Grendelscott's Movie Corner: 9/12/05

grendelscott · 09-13-2005, 04:45 AM

The Top Ten For The Weekend Ending 09/11/05
Earnings are in Millions

The Exorcism of Emily Rose $30.1
The 40 Year Old Virgin $7.7
The Transporter 2 $7.4
The Constant Gardener $4.7
Red Eye $4.5
The Man $4.1
The Brothers Grimm $3.3
Wedding Crashers $3.3
Four Brothers $2.9
March of the Penguins $2.6

Due Out This Week

CRY_WOLF (Trailer) (Official Site)

Source: Movie Web

In the new teen thriller "Cry_Wolf", eight unsuspecting high school seniors playing a game of lies come face-to-face with terror and learn that nobody believes a liar... even when they're telling the truth.

After one too many incidents of bad behavior at his last school, Owen Matthews (Julian Morris) arrives at Westlake Prep – where a young woman has recently been found murdered in the dark woods near the boarding school's campus. Owen quickly falls in with the school's unofficial "liars' club," including the beautiful and savvy Dodger (Lindy Booth of "Dawn of the Dead" and "Wrong Turn") and quick-talking, short-tempered Tom (Jared Padalecki of the new TV series "Supernatural"). At Owen's suggestion, his new friends decide to expand their game's reach beyond campus, by spreading an online rumor that a serial killer called "The Wolf" committed the recent murder and is planning to strike again.

The mischievous group's descriptions of "The Wolf's" intended victims are based on the people they know best – each other. Only when the school's journalism teacher, Rich Walker (Jon Bon Jovi), warns the group about the kinds of predators that lurk on the internet does Owen begin to regret sending their falsified story into cyberspace. When the described "victims" suddenly start to disappear, Owen, Dodger and Tom are no longer able to determine where the lies end and the truth begins. As someone – or something – starts hunting the players themselves, the game turns terrifyingly real.
EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED (Trailer) (Official Site)

Source: Movie Web

Based on the acclaimed, best-selling novel by Jonathan Safran foer, "Everything is Illuminated" tells the story of a young American Jewish man's quest to find the woman who saved his grandfather--in a small Ukrainian town that was wiped off the map by the Nazi invasion.

The journey begins as a comic nightmare--with an eccentric trio of paid "expert" guides sorely lacking in expertise: a cranky grandfather who insists on bringing his unruly seeing-eye dog to help him drive, and his over-enthusiastic grandson, whose fractured command of English, passion for retro American pop culture, and inability to shut up threaten to make the worst of every situation.

But what starts out as the tour from hell turns into a surprisingly meaningful journey--with an unexpected and powerful series of revelations that will indelibly change all of their lives.
G (Trailer) (Official Site)

Source: Movie Web

"G" is a contemporary African-American romance inspired by the classic F. Scott Fitzgerald story "The Great Gatsby". Set amidst the grandeur of the ultra elite Hamptons, "G" follows self-made millionaire and rap mogul Summer G (Richard T. Jones) on a journey to regain what he desires most – the love of his life (Chenoa Maxwell), now married to a wealthy and philandering Wallstreeter (Blair Underwood). Having built his thriving empire from the ground up, Summer G would relinquish it all for the promise of rekindling a romance with his one true love.

Urban music writer, Tre, (Andre Royo) spends the summer chronicling the lifestyle of this complex rap mogul for an article on the rise of African-American prominence linked to Hip Hop in the Hamptons. Without malice or intent, this writer brings these lovers together while simultaneously pulling their worlds apart.
JUST LIKE HEAVEN (Trailer) (Official Site)

Source: Movie Web

From Mark Waters, the director of “Mean Girls” and “Freaky Friday,” comes the new romantic comedy “Just Like Heaven,” starring Reese Witherspoon (“Legally Blonde,” “Vanity Fair”) and Mark Ruffalo (“13 Going on 30,” “Collateral”).

When David (Mark Ruffalo) sublet his quaint San Francisco apartment, the last thing he expected -- or wanted -- was a roommate. He had only begun to make a complete mess of the place when a pretty young woman named Elizabeth (Reese Witherspoon) suddenly shows up, adamantly insisting the apartment is hers. David assumes there’s been a giant misunderstanding…until Elizabeth disappears as mysteriously as she appeared. Changing the locks does nothing to deter Elizabeth, who begins to appear and disappear at will -- mostly to rebuke David for his personal living habits in her apartment. Convinced that she is a ghost, David tries to help Elizabeth cross over to the “other side.” But while Elizabeth has discovered she does have a distinctly ethereal quality -- she can walk through walls -- she is equally convinced that she is somehow still alive and isn’t crossing over anywhere. As Elizabeth and David search for the truth about who Elizabeth is and how she came to be in her present state, their relationship deepens into love. Unfortunately, they have very little time before their prospects for a future together permanently fade away.
LORD OF WAR (Trailer) (Official Site)

Source: Movie Web

Born in Ukraine before the break-up of the Soviet Union, Yuri Orlov’s family emigrated to America when Yuri was a boy, falsely claiming to be of Jewish descent. It is the first of many fraudulent identities for Yuri.

