THE CHOSEN ONE:

THE ILLUSIONIST (Yari Film Group)
Starring Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti, Jessica Biel, Rufus Sewell, Eddie Marsan, James Babson, Brian Caspe, Tom Fisher, Aaron Johnson, Erich Redman, Ellen Savaria, Jake Wood
Written and directed by Neil Burger (Interview with an Assassin)
Genre: Mystery, Period, Romance
Rated PG-13 (for no nudity; sorry Jessica Biel fans)
Tagline: "Nothing is What It Seems."
Story: Eisenheim the Illusionist (Edward Norton) is the talk of the town, but he has made an enemy of Crown Prince Leopold (Russell Sewell) by wooing his fiance Sophie (Jessica Biel), so the prince sends his chief inspector Uhl (Paul Giamatti) to investigate Eisenheim and debunk him as a fraud. When someone turns up dead, Eisenheim is blamed for the death, but he's insistent that it's the prince who is guilty causing the two men to get into a battle of wits with Uhl caught in the middle.
REVIEW

This is one of the nicer surprises of the late summer. This movie, based on the book by Steven Millhauser, was put together by Bob (Crash) Yari, and was probably sitting on the shelf for a while before debuting at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. (Yes, this is the fourth Chosen One that debuted at Sundance. Maybe they've got something there!)

The Illusionist stars two of the best actors of our times in a beautiful movie that avoids comparisons by mixing a lot of different genre elements. First of all, it's a period piece, set in 19^th Century Vienna complete with all of the costumes, sets and accents that goes along with it, but it's not necessarily a drama or a comedy, as much as it is a mystery revolving around an illusionist named Eisenstein, played by Edward Norton, who creates unbelievable illusions that looks like real magic rather than the stage variety. The tyrannical Crown Prince is not happy that he can't figure out how his tricks are done, so he assigns his Chief Inspector, played by Paul Giamatti, to investigate. When someone close to the Crown Prince is murdered, Eisenstein becomes the primary suspect, just as he changes his act to include a séance-like trick where he talks to the dead.

A gorgeous movie with a stirring score by composer Philip Glass, this is the kind of movie that M. Night Shyamalan has tried so hard to make for most of his career with a twist on par with The Sixth Sense, but what makes it so great are the top-notch performances and just the general vibe, setting and look of the movie that pulls you in from the beginning and allows you to truly believe in the magic you're watching.

The Illusionist opens in select cities on Friday with an expansion nationwide over Labor Day.

NEW THIS WEEK:

SNAKES ON A PLANE (New Line)
Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Nathan Phillips, Byron Lawson, Julianna Margulies, Rachel Blanchard, Bobby Cannavale, Kenan Thompson, David Koechner
Directed by David Ellis (Final Destination 2, Cellular, Homeward Bound 2); Written by John Heffernan, David Loucka
Genre: Action, Horror, Thriller, Aerial reptiles
Rated R (for lots of killer snakes and even more swearing from Samuel L. Jackson than his Mama would allow back home.)
Tagline: "Relax. They're first class fliers."
Story: An FBI agent (Samuel L. Jackson) is taking a protected witness from Hawaii to L.A. when an assassin releases snakes… on the plane… to try to kill the witness. Surely there must be an easier way.

Who would have thought over a year ago when Snakes on a Plane was announced that it would become the internet sensation that it has? Then again, how else could someone not embrace a movie with such a simple premise that it can be explained simply by telling someone the title?

Even before New Line had begun an official marketing campaign, internet fanboys were making their very own trailers, usually cut together from other Sam Jackson movies, and buzz began building. But it was a strange buzz, because it seemed to be more mocking of the B-movie sensibilities and easy to mock title (kind of like there being a sequel to Final Destination). Originally, Snakes was going to be another tame PG-13 horror movie, but as that buzz kept building, New Line had director David R. Ellis, who actually helmed that Final Destination sequel, do a few reshoots to make it an R-rated movie with more nudity, more violence, and most of all, to allow the movie's star to let loose with the type of expletives his fans expect.

