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Sweded
Jack Black (Margot at the Wedding, High Fidelity) and Mos Def (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Woodsman) remake Hollywood's biggest pictures with no budget in Michel Gondry's (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Science of Sleep) Be Kind, Rewind. When Danny Glover (The Royal Tenenbaums, Bat*21) goes on a business trip to find out how to keep his video store afloat, he leaves Def in charge. When his best friend (Black) accidentally erases every tape in the store, the two friends can only think of one way to keep putting videos in customers' hands-- make the movies themselves. With no budget and a few innovative ideas for special effects, the new versions become wildly popular... and illegal enough to undo everything set out to do.
Romancing the Gold
Andy Tennant (Hitch, Sweet Home Alabama) reunites the How to Loose a Guy in 10 Days stars Matthew McConaughey (Sahara, The Wedding Planner) and Kate Hudson (Raising Helen, Almost Famous). The estranged couple rekindles their romance as they search for treasure by the Florida keys, and fires up high adventure while treasure hunting in Fool's Gold.
Comedies
Colin Hanks (Untraceable, King Kong) plays a FBI agent with a problem in My Mother's New Boyfriend-- his mother (Meg Ryan: When Harry Met Sally, Kate & Leopold) has begun dating the prime suspect in a rash of burglaries (Antonio Banderas: Desperado, Take the Lead). In this action/comedy, Hanks has to put his mother under surveillance... and witness more of his mother's life than any son should.
Ryan Reynolds (Van Wilder, Smokin Aces) plays an efficiency expert in Chaos Theory who plans and times everything immaculately. One day, he's 10 minutes late... which sparks a chain reaction that causes his perfectly planned life to unravel completely, and chaos turns out to be a lot more fun than he'd expected.
Martin Lawrence's (Wild Hogs, National Security) new comedy is Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins, where the comedian plays a TV show host who travels back home to visit his family in the deep south. James Earl Jones (Cry the Beloved Country, The Sandlot) plays Lawrence's father in this fish-out-of-water comedy, as the big city celebrity clashes with his small town family.
Brittany Murphy (Uptown Girls, 8 Mile) plays an upscale matchmaker who works at a popular fashion magazine in Love & Other Disasters, a feel-good romantic comedy that follows her success with the love lives of others and failure of her own. When she meets the guy who could be Mr. Right, she might be able to do for herself what she does for others: make a match.
The independent Forgiving the Franklins is a comedy about the perfect American family who, after a car accident, coma, and reawakening into a life without shame. The rest of the community doesn't quite know how to handle the Franklins' new attitudes, who get wilder and wilder as they embrace their new no-rules lifestyles.
Docs, Subtitles, and Dramas
A pair of documentaries are new this week. The Man Who Souled the World is a documentary about Steve Rocco, who started a grassroots skateboard company that overtook the industry, discovered Jason Lee, and gave Spike Jonze his first directing gig. Super High Me is a documentary that puts the marijuana-spin on Super Size Me, keeping comedian Doug Benson smoking for 30 days straight as he takes IQ tests and physicals to measure the drug's effects.
Caramel is a Lebanese comedy about the relationships between five women who meet and talk at a Beirut beauty salon, and discover each others lives, loves, and different stories. Under the Same Moon is a charming film about the relationship between a mother and son, as she tries to forge a brighter future in America, and he sets out on an adventure to find her.
Rails & Ties is our new drama this week, starring Kevin Bacon (Where the Truth Lies, Hollow Man) as a train engineer who befriends a boy orphaned after his mother commits suicide on the tracks. Their new friendship helps Bacon redefine his life and embrace his wife (Marcia Gay Harden: The Hoax, Mona Lisa Smile).
The TV New Releases this week include the 1st season of the Showtime comedy Californication, starring David Duchnovy as a down on his luck writer in Los Angeles, as well as the first season of The Unit, a David Mamet created show based on the Delta Force counterterrorism unit. We have the first installment of the British Sharpe series starring Sean Bean, Sharpe's Rifles, and the second season of the apocalyptic Jericho.