The Dystopian Future Movie of the Year
2006 was a landmark year for Mexico's "big three" directors-- Alejandro González (Amores Peros, 21 Grams) put out Babel, which is currently on our New Release wall, Guillermo del Toro (The Devil's Backbone, Hellboy) made Pan's Labrynth, which we're excited about bringing in on May 15th, and Alfonso Cuarón (Y tu mamá también, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) made the best movie I saw last year: Children of Men, on the wall this week, is a dystopian near-future sci-fi starring Clive Owen, which contains an absolutely breathtaking climatic action sequence in a world not too far removed from our own. A tough act to follow...
Luckily, we have enough "happy" to change the subject: Will Smith (Hitch, Men In Black was Oscar-nominated for his performance in The Pursuit of Happyness, and, if that's not enough "happy," the penguins have brought dancing, animated backup: Happy Feet is on the wall this week. If you want something a little less chaste, National Lampoon has brought us TV the Movie, featuring Steve-O (Jackass), and we also have the second Van Wilder picture: Van Wilder: Rise of Taj places Wilder's second-in-command Kal Penn (Harold & Kumar) at a high class British school.
If you're looking for something classier, Zhang Yimou has married elements of his wire-fu epics (Hero) with his elegant period dramas (Raise the Red Lantern) with Curse of the Golden Flower. Heath Ledger stars in Candy, a love story that takes the route of artists, poets, and drugs. Quirkier still is El Cortez, casting Lou Diamond Phillips as an autistic ex-con spiraling into a wildly noir-ish web. Based on the true story of the man who traveled the world, ingratiating himself to strangers by claiming to be reclusive film legend Stanley Kubrick, Color Me Kubick stars John Malkovich as the now-legendary poseur.
For the genre fans, we've got the new horror film The Gathering, starring Christina Ricci (Monster, Buffalo 66) as an American in England cursed with prophetic visions. If action is more your style, we have Tony Jaa's (Ong Bak, The Protector) debut picture Spirited Killer, showing the debut of the now famous Thai Warrior. The Goddess of 1967 fills the surrealist niche, the story of a Japanese man hunting for his dream car, and the wild journey it takes him on. Finally, joining the "cop shows" section (The Wire, NCIS, Criminal Minds) of our TV New Releases, The Shield has just reached season 5.
