Shaken or Stirred?
If you hear a familiar trumpet theme hanging in the air, it's probably announcing the new James Bond movie-- Casino Royale, which has inarguably revitalized the series (and could possibly be its best entry) brings in Daniel Craig and puts 007 in a starker, more contemporary world free of gadgets and more wary of consequences. On DVD and Blu Ray. Now with Rifftrax!
Though the new drama Harsh Times (featuring Christian Bale, from Batman and The Illusionist) is the tale of an ex-Army Ranger who slips back into his previous life of crime, the rest of this week's big movies tend to shy away from action. The buzzworthy indie film by John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch frankly explores voyeurism, and for the romantic comedy fans, The Holiday is the biggest release in months, with Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz, and Jude Law.
Post DaVinci Code, God seems to be cropping up in pictures a lot lately, with the documentary inquest God Who Wasn't There, the Billy Connolly comedy The Man Who Sued God, and A Little Trip to Heaven... a little off topic (it's a thriller with this year's best actor Forest Whitaker (Last King of Scotland) and Julia Stiles (Save the Last Dance)). We have comedies to lighten up the mix, too, as the backstory Dukes of Hazzard: the Beginning opens in unrated form, we get the story of Amanda Bynes shipwrecked with her rockstar crush in Lovewrecked, and Ben Affleck and Rebecca Romijn get a little Jerry McGuire in Man About Town. Barbie: Magic of the Rainbow and Eloise Goes to Hollywood are new this week for the kids.
Also, we have a lot of smaller movies on the wall including The Beckoning, is a thriller about a girl uncovering her past, the offbeat road movie Highway 61, the Open Water style Prey where a family is stalked by lions in Africa, the dystopian apocalyptic thriller Mad Dogs, Paper Dolls: a documentary concerning Filipinos in Isreal, and the Spanish caper picture Perfect Crime.