December
5th
| Title: Honey |
| Genre: Drama |
| Studio: Universal Pictures |
| Director: Bille Woodruff |
Starring: Jessica Alba, Lil’ Romeo, Mekhi Phifer, David Moscow,
Zachary Williams, Joy Bryant, Lonette McKee, Missy Elliott (cameo),
Genuine (cameo), Third Story (cameo), Sean Desmond (cameo), Tweet
(cameo), The L.O.X. (cameo) |
Plot Outline: Honey (Alba) is a sexy, tough music video choreographer
who shakes up her life after her mentor gives her an ultimatum: sleep
with him or be blacklisted within their industry. |
| Trailer: Trailer |
| MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for drug content and some sexual references) |
|
|
| Title: The Last Samurai |
| Genre: Drama, Action, Advanture |
| Studio: Warner Brothers |
| Director: Edward Zwick |
Starring:Tom Cruise, Timothy Spall, Billy Connolly, Tony
Goldwyn, Ken Watanabe, Hiroyuki Sanada, Shun Sugata, Shin Koyamada,
Seizo Fukumoto, Schichinosuke Nakamura, Koyuki, Masato Harada, Sosuke
Ikematsu, Aoi Minato |
Plot Outline: In Japan, Civil War veteran Captain Woodrow
Algren trains Emperor Meiji’s troops in the way of the gun as they
prepare to defeat the last of the country’s samurais. But Algren’s
passion is swayed when he is captured by the samurai and learns about
their traditions and code of honor. |
| Trailer: Trailer |
| MPAA Rating: R (for strong violence and battle sequences) |
|
|
December 10th
| Title: Big Fish (limited) |
| Genre: Drama |
Studio: Columbia Pictures (NY, LA, Toronto; wider release:
December 25; wide release: January 16) |
| Director: Tim Burton |
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Jessica Lange, Danny
DeVito, Helena Bonham Carter, Steve Buscemi, Billy Crudup, Alison
Lohman, Hailey Anne Nelson, Robert Guillaume, Marion Cotillarcd |
Plot Outline: The story revolves around a dying father and
his son, who is trying to learn more about his dad by piecing together
the stories he has gathered over the years. The son winds up re-creating
his father’s elusive life in a series of legends and myths inspired
by the few facts he knows. Through these tales, the son begins to
understand his father’s great feats and his great failings. |
| Trailer: Trailer |
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for a fight scene, some images of nudity
and a suggestive reference) |
|
|
December 12th
| Title: Girl with a Pearl Earring(Limited) |
| Genre: Drama |
Studio: Lions Gate Films (NY, LA; CHI, SF release: December
26; wider release: January 9, 2004) |
| Director: Peter Webber |
| Tagline: Beauty inspires obsession. |
Starring: : Colin Firth, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Wilkinson,
Essie Davis, Alakina Mann, Cillian Murphy, Judy Parfitt, Leslie Woodhall |
Plot Outline: Griet (Johansson) is a peasant girl who is
forced to work as a maid in the home of the painter Johannes Vermeer
(Firth). She eventually becomes the model for what becomes one of
his most famous works. Based on Tracy Chevalier’s novel. |
| Trailer: |
| MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for some sexual content) |
|
|
| Title: Love Don’t Cost a Thing |
| Genre: Comedy, Drama |
| Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures |
| Director: Troy Beyer |
| Tagline: Love Don’t Co$t A Thing but it pays to be yourself
|
Starring: Nick Cannon, Christina Milian, Steve Harvey, Kenan
Thompson, Kal Penn |
Plot Outline: Highschool loser (Cannon) pays a cheerleader
(Milian) to pose as his girlfriend so he can be considered cool. Remake
of 1987′ Can’t Buy Me Love, starring Patrick Dempsey. |
| Trailer: Trailer |
| MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for sexual content/humor) |
|
|
| Title: The Statement(Limited) |
| Genre: Crime, Documentary, Musical |
| Studio: Sony Pictures Classics |
| Director: Norman Jewison |
Starring: Michael Caine, Tilda Swinton, Alan Bates, Matt
Craven, David de Keyser, Ciarán Hinds, William Hutt, Noam Jenkins,
