Holiday Movies: Ho-Ho-Ho, or No-No-No?

'Tis the season for MOVIES! Our David Edelstein has some coming attractions:

The holidays are a time when we eat too much, drink too much, and go to movies for two things:

The cinematic equivalent of eating and drinking too much; and to get a gander at the Oscar bait.

And the chum is rarely more enticing than "The King's Speech," a royal crowd-pleaser.

Here's the gimmick: An uncannily convincing Colin Firth plays the future King George VI, father of Elizabeth II and a man crippled by a stammer in a new age of mass communication.

A commoner played by Geoffrey Rush becomes his speech therapist, but doesn't want to focus on the larynx or diaphragm.

He wants the king to spill his childhood traumas - and, like a shrink, to give the uptight monarch an emotional enema.

The film is a little uptight, too, for my taste. But God save the King!

"The Fighter" from director David O. Russell tries too hard early on for a documentary look, and the actors' working-class Boston accents are, well, why do actors always hit those -aahs so haahd?

But the relationships are good and tumultuous, and more bruising than anything in the ring - between hungry boxer Mark Wahlberg and his messed-up ex-fighter brother, played by Christian Bale; between Amy Adams as his mouthy girlfriend, and that great scenery-chewer Melissa Leo as his overbearing mom.

They could be contenders.

Natalie Portman will get all kinds of awards as a ballerina in "Black Swan," a battering portrait of female masochism and madness.

Director Darren Aronofsky has one aim: To give you a drug experience. And as the innocent Portman surrenders to her dark side to play the Black Swan in "Swan Lake," it's a trip, all right!

But sometimes the line between hypnotic and stupefying is very thin.

I haven't seen the big releases: "Little Fockers" (can I say that on TV?), "Gulliver's Travels," the new "Narnia."

The one I can't wait for is Joel and Ethan Coen's remake of "True Grit."

And yes, John Wayne was indelible, and who needs remakes?

But the Coens don't need the work. They wouldn't do this with Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon and Josh Brolin if they weren't going to blow some new holes in the Western genre.

Have a great holiday season, and don't go too heavy on the popcorn and Milk Duds.

Edelstein Endorses:
"Tangled"
"Made in Dagenham"

For more info:
The Projectionist (David Edelstein's Movie Blog)