In Cinemas this week (21 – 27 October)

Contagion

Soon after her return from a business trip to Hong Kong, Beth Emhoff dies from what is a flu or some other type of infection. Her young son dies a few days later. Her husband Mitch however seems immune. Thus begins the spread of a deadly infection. For doctors and administrators at the U.S. Center for Disease Control, several days pass before anyone realizes the extent or gravity of this new infection. They must first identify the type of virus in question and then find a means of combating it, a process that will likely take several months. As the contagion spreads to millions of people worldwide, societal order begins to break down as people panic.

Cast:
Matt Damon (Mitch Emhoff)
Gwyneth Paltrow (Beth Emhoff)
Jude Law (Alan Krumwiede)
Kate Winslet (Dr. Erin Mears)

Director: Steven Soderbergh
Writer: Scott Z. Burns
Runtime: 106 min
Genre: Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Rating: 12
Language: English
Production Year: 2011

Abduction

Nathan Harper is a teenager who lives with his parents, Kevin and Mara. He has a recurring nightmare, and consults a psychiatrist, Dr. Geraldine Bennett to discover why. One day, Nathan is partnered with his neighbor and longtime crush Karen Murphy on a school assignment about missing children. Karen finds a website that shows how the children would look like as adults, and Nathan discovers that a young boy named Steven Price would look exactly like him, when Price got older. Searching in his basement, he finds the same shirt that Steven is wearing in the picture and realizes that he and Steven are the same person. This revelation triggers a series of events and leaves Nathan running for his life.

Cast:
Taylor Lautner (Nathan)
Lily Collins (Karen)
Alfred Molina (Burton)
Sigourney Weaver (Dr. Bennett)

Director: John Singleton
Writer: Shawn Christensen
Runtime: 106 min
Genre: Action, Drama, Mystery
Rating: 12
Language: English
Production Year: 2011

I Don’t Know How She Does It

Kate Reddy devotes her days to her job with a Boston-based financial management firm. At night she goes home to her adoring, recently-downsized architect husband Richard and their two young children. It’s a non-stop balancing act, the same one that Kate’s acerbic best friend and fellow working mother Allison performs on a daily basis, and that Kate’s super-brainy, child-phobic young junior associate Momo fully intends to avoid. When Kate gets handed a major new account that will require frequent trips to New York, Richard also wins the new job he’s been hoping for—and both will be spreading themselves even thinner. Complicating matters is Kate’s charming new business associate Jack Abelhammer, who begins to prove an unexpected source of temptation.

Cast:
Sarah Jessica Parker (Kate Reddy)
Pierce Brosnan (Jack Abelhammer)
Greg Kinnear (Richard Reddy)
Kelsey Grammer (Clark Cooper)

Director: Douglas McGrath
Writer: Aline Brosh McKenna, Allison Pearson
Runtime: 89 min
Genre: Comedy
Rating: K
Language: English
Production Year: 2011

Johnny English Reborn

In his latest adventure Johnny English, the most unlikely intelligence officer in Her Majesty’s Secret Service, must stop a group of international assassins before they eliminate a world leader and cause global chaos. In the years since MI-7’s top spy vanished off the grid, he has been honing his unique skills in a remote region of Asia. But when his agency superiors learn of an attempt against the Chinese premier’s life, they must hunt down the highly unorthodox agent. Now that the world needs him once again, Johnny English is back in action. With one shot at redemption, he must employ the latest in hi-tech gadgets to unravel a web of conspiracy that runs throughout the KGB, CIA and even MI-7. With mere days until a heads of state conference…

Cast:
Rowan Atkinson (Johnny English)
Rosamund Pike (Kate Sumner)
Dominic West (Simon Ambrose)
Gillian Anderson (MI7 Agent Pamela Thornton)

Director: Oliver Parker
Writer: William Davies, Hamish McColl
Runtime: 101 min
Genre: Comedy, Adventure
Rating: K
Language: English
Production Year: 2011

One Day

Emma and Dexter meet on the night of their university graduation. We see them every year on the anniversary of that date – July 15th. Emma is smart but success doesn’t come quickly for her, whereas for Dexter, success and women come very easily. Through the years they grow apart as their lives take different directions and they meet other people. But as they grow apart from those other people and their lives start taking opposite directions again, Emma and Dexter find that they belong with each other.

Cast:
Anne Hathaway (Emma)
Jim Sturgess (Dexter)
Tom Mison (Callum)
Jodie Whittaker (Tilly)

Director: Lone Scherfig
Writer: David Nicholls
Runtime: 107 min
Genre: Drama, Romance
Rating: K
Language: English
Production Year: 2011

Mother’s Day

Three brothers on the run from the law head for home, only to discover that their mother lost the house in a foreclosure. Mother ingeniously orchestrates her sons’ escape, teaching the house’s new owners and their guests a few lessons along the way.

Cast:
Rebecca De Mornay (Natalie ‘Mother’ Koffin)
Jaime King (Beth Sohapi)
Patrick John Flueger (Izaak ‘Ike’ Koffin)
Warren Kole (Addley Koffin)

Director: Darren Lynn Bousman
Writer: Scott Milam
Runtime: 112 min
Genre: Crime, Horror, Thriller
Rating: N/A
Language: English
Production Year: 2010

The Three Musketeers (3D)

The hot-headed young D’Artagnan along with three former legendary but now down on their luck Musketeers must unite and defeat a beautiful double agent and her villainous employer from seizing the French throne and engulfing Europe in war.

