“The X-Files: I Want to Believe” is a stand-alone story in the tradition of some of the show’s most acclaimed and beloved episodes, and takes the complicated relationship between Fox Mulder (Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Anderson) in unexpected directions. Mulder continues his unshakable quest for the truth, and Scully, the passionate, ferociously intelligent physician, remains inextricably tied to Mulder’s pursuits.
Release Date : July 25, 2008
Studio : 20th Century Fox
Director : Chris Carter
Screenwriter : Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz
Starring : David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Xzibit, Amanda Peet, Billy Connolly, Callum Keith Rennie, Adam Godley
Based upon Mark Millar’s explosive graphic novel series and helmed by stunning visualist director Timur Bekmambetov — creator of the most successful Russian film franchise in history, the ‘Night Watch’ series — ‘Wanted’ tells the tale of one apathetic nobody’s transformation into an unparalleled enforcer of justice. In 2008, the world will be introduced to a hero for a new generation: Wesley Gibson.
25-year-old Wes (James McAvoy) was the most disaffected, cube-dwelling drone the planet had ever known. His boss chewed him out hourly, his girlfriend ignored him routinely and his life plodded on interminably. Everyone was certain this disengaged slacker would amount to nothing. There was little else for Wes to do but wile away the days and die in his slow, clock-punching rut.
Until he met a woman named Fox (Angelina Jolie).
After his estranged father is murdered, the deadly sexy Fox recruits Wes into the Fraternity, a secret society that trains Wes to avenge his dad’s death by unlocking his dormant powers. As she teaches him how to develop lightning-quick reflexes and phenomenal agility, Wes discovers this team lives by an ancient, unbreakable code: carry out the death orders given by fate itself.
With wickedly brilliant tutors — including the Fraternity’s enigmatic leader, Sloan (Morgan Freeman) — Wes grows to enjoy all the strength he ever wanted. But, slowly, he begins to realize there is more to his dangerous associates than meets the eye. And as he wavers between newfound heroism and vengeance, Wes will come to learn what no one could ever teach him: he alone controls his destiny.
Star(s) to watch : Angelina Jolie (”Mr. & Mrs. Smith”, “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider”, “The Bone Collector”, “Taking Lives”, “Original Sin”) as Fox, & Morgan Freeman (”Lucky Number Slevin”, “Bruce Almighty”, “Seven”, “Deep Impact”) as Sloan.
From director M. Night Shyamalan (”The Sixth Sense,” “Signs”) comes a lightning-paced, heart-pounding paranoid thriller about a family on the run from an inexplicable and unstoppable event that threatens not only humankind… but the most basic human instinct of them all: survival.
It begins with no clear warning. It seems to come out of nowhere. In a matter of minutes, episodes of strange, chilling deaths that defy reason and boggle the mind in their shocking destructiveness, erupt in major American cities. What is causing this sudden, total breakdown of human behavior? Is it some kind of new terrorist attack, an experiment gone wrong, a diabolical toxic weapon, an out-of-control virus? Is it being transmitted by air, by water… how?
For Philadelphia high school science teacher Elliot Moore (Wahlberg) what matters most is finding a way to escape the mysterious and deadly phenomenon. Though he and his wife Alma (Deschanel) are in the midst of a marital crisis, they hit the road, first by train, then by car, with Elliot’s math teacher friend Julian (Leguizamo) and his 8 year-old daughter Jess ( Sanchez), heading for the Pennsylvania farmlands where they hope they’ll be out of reach of the grisly, ever-growing attacks. Yet it soon becomes clear that no one - and nowhere - is safe. This terrifying, invisible killer cannot be outrun. It is only when Elliot begins to discover the true nature of what is lurking out there - and just what has unleashed this force that threatens the future of humanity — that he discovers a sliver of hope that his fragile family might be able to escape what is happening.
Release Date: June 13, 2008
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Screenwriter: M. Night Shyamalan
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel, John Leguizamo, Betty Buckley, Spencer Breslin, Ashlyn Sanchez
The horrifying events that took place in the Hoyt family’s vacation home at 1801 Clark Road on February 11, 2005 are still not entirely known.
Champagne. Rose petals. Candlelight. It was supposed to be a night of celebration for Kristen McKay (Liv Tyler) and James Hoyt (Scott Speedman), but after leaving a friend’s wedding reception and returning to the house, everything had collapsed for the happy couple. Then came a 4 a.m. knock on the door and a haunting voice.
