September movies to watch

MANILA, Philippines – Merry Christmas, everyone!

Yep, in the Philippines, the Christmas season unofficially begins when the -ber months start rolling in.

Greetings and postcards are being posted in social media as we type; definitely a season to be excited about.

Another reason to be happy about the month is the list of movies lined-up for us to enjoy, whether alone, with friends or with family.

Sept. 5: Premium Rush 

Studio: Columbia Pictures

Genre: Action thriller

Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jamie Chung, Michael Shannon

Dodging speeding cars, crazed cabbies, open doors and 8 million cranky pedestrians is all in a day’s work for Wilee (Gordon-Levitt), the best of New York’s agile and aggressive bicycle messengers.

It takes a special breed to ride fixies — super lightweight, single-gear bikes with no brakes, and riders who are equal parts skilled cyclists and suicidal nutcases who risk becoming a smear on the pavement every time they head into traffic.

But a guy who’s used to putting his life on the line is about to get more than he is used to when his last envelope of the day — a routine “premium rush” run — turns into a life or death chase through the streets of Manhattan.

Sept. 5: Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

Studio: Focus Features

Genre: Comedy

Cast: Steve Carell, Keira Knightley

Dodge (Carell) is a man who has always played by the rules of life, while his neighbor Penny (Knightley) is an extroverted woman who hasn’t.

From these opposite perspectives, both initially choose to navigate the impending end of the world with blinders on. Dodge declines joining his friends in increasingly reckless behavior, while Penny fixates on her relationship issues with a self-absorbed musician.

The two misfits meet first when Penny has a rough night and then again when she belatedly delivers Dodge a lost letter. That letter could alter Dodge’s future; it’s from his high-school sweetheart Olivia, the love of his life. When a riot breaks out around their apartment building, Dodge realizes that he must seek Olivia out before it’s too late while Penny makes the decision to spend her last days with family in England.

Seizing the moment, Dodge promises to help Penny reach her family if she will provide transport for the two of them in her car immediately. She agrees, and they escape.

On the road together, the unlikely traveling companions’ respective personal journeys accelerate, and their outlooks — if not the world’s — brighten.

Sept. 14: Resident Evil: Retribution

Studio: Columbia Pictures

Genre: Action thriller

Cast: Milla Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez, Kevin Durand

In Resident Evil: Retribution, the Umbrella Corporation’s deadly T-virus continues to ravage the Earth, transforming the global population into legions of flesh-eating Undead.

The human race’s last and only hope, Alice (Jovovich), awakens in the heart of Umbrella’s most clandestine operations facility and unveils more of her mysterious past as she delves further into the complex.

Without a safe haven, Alice continues to hunt those responsible for the outbreak; a chase that takes her from Tokyo to New York, Washington, D.C. and Moscow, culminating in a mind-blowing revelation that will force her to rethink everything that she once thought to be true.

Aided by newfound allies and familiar friends, Alice must fight to survive long enough to escape a hostile world on the brink of oblivion. The countdown has begun.

Sept. 19: Hotel Transylvania 

Studio: Columbia Pictures

Genre: Animated comedy

Voice cast: Adam Sandler, Selina Gomez

Welcome to the Hotel Transylvania, Dracula’s (Sandler) lavish 5-stake resort, where monsters and their families can live it up, free to be the monsters they are without humans to bother them.

On one special weekend, Dracula has invited some of the world’s most famous monsters — Frankenstein and his bride, the Mummy, the Invisible Man, a family of werewolves and more — to celebrate his daughter Mavis’s 118th birthday.

For Drac, catering to all of these legendary monsters is no problem — but his world could come crashing down when one ordinary guy stumbles on the hotel and takes a shine to Mavis.

The film’s voice cast also includes Andy Samberg, Kevin James, Fran Drescher, Cee-Lo Green, David Spade, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon and David Koechner.

Sept. 19: Gangster Squad

Studio: Warner Bros.

Genre: Action thriller

Cast: Seann Penn, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Josh Brolin

Los Angeles, 1949. Ruthless, Brooklyn-born mob king Mickey Cohen (Penn) runs the show, reaping the ill-gotten gains from the drugs, the guns, the prostitutes and — if he has his way — every wire bet placed west of Chicago.

He does it all with the protection of not only his own paid goons, but also the police and the politicians who are under his control. It’s enough to intimidate even the bravest, street-hardened cop… except, perhaps, for the small, secret crew of LAPD outsiders led by Sgt. John O’Mara (Brolin) and Jerry Wooters (Gosling), who come together to try to tear Cohen’s world apart.

Under the direction of Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland), Gangster Squad is a colorful retelling of events surrounding the LAPD’s efforts to take back their nascent city from one of the most dangerous mafia bosses of all time.

Sept. 26: Finding Nemo 3D

Studio: Walt Disney Studios

Genre: Animated comedy adventure

Voice cast: Albert Brooks, Ellen Degeneres, Alexander Gould

Academy Award®-winning Best Animated Feature Finding Nemo returns to the big screen in Disney Digital 3D™.

In this stunning underwater adventure with memorable characters, humor and heartfelt emotion, Finding Nemo follows the comedic and momentous journey of an overly protective clownfish named Marlin (voice by Albert Brooks) and his son Nemo (voice by Alexander Gould).

Father and son become separated in the Great Barrier Reef when Nemo is unexpectedly taken far from his ocean home and dumped into a fish tank in a dentist’s office.

Buoyed by the companionship of Dory (voice by Ellen DeGeneres), a friendly-but-forgetful Pacific regal blue tang, Marlin embarks on a dangerous trek and finds himself the unlikely hero of an epic effort to rescue his son — who hatches a few daring plans of his own to return safely home. – Rappler.com