Your Weekly Guide to New Movies for April 13, 2007
By Edward Douglas -

Greetings and welcome back to the Weekend Warrior, your weekly guide to the weekend's new movies. Tune in every Tuesday for the latest look at the upcoming weekend, and then check back on Friday for final projections based on actual theatre counts.

(If you have anything to say about anything written in this column, feedback and Email is always welcome, and almost always responded to.)

THE CHOSEN ONE(S):

This week we have a two-for-one, because frankly, Red Road would have been last week's Chosen One if Tartan Films hadn't pushed it back to this weekend.

LONELY HEARTS (Roadside Attractions/Samuel Goldwyn Films)
Starring John Travolta, James Gandolfini, Jared Leto, Salma Hayek, Scott Caan, Alice Krige, Laura Dern
Written and directed by Todd Robinson (debut)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Rated R
Tagline: "Love Kills"
Story: Two Long Island cops (John Travolta, James Gandolfini) look for the notorious Lonely Hearts killers (Jared Leto, Salma Hayek), a duo who are traveling the country duping lonely spinsters of their life savings and killing those who discover the truth.
INTERVIEW (with Todd Robinson)

This was a movie I caught at least year's Tribeca Film Festival, and it not only was the best thing I saw at the festival last year, but it might be one of the best dramatic features I've ever seen at the annual New York festival ever. (Actually, there's another good drama being released in a couple weeks that will likely be that week's Chosen One.) For his first dramatic feature, documentary filmmaker and screenwriter Todd Robinson decided to take on a very personal story, that of his grandfather, who was one of the lead detectives from Long Island, working on the Lonely Hearts case, following two serial killers who traveled across the country preying on rich women and then killing them. When I saw the movie a year ago, it really stood out against the movies playing in theatres but since then, Brian De Palma and David Fincher have both done historic crime dramas, and there's also been the true crime mystery Hollywoodland, which has a similar feel as Lonely Hearts. (It's also a bit more like Capote, another first dramatic feature from a documentary filmmaker.) The movie's strength predominantly lies in Robinson's script which gives the previously told crime story a more personal angle, but one has to be impressed by the amazing cast he assembled with John Travolta and Salma Hayek giving high point performances of their careers. "The Sopranos" star James Gandolfini is also quite good, as is an almost unrecognizable Jared Leto, but it's really how Robinson tells this story almost like a noir thriller that makes it such a riveting story, as can be said about…

RED ROAD (Tartan Films)
Starring Kate Dickie, Tony Curran, Martin Compston, Nathalie Press, Andrew Armour
Written and directed by Andrea Arnold (debut)
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Not Rated (though probably would get an NC-17 if it were)
Story: Jackie (Kate Dickie) is a CCTV operator who keeps an eye on the community via the cameras set-up all across Glasgow, Scotland, but one day, she sees a man from her past (Tony Curran) in one of her monitors and becomes obsessed with following him and finding out why he's returned to the area.)
INTERVIEW (with Andrea Arnold)

After a number of shorts including the Oscar-winning "Wasp" featuring Nathalie Press (My Summer of Love), British filmmaker Andrea Arnold makes her feature film debut with a dramatic thriller set in Glasgow, which deals with obsession and stalking in the form of a single woman whose husband and daughter were killed under mysterious circumstances, and how a man from her past sets her out on a potentially self-destructive path. It features great performances from Kate Dickie and Tony Curran (you might remember him from movies like Underworld: Evolution), but the most interesting thing about the movie is that it's part of something called the "Advance Concept Party" in which three directors make three movies each featuring the same characters played by the same actors. It was devised by Danish nutter Lars von Trier along with Lone Scherfig (Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself) and Anders Thomas Jensen, writing partner of Susanne Bier (Brothers, After the Wedding), and Red Road is the first of three movies, the other two to be directed by Morag Mackinnon of Glasgow and Mikkel Norgaard of Copenhagen. (Update: It's just been announced by IndieWire that Mikkel may be dropping out of the project completely.) It's a strong dramatic piece of work that lulls you into a sense of security and then shocks you with a number of unexpected twists and turns….and that's even if you go in expecting twists and turns.

