Film clips

— At area theaters

89 ARGO, R Ben Affleck directs and plays a CIA rescue specialist who concocts (with Alan Arkin and John Goodman) a cockeyed plot to create a fake movie as a way of rescuing six Americans who escaped the 1979 Iranian takeover of the American embassy and subsequent 444-day hostage crisis. Based on supposedly recently declassified documents. (120 minutes)

75 BROKEN CITY, R Mark Wahlberg plays a disgraced New York cop turned private detective who, when the mayor (Russell Crowe) hires him to tail his wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones), uncovers a citywide conspiracy of corruption, sex and murder. (109 minutes)

85 DJANGO UNCHAINED, R Director Quentin Tarantino’s double take on race relations in the pre-Civil War South combined with an homage to spaghetti Westerns, involving a slave who hooks up with a German born bounty hunter to track down a pair of murderous brothers, then end up battling a treacherous organization that uses slaves for gladiatorial contests. (165 minutes)

86 FLIGHT, R Denzel Washington plays a commercial airline pilot who pulls off a heroic feat of flying in a damaged plane, saving 98 lives, but whose behavior on the night before the flight comes under intense scrutiny. (139 minutes)

75 FRANKENWEENIE, PG Director Tim Burton expands upon his early (1984) stop-motion animated short film to create a full-length, stop-motion-animated, black-and-white, 3-D feature about a boy named Victor with a bent for science and his dead dog, Sparky, whom he brings back to life - with just a few minor adjustments. (87 minutes)

77 GANGSTER SQUAD, R Josh Brolin and Ryan Gosling head a secret crew of police outsiders determined to take down uber-mobster Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) in 1949 Los Angeles. (113 minutes)

83 THE GUILT TRIP, PG-13 Seth Rogen plays an inventor who invites his mother (Barbra Streisand) on a cross-country trip to sell his new product and reunite her with a lost love. (95 minutes)

75 HANSEL & GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS, PG-13 Some 15 years after their celebrated contretemps at the gingerbread house in the forest, the two title siblings are now specialized bounty hunters looking to put down cacklers in black hats. With Jeremy Renner, Gemma Arterton, Famke Janssen, Peter Stormare, Derek Mears, Thomas Mann; directed by Tommy Wirkola. (88 minutes)

A HAUNTED HOUSE, R In this Paranormal Activity parody, Marlon Wayans and Essence Atkins play newlyweds who discover they’re not alone in their dream house. (95 minutes)

85 HERE COMES THE BOOM, PG A former collegiate wrestler (Kevin James) is now a 40-something, apathetic biology teacher in a failing high school who begins, as cutbacks threaten to cancel the music program and lay off its teacher (Henry Winkler), to raise money by moonlighting as a mixed-martial-arts fighter. (105 minutes)

83 HITCHCOCK, PG-13 Anthony Hopkins plays director Alfred Hitchcock, and Helen Mirren his wife and partner, Alma Reville, whose relationship deepens during the making of Hitchcock’s Psycho. (98 minutes)

82 THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY, PG-13 This “prequel” to The Lord of the Rings explains how Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman young, Ian Holm old) came by the Great Ring and how he “won” it from Gollum (Andy Serkis) while on a quest accompanying 13 dwarves on a mission to reclaim Lonely Mountain from the dragon Smaug. (169 minutes)

80 HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA, PG Dracula opens a lavish five-stake resort, where monsters and their families can live it up in safety and comfort, free from meddling from the human world. Animated. (91 minutes)

82 HYDE PARK ON HUDSON, R While dallying with his mistress, Daisy (Laura Linney), President Franklin D. Roosevelt (Bill Murray) and his wife, Eleanor (Olivia Williams), host the king and queen of England, who come seeking U.S. support on the edge of World War II, for a weekend in June 1939 at the Roosevelt home at Hyde Park in upstate New York. (94 minutes)

86 THE IMPOSSIBLE, PG-13 An earthquake and tsunami turn the idyllic tropical vacation in Thailand into hell on earth for a couple (Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor) and their three sons. (107 minutes)

84 THE LAST STAND, R Arnold Schwarzenegger is a California small-town sheriff (an LAPD narc until a bungled operation that left him wracked with remorse and regret) who unwillingly takes on the Western Hemisphere’s most notorious and most wanted drug kingpin (Eduardo Noriega) and his fierce band of lawless mercenaries. (107 minutes)

87 LES MISERABLES, PG-13 Long awaited, what may be the world’s biggest stage musical finally comes to the big screen. Dogged 19thcentury French Inspector Javert (Russell Crowe) stays for nearly 20 years on the trail of ex-convict turned-model-citizen Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) as revolution brews in the streets of Paris. (157 minutes)

