Movie: The Kingdom

February 9, 2007December 2, 2010Leave a comment

Photo by Frank Connor courtesy of Universal Pictures

Peter Berg (Very Bad Things, Friday Night Lights) directs an A-list cast that features Jamie Foxx, Academy Award-winner Chris Cooper, Jennifer Garner, Jeremy Piven and Jason Bateman in the upcoming dramatic thriller, The Kingdom. After a terrorist attack on Americans working in Saudi Arabia, a team of government agents led by Agent Ronald Fleury (Foxx) is dispatched to Riyadh and charged with the task of thwarting a second attack that is being planned by the same extremist group. In a race against the clock, the Feds must penetrate the terrorist cell and capture the group’s leader before it’s too late. Outsiders in a foreign land with foreign customs, Fleury and his team must complete their mission as they face off with hostile insurgents, uncooperative local officials, and a complex web of corrupt and powerful individuals who actively fund terrorism. The agents catch a much needed break when a Saudi police captain turns out to be a critical ally, leading them directly to the man responsible for masterminding the attacks. But will they be able to take down the terrorist network and stop the next attack before it’s too late? You’ll have to wait and see. The Kingdom hits theaters nationwide on 4/20.
WWW.UNIVERSALFILMS.COM

Movie: The Boys & Girls Guide to Getting Down

February 8, 2007December 2, 2010Leave a comment

Photo courtesy of Kosmic Films

The Heizakeit Institute presents a scientific study of the hipster lifestyle, in the form of an official guide to getting down and dirty on a Friday night in the City of Angels. Part satire, part narrative and part self-described “how-to guide,” The Boys & Girls Guide to Getting Down is KIDS for a new generation of moviegoers who were raised on Wes Anderson films. And if you’re too busy taking psychotropic drugs and consuming copious amounts of alcohol to catch it on the big screen in March, no worries; The Guide to Getting Down will be out on DVD in May. Expect the media to be buzzing about this highly entertaining indie flick, thanks in large part to a brilliantly creative press kit that comes complete with a Ziplock bag filled with a variety of unsavory items.

WWW.BOYSANDGIRLSGUIDE.COM

Movie: The Hills Have Eyes 2

February 7, 2007December 2, 2010Leave a comment

Photo by Eric Lee, courtesy of Fox Atomic

From A Nightmare on Elm Street to the Scream trilogy, everyone knows that when Wes Craven makes a picture, it’s going to be scary. This March, the master of all things nightmarish follows up the first installment of The Hills Have Eyes (2006) with this sequel, which he co-produced and co-wrote with his son, Jonathan. In Hills 2, a group of young, inexperienced National Guardsmen travel to a desert research outpost to deliver supplies to some government scientists, only to discover that the facility has been eerily abandoned. What begins as a seemingly routine rescue mission turns into a terrifying game of cat and mouse, as the troops are hunted by the cannibalistic mutants that occupy the hills. The premise may seem less appealing than that of the first film, in which we saw the Carter family picked off, one by one, but if you’re looking to be frightened you won’t be disappointed. The Hills Have Eyes 2 drops on March 23.
WWW.FOXATOMIC.COM (ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN YRB MAGAZINE COPYRIGHT © 2007)

Movie: Borat

November 1, 2006January 6, 2011Leave a comment

Fans of HBO’s Da Ali G Show have waited more than two years for some new material from the brilliant mind of Sacha Baron Cohen. And this November, audiences around the country are lining up to see the new full-length feature film, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.

The movie has everything you’d expect from Cohen’s mustachioed alter ego, the brutally un-PC Borat Sagdiyev. From beginning to end, Borat is filled with casual allusions to incest and rape, embarrassing interviews with unsuspecting politicians (including right-wing nut job Alan Keyes – or as Borat describes him, “a real chocolate face”), unenlightened remarks about women, homosexuals, and of course, Jews (though in real life, Cohen himself is a practicing Jew). While the film does drag at times – even Borat loses some of his mystique after an hour-and-a-half – on the whole, Cohen manages to pull it off. Continue reading →