October 5
 | Taken 2 (2012) - Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller
In Istanbul, retired CIA operative Bryan Mills and his wife are taken hostage by the father of a kidnapper Mills killed while rescuing his daughter.
Director:Olivier Megaton |
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THE BUZZ: Producer Luc Besson will turn anything into a movie, and any movie that sticks into a franchise, so the only thing that might prevent a third Bryan Mills adventure is Liam Neeson's willingness to put his body, which will be 60 years old when this sequel is released, through the physical torment required to make a truly thrilling action film like the surprise original hit. (Paging Jeremy Renner.) On a serious note: those people who found the original incredibly Islamophobic might be surprised to see the Mills family on another foreign trip after the first incident.
 | Frankenweenie (2012) - Comedy | Animation | Horror | Sci-Fi
Young Victor conducts a science experiment to bring his beloved dog Sparky back to life, only to face unintended, sometimes monstrous, consequences.
Director:Tim Burton |
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THE BUZZ: For his second film of the year, Tim Burton reconnects with his 1980s self and many of the Tim Burton Players we associate with his most-classic movies: Winona Ryder, Catherine O'Hara, and Martin Landau. Will this remain refreshingly Depp-free, too? Second question: is there worth in revisiting your early work beyond the box-office benefits?
 | Pitch Perfect (2012) - Comedy | Music
Beca, a freshman at Barden University, is cajoled into joining The Bellas, her school's all-girls singing group. Injecting some much needed energy into their repertoire, The Bellas take on their male rivals in a campus competition.
Director:Jason Moore |
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THE BUZZ: Avenue Q director Jason Moore moves to the big screen with a project that will be unable to shake comparisons to "Glee" though it's a separate and established story that was adapted by one of the main brains at "30 Rock." We can picture a Gothed-out Anna Kendrick running this dialogue.
 | The Paperboy (2012) - Thriller
A reporter returns to his Florida hometown to investigate a case involving a death row inmate.
Director:Lee Daniels |
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THE BUZZ: Sounds like Lee Daniels has followed up Precious with a must-see exploitation film rife with deviant sexual activities (said with a 1950s accent). Read Keith Simanton's Cannes review for the sordid details.
 | V/H/S (2012) - Horror | Thriller
When a group of misfits is hired by an unknown third party to burglarize a desolate house and acquire a rare VHS tape, they discover more found footage than they bargained for.
Directors:Matt Bettinelli-Olpin | David Bruckner | Tyler Gillett | Justin Martinez | Glenn McQuaid | Radio Silence | Joe Swanberg | Chad Villella |Ti West | Adam Wingard |
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THE BUZZ: This horror anthology first gained attention when someone passed out at a Sundance screening. Now that kind of news is no surprise when you consider the altitude of Park City, Utah and an abundance of free liquor, but in this case, I was close to a physiological breakdown by the end of the first sequence. And I hear the final segment, directed by a collective known as "Radio Silence," is the best of the bunch. Maybe I will have to watch this in installments.
 | The House I Live In (2012)
Documentary
From the dealer to the narcotics officer, the inmate to the federal judge, a penetrating look inside America's criminal justice system, revealing the profound human rights implications of U.S. drug policy.
Director:Eugene Jarecki |
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THE BUZZ: With a resume that includes such projects as Why We Fight, Eugene Jarecki has become one of the top sociopolitical documentary filmmakers around. His take on America's war on drugs is masterfully assembled, and his decision to weave in the familial history of a former family employee is commendable; we wonder what the project would have been like if Jarecki had taken a more Frederick Wiseman approach and turned down his own pontifications.
 | The Oranges (2011) - Comedy | Drama | Romance
The enduring friendship between the Walling and Ostroff families is tested when Nina, the prodigal Ostroff daughter, returns home for the holidays after a five-year absence and enters into an affair with David, head of the Walling family.
Director:Julian Farino |
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THE BUZZ: Definitely like this premise and all of the players assembled for this adult-family comedy, even if we can't help but wonder how these characters and their stories could have been developed over a cable TV show.
 | Butter (2011) Comedy
In small-town Iowa, an adopted girl discovers her talent for butter carving and finds herself pitted against an ambitious local woman in their town's annual contest.
