Be warned: The Walk may trigger latent cases of acrophobia. This thrilling, spine-tingling adventure portrays Phillippe Petit’s daring high-wire walk between the Twin Towers, as previously depicted in James Marsch’s Oscar-winning documentary Man on Wire. Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future, Forrest Gump) unleashes the full might of his CGI prowess into recreating the skyline of 1970s New York City, as well as placing his affable cast atop the North and South Towers. The vividness of those visuals don’t completely mask The Walk‘s staid script or one-note characterizations, but in spite of its flaws, Zemeckis’ latest is a fun, suspenseful experience.

Chronicling Petit’s journey from aspirational French performance artist to the determined obsessive he becomes, The Walk plows through story beats in thinly constructed short scenes. These early moments, featuring excessive step-by-step narration from Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Petit (presumably doing his best Pepe Le Pew impression), are far duller than what will follow. Zemeckis’ talent for visual flair occasionally transforms the mundanity of an origins story into showcase set pieces. As a young Petit walks across a series of ropes tied between trees, those ropes break off one by one and fall away until Zemeckis’ camera pans up to reveal Petit as a man.

It’s in the final sequences, leading up to and on the rooftop, where The Walk begins to soar. Petit and his gang’s ascent up the towers resembles a heist movie. Complimented by the tapping of bongos and jazzy brass instruments, the crew don disguises and persuade guards in order to reach the building’s 110th floor. Watching the tightrope walker take his first steps out into the open air, swooping around in full circles to reveal the breathtaking views of New York, it’s hard to not simply marvel at the creation. You worry that Petit might fall—even with the knowledge that he won’t. This exhilarating section supersedes the rest of the film—though not as significantly as the opening of Flight does to the rest of that movie—but the journey to the top is peppered with enough cleverness to make the trip enjoyable. The view up there is unlike any other.

Brad Pitt has a thing for assassin movies, especially ones where two assassins get married and then discover each other’s assassin secrets. The Mr. & Mrs. Smith star is slated to lead Robert Zemeckis‘ upcoming and untitled WWII drama. Recently signed up to join him is French Oscar winner Marion Cotillard. Cotillard is hot off last year’s Two Nights, One Day and this year’s raves at Cannes for Macbeth. And while Pitt hasn’t knocked it out of the park recently, he has continued to turn out solid performances in lesser films (The Counselor, Fury).

The details so far, according to THR, look to have Pitt star as a French-Canadian assassin who meets and falls for Cotillard’s German assassin in WWII Casablanca. It’s only when the two get married that their secret lives are revealed and Pitt must take out his new bride.

As for Zemeckis, he’s had some ups and he’s had some downs, and while many like to point to his failures (The Polar Express, Beowulf) we can’t help but love him for his highs, because boy are they high (the classics Back To the Future and Forrest Gump and the very-good-but-not-quite-classics Cast Away and Flight, among many others). But through it all he has been a director shamelessly interested in playing with the tools of the trade. This year’s upcoming The Walk is no exception, with the Joseph Gordon-Levitt starring film looking to be a stomach turning 3D spectacle.

At this rate as things keep unfolding Zemeckis’ project is shaping up to be something special; Pitt and Cotillard are rarely bad (if ever) and Zemeckis, when good, can be film-classic good. So, for the time being we’re keeping our fingers crossed for this one as we queue up for The Walk on October 2nd.

A favorite ’80s movie-mother, Mary Ellen Trainor has died of complications from pancreatic cancer on May 20th at the young age of 62 in Montecito, California according to The Hollywood Reporter and her close friend Kathleen Kennedy.

She may have never been a Hollywood big shot or superstar, but many will find her face quite recognizable. Mostly, in memory, framed by a halo of wispy blonde feathered hair. Probably because we all mainly know her from movies that made it big during the ’80s and ’90s, beginning by playing the flighty kidnapped sister of Kathleen Turner in the 1984 film Romancing the Stone or the Spanish-deficient mother of Mikey and Brand Walsh in The Goonies. Married to Robert Zemeckis from 1980 to 2000, she also appeared in a few of his movies, one of which was Romancing the Stone of course, but also included bit roles in Back to the Future II, Death Becomes Her, and Forrest Gump.

She’s played aside Bill Murray in Scrooged, Bruce Willis in Die Hard, and Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in all four Lethal Weapons, being a close friend of Lethal Weapon director Richard Donner.

Some other movies from which she might be recognized would be Ghostbusters II, Congo, and Little Giants.

We are sorry to see her gone. We know she will live on through her presence in so many memorable films from our childhood. Rest in Peace, Ms. Trainor.

Robert Zemeckis‘ high-wire adaptation of Philippe Petit’s memoir To Reach the Clouds (made famous by the stunning 2008 documentary Man on Wire) will open the 53rd New York Film Festival, held at the Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. The Walk, which stars Joseph Gordon Levitt as Petit, is only the second 3D feature ever selected to open NYFF following 2012’s selection of Ang Lee’s Life of Pi. The film, whose strong New York ties should seem obvious, details Petit’s daring high-wire walk between the Twin Towers in 1974. This will be Zemeckis’ second straight movie to debut at this festival, following Flight‘s closing night selection in 2012.

New York Film Festival Director and Selection Committee Chair Kent Jones commented in a press release, “The Walk is surprising in so many ways. First of all, it plays like a classic heist movie in the tradition of The Asphalt Jungle or Bob le Flambeur—the planning, the rehearsing, the execution, the last-minute problems—but here it’s not money that’s stolen but access to the world’s tallest buildings. It’s also an astonishing re-creation of lower Manhattan in the ’70s. And then, it becomes something quite rare, rich, mysterious… and throughout it all, you’re on the edge of your seat.”

Robert Zemeckis added: “I am extremely honored and grateful that our film has been selected to open the 53rd New York Film Festival. The Walk is a New York story, so I am delighted to be presenting the film to New York audiences first. My hope is that festival audiences will be immersed in the spectacle, but also to be enraptured by the celebration of a passionate artist who helped give the wonderful towers a soul.”

The 53rd New York Film Festival is a 17-day event that runs from September 25th until October 11th The Walk is the fourth consecutive American-produced film to open the New York Film Festival, following Life of Pi (2012), Captain Phillips (2013), and Gone Girl (2014). The Walk will open wide in 3D and IMAX 3D on October 2nd.

Check out the heart-stopping trailer for The Walk: