Holiday Movies

One of my favorite aspects of the holidays are the movies.  Not just the classics they always show on TV, but the new ones.

I was a Thanksgiving baby and it soon became fairly regular that my “birthday” party would consist of going to a new movie with a lot of friends before returning home for ice cream and games.  So I had the great fortune to see many great holiday movies surrounded by friends:

An American Tail for my 6th Birthday;
Home Alone for my 10th, and of course:
Die Hard, for my 8th.

The tradition grew into a lifestyle, so much that I associate my birthday with new movies.  My first birthday in college I was stuck on campus with the 10 other kids involved in the winter show, and no one else!  My best bud at the time drove me down to Albuquerque where we hit the Cracker Barrel for Thanksgiving dinner, then went to see SLEEPY HOLLOW.  

We subsequently snuck into three more movies the rest of the day:

The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc
Dogma; and…

frankly I can’t remember which other film we saw.  Not any of the big ones from that year: Matrix, 6th Sense or American Beauty.  Might have seen Notting Hill.  All got a bit blurry by the end of the day.

Anyway, my movie season is always back-loaded, to the point that I was for years largely unaware of what summer blockbusters were coming out.

In the past few years the tradition has kept on with old family and new.  Since my birthday this year I’ve already seen two pretty stellar flicks: Puss in Boots, and The Muppets.  And there are several that I’m very psyched about. Girl with the Dragon Tattoo isn’t on my list, though I’ll probably see it.  I saw the Swedish version with someone I’d never met before and it was…awkward.  Movie with subtitles and lots of violence against women = not a great first date.

Here’s what I’m most looking forward to:
Sherlock Holmes
Hugo
The Iron Lady
The Descendants

How about yourself?  What movie coming out in the next few weeks are you most excited about?