Seven Pounds. It's the staunch fish story of a San Francisco boss (Sean Penn in the title role) who was gunned down by a homophobic contest (Brolin). Think.

Happy holidays, from your friends in Hollywood. Usually we rely on year-end movies to ennoble or sustain us. But in the halfway point of so many real-world worries, 2008 could be a year that feast movies do a bunk us shaken, not stirred.

Instead of cherubs, the herald angels of this season's feral greetings are assassins. The cold-weather flick age should get off to a sizzling bug out with "Quantum of Solace" (Nov. 14), the 22nd James Bond movie. In his sophomore trouble as secretive legate 007, Daniel Craig races from Italy to Bolivia to atone back the villains who turned his lady-love against him in the aforementioned installment, "Casino Royale.

" Josh Brolin, currently playing our 43rd president in "W.," portrays a public hitman in Gus Van Sant's extremely anticipated "Milk" (Nov. 26). It's the truthfully narrative of a San Francisco overseer (Sean Penn in the rubric role) who was gunned down by a homophobic challenge (Brolin). A vigilante hitman is the supporter of "Punisher: War Zone" (Dec. 5) and of a Christmas Day nugget of coal called "The Spirit" (Dec. 25). And a would-be assassin is the heroine of Bryan Singer's "Valkyrie" (Dec. 26), starring Tom Cruise in the straightforwardly excuse of the Nazi colonel who tried to conclude the mastery of Adolf Hitler.

The inauspicious heroes of "Twilight" (Nov. 21) are teenage vampires. But they're in love, so commercial hopes are sky-high for this project, which is based on a fashionable engage series. Artistic hopes are cheerful for another modifying of a downbeat book, "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" (Nov. 14). It's about a German juvenile who befriends a Jewish wretch through the barbed-wire rampart of a concentration camp.

The same variance provides the credentials of "Defiance," (Dec. 31 in New York And Los Angeles), a unelaborated thriller starring Daniel Craig about Jewish rebelliousness in the woods of Poland, and "The Reader" (Dec. 10 in New York and Los Angeles), a Holocaust-themed derive pleasure outline starring Ralph Fiennes and Kate Winslet. Ethnic arguing is also the rip tide in "Gran Torino" (Dec. 17 in New York and LA).

Director Clint Eastwood, playing an irritable Korean War practised whose prized motor car is stolen by an Asian neighbor, may be racing to the van of the Academy Award pack, as latent contenders such as "The Road" and "The Soloist" have been moved to next year. Halloween now marks the unauthorized chance of the Oscar race, and other upcoming releases with justifiable apportion hopes include: Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire" (Nov. 12 in New York and LA), a holiday favorite about a scant kid from India who gets outlandish on TV. "Seven Pounds" (Dec. 12), which teams Will Smith with the superintendent of "The Pursuit of Happyness" in a show about a depressed IRS envoy who vows to mutation seven people's lives. John Patrick Shanley's "Doubt" (Dec. 12 in New York and LA), with Hoffman as a reverend accused of sexy abuse. Steven Soderbergh's epic "Che" (Dec. 12 in New York and LA), with Benicio Del Toro as communist creative Ernesto Guevera. "Nothing But the Truth" (Dec. 19 in New York and LA), a ripped-from-the headlines theatricalism with Kate Beckinsale as a jailed journalist. "The Brothers Bloom" (Dec. 19 in New York and LA), a con-man comedy from the commandant of "Brick" starring Adrien Brody and Rachel Weisz. Darren Aronofsky's "The Wrestler" (Dec. 19), starring Mickey Rourke as a has-been grappler. Ron Howard's "Frost/Nixon" (Dec. 25), in which the disgraced president (Frank Langella) defends himself to a TV inquisitor (Michael Sheen).

David Fincher's "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Dec. 25), in which Brad Pitt plays an stale fellow who grows progressively younger after the First World War. "Last Chance Harvey" (Dec. 26 in New York and LA), a grown-up sentiment starring Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson. Sam Mendes' "Revolutionary Road" (Dec. 26 in N.Y. and LA), in which "Titanic" co-stars Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio reunite as frustrated 1950s suburbanites with dreamed-up dreams of compelling to Paris. "Four Christmases" (Nov. 26), in which Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn divvy their hilarity in the midst their various parents is a touch lighter.

Amid all this gloom, a open impractical take a is promised by "Australia" (Nov. 14). Baz Luhrman's epic gothic stars Nicole Kidman as the tickety-boo Englishwoman who inherits a ranch in the Outback and Hugh Jackman as the wrangler who takes her down under.

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