Your holiday tickets

After a slow year at the box office, Hollywood is looking to the holiday movies for salvation. The next “Harry Potter” film has been pushed back to next summer, but the following are pictures that might prove popular, or at least are pictures that people talk about. As always, dates are subject to change:

‘Quantum of Solace’

Opens tomorrow

You don’t have to know what the title means (nothing), just the factthat it’s the latest James Bond flick, the second one starring Daniel Craig. This Bond is grittier than previous versions, he gets hurt and he hurts others, and he’s unhappy and moody. He has no gadgets. And he doesn’t even say “Bond. James Bond.“

‘Bolt’

Nov. 21

Remember “The Truman Show,“ about a man whose whole life has been reality TV, and he doesn’t know it? This is the same idea, but it’s an animated talking dog who escapes from a studio only to learn that he doesn’t really have superpowers. With the help of a hamster in a ball and other friends, he does, however, stop a crime.

“Synecdoche, New York,“
Nov. 21
The latest from Charlie Kaufman (writer of “Being John Malkovich” and “Adaptation”) is about a theater director whose life falls apart as he tries to build a model of Manhattan in a warehouse, in preparation for a new show. The cunning clever title should please linguists.

“Twilight,“
Nov. 21
Vampires are huge these days. Huge. This film, based on a best-seller for young adults, tells the story of a teen girl at a new school who falls for a handsome and mysteriously aloof boy who refuses to, you know, do it. Turns out, he has a good reason.

“Australia,“
Nov. 26
A sprawling epic, set Down Under, about a cattle drive just before World War II that arrives in Darwin, in the Northern Territory, just in time to witness the Japanese bombing of that city. Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman star; directed by fellow Aussie Baz Luhrmann.

“Four Christmases,“
Nov. 26
There’s no place like home for the holidays - in a bad way. Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon star in this comedy as a couple trying to avoid their parents for Christmas. They fail, so they have four sets of eccentric parents to visit.

“Frost/Nixon,“
Dec. 5
In 1977, British entertainment TV host David Frost scored an interview with disgraced ex-President Richard Nixon. Their encounter - including the maneuvering that led up to it and the shocking revelation it contained - was turned into a prize-winning play and now a movie with the same actors: Michael Sheen as Frost and Frank Langella as Nixon.

“Doubt,“
Dec. 12
Set against the backdrop of sweeping changes instituted by Vatican II, this drama stars Meryl Streep as a hard-line nun running a school who is in a battle with a priest (Philip Seymour Hoffman) trying to make changes. When another nun (Amy Adams) worries about the priest’s interest in a student, she sets off a chain of discussions and confrontations.

“While She Was Out,“
Dec. 12
In an unusual offering for the holidays, Kim Basinger stars as an unhappy housewife who gets into an altercation with punks over a parking space, leading to a woman-in-peril film out in the woods. Lucas Haas co-stars as the lead punk.

‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’
Dec. 12
A remake, or re-imagining, of the 1951 sci-fi classic. Keanu Reeves stars as the intergalactic alien (no Keanu Reeves jokes, please) whose message for this planet is misinterpreted by a frightened humanity. Jennifer Connelly co-stars as the woman who kind of falls for him. With Kathy Bates, and a computer-generated image as the indestructible robot Gort.

“Gran Torino,“
Dec. 17
In what he acknowledges might be his last film, Clint Eastwood directs and stars as a racist whose righteous efforts to help an Asian neighbor lead him into a reluctant friendship with the neighbors and an armed conflict against their (also Asian) tormentors

“The Brothers Bloom,“
Dec. 19
It sounds like a screwball comedy from the ‘30s. Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo star as con-men who reunite for one last score, requiring the services of eccentric heiress Rachel Weisz.

‘Seven Pounds’
Dec. 19
From the trailers, it is impossible to figure out what this story is about. Will Smith stars as an I.R.S.IRS agent who has to do something to help seven people, including Rosario Dawson, with whom he falls in love. Woody Harrelson co-stars as a blind pianist.

“Yes Man,“
Dec. 19
Jim Carrey stars as a man who decides to say “yes” to every question for a whole year, leading to comic predicaments and, no doubt, important life lessons learned. It also leads to Zooey Deschanel, which might be worth any cinematic humiliation.

“Bedtime Stories,“
Dec. 25
This comic fantasy stars Adam Sandler as a guy who tells bedtime stories to his niece and nephew. What he tells them suddenly starts to come true the next day - but it isn’t his stories that come true, it is their additions to his stories.

“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,“
Dec. 25
Based on a story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, this tells the story of a man who is born in his 80s and gets younger with time as he nears his inevitable birth-death. Brad Pitt stars, with Cate Blanchett as the woman he loves and whose age becomes first closer and then farther from his own.

“Marley & Me,“
Dec. 25
The best-selling book about a family that learns important lessons from its lovably strange dog comes to life with Owen Wilson, Jennifer Aniston and a dog named Clyde (plus 21 other dogs for various canine tasks).

“The Spirit,“
Dec. 25
The obligatory comic-book movie tells the curiously holiday-appropriate story of a man who is born, is killed and comes back as a force to fight evil in a computer-generated world. Gabriel Macht stars, with Scarlett Johanssen as Silken Floss and Samuel L. Jackson as the villainous Octopus. Seriously, Silken Floss.

“Valkyrie,“
Dec. 26
Tom Cruise stars as Col. Claus von Stauffenberg, who led an ill-fated conspiracy to assassinate Hitler in 1944. Kenneth Brannagh co-stars as co-conspirator Henning von Tresckow. Directed by Bryan Singer, whose films include “The Usual Suspects” and “X-Men.“

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Contact Daniel Neman at (804) 649-6408 or .