88 LIFE OF PI, PG A young man who survives a tragic disaster at sea forms an amazing and unexpected connection with the ship’s only other survivor - a Bengal tiger. (127 minutes)

90 LINCOLN, PG-13 Director Steven Spielberg’s take on the tumultuous final months in office of the 16th president (Daniel Day-Lewis). (120 minutes)

81 MAMA, PG-13 Two little girls who disappeared into the woods the day that their parents were killed are rescued years later and begin a new life, only to find that someone (or something) still wants to tuck them in at night. (100 minutes)

89 MONSTERS, INC. 3D, G A little girl follows Sulley (voice of John Goodman) and his wisecracking best friend Mike Wazowski (voice of Billy Crystal) back to Monstropolis, the thriving company town where monsters of all shapes and sizes reside, causing monstrous complications. Animated. (92 minutes)

77 MOVIE 43, R An ensemble comedy consisting of short sketches featuring a star-studded cast that includes Elizabeth Banks, Kristen Bell, Halle Berry, Leslie Bibb, Kate Bosworth, Gerard Butler, Bobby Cannavale, Common, Kieran Culkin, Josh Duhamel, Anna Faris, Richard Gere, John Hodgman, Terrence Howard, Hugh Jackman, Greg Kinnear, Johnny Knoxville, Justin Long, Stephen Merchant, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chloe Grace Moretz, Chris Pratt, Dennis Quaid, Liev Schreiber, Seann William Scott, Emma Stone, Jason Sudeikis, Uma Thurman, Naomi Watts, Kate Winslet; directed by Steven Brill, Peter Farrelly, Will Graham, Steve Carr, Griffin Dunne, James Duffy, Jonathan Van Tulleken, Elizabeth Banks, Patrik Forsberg, Brett Ratner, Rusty Cundieff, James Gunn. (97 minutes) No review available.

62 PARENTAL GUIDANCE, PG Billy Crystal plays a grandfather who finds that his and his wife’s (Bette Midler) old-school ideas of child rearing conflict with 21st-century problems when baby-sitting their three grandkids. (104 minutes)

85 PARKER, R Jason Statham plays a professional thief with a personal code of ethics - don’t steal from people who can’t afford it and don’t hurt people who don’t deserve it - who takes on an unlikely partner (Jennifer Lopez) to seek revenge on the crew that double-crossed him, stole his stash and left him for dead. With Michael Chiklis, Wendell Pierce, Nick Nolte; directed by Taylor Hackford. (118 minutes)

67 PLAYING FOR KEEPS, PG-13 Gerard Butler plays a charming, down-on-his-luck former soccer star who, looking for a way to rebuild his relationship with his son, gets roped into coaching the boy’s soccer team and then has to fend off attractive soccer moms. (106 minutes)

79 RED DAWN, PG-13 In this remake of John Milius’ 1984 uber patriotic potboiler, young American patriots seek refuge in the woods and become guerrilla fighters to save their fellow citizens, liberate their town and take back their freedom from the foreign paratroopers who have taken over. (114 minutes)

73 RISE OF THE GUARDIANS, PG The immortal Guardians - Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, the Sandman and Jack Frost - do battle to protect the hopes, beliefs and imagination of children everywhere from an evil spirit seeking to take over the world.Animated. (97 minutes)

81 SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK, R Bradley Cooper plays a manic depressive who, after spending eight months in a state institution, moves back in with his mother (Jacki Weaver) and father (Robert De Niro). He wants to reunite with his wife; they want him to get back on his feet - and share their obsession with the Philadelphia Eagles - until he meets an intriguing young widow with a similar history (Jennifer Lawrence). (122 minutes)

72 TAKEN 2, PG-13 The retired CIA agent (Liam Neeson) who, in the first movie, stopped at nothing to save his daughter from Albanian kidnappers now has been taken hostage with his wife during a family vacation in Istanbul by the vengeful father of one of the original kidnappers. (92 minutes)

67 TEXAS CHAINSAW 3D, R A young woman learns she has inherited - from a grandmother she never knew - the Texas estate where all that title mayhem originated. But, of course, it comesat an unexpected price. (92 minutes)

82 THIS IS 40, R Pete (Paul Rudd) and Debbie (Leslie Mann), introduced in Knocked Up, continue to deal with life and love as they turn 40. (134 minutes)

85 WRECK-IT RALPH, PG John C. Reilly is the voice of the title video game character, tired of being overshadowed by Fix-It Felix (voice of Jack McBrayer), who decides he’s now going to be the “good guy” and sets off on a game-hopping journey across the arcade. Animated. (108 minutes)

92 ZERO DARK THIRTY, R An elite team of intelligence and military operatives, working in secret across the globe, has one goal in its decade-long mission: to find and eliminate the world’s most dangerous man. (157 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

MovieStyle, Pages 37 on 02/01/2013

Upcoming Events