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“The Matrix Revolutions” rocks!! Now I can’t wait to see “Elf”!! Sadly, “Love Actually” isn’t playing where I live (sniff, sniff!!).

Weekend Movies: Holiday Cheer Starts Early
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Looking past the hype, “The Matrix Revolutions” is not the only film in theaters nationwide on Friday as Hollywood’s studios pull two holiday tales out of this season’s gift bag, comedies “Elf” and “Love Actually.”
“Elf,” with former “Saturday Night Live” star Will Ferrell as a human who believes he is one of Santa’s elves, offers a family film to counter the battle-filled “Revolutions.”
“Love Actually,” with a cast including Hugh Grant and Emma Thompson, brings the sort of British humor found in films “Notting Hill” to a tale of Christmas romance in merrie olde London.
Despite the massive news coverage of the “Revolutions” Wednesday debut, “Elf” screenwriter David Berenbaum isn’t worried about box office competition given his film’s fuzzy tale and PG rating for some mild rude humor and language.
“‘Matrix’ is rated ‘R,’ and we are the family film out there,” he told Reuters. “‘Elf’ will do just fine.”
Ferrell plays Buddy, a human placed for adoption when just a baby. By happenstance, Buddy crawls into Santa’s toy bag on Christmas Eve and is unknowingly scooped up and carted off to the North Pole and raised by lovable Papa Elf (Bob Newhart).
Even though he is 3-feet taller than the standard elf and can’t make a toy to save himself, Buddy really, truly believes he is an elf. He is that naive, that sweet and that honest.
Buddy’s life is shattered, however, when Papa Elf tells him the truth. Buddy is human and his Dad is a big city businessman with little time for family — just like old Ebenezer Scrooge.
In an attempt to reconnect with dad (James Caan), Buddy heads to New York City where he learns, much to Santa’s chagrin, that almost everyone has lost the Christmas spirit. It’s up to Buddy, the human elf, to save the holiday.
LOVE AND “MATRIX” WAR
“Love Actually” is another feel good film, but because the romantic comedy carries an R rating for sexuality, nudity and language, it is aimed at adults.
The story features a large ensemble cast in which Grant portrays the British Prime Minister who fancies a young woman on his staff. Thompson is his sister, whose husband, played byAlan Rickman, is infatuated with a younger woman.
Kiera Knightley is a newlywed whose marriage is challenged by her husband’s best friend. Liam Neeson is a widowed father to a pre-teen son who has fallen for an American gal. Those are less than half of the intertwining stories in the movie.
In one way or another, all the characters are looking for love and companionship in the days leading up to Christmas, and each navigates a maze of human complications to find it — and that includes two porn movie stand-ins, who have a sub-plot all their own in the film.
The movie was written and directed by Richard Curtis, who penned popular hits “Notting Hill” and “Four Weddings and a Funeral” and shared credit on “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” which should give fans a hint of the quirkiness in “Love Actually.”
Finally, “The Matrix Revolutions” is the third film in the series of sci-fi tales about humans battling against machines who want to rule Earth.
In this final chapter, the humans, led by Neo, or the One (Keanu Reeves), make their final stand against the machines to defend their city of Zion built deep within Earth.

The film has been panned by critics, but fans turned out in legions to give “Revolutions” a $43 million worldwide box office in its first day in theaters.
There is no doubt “Revolutions” will be among the box office hits this holiday season. But for a little family cheer or adult romance, movie fans can easily look past it.