Tune In Tuesday

Director Patricia Riggen delivers a heartwarming debut with UNDER THE SAME MOON. The story of the enduring bond between mother and son, the film stars Kate del Castillo as Rosario, a mother struggling to support her family in Mexico while living illegally in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, her son, Carlitos (Adrian Alonso), is left under the care of his grandmother. But when she dies, nine-year-old Carlitos embarks on a colorful and arduous journey across the border in search of his mother. The script has Carlitos narrowly escaping kidnapping, drug addicts, and Border Patrol workers, aided by the unlikely friendships he forges along the way. As we watch Rosario grapple with life as an illegal immigrant in Los Angeles, Carlitos’s optimism and strength of spirit gain him a migrant worker (Eugenio Derbez) as a traveling companion.

Riggen keeps a potentially depressing topic surprisingly light by including frequent musical interludes, and cinematographer Checco Varese takes care to create a visual journey that’s stunning throughout. America Ferrera (UGLY BETTY, REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES) appears in a small role, but it is 13-year-old Alonso who steals the show as the brave, funny, and precocious Carlitos. Apart from the subtitles, the film offers family viewing for parents and children alike. While it touches on timely and pressing issues concerning immigration and discrimination, the film, which won a standing ovation at the Sundance Film Festival, works on a simpler level as well by focusing primarily on the sweet relationship between a mother and her son. (1 hr. 49 min.)

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Having proven themselves a magnetic pair in 2003’s HOW TO LOSE A GUY IN 10 DAYS, Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey team up once again as two fun-loving, bickering exes in this action-packed, violent, and sexy treasure hunt. Part romantic comedy, part deep-sea diving adventure, FOOL’S GOLD is set in the beautiful seas and sunny shores of Key West, where Tess (Hudson) and Finn (McConaughey) are set to meet for divorce proceedings. Fed up with Finn’s money-squandering lifestyle, Tess can’t wait to be rid of him so she can return to the academic pursuits she abandoned seven years earlier, when the two lovebirds embarked on a romantic globe-spanning hunt for rumored treasure. But as fate would have it, Tess just happens to work aboard a yacht owned by Nigel Honeycutt (Donald Sutherland), the same rich man Finn has his sights on as a prospective benefactor for his latest diving debacle. Suspecting this, Tess encourages Nigel to sail off as soon as the divorce papers are in her hands, but their departure is delayed when Nigel’s spoiled heiress daughter, Gemma (Alexis Dziena), arrives. Using his sex appeal and daredevil charm, Finn maneuvers his way aboard the ship and into Gemma’s heart, not even knowing that Tess, whom he hopes to win back, is also on deck. Once the secret is out, the two must decide whether to part ways or to use a fresh clue to find the treasure they’ve been seeking for a decade. With Gemma’s youthful naivet

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Ryan Reynolds stars as an uptight family man whose careful life is suddenly thrown into upheaval in this quirky romantic comedy. Directed by Marco Siega (PRETTY PERSUASION), the film opens with Frank (Reynolds) counseling his daughter’s fianc

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Music-video-director-turned-auteur Michel Gondry continues to charm with his low-tech offering, BE KIND REWIND. Set in dreary Passaic, New Jersey, the comedy centers on two of the town’s residents: trouble-making Jerry (Jack Black) and well-meaning Mike (Mos Def). Mike works in a video store in an age where the VHS is long dead, but the store’s owner, Mr. Fletcher (Danny Glover), doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to change. When Mr. Fletcher leaves town for a trip, he entrusts his store to Mike with one piece of advice: don’t let Jerry in the store. But after some mischief, Jerry returns to the store in a strange state. Not only is he weirder than usual, but he’s also magnetized, which causes the entire store’s stock to be erased. In order to keep the struggling business afloat, Mike and Jerry begin remaking the films in the store one by one. Their hilariously low-budget versions of films such as GHOSTBUSTERS and RUSH HOUR 2 soon begin to draw attention and business to the store, but that creates a whole new set of problems for the pair.

Though Gondry’s three previous fiction films–HUMAN NATURE, ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, and THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP–were all essentially love stories, BE KIND REWIND captures another kind of romance. Both the writer-director and his characters are in love with the cinematic medium itself, and their devotion shows. BE KIND REWIND doesn’t reach the heights of ETERNAL SUNSHINE, but it doesn’t seem to be aiming for that genius. This is simply a hilarious comedy, fun for film fans of all stripes, which celebrates the sheer joy of watching and making films. (1 hr. 41 min.)

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Actor-comedian Martin Lawrence (BAD BOYS, BIG MOMMA’S HOUSE) aims for the heartstrings and funny bones in WELCOME HOME ROSCOE JENKINS, a raucous helping of family soul food. Lawrence plays R.J. Stevens (in truth, Roscoe Steven Jenkins), a Hollywood self-help sensation whose fame has netted him a reality television star fianc

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The doctor is in–and he’s out of control! With a whole new round of depraved experiments to test out, Dr. Hirasaka puts his staff of sexy nurses through an erotic ordeal in this latest addition to the steamy anime series.

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Director Thomas Mignone helms this distressing tale, which follows several victims of child abuse as they try to make sense of their adult lives. Brittany Snow (JOHN TUCKER MUST DIE) stars as Balery, a young prostitute whose clients like to indulge in some twisted perversions. Balery’s life overlaps with a number of other young adults who endured a similarly tortuous upbringing, and are trying (and failing) to put the past behind them. Mignone combines some impressive visual effects with brutal interactions between Balery and her clients to tell this unsettling story.

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As if it wasn’t enough of a surprise for young FBI agent Henry Durand (Colin Hanks) to find his dowdy mother Martha (Meg Ryan) has transformed into a sexy and sophisticated woman in the three years he hasn’t seen her, it seems “Marty,” as she now calls herself, has a mysterious new boyfriend named Tommy (Antonio Banderas). Work comes crashing back into Henry’s life in an unexpected way…because Tommy is the FBI’s number one suspect in an international art theft ring! Ordered to spy on the target, Henry is going to see a lot more of his mother than he ever wanted to see. Selma Blair also stars in this madcap comedy.

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Doug Benson (BEST WEEK EVER) forgets the rule about “everything in moderation,” and decides to get high for 30 days in a row

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The adventures of J and K, two federal agents aka, The Men in Black, who are assigned to investigate all alien related phenomena. The agents uncover an intergalactic plot to assasinate two ambassadors from opposing galaxies who happen to reside in New York City. Jay and Kay’s mission is to foil the plot by tracking down the terrorist, thereby preventing the earth from being destroyed. (1 hr. 38 min.)

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