Stuart Townsend, Marguerite Moreau, and Aaliyah combine talents in a blend of sex, vampire violence, pulsating rock rhythms, and erotic fantasy in director Michael Rymer’s vision of Anne Rice’s third novel in the “Vampire Chronicles.”

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P.D. James’ novel Children of Men comes alive onscreen (albeit with a couple of major plot changes) via the masterful filmmaking of Alfonso Cuaron (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Y Tu Mama Tambien). Cuaron skillfully weaves a fascinating story of nightmarish proportions by smoothly mixing high drama, dark humor, and one of the most riveting action sequences in recent history, into the tale of a dystopic society we can only hope is in no way prophetic.

Children of Men envisions a world in which women can no longer give birth. The youngest person on Earth has just died at the age of 18 and the fact that man will soon be extinct is a foregone conclusion. The world is one big war zone and no one feels safe or secure. A totalitarian government is in place in London and people who try to enter the country who aren’t residents are placed in holding pens and treated like cows.Theo (Clive Owen) exists in this world as an ex-activist-turned-bureaucrat. He begins most days by stopping in at a café to pick up his morning cup of coffee. But one particular day is unlike any others. Upon exiting the shop, a bomb goes off. Shortly thereafter, he’s kidnapped and reunited with his ex-lover, Julian (Julianne Moore in a restrained performance), a fearless, furious freedom fighter who needs help only Theo can provide.

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A projectionist bored with his everyday life begins fantasizing about his being one of the superheroes he sees in the movies he shows.

Linus and Davis Larrabee are the two sons of a very wealthy family. Linus is all work — busily running the family corporate empire, he has no time for a wife and family. David is all play — technically he is employed by the family business, but never shows up for work, spends all his time entertaining, and has been married and divorced three times. Meanwhile, Sabrina Fairchild is the young, shy, and awkward daughter of the household chauffeur, who has been infatuated with David all her life, but David hardly notices her — “doesn’t even know I exist” — until she goes away to Paris for two years, and returns an elegant, sophisticated, beautiful woman. Suddenly, she finds that she has captured David’s attention, but just as she does so, she finds herself falling in love with Linus, and she finds that Linus is also falling in love with her. Written by Brian C. Madsen {bcmmovies@earthlink.net}

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Telling a friend you’ve set her up on a date with a sweet guy who has a good personality is like giving the dating candidate the kiss of death. But thankfully there’s no such stigma attached to the word ’sweet’ when it’s used to describe a romantic comedy. “Just Like Heaven” is the movie equivalent of a harmless first date: polite and sweet. It’s a pleasant enough way to spend an evening, yet ultimately totally forgettable.

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After FedEx systems engineer Chuck Noland is ripped out of his hasty life by the clock in a plane crash, he finds himself alone on the shores of a tropical island. First, frustration gets to him and then he realizes how little his chances are to ever get back to civilisation. Four years later, Chuck has learned very well how to survive on his own: mending his dental health, catching fish with a spear, predicting the weather with a selfmade calendar. A photograph of his girlfriend Kelly has kept his hopes alive all these years. Finally, Chuck takes the opportunity to take off for home: He sets off on a wooden raft with a sail that has washed ashore. Written by Julian Reischl {julianreischl@mac.com}

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Nicole Kidman as a Russian? At first consideration that may seem an unlikely bit of casting, but it’s no more unlikely than Nicole Kidman winning accolades singing and dancing in a rousing romantic musical. In “Birthday Girl,” Kidman dons sleazy costumes, darkens her hair, chain smokes, and speaks with a Russian accent that seems a mixture of Natasha from “Rocky and Bullwinkle” and true Russian. What’s amazing is that despite the fact that you never forget it’s Kidman playing a Russian, she manages to pull off this part without missing a step.

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A conflict develops between a troubled Vietnam veteran and the sister he lives with when she becomes involved romantically with the army buddy who reminds him of the tragic battle they both survived. Written by Keith Loh {loh@sfu.ca}

11-year-old Eliza Naumann comes from an odd family; they all divert their emotional frustrations into secret channels. When Eliza unexpectedly begins winning spelling bees, what had been a stable dynamic within the family becomes disrupted; long held secrets emerge, and a latent spiritual yearning is awakened in her withdrawn father Saul and compulsive mother Miriam. As Eliza moves closer and closer to the national spelling bee, the Naumann family finds itself in a spiral of surprising discovery and jarring uncertainty… Written by J Grimshaw

Lucy’s life consists of constant lonliness that is until she saves Peter’s life. Now she is a part of his family, and with a strong heart and fate on her side, others begin to realize what a terrific person she is, especially Jack, Peter’s brother. An extraordinarily true-to-life sequence of events begin to take place as Lucy and Jack become closer and learn more about each other and themselves than one would ever expect from such coincidental, yet believable events. Written by Michael Lee Pollock {gt4250a@prism.gatech.edu}

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