Friday, September 7, 2012

2012 End of Year Preview: Part 3: November


Welcome back to this four-part look into the upcoming movies in the final quarter of 2012. This is Part 3, where we'll be looking into the month of Thanksgiving, November.



*After spending most of the last decade working strictly through the use of motion-capture, director Robert Zemeckis returns to live-action film making with 'Flight'. Denzel Washington stars as a pilot who gets into a plane crash but saves everyone on board by making an emergency landing. However, a shocking truth of what happened while he was flying could spell trouble for him in the long run. The film comes out on the 2nd.


*For the martial arts crowd, November 2nd also sees the release of 'The Man with the Iron Fists'. The directorial debut of musician RZA stars himself as a blacksmith who must save his village from invaders. The film also stars Russell Crowe and Lucy Liu.



*Closing out the weekend of November 2nd is one for the video game fanatics, Wreck-It-Ralph, the latest animated film from Disney and produced by Pixar's John Lasseter. It centers around the titular 'Wreck-It-Ralph', the bad guy in a popular arcade video game who grows tired of being the villain and yearns to be a good guy for once as he travels across multiple video games looking to find his place in life. John C. Reilly stars as Ralph and his co-stars include Jack McBrayer, Sarah Silverman, and Jane Lynch. The movie also features cameos from many characters from other video games including Sonic, Ryu and Ken from Street Fighter, and Bowser from Super Mario Bros (sorry, no Mario or Luigi).



*November 9th sees the return of one 'Bond... James Bond' with the latest Bond flick, Skyfall, the 23rd entry in this long running franchise. Daniel Craig returns for a third time as Agent 007, who returns from an apparent demise to face off against Javier Bardem's Raoul Silva when MI6 falls under attack. Sam Mendes (American Beauty) helms this new flick and newcomers include Ralph Fiennes as a government agent monitoring MI6, Naomie Harris as field agent Eve, and Ben Whishaw as Q, the first time the character has appeared in a Bond film since the last Pierce Brosnan film 'Die Another Day'. For those in the UK, Skyfall comes out a few weeks earlier on October 26th but here in the U.S., you'll have to wait until November.

*November 16th won't give much in terms of competition for what will probably be number one that week, the final entry in the Twilight saga, Breaking Dawn Part 2.



*Continuing the long line of remakes that come out every year is 'Red Dawn', a remake of the 1984 flick of the same name which was notably the first film to ever be released with the PG-13 rating. This project has been in development since 2009 but due to financial issues with MGM, it doesn't come out until the 21st of November of this year after it was originally planned for a 2010 release. During this time, the main villains were changed from the Chinese to North Korea in order to maintain access to China's box office. This remake stars Chris 'Thor' Hemsworth and Josh Peck in the roles once held by Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen. Like with 'House at the End of Street', however, this was filmed before Hemsworth and co-star Josh Hutcherson made it big in Hollywood with their roles in Thor and The Hunger Games, respectively.



*November 21st also sees the release of the latest from Dreamworks Animation, Rise of the Guardians. This new animated feature, produced by Guillermo Del Toro, focuses on the 'Immortal Guardians' who must band together when the Earth is threatened by the Boogeyman. The all-star cast includes Chris Pine as Jack Frost, Hugh Jackman as the Easter Bunny, Alec Baldwin as Santa Claus, Isla Fisher as the Tooth Fairy, and Jude Law as the Boogeyman.



*Finally, this weekend also sees the release of the latest from the director of 'The Fighter', 'The Silver Linings Playbook. This dramedy stars Bradley Cooper as an ex-teacher who moves back in with his parents (played by Robert De Niro and Jacki Weaver) after a stint in a mental institution as he tries to get his life back together. He soon meets Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), a girl who has had problems of her own, and the two form a unique bond as they get to know each other.



In terms of Limited Releases, there's one big one for this month...


*Earlier this year, we had the action-fantasy flick 'Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter'. For those of you looking for a more historically accurate take on our country's sixteenth President, you're in luck with 'Lincoln', directed by Steven Spielberg. In the lead role as Lincoln is Daniel Day Lewis and the film, which is based on the biography 'Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln' by Doris Kearns Goodwin, will follow Lincoln during the last few months of his life, from the abolishment of slavery to his untimely assassination at Ford's Theater. Joining Day Lewis is Sally Field as First Lady Mary Todd, Joseph Gordon Levitt as their son Robert, Tommy Lee Jones, Jackie Earle Haley, and Jared Harris. 'Lincoln' hits theaters, in limited release, on November 16th.



And that is all for the month of November. Stay tuned for the finale of this four-part preview with a look into the month of December.

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