‘Hunger Games,’ ‘Hobbit’ among hits for the holidays
Hollywood still has plenty of cinematic gifts to offer this holiday season.
It’s just avoiding the traditional pileups by taking more of an advent calendar-style approach to doling them out.
Of the seven films that opened the day before last Thanksgiving, only “Frozen” and “Philomena” did any real business. This year, “Horrible Bosses 2,” “Penguins of Madagascar” and “The Theory of Everything” are the only movies scheduled to open over that prime moviegoing weekend.
Last Christmas successfully launched some awards bait in “The Wolf of Wall Street” and “August: Osage County,” but everything else (“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” “Grudge Match,” “47 Ronin,” “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom” and Justin Bieber’s “Believe”) seriously underperformed. Angelina Jolie’s “Unbroken,” the musical “Into the Woods” and the Seth Rogen-James Franco comedy “The Interview” are the only offerings this Dec. 25.
With that in mind, here’s a look at what you can expect to see at the multiplexes between now and the middle of January, when the last of the Oscar hopefuls is scheduled to arrive in town. And, as always, dates are subject to change.
FRIDAY
Lloyd (Jim Carrey) and Harry (Jeff Daniels) return after 20 years to search for the daughter Harry never knew he had in “Dumb and Dumber To.”
A music superstar (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) falls for a cop (Nate Parker) who’s part of her security detail in “Beyond the Lights.”
A young jazz drummer (Miles Teller) is driven to the brink of madness by his mentor (J.K. Simmons) in “Whiplash.”
Journalist Maziar Bahari (Gael Garcia Bernal) is arrested in Iran and tortured for 118 days in “Rosewater,” Jon Stewart’s directorial debut.
NOV. 21
It’s the beginning of the end as Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) fights to save the people of Panem in “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1.”
NOV. 26
Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis and a filthy, filthy Jennifer Aniston are back in “Horrible Bosses 2,” which sees the misguided guys hatch a kidnap-and-ransom plot involving Chris Pine and Christoph Waltz.
Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private join a secretive spy organization, led by Agent Classified (voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch), to stop a despicable villain (voiced by John Malkovich) in the animated “Penguins of Madagascar.”
Eddie Redmayne (“Les Miserables”) stars as Stephen Hawking in the biopic “The Theory of Everything.”
DEC. 5
A pious woman (Hilary Swank) and a drifter (co-writer and director Tommy Lee Jones) escort three troubled pioneer women across the Nebraska Territories to the safety of an Iowa minister’s wife (Meryl Streep) in “The Homesman.”
A team of American archaeologists uncovers ancient Egyptian horrors in “The Pyramid.”
DEC. 12
Moses (Christian Bale) rises up against Pharaoh Ramses (Joel Edgerton) in “Exodus: Gods and Kings,” from director Ridley Scott.
An actor (writer-director Chris Rock) engaged to a Bravo reality star (Gabrielle Union) experiences a midlife crisis during a day spent with a journalist (Rosario Dawson) in “Top Five.”
DEC. 17
Bilbo (Martin Freeman), Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and the gang reunite for the final time — at least until director Peter Jackson uncovers some long-lost J.R.R. Tolkien scribblings, maybe even a napkin doodle or two, that he can stretch into three more movies — in “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.”
DEC. 19
Purists (and pure racists) may object, but “Annie” gets a makeover with Oscar-nominee Quvenzhane Wallis as the little orphan and Jamie Foxx as her benefactor, rechristened Will Stacks, in the musical produced by Jay Z, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith.
Larry (Ben Stiller), Teddy (the late Robin Williams), Jedediah (Owen Wilson), Octavius (Steve Coogan) and friends return for the sequel “Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb.”
Benedict Cumberbatch stars as British mathematician, cryptanalyst and war hero Alan Turing, who helped crack Germany’s seemingly unbreakable codes during World War II, in “The Imitation Game.”
DEC. 25
Angelina Jolie directs “Unbroken,” based on the Laura Hillenbrand best-seller about the life of the late Olympian and war hero Louis Zamperini.
Meryl Streep, Johnny Depp, Emily Blunt, Anna Kendrick and Chris Pine topline “Into the Woods,” the big-screen adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s musical based on characters from Brothers Grimm fairy tales.
A tabloid TV host (James Franco) and his producer (Seth Rogen) land an interview with Kim Jong-un, then are tasked by the CIA with eliminating the North Korean leader, in the comedy “The Interview.”
JAN. 1
Mark Wahlberg, who’s seemingly never seen a movie he didn’t want to remake, steps into James Caan’s shoes as an English professor who gets in over his head in “The Gambler,” which in no way should be mistaken for the Kenny Rogers TV movie.
JAN. 2
A group of London children evacuated during World War II awaken a house of horrors in “The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death.”
JAN. 9
Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin and Owen Wilson star in “Inherent Vice,” the latest from writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson and based on the Thomas Pynchon novel, that’s described as “part surf noir, part psychedelic romp.”
Liam Neeson trots out his very particular set of skills for a third time — not counting all the times he’s played basically the same character in other movies — in “Taken 3.”
Martin Luther King Jr. (David Oyelowo) leads a series of history-making Alabama marches in “Selma.”
JAN. 16
Bradley Cooper stars as Chris Kyle, the most lethal U.S. military sniper in history, in director Clint Eastwood’s “American Sniper.”
A socially awkward groom (Josh Gad) hires a flattering best man (Kevin Hart) to impress his bride (Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting) in the comedy “The Wedding Ringer.”
A convicted hacker (Chris Hemsworth) helps track an international gang of cyber criminals in Michael Mann’s “Blackhat.”
A young Peruvian bear (voiced by Ben Whishaw) travels to London searching for a home in “Paddington,” based on the books by Michael Bond.
TO BE ANNOUNCED
A former heroin addict (Reese Witherspoon) with zero hiking experience attempts to walk more than a thousand miles on the Pacific Crest Trail in “Wild,” based on the memoir by Cheryl Strayed.
Tim Burton directs “Big Eyes,” the story of painter Margaret Keane (Amy Adams), whose work was appropriated by her husband, Walter (Christoph Waltz).
A businessman (Oscar Isaac) tries to navigate the surprisingly brutal world of independent heating oil sales in 1981 New York in “A Most Violent Year.”
And the unlikely real-life relationship between multi-millionaire John du Pont (Steve Carell) and champion wrestlers Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum) and Dave Schultz (Mark Ruffalo) is chronicled in “Foxcatcher.”
Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4567.
