21 JUMP STREET (R) One of 2012’s biggest surprises, this brilliantly dumb comedy pairs star-producer-story contributor Jonah Hill with comedy revelation Channing Tatum as pathetic cops, Schmidt and Jenko, who are transferred to a special undercover unit that sends fresh-faced policemen into local schools to nab drug dealers and the like. Schmidt and Jenko hilariously discover today’s high school has turned upside-down since their experience. Former cool kid Jenko is banished with the nerds, while Schmidt experiences what it’s like to be popular.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER (R) The historically playful Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter gets most things right until it whiffs on a tremendously silly climax that involves the 16th president personally overseeing a secret mission to save the Union Army at Gettysburg. Unfortunately, Seth Grahame-Smith, the author of the book upon which AL:VH is based, is proving far less resourceful as a screenwriter than as a historical revisionist (see Dark Shadows). A quick perusal of the book’s plot reveals a much more believable retelling of the Lincoln mythology; the movie not so much. Requiring fewer leaps of stylistic logic than director Timur Bekmambetov’s last movie, Wanted, the Russian helmer of Nightwatch/Daywatch still throws in a smattering of ridiculously unrealistic fight choreography. Little-known Benjamin Walker, who resembles a young Liam Neeson, acquits himself adequately as Lincoln. No other performance—all villainous vamps and useless sidekicks—matters. Had Grahame-Smith stuck more closely to his novel, AL:VH might have worked better. The key to historical revisionism is to hew as closely to the truth as possible. Then again, some whimsies—say, a stovepipe-hatted president fighting vampires on a train—might be better off left on the page as they look far too ridiculous in the cinematic light.

THE APPARITION (PG-13) Blah blah hot couple (“Gossip Girl”’s Sebastian Stan and Twilight’s Ashley Greene) blah blah haunted blah blah supernatural entity. A guy named Marti Matulis is credited as the titular Apparition in writer-director Todd Lincoln’s feature debut. The flick does have some horror pedigree; cinematographer Daniel Pearl worked on Tobe Hooper’s genre-defining The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and composers tomandandy gave good horror beats in The Strangers. Harry Potter’s nemesis Draco Malfoy, er, Tom Felton also stars.

BACK TO THE FUTURE (PG) 1985. Still one of the most popular blockbusters from the 1980s, Robert Zemeckis’s comic time-traveling adventure stars Michael J. Fox in the midst of his Alex P. Keaton heyday. Powered by Fox, Christopher Lloyd’s manic Doc Brown, the unpredictable Crispin Glover and the lovely Lea Thompson, Back to the Future is timeless. Followed by two sequels, the second of which I prefer. Winner of one Academy Award for Best Sound Effects Editing (Huey Lewis was robbed).

• BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD (PG-13) Filmmaker Benh Zeitlan’s feature debut certainly lives up to its sky-high expectations. Six-year-old Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané Wallis) lives in the Bathtub, a tiny community beyond the levee with her daddy, Wink (Dwight Henry). As Wink grows weaker from illness, the only world Hushpuppy has ever known starts to crumble. First come the rains, then the people that live on the dry land and finally the mythical, recently thawed aurochs. Still, Hushpuppy fights and survives. This fantastical tale unfolds in a harsh world that feels so realistic the film could be mistaken for a documentary. Zeitlan, who also co-wrote the pulsing, string-heavy score, captures the ruthlessness of rural poverty without the assumed pandering. Newcomers Wallis and Henry dominate the non-professional cast; their absence from the field come awards season will be stunning and heartbreaking. The film deserves to be this year’s Oscar dark horse. I have seen nearly 100 films in theaters this year, and not a single one of them has offered an emotional, imaginative, narrative experience approaching Beasts of the Southern Wild. Such a rare, singular cinematic moment is rare in this day of sequels, reboots and readymade blockbusters. Go see this film now.

• THE BOURNE LEGACY (PG-13) Tony Gilroy has been scripting exceptional Bourne films for a decade now. His first time directing one plays exactly like his previous two directing efforts (Michael Clayton and Duplicity), well-crafted but unexciting. Matt Damon’s unseen Jason Bourne is on the run, but another enhanced secret agent, Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner, who’s an adequate replacement for Damon), is in the crosshairs of some nasty government spooks, sociopathically led by Edward Norton. Cross and pretty scientist, Marta Shearing (Academy Award winner Rachel Weisz), travels across the globe to find the means to permanently enhance the superspy’s mental abilities. This admirable, modern action franchise has always lacked in the fun department (I’ve never wanted to rewatch a Bourne); now it misses Paul Greengrass’ kinetic, athletic, handheld style. Legacy is more desk jockeying than spy gaming. (Call the undergrads; Cross proves to be one hell of a fake ID crafter.) Its respectable action set pieces lack the ooh/ahh moment. Still, I’m curious to see the franchise advance with a Bourne/Cross faceoff or team up, but I’d prefer if Gilroy returns to scripting and Greengrass to behind the camera.

• THE CAMPAIGN (R) One expects big laughs from a Will Ferrell-Zack Galifianakis political comedy, but one merely hopes for a sharp enough satirical framework to build upon. Austin Powers director Jay Roach, has honed his political teeth on HBO’s “Recount” and “Game Change” and provides the proper support for Ferrell/Galifianakis’s silly showdown as North Carolina congressional candidates. Ferrell’s helmet-haired Democratic incumbent Cam Brady, loosely based on John Edwards, peddles to the “America, Jesus and freedom” crowd as he takes on Galifianakis’s oddball Republican challenger, Marty Huggins (His pants! His sweaters! His run!). Both comics are at their recent best; Ferrell had time to hone his Southern shtick on “Eastbound & Down,” and Galifianakis was born in NC. But the real meat of this comedy is how serious it is about campaign finance reform. As the Motch Brothers, Dan Ackroyd and John Lithgow are a not even thinly veiled shot at the Koch Bros. Dylan McDermott enjoys his rare comedic turn as the Motch’s hired gun. The rather rancorously funny movie ends with a surprisingly optimistic view of American politics that might not be tonally consistent with the previous acts but is certainly pleasingly patriotic.

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES (PG-13) Fanboy expectations of all-time greatness aside, The Dark Knight Rises concludes filmmaker Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy as satisfyingly as one can hope. Having taken the fall for the murder of Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight, Batman is no longer welcome in Gotham City, which is all right with shut-in Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale), the eccentric billionaire who continues to mourn the death of his love, Rachel. (Interestingly, The Joker is never mentioned.) But a new evil, the muscle-and-respirator-clad Bane (Tom Hardy, finally doing the great Bat-breaker justice), has risen, requiring Batman to return to action. Meanwhile, a pretty cat burglar named Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway, making audiences forget both Michelle Pfeiffer and Halle Berry) has targeted Gotham’s elite. Nolan delivers the dense blockbuster we expect after TDK and Inception. He plays a masterful game of cinematic chess, knowing how to perfectly place every component—script, actors, action set pieces—on the board. A brilliant blockbuster, TDKR cannot best its immediate predecessor; the three-quel lacks the Ledger zeitgeist and shockingly needs more Batman. Still, The Dark Knight Rises darkly comic-bookends the movie summer that blissfully began with Joss Whedon’s candy coated Avengers. I’m sad Nolan’s time in Gotham is over.

DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: DOG DAYS (PG) The formula still entertains but has grown increasingly worn in the third movie in the unlikely Wimpy Kid franchise, based on the bestselling books by Jeff Kinney. As the school year gives way to summer, Greg Heffley (Zachary Gordon) again proves a poor son—though not as bad as older bro, Rodrick (Devon Bostick)—and an even poorer friend to the series’ best character, Rowley (Robert Capron), who invites Greg on daily trips to the country club and his family’s big vacation. The movie, as a whole, is not as good as its predecessors. After three movies (covering four books), Greg should have learned at least a rudimentary lesson about lying (a fake summer job?), and the humor, gags and performances remain as broad as ever. (However, any vehicle that delivers Steve Zahn on a regular basis starts with a leg up.) Nevertheless, Greg’s adventures are infinitely more appealing than the average, uninspired kiddie movie.

