Otherwise, it can be hard to pre-determine the post-Christmas drop-offs next weekend, especially since we’re basing them on estimates this week and with so many more people going into theatres this week than normal with no school on Friday or Monday and so many people taking off work this week. In either case, the Top 3 should mostly remain the same from this past weekend just down slightly from last week with the new movies inserted somewhere after that. (Look for Aliens vs. Predator - Requiem to be down by the weekend and The Water Horse and The Great Debaters getting a slight bump as the week progresses.)

This Week's Predictions -

1. National Treasure: Book of Secrets (Disney) - $40.5 million - 11%

2. I Am Legend (Warner Bros.) - $28.0 million - 18%

3. Alvin and the Chipmunks (Fox) - $24.6 million - 16%

4. Aliens vs. Predator - Requiem (Fox) - $17.8 million N/A

5. The Water Horse (Sony) - $10.8 million N/A

6. Charlie Wilson’s War (Universal) - $10.6 million +10%

7. Sweeney Todd (DreamWorks) - $7.8 million - 17%

8. The Great Debaters (The Weinstein Co.) $7.6 million N/A

9. P.S. I Love You (Warner Bros.) - $7.5 million +15%

10. Juno (Fox Searchlight) - $5.4 million +59%

11. Enchanted (Disney) - $5.0 million +20%

Last Christmas fell on a Monday and DreamWorks’s Oscar hopeful Dreamgirls expanded nationwide after receiving a number of Golden Globe nominations and grossed $8.7 million to take second place for the holiday, but by the weekend, it had dropped a bit, grossing $14.1 million to take third place behind Ben Stiller’s Night at the Museum and Will Smith’s The Pursuit of Happyness. While Dimension’s remake of Black Christmas made $3.3 million its opening day on Christmas, by the weekend, it had lost so much business that it ended up outside the Top 10 with $3.7 million. The Top 10 grossed $137 million last year but that also included New Year’s Eve on Sunday, which greatly affected the weekend. This weekend should top that amount with more new movie choices and no holiday to lessen the three days.

Aliens vs. Predator - Requiem (20th Century Fox)
Starring Reiko Aylesworth, Steven Pasquale, John Ortiz, Shareeka Epps, Johnny Lewis, Sam Trammell, David Paetka
Directed by Greg & Colin Strause (debut of the visual effects supervisors for lots of movies); Written by Shane Salerno (Shaft)
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Rated R
Tagline: "This Christmas there will be no peace on Earth"
Plot Summary: Two violent space-faring species face off in a second war in the middle of a Midwestern town where the residents keep getting caught in the crossfire.

Review (Coming Soon!)

Tomorrow is Christmas Day and what better way to spend it than to watch a couple deadly fictional creatures go at each other to see who gets to claim Earth for their own? This must be what was going through the mind of someone at 20th Century Fox when they booked the sequel to the 2004 action flick Alien vs. Predator on Christmas Day, knowing that plenty of single guys not going home to the family will need something to do. (At least that's my excuse for seeing it!) This is the second match-up between the alien creatures first created for the 1979 Ridley Scott film Alien and the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle Predator. While the latter only spawned a single poorly-received Arnold-less sequel, Alien was turned into a hugely successful franchise due to a blockbuster sequel helmed by James "Titanic" Cameron, and a couple less well-received follow-ups.

Three years ago, someone at 20th Century Fox got the genius idea of pitting the two popular creature franchises in a single movie, although it wasn't exactly an original idea since that premise had already been used for a series of popular Dark Horse comic books, a couple novels and a series of video games in the early '90s, so it really was only a matter of time before a movie was made using the idea. Director Paul W.S. Anderson who had helmed a bunch of video game inspired movies already, like the first Resident Evil and Mortal Kombat, directed the film and it would become his biggest hit to date. With that in mind, it made sense to make another movie, although this time, Anderson's merely producing while handing the directorial duties over to the Brothers Strause, Greg and Colin, who have made a name for their visual FX work but who will be making their directorial debut with this sequel.

Let's take a look at the cast and see how that will help the movie bring in audiences… nope, haven't heard of a single one of them. Actually, that's not true, but it's kind of odd seeing Shareeka Epps, the young breakthrough actress from last year's indie film Half Nelson making this her second film, not to mention John Ortiz, who recently co-starred in Ridley Scott's American Gangster, which featured a face-off of a different kind. That said, we may as well face facts that this movie is all about the creatures and you don't really need stars like Sigourney Weaver or others to try to get fans of the creatures into the seats.

