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Based on stories from the Belgian cartoonist Hergé, the movie concerns a young reporter from Brussels named Tintin (voiced by Jamie Bell), who can't stay out of trouble. Before you can say "Young Indy," Tintin and his scene-stealing dog, Snowy, are off chasing pirates, particularly the descendants of scurvy Red Rackham (Daniel Craig). Tintin and Snowy are forced to board a steamer led by booze hound Captain Haddock (a terrific Andy Serkis), whose whiskey breath is the equiva­lent of rocket fuel. Props to screenwriters Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish for never losing the story's sense of fun. No need to give away any more plot points. Though the jury of me is still out on the effectiveness of performance-capture (the eyes often look dead), Spielberg gives it his considerable all. The movie comes at you in a whoosh, like a volcano of creative ideas in full eruption. Presented as the first part of a trilogy produced by Spielberg and Peter Jackson, The Adventures of Tintin hits home for the kid in all of us who wants to bust out and run free. Peter Travers- Rolling Stone

The elderly millionaire Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), cut off from the mainland on the family island, yearns to know how his beloved niece Harriet died 40 years ago. Because apparently neither she nor her body left the island on the day she disappeared, and no trace has ever been found, suspicion rests on those who were there that day, in particular other Vanger relatives whose houses overlook Henrik's from their own isolation. They provide a snaky group of suspects. Many seem involved in corruption. Some have pasts with Nazi connections. Mikael arranges their photos and newspaper clippings and file cards in a collage pinned to a wall and connected with red lines of speculation, but his threads of suspicion seem to lead to … everyone. In this film more than the original, the stories of Mikael and Lisbeth are kept separate for an extended period. We learn about the girl's state-appointed guardian (Yorick van Wageningen), who abused her, stole from her and terrorized her. Her attempts to avenge herself would make a movie of their own. Zaillian's script comes down to a series of fraught scenes between his leads and a distinctive gallery of supporting characters, given weight by Stellan Skarsgard, Robin Wright and the iconic London actor Steven Berkoff. These people inhabit a world with no boring people. By providing Mikael with his own small cottage on the island, Henrik Vanger isolates him in a vulnerable situation, which sinks in as he realizes he's probably sharing the island with a murderer. There's also the problem of why Henrik continues to receive watercolors of wildflowers on his birthday, a tradition that his niece began and inexplicably has continued after her death. If you subtract computers, geeks, goth girls, nose piercings, motorcycles and dragon tattoos, what we have at the bottom is a classic Agatha Christie plot.

As the movie opens, Holmes and Moriarty (Jared Harris) are already crossing swords, although not directly. That changes when Holmes begins interfering with Moriarty's nefarious schemes. The endgame of the master criminal's plotting is invisible to Holmes, but the immediate results are not. He is using anarchists and an ex-military sharpshooter to carry out assassinations. He is also employing Holmes' "ideal woman," Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams), as a messenger; Moriarty is displeased when she fails in a mission as a direct result of Holmes' intervention. Meanwhile, Dr. John Watson (Jude Law), Holmes' assistant and lone friend, is about to embark upon a matrimonial adventure with his beloved Mary (Kelly Reilly). To celebrate the impending nuptials, Holmes (in his duty as the Best Man) arranges a "stag night" for Watson that involves the company of Holmes' elder brother, Mycroft (Stephen Fry), and a lot of drinking. While Watson is playing cards, Holmes visits the gypsy Simza (Noomi Rapace), who may have knowledge about Moriarty's plans. A Game of Shadows contains a number of standout action sequences, including a four-on-one encounter between Holmes and some thugs, a chase-and-escape at Watson's bachelor party, fireworks on a train, a torturous sequence involving a meat hook, and an artillery-impeded race through a forest. There are also plenty of explosions and secondary fights, all of which gel to make this unlike any previous Sherlock Holmes adventure (except its immediate predecessor). Holmes does not wear his deerstalker cap nor utter the word "elementary," but he smokes pipes upon occasion and dresses up like both an elderly lady and the upholstery of a chair. James Berardinelli-ReelViews

The elderly millionaire Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), cut off from the mainland on the family island, yearns to know how his beloved niece Harriet died 40 years ago. Because apparently neither she nor her body left the island on the day she disappeared, and no trace has ever been found, suspicion rests on those who were there that day, in particular other Vanger relatives whose houses overlook Henrik's from their own isolation. They provide a snaky group of suspects. Many seem involved in corruption. Some have pasts with Nazi connections. Mikael arranges their photos and newspaper clippings and file cards in a collage pinned to a wall and connected with red lines of speculation, but his threads of suspicion seem to lead to … everyone. In this film more than the original, the stories of Mikael and Lisbeth are kept separate for an extended period. We learn about the girl's state-appointed guardian (Yorick van Wageningen), who abused her, stole from her and terrorized her. Her attempts to avenge herself would make a movie of their own. Zaillian's script comes down to a series of fraught scenes between his leads and a distinctive gallery of supporting characters, given weight by Stellan Skarsgard, Robin Wright and the iconic London actor Steven Berkoff. These people inhabit a world with no boring people. By providing Mikael with his own small cottage on the island, Henrik Vanger isolates him in a vulnerable situation, which sinks in as he realizes he's probably sharing the island with a murderer. There's also the problem of why Henrik continues to receive watercolors of wildflowers on his birthday, a tradition that his niece began and inexplicably has continued after her death. If you subtract computers, geeks, goth girls, nose piercings, motorcycles and dragon tattoos, what we have at the bottom is a classic Agatha Christie plot.

Based on stories from the Belgian cartoonist Hergé, the movie concerns a young reporter from Brussels named Tintin (voiced by Jamie Bell), who can't stay out of trouble. Before you can say "Young Indy," Tintin and his scene-stealing dog, Snowy, are off chasing pirates, particularly the descendants of scurvy Red Rackham (Daniel Craig). Tintin and Snowy are forced to board a steamer led by booze hound Captain Haddock (a terrific Andy Serkis), whose whiskey breath is the equiva­lent of rocket fuel. Props to screenwriters Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish for never losing the story's sense of fun. No need to give away any more plot points. Though the jury of me is still out on the effectiveness of performance-capture (the eyes often look dead), Spielberg gives it his considerable all. The movie comes at you in a whoosh, like a volcano of creative ideas in full eruption. Presented as the first part of a trilogy produced by Spielberg and Peter Jackson, The Adventures of Tintin hits home for the kid in all of us who wants to bust out and run free. Peter Travers- Rolling Stone

The elderly millionaire Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), cut off from the mainland on the family island, yearns to know how his beloved niece Harriet died 40 years ago. Because apparently neither she nor her body left the island on the day she disappeared, and no trace has ever been found, suspicion rests on those who were there that day, in particular other Vanger relatives whose houses overlook Henrik's from their own isolation. They provide a snaky group of suspects. Many seem involved in corruption. Some have pasts with Nazi connections. Mikael arranges their photos and newspaper clippings and file cards in a collage pinned to a wall and connected with red lines of speculation, but his threads of suspicion seem to lead to … everyone. In this film more than the original, the stories of Mikael and Lisbeth are kept separate for an extended period. We learn about the girl's state-appointed guardian (Yorick van Wageningen), who abused her, stole from her and terrorized her. Her attempts to avenge herself would make a movie of their own. Zaillian's script comes down to a series of fraught scenes between his leads and a distinctive gallery of supporting characters, given weight by Stellan Skarsgard, Robin Wright and the iconic London actor Steven Berkoff. These people inhabit a world with no boring people. By providing Mikael with his own small cottage on the island, Henrik Vanger isolates him in a vulnerable situation, which sinks in as he realizes he's probably sharing the island with a murderer. There's also the problem of why Henrik continues to receive watercolors of wildflowers on his birthday, a tradition that his niece began and inexplicably has continued after her death. If you subtract computers, geeks, goth girls, nose piercings, motorcycles and dragon tattoos, what we have at the bottom is a classic Agatha Christie plot.

