Fall Movie Preview 2008

SEPTEMBER

 

9/12: The Women: Packed with old white women (Annette Bening, anyone?), there would ordinarily be no reason to watch this, except that Eva Mendes is in it. Every guy's dream girl and every girl's girl crush plays a schemer who steals Meg Ryan's man. ¡Sucia!

9/19: Elite Squad: We've seen a few Brazilian movies now, and this is what we've learned: favelas are effed up. A huge, controversial hit in Brazil, Elite Squad features a team of fanatical cops, who chase thugs through the concrete-and-tin labyrinth, busting plenty of caps the whole way.

Blindness: Take a hot director (Brazilian Fernando Meirelles, City of God), a hot actor (Gael Garcia Bernal) and an apocalyptic novel from a Nobel Prize-winning author (Jose Saramago) about a city whose inhabitants suddenly go blind, and you've got some pretty compelling reasons to check this out.

Lily White Pick: No Latinos in sight in Joel and Ethan Coen's Burn After Reading, a comedy about a group of dolts who come across a disk of classified CIA info. The Coens have a pretty good record of dark, quirky comedies (The Big Lebowski; O Brother, Where Art Thou?) and this one stars Brad Pitt and George Clooney. Sold! (9/12)

OCTOBER

10/3: Beverly Hills Chihuahua: This CGI flick is about a rich *** who gets lost in Mexico City and relies on colorful local dogs to help her find her way back. So does the fact that it features the voices of George Lopez, Edward James Olmos, Andy Garcia, Paul Rodriguez and Cheech Marin mean this Disney movie won't be offensive to Latinos? Or that they just sold out for a huge paycheck?

10/17: Max Payne: Prison Break's Amaury Nolasco plays a mobster's general in this video-game-turned action flick starring Mark Wahlberg as a DEA agent. Payne seeks to avenge his family's death at the hands of enemies both human and non. Amazing special effects and CGI creatures totally sell this one.

Lily White Pick: Body of Lies: There is a Latino actor in this—some dude named Oscar Isaac—but he plays an Arab and is probably in the movie for two seconds. The real reason to watch? Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe as CIA operatives who go head-to-head with a Jordanian terrorist and each other. Kablow! (10/10)

NOVEMBER

11/21: Nothing Like the Holidays: The hardest-working Latino in Hollywood, John Leguizamo, heads a mostly Latino cast (Freddy Rodriguez, Melonie Diaz, Luis Guzman and Jay Hernandez) that plays a dysfunctional Humboldt Park, Chicago family getting together for Christmas. Lechon and locura ensue.

Lily White Pick: Quantum of Solace: Seven words: Craig, Daniel Craig, as Bond, James Bond. Australia is a romantic outback epic with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman (love that accent). (11/14)

DECEMBER

12/5: Milk: This year's Brokeback Mountain is already getting Oscar buzz for Sean Penn, who plays Harvey Milk, San Francisco's first openly gay city official. Diego Luna, never one to be outdone by best bud Garcia Bernal who played a gay guy in Bad Education, plays one of Milk's boy toys, Jack Lira.

12/12: Seven Pounds: Oh, Will Smith, you just won't stop till you get yourself an Oscar, will you? The twice-nominated actor stars in what sounds like a telenovela: An IRS agent full of regrets vows to change the lives of seven people to makeup for his mistakes. Then he meets Rosario Dawson, a chick with a serious heart condition, and falls in love, complicating things. Break out the hankies.

12/25: The Spirit: And you thought graphic-novels-turned-movies were only for summer. Consider this your Christmas present. Comic-book creator Frank Miller makes his directorial debut with this stylish flick about a cop who comes back from the great beyond to fight baddies in Central City. Eva Mendes and Paz Vega play girls who are rotten to the core.

Lily White Pick: Revolutionary Road: How could we not watch the onscreen reunion of Titanic's Kate and Leo? Winslet and DiCaprio play repressed white people (our favorite kind) making each other miserable in marriage.