Lonely Hearts opens in New York and L.A. this weekend and is recommended if you dig true crime thrillers like Hollywoodland, The Black Dahlia, Zodiac or L.A. Confidential.
Red Road opens at the Landmark Sunshine and Lincoln Plaza Cinemas in New York on Friday, and it's recommended if you like the Danish dogme films, films by Ken Loach like Sweet Sixteen, or the French thriller Read My Lips.

AQUA TEEN HUNGER FORCE COLON MOVIE FILM FOR THEATERS (First Look Pictures)
Starring (the voices of) Matt Maiellaro, Dave Willis, Dana Snyder, Carey Means, Andy Merrill, Mike Schatz, Bruce Campbell, Neil Peart
Written and directed by Matt Maiellaro, Dave Willis (creators of the Cartoon Network, formerly of "Space Ghost: Coast to Coast")
Genre: Animated, Action, Adventure, Comedy
Rated R
Tagline: "From the 1st Assistant Director of the 2nd Unit of Hellraiser III: Hell On Earth and the Production Assistant of the video Know Your Fryer"
Plot Summary: Plot? Are you kidding? Have you ever watched this show!? Sure, there's something to do with the origins of how Frylock, Master Shake and Meatwad first became a team, as an exercise machine that powers a creature that goes out of control and attacks the city posing a threat to the Aqua Teens.
Of Note: The stars of the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim come to the big screen.
Mini-Review: What can one say about this shabbily realized animated movie that features dozens of ridiculous and annoying characters and a premise that rarely relies on actual plot or storytelling? For one, it won't take very long for the uninitiated to realize that this movie is by no means a good jumping on point for those who haven't seen the original cartoon show. The movie seems to have been made sheerly for the sake of fans of what might as well be the Cartoon Network's animated comedy for retarded stoners, and most of this isn't even remotely funny or entertaining, instead being a series of stupid, pointless non-sequiturs that's likely to leave anyone who hasn't the show going "HUH!?!" Yes, kids, this critic is taking the stance that if I don't get it, it can't possibly be funny, and this movie was one of the most unbearable and unwatchable movie experiences I've had this year. Then again, if you're a fan of the show, you're probably already beyond help. By all means, go waste your money on this. Rating: 1/10

Analysis: One of the Cartoon Network's better ideas was the decision in late 2000 to start up a special late night series called "Adult Swim" which featured cartoons geared towards older teens and adults. One of the more oddly named cartoons introduced as part of this line-up was something called "Aqua Teen Hunger Force." The cartoon featured as its three main characters a talking order of French fries known as Frylock, a shake called Master Shake, and a piece of meat called Meatwad, superheroes who fight all sorts of monsters and disasters created by the appropriately named Dr. Weird, as well as including weird creatures called the Mooninites, which look like creatures from a video game, but please don't ask me to try to explain them.

Either way, the cartoon is very much an acquired taste among a select group of fans, and for some reason it was decided that those fans were worthy of a full-length feature film. Of course, this isn't that odd an occurrence since in the past, we've seen big screen movies based on MTV's Beavis and Butthead, Matt Stone and Trey Parker's South Park, and another Cartoon Network favorite The Powerpuff Girls, and at least the first two actually did decently due to their diehard fans. As weird as the premise is for the cartoon, the movie decides to be more annoying than the Borat movie by taking on the title of Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters (in case there was any doubt).

Surprisingly, this weird show has been on for four seasons with over 68 episodes which have gotten raunchier and grosser over its course, starting with a TV-PG and the past season being all TV-MA, probably a good reason for the movie being R-rated. The rating shouldn't matter since many of the fans of the show are probably in the 16 to 25 range, mostly male, and habitual drug users. (Okay, I made the last part up, but it's the only explanation I can determine for people being regular watchers of the show cause it's so frickin' weird.) With so many guys in college watching the show over the last five years, it's expected that a good number will go see the movie much like Borat and the Jackass movies. The only thing that might keep them away is that like other cartoon movies, one has to wonder if it's worth paying $8 to 11 to see something that you usually watch on TV, and some might wonder whether the creators can sustain the laughs for an entire 79 minutes since the characters are more likely to be tolerable in 11 to 20 minute increments.

