10 must see holiday films

Angelina Jolie and Colin Farrell in Alexander.

Something's missing this summer holiday movie season. Then again, for the past three years all our movie Christmases have come at once.

You can't have street parades through the capital and red carpets every year. Sometimes you just have to go with the imported stuff.

And there are plenty of good reasons to escape those crowded beaches and sit in the air-conditioned dark this summer.

We've done some research, talked to a few folk involved, and come up with 10 of them. We think these are the sort of flicks that deserve to be seen on the big screen in the company of strangers, even if they are dressed like they've just come from the beach.

We've seen most of them, and while there's some educated guesswork involved in compiling this countdown, our number one pick is there for a very good reason. Just about all of us here at TimeOut got to see it early and we haven't stopped smiling since.

If you really miss the good old days, there's always that DVD of the extended version of The Return of the King available any day now ... . but you really should get out more. - Russell Baillie

10. Open Water

Water, water everywhere ... um, what's that?

The Names: Blanchard Ryan, Daniel Travis directed by Chris Kentis The Pitch: We start off the countdown with the film most likely to keep people out of the sea this summer, just as Jaws did nearly 30 years ago. This low-budget digital video-shot American psychological thriller is inspired by the true story of a couple of scuba divers who were left behind by their charter boat far from shore and never seen again. In this case, our increasingly panicky pair Ryan and Travis find themselves as objects of curiosity to the local shark population - director Kentis having used real sharks in his footage. Of course, had it been made in New Zealand some friendly dolphins would have had a swim-on role ...
Opens: January 6

Worth considering if you liked: Jaws, The Blair Witch Project, the idea of spending the rest of your life confined to dry land.

9. House of Flying Daggers

Yes, we do need another Hero

The Names: Takeshi Kaneshiro, Andy Lau and Ziyi Zhang directed by Zhang Yimou

The Pitch: Shi mian mai fu, as it's known as home, is celebrated director's Zhang's second excursion into the world of trad martial arts wushu movies after the visually lavish Hero, which is still playing on New Zealand screens. He says this one is bolder for his experience on its predecessor.

"This time around I'm more accustomed to the genre and braver, " he told Time Asia. "I pay much respect to the tradition, so you can say this film is a tribute to kung fu movies. I want this film to look very traditional but with a very modern story."

That story is set in the declining Tang Dynasty of 859AD. The largest of the rebel alliances that have risen from the political unrest is the mysterious House of Flying Daggers. Two police captains, played by Takeshi Kaneshiro and Andy Lau, suspect dancer Mei (Zhang Ziyi) is really a rebel leader and set a trap for her to lead them to the underground alliance. But in between high-flying fight scenes and spectacular set-pieces such as the mindbending Dance of Echoes sequence, the cops find themselves entranced by their quarry.

Opens: January 20

Worth considering if you liked: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero, stickfighting.

8. The Motorcycle Diaries

Vive le revolutions per minute

The Names: Gael Garcia Bernal and Rodrigo de la Serna directed by Walter Salles

The Pitch: A movie about the beginnings of the mythical figure of Ernesto "Che" Guevara, the Argentinian medical student turned socialist revolutionary hero of Latin America. This follows the formative experience of his trip around South America with friend Alberto Granado on the back of a unreliable Norton 500.

Both men later turned the eight-month voyage across Chile Peru and Venezuela into memoirs which acclaimed Brazilian director Walter Salles has adapted into this road movie that is compulsory viewing for anyone who has ever worn a T-shirt or put up a poster of beret-topped Guevera's face, still a symbol of rebel chic 40 years after his death.

Opens: Boxing Day 

Worth considering if you liked: Easy Rider, Reds, The Wild One.

7. Finding Neverland

Who was the man behind Peter Pan?

The Names: Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet, Dustin Hoffman, Julie Christie directed by Marc Forster

The Pitch: Another of the season's Oscar-bating biopics is this drama about Peter Pan creator J.M. Barrie (Depp), specifically about his relationship with widow Sylvia Llewelyn Davies (Winslet) and her four sons, whose imaginary games possibly inspired the writer's magical tale about the boy who did not grow up. Speaking to the Independent, Winslet says it's not a conventional biopic but a "fictional retelling". The film has reheated the speculation that Barrie was secretly gay and therefore his friendship with the boys wasn't as innocent as it appeared. But that's not part of this film. "And who are we to comment on speculation or rumour, frankly?" says Winslet. "I just always felt that the story dealt with the situation beautifully. You have a great friendship with four wonderful, animated young boys. Why should that be so weird? But of course in the world we live in today, that would be very bloody weird. But we couldn't have dealt with it in the film. It would have been a bloody disaster if we had."

Opens: January 13

Worth considering if you liked: Hook (did anyone? Hoffman was in that one too), or Peter Pan from last summer. Or Johnny Depp, y'know, in anything.

6. The Triplets of Belleville

Oscar-nominated French animation magnifique

The Names: Director Sylain Chomet

The Pitch: The Triplets of Belleville is an animated movie for older kids and adults. It's also very French. It has a thing about the more amusing parts of French cuisine because - says director Sylvain Chomet - it's good to fun with the cultural cliches. In his time, he certainly has.

"When I was living in England everyone was thinking that French people wear berets and are slightly short and wear striped shirts," he says, and it's a cliche, too, that French people eat cute animals or disgusting animals like snails and frogs.

"One night I invited my boss and other British people from the studio home for dinner and I told them frogs' legs were on the menu. I actually fabricated them with cotton buds and plasticine - enormous frogs' legs - and I put some veins on top and some fake mustard and it was absolutely awful, really disgusting. But they looked absolutely real and I was going up to everybody to see their reactions and no British person took one.

"I left the plate in the kitchen and then I came back and there was an old man eating one and he had plasticine all over his face. He was Swiss - he likes frogs' legs."

The country's obsession with the Tour de France, and the national propensity for wine drinking, also make their way into the film's story told against the beautifully realised backgrounds - by Evgeni Tomov, who defected from the USSR.

Chomet says Tomov is the "Nureyev of animation", using mainly old-fashioned hand-drawn techniques.

Although the film is heavily influenced by French comic books, Chomet also cites artistically minded film-maker Jacques Tati and silent film comedians such as Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.

"Animation is closer to mime than acting with words," Chomet says

The film has no dialogue but has a wonderful score by Benoit Charest, inspired by the music of Django Reinhardt and in keeping with the nostalgic Gallic feel.

The story follows the exploits of tenacious Portuguese grandma Madame Souza, who is raising her lonely grandchild, Champion, in a cramped apartment just outside Paris.

Noticing that he is happiest on a bicycle, she buys him one and puts him through rigorous training until he is ready for the Tour de France. But he's kidnapped by the evil French mafia, so the club-footed grandma, accompanied by Bruno her dog (another French obsession), rows across the ocean to a big metropolis called Belleville in an attempt to find him.

There she is taken in by a trio of aging former French musichall stars, the Triplets of Belleville, singers in the vein of the Andrews Sisters, and they become her detective partners.

The Triplets of Belleville was 10 years in the planning and took five years to make once Chomet and his producer had raised the film's €10 million budget, which is huge for a European film but tiny for Hollywood.

So how did Chomet keep himself going for five years? A diet of frogs' legs and snails?

"No, it was just everybody else enjoying making the film so much," he says. "We had a really great group of artists wanting to show something different and helping each other.

"It's like being in a storm - you have to be efficient and in the end it becomes a family. I did some of the animation myself but most was done by the 10 lead animators and assistants I'd trained in the beginning and they developed their own feel for the characters and made them their own."

Opens: Boxing Day

Worth considering if you like: Cycling, Tin-Tin, hot jazz, escargots with extra garlic, or think Marge's sisters are the best part of The Simpsons.

5. A Very Long Engagement 

The Great War vs Great Love

The Names: Audrey Tautou, Jodie Foster, Gaspard Ulliel, Dominique Pinon directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet.

The Pitch: The second film together for Tautou with director Jeunet is quite a leap from the surreal frivolity of their hit Amelie.