As the movie opens, Holmes and Moriarty (Jared Harris) are already crossing swords, although not directly. That changes when Holmes begins interfering with Moriarty's nefarious schemes. The endgame of the master criminal's plotting is invisible to Holmes, but the immediate results are not. He is using anarchists and an ex-military sharpshooter to carry out assassinations. He is also employing Holmes' "ideal woman," Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams), as a messenger; Moriarty is displeased when she fails in a mission as a direct result of Holmes' intervention. Meanwhile, Dr. John Watson (Jude Law), Holmes' assistant and lone friend, is about to embark upon a matrimonial adventure with his beloved Mary (Kelly Reilly). To celebrate the impending nuptials, Holmes (in his duty as the Best Man) arranges a "stag night" for Watson that involves the company of Holmes' elder brother, Mycroft (Stephen Fry), and a lot of drinking. While Watson is playing cards, Holmes visits the gypsy Simza (Noomi Rapace), who may have knowledge about Moriarty's plans. A Game of Shadows contains a number of standout action sequences, including a four-on-one encounter between Holmes and some thugs, a chase-and-escape at Watson's bachelor party, fireworks on a train, a torturous sequence involving a meat hook, and an artillery-impeded race through a forest. There are also plenty of explosions and secondary fights, all of which gel to make this unlike any previous Sherlock Holmes adventure (except its immediate predecessor). Holmes does not wear his deerstalker cap nor utter the word "elementary," but he smokes pipes upon occasion and dresses up like both an elderly lady and the upholstery of a chair. James Berardinelli-ReelViews

The elderly millionaire Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), cut off from the mainland on the family island, yearns to know how his beloved niece Harriet died 40 years ago. Because apparently neither she nor her body left the island on the day she disappeared, and no trace has ever been found, suspicion rests on those who were there that day, in particular other Vanger relatives whose houses overlook Henrik's from their own isolation. They provide a snaky group of suspects. Many seem involved in corruption. Some have pasts with Nazi connections. Mikael arranges their photos and newspaper clippings and file cards in a collage pinned to a wall and connected with red lines of speculation, but his threads of suspicion seem to lead to … everyone. In this film more than the original, the stories of Mikael and Lisbeth are kept separate for an extended period. We learn about the girl's state-appointed guardian (Yorick van Wageningen), who abused her, stole from her and terrorized her. Her attempts to avenge herself would make a movie of their own. Zaillian's script comes down to a series of fraught scenes between his leads and a distinctive gallery of supporting characters, given weight by Stellan Skarsgard, Robin Wright and the iconic London actor Steven Berkoff. These people inhabit a world with no boring people. By providing Mikael with his own small cottage on the island, Henrik Vanger isolates him in a vulnerable situation, which sinks in as he realizes he's probably sharing the island with a murderer. There's also the problem of why Henrik continues to receive watercolors of wildflowers on his birthday, a tradition that his niece began and inexplicably has continued after her death. If you subtract computers, geeks, goth girls, nose piercings, motorcycles and dragon tattoos, what we have at the bottom is a classic Agatha Christie plot.

As the movie opens, Holmes and Moriarty (Jared Harris) are already crossing swords, although not directly. That changes when Holmes begins interfering with Moriarty's nefarious schemes. The endgame of the master criminal's plotting is invisible to Holmes, but the immediate results are not. He is using anarchists and an ex-military sharpshooter to carry out assassinations. He is also employing Holmes' "ideal woman," Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams), as a messenger; Moriarty is displeased when she fails in a mission as a direct result of Holmes' intervention. Meanwhile, Dr. John Watson (Jude Law), Holmes' assistant and lone friend, is about to embark upon a matrimonial adventure with his beloved Mary (Kelly Reilly). To celebrate the impending nuptials, Holmes (in his duty as the Best Man) arranges a "stag night" for Watson that involves the company of Holmes' elder brother, Mycroft (Stephen Fry), and a lot of drinking. While Watson is playing cards, Holmes visits the gypsy Simza (Noomi Rapace), who may have knowledge about Moriarty's plans. A Game of Shadows contains a number of standout action sequences, including a four-on-one encounter between Holmes and some thugs, a chase-and-escape at Watson's bachelor party, fireworks on a train, a torturous sequence involving a meat hook, and an artillery-impeded race through a forest. There are also plenty of explosions and secondary fights, all of which gel to make this unlike any previous Sherlock Holmes adventure (except its immediate predecessor). Holmes does not wear his deerstalker cap nor utter the word "elementary," but he smokes pipes upon occasion and dresses up like both an elderly lady and the upholstery of a chair. James Berardinelli-ReelViews

The elderly millionaire Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), cut off from the mainland on the family island, yearns to know how his beloved niece Harriet died 40 years ago. Because apparently neither she nor her body left the island on the day she disappeared, and no trace has ever been found, suspicion rests on those who were there that day, in particular other Vanger relatives whose houses overlook Henrik's from their own isolation. They provide a snaky group of suspects. Many seem involved in corruption. Some have pasts with Nazi connections. Mikael arranges their photos and newspaper clippings and file cards in a collage pinned to a wall and connected with red lines of speculation, but his threads of suspicion seem to lead to … everyone. In this film more than the original, the stories of Mikael and Lisbeth are kept separate for an extended period. We learn about the girl's state-appointed guardian (Yorick van Wageningen), who abused her, stole from her and terrorized her. Her attempts to avenge herself would make a movie of their own. Zaillian's script comes down to a series of fraught scenes between his leads and a distinctive gallery of supporting characters, given weight by Stellan Skarsgard, Robin Wright and the iconic London actor Steven Berkoff. These people inhabit a world with no boring people. By providing Mikael with his own small cottage on the island, Henrik Vanger isolates him in a vulnerable situation, which sinks in as he realizes he's probably sharing the island with a murderer. There's also the problem of why Henrik continues to receive watercolors of wildflowers on his birthday, a tradition that his niece began and inexplicably has continued after her death. If you subtract computers, geeks, goth girls, nose piercings, motorcycles and dragon tattoos, what we have at the bottom is a classic Agatha Christie plot.

The elderly millionaire Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), cut off from the mainland on the family island, yearns to know how his beloved niece Harriet died 40 years ago. Because apparently neither she nor her body left the island on the day she disappeared, and no trace has ever been found, suspicion rests on those who were there that day, in particular other Vanger relatives whose houses overlook Henrik's from their own isolation. They provide a snaky group of suspects. Many seem involved in corruption. Some have pasts with Nazi connections. Mikael arranges their photos and newspaper clippings and file cards in a collage pinned to a wall and connected with red lines of speculation, but his threads of suspicion seem to lead to … everyone. In this film more than the original, the stories of Mikael and Lisbeth are kept separate for an extended period. We learn about the girl's state-appointed guardian (Yorick van Wageningen), who abused her, stole from her and terrorized her. Her attempts to avenge herself would make a movie of their own. Zaillian's script comes down to a series of fraught scenes between his leads and a distinctive gallery of supporting characters, given weight by Stellan Skarsgard, Robin Wright and the iconic London actor Steven Berkoff. These people inhabit a world with no boring people. By providing Mikael with his own small cottage on the island, Henrik Vanger isolates him in a vulnerable situation, which sinks in as he realizes he's probably sharing the island with a murderer. There's also the problem of why Henrik continues to receive watercolors of wildflowers on his birthday, a tradition that his niece began and inexplicably has continued after her death. If you subtract computers, geeks, goth girls, nose piercings, motorcycles and dragon tattoos, what we have at the bottom is a classic Agatha Christie plot.

As the movie opens, Holmes and Moriarty (Jared Harris) are already crossing swords, although not directly. That changes when Holmes begins interfering with Moriarty's nefarious schemes. The endgame of the master criminal's plotting is invisible to Holmes, but the immediate results are not. He is using anarchists and an ex-military sharpshooter to carry out assassinations. He is also employing Holmes' "ideal woman," Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams), as a messenger; Moriarty is displeased when she fails in a mission as a direct result of Holmes' intervention. Meanwhile, Dr. John Watson (Jude Law), Holmes' assistant and lone friend, is about to embark upon a matrimonial adventure with his beloved Mary (Kelly Reilly). To celebrate the impending nuptials, Holmes (in his duty as the Best Man) arranges a "stag night" for Watson that involves the company of Holmes' elder brother, Mycroft (Stephen Fry), and a lot of drinking. While Watson is playing cards, Holmes visits the gypsy Simza (Noomi Rapace), who may have knowledge about Moriarty's plans. A Game of Shadows contains a number of standout action sequences, including a four-on-one encounter between Holmes and some thugs, a chase-and-escape at Watson's bachelor party, fireworks on a train, a torturous sequence involving a meat hook, and an artillery-impeded race through a forest. There are also plenty of explosions and secondary fights, all of which gel to make this unlike any previous Sherlock Holmes adventure (except its immediate predecessor). Holmes does not wear his deerstalker cap nor utter the word "elementary," but he smokes pipes upon occasion and dresses up like both an elderly lady and the upholstery of a chair. James Berardinelli-ReelViews

As the movie opens, Holmes and Moriarty (Jared Harris) are already crossing swords, although not directly. That changes when Holmes begins interfering with Moriarty's nefarious schemes. The endgame of the master criminal's plotting is invisible to Holmes, but the immediate results are not. He is using anarchists and an ex-military sharpshooter to carry out assassinations. He is also employing Holmes' "ideal woman," Irene Adler (Rachel McAdams), as a messenger; Moriarty is displeased when she fails in a mission as a direct result of Holmes' intervention. Meanwhile, Dr. John Watson (Jude Law), Holmes' assistant and lone friend, is about to embark upon a matrimonial adventure with his beloved Mary (Kelly Reilly). To celebrate the impending nuptials, Holmes (in his duty as the Best Man) arranges a "stag night" for Watson that involves the company of Holmes' elder brother, Mycroft (Stephen Fry), and a lot of drinking. While Watson is playing cards, Holmes visits the gypsy Simza (Noomi Rapace), who may have knowledge about Moriarty's plans. A Game of Shadows contains a number of standout action sequences, including a four-on-one encounter between Holmes and some thugs, a chase-and-escape at Watson's bachelor party, fireworks on a train, a torturous sequence involving a meat hook, and an artillery-impeded race through a forest. There are also plenty of explosions and secondary fights, all of which gel to make this unlike any previous Sherlock Holmes adventure (except its immediate predecessor). Holmes does not wear his deerstalker cap nor utter the word "elementary," but he smokes pipes upon occasion and dresses up like both an elderly lady and the upholstery of a chair. James Berardinelli-ReelViews

