The Dark Knight

The Joker robs the mob while Heath Ledger steals the show in The Dark Knight (Warner Brothers)

There was a time when people thought it was crazy to try and have someone else take on the role of the Joker because no one could possibly fill Jack Nicholson's shoes. But after you see The Dark Knight (opening July 18 throughout San Diego and in IMAX at Edwards Mira Mesa Cinemas), you won't be able to think of anyone else besides Heath Ledger. Now Nicholson's Joker looks like a naughty clown while Ledger's Joker is downright nasty and disturbed (yet still oddly likable). Ledger's manically endearing performance as the unhinged psycho giving both cops and crooks nightmares is so riveting that it makes you sad for all the roles he'll never have a chance to tackle. Ledger died at the beginning of this year just after wrapping production on The Dark Knight. So this film offers his last completed performance.

United Artists Film Festival Kicks Off With The Good, the Bad and The Ugly

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (United Artists)

This Friday May 23, Landmark's Ken Cinema begins a week-long festival celebrating 90 years of United Artists films. New prints of films such as The Great Escape, The Apartment and Dr. No will be screened. But the film that kicks off the festival and gets my immediate attention is Sergio Leone's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (listen to my radio feature to get your fix of the now famous music.)

No music has come to define a genre more vividly than Ennio Morricone's theme for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Just a few notes of this witty, epic score is all you need to conjure up images of western landscapes, weather-beaten faces and showdowns on dusty street.

Before the Rains

Before the Rains (Roadside Attractions)

Ismail Merchant may have died three years ago but the brand that he and fellow filmmaker James Ivory established with their canon of films lives on. The Merchant Ivory label isn't one that stands for bold innovation or wild excitement but it does assure you of a high level of craftsmanship; literate, intelligent storytelling; and usually themes of culture and class. The latest film to be presented under the Merchant-Ivory banner is Santosh Sivan's Before the Rains (opening May 16 at Landmark's La Jolla Village Theaters), a tale set in India as British rule is facing decline. [JUST ADDED: You can now listen to the Film Club of the Air discussion of Before the Rains with Tom Fudge, Scott Marks and myself.]

The inspiration for Before the Rains comes from an unexpected source -- the Israeli film by Dany Verete, The Desert Trilogy: Yellow Asphalt, and specifically the segment called Red Roofs. The story involves an Israeli farmer who has an illicit affair with his housemaid and then makes his Bedouin assistant deal with the fallout. Film producers Amotz Zakai, Doug Mankoff and Andrew Spaulding decided to transplant Verete's story to colonial India, which would then afford them the opportunity of working with cinematographer-turned-filmmaker Santosh Sivan.

88 Minutes

Al Pacino has 88 Minutes to live. (Columbia)

It's a sad day when Zombie Strippers boasts a more credible plot than Al Pacino's latest movie. Okay I'm exaggerating... but only slightly. Zombie Strippers may be absurd but it knows it. Al Pacino's latest outing, 88 Minutes (opening April 18 throughout San Diego), is wildly improbable yet everyone insists on playing it straight. The result is 108 minutes that I wish I could have back - and Pacino may be wishing the same thing.

City of Men

Darlan Cunha and Douglas Silva of City of Men (Miramax)

If the title of the new Brazilian film City of Men (opening February 29 at Landmark's Hillcrest Cinemas) sounds familiar, it should. It's the spin off of Fernando Meirelles' 2002 film City of God, and the follow up to Meirelles' 2002 Brazilian TV series City of Men. Meirelles also serves as the producer of City of Men, which is directed by his long time collaborator Paulo Morelli. The new film isn't a sequel because there's no continuation of plot or recurring characters from the first film. (Some actors do reappear but playing different roles.) But City of Men does return to the same Rio de Janeiro slums and to similar themes about coming of age amidst violence.

