In a last minute tizzy to meet Academy Award deadlines and end-of-the-year profit margins, the Hollywood studios are about to release their most anticipated films of the year. Here is a sample of what will be found in a theater near you over the next two weeks.
Not Another Teen Movie
Directed by Joel Gallen; starring Chris Evans, Chyler Leigh, Mia Kirshner, Jaime Pressly and Cody McMains
Columbia Pictures
Release Date: December 14
In an unabashed attempt to spoof the recent flurry of teen flicks like American Pie, Can’t Hardly Wait and She’s All That, not to mention Clueless and 10 Things I Hate About You, and American Pie 2, and Varsity Blues, and I Know What You Did Last Summer, the MTV Movie Awards director Joel Gallen has come up with Not Another Teen Movie. According to Columbia Pictures literature, Not Another Teen Movie “shows no mercy as it skewers the conventions and cliches of the genre you hate to love.”
Chyler Leigh stars as Janey Briggs, an aspiring artist who is considered an outcast by her classmates because she wears glasses, a ponytail and paint-covered overalls. Borrowing a page from the classic teen movie formula, Jake Wyler (Chris Evans), the all-American football star, makes a bet to turn Janey into a prom queen.
We can only imagine the fun that will invariably ensue when Briggs becomes a bombshell overnight.
The Royal Tenenbaums
Written by Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson; directed by Wes Anderson; starring Gene Hackman, Danny Glover, Anjelica Huston, Bill Murray and Gwyneth Paltrow
Touchstone Pictures
Release Date: December 14
Bottle Rocket and Rushmore co-creators Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson are at it again. This time their project is the highly anticipated movie (at least according to me), The Royal Tenenbaums.
The movie tells the story of an unexpected family reunion. Gene Hackman stars as Royal Tenenbaum, the family patriarch. Angelica Houston plays Ethaline, Royal’s ex-wife. Together, they have three children, Chas (Ben Stiller), Richie (Luke Wilson) and Margot (Gwyneth Paltrow), all of whom were once considered geniuses. Unfortunately, after two decades of betrayal, failure and disaster, all memory of their brilliance has been expunged. As with so many families, this is considered to be their father’s fault.
Needless to say, the movie promises to make your dysfunctional family seem surprisingly sound.
Vanilla Sky
Directed by Cameron Crowe; starring Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Jason Lee and Kurt Russell
Paramount Pictures
Release Date: December 14
In a role that undoubtedly stretched his dramatic muscles, Tom Cruise stars as David Aames, a young, handsome, wealthy and charismatic New York City publishing executive. His picture perfect life, however, seems to be missing that certain je ne sais quoi … until he meets Sofia (Penelope Cruz). Unfortunately, before the couple can coalesce, David unwittingly hops aboard a roller coaster ride of romance, comedy, suspicion, love, sex and dreams with more twists and turns than Magic Mountain.
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Directed by Peter Jackson; starring Elijah Wood, Bill Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Cate Blanchett, Sean Astin and Ian McKellen
New Line Cinema
Release Date: December 19
In this long awaited first installment based on J.R.R. Tolkein’s classic trilogy Lord of the Rings, Elijah Wood stars as a young hobbit named Frodo Baggins. Early in the film Frodo inherits a magic ring from his elderly cousin Bilbo (Ian Holmes). Hip to the magic ring’s capabilities, the dark Lord Sauron (Sala Baker) wants to use it to enslave the people of Middle Earth. To thwart Saruon’s evil plan, Frodo recruits the help of a wizard, an elf, and a dwarf, among others. Their mission? To destroy the ring by casting it into the volcanic fires in the Crack of Doom. The ring, however, unleashes its own power as a result of the struggle.
Expect both pre- and post-pubescent boys to be double dipping this one.
Kate and Leopold
Directed by James Mangold; starring Meg Ryan, Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Natasha Lyonne and Breckin Meyer
Miramax Films
Release Date: December 21
The woman who won America’s heart in When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle is at it again. In Kate and Leopold, Meg Ryan (a.k.a. Queen of the Romantic Comedy) stars as Kate McKay, a modern-day executive driven to succeed in the corporate world. Hugh Jackman (the hottie from the X-Men) is Leopold, a charming bachelor from the 19th century who is accidentally transported to the future by a team of scientists, one of which happens to be Kate’s ex-boyfriend (Liev Schreiber).
I can only wonder if romance will prevail when their love-weary hearts converge?
A Beautiful Mind
Directed by Ron Howard; starring: Russell Crowe, Adam Goldberg, Christopher Plummer, Ed Harris and Jennifer Connelly
Universal Pictures
Release Date: December 21
Academy buzz is hovering over A Beautiful Mind like the Goodyear blimp over the Super Bowl. In what we can safely assume to be an Academy Award-nominated role, Russell Crowe stars as John Forbes Nash Jr., the young man who discovered the “Game Theory” of economics. By the time he was 30, however, Nash was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Directed by Ron Howard, A Beautiful Mind chronicles Nash’s life, from genius to schizophrenic to Noble prize winner.
Ali
Directed by Michael Mann; starring Will Smith, Giancarlo Esposito, Jamie Foxx, Jada Pinkett Smith and Jon Voight
Columbia Pictures
Release Date: December 25
In what he considers “the role of a lifetime” Will Smith stars as Cassius Clay in Michael Mann’s Ali, a cinematic biography of Muhammad Ali. From the trailer, it doesn’t look like you have to be a boxing fan to appreciate this one. Ali’s life is overflowing with drama both in and out of the ring.
The Shipping News
Directed by Lasse Hallstrom; starring Kevin Spacey, Julianne Moore, Cate Blanchett, Judi Dench and Scott Glenn
Miramax Films
Release Date: December 25
Based on E. Annie Proulx’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Shipping News is the story of a struggling newspaper writer, Quoyle (Kevin Spacey), who returns with his daughter to his ancestral home, a small fishing town on the coast Newfoundland, after the death of his estranged wife. He eventually lands a job as a reporter for a local paper, and begins to discover some dark family mysteries and finds friendship and love with a single mother who has a secret of her own.
Like with A Beautiful Mind, expect The Shipping News to garner a Goodyear blimp full of Oscar buzz.
Majestic
Directed by Frank Darabout; starring Jim Carrey, Martin Landau, Laurie Holden, Bruce Campbell and Jeffrey DeMunn
Warner Brothers
Release Date: December 21
It simply wouldn’t be the holidays without Jim Carrey’s irrepressible constitution exploding across from
nonplussed anchors on morning chat shows. This year he’s promoting Majestic, a Capra-esque drama set during the McCarthy era. According to Warner Brother’s literature, Carrey stars as a “young, ambitious Hollywood screenwriter who loses his job and his identity, only to find new courage, love and the power of conviction in the heart of a small town’s life.”
Black Hawk Down
Directed by Ridley Scott; starring Josh Hartnett, Tom Sizemore, Ewan McGregor, Sam Shepard and William Fichtner
Columbia Pictures
Release Date: December 28
If fantasy movies bore you and romantic comedies drive you mad, Ridley Scott may have made the perfect holiday picture for you. The veteran director has turned Mark Bowden’s novel Black Hawk Down into a movie. Black Hawk Down takes place in 1993 when the United States sent special forces into Somalia to destabilize the government and bring food and humanitarian aid to the starving population. Based on a true account, the movie chronicles the soldiers’ struggle to regain power after the Somalian forces unexpectedly attack the Black Hawk helicopters used in the operation.