Feature: Film Guide

Holiday Film Guide

An Advent Calendar Full of Comedies, Dramas, Thrillers and More

How will you spend this holiday season? Will your days between Thanksgiving and Christmas be spent welcoming an ongoing tide of out-of-town relatives? Or will you seek escape in the quiet confines of your local movie theater? If it’s going to be the latter, you’re in good stead. You’ll have rock stars, politicians, dragons, Nazis, spies, soldiers, smugglers, serial killers and at least one Messiah to keep you company.

Note: All opening dates are subject to change.

Deck the Halls
Cast: Danny DeVito, Matthew Broderick, Kristin Davis
Director: John Whitesell
Genre: Comedy
Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox
Rating: PG
Plot: Two suburban dads battle over who can put up the most holiday decorations.

Déjà Vu
Cast: Denzel Washington, Jim Caviezel, Val Kilmer
Director: Tony Scott
Genre: Thriller
Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures
Rating: PG-13
Plot: An ATF agent travels back in time to save a woman and stop a terrorist plot.

Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny
Cast: Jack Black, Kyle Gass, Tim Robbins
Director: Liam Lynch
Genre: Comedy
Distributor: New Line Cinema
Rating: R
Plot: Two wannabe rock stars go on a quest to find a demonic guitar pick.

The Fountain
Cast: Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Genre: Science Fiction
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Rating: R
Plot: A man tries to save the life of the woman he loves in three different periods of human history.


Bobby
Cast: Laurence Fishburne, Sharon Stone, Anthony Hopkins, William H. Macy, Lindsay Lohan
Director: Emilio Estevez
Genre: Drama
Distributor: MGM/Weinstein Co.
Rating: R
Plot: Various characters react to the 1968 assassination of Bobby Kennedy at the Ambassador Hotel.


National Lampoon's Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj
Cast: Kal Penn, Lauren Cohan, Daniel Percival
Director: Mort Nahan
Genre: Comedy
Distributor: MGM
Rating: R
Plot: One of the minor characters from 2002's Van Wilder teaches uptight Oxford students how to get down and party.

The Nativity Story
Cast: Keisha Castle-Hughes, Oscar Isaac, Shohreh Aghdashloo
Director: Catherine Hardwicke
Genre: Biblical Drama
Distributor: New Line Cinema
Rating: PG
Plot: Mary gets preggers and gives birth to our Lord and Savior.

Turistas
Cast: Josh Duhamel, Melissa George, Olivia Wilde
Director: John Stockwell
Genre: Horror
Distributor: Fox Atomic
Rating: R
Plot: A bunch of young backpackers get stalked and slashed in Brazil.


Apocalypto
Cast: Rudy Youngblood, Raoul Trujillo
Director: Mel Gibson
Genre: Adventure
Distributor: Touchstone Pictures
Rating: R
Plot: As the Mayan empire crumbles, a young man flees his fate as a human sacrifice.

Breaking and Entering
Cast: Jude Law, Vera Farmiga
Director: Anthony Minghella
Genre: Romantic Drama
Distributor: The Weinstein Co.
Rating: R
Plot: An unhappily engaged landscape architect's life is turned upside down when a young thief steals his laptop.

The Blood Diamond
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly, Djimon Hounsou
Director: Ed Zwick
Genre: Adventure
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Rating: R
Plot: A poor farmer and a selfish smuggler match wits with a syndicate of evil businessmen over a priceless African diamond.

The Holiday
Cast: Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet
Director: Nancy Meyers
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Distributor: Sony/Columbia
Rating: PG-13
Plot: Two romance-hungry ladies, one in England and one in American, switch homes for the holiday.

Unaccompanied Minors
Cast: Wilmer Valderrama, Dyllan Christopher, Gina Mantegna
Director: Paul Feig
Genre: Comedy
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Rating: PG
Plot: A gaggle of underage kids get snowed in for the holidays at a Chicago airport.


Eragon
Cast: Ed Speleers, Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich
Director: Stefen Fangmeier
Genre: Fantasy
Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox
Rating: Not yet rated
Plot: A young farm boy hatches a dragon's egg and tries to save his homeland from an evil king.

Home of the Brave
Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, Jessica Biel, 50 Cent Director: Irwin Winkler Genre: Drama Distributor: MGM Rating: R
Plot: Three soldiers try to adjust to life after the Gulf War.

The Pursuit of Happyness
Cast: Will Smith, Thandie Newton, Jaden Smith
Director: Gabriele Muccino
Genre: Drama
Distributor: Sony/Columbia
Rating: PG-13
Plot: A struggling single father takes custody of his young son, then makes a life-changing decision to become an intern on Wall Street.

