Starring: Marlon Wayans, Essence Atkins, David Koechner, Nick Swardson, Andrew Daly

A Haunted House

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The Story: A spoof of found-footage horror films, in which a couple moves into a new house and are haunted by a demon. The Lowdown: A dumb movie making fun of dumb movies with all the weed and fart jokes you could imagine.
Starring: Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Sean Penn, Emma Stone, Nick Nolte

Gangster Squad

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The Story: A group of rogue L.A. cops are assembled to take down a notorious mob boss. The Lowdown: Despite a name cast, the film is betrayed by a lack of both energy and originality, and a cloying desire to be taken seriously despite a pretty lame script.
Starring: Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, Tom Holland, Samuel Joslin, Oaklee Pendergast

The Impossible

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The Story: The true life tale of a family torn apart by a tsunami and the chaos that ensues. The Lowdown: Occasional fits of spectacular filmmaking are too often undercut by schmaltzy tendencies and a too formulaic script.
Starring: Matt Damon, Frances McDormand, Rosemarie DeWitt, John Krasinski, Hal Holbrook

Promised Land

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The Story: A corporate salesman tasked with buying up land for a natural gas company comes upon a town that won’t give in to him. The Lowdown: A well-intentioned attempt at a message picture that’s too mawkish and sentimental — and transparent — to work.
Starring: Billy Crystal, Bette Midler, Marisa Tomei, Tom Everett Scott, Bailee Madison

Parental Guidance

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The Story: Two shoddy grandparents butt heads with their daughter (especially her views on parenting) when they’re asked to watch their coddled grandchildren for a week. The Lowdown: A tired comedy featuring tired stars in what amounts to a feature-length sitcom.
Starring: Seth Rogen, Barbra Streisand, Brett Cullen, Adam Scott

The Guilt Trip

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The Story: A schlubby inventor who’s traveling the country hawking his wares invites his mother along in an attempt to reunite her with a long lost love. The Lowdown: A painless, pointless attempt at a feel-good movie that's hardly memorable.
Starring: Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, Maude Apatow, Iris Apatow, Jason Segel

This Is 40

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The Story: A long-married couple attempts to cope with entering their 40s. The Lowdown: All of Judd Apatow’s worst attributes — an aimless story, an overlong run time — with the added bonus of obnoxious, infuriating upper-middle-class banality.
Starring: Gerard Butler, Jessica Biel, Noah Lomax, Dennis Quaid, Catherine Zeta-Jones

Playing for Keeps

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The Story: A washed up soccer player attempts to build a relationship with his semi-estranged son — and the boy’s mother — by coaching his youth soccer team. The Lowdown: An innocuous mess of a romantic comedy that’s occasionally confounding, wrongheaded and completely predictable.
Starring: Brad Pitt, Scoot McNairy, Ben Mendelsohn, James Gandolfini, Richard Jenkins

Killing Them Softly

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The Story: After two low rent hoods hold up a card game, a hit man is brought in by the mob to clean up the mess. The Lowdown: Strong performances and slick direction can’t make up for a heavy-handed message.
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Josh Peck, Josh Hutcherson, Adrianne Palicki, Isabel Lucas

Red Dawn

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The Story: A ragtag group of teens must fight for their freedom after a surprise invasion by North Korea. The Lowdown: Run-of-the-mill action filmmaking and a healthy dose of xenophobic paranoia set inside a phony-feeling world full of one dimensional characters.
Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, David Strathairn, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, James Spader

Lincoln

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The Story: President Abraham Lincoln attempts to pass the 13th Amendment to the Constitution while the Civil War rages and various political pitfalls loom in the background. The Lowdown: A far too dreary, stylistically drab and solemn biopic that’s buoyed by a handful of strong performances, mostly from Daniel Day-Lewis.
Starring: RZA, Russell Crowe, Ricky Yune, Lucy Liu, Dave Bautista

Man With the Iron Fists

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The Story: A shipment of gold attracts all types of types of ne'er do wells in a small Chinese village. The Lowdown: Incoherent action scenes, a dull plot and cartoonish special effects make for a long slog of an action movie.
Starring: Arvydas Sabonis, Sarunas Marciulionis, Bill Walton, Mickey Hart, Jonas Valanciunas

The Other Dream Team

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The Story: The true story of the 1992 Lithuanian Olympic Men’s Basketball Team, and their rise from the remains of the Soviet Union. The Lowdown: A well-meaning doc that lacks focus and suffers from a scattershot approach.
Starring: Jonny Weston, Gerard Butler, Leven Rambin, Abigail Spencer, Elisabeth Shue

Chasing Mavericks

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The Story: A grizzled surfer trains a teen to surf treacherous, gigantic waves called mavericks. The Lowdown: Run-of-the mill uplifting sports pap that’s professionally made, but thematically muddled.
Starring: Victoria Justice, Jackson Nicoll, Thomas Mann, Chelsea Handler, Jane Levy

Fun Size

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The Story: A teenage girl must find her younger brother, who she’s lost on Halloween. The Lowdown: Mediocre teen comedy with little wit and cleverness, which suffers from envying so many other movies of its ilk that have come before.
Starring: Tyler Perry, Matthew Fox, Edward Burns, Rachel Nichols, Jean Reno

Alex Cross

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The Story: A sadistic, psychopathic master criminal is hunted by a Detroit detective who wants to stop him from murdering a billionaire. The Lowdown: A confounding crime flick that slowly unravels into goofiness, and which also suffers from a lot of poor casting decisions.
Starring: Kevin James, Henry Winkler, Salma Hayek, Bas Rutten, Greg Germann

Here Comes the Boom

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The Story: A lazy biology teacher decides to become an MMA fighter in order to raise the money required to save his school’s music program. The Lowdown: A run-of-the mill attempt at broad, feel-good comedy that’s dull, forgettable and messy.
Starring: Anna Kendrick, Skylar Astin, Brittany Snow, Anna Camp, Rebel Wilson

Pitch Perfect

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The Story: A disaffected college freshman tries to turn around a down-and-out a capella group. The Lowdown: An overlong, unfunny attempt at gross-out humor and coming-of-age flick that’s full of bad music and flat direction.
Starring: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, Alan Arkin, John Goodman, Victor Garber

Argo

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The Story: The “true story” of the CIA’s attempts at removing diplomats from Iran during the hostage crisis by having agents and the diplomats pose as Canadian filmmakers working on the sci-fi picture Argo. The Lowdown: A well-crafted, entertaining and intelligent crowd-pleaser that’s a bit too pat and Hollywood-ized to really transcend into greatness.

Won’t Back Down

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The Story: A poverty-stricken mom and a wary teacher try to take over a failing elementary school. The Lowdown: A manipulative, dishonest screed that wants to be a balanced picture about the problems with public schools, but gets lost along the way, and not before entering a tailspin of ham-fisted melodramatics.

Samsara

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The Story: A non-verbal documentary that combines music and images to create a meditation of life and decay. The Lowdown: A gorgeously photographed film whose enjoyment depends wholly on one’s ability to stomach pretension.