Nothing Like The Holidays

Rating: PG-13

Movie Release Date: December 12, 2008

DVD Release Date: October 27, 2009

Plot 411: A Puerto Rican family spends the holidays together and emotions run high for all of them.

Review: Jesse (Freddy Rodriguez) returns home to Chicago after serving in Iraq as a Marine. It's obvious he is experiencing a little PTSD, and we learn later that this is partly because one of the men in his unit died. His father (Alfred Molina) owns a bodega, which he expects Jesse to run one day, and his mother (Elizabeth Pena) is at home cooking a holiday meal. Also arriving for the festivities is his sister Roxanna (Vanessa Ferlito), his brother Mauricio (John Leguizamo) and sister-in-law Sarah (Debra Messing). In everyone's eyes, Roxanna is a Hollywood starlet who living in California and works in show biz. In reality, she is a struggling actress like many others. Mauricio and Sarah are both career driven and succeeding in their perspective jobs. To the dismay of his mother, Mauricio has not produced a grandchild and this is a source of many disagreements between him and his wife. At the holiday dinner, their mother announces that she plans to divorce their father because she suspects he has been unfaithful. When he doesn't deny the charges, this causes an uproar that threatens to tear the family apart. I didn't know a thing about this movie and had assumed it'd be a romantic comedy. Boy, was I wrong. This was, instead, a family drama with some serious themes. However, many of them just failed to strike a chord with the audience. The characters weren't really unique and drew no sympathy from me. I didn't feel compelled by any of their stories. A lot of the scenes felt stilted and the characters didn't seem to relate well to one another. The movie tried its best to be the Latin version of This Christmas but I think it failed miserably.

Watch It: If, perhaps, you're interested in seeing just how old Debra Messing seems to have become.

Skip It: If you're looking for a good holiday movie about family. Instead, pick up This Christmas.

Magnolia

Rating: R

Movie Release Date: January 7, 2000

DVD Release Date: August 29, 2000

Plot 411: A small snippet of the lives of several people who experience love, loss, death, regret, loneliness and a number of other human emotions.

Review: This was a tough one to sit through. It's over three hours long and is basically a collage of people's lives. You have to watch till the end to even figure out what the hell is going on or where the movie is going. I'll sum it up for you: The movie is preaching forgiveness. This movie has an all-star cast of great actors, including Julianne Moore, Tom Cruise, William H. Macy, John C. Reilly, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Alfred Molina. Cruise's character is especially interesting in an obnoxious, chauvinist way. He's as over-the-top as he was in Tropic Thunder. It is difficult for me to reconcile this image of him with the Scientologist version of himself. Very difficult indeed. I can't say that'd I'd recommend this one to most people. It'd probably fit well with the arthouse crowd, film students and maybe the indie flick watchers. The mainstream moviegoer will probably find it too slow going. There is a tremendous amount of character development, although it's splotchy with all the vignettes. It's one that focuses on the people and dialogue, and I think it really stretches the emotive capacities of the actors. There are a lot of close-up shots where they really need to show emotion on their faces and in their eyes.

Watch It: If you're one of the groups I've mentioned above.

Skip It: If you think you could fit two blockbusters into the same timeframe.

Trailer:

Identity

Rating: R

Movie Release Date: April 25, 2003

DVD Release Date: February 3, 2004

Plot 411: Stuck at a motel in a rainstorm, a group of strangers slowly gets killed one by one. They must discover who done it and why.

Review: This was a well-written movie that I think gets overlooked a lot. It's a thriller, mystery and horror film rolled into one. It really makes you think. People from all walks of life are stuck in a motel as they slowly get picked off one by one. As the audience and the motel guests try to figure out what's going on, a separate drama is happening concurrently in which a death row inmate is being questioned by a psychiatrist in the 11th hour. This movie's ensemble cast makes it really difficult to pick out the killer or to even figure out what's happening. I love John Cusack in this movie because it's so far removed from his other stuff. Amanda Peet, Ray Liotta, John C. McGinley and Alfred Molina also star. If you start this movie, you'll never want to stop it and walk away. You'll need to sit through till the end. But it's definitely worth it.

Watch It: If you're the Sherlock Holmes type who likes to solve murder mysteries. This will take you for a loop.

Skip It: If you're not a big fan of thrillers. This one really gets your heart pounding at some points. The suspense is a killer.

Trailer: