Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

release date:	Wednesday November 12, 2008
genre:	Drama
running time:	120 min.
director:	Danny Boyle
studio:	Fox Searchlight Pictures
producer(s):	Christian Colson
screenplay:	Simon Beaufoy
cast:	Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Madhur Mittal, Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan

synopsis

Today is the biggest day in Jamal Malik's life.

A penniless, eighteen year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai, he's one question away from winning a staggering 20 million rupees on India's "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" But when the show breaks for the night, suddenly, he is arrested on suspicion of cheating. After all, how could an uneducated street kid possibly know so much? Determined to get to the bottom of Jamal's story, the jaded Police Inspector spends the night probing Jamal's incredible past, from his riveting tales of the slums where he and his brother Salim survived by their wits to his hair-raising encounters with local gangs to his heartbreak over Latika, the unforgettable girl he loved and lost.

Each chapter of Jamal's increasingly layered story reveals where he learned the answers to the show's seemingly impossible quizzes. But one question remains a mystery: what is this young man with no apparent desire for riches really doing on the game show?

When the new day dawns and Jamal returns to answer the final question, the Inspector and sixty million viewers are about to find out...

Defiance (2008)

Genre: Drama
Running Time: 137 min.
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Edward Zwick
Writer: Clayton Frohman, Edward Zwick

Synopsis

Based on an extraordinary true story, "Defiance" is an epic tale of family, honor, vengeance and salvation in World War II. The year is 1941 and

the Jews of Eastern Europe are being massacred by the thousands. Managing to escape certain death, three brothers take refuge in the dense surrounding woods they have known since childhood. There they begin their desperate battle against the Nazis. The brothers turn a primitive struggle to survive into something far more consequential--a way to avenge the deaths of their loved ones by saving thousands of others. At first, it is all they can do to stay alive. But, gradually, as whispers of their daring spreads, they begin to attract others--men and women, young and old--willing to risk everything for the sake of even a moment's freedom. Tuvia is a reluctant leader and his decisions are challenged by his brother, Zus who worries that Tuvia's idealistic plans will doom them all. Asael is the youngest--caught between his brothers' fierce rivalry. As a brutal winter descends, they work to create a community, and to keep faith alive when all humanity appears to be lost.

Revolutionary Road (2008)

Genre: Drama
Running Time: 119 min.
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Sam Mendes
Writer: Justin Haythe, Richard Yates

Synopsis

Frank and April, a married couple in the 1950s, have always seen themselves as special, different, ready and willing to live their lives based

on higher ideals. So, as soon as they move into their new house on Revolutionary Road, they proudly declare their independence from the suburban inertia that surrounds them and determine never to be trapped by the social confines of their era. Yet for all their charm, beauty and irreverence, the Wheelers find themselves becoming exactly what they didn't expect: a good man with a routine job whose nerve has gone missing; a less-than-happy homemaker starving for fulfillment and passion; an American family with lost dreams, like any other. Driven to change their fates, April hatches an audacious plan to start all over again, to leave the comforts of Connecticut behind for the great unknown of Paris. But when the plan is put in motion, each spouse is pushed to extremes--one to escape whatever the cost, the other to save all that they have, no matter the compromises.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

release date:	Thursday December 25, 2008
genre:	Drama
running time:	166 min.
director:	David Fincher
studio:	Paramount Pictures
producer(s):	Ceán Chaffin, Frank Marshall, Kathleen Kennedy
screenplay:	Eric Roth
cast:	Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Taraji P. Henson, Tilda Swinton, Jason Flemyng, Elias Koteas

synopsis

"I was born under unusual circumstances."

And so begins The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, adapted from the 1920s story by F. Scott Fitzgerald about a man who is born in his eighties and ages backwards: a man, like any of us, who is unable to stop time. We follow his story, set in New Orleans from the end of World War I in 1918, into the 21st century, following his journey that is as unusual as any man's life can be.

Directed by David Fincher and starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett with Taraji P. Henson, Tilda Swinton, Jason Flemyng, Elias Koteas and Julia Ormond, Benjamin Button is a grand tale of a not-so-ordinary man and the people and places he discovers along the way, the loves he finds, the joys of life and the sadness of death, and what lasts beyond time.

