Hollywood movies are a great way to determine that there has been a change in seasons and, like the always prevalent threat of global warming, are switching up the temperature during the fall months.

In a nutshell, say adios to special effects-driven fare for films. The acting chops now provide the awe and spectacle. (Hmm, I wonder if I can get applesauce with my acting chops? Everything goes better with applesauce!)

This month alone we’ve had a helping of Brad Pitt in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford – damn, that’s more of a mouthful than Jeff Stryker and Michael Brandon combined!

For some reason Jodie Foster’s The Brave One was slated for a September release date, as opposed to a Thanksgiving weekend one, which is a shame, because Jodie Foster and turkey basters go hand in hand. I just mean she’s a mom and might like to cook a nice big meal for her and her kids…and special lady friend. I’m just sayin’ is all.

Let’s take a look at what’s on the docket for the remainder of the year, movie-wise.

Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal star in Rendition, the film that linked them romantically offscreen. Onscreen, Witherspoon is furthering her Best Actress Oscar street cred (are you paying attention Cuba Gooding, Jr.?) in this tale of a woman whose Egyptian husband is being held by the U.S. Government, with Gyllenhaal supervising the husband’s intense question and answer sessions. Also stars Meryl Streep.

Elizabeth: The Golden Age marks Cate Blanchett’s second turn as Elizabeth I (would that make her Elizabeth II? Math is hard!), the monarch who put Blanchett’s acting career on the fast track in 1998.

With the movie-going experience requiring taking out a second mortgage nowadays, a good way to save a little dough is to see Gone Baby Gone, which has two Afflecks for the price of one. Oh… Ben Affleck is behind the camera (his directorial debut) and brother Casey is in front of it? That might not be such a bargain after all!

There’s another chance to see George Clooney “act” (I am convinced he is the same in every role he plays) in Michael Clayton, a tale of a corporate lawyer discovering he has scruples – so it must be a fantasy film!

We Own The Night has a slight gay male hustler vibe to its title, but I think that stars Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg, and especially Robert Duvall, would have to offer their tricks an AARP discount. I kid because I love. No, the film is about a man conflicted about mob dealings while remaining loyal to his law enforcement family.

Gwyneth Paltrow takes a break from thinking up random baby names (“Hmm, I like Abacus for a boy and Microwave for a girl”), and stars in The Good Night, in a film directed by her brother Jake Paltrow, alongside Penelope Cruz.

By far one of the most original movies heading our way is Lars And The Real Girl in which Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson) falls in love with…a sex doll – at least he’ll know she’ll always put out.

Recently knocked up, I mean preggers, Halle Berry headlines Things We Lost in the Fire about a widow who takes in her husband’s heroin-addicted friend as a lodger. I just love a good comedy, don’t you?

Reservation Road boasts a storyline of four couples going through upheaval, as well as an all-star cast including: Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Connelly and Mira Sorvino – OMG, I love her, she invented Post-its after all!

Janet Jackson takes another stab at acting in Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married – Oh, did I just refer to the film’s star as Janet Jackson? I meant to say Miss Jackson, ’cause I’m nasty.

Of course no October would be complete without a few fright films, and no, Sharon Stone isn’t starring in another movie. 30 Days Of Night has vampires descending on an Alaskan town and star Josh Hartnett, and of course there is Saw IV – the Halloween season wouldn’t be complete without that or Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas In 3-D.

The hybrid Disney musical comedy, Enchanted, starts out as an animated story, complete with a princess (Amy Adams of Junebug) being banished by an evil queen (Susan Sarandon) to live among the denizens of N.Y.C., with Patrick Dempsey starring as her real-world Prince Charming. Also stars James Marsden (Hairspray) and Idina Menzel of Wicked fame. This movie has gay written all over it, in permanent pink marker with flecks of glitter placed just so in the ink.

Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott are at it again! Get a room you two! No such hi-jinks of that nature, just good ol’ celluloid storytelling in American Gangster, the third outing for the actor and director duo. Denzel Washington also stars in this tale of drug smuggling and an incorruptible cop during the 1970s.

Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium might just sound like a long lost Dr. Seuss tale (personally, I’d love to get my hands on a copy of the unpublished sequel to Green Eggs and Ham - Green Eggs and Ham 2: Son of Sam I Am). It is, in fact, a family friendly fantasy (say that three times in a row!) starring Dustin Hoffman and Natalie Portman.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s beloved novel, Love In The Time Of Cholera gets the big screen adaptation treatment with Javier Bardem and Benjamin Bratt in the lead roles.

Stephen King’s stories (The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile) and writer/director Frank Darabont’s successful takes on them go hand in hand. This time out, the story is set in a different type of prison…a supermarket where folks are trapped by The Mist. Girl, I hope they have plenty of Depends on hand at that store – it is a Stephen King movie after all!

Far From Heaven director Todd Haynes brings us I’m Not There, which features different actors – Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, Christian Bale and Cate Blanchett playing musician Bob Dylan. Gee, the times are a-changin’ indeed.

Lions for Lambs is a politically fused drama (so that must be a short fuse) starring Meryl Streep, Robert Redford (who also directed the flick ) and Tom Cruise, whose ex, Nicole Kidman is starring in Margot At The Wedding, which is brought to us by Noah Baumbach who wrote and directed The Squid and the Whale.

Director Robert Zemeckis brings the oldest-known poem in the English language, Beowulf, into this century with a cavalcade of special effects, like Angelina Jolie in 3-D! Maybe they should have subtitled it When Lips Attack!

Will Smith stars in the twice-told tale of I Am Legend, first brought to movie goers as the 1964 Vincent Price thriller The Last Man on Earth and the 1971 Charlton Heston vehicle, The Omega Man, about the lone survivor of a plague that has created a race of vampire mutants. Merry Christmas! Which could also be the sentiment echoed for the unusual release date of Dec. 25 for Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem. Happy B-Day, Big J.C.!

Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig try to make us forget about this summer’s craptasticness that was The Invasion with The Golden Compass. Based on the first book in the popular Dark Materials trilogy, this fantastical film will surely appeal to fans of Harry Potter and his ilk.

Charlie Wilson’s War is fighting the good cinematic fight with stars Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Phillip Seymour Hoffman in the acting trenches, and director Mike Nichols calling the shots from directorial headquarters, on what is sure to be an Oscar- bound operation. That Oscar buzz is also being bandied about in relation to Laura Linney’s (she is so underrated and needs to win an Oscar!) turn in The Savages.

While Leatherheads, ahem, harnesses the imagination with its title; it’s actually a romantic comedy about football starring George Clooney and Renee Zellweger, so there still could be a chance of seeing jockstraps in the flick.

Tim Burton and Johnny Depp team up for their sixth cinematic venture by taking on a musical about a maniacal barber in Sweeney Todd, which also stars Burton’s main squeeze and baby mama Helena Bonham Carter and Borat himself, Sacha Baron Cohen.

Woody Harrelson stars in The Walker as a long-in the-dentures, I mean tooth, male escort who also happens to be a homosexual, and is directed by Paul Schrader of American Gigolo fame.

Well, kids there they are, the movies vying for not only your hard earned dollar, but your attention as well. I have to jet, I am sure the line is already forming for one of the two new George Clooney movies (insert rolling of eyes here). Until next time, that’s all of the news that’s fit to print.