“They’re not all merry and bright, either,” writes Pamela McClintock in Weekly Variety of the nine wide Christmas releases between Dec. 19 and Dec. 26 in a piece about the crush of titles. “Moviegoers will have to choose carefully if they want to avoid drama and death; three of the world’s biggest stars play characters who kick the bucket.” She doesn’t identify the stars, but two of them are easy to figure out. Tom Cruise plays Claus Schenck von Stauffenberg, who historically was executed for his role in an assination attempt against Hitler, depicted in “Valkyrie.” And Brad Pitt (pictured) plays a man who ages backward in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald story that ends when the character, who can’t regress any further, dies as an infant. Cheerful stuff! So who’s the third fatality? “The Tale of Desperaux” is animated, and I don’t think either Jennifer Aniston (“Marley and Me”) or Samuel L. Jackson (“The Spirit”) qualifies as one of the world’s bigges star; nor does Forest Whitaker, whose “Hurricane Season” is listed, though it’s apparently be moved to 2009. Most likely it’s not Jim Carrey (“Yes Man”) or Adam Sandler (“Bedtime Stories”), whose movies are billed as comedies. That would seem to leave Will Smith, who plays what is described as a “suicidal IRS agent” in “Seven Pounds.”