May 2007 Movies

Adrienne Shelly's sunny final film is also her most artistically successful and intrinsically marketable directorial effort. An old-fashioned fairy tale that honors the transformative power of female friendship and motherhood, "Waitress" features a dynamic cast led by Keri Russell, whose character will surely do, in a Rachael Ray kind of way, for down home pie-making what the title character of "Babette's Feast" did for Cailles en Sarcophage.

When Russell's character Jenna, a waitress in a cheery southern diner, discovers that she's pregnant, she doesn't exactly jump for joy. Motherhood was never in her plans, and she's already saddled with her needy, jealous and infantile husband Earl (Jeremy Sisto).

At first, things seem hopeless and her dreams for a better life are in ruins, until a good-looking doctor (Nathan Fillion) arrives in town and mixes things up. With the support and love of her friends and co-workers (Adrienne Shelly and Cheryl Hines) at Joe's Pie Diner, Jenna exhibits her skills with crusts and fillings which are particularly appreciated by Joe himself (Andy Griffith). She then gains the courage to embrace independence and create the life of her dreams.

The film portrays Julie Christie as the forgetful, elderly wife of a philanderer in a nursing home who turns her affections to another resident, played by Michael Murphy.

In the world of high-stakes poker, Huck Cheever is a blaster--a player who goes all out, all the time. But in his personal relationships, Huck plays it tight, expertly avoiding emotional commitments and long-term expectations. When Huck sets out to win the main event of the 2003 World Series of Poker--and the affections of Billie Offer, a young singer from Bakersfield--there is one significant obstacle in his path: his anger toward his father, L.C. Cheever, the poker legend who abandoned Huck's mother years ago. As these two rivals progress toward a final showdown at the poker table, Huck learns that to win in the games of life and poker, he must try to play cards the way he has been living his life and live his life the way he has been playing cards.

Angry and depressed over losing his job, accountant Terry Allen begins to suspect his new neighbor, a single Islamic grad student with a penchant for unexplained late night activities, is at the center of a terrorist conspiracy. Although both Terry's wife and the FBI agent to whom he reports his suspicions are skeptical about his fears, Terry becomes increasingly obsessed with uncovering the man's true identity. Convinced he's all that stands between this Middle-Eastern stranger and a deadly terror attack, Terry finally decides to take matters into his own hands - with shocking results.

The movie is set in Los Angeles where a wanna-be Hollywood talent manager sets out to Americanize an Indian girl from the Himalayas.

Peter Parker has finally managed to strike a balance between his devotion to M.J. and his duties as a superhero. But there is a storm brewing on the horizon. When his suit suddenly changes, turning jet-black and enhancing his powers, it transforms Peter as well, bringing out the dark, vengeful side of his personality that he is struggling to control. Under the influence of the suit, Peter becomes overconfident and starts to neglect the people who care about him most. Forced to choose between the seductive power of the new suit and the compassionate hero he used to be, Peter must overcome his personal demons as two of the most-feared villains yet, Sandman and Venom, gather unparalleled power and a thirst for retribution to threaten Peter and everyone he loves.

This documentary looks at the process of getting four Broadway musicals--"Avenue Q," "Wicked," "Taboo" and "Caroline, or Change"--off the ground and eventually on to the Tony Awards.

Rebellious teenager Rachel screams, swears, drinks and is, in a word, uncontrollable. With her latest car crash, Rachel has broken the final rule in mom Lilly's San Francisco home. With nowhere else to take the impulsive and rambunctious girl, Lilly hauls her daughter to the one place she swore she'd never return--her own mother's Idaho farm. Matriarch Georgia is not your typical sweet and doting grandmother. She lives her life by a number of unbreakable rules, demanding anyone who shares her home do the same--God comes first and hard work comes a very close second. Now saddled with raising the young woman, it will require each patient breath she takes to understand Rachel's fury. But as Rachel succumbs to her summer of misery and shakes up the tiny Mormon town, Georgia notices something is changing within her granddaughter. Given structure and responsibilities, Rachel is letting her guard down and learning compassion, especially for her mother. Her journey will lead all three women to revelations of buried family secrets and an understanding that--regardless what happens--the ties that bind can never be broken.

The film centers on three soldiers who are returning home after a lenghty tour in Iraq and find that re-entering "normal" life after the continued trauma of battle is not an easy task. Jackson plays a doctor who has been stationed in Iraq for several months. After months of holding it together on the homefront, his wife is thrilled when he returns to his home and his regular practice. However, the man she sent away to war is not the same man that has returned. To her shock and dismay, her husband is rapidly unraveling before her eyes.

Six months have passed since the rage virus has annihilated the British Isles. The U.S. Army declares that the war against infection has been won, and that the reconstruction of the country can begin. As the first wave of refugees return, a family is reunited--but one of them unwittingly carries a terrible secret. The virus is not yet dead, and this time--showing no outward symptoms--it is more dangerous than ever.