Moneyball fixes on the story of Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane, played by Brad Pitt in a performance sharp enough to match the stealthy marvel of the film supporting that performance. How Beane budgeted and strategized his way to the playoffs, with the second-lowest payroll in the majors, hinged on buying a motley crew of underdogs who weren’t pretty, or expensive. But they could get on base. Everything in Beane’s story and in Moneyball could’ve been rendered dull or sappy or both by a lesser director. It is, at heart, about a man out to redeem himself Beane signed with the Mets in 1980, scrapping his college plans. Then the phenom in the making never materialized. Beane’s volatile temper kept messing with his concentration, his results. Years later Beane found himself in Oakland, presiding as general manager over the A’s and knocking around the clubhouse described in Michael Lewis’s excellent book (also called Moneyball) as “the cheapest and least charming real estate in professional baseball.” The team was in pain. The New York Yankees scooped up first baseman Jason Giambi for a seven-year, $120 million contract, among other holes to fill. Into Beane’s life came Harvard graduate Paul DePodesta. To simplify, Beane’s assistant GM believed in statistical analysis and the importance of a player’s on-base percentage, more so than his batting average. Suddenly, at least in Oakland at the start of the 2002 season, traditional scouting reports regarding a player’s viability and personality and appeal were out of favor. Here, Beane hoped, was a way of spread-sheeting a team to relative glory. The DePodesta equivalent in Moneyball is a Yale economics whiz named Peter Brand, played by Jonah Hill. Much of the script focuses on the odd-couple relationship between Brand and Beane. Hill does very little acting here, meaning: What he does, he does with a canny sense of hesitancy and a pinpoint brand of comic timing.

From writer/director Mike Mills comes a comedy/drama about how deeply funny and transformative life can be, even at its most serious moments. Beginners imaginatively explores the hilarity, confusion, and surprises of love through the evolving consciousness of Oliver (Golden Globe Award nominee Ewan McGregor). Oliver meets the irreverent and unpredictable Anna (Melanie Laurent of Inglourious Basterds) only months after his father Hal (Academy Award nominee Christopher Plummer) has passed away. This new love floods Oliver with memories of his father who - following 44 years of marriage - came out of the closet at age 75 to live a full, energized, and wonderfully tumultuous gay life. The upheavals of Hal's new honesty, by turns funny and moving, brought father and son closer than they'd ever been able to be. Now Oliver endeavors to love Anna with all the bravery, humor, and hope that his father taught him. 

“A beautifully humane, sweet and intelligent movie that knows exactly what it is at every moment”-NY Daily News

From writer/director Mike Mills comes a comedy/drama about how deeply funny and transformative life can be, even at its most serious moments. Beginners imaginatively explores the hilarity, confusion, and surprises of love through the evolving consciousness of Oliver (Golden Globe Award nominee Ewan McGregor). Oliver meets the irreverent and unpredictable Anna (Melanie Laurent of Inglourious Basterds) only months after his father Hal (Academy Award nominee Christopher Plummer) has passed away. This new love floods Oliver with memories of his father who - following 44 years of marriage - came out of the closet at age 75 to live a full, energized, and wonderfully tumultuous gay life. The upheavals of Hal's new honesty, by turns funny and moving, brought father and son closer than they'd ever been able to be. Now Oliver endeavors to love Anna with all the bravery, humor, and hope that his father taught him. 

“A beautifully humane, sweet and intelligent movie that knows exactly what it is at every moment”-NY Daily News

Moneyball fixes on the story of Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane, played by Brad Pitt in a performance sharp enough to match the stealthy marvel of the film supporting that performance. How Beane budgeted and strategized his way to the playoffs, with the second-lowest payroll in the majors, hinged on buying a motley crew of underdogs who weren’t pretty, or expensive. But they could get on base. Everything in Beane’s story and in Moneyball could’ve been rendered dull or sappy or both by a lesser director. It is, at heart, about a man out to redeem himself Beane signed with the Mets in 1980, scrapping his college plans. Then the phenom in the making never materialized. Beane’s volatile temper kept messing with his concentration, his results. Years later Beane found himself in Oakland, presiding as general manager over the A’s and knocking around the clubhouse described in Michael Lewis’s excellent book (also called Moneyball) as “the cheapest and least charming real estate in professional baseball.” The team was in pain. The New York Yankees scooped up first baseman Jason Giambi for a seven-year, $120 million contract, among other holes to fill. Into Beane’s life came Harvard graduate Paul DePodesta. To simplify, Beane’s assistant GM believed in statistical analysis and the importance of a player’s on-base percentage, more so than his batting average. Suddenly, at least in Oakland at the start of the 2002 season, traditional scouting reports regarding a player’s viability and personality and appeal were out of favor. Here, Beane hoped, was a way of spread-sheeting a team to relative glory. The DePodesta equivalent in Moneyball is a Yale economics whiz named Peter Brand, played by Jonah Hill. Much of the script focuses on the odd-couple relationship between Brand and Beane. Hill does very little acting here, meaning: What he does, he does with a canny sense of hesitancy and a pinpoint brand of comic timing.

Throughout “My Week With Marilyn,” there’s an air of jaunty efficiency. It’s 1956, and on the set of the lesser romantic comedy “The Prince and the Showgirl,” gofers run errands, costumers fix ensembles, and the star and director, Laurence Olivier, hold court.

Yet when Marilyn Monroe appears, things stop. She is, as portrayed by Michelle Williams, a strange and beautiful alien: Unpredictable, odd, magnetic. She seems to have the power to freeze time and tuck it into a long velvet glove, which is where most of this languorous, lovely movie lives — right in the palm of her hand.

Olivier (a great Kenneth Branagh), isn’t comfortable there. The Shakespearean actor and filmmaker of his generation is making a shiny bauble for Monroe, who’s in England honeymooning with second husband Arthur Miller (Dougray Scott). Her company is behind “Showgirl,” which will be its sole project.

But the Hollywood bombshell is, as rumored, erratic. Unsure of herself after Miller returns to New York, Monroe needs drugs and constant reassurance to get her out of her dressing room. When she meets Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne), a young production assistant, she chooses him to help her through the shoot. She knows he sees her the way she needs to be seen. And Olivier needs that to finish his film.

Ghost Protocol is fast and explosive, but it's also a supremely clever sleight-of-hand thriller. Brad Bird, the animation wizard (The Incredibles, The Iron Giant), makes the leap to live action with the kind of skill Paul Greengrass brought to the Bourne films, only Bird, showing an animator's miraculously precise use of visual space, has a playful, screw-tightening ingenuity all his own. After an epic explosion rocks the Kremlin, the entire IMF gets ''disavowed,'' and Hunt and his team find themselves cut off, without backup. Suddenly they're rogue agents, like an espionage version of the Ocean's gang, only with far more important priorities. Their mission is to stop Hendricks (Michael Nyqvist, dour costar of the Swedish Girl With the Dragon Tattoo films), a lone terrorist who has stolen the Russian nuclear codes, from launching a missile and kicking off a nuclear war. All because he's a nihilist nut who really wants to. Hunt's team, aside from Benji (played by Pegg with impish timing), includes the terrific Paula Patton as the dangerously beautiful and ruthless Jane, and Jeremy Renner, all moody reticence, as a desk jockey named Brandt with a backstory that makes it look, for a time, like he's Ethan's ambiguous adversary. Together, these four execute fake seductions and underworld meetings, take parking-garage fight scenes to new heights of layer-cake suspense, and race against the clock of a nuclear countdown that's just jittery enough to make the unthinkable credible. Owen Gleiberman- Entertainment Weekly

Segel stars as Gary, a doofy midwesterner whose brother, Walter, is, in a way that no one questions, made of felt and three feet tall. Together with Gary’s fiancée (Amy Adams), they travel to LA to tour the Muppets studio, only to find that it’s been abandoned and is under threat from an evil land baron (Chris Cooper). They warn Kermit, round up the old gang, and put on a telethon in hopes to raise enough money to save the day

Ghost Protocol is fast and explosive, but it's also a supremely clever sleight-of-hand thriller. Brad Bird, the animation wizard (The Incredibles, The Iron Giant), makes the leap to live action with the kind of skill Paul Greengrass brought to the Bourne films, only Bird, showing an animator's miraculously precise use of visual space, has a playful, screw-tightening ingenuity all his own. After an epic explosion rocks the Kremlin, the entire IMF gets ''disavowed,'' and Hunt and his team find themselves cut off, without backup. Suddenly they're rogue agents, like an espionage version of the Ocean's gang, only with far more important priorities. Their mission is to stop Hendricks (Michael Nyqvist, dour costar of the Swedish Girl With the Dragon Tattoo films), a lone terrorist who has stolen the Russian nuclear codes, from launching a missile and kicking off a nuclear war. All because he's a nihilist nut who really wants to. Hunt's team, aside from Benji (played by Pegg with impish timing), includes the terrific Paula Patton as the dangerously beautiful and ruthless Jane, and Jeremy Renner, all moody reticence, as a desk jockey named Brandt with a backstory that makes it look, for a time, like he's Ethan's ambiguous adversary. Together, these four execute fake seductions and underworld meetings, take parking-garage fight scenes to new heights of layer-cake suspense, and race against the clock of a nuclear countdown that's just jittery enough to make the unthinkable credible. Owen Gleiberman- Entertainment Weekly

Throughout “My Week With Marilyn,” there’s an air of jaunty efficiency. It’s 1956, and on the set of the lesser romantic comedy “The Prince and the Showgirl,” gofers run errands, costumers fix ensembles, and the star and director, Laurence Olivier, hold court.

