How to Lose Friends and Alienate People - Trailer

Blindness

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Based on the 1995 novel Blindness by José Saramago, an epidemic causes blindness in a modern city, resulting in the collapse of society. The novel's author originally refused to sell rights for a film adaptation, not wanting it to fall into the wrong hands. Meirelles was able to acquire rights with the condition that the film would be set in an unrecognizable city.

Cast
Julianne Moore as Doctor's Wife
Mark Ruffalo as Doctor
Danny Glover as Man with Black Eye Patch
Gael García Bernal as Bartender/King of Ward 3
Alice Braga as Woman with Dark Glasses
Don McKellar as Thief
Sandra Oh as Minister of Health
Yusuke Iseya as First Blind Man
Yoshino Kimura as First Blind Man's Wife
Maury Chaykin as Accountant
Mitchell Nye as Boy
Susan Coyne as Receptionist
Martha Burns as Woman with Insomnia

Detail Info
Directed by Fernando Meirelles
Produced by Niv Fichman, Andrea Barata Ribeiro, Sonoko Sakai
Written by Don McKellar
Narrated by Danny Glover
Music by Uakti
Cinematography César Charlone
Editing by Daniel Rezende
Distributed by Miramax Films
Release date(s) September 12, 2008
Country Japan, Canada, Brazil
Language English
Budget $25 million

Critical reception
Screen International's Cannes screen jury which annually polls a panel of international film critics gave the film a 1.3 average out of 4, placing the film on the lower-tier of all the films screened at competition this year. Of the film critics from the Screen International Cannes critics jury, Alberto Crespi of the Italian publication L'Unita, Michel Ciment of French film magazine Positif and Dohoon Kim of South Korean film publication Cine21, all gave the film zero points (out of four).

Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter described Blindness as "provocative" but "predictable cinema", startling but failing to surprise. Honeycutt criticized the film's two viewpoints: Julianne Moore's character, the only one who can see, is slow to act against atrocities, and the behavior of Danny Glover's character comes off as "slightly pompous". Honeycutt explained, "This philosophical coolness is what most undermines the emotional response to Meirelles' film. His fictional calculations are all so precise and a tone of deadly seriousness swamps the grim action." Justin Chang of Variety described the film: "Blindness emerges onscreen both overdressed and undermotivated, scrupulously hitting the novel's beats yet barely approximating, so to speak, its vision." Chang thought that Julianne Moore gave a strong performance but did not feel that the film captured the impact of Saramago's novel.

Stephen Garrett of Esquire complimented the director's style: "Meirelles [honors] the material by using elegant, artful camera compositions, beguiling sound design and deft touches of digital effects to accentuate the authenticity of his cataclysmic landscape." Despite the praise, Garrett believed that the Meirelles's talent at portraying real-life injustice in City of God and The Constant Gardener did not suit him for directing the "heightened reality" of Saramago's social commentary

RocknRolla - Trailer

Miracle at St. Anna

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Miracle at St. Anna follows four African-American soldiers of the all-black 92nd Infantry Division who get trapped near a small Tuscan village on the Gothic Line during the Italian Campaign of World War II after one of them risks his life to save an Italian boy.

The story is inspired by the August 1944 Sant'Anna di Stazzema massacre perpetrated by the Waffen-SS in retaliation to Italian partisan activity. There is also a reference to a sculpted head from Ponte Santa Trinita in Florence that acts as a plot device.

Cast
Derek Luke
Michael Ealy
Laz Alonso
Omar Benson Miller
Matteo Sciabordi
John Leguizamo
Kerry Washington
Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Detail Info
Directed by Spike Lee
Produced by Roberto Cicutto, Spike Lee, Luigi Musini
Written by James McBride
Music by Terence Blanchard
Cinematography Matthew Libatique
Editing by Barry Alexander Brown
Distributed by Touchstone Pictures
Release date(s) September 26, 2008
Country United States, Italy
Language English, Italian, German

The Lucky Ones

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Originally titled The Return. The story revolves around three soldiers -- Collee (Rachel McAdams), T.K. (Michael Pena) and Cheever (Tim Robbins) -- who return from the Iraq War after suffering injuries and learn that life has moved on without them. They end up on an unexpected road trip across the U.S., with Collee on a mission to bring her boyfriend's guitar back to his family because he saved her life, T.K. seeking confidence to face his wife after a shrapnel injury that threatens his sexual function and middle-aged Cheever planning to hit the casinos in a desperate effort to pay for his son's college tuition.

