There Will Be Movies: Holiday Preview 2007
by Brian Tallerico

Between now and the end of the year, dozens of movies will come out that will try to steal the little bit of spending money you put aside for the holidays, and maybe even an Academy member's heart. It's the season when the blockbusters stand next to the Oscar bait and, in a few rare cases, can actually be the same film. With everything coming out before the end of the year, what's left to get excited about? Audiences clearly turned up their nose at Fred Claus (wise move, America), but there are still several films that deserve your attention while you're planning your holiday vacations or praying for a Christmas bonus. What movie should you mark on your calendar and what should you ignore? We'll leave the negativity for the other sites and focus on ten films yet to be released that you should bookmark in your brain and anticipate just as much before the red-suited guy who likes to eat cookies arrives. Let's be honest. We've been naughty this year and Santa may hold that against us, but Hollywood won't.

10. Enchanted

Date: November 21
Studio: Disney
Starring: Amy Adams, Julie Andrews, Susan Sarandon, James Marsden, and Patrick Dempsey
Written by: Bill Kelly (Premonition)
Directed by: Kevin Lima (Tarzan)

Why You Should Be Excited: The wonderful world of Disney comes to life in the studio's biggest holiday family offering, a film that they are so confident in they've already started trying to turn the lead character, Giselle, into an icon like Ariel, Belle, or, dare we say it, Cinderella. Oscar nominee Amy Adams plays Giselle, an animated, musical creation, who gets banished by an evil queen (Susan Sarandon) to the real world. The film goes from typical Disney animation to live-action and the naive and sweet Giselle falls for a divorce lawyer played by Patrick Dempsey. Can the idealism of Disney animation survive in the real world? It sounds to us like a more female-driven version of Elf and with the super-charming Amy Adams playing the lead (and actually getting Oscar talk for the role), we prepared to set aside our cynicism for at least one day this holiday season. Just one.

9. I Am Legend

Why You Should Be Excited: Have you seen the preview? Holy action movie. The idea behind I Am Legend - the last man on Earth fights for his life against the creatures that now inhabit the planet - has been turned into a movie before (The Omega Man) and the short story its based on inspired a lot of the entire zombie genre. It's a classic story that has fought to get its way back to the big screen and, for lack of a better phrase, it just looks cool. If it wasn't for the questionable pedigree of the people behind the camera (we sincerely hope Legend is significantly better than Poseidon or Constantine), the film would be even higher up the list. Check out the preview. You'll pre-order your tickets shortly thereafter.

8. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

Why You Should Be Excited: Can Apatow really go three for three this year? If you've seen the original, internet preview for Walk Hard, you're optimistic that he can. In the straight-up spoof of Walk the Line, John C. Reilly plays Dewey Cox, another singer who overcomes a lifetime of adversity to become a legend. Featuring over a dozen original musical numbers, Walk Hard promises to be one of the most original films of the season and possibly the funniest. Reilly stole Talladega Nights out from under Will Ferrell and if you don't love Judd Apatow yet, where were you this summer? He's one of the best comedy writers in Hollywood right now and he's paired with one of the men behind the great Freaks & Geeks. We're already tapping our feet to Walk Hard.

7. Youth Without Youth

Why You Should Be Excited: See that name above? That's why. Francis Ford Coppola hasn't directed a film in a decade (since The Rainmaker) and some were concerned that he may never get behind the camera again. To be brutally honest, Coppola hasn't really mattered in about a quarter-century with some reasonable hits (Peggy Sue Got Married, Tucker) and some absolute disasters in between (Jack), but nothing that touched his golden period of the '70s. Can he find it again? Having taken a decade off in a sort of creative sabbatical has supposedly rejuvenated the one-time master and he's working from an excellent source material, a novella by Mircea Eliade. In Coppola's possible return to form, Tim Roth plays a timid professor who gets struck by lightning and allowed to experience his youth again. An intellectual trying to find the passion that comes with inexperience again? Sounds damn near autobiographical to us. And fascinating.

Holiday Preview 2007 Page 2