Reel Review

What’s Inside: A black ops super soldier seeks payback after she is betrayed and set up during a mission.

Wrapping It Up: Haywire is one fresh film that only Gina Carano can deliver. She is no special actress but she can sure deliver actioon scenes well. Even in the midst fighting off a battalion of protective-gear-clad law enforcement officers, Carano has a businesslike confidence. This is fierce and ferocious, filled with relentless, kinetic, if senseless, violent mayhem.

What’s Inside: A crew of African American pilots in the Tuskegee training program, having faced segregation while kept mostly on the ground during World War II, are called into duty under the guidance of Col. A.J. Bullard.

Wrapping It Up: Red Tails has the best of intentions, an excellent cast, and thrilling battle footage. However, the scenes on the ground are not well written and actually was a waste of a lot of potenial. There was just to many cliches that it somehow lost the heart of the film.

Reel Review

What’s Inside: Two pairs of parents hold a cordial meeting after their sons are involved in a fight, though as their time together progresses, increasingly childish behavior throws the evening into chaos.

Wrapping It Up: This comedy-drama featuring four outstanding performances is bitter and uncompromising. The director, Roman Polanski, knows exactly how to interact the different characters with proper dialogue and pace. Although the film is masterfully orchestrated, there is much potential.

What’s Inside: To protect his brother-in-law from a drug lord, a former smuggler heads to Panama to score millions of dollars in counterfeit bills.

Wrapping It Up: Contraband is a standard heist thriller, a composite of knock-offs but the quality is pretty high. This is an entertaining, fast-paced thriller with good performances by a fine cast. It is a gritty, exciting film, with some cool action sequences and a cathartic conclusion.

What’s Inside: In Italy, a woman becomes involved in a series of unauthorized exorcisms during her mission to discover what happened to her mother, who allegedly murdered three people during her own exorcism.

Wrapping It Up: The Devil Inside has the amateur acting, writing and directing but one would not guess the nonsensical ending coming. For a film marketed as a horror film, this film lacked the adrenaline heart stopping scares. The entire movie’s pace is also slow and badly editted. This might be one of the most disapointing horror movie there is.

Reel Review

What’s Inside: During the final days at the Yankee Pedlar Inn, two employees determined to reveal the hotel’s haunted past begin to experience disturbing events as old guests check in for a stay.

Wrapping It Up: ‘The Innkeepers‘ makes up for its low budget and even lower body count with an excellent cast. The scares are light and fun, not deep horrific terror. However admirable the director’s formal intentions, the movie itself is kind of dull.

Reel Review

What’s Inside: A nine-year-old amateur inventor, Francophile, and pacifist searches New York City for the lock that matches a mysterious key left behind by his father, who died in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

Wrapping It Up: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is an extraordinary and life-affirming movie that packs a wrenching emotional wallop. This powerful drama is not perfect but is packed with important themes, fine acting and emotional tugs. Anyone who can relate to loss, longing and hoe should watch this.

Reel Review

What’s Inside: Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick Dr. Watson join forces to outwit and bring down their fiercest adversary, Professor Moriarty.

Wrapping It Up: Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is infinitely more watchable than its predecessor, with Downey, Law and, now, Fry all on top form. Yet McAdams is sorely missed. Although there were significant improvement, the script is still bland.

Reel Review

What’s Inside: Young Albert enlists to service in WWI after his beloved horse, Joey, is sold to the cavalry. Albert’s hopeful journey takes him out of England and across Europe as the war rages on.

Wrapping It Up: Steven Spielberg works his magic and brings another heartwarming drama to the screen. This wholesome, almost great war movie is one film you can watch with your mothers or grandparents without offending anyone. Despite the long running time, this is a solid film exceptionally well made with a masterful score, beautiful cinematography and superb acting.

Reel Review

What’s Inside: The IMF is shut down when it’s implicated in the bombing of the Kremlin, causing Ethan Hunt and his new team to go rogue to clear their organization’s name.

Wrapping It Up: Director Brad Bird fresh take on the celebrated franchise gives breathless energy, tremendous excitement and, above all, humor to what could have been a wearying genre exercise. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is top-notch action movie complete with Tom Cruise’s dazzling stunts and majestic international scenery. This is one of the best action movies this year.

