Movie Capsules: Now showing

Digitally animated "Arthur Christmas" delivers a clever script that kids and parents alike will enjoy.Aardman Animations

Capsule descriptions by The Commercial Appeal movie writer John Beifuss.

OPENING FRIDAY

Into the Abyss (PG-13, 107 min.) See review.

Studio on the Square.

Melancholia (R, 136 min.) See review.

Ridgeway Four.

New Year's Eve (PG-13, 119 min.) In the tradition of "Valentine's Day," an all-star romantic-comedy romp from director Garry Marshall.

CinePlanet 16, Collierville Towne 16, Cordova Cinema, DeSoto Cinema 16, Forest Hill 8, Hollywood 20 Cinema, Majestic, Palace Cinema, Paradiso, Stage Cinema, Studio on the Square, Summer Quartet Drive-In.

The Sitter (R, 82 min.) Smart-aleck college student Jonah Hill is unprepared for the challenges of babysitting.

CinePlanet 16, Collierville Towne 16, Cordova Cinema, DeSoto Cinema 16, Hollywood 20 Cinema, Majestic, Paradiso, Stage Cinema.

SPECIAL MOVIES

The Hidden Fortress (Not rated, 139 min.) Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's 1958 masterpiece about two peasants escorting a princess was a big inspiration on George Lucas's "Star Wars."

7 p.m. Thursday, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. Admission: $8, or $6 for museum members. Visit brooksmuseum.org.

Holiday Inn (Not rated, 100 min.) The dinner-and-a-movie series continues with what may be the most entertaining Christmas movie ever made, the 1942 Bing Crosby-Fred Astaire musical that introduced Irving Berlin's song, "White Christmas."

7 p.m. Sunday, Majestic Grille, 145 S. Main. "Christmas dishes" available along with regular menu. Call 522-8555.

The Metropolitan Opera: Faust (Not rated, 265 min.) Presented live via satellite from New York, a new production of Charles Gounod's 1859 opera about an aging scholar who makes an ill-fated pact with the devil.

11:55 a.m. Saturday, Paradiso. Tickets: $20. Visit malco.com.

New York City Ballet Presents George Balanchine's The Nutcracker (Not rated, 120 min.) A Big Apple holiday tradition and the most famous production of Tchaikovsky's masterpiece in the world is presented live onscreen via satellite from New York.

5 p.m. Tuesday, Paradiso. Tickets: $20, or $16 for children. Visit malco.com.

Tabloid (R, 87 min.) One of the best movies of 2011, this fascinating and funny documentary from Errol Morris revisits a sexy 1977 scandal variously known as "The Case of the Manacled Mormon" and "The Case of the Sex-in-Chains Rapist." But the accused rapist, ex-beauty queen Joyce McKinney, says it's impossible for a woman to rape an unwilling man: "I think that's like putting a marshmallow in a parking meter." A must-see.

2:30 p.m. Saturday, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. Admission: $8, or $6 for museum members. Visit brooksmuseum.org.

The Ultimate Wave Tahiti: Viewers will learn how waves influence and shape our planet while they ride alongside champion surfer Kelly Slater as he challenges Tahiti's toughest wave. Runs through March 2. Tickets $8.25, $7.50 senior citizens, $6.50 children ages 3-12 and children under 3 free.

IMAX Theater at Memphis Pink Palace Museum, 3050 Central. Call (901) 320-6362 for show times, tickets and reservations.

NOW SHOWING

Abduction (PG-13, 106 min.) Taylor Lautner's on the run, and John Singleton's directing.

Bartlett 10.

Anonymous (PG-13, 130 min.) Rhys Ifans, Vanessa Redgrave.

Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8.

Arthur Christmas (PG, 100 min.) This digitally animated holiday bandwagon-jumper lacks the visual charm of the stop-motion Plasticine animation that is the signature of England's Aardman studios; otherwise, it's funny and clever and even moving, as might be expected from the company responsible for "Wallace & Gromit." James McAvoy lends his voice to the title character, Santa's youngest son, an earnest but clumsy lad whose "general aura of seasonal positivity" seems inadequate to the demands of a 21st century "North Pole Mission Control," operated with military efficiency by Santa's brawny No. 1 son, Steve (Hugh Laurie). Directed by Sarah Smith.