Cast
Rachel McAdams as Collee
Michael Pena as T.K.
Tim Robbins as Cheever

Detail Info
Directed by Neil Burger
Produced by Brian Koppelman, David Levien
Written by Neil Burger, Dirk Wittenborn
Distributed by Lionsgate
Release date(s) September 26, 2008
Country United States
Language English

Eagle Eye

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Young Jerry Shaw (Shia LaBeouf) returns home after the mysterious death of his successful twin brother. He and a single mother, Rachel Holloman (Michelle Monaghan), find out that they have been framed as terrorists, and they are threatened into becoming members of a cell tasked to assassinate a politician.

Cast
Shia LaBeouf as Jerome "Jerry" Shaw
>Michelle Monaghan as Rachel Holloman
>Rosario Dawson as a government agent
Billy Bob Thornton as Thomas Morgan
Anthony Mackie as a hot-shot soldier
Cameron Boyce as Sam
Ethan Embry as Toby Grant
Michael Chiklis as the United States Secretary of Defense

Detail Info
Directed by D.J. Caruso
Produced by Steven Spielberg, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Pat Crowley, Ed McDonnell
Written by Dan McDermott, Eli Attie, John Glenn,Travis Wright, Hillary Seitz
Music by Brian Tyler
Cinematography Dariusz Wolski
Editing by Jim Page
Distributed by DreamWorks Pictures
Release date(s) September 26, 2008
Country United States
Language English
Budget $73 million

Nights in Rodanthe

Based on the novel of the same name by Nicholas Sparks.

Cast
Diane Lane as Adrienne Willis
Richard Gere as Dr. Paul Flanner
James Franco as Mark Flanner
Scott Glenn as Robert Torrelson
Christopher Meloni as Jack Willis
Mae Whitman as Amanda Willis
Viola Davis as Jean
Pablo Schreiber as Charlie Torrelson
Charlie Tahan as Danny Willis
Austin James as Chauffeur

Info Detail
Directed by George C. Wolfe
Produced by Denise Di Novi
Written by Nicholas Sparks (novel), Ann Peacock
Cinematography Alfonso Beato
Editing by Brian A. Kates
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release date(s) September 26, 2008
Country USA
Rating PG-13

Battle in Seattle

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Thousands of activists arrive in Seattle, Washington in masses to protest the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 (World Trade Organization). The movie takes an in-depth look at characters during those five days in 1999 as demonstrators protested the meeting of the WTO in Seattle's streets. Although it began as a peaceful protest with a goal of stopping the WTO talks, it escalated into a full-scale riot and eventually, a State of Emergency that put protesters against the Seattle Police Department and the National Guard.

Cast
Martin Henderson as Jay
Michelle Rodriguez as Lou
Charlize Theron as Ella
Woody Harrelson as Dale
André Benjamin as Django
Connie Nielsen as Jean
Ray Liotta as Mayor Jim Tobin
Channing Tatum as Johnson

Detail Info
Directed by Stuart Townsend
Music by Massive Attack
Cinematography Barry Ackroyd
Distributed by Redwood Palms Pictures
Release date(s) September 19, 2008 (US)
Country United States, Canada
Language English

High School Musical 3: Senior Year

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Click here for Google Movie Review
Click here for MySpace Contest News

Now high school seniors, Troy Bolton (Zac Efron) and Gabriella Montez (Vanessa Hudgens) are facing the prospect of being separated from each other as they go off in different directions when graduating from East High. Joined by the rest of their Wildcat friends, including Sharpay Evans (Ashley Tisdale), Ryan Evans (Lucas Grabeel), Chad Danforth (Corbin Bleu), and Taylor McKessie (Monique Coleman) they stage an elaborate spring musical reflecting their experiences, hopes and fears about the future.