Tom Reilly is a bit of an underachiever when it comes to his career (or lack thereof), but his adoring wife Sofia, a formidable lawyer, has always been happy to act as the breadwinner. With the birth of their first child, Sofia decides she wants to be a stay-at-home mom, so Tom needs to step up and take care of his growing family. Unfortunately he gets fired from his job in New York City and is forced to start working with his father-in-law in Sofia's hometown of Ohio. Tom soon clashes with his work colleagues, especially the outrageous Chip, who still carries a torch for Sofia from their high school days, and Sofia becomes increasingly uncomfortable staying home with their new baby. In doing all the right things for all the wrong reasons, the couple needs to get back to what they're good at, before their model family goes completely off track.

Down on his luck after losing his job and his girlfriend on the same day, Larry decides to join his neighbor, Bill, and his combat-happy buddy, Everett, for a relaxing weekend of drinking and target practice. But when the three hapless guys are mistaken for Army Reservists by the hard-nosed Sergeant Kilgrove, they're loaded onto an army plane headed for Fallujah, Iraq--and mistakenly ejected in a Humvee somewhere over Mexico. Convinced they're actually in the Middle East, the clueless wannabe soldiers save a rural village from a siege of bandits and become local heroes. But when Carlos Santana, a ruthless, karaoke-loving warlord, strikes back, Larry, Bill and Everett have to lay down their beers and take up their arms--and prove they just might be real soldiers after all.

The story of a 21-year-old who is abducted, sacrificed and resurrected by the Aztec Gods of Death and Destiny.

A young boy is kidnapped by a former convict and three of his friends. After a series of unexplained events, they begin to realize that the child is less innocent than he seems.

The Guy works part-time helping his father, who runs a small, vacuum cleaner repair business, but dreams of having his songs recorded and landing a record deal. His girlfriend has recently left him and gone to London, and he is still coming to grips with that loss and is emotionally vulnerable.

One day while busking on Dublin's Grafton Street, he meets the Girl, an East European immigrant who has moved to Dublin to start a new life for herself and currently works as a house cleaner in an upper-class residence. She is struggling financially, and cannot afford the piano she yearns for, and is also in the process of making crucial decisions about her personal life. In a Dublin that has grown increasingly affluent and materialistic during Ireland's unprecedented economic boom, they are both outsiders, struggling with their art and their hearts. Through music, they find a common bond that brings them effortlessly together.

As the Guy and the Girl get to know each other over the course of an intense few days, their relationship blossoms as they share their music, put together a band to rehearse songs and record some demos, all of which results in them bringing some much-needed impetus to their artistic and personal lives.

When Shrek married Princess Fiona, becoming the next King and Queen of Far, Far Away wasn't part of the plan. So when his father-in-law, King Harold, falls ill, it is up to Shrek to find a suitable heir or he will be forced to give up his beloved swamp for the throne. Recruiting Donkey and Puss In Boots for a new quest, Shrek sets out to bring back the rightful heir to the throne, Fiona's rebellious cousin Artie. Back in Far, Far Away, Fiona's jilted Prince Charming storms the city with an army of fairy tale villains to seize the throne. But they have a surprise in store because Fiona, together with her mother, Queen Lillian, has drafted her fellow fairy tale heroines to defend their "happily ever afters." As Shrek, Donkey and Puss work on changing Artie from a royal pain in the you-know-what into a future king, Fiona and her band of princesses must stop Prince Charming to ensure there will be a kingdom left to rule.

A good-hearted ex-con goes straight and gets a job in a retirement hotel, where a trio of retired residents help him win back his girl and battle the hotel corruption led by the head nurse.

Fay Grim is a single Mom from Woodside, Queens, New York, manically preoccupied with raising her 14 year old son, Ned, so he won't grow up to be like his father. His father, Henry, is missing. Seven years earlier, he accidentally killed a vicious neighbor and fled-- never to be seen or heard from again.

Will Turner (Orlando Bloom), Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) are allied with Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) in a desperate quest to free Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) from his mind-bending trap in Davy Jones' locker, while the terrifying ghost ship, The Flying Dutchman and Davy Jones, under the control of the East India Trading Company, wreaks havoc across the Seven Seas. Navigating through treachery, betrayal and wild waters, they must forge their way to exotic Singapore and confront the cunning Chinese Pirate Sao Feng (Chow Yun-Fat). Now headed beyond the very ends of the earth, each must ultimately choose a side in a final, titanic battle, as not only their lives and fortunes, but the entire future of the freedom-loving Pirate way, hangs in the balance.

A moralistic tale about a man, Andre, who gets a second chance in life when he meets Angela, a tall, femme fatale whom he saves from a suicide bid in the Seine River. The two spend a memorable summer night in nearly deserted Paris where Angela exposes herself as a true angel, sent down to save Andre from himself.

A lonely waitress with a tragic past, Agnes rooms in a run-down motel, living in fear of her abusive, recently paroled ex-husband. But when Agnes begins a tentative romance with Peter, an eccentric, nervous drifter, she starts to feel hopeful again – until the first bug arrives…