The season has officially started with Riddick… but what else is hitting theaters for nerds? Here’s a chronological list, and our take on things.
As a note, we’re sticking to the time period between now and the end of the year, and we’re sticking largely to wide release movies. That said, there will be one or two exceptions…
<!–pagetitle:Insidious Chapter 2, September 13th–>
James Wan, fresh off of having a massive horror hit with The Conjuring, delivers a followup to the fairly successful first movie. Whether it can repeat the financial success remains to be seen, but Wan has shown before that when he has a solid cast and a producer keeping the snottier tendencies of Saw in check, he can make a good movie.
<!–pagetitle:Gravity, October 4th–>
And the award for a movie that will likely inevitably be screwed out of an Oscar goes to! Regardless, this looks astounding, and we can’t wait.
<!–pagetitle:Bad Milo!, October 4th–>
Adorable ass demons? Sold. Hopefully this sees a wide release, as we want to enjoy a man farting out a demon on the big screen, the way it was meant to be enjoyed.
<!–pagetitle:All The Boys Love Mandy Lane, October 11th–>
After getting repeatedly screwed, this slasher movie is now on VOD, but try and see it in theaters if you can: Jonathan Levine could use the vindication after the nightmare this movie went through. Between the time he made it and now, he’s made and released three other movies.
<!–pagetitle:Carrie, October 18th–>
In a Halloween season surprisingly light on major studio horror releases, we’ve still got to have one remake, apparently. The producers claim it will be “closer to the novel”, although this raises the question of what that means since the original movie and the novel were so close to each other anyway. More voiceovers?
<!–pagetitle:Ender’s Game, November 1st–>
From the director of… uh… X-Men Origins: Wolverine. But he has made good movies! And this actually looks solid, at least, although it may wind up being orphaned: Summit was purchased by Lionsgate recently, so this movie went from potential hit to “We’ve got the contracts signed, we might as well put it out.”
<!–pagetitle:Thor: The Dark World, November 8th–>
Will it be Iron Man 3 in terms of profits? Who cares? We’re just glad Loki is back.
<!–pagetitle:The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, November 22nd–>
You do have to wonder how this installment will be received; the first book was hardly a barrel of laughs, and actually weird to class as a YA novel in the first place in light of the grim, spare prose and shell-shocked protagonist. But the franchise gets pretty dark in the second book, and the movie seems to be embracing that whole hog. Either way, it’s just nice to see a studio embracing the book instead of running away from it.
<!–pagetitle:Oldboy, November 27th–>
If you’d told me five years ago Spike Lee was going to faithfully adapt a manga, I’d have punched you for being dumb. And yet here we are. The Korean version had almost nothing to do with the manga, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens. Also, when people start streaming the Korean version and get to the key plot twist, that’s going to be hilarious.
<!–pagetitle:The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug, December 13th–>
Barbarian Cucumber, er, Bandersnatch Cummerbund… Khan will be voicing Smaug, so if nothing else, that’s a bonus. Hopefully being turned into a trilogy doesn’t drag out this movie as well.
<!–pagetitle:Walking With Dinosaurs, December 20th–>
So it’s basically The Land Before Time with “realistic” CGI dinosaurs. I’m still totally going to buy a ticket to a late show and pretend I went to a press screener for it if anyone asks.
<!–pagetitle:47 Ronin, December 25th–>
If I had to peg a sleeper hit of the season, it would probably be this movie. Whenever people see the trailer, they get this look along the lines of “I totally want to see that. How can I make my family come with me?” It probably won’t be The Matrix, but it will probably surprise everyone involved.
Any we missed? Let us know!