Feast or famine

The feast of independent and dramatic films is under way as studios make a play for next year's Oscar nods. It's a welcome change from the famine that started right around Halloween when for about six years there was really nothing playing in the theaters that I wanted to see.

That would be fine for anyone else, but as a movie columnist, I had to come up with something each week. It led to reviews of two movies I really didn't want to see, "A Christmas Carol" and "Ninja Assassin." At least Disney's 3-D version of "A Christmas Carol" looked cool. I can't say the same for "Ninja Assassin," what with the multiple beheadings in the first 5 minutes of the movie. The one surprise in this dryspell of movies was "The Men Who Stare At Goats," with Ewan McGregor and George Clooney. I probably wouldn't have seen it had anything else been out - since it wasn't really hyped much and I didn't even know what it was about before I looked up a synopsis online - but it turned out to be quite a funny tale of the U.S. military's attempts to use psyhic abilities at war (which may or may not be true as its based on an allegedly true story.)


I even had to resort to writing about a couple of movies that were out on DVD, such as "Spring Breakdown," which I found to be absolutely, laugh-out-loud funny. And last week I reviewed "The Accidental Husband," which got yanked from its theaterical release for a DVD release more than a year later, since I spent so much time making tamales.


But now that I am ready to head back to the theaters, it's going to be a tough call this weekend. I can count at least four movies I want to see this weekend and two more that are opening up next weekend. I would just camp out at the theater for a while, but with the holidays coming quickly I have plenty of other stuff to do, too.

So I am not sure which movie I will choose, but suggestions are invited. Here are the options.


"Invictus," which stars Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela and Matt Damon as a South African rugby player right around when apartheid first ended. The movie appeals to me because I've been to South Africa and I like to watch movies where I can say, "I've been there" to my fellow movie watchers. I also know a lot about South African history from studying it so I can seem smart by explaining things to people after the movie. The downsides are possible long scenes of rugby games (which I understand even less than football) and really bad South African accents.


"Brothers," which stars Natalie Portman, Jake Gyllenhaal and Tobey Maguire is about two brothers, one who is a well-respected army man and the other who is an ex-con. The pluses are Natalie Portman, who've I've loved watching since I saw her in "The Professional" as a kid and Jake Gyllenhaal who've I've loved watching since I saw him in "Donnie Darko." Plus Jake is dreamy. Also, the film is directed by Jim Sheridan who made "In America" and "In the Name of the Father," which I really enjoyed. Also, U2 wrote a song for the soundtrack. The downsides are that the movie will probably make me cry (based on the previews) and Tobey Maguire gets on my nerves. I didn't recognize him in the trailer though, so maybe he will be less annoying.


"Up in the air," which stars George Clooney as an executive who spends most of his time flying around the country firing people. I don't really know much about the movie, but it is directed by Jason Reitman, who also directed "Juno" and "Thank You For Smoking," both movies I enjoyed.


"The Princess and the Frog," which is the latest animated film from Disney, puts a New Orleans spin on the classic tale. It is likely to have the humor, music and happy ending of all Disney movies.


Of course, the decision about what to see will be based on family input, schedules and where movies are playing so who knows which movie I will end up seeing this weekend. And then there are even more movies opening up before the end of the month - "Avatar," "The Lovely Bones," "It's Complicated," "Did You Hear About the Morgans?" "Nine," and "The Single Man." That's an awful lot of movies for one month...