Movies for the weekend

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Seeing as it's the Academy Awards this Sunday evening (very early Monday morning, South Africa time), the local distributors are finally starting to unleash the nominees and other critically acclaimed fare on local audiences. Today sees the release of 3 notable films:

Right now it looks like The Wrestler has a very good chance of landing its star Mickey Rourke (Hollywood's big Comeback Kid of the moment!) the coveted Best Actor Oscar. Rourke's only real competition in the category would seem to be Sean Penn in gay rights drama Milk. Anyway, The Wrestler comes from director Darren (Requiem for a Dream) Aronofsky, and focuses on a burnt-out pro-wrestler who puts everything on the line for one last shot at success.


Released early in the Fall Awards Season Changeling, from Clint Eastwood, wasn't quite the Oscar bait it was intended to be. However, Angelina Jolie has been nominated for the Best Actress Oscar for her role here - as a mother who comes up against police and political corruption when her son is kidnapped and a different boy is returned to her. Set in 1920's Prohibition Los Angeles, Changeling is based on a true story.


New fantasy film Inkheart apparently has zero chance of landing an Academy Award nomination in any category. Still with a solid cast that includes Brendan Fraser, Paul Bettany, Jim Broadbent, Helen Mirren and Gollum himself, Andy Serkis, it may be worth checking out - particularly if you're looking for some lighter, kiddie-friendly movie fare. Based on the novel by Cornelia Funke, Inkheart is about a father who can magically pull characters from books into real life.


Of course, the most important movie news of the moment is that it's just 2 weeks until the release of WATCHMEN. I've been doing my damnedest to avoid all the video clips and early reviews on the Net so as not to spoil the film for myself.

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