NEW THIS WEEK:

My, oh my... it’s been a long time since we’ve seen this many movies from writer/directors, obviously a dying breed in Hollywood.

UNITED 93 (Universal)
Starring J. J. Johnson, Gary Commock, Polly Adams, Opal Alladin, Nancy McDoniel, Starla Benford, Trish Gates, Simon Poland, Khalid Abdalla, David Alan Basche, Lisa Colón-Zayas, Meghan Heffern, Olivia Thirlby, Cheyenne Jackson
Written and directed by Paul Greengrass (Bloody Sunday, The Bourne Ultimatum)
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Rated R (for some intense sequences of terror and violence)
Tagline: “September 11, 2001. Four planes were hijacked. Three of them reached their target. This is the story of the fourth.”
Story: On September 11, 2001, Muslim hijackers terrorized consumer airplanes and flew two into the World Trade Center and one into the Pentagon. No one knows what happened to the fourth except that there was a rally by passengers to overpower their captors, and then the plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.
REVIEW

Probably one of the most controversial films of the year so far, United 93 is the first movie to deal with the terrorist attacks of September 11 in a realistic way, that is if you don’t count the A&E movie that stole this movie’s original title, which was a very different movie.

The film’s catalyst, filmmaker Paul Greengrass, has been making documentaries and dramas based on real events for years. Before being brought on board to direct the spy thriller The Bourne Supremacy, he made a movie called Bloody Sunday, which tried to create a realistic recreation of the 1972 civil rights march in Northern Ireland, which turned into a massacre. Greengrass has long dealt with tough subjects and events, although United 93 may be his highest profile film, not because of the starpower or budget, but because of the innovative way the project came together.

Instead of hiring well-known actors, Greengrass went through an intense audition process to work with an ensemble cast of unknowns, in an attempt to make the recreation of the events more believable. Because of this, the movie will be relying entirely on the subject matter and the public’s interest in it.

The controversy surrounding the movie mainly comes from those who feel that it’s too soon for a movie about 9/11, and if that’s the case, who will go see this movie? Obviously, people who experienced the events firsthand may have difficulty reliving it, but those who are politically minded will be interested to see how the subject matter is handled, while others may just be morbidly curious how Greengrass depicts what happened inside the doomed flight compared to the A&E movie. Of course, the conspiracy theorists will be out in force accusing Greengrass of making stuff up, because frankly, it would be hard for anyone to really know what happened, despite the convincing extrapolation he has assembled.

In some ways, the controversy surrounding the movie will help it do well, much like Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 two years ago, because people will want to see the movie for themselves, in order to debate the topic more intelligently by being more informed. Universal Pictures is once again taking the high ground, by distributing the movie despite the difficulties they had with Spielberg’s recent drama Munich, about the 1972 Olympics hostage massacre. It barely made $50 million in the U.S. and had to rely on international box office to make back its budget.

United 93 is not the type of movie that will appeal to mainstream moviegoers looking for entertainment, so Universal is giving the movie a surprising low theatre count—less than 2,000 theatres, similar to Paul Weitz’s political comedy American Dreamz last week--in hopes that the movie will do better business in those theatres rather than having business spread thin by too wide a release. American Dreamz bombed anyway, but United 93 should be helped by mostly positive reviews that will make this a must-see. Despit the controversy, interest in the movie should be high if going by the success of the A&E movie, which had over 5.9 million viewers, A&E's largest audience ever. The fact that Universal will be donating 10% of the opening weekend gross to the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, PA might help bring people out opening weekend.

Why I Should See It: 9/11 was such an important part of recent American history and Greengrass has created a striking documentation of the events.
Why Not: Who really wants to go through that again?
Projection: $14 to 17 million on its way to $50 million.

RV (Sony Pictures)
Starring Robin Williams, Kristin Chenoweth, Jeff Daniels, Tony Hale, Cheryl Hines, Josh Hutcherson, Jojo Levesque
Directed by Barry Sonenfeld (The Addams Family, Addams Family Values, Men In Black, MIBII, Get Shorty, Wild Wild West, Big Trouble); Written by Geoff Rodkey (Daddy Day Care, The Shaggy Dog)
Genre: Comedy, Family
Rated PG (for crude humor, innuendo and language)
Tagline: “On A Family Vacation, No One Can Hear You Scream.”
Story: Bob Munro (Robin Williams) is worried that his family is falling apart because they never communicate or spend time together, so he rents an RV (aka a camper) to take them all on a trip through the Colorado Rockies, but they suddenly find themselves dealing with a lot of strange locals and campers that makes their family seem normal.