Reel Review

What’s Inside: Soon after her divorce, a fiction writer returns to her home in small-town Minnesota, looking to rekindle a romance with her ex-boyfriend, who is now married with kids.

Wrapping It Up: Young Adult may be the year’s most engaging feel-bad movie. Charlize Theron is excellent in the central role and she embraces the messiness and discomfort of the movie. Juno writer, Diablo Cody once again reveals herself as a talented writer with a flair for sharp humor and a keen sense of originality. Young Adult one of the freshest and most original movies we have now.

Reel Review

What’s Inside: In New York City, Brandon’s carefully cultivated private life — which allows him to indulge his sexual addiction — is disrupted when his sister Cissy arrives unannounced for an indefinite stay.

Wrapping It Up: One of the year’s best, thanks to a dynamite performance from Michael Fassbender and an aesthetic and storytelling approach that are boldly, refreshingly unconventional. It’s a thought-provoking movie that requires you to meet it halfway.

Reel Review

What’s Inside: When the world’s most irresponsible babysitter takes three of the world’s worst kids on an unforgettable overnight adventure through the streets of New York City, it’s anyone’s guess who’s going to make it home in one piece.

Wrapping It Up: The Sitter is a film with a less repugnant comedy. The script is not so good, with things happening without reason and without charm. It may be dull and instantly forgettable. It is just a disappointing film and not recommended to bring your kids along. Perhaps the only good thing in the film is the excellent acting delivered by actor Sam Rockwell.

Reel Review

What’s Inside: The lives of several couples and singles in New York intertwine over the course of New Year’s Eve. New Year’s Eve celebrates love, hope, forgiveness, second chances and fresh starts, in the intertwining stories told amidst the pulse and promise of New York City on the most dazzling night of the year.

Wrapping It Up: While the film is generally uninvolving, New Year’s Eve is a nice, moral and family-oriented film. It is an assembly of more than two dozen stars in a movie and find nothing interesting for any of them to do. Although it is pleasant and harmless, the script, plot is bland and predictable.

Reel Review

What’s Inside: With the help of three fans, Walter (performed by Peter Linz), the world’s biggest Muppet fan, and his brother Gary (Jason Segel) and Gary’s girlfriend Mary (Amy Adams) must raise $10 million to save the Muppet Theater from Tex Richman (Chris Cooper), a businessman who plans to demolish the Muppet Theater to drill for oil. The Muppets must reunite to save their old theater from a greedy oil tycoon.

Wrapping It Up: The Muppets marks a triumphant return for these beloved characters. This movie will make you feel good all over. The Muppets is a triumph of simplicity, innocence and goofy jokes. In today’s world of immorality, violence and sex, it is sometimes nice to look back at how simple pleasures were enjoyable and fulfilling. Hopefully, today’s generation will also fall in love with the Muppets.

Reel Review:

What’s Inside: Set in Southern California, a father moves his young family to the countryside to renovate and re-open a struggling zoo.

Wrapping It Up: ‘We Bought A Zoo’ is a lovely, delicate and heartwarming film. Director Cameron Crowe mixes the right blend of crowd pleasing moments but still maintains the strong appeal of drama and character. The film may run a little long, but it will warm your heart. It is absolutely worth seeing with your family this holiday season.

Reel Review

What’s Inside: On Christmas night at the North Pole, Santa’s youngest son looks to use his father’s high-tech operation for an urgent mission.

Wrapping It Up: Arthur Christmas is another movie yet to give laughs and tears at the same time. Everything you see in this film is fashioned in the service of telling a story brilliantly. The script is clever and successfully updates many Christmas myths and dialogue that crackles with excellent humor. This movie offers the kind of pre-holiday experience that parents and children alike will appreciate. For sure, Arthur Christmas an early holiday gift.

What’s Inside: A young cop is assigned to a precinct in the working class neighborhood where he grew up, and an old secret threatens to destroy his life and his family.

Wrapping It Up: “The Son of No One” is a complex, unpredictable and exhilarating crime thriller that’s suspenseful and captivating. Although the movie’s pacing is slow, director Dito Montiel knows how to combine scenes to make it exciting. The cast delivers their acting well but it could have been more.