Finally, our holiday film season begins. There are so many great movies opening this weekend that we don't know where to begin.

On the bigger-budgeted side of things, we are embarassed by the twin riches of The House of Flying Daggers, a Tang-dynasty-set police drama with all the breathtaking martial arts we've come to expect from any movie starring the lovely Ziyi Zhang, and the film version of San Francisco novelist Daniel Handler's A Series of Unfortunate Events. (And we're just plain embarassed by the idea of seeing Flight of the Phoenix, but that doesn't mean we won't do it.) You can see any of these films at our Bay Area Metroplexes.

The Bridge Theater Films of 1939 series has a femme-fabulous weekend with Friday and Saturday night showings of The Women, The 8 PM movie is preceded by a 7 PM live theatrical version of the movie by the ladies of Trannyshack. Peaches Christ returns on Saturday for a Midnight Mass presentation of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane. Folks, does it get any better than that?

Down in San Jose, check out the results of the 75 million dollar renovation of the California Theater when the Stanford Theater Foundation presents Casablanca every night from Saturday December 18 - Thursday December 23. But this isn't just a showing of a classic movie, it's a recreation of the old-time theatrical experience, with "a half-hour organ concert on the house Wurlitzer. Before the main feature, moviegoers will see the Bugs Bunny cartoon ``Hare Force,'' in which the long-eared star sings ``As Time Goes By,'' and a newsreel of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill at 1943's Casablanca War Conference in Morocco." Tickets are 5 dollars, and are sold one hour before showtime.

The Roxie is showing the great Goodbye, Dragon Inn this weekend. This movie, about the final screeing of the martial arts classic Dragon Inn in a decrepit and closing theateris tough to summarize. Just trust us -- it's a beautiful, haunting film you won't be able to get out of your head.

If you've seen House of Flying Daggers and Goodbye Dragon Inn and are hungry for more Asian cinema (insert your own ethnically offensive joke here, because we aren't going to go there), the Lumiere is hosting A Tale of Two Sisters, a creepy South Korean ghost story in the classic Asian horror tradition.

Seriously, folks, this is one of the best weekends for cinema in recent memory, with so many classic revivals, good big budget releases, and quirky smaller productions. You have no excuse not to get out there and sit in the dark for a couple of hours - so what are you going to see? Let us know in the comments!

Photo credit to the San Jose Mercury News