Is Tamara here?
Writer/first-time director Bryan Bertino explores our most universal fears in The Strangers, a terrifying suspense thriller about a couple whose remote getaway becomes a place of terror when masked strangers invade. The confrontation forces Kristen and James to go far beyond what they thought themselves capable of if they hope to survive.
Release Date : May 30, 2008
Studio : Rogue Pictures (Universal Pictures)
Director : Bryan Bertino
Screenwriter : Bryan Bertino
Starring : Liv Tyler, Scott Speedman, Gemma Ward, Kip Weeks, Laura Margolis, Glenn Howerton
Gang-du (SONG Kang-ho) works at a food-stand on the banks of the Han River. Dozing on the job, he is awakened by his daughter, Hyun-seo (KO A-sung), who is angry with him for missing a teacher-parent meeting at school. As Gang-du walks out to the riverbank with a delivery, he notices that a large crowd of people has gathered, taking pictures and talking about something hanging from the Han River Bridge. The otherwise idyllic landscape turns suddenly to bedlam when a terrifying creature climbs up onto the riverbank and begins to crush and eat people. Gang-du and his daughter run for their lives but suddenly the thing grabs Hyun-seo and disappears back into the river. The government announces that the thing apparently is the Host of an unidentified virus. Having feared the worst, Gang-du receives a phone call from his daughter who is frightened, but very much alive. Gang-du makes plans to infiltrate the forbidden zone near the Han River to rescue his daughter from the clutches of the horrifying Host…
Of course originality is the least of the scripts problems. Skin Walkers is full of the same hokey scenes of wise men explaining age old prophecies you’ve seen a million times before, plus a few tepid, Robert Rodriguez inspired shoot outs and awkward werewolf transformation scenes, and one Near Dark barroom brawl ‘homage’ to flavour the been-there-done-that pot.
Skinwalkers are actually from Navajo mythology. They are supposed to be people who put on the skin of animals and take on the attributes of said animal. Well, that’s not really what “Skinwalkers″ the movie is about. It’s about werewolves who are in an argument that’s been raging for centuries.
What if some werewolves didn’t want to be werewolves and other werewolves loved being werewolves? That’s the basic premise for this B-movie avalanche of gun fights and claws called “Skinwalkers.” It starts off quickly and never stops moving. There’s plenty of action and hot bodies and the occasional Werewolf wearing Levis. The cinematography is good and gives the movie nice a look especially in the night scenes. There’s a huge battle at the end that is very fun.
A gritty, fast-paced action thriller, Shoot ‘Em Up kicks into high gear with a memorable opening scene and never relents. Clive Owen stars as Mr. Smith, a mysterious loner who teams up with an unlikely ally (Monica Belluci) to protect a newborn baby from a determined criminal (Paul Giamatti) who hunts them throughout the bowels of the city. Shoot ‘Em Up is written and directed by Michael Davis (Monster Man) and is scheduled for a Sept. 7, 2007 release.
The tone is set right from the get-go. He’s minding his own business and sipping a cup of coffee when a pregnant woman comes running down the street screaming for help. She ducks down an alley, and a guy with a gun follows her. Smith gets up to help and ends up in a massive gunfight. As he fires back at the bad guys, his shell casings bounce off the pregnant woman’s stomach. She delivers her baby in the middle of all this, and Smith cuts the umbilical cord by shooting it, then stabs a bad guy to death with a carrot.
Shoot ‘Em Up — which pits Owen as everyman action hero against Paul Giamatti’s scenery-chomping criminal commando —goes gonzo less than five minutes in, as a pregnant woman flees a gun-brandishing predator by ducking into an empty warehouse. Innocent bystander Owen comes to the woman’s rescue and ends up delivering her baby while fighting off a dozen or so attackers in a lavish gun battle as remixed Nirvana pounds away on the soundtrack.
Star(s) to watch : Monica Bellucci (”Asterix and Obelix Meet Cleopatra”, “The Matrix Reloaded”) as Donna Quintano, & Clive Owen (”Sin City”, “The Bourne Identity”) as Smith.