Set against the events of World War I, Un Long Dimanche de Fiancailles (as it is at home) has Tautou playing Mathilde, a polio-stricken woman refusing to believe her fiance has been killed during the conflict. She sets out on her own to find what happened to the man she loves.

It's one of the most expensive French movies ever made (with a budget of €45 million) and it's one of the most popular with nearly three million French people having already seen it.

The film is also credited with helping reawaken French interest in World War I after a long collective amnesia.

Based on the 1991 novel by Sebastien Japrisot A Very Long Engagement, it tells of a dark chapter in French military history when soldiers found guilty of self-mutilation were ordered to walk into No Man's Land. Combined with its tissue-demanding love story, it's already being considered to have enough clout to be Europe's biggest contender for Oscar glory next year.

Opens: Boxing Day

Worth considering if you like: Amelie, Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory, Gallipoli, Charlotte Gray, All Quiet on the Western Front.

4. Ocean's 12

What the best dressed thieves are wearing this season

The Names: George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, Catherine Zeta-Jones Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Bernie Mac, Don Cheadle, directed by Steven Soderbergh.

The Pitch: It's a sequel to a remake - you don't get many of those worth your while. But Ocean's 11 - in which Clooney and film-making partner Soderbergh retooled the cool but patchy Rat Pack flick of 1960 - hardly relied on its original to get by.

It ran on glaring starpower, infectious wit and a nifty heist plot set against the Sinatra-led Rat Pack's old stamping ground of Las Vegas. They've turned the celebrity wattage up even brighter this time.

To the marquee-groaning list of big names from the 2001 flick you can add Catherine Zeta-Jones (who plays an Interpol agent and the ex of Brad Pitt's Rusty Ryan) as well as supporting turns from Vincent Cassel, Jeroen Krabbe and Robbie Coltrane. Oh and Barbra Streisand and Bruce Willis have cameos too.

This time the spiffy gang are headed to Europe and various high-end tourist spots (Rome, London, Monte Carlo, the Italian Riviera and Amsterdam). Apparently, Terry Benedict, the casino boss they relieved of millions last time is on their tail. The plan this time involves a spot of trans-European art thievery with the heists involving a priceless Faberge egg, a priceless stock certificate and the beyond-priceless painting, Rembrandt's Nightwatch.

Opens: Boxing Day

Worth considering if you like: The first one, obviously. Many a 60s Euro-robbery flick.

3. Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events

In which Carrey goes out for the Count

The Names: Jim Carrey, Emily Browning, Billy Connolly, Meryl Streep, Timothy Spall, directed by Brad Siberling

The Pitch: The season's big entry from the world of kid-lit is the first in what could turn out to be a lengthy franchise.

It's based on the first three gothic but hilarious novels of the 11-strong best-selling series by Daniel Handler, who writes as Lemony Snicket, and in the first film gets Jude Law as narrator.

The crux of the movie's success will be whether it flies Harry Potter-like as a film for kids of all ages. Or whether it's just another chance for Carrey to go nuts in heavy make-up as he has before in The Grinch and The Mask.

Carrey plays Count Olaf, the guardian of the Baudelaire orphans whose inheritance he wishes to get his hands on. The kids - Violet, Klaus and baby Sunny - must rely on their wits to outsmart Olaf as he plots against them.

For what it's worth, Carrey says the film is about them, not him.

"The only intelligent ones in the whole story are the kids," he told USA Today. "All the adults in these stories are completely inept, hypocritical and blind, deaf and dumb. They have no idea what's going on. The kids have to prove everything to adults in triplicate: They never believe them. So they're basically on their own. Which is true of life. How many children are out there who are put in the parent role early in their life? And kids have to say, 'I'll take care of it. I'm 3, let me mix you a drink'."

There's supporting turns from Meryl Streep as Aunt Josephine, Billy Connolly - imagine him and Carrey in the same room - as Uncle Monty, Timothy Spall as Mr Poe and the film is quite likely to make a star of Aussie teenager Emily Browning who plays Violet.

Opens: December 16

Worth considering if you liked: The books obviously. Or if you prefer bedtime tales which never end happily ever after. The third Harry Potter film because it was darker. All those Cure videos.