Yet when Marilyn Monroe appears, things stop. She is, as portrayed by Michelle Williams, a strange and beautiful alien: Unpredictable, odd, magnetic. She seems to have the power to freeze time and tuck it into a long velvet glove, which is where most of this languorous, lovely movie lives — right in the palm of her hand.

Olivier (a great Kenneth Branagh), isn’t comfortable there. The Shakespearean actor and filmmaker of his generation is making a shiny bauble for Monroe, who’s in England honeymooning with second husband Arthur Miller (Dougray Scott). Her company is behind “Showgirl,” which will be its sole project.

But the Hollywood bombshell is, as rumored, erratic. Unsure of herself after Miller returns to New York, Monroe needs drugs and constant reassurance to get her out of her dressing room. When she meets Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne), a young production assistant, she chooses him to help her through the shoot. She knows he sees her the way she needs to be seen. And Olivier needs that to finish his film.

Ghost Protocol is fast and explosive, but it's also a supremely clever sleight-of-hand thriller. Brad Bird, the animation wizard (The Incredibles, The Iron Giant), makes the leap to live action with the kind of skill Paul Greengrass brought to the Bourne films, only Bird, showing an animator's miraculously precise use of visual space, has a playful, screw-tightening ingenuity all his own. After an epic explosion rocks the Kremlin, the entire IMF gets ''disavowed,'' and Hunt and his team find themselves cut off, without backup. Suddenly they're rogue agents, like an espionage version of the Ocean's gang, only with far more important priorities. Their mission is to stop Hendricks (Michael Nyqvist, dour costar of the Swedish Girl With the Dragon Tattoo films), a lone terrorist who has stolen the Russian nuclear codes, from launching a missile and kicking off a nuclear war. All because he's a nihilist nut who really wants to. Hunt's team, aside from Benji (played by Pegg with impish timing), includes the terrific Paula Patton as the dangerously beautiful and ruthless Jane, and Jeremy Renner, all moody reticence, as a desk jockey named Brandt with a backstory that makes it look, for a time, like he's Ethan's ambiguous adversary. Together, these four execute fake seductions and underworld meetings, take parking-garage fight scenes to new heights of layer-cake suspense, and race against the clock of a nuclear countdown that's just jittery enough to make the unthinkable credible. Owen Gleiberman- Entertainment Weekly

Segel stars as Gary, a doofy midwesterner whose brother, Walter, is, in a way that no one questions, made of felt and three feet tall. Together with Gary’s fiancée (Amy Adams), they travel to LA to tour the Muppets studio, only to find that it’s been abandoned and is under threat from an evil land baron (Chris Cooper). They warn Kermit, round up the old gang, and put on a telethon in hopes to raise enough money to save the day

Ghost Protocol is fast and explosive, but it's also a supremely clever sleight-of-hand thriller. Brad Bird, the animation wizard (The Incredibles, The Iron Giant), makes the leap to live action with the kind of skill Paul Greengrass brought to the Bourne films, only Bird, showing an animator's miraculously precise use of visual space, has a playful, screw-tightening ingenuity all his own. After an epic explosion rocks the Kremlin, the entire IMF gets ''disavowed,'' and Hunt and his team find themselves cut off, without backup. Suddenly they're rogue agents, like an espionage version of the Ocean's gang, only with far more important priorities. Their mission is to stop Hendricks (Michael Nyqvist, dour costar of the Swedish Girl With the Dragon Tattoo films), a lone terrorist who has stolen the Russian nuclear codes, from launching a missile and kicking off a nuclear war. All because he's a nihilist nut who really wants to. Hunt's team, aside from Benji (played by Pegg with impish timing), includes the terrific Paula Patton as the dangerously beautiful and ruthless Jane, and Jeremy Renner, all moody reticence, as a desk jockey named Brandt with a backstory that makes it look, for a time, like he's Ethan's ambiguous adversary. Together, these four execute fake seductions and underworld meetings, take parking-garage fight scenes to new heights of layer-cake suspense, and race against the clock of a nuclear countdown that's just jittery enough to make the unthinkable credible. Owen Gleiberman- Entertainment Weekly

Throughout “My Week With Marilyn,” there’s an air of jaunty efficiency. It’s 1956, and on the set of the lesser romantic comedy “The Prince and the Showgirl,” gofers run errands, costumers fix ensembles, and the star and director, Laurence Olivier, hold court.

Yet when Marilyn Monroe appears, things stop. She is, as portrayed by Michelle Williams, a strange and beautiful alien: Unpredictable, odd, magnetic. She seems to have the power to freeze time and tuck it into a long velvet glove, which is where most of this languorous, lovely movie lives — right in the palm of her hand.

Olivier (a great Kenneth Branagh), isn’t comfortable there. The Shakespearean actor and filmmaker of his generation is making a shiny bauble for Monroe, who’s in England honeymooning with second husband Arthur Miller (Dougray Scott). Her company is behind “Showgirl,” which will be its sole project.

But the Hollywood bombshell is, as rumored, erratic. Unsure of herself after Miller returns to New York, Monroe needs drugs and constant reassurance to get her out of her dressing room. When she meets Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne), a young production assistant, she chooses him to help her through the shoot. She knows he sees her the way she needs to be seen. And Olivier needs that to finish his film.

Ghost Protocol is fast and explosive, but it's also a supremely clever sleight-of-hand thriller. Brad Bird, the animation wizard (The Incredibles, The Iron Giant), makes the leap to live action with the kind of skill Paul Greengrass brought to the Bourne films, only Bird, showing an animator's miraculously precise use of visual space, has a playful, screw-tightening ingenuity all his own. After an epic explosion rocks the Kremlin, the entire IMF gets ''disavowed,'' and Hunt and his team find themselves cut off, without backup. Suddenly they're rogue agents, like an espionage version of the Ocean's gang, only with far more important priorities. Their mission is to stop Hendricks (Michael Nyqvist, dour costar of the Swedish Girl With the Dragon Tattoo films), a lone terrorist who has stolen the Russian nuclear codes, from launching a missile and kicking off a nuclear war. All because he's a nihilist nut who really wants to. Hunt's team, aside from Benji (played by Pegg with impish timing), includes the terrific Paula Patton as the dangerously beautiful and ruthless Jane, and Jeremy Renner, all moody reticence, as a desk jockey named Brandt with a backstory that makes it look, for a time, like he's Ethan's ambiguous adversary. Together, these four execute fake seductions and underworld meetings, take parking-garage fight scenes to new heights of layer-cake suspense, and race against the clock of a nuclear countdown that's just jittery enough to make the unthinkable credible. Owen Gleiberman- Entertainment Weekly

Throughout “My Week With Marilyn,” there’s an air of jaunty efficiency. It’s 1956, and on the set of the lesser romantic comedy “The Prince and the Showgirl,” gofers run errands, costumers fix ensembles, and the star and director, Laurence Olivier, hold court.

Yet when Marilyn Monroe appears, things stop. She is, as portrayed by Michelle Williams, a strange and beautiful alien: Unpredictable, odd, magnetic. She seems to have the power to freeze time and tuck it into a long velvet glove, which is where most of this languorous, lovely movie lives — right in the palm of her hand.

Olivier (a great Kenneth Branagh), isn’t comfortable there. The Shakespearean actor and filmmaker of his generation is making a shiny bauble for Monroe, who’s in England honeymooning with second husband Arthur Miller (Dougray Scott). Her company is behind “Showgirl,” which will be its sole project.

But the Hollywood bombshell is, as rumored, erratic. Unsure of herself after Miller returns to New York, Monroe needs drugs and constant reassurance to get her out of her dressing room. When she meets Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne), a young production assistant, she chooses him to help her through the shoot. She knows he sees her the way she needs to be seen. And Olivier needs that to finish his film.

