Grendelscott's Movie Corner: 9/19/05

[grendelscott]

The Top Ten For The Weekend Ending 09/18/05
Earnings are in Millions

1. Just Like Heaven 16.5
2. The Exorcism of Emily Rose 15.3
3. Lord of War 9.2
4. The 40 Year Old Virgin 5.8
5. Cry Wolf 4.6
6. Transporter 2 4.0
7. The Constant Gardener 3.7
8. Red Eye 2.9
9. March of the Penguins 2.6
10. Wedding Crashers 2.5

Due Out This Week

• DEAR WENDY (Trailer) (Official Site)
  
  Source: Movie Web
  
  "Dear Wendy" is a story about the young loner Di ck who lives in the poor mining town of Estherslope. When he happens upon a small handgun one day, he finds himself strangely drawn to it, despite his fervent pacifist views. Together with his newfound partner he soon convinces the other young outcasts in the town to join him in a secret club he calls The Dandies. A club based on the principals of pacifism and guns. Despite their firm belief in the most important Dandy rule of all - never draw your weapons - they soon find themselves in a predicament where they realize that rules are made to be broken.
  
  
  
• FLIGHTPLAN (Trailer) (Official Site)
  
  Source: Movie Web
  
  You are flying at 37,000 feet, in a new state-of-the-art airliner... so how on earth could a child suddenly disappear from your plane? This nerve-shattering question lies at the heart of FLIGHTPLAN, a visceral suspense thriller that transports the audience into the turbulent confines of an international flight -- and puts them at the very center of a chilling human mystery as they jet from Berlin to New York. Two-time Academy Award winner Jodie Foster stars as Kyle Pratt, the frantic but fiercely intelligent mother whose deepest protective instincts will be triggered by a haunting in-flight nightmare: in the middle of the trans-Atlantic trip, her young daughter turns up missing without a trace.
  
  Or does she?
  
  The dilemma facing the passengers and crew onboard is exactly the same predicament that audiences of FLIGHTPLAN will experience: is Kyle Pratt (FOSTER), who arrives on the flight still reeling from the recent loss of her husband, a woman who has gone mad with grief or a formidably determined mother whose child is in grave danger that threatens the entire plane? Adding to the growing mystery is the fact that the name of Kyle’s daughter doesn’t even appear on the flight manifest. Furthermore, neither of the flight attendants (ERIKA CHRISTENSEN, KATE BEAHAN) can remember seeing the child on the plane. While Captain Rich (SEAN BEAN) and Air Marshal Gene Carson (PETER SARSGAARD) don’t want to doubt Kyle’s insistent claim that her daughter has vanished, all evidence points to the fact that Kyle’s little girl was never on board.
  
  What is the truth behind Kyle Pratt’s distress? Who on board can be trusted? And just how far will Kyle have to go to get to the bottom of the harrowing mystery? As paranoia and doubt mount among the passengers, Kyle is confronted with some of the most unsettling fears a mother could ever face -- losing her child, having her very reality questioned and being trapped in a situation where no one can seem to help. Pushed to the edge and fighting for her sanity, Kyle finds herself willing to go to unimaginable lengths to save her daughter.
  
  Jodie Foster teams up with Academy Award-winning producer Brian Grazer (A Beautiful Mind, 8 Mile, Ransom) to bring this original tale of high-flying suspense to life.
  
  Playing against Foster as the passengers and crew who alternately doubt and fear her is a supporting cast noted for their critically acclaimed performances in both action epics and grittier independent features, including Peter Sarsgaard, Erika Christensen, Kate Beahan and Sean Bean. Seven-year-old Marlene Lawston makes her feature film debut as Foster’s daughter, whose disappearance thrusts the international flight into chaos and paranoia.
  
  
  
• MAGNIFICENT DESOLUTION: WALKING ON THE MOON 3D (Trailer) (Official Site)
  
  Source: Movie Web
  
  Only 12 have walked on the moon. This Fall, you're next!
  
  The IMAX® space legacy continues with "Magnificent Desolution: Walking on the Moon 3D," which will take audiences to the surface of the Moon to walk alongside the extraordinary Apollo astronauts who have stepped upon its surface. With never before seen photographs, CGI renditions of the lunar landscape and previously unreleased NASA footage, audiences will be immersed in the life-changing experiences of these astronauts by showcasing what they saw, heard, felt, thought and did while on the lunar surface.
  
  Produced by Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman of Playtone and by IMAX Corporation, "Magnificent Desolution: Walking on the Moon 3D" is directed by Mark Cowen, Emmy Award nominee for the documentary film "We Stand Alone Together: The Men Of Easy Company," and executive produced by Mark Herzog and Hugh Murray. The film's content is based on "The Lunar Surface Journals," a massive archival database compiled over the last decade by Dr. Eric Jones, which chronicles the moon walks as recounted by the astronauts.
  
  "Magnificent Desolution: Walking on the Moon 3D" is sponsored by Lockheed Martin Corporation and filmed with the cooperation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
  
  
• ROLL BOUNCE (Trailer) (Official Site)
  
  Source: Movie Web
  
  It’s the summer of ’78 and if you’re looking for good times there is just one place to go: the local roller disco, where the music is hot, the girls are hotter, and the entire atmosphere is dynamite. It is here, under the swirling colored lights and the spinning disco ball that thousands will experience lessons in friendship and love ... and sometimes life teaches that you have to really get down in order to get back up on your feet.
  
