Atonement

Rated R for disturbing war images, language and some sexuality.

As directed by Joe Wright and acted with fervor by Keira Knightley and James McAvoy, this is one of the few adaptations that gives a splendid novel (by Ian McEwan) the film it deserves.

An assured and deeply moving work, Atonement is at once one of the most affecting of contemporary love stories and a potent meditation on the power of fiction to destroy and create, to divide and possibly heal.

The Bucket List

Rated PG-13 for language, including a sexual reference

This travelogue of triteness is the story of two older men with terminal medical conditions.

It arrived on Christmas Day to remind us to live life to its fullest and leave no cliché unturned.

Its watchability almost entirely depends on your tolerance of Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson doing the things that made them stars and won them Oscars, only much more so.

Cloverfield

Rated PG-13 for violence, terror and disturbing images.

Five young New Yorkers throw their friend a going-away party the night that a monster the size of a skyscraper descends upon the city.

Told from the point of view of their video camera, the film is a document of their attempt to survive the event. With Michael Stahl-David, Mike Vogel and Odette Yustman. Directed by Matt Reeves.

The Eye

Rated PG-13 for violence/terror and disturbing content.

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French directors David Moreau and Xavier Palud (Them) helm the inevitable remake of the Pang brothers' international hit about a previously blind young woman tormented by visions after double corneal transplant surgery. With Jessica Alba and Alessandro Nivola.

Fool's Gold

Rated PG-13 for action, violence, some sexual material, brief nudity and language.

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There's a moment in Fool's Gold when Matthew McConaughey, as a flaky treasure hunter, finds himself stranded in the middle of the ocean, bobbing up and down as he clings to an ice chest, baking in the stillness of the sun and praying that someone will come by and rescue him.

And you're watching him thinking, "Yeah, I know exactly how he feels."

This painfully lifeless and lame romantic comedy from Hitch director Andy Tennant leaves you desperately wishing that someone -- anyone -- would swoop down and fix it. Pick up the pacing, juice up the chemistry, cut out 20 minutes, something. Because as it stands, there's nothing romantic or comic about it.

While McConaughey and Kate Hudson look great individually as they traipse about the Caribbean setting, showing off their tanned, toned bodies, they don't play terribly well off one another.

Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert

Rated G

As an adult sitting through this 3-D concert film, it's impossible not to be overwhelmed, but not by the piercing screech of thousands of frantic 9-year-olds, the crisp digital imagery or the catchiness of the Disney star's peppy tunes.

Rather, the sensation is one of longing: You wish desperately for Miley Cyrus, the singing, dancing, songwriting, trendsetting dynamo, to avoid turning into Britney Spears.

She's insanely likable and talented -- it's all out there in front of her -- and watching the 15-year-old onstage and behind the scenes, you just pray that she'll turn out all right, and not get swept away by the insanity of pop-star celebrity.

How She Move

Rated PG-13 for some drug content, suggestive material and language.

It goes through all the motions of your typical dance movie -- and, to be more specific, a hip-hop dance movie -- but offers enough unexpected tweaks to make it refreshing.

Our heroine, Raya Green (played by engaging newcomer Rutina Wesley), is indeed an underdog trying to transcend her upbringing in a poor section of Toronto, and winning a step dance competition will help her earn the money to get there. But there's nothing meek about her:

Juno

Rated PG-13 for mature thematic material, sexual content and language.

Juno MacGuff is the kind of teenager we all wish we could have been: quick-witted, frighteningly smart and comfortable enough in her own skin to resist those high-school pressures to conform, even as her body expands with an unplanned pregnancy.

And Juno is the kind of movie all indie comedies wish they could be: light and lovable, perhaps a bit too pleased with the cleverness of its dialogue, but a charmer nonetheless.

It's also sure to make a star of the appealing Ellen Page, who had already proved she could be a tiny force of nature in the tense but little-seen Hard Candy.

Meet the Spartans

Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content throughout, language and some comic violence.

After skewering Hollywood horror films (Scary Movie), romantic comedies (Date Movie) and blockbusters (Epic Movie), writers-directors-producers Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer now set their sights on 300.

