Moviecrazed

Star Turns--What You Should Know About The Current And Upcoming Projects Of Your Favorite Players

By Guy Flatley

ZACH GALIFIANAKIS

DINNER FOR SCHMUCKS

Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, Zach Galifianakis, Jemain Clement, Stephanie Szostak, Lucy Punch, Bruce Greenwood, David Williams (Directed by Jay Roach; Written by David Guion and Michael Handelman; Paramount, DreamWorks and Spyglass Entertainment)

Steve Carell and Paul Rudd, who proved they know how to milk a silly story for whopper laughs in such champs as “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” (2004) and “The 40 Year Old Virgin” (2005) are at it again. In “Dinner for Schmucks,” a reworking of Francis Veber’s French box-office hit “Le Diner de Cons,” Rudd plays the cluelessly insensitive clod who joins his callous boss Lance (Bruce Greenwood) in staging a dinner party/contest, with the prize going to the player who succeeds in bringing the biggest schmuck of the evening as his guest.

And that, of course, is where Carell, cast as the clumsily toupeed, conspicuously buck-toothed Barry—a natural-born goofball if ever there was one—comes in. Obviously, this material could be extraordinarily offensive, but preview audiences (and more than a few critics) have roared their approval. Maybe you should go see for yourself. Now Playing

JAMES GANDOLFINI

THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123

Denzel Washington, John Travolta, James Gandolfini, John Turturro, Luis Guzman, Michael Rispoli, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Alex Kaluzhsky (Directed by Tony Scott; Written by David Koepp; Columbia)

One of the most entertaining and terrifying thrillers of 1974 was Joseph Sargent’s “The Taking of Pelham 123,” which was adapted by Peter Stone from John Godey’s novel. Here’s how New York Times critic Nora Sayre described the story line in her rave review: “Four highly efficient hoods hijack an IRT subway car and hold eighteen people hostage for a million dollars; if the city doesn't pay within an hour, one hostage will be shot a minute. The Transit Authority, the Police Department, the Mayor and his colleagues all go into frenzied but coordinated action, while the film cuts most expertly between the stalled car and its passengers, the T.A. Command Center, Gracie Mansion, and the city streets.”

With director Tony Scott and screenwriter David Koepp in charge, we will once again be hurried along on a harrowing trip through the jangly streets and dark tunnels of the Big Apple. Denzel Washington will try on the role of the cool transit cop played by Walter Matthau in the original, John Travolta inherits Robert Shaw’s role of a sadistic hijacker, and James Gandolfini--on leave from Jersey--is the panicky Mayor of New York. Now Playing

ANDY GARCIA

THE AIR I BREATHE

Forest Whitaker, Brendan Fraser, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Kevin Bacon, Andy Garcia, Julie Delpy, Emile Hirsch (Directed by Jieho Lee; Written by Jieho Lee and Bob DeRosa)

According to a Chinese proverb, the key components of human existence are happiness, pleasure, sorrow and love. Or so say the makers of this film. To hammer home the point, writer-director Jieho Lee and co-author Bob DeRosa explore the emotionally charged stories of a banker (Forest “happiness” Whitaker), a gangster (Brendan “pleasure” Fraser), a pop performer (Sarah Michelle “sorrow” Gellar) and a doctor (Kevin “love” Bacon). The members of this quartet tangle and untangle with one another on their life-and-death trudge to spiritual fulfillment, helped and possibly hindered by their close encounters with a criminal mastermind played by Andy Garcia. Now Playing

RICHARD GERE

AMELIA

Hilary Swank, Richard Gere, Ewan McGregor, Virginia Madsen, Christopher Eccleston, Cherry Jones, Joe Anderson, Aaron Abrams, Mia Wasikowska (Directed by Mira Nair; Written by Ronald Bass; Fox Searchlight)

Did you know that Amelia Earhart, who was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic and eventually went missing over the Pacific in 1937, had a torrid affair with Gene Vidal, the father of writer Gore Vidal? And that was while the ace aviatrix was said to be blissfully married to publisher George Putnam!

But as director Mira Nair (“Monsoon Wedding”) will undoubtedly make clear to us, this pioneer feminist was never one to let stuffy rules get in her way. In a bit of inspired casting, Hilary Swank is Amelia; Richard Gere and Ewan McGregor are her husband and her lover, respectively; and Virginia Madsen is her husband’s first wife. Now Playing

PAUL GIAMATTI

DOWNSIZING

Paul Giamatti, Reese Witherspoon, Sacha Baron Cohen (Directed by Alexander Payne; Written by Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor; Fox Searchlight)

“The movies didn’t get smaller—I did,” is what Paul Giamatti may be saying in this comedy-drama-fantasy directed and co-written by Alexander Payne, the man who made him a star to reckon with in 2004’s “Sideways.”

