Release date: Friday Friday June 10, 2011 (Wide)
Genre: Drama
Running time: 2 hr. 18 min.
Director: Terrence Malick
Studio: Entertainment One, Fox Searchlight
Producer(s): Bill Pohlad, Sarah Green, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Grant Hill
Screenplay: Terrence Malick
Cast: Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain, Joanna Going, Fiona Shaw, Kari Matchett
Official Site: foxsearchlight.com/thetreeoflife
Rated: PG-13 for some thematic material
Available film art: Tree of Life movie posters

Synopsis
From Terrence Malick, the acclaimed director of such classic films as Badlands, Days of Heaven and The Thin Red Line, The Tree of Life is the impressionistic story of a Midwestern family in the 1950′s. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father (Brad Pitt). Jack (played as an adult by Sean Penn) finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith. Through Malick’s signature imagery, we see how both brute nature and spiritual grace shape not only our lives as individuals and families, but all life.

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These are the movies opening in wide release the, Friday: Scream 4, Rio, and The Conspirator.

Rio

Synopsis: A nerdy macaw from small-town Minnesota takes off on an adventure to Rio de Janeiro.

Cast: Neil Patrick Harris, Anne Hathaway, Rodrigo Santoro, George Lopez, Jake T. Austin; Directed by: Carlos Saldanha

The Conspirator

Synopsis: “The Conspirator” tells the story of the conspiracy to assassinate President Lincoln, the military trial of the lone female charged, and the reluctant lawyer assigned to defend her.

Cast: Robin Wright Penn, James McAvoy, Tom Wilkinson, Evan Rachel Wood, Kevin Kline, Alexis Bledel; Director: Robert Redford

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The new Natalie Portman movie, Black Swan will open in only 18 theaters this Friday, while The Warrior’s Way will debut in 1,622 theaters.

Black Swan

Synopsis: Black Swan follows the story of Nina (Portman), a ballerina in a New York City ballet company whose life, like all those in her profession, is completely consumed with dance. She lives with her retired ballerina mother Erica (Barbara Hershey) who zealously supports her daughter’s professional ambition. When artistic director Thomas Leroy (Vincent Cassel) decides to replace prima ballerina Beth MacIntyre (Winona Ryder) for the opening production of their new season, Swan Lake, Nina is his first choice. But Nina has competition: a new dancer, Lily (Kunis), who impresses Leroy as well. Swan Lake requires a dancer who can play both the White Swan with innocence and grace, and the Black Swan, who represents guile and sensuality. Nina fits the White Swan role perfectly but Lily is the personification of the Black Swan. As the two young dancers expand their rivalry into a twisted friendship, Nina begins to get more in touch with her dark side with a recklessness that threatens to destroy her.

Cast: Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, Mila Kunis, Barbara Hershey, Winona Ryder, Toby Hemingway; Directed by: Darren Aronofsky

The Warrior’s Way

Synopsis:The Warrior’s Way is a visually-stunning modern martial arts western starring Korean actor Dong-gun Jang who plays an Asian warrior assassin forced to hide in a small town in the American Badlands. Rounding out the ensemble cast are Kate Bosworth, Oscar-winner Geoffrey Rush, Danny Houston, and Tony Cox. The fantasy action film was written and directed by newcomer Sngmoo Lee, and is being produced by Barrie Osborne, Michael Peyser and Jooick Lee

Cast: Geoffrey Rush, Kate Bosworth, Danny Huston, Jang Dong Gun, Tony Cox, Ti Lung; Directed by: Sngmoo Lee

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Milla Jovovich reprises her role as Alice in Resident Evil: Afterlife, the fourth installment in the Resident Evil series. Resident Evil: Afterlife arrive in theaters, September 10, 2010.

Premise:
Resident Evil: Afterlife picks up where the third film ended. Since the events of Resident Evil: Extinction, Alice has been roaming the world searching for any remaining survivors. Alice also comes face to face with her arch-nemesis, Albert Wesker, for the first time in the series. As she enters the ruined Los Angeles, she stumbles onto a base of Umbrella, surrounded by zombies. She then teams up with a group of survivors who had been hiding in Los Angeles since the T-virus outbreak, and helps them to free another group held-up in a prison, among them Claire’s brother, Chris Redfield.

