Holiday Movie Guide 2008

With the holidays around the corner, this is a great time to see the Oscar-baits or a movie with the family! Get the buzz on the hottest new releases from now until the end of the year!

Slumdog Millionaire
November 12 | Oscar Bait
When an illiterate young man scores big on India's version of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?," officals suspect him of cheating. His determination to prove him a liar sets in motion a vivid story about life in rapidly changing India.

Quantum of Solace
November 14 | Action, Blockbuster
Betrayed by Vesper, the woman he loved, Daniel Craig is back as 007 to fight the urge to make his latest mission personal. Pursuing his determination to uncover the truth, Bond and M interrogate Mr. White who reveals the organization which blackmailed Vesper is far more complex and dangerous than anyone had imagined.

Bolt
November 21 | Family
For super-dog Bolt, every day is filled with adventure, danger and intrigue - at least until the cameras stop rolling. When the canine star of a hit TV show is accidentally shipped from his Hollywood soundstage to New York City, he begins his biggest adventure yet - a cross-country journey through the real world. Armed only with the delusions that all his amazing feats and powers are real, and with the help of two unlikely traveling companions - a jaded, abandoned housecat named Mittens and TV-obsessed hamster in a plastic ball named Rhino - Bolt discovers he doesn't need superpowers to be a hero. John Travolta and Miley Cyrus are the star-voices behind Disney's newest 3-D computer-animated tale.

Twilight
November 21 | Romance, Adventure
The most talked about movie of the holiday season, Twilight focuses on high-school student (Kristen Stewart) who is caught up in a romance with a vampire (Robert Pattinson), whose family has renounced the drinking of blood. Based on the popular book series by Stephenie Meyer, this deeply romantic and extraordinarily suspenseful story should be a hit on the big screen this holiday season.

Australia
November 26 | Oscar Bait
Australian filmmaker Baz Luhrman (Moulin Rouge ) showcases his native land in a big-budget extravaganza starring fellow countrymen Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman. The combination love story and history lesson takes place aorung the time Japan attacked the conteinent at the beginning of World War II, with Kidman playing a British aristocrat who falls in love with Jackman, a cattle herder.

Milk
November 26 | Oscar Bait
His life changed history. His courage changed lives. In 1977, Harvey Milk (Sean Penn) was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, becoming the first openly gay man to be voted into public office in America. His victory was not just a victory for gay rights; he forged coalitions across the political spectrum. In Gus Van Sant's latest film looks at the last eight years of Milk's life.

Four Christmases
November 26 | Comedy
This isn't your average gooey, life-affirming holiday movie-- you know, the kind stuffed down moviegoers' throats like so many honey-glazed hams every holiday season. Instead, peace on earth becomes hell on earth when a happy San Francisco couple (Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon) is forced to visit each of their idiosyncratic divorced parents in one awkward-moment-and-hilarity-filled Christmas Day.

Frost/Nixon
December 5 | Oscar Bait
Ron Howard directs a film adaptation of Peter Morgan's Tony-nominated film about David Frost's interviews with Richard Nixon in 1977, after he resigned over the Watergate scandal.

Cadillac Records
December 5 | Sleeper
The first of two completed biopics on blues music mogul Leonard Chess (Adrien Brody), this is the one that will prevail (the less star-studded 'Who Do You Love' faces an uphill battle to theaters). With a supporting cast that includes Beyonce, Mos Def and Columbus Short, don't be shocked if the audiences that flocked to Ray and Dreamgirls help make this a hit, too.

The Reader
December 10 | Oscar Bait
Ralph Fiennes and Kate Winslet star in this post-WWII drama directed by Stephen Daldry and penned by David Hare, the duo behind the award-winning The Hours. Winslet's a former Nazi defending herself in court for war crimes; Fiennes is the present version of the younger man she bedded. And we're the ones putting them in our Oscar pool.

The Day the Earth Stood Still
December 12 | Blockbuster, Action
Keanu Reeves as an emotionless alien? It's so crazy it just might work! This updated remake of the 1951 sci-fi flick has Reeves squarely back in butt-kicking mode for arguably the first time since the Matrix movies. Jennifer Connelly co-stars as a microbiologist, but watch for intriguing supporting turns from John Cleese in a dramatic role, and Mad Men's Jon Hamm as a NASA official.

Doubt
December 12 | Oscar Bait
We could protest that Cherry Jones, who earned a Tony as the righteous Sister Aloysius in John Patrick Shanley's everything-winning play, wasn't asked to star in the film. But why quibble when we get Meryl Streep instead? Philip Seymour Hoffman co-stars as the accused Father Flynn and Amy Adams as a young nun; with wattage like this, there's little doubt that Doubt will have Oscar voters singing hallelujah.

