‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’
Opens: Dec. 12
Stars: Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Connelly, Kathy Bates
Tagline: 12.12.08 is the Day the Earth Stood Still.
Which means: And, they hope, for days, weeks and months after that.
Preview review: A massive evacuation, a cagey interrogation of Reeves as the man from another world, then lots of buildings blow up. Reeves warns Connelly, “If you die, the Earth survives” hinting that this remake of the 1951 classic is going to center on global warming. No sign of Gort the killer robot.
Can’t miss: “Mad Men’s” red-hot leading man Jon Hamm.
Don’t miss: Jaden Smith, son of Will Smith and his co-star in “The Pursuit of Happyness,” clutching Connelly’s hand.
Hit, miss or maybe: Hit–Reeves’ return to sci-fi will stop the competition in its tracks.
See it here: thedaytheearthstoodstillmovie.com
‘Gran Torino’
Opens: Dec. 19
Stars: Clint Eastwood
Tagline: None
Which means: You got a problem with that, huh, punk?
Preview review: Eastwood plays a surly recluse in a crimeinfested neighborhood who uses intimidation and a shotgun to keep the local gangs off his property. But the gangs start fighting back, and Eastwood is drawn into battle.
Can’t miss: Eastwood’s voice, which now sounds as if he’s imitating sandpaper.
Don’t miss: Clint’s elderly Chinese neighbor–when he spits on the ground in disgust at her, she retorts with a volcano-size flow of her own.
Hit, miss or maybe: Maybe–this is about the 119th time Grandpa Magnum Force has played a loner tough guy wielding a big gun. One too many?
See it here: thegrantorino.com
‘The Reader’
Opens: Dec. 25.
Stars: Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes
Tagline: Behind the mystery lies a truth that will make you question everything you know.
Which means: The plot boils down to young boy gets older girl, loses girl, can’t forget girl but the “mystery,” “truth,” “question” stuff sounds more intriguing, doesn’t it?
Preview review: Fiennes can’t get over his teenage summertime fling with older woman Winslet in Germany on the brink of WW II and after the war is torn when she’s accused of being a Nazi and committing war crimes.
Can’t miss: Lena Olin as Fiennes’ psychiatrist.
Don’t miss: David Kross, a young German actor just out of high school, who plays the youthful Fiennes and gets the sexy bathtub scene with Winslet.
Hit, miss or maybe: Hit–this year’s “Atonement,” a romantic drama set against the backdrop of The Great War.
See it here: thereader-movie.com
‘Valkyrie’
Opens: Dec. 25
Stars: Tom Cruise, Kenneth Branagh, Tom Wilkinson
Tagline: Many saw evil. They dared to stop it.
Which means: Please, please, please, please, please, please, please understand that it’s a movie about good Nazis.
Preview review: A plan to assassinate Hitler is afoot by highranking Nazi officers, but who to carry it out? How about the guy in the eye patch with the nerves of steel who Speaks! Every! Line! With! Great! Intensity! That would be Cruise, who doesn’t appear until the halfway mark in the trailer.
Can’t miss: That eye patch–already as talked about as Tom Hanks’ hippie hair in “The Da Vinci Code.”
Don’t miss: A bunker’s worth of British actors–Terence Stamp, Eddie Izzard, Branagh, Bill Nighy, Wilkinson–playing German officers whilst speaking their precisely enunciated dialogue in their perfectly impeccable British accents.
Hit, miss or maybe: Miss–Jerry Maguire goes to Germany– nein!
See it here: valkyrie.unitedartists.com
‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’
Opens: Dec. 25
Stars: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton, Julia Ormond
Tagline: I was born under unusual circumstances.
Which means: Get ready for offbeat. Pitt is teaming up with his “Se7en” and “Fight Club” director, David Fincher, for a third goround.
Preview review: As an eerily beautiful choral version of Saint- SaM-kns’ “The Aquarium” plays, an antique pocket watch ticks in reverse and Pitt ages backward from a wizened old man to middle age (complete with paunch) to the familiar swoon-provoking heartthrob astride a motorcycle and down to a little boy. An epic love story between Blanchett and Pitt, spanning decades, plays out in between.
Can’t miss: Pitt’s old man makeup, sure to be Oscar nominated.
Don’t miss: Swinton, featured in the just released second trailer.
Hit, miss or maybe: Maybe–visually stunning though it appears to be, the story seems a mite, ahem, curious. Too peculiar for short-attention-span audiences?
See it here: benjaminbutton.com
‘Doubt’
Opens: Dec. 12
Stars: Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams
Tagline: Based on Pulitzer Prize-winning play
Which means: Can you feel the gravitas?
Preview review: Streep is a tough-as-nails Catholic school principal in a black bonnet, Adams her trembling but questioning shadow, and Hoffman, Streep’s progressive nemesis. When Adams tells Streep that Father privately questioned a 12-yearold boy, the acting fireworks begin.
Can’t miss: Streep and Hoffman practically chewing up the principal’s office walls–and this is only the trailer.
Don’t miss: “Law & Order SVU” regular Viola Davis as the boy’s conflicted mother
Hit, miss or maybe: Hit–This year’s “Notes on a Scandal,” sure to be larded with acting nominations come awards time
See it here: doubt-themovie.com
‘Marley & Me’
Opens: Dec. 25
Stars: Owen Wilson, Jennifer Aniston
Tagline: This Christmas, heel the love.
Which means:We hope our dog movie ain’t a dog at the box office.
Preview review: After the cuddly widdle puppy piddles on the lawn, he grows up and eats the couch, the cake and crashes through something in every single scene.
Can’t miss: Marley trotting on his forelegs alongside the car while Wilson holds his hind legs inside.
Don’t miss: Kathleen Turner as a no-nonsense dog trainer.
Hit, miss or maybe: Maybe–movie audiences like going to the dogs, but this might be kinda mangy.
See it here: marleyandmemovie.com
‘Bedtime Stories’
Opens: Dec. 25
Stars: Adam Sandler, Keri Russell, Courteney Cox
Tagline: What if the stories you told came to life?
Which means:We sure hope you think this one does.
Preview review: Sandler plays Uncle Skeeter, whose nightly stories for his niece and nephew (along with their additions) come true the next day. Gumballs rain, fireballs explode, giant bugs appear, an angry dwarf kicks, etc.
Can’t miss: A patented Sandlerism: He sprays both a store clerk and himself in the eyes with a toxic aerosol and then outscreams the clerk.
Don’t miss: Russell Brand, the British comedian/hottie from “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.”
Hit, miss or maybe: Maybe–which kid-friendly movie will chew up the box office–“Marley” or “Bedtime”?
See it here: disney.go.com/disneypictures/bedtimestories/
