In Cinemas this week (26 June – 2 July)

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Decepticon forces return to Earth on a mission to take Sam Witwicky prisoner, after the young hero learns the truth about the ancient origins of the Transformers. Joining the mission to protect humankind is Optimus Prime, who forms an alliance with international armies for a second epic battle.

Cast:
Megan Fox (Mikaela Banes)
Shia LaBeouf (Sam Witwicky)
Isabel Lucas (Alice)
John Turturro (Agent Simmons / Jetfire)

Director: Michael Bay
Writer: Ehren Kruger, Roberto Orci
Runtime: 150 min
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Rating: 12
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

The Last House on the Left

After kidnapping and brutally assaulting two young women, a gang led by a prison escapee unknowingly finds refuge at a vacation home belonging to the parents of one of the victims — a mother and father who devise an increasingly gruesome series of revenge tactics.

Cast:
Tony Goldwyn (John Collingwood)
Monica Potter (Emma Collingwood)
Sara Paxton Carter (Mari Collingwood)
Garret Dillahunt (Krug)

Director: Dennis Iliadis
Writer: Adam Alleca, Carl Ellsworth
Runtime: 110 min
Genre: Crime, Drama, Horror, Thriller
Rating: 18
Language: English
Production Year: 2009

Crossing Over

Crossing Over is a multi-character canvas about immigrants of different nationalities struggling to achieve legal status in Los Angeles. The film deals with the border, document fraud, the asylum and green card process, work-site enforcement, naturalization, the office of counter terrorism and the clash of cultures.

Cast:
Harrison Ford (Max Brogan)
Ray Liotta (Cole Frankel)
Ashley Judd (Denise Frankel)
Cliff Curtis (Hamid Baraheri)

Director: Wayne Kramer
Writer: Wayne Kramer
Runtime: 113 min
Genre: Drama
Rating: 15
Language: English
Production Year: 2009

Hannah Montana: The Movie (Greek)

With a crazy double life in California as an everyday teen with the secret pop-star persona Hannah Montana, Miley Stewart has forgotten who she really is. To get her back on track, Miley’s dad, Robby Ray Stewart, decides that she needs some time back on the family farm in Tennessee to celebrate Grandma Ruby’s birthday. At first, Miley is belligerent, but with the help of Travis, a former childhood crush who now works for Grandma Ruby as a farmhand, she begins to realize what is really important to her.

Cast:
Miley Cyrus (Hannah Montana / Miley Stewart)
Billy Ray Cyrus (Robby Ray Stewart)
Emily Osment (Lilly Truscott / Lola Luftnagle)
Lucas Till (Travis Brody)

Director: Peter Chelsom
Writer: Daniel Berendsen
Runtime: 102 min
Genre: Comedy, Family, Music
Rating: K
Language: Greek
Production Year: 2009

My Life in Ruins

Georgia is a Greek-American tour guide who leads an assorted group of misfit tourists around Greece. Tourists who would rather buy a T-shirt than learn about history. In a hysterical clash of personalities and culture, everything seems to go wrong. Until one day when a very special tourist, Irv Gordon, shows her how to have fun and take a good look at the last person she’d ever expect to find love with…her quiet and sexy Greek bus driver, Poupi.

Cast:
Nia Vardalos (Georgia)
Richard Dreyfuss (Irv)
Alexis Georgoulis (Poupi)
Alistair McGowan (Nico)

Director: Donald Petrie
Writer: Mike Reiss
Runtime: 95 min
Genre: Comedy
Rating: 15
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

Home

On 5 June, on the United Nations sponsored World Environment Day, every citizen on the planet will be able to watch Home, the latest film by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. The photographer, who has made it his speciality to show the earth viewed from the sky, has made a documentary intended to alert public opinion to the ecological disasters that threaten us.

Narrator:
Glenn Close

Director: Yann Arthus-Bertrand
Writer: Yann Arthus-Bertrand, Isabelle Delannoy
Runtime: 90 min
Genre: Documentary
Rating: K
Language: English
Production Year: 2009

Fly Me to the Moon 3D (Greek)

A preteen-aged fly named Nat and his two best friends, I.Q. and Scooter, build a “fly-sized” rocket in a field across from Cape Canaveral, Florida, where the Apollo 11 sits on its launch pad. From his earliest memory, Nat remembers his grandfather, Amos, telling him of his daring rescue of Amelia Earhart as she crossed the Atlantic Ocean on her historic flight. Wanting to be an adventurer like his Grandpa, Nat knows what he has to do. Defying the notion that “Dreamers get swatted!” he tells his friends his plan to get aboard the Apollo 11 and go to the moon.

Director: Ben Stassen
Writer: Domonic Paris
Runtime: 84 min
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Family
Rating: K
Language: Greek
Production Year: 2008

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

James Logan aka Wolverine and his brother Victor Creed (who will later become Sabretooth) run away together as children in the mid 1850’s after Logan kills their biological father who had murdered Logan’s adoptive father. After serving together in many wars they are recruited by William Stryker to serve in a special unit made up of mutants. After wiping out an African villiage, Logan quits the unit and goes off to live a life of peace in the Canadian Rockies with his girlfriend later to be known as the Silver Fox.Six years pass for the both of them until Stryker shows up and asks Logan to come back and be a part of a new Weapon X project.

Cast:
Hugh Jackman (Logan / Wolverine)
Liev Schreiber (Victor Creed / Sabretooth)
Danny Huston (William Stryker)
Lynn Collins (Kayla Silverfox)

Director: Gavin Hood
Writer: David Benioff, Skip Woods
Runtime: 107 min
Genre: Action, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Rating: 15
Language: English
Production Year: 2009

Slumdog Millionaire

Eighteen year old Jamal Malik is having an amazing answering streak on “Kaun Banega Crorepati?”, the Indian version of the television game show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire”. He’s only one correct question away from the big prize. However, some, including those associated with the game show, question how someone like Jamal, a self confessed non-genius who grew up in the slums of Mumbai, can be doing so well on the show when others who are brighter, more educated and wealthier than him have failed. Is Jamal cheating? Is it purely luck that they have asked him the questions to which he knows the answers? Seeing Jamal’s life journey to this point ultimately answers these questions. His life journey includes being orphaned at an early age; growing up with an older brother, Salim, who was both his guardian/protector and antagonist; and having a relationship since childhood with another orphaned child, a girl named Latika. His motivation for being on the show also may provide some answers to his success. Perhaps it was all just meant to be.

Cast:
Dev Patel (Jamal K. Malik)
Freida Pinto (Latika)
Anil Kapoor (Prem Kumar)
Saurabh Shukla (Sergeant Srinivas)

Director: Danny Boyle, Loveleen Tandan
Writer: Simon Beaufoy, Vikas Swarup
Runtime: 120 min
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance
Rating: 12
Language: English
Production Year: 2008