New distributor Overture Films releases their first offering, the crime comedy Mad Money starring Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah and Katie Holmes in her first movie in nearly two years, but it probably will be vying for the same female audience that will be flocking to see 27 Dresses or dragged to Cloverfield by their insensitive boyfriends. There are also a number of strong returning movies that could bring in a bit of extra business, potentially making this one of the strongest January weekends ever.

Paul Thomas Anderson's fifth film There Will Be Blood (Paramount Vantage) starring potential Oscar candidate Daniel Day-Lewis will expand into roughly 400 theatres, which should be enough to get it into the Top 10. Although it might lose some of its male audience to Cloverfield, there's a lot of buzz and anticipation for the movie, enough that it might be the first choice of those curious to see if Daniel Day-Lewis is as good as his Golden Globe win this past weekend proves.

Also, Miramax plans to re-expand its Oscar candidate No Country for Old Men nationwide for those who may have missed them the first time around. No Country, currently the Coen Brothers' highest grossing movie, should be able to take advantage of its own Golden Globe wins to move up closer to the Top 10 than it's been for a few weeks.

This Week's Predictions (all 4-day predictions) -

1. Cloverfield (Paramount) - $41.2 million N/A

2. 27 Dresses (20th Century Fox) - $22.8 million N/A

3. The Bucket List (Warner Bros) - $14.7 million -24%

4. First Sunday (Sony/Screen Gems) - $12.0 million -33%

5. Juno (Fox Searchlight) - $11.5 million -16%

6. National Treasure: Book of Secrets (Disney) - $7.8 million -31%

7. Mad Money (Overture Films) - $7.5 million N/A

8. Alvin and the Chipmunks (20th Century Fox) - $7.3 million -22%

9. I Am Legend (Warner Bros.) - $5.2 million -37%

10. There Will Be Blood (Paramount Vantage) - $4.4 million +237%

Last year, the celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday fell one weekend earlier, so it isn't a good comparison, but there was only one new release in the week following the holiday, that being the Michael Bay produced horror remake The Hitcher, which tanked with $7.8 million in nearly 3,000 theatres. Either way, this four-day weekend should beat JFK Jr. holiday weekend from last year thanks to the opening of two strong films and a bunch of expanding movies.

Cloverfield (Paramount)
Starring Michael Stahl-David, Mike Vogel, Odette Yustman, Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, T.J. Miller
Directed by Matt Reeves (feature film debut from the writer of "Felicity," co-writer of The Yards and Under Siege 2); Written by Drew Goddard (writer of "Lost," "Alias," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel")
Genre: Action, Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Rated PG-13
Tagline: "Some Thing Has Found Us"
Plot Summary: A giant monster attacks New York City, and poor Rob (Michael Stahl-David), who was hoping to spend his last night in the city partying with his pretty young friends, instead spends the night running around panicking while filming everything on handheld DV cameras. Surely, even a P-Diddy party isn't this exciting.

MIni-Review: Going into this attempt to revive "Blair Witch" filmmaking techniques with low expectations will probably leave one less disappointed than those going into it expecting it to redefine the giant monster movie. Under the pretension that the roughly 80 minute film is an unedited tape from a hand-held DV camera found after the fact, we watch as a group of shallow good-looking yuppies run around Manhattan trying to avoid a rampaging beast and the military forces trying to take it down while trying to find and save the love of one of them. Filled with eerie visual references to 9/11, it's fascinating stuff to try to figure how they accomplished some of the bigger scenes of destruction in the same way it's fun to see an empty and grown-over Manhattan in "I Am Legend." That said, the ability to suspend one's belief for an extended period of time should certainly improve one's enjoyment, as New Yorkers will probably scoff at a number of key fauxpas like how celphones work in a subway station, not to mention how our heroes are able to walk from Spring Street to midtown walking through the subway tunnels seemingly within minutes. And then there's this guy "Hud", clearly the world's worst camera man, who will just NOT LET GO of that camera no matter what happens to them. (It's too bad they don't mention the brand of camera because it would have been a good endorsement for it being the most durable and indestructible camera ever built.) Sadly, the poorly-realized characters don't help matters, because instead of seeing these events through the eyes of a varied and diverse group of people as in Frank Darabont's "The Mist", we get a group of shallow good-looking yuppies who continuously redefine the dumb teen horror cliche to new heights with dialogue that feels improvised, but not in a particularly good way. One classic example: "The elevator's not working..." "Let's take the stairs!" Yeah, no sh*t. Otherwise, the lack of strong writing or acting tends to bog things down, as the scenes where they group is sitting around expounding upon what is happening to them are very dull. At least Michael Stahl-David has a couple strong dramatic moments to let him rise above his TV actor roots, but the CG monster (and a couple smaller creatures) are so strange-looking that it takes you out of the moment whenever they appear on camera, partially due to the changing scale of the beast, and the inability for the actors to make it seem convincingly real or menacing. Worthwhile only for the scale of the destruction and the sheer audacity of its marketing campaign, "Cloverfield" should hopefully convince people to be skeptical about what they see (or don't see) in advertising, because anything that sounds this good on paper can't possibly live up to expectations. Rating: 6/10

