Film Fan Fridays for Friday December 23, 2011

Hello Film Fans and Fanatics!

Welcome to Film Fan Fridays for Friday December 23, 2011!

As we near to the end of the year one of the things I've been thinking a lot about is the 2011 Movie Moxie Book to Film Club, which I've really enjoyed and we've read and seen a lot of great and fun films. It was so much fun that I have decided to do it all again and I'm looking at titles for 2012 and if you'd like to have a chance to take a look at titles for consideration as well as share any you'd like to be included you can vote here.

Today I'll be sharing films that come out today as well te holiday releases for today as well as on Christmas Day December 25, 2011. I've never been to the movie theatre on Christmas, although I know for many it's a yearly tradition as it's one of the few place that is open when most of the city slumbers and turkeys-out.

For today, Friday December 23, 2011 we have 4 films to choose from and pretty much an even split of limited to wide releases. The limited releases include 3D dance documentary Pina which I can't wait to see and Roman Polanski's latest Carnage. In wide release we have Bollywood sequel Don 2 (in 3D!), plus Cameron Crowe's We Bought a Zoo starring Matt Damon as a single dad who... you guessed it... buys a zoo. I really want to see that one too, the trailer almost made me cry.

If you are trekking out to the theatre on Christmas Day you have three films to choose from including the limited release of book to film adaptation of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and the wide releases of Stephen Speilberg's War Horse and out resident horror release of The Darkest Hour with the awesome tagline of 'Survive the Holidays' (and it's in 3D). Actually, it's one of the several 3D releases this week including Don 2, Pina and The Darkest Hour which is a wild set of films to have a 3D commonality: A Bollywood sequel, a dance documentary and a horror flick.

Have a great holiday weekend!

Shannon

Friday December 23, 2011 Releases

Carnage
Dir: Roman Polanski (The Ghost Writer, The Pianist, Rosemary's Baby)
Cast: Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz, John C. Reilly
France/Germany/Poland/Spain
Limited Release
Official Film Site, IMDb Page, Trailer

Don 2
Dir: Farhan Akhtar (Don, Lakshya)
Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Boman Irani, Lara Dutta
India
Official Film Site, IMDb Page, Trailer

Pina
Writer/Dir: Wim Wenders (Wings of Desire, Bueno Vista Social Club)
Documentary featuring the work of choreographer Pina Bausch
Germany/France/UK
Limited Release
Official Film Site, IMDb Page, Trailer

We Bought a Zoo
Dir: Cameron Crowe (Almost Famous, Singles, Say Anything...)
Cast: Matt Damon, Scarlett Johansson, Thomas Haden Church, Patrick Fugit, Elle Fanning, John Michael Higgins
USA
Official Film Site, IMDb Page, Trailer

Sunday December 25, 2011 Releases

The Darkest Hour
Dir: Chris Gorak (Right at Your Door)
Cast: Emile Hirsch, Olivia Thirlby, Max Minghella, Rachael Taylor
USA
Official Film Site, IMDb Page, Trailer

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Dir: Stephen Daldry (The Reader, The Hours, Billy Elliot)
Cast: Thomas Horn, Sandra Bullock, Max von Sydow, Viola Davis, John Goodman, Jeffrey Wright, Tom Hanks
USA
Limited Release
Official Film Site, IMDb Page, Trailer

War Horse
Dir: Steven Spielberg (The Adventures of TinTin, Catch Me If You Can, Jurassic Park)
Cast: Jeremy Irvine, Emily Watson, David Thewlis, Peter Mullan, Niels Arestrup, Tom Hiddleston, Benedict Cumberbatch, Toby Kebbell
USA
Official Film Site, IMDb Page, Trailer

**please note this list of releases reflects first run film released in Toronto, Ontario, Canada as of December 25, 2011**