A LATE QUARTET (NR) Another star-filled, late year release hoping for some awards love, A Late Quartet stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Christopher Walken, Catherine Keener and Mark Ivanir (Schindler’s List) as a world-renowned string quartet struggling to stay together amidst egos, death and lust. Director Yaron Zilberman (the documentary Watermarks) makes his directorial debut from a script he co-wrote with Seth Grossman (The Elephant King and the third Butterfly Effect). With the awkwardly named Imogen Poots and the incomparable Wallace Shawn. (Ciné)

ARGO (R) Ben Affleck’s career revival continues with what might be his best directing effort yet; as life-or-death as the tension gets, the movie is ultimately a less grueling entertainment experience than either The Town or Gone Baby Gone. Revealing the once classified story of how the CIA rescued six American hostages in the midst of the Iranian Revolution, Argo is both an intriguing modern history lesson and a compelling, old-fashioned Hollywood thriller. The first-act scenes of the revolution terrify with present day relevance; the middle sequence that sets up the outlandish rescue op humorously skewers late-'70s Hollywood, thanks to excellent work by John Goodman as real life, Oscar-winning makeup artist John Chambers, as well as Alan Arkin; and the climactic escape epitomizes edge-of-your-seat suspense. Affleck has collected one hell of a cast—Bryan Cranston, Kyle Chandler, Victor Garber, Scoot McNairy, Chris Messina and many more recognizable faces—but the movie isn’t dominated by any one showy actor, and certainly not its tightly controlled director-star. Its greatness is certainly a sum of all parts—directing, writing (by first-time scripter Chris Terrio) and acting. The Academy will certainly recognize Argo, the year’s best, most accessible release to date, in its expanded best picture race.

BRAVE (PG) A good, not great, Pixar film, Brave strays into traditional Disney territory after a tremendously magical first act. Headstrong Scottish Princess Merida (wonderfully voiced by the lovely Kelly Macdonald) wants to choose her own destiny. She does not want to marry the first-born of the clans allied with her father (v. Billy Connolly), but her mother, Queen Elinor (v. Emma Thompson), will hear none of her complaints. In typical stubborn teenage fashion, Merida short-sightedly asks a wood-carving witch (v. Julie Walters) for a spell to change her mother. The aftermath of the spell leads to some heartwarming and charming derring-do, but the sitcom-ish mix-up is a bit stock for what we’ve come to expect from the studio that gave us Wall-E and Up, two animated features that transcended their cartoonish origins.

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 CENTRAL PARK FIVE (NR) PBS docu-deity Ken Burns hits the big screen for the first time with this documentary about the 1989 conviction of five Latino and black teens for the rape of a white woman in Central Park. After spending six to 13 years in prison, a serial rapist confessed to the crime. Burns codirects with his daughter Sarah and David McMahon. I’m a huge fan of injustice docs. The upcoming prospect of this film and West of Memphis is tantalizing.

CLOUD ATLAS (R) It’s become widely accepted that the Wachowskis have disappointed with every release since 1999’s The Matrix. For the ambitious Cloud Atlas, the siblings have excitedly teamed up with Tom Tykwer, whose only great film was 1998’s stunning Run Lola Run, so while expectations for the trio’s three hour epic run high, they should rightly be tempered. The trio has masterfully adapted David Mitchell’s award winning novel, intermingling six disparate stories, spanning 1849 to 106 Winters After the Fall. Each anecdote stars Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Susan Sarandon, Hugh Grant and more in varying layers of makeup. While none of the stories warrants their own full-length feature, the six interconnected narratives are interwoven so skillfully and at such a swift pace that no one has enough time to overstay its welcome. If you don’t care for Sturgess’ sea tale, Berry’s nuclear mystery will be along shortly to take its place. The pidgin English future tale not your bag? Enjoy Broadbent’s broad English comedy. The lush, imaginative film’s most serious flaw is its repertory, several of whom (Oscar winners Hanks and Berry, most notably) seem out-of-place in the film’s fantastical future bookend.

