In the upcoming weeks, local audiences will be able to enjoy the wide openings of Oscar-bait titles that debuted in limited release during the waning weeks of 2004, movies that have already made their marks on 10 Best lists and critics' awards: Hotel Rwanda, Million Dollar Baby and a half-dozen more.
On the other hand, audiences will also get to check out titles that are being unceremoniously dumped by their studios, ones like Alone In the Dark, yet another horror yarn based on a video game, or Racing Stripes, featuring David Spade as a turd-loving horsefly named Scuzz. And that doesn't even take us out of the month of January.
Still, there's always bound to be a gem or two among the early crop (last year blessed us with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). Here, then, is a checklist of 46 movies (including those eight limited releases) scheduled to open in Charlotte over the next four months. And thankfully, 45 of them do not star David Spade.
JANUARY 7: An architect (Michael Keaton) believes that his dead wife (Chandra West) might be communicating with him through his home's recording devices in the supernatural chiller WHITE NOISE.
JANUARY 14: Inspired by a true story, COACH CARTER stars Samuel L. Jackson as a basketball coach who elects to bench his entire team because of their poor grades... Alias star Jennifer Garner portrayed the Marvel Comics superheroine Elektra in 2003's Daredevil; now, she reprises the role in her own starring vehicle, titled, appropriately enough, ELEKTRA... Director Zhang Yimou, whose martial arts epic Hero was a hit last summer, steps up to the plate again with HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS, in which the title outfit combats empirical corruption in 859AD China... 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)... A zebra (Frankie Muniz) who thinks he's a horse decides to compete in the Kentucky Open in RACING STRIPES, a Babe-styled yarn featuring the voices of Dustin Hoffman, Whoopi Goldberg, Snoop Dogg and Mandy Moore... The Amelie team of actress Audrey Tautou and director Jean-Pierre Jeunet pair up again for A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT, an epic romance in which a young French woman suspects that her fiance, believed to have been killed on the battlefields of World War I, might actually be alive.
JANUARY 19: The action yarn ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 is a remake of John Carpenter's nifty 1976 flick about a siege on a police station; Ethan Hawke and Laurence Fishburne head the new cast.
JANUARY 21: In order to impress his new girlfriend (Nia Long), a guy (Ice Cube) agrees to take her rambunctious kids on a lengthy road trip in the comedy ARE WE THERE YET?... The provocative drama 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 he felt was responsible for America's problems... In HOSTAGE, a former hostage negotiator (Bruce Willis) for the LAPD takes a less stressful job as the deskbound police chief in a small town -- at least until a crisis forces him to turn to his old skills to save innocent civilians... The stirring drama HOTEL RWANDA 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... 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 a 12-year incarceration, a convicted sex offender (Kevin Bacon) moves to a quiet neighborhood and befriends a young girl in THE WOODSMAN.
JANUARY 28: A paranormal investigator (Christian Slater) tries to get to the bottom of a series of disappearances in the video game adaptation ALONE IN THE DARK... The thriller HIDE & SEEK stars Robert De Niro as a widower who discovers that his 9-year-old daughter's (Dakota Fanning) imaginary -- and menacing -- friend might be real... The excellent MILLION DOLLAR BABY stars Clint Eastwood (who also directed) as a gym owner who agrees to manage a female boxer (Hilary Swank), leading to unexpected developments.
FEBRUARY 4: In BOOGEYMAN, a young guy (Barry Watson) plagued by nightmares decides to return to his childhood home to confront his past.
FEBRUARY 11: The romantic comedy HITCH stars Will Smith as a smooth operator whose ability to tell other men how to successfully woo women falters when he himself falls for a beauty (Eva Mendes)... The animated POOH'S HEFFALUMP MOVIE, a made-for-DVD feature that's hitting theaters first, is strictly for the wee ones, with Winnie, Tigger and their friends engaged in their usual benign hijinks.
FEBRUARY 18: Adapted from Kate DiCamillo's book, BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE stars Jeff Daniels and Dave Matthews in the story of a little girl (AnnaSophia Robb) whose life is transformed after she adopts a stray dog... Based on the graphic novels, CONSTANTINE casts Keanu Reeves as a failed suicide forced to indefinitely prowl the earth, during which time he decides to wage war against similarly earthbound demons... DIARY OF A MAD BLACK WOMAN finds the wonderful Kimberly Elise (Beloved, The Manchurian Candidate) playing a housewife who has to start over after her adulterous husband (Steve Harris) demands a divorce... A sequel in name only (read: no Jim Carrey or Cameron Diaz), SON OF THE MASK focuses on a kid and his mutt battling an ancient being for possession of the supernaturally enhanced facial accessory.