Cast
Zac Efron as Troy Bolton
Vanessa Hudgens as Gabriella Montez
Ashley Tisdale as Sharpay Evans
Lucas Grabeel as Ryan Evans
Corbin Bleu as Chad Danforth
Monique Coleman as Taylor McKessie
Olesya Rulin as Kelsi Nielsen
Ryne Sanborn as Jason Cross
Chris Warren, Jr. as Zeke Baylor
Kaycee Stroh as Martha Cox
Alyson Reed as Ms. Darbus
Bart Johnson as Jack Bolton
Leslie Wing as Lucille Bolton
Jemma McKenzie-Brown as Tiara Gold
Matt Prokop as Jimmie Zara
Justin Martin as Donny Fox

Detail Info
Directed by Kenny Ortega
Produced by Bill Borden, Barry Rosenbush, Don Schain (co-producer)
Written by Peter Barsocchini
Music by

• David Lawrence
• Matthew Gerrard
• Robbie Nevil
• Shankar Mahadevan
• Randy Peterson
• Antonnia Armato
• Andy Dodd
• Faye Greenberg
• Jamie Houston
• Adam Watts
• Kevin Quinn

Cinematography Daniel Aranyo
Editing by Seth Flaum
Distributed by Walt Disney Pictures
Release date(s) October 24, 2008
Country United States
Language English
Budget $13.3 million
Preceded by High School Musical 2

Battle in Seattle - Trailer

Lakeview Terrace

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Click here for Google Movie Review

In Lakeview Terrace, a young couple Chris Mattson (Patrick Wilson) and Lisa Mattson (Kerry Washington) have just moved into their California dream home when they become the target of their next-door neighbor, who disapproves of their interracial relationship. A stern, single father, this tightly wound LAPD officer Abel Turner (Samuel L. Jackson) has appointed himself the watchdog of the neighborhood. His nightly foot patrols and overly watchful eyes bring comfort to some, but he becomes increasingly harassing to the newlyweds. These persistent intrusions into their lives ultimately take a turn for the worse when the couple decides to fight back.

Cast
Samuel L. Jackson as Abel Turner
Patrick Wilson as Chris Mattson
Kerry Washington as Lisa Mattson
Jaishon Fisher as Marcus Turner
Regine Nehy as Celia Turner
Jay Hernandez as Javier Villareal
Keith Loneker as Clarence Darlington
Ron Glass

Detail Info
Directed by Neil LaBute
Produced by Jeffrey Graup, James Lassiter, David Loughery, Will Smith
Written by David Loughery, Howard Korder
Distributed by Screen Gems
Release date(s) September 19, 2008
Country United States
Language English

Why We Love Scary Movies?

Horror films are more graphic than ever. Why do we watch, and what do scary movies do to us?
By Richard Sine
WebMD Feature
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

Halloween is nigh, and along with the parade of adorable elves and fairies knocking on your door come some more disturbing phenomena: scary haunted houses, wild parties and, perhaps most jarringly, a new onslaught of ghastly horror films. This year the biggest new release will be Saw IV, the fourth installment of a tale of a psycho who delights in putting his victims through ever more elaborate and deadly traps.

Scary movies are nothing new, but films like those in the Saw and Hostel series have offered something different: They focus less on the suspense of the chase and more on the suffering of the victim, leading some to dub them "torture porn." They feature levels of gore and violence once reserved for cult films. And despite the extreme gore, they're attracting big crowds at your local megaplex -- and may already be loaded into your teenager's DVD player.

If you're not a horror movie fan, you may be puzzled about why people put themselves through the ordeal of watching such movies. Many behavioral researchers share your puzzlement, giving rise to a term: the "horror paradox."

