LUCIDMEDIA

Fall Movie Preview 09

Written by Adam A. Donaldson Friday, 04 September 2009 10:15

Time to put those blockbusters away, the Fall Movie season is here with all its prestige and high-concept entries looking to make the grade during awards season. Here’s a list of what’s coming up from now till the end of November.

Friday September 4th

All About Steve – Another Sandra Bullock romantic comedy where she plays a hopeless romantic caught in a hopeless situation. Bradley Cooper from The Hangover is her unwitting victim.

Gamer – Like Death Race 2000, but without cars, Gamer is about a future where mind control technology allows the average citizen to control a death row inmate in a series of gruelling battles. Any one that survives 30 battles gets their life back. Getting your money back after seeing this however might be a fair sight more difficult.

Extract – Mike Judge (Office Space) goes back to work with another tale of a middle manager looking to outrun his meagre life, only this time taking place in a vanilla extract factory. Hopefully, that’s where the similarities end.

Carriers – A viral apocalypse movie that’s been on the shelf for two years, undoubtedly only now dusted off because of star Chris Pine’s new found fame as the fresh Captain Kirk.

Wednesday September 9th

9 – Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov produce this animated tale of the Stitchpunks, nine artificially created doll-like things that are brought to life to carry on the fight against machines in the post-apocalyptic future. As odd as that sounds, the Burton name guarantees good weirdness.

Friday September 11th

Whiteout – Kate Beckinsale plays a U.S. Marshall trying to find a killer in Antarctica with three days left before the Antarctic winter sets in and traps a science team in the ice and snow with a murderer among them. Based on the graphic novel by Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber

Sorority Row – A bunch of sorority sisters pull a prank that results in death and rather than owning up to it, they cover it up. Of course, consequences come knocking in the form of a crazed killer. Shades of I Know What You Did Last Summer, anyone?

Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself (limited) – Perry’s latest opus about Mabel "Madea" Simmons finds her sending off some unruly kids that attempt to rob her to their night club singer aunt for family bonding and life lessons.

Friday September 18th

Jennifer's Body – It’s the part she was born to play as Megan Fox stars as a man-eating cheerleader that literally eats men (or kills them at least). Diablo Cody’s almost improbable follow-up to her Oscar-winning script for Juno.

Love Happens – Aaron Eckhart plays a widower that turns his loss into a self-help empire and tries to find love again with a florist played by Jennifer Aniston. Say it with me, awwww.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs – In this animated film, a mad scientist finds a way to convert water into food, rather than trying to convert something useless into food like – I don’t know – garbage or DVDs of MTV reality shows, which are practically the same thing.

Splice - Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley play scientists that combine together human and animal DNA with deadly, horror movie-sized results. Produced by Guillermo Del Toro (Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth)

The Informant! (limited) - Steven Soderbergh tells the true story of Mark Whitacre, a whistleblower that worked for Archer Daniels Midland who turned states’ evidence about his company’s price fixing. Matt Damon packed on 30 pounds for the role of Whitacre.

Friday September 25th

Fame – A remake of the 80s musical about “a certain school in New York that can make all your dreams come true.” They already did this. Twice. They were called Step Up and Step Up 2: The Streets.

Surrogates – Bruce Willis returns to sci-fi for another cautionary tale about man and machine in a world where humans send their robot lookalikes into the world while they stay plugged in at home. Earth-shattering consequences ensue.

The Invention of Lying – Ricky Gervais invents lying in a world of untarnished truth. It’s the directorial debut for Gervais who co-wrote and co-directed with Matthew Robinson.

Pandorum – Two astronauts wake up in a spaceship without any memory of who they are and why they’re there. Oh, and they’re not alone of course.

Trailer Park Boys: Countdown to Liquor Day – Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the trailer park, Ricky, Julian and Bubbles return with another felonious get-rich-quick scheme.

Coco avant Chanel (limited) – This French entry stars Audrey Tautou in a film about the life of the famed French fashion designer Coco Chanel.

Bright Star (limited) – The true story of poet John Keats and his muse Fanny Brawne. Written and directed by Academy Award winner Jane Campion (The Piano).

It Might Get Loud (limited) – The improbable get together of Jimmy Page, The Edge from U2 and Jack White is chronicled in this documentary from the director of An Inconvenient Truth.

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (limited) – A remake of Fritz Lang’s 1956 film noir, directed by Peter Hyams and starring Michael Douglas.

Friday October 2nd

Toy Story & Toy Story 2: 3D Double Feature Event – In advance of next summer’s release of Toy Story 3-D, Disney is re-releasing the first two films in 3-D for a limited time.

Whip It – In Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut, a teenage girl rebels against her mother entering her into beauty pageants by joining a roller derby team.

Capitalism: A Love Story – After taking on GM, guns, Bush, and medical insurance companies, Michael Moore’s new target is the whole capitalist system. There’ll be no survivors.

