Sherlock Holmes

Release Date: December 25, 2009 

Genre: Action, Adventure, Mystery 

In a dynamic new portrayal of Arthur Conan Doyle's most famous characters, "Sherlock Holmes" sends Holmes and his stalwart partner Watson on their latest challenge. Revealing fighting skills as lethal as his legendary intellect, Holmes will battle as never before to bring down a new nemesis and unravel a deadly plot that could destroy the country.

Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures

Director: Guy Ritchie

Screenwriter: Michael Johnson, Anthony Peckham, Guy Ritchie

Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Rachel McAdams, Mark Strong, Eddie Marsan, Kelly Reilly

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Release Date: December 25, 2009 (limited)

Genre: Drama, Fantasy

"The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" is a fantastical morality tale, set in the present day. It tells the story of Dr Parnassus and his extraordinary 'Imaginarium', a traveling show where members of the audience get an irresistible opportunity to choose between light and joy or darkness and gloom. Blessed with the extraordinary gift of guiding the imaginations of others, Dr Parnassus is cursed with a dark secret. Long ago he made a bet with the devil, Mr Nick, in which he won immortality. Many centuries later, on meeting his one true love, Dr Parnassus made another deal with the devil, trading his immortality for youth, on condition that when his first-born reached its 16th birthday he or she would become the property of Mr Nick.

Valentina is now rapidly approaching this 'coming of age' milestone and Dr Parnassus is desperate to protect her from her impending fate. Mr Nick arrives to collect but, always keen to make a bet, renegotiates the wager. Now the winner of Valentina will be determined by whoever seduces the first five souls. Enlisting a series of wild, comical and compelling characters in his journey, Dr Parnassus promises his daughter's hand in marriage to the man that helps him win. In this captivating, explosive and wonderfully imaginative race against time, Dr Parnassus must fight to save his daughter in a never-ending landscape of surreal obstacles - and undo the mistakes of his past once and for all.

Studio: Sony Pictures Classics

Director: Terry Gilliam

Screenwriter: Terry Gilliam, Charles McKeown

Starring: Heath Ledger, Christopher Plummer, Tom Waits, Lily Cole, Andrew Garfield, Verne Troyer, Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, Jude Law

A Town Called Panic

Release Date: December 16, 2009 (NY) 

Genre: Action, Adventure, Animation 

Audience Award Winner at Fantastic Fest 2009 and the first stop-motion animated feature selected to Cannes, "A Town Called Panic" follows the wacky, hilarious and often surreal adventures of three plastic toys named Cowboy, Indian and Horse who share a rambling house in a rural town which never fails to attract the weirdest events. Each speedy character is voiced--and animated--as if they are filled with laughing gas. With hysteria a permanent feature of life in this papier-mâché burg, will Horse and his equine paramour-flame-tressed music teacher Madame Longray (Jeanne Balibar)-ever find a quiet moment alone? A sort of Gallic Monty Python crossed with Art Clokey on acid, "A Town Called Panic" is zany, brainy and altogether insane-y!

Studio: Zeitgeist Films

Director: Stephane Aubier, Vincent Pata

Screenwriter: Stephane Aubier, Vincent Pata

The Last Station

Release Date: December 4, 2009 (NY, LA) 

Genre: Drama, Historical

After almost fifty years of marriage, the Countess Sofya (Helen Mirren), Leo Tolstoy's (Christopher Plummer) devoted wife, passionate lover, muse and secretary—she’s copied out War and Peace six times...by hand!—suddenly finds her entire world turned upside down. In the name of his newly created religion, the great Russian novelist has renounced his noble title, his property and even his family in favor of poverty, vegetarianism and even celibacy. After she's born him thirteen children!

When Sofya then discovers that Tolstoy's trusted disciple, Chertkov (Paul Giamatti)—whom she despises—may have secretly convinced her husband to sign a new will, leaving the rights to his iconic novels to the Russian people rather than his very own family, she is consumed by righteous outrage. This is the last straw. Using every bit of cunning, every trick of seduction in her considerable arsenal, she fights fiercely for what she believes is rightfully hers. The more extreme her behavior becomes, however, the more easily Chertkov is able to persuade Tolstoy of the damage she will do to his glorious legacy.

Into this minefield wanders Tolstoy's worshipful new assistant, the young, gullible Valentin (James McAvoy). In no time, he becomes a pawn, first of the scheming Chertkov and then of the wounded, vengeful Sofya as each plots to undermine the other's gains. Complicating Valentin's life even further is the overwhelming passion he feels for the beautiful, spirited Marsha (Kerry Condon), a free thinking adherent of Tolstoy's new religion whose unconventional attitudes about sex and love both compel and confuse him. Infatuated with Tolstoy's notions of ideal love, but mystified by the Tolstoys' rich and turbulent marriage, Valentin is ill equipped to deal with the complications of love in the real world.

