Summer Movie Wrap Up/Fall Preview

For me the summer is pretty much over. School is just around the corner; and so ends the summer movie extravaganza. Here’s my movie favourites of the year so far:

PreSummer Top Five
1. Children of Men
2. 300
3. Hot Fuzz
4. Zodiac
5. Grindhouse

The Summer Top Five
1. Knocked Up
2. 1408
3. Live Free or Die Hard
4. Transformers
5. The Simpsons Movie

Of course there are a lot more movies to come. The rest of the year is filled with big budget holiday movies, Oscar-bait dramas and independent movies galore. This is the trickier time of year where I often take more stock in what critic have to say about a given film. Simply from looking at trailers and reading descriptions, these are the films that got my attention: Shoot ‘Em Up, Brothers Solomon, I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With, Good Luck Chuck, Run Fatboy Run, Across the Universe, The Kingdom, The Heartbreak Kid, The Darjeeling Limited, Michael Clayton, Dan in Real Life, Slipstream, Lars & the Real Girl, Sleuth, Enchanted, American Gangster, Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, Steven King’s The Mist, August Rush, No Country for Old Men, Crossing Over, Lions for Lambs, Bee Movie, Fred Claus, Pathology, I am Legend, The Golden Compass, Charlie Wilson’s War, The Bucket List, Leatherheads, Sweeny Todd, Youth Without Youth, Juno, and Walk Hard.

Some of these films are in limited release so they won’t be making their way out to the local Cineplex. Some of these films will be released in January after limited engagements in LA and New York. And some of these might suck. Here are the ten films I am most looking forward to (in order of release date):

Across the Universe (Sept 24): Trippy and visually awesome. Only 30 minutes of dialogue, and 30 reworked Beatles songs.
The Darjeeling Limited (Oct): It’s a Wes Anderson film. I love his work. It also has Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman. I’m there.
American Gangster (Nov 2): Denzel. Crowe. Ridely Scott. The ads look pretty sharp. Denzel is in Training Day mode.
Bee Movie (Nov 2): Jerry Seinfeld brings observational humour to the bee world. I also hear they don’t have a bunch of lame bee puns.
No Country For Old Men (Nov 9): It looks like another Cohen brothers masterpiece. It looks creepy and well shot.
Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium (Nov 16): The writer Stranger Than Fiction did this. I like Natalie Portman.
I Am Legend (Dec 14): Will Smith as the last man on Earth. The shots of empty New York look pretty cool. So is Will Smith.
Sweeny Todd (Dec 21): Tim Burton directs Johnny Depp in a musical about a killer barber. Sounds darkly wonderful.
Walk Hard (Dec 21): From the guys who made Talladega Nights, 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Superbad. Need I say more?
Charlie Wilson’s War (Dec 25): Tom Hanks. Julia Roberts. Aaron Sorkin script. Mike Nichols directs. Gotta see it.

So that’s what’s coming up. Even though a lot of movies will be opening soon, I’m going to be taking a break from movie reviews and start focusing on the new television season. I’ve got some scoop on upcoming new shows, a look at some returning ones and there’s the Emmy Awards. Let the Fall Television Season begin!