If your family is anything like mine, the less time we have to fill with conversations that will inevitably annoy the hell out of each other, the better. What better to fill that time than celebrating the time-honored holiday tradition of going to the movies? You'll have a lot to choose from (hey, it's another chance to argue!), but we recommend:

Sherlock Holmes, in which Robert Downey Jr. stars as English literature’s most revered private dick in writer/director Guy Ritchie’s (Snatch, RockNRolla) big-budget adaption of the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Jude Law is on hand as Holmes’ faithful assistant Watson, as is the lovely Rachel McAdams (The Time Traveler’s Wife) as Holmes’ love interest (provided rumors of a Holmes-Watson tryst don’t pan out, of course). It’s been almost 25 years since the last good Sherlock Holmes movie (1985’s Young Sherlock Holmes), but if anyone can pull it off it’s Downey, whose manic energy seems perfectly matched to the high-strung detective. (Pictured: Jude Law as Dr. Watson and Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes) Check out movie times for your local theater here. — Joe Bardi

Or, if your kin wants to forgo violence for sex, try Up In the Air, in which George Clooney stars as a road-warrior corporate consultant who specializes in firing people in director Jason Reitman’s follow-up to Juno.

This article appears in Dec 16-22, 2009.