CHUCK'S GOOD LUCK includes Jessica Alba |
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Fall is in the media, if not in the air, or on our calendar pages. The mannequins at Macy's are dressed for next season. The recipes in monthly magazines reflect autumnal appetites. Youngsters are heading Back to School.
Thus, it seems right to take a first look at some of the flicks that will be vying for our box office bucks when autumn leaves start to fall.
SEPTEMBER
GOOD LUCK CHUCK (September 21): We should all be so cursed. As a ten-year-old, Charlie Logan (Dane Cook) was hexed by a girl with whom he refused to lock lips during a kissing game. Here's Chuck's curse: Every woman with who Chuck beds finds true love with the very next man that she dates. Charlie's reputation as a "Good Luck Charm" for women craving the real thing makes him a most happy fella - until he falls in love with Cam (Jessica Alba), knowing that if he sleeps with her, she'll lose her heart, not to him, but to the guy after him.
INTO THE WILD (September 21): It's the first full day of fall launch for this Sean Penn-directed adaptation of Jon Krakauer's novel about a young idealist who leaves his life behind for adventure in the Alaskan wilderness. Rated R for nudity, WILD will ring box office chimes if it doesn't leave Match-Flickers cold. Vince Vaughn, Marcia Gay Harden, and William Hurt star.
THE KINGDOM (September 28): And now for something completely different. Director Peter Berg (FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, MIAMI VICE), a former actor, 
Aunt Bea, Jerry Seinfeld stole our honey. |
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serves up a timely thriller about the explosive clash that happens when Middle East meets West. The on-screen talent includes Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Chris Cooper, and Jason Bateman.
OCTOBER
FINISHING THE GAME (October 5): This "mockumentary" proposes that following the shocking and mysterious death of 1970s' kung fu movie icon Bruce Lee, studio executives launched a search for an actor to finish Lee's work in what would have been his last movie GAME OF DEATH. This fictitious search is humorously chronicled through the eyes of the five leading contenders to replace Lee. James Franco and Dustin Nguyen are among the Lee wannabes in this lightweight pastiche.
WE OWN THE NIGHT (October 12): A cast that includes Robert Duvall, Joaquin Phoenix, and Mark Wahlberg makes WE OWN THE NIGHT this fall's uncontested testosterone-propelled epic. Written and directed by James Gray, the ferocious drama tells the story of a deadly great city narcotics crime wave that has police burying their own at a rate of two each month.
RENDITION (October 19): Real or imagined, the romance between Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal, began when the couple filmed this flick. Shot in L.A., D.C., Morocco, and South Africa, RENDITION marks the Hollywood debut of TSOTSI director Gavin Hood. This one's a post 9/11 political thriller about a CIA analyst based in Cairo whose world is spinning out of control after he witnesses an interrogation 
These campy Bruce Lee wannabes don't know THE GAME is over! |
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conducted by the Egyptian Secret Police.
NOVEMBER
BEE MOVIE (November 2): Jerry Seinfeld's landmark TV series may have been about nothing, but his November feature film has much to say about a disillusioned bee (Jerry) who resolves to steal all of his specie's honey back from the human race. Renee Zellweger, Kathy Bates, and Uma Thurman are among Seinfeld's stellar supporting cast. There's great buzz swarming around BEE MOVIE.
LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA (November 16): Almost any one old enough to read a novel in the late 1980s remembers reading, or hearing about, Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novel of the same name. LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA chronicles the saga of a young romantic who loses his dream girl to a wealthy suitor, then spends the next 50 years building his life and reputation in order to win her back. New Line's R-rated film adaptation stars Javier Bardem, Benjamin Bratt, and John Leguizamo.
AUGUST RUSH (November 21): A charismatic young guitarist (Jonathyn Rhys Meyers) and a shy young cellist (Keri Russell) have a magical one-night-stand above Manhattan's Washington Square, and then are torn apart. AUGUST RUSH (Freddie Highmore) is the musically-gifted product of their brief encounter. Cared for by a mysterious stranger (Robin Williams), August uses his musical talents to find his parents.
Beyond AUGUST RUSH, Holiday Movies wait in the wings. But that's another story – another column.
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Does advertising, public taste, or overindulged stars determine a movie's box office fate? Christoper Stone explores what's going on behind the box office.
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| Christopher Stone |
Christopher Stone is the author of the international best seller Re-Creating Your Self. With Mary Sheldon, he co-authored three highly successful hardcover books of guided meditations.
He is a member of the Writers Guild of America, West.
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