Yes, folks, those snakes don't stand much of a chance when they take on Samuel L. Jackson, because he's got weapons and most of all, he'll have the F-word at his disposal, when he takes on those Snakes on a Plane. That alone could make a big difference for Jackson, who hasn't really had many hits barring last year's #1 Star Wars: Episode III, instead starring in flops like the urban drama Freedomland with Julianne Moore earlier this year and last year's action-comedy The Man, which teamed him with Eugene Levy. But you only have to go back to early last year to find a time when a Samuel Jackson movie did decent business when he was the only real star, because Coach Carter opened at #1 with over $24 million on Martin Luther King Jr's birthday, and went on to make around $67 million. Fact is that Jackson's older male fans would rather see him cut loose rather than being held back, and the same goes for horror fans who always feel slightly ripped off by when gore is lessened to get a PG-13.

Although Snakes on a Plane is all about Samuel L. Jackson and the snakes, the movie has an impressive supporting cast including former E.R. star Juliana Margulies as a flight attendant. Margulies really hasn't done that many movies except for the 2002 horror film Ghost Ship, which unwisely opened against Jackass The Movie and got slaughtered. Then there's Bobby Kanavale of The Station Agent and the recent The Night Listener, who plays Jackson's FBI contact, so he doesn't actually have to be on the snake-ridden plane, Kenan Thompson from "Saturday Night Live" and Fat Albert, and David Koechner, who has appeared on "The Office" and lots of other movies like Will Ferrell's Anchorman and the recent Talladega Nights. It also stars young hotties Sunny Mabrey of the straight-to-video Species III and last year's bomb XXX: State of the Union and Rachel Blanchard (Where the Truth Lies).

The movie is obviously going to appeal mainly to guys between the ages of 14 of 30, but it may have trouble finding mainstream audiences, especially after last week's terror scares that has made it really hard to bring anything onto airplanes. Do people really want to see a movie about terror on a plane, even if it's slightly less credible than Paul Greengrass' United 93?

One has to wonder how many people actually want to see this movie compared to how many just want to make fake trailers and posters and other silliness based on the premise. Does it have the type of advance buzz that drove "fight" movies like New Line's Freddy vs. Jason or Fox's Alien vs. Predator or is it simply a lot of people making fun of the puerile premise? The movie is placing high on the Yahoo! Buzz Meter, which is usually a good sign of awareness, but that also could just be people looking for those DIY trailers.

Probably the best comparison for this movie will be the two most recent snake thrillers, Anaconda and Anaconda: The Hunt for Blood Orchid, both B-horror movies that found an audience. The original movie opened in 1997 and made $16 million its opening weekend on its way to $65.5 million, while the latter opened two years ago with just $12.8 million, but only made half the original's total theatrical gross.

Either way, it seems like New Line should have gotten this movie out earlier in the summer, striking while the iron was hot, rather than waiting until the end of summer. Commercials showed up two months ago then quickly disappeared, and there never really has been much of a trailer, just a teaser and a couple clips. It just seems like New Line never really got a strong marketing campaign off the ground, instead pushing it at Comic-Con in San Diego, which really is preaching to the converted.

Even though there's a lot of anticipation for this movie, New Line has decided not to screen it for critics, instead releasing it to the "fans" first. That means that critics will have to pay to see the movie early to review it, and with the number of "critics" out there whose interest may be peaked, that should be at least a couple more thousand dollars to its coffers on Friday. With no early screenings, everyone's who's even remotely interested in the movie will have to pay to see it, which should help its opening weekend, if nothing else.

Releasing the movie at the tail end of summer has allowed New Line to get the movie into an astounding 3,300 theatres in hopes of people who don't know anything about it might check it out on the basis of the self-descriptive title alone. It's also the last big movie of summer, which might automatically make it a must-see for anyone still looking for one last popcorn movie before going back to school.

(UPDATE: Here at the Weekend Warrior, we'll admit when we're wrong, and it seems that between Monday, when early predictions were posted, and today, the buzz has grown for this movie, mainly due to appearances everywhere by Samuel L. Jackson pumping people up for the movie. Maybe that will be enough to get the movie over $30 million this weekend?)

Why I Should See It: You really like snakes… or planes… or Samuel L. Jackson. Or better yet, all of them together.
Why Not: No one has seen the movie and won't until it opens, which makes you wonder how good it possibly can be. Could the most recent plane scares keep people away from this thriller?
Projection: $30 to 32 million on its way to $75 million.

