Like many New York City dwellers, my Christmas routine of yore often consisted of Chinese eat-in followed by a movie.
The former’s not quite as easy to pull off these days — no credible restaurant on every corner — but studios are offering a loaded buffet table.
In anticipation of next week’s bounty, here’s our pu-pu platter of Christmas Day movies with thoughts about which dish might be best for you and yours.
The dish: Colorado’s own movie quasar Amy Adams stars along with Christoph Waltz in Tim Burton’s account of Margaret and Walter Keane. Walter was the maker of those eerie images of big-eyed kids that dentists seemed to favor as office décor. Well, actually, he wasn’t. Turns out Margaret wielded the brush. She painted. He took the credit.
Tastes: In the mood for piquant, dynamic performances? It’s hard to pass up Adams and two-time Oscar winner Waltz. PG-13. 106 minutes
The dish: In this revisit of the 1974 flick starring James Caan, Mark Wahlberg portrays a college professor with a gambling problem that is about to go from serious to deadly.
Tastes: Did we mention Wahlberg stars? Yum. More seriously, Wahlberg has a gift for depicting masculine desperation. What could make you more frantic than owing three crime bosses money you don’t have? R. 110 minutes
The dish: This World War II drama about code-smashing, arrogant but also anguished math genius Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) has been racking up nominations (three SAGs and five Golden Globes for starters) as it jostles for front-runner status in the race for Oscar.
Tastes: Hungering for an elegantly braided and surprisingly moving drama that plays as biopic and wartime thriller? Cumberbatch & Co. have you covered. PG-13. 113 minutes
The dish: Director Rob Marshall made a persuasive argument for reconsidering the movie musical when he brought “Chicago” to the big-screen. Now he helps Disney, that purveyor of fairy-tales, go deeper. Of course, he’s working with Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s brilliantly shaded and resonant vision of the fairy-tale. Actually a slew of them: Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel.
Tastes: Like the best of the Brothers Grimm, “Into the Woods” operates on levels that speak to young’uns and adults. There are bewitchingly fun special effects and beautifully unnerving lyrics, complicated baddies and bratty heroes. With Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, Anna Kendrick, Chris Pine, Johnny Depp, Christine Baranski and Tracy Ullman, the cast is as starry as a moonless eve. PG. 126 minutes
The dish: Director Angelina Jolie brings the story of WWII hero Louis “Louie” Zamperini to the multiplex. Many of you were introduced to the modest but amazing man thanks to Lauren Hillenbrand’s 2010 best-selling biography. An unlikely track star, Zamperini competed in the 1936 Olympics in the 5,000-meter event. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps and became a bombardier in the Pacific Theater. He survived the crash of the B-24 he served on, then survived more than two-and-a-half years as a prisoner of war.
Tastes: Some critics have deemed director Jolie’s sophomore feature “conventional.” If by that they mean a larger-than-life, expansively emotional, family-appropriate yarn meant to uplift, well, worse things could befall Jolie or audiences. PG-13. 137 minutes
Lisa Kennedy: 303-954-1567, lkennedy@denverpost.com or twitter.com/bylisakennedy
