2008 Least Anticipated Movies (Page #13)

Blake Morrison deals with his father Arthur's terminal illness and imminent death. Blake's memories of everything funny, embarrassing and upsetting about his childhood and teens are interspersed with the present, as he struggles to come to terms with his father, and their history of conflict, and learns to accept that one's parents are not always accountable to their children.

The film is set in the 1940s and tells the story of a married man who cheats on his wife. To spare her the shame of a divorce, he decides to kill her.

A trailer park guy, uninterested in his life and trying to get through his days, decides that everyone is out to get him so he goes on a shooting spree.

The film follows a group of twenty-something, nightclub-going friends who wake up after a wild night on the town to find their lives in chaos. As they contact each other to figure out just what happened the night before, they begin to understand that they're affecting each other in ways they couldn't possibly imagine.

In this modern day romantic tale, "Penelope" is about a young girl's inspiring journey, a mysterious family secret and the power of love. With all odds against her, in order for Penelope to break the family curse, she must find true love with "one of her own kind." The warm and funny adventure leads her to realize the most important life lesson, "I like myself the way I am."

Penelope Wilhern (Christina Ricci), born to wealthy socialites (Catherine O'Hara and Robert E. Grant), is afflicted by the Wilhern spell that can only be broken when she finds love. Hidden away in her family's estate, the lonely girl meets a string of suitors in her parent's futile attempt to break the curse. Each eligible bachelor is enamored with Penelope and her sizable dowry... until her curse is revealed.

Lemon (Peter Dinklage), a mischievous and eager tabloid reporter wants a photograph of the mysterious Penelope and hires Max (James McAvoy) to pose as a prospective suitor to get the shot. The handsome down-on-his luck gambler finds he falling for Penelope, but not wanting to disappoint her or to expose his surreptitious ways, he decides to disappear.

Fed up by his latest betrayal and determined to live life on her own terms, Penelope breaks free from her family and ventures into the world alone. She finds adventure and Annie, her first friend (Reese Witherspoon) and becomes the person she was meant to be.

True story of football great Ernie Davis, the man who broke college football records and racial barriers in the early 1960s, becoming the first black player to win the Heisman Trophy. The running back was drafted into the NFL, but his career was cut short when he was diagnosed with leukemia.

The story, set in 1957, concerns a small-town charmer (Jason Patric) who is forced to make difficult decisions in his fight to save his two daughters. Drea de Matteo will play his ex-wife. KaDee Strickland plays Patric's love interest, Bruce Dern his surrogate father and Shepard an opportunistic hustler.

A heartfelt and hilarious adventure that chronicles the exploits of Nim, a young girl living a high-tech Robinson Crusoe existence on an unspoiled tropical island with her scientist father and her best friends - a motherly sea lion, a rambunctious iguana, and a sea turtle. When Nim's father embarks on a day of research at sea, she begins an unlikely e-mail communication with an agoraphobic novelist who lives in New York City. When a storm prevents her father's return and unpredictable dangers confront Nim and the Island, she must find the resources to survive. At the same time, the novelist begins to realize that her pen pal is not a scientist, but a little girl who is alone and in trouble, she also has to dig down for the courage to leave her safe haven and rescue Nim.

Born to race cars, Speed Racer is aggressive, instinctive and, most of all, fearless. His only real competition is the memory of the brother he idolized - the legendary Rex Racer, whose death in a race has left behind a legacy that Speed is driven to fulfill. Speed is loyal to the family racing business, led by his father, Pops Racer, the designer of Speed's thundering Mach 5. When Speed turns down a lucrative and tempting offer from Royalton Industries, he not only infuriates the company's maniacal owner but uncovers a terrible secret - some of the biggest races are being fixed by a handful of ruthless moguls who manipulate the top drivers to boost profits. If Speed won't drive for Royalton, Royalton will see to it that the Mach 5 never crosses another finish line. The only way for Speed to save his family's business and the sport he loves is to beat Royalton at his own game. With the support of his family and his loyal girlfriend, Trixie, Speed teams with his one-time rival - the mysterious Racer X - to win the race that had taken his brother's life: the death-defying, cross-country rally known as The Crucible.

The movie centers on a girl (AnnaSophia Robb) who forms a bond with her uncle (Nick Stahl) after she is abandoned by her mother, portrayed by Charlize Theron.

