Bovie Movie

Forget everything you know about Little Red Riding Hood; the classic fairy tale gets a new look and a new style in this computer-animated comedy for the whole family. Grizzly (voice of Xzibit) and Stork (voice of Anthony Anderson) are a pair of critter cops who have been called the homey bungalow of Granny (voice of Glenn Close) to investigate a disturbance of the peace. It seems there was an altercation involving Granny, her granddaughter Little Red Riding Hood (voice of Anne Hathaway), a Big Bad Wolf (voice of Patrick Warburton), and a Woodsman (voice of Jim Belushi). However, as the detectives interview the participants and get each individual’s perspective, they learn that Granny isn’t so helpless, Red may have been doing more than just visiting relatives, the Wolf isn’t the predator he’s been cracked up to be, and the Woodman doesn’t have much of an intellectual advantage over the trees he chops down. Hoodwinked also features the voice talents of Andy Dick, David Ogden Stiers, and Chazz Palminteri.

A frenetic, bloody look at mass murder and the mass media, director Oliver Stone’s extremely controversial film divided critics and audiences with its mixture of over-the-top violence and bitter cultural satire. At the center of the film, written by Stone and Quentin Tarantino, among others, are Mickey (Woody Harrelson) and Mallory (Juliette Lewis), a young couple united by their desire for each other and their common love of violence. Together, they embark on a record-breaking, exceptionally gory killing spree that captivates the sensation-hungry tabloid media. Their fame is ensured by one newsman, Wayne Gale (Robert Downey, Jr.), who reports on Mickey and Mallory for his show, American Maniacs. Even the duo’s eventual capture by the police only increases their notoriety, as Gale develops a plan for a Super Bowl Sunday interview that Mickey and Mallory twist to their own advantage. Visually overwhelming, Robert Richardson’s hyperkinetic cinematography switches between documentary-style black-and-white, surveillance video, garishly colored psychedelia, and even animation in a rapid-fire fashion that mirrors the psychosis of the killers and the media-saturated culture that makes them popular heroes. The film’s extreme violence — numerous edits were required to win an R rating — became a subject of debate, as some critics asserted that the film irresponsibly glorified its murderers and blamed the filmmakers for potentially inciting copy-cat killings. Defenders argued that the film attacks media obsession with violence and satirizes a sensationalistic, celebrity-obsessed society. Certain to provoke discussion, Natural Born Killers will thoroughly alienate many viewers with its shock tactics, chaotic approach, and disturbing subject matter, while others will value the combination of technical virtuosity and dark commentary on the modern American landscape.

Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a bright and charming high-school student who also has a dark and willfully eccentric side; he does little to mask his contempt for many of his peers and enjoys challenging the authority of the adults around him. Donnie is also visited on occasion by Frank, a monstrous six-foot rabbit that only Donnie can see who often urges him to perform dangerous and destructive pranks. Late one night, Frank leads Donnie out of his home to inform him that the world will come to an end in less than a month; moments later, the engine of a jet aircraft comes crashing through the ceiling of Donnie’s room, making him think there might be something to Frank’s prophesies after all. The rest of Donnie’s world is only marginally less bizarre, as he finds himself dealing with his confused parents (Mary McDonnell and Holmes Osborne), his college-age sister (Maggie Gyllenhaal), his perplexed analyst (Katherine Ross), a rebellious English teacher (Drew Barrymore), a sleazy self-help expert (Patrick Swayze), and the new girl at school who is attracted by Donnie’s quirks (Jena Malone). Donnie Darko was the first feature film from writer and director Richard Kelly; Drew Barrymore, who plays teacher Karen Pomeroy, also lent her support to the project as executive producer. A director’s cut played in select theaters on a limited basis in the summer of 2004, featuring original music cues and trimmed scenes originally in Kelly’s first cut of the film.