Ah, yes. The family road comedy. Surely, the groundwork for a movie like this was set with National Lampoon’s classic Vacation movies starring Chevy Chase, but in more recent years, they’ve morphed into urban family comedies like Johnson Family Vacation, starring Cedric the Entertainer, and Are We There Yet? with Ice Cube. The latter was a nice surprise hit for Sony over Martin Luther King Jr. weekend last year, and they’re probably looking for similar success for this comedy which teams director Barry Sonnenfeld, making his first movie in four years, with Robin Williams, making a return to comedy.

Even though Williams has been doing more dramatic movies and thrillers in recent years, he has a good reputation for being a draw to this sort of film, much like his peers Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy. Williams has starred in no less than 9 movies to gross over $100 million with the majority of those being family films like Mrs. Doubtfire and Jumanji with plenty of other family comedies along the way. With the exception of last year’s Robots, Williams hasn’t done very many family films, probably not since 1997’s Flubber, so RV might be a good return to Williams’ former glory as a box office star despite having been out of the public eye for so long.

Fortunately, Robin Williams has an impressive supporting cast including Jeff Daniels, whose acting cred skyrocketed with last year’s indie comedy The Squid and the Whale, but whom returns to the world of slapstick comedy from earlier movies like Dumb and Dumber with Jim Carrey. Cheryl Hynes of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” plays Williams’ wife, a role she’s played a lot as of late. Even Williams’ kids are semi-stars with pop singer Jojo, who last appeared in Aquamarine, as his daughter and Zathura’s Johh Hutcherson playing his son.

After a successful career in cinematography, director Barry Sonnenfeld began helming his own movies with a stranger family than this one, The Adams Family, before moving onto the blockbuster Men in Black franchise with Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. He’s had a number of flops over the years, like the ensemble dark comedy Big Trouble, which had the misfortune of being moved due to the events of 9/11. Although his last movie, the 2002 summer blockbuster Men in Black II did decently, it wasn’t particularly well received by anyone, and Sonnenfeld hasn’t made a movie in the four years since then.

As usual, Sony is doing the reverse of Universal, giving the movie the widest release possible in hopes that the averages per-theatre will be high enough to score another #1 hit ala Are We There Yet? Sony is certainly proud of the fact that the movie is PG, making a big deal about it in some of the ads, although RV might lose some of its family audience to the spelling bee movie Akeelah and the Bee and a few teen girls may go see the gymnastics film Stick It, but with Ice Age: the Meltdown waning and Disney’s The Wild losing theatres this week, there aren’t that many family comedies in theatres now, at least not that the whole family can enjoy. Because this comedy is about family, that should help it take the top spot this weekend, as will the fact that this sort of mindless humor is very popular these days.

Why I Should See It: You miss Robin Williams doing zany family-driven comedy.
Why Not: You remember how annoying Williams is when doing zany family-driven comedies.
Projection: $17 to 19 million opening weekend on its way to $55 million.

AKEELAH AND THE BEE (Lionsgate)
Starring Keke Palmer, Angela Bassett, Laurence Fishburne, Curtis Armstrong, Jeff Marlow, Sara Niemietz, Eddie Steeples
Written and directed by Doug Atchison (Ellen’s Father, The Pornographer)
Genre: Drama, Family
Rated PG (for some language)
Tagline: “Changing the world… one word at a time.”
Story: Akeelah is an 11-year-old girl from a troubled family in the project who discovers that she has the knack for spelling and after winning a spelling bee at her school, she decides to defy the odds and her mother (Angela Bassett) to work with a former professor (Laurence Fishburne) to try to make it to the finals in Washington, D.C.
REVIEW

In the vein of movies like Finding Forrester and Antwone Fisher, here comes another inspirational story of a young girl trying to make it in the world despite all sorts of hardships, and this one is a bit of an anomaly in that it’s set in the world of professional spelling bees, which has found some success in documentaries and Broadway musicals, but not so much in feature films. (As proof, we have Richard Gere’s last film Bee Season, which did so poorly in limited release that it never was released much wider.)

