LITTLE ROCK — At area theaters
68 ABDUCTION, PG-13 A young man (Taylor Lautner) spots a photo on a missing persons website and realizes his whole life has been a lie, carefully fabricated to hide something mysterious and very dangerous. (106 minutes)
81 APOLLO 18, R NASA denies it happened, but supposedly two American astronauts did go back to the moon on a secret last mission in December 1974, and what they discovered is the real reason we’ve never gone back there. (86 minutes)
84 THE BIG YEAR, PG Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson play friendly rivals, each experiencing a life crisis, who dedicate a year to following their dreams, which takes them on a bird-filled cross-country journey. (112 minutes)
88 CARS 2, G Star race car Lightning McQueen (voice of Owen Wilson) and his tow truck sidekick Mater (voice of Larry the Cable Guy) find themselves in the middle of international intrigue while competing in the first-ever World Grand Prix to determine the world’s fastest car. Animated. (112 minutes)
82 COURAGEOUS, PG-13 Four police officers put their faith in God after a sudden tragedy transforms their lives. (129 minutes)
87 CRAZY, STUPID, LOVE., PG-13 A strait-laced, forty something sad sack (Steve Carell), split from his “perfect” wife (Julianne Moore), learns how to master the modern dating scene from a handsome young player (Ryan Gosling). (118 minutes)
86 DOLPHIN TALE, PG “Inspired by the amazing true story of a brave dolphin” with a severely damaged tail, “and the compassionate strangers who banded together to save her life.” With Harry Connick Jr., Ashley Judd, Kris Kristofferson, Nathan Gamble, Morgan Freeman; directed by Charles Martin Smith. (113 minutes)
75 DREAM HOUSE, R Daniel Craig plays a successful publisher who discovers that his supposedly perfect new house in a quaint New England town was the site of several grisly murders. Oh, and he and his family are the killer’s next targets. (92 minutes)
88 50/50, R Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a young man whose sense of humor helps him in his struggle with cancer. (99 minutes)
86 FOOTLOOSE, PG-13 In this remake, a big-city teen (Kenny Wormald) is uprooted from Boston and reluctantly transplanted to a small, Bible Belt town that has outlawed dancing and loud music. (113 minutes)
82 FRIGHT NIGHT, R In this remake, Anton Yelchin plays a high school senior who’s finally gotten into the popular crowd and is dating the most coveted girl, but realizes that the great new guy next door (Colin Farrell) is a vampire. (102 minutes) 83 THE FUTURE, R A young Los Angeles couple take a month off from reality in anticipation of adopting a stray cat into their cramped inner-city apartment. With Hamish Linklater, Miranda July, David Warshofsky, Isabella Acres; directed by July. (91 minutes)
88 THE GUARD, R Brendan Gleeson plays an unorthodox Irish cop who joins forces with a strait-laced FBI agent (Don Cheadle) to take on an international drug-smuggling gang. (96 minutes)
87 THE HELP, PG-13 Emma Stone, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer play three very different, extraordinary women in 1960s Mississippi who build an unlikely friendship around a secret writing project that breaks societal rules and puts them all at risk. (137 minutes)
88 THE IDES OF MARCH, R In the frantic last days before a heavily contested Ohio presidential primary, an up-and-coming campaign press secretary (Ryan Gosling) finds himself involved in a political scandal that threatens to upend his candidate’s shot at the presidency. (101 minutes)
73 JOHNNY ENGLISH REBORN, PG Rowan Atkinson returns as the bumbling British secret agent, this time trying to stop a team of assassins determined to kill the Chinese premier and plunge the world into chaos. With Gillian Anderson, Dominic West, and Rosamund Pike; directed by Oliver Parker. (101 minutes)
87 THE LAST RIDE, PG-13 Harry Thomason’s Arkansas-shot film focuses on the last days of country music pioneer Hank Williams in the waning hours of 1952. With Henry Thomas, Jesse James, Kaley Cuoco, Stephen Tobolowsky, plus Arkansas actors Ray McKinnon, Natalie Canerday, Mark W. Johnson, Jeff Bailey, Will Koberg, Jennifer Pierce and the late Rick Dial. (105 minutes)
87 THE LION KING 3D, G A special theatrical 3-D extravaganza, just ahead of the Blu-ray release. (89 minutes)
89 MONEYBALL, PG-13 Brad Pitt plays Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland Athletics, who a decade ago, forced to reinvent his team on a tight budget, created a group of winners out of inexpensive, supposed misfits. (133 minutes) 80 PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 3, R An “origin story” (read: prequel) set in 1988, with two sisters befriending an “invisible entity” that lives in their home. With Katie Featherston, Sprague Grayden, Lauren Bittner; directed by Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman. (81 minutes)
80 REAL STEEL, PG-13 In the near future when boxing has gone high tech and 1-ton, 8-foot-tall steel robots dominate the ring, a washed up fighter (Hugh Jackman) turned small-time promoter teams up with his estranged son (Dakota Goyo) to build and train a championship contender. (127 minutes)
86 RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES, PG-13 In this prequel, a genetically engineered chimp (Andy Serkis) rises up from the San Francisco lab where he was the project of an ambitious father/son scientist team (John Lithgow, James Franco) to lead an ape uprising against humankind. (105 minutes)
73 SHARK NIGHT 3D, PG-13 A sexy summer weekend turns into a blood-soaked nightmare for a group of college students trapped on an island surrounded by a zillion you know-whats. (91 minutes)
86 THE SMURFS, PG The Smurfs, fleeing the evil wizard Gargamel, find their way into our world — they pop up in Central Park, in fact — and they must find a way back into their magical world before the wizard wipes ’em out. Live action/animated. (102 minutes)
87 STRAW DOGS, R In this remake of Sam Peckinpah’s 1971 home-invasion chiller, James Marsden and Kate Bosworth play a Hollywood screenwriter and his actress wife whose return to her small deep South hometown leads to deadly violence. (109 minutes)
73 THE THING, R In this prequel to (and not a remake of) John Carpenter’s 1982 opus (which was billed as a remake of Howard Hawks’ 1951 opus), an American paleontologist and a team of Norwegian scientists, exploring a major find in Antarctica, fight for their lives against a shape shifting extraterrestrial that can perfectly mimic any living creature. (102 minutes)
69 THE THREE MUSKETEERS, PG-13
The three title heroes (Luke Evans, Matthew Macfadyen, Ray Stevenson) go 3-D, with Logan Lerman as brash d’Artagnan, who joins their fight against corrupt Cardinal Richelieu (Christoph Waltz). With Milla Jovovich; directed by Paul W.S. Anderson. (102 minutes)
87 TUCKER AND DALE VS. EVIL, R In this spoof of horror cliches, the backwoods hayseed title characters (Alan Tudyk, Tyler Labine) rescue a gorgeous college student, but, through a series of misunderstandings, find themselves labeled as psycho killers. (86 minutes)
78 WHAT’S YOUR NUMBER?, R After reading a magazine article claiming that people who have had 20 or more relationships have missed their chance at true love, a young woman starts her search for her life’s best “ex.” (106 minutes)
Movie-rating point system
Movies are rated on a scale from 50 to 100. Guidelines for moviegoers:
96-100 Transcendent 90-95 Exceptional 80-89 Better than most to remarkable 70-79 Average 60-69 Awful to mediocre 50-59 Irredeemable