Here Giamatti plays a serial loser who, in an effort to become a winner, submits to an experimental procedure that will turn him into a teensy but deliriously happy, enormously successful person. And as he shrinks and then shrinks some more, he hooks up with some other tiny folk, including Reese Witherspoon (an actress who first made it big in 1999, playing a predatory teenager in director Payne’s “Election”) and Sacha Baron Cohen, who proved in “Borat” (2006) and then again in “Bruno” (2009) that he will stoop as low or jump as high as necessary to get the camera's close-up attention.

This could be the start of something small! Opening date to be announced

MEL GIBSON

THE BEAVER

Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, Anton Yelchin, Jennifer Lawrence, Riley Thomas Stewart (Directed by Jodie Foster; Written by Kyle Killen; Summit Entertainment)

When last coupled on screen, Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster were a pair of poker-playing con artists scheming to fleece as many unsuspecting citizens of the Old West as possible. That was in 1994’s “The Maverick,” directed by Richard Donner.

No doubt they still make a striking combo but in their latest film at least one of them is definitely looking weird. And we do mean Mel, who plays Walter Black, a severely agitated man who never goes anywhere or does anything unless he’s sporting his ludicrous-looking beaver hand puppet. That’s the only way this loser is able to calm down, but thanks to that damn beaver, his faithful wife Meredith Black, played by Jodie, is becoming more and more frantic. Which is why their son Porter Black (Anton Yelchin) insists that mom dump dad.

So who’s directing this black comedy? None other than two-time Oscar-winning actress Jodie Foster, whose previous behind-the-camera achievements include “Little Man Tate” (1991) and the underrated “Home for the Holidays” (1995). The rumor that Jodie was Mel’s first choice to direct “The Passion of the Christ” seemingly has no basis in fact. But won't it be fun if Mel turns out to be the director of "The Beaver, Part 2"? Assuming he can fit it into his hectic schedule. Opens 5/6/11

JEFF GOLDBLUM

MORNING GLORY

Harrison Ford, Diane Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Patrick Wilson, Jeff Goldblum, 50 Cent (Directed by Roger Michell; Written by Aline Brosh McKenna; Paramount)

Imagine this: Still half asleep, you click your remote to “Daybreak” one morning, expecting the predictably bland patter of the news show’s co-anchors to usher you calmly into the stress and turbulence of another day in urban America. Instead you are subjected to the shattering sight and sound of the normally polite Mike Pomeroy and Colleen Peck (Harrison Ford and Diane Keaton) as the veteran tube stars engage in a shockingly venomous, intensely personal war of words.

Riveting as the total loss of cool might be for thrill-starved viewers, it is not a scene destined to warm the hearts of the “Daybreak” people who gambled on the possibility that macho, hard-news Mike and girly-soft former beauty queen Colleen could combine forces and help raise the show’s sagging ratings. Who knew that they’d turn out to hate one another? Certainly not Becky Fuller (Rachel McAdams), the panic-prone wannabe producer who pitched the idea of this dream team in the first place. Oh, well, if Becky is fired, it won't be the first time. Maybe she's lucky in love? Nope. Her dashing beau, played by Patrick Wilson, seems ready to dash off in a whole new direction. Now Playing

THE SWITCH

Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman, Patrick Wilson, Jeff Goldblum, Juliette Lewis, Thomas Robinson (Directed by Will Speck and Josh Gordon; Written by Allan Loeb; Miramax Films/Mandate Pictures)

At a madcap New York insemination party for a girl named Kassie, a drunken guy named Wally staggers into a bathroom and immediately overturns a crucial cup of sperm that’s been left there for Kassie’s use by a sober guy named Roland. What to do? Simple. To prevent Kassie from crying over Roland’s spilled sperm, Wally, impassioned by a magazine cover of Diane Sawyer, manages to fill the cup with his own seed before making a hasty, if unsteady, exit from the john. As you might imagine, complications ensue, some of them taking place in Minnesota and involving Kassie’s eccentric son Sebastian, and all of them aiming for the funny bone.