Prom Night in Mississippi (limited) – From Hot Docs comes this fascinating look at modern racial politics in the Southern U.S. as a group of high school seniors attempt to de-segregate their prom with some help from Morgan Freeman,

A Serious Man (limited) – The latest black comedy from the Coen Brothers is a semi-biographical account of their childhood in 1967 St. Louis.

Friday October 9th

Zombieland – One of the latest breed of zombie comedies finds Woody Harrelson taking Jesse Eisenberg (Adventureland) under his wing for a cross-country road trip to escape the walking dead and kill as many zombies as possible along the way.

Couples Retreat – Four couples think they’re getting a great vacation to a tropical abode, but there’s a catch: they have to do couples therapy when they get there. Co-written by Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn and directed by Ralphie from A Christmas Story

Cairo Time (limited) – An Irish/Canadian co-production about two people, played by Patricia Clarkson and Alexander Siddig, who unexpectedly engage in a brief affair when they meet in Cairo.

H2Oil (limited) – Another Hot Docs graduate, this film deals with the controversy over the Alberta tar sands and the struggle to produce more oil at the expense of protecting our water supply.

Friday October 16th

Where the Wild Things Are – It’s Maurice Sendak’s classic tale of friendly monsters and the power of imagination as adapted by post-modern auteur Spike Jonze.

The Road – Speaking of adaptations, Cormac McCarthy’s bleak tale of a father and son trying to forge for the coast in post-apocalyptic America finally arrives on the big screen after being delayed last Fall.

The Stepfather – Another horror remake this time casts the more normal of the plastic surgeons from Nip/Tuck as the crazy stepfather. Will he manage to out-crazy the stepdad from the original, the man currently known to thousands of Lost fans as John Locke? Doubtful.

Law Abiding Citizen – Gerard Butler faces off against Jamie Foxx as a father bereaved over the death of his wife and daughter and driven to revenge against the District Attorney that made a sweetheart deal with their killer. Hopefully, it’ll be better than the similarly themed Kevin Bacon movie Death Sentence.

Friday October 23rd

Saw VI – The godfather of torture porn franchises soldiers on with its sixth instalment. At this point I’m pretty convinced that they’re just going to keep making these until Cary Elwes comes back.

Astro Boy – The seminal anime series gets a CG upgrade and an all star voice cast featuring Freddie Highmore and Nicolas Cage. .And yes, the butt guns remain intact.

Amelia – Hilary Swank plays the famous aviator in a film that focuses more her difficult marriage to George Putnam than her mysterious disappearance over the Pacific in the 1930s.

Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant – A boy leaves his quiet suburban life for the fun and horrors of a circus sideshow populated by real creatures of the night. Based on the series of books by Darren Shan

Ong Bak 2: The Beginning – The prequel to the cult hit Ong Bak features the return of martial arts maestro Tony Jaa. Soon to be joined by a third film in the Ong Bak saga

When We Were Boys (limited) – A documentary about two years in the lives of students at an all-boys private school in Toronto

Wednesday October 28th

Michael Jackson's This Is It – And hopefully this is it with all the Jackson post-death pandemonium as this film reportedly features rehearsal footage of the King of Pop before what was going to be his comeback performance in England.

Friday October 30th

Youth in Revolt (limited)

Michael Cera plays another awkward teen in yet another coming of age tale.

Friday November 6th

Disney's A Christmas Carol – As he did with Beowulf, Robert Zemeckis gives an old classic a new twist by casting Jim Carrey as Scrooge, Marley and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future, in this CG adaptation of Dickens’ most well-known Christmas tale.

The Fourth Kind – Based on true events, this movie is about an unsolved mystery in Alaska, where one town has seen an inordinate number of unexplained disappearances during the past 40 years, and some of the townspeople suspect that the Feds are covering up the reasons why.

The Men Who Stare at Goats (limited) – George Clooney’s writing partner Grant Heslov directs this story about a reporter who meets a man that claims to be part of a US Army unit that employs supernatural powers.

Friday November 13th

2012 – Roland Emmerich ends the world again with this ode to the Mayan myth that the world’s bill comes due on December 21st, 2012. John Cusack is the everyman trying to beat Armageddon in this one.

Pirate Radio – Formally titled The Boat That Rocked, this ensemble comedy is about a fictitious boat that broadcasts rock and roll into the UK, and the squares that will do anything in their power to stop them.

The Young Victoria - C.R.A.Z.Y. director Jean-Marc Vallée casts Emily Blunt as the young Queen Victoria and follows the early years of her reign and her romance with Prince Albert played by Rupert Friend.

Friday November 20th

The Twilight Saga: New Moon – Get ready to swoon as the Twilight story continues. When Edward leaves for good, Bella tries to mend her broken heart by getting closer to her werewolf BFF Jacob. Isn’t this how Underworld got started?

Planet 51 – This time, we’re the aliens as humans land on an alien planet that looks suspiciously like the Flintstones version of our world.

The Blind Side – The obligatory Fall football movie, but this one is based on the true story of Michael Oher, an offensive lineman for the Baltimore Ravens who overcame many limitations going from his impoverished upbringing to being one of the top players in the NFL.