"No doubt, there's something really powerful that brings people to watch these things, because it's not logical," Joanne Cantor, PhD, director of the Center for Communication Research at University of Wisconsin, Madison, tells WebMD. "Most people like to experience pleasant emotions."

Defenders of these movies may say they're just harmless entertainment. But if their attraction is powerful, Cantor says, so is their impact. These impacts are felt by adults as well as children, by the well-adjusted as well as the disturbed. They may linger well after the house lights go up -- sometimes for years. And they may be anything but pleasurable.

Scary Movies: The Fear Is Real
So is the fear you feel when you watch someone being chased by an axe-wielding murderer any different from the fear you might feel if you were actually being chased by an axe-wielding murderer?

The answer is no, at least not from where Glenn Sparks sits. Sparks, a professor of communication at Purdue University, studies the effects of horror films on viewers' physiology. When people watch horrific images, their heartbeat increases as much as 15 beats per minute, Sparks tells WebMD. Their palms sweat, their skin temperature drops several degrees, their muscles tense, and their blood pressure spikes.

"The brain hasn't really adapted to the new technology [of movies]," Sparks explains. "We can tell ourselves the images on the screen are not real, but emotionally our brain reacts as if they are ... our 'old brain' still governs our reactions."

When Sparks studied the physical effects of violent movies on young men, he noticed a strange pattern: The more fear they felt, the more they claimed to enjoy the movie. Why? Sparks believes scary movies may be one of the last vestiges of the tribal rite of passage.

"There's a motivation males have in our culture to master threatening situations," Sparks says. "It goes back to the initiation rites of our tribal ancestors, where the entrance to manhood was associated with hardship. We've lost that in modern society, and we may have found ways to replace it in our entertainment preferences."

In this context, Sparks says, the gorier the movie, the more justified the young man feels in boasting that he endured it. Other examples of modern tribal rites include roller coasters and even frat-house hazing.

Morbid Fascination
There are other theories to explain the appeal of scary movies. James B. Weaver III, PhD, says many young people may be attracted to them merely because adults frown on them. For adults, morbid curiosity may be at play -- the same kind that causes us to stare at crashes on the highway, suggests Cantor. Humans may have an innate need to stay aware of dangers in our environment, especially the kind that could do us bodily harm, she says.

Yet another theory suggests that people may seek out violent entertainment as a way of coping with actual fears or violence. Sparks points to a study that showed that shortly after the murder of a college student in a community, interest in a movie showing a cold-blooded murder increased, both among women in the student's dormitory and in the community at large.

One popular explanation for the appeal of scary movies, expressed by the likes of horror novelist Stephen King, is that they act as a sort of safety valve for our cruel or aggressive impulses. The implication of this idea, which academics dub "symbolic catharsis," is that watching violence forestalls the need to act it out.

Unfortunately, media researchers say the effect may be closer to the opposite. Consuming violent media is more likely to make people feel more hostile, to view the world that way, and to be haunted by violent ideas and images.

In an experiment, Weaver showed gratuitously violent films (with stars like Chuck Norris and Steven Seagal) to college students for several nights in a row. The next day, while they were performing a simple test, a research assistant treated them rudely. The students who had watched the violent films suggested a harsher punishment for the rude assistant than students who had watched nonviolent films. "Watching these films actually made people more callous and more punitive," says Weaver, a researcher at Emory University's department of behavioral sciences and health education. "You can actually prime the idea that aggression or violence is the way to resolve conflict."

Lingering Effects
Just because people seek out scary movies doesn't mean their effects are benign, researchers say. In fact, Cantor suggests keeping children away from these films, and adds that adults have plenty of reasons to say away, as well.

In surveys of her students, Cantor found that nearly 60% reported that something they had watched before age 14 had caused disturbances in their sleep or waking life. Cantor has collected hundreds of essays by students who became afraid of water or clowns, who had obsessive thoughts of horrible images, or who became disturbed even at the mention of movies such as E.T. or Nightmare on Elm Street. More than a quarter of the students said they were still fearful.

