A successful talk show host leaves Los Angeles to reunite with his family in the Deep South.

An abortion clinic worker with a special heritage is enlisted to prevent two angels from reentering Heaven and thus undoing the fabric of the universe. Along the way, she is aided by two prophets, Jay and Silent Bob. With the help of Rufus, the 13th Apostle, they must stop those who stand in their way and prevent the angels from entering Heaven. Written by Jerel Parenton {J.W.Parenton@student.tcu.edu}

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Orphaned high school student Rick Riker is bitten by a radioactive dragonfly, develops super powers (except for the ability to fly), and becomes a hero.

Nazi skinheads in Melbourne take out their anger on local Vietnamese, who are seen as threatening racial purity. Finally the Vietnamese have had enough and confront the skinheads in an all-out confrontation, sending the skinheads running. A woman who is prone to epileptic seizures joins the skins’ merry band, and helps them on their run from justice, but is her affliction also a sign of impurity? Written by Ed Sutton {esutton@mindspring.com}

Robert Luketic took a break from romantic comedies (the genre where he’s been most comfortable) to direct 21, an entertaining, while not completely comprehensible, dramatic movie adapted from Ben Mezrich’s book, Bringing Down the House. Loosely based on the true story of a group of MIT students who made a killing counting cards at Vegas casinos, 21 makes playing blackjack look not only exciting, but profitable. Despite a few gaping plot holes, the card action and engaging cast make this film fun for even those of us who’ve had only losing experiences at blackjack tables. (more…)

The same audience that gobbled up the R rated sex comedy, “Wedding Crashers,” should help make “The 40 Year Old Virgin” into a box office hit. And that’s fine by me. This is one of the best comedies of the decade and I applaud Universal for having the guts to let “The 40 Year Old Virgin” be an R rated movie without putting any restrictions on writer/director Judd Apatow or writer/actor Steve Carell that would have diluted the humor.

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Director Ayer has a real eye for capturing LA’s less glamorous streets, and with a story and screenplay by James Ellroy, another storyteller who knows his way around the turf, Street Kings has the makings of a classic cop drama. But somewhere along the line the dialogue and story took a turn down a dark alley lined with film clichés and Hollywood melodrama and didn’t emerge unscathed.

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Elvis lives! I knew it all along. No way could The King die on a toilet. It’s much more reasonable to believe he traded places with an impersonator to live out his life in relative obscurity, playing dive bars and Indian casinos, having a grand ol’ time pulling the wool over everyone’s eyes.

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What sounds like an excellent set-up for a movie turns out to be just another run of the mill, disappointingly mediocre comedy. Directed by Marc Forster (Finding Neverland, Stay) and starring Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman, Stranger Than Fiction takes the idea of a man facing his impending death at the whim of a British writer and instead of running with it, casually swaggers to a predictable finish.

An American teenager who is obsessed with Hong Kong cinema and kung-fu classics makes an extraordinary discovery in a Chinatown pawnshop: the legendary stick weapon of the Chinese sage and warrior, the Monkey King. With the lost relic in hand, the teenager unexpectedly finds himself traveling back to ancient China to join a crew of warriors from martial arts lore on a dangerous quest to free the imprisoned Monkey King. Written by Anonymous