Well even though the time of the summer blockbuster has finally ended, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t lots of movies coming out in the next month to keep you coming back to the theater. Check out the newest releases for September now!
September 3rd
Machete – Troublemaker Studios
For anyone who saw the Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino double feature Grindhouse several years back, this day has been long awaited. This Planet Terror spin-off which was featured as a fake “coming attraction” trailer is finally a reality. Machete is a hard hitting action movie starring Danny Trejo (Predators, Con Air) as the knife wielding assassin, Machete Cortez, who was betrayed by his former boss and is now out for revenge. Robert Rodriguez is a skilled director who knows his way around the action scene and if the trailers are any indication this bloody and brilliant film will not disappoint anyone who is looking to be blown away this September.
September 10th
Resident Evil: Afterlife – Screen Gems
This is the fourth installment in the wildly popular Capcom video game based film franchise. Paul W.S. Anderson (Event Horizon, Mortal Kombat), who directed the first Resident Evil film in 2002, is back in the director’s chair and is committed to taking the franchise to even greater heights than its predecessors. This time Alice (Milla Jovovich, The Fifth Element) is still searching for survivors of the T-virus which has turned most of the world’s population into undead zombies. As Alice struggles to lead the ragtag group to Los Angeles, where it is rumored they could be safe, she unwittingly falls into a deadly trap laid by the sinister Umbrella Corporation. As per the theatrical trend right now, this movie will be in 3-D. However, unlike many of the other films which are coming out in this fashion, this one is the first one to be shot with James Cameron’s fusion camera since Avatar. Be sure you don’t miss this one in September.
September 10th
I’m Still Here – Magnolia Pictures
Who could forget that crazy interview that David Letterman had with Joaquin Phoenix (Gladiator, Signs) the last time he appeared on the late night variety show? Unkempt, unshaven and acting quite abnormal for someone reputed to be a very serious actor, Joaquin’s strange behavior turned the entertainment world on its ear. He announced that he was leaving the acting scene permanently and was pursuing a career as a rapper and that his 2008 film, Two Lovers, would be his last. However, there is speculation that his unstable behavior for almost 3 years has all been an act! His good friend and actor/director Casey Affleck (Gone Baby Gone) filmed a documentary (or mockumentary) chronicling Joaquin’s career change and now it seems that we will learn the truth about what was really going on behind that tangled mess of facial hair. Was it all an elaborate joke? Check it out and see!
September 17th
Devil – Universal Pictures
There was a time, over a decade ago now, when the phrase “From the mind of M. Night Shyamalan” didn’t leave moviegoers with a nasty taste in their mouths. And for those of us who still remember those bygone days when Shyamalan seemed to be the next big thing in Hollywood, we keep hoping that he will eventually regain his creative spark and start making movies again that aren’t complete garbage. Perhaps this film will prove to be his redemption. The premise of Devil is simple, yet intriguing. There are five people trapped in an elevator together, and one of them is the Devil. M. Night Shyamalan is not directing, only writing and producing what is supposed to be the first in a series of films called The Night Chronicles. Dare we hope for better fare than the travesty that was The Last Airbender?
September 17th
Alpha and Omega – Lionsgate Pictures
Lionsgate is venturing into new territory with this animated feature, just as Universal Pictures was with Despicable Me. However, unlike Despicable Me which turned out to be quite a sleeper hit of the summer blockbusters, Alpha and Omega appears to have nothing going for it at all. The movie follows two mismatched wolves as they are transported across America to Yellowstone National Park to be released into the wild to repopulate the park. But the canine duo decides they have to make it back to Canada to rejoin their pack. But the problems surrounding this film are many and the redeeming characteristics are lacking. The jokes from the trailer, which are mostly concerned with animal butts and the problem of when you can pee on a long road trip, seem forced, repetitive and obviously not very child appropriate. Despite sporting an all star cast including Justin Long (Live Free or Die Hard), Christina Ricci (The Addams Family) and the late, great Dennis Hopper (Waterworld) in his last film appearance, the movie does not seem to stand a chance against the other animated films that have been smash hits this year.
September 24th
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps – Twentieth Century Fox
Greed is good, especially for sequels. Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas, King of California) has paid his debt to society and is finally being released from prison. Now that he is out he gets back in the game that he was the best at by teaming up with up and coming Wall Street trader Jacob Moore (Shia LeBeouf, Transformers) whose mentor was recently murdered. As the stock market teeters on the edge of a total meltdown, the two men must try to warn the financial community of the impending crisis as well as discover who murdered Moore’s mentor. Whereas Gekko was a villain in the first Wall Street, his character returns as more of an anti-hero who is an outsider in the world he once dominated. Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps makes us, as viewers, wonder if Gekko’s time in prison truly reformed him… or is it all a ploy?
September 24
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole – Warner Brothers Pictures
As the Harry Potter film series draws to a close, Warner Brothers is on the lookout for another film series to be the successor to what has been one of the most successful film franchises of all time. In Zach Snyder’s animated adaptation of Kathryn Lasky’s of acclaimed Guardians of Ga’Hoole series of children’s novels, they may have found what they are looking for. The series which has similarities to the Harry Potter series follows an orphaned young owl named Soren who is brought to the St. Aegolius Academy for Orphaned Owls where he must begin a journey with his new friends to the Great Ga’Hoole Tree and fight an evil which is threatening the land. Snyder has a keen eye for visuals and knows how to use them to further his story without letting the effects become a crutch. It will be interesting to see if this series has the staying power of Harry Potter.
September 24th
You Again – Touchstone Pictures
Despite the rather cliché plot, this comedy looks like it has lots of potential to be quite entertaining, especially considering the amazing group of ladies that director Andy Fickman (Race to Witch Mountain, Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical) has assembled for us. Kristen Bell (When In Rome), Sigourney Weaver (Alien), Jamie Lee Curtis (True Lies), Odette Yustman (The Unborn), and the always funny Cloris Leachman (Young Frankenstein) and Betty White (Lake Placid) star in this movie about a young woman (Bell) who discovers her brother’s fiancée is the girl who bullied her all through high school and she is intent on exposing her true nature. From the trailer alone, there seem to be lots of laughs coming from the all of the catty and immature things the girls do back and forth to each other.