In attempt to promote the movie, the Cartoon Network set up neon signs of the Mooninite in Boston and other cities, but the odd glowing boxes were deemed suspicious, causing a bit of a panic in Boston when roads and waterways were shut down to investigate them. The Turner Broadcasting System, owner of the Cartoon Network, were fined a million dollars by the Boston Police Department for causing so much chaos, and the general manager of the Cartoon Network stepped down after the incident. (Just imagine what would happen if National Security actually sat through the movie!) Then again, the stunt wound up bringing a lot of attention to the movie that might not have been achieved otherwise. For the most part, the movie is being promoted on the Cartoon Network during "Adult Swim"--as a gag, they actually ran the entire movie on April 1 in a tiny box with no sound to try to promote it—but really, the only people who will go to see this are already fans of the show, and who knows how many of them actually feel the need to rush out to theatres to see it rather than waiting for the DVD to see it in the comfort of their own homes.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force… will open in roughly 900 theatres, probably a lot of those near college campuses, but being only 79 minutes long, those theatres shouldn't have a problem getting in four evening and night screenings. The movie should do decent business on Friday as fans of the show rush out to see it, but expect it to be heavily frontloaded making barely twice as much in total as whatever it ends up making opening weekend.

COMPARISONS

Why I Should See It: I'm at a complete and total loss here.
Why Not: Dude, it's a cartoon about a talking milkshake, talking fries and their friend, the talking meat blob. If you're not high on something, you're probably not going to get through this one with your sanity intact. (I know this from experience.)
Projections: $4 to 5 million opening weekend and less than $10 million total.

DISTURBIA (DreamWorks/Paramount)
Starring Shia LaBeouf, David Morse, Sarah Roemer, Carrie-Anne Moss, Aaron Yoo
Directed by D. J. Caruso (Taking Lives, The Salton Sea, Two for the Money); Written by Christopher Landon (Boys Life 3), Carl Ellsworth (Red Eye)
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Rated PG-13
Tagline: "Every killer lives next door to someone."
Plot Summary: Kale (Shia LaBeouf) is an angry teen who lost his father in a tragic accident, and after punching out his Spanish teacher, he's sentenced to house arrest for three months. He starts spying on his neighbors including the ultra-hot Ashley (Sarah Roehmer) and the creepy Robert Turner (David Morse), who he suspects is responsible for the spat of recent missing women.
Of Note: Director D.J. Caruso takes on his second thriller, this one starring this year's ShoWest Male Performer to Watch, Shia LaBeouf.
REVIEW
INTERVIEW (with D.J. Caruso)

Analysis: In 2005, DreamWorks had a respectable hit with Wes Craven's late summer thriller Red Eye, starring Rachel McAdams and Cilliam Murphy. Considering how little the movie cost to make (around $26 million), it made sense for the company to continue the formula. When a script comes along for a movie along the lines of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window, based on a teen confined under house arrest, DreamWorks must have seen a similar hit in the making, bringing on board board D. J. Caruso of "The Shield" and thrillers like Taking Lives to another element to the movie, involving a romance with the girl next door. Bring in Red Eye writer Carl Ellsworth to work on the script and suddenly, it seems like DreamWorks has the makings of another strong thriller.

Caruso also brought on board an actor who has become DreamWorks' secret weapon, 20 year-old Shia LaBeouf, who started his career at the Disney Channel with the show "Even Stevens," before starring in a Project Greenlight movie and Disney's Holes, which opened over Easter four years ago to great success. LaBeouf went on to become the comic sidekick in movies like Constantine and Will Smith's I, Robot before trying to be taken more seriously as an actor by starring in Bill Paxton's sports drama The Greatest Game Ever Played. It was an unmitigated flop, probably more due to its golf premise than due to LaBeouf. Disturbia is the 20-year-old actor's return, preceding his starring role in Michael Bay's upcoming summer blockbuster Transformers, but the movie might be a better indication of whether he has any true star power or box office clout as Spielberg hopes he might. (And if so, the rumors of LaBeouf appearing in the next Indiana Jones movie might come true.)

LaBeouf is joined by Carrie-Anne Moss, AKA Trinity from The Matrix trilogy, as his mother, and the versatile David Morse as the creepy nextdoor neighbor who Shia and his pals suspect of kidnapping missing women. Morse's last villainous role was in the 2006 Richard Donner action-thriller 16 Blocks, starring Bruce Willis, and he has a role opposite Dakota Fanning in her controversial Hound Dog. (Moss continues her maternal run with a role in the upcoming zombie comedy Fido.) Shia's best friends are played by newcomers Sarah Poehler and Aaron Yoo.

