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.

Top 5 Super-Hero Films

With Captain America: The First Avenger opening today and thousands descending upon San Diego this weekend for Comic-Con, I thought it appropriate to showcase some of the best super-hero films over the years.

What makes a good super-hero film? Well, the character first and foremost: is he or she's story engaging enough to carry their own movie? Second, the villain: you need an adversary just as compelling as your hero. Finally, you need the right crew: having a great character and villain means nothing if you don't have the right director, actors and composer to pull things together and deliver a truly memorable, timeless piece of entertainment. Below are five that have all of the above and then some.

1. Superman: The Movie (1978) - 33 years after first believing a man could fly, the father of the modern super-hero film remains the gold standard. The setting and effects may look a bit dated but it's still the best due to four simple ingredients: Richard Donner, Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman and John Williams. These guys working in concert could have made Ernest Goes to Camp an Oscar winner.

2. The Dark Knight (2008) - Christopher Nolan's second Batman feature is much more than a great super-hero flick, it's a multi-tiered crime epic in the tradition of Michael Mann's Heat and Brian DePalma's Scarface. Heath Ledger provides a wholly original, chilling take on the Joker and Christian Bale is simply the best Caped Crusader ever.

3. Iron-Man (2008): John Favreau's tale of egocentric weapons manufacturer Tony Stark who escapes death and grows a conscious with the help of a super-charged suit of armor is an adrenaline-fueled blast from start to finish, mainly due to Robert Downey Jr.'s charismatic, pitch-perfect performance as Stark. Having Jeff Bridges as the heavy doesn't hurt either.

4. The Rocketeer (1991) - Joe Johnston's adaptation of Dave Stevens' beloved comic about test pilot Cliff Secord who finds a rocket pack and uses it to battle gangsters and Nazis in 1930s Hollywood is pure cinematic gold, a throwback to Saturday-morning serials of yesteryear (think Raiders of the Lost Ark). The entire cast - Billy Campbell as Secord, Alan Arkin as Peevy, a voluptuous Jennifer Connelly as Betty and Timothy Dalton as the nefarious Neville Sinclair - is absolutely first rate. James Horner's soaring score only helps make it that much more of a classic.

5. Batman (1989) - Ok, I'll probably take some flack for including this in the top five but if you were between the ages of 5 and 55 in the summer of '89, chances are you saw and least somewhat admired Tim Burton's dark reimagining of the Batman legend. Sure Michael Keaton was a bit stiff as Bats and we could have done without the comedic stylings of Robert Wuhl, but the film's pure visual splendor, coupled with Danny Elfman's brooding score and Jack Nicholson's over-the-top performance as the Clown Prince of Crime are enough to to warrant a return to Gotham every few years.

If I could pick five more: 6. X-Men 2 (2003); 7. Superman II (1981); 8. Spider-Man 2 (2004); 9. Hero at Large (1980); 10. Batman Begins (2005)

Newly Renovated Village Theatre Sparkles on Coronado Island

The wife and I just got back from a quick little jaunt to San Diego. One thing we like to do while down there is cross the bridge over to Coronado Island. You can't beat spending a summer evening browsing Bay Books, strolling the grounds of the Hotel Del and enjoying a relaxing dinner at the Rhinoceros Cafe (ask for the dill-crusted salmon, my favorite for nearly 20 years).

I can't imagine visiting the island and not spending time outside or at least next to an open door with the sea breeze gently kissing your face. Well, that is until I took a gander at the newly renovated Village Theatre on Orange Ave.

Shuttered for more than a decade, the 64-year-old movie theater has staged a comeback thanks to Vintage Cinemas of Los Angeles and Coronado's Redevelopment Agency. This is more than a fresh coat of paint and adding new seats. $3 million has been spent to take the the theater from one screen to three; digital sound and 3D projectors have been added; and renowned theater designer Joseph Musil, whose work includes the El Captain Theatre in Hollywood, helped develop the Art Deco interior before his passing last year.

Stepping inside, a long, vintage concession stand greets you on the left and the inviting Art Deco lobby, complete with pleated, red-velvet benches and vased flowers, beckons you toward the the three theaters in the back. The one theater I was able to peek in was beautiful: red-velvet, high-back chairs arranged in a semi-circle around the screen, a grand red curtain protecting its secrets; neon, three-dimensional murals (designed by Disney muralist Bill Anderson) depicting Coronado treasures like the Hotel Del adorned each of the side walls. Made me want to run back for a bag of popcorn and stay for the flick.

The only visible complaint would be the marquee: it’s digital and while beautiful too, it doesn't provide showtimes, just graphics on the three films. To see what time something is playing, you have to physically go up to the box office where the times are posted on a small sheet of paper. Kind of frustrating when there’s really no place for a quick stop on busy Orange Ave.

Where you saw a movie used to be as important as the movie itself. Theaters used to be majestic and unique. They had ornate chandeliers and cozy balconies, Wurlitzer organs pumping out live music before shows and velvet curtains that didn't rise until the lights went out. It wasn't just a business, it was an art form.

In this age of cookie-cutter multiplexes that emphasize quantity over quality, it's nice to see the Village Theatre buck that trend and bring back a sense of grandeur to seeing a movie outside our homes. This is a theater worthy of your time and something the people of Coronado should be very proud of.

