All hail fall

A solid huzzah to Martin Scorsese, whose "The Departed" was the huge winner this weekend at the box office, taking in a well-deserved $27 million over the weekend for the #8 October opening of all time (for my rather glowing review, please see my previous post.)

And an even heartier word of thanks for what it means out here in the movie hinterlands: Fall has finally arrived for the masses. Though some of you fine folks get good movies year round, I have to wait for this time of year to finally catch up on them, and I can't wait.

Even better than Scorsese's triumph is the beatdown he put on Leatherface, who still managed to have a very solid opening at $19.2 million. Call it a teenybopper daycare center to keep the kids occupied as the rest of us enjoy "The Departed."

For Scorsese, its his first #1 opening movie since his rather abysmal 1991 remake of "Cape Fear," previously Mr. Scorsese's highest opening movie with just $10.2 million. "The Departed" made more than that amount on Saturday alone.

And in what can only be called a victory, MGM/Dimension Films' "comedy" "School for Scoundrels" took a nasty 60% plunge from its opening to 7th place, taking in only $3.4 million. I look forward to this one leaving theaters this week to make way for, hopefully, a much better movie.

All three big opening movies were actually winners this week, according to their production budgets. The "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" prequel has already made more than its production budget of $16 million, while the silly "Employee of the Month," which finished fourth at $11.8 million, cost only $10 million to make.

And in a sign of much better things to come, "The Queen," "The Last King of Scotland" and Todd Field's "Little Children" are all doing well enough in rather limited release to raise expectations that all three might soon make it out here to the movie boonies.

Here's a brief look at the upcoming, wide-release movies that pique my interest:

Friday the 13th of October
"Man of the Year" - Robin Williams is certainly no Peter Sellers, but with this one about a political comedian who makes an unlikely candidate for president having been penned by Lewis Black and co-starring Laura Linney, I'm still holding out hope. If it turns out to be wretched, I guess I can always catch up on "Jackass."

Friday, Oct. 20
"Flags of Our Fathers" - Fall is Clint Eastwood's time to shine, and though I have doubts about the cast for this movie about Iwo Jima (Ryan Philippe!?!), I'm still looking forward to this one.
"Marie Antoinette" - I've already seen Sofia Coppola's oddity, and though I'd have to call it a failure, it's a noble one that everyone should check out and judge for themselves.
"The Prestige" - From the great Christopher Nolan, this pic about magicians starring Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale and Scarlett Johansson apparently has something "The Illusionist" lacked - magic.

Friday, Oct. 27
"Saw III" - With this slasher the only wide-release opening this week, I will officially be taking the week off.

Friday, Nov. 3
"Borat" - I can only hope the "wide" tag sticks to this Sasha Baron Cohen flick that looks like it will offend just about everyone and thoroughly entertain, well, me.
"Flushed Away" - I'm not sure how many Aardman folks are involved in this one, but hopefully enough to make this animated toilet tale (literally, it's about rats in the sewer) be funny.

Friday, Nov. 10
"Stranger than Fiction" The trailer for ths Marc Forster comedy starring Emma Thompson (huzzah!) and Will Ferrell was enough to hook me.

Friday, Nov. 17
"Casino Royale" - Count me as convinced that Daniel Craig will beat back his haters and deliver a return to form for the Bond franchise.
"Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny" - I'm afraid I just don't get the Tenacious D thing yet, but I like Jack Black and Kyle Gass quite a bit, so I'll take a chance on this one.

Wednesday, Nov. 27
The Fountain - To be honest, I have no idea what this is really about, but it's a sci fi/fantasy flick from Darren Aronofsky, and that's good enough for me.

There are plenty of limited-release movies that I also want to catch ("Volver," "Pan's Labyrinth" and Phillip Noyce's "Catch a Fire" top the list), and I will manage to see some of them when I hit NYC for the Thanksgiving weekend (I can't wait!)

All hail fall, indeed.