The Latest in Theaters: Cox, Todd and Wilson

This weekend in theaters is not just a showdown of new movies, but of Golden Globe nominees as well, including three of the five Best Actor - Musical or Comedy contenders:

And at last, thirty years after its Broadway debut, the movie is here: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. The Tim Burton adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim musical classic starring Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman and a reportedly well-packaged Sacha Baron Cohen has received mostly rapturous early reviews and will likely draw in a diverse audience from show queens to Goths to gore hounds. Click here for more Movie Dearest coverage on the movie, and Sweeney week will wrap up here tomorrow with an Out in Film profile of the iconic Sondheim.

With a cast that includes three Oscar-winners (Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman) led by an Oscar-winning director (Mike Nichols) from a script by an Emmy-winner (Aaron Sorkin), it is no wonder that Charlie Wilson's War was earmarked as an awards frontrunner for so long. That is, until people started getting a look at it, and the prospects of more Oscar glory grew dim for this political satire (personally, I had my doubts once I saw the cheeky trailer). Hey, at least the Hollywood Foreign Press liked it enough to give it five nominations (the second most for any film this year), although methinks that if they didn't deem it a comedy, it wouldn't have fared so well there either.

John C. Reilly displays both his musical and comedic chops in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, a mockumentary/send up of all the recent rags-to-riches music biopics of late such as Ray and Walk the Line, subject matter one would think isn't exactly fitting for comedic treatment. The red-hot Judd Apatow co-wrote the script, and Jenna Fischer co-stars in the June Carter role. In addition to a bunch of parody songs, expect to see a bunch of familiar faces in cameos as such stars as Elvis, Buddy Holly, the Beatles and, as themselves, the Temptations.

From the looks of the ads, one would think that the hunky Gerard Butler has a major role in P.S., I Love You, the latest attempt to turn butch Hilary Swank into, well, something less butch. (Possible SPOILER approaching.) Well, don't get too used to him, as the plot hinges around Butler's love letters from beyond the grave to Swank, urging her to go on with her life and find a nice man to fill his suspenders and boxer shorts. James Marsters, Harry Connick Jr. and Jeffrey Dean Morgan line up as her potential suitors, while Lisa Kudrow and Gina Gershon show up as her supportive gal pals.

And finally, Nicolas Cage is back in action mode yet again for National Treasure: Book of Secrets. Joining Cage in this new adventure are fellow Oscar-winners Helen Mirren and John Voight, not to mention past nominees Ed Harris and Harvey Keitel. Yeah, I don't know what they're all doing in this movie either.

UPDATE: Forget to mention that the brand new, Annie Award nominated Goofy cartoon, How To Hook Up Your Home Theater, screens with the National Treasures sequel.

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