OK for all ages
The Mighty Macs
True-life fairytale about basketball coach Cathy Rush (Carla Gugino), a cheeky New Woman who as the basketball coach at the unapologetically old-school Immaculata College in the '70s, restores the instititution's hope and faith. With Marley Shelton and Ellen Burstyn.
Rating: HH1/2
Info for Parents: All audiences
OK for 10 and older
The Muppets
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 and the TV show and movies that made them most famous.
British TV director James Bobin and world's biggest Muppet fan Jason Segel have concocted a wistful walk down memory lane. The Muppets are getting back together for one last show, a telethon to save their tatty old theater and their old movie studio from a rapacious Texas oilman named Tex Richman, played without the requisite glee by Oscar winner Chris Cooper.
The songs are amusing enough, and Amy Adams and Segel make a cute duet. But you have to wonder, if kids will get it, and if the film itself is little more than a tribute band.
Rating: HHH
Info for Parents: Rated PG for some mild rude humor
Arthur Christmas
(Animated Comedy, PG, 97 minutes). "Arthur Christmas" is a spirited, comical and adorable addition to the world's over-supply of holiday cartoons. Santas in this version of North Pole Inc. serve for about 70 years and pass the job down to a son. The current Santa (voiced by Jim Broadbent) is more of a "figurehead" in the family business that his red camouflage-suited son (Hugh Laurie, perfect) has turned it into. Steve is waiting for the old man to retire, but he won't go.
Rating: HHH
Info for Parents: Rated PG for some mild rude humor.
Happy Feet
(Animated, Rated PG 99 minutes) The dancing, singing penguins are as adorable as ever. Yet a couple of shrimplike krill 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.
The sequel delivers the key ingredients that made its predecessor such a hit: lovable characters, a rich blend of pop tunes employed in showstopping song-and-dance numbers and remarkable Antarctic landscapes whose bleak beauty pops off the screen even more than in the original, thanks to some of the finest use of 3-D animation since the digital age brought an extra dimension to the screen.
Rating: HHH
Info for Parents: Rude humor and mild peril
Hugo
(Comedy, PG, 130 minutes) Revered as a master for decades and functioning at the top of his game as he approaches 70, Martin Scorsese would seem to have nothing else to prove. So it's thrilling to see him make a bold, creative leap with "Hugo," which is not only an unusual family film from him but also his first movie in 3-D. Scorsese doesn't just tinker with this newfangled technology, he embraces it fully.
Based on the Brian Selznick children's book "The Invention of Hugo Cabret," ''Hugo" takes place at a train station in 1930s Paris, where the title character, a wide-eyed orphan played by Asa Butterfield, secretly lives in the walls and keeps all the clocks running on time. Chloe Grace Moretz is radiant as the inquisitive girl who helps him unlock the secrets of his past, which have something to do with the mean old man who runs the train station toy shop (Ben Kingsley).
The film takes a little while to find its narrative footing, but eventually morphs from a children's adventure into a lesson in the need for film preservation.
Rating: HHH
Info for Parents: PG for thematic material, some peril and smoking.
Jack and Jill
(Comedy, PG, 90 minutes) Very much like one of the faux Adam Sandler movies of Judd Apatow's "Funny People," "Jack and Jill" stars Sandler as both sides of male-female identical twins. A gleefully stupid movie more in line with Sandler's earlier comedies than his later, more adventurous films.
Sandler plays Jack Sadelstein, a family man (Katie Holmes plays his wife) and TV commercial producer, whose twin sister (Sandler) visits for Thanksgiving. Sandler's longtime filmmaking partner Dennis Dugan ("Happy Gilmore," "Grown Ups") directs the unapologetically idiotic comedy.
Rating: H1/2
Info for parents: PG for crude material including suggestive references and comic violence.
Puss in Boots
(Comedy, PG, 90 minutes). A spinoff of the "Shrek" franchise, this is actually a prequel, providing the origin story of the diminutive, swashbuckling kitty voiced with great charisma, as always, by Antonio Banderas.
At the film's start, Puss is an outlaw in his own small, Spanish hometown. Flashbacks take us to his childhood at an orphanage, where he was best friends with a brainy, ambitious Humpty Dumpty (Zach Galifianakis). Together, the two dreamed of stealing the magic beans, climbing the beanstalk and getting rich off some golden eggs. Now, that crime has become Humpty's obsession.
A whole film may have been too much, but for quick, lively, family entertainment, "Puss in Boots" works just fine, even in 3-D, which is actually integrated thoughtfully into the narrative and doesn't just feel like a gimmick.
Rating: HHH
Info for Parents: Rated PG for some adventure action and mild rude humor.
