Movies Released March 24, 2006

Friday, March 24

92 mins

Thank You for Smoking R

In a role Aaron Eckhart seems born to play, the hero of "Thank You for Smoking" is Nick Naylor, chief spokesman for Big Tobacco, who makes his living defending the rights of smokers and cigarette makers in today's neo-puritanical culture. Confronted by health zealots out to ban tobacco and an opportunistic senator (Macy) who wants to put poison labels on cigarette packs, Nick goes on a PR offensive, spinning away the dangers of cigarettes on TV talk shows and enlisting a Hollywood super-agent (Rob Lowe) to promote smoking in movies. Nick's newfound notoriety attracts the attention of both tobacco's head honcho (Duvall) and an investigative reporter for an influential Washington daily (Holmes). Nick says he is just doing what it takes to pay the mortgage, but he begins to think about how his work makes him look in the eyes of his young son Joey (Bright).
David Koechner, Aaron Eckhart, William H. Macy, Max Levchin, Jason Reitman, David O. Sacks, Maria Bello, Cameron Bright
Drama
119 mins

Brick R

"Brick" is a detective story set in a strange sort of high school world. Its primary inspiration are the novels of Dashiell Hammet. Its main character (Brendan Frye) is a loner at his high school, someone who knows all the angles but has chosen to stay on the outside. When the girl he loves turns up dead, he plunges into the school's social strata like a fist through a honeycomb to find the who and why, with the same single minded devotion to his self appointed task as Hammet's anti-heros.
Ram Bergman, Lukas Haas, Rian Johnson, Mark Mathis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Meagan Good, Richard Roundtree, Nora Zehetner
Drama Mystery

Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector PG-13

Irreverent as ever, Larry plays a big city health inspector who's happy with his usual beat of greasy spoon diners and low-rent ethnic restaurants. But his easygoing life is turned upside-down when he's saddled with a straight-arrow rookie partner (Iris Bahr) and assigned the biggest case of his career: investigating an outbreak of mysterious food poisonings at the city's swankiest restaurants. Infuriating restaurateurs with his bad manners, Larry still manages to charm a sweet, shy waitress (Megyn Price) into a budding romance. But when his unorthodox methods cost him his job, Larry has to go undercover to bring the conspirators to justice and 'Git-R-Done!'
Joe Pantoliano, Trent Cooper, Tony Hale, Brooke Dillman, David Koechner, Jonathan Bernstein, Larry the Cable Guy, James Greer
Comedy
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Inside Man R

Denzel Washington stars as New York police detective Keith Miller, a tough, street-smart cop fighting for a promotion while trying to live down accusations of misconduct connected to his last case. When he and his partner are dispatched to the scene of an in-progress bank robbery and hostage crisis, Miller must face off against a well-educated criminal (Owen) masterminding a concisely plotted operation. As negotiations grow more strained, a powerful lawyer with mysterious ties (Foster) becomes involved in the crisis... and Miller slowly begins to realize that in this ultimate game of cat and mouse, rules are arbitrary, all roles are up for grabs and the black-and-white of right an wrong has blurred to a shadowy landscape of gray.
Brian Grazer, Christopher Plummer, Willem Dafoe, Menno Meyjes, Denzel Washington, Clive Owen, Spike Lee, Russell Gewirtz
Drama

Americano R

"Americano" centers around Chris McKinley (Joshua Jackson), a recent college graduate backpacking through Europe who savors his last three days of freedom before boarding the career fast track back in the United States. In Pamplona with two friends (Timm Sharp and Ruthanna Hopper), Chris meets an Australian thrill-seeker (Phil Barantini), a quintessential Spanish beauty (Leonor Varela) and an enigmatic provocateur (Dennis Hopper), all of whom encourage him to rethink his life. As the minutes and seconds until his departure tick away, Chris struggles with an age-old question: Should he follow the beaten path or risk it all on the road less traveled?
Dennis Hopper, Leonor Varela, Timm Sharp, Clark McCutchen, Joshua Jackson, Phil Barantini, Ruthanna Hopper
Drama

Romance and Cigarettes R

"Romance and Cigarettes" is a down-and-dirty musical love story set in the world of the working class. Nick (James Gandolfini) is an ironworker who builds and repairs bridges. He's married to Kitty (Susan Sarandon), a dressmaker, a strong and gentle woman with whom he has three daughters. He is carrying on a torrid affair with a redheaded woman named Tula (Kate Winslet). Nick is basically a good, hardworking man driven forward by will and blinded by his urges. Like Oedipus at Colonus, he is sent into exile and searches to find his way back through the damage he has done. In an imaginative, humorous, and touching way, "Romance and Cigarettes" explores the cost and value of a relationship through life and death. When the characters can no longer express themselves with language, they break into song, lip-synching the tunes lodged in their —to dream, to remember, and to connect to another human being.
Steve Buscemi, Bobby Cannavale, John Turturro, Kate Winslet, Christopher Walken, Mary-Louise Parker, John M Penotti, Kumar Pallana
Comedy Romance

Stay Alive PG-13

After the mysterious, brutal death of an old friend, a group of teenagers find themselves in possession of "Stay Alive", an ultra-realistic 3-D videogame based on the spine-chilling true story of a 17th century noblewoman known as "The Blood Countess." The gamers don't know anything about the game other than they're not supposed to have it... and they're dying to play it. Not able to resist temptation, the group begins to play the grisly game and soon a chilling connection is made - they are each being murdered one-by-one in the same method as the character they played in the game. As the line between the game world and the real world disappears, the group must find a way to defeat the vicious and merciless Blood Countess, all the while trying to... "Stay Alive".
Sophia Bush, Milo Ventimiglia, Adam Del Deo, McG, James D. Stern, Jim Bishop, Adam Goldberg, James Haven
Thriller Suspense Horror
95 mins

The Child

A dispossessed twenty-year old Bruno lives with his eighteen-year-old girlfriend Sonia in Seraing, an eastern Belgian steel town. They live off Sonia's unemployment benefits along with the panhandling and petty thefts committed by Bruno and his gang. Their lives change forever when Sonia gives birth to their child, Jimmy. She returns home after Jimmy's birth to find that Bruno has sublet their apartment to total strangers. After an initial and promising change of heart about becoming a father and changing his ways, Jimmy becomes little more to Bruno than a potential source of wealth. Desperate for money and unable to face his parental responsibilities, Bruno sells Jimmy to a black market connection, who promises to find the child an adoptive home. Realizing the error in his actions Bruno sets out to try and undo his callous deed, leading him to a powerful personal transformation.
Fabrizio Rongione, Deborah François, Jeremie Renier, Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne, Denis Freyd, Olivier Gourmet, Jeremie Segard
Drama

Stoned

Biopic of debauched 1960s rock icon, Brian Jones, the charismatic guitarist who founded the Rolling Stones but was fired in 1969 and found dead at the bottom of his swimming pool a few weeks later.
Robert Wade, David Morrissey, Leo Gregory, Paddy Considine, Stephen Woolley, Gary Smith, Finola Dwyer, Neal Purvis
Drama Foreign

RV PG

About an average, dysfunctional American family who is about to set off on the most dangerous, high-stakes, life-threatening and traumatizing adventure of their lives: two weeks together in an RV.
Kristin Chenoweth, Geoff Rodkey, Robin Williams, Barry Sonnenfeld, Lowell Ganz, Joanna Levesque, Lucy Fisher, Douglas Wick
Comedy Family Kids

Friday, March 24