September Movie Releases Part Four

The third Friday of September, the 18th, is one of the most densely packed for movie releases, so there’s a good chance your local movie theater will be pretty crowded that day.

The first is a star packed action flick, Armored. A team of employees for an armored guard company decided to pull a heist on their own company. Sounds generic, but might be saved by the cast of Skeet Ulrich, Matt Dillon, Colombus Short, Laurence Fishburne, Jean Reno (guarantees some credibility), Fred Ward, Milo Ventimiglia, and Andrew Fiscella.

On a total opposite turn, the more romantic types can indulge in a period piece: Bright Star. It’s the story of the love affair between poet John Keats and villager Fanny Brawne, played by Bill Whishaw and Abbie Cornish. As in any love story that takes place in London in the 1800’s, the relationship is constantly sabotaged by illness, disapproving family members, class standards, and the works. Sure to be tragic, might have been decent and poignant if not for the casting of Abbie Cornish in the lead.

Guillermo Arriaga, writer of Babel, brings us The Burning Plain, a similar type of film starring Charlize Theron and Kim Basinger, in which several stories weave in and out of each other. The ultimate result seems it will be a haunting, pretty, and painful portrait of love, tragedy, and humanity, as the characters grapple with change, loss, and repressed love.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is one for the whole family, a cute adaptation of the beloved book about a town fed by whatever falls from the sky. The voices are offered by a great comedic cast including Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, Andy Samberg, Bruce Campbell, Tracy Morgan, and, yes, Mr. T.

The Informant! sounds like a darkly funny take on the true story of Mark Whitacre, played by Matt Damon, the whistleblower of Archer Daniels Midland. Travel through the ins and outs, truths and lies of the case that frustrated the FBI as Whitacre reveals both realities and cover-ups of his own misdeeds.

This Friday happens to be the opening day for the much buzzed-about Jennifer’s Body, the Diablo Cody-penned tale of a cheerleader possessed by demons. Just another day in high school. Starring Megan Fox and the usually adorable Amanda Seyfried, this looks like a big old hot mess of filmmaking, one that misses both the horror and comedy marks by trying to be spoofy and campy, and prdictably failing miserably.

Love Happens is a boring, trite, tired, isn’t-even-pretending-to-look-like-it’s-trying rom-com starring Aaron Eckhart as a widower-turned-motivational-speaker and star author, and Jennifer Aniston as the same exact character she plays in every single movie.  Take a chance on love, Jen! And please, let it take you somewhere far, far, far away, away from movies forever.

In Pandorum, Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster star as crew members on a spacecraft who fall asleep and then wake up with no working equipment or memories of what they’re supposed to be doing. Um, sounds like a case of stoner hangover, but whatever. They are then attacked by tribal alien warriors, as audience members everywhere leave the theater.

August 10th, 2009 by Courtney Iseman | Posted in Movie News | (0)