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As far as sequels go Iron Man 2 “is a cut above most”, says Jim Vejvoda at IGN. It introduces a lot of new characters in the set up for The Avengers 2012, but it deals with it well. Read on but be aware there are spoiler alerts.

Contrary to what AC/DC says – the band of choice in the Iron Man films – hell is a bad place to be, especially if you’re Tony Stark. In many ways, Iron Man 2 is an argument for a superhero maintaining his/her secret identity. Tony is definitely paying the piper for his glib declaration at the end of the first movie that he is Iron Man. Now, six months later, the U.S. government wants his tech, as does Stark’s rival Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell, playing him as Tony’s villainous doppelganger), who has succeeded Tony as the U.S. military’s top weapons manufacturer. Tony is more arrogant than ever, and his ego — to swipe a line from Top Gun — is writing checks that his body can’t cash.

Tony brazenly shows up both Hammer and a U.S. Senator (Garry Shandling) during a televised hearing. The government doesn’t like the idea of a private citizen possessing such potentially destructive technology and wants in on how to make it. What if their enemies developed such tech? Tony dismisses their fears, saying that any such advances are at least 20 years away. But what he doesn’t know is that at that moment an old enemy of his family’s is hard at work in Russia on his own version of Stark Industries’ arc technology.

Click HERE to read the rest of the indepth two page review (Spoiler alerts).

Check out this awesome Iron Man 2 trailer.

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Release date: Friday July 30, 2010
Genre: Comedy, Action, Adventure, Family
Director: Brad Peyton
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
Screenplay: Ron J. Friedman, Steve Bencich
Producer(s): Andrew Lazar, Polly Cohen
Cast: Chris O’Donnell, Paul Rodriguez, Christina Applegate, James Marsden, Leslie Mann, Ray Liotta, Katt Williams, Neil Patrick Harris, Joe Pantoliano, Michael Clarke Duncan, Roger Moore
Official Site: catsanddogsmovie.warnerbros.com
Rating: Not yet rated
Available film art: Cats and Dogs: Revenge of Kitty Galore original movie posters

Synopsis
The epic struggle for control of planet Earth continues in this sequel to the 2001 comedy that had pet owners all across the world looking at their house pets in a whole new light. Chris O’Donnell and 30 Rock’s Jack McBrayer head up the cast of the production, with scripting duties being handled by Brother Bear’s Ron J. Friedman and Steve Bencich.

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Release date: Friday February 12, 2010
Genre: Horror, Action, Thriller
Director: Joe Johnston
Studio: Universal Pictures
Screenplay: Andrew Kevin Walker, David Self
Producer(s): Scott Stuber, Sean Daniel, Rick Yorn, Benicio Del Toro
Cast: Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt, Hugo Weaving, Art Malik
Official Site: thewolfmanmovie.com
Rating: Not Yet Rated
Available film art: The Wolf Man movie posters

Synopsis
myth of a cursed man back to its iconic origins. Oscar® winner Benicio Del Toro stars as Lawrence Talbot, a haunted nobleman lured back to his family estate after his brother vanishes. Reunited with his estranged father (Oscar® winner Anthony Hopkins), Talbot sets out to find his brother…and discovers a horrifying destiny for himself.

Lawrence Talbot’s childhood ended the night his mother died. After he left the sleepy Victorian hamlet of Blackmoor, he spent decades recovering and trying to forget. But when his brother’s fiancée, Gwen Conliffe (Emily Blunt), tracks him down to help find her missing love, Talbot returns home to join the search. He learns that something with brute strength and insatiable bloodlust has been killing the villagers, and that a suspicious Scotland Yard inspector named Aberline (Hugo Weaving) has come to investigate.

As he pieces together the gory puzzle, he hears of an ancient curse that turns the afflicted into werewolves when the moon is full. Now, if he has any chance at ending the slaughter and protecting the woman he has grown to love, Talbot must destroy the vicious creature in the woods surrounding Blackmoor. But as he hunts for the nightmarish beast, a simple man with a tortured past will uncover a primal side to himself…one he never imagined existed.

Joe Johnston (Jurassic Park III) directs The Wolfman, and six-time Oscar®-winning special effects artist Rick Baker brings his design and makeup talents to transform Del Toro into the fearsome title character.

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