Film clips

At area theaters89 AMERICAN HUSTLE, R A rogue FBI agent (Bradley Cooper) forces a brilliant con man (Christian Bale) and his equally cunning and seductive “British” partner (Amy Adams) into an enchanting but dangerous world of Jersey power brokers and mobsters. (138 minutes) 86 ANCHORMAN 2: THE LEGEND CONTINUES, PG-13 Will Ferrell reprises his role as a “legendary” top-rated San Diego newsman who, with the ’70s behind him, is still looking to stay classy while he and his colleagues take the nation’s first 24-hour news channel by storm. (119 minutes)88 AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY, R A family crisis brings the strong-willed women of a Midwest family, whose lives have diverged, back to the house where they grew up and to the dysfunctional woman (Meryl Streep) who raised them. (130 minutes) 89 CAPTAIN PHILLIPS, PG-13 Tom Hanks plays the title character, Richard Phillips, the captain of the U.S. cargo ship hijacked by Somali pirates in 2009 and the subject of a daring Navy rescue operation. (134 minutes) 87 CARRIE, R Not a remake but a “reimagining” of the 1976 movie based on the Stephen King tale, in which a shy outcast (Chloe Grace Moretz) dominated by her extremely religious mother (Julianne Moore) unleashes telekinetic terror on her small town after being pushed too far at her senior prom. (92 minutes)72 CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2, PG Inventor Flint Lockwood thought he saved the world when he destroyed his most infamous invention, a machine that turned water into food, causing cheeseburger rain and spaghetti tornadoes. But now he discovers that his invention not only survived, but is creating feral food animals. Animated. (95 minutes) 88 DALLAS BUYERS CLUB, R A Texas electrician and rodeo cowboy (Matthew McConaughey) refuses to accept the death sentence implicit in an HIV-positive diagnosis in the mid-’80s and starts smuggling alternative treatments from Mexico into the United States. (117 minutes) 71 DEVIL’S DUE, R A newlywed (Zach Gilford) begins to suspect that the odd behavior of his newly pregnant wife (Allison Miller) has a sinister origin. Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett. (89 minutes)87 ENDER’S GAME, PG-13 Under the tutelage of legendary commanders (Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley), a shy but strategically brilliant boy (Asa Butterfield) becomes Earth’s next great hope against a hostile alien race. (114 minutes) 75 FREE BIRDS, PG Two turkeys from opposite sides of the tracks must put aside their differences and team up to travel back in time to change the course of history - and get turkey off the Thanksgiving menu for good. Animated. (90 minutes) 89 FROZEN, PG In a kingdom trapped in eternal winter, a fearless optimist (voice of Kristen Bell) teams up with an extreme mountain man (voice of Jonathan Groff) and his sidekick reindeer Sven on an epic journey to find the Snow Queen (voice of Idina Menzel) and put an end to her icy spell. Animated. (108 minutes) 89 GRAVITY, PG-13 A horrific accident during a space walk strands a brilliant medical engineer (Sandra Bullock) on her first shuttle mission with no apparent chance for rescue. (90 minutes) 90 HER, R In a near-future Los Angeles, a complex, soulful man (Joaquin Phoenix) finds a new relationship in a new, advanced operating system with a female voice (Scarlett Johansson) with an insightful, sensitive and surprisingly funny personality. (120 minutes) 87 THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG, PG-13 Bilbo Baggins’ (Martin Freeman) epic quest with the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and 13 dwarfs to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor continues. (161 minutes) 82 THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE, PG-13 Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and her fellow 74th annual Hunger Games victor embark on a “Victor’s Tour” while a possible rebellion is brewing and the president is about to announce the next year’s extra-special games. (146 minutes)91 INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS, R A young folk