March Movie Guide
Ten films you should check out this month.
The Bank Job
Release Date: March 7, 2008
Director: Roger Donaldson
Starring: Jason Statham, Saffron Burrows, Stephen Campbell Moore, Daniel Mays, James Faulkner, Alki David, Michael Jibson, Richard Lintern, Don Gallagher, David Suchet
Rating: R
The Bank Job is a film based on a true story of a 1971 bank robbery in Marylebone, London in which no suspects were ever caught, no money ever recovered. The story of the heist had previously been prevented from ever being told due to a government gag order. The Bank Job reportedly reveals the full story for the first time ever.
The film stars Jason Statham (The Transporter, Crank, Snatch) as Terry, a car dealer with a shady past, trying to live a better life with his new family. Saffron Burrows (Enigma, Troy) plays Martine, a beautiful model from his Terry's old neighborhood with tricks up both her sleeves. She enlists Terry to help her rob a bank on London's Baker Street, but not the bank vault itself; the target is a room full of safe deposit boxes. The boxes contain a fortune in cash and jewelry, as well as a an assortment of dirty secrets - photographs and information that will thrust everyone involved into a deadly web of corruption and scandal that includes everyone from the depths of London's underworld to the Royal Family and the highest-ranking British government officials. As the trailer says, "Some things are better left unstolen."
CraveOnline's Call: I've always been a fan of Jason Statham, despite his rather 2-dimensional film persona. This one should be interesting.
Snow Angels
Release Date: March 7, 2008
Director: David Gordon Green
Starring: Sam Rockwell, Kate Beckinsale, Michael Angarano, Griffin Dunne, Amy Sedaris, Olivia Thirlby
Rating: R
Snow Angels is a drama centering on several characters trying to deal with the loss of innocence in a small town. A teenager's (Michael Angarano) life tangles dangerously with his old baby sitter Annie (Kate Beckinsale), her estranged husband Glen (Sam Rockwell), and their daughter. The beautiful Kate Beckinsale delivers what's being called the performance of her career as Glen's estranged wife Annie, who becomes caught in a world of chaos when love turns to the worst kind of pain.
Sam Rockwell was fantastic in The Assassination of Jesse James, and undoubtedly brings the passion to his role. Glen is a character dissolving before our eyes as he struggles to revive his failed marriage and come to grips with the man he's become.
The film is adapted from the novel of the same title by Stewart O'Nan.
CraveOnline's Call: I'm sure Rockwell can pull this off with flying colors, and I'll put my ten bucks on a ticket to prove it.
10,000 B.C.
Release Date: March 7, 2008
Director: Roland Emmerich
Starring: Steven Strait, Camilla Belle, Cliff Curtis, Omar Sharif, Tim Barlow, Marco Khan, Reece Ritchie
Rating: PG-13
Young hunter D'Leh (Steven Strait) sets out with a band of hunters to save the love of his life, Evolet (Camilla Belle), who was kidnapped when warlords raided their remote mountain village. The group ventures into mysterious, unknown lands to save her, realizing that civilizations exist outside their own. As D'Leh's group makes their way across the land, they are joined by other tribes who have been attacked by the slave raiders, turning D'Leh's once-small band into an army. They battle prehistoris beasts as well as the harshest assault nature can offer to reach the end of their journey, where D'Leh finally comes to understand that he has been called to save not only Evolet but all of civilization. Their destination is an empire beyond their wildest dreams, where great pyramids reach into the skies. It is here that D'Leh's army will take their stand against a tyrannical god who has brutally enslaved their people.
CraveOnline's Call: My gut tells me to get excited, but I'm hesitant. Maybe it's the onslaught of promotion I've seen for the movie, I don't know. I like the ambitious premise, but the film seems to have the Kevin Costner effect, meaning everybody speaks perfect, modern English despite the film taking place nearly 12,000 years ago. Also, some of the CGI is painfully obvious (sabretooth), so I'm not sure what to think. Guess we'll see on Friday.
CJ7
Release Date: March 7, 2008
Director: Stephen Chow
Starring: Stephen Chow, Xu Jian, Kitty Zhang Yuqi
Rating: PG
You might remember Stephen Chow from 2004's Kung Fu Hustle, the fantastic Hong Kong martial arts film he directed and starred in. Next on Chow's double-duty list comes CJ7, a new comedy featuring Chow’s trademark slapstick antics. He plays Ti, a poor construction worker trying to give his family the best but falling far short. Ti can’t afford to buy his son Dicky any of the toys the other kids are playing with, so he goes to the poor man's toy store, the junkyard, where he finds a mysterious orb.
Ti brings the peculiar thing home and gives it to Dicky, who discovers that the orb is actually a bizarre little creature with supernatural powers. Dicky thinks his new pet will help make him popular at school for the first time in his life, but when he brings it to class all sorts of chaotic hilarity ensues. It turns out that CJ7 has his own idea of fun.
CraveOnline's Call: Did you see Kung Fu Hustle? It was awesome. Where Stephen Chow goes, I will follow.
Funny Games
Release Date: March 14, 2008 (limited)
Director: Michael Haneke
Starring: Naomi Watts, Tim Roth, Michael Pitt, Brady Corbet, Boyd Gaines, Siobhan Fallon, Devon Gearhart
Rating: R
Remade from his own successful 1997 Austrian thriller, Funny Games is written and directed by Michael Haneke.