Last June, something strange happened when critics showed up for advance screenings of Michael Bay's Transformers and were treated to an unexpected teaser which looked at first like a beer commercial with a bunch of pretty young men and women at a going-away party for someone named Rob. As the camera rolls, explosions are heard, they start panicking, run up to the roof to see giant fireballs destroying buildings and it ended with a shot of a large boulder-like object catapulting through the Manhattan streets which turns out to be the head of the Statue of Liberty. There was no movie title, merely a release date of "1-18-08" and since this wasn't a project that had been announced in the normal places (i.e. Variety, ComingSoon.net), there was a lot of rabid fan curiosity as it took the internet by storm with rumors about the project circulating sites like AICN, IESB and ComingSoon's own STYD (ShockTillYouDrop) all which determined that it was J.J. Abrams' rumored monster movie once dubbed "Cloverfield." Some thought it was a hoax, as badly shot videos of the teaser posted on YouTube were promptly yanked by Paramount. After a bit of hunting, a mysterious site called 1-18-08.com was found, which featured an esoteric photo of the same teens and more were added over the following weeks, not really answering any questions. Around the same time, the desire to learn more about the project led to all sorts of fake sites popping up like Ethan Haas Was Right, a site of puzzles that wasted a lot of time of those who really didn't have it (shout out to my editor here!). It was thought to be related when Paramount decided to screw with people by pulling the puzzle videos from YouTube, but it turned out that it was a promotion for a video game and not related to the movie, same with the phony blog Ethan Haas Was Wrong. People scrambled to find out the truth, kicking off a new wave in viral online marketing beyond anything that had ever been seen before, but it also harked back to the hype behind New Line's Snakes on a Plane in 2005, which got so much attention but then failed to make a significant mark at the box office.

J.J. Abrams himself made an appearance at San Diego Comic-Con at the height of the madness to reveal a teaser poster of a headless Statue of Liberty without revealing any more, not even the film's title, which continued to be referred to by its release date "1-18-08." Late last year, the actual trailer unveiled the film's real title of Cloverfield and the hubbub started to subside, but now, with less than a week before the fated release date, it's too late for Paramount and J.J. Abrams to admit that the entire thing is an elaborate hoax, especially since some people have already seen the movie, and I'm going to have to finally admit that this wasn't just an attempt at making film history, since apparently, Paramount felt the urge to actually make a movie they spent so much time and money marketing.

Essentially, this is a monster movie ala Godzilla and King Kong except that it's shot "Blair Witch" style from hand-held cameras of the characters--presumably found footage from after the events in question. It's a filmmaking device that's been used a lot, including for George Romero's latest zombie flick Diary of the Dead, which comes out next month. The film was made by a couple of guys from the Abrams camp, Matt Reeves and Drew Goddard, who have worked on some of his shows, including "Felicity," "Alias" and "Lost," the latter having a similar amount of fan-aticism that Cloverfield has generated sight unseen without any notable stars or known actors. They mostly have hired television actors like Michael Stahl-David who starred in NBC's short-lived "The Black Donnellys," and the only notable film actor that some might recognize is Mike Vogel, former star of the show "Grounded for Life," who appeared in movies like Poseidon, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the mega-bombs Grind and Supercross.

