He's Just Not That Into You 2012
Directed by Ken Kwaps
Starring: Jennifer Aniston, Ben Affleck

Remember that really cute guy who said he'd call....and didn't? Maybe He's Just Not That Into You. An all-star cast - Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Connelly, Kevin Connolly, Bradley Cooper, Ginnifer Goodwin, Scarlett Johansson and Justin Long - looks for love and finds laughs in this savvy, sexy, right-now romcom. Based on the runaway (like some guys you know) bestseller by Sex and the City series writers Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo, He's Just Not That Into You sparkles with zingy aha moments any survivor of the dating wars will recognize. See it with someone you'd like to love. Alliance Studio

The Package 2012
Directed by Jesse V. Johnson
Starring: Steve Austin, Dolph Lundgren

Combat veteran Tommy Wick is a nightclub bouncer and stone-cold enforcer for a Seattle mob boss. "The German", is an international crime lord and hardcore killing machine. When Wick is asked to courier a mysterious package to The German, he'll suddenly find himself hunted by relentless teams of hit men, mercenaries, assassins and sadists. Time is running out. The bodies are piling up. And for two men with a history of bad blood, the ultimate retaliation is about to be ripped wide open. Amazon

Sessions 2012
Directed by Ben Lewin
Starring Helen Hunt, John Hawkes

Paralyzed and confined to an iron lung since childhood, poet-journalist Mark O'Brien (Hawkes) has overcome adversity time and time again. But now, at age 38, he faces his toughest challenge yet: losing his virginity. With the help of a beautiful therapist (Hunt), a sympathetic priest (Macy), and his own unbridled sense of optimism and humor, Mark embarks on an extraordinary personal journey to discover the wondrous pleasures that make life worth living. Amazon

Seven Psychopaths 2012
Directed by Martin McDonagh
Starring: Colin Farrell, Woody Harrelson

At a time when pop culture-savvy assassins run a dime a dozen, In Bruges, the first film from Irish playwright Martin McDonagh, registered as a brilliant anomaly: a literate, mordantly funny hit man movie that didn't lean on the standard Tarantinoisms. (If the director had a cinematic inspiration, it was more likely Stephen Frears's masterful 1984 film The Hit.) Seven Psychopaths, McDonagh's follow-up, strikes a much broader vein, melding parody, self-referential humor, and clever meta-fiction into one big splattery ball. Buckle up, basically. Colin Farrell plays an Irish screenwriter named, er, Martin who is terminally stuck on his latest script, an ultraviolent affair named "Seven Psychopaths." (We mentioned that this is meta, right?) Desperate for an ending, he turns to his lowlife friend (Sam Rockwell) for inspiration. As his new writing partner's suggestions get increasingly detailed, Martin realizes that the insanity is no longer constrained to the page. Tom Waits shows up at one point, because this is the kind of movie that this is. It takes a strong director to hold together this amount of whirling chaos, and McDonagh proves himself up to the task (mostly), with the game work from his leads abetted by vivid supporting turns from Kevin Corrigan, Woody Harrelson, and Harry Dean Stanton, whose brief appearance cries out for a spinoff all of his own. McDonagh's true ace in the hole, though, is Christopher Walken, who is simply astounding as an aging dognapper with one lulu of a backstory. Walken's ability to go way over the top has been well documented, but here he underplays, a decision that ultimately stabilizes the film's hurtling, streaky bursts of inspiration. No matter how goofy the movie around him gets, he's always one step beyond. --Andrew Wright

Anna Karenina 2012
Directed by Joe Wright
Starring: Keira Knightley, Jude Law

Academy Awardr nominee Keira Knightley, Academy Awardr nominee Jude Law and Aaron Taylor-Johnson dazzle in this stunning new vision of Leo Tolstoy's epic love story. At the twilight of an empire, Anna Karenina (Knightley), the beautiful high-ranking wife of one of imperial Russia's most esteemed men (Law), has it all. But when she meets the dashing cavalry officer Vronsky (Taylor-Johnson), there is a mutual spark of instant attraction that cannot be ignored. She's immediately swept up in a passionate affair that will shock a nation and change the lives of everyone around her. From acclaimed director Joe Wright (Atonement, Pride & Prejudice) and Academy Awardr-winning writer Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in Love) comes this visually enchanting masterpiece hailed by critics as "ecstatic" (Time), "rapturous" (MSN Movies) and "a spectacle that has to be seen to be believed!" (The Huffington Post)

Argo 2012
Dir: Ben Affleck
Starring: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston

Based on real events the dramatic thriller "Argo" chronicles the life-or-death covert operation to rescue six Americans which unfolded behind the scenes of the Iran hostage crisis focusing on the little-known role that the CIA and Hollywood played-information that was not declassified until many years after the event. On November 4 1979 as the Iranian revolution reaches its boiling point militants storm the U.S. Embassy in Tehran taking 52 Americans hostage. But in the midst of the chaos six Americans manage to slip away and find refuge in the home of Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor. Knowing it is only a matter of time before the six are found out and likely killed the Canadian and American governments ask the CIA to intervene. The CIA turns to their top "exfiltration" specialist Tony Mendez to come up with a plan to get the six Americans safely out of the country. A plan so incredible it could only happen in the movies. Amazon

For a Good Time Call... 2012
Directed by Jamie Travis
Starring: Lauren Anne Miller, Nia Vardalos, Justin Long, Ari Graynor.

