the future. Filming daily for ten months, filmmaker Nanette Burstein (”On the Ropes,” “The Kid Stays in the Picture”) developed a deep understanding of her subjects. The result is a film that goes beyond the enduring stereotypes of high school to render complex young people trying to find their way into adulthood. Hannah Bailey is smart and beautiful, but a misfit in her high school. She is a liberal, atheist living in a traditional, Christian, conservative town and dreams of moving to California after graduation. Colin Clemens is the star of the high school basketball team - and in Indiana, basketball is everything. Colin is under enormous pressure this year playing not only to make his town, his school, and his father proud, but for a college scholarship.

Reviews

The newest project by filmmaker Nanette Burstein, American Teen is a documentary that chronicles the lives of five different teens during their senior year of high school in small-town Warsaw, Indiana. In the film’s publicity materials and the beginning of the movie itself, each teen is easily stamped with a label—the Princess, the Jock, the Geek, the Heartthrob, and the Rebel—that claims to define each of their roles in the story that is their life. But like the similarly diverse group of teens in the beloved fictional high school classic The Breakfast Club, the young adults of American Teen remind us that no one label can define who any of us are, and that who we are and the lives we lead will always be more complex than meets the eye.

The heartthrob and the popular girl, the jock and the artsy chick, the geek and the agony of neon-bright zits on prom night: These archetypal heroes and their tragicomic challenges have enthralled audiences since young deities misbehaved on Mount Olympus. For many (although not, FYI, me), the sagas climaxed when the detention-room kids in that holy 1980s cinema text The Breakfast Club wrote a group manifesto declaring, ”You see us as you want to see us…in the simplest terms with the most convenient definitions.”

Producer: Douglas Rae, Robert Bernstein, Kevin Loader
Director: Julian Jarrold
Music: Adrian Johnston
Writer: Jeremy Brock, Andrew Davies
Release Date: 25-Jul-2008
Cast: Matthew Goode, Ben Whishaw, Hayley Atwell, Emma Thompson, Michael Gambon
Genre: Drama

Synopsis

A provocative and suspenseful drama, “Brideshead Revisited” tells an evocative story of forbidden love and the loss of innocence set in the pre-WWII era. In the film, Charles Ryder (Matthew Goode, “Match Point,” “The Lookout”) becomes entranced with the noble Marchmain family, first through the charming and provocative Sebastian Flyte(Ben Whishaw, “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer”), and then his sophisticated sister, Julia (Hayley Atwell, “Cassandra’s Dream” and the upcoming “The Duchess”). The rise and fall of Charles’ infatuations reflect the decline of a decadent era in England between the wars. Academy Award-winner Emma Thompson co-stars as Lady Marchmain. The film, based on Evelyn Waugh’s acclaimed novel is adapted for the seen by multiple BAFTA Award-winner Andrew Davies (”Bridget Jones Diary,” “Bleak House”) and Jeremy Brock (”The Last King of Scotland”) and directed by Julian Jarrold (”Becoming Jane”).

Reviews

“Brideshead Revisited,” Julian Jarrold’s strenuously picturesque adaptation of the novel by Evelyn Waugh, conducts a whirlwind tour of the quadrangles of Oxford and the canals of Venice, always returning to the grand country house of the title, impersonated with lapidary dignity by Castle Howard.

A provocative and suspenseful drama, “Brideshead Revisited” tells an evocative story of forbidden love and the loss of innocence set in the pre-WWII era. In the film, Charles Ryder (Matthew Goode, “Match Point,” “The Lookout”) becomes entranced with the noble Marchmain family, first through the charming and provocative Sebastian Flyte(Ben Whishaw, “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer”), and then his sophisticated sister, Julia (Hayley Atwell, “Cassandra’s Dream” and the upcoming “The Duchess”). The rise and fall of Charles’ infatuations reflect the decline of a decadent era in England between the wars. Academy Award-winner Emma Thompson co-stars as Lady Marchmain.

Look at the final scenes of Brideshead Revisited as representations of the imprisonment that religion imposes on people if you want. But after seeing the pain the Flyte family endures for much of the movie in comparison to the freedom they seem to find in those moments where their lives and God’s grace seem to intersect, I would challenge you to consider another possibility. And that is that the imprisonment of guilt is actually not a product of religion, but of humanity.

