Based on Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight follow-up, The Host trades sparkling skin for bizarro eyes and Kristen Stewart for an actress you don’t want to kick down a flight of stairs. When Earth is invaded by an advanced race of brain parasites, there are only a small number of sexy teens left to fight for the fate of mankind. Damn those brain slugs and their technological advancements and betterment of society. They won’t get away with that!

7 photosDiane Kruger

Nemo Nobody (Jared Leto) narrates apparently from the morgue, although he dies several different deaths in an opening montage. Actually, he’s the last living mortal in 2092, about to die of natural causes at age 118. Everyone else has quasi-immortality thanks to stem cell compatible pigs they carry, I assume to regenerate any failing organs.

Old Nemo tells his life story to a reporter. Early on he introduces the concept of the butterfly effect, only Nemo lives every possible outcome at the same time. There are three different women he loves, each as teens and as adults, has different kids with each and he either lives with his mother or father after their divorce. There are more permutations so I lost count, but you totally follow them all.

I relate to most movies by thinking about my past. Mr. Nobody has me evaluating my future. What if we could experience every possible choice we have to make in life? The transitions are seamless. Often the realities change through a matching object in both worlds, but whatever the transition, we know exactly where we are.

Writer/director Jaco van Dormael gets trippy like nothing Fincher, Aronofsky, Malick or Bergman have done. A scene where street signs and mirrors guide Nemo is amazing. Nemo’s footsteps appear ahead of him. Primordial babies choose which parents to be conceived under. Helicopters drop cubes of ocean into the surf. A scene jitters as Nemo’s typewriter jams, as if he’s writing it, and that’s the only time it happens. You’ll see the old Monty Python foot stomping gag in live action!

All of Nemo’s lives are painful. No matter what he chooses, he experiences heartbreak, death of loved ones, his own death, and clinical depression. My future seems brighter, but the film makes the strong point that every experience is worthwhile. The goal isn’t to choose the easiest path. It’s to LIVE.

The ultimate explanation may be more obvious than you expect, but the exploration of the concept is so profound, that’s the mind-blower. You could say it’s memory, where every permutation of our life can exist in our visualization, but I think it’s even deeper metaphysically. As Anna (Diane Kruger) suggests, there could be a cosmic event that crunches every timeline together simultaneously.

The finale totally gives you a new way to look at the film so you could see it again knowing different information. I could write this review again after everyone’s seen the film, so we can talk about that perspective. That’s what the film wants, to get us thinking beyond beginning to end, but I still live in that world. I can only imagine the nonlinear experience of Mr. Nobody.

And for whatever reason, these parts are being sought by a variety of actresses in Hollywood. For the first part, the one originated by Sharon Stone, Kate Bosworth and Diane Kruger (Inglourious Basterds) are said to be reading. For the second part, real love-interest, has Eva Mendes and Paula Patton rumored to be interested. Keep in mind this is all just rumor, and these names aren’t the only ones in contention for these parts. The article at Deadline also mentions Eva Green and Jessica Biel. So, yeah, if you’re looking for a way to impress girls, stage a remake of a Phillip K. Dick adaptation from years ago. Blade Runner would make the chicks go wild!

Unknown is not just a mediocre action movie. It’s actually bad. The thinking must have been: Liam Neeson was awesome in Taken. Let’s put him in another one. What have we got?

We meet Dr. Martin Harris (Liam Neeson) and his wife Liz (January Jones) vaguely enough as a traveling couple on an airplane and checking into a hotel. Not so close that we assume too much, but definitely established as a couple. Then Martin has to go back to the airport because he left a bag there. Isn’t that the plot of Police Academy V? I mean, without the suitcase switch, but come on!

Martin’s cab has an accident, he wakes up in the hospital and when he goes back to the hotel, Liz doesn’t recognize him and there’s another Dr. Harris (Aidan Quinn). Was everything we saw before a false memory? No, there are dudes trying to kill him so he has to beat them up.

The story only needs to be enough to set up the chase, but it is aggressively stupid. The details that make Martin suspicious are blatantly contrived. He tries to check back into the Eisenhower suite because he wasn’t there when the clerk told Liz it was booked. Martin tries to prove he’s the real Dr. Harris while the imposter recites the exact same backstory simultaneously. It’s like grown men playing that childish game of repeating everything the other one says.

It travels on such a cliché arc, it’s like an episode of “South Park” spoofing a movie like Unknown. When he sees the new Dr. Harris’s photo at the university website, the music practically booms: “Da dun duuuuuuuh!” Also, the U.S. Embassy is closed for Thanksgiving so he can’t clear anything up. Oh, and when the first knock at the door is a friend, the second knock is obviously the bad guys so check the peep hole before you assume your friend came back.

The danger is so banal. Martin escapes from a hospital half drugged by bad guys. It’s more of a stumble than a chase. There’s a crowbar fight, so if men whacking each other with metal rods sounds exciting, this is the movie for you. A car chase through Berlin is no more than a few collisions strung together. In one scene, a villain hides in a van just waiting for a stunt to happen. What’s he hanging around for? He could just get away!

Perhaps the biggest problem is that the film is so focused on how an organization could perpetrate this deception. The how is not interesting. What’s interesting is what it does to someone when their memory is questioned and their life is replaced. Unknown doesn’t explore that (it doesn’t count when Martin gets mad. He doesn’t reflect.) Unknown only uses memory as the plot needs, so Martin can remember a combination at the right time or something, never to build any real suspense.

Anyway, there’s no more information on the nature of the role, like whether she will be the main villain or not. This is also interesting, considering Snyder has previously denied that General Zod was going to be in the movie. Maybe Ursa is flying solo? I have to admit that “Kneel before Ursa!” is really doing it for me. (via SlashFilm)

With limey bastard Henry Cavill as Supes, the girls up for this big mystery part are Diane Kruger (Inglourious Basterds), Rosamund Pike (Surrogates) and Alice Eve (She’s Out of My League). It’s hard to say who’d be right for the part, because the role is more mysterious sounding than The Phantom Zone. They’re all sufficiently blonde and bombshellish, so all we know for now is that the parade of beautiful women continues in-and-out of Snyder’s office. Zack Snyder, you tricky cad. (FirstShowing)

Director: Jaume Collet-Serra

Cast: Liam Neeson, January Jones, Diane Kruger, Frank Langella

Synopsis: A man awakens from a coma, only to discover that someone has taken on his identity and that no one, (not even his wife), believes him. With the help of a young woman, he sets out to prove who he is.

Release Date: February 18, 2011

In the new poster for Unknown, Liam Neeson tries to cover up horrible acne scars and/or the dark side of his soul. Depends on how deep you want to get with it. Seriously though, was the actual Liam Neeson not available and they built a wax version then slid a cardboard box panel over half of a spotlight to shoot him? Oh you think they used something more advanced than that, like Photoshop. But why would a professional graphic artist use his skills in Photoshop to make Liam Neeson look like a deformed tunnel dweller? Our photoshops of Michael Bay placed into anything and everything look more realistic. (/Film)

_{Liam Neeson in suspended animation.}

Warner Bros. has dropped the new trailer for Unknown. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra (House of Wax), it stars Liam Neeson as a guy who wakes from a coma and discovers that someone has taken is identity and not even his hot wife (January Jones) believes him. He teams up with a hot cab driver (Diane Kruger), who originally put him in the coma by crashing into a lake, to help him make sense of the whole mess. Neeson kicks some ass in it Taken-style, so despite the whole clichéd "why does no one recognize me!" premise, it could be worth checking out.

Unknown wanders into theaters February 18, 2011.

Check out the trailer after the jump…

Unknown — Trailer – Watch more Movie Trailers

A word from Diane: “It was a strange thing for me, to kiss Orlando.”

WHO’S ON LATE?

LETTERMAN

Paula Abdul, Elvis Costello, Neil Patrick Harris

CONAN

Jon Hamm, Cobra Starship and Estelle

KIMMEL

Ty Pennington, David Sedaris, the Jonas Brothers

FERGUSON

Mitch Alborn, Bonnie Raitt with Taj Mahal

FALLON

Ashton Kutcher, Triple H, Bat for Lashes

Director: Jaco van Dormael

Cast: Jared Leto, Diane Kruger, Sarah Polley

Synopsis: A tale that spans different time zones of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Genre: Drama

Release Date: October 7, 2009

See the real Diane Kruger poster (and the others released at this point) after the jump.