Movies in Theaters This Friday, November 14, 2014: Dumb and Dumber To, Foxcatcher, Beyond the Lights, and More
After perhaps the biggest battle of the year (Interstellar vs. Big Hero 6) and sandwiched between that matchup and the looming presence of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, you’d think this weekend would be a little lighter on the releases.
And while that’s true to a certain degree, I’d still consider this weekend to have a formidable line-up.
It all starts with Dumb and Dumber To – the long-awaited sequel to what is now considered almost a cult classic. Sure there was the Dumb and Dumberer movie but that doesn’t really count. Dumb and Dumber To, on the other hand, updates us on perhaps the most dysfunctional friendship of all-time. If Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels aren’t enough for you, how about a cameo from Jennifer Lawrence? That should do it.
The only other wide release is Beyond the Lights starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Belle), Nate Parker (Red Tails), and Minnie Driver (Good Will Hunting).
However, for my money, the biggest release is in perhaps the smallest market. Bennett Miller’s (Moneyball) real-life drama Foxcatcher finally debuts this weekend. It promises to be one of the biggest cogs in the awards season machine. However, despite all this, most markets will have to wait for it to expand.
Lastly, I wanted to point out Jon Stewart’s directorial debut, Rosewater, also makes its way to limited theaters. It’s also based on a remarkable true story.
The rest of the releases are: Always Woodstock, Bad Turn Worse, Beside Still Waters, Drug Lord: The Legend of Shorty, The Homesman (directed and starring Tommy Lee Jones), Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas, Miss Meadows, Occupy the Farm, Red Army, and Wolves.
Enjoy whichever movie you see!
Beyond the Lights is the story of Noni, the music world’s latest superstar. But not all is what it seems, and the pressures of fame have Noni on the edge – until she meets Kaz Nicol, a young cop and aspiring politician who has been assigned to her detail. Drawn to each other, Noni and Kaz fall fast and hard, despite the protests of those around them who urge them to put their career ambitions ahead of their romance. But it is ultimately Kaz’s love that gives Noni the courage to find her own voice and break free to become the artist she was meant to be.
Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels reprise their signature roles as Lloyd and Harry in the sequel to the smash hit that took the physical comedy and kicked it in the nuts: Dumb and Dumber To. The original film’s directors, Peter and Bobby Farrelly, take Lloyd and Harry on a road trip to find a child Harry never knew he had and the responsibility neither should ever, ever be given. In theaters November 14.
When Neurotic, struggling songwriter, Catherine Brown’s life in New York City falls apart, she is forced to confront her past when she spends the summer at her childhood home in Woodstock, New York, learning that becoming successful means becoming your true self first.
Three Texas teens hope to make a break for it and escape their dead-end existence in a cotton-mill town but get sucked into the seedy underbelly of organized crime when one of them steals from the wrong man.
Daniel Thatcher, a young romantic, has recently lost both of his parents in a car accident. None of his friends came to the funeral, and now he’s losing the family home. The weekend before he has to move out, Daniel hosts a memorial celebration and insists that his friends attend. In addition, Daniel invites his ex-girlfriend, Olivia, to the house, with the hopes of rekindling their old romance.
Things quickly take a turn for the worse as none of his friends share in Daniel’s nostalgia of the good old days. Furthermore, when Olivia finally arrives, she’s brought her new fiance. But as the night progresses, the house brings out the adolescence in all of them, and what follows is an evening full of drinking and dancing. Laughter and secrets. Sex, drugs, mischief and regret.
The next day everyone must face the revelations of the night before, none more so than Daniel, who finally confronts his friends about their absence at his parents’ funeral. Once again, Daniel finds himself alone and brokenhearted. He has to let go of the past. He has to mourn. He has to forgive. In doing so, Daniel begins to see that the flaws in the people he loves are intertwined with their beauty. As everyone prepares to leave the house for the last time, their childhood memories come flooding back to them, and Daniel is left with the hope that the friendships of his past will become the family of his future.
Drug Lord: The Legend of Shorty
A documentary that chronicles the hunt for the notorious Mexican drug lord El Chapo.
Based on true events, Foxcatcher tells the dark and fascinating story of the unlikely and ultimately tragic relationship between an eccentric multi-millionaire and two champion wrestlers. When Olympic Gold Medal winning wrestler Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum) is invited by wealthy heir John du Pont (Steve Carell) to move on to the du Pont estate and help form a team to train for the 1988 Seoul Olympics at his new state-of-the-art training facility, Schultz jumps at the opportunity, hoping to focus on his training and finally step out of the shadow of his revered brother, Dave (Mark Ruffalo). Driven by hidden needs, du Pont sees backing Schultz’s bid for Gold and the chance to “coach” a world-class wrestling team as an opportunity to gain the elusive respect of his peers and, more importantly, his disapproving mother (Vanessa Redgrave). Flattered by the attention and entranced by du Pont’s majestic world, Mark comes to see his benefactor as a father figure and grows increasingly dependent on him for approval. Though initially supportive, du Pont’s mercurial personality turns and he begins to lure Mark into an unhealthy lifestyle that threatens to undermine his training. Soon du Pont’s erratic behavior and cruel psychological game-play begin to erode the athlete’s already shaky self-esteem. Meanwhile du Pont becomes fixated on Dave, who exudes the confidence both he and Mark lack, knowing that these are things even his money cannot buy. Fueled by du Pont’s increasing paranoia and alienation from the brothers, the trio is propelled towards a tragedy no one could have foreseen.
