Coffee Break with Liz and Kate

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I am a movie L-O-V-E-R!  There’s no way around it.  If I have a chance to go out and have some fun, chances are likely it’ll be at a movie theater.  I love the smell of the popcorn as I walk into the theater lobby.  I love the cool, dark theater where no one can bother you (hopefully) for a good two hours.  I love escaping to another world for an adventure – whether it be funny, sad, suspenseful or action-packed.

Sometimes movies open my mind to new ways of viewing the world.   Sometimes movies teach me something new.  Sometimes movies motivate me or make me angry.  But really, most importantly,  I just want to be entertained pure and simple.

So on that note…here are two of this week’s new releases and some review snippets.   I’ll be sure to add my two cents worth after I see them.

“9″

Rating: PG 13 for violence and scary images

Genre: Animated Science Fiction/Fantasy

Starring: Elijah Wood, Jennifer Connelly, John C. Reilly, Crispin Glover

Director: Shane Acker

Plot: A new era in animated storytelling begins on 9.9.09. Visionary filmmakers Tim Burton (The Corpse Bride, Charlie and The Chocolate Factory) and Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted, Nightwatch) join forces to produce wunderkind director Shane Acker’s distinctively original and thrilling tale. 9 stars Elijah Wood, John C. Reilly, Jennifer Connelly, Martin Landau, Christopher Plummer and Crispin Glover and features the music of Danny Elfman.

When 9 (The Lord of the Ring’s Elijah Wood) first comes to life, he finds himself in a post-apocalyptic world. All humans are gone, and it is only by chance that he discovers a small community of others like him taking refuge from fearsome machines that roam the earth intent on their extinction. Despite being the neophyte of the group, 9 convinces the others that hiding will do them no good. They must take the offensive if they are to survive, and they must discover why the machines want to destroy them in the first place. As they’ll soon come to learn, the very future of civilization may depend on them. –© Focus Features

Kate –

Ebert – 3 stars

“The dialog is mostly simplified Action Speak, with barked warnings and instructions and strategy debates of the most rudimentary kind. Since this movie is clearly targeted not at kiddies but at teens and up, is it now Hollywood theory that eloquence and intelligence are no longer useful in action dialogue?

“9″ is nevertheless worth seeing. It might have been an opportunity for the sort of challenging speculation sci-fi is best at, however, and the best reason to see it is simply because of the creativity of its visuals. They’re entrancing.”

Reelviews – 3 stars

“Like many action-oriented films, whether live-action or animated, this one doesn’t take the time to develop the characters and their relationships are telegraphed through recognizable clichés. (The film might have been better off without the “romance” between 9 and 7.) But it excels in establishing a narrative-advancing breakneck pace that integrates exposition without bringing the action to a screeching halt, and represents a largely enjoyable 1 1/4 hours. Comparing this to the summer’s biggest, most bloated movie about malevolent robots, 9 is about twice as enjoyable with half the length.”

Whiteout

Rating: R for violence, grisly images, brief strong language and some nudity

[See Genre: Drama

Starring: Kate Beckinsale, Gabriel Macht, Tom Skerritt,  Columbus Short

Director: Dominic Sena

Plot: Antarctica

Antarctica… The most isolated landmass on Earth 90° S. latitude, zero E. longitude Six million square miles of iThe most isolated landmass on Earth
90° S. latitude, zero E. longitude

Six milli0n square miles of ice

Six months of darkness

Temperatures at minus-120 degrees

Winds at 100 miles per hour

Nature never intended you to survive here.

For U.S. Marshal Carrie Stetko, things are about to get even more dangerous. The only law enforcement in this unforgiving territory, she has just been sent to investigate a body on the ice. Antarctica’s first homicide. A shocking discovery in itself, it will plunge her into an even more bizarre mystery and the revelation of secrets long-buried under the endless ice…secrets that someone believes are still worth killing for.

As Stetko races to find the killer before he finds her, winter is already closing in. In the deadly Antarctic whiteout, she won’t see him till he’s a breath away. –© Warner Bros

Kate says: not available for critic screening  (not usually a good sign)

Antarctica… The most isolated landmass on Earth 90° S. latitude, zero E. longitude Six million square miles of ice … Ebert says:

Reelviews says:

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