Skip to main content
CNN.com International
The Web    CNN.com      Powered by
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ON TV
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Entertainment

Feast now, famine later

Enjoy December, the richest movie month of the year

By Todd Leopold
CNN

Roberts, Clooney
Julia Roberts and George Clooney return for "Ocean's Twelve."
FACT BOX
"Eye on Entertainment" talks about the weekend's happenings on CNN's "Live Today" between 10 a.m. and noon ET Thursday.
YOUR E-MAIL ALERTS
Eye on Entertainment
Movies

(CNN) -- The studios are rolling out their big guns, and no wonder: It's December.

In December, children are home from school. In December, families have opportunities to be together. In December, people have plenty of free time.

And December is the last chance for films to qualify for the Academy Awards.

You're seeing the results in the theaters (as if you couldn't tell). There's family-friendly fare such as "The Incredibles" and "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie." Teen pleasers such as "National Treasure" and "Seed of Chucky." And Oscar bids such as "Closer," "The Aviator," "Beyond the Sea," "Hotel Rwanda" and "Million Dollar Baby."

But if you feel a chill coming around the corner -- and I know you're avoiding it, because Christmas is still two weeks away -- that's January.

January is Hollywood's dumping ground. Kevin Kline once made an awful serial killer film called "The January Man." It opened in January (and sunk like a stone at the box office).

"Kangaroo Jack" opened in January. So did "Final Destination 2" and "Spice World."

Oh, January's not all bad. Many of the Oscar hopefuls that open in one New York and one Los Angeles theater in December -- to qualify for the Academy Awards -- get a wider release in January. And adventurous movie houses, particularly those in larger cities, know it's a great time to book independent and foreign-language films that audiences may have missed late the previous year.

In the meantime, however, enjoy December while it lasts. This weekend the big film is "Ocean's Twelve," the sequel to 2001's successful remake of the Rat Pack film.

Eye on Entertainment enjoys an aisle seat with the gentle smell of fresh-baked chocolate-chip cookies in the air (because it's December, and Eye on Entertainment loves baking cookies).

Eye-opener

"Ocean's Twelve" takes Danny Ocean's gang and moves them overseas to Europe.

Seems Terry Benedict (Andy Garcia), the Vegas casino king the crew robbed in "Eleven," is on to them. Ocean (George Clooney), wife Tess (Julia Roberts), Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt) and the rest of the gang leave the United States to get mixed up in double and double-double crosses on the other side of the Atlantic. They're also now pursued by an investigator played by Catherine Zeta-Jones and a European thief played by Vincent Cassel.

Steven Soderbergh, apparently looking for an edgier feel -- according to Entertainment Weekly -- is back in the director's chair.

Early reviews have either remarked on the self-referential confusion of the film or noted that it's a blissful ride.

One thing that's been obvious since filming, however, is that the cast enjoyed the hell out of making the movie. Wire stories and gossip columns have been filled with tales of poker games, paparazzi and gatherings at Clooney's place on Lake Como in Italy.

But a happy, party-hearty set is not always a great indicator of a good movie. The Rat Pack of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. apparently loved making the original "Eleven" (along with "Sergeants 3" and "Robin and the 7 Hoods"), but the movies are chiefly watchable today for their personalities, not the plots.

"Ocean's Twelve" opens Friday.

On screen

  • The third chapter in Wesley Snipes' "Blade" series, "Blade: Trinity," opened Wednesday to generally negative reviews. (See David Germain's AP review here.) Then again, the first two didn't get great reviews either -- but made out well at the box office.
  • On the tube

  • George Lopez, playing a Chicago shock jock, stars in the movie "Naughty or Nice," 8 p.m. ET Saturday on ABC.
  • CBS offers two half-hour specials starring "Robbie the Reindeer," a BBC-developed series, starting at 8 p.m. ET Saturday. Ben Stiller, Hugh Grant and Leah Remini lend their voices.
  • Turner Classic Movies (like CNN, a division of Time Warner) celebrates the career of director Martin Scorsese with "Scorsese on Scorsese," a documentary by film historian and former Time magazine movie critic Richard Schickel. "Scorsese on Scorsese" airs at 10 p.m. ET Tuesday and will be preceded by "The Last Waltz" at 8 p.m. and "Raging Bull" at 11:30 p.m. Scorsese's new film, "The Aviator," opens December 17.
  • Paging readers

  • Grove Press is rereleasing newly minted Nobel laureate Elfriede Jelinek's best-known novel, "The Piano Teacher," on Tuesday.
  • Home theater

  • Get ready, all you "Lord of the Rings" fans. Both the entire trilogy and special editions of the last film are out Tuesday. Make some space on your shelf (and on your couch, where you'll be sitting for many, many hours): The trilogy is 12 discs.
  • Chim-chim-cheree indeed: Walt Disney releases "Mary Poppins (40th Anniversary Edition)" on Tuesday, including commentary by Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke and a making-of documentary.

  • Story Tools
    Click Here to try 4 Free Trial Issues of Time! cover
    Top Stories
    Review: 'Perfect Man' fatally flawed
    Top Stories
    EU 'crisis' after summit failure

    CNN US
    On CNN TV E-mail Services CNN Mobile CNN AvantGo CNNtext Ad info Preferences
    SEARCH
       The Web    CNN.com     
    Powered by
    © 2005 Cable News Network LP, LLLP.
    A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved.
    Terms under which this service is provided to you.
    Read our privacy guidelines. Contact us.
    external link
    All external sites will open in a new browser.
    CNN.com does not endorse external sites.
     Premium content icon Denotes premium content.