A family on vacation at their lake house is held hostage and tortured with sadistic games by two demented young men (Brady Corbet and Michael Pitt). Naomi Watts and Tim Roth play a married couple struggling to survive and escape the unthinkable horrors they're subjected to. Corbet and Pitt are magnetic and affable but chillingly creepy in a Jack White-meets-Anthony Hopkins kind of way.
CraveOnline's Call: This film looks truly twisted and not for the faint of heart. There's a certain psychotic humor in the minds of the captors, and it should make for an interesting ride. I laughed halfway through the trailer, until things took a freakish turn. A pre-emptive thumbs up.
The Grand
Release Date: March 21, 2008 (limited)
Director: Zak Penn
Starring: Woody Harrelson, Cheryl Hines, David Cross, Ray Romano, Jason Alexander, Dennis Farina, Chris Parnell, Richard Kind, Werner Herzog
Genre: Comedy
Rating: Not Available
Woody Harrelson stars in The Grand, an improv mockumentary comedy written and directed by Zak Penn. Much in the vein of Christopher Guest films, each actor was given general directions concerning their character, and the actors were left to create each scene by themselves. The plot was relatively open-ended, centered on a poker tournament played at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas between the characters. Real poker matches were played by the actors as the scenes were filmed, and the ending of the film was determined by the real games being played.
CraveOnline's Call: Chris Parnell, Cheryl Hines, David Cross, Ray Romano and Jason Alexander all bring their comic wizardry to the film, so I can't see how it could be anything less than hilarious.
Stop-Loss
Relase Date: March 28, 2008
Director: Kimberly Peirce
Cast: Ryan Phillippe, Abbie Cornish, Channing Tatum, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ciarán Hinds, Timothy Olyphant, Victor Rasuk, Rob Brown
Rating: R
Decorated Iraq war hero Sgt. Brandon King (Ryan Phillippe) returns to his small Texas hometown with his best friend and fellow soldier, Steve Shriver after their tours of duty. No sooner does Brandon begin to readapt to civilian life and put the horrors of war behind him, does the Army order him back to duty in Iraq. He doesn't want to go, and the conflict he's thrown into as a result puts everything he believes in to the test: family, honor, love and friendship. He must choose between betraying the code he'd been sworn to live by and going to jail.
CraveOnline's Call: Stop-Loss is the first-ever war film produced by MTV Films. It could be good, but the American public doesn't seem ready to embrace Iraq war movies on a large scale just yet. I doubt it will do well.
21
Release Date: March 28, 2008
Director: Robert Luketic
Cast: Jim Sturgess, Kate Bosworth, Laurence Fishburne, Kevin Spacey, Liza Lapira, Josh Gad, Aaron Yoo, Sam Golzari
Rating: PG-13
21 is inspired by the true story of the brightest young minds in the country – and how they took Vegas for millions.
Jim Sturgess (who sold the world on his acting - and singing- chops in last year's Across The Universe) takes a new turn as Ben Campbell, a shy but brilliant M.I.T. student faced with the impossibility of coming up with more than a quarter million dollars for tuition. He's lured into a group of the school's most gifted students who also happen to moonlight as Vegas card-sharks every weekend, led by math professor and stats genius Micky Rosa (Kevin Spacey). They crack the Blackjack code by counting cards and employing an intricate system of signals, making staggering amounts of money at the casinos. Ben eventually becomes consumed with the world he only meant to dabble in: the money, the Vegas lifestyle, as well as his luscious teammate, Jill Taylor (Kate Bosworth). Soon the cards come crashing down as Ben pushes too many limits and the game threatens to even the score.
CraveOnline's Call: Jim Sturgess was captivating in Across The Universe, and I'm interested to see how he tackles this role. Besides, Kevin Spacey is the King Midas of acting. Assuming you don't count Superman Returns, that is.
Run, Fat Boy, Run
Release Date: March 28, 2008
Director: David Schwimmer
Starring: Simon Pegg, Hank Azaria, Ameet Chana, Dylan Moran, Thandie Newton, Harish Patel
Rating: PG-13
Dennis (Simon Pegg), a chubby, slightly pathetic man is devastated to learn that Libby (Thandie Newton), the girl he stood up at the altar five years earlier, has gotten engaged to smarmy charmer Whit (Hank Azaria). He enters a marathon to prove he's more than a quitter, realizing too late just how much sweat, strain and tears it takes to run for 26 miles. But in order to win back her heart, he has to finish the marathon while making her realize her new man is wrong or her. Hilarity ensues as Dennis attempts to get in shape for the race of his life.
CraveOnline's Call: A movie was written by Simon Pegg and Michael Ian Black of "The State" and Wet Hot American Summer? Sold. I'm there.
Superhero Movie
Release Date: March 28, 2008
Director: Craig Mazin
Starring: Drake Bell, Sara Paxton, Christopher McDonald, Kevin Hart, Brent Spiner, Jeffrey Tambor, Robert Joy, Regina Hall, Pamela Anderson, Leslie Nielsen, Tracy Morgan
Rating: PG-13
High school loser and all-around douchebag Rick Riker develops superhuman abilities after being bitten by a genetically altered dragonfly, and decides to use his new powers for good. He becomes a costumed crime fighter known as "The Dragonfly," the lone man who can defeat "The Hourglass," a man on a quest for immortality after an experiment gone wrong leaves him with the power to steal a person's life force. Will the Dragonfly be able to stop the The Hourglass and save the world? More importantly, will we stop laughing long enough to notice?
CraveOnline's Call: The guys behind the ridiculously obnoxious Scary Movie franchise have set their sights on superhero movies, and this one looks like a winner. Hell, Tracy Morgan's in it. How can you go wrong?
