Jake Gyllenhaal

Ubisoft's popular video-game series of the same name gets adapted for the big screen in this sweeping fantasy adventure starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Arterton. The setting is sixth century Persia. A nefarious nobleman covets the Sands of Time, a legendary gift from the gods that allows its possessor to turn back time. Whoever owns the Sands of Time has the power to rule the world, and this villainous lord would use that power to enslave all of humanity. The only person capable of defeating this tyrant and saving the world is Dastan (Gyllenhaal), a youthful prince. Now, with plucky princess Tamina (Gemma Arterton) by his side, Dastan will attempt to prevent the Sands of Time from falling into the wrong hands. Mike Newell (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) directs a script penned by Carlo Bernard, Doug Miro, Jordan Mechner, and Boaz Yakin. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

The Bourne Identity director Doug Liman takes the helm for this sci-fi action film concerning a private expedition to the moon and the subsequent race to construct a lunar colony. Jake Gyllenhaal stars in the film conceived by Liman, writing partner John Hamburg, and Mark Bowden (Black Hawk Down), with screenplay credit going to Dan Mazeau. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Jim Sheridan helms this remake of Susanne Bier's 2004 war melodrama, this time with Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal taking the lead roles of two brothers torn between war and love in this Relativity Media production. Maguire stars as a soldier who's sent to Afghanistan as his deadbeat brother (Gyllenhaal) stays at home with his sibling's wife (Natalie Portman) and kids. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide

The director of the Academy Award-winning 2006 crime drama Tsotsi returns to the helm with this tale of a Middle East CIA operative who begins to have doubts about his latest assignment after witnessing the interrogation of a suspected suicide bomber by secret police. When Egyptian-born chemical engineer Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwally) mysteriously vanishes on a routine flight from South Africa to Washington, his wife, Isabella (Reese Witherspoon), embarks on a frantic international search for her missing husband. At the same time, a CIA analyst (Jake Gyllenhaal) arrives at a clandestine detention facility outside of United States. As the interrogation of El-Ibrahimi gets under way, the CIA analyst is profoundly shaken by the unorthodox methods used by the man's captors, and quickly begins to reevaluate his assignment. Peter Sarsgaard, Meryl Streep, and Alan Arkin co-star in this topical political thriller penned by Kelley Sane and produced by Steve Golin. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Saturday Night Live: The Best of '06/'07 collects some of the most well-known moments from that season of the sketch comedy program. Highlights include the award-winning music video "D*** in a Box," Amy Poehler and Mya Rudolph as Bronx housewives who host a local TV talk show, and the cross-dressing monologue by Jake Gyllenhaal. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