The Akeelah of the title is played by Keke Palmer, who first appeared at the age of 9 in Barbershop 2, before getting a pilot on the Disney Channel, and landing a role in Tyler’s hit comedy Madea’s Family Reunion. Akeelah’s overworked mother is played by Angela Bassett, a very popular actress among African-American women, especially after doing movies like How Stella Got Her Groove Back and Waiting to Exhale. Bassett is reunited with Laurence Fishburne after the two played Ike and Tina Turner in What’s Love Got To Do With It, following roles in John Singleton’s debut Boyz N the Hood. At first, this may seem like another mentor/teacher role for Fishburne after playing Morpheus in The Matrix movies, but it goes back to his earlier films Higher Learning and Searching for Bobby Fischer, following a similar formula that will probably have more appeal towards Fishburne’s older fans than the teen set.

One of the things that makes Akeelah so unusual is that it’s the first venture into film by Starbucks. Yes, the coffee peddlers. They have partnered with Lionsgate for the movie’s marketing campaign, promoting the movie at their 5,500 coffee shops nationwide. While it’s questionable whether there’s much crossover between Starbucks’ yuppie clientele and the urban family markets that this movie might normally target, it should greatly raise awareness for the movie to be shilled on the millions of coffee cups that go out of Starbucks on a daily basis.

On top of that, Akeelah received sneak previews in over 900 theatres this past weekend, and it’s getting an impressive release into over 2,000 theatres. While it might not have a huge opening weekend, it should definitely sustain that business over the late spring and summer thanks to word-of-mouth.

Why I Should See It: You enjoy watching kids humiliate and embarrass themselves trying to spell words that even YOU probably don’t know how to spell.
Why Not: It won’t have any of that great Kabalah stuff enjoyed by the six people who saw Bee Season.
Projection: $8 to 10 million on its way to $30 million.

STICK IT (Touchstone Pictures)
Starring Jeff Bridges, Missy Peregrym, Vanessa Lengies
Written and directed by Jessica Bendinger (writer of Aquamarine, First Daughter, Bring It On)
Genre: Comedy, Gymnastics
Rated PG-13 (for some crude remarks) (Oh, you mean like the title!?)
Tagline: “Defy and conquer.”
Story: Haley Graham (Missy Peregrym) is a rebellious teen forced to attend a tough gymnastics academy after driving a motorcycle through a window. (She must have had Judge Hatchett residing over the case.) There, she gets into it with the tough coach (Jeff Bridges) and other girls, but they all have to work together if they want to win a gymnastic championships.

The writer of Bring It On, Jessica Bendinger, tries to regain that magic with a similar movie set in the world of competitive gymnastics. While I’ll openly admit that the Kirsten Dunst vehicle was a guilty pleasure, I have to wonder whether or not this movie would have the same success coming out over five years ago, even if it’s opening the same weekend as Mean Girls did two years ago. Movies geared towards teen girls like this just haven’t been doing particularly well, as seen just a few months ago with the mermaid movie Aquamarine, also written by Jessica Bendinger, and plenty of others. For the most part, you really need to have a name actress like Lindsay Lohan or Amanda Bynes to sell a movie like this, and even Hilary Duff, who was a draw for teen girls just a few years ago, hasn’t done very well with her last few movies. This one stars Missy Peregrym from television shows like “Smallville” and “Life as We Know It,” making her first major film appearance, although she’s paired with Jeff Bridges, a popular actor (see Star Spotlight below), maybe in hopes of bringing the parents. Regardless, Bridges’ fans probably won’t care to see him in this sort of movie, especially doing slapstick comedy, nor will he be much of a draw for teens. Disney will have to hope that the popularity of gymnastics among teen girls will have to do the trick, but since this is being released two years since the last Olympics, the sport just isn’t that fresh in people’s minds. Last year, Disney hoped that the popularity of ice skating would help Ice Princess and that made barely $7 million its opening weekend. Stick It’s PG-13 rating for “crude remarks” certainly won’t help, as it may rule out the younger ‘tween girls that might want to see this, not to mention the plethora of other choices this weekend.

Why I Should See It: You’re a big fan of gymnastics… or gymnasts.
Why Not: There are probably much better choices this week.
Projection: $5 to 6 million on its way to $15 million.

LADY VENGEANCE (Tartan Films)
Starring Min-Sik Choi, Yeong-ae Lee
Written and directed by Park Chanwook
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Thriller
Rated R (for strong violent content - some involving children, and some sexuality)
Tagline: “Coming For You”
Story: A woman imprisoned for 13 years for kidnapping and killing a young boy, a crime she didn’t commit, is released and she immediately begins to hatch a plot to get revenge.
REVIEW

Following up his Cannes prizewinning Oldboy with his third film about revenge, Korea’s eccentric Park Chanwook creates a very different film, which is as funny as it is creepy with lots of strange characters doing weird things, and yet, all making sense in the grand scheme of things. This one stars the wonderful Yeong-Ae Lee, who might be considered the Meg Ryan or Julia Roberts of Korea, and who is going completely against her image to play this tough role that involves lots of violence and killing. It opens exclusively at the Angelika Film Center and the AMC 25 in New York on Friday and in Los Angeles on May 12 and other cities after that.

