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Kevin Bennett takes tickets at Star Cinema in Fitchburg as the holiday movie season begins. - Michelle Stocker/The Capital Times

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Here's a week-by-week list of the movies coming to Madison during the holiday season. Some of the dates, particularly those playing at Sundance or the Orpheum, are tentative and subject to change. Theaters listed in parentheses following certain movie titles have an exclusive right to show the film.

Thursday, Nov. 13

"99 Bottles" (Orpheum) -- Here's a movie for which a theater pretty much has to have a liquor license. It's an engaging and pretty in-depth documentary about Wisconsin's brew pubs and craft breweries (Ale Asylum, New Glarus, and Sprecher among them) and the brewmasters who give us so many great alternatives to mass-produced "drinkability" beers. The documentary is running at 7 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday, and the price of a ticket gets you into a free beer tasting before the show.

Friday, Nov. 14

"Quantum of Solace" -- The latest Bond outing is a full 45 minutes shorter than the 2006 reboot, "Casino Royale," and is being described as a lean, mean action film very much in the style of the Bourne movies. It starts just minutes after "Casino" ended, with Bond on the trail of the shadowy terror organization who tried to off him in the last film.

Friday, Nov. 21

"Bolt" -- Disney's entry into the family movie sweepstakes is this charming animated tale of a canine TV star who doesn't realize he's just an actor, until he gets abandoned on the streets of New York. Not sure why John Travolta would voice a little pooch, but the animation looks stunning and the action kid-friendly.

"Twilight" -- I recognize I'm completely outside the target demo for this teen vampire flick, but the series of books by author Stephanie Meyer is huge with both teenagers and, supposedly, their moms. (Just ask all the people who lined up at midnight last Aug. 1 at Barnes & Noble, "Harry Potter"-style, to get their copies of the latest installment.)

"The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" -- Two young boys become friends; one is an inmate at a Jewish concentration camp, the other is the son of the camp warden who is completely oblivious to what's really going on in Germany. This should be a disturbing but interesting take on the Holocaust.

Wednesday, Nov. 26

"Australia" -- Baz Luhrmann is known for dazzling spectacles like "Moulin Rouge" and "Romeo + Juliet," and while this sweeping historical drama doesn't look like it'll have the breakneck pace of those films, there will be some amazing things to watch. For $130 million, it ought to. Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman star.

"Transporter 3" -- Oh, Jason Statham. You made a convincing stab at respectability with "The Bank Job," a surprise critical and commercial hit earlier in the year, and now you're going back to the "Transporter" franchise again? This mission's set in Paris, and the unnamed hero is doing it against his will, but otherwise it looks like the expected vehicular mayhem.

"Four Christmases" -- Despite last year's underwhelming "Fred Claus," Vince Vaughn goes back to the Yuletide well again in this comedy, as he and Reese Witherspoon have to spend a lousy Christmas with all four of their divorced parents. Perhaps the most interesting wrinkle is that the movie was directed by Seth Gordon, who previously did the documentary "The King of Kong," about two rival Donkey Kong champs.

Friday, Nov. 28

"Synedoche, New York" (Sundance) -- Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, he who penned "Adaptation," "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and "Being John Malkovich," opted to direct what may be his oddest film yet, about a theater director (Philip Seymour Hoffman) who tries to stage a life-sized, real-time production of his own life. Catherine Keener, Michelle Williams and Samantha Morton co-star.

Friday, Dec. 5

"Punisher: War Zone" -- Nothing says the holidays like a ruthless anti-hero fond of torturing his victims, and even though the original "Punisher" movie was a bust, here comes another one. Ray Stephenson takes over for Thomas Jane, if anybody notices.

"A Girl Cut in Two" (Orpheum) -- Veteran French director Claude Chabrol crafted this thriller about a young woman (Ludivine Sagnier of "Swimming Pool") who has to choose between two wealthy, good-looking, but vaguely menacing suitors. Seriously, if anybody sees this and "Punisher: War Zone" in the same weekend, let me know.

"Ashes of Time Redux" (Sundance) -- Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai, best known for lush romantic dramas like "In the Mood For Love" and "2046," revisits his 1992 martial-arts film. This isn't a remake, but Wai has drastically re-edited and restored the original film, much as Francis Ford Coppola made his own "Apocalypse Now Redux."

