fall movie preview guide

Happy New Year (Printable Version , E-mail to a Friend )
It’s a new season and a new reason to hope for the best from Hollywood and the indies.

Autumn. My favorite time of the year, for multiple reasons. The weather. Football. Fall movies.
 
The fall movie season, which I tend to view as ending just prior to Christmas, often has the most interesting films of the year. Hell, the past couple of years, it’s even had the most exciting.
 
We had what, three, four movies that were decent this summer? I’m welcoming the fall. Studios take risks in the fall. Film gets interesting again.
 
This fall is no exception. There’re interesting things afoot both with the big studios and locally. Fall is Tulsa’s film festival season, most all of them good. Like circle-the-date-in-your-calendar good.
 
Tulsa Overground is up first. This weekend, actually. Tulsa’s most notorious film festival takes place at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center Friday and Saturday, starting at 8pm. Tickets are $8 per night.
 
The “music” part of the festival happens each night at Cain’s after the film fest. Looks like they have a solid line-up of films and bands this year. I’m looking over the film list and there’s a bunch of interesting stuff. 
 
Sunday all the action takes place at the Admiral Twin Drive-In. That rules. I can’t think of anything cooler than a film festival at a drive-in.
 
Later this month, Sept. 30 is the Tulsa Uncensored Film Festival, devoted to screening “as many diverse films as possible.” Nothing is censored. Films are not excluded or included because of any kind of criteria. The festival’s founders, while opening up to international submissions, promote films by Oklahomans.
 
The festival takes place at the recently remodeled Tulsa Little Theatre. Doors open at 5:30.
 
The Script-2-Screen Independent Film Festival and “movie-biz conference” returns Oct. 4-8. It’s as much of a filmmaker’s workshop as it is a film festival. Or it has been in the past. Good stuff for the blossoming auteur and the film fan.
 
Stage Four of the Blue November Micro Film Fest appears to be on schedule for Nov. 3-4 at the OSU Tulsa Auditorium. It’s under new management this year, guy by name of Bret Mix, but I have every confidence it’ll be just as interesting as festivals of year’s past. To my mind, Mix has always had the best films in the festival, so him taking over can’t be anything but good.
 
I’m looking forward to it.
 
And now that I’ve supported our local festivals, let’s get on with the selling out and shilling for the Hollywood crap factory, shall we?
 
Fall Fare
 
Opening This Weekend, Sat., Sept. 8
 
The Covenant: A quartet of guys with supernatural powers have trouble when some other dude with supernatural powers shows up. Because he doesn’t like them. Or something. Whatever. Looks like a The Lost Boys wannabe.
 
Hollywoodland: Starring Adrien Brody, Ben Affleck and Diane Lane, this flick tells the story behind the mysterious death of George Reeves, the first guy to play Superman on television. Eh. Could be good. For Affleck’s sake, I hope it is.
 
The Protector: Tony Jaa, who starred in Ong Bak, stars in this martial arts flick about a badass monk who goes on to beat people up for messing with his village. Golly. Haven’t I seen this about 20 times already?
 
Rock and a Hard Place
 
Sept. 15
 
Gridiron Gang: The Rock stars as a guy who starts a football team in a juvenile detention center. Sure, we’ve seen it before, but it is a based-on-a-true-story sports drama, and there’s something comfortable about the predictable. And I want The Rock to have another hit because I dug The Rundown and want him to make something like that.
 
The Last Kiss: Zack Braff, he of Garden State and Scrubs fame, stars as a guy who’s having doubts about his long term relationship with his pregnant girlfriend. I loved Garden State, but I’m thinking this doesn’t sound like that same kind of kooky fun.
 
The Black Dahlia: Set in the 1940s, a couple of detectives try to solve a murder that left an aspiring actress’s body chopped up and scattered. The trail leads them into L.A.’s seedy underworld. You know, noir. Based on James Ellroy’s novel.
 
Everyone’s Hero: A computer-animated flick about a boy who goes on a quest to reclaim Babe Ruth’s stolen baseball bat. Yeah, I have nothing to add.
 
Making the World Safe?
 
Sept. 22
 
Jackass: Number Two: Nor do I have anything to say about this. It’s a bunch of morons doing stupid stuff, taping it, then foisting it out upon the public. Good for them as I’m sure it’ll make millions. All it cost them was pain and dignity.
 
Fearless: This is reportedly Jet Li’s last martial arts epic. In this one, he plays a guy good at martial arts. Imagine that.
 
All The King’s Men: Set in the deep south during the time of Huey Long, this flick stars Jude Law and Sean Penn. It’s rumored to be Oscar material, I just can’t find it within myself to care. The trailer was boring and I’m still not in the mood for dramas.
 
