By So summer ended and the Fall season is just warming up. Actually it’s probably one of the slowest starts to Fall in a while with not much coming out until the end of September, but it starts to heat up as we get into awards/holiday season. In fact this holiday season might be one of the most packed in terms of variety as we’ve seen in a long while.
We’ve gone ahead and picked out the ones your really going to want to see… we think. We don’t have a crystal ball or anything, but we’re excited for all of these movies. I don’t want to single any particular film out, but it is important to note that this is probably going to be the greatest November in a while since a Bond movie comes out. Not that I’m personally biased or anything.
The next few months are going to be great.
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Release Date: September 14
The Resident Evil films are underrated in the oft-had discussions of videogame adaptations, in my opinion. Director Paul W.S. Anderson (not to be confused with his lesser namesake Paul Thomas Anderson, who may only boast such sloppily licensed cash-ins as Magnolia: The Official Movie of the Game) treats the source material with enough reverence to not wholly disavow its established fiction, while still concocting a relatively coherent action movie. One look at the film’s picture perfect Ada Wong should entice Resident Evil fans to see what the purportedly penultimate has in store. – Jason Savior
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Release Date: September 14
This coming Thursday’s other Paul Anderson film is the hugely anticipated The Master, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman. A period character study wrapped up in the chronicling of a Scientology-like religion’s rise to fame, it’s PTA’s first film since his apotheosis as a director with 2007’s There Will Be Blood. With an acclaimed performance by Amy Adams to boot, The Master looks poised to kick off this year’s Oscar season quite strongly, assuming its prestige can overpower the allure of Leon S. Kennedy once more gracing the silver screen. – Jason Savior
Director: Josh Radnor
Release Date: September 14
Oh, liberal arts college, what a delightful waste of four years you were. Somehow, despite the bitterness at my overhyped and useless degree, there’s some bit of tenderness left, and Liberal Arts looks like it will be interesting. Perhaps it’s just that it stars Professor Mosby being a professor, or maybe it’s the slight hope that the movie will end with all parties realizing the futility of neverending academia and going off to do something more useful with their lives. Whatever it is, I want to see it happen. – Jenika Katz
Director: Stephen Chbosky
Release Date: September 21
I have this thing where I tend to get fascinated by a trailer, find out it’s a film adaptation of a novel, then rush out to read it before the film comes out (re: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World). While The Perks of Being a Wallflower was a more than decent book, the star power of a post-Harry Potter Emma Watson was enough to latch me on for this adaptation. And while I haven’t seen We Need to Talk about Kevin or Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, I’m confident that Ezra Miller and Logan Lerman will be able to live up to their shared billing with Watson. – Geoff Henao
Director: Pete Travis
Release Date: September 21
While I am aware that 1994’s Judge Dredd is considered an abomination by most, I have this weird affection for the Stallone/Schneider vehicle. I was so fascinated with the Dredd universe that it prompted me to get into the original comic book series. Of course, once I found out how long the series spans, I gave up almost instantaneously. Still, with Dredd 3D’s release (ugh, they really had to put 3D at the end, huh?), my impending reentry to the universe has left my nether regions moist with anticipation. This movie looks so shamelessly awesome that it’s convinced me that they totally didn’t lift the premise of a gang controlled housing complex from The Raid and that the drug SLO-MO is a genuine plot point and not some excuse to over use slowed down action sequences. Put it this way, it can’t possible be worse than the original movie. And if it is, that is an accomplishment worth seeing. – Andres Bolivar
Director: Rian Johnson
Release Date: September 28
Anyone that knows me knows that I have an undying love and respect for Rian Johnson. His first film, Brick, was the reason I went to film school. And it was fitting that his second film, The Brothers Bloom, released while I was in film school. So to say that I’m excited about Looper is an understatement. I’m foaming at the mouth for Looper. Rian’s cerebral writing style, a great looking view of the future, and an all-star cast including Bruce f*cking Willis makes this my most anticipated movie of autumn. – Maxwell Roahrig
Director: Genndy Tartakovsky
Release Date: September 28
Let’s be real: this does not look like a good movie. The monsters look like extremely watered-down versions of themselves, and the male protagonist looks obnoxious. Still, while the movie may end up being a string of monster puns, they could be the guilty pleasure type that don’t make you want to bang your head against the wall. And hey, it looks cute. – Jenika Katz