The biggest audience for this movie will probably be guys from 13 to 30, most of them wanting see a giant monster destroying New York City done in a more realistic manner, because let's face it, everyone loves watching New York City get destroyed. The most obvious comparisons for Cloverfield are Roland Emmerich's Godzilla and Peter Jackson's King Kong, but it also features some of the elements of disaster movies like Emmerich's The Day After Tomorrow, Deep Impact or Michael Bay's own meteor movie Armageddon, and even alien invasion movies like Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds and Emmerich's Independence Day. (Seriously, if Emmerich tries to destroy New York City in 10,000 BC, we're going to start fighting back!) All of these movies opened over $40 million but they also opened either during the summer or holidays, and they were all made for significantly larger budgets than the rumored $30 million it cost to make Cloverfield.

The one possible detractor from the movie's success might be its abysmally bad title, which doesn't sound particularly scary or menacing, and if you don't know anything about the movie beforehand, the commercials might not look so impressive with all the bad hand-held camerawork which doesn't show the monster all (just what people think is a leg). That said, the poster image certainly leaves a lasting impression on anyone who sees them plastered all over the place. Either way, the anticipation and interest in the movie is huge going by Yahoo's Movies Buzz list where the movie has been sitting for months, just like Snakes on a Plane. Fortunately, the movie is PG-13, allowing the important teen set to see the movie without needing fake IDs or parental accompaniment, and Cloverfield looks much bigger than a cheesy novelty movie or a joke, which is what Snakes ended up being when it failed to live up to its hype.

That being said, Cloverfield is already the most overhyped movie of the year, even though that's turning it into a must-see event movie, at least going by the internet buzzer. (Again, Snakes on a Plane is too valid a comparison to completely ignore.) With what should be fairly packed midnight screenings on Thursday night, full of those wanting to see the movie before all the big secrets are revealed online, Friday should be very busy, though it may be hard for the movie to maintain that sort of business over the entire weekend, especially if it doesn't live up to all the hype. Of course, the movie will be helped as much by the lack of school and government offices being closed on Monday, but many have questioned the January opening decision, since it's common knowledge that no studio ever releases high quality movies in the middle of January and few movies have set box office records during the month. Currently, the three-day opening record for a January movie is the Star Wars: Special Edition re-release with nearly $36 million over ten years ago, but other movies have done well over the holiday weekend including Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down which grossed $33.6 million over the January holiday. Apparently, Paramount wants to test the theory that release date doesn't matter if enough people want to see movie, something that's helped movies like Hannibal, Mel Gibson's The Passion of The Christ and last year's 300 far surpass any previous records for the usually slow winter and spring months. If Cloverfield sets a new record for the month, we might see studios spreading out their big budget blockbusters and trying to grab more January weekends in the future.

Why I Should See It: To watch New York City getting destroyed… again.
Why Not: Show some love for New York City and fight the monster by not stoking your curiosity to see what it looks like!
Projections: $39 to 42 million over the four-day weekend but less than $100 million total.

COMPARISONS

27 Dresses (20th Century Fox)
Starring Katherine Heigl, James Marsden, Malin Akerman, Ed Burns, Melora Hardin, Judy Greer
Directed by Anne Fletcher (Step Up); Written by Alice Brosh McKenna (The Devil Wears Prada)
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Rated PG-13
Tagline: "This January, always a bridesmaid, never a bride."
Plot Summary: Jane (Katherine Heigl) has been a bridesmaid 27 times with a closet full of dresses to prove it, but when her younger sister (Malin Ackerman) falls for her boss (who Jane is also in love with), Jane decides it's time to take her life into her hands as she becomes the interest of a cynical wedding reporter (James Marsden) who wants to write a story about this insane wedding junkie.

