2003 Least Anticipated Movies (Page #7)

Set in the late 1870s, this epic film depicts the beginnings of the modernization of Japan, as the island nation evolved past a feudal society, as symbolized by the eradication of the samurai way of life. We see all this happen from the point of view of an alcoholic Civil War veteran turned Winchester guns spokesman, Captain Woodrow Algren (Tom Cruise), who arrives in Japan to train the troops of the emperor, Meiji, as part of a break away from the long-held tradition of relying on employed samurai warriors to protect territories, as the emperor's new army prepares to wipe out the remaining samurai warriors. When Algren is injured in combat and captured by the samurai, he learns about their warrior honor code from their leader, Katsumoto, which forces him to decide which side of the conflict he actually wants to be on.

Hayden Christensen stars as Stephen Glass, a staff writer for the respected current events and policy magazine The New Republic and a freelance feature writer for publications such as Rolling Stone, Harper's and George. By the mid-90s, Glass' articles had turned him into one of the most sought-after young journalists in Washington, but a bizarre chain of events - chronicled in Buzz Bissinger's September, 1998 Vanity Fair article upon which "Shattered Glass" is based - suddenly stopped his career in its tracks. "Shattered Glass" is a study of a very talented - and at the same time very flawed - character. It is also a look inside our culture's noblest profession, one that protects our most precious freedoms by revealing the truth, and what happens when our trust in that profession is called into question.

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.

Set in a small Edo period Japanese brothel near Tokyo, this is the story of a young samurai, Fusanosuke (Hidetaka Yoshioka), who seeks refuge there in the company of a young prostitute, Oshin (Nagiko Tono), after he accidentally wounded a powerful samurai during an argument whose colleagues are now seeking to kill Fusanosuke in return. Soon falling in love with Oshin, Fusanosuke hopes to be able to cleanse her from the sins of her occupation so that she may be his wife, even as danger lurks all around the brothel.

The comedy spoof series that knows no fear is at it again with its funniest installment yet. Taking shots at the latest crop of block-busters, "Scary Movie 3" irreverently roasts "The Ring", "Signs", "Matrix Reloaded", "The Hulk", "8 Mile", "The Others "and more, as well as pop culture trends such as "American Idol". The film brings director David Zucker back to the genre he helped create with the classics "Airplane!", "Naked Gun" and "Naked Gun 2 1/2". The cast of "Scary Movie 3" includes Charlie Sheen as the aliens-attracting farmer Tom and Denise Richards as his hapless wife Annie; Eddie Griffin as the prophetic Orpheus and Queen Latifah as his very un-Matrixy wife Laquisha; Pamela Anderson and Jenny McCarthy as Catholic School Girls; Leslie Nielsen as the President of The United States; Simon Rex as rap-star wannabe George; Jeremy Piven as reporter Ross Giggins; Camryn Manheim as the formidable Trooper Champlin; Anna Faris as eager anchorwoman Cindy Campbell; Regina Hall as eerie school teacher Brenda Meeks; William Forsythe as The Glench; Anthony Anderson as rap promoter Mahalik; as well as George Carlin. Fat Joe, Simon Cowell, Method Man, Redman, Macy Gray, Master P., Ja Rule, D.L. Hughley, Wu Tang Clan and The Coors Twins.

In this documentary, Nathaniel Kahn examines the life and career of his father, Philadelphia architect Louis I. Kahn (1901-1974), whose work included the Salk Institute and the Parliament and Capitol Buildings in Dhaka, Bangladesh, before dying of a heart attack in a Penn Station bathroom in 1974, unidentified and broke despite having been one of the century's most influential architects. Louis Kahn also led three different personal lives, with three different families, fathering a daughter with his wife, and a child each by two other lovers (one of whom was the mother of Nathaniel, who was 11 when his father died).

This is the true story of how a Japanese businessman from Los Angeles, Eishy Hayata, built an emerald mining empire in Columbia that is today one of the world's largest and most powerful, starting in the 1970s as an "esmeraldero", an emerald buyer who goes directly to rural areas where emeralds can be procured from locals at bargain prices in their rough form. Central to the film's intrigue are Columbia's more brutal realities, as guerrilla warfare and street kidnappings are quite common. To combat this, Hayata fashions himself as a sort of modern cowboy, armed and dressed to fit the bill, along with a powerful cadre of personal bodyguards.

Robert McNamara, former Secretary of Defense during the JFK and LBJ administrations, was one of the key figures in the Vietnam War. This documentary is built around 20 hours of interviews and additional archival footage of Mr. Namara, who later became president of the World Bank and broadened his global influence.

Two young couples in Madrid (Alterio and Vega; Toledo and Verbeke) are searching for love and happiness, but ultimately they find only lies and heartache, as they switch lovers back and forth, and the erotic tension escalates. There's also a good deal of singing and dancing amidst all the bed swapping.

