Chattanooga Pulse

This Christmas, after the turkey has been devoured and the all the boxes lie in unwrapped piles around the tree, you may just get the urge to see a film.  If you do, the major studios have got you covered with a few films sure to pack out theaters on the 25^th and the days following.

Holidays at the multiplex wouldn’t be complete without at least one piece of cinematic dreck and if that’s your fancy, feel free to purchase a ticket for Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel.

If the title alone doesn’t give you chills, just get a load of the summary from the film’s press kit: “There have been many great movie sequels. There have even been prequels. Now, get ready for the world’s first SQUEAKQUEL, in which superstar ‘Munks Alvin, Simon and Theodore finally meet their match…in newly arrived female trio, the Chipettes.”

Thanks, but no thanks.  Check out Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox or watch Pixar’s UP again for a less brain-crushing alternative.

Looking slightly more appealing for the older crowd is the new romantic comedy It’s Complicated starring Meryl Streep, Steve Martin, and Alec Baldwin.  Streep plays Jane, a thriving businesswoman and mother of three grown kids who has an OK relationship with her ex-husband Jake (Alex Baldwin).  Jake has remarried and Jane has started seeing the architect of her new kitchen (Steve Martin), but the two of them find their romance rekindled after an innocent meal before their son’s college graduation.  Hi-jinks ensue.

It’s Complicated is written and directed by Nancy Myers, a perceptive and very funny female director known for films that pile up one sexual complication after another (What Women Want, Something’s Gotta Give).  The film also stars Jon Krasinski (aka Jim from NBC’s The Office).

Director Guy Ritchie is known best for his dark and gritty cult comedies like Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, but his intriguing take on Sherlock Holmes hits theaters on Christmas Day.  The film follows the legendary sleuth (Robert Downey Jr.) and his assistant Watson (Jude Law) as they trek through London trying to capture the evil killer and occult sorcerer Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong) who has recently risen from the grave.

Ritchie’s “Sherlock” looks to be a strange amalgamation of comedy, drama, puzzles, thrills, and occult mysticism that would probably have Sir Arthur Conan Doyle rolling in his grave, but the director insists that this is the Holmes he’s always envisioned.  Plus, an American is playing the famous London detective.

“I wanted to somehow represent what I believe to be an authentic Sherlock Holmes, which is quite subjective,” Ritchie says.  “I like the idea of an American playing Sherlock Holmes.  [Robert Downey Jr. is the] right age, right look, right intellect.  He does a job I know I can’t do.  He’s a true actor, and I enjoy working with people who do what I can’t do.”

The biggest film making its way to the multiplex this weekend is Up in the Air, starring George Clooney as big-business frequent flyer Ryan Bingham, whose job is to fire people from their jobs.  He lives out of a suitcase and feeds off the anguish and despair of his clients, but the tables suddenly turn when he is fired from his job and his goals and lifestyle are thrown into confusion.

Up in the Air is directed by Jason Reitman, who made the brilliant Thank You for Smoking in 2005 and the darling Juno two years ago.   Both of his previous films have humanized characters otherwise sent to the fringe of society—a marketing representative for big-business tobacco company, a pregnant teenage girl—and this new film is no different as it is the story of a thoroughly unlikable corporate bearer of bad news.

“I always hoped that George Clooney would play this role but I was never presumptuous enough to think that he would actually do it,” says Reitman in the press kit.  “It’s not a movie about a man who makes a decision, but about a man who comes to an epiphany.  The movie asks George a question—‘Where do you want to go?—and then turns that question back on the audience.”

Where do you want to go?  Well, when it comes to holiday movies, you now know your options.