Older 13s
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1
(Romance/thriller, Rated PG-13, 117 minutes) "Laughable" probably isn't the word the filmmakers were aiming for, but there it is: laughter, at all the wrong places. The dialogue is, of course, ridiculous and the acting ranges from stiff to mopey. But moments that should be pulsating with tension are usually hilarious because the special effects are still just so distractingly cheesy.
Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and her vampire beau, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), marry. The other man in the equation, werewolf Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), stops by as a gesture of goodwill. Edward impregnates her and the resulting hybrid spawn threatens to destroy her from inside.
Rating: HHH
Info for Parents: Disturbing images, violence, sexuality/partial nudity and thematic elements
Footloose
(Drama, PG-13, 125 minutes). Remaking "Footloose" is a little like trying to build a better leg warmer. The dated kitsch was always part of the appeal of the 1984 original, as was the winning cast of Kevin Bacon, Lori Singer and Chris Penn.
In this remake by Craig Brewer ("Hustle & Flow"), we get a better, more colorful film, but less chemistry in the cast. Kenny Wormald, a former backup dancer for Justin Timberlake, slides into Bacon's dance shoes as Ren MacCormack, the big-city out-of-towner who disrupts life in a Georgia small town. He soon sets his sights on Ariel (Julianne Hough), the daughter of the town preacher (Dennis Quaid), who, after a tragedy, led the town in outlawing dancing.
Brewer reprises much of the original "Footloose," scene for scene, sometimes shot for shot. But he also expands the film's world, fleshing out back stories and adding a little humor. Wormald and Hough are both handsome and good on the dance floor, but they come across more like teen stars in training than representations of real youth angst. These kids may have better technique, but they don't have the moves. Miles Teller, as the hayseed sidekick, and Ray McKinnon, as Ren's uncle, are the film's best additions.
Rating: HH
Info for Parents: Rated PG for PG-13 some teen drug and alcohol use, sexual content, violence and language.
The Help
(Drama, PG-13, 146 minutes). A class act like this is rare enough in Hollywood. Coming at the tail end of summer blockbuster season, it's almost unheard of. It's the sort of film that studios typically save for the holiday prestige season in November or December, when Academy Awards voters start thinking ahead to the films they want to anoint. Come awards time, many of them likely will be thinking of "The Help," whose remarkable ensemble of women offers enough great performances to practically fill the actress categories at the Oscars.
From its roots as a collaboration between lifelong friends Kathryn Stockett, who wrote the best-selling novel, and Tate Taylor, the film's writer-director, through the pitch-perfect casting of Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer and their co-stars, "The Help" simply seems to be blessed. It's hard to imagine a better movie coming out of the screen adaptation of Stockett's tale of friendship and common cause among black maids and an aspiring white writer in Jackson, Miss., in 1963.
Rating: HHH1/2
Info for Parents: Rated PG-13 for some thematic material.
Tower Heist
(Comedy, PG-13, 105 minutes). Brett Ratner directs an all-star cast in this crime caper about workers at a luxury condominium plotting to take back the pensions stolen by a Wall Street plunderer. Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Matthew Broderick, Tea Leoni, Gabourey Sibide, Casey Affleck and Alan Alda partake in the high jinks.
Rating: HHH
Info for Parents: Rated PG-13 for language and sexual content.
Mature high-schoolers
Immortals
(Action/Adventure, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, R, 110 minutes) The withering, gratuitous violence of "Immortals" is of a type better suited to a horror movie, but that's a separate issue - almost.The artificiality of the 3-D "Immortals" - in which the slave Theseus (Henry Cavill) swears vengeance against the rampaging King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke) - is such that human beings almost feel like unwelcome intrusions on virtual Greece.
Much of the movie is inadvertently comic - the way the dialogue swings between the slangy modern and the theatrically "classical," or the presentation of the virgin (not for long) Oracle. If you're even vaguely familiar with Greek mythology, forget it (Hyperion was a Titan; Theseus was the mythic founder of Athens).
Rating: H1/2
Info for Parents: Rated R for strong bloody violence, and sexuality
J. Edgar
(Drama, R, 137 minutes) A riveting, noble attempt by director Clint Eastwood, to wrestle with big American questions, many of which have obvious relevance to today's politics. This is Hoover's story, mainly told through his perspective - and therefore a somewhat claustrophobic view of history.
The film, from an ambitious script by Dustin Lance Black (who wrote the Harvey Milk biopic, "Milk"), covers the rise of Hoover as a Justice Department upstart at the nascent Bureau of Investigation. The most affecting parts focus on Hoover's two most important personal relationships: with his mother (Judi Dench) and with his No. 2 and close friend Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer).
