In Cinemas this week (24 July – 30 July)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

In the sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft, and in both wizard and muggle worlds Lord Volemort and his henchmen are increasingly active. With vacancies to fill at Hogwarts, Professor Dumbledor persuades Horace Slughorn, back from retirement to become the potions teacher, while Professor Snape receives long awaited news. Harry Potter, together with Dumbledore, must face treacherous tasks to defeat his evil nemesis.

Cast:
Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter)
Michael Gambon (Professor Albus Dumbledore)
Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley)
Emma Watson (Hermione Granger)
Alan Rickman (Professor Severus Snape)

Director: David Yates
Writer: Steve Kloves
Runtime: 153 min
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy
Rating: 12
Language: English
Production Year: 2009

Taken

The seventeen year-old Kim is the pride and joy of her father, the retired agent Bryan Mills that left the secret service to stay near Kim in California. Kim lives with her mother Lenore and her wealthy stepfather Stuart; the girl convinces her father to sign an authorization to travel to Paris with her friend Amanda. After arriving the girls meet a stranger, Peter, and Amanda tells him that they are alone in Paris. Next time Bryan contacts his daughter, she tells him they are kidnapped by an Albanese human trafficking gang. Bryan has only 96 hours to rescue his daughter from a slave trade operation.

Cast:
Liam Neeson (Bryan Mills)
Famke Janssen (Lenore)
Maggie Grace (Kim)
Katie Cassidy (Amanda)

Director: Pierre Morel
Writer: Luc Besson, Robert Mark Kamen
Runtime: 93 min
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Rating: 15
Language: English
Production Year: 2009

Fifty Dead Men Walking

Based on Martin McGartland’s shocking real life story. Martin is a young lad from west Belfast in the late 1980s who is recruited by the British Police to spy on the IRA. He works his way up the ranks as a volunteer for the IRA whilst feeding information to his British handler and saving lives in the process; until one day he is exposed, captured and tortured to within an inch of his life. He escaped dramatically by throwing himself from a tower block window and is still in hiding today.

Cast:
Ben Kingsley (Fergus)
Jim Sturgess (Martin)
Natalie Press (Lara)
Rose McGowan (Grace)

Director: Kari Skogland
Writer: Nicholas Davies, Martin McGartland
Runtime: 117 min
Genre: Action, Thriller
Rating: 15
Language: English
Production Year: 2009

17 Again

In 1989, Michael O’Donnell was a star athlete with a full college scholarship imminent. He seemingly had it all, when, right before the championship game, his girlfriend Scarlet informed him she was pregnant. In that moment, he made the decision to throw everything away (including basketball and a chance at a scholarship) and proposed to her. Twenty years later, Mike’s life has come to a standstill. Scarlet has separated from him, forcing him to move in with his geeky, but millionaire, best friend Ned Gold, his job is going nowhere, and his kids Maggie and Alex want nothing to do with him. While paying a visit to Hayden High School to reminisce about the life he threw away, he encounters the mysterious janitor. On the way home, Mike is magically transformed back into his 17-year old self. With Ned posing as his father, he re-enrolls in high school, believing he has been given the chance to live his life over again, “but to do it right”.

Cast:
Zac Efron (Mike O’Donnell (Teen))
Matthew Perry (Mike O’Donnell (Adult))
Leslie Mann (Scarlett O’Donnell)
Michelle Trachtenberg (Maggie O’Donnell)

Director: Burr Steers
Writer: Jason Filardi
Runtime: 102 min
Genre: Comedy
Rating: K
Language: English
Production Year: 2009

Brüno

Flamboyant Austrian fashionista Brüno takes his show to America.

Cast:
Sacha Baron Cohen (Brüno)
Gustaf Hammarsten (Lutz)
Clifford Bañagale (Diesel)
Josh Meyers (Kookus)

Director: Larry Charles
Writer: Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines
Runtime: 83 min
Genre: Comedy
Rating: 18
Language: English
Production Year: 2009

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (English)

After the events of “Ice Age: The Meltdown”, life begins to change for Manny and his friends: Scrat is still on the hunt to hold onto his beloved acorn, while finding a possible romance in a female sabre-toothed squirrel named Scratte. Manny and Ellie, having since become an item, are expecting a baby, which leaves Manny anxious to ensure that everything is perfect for when his baby arrives. Diego is fed up with being treated like a house-cat and ponders the notion that he is becoming too laid-back. Sid begins to wish for a family of his own, and so steals some dinosaur eggs which leads to Sid ending up in a strange underground world where his herd must rescue him, while dodging dinosaurs and facing danger left and right, and meeting up with a one-eyed weasel known as Buck who hunts dinosaurs intently.

