Rather than have everyone skip ahead, first let’s talk about Heath Ledger. He’s the linchpin of “The Dark Knight,” and he’s terrific. Director Christopher Nolan wanted to make an action movie that was different from other action movies - darker, more twisted, more despairing, more bleak - and he has mostly succeeded in this latest Batman installment. He can thank Ledger for a lot of that.

(San Francisco Chronicle)

Director: Justin Chadwick
Stars: Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Eric Bana
Studio: Columbia Pictures

The Plot: Two sisters (Portman & Johansson) vie for the affections of King Henry VIII (Bana).

READ REVIEWS OF ‘THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL’

SEMI-PRO

Director: Kent Alterman
Stars: Will Ferrell, Woody Harrelson, André Benjamin
Studio: New Line Cinema

The Plot: Jackie Moon (Ferrell), the owner-coach-player of the American Basketball Association’s Flint Michigan Tropics, rallies his teammates in an effort to make their far-fetched NBA dreams come true.

READ REVIEWS OF ‘SEMI-PRO’ 

CHICAGO 10

Director: Brett Morgen
Stars: Jeffrey Wright, Nick Nolte, Roy Scheider
Studio: Roadside Attractions

The Plot: Archival footage, animation, and music are used to look back at the group of anti-war protesters who were put on trial following the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

READ REVIEWS OF ‘CHICAGO 10′ 

PENELOPE

Director: Mark Palansky
Stars: Christina Ricci, James McAvoy, Reese Witherspoon
Studio: Summit Entertainment

The Plot: Penelope (Ricci) is a modern-day princess who was born with a pig’s snout — a curse that can only be broken when she finds true love with a prince.

READ REVIEWS OF ‘PENELOPE’ 

CITY OF MEN

Director: Paulo Morelli
Stars: Douglas Silva, Darlan Cunha, Jonathan Haagensen
Studio: Miramax Films

The Plot: As a drug war spirals out of control in their favela, the revelation of a deep-seeded family secret drives best friends Acerola (Silva) and Laranjinha (Cunha) apart — and into greater danger.

READ REVIEWS OF ‘CITY OF MEN’ 

Director: Peter Hedges

Stars: Steve Carell, Juliette Binoche, Dane Cook

Studio: Buena Vista Pictures 

The Plot: While advice columnist and single dad Dan Burns (Carell) attends his family reunion, he meets, and falls for, Beth (Binoche), a funny, smart, beautiful woman — who just happens to be in a relationship with his brother (Cook). 

REVIEWS:

• Carell shines in fine ‘Dan in Real Life’ (CNN)

• A Family Just Like Yours (if You Lived in a Movie) (NY Times)

• Entertainment Weekly

• Rolling Stone

Saw IV   

Director: Darren Lynn Bousman

Stars: Tobin Bell, Scott Patterson, Justin Louis

Studio: Lionsgate 

The Plot: The deaths of Jigsaw and his apprentice Amanda ensnare Detective Hoffman (Mandylor), SWAT Commander Rigg (Bent) and FBI agents Strahm (Patterson) and Perez (Karkanis) in the grisly details of the killers’ final game. 

Rails & Ties [LA/NY]

Director: Alison Eastwood

Stars: Kevin Bacon, Marcia Gay Harden, Miles Heizer

Studio: Warner Brothers 

The Plot: An unlikely bond is formed between a young boy whose mother commits suicide and a train engineer who witnessed her death. 

REVIEWS:

• Alison Eastwood’s directorial debut suffers from an artless screenplay (LA Times)

• A somber little movie that could (USA Today)

• Capable but modest directorial debut by Alison Eastwood (Variety)

Jimmy Carter Man from Plains [limited]   

Director: Jonathan Demme

Stars: Jimmy Carter, Rosalynn Carter

Studio: Sony Pictures Classics 

The Plot: A chronicle of the former president’s tour recent for his book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.”

REVIEWS:

Metacritic

Director: David Slade

Stars: Josh Hartnett, Melissa George.

Studio: Columbia Pictures 

The Plot: A pack of vampires descend upon Barrow, Alaska just as the sun is about to set for 30 days. Two cops, a husband and wife team, rise up to protect their town and its citizens. 