Instead of cutting things back to a PG-13 rating to bring in teen audiences like Fox did with the first movie, the sequel is instead going for an R-rating with the promise of there being more of the gore and violence that fans have come to love in the earlier Alien and Predator films. The original "AVP" movie opened at the height of summer, which helped it bring in $38 million its opening weekend, although it quickly died off after people rushed out to see it. Even with the different season for the sequel's release, a lot of horror and genre flicks have opened over Christmas trying to bring in a male audience not interested in normal holiday fare.

Marketing hasn't been as impressive as some of Fox's other movies, maybe because they know this kind of a movie is such an easy sell sure thing even without any known stars. The good thing about Aliens vs. Predator - Requiem is that its title tells the casual moviegoer exactly what they need to know, so it could rely just as heavily on the audiences who flock to theatres to see whatever's playing over the holidays than those who know about the rematch and deliberately go see it. Chances are the movie's audience will mainly be the guys familiar with the earlier franchise movies and the previous match-up, even if few people really dug it going by its weak 5.4/10 rating on IMDb. The best comparison for the movie might be Fox's recent movie based on the videogame Hitman but according to studio tracking, there isn't nearly as much interest among audiences to see another "AVP" movie, which doesn't help the fact that it's facing a lot more competition than this kind of movie might normally see with Will Smith's I Am Legend playing strong and National Treasure: Book of Secrets having just opened five days ago.

Because the sequel opens on a Tuesday, it's likely that it will do a lot of its business in those first few days, and by nature, business will decrease as the weekend approaches even with many if not most people off work and school the entire week. 20th Century Fox saw this situation when they opened their remake of The Omen on June 6, 2006, another Tuesday, and the movie did almost as much on that day as it did over the following weekend. Aliens vs. Predator will likely see a similar phenomenon as it brings in a lot of business on Tuesday and gradually less with a larger drop on Thursday and bigger bump on Friday night.

Why I Should See It: It's aliens… fighting predators! Need we say more than just repeat the title?
Why Not: The first movie really wasn't as good as it could have been and the fact that its sequel isn't being screened in advance for critics might be telling that the sequel is even worse.
Projections: Opening day should be in the $7 to 9 million range including midnight shows, and then figure another $8 to 10 million on Wednesday and Thursday and another $17 to 19 million over the three-day weekend--roughly $33 and 35 million in six days--but it probably will end up somewhere between $65 to 70 million total, maybe slightly more with so few other movies opening in the next two weeks.

COMPARISONS

The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep (Sony)
Starring Emily Watson, Alex Etel, Ben Chaplin, David Morrissey, Brian Cox
Directed by Jay Russell (My Dog Skip, Ladder 49); Written by Robert Nelson Jacobs (Dinosaur, Chocolat, The Shipping News)
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Family
Rated PG
Tagline: "Every big secret starts small."
Plot Summary: A young Scottish boy named Angus (Alex Etel) discovers an egg that hatches into a strange creature, believed to be the mythic water horse, but as his pet "Caruso" grows bigger, Angus needs to find a new home for the creature, and the nearby Loch Ness seems perfect.

Mini-Review: What starts out as a cute family film that could easily have been dubbed "Free Nessy" is actually a fascinating and very clever expanded theory upon the possible origins of the Loch Ness monster set during WW II era Scotland, almost like a prequel to Zack Penn's Incident at Loch Ness. Sure, kids will probably fall in love with the adorable CG-generated Caruso, but even cynical parents should enjoy his shenanigans and be impressed by the realism brought to the creature by the talented WETA FX. Overall, it's a beautifully shot and well directed film with a fine British cast including Brian Cox and Emily Watson, but most of all, it sees the welcome return of Alex Etel, star of Danny Boyle's underrated "Millions," who continues to be one of the few child actors who doesn't play up cute to the point of being annoying. While the plot is fairly obvious and predictable if you've seen any of the previous movies about a boy and his special pet, setting the story during wartime gives it another dimension, though parents will probably understand the veiled anti-war sentiment more than their kids. Towards the end, things do get very dark and the larger-scale Caruso—he grows when he eats and he eats a lot—might be way too scary for younger kids, but even that allows the film to bear comparisons to some of Guillermo del Toro's work in the way it combines dark fantasy with a childlike view of the world. Either way, this is a surprisingly rich family film of a quality that we don't normally see in kids fare these days, more like the kind of movies Disney used to make in the '70s and Amblin made in the '80s. It has all the makings of a sleeper family favorite, an endearing kids' adventure recommended for everyone in the family from kids over 8 on up. Rating: 8/10