Tommy Lee Jones is directing and starring in the feature film THE HOMESMAN, along with Hilary Swank, Miranda Otto, John Lithgow, Tim Blake Nelson and Meryl Streep. The Western based on the novel by Glendon Swarthout is shooting in New Mexico.
Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas
This Christmas, have your family join with Kirk Cameron’s family and dive headfirst into all the joy, dancing, celebration, feasting, imagination, and traditions that glorify the true “reason for the season.” KIRK CAMERON’S SAVING CHRISTMAS is an engaging story that provides a biblical basis for our time-honored traditions and celebrations, and the inspiration to stand strongly against a culture that wants to trivialize and eliminate the faith elements of this holy season. So take in the splendor; take in the majesty; take in the story. Take it all in… and let’s put Christ back in Christmas! KIRK CAMERON’S SAVING CHRISTMAS is in theaters for a limited engagement beginning November 14 for two weeks only!
Prim schoolteacher Miss Meadows (Katie Holmes) is not entirely what she appears. Well-mannered, sweet, and caring, yes, but underneath the candy-sweet exterior hides the soul of a vigilante, taking it upon herself to right the wrongs in this cruel world by whatever means necessary. Things get complicated, however, when Miss Meadows gets romantically entangled with the town sheriff (James Badge Dale) and her steadfast moral compass is thrown off, begging the question: “Who is the real Miss Meadows and what is she hiding?”
On Earth Day April 22, 2012, I received a text: a couple hundred urban farmers were marching onto ten plus acres of fallow farmland and the site of a former agricultural research center known as the Gill Tract. The farmers hoped to stop development of a shopping mall and condo complex on the site of the former research station, and de-rail plans that threatened to remove the class one agricultural land from farming. The activists brought with them 16,000 seedlings, roto tillers, shovels and tents. Within a few hours, they’d planted an acre of vegetables, put up a big banner that read: Occupy the Farm, and set up a tent village to defend the crops.
Red Army is a feature documentary about the Soviet Union and the most successful dynasty in sports history: the Red Army hockey team. Told from the perspective of its captain Slava Fetisov, the story portrays his transformation from national hero to political enemy. From the USSR to Russia, the film examines how sport mirrors social and cultural movements and parallels the rise and fall of the Red Army team with the Soviet Union.
The feature film Rosewater is based on The New York Times best-selling memoir “Then They Came for Me: A Family’s Story of Love, Captivity, and Survival,” written by the BBC journalist Maziar Bahari. A true story, the film marks the screenwriting and directorial debut of “The Daily Show” host and executive producer Jon Stewart, and stars Gael García Bernal, leading an international cast. Rosewater is produced by Scott Rudin, Stewart, and Gigi Pritzker, with Lila Yacoub, Eli Bush and Chris McShaneserving as executive producers.
Rosewater follows the Tehran-born Bahari, a 42-year-old broadcast journalist with Canadian citizenship living in London. In June 2009, Bahari returned to Iran to interview Mir-Hossein Moussavi, who was the prime challenger to controversial incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. As Moussavi’s supporters rose up to protest Ahmadinejad’s victory declaration hours before the polls closed on election day, Bahari endured great personal risk by submitting camera footage of the unfolding street riots to the BBC. Bahari was soon arrested by Revolutionary Guard police, led by a man identifying himself only as “Rosewater,” who proceeded to torture and interrogate the journalist over the next 118 days.
In October 2009, with Bahari’s wife leading an international campaign from London to have her husband freed, and Western media outlets including “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” continuing to keep the story alive, Iranian authorities released Bahari on $300,000 bail and the promise he would act as a spy for the government.
Rosewater has a direct connection to Stewart, who since taking over as host of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” in 1999, has turned the nightly half-hour satirical look at newsmakers and news-coverers into not only a perennial Emmy-winning juggernaut, but also an important touchstone on the zeitgeist. Stewart and “The Daily Show” covered Bahari’s saga nightly and had the journalist appear on the show to talk about his ordeal once he was released from prison.
The coming-of-age story of Cayden Richards. Forced to hit the road after the murder of his parents, Cayden wanders, lost, without purpose… Until he meets a certifiable lunatic named Wild Joe, who sets him on a path to the ominous town of Lupine Ridge, to hunt down the truths of his history. But in the end, who’s really hunting whom?
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