In Cinemas this week (4 – 10 September)

Public Enemies

The difficult 1930s is a time of robbers who knock over banks and other rich targets with alarming frequency. Of them, none is more notorious than John Dillinger, whose gang plies its trade with cunning efficiency against big businesses while leaving ordinary citizens alone. As Dillinger becomes a folk hero, FBI head J. Edger Hoover is determined to stop his ilk by assigning ace agent Melvin Purvis to hunt down Dillinger. As Purvis struggles with the manhunt’s realities, Dillinger himself faces an ominous future with the loss of friends, dwindling options and a changing world of organized crime with no room for him.

Cast:
Johnny Depp (John Dillinger)
Christian Bale (Melvin Purvis)
Jason Clarke (John ‘Red’ Hamilton)
Marion Cotillard (Billie Frechette)

Director: Michael Mann
Writer: Ronan Bennett, Michael Mann
Runtime: 140 min
Genre: Crime, Drama, History
Rating: 15
Language: English
Production Year: 2009

Transporter 3

Frank Martin puts the driving gloves on to deliver Valentina, the kidnapped daughter of a Ukranian government official, from Marseilles to Odessa on the Black Sea. En route, he has to contend with thugs who want to intercept Valentina’s safe delivery and not let his personal feelings get in the way of his dangerous objective.

Cast:
Jason Statham (Frank Martin)
Natalya Rudakova (Valentina)
François Berléand (Inspector Tarconi)
Robert Knepper (Johnson)

Director: Olivier Megaton
Writer: Luc Besson, Robert Mark Kamen
Runtime: 104 min
Genre: Action, Adventure, Crime
Rating: 15
Language: English
Production Year: 2008

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

From the Egyptian desert to deep below the polar ice caps, the elite G.I. JOE team uses the latest in next-generation spy and military equipment to fight the corrupt arms dealer Destro and the growing threat of the mysterious Cobra organization to prevent them from plunging the world into chaos.

Cast:
Dennis Quaid (General Hawk)
Sienna Miller (Ana / Baroness)
Channing Tatum (Duke)
Christopher Eccleston (McCullen / Destro)

Director: Stephen Sommers
Writer: Stuart Beattie, David Elliot
Runtime: 118 min
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Rating: 15
Language: English
Production Year: 2009

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past

Connor Mead is a notorious photographer who has a bad boy reputation of loving beautiful women and dumping them when they fall in love with him. His brother Paul is about to get married, and Connor thinks he is making a terrible mistake. As an incorrigible bachelor, Connor loves his freedom more than ever settling down and loving only one woman. Connor tries to talk Paul out of getting married, and it looks like Connor is about to succeed. Then the night before the wedding, Connor is visited by three ghosts, who take him back to his past, present, and his lonely future. They try to discovery the point in time where Connors became this womanizing jerk. Maybe there is still time to change him into a sensitive, feeling, and caring person that he once was, and he may even find his true love.

Cast:
Matthew McConaughey (Connor Mead)
Jennifer Garner (Jenny Perotti)
Michael Douglas (Uncle Wayne)
Emma Stone (Allison Vandermeersh)

Director: Mark Waters
Writer: Jon Lucas, Scott Moore
Runtime: 100 min
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
Rating: 12
Language: English
Production Year: 2009

The Burning Plain

Connected storylines about love, forgiveness and redemption that take place in different places and times – Mariana, a 16-year-old girl trying to put together the shattered lives of her parents in a Mexican border town; Sylvia, a woman in Portland who must undertake an emotional odyssey to burnish a sin from her past; Gina and Nick, a couple who must deal with an intense and clandestine affair; and Maria, a young girl who helps her parents find redemption, forgiveness and love. The five will discover that their actions may mean the difference between life and death as well as their own journeys into seeking redemption…and whether or not they will ever find it.

Cast:
Charlize Theron (Sylvia)
Kim Basinger (Gina)
Jennifer Lawrence (Mariana)
Joaquim de Almeida (Nick)

Director: Guillermo Arriaga
Writer: Guillermo Arriaga
Runtime: 111 min
Genre: Drama, Romance
Rating: 15
Language: English
Production Year: 2008

The Code / Thick as Thieves

In New York, the experienced art thief, Keith Ripley, invites the bold thief from Miami, Gabriel Martin, to team up with him. He plans the heist of two valuable mysterious antique Faberge eggs, located in a safe, of the well protected Russian jewelry Romanov. Each egg is worth twenty million dollars on the black market, and Ripley needs his cut to free himself from his debt to a powerful mobster, known as Nicky. The reluctant Gabriel agrees to participate, after having a one night stand with Ripley’s goddaughter Alexandra. Meanwhile, the persistent Lieutenant Weber, who has unsuccessfully tried to put Ripley in jail for twenty years, figures out how to anticipate the movements of the criminal in order to catch him.

Cast:
Morgan Freeman (Keith Ripley)
Antonio Banderas (Gabriel Martin)
Radha Mitchell (Alexandra Korolenko)
Robert Forster (Lt. Weber)

Director: Mimi Leder
Writer: Ted Humphrey
Runtime: 104 min
Genre: Crime
Rating: 12
Language: English
Production Year: 2009

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

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