Alien vs Predator
Sci-fi slug-fest that pits the alien killers of the Alien series and those of Predator against each other. Let ’em kill each other, we say. Opens October 22.
Anchorman
Seventies San Diego TV anchorman Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) suddenly has his cosy all-male world rocked by the arrival of an ambitious, smart and talented newswoman, Veronica (Christina Applegate). Could it all end in romance? Opens October 22.
The Bourne Supremacy
Matt Damon returns as the CIA assassin who lost his memory and had to spend the whole movie trying not to get killed by his former employers. Paul Greengrass directs this very fast action-movie follow-up to the hit Bourne Identity — maybe Damon has an purpose now, and a job for life. Opens October 15.
Action stations
Chill Out
Quirky Spanish film portraying the travails of an unemployed actor (Pepon Nieto), his ambitious wife, and her meddlesome mother-in-law. Opens October 1.
Collateral
Heat and Ali director Michael Mann makes one of his superior thrillers, with Tom Cruise as a contract killer forced to use a cab driver (Jamie Foxx) as ‘collateral” — a kind of hostage, it seems. Cruise as a cold-hearted bad guy? It may just work. Opens October 1.
Thrills and spills
The Company
Robert Altman uses the real-life Joffrey Ballet of Chicago as his canvas (or should that be palette?) in this portrait of a dance company, its public performances and its private lives. Neve Campbell is a dancer, Malcolm McDowell the company’s flamboyant director. Opens October 1.
The stuff of life
Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen
Another Clueless-style prom queen goes good in this girlie movie. Lindsay Lohan (definitely the teen queen of the moment) plays a vain mall rat who moves to a suburban high school and upsets the established order. Opens October 1.
Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights
Prequel to the 1987 hit, taking us back to Cuba in the 1950s, when the whole ‘dirty dancing” craze allegedly began. 18-year-old Katey Miller moves to Havana and falls in love … but the coming revolution threatens her happiness. Opens October 22.
Dodgeball
When a delapidated gym, run by Peter LA Fleur (Vince Vaughan) is threatened by a greedy businessman (Ben Stiller), the members band together to try and thwart his plans. Hailed as a silly but immensely enjoyable comedy. Opens October 8.
The Forgotten
Thriller about a mother (Julianne Moore) grieving for her lost son. She is told she imagined everything — and has to team up with another psychiatric patient (Alfre Woodard) to determine the truth. Directed by Joseph Ruben of The Good Son and Sleeping With the Enemy fame, this is likely to be intense and good. Opens October 22.
Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle
From the director of Dude, Where’s My Car?, this is the comic tale of two stoners, one Korean and the other of Indian extraction, who go on an epic quest for White Castle hamburgers. Opens October 1.
Hellboy
Mexican director Guillermo Del Toro did such a great job of Blade II that he can only triumph with this comic-book adaptation too. Ron Perlman is heavily made up as the demon (pulled into this world by a bunch of occult Nazis) who grows up to become a fighter of evil — though not without his own quirks. Also starring John Hurt, Hellboy promises to be a great ride. Opens October 8.
Hell’s bells
Jersey Girl
Ben Affleck and director Kevin Smith, who worked together on Chasing Amy and Dogma, team up once more for this romantic comedy. Affleck is a top publicist whose life suddenly starts to go horribly wrong. Also starring Liv Tyler. Opens October 22.
Luther
A historical drama about the great 16th-century reformer who took on the might of the then-dominant Catholic Church — and survived to become the father of Protestantism. Joseph Fiennes takes the title role, and the late Sir Peter Ustinov has his last movie part as Luther’s patron, Prince Frederick. Opens October 8.
Northfork
A young orphan boy lies in bed waiting for a family to adopt him. Meanwhile, the town is being evacuated to make way for a dam. Described as a disconcerting, ethereal film of grace and subtlety. Directed by Michael Polish, who made The Good Thief with Nick Nolte, who also stars here. Opens October 15.
The Stepford Wives
The creepy 1970s classic about a male plot to create perfect (and perfectly submissive) women, now remade as a light satire. It is directed by Frank Oz and stars Nicole Kidman, Bette Midler, Christopher Walken and Matthew Broderick. Opens October 22.
The Story of an African Farm
Olive Schreiner’s book, the first great South African novel, filmed by David Lister. Lyndall (Kasha Kropinski) is a teenager living on a Karoo farm with her aunt and cousin; she entertains notions of going to school — by no means a foregone conclusion in the 1800s. Then a cunning stranger, Bonaparte Blenkins (Richard E Grant), comes into their world, and their lives are changed forever. Opens October 8.
A story of our own
Twin Sisters
An epic story based on the Dutch bestseller by Tessa de Loo. Twin sisters, aged six, are separated after their parents’ deaths in the 1920s. Lotte goes to live with her upper-middle class Dutch aunt in Holland, Anna to work as a farm hand in pre-war Germany. The story follows their differing lives up to their reunion many years later. Opens October 15.
United States of Leland
Examines the life of soft-spoken 15-year-old Leland Fitzgerald (Ryan Gosling), who commits a seemingly senseless murder. In juvenile detention he is befriended by an aspiring writer and prison teacher, Pearl Madison (Don Cheadle) — but what are his motives? Opens October 8.
Wimbledon
Starring Kirsten Dunst and Paul Bettany, this tells the behind-the-scenes story of a fading tennis star seizing his last chance for glory, as well as the possibility of love with a rising woman star. Plenty of tennis action is likely. Opens October 8.
Your Hands on My Hips
A French adventure that defies categorisation. Directed by Chantal Lauby, it blends gutter humour and visual sophistication while examining the life of an ageing actress with a new lease on life. Jean-Pierre Martins plays the younger man who becomes her love interest. Opens October 22.
Yu-Gi-Oh
Adapted from the children’s TV show, Yu-Gi-Oh is about a young man who must rescue his grandfather’s soul from a wicked millionaire by challenging him to the aforementioned game of cards. Clearly for kids. Opens October 8.
Release dates correct at time of going to press. Check the weekly listings in the Mail & Guardian’s Friday section for updates.