Set in suburbia, the Greg Pritikin-directed film centers on socially challenged Steven (Adrien Brody), who quits his job to pursue a life-long dream of becoming a ventriloquist. Ignored at home by his father (Ron Leibman), mother (Jessica Walter) and embittered sister (Illeana Douglas), Steven begins to find his voice with the help of a wisecracking dummy.

Posey plays a district attorney in New York investigating a series of unexplained deaths in the gay community. As she digs deeper, she discovers some shocking facts behind the cases.

They're all Italian living in Montreal, but they could be from any large city in the western world with an Italian community. Angelo is a travel agent trying to become a television writer in his late twenties. Nino is a well-respected law enforcement officer, also in his thirties. Maria and Gino, Angelo's parents, emigrated in the 1950's and married after their arrival in "the new world". Maria and Gino's world is shattered when their son decides to get a place of his own. They are relieved however when Angelo's childhood buddy Nino decides to move in with their son. Their relief is short lived as they find out that Nino and Angelo are more than just roomates-they're lovers!

A young woman, Diane, works for a multinational corporation run by Henri-Pierre Volf. In the logic of the diversification of its activities - from real estate to clothing design - the Volf Group is negociating the acquisition of TokyoAnime, a Japanese company which produces a new form of manga and their pornographic version, hentaï, in digital 3D images that will outdate and destroy the competition in this extraordinarily lucrative market. Two companies battle to obtain exclusive diffusion of Volf's new images on the Web: Mangatronics and Demonlover. Mangatronics has recruted Diane as a sort of industrial spy to serve its interests by torpedoing the Demonlover contract from within. The links between Demonlover and various violent and illegal pornographic sites dangerously weakens the relationship with the Volf Group, unaware of the existence of those secret sites. Diane discovers that they also have their strategy and their spies in the form of her seemingly neutral, naive colleagues. She ends up knowing too much and becomes a danger to Demonlover. Soon there is no way out, except fading into the cyber-reality of which she was perhaps a part from the start.

The aftermath of a high school shooting leaves Deanna (Erika Christensen), seriously wounded and nine others dead. Det. Van Zandt (Victor Garber), is assigned the task of finding someone to hold responsible. His attention settles on Alicia (Busy Philipps), a troubled outsider considered both the key witness and a possible suspect. Worlds collide when the high school principal compels Alicia to pay a reluctant visit on the still-hospitalized Deanna. United by their traumatic experience, the two young women form an unlikely friendship -- one tested by depression, despair, and the growing weight of the police investigation.

Based on Rosamond Lehman's book, "The Echoing Grove", "The Heart of Me" stars Olivia Williams and Helena Bonham Carter as sisters who become closer after the unexpected occurs in their lives. Paul Bettany plays a husband of one of the sisters who is having an affair with the other sister.

Based partially on the shootings at Columbine High School, writer-director Gus Van Sant presents "Elephant", which takes place during one day at a typical American high school. Following ten kids in their daily activities, an atmosphere of violence and lawlessness becomes brutally evident as tension mounts, leading to a tragic event.

A fast and furious action tale of three tough, hard-hitting women who take on a powerful pair of computer moguls, the Hong Kong police, two deadly assassins, and... each other. Shu Qi and Zhao Wei play sisters whose family inheritances are a state-of-the-art computer surveillance system and an unresolved family vendetta. After a wealthy Shanghai computer magnate is murdered, a beautiful and ambitious young undercover detective (Mok) is assigned to the case. Finding herself further drawn-in when she discovers the criminal masterminds are two women, the young detective eventually comes face-to-face with the sisters who, despite their delicate appearance, hold mental and combat skill to match her own. A battle of wits and force ensues in this tale of technological wizardry.

Spider is a strange and lonely man. After a long period in a mental institution, he returns to the streets of the East End of London where he grew up. The sights and sounds and the smells of those streets begin to awaken the deeply buried memories of his childhood. At the centre of these memories is the great trauma of losing his mother, a trauma which occurred, he believes, because his plumber father, Bill Cleg, murdered her in order to move a prostitute, Yvonne, into the house in her place.

A young Frenchman moves into an apartment full of international students in Barcelona and discovers that mixing with students of many nationalities gives him a new perspective on life.

Based on the short story by Philip K. Dick, "Paycheck" is about world famous genius Michael Jennings (Ben Affleck), who does specialized projects for high-tech corporations. Once a job is complete, his memory is erased so as not to divulge any company secrets. Highly paid for his work, Jennings expects to earn $4.4 billion for his latest 5-year project, but upon completion of the job, instead of a big paycheck, he is given an envelope full of random objects and told that he has agreed to forfeit all payment. With his memory erased per usual, Jennings has no defense, until he discovers that the objects are clues to his past. Now, with the help of Rachel (Uma Thurman), the woman he has worked with and loved for the last three years, Jennings is in a race against time to put the pieces of his past together before the people he once worked for have him killed.