Movie Buzz – 2/20

Move over, Harrison Ford! Hit the road, Gene Hackman! There’s a new actor in town for those mature, government, conspiracy theory roles. Dennis Quaid returns to the big screen to prove he shouldn’t be called a “has been” just yet.

Quaid plays a government agent who is part of a group of people, each with a unique viewpoint during a perceived presidential assassination, in “Vantage Point.”

This flick marks Quaid’s first major movie appearance in two years, since he appeared in the Mandy Moore flop, “American Dreamz.”

Other players in this fast-paced action thriller include William Hurt, Matthew Fox (TV’s “Lost”) and Oscar winner Forest Whitaker. Sigourney Weaver is also present to witness the technologically complex crime, her first major role in years.

So it’s ironic that Weaver appears in another of this week’s openers, a comedy based on one of many old-school catchphrases,“Be Kind Rewind.”

Viewers might discredit the flick as just another silly Jack Black vehicle, but they should not be so quick to judge, as “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” director Michel Gondry is the creative force here, too.

The movie finds Black as a man with a magnetized brain whose odd affliction causes the erasure of the movies in a video store run by his friend, played by actor-rapper Mos Def. Black remakes some late, great movies like “Ghostbusters” and “Boyz N the Hood” to keep the store’s quirky renters entertained.

Danny Glover and Mia Farrow round out the cast of movie re-making misfits, which exceeds its nonsense quota when Black plays Jessica Tandy’s role in “Driving Miss Daisy.”

Perhaps Black could use some therapy from “Charlie Bartlett.” Teen Russian actor Anton Yelchin ( “Alpha Dog”) plays the title character, an oddball kid who finds a path to popularity in school when he acts as counselor to his fellow students.

Robert Downey Jr. plays the school’s principal in the flick, which is humorous, as he is known as one of Tinseltown’s most notorious recovering drug addicts.

Whose bright idea is it to keep making movies that feature Larry the Cable Guy?

Apparently the country bumpkins of the world made the chunky, balding comedian’s mindless flicks like “Delta Farce” and “Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector” financially successful.

That’s why I blame them for Larry’s latest vehicle, “Witless Protection.” The flick finds the comedian acting as a bumbling guard watching over the pretty, but otherwise talent-lacking Jenny McCarthy.

Before you spend your hard-earned cash to see this asinine, completely pointless flick, please consider the feelings of people who value good cinema. Please don’t put us through this again. Just wait a few weeks for the DVD release.

Movie Buzz – 2/13

Ryan Reynolds was not the most predictable choice to be a Valentine’s Day  box-office leading man.

While the handsome actor is certainly capable of making hearts race, he’s better known for the sophomoric toilet humor he has dished out during less civilized times in his career (“Van Wilder,” “Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle”).

Starring with three gorgeous love interests and “Little Miss Sunshine” Abigail Breslin should give Reynolds enough of an estrogen boost to make “Definitely, Maybe” a chick-flick success, though.

Rachel Weisz, Isla Fisher and Elizabeth Banks play the ladies who each have a piece of Reynolds’ heart as his young daughter (Breslin) convinces him to remember his past in order to find true love.

The film’s title mimics the theme of confusion many people feel when it comes to love.

Should you see this flick with your Valentine? Certainly… well, kind of, if you feel like it. 
 
Apparently the indecisiveness is contagious.

If lovey-dovey chick flicks sound about as appealing to you as a 24-hour marathon of “Murder She Wrote,” there are some interesting and diverse alternatives.

One of them is the spin-off of a 2006 dance-driven film, “Step Up 2 the Streets” features  a different cast of characters than those  featured in the original  “Step Up.” The idea is pretty much the same, though: attract teenage audiences with street dancing and some ridiculous teenybopper melodrama.

Viewers looking for an action movie  will be surprised to see Samuel L. Jackson starring in a fast-paced flick about a young man who struggles with his teleportation abilities.

