Autumn ~a»n^novies
The next two months offer
something for all cinematic
tastes, from dark comedy
to nonsensical adventure
By Steven Neuman
Freelance Reporter
After braving the wilds of a rocky
summer movie season filled with
overblown special effects and even
more overblown promotions (think
"Gigli"), average movie-buffs are now
entering what is considered the "artsy"
season for movies. Fall is a time when
the studios scrape together any remain
ing shreds of dignity and put out some
of the best movies of the year.
Sept. 26
Sofia Coppola's delicate direction
of Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson
in "Lost in Translation" has already
won acclaim on the international
film circuit — critics are already call
ing it Coppola's second coming —
and it will be interesting to see
whether the art can live up to expec
tations. The film centers around the
chance meeting of a washed-up film
actor who is shooting a whiskey
commercial, and a photographer's
wife in a Tokyo bar. The two imme
diately bond and go on a deep and
apparently humorous adventure of
soul searching that spans a weekend.
"Duplex" places Ben Stiller in yet
another precariously comedic situa
tion: This time he pairs with Drew
Barrymore as one half of a hip New
York City couple who stumbles upon
the near-perfect duplex in the perfect
neighborhood. The only problem is
the duplex's other inhabitant, an eld
erly woman who is anything but
sweet. Soon enough, Stiller and Barry
more find themselves trying to kill the
neighbor from hell in what is sure to
be a comedic paring from heaven.
"Under the Tuscan Sun" is like "Ihe
Money Pit," only set in Italy and with
out all the humor. Okay, so it's nothing
like "The Money Pit" but Diane Lane
does play an empowered and divorced
middle-aged woman who sets out on
a vacation to begin a new life, purchas
ing a run-down villa in Tuscany. As she
Spackles her way to self-fulfillment and
fixes up her home she meets a hunky
local played by Raoul Bova and love
(presumably) ensues.
"The Rundown" has all the makings
of a spectacularly egotistical action/ad
venture flick. The Rock plays a bounty
hunter who takes an assignment that
sends him to Helldorado (no, that's
not a joke) in the Amazon jungle to
capture escaped convict Seann William
Scott. As it turns out, the convict is sim
ply an adrenaline-junkie kid looking
for riches and a mythical mine that's
filled with gold. However, Christopher
Walken, once again playing the obliga
tory local evil character with an accent
of ambiguous origin, wants the treas
ure for himself and plots to thwart the
treasure hunters' plans.
Oct. 3
"The School of Rock" has some of
the best buzz of any commercial film
out this fall. Tenacious D frontman Jack
Black plays a musician who gets ousted
from his rock band, and out of finan
cial and emotional desperation decides
to take a position as a substitute fourth -
grade teacher at a stuffy, preppy private
school. The plot centers around a bat
tle of the bands competition and how
Black learns from his students, as they
learn from him, in time to win the top
prize. This role seems tailor-made for
Black, and it looks to be hilarious.
Denzel Washington takes another
stab at the genre that has defined his ca
reer in the average thriller-drama "Out
of Time" Washington plays a respect
ed chief of police in a small Florida
town, who must solve a brutal double
homicide before he himself falls under
suspicion. Ihe movie becomes a race of
one man against his own police force
as he has to run from trusted friends
and colleagues while solving the crime.
The studio is betting this movie will be
huge, but it's going to be hard to top
'Training Day's" incredible emotional
complexity and intensity.
Oct. 8
In a weekend of the big-director re
leases, Clint Eastwood pulls some
tough punches as director of "Mystic
River." Following the death of Jimmy
Marcus' (Sean Penn) oldest daughter,
three childhood friends — including
Penn, Kevin Bacon and Tim Robbins
— reunite. Bacon is a police detective
assigned to the case, who soon uncov
ers some disturbing evidence and is
forced to wrangle his friend's rage and
pangs for revenge.
The Coen Brothers do romantic
comedy? "Intolerable Cruelty" is the
story of a hot-shot Los Angeles di
vorce attorney (George Clooney) who
is out to beat his client's ex-wife
(Catherine Zeta-Jones) at her own
game, while preserving his own
client's bank account. The two appar
ently fall in love and hilarious hijinks
and legal conflicts of interest ensue.
David Carradine is Bill, In "Kill Bill:
Volume 1." He's the leader of a group
of assassins who orders a hit on his top
student Uma Thurman. She takes a
bullet in the brain on her wedding day,
killing her unborn child. She awakens
from a coma five years later, and de
cides to seek revenge, killing the mem
bers of the group and saving Bill for
last. "Kill Bill" is split into two separate
90-minute "volumes," which will be
released on different dates. Look for
stars like Daryl I lannah, Lucy Liu, Vivi
ca A. Fox, Michael Madsen and Samuel
L. Jackson. Oh yeah, this little flick's di
rected by one Mr. Tarantino.
I don't know whether to cry or to cry
harder at "Good Boy!" Liam Aiken
plays young Owen Baker, who is happy
to adopt a dog from the local animal
shelter, but is surprised to leam that
1 Iubble, his dog (voiced by Matthew
Broderick), is a visitor from space. The
dog is on a mission from Sirius — the
dog star, get it? — to prepare Earth dogs
for a visit from the Great Dane. This
movie was, of course, already made,
and it was called "Lilo and Stitch."
In the second indie horror chiller
released this year — "The House of
the Dead" — a group of controlled
substance-happy teens sail out to an
island near Seattle to attend a massive
rave. The daigs take hold, but the
flesh-hungry zombies aren't halluci
nations, the/re the trippy minions of
a ghost named Castillo.
Oct. 17
Based on John Grisham's novel,
"Runaway Juiy" is the tale of the ma
nipulation of a court trying a wrongful
death case involving a major gun man
ufacturer. John Cusack is the man on
the inside and Rachel Weisz plays the
woman on the outside in what looks to
be a promising fall thriller.
This remake of "The Texas Chain
saw Massacre" looks about as inter
esting as any remake of a classic film:
I'd rather take a chainsaw to the head
than see this.
Cate Blanchett is "Veronica Guerin,"
an Irish investigative journalist who
heroically risks her life by running a se
ries of controversial stories exposing
Dublin's underworld drug dealers.
Based on a true story, Blanchett's per
formance is rumored to have imbued
this character with amazing life.
Oct. 24
"Beyond Borders" deals with the ro
mance between a disaster relief worker
played by Clive Owen and a philan
thropist socialite played by Angelina
Jolie that evolves over many years and
many locations. Add the Jolie-weird
ness as a factor to that luscious and
perverse mix, and you have a movie
that is such a train wreck that Oliver
Stone, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Ralph
Finnes all ditched long ago.
Apparently someone sold their soul
to the devil to get "Gothika's" cast to
gether. Halle Berry is a criminal psy
chologist who encounters some myste
rious circumstances when she awakens
to find herself as a patient in the insti
tution where she works, accused of
committing a murder of which she has
no memory. Penelope Cruz plays a
mental patient and Robert Downey Jr.
plays one of Berry's co-workers. On top
of it all she has to deal with a vengeful
spirit while she tries to piece together
her recent past.
The third installment of the trilogy,
"Scary Movie 3", spoofs everything
from 'The Lord of the Rings" to "Harry
Potter," but the question remains: With
out the Wayanses, will this franchise
tank? Probably not, considering Kevin
Smith penned a portion of this installa
tion (they're working on No. 4). It looks
as though the legacy may be better off
without the brothers Grimm.
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