The Obvious:
The Reader Michael Berg (Ralph Fiennes) reflects on the formative sexual relationship he had with older woman Hanna Schmitz (Kate Winslet, in a Golden Globe- and Oscar-winning role) as a young teenager in this poignant drama set in post-World War II Germany. The passionate affair ended when Hanna disappeared. But years later, Michael learns she’s on trial for horrific Nazi war crimes. David Kross plays the teenage Michael in this film based on Bernhard Schlink’s best-seller.
Have Seen and Recommend:
My Best Friend Is a Vampire After a night of passion with a seductive customer, shy teen delivery boy Jeremy (Robert Sean Leonard) starts looking pale, hating garlic and thirsting for blood. Mentored by the mysterious Modoc (Rene Auberjonois), the budding bloodsucker slowly gets the hang of his new lifestyle. David Warner co-stars as the ruthless vampire-hunting professor Leopold McCarthy in this smartly written, underrated 1980s teen comedy. — recommend in an 80’s cheese-fest sort of way.
Morgan Stewart’s Coming Home After spending seven years away at boarding school, Morgan Stewart (Jon Cryer) is finally coming home. But his offbeat personality doesn’t mesh with the meticulously manufactured image his politically connected parents (Nicholas Pryor and Lynn Redgrave) want to convey. With his senator father running for reelection, his mother is watching Morgan’s every move, including his budding relationship with a quirky new girl (Viveka Davis). — see comment above.
Wings: The Final Season The hit sitcom’s final season finds Brian and Joe Hackett (Steven Weber and Tim Daly) facing financial woes that may spell the end of Sandpiper Airlines. Bad luck hits Joe and Helen (Crystal Bernard) twice, as their anniversary plans get washed out and a trip to New York leaves them stranded. Meanwhile, a brainless beauty tempts Brian, and Antonio (Tony Shalhoub) learns some surprising information about his deceased uncle.
Oh No!
Going Down Under After an appendage-severing mishap with his dad’s mincer, young Jono Smith (Ed Kavalee) gets a chance to have his manhood restored when a porn star dies unexpectedly, opening the door for a much-needed transplant. With a little luck and the help of his pals, our hero might just find his wildest sex fantasies fulfilled in this spirited gross-out teen comedy from Australia. Sandy Gutman and John Boxer co-star.
Homer & Eddie Whoopi Goldberg and James Belushi make an unlikely pair as a psychotic escaped mental patient with an inoperable brain tumor and her mentally impaired companion, respectively, in this unconventional buddy film with comic overtones. While crisscrossing the country in search of the meaning of life, the two friends find more than they bargained for, including long-lost mothers and fathers — and more than one brush with the law.
I Got Five on It Too Hoping to locate some dope for a big party they have in the works, Jimmy (Todd Bridges) and his pals turn to their charming supplier, Barney Bumble (Chris Angelo), for help, only to have him get framed and busted for selling pot. Now, Jimmy and company are out to get revenge on the dealer (Jimmy Bridges) who set Barney up — and still make it to the party on time. Ed and Jose Quiroz direct this stoner comedy.
Possibilities:
The Spirit After rookie Central City cop Denny Colt (Gabriel Macht) is murdered, he’s mysteriously reborn as masked superhero the Spirit. Setting out to rid the streets of crime, he finds his archnemesis in the Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson), whose quest for immortality imperils the entire city. Scarlett Johansson, Eva Mendes and Paz Vega co-star in this adaptation of Will Eisner’s classic comic by writer-director Frank Miller (Sin City, 300). — optimistically included in this category even though I’m afraid it’s going to end up being an “Oh No!”
Decameron ’69 Inspired by Giovanni Boccaccio’s 14th-century collection of novellas known as The Decameron, this innovative film combines short works from seven directors (Bernard Clarens, Jean Herman, Louis Grospierre, Jean Desailllers, François Reichenbach, Miklós Jancsó and Serge Korber) who set out to interpret Boccaccio’s masterwork for the modern age. The result is an assortment of titillating tales ranging from the erotic to the tragic.
Dark Matter Liu Ye stars as Liu Xing, a promising young cosmology student who comes to America under the patronage of Joanna Silver (Meryl Streep). While working with cosmologist Jacob Reiser (Aidan Quinn), Liu becomes obsessed with his own theories of the universe, a fixation that may threaten his future. How far do personal belief and the need to achieve drive the quest for scientific discovery?
Lost in Austen After a dispute with her boyfriend, Amanda lands in the 19th-century world of author Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. While helping the Bennet sisters find husbands, Amanda accidentally causes problems that could alter the course of the tale. Throughout this British series, Amanda must balance her feelings for Mr. Darcy (Elliot Cowan) with her responsibility to the one of the world’s greatest love stories. Jemima Rooper stars.
She Fell Among Thieves After the infamous criminal Vanity Fair (Eileen Atkins) sedates and kidnaps a beautiful girl and shuttles her off to a chateau in the south of France, it’s up to dashing Brit Richard Chandos (Malcolm McDowell) to rescue the fair maiden. Set in gorgeous 1920s France and adapted from Dornford Yates’s classic page-turner, this lively thriller was the first film ever shown on PBS’s long-running “Mystery!” series.
The Caller Energy exec Jimmy Stevens (Frank Langella) blows the whistle on his firm’s shady deals, putting his own life in danger. Jimmy anonymously calls detective Frank Turlotte (Elliott Gould) and hires him to tail the would-be assassin — a man named Jimmy Stevens. Past and present collide in Richard Ledes’s neo-noir thriller as Jimmy and Frank’s lives become increasingly entangled. Laura Harring co-stars as Jimmy’s on-and-off girlfriend.
Skins: Vol. 2 In the wake of a violent first-season finale that saw Tony (Nicholas Hoult) hit by a bus while talking on his cell phone with Michelle (April Pearson), Tony is miraculously alive — but he’s hardly the same popular, attractive and intelligent boy he once was. Neither Sid (Mike Bailey) nor Michelle know what to do with the new Tony. Meanwhile, Anwar (Dev Patel) is keeping himself busy with a girlfriend no one else knows about.
Documentaries and Music:
House of Saddam After seizing control of Iraq in a brutal 1979 coup, Saddam Hussein (Yigal Naor) maintains power for almost a quarter century despite swelling animosity toward him both at home and abroad. Charting the rise and fall of the infamous dictator, this enthralling HBO-BBC co-production also stars Shohreh Aghdashloo as Saddam’s first wife, Sajida, Philip Arditti as his oldest son, Uday, and Said Taghmaoui as his half-brother, Barzan Ibrahim.
China’s Forbidden City Journey into the Forbidden City of China with this magnificent two-part documentary from Smithsonian Networks. Known as the Imperial Palace during the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Forbidden City in Beijing is the largest palace complex in the world. Explore the history and the magnificent structures of this fascinating place — also called the Palace Museum — that used to be home to royal families, their entourages and thousands of servants.
The Everglades This National Geographic special explores the 1.5 million-acre Everglades National Park from every angle, sending camera crews in on foot and via kayak, airboat and helicopter to uncover sights and sounds most tourists will never see. The program also reveals an array of extraordinary species, including air-breathing fish, carnivorous plants that crave insects and unconventional cacti that grow in water.
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