CinePlanet 16, Collierville Towne 16 (in 3-D), Cordova Cinema (in 3-D), DeSoto Cinema 16 (in 3-D), Forest Hill 8, Hollywood 20 Cinema (in 3-D), Palace Cinema (in 3-D), Paradiso (in 3-D), Stage Cinema (in 3-D), Summer Quartet Drive-In.

Blackthorn (R, 98 min.) The Spanish team of writer Miguel Baros and director Mateo Gil deliver a south-of-the-equator Western that imagines that Butch Cassidy (Sam Shepard) is alive and well and gray and living in Bolivia in 1927, 19 years after he and his outlaw partner, the Sundance Kid, were supposed to have been gunned down by South American soldiers. Flatly directed and too talky ("I been my own man -- nothing richer than that," Butch comments), the film is worthwhile for its Western pleasures -- the posses, the gunfights, the hoofbeats -- and for its truly stunning Bolivian locations, which range from arid salt flats to lush jungles, from scrubby canyons to snowy mountains. The effortless beauty of these natural vistas is almost a rebuke to those special-effects-oriented filmmakers who prefer green screen to our green planet.

Studio on the Square.

Colombiana (PG-13, 108 min.) Zoe Saldana. Catlike Zoe Saldana is Cataleya (named for an orchid), a vengeful Bogota orphan turned cold-blooded unstoppable killer in the latest saga of female kick-assery from the action-movie assembly line of producer/co-writer Luc Besson ("The Professional," "Nikita").

Bartlett 10, Majestic.

Courageous (PG-13, 130 min.) The faith values of four police officers are challenged.

Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8.

The Descendants (R, 115 min.) A certain contender for most of the major Oscars, the first film in seven years from director Alexander Payne ("Sideways") casts George Clooney as Matt King, a haole (white person in Hawaii) lawyer with royal Hawaiian blood who is facing two terrible deadlines: As trustee, he must determine what to do with his family's "huge parcel of virgin land," worth millions; and as husband, he has to decide when to pull the plug on his comatose wife.

Cordova Cinema, Ridgeway Four.

Dolphin Tale (PG, 113 min.) . Now a celebrity at Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Florida, Winter the bottlenose dolphin plays herself in this intelligently crafted family film, which demonstrates that an injury or disability need not diminish the quality or value of an individual's life, even if that individual breathes through a blowhole on the top of her head.

Bartlett 10.

Dream House (PG-13, 110 min.) Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz.

Majestic.

50/50 (R, 100 min.) Real-life best friends Seth Rogen (actor/producer) and Will Reiser (writer/producer) collaborated on this sincere, honorable and compromised attempt to construct a feel-good cancer movie for dudes and their dates, in contrast to the women-centric disease-of-the-week weepies of Hollywood's past (dubbed "griefsploitation" by one Variety reviewer). Inspired by Reiser's struggle with and triumph over cancer, the film casts Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a nice, cool, good-looking guy who loses none of his attractiveness despite his illness (Roger Ebert calls this "Ali MacGraw's Disease"); Rogen is his lovable-lug buddy, who exploits his pal's condition to gain sympathy and hook up with babes at singles bar.

Bartlett 10.

Footloose (PG-13, 113 min.) Although this music-filled remake of the 1984 hit about a small town that has outlawed public dancing in the wake of a fatal teen car crash is extraordinarily faithful to its somewhat cornball source, writer-director Craig Brewer has made the "Don't Knock the Rock" premise relevant for a post-9/11 generation still struggling with its response to shocking trauma and injury: This time, the adults are not motivated so much by priggishness as by their genuine concern for their children, and the film becomes an examination of the dilemma faced by those in authority when they attempt to honor the dead and protect the living by inhibiting the rights and freedoms of those in their care.

CinePlanet 16, Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8.

