With Labor Day weekend marking the end of the summer movie season, Hollywood moves away from action films and forgettable popcorn fare and turns to more serious subject matter. But don't worry, there's a sprinkling of comedies still to come before we say good-bye to 2010.
Looking over this year's list of fall releases, no one film stands out as a clear-cut Oscar nominee. That said, there are still quite a few movies on this list that are nearly guaranteed to generate huge box office numbers (yes, we're looking at you Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1).
Here's the scoop on 2010's fall releases, listed in release date order.
Looking over this year's list of fall releases, no one film stands out as a clear-cut Oscar nominee. That said, there are still quite a few movies on this list that are nearly guaranteed to generate huge box office numbers (yes, we're looking at you Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1).
Here's the scoop on 2010's fall releases, listed in release date order.
1. 'Never Let Me Go'
© Fox Searchlight
Starring: Keira Knightley, Andrew Garfield and Carey Mulligan
Synopsis: Kathy, Tommy and Ruth live in a world and a time that feel familiar to us, but are not quite like anything we know. They spend their childhood at Hailsham, a seemingly idyllic English boarding school. When they leave the shelter of the school and the terrible truth of their fate is revealed to them, they must also confront the deep feelings of love, jealousy and betrayal that threaten to pull them apart.
Release Date: September 15, 2010
Synopsis: Kathy, Tommy and Ruth live in a world and a time that feel familiar to us, but are not quite like anything we know. They spend their childhood at Hailsham, a seemingly idyllic English boarding school. When they leave the shelter of the school and the terrible truth of their fate is revealed to them, they must also confront the deep feelings of love, jealousy and betrayal that threaten to pull them apart.
Release Date: September 15, 2010
2. 'The Town'
© Warner Bros Pictures
Starring: Ben Affleck, Jeremy Renner, Rebecca Hall and Jon Hamm
Synopsis: Doug MacRay (Affleck) is an unrepentant criminal, the de facto leader of a group of ruthless bank robbers who pride themselves in stealing what they want and getting out clean. With no real attachments, Doug never has to fear losing anyone close to him. But that all changed on the gang's latest job, when they briefly took a hostage--bank manager, Claire Keesey (Hall).
Though they let her go unharmed, Claire is nervously aware that the robbers know her name...and where she lives. But she lets her guard down when she meets an unassuming and rather charming man named Doug...not realizing that he is the same man who only days earlier had terrorized her. The instant attraction between them gradually turns into a passionate romance that threatens to take them both down a dangerous, and potentially deadly, path.
Release Date: September 17, 2010
Synopsis: Doug MacRay (Affleck) is an unrepentant criminal, the de facto leader of a group of ruthless bank robbers who pride themselves in stealing what they want and getting out clean. With no real attachments, Doug never has to fear losing anyone close to him. But that all changed on the gang's latest job, when they briefly took a hostage--bank manager, Claire Keesey (Hall).
Though they let her go unharmed, Claire is nervously aware that the robbers know her name...and where she lives. But she lets her guard down when she meets an unassuming and rather charming man named Doug...not realizing that he is the same man who only days earlier had terrorized her. The instant attraction between them gradually turns into a passionate romance that threatens to take them both down a dangerous, and potentially deadly, path.
Release Date: September 17, 2010
3. 'Easy A'
© Screen Gems
Starring: Emma Stone, Amanda Bynes, Penn Badgley, and Cam Gigandet
Synopsis: After a little white lie about losing her virginity gets out, a clean cut high school girl (Stone) sees her life paralleling Hester Prynne’s in The Scarlet Letter, which she is currently studying in school – until she decides to use the rumor mill to advance her social and financial standing.
Release Date: September 17, 2010
Synopsis: After a little white lie about losing her virginity gets out, a clean cut high school girl (Stone) sees her life paralleling Hester Prynne’s in The Scarlet Letter, which she is currently studying in school – until she decides to use the rumor mill to advance her social and financial standing.
Release Date: September 17, 2010
4. 'Catfish'
© Rogue Pictures
Starring: Nev Schulman, Ariel Schulman, and Henry Joost
Synopsis: In late 2007, filmmakers Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost sensed a story unfolding as they began to film the life of Ariel’s brother, Nev. They had no idea that their project would lead to the most exhilarating and unsettling months of their lives. A reality thriller that is a shocking product of our times, Catfish is a story of love, deception and grace within a labyrinth of online intrigue.
Release Date: September 17, 2010
Synopsis: In late 2007, filmmakers Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost sensed a story unfolding as they began to film the life of Ariel’s brother, Nev. They had no idea that their project would lead to the most exhilarating and unsettling months of their lives. A reality thriller that is a shocking product of our times, Catfish is a story of love, deception and grace within a labyrinth of online intrigue.