The movie has been getting a huge push from Paramount and DreamWorks with lots of early screenings, including one at ShoWest in Las Vegas last month, and Shia LaBeouf has been working his butt off doing the rounds to introduce and promote those screenings. He's also doing the talk show rounds and even hosting "Saturday Night Live" on Saturday, and you can't really beat that in terms of targeting the movie's young audience.

The good news for Disturbia is that it's PG-13, and it looks like it would be a much stronger draw for teens who haven't had a decent thriller in the last few months that they could see without sneaking in. In the past few years, many thrillers have fared better than expected merely by having a PG-13 rating, Red Eye and Colin Farrell's Phone Booth being a few of the better ones. Of course, one can argue that Shia hasn't proven himself enough as a box office draw to pull young people in, but the good news is that Shia's young fans from the Disney Channel and Holes are probably just the right age to want to see this and those younger moviegoers looking for scares will probably pick Disturbia over an "old people thriller" like Perfect Stranger. While college age and older males will have plenty of other choices, one should expect the younger teen audience, particularly girls, to pick this as their choice on Friday the 13^th.

COMPARISONS

Why I Should See It: This is an entertaining thriller in the vein of Hitchcock, and Shia LaBeouf's first step on the road to becoming a major leading actor.
Why Not: The movie's title could be a bit off-putting, because it's not great.
Projections: $15 to 17 million opening weekend; $45 to 50 million total.

PATHFINDER (20^th Century Fox)
Starring Karl Urban, Moon Bloodgood, Russell Means, Clancy Brown, Jay Tavare, Nathaniel Arcand, Ralf Moeller
Directed by Marcus Nispel (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre); Written by Laeta Kalogridis (Night Watch, Alexander)
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama
Rated R
Tagline: "Two Worlds. One War. The Ultimate Battle Begins."
Plot Summary: As a boy, Ghost (Karl Urban) was left behind by Vikings on an early trip to America, where he was found and raised by Indians. When the Vikings return and slaughter his new family, Ghost must get revenge using nature and the weapons of his newfound people.
Of Note: The second movie from Marcus Nispel, the director of the hit remake The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,
Interviews: MARCUS NISPEL, KARL URBAN

Analysis: More than three years after directing his first feature, the remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, German director Marcus Nispel is back with a film that he spearheaded, one that goes back in time to the days of the Vikings. The plot presumes that Vikings actually came to North America over a thousand years ago and encountered the Native American Indians, setting up a revenge story within that framework. In some ways, the movie's plot is similar to Mel Gibson's recent epic Apocalypto, though that was set in Central America and involved Mayans opposed to Vikings and Indians. There also might be some interest in the premise from those who enjoyed Terrence Malick's The New World or Kevin Costner's Dances with Wolves, except it's likely that Pathfinder will be more about the action and violence than dramatic awards fodder.

For the lead role of Ghost, Nispel got actor Karl Urban, a solid action star who first got attention by playing Eomer in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, followed by key roles in action sequels The Chronicles of Riddick and The Bourne Supremacy, as well as co-starring with The Rock in the failed video game adaptation of Doom. In all three cases, Urban was not the feature star on who the success of the movie rested, probably a good thing since only The Bourne Supremacy was seen as a success. This is a good chance for Urban to take center stage even if he won't have that many lines, since it's more about showing off his skills as an action hero. Pathfinder also stars bonafide hottie Moon Bloodgood, who appeared in last year's Disney hit Snow Dogs, presumably wearing more clothes than she will in Pathfinder, or at least one can hope.

As cool as this premise is, the ads and commercials kinda suck. Apparently, the best selling point the marketing folks could come up with is the movie's R-rating for excessive violence and gore. Sure, that might work to get some guys into see the movie, but they would have done better by playing up the Vikings vs. Indians premise, as they did with the very cool Frazetta-influenced poster that showed up in theatres last fall. (There was also a graphic novel adaptation published by Dark Horse back in the Fall which most people will have forgotten by now.) There's little denying that 20^th Century Fox is burying this one, having repeatedly pushed it back and then moved it every which way they could on the schedule before winding up on this ridiculously busy weekend against too many stronger movies. Once again, they're not even screening it for critics, realizing that bad reviews probably won't help. Without them though, most people won't even know the movie exists.