Hayden Christensen, who  recently shared the screen with Jessica Alba in “Awake,” is the main character in the film, who finds his unique ability isn’t necessarily all it is cracked up to be in “Jumper.”The action should be intense, as our teleporting protagonist finds conflict in  a group of bad guys who don’t exactly  appreciate just how awesome teleportation abilities can be. The film comes from  director Doug Liman, who proved he  has what it takes to make exciting action movies with flicks like “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” and “The Bourne Identity.”If your favorite Valentine is a little young for adult romance or an action thriller, you can still rev up their imagination with “The Spiderwick Chronicles.”Freddie Highmore (“August Rush”) plays both Jared and Simon, twins whose family settles into a creepy new home with some unbelievable secrets.A mysterious book opens up a mystical alternative world for the boys and their sister, whose adventure brings back memories of “Bridge to Terabithia” and “The Chronicles of Narnia.”

Look for similarly impressive special effects, too, as real and make-believe worlds collide once again.

Movie Buzz – 2/6

The beginning of the year brings out the most awful, vile movies, those without a snowball’s chance in hell of earning an Oscar, or even a Golden Globe. Just when audiences think movies can’t get much worse than what La-La Land has been churning out over the past few weeks, we hit rock bottom with a flick starring Hollywood super-flake Paris Hilton.

How Hilton’s new flick, not-so-ingeniously titled “The Hottie and the Nottie,” made it to theaters instead of being condemned to a DVD-only release is beyond my comprehension.

The ultra-shallow flick finds Hilton in the “hottie” role being courted by a gawky boy who has admired her since elementary school. There’s just one obstacle to their happiness: The hottie won’t commit until her beastly — hairy mole and all — best friend finds a man, too.

But wait: There is a chance this flick could come up for award contention, when the mean-spirited Razzies honor Hollywood’s most appalling blunders.

There are more shamelessly shallow flicks on the roster for movie-goers this week. Cue Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey as an estranged couple who are brought back together while searching for a massive 18th-century treasure in “Fool’s Gold.”

There’s nothing like treasure hunting to rekindle a romance, though (really?), and the sex-crazed couple takes a shot at finding the valuable goods in between arguing and getting naked.

The pairing reminds the world of another pointless flick featuring the duo, “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.” Movie execs are hoping the ladies who found themselves swooning over McConaughey in that chick flick will head to the box office to give the hunky actor another shot with Hudson some five years later.

What’s that, moviegoers? Are you begging for mercy from the crap Tinseltown is shoving at you this week? Sorry, your wish is denied, as Martin Lawrence stars in “Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins.”

Lawrence plays a television talk-show host, kind of like a convoluted Dr. Phil, who brings his gorgeous new fiancée home to meet his family. Conflict comes in the form of the most crude and obnoxious family anyone has ever seen, complete with Cedric the Entertainer and Mo’Nique.

This flick comes from the creative mind of Malcolm D. Lee, who wrote and directed Lawrence in this film. Let’s just say I would be much happier seeing a new project from Lee’s famous cousin, director Spike Lee. But the more celebrated Lee is making audiences wait until fall of this year for his next project, the story of four African-American soldiers fighting in World War II.

Remember Colin Farrell? The Irish actor was one of Hollywood’s hottest prospects a few years ago and, “Miami Vice” aside, he has not exactly been a frequent flier on the big screen since 2004.

Now Farrell is back in theaters in a limited-release action flick that finds him co-starring with the brilliant Brendan Gleeson in “In Bruges,” a cheeky film that finds two hitmen sightseeing while running for their lives.

Movie Buzz – 1/30

The acting couldn’t get much worse in this week’s new movie releases. Jessica Alba, Eva Longoria Parker, Steve Zahn and Miley Cyrus — please, somebody make it stop!

Times are tough in Tinseltown when I find myself leaning toward recommending the new Hannah Montana concert-movie event. Hey, at least theaters are showing “Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour” in Disney Digital 3-D.

Had someone in the early ’90s predicted people would be falling all over themselves to see Billy Ray Cyrus’ offspring in concert, the trendsetters of the world would have laughed in their face. Billy Ray’s famous mullet and one-hit-wonder status for “Achy Breaky Heart” made him a pop culture laughingstock, but now he’s laughing all the way to the bank.

Miley’s rise to fame has many of us outside the tween age group asking, “How does a mildly pretty girl who talks with a raspy, manly voice get to be the hottest thing on the market?” Even Gidget wasn’t this popular.

On the bright side, Miley has avoided any kind of Spears family tabloid meltdown, so I suppose your pre-teen daughters could do much worse, role model-wise.

