Now I, myself, may not know much about art, but I do know what I like, and there is quite a lot to like on the weekend of Oct. 19. No less than three of the five movies I'll be critiquing today feature at least two Academy Award-winning actors, which is a fair harbinger of quality. We also have a scary-looking, comic-book-adapted horror movie just in time for Halloween, as well as a send-up of "inspirational sports films." There's a lot of ground to cover, so here we go. (Note: in this week's column, I'll be mentioning the prices that Fantasy Moguls has assigned to the various movies in the September-November leagues as well as the newly-created October-December leagues, but starting next week, I'll be doing only the October leagues.)

Gavin Hood, the director of 2005 Best Foreign Film Oscar winner Tsotsi (and who will also be helming 2009's highly-anticipated Wolverine), brings us the latest in a series of post-9/11 dramas, Rendition. The cast couldn't be more top-notch, with Oscar winners Reese Witherspoon, Meryl Streep and Alan Arkin, as well as Jake Gyllenhaal (coming off a nomination for Brokeback Mountain as well as a stellar performance in Zodiac) and Peter Sarsgaard.

The story: an Arab-American businessman is black-bagged upon his return to the U.S. from an overseas business trip and taken to a foreign prison, ostensibly because he is suspected of having ties to terrorists. While a reluctant CIA analyst (Gyllenhaal) is brought in to oversee his "interrogation", the man's loving wife (Witherspoon) attempts to track her husband down through governmental and legal channels. This film, which probes the current hot-button issues of racial profiling and how far the government is willing to go in the interests of national security, was shown at the Toronto Film Festival earlier this month, to middling reviews.

I love the trailer, and I want to get behind this film, really I do. I've read that the acting is first-rate, pretty much what you'd expect from a cast of this caliber. I've also read that the first reel of the story is done very well, as Rendition fearlessly asks the tough questions about U.S. foreign and domestic policies in the post-9/11 era. Unfortunately, the movie has been described by many as being "ambitious to a fault;" there are simply too many things going on at the same time (which effectively minimizes the great performances of the cast), and the ending fails to sufficiently link together the personal and political strands the plot is weaving. The general opinion seems to be that Rendition attempts to be both a taut political thriller and a cautionary tale about human rights, and it ends up just barely skating by on both counts.

That being said, this film still has a good chance to win its weekend, as it is doubtful that any holdovers from previous weeks will still be drawing huge crowds (with the possible exception of The Heartbreak Kid, which could remain at the top in its third week if it really takes off). It will run you $21 and $19 in the September and October Ultimate Movie Moguls leagues, and $17 and $15 in Box Office Moguls. It's predicted to make $45 million dollars and garner three PTA, which is possible, but I wouldn't bet the farm on it. Six Top 5 points, on the other hand, are more than likely; October is shaping up to be a pretty weak month at the ticket counters, and given that the only major release coming on Oct. 26 with any punch at all is Saw IV, this film could well end up with 8-10 points in that category when it's all over. Predicted User Ratings of 6.6 seem about right.

I don't think there's anyone in Hollywood (or outside it, for that matter), who would disagree that Halle Berry is in dire need of a hit, critical or otherwise. To think that she was the Next Big Thing a mere seven years ago, when she was coming off impressive outings in films like Executive Decision, Bulworth, Swordfish, and her Emmy-winning turn in Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. But let's face it: this actress, who I still think has incredible potential and who won the Oscar for Best Actress in Monster's Ball, hasn't had anything worth watching since ... well, Monster's Ball. (And no, I don't include her roles as an X-Man or a Bond Girl, since there was very little "acting" involved in those parts.) That's what you get for letting Adrien Brody grope you, girlfriend.

Gothika, Catwoman, Perfect Stranger — phenomenal disappointments one and all, career choices that could have pushed many actresses' careers past the point of no return. But looking down the road, she seems to be in the process of righting the ship, as her upcoming projects include leading roles for John Singleton and Doug Atchison. And this week, she teams with fellow Oscar winner Benecio del Toro (who won for Traffic) in Things We Lost in the Fire, which is directed by Susanne Bier, who helmed 2006 Best Foreign Film nominee After the Wedding.

The story, on paper, sure packs an emotional wallop: After Audrey (Berry) loses her husband (David Duchovny) to an act of random violence, she forges an unlikely relationship with Jerry (del Toro), the late Mr. Audrey's childhood friend, whose life has been destroyed by heroin addiction. Little by little, these two broken people learn to survive their losses. Alison Lohman (Flicka) and Robin Weigert (Deadwood) round out the cast.

Try as I might, I have been unable to find a professional review at this time, but make no mistake: There is Oscar buzz surrounding this film. How much? I couldn't say, but I have yet to see any form of advertising or hype regarding Things. This could very well become a sleeper hit, and it could pay huge dividends. Or, it could just as easily become lost in a sea of well-acted dramas. Spending $18 or $20 in Ultimate leagues is risky, especially as Fantasy Moguls only predicts one PTA point and three Top 5 points. $39 million in receipts is iffy, but I feel safe predicting User Ratings of over 8. And as for the $13/$14 this title will cost you in Box Office, well, I think big-buck potential is more likely for Saw IV and perhaps even The Mist, for virtually the same amount of money.

If there's one person whose recent career choices have turned him into a punchline more than Halle Berry, that person would probably be Ben Affleck. Stuck in first gear on Tabloid Avenue for years, the man has gone from bad movies to bad relationships to bad jokes at his expense on The Tonight Show. But like Ms. Berry, there is still talent to be had, and Oct. 19 brings the release of Gone Baby Gone, which is Ben's first feature as director. This film, too, features a wonderful cast, which includes Oscar winners Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris, not to mention Amy Madigan (Harris's real-life wife), Michelle Monaghan, and John Ashton.

