March 18, 2005

New Movie Releases

Not much in the way of new films, but the two that are opening are targeting the opposite ends of the spectrum in a nice form of counter programming. I also have a couple of new films coming to the arthouse. On to the films!

Ice Princess. The latest film from the House of Mouse targets the pre-teen girl audience. I'll be honest, I have not read up much on this film, as hard as that may be to believe! Actually, the only thing I can say for certain is that it stars Michelle Trachtenberg, who rose to fame as the younger sister of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I also seem to recall that it is about a bookworm who becomes a figure skater. Seems harmless enough. I actually hope it reviews well, we could use some quality family cinema, but I'm not holding my breath.

The Ring Two. Hideo Nakata comes across the Pacific to deliver us the remake of his sequel to the remake of his original film, that was a mouthful! I really liked the original Japanese film as well as the American remake. I can only hope that this sequel is at the same level. The first trailer I saw for this was online in a dark room, and it made me jump a mile, excellent trailer. The subsequent trailers and footage that I have seen looks pretty creepy. I am looking forward to checking this out.

Travellers & Magicians. This film comes all the way from Bhutan and was directed by a Buddhist lama. It tells the tall of a government functionary in a remote mountain community who wishes to emigrate to the US. His plans go slightly awry and he finds himself walking along the road and is joined by a motley crew of other walkers who swap tales. This looks like it could be deathly dull or absolutely fascinating. I hope for the latter.

Turtles Can Fly. This looks like it could be an excellent film. It concerns a group of orphans living on the border between Turkey and Iraq, and how they deal with life with the events of the past years. It looks to be an uplifting film and I hope to get the chance to see it.

A couple of side notes:

The arthouse has extended the run of Head On. It's being extended through the weekend by popular demand. I have seen it, and it is a wonderfully dark romantic film centered around two very damaged people.

Unfortunately it is not opening near me, by Steam Boy is opening. It is the latest from the director of Akira. I have not read much, but I have seen some of the footage, and it looks absolutely incredible. If you are one of the lucky ones near a theater screening it, please report back and let me know how it is.

That does it for this week, enjoy your time at the cinema!

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