Liam Neeson is Bill Marks, a U.S. Federal air marshal with the obligatory checkered past and a delightful host of vices. Midway through a trans-Atlantic flight he receives a text message from an untraceable number that claims in 20 minutes someone on the plane will die…unless a $150 million is deposited into a special account. And Bill, with the help of stewardess Nancy (Michelle Dockery) and plucky passenger Jen (Julianne Moore) must uncover the identity of the potential killer/hijacker.

That’s all you need; if you want to know how the rest of the movie plays out, just imagine everything you can do with that premise, as the passengers gradually become more and more aware of the situation and Marks’s control gradually diminishes – or, better yet, see the film.

Director Jaume Collet-Serra (Orphan, Unknown) maintains a consistent feel of paranoia by keeping his camera close and confined to the actors’ faces, barely giving the audience a chance to breathe and, early on, lingering on a handful of passengers to playfully suggest that any one or two or all of them could be the culprit. Even before the mystery begins you’re already suspicious, and while I was hoping for the villain to be revealed as the little girl’s teddy bear (Spoiler: It’s not), it wasn’t too much of stretch, given Collet-Serra’s insinuation that everyone on this damn plane must be hiding something.

We’ve gone down this road once before in 2002 with a remake of Brian De Palma’s classic Carrie, based on the Stephen King novel, and now it’s being done again. This time around the movie features Chloe Moritz and Julianne Moore, which helps considerably to peak our interest.

In case you’re not familiar with the story, it concerns a loner high school girl whose crazy mom and the mean kids at school eventually get the brunt of her blossoming telekinetic powers. IF you’ve even wished you could get even with someone bullying you, this is the movie for you.

We’re not sure any remake will ever be as good as De Palma’s original, but this trailer does help at least make this latest attempt look interesting enough so we want to know more. That’s something at least.

Carrie is due to hit theaters on October 18th. Check out the trailer after the break.

Personally, we feel Julianne Moore can do no wrong. She’s great in everything and as slightly older gingers go, she’s still got “it.”

So naturally, when she’s in a new movie, especially a horror movie, we take notice. We’re talking about the upcoming 6 Souls, from the guys behind The Ring. Here’s a synopsis:

After the death of her husband, Dr. Cara Harding’s (Julianne Moore) faith in God has been shaken, but not her belief in science. In an attempt to open her up to accepting unexplainable psychiatric theories, her father introduces her to Adam, a patient with multiple personalities who takes on some of the physical characteristics of his other personalities.

Cara quickly discovers that Adam’s other personalities are murder victims and the more she finds out about him and his past, the closer she and her loved ones are to becoming murder victims themselves.

Yikes, sounds scary. Look forward to seeing this one for sure when it arrives on demand March 1st and in theaters on April 5th. Check out the trailer after the break.

Even though we’ve already seen this story at least twice now (the original with Sissy Spacek being the best) Screen Gems and MGM have seen fit to grace us with a new big screen version of Stephen King’s Carrie. The remake sports a great cast in Julianne Moore and Chloe Moretz and from the new trailer just released today, it could potentially be a decent movie too.

Kimberly Peirce directed Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s script for the movie. Look for Carrie to arrive on March 15, 2013. The new trailer is below.

As we draw closer to the 2012 award season, you can expect so see more and more films that folks like to refer to as “Oscar bait” which are considered films that actors use purely for the sake of an Academy Award Nomination.

One big one this year will surely be Meryll Streep’s performance of Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. The second film? Clearly Robert De Niro’s role in the upcoming Paul Weitz film Being Flynn. Here’s the premise.

Based on a true story, BEING FLYNN follows Nick Flynn (Paul Dano) who is shocked to have his eccentric and long-absent father, Jonathan (De Niro) reach out to him unexpectedly. Still feeling the loss of his mother (Julianne Moore) in the midst of starting a new relationship with Denise (JUNO’s Olivia Thirlby), the last person Nick wants to see is his father. But you can’t outrun fate and slowly Nick comes to realize he has been given the chance to make a real future not only for himself, but for his struggling father too.

Prepare to have your heartstrings sufficiently tugged in the trailer after the jump, and catch Being Flynn in theaters next Spring.

Based on the cast (Steve Carell and Julianne Moore as a married couple Cal and Emily—how perfect) and a promising trailer, I went into Crazy, Stupid, Love fully expecting to love it. I didn’t, but I did leave loving the young couple (a surprisingly funny Ryan Gosling as Jacob and Emma Stone as Hannah). They had everything going for them—charm, chemistry and perfect timing. Emma Stone is darling and hilarious and deserves every bit of the praise and buzz she’s receiving.

They’re no mere insanely pretty faces, either. Both Gosling and Stone have smarts and personality that shine through, despite the screenplay’s sometimes ridiculous shortcomings. Yes, the screenplay. Who the heck greenlit this thing? With all the money they must’ve had, they couldn’t have hired someone to perk this thing up?

The clichés, oh the clichés. This is one of those movies where the crowd acts as one simple-minded, one-minded body. You know what I’m talking about. Everyone in the office pokes their heads above their cubicles at once and claps. Everyone stands outside and with the exact same judgmental expression watches the hero’s meltdown in the school parking lot. Stuff a normal group of individuals would never do. It’s the equivalent of a laugh track in a dumb sit-com. But that’s not all.

In 2009, director Sebastian Gutierrez debuted a film called Women in Trouble at SXSW Film Festival. That film featured several women whose story-lines converged throughout the film, and it  became a cult classic of sorts. Elektra Luxx is the sequel to that film, and features several returning cast members.

Carla Gugino plays the title character, who is newly retired from the porn industry. She’s also pregnant, and the baby daddy  is recently deceased.  What’s a single sex siren to do?  Elektra shows some ingenuity and starts teaching some sex classes at the local community college for income. She struggles with insecurity about her pregnancy and the end of her career.

Things become further complicated when Elektra is visited by Cora (Marley Shelton), who has an unexpected and troubling connection to her deceased ex-boyfriend.  Cora asks Elektra to seduce her fiance. In exchange, Cora will give Elektra a set of song lyrics that Elektra’s musician boyfriend wrote about Elektra. A madcap series of events ensues when Elektra seduces the wrong person.

So yesterday, we ran part one of this post.  In case you missed it, here were my picks:

• Waiting for Superman
• Winter’s Bone
• The Company Men
• Rabbit Hole/Blue Valentine (tie)
• The Fighter

Now, without further ado, are the rest of my picks for best movies of the year.

5. The Kids Are All Right

This quirky drama won me over in no time. Annette Bening and Julianne Moore play a lesbian couple raising two children who were the product of an anonymous sperm donor. When the kids are old enough, they seek out and find their donor, who is played by Mark Ruffalo.

His character Paul is a perpetually laid-back restaurateur who drives a motorcycle and lives a bohemian lifestyle. The kids are instantly captivated, and develop a relationship with the guy, much to the chagrin of their uptight mom Nic (Bening).

I admire writer/director Lisa Cholodenko for her sensitive handling of the subject matter. A lesser director could have turned this into a slapstick farce, but ultimately the film is funny, touching, and wholly original.  It is also universally relatable.  Bening is a standout in the film for her performance.

I was surprised at how much trouble I had narrowing down my top ten movies this year.  My top 20 were all very close, but here are the movies that I ultimately enjoyed the most. I readily admit that I did not see near as many foreign films as I would have liked, but by the time I cover most of the mainstream fare, there is simply no time left.

Honorable Mentions: Fair Game, Tiny Furniture, Greenberg, Cyrus, The Tillman Story, The American, Mother and Child, Scott Pilgrim.

10. Waiting for Superman
This Documentary was equal parts frustrating, inspirational, and heartbreaking. Director Davis Guggenheim (No End in Sight) sheds light on the dismal state of our public school system. He follows the plight of several children who live in various geographic regions who are placing all of their hope for an decent education into lottery systems for charter or private schools. Guggenheim relies on their compelling stories for a narrative, while interspersing lots of graphics and cartoons illuminating some pretty harrowing statistics.

Chloe has a spectacular pedigree. Directed by Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter), the film boasts Julianne Moore, Liam Neeson, and Amanda Seyfried as a trio of characters whose lives become deliberately intertwined. Too bad, because after a promising set up, the film devolves into a cliché psychological thriller.

It ultimately culminates in a tacky ending that is better suited to a cheap slasher flick. I suppose if I had to summarize my thoughts on the movie in one word, I would say it is misguided.

Julianne Moore plays Catherine, a successful gynecologist with a teen aged son about to leave for college and a college professor husband. Faced with increasing emotional distance from her son, and suspecting her husband of having an affair, Catherine appears to be experiencing a mid-life cycle of sorts.

She befriends a high class escort named Chloe (Amanda Seyfried) and hires her to find out if her husband will cheat on her. It is evident that there is a sexual undercurrent between the two women.

The first Paul Thomas Anderson’s film I saw was his take on addiction and gambling called Hard Eight. It featured John C. rilley, Gwyneth Paltrow and the awesome Philip Baker Hall. It was filled with despicable characters who were selfish and hurt others to get what they wanted. I liked it very much and thought Anderson was definitely a filmmaker to watch.

His next piece of work was Boogie Nights, which further solidified his status as one of the best directors working today. Then, he released another seminal work of great distinction in Magnolia. This film, yet another pian to selfishness and the darker aspects of humanity, takes place in a single day in Los Angeles, focusing on a number of interconnected people whose lives are forever changed as they search for love and meaning in a chaotic world.

The film chronicles such diverse occurrences as a suicide turned homicide by a quirk of timing; a motivational speaker motivated by rage; and a quiz kid rendered stupid by a lightning strike and features Tom Cruise in what could arguably be called his best performance to date. Besides Cruise, look for more great acting from Philip Seymour Hoffman, William H. Macy, Jason Robards, Philip Baker Hall and Julianne Moore.

A Single Man is the single biggest surprise I have had at the movies all year. It is brilliant, beautiful, superbly acted, and emotionally devastating. It is one of those movies that will haunt you for days and weeks to come after viewing it.

*Minor spoilers in this review* The opening credits are set to an underwater scene depicting a man gently lolling about in the waves in slow motion.  A voice-over by George (Colin Firth) states that it has been 8 months since he lost his male partner in a car crash, and yet everyday “Waking up hurts.”

George is starting to believe that life will never really return to normal, and the day we witness in the film  is actually the day that George has decided to kill himself.  Fastidious to a fault, he meticulously lays out the outfit he wishes to be buried in, going so far as to leave instructions on how he wants his necktie to be knotted (Windsor-style.)