Giddy-up, Giddy-up, Giddy-up, Let's Go

Well, the holidays are here – like you haven’t you noticed – and so I thought I should let you know what’s coming up to a theater near you, starting with The Nativity Story (out today), starring Keisha Castle-Hughes (Whale Rider), a drama focusing on Mary and Joseph's journey to Bethlehem for the birth of Jesus.

Then there’s next week’s Apocalypto (Mel Gibson’s in-Mayan latest concept-feature); The Holiday (in which down-on-their-love-luck Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet swap houses for the holidays); Blood Diamond, a drama set against a backdrop of civil war in 1990's Sierra Leone, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly, and Djimon Honsou; and The Good German (in which American journalist George Clooney looks for former mistress Cate Blanchett in post-war Berlin, while being lured into a murder mystery.

Mid-December brings Arthur and the Minimoys, The Painted Veil, starring Edward Norton and Naomi Watts, and Will Smith’s The Pursuit of Happyness. The following week it’s all about Charlotte’s Web (starring Dakota Fanning), The Good Shepherd (a Matt Damon-Angelina Jolie vehicle about the early history of the CIA directed by Robert De Niro), Night at the Museum, and We Are Marshall.

Opening on Christmas Day are Children of Men, Dreamgirls, and Notes on a Scandal (in which not-all-there teacher Judi Dench mercilessly blackmails adulterous teacher Blanchett), while Sienna Miller’s Factory Girl and Renée Zellweger’s Miss Potter will open closer to New Year’s.

So, to borrow a line from “Sleigh Ride,” let's take that road before us and sing a chorus or two because it's lovely weather for…a movie…together with...whomever you want.

And remember to "be adequite" this season.

Photo: 20th Century Fox (Night at the Musem).