THE LION, THE GEISHA AND THE BIG APE A WILD SEASON AHEAD.There's always magic in the air during the holidays, and this year is no different - from the latest ``Harry Potter'' to the much-anticipated big-screen adaptation of C.S. Lewis' ``The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.'' There is, of course, another literary translation that's been eagerly awaited: ``Memoirs of a Geisha.'' Mel Brooks' ``The Producers'' returns to the screen after its Broadway reimaging, while another Great White Way success, ``Rent,'' also dances into theaters. There is family fare and comedy - ``Yours, Mine and Ours,'' and Jim Carrey in ``Fun With Dick and Jane.'' And with awards season just ahead, there is lots of serious-minded stuff - ``Walk the Line,'' ``Syriana,'' ``Brokeback Mountain'' ``The Family Stone,'' ``The New World,'' ``Casanova'' and Steven Spielberg's ``Munich,'' to name a few. Of course, looming over everything is ``King Kong,'' from ``Lord of the Rings'' director Peter Jackson. By the way, if any films disappear from this list, it wasn't magic, just the studios being jumpy. Coming to a theater near you Compiled by Glenn Whipp NOV judgment notwithstanding the verdict (N.O.V.) n. reversal of a jury's verdict by the trial judge when the judge believes there was no factual basis for the verdict or it was contrary to law. The judge will then enter a different verdict as "a matter of law. . 18 BEFORE THE FALL: Nazis like German kid's boxing skills. Will he sell his soul to escape poverty? (Picture This!) GAY SEX IN THE '70s: Life before AIDS. HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE: Harry battles hormones and Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes). Mike Newell directs. (Warner Bros BROS Brothers BROS Benefits and Retirement Operations Section (King County, Washington) BROS Barnes and Richmond Operatic Society (London, UK) .) ONE BRIGHT SHINING MOMENT One Bright Shining Moment: The Forgotten Summer of George McGovern is a 2005 documentary directed by Stephen Vittoria. It chronicles the unsuccessful 1972 presidential campaign of progressive Democrat George McGovern. : George McGovern runs for president. So where's the shining moment? (Street Legal) PULSE: After a suicide, it's the end of the world as they know it for a group of friends. And they don't feel fine. (Magnolia) THREE OF HEARTS: A POSTMODERN FAMILY: Documentary about two gay men and the woman they agree to love. (THINKFilm) WALK THE LINE: Johnny Cash gets the ``Ray'' treatment with Joaquin Phoenix playing the Man in Black. (20th Century Fox) NOV. 23 IN THE MIX: Usher plays a DJ who falls for a Mafia princess. Mayhem and comedy ensue. (Lions Gate) THE ICE HARVEST: Dim bulbs (John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton) embezzle embezzle To take illegally something of value being held in custody for someone else. money on Christmas Eve. It gets complicated from there. Harold Ramis directs. (Focus) JUST FRIENDS: A man comes across his high-school crush, the person who turned him into a take-no-prisoners womanizer wom·an·ize v. woman·ized, woman·iz·ing, woman·iz·es v.intr. To pursue women lecherously. v.tr. To give female characteristics to; feminize. . (New Line) THE POLAR EXPRESS: Robert Zemeckis' creepy-looking holiday movie returns in IMAX IMAX Noun a film projection process that produces an image ten times larger than standard theaters. (Warner Bros.) RENT: Broadway hit about starving East Villagers gets the big-screen treatment with Chris Columbus (``Mrs. Doubtfire'') in the director's chair. (Sony) STREETS OF LEGEND: Faster and furiouser. (Lions Gate) SYRIANA: Political thriller about big oil and government corruption. With George Clooney and Matt Damon; written and directed by Stephen Gaghan (``Traffic''). (Warner Bros.) YOURS, MINE & OURS: Hey, the ``Cheaper by the Dozen'' remake did business. So why not exhume ex·hume tr.v. ex·humed, ex·hum·ing, ex·humes 1. To remove from a grave; disinter. 2. To bring to light, especially after a period of obscurity. the comedy about the guy with 10 children marrying the woman with eight? Dennis Quaid and Rene Russo attempt to control chaos and fail. (Paramount) NOV. 25 DOWN TO THE BONE: Recovering cocaine addicts in love. (Laemmle/Zeller) THE LIBERTINE lib·er·tine n. 1. One who acts without moral restraint; a dissolute person. 