December is here and the holiday season is well at hand, but sometimes the stress of shopping and other joyous activities gets to be too much and calls for a break. Why not take your break in theatres with a good flick? You have a few options this weekend with three films opening in wide release. Learn the history of a historic record company, see what it’s like for your father to win the Nobel Prize, or check out the troubles of Frank Castle in the next chapter of the Punisher. Nothing says “Happy Holidays” like a big gun or a loud explosion eh?
Wide Release
Cadillac Records – Starring Adrien Brody, Cedric The Entertainer, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Mos Def, and many more. In this tale of sex, violence, race, and rock and roll in 1950s Chicago, follow along with the exciting but turbulent lives of some of America’s musical legends including Muddy Waters, Leonard Chess, Little Walter, Howlin’ Wolf, Etta James and Chuck Berry.
Nobel Son – Starring Danny DeVito, Ted Danson, Alan Rickman, Eliza Dushku, Bill Pullman, and many more. Barkley Michaelson is in a deep life rut. He’s struggling to finish his PhD thesis when his father Eli Michaelson wins the Nobel Prize for chemistry. Barkley and his mother, Sarah, a renowned forensic psychiatrist, now have the ill-fortune of living with a man-eating monster whose philandering ways have gotten less and less discrete. As if Barkley’s world is not bad enough, on the eve of his father receiving the Nobel, Barkley is kidnapped and the requested ransom is the $2,000,000 in Nobel prize money. Needless to say, Eli refuses to pay it and so starts a venomous tale of familial dysfunction, lust, betrayal and ultimately revenge. In the words of Michel De Montaigne, the 16th century philosopher: “There is more barbarity in eating a man alive than in eating him dead.”
Punisher: War Zone – Starring Ray Stevenson, Dominic West, Colin Salmon, and more. Frank Castle has not been the same man since his family was brutally murdered and taken from him. Agent Paul Budiansky, the ex-partner of a murdered undercover Fed, joins the NYPD’s “Punisher Task Force” to help bring Castle to justice, once and for all. Meanwhile, a facially mutilated Russoti recovers from his run-in with the Punisher with revenge on his mind and recruits a massive army of psychotic killers, gangbangers, and mobsters under his new alias “Jigsaw.”
Limited Release
Ciao – A man dies very unexpectedly and leaves behind two men: Jeff, his best friend and Andrea, an Italian he’s been corresponding with online. Jeff informs Andrea of Mark’s passing; Andrea writes back to express his shock and sympathies. On a whim, they continue their correspondence and a rapport grows between them. They eventually meet, where they extend their e-mail exchanges into more personal and intimate conversations. They talk about their respective countries, their jobs, their families, their lives. Mostly, they talk about Mark. What began as a tragedy that linked two strangers from different ends of the world becomes a deeply realized friendship that may change their lives forever.
Extreme Movie – A sketch comedy movie about the joys and embarrassments of teen sex. But mostly the embarrassments.
Frost/Nixon – A dramatic retelling of the post-Watergate television interviews between British talk-show host David Frost and former president Richard Nixon.
Timecrimes – A man accidentally gets into a time machine and travels back in time nearly an hour. Finding himself will be the first of a series of disasters of unforeseeable consequences.
