by Inlander Staff & r & Brokeback Mountain -- Everybody's talking about "the gay cowboy movie," with Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger as longtime lovers who try to keep the secret from their wives. Most folks are saying good things about Ang Lee's first film since Hulk. But the film runs too slow, and the story doesn't offer enough explanation of motivation. Beautiful scenery and a great performance by Michelle Williams really isn't enough. And Gyllenhaal's mustache looks ridiculous. (ES) Rated R
Casanova -- Between this and The Libertine, we're up to our elbows in man-whores this winter. Lasse Hallstr & ouml;m needs to get back to his Chocolat form after the disappointing An Unfinished Life, and he's employing Heath Ledger to do it. Ledger as Casanova? We're not convinced either. You can bet there'll be some swashbuckling and maiden-bedding on the way to Casanova finding the one thing that has always eluded him: his true love. See this with Brokeback and make your weekend a lusty, bisexual Ledger double feature. Rated R
Grandma's Boy -- Get this: A 36-year-old compulsive videogame player's roommate has a weakness for Filipino hookers, and spends all his rent money on them, leaving 36-year-old guy to get evicted, forcing him to move in with his grandmother and her two friends. Sounds like the first half of a joke, not a feature length film premise. Rated R
Hostel -- Quentin Tarantino's produced a pretty diverse range of films, far more broad than those he's actually directed (in order: gangsters, gangsters, old gangsters, martial arts gangsters). This one's a horror flick, but no one knows much more than that. It's an Eli Roth joint, the director who earned some notoriety with the alone in the woods horror homage Cabin Fever. All anyone knows about this film is that it's about backpackers, it's set in a European hostel and people's toes get cut off. Rated R
Bloodrayne -- Uwe Boll directs nothing but videogame adaptations. He does so very, very poorly. Bloodrayne is the latest such adaptation and is, by all early accounts, very poor. Bloodrayne is a dhampir (half-human, half-vampire), much like Blade who -- also much like Blade -- hates full-blood vampires and wants to kill them. Rated R