This week's premieres
photo: Continental Film
Troy (Trója) - Action/Drama by Wolfgang Petersen. Few stories seem better suited for the big Hollywood treatment than this one, which draws inspiration from Homer's epic poem The Iliad. A long, fierce war fought over a beautiful woman - it's a Hollywood producer's dream come true. Helen (Diane Kruger) is wooed away from the king of Sparta by Prince Paris of Troy (Orlando Bloom). The king doesn't like this very much, so he gets Achilles (Brad Pitt) to lead a large-scale attack to destroy Troy and retrieve his woman. But Hector of Troy (Eric Bana) aims to stop him. Romance? Check. Epic battle sequences? Of course. Pretty young people? Plenty. Respected English actors to lend the film credibility? Oh yes - Peter O'Toole and Julie Christie, no less. What remains uncertain is whether the director,
photo: Tatrafilm
Petersen, can pull it all off; he hasn't made a good film in a decade (In the Line of Fire), and hadn't made any good ones for a decade before that (The Neverending Story, Das Boot). The summer blockbuster season opens on a suspenseful note.
Other movies playing
Van Helsing - Action/Horror by Stephen Sommers. Transylvania apparently has a monster problem. So the vampire slayer of Bram Stoker's Dracula, Van Helsing (Hugh Jackman, Wolverine from the X-Men films), comes to the rescue. He battles the likes of Count Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, and the Wolfman with assistance from the corseted Anna Valerious (Kate Beckinsale, who was last seen in Underworld as a vampire with a fondness for leather bodysuits).
photo: Itafilm
Secret Window (Tajomné okno)- Thriller by David Koepp. Two of our best actors - Johnny Depp and John Turturro - star in this adaptation of a Stephen King story. Depp's deadpan humour may come through occasionally, but it cannot save this film from its painfully obvious, exhausted fate. To make matters even worse, Turturro's manic talent is completely wasted.
Levity (Muž, ktorý zabil) - Drama by Ed Solomon. Veteran action/comedy writer Ed Solomon (Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, Men in Black, Charlie's Angels) shows promise of good things to come in his big screen directorial debut.
photo: SPI International
This story of a repentant murderer (Billy Bob Thornton) who reluctantly re-enters the straight world may be a bit too self-consciously heavy, but it has a quiet grace that stays with you all the same. Also starring Holly Hunter, Kirsten Dunst, and Morgan Freeman.
Prepared by Jonathan Knapp
