Maybe you really can enjoy each other’s company while you spend all day in the kitchen and reminisce about holidays past like something out of a Norman Rockwell painting. But just in case, here are five new movies to check out.
Christopher Lawrence
Christopher Lawrence is the movie critic for the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
clawrence@reviewjournal.com … @life_onthecouch on Twitter. 702-380-4567
In an attempt to cut through all the holiday clutter on TV, here’s a look at the 25 specials of the season you should check out.
Have you ever read a bunch of critics breathlessly praise a little movie you never knew existed, taken a chance and bought a ticket only to trudge out of the theater wondering what in the world we were thinking?
Pazienza fought just three of his 60 bouts here. But two of those bookend the new biopic “Bleed for This,” starring Teller as the boxer who returned to the ring after suffering a broken neck.
Look, I don’t have anything against Harry Potter fans. They seem like a good-natured, if somewhat excitable, lot. I’ve just never had much in common with them. That’s why I’ve spent the past few months dreading the spinoff, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.”
It’s the most Nicolas Cage time of the year. When he isn’t turning up in cellphone videos hug-wrestling Vince Neil, our favorite local Oscar winner is busy cranking out movies that play in a handful of theaters before sprinting to home video a few days later.
Directed by Denis Villeneuve (“Sicario”), from an adaptation of Ted Chiang’s “Story of Your Life” by screenwriter Eric Heisserer (“Lights Out”), “Arrival” is the thinking person’s sci-fi.
The bulk of this year’s Oscar nominees will come from films that are still awaiting release. It should be their time to shine, these small, thoughtful works of art. And yet they’ll still be overshadowed at the box office by spinoffs of two of the most successful franchises in movie history.
To borrow from Justin Timberlake’s summer anthem, “Can’t Stop the Feeling,” you should look at the animated “Trolls” as an excuse to just dance, dance, dance. Because there’s certainly not much in the way of plot, plot, plot.
Gibson was being kept away from the movie — about Army medic Desmond Doss’ rescue of 75 men during World War II despite his refusal to carry a gun — as though he were the subject of yet another restraining order.
You wouldn’t think injecting a little magic into the Marvel Cinematic Universe would be that big of a deal. But you’d be wrong. So very, very wrong.
“Inferno” puts the buttoned-up Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) in a situation very similar to that of another action hero who returned to theaters this year after a long absence. Think of him as Jason Bore.
Making an even reasonably effective horror movie is the closest thing to printing money other than actually printing money.
While Tom Cruise’s involvement is the only reason “Jack Reacher: Never Go Back” exists, the sequel quickly turns into “The Cobie Smulders Show.” And, in a delightful surprise, the actress proves feisty, flirty and extremely skilled with both her fists and her feet.
You should focus on keeping away from this seen-it-all-before misfire.