Plus, if there’s anything worse than sitting through a Hannah Montana concert with a room full of screeching young girls, it’s sitting in a theater for two hours watching Jessica Alba try to act.

For some actors, looks are more important than dramatic capabilities: So as long as they have a few scantily clad scenes and the benefit of a great hairstylist, no one cares how awful their movies are. Alba falls into that category, typically showing an emotional range similar to that of the common houseplant.

This week she appears as a blind woman who receives an eye transplant which shows her the horrors of a supernatural world in “The Eye.”

It truly sucks when gaining the vision for which you’ve waited so long opens up a world of terrifying death and destruction. Viewers will share the pain with Alba’s character, though, as they suffer through this awful flick.

Paul Rudd was just starting to win fans over again, as his role in last summer’s “Knocked Up” and the ones he played in other Judd Apatow-produced flicks were a refreshing change to simply watching him play second fiddle to more celebrated actors.

It’s a shame Rudd wasted his theatrical upswing, sacrificing his chance at making it in good movies, by co-headlining with Eva Longoria Parker (of television’s “Desperate Housewives”) in “Over Her Dead Body.”

The premise of the film has Rudd dating a psychic as Longoria Parker, his deceased ex, tries to sabotage the relationship. Didn’t movie studios produce hundreds of made-for-TV-movies just like this in the ’80s?

By the way, if you’ve ever stopped to wonder what happened to Jason Biggs (“American Pie”), then you may be amused to find him co-starring in this flick.

Believe me, movie-goers, I feel your pain. There’s just one more piece of garbage in this ultra-disappointing movie lineup to tell you about. “Strange Wilderness” is a pointless spoof of “Crocodile Hunter”-inspired reality television.

Making matters even worse: The film’s biggest names are sophomoric comedy all-stars Steve Zahn, Justin Long and Jonah Hill.

Movie Buzz – 1/23

There are several things about the 1980s most of us would happily forget. Take, for example, shoulder pads, T-shirt clips and the New Kids on the Block.

However, there was an upside to that decade. After all, it was also the time period that brought the world pop-culture heroes like Ronald Reagan, Molly Ringwald and those adorable, fuzzy little Care Bears.

While I’m all for ’80s nostalgia in the form of Cabbage Patch Dolls and Strawberry Shortcake cartoons, some forms of entertainment should rest in peace where we left them two decades ago. Included in that assessment are recent attempts at ’80s throwbacks like “Miami Vice” and “Alvin and the Chipmunks.”

Sylvester Stallone found critical success recently with the release of his sixth “Rocky” flick, “Rocky Balboa,” which featured the actor as an aging version of the boxer he made famous long ago. But how will the writer-actor-director measure up while presently filling his other iconic role, that of disgruntled Vietnam War veteran John Rambo?

Believe it or not, Stallone is nearing his 62nd birthday, and in spite of the fact that he’s nearing a widely recognized retirement age, Sly is still going strong at the box office. Plus, he’s got the washboard abs to prove he’s no slouch when it comes to being a modern-day action star.

So, hoping that ’80s nostalgia will fuel more box-office success for Stallone, movie execs gave “Rambo,” a fourth film about America’s favorite renegade soldier, the go-ahead.

This film marks the machine gun-wielding macho man’s first appearance on the big screen in 20 years. Audiences were first introduced to Rambo in the 1982 film “First Blood.” The series’ new installment finds the retired soldier lured back into action when some peace-loving aid workers are kidnapped in the midst of war-torn Thailand.

More ’80s nostalgia flicks slated for release in the next few years include “G.I. Joe” and “The A-Team,” with rapper-actor Ice Cube potentially filling the role made famous by Mr. T.

Like Stallone, actress Diane Lane is no spring chicken, yet she leads this week’s other major opener at the box office. “Untraceable” finds Lane as an investigator tracking down a killer who airs his victims’ deaths live on the Internet.

The film comes from “Fracture” director Gregory Hoblit, who appears to have a morbid obsession with murder as of late. This flick seems like a “CSI” for the big screen with the bonus of using the Web as a horror device.

Those idiot spoof-movie creators love to keep Carmen Electra working. This week, audiences will find the talentless beauty in “Meet the Spartans,” a cheap spoof of last summer’s hit action flick “300.”Adding even more cheese factor to this movie is actor Kevin Sorbo, who audiences may recognize from the now-defunct television series “Hercules.”

