SHORTTAKES

BAD NEWS BEARS

Director: Richard Linklater
Cast: Billy Bob Thornton, Sammi Kraft
Time: 1:51
Rating: PG-13

A major league baseball player-turned-turned exterminator (Billy Bob Thornton) takes on coaching the Bears, Little League’s worst team. Surprisingly, his unorthodox coaching yields changes not only in the team, but in himself.

mURDER BALL

Director: Henry Rubin and Dana Shapiro
Cast: Keith Cavill, Joe Soares, Mark Zupan
Time: 1:28
Rating: R

This documentary follows the trials and tribulations of athletes on the U.S. wheelchair rugby team as they prepare for the 2004 Athens Paralympics.

HUSTLE & FLOw

Director: Craig Brewer
Cast: Terrence Dashon Howard, Anthony Anderson, Taryn Manning, DJ Qualls
Time: 1:54
Rating: R

Learning that renowned hip-hop artist Skinny Black (Ludacris) is coming to town, Memphis rapper DJay (Terrence Dashon Howard) plots to get the superstar’s attention. The film won the Audience Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
THE ISLAND

Director: Michael Bay
Cast: Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johanson, Djimon Hounsou, Steve Buscemi, Sean Bean
Time: 2:07
Rating: PG-13

After realizing they are two of many clones created to provide organs for a future society, Lincoln Six-Echo (Ewan McGregor) and Jordan Two-Delta (Scarlett Johansson) escape from the utopian facility where they’re kept under containment. All the while they are hunted by Merrick (Sean Bean), the head of the sinister corporation that produces these so-called “harvested beings.”
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