Director: Olivier Megaton
Release Date: October 5
Taken is basically the best movie ever made. It’s essentially thirty minutes of silly exposition followed by 60 minutes of Liam Neeson killing people, and what could be better than that? (The answer is nothing, by the way; it was a rhetorical question.) The trailer for Taken 2 gives me hope that things are going to be even awesomer. Not because Maggie Grace is in it doing things like her dear old daddy, but because it shows most of the murders from the first movie. If those murders (weird filter effect removed) show up in the second one alongside a whole bunch of new murders, then the first movie will be officially dead to me and a new king will take its place. Long live 60-something Liam Neeson’s bizarre action career! Long live Taken 2! – Alec Kubas-Meyer
Director: Tim Burton
Release Date: October 5
With the absolute dreck Tim Burton has been putting out lately, it’s a little hard to be excited about Frankenweenie without at least a few reservations. I am somewhat attached to the original short since I watched it as a kid, and while I know there are plenty of things that need to be changed in order to make the story into a full-length affair that will work with a widespread modern audience, there’s certainly the concern that Burton will once again favor style over substance and pump out something aimed at the baby goth crowd. Still, it looks like it might not be a loss. Burton is returning to his original style and making a black-and-white stop motion movie. That’s pretty damn awesome. All we can hope is that it will be something more than a pretty face. – Jenika Katz
Director: Ben Affleck
Release Date: October 12
Ben Affleck is an entertainer that took everyone by surprise by showing that he was more than Matt Damon’s sidekick and J-Lo’s boy-toy. Not only did he direct two pretty awesome movies (Gone Baby Gone and The Town), but he’s also really coming into his own as an actor. So I guess it goes hand in hand that he is both directing and starring in Argo, the true story of a CIA operative who attempts to save the lives of six U.S. citizens during the Iranian hostage crisis by posing as the director of a made up science fiction movie. Brilliant. I personally believe that more problems could be solved if we all just pretended to be directors of dubious sci-fi films. – Thor Latham
Director: Martin McDonagh
Release Date: October 12
In Bruges was an unexpected delight, demonstrating Colin Farrell’s hitherto unsuspected talents as a comedian. Seven Psychopaths is director Martin McDonagh’s follow-up movie, this time concerning a screenwriter with writers’ block who gets into unfortunate business with the Los Angeles mob after his friends kidnap a gangster’s Shih Tzu. As if the scenario weren’t wonderful enough, Colin Farrell is joined on the cast by Sam Rockwell, Christopher Walken, Woody Harrelson and Tom Waits, making this a who’s who of cinematic eccentricity. The only reason to be concerned is because it sounds almost too good to be true. – Xander Markham
Director: Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski, and Lana Wachowski
Release Date: October 26
The sheer ambition of Cloud Atlas is the reason I’m eager to see it. David Mitchell’s book is difficult to adapt given its six nested narratives and reliance on language. How does Cloud Atlas, so much a work of text, turn into a movie? The six-minute trailer and the theatrical trailer give hints about how it just might (or might not) work. Reviews of Cloud Atlas from the Toronto International Film Festival have been split, apparently commenting on the brass of the attempt even if the movie winds up a ridiculous mess. I’ve avoided reading the reviews until I see the film itself. What Tykwer and the Wachowskis are doing is like plate-spinning, jumping buses on a Harley, juggling live chainsaws. If only others filmmakers would do something so brash and daring. I’m so there. – Hubert Vigilla
Director: Michael J. Bassett
Release Date: October 26
The first Silent Hill movie had everything in it I needed to not hate it: Pyramid Head, fog, zombie(?) nurses, and that fantastic score that the Silent Hill franchise is known for. While I didn’t hate it, it was not the terrifying, edge-of-my-seat, pee-my-pants experience that I so desperately wanted the movie based on my then-favorite video game franchise (it is now tied with Dead Space). I know in my heart of hearts that its sequel, based on Silent Hill 3, my second favorite of the series, will not be everything I hope for either but damn if it doesn’t look ten times better than its predecessor. Just check out this clip from the movie to see what I’m talking about. We all know the stigma video game adaptations have so I’m hoping that we’ll be able to escape it with this one. That’s not too much to ask, right? – Sean Walsh
Director: The RZA
Release Date: November 2
Hubert: RZA rocks the kung-fu like Gordon muthafuckin’ Liu / Master killer skills and the Wang Yu guillotine / Shadow kick philistines don’t know what I’m getting at / Learn you the Harvest, the Shaw–
The blue Jedi ghost of ODB: The shimmy-Shaw shiznit!
