“Oscar season is just around the corner and that means the films that the studios have been holding for this time of year are about to be unleashed into area multiplexes. If that doesn’t get your heart racing and your palms sweating, perhaps this will: The complete series of MacGyver is on DVD.”
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Oscar season is just around the corner and that means the films that the studios have been holding for this time of year are about to be unleashed into area multiplexes.

If that doesn’t get your heart racing and your palms sweating, perhaps this will: The complete series of MacGyver is on DVD. Get excited.

November kicks off with a film that I’ve been salivating over since I first viewed the preview almost four months ago. The unbeatable team of Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott assemble on the streets of 1970s Harlem to bring us American Gangster.

After erecting a dominion of wealth and corruption by smuggling heroin from Vietnam in the caskets of the returning soldiers, Frank Lucas (Washington) is ousted from his regime by New York detective Richie Roberts. Robert and Lucas team up to bring down the men still involved in Lucas’s former network of drugs, dealings and moral decay. It’s your classic immoral-turned-informant set up with an all-star cast that’s guaranteed to walk away happy come awards season. Gangster pulls into theaters Friday.

There are few actors in Hollywood who I feel can do no wrong. One is John Cusack. Teaming up with sis Joan and Amanda Peet, Cusack stars in New Line Cinema’s Martian Child.

Portraying a science fiction writer who has recently lost his wife, Cusack adopts a young boy with an interesting claim on life. He believes he’s a Martian. But some extraordinary events begin occurring around the life of this young boy. Cusack, who teams up with neighbor and close friend Peet, begins to think there may be more to this boy’s claim than he originally believed.

Joan stars as John’s sister in the movie, offering sagacious advice in the realm of parenting. Martian comes to earth on Friday.

The drama continues to unfold into the following week with the Nov. 9 release of Lions for Lambs. Three Hollywood heavy hitters collide as Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep and Robert Redford suit up for this political thriller.

Redford stars as Dr. Malley, whose teachings inspire two young students to trade their textbooks for M-16s. Distressed by the duo’s decision to join the ranks, Redford channels those feelings into attempts to reach out to another student whose attitudes rest on the opposite end of the spectrum of his soldier peers.

Three thousand miles away in the nation’s capital, presidential hopeful Sen. Jasper Irving (Cruise) holds a bombshell story that could alter the fates of the soldiers overseas. And when that story lands in the hands of inquisitive journalist Streep, the stories become intertwined in a fury of bullets and bravery.

Take a break from the drama and enjoy a weekend with the relatives. That’s the plan for Vince Vaughn in his new holiday comedy Fred Claus.

Vaughn, starring in the title role, heads to the North Pole after big brother St. Nick (Paul Giamatti) bails him out of jail. The catch is that Fred must work off his debt in the toy factories of the North Pole.

But perhaps Nick gets more than he can handle in his brother, for Fred isn’t quite Santa’s Little Helper material. As Christmas approaches, tensions mount as Fred gets closer and closer to jeopardizing the festivities with his shenanigans. Claus comes home on Nov. 9.

After overlooking Keri Russell’s brilliant turn in Waitress earlier this year, I can’t ignore her this fall in August Rush. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’s Freddie Highmore stars as the title character in August Rush, as a young musical prodigy who has grown up in an orphanage.

His desire to find his birth parents leads him to New York City. Russell plays his mother who gave him up for adoption at a time when she felt she couldn’t raise a young boy. The boy’s father, Jonathan Rhys Myers, re-enters the picture as well.

Under the tutelage of Robin Williams, August begins performing on the streets as he continues to grow closer to finding a family. Penned by Oscar nominee Kirsten Sheridan, who earned her nod for her writing in In America (If you haven’t seen it, stop reading this and go rent it now!), Rush looks to be a definite Oscar contender and a real tearjerker. Rush blows into theaters on Nov. 21.

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