His parents open a kosher restaurant in Brighton Beach, New York. It is here as a young man that Yuri first glimpses the woman of his dreams -- beauty queen, Ava Cordova. However, Ava doesn’t know Yuri exists.

Disillusioned with his life working in his parent’s struggling restaurant, Yuri witnesses a shoot-out between rival Russian mobsters. Lucky to escape alive, it is a pivotal moment in Yuri’s life. “You go into the restaurant business because ‘people are always going to have to eat.’ That was the day I realized my destiny lay in fulfilling another basic human need.”

Yuri convinces his younger brother, Vitaly, to join him in an arms dealing business. As Vitaly sarcastically remarks, "It’s a hell of a career move."

They find their niche in under-the-counter gunrunning, selling to regimes suffering under sanctions. "I sold guns to every army but the Salvation Army". Yuri's appetite for guns is matched only by his appetite for sex.

But Yuri is constantly under threat - forced to stay one step ahead of a rival arms dealer and a dogged Interpol agent, Jack Valentine.

His younger brother discovers he has no stomach for the business and develops an addiction for cocaine. After checking Vitaly into a rehab clinic, Yuri goes it alone.

He engineers a meeting with the haunting Ava and embarks on an elaborate seduction. She believes he is the wealthy owner of an international transport business. As Yuri rationalizes it, "Some of the most successful relationships are based on lies and deceit. Since that's where they usually end up anyway, it's a logical place to start." Ava and Yuri marry and have a child, a boy named Nicolai. Yuri is the perfect family man, ironically removing toy guns from his son's bedroom.

However, Yuri is close to going broke trying to convince Ava how rich he is. Fortunately, Yuri gets a huge Christmas present in 1991 with the break-up of the Soviet Union. He immediately returns to Ukraine, knowing that there are enormous stockpiles of weapons in the former Soviet state and now no enemy.

Yuri conspires with his Uncle Dmitri, a Ukrainian army general, to sell the weapons. (In Ukraine alone between 1982 and 1992 over $32 billion in arms were stolen. No culprit has ever been caught or prosecuted. Many believe it is the greatest heist of the 20th Century.)

Yuri mostly sells to countries in war-torn Africa in contravention of dozens of arms embargoes that Yuri cleverly avoids. One of Yuri’s best customers proves to be African warlord Andre Baptiste, Sr., the ruthless dictator and self-declared President of Liberia.

By the mid-1990’s, Yuri's wealth catches up to his lies about his wealth - even surpasses his lies. Yuri remains unsure how much Ava really knows about the true nature of his business or how much she chooses to ignore. It remains an unspoken subject.

Eventually, the atrocities in West Africa resulting from the influx of weapons bring greater pressure from Interpol and the international community. Agent Valentine arrests Yuri but can't make the charges stick. One of Valentine's subordinates begs to kill Yuri but Valentine would rather let Yuri walk if the price of stopping him is his own humanity.

Yuri's double and triple lives are starting to catch up with him. A rival arms dealer is killed partly by Yuri's own hand.

Yuri has never fired a gun before, let alone killed a man. He goes on a binge of booze and drugs in the worst neighborhood in Monrovia but survives - Yuri believes he has the curse of invincibility.

To make matters worse, Yuri is also under threat from his greatest nemesis - the woman he loves. Ava confronts him about his work.

For a short time, Yuri tries to become a legitimate businessman. But he cannot fight his true nature. It seems he is actually the addict of the family rather than his younger brother. He has to keep going because it makes him feel alive.

Yuri lies to Ava about his upcoming business trip and convinces Vitaly to accompany him on a job in Africa. The deal goes bad when Vitaly tries to intervene on behalf of a camp of defenseless refugees. Vitaly is gunned down in front of Yuri.

At this moment, Yuri faces a decision. He can destroy the arms shipment and lose his own life in the process or he can finish the deal.

Yuri does what he has always done. He survives. With his brother lying dead on the ground, Yuri goes back to the negotiating table and finishes the deal. As long as Vitaly was alive, Yuri still had a conscience of some kind, even if his younger brother carried it for him. When Vitaly dies, what's left of Yuri's soul dies with him.

Returning to the U.S. with his dead brother’s body, Yuri is arrested at the airport. “I've smuggled millions of rounds of ammunition and the bullet that lands me in jail is found under my dead brother's rib.”

Yuri’s parents ostracize him - blaming him for his brother's death. Ava abandons him, taking their son with her. Agent Valentine finally has his man.

It looks hopeless for Yuri except that no one has accounted for the world's most powerful arms dealer - the United States government. Yuri is on a first name basis with almost every despot, dictator and warlord on the planet and the U.S. sometimes needs dealers like Yuri to ship arms to regimes they can't be seen to be supporting.

Yuri is released from jail. His penance is to keep selling arms - but the tragic Yuri is alone, now.
VENOM (Trailer) (Official Site)

Source: Movie Web

From the creator of "Scream" and the director of "I Know What You Did Last Summer" comes "Venom," a voodoo horror tale set deep in the swamps of Louisiana centered around a group of teenagers trying to uncover the truth behind a friend's mysterious death. What they discover is an evil force worse than they could have possibly imagined and now they are the ones running for their lives.

That's it for this week...