27 November

27 November
Nine
Leave it to Daniel Day-Lewis to flummox fans. After winning the Oscar for his bravura performance as a wily turn of the century oil baron in There Will Be Blood, the unconventional actor has now jumped headlong into Rob Marshall’s big screen adaptation of the Broadway musical take on Fellini’s 8 1/2. That’s right, it’s a singing and dancing Day-Lewis who’ll be helping the Chicago helmer bring this baffling tuner into obvious Academy attention. And as the ladies in the fictional filmmaker Guido Contini’s life? Well, we have none other than Marion Cotillard, Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz, Judi Dench, Kate Hudson, Stacy Ferguson, and Sophia Loren. There’s over seven little gold statues among the cast alone. While some fear that Marshall is a one hit wonder (the Chicago follow-up, Memoirs of a Geisha, was less than successful at the box office), the talent involved should pull him through. Should.

27 November
Ninja Assassin

When last we saw the Wachowski Brothers, they were licking their wounds over the unfairly dismissed candy colored adaptation of the well known Japanese anime, Speed Racer. Protégé James McTeigue hasn’t been seen in theaters since he brought Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta to audiences everywhere. The threesome has teamed up once again, this time taking on the story of a stealthy hired killer who seeks revenge for a friend’s death. Over amplified with CG-aided action scenes, and way too much rainfall, the trailer suggests something so stylish and mannered that it may be more animated anarchy than over the top thriller. While the famous Matrix duo are doing nothing more than producing, their imprint still sits on every sequence in this film. In fact, just like Vendetta, it’s hard to see where McTeigue’s vision begins and the sibling’s sense of optical overdrive ends.

27 November
Old Dogs

Say it isn’t so! John Travolta and Robin Williams…together? In a family comedy about two grown men becoming accidental dads? Directed by Wild Hogs Walt Becker? And produced by Disney? As a certain famed mechanical Sith would say…NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! This movie has ‘stupid’ written all over it, and it’s not just the plot contrivance that saddles Williams clueless company man with a pair of pre-adolescent twins. Travolta is apparently the cool dude who’s above procreation (at least the planned kind) but chips in anyway. Toss in the sad fact that this is Bernie Mac’s last film (he plays a “flamboyant children’s entertainer” named Jimmy Lunchbox) and the added artistic insult that audiences seem to adore the trailer, and it’s enough to make you give up movies all together. Film just doesn’t get as meaningless and manufactured as this - that is, until Becker’s sequel to the stunted Hogs hits theaters in 2011. Sigh.