Wait. Summer’s over? Again? How the hell does this keep happening? Can’t something be done? Well, why don’t we just keep going to the movies anyway? Here’s a handful of films that’ll be playing this fall.
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M. Night Shyamalan’s Devil. |
Devil. (Opening September 17; with Chris Messina)
If there’s anything worse than being trapped in an elevator with a bunch of strangers, it must be discovering that one of them is the devil. And if there’s anything worse than that, it must be this movie concept, from M. Night Shyamalan. Has Shyamalan gotten so lazy now that he just writes stories and lets other people make the movies from them? In any case, the tagline—“bad things happen for a reason”—doesn’t lie.
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Michael Douglas reprises Gordon Gekko in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. |
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. (Opening September 24; with Michael Douglas, Shia LaBeouf, Charlie Sheen, Carey Mulligan, Josh Brolin, Susan Sarandon)
First Indiana Jones and now Gordon Gekko? Isn’t it sort of weird how Shia LaBeouf keeps showing up alongside heretofore mothballed ’80s cinema icons? Anyway, director Oliver Stone has more thoughts on the goodness of greed (that’s irony, by the way), and these trying financial times seem as good as any for a sequel to 1987’s Wall Street.
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The Social Network, about Facebook. |
The Social Network. (Opening October 1; with Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Timberlake)
To be honest, that earnestly self-delighted trailer, with the choir singing Radiohead’s “Creep,” is almost all we need here. But with Eisenberg as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Timberlake as Napster founder Sean Parker, a script by Aaron “Smug-n-windy” Sorkin (from Ben Mezrich’s book The Accidental Billionaires) and director David Fincher knowing he owes us one after The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, this online-culture origin myth might actually be a fun ride.
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A stunt from Jackass 3D. |
Jackass 3D. (Opening October 15; with Johnny Knoxville and pals)
This isn’t necessarily a recommendation, just an observation of movie-business logic at work. 3D was always just a vehicle for stupid-ass stunts, and yet it hasn’t gone away. Kind of like Jackass. So there you go.
Unstoppable. (Opening November 12; with Denzel Washington, Chris Pine, Rosario Dawson)
Because Speed was so long ago, and, now that we think about it, so downright dainty. Keanu Reeves? Sandra Bullock? A speeding bus? How about Denzel, the new Captain Kirk and a runaway train? Yes, thank you, manful director Tony Scott. That’ll do nicely.
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Garrett Hedlund and Olivia Wilde in Tron: Legacy. |
Tron: Legacy. (Opening December 17; with Jeff Bridges, Michael Sheen, Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde)
It just goes to show that Hollywood’s supply of stuff that a certain generation was into as kids has not diminished. Or, more accurately, stuff we actually thought was kind of dumb back then, but now get weirdly nostalgic about. You know: neon bodysuits, light cycles, deadly Frisbee thingies, young Jeff Bridges. It’s all here.
