March 2003 Movies

In director Antoine Fuqua's new action-adventure film, Bruce Willis stars as Lt. A.K. Waters, the loyal veteran officer of a Navy S.E.A.L unit. When he's sent into the heart of Africa, the usually hard-bitten Waters finds himself deeply conflicted at having to choose between following orders and the dictates of his own conscience. Though a fictionalization, Tears of the Sun deals with the gritty realism of human conflict as Lt. Waters travels to war-torn central Africa to rescue Dr. Lena Kendricks (Monica Bellucci), a U.S. citizen who runs a mission in the countryside. But when Lt. Waters arrives Dr. Kendricks refuses to abandon the refugees under her care. She implores Waters to escort them on a dangerous trek through the dense jungle to the nearby border. During the journey the S.E.A.L.s find themselves the unwitting guardians of a man sought by the rebel militia. This further endangers their already hazardous mission, but all the while strengthening Waters' resolve to protect Lena and the refugees, and to deliver them safely across the border.

A love story spanning two continents, "Nowhere in Africa" is the extraordinary true tale of a Jewish family who flees the Nazi regime in 1938 for a remote farm in Kenya. Abandoning their once-comfortable existence in Germany, Walter Redlich, his wife Jettel (Juliane Kohler) and their five-year-old daughter Regina each deal with the harsh realities of their new life in different ways. Attorney Walter is resigned to working the farm as a caretaker; pampered Jettel resists adjustment at every turn; while the shy yet curious Regina immediately embraces the country-learning the local language and customs, and finding a friend in Owuor, the farm's cook. As the war rages on the other side of the world, the trio's relationships to their strange environment become increasingly complicated as Jettel grows more self-assured and Walter more haunted by the life they left behind. As they eventually learn to cherish their life in Africa, they also endeavor to find a way back to each other.

Esther Gold (Glenn Close) devotes herself to her comatose, bedridden son, and expresses love for her daughter by trying to win her a car in a last-one-standing radio contest. Jim Train (Dermot Mulroney) questions his value as a man when he is passed over for promotion; Annette Jenning (Patricia Clarkson) tries to keep her family intact in the wake of her divorce; and Helen Christianson (Mary Kay Place) looks for fun and inspiration in her banal life. Despair and humor are delicately balanced in this film that examines people's investment in things that are more predictable, if less satisfying, than their relationships with other people.

After a fight with her coked-up boyfriend Marcus, Alex leaves a party to go home. She never gets there; instead she's raped in a desolate tunnel. Her angry boyfriend, and her buddy Pierre decide to take justice into their own hands and hunt down the rapist themselves.

When a lonely guy (Steve Martin) meets a woman (Queen Latifah) on the Internet who happens to be in prison, she breaks out to be with him, and quickly proceeds to bring chaos and some much-needed change into his middle-class life...

A three-day drug adventure awaits the speed junkies in "Spun". Jason Schwartzman ("Rushmore") stars as a young speed addict who embarks on an adventure with his dealer, played by John Leguizamo, and the drug chemist, played by Mickey Rourke. Patrick Fugit ("Almost Famous") plays a fellow speed addict, while Brittany Murphy and Mena Suvari play girlfriends of the drug dealers.

This is the story of an FBI "deep woods tracker" (Jones) who captures an assassin (Del Toro) who makes a sport of hunting deer hunters in the forests outside Portland. When he escapes in the city, the tracker must team up with a female FBI agent (Nielsen) to hunt the assassin down before he comes hunting for them... the assassin kills for fun

To his family and friends, Cody Banks (Frankie Muniz) is a typical teen - he loves to skateboard, hates math, and feels like a complete idiot around girls. But Cody's got a secret - he's actually part of a secret teen CIA program. Cody's living every boy's dream life - he can drive like a stuntman, has an incredible arsenal of cool gadgets, and his agency mentor, Ronica Miles (Angie Harmon), is totally hot. But Cody's training is put to the test when he's sent to pose as a prep school student and befriend fellow teen Natalie Connors (Hilary Duff) in order to gain access to her father, a scientist unknowingly developing a fleet of deadly nanobots for the evil organization ERIS. From runaway cars and high-speed snowboard chases to a spectacular final mountaintop showdown, Cody has to use everything he's learned to prove himself as an agent and stop ERIS-and maybe even get the girl.

A social misfit, Willard (Crispin Glover) is constantly humiliated in front of his co-workers and squeezed out of the family business by his boss (R. Lee Ermey). His only friends are Cathryn (Laura Elena Haring), a new temp in the office, and a couple of rats he raises at home, Ben and Socrates (and their increasing number of friends). But when one of the rats is killed at work, Willard unleashes his rage - and his army of rats - on his tormentors.

The story follows Jerry (Cuba Gooding, Jr.), a jilted guy left by his fiancee (Vivica A. Fox), deciding a vacation is in order after his best friend Nick (Horatio Sanz) sells him on the idea of a singles cruise packed with available gorgeous women. However, once out to sea, Jerry and Nick quickly realize they've mistakenly ended up on a cruise of a different kind.

This is the story of a young woman (Gwyneth Paltrow) from meager beginnings who dreams of becoming a flight attendant as her chance to see the world.

