ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS: THE SQUEAKQUEL 2 stars. If you can read this, you're probably too old for this live-action sequel featuring the famously cute singing furballs. With Zachary Levi and David Cross. 1 hr. 28 PG (some crude humor) - David Hiltbrand

AMELIA 3 stars. The role of pioneer aviatrix Amelia Earhart (1897-1937), who broke records, hearts and boundaries, fits Hilary Swank like a jumpsuit. Richard Gere co-stars in the evocative film from Mira Nair. 1 hr. 51 PG (discreet sensuality) - Carrie Rickey

ASTRO BOY 2 stars. Slick, stylish CG-animated take on the vintage Japanese TV 'toon, but as robotic as its boy hero. With the voices of Nicolas Cage, Charlize Theron, Kristen Bell, and with Freddie Highmore as the kid with rockets in his feet. 1 hr. 34 PG (cartoon violence, kids and 'bots in jeopardy) - Steven Rea

AVATAR 3 1/2 stars. James Cameron's mega-expensive, technological marvel is also a whole lot of fun: A gamer generation's "Dances With Wolves," with a human soldier (and his avatar) falling in love with a blue-skinned alien from the planet Pandora 2 hr. 42 PG-13 (violence, aggressive action, alien beasts, adult themes) - Steven Rea

BAD LIEUTENANT: PORT OF CALL NEW ORLEANS 3 stars. Werner Herzog's film about a corrupt, drug-addled cop is a one-of-a-kind experience that boasts a ridiculously entertaining performance from Nicolas Cage. 2 hrs. 02 R (drugs, violence, sexual violence, sexuality, profanity) - Carrie Rickey

THE BLIND SIDE 2 1/2. Sandra Bullock stars as a Southern woman who takes a destitute teen into her home. Based on a true story, it's part sports saga, all tearjerker. 2 hrs. 08. PG-13 (violence; drug and sex references) - David Hiltbrand

THE BOOK OF ELI 3 stars. Albert and Allen Hughes' haunting and inspirational allegory is framed like a spaghetti Western. It stars Denzel Washington as a pilgrim of the post-apocalypse fighting cannibals and scavengers in order to carry out a holy mission. With Gary Oldman and Mila Kunis. 1 hr. 58 R (extreme violence, implied cannibalism) - Carrie Rickey

BROKEN EMBRACES 3 stars. Pedro Almodovar melodrama (or do you say meta-drama?) about a movie director (Lluis Homar) in love with his star (Penelope Cruz), who is the mistress of the industrialist financing his film. 2 hrs. 07 R (nudity, sex, melancholy) - Carrie Rickey

BROTHERS 3 1/2 stars. Jake Gyllenhaal, Tobey Maguire and Natalie Portman deliver the best work of their careers in this keenly observed and heartbreaking remake of the 2004 Danish film about a soldier gone to war, and the wife and black-sheep brother he leaves behind. 1 hr. 55 R (violence, scenes of torture, sex, profanity, adult themes) - Steven Rea.

COLD SOULS 3 stars. Paul Giamatti stars as Paul Giamatti in this surrealist existential comedy about an unhappy actor who gets his soul extracted to unburden himself, only to bring new burdens - and intrigue, and the Russian mob - into his life. 1 hr. 41 PG-13 (nudity, profanity, adult themes) - Steven Rea

COUPLES RETREAT 2 stars. A tropical vacation turns out to be a relationship workshop for four couples. Vince Vaughn, Malin Akerman, Kristen Bell and Faizon Love are part of a large cast in a skimpy comedy that is more adult than its rating indicates. 1 hr. 47. PG-13 (profanity, sexual content, rude humor). - David Hiltbrand

CRAZY HEART 4 stars. Jeff Bridges delivers an Oscar-worthy - no, Oscar-required - performance as a whiskey-soaked one-time country legend tryinmg to put his life back together in this sublime American indie. Maggie Gyllenhaal, Robert Duvall and an uncredited Colin Farrell all ofer up memorable turns. A low-key, down-home gem. 1 hr. 51 R (profanity, alcohol abuse, adult themes) - Steven Rea

