Coming to a theater near you this fall

Attention serious moviegoers: It’s safe to go back to the theaters.

That’s right, the… Attention serious moviegoers: It’s safe to go back to the theaters.

That’s right, the onslaught of mediocrity that encompassed the summer – big, bland blockbusters and long-shelved disasters – has now passed. And while the rest of the year is far from free of trash, there is much to be excited over.

Crime and punishment is the theme of the day in several major releases this fall. “American Gangster,” Ridley Scott’s take on the rise and fall of drug kingpin Frank Lucas, stars Denzel Washington and Ridley Scott, as criminal and cop, respectively. Fresh off the failure of “Scoop,” Woody Allen offers “Cassandra’s Dream,” the story of two hard-luck brothers who turn to crime. Along similar lines, “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead” casts Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke as, not surprisingly, hard-luck brothers who turn to crime. Pre-release buzz has been stronger for the latter.

Contemporary political issues hardly go neglected. Meryl Streep appears in two films tackling the matters, “Rendition” and “Lions for Lambs.” The former casts her as a nefarious bureaucrat ruining Reese Witherspoon’s day by having her Egyptian-born husband kidnapped and tortured. The latter, straddled with a desultory trailer, finds her on the other end of the political sphere, interviewing a serpentine senator (Tom Cruise) while director and star Robert Redford lectures about something or other. Ho-hum. “The Kite Runner” shows Afghanistan (concentrating in the Taliban era) through the eyes of Afghanis, something rarely seen since the compelling “Osama,” and is much more promising than either Streep film.

Then there are the high-profile adaptations. After a string of failures, the Coen brothers have generated much buzz for the stark, quasi-western “No Country for Old Men,” based on Cormac McCarthy’s novel. Even more buzz has gone to actor Javier Bardem who plays a ruthless killing machine bent on recovering some missing drug money that found its way into the hands of a hunter (Josh Brolin). Ian McEwan’s novel “Atonement” gets Joe Wright (director of 2005’s superb “Pride ‘ Prejudice”) treatment, with Keira Knightley and James McAvoy starring as forlorn lovers separated by deceit, war and other such topics.

On the non-fiction front, Mike Nichols’ “Charlie Wilson’s War,” based on the George Crile book, finds Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Amy Adams and Philip Seymour Hoffman intertwined in the arming of the Afghani resistance movement, whose ranks included a certain contemporary cave dweller and terrorist mastermind.

There is, however, lighter fare to be had. “The Savages,” which aims to be this year’s “Little Miss Sunshine,” centers on siblings Laura Linney and the seemingly ubiquitous Hoffman) who find all sorts of camera-ready serio-comedic situations in coexisting while caring for their elderly father (Philip Bosco, playing the Alan Arkin part).

“Margot at the Wedding,” the latest effort by director Noah Baumbach, sounds a bit too much like a mix of 2005’s disappointing and borderline-dreadful “The Family Stone” and the far superior “About Schmidt”. The flick has Nicole Kidman balking at sister Jennifer Jason Leigh’s looming ceremonial bond with Jack Black. John Cusack plays a widower who takes his daughters on a road trip to deal with his grief in “Grace is Gone,” and Steve Carell plays “Dan in Real Life,” attending a family reunion and falling for brother Dane Cook’s girlfriend.

But, there’s also plenty more heavy drama. In “Reservation Road,” Joaquin Phoenix loses a son to a hit-and-run and