By Marty Doskins

Audiences have waited quite a long time for a new Quentin Tarantino movie. It’s been 6 years since 1997’s Jackie Brown in fact, which wasn’t actually his story. Let’s go back three more years to 1994’s Pulp Fiction. Tarantino has really gone all out with this one. We have the witty and original dialogue plus there are some intense action scenes with wirework involved. The marketing hasn’t really focused on the fact that this is just part one of the Kill Bill story. The second half is to be released early next year. I don’t think that’s going to hurt box office number one bit. I think this is going to end up at number 1 for the month.

2. Out of Time

Moviegoer favorite Denzel Washington treats us to another movie this month. He plays a police chief that is being set up for a crime he didn’t commit. But will he be able to prove it? My guess is that he will, but don’t quote me on that. There’s been a huge marketing blitz with this one. Quick action edits and intense acting in the commercials should add up to big dollars at the box office.

3. Intolerable Cruelty

George Clooney is one of those TV actors that have made a very successful transition from our living rooms to theaters. In this movie he plays a womanizing divorce lawyer who finds himself enamored with a revenge-seeking gold digger (Catherine Zeta-Jones). Along with Clooney and Zeta-Jones, there’s been an impressive cast brought together for this film, including Geoffrey Rush, Billy Bob Thornton, and Cedric the Entertainer just to name a few. The movie’s being released in a packed weekend, but should pull out a second place finish for October 10th.

4. The School of Rock

Jack Black is back. Here’s another actor that’s starting to grow on moviegoers. He’s been in well over 30 movies, but he’s just now becoming a recognizable name in casts. They’ve put together some funny lines for the commercials (“No, it means I was drunk *yesterday*.”) I think the advertising should translate to a fairly decent opening weekend for this film.

5. The Runaway Jury

Another John Grisham book comes to life on the silver screen. Movies made from his books have done fairly well historically due to the large fan base that Grisham has built up. I don’t see anything special having to be done marketing-wise to get this film near the top of the list for this month.

6. Radio

I really don’t know what to think about this one. The trailer has been in theaters for quite a long time and there’s been some sporadic stuff on TV. It’s one of those feel-good films, but is Cuba Gooding, Jr. believable in his role? I really don’t think so.

7. Scary Movie 3

The first two films in this series did pretty well ($42.35 million and $20.5 million, respectively). I think we should see that same size drop off for the third installment. Nowhere near the market push that it could’ve used should keep it from the top of the charts for the month. And get it to your local video store all that much sooner.

8. The House of the Dead

Horror fans unite! Zombie fans unite! It’s your month and we have another spooky offering during this time of Halloween. Not a big surprise there. The target audience should come out in full force the first weekend, but after that, it’s “bye-bye”.

9. Texas Chainsaw Massacre

After 19 years to the month, a studio is releasing a remake of the classic horror film. How much updating can be done to this movie? We all still bleed the same, we all still scream the same, and we all still run when a chainsaw-wielding psycho is after us the same. The film should get some diehard horror fans out the first week, but I think this one’s going to get lost in the shuffle.

10. Good Boy!

Here’s a film trying to pretend that it’s a sequel to the popular Cats and Dogs. In fact, I thought that’s what it was when I first saw the commercials. This really looks like something the studio threw together really quick. I don’t think it’ll do very well at all, but it should still sneak into the top 10.