Boxing Day movie picks lack punch

THE highly anticipated crop of Boxing Day films is somewhat disappointing this year, especially when compared with the past couple of years.

THE highly anticipated crop of Boxing Day films is somewhat disappointing this year, especially when compared with the past couple of years.

Holiday treats last year included No Country for Old Men, Atonement, Enchanted, The Darjeeling Ltd and I'm Not There; while 2006 had The Queen and Happy Feet.

The total of 10 films released on December 26 last year has been reduced to six today, and although they offer something for most tastes, there's no five-star jewel among them.

This year's Boxing Day fare starts off with Bedtime Stories (G), a curious hybrid that combines childhood characters -- knights of old, cowboys and space travellers -- with a rather lame Adam Sandler vehicle.

Then there's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (M), which is a curious film indeed. David Fincher's almost three-hour epic -- Benjamin is born as an elderly man and gets younger as the years pass -- is original and intriguing but ultimately unsatisfying, mainly because the dramatic arc of Benjamin's life is never very enthralling. Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett give marvellous performances.

Unexpectedly, The Day the Earth Stood Still (M) is a creditable remake by director Scott Derrickson of one of the all-time sci-fi classics. What was originally a Cold War fable about the threat of nuclear conflict has been modernised as a cautionary tale about environmental destruction. It's not for climate-change sceptics, but for most of its length the film works well as a futuristic thriller, and Keanu Reeves is well cast as an alien.

Frost/Nixon (M) is a must for political junkies and is the best of the bunch. Ron Howard's film succeeds in making a riveting movie out of an arcane subject: the 1977 television interviews between a gauche David Frost (Michael Sheen) and a wily Richard Nixon (Frank Langella, giving an Oscar-worthy performance). The film is an object lesson in how to create high drama from minimal elements.

The Boxing Day foreign-language offering is usually a comedy, but this year's I've Loved You So Long (Il y a longtemps que je t'aime) (M) is an intense family drama from France. It's a showcase for two fine performances from Kristin Scott Thomas and the remarkable Elsa Zylberstein, who play sisters reunited after the older one (Thomas) is released from a 15-year prison sentence.

Finally, there is Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona (M), although you might not know it was a Woody Allen film from the ads, and he doesn't appear in it.

It aims to be an edgy romance in which two American tourists (Scarlett Johansson, Rebecca Hall) become involved with a randy artist (Javier Bardem) while visiting Barcelona.