The same viewers who paid to see “Stomp the Yard” a year ago will probably shell out their cash for another step-dancing movie this week. “How She Move” is surely not the most grammatically correct title the movie world has ever seen. Luckily, music and dance are the focus here, so just watch the moves and ignore everything you learned in English class.

Movie Buzz – 1/16

Katie Holmes’ acting was hard enough for audiences to stomach on the small screen, so why are casting directors torturing us by putting her in another movie?

Unfortunately, Holmes’ schooling in the dramatic arts came through several torturous years of overacting on the teen melodrama “Dawson’s Creek.” From there, Holmes went on to make several forgettable movies before embracing Scientology as Mrs. Tom Cruise.

Her latest movie is an all-girl affair with Diane Keaton and Queen Latifah. The film, “Mad Money,” comes from chick-flick director Callie Khouri (“The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood”), whose most impressive credit to date is as the writer of another female-driven film, “Thelma and Louise.”

Keaton plays the quirky, slightly neurotic (are you surprised?) mastermind of a plot where three female workers at a Federal Reserve bank steal money that is set to be destroyed. If the plot sounds painfully simple, that’s because it is.

On the bright side, Holmes will not be reprising her role in the upcoming Batman movie, “The Dark Knight.” She has been replaced by Maggie Gyllenhaal, an actress who, unlike Holmes, has demonstrated admirable talents in movies like  “Sherrybaby” and “Stranger Than Fiction.”

One actress who has successfully transcended from the television world to the big screen is “Grey’s Anatomy” star Katherine Heigl. She earned a huge fan base through her work on writer-director Judd Apatow’s recent Beauty and the Beast-themed comedy, “Knocked Up.”

Now, Heigl is trying a far less crude romantic comedy on for size in “27 Dresses.” It seems weddings bring out the worst in some people. This is especially true for disgruntled career bridesmaids, like the one Heigl plays in the film.

Things get ugly when the man she secretly loves, played by Edward Burns, ends up getting engaged to her younger sister. Luckily, James Marsden (“Enchanted,” “Hairspray”) and his sparkling blue eyes will be there to help her get over it.

Expect some graceful moves from the cast, too, since director Anne Fletcher’s (“Step Up”) primary area of expertise is as a choreographer.

Can “Cloverfield” do for horror movies today what  “The Blair Witch Project” did nearly 10 years ago?

Let’s see. Hand-held camera, check. Teen and 20-something actors scared out of their minds, double check. But there’s one major difference: Witches really are scary and folklore suggests they existed at one point and possibly still do today. Monsters, on the other hand, are far less believable, making producer J.J. Abrams’ film about a monster attack on New York City too phony to induce pure fear.

Yet, like “Blair Witch,” this flick’s bumpy camcorder action will probably bring on motion sickness in anyone who can bear to watch. Bringing your own barf bag is highly recommended.

Some top-notch films that didn’t originally open in the CSRA have finally come to our area. Buzz-worthy flicks like  “The Kite Runner,” “The Orphanage” and the romantic war drama “Atonement” are now playing here. Head to the theater and rejoice!

Movie Buzz – 1/9

Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau proved old guys could still bring audiences to the box office by sharing a few laughs, a few man hugs and a tear or two. The “Grumpy Old Men” formula for movie magic may not translate well to 2008’s audiences, though, as viewers have been desensitized by an overload of reality television and Hollywood spectacle.

Somehow, in the midst of Britney Spears tabloid mania, a movie about two terminally ill, aging men with a lengthy “to do” list doesn’t sound so thrilling. Even with the talents of Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, there’s little hope “The Bucket List” can stand up to the competition from today’s fast-paced flicks, which cater shamelessly to our short attention spans.

Throw in director Rob Reiner, who has helmed nothing but a few sappy romantic comedies in the past few years, and this flick is certain to descend quickly from the big screen to your local Blockbuster Video.

Plus, the film’s writer, Justin Zackham, is a healthy guy in his mid-30s. Needless to say, I doubt his views on aging and living with cancer are exactly up to snuff.

Poor Ice Cube seems to have mixed up his days of the week. The rapper-actor, who earned a few fans with his “Friday” series of films, must have had a weak moment when accepting a role alongside marginally talented comic actor Tracy Morgan in “First Sunday.”

