Movies Released January 17, 2003

"Divine Intervention" follows ES, a character played by and clearly based upon the filmmaker himself. ES is burdened with a sick father, a stalled screenplay and an unrequited love affair with a beautiful Palestinian woman (Manal Khader) living in Ramallah. An Israeli checkpoint on the Nazareth-Ramallah road forces the couple to rendezvous in an adjacent parking lot. Their relationship and the absurd situations around them serve as metaphors for the lunacy of larger cultural problems, and the result is palpable, bottled personal and political rage.

Earl Montgomery (Martin Lawrence) is a cocky L.A.P.D. cadet who would probably be a great cop if it weren't for his rebellious behavior. When his attitude gets him kicked out of the police academy, he can only find employment as a lowly security guard at "National Security." After Earl accuses uptight police officer Hank Rafferty (Steve Zahn) of harassment, Hank is stripped of his badge and ends up as a guard at National Security as well, where Earl's overzealous style of police work leads to the discovery of a sophisticated smuggling operation led by Nash (Eric Roberts) and a possible police cover-up. Now everyone wants Earl and Hank dead – though they just may kill each other first.

The main character in Cidade de Deus is not a person. It is a place. Cidade de Deus is a poor housing project started in the 60's that became one of the most dangerous places in Rio de Janeiro by the beginning of the 80's. In order to tell the story of the place the film tells us the stories of many characters. But all is seen through the eyes of the narrator: Busca-Pi, a poor black kid too frail and scared to become an outlaw but also to smart to be content with an underpaid job. He grows up in a very violent environment. The odds are all against him. But he discovers he can see the reality with a different eye: the eye of an artist. Eventually he becomes a professional photographer. That is his redemption... Buscapi is not the real protagonist of the film. He is not the one who makes the story moves on [sic]. He is not the one who makes the decisions that will determine the main chain of events. Nevertheless, not only his life is attached to what happens in the story but it is also through his perspective of life that we understand the humanity of a world apparently condemned to endless violence.

The morning after his wild bachelor party, Paul wakes up and finds a beautiful, strange woman, named Becky, sleeping soundly in his bed. He soon discovers that Becky is his fiancee's cousin. Since Paul can't remember much about the night before, he naturally assumes the worst--that he's cheated on his adoring fiancee, Karen. And so, the guilt-ridden Paul spends the week before his wedding, scrambling to cover up his supposed infidelity.

Two friends from Brooklyn (Jerry O'Connell, Anthony Anderson) are forced to deliver mob money to Australia. Their misadventures begin when one of them places his red jacket on a kangaroo while attempting to snap a picture. When the kangaroo bounces off, they realize the mob money is in the jacket and are forced to give chase through the Outback.

This is the story of what happens when a famous director (Sutherland) travels to China to film a historical epic about the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty. As the title suggests, there's also something about the director's planned funeral. Specifically, as he's about to die, his crew discover that he doesn't the money to pay for it, so they concoct a scheme to use "product endorsements" of the funeral by major companies.