Release Date: July 21, 2006 Most Americans, upon finishing with their bowel movement, flush it down the toilet. M. Shyamalan, however, recently filmed one of his and gave it a musical score. The result can be seen in theaters right now, though I expect it will be of more interest to flies than to Homo sapiens. The Lady in the Water it is called, and the story revolves around a so called narf named Story who lives underneath a swimming pool at an apartment complex overseen by Cleveland Heep. Curious as to who has been swimming in the pool late at night, Mr. Heep, played by Paul Giamatti, discovers it is this magical creature, played by Bryce Dallas Howard, when she saves him from drowning. Cleveland soon learns that she needs to return to her home world, called the Blue World, but she is being pursued by a scrunt, played by some CGI computer geek who still can’t make a CGI character look real and therefore menacing. In order to get her back to her home world, on the wings of a large bird named The Great Eatlon, Story will require the help of certain roles in her tale, though just who is supposed to fill which role is not clear. At least it’s not clear to Cleveland; an astute observer will know pretty early on who is who. I’ll come clean with you: I had no idea what Bruce Willis was in The Sixth Sense. I’m not one of [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Release Date: July 21, 2006 (limited) Shadowboxer stars Cuba Gooding Jr., Helen Mirren (Calendar Girls) and Stephen Dorff. It took me awhile to write this review because reflecting on the film it’s so F’d up, but in a good way. I still keep thinking of the many disturbing scenes and relationships that the story portrays and I am still not sure how to go about describing it. In essence it’s part Pulp Fiction, film noir and an independent art film. The story centers on Rose, a female assassin (Mirren), diagnosed with terminal cancer who decides to carry out one final killing assisted by lover, fellow assassin and also stepson, Mickey (Cuba). I had stated that the relationships were disturbing. Anyway, their job becomes complicated when their hit turns out to be for a pregnant woman (Vanessa Ferlito) about to give birth, who also happens to be the wife of a dangerous Philadelphia murderer and criminal. Despite the very graphic sexual and violent scenes in the film, there are many artistic shots and religious symbolism throughout. Also, the gritty scenes are oddly juxtaposed to French classical compositions making the film even more complicated. I was continually being shocked and feeling uncomfortable, yet I walked away liking the film for these same reasons. The plot also progressed well and made up for its harsh beginnings. The film also marks the directorial debut of Lee Daniels, the producer of the Academy Award-nominated Monster’s Ball and The Woodsmen, which helps explain the film’s frank [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Release Date: July 25, 2006 I can almost hear the inner monologue in Rob Corddry’s brain while preparing for this project; “Steve Carell was successful in a leading role. Jon Stewart has made some decent movies. Why can’t I do the same?” The only thing Corddry didn’t consider was the fact that he is not Steve Carell, nor is he Jon Stewart. But while he is not either one of those two gentlemen, he is the most recent member of The Daily Show’s cast to run off and make a movie, curtailing off of the immense success of the Comedy Central fake news show. Corddry’s project, a film called Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story. In the afore mentioned blunder, I mean film, Corddry plays Bobby Dukes, a paintball player who was banned from the game for ten years because he cheated during a championship match. Exposed as a cheater, Dukes disappeared and went off to travel the world and find himself once again. Now after 10 years away from the game he loved so much, Dukes has returned to put together a team of misfits and take back the glory that was once lost. In a mock-umentary style, Corddry and filmmaker Brant Sersen take us deep into the competitive and frighteningly Deliverance-ish world of paintball in America to show us a tale of inner strength and redemption. That synopsis may be giving the film a little too much credit, as it really doesn’t come through on the “tale of inner [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Here is a film that I can really get excited about. Set to hit theaters in October, Martin Scorsese’s The Departed is a story of two cops who are living two seperate lives and blurring the line between good guy and bad guy. The scariest part is that they are both tied up with the wrong kind of trouble, personified by a mob boss played by the effortlessly superb Jack Nicholson. Ever since Batman I have been waiting for Jack to pick up a role like this, the eccentric and demonic bad guy. Ooooh, it gives me chills. But that is not all, this cast just looks fantastic. Leo DiCaprio and Matt Damon play the two cops, while Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen and Alec Baldwin all have roles. From the look of the trailer, this one looks awesome. If there is anyone who can pull of a great New York cop drama it is Scorsese, and he has assembled one hell of a cast to help him out. Check out the trailer by clicking the picture to the right. Technorati Tags: Movies, Upcoming, Scorsese, DiCaprio, Damon, Cop Drama

