Trapped (2002)

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"My name is Joe and I'm going to help you through this thing."
Physician and research scientist Will Jennings (Stuart Townsend), his wife Karen (Charlize Theron), and their young daughter Abby (Dakota Fanning) are an idyllic little family living an idyllic life in Portland. Right after Will leaves on a business trip, Abby is snatched from the safety of their home by professional kidnappers Joe (Kevin Bacon) and his cousin Marvin (Pruitt Taylor Vince). While Joe begins the negotiations for ransom with Karen, Joe's wife Cheryl (Courtney Love) is at the hotel where Will is staying and does the same with Will as Joe is doing with Karen.

But Abby has a medical condition that may be exacerbated by the stress she is under while being held captive. The Jennings are told to not get the police involved but can they work through this horrendous ordeal without outside help?

Directed by Luis Mandoki.

Run time: 1 hour, 46 minutes

Rated R for violence, language, and sexual content.

My personal rating: B

The Italian Job (2003)

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"I trust everyone. It's the devil inside them I don't trust."
Mastermind Charlie (Mark Wahlberg), veteran safecracker John (Donald Sutherland), inside man Steve (Edward Norton), computer guru Lyle (Seth Green), wheelman Rob (Jason Statham), and explosives expert Left Ear (Mos Def), pulled off an amazing gold bullion heist from a Venice palazzo. But little did four of them know that one of them had his own plan to end up with all the profits.

Hatching a plan to recapture the gold and payback the turncoat, they add the beautiful Stella (Charlize Theron) to the team and set LA on its ear.

Directed by F. Gary Gray.

Run time: 1 hour, 51 minutes

Rated PG-13 for violence and some language.

My personal rating: B

Hancock (2008)

"Fate doesn't decide everything.

People get to choose."

John Hancock (Will Smith) is rude, crude, slovenly, profane -- and a superhero. Able to leap tall buildings and all that. Impervious to bullets. Stronger than anything known on earth. While much violence and murder has been stopped in LA by Hancock's powers, his destructive methods have made him a wanted man by the police.

When he saves the life of a do-gooder public relations guru Ray Embrey (Jason Bateman), Hancock finds someone who really cares about him and is intent on improving Hancock's public image. Despite his commitment to alchohol rehab and anger managment, Hancock is still imprisoned where life is diffult among many of those who have been imprisoned by Hancock's previous actions. Ray continues to work with Hancock to earn his early release provided Hancock turns over a new leaf as a more polite and helpful superhero.

But Ray's wife Mary (Charlize Theron) is very leery of Hancock and concerned about Ray's involvement with the man of iron. But why? What's Mary's secret?

Also appearing are: Eddie Marsan and Jae Head as the Embrey's young son.

Directed by Peter Berg.

Run time: 1 hour, 32 minutes

Rated PG-13 for some intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence, and language.

My personal rating: A-

That Thing You Do! (1996)

In every life there comes a time when that dream you dream becomes that thing you do.

It's the year after the Beatles landed in the USA and garage bands are flourishing and rising to the top of the pop charts. Even Erie turns out a a four/four beat band -- the One-ders.

Jazz musician Guy Patterson (Scott TE) recruited into the band the One-ders when the regular drummer, Chad (Giovanni Ribisi), breaks his arm. Patterson father, who owns an appliance store where Guy works, isn't happy about this turn of events as the band wins a local talent contest and is a hit playing at a local Italian restaurant. But when an agent signs up the One-ders with the promise of huge success, what are four teenage boys to do?

It doesn't take long for a big record executive, Mr. White (Tom Hanks, who also wrote and directed this film), to sign the boys to PlayTone records and take them on tour with the PlayTone stable to state fairs around the country. But when their hot record, "That Thing You Do," takes the nation by storm, the boys really break out in the big time.

Other band members include Jimmy Mattingly (Johnathon Schaech), Lenny Haise (Steve Zahn) and T.B. Player (Ethan Embry).

Others in the cast are Liv Tyler as Jimmy's girlfriend Faye, Charlize Theron as Guy's girlfriend Tina, Alex Rocco as the top PlayTone dude, Clint Howard as a disc jockey, Kevin Pollak as Boss Vic Koss, a stage show manager and host, plus Peter Scolari, Rita Wilson, Chris Isaak. Hanks' kids Colin Hanks and Elizabeth Hanks even got bit parts.