Plot Summary

Grace is a Chinese American who longs to be a part of New York’s high society. At a socialite event, she is mistaken for a Hong Kong heiress and meets her Prince Charming. Nothing is as it seems absorbing drama. What will happen to this Cinderella when the clock strikes midnight?

Sypnosis

Grace Tang is an ambitious Wall Street banker determined to work her way up the ladder of life and out of working-class Chinatown. Mistaken at an opera soiree as the heiress of a famous Hong Kong fashion dynasty, Grace is suddenly swept into the inner circle of Manhattan’s elite and ushered into the arms of New York’s most eligible bachelor. What follows is a whirlwind of romance and white lies, as Grace carefully negotiates her personal ties to Chinatown and the politics of Wall Street and high society.

Reviews

If, in the November gloom, you’re hankering for a romantic-comedy-drama–particularly one set in Manhattan, the city seemingly built to showcase the genre–director-cowriter Fay Ann Lee has fashioned a sweet, if simple, Cinderella story in Falling for Grace. This time, Cinderella is a Chinese-American Wall Street investment banker who has grown up in New York’s Chinatown with parents who don’t speak English. Prince Charming is a white-boy lawyer and only son in an upper-crusty Upper East Side family. Instead of that lost slipper, there’s a mix-up involving a dress from a Fifth Avenue boutique.

A very sweet and original romantic comedy, “Falling for Grace” is the next “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” (sans all the cheesiness.) Grace Tang (Fay Ann Lee) is a Chinese American who longs to be a part of New York’s high society. As a young girl she is teased for being nerdy and out of place. Luckily enough, she finds herself at a socialite event where she is mistaken for a Hong Kong heiress also named Grace Tang in front of a bunch of women that I would only describe as the adult plastics from “Mean Girls.” As she is mistaken for this woman, she meets her Prince Charming (Gale Harold)- only problem is that he is marrying one of the plastic girls. Will Grace manage to win him over? Hopefully “Falling for Grace” finds a distributor as I found it to be a purely wonderful film. It’s charming, sweet and has numerous laugh out loud moments.

Genre(S):       Comedy  |  Drama
Written By:     Achim Bornhak Dagmar Benke
Directed  By:     Achim Bornhak
Release Date:     July 25, 2008
Cast: Natalia Avelon, David Scheller, Matthias Schweighöfer, Friederike Kempter, Alexander Scheer
Producer:      Dietmar Güntsche
Runnimg Time:     114 minutes, Color
Origin:     Germany
Languagea(S):     German | English | Italian

Synopsis

Exuding the sexy poutiness of a Teutonic Bridget Bardot gone wild and the underground glamor and bad-girl attitude of Kate Moss, with just a dash of Jane Fonda’s chic revolutionary zeal, Uschi Obermaier not only shook conservative German society but also the anti-establishment and…  Exuding the sexy poutiness of a Teutonic Bridget Bardot gone wild and the underground glamor and bad-girl attitude of Kate Moss, with just a dash of Jane Fonda’s chic revolutionary zeal, Uschi Obermaier not only shook conservative German society but also the anti-establishment and feminist movements she became part of. The hippie nymph and successful model never let business get in the way of pleasure, flaunting her romances with the likes of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Jimi Hendrix.

Obermaier was a teenage runaway from a small village who, after achieving early notoriety as a nude cover model for Stern (one of Germany’s leading magazines), became the it-girl of the Munich club scene. She soon joined Germany’s legendary and much-romanticized Kommune 1, famous for its strident anti-bourgeoisie way of life. This touch of radical chic worked wonders for her profile: Obermaier and boyfriend Rainer Langhans, leader of the commune, became the pin-up couple of the revolutionary left; Germany’s own John and Yoko.

Reviews

Achim Bornhak’s “Eight Miles High” is a shallow account of Obermaier’s drug- and booze-fueled early life. It follows Obermaier from the Munich suburb where she grew up (her mom calls her a “cheap little tart” and her dad says she “looks like a slut”) to her globe-trotting adventures (including a miscarriage) with German playboy Dieter Bockhorn.

