More fall movies

Sept. 21

"December Boys" -- Harry Potter's Daniel Radcliffe goes wandless as one of four Australian pals who compete to be adopted by a childless young couple during the 1960s. In this 2005 production, just now being released, Radcliffe loses his on-screen virginity. Religious visions, symbolic horses and cancer figure into the plot as well.

"Dedication" -- A heinously misanthropic children's book author (Billy Crudup) gets a new outlook on life (and romance) when his longtime illustrator (Tom Wilkinson) draws his last breath and a pretty young woman (Mandy Moore) replaces him. The supporting cast includes director Peter Bogdanovich.

"The Devil Came on Horseback" -- Using the exclusive photographs and first-hand testimony of former U.S. Marine Capt. Brian Steidle, this doc takes us on an emotionally charged journey into the heart of Darfur, Sudan, where an Arab-run government systematically executes a plan to rid the province of black African citizens.

"Fierce People" -- A working-class New York teen (Anton Yelchin) wants to spend the summer studying South American Indians with the anthropologist father he's never met. Instead, he and his drugged-out masseuse mom (Diane Lane) wind up among the ranks of the super-rich where they encounter a culture much more mysterious and lethal. With Donald Sutherland, Kristin Stewart and Chris Evans.

"Freshman Orientation" -- A college freshman (Sam Huntington) pretends to be gay so he can get in good with the girl of his dreams (Kaitlin Doubleday). Let's hope the movie has more imagination and laughs than its overused premise suggests.

"Good Luck Chuck" -- Every woman who sleeps with cursed dentist Dane Cook finds true love with the next guy she hooks up with. Suddenly, he has women taking numbers to sleep with him, just so they can find true love. His perfect life takes a tumble when he falls for an accident-prone penguin specialist (Jessica Alba).

"The Jane Austen Book Club" -- What a delightful, Austentacious chick flick! This romantic drama centers on five women who form a book club to read six Austen novels, not realizing how their own lives begin to resemble those of the characters they're reading about. Maria Bello, Emily Blunt, Kathy Baker, Hugh Dancy, Maggie Grace and Amy Brenneman star. Based on Karen Joy Fowler's novel.

"Resident Evil: Extinction" -- "Resident Evil" movies extinct? Please, don't tease us! Alice (Milla Jovovich) continues her fight against the evil Umbrella Corporation by traipsing across the Nevada desert on her way to Alaska. Ashanti, Ali Larder and Mike Epps join her and risk succumbing to the dreaded T-virus that turns people into carnivorous zombies. Based on the video game.

"Sydney White" -- Make that "Snow White," because this comedy retells the fairy tale about a young woman (Amanda Bynes) who winds up living with seven rejects after being bumped out of her mother's wicked college sorority. Matt Long plays the princely Tyler.

"Transformers IMAX" -- Michael Bay's hit action film (more than $300 million and climbing), based on the 1980s toys, comes to the REALLY BIG screen at IMAX theaters after being digitally remastered for that format. Heartthrob Shia LaBeouf helps a race of shape-shifting aliens save Earth from the Decepticons.

Sept. 28

"Blame It on Fidel" -- Anna, a feisty Parisian girl, is forced to assimilate to cataclysmic changes when her parents devote themselves to radical activism in 1970. Anna's father fights to redistribute wealth in Chile; her mother researches a book on abortion. Anna transforms from a close-minded bourgeois princess to an open-hearted seeker of truth.

"Feast of Love" -- William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" gets a contemporary update to "Midsummer Night's Sex Fantasy" thanks to some hot sex scenes between Radha Mitchell and Billy Burke. Robert "Kramer vs. Kramer" Benton directs Morgan Freeman, Greg Kinnear and Selma Blair as Oregon residents caught up in the behavior of foolish mortals.

"The Game Plan" -- This Disney comedy stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as a superstar football quarterback (now there's a stretch!) who sees his bachelorhood going down in flames when a little girl (Madison Pettis) shows up one day, claiming to be his daughter. Kyra Sedgwick closes the main cast.

"Into the Wild" -- Sean Penn directs a poetic ode to a young, promising college grad (Emile Hirsch) who opts to live -- and die -- in the Alaskan wilderness rather than pursue a life of conformity modeled after flawed parental expectations. William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden play the villainous parents. Based on the true story of a 1992 Emory University grad. He appears at the end of the film in a photo found undeveloped in his camera.

"King of California" -- Costco wins the product placement award of the month when it becomes the location where a nutty mental patient (Michael Douglas) thinks California gold might be buried. He convinces his daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) to get a job there so they can dig for treasure under the building. Good thing Costco sells discount shovels -- but you can only buy them in 12-packs!

"Trade" -- The sex trade in Mexico gets a rough, blunt examination as a Mexican teenager (Cesar Ramos) aligns himself with a Texas cop (Kevin Kline) to rescue his little sister (Paulina Gaitan), abducted by sex merchants. Co-written by the guy (Jose Rivera) who gave us "The Motorcycle Diaries."

Oct. 5

"The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford" -- Brad Pitt plays the infamous outlaw in this problem-plagued art-house take on the classic American Western. More than 30 versions of the film have been cut after three years in the making. Casey Affleck plays the coward with indie fave Sam Rockwell playing his older bro. Directed by Andrew Dominik.

"Feel the Noise" -- A young man from the South Bronx dreams of making it as a rapper, until a run-in with local thugs forces him to hide in Puerto Rico with the father he never knew. With Giancarlo Esposito and Omarion Grandberry.

"Grace is Gone" -- Chicago's own John Cusack goes for Oscar-level seriousness as a father who struggles to explain to his two little girls that their mother (Dana Lynne Gilhooley) has been killed in action in Iraq. He decides to break the news during a road trip.

"The Heartbreak Kid" -- With Bobby and Peter Farrelly co-directing this remake of Elaine May's 1972 comedy, you can bet it will barely resemble the Charles Grodin/Cybill Shepherd original. Ben Stiller plays Grodin's role, only instead of falling in love with a hot woman on his honeymoon with a plain-Jane wife, Stiller marries a bombshell (Malin Ackerman), then falls for a less elegant girl (Michelle Monaghan). Co-starring Jerry Stiller (Ben's dad) as a foul-mouthed father.

"I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With" -- "Curb Your Enthusiasm" star Jeff Garlin wrote, directed and stars in this comic look at a man in search of a soul mate. He plays James, a frustrated and underappreciated Chicago actor who lives with his mother and wants three things: someone to love him, a great part and less weight. He's 0 for 3. Sarah Silverman, Bonnie Hunt, Amy Sedaris and Dan Castellaneta join him in the cast.

"Lust, Caution" -- "Brokeback Mountain" director Ang Lee's new erotic espionage thriller earned an adults-only NC-17 rating for its graphic sex scenes. Insiders compare it to Bernardo Bertolucci's "Last Tango in Paris," although a Variety critic didn't like it that much. Tony Leung and newcomer Tang Wei star in a story about a reserved Chinese drama student drawn into an assassination plot during World War II.

"Sea Monsters 3-D: A Prehistoric Adventure" -- Be prepared as photorealistic computer-generated animation transports us back to the late cretaceous period where a curious dolichorynchops (known as a "dolly") experiences the world from her spot near the bottom of the food chain. Look out for those long-necked plesiosaurs! Giant turtles! Big, BIG fish! Flippered crocs! Fierce sharks! And the most dangerous sea monster of all: the mosasaur!

"The Seeker: The Dark is Rising" -- Based on the theatrical trailer, this fantasy looks closer to "Eragon" than "Harry Potter." It's another special-effects-stuffed, kid-saving-the-world fantasy, this time involving Will Stanton (Alexander Ludwig), a boy shocked to discover he's the last of a group of immortal, time-traveling warriors fighting the eternal forces of evil in the universe. Ian McShane and Jonathan Jackson co-star.

Oct. 10

"Control" -- A bio-drama based on Ian Curtis (Sam Riley), the enigmatic Joy Division singer whose personal, professional and romantic troubles led him to commit suicide at the age of 23. Based on the book by Deborah Riley, played in the movie by Samantha Morton.

Oct. 12

"Canvas" -- In his debut feature film, writer/director Joseph Greco explores mental illness through the eyes of a child as he learns to cope with his schizophrenic mother. Based on the filmmaker's own childhood. Joe Pantoliano, Marcia Gay Harden and newcomer Devon Gearhart star.

"The Darjeeling Limited" -- Before his recent suicide attempt, Owen Wilson made this Wes Anderson-directed drama with Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman as his estranged brothers. After the death of their father, the siblings embark upon a spiritual journey across India. They shot it aboard a real train, too.

