Peter Travers’ Holiday Movie Preview
What's a holiday movie? Something about Santa or getting wasted on New Year's Eve? Nah. My loose interpretation is that behind every choice holiday movie is a voice singing, "Forget your troubles. Come on, get happy!" These babies are designed to lift sprits, not bring them down. Oscar intentions are allowed (True Grit, The Fighter), but they better come wrapped in a pretty package. Take Javier Bardem in Biutiful: He's amazing as a dirt-poor father with a terminal illness and a deathly fear of abandoning his kids to their junkie mother. But is that the popcorn escapism you're looking for after a big holiday dinner? Hardly. Here are 10 entertainments built to fill the holiday bill.
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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
In Theaters: November 19thOK, there's less magic this time as Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermoine (Emma Watson) and Ron (Rupert Grint) go on the run and have to face their personal demons. But come on, there's only one more chance (on July 15, 2011) to hang with characters we've enjoyed through seven books and seven movies. I was only mild about this Harry, but it's still a kick to escape into his world.
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Burlesque
In Theaters: November 24th
Cher returns to movies for the first time since Stuck on You in 2003. Her character runs a L.A. burlesque club where she discovers Christina Aguilera. Sure, it could be the next Showgirls. But watching Cher just purse her lips is my kind of escapism.
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Love and Other Drugs
In Theaters: November 24th
Talk about pretty holiday packages. Jake Gyllenhaal plays a Viagra salesman who falls for Anne Hathaway, who has a disease that doesn't get in the way of them rolling around naked in bed.
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The Fighter
In Theaters: December 10th
It's hard not to cheer for Mark Wahlberg as Irish Micky Ward, a welterweight boxer who scored a major Rocky-type comeback in the 1990s. Christian Bale is dynamite as Micky's crackhead half brother. Director David O. Russell gives the scenes of the family, led by power mom Melissa Leo, a dynamism that's irresistible.
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The Tourist
In Theaters: December 10th
Angelina Jolie chases Johnny Depp around Venice. The movie itself could suck donkey dick and still sell tickets. Even with the sound off.
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How Do You Know
In Theaters: December 17th
Here's news worth broadcasting: A romantic comedy written and directed by James L. Brooks. Now that's a holiday gift worth unwrapping. Reese Witherspoon stars as a softball jock involved with Paul Rudd, who's in white-collar crime doo-doo because of his shifty dad, played by — and here's the clincher — Jack Nicholson.
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Tron: Legacy
In Theaters: December 17th
A sequel to a movie made 28 years ago may lack a sense of urgency, but 1982's Tron became a cult hit for a reason: the web-head generation fell hard for the tale of computer programmer (Jeff Bridges) who gets sucked into a server for some dangerous games. With Bridges back, there's no reason we won't all fall hard again.
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Gulliver’s Travels
In Theaters: December 22nd
Why not update Jonathan Swift's classic 1735 satire and cast Jack Black as a writer doing a travel piece on the Bermuda Triangle? Shazam, and he's a giant in a land of Munchkins, I mean Lilliputians. Swift may be shrinking in his grave, but as long as it's fun, right?
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Little Fockers
In Theaters: December 22nd
Ben Stiller is back (after six years) playing Greg Focker, a male nurse coping with a father-in-law from hell — that would again be Robert De Niro — and five-year-old twins. Toss in Barbra Streisand and Dustin Hoffman as Greg's parents from the first sequel (Meet the Fockers) and — given your tolerance for brat jokes — the laughs will come tumbling down.
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True Grit
In Theaters: December 22nd
A remake of the 1969 John Wayne western that won the Duke his only Oscar ends the holiday season on note of high promise, what with the Coen brothers at the helm and the reliably superb and funny Jeff Bridges stepping into Wayne's boots as Rooster Cogburn, a one-eyed U.S. Marshall getting schooled by a 14-year-old girl (Hailee Steinfeld).
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–Blog: Get more news, reviews and interviews from Peter Travers on The Travers Take.