REVIEWS:

• ‘30 Days Of Night’ Has Soft Bite As Vamps Run Loose In Alaska (Starpulse)

• ‘30 Days’ sucks the fun out of graphic novel (Chicago Tribune)

• Bottom Line: A slack narrative drives a stake through the heart of this vampire frightfest (The Hollywood Reporter)

• Finally, a scary vampire movie! (IGN)

Rendition  

Director: Gavin Hood

Stars: Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Alan Arkin

Studio: New Line Cinema 

The Plot: A CIA analyst (Gyllenhaal) questions his assignment after witnessing an unorthodox interrogation at a secret detention facility outside the US. 

REVIEWS:

• ET Canada 

• When a Single Story Has a Thousand Sides (NY Times)

• Entertainment Weekly

• Political Drama Plods and Manipulates (Box-Office Mojo)

• ‘Rendition’ tackles terrorism — and interrogation (The Boston Globe)

Things We Lost in the Fire   

Director: Susanne Bier

Stars: Halle Berry, Benicio Del Toro, Alison Lohman

Studio: Paramount Pictures 

The Plot: A recent widow (Berry) invites her husband’s troubled best friend (Del Toro) to live with her and her two children. As he gradually turns his life around, he helps the family cope and confront their loss. 

REVIEWS:

• Berry, Del Toro shine in moving tale (Idaho Statesman)

• Del Toro, Berry anchor ‘Things We Lost’ (USA Today)

• San Francisco Chronicle

• Variety

Reservation Road

Director: Terry George

Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Connelly

Studio: Focus Features 

The Plot: As Ethan Learner (Phoenix) falls apart after witnessing his son’s death, another man, Dwight Arno (Ruffalo), struggles to accept his accountability in the hit-and-run accident that claimed Josh Lerner’s life. 

REVIEWS:

• Family men in the crosshairs of fate (Seattle Times)
• Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo and Jennifer Connelly work hard to give this somber, weighty picture the illusion of depth (Salon)
• Two Fathers, Facing Different Anguish (NY Times)
• An overdose of woe (Christian Science Monitor)
• ‘Road’ loses traction early on (LA Times)

Gone Baby Gone   

Director: Ben Affleck

Stars: Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, Casey Affleck

Studio: Miramax Films 

The Plot: A pair of detectives track down a missing four-year-old girl in one of Boston’s toughest neighborhoods.

REVIEWS:

• ‘Gone Baby Gone’ is good, very good (CNN)

• Bottom Line: Mordant, melancholic but impressive debut for director Affleck (The Hollywood Reporter)

• Collider

• In his directorial debut, Ben Affleck proves he can evoke a place, better even than Clint Eastwood can. But is that enough? (Salon)

• With crime thriller ‘Gone Baby Gone,’ Ben Affleck returns home and captures

  Boston in all its gritty glory (The Boston Globe)

Director: James Gray

Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg, Eva Mendes and Robert Duvall.

Studio: Columbia Pictures 

The Plot: Though nightclub owner Bobby (Phoenix) and his police officer brother Joseph (Wahlberg) haven taken decidedly different paths in life, a near-fatal incident causes them to unite in a deadly confrontation with the mobsters who run Bobby’s club. 

REVIEWS:

• 2 Brothers, and the Mob in the Middle (New York Times)

• ‘We Own the Night’ owns the screen (CNN)

• Entertainment Weekly 

• Solid crime drama overcomes formulaic premise (IGN)

• `We Own the Night’ a petty crime (Yahoo Movies)

• What’s It All About, Anyway? (NY Mag)

Director: Shekhar Kapur

Stars: Cate Blanchett, Clive Owen, Geoffrey Rush.

Studio: Universal Pictures 

The Plot: England’s Queen Elizabeth (Blanchett) struggles to maintain her powerful reign in the face of conspiracies to overthrow her and a budding relationship with explorer Sir Walter Raleigh (Owen). 

REVIEWS:

• ‘Elizabeth: The Golden Age’ shimmers with sex and intrigue (San Francisco Chronicle)

• Rolling Stone

• Variety

• Zoom In Online

• Cate Blanchett is back as the browless Virgin Queen (Salon)

Michael Clayton

Director: Tony Gilroy

Stars: George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson and Sydney Pollack.

Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures 

The Plot: An in-house “fixer” (Clooney) at a top New York law firm risks his career, and his life, on a sabotaged class action suit that pits him against a rival litigator (Swinton). 