A different kind of CG creature stars in the one new family film opening on Christmas Day this year, and it's also the latest book adaptation from Walden Media, this time work with distributor Sony on a film that might be a harder sell than something like Alvin and the Chipmunks despite also being a movie that entire families might enjoy, which is rare these days. This one is based on the book by Dick King-Smith, creator of "Babe" the talking pig who starred in a hugely successful family film and its less than spectacular sequel, and it looks at one possible origin for the legendary creature that lives in Scotland's Loch Ness.

The film stars Alex Etel, whose only previous movie was Danny Boyle's well-regarded family film Millions, but he's joined by a diverse ensemble cast of Britain's finest including Emily Watson, Brian Cox, Ben Chaplin and David Morrisey. More important the cast will be the film's CG FX used to create the creature, and that's handled by WETA FX who are famous for their work on Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings and less so, for creating the creature in the Korean monster movie The Host. Based on a screenplay by Oscar nominated Robert Nelson Jacobs (Chocolat), the whole thing is directed by Jay Russell whose last movie was Ladder 49, but who also helmed My Dog Skip, which is more in the vein of this movie. (That movie also happened a bad opening weekend but then picked up business over the following weeks.)

Unfortunately, Walden has had sporadic success with their book adaptations with the big ones being the movies they did with Disney based on The Chronicles of Narnia and Bridge to Terabithia earlier this year, but they also produced mega-bombs like Hoot and How to Eat Fried Worms, both with New Line. While there are certain similarities between this movie and Steven Spielberg's blockbuster E.T. the Extraterrestrial, a more reasonable comparison might be the 1993 family hit Free Willy, which opened slow but then found its audience as it continued to play in theaters. Unfortunately, movies just won't stick around these days like they used to if they don't do well opening weekend, so The Water Horse really has to take advantage of the lack of school over the next week so that it's still around in January, when kids can tell their friends to go see it.

A big problem that the movie might face is the fact that it's set in Scotland with lots of British accents, which might put off some parents from bringing their kids due to what I like to call "the Jeffrey Lyons Factor" where the accents are so heavy that the well-known TV critic comments that it requires subtitles even though they're clearly speaking English. While this might not seem like a big problem for a movie that's mainly being sold on its cute CG creature, the movie is getting a fairly low-key release compared to other holiday movies so it probably won't open huge on Christmas Day (probably $2 to 3 million tops) but it should build word-of-mouth towards the weekend with schools out, and kids, parents and families looking for something to see. The movie certainly looks cute and fun enough to interest those who know the general premise, even if it might be too scary for the smallest children, but being the kind of movie that can be seen by the whole family rather than just parents with kids, it's possible that this can be sleeper even if it's not an easy sell based on its vague title or being based on a little-known book.

Why I Should See It: This is a surprisingly enjoyable family adventure like the ones Disney and Amlin used to make.
Why Not: It also looks like a lot of other cutesy family movies about kids finding pets that have popped up ever since the success of "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial."
Projections: $7 to 8 million on Tuesday through Thursday and another $10 to 12 million over the three-day weekend, ultimately building to a total of roughly $45 million.

COMPARISONS

The Great Debaters (The Weinstein Co.)
Starring Denzel Washington, Forest Whitaker, Jurnee Smollett, Denzel Whitaker, Kimberly Elise, Nate Parker
Directed by Denzel Washington (Antwone Fischer); Written by Robert Eisele (Breach of Contract, "Vanishing Son")
Genre: Drama
Rated PG-13
Tagline: "When the nation was in need, he inspired them to give us hope."
Plot Summary: Three different but ambitious students enrolled at the all-black Wiley College in Marshall, Texas are inspired by their debating coach Melvin Tolson (Denzel Washington) to strive for better in their world of discrimination and segregation.