A woman struggles to come to terms with the potentially dangerous legacy of her late father in this drama based on the award-winning stage play by David Auburn. Catherine (Gwyneth Paltrow) is a woman in her late twenties who is strongly devoted to her father, Robert (Anthony Hopkins), a brilliant and well-known mathematician. While Robert's skill in the world of numbers still appears to be strong, his grip on reality begins to slip away, and as Robert descends into madness, Catherine begins to wonder if she may have inherited her father's mental illness along with his mathematical genius. After Robert's passing, Catherine is confronted by Hal (Jake Gyllenhaal), a gifted but zealous student of Robert's who wants to look through the late man's notes in hopes of finding his last great work. While Catherine is hesitant to look too deeply into her father's work for fear of what it might suggest about her own future, she allows Hal to do so, and when one notebook reveals a mathematical proof of potentially historic proportions, it sets off shock waves in more ways than one. Proof also stars Hope Davis as Catherine's well-meaning but shallow sister, who doubts Catherine's ability to take care of herself. Paltrow had previously played Catherine to stellar reviews during the original play's run in London's West End. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The world's most obnoxious celebrity talk-show host demonstrates how he rose to mediocrity in this pungent show business satire. Jiminy Glick (Martin Short) is a corpulent entertainment reporter who is looking to kick his career into high gear. Hoping to snag some celebrity interviews, Jiminy and his wife, Dixie (Jan Hooks), head north of the border to Canada, where Jiminy will attend the Toronto Film Festival. At first, Glick's attempts to ingratiate himself with stars and semi-stars are little short of disastrous, but after the easily star-struck reporter allows egocentric filmmaker Ben DiCarlo (Corey Pearson) to shamelessly self-promote his latest project on air, word gets around that Glick is an "easy interview," and his star begins to rise. However, Jiminy's good fortune is tempered by his unwitting involvement in a murder plot centered around booze-addled actress Miranda Coolidge (Elizabeth Perkins) and her wildly pretentious husband, Andre Devine (John Michael Higgins). Somewhere along the way, filmmaker David Lynch (played by Short) happens along, offering his theories on the controversial murder of Lana Turner's paramour Johnny Stompanato. A large number of Hollywood celebrities make cameo appearances in Jiminy Glick in La La Wood, including Steve Martin, Kevin Kline, Susan Sarandon, Whoopi Goldberg, Forest Whitaker, Kiefer Sutherland, and Sharon Stone. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Director Miguel Arteta and writer Mike White, who had previously collaborated on Chuck and Buck, turn an eye toward suburban boredom with the quirky comedy The Good Girl. Jennifer Aniston stars as Justine, a woman who is feeling constrained by her life. Her husband, Phil (John C. Reilly), is a house painter who spends the majority of his time smoking marijuana with his friend Bubba (Tim Blake Nelson). Longing for something more in her life, Justine becomes involved with a younger co-worker named Tom (Jake Gyllenhall), but because of his fascination with The Catcher in the Rye, he likes to be called Holden. Her new sense of freedom and release are threatened when a co-worker dies, and when Bubba learns of her infidelity. This film was screened at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a bright and charming high-school student who also has a dark and willfully eccentric side; he does little to mask his contempt for many of his peers and enjoys challenging the authority of the adults around him. Donnie is also visited on occasion by Frank, a monstrous six-foot rabbit that only Donnie can see who often urges him to perform dangerous and destructive pranks. Late one night, Frank leads Donnie out of his home to inform him that the world will come to an end in less than a month; moments later, the engine of a jet aircraft comes crashing through the ceiling of Donnie's room, making him think there might be something to Frank's prophesies after all. The rest of Donnie's world is only marginally less bizarre, as he finds himself dealing with his confused parents (Mary McDonnell and Holmes Osborne), his college-age sister (Maggie Gyllenhaal), his perplexed analyst (Katherine Ross), a rebellious English teacher (Drew Barrymore), a sleazy self-help expert (Patrick Swayze), and the new girl at school who is attracted by Donnie's quirks (Jena Malone). Donnie Darko was the first feature film from writer and director Richard Kelly; Drew Barrymore, who plays teacher Karen Pomeroy, also lent her support to the project as executive producer. A director's cut played in select theaters on a limited basis in the summer of 2004, featuring original music cues and trimmed scenes originally in Kelly's first cut of the film. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Nicole Holofcener, writer/director of the critically acclaimed Walking and Talking, shifts her focus from New York to Los Angeles for her second feature, Lovely & Amazing. Jane Marks (Brenda Blethyn of Secrets and Lies) is a middle-aged woman who's about to undergo liposuction. She has three daughters. Michelle (Catherine Keener) is a cynical, self-involved, would-be artist in an unhappy marriage. Elizabeth is a struggling actress who constantly takes in stray dogs. Her insecurities about her attractiveness come to the fore when she blows a screen test with a big movie star, Kevin (Dermot Mulroney). The youngest of the Marks sisters, Annie (Raven Goodwin), is an overweight eight-year-old African-American girl whose birth mother was an addict. Jane has adopted Annie, and is determined to provide her with a better life. Jane has a crush on her suave surgeon (Michael Nouri of Flashdance), but her family is thrown into chaos when complications arise during her outpatient procedure, and she's forced to stay in the hospital. Michelle, pressured by her husband (Clark Gregg) to take some financial responsibility for raising their young daughter, eventually gets a part-time job working in a one-hour photo booth, where she meets Jordan (Jake Gyllenhaal), a misfit teen who awkwardly flirts with her. Elizabeth's boyfriend, Paul (James LeGros), who seems to disapprove of the entertainment industry, leaves her. Annie eats compulsively and misbehaves. When the family is faced with a series of crises, relationship patterns that had solidified over the years subtly begin to change. A festival favorite, Lovely & Amazing has been shown at the 2001 Telluride Film Festival, the 2001 Toronto International Film Festival, and the 2002 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

Robin Williams guest stars on the first of Homicide's four second-season episodes. Williams is cast as tourist Robert Ellison, who can't cope with the fact that his wife was killed in a holdup right in front of him and their children. Angrily demanding justice, Ellison may well get it when the prime suspect confesses. But Howard (Melissa Leo) cannot shake her premonition that the killer, a young man from an excellent home environment and with seemingly everything to live for, may not be entirely guilty. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this road movie, the motorists are a pair of preteens--brothers Josh (Jacob Tierney) and Sam (Noah Fleiss)--who hit the highway after their parents announce their pending divorce. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide