The Kingdom

The Kingdom, as it could fill several pages and still not make a lick of sense. I'll leave it at this: "The Kingdom" is a giant Copenhagen hospital, and every single room in it (and most of the corridors, and the driveway, and the parking lot) contains at least one complete wacko.

ratatouille

There's something about rodents that makes for exquisite family storytelling. Offscreen, they're hideous vermin -- spreaders of filth and disease responsible for entire eras of human misery. In the hands of a talented creative voice, however, they become paragons of heroism. Why? They're natural underdogs for starters, stuck in a permanent spot at the bottom of the food chain. Yet they also exhibit tremendous resourcefulness, and can thrive in places where other species fear to tread. And for all the problems they cause, they come across as a little misunderstood -- meek scavengers just trying to get by. Give those elements to the right people, and the results are magic: Mrs. Frisby and the rats of NIMH; E.B White's tenacious Templeton; Reepicheep, Narnia's premiere dispenser of buckled swashes; and that age-old standby at the top of Pixar's sister company, emitting cheerful pluck from T-shirts and watch faces aplenty.

iam legend

Robert Neville is a brilliant scientist, but even he could not contain the terrible virus that was unstoppable, incurable--and manmade. Somehow immune, Neville is now the last human survivor in what is left of New York City... and maybe the world. But, he is not alone. He is surrounded by "the Infected"--victims of the plague who have mutated into carnivorous beings who can only exist in the dark and who will devour or infect anyone or anything in their path. For three years, Neville has spent his days scavenging for food and supplies and faithfully sending out radio messages, desperate to find any other survivors who might be out there. All the while, the Infected lurk in the shadows, watching Neville's every move, waiting for him to make a fatal mistake. Perhaps mankind's last, best hope, Neville is driven by only one remaining mission: to find a way to reverse the effects of the virus using his own immune blood. But his blood is also what The Infected hunt, and Neville knows he is outnumbered and quickly running out of time.

The Bucket List

The Bucket List is a feel-good film about death, a sitcom about mortality, "Ikiru" for meatheads. It's also a picture about two cancer patients confronting reality, and deciding how they want to spend their presumed last days, that has not an ounce of reality about it. For all these reasons, along with the star power of Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, this refitting of the grumpy old men genre stands a good chance of becoming director Rob Reiner's first hit since the mid-'90s, even though its prevailing sensibility will eventually make it look more at home on small screens.

Atonement

An early contender for the 2008 Oscars, Joe Wright's take on Ian McEwan's novel of sex, guilt and repentance in WWII-era England is a highly engaging work. Reuniting with many of the key cast and crew behind his previous film, the equally fine take on Jane Austen's Pride And Prejudice, Wright proves that was no one-off. Delivering an ambiguous, unsettling but masterful work with both assurance and panache, he even draws career-best performances from his leads, James McAvoy and Keira Knightley.

Awake

Jessica Alba, Hayden Christenson, and Terrence Howard star in first-time director/screenwriter Joby Harold's nerve-jangling psychological thriller about a man who experiences the frighteningly common surgical phenomenon known as "anesthetic awareness," in which those laid out on the operating table remain acutely aware of what is going on around them despite remaining completely paralyzed and unable to cry out for help. When a successful young man (Christenson) goes under the knife and realizes that the anesthesia hasn't quite done its job, the horror quickly sets in as his worried wife (Alba) waits anxiously and a terrifying drama unfolds in the operating room.

This Christmas

This year, Christmas with the Whitfield's promises to be one they will never forget. All the siblings have come home for the first time in years and they've brought plenty of baggage with them. As the Christmas tree is trimmed and the lights are hung, secrets are revealed and family bonds are tested. As their lives converge, they join together and help each other discover the true meaning of family.