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FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2012<br />
Fall brings colder weather across the Northern<br />
Hemisphere and Hollywood’s major studios will usher<br />
into theaters cool action thrillers, chilly horror<br />
movies and some dramatic Oscar hopefuls looking for a<br />
head start on awards season. From new James Bond flick<br />
“Skyfall” to another scary “Paranormal” installment and<br />
the long-awaited Paul Thomas Anderson Scientology drama,<br />
“The Master,” there is plenty for cinephiles to dissect<br />
in the season, which begins after this weekend’s US Labor<br />
Day holiday and runs roughly to Thanksgiving.<br />
The pace of movies is slower than the US summer<br />
when the studios bring out blockbusters like “The<br />
Avengers” and “The Dark Knight Rises” weekly. But don’t<br />
let the pace fool you; fall 2012 is neither short on quality<br />
nor quantity, experts say. “Early fall can often be a little bit<br />
of a lull at the movies, but it can also be a time when real<br />
quality films can take advantage of a quiet marketplace<br />
and really stand out,” Entertainment Weekly writer Dave<br />
Karger said.<br />
The season kicks into high gear on Sept 21, with Jake<br />
Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena playing Los Angeles police<br />
battling a ruthless drug cartel in “End of Watch,” from<br />
writer/director David Ayer. Ayer, whose previous LA cop<br />
flick, “Training Day,” earned Denzel Washington a best<br />
actor Oscar, said the film shows “what it’s like to work the<br />
streets in a way very few films have ever shown,” pulling<br />
back the curtain on the cops’ lives, personal and professional.<br />
“It’s not your typical Hollywood movie. It’s very<br />
grounded, very real - almost a pseudo documentary.<br />
You’ll walk out of this movie wanting to hug a cop,” he<br />
said. Guns continue to blaze on Sept 28 when Bruce Willis<br />
and Joseph Gordon-Levitt play the same person - only 30years<br />
apart - in the time-travel flick “Looper” about assassins<br />
killing targets sent back from the future.<br />
Liam Neeson is back as the CIA-trained, overly protective<br />
father in “Taken 2” (Oct 5) when the kidnappers who<br />
swiped his daughter in the first “Taken” movie return for<br />
revenge. The best-selling Alex Cross crime novels get a<br />
reboot with Tyler Perry taking the lead role previously<br />
inhabited by Morgan Freeman in “Alex Cross” (Oct 19).<br />
This time, the detective psychologist takes on a hitman<br />
played by Matthew Fox.<br />
On Oct 12, crime takes a comedic edge in “Seven<br />
Psychopaths,” about a screenwriter (Colin Farrell) who<br />
gets involved in the Los Angeles underworld when his<br />
dog-snatching friend (Sam Rockwell) makes the mistake<br />
of kidnapping a Shih Tzu belonging to a crime boss<br />
(Woody Harrelson). The season ends with a bang as the<br />
highly anticipated “Skyfall” comes out on Nov 9, amid a<br />
celebration of 50 years of Bond movies. This time around,<br />
Daniel Craig takes his third turn as 007 with Oscar-winning<br />
filmmaker Sam Mendes at the helm of the movie and<br />
Javier Bardem as the villain, Silva.<br />
Halloween haunts & oscar bait<br />
Fall is long on horror as the studios play to fears ahead<br />
of Halloween. On Sept 21, Jennifer Lawrence finds herself<br />
haunted in “The House at the End of the Street.” On Oct 5,<br />
a ghostly entity threatens Ethan Hawke and his family in<br />
“Sinister.” If that’s not enough haunted house-themed<br />
flicks, the hugely popular franchise “Paranormal Activity<br />
4” returns on Oct 19.<br />
For family frights, animated “Hotel Transylvania” (Sept<br />
28) stars Adam Sandler as a hotelier to non-humans<br />
whose world turns upside down when an overexcited<br />
human shows up.<br />
And Tim Burton brings his usual ghoulish charm to the<br />