Rating: HHH
Info for parents: Rated R for brief strong language
A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas
(Comedy, R, 90 minutes). Six years after their previous adventures, the pothead pals (John Cho and Kal Penn) have grown apart and lead unconnected lives. That all changes, though, with the arrival of a package in the mail marked "High Grade."
Ordinarily one doesn't encounter this unlikely combination of low comedy, high ideals and cheesy optical effects outside of a head shop. But this rude and rowdy stoner comedy simulates how those under the influence become helpless observers of the human comedy - much like the movie audience.
Rating: H1/2
Info for Parents: Rated R for strong crude and sexual content, graphic nudity, pervasive language, drug use and violence.
Ides of March
(Drama, R, 98 minutes). When powerful people amass their armies and go to battle in a tight political race, even the most fervent political junkies may find their faith tested, if not obliterated. It is an ugly, cynical business, full of ambitious people who will do whatever they must to survive. This is the not-so-shocking point of the latest film George Clooney has directed, based on the 2008 play "Farragut North."
It's meaty and weighty and relevant, but it doesn't tell us much we didn't already know, or at least suspect, about the people we place our trust in come election time. And it features a major and distracting twist that undermines all the serious-mindedness that came before it. Clooney is such an excellent actor himself, though - here he plays a supporting role as a Pennsylvania governor seeking the Democratic presidential nomination - and he's such a smart, efficient director, he really knows how to get the best out of his cast. And it would seem difficult to go wrong with a cast like this.
Philip Seymour Hoffman tears it up as the governor's gruff, no-nonsense campaign manager, a veteran who's seen it all and still continues to come back for more. Paul Giamatti is reliably smarmy as Hoffman's counterpart for the rival Democratic candidate, and watching these two acting heavyweights eyeball each other backstage at a debate provides an early, juicy thrill. But the real star is Ryan Gosling as Stephen Myers, a young, up-and-coming strategist and press secretary whose idealism is shattered.
Rating: H1/2
Info for Parents: Rated R for pervasive language.
Moneyball
(Drama, PG-13, 126 minutes). You don't have to know about VORP to enjoy the story of how a bunch of stat geeks changed the way baseball teams assess and acquire players. Sure, it helps if you're a fan of the sport and if you've read Michael Lewis' breezy and engaging best-seller "Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game."
Sabermetrics - the process of applying statistical formulas, rather than on-field appearance and general makeup, to determine a player's worth - wouldn't seem like an inherently cinematic topic. But Lewis made lesser-known guys like Scott Hatteberg and Chad Bradford leap off the page. And the cajoling patter from Billy Beane, the Oakland A's general manager who pioneered this experimental philosophy, would seem tailor-made for screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, who co-wrote the script along with fellow veteran scribe Steven Zaillian.
Still, what's most pleasing about Bennett Miller's film doesn't really have to do with baseball. As Beane, Brad Pitt is at his charismatic best - a little weary, a little weathered, but that complexity only makes him more appealing. Jonah Hill is at his best here, too, as Beane's sidekick: the perfect foil for such a force of nature. He and Pitt bounce off each other beautifully. But what's wrong here has nothing to do with baseball, either. "Moneyball" never feels like it's building toward anything, even if you know how the A's 2002 season unfolded.
Rating: HHH
Info for Parents: Rated PG-13 for some strong language.
Take Shelter
Michael Shannon stars as a small town family man who starts to experience unnerving dreams full of doom and foreboding. Is he going mad, or is he onto something? Jeff Nichols' film works on all sorts of levels, and works with power and grace. Jessica Chastain is the wife, looking for a way into her tortured husband's soul.
Rating: HHHH
Info for Parents: Rated R for profanity, violence and some adult themes
The Three Musketeers
(Adventure, PG-13, 111 minutes). Matthew MacFadyen, Luke Evans and Ray Stevenson are the titular trio, made a quartet by the addition of the hot-headed D'Artagnan (Logan Lerman) and facing off against baddies played by Christoph Waltz and Orlando Bloom.
Rating: Not reviewed.
Info for Parents: Rated PG-13 for sequences of adventure action violence.
Mature high-schoolers
A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas
(Comedy, R, 90 minutes). Six years after their previous adventures, the pothead pals (John Cho and Kal Penn) have grown apart and lead unconnected lives. That all changes, though, with the arrival of a package in the mail marked "High Grade."
Rating: H1/2
Info for Parents: Rated R for strong crude and sexual content, graphic nudity, pervasive language, drug use and some violence.
