December is one dickens of a busy month, if you’ll pardon the weak semi-pun. There are six films going into wide release next Friday the 21st, plus another three on Christmas Day — and that’s not even counting the five or six limited-release pictures that will open. So between watching movies, re-watching potential top-10-list movies, and doing Christmas shopping, I’ve barely had time to watch TV.
Anyway, the big onslaught is next week. Today, Hollywood has just a couple films that it’s hoping will distract you from more important things.
“I Am Legend” is worthy of your time, with Will Smith as the lone survivor (OR IS HE?????) of a virus that wipes out humanity.
“Alvin and the Chipmunks,” on the other hand, is not even worthy of the electrons it takes to write this — though I note it’s not nearly as horrifically bad as I feared it would be.
“Juno,” which we reviewed in limited release last week, expands a bit today. Peter Sciretta at Slashfilm was good enough to post a list of which cities get it and when, so you can check that to see when your metro area will be blessed.
“The Kite Runner” opens in a handful of markets today and goes wide next week. I’m reviewing it now because I wanted to get it out of the way of the aforementioned Dec. 21 onslaught. Anyway, it’s not particularly good.
“Romance & Cigarettes” is a daft musical starring James Gandolfini and written and directed by John Turturro. It’s in limited release, as is the documentary “For the Bible Told Me So,” an inspiring presentation on the conflict between religion and homosexuality.
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