Movie picks 

Films recommended by our reviewers are indicated by an *.

Alpha and Omega (PG)

Kate and Humphrey are two wolves who are trying to get home after being taken by park rangers and shipped halfway across the country. — Not reviewed

Chapel Hills 15

Case 39 (R)

Devoted family services specialist Emily Jenkins (Renée Zellweger) has seen domestic horrors of every type. That is, until she takes on case 39: the case of 10-year-old Lillith Sullivan. That's when the real terror begins. — Not reviewed

Carmike 10, Cinemark 16, Hollywood Interquest, Tinseltown

Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore (PG)

Former cat spy Kitty Galore has gone rogue and launched a plan to leash her canine enemies as well as her former kitty comrades, making the world her scratching post. — Not reviewed

Picture Show

Despicable Me (PG)

There's nothing actively wrong with Despicable Me; you'll find plenty of laughs. It's just that the whole enterprise feels somewhat lazy, the creation of people who want to make a movie without having anything interesting to say. — Scott Renshaw

Chapel Hills 15

Devil (PG-13)

A group of people are trapped in an elevator, and one of them is the devil. — Not reviewed

Carmike 10, Chapel Hills 15, Cinemark 16, Tinseltown

Dinner for Schmucks (PG-13)

Few moviegoing experiences are as excruciating as watching two gifted comics struggle with terrible material. The guilty parties in this comedy, which pits a reluctant jerk against an enthusiastic idiot, are Steve Carell and Paul Rudd. — Tricia Olszewski

Picture Show

*Easy A (PG-13)

Easy A is not terrible, but it's not indelible, either; it's simply an agreeable and relatively witty surprise. — Tricia Olszewski

Chapel Hills 15, Cinemark 16, Hollywood Interquest, Tinseltown

Get Low (PG-13)

How should an audience respond when a performance comes so naturally to the great actor Robert Duvall that he all but renders the film itself superfluous? — Jonathan Kiefer

Kimball's Peak Three

Grown Ups (PG-13)

Five guys — played by Adam Sandler, Kevin James, Chris Rock, David Spade and Rob Schneider — reunite for the funeral of their former basketball coach. None of them have actually grown up, merely gotten older and, it seems, infinitely more malicious. — MaryAnn Johanson

Picture Show

*Inception (PG-13)

In an unspecified future, the technology exists for people to enter one another's dreams. Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) has become a fugitive corporate spy stealing ideas from the subconsciouses of executives. The Christopher Nolan film proves remarkably nimble at getting us to the payoff, and what a payoff it is. — Scott Renshaw

Chapel Hills 15, Hollywood Interquest

The Karate Kid (PG)

In this remake of 1984's The Karate Kid, martial arts master Jackie Chan will enunciate the movie's moral — something about getting back on a horse, but more Chinesey — and then young Dre (Jaden Smith) will repeat it back later, for audience members who've awakened from their naps. — MaryAnn Johanson

Picture Show

*Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (PG)

Despite some exceedingly familiar genre elements, Guardians proves compelling because it doesn't do everything you expect an animated feature to do. — Scott Renshaw

Carmike 10, Chapel Hills 15, Cinemark 16, Cinemark 16 IMAX, Hollywood Interquest, Tinseltown

*Let Me In (R)

Matt Reeves didn't just re-do the much-lauded 2008 vampire drama Let the Right One In when he made Let Me In. He did it better. — Scott Renshaw

Carmike 10, Cinemark 16, Hollywood Interquest, Tinseltown

*Nanny McPhee Returns (PG)

The character Nanny McPhee is the perfect antidote for the upside-down fantasy of parental indulgence, and tolerance of "cute" munchkin monsters, that threatens to become the norm. — MaryAnn Johanson

Picture Show

The Other Guys (PG-13)

In this serviceable comedy, Will Ferrell plays an NYPD forensic accountant who loves his desk job. His resentful partner is played by Mark Wahlberg, who adds some comic embellishments of his own. — Marjorie Baumgarten

Chapel Hills 15

Resident Evil: Afterlife (R)

In a world ravaged by a virus infection, turning its victims into the Undead, Alice continues on her journey to find survivors and lead them to safety. Her deadly battle with the Umbrella Corporation reaches new heights, but she gets some unexpected help from an old friend. — Not reviewed

Carmike 10, Chapel Hills 15

Salt (PG-13)

Angelina Jolie is a Russian spy. Or maybe not ... You'll simply have no idea what to believe, and it's downright thrilling to be kept on edge. — MaryAnn Johanson

Picture Show

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (PG-13)

On the surface, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World seems like a meticulously faithful adaptation. But in the end, it struggles to find the rhythms that gave the original its soul. — Scott Renshaw

Picture Show

Secretariat (PG)

Based on the novel Secretariat: The Making of a Champion by William Nack, Secretariat chronicles the spectacular journey of the 1973 Triple Crown winner. — Not reviewed

Carmike 10, Chapel Hills 15, Cinemark 16, Hollywood Interquest, Tinseltown

The Social Network (PG-13)

For all its real enough ideas — about young people making jobs instead of taking them, about the end of the old privacy and the beginning of a new obscurity — The Social Network falls short of full articulation. — Jonathan Kiefer

Chapel Hills 15, Cinemark 16, Hollywood Interquest, Tinseltown

The Sorcerer's Apprentice (PG)

Balthazar Blake (Nicolas Cage) is a master sorcerer in modern-day Manhattan trying to defend the city from his arch-nemesis, when he recruits a seemingly average guy as his reluctant protégé — Not reviewed

Picture Show

Takers (PG-13)

A notorious group of criminals continues to baffle police by pulling off perfectly executed bank robberies, when their plans are interrupted by a hardened detective who is hell-bent on solving the case. — Not reviewed

Carmike 10

Tapestries of Hope (NR)

The movie explores filmmaker Michealene Cristini Risley's sojourn to Africa as she investigates the long-standing myths surrounding the power of virgin blood. — Not reviewed

Chapel Hills 15

*The Town (R)

While it lacks the magnitude it's after, it doesn't lack the courtesy to entertain. It's a little bit like The Departed, although without Martin Scorsese's heavy menace. — Jonathan Kiefer

Cinemark 16, Hollywood Interquest, Kimball's Peak Three, Tinseltown

*Toy Story 3 (G)

The 11 years since Toy Story 2 have passed almost in real time. Due to a mixup, Woody, Buzz and company end up at Sunnyside Day Care, in yet another triumph of profoundly felt storytelling from Pixar that explores the theme of letting go — Scott Renshaw

Picture Show

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (PG-13)

The Twilight producers keep trying; you've got to give them that. Yet the truth is, the movies are stuck with Stephenie Meyer's books as a foundation. This is also fundamentally an adolescent melodrama, and melodrama is hard for even the best actors in the best circumstances. Neither is the case here. — Scott Renshaw

Picture Show

Vampires Suck (PG-13)

In this parody of angst-filled vampire mega-movies, high schooler Becca is torn between two boys. — Not reviewed

Picture Show

*Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (PG-13)

The film's only major problem stems from the last few minutes clashing rather jarringly with all that has come before. But it's a forgivable failure, as everything prior was so dynamically told by a master of visual storytelling. — MaryAnn Johanson

Chapel Hills 15, Cinemark 16, Hollywood Interquest, Tinseltown

You Again (PG)

Successful PR pro Marni heads home for her older brother's wedding and discovers that he's marrying her high school arch nemesis. The claws come out and old wounds are opened in this crazy comedy that proves that not all rivalries are forever. — Not reviewed

Carmike 10, Chapel Hills 15, Cinemark 16, Hollywood Interquest, Tinseltown