Sadly, what sounded like a great idea for a movie is very likely to be a major bomb that will quickly be forgotten by the end of the month.

COMPARISONS

Why I Should See It: It's frickin' Vikings vs. Indians, which is almost as cool as the thought of a 3-hour Tarantino-Rodriguez double feature!
Why Not: Maybe there's a good reason why no one has ever made a movie that pits Vikings against Indians.
Projections: $4 to 6 million opening and less than $15 million total.

PERFECT STRANGER (Sony)
Starring Halle Berry, Bruce Willis, Giovanni Ribisi, Gary Dourdan, Patti D'Arbanville, Clea Lewis
Directed by James Foley (Glengarry Glenn Ross, The Corruptor, Confidence); Written by Todd Komarnicki (Resistance)
Genre: Suspense, Thriller
Rated R
Tagline: "How far would you go to keep a secret?"
Plot Summary: Journalist Rowena Price (Halle Berry) discovers that her friend's murder might be connected to ad executive Harrison Hill (Bruce Willis), so she goes undercover as a temp at the agency to find out the truth, while having an online dalliance with Hill under a different guise.
Of Note: Two solid box office stars face-off in a tense high premise thriller.

Analysis: Back in 1986, Bronson Pinchot was coming off his successful appearance in Eddie Murphy's Beverly Hills Cop, so he was put into a sitcom as the Greek immigrant Balki Bartokomous, moving in with his Chicago cousin Larry. The two got into all sorts of antics in the show that ran for 8 seasons on ABC and…

What? This isn't a movie based on the sitcom "Perfect Strangers?" Halle Berry and Bruce Willis? Well, okay, that's a different story. Start again.

The second big thriller of the weekend and the movie with the most starpower this weekend is this high concept thriller that pits Halle Berry against bad guy Bruce Willis, and sadly, it's probably going to rely more on those two big names than anything else to sell the movie. Even sadder is that this will probably work since putting big stars in semi-erotic thrillers has the kind of retro feel that will appeal to older moviegoers who remember Basic Instinct, Fatal Attraction and Bruce's ex-wife Demi Moore in Disclosure.

Whatever you want to say about Berry and her abilities as an actress, you have to be impressed with her success at the box office both before winning her Oscar for the indie drama Monster's Ball and after. Having started out in various urban-friendly fare culminating in Warren Beatty's Bulworth, Berry won an Emmy for her performance in the cable movie Introducing Dorothy Dandridge before making the jump to the big time when she took on the role of Ororo Munroe AKA Storm in X-Men, a franchise that kept getting bigger with each successive episode. In between the movies, she bared her breasts in the summer action flick Swordfish, which had an $18 million opening, and bared even more in the indie drama Monster's Ball opposite Billy Bob Thornton, which got Berry the first-ever leading actress Oscar for an African-American actress. That was followed by a key role in the last Pierce Brosnan James Bond movie Die Another Day, and after the release of X2, she continued her starring roles in the Dark Castle thriller Gothika, which made $19 million its opening weekend. Even the critically dogged Catwoman wound up making over $16 million its opening weekend, a testament to Berry's draw as a star even after a number of disastrous personal issues. Except for the limited release Monster's Ball, not a single one of Berry's movies has opened under $15 million in seven years. Perfect Stranger doesn't look any stronger or weaker than any of her recent films, and Berry is likely to be on the talk show rounds pushing the movie hard.

The movie's weak link might be that Berry's co-star is Bruce Willis, whose career has become so erratic that no one never knows if they're getting "Bruce Willis, box office star" or "Bruce Willis, the guy who'll appear in any movie on a lark." Let's face it, the guy has been in way too many movies in recent years, between three and four a year, including cameos in franchise flicks like Ocean's 12 and Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, and smaller roles in movies like The Astronaut Farmer and Fast Food Nation (both flops). Even his starring roles in movies like 16 Blocks and Hostage didn't do much to get people into theatres. Fact is that despite his fame, Willis has never been in a movie that opened over $40 million, the closest ones coming to that mark being Michael Bay's Armageddon, DreamWorks' Over the Hedge (in which Willis provided his voice) and Ocean's 12. Not that Willis' presence will hurt Perfect Stranger much, unless people remember his last attempt at an erotic thriller, 1994's Color of Night, the most significant thing being the sex and nudity including an appearance by "Little Bruce."