The heroic Leonidas, armed with nothing but leather underwear and a cape, leads a ragtag group of 13 Spartans to defend their homeland against the invading Persians (whose ranks include Ghost Rider, Rocky Balboa, the Transformers and a hunchbacked Paris Hilton).

Over Her Dead Body

Rated PG-13 for sexual content and language.

This life-after-death comedy, Eva Longoria Parker's first big-screen movie with top billing, features her as virtually the same prissy, fidgety, high-and-mighty narcissist she plays on Desperate Housewives.

The lifeless romance about a jealous ghost trying to scare off her fiance's new girlfriend has Longoria Parker in such familiar form, it might as well be titled Desperate Corpse Bride.

Longoria Parker plays a woman killed on her wedding day then returning as a meddlesome spirit to make sure her betrothed (Paul Rudd) stops messing around with the psychic (Lake Bell) who's the only one able to see and hear the visitor from beyond.

Rambo

Rated R for strong graphic, bloody violence; sexual assaults; grisly images and language.

Sylvester Stallone insisted he would only do another Rambo flick if it was about the human condition.

He stuck to his guns.

Chapter 4 in his franchise about the Vietnam vet turned one-man army is about the condition of humans -- after they've been blown apart by bombs, land mines and projectiles fired from the biggest, loudest firearms you may ever encounter on screen.

The thin story is merely an excuse to turn Stallone loose so he can go Rambo on a bunch of irredeemably bad guys -- soldiers who have exterminated a village and abducted American missionaries working there.

Strange Wilderness

Rated R for language, drug use, crude and sexual humor.

In a desperate bid to boost sagging ratings, the host of a wildlife TV show goes in search of Bigfoot. With Steve Zahn, Allen Covert, Jonah Hill, Harry Hamlin, Robert Patrick, Joe Don Baker, Jeff Garlin and Ernest Borgnine. Written by Peter Gaulke and Fred Wolf. Directed by Wolf.

There Will Be Blood

Rated R for some violence

This joint venture between actor Daniel Day-Lewis and director Paul Thomas Anderson might be the most incendiary combination since the Molotov cocktail.

This morality play set in the early days of California's oil boom can be over the top and excessive, but it also creates considerable heat and light.

27 Dresses

Rated PG-13 for language, some innuendo and sexuality.

So chock-full of romantic-comedy cliches, it almost plays like a parody. It might be fun, though, if they handed out lists at the multiplex door to allow you to check them off as you go along -- could be an interactive thing.

You know, to help pass the time. Katherine Heigl's Jane is always a bridesmaid and never a bride, a role she's performed 27 times already because she's so adept at anticipating and meeting her friends' every prenuptial need.

She's secretly in love with her boss (Edward Burns) but, naturally, there's another guy out there (James Marsden) whom she initially clashes with, and who obviously will end up being the one to keep her from having to wear bridesmaid dress No. 28.

Untraceable

Rated R for some prolonged sequences of strong gruesome violence and language.

This is one of those deplorably gratuitous movies that wants to have it both ways, but gets nothing right. It's about a Web site that allows you to watch -- live and streaming! -- as some poor sap gets killed.

The more hits that come in, the faster the victim dies. And the tactic is never quick and easy like a gunshot to the head -- it's protracted and complicated.

Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days & 30 Nights -- Hollywood to the Heartland

Rated R for pervasive language and some sex-related humor.

Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days & 30 Nights -- Hollywood to the Heartland is only sporadically wild, but it does indeed go through some Western states. It also ends up feeling about as long and draggy as the title itself.

Vaughn had a clever idea, though, in amassing a group of little-known comics and taking them on a tour across the country, hitting cities like Lubbock and Little Rock, Ark., between Los Angeles and his hometown of Chicago.

We get to know the divergent personalities of Ahmed Ahmed, John Caparulo, Bret Ernst and Sebastian Maniscalco both onstage and on the tour bus.

We hear their stories of struggling to make it in the grueling business of stand-up and we meet their families, which allows for a bit more emotional investment than you would achieve from a straight-up comedy concert film.

Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins

Rated PG-13 for crude and sexual content, language and some drug references.

Martin Lawrence stars as a hugely successful self-help guru who, upon returning to his small hometown in Georgia, is forced to face the shallowness of it all. With Margaret Avery, Louis C.K., Mike Epps, Mo'Nique and Cedric the Entertainer.

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