Review

The boom of romantic comedies in recent years might be attributed to how much demand there is by women for movies that cater to their own tastes and desires, and these "chick flicks" tend to be relatively inexpensive to make, so they may be the only thing that can satisfy women that's not expensive. (Ba dum bum.) Esesntially, if you find a decent premise and put it together with the right cast, you make a lot of money as 20th Century Fox found out when they had a blockbuster hit in the summer of ‘06 with their adaptation of The Devil Wears Prada starring Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep, after opening it as counterprogramming against Warner Bros.' Superman Returns. That movie's screenwriter, Alice Brosh McKenna, has penned this original romantic comedy which Fox hopes will repeat Prada's success, to the point where they're even marketing it as "from the screenwriter of ‘The Devil Wears Prada'" which is not something we see very often.

McKenna's film, directed by choreographer Anne Fletcher, who made her directorial debut with the 2006 hit Step Up, has many of the same elements of previous romantic comedies that have done well, including a strong high-concept wedding premise that women of all ages will relate to or will want to see with their female friends. Even so, the movie doesn't have the sure-fire way of making money, which is by including "wedding" in the title, as seen by many precursors to this film that have done surprisingly well among women including Jennifer Lopez's The Wedding Planner in 2001 and Debra Messing's The Wedding Date three years ago. Even comedies like The Wedding Singer, Wedding Crashers and the indie My Big Fat Greek Wedding made more money than they might have if they didn't have "wedding" in the title, while pairing real-life couple Ashton Kutcher and Brittany Murphy in the early January romantic comedy Just Married five years ago also led to great success. (Sadly, we'll never see the sequel "Still Married" thanks to Demi Moore.)

While we've seen this type of movie many times before, their success often relies on their stars—having Julia Roberts star in a movie called "My Best Friend's Wedding" was almost like building a money-printing machine—and in this case, it features the second leading role for Katherine Heigl, the popular Emmy-winning actress from the ABC hospital drama "Grey's Anatomy," who had her first big film success last summer starring opposite Seth Rogen in Judd Apatow's raunchier romantic comedy Knocked Up, which grossed $146 million. It was quite a huge coup for an actress whose films mainly consisted of bad genre films, but she's built up a decent-size female fanbase so that 27 Dresses should prove that her last movie wasn't a fluke. Her romantic foil is played by James Marsden, best known as Cyclops from the "X-Men" movies, but who has found even more success by starring in a series of female-friendly musical-comedies in the last year, first playing Corny Collins in the musical Hairspray followed by a role as the dorky prince in Disney's Enchanted. Both movies brought in a huge amount of business, each grossing over $100 million, and while Marsden may have already had some female fans before those movies, he's certainly solidified his place as the perfect actor to play a dreamy leading man role like this one.

Heigl's younger sister is played by Malin Ackerman, the funny blonde from HBO's "The Comeback" who starred in a couple 2007 comedy bombs, The Brothers Solomon and The Heartbreak Kid, and her boss is played by Edward Burns, who has directed and starred in more than his share of romantic comedies including She's the One and 2005's The Holiday. Although they're not featured in the advertising, we can't go without mentioning Melora Hardin from "The Office" and character actress Judy Greer.

While there have been plenty of blockbuster romantic comedies in recent years including Failure to Launch and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, the best comparison for this would probably be the Ben Stiller-Jennifer Aniston teaming for Along Came Polly which opened over the MLK, Jr. weekend with $32.4 million in 2004. Granted, it had Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston who had already proved themselves at the box office and it didn't have nearly as much competition for audiences as 27 Dresses does—it could lose some of its older female audience to Mad Money, which features known commodities Diane Keaton and Queen Latifah— but Polly's success is a strong indicator that a female-friendly romantic comedy can do big business over MLK, Jr. weekend.

Fox wisely held sneak previews for the movie over the holidays on December 27 with the original plan to release it last Friday, but just as the year began, they decided to push it back a week in order to have another series of sneak screenings this past Sunday, most of which sold out. Some think that the movie would have been #1 if it opened as planned on January 11, but seeing how well The Bucket List and First Sunday did last weekend, maybe not, and the last minute rescheduling could end up being a genius move if the movie does well. Possibly, 20th Century Fox was scared of opening against two other comedies or they felt they could do better with an extra week of promotion but now, it's acting as counter-programming to Cloverfield, and it will have to hope that no women will have any interest in seeing a giant monster movie. Either way, the sneak previews should help generate word-of-mouth and hopefully there's enough women who haven't already seen it for when it opens for real this coming weekend. Despite Heigl only having one movie under her belt, the strong premise and word-of-mouth from those previews should guarantee a definite amount of women and girls in seats this weekend, and a strong showing for at least one more week after that.