DARE 2 1/2 stars. This steamy, teen-angst drama stars Emmy Rossum and Zack Gilford as high-school seniors experimenting with their sexuality and nascent sexual power. 1 hr. 30 R (teen sexuality, teen drinking) - Carrie Rickey

DAYBREAKERS 3 stars. Ethan Hawke and Willem Dafoe go slumming in an entertainingly cheesy, dark and gory futuristic vampire thriller - about a world where vampires rule, but where their lifeblood - literally, human blood - is in dangerously short supply. 1 hr. 38 R (violence, gore, action, profanity, adult themes) - Steven Rea

DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE MORGANS? 1 1/2 stars. Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker as unhappily married Manhattanites who witness a murder and are remanded to witness protection. So mirthless that you'll want to enroll in a witless-protection program. 1 hr. 43 PG-13 (sexual references, threats of violence) - Carrie Rickey

AN EDUCATION 3 1/2 stars. A disarming and unexpectedly poignant story set in 1961 of a dreamy, Oxford-bound 16-year-old (enchanting Carey Mulligan) who takes up with a sophisticated older man (Peter Sarsgaard). pungently realized by filmmaker Lone Scherfig from the memoir by Lynn Barber. 1 hr. 35 PG-13 (discreet sexual content, smoking) - Carrie Rickey

EVERYBODY'S FINE 3 stars. Billed as a fuzzy family comedy, this prickly weeper stars Robert De Niro in his best role in a decade, as a widower trying to reconnect with his far-flung children. His is a minimalist performance with maximum emotional impact. 1 hr. 40 PG-13 (mature themes, profanity, sexual candor) - Carrie Rickey

FANTASTIC MR. FOX 3 stars. The fur flies in Wes Anderson's stop-motion animation gem about an erudite predator and his burrowing brood. With the voices of George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman and Bill Murray, this adaptation of a Roald Dahl book is the best animated film of the year, and maybe the best film, period. 1 hr. 27 PG (cartoon violence, "cussin," adult themes) - Steven Rea

THE IMAGINARIUM OF DR. PARNASSUS 3 stars. Kaleidoscope meets calliope in Terry Gilliam's carnivalesque tale of a magician (Christopher Plummer) who may lose his magic (and his daughter) to the devil. With Heath Ledger (in his last screen role). 2 hrs. 02 PG-13 (violence, sensuality, profanity, smoking) - Carrie Rickey

INVICTUS 3 stars. Rousing sports inspirational starring Morgan Freeman as newly-elected South African president Nelson Mandela, who seizes upon the gladiatorial game of rugby to unify angry blacks and scared whites in his nation after the fall of apartheid. With Matt Damon. 2 hrs. 14 PG-13 (profanity) - Carrie Rickey

IT'S COMPLICATED 3 stars. Meryl Streep as the hypotenuse in a romantic triangle with her ex-husband (Alec Baldwin) and an architect (Steve Martin) in Nancy Meyers' sprightly fairy tale for adults. R (pot-smoking, Baldwin's naked pot belly) - Carrie Rickey

LEAP YEAR 2 stars. Ho-hum rom-com starring Amy Adams as a marriage-minded American and Matthew Goode as the Irishman who escorts her and her luggage to Dublin so she can propose to her longtime beau. 1 hr. 37 PG (brief sensuality) - Carrie Rickey

THE LOVELY BONES 1 1/2 stars. Peter Jackson's woefully misguided adaptation of the Alice Sebold novel about a 14-year-old girl raped and murdered - and who then looks down from the heavens as her parents grapple with grief, and her killer covers his tracks. The kitschy digital rendering of the girl's after-life world is jarringly at odds with the earthbound drama going on. 2 hrs. 15 PG-13 (violence, disturbing images, profanity, adult themes) - Steven Rea

THE MAID 3 stars. Offbeat (and deadpan) comedy about a longtime domestic serving a Chilean clan. Is she a member of the family or a fixture inanimate as the kitchen sink? 1 hr. 35 No MPAA rating (nudity, sexual candor) - Carrie Rickey

ME AND ORSON WELLES 3 1/2 stars. Richard Linklater's spirited reimagining of what went on with charismatic madman Orson Welles as he and his Mercury Players mounted their historic production of Julius Ceasar in 1930s New York - before Citizen Kane was even a gleam in his eye. Christian McKay, as the young, blustery Welles, is riveting. With Zac Efron and Claire Danes. 1 hr. 54 PG-13 (sex, adult themes) - Steven Rea.

