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FLUSHED AWAY is the latest collaboration between DreamWorks and Aardman, the studio that created WALLACE & GROMIT, however this is the first time Aardman has made a CG feature, having used clay stop-motion animation in the past.

Roddy (Hugh Jackman, X-MEN series) is a posh pet rat that lives in Kensington. One day while his owners are away, a fat, disgusting sewer rat named, Sid (Shame Richie) comes bubbling up from the kitchen sink. Events transpire which lead to Roddy getting flushed down the toilet. Now in the sewer, Roddy discovers an entire city of rats. In an effort to get back home, he teams with the cockney boat captain Rita (Kate Winslet, TITANIC), who Roddy accidentally creates a great deal of trouble for with the gangster The Toad (Ian McKellen, GODS & MONSTERS) and his rat thugs Spike (Andy Serkis, KING KONG) and Whitey (Bill Nighy, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN’S CHEST). As Roddy and Rita make their way to the above world, The Frog sends assassins after them to recover a stolen item that is key to his devilish master plan. At one point he has to call in the services of his French cousin Le Frog (Jean Reno, THE PROFESSIONAL) and his kung-fu henchmen to hunt down his missing power cable.

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Set primarily during the week between Princess Diana’s death and her funeral, this intimate portrait follows the differing reactions of Queen Elizabeth II and her subjects to the tragic event. Helen Mirren (GOSFORD PARK), playing The Queen, gives a simply remarkable performance that will be hard to top come awards season. However, her stellar performance does not overshadow the wonderful work of her co-star Michael Sheen (UNDERWORLD series), who plays the newly elected prime minister Tony Blair.

After the tragic death of Diana, the United Kingdom went into shock. Blair quickly made a statement calling Diana the People’s Princess while The Queen opted to keep the matter private, because Diana was no longer a royal. The unprecedented situation posed difficult questions in regards to what traditions to keep and which ones to bend. Prince Philip (James Cromwell, BABE) and the Queen Mother (Sylvia Syms, I’LL SLEEP WHEN I’M DEAD) steadfastly wanted to follow precedent while Diana’s former husband Prince Charles (Alex Jennings, BRIDGET JONES: EDGE OF REASON) understands that the celebrity-obsessed Britons want more than stoic tradition in this time of grief. At first, Blair agrees with his wife Cherie (Helen McCrory, CASANOVA) that the royal obsession with formal tradition seems far out of touch with the modern society.

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If Clint Eastwood had never acted and only directed, he’d still have made a huge impact on the landscape of cinema. FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS is the largest canvas he has painted on, delivering a thought-provoking and touching examination of what makes a hero.

The film deconstructs the iconic photograph of the flag raising on Iwo Jima. It happened at a time during WWII when support for the war was waning and money was running out to fund it. So the government called on the surviving men in the photograph to come home and tour the country, pushing the sale of war bonds to the public. The three survivors were John “Doc” Bradley (Ryan Phillippe, CRASH), Rene Gagnon (Jesse Bradford, HACKERS) and Ira Hayes (Adam Beach, SMOKE SIGNALS).

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Martin Scorsese is one of the all time greats and even when he’s working at half his game he still makes better films than 90% of the filmmakers working today. This film represents his most successful film since CASINO. He is the master of the crime drama and proves it once again.

Taking only the core themes from the Chinese film, INFERNAL AFFAIRS, Scorsese and screenwriter William Monahan (KINGDOM OF HEAVEN) craft a cat and mouse drama that takes on the stature of epic tragedy in the end. Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon, THE BOURNE IDENTITY) and Bill Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio, THE AVIATOR) were both born in the same poor neighborhood in Boston. However, they took different paths to the police academy.

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