The year-end holiday movies begin in earnest in the days leading up to Thanksgiving; in the meantime, here's a checklist of the 32 titles that we can expect before then, as well as a few limited releases that might also land in our lap before the Yuletide season.
SEPTEMBER 10: After receiving a wayward call from a woman (Kim Basinger) who claims she's been kidnapped, a young man (Chris Evans) desperately tries to locate and rescue her in the thriller CELLULAR, co-starring William H. Macy... A remake of the Argentine art-house hit Nine Queens, CRIMINAL finds character actor John C. Reilly (Chicago, The Hours) in a rare leading role as a seasoned con man who teaches a rookie (Y Tu Mama Tambien's Diego Luna) the ropes... A 14-year-old girl (Addie Land) from a poor home becomes infatuated with the wealthy family of a school friend (Noah Fleiss) in the indie feature EVERGREEN... One of those sequels that nobody asked for (at least I didn't), RESIDENT EVIL: APOCALYPSE finds Milla Jovovich again battling zombies in yet another video-game-based gorefest.
SEPTEMBER 17: Bernie Mac stars as MR. 3000, a vain baseball player who, years after his retirement, discovers that three of his 3,000 hits have been rendered void, thus forcing him to again don the uniform in an attempt to make up the difference... NATIONAL LAMPOON'S GOLD DIGGERS centers on two young studs (Will Friedle and Chris Owen) who plan to marry two sisters (Louise Lasser and Renee Taylor) for their loot, little realizing that the much older women are actually bankrupt and are scheming to murder their suitors for the insurance money... Dashing hero Sky Captain (Jude Law), plucky newspaper reporter Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow) and feisty fighter Franky Cook (Angelina Jolie) join forces to stop a megalomaniac bent on destroying the world in the retro-flavored fantasy flick SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW... The milieu of tennis provides the backdrop for WIMBLEDON, a romantic comedy in which a struggling British player (Paul Bettany) falls for an American tennis star (Kirsten Dunst), a development that in turn sparks his agility on the courts.
SEPTEMBER 24: Already playing in limited release, DANNY DECKCHAIR is a whimsical comedy about a cement truck driver (Rhys Ifans) whose idea of a vacation is to connect a chair to helium balloons and sail off into the sky -- a feat that turns him into a media celebrity... A group of sex addicts (led by Johnny Knoxville) threatens to take over a blue-collar Baltimore neighborhood in A DIRTY SHAME, the latest kinky outing from writer-director John Waters. The cast includes Tracey Ullman as a born-again nympho with a "runaway vagina," Chris Isaak as her pleasantly surprised husband, and Selma Blair as their daughter, a go-go dancer who performs under the name Ursula Udders... Held from a January release (when it would have competed against another movie with the same plot, Mandy Moore's Chasing Liberty), FIRST DAUGHTER stars Katie Holmes as a college freshman who realizes that it's hard to be treated as a normal girl when your dad (Michael Keaton) happens to be the US President... A loving mother (Julianne Moore) is shocked when her psychiatrist (Gary Sinise) informs her that she never actually had a son and has instead been fabricating memories for the past 8 years; in between bouts of questioning her own sanity, she sets out to uncover the truth in THE FORGOTTEN... Described as a "rom zom com" (romantic zombie comedy), the British hit SHAUN OF THE DEAD centers on a slacker (Simon Pegg) who discovers that London has been overrun by the undead.
OCTOBER 1: Hopefully arriving in time to counter all this Swift Boat Veterans for Truth nonsense, GOING UPRIVER: THE LONG WAR OF JOHN KERRY traces the life of the Presidential hopeful as he moves from decorated war hero to activist to politician. The director is George Butler, whose previous documentaries include the hits Pumping Iron and The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition... A fire chief (John Travolta) is determined to save the life of one of his men (Joaquin Phoenix), who's trapped inside a burning building, in LADDER 49... A serial killer puts his marks through morally revealing scenarios in SAW, starring Cary Elwes as a potential victim and Danny Glover as the detective hot on the trail... DreamWorks, the studio behind the Shrek smashes, hopes to rake in another ton with its latest toon: SHARK TALE, in which a hip little fish (Will Smith) becomes friends with a sensitive shark (Jack Black). The vocal talent also includes Academy Award winners Robert De Niro, Renee Zellweger and Angelina Jolie, director Martin Scorsese and former Columbo star Peter Falk.
OCTOBER 8: Based on the best-selling non-fiction book, FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS details the 1988 season of a Texas high school football team, and how the coach (Billy Bob Thornton) and his players handled personal problems as they attempted to win the state championship... A small-town girl (Hilary Duff) heads to the big city with the dream of becoming a singer in RAISE YOUR VOICE... An inept cop (Jimmy Fallon) teams up with a ball-busting cab driver (Queen Latifah) to thwart a gang of comely bank robbers in the action-comedy TAXI.