Arthur and the Invisibles
Cast: Freddie Highmore, Madonna, Mia Farrow, David Bowie
Director: Luc Besson
Genre: Fantasy
Distributor: MGM
Rating: Not yet rated
Plot: In this imaginative mixture of live-action and CGI, a 10-year-old boy shrinks himself to micro-size and goes looking for a fabled treasure in hopes of saving his grandfather’s home.

The Good German
Cast: George Clooney, Cate Blanchett, Tobey Maguire
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Genre: Thriller Distributor: Warner Bros.
Rating: R
Plot: In this exacting recreation of a ’50s film noir, a cynical journalist is lured into a muder mystery in post-war Berlin.

The Painted Veil
Cast: Edward Norton, Naomi Watts
Director: John Curran
Genre: Romantic Drama
Distributor: Warner Independent Pictures
Rating: Not yet rated
Plot: In this adaptation of the W. Somerset Maugham novel, an unhappy wife is dragged to a cholera-afflicted Chinese province in the ’20s by her husband after becoming embroiled in a life-changing affair.


Charlotte's Web
Cast: Dakota Fanning, Robert Redford, Julia Roberts
Director: Gary Winick
Genre: Family
Distributor: Paramount
Rating: Not yet rated
Plot: This live-action adaptation of E.B. White’s beloved childrens’ book follows the adventures of plucky pig Wilbur and his barnyard friends.

Letters From Iwo Jima
Cast: Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya
Director: Clint Eastwood
Genre: War Drama
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Rating: Not Yet Rated
Plot: Shot back-to-back with Clint Eastwood’s Flags of Our Fathers , this gritty companion piece relates the battle of Iwo Jima as seen from the Japanese side.

Night at the Museum
Cast: Ben Stiller, Carla Gugino
Director: Shawn Levy
Genre: Fantasy
Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox
Rating: G
Plot: A bumbling security guard at the Museum of Natural History accidentally unleashes a curse, which causes all of the exhibits to come to life.


Black Christmas
Cast: Michelle Tractenberg, Lacey Chabert
Director: Glen Morgan
Genre: Horror
Distributor: MGM/Dimension Film
Rating: R
Plot: A group of sorority sisters find themselves receiving threatening phone calls from a murderous caller over Christmas break in this remake of the 1974 cult film.

Rocky Balboa
Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Burt Young, Milo Ventimiglia
Director: Sylvester Stallone
Genre: Action Drama
Distributor: MGM
Rating: PG
Plot: In this final installment of the Rocky saga, our pugilist comes out of retirement following his wife’s death for one final shot at the title.

The Good Shepherd
Cast: Matt Damon, Robert De Niro, Angelina Jolie
Director: Robert De Niro
Genre: Drama
Distributor: Universal
Rating: R
Plot: This Cold War drama chronicles the early, tumultuous history of the Central Intelligence Agency as seen through the eyes of one idealistic agent.

We Are Marshall
Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Ian McShane, Matthew Fox
Director: McG
Genre: Drama
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Rating: PG
Plot: Based on a true story, this inspirational drama tells the story of the coach who struggled to rebuild his sports program as well as his community after a plane crash claimed the lives of nearly all the Marshall University football team.


Children of Men
Cast: Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Charlie Hunnam
Director: Alfonso Cuaron
Genre: Science Fiction
Distributor: Universal
Rating: R
Plot: In the year 2027, when mankind has lost the ability to procreate, a former activist agrees to transport a mysteriously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea.

Dreamgirls
Cast: Beyonce Knowles, Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy
Director: Bill Condon
Genre: Musical
Distributor: DreamWorks
Rating: PG-13
Plot: This stage-to-screen musical is a fictionalized look at the rise and fall of Diana Ross and the Supremes, a tuneful but cynical examination of the backstabbing world of pop music in the ’60s and ’70s.

Notes on a Scandal
Cast: Judi Dench, Cate Blanchett
Director: Richard Eyre
Genre: Drama
Distributor: Fox Searchlight
Rating: R
Plot: A pottery teacher embarks on an affair with one of her students, causing upheaval in her personal and private lives.


Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Cast: Ben Whishaw, Alan Rickman, Rachel Hurd-Wood
Director: Tom Tykwer
Genre: Period Thriller
Distributor: DreamWorks
Rating: R
Plot: An 18 th Century Parisian orphan, born with superior olfactory skills, turns serial killer in his quest for the perfect scent.