December 12th:
Exodus: Gods and Kings DANA'S TOP PICK
Exodus is the biblical tale of Moses,
Christian Bale (
The Dark Knight), leading an uprising against the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses,
Joel Edgerton (
The Great Gatsby), by setting hundreds of thousands of slaves free.
Ridley Scott (
Gladiator,
Robin Hood) looks to add his own epic CGI vision to film combined with great actors while also not having it be as long as the five hour Charleston Heston event that seems to take over the entire Easter weekend on ABC. Though it still is 2 and a half hours long so time your piss breaks wisely. We've already got the reviews in for it which you can check out
HERE and
HERE.
Top Five
Written, directed, and staring
Chris Rock as a high profile comedian who wants to become a serious actor because he doesn't feel funny anymore. After that Saturday Night Live performance from last month, we can agree with that.
December 17th:
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies MANCHILD TOP PICK
The finale of The Hobbit trilogy and probably the last movie in a long while to deal with Middle Earth is here! Bilbo,
Martin Freeman (
Sherlock), and the dwarves have successfully entered the mountain and found the Arkenstone they set out on their quest for. There's just one problem, Smaug, the giant scary possibly schizophrenic dragon is loose and about to put a beating on the river city of Dale. Oh, and there's 7 armies all headed their way for a big ass battle royale for the fate of Middle Earth. It's going to be an awesome and epic conclusion to series for any LotR fan. If you haven't seen the previous two movies yet, you really should watch those first before this so you're not asking the person next to you "Who's that?" every five minutes.
December 19th:
Annie
A foster child is taken in by a business tycoon and Mayoral candidate,
Jamie Foxx, for NYC.
This is pretty much the same Annie movie as all the other ones, just with some hip-hop, and
that really crazy Italian(NSFW) from
Boardwalk Empire.
Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb
In this final film from the Night at the Museum series,
Ben Stiller has to travel the globe uniting different museum characters before the magic is gone forever. Sadly fitting since this is one of
Robin Williams' final movies.
The Gambler
Marky Mark is in some real deep shit in this remake about a college literature professor who's high stakes gambling gets him in debt with two different loan sharks. They pretty much had me at
John Goodman shaving his head menacingly.
Mr. Turner (Limited)
Wormtail is looking very harumph as the great British painter J.M.W. Turner going through the last quarter of his life. For any indie lovers out there, this is a rare time where watching paint dry might actually be enjoyable.
December 26th:
Into the Woods
This isn't your average fairy tale musical. Sure it's got Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Jack and a beanstalk, Johnny Depp being all Johnny Depp as the wolf. and Meryl Streep as a boss ass witch, But it's also got adultery, backstabbing, Anna Kendrick, and
MURDER all in a PGish cinematic cocktail.
Unbroken
Here's the true story of Louis Zamperini, a man who became an Olympic runner, who then joined the armed forces during World War II, who's plane was then shot down in the pacific, who then had to survive adrift for like two weeks, who was then rescued... by the Japanese and placed in a POW camp. Here's the even crazier thing, he only just passed away this summer at the age of 97. Needless to say, this guy's life is more powerful than most Hollywood scripts. Add that with this being
Maleficent's second directorial job and you have a lot of potential going into theaters this Christmas.
The Interview
You know those guys from Pineapple Express? Well they're going to assassinate the leader of North Korea. Seth Rogen and James Franco play a producer and host of a huge world wide talk show. Turns out that Kim Jong-un is a big fan and wants to be interviewed by them. That's when the C.I.A steps in and asks if they could you know... Kill him for them. Combine those to trying to do a covert assassination black ops with the fact that the Sony hacking is most likely happening because of this and we are intrigued.
Big Eyes
So this is a
Tim Burton movie, but it's not a zany bonkers Johnny Depp acid trip that you would usually expect. It's actually a drama based on painter Margaret Keane who had an extremely successful career in the 50's and then had to fight her husband in court for credit for her own work. Amy Adams does incredible work on her
films nowadays, so more interesting in seeing this for her and not Burton.