Happy Feet Two (PG, 103 min.) Director George Miller's sequel to his 2006 Best Animated Feature Oscar-winner is a rather pointless and plotless disappointment, though it's not entirely flightless: a puffin named Sven (voiced by Hank Azaria) who passes himself off as a flying penguin becomes the idol of the otherwise unhappy Erik (Ava Acres), insecure son of the earlier film's now grown emperor penguin hero, Mumble (Elijah Wood). The movie gives a major role to Memphis kid rapper Lil P-Nut, who supplies the voice of a scene-stealing fat-and-fluffy kid penguin named Atticus, whose take on LL Cool J's "Mama Said Knock You Out" ("Don't call it a comeback!") was a major part of the ad campaign.

CinePlanet 16 (in 3-D), Collierville Towne 16, Cordova Cinema (in 3-D), DeSoto Cinema 16 (in 3-D), Forest Hill 8, Hollywood 20 Cinema, Majestic, Palace Cinema (in 3-D), Paradiso (in 3-D), Stage Cinema, Summer Quartet Drive-In.

The Help (PG-13, 137 min.) This adaptation of Kathryn Stockett's phenomenally successful best-seller about "colored" maids and their white employers in early 1960s Jackson, Miss., is not only superior to the novel but it may be the most surprising movie of the year: a wide-release studio film about race relations that adopts a liberation rather than plantation mentality by suggesting that nothing good can come of a system in which one race controls the destiny of another. It's also one of the funnier movies of the year, with more than a dozen indelible, distinctive characters.

Bartlett 10.

Hugo (PG, 127 min.) Advertised as a children's adventure, Martin Scorsese's first 3D feature might more accurately be described as a love letter to cinema, set in the city of storybook romance, Paris. Even the movie's clockwork automaton is motivated by a symbol of love: It is brought to life by a key shaped like a Valentine's heart. Asa Butterfield stars as Hugo, a young 1930s orphan who lives in hiding in a bustling train station, where he tends the great clocks; aided by a precocious, booksmart girl (Chloë Grace Moretz), he uncovers a mystery involving a toymaker (Ben Kingsley) and a real-life master of cinematic invention and special effects, Georges Méliès.

CinePlanet 16 (in 3-D), Collierville Towne 16 (in 3-D), Cordova Cinema (in 3-D), DeSoto Cinema 16 (in 3-D), Cordova Cinema (in 3-D), DeSoto Cinema 16 (in 3-D), Hollywood 20 Cinema (in 3-D), Palace Cinema (in 3-D), Paradiso (in 3-D), Stage Cinema (in 3-D).

The Ides of March (R, 101 min.) The fourth feature directed by George Clooney follows a bright young political strategist (Ryan Gosling) and his picture-perfect candidate (Clooney, who else?) on the primary campaign trail, where their idealism and integrity inevitably slough away, like snake skins, to be replaced by the parasites of compromise and corruption.

Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8.

Immortals (R, 110 min.) The most unpretentious -- or should that be ridiculous? -- film yet from style-drunk director Tarsem Singh ("The Cell," "The Fall") is also his most enjoyable, a Cuisinart-blended shot of Greek mythology and ultraviolent 3D digital effects that choke the viewer with unrelenting and impractical decor and design. (The gods of Olympus dress like extras from a silent Soviet science-fiction movie.) Mickey Rourke is evil King Hyperion; the next screen Superman, Henry Cavill, is heroic Theseus; Freida Pinto is a virgin oracle; and old-timer John Hurt and hunky Luke Evans are different aspects of Zeus.

CinePlanet 16 (in 3-D), Collierville Towne 16, Cordova Cinema (in 3-D), DeSoto Cinema 16, Forest Hill 8, Hollywood 20 Cinema (in 3-D), Majestic, Palace Cinema (in 3-D), Paradiso (in 3-D), Stage Cinema.

In Time (PG-13, 110 min.) Justin Timberlake is on the run in a future society where the wealthy can become immortal.

Hollywood 20 Cinema, Majestic.

Jack and Jill (PG, 91 min.) Not since Max Baer donned ringlets and petticoats to portray Jethrine Bodine on "The Beverly Hillbillies" has a drag act been as ghastly as the one perpetrated by Adam Sandler in this alternately tasteless and schmaltzy comedy about a privileged Hollywood adman (Sandler) who ultimately learns to love his obnoxious, awkward sister (also Sandler, wearing a long black wig, so he resembles a Bronx Cher worthy of a Bronx cheer).

