With Halloween's horror-fests behind us, it's time to start the run-up to the holiday blockbuster season! There's plenty of kick-ass releases to sink your teeth into this November, and we've filtered the list down to the best of the best, so you know what you're getting before the popcorn gets buttered.
Disney's A Christmas Carol
Release Date: November 6
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Starring: Jim Carrey, Cary Elwas, Gary Oldman, Bob Hoskins
Rating: PG
Disney's A Christmas Carol is a 3-D motion picture event featuring the classic Dickens tale re-envisioned by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Robert Zemeckis. Carrey plays Ebenezer Scrooge whose Scrooginess is put to the test when the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come take him on an eye-opening journey revealing truths he'd never allowed himself to see.
CraveOnline's Call: The 3-D technology looks like an update on those of Polar Express, which were distracting as hell and detracted from the movie. But Carrey as Scrooge is something we've gotta see.
The Box
Release Date: November 6
Director: Richard Kelly
Starring: Cameron Diaz, Frank Langella, James Marsden
Rating: PG-13
If someone gave you a box containing a button that, if pushed, would bring you a million dollars - but would also end the life of someone you don't know, would you push the button? What would you do? An average couple living a suburban American life in 1976 finds out, and with only 24 hours to make their choice, the couple face an impossible moral dilemma. What they don't realize is that no matter what they decide, horrible consequences will have already been set in motion. They soon discover that the ramifications of this decision are beyond their control and extend far beyond their own fortune and fate.
CraveOnline's Call: The great moral dilemma. We've all considered variations of this Monkey's Paw scenario in our lives. and it'll be interesting to see how this unfolds. Points docked for Cameron Diaz's piss-poor acting ability, but we won't write this off just yet.
The Men Who Stare At Goats
Release Date: November 6
Director: Grant Heslov
Starring: George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Kevin Spacey, Jeff Bridges
Rating: R
Inspired by a bizarre and hardly believable real-life story, The Men Who Stare At Goats reveals astonishing revelations about a top-secret wing of the U.S. military that come to light when a reporter encounters a strange Special Forces operator on a rather unbelievable mission. In short, a legion of "Warrior Monks" with unparalleled psychic powers can read the enemy’s thoughts, pass through solid walls... and even kill a goat simply by staring at it. The film was inspired by Jon Ronson's non-fiction bestseller of the same name.
CraveOnline's Call: This film looks beyond ridiculous. And not in an Oh Brother, Where Art Thou kind of way. The cast is star-studded, however, and it would seem that all this heavy Hollywood weight can't go wrong... but it certainly can. If there's one hopeful release this month that's on the fence but leaning towards failure, it's this one.
2012
Release Date: November 13
Director: Roland Emmerich
Starring: John cusack, Amanda Peet, Danny Glover
Rating: PG-13
Never before has a date in history been so significant to so many cultures, so many religions, scientists and governments, all taking cues from ancient Mayan culture, which claims that Dec. 21, 2012 is the date of the final apocalypse - the end of the world. John Cusack stars in this last-day-on-Earth thriller, brought to you by the same people who made The Day After Tomorrow.
CraveOnline's Call: This looks a lot more appealing than The Day After Tomorrow - after all, who wouldn't squeal with delight at the sight of Los Angeles headed for the bottom of the ocean? Amanda Peet is annoying as all hell to watch, but Cusack's a muted winner and the special effects look just over the top enough to test believability, but not venture too far into cheese.
Pirate Radio
Release Date: November 13
Director: Richard Curtis
Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy, Rhys Ifans, Nick Frost
Rating: R
In the 1960s a group of eight rebellious DJs on a boat in the middle of the Northern Atlantic played rock records and broke the law - all for the love of music. The band of rebels, led by The Count (Philip Seymour Hoffman) drove the British government crazy, standing up against ridiculous new anti-rock n' roll laws. Set to an unbelievable soundtrack that includes music from The Beatles, The Stones, Beach Boys, Dusty Springfield, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Smokey Robinson, David Bowie, Otis Redding, Cat Stevens and more, the film sets out to speak to the rock n roll rebel in all of us, inspired by the British pirate radio revolution in the '60s.
CraveOnline's Call: This film could either be a classic - and points to that end for having Philip Seymour Hoffman in the lead role - or dead in the water, so to speak, from its ambitious retelling of the British radio revolution. If you're a music lover from a true classic rock era, it's a definite yes.
