Having just put this year’s summer at the movies to rest with my final summer superlatives, it’s time to look forward instead of back. It’s fall movie preview time.
The fall movie season (what I’m considering September through the Friday before Thanksgiving) is a tricky one. It’s a mixture of early Oscar candidates, good movies that didn’t think they could compete commercially over the summer and flat out crap that studios thought would make good summer movies but now they need to just dump somewhere.
What does all this mean? It means you need help, someone who can sift through the two and a half months of new releases and figure out what should be good, what should be bad and which movies disguised as one are really the other. That’s a hard job. Most news sources aren’t up to the challenge of maybe being wrong or have advertising revenue keeping them from speaking up. I, on the other hand, make no money doing this (until I get me some Google ads) so I can say whatever I want, and what I want to say is I have a list of 10 movies that I think will earn their money’s worth at the movies this fall. I have five additional honorable mentions and then five movies you should avoid like the plague.
For starters, here is the first half of my Top 10 fall movies list. My criteria are trailers, filmmaker’s track record, cast and overall premise. Click "View Trailer" to watch each movie's trailer on YouTube.
10. “Zombieland” (Oct. 2)
“Zombieland” is exactly how it sounds: zombie action comedy. Think an Americanized version of British comedy “Shaun of the Dead.” Director Ruben Fleischer is new and so are the film’s writers, so I’m taking a flyer with this No. 10 spot on “Zombieland” based on the trailer. From what I’ve seen, Fleischer looks to have a little Zak Snyder in him with quick slow-mo action, but more than that is the cast. Woody Harrelson stars as the main zombie killer and Jesse Eisenberg (who apparently enjoys films with titles ending in “land” after starring in “Adventureland” this past spring) is far from the typical good-looking kid you’d expect in this kind of film. Then there are the gorgeous young actresses Amber Heard (“Pineapple Express”) and Emma Stone (“Superbad”), both of whom are budding stars. With all that underrated talent, “Zombieland” should be better than expected and compete hard the first weekend of October. (View Trailer)
9. “A Serious Man” (Oct. 2)
This comedy receives a top 10 place for two reasons: the Coen brothers. With their last two films being fantastic (“No Country for Old Men” and last fall’s comedy “Burn After Reading”), the Coen brothers are on a roll and they deserve more hype for “A Serious Man” despite its complete lack of stars. Maybe I’m overestimating the film when it could be nothing more than a top-grade DVD rental, but it’s hard to go wrong recommending a Coen brothers movie. “A Serious Man” is a ‘60s period black comedy about a suburban Jewish man who’s having what looks like a mid-life crisis. The main character is getting shoved into a wall repeatedly throughout the trailer, so I can’t imagine this is anything but funny. (View Trailer)
8. “Extract” (Sept. 4)
The first promising movie of the fall opens this Friday and marks the return of “Office Space” and “Beavis and Butt-head” creator Mike Judge to the world of blue-collar comedy. Everyone’s beloved comedian Jason Bateman stars as the owner of a food extract plant whose having some problems at work and in his personal life. For the many “Office Space” fans, this premise is more promising than Judge’s last flop “Idiocracy.” It has a solid and diverse cast of stars including frequent Bateman collaborator J.K. Simmons, Ben Affleck as a shaggy-haired friend, SNL star Kristen Wiig and Mila Kunis making her first return to comedy after her impressive performance in “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.” (View Trailer)
7. “The Road” (Oct. 16)
After being pushed back about a year, the adaptation of “No Country for Old Men” author Cormac McCarthy’s post-apocalyptic best seller “The Road” is set to land in mid-October. I read the book recently and I think the movie should be good because the book is un-filmable. Filmable books make for movies that might disappoint or toy with the line of staying loyal to the source, but for “The Road” to be any good, it would have to deviate from the source, so no expectations means no “it wasn’t better than the book” disappointment, theoretically. Viggo Mortensen is an excellent choice for the father in this story of a father and son trying to stay alive and find refuge along the east coast in a burning America where it’s every man for himself. Charlize Theron also stars as the wife who was scarcely in the book and Guy Pearce and Robert Duvall play small but critical parts. Relatively inexperienced John Hillcoat (“The Proposition”) directs. The trailer is a bit more action-oriented, which is an interesting prospect. Whether you see it or not, the book is worth a read. (View Trailer)
6. “The Informant!” (Sept. 18)
Steven Soderbergh hasn’t had a hit lately if it hasn’t started with “Ocean’s,” but that looks like it could change as he takes on a more traditional smart comedy in “The Informant!” starring Matt Damon as the vice president of a business under federal investigation who agrees enthusiastically to be an informant but still thinks he can keep his job and nothing will happen. Soderbergh, who’s last film “The Girlfriend Experience” was intriguing but didn’t draw much of an audience as did his two-part Che biography, but “The Informant!” has the feel of another “Burn After Reading” and Matt Damon doing comedy is always a treat. The R-rated comedy hits theaters in mid-September. (View Trailer)
Part 2 coming on Thursday.
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