Movies

By ROGER MOORE, MCT News Service

A bright, socially awkward boy tries to make sense of 9/11 and find some closure for the father he lost on what he calls "the worst day" in "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close." The film, based on a Jonathan Safran Foer novel, is a sometimes tearful remembrance of that day and the lives it ended or forever disrupted. And while it flirts with the preciousness that comes with Foer novels ("Everything is Illuminated"), it is engrossing and emotional in ways no other 9/11 drama has managed.

OK for all ages

OK for all ages

By CHRISTY LEMIRE, Associated Press

The same problems that plagued "La Vie en Rose," starring Marion Cotillard as Edith Piaf, exist in "The Iron Lady," a biopic about Margaret Thatcher starring Meryl Streep as the former British prime minister. While both films feature strong performances from strong actresses playing strong, real-life women, the scripts are weakened by going strictly by the numbers.

By ROGER MOORE, McClatchy-Tribune News Service

Men on opposing sides of war find their humanity in their love of animals in "War Horse," Steven Spielberg's sentimental epic about a thoroughbred who travels from the fields of Devonshire to the trenches of the Somme in World War I.

By Rene Rodriguez, McClatchy Newspapers

Watching "The Adventures of Tintin" gives you the same thrill you felt when you saw "Toy Story" for the first time: Here is a next-gen animated film that builds on everything that has come before to create something new and exciting.

(Drama, PG, 124 minutes)

Also in theaters

By JAKE COYLE, Associated Press

"New Year's Eve" is the second in a remarkably shallow series of holiday-themed, celebrity-stuffed confections from director Garry Marshall and screenwriter Katherine Fugate after their 2010 "Valentine's Day" collaboration. Of course, the really good stuff will come once they get to "Columbus Day," or maybe, "Ash Wednesday."

OK for all ages

By ROGER MOORE The Orlando Sentinel

Eye contact is how it begins — a shared glance on the subway, maybe followed by a smile, always cranked up from a glance to a penetrating stare.

By ROGER MOORE, The Orlando Sentinel

The big screen revival of The Muppets, cleverly titled "The Muppets," is a generally charming exercise in nostalgia. The musical comedy whimsically and often cleverly revisits the characters, their shtick and the TV show and movies that made them most famous.

By DAVID GERMAIN Associated Press

The penguins are as adorable as ever in "Happy Feet Two." Yet a couple of shrimp-like krill at the bottom of the food chain almost steal the show in this animated sequel that sticks to the formula of the original while adding enough variety to give it a life of its own.

By JAKE COYLE, Associated Press

In Clint Eastwood's new film, "J. Edgar," a 1930 movie theater audience makes its preference clear. Whereas J. Edgar Hoover's pre-movie promotion reel about G-men and the FBI draws impatient boos, a trailer for the upcoming James Cagney flick "The Public Enemy" inspires hoots and applause.

Also new this week From our wire services

By RICH HELDENFELS, Akron Beacon Journal

In "The Way," Martin Sheen gives an effective performance as a man who gains more than he expected during a religious pilgrimage. Sheen plays Tom, an eye doctor and widower who early in the film learns his son Daniel has died. (Sheen's real-life son, Emilio Estevez, plays Daniel; he also directed the film and wrote the screenplay.) The fatal accident occurred as Daniel was embarking on the Camino de Santiago, or the Way of St. James, a religious walk spanning hundreds of miles in Europe. After he has collected his son's ashes, Tom decides to complete the journey his son had started, taking Daniel's ashes along.

By DAVID GERMAIN, Associated Press

"Real Steel" dresses up a bad idea - robots boxing - with all the computer effects and heavy-metal action Hollywood can buy. But that doesn't cover up the fact it's a bad idea. Really bad.

By CHRISTY LEMIRE, Associated Press

You don't have to know about VORP - or WHIP, or OPS - to enjoy "Moneyball," the story of how a bunch of stat geeks changed the way baseball teams assess and acquire players.

By ROGER MOORE, The Orlando Sentinel

One brother's a school teacher who struggles to keep home and family together in hard economic times. The other's a brooding brute, home from the war, living with his long-estranged father.

From our wire services

Also new this week

BY CHRISTY LEMIRE, Associated Press

The possibility that there's another version of you out there - and of me, and of everyone we know - provides the mind-teasing premise of "Another Earth."

BY SANDY COHEN, Associated Press

In "Horrible Bosses" and "The Change-Up," which opens Friday, Aug. 5, Jason Bateman plays a hardworking guy who loves his job but yearns for something new. In real life, Bateman is an actor with three decades of experience who loved starring in two fun summer comedies but longs to direct.

By ROGER MOORE, The Orlando Sentinel

There is so much "business" the fourth big comic book movie adaptation of the summer has to take care of that, frankly, it's astounding director Joe Johnston is able to take care of it all, and with style. "Captain America" has to connect this World War II-era hero to modern times.

By CHRISTY LEMIRE, Associated Press

If last year's "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1" marked the beginning of the end with a gripping feeling of doom and gloom, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" wraps things up once and for all on a note of melancholy.