CinePlanet 16, Collierville Towne 16, Cordova Cinema, DeSoto Cinema 16, Forest Hill 8, Hollywood 20 Cinema, Majestic, Palace Cinema, Paradiso, Stage Cinema, Summer Quartet Drive-In.

J. Edgar (R, 137 min.) Like the ultimately unknowable subject of this ambitious biopic, director Clint Eastwood has spent almost his entire adult being regarded as an icon of law enforcement and often violent justice, and he understands the tension between private life and public image. Convincingly portraying a paranoid septuagenarian as well as an enthusiastic young champion of scientific crime investigation, Leonardo DiCaprio is impressive as longtime FBI director J. Edgar Hoover; Naomi Watts is his loyal secretary, Helen Gandy, while Armie Hammer is FBI associate director Clyde Tolson, who may have been Hoover's lover.

Collierville Towne 16, Cordova Cinema, Paradiso, Studio on the Square, Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8.

Kevin Hart: Laugh at My Pain (R, 89 min.) A comedy concert and documentary.

Majestic.

Margin Call (R, 107 min.) An impressive debut for writer-director J.C. Chandor, this modestly budgeted drama transforms a Manhattan investment bank tower into ground zero for the slow-motion big bang of the 2008 financial crisis, which moviegoers view through the calculating eyes of an inner circle of executives and analysts, played by such worthy Oscar-contenders as Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Stanley Tucci and Zachary Quinto.

Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8.

Midnight in Paris (PG-13, 100 min.) Owen Wilson, Marion Cotillard. A chewy bonbon with a tasty time-travel center, the latest wistful dispatch from writer-director Woody Allen stars Owen Wilson as a Paris-besotted "Hollywood hack" screenwriter with great-novelist aspirations who is transported, as if by magic, to the "Jazz Age" of 1920s Paris, where he meets and befriends his idols (depicted as amusing caricatures), including Picasso, Hemingway and Gertrude Stein (Kathy Bates), who tells him the purpose of making art is "to find an antidote to the emptiness of existence.".

Bartlett 10.

Moneyball (PG-13, 133 min.) A shaggy-haired, crinkle-eyed Brad Pitt plays failed major-leaguer turned harried Oakland Athletics' general manager Billy Beane in this enjoyable but not entirely successful attempt to wrest a feel-good underdog sports movie out of the geeked-out content of "Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game," a 2003 nonfiction best-seller by Michael Lewis (author of "The Blind Side").

Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8.

The Muppets (PG, 109 min.) "As long as there are singing frogs and joking bears... the world can't be such a bad place after all." That's the hopeful philosophy of a pleasant felt-and-foam Muppet-sized individual named Walter (voiced and enacted by puppeteer Peter Linz) in this valiant and worthy Disney attempt to revive the late Jim Henson's distinctive creations for a generation of kids perhaps more familiar with Kim Kardashian and Snooki than with Kermit and Piggy. Co-scripter and über-Muppet fan Jason Segel stars as Walter's best friend and unlikely brother; the duo's physical differences aren't remarked upon except in a rather brilliant existential song, in which the brothers ask themselves: Am I a man? Or am I a Muppet?"

CinePlanet 16, Collierville Towne 16, Cordova Cinema, DeSoto Ciname 16, Forest Hill 8, Hollywood 20 Cinema, Majestic, Palace Cinema, Paradiso, Raleigh Springs Cinema, Stage Cinema, Summer Quartet Drive-In.

My Week with Marilyn (R, 101 min.) Sort of like "Me and Orson Welles" but with a more curvaceous title celebrity, this impeccably produced and thoroughly entertaining backstage show-business yarn examines a few days in the presence of greatness through the eyes of a starstruck young man, Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne), who parlays a job as gofer on the tense set of Laurence Olivier's 1957 production, "The Prince and the Showgirl," into a short-term one-sided love affair with "the most famous woman in the world," Marilyn Monroe. Michelle Williams brings depth and compassion to her performance as Hollywood's tragic blond bombshell, and her sincerity invests the entire film with a sort of grandeur.

Ridgeway Four.

Paranormal Activity 3 (R, 84 min.) A prequel to a prequel, this third and least persuasive film in the low-budget faux found-footage fright franchise adds few new scares.

