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NOVEMBER 27th: Opening This Week | Top 10

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Director: Walt Becker
Stars: Robin Williams, John Travolta (Full Cast)
Studio: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

The Plot: Ben (Williams) is a successful businessman whose professional and personal life is altered when an old flame re-enteres his life -- with her two children (twins!) in tow. Finding himself temporarily in charge of their welfare, he enlists his best friend and colleague (Travolta) to co-parent.

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THE BUZZ: I love it when weirdos like Seth Green are cast in family movies. And he seems to steal scenes in the way-too-revealing trailer. Looks like another win for suddenly mainstream director Walter Becker (Wild Hogs), and continued momentum for Travolta, who received great reviews for the underperforming Pelham 1 2 3 and will next be seen in Pierre Morel's Taken follow-up, From Paris with Love.

Message Boards: Truly, Truly Awful | I thought it was funny

The Road [11/25]

Director: John Hillcoat
Stars: Viggo Mortensen, Charlize Theron, Kodi Smit-McPhee (Full Cast)
Studio: Dimension Films

The Plot: A father (Mortensen) and son (Smit-McPhee) walk for months across a ravaged, post-apocalyptic landscape in search of civilization.

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THE BUZZ: Once a victim of come-and-go release date hijinks, the question here remains: Can you mine another Cormac McCarthy novel for Oscar gold? We have to imagine that's the plan here for McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize-winning, Oprah-endorsed tale of an unexplained cataclysm decimating life as we know it in the U.S. John Hillcoat (The Proposition) is a stellar pick to frame the father and son's gritty survival instincts, and we can already see Viggo being positioned for a Best Actor nomination, but if this is intended to be an Oscar hopeful, we feel as though some of the novel's most ghastly images -- cannibalism is just the beginning, dear ones -- will be sanitized. (or maybe not, according to this report, though Charlize Theron's character was given more of a backstory, as readers would image). Personally, we're primed for Guy Pearce's role ...

Message Boards: Should I be worried about the lack of buzz near its opening? | Soundtrack shame

Ninja Assassin [11/25]

Director: James McTeigue
Stars: Rain, Rick Yune, Naomie Harris (Full Cast)
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures

The Plot: Raizo (Rain) is a rogue ninja who comes to the aid of Mika Coretti (Harris), a Berlin-based Interpol agent who has linked the shadowy Ozunu Clan, a secret society of assassins who trained Raizo, to a series of murders. Most dangerous to them both is Takeshi (Yune), Raizo's former ally and the assassin leading the charge of Ozunu killers to Berlin.

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THE BUZZ: Despite the somewhat redundant title, I'm looking forward to ninjas being brought front and center in director James McTeigue's follow up to V for Vendetta. What's more, I'm hoping Naomie Harris will get the chance to showcase her fighting/survival skills, which really haven't found an outlet since 28 Days Later (by the way, Ms. Harris says she's down for a proper sequel to the film, just so you know ...). Perhaps a pop-culture phenomenon will occur this weekend, if boys put down their video-game controllers, and the hordes of teenage girls who idolize Rain also head out to the movies ...

Message Boards: New Clip - 'You Are Not My Father' | Ninja Assassin iPhone Game

Me and Orson Welles [11/25 -- LA/NY]

Director: Richard Linklater
Stars: Zac Efron, Claire Danes, Christian McKay (Full Cast)
Studio: Freestyle Releasing

The Plot: NYC, 1937: A week in the life of aspiring actor Richard Samuels (Efron), where he finds himself cast in Orson Welles' staging of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" and falling for an older woman (Danes).

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THE BUZZ: Just how leery are studios of arty/specialty films in this economically depressed era? Look no further than Orson Welles, which pairs an established director with a bonafide young star in a career redefining role, and tosses in a breakout performance by an relatively unknown actor playing one of cinema's most iconic figures (Christian McKay as Welles). The period drama screened at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival, where the unlikely Efron-Linklater collaboration found many admirers, but zero buyers. This opened the door for Freestyle Releasing, who will hopefully repeat the success they found with The Collector earlier this year (and Bottle Shock in 2008).

Message Boards: Anyone else think that Jack Black would make a perfect Orson Welles? | The titles grammatically incorrect

The Private Lives of Pippa Lee [LA/NY]

Director: Rebecca Miller
Stars: Robin Wright Penn, Alan Arkin, Mike Binder (Full Cast)
Studio: Screen Media Films

The Plot: Pippa Lee (Penn) moves with her much older husband (Arkin) from New York City to a suburban retirement community. Cracks in her facade reveal past experiences, while she steers herself toward a quiet nervous breakdown.

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THE BUZZ: I hear what makes this drama work is that neither the writing nor the performers take Pippa's meltdown that seriously. Rebecca Miller might experience a perfect indie storm here with her film's good reviews, its perfect release-date positioning, and Robin Wright (Penn)'s on-again divorce proceedings in full effect. Also, Julianne Moore plays a Sapphic bad-girl in a flashback sequence!

