Film clips

At area theaters 88 ALL IS LOST, PG-13 Robert Redford plays a sailor in the middle of a solo voyage in the Indian Ocean whose survival depends on braving a violent storm, the unrelenting sun, circling sharks and dwindling supplies after he awakens to discover his 39-foot yacht taking on water after a collision with a shipping container. (106 minutes) 89 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) 87 CARRIE, R Not a remake but a “reimagining” of the 1976 movie based on the Stephen King tale, in which the title character (Chloe Grace Moretz), a shy outcast 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) 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) 78 ESCAPE PLAN, R One of the world’s foremost authorities on structural security (Sylvester Stallone), wrongly imprisoned, must recruit a fellow inmate (Arnold Schwarzenegger) to help devise a daring, nearly impossible plan to escape from an ultrasecret, high-tech facility called “The Tomb.” (116 minutes) 73 47 RONIN, PG-13 After a treacherous warlord kills their master and banishes their kind, 47 leaderless samurai seek the help of a halfbreed they once rejected (Keanu Reeves) as they fight their way across a savage world of mythic beasts, shape-shifting witches and wondrous terrors. (119 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) 71 GRUDGE MATCH, PG-13 Sylvester Stallone and Robert De Niro play Pittsburgh fighters whose fierce rivalry once put them in the national spotlight, with one of them announcing his retirement on the eve of their decisive third match.Skip forward 30 years and a slick boxing promoter makes them an offer they can’t refuse to re-enter the ring and settle the score once and for all. (113 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) 83 HOMEFRONT, R A widowed Drug Enforcement Administration agent who’s quitting for the sake of his 10-year-old daughter picks the wrong small town for his retirement. (110 minutes) 82 THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE, PG-13 Winning the 74th annual Hunger Games is only the beginning for Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), who with her fellow victor, Peeta Mellark, must now embark on a “Victor’s Tour” of the districts while a possible rebellion is brewing and the president is about to announce the next year’s extra-special games. (146 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, including male strippers, disgruntled child beauty pageant contestants (and their equally disgruntled mothers), funeral home mourners and biker-bar patrons, who have no idea what’s really going on. (92 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) 75 A MADEA CHRISTMAS, PG-13 Tyler Perry’s Madea agrees to help a friend pay her daughter a surprise visit in the country for Christmas. (105 minutes) 83 MANDELA: LONG WALK TO FREEDOM, PG-13 Idris Elba plays the late South African statesman in this film based on his autobiography, which covers his early life and the 27 years he spent in prison before becoming president and working to rebuild and unify the country’s once segregated society. (139 minutes) 90 NEBRASKA, R After receiving a sweepstakes letter in the mail, a cantankerous father (Bruce Dern), believing he’s struck it rich, wrangles his son (Will Forte) into a road trip to claim the “fortune.” (115 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. With Carlos Pratts, Richard Cabral, Kimberly Ables Jindra, Eddie J. Fernandez, Jorge Diaz; directed by Christopher Landon. (84 minutes) 89 PHILOMENA, R Judi Dench plays an Irish Catholic who gave up her baby boy, conceived out of wedlock, for adoption in the United States and signed a contract that wouldn’t allow for any sort of inquiry into his whereabouts. Years later, she decides, with the help of a 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) 79 SAVING MR. BANKS, PG-13 Tom Hanks plays Walt Disney, who, in trying to keep his promise to his daughters to turn the beloved book Mary Poppins into a movie, comes up against curmudgeonly and intransigent P.L. Travers’ (Emma Thompson) refusal to let her iconic nanny get the Disney treatment. (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) 82 2 GUNS, R Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg play operatives from competing bureaus working undercover as members of a narcotics syndicate who, when their attempt to infiltrate a Mexican drug cartel goes haywire, are forced to go on the run together - and neither knows that the other is a federal agent. (109 minutes) 75 WALKING WITH DINOSAURS, PG An underdog dinosaur triumphs against all odds to become a hero for the ages. Animated. Directed by Barry Cook, Neil Nightingale. (87 minutes) 88 THE WOLF OF WALL STREET, R Leonardo DiCaprio plays a New York stockbroker who takes his firm rapidly from penny stocks and righteousness to initial public offerings and a life of corruption in the late ’80s. (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

MovieStyle, Pages 35 on 01/10/2014

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