Release Date: July 28, 2006 If Michael Mann has shown over the years that he has a lot of any one thing as a filmmaker, it has been that he has style; lots of style. His films are distinctive in the fact that they are so flashy. The gorgeous women, the fast cars, the pastel colors and flowing locks of hair that usually resonate from around the head of one of the films lead characters. All of this gets wrapped up into what we have come to know as a true Michael Mann film. Heat is the most notable and most stylish of Mann’s previous works, bringing us one of the best urban crime dramas of all time. With that same style in mind, Mann set out this year to bring back one of his most memorable (and pastel filled) works of television, Miami Vice, and bring it to the big screen. To bring back such a moniker of pop culture could easily viewed as a risk for Mann, as the generation that originally followed Vice has moved on and crossed over into their old and cranky years (late 40s). This new Vice would have to be riddled with a different kind of flair, something that only a director like Mann can produce. So Mann set forth to give the story of Crockett and Tubbs a much needed upgrade, casting actors Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx to play the lead roles. In this go-round of Vice, the two undercover cops [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

M. Night Shyamalan is a great director, but even he could not turn this unique story into anything worth seeing. The plot disappoints and the acting is subpar, leaving M. Night fans a little jaded in the end.

Any spoof or parody can come off really bad…i.e. Date Movie. But when the right comic minds come together you can be sure that laughter, tears and maybe even some accidental urinating will ensue. Farce of The Penguins is a mocumentary parody of last year’s Oscar friendly documentary March of The Penguins. Farce will be directed by Bob Saget (yes Full House Bob Saget…but for those of you who really know comedy, he is a dirty dirty man) and be narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, in contrast to Morgan Freeman’s work in March of The Penguins. Just to drop some names… Jason Alexander . James Belushi . Jason Biggs . Lewis Black . Dane Cook . Dave Coulier . Whoopi Goldberg . Gilbert Gottfried . Alyson Hannigan . Jamie Kennedy . Jon Lovitz . Norm MacDonald . Carlos Mencia .Tracy Morgan I really can’t wait for this one. powered by performancing firefox

Richard Linklater’s Scanner is a haunting but visually stunning depiction of what America on drugs could be in the future.