Why I Should See It: For a studio romantic comedy, this one isn't nearly as bad as others thanks to the chemistry between Heigl and Marsden.
Why Not: Seriously, how many movies about weddings will studios make just because it's guaranteed to bring in business?
Projections: $20 to 23 million over the four-day weekend on its way to $75 million or more.

COMPARISONS

Mad Money (Overture Films)
Starring Diane Keaton, Queen Latifah, Katie Holmes, Ted Danson, Adam Rothenberg, Stephen Root, Roger Cross, Christopher McDonald, Finesse Mitchell
Directed by Callie Khouri (The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood); Written by Glenn Gers (Fracture, The Accountant)
Genre: Crime, Comedy
Rated PG-13
Tagline: "They're having the crime of their lives."
Plot Summary: Bridget Cardigan (Diane Keaton) is a down-on-her-luck upper middle class woman who needs to return to the life she's used to living, Nina (Queen Latifah) is a single mother trying to get a better life for her two sons, and flaky Jackie (Katie Holmes) is just in it for the adventure. Together, they pull off one of the most amazing heists, robbing the Kansas Federal Reserve where they work of millions of dollars in bills being prepared for shredding.

Mini-Review: Considering the broad comedy inherent in this high concept heist flick, it's somewhat surprising that it's not nearly as awful as it could have been, because there are more than a few clever ideas that keep it from being just like every other heist comedy we've seen in the last few years. The first and most obvious one is the lack of testosterone that makes the idea of these three very unlikely (and very different) women robbing the federal reserve an entertaining one, especially as we watch the plot unfold and marvel at how simple it is when the thieves are so unassuming. Eventually, the film becomes more about how they try to continue their theft without getting caught with a few spanners thrown into their works, and that part gets tiring, especially since the opening scene of the movie shows them trying to get rid of the money to avoid being captured by the FBI, which kills any question about whether they'll get busted. Of the three actresses, Latifah clearly comes across the best as a tough-minded single mother, and because this is meant as a heist comedy for women, there's a nice bit of romance between her and Roger Cross, but one can't help but question how an Oscar-winning actress like Diane Keaton keeps winding up in these sorts of roles, but also why she feels the need to ham it up and take things so over-the-top with her delivery. More often than not, she ends up embarrassing herself with how ridiculous she looks while attempting to make things funnier, and usually failing in that goal. Katie Holmes doesn't have to try so hard to be funny as the flaky stoner who the older women enlist to help and there are some great ancillary roles for Ted Danson as Keaton's clever husband and Stephen Root as the reserve's arrogant head of security. Ultimately, the movie is harmless in its attempt to entertain and get laughs, though it's not nearly as funny as those involved intended, mainly since it's tragic to watch Diane Keaton's career continue its path into embarrassing roles that undermine her acting talent. Rating: 6/10

There have been many memorable heist comedies in the last five or six years including the "Ocean" trilogy and The Italian Job and a couple lesser ones like David Mamet's appropriately titled Heist and the Coens' The Ladykillers--oddly, most of those are remakes--but one thing they have in common is that all of the big robberies are perpetrated by large groups of men, and they tend to cater more to male audiences than women. This one is the first theatrical release by new distributor Overture Films, a division of the successful cable movie channel Starz, who are jumping right into things with a wide release, and their first release Mad Money is a twist on the genre with a heist movie geared towards women, directed by Callie Khorui, who has experience with women-empowering movies like The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. (Not many Americans will even realize that this, too, is a remake of a 2001 British television movie called "Hot Money" though it really won't matter much here.)

Most of the successful heist flicks are driven by popular stars and at the forefront of this one are Diane Keaton and Queen Latifah, both whom have large female followings who enjoy their work. Diane Keaton generally appeals to women over 30 or 40, who've helped her score a number of big hits in the last eight years including Something's Gotta Give in 2003, which teamed her with Jack Nicholson and got her a fourth Oscar nomination and her third $100 million movie after 1996's The First Wives Club and her memorable debut in The Godfather. Two years later, she appeared in The Family Stone amongst a strong ensemble cast, which didn't do quite as well and last year's romantic comedy Because I Said So opened well but showed signs that Keaton's fans, many of whom have followed her career since the ‘70s, were starting to tire of her forays into broader comedy which Mad Money continues.