Director:Jim Field Smith |
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THE BUZZ: Showing a scheming and competitive side might just be the kind of career rehabilitation Jennifer Garner needs (the pro-rehab/anti-funny Arthur doesn't count since it did no one any favors); whether or not audiences will buy her in this mode is entirely unknown, however. The movie itself constantly reminds of early Alexander Payne, and the marketing shouldn't ignore this hook because there are plenty of us who miss those dark comedies such as Citizen Ruth and Election where no main character is truly likeable.
October 12
 | Argo (2012) - Drama | Thriller
As the Iranian revolution reaches a boiling point, a CIA 'exfiltration' specialist concocts a risky plan to free six Americans who have found shelter at the home of the Canadian ambassador.
Director:Ben Affleck |
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THE BUZZ: It's getting hard to recall the time when Ben Affleck lost his initial luster, now that he's matured into a filmmaker and left the world of celebrity back in his 30s. Handling a weird-but-true story once buried in the CIA's classified files and a cast that ranges from A-list to the criminally underused, I'm thinking Affleck has a third critical and popular hit in front of him.
 | Sinister (2012) - Crime | Horror | Thriller
Found footage helps a true-crime novelist realize how and why a family was murdered in his new home, though his discoveries put his entire family in the path of a supernatural entity.
Director:Scott Derrickson |
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THE BUZZ: Since the found-footage approach has been bled to death, why not mash it up with the haunted house scenario since that worked for Insidious? Ethan Hawke takes a paycheck -- and, hey, he deserves it -- while director Scott Derrickson retreats to the horror genre after the colossal whiff that was The Day the Earth Stood Still.
 | Here Comes the Boom (2012)
Action | Comedy
A high school biology teacher looks to become a successful mixed-martial arts fighter in an effort to raise money to prevent extra-curricular activities from being axed at his cash-strapped school.
Director:Frank Coraci |
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THE BUZZ: Kevin Smith is to Adam Sandler as Vanity is to Prince: he is easily mentor's best protégé. Is his new movie, he sticks with Zookeeper director Frank Coraci for a message comedy that will probably become the most successful mixed-martial arts film to date -- and Hollywood sure has been trying to cash in on the sport for quite some time.
 | Seven Psychopaths (2012) Comedy | Crime
A struggling screenwriter inadvertently becomes entangled in the Los Angeles criminal underworld after his oddball friends kidnap a gangster's beloved Shih Tzu.
Director:Martin McDonagh |
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THE BUZZ: It's tough to bring together comedy, crime, and thriller elements in the same screenplay, but Martin McDonagh created a seamless, multi-genre hit with In Bruges, and the cult audience who thinks that is the best film ever has been growing over the last several years. When Mickey Rourke left the production after a semi-high profile clash with McDonagh, Woody Harrelson replaced him, and the project suddenly seemed more legitimate -- funny how Rourke's credit rating has slipped again.
 | War of the Buttons (2011)
- Adventure | Family
In occupied France, Lebrac leads a play war between two rival kid gangs, but his feelings for Violette, a Jewish girl in danger of being discovered by the Nazis, encourage Lebrac to face the reality of what's happening around him.
Director:Christophe Barratier |
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THE BUZZ: Harvey Weinstein said he has no plans to wage an Oscar campaign for the new film The Chorus director Christophe Barratier, who co-wrote the script with The Artist's Thomas Langmann. But the trailer and all attendant promotional materials reference both movies in all caps, reinforcing the war drama's kid-powered sentimentality. If the Best Foreign Language category ever were to reflect popular opinion ...
 | Middle of Nowhere (2012) Drama
When her husband is sentenced to 8 years in prison, Rudy drops out of med school in order to focus on her husband's well being while he's incarcerated - leading her on a journey of self-discovery in the process.
Director:Ava DuVernay |
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THE BUZZ: An assuredly directed crowd-pleasing drama from Ava DuVernay, who is also one of the creative minds behind her film's distributor, AFFRM. This one has been a major hit on the festival circuit since its award-winning debut at Sundance.
October 19
 | Alex Cross (2012) - Crime | Mystery | Thriller
A detective is told that a member of his family has been murdered. He vows to track down the killer.
