Monday, December 24, 2007

The Latest in Theaters: Christmas Gifts

Moviegoers must have been awful nice this year -- Santa will be delivering several new releases throughout this holiday week:

Opening Christmas Day:
- Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman are two terminally ill oldsters who break out of a cancer ward to span the globe in search of last hurrahs in Rob Reiner's The Bucket List, co-starring Sean Hayes and Rob Morrow.
- Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem promises another big showdown between the space nasties from the two popular sci fi franchises.
- The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep (starring Ben Chaplin, Emily Watson and Brian Cox) should satisfy the family friendly crowd with the hijinks of a baby Loch Ness Monster.

Opening Tuesday:
-Paul Thomas Anderson's eagerly awaited There Will Be Blood, adapted from Upton Sinclair's novel Oil!, has been raking in the critical praises and should net Daniel Day Lewis another Oscar nod, if not the actual award.

Opening Friday:
- Another award magnate, the starkly animated French film Persepolis, takes a look at the Islamic Revolution through the eyes of a precocious young Iranian girl; Catherine Deneuve headlines the original voice cast, while Sean Penn, Gena Rowlands and Iggy Pop are among the English dubbers (no thanks, I'll take the original).
- Denzel Washington directs and stars in The Great Debaters, the true story of an underdog debate team, the first African-American one to take on Harvard's; co-stars Forest Whitaker and Kimberly Elise.
- And finally, the creepy kid fright fest The Orphanage (produced by Guillermo del Toro) hopes to scare up as much dinero stateside as it has in Spain, where it has ruled the box office and was nominated for five Goya Awards, including Best Film.

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Links via Imdb.com, NYTimes.com and Academiadecine.com.

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