Essentially, it will be the presence of the two actors and the premise of a boss killing women he meets online that will interest moviegoers, though it's likely to not have very much interest to guys under 25, who'll have plenty of other choices. The biggest problem faced by Perfect Stranger is the same one faced by Disturbia in that having two thrillers open against each other, particularly on Friday the 13^th and in such a busy weekend, will force moviegoers to choose between them. Chances are that older audiences and women will go for this, while Disturbia will cater more to teen audiences. Both might get an added bump by opening on Friday the 13^th, since it's a good day to be spooked by a thriller, but it might be hard for either to make more than $20 million.

COMPARISONS

Why I Should See It: Pitting Halle Berry against Bruce Willis should be enough starpower to bring in both of their fans.
Why Not: That is, unless of course you've seen some of Berry or Willis' recent thrillers, in which case you're likely to stay far away.
Projections: $14 to 16 million opening weekend, and $40 million total.

REDLINE (Chicago Pictures)
Starring Angus Macfadyen, Nathan Phillips, Eddie Griffin, Nadia Bjorlin, Kevin Levrone, Wyclef Jean
Directed by Andy Cheng (End Game, stunt double and coordinator for Rush Hour, Rush Hour 2, Daredevil, Shanghai Noon); Written by Robert Freeman (actor/producer) from an idea by Daniel Sadek.
Genre: Action
Rated PG-13
Tagline: "Fear nothing. Risk everything."
Plot Summary: A group of rich men (presumably including a real estate mogul) start a drag racing circle to test out their high-powered super cars.
Of Note: Real estate mogul Daniel Sadek gets into the movie business, a story that might make for a better movie than this knock-off of The Fast and the Furious.

Analysis: This week's big underdog story is that of real estate mogul Daniel Sadek (if you can consider a multi-millionnaire an "underdog") and his self-financed, self-distributed action movie Redline, released under his new company Chicago Releasing after failing to find distribution elsewhere. The movie's obviously hoping to capitalize on the overwhelming popularity of The Fast and the Furious franchise, the first movie which defied all expectations when it opened with over $40 million in the summer of 2001. What's kind of weird and ironic is that "Redline" was originally one of the working titles for The Fast and the Furious all those years ago, so their loss is Daniel Sadek's gain, or so he hopes. Sadek hopes to bring in the same young male audience who love fast cars and hot women, even donating his collection of souped-up cars to the production, and it's an impressive line-up indeed.

The movie stars Nathan Phillips, Aussie star of Wolf Creek who was last seen in Snakes on a Plane, but the only real name star in the movie is comic Eddie Griffin, who appeared in movies like Michael Bay's Armageddon before trying to make it on his own with movies like Double Take and Undercover Brother, but he's done better when playing smaller parts like in the Deuce Bigalow movies, Scary Movie 3 and most recently Date Movie and Norbit with Eddie Murphy. The only thing he offers to Redline is a recognizable name, face and voice that might bring a few fans in. The main hottie of the movie is Swedish raised Nadia Bjorlin, and the ecclectic cast is rounded out by Angus Macfadyen of 2005's Pride & Prejudice and the upcoming Frank Oz Brit-com Death at a Funeral.

Redline director Andy Cheng's credits include being a stuntman and stunt coordinator working for directors Brett Ratner (Rush Hours 1 and 2) and Mark Steven Johnson (Daredevil) as well as directing 2^nd Unit on Wes Craven's Cursed. Not to be cynical, but you have to think that if those are his directorial influences, how good can this movie possibly be? It doesn't help that his only previous directing credit was the straight-to-video End Game starring Cuba Gooding, Jr.

Sadek has been pushing Redline heavily on MySpace, trying to build up a potential audience of teens using a grassroots campaign among its community. This is a similar tactic that was used by last year's surprise dance hit Step Up, which held MySpace only contests and events to get the site's teen community interested and excited about the movie. So far, the Redline site has roughly 50,000 friends, which is nothing to be sneezed at. (The big difference of course is that Step Up had Disney money behind it to promote it to those who aren't on MySpace.)