As you also might imagine, this mating-cute comedy is simply labeled “The Switch,” and Kassie, Wally and Roland are played by Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman and Patrick Wilson, each of whom would surely benefit from a switch to heavy drama as soon as possible. Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman, Patrick Wilson, Jeff Goldblum, Juliette Lewis, Thomas Robinson (Directed by Will Speck and Josh Gordon; Written by Allan Loeb; Miramax Films/Mandate Pictures)

As you also might imagine, this mating-cute comedy is simply labeled “The Switch,” and Kassie, Wally and Roland are played by Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman and Patrick Wilson, each of whom would surely benefit from a switch to heavy drama as soon as possible. Click here to read Stephen Holden’s review in The New York Times. Now Playing

MATTHEW GOODE

LEAP YEAR

Amy Adams, Matthew Goode, Adam Scott, John Lithgow, Noel O’Donovan, Tony Rohr, Maggie McCarthy, Kaitlin Olson (Directed by Anand Tucker; Written by Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont; Universal Pictures)

Anna Brady (Amy Adams) is having it all, or nearly all. She’s got a glamorous career as a top interior designer; impressive digs on a posh Boston block; and a romance with a young cardiologist (Adam Scott) that’s been smooth sailing for four years.

The only thing Anna doesn’t have is a husband. That’s why she decides to secretly trail her commitment-dodging doc to a medical conference in Dublin, where she plans to pop the marital question to him on Leap Day, which falls on February 29 every fourth year. According to Irish etiquette, it is altogether proper for a woman to take the reins and propose to her beau on that day.

Will the hard-to-wed doctor with the easy bedside manner cave in and say yes? The answer to that question may depend on an Irishman by the name of Declan (Matthew Goode). Declan’s the proprietor of a remote pub and inn, and he’s also the macho moonlighting taxi driver Anna hires to speed her to the medical conference so she can meet her Leap Day deadline. (What’s the rush? Time is running out, thanks to a nasty storm that forced the pilot of Anna’s plane to land laughably far from Dublin.)

On the other hand, since “Leap Year” is obviously a meet-cute comedy, it’s quite possible that Anna will loosen up, stop bickering with her bossy driver long enough to spot his sensitive side, and instruct him to turn around and take her back to his cozy pub and inn. In which case, the doctor will definitely not be in. Click Here To Read Diane Baroni's 2002 Interview With Amy Adams. Now Playing

RYAN GOSLING

BLUE VALENTINE

Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams, Faith Wladyka, John Doman, Mike Vogel, Ben Shenkman, Jen Jones, Maryann Plunkett (Directed by Derek Cianfrance; Written by Derek Cianfrance, Joey Curtis, Cami Delavigne; The Weinstein Co.)

The long, twisting journey from rapturous infatuation to marital rage is documented here with microscopic intensity. Directed and co-authored by Derek Cianfrance, this unfunny valentine opens with the desperate attempt by Dean and Cindy, a weary, combative couple, to rekindle their love at a romantic hotel, far from the strain of their suburban home and their young daughter. They truly want to make love but, as usual, they make war. Then, with a sudden flashback, we are shown Dean and Cindy as a carefree young man and woman meeting and quickly falling in love. How did they go from that time and place to this unbearable present? Presumably, that is precisely what writer-director Cianfrance intends to reveal in his uncompromising drama. This is certainly no picnic in the park. Yet the audience at this year’s Sundance Festival applauded the film, and there was major Oscar buzz for the performances of Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams as the long-suffering Dean and Cindy. Now Playing

ALL GOOD THINGS

Ryan Gosling, Kirsten Dunst, Frank Langella, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Kristin Wiig, Trini Alvarado, Philip Baker Hall, Diane Venora, Lily Rabe, John Cullum, Nick Offerman (Directed by Andrew Jarecki; Written by Andrew Jarecki, Marc Smerling and Marcus Hinchey; The Weinstein Co.)

Real estate is almost always a profitable game to play in Manhattan, but sometimes it can be murder. Literally, as it turns out in this thriller about a wealthy family that plays--and perhaps slays--together. The movie marks the fictional-feature debut of Andrew Jarecki, who directed “Capturing the Friedmans,” the chilling documentary about a very different sort of family. Now Playing

ELLIOTT GOULD

THE CALLER

Frank Langella, Elliott Gould, Laura Harring, Anabel Sosa, Helen Stenborg, Gregory Ellis, Axel Feldmann (Directed by Richard Ledes; Written by Richard Ledes and Alain Didier-Weill; Belladonna Productions)

Whistleblowers are, almost by definition, losers. They may experience a rush of pride, a flash of glory for their role in exposing the corrupt schemes and brutal deeds of their corporate bosses, but in the end they are the ones left without a job or friends to offer a supporting hand. Or sometimes--as in the case of Jimmy Stevens, a tell-all employee at a firm whose top executives are guilty of major criminal activity (including murder) in Latin America--they are left without much hope of staying alive. That’s why Jimmy (Frank Langella) hires Frank Turlotte, a quirky but reliable private eye (Elliott Gould) to keep tabs on people who might be tailing him.

