‘Into the Woods,’ ‘Big Eyes,’ ‘Unbroken’ among holiday releases

This Christmas, there’s something for everyone opening at the multiplexes.

You have your choice of a musical, a dark drama, a historical tale you’d never believe was true, a historical tale you’d really never believe was true and a historical tale you’d absolutely, positively never believe was true.

So for those of you who tear through your presents by 9 a.m. and are looking for something to do, and for those who don’t celebrate the holiday and look forward to watching a movie while your Peking duck settles, here’s your shopping guide for one of the busiest moviegoing days of the year:

If you’re into musicals or are just curious about that new guy who’s replacing Craig Ferguson on “The Late Late Show” … “INTO THE WOODS”

All I knew about the Stephen Sondheim musical came from a scene or two I saw during a summer camp production.

But while I stand by my belief, dubbed the “Starlight Express” Doctrine, that every musical is better when it’s performed on roller skates, director Rob Marshall’s take on “Into the Woods” is a silly amount of fun.

A witch (Meryl Streep) has placed a curse that leaves a baker (incoming “Late Late Show” host James Corden) and his wife (Emily Blunt) unable to conceive, and the only way to break it is for them to present her with a cow as white as milk, hair as yellow as corn, a cape as red as blood and a slipper as pure as gold.

Random.

So they inevitably cross paths with Jack (Daniel Huttlestone) of The Beanstalk fame, Rapunzel (MacKenzie Mauzy), Little Red Riding Hood (Lilla Crawford) and Cinderella (Anna Kendrick).

It’s a bit long, and it takes a while to get going — “Into the Woods” starts with roughly 15 minutes of characters singing about the fact that they’re going, as the title explains rather succinctly, into the woods.

But if you can hang in there and just go with it, Corden is immensely likable. Johnny Depp has a grand old time as MC Skat Kat, err, The Wolf. And, as Prince Charming, Chris Pine steals every scene he’s in.

And, if the whole thing sounds ridiculous, at least “Into the Woods” is in on the joke.

“I need that shoe to have a child,” the baker’s wife pleads with Cinderella.

“That makes no sense,” she replies.

Exactly.

Grade: B

If you’re looking for something darker or you’ve never seen the 1974 original …

“THE GAMBLER”

Mark Wahlberg has come a long, long way since parting ways with The Funky Bunch.

An Oscar-nominated actor and producer, he’s successfully portrayed a vast array of tough guys. He’s even been convincing as a grown man who gets high with his teddy bear.

But there are certain things he still shouldn’t attempt.

Like using the word “obstreperous.”

In “The Gambler,” Wahlberg portrays large vocabularied university literature professor Jim Bennett, who theatrically holds court while deconstructing Camus for his students. The dialogue, by “The Departed’s” William Monahan, sounds important and flowery. It just doesn’t remotely resemble the way people talk.

Born into a life of wealth and privilege, Bennett is a degenerate gambler who bets up to $80,000 a hand on blackjack with such sure-fire strategies as doubling down on an 18. Whether Bennett has a death wish or just wants to feel something, he has zero regard for life or money. He also has seven days to pay back $240,000 he doesn’t have to some very bad men (John Goodman and “The Wire’s” Michael Kenneth Williams).

Ultimately, this version of “The Gambler” suffers from the same problem as the 1974 version, which starred James Caan at the height of his James Caan-iness: There’s simply no one to root for.

Grade: C+

If you’re into art, a fan of kitsch or just can’t remember the last time you truly enjoyed a Tim Burton movie …

“BIG EYES”

It’s been 20 years and a string of fanciful Johnny Depp movies with diminishing returns since “Ed Wood,” the last time Tim Burton directed a movie about real people. And to the surprise of no one, it’s beautiful. But while the story is a wild, eccentric ride, the biggest shock may be just how straightforward “Big Eyes” is.

In 1958, artist Margaret Ulbrich (Amy Adams) has packed up her daughter, left her husband and moved to San Francisco. It isn’t a great time to be a single mother. “We don’t get many ladies in here,” a prospective employer tells her. “So your husband approves of you working?”

But her fortunes start looking up when she meets commercial real estate agent and self-described Sunday painter Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz). Keane rents the walls near the bathroom of a jazz club to display their work and, after a series of misunderstandings over her paintings of striking-yet-creepy saucer-eyed waifs, Keane ends up taking credit for them.

Ever the grinning huckster, Keane and a reluctantly complicit Margaret even convince her young daughter, who posed for the early works, that Keane painted them.

Keane soon becomes a sensation. He’s not only selling paintings, he’s selling posters of the paintings and, eventually, postcards of the posters of the paintings.

Adams is quite good as Margaret, even when she comes close to slipping into a Kristen Wiig character. Waltz, though, gets a bit Waltz-y at times as Keane. The bad news: His performances are starting to feel a bit one-note. The good news: It’s a really great note.

Grade: B+

If you’re into World War II movies that salute a British hero while only briefly touching on the war in Europe …

“THE IMITATION GAME”

Portraying another socially awkward genius could be seen as being too much in Benedict Cumberbatch’s wheelhouse. But the “Sherlock” star finds different, less arrogant layers to play as Alan Turing, the mathematician and crossword puzzle aficionado who cracked the Germans’ Enigma machine during World War II.

Set against the backdrop of an investigation into a break-in at his Cambridge, England, home in 1951, “The Imitation Game” reveals the remarkable goings on at Bletchley Radio Manufacturing. That’s where Turing led a team of cryptographers — including plucky code-breaker Joan Clarke (a terrific Keira Knightley) — who decoded the Nazis’ seemingly impenetrable messages by discovering a way around the machine’s 159 quintillion possible daily settings.

But as much as “The Imitation Game” is about the machine, an early forerunner of the computer, it’s more about the fascinating man behind it. Turing overcame severe bullying, a bit of a nervous stammer and zero comprehension of how to interact with human beings to, as we’re told in a postscript, shorten the war by approximately two years and save an estimated 14 million lives.

He’s an underappreciated hero brought to life through Cumberbatch’s brilliant performance. It may not be Turing-level brilliant, but it’s not far off.

Grade: A

If you’re into World War II movies that salute an American hero while only briefly touching on the war in the Pacific …

“UNBROKEN”

You may know the story of Olympic runner-turned- war hero Louie Zamperini, who survived 47 days at sea in a 6-foot inflatable raft only to endure more than two years of brutal treatment in a series of Japanese POW camps.

After all, the Laura Hillenbrand book on which it’s based has sold more than 4 million copies.

But that shouldn’t stop you from seeing his story brought to life by director Angelina Jolie.

At times, “Unbroken” feels more like a CliffsNotes version of the war chapters of Hillenbrand’s best-seller. And as good as Jack O’Connell is as Zamperini, the movie spends too much time treating him as a hero for moviegoers to get to know him as a man.

But the story is simply so incredible, and it’s presented in such an interestingly old-fashioned way, that it’s hard to leave the theater feeling less than inspired.

Grade: B

Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4567.