John Neville, Jeremy Northam, Charlotte Rampling |
Plot Outline: Tale of a former Nazi executioner who becomes
a target of hit men and Police investigators. |
| Trailer: Trailer |
| MPAA Rating: R (for violence) |
|
|
| Title: Stuck on You |
| Genre: Comedy |
| Studio: 20th Century Fox |
| Director: Peter Farrelly, Bobby Farrelly |
Starring: Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear, Eva Mendes, Seymour Cassel,
Cher, Terence Bernie Hines, Jackie Flynn, Skyler Stone, Al Pacino,
Jack Nicholson |
Plot Outline: The very essence of the relationship between
co-joined twins Bob (Damon) and Walt (Kinear) is tested when Walt
convinces them to move to L.A. so he can become an actor. Quickly
the twins find fame and fortune by landing a job on Cher’s TV show,
but the success threatens to drive them apart. |
| Trailer: Trailer |
| MPAA Rating: PG-13 |
|
|
| Title: Something’s Gotta Give |
| Genre: Comedy, Romance |
| Studio: Columbia Pictures |
| Director: Nancy Meyers |
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Diane Keaton, Keanu Reeves, Amanda
Peet, Frances McDormand, Jon Favreau |
Plot Outline: A young man (Keanu Reeves) plays a doctor caring
for a man (Nicholson), who suffers a heart attack at the house of
his young girlfriend’s mother (Keaton). While there, the elder man
falls in love with the mom (Keaton). The doctor also finds he has
an attraction to her, despite their age difference. |
| Trailer: Trailer |
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for sexual content, brief nudity and
strong language) |
|
 |
December
17th
| Title: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King |
| Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-Fi |
| Studio: New Line Cinema |
| Director: Peter Jackson |
| Tag Line: This Christmas the journey ends. |
Starring: Elijah Wood, Sir Ian McKellen, Sean Astin, Billy
Boyd, Orlando Bloom, Kevin Conway, Hugo Weaving, Brad Dourif, Marton
Csokas, Bernard Hill, Sir Ian Holm, Christopher Lee, Dominic Monaghan,
Viggo Mortensen, John Rhys-Davies, John Noble, Liv Tyler, Karl Urban,
Cate Blanchett, David Wenham, Miranda Otto |
Plot Outline: While Frodo & Sam continue to approach Mount
Doom to destroy the One Ring, unaware of the path Gollum is leading
them, the former Fellowship aid Rohan & Gondor in a great battle in
the Pelennor Fields, Minas Tirith and the Black Gates as Sauron wages
his last war against Middle-Earth. |
| Trailer: Trailer |
| MPAA Rating: PG-13 |
|
|
December
19th
| Title: Mona Lisa Smile |
| Genre: Drama |
| Studio: Columbia Pictures |
| Director: Mike Newell |
Starring: Julia Roberts, Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles, Maggie
Gyllenhaal, Dominic West, Juliet Stevenson, John Slattery, Topher
Grace, Marcia Gay Harden, Marian Seldes, Ginnifer Goodwin |
Plot Outline: Set in 1953, Katherine Watson (Roberts) is
a free-spirited graduate of UC Berkeley who accepts a teaching post
at Wellesley College, a women-only school where the students are torn
between the repressive mores of the time and their longing for intellectual
freedom. |
| Trailer: Trailer |
| MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for sexual content and thematic issues) |
|
|
December
25th |
| Title: Cheaper by the Dozen |
| Genre: Comedy, Drama |
| Studio: 20th Century Fox |
| Director: Shawn Levy |
| Tagline: This Christmas The More… The Scarier! |
Starring: Steve Martin, Bonnie Hunt, Hilary Duff, Missy “Misdemeanor”
Elliott, Piper Perabo, Tom Welling, Ashton Kutcher, Brent Kinsman,
Shane Kinsman, Alyson Stoner |
Plot Outline: A remake of the original 1950 “Cheaper By the
Dozen”, based on the real-life story of the Gilbreth family, follows
them from Providence, Rhode Island, to Montclair, New Jersey, and
details the amusing anecdotes found in large families. Frank Gilbreth,
Sr., was a pioneer in the field of motion study, and often used his
family as guinea pigs (with amusing and sometimes embarrassing results).