Why I Should See It: If you’ve seen any of Park Chanwook’s previous films, especially Oldboy, you’re probably already in line.
Why Not: A few things in this movie will shake up those with a delicate constitution.

THE LOST CITY (Magnolia Pictures)
Starring Andy Garcia, Dustin Hoffman, Bill Murray, Elizabeth Peña, Steven Bauer, Richard Bradford, Nestor Carbonell, William Marquez, Julio Oscar Mechoso, Tomás Milian, Enrique MurcianoMillie Perkins, Tony Plana, Inés Sastre
Directed by Andy Garcia (debut); Written by Guillermo Cabrera Infante (Vanishing Point)
Genre: Drama, Musical
Rated R (for violence)
Tagline: “A place you leave is a place you live forever.”
Story: It’s Havana, Cuba in the ‘50s and club owner Fico Fellove (Garcia) has been having family problems as his brothers run off to join various revolutions to fight the country's tyrannical dictator Fulgencio Batista.
Mini-Review: This is a well intentioned labor of love from Garcia, which certainly benefits from his experiences with directors like Coppola and Soderbergh, the musical performances being a hilight of a politically-charged story. Unfortunately, the story gets bogged down with a slow narrative that slows things down and drags things out for too long. Murray is good, though trying too hard to steal scenes, while Hoffman is barely trying and barely in the movie. The movie would have been stronger if it ended with Fico leaving Cuba and left it at that. The twenty minutes after weren't that great or necessary. Rating: 6/10

Actor Andy Garcia makes his directorial debut with a labor of love that he’s spent most of the last fifteen years trying to get made, a story about his birthplace of Havana, Cuba that mixes drama and politics with musical numbers. Working with the late author Guillermo Cabrera Infante, who wrote the 70’s movie Vanishing Point, and not really much since then, Garcia created a cinematic experience that falls somewhere between Scarface and the Cuban sections in Godfather Part 2. Although Garcia is the star, he was able to bring in some of his friends for small roles including Dustin Hoffman and Bill Murray, who offers the film’s comic relief. It will open in New York, Los Angeles, Miami and other select cities.

Why I Should See It: Andy Garcia’s labor of love gives an interesting view on the pre-Castro Havana and the transition that took place when the country turned to communism.
Why Not: The movie is very very long… maybe he shouldn’t have loved Cuba that much?

STAR SPOTLIGHT: Jeff Bridges
(Yeah, I could have gone with Robin Williams, but that would have been way too much work!)

56-year-old Jeff Bridges, son of Lloyd Bridges and brother to Beau Bridges, has had a more prominent film career than both of them, stretching back over 35-years to movies like The Last Picture Show, for which he received an Oscar nomination, followed three years later with another one for Thunderbolt and Lightfoot. Like most Oscar nominees and winners, Bridges used those accolades to get roles in more commercial fare from the 1977 remake of King Kong to the video game movie Tron in ’82 and the sci-fi film Starman, for which Bridges got his first and only leading actor Oscar nomination.

Bridges wrapped up the ‘80s by teaming with his brother Beau to play a pair of jazz musicians in The Fabulous Baker Boys, beginning a run of movies in the ‘90s that were more about doing good work, rather than having commercial successes. After starring in movies by Barbara Streisand, The Coen Brothers and Terry Gilliam, Bridges began the 21^st Century with his fourth Oscar nomination for the political drama The Contender, although his career slowed down a bit after that with fewer movies. In 2003, he had his biggest hit to date with the historic racing drama Seabiscuit, which grossed over $100 million, and he received even more critical acclaim with the indie drama, The Door in the Floor, released the following summer.

While Bridges has done a few movies where he dealt with crazies from Robin Williams in The Fisher King to Kevin Spacey in K-Pax, he hasn’t really done anything like Stick It, where he has to contend with rebellious gymnasts. With that in mind, Stick It seems kind of below Bridges, and one has to assume that he’s doing it just for the money (or for his kids). It’s doubtful that his older male or female fans will be very interested in this.