It’s Big screen bonanza
Check out new crop of films
fall, and in addition to the ubiquitous pumpkins and inevitable turkeys, there’s a new season of movies. Scary ones? You bet. Writer-director and Harvard graduate Darren Aronofsky (“Black Swan”) returns to psychological horror with “Mother!” (today, Paramount), a film in which Academy Award winners Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem play a couple whose existence is disrupted by a mysterious older couple (Ed Harris and Michelle Pfeiffer). Is it zombie mom and dad? In case you prefer torture porn, have at the (gag) latest “Saw” sequel, “Jigsaw” (Oct. 27, Lionsgate).
There are more sequels and remakes: “Kingsman: The Golden Circle” (Sept. 22, Fox) reunites Taron Egerton (“Kingsman: The Secret Service”) with director Matthew Vaughn (“X-Men: First Class”) and several famous faces, including Halle Berry, Julianne Moore and Channing Tatum. Speaking of faces, Ellen Page, Diego Luna and Kiersey Clemons are the new young physicians in “Flatliners” (Sept. 29, Sony), the resurrection of a truly terrible ’90s film. “Blade Runner 2049” (Oct. 6, Warner Bros.) asks the question: Will Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) finally come out as a replicant? Or will the longawaited sequel to the iconic 1982 classic with Ryan Gosling as “Officer K” (as in Special?) from Denis Villeneuve be as silly as Villeneuve’s overrated 2016 work “Arrival”? Actordirector Kenneth Branagh, last seen in Christopher Nolan’s “Dunkirk,” reboots the 1974 Sidney Lumet star-studded classic “Murder on the Orient Express” (Nov. 10, Fox). Branagh also plays Agatha Christie’s fussbudget Belgian detective Hercule Poirot.
For kiddies: “Ninjago,” aka “The LEGO Ninjago Movie” (Sept. 22, Warner Bros.), features computer-animated LEGO ninjas and the voice of Jackie Chan. Are you “scurred” at the thought of “Tyler Perry’s Boo 2: A Madea Halloween” (Oct. 20, Lionsgate)? I am.
There are also — gasp — original films. “Battle of the Sexes” (Sept. 29, Fox Searchlight) pits tennis legend Billie Jean King (Emma Stone) against male chauvinist pig Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell). “Stronger” (Sept. 22, Roadside) is the story of Boston’s Jeff Bauman (Jake Gyllenhaal), who lost both legs in the Boston Marathon bombing. Stephen Frears’ “Victoria and Abdul” (Sept. 22, Focus Features) reunites Frears with his “Philomena” leading lady Judi Dench and is certain to be a fall sleeper, bringing Oscar winner Dench back as Queen
Victoria 20 years after “Mrs. Brown.” George Clooney directed “Suburbicon” (Oct. 27, Paramount), a home-invasion thriller co-written by Joel and Ethan Coen and starring Matt Damon. Two-time Academy Award winner Denzel Washington plays the title role in Dan (“Nightcrawler”) Gilroy's high-powered courtroom drama “Roman J. Israel, Esq.” (Nov. 11, Sony).
America is a popular theme this fall. “American Assassin” (today, Lionsgate), based on the 2010 novel by Vince Flynn, teams newcomer Dylan O'Brien (“Teen Wolf”) with Michael Keaton as his Cold War veteran CIA black ops trainer in a pursuit of a terrorist named Ghost (Taylor Kitsch). “American Sniper” executive producer Jason Hall makes his directing debut with “Thank You for Your Service” (Oct. 27, Universal), a drama about soldiers returning from Iraq and starring Miles Teller. Doug Liman's “American Made” (Sept. 29, Universal) tells the semitrue story of Barry Seal (Tom Cruise), a pilot who works for the CIA in the 1980s before turning rogue drug runner. Reginald Hudlin's “Marshall” (Oct. 13, Open Road) tells the true, uplifting American story of Thurgood Marshall (Chadwick Boseman), the first African-American Supreme Court Justice of the United States.
OK, send in some inevitable superheroes: Not exactly a superhero film, “Professor Marston & the Wonder Women” (Oct. 27, Annapurna) tells the R-rated, Harvard-centric tale of the kinky origins of the Wonder Woman character. New Zealand auteur Taika Waititi (“What We Do in the Shadows”) gets his shot at a Marvel film with “Thor: Ragnarok” (Nov. 3, Buena Vista), a film sure to make Chris Hemsworth's hammerwielding super-hunk less of a horny-helmeted bore. “Justice League” (Nov. 17, Warner Bros.), teams DC superheroes and features newly resurgent Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) with Batman (Ben Affleck), Aquaman (Jason Momoa) and The Flash (Ezra Miller). Shazam.
(All dates are tentative.)