• THE EXPENDABLES 2 (R) This sequel sharpens its blunt bludgeon of a predecessor by promoting Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis (who, let’s be honest, knows he does not belong in these movies) to slightly more than glorified cameos and adding Chuck Norris and Jean-Claude Van Damme. The title is honest; the main team of Expendables—save Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham—is expendable, slowing the brisk flick whenever tasked with doing more than blowing the heads off a nameless opposing army. The nominal plot involves a mission of vengeance after JCVD’s Eurotrash villain, Vilain (yep, that’s how it’s spelled), kills the youngest, prettiest, newest Expendable. For no narrative reason, fellow mercs Trench (Ah-nuld, who still has that unfathomable screen appeal) and Booker (Norris) show up along the way to assist the Expendables when they’re in trouble and wind up brightening the movie with more personality and wit, despite their witless dialogue, than regulars Dolph Lundgren, Terry Crews or Randy Couture. With a climactic mano-a-mano showdown between Sly and JCVD that is the absolute apotheosis of mindless action, this sequel is the superior guilty pleasure in every way except one. No Eric Roberts.

GENTLEMAN’S AGREEMENT (NR) 1947. This Best Picture winner pits Gregory Peck, in a role for which he was nominated for his third Academy Award, against anti-Semitism as a reporter who experiences bigotry and hatred while posing as a Jew for a story. The film also won Elia Kazan a Best Director trophy and Celeste Holm a Best Supporting Actress prize. This special screening is sponsored by the Athens Jewish Film Festival and features light snacks from The National and a post-film discussion led by Ciné’s Gabriel Wardell.

HIT & RUN (R) Dax Shepard, who has found his groove on NBC’s excellent “Parenthood,” wrote and codirected this romantic action comedy about a former getaway driver named Charlie Bronson, who is in Witness Protection. He jeopardizes his new identity to help his girlfriend get to Los Angeles. The cast—Shepard’s real life girlfriend Kristen Bell, Bradley Cooper, Kristen Chenoweth, Beau Bridges, Michael Rosenbaum (“Smallville”’s Lex Luthor), Ryan Hansen (“Veronica Mars” and “Party Down”) and David Koechner—could be fun.

HOPE SPRINGS (PG-13) If older people talking about and having sex makes you uncomfortable, skip Hope Springs. But if you want a mature, intimate romantic dramedy about an ailing, aging marriage, warmly and realistically portrayed by two consummate professionals, you will find no other film this summer that comes close to Hope Springs. Kay (Meryl Streep) and her husband, Arnold (master griper Tommy Lee Jones), have what appears to be a loving marriage, yet the heat has been lost. They sleep in separate bedrooms; he barely looks at her, much less touches her. Kay wants a change, and she believes she’s found the means in Dr. Bernard Feld’s (a lightly used Steve Carell, who knows how to pick a project) intensive couples counseling. Naturally, Arnold wants nothing to do with Kay’s plan but reluctantly agrees to keep her happy. The film progresses with few narrative surprises but a lot of tonal ones. The trailer implies a broader, less deftly handled, older sex comedy. Streep and Jones will have none of that, providing the less dignified moments with some emotional heft and landing the lightweight dramatic punches with the grace everyone expects from these two greats.

THE HUNGER GAMES (PG-13) While a successful adaptation of a difficult book that near everyone has read, The Hunger Games has little cinematic spark. It’s a visual book report that merely summarizes the plot. It’s well-written, but still a book report. Seabiscuit director Gary Ross was not the most obvious choice to direct this dystopian adventure in which 24 teenagers are randomly selected for a contest in which only one will survive.