Director:Rob Cohen |
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THE BUZZ: What's worse than casting Kim Kardashian in one of your movies? For Tyler Perry, it could be his inheritance of the Alex Cross mantle by replacing Morgan Freeman as the famed detective/psychologist from James Patterson's novels. What is the bigger challenge here: getting Madea fans to follow Perry as he toughens up and chases a serial killer, or getting non-Perry fans into seats opening weekend? More than anything, since Kiss the Girls andAlong Came a Spider liberally altered the Patterson universe, I say a smarter decision would have found Freeman returning for a third and final appearance and Perry supporting him,Ghost Protocol style.
 | Paranormal Activity 4 (2012)
- Horror | Mystery
The plot is undisclosed at this time.
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THE BUZZ: Lunchtime poll topic: How long until the reboot?
 | The Sessions (2012) - Drama
A man in an iron lung who wishes to lose his virginity contacts a professional sex surrogate with the help of his therapist and priest.
Director:Ben Lewin |
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THE BUZZ: With a lighter tone than you might expect given the subject matter, this could be an increasingly rare instance of a Sundance hit that connects with audiences outside of the festival circuit. Strong performances by John Hawkes (the subject), Helen Hunt (the surrogate), and William H. Macy (the priest) might put the film in awards contention, but the person we're watching is Ben Lewin, the sixty-something writer/director whose bawdy charm and early-life experience with polio makes for a fascinating read. For example, he freely admits to discovering Mark O'Brien's writing as he was surfing the internet for anything having to do with sex and the disabled for "The Gimp," his initial pitch for a TV sitcom.
October 26
 | Cloud Atlas (2012) - Drama | Mystery | Sci-Fi
An exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution.
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THE BUZZ: Hugh Grant plays a killer, Susan Sarandon plays a man, and Tom Hanks makes his most engaging starring-role choice in years in the shrouded-in-mystery new project from the Wachowski siblings, an adaptation of David Mitchell's celebrated science-fiction novel that (pardon if we sound obvious and/or naive) sounds like the literary offspring of Ray Bradbury and Samuel Delany. Reincarnation is a main thread, and we're stoked for the visuals and nervous about narrative cohesion or lack thereof. We expect to see the first trailer at Comic-Con and with the rollout of The Dark Knight Rises.
 | Chasing Mavericks (2012) Drama | Sport
When young Jay Moriarty discovers that the mythic Mavericks surf break, one of the biggest waves on Earth, exists just miles from his Santa Cruz home, he enlists the help of local legend Frosty Hesson to train him to survive it.
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THE BUZZ: The area in, near, and around Half Moon Bay is California at its most picturesque, so the backdrop of Curtis Hanson's upcoming movie should be as engaging as the story of Jay Moriarity, the big-wave rider who died at the age of 22 in a diving accident in the Maldives. Will family audiences be courted in the wake of Soul Surfer's success?
 | Silent Hill: Revelation 3D (2012) Horror | Mystery | Thriller
When her father disappears, Heather Mason is drawn into a strange and terrifying alternate reality that holds answers to the horrific nightmares that have plagued her since childhood.
Director:Michael J. Bassett |
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THE BUZZ: For some of us, Silent Hill was a dark-arts homework assignment as murky/foggy as the original video game, but its overall mood and memorable sequences made it a worldwide hit. (Pyramid Head was an underutilized terror, the climatic barbed-wire bloodfest scene was worth the wait, and Laurie Holden looked great as a lady cop in leather.) Six years later, an upstart distributor takes over the reins for the sequel's US release, and the storyline seems to be even more dense than the original, with Sean Bean playing two different characters and Radha Mitchell potentially still stuck in a different reality than her husband. We can almost hear the voiceover explaining everything during the intro credits, and we cannot wait to for some hopefully over-the-top acting from Malcolm McDowell and Carrie-Anne Moss.
 | Fun Size (2012)
Comedy
Wren's plan to attend a huge Halloween party thrown by the guy she likes goes awry when she's put in charge of her oddball little brother, who quickly wanders off on his own.
Director:Josh Schwartz |
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THE BUZZ: "Colbert Reporter" writer Max Werner's screenplay, one of the highest vote-getters from the 2010 Black List (a rundown of the best unproduced screenplays in Hollywood) is in the hands of "Gossip Girl" co-creators Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage; Schwartz makes his directorial debut. Also turning away from the TV is "Victorious" star Victoria Justice, who is in charge of finding her weirdo little brother on Halloween. Who will get the Blair-level lines of dialogue -- supporting star Chelsea Handler?
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