This year, the start of the Holiday Movie season is November 18th. That’s NEXT weekend already folks!! That’s when Hollywood releases “Happy Feet Two” and “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1”, two movies with valid expectations of large takes at the gate. The start of the second blockbuster season of the year!
Here are the movies coming up this Holiday Season that I’m most excited for. Check out Wednesday, December 21st! “The Adventures of Tintin”, “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”, and “Mission Impossible, Ghost Protocol”! That’s going to be a busy day!
Hugo
November 23rd
Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen, Asa Butterfield, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jude Law, Ray Winstone, Christopher Lee
I’m sure a lot of you are huge Scorsese fans like I am, and at the very least, this movie will be intriguing for you. This will be a unique one for the famed tough guy movie director, as it’s his first attempt at making “Family Entertainment”. What I’ve heard so far sounds great, what I’ve seen so far looks great, and the movie has strong early buzz. I’m pretty jazzed up for it.
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The Muppets
November 23rd
Directed by: James Bobin
Starring: Jason Segel, Amy Adams, Chris Cooper, Rashida Jones, Alan Arkin, Jack Black, Billy Crystal, Zach Galifianakis, Kathy Griffin, Ricky Gervais, Emily Blunt
The Muppets are back, baby, what else is there to say!
I don’t know about plot or anything… it’s a Muppet movie, do you need one?
It’s time to play the music! It’s time to light the lights! It’s time to meet the Muppets on November 23rd!!
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Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
December 9th
Directed by: Tomas Alfredson
Starring: Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt
Ok. Time to get serious. This is an old school, cold war spy story involving a mole in British Intelligence and the efforts to ferret him out. It’s based on a novel by John le Carré and looks to be intelligent and suspenseful. Gary Oldman stars as the agent in charge of trying to find the Russian double agent. Looks fantastic, I hope it delivers!
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Young Adult
Directed by: Jason Reitman
Starring: Charlize Theron, Patrick Wilson, Patton Oswalt, J.K. Simmons
Diablo Cody (screenplay)
The trailers for this really took me by surprise. Reitman’s last film was “Up in the Air”, and it looks as though he’s got another “Is this really how I want to live my life?” movie up his sleeve here. Theron stars as a woman who obviously hasn’t outgrown her party years, and returns to her hometown to try to reconnect with her old flame in a Hail Mary desperation move. Looks pretty good to me, check out the trailer for yourself!
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Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
December 16th
Directed by: Guy Ritchie
Starring: Robert Downey, Jr., Jude Law, Jared Harris, Eddie Marsan, Noomi Rapace, Stephen Fry
The trailers for this have been pretty lackluster, but I basically expect more of what we got from the first installment. That wouldn’t be a bad thing, would it? They returned the same crew, plus they added Jarred Harris (Lane Pryce on “Mad Men”) as Professor Moriarty. The first one was fun, but didn’t exactly set the bar all that high, I’m sure this one can be at least as entertaining!
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The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn
December 21st
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Jamie Bell, Daniel Craig, Andy Serkis, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Gad Elmaleh, Toby Jones, Mackenzie Crook
Based on the “Tintin” series of comics, which are apparently super popular around the world except here in America. It’s a motion captured, family friendly adventure film kind of in the spirit of a Young Indiana Jones. Check out the trailer if you haven’t already.
In what can only be described as a positive sign, a sequel (to be Directed by Peter Jackson) has already been greenlit. You can check out my video coverage of Spielberg and Jackson’s Comic-Con panel to promote the movie here, and check out Jaina’s review here (it’s already been released in the UK).
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The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
December 21st
Directed by: David Fincher
Starring: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Stellan Skarsgård, Robin Wright Penn, Christopher Plummer, Joely Richardson
I refuse to read anything about this movie. I refuse to read the book, and I certainly haven’t watched the original foreign film. Far and away the film I’ve been looking forward to the most this year, and I don’t want to see or hear or know anything. This is me holding my hands over my ears and making noise as people talk about it. “LA LALA LA LAALA LA LA LA LALALA…”
Of course, I have seen the awesome trailers. Those are allowed. 😀 Check this one out, below!