Mini-Review: We've seen this story of how a teacher inspires his kids onto great things so many times in the last ten years that it's hard not to be deeply cynical, especially with Denzel Washington in that all-too-familiar role once again. Fortunately, the movie doesn't spend all its time focusing on his character and the three saving graces that keep the film entertaining are the trio of young actors assembled by Washington who bring something special to to this well-scripted story in black history. Essentially, a love triangle of sorts is created between the three debating teammates, and while Nate Parker and Jurnee Smollett both are excellent, the most impressive performances comes in the form of young Denzel Whitaker as the portly outcast who has to endure a strict and deeply religious father, played by Forest Whitaker, in a small but supplementary part. The scenes between the two Whitakers (presumably not related) are some of the film's most dramatic ones, including one where the boy has to watch his well-educated father be denigrated by a pair of dumb pig farmers. By comparison, Washington himself seems to be phoning in his performance with the strongest one being the one scene with the older Whitaker, where you can almost feel the electricity as these two actors test each other. The film's many debating scenes get a bit dull as we watch these young actors speaking loudly about issue pre-Civil Rights over and over, mainly because this is where the film most resembles other films of the genre, but what clearly sets it apart and defines the movie is its setting of the South during the ‘30s, that allows us to see the ever-present racism faced by the characters within their surroundings including one particularly harrowing scene of a black man lynched and set on fire for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. At times, it feels like the writer had way too many ideas that he tried to shoehorn into the movie—the movie being over two hours long shows Washington's relative inexperience as a filmmaker in knowing what to cut out—but things do come together at the end as it builds to the expected conclusion, as the debating team takes on the clear favorites at Harvard University. Despite the film's meandering pace and predictability, there's some really important issues and ideas in this movie that are well worth exploring even 70 years later, and ultimately, the film does work as an inspirational tale even if it requires way too much effort and patience on the viewer's part before it gets there. Rating: 7.5/10

One of the more acclaimed films being released on Christmas Day is this Golden Globe nominated film from Denzel Washington, who has risen to the height of fame as one of the top actors in the business, but only directs his second feature with The Great Debaters after starring in dozens of movies that have grossed over $50 million. Even so, his directorial debut, the 2001 drama Antwone Fischer didn't exactly make a huge mark on the world despite having introduced one Derek Luke to the world, but it must have impressed media mogul Oprah Winfrey, who is producing her second movie after the 1990 Jonathan Demme directed adaptation Beloved. Like Antwone Fischer, this subject matter is very much up Washington's alley, being a biopic about the real life man who inspired the debating team of an all-black college to be the first to take on a white university, but it's also a historic drama about the south during that period of time, which will have a strong impact on African-American audiences who would normally be interested in seeing any movie Washington is involved with regardless of subject matter.

Of course, Washington plays the key role of Melvin Tolson, the man who inspired the debating team at a black college in the ‘30s, but he's also brought on an equally respected Oscar-winning actor in Forest Whitaker who plays a smaller role, but one that's pivotal to this important historic story. Whitaker's Q-rating exploded earlier this year with his Oscar win for The Last King of Scotland so a lot of people will be interested to see what he does next in this film, and his wife is played by Kimberly Elise, who also starred in Beloved and co-starred with Washington in the remake of The Manchurian Candidate. Washington has assembled a trio of fine young actors to drive a movie, which is really about them overcoming their own doubts and lack of confidence to become powerful speakers, the most prominent one being the ironically named young Denzel Whitaker, who apparently isn't related to either of the other two actors. It also stars Nate Parker, who also appeared in the swimming film Pride earlier this year, and the prettiest of the trio, 21-year-old Jurnee Smollette, who already appeared in similar inspiring stories like last year's The Gridiron Gang and the roller-skating film Roll Bounce the year before.

Unfortunately, this type of movie i.e. inspiring movies about teachers is not the kind that would normally do a ton of business in theatres without someone like Denzel involved, because most people feel like it's the kind of thing that would work just as well on DVD. A movie about debating doesn't seem like something that will have wide appeal either, though probably more than the aforementioned Pride, and while the movie might be educational for younger folks, it's unlikely they'll be interested in seeing a movie like this over the holidays, especially with so many fun action movies available.