Friday, Dec. 12

"The Day The Earth Stood Still" -- A big-budget remake of the classic 1950s sci-fi thriller, although early word is that it's geared more for the teen special effects-loving audience, and not older audiences looking for thought-provoking allegories with robots. Keanu Reeves plays the alien visitor.

"Nothing Like the Holidays" -- A large Latino family (played by actors like Freddy Rodriguez, John Leguizamo and Alfred Molina) gather for the holidays in a comedy-drama that has a kind of bittersweet, "The Family Stone"-like vibe from the previews.

"Delgo" -- In between "Bolt" and "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa," this indie computer-animated fantasy, starring Freddie Prinze Jr. as a teenage member of a lizard race who falls for a member of the enemy tribe (Jennifer Love Hewitt), has been overlooked. Maybe justifiably.

"Milk" (Sundance) -- Sean Penn looks and acts uncannily like San Francisco supervisor Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man elected to city office, in this biopic from director Gus Van Sant. Josh Brolin plays the fellow supervisor who ended up assassinating Milk and the city's mayor in 1978.

"Slumdog Millionaire" (Sundance) -- The latest from Danny Boyle got a huge reaction at the Toronto International Film Festival. The story of an Indian street kid who makes into onto "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?" is supposed to be stylistically dazzling and tremendously moving in the vein of Boyle's best-known film, "Trainspotting."

"I've Loved You So Long" (Sundance) -- Kristin Scott Thomas is technically British, but she speaks fluent French, and is having a thriving second career in French cinema between "Tell No One" and this film. In this wrenching drama, she could easily get an Oscar nod for playing a woman traumatized by a horrible past but who slowly learns to forgive herself.

Friday, Dec. 19

"Seven Pounds" -- This Will Smith film has been shrouded in mystery -- even the trailer doesn't really give anything away. All we really know is that Smith plays an IRS agent, and the director is Gabriel Muccino, who directed Smith in "The Pursuit of Happyness."

"The Tale of Despereaux" -- Mice are supposed to be timid little creatures, but someone forgot to tell big-eared, big-hearted Despereaux, who embarks on an adventure in a medieval kingdom in this computer-animated film based on the award-winning children's book.

"Yes Man" -- Jim Carrey needs a hit after audiences said no to "The Number 23," and this broad comedy might just be it. Following a similar arc to "Liar, Liar," Carrey plays a worrier who decides to say "yes" to literally everything in life. But doesn't that mean he's also saying "yes" to saying "no"? Maybe I'm overthinking this.

Thursday, Dec. 25

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" -- Here's a real mindbender from David Fincher ("Seven," "Zodiac"), a fascinating tale of a man (Brad Pitt) who is born as an old geezer, and whose body ages backwards even as his mind ages forward.

"Bedtime Stories" -- Apparently seeing the success Ben Stiller had with "Night at the Museum," Adam Sandler takes his own stab at kid-friendly fantasy with this story of a hotel handyman whose fantastic bedtime stories he tells his niece and nephew start coming true.

"Hurricane Season" -- Uplifting sports movies may be played out lately, judging by the failure of "The Express." This film starring Forest Whitaker as the coach of a high school basketball team affected by Hurricane Katrina hopes to buck the trend.

"Marley and Me" -- Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston star in this adaptation of the popular bestseller about a couple who adopt a spirited puppy. Awwww!

"The Spirit" -- This adaptation of a Will Eisner comic, directed by graphic novel maestro Frank Miller, looks very "Sin City"-esque, as a mysterious hero back from the grave does battle with a villain (Samuel L. Jackson) in a heavily stylized black-and-white cityscape.

Friday, Dec. 26

"Valkyrie" -- Well, we can probably guess how the plot to assassinate Hitler turned out, but word is that this thriller, starring Tom Cruise as a turncoat Nazi who leads a daring scheme to take out Der Fuhrer, is pretty gripping. Bryan Singer ("X-Men") directs.

"The Reader" (Sundance) -- Another high-profile literary adaptation, starring Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes, looks at a teenage boy in post-World War II Germany who has an affair with an older woman (Winslet). A decade later, he learns that the woman is on trial for war crimes.