"The Final Season" -- Oh, no! Just as a small-town baseball team in Iowa is about to earn its record 20th state sports title, it gets merged with another town, sparking petty jealousies and political agendas. Worse, legendary coach Jim Van Scoyoc (Powers Boothe) gets replaced by a one-season assistant coach, Kent Stock (Sean Astin), a move that seems to guarantee the team's failure. Based on a true story.

"Hitman" -- Based on the popular video game, this thriller stars Timothy Olyphant as a genetically engineered assassin called Agent 47, chased by Interpol and the Russians across Eastern Europe. With Dougray Scott.

"Lars and the Real Girl" -- From the director of the super-serious weepie "The Notebook" comes a bent romance about a man named Lars ("Notebook" star Ryan Gosling) who falls in love with Bianca, an inflatable doll he purchases online. (Cue the groaner puns about blowing things up out of proportion.) With Emily Mortimer as a real girl and Patricia Clarkson as a real shrink.

"My Kid Could Paint That" -- When the parents of a celebrated 4-year-old artistic genius named Marla Olmstead are accused of pushing their own paintings off as her work, they turn to documentary filmmaker Amir Bar-Lev to clear their names. This is his report on the child phenomenon profiled on NPR, "The Today Show" and "Good Morning, America." Is little Marla a genius? Or an unwitting accomplice to a scam?

"Rogue" -- A leisurely boat ride through Australia's Kakadu National Park turns deadly when a giant crocodile attacks, stranding the travelers on a tiny mud island that slowly shrinks as the tide rises. Where's Mick Dundee when you need him? Starring Michael Vartan, the alluring Radha Mitchell and Sam Worthington. From Greg Mclean, director of the nasty, violent "Wolf Creek."

"We Own the Night" -- Nope, not another vampire movie, although the title sounds like it. Joaquin Phoenix plays a club manager in 1980s Brooklyn. He winds up stuck between his cop brother (Mark Wahlberg) and police-chief dad (Robert Duvall) on one side and the mob on the other. Decisions, decisions.

"Why Did I Get Married?" -- It's a Tyler Perry movie. Critics will hate it. A sizable and indiscriminate chunk of the population will go see it anyway. Perry adapts his stage play about what happens when a hottie invades the space of a family. Perry co-stars with Janet Jackson, Sharon Leal and Michael Jai White.

Oct. 16

"Autism: The Musical" -- Reportedly a dynamic and intimate documentary that follows several autistic children for six months as they prepare and perform a live musical on stage.

"I Have Never Forgotten You: The Life & Legacy of Simon Wiesenthal" -- This documentary explores the life of the famed Nazi hunter and humanitarian. Narrated by Nicole Kidman. From filmmaker Richard Trank.

Oct. 19

"August Rush" -- Robin Williams gets one more chance to pull his spiraling career choices into something worth doing (and watching). An orphaned musical prodigy (Freddie Highmore) tries to track down his parents using his musical gifts as clues. With the adorable Keri Russell and Chicago's own Terrence Howard.

"Broken" -- Heather Graham plays a spirited girl with the significant name of Hope. She moves to Los Angeles where she fails to jumpstart her music career. She then falls in love with a handsome bad boy with the significant name of Will (Jeremy Sisto), who hooks her on drugs and passion. But mostly drugs.

"Gone Baby Gone" -- Ben Affleck co-wrote and directed this drama about two investigators (little bro Casey Affleck and John "Beverly Hills Cop" Ashton) on the trail of a missing 4-year-old girl in Boston. Based on Dennis Lehane's novel. With Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris and Michelle Monaghan.

"Great World of Sound" -- Two guys (Pat Healy and Kene Holliday) get involved with a record industry talent scheme. They sign new acts and hit the road looking for the next big thing. But the you-know-what hits the fan when the checks get cashed. Director/co-writer Craig Zobel weaves real-life talent show auditions into the fictional narrative.

"Ira & Abby" -- A Jewish neurotic and a free-spirited gym employee meet and marry within a few hours. Then the guy discovers his new bride has been married before: twice. Chris Messina and Jennifer Westfeldt star.

"Lake of Fire" -- Filmmaker Tony Kaye, best known for "American History X," has worked on this documentary on abortion for 15 years. He shoots it in luminous black and white. He gives equal time to both sides, covering arguments from all extremes of the spectrum, as well as those at the center. Noam Chomsky and Alan M. Dershowitz appear with other speakers.

