Australia
Release Date: 03/03/2009
Set against the scenic backdrop of pre-World War II Australia, Baz Luhrmann's romantic period adventure stars Nicole Kidman as an English aristocrat who inherits a sprawling ranch, and Hugh Jackman as the rough-and-tumble cattle driver who helps protect her property from greedy English cattle barons. As the pair attempt to herd 2,000 head of cattle hundreds of miles across the treacherous Australian outback, they are stunned to bear witness to the bombing of Darwin by Japanese forces -- who just a fe ...
Actor(s): Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, David Wenham
Director(s): Baz Luhrmann
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Genres: Epic, Feature
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Milk
Release Date: 03/10/2009
Academy Award winner Sean Penn takes the title role in Gus Van Sant's biopic tracing the last eight years in the life of Harvey Milk, the ill-fated politician and gay activist whose life changed history, and whose courage still inspires people. When Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977, he made history for being the first openly gay man in American history to be voted into public office. But the rights of homosexuals weren't Milk's primary concern, as tellingly evidenced ...
Actor(s): Sean Penn, Emile Hirsch, Josh Brolin
Director(s): Gus Van Sant
MPAA Rating: R
Genres: Drama, Feature
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Rachel Getting Married
Release Date: 03/10/2009
Lingering tensions clash with new hopes in director Jonathan Demme's ensemble drama set during an idyllic wedding that threatens to descend into chaos with the appearance of the bride's estranged sister -- a volatile and unpredictable girl whose turbulent history of personal crisis and family conflict quickly threatens to take precedence over the happy ceremony. Rachel Buchman (Rosemarie DeWitt) is about to be married to the love of her life, but while the weather outside may be perfect, there's a st ...
Actor(s): Anne Hathaway, Rosemarie DeWitt, Bill Irwin
Director(s): Jonathan Demme
MPAA Rating: R
Genres: Drama, Feature
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Bolt
Release Date: 03/24/2009
From Walt Disney Animation Studios comes Bolt, the tale of a superstar TV pup (voiced by John Travolta) who gets plopped in the middle of America with seemingly no way back to the glam and glitz of Hollywood. Thanks to his starring role on a hit television show, Bolt the pooch has become a household name. But Bolt has bought into his own heroic image, now believing that he really possesses the super-canine powers of his fictional television series. When he's accidentally shipped from Hollywood to New ...
Actor(s): John Travolta, Miley Cyrus, Susie Essman
Director(s): Byron Howard
MPAA Rating: PG
Genres: Comedy, Animated
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Slumdog Millionaire
Release Date: 03/31/2009
Accused of cheating and desperate to prove his innocence, an eighteen-year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai reflects back on his tumultuous life while competing to win 20 million rupees on India's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in Danny Boyle's inspirational drama. Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) may not have a penny to his name, but that could all change in a matter of hours. He's one question away from taking the top prize on India's most popular television game show, but as with everything else in Jamal ...
Actor(s): Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Madhur Mittal
Director(s): Danny Boyle
MPAA Rating: R
Genres: Drama, Feature
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Doubt
Release Date: 04/07/2009
When the principal (Meryl Streep) of a Bronx Catholic High School accuses a popular priest (Philip Seymour Hoffman) of pedophilia, a young nun caught in between the feuding pair becomes hopelessly swept up in the ensuing controversy. 1964, St. Nicholas, the Bronx: The winds of change are sweeping through this tight-knit religious community, and charismatic priest Father Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is doing his best to adapt by revisiting the school's notoriously strict disciplinary practices. Unfo ...
Actor(s): Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams
Director(s): John Patrick Shanley
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Genres: Drama, Feature
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WALL-E
Release Date: 11/18/2008
Disney and Pixar join forces for this computer-animated tale about a wide-eyed robot who travels to the deepest reaches of outer space in search of a newfound friend. The year is 2700, and planet Earth has long been uninhabitable. For hundreds of years, WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) has been taking out the trash, and collecting precious knick-knacks in order to stave off the boredom of his dreary routine. Little does WALL-E realize that he has recently stumbled onto a secret that ...
Actor(s): Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Garlin
Director(s): Andrew Stanton
MPAA Rating: G
Genres: Science Fiction, Animated
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The Dark Knight
Release Date: 12/09/2008
Christopher Nolan steps back into the director's chair for this sequel to Batman Begins, which finds the titular superhero coming face to face with his greatest nemesis -- the dreaded Joker. Christian Bale returns to the role of Batman, Maggie Gyllenhaal takes over the role of Rachel Dawes (played by Katie Holmes in Batman Begins), and Brokeback Mountain star Heath Ledger dons the ghoulishly gleeful Joker makeup previously worn by Jack Nicholson and Cesar Romero. Just as it begins to appear as if Bat ...
Actor(s): Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart
Director(s): Christopher Nolan
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Genres: Crime, Feature
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Changeling
Release Date: 02/17/2009
Inspired by actual events that occurred in 1920s-era Los Angeles, Clint Eastwood's The Changeling tells the story of a woman driven to confront a corrupted LAPD after her abducted son is retrieved and she begins to suspect that the boy returned to her is not the same boy she gave birth to. The year was 1928, and the setting a working-class suburb of Los Angeles. As Christine (Angelina Jolie) said goodbye to her son, Walter, and departed for work, she never anticipated that this was the day her life w ...
Actor(s): Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich, Jeffrey Donovan
Director(s): Clint Eastwood
MPAA Rating: R
Genres: Thriller, Feature
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The Wrestler
Release Date: 04/21/2009
His sense of identity fading into nothingness after the spotlights dim and he experiences a close brush with mortality, a retired wrestler begins to evaluate his life while considering the comeback that could very well kill him in director Darren Aronofsky's poignant portrait of an introspective former superstar in the twilight of his career. Back in his heyday, wrestler Randy "The Ram" Robinson (Mickey Rourke) was an icon in the ring. His image immortalized in action figures and video games, he woul ...
Actor(s): Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood
Director(s): Darren Aronofsky
MPAA Rating: R
Genres: Drama, Feature
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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Release Date: 05/05/2009
David Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's story, re-teams the director with Brad Pitt, who takes on the title role. What makes Button such a curious case is that when he is born in New Orleans just after World War I, he is already in his eighties, and proceeds to live his life aging in reverse. This sweeping film follows the character's unusual life into the 21st century as he experiences joy and sadness, loves lost and found, and the meaning of timel ...
Actor(s): Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Taraji P. Henson
Director(s): David Fincher
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Genres: Drama, Feature
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