It's amazing that Moneyball makes baseball statistics seem fascinating--but that's because it's not really a movie about numbers, and it's not really a movie about baseball, either. It's about what drives people to take risks--in this instance, Billy Beane (played by Brad Pitt), general manager of the Oakland A's, who's just had his best players poached by teams that can afford to pay a lot more.
While action legend Jackie Chan's career continues to wane in the United States, he has in recent years enjoyed a revival in his native Hong Kong, and the period-action comedy Little Big Soldier is perhaps the best of those efforts. Set during China's Era of Warring States (roughly 475-221 BC), the story centers on Chan as a farmer-turned-soldier who survives a bloody battle with a valuable prize--a wounded general (Wang Leehom) from the opposing army.
When he suddenly finds himself without his long-standing blue-collar job, Larry Crowne (Tom Hanks) enrolls at his local college to start over. There, he becomes part of an eclectic community of students and develops a crush on his teacher (Julia Roberts). Now this simple guy will discover that when you think everything worth having has passed you by, you just might find your reason to live.
Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) knows little about family. Less about football. What the homeless teen knows are the streets and projects of Memphis. Well-to-do Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock) knows little about his world. Yet when she and Michael meet, he's found a home. And the Tuohys have found something just as life-changing: a beloved new son and brother. This real-life story of family and of Michael's growth into a blue-chip football star will have you cheering with its mix of gridiron action and heartwarming emotion.
Science-fiction features often involve time travel or strange worlds. In Christopher Nolan's heist thriller Inception, the concepts converge through the realm of dreams. With his trusty associate, Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, a fine foil), Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio, in a role that recalls Shutter Island) steals ideas for clients from the minds of competitors. Fallen on hard times, he's become estranged from his family and hopes one last extraction will set things right.
Science-fiction features often involve time travel or strange worlds. In Christopher Nolan's heist thriller Inception, the concepts converge through the realm of dreams. With his trusty associate, Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, a fine foil), Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio, in a role that recalls Shutter Island) steals ideas for clients from the minds of competitors. Fallen on hard times, he's become estranged from his family and hopes one last extraction will set things right.
Pierce Brosnan takes a step away from James Bond with his malevolent role in Shattered. Neil Randall (Gerard Butler) seems a loving father and the perfect husband for his happy wife Abby (Maria Bello). But when the two leave their daughter with a babysitter and drive off, a man with a gun (Brosnan) appears in their backseat and puts them through a series of tests that threaten to destroy their marriage. Shattered is a taut little thriller that comes to a not entirely satisfying end; once we learn what's behind the kidnapper's games, the air goes out of the movie.
There is, according to Burlesque, a nightclub on the Sunset Strip that looks like a blend of Cabaret and Moulin Rouge and employs a full contingent of dancers and musicians in the service of a neo-retro-burlesque-blues program. Presiding over the craziness within is Tess, a grande dame who also performs occasionally and who could only, under these circumstances, be played by Cher. Entering the scene is a young leather-lunged hopeful from Iowa named Ali, played by Christina Aguilera in her movie-acting debut.
You only live once, so why not go out in style? That's what two cancer-ward roommates, an irascible billionaire (Jack Nicholson) and a scholarly mechanic (Morgan Freeman), decide when they get the bad news. They compose a bucket list - things to do before you kick the bucket - and head off for the around-the-world adventure of their lives. Sky-dive? Check. Power a Shelby Mustang around a racetrack? Check. Gaze at the Great Pyramid of Khufu? Check. Discover the joy in their lives before it's too late? Check!
Set it next to the similar Middle-East intrigue of Syriana, and Body of Lies is easy to follow--in fact, this movie's plot is amazingly straightforward for an espionage picture. Leonardo DiCaprio is the CIA agent on the ground, an Arabic-speaking chameleon who believes in forging personal relationships based on trust and professionalism.