The main character, however, is being played by Ben's younger brother Casey, who is coming off of tremendous reviews for his portrayal of Robert Ford in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. It's high time that another Affleck grabbed the limelight, and Casey is very quietly building an impressive resume. Here, he plays Patrick, a young P.I. who has lived in the same neighborhood his entire life, and his help is sought when that neighborhood is thrown into chaos when a neighbor's four-year-old daughter is kidnapped. Despite numerous suspects, the police make very little progress in locating the girl, and Patrick must question his own code of ethics when he discovers that finding her may lead him headlong in to a lot of morally gray territory.

Now, I love Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris in pretty much anything, so I may be a little biased when I recommend this movie. As for Affleck's directing ability, quoth Emmanuel Levy: "He imbues his largely engaging tale with a good deal of authenticity, in terms of looks, moods, conducts and accents. Considering that he works with essentially generic material, Affleck gets (very good results)." I will tell you that my desire to see this film is very high, and leave it at that. As a roster pick, however ... on this crowded weekend, top-heavy with dramas, Gone will need a significantly wide release to make a dent. Of course, the fact that Fantasy Moguls is predicting six PTA points doesn't seem consistent with that, so if that's the category you're looking to shore up, I'd go elsewhere. For $14/$12 (Ultimate) and $8/$7 (Box Office), you could do a lot worse.

You remember the first part of this year, when it seemed that every other Friday heralded the release of a horror movie, each less scary and more bland than the last? There were probably no fewer than 15 titles that either fit into the "horror" or "shocking gory drama" category, and pretty much all of them failed to make an impact. Of course, the summer saw a couple of successes for the much-maligned genre, namely 1408 and Halloween. But wouldn't you think that the second half of October would be a better place for films of this nature? Fall is underway, temperatures are dropping, and a sense of the macabre settles over theaters. So why are there only a handful of horror movies coming out at what is universally accepted as the "scariest" time of year?

Of course, Halloween weekend, for the last three years, has belonged to the Saw franchise. Whatever you may think about the direction that series has gone, there's no denying that it's built a fairly sizable core audience, and the Oct. 26 release of the fourth installment of the series will probably be no exception. But I don't consider any of the Saw movies to be "horror," per se. That label I would most heartily stick onto 30 Days of Night, which looks to be the only TRUE horror flick for the next month-an- a-half after Oct. 19.

The trailer, for those who haven't seen it, is scary as hell. A small Alaskan town is beset by slavering, feral vampires at a time when the sun disappears below the horizon for a solid month. Josh Hartnett plays Eben, the local sheriff who must try to hold off the seemingly unstoppable gang until the sun comes back out. It is reputed to be spectacularly gory, and the vampires act in a much more animalistic fashion than they did in, say, the Blade or Underworld series.

Look for Night to do hella business. It probably won't outearn Saw IV, but I look for a good solid 2- or 3-week performance from this film before the allure wears off. Horror fans have needed something cool to sink their teeth into, and this adaptation of the very popular graphic novel is just the ticket. Priced at only $12/$14 (in Ultimate) and $7/$8 (in Box Office), I think this film could garner anywhere from five to eight Top 5 points (and maybe even a PTA point or two), and $30 million in receipts are totally doable. Just don't look for spectacular User Ratings ... it is horror, after all.

As I mentioned in last week's critique of The Final Season, there have been no shortage of "uplifting sports stories" in the last few years, and why not? Everyone loves a good underdog-overcoming-incredible-odds-and-achieving-victory story, right? So I guess it was only a matter of time before this particular section of filmdom merited its own spoof ... to wit, The Comebacks, which features comedian David Koechner as Coach Lambeau Fields (yes, really), owner of the worst record in football history and leader of a team of ragtag misfits. Using every cliché imaginable, he must walk over the graves of many, many movies that really weren't all that great to begin with.

From the trailer, the ones that I recognized were Rocky Balboa, Rudy, Radio, Invincible, Dodgeball, Miracle, Friday Night Lights (Nico: "Sacrilege!"), Gridiron Gang, Field of Dreams and Remember the Titans. D'you think it also will feature corrupt referees, a quarterback with a dog-fighting ring and a steroid scandal?. Who cares? This film will probably be critically reviled, and it will also be conspicuously avoided by those who still haven't gotten the putrid taste of Epic Movie out of their mouths (eight months later). Truth is, I really do like spoof movies ... or, at least, I did. Regrettably, the glory days of Mel Brooks and the Zucker Brothers are long gone, and with Superhero Movie coming next spring, it's only a matter of time before spoof movies are spoofed in Spoof Movie, after which we can only hope that the whole genre will just eat itself with a side of rancho beans. If you want this movie, take it. It's all yours.

Well, I've run out of room, so I'll call it a day. Join me again next week, when I give you the lowdown on the weekend of Oct. 26: gory dismemberments via ingenious machinations continue unabated in Saw IV, and Steve Carell returns in romantic comedy Dan Alrighty ... erm, I mean Dan in Real Life. I'll also be giving a brief overview (of sorts), of this final league season entirely within 2007, by pointing out some possible hits and misses, bargains and lemons in the upcoming months.

TTFN!

Shrykespeare is bracing himself for Gross-Out Comedy Movie, Animated Movie, Fantasy Movie, Oscar-Chasing Drama Movie and Movie That Includes Someone or Something Farting for the Amusement of Small Children Movie. Let him know whether he's forgotten anything at shrykespeare@gmail.com.