Cloud Atlas
Based on the bestseller by David Mitchell, “Cloud Atlas” follows the stories of six people’s “souls” across time. The six interrelated and interwoven stories take the viewer from the South Pacific in the 19th century to a distant, post-apocalyptic future. The ambitious film is directed by the triumvirate of Lana and Andy Wachowski and Tom Tykwer. It stars Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Susan Sarandon, Hugh Grant and others, playing multiple characters from the past, present and future. Each actor’s characters, however, are all inhabited by the same soul. “Cloud Atlas” has divided critics, some of whom believe it to be a pretentious and manipulative exercise not worth its 103-million-dollar budget, while others have lauded the directors for their sincerity, sensitivity and ground-breaking creativity. In years to come, “Cloud Atlas” may be talked about in the same breath as “Blade Runner” or “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Running time: 172 minutes. Rated: R.
Yann Martel’s ponderous adventure novel gets the big-screen treatment with this Fox 2000 adaptation. The coming-of-age story surrounds the son of a zookeeper who survives a shipwreck by stowing away on a lifeboat with a zebra, an orangutan, a hyena, and a Bengal tiger by the name of Richard Parker. Director: Ang Lee. Cast: Suraj Sharma, Irfan Khan, Tabu, Rafe Spall, Gérard Depardieu. Rated: PG. Time: 2:05.
Bilbo Baggins joins Gandalf and a band of dwarves on a treacherous quest to a distant mountain in this epic fantasy adventure adapted from J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved novel by the creative forces behind the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Director: Peter Jackson. Cast: Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage, Ken Stott, Graham McTavish. Rated: PG-13. Time: 2:49.
This adventure/SiFi flick is by Moonlighting films, which also procuced 10,000 B.C. five years ago. Found footage of an expedition into the Congo jungle where a team of explorers from the British Cryptozoological Society in search of the cryptid, the Mokele Mbembe stumbles upon a colony of dinosaurs. Set in the deepest, wildest throngs of the African jungle, The Dinosaur Project is an ambitious quest by a team of western explorers, hoping to find a water creature, whose origins are rooted in myth and fantasy. The head of the expedition, an Indiana Jones type, has his plans for a successful trip spoiled though, after his helicopter is brought down by a flock of strange enormous birds and to add to his troubles, he also has to look after his stowaway son Luke. Luke is the film’s main narrator; with an arsenal of personal cameras at his disposal, the young techno-geek captures every minute of this project, which becomes a lesson in survival. The team quickly discover all is not well in the jungle, and encounter some extraordinary creatures, which civilization has presumed extinct for millions of years! Director: Sid Bennett. Cast: Natasha Loring, Richard Dillane, Matt Kane, Peter Brooke, Stephen Jennings and Abena Ayivor. Rating: N/A. Time: 1:23.