In Robert Zemeckis’s trailblazing combination of animation and live-action, Hollywood’s 1940s cartoon stars are a subjugated minority, living in the ghettolike “Toontown” where their movements are sharply monitored by the human power establishment. The Toons are permitted to perform in a Cotton Club-style nightspot but are forbidden to patronize the joint. One of Toontown’s leading citizens, whacked-out Roger Rabbit, is framed for the murder of human nightclub owner Marvin Acme (Stubby Kaye). Private detective Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins), whose prejudice against Toons stems from the time that his brother was killed by a falling cartoon piano, reluctantly agrees to clear Roger of the accusation. Most of the sociopolitical undertones of the original novel were weeded out out of the 1988 film version, with emphasis shifted to its basic “evil land developer” plotline –and, more enjoyably, to a stream of eye-popping special effects. With the combined facilities of animator Richard Williams, Disney, Warner Bros., Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment, and George Lucas’s Industrial Light and Magic, the film allows us to believe (at least for 90 minutes) that “toons” exist, and that they are capable of interacting with 3-dimensional human beings. Virtually every major cartoon character of the late 1940s shows up, with the exceptions of Felix the Cat and Popeye the Sailor, whose licensees couldn’t come to terms with the producers. Of the film’s newly minted Toons, the most memorable is Roger Rabbit’s curvaceous bride Jessica (voiced, uncredited, by Kathleen Turner). The human element is well-represented by Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, and Joanna Cassidy; also watch for action-film producer Joel Silver as Roger Rabbit’s Tex Avery-style director.

Following the death of her drug-addicted mother, a whimsical young girl follows her chemically dependent father to a remote prairie house to discover a wondrous world of magical fireflies and nocturnal bog men in this hallucinatory childhood fantasy from visionary filmmaker Terry Gilliam. Noah (Jeff Bridges) is a burnt-out rock star whose post-superstar voyage to obscurity is hastened by a serious drug addiction that is also shared with his wild-eyed wife (Jennifer Tilly). When the Noah’s increasingly erratic wife suffers a fatal overdose, the faded rock star opts to escape the painful reality by retreating to a ramshackle remote home with his young daughter, Jeliza-Rose (Jodelle Ferland). Left to her own devices as her father stumbles about the grasslands in a drug-induced haze, Jeliza-Rose soon ventures into her own fantasy land before making the acquaintance of mentally challenged youth Dickens (Brendan Fletcher). As the two become fast friends and Jeliza-Rose joins the swimsuit-clad Dickens in defeating the menacing shark that traverses the nearby railways, the pair are watched over by Dickens’ black-clad sister, Dell (Janet McTeer), who acts as Dickens’ guardian and whose overly enthusiastic interest in the art of taxidermy borders on obsessive.

The second film in Peter Jackson’s series of screen adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s internationally popular Lord of The Rings trilogy, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers literally begins where The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring ended, with the Fellowship splitting into three groups as they seek to return the Ring to Mordor, the forbidding land where the powerful talisman must be taken to be destroyed. Frodo (Elijah Wood), who carries the Ring, and his fellow Hobbit Sam (Sean Astin) are lost in the hills of Emyn Muil when they encounter Gollum (Andy Serkis), a strange creature who once carried the Ring and was twisted by its power. Gollum volunteers to guide the pair to Mordor; Frodo agrees, but Sam does not trust their new acquaintance. Elsewhere, Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy Boyd) are attempting to navigate Fangorn Forrest where they discover a most unusual nemesis — Treebeard (voice of John Rhys-Davies), a walking and talking tree-shepherd who doesn’t much care for Hobbits. Finally, Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), Gimli (John Rhys-Davies), and Legolas (Orlando Bloom) arrive in Rohan to discover that the evil powers of Saruman (Christopher Lee) have robbed King Theoden (Bernard Hill) of his rule. The King’s niece Éowyn (Miranda Otto) believes Aragorn and his men have the strength to defeat Saruman, his henchman Wormtongue (Brad Dourif), and their minions. Éowyn soon becomes infatuated with Aragorn, while he struggles to stay faithful to the pledge of love he made to Arwen (Liv Tyler). Gandalf (Ian McKellen) offers his help and encouragement as the Rohans, under Aragorn’s leadership, attempt to face down Saruman’s armies, but they soon discover how great the task before them truly is when they learn that his troops consist of 10,000 bloodthirsty creatures specially bred to fight to the death. Most of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was shot in tandem with The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King during a marathon 18-month shooting schedule, overseen by Peter Jackson.

