I am going to shoehorn most of this month’s releases into two categories: Oscar Bait and Horror. There are a few outliers so I will place them in the Other category because how does one categorize the Jem and the Holograms remake?
Oscar Bait:
The story of the marooned man has been done before, see Castaway, and we’ve already had a film about a man all alone on a space station, see Moon, but because both of those films are pretty great there’s no reason to not continue the trend. From Ridley Scott, the director of some of the most highly regarded films ever - like Gladiator, Blade Runner and Alien - and Drew Goddard- a writer on some of the most popular shows ever like Buffy, Alias and Lost - comes The Martian, the story of a man marooned on a space station on Mars and his fellow astronauts back on earth who intend to rescue him. I could write a whole page on how intrigued I am by this film and this cast but just watch the trailer. It’s a really good trailer. Oscar hopes: Directing, acting and special effects.
In 1974, man managed to pull off quite the dangerous feat by performing a tightrope walk between the towers at The World Trade center. Then in 2008, they made a documentary about it called Man on a Wire. It got a decent amount of attention so the director of Back to the Future decided to get Joseph Gordon-Levitt to play the lead and reenact The Walk. The documentary considers this to be the tale of ‘the artistic crime of the century’ (pretty bold statement considering they still had more than a ¼ century to go, but I know nothing of art so I’ll agree). But I guess Robert Zemeckis thought the story itself wasn’t interesting enough so he shot it in IMAX 3-D. When you see those box office receipts and see that this movie made a lot of money, remember that a single ticket probably cost nearly $20. Oscar hopes: Directing and special effects. Levitt does throw on a French accent so maybe acting too.
When I heard the title Freeheld I thought, all right a New Jersey movie! Then I read the plot. This is a tough story people. It’s a true story about an NJ police officer, Julianne Moore, diagnosed with cancer. Now that’s a tough story on its own but it’s not the main focus. The main focus is about her attempt to cut some serious red tape to make sure her domestic partner, Ellen Page,gets her pension benefits when she passes. Oscar hopes: Acting and screenplay, not sure about Directing. The only thing we have from the director is Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist and I don’t know if anyone saw that.
When someone passes they become a hot topic and I imagine a lot of people would like a film made about them. Well, in the past 3 years Steve Jobs has had 3 movies made about him! There’s iSteve, a comedy where he is portrayed by Justin Long. Then there was Jobs where Ashton Kutcher takes on the role and now since those titles were already taken we have the very uniquely titled Steve Jobs. In the most recent incarnation he is portrayed by Michael Fassebender. Now when you put the words ‘portrayed’ and ‘Fassbender’ together you definitely get people thinking about the Oscars. I didn’t have an interest in the first two but this one is directed by Danny Boyle and written by Aaron Sorkin, who only have one Oscar each are probably overdue for another. Oscar hopes: pretty sure I covered that.
Here’s another equation that gets people thinking about the Oscars: War+ Period Piece + Steven Spielberg + Tom Hanks + Coen Brothers! Coen’s already have 4, Spielberg has 3 and Hanks got 2. Even if Bridge of Spies isn’t that great it will still get nominated for something, maybe set design? Now on to the plot. When a U.S. pilot is shot down and detained in the Soviet Union during the Cold War the C.I.A., for some reason, contacts a lawyer to help broker a deal to rescue the downed soldier. I’m sure there’s reluctance, intrigue, family drama and real-life high stakes. With this many great filmmakers involved it better be good. Oscar hopes: Acting, writing, directing and all the rest.
Now onto Other. I’ll close with Horror because it’s more fun.
I don’t know if Christopher Walken as Hook made people want another Peter Pan movie but something did so we now have Pan. This looks to be the story of how Peter Pan becomes Peter Pan. We also see a young Hook and a young Tiger Lily. Well not like young young - they’re not little kids and they look like they’re like 30. I’m almost 30.If I was destined to become Hook I figure I’d be on my way by now. So the main villain here is Hugh Jackman as Blackbeard who, if I’m not mistaken, is based on a real life pirate and keeps showing up in popular shows and movies like Once Upon a Time, and Pirates of the Caribbean. I guess Disney really likes this character and will use him as much as possible.
Now I’ve heard of Jem and the Holograms but I know nothing about Jem or her holographic people she hangs out with. Or is her band called the holograms? Well whatever the case may be the film is about a small town singer who becomes an internet star and becomes Justin Beiber but with, like, superpowers or something. I didn’t do much research on this one.
Most people like Bill Murray. That’s my lead up to discuss a new Bill Murray movie. In Rock the Kasbah Murray plays a music manager in Afghanistan. He might put together U.S.O. shows but I’m not sure on that. While there he discovers a girl with a great singing voice and decides to get her on as a contestant on Afghan Star, which seems to be an equivalent of American Idol. Is that still a show? Reason I’m most interested in this is Bruce Willis is in it and I’ll watch pretty much anything with him in it. Last time he and Murray were in a film together was Moonrise Kingdom - which everyone should see.
Tom Hanks is the most popular Hanks. Then there’s apparently a rapper in the family, but I’ve always enjoyed Colin Hanks. He’s not in much but when he shows up in a movie or a T.V. show he has that everyman charm about him. Now he fancies himself a director. The focus of his film is in the title, All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records. I myself didn’t have much experience with Tower Records. It was the closest music and movie store to my college and when they were going out of business I spent a lot of money buying up discounted DVDs. This film includes interviews from musicians and focuses on why the company went out of business. Apparently it wasn’t just the rise of the internet, which is what I assumed.
Okay now on to the fun stuff. It’s October so there has to be some horror movies out, otherwise why release anything at all?
My appreciation for action movies is no secret so I can’t help but be excited that Vin Diesel is starring in a film called The Last Witch Hunter. Diesel’s character hails from a time when being a witch hunter was a thing people did - we’re talking centuries ago. So right before he kills a super powerful witch he gets the curse of immortality and has to live forever killing witches. Fast forward to today, he’s still killing witches and it seems that the super powerful one is back to finish him off. It seems he has partners so it’s kind of unfair to call him The Last Witch Hunter. From what I can tell his old partner is Michael Caine and he’s passing the torch on to Elijah Wood in an attempt to class this film up in an indie sort of way.
When I was a kid I used to read Goosebumps books by R.L. Stine. I loved them. I’d read them all of the time and watch the show on weekends. Each episode was based on another book in a kind of kid friendly Twilight Zone sort of way. That’s not a great comparison but, you know, they’re supernatural and serialized. So now all these years later we have Goosebumpsbecause everything gets a reboot. In this story, Jack Black plays R.L. Stine, a reclusive author of children’s horror stories whose creations are locked away. Of course this isn’t for long and the evils from his stories are released and all of those things that scared me as a kid are terrorizing the people on screen in a fun and PG manner.
So since goofy witch hunting stories and updated kid’s movies aren’t for everyone we have more of an adult focused horror with Crimson Peak. This is brought to us by Guillermo Del Toro, who makes some big action movies like Hellboy and Pacific Rim, but seems to shine when he makes dramatic horror films like The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth. Lucky us because this is another dramatic horror film. It’s a gothic romance horror turn of the century haunted house film. Kind of Avant-garde for the typical horror crowd, but if the trailer delivers upon its promise of an eerie story with attractive yet sad looking people then it should be right up there with Del Toro’s best works.
Happy Halloween!