He resisted popular culture, railing against his daughters’ desires
for bobbed hair and cosmetics. |
| Trailer: Trailer |
| MPAA Rating: PG (for language and some thematic elements) |
|
|
| Title: Cold Mountain |
| Genre: Drama, Romancer |
| Studio: Miramax Films |
| Director: Anthony Minghella |
Starring: Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Renee Zellweger, Jen Apgar,
Eileen Atkins, Kathy Baker, Lucas Black, Emily Deschanel, James Gammon,
Brendan Gleeson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charlie Hunnam, Jena Malone,
Taryn Manning, Mark Jeffrey Miller, Robin Mullins, Natalie Portman,
Giovanni Ribisi, Ethan Suplee, Donald Sutherland, Melora Walters,
Ray Winstone, Jack White |
Plot Outline: Tells the story of Inman (Law), a wounded confederate
soldier who is on a perilous journey home to his mountain community,
hoping to reunite with his pre-war sweetheart, Ada (Kidman). In his
absence, Ada struggles to survive, and revive her father’s farm with
the help of intrepid young drifter Ruby (Zellweger). |
| Trailer: Trailer |
| MPAA Rating: R (for violence and sexuality) |
|
|
| Title: Paycheck |
| Genre: Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller |
| Studio: Paramount Pictures |
| Director: John Woo |
Starring: : Ben Affleck, Uma Thurman, Michael C. Hall, Aaron
Eckhart, Kathryn Morris, Paul Giamatti, Colm Feore, Joe Morton |
Plot Outline: Jennings (Affleck), an electrician who has
had part of his memory erased, struggles to to find clues to his whereabouts
for the past two years. Turns out his employer did the evil deed as
a security measure, leaving him only with a collection of random objects
to help him reconstruct his past. |
| Trailer: Trailer |
| MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for intense action violence and brief language. |
|
|
| Title: Peter Pan |
| Genre: Adventure, Family, Action, Fantasy |
Studio: Universal Pictures, Columbia Pictures, Revolution
Studios |
| Director: P.J. Hogan |
| Tagline: Let the fight begin. |
Starring: Jeremy Sumpter, Jason Isaacs, Rachel Hurd-Wood,
Lynn Redgrave, Ludivine Sagnier, Olivia Williams, Richard Briers,
Harry Newell, Freddie Popplewell, Rupert Simoneon, Don Battee, Theodore
Chester, Harry Eden, Carsen Gray, George MacKay, Sophie Wyburd |
Plot Outline: The Darling family children receive a visit
from Peter Pan, who takes them to Never Never Land where an ongoing
war with the evil Pirate Captain Hook is taking place. |
| Trailer: Trailer |
| MPAA Rating: PG (for adventure action sequences and peril) |
|
|
| Title: Young Black Stallion (IMAX) |
| Genre: Adventure, Family |
| Studio: Walt Disney Pictures |
| Director: Simon Wincer |
| Tagline: The greatest story of friendship ever told. |
Starring: Biana Tamini, Patrick Elyas, Richard Romanus, Gérard
Rudolf |
| Plot Outline: A young girl befriends a wild black stallion |
| Trailer: Trailer |
| MPAA Rating: G (for General Audiences) |
|
|
December
26th
| Title: House of Sand and Fog (Limited) |
| Genre: Drama |
| Studio: Dreamworks Pictures |
| Director: Vadim Perelman |
| Tagline: Some dreams can’t be shared. |
Starring: Sir Ben Kingsley, Jennifer Connelly, Ron Eldard,
Shohreh Aghdashloo, Jonathan Ahdout, Kim Dickens, Frances Fisher,
Carlos Gomez |
Plot Outline: Massoud Amir Behrani, an Iranian immigrant,
has spent most of his savings trying to enhance his daughter’s chances
of a good marriage. Once she is married, he spends the remaining funds
on a house at an auction, unwittingly putting himself and his family
in the middle of a legal tussle with the house’s former owner. What
begins as a legal struggle turns into a personal confrontation, with
tragic results. |
| Trailer: Trailer |
MPAA Rating: R (for some violence/disturbing images, language
and a scene of sexuality) |
|
|
| Title: Monster (Limited) |
| Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller |
Studio: Newmarket Films (NY, LA, SF; wider release: January,
2004) |
| Director: Patty Jenkins |
Starring: Charlize Theron, Christina Ricci, Bruce Dern, Scott
Wilson, Lee Tergesen, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Annie Corley, Marco St.
John, Bubba Baker, Marc Macaulay, Brett Rice |
Plot Outline: A biopic on Aileen Carol Wuornos, a highway
prostitute who was executed for killing seven men in the state of
Florida during the 1980s. |
| Trailer: Trailer |
MPAA Rating: R (for strong violence and sexual content, and
for pervasive language) |
|
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