The List: 4/9/10

There's little doubt that Date Night will pack more than a few laughs thanks to the brilliant comic chops of it's two leads: Steve Carell and Tina Fey. The supporting cast is phenomenal, including Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis, and James Franco(I'm leaving you out on purpose, Common). The question comes with director Shawn Levy, who's spent the better part of the last few years making re-animated historical figures somehow uninteresting with his Night at the Museum flicks. I can't imagine even he could screw this up, though. And is it me, or is Tina Fey looking sexier than ever lately? Here's hoping she's more Liz Lemon in 30 Rock than whoever that character was she played in Baby Mama.

Expect a review of this one later today, but the majority of the buzz surrounding The Runaways has little to do with the story surrounding the 1970s all-girl rock band. It has to do with the two leads: Kristen Stewart takes a break from palling around with vampires to play the hard edged lead guitarist, Joan Jett. Dakota Fanning tarts it up as the angelic vocalist, Cherrie Currie. Considering Jett is serving as a producer and the film is based on Currie's book, expect these two to get the bulk of the story's attention despite the fact that Currie was in the band a relatively short time compared to others.

Ciaran Hinds(Munich, Rome) stars as a widower who believes he is seeing ghosts, specifically those of his ex-wife. Unsure whether or not to believe his own eyes, he becomes romantically involved with a writer(High Fidelity's Iben Hjejle) specializing in the supernatural. Through their relationship, she begins to help him figure out the truth of what is happening. However their relationship is threatened by the presence of her obsessive ex(Aidan Quinn), who will do anything in his power to break them up. Not sure what to make of this one. The supernatural stuff doesn't seem like it fits well with the love triangle, but I'll basically sign on to anything Hinds is  attached to.

My first impression is that you should do yourself a favor and go rent or buy the similarly themed Red Cliff on DVD. Another massive, violent epic, Warlords stars Jet Li as a general who forms a blood pact with two bandit leaders(Andy Lau and Red Cliff's Takeshi Kaneshiro) to lead a civil war during the Taiping Rebellion in the 1860s. I feel like I've seen this movie a dozen times over the last few years, but I expect Li and Lau especially to make this one a cut above the rest.

A quick note to remind people to go check out the new film, Toe to Toe, at Landmark E Street Cinema. It's been extended for another week, and is one of the finest examples of local filmmaking I've seen in quite some time. We were lucky enough to have the film's writer/director, Emily Abt, on our show last night and she provided some remarkable insights into the story. You definitely won't be disappointed.