Film clips

LITTLE ROCK — At area theaters

68 ALEX CROSS, PG-13 Tyler Perry takes on the role of the title homicide detective/psychologist, who may have met his match in a serial killer (Matthew Fox). (101 minutes)

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)

87 CLOUD ATLAS, R A soul is shaped from a killer into a hero and a single act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution in the distant future. (172 minutes)

88 DIANA VREELAND: THE EYE HAS TO TRAVEL, PG-13 Filmmaker Lisa Immordino Vreeland takes a documentary look at the so-called “Empress of Fashion” who launched the career of Twiggy, advised Jackie Onassis and worked for 25 years as the fashion editor of Harper’s Bazaar until becoming editor in chief at Vogue. (86 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 ends up battling a treacherous organization that uses slaves for gladiatorial contests. (165 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)

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)

85 HERE COMES THE BOOM, PG A former collegiate wrestler (KevinJames) 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)

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, as a way of controlling the adventurous spirit of his teenage daughter, who’s in grave peril of falling for an ordinary human. 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.With Olivia Colman, Samuel West; directed by Roger Michell. (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. With Tom Holland; directed by Juan Antonio Bayona. (107 minutes)

83 JACK REACHER, PG-13 Tom Cruise plays an ex-military investigator trying to help a trained military sniper avoid a murder rap and match the real murderer, shot for shot. (130 minutes)

87 LES MISERABLES, PG-13 Long awaited, what may be the world’s biggest stage musical finally comes to the big screen. Dogged 19th-century 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)

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)

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)

85 NOT FADE AWAY, R A 1964 TV appearance by The Rolling Stones spurs three suburban New Jersey best friends to form a rock band. With John Magaro, Jack Huston, Will Brill, Brad Garrett, James Gandolfini; directed by David Chase. (112 minutes)

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)

81 PITCH PERFECT, PG-13 Anna Kendrick plays a college kid who finds herself in the midst of an unpopular group of misfit girls with one thing in common: how well they sing together. So of course they set forth to conquer the cutthroat world of college a cappella groups. (112 minutes)

87 PROMISED LAND, R Matt Damon plays an ace oil company hatchet man who, with his partner (Frances McDormand), think they’ll have an easy time closing down a rural town as part of their company’s expansion plans, but instead they encounter fierce grass-roots opposition (Hal Holbrook, John Krasinski, Rosemarie DeWitt). With Scoot McNairy, Titus Welliver; directed by Gus Van Sant. (140 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)

87 ROBOT & FRANK, PG-13 A retired cat burglar (Frank Langella) with a fading memory finds his love for larceny reinvigorated after his concerned son gives him a robot that is a household helpmate, a companion - and a competent criminal sidekick. (90 minutes)

85 THE SESSIONS, R Based on the poignantly optimistic autobiographical writings of California-based journalist and poet Mark O’Brien, the story of a man confined to an iron lung who, at age 38, is determined to lose his virginity, with the help of his therapists and the guidance of his priest. (98 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)

88 SKYFALL, PG-13 Craig, Daniel Craig is back as Bond, James Bond, this time finding his loyalty to M (Dame Judi Dench) tested as her past comes back to haunt her. And as MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost. (143 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, and it’s up to the daughter to help them escape, get the family to safety and systematically take out the kidnappers - one by nasty one. (92 minutes)

90 TCHOUPITOULAS, not rated Three boys (Bryan Zanders, Kentrell Zanders, William Zanders) act as wide-eyed conduits to a parade of entertainers and revelers as they dance through the lamp-lit streets and doorways of New Orleans in the course of a single night. Directed by Bill Ross, Turner Ross. (80 minutes)

TEXAS CHAINSAW 3D, R A young woman learns she has inherited the Texas estate where all that title mayhem originated. With Alexandra Daddario, Tania Raymonde, Trey Songz, Keram Malicki-Sanchez, Shaun Sipos, Thom Barry, Paul Rae, Scott Eastwood, Richard Riehle, Gunnar Hansen, Marilyn Burns, John Dugan, Bill Moseley, Dan Yeager; directed by John Luessenhop. (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)

82 THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN PART 2, PG-13 Bella (Kristen Stewart), beginning her new life as a vampire and mother, must defend her and Edward’s (Robert Pattinson) newborn daughter. (116 minutes)

85 WRECK-IT RALPH, PG John C. Reilly is the voice of the title video game character. Animated. (108 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