The best thing going for the movie is that it's co-produced by Oprah Winfrey who has been giving the film a big push on her show, much like she did with Dreamgirls last year and other movies, while Denzel has also been using his significant clout to get on various daytime talk shows to talk about the movie. The audience for this movie will definitely be the over-30 African-American women who watch many of those shows (and who love Denzel) so that should help the awareness going into the holidays. Even though Beloved, the last movie Oprah produced, didn't fare that well, the much heftier 21st Century Oprah Effect should help the movie do well both on Christmas and over the course of the week. The film has similar credentials as Steven Spielberg's 1985 awards fodder The Color Purple which also opened during the holidays 12 years ago and went onto be nominated for a lot of Oscars, which eventually helped it make nearly $95 million. Two other movies that can be used as comparisons are Michael Mann's biopic of Ali starring Will Smith and last year's Dreamgirls, both films that did strongly with African-American audiences and women over Christmas week. Ali had its biggest day on Christmas proper, also a Tuesday, earning $10.2 million but that was nearly twice as much as its second biggest day. Dreamgirls grossed $8.7 million on Christmas Day last year in a third as many theatres and then had a similar effect as it tapered off towards the weekend.

While The Great Debaters is usually the type of movie that does better if platformed and then expanded later ala 2001's Finding Forrester or Washington's own Antwone Fischer, the Weinstein Company is opening Denzel's movie in a moderately wide release into 1,164 theatres on Christmas Day, right in between those other two references, although it doesn't have nearly as much advance buzz as either of those movies, nor does it have the built-in audience of the legendary boxer or the popular musical. Still, it should do decently on Tuesday and create buzz within African-American communities so that the weekend won't be hit nearly as bad, especially if it adds a few more theatres by then.

Why I Should See It: Denzel Washington explores a fascinating and troubled time in America's past from a new perspective and with an exceptional and diverse cast.
Why Not: Bah, who wants to see another movie about how great teachers are? I think we all know how great they are by now.
Projections: Figure on a big opening day between $3 and 5 million, another $6 to 7 million over the next two days and another $7 to 9 million over the three-day weekend--roughly $17 and 19 million in its first six days--on its way to between $30 and 40 million, depending on how well word-of-mouth sustains the film after its busy opening week.

COMPARISONS

THE CHOSEN ONE:

The Orphanage (Picturehouse)
Starring Belén Rueda, Fernando Cayo, Geraldine Chaplin, Montserrat Carulla, Mabel Rivera, Andrés Gertrúdix
Directed by Juan Antonio Bayona (debut); Written by Sergio G. Sánchez
Genre: Horror, Thriller, Drama
Rated R
Plot Summary: On returning to the orphanage where she lived as a girl, Laura (Belén Rueda), now a married woman with a young adopted son, starts to experience strange phenomena which only get stranger when her son mysteriously disappears leaving her to turn to the ghosts of her childhood friends for their help in finding him.
Tagline: "A tale of love, a story of horror."

My Thoughts from Toronto

Interview with the Filmmakers

I saw this movie right before the Toronto Film Festival, and like Persepolis (see directly below), it's played at almost every festival this year going back to Cannes, and it's not surprising that it's been displayed so prominently, because it's a great debut film from an exciting new filmmaker, Juan Antonio Bayona, but also a terrific import from Europe, in this case Spain. Maybe it's not too surprising that the movie's produced and presented by the prince of horror Guillermo del Toro who has helmed his fair share of excellent Spanish language horror films in his time with The Devil's Backbone being one of my personal favorites. It also bears comparisons to Alejandro Amenabar's excellent The Others starring Nicole Kidman, although the similarities are more on the surface being a similar premise about a creepy mansion haunted by ghosts of children. There are a lot more layers at play in this story, which combines the horror elements including a moment right out of Poltergeist with a moving missing child drama, but it never loses sight of the scares and there are some doozies here, things that will literally make you jump out of your seat. What really sets it apart from most other horror films is the performance by the beautiful Belén Rueda, who co--starred in Spain's previous Oscar winner The Sea Inside, giving one of the year's most emotionally draining performances, as we watch her character go through so many things over the course of a movie that she carries very well. The performance is comparable to that of Nicole Kidman in The Others, which we all know was the actress at her peak, and fans of that movie and The Devil's Backbone should be able to enjoy this stunning scare--filled debut from Juan Antonio Bayona just as much. It opens in select cities on Friday, December 28 and expands from there with a nationwide released planned for January 11, 2008.