Ghost Protocol is fast and explosive, but it's also a supremely clever sleight-of-hand thriller. Brad Bird, the animation wizard (The Incredibles, The Iron Giant), makes the leap to live action with the kind of skill Paul Greengrass brought to the Bourne films, only Bird, showing an animator's miraculously precise use of visual space, has a playful, screw-tightening ingenuity all his own. After an epic explosion rocks the Kremlin, the entire IMF gets ''disavowed,'' and Hunt and his team find themselves cut off, without backup. Suddenly they're rogue agents, like an espionage version of the Ocean's gang, only with far more important priorities. Their mission is to stop Hendricks (Michael Nyqvist, dour costar of the Swedish Girl With the Dragon Tattoo films), a lone terrorist who has stolen the Russian nuclear codes, from launching a missile and kicking off a nuclear war. All because he's a nihilist nut who really wants to. Hunt's team, aside from Benji (played by Pegg with impish timing), includes the terrific Paula Patton as the dangerously beautiful and ruthless Jane, and Jeremy Renner, all moody reticence, as a desk jockey named Brandt with a backstory that makes it look, for a time, like he's Ethan's ambiguous adversary. Together, these four execute fake seductions and underworld meetings, take parking-garage fight scenes to new heights of layer-cake suspense, and race against the clock of a nuclear countdown that's just jittery enough to make the unthinkable credible. Owen Gleiberman- Entertainment Weekly

Throughout “My Week With Marilyn,” there’s an air of jaunty efficiency. It’s 1956, and on the set of the lesser romantic comedy “The Prince and the Showgirl,” gofers run errands, costumers fix ensembles, and the star and director, Laurence Olivier, hold court.

Yet when Marilyn Monroe appears, things stop. She is, as portrayed by Michelle Williams, a strange and beautiful alien: Unpredictable, odd, magnetic. She seems to have the power to freeze time and tuck it into a long velvet glove, which is where most of this languorous, lovely movie lives — right in the palm of her hand.

Olivier (a great Kenneth Branagh), isn’t comfortable there. The Shakespearean actor and filmmaker of his generation is making a shiny bauble for Monroe, who’s in England honeymooning with second husband Arthur Miller (Dougray Scott). Her company is behind “Showgirl,” which will be its sole project.

But the Hollywood bombshell is, as rumored, erratic. Unsure of herself after Miller returns to New York, Monroe needs drugs and constant reassurance to get her out of her dressing room. When she meets Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne), a young production assistant, she chooses him to help her through the shoot. She knows he sees her the way she needs to be seen. And Olivier needs that to finish his film.

Ghost Protocol is fast and explosive, but it's also a supremely clever sleight-of-hand thriller. Brad Bird, the animation wizard (The Incredibles, The Iron Giant), makes the leap to live action with the kind of skill Paul Greengrass brought to the Bourne films, only Bird, showing an animator's miraculously precise use of visual space, has a playful, screw-tightening ingenuity all his own. After an epic explosion rocks the Kremlin, the entire IMF gets ''disavowed,'' and Hunt and his team find themselves cut off, without backup. Suddenly they're rogue agents, like an espionage version of the Ocean's gang, only with far more important priorities. Their mission is to stop Hendricks (Michael Nyqvist, dour costar of the Swedish Girl With the Dragon Tattoo films), a lone terrorist who has stolen the Russian nuclear codes, from launching a missile and kicking off a nuclear war. All because he's a nihilist nut who really wants to. Hunt's team, aside from Benji (played by Pegg with impish timing), includes the terrific Paula Patton as the dangerously beautiful and ruthless Jane, and Jeremy Renner, all moody reticence, as a desk jockey named Brandt with a backstory that makes it look, for a time, like he's Ethan's ambiguous adversary. Together, these four execute fake seductions and underworld meetings, take parking-garage fight scenes to new heights of layer-cake suspense, and race against the clock of a nuclear countdown that's just jittery enough to make the unthinkable credible. Owen Gleiberman- Entertainment Weekly

Ghost Protocol is fast and explosive, but it's also a supremely clever sleight-of-hand thriller. Brad Bird, the animation wizard (The Incredibles, The Iron Giant), makes the leap to live action with the kind of skill Paul Greengrass brought to the Bourne films, only Bird, showing an animator's miraculously precise use of visual space, has a playful, screw-tightening ingenuity all his own. After an epic explosion rocks the Kremlin, the entire IMF gets ''disavowed,'' and Hunt and his team find themselves cut off, without backup. Suddenly they're rogue agents, like an espionage version of the Ocean's gang, only with far more important priorities. Their mission is to stop Hendricks (Michael Nyqvist, dour costar of the Swedish Girl With the Dragon Tattoo films), a lone terrorist who has stolen the Russian nuclear codes, from launching a missile and kicking off a nuclear war. All because he's a nihilist nut who really wants to. Hunt's team, aside from Benji (played by Pegg with impish timing), includes the terrific Paula Patton as the dangerously beautiful and ruthless Jane, and Jeremy Renner, all moody reticence, as a desk jockey named Brandt with a backstory that makes it look, for a time, like he's Ethan's ambiguous adversary. Together, these four execute fake seductions and underworld meetings, take parking-garage fight scenes to new heights of layer-cake suspense, and race against the clock of a nuclear countdown that's just jittery enough to make the unthinkable credible. Owen Gleiberman- Entertainment Weekly

From Terrence Malick, the acclaimed director of such classic films as Badlands, Days of Heaven and The Thin Red Line, The Tree of Life is the impressionistic story of a Midwestern family in the 1950's. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father (Pitt). Jack (played as an adult by Penn) finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith. Through Malick's signature imagery, we see how both brute nature and spiritual grace shape not only our lives as individuals and families, but all life.

"The result actually plays like a divine pronouncement, cosmic in scope and oracular in tone, a cinematic sermon on the mount that shows its creator in exquisite form. Exquisite but frustrating." -Globe and Mail

Mavis (Charlize Theron) is in her early 30s, a time when the limits of life are first felt and yet the romance of the teen years is still a vivid memory. In her career, Mavis is almost successful. She writes young-adult novels for a popular series, but really is a ghostwriter working off an outline. She lives in the city and feels grandly superior to the people back home, but she is thinking about them a lot more than they're thinking about her. Then one day she finds out that her high school sweetheart and his wife have had a child, and she becomes possessed by the idea of returning home and stealing the ex from his family.

Mavis (Charlize Theron) is in her early 30s, a time when the limits of life are first felt and yet the romance of the teen years is still a vivid memory. In her career, Mavis is almost successful. She writes young-adult novels for a popular series, but really is a ghostwriter working off an outline. She lives in the city and feels grandly superior to the people back home, but she is thinking about them a lot more than they're thinking about her. Then one day she finds out that her high school sweetheart and his wife have had a child, and she becomes possessed by the idea of returning home and stealing the ex from his family.

From Terrence Malick, the acclaimed director of such classic films as Badlands, Days of Heaven and The Thin Red Line, The Tree of Life is the impressionistic story of a Midwestern family in the 1950's. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father (Pitt). Jack (played as an adult by Penn) finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith. Through Malick's signature imagery, we see how both brute nature and spiritual grace shape not only our lives as individuals and families, but all life.

"The result actually plays like a divine pronouncement, cosmic in scope and oracular in tone, a cinematic sermon on the mount that shows its creator in exquisite form. Exquisite but frustrating." -Globe and Mail

Based on stories from the Belgian cartoonist Hergé, the movie concerns a young reporter from Brussels named Tintin (voiced by Jamie Bell), who can't stay out of trouble. Before you can say "Young Indy," Tintin and his scene-stealing dog, Snowy, are off chasing pirates, particularly the descendants of scurvy Red Rackham (Daniel Craig). Tintin and Snowy are forced to board a steamer led by booze hound Captain Haddock (a terrific Andy Serkis), whose whiskey breath is the equiva­lent of rocket fuel. Props to screenwriters Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish for never losing the story's sense of fun. No need to give away any more plot points. Though the jury of me is still out on the effectiveness of performance-capture (the eyes often look dead), Spielberg gives it his considerable all. The movie comes at you in a whoosh, like a volcano of creative ideas in full eruption. Presented as the first part of a trilogy produced by Spielberg and Peter Jackson, The Adventures of Tintin hits home for the kid in all of us who wants to bust out and run free. Peter Travers- Rolling Stone

The elderly millionaire Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), cut off from the mainland on the family island, yearns to know how his beloved niece Harriet died 40 years ago. Because apparently neither she nor her body left the island on the day she disappeared, and no trace has ever been found, suspicion rests on those who were there that day, in particular other Vanger relatives whose houses overlook Henrik's from their own isolation. They provide a snaky group of suspects. Many seem involved in corruption. Some have pasts with Nazi connections. Mikael arranges their photos and newspaper clippings and file cards in a collage pinned to a wall and connected with red lines of speculation, but his threads of suspicion seem to lead to … everyone. In this film more than the original, the stories of Mikael and Lisbeth are kept separate for an extended period. We learn about the girl's state-appointed guardian (Yorick van Wageningen), who abused her, stole from her and terrorized her. Her attempts to avenge herself would make a movie of their own. Zaillian's script comes down to a series of fraught scenes between his leads and a distinctive gallery of supporting characters, given weight by Stellan Skarsgard, Robin Wright and the iconic London actor Steven Berkoff. These people inhabit a world with no boring people. By providing Mikael with his own small cottage on the island, Henrik Vanger isolates him in a vulnerable situation, which sinks in as he realizes he's probably sharing the island with a murderer. There's also the problem of why Henrik continues to receive watercolors of wildflowers on his birthday, a tradition that his niece began and inexplicably has continued after her death. If you subtract computers, geeks, goth girls, nose piercings, motorcycles and dragon tattoos, what we have at the bottom is a classic Agatha Christie plot.

