Firewall

It seems that Harrison Ford, currently pushing 64, is out to prove that he is indeed up to the task of a fourth Indiana Jones installment. Following his comedic turn in the mediocre Hollywood Homicide (2003), Ford is back to stomping through more familiar territory in this pure actioner.

This time around, it’s in an aptly named high-tech thriller in which Ford plays a software expert, Jack Stanfield, whose wife (Virginia Madsen) and children are taken hostage in their own house.

The kidnappers, headed by Bill Cox (Paul Bettany) want him to program a system he had designed to deposit $100 million into Cox’s account. Although cooperative at first, Stanfield starts to fight back when he begins to doubt Cox and his gang intend to spare the lives of his family once they get their hands on the money.

People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.”

With these words, a lonesome vigilante (Hugo Weaving), code named V, leads the people of a fascist Britain in revolt against their Hitler-type leader (John Hurt). V is chased down by police chief Rinch (Stephen Rea) but is aided by Evey (Portman), a civilian he once saved from being harassed in the streets.

Partially shot in Germany and premiered there at this year’s Berlinale, this movie pushes the boundaries of your regular thriller with strong dialogue and an impressive performance by a meticulously chosen cast.

Written by Richard Price, who was given the task of adapting his own (rather mediocre) novel, Freedomland is a whodunit with a few interracial dimensions thrown in for good measure. Samuel L. Jackson is police detective Lorenzo, who investigates the case of Brenda (Julianne Moore), a distraught mother who claims a black man stole her car while her child was asleep in the backseat.

Price (Sea of Love and Kiss of Death) modeled the character of Lorenzo on a real-life veteran of the Jersey City Police Force whom he met while researching one of his previous films, entitled Clockers, over 10 years ago.

Since the first installment of the animated adventure Ice Age raked in $382 million at the global box office in 2002, it’s no surprise we’re now seeing a sequel. Manny (Ray Romano), Sid (John Leguizamo) and Diego (Denis Leary) may have made it through the big freeze, but when the ice begins to melt, the heroic trio are on a mission to warn the rest of the inhabitants of their peaceful valley of the coming flood.

Come, admit it: You claim you’re going for your kid’s sake, but you get kicks from Denis Leary’s riffs.

Famous for directing powerful racial dramas ranging from the factual (Malcom X, 1992) to the fictitious (Jungle Fever, 1991), the provocative Spike Lee teams up with Denzel Washington (his favorite star) to deliver his first-ever pure thriller.

Russell Dalton (Clive Owen) plans what he thinks is the perfect bank robbery, but finds himself trapped with the whole police force, headed by hard-boiled detective Frazier (Washington), surrounding him. Dalton plays his final card by turning his heist into a hostage situation using the bank executives as human bait. Enter hostage negotiator Madeline (Jodie Foster).

Of all of this month’s thrillers and gore fests, this one’s most likely to be worth the price of admission.

Just when you thought the studios were through financing Westerns, the horses and saddles come back to dust up the screens. In what’s being billed as a Western with a twist, this European-financed film features two beautiful protagonists and claims to trace its roots to the Brigitte Bardot and Claudia Cardinale vehicle Les Pétroleuses (Petroleum Girls) back in 1971. In Bandidas, Salma Hayek and Penélope Cruz are Sara and Maria, a bank-robbing duo out to combat a ruthless gang terrorizing their town.

To us, it sounds more like Thelma and Louise meets Bad Girls. Avoid at all costs.

Another slasher movie in which a group of students decides to have some fun by creating a mythology about a serial killer known as The Wolf.

Of course, the figments of their collective imaginations become a reality as a serial killer starts to stalk them one by one.

Just when you thought Jon Bon Jovi couldn’t sink any lower

In 1977, horror master Wes Craven wrote and directed The Hills Have Eyes and followed it with a sequel in 1985. This remake written and directed by French filmmaker Alexandre Aja — who previously helmed the gory psychological thriller Haute Tension (High Tension, 2003) in his home country — largely follows the plot of the original. The Carter family, out on vacation, take a wrong turn in the desert where (unbeknownst to them) the surrounding hills host a genetically mutated tribe that wants to feed on them.

It has all the markings of a straight-to-satellite, 2am ‘feature’ film.  et