September is a dead month in the NBA. The draft is barely visible in the rear view mirror, Vegas League has come and gone, and the vast majority of free agents have found new places to call home. The biggest daily news in the NBA is probably ESPN’s #NBARank update. With that in mind, it’s worth mentioning with a brief post that there are some kickass movies about to hit theaters. If you’ve been watching movies this year, you’ve probably noticed that it’s been a pretty underwhelming one at the box office. The two best that I’ve seen are probably Ted, which was basically an extra-long and not animated episode of Family Guy, and Batman, which has taken its share of abuse from critics. But these below look better. P.T. Anderson, the best living director, has a doozy coming out that is likely to bring home the bacon at the Oscars. That is, unless Quentin Tarantino or Daniel Day Lewis has something to say about it. Anyway, here’s a few that we’ve marked on the calendar.
Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Daniel Day Lewis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Tommy Lee Jones
Release: November 9, 2012
Director: Sam Mendes
Starring: Daniel Craig, Helen McCrory, and Javier Bardem
Release: November 9, 2012
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Starring: Chris Pratt, Jessica Chastain, and Joel Edgerton
Release: December 19, 2012
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring: Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Joaquin Phoenix, and Amy Adams
Release: September 21, 2012
Director: Andrew Dominik
Starring: Brad Pitt, Ray Liotta, and Richard Jenkins
Release: October 19, 2012
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Don Johnson, and Leonardo DiCaprio
Release: December 25, 2012
Punch-Drunk Wolves 
Yeah, these all look worthwhile. I’m also looking forward to The Man With The Iron Fists, Life of Pi, Wreck-It Ralph (I don’t like 3-D kiddie cartoons usually, but I do like vids), The Comedy, and Terrence Malick’s next incoherent and pretentious movie, To the Wonder.
Apatow’s got a new movie out, too – This is 40, starring his wife and Paul Rudd. It’s probably 2-1/2 hours long and generally aimless. I’m sure it has a lot of swearing and crude dick and masturbation jokes mixed in with people being really kind, supportive, and understanding in their relationships and such, and then it’s over. May be worth a look. You know, whatever.
In the first eight months of the year there were http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V3CfD8TPac movies I wanted to see other than Ted. It appears there are at least ten in the last four.
Maybe Apatow can throw together 40 minutes or so of Academy-Award-winning comedy material, and follow it up by diverting the script toward a D-list romantic comedy sequence that never ends. The sort of decision that might single-handedly prevent Adam Sandler from getting his career back on track?
“A shit” is a good word choice, as far as Ted goes.
@EqualsNoWay: You captured my *enthusiasm* about the upcoming Malick and Apatow films perfectly. I shudder to think about Affleck’s WORP when the actor he’s replacing is Christian Bale: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2011/11/terrence-malick-burial-ben-afleck-rachel-mcadams.html