  From director Malcolm D. Lee (UNDERCOVER BROTHER) comes a fresh -- and undeniably funky -- coming of age comedy on wheels: ROLL BOUNCE. Set at the height of the roller disco era, when “jam skating” was born, the film combines the retro thrills of 70s dance and music with the moving story of a family trying to find a way to roll through hard times to a better future. Filled with classic soul tunes, outrageous skating moves and the unforgettable romance of the “couples skate,” ROLL BOUNCE is an infectiously fun trip into a world where when the lights went low and the music came up, you could roll in to anything.
  
  It all begins with Xavier Smith (Bow Wow), also known as X, a young roller wiz who, along with his crew, once ruled supreme at their South Side of Chicago rink, the Palisades Gardens. But when the doors of their favorite hangout close, it marks the end of an era and the beginning of another that sees the boys venturing into completely foreign territory: the North Side’s swanky Swee----er Roller Rink, with its sleek, well-to-do roller-boys and gorgeous girls in short-shorts.
  
  For X and his friends, Swee----er is a brave new world that gives way to an impossible dream: to win the rink’s annual Roller Jam Skate-Off. It’s more than just a chance to take home a trophy for X -- it’s his opportunity to fulfill the potential his mother always saw in him and prove his own self-worth. Now, as these spirited South Side skaters take on Swee----er’s greatest champ -- that superfine roller god named Sweetness (Wesley Jonathan) -- they’re going to have to rock, roll, bounce, boogie ... and find their own true rhythm in the process.
  
  
• TIM BURTON'S CORPSE BRIDE (Trailer) (Official Site)
  
  Source: Movie Web
  
  In a small, gloomily repressed Victorian town, two shy young people are set to be wed -- although they’ve never before met.
  
  Crass, social-climbing canned fish tycoons Nell and William Van Dort (voiced by Tracey Ullman and Paul Whitehouse) have always dreamt of joining high society -- but while they’re not lacking in wealth, they’re sorely lacking in the requisite class.
  
  Conversely, old-money aristocrats Maudeline and Finis Everglot (voiced by Joanna Lumley and Albert Finney), direct descendents of the Duke of Everglot -- as they will freely profess to anyone who will listen -- are full of class but drained of cash. Their money has long ago dried up, and all they have left of worth is their name and social standing…and, as it turns out, their daughter Victoria (voiced by Emily Watson). While they’ve never seen much worth in her, she may just be their ticket back up the social ladder, as it seems the Van Dorts have a bachelor son, Victor (voiced by Johnny Depp).
  
  The Everglots are willing to hold their noses and grudgingly marry Victoria off to the son of the dreadful Van Dorts -- nouveau-riche is still riche, after all. The deal is made, and the two families are quickly in a tizzy, as everyone is quite excited about the impending nuptials…except for the bride and groom. But everybody knows that marriage isn’t about love anyway -- just ask Maudeline and Finis.
  
  Victor and Victoria first set eyes on each other on the eve of their wedding, when the families gather for a proper introduction between the soon-to-be-newlyweds, to be immediately followed by a wedding rehearsal. While it’s difficult to say who is shyer, upon their first meeting it seems possible that against all odds, Victor and Victoria’s chance for true love may not have been lost. But at the rehearsal, Victor bungles his vows so badly -- even before he accidentally lights his future mother-in-law’s dress on fire -- that Pastor Galswells (voiced by Christopher Lee) sends him away until he can manage to learn his lines correctly.
  
  Humiliated, he wanders off into the dark forest surrounding the village. Once he is alone, he is able to recite his vows perfectly, even going so far as to gently place the wedding ring on the root of a tree as a finishing touch. But it isn’t a root after all.
  
  Terrifyingly, the strange and beautiful decaying corpse of a woman wearing the tattered remains of a wedding gown rises up from the ground, wearing Victoria’s ring on her bony finger. It seems that Victor has unwittingly betrothed himself to the Corpse Bride (voiced by Helena Bonham Carter).
  
  Ever since she was mysteriously murdered on her wedding night, the Corpse Bride has waited, heartbroken, for her groom to come and claim her. While her heart may have stopped beating long ago, her search for true love, and a husband to share her eternal rest with, has never ended. Victor has mistakenly become that groom, and is dragged down beneath the earth to the Land of the Dead, a rowdy reversal of the staid life he has always known -- in the Land of the Dead, the pubs are always open and the corpses are more lively than anything you will find aboveground in the dull and somber Land of the Living.
  
  Victor tries in vain to find his way back to Victoria, who is waiting bereft in the Land of the Living, somehow unable to convince anyone that a dead woman has dragged her fiancé off to the underworld. Instead of helping their daughter, the Everglots hastily arrange a second wedding, this time to the mysterious and sinister Barkis Bittern (voiced by Richard E. Grant), who just happens to be in the right place at the right time to take Victoria’s hand...
  
  While the Corpse Bride is determined not to let him escape the bonds of their unholy matrimony, Victor must find a way to return from the Land of the Dead, and back into the arms of the love of his life.

That's it for this week...

[Ghost]

Dear Wendy sounds really interesting. And Roll Bounce was actually filmed here in Chicago too. Can't wait for Corpse Bride.