FLIGHT(R) Robert Zemeckis returns to live action movies for adults (since 2000's Cast Away) with this Denzel Washington-starring after-work special about alcoholism dressed up as an airplane crash drama. Captain Whip Whitaker (Washington) may be a great pilot, but he's not such a great guy. Yet while hungover, still drunk and high on coke, Whitaker saves most of the 102 souls on flight 227 after a mechanical failure requires him to pull off an unconventional crash landing. Starring a big handful of swell actors—Don Cheadle, Bruce Greenwood, John Goodman, Melissa Leo join Washington—Flight calls to mind a '70s issue movie (something Sidney Lumet or Norman Jewison might have directed Al Pacino in) wrapped in a tense, quasi-legal drama. Every part is exceptional, though it is Washington's latest award-worthy turn (his first since 2007's American Gangster) who lifts the movie above the cloudy inspirational moralizing that probably would have occurred with another star (say Will Smith). The crash sequence alone deserves a spot on the shortlist for 2012's best scenes; don't be surprised if Denzel and Flight soar come award season. 

HERE COMES THE BOOM (PG-13) Adam Sandler’s made plenty of pictures worse than this Kevin James vehicle about outlandish ways to save education. James’ Scott Voss is a high school biology teacher who turns to MMA to fund the extracurriculars at his struggling school. An appealing supporting cast includes Salma Hayek, Henry Winkler, Greg Germann and real life MMA fighter Bas Rutten (after an appearance in Paul Blart: Mall Cop and voice work in Zookeeper, he’s becoming a James regular) to assist the extremely likable James in an odd, family-friendly mash-up of educational messages and inspirational sports, where the sports are extremely vicious. It doesn’t NOT work, but more refined audiences will cringe at the movie’s genial attitude toward violence.

HITCHCOCK (PG-13) The second Hitchcock biopic this year—HBO recently aired The Girl with Toby Jones and Sierra Miller—looks to pick up some year-end awards with Anthony Hopkins starring as the famed auteur. Sacha Gervasi follows up his exceptional documentary, Anvil: The Story of Anvil, with a Hitchcockian love story about Hitch and his wife, Alma Reville (Helen Mirren), during the 1959 filming of Psycho. With Scarlett Johannson as Janet Leigh, Michael Wincott as Ed Gein (?!), Jessica Biel as Vera Miles and Cloud Atlas’ James D’Arcy as Anthony Perkins.

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 season 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 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 many 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.

HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA (PG) Unlike the superior ParaNorman, which was a genuinely, safely frightening family horror flick, Hotel Transylvania is an amusing, run-of-the-mill animated family movie where the main characters are harmless monsters. (The lesson that monsters aren’t dangerous is a terrible, hazardous message to teach children.) To protect monsters and his daughter, Mavis, from their dreaded enemies, humans, Dracula (genially voiced by Adam Sandler) sets up a hotel in the safe confines of Transylvania. On the eve of Mavis’ 118th birthday, a human named Jonathan (v. Andy Samberg) discovers Drac’s hideaway. Thank goodness director Genndy Tartakovsky (“Dexter’s Laboratory,” “The Powerpuff Girls” and “Samurai Jack”) brings his visual creativity to this rather rote tale of prejudice and cross-cultural romance. The sequences that work best are the ones that have fun with the conventions of Universal’s classic movie monsters. Samberg’s saddled with a rather boring character, but Selena Gomez’s Mavis has spunk. The adults—Kevin James as Frankenstein, Steve Buscemi as the Wolfman, David Spade as the Invisible Man and CeeLo Green as the Mummy—are even better as cartoon monsters than their usual human cartoons. Horror movie fans will prefer ParaNorman, but the kids will love checking into Hotel Transylvania.