2. One who defies established religious precepts; a freethinker. adj. Morally unrestrained; dissolute. : Johnny Depp plays a randy earl in Restoration England. (Weinstein Co.) THE PRESIDENT'S LAST BANG: Korean dinner party is ruined when the nation's president is assassinated. It's a comedy. (Kino kino the juice of certain plants, some tropical and some Australian eucalypts, used in medicine as an astringent. ) DEC. 2 AEON FLUX: Charlize Theron kicks butt, playing a super-hero battling sinister ... zzzzz ... (Paramount) BREAKFAST ON PLUTO: Irisher embraces his feminine side in 1970s war-torn Northern Ireland. Neil Jordan directs; Cillian Murphy stars. (Sony Pictures Classics) FIRST DESCENT: Snowboard documentary. Order the jumbo Mountain Dew from the snack bar. (Universal) THE KID & I: Tom Arnold plays an Arnold Schwarzenegger-type action hero actor rescued from obscurity, not by special election but by the opportunity to make a new movie with a spoiled-brat rich kid. MRS. PALFREY pal·frey n. pl. pal·freys Archaic A saddle horse, especially one for a woman to ride. [Middle English, from Old French palefrei, from Medieval Latin AT THE CLAREMONT: Lonely woman finds friendship with young writer. Joan Plowright stars. (Cineville) 39 POUNDS OF LOVE: Grown man weighs 39 pounds, has lots of love. (HBO Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO) A form of oxygen therapy in which the patient breathes oxygen in a pressurized chamber. Mentioned in: Ozone Therapy ) TRANSAMERICA: Pre-op transsexual trans·sex·u·al n. A person who strongly identifies with the opposite gender and who chooses to live as a member of the opposite gender or to become one by surgery. adj. 1. Of or relating to such a person. 2. must make peace with the son he/she never knew existed. Felicity Huffman stars. (Weinstein Co.) DEC. 9 BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN: Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal play gay cowboys trying to cope with their culturally unacceptable feelings in this Venice Film Festival award winner directed by ``Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon's'' Ang Lee. (Focus) THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE: C.S. Lewis' fantasy epic follows ``The Lord of the Rings'' to the big screen - with, hopefully, the same degree of audience interest as a result. ``Shrek''-meister Andrew Adamson directs a mostly Brit cast. (Disney) EK AJNABEE: Misfit mis·fit n. 1. Something of the wrong size or shape for its purpose. 2. One who is unable to adjust to one's environment or circumstances or is considered to be disturbingly different from others. finds redemption in the smile of a little girl in this Indian import. (G.S. Entertainment) MAREBITO: Cameraman looks for ghosts in Japanese subways. (Tartan) MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA: Rob Marshall (``Chicago'') directs the adaptation of Arthur Golden's acclaimed novel about a legendary geisha geisha Member of a professional class of women in Japan whose traditional occupation is to entertain men. A geisha must be adept at singing, dancing, and playing traditional musical instruments (e.g., the samisen) in addition to being skilled at making conversation. (Ziyi Zhang). (Sony) MOONLIGHT: Dutch girl discovers bleeding boy in family garden. She decides to keep him. (Indican indican /in·di·can/ (in´di-kan) potassium indoxyl sulfate, formed by decomposition of tryptophan in the intestines and excreted in the urine. in·di·can n. ) MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS: Finally, a Judi Dench movie someone under 70 might like. She plays the upper-class operator of the first nude nightclub in Britain. (Weinstein Co.) THE WORLD'S FASTEST INDIAN: True story of a man who builds a motorcycle in 1920s New Zealand with the idea of taking it to Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats Bonneville Salt Flats (bŏn`əvĭl, bŏ`nēvĭl, bŏn`vĭl), desert area in Tooele co., NW Utah, c.14 mi (22.5 km) long and 7 mi (11.2 km) wide. and breaking the world's speed record. Anthony Hopkins stars. (Magnolia) DEC. 14 KING KONG: Something about a big ape. You might have heard of it. Directed by Peter Jackson. You might have heard of his ``Lord of the Rings'' pictures. Naomi Watts, Jack Black, Adrien Brody and the guy who played Gollum find big monkey love. (Universal) THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA: Tommy Lee Jones For the musician, see . Tommy Lee Jones (born September 15, 1946) is an Academy Award-winning American actor and