september

September is still viewed as a movie dumping ground between Summer and Oscar season but some of these look pretty solid. Or maybe I'm just really, really excited about the new Predator movie and it being released this months elevates the quality of everything else.

Back in 1987, a young Shane Black was an up and coming writer in Hollywood and after making Lethal Weapon he was given a small role in Predator. He dies pretty quickly but plays a memorable character who tells dirty jokes. 30+ years later he's back, but this time as director and writer of The Predator. When a group of soldiers and research scientists come across advanced alien technology they find themselves targeted by its owner - an alien who hunts for sport and has an appreciation for explosions and sharp objects. Predator hunting soldiers, tough guys, cops and killers is nothing new but this time around there is a new, tougher monster and it is a threat to human and Predator alike. I have been a fan of everything Shane Black has worked on and I enjoy everything involving Predator, even the really bad ones where he fights Alien, so I am very excited for this.

With last year’s release of The Mummy, the Universal production company was hoping to create a whole Universal Monster universe. It did not work. Audiences and critics hated it and the plan was put on hold and potentially scrapped.  While that universe failed, The Conjuring universe is doing quite well. Originally a film about paranormal investigators, it has spawned a sequel, 2 films about the creepy doll Annabelle and now The Nun, based on a demon character previously seen in The Conjuring 2. When the Vatican tasks a priest and a nun to investigate the mystery surrounding the death of a nun in Romania, they come across an evil force that will more than likely lead to several jump scares.

Back when she was the lead in Alias, Jennifer Garner had a few action movies, but it's been 11 years since her last and now she's back in the genre with Peppermint. After witnessing her family’s murder at the hands of gang members, a grieving mother hopes that the legal system will do what they are supposed to do. When the gang members go free she disappears and five years later, she resurfaces as a self-trained assassin out eliminate any criminal or corrupt official connected to her family’s murder. This story has been told a million times but the female lead action film is something we don't see enough of.

Paul Fieg has been in the comedy business for years as an actor, writer and director but he has now joined forces with Jessica Sharzer, producer and writer of American Horror Story, to create a film darker than his usual fare. A Simple Favor Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick who hit it off pretty quickly when their children become friends. [SR1] Lively has a mysterious way about her but Kendrick enjoys being around her. One day Lively calls and asks for a favor and then disappears. This puts Kendrick on a path where she has to dig into the life of her new friend, who she realizes she knows nothing about. The plot sounds like a familiar small town mystery but the actors, writer and director have my attention.

When a young kid in Detroit gets tired seeing his dad, Matthew McConaughey, barely scraping by, he starts selling drugs and that comes with it a life style he so desired. Known as White Boy Rick he, predictably, gets in too deep and winds up nearly dying after getting shot. Armed with the knowledge and the reputation, he then continues his criminal lifestyle, but starts to inform on his cohorts to the FBI, making him the youngest informant. These crime dramas have a habit of glamorizing the lifestyle rather than showing its downfall. I feel like glamorizing it may be difficult to do with a kid at the center.

Taking a break from his usual aggressively violent horror movies, Eli Roth has directed a PG fantasy-mystery starring Jack Black and Cate Blanchett called The House with a Clock in Its Walls. Based on a book of the same name, the story is about a young boy who moves in with his quirky uncle who turns out to be a wizard with fun powers. It turns out another wizard planted a clock in the halls of his uncle’s mansion and it has the power to destroy the world. With the help of a witch, Blanchett, they must find the clock, defeat all of the creatures trying to stop them and save the world. This looks like another version of the Goosebumps movie Jack Black was in a few years ago, I'm guessing this is why he won't be appearing in the sequel to that movie.

A western with John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix playing brothers is certainly going to get some awards attention. This is only getting a small release in September so I imagine we'll see a wider release between October and November. Portraying The Sister's Brothers, Reilly and Phoenix are assassins in 1850's Utah on the hunt for a man, Riz Ahmed, who has discovered a new and easy way to find gold. Jake Gyllenhaal seems to tow a line and helps out the hunters as well as the hunted, but uncertain alliances are nothing new in the Western genre. While the trailer has a few laughs, it also hints at a darkly violent movie, so film goers expecting a John C. Reilly western comedy might be surprised.

The end of September seems like a strange time for a comedy to be released, but I imagine it's because producers had to space out the Tiffany Haddish movies this year so they're not competing with one another. Recently there was Uncle Drew and in a couple months there will be The Oath and Nobody's Fool and this month it's Night School. Haddish is teaching a GED class so a group of adults can become high school graduates. She singles out one student, played by Kevin Hart, and takes a different approach to teaching where she beats him up until he decides to start learning. There's a couple other funny people in this but pairing Haddish and Hart is pretty much comedy gold.

When a yeti spots what he believes to be the legendary Smallfoot, a.k.a. a human being, he leaves his mountaintop yeti society and goes down to investigate a world he was told didn't exist. Now this is one silly looking cartoon that just flips the bigfoot legend on its head but this stars Lebron James, so I'm hoping that it's tied into some complicated Warner deal where if he made this movie, then they'll finally green light the long rumored Space Jam 2. Lebron has a pretty small acting resume (and stole the show in Trainwreck) so this makes sense to me.

Robert Redford has announced his retirement from acting so The Old Man and the Gun may be his last film. Based on a true story, Redford plays a 70 year old resident of San Quentin prison who manages to escape prison and goes on a somewhat charming robbery spree. The cop hunting him is Casey Affleck and the woman who loves him is Sissy Spacek. I'm not sure on the authenticity of the story but for Redford, this seems like a good way to finish his acting career.