At the Movies: ‘Broken City,’ ‘Mama,’ more

OPENS TODAY

‘Argo’
The Golden Globe winner and multiple Oscar nominee returns to theaters. Ben Affleck directs and stars in this seamless blend of detailed international drama and breathtaking suspense, as a CIA “exfiltration” specialist concocts a risky plan to get six Americans out of Iran as the revolution reaches a boiling point. (Christy Lemire, Associated Press) (R, 120 minutes)

‘Broken City’ 1/2
In a city rife with injustice, an ex-cop seeks redemption and revenge after being double-crossed and then framed by the mayor. Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe and Catherine Zeta-Jones star. (R, 109 minutes)

‘The Last Stand’
The leader of a drug cartel busts out of a courthouse and speeds to the Mexican border, where the only thing in his path is a sheriff and his inexperienced staff. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Johnny Knoxville star. (R, 107 minutes)

‘Mama’
Jessica Chastain stars in a horror story about a couple faced with the challenge of raising the husband’s young nieces, who were supposedly left alone in the forest for five years. (PG-13, 100 minutes)

LIMITED RELEASE

‘Rust and Bone’
A struggling single father helps a whale trainer recover her will to live after an accident leaves her confined to a wheelchair. Marion Cotillard and Matthias Schoenaerts star in this acclaimed French drama. At Consolidated Kahala (R, 120 minutes)

NOW PLAYING

‘Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away’ 1/2
In this 3-D presentation, two young people journey through the dreamlike worlds of the extraordinary circus to find each other. While the world-famous and stylized circus is wonderful in a live setting, the spectacle is a little less spectacular on film. It’s all quite lovely, mesmerizing and right on the edge of sleep-inducing. (Roger Moore, McClatchy Newspapers) (PG, 91 minutes)

‘Django Unchained’
With the help of his mentor, a slave-turned-bounty hunter sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner. There’s something gleefully satisfying in watching evil people get what they have coming, but this Oscar-nominated film is Tarantino at his most puerile and least inventive. He always gets good actors who deliver, though, and performances by Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio, Oscar nominee Christoph Waltz, Kerry Washington and Samuel L. Jackson make it all intermittently entertaining. (David Germain, Associated Press) (R, 165 minutes)

‘Gangster Squad’ 1/2
This pulpy, violent tale of cops and mobsters in 1949 Los Angeles wallows in period detail — it’s mostly flashy, empty and cacophonous, and woefully wastes a strong cast led by Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone in barely developed, one-note roles. (Christy Lemire, AP) (R, 113 minutes)

‘A Haunted House’
Horror only has a ghostly presence in this ramshackle, found-footage spoof from “Scary Movie’s” Marlon Wayans. A man turns to a priest, a psychic and a team of ghost-busters to help get a demon out of his possessed wife. (R, 86 minutes)

‘The Hobbit: An Unfinished Journey’ 1/2
A curious Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, journeys to the Lonely Mountain with a vigorous group of dwarfs to reclaim a treasure stolen from them by the dragon Smaug. It’s both visually dazzling and utterly distracting, and at more than three hours, the movie is overstuffed with prologues, a sidestepping back story and boring, drawn-out scenes. The first of a trilogy, this may pay off by the time the finale arrives in the summer of 2014, but right now, it looks like something that would’ve been better told in one movie. (Christy Lemire, AP) (PG-13, 169 minutes)

‘Hyde Park on Hudson’ 1/2
Bill Murray and Laura Linney star in this lightweight romance about the affair between President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his distant cousin Margaret Suckley. It’s all rather cozy and insular amid the rolling hills and tasteful period trappings, and while Murray is subtly charming as FDR, Linney’s versatile and vibrant talents are wasted on the mousy bore that is Suckley. (Christy Lemire, AP) (R, 94 minutes)

‘The Impossible’ 1/2
Oscar nominee Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor star in the true story of vacationers caught in the deadly tsunami that hit southern Thailand in 2004. The dramatic emphasis is on the anguish of a mother and her son (Watts and Tom Holland), who survive the waves and are separated from the rest of their family. Both actors are terrific in their roles, but the film is unfortunately less an examination of mass Asian destruction than the tale of a spoiled holiday for wealthy, entitled Western travelers. (A.O. Scott, New York Times) (PG-13, 114 minutes)