Hubert: Legendary heroes, true far east crew / Better than you / Bust up Chuck Norris, too / Poppies out my eyes / Hot knifing on a fan blade / Float like a balisong, sting like a killah bee / Colossus got my back!
Colossus from the X-Men: Nuthin’ to fuck with!
Hubert: The blossoms gently falling like Lucy on my lap / The pleasure is the killin’ and the business the concubines / Makin’ sick killin’ with the feedin’ and the fillin’
Krispy Kreme: Damn, emcee — you’re employee of the month again?
The blue Jedi ghost of ODB: You know the bizness / The pleasure’s all mine!
Hubert: Oh, and I think The Man with the Iron Fists looks like a mighty entertaining madcap kung-fu movie, fellas. I just wish my flow was tighter. So anyways–
ALL: Bring da ruckus!
RZA: Bring da muthafuckin’ ruckus / Bring da muthafuckin’ ruckus / Bring da-bring da muthafuckin’ ruckus / Bring da muthafuckin’ ruckus – Hubert Vigilla
Director: Y.K. Kim
Release Date: November 2 (NYC), November 6 (LA), later in November nationally
Technically, Miami Connection came out way back in 1987, but you probably never heard of it. It barely had a theatrical release, and VHS copies were extremely rare. Now, thanks to a lucky purchase from Drafthouse Films, it’s hitting theaters. It’s also one of the craziest-looking movies I’ve ever heard of. The martial arts troupe/band Dragon Sound play their hit song “Against the Ninja” when not rolling around Miami’s underworld and beating up bikers, ninjas, and dealers of the stupid cocaine. It’s wild, and Y.K. Kim seems like an amazing personality, judging from Hubert’s interview, so I’m pumped to catch it! – Alex Katz
Director: Paolo Sorrentino
Release Date: November 2
In This Must Be The Place, Sean Penn stars as a gloriously washed-up aging rock star who’s bed-ridden father is near death while Penn desperately tries to find his father’s persecutor – a former Nazi stationed at Auschwitz. The whole movie looks impeccably past its prime, but in a dignified and wistful old dame sort of way. After being pushed back from its original March 2012 release date, This Must Be The Place comes to theaters in November of 2012, and if I haven’t convinced you, you can check out Allistair’s glowing Sundance Review of it! – Liz Rugg
Director: Rich Moore
Release Date: November 2
When I first saw the advertising for Wreck It Ralph, I honestly thought it was a Pixar flick. The idea sounds so like them. A video game villain is unhappy with what he does for a living (awesomely voiced by John C. Reilly!) and decides to see if the outside world (by which I mean other game worlds) has anything he might like. The biggest draw of WIR, however, is its stunning display of cameos from real life game characters like Bowser, M.Bison (or in Japanese, Vega), and Clyde! I was half expecting Disney to cheap out and make up stuff like Shmuper Fabio Cousins. This may be the best videogame flick we’ll get. – Nick Valdez
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Release Date: November 2
I want to say that I am looking forward to Flight because the story of a troubled alcoholic pilot whose heroics come into question once his checkered past is revealed sounds quite intriguing. I want to say that I’m psyched because it’ll be the return of Robert Zemeckis before his whole “motion capture is the future of cinema” trip. Hell, I even want to say that it’s due to the fact that I’m a Grade A sucker for Denzel Washington’s charm. Still, as a God-fearing American, I can not stand here on this cyberpulpit and mislead you upon my true reasoning. Ladies and gents … I want, nay, NEED to see this movie because…I need to see that ‘effing plane land upside down, yo. I mean, did you see the trailer?! SWAG SWAG SWAG SWAG SWAG! – Andres Bolivar
Director: Sam Mendes
Release Date: November 9
Even a die hard Bond fan such as myself can admit that Quantum of Solace was lackluster. It had it’s moments, but thanks to the writer’s strike it didn’t hold together as well as it should have and was a drastic downgrade from Casino Royale. Now, however, we have Skyfall, which looks like a fantastic return to form for Daniel Craig’s Bond. Add in the addition of Javier Bardem as the film’s villain and the directorial expertise of Sam Mendes (swoon) you’ve got the makings of another Bond classic. Well, as long as no blue velvet is involved. – Matthew Razak
