The 2015 Holiday Movie Guide

It’s holiday time, and we all know what that means: cold weather, crowded malls, forced festivity and too much eggnog. But it also means we get to enjoy some of the best movies of the year at the theater. So kick back with our guide and mark your calendars for what’s coming this holiday season.

You say you want a revolution? Well, that’s exactly what you’ll get when Katniss Everdeen, now symbolized as the “Mockingjay,” and her District 13 allies declare war on the Capitol in the second part of the final chapter of 'The Hunger Games' saga.

In this adaptation of the 2010 Argentinian film, Julia Roberts portrays an FBI agent whose world is torn apart following the murder of her daughter. The loss is felt by her tight-knit team, which continues to attempt to bring closure to the case. Chiwetel Ejiofor and Nicole Kidman also star.

With 1950s New York as a backdrop, a department store clerk (Rooney Mara) and a married, older woman (Cate Blanchett) break conventional norms as they find themselves falling in love.

Michael B. Jordan steps into the ring as Adonis Creed, a fighter trapped in the shadow of his late father, Apollo Creed. But it’s not until former World Heavyweight Champion Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) agrees to train and mentor him that he has a fighting chance.

What if dinosaurs never became extinct? Disney-Pixar answers the age-old question with this charming tale about a boy and his fearful friend, an apatosaurus named Arlo.

As best friends Ethan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Isaac (Seth Rogen) and Chris (Anthony Mackie) prepare to enter adulthood, they decide to end their annual Christmas tradition of debauchery and mayhem with a final hurrah – finding the Holy Grail of Christmas parties.

In this reworking of the Frankenstein mythos, we learn that Igor (Daniel Radcliffe) is more than just Viktor Von Frankenstein’s (James McAvoy) humpbacked toadie. The story, told from Igor’s perspective, shines a light on the origins of their friendship and how they went to the brink of madness and back.

The Krampus of German folklore is kinda like Anti-Santa: He punishes kids for bad behavior instead of rewarding them for being good. In this movie, the massive, horned demon comes for a kid who doesn’t exactly have the Christmas spirit.

British actress Juliet Stevenson brings Mother Theresa to life, via 50 years of letters written to her friend/spiritual advisor, Father Celeste van Exem (Max von Sydow).

Michael Fassbender takes on the sure-to-be-Oscar bait Shakespearean tale of the ambitious, murderous Scottish lord who was determined to fulfill the prophecy that he would become king.

Based on the true story that inspired the classic ‘Moby Dick,’ this action adventure reveals exactly what the surviving crew members of whaling ship Essex had to do to survive. Hint: It ain’t pretty.

This movie adapted from the novel about the finance guys who made it big in the late-00s financial crisis stars a laundry list of heavy hitters: Brad Pitt, Christian Bale, Steve Carrell and Ryan Gosling, to name a few, and was directed by Adam McKay. (Opens wide December 25)

What promises to be a quirky comedy comes from writer-director Jared Hess (‘Napoleon Dynamite’). It involves a guy who calls himself a “Biblical archaeologist” and what happens when he doesn’t come up with the relics he’s promised to deliver.

This comedy of errors sends the Chipmunks on a road trip to Miami, with the misguided belief that they have to stop their best buddy Dave (Jason Lee) from proposing to his new girlfriend – and dumping them.

Tina Fey and Amy Poehler team up once again for this comedy, this time playing distanced sisters who decide to have one last hurrah (read: some off-the-hook party time) at their childhood home that their parents have put up for sale.

Even before the first teaser dropped this has been the most anticipated film of the decade, let alone the holiday season. If the trailers are any indication, this seventh installment of the Star Wars franchise should be everything fans have been hoping it would be. A perfect blend of reverential nostalgia mixed with new characters to propel the series forward.

Will Smith stars in this true David vs. Goliath story that pits prominent neuropathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu against the powerful National Football League. This emotional thriller revolves around Omalu’s discovery of CTE, a brain trauma that is linked to injuries suffered while playing football.

Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg team up once again in a comedy that pits a dedicated, but uptight stepdad (Ferrell) against his wife’s freeloading ex-husband and father of her children (Wahlberg) in a battle for the affections of the kids.

Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro reunite with writer/director David O. Russell in this intense emotional comedy that spans four generations of a family and centers on the woman who overcomes great odds to become the founder and matriarch of a powerful family business dynasty.

Inspired by the classic 1991 film, ‘Point Break’ follows FBI agent Johnny Utah as he goes undercover to infiltrate a suspected gang of criminal masterminds who are also a team of extreme sports athletes. The film features top professionals performing daring stunts in sports that include snowboarding, wingsuit flying, high-speed motocross and giant wave surfing.

Director Quentin Tarantino assembles an ensemble cast that includes Jeff Bridges, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Samuel L. Jackson and Tim Roth to tell the tale of post-Civil War bounty hunters who face a treacherous blizzard while transporting a dangerous prisoner to her sentencing in Wyoming. Things get complicated when they encounter fellow bounty hunters and a group of strangers.

Leonardo DiCaprio portrays legendary explorer Hugh Glass in this epic adventure that follows Glass on his relentless pursuit of his hunting team who left him for dead after a brutal bear attack. Based on true events, ‘The Revenant’ is a story of vengeance, redemption and survival. (In limited release; opens wide Jan. 8)