Movies to See If You're Off Work This Week

Dec. 25, PG
"I was so nervous, but she just put me at ease right away. She's so warm," says MacKenzie Mauzy, who plays witch Meryl Streep's (left) daughter Rapunzel in the movie adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's Tony-winning musical. With a starry cast including Johnny Depp, Emily Blunt, Anna Kendrick and Chris Pine, who blew everyone away? Pine, apparently! "He sounds like Sinatra," says Blunt. "And he's so funny as the dumb pretty boy."

Dec. 25, PG-13
To play Martin Luther King Jr., actor David Oyelowo met with people who knew the civil rights leader. "It was surprising to find out how much of a sense of humor he had," says the British star. In Selma, he reunites with Butler costar Oprah Winfrey (playing activist Annie Lee Cooper). "I call her my American mother," he shares.

Dec. 19, G
"When I found out I got the part, I couldn't stop jumping up and down," says Quvenzhané Wallis, 11, of landing the "Tomorrow"-belting lead in this Will Smith-produced remake. Shooting in New York City, "I made friends with everybody. Jamie [Foxx] and Cameron Diaz" ] were really funny." Her Sandy (real name: Marty) is a lucky pup: He was in a shelter before being cast.

Dec. 19, PG
In the third installment of this series, security guard Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) heads to London to save a magic tablet. But the emotional draw is Robin Williams, in one of his final films. The star was "an incredible guy – generous in the best way," says director Shawn Levy.

Dec. 25, PG-13
He was a champion miler, but Louis Zamperini endured a marathon before his July 2 death at age 97. In her second movie as a director, Angelina Jolie takes on the extraordinary saga, from the Olympics to Japanese POW camps, told in Laura Hillenbrand's biography. "I can't put into words what an impact Louie has had on me," Jolie says. "He helped with so many aspects of my life, and I will be forever grateful to him. Louie's example of life not only touched myself and [star Jack O'Connell] but the whole crew and, I trust, anyone who knows his story."

Dec. 25, R
To play Chris Kyle, the deadliest U.S. military sniper in history, Bradley Cooper bulked up 40-plus lbs. and learned to "hit 800-yard targets the size of a teacup," says writer/producer Jason Dean Hall. "He found the essence of Chris and what drove him."

Dec. 17, PG-13
It's a special-effects bonanza in this final battle for Middle Earth, the last film in the Hobbit series that stars all of your favorites including Orlando Bloom, Evangeline Lilly, Martin Freeman and Sir Ian McKellen.

Dec. 25, PG-13
Academy favorites Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz star in this biopic of Margaret Keane, a once-oppressed American artist known for her paintings of – you guessed it – women and children with Big Eyes.

Dec. 31, R
Jennifer Aniston's raw performance has already earned her Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award nods. Check her out as a woman in recovery, suffering from a painkiller addiction, to see what the buzz is about.

Dec. 31, R
Gritty performances from Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain highlight this crime drama set in 1981 N.Y.C. – one of the, well, most violent years in the city's history.