The Da Vinci Code, the most anticipated and fretted about novel-to-screen adaptation since the first Harry Potter
adventure in 2001, tops the list of must-see movies for this year.
Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn, the new year's celebrity mystery couple (or not a couple), share the screen. And we'll finally answer that gnawing question (or not a question):What would cars say if they could talk?
PHOTO COURTESY OF FOX MOVIES
Mark these down on your shiny new calendars: The Da Vinci Code -- Ron Howard may have retreated from The Alamo, but the Oscar-winning director of A Beautiful Mind and Cinderella Man is charging full-steam ahead through post-production on the much-anticipated movie version of Dan Brown's religious-themed thriller, which has become a publishing phenomenon. Tom Hanks takes on the role of Robert Langdon, the Harvard scholar and expert on iconic symbols caught up in a bizarre murder investigation in Paris. French actress Audrey Tautou (Amelie) is Sophie Neveu, a cryptologist who helps
Langdon unravel the mystery of a secret, powerful and dangerous religious society.
The Break Up -- Are Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn a couple or not? Do we really care? In this romantic comedy, a couple calls it quits but can't decide which one will vacate the condo the two share. Peyton Reed (Bring It On) directs.
It might be a good idea to push what happened with Gigli, which teamed former hot celebrity couple Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, as far back in the memory bank as possible.
Cars -- Call this one John Lasseter's baby. The Pixar Animation Studio vice president and founding member has been guarding this animated family comedy in the Pixar garage for years.
Owen Wilson heads the voice cast as Lightning McQueen, a cocky stock car taken down a notch or two when he breaks down. Paul Newman, Bonnie Hunt, Richard Petty and Larry the Cable Guy rev up the impressive voice talent list.
Mission Impossible 3 -- Star and driving force Tom Cruise got a rocky start on the third installment of the
10-year-old action-thriller franchise. Ving Rhames, Capote's Philip Seymour Hoffman and Michelle Monaghan hop on for the ride this time. J.J. Abrams (TV's Alias and Lost) makes his feature directing debut.
Lady in the Water -- From writer-director M. Night Shyamalan, responsible for The Village and The Sixth Sense, comes a supernatural thriller about a lonely guy and a striking figure in the pool. Paul Giamatti (Sideways, Cinderella Man) plays a handyman at a Philadelphia apartment complex who discovers a very strange woman (Bryce Dallas Howard) -- or is she something else? -- lurking in the swimming pool.
Casino Royale -- Pass the tuxedo and the license to kill, please. British actor Daniel Craig (Munich) becomes the sixth James Bond, taking over from Pierce Brosnan, who suited up as Agent 007 four times. Shooting begins shortly.
The year was 1991. A Toyota Land Cruiser set out on a 67km journey up the Junda Forest Road (郡大林道) toward an old loggers’ camp, at which point the hikers inside would get out and begin their ascent of Jade Mountain (玉山). Little did they know, they would be the last group of hikers to ever enjoy this shortcut into the mountains. An approaching typhoon soon wiped out the road behind them, trapping the vehicle on the mountain and forever changing the approach to Jade Mountain. THE CONTEMPORARY ROUTE Nowadays, the approach to Jade Mountain from the north side takes an
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
Relations between Taiwan and the Czech Republic have flourished in recent years. However, not everyone is pleased about the growing friendship between the two countries. Last month, an incident involving a Chinese diplomat tailing the car of vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) in Prague, drew public attention to the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) operations to undermine Taiwan overseas. The trip was not Hsiao’s first visit to the Central European country. It was meant to be low-key, a chance to meet with local academics and politicians, until her police escort noticed a car was tailing her through the Czech capital. The
April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and