Lincoln Opens This Weekend, Plus the Final "Twilight" Movie Is Finally Here
11/16/2012
#1.) "Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2" (PG-13) Trailer
Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner are all back for the final "Twilight" movie. In case you missed the last one, Bella and Edward got married, Bella almost died during childbirth, and Edward turned her into a vampire to save her life. This one picks up with Bella adjusting to her desire to eat humans, their half-breed child growing fast, and some PG-13 vampire sex. The kid has the ridiculous name Renesmee, and she's played by 12-year-old Mackenzie Foy.
Here's what else you might want to know . . .
The Volturi have a strict law forbidding the creation of a vampire child, because kids can't control their blood lust, and pose the greatest risk of exposing the existence of vampires to the world. And the penalty for creating one is death. Now that the Volturi think the Cullens created a vampire child, they want to kill Renesmee and wipe out the Cullens. Except, we all know that the baby was BORN, and not bitten, so she's not really the monster they fear she is.
Alice Cullen has a premonition of the Volturi threat, so the Cullens spend the first half of the movie rounding up support from random vampires around the world. Since Jacob "imprinted" onto Renesmee and became her sworn protector, the wolf pack joins in defending the Cullens from theVolturi too.
There's an epic battle that almost got the movie an R rating because of the BEHEADINGS. And for better or worse, the movie will have a different ending than the book.
#2.) "Lincoln" (PG-13) Trailer
Daniel Day Lewis plays Abraham Lincoln in Steven Spielberg's movie about Lincoln's final months in office, when he was pushing to abolish slavery at the end of the civil war. Sally Field plays his wife Mary Todd, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays their son Robert. Tommy Lee Jones, James Spader and Jackie Earle Haley are also in it.
(This got a limited release opening in a few major markets last weekend, probably because the studio knew it would be BURIED this weekend by "Twilight". It expands to 1,500 theaters nationwide this weekend.)
#3.) "The Silver Linings Playbook" (R) Trailer 1 and Trailer 2
Bradley Cooper is a guy with anger management issues, and Jennifer Lawrence from "The Hunger Games" is a widow who agrees to help him win back his cheating ex-wife, as long as he'll be her partner in a dance competition.
Robert De Niro plays his dad, and Chris Tucker plays his best friend.
#4.) "Anna Karenina" (R) Trailer (Limited)
It stars Keira Knightley as a Russian aristocrat having an affair with an Army officer. Jude Law plays her uncaring husband, and Aaron Johnson from "Kick-Ass" is Count Vronsky, the immoral officer who seduces her.
It's based on the classic novel by Leo Tolstoy. There have been a few film adaptations over the years, so this one sets itself apart by setting the majority of the action in a theater. (You can learn more about that in this featurette.)
As for the previous versions, Greta Garbo played Anna in 1935 and "Gone With the Wind's" Vivien Leigh did it in 1948. Jacqueline Bisset played her opposite Christopher Reeve in a 1985 TV movie. And Bond minx Sophie Marceau played Anna for another TV movie opposite "Lord of the Rings" star Sean Bean in 1997. Sean Connery even played the Count in a 1961 TV movie version that starred some chick named Claire Bloom. She later went on to play Hera in the Harry Hamlin version of "Clash of the Titans".