Moviecrazed

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

By Guy Flatley

J

HUGH JACKMAN

CAROUSEL

“The Sound of Music” made a big, big noise at the 1963 box office. Despite Julie Andrews’ ravishing voice and perky spirit, however, the movie was basically a bore.

That, alas, was also true of numerous other screen adaptations of Rodgers & Hammerstein hit musicals, including “Oklahoma!,” “South Pacific,” “The King and I” and “Flower Drum Song.” And it was certainly true of “Carousel,” the 1956 Cinemascope snooze starring Gordon MacRae as Billy Bigelow, the macho carnival barker and thief who is given a one-day pass from purgatory in order to straighten out the lives of the wife and daughter he left behind. The good news here is that the handsome, boastful lug singing “If I Loved You” and “Soliloquy” will be Hugh Jackman, who triumphed in a 2000 Carnegie Hall concert version of “Carousel.” Opening date to be announced

SAMUEL L. JACKSON

IRON MAN 2

Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Mickey Rourke, Samuel L. Jackson, Clark Gregg, John Slattery, Gary Shandling, Christiane Amanpopur, Bill O’Reilly (Directed by Jon Favreau; Written by Justin Theroux; Paramount Pictures)

Following his smashing 2008 debut, playful but tough Tony Stark is back, and once again the Marvel comic hero with the high-tech heart is being played by the unaplogetically over-the-top Robert Downey Jr. This time, the aggressive altruist is joined by another Iron Man, an Army Colonel played by Don Cheadle, as well as a battery of good and bad guys and girls that includes Gwyneth Paltrow as spicy Pepper Potts, San Rockwell as an unscrupulous defense contractor, Scarlett Johansson as an intensely athletic spy, Mickey Rourke as a mad Russian scientist and Samuel L. Jackson as a loose cannon named Nick Fury. All this, and Christiane Amanpour and Bill O’Reilly, too! Now Playing

KEVIN JAMES

THE DILEMMA

Vince Vaughn, Kevin James, Jennifer Connelly, Winona Ryder, Channing Tatum, Queen Latifah (Directed by Ron Howard; Written by Allan Loeb; Universal)

They are so close that they could be mistaken for Siamese twins. Ronny and Nick, played by Vince Vaughn and Kevin James, certainly look alike, though one is chubbier than the other. Clearly, they act and think alike, which is to say they are both addicted to rough-housing, beer swilling, fistfighting and making gross jokes at the expense of one another. Down deep, however, these long-time buddies and business partners are as tender and protective as lovers can possibly be.

So, are Ronny and Nick literally lovers? No way! When not zanily engaged in punching and maiming each other, they have a whole other agenda. Ronny concentrates on wooing and summoning up the nerve to propose to sexy Beth (Jennifer Connelly), and Nick marvels at the fact that he’s been lucky enough to bed and wed the classy, if complicated, Geneva (Winona Ryder). Since this situation merely proves that even though boys will be boys, they still need girls to complete the picture, what is the problem here?

Well, the catastrophic truth is that Ronny has accidentally glimpsed Geneva kissing a musclebound male (Channing Tatum), a guy who bears no resemblance whatsoever to his pal Nick. So what is Ronny to do? Be honest and break the bad news to his best friend? Or remain selfishly mum so his business partner doesn’t go berserk and screw up a major deal they're on the verge of sealing with Chrysler? That is the problem—and the crucial dilemma--in this sad-at-heart comedy. For the record, Queen Latifah is on hand to serve up strictly upbeat laughs. Now Playing

RICHARD JENKINS

THE RUM DIARY

Johnny Depp, Amber Heard, Aaron Eckhart, Giovanni Ribisi, Amaury Nolasco, Richard Jenkins, Michael Rispoli (Written and directed by Bruce Robinson; FilmDistrict)

It’s been 13 years since Johnny Depp played Raoul Duke, a hell-raising journalist, in the film version of Hunter S. Thompson’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.” Nobody, including the author, believed that Duke was anyone other than Thompson himself. Now Depp is playing Paul Kemp, an eccentric reporter in “The Rum Diary,” the autobiographical novel the late Hunter published when he was 22.
Set in San Juan, Puerto Rico, during the fifties, “Diary” depicts the chaotic, booze-and-drugs fueled adventures of a brawling Hunteresque freelancer from New York who tries to twist himself into a latter-day Hemingway. Ever wonder how Thompson would have fared if he’d decided to become a latter-day Henry James? Opens 10/28/11

SCARLETT JOHANSSON

IRON MAN 2

DWAYNE JOHNSON

GET SMART

Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson, Alan Arkin, Terence Stamp, Bill Murray, James Caan (Directed by Peter Segal; Written by Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember; Warner Bros.)

It all began in the fertile, funny minds of scripters Mel Brooks and Buck Henry. The date was September 18, 1965, and the premiering show--a weekly spoof about the misadventures of secret agents--was called “Get Smart.” It starred Don Adams as fumbling agent Maxwell Smart and Barbara Feldon as his truly smart partner, and it aired 138 episodes, ending on September 11, 1970.