Flyboys: A drama about American fighter pilots who volunteered to fight with the French in the days before we joined WWI. The way I hear it, the dogfights are incredible. Now that I am in the mood for.
 
Feast: Been waiting on this movie forever. It’s the product of the reality show Project: Greenlight. I actually watched the season they made this horror flick and I want to see it just because I know what a pain in the ass it was to make. Start bugging the AMC and The Circle or we’ll never get to watch it on the big screen.
 
Shallow Depths
 
Sept. 29
 
Open Season: An animated flick about a domesticated bear who gets tricked into going on a walk through the woods by a wily deer. During hunting season. Whatever.
 
School for Scoundrels: Jon “Napoleon Dynamite” Heder enrolls in a confidence-building class taught be Billy Bob Thornton in order to get the skills necessary to get the girl. Only, when Billy Bob sees the girl, he goes after her, too. This actually sounds kind of fun.
 
The Guardian: Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher star as rescue divers. I think it’s an action/drama. I think it is probably going to suck.
 
Kitsch’n’Cops
 
Oct. 6
 
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning: Did we really need a prequel to a remake?
 
Stormbreaker: A kid gets enlisted to become a spy after his spy uncle is outted and killed. I think it sounds like Spy Kids or something equally cliché and stupid. Maybe it won’t be. But the next two movies on this list open the same weekend, so I won’t be seeing Stormbreaker anyway.
 
Employee of the Month: Dane Cook (dude is funny) and Dax Shepard go all out for the Employee of the Month award after hearing the new girl, Jessica Simpson, only dates Employees of the Month. I’ll go to see Dane’s shenanigans. That’s really all that’s important to me.
 
The Departed: Matt Damon plays a mobster who’s undercover as a cop. Leonardo plays a cop who’s undercover as mobster. Jack Nicholson chews scenery as the mob boss. That’s really all I need to know.
 
Vote for Me
 
Oct. 13
 
The Grudge 2: The first one sucked. I don’t care that it made $100 million plus.
 
Sunshine: Directed by Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Millions, The Beach, 28 Days Later), Sunshine tells the story of a group of astronauts on a mission to relight parts of the sun. I’m a fan of the director, I’m going to the movie.
 
Man of the Year: Robin Williams stars as a Jon Stewart-esque talk show host who puts his money where his mouth is and runs for president. And gets elected. And then wonders what to do. The trailer looks awesome and I love the concept. And I’d probably vote for Jon Stewart. He couldn’t do any worse than the monkey we’ve got in the White House now.
 
The Marine: Some WWE wrestler dude stars in a movie right out of Schwarzenegger and Stallone’s ‘80s action movie oeuvre. He’ll probably become an international star overnight.
 
 
Legerdemain por vous?
 
Oct. 20
 
Flags of Our Fathers: This one’s the latest from Eastwood. It’s about the six guys who raised the flag during the battle of Iwo Jima. Will we never tire of war epics?
 
Marie Antoinette: Directed by Sophia Coppola, it’s a biopic about Marie Antoinette, the girl who became queen of France at 19 during the 18th century. Only I don’t think this is a straight period piece. I read somewhere Kirsten Dunst, who plays Antoinette, has tennis shoes on at some point. Let them eat cake, indeed.
 
The Prestige: Two rival magicians (Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman) in Victorian London vie to destroy each other’s lives and careers. The guy who directed Batman Begins and Memento helmed this, which makes it a must-see for me.
 
DOA: Dead or Alive: Lame-ass video game adaptation. In case you’re curious, it’s a fighting game full of half-naked chicks.
 
Don’t See Saw
 
Oct. 27
 
Saw III: Enough is enough, already. Cancer-ridden psychopath with a penchant for sadistic games, with the help of his apprentice, escapes to torment another day. Saw it the first two times.
 
Lucky You: Eric Bana stars as a poker player who’s making a go at winning the World Series of Poker. I’m sure there’s more to it than that. The trailer looked pretty good. Some paternal strife. Romance. Etc.
 
Something A Little Different
 
Nov. 3
 
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan: Sacha Baron Cohen, he of Talladega Nights and Ali G fame, stars as Borat, an utterly incompetent and clueless reporter from Kazakhstan. He’s on a mission to make a documentary about the United States.
From what I understand, much of the film was shot guerilla style with “participants” not knowing filming was going on. Realifiction.
 
Flushed Away: From the Wallace and Gromit guys, this computer-animated flick chronicles the misadventures of a domesticated rat flushed down into the sewers of England and forced to learn a new way of life. If it’s this or the next movie, I’m picking this one.
 
The Santa Clause 3: I hate you, Tim Allen. Go back to stand up, you hack.
 
