Film
October films
By STEVE PERSALL, Times Film Critic
Published September 16, 2004
Oct. 1
Shark Tale - Gangsters don't just sleep with the fishes in DreamWorks' animated film; they are the fishes. Will Smith's voice stars as a bottom-feeder claiming to have killed a dangerous lobster, excuse me, mobster. Jack Black, Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro - at least their vocal attitudes - co-star.
Ladder 49 - When a firefighter (Joaquin Phoenix) is trapped in a burning building, his former captain (John Travolta), now fire chief, pledges to bring him out alive. Comparisons to Backdraft (1991) are inevitable and welcomed by the producers because of that film's three Academy Award nominations.
The Brown Bunny - Make that the infamous Brown Bunny. Vincent Gallo's film was the scandal of Cannes last year after it was loudly booed and the filmmaker loudly protested. Gallo plays a motorcycle racer whose wanderings include explicit oral sex from a stranger (Chloe Sevigny). That's all it took for a widely despised movie to gain a distribution deal.
Woman, Thou Art Loosed - A young woman (Kimberly Elise) deals with her history of physical abuse, drug addiction and desperate poverty. Based on the book by Bishop T.D. Jakes.
Oct. 8
Taxi - Former Saturday Night Live star Jimmy Fallon built a career on other people's shtick (Adam Sandler's silly songs, Chevy Chase's Weekend Update routine), so why shouldn't his first starring role in a movie be based on a previous work? Fallon plays a cop assisted by a sharp-tongued cabby (Queen Latifah) in solving bank robberies.
Friday Night Lights - Football is even bigger than politics in Texas, where a depressed community finds reasons to live through its high school team. Billy Bob Thornton plays the coach, with Derek Luke (Antwone Fisher) as his star player and country music star Tim McGraw as a combative dad.
Raise Your Voice - Small town girl (Hilary Duff) attends a performing arts school in Los Angeles. Sounds like a West Coast version of Fame.
Oct. 15
Shall We Dance - Based on a sweet 1996 Japanese import, a businessman (Richard Gere) with two left feet begins dance lessons to meet the beautiful student (Jennifer Lopez) he spies through a window. And let's can the Gigli jokes.
Team America: World Police - The creators - or is that perpetrators? - of South Park use marionettes to spoof the war on terrorism. Call it Thunderbirds 9/11.
Oct. 22
Alfie - What's it all about? You shouldn't have to ask. Jude Law slips into the role that made Michael Caine an international star in 1966, a compulsive womanizer whose encounters change his life. His lovers include Susan Sarandon, Marisa Tomei and Nia Long.
I Heart Huckabees - This one sounds unusual, even for filmmaker David O. Russell (Flirting with Disaster, Three Kings). Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin play "existential detectives" solving the riddles of life for clients. The latest is a man (Jason Schwartzman, Rushmore) puzzled by a string of coincidences affecting his romantic and professional lives. Jude Law co-stars as a rival who hires his own karma cops.
The Grudge - Remaking Japanese horror movies is popular after The Ring. In this one, a nurse (Sarah Michelle Gellar) tangles with supernatural spirits, leaving a wake of angry corpses.
Surviving Christmas - Ben Affleck plays a man so lonely that he rents a family to share the holiday season. Not to be confused with Affleck's post-engagement blues, or John Grisham's novel Skipping Christmas that has been filmed under another title, Christmas with the Kranks.
Oct. 29
Ray - This may be something truly special. Jamie Foxx (Collateral) looks perfect as the late music legend Ray Charles, who died of liver failure in June. Charles' genius, unhampered by blindness, drug addiction and personal demons, is ripe with dramatic opportunities for director Taylor Hackford (Proof of Life, An Officer and a Gentleman).
Saw - Two men wake up chained to a corpse in a basement, gradually realizing they're captives of a serial killer. Danny Glover is the cop rushing to find them before it's too late. The buzz from the Sundance Film Festival is that this is the most disturbing thriller since Seven. We can only dream, or have nightmares.
Around the Bend - Here's an interesting family lineage for a movie: Great-grandfather Michael Caine begets Christopher Walken, who begets Josh Lucas (Sweet Home Alabama) who begets a 7-year-old son (Jonah Bobo). Together they excavate family skeletons to find a dramatic link between generations.
[Last modified September 15, 2004, 07:57:16]
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