2. Alexander

The life and times of the all-conquering Macedonian warrior king known as The Great

The Names: Colin Farrell, Angelina Jolie, Val Kilmer and Anthony Hopkins directed by Oliver Stone.

The Pitch: Maverick American director Stone knows a thing or two about war movies and films about leaders. He's recreated Vietnam three different times. He's made the biopic Nixon and a documentary about Fidel Castro. So far as ancient history goes ... well, he did write the screenplay for Conan the Barbarian.

So one thing's for sure about his movie about Alexander the Great, starring Farrell in the title role - it's not going to be Troy II.

It's going to be a big and bloody history lesson, with some possible contemporary political resonances. Oh, and sex - it comes with a frank depiction of Alexander's bisexuality.

With the film coming not long after the United States presidential election, Americans still fiercely divided about President George Bush and his policies, and US forces locked in bloody conflict in Iraq (one of Alexander's stomping grounds), Stone's film almost can't help but seem like a political allegory.

Both Alexander and Bush, the most powerful leaders of their day, were both raised in the shadow of dynamic fathers who also wielded worldwide influence, and defined by an ambitious war in a foreign land that is historically difficult to occupy. Both men spent years pursuing a high-profile enemy leader who fled into the hills of the Middle East.

"I started this thing before all this nightmare came down, this morass," Stone says of the Iraq war. "It's ironic, and I think there is a coincidence that's far beyond my understanding. But I would certainly not limit this to the current situation. This is an older situation, East v West. This is pre-Muslim, and there was always a conflict between Persian and Greek.

"Alexander was beautiful because he saw beyond that conflict into a synthesis. I'm not so sure our present administration does. It's great that they say, 'Democracy, blah, blah, blah' - but you have to modify democracy to the local customs."

Farrell says: "The film was never made for the purposes of a correlation, or to say anything about today's present state. People say history repeats itself. Well, it does in different ways, shapes and forms. This was kind of a freaky coincidence that our story takes place exactly where all the madness we're all talking about takes place now."

Stone acknowledges the coincidences, but because he started developing the project in 1989 he said it's obvious he didn't have President Bush in mind as a point of reference. Alexander has intrigued Stone since boyhood.

"He's a dashing warrior king who had a vision of compassion, generosity of spirit and peace," Stone says. "He was not a needless killer, he was not a butcher. At times he did massacre, but these were hard times. He did so with a purpose, with a reason.

"He did not have the Genghis Khan or Attila the Hun mentality. He was a builder, and in his wake he left a Hellenic empire. There was a boom in the Mediterranean, and Iran, there was a sense of growth in the world and a spurt of learning, exemplified by the library at Alexandria."

Although he didn't intend the film as political commentary, even Stone agrees that people will see parallels.

"Even though the world has changed dozens of times over since Alexander's days - which predated Jesus Christ and Mohammed - lessons in ancient history remain for modern people." - AP

Opens: January 20

Worth considering if you liked: Gladiator (but thought it lacked for bathhouse action), the elephant-like mumakil battles in The Lord of the Rings, blond mullet hairstyles, films that go for three hours, the History Channel, the idea of Angelina Jolie as your mum (she plays Alexander's mother Olympias), or that seduction scene between Tony Curtis and Laurence Olivier in the restored Spartacus.

1. The Incredibles

The family that goes Crash! Bang! Kapow! together, stays together

The Names: Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Samuel L. Jackson, Jason Lee directed by Brad Bird.

The Pitch: Pixar computer-animated movies grow up a little and get a little darker from the G-rated worlds of Toy Story and Finding Nemo with the story of The Incredibles. They're a superhero family who, having been forced to live an ordinary dysfunctional suburban life, must again don the masks and matching lycra before it's too late ... . For more, see story this page.

Opens: Boxing Day

Worth considering if you liked: Pixar's previous outings (even if you were the only grown-up in your cinema row), The Simpsons, X-Men flicks, The Iron Giant, Sean Connery's James Bond, thinking your Dad really is a superhero when he's not working at his crummy job at the office (Aww ... ).