New In Theaters: Dec 11

Wide Releases:
Invictus: The best looking Rugby movie ever, and as a bonus it finally brings Nelson Mandela to the big screen in what should be the feel good inspirational movie of the year.

Expanding into Wide Release:
The Princess and the Frog: After a 10 year drought, Disney finally returns to the formula that netted them a annual hit from 1989 to 1999, and I only wonder what took them so long.

Limited Releases:
The Lovely Bones: The director of the Lord of the Rings brings us a sharp looking thriller told from the unique point of view of a murder victim watching from the visually stunning afterlife.
Rocket Singh-Salesman of the Year: An everyman comedy coming to us from the exotic land of Bollywood, and unfortunately the trailer while charming, gives us nothing to go on.
A Single Man: A good wordless trailer, but one that leaves us wondering whether the final product can deliver in a meaningful way.
The Slammin' Salmon: Broken Lizards uninspired looking followup to the low brow but mildly funny Beerfest.

Pick of the Week: This is a tough one this week between Invictus and The Lovely Bones. If You asked me which film I thought would be better, the answer would be Invictus. It's a film from a proven director telling a familiar yet powerful story. But that's the problem; it plays it too safe. I know exactly what I'm getting myself into and ultimately that's less interesting than something like The Lovely Bones, which earns my pick of the week. This movie seems to be trying to approach the tired thriller genre from a new perspective. It's trying to tackle a depiction of the afterlife on film and all the metaphysical questions that go with it, and from the looks of its beautiful. But a film with this type of ambition has a much greater chance of falling flat on its face, or at least missing the mark on one or more goals creating an uneven experience. But I don't care because there's also a small chance it gets all right and we have something truly unique and special and magical. And that's why we go to the movies in the first place. Of course, The Lovely Bones has an extremely limited release for a while, so among the wide releases I say go ahead and see Invictus and I can just about guarantee a positive experience.

New In Theaters: Dec 4

Welcome to the first edition of my weekly feature, New In Theaters. The goal is to let readers know what's coming out in any given week, as well as let you know what I think is worth seeing based on the trailers. Each film gets a one sentence trailer review, and all titles link to either their trailer on an external site, or the appropriate blog entry.

Wide Releases:
Armored: Typical Hollywood thriller/heist gone wrong movie, with nothing to distinguish this one from the pack.
Brothers: This looks to be an overly dramatic bid to earn its three main actors, Oscar nominations.
Everybody's Fine: Just because you put a lot of famous people in a movie doesn't mean it'll be any good; you need more than that to impress me and this trailer doesn't have it.
Transylmania: Eurotrip with vampires.

Limited Releases:
Serious Moonlight: Looks to be a moderately amusing but entirely forgettable movie you take a date to.
Up In Air: Reitman's excellent looking followup to Juno.

Pick of the Week: Up In Air. It looks to be a stylish comedy with a heart and a brain. Plus it's got the super talented, charismatic Mr. Clooney as the star. I can't see this one being bad. Roger Ebert says this one is a favorite to take win Best Picture. Too bad it's in a super limited release and most of us will have until Christmas to check it out. Among wide releases my top pick is Brothers. Sure this one looks to be a pretty shallow attempt to earn its leads acting nominations. Sure it looks like every emotional note in the film will be cranked up to 11, with no variance or subtlety, but at least it looks like it's trying to be good, which is more than I can say for the other wide releases this week. The rest look like shallow commerical fare, which is even less interesting than shallow Oscar bait.