OCTOBER 15: Rodger Dodger writer-director Dylan Kidd returns with P.S., which focuses on the romance between a Columbia University admissions officer (Laura Linney) and a graduate school applicant (Topher Grace)... The inevitable Hollywood remake of a wonderful foreign import (in this case, Japanese), SHALL WE DANCE? stars Richard Gere as a burned-out businessman who hires a dance instructor (Jennifer Lopez) to teach him ballroom moves. Susan Sarandon co-stars as Gere's wife... The creators of South Park, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, are behind TEAM AMERICA WORLD POLICE, in which all the characters, from the title heroes to the terrorists, are played by marionettes.
OCTOBER 22: A remake of the acclaimed 1966 drama that cemented Michael Caine's stardom, ALFIE finds Jude Law essaying the role of the carefree womanizer who's forced to reexamine his lifestyle choices. Marisa Tomei and Susan Sarandon co-star, with Charles Shyer (the Father of the Bride remake) handling directing duties... Based on the Japanese blockbuster Ju-On: The Grudge (itself part of an ongoing series of films), THE GRUDGE centers on an ancient curse that passes among the doomed occupants of a house. Sarah Michelle Gellar and Bill Pullman star... The first of two competing Yuletide comedies (look for Christmas With the Kranks circa Thanksgiving), SURVIVING CHRISTMAS stars Ben Affleck as a lonely guy who pays a family (James Gandolfini, Catherine O'Hara and Christina Applegate) a substantial amount to let him spend the holiday season in the warmth of their home, insistent that they treat him as one of the clan.
OCTOBER 29: Fresh from earning strong reviews for his co-starring turn in Collateral, Jamie Foxx tackles the biggest role of his career in RAY, playing the legendary Ray Charles in a biopic directed by Taylor Hackford (Chuck Berry: Hail! Hail! Rock'n'Roll).
NOVEMBER 5: Writer-director Oliver Stone went further back in time than usual to bring us ALEXANDER, a large-scale epic about the conquests of Alexander the Great (Colin Farrell). The cast also features Angelina Jolie, Anthony Hopkins and Val Kilmer... Writer-director Brad Bird, whose 1999 animated feature The Iron Giant was a critical but not commercial success, hopes to impress everyone this time around with THE INCREDIBLES, in which a band of superheroes placed in the Witness Protection Program must once again don their spandex in order to take down a master villain. Craig T. Nelson (as Mr. Incredible), Holly Hunter and Samuel L. Jackson are among those lending their vocal chords to the cause.
NOVEMBER 10: Chris Van Allsburg's children's book becomes the basis for the animated effort THE POLAR EXPRESS, about a young boy's train ride to the North Pole on Christmas Eve. Forrest Gump director Robert Zemeckis re-teams with Tom Hanks, who provides the voice (as well as the visual inspiration) for the conductor... The fifth film in the Chucky series and the first since 1998's Bride of Chucky, SEED OF CHUCKY finds the devil doll (again voiced by Brad Dourif) and his equally wooden wife (Jennifer Tilly) heading to Hollywood to slaughter more humans. But their "son" (Billy Boyd, The Lord of the Rings' Pippin) disapproves of the mayhem and tries to stop them.
NOVEMBER 12: After a successful career as heist artists, two sexy thieves (Pierce Brosnan and Salma Hayek) settle down in the Bahamas, only to find that an FBI agent (Woody Harrelson) is breathing down their necks in AFTER THE SUNSET.
NO DATE SET: Recent Oscar winner Charlize Theron headlines HEAD IN THE CLOUDS, a romantic drama about three friends (Theron, Penelope Cruz and Stuart Townsend) whose carefree days in 1930s Paris are interrupted by the advent of war... I HEART HUCKABEES, from Three Kings writer-director David O. Russell, almost defies description, but it involves the plight of a young man (Jason Schwartzman) who becomes involved with two "Existential Detectives" (Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin), a corporate executive (Jude Law) and his girlfriend (Naomi Watts), and a pair of radicals (Mark Wahlberg and Isabelle Huppert)... A blend of fact and fiction (it's already been tagged The Osama Witch Project), SEPTEMBER TAPES follows a documentary film crew as they journey to Afghanistan to make a movie about the hunt for Osama bin Laden... The always-interesting John Sayles throws his hat into the electoral ring with SILVER CITY, a drama about a doltish, Bush-like politician (Chris Cooper) who might be at the center of a murder conspiracy. The impressive cast includes Richard Dreyfuss, Daryl Hannah and Kris Kristofferson.