NINE 2 1/2 stars. Ron Marshall's film inspired by the 1983 Broadway musical in turn based on the 1962 Federico Fellini movie about a director in crisis. Daniel Day-Lewis is spidery fun as the central filmmaker, but Marshall's staging of the numbers has the effect of an overwrought girlie show. PG-13 (erotically suggestive dancing and musical lyrics) - Carrie Rickey

OLD DOGS 2 1/2 stars. Predictable plot workaholics John Travolta and Robin Williams are tapped to be caregivers for seven year-old twins - unpredictable turns in this brisk, family-friendly comedy as broad as the waistlines of its stars. 1 hr. 28 PG (bathroom humor, below-the-belt jokes) - Carrie Rickey

PLANET 51 2 stars. Machine-tooled computer animated feature that should satisfy undiscriminating pipsqueaks and nearly no one else. It's a low-IQ "E.T." in reverse, set on a faraway planet that looks like the "Happy Days" set, where a wayward American astronaut freaks out the antenna-headed locals. 1 hr. 28 PG (mild scares, cartoon violence) - Steven Rea

PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL "PUSH" BY SAPPHIRE 3 stars. Harrowing, and with heroic performances from Gabourey Sidibe and Mo'Nique as a 16-year-old and her abusive mother, Lee Daniels' film takes the audience from a girl's dehumanization to a life of purpose. 1 hr. 50 R (profanity, sexual abuse, physical abuse) - Carrie Rickey

THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG 3 1/2 stars. This jazzy, pizazzy and enchanting Disney animated musical of the old-school, hand-drawn style features a scrappy new-school heroine - one who is both self-made and prince-completed. Anika Noni Rose is the voice of Tiana, a hard-working waitress hoping to save enough tips to buy her own restaurant, and Bruno Campos is a Mediterranean prince who steps into some deep voodo when he disembarks in 1919 New Orleans. 1 hr. 37 G (some scary ghosts, may be too intense for viewers under 7) - Carrie Rickey

RED CLIFF 3 1/2 stars. John Woo's awesome historical epic describes a storied third century Chinese conflict in bold, breath-taking ways. A magnificent war movie about the powers or man, the forces of nature, and the art of cinema spectacle. 1 hr. 55 R (violence, adult themes) - Steven Rea

REVANCHE 3 1/2 stars. A 2009 foreign language Oscar nominee, this slow-burning Austrian thriller - about a prostitute, her ex-con boyfriend and a robbery gone awry - offers a character-rich study in desperation, grief, vengeance, loyalty and love. A fine, sad, suspenseful film. 2 hrs. 01 No MPAA rating (violence, sex, nudity, drugs, adult themes) - Steven Rea

THE ROAD 3 stars. Taut and haunting adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, with Viggo Mortensen and newcomer Kodi Smit-McPhee as a father and son trudging across a post-apocalyptic America, struggling desperately to survive. 1 hr. 53 R (violence, gore, profanity, menace, dread, adult themes) - Steven Rea

SHERLOCK HOLMES 2 stars. Conan Doyle's famous consulting detective has Attention Deficit Disorder in Guy Ritchie's clamoring, breathless, turn-of-the(last)-century action movie. Robert Downey Jr., ripped and ready with the glib riposte, is Holmes, and Jude Law his bland Dr. Watson. The Holmes-as-action-hero conceit could have been fun, if anyone had thought to write a screenplay that made sense. 2 hrs. 08 PG-13 (action, violence, adult themes) - Steven Rea

A SINGLE MAN 2 1/2 stars. Colin Firth gives a strong, seriously melancholy performance as a grieving gay English professor in 1962 L.A., but fashion-designer-turned-director Tom Ford's debut is too beautiful for its own good. 1 hr. 39 R (sex, profanity, adult themes) - Steven Rea