"Live-in Maid" -- When a maid named Dora decides to leave her 30-year employment with the haughty, upper-class Beba, the two square off in a clash of class resentment and unacknowledged interdependency. Sounds like Karen and her maid from an episode of "Will & Grace."

"The Nightmare Before Christmas 3-D" -- Henry Selick's 1993 stop-motion animated cult fantasy returns to the silver screen in glorious, digitally created 3-D! The amazing Danny Elfman composes the score and sings Jack Skellington's songs. Chris Sarandon provides Jack's speaking voice as the skeletal hero who tries to steal Christmas from Santa Claus. You have to see this movie on the big screen! (You know you do.)

"Rendition" -- A pregnant Midwestern woman (Reese Witherspoon) finds out her missing Egyptian husband (Omar Metwally) has been abducted by the U.S. government for interrogation by a rookie CIA agent (Jake Gyllenhaal). Worse, the abduction was ordered by Meryl Streep, and if you remember her chilling performance from the "The Manchurian Candidate," you don't want to mess with her.

"Reservation Road" -- Two fathers (Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Ruffalo) and their families suffer in the aftermath of a terrible hit-and-run accident that kills one of their children. It happens on Reservation Road. Directed by Terry George, who last gave us another tragedy, "Hotel Rwanda." Jennifer Connelly and Mira Sorvino play the mothers.

"Things We Lost in the Fire" -- Halle Berry stars as Audrey Burke, whose life has been shattered by the sudden death of her husband. In grief, she turns to one of his lifelong friends, Jerry Sunborne (Benicio Del Toro), a former lawyer also on a serious downward spiral. Can they repair their lives?

"30 Days of Night" -- Each winter, the town of Barrow, Alaska, gets plunged into darkness for 30 straight days, which means just one thing for hordes of hungry vampires: an all-you-can-eat buffet! Josh Hartnett's sheriff and his estranged wife (Melissa George) try to stay off the smorgasbord. Ben Foster and Danny Huston co-star. Based on the graphic novel. Directed by David Slade, who jettisons the supernatural elements of vampire lore (shape-shifting and flying) for a pungent sense of violent realism. The trailer is loaded with shocks.

Oct. 26

"The Comebacks" -- A spoof of the best-known inspirational sports movies ever made. It tells the story of an out-of-luck coach, Lambeau Fields (David Koechner), who takes a rag-tag bunch of college misfits and drives them toward the football championships! With Carl "Apollo Creed" Weathers and Andy Dick.

"Dan in Real Life" -- That 40-year-old virgin Steve Carell stars as Dan, a family advice columnist who falls for a woman (Juliette Binoche) in the bookstore, only to discover that she's the new woman dating his brother (Dane Cook). If this movie is anything like director Peter Hedges' other movies "Pieces of April" and "About a Boy," it should be a hoot, with heart.

"Funny Games" -- Not so funny, actually. Controversial German filmmaker Michael Haneke remakes his own 1998 thriller about two psychos who hold a family hostage in a remote cabin, then terrorize them for jollies. Naomi Watts, Tim Roth and relative newcomer Michael Pitt star.

"How to Cook Your Life" --Filmmaker Doris Dörrie turns her attention to Buddhism and that age-old saying, "You are what you eat." She enlists the help of charismatic Edward Espe Brown to explain the guiding principles of Zen Buddhism as they apply to the preparation of food and life.

"Man From Plains" -- Jonathan Demme directs a documentary that follows humanitarian and former President Jimmy Carter during the tour for his controversial book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid."

"Music Within" -- After losing his hearing in the Vietnam War, Richard Pimentel (Ron Livingston) sets out to change people's perceptions toward the disabled and becomes a hero as one of the primary activists behind the Americans With Disabilities Act. The secret? Richard discovers the "music within."

"Run, Fat Boy, Run" -- Former "Friend" David Schwimmer directs a delightful underdog comedy about an immature doofus (Simon Pegg) who enters a London marathon to recapture the woman (Thandie Newton) he left at the altar five years earlier. Hank Azaria co-stars as the new Yank in her life, and he's an experienced marathon runner.