Persepolis (Sony Classics)
Starring (the voices of) Catherine Deneuve, Chiara Mastroianni
Written and directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud (debut)
Genre: Animation, Drama, Biopic
Rated PG--13
Plot Summary: A French animated film based on Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical tale of growing up as a young girl in post--Revolution Iran

Interview with the Filmmakers

I wasn't familiar with Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel when I was invited to the premiere of the animated movie based on it at the Toronto Film Festival a few months back, and I kind of wish I was. Due to a situation beyond my control--okay, I was an idiot and I went to the wrong theatre----I ended up missing the premiere, but I've seen the movie twice since and read some of the original comics and it's obvious to me that both of them exemplify the amazing things that can be done within the very different storytelling formats. "Persepolis" the graphic novel features some of the best autobiographical comics since "American Splendor" but it also reminds me of things like "Maus" and "Palestine", while Persepolis the animated movie is just as groundbreaking in its use of animated styles to tell the same story, while also being one of the more impressive efforts at bringing a graphic novel to life. The fact that Marjane and her filmmaking partner Vincent Paronnaud chose to tell that tale using a very distinctive stylish black and white hand-drawn animation certainly gives this movie a visual flair that hasn't been seen since the French animated film The Triplets of Belleville a few years ago. It's impossible not to fall in love with this film that's quirky and humorous one moment and deathly serious the next, and the mother and daughter team of Catherine Deneuve and Chiara Mastroianni providing their voice skills to the main characters adds a lot to the animated film, which clearly shows that animated films don't necessarily have to be just kiddie fare. While some of the historical and political stuff about Iran gets a bit dull, as does the strictly linear storytelling, Marjane Satrapi is an interesting woman who clearly has a distinctive way of telling her story, which is what makes this film such a uniquely joyous experience worth seeing more than once. I wouldn't be too surprised if Marjane and Vincent's movie gives Pixar's Ratatouille a serious run for its animated Oscar come March, but it should certainly appeal to fans of Belleville and comic--inspired movies like American Splendor and Ghost World. It opens on Tuesday, December 25 in select cities.

There Will Be Blood (Paramount Vantage)
Starring Daniel Day--Lewis, Paul Dano, Ciaran Hinds, Kevin J. O'Connor
Written and directed by P.T. Anderson (Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch Drunk Love, Hard Eight)
Genre: Drama, Western, Thriller
Rated R
Plot Summary: A California miner named Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day--Lewis) discovers oil and builds a lucrative oil drilling business that only hits a downturn when he goes to the religious
Tagline: "There Will Be Greed. There Will Be Vengeance."
Of Note: Paul Thomas Anderson returns with his fifth film, this time taking an idea from Upton Sinclair's novel "Oil!" and using it to explore man's greed revolving around oil.

Review

Press Conference with P. T. Anderson and the Cast

A lot has already been said about P. T. Anderson's fifth movie and I'm not sure if I have that much to add beyond my review and feature above, but it really is a striking departure for the filmmaker, one that will either shock or thrill Anderson's many fans, even though there's little throughline between his earlier films Boogie Nights and Magnolia and this gritty historic epic based around one man's obsession with oil. You'll probably be hearing a lot more about the movie as awards season progresses, because Daniel Day-Lewis is once again an obvious Oscar frontrunner for his role as that man, one Daniel Plainview, a wild and manic performance that makes his Bill the Butcher seem tame. The movie is fairly shocking in places, mainly in Plainview's relationship with an evangelical minister played by Paul Dano (Little Miss Sunshine) in another strong performance that allows him to show a lot more range than some of his past movies. Besides the story and characters, what really makes this film so amazing is the look and feel created by the combination of cinematographer Robert Elswit and the often-abrasive score by musician Jonny Greenwood of the band Radiohead. While the movie might not be everyone's cup of tea, those looking for something to follow--up the cinematic one--two punch of The Assassination of Jesse James and the Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men should be amazed by Anderson's filmmaking coup, which opens on Wednesday, December 26 in New York and L.A. and should expand in the New Year as it continues to garner awards. (It also will have sneak previews in other cities on Saturday, December 29)

Also in Limited Release:

The Bucket List (Warner Bros.) - Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman star in Rob Reiner's latest dramedy about a billionaire and a mechanic, both dying from cancer, who decide to escape from their hospital ward and do all the things they hoped to do in their lives before their last day. It opens on Christmas Day in New York, L.A. and Toronto before expanding nationwide on January 11, 2008.