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Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
December 21st
Directed by: Brad Bird
Starring: Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Josh Holloway, Simon Pegg, Paula Patton
The return of the Mission Impossible franchise. The trailers for this have been extraordinary. I mean, I really couldn’t have cared less about this franchise prior to seeing them, but now I’m eagerly anticipating this flick. So… they’ve certainly done their job. The action sequences look ridiculous (in the good way), and it seems as though they put together a great cast supporting Cruise. I’m in.
Oh. And added points for the spectacular step-in sidekick Cruise throws here (1:28). A kick like that could legitimately knock a person back off their feet with no movie bullshit trickery added.
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We Bought a Zoo
December 23rd
Directed By: Cameron Crowe
Starring: Matt Damon, Thomas Haden Church, Scarlett Johansson, John Michael Higgins, Patrick Fugit, Elle Fanning
The return of Cameron Crowe! Here he’s adapting a novel about a family that buys a rundown zoo, and in turn, I’m sure, gets all kinds of “brought together” by the experience. Normally I would turn my nose up at such treacle, but hey, it’s Cameron Crowe! Great cast he’s put together, too!
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War Horse
Steven Spielberg
December 25th
Starring: David Thewlis, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jeremy Irvine, Emily Watson, Peter Mullan, Tom Hiddleston, Niels Arestrup, Toby Kebbell, Stephen Graham
What do we know about this movie from the trailer? A horse gets loose and runs through a war. WAR HORSE. Movies about Horses are typically a sub category of chick flick. Unless they’re about horse racing, in which case they’re sports movies. So this movie could actually be a war movie, or it could be a horse movie, or it could be both. We’ll see.
But hey, it’s Steven Spielberg, right?
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So I think that’s it folks! I think that covers all the major ones… at least the ones I’M looking forward to seeing the most!
Did I miss any?
Which ones are YOU looking forward to?
Let’s hear your thoughts! Which of these are going to rock?
Fogs' Movie Reviews 
Will try for a theater viewing: Tinker, Muppets, Tintin
Will watch at home: Hugo, Holmes
May watch at home: Tattoo, Zoo, Horse
Skip: M:I, Young Adult
It’s interesting you put it that way… I remember “Waiting to catch it at home” LOL.
Actually, pre-blog, I used to a) require company to go to the movies, so even if I wanted to go to these all I’d miss a few at least b) I used to wait for DVD for a movie if it wouldn’t suffer from not being on the big screen… So Tinker Tailor for example would have gotten put off…
I am going to stand up tall and proudly admit…. I am most excited for the Muppets! 🙂
And why not??
It’s the most sensational, inspirational, celebrational, Muppetational! This is why we can not wait to go!
HaHaHa That’s awesome! (and yes, I sang your response in my head!) 🙂
This winter is going to be awesome and I think for my Christmas movie-time, I’ll be seeing Girl With a Dragon Tattoo because even though the original wasn’t perfect, I still liked it and I think Fincher is going to be incredibly crazy and creepy with this one. Nice preview Dan my man!
Thank you, Dan THE Man.
Yep. “Girl With” is my #1 most anticipated, too. Has been all year. Above and beyond Fincher and Craig (which are enough, to begin with!) this story has such a huge buzz around it that I can’t wait to finally discover it for myself.
VERY psyched for that one.
Thanks for the shout out! Really appreciate it 😀
Seen 2 out of those already, not bad huh 😉 Well, be happy knowing that we won’t be getting the Muppets film over here until February NEXT YEAR! WTF!
Strangely excited about MI4: Ghost Protocol. Brad Bird! Brad Bird! That’s why I’m excited about it.
Sherlock Holmes looks great. Though, looks like they’ve just amplified everything in the first one. Not necessarily a bad thing. Just feeling a little wary!
Oh and Dragon Tattoo – really looking forward to it. Not seen any of the original films nor read the books. (Even though I have the first on my Kindle, been sucked in by the Game of Thrones books!) But the trailer were amazing. Though, now I can’t imagine them without thinking of the Muppets’ parody one…
You win some you lose some on the release dates thing huh?
I think the Muppets parody is a perfect example of how I’ve been dodging info. Haven’t even checked it out yet. I’m sure it’ll still be around once the movie comes out.
And yeah, Brad Bird is a reason to get psyched, sure. Everything sounds good, looks good. I have decided to accept the mission!
I have to say, like Dan says, this winter looks loaded…
That Muppets parody trailer might just be my favourite parody of theirs. Seriously good.
I have a soft spot for the MI series. Loved the first one. Liked the second one, even with all it’s Woo-iness. Had a fantastic score from Hans Zimmer and the third was a lot of fun with JJ Abrahms turning the franchise around.
Winter does indeed look loaded 😀 Can’t wait!
Yea Sherlock Holmes 2 really looks like more of the same to me as well. As you said, nothing wrong with that but I will be sure to go with low expectations.
I’m going in with low expectations. I did for the first one and really loved it. It’s a plan that seems to work all the time!
Hard to do sometimes though. Not here, actually, now that I think about it… but a lot of times you can’t help it!
please, please swear you will see the original “Girl with” trilogy. Noomi Rapace is “the girl”
and lives the part. If she wasn’t so brilliant there would be no American version. That said this tops my must see list.
Oh yeah totally.
But Fincher first. I’m a big fan. And I want to watch HIS version free of comparisons for the first time.
I’ll swing back through and check out the Rapace movies eventually, I’m sure.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo both look like they could be interesting intrigue movies. If they get good critical feedback, I’ll probably check them out. I haven’t seen the first Downey Sherlock Holmes yet, so I’ll probably be waiting on the sequel as well.
Hugo could be interesting but it seems a little too “twee” for me.
Tintin looks like it has a lot of potential. My local library had a large stock of hardbound Tintin comics when I was a kid, but I always gravitated to Asterix instead. Since Asterix proved to be enjoyable on a whole different level as an adult, I’ve sometimes wondered if Tintin would be more appealing now than it was then, but haven’t picked any issues up yet. But I see no reason why that should dissuade me from seeing the movie. It looks fun.
The Muppets… I’m torn between enthusiasm and trepidation on this one. It ought to be fun. What I’ve seen doesn’t look bad. But Frank Oz declined to be a part of it, citing a dislike of the script… which is nearly as bad as having Jim Henson disapprove, were that still possible. Maybe he’s just being curmudgeonly, but considering I’ve felt all along that Disney didn’t entirely “get” the Muppets, it’s a concern. But I have enjoyed some of the post-Jim-Henson Muppet productions, so… I don’t know. There’s a good chance I’ll be viewing this in the theatre regardless.
I wouldn’t sweat not seeing the Downey Sherlock Holmes movie…. not exactly a classic.
Tintin DOES look like it has a lot of potential. I have high hopes it’ll deliver.
I don’t know… it’s been a long time since the Muppets did anything worth getting excited about, so I’m going to trust them and go in with high hopes….
Not the most interesting slate in recent years but still pretty solid. I’m looking forward most to Tintin and Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol. I’ve never been a Muppets fan but the marketing for the movie certainly has me intrigued.
I dont know Cap, I think its looking pretty solid. Christmas week especially…
The Muppets – the only thing on this entire list that is a must-see.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – I read the book. It was good, so the movie has potential.
Everything Else – probably unwatchable garbage. Especially both of those shitty-looking Spielberg movies.
Nodding. Nodding. Laughing.
Yeah… shitty… LOL.
You COULD be right about War Horse though. The slow mo with all that “Sweeping” score made me suspect the whole movie may be shot in Peter Jackson “Golden Glow Slo Mo”… you know, one of those very “powerful” “Emotional” movies…. My suspicion of it is high, let’s just say that.
I am most excited for Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. I am reading the book right now and hope to watch the British mini-series before it hits theaters here.
So you’re kind of like the OPPOSITE of me with movies, huh? I want the movie to be the first thing I see… you’re prepping for it like an exam! 😀
haha no exams, I just like to delve deep for movies that I am excited for.
In my family we have a Thanksgiving tradition of gong to the Macy’s Thanksgiving day parade at Mom’s house. Then she kicks everyone out for 3-4 hours while she and her helpers work on the big meal. So for many years now the extended clan bicker and argue about what to go see during our eviction from Grandmother’s house. There were a few years when this was an easy choice, as the sequential Harry Potter Movies all seemed to be in the theaters at that time of year. For a couple of years we didn’t have that. The Amazing Mr. Fox did stand in duty 2 years ago. Last year we had the Harry Potter Finale (or maybe it was part 1) which was bitter sweet in that we knew it would be the end of our family concorde.