Director: Steven Spielberg
Release Date: November 16
Spielberg has been trying to make this movie for years and years now, so you should see it just to see the fruit of his efforts. Also, it’s a movie starring Daniel Day-Lewis, which should be enough for any movie buff. The final years of Lincoln’s life, as he attempts to hold the country together during the Civil War, are rich material, and I’m honestly shocked no one’s made much of an attempt at a Lincoln biopic before. Toss in an all-star supporting staff featuring the likes of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jackie Earle Haley, John Hawkes, and more, and you’ve got another big shot at the Oscars for El Beardo. – Alex Katz
Director: Bill Condon
Release Date: November 16
I may be the only one on staff to obsess over the Twilight films, and that’s probably with good cause (as I am most likely the only one who cares about the tweensies). Twilight 5 and its two final trailers may have ruffled my feathers up a bit, but I’m willing to overlook all of that because the final film promises to deliver a much more satisfying conclusion than the final book does. Condon has to now prove that splitting Breaking Dawn into two films wasn’t just about the money and will hopefully bring back the magic the first one had. A magic that inspired those little tweesies to read books. I mean it’s got to compete with The Hunger Games and those 50 Shades of Porn books now. Better bring it. – Nick Valdez
Director: Ang Lee
Release Date: November 21
Anyone who’s read the book that Ang Lee’s The Life of Pi is based off of is excited about this movie. For anyone who hasn’t read the book, The Life of Pi has an incredibly captivating story that twists fable into truth and hyperbole into normality. The story features a young boy from India named Pi who, after an awful shipwreck, finds himself trapped on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker, adrift in the Pacific Ocean. While I have some reservations about the possible overuse of computer animation in the movie, in general, I’m really excited to see The Life of Pi. – Liz Rugg
Director: Peter Ramsey
Release Date: November 21
There’s one thing that is always profitable in Hollywood: Christmas. However, these days there’s a bigger thing taking over Hollywood: superheroes. What’s a poor studio to when confronted between the choice of making a Christmas movie or a superhero movie. If you’re Dreamworks you’re smart and you just do both in one movie and call it something akin to Action Power Superteam Unite (or Rise of the Guardians). Taking classic mythical creatures like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and turning them into a superhero team defending the holidays from evil is pretty much the ultimate studio creation for money. You know what, though? It looks damn fun. – Matthew Razak
Director: Dan Bradley
Release Date: November 22
Although the greater invader Russia has been replaced with North Korea, this is still looking like some good ole’ fashioned American exceptionalism. With a new squad of “kids” including Chris Hemsworth, Josh Hutcherson, and that one guy from Drake and Josh defending ‘Merica, Red Dawn is going to be all kinds of awesome. Although it may never live up to Swayze’s magnificence in the original, if I walk out screaming “WOLVERIIIINES!!!” I’ll call this a win. – Nick Valdez
Director: Roger Michell
Release Date: December 7
I was actually upset when Bill Murray lost the Oscar to Sean Penn after being nominated for Lost in Translation. Penn would have plenty more opportunities to grab an Oscar, but Murray probably wouldn’t was my general feeling. Thankfully Hyde Park on Hudson should give Murray the chance once again to flex his perfect balance of comedic and dramatic acting. The film, in which he plays President Franklin D. Roosevelt, looks about as charming as you can get and is the kind of thing the Academy adores. Of course with the likes of Laura Linney backing him up there’s hardly any concern except for the fact that director Roger Michell is often hit or miss. – Matthew Razak
