Fall movie preview: The season for serious films has arrived

BY RENE RODRIGUEZ
rrodriguez@MiamiHerald.com
The fall movie season arrives, which means the superheroes go on vacation, the sequels take a breather and the literary adaptations, costume dramas and Oscar-hopeful pictures start arriving at the multiplex. Here is a list of some of the 50-plus movies heading to theaters between now and Thanksgiving. Release dates are subject to change.
SEPT. 12
Burn After Reading: After sweeping the Oscars for the most serious and mature film of their career (No Country For Old Men), brothers Joel and Ethan Coen return to the irreverent, wacky turf of The Big Lebowski and The Ladykillers with this comedy about two gym employees (Brad Pitt and Frances McDormand) who try to make money off a computer disc containing the precious secrets of a CIA agent (John Malkovich). George Clooney and Tilda Swinton also figure into the plot, somehow.
Righteous Kill: Unlike their last film pairing, Heat, in which they only appeared in a couple of scenes together, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino spend most of this thriller together on screen, playing a pair of New York City detectives on the trail of a serial killer. That's the good news. The bad news? The movie is not being screened in advance for critics. Beware.
Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys:Kathy Bates and Alfre Woodard are the matriarchs of two families -- one upper-class, the other working-class -- who become entangled in scandal in the sixth film from the man who brought you Diary of a Mad Black Woman.
The Women: If you simply can't wait for the Sex and the City movie to hit DVD, this loose remake of the 1939 George Cukor classic should tide you over. Meg Ryan, Annette Bening, Debra Messing, Jada Pinkett Smith, Eva Mendes and a slew of other actresses (with absolutely no men in sight) run around New York City shopping, getting their nails done, attending fashion shows and lamenting the state of their love lives.
SEPT. 19
Ghost Town: Ricky Gervais, the genius star of the original BBC version of The Office, gets his first Hollywood starring role as a man who can see ghosts after a near-death experience -- and they're all constantly pestering him for something. Directed by frequent Spielberg screenwriter David Koepp (War of the Worlds, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull).
Igor: John Cusack, Steve Buscemi, Arsenio Hall and Jay Leno provide the voices for this animated tale of a mad scientist's assistant who gets a chance to build his own monster when his boss dies.
Lakeview Terrace: Provocateur Neil La Bute (Your Friends and Neighbors, In the Company of Men) returns to push your buttons with this story about a happily married interracial couple (Patrick Wilson and Kerry Washington) who move into their dream home -- next door to a racist, trigger-happy cop (Samuel L. Jackson) who doesn't approve of their union.
My Best Friend's Girl: Dane Cook is a man who specializes in taking women out on such horrific dates, they run back to the ex-boyfriends they had just dumped. But when Jason Biggs hires him to get his ex Kate Hudson to return to him, Cook finds himself falling for the girl he's supposed to be terrorizing.
SEPT. 26
Choke: Sam Rockwell stars in the adaptation of Chuck Pahlaniuk's unusual novel about a con artist who preys on the kindness of strangers by pretending to choke on his food at pricey restaurants.
The Duchess: Keira Knightley stars as the 18th century aristocrat Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, who is stuck in a loveless marriage to a philandering husband (Ralph Fiennes).
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