Thursday, February 21, 2008

New Quick Flicks for the week of 2/17/08




All My Loving
A groundbreaking documentary on music and its effect on pop culture in the late '60s, with previously unseen footage from the Beatles, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, the Who, Pink Floyd, and many more.

American Gangster
View Windows Media-formatted Preview
A tense crime thriller, starring two-time Oscar winner Denzel Washington as true-life Harlem drug lord Frank Lucas. Oscar winner Russell Crowe co-stars as the dogged outcast NYPD cop charged with bringing Lucas down.

Hyderabadi bakra
The stars of "The Angrez" and "Hyderabad Nawabs" are back for a new adventure in which they con a hotel owner out of his money.

In the Valley of Elah
Hank, a retired Sergeant with the Military Police, receives a call informing him that his youngest son, Mike, has gone AWOL. He thought his son was in Iraq, but is informed that Mike returned stateside four days ago with his platoon. When he calls his son's cell phone and gets voice mail, he drives to Fort Rudd and begins to make inquiries, but with each inquiry he comes to a dead end. Then a body is found, dismembered and burned beyond recognition and is identified as Mike. Hank tries to find out what happened, but continues to encounter hurdles. Yet he is persistent, uncovering things no one wants to hear, including himself.

Margot at the Wedding
When Margot and her son, Claude, come to attend the wedding of her sister, Pauline, it seems as if a family rift is being mended. Despite their best efforts, Margot and Pauline revert to their most dysfunctional selves. It does not help that Pauline's fiancé is woefully depressed and Margot's lover is as narcissistic as she is. Margot's estranged husband can't seem to recognize that Margot cringes at his every effort at reconciliation. Margot and Claude have both a loving and poisonous relationship and she begins to pull Claude down with her as she sinks in self-absorption.

Michael Clayton
Michael Clayton is an in-house fixer at one of the largest corporate law firms in New York. A former criminal prosecutor, Clayton takes care of the law firm Kenner, Bach, & Ledeen's dirtiest work at the behest of the firm's co-founder, Marty Bach. Burned out with his job as a fixer, his divorce, a failed business venture, and mounting debt have left Clayton inextricably tied to the firm. At U/North, meanwhile, the career of litigator Karen Crowder rests on the multi-million dollar settlement of a class-action suit that Clayton's firm is leading to a seemingly successful conclusion. But when Kenner Bach's brilliant and guilt-ridden attorney Arthur Edens sabotages the U/North case, Clayton faces the biggest challenge of his career and his life.

Rama Rama
Santosh becomes convinced that it is time to get married, so he marries Shanti. But he and Shanti have different ideas of what marriage should be.

Rendition
The policy of "extraordinary rendition" began under the Clinton administration and accelerated after September 11, 2001. The policy allows for the handing over of suspected terrorists to countries that use torture as an interrogation tool. Anwar El-Ibrahimi is an Egyptian-born man who disappears on a flight from Africa to Washington, DC. He is sent to a North African country where torture is practiced and the CIA gives approval. Anwar's pregnant American-born wife wants to know what happened to her husband. A reluctant CIA agent begins to question his assignment after witnessing an unorthodox interrogation. A severe interrogator plys his trade on Anwar while a U.S. terrorism honcho is willing to turn a blind eye to the unpleasantness, especially if it stops a terrorist attack.

Welcome
Sanjana married into a respectable family. Uday, upon a chance meeting with a handsome bachelor, Rajiv, is convinced that the latter would be an appropriate match for Sanjana. However, Rajiv's uncle, Dr. Ghunghroo does not approve of his nephew's assocation with a dubious family.