Fall Movie Preview

With some encouragement from my new edition of Entertainment Weekly I have a new found love for the movies. This issue has the Fall Movie Preview (as they do with every season of the year really) and I wanted to share some of the movies I will personally be looking forward to up until their release dates.

September

Shoot 'Em Up (Sept. 7): I read the EW review of this movie and I must say it hits me on several levels. Starring Clive Owen and Paul Giamatti and a first time director who has a pretty damn honest tale of this film. "It's the most heightened, ridiculous movie violence. It has no relation to the real world. The gunfights are kind of comic-booky, kind of Looney Tunes, kind of an action dance." The greatest part you say? There is a gunfight while everybody's free falling out of an airplane. Bad ass.

December Boys (Sept. 14): This is a movie with Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) and is interesting to me not simply because of the plot but the fact that I look forward to seeing what Radcliffe can do outside of the Harry Potter franchise. The movie is about an orphan named "Maps" (Radcliffe) sent on a holiday, where he smokes and drinks and learns about sex from a local girl (Teresa Palmer).

Into The Wild (Sept. 21): A movie directed by Sean Penn and starring Emile Hirsch (Girl Next Door, Alpha Dog). The movie is based on a true story and the bestselling book by Jon Krakauer. After graduating from Emory University in 1992, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless (Hirsch) abandons his possessions, gave his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhiked to Alaska to live in the wilderness. Along the way, Christopher encounters a series of characters that shape his life.

October

Elizabeth: The Golden Age (Oct. 12): I have yet to see the original but seeing the trailer prior to "License to Wed" I found myself very intrigued by the whole franchise. It has been several years since the first one but with Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, and Clive Owen with a plot to assassinate the Queen...I am going to rent that first movie first however.

Hitman (Oct. 12): A gun-for-hire known only as Agent 47 (Timothy Olyphant) is ensnared in a political conspiracy, which finds him pursued by both Interpol and the Russian military as he treks across Eastern Europe hired by a group known as "The Agency" to kill targets for cash. I've never played the game but who can pass up a good action film? Let's hope it's good....

Nightmare Before Christmas in 3D (Oct. 19): Hell yeah.

Saw IV (Oct. 26): Jigsaw and his apprentice Amanda are dead. Now, upon the news of Detective Kerry's murder, two seasoned FBI profilers, Agent Strahm and Agent Perez, arrive in the terrified community to assist the veteran Detective Hoffman in sifting through Jigsaw's latest grizzly remains and piecing together the puzzle. However, when SWAT Commander Rigg is abducted and thrust into a game, the last officer untouched by Jigsaw has but ninety minutes to overcome a series of demented traps and save an old friend or face the deadly consequences.

November

American Gangster (Nov. 2): Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe...who's the bad guy in this one? That's right...Denzel. I loved his bad guy in "Training Day" so I don't expect this to be any worse. Denzel plays a drug lord who smuggles heroin into Harlem during the 1970s by hiding the stash inside the coffins of American soldiers returning from Vietnam. Also, the movie is directed by Ridley Scott who worked with Crowe on one of my favorite movies "Gladiator."

Beowulf (Nov. 16): Yeah. Looks like marvelous animation and it's friggin Beowulf dude!

Cassandra's Dream (Nov. 30): The story of two Cockney brothers (Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor) in south London and their relationship with a young woman (newcomer Hayley Atwell) who lands in London on her search for fortune. She crosses the two men by accident on her path and when one them falls in love with her, she becomes aware of her power to attract the opposite sex and uses this to the point of leading the two brothers, who are in financial difficulty, into crime, and creating a dangerous rivalry between the two men. It is said to be so dark and bleak that there's an element of nervous laughter to it. If it becomes comic, it's in an uncomfortable way. Sounds good to me.

December

I Am Legend (Dec. 14): Robert Neville (Will Smith) is a brilliant scientist, but even he could not contain the terrible virus that was unstoppable, incurable, and man-made. Somehow immune, Neville is now the last human survivor in what is left of New York City and maybe the world. For three years, Neville has faithfully sent out daily radio messages, desperate to find any other survivors who might be out there. But he is not alone. Mutant victims of the plague - The Infected - lurk in the shadows... watching Neville’s every move... waiting for him to make a fatal mistake. Perhaps mankind’s last, best hope, Neville is driven by only one remaining mission: to find a way to reverse the effects of the virus using his own immune blood. But he knows he is outnumbered... and quickly running out of time. How does that not sound awesome?

Alvin and the Chipmunks (Dec. 14): Why you ask? Because it's what we grew up with and it's CGI. Okay fine...we'll get drunk first.

Sweeney Todd (Dec. 21): Tim Burton. Johnny Depp. Need I say more? It is a musical about a homicidal barber and his human-pie-making partner. In the end does it sound like a Christmas movie? Tim Burton doesn't care, "Red is the color of Christmas."

The Great Debaters (Dec. 25): A drama based on the true story of Melvin B. Tolson, a professor at Wiley College Texas. In 1935, he inspired students to form the school's first debate team, which went on to challenge Harvard in the national championship. The movie, starring and directed by Denzel Washington, sounds fascinating mostly because with Denzel at the helm, a man who holds your attention especially when you take debating into the puzzle, makes you wanna pay attention.