Written by Mitch Cyrus

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It's not a huge weekend for new theater releases, with "Taken" (starring Liam Neeson) and "New In Town" (starring Renee Zellweger) as the most notable new movies, but there are a couple good DVD releases, and Mitch has some interesting nuggets in the News & Rumors section of his regular Friday column here at The Cleveland Fan. Also, tonight, 8 PM on TCF Live ... Mitch's wife Clarissa joins him for his weekly "THAT'S Entertainment" radio show/podcast. I'd like to thank everyone for their comments about my first show on TheClevelandFanLive.  "THAT'S Entertainment?" will return tonight at 8 PM.  Special guest will be my wife Clarissa, and we'll argue about a few movies, argue about a few things in the news, argue about arguing...and then discuss a few of the movies we've seen this week...and in those cases, we completely agree.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/TheClevelandFan/2009/01/31/Thats-Entertainment

Feel free to call up and get into the action yourself.

I may need the help.

News and Rumors 

~ Jack Black is set to star in an adaptation of Jonathan Swift's classic "Gulliver's Travels".  Emily Blunt is to co-star as his love interest.  This is to be set in modern times, with Gulliver as a travel writer who takes an assignment in the Bermuda Triangle, and washes up on the shores of Lilliput.  Interesting concept.

~ Universal Pictures is looking to make a prequel to the John Carpenter version of "The Thing".  This will avoid going into the ‘Stupid' category below due to the fact that the writer is Ron Moore, who is the executive producer/writer of the Battlestar Galactica series...so he gets some early slack from me.

~ After a long battle, it looks like "Arrested Development" will be making its way to the big screen.  Jason Bateman, Micheal Cera, and Jeffey Tambor are all said to be onboard...and I'm sure the rest of the cast aren't too busy with other projects.

~ I still think this should probably be in the next category...but I'll post the news up here.  I've talked a few times about the ridiculous idea of making a full length feature film from the cheesy TV series "The A Team".  Looks like some big shots disagree with me, as Ridley and Tony Scott are looking to team up to make the film now that John Singleton quite the project.  Hmmm.

~ Amanda Seyfried ("Big Love", "Mamma Mia!") has beaten out Linday Lohan for the lead role in the big-screen adaptation of Oscar Wilde's play "A Woman of No Importance".  Wow.  If there was EVER a movie that screamed LINDSAY LOHAN...it would have been that one.

Stupid Remakes and Sequels

~ "Masters of the Universe".  Yeah...I can't wait for that to be remade.

~ Hilary Duff in a new movie about Bonnie and Clyde.  Oh.  My.  Gawd.

~ Some people just don't have enough sense to know when it's time to quit.  Sylvester Stallone plans on making ANOTHER Rambo movie.  Yeah...the last one did so well, didn't it?

~ Danny DeVito is pushing for a reunion movie of the great television series "Taxi".  Uh...anything giving Jeff Conaway a chance to be in the public eye is a bad thing.

This week's new movie releases: 

Taken

Starring: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen

Plot: A former spy relies on his old skills to save his daughter, who was kidnapped by slave traders during her vacation in Paris

View Trailer

The BeerBuzz: The buzz about this is that it is great escapism entertainment.  Neeson gets to pretty much play an older Jack Bauer in the film, and does pretty well as an action/adventure hero.  It seems that every year around this time we find a good macho movie to serve as a guilty pleasure ("Shooter" with Mark Wahlberg and "Shoot ‘Em Up" having come out around the same month).  I'll let you know next week, as I plan for this to be the first 2009 released movie that I'll be reviewing.

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New In Town

Starring: Renée Zellweger, Harry Connick Jr., Nathon Fillion

Plot: A Miami based consultant is shipped out to a small town in Minnesota for her latest project; supervising the restructuring of a local manufacturing plant.  Hijinks ensue! 

View Trailer

The BeerBuzz: Dumb romantic comedy that is getting slammed everywhere for not only being stupid...but also for the Minnesota temperature chemistry between Zellweger and Connick Jr.

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The Uninvited

Starring: Emily Browning, Arielle Kebbel, Elizabeth Banks, David Strathairn

Plot: A girl mourning the death of her mother returns home to find her father engaged, and the ghost of her mother tells her that the new fiancé is a baaaadddd person.

View Trailer

The BeerBuzz: This one is getting some good recommendations, considering the genre.  It's put together by several of the people behind "The Ring", which would indicate that it's a lot more cerebral than the average slasher flick.  Having Elizabeth Banks as the baddie in this type of movie fascinates me as well.

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New DVD Releases for Tuesday, February 3 

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa- The animals are back, and if your kids were into the first one, then they'll definitely want to watch this one.  I personally found the trailer concerning the penguins flying the old military plane that ended up crash landing about the funniest trailer I saw all year.

Zack and Miri Make a Porno - How someone could make something this raunchy, and still have it be this sweet of a love story is a complete mystery to me.  But Kevin Smith does it.  Seth Rogan, Elizabeth Banks, Jason Mewes, former porn star Traci Lords, and current porn star Katie Morgan all combine to make this one of the best comedies of the year.

The Secret Life of Bees - Something just for the estrogen set.  A lonely 14 year old runs away from her father in 1964 South Carolina and hooks up with a set of wacky bee keeping sisters (Queen Latifa, Jennifer Hudson).

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist- A guy just getting over being dumped talks and talks and talks all night to a girl as they deal with music, rejection, stripping nuns, and hotel ice rooms.  This is actually said to be a pretty interesting, intelligent movie...sort of a "High Fidelity" for a slightly younger crowd.  I'm sure I'll be checking it out on Netflix.

Calendar Watch  

Next week: Coraline, He'sJust Not That Into You, Pink Panther 2, Push

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

The International - February 13 - Clive Owen and Naomi Watts in a thriller about an Interpol investigation of a world-wide bank funding murder and corruption.  And you thought Wachovia was bad?

Watchmen - March 6 - The screen version of what is arguably graphic novelist Alan Moore's greatest work.

Duplicity - March 20 - Clive Owen again, this time teaming with Julia Roberts as corporate spies looking to pull a con job of their own.  Directed by Tony Gilroy ("Michael Clayton").

X-Men Origins: Wolverine - May 1 - Hugh Jackman goes it alone as the adamentium enhanced anti-hero.  With Live Schreiber as Sabertooth, and Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool.

Star Trek - May 8 - J.J. Abrams and a young cast reboot the franchise, going back to Kirk and Spock's days at Starfleet Academy.

Angels and Demons - May 15 - Tom Hanks and Ron Howard follow-up to "The DaVinci Code"

Terminator: Salvation - May 22 - Christian Bale as John Conner as the franchise moves into the apocalyptic future.

Transformers 2 - June 26 - The next chapter of Robots In Disguise!

Public Enemy - July 1 - Johnny Depp as John Dillinger.  Co-starring Christian Bale, and directed by Michael Mann

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - July 17 - The sixth of J.K. Rowling's seven books, setting the stage for the two part conclusion in 2010 and 2011.

The Taking of Pelham 123- August 7 - Denzel Washington, John Travolta, and James Gandolfini in a remake of the classic 1974 film about a hijacked subway car.

9 - September 9 - Tim Burton's latest animated strangeness, with Elijah Wood and Jennifer Connelly voicing characters fighting aliens in a post apocalyptic world.

Shutter Island - October 2 - Martin Scorsese working once again with Leonardo DiCaprio in this mystery set in 1954.

2012 - November 13 - Roland Emmerich's ("The Day After Tomorrow") tale of global cataclysm and the struggle of the survivors.

The Lovely Bones - December 11 - Peter Jackson's latest, about the ghost of a young, murdered girl watching over her family and friends' reactions to the event.  Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz star.

Avatar - December 16, 2009 - James Cameron's sci-fi/CGI extravaganza.  The C.I.A. should take lessons about secrecy from Cameron, as he's keeping info about this film very much to himself at this time.

Blockbusters on the Distant Horizon (movies that would seem to be big hits...as soon as they get made or released).

The Road - (unannounced 2009) - Viggo Mortensen as a man walking with his son for months across a ravaged, post-apocalyptic landscape in search of civilization.  Charlize Theron co-stars.

Nottingham - (unannounced 2009) - Ridley Scot and Russell Crowe together again in a retelling of the Robin Hood legend, this time through the eyes of the Sheriff of Nottingham (Crowe).  With Sienna Miller as Maid Marion.

Iron Man 2 - May, 2010 - Right on the heels of the success of the first one, Marvel is quick to get Robert Downey Jr. back into his titanium suit.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - May, 2010 - The series goes off in a bit of a different direction, as those of you who love the books already know.

Thor - June 2010 - Another Marvel superhero...but the Nordic God is about as bland personality-wise as Superman, so we'll see how it goes.  Kevin Kidd (Rome) is said to be playing the title role.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I - 2010 - The start of the End for the boy wizard and his battle against He-Who-Shall-not-Be-Named

Lincoln - 2010 - Steven Spielberg directs the biographical film of the 16^th President (Liam Neeson)

The Hobbit - 2010 - Guillermo del Toro directs and Peter Jackson will produce the prequel to "Lord of the Rings".  Ian McKellen will return as Gandalf

Fantastic Voyage - 2010 - Roland Emmerich ("The Day After Tomorrow", "10,000 B.C.") remakes the classic 1967 movie about a miniaturized sub and crew operating on a scientist from inside his brain.

The Avengers - 2011 - Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, and Captain America open up a can of whoopass on bad guys everywhere.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II - 2011 - The end of the line for what will be beyond doubt the most profitable series in the history of film making.

The Hobbit 2 - 2011 - del Toro and Jackson again, this time covering the time between the end of Tolkien's book, "The Hobbit" and the start of LOTR.