Release Date: September 17, 2010
5. 'You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger'
© Sony Pictures Classics
Starring: Naomi Watts, Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins, and Antonio Banderas
Synopsis: Woody Allen's You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger follows a pair of married couples, Alfie (Hopkins) and Helena (Gemma Jones), and their daughter Sally (Watts) and husband Roy (Brolin), as their passions, ambitions, and anxieties lead them into trouble and out of their minds. After Alfie leaves Helena to pursue his lost youth and a free-spirited call girl named Charmaine (Lucy Punch), Helena abandons rationality and surrenders her life to the loopy advice of a charlatan fortune teller. Unhappy in her marriage, Sally develops a crush on her handsome art gallery owner boss, Greg (Banderas), while Roy, a novelist nervously awaiting the response to his latest manuscript, becomes moonstruck over Dia (Freida Pinto), a mystery woman who catches his gaze through a nearby window. Despite these characters' attempts to dodge their problems with pipe dreams and impracticable plans, their efforts lead only to heartache, irrationality, and perilous hot water.
Release Date: September 22, 2010
Synopsis: Woody Allen's You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger follows a pair of married couples, Alfie (Hopkins) and Helena (Gemma Jones), and their daughter Sally (Watts) and husband Roy (Brolin), as their passions, ambitions, and anxieties lead them into trouble and out of their minds. After Alfie leaves Helena to pursue his lost youth and a free-spirited call girl named Charmaine (Lucy Punch), Helena abandons rationality and surrenders her life to the loopy advice of a charlatan fortune teller. Unhappy in her marriage, Sally develops a crush on her handsome art gallery owner boss, Greg (Banderas), while Roy, a novelist nervously awaiting the response to his latest manuscript, becomes moonstruck over Dia (Freida Pinto), a mystery woman who catches his gaze through a nearby window. Despite these characters' attempts to dodge their problems with pipe dreams and impracticable plans, their efforts lead only to heartache, irrationality, and perilous hot water.
Release Date: September 22, 2010
6. 'Buried'
© Lionsgate Films
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Samantha Mathis, and Robert Paterson
Synopsis: Paul Conroy is not ready to die. But when he wakes up 6 feet underground with no idea of who put him there or why, life for the truck driver and family man instantly becomes a hellish struggle for survival. Buried with only a cell phone and a lighter, his contact with the outside world and ability to piece together clues that could help him discover his location are maddeningly limited. Poor reception, a rapidly draining battery, and a dwindling oxygen supply become his worst enemies in a tightly confined race against time- fighting panic, despair and delirium, Paul has only 90 minutes to be rescued before his worst nightmare comes true.
Release Date: September 24, 2010
Synopsis: Paul Conroy is not ready to die. But when he wakes up 6 feet underground with no idea of who put him there or why, life for the truck driver and family man instantly becomes a hellish struggle for survival. Buried with only a cell phone and a lighter, his contact with the outside world and ability to piece together clues that could help him discover his location are maddeningly limited. Poor reception, a rapidly draining battery, and a dwindling oxygen supply become his worst enemies in a tightly confined race against time- fighting panic, despair and delirium, Paul has only 90 minutes to be rescued before his worst nightmare comes true.
Release Date: September 24, 2010
7. 'Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole'
© Warner Bros Pictures
Featuring the Voices Of: Jim Sturgess, Ryan Kwanten, Helen Mirren and Hugo Weaving
Synopsis: The film follows Soren, a young owl enthralled by his father’s epic stories of the Guardians of Ga’Hoole, a mythic band of winged warriors who had fought a great battle to save all of owlkind from the evil Pure Ones. While Soren dreams of someday joining his heroes, his older brother, Kludd, scoffs at the notion, and yearns to hunt, fly and steal his father’s favor from his younger sibling. But Kludd’s jealousy has terrible consequences—causing both owlets to fall from their treetop home and right into the talons of the Pure Ones. Now it is up to Soren to make a daring escape with the help of other brave young owls. Together they soar across the sea and through the mist to find the Great Tree, home of the legendary Guardians of Ga’Hoole—Soren’s only hope of defeating the Pure Ones and saving the owl kingdoms.
