The Cinema For 12/24-25/09: The Christmas Time Releases

Sherlock Holmes is the big release on Christmas this year

I never was one to go to movies on Christmas (just wasn't a family thing), but you may. And with that, here is the notable reviews for what big releases this year will be on Christmas.

Sherlock Holmes is getting decent to good reviews. It's not a classic, but Robert Downey puts on a real good performance from most accounts.

Mr. Ebert:

The Conan Doyle stories are still read, and probably always will be. Most readers get to at least a few. But among moviegoers on Christmas night (traditionally one of the busiest movie nights of the year), probably not so many. They will be unaware that this "Sherlock Holmes" is cheerfully revisionist. They will be entertained, and so was I. The great detective, who has survived so much, can certainly shrug off a few special effects.

However, other's like Detroit News' Adam Graham view this Guy Ritchie directed movie as a poor one

"Sherlock Holmes" isn't an origin story; it takes for granted that the audience is already acquainted with the character. It wastes away what could have been, in different hands, a fun, clever ride.
Bottom line: Right star, wrong director, wrong script. Elementary, my dear Watson.

A movie getting mixed reviews also is "It's Complicated."

Love for Merly Streep and Alec Baldwin is in apparent in most previews, but the scrip and directing, not so much:

I would like to say that writer/director Nancy Meyers' film is cause for celebration, but it's a bit more complicated than that. Meyers has written some astute scenes about aging and regret, heartbreak and hope. In the role of a successful businesswoman — Jane owns and operates an upscale bakery/café — who finds herself in the unlikely position of having an affair with her ex-husband, Streep is radiant, funny and endearingly vulnerable.

But Meyers demonstrates, as she did in Something's Gotta Give and The Holiday, an extraordinarily limited worldview. Her heroines are allowed just one problem, and it will never, ever include a lack of taste. Jane's semi-rural Santa Barbara home is a hydroponic dreamland, where tomatoes grow implausibly round and fully ripe in springtime. Her spacious, beautiful kitchen is filled with shelves of cake plates and creamy white platters, just waiting for this formerly unappreciated domestic goddess to fill them with homemade bounty. Producers of porn employ "fluffers" on their sets. I believe Meyers, as a producer of lifestyle porn, requires a fulltime bleacher, making sure every pristine surface and outfit stays that way. No matter how good Streep is, watching her in these surroundings feels akin to seeing Sarah Bernhardt trapped in a live-action edition of Martha Stewart Living.

It's a mix bag with this one, but you won't waste your money I think on this selection since the cast is oh so great.

The Broadway hit Nine is getting more negative feedback than it is positive, but it isn't "Gosh Brutal."

And I will let listen to what The Spill crew says about those Chipmunks, haha

Have a great Christmas Eve from The Cinema.