Release Date: July 11th, 2006 Over the past few decades the money hungry mega studios of Hollywood have been thrusting feature after feature into our paths, all of which are made, as it seems, for the sole purpose of selling tickets and popcorn. Since the 1970s, which included releases like Jaws and Star Wars, we have become accustomed to what most critics call “The Event Film;” your standard holiday weekend release blockbuster. And for most Americans, these movies are what they associate with when they think about “good” movies. But most critics would disagree, saying that these films have become distended from the art form that was once looked at as bringing a compelling story to life on screen. And whether you agree that these event films can be considered art or not, the fact still remains that most American’s can be shrouded from seeing truly well made and moving films, or as I call them, modern works of art. When I refer to a film as a work of art, I am talking about a film that is made to touch its audience with a great message, or display fantastic performances, or inspire us to think about our lives a little bit more. It is made for more than just money, but to impact people’s lives. The unfortunate part is that many of these films do not catch the mainstream popularity, and they are sentenced to finding their audience via a DVD release. A perfect example is the Focus [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Release Date: June 30th, 2006 niche: n. A special area of demand for a product or service.  I site the definition for the word niche because of the fact that it will be a very pivotal word in the description of the 20th Century Fox Release The Devil Wears Prada, and I will be using it often in this particular review. But before I go and slenderize this film by calling it a niche film, I must first elaborate on what I am talking about when I combine the words niche and film. When speaking of a niche film, I am referring to films that serve a very specific segment of society, and to illustrate this I will take two very successful 2006 releases and show the difference. Sometimes these segments of society can be very large slices of the populous, as is the case with films like Superman Returns, where the mass appeal was limited but success was built on a large and loyal fan base. Then you get a film such as Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, where a mass appeal spawned a very large turnout in theaters. And I while I do understand that not everyone who saw Superman Returns was a huge comic book nerd, the fact that it did not do as well as predicted only illustrates my point further. The Devil Wears Prada is in it’s essence a niche film. It stars Anne Hathaway as Andy Sachs, a young plain Jane type [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Infamous, which will be premiering at the Venice Film Festival on August 31, is a film that documents Truman Capote’s journey to Kansas that eventually led him to write his bestselling novel In Cold Blood. Sound familiar? It should, because that film already won Philip Seymour Hoffman an Oscar. So I guess the question to ask is: Do we really need two films about the same man and the same story within two years of each other? Judging from this all-star cast, it looks like Warner Independent Pictures seems to think so. A not so famous, but strikingly perfect looking for the part, Toby Jones will be playing Truman Capote. Sandra Bullock will be trying to fill the shoes that Catherine Keener already filled as Harper Lee. The new James Bond, Daniel Craig, will be playing Perry Smith. Other notable cast members are Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis, Gwyneth Paltrow and Sigourney Weaver. The film has already been associated with some controversy because of Paltrow’s three minute cameo, in which it is reported that she has received a massive paycheck for. Also, Mark Wahlberg was involved until he heard that Capote would be released first. David Thompson, a writer for The Independent, reports that Toby Jones’ Capote is a better fit than Hoffman’s. The achievement of the film – and it delivers – is to show that Capote was a shit, a devious glory-seeker and a fine writer who got his own way all the time. That film says he was [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Release Date: July 7, 2007 I often wonder to myself, “Why do people go to the movies? What really brings us back time and time again?” Over the years I have found myself drawn to three different reasons. Some people look to movies to provide some kind of insight, or to provoke deep thoughts. Others enjoy movies as an emotional experience; something that brings out emotions that would otherwise lay hidden beneath the monotony of daily life. But still, I believe that most people go to the movies just to get away from the real world for a while. We want to be able to get lost in a fantastic alternate reality and believe that the characters on screen are more than just figments of someone’s imagination. In fact, we go to the movies to experience films like Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. Allow me to elaborate… In 2003, the Producer/Director combination of Jerry Bruckheimer and Gore Verbinski brought us into the world of Captain Jack Sparrow in The Curse of the Black Pearl. We were instantly sucked in by Johnny Depp‘s charm and charisma as the wayward Captain, and almost overnight the film became Disney’s highest grossing live-action film ever. Three years later we are reintroduced to Captain Sparrow and all of his most memorable friends. In Dead Man’s Chest, Sparrow once again has reunited with Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Ms. Elizabeth Swan (Keira Knightley) to take on another one of his, well, mistakes. We come [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

It is always a daunting task, is it not? Picking out a movie to see with your sweetheart. As I discussed a few weeks ago, there are some theatrical releases that will get you put in the doghouse (I would reference any of the three Terminator flicks) and there are some that will get you a little more intimate approval. And that is what we are really looking for right? Aside from love, trust, and companionship, we are ultimately all in it for the means of getting close (no matter what level of closeness you seek.) So it is safe to say that there are some films that will rev her engines a little more than others. Most of these gems will include a particular male celebrity on a very long list. Here are a few very good examples that are sure to get any woman all warm inside: Brad Pitt Clive Owen Jude Law Johnny Depp These are only a few examples of actors who your female companion would leave you for in a second. Tom Cruise used to be on this list, that is until he went psycho and stole Katie Holmes from the world with the sole intention of creating little Scientologist spawn. It is sad, really (I’m referring to the Katie Holmes part; I always knew that Cruise was a loon.) So thankfully there are no Tom Cruise movies being released this weekend. But there is one particular release for which you will score some points…