Here are two couples, brought together to talk over a bullying incident between their respective sons. They begin their afternoon with utmost civility and calm, but a mere 80 (real-time) minutes later in Polanski's deliciously nasty Carnage, the Cowans and the Longstreets are at one another's throats. And Alan and Nancy Cowan (Christoph Waltz and Kate Winslet) are going for each other's jugulars, too, as are Michael and Penelope Longstreet (John C. Reilly and Jodie Foster). Allegiances have been shattered, loyalties destroyed. The cozy Brooklyn apartment where their meeting takes place is a literal and figurative disaster area. Waltz especially - as a lawyer with a crisis on his hands (a Big Pharma client in big trouble), he moves from one corner of the Longstreets' place to another, manning his cellphone as if he were alone in the world. His character is clueless, but the German actor of Inglourious Basterds fame - working a decent American accent - is winking all the way. And as Winslet's Nancy casts increasingly anguished, embarrassed looks in her husband's direction (she's beginning to wish he was alone in the world, too), the actress expertly walks that path between truth and farce. Reilly's Michael is the lug of the bunch, a home furnishings wholesaler who cheerfully chats everybody up - until the cracks in his buffoonish facade are exposed. Carnage is about the battle of the sexes, but it's also about class: The Cowans are New York elites, the Longstreets struggling to maintain their middle classiness. (Although their apartment, by New York real estate standards, is decidedly upper tier.) Was Ethan, the Longstreets' 11-year-old, really an innocent victim when he got thwacked in the head by the Cowans' boy? Or was there something about Ethan's station in life, and the sense of entitlement of his aggressor, that casts this schoolboy skirmish in a trickier sociocultural light?

The elderly millionaire Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), cut off from the mainland on the family island, yearns to know how his beloved niece Harriet died 40 years ago. Because apparently neither she nor her body left the island on the day she disappeared, and no trace has ever been found, suspicion rests on those who were there that day, in particular other Vanger relatives whose houses overlook Henrik's from their own isolation. They provide a snaky group of suspects. Many seem involved in corruption. Some have pasts with Nazi connections. Mikael arranges their photos and newspaper clippings and file cards in a collage pinned to a wall and connected with red lines of speculation, but his threads of suspicion seem to lead to … everyone. In this film more than the original, the stories of Mikael and Lisbeth are kept separate for an extended period. We learn about the girl's state-appointed guardian (Yorick van Wageningen), who abused her, stole from her and terrorized her. Her attempts to avenge herself would make a movie of their own. Zaillian's script comes down to a series of fraught scenes between his leads and a distinctive gallery of supporting characters, given weight by Stellan Skarsgard, Robin Wright and the iconic London actor Steven Berkoff. These people inhabit a world with no boring people. By providing Mikael with his own small cottage on the island, Henrik Vanger isolates him in a vulnerable situation, which sinks in as he realizes he's probably sharing the island with a murderer. There's also the problem of why Henrik continues to receive watercolors of wildflowers on his birthday, a tradition that his niece began and inexplicably has continued after her death. If you subtract computers, geeks, goth girls, nose piercings, motorcycles and dragon tattoos, what we have at the bottom is a classic Agatha Christie plot.

Based on stories from the Belgian cartoonist Hergé, the movie concerns a young reporter from Brussels named Tintin (voiced by Jamie Bell), who can't stay out of trouble. Before you can say "Young Indy," Tintin and his scene-stealing dog, Snowy, are off chasing pirates, particularly the descendants of scurvy Red Rackham (Daniel Craig). Tintin and Snowy are forced to board a steamer led by booze hound Captain Haddock (a terrific Andy Serkis), whose whiskey breath is the equiva­lent of rocket fuel. Props to screenwriters Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish for never losing the story's sense of fun. No need to give away any more plot points. Though the jury of me is still out on the effectiveness of performance-capture (the eyes often look dead), Spielberg gives it his considerable all. The movie comes at you in a whoosh, like a volcano of creative ideas in full eruption. Presented as the first part of a trilogy produced by Spielberg and Peter Jackson, The Adventures of Tintin hits home for the kid in all of us who wants to bust out and run free. Peter Travers- Rolling Stone

The elderly millionaire Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), cut off from the mainland on the family island, yearns to know how his beloved niece Harriet died 40 years ago. Because apparently neither she nor her body left the island on the day she disappeared, and no trace has ever been found, suspicion rests on those who were there that day, in particular other Vanger relatives whose houses overlook Henrik's from their own isolation. They provide a snaky group of suspects. Many seem involved in corruption. Some have pasts with Nazi connections. Mikael arranges their photos and newspaper clippings and file cards in a collage pinned to a wall and connected with red lines of speculation, but his threads of suspicion seem to lead to … everyone. In this film more than the original, the stories of Mikael and Lisbeth are kept separate for an extended period. We learn about the girl's state-appointed guardian (Yorick van Wageningen), who abused her, stole from her and terrorized her. Her attempts to avenge herself would make a movie of their own. Zaillian's script comes down to a series of fraught scenes between his leads and a distinctive gallery of supporting characters, given weight by Stellan Skarsgard, Robin Wright and the iconic London actor Steven Berkoff. These people inhabit a world with no boring people. By providing Mikael with his own small cottage on the island, Henrik Vanger isolates him in a vulnerable situation, which sinks in as he realizes he's probably sharing the island with a murderer. There's also the problem of why Henrik continues to receive watercolors of wildflowers on his birthday, a tradition that his niece began and inexplicably has continued after her death. If you subtract computers, geeks, goth girls, nose piercings, motorcycles and dragon tattoos, what we have at the bottom is a classic Agatha Christie plot.

Here are two couples, brought together to talk over a bullying incident between their respective sons. They begin their afternoon with utmost civility and calm, but a mere 80 (real-time) minutes later in Polanski's deliciously nasty Carnage, the Cowans and the Longstreets are at one another's throats. And Alan and Nancy Cowan (Christoph Waltz and Kate Winslet) are going for each other's jugulars, too, as are Michael and Penelope Longstreet (John C. Reilly and Jodie Foster). Allegiances have been shattered, loyalties destroyed. The cozy Brooklyn apartment where their meeting takes place is a literal and figurative disaster area. Waltz especially - as a lawyer with a crisis on his hands (a Big Pharma client in big trouble), he moves from one corner of the Longstreets' place to another, manning his cellphone as if he were alone in the world. His character is clueless, but the German actor of Inglourious Basterds fame - working a decent American accent - is winking all the way. And as Winslet's Nancy casts increasingly anguished, embarrassed looks in her husband's direction (she's beginning to wish he was alone in the world, too), the actress expertly walks that path between truth and farce. Reilly's Michael is the lug of the bunch, a home furnishings wholesaler who cheerfully chats everybody up - until the cracks in his buffoonish facade are exposed. Carnage is about the battle of the sexes, but it's also about class: The Cowans are New York elites, the Longstreets struggling to maintain their middle classiness. (Although their apartment, by New York real estate standards, is decidedly upper tier.) Was Ethan, the Longstreets' 11-year-old, really an innocent victim when he got thwacked in the head by the Cowans' boy? Or was there something about Ethan's station in life, and the sense of entitlement of his aggressor, that casts this schoolboy skirmish in a trickier sociocultural light?

The elderly millionaire Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), cut off from the mainland on the family island, yearns to know how his beloved niece Harriet died 40 years ago. Because apparently neither she nor her body left the island on the day she disappeared, and no trace has ever been found, suspicion rests on those who were there that day, in particular other Vanger relatives whose houses overlook Henrik's from their own isolation. They provide a snaky group of suspects. Many seem involved in corruption. Some have pasts with Nazi connections. Mikael arranges their photos and newspaper clippings and file cards in a collage pinned to a wall and connected with red lines of speculation, but his threads of suspicion seem to lead to … everyone. In this film more than the original, the stories of Mikael and Lisbeth are kept separate for an extended period. We learn about the girl's state-appointed guardian (Yorick van Wageningen), who abused her, stole from her and terrorized her. Her attempts to avenge herself would make a movie of their own. Zaillian's script comes down to a series of fraught scenes between his leads and a distinctive gallery of supporting characters, given weight by Stellan Skarsgard, Robin Wright and the iconic London actor Steven Berkoff. These people inhabit a world with no boring people. By providing Mikael with his own small cottage on the island, Henrik Vanger isolates him in a vulnerable situation, which sinks in as he realizes he's probably sharing the island with a murderer. There's also the problem of why Henrik continues to receive watercolors of wildflowers on his birthday, a tradition that his niece began and inexplicably has continued after her death. If you subtract computers, geeks, goth girls, nose piercings, motorcycles and dragon tattoos, what we have at the bottom is a classic Agatha Christie plot.