This film, from budding director David E. Talbert, sounds like a flick even Martin Lawrence would turn down. It focuses on two bumbling convicts who devise a scheme to rob a church. But hey, the Lord works in mysterious ways and the boys may just end up being reformed.

Ray Liotta is back on the big screen, and you guessed it — he plays a man of questionable sanity. Liotta and Burt Reynolds star alongside action C-lister Jason Statham (“Crank,” “War”) in the long-winded “In the Name of a King: A Dungeon Siege Tale.”

A medieval war story that lacks star-powered box-office appeal and has stylistic deficiencies normally used for comical purposes in spoofs like “Robin Hood: Men in Tights,” it’s hard to tell exactly when and where this flick takes place.

On the bright side, Jason Statham is ticked off and Ray Liotta is crazy, so it should make for an angry, though somewhat amusing, couple of hours — but probably just for audiences made up of teenage boys.

For the kids, there’s a G-rated Veggie Tales flick confusingly called “The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything: A Veggie Tales Movie.” If a movie has a title claiming talking vegetables will spend the better part of two hours not doing much, why not just get a Mr. Potato Head and an eye patch and call it a day? Your kids will be equally entertained.

Movie Buzz – 12/26

The end of each year brings the best Hollywood has to offer as part of the awards-season rush. The great thing about it is that theaters are now flooded with award-worthy performances and top-notch storylines.

Unfortunately, there’s a downside: the next few months will bring more than our fair share of bad movies featuring Jessica Alba, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Katie Holmes and airhead socialite Paris Hilton. Sorry, I’m not kidding.

Enjoy the good flicks while you can. Mega-awards contenders “Charlie Wilson’s War” and “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” are heating up the holiday box office. Another new release features the perpetually Oscar-ready Denzel Washington, who directed himself in “The Great Debaters.”

Washington teamed up with the ultimate power producer, Oprah Winfrey, to bring audiences this historical drama based on a true story. Oprah’s opinion has done everything from encouraging people to read her favorite books to considering voting for Barack Obama. So having her stamp of approval on Washington’s passion project could mean some surprising box-office receipts.

Washington plays the coach of a debate team at a historically black college in the segregated South during the 1930s. Forest Whitaker co-stars while Washington pulls
together a team, builds them up from nothing and helps them get to a championship bout with Harvard.

Expect the team to face harsh racism, overcome adversity and kick some butt with their finely-tuned debating skills.

Maybe you’re not a fan of “Alvin and the Chipmunks,” and, if that’s the case, and you’re looking for a suitable flick to entertain the whole family, be sure to check out “The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep.”

Sure, its title makes it sound like a National Geographic bore-fest, but this flick comes from the writer of “Babe,” so animals, humans and sea creatures are sure to share the screen in a peaceful and amusing manner.

This story focuses on a young Scottish boy who finds an egg, which he takes home and opens to reveal a mythical baby sea monster. He and his family keep the creature in their bathtub until it gets too big too handle. Then they release it, wowing unsuspecting fishermen with an unbelievable bit of folklore.

For some reason, a token horror movie opens on Christmas day as if to say “Bah, Humbug” to moviegoers each year. This time it’s “Alien vs. Predator: Requiem,” another pointless, poorly made horror sequel made possible by writer Dan O’Bannon’s odd obsession with extraterrestrials.

Two more promising flicks open in limited release this week and could make it to Augusta in January. “The Bucket List” features Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman as aging buddies who ditch their cancer care to start acting out the list of things they want to do before they die.

“There Will Be Blood” features the mysteriously enthralling talents of Daniel Day-Lewis, who plays a money-hungry oil tycoon at the turn of the last century. The actor’s performance in this film has already earned him a Golden Globe nomination.

Movie Buzz – 12/19

Just when audiences start thinking the Golden Globes might be a legitimate awards show, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association slaps us in the face with an insulting nod for an asinine performance.

Last year, Sacha Baron Cohen won the Best Actor Golden Globe in the Musical or Comedy category for his role in the funny, but utterly stupid “Borat.” Now, John C. Reilly has been nominated for an equally silly role, that of the title character in  “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.”

