By Chip Chandler — Digital Content Producer
Only one new film opens Amarillo theaters this week as Star Wars looms on the horizon. Check here for all of your movie options!
New in theaters
Just Getting Started
Morgan Freeman and Tommy Lee Jones star in the latest comedy from writer/director Ron Shelton (Tin Cup, Bull Durham). Freeman is Duke Diver, the manager of a Palm Springs resort where Leo (Jones) has just checked in. Soon, Leo and Duke start squabbling over who's the big man on campus, then Leo — who's a retired FBI agent — learns that Duke is in the witness protection program and that the mob has located him. The film has been compared to Midnight Run, but reviews have yet to be released. (PG-13 for language, suggestive material and brief violence; click here for showtimes at United Artists Amarillo Star 14, 8275 W. Amarillo Blvd., and Cinemark Hollywood 16, 9100 Canyon Drive)
Special engagements
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
A weekly series of holiday movies at Amarillo Star 14 continues with the Griswolds' family nightmare. It'll screen at noon Saturday.
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
Celebrate the 50th anniversary of this socially conscious drama as part of TCM Big Screen Classics and Cinemark's Classics Series. It'll screen at 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday and Wednesday at both the Amarillo Star 14 and Hollywood 16.
Genesis: Paradise Lost
One biblical theory of the Earth's creation is explored in this 3-D film, encoring at 7 p.m. Monday at the Amarillo Star 14 and Hollywood 16.
Upcoming
Opening Dec. 14: Advance tickets are on sale now for Ferdinand, an animated family film based on the classic book, and Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the highly anticipated follow-up to 2015's The Force Awakens. They will screen at both the Amarillo Star 14 and Hollywood 16.
Opening Dec. 15: Rebel in the Rye, starring Nicholas Hoult (X-Men: First Class) as author J.D. Salinger in a biopic from writer-director Danny Strong (Game Change), is scheduled to open at Premiere Cinemas Westgate Mall 6, 7701 W. Interstate 40. Advance tickets are not available online.
Dec. 16: The weekly series of holiday movies at Amarillo Star 14 continues with Elf at noon Dec. 16.
Dec. 17 and 20: The Cinemark Classics Series continues with Frank Capra's melancholy holiday classic It's a Wonderful Life at 2 p.m. Dec. 17 and 2 and 7 p.m. Dec. 20 at the Hollywood 16.
Dec. 19: The MeshugaNutcracker! The Chanukah Musical, an original musical comedy featuring a Klezmer-enriched orchestration of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker Suite, will screen at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 19 at the Amarillo Star 14.
Opening Dec. 20: Advance tickets are on sale now for The Greatest Showman, a musical biopic about P.T. Barnum (Hugh Jackman), and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, a sequel to the family-friendly fantasy that stars Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart. They are scheduled to open at both the Amarillo Star 14 and Hollywood 16.
Opening Dec. 21: Advance tickets are on sale now for Downsizing, Alexander Payne's sci-fi satire starring Matt Damon, and Pitch Perfect 3, the aca-expected return of the Barden Bellas. They are scheduled to open at both the Amarillo Star 14 and Hollywood 16.
Dec. 23: The weekly series of holiday movies at Amarillo Star 14 concludes with Gremlins at noon Dec. 23.
Dec. 27: Doctor Who: Twice Upon a Time, the annual Doctor Who Christmas special, gets the big-screen treatment in this one-night-only event. It's the last appearance of Peter Capaldi as the Doctor, and it features David Bradley as the First Doctor, as well. It'll screen at 7 p.m. Dec. 27 at the Amarillo Star 14.
Dates are subject to change.
Still in theaters
A Bad Moms Christmas (AS-14, H-16); Coco (AS-14, H-16); Daddy's Home 2 (AS-14, H-16) Despicable Me 3 (Premiere Cinemas Westgate Mall 6, 7701 W. Interstate 40); The Foreigner (WM-6); Geostorm (WM-6); It (WM-6); Justice League (AS-14, H-16); Lady Bird (H-16); The Lego Ninjago Movie (WM-6); Murder on the Orient Express (AS-14, H-16); The Star (AS-14, H-16); Thor: Ragnarok (AS-14, H-16); Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (H-16); Tyler Perry's Boo 2! A Madea Halloween (WM-6); and Wonder (AS-14, H-16). (Click on titles for my reviews and on theaters for showtimes.)
Chip Chandler is a digital content producer for Panhandle PBS. He can be contacted at Chip.Chandler@actx.edu, at @chipchandler1 on Twitter and on Facebook.
