What could be more remarkable to watch than Tom Hanks scratching himself for two and a half hours in the box office king “Cast Away?” The winter movie season, for one thing.
This is just about the time when the studios either release the Oscar hopefuls they couldn’t quite release on time for Christmas, or dump the clunkers on us they didn’t have much faith in to begin with.
So, to help you sift through the clean snow vs. the yellow variety, here’s a rundown of this season’s more attractive fare.
Detroit native and director Sam Raimi returns after the embarrassing baseball epic “For Love of the Game” with “The Gift.” He and screenwriter Billy Bob Thornton re-team to bring us the story of a woman (Cate Blanchett) with extrasensory perception who helps investigate the disappearance of a young woman.
The cast, including Hilary Swank, Giovanni Ribisi and Greg Kinnear, is astounding, as is the plot’s similarity to 1999’s “Stir of Echoes.” It always leads back to Kevin Bacon, doesn’t it?
“The Pledge” also promises the big names, with Jack Nicholson coming out of hiding after 1997’s “As Good as it Gets.” The Sean Penn-directed crime thriller, adapted from a novel by Friedrich Durrenmatt, involves a retiring police chief (Nicholson) out to catch the killer of a young child. Sound familiar? See the preview above.
But despite all the killing and kidnapping, love does spring eternal in the cold months. Just look at “The Wedding Planner.” Jennifer Lopez and Matthew McConaughey team up to look beautiful on screen together and - get ready for a spoiler - eventually fall in love.
“The Wedding Planner” may be great, or just an appetizer for March’s romantic team-up - Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt in “The Mexican.” Will it ever end?
Not with the grammatically-correct “Say It Isn’t So.” It’s a slightly twisted version of the boy-meets-girl story, with unknowing brother and sister pair Chris Klein and Heather Graham falling for each other and having wild, nonstop sex.
The farce was penned by the Farrelly brothers, Bobby and Peter, so at least we’re reminded that love isn’t always clean and wholesome.
Neither clean nor wholesome is “Hannibal,” the much-anticipated sequel to 1991’s “The Silence of the Lambs.” The franchise has undergone a bit of a makeover, however with a new director, Ridley Scott, and Julianne Moore taking over the Clarice Starling character from Jodie Foster.
No matter. “Hannibal” is Anthony Hopkins’ show, and it will be up to him to update his character to be as fierce and frightening as before.
Those scratching their heads, wondering what happened to the Oscar hopefuls won’t have much longer to wait. Ang Lee’s martial arts romance “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and the maybe-true vampire biopic “Shadow of the Vampire” will finally be hitting local theaters.
And that should provide some balance for our diet of teen flicks and hot cocoa.