director. Biography Early life Jones was born in San Saba, Texas, the son of Clyde C. directs and stars in this story about a ranch hand trying to bury his best friend in Mexico. (Sony Pictures Classics) DEC. 16 BE HERE TO LOVE ME Be Here To Love Me chronicles the fascinating and often turbulent life of Townes Van Zandt with a simple unpredictability that mimics the way the artist lived his short life. : A FILM ABOUT TOWNES VAN ZANDT: Documentary about the hard-livin', highly influential Texas singer-songwriter, the man who wrote ``Pancho and Lefty.'' (Palm Pictures) CAPE OF GOOD HOPE Noun 1. Cape of Good Hope - a point of land in southwestern South Africa (south of Cape Town) 2. Cape of Good Hope - a province of western South Africa Cape of Good Hope n → : South Africans converge at an animal shelter. (Artistic License) ELECTRIC SHADOWS: Chinese ``Cinema Paradiso.'' (First Run) THE FAMILY STONE: Ensemble holiday comedy about a favorite son (Dermot Mulroney) who brings his uptight fiancee (Sarah Jessica Parker) home for Christmas. With Diane Keaton, Rachel McAdams and many, many others. (20th Century Fox) THE PRODUCERS: The Broadway musical based on Mel Brooks' movie is now a movie again. Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick reprise their stage incarnations of crooked impresario Max Bialystock and nervous accountant Leo Leo, in astronomy Leo [Lat.,=the lion], northern constellation lying S of Ursa Major and on the ecliptic (apparent path of the sun through the heavens) between Cancer and Virgo; it is one of the constellations of the zodiac. Bloom. The theatrical hit's director and choreographer Susan Stroman did the same for the film. (Universal) WHEN THE SEA RISES: Comedienne travels through France, performing her one-woman show and having an affair with an admirer. Yolande Moreau stars, directs and writes. (New Yorker) DEC. 21 CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN 2: In which Steve Martin's bursting brood gets caught up in competition with a family of overachievers. Eugene Levy heads the rival clan. (20th Century Fox) FUN WITH DICK AND JANE: Remake of the 1977 comedy with a greater emphasis on the consumerism that has overtaken American society in the intervening years. It's supposed to be funny, too. With Jim Carrey and Tea Leoni. (Sony) THE WHITE COUNTESS: The last Merchant-Ivory production follows a blind, disillusioned dis·il·lu·sion tr.v. dis·il·lu·sioned, dis·il·lu·sion·ing, dis·il·lu·sions To free or deprive of illusion. n. 1. The act of disenchanting. 2. The condition or fact of being disenchanted. diplomat and his relationship with a Russian refugee in 1930s Shanghai. Ralph Fiennes, Natasha Richardson and Vanessa Redgrave star. (Sony Pictures Classics) DEC. 23 CACHE (HIDDEN): More award-winning alienation from Michael Haneke, this time concerning a French talk-show host receiving intense personal videotapes from an anonymous sender. (Sony Pictures Classics) THE MATADOR: Pierce Brosnan and Greg Kinnear star in an unusually comic and moving hit-man thriller. (Weinstein Co.) MUNICH: Steven Spielberg follows Israeli assassins who take out the Palestinian terrorists responsible for the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre. (Universal) THE RINGER: Johnny Knoxville is a loser who fakes his way into the Special Olympics so he can become a winner. Supposedly fictional. (Fox Searchlight) DEC. 25 CASANOVA: Heath Ledger plays the legendary ladies' man in this Lasse a. & adv. 1. Less. Hallstrom comedy. (Touchstone) THE NEW WORLD: Director Terrence Malick's drama of colonial days stars Colin Farrell as John Smith and Q'Orianka Kilcher as Pocahontas. (New Line) RUMOR HAS IT: Woman learns her family was the inspiration for ``The Graduate'' and that Jesus loves her more than she will know, whoa, whoa, whoa. With Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Costner, Shirley MacLaine. (Warner Bros.) WOLF CREEK: Cute English backpackers are kidnapped in the Australian Outback. (Weinstein Co.) DEC. 28 MATCH POINT: They swear, swear, swear that this is the good Woody Allen movie we've been waiting for him to make. It's a drama, set in England, starring Scarlett Johansson. (DreamWorks) CAPTION(S): 6 photos Photo: (1 -- 5 -- cover -- color) HOLIDAY MOVIE GUIDE (6) ``THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE'' DEC. 9 Box: Coming to a theater near you (see text) |
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