Written by Mitch Cyrus

---

Five hours of the Final Four Saturday night. Out to the theatre to see "Leatherheads" Sunday night before coming back home to watch "John Adams" on HBO. Then the title game Monday night. Mitch ain't burnin' too many calories this weekend, lets just put it that way. Also, we've Oscar nominated "There Will Be Blood" coming out on DVD today. Mitch fills us in on all the new releases at the theater and on DVD in this weeks Crystal Ball.

I need to find some time for some golf on Sunday…anything to counteract the major down time my rear end is going to have this weekend. Just picked up my DVD for “Sweeney Todd” for tonight (along with Tivo-ing the Season 4 premier of “Battlestar Galactica” on the Sci Fi Channel)…then it’s about 5 hours worth of NCAA Final Four action on Saturday…and then to the multiplex on Sunday to check out “Leatherheads” before ending the evening watching HBO’s superlative miniseries “John Adams”

If I don’t get out and do something…I may end up needing to utter another two names: “Jenny Craig”

News and Rumors

~ It’s too bad that Robert Ludlum passed away in 2001, because adaptations of his books are very much sought after by some big names after the huge success of the “Bourne” films. Two more are going to be made into movies. “The Chancellor Manuscript” will come out in 2009, concerning Washington Power brokers and a blackmail plot targeted to alter U.S. policy. The real “hardest working man in show business”, Leonardo DiCaprio, will star. Next will be “The Matarese Circle”, with Denzel Washington staring as an American spy having to team up with a Russian to find a group of killers known as the Matarese…even though both men have killed someone close to the other. No news one who would play the Russian…but wouldn’t it be great if they team Denzel with Viggo Mortensen?

~ Interesting choice on how to follow up on a huge Oscar win. Javier Bardem (the killer in “No Country for Old Men”) will star in a movie adaptation of the Broadway Musical hit “Nine”. Inspired by the Federico Fellini autobiographical film “8 1/2”, to story is about a film director (Bardem), suffering from a creative block as he juggles the numerous women in his life. Other actors connected to the film include Nicole Kidman, Dame Judi Dench, Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard, and Sophia Loren.

~ Say it isn’t so. Matthew McConaughey, rapidly becoming my least favorite piece of moronic beefcake, is report to have been offered the role in a “Magnum P.I.” movie adaptation. To compliment that, I’m sure they’ll offer the part of TJ to Cedric the Entertainer.

~ Movie adaptations of video games has not exactly set the world on fire (“Dune”, anyone?)…so we’ll see how this one goes. Mark Wahlberg and Chris O’Donnell will be appearing in “Max Payne”, with the ex-MarkyMark playing a cop vowing vengeance against a crime syndicate after witnessing the death of his family. Kind of sounds like “The Punisher” to me…but since only about 30 people saw that awful Thomas Jane/John Travolta film, maybe no one will care.

~ Speaking of remaking of movies that no one saw the first time, the Disney writers behind “Pirates of the Caribbean” are working on a script for a new film for “The Lone Ranger”. No stars attached to the project yet, but you know that no relative newcomer would possibly ever want his name connected to the “star” of the last one, Klinton Spilsbury, who was so God-Awful in 1981’s “The Legend of the Lone Ranger” that the film makers had to go back in and have Stacy Keach dub over every single one of his lines.

This week’s new movie releases:

Leatherheads

Starring: George Clooney, Renee Zellweger, John Kransinski

Plot: An aging football legend and the hot college star he’s drafted for his pro team fight for the heart of an up and coming journalist in 1920s Duluth.

View Trailer

The BeerBuzz: It’s a football movie, so you know good and well that I’m going to be checking it out. It also stars George Clooney, so *I* know good and well my wife will be checking *him* out all through the film. Such is life. Early reviews have been generally positive, with a lot of griping about it being “too light”. C’mon, people! It’s being touted as a homage to all of those “screwball comedies” Jimmy Stewart or Cary Grant used to make…so what do you expect? “Schindler’s List”? I’ll give you my opinion next week.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Nim’s Island

Starring: Jodie Foster, Gerard Butler, Abigail Breslin

Plot: A popular author teams up with an adventurer to help her number-one fan, a young girl who lives on a secret island where her father has gone missing.

View Trailer

The BeerBuzz: An “Indiana Jones” for 10 year old girls. And what is Brave King Leonidas from “300” doing in a kids’ movie? Oh well, this is designed just for Family Viewing, and it’s opening up on over 3,500 screens, so expect it to bump “21” and “Horton Hears a Who” off the top of the charts.

My Estimated Rating: Kelly Holcomb (2 footballs)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Ruins

Starring: Shawn Ashmore, Jena Malone, Jonathan Tucker

Plot: A Mexican vacation takes a wrong turn for a group of Americans as they head into the jungle and run into a patch of major evil on a secluded hillside.