‘Jack Reacher’
This features one of those effortlessly badass performances from Tom Cruise that remind us that he is indeed a movie star, first and foremost. He plays the titular homicide investigator digging deep into a case involving a military sniper who shoots random victims. Writer-Director Christopher McQuarrie’s film moves so fluidly and with such confidence, it’ll suck you in from the start. (Christy Lemire, AP) (PG-13, 130 minutes)

‘Les Miserables’ 1/2
Director Tom Hooper’s sweeping Oscar-nominated adaptation of the hit Broadway musical is given an operetta treatment that can be soaring and glorious — or, when the lyrics slip into anachronistic vernacular, wincingly lame. This big-budget movie summons the mighty forces of CGI to create vast tableaux of castles and monasteries, shipyards and slums, found in France in the tumultuous first half of the 19th century. Stars Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe and a scene-stealing Anne Hathaway. (Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer) (PG-13, 157 minutes)

‘Life of Pi’ 1/2
Ang Lee’s Oscar-nominated film is about a young man who survives a disaster at sea and is hurtled into an epic journey of adventure and discovery. While cast away, he forms an unexpected connection with another survivor, a fearsome Bengal tiger. This is gorgeous, ruminative, soulful, provocatively entertaining and the most artful use of digital 3-D technology to date. (David Germain, Associated Press) (PG, 127 minutes)

‘Lincoln’
As the Civil War continues to rage, America’s president struggles with continuing carnage on the battlefield and fights with many inside his own Cabinet on the decision to emancipate the slaves. Steven Spielberg’s splendid, multi-Oscar-nominated film stars Daniel Day-Lewis in the title role, and is less a biopic than a political thriller, a civics lesson that is energetically staged and alive with moral energy. (A.O. Scott, New York Times) (PG-13, 149 minutes)

‘Parental Guidance’
It’s the collision of the generations as an old-school couple agree to look after their three grandkids when their type-A helicopter parents need to leave town to work. Billy Crystal plays it’s like “revenge of the geezer,” and the movie would be the worse for it if not for the counterbalancing performances of Bette Midler and Marisa Tomei. (Manohla Dargis, New York Times) (PG, 104 minutes)

‘Rise of the Guardians’
The latest project from DreamWorks Animation is about a group of immortal beings who team up to protect the innocence of children around the world when an evil spirit launches an assault on Earth. It’s an attractively designed but overly busy and derivative mishmash of kid-friendly elements. (Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter) (PG, 97 minutes)

‘Silver Linings Playbook’
After a stint in a mental institution, a former teacher moves back in with his parents, and during his attempts to reconcile with his ex-wife meets a mysterious girl with problems of her own. This exuberant Oscar-nominated movie from director David O. Russell does almost everything right. An intensely focused Bradley Cooper gives a surprisingly effective performance and Jennifer Lawrence gives her character an aching, tender and lovely quality. (Manohla Dargis, New York Times) (R, 122 minutes)

‘Skyfall’
In the latest James Bond movie starring Daniel Craig, Bond’s loyalty to his boss M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, Agent 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost. This movie is a mixed bag: Some of it is terrific and some of it is spectacular. It succeeds in restoring the Bond saga to life, delivering all the kinetic satisfaction of a taut action thriller with a mature sophistication rare in blockbuster films. (Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune) (PG-13, 143 minutes)

‘This Is 40′ 1/2
Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann reprise their roles from Judd Apatow’s “Knocked Up” as a married couple with two daughters. It’s five years later and the movie follows their three-week navigation of sex and romance, career triumphs and financial hardships, aging parents and maturing children. This is a good-natured and warmhearted but only intermittently funny look at middle-age domesticity. There are few laugh-out-loud scenes, but maybe that’s the point — that life isn’t about the grand gesture, but the little day-to-day details that keep us grounded and human. (Cary Darling, McClatchy Newspapers) (R, 134 minutes)

‘Wreck-It Ralph’ 1/2
The latest Disney Oscar-nominated animated feature is about a video game villain who wants to be a hero and sets out to fulfill his dream, but his quest brings havoc to the arcade where he lives. The studio takes a page out of Pixar’s well-worn playbook and ends up with a screwball farce with a novel setting and more edge than your average Disney ‘toon. (Roger Moore, McClatchy Newspapers) (PG, 108 minutes)

‘Zero Dark Thirty’
The Oscar-nominated drama of the long hunt for al-Qaida terrorist leader Osama bin Laden after the 9/11 attacks, and his death at the hands of the Navy SEAL Team 6 in May 2011. This is a cool, outwardly nonpartisan intelligence procedural that seamlessly weaves truth and drama, and Kathryn Bigelow’s direction here is unexpectedly stunning, at once bold and intimate. (Manohla Dargis, New York Times) (R, 157 minutes)