The mythologizing of the ’60s gets a lusty, Germanic twist in “Eight Miles High,” a full-bodied take on the life of the world-class sex kitten Uschi Obermaier (Natalia Avelon). Directed by Achim Bornhak from a screenplay written with Olaf Kraemer, the movie follows, with refreshing lack of judgment and titillating brio, the überbohemian peregrinations of a wild child born to a drab Munich household but destined for flamboyant London orgies and spectacular third-world slumming.

If they gave out an Academy Award for Most Nudity, Natalia Avelon would win one for her almost always naked portrayal of Uschi Obermaier. And who exactly, you ask, was Uschi Obermaier? Only Germany’s most celebrated groupie in the Sixties, thank you very much. A gal famous for sleeping with such rock icons as Jimi Hendrix and The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

Release Date:      July 18th, 2008
Director:              Brad Anderson
Writer:                 Brad Anderson, Will Conroy
Starring:              Woody Harrelson, Ben Kingsley, Emily Mortimer, Kate Mara, Thomas Kretschmann, Eduardo Noriega
Studio:                 Filmax Animation
Genre:                  Crime, Drama, Thriller
Rating:                 R for for some violence, including torture and language
Runtime:             111 minutes

Synopsis

An American couple, Roy (Woody Harrelson) and Jessie (Emily Mortimer), decide to take the long way home from their recent sojourn in Asia on the legendary Trans-siberian Express train from Beijing to Moscow. On their way, they meet another couple from the West, Carlos (Eduardo Noriega) and Abby (Kate Mara), with whom they quickly form a familiar bond that often unites fellow travellers away from home. When Roy accidentally gets separated from the group at a stopover, Jessie begins to realize that their compatriots aren’t exactly who or what they seem to be. The real danger begins to surface as a deceitful Russian detective (Sir Ben Kingsley) and locals terrorize Jessie in this unforgettable journey.

Review

Overheated and muddled, Brad Anderson’s film is a crafty train trip across Russia that goes horribly wrong, with Woody Harrelson and Emily Mortimer diving into torture horror in the final act. Harrelson seems to skate over the icy surface of the film, while Mortimer comes across as far too sweet for her character’s naughty backstory.

“Transsiberian” is a handsomely remodeled variation of a cherished genre you might call the mystery-train movie. Updated by the director Brad Anderson (“The Machinist”), who wrote the screenplay with Will Conroy, it skillfully manipulates familiar tropes: innocents abroad, ominous glowering foreigners, conspiracy and duplicity, erotic intrigue. Until it fizzles in an anticlimactic train crash, it is extremely entertaining.

Production Status:     In Production/Awaiting Release
Genres:                      Action/Adventure and Animation
Release Date:             July 18th, 2008 (wide)
MPAA Rating:             G
Distributors:              20th Century Fox Distribution
Production Co.:          Starz Media, Vanguard Animation
Produced in:               United States

Synopsis

Space Chimps is an intergalactic comedy that highlights the antics of astronaut chimps with the “wrong stuff.” Ham III (Samberg), the slacker grandson of the first chimp blasted into space before manned spaceflight, joins two other astronaut chimps for a dangerous mission through a black…  Space Chimps is an intergalactic comedy that highlights the antics of astronaut chimps with the “wrong stuff.” Ham III (Samberg), the slacker grandson of the first chimp blasted into space before manned spaceflight, joins two other astronaut chimps for a dangerous mission through a black hole to an inhabited planet. When they’re stranded there, the chimps must help the inhabitants rid themselves of a tyrannical leader, and then figure out how to get back to Earth.

Reviews

There are many concepts that work wonderfully in theory: communism, nuclear energy, monkeys in outer space. Sadly, just like their theoretical counterparts, very few successful practical examples exist. With a title like Space Chimps, one assumes a genial farce in which accident prone apes — opposable thumbs and all — cause chaos within a high tech setting. Instead, Quest for Camelot scribe Kirk De Micco (here co-writing and directing) decides to go the big screen blockbuster route. We want simian hijinks.

Answering the call of duty for a truly pet project where humans don’t care to tread, three high IQ hairy primates take the controls of an apparently un-manned rocket, in Kirk De Micco’s intergalactic animated adventure, Space Chimps. It’s a pleasant enough visual treat for the small fry in the audience, in a summer packed with high anxiety blockbusters just not suited to their more tender tastes.

