Bovie Movie

Swedish music-video director Jonas Akerlund made his first foray into feature films with this head-spinning affair. Part Requiem for a Dream, part The Salton Sea, it’s a grimy tale about “spun-out” crystal meth users that’s as hyperactive as its protagonists. Throwing together an eclectic cast that ranges from Brittany Murphy and a green-toothed Mena Suvari to Mickey Rourke and singer Deborah Harry, it takes a quirky and irreverent look at addiction and its consequences for junkie Jason Schwartzman and his misfit friends. The action unfolds over three days, during which time their dependency pushes them into increasingly bizarre situations. Frenetically shot and with enough jump cuts and imaginative visuals to give viewers whiplash, the movie has cult cool written all over it. However, its lack of morality, cheap shock tactics and sewer-mouth script mean it really is an acquired taste. 

The Culkin dynasty continues its relentless rise with a more-than-competent performance from 15-year-old Rory in this compelling tale of teenage revenge. He plays Sam, an unremarkable child who is harassed by George (Josh Peck), an overweight bully. When Sam’s older brother Rocky (Trevor Morgan) finds out about it, he cooks up a plan for some payback with town bad boy Marty (Scott Mechlowicz). What sounds like an unappetising teen drama is in fact a gripping, original thriller that boasts an unusual level of moral engagement and is studded with outstanding performances — Mechlowicz gives his character a fragile edge while Peck plays the domineering George with a brittle loneliness that can turn to psychotic rage in the blink of an eye. It’s a tribute to writer/director Jacob Aaron Estes that, with his debut feature, he takes what could have been hackneyed, stale material and transforms it into something fresh, serious and surprising. 

Manny (Ray Ramono), Sid (John Leguizamo), and Diego (Denis Leary) are currently living in a large valley surrounded by an enormously high ice wall on all sides. When a waterpark begins to form, the trio discovers that the ice wall is actually a wall that is barely holding a massive body of water that could flood the valley to nearly a mile underwater. A vulture tells them that there is a boat at the other end of the valley that may save them all, but they only have 3 days to make it or die. Manny is having trouble facing the fact that he may be the last mammoth left. Along the way, they meet Ellie (Queen Latifah), a mammoth who thinks she is a possum, and her possum brothers Crash (Sean William Scott) and Eddie (Josh Peck). As they begin to travel together, Manny learns, with help from Diego and Sid, that having this new mammoth with them, may not be as bad as Manny makes it out to be while they try to escape the oncoming and continually threatening flood. During their journey, Scrat the sabre-toothed squirrel has his own hilarious adventures that eventually leads to something else entirely.