Happiness is a warm film

Everybody likes to go to the movies over the holidays. Just ask theater managers, and many will tell you Christmas Day is their favorite day of the year.

To facilitate your movie-watching decision as you enjoy your new Christmas iPod, OFF! has put together this quick guide to movies out this holiday season. Enjoy!

Aeon Flux

Generations X and Y (some of you), you remember the TV show.

For everybody else, there's Charlise Theron.

The big screen adaptation of the MTV "Liquid Television" shorts and "Aeon Flux" series has hit theaters, timed perfectly with MTV's release of the "Aeon Flux" DVDs.

Theron stars as the beautiful and dangerous Aeon Flux, an assassin out for revenge 400 years in the future. A good pick for action lovers and sci-fi geeks, loaded with plenty of Utopian future themes and lots of bodies flying through the air.

In theaters now.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

The saga of the boy wizard continues!

But by the time you read this, the die-hard Potter freaks in the black plastic glasses will have left the theaters. So for you closet Harry fans, we know who you are, catching this mid-point in the saga in a less crowded theater will be ideal.

Harry Potter also makes a great way to entertain kids (smile).

Critics give the new Potter movie fairly high marks, and say it's the darkest one of the series to this point. We're talking death and evil, for real, they say.

So maybe not too great for the youngest kids. This more adult Potter is rated PG-13.

Walk the Line

Whether or not you listen to his music, you have to admit that Johnny Cash was cool. Possibly no one in American music has captured the human spirit, both dark and light, with such accuracy.

In "Walk the Line," we get an insight into the origins of this legend. The film is a straight biopic that details The Man in Black's rise from the fields to early superstar status.

Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix take on the roles of American icons June Carter and Johnny Cash.

The film didn't sugarcoat Cash, portraying the young icon as a man who struggles with demons like addiction and mortality. He treats his first wife badly and gets hooked on uppers. Johnny knew darkness. In turn "Walk the Line" shines light on the factors that shaped Johnny Cash and made him such a unique figure.

Rent

Another Broadway hit comes to the big screen! Now that Hollywood has figured out they can cash in on musicals like "Chicago" the trend continues with "Rent."

"Rent" is the story of a group of Bohemians in New York's East Village simply trying to make it through the world starving-artist style. They deal with poverty, betrayal, AIDS and other hardships on their way.

If you go see the rock opera "Rent" you better like musicals, because it's a straight adaptation, for the most part (including cast from the Broadway version). Critics' reviews range from so-so to fairly good.

Syriana

George Clooney appears as actor and producer in a story of a political showdown that strikes to the heart of wartime policy battles -- no, that's "Good Night and Good Luck."

But in this film Clooney gets political again, starring as an CIA operative whose story interweaves with a variety of characters. The result is a story of political intrigue and the power of oil on the global stage.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (Dec. 9)

No doubt fans of the C.S. Lewis classic with Christian undertones will love this big screen version of the beloved "Narnia" books. No doubt bringing the first installment (actually the second book) of this series to life will be almost as daunting a task as "Lord of the Rings," and maybe with the same payoff.

For those of you who don't know the story -- four kids in World War II England stumble upon a portal to another world, one of fantasy with witches, giants, dwarves and the like.

Once there they must save the world of Narnia from a great evil, you know the typical fantasy story.

Given the high regard the "Narnia" books are held in, this movie should be a good piece of entertainment for both fans and people who just love a good, fantastic story.

King Kong (Dec. 14)

We don't have to recap the story. Most likely, if you grew up in America, you know about King Kong.

But this time the giant ape is getting a makeover from none other than Peter Jackson. Jackson hopes to repeat his "Lord of the Rings" success this year with another big budget special effects spectacular.

Early PR says Jackson tried to remain as faithful to the story and feel of the 1933 film, updating it to what today's technology allows (no more jerky monkey!).

Kong is a project Jackson has salivated over doing for years, and now that he's famous he finally gets a chance. The film stars Adrien Brody, Naomi Watts and the hilarious Jack Black.

Keep a watch over the kids, some disturbing scenes make this movie PG-13.

The Family Stone (Dec. 16)

This movie isn't about a funk band, it's another take on the classic plot of girlfriend meets weird family. In "The Family Stone" Sara Jessica Parker, an uptight New Yorker (was she typecast to that city, or what?) goes home for the holidays to meet her boyfriend's (Dermot Mulroney) eccentric family.

The idea is for hilarity to ensue, but this movie also deals with some serious family drama. Supposedly "The Family Stone" isn't fluffy and cheesy, but we'll leave that up to you.

The Producers (Dec. 16)

As if one Broadway film in a single season wasn't enough, here comes "The Producers." Following fresh on the heels of "Rent," this movie tries to make bank using a much lighter sort of Broadway musical -- the kind that started out as a Mel Brooks movie.

Big names like Will Ferrell, Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick and Uma Thurman show promise in this story of a play designed to be the worst ever made.

Lane and Broderick resurrect the roles that helped earn the musical the most Tony awards of any production ever.

Fun with Dick and Jane (Dec. 21)

Jim Carrey teams up with Tea Leoni for a light-hearted comedy this Christmas. Carrey plays what has largely become a typical role for him -- a white-collar guy with a family who has something change in his life in a very large way.

In this case, the company Carrey's Dick Harper works for gets mired in scandal. With his future down the tubes after years of comfortable living, Dick and wife Jane turn to street robbery. Another remake here, this time of a 1977 movie.

Some real laughs might be had: The Coen Brothers did some of the script re-writing.

The Ringer (Dec. 23)

The face of "Jackass" returns to the big screen with a movie seemingly taken from some weird "Jackass" skit. Johnny Knoxville plays Steve Barker, another down-and-out white collar dude who falls on hard times. Instead of stealing, Barker decides he'll pretend to be handicapped and enter the Special Olympics a la Cartman.

Knoxville becomes the butt of the joke as the handicapped Olympians show him up as an athlete and as a person.

Of course, there will surely be a nice moral to the story in the end.

Munich (Dec. 23)

Steven Spielberg just doesn't quit. After this summer's blockbuster "War of the Worlds" the director quickly releases another film in time for the holiday viewing season. But this one isn't a sci-fi adventure or an action movie.

"Munich" is more akin to "Schindler's List" or "Saving Private Ryan" in that it is a retelling of serious and tragic events. The film centers around the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the hands of Palestinian terrorists in the 1972 Olympics.

Big names are absent, unless you count the new Bond, Daniel Craig. But with a name like Spielberg, what else do you need.

Hoodwinked (Dec. 23)

The kids have already seen "Chicken Little," now they're clamoring for more animation.

This one is another retelling of a fairy tale -- the Brothers Grimm story "Little Riding Hood." However, this one ends where the fairy tale left off, starting with a police investigation by a couple of forest animals into what exactly happened at grandma's house when the Big Bad Wolf came calling.

A bit of satire in this one could make the PG movie an entertaining 80 minutes for adults and kids alike.

Rumor Has It (Dec. 25)

You may be too young to have seen "The Graduate" but you'll hear Jennifer Anniston make plenty of mention of the Robinsons in this movie. Anniston's character goes home for her sister's wedding, only to find that her family was the inspiration for the book and movie "The Graduate," a story of an older woman seducing a young man.

She seeks out the young man, played by the brunt of many Hollywood flop jokes, Kevin Costner. Of course, this one has some mature content with a PG-13 rating.