Overachiever Lauren is suddenly on her own after her boyfriend breaks up with her. Free-spirited Katie is about to lose a dream apartment unless she can find a roommate. After they move in, Lauren discovers that Katie is working as a phone-sex operator and decides to get in on it. As their partnership starts bringing in the money, their newfound friendship finds unexpected challenges that may leave them both hanging on the line.
"In a rare instance of truth in advertising, this movie actually is a good time."--Rolling Stone

Taken 2 2012
Directed by Olivier Megaton
Starring: Liam Neeson, Famke Janssen, Maggie Grace

Liam Neeson returns as Bryan Mills, the retired CIA agent with a "particular set of skills" who stopped at nothing to save his daughter Kim from kidnappers. When the father of one of the villains Bryan killed swears revenge, and takes Bryan and his wife hostage in Istanbul, Bryan enlists Kim to help them escape. Bryan then employs his unique tactics to get his family to safety and systematically take out the kidnappers, one by one. -- (C) Official Site

The Odd Life of Timothy Green 2012
Directed by Peter Hedges
Starring: Joel Edgerton, Jennifer Garner

To purge their grief at failing to conceive, Cindy (Jennifer Garner) and Jim (Joel Edgerton, Animal Kingdom) write down all the attributes they wish for in a child, put them in a box, and bury them in the garden. That night, a boy smeared with dirt, with leaves sprouting from his legs, appears in their house and says his name is Timothy. Thus begins a fable that's sort of about uniqueness and conformity, as Timothy's magical nature proceeds to hearten the lives of everyone he encounters--including a young girl with her own secret, the stern woman who owns their town's pencil factory (Dianne Wiest), and Jim's gruff, emotionally distant dad (David Morse, The Green Mile). What the movie is really about is Cindy and Jim learning to be better parents by working through their own childhood issues (Cindy always felt overshadowed by her sister; Jim felt abandoned by his father). But even that is half-baked; almost all problems are solved by simple exposure to Timothy's irrepressible sunny nature, not by anyone actually doing anything. Timothy himself, despite the sweetness of young actor CJ Adams, never becomes a genuine character and not a plot device. Still, the actors are charming, the movie's visual gloss is very pretty, and The Odd Life of Timothy Green somehow maintains just enough awareness of life's difficulties to keep from being unbearably cloying. --Bret Fetzer

Lawless 2012
Directed by John Hillcoat
Starring: Tom Hardy, Shia LaBeouf

Director John Hillcoat and writer-musician Nick Cave made a brutal, brilliant splash with The Proposition, a revisionist Outback Western that quickly tore away any lingering notions of frontier romanticism. Lawless, the duo's take on another turbulent period of history--namely, the bloodiest years of America's Prohibition--eases up on the unrelenting grimness a bit, but the hard edges still shine through. Adapted from the historical novel The Wettest County in the World, by Matt Bondurant, Cave's script follows three Virginia brothers determined to continue their family's legacy of providing quality moonshine to their faithful customers (including members of local law enforcement) during the Great Depression. While the youngest brother (Shia LaBeouf) attempts to gain the business of a feared local mobster (Gary Oldman), the three find themselves under assault from a ruthless federal agent (Guy Pearce) with a sadistic agenda of his own. Hillcoat, working with cinematographer Benoît Delhomme, delivers a fantastically realized period piece, one where the folksy, lived-in atmosphere is randomly dispelled by moments of shockingly raw savagery. Unfortunately, the attention to detail doesn't quite extend itself to LaBeouf's character, whose motivations and actions feel strangely half-baked throughout. Still, even if the main storyline occasionally falters, the film offers plenty to recommend itself, including Cave's ominously cheery score, small but vivid turns by Jessica Chastain and Mia Wasikowska, and the gloriously weird Pearce, who starts his performance somewhere in the outer stratosphere and just keeps heading upwards. The main draw of Lawless, however, ultimately comes from Tom Hardy, who goes all out and then some as the enforcer and reluctant father figure of the family. Clad in incongruously mellow cardigans and mumbling like a cartoon sailor man, he's a Terminator for the ages. When it comes to his performance, White Lightning hardly covers it. --Andrew Wright