Starring: Lucas Akoskin, Mevlut Akkaya, Tim Bauman, Brian Blessinger, Peter Bogdanovich
Director: Wayne Price
Studio: Gigantic Pictures
Writers: Lucas Akoskin (writer)
Wayne Price (writer)
Genre: Comedy
Rating: Not Rated (Strong language, drug use, adult situations)
Theater Count (Opening Weekend): 1
Running Time: 92 minutes

Synopsis:

Filmmaker Wayne Price offers an humorous glimpse into the glamorous New York City nightclub scene with this profile of the man who determines just how the rest of your night will ultimately unfold. When a documentary crew sets out to explore the ultra-hip Gotham nightclub scene, they determine that the best guide to have is the man who separates the wannabes from the glamorous elite. Though at first Trevor seems like the perfect guide to the hottest spots in New York and Miami, the filmmakers gradually become savvy to the fact that this self-centered doorman has in fact lost his job and, as a result, his sense of identity. Subsequently prompted to embark on a soul-searching quest to find out who he really is, Trevor confides his deepest, most profound secrets to the film crew in a series of revelations that are sure to send red-rope rejects into fits of laughter. - Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide

Reviews

A Latino doorman is seduced and then coolly discarded by a well-to-do college student who lives in the New York apartment building where he works, only to find his life slowly unraveling as a result of the tryst in director Etienne Kallos’ entry into the 2006 Sundance Film Festival short film program. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Director Wayne Price’s docu-style comedy follows a hilariously bitchy Manhattan doorman (Lucas Akoskin) who agrees to be tailed by the cameras, only to find them capturing his subsequent fall from grace and descent into obscurity. With cameos by Amy Sacco, Peter Bogdanovich, Patrick McMullan, and many others, it’s almost a roaring Ali G–style success—though the fun peters out as his self-confidence dwindles.—Sara Cardace

Produced and directed by Johnnie To and Wai Ka Fai; written (in Cantonese, with English subtitles) by Wai Ka Fai and Au Kin Yee; director of photography, Cheng Siu Keung; music by Xavier Jamaux; released by IFC Films. At the IFC Center, 323 Avenue of the Americas, at Third Street, Greenwich Village. Running time: 1 hour 29 minutes. This film is not rated.

Producer: Wai Ka-fai, Johnnie To
Release Date: Jul 18, 2008
Running Time: 1:29
Genre: Crime Drama
Director: Johnnie To, Wai Ka-Fai
Cast:
Lau Ching Wan Inspector Bun
Andy On Ho Ka-on
Lam Ka-tung Ko Chi-Wai
Kelly Lin May
Lee Kwok Lun Wong Kwok Chu
Karen Lee Gigi
Flora Chan Ko’s Inner Personality
Eddy Ko The Chief
Lam Suet Ko’s Inner Personality
Writers: Wai Ka-Fai, Au Kin Yee
Producers: Johnnie To, Wai Ka-Fai

Sypnosis

A psychotic ex-policeman with a mysterious supernatural gift proves invaluable in the case of a missing police firearm and its vanished owner in this tense police thriller from co-directors Johnny To (Fulltime Killer) and Wai Ka-fai (Running on Karma). Bun is an outcast detective who always seems to crack the case despite having some rather serious personality flaws. When Bun slices off his ear and offers it up as a gift at a party staged to honor one of his superiors, he is promptly forced into early retirement. Subsequently withdrawn into his own world and tormented by the specters of his former vocation, Bun finds his unique ability to see the hidden personalities and inner demons of everyone he meets nearly driving him to insanity.

Reviews

Judging from the trailer, I am not sure who’s crazier the mad detective or the serial killer. How many personalities did the guy have, seven? This was a pretty weird trailer but I am definitely going to have to acquire a copy from friends overseas if it doesn’t have an American Release. I love Asian Cinema as all of you well know.

The film opens to a prologue involving rookie Ho (On) arriving for a new assignment and finding Bun “immersed in the investigation” - stabbing a pig carcass. Bun then orders Ho to zip him up in a large suitcase, and throw him down several flights of stairs. Bun gets the perps, so his techniques seem to work. However, his craziness isn’t always so productive - when he slices off part of his ear at the chief’s leaving do, it results in his expulsion.