THE DESCENDANTS (R)

Family man’s world turned upside-down

“What is it about the women in my life that makes them want to destroy themselves?” ponders Matt King, the protagonist and narrator of The Descendants. The fact that the character is played by George Clooney should not go unnoticed. Here is an actor who continually goes against type — this time, he’s a cuckold — and yet never seems miscast. He’s a giant movie star with the talent to match. And in the hands of writer-director Alexander Payne, Clooney has rarely seemed so much at home.

ARTHUR CHRISTMAS (PG)

Santa tale falls flat

The best stuff in Arthur Christmas comes early, during a terrific prologue that reveals how Santa Claus is able to fly around the world and distribute two billion Christmas gifts in the course of a single night (instead of a sleigh, Santa uses a gigantic red spaceship, and he’s helped by an army of elves as skilled as Navy SEALS.)

HUGO (PG)

Scorsese pays homage in 3D beauty

If the idea of Martin Scorsese directing a children’s film — in 3D, no less! — intrigues you in the slightest, then run, don’t walk, to see Hugo, and bring the family. But to write off this dreamy, overwhelmingly beautiful movie as mere kid’s stuff would be an injustice. This adaptation of Brian Selznick’s illustrated children’s book The Invention of Hugo Cabret (John Logan wrote the screenplay) is as much of a personal Scorsese picture as Raging Bull or Taxi Driver. In some ways, this could be his most heartfelt movie.

Pedro Almodovar ventures into new territory with ‘The Skin I Live In’

The Oscar-winning filmmaker from Spain reunites with Antonio Banderas for his first horror film.

Commentary

Hey, Hollywood: Stop spoiling our movies

The two most meaningless words in Hollywood today are “spoiler alert.”

The Way (PG-13)

The Way (PG-13)

Emilio Estevez wrote, directed and took a supporting role in The Way, an easygoing road picture that plays right into his father Martin Sheen’s wheelhouse.

Love Crime (Unrated)

Love Crime

The sleek French thriller Love Crime accomplishes a staggering amount, without much fuss, in its first two minutes.

Mysteries of Lisbon (Unrated) 1/2

Mysteries of Lisbon (Unrated)

Mysteries of Lisbon is a sprawling 19th century novel filtered through the mind of a trickster filmmaker, the late Ral Ruiz, who delights in and subverts his wildly complex and melodramatic source material.

Real Steel (PG-13) 1/2

Real Steel (PG-13)

Real Steel dresses up a bad idea — robots boxing — with all the computer effects and heavy-metal action that Hollywood can buy. But that doesn’t cover up the fact that it’s a bad idea. Really bad.

Machine Gun Preacher (R)

Machine Gun Preacher (R)

Its grindhouse title notwithstanding, Machine Gun Preacher is a genuine drama. While there are a few scenes that could fit in a Rambo movie, the film intelligently explores the impact of religious conversion on a man of explosive impulses.

The Weird World of Blowfly (Unrated)

The Weird World of Blowfly (Unrated)

Clarence Reid was the name spinning at 45 revolutions per minute as a cowriter of classic made-in-Miami ’70s soul records by Betty Wright ( Clean Up Woman), Gwen McRae ( Rockin’ Chair) and KC and the Sunshine Band ( Sound Your Funky Horn.)

The Tree (Unrated) 1/2

The Tree (Unrated)

A poetic tale of loss and starting over, Julie Bertuccelli’s The Tree centers on its title character: an enormous, sprawling fig tree that stands by the home of the O’Neil family in the Australian countryside.

50/50 (R) 1/2

50/50 (R)

As a rule, movies in which a main character is diagnosed with cancer are dramas; nobody really wants to laugh too hard and long when Death sticks his ugly nose into the business of the living. Sure, the classic weeper Terms of Endearment tried to lighten the mood by adding a devilish Jack Nicholson character who wasn’t in the book, but he’s not what you remember about the film. What you remember is Debra Winger saying goodbye to her little boys and Shirley MacLaine screaming for morphine and how you had to sit in the theater until the end credits were over because you were embarrassed that your eyes were so red from weeping.