HOUSE AT THE END OF THE STREET (PG-13) Another soporific, unscary PG-13 horror movie that will draw in the teens and tweenies, House at the End of the Street stars The Hunger Games’ Jennifer Lawrence as Elissa, who moves to a new town with her divorced mom (Elisabeth Shue). Soon Elissa is smitten with her cute new neighbor, Ryan (Max Theriot, a horror vet from My Soul to Take), the town bogeyman whose parents were murdered by his younger sister, Carrie Anne. Despite an overactive, handheld camera, director Mark Tonderai does little of note with the script from David Loucka, who wrote the even less frightening Dream House. (Too bad story contributor Jonathan Mostow didn’t direct; his Breakdown was much more chilling.) Pleasantly, the movie’s costumer chose to clothe the beautiful Lawrence in tank tops. Besides that sartorial diversion, HATES proves that little potential yields little disappointment. The only intriguing gambit is how the movie’s twist is perpetuated, not spoiled, by the trailer. However, that twist isn’t worth a theatrical viewing of this pedestrianly average horror flick.

KARATE WARRIOR 2 (NR) 1988. Bad Movie Night is back and so is the Karate Kid, were Daniel-san’s tale to be told by untalented cinematic biographers from Italy. After training in the Philippines, Anthony (Kim Stuart) “returns” to the U.S. for college. Though he promises not to fight outside of a sanctioned bout, Anthony must defend himself against the cruel Tigers and their head bully, Dick. Karate Warrior 2’s original title was the extra-wordy Il ragazzo dal kimono d'oro 2. Come enjoy the awfulness. (Ciné)

LIFE OF PI (PG) After several false starts and rumored directors (including M. Night Shyamalan), 2001’s blockbuster novel finally gets a film version…over 10 years later. And with Oscar winner Ang Lee bringing Yann Martel’s wonderful book to the big screen, expect year-end accolades. For the few of you that didn’t read the book years ago (or need a refresher), young Pi Patel (Suraj Sharma) survives 227 days at sea with a terrifying Bengal tiger. I expect this one to be exceptional, despite the trailers. With Irrfan Khan.

• LINCOLN (PG-13) Historical biopics do not come much more perfect than Steven Spielberg’s take on our 16th president’s struggle to end slavery by way of the 13th Amendment. Rather than tell Abraham Lincoln’s life story, screenwriter Tony Kushner (the Oscar nominee for Munich also wrote the excellent “Angels in America”) chose the ideal, earth-shattering month upon which to focus. He populates Spielberg’s 19th-century hallways with living, breathing figures of American history like William Seward (David Strathairn), Thaddeus Stevens (Tommy Lee Jones), Alexander Stephens (Jackie Earle Haley), Edwin Stanton (Bruce McGill) and Ulysses S. Grant (Jared Harris), but the film will be remembered and lauded as another platform from which Daniel Day-Lewis can solidify his claim to the title of greatest living actor. He uncannily becomes Lincoln with such ease; he also humanizes a larger-than-life figure we tend to treat far too reverently. Awards are sure to come. His authentic performance helps keep Spielberg’s best film since 1998’s Saving Private Ryan from falling into the hagiographical trap. Lincoln is also the bipartisan film our post-election America needs to remind us what to expect from great leaders. If these elected representatives could compromise to make history, certainly ours can to salvage the present.

THE ODD LIFE OF TIMOTHY GREEN (PG) From an odd, sweet place, Frank Zappa’s son Ahmet, comes The Odd Life of Timothy Green. The locale is familiar, though, 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 on which to rely.

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 4 (R) While the quality of Paranormal Activity 4 is little changed from its three predecessors (they are all above-average examples of how to shoot found footage flicks), the tense atmosphere, where the scares collectively imagined and anticipated by the audience are so much more terrifying than anything delivered by the film, is utterly absent. No imminent danger is established as the 15-year-old protagonist, whose name I cannot recall (Kathryn Newton, who resembles a young Jane Krakowski), and her equally unmemorable boy-who’s-just-a-friend tape every uninteresting moment of their tame not-quite-courtship. Some creative set-ups never pay off; the Kinect bits epitomize the movie’s wasted potential for terror. Even the anticipated return of the original’s statuesque Katie Featherston disappoints, as she’s barely around. The climactic sequence finally ramps up the scary but only for maybe five of the movie’s 88 minutes. PA4 also fails to develop the intriguing mythology introduced by its immediate predecessor. Boo on all counts. Skip this exceedingly weak entry in what, for three movies, had been a smart, effective horror franchise. If you ignore this advice, stick around through the credits for what looks like a teaser of the next installment.

THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER PG-13. Stephen Chbosky directs the adaptation of his 1999 book of the same name about a high school freshman dealing with isolation, new friends and a disturbed past. The book is one of the best modern stories about less than golden high school experiences. (Ciné)

PITCH PERFECT (PG-13) Infectious is the best word to describe the a cappella college comedy Pitch Perfect. Barden University’s women's singing group, the Barden Bellas, need some fresh blood after a devastating loss in the national finals of collegiate, competitive a cappella. Freshman Beca (Anna Kendrick, delightful as ever even if her character is an overly pouty teen), Fat Amy (rising star Rebel Wilson) and several interchangeable coeds join seniors Aubrey (Anna Camp, “True Blood”) and Chloe (Brittany Snow, “American Dreams”) as they battle their way back to the top. In their way are Barden’s resident a cappella badboys, The Treblemakers, led by Bumper (Adam Devine of the devious “Workaholics”) and new guy/Beca’s love interest, Jesse (Skylar Astin). It’s understandable that many, many people, especially males, are going to see the “Glee”-ful previews or read the synopsis and instantly decide, “I’m out.” That rush to judgment will deprive them of a decidedly anti-“Glee” experience. The movie lacks any message stronger than a cappella is a lot of fun, and the comic ensemble, including John Michael Higgins and Elizabeth Banks, lend a spiteful, humorous edge to what could have just been a bland radio friendly hit.

REBECCA (NR) 1940. Ciné continues their Alfred Hitchcock 35mm revival series with Hitch’s only Best Picture winner (though the acclaimed auteur was bested by John Ford for Best Director). Based on the novel by Daphne Du Maurier (she also wrote the story that was the basis for Hitchcock’s beloved The Birds), Rebecca stars Joan Fontaine as a young woman who discovers the titular first wife of her new husband, Maxim de Winter (Laurence Olivier), still holds a strange power over her hubby and his household. (Ciné)

RISE OF THE GUARDIANS (PG) This animated feature sounds so awesome! A group of familiar folktales—Santa Claus (v. Alec Baldwin), the Easter Bunny (v. Hugh Jackman), the Tooth Fairy (v. Isla Fisher) and Jack Frost (v. Chris Pine)—must combine their powers to stop Pitch, a.k.a. the Boogeyman (v. Jude Law). Guillermo del Toro's presence as producer is promising as author William Joyce helps adapts his own work to the screen. He’s even given a co-director credit alongside Peter Ramsey, whose only previous credit is the TV extension of Monsters vs Aliens.

RUST AND BONE (R) Writer-director Jacques Audiard follows up his critically acclaimed A Prophet (the Oscar and Golden Globe nominee won awards from Cannes and the Cesars) with Rust and Bone, starring Marion Cotillard in another potential award-winning role. Ali (Matthias Schoenaerts) departs Belgium for Antibes with his young son. While living with his sister and her family, he bonds with Stephanie (Cotillard), an orca whale trainer who suffers an awful accident. Audiard’s film was nominated for Cannes’ Palme d’Or.

SAMSARA (NR) Director Ron Fricke and producer Mark Magidson are reunited some 20 years after their award winning collaboration on Baraka and some 27 years after their first film, Chronos. Samsara (Sanskrit for “the ever turning wheel of life”) took nearly five years to film and covers sacred grounds, disaster zones, industrial sites and natural wonders in twenty-five countries on five continents. Talk about epic; it was also shot on 70-millimeter film. Winner of the Dublin Film Critics Award for Best Documentary. (Ciné)

SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN (PG-13) Director Malik Bendjelloul documents the journey of two South Africans, Stephen “Sugar” Segerman and Craig Bartholomew Strydom, seeking to discover what happened to their rock and roll hero, the mysterious Rodriguez. Bendjelloul’s intriguing documentary was nominated for the Sundance Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize and won several awards from festivals around the world, including a Golden Athena (Athens International Film Festival), a Silver St. George (Moscow International Film Festival) and several Audience Awards (Dublin, Los Angeles, Sundance). (Ciné)