REVIEWS:

• George Clooney anchors a solid legal thriller (Slate) 

• Clooney makes up for ‘Clayton’ weaknesses (MSNBC)

• George Clooney has the answers in ‘Michael Clayton’ (LA Times)

• Blogcritics

• They Call Him the Fixer in a World That’s a Mess (New York Times)

Lars and the Real Girl 

Director: Craig Gillespie

Stars: Ryan Gosling, Emily Mortimer, Paul Schneider.

Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) 

The Plot: A delusional young guy (Gosling) strikes up an unconventional relationship with a doll he finds on the Internet. 

REVIEWS:

• ‘Lars and the Real Girl’ is whimsical fable (New York Daily News)

• A Heartwarming Movie About a Plastic Sex Doll (Newsweek)

• Unexpectedly tender dramedy is far more family-friendly than it sounds (Hollywood Reporter)

• A Lonely Guy Plays House With a Mail-Order Sex Doll (New York Times)

• Entertainment Weekly

Sleuth [limited] 

Director: Kenneth Branagh

Stars: Michael Caine, Jude Law.

Studio: Sony Pictures Classics 

The Plot: A wealthy mystery writer (Caine) engages in a twisted game of cat and mouse with his wife’s lover (Law). 

REVIEWS:

• What’s It All About, Anyway? (NY Magazine)

• ‘Sleuth’ sniffs out a dark, stylish remake (USA Today)

• Filmcritic.com

• The remake of the 1972 film benefits from an updated script by Harold Pinter and pitch-perfect performances by Michael Caine and Jude Law (LA Times)

• Emanuell Levy

Why Did I Get Married? 

Director: Tyler Perry

Stars: Tyler Perry, Janet Jackson, Sharon Leal.

Studio: Lionsgate 

The Plot: An adulterous incident causes four couples to take a hard look at their respective marriages during their annual week-long vacation in the Colorado mountains. 

REVIEWS:

• Why Did I Get Married? a Best for Perry (Canmag.com)

• BlackVoices AOL

• Preaching, teaching weigh down ‘Why Did I Get Married?” (Detroit Free Press)

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Honsou and Jennifer Connelly.

Director: Edward Zwick

143 mins

THE FILM:

Blood Diamond is an explosive social message movie about ‘conflict diamonds’ couched inside a rip-roaring classical Hollywood narrative. According to screenwriter Charles Leavitt who pitched the idea as ‘part Treasure of Sierra Madre, part Traffic’, the film is somewhat earnest in its yearning for Oscar platitudes. It managed a few nominations through strong performances by Leonardo DiCaprio (bristling and swaggerring in his Boer accent) and Djimon Honsou (alternately quiet and explosive). Because it’s first an adventure story with a clear goal, the driving pace doesn’t let up but it has enough good character moments to make this journey for a pink diamond worthwhile.

THE SPECIAL FEATURES:

AUDIO COMMENTARY with director Edward Zwick

Zwick is a soft-spoken man with a Zen calm. He talks with pointed insight into the filmmaking and unfurls his immersive knowledge of the diamond industry and the continent of Africa. Some of the highlights from the commentary include:

• Painting the background of locations through production design to fill in for different settings
• The difficulty of shooting in specific geographic terrains like a running river
• The need for little or no rehearsals and to create a space for the actor in order to preserve the originality of the line reading
• A cool tip on how to shoot a scene inside a helicopter
• The need to hire a good line producer to handle the logistics and planning for the major action sequences
• The frustration of timing a Steadicam shot for an explosion to go off
• Limited shooting hours hamstrung by uncooperative goats and complexity of scene
• A cool tip on using CG not calling attention to shots
• A dissection of acting from a scene between DiCaprio and Connelly
• How Eduardo Serra’s cinematography evokes the feeling of Africa
• Shooting scenes out of order and the challenge of matching their tone and weather
• Trivia: Bridge of the River Kwai is one Zwick’s favorite films

It’s a quietly engaging commentary with Zwick further imparting his knowledge of his research into diamonds and Africa in general. 

