TFATD: Holiday Movie Review and New Year's Show

- Holiday Movies that are Golden Globe Contenders
- Falcon and Dove’s top movie picks of 2008
- The Chronicles of Disney
- New Year’s Resolutions


The Chronicles of Disney

Disney makes a premature exit on the financing of the film series based on the C.S. Lewis books, “The Chronicles of Narnia”. Walden Media will probably have to seek more financing as “Dawn Treader” is supposed to be in production. Disney (in our humble opinion) has no one to blame but themselves as far as “Prince Caspian” sales went. They did not market it well at all, even though it was much better than the first installment of the film series, “The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe”. They released it at the wrong time of year, with lots of competition and a screen shortage. Dumb. It would have done better in the winter season, but probably at the time of consideration, they were concerned about the Harry Potter franchise and their “Half-Blood Prince” release originally scheduled for Nov. 2008, now pushed back to July 17, 2009. Prince Caspian would have been a nice compliment and would have done well with HBP…which was moved anyway. They could have ruled the Holiday Season this year along with “Marley and Me”. They probably weren’t going to make all of them anyway…why bail now? Oh, well…

Golden Globe Contenders in the Holiday Movie Marketplace

Milk

Although we mention in the show that Milk covers 1968-78…it doesn’t. It actually starts in 1970. We have seen this film and it really is an Oscar contender, and should do well at the Golden Globes. Both Sean Penn and James Franco fill their characters' shoes, as does the ensemble cast. The documentary-film inputs add a needed reference from those too young to realize how important this man was to politics and civil rights for gays.

Slumdog Millionaire

This is one of the contenders for Best Picture, and it should be. We loved this film, and so will you. Don’t let the synopsis fool you; this film will change your world. Everything from the cinematography to the breathtaking music is beautiful, and worth multiple viewings!

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Another serious Best Picture contender. Brad Pitt may have found the role of his career. The entire cast was extremely competent and moving. There should be a lot of Globe winners from this group and Oscar nominees.

Seven Pounds

Will Smith’s latest will leave you breathless. This is a very intimate film, not shot in the usual Hollywood style, but more like an independent film. Rosario Dawson is touching…and so is her character’s dog, Duke. This film is subtle and doesn’t hit you over the head with anything, so pay very close attention. It is worth it. It is tragically beautiful.

The Tale of Despereaux

Three years of animation work went into this delightful children’s film that certainly deserves some attention. It is soft and organic; take the whole family. It is genuinely entertaining, and no entendres of adult jokes to spoil the mood. It's easy on the eyes with a nice, complex story. This is how all animated films should be like. Big props to all who worked on this film!

Doubt

Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman are brilliant! Period. If you saw the play, see the movie. If you didn’t, see this one. The entire cast is perfect. It is going to be a touch year for decisions on great films.

More are in the podcast…give a listen.

NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS

Falcon and Dove discuss which will be on our list, and suggestions of what could be on the world’s list. We keep it simple.

Download or listen to our Holiday Movie Review and New Year's Show here! (Right-click, Save Target As) (Length: 1 hour, 23 minutes; Size: 154 MB, sorry about the large file size!)

Enjoy!