Opening this weekend is the acclaimed Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock drama Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.
Based on the novel of the same name, it is the story of 10-year-old Oskar Schell who loses his father in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre. Convinced that his father has left a final message for him somewhere in the city, Oskar begins searching New York City for the lock that fits a mysterious key he found in his father’s closet.
It is directed by Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot, The Reader) and also stars Max von Sydow, Viola Davis, John Goodman, Jeffrey Wright and newcomer Thomas Horn who was chosen to play Oskar after the producers saw him become a big winner on Jeopardy’s Kids Week two years ago.
After passing on starring in the third Underworld movie, Kate Beckinsale returns in the lead role as vampire warrior Selene in Underworld: Awakening. Six months after the events of the second movie, Selene is captured by humans. Eventually, both government officials and the public learn about the existence of both Vampires and Lycans. Twelve years after being cryogenically frozen, Selene manages to escape into an all-out war the humans are waging against the two immortal species in an effort to eradicate them.
Steven Soderbergh is one of today’s most prolific and consistent filmmakers, making movies like Out of Sight, Erin Brockovich, Traffic, Ocean’s Eleven and, most recently, Contagion. His latest, Haywire, was actually shot prior to Contagion and he again attracts a big name cast including Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender, Channing Tatum, Antonio Banderas and Michael Douglas, but the lead role belongs to relative newcomer Gina Carano, who was formerly one of the world’s top mixed martial arts fighter.
Carano uses all of her skills (and does her own stunts) as a highly trained covert ops specialist who is hired out by her handler to perform jobs that governments can’t authorize and heads of state would rather not know. When an operation goes awry and she finds herself double-crossed, she uses all of her skills to escape an international manhunt and make it back to the United States to exact revenge on those who burned her.
Produced by George Lucas, Red Tails is set during the Second World War and is based on the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of African American pilots who were the first in the United States Armed Forces.
In 1944, as the war in Europe continued to take its toll on Allied forces, the Pentagon had no choice but to use the Tuskegee Airmen who were unused and untested due to racial discrimination and segregation. Against all odds, with something to prove and everything to lose, these young airmen earned the nickname Red-Tail Angels through their courageous acts and the tails of their planes, which were painted red.
Starring Cuba Gooding Jr. and Terrence Howard, Lucas has wanted to produce this film since 1988, but wanted to wait until special effects technology was good enough to do the dogfights justice.
Rick Davis is the manager of the Capitol Theatre in West Kelowna.
capitol_wes@landmarkcinemas.ca
