Big screen

Opening Friday

Amour (PG-13) Nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Amour follows the lives of a retired couple in their 80s and what happens when the wife (Oscar-nominated Emmanuelle Riva) suffers a stroke. If it doesn’t break your heart, you haven’t got one.

Parker (R) You see the name “Jason Statham” and think: “Dumb, violent action.” But this heist movie comes with an impressive pedigree (it’s based on a Donald Westlake novel and directed by Taylor Hackford of Ray fame). Statham plays a criminal with a code of ethics who gets screwed over by his accomplices and decides to set things right. Blood ensues.

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (PG-13) This version of the fairy tale recasts brother and sister (Jeremy Renner, Gemma Arterton) as bounty hunters. Surely it’s only a matter of time before the release of Sleeping Beauty: Vampire Slayer.

Quartet (PG-13) In this Dustin Hoffman-directed comedy, a diva (the great Maggie Smith) interrupts the celebration of Verdi’s birthday at a home for retired opera singers. Everyone who loved Best Exotic Marigold Hotel just swooned.

Movie 43 (R) Three kids search the Internet to discover the most banned movie in the world. It should have been Rock of Ages.

Connie Ogle

Small screen

The Following (9 p.m. Monday, WSVN-Fox 7) Kevin Bacon plays a weary FBI agent and James Purefoy his taunting serial-killer quarry in this knockout thriller. See full review on page 1M.

The Taste (8 p.m. Tuesday, ABC ) So you think you can dance? Well, how about cook? Anthony Bourdain and other celebrity-chef judges spit out the swill served them, bellow at contestants and hopefully somebody gets boiled like a lobster.

Necessary Roughness (10 p.m. Wednesday, USA Network) The focus is on sport therapist Dani Santino’s potentially fatal attraction to bad-boy detective Nico Careles as this entertaining blend of jock humor and domestic drama opens a five-episode winter mini-season.

Spartacus: War of the Damned (9 p.m. Friday, Starz) As usual, there are blood and boobs galore as this final season of this sword-and-sandals tale of a slave insurrection in ancient Rome gets under way.

Glenn Garvin

Let Miami Herald TV critic Glenn Garvin program your TiVo! Just click on his best bets for the week at http://www3.tivo.com/tivo-tco/mix/index.do