Slumdog Millionaire

Slumdog Millionaire is a 2008 drama film directed by Danny Boyle and written by Simon Beaufoy. It is based on the book Q and A written by Indian author and diplomat Vikas Swarup. Loveleen Tandan began as the film's casting director but was appointed by Boyle as a "co-director".

The film, shot and set in India, follows a young man from the slums of Mumbai who appears on a game show and exceeds people's expectations, raising the suspicions of the game show host and law enforcement. Following screenings at the Telluride Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival, Slumdog Millionaire had a limited release on 12 November 2008 to critical acclaim and awards success.

Jamal Malik, a former street child from Mumbai, is being interrogated by the police. He is a contestant on Kaun Banega Crorepati, the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? , and has made it to the final question but has been accused of cheating.

The explanation of how he knew the answers leads us through the history of his short but full life, including scenes of obtaining the autograph of a famous Bollywood star (Amitabh Bachchan); the death of his mother during an anti-Muslim raid on the slums; and how he and his brother Salim befriended an orphaned girl, Latika. Jamal refers to Salim and himself as Athos and Porthos, and Latika as the third Musketeer of which they do not know the name.

Yes Man

A man signs up for a self-help program based on one simple principle: say yes to everything... and anything. At first, unleashing the power of "yes" transforms his life in amazing and unexpected ways, but he soon discovers that opening up his life to endless possibilities can have its drawbacks.

At the beginning of “Yes Man,” Carl Allen is a grouch, a curmudgeon, a wet blanket. His relentless negativity — his job as a loan officer provides him with plenty of opportunities to say no — is less a matter of temperament than of circumstance: apparently Carl never recovered from the breakup of his marriage.

But then a visit to a self-help seminar led by a guru (Terence Stamp) who preaches the power of yes transforms Carl into a wild, unpredictable fellow, a giddy, spontaneous goofball, a gangling, motormouthed, rubber-faced id. In short, Carl turns into Jim Carrey.

But “Yes Man,” dutifully directed by Peyton Reed (“Bring It On,” “Down With Love”) is too sluggish and slapdash a vehicle for its star’s prodigious wackiness. “Yes Man” rarely rises to genuine hilarity. It takes no risks, finds no inspiration and settles, like its hero, into a dull, noncommittal middle ground. Should you see this movie? Maybe. Whatever. I don’t care.

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans

Explores the origins of the centuries-old blood feud between the aristocratic vampires known as Death Dealers and their onetime slaves, the Lycans.

The Underworld series gets the prequel treatment with this third outing that fleshes out the story of the ancient war between the vampiric Death Dealers and their werewolf counterparts, the Lycans. F/X technician Patrick Tatopoulos (Godzilla, Independence Day) steps out of the effects lab and into the director's chair with this entry, which sees stars Michael Sheen and Bill Nighy returning, with series newcomer Rhona Mitra also joining the cast.

"Underworld: Rise of the Lycans" delves into the origins of the centuries-old blood feud between the aristocratic vampires, known as Death Dealers, and the barbaric Lycans (werewolves). A young Lycan, Lucian (Michael Sheen), emerges as a powerful leader who rallies the werewolves to rise up against Viktor (Bill Nighy), the cruel vampire king who has persecuted them for hundreds of years. Lucian is joined by his secret lover, the beautiful vampire Sonja (Rhona Mitra), in his battle to free the Lycans from their brutal enslavement.

The prequel story traces the origins of the centuries-old blood feud between the aristocratic vampires known as Death Dealers and their onetime slaves, the Lycans. In the Dark Ages, a young Lycan named Lucian (Sheen) emerges as a powerful leader who rallies the werewolves to rise up against Viktor (Nighy), the cruel vampire king who has enslaved them. Lucian is joined by his secret lover, Sonja (Mitra), in his battle against the Death Dealer army and his struggle for Lycan freedom.

Badtime Stories

Hotel handyman Skeeter Bronson's life is changed forever when the bedtime stories he tells his niece and nephew start to mysteriously come true. He attempts to take advantage of the phenomenon, incorporating his own aspirations into one outlandish tale after another, but it's the kids' unexpected contributions that turn Skeeter's life upside down.

BEDTIME STORIES is an adventure comedy starring ADAM SANDLER as Skeeter Bronson, a hotel handyman whose life is changed forever when the bedtime stories he tells his niece and nephew start to mysteriously come true. When he tries to help his family by telling one outlandish tale after another, it's the kids' unexpected contributions that turn all of their lives upside down.

Skeeter’s pique (though he may not know it) is reserved for his dead father, an inept businessman whose cozy motel once occupied the lot where Skeeter’s current employer has erected an upscale resort. Gone, along with the homespun vibe, is Skeeter’s dream of one day running the property; so when his divorced sister, Wendy (a frighteningly taut Courteney Cox), asks him to baby-sit for his young niece and nephew (Laura Ann Kesling and Jonathan Morgan Heit) for a few days, Skeeter is in no mood to play scallywag uncle.

“I don’t believe in happy endings,” he tells his incredulous charges when story time comes around. Luckily for the tykes, their director, Adam Shankman, loves them, the happier the better. (Even as a guest judge on “So You Think You Can Dance” Mr. Shankman, a popular choreographer, squirmed mightily to avoid delivering a bad critique.) Rolling up his sleeves and piling on the digital effects, he labors to whip life into a screenplay (by Matt Lopez and Tim Herlihy) so tired even Bugsy, the children’s pop-eyed guinea pig, is moved to tuck himself into bed.

Marley & Me

To watch “Marley & Me,” the bland, obsequious adaptation of John Grogan’s best-selling memoir of his up-and-down relationship with an unruly Labrador retriever, is to tune in to an era that seems so close and yet so distant. In those naïve old days — the 1990s through the first part of this century — Florida real estate boomed, newspapers flourished and the heavens rained money.

Because the movie, directed by David Frankel (“The Devil Wears Prada”), plays by the rules of Hollywood, John and Jenny Grogan (Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston), never age. The Grogans, golden-fleeced journalists, move from Kalamazoo, Mich., to West Palm Beach, Fla., where they adopt a yellow Lab that John names Marley (after Bob). Except for the occasional thunderstorm that freaks out the neurotic dog, the weather in Florida is always sunny with low humidity.

Later in the movie, after nearly a decade and a half have passed and the Grogans and their three model children have moved to a greeting-card perfect stone house with a barn in rural Pennsylvania, the years seem not to have touched them. Mr. Wilson’s blond surfer locks remain unflecked with gray. The waistline of Ms. Aniston’s Jenny, after bearing three children, shows no sign of a bulge.

Although the Grogans have their spats, one of which drives John temporarily out of the house, the screenplay glosses over their domestic crises to convey the fantasy of a marriage that is mostly smooth sailing, save for Jenny’s exhaustion after the birth of their third child. (The possibility of post-partum depression is cautiously broached, then dropped as though too hot to handle.) Most of the time the Grogans get along fine, largely because John is a laid-back dude verging on a doormat. As for the couple’s romantic chemistry, there is plenty of cuddling but little heat.