"Amour": Director Michael Haneke's "Amour" -- a multiple Oscar nominee -- is the one of the best films of 2012 and certainly the most haunting. But there also is such intensity that, at times, it can be hard to watch.


"Broken City": It's a filthy place, this "Broken City." Even the "good guys" have their dirty secrets and tragic flaws. And the "bad guys?" They're all over the New York news -- a mayor who plays hardball, a guy running against him who's not above crawling in the mud, a police commissioner too quick to make ethical compromises.

* * � -- (Roger Moore, McClatchy-Tribune News Service.) R (language, sexual content, violence). 1 hour, 47 minutes.

"Django Unchained": Quentin Tarantino's big smooch to exploitation movies, spaghetti Westerns and classic revenge flicks will divide and outrage audiences. Hallelujah. The violent, provocative and entertaining epic never shies away from the sensational. A pack of dogs chews apart a slave. A naked black woman gets yanked from her underground prison. Ugly images, yes, but this is no empty-headed wallow. While in many regards, Tarantino is an enfant terrible, he's also a bold artist with a deep passion for movies and filmmaking with blood and guts.


"Gangster Squad": What a waste. That thought lingers in the air like the smoke off some moll's cigarette at the end of the gory, only intermittently entertaining "Gangster Squad."

* * -- (Randy Myers, Staff.) R (violence, language). 1 hour, 53 minutes.

"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey": There are some wondrous things to behold in "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," director Peter Jackson's return to J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth. The scenery is as stunning as it was in Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. All the dwarfs, trolls, elves, orcs, goblins and hobbits are still marvelous bits of movie magic. The battle scenes (and there are lots of them) are gripping set pieces. It's clear from the beginning that Jackson has lost none of his visual flair or his abilities with special effects in the years between the final installment of "Rings" and this new excursion into the land of Tolkien's imagination. What has gone MIA: Jackson's grip on how to tell a story.


"The Impossible": So terrifying is the 2004 tsunami as imagined in "The Impossible," its destructive force engulfing the screen with such violent menace, that the imagery alone elicits a rising dread so intense you may feel yourself gasping for breath. Spanish-born director Juan Antonio Bayona must have been tempted to let the monstrous waves triggered by the Indian Ocean earthquake that devastated Southeast Asia and left hundreds of thousands dead overwhelm the dramatic story he tells. That never happens in this profoundly moving film.

* * * -- (Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times.) PG-13 (intense sequences). 1 hour, 47 minutes.

"Jack Reacher": The idea of watching a movie in which a sniper methodically crafts his own bullets, practices weekly at a gun range, then waits quietly in an empty parking garage before shooting five people dead may not sound like the most appealing form of entertainment. Nevertheless, it's important to assess "Jack Reacher" on its own terms, for what it is and what it isn't. Besides being caught in some bad timing, it's also clever and well-crafted, and it features an effortless performance from Tom Cruise that reminds us that he is indeed a movie star, first and foremost.



* * � -- (Cary Darling, Fort Worth, Tex. Star-Telegram.) R (violence, language). 1 hour, 47 minutes.





"Promised Land": The movie, co-written by stars Matt Damon and John Krasinski and directed by Gus Van Sant, threatens to become one of those late '60s/early '70s heavy-handed message movies, but it's somewhat salvaged by Damon's innate likability and the chemistry among the cast. -- (Cary Darling, Fort Worth, Tex. Star-Telegram.) R (language). 1 hour, 46 minutes.