ACCEPTED (Universal Pictures)
Starring Justin Long, Jonah Hill, Blake Lively, Adam Herschman, Maria Thayer, Anthony Heald, Columbus Short, Lewis Black
Directed by Steve Pink (writer Grosse Point Blank, High Fidelity); Written by Mark Perez (Herbie: Fully Loaded, The Country Bears), Adam Cooper and Bill Collage (New York Minute, upcoming Get Smart)
Genre: Comedy
Rated PG-13 (for "We want to be subversive, but not to the point of not being able to attract the 11 year olds who can't get into Snakes on a Plane")
Tagline: "When every college turned them down… they made one up."
Story: Bartleby Gaines (Justin Long) has not had any luck getting into a single college, so in order to get his parents off his back, he creates the South Harmon Institute of Technology but before he and his friends can enjoy slacking off there, hundreds of applicants show up to be admitted to the one college that won't turn them down.
Mini-Review: This inventive comedy is slightly softened by its PG-13 rating and its steadfast adherance to the college comedy formula originated in "Animal House," but there's also a subversive thumbing of its nose to the college system that makes it unique. The cast really makes it work from Justin Long and Lewis Black down to the newer comic talent like Jonah Hill and Adam Herschman, who are both hilarious. The weakest link seems to be Blake Lively, who seems to come from the same Hilary Duff/LIndsay Lohan mold of teen actresses, creating a highly unbelievable relationship with Long. Still, as an "anti-college" college comedy, "Accepted" is able to surpass its predictable formulaic nature to win you over with an enjoyable and entertaining story of outcasts making good. Rating: 7/10

Ah, yes, the college comedy. Not usually something you see during the summer because school is the last thing that young people want to think of, but considering how well comedy has done this summer, it's not that big a surprise that Universal is trying something a bit different to follow-up their earlier comedy hits, The Break-Up and You, Me and Dupree. Like last year's surprise comedy hit The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Accepted is attempting to push an actor who has been in the public eye for many years but hasn't had much of a chance to carry a movie, that being Justin Long (whose career is covered in this week's Star Spotlight.)

While Justin Long has found himself an audience of young people from appearances in movies like Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, he's going to be carrying this movie with the help of a young ensemble cast that includes Jonah Hill, who had a small but memorable cameo in The 40-Year-Old Virgin (he was the guy in the eBay store), Blake Lively of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and Maria Thayer of Strangers With Candy. More importantly, the movie features comedian Lewis Black, best known for his rants on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," in the type of angry role his fans will love. It's also the debut of Adam Herschman, who should prove to be one of the most popular characters in the movie, much like Curtis Armstrong's "Booger" in Revenge of the Nerds, another movie that offered a bit of influence for Accepted.

Accepted is the type of comedy that would have starred John Cusack if it was made 20 years ago, maybe because it's directed by Steve Pink, who wrote two of Cusack's better recent movies Grosse Point Blank and High Fidelity. Oddly, instead of being written by Pink, the screenplay is by the guys behind Herbie Fully Loaded and New York Minute, two movies which couldn't be any more different than Accepted.

2002 was a banner year for the college comedy, but only in the fact that there were a lot of them. Only Orange County, the first of them, had any success, making $15 million its opening weekend, followed closely by the bombs Slackers and Sorority Boys and later that spring with Ryan Reynolds in National Lampoon's Van Wilder. Roger Avary's Rules of Attraction didn't do very well late in the year, but in 2003, Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn and Luke Wilson teamed up for the far more successful Old School, which had a similar premise as this new movie starring Vaughn's frequent co-star. Surprisingly, there haven't really been many college-related comedies in the last few years, and Accepted may be one of the first movies trying to capitalize on the success of Old School.

Releasing the movie during the last weeks of summer might end up being a wise move because so many kids will be thinking of heading off to college in a few weeks and watching a comedy that makes fun of the experience might put them in the proper mood. Then again, so might Snakes on a Plane.

Although Accepted is rated PG-13 rather than R (sorry guys, no women's breasts!), it follows the mold of Old School and yes, Animal House, in its "snobs vs. the slobs" formula of the outcasts taking on the favorites, something that tends to go over well among teens that consider themselves outcasts. The relevant high concept premise and the appealing young cast including Long should help bring in a lot of the teenagers who won't be able to get into Snakes or just aren't that interested in a B horror movie. In the last two years, late summer comedies have done well enough to carry into the fall once school stars, and Accepted should definitely fall into this category with the right word-of-mouth.

