Writing a fall movie preview is tough since not all films released then come out around the country at the same time. Sometimes a release date is only a release date if you happen to live in New York or LA, so be sure to check your local listings as the dates for these movies approaches.
Out August 23 is co-writer/director Edgar Wright and co-writer/star Simon Pegg’s The World’s End. The movie, which features an impressive cast including Pegg, Martin Freeman, Rosamund Pike and Nick Frost to name a few takes place as friends go on the ultimate bar-crawl that just so happens to coincide with the end of the world. I’m a huge fan of Pegg and Wright. I loved Spaced, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz but with The World’s End I get the feeling that the two are stuck in a kind of frozen adolescence with their collaborations, and what worked for them in their 20s and 30s might not work for them now pushing/well into their 40s.
Nearly a decade after The Chronicles of Riddick and 13 years since the original Pitch Black Riddick returns to theaters September 6. This time Riddick (Vin Diesel) must face monsters and mercenaries on a lonely, desolate planet. Pitch Black is one of my favorite sci-fi movies. It’s the rare film that breaks the conventions of the genera while telling a simple yet compelling story minus lasers and warp drives. But, where Pitch Black broke conventions the sequel The Chronicles of Riddick embraced them. Where Pitch Black told a lean, stripped down story The Chronicles of Riddick felt bloated and overwritten. But with lasers and warp drives.
That being said, from what I’ve seen of Riddick it seems to be a return to what worked in Pitch Black while casting off what didn’t in The Chronicles of Riddick, so I’m genuinely excited about this one.
In Rush out September 20, Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl play two rival F-1 drivers in the 1970s who faced off against one and other to, almost, the death. Expect fast cars, fast women and poofy 1970s hair. Is it too much to ask that they race each other in Red Barchettas?
The movie I’m most excited about this fall is Gravity, out October 4. Directed and co-written by Alfonso Cuarón, who also directed and co-wrote the woefully underrated Children of Men, Gravity follows two astronauts played by Sandra Bullock and George Clooney who are stranded in space after a disaster aboard their ship. If Children of Men featured several long one-take shots, the longest being about eight minutes, then Gravity features many long shots, the first of which is reportedly a whopping 17 minute opening scene!
Another movie I’m interested in is Captain Phillips which sets sail October 11. Here, Tom Hanks stars as the title character who’s ship is hijacked by Somali pirates. Phillips was held hostage for four days which was only ended when Navy SEAL snipers killed the hostage-takers. SEALS vs terrorists? Could Captain Phillips be this years Zero Dark Thirty?
The remake of a movie that was itself based on a book Carrie debuts October 18 just in time for Halloween. Starring Chloë Grace Moretz in the title role and Julianne Moore as the abusive mother, is there really any reason to remake Carrie in the first place? Was there something missing from the original? Surly it wasn’t lack of pig’s blood.
The first film of “however many they can make before it stops being profitable because there’s a ton of books already written” Ender’s Game blasts the buggers in a theater near you November 1. Here, after an alien invasion nearly succeeds in wiping us off the planet, the military begins training the next generation of commanders who just so happen to be pre-pubescent kids, the best of which is Ender Wiggen (Asa Butterfield). At the “Battle School” Ender must learn combat tactics while at the same time dodging school bullies out to sew a little vengeance on little Ender who’s showing everyone else up.
On November 8 Marvel Entertainment makes their first attempt at making a few hundred million bucks in the fall rather than just the summer with Thor: The Dark World. This time Thor (Chris Hemsworth) must team up with his love Jane (Natalie Portman) to battle an ancient evil. But story comes second in superhero flicks – so expect lots of SMASH, BASH and BOOM!!! with Thor: The Dark World.
The second of a planned four films The Hunger Games: Catching Fire parades into theaters November 22. After the previous Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) must deal with the ramifications of standing up to a government who’s source of power comes from keeping most of the population in slavery. I’m interested in this one since my favorite character from the novels Finnick Odair (Sam Claflin) makes his first appearance.
Fear of a global thermonuclear war was very real in the 1980s. At the height of the cold war the Soviet Union had tens of thousands of nuclear weapons aimed at the US and NATO countries and we had just as many aimed at Russia and Warsaw Pact countries too. What people feared was that some minor conflict between the US and the USSR would spiral out of control and we’d fire our missiles at them and they at us which would essentially send what was left of mankind back to the stone age. Movies like The Day After (1983), Threads (1984) and Testament (1983) explored life post nuke war and the picture they painted weren’t nice ones.