Message Boards: online anywhere? | I wanted to see this but I'm afraid it will be similar to...

The Twilight Saga: New Moon

Director: Chris Weitz
Stars: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner (Full Cast)
Studio: Summit Entertainment

The Plot: When Bella's blood is shed at her birthday celebration, Edward's intense reaction to the event causes his parents to pull up stakes and leave Forks, Washington for the sake of the young lovers. Heartbroken, Bella finds a form of comfort in reckless living, as well as an even-closer friendship with Jacob Black (Lautner). Danger in different forms awaits.

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THE BUZZ: There's nobody hotter on IMDb -- or anywhere in general pop culture? -- than Edward and Bella. Even their real-life counterparts, Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, are making indie-cool choices which make them appealing to those of us who might not be the biggest fans of Stephenie Meyer's novels, or their adaptations. Boosting the appeal of Twilight is the studio behind the franchise, Summit Entertainment, who listens to their fan base (We heart Jacob Lautner!) and is pulling a Disney move by investing in their stars (Kristen Stewart will co-star in the biography of seminal 1970s all-female rock band The Runways, while Robert Pattinson is shooting Remember Me) after New Moon wraps). We're interested to see how underdog director Chris Weitz meshes with this material, and, whether or not this second installment will boost its appeal to non-U.S. audiences.

Message Boards: Message to all bashers | Funny things people said in your theater

The Blind Side

Director: John Lee Hancock
Stars: Quinton Aaron, Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw (Full Cast)
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures

The Plot: A disadvantaged teenager is taken in by a conservative family who see tremendous promise in the young man. Despite certain obstacles, the attention and inspiration he receives helps him mature into an athletically and academically successful NFL prospect.

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THE BUZZ: This is the true story of Michael Oher, whose first season in the NFL will be underway by the time Sandra Bullock blitzes (?) the big screen with her third movie of the year. If Oher and the Baltimore Ravens, who selected the young man in the first round of this year's draft, are both performing well, some sort of uncharted cultural zeitgeist could occur at the box office. This is also great counterprogramming for all the non-Twilight moms out there.

Message Boards: do we no longer see art in life? | Oscar Nom for Bullock?

2012

Director: Roland Emmerich
Stars: John Cusack, Thandie Newton, Chiwetel Ejiofor (Full Cast)
Studio: Columbia Pictures

The Plot: Academic researcher Jackson Curtis (Cusack) leads a group of people in a fight to counteract the apocalyptic events that were predicted by the Mayan calendar.

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THE BUZZ: After 10K BC's middling success, Roland Emmerich probably sensed that movie-going audiences worldwide prefer him in present-tense mode, heavy on apocalyptic imagery. I've heard rumors that 2012's script, which Emmerich wrote with composer-turned-screenwriter Harald Kloser, contains an incredibly cheesy twist of Shyamalanian proportions, but I'm not one to seek out (or deliver) spoilery goods. I will say that part of me hopes this end-of-the-world scenario could mint Emmerich as the slightly higher brow Uwe Boll, if only he thought to cast Tara Reid as an anthropologist here. Said differently: This A-and-B-list cast is slumming! P.S. Have you heard the one about Emmerich's planned 2012 TV spin-off?

Message Boards: How do we know Our Gov't isnt hiding something Now? | How did African survive?

Planet 51

Director: Jorge Blanco Javier Abad
Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Seann William Scott, Jessica Biel (Full Cast)
Studio: TriStar Pictures

The Plot: The inhabitants of Planet 51 live in fear of alien invasion. Their paranoia is realized when astronaut Chuck Baker (voice of Dwayne Johnson) arrives from Earth. Befriended by a young resident, he has to avoid capture in order to recover his spaceship and try to return home.

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THE BUZZ: A trio of videogame directors are handling this story from one of the dudes who wrote Shrek. Powered by Sony worldwide, we think audiences will embrace the human-as-alien spin here, especially since rendering here reminds us of an animated Pleasantville. Blockbuster? We don't think so. Solid performer that won't annoy you in the SUV Hybrid? You bet.

Message Boards: 'The Rock' seems to be going the Eddie Murphy route | Dwayne Johnson's voice altered?

A Christmas Carol

Director: Robert Zemeckis
Stars: Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman, Colin Firth (Full Cast)
Studio: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

The Plot: An animated retelling of the Charles Dickens novel about Ebenezer Scrooge (Carrey), a Victorian-era miser who is taken on a journey of self-redemption, courtesy of several mysterious Christmas apparitions.

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THE BUZZ: Could it be that Robert Zemeckis has finally found source material that perfectly suits his creepy mo-cap fantasies? Initially we were unsure, but ever since Comic-Con we've been behind this movie way more so than our affection for Monster House and Beowulf combined. However, this does not mean we're behind Who Framed Roger Rabbit 2 ...