Not to be bested by the failed promotional campaign for Aqua Teen Hunger Force that ended up with a million dollars in fines, Daniel Sadek decided to promote his movie by allowing the movie's star Eddie Griffin to drive his $1.2 million Ferrari Enzo around the track during a promotional event. Griffin crashed and totalled the expensive car, and though he was fine, the question of whether this "accident" was staged as a publicity stunt is still up for much debate. Put it this way, for the $200,000 in damages to the car, you can't buy the type of television ads that it will bring in news coverage. (Sadek has denied that the crash was done intentionally for publicity.)

New independent distributors have been cropping up a lot recently, all of them trying to get their movies into wide release, leading to things like Uwe Boll's Bloodrayne, released by Billy Zane's Romar Releasing. It was originally meant to open in over 2,000 theatres but ended up being reduced to less than 1,000 theatres its opening weekend, losing 600 of them the following week. Courtney Solomon had a bit more luck launching his indie horror distribution company After Dark Films with his ghost movie An American Haunting last summer. While it didn't make a ton of money, it did pave the way for them teaming up with Lionsgate to release a bunch movies after the relatively successful After Dark Horrorfest. Either way, both these examples show how hard it is to get your movie into theatres and promote it widely enough to get audiences interested, but at least Redline has a solid grassroots campaign going, and it also has the benefits of there being a lot of action junkies out there who'll flock to see a movie about street racing regardless of quality, as long as it offers lots of crashes and explosions. Although Redline could be a huge bomb, it's just as likely to be one of the weekend's surprise hits just because it's nothing like other movies currently playing.

COMPARISONS

Why I Should See It: If you can't wait for the next installment of The Fast and the Furious.
Why Not: Because even that franchise eventually ran out of gas.
Projections: $6 to 8 million opening and less than $20 million total

SLOW BURN (Lionsgate)
Starring Ray Liotta, LL Cool J, Jolene Blalock, Nora Timmer, Taye Diggs, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Donny Falsetti, Bruce McGill, Mekhi Phifer
Written and directed by Wayne Beach (writer of Murder at 1600 and Art of War)
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Rated R
Tagline: "The truth is just a trick of light."
Plot Summary: Ford Cole (Ray Liotta) is a big city district attorney who plans to run for a mayor, but when his assistant Nora Timmer (Jolene Balock) confesses to killing a man in self-defense, Cole is caught between a rock and a hard place, especially when a stranger turns up to contradict her story.
Of Note: The writer of Murder at 1600 and Art of War makes his directorial debut.

Analysis: There probably isn't much that can be said about this dramatic thriller, the directorial debut of screenwriter Wayne Beach, except that it's a movie that debuted at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival and has already been released on DVD in other countries before Lionsgate decided to finally dump it into this busy weekend against two stronger thrillers. Beach made his name by writing scripts for the Wesley Snipes vehicles Murder at 1600 and Art of War, but he's been a bit out of the scene, having not written a movie since the latter's release in 2000. Maybe it's just taken that long for him to write a follow-up and get it made, but who knows?

Beach's latest movie stars Ray Liotta, a respected actor, whose earlies major role in Jonathan Demme's Something Wild was followed years later with a memorable role in Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas. His erratic career has included key roles in Ridley Scott's Hannibal, the 2003 thriller Identity, as well as a critically favored role in Joe Carnahan's crime drama Narc. Most recently, Liotta played the main guy in the hit Touchstone comedy Wild Hogs, though its doubtful that the millions of people who went to see that movie in the last month will be following Liotta to his next few movies, despite him being better than the four stars.

The movie also stars rapper L.L. Cool J, who hasn't had that much luck in the movies with flops like Rollerball and the long-delayed Mindhunters, as well as the festival film Edison, which wound up going straight to video. He's had more luck with his urban romantic comedies like Deliver Us From Evil and Kingdom Come, but it's doubtful that his presence will bring in that many more people than Ray Liotta. The movie's female star is Jolene Blalock of "Star Trek: Enterprise," making her first major big screen role, and looking at what she has coming up, maybe her last. The cast is rounded out by fine African-American actors like Taye Diggs, whose been doing a lot more TV work after a number of successful urban romantic comedies, and Mekhi Phifer, who starred in O, the urban take on "Othello" with Josh Hartnett and Eminem's 8 Mile. It also stars the prolific Chiwetel Ejiofor, who has followed his breakthrough performance in Steven Frear's groundbreaking thriller Dirty Pretty Things with roles in Woody Allen's Melinda and Melinda, Joss Whedon's Serenity, John Singleton's Four Brothers, Spike Lee's Inside Man, and the cross-dressing Brit-com Kinky Boots. I challenge anyone to find one person who went to see any of those movies specifically for Chiwetel.