Cantor suspects that the brain may store memories of these films in the amygdala, which plays an important role in generating emotions. She says these film memories may produce similar reactions to those produced by actual trauma -- and may be just as hard to erase.

Cantor views horror films as unhealthy because of the physical stress they create in viewers and the "negative trace" they can leave, even on adults. But the effects are especially strong on children. In her book, "Mommy , I'm Scared": How TV and Movies Frighten Children and What We Can Do to Protect Them, Cantor describes what frightens children at different ages and how to help them cope if they happen to see something disturbing.

The Torture Trap
Why has "torture porn" caught on in recent years? Experts who spoke to WebMD offered a number of possible explanations. With the controversy over torture that has followed in the wake of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, viewers may wonder "what [torture] would be like," Sparks says.

Or the reason may lie with the filmmakers, who are entranced by the ability of digital special effects to make gore look more realistic, suggests Weaver. Alternately, they may be seeking to up the ante set by graphic television shows such as CSI.

As people become more desensitized to violence in the media, Sparks and other experts worry that we may also be becoming more desensitized to violence in real life. And Cantor worries that films with explicit gore may be more likely to be traumatizing.

With some hard-core horror movies having performed poorly in the box office this year, Sparks hopes that the torture porn trend is on its way out. In surveys he has done, Sparks has found that most people -- even adolescent males -- don't actively seek out violence in films.

"The further films go today, the more likely it will be that people will decide that the costs outweigh the benefits. Then they'll say, 'I don't want to see that anymore.'"

Horton

Appaloosa - Trailer

Forever Strong - Trailer

Blindness - Trailer

Miracle at St. Anna - Trailer

The Lucky Ones - Trailer

Eagle Eye - Trailer

MySpace to launch "High School Musical" contest

Tuesday September 2 1:16 AM ET

MySpace plans to launch a contest on Tuesday to market the latest in Walt Disney Co's blockbuster franchise "High School Musical 3" in what the News Corp Internet social network called its biggest film campaign to date.

Disney is hoping to build interest in the third movie in its hit television films series, and the first to hit theaters, by tapping MySpace's estimated 76 million unique users as of July, according to comScore.

Some 40 percent of U.S. mothers are also members of MySpace, according to comScore, which a MySpace spokesman said was one reason why the family and kids entertainment-focused Disney selected MySpace to promote one of the studio's biggest hits.

Schools are pitted against each other as high school seniors compete by completing undisclosed online tasks involving uploading photos, filming and uploading videos, and decorating their profile pages to see which school has the most "school spirit," said Angela Courtin, MySpace's senior vice president of marketing.

Unlike sweepstakes where users do little more than sign up, the contest entails weeks of participation on the Internet, offline and using cellphones to send text messages. The contest ends on November 3.

Courtin called the so-called integrated marketing campaign a "continuation of a dialogue between the franchise, MySpace and the user."

Winners will receive a free trip for the entire class to a Disney theme park and a pep really featuring U.K. pop star Natasha Bedingfield.

"High School Musical 3" opens in theaters in the United States on October 24.

(Reporting by Kenneth Li; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

Home Theater: Before You Buy...

Check this first before you buy high end tv set, blu-ray support player, high power sound system, and yada..yada..yada...

1. Fit your home theater with space that you have
Don't buy oversized big screen tv, high power sound system if you have small area for your home theater... is feels like have a big elephant for your pet in small house. It is important to plan ahead if you have limited space.

2. Budgeting
Some idea of budgeting (source: Home Theater for Dummies)

$0 to $500: Definitely the entry-level package for home theater, a system in the under-$500 range basically uses your existing TV (or includes an inexpensive TV in the 27-inch range) and an entry-level all-in-one home theater system package (which comes with all the speakers you need for surround sound and a receiver/DVD player combo). You can probably throw in a $50 VCR if you don’t already have one, but even the lowest level all-in-one home theater sets include DVD players. (Gotta have DVD!)

