It’s the holiday season for movies and there’s no better time than now to map out what you’ll be seeing in the last few weeks of the film year.

December 9 
New Year’s Eve
I never saw the predecessor to this movie, Valentine’s Day, so I really just expect this to be the more of the same of whatever that was. Probably will be a mostly unoffensive holiday movie, but if you’re into intersecting love stories, just watch Love Actually or Paris, Je T’aime.
The Sitter
This is your last chance to see Jonah Hill as we all know him, before his dramatic weight loss which will first be seen in 2012’s 21 Jump Street. I see this as his character Seth in Superbad meets Adventures in Babysitting plus R-rated humor. It’s another David Gordon Green directed comedy, so if you’ve been a fan of his other movies, like Pineapple Express or Your Highness, you should be into this.
December 16
Alvin & The Chipmunks: Chipwrecked
If your kids are obsessed with this franchise I guess you might be forced to see this. If you don’t, then there is no excuse for paying for a ticket for an Alvin & the Chipmunks movie. You go ‘head Jason Lee with your bad self getting those paychecks (I guess).
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
2009’s Sherlock Holmes was a great treat and considering this film has all the same ingredients I can’t see how this could go wrong. Guy Ritchie is the perfect director for these films, and Robert Downey Jr is undeniably delightful as Holmes. It’s also Noomi Rapace’s (of Millienium Series fame) first American film.
Young Adult
Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody team up again for the first time since Juno in 2007 to direct and write, respectively, Young Adult. Charlize Theron  plays a character reminiscent of Cameron Diaz’s role earlier this year in Bad Teacher. Theron’s character is attempting to win back her high school sweetheart played by Patrick Wilson. Patton Oswalt shows up in one of his biggest film roles in recent years as Theron’s seemingly only hometown friend. This could fall flat, but I am pretty excited to check it out considering the talent involved.


Wednesday, December 21
The Adventures of Tintin
This Steven Spielberg-directed, Peter Jackson-produced film is already an insane hit in the UK, and seems to be a perfect family film. The writing staff is quite impressive with the amazing Edgar Wright, Joe Cornish (Attack the Block), and Steven Moffat (Doctor Who) teaming up on the script based on the popular European comic books. It will be a huge (and probably inevitable) shame for it to perform worse at the box office than Alvin but at least it’s already got a $200 million cushion.
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Since, the first teaser trailer came out over the summer, FTS has basically been drooling over this film. I can’t imagine it being anything less than brilliant. David Fincher seems like the perfect director to present this story, Rooney Mara seems to embody her role, and Daniel Craig is always pretty great. And, come on–“the feel bad movie of Christmas” is the coolest tagline ever.
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
Honestly, I kind of want to check this out since there hasn’t been a sort of straight up action/spy movie in awhile. The last real action movie (that was unrelated to superheros/comics) I remember getting amped up in theaters for was Predators from July 2010 so this sort of feels welcome.
 

Friday, December 23
We Bought A Zoo
Matt Damon makes me want to want to see this, but the trailer is just way too corny. It’s based on a true story of a father who bought and operated a rundown zoo with his family. If this story was important or unique enough to merit a film adaptation there may be more to it than you get from the trailer. We’ll just have to wait this out to see if it’s worth the watch.

Sunday, December 25
The Darkest Hour
I haven’t seen too much advertisement for this alien invasion movie. It has some decent special effects and sports a young cast including Emile Hirsch, Olivia Thirlby (Juno), and Max Minghella (The Social Network). Looks like it has some potential but the alien genre is a bit tired.

War Horse
This movie is about a horse from the perspective of a horse and its apparently remarkable journey during World War I. It also looks remarkably boring. The only genre more tired than alien has to be horse. This film is also directed by Spielberg which is the only aspect that seems sort of promising.


-Jess

We here at FTS enjoy seeing a movie on Christmas Day. Do you have a similar tradition? Excited about any of these releases? Let us know!