Mini-Review: A sporadically enjoyable no brainer dramedy with a very simple premise that allows Nicholson or Freeman to coast through it without having to do much heavy hitting playing characters they've played before--Nicholson is a rich @$$hole and Freeman as the calm voice of reason. These characters are so familiar that neither actor has to stretch very much, but at least the chemistry between the duo sustains the film's dialogue-heavy first act with the two guys in their hospital room. The script by Justin Zackham is nothing groundbreaking and most of it's fairly obvious, but the two actors are able to elevate the material beyond what any other actor might have done, that is, until the duo leave their hospital room and are out in the world doing crazy activities and the film quickly takes a downturn, at times turning into a broad slapstick comedy ala "Grumpy Old Men" as we watch the two dying men doing ludicrous stunts like skydiving and racing cars. The few dramatic moments come across much better than the forced comedic bits that try too hard to instill laughs into the generally dour subject of cancer and dying. In the end, Freeman comes off a lot better than Nicholson, who continues his run of ridiculously over-the-top ham-fisted performances, but fortunately, there are enough quieter talking scenes between the two and a suitably somber ending to help make you forget all the ridiculous stuff that's gone before. Otherwise, this might have been to Nicholson and Freeman what "Ishtar" was to Hoffman and Beatty. In other words, this should have been better, but it could have been a whole lot worse, too. Rating: 6.5/10

Honeydripper (Emerging Pictures) - Indie filmmaker John Sayles returns with a film about the early days of rock 'n' roll during the segregated South in the '50s. It stars Danny Glover as an old down 'n' out bluesman who sees changes coming to his rundown jukejoint when he hires a young out-of-towner (Gary Clark Jr.) to pose as a famous guitar player on the radio. It opens in New York and L.A. on Friday, and in Chicago, Atlanta and Boston on January 18.

Interview with John Sayles and producer Maggie Renzi

Mini-Review: As much as I wanted to like John Sayles' look at the origins of rock 'n' roll, it falls quite short of its mark, mostly due to the poor casting and weak delivery as well as a deathly slow pace that far too often veers away from its greatest strength, which is the music. With a terrific soundtrack that combines all sorts of great music from the era, one would expect that the music would play the biggest part in the story, but instead, the movie spends long periods of time dwelling on building up relationships between uninteresting side characters to try to create a slice of life look at the times rather than getting to the nitty-gritty of the era's music. Danny Glover gives a decent performance as club owner Tyrone, one of his better roles for sure, and Charles Dutton pulls his weight as his sideman, but most of the time, they're paired with far younger inexperienced actors who just don't have the chops to help elevate the scenes above a drama school exercise. The most obvious example of this is Gary Clark Jr., an exciting musical performer but not a particularly strong or convincing actor, and the fact that he has to drive a third of the film by himself makes his scenes that much more grueling. Even though this story takes place in the South pre-Civil Rights, the racism aspect of the times is mostly ignored, instead setting up a bunch of subplots, few that are particularly interesting or necessary, creating a missed opportunity that's far too evident, especially when released opposite "The Great Debaters" (see above). The film does look great thanks to the contributions of Mike Leigh's cinematographer Dick Pope, but things are set up for the most obvious and predictable feel-good conclusion—seriously, if you can't figure out what's going to happen then you must have been snoozing for much of the previous two hours, but the film is so slow, who could blame you? With so many great films in Sayles' back catalogue, this is a disappointingly trite return after a three year absence and here's hoping that the next one returns him to the greatness of some of the classics. Rating: 5.5/10

Chuck Close (Art Kaleidoscope Foundation) - The late filmmaker Marion Cajori's documentary about painter Chuck Close a man who has reinvented portraiture will open at the Film Forum in New York City on Wednesday.

Next week, the first new movie of 2008 is the horror remake One Missed Call (Warner Bros.) which makes it the perfect week for the Weekend Warrior to take off and let you decide for yourselves how much it might make. (Hint: It probably won't be much.)