Down With Love

Down With Love is an old-fashioned romantic story, set in the early 1960s, which harks back to the Doris Day and Rock Hudson comedies of that era.

Barbara Novak (Renée Zellweger, Bridget Jones’ Diary, Chicago), hits New York with her new book, Down With Love, a swinging woman’s manifesto on saying “no” to romantic love and “yes” to career, empowerment and sexual freedom. As Barbara’s revolutionary book becomes a bestseller, hotshot journalist and New Frontier swinger, Catcher “Catch” Block (Ewan McGregor, Moulin Rouge), is determined to take her down a peg or two.

Catch’s best friend and boss, the neurotic and lovesick Peter McManus (David Hyde Pierce), tries to rein in his star writer, while at the same time falling in love with Barbara’s brilliant and feisty editor, Vikki Hiller (Sarah Paulson).

The Italian Job

This is a Hollywood re-make of the 1969 classic English film, which starred Michael Caine, Noel Coward and Benny Hill.

While it is strong on action, it lacks the straight-faced comedy of the original, which depicted savvy British crooks easily outsmarting foreigners.

In this latest version, crack thieves Charlie Croker (Mark Wahlberg) and John Bridger (Donald Sutherland) and their gang pull off an amazing gold bullion heist from a heavily guarded safe in the heart of Venice.

But one of their number double-crosses them and makes off with the loot himself.

The remaining gang members follow him to California where they plan to steal back their gold by creating one of Los Angeles’ biggest ever traffic jams.

The caper culminates with the famous fleet of Mini Coopers speeding down LA subways, sewer tunnels and Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.

Also stars Edward Norton, Seth Green, Jason Statham, Mos Def and Charlize Theron.

Cypher

Viewers are plunged into an unsettling world where reality and unreality become blurred in this taut, nightmarish thriller from Canadian director Vincenzo Natali (Cube).

Nerdish accountant Morgan Sullivan (Jeremy Northam, Enigma, Gosford Park) applies for a job as a corporate spy with a mysterious multinational corporation, Digicorp.

After undergoing an unusual induction test, Morgan is told to assume a new identity as “Jack Thursby”, attend various conferences and covertly record the proceedings.

Morgan, however, immediately starts being haunted by nightmares and flashbacks.

In the course of his work, he meets the elusive and attractive Rita Foster (Lucy Liu, Shanghai Noon, Chicago), who tells him that she knows about the nightmares he is having.

Rita reveals that Digicorp has a sinister agenda. The conferences and conventions to which Morgan is sent are actually sessions designed to brainwash him and others like him.

Rita offers him an antidote to “undrug” him, and Morgan agrees to work for Digicorp’s rival company, Sunways, as a deeper-cover double-agent.

Willard

Anyone with a taste for the macabre will relish this psychological horror drama.

Willard Stiles (Crispin Glover, Back to the Future, River’s Edge) lives with his ailing mother (Jackie Burroughs) in a decrepit old house and works for a boss (R. Lee Ermey, Full Metal Jacket) who routinely abuses and humiliates him in front of his colleagues.

Willard develops a curious affinity with the ever-growing rodent population under his house and discovers that the rats will do whatever he wishes.

The movie – an inspired re-make of the 1971 cult horror film of the same name – is rich in symbolism. The rats under the floorboards mirror Willard’s disturbed inner psyche and repressed anger.

The trigger for his anger is when his boss attempts to take possession of his home.

Willard turns to his rodent friends to execute a diabolical revenge. Swarms of rats spill out of floors and walls, like ghastly manifestations of Willard’s vengeful fantasies.

Buffalo Soldiers

This dark comedy is about an American army squadron fighting nothing but boredom in West Germany just before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

It portrays a bleak and brutal world where drugs and violence rule. Many of the troops are ex-convicts and high school dropouts. In one scene, they embark on a drunken rampage, wreaking havoc with their tanks in a crowded German square.

Australian director Gregor Jordan (Two Hands, Ned Kelly) says of his latest film: “I would say that it deals with the idea that soldiers need a war – and, if there’s no war, they’ll create their own.”

Joaquin Phoenix (Gladiator) plays Ray Elwood, an army clerk, who takes advantage of his spineless and harassed base commander, Colonel Berman (Ed Harris, Enemy at the Gates), by selling heroin and stolen army supplies on the black market.

But when a member of the company dies, the autopsy reveals an abnormal amount of drugs in his bloodstream. This attracts the attention of fearsome Vietnam veteran, Sergeant Lee (Scott Glenn), who takes charge of the subsequent investigation.

Finding Nemo

Cheery clown fish Marlin is an overprotective father who is afraid of giving his son Nemo freedom to grow and to explore on his own.

When Nemo is caught by Australian fishermen, a distraught Marlin searches the sea for his son, with the help of a scatter-brained blue tang, Dory.

Meanwhile, little Nemo is trapped in a dentist’s aquarium in Sydney. He befriends the other fish and together they plan how they can escape to the oceans to rejoin their families.

This charming father-and-son story, from the makers of Toy Story, is sure to delight families.

It has stunning animated sequences of underwater seascapes and aquatic life, a clever and humorous screenplay, and a beautiful music score.

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