It’s time once again for cooler temps and shorter days–and after a tepid summer at the box office, let’s hope the annual fall onslaught of early Oscar-bait films give us some welcome relief. From grifter tales to intense dramas to alternate-universe realities, not to mention a
lot of gore thrown in for good measure, get the skinny on all the season’s good, bad and bloody releases from Labor Day until Thanksgiving. Here are just a few highlights; check the guide for more:
Intolerable Cruelty
From the creative minds of the Coen brothers comes this screwball comedy (could it be anything else?) about a ultra-successful divorce lawyer who takes–and then is taken by–a beautiful divorcee. Can’t wait to see stars George
Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones rumble in a classic battle of the sexes.
Opens Oct. 10.
Scary Movie 3
In this third offering of hilarious spoofs, no recent hit film has been left
unscathed, including The Ring, Signs, The Others,
Matrix, Final Destination and 8 Mile. Although the
Wayan brothers–Keenan Ivory, Shawn and Marlon–won’t be back this time
around, the laughs seem guaranteed. Opens Oct. 24.
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Mystic River
Actor/director Clint Eastwood stays strictly behind the camera for this grim drama about three friends (Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon and Tim Robbins), who are haunted by a fateful event from their shared childhood and reunited as adults during the investigation of the murder of one of the men’s daughters. Yeah, definitely sounds like what Oscar nominations are made of. Opens Oct. 8.
Kill Bill
Everyone, chant–Quentin, Quentin, Quentin! Whiz kid Pulp Fiction director Tarantino is back after six years with his opus about a revengeful bride (Uma Thurman) on the warpath, which promises more blood and guts than any Discovery Channel surgery procedure. So much of it, in fact, Miramax split the film up into two parts. Part I opens Oct. 10.
The Matrix Revolutions
Will the final installment of this series finally give us some freakin’ answers about the Matrix? One can only hope. While Neo, Orpheus, Trinity and the gang fight the final battle for humanity, the spectacle of it will no doubt thrill audiences once again. Opens Nov. 5
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Russell Crowe unleashes hell as a 19th-century ship captain fighting the French in the Napoleonic Wars, with good pal Paul Bettany (A Beautiful Mind) beside him. Watching the Gladiator-like Crowe on the high seas, sword in hand, has just got to be good cinema. Opens Nov. 14.