“The Nude Bomb,” a 1980 film returning Adams to the role of Smart, turned out dumb, a bomb in the showbiz sense of the word. But perhaps a new generation of moviegoers will get the brand-new Smart, played by Steve Carell, a cinematic champ in “The 40 Year Old Virgin” and “Little Miss Sunshine.” Anne Hathaway is Agent 99, the character first played to perfection by Barbara Feldon but booted by the misguided packagers of “The Nude Bomb.” Now Playing

ANGELINA JOLIE

THE TOURIST

Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp, Paul Bettany, Rufus Sewell, Timothy Dalton, Steven Berkoff (Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck; Written by Julian Fellowes, Christopher McQuarrie and Jeffrey Nachmanoff; Columbia Pictures)

In “Salt,” CIA agent Angelina Jolie kicked plenty of butt—especially male butt--with a crazed disregard for subtlety. Now, in “The Tourist,” Jolie has been elevated to the role of an Interpol agent. Hopefully, this time out she will be a bit more ladylike, perhaps even cerebral and reflective. Maybe yes, maybe no. One thing’s certain: she will once again be irresistibly sexy.

During the unreeling of “The Tourist,” you may ask yourself, “Hey, where have I seen all this before?” The answer could be that back in 2005, you were teased and tricked by “Anthony Zimmer,” the French flick directed by Jerome Salle and starring Sophie Marceau and Yvan Attal. Yes, this is still another American remake of a European movie.

But there’s a chance that “The Tourist” will amount to something more than a stylish recycling of a popular thriller, since the helmer in this case is Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, the young German director whose tough, intellectually probing “The Lives of Others” won a 2006 Oscar in the Best Foreign Language Film category. Whether von Donnersmarck, with his masterful cinematic style, can pump fresh life into a tale already told remains to be seen. But unless he decided to scrap the plot of “Anthony Zimmer,” here is the substance of what you will experience when you travel with his “Tourist.”

Elise (Angelina Jolie), an obsessively secret agent, is determined to pick up where she left off with a ruthless but charismatic con man who’s currently being pursued by the Russian mafia and the International Police. These lethal, no-nonsense forces, however, are severely hampered in their pursuit by the knowledge that, thanks to state-of-the-art plastic surgery, the villain is rumored to have a whole new look and sound. So now, as Elise well knows, they will be shadowing her in the hope she will lead them to their most wanted, dead or alive, man.

And that’s when she spots Frank (Johnny Depp), an American bachelor who is touring Venice solo in an effort to shake the bloody blues that have plagued him since he was dumped by his long-time squeeze. The thing Elise finds particularly grabby about Frank is that, in terms of physique and body language, he is a ringer for you know who—a fact that will not be lost on the ever-peeping Russkies and Interpols. Now, if only Elise can quickly maneuver this total stranger into a compromising position in plain view of the secret snoops, the heat will be on the clueless Frank and off her gone but not forgotten man.

Could Elise possibly succeed in her most brazen scheme yet? Look at it this way: Could Angelina possibly steal Brad from Jen? Now Playing

ATLAS SHRUGGED

Angelina Jolie (Directed by Vadim Perelman; Written by Randall Wallace; Lionsgate)

When “Atlas Shrugged,” Ayn Rand’s follow-up to her cult novel “The Fountainhead,” was published in 1957, most critics did not shrug. But they did snarl and go on to brand the book as arrogant, elitist, and downright fascistic. But that didn’t stop idolatrous readers from turning “Atlas Shrugged” into an enduring, top-selling tome.

Nor did it stop the unceasingly audacious Angelina Jolie from tackling the role of Dagny Taggart, the made-of-steel, ego-driven industrialist who is the heroine of Rand’s doggedly humorless tale. Smarty-pants Dagny never for a second doubts that her superior intellectual and physical attributes entitle her to universal acclaim and unlimited privilege. And she does not hesitate to use two of her discarded lovers to promote the cause of her one true love, the profoundly pompous visionary John Galt.

As critic Joe Queenan pointed out in a 2007 New York Times essay, “Despite being one of the worst books ever written, ‘Atlas Shrugged’ is no fun at all.” Opening date to be announced

GEMMA JONES

YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER

Antonio Banderas, Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins, Gemma Jones, Freida Pinto, Lucy Punch, Naomi Watts, Anna Friel, Ewen Bremner, Carla Bruni, Pauline Collins, Christian McKay, Neil Jackson, Jim Piddock (Written and directed by Woody Allen; Sony Classics)

Woody’s latest flick, in which he does not appear, has its very own Facebook page. Here’s what it has to say about “Dark Stranger’s” story line. "A little romance, some sex, some treachery, and apart from that, a few laughs. The lives of a group of people, whose passions, ambitions and anxieties force them all into assorted troubles that run the gamut from ludicrous to dangerous.” Any questions? Click here for a Critics Roundup on "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger"; for Guy Flatley's review of the film, click here. Now Playing

TOMMY LEE JONES

THE COMPANY MEN

Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones, Chris Cooper, Kevin Costner, Maria Bello, Craig T. Nelson Rosemarie DeWitt, John Dorman, Liam Ferguson, Dana Eskelson, Tonye Patano, Scott Winters, Candy Huffman (Written and directed by John Wells)

How’s this for typecasting? Three first-rate actors who do not get as many gigs as they deserve are starring as a trio of macho, blithely confident employees abruptly sacked by the hot-to-downsize honchos of a Massachusetts shipbuilding firm.

Not that you should think of these wannabe careerists played here by Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones and Chris Cooper as the brethren of the low-level laborers so triumphantly terminated by George Clooney in “Up in the Air.” Ben, Tommy Lee and Chris are—make that were—lavishly paid executives thoroughly accustomed to a life of luxury. That's why having to make do without mansions, pools, Porsches, country clubs, sybaritic getaways and marketable resumes is such a bummer for them.

If the rapturous response to this ripped-from-the-headlines flick at the 2010 Sundance Festival is a sign of things to come, ace TV writer-director John Wells, making his big-screen debut, and his three key players (plus Kevin Costner as a savvy survivor of the economic storm), will soon find themselves at the top of the job heap. Now Playing