THE SESSIONS (R) In this Special Jury Prize and Audience Award winner at Sundance, where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize, Mark, living in an iron lung, desires to lose his virginity so he hires a sex surrogate (Helen Hunt). William H. Macy plays Mark’s priest. Sixty-something writer-director Ben Lewin (“Ally McBeal”’s highest rated episode, “Let’s Dance”) based the film on the story of Berkeley-based poet-journalist Mark O’Brien. With Moon Bloodgood, Adam Arkin and Rhea Perlman.

THE SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK (R) David O. Russell is back, with his follow up to The Fighter, but his best bro-muse, Mark Wahlberg, has been replaced by Bradley Cooper. Based on Matthew Quick’s novel, The Silver Linings Playbook stars Cooper as teacher Pat Peoples, who, after being released from a four-year stint in a mental institution, moves in with his mother and seeks to reconcile with his ex. With Jennifer Lawrence, Julia Stiles, Robert De Niro, Jacki Weaver (an Academy Award nominee for Animal Kingdom) and Chris Tucker.

SINISTER (R) Sinister, the new film from Scott Derrickson (I really liked his The Exorcism of Emily Rose and don’t hate his rather boring remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still), is my favorite theatrical horror experience since The Strangers. Ethan Hawke intensely stars as true crime novelist Ellison Oswalt, who has moved his family—pretty wife, tween son, young daughter—into the murder house for the latest crime he is investigating. What he discovers is much deadlier and more demony than he could have imagined. Sinister utilizes found footage—Ellison finds a box of home movies in the attic of his new home—more uniquely than any of the glut of the latest (fading?) horror fad. These little short snuff films and Ellison’s drunk, terrified reactions supply some of the movie’s scariest moments, and Derrickson shows a lot of ingenuity in how he subtly shows the grisly kills. Extra points for James Ransone (HBO’s “Generation Kill” and “Treme”) as the not-as-dumb-a-deputy-as-he-seems comic relief. Released amid a lot of buzz in the horror community, this terrific chiller delivers.

SKYFALL (PG-13) The middle third of Daniel Craig’s third outing as James Bond is the best 007 adventure in 20, maybe even 30, years. Too bad director Sam Mendes (American Beauty) and his team of scripters won’t just let Bond be Bond for the entirety of the film. Skyfall almost completely unravels before the opening credits. The pre-credits chase—involving Bond, a female agent, a train and a baddie—concludes with M (Judi Dench) showing no faith in her best agent, a decision that makes little sense in this, or any, Bond-verse. In three films, Bond has gone from a newly licensed Double 0 to a dinosaur; when can Bond just be Bond again? (At least Quantum of Solace got that very right.) For an hour and in its tantalizing conclusion, Skyfall dresses in the formalwear of traditional Bond: Q, an all-time great villain, Silva (a blonde, 100% pure crazy Javier Bardem), and more. Bond has always been about balancing cool deadliness with world-saving silliness. Through Moore and Brosnan’s tenures, the balance favored silly; Craig’s scale might be tipped too far in the opposite direction. If the right mixture can be found, we could again see a candidate for Best Bond Ever.

TAKEN 2 (PG-13) Most movies fail to encapsulate the description “unnecessary sequel” as perfectly as Taken 2. (I wish it had had some silly subtitle like Taken 2: Takenier, but alas.) As a consequence of the violent methods he employed to retrieve his kidnapped daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace), in the first movie, retired CIA operative Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson), must face off against the Albanian dad (played by go-to Eastern European baddie Rade Serbedzija) of one of the sex traffickers he killed during his rescue mission. Once Bryan get himself and Kim to safety, he must go after some more Albanians and save his estranged wife, Lenore (Famke Janssen). The scenery—Bryan must clean the Eurotrash from the bazaars of Istanbul as opposed to the streets of Paris—isn’t the only thing that’s changed. While writer-producer Luc Besson returns, he replaces Taken director Pierre Morel with Transporter 3’s Olivier Megaton. Unfortunately, that substitution brings with it action choreography/cinematography that is far less comprehensible. Add a far too slow opening act to the jumbled action and Taken 2 falls far below the bar set by its surprise success of a predecessor.