$500 to $2,000: By spending a little more, you can go up a range in a number of the components and get HDTV into your home theater (which we highly recommend — especially as all TVs convert to digital in 2009!). You can spend some of this money on an entry-level tube HDTV (you can get a 30-inch widescreen HDTV-ready TV for under $800). You could even move up to a rear-projection TV; they start around $1,200 for a 40- to 52-inch screen. There are a range of options for better surround sound systems in this price range, with packaged options available for your five surround sound speakers plus your subwoofer. And you can buy a fairly good A/V receiver to drive the system. Top this all off with a portable MP3 player and a DVD player for the car, and your kids will love you (more).

$2,000 to $5,000: At this level, you start to create serious options for a very decent home theater system. The lowest-cost plasma and LCD screens are under $1,000, or for a bigger picture, you can go with a digital (LCD or DLP) rear-projection unit with a great high-def picture (starting at around $1,500). You might budget $500 or more for a high-definitioncapable DVD player in this price range as well. On the audio side, you can spend $1,000 or so on a relatively fancy all-in-one system, but at this price level, you can also start to get serious with separate components, getting a very good A/V receiver, DVD/CD player/recorder, personal video recorder, gaming system, surround sound speakers, and potentially even more. At this price range, the average person can get a mighty fine system.

$5,000 to $10,000: When you top $5,000 as your budget, you can start expanding in some wonderful ways by adding more throughout the house through multizone capabilities, whole-home audio, and universal remote control capability, or you can continue to go up the ladder in
terms of higher-quality separates. We swear by audio servers that store all your music in one box. Get one for the car, too, and have them sync up when you drive in the driveway. Front-projection TVs become a viable option in this price range; good projectors start around $2,000. No matter what you choose — flat-panel, rear-projection, or front-projection — in this price range, you should expect a big (50-inch or more) high-definition display. Or, you can get fancy with furniture. Good home theater seats start around $350 each. A high-quality universal remote control costs about $500.

$10,000+: Above $10,000, the sky is truly the limit. For $10,000 to $20,000, you get to enjoy a lot of the next generation of home theater. Your TV should be big and capable of playing 1080p (1920 x 1080 pixels — the highest resolution of HDTV) signals. Your DVD player should be top of the line, supporting Blu-ray or HD-DVD. You probably want some extra amplifier equipment in the system, and you may also want to boost your controls, perhaps with a nice Crestron wireless touch screen control. If you get above $20,000, you are into high-end audiophile-type stuff all the way. Whole-home audio and video, integration with home automation systems, consultants — the works. Believe it or not, it is not unusual for people to spend $1 million or more on a home theater. At that point, we think a lot of money is being paid for custom interior design, top-of-the-line projectors, and so on. Nothing is held back. To us, given more modest expectations, a $25,000 system is stunning in almost all senses of the word.

(the price may vary)

3. You Don't need to buy all the thing at once
Most of Home Theater component are modular. Thats mean, you don't need to buy anything at once. You may doing upgrade, believe me, building home theater is fun.

4. Try to find any good condition component at Auction Site
Yup.. eBay! You can find any good condition part with a competitive price. Make your money worth, and build your home theater.

High School Musical 3: Senior Year - Trailer

Lakeview Terrace - Trailer

Fanboys - Trailer

Fanboys

Click here for trailer

Set in 1998, the story tells of a group of friends who, anxious for the premiere of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, decide to break into Skywalker Ranch and steal an early print of the film. The reason: one of them is suffering from cancer and wishes to see the film before his death. A road trip begins as the friends encounter William Shatner, obsessed Trekkies, and bikers who make them undress for water.

Cast
Jay Baruchel
Dan Fogler
Sam Huntington
Chris Marquette
Kristen Bell

Detail Info
Directed by Kyle Newman
Produced by Dana Brunetti, Kevin Spacey, Matthew Pernicaro, Evan Astrowsky
Written by Ernest Cline (story & screenplay), Dan Pulick (story), Adam F. Goldberg (screenplay)
Music by Mark Mothersbaugh
Distributed by

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
• The Weinstein Company

Release date(s) September 19, 2008
Language English