Five Autumn Films Worth Falling Over

Well, the book has just about closed on yet another Hollywood summer. It was an interesting one to say the least. We had some hits (Super 8, Captain America), some misses (Tree of Life, Green Lantern, Cowboys & Aliens) and a few welcome surprises ( Midnight in Paris, Rise of the Planet of the Apes).

But now, as the days grow shorter, the kids head back to school and the sequels and superheroes are returned to the toy chest until next year, Hollywood takes off its beer-can-sipping hat, slips on its awards beret and begins a four-month-long process of trotting out a cavalcade of smaller, more original character-driven films that will hopefully translate into, fingers crossed, Oscar gold.

Nearly 100 films will jockey for your attention from now until the end of December. Below are five that look the most intriguing (at least to me).

The Big Year ( Oct 14) - Steve Martin, Owen Wilson and Jack Black star as participants in a cross-country rare-bird-spotting competition. The premise sounds like a snoozer, I know, but with these three involved it has that kind of Christopher Guest/Wes Anderson vibe I just can't resist.

J. Edgar ( Nov 9) - If you caught Leonardo DiCaprio's masterful portrayal of Howard Hughes in 2004's The Aviator, you know his turn as the legendary father of the FBI should be nothing short of mesmerizing. And with Clint Eastwood calling the shots, prepare to hear about this film until at least the end of February.

The Descendants ( Nov 23) - Alexander Payne's first film since 2004's Sideways stars George Clooney as a Hawaiian tycoon whose life begins to unravel after learning his coma-stricken wife was having an affair. Payne is a master of melding drama and comedy into truly original, unforgettable films. Can't wait.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo ( Dec 21) - The trailer for David Fincher's adaptation of Stieg Larsson's worldwide bestseller is electrifying to say the least. That's good news as I found the novel's premise compelling but quickly grew tired of Larsson's laborious prose.

War Horse ( Dec 28 ) - A Spielberg-directed World War I drama featuring a John Williams score. Do you really need to know more?

Five more that look promising: Gavin O'Conner's Warrior ( Sept 9), Bennett Miller's Moneyball (Sept 23), George Clooney's The Ides of March (Oct 7), Martin Scorsese's Hugo (Nov 23) and Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin (Dec 23).

Going Ape: A Look Back At The Planet of the Apes Saga

With Fox's Rise of the Planet of the Apes opening today, I thought it might be fun to look back at the original five-film saga that thrilled sci-fi-hungry audiences from 1968 -1973. (We'll leave out the 2001 Tim Burton-directed reboot, as for the life of me I can't remember a thing about it.)

Yes my valued readers under 20, there was actually a complete Apes franchise before most of your parents had completed grade school. If they didn't see it in theaters, they probably discovered it the same way I did: through videocassette, Saturday-afternoon TV and questioning why all the Halloween aisles were filled with ape masks.

Below you'll find all five tales in order of release. Read on and you'll have something to dazzle Mom and Dad with at the dinner table, in between texts of course.

Planet of the Apes (1968): Based on French novelist Pierre Boulle's 1963 novel Monkey Planet, the first and best Apes film stars Charlton Heston, in all his machismo glory, as astronaut George Taylor who travels forward in time and crash lands on a planet where humans are ruled by apes. Befriended by two chimpanzee scientists, Zira and Cornelius, Taylor ultimately learns he has returned to Earth some 2,000 years in the future. A true classic of sci-fi cinema.

Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970): Sure it's hard to follow a classic, but this was the best they could come up with? Another astronaut crash lands on Ape Central in search of Taylor, befriends Zira and Cornelius and finds a group of humanoids living underground worshiping a nuclear missile. Heston makes a cameo but it's not enough to save this unwatchable turkey, the worst of the saga. The budget was cut in half just before shooting and it shows: with the exception of Zira and Cornelius, every ape looks like it's wearing a store-bought mask.

Escape From the Planet of the Apes (1971): My favorite behind the original and a return to form for the franchise. Zira and Cornelius escape their home world before it is destroyed and travel back to present-day Los Angeles where they are received as celebrities. While there, Zira gives birth to a son who becomes the target of a nefarious government advisor. Loads of humor and a shocking ending make this a film worth revisiting.

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972): The darkest and most violent of the saga. 20 years after the events of Escape, apes have become conditioned servants in human society. Tired of their abuse and oppression, Zira and Cornelius' son, Caesar, organizes his simian brothers and leads a revolt against the government. A frighteningly effective episode, made even more so at the time by the social and racial strife of the early '70s.

Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973): The final film of the series takes place 27 years after the events of Conquest and finds human society laid waste by the war with the apes and nuclear fallout. Caesar has forged an ape civilization that attempts to harmoniously co-exist with human survivors. That all becomes threatened, however, by a band of well-armed mutant humans looking to take their revenge on Caesar and eradicate apes once and for all. A satisfying, thought-provoking conclusion to the saga.

Film Review: Cowboys & Aliens

Cowboys & Aliens asks an intriguing question: how would the gunfighters and settlers of the Old West, with their primitive weapons and philosophies, fare against advanced invaders from another world?

Based on Scott Mitchell Rosenberg's 2006 graphic novel, Cowboys opens on a stranger (Daniel Craig) as he awakens in the Arizona desert circa 1873 with a nasty gut wound and a strange metal contraption around his wrist. He's barely able to soak in his predicament before three unsavory types arrive on horseback, mistake his new bracelet as a wrist-iron and assume he's of value to the law. Faster than Billy the Kid on his best day, the stranger dispenses of the men, pilfers their weapons and clothes and heads for a nearby town on the horizon.

That town is a small mining hamlet called Absolution and it doesn't take long for the stranger to publicly humiliate a smarmy brat named Percy Dolarhyde (Paul Dano) and catch the attention of Sheriff John Taggart (Keith Carradine). Taggart recognizes the stranger as one Jake Lonergan, a notorious killer and bandit, and promptly locks him up, with the help of local woman Ella Swenson (Olivia Wilde), to await transfer to the federal marshal. Lonergan can't remember a thing about his past, including how he came about his fancy new hardware.

Word of Lonergan's capture gets back to Percy's father, Colonel Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford), a powerful rancher and Civil War veteran, who supposedly had a cache of gold swiped by Lonergan and his gang sometime back. As Dolarhyde and his men ride into town to procure Lonergan from the law, strange lights descend from the night sky and begin snatching up people, including Taggart and Dolarhyde's son, while laying waste to everything in their path. It's about this time that Lonergan's bracelet begins to light up and soon he's blown a hole through his cell and using the device to bring down a huge, insect-looking ship flying overhead.

As the invaders flee, it becomes obvious to Dolarhyde and the remaining citizens of Absolution that they're going need Lonergan and his special weapon if they're ever going to see their abducted loved ones again. All Lonergan cares about, however, is finding out about his past.

It's surprising with all the talent behind the camera - director John Favreau, producers Ron Howard and Steven Spielberg - how pedestrian and uninspiring Cowboys & Aliens is. Fantastical elements aside, you've seen this movie and its characters a hundred times before. The script is standard and predictable, quickly replacing its brief bits of humor with one dull exchange after another. And when the aliens finally reveal themselves, they look like rejects from Cloverfield, Super 8 and every other alien-invasion flick of the last five years.

Craig is compelling as an Old West gunslinger, providing a quiet, untapped menace that would be fun to explore in a more original endeavor; Ford delivers his lines in his now-trademark growl and seems to be finding his character as if at a table-read instead of in front of the camera.

The premise asks an intriguing question indeed. Unfortunately, the answer Cowboys & Aliens provides is neither fresh nor of consequence to either genre.