"Piglet's Big Movie" brings "the little pink guy" to center stage for a story of friendship and appreciation as the gang from the Hundred Acre Wood learns that it doesn't take somebody big to do big things. Piglet gets that inferior feeling when his friends begin a "honey harvest" and he is told that he's too small to help. When Piglet disappears, his pals Eeyore, Rabbit, Tigger, Kanga, Roo, and (of course) Winnie-the-Pooh use his scrapbook as a map to find him - and in the process discover that this "Very Small Animal" has been a big hero in a lot of ways. After an eventful search and a dramatic climax, Piglet once again demonstrates how large an influence he has been on his pals.

"Dreamcatcher", the film based on Stephen King's best-selling novel, tells of four young friends who perform a heroic act — and are changed forever by the uncanny powers they gain in return. Years later the friends, now men, are on a hunting trip in the Maine woods when they are overtaken by a blizzard, a vicious storm in which something much more ominous moves… Challenged to stop an alien force, the friends must first prevent the slaughter of innocent civilians by a military vigilante, then overcome a threat to the bond between them. In the end, the friends confront an unparalleled horror, with the fate of the world in the balance.

Cassandra Reilly (Judy Davis) is an American translator who has moved permanently to Barcelona. She's quite broke, though, so when a glamorous stranger asks for her help, she can't afford to refuse. The hot femme-fatale Frankie Stevens (Marcia Gay Harden) is another American in Barcelona. Her husband has disappeared under mysterious circumstances, and she asks Cassandra to help her find him. As she offers a significant amount of money for the assistance, Cassandra simply can't refuse. Soon she finds herself caught up in a web of mistaken identities, double-crossing families and a devilish kidnapping plot.

A DEA agent's (John Travolta) latest assignment is to investigate the bizarre disappearance of an Army drill instructor (Samuel L. Jackson) and several of his cadets during what was to be a routine training exercise.

John J. (Robert Duvall) is a seasoned hit man sent on a job to Argentina. When the General he's sent to kill delays his return to the country, John passes the time with Manuela (Luciana Pedraza), a beautiful dancer who becomes his teacher and guide into Argentina's sensual world of the tango. Spellbound by the rich and mysterious world Manuela has shown him, his idyll is shattered when the reality of why he's there comes crashing down around him.

Steve James's new film takes a deeply personal turn as he returns to the town where 10 years earlier he was a "big brother" to a troubled young boy named Stevie. As he resumes his connection with this emotionally and socially challenged man after so many years, we get a glimpse into the difficulties Stevie faced as a product of his environment. Abandoned by his mother at a young age, he bounced from foster home to foster home, abused and neglected. He soon found his way into trouble with the law, which complicated his strained relationships with what little family he had.

A kaleidoscope of color and culture clash humorously as an Indian family in London tries to raise their soccer-playing daughter in a traditional way. Unlike tarty elder sister Pinky, who is preparing for an Indian wedding and a lifetime of cooking the perfect chapatti, Jess' dream is to play soccer professionally like her hero David Beckham. Wholeheartedly against Jess' unorthodox ambition, her parents eventually reveal that their reservations have more to do with protecting her than with holding her back. When Jess is forced to make a choice between tradition and her beloved sport, her family must decide whether to let her chase her dream...and a soccer ball.

Rock stars as Mays Gilliam, a Washington D.C. neighborhood Alderman, who's about to be red-lined out of his job. But after the untimely death of the party frontrunner, Gilliam is plucked from obscurity and thrust into the limelight as his party's nominee -- for President of the United States. Bernie Mac stars as Gilliam's older brother Mitch, who becomes his running mate, Robin Givens is the ex-girlfriend who dumped Gilliam, but who has a sudden change of heart when she sees a chance at becoming First Lady, Dylan Baker plays Gilliam's campaign manager; Tamala Jones is Lisa, the woman who believes in Gilliam, and Lynn Whitfield stars as Gilliam's reluctant advisor.

Over the past two years, the "Blue Collar Comedy Tour" has grossed more than $12 million and produced a bestselling live album released last November. The film will present the show in its entirety, as well as behind-the-scenes sequences that focus on the individual performers.

Victor Vargas (Victor Rasuk), a 16-year-old Dominican boy growing up on New York's Lower East Side, finds his self-image as a burgeoning ladies man deflated when the neighborhood finds out that he's dating an unpopular and overweight girl (Donna Maldonado) who lives two stories above his grandmother's apartment (where he lives, along with his brother and sister). So, he sets his sights on the most beautiful girl at the local swimming pool, "Juicy" Judy Rodriguez (Judy Marte).

Geophysicist Dr. Josh Keyes (Aaron Eckhart) discovers that an unknown force has caused the earth's inner core to stop rotating. With the planet's magnetic field rapidly deteriorating, our atmosphere literally starts to come apart at the seams with catastrophic consequences. To resolve the crisis, Keyes, along with a team of the world's most gifted scientists, travel into the earth's core in a subterranean craft piloted by "terranauts," Major Rebecca "Beck" Childs (Hilary Swank) and Colonel Robert Iverson (Bruce Greenwood). Their mission: detonate a device that will reactivate the core.