TROUBLE WITH THE CURVE (PG-13) You’ll have no Trouble with the Curve so long as old man jokes, spryly delivered by a grouchier than usual Clint Eastwood, can keep you entertained for two hours. As aging baseball scout Gus Lobel, Eastwood seems to be workshopping a new stand-up routine (after his speech at the Republican National Convention, who knows?). He constantly mutters one-liners to himself, be he alone or sharing a scene with one of the movie’s terrific supporting actors, including Amy Adams, Justin Timberlake, John Goodman, or the gaggle of familiar old faces that play Gus’ scouting rivals. When the script asks him to act, Eastwood can still make any movie fan’s day. Adams and Timberlake bring some refreshing youth to this rather aged dramedy. Director Robert Lorenz hasn’t learned as much from his longtime collaborator as you'd like (he’s been Eastwood’s assistant director since 1995’s The Bridges of Madison County and producer since 2002’s Blood Work); writer Randy Brown’s Mitch Albom-y script doesn’t help. Fortunately, the capable bunch of on-camera talent, led by Hollywood’s elder statesman, should please the hometown crowds wishing to play a game of “Spot the Shots of Athens.”

• THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN—PART 2 (PG-13) The Twilight Saga has consistently improved as filmmakers have changed and the series has… um… matured? Bella (Kristen Stewart) is now a vampire; she and her husband, Edward (Robert Pattinson), have a new baby, Renesmee, whose existence threatens the vampire world’s ruling family, the Volturi (led by Michael Sheen). Now the Cullens, the Quileute wolves (including Taylor Lautner’s Jacob) and several blood-sucking pals must make a stand against the invading Italian vamps. Stephenie Meyer’s phenomenon concludes as satisfactorily as one would expect, though Breaking Dawn—Part 1 exceeds its follow-up, mostly thanks to the former’s more horrific plot. Part 2’s concluding battle merely proves Meyer’s non-monsters aren’t really vampires; they are romantic superheroes. The terrible CGI work—the needlessly computer-generated baby Renesmee vies for the worst special effect of 1992—shows the lack of serious craftsmanship with which this material has been handled.

VHS: VIDEOGRAPHER’S HELLA-BIG SHOW (NR) Ladies and gentlemen, grab your camcorders! Athens’ own The Society of Greater Things presents VHS: Videographer’s Hella-Big Show, your chance to get your amateur, aspiring or professional work on a local big screen on a quarterly basis. If you’re interested in submitting your original work (or just want more information), send a link (YouTube or Vimeo) to [email protected]. The screening is free. An 8 p.m. director’s mixer precedes the short films. Free prizes are also being promised. (Ciné)

WRECK-IT RALPH (PG) 2012 has been a good year for animation. Good luck deciding on the year's best animated feature from a strong list that includes Brave, Frankenweenie, ParaNorman and now Wreck-It Ralph. In Disney's latest, Wreck-It Ralph (v. John C. Reilly), the bad guy from popular arcade game Fix-It Felix Jr., decides he wants to be a good guy. Leaving the safety of his own regenerating world, Ralph enters a Halo-ish first-person shooter named Hero's Duty in search of a medal. Too bad Ralph's better at wrecking things than fixing them. This cute, inventive cartoon boasts several creative game worlds like the cavity-friendly candyland of Sugar Rush and a treasure trove of easter eggs for lifelong and newer gamers. Director Rich Moore definitely learned a thing or two from his time working on the inside joke heavy worlds of Matt Groening, "The Simpsons" and "Futurama." The voicework by Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch, Alan Tudyk, Mindy Kaling and more is top-notch, but one expects that level of competence from a high-profile animated feature. It's the plentiful heart and laughter Wreck-It Ralph offers viewers of all ages, gamer or not, that sets it apart.