TheLoop21.com

By: Kam Williams (Add to your loop)
Thu, 02/04/2010 - 01:00

Valentine's Day features the likes of Julia Roberts, Jamie Foxx, and Ashton Kutcher.

BIG BUDGET FILMS

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (PG for violence, peril, scary images, suggestive images and mild epithets) screen adaptation of Rick Riordan’s children’s best-seller about a troubled, NYC teenager (Logan Lerman) who embarks on the odyssey of a lifetime to Mount Olympus after learning that he’s a Greek demigod and the son of Poseidon (Kevin McKidd). Cast includes Uma Thurman, Pierce Brosnan, Katherine Keener, Rosario Dawson and Joe Pantoliano.

Valentine’s Day (PG-13 for sexuality and brief nudity) Garry Marshall (Pretty Woman) directed this serendipitously-interlocking series of romantic vignettes unfolding over the course of one very eventful holiday in Los Angeles during which couples confront a variety of relationship issues ranging from infidelity to a teen crush to loneliness to coming out of the closet. Ensemble includes Bradley Cooper, Jessica Alba, Jamie Foxx, Julia Roberts, Anne Hathaway, Queen Latifah, Jennifer Garner, Jessica Biel, Ashton Kutcher, George Lopez, Kathy Bates, Topher Grace, Emma Roberts and Grammy Award-winner Taylor Swift.

The Wolfman (R for gore and graphic horror violence) Benicio Del Toro takes on the title role in this revival of the horror classic as a brooding, British aristocrat living in America lured back to his ancestral homeland only to be transformed into a primal beast whenever the moon is full in accordance with a family curse. With Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt, Hugo Weaving and Geraldine Chaplin.

INDEPENDENT & FOREIGN FILMS

American Radical (Unrated) Bio-pic chronicling the career of controversial professor Norman Finkelstein, an outspoken critic of Israel, as revealed both by his own words and as seen through the eyes of his supporters, such as Noam Chomsky, and his detractors, like Alan Dershowitz.

My Name Is Khan (Unrated) Post-9/11 bigotry in America is the subject of this Bollywood production about the miserable ordeal of a Muslim immigrant (Shahrukh Khan) from Mumbai who travels to Washington, D.C. to try to meet the president in order to clear his name after being mistaken for a terrorist. (In Hindi and English with subtitles) with Kajol, Tanay Chheda and Christopher B. Duncan as Barack Obama.

October Country (Unrated) Jerry Springer-style documentary paining a poignant portrait of an impoverished, family, living in upstate New York, left traumatized by the toll exacted by the patriarch’s military service, ensuing post-traumatic stress syndrome and chronic unemployment, as well as by teen pregnancy, substance abuse, domestic violence, child molestation and just plain bad luck.

Videocracy (Unrated) Orwellian expose’ examining the media empire of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, a masterful manipulator enriched by the titillating, reality-TV shows which keep his transfixed nation mesmerized and docile. (In English and Italian with subtitles)

Voted Most Outstanding Journalist of the Decade by the Disilgold Soul Literary Review in 2008, Kam Williams is a syndicated film and book critic who writes for 100+ publications around the U.S. and Canada. He is a member of the New York Film Critics Online, the African-American Film Critics Association, the NAACP Image Awards Nominating Committee, and Rotten Tomatoes. In addition to a B.A. in black studies from Cornell, he has an M.A. in English from Brown, an MBA from The Wharton School, and a J.D.