Neil Warner (Gerard Butler) is a successful ad exec that isn’t afraid to burn bridges with his co-workers to score the biggest clients. Neil lives a perfect little life outside of work with his beautiful wife Abby (Maria Bello) and their adorable daughter Sophie, inside a giant house with loads of money. When Abby and Neil leave the house one day for separate vacations the babysitter kidnaps Sophie, and a frightening man named Tom Ryan appears in the couple’s back seat with a gun and a list of demands. If they refuse to comply with the cold and calculating sociopath’s demands, Sophie will be killed.
Neil (Gerard Butler, 300) has the perfect life: a fat bank account, a rising career, and an ideal family. Then a stranger (Pierce Brosnan The Matador) rises out of the backseat of his car. He has a gun and Neil’s daughter and if Neil and his wife (Maria Bello A History of Violence) don′t do everything he says he’ll take that perfect life away.
Had Bram Stoker set out to write romance rather than horror, he might have written Paradise Shattered . Had he sampled the mushrooms in the woods behind his house, he might have replaced the venerable professor with a demon or a warlock who harbors a deep hatred of vampires. He left that up to Lee and Bonias.
Star(s) to watch : Pierce Brosnan (”The Thomas Crown Affair”, “After the Sunset”, “Live Wire”) as Tom Ryan, Gerard Butler (”300″, “Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life”) as Neil Warner, Claudette Mink (”Paycheck”) as Judy, & Maria Bello (”Payback”, “A History of Violence”) as Abby Warner.
Saw IV is the fourth installment in the Saw series. The film was initially released on October 25, 2007, and in the United States on October 26, 2007. The film’s North American release date follows the series’ tradition that the films be released the Friday before or on Halloween of each year. This installment continues the story of the Jigsaw Killer, and his obsession with teaching people the value of their own lives. Although Jigsaw died in the last installment (Saw III), this film focuses on his ability to manipulate people into continuing his work. Saw IV was directed by Saw II and Saw III director Darren Lynn Bousman alongside with co-creators James Wan and Leigh Whannell returning as executive producers.
Jigsaw is dead, and the film opens with his naked corpse laid out on a slab. That oughta sell some more tickets! Seriously, if you had trouble with the brain surgery sequence in Saw III, get to Saw IV 15 minutes late. A new cassette recording is found in Jigsaw’s stomach, and the games begin all over again. SWAT Commander Rigg (Lyriq Bent) is abducted and has 90 minutes to overcome the usual series of traps and save an ex-New Kid on the Block (Donnie Wahlberg). In other words, it’s exactly like the other Saw flicks.
The film opens with the autopsy of the Jigsaw Killer and the discovery of a wax-coated microcassette in his stomach, which, when played for Detective Hoffman, promises that “the games have just begun.” It then cuts to a mausoleum, where Trevor and Art are chained to a large device. Trevor’s eyelids have been sewn together, and Art’s mouth has been sewn shut, making communication between them impossible. When the device begins pulling them together, they panic, and Art murders Trevor to retrieve a key from his collar.
Live Free or Die Hard (released as Die Hard 4.0 or Die Hard 4 outside North America and also known as Die Hard 4: Live Free or Die Hard) is a 2007 action film, and the fourth installment in the Die Hard series. The film was directed by Len Wiseman and stars Bruce Willis as John McClane, the protagonist of the first three films. Other cast members included Justin Long, Timothy Olyphant, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Maggie Q. The storyline takes place 19 years after the first film, and sees McClane face a gang of cyber terrorists. The film was based on the 1997 article “A Farewell to Arms” written for Wired magazine by John Carlin.
Bruce is up to the challenge in Live Free or Die Hard, and now his John McClane is a grizzled, bald, but still strikingly handsome man of fifty-two who sits in parking lots waiting to check up on his college coed daughter Lucy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). Now years later, Lucy has inherited her mother’s feistiness and her father’s cockiness, which is a surefire way of saying she has a date with the terrorists.
Live Free or Die Hard received generally positive reviews, earning a 80% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 69/100 from Metacritic and had total international box office gross receipts of $382.1 million. For the DVD release, 20th Century Fox pioneered a new kind of DRM that tries to weaken the incentives for consumers to learn how to rip discs by offering them a downloadable version with studio-imposed restrictions. The score for the film was released on July 2, 2007 and a video game has been proposed for the Xbox 360.
