Jack Reacher is an above-average crime thriller with an effortlessly beguiling performance from Tom Cruise. At times it lacks compelling motivation, or sophisticated action, but for what it lacks it aims to replace with a good helping of drama, mystery, and a high body count.

“Jack Reacher has the distinction of being little more than it initially appears to be: a clumsily condensed mystery/thriller novel made into a movie that offers little more than every other clumsily condensed mystery/thriller novel made into a movie.” —James Berardinelli

Storyline

An innocent-looking brute…

Wondering what you might want to see this weekend? We’ve got several new releases as well as some popular films still in theaters that will make great options for you.

Let’s dive in.

New Films

The Guilt Trip
Looks terrible. Possibly funny at time, but terrible.

Monsters, Inc. 3D
Coming back to theaters in 3D ahead of Monsters University. Personally I’ll pass because, while Monsters is a find film, I just don’t like 3D.

Jack Reacher
I’ll be seeing this tonight. it looks awesome to me! We’ll soon find out.

This is 40
Please avoid this one at all costs — ALL COSTS!

Zero Dark…

The most definitive opinion piece I’ve read comparing The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in these formats: HFR 3D, Standard 3D, and 2D:

So with all of this here’s the “Master Class” that I took away, and that Peter Jackson shared with every filmmaker out there that is willing to study these 3 versions of the same film:

1. Film is just as much about what you DON’T show the audience as with what you DO. Shallow depth of field, motion blur, lack of sharpness, and movement all help to create movie magic. If images are too sharp and you see too much detail…that’s not always a good thing. The…

Aside from the broad strokes (i.e. lots of ‘splosions) we still don’t really know what’s going to happen in Into Darkness. It might be Wrath of Khan? It might be a sequel to “Where No Man Has Gone Before” or a prequel to “Space Seed”? We don’t know.

Except… I think we do.

First off, Into Darkness is not going to be Wrath of Khan, but it’s going to borrow heavily from the conflicts and themes that inform it. The crew of the Enterprise is going to find itself up against an embodiment of genetic perfection as played by Benedict Cumberbatch. We see him smack enough people around in the…

Hollywood continued to rejigger its publicity plans for holiday releases Monday in the wake of the school shooting in Newtown, Conn.

Paramount has decided to make several tweaks to the marketing materials for Jack Reacher, the gritty crime-action pic starring Tom Cruise as a hard-boiled former military cop trying to prove that an alleged sniper was framed. The film opens Friday.

The studio wouldn’t officially say what the changes are, but a source confirmed that a scene of Cruise’s character firing off a semi-automatic weapon is being cut from promotional spots.

And then regarding…

One of the fun things we got with the IMAX showings of The Hobbit this past weekend was the first 9 minutes of Star Trek Into Darkness. This 9 minutes will not be made available online, or even in standard theater screenings of The Hobbit, it is exclusive to IMAX.

You should be aware that if you have not seen it, there will be spoilers.

Familiar Then Different

The prologue kicks off with the familiar sounds at the beginning of Star Trek (2009) which are very reminiscent of the original series’ bridge sounds. But instead of resolving into a Starship bridge as with the previous film,…

Paramount Pictures announced late Friday that tomorrow’s planned world premiere of the Tom Cruise thriller Jack Reacher has been postponed “due to the terrible tragedy in Newtown Connecticut, and out of honor and respect for the families of the victims whose lives were senselessly taken.”

This is a very classy thing to do. The shooting was a heartbreaking tragedy, and a studio canceling such an event shows a surprising amount of presence of mind for the decision makers. Hats off to them.

You want to hear a story? Sure you do.

How do you want to see it?

I wanted to see The Hobbit in my preferred theater with friends and a few family members, and my six year old son. We did so last night, it was easy. This theaters is not showing The Hobbit in HFR. There are two options, The Hobbit 2D, The Hobbit 3D. We elected for the 2D experience, it was cheaper and easier to manage for our young son, not to mention my wife and I both prefer 2D.

But… this tale is just beginning.

HFR, IMAX and 3D, Oh My

I also wanted to have something to say about The Hobbit the way it’s director,…

Witless, unfocused, and arguably misogynistic as well as misandristic, Playing for Keeps is a dispiriting, lowest-common-denominator Hollywood rom-com.

It’s a wonder why decent actors get paired with fatuous productions, such as this one. If you care to know more about how poorly the film sells itself, then partake in the rest of my review.

“Dear Hollywood, Please make better movies. Thanks.” -Ron Kraus

I saw Ron’s comment on YouTube for the official release of Playing for Keeps’ trailer. And I want to parrot Ron. Hollywood, what were you thinking? Get it together.

Playing for…