Why I Should See It: Justin Long and a funny ensemble cast in a funny high concept comedy.
Why Not: Who wants to see a movie about college in last days of summer?
Projection: $12 to 14 million on its way to $50 million.

MATERIAL GIRLS (MGM)
Starring Hilary Duff, Haylie Duff, Anjelica Huston, Lukas Haas, Brent Spiner, Joanne Baron, Natalie Lander, Colleen Camp, Beckie King
Directed by Martha Coolidge (The Prince & Me, Out to Sea, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, Crazy in Love); Written by John Quaintance (Aquamarine, "Joey"), Jessica O'Toole
Genre: Comedy, Drama (flip a coin)
Rated PG (for no one over 11, let alone guiding parents, will want to see this)
Tagline: "It's a short trip from the penthouse to the poorhouse."
Story: Cosmetic heiresses Tanzie and Ava Marchetta (Hilary and Haylie Duff) are still dealing with the death of their father when a scandal threatens to shut down their empire, forcing them out of their house and home to try to get real jobs after living the pampered life.
Mini-Review: There's not much to say about this movie that you can't figure out from the trailer, but only shallow teenage girls looking for a bit of throwaway entertainment might be able to buy this dumb premise. I can't imagine anyone else being able to sit through this painfully bad comedy, which lacks one important thing... laughs. The Duffs are worse on screen than the Olsen sisters, giving you no reason to get behind them or want them to get through the "awful" circumstance, which forces them to live with their Mexican maid, but it does manage to get in more than a few bad racial stereotypes that just makes the whole thing come across even uglier. To say that the movie is one of the worst abominations ever committed to film might be going a bit far, but it certainly doesn't bode well for either Duff sister if this is the best script coming their way. Rating: 2/10

I've always wondered how much better Hilary Duff's movies might be if she allowed her older sister Haylie to get in on the fun, and finally I've gotten my wish, because Material Girls offers two Duffs for the price of one.

Okay, I'm lying through my teeth, because a.) I have never seen any of Hilary Duff's movies, and b.) I never wondered anything except how Hilary Duff might salvage her dwindling career after a number of successive flops. Things were going so well for the then 16-year-old actress when she starred with Frankie Muniz in the family action-comedy Agent Cody Banks, followed a few months later by her first solo hit, The Lizzie McGuire Movie, based on the popular Disney Channel show which made Duff such a favorite among ‘tweens. Later that year, she played one of Steve Martin's many kids in the hit Cheaper by the Dozen, but the following year, things started to fall apart as her sleeper A Cinderella Story ($51 million gross) was followed by Raise Your Voice, which ended up making only $10.4 million. Duff's 2005 romantic comedy The Perfect Man did only slightly better last summer, and even the sequel to Cheaper by the Dozen didn't fare nearly as well as the original.

For Material Girls, she teams with her older sister who has been attaining her own popularity from appearances on shows like "7th Heaven," for a comedy premise that isn't much better than the one used for Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen flop New York Minute. Maybe it seems like pairing Hilary with her sister in a high concept comedy directed by a teen movie veteran Martha Coolidge (Valley Girl, The Prince & Me) would be the right formula to Hilary's career back on track, except that it really seems like the type of bad premise that spawns flops like Marci X, Against the Ropes and Connie and Carla, all of which starred stranger pairings than Hilary Duff and her sister.

In order to try to make the movie seem classier than it is, the producers were able to convince Oscar-winning actress Anjelica Huston to play the girls' arch-rival and even Brent Spiner AKA Data from "Star Trek: The Next Generation" took on a role as their financial advisor. It just goes to show what actors will do for a buck.

It doesn't help matters that Material Girls is the first major release being distributed by MGM without the benefits of the Weinsteins' marketing skills—what makes you think that was sarcasm?--and it's getting a moderate release into around 1,500 theatres. With almost no advanced marketing, do any of Duffy's younger female fans even know this movie is coming out?