50/50
(Comedy, R, 100 minutes). It could have been agonizingly mawkish: The story of a young man with everything ahead of him who learns he has a rare form of spinal cancer, one that he only has a 50 percent chance of surviving. Instead, "50/50" is consistently, uproariously funny, written with humanity and insight and directed with just the right tone every time. Comedy writer Will Reiser crafted the script based on his own cancer diagnosis when he was in his early 20s. His words are filled with dark humor and a wry recognition of the gravity of this situation, but also with real tenderness. And director Jonathan Levine pulls us into this intimate world through an abiding naturalism. He's made a film about cancer that's effortlessly affecting. It helps that he has Joseph Gordon-Levitt, an actor of great range and subtlety, in the starring role as Adam. He goes through all the requisite stages of denial, frustration, fear and eventually acceptance, but he does so with such believable imperfection, he never feels like a saint or a martyr. But Adam has an ideal balance in his lifelong best friend and co-worker, played by Seth Rogen in the kind of garrulous and lovably crass role Rogen has built a career on. But Gordon-Levitt's most moving scenes are with the delightful Anna Kendrick as Adam's young, eager-beaver therapist.
Rating: HHHH
Info for Parents: Rated R for language throughout, sexual content and some drug use.
Ides of March
(Drama, R, 98 minutes). When powerful people amass their armies and go to battle in a tight political race, even the most fervent political junkies may find their faith tested, if not obliterated. It is an ugly, cynical business, full of ambitious people who will do whatever they must to survive. This is the not-so-shocking point of the latest film George Clooney has directed, based on the 2008 play "Farragut North." It's meaty and weighty and relevant, but it doesn't tell us much we didn't already know, or at least suspect, about the people we place our trust in come election time. And it features a major and distracting twist that undermines all the serious-mindedness that came before it. Clooney is such an excellent actor himself, though - here he plays a supporting role as a Pennsylvania governor seeking the Democratic presidential nomination - and he's such a smart, efficient director, he really knows how to get the best out of his cast. And it would seem difficult to go wrong with a cast like this. Philip Seymour Hoffman tears it up as the governor's gruff, no-nonsense campaign manager, a veteran who's seen it all and still continues to come back for more. Paul Giamatti is reliably smarmy as Hoffman's counterpart for the rival Democratic candidate, and watching these two acting heavyweights eyeball each other backstage at a debate provides an early, juicy thrill. But the real star is Ryan Gosling as Stephen Myers, a young, up-and-coming strategist and press secretary whose idealism is shattered.
Rating: HH1/2
Info for Parents: Rated R for pervasive language.
Paranormal Activity 3
(Horror, R, 84 minutes). "Paranormal Activity 3" manages a couple of hair-raising moments, a couple of legitimate jolts and some funny cheap ones. It was directed by the fellows who did that semi-legit documentary "Catfish," so it's more cinematic. Jump cuts and the occasional almost-movie-like arresting camera angle intrudes on the "found footage" this time - old VHS home movies from our pursued-by-demons sisters, Katie and Kristi, scenes from their childhood and their first brush with ghosts. But this "Paranormal" doesn't tamper with the formula that worked in the first two films. It lacks the "money" moments that those films delivered and ends with a finale that is downright conventional. "Paranormal" reveals itself for what it has become - the "Saw" of found video thrillers.
Rating: HH
Info for Parents: Rated R for some violence, language, brief sexuality and drug use.
Tower Heist
(Comedy, PG-13, 105 minutes). Brett Ratner directs an all-star cast in this crime caper about workers at a luxury condominium plotting to take back the pensions stolen by a Wall Street plunderer. Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Matthew Broderick, Tea Leoni, Gabourey Sibide, Casey Affleck and Alan Alda partake in the high jinks.
Rating: HHH
Info for Parents: Rated PG-13 for language and sexual content.
The Rum Diary
(Drama, R, 120 minutes). "The Rum Diary" is based on Hunter S. Thompson's heavily autobiographical novel by the same name, which he wrote as a 22-year-old in the early 1960s after a stint as a newspaper reporter in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Dedicated to Thompson, who died in 2005, it is essentially a portrait of the Duke as a young journalist. The stand-in for Thompson, the young novelist-reporter Paul Kemp (Johnny Depp), is trying to find his way and his writing voice: It's the birth of Gonzo. You might expect a tribute such as this to be sycophantic, but director Bruce Robinson (famous for the brilliant cult film "Withnail & I") keeps a realistic tone. Robinson, who also wrote the screenplay adaptation, doesn't present the cartoonish Thompson we've come to expect. It's a refreshing, grounded view of the writer.
Rating: HH1/2
Info for Parents: Rated R for language, brief drug use and sexuality.
