Release Date: August 8, 2006

I have been a fan of Clive Owen’s for a while now; he was solid in King Arthur but his performance in Closer was what really sealed the deal and made me a fan. On the flipside, I have always been somewhat lukewarm to Denzel Washington. I get it – he is one of the best black actors of this generation – a real Sidney Poitier. But for some reason I have just never seen Washington in a role that has just floored me. He was good in Remember the Titans and I thought his portrayal of Malcom X was pretty spot on, but there is just something about him that feels – well – “cookie cutter” and unnatural. So you can imagine my mixed emotions when I went to see Inside Man in theaters, a film that not only stars these two actors but was directed by Spike Lee.

In this film Washington plays the cop and Owen plays the bank robber trying to rip off New York’s biggest bank, and they go rounds to see who can outwit the other. But the plot is a little thicker than what lies on the surface. Thrown into the mix are a myriad of other characters, all with their own agendas. This is where Spike Lee inserts an awesome supporting cast. Willem Dafoe plays Washington’s police captain, Christopher Plummer plays the bank chairman whose worries are less about the money that could be lost and more about his own personal “investment” that is in the bank somewhere, and Jodie Foster pops up as the know-it-all renaissance women who is hell bent on helping said bank chairman protect the afore mentioned investment.

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Release Date: August 4, 2006

What is it about these movies? Why is it that I can laugh almost to the point of having a bladder related accident at a myriad of mindless entertainment like Anchorman? Until now I have not been able to put my finger on it. But upon screening Will Ferrell’s latest venture Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, I finally figured it out. It have very little to do with Ferrell or even Director Adam McKay separately, as it is the combination of the two that creates the humor that keeps me rolling in my seat. It is something special to behold, as a director and actor team very rarely strike twice with two movies that are so similar in nature. But that is exactly what they have done, only this time it is at the expense of America’s number one spectator sport.

Any intelligent, reasonable American in the know understands that there is something about NASCAR that appeals to so many people, we just can’t figure out what it is. The sport is generally a bunch of guys in fast cars constantly turning left. What really draws the crowds though, is the potential of the big wreck, and that is what has pushed NASCAR’s popularity to the top of American sports. But that popularity has caused the sport to get a little ridiculous, holding their drivers up on a pedestal for all to see. This has paved the way for the drivers to show off their “tact” and “intelligence” to the world, and it has also created a huge market for advertisers, as the cars themselves have become moving billboards. And that brings about the point of a movie like Talladega Nights; to make fun of NASCAR and all of it’s crazy but loyal fans.

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Release Date: August 1, 2006

“Remember, remember the fifth of November.”

Such a poetic line that has stuck in my mind for months since seeing V for Vendetta in theaters. It was a film that to me was stunning in it’s poetic brilliance and political relevance. But even if you take the political relevance out of the equation, the film still stands as a great action thriller.

Based on the graphic novel with the same name, V for Vendetta is the story of V (played by the Matrix’s Hugo Weaving), a masked man with a flair for the dramatic and a quest to bring freedom and liberty back to a totalitarian Britain of the future. His quest leads him to finding Evey Hammond, played by the effortlessly beautiful Natalie Portman. The daughter of political activists, Evey realizes that it is her destiny to be with V on his quest to bring down the government led by High Chancellor Adam Sutler , played by John Hurt.

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Release Date: August 9, 2006

Just about every movie critic will immediately want to draw comparisons between Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center and Paul Greengrass’ heralded United 93, which was released earlier this year. I do not unfortunately have that luxury, as I am still awaiting United 93 to be released on DVD. I did not catch that one in theaters for fear of it being possibly too soon to be seeing films about 9/11. Since then I have changed my mind slightly about the 9/11 issue and decided to screen Stone’s World Trade Center because, as I found, it is a film that needs to be seen.

The film tells the amazing survival story of Port Authority Police officers John McLoughlin (Nicolas Cage) and Will Jimeno (Michael Pena), who were trapped underneath the rubble of the fallen towers on that fateful autumn day. It also shows the horrific event from the eyes of the two officers’ families. As both McLoughlin’s wife Donna (Maria Bello) and Jimeno’s wife Allison (Maggie Gyllenhaal) await the fates of their beloved husbands, we lay witness to their most terrifying hours.

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