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It’s fall — time to break out the Oscar bait
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“Santa Clause: The Escape Clause”
Starring: Tim Allen, Elizabeth Mitchell, Judge Reinhold, Wendy Crewson, Eric Lloyd, Spencer Breslin, Liliana Mumy, Alan Arkin, Martin Short, Ann-Margret
Director: Michael Lembeck
Story: In the third installment of this Santa story, Santa (Allen) has to deal with the arrival of his in-laws (Arkin, Ann-Margret), while trying to keep Jack Frost (Short) from stealing Christmas. But when he accidentally activates the escape clause, he goes back in time and with Short aiming for the red suit, things are sure to turn out differently.
Buzz: Are you ready to start your holiday movie viewing on Nov. 3? This feels similar to the first two films. Short can be a bit grating in large doses and it seems like he has a hefty role here. Allen told Entertainment Weekly that this would be his last go-around in the Santa suit. So if you had that on your Christmas wish list, you can now cross it off.
Web site: http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/index.html?dlink=santa
“Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan”
Starring: Sacha Baron Cohen, Daniel Castro, Pamela Anderson
Director: Larry Charles
Story: Cohen (“Da Ali G Show”) brings his Kazakhstani reporter Borat Sagdiyev to the big screen. Borat is intent on doing a documentary on the U.S. and he blunders into offending almost everyone he encounters. From rodeos to feminist groups, Borat talks to everyone, but is ultimately more interested in finding and trying to marry Pamela Anderson.
Buzz: If you’ve seen “Da Ali G Show” you know how funny Cohen is — the question is whether his routine will translate to the big screen. Half an hour is funny, but will the SNL curse of feeling like you’re watching a really extended skit overwhelm the humor? Cohen did steal scenes in this summer’s “Talladega Nights,” so he definitely has the stuff to be a big-screen star. Director Charles is primarily known for being a writer on “Seinfeld” and “Entourage”; he’s also directed “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”
Web site: http://www.borat.tv/
“The Flock”
Starring: Richard Gere, Claire Danes, Avril Lavigne
Director: Andrew Lau
Story: Gere plays a federal agent in charge of monitoring paroled sex offenders. While training his replacement (Danes), he has to track down a missing girl who he thinks may have been abducted by one of his parolees.
Buzz: Lau directed the wildly popular Hong Kong film “Infernal Affairs” (being remade by Scorsese as “The Departed”) and its sequels. Hard to believe that Gere (“Unfaithful,” “Chicago”) is pushing 60 — he's actually 57. He still quite believable as a romantic lead, though let’s hope Lau resisted pairing him romantically with the 27-year-old Danes. Pop star Lavigne has roles in this film, “Over the Hedge” and “Fast Food Nation.”
Web site: http://www.bauermartinez.com/movies/flock.asp
“Volver”
Starring: Yohana Cobo, Penélope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas, Blanca Portillo, Chus Lampreave
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Story: In this dramedy, Cruz plays Raimunda, a woman who juggles many jobs and has a deadbeat husband. When she discovers her daughter (Cobo) has murdered her husband to prevent him from sexually assaulting her, Raimunda does anything she can to cover up the crime. Meanwhile, Raimunda’s dead mother (Maura) has returned from the grave to resolve things with her sister (Lampreave), Raimunda and another woman in the neighborhood (Portillo).
Buzz: Cruz and the five other leading ladies from the cast shared the best actress award at the Cannes Film Festival. Almodovar (“Talk to Her,” “All About My Mother”) just seems to get better and better. Cruz, who never gets interesting English-speaking roles, finally gets a chance to show off her real talent. She’s definitely a threat for an Oscar nomination. Rich Bennett of the Hollywood Reporter called the film a “richly entertaining fantasy from a cinematic master.” Currently the film has a 100 percent rating at rottentomatoes.com.
Web site: http://www.sonyclassics.com/volver/
“Flushed Away”
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Kate Winslet, Ian McKellen, Andy Serkis, Bill Nighy, Shane Richie, Jean Reno
Director: Sam Fell, David Bowers
Story: Jackman provides the voice of Roddy St. James, a pampered pet mouse who’s living the high life, but when sewer rat Sid (Richie) shows up, he takes Roddy’s place and flushes him straight into another world. Underground Roddy encounters street-wise rat Rita (Winslet). But soon a villainous toad (McKellen) sends his hench-rats (Nighy, Serkis) after Rita and Roddy and the evil Le Frog (Reno) to finish the job.
Buzz: This is the first CGI animated feature from Aardman Animation, the studio behind “Wallace and Gromit.” The film has the same stop-action animation look of their other films, but is done using computers rather than by hand. Hopefully, it will have the sweet soul of the other Aardman creations.