Message Boards: Traumatized forever! | Anyone find the message conflicting?

Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire

Director: Lee Daniels
Stars: Gabourey 'Gabby' Sidibe, Mo'Nique, Paula Patton (Full Cast)
Studio: Lionsgate

The Plot: In Harlem, an overweight, illiterate teen (Sidibe) who is pregnant with her second child is invited to enroll in an alternative school in hopes that her life can head in a new direction.

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THE BUZZ: Mo'Nique is going to win the Best Supporting Actress for her role in this terrifying realistic drama from Lee Daniels. (Or maybe she won't?) A pivotal scene between Mo' and star Gabby Sidibe literally made crowds gasp at Sundance earlier this year, and it is sure to illicit similar reactions from general audiences this winter. What Daniels has done here is rather remarkable: His take on the hardships faced by the titular character is only semi-sentimental, and it implies that a person's conviction is the one thing that remains when their circumstances are remarkably bleak. Amazingly, his story is also funny. This is, quite simply, a great film. And if you need your mood lightened while watching it, squint just a bit and Mariah Carey's mustache really comes into focus.

Message Boards: Honest Question: Main character too fat to be sympathetic? | Audience reactions

The Men Who Stare at Goats

Director: Grant Heslov
Stars: Ewan McGregor, George Clooney, Kevin Spacey (Full Cast)
Studio: Overture Films

The Plot: In Iraq, reporter Bob Wilton (McGregor) meets Lyn Cassady (Clooney), whose seemingly wild claim - that he's a member of the U.S. Army's First Earth Battalion, a unit that employs paranormal powers in their missions - causes Wilton to join Cassady's hunt for the battalion's founder, whose gone missing.

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THE BUZZ: I like it when Clooney has a full-fledged character to play and isn't just in leading-man mode, and Kurt Wimmer's book is too against-the-grain for any established studio to be interested in the adaptation, which is being handled by Clooney's producing partner, Grant Heslov (his second picture as director). Enter Overture Films, who's gunning for awards-season recognition with this project as well as Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story. Meanwhile, over at Sony, Clooney and Heslov will develop more mainstream fare after severing their decade-old relationship with Warner Bros. back in June.

Message Boards: 'worse movie ever' should be a banned string | Lost for words really

Couples Retreat

Director: Peter Billingsley
Stars: Vince Vaughn, Malin Akerman, Jon Favreau (Full Cast)
Studio: Universal Pictures

The Plot: Four couples settle into a tropical-island resort for a vacation. While one of the couples is there to work on their marriage, the others fail to realize that participation in the resort's therapy sessions is not optional.

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THE BUZZ: Whether Retreat's mainstream-cool cast was handpicked by former swingers Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau or assembled by Universal's business-development execs, the crossover factor is off the PowerPoint charts here. Though the Industry has been riding the studio hard for its series of flops and underperformers (Public Enemies is the closet thing to a hit in a losing streak which includes Land of the Lost, Funny People, Brüno, and, most recently, The Invention of Lying), it would take a miscue of maximum incompetence for this date movie to tank.

Message Boards: Salvadore's yogo lessons - bad on purpose | where was this filmed?

The Fourth Kind

Director: Olatunde Osunsanmi
Stars: Milla Jovovich, Elias Koteas, Will Patton (Full Cast)
Studio: Universal Pictures

The Plot: An investigator (Jovovich) is dispatched to Nome, Alaska to puzzle out a 40-year-long mystery involving an extraordinary number of unexplained disappearances in the town. Her videotaped evidence looks to present the most convincing evidence of alien abduction ever documented.

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THE BUZZ: Mystery and potential government conspiracies await Jovovich on her visit to Palin-ville. This thriller was scooped up by Universal during the summer when post-production on The Wolf Man pushed that film's release date to 2010. Before Paranormal Activity mania struck, I thought this movie was a goner -- another round of bad luck for Milla (and Universal) who saw her critically well-received thriller A Perfect Getaway fade away like a hazy summer memory. Now, it just might connect with audiences who are craving caught-on-tape horrors.

Message Boards: Abigail's Face? | Was the 'real' footage actually real?

Law Abiding Citizen

Director: F. Gary Gray
Stars: Gerard Butler, Jamie Foxx, Leslie Bibb (Full Cast)
Studio: Overture Films

The Plot: After family man Clyde Shelton (Butler) is failed by the court system, he concocts a series of events designed to exact his revenge on the killers of his wife and daughter. And from inside his jail cell, the mastermind lures the prosecutor (Foxx) who orchestrated the unjust deal into his deadly plan.

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THE BUZZ: Working chronologically backwards, notions of Jigsaw, Hannibal Lecter, and Charles Bronson's Paul Kersey come to mind for what shaping up to be one of the year's most guilty pleasures; "to not crave it is to not crave cheesesteaks," as one descriptive insider put it.

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