Gran Torino
December 17 | Oscar Bait
Clint Eastwood returns to the director's chair a second time this holiday season in this drama about the relationship between an aging, racist Korean-war veteran--played by Eastwood--and his neighbor, a young Hmong teenager who ties to steal his treasured 1972 Gran Torino.

Seven Pounds
December 19 | Oscar Bait
Ben Thomas (Will Smith) is an IRS agent with a fateful secret who embarks on an extraordinary journey of redemption by forever changing the lives of seven strangers. After two blockbuster special-effects movies, Will Smith reunites with Italian director Gabriele Muccino who was behind the camera for 2006's Pursuit of Happiness.

The Brothers Bloom
December 19 | Oscar Bait, Sleeper
Mark Ruffalo and Adrien Brody play the titular brothers Bloom, a con artist duo out to swindle an intoxicatingly zany heiress (Rachel Weisz), in writer-director Rian Johnson's follow-up to the high-school-set neo-noir Brick. The film employs the quirkiness and anachronistic flourishes one might find in a Wes Anderson flick, but ultimately becomes something uniquely, refreshingly its own: a light-hearted caper, an endearing romance and a hankie-necessitating drama rolled into one.

The Tale of Despereaux
December 19 | Family
After a rat in the kitchen proved to be a box office favorite in Pixar's Ratatouille, The Tale of Despereaux one-ups it -- there's a rat and a mouse -- voiced by Dustin Hoffman and Matthew Broderick, respectively; add Emma Watson as a kidnapped princess who has to be rescued by the rodents and townspeople who just want their soup. Well, maybe the rats will be in the kitchen after all.

Yes Man
December 19 | Comedy
Jim Carrey returns to his broad and zany style of comedy for the first time since 2003. He plays a nay-saying suit persuaded into saying "Yes" to everything for an entire year. Extreme adventures, romance with Zooey Deschanel and a life-altering addiction to Red Bull follow.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
December 25 | Oscar Bait
Adapted from the 1920s story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Brad Pitt plays a man who is born in his eighties and ages backwards: a man, like any of us, who is unable to stop time. We follow his story, set in New Orleans from the end of World War I in 1918, into the 21st century, following his journey that is as unusual as any man's life can be.

Bedtime Stories
December 25 | Family, Blockbuster
Adam Sandler stars in a real family-friendly pic (as opposed to, say, Click ) as a fun uncle who discovers that the tales he's telling his niece and nephew are coming true -- and not in a good way. The director of 'The Pacifier' brings his light touch to the big screen, but this time without Vin Diesel ... now, that's a 'Story' we can appreciate.

Marley and Me
December 25 | Comedy, Family
Based on the New York Times' bestseller, this appropriate-for-all-ages dramedy follows one couple (Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson) and their energetic pup, Marley, as they navigate through life's challenges and changes. Anyone who's ever had a pet will appreciate Marley's influence on his owners' lives, but it's not all laughs. Tissues recommended.

The Spirit
December 25 | Action
Frank Miller -- who knows a thing or two about graphic novels -- makes his solo directorial debut with this hyper-stylized adaptation of Will Eisner's popular comic about a good guy who's returned from the dead to protect the city (that'd be the Spirit), his arch nemesis, the Octopus, and the beautiful women who either want to love him or destroy him.

Waltz With Bashir
December 25 | Sleeper
We don't want to oversimplify it by merely calling it this year's Persepolis, but the similarities are striking. It's a stylishly animated import (this time from Israel) aimed at adults about tensions in the Middle East during the late '70s/early '80s (here it's the first Israel-Lebanon war) -- and has Best Animated Feature written all over it.

Valkyrie
December 26 | Oscar Bait
At the height of WW2, Tom Cruise stars as Claus von Stauffenberg, one of the high-ranking German officers who hatched a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, and seize power of the military command in order to end the war. The operation was codenamed "Valkyrie", for the emergency plan that was meant to be used in case of a revolt against the Nazi government. This plan had been modified by the conspirators to ensure their success, but for various reasons the plot failed when finally carried out on 20 July 1944. The conspirators of the inner circle were shot after a kangaroo trial or sentenced to death soon after.

Revolutionary Road
December 26 | Oscar Bait
Considering the chances of a Titanic sequel are somewhere between zero and nil (poor frozen Jack Dawson!), this is the closest fans will ever get, as Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet reunite to play an unhappily married couple living in 1950s Connecticut. It may be a frosty reunion for the onetime lovers (and real-life BFFs), but it could lead to a happy ending -- at the Oscars.

Defiance
December 31 | Action
Daniel Craig takes a break from being a glamorous, globetrotting MI6 agent to take on a down-and-dirty, based-on-a-true-story WWII drama from Glory director Edward Zwick. Craig, Liev Schreiber and Jamie Bell star as Jewish brothers from Belarus who fought back against the Nazis in WWII. It doesn't have James Bond-level hype, but it could offer Craig some solace come Oscar time.