A plucky little girl and her dog join their magical pals to save the world in the computer-animated comedy-adventure for the whole family. The Enchanted Village is a happy place ruled by the good-natured wizard Zebedee where young Florence and her dog, Doogal, come to play with their friends, including opera-singing cow Ermintrude, beatnik rabbit Dylan, and Brian the Snail, a sloppy sort who has a crush on Ermintrude. However, life in the Enchanted Village takes a turn for the worse when Zebedee’s evil brother, Zeebad, arrives, freezing the town under a layer of ice and bringing the magic merry-go-round to a halt. Zeebad is searching for three magical jewels that will give him the power to freeze the whole world and rule the Earth, but Zebedee is able to thaw out himself, Florence, and her friends, and they join forces aboard the Magic Train in a bid to stop the villain before it’s too late. Doogal is based on The Magic Roundabout, a children’s television series from the 1960s in which a handful of wooden stop-motion figures enjoyed whimsical adventures; produced in France, the program enjoyed massive popularity in Great Britain, where actor Eric Thompson provided narration, voiced all the characters, and invented new stories to fit the action. (The film was also called The Magic Roundabout for its U.K. release.) In the film’s British release, Kylie Minogue provided the voice of Florence, Ian McKellen voiced Zebedee, Robbie Williams spoke for Doogal, Joanna Lumley read Ermintrude, Bill Nighy voiced Dylan, and Jim Broadbent contributed the voice of Brian. Several characters were given new voices for the film’s American release, with Whoopi Goldberg taking over as Ermintrude, William H. Macy as Brian, Jimmy Fallon as Dylan, and Jon Stewart as Zeebad.

Eccentric inventor Wallace (voice of Peter Sallis) and his faithful if often perplexed dog Gromit are back in their first feature-length adventure from animator Nick Park. Wallace and Gromit have launched a new business venture just in time for a major gardening competition in their neighborhood of West Wallaby. “Anti-Pesto” is a humane pest-relocation service in which Wallace and Gromit capture rabbits and other critters who have been eating the produce from local gardens and give them new homes somewhere else. Business has been going well, and when the woman hosting the garden show, Lady Tottington (voice of Helena Bonham Carter), discovers a massive tribe of rabbits has been making a mess of her garden, she calls in Wallace and Gromit to move the bunnies elsewhere. Wallace is quite taken with Lady Tottington, but he’s not the only one — Victor Quartermaine (voice of Ralph Fiennes) is a slick but arrogant upper-class type who wants to win Lady Tottington’s hand (and fortune) and is convinced he can do a better job capturing the rabbits than Wallace. However, Wallace’s attempts to brainwash the rabbits away from veggies using his latest invention has disastrous results, and soon Wallace has to deal with a beastly bunny as well as a heavily-armed Quartermaine. Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit followed Park’s previous film with the duo, A Close Shave, by ten years, and was produced after Park broke through to mainstream success with the feature Chicken Run.

New Line Cinema founder Robert Shaye’s directorial debut, the family-friendly science-fiction tale The Last Mimzy is an adaptation of a short story by Lewis Padgett. The story concerns a young brother and sister, Noah and Emma Wilder (Chris O’Neil and Rhiannon Leigh Wryn), who discover a strange box of artifacts one day while vacationing at the family’s summer cottage. When the objects in the box begin to act in strange and mysterious ways, the pair decides to hide it from their mother (Joely Richardson) and workaholic father (Timothy Hutton). When Noah begins to display a previously unknown flair for advanced scientific concepts, the boy’s teacher (Rainn Wilson) takes an interest in him. The two youngsters soon become the object of much interest from the government after their new discovery causes a large blackout. Eventually, the duo discovers that they are responsible for helping save the future of humankind, and Emma’s precious stuffed rabbit might be something much more than it appears to be.

Pretty boy actor C. Thomas Howell stars in this dark, violent suspense film about the strange psychological bond between a traveling serial killer and one of his intended victims. Driving cross-country from Chicago to San Diego, Jim (Howell) narrowly avoids an accident when he falls asleep at the wheel. He picks up a hitchhiker to help stay awake, but within five minutes, the erratic John Ryder (Rutger Hauer) has threatened not only Jim’s life, but also his manhood, brandishing a switchblade to the boy’s crotch and ordering him to keep driving. Jim manages to escape, but soon Ryder begins a game of cat-and-mouse across the Texas highways, taunting the lad from the windows of passing cars, then leaving the corpses of his victims in their vehicles by the side of the road for Jim to discover. A sympathetic face arrives in the form of Nash (Jennifer Jason Leigh), the waitress at an otherwise deserted truck stop in this bleak, abandoned landscape, but the local police soon arrive, intent on hanging Jim out to dry for the string of grisly murders. The stakes continue to mount in Ryder’s little game until Jim finds himself embroiled in a statewide manhunt with Nash at his side. Former cinematographer Robert Harmon made his directorial debut with this popular thriller; screenwriter Eric Red, also making his debut, would go on to write similarly brooding genre fare including Near Dark, Bad Moon, and Alien 3.