Opening Soon

HK PICKS
Get Smart
(USA) Steve Carell plays bumbling agent Maxwell Smart in this resurrection of Mel Brooks’ classic TV spoof of the CIA. Opens
Aug 7.

Doraemon
(Japan) An enhanced update of the 1984 anime film starring everyone’s favorite robotic cat, known better locally as Ding Dong. Opens Aug 7.

The Fox and The Child
(France) “March of the Penguins” director Luc Jacquet returns with another nature picture for the kids, this time about a special friendship between a young girl and a fox. Opens Aug 7.

La Lingerie
(Hong Kong) Stephy Tang stars in this chick-flick about the misadventures in love of four young regulars at a local lingerie shop. Directed by Chan Hing-kar. Also starring Kate Tsui, Janice Man, Ronald Cheng. Opens Aug 8.

Opening

HK PICKS
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
(USA) Jet Li plays an ancient Chinese emperor who returns from the dead to try and enslave the modern world, in another resurrection of the blockbuster many critics believe should have been left buried. Also starring Michelle Yeoh, Isabella Leong. Opened Jul 31. AMC, BC, MCL, UA

Continuing

Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead
(USA) Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke play two brothers who organize a jewellry store robbery that sends them hurtling towards disaster, and worse. Directed by Sidney Lumet. Also starring Albert Finney. PPPP BC, MCL

The Dark Knight
(USA) See Christian Bale, Heath Ledger and the SAR at their darkest in the Batman film everybody’s been waiting for. Directed by Christopher Nolan. Also starring Aaron Eckhart. PPPPP AMC, BC, BEA IMAX, MCL, UA

Ensemble, C’est Tout
(France) Another bittersweet Parisian romance starring Audrey Tautou, this time as an aspiring artist who moves in with a young aristocrat and his womanizing roommate. Directed by Claude Berri. Also starring Guillaume Canet, Laurent Stocker. PPP BC

I Served the King of England
(Czech Republic) Jiri Menzel’s Czech comedy about a provincial waiter determined to become a millionaire skewers the decadence of pre-war Europe. Starring Ivan Barnev, Julia Jentsch. BC, MCL

Kung Fu Panda
(USA) Jackie Chan and Jack Black do the voices for this epic animation about a lazy panda who becomes the martial arts savior of his local village in ancient China. Directed by Mark Osborne, John Stevenson. PPPP AMC, BC, BEA IMAX, MCL, UA

Red Cliff
(China) John Woo finally returns with the most expensive Asian film ever. Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Takeshi Kaneshiro and Zhang Fengyi battle it out at the heart of the AD 208 war that laid the borders of the Three Kingdoms. Also starring Chang Chen, Hu Jun. PP AMC, BC, MCL, UA

Sketches of Frank Gehry
(USA) See review, opposite. BC

Space Chimps
(USA) The grandson of the first monkey in space is sent to retrieve a wayward spacecraft in this bananas computer animation. Directed by Kirk De Micco. Starring Andy Samberg, Jeff Daniels. English version at UA Times Square only, Cantonese at AMC, BC, MCL, UA

The X Files: I Want to Believe
(USA) See review, p.32. AMC, BC, MCL, UA

Wall-E
(USA) Critics everywhere are going all warm and fuzzy over Pixar’s latest animation, about a relationship between two futuristic robots with more humanity than most Hollywood romances these days. Directed by Andrew Stanton. PPP AMC, BC, MCL, UA

Arthouse

bc Sunday
HK PICKS
Kika
(Spain, 1993) Sex, violence and melodrama pervade this classic Almodovar offering, perhaps remembered most for the character of the TV host from hell, Andrea Scarface. Starring Veronica Forque, Peter Coyote, Victoria Abril. Tickets $45 from Urbtix. Sun, Aug 3, 12:15pm. Broadway Cinematheque
InDPanda

The annual international short film festival. Through Aug 13. Tickets $55 from venue or www.cinema.com.hk. Screenings at Broadway Cinematheque.
Best Shorts of the Berlin International Film Festival 2008
Nine winning shorts at this year’s festival. Sat, Aug 2, 9:40pm.

Best Of HKAPA 2008
Three of the top shorts made by film students at the Academy of Performing Arts. Fri, Aug 1, 7:40pm.

HK PICKS
Focus On New Talent: Boo Jun-feng
Look out for one of Singapore’s most prolific short filmmakers at this screening of his films about male youth and coming of age. Fri, Aug 1, 9:40pm. 

Agnes Varda: Love Letter to Paris
Six shorts by the French Rive Gauche filmmaker and feminist. Sat, Aug 2, 8pm.

Little Touching Lovely Stories
Nine touching but cute animations, including two from Hong Kong. Sun, Aug 3, 5:55pm.

Love the Same
Three gay and lesbian love shorts. Tue, Aug 5, 9:40pm.

Fantastic Parasuicides
Three shorts by different directors about being saved from suicide. Tue, Aug 5, 7:50pm.

Too Beautiful To Last
Two Japanese gay shorts about teen love. Thu, Aug 7, 9:30pm.

Alone in a Journey
Five short thrillers from around the world. Thu, Aug 7, 7:40pm.

International Children’s Film Carnival
Through Aug 17. Tickets $44 from Urbtix. See www.lcsd.gov.hk.

Desmond and the Swamp Barbarian Tap
(Sweden, 2006) Sweden’s first stop-motion animation feature, about a pig and his friends living in fear of a nearby swamp monster. Fri, Aug 1, 7:30pm.  Science Museum

World Animation and Shorts
(International) Short films for children, from Sweden, Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea. Sat, Aug 2, 2:30pm. Film Archive

Little Soldier
(China, 2007) Animation following the journey of a young boy in WWII-era China who joins the Eighth Route Army to fight the Japanese invasion. Sat, Aug 2, 7:30pm. Science Museum

A Tale of Two Mozzies
(Denmark, 2007) A musical animation about two mosquitoes in love. Sun, Aug 3, 2:30pm.

Little Heroes
(Israel, 2006) The story of three children who embark on an incredible journey to save two friends trapped in an accident. Sun, Aug 3, 5pm.

Piano Forest
(Japan, 2007) Based on the Japanese comic book, this story of two boys and a magical piano in the woods features music performed by Russian prodigy Vladimir Ashkenazy. Sun, Aug 3, 7:30pm.