Fall Holiday Movie Preview
December Previews
Our picks for December’s must-see movies
The Spirit
December 25
Dark. That’s what you can expect from director Frank Miller’s The Spirit. The adaptation of Will Eisner’s comic was filmed with the same aesthetic and green-screen technology as Miller’s first movie behind the camera, Sin City, which he co-directed with Robert Rodriguez. This is the first time Miller, a famed comic writer and artist in his own right, has directed alone.
Eisner’s masked crime-fighter first appeared in a 1940 newspaper insert and has gone through several incarnations. Always a very mysterious character, Miller’s Spirit (Gabriel Macht) is a dead cop who’s come back to life and dedicates himself to fighting baddies. As of press time, the studio had yet to release a still image of The Spirit. But they did release this shot of Samuel L. Jackson as his arch nemesis The Octopus, a villain trying to gain his own form of immortality by wiping out Central City.
Scarlett Johansson plays The Octopus’s secretary, Silken Floss, and Eva Mendes is the jewel thief Sand Saref, one of the various beautiful and dangerous women who populate The Spirit’s life.
The Day the Earth Stood Still
When we heard
Keanu Reeves would star in a remake of the 1951 sci-fi
The Day the Earth Stood Still
we assumed he’d play the emotionless robot Gort. No such luck. He’s
Klaatu, the visitor from outer space who assumes human form and warns
us to curb our destructive ways.
Release date: December 12
Twilight
After choosing to abstain from drinking human blood, vampire Edward (
Robert Pattinson) finds his vow hard to keep whenever he’s around his soulmate Isabella (
Kristen Stewart). Based on the novel by
Stephenie Meyer.
Release date: December 12
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Nearly a decade after
Fight Club,
Brad Pitt reunites with director
David Fincher
for this decidedly less violent, but just as strange, fantasy flick.
Pitt plays Benjamin Button, a man who ages backwards. At 50, he falls
for a beautiful 30-year-old (
Cate Blanchett). But as she ages, he hurtles toward infancy.
Release date: December 19
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Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet are together again in Revolutionary Road
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Yes Man
In 2005, British comedian Danny Wallace published Yes Man,
a memoir of the six-month period in which he decided to say “yes” to
all the things to which he would have previously said “no,” just to see
what would happen. This film, which stars Jim Carrey as a character named Carl, was inspired by the trials and adventures that ensued from Wallace’s positive approach.
Release date: December 19
Revolutionary Road
Titanic’s Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet,
together again. But let’s hope this isn’t how doomed lovers Jack and
Rose would have ended up. Here the matured actors play a dysfunctional
couple who thinks they’re too good for their Connecticut neighbours, drink too much, bicker and
have affairs while their marriage disintegrates. Winslet’s real-life
hubbie, Sam Mendes, directs.
Release date: December 26
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SPECIAL EVENTS ON THE BIG SCREEN
The Metropolitan Opera
Doctor Atomic (Adams)
Encore: Saturday, Dec. 6, 1 p.m. ET
Thaïs (Massenet)
Live: Saturday, Dec. 20, 12 p.m. ET
WWE Pay-Per-View
Armageddon
Sunday, Dec. 14, 8 p.m. ET 8 p.m. ET