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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, December 19, 2008

MOVIE MADNESS
Christmas picks for flicks

By Rene Rodriguez
McClatchy-Tribune News Service

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Adam Sandler stars in "Bedtime Stories".

TRACY BENNETT | Disney Enterprises, Inc.

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Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Gabriel Macht has the title role in "The Spirit".

Lionsgate/Odd Lot Entertainment

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Hollywood is unleashing its biggest and most serious Oscar contenders, with the hopes that at least a few of them also happen to become box office sensations.

Besides "Valkyrie" (story about star Tom Cruise is below), here's what's scheduled to open Christmas Day:

  • "Bedtime Stories": Adam Sandler stars as a man startled to discover the outlandish bedtime stories he tells his niece and nephew each night are coming true.

  • "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button": The Oscar buzz is high around director David Fincher's adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story about a man (Brad Pitt) who is born as an 80-year-old and ages backward. Cate Blanchett, Taraji P. Henson and Tilda Swinton co-star in what is rumored to be a "Forrest Gump"-ish tearjerker.

  • "Marley & Me": A family learns important life lessons from their adorable, but naughty and neurotic, dog. Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson star.

  • "The Spirit": After writing so many of the graphic novels that spawned hit films ("Sin City," "The Dark Knight," "300"), the legendary Frank Miller takes a stab at directing a comic-book adaptation, this one based on Will Eisner's iconic hero (played by Gabriel Macht), who returns from the dead to battle the nefarious Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson). Eva Mendes and Scarlett Johansson co-star.