Web site: http://www.flushedaway.com/flash/index.html
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“A Good Year”
Starring: Russell Crowe, Albert Finney, Abbie Cornish, Marion Cotillard, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, Didier Bourdon, Tom Hollander, Freddie Highmore
Director: Ridley Scott
Story: Based on the book by Peter Mayle, Crowe stars as Max Skinner, a type-A investment banker who doesn’t believe in weekends or holidays. When his uncle (Finney) passes away, Skinner inherits his French vineyard and estate. There he meets a beautiful woman (Cotillard) who claims she owns the vineyard. Highmore co-stars as the younger version of Max.
Buzz: This is Crowe and Scott’s first film together since “Gladiator” and they are already at work on a third, the crime drama, “American Gangster.” Scott actually inspired Mayle to write the book by pitching him the idea over wine. The film certainly has pedigree, the question is: do audiences want a film from Crowe and Scott that offers adult introspection rather than battle scenes?
Web site: http://www.agoodyearmovie.com
“Babel”
Starring: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Gael Garcia Bernal, Koji Yakusho, Elle Fanning
Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Story: Director Iñárritu juggles four storylines in this story of language and the things that people can’t say to each other. Pitt and Blanchett play an American couple vacationing in Morocco. When Blanchett gets shot, Pitt must go to a remote village to get help. The shots come from a family of Berber goatherders who must deal with the consequences of their actions. Meanwhile, the couple’s housekeeper (Adriana Barraza) needs to go to a wedding in Mexico, and since Pitt and Blanchett are delayed in returning she decides to take their two kids across the border, along with her nephew (Bernal). In another story in Tokyo, a deaf-mute woman (Rinko Kikuchi) grapples with her mother’s suicide.
Buzz: Iñárritu and screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga are no strangers to intertwining storylines; they also created “21 Grams” and “Amores Perros.” These guys specialize in brutal, sad stories, so don’t expect to be uplifted by this one. When it premiered at Cannes, it was talked about as one of the Palme d'Or award frontrunners. Iñárritu and Arriaga are definite Oscar threats. The Hollywood Reporter’s Ray Bennett wrote, “Tense, relentless and difficult to watch at times, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's ‘Babel’ is an emotionally shattering drama.” Sounds like Oscar bait to me.
Web site: http://www.paramountvantage.com/babel
“Stranger than Fiction”
Starring: Will Ferrell, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman, Queen Latifah, Emma Thompson
Director: Marc Forster
Story: Ferrell plays Harold Crick, an IRS worker who begins to hear a woman’s voice narrating his life in his head. Little does he know that it’s British novelist Kay Effel, who is actually writing a novel, in which he is the main character. Crick goes to literature professor Dr. Jules Hilbert (Hoffman) for help and finds out who Pascal is through him. Can he stop her from killing off his character? Gyllenhaal co-stars as an anarchist baker.
Buzz: Forster (“Monster’s Ball,” “Finding Neverland”) definitely doesn’t like to be hemmed in by genre. This is his first attempt at comedy. Ferrell seems to want to stretch beyond the broad comedy he’s known for, but whether audiences are willing to follow him is another question. This film feels a little bit like “Adaptation,” but a bit less full-tilt crazy than that film was.
Web site: http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/strangerthanfiction/index.html
“Fur”
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Robert Downey, Jr.
Director: Steven Shainberg
Story: Kidman stars as photographer Diane Arbus in this film that imagines a three-month period in her life where she went from working in her husband’s photo studio to breaking out on her own. She just might have been inspired by Lionel (Downey, Jr.), a man she meets who just happens to be completely covered in animal fur.
Buzz: Shainberg (“Secretary”) told Premiere magazine that the film “is not a biopic by any stroke of the imagination.” Kidman told Entertainment Weekly that she signed on to the film because she’s “interested in things that are unusual.” It’s hard not to be a bit curious about this quirky story.
Web site: NA
“F*ck”
Starring: Pat Boone, Drew Carey, Billy Connolly, Sam Donaldson, Janeane Garofolo, Ice-T, Ron Jeremy, Bill Maher, Michael Medved, Alanis Morrisette, Kevin Smith, Hunter S. Thompson
Director: Steve Anderson
Story: Celebrities, politicians and other talking heads all discuss the four-letter word that is still able to get a rise out of people after all these years. Why does it still have so much shock value? And is it more prevalent now than ever? These are just some of the issues that will be discussed and joked about.
Buzz: On the heels of the ultra funny and raunchy “The Aristocrats,” this seems like fairly tame stuff. I’m not sure what’s so interesting about watching famous people talk about the F word, but perhaps there are those out there who do. This is Anderson’s first foray into the documentary form.
Web site: http://www.fourletterfilm.com/
Note: Dates are subject to change at studio whim.
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