Teaming her with Queen Latifah is an interesting choice because the former rapper and talk show host is likely to bring in African-American women who might never have interest in a Diane Keaton movie, although this isn't really a black movie in the same sense as last week's First Sunday. Latifah has proven herself to be somewhat of a draw with movies she's led like Last Holiday which opened in the same weekend two years ago and even disappointments like Beauty Shop and Taxi have opened over $12 million opening in far more theatres. That said, both actresses have had flops, Latifah most recently with The Perfect Holiday, which she produced, and Keaton with the disastrous Town and Country back in 2001, although Mad Money at least has a stronger and easier to sell premise.

Rounding out the trio is Katie Holmes, making her first film appearance since 2006's indie comedy Thank You for Smoking and unfortunately, her presence might put some people off due to the tabloid's focus on her personal life with husband Tom Cruise in recent years. It's doubtful that her presence will do much to help or hurt, because even before all the Tom Cruise stuff, Holmes had never been able to really bring people into theatres with many of her movies like Teaching Mrs. Tingle and Abandon and First Daughter having bombed with less than $12 million total. Holmes' biggest movie to date was the 2005 superhero flick Batman Begins, but she's one of the few members of that cast not being brought back for this year's sequel. If anything, Holmes as a box office jinx will balance out the two stronger actresses, and the good thing about having such a strong cast is that all three actresses have been able to do the talk show rounds, or at least on the talk shows not being picketed by the WGA.

While the simple premise of three cleaning women robbing the federal reserve is one that's fairly easy to sell, there's just way too much competition in theatres for any and all potential target audiences. Originally, this was meant as counter-programming to Cloverfield and it would have done fine as that, but now younger women are more likely to go see something like 27 Dresses, while older women will still have Rob Reiner's The Bucket List as an option. Latifah's black female audience might rather see a movie like First Sunday over the weekend celebrating the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. and few guys will be interested in seeing this over movies like Cloverfield and P.T. Anderson's There Will Be Blood, which will expand into more cities on Friday. On top of that, potential Oscar movies like Atonement and No Country for Old Men and Michael Clayton will also be taking advantage of the holiday weekend and recent award nominations to try to find a few more dollars, and they'll all look more enticing. Sure, there will be those who've already seen these other movies and are looking for something new, and Keaton's older female fans will probably check out reviews, which may be somewhat favorable, only because the movie is better than the commercials make it look, but that probably won't be enough for the movie to find the audience it needs. It might not be a complete bomb due to the bump from the holiday weekend, but it won't be on par with either of Keaton or Latifah's stronger movies.

Why I Should See It: This is a unique spin on the heist comedy, one without all the normal testosterone and machismo.
Why Not: But being a heist film, it probably won't be nearly as appealing to women since it's more of a guy-friendly genre, and guys won't be as interested.
Projections: $6 to 8 million over the four-day weekend and roughly $20 million total.

COMPARISONS

THE CHOSEN ONE:

Taxi to the Dark Side (THINKFilm)
Starring Alberto Mora, John McCain, John Yoo, Moazzam Begg, Sgt. Thomas Curtis, Jack Cloonan, John Galligan, Tim Golden
Directed by Alex Gibney (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room)
Genre: Documentary
Rated R
Plot Summary: In this new documentary, Alex Gibney (Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room) explores the government’s use of torture and interrogation tactics post 9/11 to try to weed out terrorists, a system that caused the premature death of an Afghan taxi driver.