Gran Torino (2008)

release date:	Friday December 19, 2008
genre:	Drama
running time:	116 min.
director:	Clint Eastwood
studio:	Warner Bros. Pictures
producer(s):	Bill Gerber, Clint Eastwood, Robert Lorenz
screenplay:	Nick Schenk
cast:	Clint Eastwood, Christopher Carley, Bee Vang, Ahney Her, Brian Haley, Geraldine Hughes, Dreama Walker, Brian Howe, John Carroll Lynch

synopsis

Retired auto worker Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood) fills his days with home repair, beer, and monthly trips to the barber. Though his late wife's final wish was for him to take confession, for Walt—an embittered veteran of the Korean War who keeps his M-1 rifle cleaned and ready—there's nothing to confess. And no one he trusts enough to confess to other than his dog, Daisy.

The people he once called his neighbors have all moved or passed away, replaced by the Hmong immigrants he despises. Resentful of virtually everything he sees—the drooping eaves, overgrown lawns and the foreign faces surrounding him; the aimless gangs of Hmong, Latino and African American teenagers who all think the neighborhood belongs to them; the callow strangers his children have grown up to be—Walt is just waiting out the rest of his life.

Until the night someone tries to steal his Gran Torino.

Still gleaming as it did the day Walt himself helped roll it off the assembly line decades ago, the Gran Torino brings his shy teenaged neighbor Thao (Bee Vang) into his life when Hmong gang-bangers pressure the boy into trying to steal it.

But Walt stands in the way of both the heist and the gang, making him the reluctant hero of the neighborhood—especially to Thao's mother and older sister, Sue (Ahney Her), who insist that Thao work for Walt as a way to make amends. Though he initially wants nothing to do with these people, Walt eventually gives in and puts the boy to work fixing up the neighborhood, setting into motion an unlikely friendship that will change both their lives.

Through Thao and his family's unrelenting kindness, Walt eventually comes to understand certain truths about the people next door. And about himself. These people—provincial refugees from a cruel past—have more in common with Walt than he has with his own family, and reveal to him parts of his soul that have been walled off since the war...like the Gran Torino preserved in the shadows of his garage.

Punisher: War Zone (2008)

Genre: Action/Adventure, Drama, Suspense/Thriller

Running Time: 107 min.

MPAA Rating: R

Director: Lexi AlexanderWriter: Matt Holloway, Art Marcum, Nick Santora

Synopsis
Waging his one-man war on the world of organized crime, ruthless vigilante-hero Frank Castle sets his sights on overeager mob boss Billy Russoti
. After Russoti is left horribly disfigured by Castle, he sets out for vengeance under his new alias--Jigsaw. With the "Punisher Task Force" hot on his trail and the FBI unable to take Jigsaw in, Frank must stand up to the formidable army that Jigsaw has recruited before more of his evil deeds go unpunished.

Quantum of Solace (2008)

Genre: Action/Adventure, Drama, Suspense/Thriller
Running Time: 106 min.
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Marc ForsterWriter: Ian Fleming, Neal Purvis, Tom Stoppard, Robert Wade

Synopsis
Betrayed by Vesper, the woman he loved, 007 is determined to uncover the truth. He and M interrogate Mr. White who reveals the organization which
blackmailed Vesper is far more complex and dangerous than anyone had imagined. Forensic intelligence links an MI6 traitor to a bank account in Haiti where Bond encounters the beautiful but feisty Camille, and she leads him to Dominic Greene, a ruthless business man and major force within the mysterious organization. On a mission that leads him to Austria, Italy and South America, Bond discovers that Greene, conspiring to take total control of one of the world's most important natural resources, is forging a deal with the exiled General Medrano. Using his associates in the organization, and manipulating his powerful contacts within the CIA and the British government, Greene promises to overthrow the existing regime in a Latin American country, giving the General control of the country in exchange for a seemingly barren piece of land. As Bond gets closer to finding the man responsible for betraying Vesper, he must keep one step ahead of the CIA, the terrorists and even M, to unravel Greene's sinister plan and stop his organization.