ICE AGE: CONTINENTAL DRIFT (PG) Manny (v. Ray Romano), Diego (v. Denis Leary) and Sid (v. John Leguizamo) return in a fourth adventure, which is good news for the millions not waiting for this fatigued franchise to go extinct. The trio get separated from the herd, which includes Manny’s wife, Ellie (v. Queen Latifah), and daughter, Peaches (v. Keke Palmer), and meet a pirate crew led by Captain Gutt (exceptionally voiced by “Games of Thrones” Emmy winner Peter Dinklage). Nothing unpredictable happens (Sid messes things up, no one cares), and the suspense is even less harrowing than your typical television cartoon. The rest of the celebrity voices are a mixed bag as well. Wanda Sykes brings the funny as Sid’s toothless granny, but Drake and Nicki Minaj are non-starters. Aziz Ansari is wasted and J-Lo is present. This kiddie flick is only for children that don’t want to watch Madagascar 3 again.

THE INTOUCHABLES (R) 2011. The extremely popular French film is based on the book "You Changed My Life" by Abdel Sellou. A wealthy, wheelchair-bound man hires a man from the slums to be his caretaker, eventually forming a lifelong bond between them as they share their cultures and viewpoints. It's the highest-grossing non-English language movie ever.

MADAGASCAR 3: EUROPE’S MOST WANTED (PG)

By now, franchise fans know what to expect from the adventures of Alex the lion (v. Ben Stiller), Marty the zebra (v. Chris Rock), Melman the giraffe (v. David Schwimmer) and Gloria the hippo (v. Jada Pinkett Smith). These four former denizens of the New York Zoo team up again with those wacky penguins and some nutty Lemurs (voiced by Sacha Baron Cohen, Cedric the Entertainer and Andy Richter) in an aborted attempt to return home. This time, the gang is waylaid in Europe by a circus featuring animals voiced by Bryan Cranston (“Breaking Bad” season five cannot get here fast enough), Jessica Chastain and the reliably funny yet equally annoying Martin Short. But a crazed French animal control officer, Captain Chantel Dubois (v. Frances McDormand), is hot on the animals’ trail. No one should be coming into Madagascar 3 blind. This third entry proffers more cute fun in a long first act chase than either of its predecessors, and that’s before any of the appealing new characters are introduced.

MANKILLERS (R) 1987. Ciné’s Bad Movie Night presents Mankillers, AKA 12 Wild Women. Presumed dead CIA agent Rachel McKenna (Lynda Aldon) assembles the roughest, toughest gang of death row ladies she can to take down rogue agent Mickland (William Zipp), who is working for a Colombian drug cartel. Starting in 1983, writer-director David A. Prior continues to produce awful, cheap, generically titled actioners. Who isn’t gung-ho for a late-'80s, hot lady Dirty Dozen with Russ Meyer regular Edy Williams?

MEN IN BLACK III (PG-13) Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones reprise their roles as Agent J and Agent K. Apparently, Smith’s J time travels back to 1969 to stop an alien from assassinating his partner, whose younger version is played by Josh Brolin. Director Barry Sonnenfeld returns and could really use a hit. With Alice Eve, Jemaine Clement, Emma Thompson and Bill Hader as Andy Warhol.

NITRO CIRCUS (PG-13) One lady and several bros with a lot of gumption film themselves performing extreme sports stunts, like Jackass with real injuries and without the sadistic friends. Nitro Circus has been featured as a reality TV show with stunts including BMX challenges and base-jumping

