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Thursday, September 3, 2009
December’s movies: Disney 2D, Avatar and more
December’s roster of movies is probably the one I’m most anticipating. Read on to find out why. Recap the previous installments of September, October and November.
DECEMBER 4
The pitch:A guard for an armored truck company is coerced into stealing a truck containing $42 million. Naturally, things don’t go as planned.
The buzz: Decent trailer and cast. including Matt Dillon and Laurence Fishburne. We’ll see. From the director of Vacancy.
The prospect: B
The pitch: Tobey Maguire returns from being held as a POW in Afghanistan to find that his ex-con brother (Jake Gyllenhaal) has become entangled with Sam’s wife (Natalie Portman), who thought her husband was dead.
The buzz: The cast and the director, Jim Sheridan, who made My Left Foot and In the Name of the Father, certainly bode very well.
The prospect: A
The pitch: A widower whose only connection to his family was through his wife sets out to reunite with each of his grown children.
The buzz: Robert De Niro, Kate Beckinsale, Drew Barrymore and Sam Rockwell star; Kirk Jones (Waking Ned Devine, Nanny McPhee) directs this remake of an Italian film with Marcello Mastroianni. Good pedigree; again, we shall see.
The prospect: B
DECEMBER 11
Did You Hear About the Morgans?
The pitch:An estranged couple (Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker) who witness a murder are relocated to small-town Wyoming as part of the witness protection program.
The buzz: Hugh Grant must work well with director Marc Lawrence; this is their third film together, after Two Weeks Notice and Music and Lyrics. Never did see the former but enjoyed the latter; I hope this is as good.
The prospect: B
The pitch: Peter Jackson directs an adaptation of Alice Sebold’s novel about a murdered girl who watches her family from the beyond.
The buzz: This is one of the fall movies I most want to see. There are two more this month.
The prospect: A
The pitch: Disney makes its long overdue return to hand-drawn animation in this tale of a princess who kisses a frog and becomes a frog herself.
The buzz: Call me an optimist, but I have a strong feeling all those people who’ve complained about the film will shut up once it actually comes out. With Shutter Island out of the schedule, this is now the fall movie at the very top of my must-see list.
The prospect: A
DECEMBER 18
The pitch: James Cameron returns to feature film-directing with this 3D sci-fi opus about humans battling for control of a distant planet.
The buzz: Did the much-maligned trailer live up to the hype? No. (No trailer could.) Do I still trust Cameron to come up with something astonishing, as he so often has? Yes.
The prospect: A
DECEMBER 25 (Ho ho ho)
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel
The pitch: Introducing the girls: The Chipettes.
The buzz: The trailer for the first movie disgusted me, so I never saw it, but I know many people, especially kids, loved it. I remain dubious. A subtitle as silly as “squeakuel” does not give me much hope.
The prospect: C
The pitch:: Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin fight over Meryl Streep.
The buzz: The director is Nancy Meyers, whose work has actually gotten better in recent years. The Holiday wasn’t great, but Something’s Gotta Give was quite good; we’ll see where this falls.
The prospect: B
The pitch: Elementary, my dear reader. There’s this detective, see, and …
The buzz: Love the cast, including Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law and Rachel McAdams, but by all accounts, director Guy Ritchie hasn’t made a decent movie since Snatch.
The prospect: B
RELEASE DATES TBA
The pitch: Clint Eastwood directs a later-life biopic about Nelson Mandela, played by Morgan Freeman.
The buzz: Clint Eastwood directs a later-life biopic about Nelson Mandela, played by Morgan Freeman? One, please!
The prospect: A
The pitch: A Midwestern professor sees his life fall apart when his wife prepares to leave him because his inept brother won’t move out of the house.
The buzz: It’s the Coen brothers. The trailer is hilarious. Even when they work with a mostly unknown cast, I’m so there.
The prospect: A
Lots of A-range picks this month. What movies of the fall are you most or least anticipating?
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