Reel treats for Christmas

Two hours of suspension of disbelief at the cinema have become as much of a Christmas tradition as carol singing or midnight snacking on leftover turkey sandwiches.

The big studios know this, and so every Christmas, they roll out some of their best titles of the year.

So sit back and, as the lights are dimmed (and the guy with the big hair in front of you snaps at his popcorn with the chattering sound of a machine gun), enjoy this festive season’s blockbusters.

Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked
Director: Mike Mitchell   
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Starring: Jason Lee, David Cross, Justin Long and Matthew Gray Gubler

Dave Seville takes the Chipmunks and the Chipettes, the female counterparts to the Chipmunks, on a cruise. Before boarding the cruise ship, he tells them that there is a list of rules to respect – but no sooner are they on board that the six squeaky singers transform the ship into their own personal playground. Things come to a head when they get shipwrecked on a deserted island. Which, it turns out, is not deserted at all.

Love the title of the film. And it will leave you with a warm glow inside – perfect for Christmas.

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
Director: Brad Bird
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Starring: Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Paula Patton and Josh Holloway

To date, the Mission: Impossible series has grossed more than $2bn worldwide. The latest release, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol will certainly add a couple of zeros to that figure.

The plot is predictably – in a good way, of course – action-packed. When IMF operative Ethan Hunt (Cruise) is blamed for the terrorist bombing of the Kremlin, he is disavowed, together with all his team. With neither backup nor resources available to him, Hunt has to find a way to clear the agency’s name while preventing another attack.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
Director: Guy Ritchie
Studio: Warner Bros
Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Stephen Fry, Noomi Rapace

Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law return as the world’s most famous detective and his colleague Dr Watson to engage in mental battles with Professor Moriarty.

When the Crown Prince of Austria is found dead, everyone rushes to the conclusion that it was suicide. Not Sherlock Holmes though, who sees the murder as one evil piece in a larger, and darker, puzzle designed by Moriarty. He follows the clues to an underground gentlemen’s club where he meets Sim, a gypsy fortune teller whose capacity for seeing the future makes her Moriarty’s next target. Of course, Sim is saved and the three embark on a continental chase of the evil mastermind.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Director: David Fincher
Studio: Columbia Pictures
Starring: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Robin Wright

The original The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was great – if you knew Swedish, that is. But now, for all the fans of Stieg Larsson’s trilogy – and these are apt to be quite numerous, given that the trilogy has sold more than 50 million copies in 46 countries – there is the English version, starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara.

The screenplay is by Steven Zaillia and follows disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist and computer hacker Lisbeth Salander as they try to unravel the dark mystery of Harriet Vagner’s disappearance.

New Year’s Eve
Director: Garry Marshall
Studio: Warner Bros
Starring: Michelle Pfeiffer, Hilary Swank, Lea Michele and Robert de Niro

The plot of New Year’s Eve is pretty straightforward – a group of New Yorkers make their way along the mined, metaphorically of course, road to love.

It’s the cast that isn’t so straightforward – in fact, it reads like a celebrity fest. There’s Robert de Niro playing a bitter, dying man and Michelle Pfeiffer, who plays a frustrated executive secretary. Hilary Swank plays a producer of the Times Square New Year’s Eve show while Ashton Kutcher is the guy who hates New Year’s Eve. The film also stars Jessica Biel, Sofia Vergara, Alyssa Milano, Sienna Miller, Halle Berry, Jon Bon Jovi and Sarah Jessica Parker.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Director: Stephen Daldry
Studio: Warner Bros
Starring: Sandra Bullock, Tom Hanks and John Goodman

Jonathan Safran Foer’s 2005 Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is the kind of novel that you know, as soon as your eyes ramble and swell over the first few words, that it will change your life. Narrated by nine-year-old Oskar Schell, the novel follows the boy’s discovery of a key which his father, who had died in the 9/11 tragedy, had left him, and his search all over New York for the lock.

The film adaptation, starring Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock and Thomas Horn, is very faithful to the book and will have the same heart-wrenching, soul soaring effect.