SPECIAL

The Met Live in HD: ‘Maria Stuarda’
12:55 p.m. Saturday, Regal Dole Cannery; $12.95 general, $30
In the second opera of Donizetti’s Tudor trilogy, the exciting mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato takes on the virtuosic bel canto role of the doomed Mary, Queen of Scots. (NR, 200 minutes)

‘Coral: Rekindling Venus’
Noon Saturday and Sunday, J. Watamull Planetarium, Bishop Museum; $12.95 general, $10.95 seniors and $8.95 youth (Hawaii residents, free to museum members and children 3 and younger)
Created and directed by Australian media artist Lynette Wallworth, it’s an immersive film experience that takes viewers underwater through the realm of fluorescent coral reefs in Australia, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.

‘Refuge from the Storm’
7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Consolidated Ward, $10 through tugg.com
The daughter of a wealthy family receives a powerful spiritual awakening, in hopes of helping an aspiring writer who gets pulled into a dark world of drugs. (PG-13, 107 minutes)

ARTHOUSE

DORIS DUKE THEATRE

Honolulu Museum of Art, 900 S. Beretania St., entry on Kinau Street. 532-8768; $10 general and $8 museum members (tickets also available online at www.honolulumuseum.org)

Sixth Annual Bollywood Film Festival: ‘Barfi!’
12:30 and 7:30 p.m. today
A heartwarming tale of a deaf and mute charmer who gets entangled with an autistic girl and a spoiled heiress. (2012, 151 minutes)

‘Cocktail’
12:30, 4 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday
An incorrigible flirt, a tradition-bound girl and a spoiled bombshell are perfect housemates until love and friendship complicates things. (2012, 146 minutes)

‘Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana’
12:30 and 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday
On the run from a London gangster, a young man returns to his native village in Punjab where he tries to recover the secret family recipe for a chicken dish that could help make them wealthy. (2012, 150 minutes)

‘Jab Tak Hai Jaan (Till My Last Breath)’
12:30 and 7:30 p.m. Thursday
The last film from the late and legendary Yash Chopra is an epic love story as a man suffering from amnesia tries to reunite with his true love in London. (2012, 176 minutes)

Family Film Sunday: ‘Wild Ride’
11:10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Sunday; $3 adults, $1 children 13 and under
A fast-paced collection of international live action and animated films, suitable for those ages 7 and up. (78 minutes)

MOVIE MUSEUM

3566 Harding Ave. (735-8771): $5 general and $4 members; reservations recommended

‘Pina’
Noon and 4:30 p.m. today; 4:30 and 6:15 p.m. Sunday; and 2, 4 and 6 p.m. Thursday
Wim Wenders’ tribute to German choreographer Pina Bausch. (2011, 103 minutes)

‘Ageman (aka ‘Tales of a Golden Geisha’)
2, 6:30 and 8:30 p.m. today; and noon, 2:15 and 8:15 p.m. Sunday
The Juzo Itami satire on corruption and the influence of money in Japanese politics. (1990, 118 minutes)

‘Lapland Odyssey’
Noon, 1:45 and 8:30 p.m. Saturday

‘Woman in Witness Protection’
3:30 and 6 p.m. Saturday
Juzo Itami’s final film before his untimely death is comic gangster film about a self-centered actress living under police protection after she chooses to be a trial witness to a murder. (1997, 132 minutes)

‘Burning in the Sun’
Noon, 3 and 6 p.m. Monday
A documentary about a young man who returns to his homeland of Mali to start a local business building recycled solar panels from scraps. (2010, 85 minutes)

‘The Other Final’
1:30, 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. Monday
A documentary about a soccer match between Bhutan and Montserrat, the then-lowest-ranked teams in the world, a game that was played on the same day as the World Cup final in Japan. (2003, 77 minutes)

‘Blessed’
Noon and 8 p.m. Thursday
Seven lost children wander the streets of Melbourne, Australia, for a day and a night, while their mothers await their return home. (2009, 113 minutes)

MONDAY MOVIE CAFE

TheVenue, 1146 Bethel St. (436-4326); $10, $5 students

‘Seeds of Hope’
7 p.m. Monday
A documentary about the attempts of innovative farmers to return to local and traditional methods of growing food to stem the disappearance of all of Hawaii’s agricultural lands. (2011, 92 minutes)