Based on stories from the Belgian cartoonist Hergé, the movie concerns a young reporter from Brussels named Tintin (voiced by Jamie Bell), who can't stay out of trouble. Before you can say "Young Indy," Tintin and his scene-stealing dog, Snowy, are off chasing pirates, particularly the descendants of scurvy Red Rackham (Daniel Craig). Tintin and Snowy are forced to board a steamer led by booze hound Captain Haddock (a terrific Andy Serkis), whose whiskey breath is the equiva­lent of rocket fuel. Props to screenwriters Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish for never losing the story's sense of fun. No need to give away any more plot points. Though the jury of me is still out on the effectiveness of performance-capture (the eyes often look dead), Spielberg gives it his considerable all. The movie comes at you in a whoosh, like a volcano of creative ideas in full eruption. Presented as the first part of a trilogy produced by Spielberg and Peter Jackson, The Adventures of Tintin hits home for the kid in all of us who wants to bust out and run free. Peter Travers- Rolling Stone

Present rendition begins with a lovely floral and lace title sequence by Elaine and Saul Bass, then plunges the viewer into the hotbed of high society -- the opera, where the real action is in the boxes, not onstage. The focus of most lorgnettes this evening is Ellen Olenska (Michelle Pfeiffer), a beautiful American recently returned from Europe after leaving her aristocratic husband. Ellen is a cousin of lovely young May Welland (Winona Ryder), who is just now announcing her engagement to socially prominent lawyer Newland Archer (Daniel Day-Lewis). Although related to a distinguished family, Ellen is much whispered about due to the free-thinking ideas she appears to have acquired in Europe, and because she is rumored to have lived with her male secretary. In this world of formal balls, dinners and other ritualized social engagements, propriety is all, and Countess Olenska doesn't conform to the letter of New York's standards. But Newland, who at moments dares to express unorthodox ideas about acceptable behavior for women, defends her and, with the help of his mother, orchestrates her acceptance into society. But just as he is urging May to move up their wedding date, Newland becomes entranced by the bewitching Ellen, who is so tantalizingly different from everyone else in his sphere. With the excuse of advising her legally on her impending divorce, he is able to call on her frequently, and when he finally reveals his feelings, it's almost too much for both of them. Todd MCCarthy-Variety

Here are two couples, brought together to talk over a bullying incident between their respective sons. They begin their afternoon with utmost civility and calm, but a mere 80 (real-time) minutes later in Polanski's deliciously nasty Carnage, the Cowans and the Longstreets are at one another's throats. And Alan and Nancy Cowan (Christoph Waltz and Kate Winslet) are going for each other's jugulars, too, as are Michael and Penelope Longstreet (John C. Reilly and Jodie Foster). Allegiances have been shattered, loyalties destroyed. The cozy Brooklyn apartment where their meeting takes place is a literal and figurative disaster area. Waltz especially - as a lawyer with a crisis on his hands (a Big Pharma client in big trouble), he moves from one corner of the Longstreets' place to another, manning his cellphone as if he were alone in the world. His character is clueless, but the German actor of Inglourious Basterds fame - working a decent American accent - is winking all the way. And as Winslet's Nancy casts increasingly anguished, embarrassed looks in her husband's direction (she's beginning to wish he was alone in the world, too), the actress expertly walks that path between truth and farce. Reilly's Michael is the lug of the bunch, a home furnishings wholesaler who cheerfully chats everybody up - until the cracks in his buffoonish facade are exposed. Carnage is about the battle of the sexes, but it's also about class: The Cowans are New York elites, the Longstreets struggling to maintain their middle classiness. (Although their apartment, by New York real estate standards, is decidedly upper tier.) Was Ethan, the Longstreets' 11-year-old, really an innocent victim when he got thwacked in the head by the Cowans' boy? Or was there something about Ethan's station in life, and the sense of entitlement of his aggressor, that casts this schoolboy skirmish in a trickier sociocultural light?

The elderly millionaire Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), cut off from the mainland on the family island, yearns to know how his beloved niece Harriet died 40 years ago. Because apparently neither she nor her body left the island on the day she disappeared, and no trace has ever been found, suspicion rests on those who were there that day, in particular other Vanger relatives whose houses overlook Henrik's from their own isolation. They provide a snaky group of suspects. Many seem involved in corruption. Some have pasts with Nazi connections. Mikael arranges their photos and newspaper clippings and file cards in a collage pinned to a wall and connected with red lines of speculation, but his threads of suspicion seem to lead to … everyone. In this film more than the original, the stories of Mikael and Lisbeth are kept separate for an extended period. We learn about the girl's state-appointed guardian (Yorick van Wageningen), who abused her, stole from her and terrorized her. Her attempts to avenge herself would make a movie of their own. Zaillian's script comes down to a series of fraught scenes between his leads and a distinctive gallery of supporting characters, given weight by Stellan Skarsgard, Robin Wright and the iconic London actor Steven Berkoff. These people inhabit a world with no boring people. By providing Mikael with his own small cottage on the island, Henrik Vanger isolates him in a vulnerable situation, which sinks in as he realizes he's probably sharing the island with a murderer. There's also the problem of why Henrik continues to receive watercolors of wildflowers on his birthday, a tradition that his niece began and inexplicably has continued after her death. If you subtract computers, geeks, goth girls, nose piercings, motorcycles and dragon tattoos, what we have at the bottom is a classic Agatha Christie plot.

Based on stories from the Belgian cartoonist Hergé, the movie concerns a young reporter from Brussels named Tintin (voiced by Jamie Bell), who can't stay out of trouble. Before you can say "Young Indy," Tintin and his scene-stealing dog, Snowy, are off chasing pirates, particularly the descendants of scurvy Red Rackham (Daniel Craig). Tintin and Snowy are forced to board a steamer led by booze hound Captain Haddock (a terrific Andy Serkis), whose whiskey breath is the equiva­lent of rocket fuel. Props to screenwriters Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish for never losing the story's sense of fun. No need to give away any more plot points. Though the jury of me is still out on the effectiveness of performance-capture (the eyes often look dead), Spielberg gives it his considerable all. The movie comes at you in a whoosh, like a volcano of creative ideas in full eruption. Presented as the first part of a trilogy produced by Spielberg and Peter Jackson, The Adventures of Tintin hits home for the kid in all of us who wants to bust out and run free. Peter Travers- Rolling Stone

The elderly millionaire Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), cut off from the mainland on the family island, yearns to know how his beloved niece Harriet died 40 years ago. Because apparently neither she nor her body left the island on the day she disappeared, and no trace has ever been found, suspicion rests on those who were there that day, in particular other Vanger relatives whose houses overlook Henrik's from their own isolation. They provide a snaky group of suspects. Many seem involved in corruption. Some have pasts with Nazi connections. Mikael arranges their photos and newspaper clippings and file cards in a collage pinned to a wall and connected with red lines of speculation, but his threads of suspicion seem to lead to … everyone. In this film more than the original, the stories of Mikael and Lisbeth are kept separate for an extended period. We learn about the girl's state-appointed guardian (Yorick van Wageningen), who abused her, stole from her and terrorized her. Her attempts to avenge herself would make a movie of their own. Zaillian's script comes down to a series of fraught scenes between his leads and a distinctive gallery of supporting characters, given weight by Stellan Skarsgard, Robin Wright and the iconic London actor Steven Berkoff. These people inhabit a world with no boring people. By providing Mikael with his own small cottage on the island, Henrik Vanger isolates him in a vulnerable situation, which sinks in as he realizes he's probably sharing the island with a murderer. There's also the problem of why Henrik continues to receive watercolors of wildflowers on his birthday, a tradition that his niece began and inexplicably has continued after her death. If you subtract computers, geeks, goth girls, nose piercings, motorcycles and dragon tattoos, what we have at the bottom is a classic Agatha Christie plot.

Here are two couples, brought together to talk over a bullying incident between their respective sons. They begin their afternoon with utmost civility and calm, but a mere 80 (real-time) minutes later in Polanski's deliciously nasty Carnage, the Cowans and the Longstreets are at one another's throats. And Alan and Nancy Cowan (Christoph Waltz and Kate Winslet) are going for each other's jugulars, too, as are Michael and Penelope Longstreet (John C. Reilly and Jodie Foster). Allegiances have been shattered, loyalties destroyed. The cozy Brooklyn apartment where their meeting takes place is a literal and figurative disaster area. Waltz especially - as a lawyer with a crisis on his hands (a Big Pharma client in big trouble), he moves from one corner of the Longstreets' place to another, manning his cellphone as if he were alone in the world. His character is clueless, but the German actor of Inglourious Basterds fame - working a decent American accent - is winking all the way. And as Winslet's Nancy casts increasingly anguished, embarrassed looks in her husband's direction (she's beginning to wish he was alone in the world, too), the actress expertly walks that path between truth and farce. Reilly's Michael is the lug of the bunch, a home furnishings wholesaler who cheerfully chats everybody up - until the cracks in his buffoonish facade are exposed. Carnage is about the battle of the sexes, but it's also about class: The Cowans are New York elites, the Longstreets struggling to maintain their middle classiness. (Although their apartment, by New York real estate standards, is decidedly upper tier.) Was Ethan, the Longstreets' 11-year-old, really an innocent victim when he got thwacked in the head by the Cowans' boy? Or was there something about Ethan's station in life, and the sense of entitlement of his aggressor, that casts this schoolboy skirmish in a trickier sociocultural light?