In 1939 London, Miss Guinevere Pettigrew is a middle-aged governess who finds herself once again unfairly dismissed from her job. Without so much as severance pay, Miss Pettigrew realizes that she must--for the first time in two decades--seize the day. This she does, by intercepting an employment assignment outside of her comfort level--as "social secretary." Arriving at a penthouse apartment for the interview, Miss Pettigrew is catapulted into the glamorous world and dizzying social whirl of an American actress and singer, Delysia Lafosse. Within minutes, Miss Pettigrew finds herself swept into a heady high-society milieu--and, within hours, living it up. Taking the "social secretary" designation to heart, she tries to help her new friend Delysia navigate a love life and career, both of which are complicated by the three men in Delysia's orbit; devoted pianist Michael, intimidating nightclub owner Nick, and impressionable junior impresario Phil. Miss Pettigrew herself is blushingly drawn to the gallant Joe, a successful designer who is tenuously engaged to haughty fashion maven Edythe--the one person who senses that the new "social secretary" may be out of her element, and schemes to undermine her. Over the next 24 hours, Guinevere and Delysia will empower each other to discover their romantic destinies.

The film centers on three New York City friends who head to the country for the weekend. Away from their usual environment, the girls are forced to reevaluate their perceptions of each other as one guest turns out to be a pathological liar.

It's 1964, St. Nicholas in the Bronx. A vibrant, charismatic priest, Father Flynn (Academy Award® winner Philip Seymour Hoffman), is trying to upend the schools' strict customs, which have long been fiercely guarded by Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Academy Award® winner Meryl Streep), the iron-gloved Principal who believes in the power of fear and discipline. The winds of political change are sweeping through the community, and indeed, the school has just accepted its first black student, Donald Miller. But when Sister James (Academy Award® nominee Amy Adams), a hopeful innocent, shares with Sister Aloysius her guilt-inducing suspicion that Father Flynn is paying too much personal attention to Donald, Sister Aloysius sets off on a personal crusade to unearth the truth and to expunge Flynn from the school. Now, without a shard of proof besides her moral certainty, Sister Aloysius locks into a battle of wills with Father Flynn which threatens to tear apart the community with irrevocable consequence.

The land of Jhamora is torn apart by the mutual prejudice of two peoples—the winged Nohrin, masters of the skies, and the terrestrial Lockni, who harness the mystical powers of the land. When Delgo (Freddie Prinze, Jr.), a reckless Lockni teenager, forms an outlawed friendship with the spunky Nohrin Princess Kyla (Jennifer Love Hewitt), hostilities between the two peoples escalate, setting the stage for an exiled Empress Sedessa (Ann Bancroft) to exact her revenge and reclaim her rule.

The story of a beautiful young Bangladeshi woman, Nazneen, who arrives in 1980s London, leaving behind her beloved sister and home, for an arranged marriage and a new life. Trapped within the four walls of her flat in East London, and in a loveless marriage with the middle aged Chanu, she fears her soul is quietly dying. Her sister Hasina, meanwhile, continues to live a carefree life back in Bangladesh, stumbling from one adventure to the next. Nazneen struggles to accept her own lifestyle, and keeps her head down in spite of life's blows, but she soon discovers that life cannot be avoided--and is forced to confront it the day that the hotheaded young Karim comes knocking at her door.

In 1957, Indiana Jones is thrust back in action, venturing into the jungles of South America in a race against Soviet agents to find the mystical Crystal Skull.

Set in the Jiu-Jitsu fight world of Los Angeles, after a Jiu-Jitsu master, turns from prizefighting to running a self-defense studio, he is conned by a group of movie stars and fight promoters and must enter the ring and fight in order to regain his honor.

Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson reunite in "Last Chance Harvey", a hopeful romance that celebrates new beginnings—at any age. The film is directed and written by Joel Hopkins.

New Yorker Harvey Shine (Dustin Hoffman) is on the verge of losing his dead-end job as a jingle writer. Warned by his boss (Richard Schiff) that he has just one more chance to deliver, Harvey goes to London for a weekend to attend his daughter’s (Liane Balaban) wedding but promises to be back on Monday morning to make an important meeting—or else. Harvey arrives in London only to learn his daughter has chosen to have her stepfather (James Brolin) walk her down the aisle instead of him. Doing his best to hide his devastation, he leaves the wedding before the reception in hopes of getting to the airport on time, but misses his plane anyway. When he calls his boss to explain, he is fired on the spot. Drowning his sorrows at the airport bar, Harvey strikes up a conversation with Kate (Emma Thompson), a slightly prickly, 40-something employee of the Office of National Statistics. Kate, whose life is limited to work, the occasional humiliating blind date and endless phone calls from her smothering mother (Eileen Atkins), is touched by Harvey, who finds himself energized by her intelligence and compassion.

The growing connection between the pair inspires both as they unexpectedly transform one another’s lives.