Next Week in Tickets: Films playing Boston 21 December 2016 - 29 December 2016

Ah, the last week of December, where movies come out on three days because Christmas is on a Sunday.

Also, I don't think I've ever seen three 3D movies released on one day before, and that less than a week after Star Wars grabs all the big 3D screens. Crazy.

• So let's start with the Wednesday 3D releases. Passengers is the one I had the most hope for, with Chris Pratt and Jennnifer Lawrence as colonists awakened from suspended animation 30 years into a 120 year journey. It's a great premise that looks super-slick but, alas, has some real and huge problems with the story. It's at the Somerville (2D only), Apple Fresh Pond, the Embassy, Boston Common, Assembly Row, Fenway, Revere and the SuperLux. Assassin's Creed drops Michael Fassbender into an adaptation of the popular video game series, although some fans are saying that it doesn't include the aliens, to which I say that seeing so much of it set in the a present-day sci-fi setting was crazy enough considering how all the ads I've seen for the game are for the "past-life" segments. That one's at the Capitol (2D only), Apple Fresh Pond (2D only), Boston Common, Assembly Row, Fenway, and Revere. Finally, there's the animated Sing, with a bunch of anthropomorphic animals in a talent competition that will apparently save the local theater. That's at the Capitol (2D only), West Newton, Apple Fresh Pond (2D only), the Studio Cinema in Belmont (2D only), Boston Common, Assembly Row, Fenway, Revere, and the SuperLux (2D only).
  
  Because we're Boston, we're also getting Patriots Day before it opens wide, for better or for worse (a lot of folks feel it's awful soon to get a picture based upon that bombing, and that Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg aren't exactly the ones to do it). That's at Boston Common, Fenway, and Revere, starting Wednesday. On Friday, Byran Cranston/James Franco comedy Why Him?, which features Cranston objecting to Franco marrying his daughter, opens at Apple Fresh Pond, Boston Common, Assembly Row, Fenway, and Revere.
  
  Fenway will also be getting La La Land for Christmas, and will be showing It's a Wonderful Life on Christmas Eve. You've got to wait a couple of days for the Doctor Who Christmas Special, "The Return of Doctor Mysterio", which plays there Tuesday night and at Revere on Tuesday and Thursday.
• The Coolidge Corner Theatre wraps up their midnight Christmas horror films this weekend with Jack Frost on Friday, closing shop early on Christmas Eve. When they open back up on Christmas Day, they (along with the Somerville, West Newton, Kendall Square, and Revere) will have Lion, starring Dev Patel as a man who, as a boy was lost on a train that brought him far across India, eventually being adopted by a nice Australian couple, now eager to reconnect with his lost family.
• The other big Christmas opening (at least around here) is Fences, with Denzel Washington returning to the director's chair for the first time in nearly a decade and co-starring with Viola Davis in an adaptation of August Wilson's play. It's at the Capitol, Kendall Square, the Embassy, Boston Common, Assembly Row, Fenway, Revere, and the SuperLux.
• Apple Cinemas Fresh Pond picks up a movie from Disney's Indian division, with Dangal, starring Aamir Khan as a man whose dreams of being an Olympic wrestler never came true, though he intended to train a son to follow in his footsteps, only to have four daughters - though, fortunately, they inherited his talent and drive. It started Wednesday.
• It's the most wonderful time of the year, as The Brattle Theatre presents A Shane Black Christmas. Wednesday's double feature has already played, but there's double shots of Iron Man Three and The Long Kiss Goodnight on Thursday and The Nice Guys and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang on Friday, all on 35mm. The schedule calls the last one a "rarity", but how can that be? Does not everybody love that movie and rewatch it often?
  
  They're closed Christmas Eve (although they will be selling gift cards during the afternoon), but re-open on Christmas to start "Happy 100th, Kirk Douglas" with 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea in 35mm. That series continues with Detective Story & Ace in the Hole on Monday, Lust For Life & The Bad and the Beautiful on Tuesday (both 35mm), Paths of Glory on Wednesday, and another little movie he did with Stanley Kubrick, Spartacus, on 35mm Thursday.
• The Museum of Fine Arts continues to show films starring Laura Dern in their "Woman Inherits the Earth" series, featuring 99 Homes (Thursday), Certain Women (Thursday the 21st/Wednesday the 28th/Thursday the 29th), Jurassic Park (Friday/Saturday), The Master (Saturday/Wednesday the 28th on 35mm), Rambling Rose (Thursday the 29th)
• The Regent Theatre, as they are wont to do every Christmas break, has a Sing-Along The Sound of Music, with one show the night of the 25th, multiple shows from Monday to Wednesday, and a single evening show on the 29th. The page mentions it being "in Technicolor", so maybe they're running it off a print, even!
• The ICA has their annual showcase of British Arrow Award nominees and winners, celebrating the best ads make in the UK last year, with Wednesday and Thursday screenings (that is, the 28th & 29th) free with admission to the museum.

I've already seen Passengers, but I may not be able to keep myself from hitting Assassin's Creed; I'll probably also check out Fences and Lion. And, come on, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang on the big screen!