Kenneth Branagh relaunches the spy-movie franchise with an origins story that balances the smart, the serious and the silly
Review
Against Hercules, Box-Office Disaster 47 Ronin Is the More Winning Flop
The Greek myth movie follows Keanu Reeves’ (not so bad) samurai drama into a black hole of epic underachievers
Spike Jonze’s her: Falling Seriously in Love with Siri
This story of a lonely man and the voice of his OS is the year’s sweetest, smartest romantic comedy
August: Osage County: Stumbling on the Road to Oscar
Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts and a Pulitzer-winning drama can’t guarantee Harvey Weinstein a carload of Academy Awards
Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones: Familiar Scares With a Salsa Tang
A livelier setting rejuvenates the old found-footage formula
The Wolf of Wall Street: Scorsese and DiCaprio Fall for the Big Con
For your holiday pleasure: three hours of swindling and snorting, blind to the victims of a stock-market scam
Ralph Fiennes’ The Invisible Woman: Dickens in Love
Pursuing an affair with a much younger woman, the great novelist is both seducer and slave
Lone Survivor: Why Are We in Afghanistan?
Mark Wahlberg stars in Peter Berg’s fact-based action film — a military tragedy with a happy ending
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty: Ben Stiller’s Dream of Life
This sweet romantic comedy about a moony guy and his dream girl is also a tribute to anyone who believes that a good job is worth doing well
Anchorman 2: A Modest White Burgundy
The sequel to the 2004 comedy hit — in which San Diego’s KVWN news team of the ’70s is brought to a 24-hour news channel in New York City of the ’80s — is amusing but insubstantial
Tyler Perry’s A Madea Christmas: How Low Can You Go?
In this multiracial fable, America’s sassiest drag queen gets the holiday spirit, but it’s not contagious
Saving Mr. Banks: When Movies Lie and Make You Cry
Tom Hanks is Walt Disney, and Emma Thompson author P.L. Travers, in this soapy but potent fiction about the making of the ‘Mary Poppins’ movie
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug: It Lives!
Peter Jackson’s middle episode of his Middle Earth saga revs up the action, the peril and the wonder