Voices:
John Leguizamo (Sid)
Denis Leary (Diego)
Queen Latifah (Ellie)
Ray Romano (Manny)

Director: Carlos Saldanha
Writer: Peter Ackerman, Michael Berg
Runtime: 96 min
Genre: Animation, Action, Comedy, Romance
Rating: K
Language: English
Production Year: 2009

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (Greek)

After the events of “Ice Age: The Meltdown”, life begins to change for Manny and his friends: Scrat is still on the hunt to hold onto his beloved acorn, while finding a possible romance in a female sabre-toothed squirrel named Scratte. Manny and Ellie, having since become an item, are expecting a baby, which leaves Manny anxious to ensure that everything is perfect for when his baby arrives. Diego is fed up with being treated like a house-cat and ponders the notion that he is becoming too laid-back. Sid begins to wish for a family of his own, and so steals some dinosaur eggs which leads to Sid ending up in a strange underground world where his herd must rescue him, while dodging dinosaurs and facing danger left and right, and meeting up with a one-eyed weasel known as Buck who hunts dinosaurs intently.

Voices:
Petros Philippides
Yannis Bezos
Yannis Politakis
Leonidas Kakouris

Director: Carlos Saldanha
Writer: Peter Ackerman, Michael Berg
Runtime: 96 min
Genre: Animation, Action, Comedy, Romance
Rating: K
Language: Greek
Production Year: 2009

The Hangover

Doug Billings and Tracy Garner are about to get married. Two days before the wedding, the four men in the wedding party – Doug, Doug’s two best buddies Phil and Stu, and Tracy’s brother Alan – hop into Tracy’s father’s beloved Mercedes convertible for a 24-hour stag party to Las Vegas. The morning after their arrival in Las Vegas, they awaken in their hotel suite each with the worst hangover. None remembers what happened in the past twelve or so hours. The suite is in shambles. And certain things are in the suite that shouldn’t be, and certain things that should be in the suite are missing. Probably the most important in the latter category is Doug. As Phil, Stu and Alan try to find Doug using only what little pieces of information they have at hand, they go on a journey of discovery of how certain things got into the suite and what happened to the missing items. However they are on a race for time as if they can’t find Doug in the next few hours, they are going to have to explain to Tracy why they are not yet back in Los Angeles. And even worse, they may not find Doug at all before the wedding.

Cast:
Bradley Cooper (Phil Wenneck)
Ed Helms (Stu Price)
Zach Galifianakis (Alan Garner)
Justin Bartha (Doug Billings)

Director: Todd Phillips
Writer: Jon Lucas, Scott Moore
Runtime: 100 min
Genre: Comedy
Rating: 15
Language: English
Production Year: 2009

The Proposal

When high-powered book editor Margaret faces deportation to her native Canada, the quick-thinking exec declares that she’s actually engaged to her unsuspecting put-upon assistant Andrew, who she’s tormented for years. He agrees to participate in the charade, but with a few conditions of his own. The unlikely couple heads to Alaska to meet his quirky family and the always-in-control city girl finds herself in one comedic fish-out-of-water situation after another. With an impromptu wedding in the works and an immigration official on their tails, Margaret and Andrew reluctantly vow to stick to the plan despite the precarious consequences.

Cast:
Sandra Bullock (Margaret Tate)
Ryan Reynolds (Andrew Paxton)
Mary Steenburgen (Grace Paxton)
Craig T. Nelson (Joe Paxton)

Director: Anne Fletcher
Writer: Pete Chiarelli
Runtime: 108 min
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Rating: 12
Language: English
Production Year: 2009

Terminator: Salvation

Set in post-apocalyptic 2018, John Connor is the man fated to lead the human resistance against Skynet and its army of Terminators. But the future Connor was raised to believe in is altered in part by the appearance of Marcus Wright, a stranger whose last memory is of being on death row. Connor must decide whether Marcus has been sent from the future, or rescued from the past. As Skynet prepares its final onslaught, Connor and Marcus both embark on an odyssey that takes them into the heart of Skynet’s operations, where they uncover the terrible secret behind the possible annihilation of mankind.

Cast:
Christian Bale (John Connor)
Sam Worthington (Marcus Wright)
Helena Bonham Carter (Dr. Serena Kogan)
Moon Bloodgood (Blair Williams)

Director: McG
Writer: John D. Brancato, Michael Ferris
Runtime: 115 min
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Rating: 12
Language: English
Production Year: 2009