For more information and pictures, visit http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/2552

Five 4th of July Flicks Worth A Bang

Ah, the 4th of July: summer; independence; celebration. Some pretty potent, universal themes. Perfect ingredients for a movie, actually. Looking for something to do between barbecues and firework shows that captures the mood of the season? Try one of the flicks below, five of my favorites. Enjoy the weekend.


1. Jaws (1975) - 36 years after its initial release, Steven Spielberg's classic about a man-eating shark terrorizing a small New England island over the 4th of July remains the perfect summer matinee. For best results, you're going to need a bigger screen. (Available on DVD)

2. The Patriot (2000) - Before he went nuts, Mel Gibson starred as a soldier turned farmer who takes up arms once again during the onset of the American Revolution to avenge the murders of his sons. A little too long but extremely entertaining. John Williams' inspiring score doesn't hurt either. (Available on DVD/Blu-ray)

3. Independence Day (1996) - You couldn't escape Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin's alien-invasion epic in the summer of '96. Ignore the laughable characters and inane dialog and focus on things blowing up and you'll have a pretty good time. (Available on DVD/Blu-ray)

4. Blown Away (1994) - Boston cop Jeff Bridges battles mad-bomber Tommy Lee Jones. Throw in Forrest Whitaker as a wise-ass rookie cop, Lloyd Bridges as a crusty mentor to young Bridges and a rousing finale set to the 1812 Overture and you've got a nifty little thriller. (Available on DVD)

5. Roller Coaster (1977) - George Segal (yes, George Segal) plays an amusement park safety inspector battling a mad bomber looking to blow up a new coaster during its grand opening on the 4th of July. A bit dated but still effective; a precursor to 1994's Speed. (Available on DVD)

Film Review: Super 8

I have long considered Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial the bookends of my childhood.

The former arrived at the beginning, the same year as Star Wars, and opened my eyes to the magical possibilities of movies. The latter came at the end, closing out an extraordinary five-year period that included such films as Superman, The Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark.

All were highly imaginative, extremely influential tales that not only fostered my love of storytelling but lit the fuse for what would become a lifelong passion for cinema. I revisit these films more than any others and am always on the lookout for new ones that recapture that special time and place, that sense of awe and wonder.

J.J. Abrams' new film Super 8, a nostalgia-drenched tale of movie-loving kids tracking a creature terrorizing their small Ohio town, is a throwback to those iconic films of the late '70s and early '80s, a long-lost first cousin of both Close Encounters and E.T. No surprise really, as one S. Spielberg is a producer.

Appropriately set in 1979, Super 8 follows a handful of junior-high-age friends, newly paroled from school for the summer, as they try and finish their homemade zombie movie in time for a fast-approaching film festival. Charles (Riley Griffiths) is the film's pudgy writer and director; his best friend Joe (Joel Courtney), still reeling from the loss of his mother the previous winter, handles the make-up; mouthy Cary (Ryan Lee, channeling a young Jack Earl Haley) is a borderline pyromaniac and of course is in charge of effects; Alice (Elle Fanning), the lone girl of the group, is the lead actress and the object of both Charles' and Joe's affection.

Late one night while filming a scene at the local train station, the group watches in shock as a pick-up truck intentionally hops the track and plows headfirst into an oncoming freight train. The ensuing derailment and explosion scatters boxcars and debris for miles, including thousands of odd, multi-tiered cubes, one of which Joe quickly pockets. Amid the wreckage they find the pick-up's battered driver, the junior high's science teacher Dr. Woodward (Glen Turman, who also played the ill-fated science teacher in the Spielberg-produced Gremlins); Woodward, while pointing a gun at their heads, tells them to run and forget what they saw.

The train turns out to be a mysterious military transport under the command of taciturn Air Force Colonel Nelec (Noah Emmerich); soon hundreds of soldiers have descended on the site, retrieving the strange cubes and searching for something that appears to be missing.

It not long before that something begins wrecking havoc on the town: dozens of dogs are reported missing; whole engine blocks are being stripped from neighborhood cars; people, including the sheriff, are just up and vanishing; and if that wasn't enough, all those cubes begin making a beeline for the downtown water tower.

While Joe's sheriff's deputy father (Kyle Chandler) begins his own investigation, the kids begin to realize the answers just may be on that roll of film they shot that fateful night.

Steven Spielberg calls Super 8 J.J. Abrams' first real film (his previous features include reboots of the Mission: Impossible and Star Trek franchises); Actually, this is J.J. Abrams' first Steven Spielberg film. Everything - the pacing, photography, the us-against-the-government storyline - is a blatant homage to Spielberg's classic alien-contact films. There are scenes that are exact duplicates of ones found in Close Encounters and E.T. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I sat there giddy as a kid watching a movie that easily could have been a missing 1979 middle act.

And while the comparison to those two films will undoubtedly be the focus, it shouldn't overshadow Abrams' talent as a filmmaker. His command of story, expert direction of a young cast and ability to dazzle an audience visually may remind us of a certain bespectacled, bearded gentleman, but they are the inherent traits of a born craftsman, one that will undoubtedly enchant moviegoers for decades to come.

Super 8 returns that special sense of awe and wonder to the screen, recapturing a time and innocence that anyone who remembers falling in love with movies can relate to.