Synopsis: Donna’s senior prom is supposed to be the best night of her life. After surviving a horrible tragedy, she has finally moved on and is enjoying her last year of high school. Surrounded by her best friends, she should be safe from the horrors of her past. But when the night turns deadly, there is only one person who could be responsible—a man she thought was gone forever. Now, Donna and her friends must find a way to escape the sadistic rampage of an obsessed killer, and survive a night “to die for.”

Synopsis: Tom Ludlow, a veteran LAPD Vice Detective, sets out on a quest to discover the killers of his former partner, Detective Terrance Washington. Captain Wander’s, Ludlow’s supervisor, duties include keeping him within the confines of the law and out of the clutches of Internal Affairs Captain Biggs. Ludlow teams up with a young Robbery Homicide Detective to track Washington’s killers through the diverse communities of Los Angeles. Their determination pays off when the two detectives track down Washington’s murderers and confront them in an attempt to bring them to justice.

Story: A comic winner set against the beginning of pro football in 1925, Leatherheads is first-class movie entertainment in the tradition of 1973’s The Sting. The script has been floating around for about 17 years, developed by two Sports Illustrated writers (Duncan Brantley and Rick Reilly). Right from the opening use of the old Universal logo, director and star George Clooney plops us smack into the middle of the roaring ’20s as Dodge Connolly, quarterback and born leader who is trying to transition fans from far more popular college games into the free-for-all world of pro ball. In Magnificent 7 style he pulls together a ragtag team of talented, yet eccentric, recruits, but when things go wrong he is forced to enlist a star college athlete and World War I hero named Carter Rutherford (John Krasinski) in order to boost attendance. Enter pretty Tribune newspaper reporter Lexie Littleton (Renee Zellweger), who suspects Rutherford’s story may be a tad too perfect to be true, so she digs up the dirt on him while both he and Dodge battle for her affections off the field.

Acting: It may have taken Clooney’s sensibility as a director to recognize he was the perfect choice to play Dodge Connolly, a role originally meant for Mel Gibson. Clooney exudes movie star cool and carries Leatherheads on a carefree, hilarious run from start to end zone. It’s no easy task since the script is basically an homage to the screwball comedies of the ‘30s and ‘40s. You know, the ones where Cary Grant would square off against Rosalind Russell with lots of snappy rat-a-tat tat one-liners. This kind of mannered dialogue may be alien to today’s core young movie-going audience but Clooney and his co-star Zellweger manage to pull it off convincingly. Many contemporary actors would fall flat on their botoxed faces trying this stuff but not this pair. In fact, Zellweger seems born to play this kind of career-oriented dame. Making up the other third of the triangle, Krasinski (“The Office”) – as the boy who may not be as golden as he seems – holds his own and has a couple of choice moments, particularly in a nicely choreographed fist fight with Clooney. There’s also fine support from several veteran actors, including Jack Thompson as Littleton’s editor, Peter Gerety as the Chicago football commissioner and especially Jonathan Pryce as Carter’s bottom line obsessed, oily manager. The guys who make up the Bulldog team are all believable ball players even though none had suited up before – except standout Keith Loneker, a gentle giant as ‘Big Gus.’

Direction: After Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and his Oscar-nominated work on Good Night And Good Luck, it should be no state secret that Clooney knows his way around both sides of the camera. This is the first time, however, he’s directed and played the leading role. He’s at total ease pulling off the tricky screwball comedy aspects with just enough restraint to make them play for modern audiences while making the mud bath football stuff exciting, funny and credible. Considering the number of fine comic performances he got from his cast, it’s clear his experience as an actor has paid off in that department. What’s really impressive is Leatherheads’ look and feel, with top notch cinematography, production and costume design and editing. Randy Newman’s ragtime music recalls The Sting, but it’s entirely appropriate and the musician even turns up in an onscreen cameo as a piano player. The film has been carefully crafted and the effort shows. Period pieces like this are hard to pull off successfully, but Clooney and company succeed admirably.

Bottom Line: Hollywood.com rated this film

Story: Taking its cue from every vacation nightmare you’ve ever heard about, this shocker in the Stephen King/Peter Benchley vein sees a group of American tourists in Mexico taking an unwise, off-the-map sight-seeing tour of Mayan ruins, where they encounter a wicked strain of weed that feeds on humans. For the next hour or so, our panicked protagonists try to formulate an escape plan while sidestepping the vicious vegetation in their midst. Along the way, there are a couple of amputations and some amateur surgeries – all the better to please those members of the audience predisposed to such grisly goings-on.

Acting: As the principal foursome who find themselves endangered, Jena Malone, Jonathan Tucker, Laura Ramsey and Shawn Ashmore play it very straight. There’s not much leeway with these characters; they’re here to suffer, and suffer they do. They’re so obviously doomed from the start, however, that it’s hard to work up much interest in their eventual fates. Although the actors play their one-note roles with conviction, there’s the nagging sense that each is capable of better – if only the material were there

Direction: Making his feature debut, Carter Smith (no relation to the author) directs in a straightforward, no-nonsense style. This is yet another of those horror films that might well have worked better in a shorter, tighter format – or, better yet, as part of a multi-part anthology (not unlike a similar installment about killer pond scum – remember that one? – in Creepshow 2 back in 1987). As a full-length feature, however, The Ruins is repetitious and predictable. Author Smith fared better when adapting his previous best-seller, A Simple Plan, back in 1998, even scoring an Academy Award nomination. Call this a sophomore jinx. The only major surprise is seeing Ben Stiller listed as one of the producers.

Bottom Line: Hollywood.com rated this film