Run time: 1 hour, 44 minutes

Rated PG for some language.

My personal rating: C+

Sleepwalking (2008)

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"You have to face the past before you can let it go."
Joleen (Charlize Theron) loves her 12-year-old daughter Tara (AnnaSophia Robb) and wants to be a good mother, but she doesn't really know how. And she's a wild child still trying to cope with abuse issues from her own childhood.

One day Joleen and Tara show up at the apartment of her brother James (Nick Stahl). James takes them in and tries to help them on his limited income and when Joleen eventually ups and leaves, James is fearful that Tara will be taken away from him, so they hit the road in his old car.

With nowhere else to go, they end up at the farm of James and Joleen's abusive father (Dennis Hopper) and James must decide whether to stay there or spare Tara this tension.

Matthew St. Patrick is the detective who has worried about and tried to help Joleem. Woody Harrelson plays Randall, Joleen's latest boyfriend.

Directed by Bill Maher.

Run Time: 1 hour, 40 minutes

Rated R for language and a scene of violence.

My personal rating: B-

In The Valley Of Elah (2007)

The Impact of War

Career military veteran Hank Deerfield (Tommy Lee Jones) and his wife Joan (Susan Sarandon) are happy to know their son Mike (Jonathan Tucker) is safely back in the USA after 18 months serving in Iraq. But their joy turns to confusion and concern when Hank is called by Mike's commanding officer to say that Mike is AWOL from the base in New Mexico.

Knowing how uncharacteristic that would have been for Mike, Hank Deerfield heads to New Mexico to find out what is going on. A day later, Mike's body is found in the desert, burned and cut into pieces.

Detective Emily Sanders (Charlize Theron) has begun working the case but Lt. Kirklander (Jason Patric) decides the crime was committed on military property and therefore falls under the jurisdiction of the US Government rather than the local police. Sander's boss, Chief Buchwald (Josh Brolin), is happy to be rid of the case and he and other officers on his staff scoff at Sanders' interest in being involved in the investigation.

Deerfield hits a wall of frustration in trying to deal with Kirklander and Kirklander's obvious intention of not doing much to solve the case, so Deerfield solicites the help of Detective Sanders to unravel the complicated situation that lead to the death of his son.

Mike's buddies -- Corporal Penning (Wes Chatham), Spc. Bonner (Jake McLaughlin), Spc. Long (Mehcad Brooks) and Pvt. Ortiz (Victor Wolf) -- are questioned and Deerfield and Saunders continue to probe deeper and deeper into the horrors of war and post-traumatic shock syndrome.

Screenplay and directed by Paul Haggis; based on a true incident.

Rated R for violent and disturbing content, language and some sexuality/nudity.

My personal rating: B

Arrested Development TV Series

FOX-TV comedy series.

Starring: Jason Bateman, Portia de Rossi, Will Arnett, Michael Cera, Alia Shawkat, Tony Hale, David Cross, Jeffrey Tambor, Jessica Walter.

Guests include Ron Howard, Henry Winkler, Scott Baio, Liza Minnelli, Charlize Theron, Ed Begley Jr., Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

My personal rating: B+

North Country (2006)

Righting Wrongs

Based on a true story, North Country tells the story of one formerly abused woman who has the courage to fight a large corporation and bring about the first class action suit for sexual harassment.

The setting is a mining town in northern Minnesota where women have been working as miners for a long time but the men perceive the woman as a threat to their jobs. The prevailing attitude is "women don't belong here" and the men take every opportunity to harass and embarass the women.

The women have silently endured the problem in an effort to just do their jobs and collect their pay which is much better than any other job they could get in that area. That is, until Josey (Charlize Theron) moves back to town and is determined to make a future for herself and her two children after she leaves an abusive relationship.

Josey is an embarassment to her father (Richard Jenkins) due to her having two illegimate children, her desire to work at the mine, and her outspokenness about the wrongs perpetrated against women at the minew where he also works. Sissy Spacek plays Josey's loving and encouraging mother.

But Josey is determined to stop the wrong and is aided by Glory (Frances McDormand), the only female union rep at the mine, and a local lawyer (Woody Harrelson) who is not only sympathetic to the women's plight but also views this as a precedent-setting case.

Directed by Niki Caro.

Rated R for sequences involving sexual harassment including violence and dialogue, and for language.

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viewed Mar-2006