• THE ODD LIFE OF TIMOTHY GREEN (PG) From an odd, sweet place, Frank Zappa’s son Ahmet, comes The Odd Life of Timothy Green, though the locale is familiar to screenwriter-director Peter Hedges, who adapted his own novel What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? for director Lasse Hallstrom, who must have been busy as this project seems tailor-made for his sentimental modern fairy tales. Before finally accepting their barren existence, Cindy and Jim Green (Jennifer Garner and Joel Edgerton) put all their wishes for a child in a box and bury them in their fertile garden. After a freak storm, the Greens have a new arrival, 10-year-old, leaf-legged Timothy (CJ Adams). Desiring to right all the wrongs of their own childhoods, Cindy and Jim attempt to give Timothy the perfect adolescence. The Odd Life of Timothy Green might appeal more to kind-hearted, older kids, thanks to Adams’ cute but not cutesy Timothy, despite its being an above average parenting fable. As for these parents, Garner’s appeal chills the further “Alias” recedes, though Edgerton works hard to warm her. It’s a good thing they have David Morse, Dianne Wiest, Common, Ron Livingstone, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Rosemarie DeWitt and the always excellent M. Emmet Walsh to rely upon.

• PARANORMAN (PG) This marvelous, family horror flick is the writing-directing debut of Corpse Bride/Coraline storyboard artist Chris Butler, whose time apprenticing under Tim Burton and Henry Selick was well-spent. For my genre-tainted money, it bests Pixar’s Brave as the year’s best animated feature. I was smitten from its Grindhouse opening well through the closing credits scored to The White Stripes’ “Little Ghost.” This hip, stop-motion animated feature pulls no punches like '80s kiddie adventure and horror movies like Goonies and Something Wicked This Way Comes; the tale of a sweet, 11-year-old, oddball named Norman (v. Cody Smit-McPhee, The Road) is a perfect first scary movie for the son or daughter of a diehard horror fan. Norman’s battle to stop a 300-year-old witch from destroying his town (which climaxes in the bravest act I’ve witnessed in recent animation) is filled with real scares (of the PG variety), smart nods to slasher classics like Halloween and Friday the 13th, atypical character design (Norman’s features are more than a tad asymmetrical) and suffers from a trailer that unfortunately undersells that it’s an honest-to-god horror flick that should frighten and delight kids of all ages. 

PREMIUM RUSH (PG-13) A Manhattan bike messenger (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) picks up an envelope that puts him in the sights of a dirty cop (Michael Shannon). A citywide chase ensues. This team up of Gordon-Levitt and Shannon excites me more than the last De Niro-Pacino summit (Righteous Kill). Writer-director David Koepp has had loads more success on paper (he’s written some mega-hits like Jurassic Park and Spider-Man) than behind the camera (he’s directed The Trigger Effect, Stir of Echoes, Secret Window and Ghost Town). With Jamie Chung (The Hangover Part II).

SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN (PG-13) 2012’s second Snow White movie (she was also a television star on ABC’s “Once Upon a Time”) tweaks the fairy tale with the pale beauty (Kristen Stewart, Twilight) and the huntsman (Chris Hemsworth, Thor), sent by Charlize Theron’s Evil Queen to kill her, instead teaming up to overthrow her majesty. Director Rupert Sanders is an unknown entity; thankfully, the cast includes the familiar faces of Toby Jones, Ian McShane, Ray Winstone, Nick Frost and Bob Hoskins. Written by Drive’s Hossein Amini.

• SPARKLE (PG-13) This good old-fashioned movie musical retells a very familiar tale (that’s honestly not too far removed from Dreamgirls) but does so with toe-tapping music and solid performances from “American Idol” champ Jordin Sparks and Derek Luke (among others). Three sisters—Sparkle (Sparks), Sister (Carmen Ejogo) and Dee (Tika Sumpter)—from Detroit find success as a musical act, but drugs and abusive relationships (does Mike Epps even know what nuance means?) tear them apart, pretty much like their holier than thou mother (Whitney Houston, in her final performance, which also marks her first time on screen since 1996’s The Preacher’s Wife), a failed singer, told them it would. The original, seemingly forgotten Sparkle starred Irene Cara (better known for Fame and the Oscar winning “Flashdance…What a Feeling”), was cowritten by Joel Schumacher (?!) and featured future En Vogue hits, “(Giving Him) Something He Can Feel” and “Hooked on Your Love.” Not as ambitious as Dreamgirls, the new Sparkle hits the right, albeit imitative (kind of like the “American Idol” competitor it stars), notes but will probably only be remembered as Whitney’s last appearance.