FEBRUARY 25: Hack director Wes Craven tries for another Scream-style success with the long delayed CURSED, starring Christina Ricci, Mya and a werewolf... Another shelf-warming flick -- it was supposed to be released last year under the title Cheer Up -- MAN OF THE HOUSE stars Tommy Lee Jones as a Texas Ranger who poses as an assistant coach in order to protect the only witnesses to a drug-related murder: a group of college cheerleaders.
MARCH 4: Former hit man Chili Palmer (John Travolta) leaves the movie industry to apply his skills to the music biz in BE COOL, the sequel to the 1995 hit Get Shorty. Travolta is joined by Uma Thurman, Cedric the Entertainer and The Rock... Tough guy Vin Diesel tries his hand at comedy with THE PACIFIER, about a Navy SEAL who's assigned to protect a bunch of kids from dastardly enemy agents.
MARCH 11: The comedy KING'S RANSOM stars Anthony Anderson as a rich businessman who arranges his own kidnapping rather than risk losing his assets to his soon-to-be ex-wife... Threatening to set a record for the most times a movie's been placed back on the shelf, MINDHUNTERS (which I wrote about in last year's Winter/Spring Preview) centers on a group of FBI trainees (including Val Kilmer, Christian Slater and LL Cool J) who discover that there's a killer in their midst... ROBOTS is director Chris Wedges' follow-up to his smash hit Ice Age, with an all-star cast (Ewan McGregor, Halle Berry, Mel Brooks, Robin Williams) lending their vocals to this animated comedy populated entirely by the title creations... A single mom (Joan Allen) trying to raise four independent daughters finds her life becoming even more complicated once she falls for the ex-baseball player (Kevin Costner) down the street in THE UPSIDE OF ANGER.
MARCH 18: A nerd (Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Michelle Trachtenberg) dreams of becoming a revered figure skater in the Disney live-action feature ICE PRINCESS... Since it's near-impossible to ignore a $128 million box office windfall, THE RING TWO finds Naomi Watts (joined by Sissy Spacek and Elizabeth Perkins) coming across another videocassette that causes death among its unsuspecting viewers. Hideo Nakata, who directed both Ringu and Ringu 2 (the original Japanese flicks), makes his American film debut here.
MARCH 25: The comedy GUESS WHO is Guess Who's Coming to Dinner in reverse, with Bernie Mac as the stern parent who's not thrilled that his daughter's beau is a white guy (Ashton Kutcher)... The tepid comedy Miss Congeniality has yielded MISS CONGENIALITY 2: ARMED & FABULOUS, with Sandra Bullock reprising her role as the FBI agent with a knack for entering beauty pageants... No, SAHARA is neither a remake of the 1943 Bogart WWII flick nor of the 1983 Brooke Shields bomb; instead, it's an adaptation of Clive Cussler's novel, one of many that features the heroic Dirk Pitt. Matthew McConaughey plays the screen Dirk, teaming up with a scientist (Penelope Cruz) to save the environment from ruthless industrialists.
APRIL 1: A spin-off of the Barbershop films, BEAUTY SHOP stars Queen Latifah as a hair stylist who opens her own salon; Alicia Silverstone and Alfre Woodard are among her employees, while Djimon Hounsou (In America) provides romantic interest... Graphic novels by the legendary Frank Miller form the foundation for SIN CITY, with Robert Rodriguez (Desperado) directing the likes of Bruce Willis, Clive Owen, Mickey Rourke and Benicio Del Toro in three noirish tales involving murder and corruption... A meteorologist (Nicolas Cage) is torn between his job and his family in THE WEATHER MAN, co-starring Michael Caine and Hope Davis.
APRIL 8: A group of explorers discovers something evil lurking inside an underground chamber in the horror flick THE CAVE.
APRIL 15: Based on the book that susceptible rubes actually believed was factual, THE AMITYVILLE HORROR is the second screen version (following the "79 take) of the horror tale about a couple (Ryan Reynolds and Melissa George) who move into a haunted house... Director Rob Reiner, who hasn't helmed a hit in quite some time, pins his hopes on RUMOR HAS IT, which casts Jennifer Aniston as a woman who discovers that the characters in The Graduate were based on her family members. Shirley MacLaine, Kevin Costner and Mark Ruffalo head up the strong supporting cast.
APRIL 22: Sydney Pollack (The Firm) directs Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn in THE INTERPRETER, a thriller about a United Nations translator (Kidman) who overhears a murder plot and the federal agent (Penn) assigned to protect her.
APRIL 29: Paul Haggis, currently earning kudos for his Million Dollar Baby script, co-wrote and directed CRASH, in which the lives of various Los Angelenos collide in an explosive fashion. The cast includes Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle and Matt Dillon... With Vin Diesel off making kid movies (see The Pacifier above), the XXX sequel XXX: STATE OF THE UNION finds Ice Cube as the new troublemaker-turned-spy being mentored by government agent Augustus Gibbons (returning Samuel L. Jackson).