With the number of stronger movies in theatres and opening over the next few weeks, this is very likely to be the big bomb for the weekend, making very little money and then gone from most theatres by Labor Day. At least it will do better than last year's Undiscovered starring Ashlee Simpson, which set a new low for a wide release by making less than $700,000 in 1,300 theatres last August. (UPDATE: This movie also seems to be benefitting from last-minute buzz as the Duff Sisters do their rounds, so we'll amend our earlier prediction up a million or so.)

Why I Should See It: It offers two Duffs for the price of one.
Why Not: One Duff is quite enough, thank you.
Projection: $3 to 4 million on its way to 10 million.

TRUST THE MAN (Fox Searchlight)
Starring Julianne Moore, David Duchovny, Billy Crudup, Maggie Gyllenhaal
Written and directed by Bart Freundlich (The Myth of Fingerprints, World Traveller, Catch That Kid)
Genre: Comedy, Drama (flip the coin again), Romance
Rated R (for if you're under the age of 20 and would rather see this than any of the other choices, I worry about you)
Tagline: "Love is a four-letter word."
Story: Follows two New York couples, actress Rebecca (Julianne Moore) and her house husband Tom (David Duchovny), who are having problems with their sex life, while their best friends Tobey and Elaine (Billy Crudup, Maggie Gyllenhaal) have been together for a long time, but slacker Tobey won't commit to marrying Elaine.
REVIEW

Director Bart Freundlich is only the second luckiest director after Len Wiseman, being married to the glorious Julianne Moore and having her at his beck and call… to star in all of his movies, of course. (She's been appearing in his movies dating back to 1997‘s The Myth of Fingerprints.) For his third film as writer/director and his first comedy, Freundlich called upon two of his best friends, David Duchovny, who last starred with Moore in the Ivan Reitman flop Evolution, and Billy Crudup, who starred with Moore in Freundlich's 2001 drama World Traveler. This is another one of those romantic comedies with a bit of relationship drama thrown into the mix, much like Fox Searchlight's early 2006 release, Imagine Me and You, but it's set in New York rather than England and with no lesbians. There's a good chance, it can find a bigger audience than Freundlich's last few movies thanks to its strong cast and commercials that play up the physical comedy, although it's also rated R and probably won't have much appeal to the under-30 set. It's opening in select cities this weekend but expect it to expand wider sometime in September.

Why I Should See It: Bart Freundlich has assembled a great cast for his comedy debut, including (once again), his wife Julianne Moore.
Why Not: They say that comedy is not pretty. Bart Freundlich doing comedy is just plain FUGLY!

STAR SPOTLIGHT: Justin Long

If you think we're going to spend an entire afternoon going over the long career of Samuel L. Jackson, then you're on more crack than whomever came up with the idea for his latest movie. Instead, we're going to talk about our homeboy from Fairfield, Connecticut, Justin Long, who stars in this week's college comedy, Accepted.

Long is one of the only actors who can say that he's had love scenes with both Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan before they started getting into trouble, but before you even think it, there's no way that our Justin Long could have been a bad influence on them. It really was the likes of Wilmer Valderama or that evil Justin Timberlake. Justin Long could never be a bad influence on anyone.

Well before he was tangling tonsils with the tabloid set, Long made his movie debut in the 1999 Tim Allen sci-fi comedy Galaxy Quest, as a geeky fan of the show, then a couple summers later, in 2001, he starred in the sleeper horror hit Jeepers Creepers. Neither film turned him into an instant star, nor did his follow-up, Brittney Spears road comedy Crossroads, although he was fortunate enough to survive that experience. Long turned to TV, appearing on the television show "Ed"and then two years later, Long starred in his most high profile movie, the summer comedy Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, which first paired him with Vince Vaughn, who then cast Long as an effeminate personal assistant in his recent comedy hit The Break-Up. And a year later, he teamed with Lindsay Lohan for the Disney family movie Herbie Fully Loaded, which didn't open well, but did decent business over the summer.

Accepted will be Long's first starring role in a movie since Jeepers Creepers, and it will give him the chance to show that he can hold a big ensemble cast together without having another name star like Vince Vaughn or Ryan Reynolds. If it does well, one can expect that more studios will be turning to Long in hopes of turning him into the next big comedy star. If not… well, I hear that Hilary Duff might need an older boyfriend for her next movie.