Preternatural and Predictable
 
Nov. 10
 
Harsh Times: An ex-Army ranger tries to adjust to civilian life in south central L.A., but finds himself losing his grip on sanity. Word is Christian Bale’s performance will punch you in the stomach.
 
The Return: Sarah Michelle Gellar stars in another supernatural thriller. Because that’s what she does. That’s all she does. In this one, dreams of a murdered woman force her into investigating the event.
 
Stranger Than Fiction: Will Ferrell plays an IRA auditor who suddenly finds his life being narrated by a voice only he can hear. As it turns out, the voice belongs to a popular writer who’s penning a story about a guy with the same name, and she’s planning to off him at the end of the story. Sounds sort of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind-ish.
 
A Good Year: Russell Crowe. Ridley Scott. No swords. Or sci-fi. Uh, what? The story is about an Englishman who inherits an estate in France from his uncle. I normally trust Scott, but this sounds . . . lameish.
 
Bond Eternal
 
Nov. 17
 
Casino Royale: Bond. James Bond. Rebooted. And now, only 40 years later, they are making remakes of the Bond franchise, eh? Brosnan is out, and so is the camp. In his place we get Daniel Craig and a grittier, more visceral, more pugilistic version of 007. I can’t wait. I loved Bond back when I was a kid, but as an adult, I sort of want the character to grow up. I mean, c’mon, invisible cars? Here’s hoping.
 
Tenacious D in ‘The Pick of Destiny’: It’s a Tenacious D movie. About time. And if you don’t know who or what Tenacious D is, this probably isn’t a movie for you.
 
Happy Feet: The computer-animated tale of a penguin with rhythm. Or something. Not my cup o tea.
 
Fast Food Nation: A marketing exec investigates whether or not cow excrement is finding its way into his company’s food supply chain. As directed by Richard Linklater. I’m not sure that’s a good thing.
 
Holiday Hijinks
       
Nov. 22
 
The Fountain: A 16th-century warrior finds the tree of life and spends the next thousand years trying to find answers and to save the woman he loves. It’s high-concept sci-fi from Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream), which is really all I need to know.
 
Déjà vu: Denzel Washington plays a cop who figures out how to manipulate his sense of déjà vu. I know the guy’s movies don’t always make a truckload of money, but dammit, I like watching Tony Scott’s work. I’d go see it just for that. And Domino was just fine as a renter, thank you very much.
 
Let’s Go to Prison: A prison comedy. Yay! Sodomy jokes! Woo-hoo!
 
Deck the Halls: Matthew Broderick and Danny Devito play neighbors who end up in a feud after one decides he’s going to put enough lights on his house to make it viewable from space.
 
Season to be Jolly
 
December
 
I’m just hitting the highlights in December. Chances are the dates will dance around and some of the movies will get bounced until next year. Plus, you won’t even remember this article by the time these movies come out.
 
Apocalypto: The latest from Hollywood crazyman Mel Gibson, this one’s about Mayans and all the dialogue is in another dead language . . . Mayan.
 
The Good German: George Clooney stars as an American journalist in post-war Berlin who gets involved in a mystery involving his ex-mistress and her missing husband.
 
Eragon: This year’s Harry Potter hopeful. Boy finds a dragon egg and discovers his destiny. I think. I read that somewhere.
 
The Pursuit of Happyness: Will Smith’s push for another Oscar.
 
Charlotte’s Web: Doesn’t really need any explanations, does it? I loved that book as a kid. Steph, the wife, is already talking about how much she wants to see it. She’s got a soft spot for talking pig movies. That’ll do, pig. That’ll do.
 
Rocky Balboa: I have no words. Okay, one: sad.
 
Night at the Museum: Ben Stiller plays a security guard at a natural history museum. At night, everything comes to life. Reminds me of Jumanji without the kids. Though I’m sure there’ll be a kid. There’s always a kid.
 
The Good Shepherd: The story of the formation of the C.I.A. Stars Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, Robert DeNiro and serves as the return of Joe Pesci. You know, every time I see Matt Damon or his name, I think of Team America.
 
For Your Consideration: A Christopher Guest mockumentary. Not sure when we’ll get it, but be aware it’s out there. This one lampoons the Hollywood awards season/system.
 
Pan’s Labyrinth: Director Guillermo del Toro brings his distinctive visual style to bear on a fairy tale. A girl finds a stone labyrinth near her home and enters. Once inside, she finds out she’s the princess of the labyrinth world. If she wants to abandon her destiny and return home, she must first complete three tasks . . . Can’t wait. Everyone’s raving about it. Course, it’s in Spanish.
 
And that’s that. Happy moviegoing. See you next week.