Keep an eye on these 10 movies
By ROGER MOORE
ORLANDO SENTINEL
The stink hasn’t even hit the pumpkin, and here we are, already talking about holiday movies. We should be ashamed.
Well, somebody should.
Hollywood unleashes the holiday parade of Oscar pretenders and box office contenders next weekend. Big stars. Big subjects, like Iraq and the Middle East.
And Christmas trees, lots of Christmas trees. Consider these titles — “Fred Claus,” “This Christmas,” “The Perfect Holiday,” “Thomas Kincade’s The Christmas Cottage.” That should be enough to deck anybody’s halls.
We could spend 25 column inches talking about this winter’s big holiday “Oscar contenders,” movies from the heist picture “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead” (due Nov. 16); the very literary “Love in the Time of Cholera” (also Nov. 16). Tommy Lee Jones chasing Javier Bardem in “No Country for Old Men” (Nov. 21), “There Will be Blood” (Daniel Day-Lewis in a story of early Texas oil, Dec. 7); and American troops behaving badly in “Redacted” (Dec. 14).
But the season we’re entering is all about family and magic and sentiment and giggles. So here’s an A to W list of 10 best bets to look before betwixt now and Auld Lang Syne:
“American Gangster” gives us Denzel Washington as notorious “Country Boy” king of the 1970s Harlem drug trade, Frank Lucas, and Russell Crowe as the cop turned prosecutor on the lone quest to find out who this guy is and bring him to justice. Lots of rap stars in bit parts, but a movie full of real Oscar potential. (Nov. 2)
“Bee Movie” is Jerry Seinfeld’s baby, a Dreamworks cartoon about a bee who lawyers up and takes on the people who’re stealing all that honey! And not paying for it! (Nov. 2)
“Charlie Wilson’s War” gives Tom Hanks a drawl and a mission, playing a swaggering, back-slapping, hard-drinking Texas Democrat who arms the Afghans to fight the Soviets in the ‘80s, with unforeseen consequences. (Dec. 25)
“Enchanted” is a blend of live action and animation with the delightful Amy Adams as a princess transported from a Disney princess universe into modern day New York. James Marsden is her ga-ga, goofy prince, and Patrick Dempsey is the New Yorker who may help her/them out. (Nov. 21)
“The Golden Compass” has an all-star cast (Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig), a serious fantasy fan-base, the Lord of the Rings studio behind it and fringe religious groups already on the attack for its author’s alleged “anti-religion” message. (Dec. 7)
“I Am Legend” was the original title of the story that became a Charlton Heston hit, “The Omega Man,” about a scientist who survives a viral holocaust. Will Smith stars in the new version. (Dec. 14)
“Margot at the Wedding” pairs up Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jack Black, and brings in cranky Nicole Kidman as her sister trying to break the new couple up. (Nov.16)
“National Treasure: Book of Secrets” puts Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicolas Cage) in the position of having to kidnap the president in order to unveil a sinister assassination plot — the plot to kill Lincoln. (Dec. 21)
“Sweeney Todd,” the musical about the murderous British barber and the landlady who cooked up his victims, seems tailor-made for the ghoulish Tim Burton, his muse, Johnny “I can sing!” Depp, and Burton’s cadaverous lady, Helena Bonham Carter. (Dec. 21)
“Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story” looks to be a straight “Walk the Line” parody. What raises expectations are the fact that it stars the quirky John C. Reilly, and was written by edgy-comic/flavor of the year Judd Apatow. (Dec. 21).