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Davis: Musicals to assassin movies over the holidays

And don't forget Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt in a futuristic love story aboard a spaceship destined for a new world.
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Sing features the voices of Seth MacFarlane (left)

Sing is the new animated musical from the creators of Despicable Me.  Set in an animal world, it tells the story of a struggling theatre owner named Buster Moon (voiced by Matthew McConaughey) who decides to stage a singing contest to save his showbiz career. What he gets is an array of talent who each have their own singing style. Reese Witherspoon voices Rosita, a pig with a purpose, Seth McFarlane voices a mouse with a Jimmy Cagney attitude, Taron Egerton voices a teenage gorilla with a criminal past, Scarlett Johansson voices a porcupine who can pluck a mean guitar and Tori Kelly voices Meena, a shy elephant who eventually brings down the house.

Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt star in Passengers, a futuristic love story set aboard a massive spaceship destined for a new world.  Awakened by accident Jim Preston (Pratt) realizes he has 90 years to wait until the rest of the passengers will emerge from hypersleep.  He decides to wake up another passenger named Aurora Lane (Lawrence), and together must unravel the mystery behind the malfunction as the ship teeters on the brink of collapse, with the lives of thousands of passengers in jeopardy.

Assassin’s Creed stars Michael Fassbender in this film adaptation of the popular video game franchise about a secret society of assassins.  Callum Lynch (Fassbender) uses revolutionary technology that unlocks his genetic memories and experiences the adventures of his ancestor, Aguilar, an assassin in 15th Century Spain. The ensemble cast includes Marion Cotillard, Brendan Gleeson and Jeremy Irons.

In Why Him?, Bryan Cranston plays Ned, an over protective Dad who meets his daughter’s boyfriend, Laird Mayher (James Franco) – a Silicon Valley billionaire. However, Ned is stunned to find that his lovely daughter Stephanie (Zoey Deutch) is in love with a clueless nut case whose lifestyle includes a mansion with a moose encased in a tank of urine. Things get even worse when he finds out that Laird is going to propose to Stephanie in the raunchy adult comedy.

Opening on Christmas Day is La La Land, the highly-anticipated musical from Damien Chazelle, the acclaimed director of Whiplash. Set in modern day Los Angeles, it tells the love story an aspiring actress named Mia (Emma Stone) and a jazz musician named Sebastian (Ryan Gosling).  Although each are struggling to make ends meet in a city known for crushing hopes and breaking hearts, their relationship meets its biggest challenge when they find success. La La Land is nominated for seven Golden Globe Awards including nods for Gosling, Stone, Chazelle and Best Picture.

Also opening on Christmas Day is Fences, the film adaptation of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play about a troubled man at odds with his family and what he has become after a hard life of difficult choices.  Denzel Washington and Viola Davis both earned Tony awards for their performances in the 2010 Broadway revival and both have earned a Golden Globe nomination for their performances in this movie.