"Saw IV" -- Seen "Saw," "Saw II" or "Saw III"? Then you saw this film already. Even though Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) and his apprentice are supposedly dead, tell that to SWAT Cmdr. Rigg (Lyriq Bent). He has 90 minutes to figure out a series of interconnected traps, or die most heinously. Bell's in the movie. But how? Hmmm.

Nov. 2

"American Gangster" -- Director Ridley Scott re-teams with his "Gladiator" and "A Good Year" star Russell Crowe to tell the true story of a drug runner (Denzel Washington) who smuggled heroin into the U.S. inside Vietnam soldiers' caskets. Crowe plays the dedicated cop determined to bring the 1970s Harlem drug lord to justice. With Chicago's own Cuba Gooding Jr. The film comes from screenwriter Steve Zaillian, so you know it'll be smart.

"Bee Movie" -- A busy bee named Barry B. Benson (voiced by comedian Jerry Seinfeld) decides to sue humans for eating the honey his fellow insects have to slave over a hot hive to make. A computer-animated comedy featuring the voices of Renee Zellweger, Chris Rock, John Goodman, Matthew Broderick and Kathy Bates.

"The Gates" -- In 1979, artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude proposed to create a "golden river" of 7,500 fabric-paneled gates in Central Park. This doc, from Antonio Ferrera and Albert Maysles, chronicles the artists' 26-year commitment to transform the winter darkness of the park into a garden of light and color.

"The Kite Runner" -- Marc Forster ("Finding Neverland") directs a drama about an Afghan lad named Amir (Khalid Abdalla) who comes to America, then later returns to his Taliban-ruled homeland to rescue the best friend he left behind. Shot in China near the Pakistan/Afghanistan border.

"Martian Child" -- This domestic drama has been bumped more times than a woman on a date with the Butabi brothers. John Cusack plays a writer who, reeling from the death of his fiancee, adopts a 6-year-old boy (Bobbie Coleman) who thinks he's from Mars. With Joan Cusack, Amanda Peet and Oliver Platt. It'll be a miracle if this film actually opens on schedule.

Nov. 9

"Fred Claus" -- Chicago's own Vince Vaughn as Santa's trouble-making brother at the North Pole? This we gotta see, even if it does recycle gags from Will Ferrell's "Elf." The ubiquitous Paul Giamatti stars as the suddenly not-so-jolly St. Nick.

"Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten" -- Filmmaker Julien Temple chronicles the transformation of a self-described "mouthy little git" into an anti-establishment icon.

"Lions for Lambs" -- Robert Redford directs himself, Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep in a drama containing three separate subplots on a collision course. Cruise plays a Republican senator, Streep a bleeding-heart journalist and Redford a sagely college professor whose former students (Derek Luke and Michael Pena) sign up to fight in Afghanistan against his advice.

"No Country for Old Men" -- Javier Bardem goes cold-blooded killer in the Coen brothers' visual translation of the Cormac McCarthy novel about a killing machine named Chigurh. He tracks down $2 million in drug money and mows down anyone who gets in his way. Tommy Lee Jones, who has plenty of experience playing dedicated cops, portrays the sheriff in hot pursuit. The film features the first silenced shotgun I've ever seen.

Nov. 16

"Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" -- Master filmmaker Sidney Lumet directs a thriller about two brothers (Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke) who rob a suburban jewelry store owned by their own mother and father. It's another perfect-crime-gone-awry movie. Marisa Tomei plays Hoffman's trophy wife, who's fooling around with Hawke. Albert Finney plays Dad, who diligently pursues justice at all costs, unaware his own sons did the crime.

"Love in the Time of Cholera" -- Javier Bardem plays a man so devastated that his lover (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) leaves him for a rich doctor that he drowns his sorrow with 622 affairs over five decades -- almost up to Warren Beatty's record. Based on Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novel. Directed by Mike "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" Newell.

"Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium" -- Dustin Hoffman plays the mysterious, wacky, 243-year-old proprietor of a magic toy shop. He taps an insecure manager (Natalie Portman) to be his successor, and she's not at all sure she's up to being in the same league with Willie Wonka. Directed by Zach Helm, from a screenplay he wrote, sold, then bought back.

"Naked Boys Singing!" -- Forget top-drawer entertainment. These guys have no drawers at all. The New York musical revue (now in its eighth year) comes to the silver screen with its cast of multitalented singers, dancers and actors who bare it all for their art. Actual cast members will be in attendance at the Music Box Theatre.