THE SLAMMIN' SALMON 1 star. A raucous and utterly pointless romp set in a seafood restaurant and brought to you by the Broken Lizard comedy troupe. Check please. 1 hr. 33 R (profanity, sexual references, raunchy humor). - David Hiltbrand

THE SPY NEXT DOOR 2 1/2 stars. Genial family comedy starring Jackie Chan as a Chinese agent on loan to the CIA when he falls for neighbor Amber Valletta courts her three high-maintenance children. At 55, the rubber-jointed Chan still has bounce, likewise his movie. 1 hr. 32 PG (mild action violence) - Carrie Rickey

2012 2 1/2 stars. Roland Emmerich sure knows how to make a doomsday movie with a happy ending. This preposterously diverting film starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, John Cusack, and Danny Glover is a wild ride that says, it's OK if eight billion die as long as eight movie stars - and the dog - live. 2 hrs. 28 PG-13 (intense disaster and destruction, profanity, children and dogs in peril) - Carrie Rickey

UP IN THE AIR 4 stars. As the frequent-flying "career transition counselor" (read: the suave bully you hire when you're scared to fire employees) George Clooney gives the performance of his career. Jason Reitman's movie is perfectly tailored to the star's melancholy twinkle and purring motormouth. With the sublime Vera Farmiga and quirky Anna Kendrick. 1 hr. 48 R (language, sexual content) - Carrie Rickey

THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON 3 stars. Swoony love triangle plus swoopy camerawork equals this abstinence-makes-the-heart-grow-fondler adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's young-adult romance novel. With angst-princess Kirsten Stewart, passion prince Robert Pattinson and studmuffin Taylor Lautner. 2 hrs. 10 PG-13 (girl in peril, threats of terror, vampire and werewolf violence) - Carrie Rickey

UNDER THE SEA 3 stars. A giant-screen 40-minute extravaganza shot in the Coral Triangle of Papua New Guinea and in the waters of Southern Australia and the Great Barrier Reef, this Imax project teems with creatures that are bizarre, beautiful, and other-worldly. Narrated by a mercifully restrained Jim Carrey. 35 mins. G (fish-on-fish violence) - Steven Rea

VISUAL ACOUSTICS 3 stars. Dustin Hoffman narrates this charming portrait of Julius Shulman, the architectural photographer who shot buildings like they were movie stars, finding their best angle and immortalizing them. 1 hr. 24 No MPAA rating (documentary about architectural photographer) - Carrie Rickey

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE 3 stars. Spike Jonze dares to adapt Maurice Sendak's sublime and scary children's book classic, and conjures up a satisfyingly moody, melancholy, madcap live-action romp. No masterpiece, but it's a brave undertaking, and an oft-times transcendent one. 1 hr. 40 PG (scary imagery, intense emotions, mayhem) - Steven Rea

WONDERFUL WORLD 2 1/2 stars. In this grumpy-American film reminiscent of "The Visitor," Matthew Broderick is a picklepuss who regards the world as his enemy until the positive energy of his Senegalese roommate recharges him. 1 hr. 29 R (sexual situations, marijuana use) - Carrie Rickey

THE YOUNG VICTORIA 3 stars. Emily Blunt shines in the title role as Britain's mighty 19th century monarch, in this deliciously dressed-up protofeminist bio-pic. It's a portrait of a young lady taking to power - tentatively at first, but soon with fierce conviction, with relish. And with Rupert Friend as the soulful Prince Albert, at her side. 1 hr. 40 PG (adult themes) - Steven Rea

YOUTH IN REVOLT 3 stars, Michael Cera doubles up as a teenage virgin nerdboy "and his aggressively cool Frenchie alter ego in this hip and often hysterical coming of age comedy adapted from the cult-fave C.D. Payne books. Great supporting cast includes Steve Buscemi, Jean Smart, Ray Liotta and Fred Willard. 1 hr. 30 R (sex, profanity, drugs, adult themes) - Steven Rea

RATINGS:

4 stars: Excellent; 3 stars: Good; 2 stars: Fair; 1 star: Poor