Movies Opening Today (November 7, 2008)
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa - (PG) Left marooned on the distant shores of Madagascar, the New Yorkers have hatched a plan so crazy it just might work. With military precision, the penguins have repaired an old crashed plane - sort of. Once aloft, this unlikely crew stays airborne just long enough to make it to the wildest place of all — the vast plains of Africa itself — where our zoo-raised crew encounters species of their own kind for the very first time. While discovering their roots, they quickly realize the differences between the concrete jungle and the heart of Africa. Despite long-lost relatives, romantic rivals and scheming hunters, Africa seems like a “crack-a-lackin” great place…but is it better than their Central Park home?
Role Models - (R) Danny and Wheeler are two salesmen who trash a company truck on an energy drink-fueled bender. Upon their arrest, the court gives them a choice: do hard time or spend 150 service hours with a mentorship program. After one day with the kids, however, jail doesn’t look half bad. Surrounded by annoying do-gooders, Danny struggles with his every neurotic impulse to guide Augie through the trials of becoming a man. Unfortunately, the guy just dumped by his girlfriend has only sarcasm to offer a bashful 16-year-old obsessed with medieval role play. Meanwhile, charming Wheeler tries to trade in an addiction to partying and women to assist a fifth-grader named Ronnie in redirecting his foul-mouthed ways. It would probably help if Ronnie’s new mentor wasn’t an overgrown adolescent whose idea of quality time includes keggers in Venice Beach. Once the center’s ex-con director gives them an ultimatum, Danny and Wheeler are forced to tailor their brand of immature wisdom to their charges. And if they can just make it through probation without getting thrown in jail, the world’s worst role models will prove that, sometimes, it takes a village idiot to raise a child.
Soul Men - (R) The two remaining members of the popular soul band, The Real Deal, from the 1970’s, Floyd Henderson, now a retired businessman, and ne’er-do-well, ex-convict, Louis Hinds, take a road trip to the Apollo Theater for a musical tribute to their recently deceased front man, Marcus Hook. As they travel cross country in a series of adventures and misdventures, they air old grievances about thirty year old betrayals and learn the music’s still in them.
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas - (PG-13) Eight year-old Bruno is the sheltered son of a Nazi officer whose promotion takes the family from their comfortable home in Berlin to a desolate area where the lonely boy finds nothing to do and no-one to play with. Crushed by boredom and compelled by curiosity, Bruno ignores his motherâs repeated instructions not to explore the back garden and heads for the âfarmâ he has seen in the near distance. There he meets Shmuel, a boy his own age who lives a parallel, alien existence on the other side of a barbed wire fence. Bruno’s encounter with the boy in the striped pajamas leads him from innocence to a dawning awareness of the adult world around them as his meetings with Shmuel develop into a friendship with devastating consequences.
Gardens of the Night - (R) Leslie struggles with a hand to mouth existence on the streets of San Diego with only her childhood friend Donnie to look after her. Both of them are trying to cope with the trauma of having been abducted and held captive by two men nine years earlier. As an eight-year-old girl, Leslie was abducted through trickery by an older man Alex, and his young accomplice Frank. Leslie was held captive in their house along with an eight-year-old boy named Donnie, who believed his mentally unstable mother sold him to Alex. The children create a bond with each other, managing to escape into a fantasy world they create in their bedroom. Years later Leslie and Donnie, now seventeen years old, are living as street-kids and struggling to cope with what they suffered through, having been affected by the experience differently. Donnieâs feelings for Leslie are those of any teenager in love, however, Leslie’s perception of love has been severely mutated through her relationship with Alex and her instinct is to run from Donnie. Can she not only survive this horrific experience, but be set free from its terrible shackles?
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