Every kid has that movie that’s going to scare the crap out of them for the first time. The stop-motion animation studio Laika, which was behind 2009’s fantastic “Coraline” and now this Tim Burton-meets-low-rent monster movie mash-up “Paranorman,” again manages a good first step for scary movie virgins.

Norman (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is a young kid living in Blithe

Can a bunch of long-in-the-tooth action stars still substitute muscles, guns, and wisecracks for super heroes and special effects? Sylvester Stallone & Co. respond to that question with a resounding “hell yeah.” “The Expendables 2” is a “go-bigger” sequel that works and it does so because of exciting familiar faces.

This time a debt Barney (Sylvester Stallone) owes to Mr. Church (Bruce Willis) leads him and his

Those hoping “The Campaign” would be an economic-political satire will probably be a little disappointed, but for those ready to laugh at some Dog-Gate 2012-like absurdity with two comedic heavyweights behind the wheel, this Will Ferrell-Zach Galifianakis comedy hits the mark. Ferrell is Cam Brady, on his way to another term as congressman for Hammond, NC, while Galifianakis is Marty Huggins, the effeminate, disappoint-

Watching a Bourne movie not starring Jason Bourne is like watching the Harlem Globetrotters starring the Washington Generals. Over the past months, writer of the last three, and now director of this one, Tony Gilroy and Matt Damon have feuded over the future of this franchise. Gilroy has stated that this is a companion piece which ties into the Bourne storyline, but other than telling us that there’s more than one C.I.A. program (a fact we

It isn’t every day you get the likes of Meryll Streep and Tommy Lee Jones in a romantic comedy, even the very idea seems like two actors doing a bit of slumming, but instead they make “Hope Springs” really pop with an honest, funny, and moving portrayal of a marriage on the rocks. They play Kay and Arnold, a couple married thirty-one years who have hit a bit of a rough patch. They’ve been sleeping in separate beds. When Kay tries to remedy this, Arnold uncom-

Rashida Jones ("The Social Network") was funny when she appeared on shows like “The Office” and “Parks and Recreation.” I had to keep reminding myself of this when I discovered her in her first starring role in “Celeste and Jesse Forever” (Jones co-wrote the screenplay in collaboration with Will McCormack), a movie like “(500) Days of Summer” although not as good. Jones plays Celeste to Andy Samberg’s Jesse. Together they form a young

Faced with the unenviable task of coming on the heels of the biggest movie opening of all time as well as being a reminder of recent and tragic events (the Trayvon Martin shooting) “The Watch” was basically going to rest on the likable charisma of its lead actors. This is the type of R-rated comedy you want to see from Stiller, Vaughn, and Hill and yet the comedy struck me as largely innocuous. Evan (Ben Stiller) manages a Costco in Glenview