Special Feature #1: Blood on the Stone (50:00) 

This documentary on the diamond trade chronicles Sorious Samura’s exploration into investigating if conflict diamonds still exist and how diamonds are still ending up on fingers in the western world despite the Kimberley Process. Samara appears to be the patron soul of the movie itself and was hired as a consultant for Blood Diamond. Samura takes us on journey as he narrates in a heavy, regretful voice and illuminates all facets of the diamond industry from: 

1. How the Kimberley Process works – the certification process of diamonds
2. A visit to illegal diamond mines in Sierra Leone and the Congo
3. An emotional conversation with ex-child soldiers
4. Interview with a diamond dealer
5. The corruption and bribery involved for diamond miners to get permits
6. The perspective of diamond workers and their channels to smuggling
7. Samura’s own experiment to smuggle a pseudo-diamond across porous Sierra Leone borders
8. The trading of conflict diamonds on the black market in Guinea
9. Secretly filming selling diamonds to dealers in New York City

Part-Dateline NBC, part video diary, Samura doesn’t hold back his thoughts on the indignities he encounters along the way and this doc is more than worth the journey into the heart of darkness that is Africa. 

Ed Zwick: Great actors are sponges. You never can predict or know what they’re going to get but they want more and more and they want to meet the real people.

Special Feature #2: Becoming Archer (8:29) 

DiCaprio delineates his journey into becoming Danny Archer, the hero of the story. According to the actor, the appeal of the story lies in its telling of where Africa is today rather than the diamonds. This short featurette showcases: 

1. DiCaprio’s immersion into the environment
2. The actor studying with a dialect coach (he nailed the scene with the pidgin dialect)
3. The actor in weapons training
4. The producers lauding his efforts

There’s not much here in this special feature to really delve into DiCaprio’s process or the choices for his character and it ends up being just a promotional talking heads.  

Special Feature #3: Journalists on the Frontline (6:07) 

Jennifer Connelly chronicles her research into her role as Mandy Bowden as she talks about plunging into the fearless world of female journalists inside war zones. The precarious roles of journalists are expounded upon further via interviews with Zwick, DiCaprio and producer Marshall Herskovitz. This is a very summary treatment of a more complex subject and as such isn’t that noteworthy of a feature on this disc. 

Special Feature #4: Inside the Siege of Freetown (10:28) 

Zwick discusses his travails in recreating the massive siege of Freetown that occurred in January 1999. The director is no stranger to covering massive action sequences in his previous films and here he breaks it down for us by: 

1. Talking about his overall vision of the siege – chaotic but safe
2. Working with his team using a scale model to work out the specifics
3. Samara’s role in advising the production in recreating the siege
4. The fine balance between what weapons and explosives could be used on set and what could be computer generated
5. A training camp for the local stunt people
6. A short clip of DiCaprio being action directed by Zwick
7. Zwick’s process of storyboarding the action
8. How to throw a guy over a balcony railing
9. The crew’s perspective on working with Zwick

There are some very cool bits in here, especially watching several cameras cover the action and the logistics behind handling a large action sequence.  But it’s precisely these bits that prevent this special feature from skating into another ass-kissing filler. 

Djimon Honsou: Obviously we have an amazing director and a great director which is always defined by his ability of communicating and you have to be a great communicator. Certainly a great communicator is also a great listener. 

Finally, there is a music video by Nas which is interesting to note how much of an influence hip hop has on the rebels in the ravaged countries where blood diamonds are smuggled through.  All in all, this is a nicely packaged DVD with some good special features with a great documentary on the subject matter toplining it. 

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale,  Michael Caine, Scarlet Johansson and Rebecca Hall.

Directed by Christopher Nolan

130 mins 

The Prestige is a visually striking and psychologically interesting movie with a kind of sly narrative trickery up its sleeve. Like its two rival protagonists, it doles out its red herrings the same way a magician unspools his trick for an audience. And I mean to the very end. The story pits rival stage magicians Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) against one another stemming from a tragedy to the former. As they try to one up each other in a game to uncover each other’s secrets, their obsession to unseat the other becomes deadly for both men.  

Adapted from a novel by Christopher Priest which was written in journal entries, the resulting screenplay is a layered piece of dual point views and sleight of hand. The direction by Christopher Nolan is stout and the film is above all else visually dense but understated. There are winning supporting performances by Michael Caine, Rebecca Hall and Scarlett Johansson while the imagining of the period doesn’t feel stale but rather alive. 