screen with the stop-motion animated “Frankenweenie”<br />
(Oct 5) about a young boy who resurrects his late dog,<br />
Sparky. Arf! Then, there is the Oscar race. In recent years,<br />
as Academy Award organizers moved their top film honors<br />
up by a month, to February from late March, the studios<br />
have been bringing more award hopefuls to theaters<br />
in September and October.<br />
Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master” is creating Oscar<br />
buzz prior to its Sept 14 release. Set in the 1950s, the<br />
movie tells of a damaged alcoholic (Joaquin Phoenix) who<br />
is taken under wing by a charismatic leader (Philip<br />
Seymour Hoffman) of a spiritual movement not unlike the<br />
controversial Church of Scientology.<br />
Also getting attention is “Argo” (Oct 12), directed by<br />
and starring Ben Affleck. Based on real events, the movie<br />
shows a CIA specialist’s mission to free six US diplomats in<br />
1979 Iran by posing as a filmmaker and putting them<br />
among his bogus crew. Actor John Hawkes gives a tourde-force<br />
performance in “The Sessions” (Oct 26) playing a<br />
38-year-old man who, having spent most of his life in an<br />
iron lung, decides to hire a therapeutic sex surrogate<br />
(Helen Hunt) to lose his virginity.<br />
But Hawkes will see Oscar competition from Daniel<br />
Day Lewis starring as Abraham Lincoln in Steven<br />
Spielberg’s biopic, “Lincoln” (Nov 9). Fans of the filmmak-<br />
Lifestyle<br />
Thrills, chills, dramatic<br />
films dominate fall season<br />
Kim Kardashian has made nice<br />
with Old Navy, ending a yearlong<br />
battle with the clothing<br />
company over ads that allegedly used<br />
a Kim K look-alike actress to flog its<br />
togs. The ‘Keeping Up With the<br />
Kardashians’ star has settled her lawsuit<br />
with Old Navy, according to her<br />
attorney, who told TheWrap that the<br />
suit ‘was resolved to the mutual satisfaction<br />
of the parties.’ The attorney did<br />
not disclose the specifics of the settlement.<br />
Kardashian filed suit against Old<br />
Navy and its parent company, The Gap,<br />
last July in US District Court in Central<br />
California. Kardashian asked for<br />
unspecified damages and lost profits in<br />
ing Wachowski siblings (Lana and Andy of “The Matrix”<br />
movies) will try to wrap their heads around “Cloud Atlas”<br />
(Oct 26), starring Tom Hanks and Halle Berry in different<br />
roles throughout six interwoven tales.<br />
“‘Cloud Atlas’ is the complete wild card,” said<br />
Entertainment Weekly’s Karger. “A two and a half-plus<br />
hour movie by the Wachowskis that looks so bizarre. It’s<br />
probably going to be one of the most polarizing movies<br />
of the season.” Finally, there is sport-themed documentary<br />
“The Other Dream Team” ( Sept 28), chronicling<br />
members of the 1992 Lithuanian Olympic basketball team<br />
as they go from life behind the Iron Curtain to newfound<br />
independence - with financial assistance from the Grateful<br />
Dead. — Reuters<br />
Kim Kardashian settles<br />
lawsuit with Old Navy<br />
the suit, though according to TMZ the<br />
reality TV sensation estimated that she<br />
had been damaged in the $15 million<br />
to $20 million range.<br />
The suit claimed that the Old Navy<br />
ads ‘used Plaintiff’s likeness in the form<br />
of a celebrity “look-alike,’’ which was<br />
‘likely to cause confusion, and have<br />
caused actual confusion, in the minds<br />
of the consuming public as to an association<br />
of Kim Kardashian with<br />
Defendant’s products and services.’<br />
That’s no small consideration, given<br />
that Kardashian has given her endorsement<br />
to myriad products, including<br />
ShoeDazzle and her own Dash designer<br />
boutiques. Old Navy confirmed that<br />
the suit had been settled. — Reuters<br />
Kim Kardashian
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