View Trailer

The BeerBuzz: “Bug” in a jungle. The source material is considered pretty good, the novel from Scott B. Smith, who also wrote “A Simple Plan”. But unfortunately, the filmmakers have evidently decided to forego intelligence in story telling with continual gross out scenes, each trying to outdo the last one. If you are into that, knock yourself out.

My Estimated Rating: Jeff Garcia (1 football).

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

New DVD Releases for Tuesday, April 8^th

There Will Be Blood – Nominated for Best Picture, and featuring the amazing virtuoso performance of Daniel Day-Lewis as oil baron Daniel Plainview, this is simply a movie that you must rent. Just don’t view it under the influence of barbiturates…too much of a downer for that. Paul Thomas Anderson’s script is excellent, but it is Day-Lewis’ Oscar winning performance that will leave an indelible image in your mind.

The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep – Very good family flick about a young boy discovering and caring for a strange creature that ends up becoming the infamous Loch Ness Monster. This is one of those “family” films that I’ll end up getting from Netflix just to enjoy myself, even if I don’t have young kids around.

Walk Hard: The Dewy Cox Story – I was really surprised that this movie did as poorly as it did at the box office ($14 million), as I love the context (poking fun at musical biographies like “Ray” and “Walk the Line”), plus John C. Reilly is a great, great character actor. But I guess that since he’s not the classical definition of “Leading Actor”, no one saw this.

Lions for Lambs – One of the biggest bombs of 2007. Unbelievable star power with Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, and Tom Cruise, but generally a snooze-fest talk-a-thon about how bad the U.S. foreign policy is. I have no real problem with someone showing their political opinions on film…but at least make it interesting.

P2 – Hey, look! There’s a movie that’s even worse than “Lions for Lambs”! Wes Bentley once seemed destined for stardom after his critically acclaimed role as the young drug dealing boyfriend of Kevin Spacey’s daughter in “American Beauty”. Now he’s playing the crazed psychopath torturing a young businesswoman in a parking deck. Sucks to be him.

Calendar Watch

Next week: Street Kings, Prom Night, Smart People

Upcoming Biggies (click on the hyperlink to view the available trailers).

88 Minutes – April 18^th – Al Pacino as a college professor and forensic psychiatrist for the FBI receiving death threats telling him he only has 88 minutes to live.

Deception – April 25^th – Hugh Jackman and Ewan McGregor in an “Eyes Wide Shut” sort of tale about a mild mannered accountant becoming entangled in the goings-on at an underground sex club.

Iron Man – May 2^nd – The latest mega-budgeted superhero flick. Looks very promising, and the casting of Robert Downey, Jr. as the alcoholic billionaire who designs a supersuit.

Speed Racer – May 9^th – Emile Hirsch, Matthew Fox, and Christina Ricci as Speed, Racer X, and Trixie in the Wachowski Brothers’ (“The Matrix” trilogy) adaptation of the campy 1960s Japanese anime.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian – May 16^th – The same four kids from the first movie return to Narnia…1300 years after their last visit in that enchanted land’s time frame, to help restore the throne to the rightful heir.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull – May 23^rd – Spielberg and Ford team up one more time, with Cate Blanchett as the romantic interest, and Shia LaBeouf (“Transformers”) as Indy’s son.

Sex and the City – May 30^th – The movie version of the HBO series hits the big screen. Can we guys get our share of this pie and have a movie version of “Deadwood”?

The Incredible Hulk – June 13^th – Looks to be much, much better than the Ang Lee stink-fest, with Edward Norton taking on the role of Bruce Banner.

Get Smart – June 20^th – Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, and Alan Arkin take on the roles of Maxwell Smart, Agent 99 and The Chief. As much as I hate movie adaptations of television shows, this one has potential.

Wall-E – June 27^th – Pixar’s next masterpiece, about a garbage cleaning robot who dreams of the stars.

Wanted – June 27^th – Look for this to make a box office star out of James McAvoy (“The Last King of Scotland”, “Atonement”) as he plays a young man brought into a secret society of assassins by a hot, hot looking Angelina Jolie. Morgan Freeman plays their boss.

Hancock – July 4^th – Will Smith as a hard-living superhero needing the use of a public relations professional (Jason Bateman) to repair his image.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army – July 11^th – The big red cigar chomping demon with a bad attitude is back for more butt kicking.

The Dark Knight – July 19^th – Batman is back, and this time he’s tracking the Joker, played by Heath Ledger. Most likely the box office champion of 2008.

X-Files 2 – July 25^th – Little is known yet about these further adventures of Scully and Fox…not even the title.

Quantum of Solace – November 13^th – The next James Bond film, picking up shortly after the events ending “Casino Royale”

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – November 21^st – The sixth of J.K. Rowling’s seven books, setting the stage for the two part conclusion in 2010 and 2011.

Defiance – December 19^th – Daniel Craig and Live Schreiber as Jewish brothers in WWII Russian, leading a band of refuges in striking back at the Germans. A major early Oscar contender