This year it seems like a toss up between Hugo and Muppets. Honestly I’d probably be happy with either. Hugo looks very cool, Muppets without Jim Henson gives a little pause, but it might be good (although those CGI legs look very creepy to me.)
After that I am definitely up for Dragon (although having seen the original I always feel like it’s wrong to support the American version, on principal), Tinker Tailor, and War Horse. The Sherlock Holmes film is another I object to on principal so I will quietly await it’s netflix arrival at some further date, and then carp and whine about how I would like it if only someone else was playing Sherlock and it didn’t have quite so many explosions. I haven’t seen a MI film since the first one and feel no particular character lack from that absence. I never was into Tintin, and though it looks very cool, I fear most of it’s references will escape me. I’ll probably add it to the queue though.
The others seem like they might be interesting, but I dont really get tot the theater enough to claim I’ll be seeing them when I most likely wont.
From what I’ve read, the legs aren’t CGI, they’re part of the puppets made for the movie (though they are using computers to edit out the sticks like they did in other recent Muppet films). They do look kind of creepy, though, but that might just be because we don’t usually see the Muppets’ legs at all.
Well that’s cool, that’s a nice family tradition.
Hugo vs The Muppets would be a tough call. I really hope Hugo is good… I pretty much root for Marty in everything he does… how can you not?
I have a feeling the Muppets movie is a slam dunk. It would be really hard to mess up, no? There’s so much pre-existing goodwill, the have likeable “Human” leads… It’s a gimme I think.
I keep meaning to formalize my “remake rules”, but I never get around to it. Remakes of foreign films don’t bother me at all, for whatever reason.
And yeah, Sherlock Holmes could have been SO much better… but you object to Downey playing him? He’s believeable as a “genius”, no?
Yeah, he’s just not believable as an iconic British genius named Sherlock.
Mark Strong would have been a much better Sherlock. For that matter reverse the 2 leads and have Jude Law play Sherlock and RDJ play Watson would have been better.
As a total aside, there is a BBC show called Sherlock, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman which is an absolutely brilliant updating of the Sherlock Holmes cannon and is highly recommended.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo are easily my most anticipated. On top of that, Tintin looks pretty good and I’m a huge Scorsese fan so I know I’ll see Hugo, and I’ll probably see most of the films in the list.
What’s missing: The Artist, A Dangerous Method, Shame, We Need To Talk About Kevin, Carnage, and The Iron Lady.
Any of those you want to expound on?
Gosh, I’m so excited about Hugo!
But guess what… I’ll have to wait until Feb.
😦
LOL.
That HONESTLY made me sad when I read that. I was like AUGH. Oh, hnag in there… I’ll try not to have any spoilers in there for you. 😦
At least you get TV on time, huh? 😀
Yes, I do… on the Internet!
Out of everything that was great in this post, I think the “Hook Us Up” banner at the end was the best! (My favorite Christmas movie) Thanks for posting this, it really helps those of us who are not as movie savvy.
I will be seeing the Muppets with my 2 boys come Thanksgiving, so I might be able to actually respond with meaningful content on your site for once! LOL!
Out of the others, I’l probably wait to hear your reviews before I consider seeing them in the theater. I do want to see MI: Ghost Protocol. I’m a huge huge fan of the original, but they really went downhill after. This cast appears to be the best since the 1st, so I’m hoping JJ Abrams will come through.
Thanks Jay!
Hate to break it to you though after you were so nice and all, but JJ Abtams isn’t directing this one.
He is still producing though. 😀
And yeah, the cast rocks, the special effects and stunts look great so far, the trailers have been awesome. I’m actually finding my self getting psyched for this.
Out of those, I am most looking forward to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Young Adult and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. I’ll probably check out others, but those are most intriguing to me. Nice post!
Thanks Eric. Yeah those all look good to me too.
TGWTDT has been my most anticipated film all year. And not a lot of people seem to be saying it, but I think Young Adult is looking awesome.
Thanks for posting up!