What’s New

“Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel” — The film is a kids comedy that screams “Direct to DVD.” It doesn’t help that it screams that in high, squeaky, three-part harmony. Whatever slim charms there were in the nostalgic, musically cute and slapstick-friendly first film of chipmunk mania are squished right out of “The Squeakquel” like so much rodent roadkill. The cast is cut-rate and the script needed a serious visit from a serious gag writer. Rating: One star. (PG)

“It’s Complicated” — Meryl Streep is a millionaire bakery owner in Santa Barbara who begins a warm friendship with her architect (Steve Martin) just as her ex-husband (Alec Baldwin) comes back into her love life. This inspires close calls, confusion among their children, fascination from her girlfriends and some funny scenes, but too many that belong on the day-old shelf. Rating: Two and a half stars. (R)

“New York, I Love You” — Eleven directors, 10 eight-minute segments plus transitions, three dozen actors, and an anthology of short stories about New Yorkers. I suspect the title should be pronounced with a wry shake of the head, as in, “Oh, you kid.” The film assembles a collection of characters, who find that eight minutes is quite enough to make an impression, as so many New Yorkers would agree. Rating: Three stars. (R)

“Nine” — My problem may be that I know Fellini’s “8 1/2” too well. Your problem may be that you don’t know it well enough. Both of us may be asking, who exactly was “Nine” made for? This is a big-scale version of the 1982 Broadway production, but lacking the passion, the guilt, the innate music of the great Fellini musical. And it doesn’t have a single great song. The role played on film by Marcello Mastroianni and onstage by Raul Julia is now played by — Daniel Day-Lewis? Rating: Two stars. (PG-13)

“Sherlock Holmes” — Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.), who has survived so much, here survives an onslaught of special effects orchestrated by Guy Ritchie, in a CGI London never more dark and gloomy. He and Watson (Jude Law) are on the trail of the Satanist Lord Blackwood, seemingly hanged and buried, but now returned from the grave. Will discomfort traditionalists, but Downey and Law perfect an Odd Couple relationship and are surrounded by the atmospheric and fantastical. With Rachel McAdams as Irene Adler, reportedly the only woman to ever touch Holmes’ heart. Rating: Three stars. (PG-13)

“Up in the Air” — Bingham (George Clooney) describes himself as a “termination facilitator.” He fires people for a living. When corporations need to downsize quickly but hate the mess, he flies in and breaks the news to the new former employees. In hard times, his business is great. He loves isolation from other people. Vera Farmiga plays his longtime mistress, and Anna Kendrick is his young trainee. To both he explains why he doesn’t need a home or family. The third great film from Jason Reitman (“Thank You for Smoking,” “Juno”). Rating: Four stars. (R)

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“2012” — The mother of all disaster movies (and the father and the extended family) spends half an hour on obligatory ominous setup scenes (scientists warn, strange events occur, prophets rant, and of course a family is introduced). Then it unleashes two hours of cataclysmic special events in which the Earth is hammered relentlessly. This is fun. “2012” delivers what it promises, and will be, for its intended audience, one of the most satisfactory films of the year. Rating: Three and a half stars. (PG-13)

“Avatar” — James Cameron silences his doubters by delivering an extraordinary film. There’s still one man in Hollywood who knows how to spend $250 million wisely. The story involves a mission by U.S. Armed Forces to an Earth-sized moon, Pandora, in orbit around a massive star. They encounter a graceful race of towering blue-skinned forest dwellers living in harmony with their environment. Sam Worthington plays the hero, whose is befriended by a Na’vi woman (Zoe Saldana) and chugs his allegiance. Awesome special effects, good storytelling. Rating: Four stars. (PG-13)

“The Blind Side” — This redemption-minded sports flick serves its inspiration straight-up with no twist. Writer-director John Lee Hancock wisely lets the true story of Michael Oher — the African-American teen who found a home and, eventually, football stardom, after being adopted by a wealthy Memphis family — speak for itself. That direct focus delivers a feel-good crowd-pleaser, but it also drains the film of the kind of subtle nuances that might have separated it from other Hollywood Hallmark-like efforts, including Hancock’s own “The Rookie.” The movie dutifully chronicles the transformation of Oher (newcomer Quinton Aaron) from blank slate to a fully formed young man, emphasizing the involvement of Leigh Ann Tuohy (Sandra Bullock). Bullock brings her trademark spunkiness to the mother hen role, delivering an iron-willed woman who looks past appearances to do the right thing. Rating: Two and a half stars. (PG-13)

“A Christmas Carol” — An exhilarating visual experience that proves for the third time Robert Zemeckis is one of the few directors who knows what he’s doing with 3-D. The story that Dickens wrote in 1838 remains timeless, and if it’s supercharged here with Scrooge swooping the London streets as freely as Superman, well, once you let ghosts into a movie there’s room for anything. In motion-capture animation, Jim Carrey does the movements and voice of Ebenezer Scrooge, never thinner, never more stooped, never more bitter. The A-list cast also includes Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Bob Hoskins, Robin Wright Penn and Cary Elwes. Rating: Four stars. (PG)

“Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” — A 3-D animated comedy about a kid who invents a machine that will turn water into food. It goes wild, floods his island with food, and attacks it with a spaghetti and meatballs tornado. Haven’t seen that before. Rating: Two and a half stars. (PG)

“Did You Hear About the Morgans?” — Feuding couple from Manhattan (Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker) are forced to flee town under the Witness Protection Program, find themselves Fish Out of Water in Strange New World, meet Colorful Characters, survive Slapstick Adventures, end up Together at the End. The only part of that formula that still works is The End. With supporting roles for Sam Elliott and Wilford Brimley, sporting the two most famous mustaches in the movies. Rating: One and a half stars. (PG-13)

“Fantastic Mr. Fox” — Not for kids, not for adults. Just a lovely film. That’s the charm. After “The Darjeeling Limited” and “The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou,” Wes Anderson again creates an inexplicably odd and riveting look for Roald Dahl’s fable about a fox trying to overcome his basic foxian nature. A combo of traditional stop-action animation and uncannily real fur. Voices of George Clooney, Meryl Streep. Rating: Three and a half stars. (PG)

“Invictus” — Strange, that the first of many proposed biopics about Nelson Mandela centers on the South African rugby team. Mandela took an intense interest in the Springboks’ drive to an eventual World Cup championship, and it was a famous victory for the parish apartheid state. Here it is foregrounded, and who would have expected this film to be structured around who wins the big match? Yet Clint Eastwood has crafted a strong film with many other key moments, and Freeman and Damon are well cast. Entertaining, but not a companion-piece for “Gandhi.” Rating: Three and a half stars. (PG-13)

“The Men Who Stare at Goats” — A weirdly funny comedy that seriously claims to be based on an actual U.S. Army interest in using paranormal soldiers as weapons. Ewan McGregor plays a reporter who encounters George Clooney, a “Jedi Warrior” graduate of this secret program; flashbacks show Jeff Bridges as an officer who seems very much like the Big Lebowski. Could they kill goats by staring? Well, if you can bend a spoon with your mind, why not a rifle? Rating: Three and a half stars. (R)

“Pirate Radio” — A shipboard comedy based on the legendary offshore pirate radio stations that transmitted rock ‘n’ roll to a music-starved Britain during the ‘60s, when the BBC used to broadcast less than an hour daily of pop/rock music. Philip Seymour Hoffman leads a cast of floating DJs for whom the station is less than a job and more a way of life. Great casting, with a menagerie of distinctive British character actors, including Bill Nighy and Rhys Ifans. Rating: Three stars. (R)

“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push” by Sapphire” — School is an ordeal of mocking cruelty for a fat teenager, and home is worse. Precious avoids looking at people, hardly ever speaks, is nearly illiterate, is pregnant. One of her teachers (Paula Patton) and a social worker (Mariah Carey) see something in her, or simply react to her obvious pain. They try to coax her out of her shell. She’s not stupid, but feels defeated. Gabourey “Gabby” Sidibe gives a powerful performance in the title role, and Mo’Nique is frighteningly effective as her abusive mother. Directed by Lee Daniels, based on the novel “Push” by Sapphire. Rating: Four stars. (R)

“The Princess and the Frog” — The Disney studios still shelter animators who know how to make classic animated stories, in an age when too many animated films feel obligated to assault us with input overload. Tiana (Anika Noni Rose) is a hardworking New Orleans lass who dreams of opening her own restaurant. A visiting prince, turned into a frog, begs her to kiss him, but then they both become frogs, in a story involving voodoo, sorcery and song. Spritely and high-spirited. Voices by Anika Noni Rose, Bruno Campos, Oprah Winfrey, Keith David, Terrence Howard and John Goodman. Rating: Three stars. (G)

“The Road” — Evokes the images and the characters of Cormac McCarthy’s novel, but lacks the core of emotional feeling. The film is a sincere attempt to relate the story of a man and his son trekking westward across a devastated future America, but the strength of the novel isn’t in the action; it’s in McCarthy’s prose, which evokes so much more than it says. With Viggo Mortensen as the father, Kodi Smit-McPhee as his son and Charlize Theron in flashbacks as the wife and mother in years before the unexplained apocalypse. An honorable attempt, but McCarthy is daunting to film. Rating: Three and a half stars. (R)

“The Twilight Saga: New Moon” —The film takes the tepid achievement of “Twilight” (2008), guts it and leaves it for undead. You know you’re in trouble with a sequel when the word of mouth advises you to see the first movie twice instead. Bella (Kristen Stewart) is still living at home with her divorced dad, and Edward (Robert Pattinson) is back in school, repeating the 12th grade for the 84th time. Sitting through this experience is like driving a pickup in low gear through a sullen sea of Brylcreem. Rating: One star. (PG-13)

“Where the Wild Things Are” — Maurice Sendak’s much-loved 1963 children’s book becomes a big-budget fantasy, with particularly good realizations of his Wild Things, creatures on an island visited in the imagination of a small boy (Max Records). But the plot is simple stuff, spread fairly thin by director Spike Jonze and writer Dave Eggers. Rating: Three stars. (PG)

— From wire and online sources