The elderly millionaire Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), cut off from the mainland on the family island, yearns to know how his beloved niece Harriet died 40 years ago. Because apparently neither she nor her body left the island on the day she disappeared, and no trace has ever been found, suspicion rests on those who were there that day, in particular other Vanger relatives whose houses overlook Henrik's from their own isolation. They provide a snaky group of suspects. Many seem involved in corruption. Some have pasts with Nazi connections. Mikael arranges their photos and newspaper clippings and file cards in a collage pinned to a wall and connected with red lines of speculation, but his threads of suspicion seem to lead to … everyone. In this film more than the original, the stories of Mikael and Lisbeth are kept separate for an extended period. We learn about the girl's state-appointed guardian (Yorick van Wageningen), who abused her, stole from her and terrorized her. Her attempts to avenge herself would make a movie of their own. Zaillian's script comes down to a series of fraught scenes between his leads and a distinctive gallery of supporting characters, given weight by Stellan Skarsgard, Robin Wright and the iconic London actor Steven Berkoff. These people inhabit a world with no boring people. By providing Mikael with his own small cottage on the island, Henrik Vanger isolates him in a vulnerable situation, which sinks in as he realizes he's probably sharing the island with a murderer. There's also the problem of why Henrik continues to receive watercolors of wildflowers on his birthday, a tradition that his niece began and inexplicably has continued after her death. If you subtract computers, geeks, goth girls, nose piercings, motorcycles and dragon tattoos, what we have at the bottom is a classic Agatha Christie plot.

Here are two couples, brought together to talk over a bullying incident between their respective sons. They begin their afternoon with utmost civility and calm, but a mere 80 (real-time) minutes later in Polanski's deliciously nasty Carnage, the Cowans and the Longstreets are at one another's throats. And Alan and Nancy Cowan (Christoph Waltz and Kate Winslet) are going for each other's jugulars, too, as are Michael and Penelope Longstreet (John C. Reilly and Jodie Foster). Allegiances have been shattered, loyalties destroyed. The cozy Brooklyn apartment where their meeting takes place is a literal and figurative disaster area. Waltz especially - as a lawyer with a crisis on his hands (a Big Pharma client in big trouble), he moves from one corner of the Longstreets' place to another, manning his cellphone as if he were alone in the world. His character is clueless, but the German actor of Inglourious Basterds fame - working a decent American accent - is winking all the way. And as Winslet's Nancy casts increasingly anguished, embarrassed looks in her husband's direction (she's beginning to wish he was alone in the world, too), the actress expertly walks that path between truth and farce. Reilly's Michael is the lug of the bunch, a home furnishings wholesaler who cheerfully chats everybody up - until the cracks in his buffoonish facade are exposed. Carnage is about the battle of the sexes, but it's also about class: The Cowans are New York elites, the Longstreets struggling to maintain their middle classiness. (Although their apartment, by New York real estate standards, is decidedly upper tier.) Was Ethan, the Longstreets' 11-year-old, really an innocent victim when he got thwacked in the head by the Cowans' boy? Or was there something about Ethan's station in life, and the sense of entitlement of his aggressor, that casts this schoolboy skirmish in a trickier sociocultural light?

The elderly millionaire Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), cut off from the mainland on the family island, yearns to know how his beloved niece Harriet died 40 years ago. Because apparently neither she nor her body left the island on the day she disappeared, and no trace has ever been found, suspicion rests on those who were there that day, in particular other Vanger relatives whose houses overlook Henrik's from their own isolation. They provide a snaky group of suspects. Many seem involved in corruption. Some have pasts with Nazi connections. Mikael arranges their photos and newspaper clippings and file cards in a collage pinned to a wall and connected with red lines of speculation, but his threads of suspicion seem to lead to … everyone. In this film more than the original, the stories of Mikael and Lisbeth are kept separate for an extended period. We learn about the girl's state-appointed guardian (Yorick van Wageningen), who abused her, stole from her and terrorized her. Her attempts to avenge herself would make a movie of their own. Zaillian's script comes down to a series of fraught scenes between his leads and a distinctive gallery of supporting characters, given weight by Stellan Skarsgard, Robin Wright and the iconic London actor Steven Berkoff. These people inhabit a world with no boring people. By providing Mikael with his own small cottage on the island, Henrik Vanger isolates him in a vulnerable situation, which sinks in as he realizes he's probably sharing the island with a murderer. There's also the problem of why Henrik continues to receive watercolors of wildflowers on his birthday, a tradition that his niece began and inexplicably has continued after her death. If you subtract computers, geeks, goth girls, nose piercings, motorcycles and dragon tattoos, what we have at the bottom is a classic Agatha Christie plot.

The elderly millionaire Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), cut off from the mainland on the family island, yearns to know how his beloved niece Harriet died 40 years ago. Because apparently neither she nor her body left the island on the day she disappeared, and no trace has ever been found, suspicion rests on those who were there that day, in particular other Vanger relatives whose houses overlook Henrik's from their own isolation. They provide a snaky group of suspects. Many seem involved in corruption. Some have pasts with Nazi connections. Mikael arranges their photos and newspaper clippings and file cards in a collage pinned to a wall and connected with red lines of speculation, but his threads of suspicion seem to lead to … everyone. In this film more than the original, the stories of Mikael and Lisbeth are kept separate for an extended period. We learn about the girl's state-appointed guardian (Yorick van Wageningen), who abused her, stole from her and terrorized her. Her attempts to avenge herself would make a movie of their own. Zaillian's script comes down to a series of fraught scenes between his leads and a distinctive gallery of supporting characters, given weight by Stellan Skarsgard, Robin Wright and the iconic London actor Steven Berkoff. These people inhabit a world with no boring people. By providing Mikael with his own small cottage on the island, Henrik Vanger isolates him in a vulnerable situation, which sinks in as he realizes he's probably sharing the island with a murderer. There's also the problem of why Henrik continues to receive watercolors of wildflowers on his birthday, a tradition that his niece began and inexplicably has continued after her death. If you subtract computers, geeks, goth girls, nose piercings, motorcycles and dragon tattoos, what we have at the bottom is a classic Agatha Christie plot.

Here are two couples, brought together to talk over a bullying incident between their respective sons. They begin their afternoon with utmost civility and calm, but a mere 80 (real-time) minutes later in Polanski's deliciously nasty Carnage, the Cowans and the Longstreets are at one another's throats. And Alan and Nancy Cowan (Christoph Waltz and Kate Winslet) are going for each other's jugulars, too, as are Michael and Penelope Longstreet (John C. Reilly and Jodie Foster). Allegiances have been shattered, loyalties destroyed. The cozy Brooklyn apartment where their meeting takes place is a literal and figurative disaster area. Waltz especially - as a lawyer with a crisis on his hands (a Big Pharma client in big trouble), he moves from one corner of the Longstreets' place to another, manning his cellphone as if he were alone in the world. His character is clueless, but the German actor of Inglourious Basterds fame - working a decent American accent - is winking all the way. And as Winslet's Nancy casts increasingly anguished, embarrassed looks in her husband's direction (she's beginning to wish he was alone in the world, too), the actress expertly walks that path between truth and farce. Reilly's Michael is the lug of the bunch, a home furnishings wholesaler who cheerfully chats everybody up - until the cracks in his buffoonish facade are exposed. Carnage is about the battle of the sexes, but it's also about class: The Cowans are New York elites, the Longstreets struggling to maintain their middle classiness. (Although their apartment, by New York real estate standards, is decidedly upper tier.) Was Ethan, the Longstreets' 11-year-old, really an innocent victim when he got thwacked in the head by the Cowans' boy? Or was there something about Ethan's station in life, and the sense of entitlement of his aggressor, that casts this schoolboy skirmish in a trickier sociocultural light?

While visiting Paris with his fiancee (McAdams), Hollywood screenwriter Gil (Wilson) dreams of becoming a true writer like his idols, Hemingway and Fitzgerald. Wandering at midnight, he comes upon a street that acts as a portal to 1920s Paris, and consultations with Gertrude Stein, parties with Cole Porter, and encounters with Picasso... and Picasso's beautiful mistress (Cotillard). "In Woody Allen's beguiling and then bedazzling new comedy, nostalgia isn't at all what it used to be -- it's smarter, sweeter, fizzier and ever so much funnier." -Wall Street Journal

Against the electric background of a sleek cafe in a North African port, through which swirls a backwash of connivers, crooks and fleeing European refugees, the Warner Brothers are telling a rich, suave, exciting and moving tale in their new film, "Casablanca," which came to the Hollywood yesterday. They are telling it in the high tradition of their hard-boiled romantic-adventure style. The story, as would be natural, has its devious convolutions of plot. But mainly it tells of a tough fellow named Rick who runs a Casablanca cafe and of what happens (or what happened last December) when there shows up in his joint one night a girl whom he had previously loved in Paris in company with a fugitive Czech patriot. The Nazis are tailing the young Czech; the Vichy officials offer only brief refuge—and Rick holds the only two sure passports which will guarantee his and the girl's escape. But Rick loves the girl very dearly, she is now married to this other man—and whenever his Negro pianist sits there in the dark and sings "As Time Goes By" that old, irresistible feeling consumes him in a choking, maddening wave. Bosley Crowther-New York Times