Special Feature #1: The Director’s Notebook: The Cinematic Sleight of Hand of Christopher Nolan  

19 minutes 5 seconds 

Nolan narrates this piece which is divided into chapters about the many aspects and people that brought about the film’s vision to fruition. In particular, he discusses the challenge of making a period movie timeless and non-genre specific. He also delves into the power of the Victorian era and the relationship between scientists and magicians, specifically how the latter held sway over a public with secret séances. Nolan syas:

I didn’t want the film to feel too much as if it were set in the past. I really want to try and emphasize the aspects of that world that are exciting to a modern audience

In the section titled Conjuring the Past, the design and the look of the film is discussed where the synergy between production designer Nathan Crowley and cinematographer Wally Pfister (who worked with Nolan on Batman Begins) work to hold up a unifying mood. Crowley gives us a tour through the set on the Universal backlot, which was converted into a scummy Victorian London street. What’s unique here is the challenge of pulling out the modern aspects in a period film. In a little aside, Scarlet Johansson spends some time pointing the unique features on design of her costume. 

In The Visual Maze, the filmmakers explain using natural light to get a sense of immediacy and shooting everything handheld for shifting points of view. The Prestige is a film rich in its visual design right from the opening image of top hats and in Metaphors of Deception, Nolan delineates the movie’s internal rhythms and how employing visual metaphors reinforce the intricacies of the storytelling. Nolan’s brother, Jonathan Nolan, steps in to shed some light on the screenplay. 

One of the inspirations of the story is Nolan’s interest in Nikola Tesla and in Tesla: The Man who Invented the Twentieth Century, the mystery and aura of this scientist is explored and David Bowie was Nolan’s one and only choice to play Tesla. Throughout this special feature, there are also interviews with Christopher Priest, Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Rebecca Hall and others.  

Special Feature #2: The Art of The Prestige 

This is a quick and fast little section of still images divided into:

• Film (26 images)

• Behind The Scenes (23 images)

• Costumes And Sets (27 images)

• Poster Art (10 images)

All in all, this is a commendable disc but it’s sorely missing a few needed extras to make The Prestige indeed prestigious like:

1. A feature length commentary by Nolan (with his brother Jonathan)
2. An extensive look into the magicians of the Victorian era
3. The contrasting approaches of both Jackman and Bale in creating their characters
4. A documentary on some aspect of post-production

Starring: George Clooney, Matt Damon, Jeffrey Wright, Christopher Plummer, Amanda Peet, Chris Cooper and William Hurt.  

Written and Directed by Stephen Gaghan 

128 minutes 

Released in 2005, Syriana disappeared quickly into oblivion after the Oscar season. The film was praised by critics but for the most part spurned by moviegoers due to its complex subject matter. Syriana centers around how the oil business moves people and nations around like chess pieces on a board. It connects a myriad of different storylines from a CIA officer (George Clooney) hung out to dry to oil workers drawn unwittingly into terrorism to an investigation into a merger between two oil companies that threatens to destabilize the royal family of a middle eastern nation being advised by a broken energy analyst (Matt Damon).

This is a film that takes several viewings for its sense of weight to be lifted off you. It can stay with you for a while and it makes you want to go back for another foray into its politics. I admit I didn’t get it all the first time but after the second and third viewing, I found its measured pace compelling. It never quite reaches the emotional resonance I was hoping for but it has a quiet, insidious way of staying embedded in your head. 

SPECIAL FEATURE 1:   A Conversation with George Clooney (9:07) 

Part making of, part interview, there are some good moments in here but nevertheless puts this featurette in mediocre territory. Here, Clooney explains his role in Syriana: 

1. Syriana recalls the film of the 70s with a social conscience
2. Clooney likens the movie to a strong ensemble piece (not unlike ER) that attracted him and the rest of the cast because of Stephen Gaghan’s script
3. A clip showing Gaghan directing Clooney on set (always the stuff you want to see but never enough of it)
4. Robert Baer and his involvement and how Clooney based his character on him. Baer is the author of the book See No Evil, from which Syriana is partly based on
5. Missing scenes of Clooney’s character with Greta Scachhi playing his estranged wife
6. Transforming himself physically - putting on 30 pounds, and speaking Farsi

SPECIAL FEATURE 2: Make a Change, Make a Difference (11:06) 

This piece touches on the