singer (Oscar Isaac) tries to navigate the 1961 Greenwich Village folk scene against seemingly insurmountable obstacles - some of them of his own making. (105 minutes) 75 JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT, PG-13 Young Jack Ryan (Chris Pine) moves from intelligence analyst to the action end of the spy biz when he uncovers an international financial terror plot. With Keira Knightley, Kevin Costner, Peter Andersson, Kenneth Branagh, David Paymer, Colm Feore; directed by Branagh. (100 minutes) 72 JACKASS PRESENTS: BAD GRANDPA, R Johnny Knoxville plays the title character, on a journey across America with his 8-year-old grandson (Jackson Nicoll), playing pranks on supposedly “ordinary” folks who have no idea what’s really going on. (92 minutes) 78 LAST VEGAS, PG-13 Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline play friends who, when one of them finally proposes to his much younger girlfriend, head to Las Vegas. (105 minutes) 83 LEE DANIELS’ THE BUTLER, PG-13 Forest Whitaker plays a White House butler who served eight American presidents over three decades. (132 minutes)68 THE LEGEND OF HERCULES, PG-13 Kellan Lutz plays the son of Zeus who, when he learns his real identity, must make a hard choice: the love of a beautiful princess or fulfill his destiny, overthrow the tyrannical king and become the true hero of his time. (98 minutes) 87 LONE SURVIVOR, R Four Navy SEALs on an ill-fated covert mission to neutralize a high-level Taliban operative are ambushed by enemy forces in the Hindu Kush region of Afghanistan. (121 minutes) 90 NEBRASKA, R A cantankerous father (Bruce Dern), believing he’s struck it rich, wrangles his son (Will Forte) into a road trip to claim the “fortune” he believes he’s won in a magazine sweepstakes. (115 minutes)80 THE NUT JOB, PG A mischievous squirrel (voice of Will Arnett) and his rat friend’s plan for a monster nut-store heist embroils them in a much more complicated adventure. Animated. With voices of Brendan Fraser, Liam Neeson, Katherine Heigl, Stephen Lang, Sarah Gadon, Jeff Dunham; directed by Peter Lepeniotis. (86 minutes) 74 PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE MARKED ONES, R The same malevolent demon from previous films in this series marks a young California Hispanic for possession. (84 minutes) 89 PHILOMENA, R Judi Dench plays an Irish Catholic who, years after giving up her out-of-wedlock baby for adoption in the United States, sets out with the help of a crusty BBC reporter, to search for her long-lost son. (98 minutes) 85 RED 2, PG-13 Retired black-ops CIA agent Bruce Willis reunites his unlikely team of elite operatives for a global quest to track down a missing portable nuclear device. (116 minutes) 70 RIDE ALONG, PG-13 A squad-car ride-along turns into 24 hours of insanity when a high-school security guard (Kevin Hart), trying to show he has what it takes to marry the sister (Tika Sumpter) of a decorated detective (Ice Cube), enters the police academy. With John Leguizamo, Bruce McGill, Bryan Callen, Laurence Fishburne; directed by Tim Story. (100 minutes) 79 SAVING MR. BANKS, PG-13 Walt Disney’s (Tom Hanks) mission to turn the beloved book Mary Poppins into a movie runs into the intransigence of the curmudgeonly author (Emma Thompson). (125 minutes)86 THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY, PG Ben Stiller directs and plays the title character, whose heroic fantasies lead to a global journey to save his and a co-worker’s jobs. (114 minutes) 91 12 YEARS A SLAVE, R Chiwetel Ejiofor plays a free black man from pre-Civil War upstate New York who, abducted and sold into slavery, struggles not only to stay alive under the thumb of a malevolent owner but to retain his dignity. (133 minutes) 75 WALKING WITH DINOSAURS, PG An underdog dinosaur triumphs against all odds to become a hero for the ages. Animated. (87 minutes) 88 THE WOLF OF WALL STREET, R Leonardo DiCaprio plays a late’80s stockbroker who takes his ÿrm rapidly from penny stocks and righteousness to initial public offerings and a life of corruption and drugs. (180 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