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FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX
PLOT: After their plane crashes in the desert, the survivors attempt to build another aircraft out of salvageable parts.
TALKING POINTS: The popular 1965 version is remade, with Dennis Quaid cast in the James Stewart role (as the pilot)... Although the "65 model was Men Only, this new version invents a role for Miranda Otto (Eowyn in the Lord of the Rings flicks).
MEET THE FOCKERS
PLOT: As if meeting the parents (Robert De Niro and Blythe Danner) of his fiancee (Teri Polo) wasn't hard enough, Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) now has to introduce them to his own eccentric parents (Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand).
TALKING POINTS: This sequel to the 2000 comedy hit Meet the Parents should fight off challenges from Ocean's Twelve and Lemony Snicket to emerge as the season's top moneymaker (the already-in-theaters The Incredibles possibly excluded)... Aping Jude Law, Stiller has also appeared in six films during 2004.
A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT
PLOT: In the waning days of World War I, a young French woman (Audrey Tautou) suspects that her fiance, believed to have been killed on the battlefield, might actually be alive and sets out to locate him.
TALKING POINTS: Tautou reunited with her Amelie director, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, for this French import that could emerge as one of the season's premiere art-house flicks... Jodie Foster appears in a small role.
DECEMBER 25
THE DARK
PLOT: An American family discovers its dream house in Spain, not realizing until after they've moved in that the joint is haunted.
TALKING POINTS: Anna Paquin and Lena Olin head the cast... This opened in Spain (homeland of its writer-director, Jaume Balaguero) in late 2002 and played the rest of Europe throughout 2003; it was scheduled to open stateside this past summer under the title Darkness until it was unceremoniously postponed to this curious Christmas slot.
FAT ALBERT
PLOT: Fat Albert (Kenan Thompson) and his friends hang out on the streets of their Philadelphia neighborhood.
TALKING POINTS: Bill Cosby's famous stand-up comedy creation, made even more famous via the Saturday morning cartoon in the 1970s, now takes a live-action leap to the big screen... Even allowing for the current fascination with all things nostalgic, isn't this movie about two decades too late?
THE LIFE AQUATIC WITH STEVE ZISSOU
PLOT: Oceanographer Steve Zissou (Bill Murray) has his hands full dealing with his colorful crew (Owen Wilson and Willem Dafoe, among others), a stubborn reporter (Cate Blanchett) and the shark that killed his partner.
TALKING POINTS: Wes Anderson's latest sounds as quirky as his previous releases, The Royal Tenenbaums and Rushmore... The large cast also includes Anjelica Huston and Jeff Goldblum.
LIMITED RELEASES
The following films, scheduled to open in limited release in New York and Los Angeles over the course of the next few weeks, will either reach us later this year, in early 2005, or not at all: THE ASSASSINATION OF RICHARD NIXON tells the true story of Sam Bicke (Sean Penn), an ordinary guy who decided in 1974 to hold accountable the man responsible for America's problems... In Pedro Almodovar's BAD EDUCATION, a film director (Fele Martinez) hooks up with a drag queen (The Motorcycle Diaries' Gael Garcia Bernal), and together they decide to make a movie about their shared childhood experiences under the tutelage of a pedophilic priest (Daniel Gimenez Cacho)... HOTEL RWANDA, which has the potential to emerge as another Schindler's List or The Killing Fields, is based on an actual event that occurred a decade ago, when a hotel manager (Don Cheadle) in Rwanda saved over 1,000 Tutsi civilians from being systematically slaughtered by Hutu extremists... Director Zhang Yimou, whose martial arts epic Hero was a late-summer hit, steps up to the plate again with HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS, in which the title outfit combats empirical corruption in 859AD China... After receiving valuable life lessons from a fellow prisoner (The Passion of the Christ's Jim Caviezel), a 12-year-old boy (Ben Tidder) escapes from an Eastern European labor camp and makes his way across unfamiliar lands in I AM DAVID... Formerly titled Synergy, IN GOOD COMPANY stars Dennis Quaid as a recently demoted ad executive who's not thrilled that his 26-year-old boss (Topher Grace) has begun dating his 18-year-old daughter (Scarlett Johansson)... In A LOVE SONG FOR BOBBY LONG, a rebellious teenager (Scarlett Johansson again) returns to her childhood home in New Orleans after her mother's death, only to find two of her mom's friends -- a retired English professor (John Travolta) and his assistant (Gabriel Macht) -- living in the decrepit house... Flush from his success with Mystic River, Clint Eastwood is back as director-producer with MILLION DOLLAR BABY, in which he also stars as a boxing trainer who takes a promising newcomer (Boys Don't Cry Oscar winner Hilary Swank) under his wing... Two top talents -- Oscar nominee Javier Bardem (Before Night Falls) and director Alejandro Amenabar (The Others) -- team up for THE SEA INSIDE, the true story of a paraplegic Spaniard who spent three decades fighting for his right to die... After watching most of his Mystic River co-stars compete for Oscars last time around, Kevin Bacon hopes for his moment in the awards spotlight with THE WOODSMAN, about a convicted sex offender who, after a 12-year incarceration, moves to a quiet neighborhood and befriends a young girl.
