AUGUSTA, GA – Christmas comes a little earlier each year, as the influence of retailers has consumers hearing jingle bells long before St. Nick has packed up his sleigh. Not only can you visit a mall Santa in early November, but you can catch holiday-themed flicks in theaters, too.

Charles Dickens’ classic story gets the same nouveau-animated treatment director Robert Zemeckis gave “The Polar Express” and “Beowulf,”which uses technology to blur the line between fantasy and reality. Jim Carrey gets his “Bah Humbug” on as the voice of Ebenezer Scrooge in “A Christmas Carol.”

Colin Firth, Gary Oldman, Robin Wright Penn, Bob Hoskins and Cary Elwes also lend their voices to the cast, but it’s Carrey who steals the show by voicing a multitude of
characters in Dickens’ story. This adaptation of one miser’s change of heart after visits from the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future comes from screenwriter-director-producer Zemeckis and is available in Disney Digital 3D and IMAX.

George Clooney plays a soldier with psychic powers who brings a reporter (Ewan McGregor) along for a mission in Iraq, where his Jedi mind powers are used to ward off the enemy in “The Men Who Stare at Goats.” Inspired by a true story and the book by British documentarian and journalist Jon Ronson, the flick takes a look at a Special Forces operation that is unbelievable, to say the least. Clooney plays Lyn Casady, one of the finest soldiers in the operation, who searches for the group’s missing leader.

Jeff Bridges and Kevin Spacey also star, and Clooney’s pal Grant Heslov directs.
Heslov wrote the Clooney-fronted “Good Night and Good Luck” and produced “Leatherheads” and “Intolerable Cruelty.”

Cameron Diaz and James Marsden have a difficult choice to make in a story from “The Twilight Zone” writer Richard Matheson. In a “be careful what you wish for” story, “The Box” is left on this struggling young couple’s doorstep. If they push the button, they will receive $1 million, but someone they don’t know will die as a result. Frank Langella (“Frost/Nixon”) plays the creepy old man who involves the couple in this sick psychological game, where morals are tested against material desires. This flick comes from Richard Kelly, the writer and director of “Donnie Darko.”

In other news, Milla Jovovich stars in another alien thriller. “The Fourth Kind” banishes Jovovich to Nome, Alaska, where she investigates strange encounters and disappearances, catching paranormal activity on tape while attempting to solve a long-standing mystery about alien abduction in the remote town.

Contemporary Christian band Hillsong United is featured in a one-night-only event at the Regal Augusta Exchange Theater on Wednesday, Nov. 4, at 7:30 p.m. The
concert and documentary event, “The I Heart Revolution: We’re All in This Together,” features a live introduction and performance from Australia, along with true stories from around the world.

Indie film lovers, mark your calendars for Wednesday, Nov. 11, and another installment of the Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers at the Imperial Theatre.

“Milking the Rhino” will be screened at 7:30 p.m., with a Q&A session with director-producer David E. Sampson to follow the documentary, which explores how wild animals co-exist with humans in Africa. The influence of white men has led to wildlife conservation efforts and Sampson explores the impact on the culture and survival of villagers.