The Fall Films: Safe for Grown-Ups

Critic Kenneth Turan Previews the Season's Lineup of New Movies, From Poets to Frequent Fliers

(CBS)  There are many promising new films coming soon to a theater near you, part of an exciting new season in the arts and entertainment. Ben Tracy will have our movie preview:

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Vampires and wild things, avatars and aviators, detectives and sly foxes.

And this fall, they all hope you will remember their name.

"I feel guardedly optimistic, you know?" said Kenneth Turan, film critic for the Los Angeles Times. He says after a summer of teen flicks, it's now safe for grown-ups to return to the movies.

"It's people who want character, who want plot, who want adult themes. Classically, those films cluster in the fall. And I think this fall is no different."

With all the films, you may need a detective to find the potential hits. Director Guy Ritchie is updating a classic in "Sherlock Holmes," played by Robert Downey Jr. Jude Law is his dear friend Watson.

"Sherlock Holmes is one of the great characters," said Turan. "Guy Ritchie is a British director who makes extremely energetic films. And this one could be a lot of fun."

Will audiences soar with Amelia?

Two-time Oscar winner and Earhart look-a-like Hilary Swank plays the pioneering pilot in this biopic.

And remember "Fame"? The 1980 musical gets a hip-hop remix and a new class of students at a high school for the performing arts.

This fall several films take a page from books.

Those bewitching vampires are back, as the second novel in Stephanie Meyer's "Twilight" series comes to the screen with "The Twilight Saga: New Moon."

Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic tale "The Road" stars Viggo Mortensen and Charlize Theron.

And "Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson tackles Alice Sebold's novel "The Lovely Bones," about a murdered girl who isn't exactly dead.

"Peter Jackson is really good with special effects-type stuff, with creating this kind of strange afterlife," said Turan. "But - and he's not always given enough credit for this - he really is psychologically acute. And I think both of his strengths, ideally, will come together with this film and make it really memorable."

Perhaps the most unusual book hitting theatres is Maurice Sendak's beloved children's classic "Where the Wild Things Are." The book's ten sentences have been translated into a full-length larger-than-life film.

"It's a live-action film about a book that really seemed to cry out for animation," said Turan. "So, the director is Spike Jones ("Being John Malkovich"), who's a very innovative director. If anyone can pull this off, it's him."

For more predictable family fare, there's "Cloudy, With a Chance of Meatballs," and the classic story of "The Princess and the Frog," featuring the Disney Studio's first African American princess.

Princess: "I suppose you want a kiss?"

Amphibian: "Kissing would be nice!"

A rather sly children's story by Roald Dahl comes to life in "Fantastic Mr. Fox," a stop-motion animated film voiced by George Clooney and Meryl Streep.

You can also hear (and see!) Clooney in "Up in the Air" (left), as a compulsive traveler racking up frequent flier miles . . .

. . . and again, in the dark comedy "The Men Who Stare at Goats", about a paranormal military unit.

Meryl Streep has an affair with her ex-husband in "It's Complicated" ("Turns out I am a bit of a slut"), and Ricky Gervais stars as the only man on the planet who can actually tell a lie, in "The Invention of Lying."

"The world is going to end unless we have sex," he says to one unsuspecting woman. "Should we do it right here?" she replies.

"This is Ricky Gervais, who is just one of the funniest people around," said Turan. "I mean, any time he does something, you have to pay attention because he, himself, is so funny and so brilliant."

Michael Moore's newest documentary, "Capitalism: A Love Story," takes on the collapse of the economy and those he thinks are to blame. The gadfly of corporations even tries to make a citizen's arrest of the board of directors of AIG.

And Sony paid $60 million to turn Michael Jackson's final rehearsals of his concert tour before his death into a film, called "This Is It."

"Hollywood is on a roll," Turan said. "Box office receipts are 8 percent ahead of where they were last year, in part due to higher ticket prices charged for 3-D movies."

One of the most anticipated 3-D movies this fall is James Cameron's sci-fi epic "Avatar."

Turan says young males who drive the movie audience are ready. "They're like, their hands on the door, They're ready to go in right now. So, I think this is gonna do fine."

From director John Woo comes the war epic "Red Cliff," the most expensive Chinese film ever made.

Matt Damon packed on 30 pounds for Steven Soderbergh's "The Informant!" a comic take on a real-life corporate thriller.

From the Coen brothers comes "A Serious Man," about a college professor whose life is falling apart.

A young student played by Carey Mulligan gets in over her head when she falls for an older man in the Sundance Film Festival hit, "An Education."

"Carrie Mulligan is gonna be a big star," Turan said. "And it's so exciting to see that in a film, to see the performance that puts people over the top. And for her, this is it."

The tragic love story of poet John Keats comes to the screen in director Jane Campion's "Bright star," which dazzled at Cannes.

"I've seen this film twice at this point," said Turan. "I find it just incredibly moving. It's almost a miracle that this film exists. And, you know, I wish it all the luck in the world."

And if you like musical numbers, there's "Nine," about an Italian movie director and the women in his life.

So whether you're looking for love or laughs, heroes or goats, it's time to fall back into the theaters.

[justsane-2009]

i would hardly call this a "preview" of the upcoming movies. more like a list...

[Leelah0824]

Why do you think young men drive what we see at the movies? Could it be because adults want to see movies aimed at them? I don't go see movies because it's nothing but violence, sex, raunchy teen comedy, or special effects. Whatever happened to just good old-fashioned drama? Or how about a clean uplifting movie?