Every Thanksgiving and Christmas, moviegoers pack theaters to see the most recent films after stuffing themselves with turkey and gravy. They set course for the theater to enjoy the highest-quality entertainment money can buy, ready to give their eyes a feast in addition to the one their rotund bellies experienced earlier that day.
I can’t help you with self-control during Thanksgiving, but I can give you high-quality recommendations regarding your entertainment selections. After that ludicrous helping of mama’s pot roast, you’ll want to see something worthwhile. Who wants to see a stinker like “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” when you can see a fulfilling movie? The choice is vital.
For the holiday season, there are two types of movies: big ones and little ones. There have been and will always be the Big Ones. These are the movies that have been promoted for the entire year, and most people know about and look forward to them. This year we have three huge sequels: “The Two Towers,” the second episode in the Lord of the Rings trilogy; “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets;” and “Die Another Day,” the latest update on James Bond.
All three have some degree of promise. Potter opened this weekend to good reviews, and if you liked the “Fellowship of the Ring,” chances are you’ll appreciate its sequel. As for the Bond movie … Bond is Bond. You like him or you don’t.
Even though we may see all three of these, we cannot forget the little movies.
We have a few that have just as much promise as their bigger box-office brothers. From Steven Soderbergh, the director of “Traffic” and “sex, lies and videotape,” we get “Solaris.” The production of “Solaris” was purposely shrouded in mystery. Opening the day before Thanksgiving, one of the only things anyone knows about the movie is that it stars George Clooney and that it’s based on Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1972 film “Solyaris,” a Star Trek-like space epic.
“Gangs of New York,” Martin Scorsese’s latest endeavor, is set to open five days before Christmas. Leonardo DiCaprio leads the cast, and unless Scorsese has become a poor director since “Bringing Out the Dead,” which I personally doubt, the film will probably be quite worthwhile. It chronicles the conflicts between the white Anglo-Saxon “natives” of New York and the recent influx of Irish immigrants into the city in the mid 1800s.
DiCaprio also leads along with Tom Hanks in Spielberg’s latest, “Catch Me If You Can.” Opening Christmas day, “Catch Me If You Can” is purportedly based on the true story of a successful con artist who passes himself off as various people, including the FBI agent who chases him. Spielberg has always had a marginally consistent high quality of storytelling, and his new film will probably be no exception.
In your selection of holiday movies you might want to give the underdog the benefit of the doubt. Hated DiCaprio since “Titanic?” It’s time to give the boy a second chance. Never seen a Martin Scorsese film? Try out “Gangs of New York.” You deserve a quality holiday film experience. Choose wisely.