STEP UP REVOLUTION (PG-13) Let’s go ahead and get the criticisms out of the way. The acting and story are crap. Emily (Kathryn McCormick from “So You Think You Can Dance”), a professional dancer comes to Miami and falls for Sean (Ryan Guzman, the series’ latest C-Tates knockoff), who leads a local dance crew. Too bad, Sean and his gang’s neighborhood are being threatened by a development planned by Emily’s father (the eyebrows of Peter Gallagher). Who cares, you say? Tell you about the dancing? The dancing is fantastic. Massive flash mobs utilize laser lights, smoke bombs, costumes and more to stage some of the dance-chise’s most jaw dropping routines (which are often and unfortunately chopped up by too many reaction shots). The choreography is so creative and the 3D so well integrated that this overall subpar movie would be an Academy Award winner, were the Academy to dole out awards for such a thing as choreography. This movie isn’t for everyone, but anyone who digs Fox’s “So You Think You Can Dance” (many of whose former dancers and choreographers, like the ingenious Christopher Scott of the League of Extraordinary Dancers, were involved in this production) won’t want to miss it.

TED (R) I’m not sure what it says about Ted, the funny feature debut of “Family Guy” creator Seth McFarlane, that I, an admitted “Family Guy” detractor, laughed more than anyone else in the theater. Despite the overflowing gay jokes and some poor setups (the introduction to Giovanni Ribisi’s antagonist was awkwardly random), the fairy tale of 35-year-old John (Mark Wahlberg) and Ted (v. McFarlane), the teddy bear he was given on Christmas Day 1985 that came to life via wish, hits the mark more than it misses so long as the talking teddy is involved. Human leads Wahlberg and the increasingly awesome Mila Kunis are appreciated, as is Patrick “Puddy” Warburton. Sadly, Joel McHale is wasted. Any movie in which a central gag revolves around the Queen-scored, cult fave Flash Gordon (star Sam Jones even makes a beefy cameo) is OK in my book, no matter how many tired pot jokes it tokes. Being familiar with, but not appreciative of, McFarlane’s oeuvre, I pleasantly left with more laughs than I expected.

TOTAL RECALL (PG-13) The new Total Recall won’t satisfy anyone. Fans of the original will wonder why anyone would choose to watch an ugly, uninspired action/sci-fi flick that’s one Dylan McDermott away from a Syfy special event; those unfortunates who have never seen the original will wonder why anyone would bother remaking it. When factory worker Doug Quaid (Colin Farrell) attempts to get some fake memories installed, he discovers he’s really a secret agent in the middle of a class-based struggle between working-class revolutionaries and the privileged upper class led by Chancellor Cohaagen (Bryan Cranston; again, if you’re not watching “Breaking Bad,” catch up immediately). The new Total Recall attempts to overcome its lack of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s bewildering charisma, Paul Verhoeven’s sharp satire and the original script by Alien’s Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett by incorporating two high-profile hotties (Jessica Biel and Kate Beckinsale) and director Len Wiseman’s love of lens flares. As much as I love videogames, their ascension has devastated the once vibrant action/sci-fi subgenre. Filmmakers keep creating visually striking, narratively vacuous products inspired by games such as Halo and Half-Life that lack gaming’s key ingredient—interactivity. I’d much rather have played Total Recall than bothered watching it.

WHERE THE YELLOWSTONE GOES (NR) The longest undammed river in the lower 48 is traversed over a 30-day drift boat trip that features meetings with colorful locals from both the big cities and the small towns. Start at the Gateway to Montana’s Yellowstone National Park and float on to Buford, ND, with fly fishing guide and fourth generation Montana native Robert Hawkins. The film was an Official Selection of the Newport Beach Film Festival. Filmmaker Hunter Weeks (10 MPH and Ride the Divide) will be present to take part in a Q&A.