Interview with Alex Gibney

A few years ago, Michael Winterbottom opened a lot of eyes with his docudrama The Road to Guantanamo, which followed the capture of three British students by U.S. forces and the indignities they suffered as they were shipped off to the Guantanamo Prison Camp in Cuba under suspicion of being involved with terrorists. Alex Gibney’s follow-up to Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room takes things one step further, looking not only at one particular case of a wrongful death by a prisoner under interrogation in a similar camp, but also tracing the paper trail all the way up to the Vice-President and then Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, leading an administration that believed that it was right to do "whatever it takes" to get information out of potential terrorists. That demand by higher-ups put so much pressure on soldiers and military police running these prisons that they’d often go beyond the rights of the prisoner as dictated by the Geneva Act following World War II. The intriguing doc begins with the story of Dilawar, a taxi driver in Afghanistan who picks up the wrong passengers and ends up imprisoned at the Bagram Air Base where his interrogators try to get information out of him but inadvertently kill him during the process. From there, Gibney follows those involved to the infamous Abu Graib prison in Iraq and traces their techniques back to Guantanamo and then right up the chain of command to those who approved the torture and interrogation methods. It also tries to explore how something like Abu Graib might happen and to explain how soldiers with generally good moral fiber might conduct such shocking horrors on their fellow man all in the name of "following orders." Like "Enron" and last year’s "No End in Sight" (which Gibney executive produced), this is a shocking and mind-blowing look at what men do to each other in the name of the security and safety of their country, and frankly, if you haven’t already questioned the current government administration about some of their actions and tactics than this movie should be the last nail in that coffin that will only be fully closed in a year when the country has a new President.

If you enjoyed Michael Winterbottom’s The Road to Guantanamo or the HBO doc "The Ghosts of Abu Graib" (and seriously, how can anyone say they "enjoyed" either?) then you should be interested in Gibney’s latest, which opens in New York and L.A. on Friday.

Also in Limited Release:

Cassandra’s Dream (The Weinstein Co.) - Woody Allen returns with his thematic follow-up to 2005’s London-based Match Point with this murder thriller starring Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell as brothers who fall on desperate times until they go to their uncle (Tom Wilkinson) for financial aid, who convinces them to kill a rival who might hurt him in court. Woody’s latest opens in 102 theatres in select cities, which should allow it to make roughly $300 – 500k this weekend.

Review

Day Zero (First Look) – Elijah Wood, Chris Klein and Jon Bernthal play best friends who grew up in New York who find they have thirty days to report for the military when the U.S. draft is reinstated, forcing them to reconsider their lives. The feature film directorial debut from editor Bryan Gunnar Cole, which debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival last year, will get a limited release in select cities before its DVD release on February 26.

Mini-Review (Coming Soon!)

Still Life (New Yorker Films) - Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhang-ke (Unknown Pleasures, The World) sets his latest drama in the town of Fengjie, now underwater in the river created to feed the Three Gorges project, as two people return to the relocated town looking for their former spouses who they haven’t seen in years only to find what they’re looking for in each other. The winner of the Golden Lion in directing at the 2006 Venice Film Festival will open at the IFC Film Center in New York on Friday.

Mini-Review (Coming Soon!)

Summer Palace (Palm Pictures) - Ye Lou’s Chinese drama about two young lovers at a college in Beijing who get caught in the revolts against Communism leading up to the Tiannamen Square riots, which separates them until the fall of the Berlin Wall. It opens at the Cinema Village in New York City and in L.A. on February 1.

Teeth (Roadside Attractions) - Mitchell Litchenstein’s comedic thriller stars newcomer Jess Weixler as a teen girl named Dawn, who has sworn an oath of celibacy, something reinforced by a bizarre mutation that has created a phenomenon known as "vagina dentata" , producing razor sharp teeth within her genitals. John Wayne Bobbitt better watch out when this Sundance favorite opens in select cities on Friday.

Review

Next week, the month of January comes to a close (man, that went by fast!) with way too many movies and the strongest one (and that’s not saying much) being Sylvester Stallone’s return as the warrior Rambo (Lionsgate). Also, Diane Lane takes on an internet serial killer in Untraceable (Sony/Screen Gems), historical war epics like 300 are spoofed in Meet the Spartans (20th Century Fox), and the annual January dance movie tradition continues with How She Move (Paramount Vantage/MTV Films).

(Being that the Warrior will be in Park City next weekend for the Sundance Film Festival, there is a chance that we may have to take next week off or do a minimal stripped-down column, but we’ll see how it goes.)

Copyright 2008 Edward Douglas