Hollywood 20 Cinema, Majestic, Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8.

Puss in Boots (PG, 90 min.) The scene-stealing swashbuckling "Shrek" feline (voiced by Antonio Banderas) makes the most of this starring-role spinoff, teaming with rival/romantic interest Kitty Softpaws (Salma Hayek) and treacherous Humpty Dumpty (Zach Galifianakis) to steal the Goose That Lays the Golden Eggs. Unlike most digital cartoon features, this is an utterly unpretentious film devoted almost entirely to comedy and action, with little moralizing; as usual for a DreamWorks production, the animation is stunning. Directed by Chris Miller ("Shrek the Third").

CinePlanet 16, Collierville Towne 16, Cordova Cinema, DeSoto Cinema 16, Hollywood 20 Cinema (in 3-D), Majestic, Palace Cinema (in 3-D), Stage Cinema, Summer Quartet Drive-In.

Real Steel (PG-13, 127 min.) Hugh Jackman stars as a washed-up fighter turned second-rate robot-boxing manager who changes his irresponsible ways after he bonds with his 11-year-old son (Dakota Goyo), a pint-sized gizmo whiz whose salvaged obsolete robot, Atom, becomes a contender -- a symbol of underdog, all-American, grit-and-grind determination in a sport dominated by high-tech, big-money and, yes, foreign arrogance (the champion 'bot, Zeus, is an Asian invention).

Majestic, Wolfchase Galleria Cinema 8.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (PG-13, 105 min.) "Curious George" meets "Splice" (with a dash of "The Yearling" and "Born Free") in this seventh "Apes" film and franchise reboot.

Bartlett 10.

The Smurfs (PG, 103 min.)

Bartlett 10.

Spy Kids: All the Time in the World (PG, 89 min.) Austin-based writer-director- do-it-yourselfer Robert Rodriguez reboots his eight-years-dormant "Spy Kids" franchise with surprisingly entertaining loosey-goosey results; even the sadly inevitable surfeit of puke and poop jokes that accompany the introduction of an infant "Spy Baby" are inoffensive. Now-adult former spy kids Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara return, but the stars are Mason Cook and Rowan Blanchard as a young brother and sister who help their spy mother (Jessica Alba) defeat the time-stealing Tick Tock (Jeremy Piven).

Bartlett 10.

The Three Musketeers (PG-13, 111 min.) The producer of the "Resident Evil" series puts the 3D into D'Artagnan.

Bartlett 10.

Tower Heist (PG-13, 104 min.) This snappy big-budget caper comedy from the much-reviled Brett Ratner ("Rush Hour") casts Ben Stiller as the leader of a motley crew of "clock punchers" -- an elevator operator (Michael Peña), a maid (Gabourey Sidibe), a desk clerk (Casey Affleck) and so on -- who seek revenge on the "Wall Street kingpin" (Alan Alda) who stole their pension fund; Eddie Murphy is the cat burglar enlisted to help the "working stiffs" storm the kingpin's tower penthouse and heist $20 million in cash.

CinePlanet 16, Collierville Towne 16, Cordova Cinema, DeSoto Cinema 16, Forest Hill 8, Hollywood 20 Cinema, Majestic, Palace Cinema, Paradiso, Stage Cinema, Summer Quartet Drive-In.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn -- Part 1 (PG-13, 118 min.) While certain political groups try to push through "Defense of Marriage" legislation and "personhood" amendments, moviegoers and readers vote by the millions in favor of a series that approves of marriage between human and non-human, and that suggests that a vampire or werewolf can be just as worthy of love as a conventional "person." Yet this first chapter of the conclusion of the "Twilight" series also conveys a "pro-life" message, as virgin-no-more Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) insists on carrying to term the bloodsucking, life-threatening half-vampire baby in her belly, the result of her bed-shredding honeymoon with hooded-eyed Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson).

CinePlanet 16, Collierville Towne 16, Cordova Cinema, DeSoto Cinema 16, Forest Hill 8, Hollywood 20 Cinema, Majestic, Paradiso, Stage Cinema, Studio on the Square, Summer Quartet Drive-In.

A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas (R, 90 min.) Now, THIS is why they invented 3D.

Hollywood 20 Cinema.

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