A tale of two romances, one beginning, one near its end, "The Last Station" is a complex, funny, rich and emotional story about the difficulty of living with love and the impossibility of living without it.

Studio: Sony Pictures Classics

Director: Michael Hoffman

Screenwriter: Michael Hoffman

Starring: Christopher Plummer, Helen Mirren, James McAvoy, Paul Giamatti, Anne-Marie Duff

Avatar

Release Date: December 18, 2009 (conventional 3D theaters and IMAX 3D) 

Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

"Avatar," a live action film with a new generation of special effects, takes us to a spectacular world beyond imagination, where a reluctant hero embarks on a journey of redemption and discovery as he leads an epic battle to save a civilization. James Cameron, the Oscar-winning director of "Titanic," first conceived the film years ago, when the means to realize his vision did not yet exist. Now, after four years of actual production work, "Avatar" delivers a fully immersive cinematic experience of a new kind, where the revolutionary technology invented to make the film disappears into the emotion of the characters and the sweep of the story.

The story's hero is Jake Sully, a former Marine confined to a wheelchair. Bitter and disillusioned, he's still a warrior at heart. All Jake ever wanted was something worth fighting for, and he finds it in the place he least expected: on a distant world. Jake has been recruited to join an expedition to the moon Pandora, which corporate interests are strip-mining for a mineral worth $20 million per kilogram on Earth. To facilitate their work, the humans use a link system that projects a person's consciousness into a hybrid of humans and Pandora's indigenous humanoids, the Na'vi. This human-Na'vi hybrid – a fully living, breathing body that resembles the Na'vi but possesses the individual human's thoughts, feelings and personality – is known as an "avatar."

In his new avatar form, Jake can once again walk. His mission is to interact with and infiltrate the Na'vi with the hope of enlisting their help – or at least their acquiescence – in mining the ore. A beautiful Na'vi female, Neytiri, saves Jake's life, albeit reluctantly, because even in his avatar body, Jake represents to her the human encroachment on the Na'vi's unspoiled world.

As Jake's relationship with Neytiri deepens, along with his respect for the Na'vi, he faces the ultimate test as he leads an epic conflict that will decide nothing less than the fate of an entire world.

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Director: James Cameron

Screenwriter: James Cameron

Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez, Giovanni Ribisi, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Peter Mensah, Laz Alonso, Wes Studi, Stephen Lang, Matt Gerald

The Strip

Release Date: December 4, 2009 (limited) 

Genre: Comedy 

"The Strip" is a character-driven comedy dissecting the lives of five employees of a low-end electronics chain called, Electri-City. The ensemble of colorful, yet grounded, characters takes us deeper into the monotonous world of working at a strip mall. Bound by the constraints of suburban life and a ¼ mile of strip mall, they, like everybody else, dream of something more. As their stories interweave their friendships are tested. Ultimately they struggle together to find that some dreams are not worth chasing.

Studio: Fortress Products

Director: Jameel Khan

Screenwriter: Jameel Khan

Starring: Dave Foley, Noureen DeWulf, Billy Aaron Brown, Frederico Dordei, Jenny Wade, Cory Christmas, Chelcie Ross, Gail Rastorfer Amy Stock-Poynton, Tenique Mathieu

The Slammin' Salmon

Release Date: December 11, 2009 (limited) 

Genre: Comedy

In the latest comedy from Broken Lizard (the creators of "Super Troopers" and "Beerfest"), "Slammin" Cleon Salmon (Michael Clarke Duncan) is a former Heavyweight Champion of the World turned celebrity owner of a high end Miami seafood restaurant, The Slammin' Salmon.

A terrifying bull of a man, Salmon uses fear to rule over his misfit waitstaff (Broken Lizard's Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, Erik Stolhanske, as well as Cobie Smulders and April Bowlby) and on this particular night, he takes his bullying skills to a new level. In an effort to pay off a gambling debt to the Japanese Yakuza, Salmon sets up a contest to 'inspire' his waitstaff to sell more food than they ever have before: the top selling server wins $10,000 while the waiter in last place gets served with a broken rib sandwich—courtesy of the Champ himself.

Spurred on by greed and panic, the staff resort to backstabbing, bribery and indecent proposals in an attempt to upsell their patrons while simultaneously sabotaging their co-workers. As the hours pass, the dining room action becomes more frenzied as the contest escalates into a brawl for first place in order to win the money.

Studio: Anchor Bay Films

Director: Kevin Heffernan

Screenwriter: Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, Erik Stolhanske

Starring: Michael Clarke Duncan, Jay Chandrasekhar, Kevin Heffernan, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter, Erik Stolhanske, Cobie Smulders, April Bowlby, Olivia Munn, Vivica A. Fox, Morgan Fairchild