Before long, Turlotte suspects that the man he should be tailing is Jimmy Stevens himself. And it seems clear that the detective should not lose sight of the femme fatale played by Laura Harring (slinking back on track in the aftermath of all the schlock roles that followed her dynamite performance in David Lynch’s “Mulholland Drive.”) Now Playing

RUPERT GRINT

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS--PART 1

Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Helena Bonham Carter, Robbie Coltrane, Ralph Fiennes, Michael Gambon, Brendan Gleason, Richard Griffiths, John Hurt, Rhys Ifans, Jason Isaacs, Bill Nighy, Alan Rickman, Fiona Shaw, Timothy Spall, Imelda Staunton, David Thewlis, Toby Jones, Simon McBurney, Peter Mullan, Julie Walters (Directed by David Yates; Written by Steve Kloves; Warner Brothers)

The peerless, mostly fearless kids played by Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson in the fantastical, hugely profitable “Harry Potter” flicks are back. And in this, the seventh and next to final chapter of the hoary hit, the kids are not only all right; they are all grown up, if a wee bit gloomy. Still, even though the smashing box office receipts make it clear that moviegoers will always be wild about Harry and his chums, it does seem time for this trio to break up and move on. Now Playing

JAKE GYLLENHAAL

LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS

Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway, Judy Greer, Oliver Platt, Hank Azaria, Jill Clayburgh, George Segal, David Morse (Directed by Edward Zwick; Written by Charles Randolph; 20th Century Fox)

Back in 2005, in Ang Lee’s melancholy but triumphantly commercial “Brokeback Mountain,” Jake Gyllenhaal played a closeted gay cowpoke who carries a torch for his sexually conflicted buddy Heath Ledger and ends up marrying a crass, clueless but emphatically heterosexual rodeo addict played by Anne Hathaway.

Now Gyllenhaal and Hathaway are reteamed in another film with sex on its mind. This time, however, the focus will be primarily on nitty-gritty details--an intimate study of studly performance rather than a torturous exploration of sexual repression. And if the flick sticks to the story Jamie Reidy spun so mischievously in his 2005 memoir, “Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman,” it may indeed stand tall at the box office.

Reidy, of course, is the former pitchman who made an easy bundle during the nineties peddling the little miracle pill from Pfizer that could turn men deflated by erectile dysfunction into round-the-clock lotharios. After leaving Pfizer, Reidy felt ready to try his hand at writing, and what he chose to write was a comical, anatomically explicit account of his time of toil in the drug industry. To his surprise, his new bosses at Eli Lilly failed to appreciate the raunchy humor employed by Reidy in “Hard Sell,” and he soon learned the hard way what it feels like to be unemployed.

Gyllenhaal, with his engaging, off-center sense of the ridiculous, seems a natural to play the guy who lucks into selling a product that practically sells itself. As for Hathaway, she’s a business client who happens to have Parkinson’s and, as it turns out, more than a dollars-and-cents interest in the conspicuously hot super salesman. Which is why she makes a pitch.

If "Love and Other Drugs" gives you an erection lasting more than four hours, call your shrink right away! Now Playing

MAGGIE GYLLENHAAL

CRAZY HEART

Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Colin Farrell, Robert Duvall, Sarah Jane Morris, Beth Grant, Annie Corley, Tom Bower (Written and directed by Scott Cooper; Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Otis “Bad” Blake, the raunchy, raspy-voiced, certifiably alcoholic country-music star played by Jeff Bridges, has seen far better days and nights. When he gets lucky with with a barroom pickup, he doesn't exactly wow her in the sack and he's wise enough to make an exit in the morning before the lady wakes up to the reality that she's truly been had.

Is there any hope for this very "Bad" boy? Maybe. That's because a reporter who's half his age, Jean Craddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal), interviews him and deems him a good story. And, yes, a good person--and possibly a good father for this single mom's needy young son.

After reading the above, you may have decided to postpone the pleasure of "Crazy Heart," at least until it pops up on an inevitable double bill with Mickey Rourke's similarly-themed "The Wrestler." On the other hand, the people at Fox Searchlight Pictures are betting on heavy Academy Award buzz for Jeff Bridges, the impeccable actor's actor who has never taken home an Oscar, despite his stunning turns in "The Last Picture Show," "Bad Company," "Fat City," "The Last American Hero," "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot," "Cutter's Way," "The Jagged Edge," "The Fabulous Baker Boys," "The Big Lebowski" and "Door in the Floor." Well, you get the picture.

Here are two more reasons to take a chance on "Crazy Heart": The presence of the seldom bland, occasionally charismatic Colin Farrell as a hot contemporary country-music performer who's strangely in tune with the boozy old-timer, and Robert Duvall as "Bad's" favorite bartender. Now Playing