Affleck, Jackson change
lanes; Diaz is a sweet thing
Note: The following is a list of films
opening this weekend. Along with a brief synopsis, the list is intended
to provide moviegoers with general
information about the films. These are
not movie reviews.
Photo courtesy of Paramount
Pictures
Ben Affleck, left, and Samuel
L. Jackson star in the new action/drama Changing Lanes.
In this weekend's film premieres, Ben
Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson share the screen with hopes of keeping pace
with audiences, Matthew
McConaughey sheds the charm to hide from
the FBI and Cameron Diaz sets out to prove she's worth her new $15 million
price tag.
Affleck and Jackson headline the thriller
Changing Lanes. The film follows an overwhelming fit of road rage after
a young lawyer (Affleck) and a
businessman (Jackson) get involved in
an automobile accident.
The R-rated film is directed by Roger Mitchell
and also stars the versatile Toni Collete, William Hurt, Amanda Peet and
Sydney Pollack.
McConaughey and Bill Paxton star in the
dark thriller Frailty.
The movie begins when a man goes to the
FBI to tell them he thinks the serial killer they've been searching for
just might be his brother.
The story unfolds with flashbacks of the
suspected killer's childhood and his father's disturbing thoughts.
Paxton portrays the father men's father
and McConaughey fills the role of Meeks, the brother in question.
It is rated R and also stars Powers Boothe,
Luke Askew, Matthew O'Leary and Jeremy Sumpter.
The romantic comedy The Sweetest Thing
follows a club-hopper and her quest to educate herself on how to catch
the right man's eye after her
Mr. Goodbar walks right by.
Along with Diaz, the film stars a handful
of pretty faces, including Christina Applegate, Selma Blair and Parker
Posey.
It is rated R and directed by Roger Kumble.
It also stars Thomas Jane and Johnathon Schaech.
The supernatural thriller Wendigo, which
is written and directed by Larry Fessenden, follows a couple and their
son as terror haunts their drive
through New York after they hit a deer
in the road.
The R-rated film stars Erik Per Sullivan,
Patricia Clarkson, Jake Weber, James Godwin and John Speredakos.
In his feature-film debut, Michel Gondry
directs Human Nature, which was written by Charlie Kaufman, whose credits
include 1999's bizarre
film Being John Malkovich.
Human Nature follows a four-way romance
that involves a woman (Patricia Arquette) who's covered with body hair,
a scientist (Tim Robbins)
who's trying to give mice a bit of etiquette,
a lab assistant and a man (Rhys Ifans) who was raised by an ape.
The romantic comedy is rated R and also
stars Robert Forster and Rosie Perez.
Festival in Cannes is set during the festival,
where three love stories that span three generations unravel amid the film
industry.
The romantic drama stars Jenny Gabrielle,
Greta Scacchi, Kim Kolarich and Peter Bogdanovich with cameos by Jeff Goldblum,
Holly Hunter,
William Shatner and Faye Dunaway.
Henry Jaglom directs the PG-13-rated film.
The Angelika Film Center continues its
Sensational Cinema program with the release of Diamond Men.
Diamond aims to entertain with a story
about an aging diamond salesman who has just been demoted after management
thinks of him as a
liability.
Before he cleans out his desk, he's asked
to take a rookie salesman out for a training day.
It was written and directed by Daniel M.
Cohen and stars Robert Forster and Donnie Wahlberg. The film has not yet
been rated.