What’s Your Number? (R) 1/2

What’s Your Number? (R)

There aren’t many romantic comedies in which the heroine loudly proclaims, “I’m a jobless whore!” But as the amusing if silly What’s Your Number? proves, things have changed. This isn’t your mother’s clean-cut romcom with only a chaste smooch at the end, although it shares many of the properties required of such movies: the planning of a wedding; a protagonist who can’t see the man of her dreams even though he lives right across the hall and is hot enough to cause spontaneous combustion; a super-cute funky apartment the heroine couldn’t possibly afford; the race across town to declare true feelings.

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‘Citizen Kane, ‘Ben-Hur’ back in Blu

The classic films ‘Citizen Kane’ and ‘Ben-Hur’ have been restored for September Blu-ray release.

Dolphin Tale (PG) 1/2

Dolphin Tale (PG)

The story of how Winter, a New Smyrna Beach dolphin, lost her tail and became the star attraction of the Clearwater Aquarium becomes an adorable kids’ film in Dolphin Tale.

I Don’t Know How She Does It (PG-13) 1/2

I Don’t Know How She Does It (PG-13)

A film in which a busy working mother frets over bringing a store-bought pie to a school bake sale could quite fairly be accused of focusing exclusively on First World problems. But then, if you’re reading this, chances are you live a First World life and so may appreciate the juggling act required of the working moms in the domestic comedy I Don’t Know How She Does It.

Brighton Rock (Unrated)

Brighton Rock (Unrated)

Brighton Rock is beautiful and visually accomplished yet numbingly bleak and ultimately unpleasant and unexciting. A certain sordidness is inevitable given the seedy ambience of the celebrated Graham Greene novel (on which the movie is based) about the rise and fall of a British boy gangster prone to the worst kind of ruthless behavior. But history tells us this film’s air of sluggish, heavy going could have been avoided.

Contagion (PG-13)

Contagion (PG-13)

The most terrifying movie of the year is not about zombies or aliens or vampires or serial killers. It’s about truly scary things: ATMs. Handrails. Doorknobs. Cash. Handshakes. Water fountains. Elevator buttons. Restaurants. Casinos. Movie theaters.

Higher Ground (R)

Higher Ground (R)

The delicate and deeply personal divide between faith and doubt is difficult examine on film without tipping the scales too far one way or the other, but in her debut movie Higher Ground actress-turned-director Vera Farmiga proves she’s up to the challenge. Farmiga ( Up in the Air) stars in the film, too, as Corinne, a young woman who grows up to embrace a small religious community only to find her beliefs wavering as she grows older. Farmiga is terrific, but her clear vision as a director and her ability to play fair with believers and skeptics alike provides the balance and insight needed to ground the film in thoughtful reality.

Inside Out (PG-13)

Inside Out (PG-13)

World Wrestling Entertainment’s brief flirtation with family-friendly films has ended. But the residue of this effort sticks to Inside Out, a half-hearted return to the violent-men-of-the-ring-doing-violent-things-on-the-screen model that predated the PG years. WWE refuses to abandon its efforts to turn one of its stars into the next Rock or Hulk Hogan, a crossover phenomenon who can carry movies and TV shows, and not just other wrestlers and folding chairs.

Miami-themed movie Scarface gets new, high-def look

On Tuesday, a Blu-ray version of the classic movie Scarface, filmed in Miami and starring Al Pacino as a Mariel refugee, will be released. It goes for about $35.

Life in a Day (PG-13)

Life in a Day (PG-13)

Life in a Day is like a man-on-the-street interview gone insanely and inventively viral. Carved out of cyber-reality and global in reach, this fast-paced documentary is shaped as much by Internet savvy as traditional filmmaking, which doesn’t make the experience of it any less satisfying or the implications any less provocative.

Seven Days in Utopia (G)

Seven Days in Utopia (G)

In Seven Days in Utopia, a mild-mannered young golfer has a mild meltdown in the middle of a tournament. That’s followed by seven days of perspective-patching among mild-mannered God-fearing folk in rural Texas. Faith and “fore” walk hand in hand — sort of — in this soft-centered faith-based drama starring Lucas Black of Friday Night Lights, Get Low and Jarhead.