 Dustin Hoffman, Ben Stiller, and Robert DeNiro star in the sequel to "Meet the Parents," but this time we, "Meet the Fockers." (Handout Photo) |
"Sex Is Comedy"
Catherine Breillat's other movie this season is about a film crew's attempt to shoot an authentic erotic scene -- much like the one so memorable in the director's 2001 "Fat Girl." With Anne Parillaud and Gregoire Colin.
"Closer"
A class act with some curious wrinkles: Patrick Marber's acclaimed play about love, sex, and emotional abuse among two intertwined couples has been brought to the screen by Mike Nichols -- his first in four years -- with a cast that includes Julia Roberts (replacing Cate Blanchett), Natalie Portman (playing a stripper), Clive Owen, and the ubiquitous Jude Law. Expect bad vibes and good acting.
DECEMBER 10
"Beyond the Sea"
As if managing London's Old Vic weren't enough, Kevin Spacey directed, produced, and stars as singer-actor Bobby Darin, who had one foot in the Sinatra era and the other in the hippie '60s, and who died young in 1973. Kate Bosworth plays Darin's wife, squeaky-clean teen star Sandra Dee, while John Goodman, Bob Hoskins, Brenda Blethyn, and Greta Scacchi also show up. It's a calculated risk for Spacey, who hasn't had a bona fide hit since 1999's "American Beauty."
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 Brad Pitt and George Clooney (Handout Photo / Warner Bros.) |
Shouldn't director Steven Soderbergh and star George Clooney simply have been content that 2001's "Ocean's Eleven" was a better movie than the 1960 Rat Pack original? Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Julia Roberts, and the rest of the gang have re-upped, with the addition of Catherine Zeta-Jones, France's Vincent Cassel, and a few surprises. The plot concerns the theft of Rembrandt's "Night Watch" from an Amsterdam museum, which may not seem so amusing in the wake of "The Scream" incident.
Also opening: "Blade: Trinity"
DECEMBER 17
"The Aviator"
Martin Scorsese's Howard Hughes picture might be the year's most nervously anticipated movie. Where does the film's stress fall: on the young Hughes's sex life, or on his neuroses? And what does Scorsese see in Leonardo DiCaprio that the rest of us can't? Most troublesome of all is the knowledge that this is likely to be the movie Miramax will inadvertently use to bulldoze Oscar voters into leaving it off their ballots, like "Cold Mountain" last year. With Cate Blanchett as Katharine Hepburn, Kate Beckinsale as Ava Gardner, and Gwen Stefani as Jean Harlow.
"Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events"
The ultra-popular books now begin their life as a movie franchise. In installment one, the orphaned Baudelaire siblings Klaus (Liam Aiken), Violet (Emily Browning), and the infant bite-machine Sunny, move from relative to relative, eventually trying to stop the grifting Count Olaf (Jim Carrey) from taking their inheritance. With Meryl Streep as Aunt Josephine and Jude Law as the voice of Lemony Snicket.
"Out to Sea"
"Before Night Falls" star Javier Bardem takes on the real-life role of Ramon Sampedro, a Spanish quadriplegic who fought for 27 years for the legal right to die. Alejandro Amenabar ("The Others") directs.
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 Zhang Ziyi (AP Photo) |
In Zhang Yimou's follow-up to the martial arts hit "Hero," two imperial policemen (Andy Lau, Takeshi Kaneshiro) in medieval Japan on the trail of a dancer (Zhang Ziyi) who might have tiesto a gang called the House of Flying Daggers.
DECEMBER 22
"Meet the Fockers"
Will the sequel retain the worst-case-scenario hilarity of 2000's "Meet the Parents"? We'll just say this: Not only are director Jay Roach and stars Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller returning, but in the roles of Stiller's parents are . . . Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand. He's a left-wing Florida lawyer, she's a sex therapist for senior citizens, and we've already bought our tickets.
"A Very Long Engagement"
French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet sets his sights again on Oscar with another film starring everybody's favorite gamine, Audrey ("Amelie") Tautou. She plays a woman engaged to a soldier during World War I -- he disappears in action, she won't give up, the engagement drags wistfully on.
DECEMBER 24
"Hotel Rwanda"
Don Cheadle, a great actor who tends to get stuck in character roles, takes a rare lead in the true story of Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager who saved more than a thousand Tutsi refugees during the 1994 genocide. Joaquin Phoenix and Nick Nolte also appear.
"Proof"
David Auburn's beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning play about mathematics and madness comes to the screen with Gwyneth Paltrow in the meaty lead role of a genius's daughter, who may be touched with his gift and his curse. Anthony Hopkins is the dad, Hope Davis the convention-bound sister, and Jake Gyllenhaal a suspicious suitor. A gender-switched "A Beautiful Mind"? With any luck, better.
"The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou"
Wes Anderson returns with his latest attempt to make a fetish of genius. This time Bill Murray stars as an oceanographer tracking down the shark that ate his partner. With Owen Wilson as Murray's long-lost son and Cate Blanchett as a profiling journalist.
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 Jennifer Lopez (Reuters Photo) |
The seasonal Lasse Hallstrom ("Chocolat," "The Cider House Rules") Oscar hunt stars Jennifer Lopez as a single mom and waitress who moves in with her estranged father-in-law (Robert Redford). Time heals. We cry. Somebody gets an Academy Award nomination.
"The Woodsman"
A just-released pedophile (Kevin Bacon) tries to make his way in the straight world, but struggles with temptation. Advance word is strong on Bacon, who could finally be less than a degree away from Oscar. With Kyra Sedgwick, David Alan Grier, Eve, and Benjamin Bratt. DECEMBER 25"Fat Albert"The goofballs from those old Bill Cosby monologues and the fondly remembered '70s TV cartoon return as live-action characters, but will 21st-century kids give a hey-hey-hey? Kenan Thompson ("Good Burger," "Saturday Night Live") plays the big guy, with others filling the scuffed Keds of Mushmouth, Old Weird Harold, and Dumb Donald. Joel Zwick ("My Big Fat Greek Wedding") directs.
"The Phantom of the Opera"
And in the slot for splashy Oscar-wannabe Broadway-to-screen musical pioneered by "Chicago" comes -- finally -- the movie version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's long-running stage war horse, itself the latest iteration of a Grand Guignol classic that was a hit back in the silent days. Gerard Butler ("Timeline") is the masked maniac, Emmy Rossum (Sean Penn's doomed daughter in "Mystic River") plays Christine, and Sir Andrew has written a new song to go over the credits. Somewhere, Lon Chaney is grinning horribly.
Also opening: "Bride and Prejudice," "The Assassination of Richard Nixon"