Lionsgate has been having trouble deciding whether to give Slow Burn a wide or limited release, but they finally decided to open it in 1,100 theatres. Obviously the movie will be trying to find its audience in urban markets, something helped by the cast and the gritty crime premise, but one has to wonder if the movie's being given enough of a push there, especially following Lionsgate's inability to sell Terrence Howard and Bernie Mac's Pride to African-American audiences. It's likely to wind up on the smaller screens than other movies in theatres including the weekend's stronger new thrillers, Disturbia and Perfect Stranger, which guarantees that it will get lost in the shuffle. But maybe that's the plan.

COMPARISONS

Why I Should See It: Slow Burn has a decent cast, and it's a movie from a writer who's done well with previous crime thrillers.
Why Not: Whatever happened to Wesley Snipes and why isn't he in this movie?
Projections: Around $2 to 3 million opening weekend and less than $5 million total.

YEAR OF THE DOG (Paramount Vantage)
Starring Molly Shannon, Regina King, Peter Sarsgaard, John C. Reilly, Laura Dern, Josh Pais, Tom McCarthy
Written and directed by Mike White (writer of Chuck and Buck, The School of Rock, The Good Girl, Orange County and Nacho Libre)
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Rated PG-13
Tagline: "Has the world left you a stray?"
Plot Summary: Peggy (Molly Shannon) is a single woman living with her beloved beagle Pencil. When her dog dies under mysterious circumstances, she experiences sudden loneliness that sends her on a quest for happiness, which includes a drastic lifestyle change as she becomes obsessed with animal rights, causing chaos at work and with her family.
Of Note: Prolific screenwriter Mike White directs his first feature, a dark comedy that debuted at this year's Sundance Film Festival.
INTERVIEW (with Mike White)
REVIEW (Coming Soon!)

OTHER LIMITED RELEASES:

EVERYTHING'S GONE GREEN (First Independent Pictures) ­ Noted author Douglas Copeland ("Generation X") wrote this comedy about a man in his late twenties surrounded by a wealthy over-achieving family who gets tempted into a money-laundering scheme. It opens at the Landmark Cinema in New York this Friday and in L.A. on April 20.
THE GLAMOROUS LIFE OF SACHIKO HANAI (Palm Pictures) ­ In this Japanese political sex comedy, a role-playing call girl gets struck in the head with a bullet during a meeting between a North Korean diplomat and a Middle-Eastern man. When she recovers, she finds she can understand foreign languages but she also finds a canister in her pocket containing the finger of the American President. Opens at New York's Cinema Village.
HEART OF AN EMPIRE (Forsaken Sun Productions) ­ Opening in Madison, Wisconsin on Thursday, is Jay Thompson's documentary about the "Fighting 501^st" the community of Star Wars fans who dress up like Imperial Stormtroopers for special events like the recent Rose Bowl parade where all 2,000 members gathered to celebrate grandmaster George Lucas.
HAIR HIGH (E. D. Distribution) ­ Cartoonist Bill Plympton presents a feature-length animated film set in the ‘50s about a teenage couple murdered on prom night who return as undead skeletons a year later to get revenge. Opens in L.A. on Friday.
JACK SMITH AND THE DESTRUCTION OF ATLANTIS (Film Forum) ­ Mary Jordan's documentary about the Lower East Side photographer and performance artist who put on one-man theatrical productions involving stuffed animals and dolls and who was considered an influence on the likes of Fellini and Godard. Opens at New York's Film Forum on Wednesday.
PRIVATE FEARS IN PUBLIC PLACES (IFC Films) ­ The latest drama from French filmmaker Alain Resnais about a diverse group of people including an alcoholic ex-soldier, his fiance, a real estate agent and his love-hungry sister. Opens at the IFC Center in New York.

Copyright 2007 Edward Douglas


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