Director: Tom Hooper
Release Date: December 14
I love Les Miserables. (Do I italicize the names of musicals? I’m too lazy to look it up.) I have incredibly fond memories of being in the show way back when, and I am extremely happy that the film adaptation appears to be getting the love and care that it so deserves. The lack of story details in the awesome first trailer is essentially irrelevant given my knowledge of the show itself. My only worry is about the necessary cuts that will be made to take a 3 hour 30 minute show to something that can be released theatrically. They could go with the School Edition, which is about an hour shorter and totally functional, but I just hope it’s not cut too much more than that. Les Miserables is an epic, and its length should reflect that. But I digress. This movie is going to be awesome. So flipflapping AWESOME. – Alec Kubas-Meyer
Director: Peter Jackson
Release Date: December 14
Do I really need to say anything about The Hobbit to get you excited? Do you really need an excuse to visit Middle-Earth again? I didn’t think so. What was once a set of films has since evolved into a trilogy, and while that has given pause to the pessimistic among us, I believe Jackson when he says there is just too much good stuff going on to not incorporate it into the story. Watching Bilbo leave the shire and embark on his unexpected journey will be one the definitive motion pictures of this holiday. Plus, when has watching a motion captured Andy Serkis ever not been awesome? – Thor Latham
Director: Walter Salles
Release Date: December 21
“I think of Dean Moriarty.” Since the first time I read those last lines, I was hooked on Jack Kerouac and the entire adventure I had just finished with On the Road. Like many 20-somethings unsure of their futures, I found myself enamored with Kerouac’s own journey through life through the eyes of his fictional doppelganger, Sal Paradise. With a jazz-like rhythm to his writing’s flow, it’s been a hard task to adapt the magic behind On the Road, yet I have faith in Salles’ ability to adapt road films. After all, I’ll have to have faith when it comes to the film adaptation of one of the largest sources of inspiration to my writing. – Geoff Henao
Director: Judd Apatow
Release Date: December 21
Judd Apatow is one of my all-time favorites. The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up are stupendous and I still laugh my ass off each time I watch them. I dragged my feet for a long time before I finally watched Funny People, and it was okay, but it wasn’t the happy-go-lucky affair its sister films were. Needless to say, Im excited for the Knocked Up spin-off that is This is Forty. Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann’s characters from Knocked Up are probably the least likely ones I would’ve expected to get their own movie, but having seen the trailer, I cannot wait. I expect this film to resonate with me particularly because I’ll have just turned 26 (October 2nd if you’re taking notes) and will be balls deep in my quarter-life crisis. If anyone can make me feel better, it’ll be Apatow, his band of merry men, the lovely maid Mann, and their delightfully charming daughters. – Sean Walsh
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Release Date: December 25
It’s Quentin Tarantino, and it’s a Western. If you need any other reasons to be frothing at the mouth and other places for Django Unchained, you should probably see a psychiatrist. (Actually, if you’re frothing at the mouth and other places, you should probably see a doctor. Or a vet.) Tarantino has cited The Good, The Bad And The Ugly among his all-time favourite movies, and his affection for spaghetti westerns comes through in every frame of Django‘s trailer. Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx, Samuel L. Jackson and Kerry Washington make up the main players in an outstanding cast, with original Django Franco Nero popping in for a cameo. If anything’s going to get in Skyfall‘s way to being 2012’s best blockbuster, this has to be it. – Xander Markham
