Movies: Don't open until Xmas

TIM CAMPBELL | Updated 8/17/2012

Kate Winslet in "The Reader"

For my money, the best thing about the holidays (besides presents, anyway) is that shiny pile of movies that drops down the multiplex chimney every Christmas Day.

There's always a mix of Oscar bait and eye candy, and this year is no exception. In the first category, we have Brad Pitt aging backward (and hooking up with Cate Blanchett) in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and Kate Winslet playing a former Nazi guard (and hooking up with a 15-year-old) in "The Reader."

As for the latter, there's your Adam Sandler comedy ("Bedtime Stories," where he tells tales to his niece and nephew that magically come true); your heartwarming rom-com ("Marley & Me," with Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson getting life lessons from their dog); your escapist thriller ("Valkyrie," starring Tom Cruise as a Nazi officer out to assassinate Hitler) and your comic-book adventure ("The Spirit," adapted by "Sin City" maestro Frank Miller from the Will Eisner classic about a rookie cop who returns from the dead).