December 2007
(as seen in the Scottsdale Airpark News)
Movies in theaters are alive and well as Hollywood
continues to release some very exciting films. Why see these films
in a theater instead of at home on your great home theater system?
Some movies are best experienced on a massive screen with amazing
sound, with audience interaction, or maybe that guilty pleasure
-- with hot liquid butter poured all over that big bag of popcorn.
There could be one annoyance though -- deciding just what to see,
given there are often five or more new movies released every week.
So with your busy life, if you could see just one newly released
movie per week, which four in December should they be?
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For the weekend of December
7, it is “The Golden Compass”,
starring Nicole Kidman, Dakota Blue Richards, Daniel Craig
(Casino Royale), Eva Green (Casino Royale), and Sam Elliott
(Ghost Rider), directed by Chris Weitz (About A Boy). Genre:
adventure / drama / fantasy, rated PG-13.
The plot: this is the first installment in the "His
Dark Materials" trilogy based on the Philip Pullman
fantasy trilogy, about a college age girl (Richards) in
a parallel universe who travels to the far North to save
her best friend, encountering shape-shifting creatures,
witches and other fantastical characters along the way.
In the second and third books, the action moves between
parallel universes as the girl meets a boy from our world
and they join forces to overthrow the repressive authority
that rules everything.
The other three movies opening this weekend are Atonement,
Grace Is Gone, and The Amateurs. |
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For the weekend of December 14, and the Feature
of the Month, it is “I Am Legend”,
starring Will Smith, Salli Richardson (Eureka), and Alice
Braga (Journey to the End of the Night), directed by Francis
Lawrence (Constantine). Genre: action / thriller / science
fiction, rated PG-13.
The plot: Robert Neville (Smith) is a brilliant scientist,
but even he could not contain the terrible virus that was
unstoppable, incurable...and manmade. Somehow immune, Neville
is now the last human survivor in what is left of New York
City and maybe the world, but he is not alone. He is surrounded
by "the Infected"-victims of the plague who have
mutated into carnivorous beings who can only exist in the
dark and who will devour or infect anyone or anything in their
path. For three years, Neville has spent his days scavenging
for food and supplies and faithfully sending out radio messages,
desperate to find any other survivors who might be out there.
All the while, the Infected lurk in the shadows, watching
Neville's every move, waiting for him to make a fatal mistake.
Perhaps mankind's last and best hope, Neville is driven by
only one remaining mission: to find a way to reverse the effects
of the bacterium using his own immune blood. Unfortunately
his blood is also what The Infected hunt. Neville knows he
is outnumbered and quickly running out of time.
The other five movies opening this weekend are: Alvin
and the Chipmunks, Juno, The
Kite Runner, The Perfect Holiday,
Youth Without You. |
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For the weekend of December
21, it is “National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets”,
starring Nicolas Cage, Helen Mirren, Ed Harris, Jon Voight,
Harvey Keitel, Justin Bartha (Trust the Man), and Diane Kruger
(Wicker Park), directed by Jon Turteltaub (National Treasure).
Genre: action / adventure / suspense, rated PG.
The plot: in the sequel to the 2004 film "National Treasure",
Ben Gate's (Cage) family is being implicated in the greatest
assassination in the history of the U.S. - the murder of Abraham
Lincoln. The truth lies in the eighteen missing pages of the
assassin John Wilkes Booth's diary, supposedly containing
secret information describing the assassination details as
well as a world-wide conspiracy. In trying to clear his family's
name, Ben gathers his team of fellow treasure hunters, historian
Abigail Chase (Kruger) and the hilarious Riley Poole (Bartha),
who embark on a worldwide adventure that takes them from breaking
into the Buckingham Palace in the pursuit of clues, to the
stealing of a page from the esoteric Book of Secrets in the
President's Oval office, and ultimately leads them to discovering
one of the greatest hidden treasure mysteries of our time.
The other four movies opening this weekend are: Flakes,
P.S., I Love You, Sweeny Todd: The
Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and Walk Hard:
The Dewey Cox Story. |
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For the weekend of December 28, it is “Charlie
Wilson’s War”, starring Tom Hanks, Julia
Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Amy Adams (Talladega
Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby), directed by Mike Nichols
(Closer). Genre: political / war drama, rated R.
The plot: a drunken womanizer in Congress from east Texas
changed the world, based on a true story. Wilson (Hanks) was
a junior representative who, through his tireless work in
the 1980's, managed to divert billions of tax payer's dollars
to fund the insurgency in Afghanistan against Soviet occupation.
When he first started in the early 80's only a few million
dollars went to Afghanistan, however by 1989 when the Russians
finally withdrew, Wilson had raised that number to close to
a billion. Wilson used the money to buy weapons and, with
the help of a rogue CIA agent, smuggled them to the Mujahideen.
When the Soviets withdrew in 1989, their military was thoroughly
defeated and the USSR was almost bankrupt. However, those
same insurgents who were armed and trained through Wilson's
programs came to form the backbone of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban
and are now sworn enemies of the US.
The other eight movies opening this weekend are: Alien
vs. Predator: Requiem, Cassandra’s
Dream, Persepolis, The Bucket
List, The Great Debaters, The
Orphanage, The Water Horse: Legend of the
Deep, and There Will Be Blood. |
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These are
expected to play at the multiplexes in the Scottsdale, AZ - Airpark
area including:
Harkins Scottsdale 101 at 7000 E. Mayo Blvd. 480-538-1707
AMC Desert Ridge 18 at 21000 N. Tatum Blvd. 480-606-0806
United Artists (Regal) Sonora Village 10 at 15512 N. Pima
Rd. 480-998-1300
Farrelli’s Cinema Supper Club at 14202 N. Scottsdale
Rd. 480-905-7200
Furthermore, gong to the movies still gives you the most entertainment
“bang for the buck” when compared to a similar two hour
venture at any professional sporting event, play or music performance.
See you at the movies!
Note: While the release dates & ratings for
these movies were correct at the time of printing, studios sometimes
make last-minute changes. If this happens, we apologize for any
inconvenience.
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