In Bruges

Hitmen on holiday in In Bruges (Focus Features)
 

Irish playwright Martin McDonagh makes his feature film writing and directing debut with In Bruges (opening February 8 at Landmark's Hillcrest Cinemas), a darkly comic tale of two hitmen on holiday in the idyllic European city that calls itself “the Venice of the North.” Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell play the Irish killers. McDonagh previously worked with Gleeson on his Oscar-winning short Six-Shooter.

Shoot ‘Em Up on DVD

Now available on DVD

Okay, I don't usually write about the DVD release of a film but I have to highlight a film that I loved from last year but which failed to generate much interest at the box office. It's not a high and lofty work of art but it is easily the most fun you'll have at an American action movie. Shoot 'Em Up (coming out on DVD January 1) delivers breathtakingly choreographed action sequences that play out like wildly elaborate Rube Goldberg devices. Clive Owen stars as a man who knows how to handle guns and women (and sometime both at the same time). He comes to the aid of an infant whose mother was killed by mobsters. Paul Giamatti is a bean counting hit man and Monica Bellucci is a luscious prostitute. Plus the film wins the award for the most innovative weapon -- a carrot. I bet Bugs didn't realize the veggie he was chewing on could be lethal but first time director Michael Davis shows that in the proper hands it can be an instrument of death.

If you are an action junkie like I am, this is the high octane fix you've been waiting for. The DVD includes the following bonus features:

Audio Commentary

Ballet of Bullets: The Making of Shoot 'Em Up

Michael Davis' Original Animatics with Optional Commentary

Deleted Scenes

Theatrical Trailer

Addictive Re-mix Trailer

Red Band (R-rated) Trailer

Here's my original review of the film, including interviews with actor Clive Owen and director Michael Davis . This film kicks ass!

Hitman

Timothy Olyphant is Agent 47 in Hitman (20th Century Fox)

Video games and movies continue in an increasingly incestuous relationship. Hollywood, hoping to cash in on the popularity of video games and its much in demand demographics, has turned to video games for the basis of movies going back to the silly Mario Brothers. More recently it's been games such as Doom, Silent Hill, AVP and DOA. But then you have renowned directors such as John Woo taking time off from directing movies to make the game Stranglehold, inspired by his own Hong Kong movie Hard-Boiled and starring real life action star Chow Yun Fat. Now the game Hitman (opening Nov. 21 throughout San Diego) arrives on screen to see if it can tap into that highly attractive and potentially huge gamer demo.

Shoot ‘Em Up/Interviews with Michael Davis and Clive Owen

I'm a British nanny and I'm dangerous... Shoot 'Em Up (New Line)

At this year's Comic-Con, filmmaker Michael Davis and actor Clive Owen sat on a panel for their new film Shoot 'Em Up (opening September 7 throughout San Diego). By the end of the ten minutes or so of clips, the crowd of 6400 attendees in Hall H were hooting and hollering their approval and begging for more. But can the film sustain that level of energy throughout? Listen to my radio feature or read the extended interview/review.

I spoke with both Davis and Owen at the Comic-Con about their film. Owen arrived at the round table interview looking like he had just stepped off the cover of GQ. He wore a suit and tie--definitely over dressed for the Con. But he brought a touch of class to the room of bedraggled journalists. He's also drop dead gorgeous... and a really nice guy to boot.

Hot Fuzz plus interviews with Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright

Here come the fuzz! Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg, the comic geniuses behind 2004's Shaun of the Dead, take on the American cop film to deliver Hot Fuzz. While Tarantino and Rodriguez are sending bloody valentines to the grindhouse pictures they love, Wright and Pegg reveal their affection for the American action films of the 80s.

Three years ago Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg decided to make a romantic zombie comedy, and their first thought was to call it Teatime for the Dead. That perfectly summed up their cheery British take on the American cult horror classic Night of the Living Dead. Then, the pair decided to take on the American cop movie. But Edgar Wright says he and his partner faced some problems: In the U.K. there really arent any action films and theres really not many cop films at all. Theres far too many gangster films so we felt that it was time to redress the balance and do a British cop film. And also address the fact that not really a lot of crime happens in the U.K. and so how can we make that interesting for a two hour running time.