Release Date: September 24, 2010
Synopsis: The film follows Soren, a young owl enthralled by his father’s epic stories of the Guardians of Ga’Hoole, a mythic band of winged warriors who had fought a great battle to save all of owlkind from the evil Pure Ones. While Soren dreams of someday joining his heroes, his older brother, Kludd, scoffs at the notion, and yearns to hunt, fly and steal his father’s favor from his younger sibling. But Kludd’s jealousy has terrible consequences—causing both owlets to fall from their treetop home and right into the talons of the Pure Ones. Now it is up to Soren to make a daring escape with the help of other brave young owls. Together they soar across the sea and through the mist to find the Great Tree, home of the legendary Guardians of Ga’Hoole—Soren’s only hope of defeating the Pure Ones and saving the owl kingdoms.
Release Date: September 24, 2010
8. 'Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps'
© 20th Century Fox
Starring: Michael Douglas, Shia LaBeouf, Josh Brolin, and Carey Mulligan
Synopsis: Emerging from a lengthy prison stint, Gordon Gekko finds himself on the outside of a world he once dominated. Looking to repair his damaged relationship with his daughter Winnie, Gekko forms an alliance with her fiance, Jacob. But can Jacob and Winnie really trust the ex-financial titan whose relentless efforts to redefine himself in a different era have unexpected consequences.
Release Date: September 24, 2010
Synopsis: Emerging from a lengthy prison stint, Gordon Gekko finds himself on the outside of a world he once dominated. Looking to repair his damaged relationship with his daughter Winnie, Gekko forms an alliance with her fiance, Jacob. But can Jacob and Winnie really trust the ex-financial titan whose relentless efforts to redefine himself in a different era have unexpected consequences.
Release Date: September 24, 2010
9. 'You Again'
© Walt Disney Pictures
Starring: Kristen Bell, Odette Yustman, Sigourney Weaver and Jamie Lee Curtis
Synopsis: No matter how old you are, you never get over high school. Successful PR pro Marni (Bell) heads home for her older brother's (Jimmy Wolk) wedding and discovers that he’s marrying her high school arch nemesis (Yustman), who's conveniently forgotten all the rotten things she did so many years ago. Then the bride's jet-setting aunt (Weaver) bursts in and Marni’s not-sojet- setting mom (Curtis) comes face to face with her own high school rival. The claws come out and old wounds are opened in this crazy comedy about what happens when you're reunited with the one person you'd like to forget.
Release Date: September 24, 2010
Synopsis: No matter how old you are, you never get over high school. Successful PR pro Marni (Bell) heads home for her older brother's (Jimmy Wolk) wedding and discovers that he’s marrying her high school arch nemesis (Yustman), who's conveniently forgotten all the rotten things she did so many years ago. Then the bride's jet-setting aunt (Weaver) bursts in and Marni’s not-sojet- setting mom (Curtis) comes face to face with her own high school rival. The claws come out and old wounds are opened in this crazy comedy about what happens when you're reunited with the one person you'd like to forget.
Release Date: September 24, 2010
10. 'Let Me In'
© Overture Films
Starring: Chloe Moretz, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and Richard Jenkins
Synopsis: 12 year old Owen is viciously bullied by his classmates and neglected by his divorcing parents. Achingly lonely, Owen spends his days plotting revenge on his middle school tormentors and his evenings spying on the other inhabitants of his apartment complex. His only friend is his new neighbor Abby, an eerily self-possessed young girl who lives next door with her silent father. A frail, troubled child about Owens’ age, Abby emerges from her heavily curtained apartment only at night and always barefoot, seemingly immune to the bitter winter elements. Recognizing a fellow outcast, Owen opens up to her and before long, the two have formed a unique bond.
When a string of grisly murders puts the town on high alert, Abby’s father disappears, and the terrified girl is left to fend for herself. Still, she repeatedly rebuffs Owen’s efforts to help her and her increasingly bizarre behavior leads the imaginative Owen to suspect she’s hiding an unthinkable secret.
Release Date: October 1, 2010
Synopsis: 12 year old Owen is viciously bullied by his classmates and neglected by his divorcing parents. Achingly lonely, Owen spends his days plotting revenge on his middle school tormentors and his evenings spying on the other inhabitants of his apartment complex. His only friend is his new neighbor Abby, an eerily self-possessed young girl who lives next door with her silent father. A frail, troubled child about Owens’ age, Abby emerges from her heavily curtained apartment only at night and always barefoot, seemingly immune to the bitter winter elements. Recognizing a fellow outcast, Owen opens up to her and before long, the two have formed a unique bond.
When a string of grisly murders puts the town on high alert, Abby’s father disappears, and the terrified girl is left to fend for herself. Still, she repeatedly rebuffs Owen’s efforts to help her and her increasingly bizarre behavior leads the imaginative Owen to suspect she’s hiding an unthinkable secret.
Release Date: October 1, 2010
