Les Miserables Hugh Jackman Anne Hathway - H 2012
Universal PicturesA few high-profile awards contenders make their way to movie theaters on Christmas.
The holiday sees four new releases, including Quentin Tarantino‘s Django Unchained, Tom Hooper‘s Les Miserables and the Peter Jackson-produced doc West of Memphis, opening Tuesday with the Fox comedy Parental Guidance also screening. (Earlier this month, awards contenders Django and Les Miserables scored multiple Golden Globe nominations.)
Django, starring Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz and Leonardo DiCaprio, the R-rated film centers on Django, a slave whose history with his ex-owners lands him face-to-face with bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz.
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Universal’s Les Miserables, Oscar winner Hooper’s The King’s Speech follow-up, is the big-screen adaptation of the blockbuster stage musical that stars Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway and Russell Crowe.
Parental Guidance, led by Billy Crystal, Bette Midler and Marisa Tomei, follows parents Artie and Diane who take care of their three grandchildren using 21st century methods, though they soon revert back to their old style of parenting.
The Matt Damon-John Krasinski co-written and Gus Van Sant-directed Focus Features drama, Promised Land, about American identity and fracking, opens wide Friday. The film centers on two corporate salespeople who visit a small town in an attempt to buy drilling rights from its residents.
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Read what The Hollywood Reporter‘s film critics have to say about all the films opening this week.
Django Unchained (Opens Tuesday)
Christoph Waltz, Jamie Foxx and Leonardo DiCaprio star in Quentin Tarantino’s revenge saga mostly set in the Deep South just before the Civil War. Read Todd McCarthy’s review here.
Les Miserables (Opens Tuesday)
Anne Hathaway, Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe sing — and wage a Sisyphean battle against musical diarrhea — in Tom Hooper’s adaptation of the stage sensation. Read Todd McCarthy’s review here.
West of Memphis (Opens Tuesday)
The recently liberated West Memphis 3 get another high-profile doc that’s a sure bet for a theatrical push. Read John DeFore’s review here.
Parental Guidance (Opens Tuesday)
Billy Crystal and Bette Midler hustle to peddle the threadbare material that makes Andy Fickman‘s comedy a perfectly tolerable, if uninspired, moviegoing experience. Read Michael Rechtshaffen’s review here.
Promised Land (Opens Friday)
Co-writers Matt Damon and John Krasinski star in Gus Van Sant’s movie about a small town asked to allow fracking on its land. Read Todd McCarthy’s review here.