Reilly stars as an off-the-wall rocker who is meant to be a parody of some weird iconic rock star who is part Jim Morrison, part Johnny Cash, part Buddy Holly and part James Brown. This mockumentary comes from writer-producer Judd Apatow, the comic moneymaker behind “Knocked Up” and “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.”

Does anyone else fondly remember the days when Reilly was a celebrated serious actor? He was lauded for his performances in roles with more critical weight, like the ones he played in “Chicago” and “The Good Girl.”

Reilly will have to duke it out with Johnny Depp for his Golden Globe. Depp is nominated for his starring role in “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.” This marks Depp’s eighth Golden Globe nomination (and fifth consecutive), but will it be his first victory from the Hollywood Foreign Press?

Director Tim Burton, whose dark style has added character to several other Johnny Depp films like “Edward Scissorhands,” “Sleepy Hollow” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” is the creative mind behind this adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s musical comedy.

Burton’s significant other, Helena Bonham Carter, takes over the role made famous by Angela Lansbury, and Alan Rickman, who has perfected acting’s darker side in the “Harry Potter” movies, co-star in this gory musical masterpiece about the bloody extremes one man will go to for vengeance.

Another Golden Globe nomination-adorned flick opening this week is “Charlie Wilson’s War,” which finds Hollywood’s pickiest actors gifting audiences with their wildly famous onscreen presences.

It has been a while since we’ve seen Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts, who have been hiding out and only lending their voices to animated flicks over the past few years. The one exception is Hanks’ “The Da Vinci Code” debacle.

Director Mike Nichols takes the helm as Hanks and Roberts play a fun-loving Texas politician and socialite, respectively, who work with a jilted government agent (Philip Seymour Hoffman) to make a war between Afghanistan and the Soviet Union go the way they want it to go. Their actions made a huge difference in Soviet Union and sent weapons to the Middle East, impacting us greatly in the present day.

Aaron Sorkin, the writer behind TV’s former political drama “The West Wing,” adapted this screenplay from journalist George Crile’s book, based on the true story.

Other openers this week are less critically acclaimed, but a high-profile sequel could earn some major box-office dough. “National Treasure: Book of Secrets” finds Nicolas Cage unlocking government secrets and seeking treasure once again.

Meanwhile, Hilary Swank tries the romantic comedy genre on for size with the help of “Friend” Lisa Kudrow in “P.S. I Love You.”

Movie Buzz – 12/12

December marks the time of year when we can anticipate the arrival of two very exciting things: Santa Claus and the latest Will Smith movie.

After years of growing up on television on “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” and maturing through flicks like “Independence Day” and “Men In Black,” Smith has gotten to the point in his career where he can enjoy basking in the glow of the year’s most anticipated movies.

Now, Smith is once again settling into blockbuster bliss with another role that could earn him recognition during the upcoming awards season.

“I Am Legend,” is Smith’s latest vehicle, a sci-fi flick that brings back memories of his role in 2004’s “I, Robot,” a film now in heavy cable television rotation.

In the new flick, Smith plays the last man on earth. Left alone in New York City, he is the only human immune to a devastating virus. Equipped with a background in science and some fierce determination, he struggles to survive without his family and friends.

Adding further conflict to this existential-themed film are the mutants who seem to be chasing after Smith’s character. If anyone can make this work, it’s Smith, who is once again making this movie a family project. His daughter, Willow Smith, also stars.

Children of the ’80s, please fork over your cash! That’s what movie distributors would like you to do this holiday season. Why else would they bring back “Alvin and the Chipmunks,” a cartoon where three chipmunks with human attributes sing and live with their human father figure in peaceful harmony?

Who could forget Ross Bagdasarian’s characters, Simon the geek, Theodore the glutton and Alvin the bossy punk? Now they’re being marketed to a whole new generation: the children of the children their cartoons originally targeted.

Add Jason Lee, of television’s “My Name is Earl,” as the live-action dad, and Generation Xers will flock to the box office with their little ones in tow. It worked for “Garfield,” right?

Also vying for your holiday box-office buck is a sweet but otherwise pointless Gabrielle Union flick. “The Perfect Holiday” finds Union playing a divorced woman whose daughter conspires with a mall Santa Claus to find her the perfect new husband. Queen Latifah also stars in this fluffy holiday movie offering.