Cast:
Milla Jovovich (M’lady De Winter)
Logan Lerman (D’Artagnan)
Orlando Bloom (Duke of Buckingham)
Christoph Waltz (Cardinal Richelieu)

Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Writer: Alex Litvak, Andrew Davies
Runtime: 110 min
Genre: Action, Adventure, Romance
Rating: K
Language: English
Production Year: 2011

Friends with Benefits

Dylan and Jamie think it’s going to be easy to add the simple act of sex to their friendship, despite what Hollywood romantic comedies would have them believe. They soon discover however that getting physical really does always lead to complications.

Cast:
Justin Timberlake (Dylan)
Mila Kunis (Jamie)
Richard Jenkins (Mr. Harper)
Woody Harrelson (Tommy)

Director: Will Gluck
Writer: Keith Merryman, David A. Newman
Runtime: 109 min
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Rating: 15
Language: English
Production Year: 2011

The Lion King 3D (Greek)

A young lion prince is born in Africa, thus making his uncle Scar the second in line to the throne. Scar plots with the hyenas to kill King Mufasa and Prince Simba, thus making himself King. The King is killed and Simba is led to believe by Scar that it was his fault, and so he flees the kingdom in shame. After years of exile he is persuaded to return home to overthrow the usurper and claim the kingdom as his own thus completing the “Circle of Life”.

Voices:
Matthew Broderick (Adult Simba)
Jeremy Irons (Scar)
Jim Cummings (Ed)
Rowan Atkinson (Zazu)

Director: Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff
Writer: Irene Mecchi, Jonathan Roberts
Runtime: 89 min
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy
Rating: K
Language: Greek
Production Year: 1994

Blitz

Detective Sergeant Tom Brant, a tough cop with questionable ethics, is dispatched to take down a serial killer hell bent on killing off the police force one by one. The killer, known as “The Blitz”, manages to slip through the grasp of Tom every time, and with the precious lives of his colleagues diminishing one by one, Tom is led to the question: if we can’t protect our own, then what good are we?

Cast:
Jason Statham (Detective Sergeant Tom Brant)
Luke Evans (DI Craig Stokes)
Aidan Gillen (Barry Weiss / The Blitz)
Paddy Considine (Porter Nash)

Director: Elliott Lester
Writer: Ken Bruen, Nathan Parker
Runtime: 97 min
Genre: Crime, Thriller
Rating: 15
Language: English
Production Year: 2011

Captain America: The First Avenger (3D)

It is 1942, America has entered World War II, and sickly but determined Steve Rogers is frustrated at being rejected yet again for military service. Everything changes when Dr. Erksine recruits him for the secret Project Rebirth. Proving his extraordinary courage, wits and conscience, Rogers undergoes the experiment and his weak body is suddenly enhanced into the maximum human potential. When Dr. Erksine is then immediately assassinated by an agent of Nazi Germany’s head of its secret HYDRA research department, Johann Schmidt aka the Red Skull, Rogers is left as a unique man who is initially misused as a propaganda mascot. However, when his comrades need him, Rogers goes on a successful adventure that truly makes him Captain America and his war against Schmidt begins.

Cast:
Chris Evans (Captain America / Steve Rogers)
Tommy Lee Jones (Colonel Chester Phillips)
Hugo Weaving (Johann Schmidt / Red Skull)
Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury)

Director: Joe Johnston
Writer: Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
Runtime: 124 min
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Rating: 12
Language: English
Production Year: 2011

The Smurfs

When the evil wizard Gargamel chases the tiny blue Smurfs out of their village, they tumble from their magical world and into ours — in fact, smack dab in the middle of Central Park. Just three apples high and stuck in the Big Apple, the Smurfs must find a way to get back to their village before Gargamel tracks them down.

Voices:
Hank Azaria/Ilios Zervos (Gargamel)
Jonathan Winters/Costas Darlasis (Papa)
Katy Perry/Sissy Christidou (Smurfette)
Alan Cumming/Haris Grigoropoulos (Gutsy)

Director: Raja Gosnell
Writer: Peyo, J. David Stem
Runtime: 103 min
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy
Rating: K
Language: English/Greek
Production Year: 2011

Rio (Greek)

Set in the magnificent city of Rio de Janeiro and the lush rainforest of Brazil, the comedy-adventure centers on Blu, a rare macaw who thinks he is the last of his kind. When Blu discovers there’s another — and that she’s a she — he leaves the comforts of his cage in small town Minnesota and heads to Rio. But it’s far from love at first sight between the domesticated and flight-challenged Blu and the fiercely independent, high-flying female, Jewel. Unexpectedly thrown together, they embark on an adventure of a lifetime, where they learn about friendship, love, courage, and being open to life’s many wonders. RIO brings together a menagerie of vivid characters, a heart-warming story, colorful backdrops, energizing Latin and contemporary music, and family-friendly song and dance.

Voices:
Jesse Eisenberg (Blu)
Anne Hathaway (Jewel)
Leslie Mann (Linda)
Jamie Foxx (Nico)

Director: Carlos Saldanha
Writer: Don Rhymer
Runtime: 96 min
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy
Rating: K
Language: Greek
Production Year: 2011