If there is any justice in Hollywood, Steven Soderbergh's "HAYWIRE" will serve as a wake-up call to every action filmmaker around. With his first entry into the genre he has crafted the freshest combat film America has seen in ages; the first in god-knows-how-long that can compete with similar films from Asian countries, particularly the hand-to-hand fighting films of China and Hong Kong. It won't be celebrated for its challenging intellect, or for virtuoso acting (even if the character work is perfect.) Rather, this is cinema at its most primal: pure, fast, and violent, "HAYWIRE" is a visual sucker punch.

And 90% of that is thanks to lead actress/bad-ass-mother-fucking-professional-cage-fighter Gina Carano's performance as Mallory Kane. I'm not going to lie and say she's a great actress; but she doesn't need to be. Soderbergh plays to her strengths, casting her as a lone "private contractor" (unaffiliated mercenary) whose fucked over by the government after finishing off one too many dirty jobs – she's chased down and targeted for death by fellow agents and her bosses. She gives the classic Eastwood performance, speaking in monosyllables and abrupt sentences – and only when necessary (there's also shades of Karen Sisco from Soderbergh's "OUT OF SIGHT" in the relationship Mallory has with her father.)

Instead, her character emerges through her ass-kickings, which see her fighting with agility and athleticism that is literally non-existent among Hollywood actresses. The fact that she's a champion fighter only improves upon the already-visceral feeling of the movie – when we see her kill people with her bare hands, we know that she can actually do it. And Christ, those fight scenes. Her strikes are realistic and wince inducing to a point that is unseen in the films of any country! She doesn't need great acting range – her brutal hand-to-hand work immediately puts her in the pantheon of cinematic martial arts masters like Bruce Lee, Lo Lieh, or Jimmy Wang-Yu. And the fact that she's fucking gorgeous only makes her more perfect for the silver screen.

Described by Soderbergh himself as a "female take on THE LIMEY", "HAYWIRE" is simple and unpretentious in all the best ways. Many will deride the far-from-innovative narrative, but it allows the brutal action to take center stage while Soderbergh's impeccable pacing and exceptionally clean (yet unimaginably violent) compositions keep the experience from ever seeming empty. It's genius in its simplicity, designed to serve the fact that people go to martial arts films for the specific purpose of watching fight scenes. Watching Mallory fight back against her attackers, one-by-one, is really all there should be, plot-wise. Soderbergh knows anything else would simply obscure the main attraction.

You see, things like UFC have changed modern audiences: we now know what deadly choke holds look like, what it honestly takes to knock a man (or woman) out, what it takes to break a bone. But MMA has been used in all the wrong ways by Hollywood so far. It's either turned into fodder for teenage angst ("NEVER BACK DOWN"), as a joke ("SPIDER-MAN"), or as the plot device for grand melodrama ("WARRIOR".) Soderbergh, however, goes incredibly far in the other direction. UNLIKE Asian martial arts films, the fights here are anything BUT balletic: they are brutal, mixing up professional fighting techniques with the geography of each scene (for example, a brawl through a hotel room obviously employs the television.) In fact, Soderbergh may have even strayed too far from the graceful style of Asian cinema and towards honest representations of pro fighting: at one point Mallory falls a foe with the deadly triangle choke, which sees an attacker asphyxiate their victim by the force of their crossed legs around the neck. Instead of reacting as they usually would to the climax of a scene, the audience laughed at the hold, probably assuming it was a cunnilingus joke. When the man was dead 8 seconds later, however, they were no longer laughing.

And speaking of Mallory's victims, the supporting cast here is the definition of star studded; every role filled with a familiar face whose personality defines the character (so Soderbergh doesn't have to.) Antonio Banderas as a shady money man, Michael Douglas as the upstanding government agent, Ewan McGregor as a squirrelly overseer, Michael Fassbender as a James Bond type: these roles could not fit more naturally. And Fassbender, obviously, deserves the best notice: his eventual battle had me biting my hand and curling in my seat; the sheer hatred with which he and Gina tossed each other around the room is astounding, their punches connecting with such brutality that I found myself instinctively looking away.
This may not be Soderbergh's best film, but this him working at the top of his game as a craftsman.

Everything he does here is perfect; accentuating the focus on the action without being showy or distracting attention from the story: the modern-but-jazzy soundtrack, the non-linear construction (designed to allow an audience-surrogate character into the picture early), the flashes of black-and-white, and even the crazy plot flourishes (he comes up with the best ending for a car chase I've seen in a long time.) But most of all the way he lets the fight scenes play without soundtrack, enhancing the natural/realistic take on combat and forcing us to take in the painful sounds of flesh-striking-flesh. This is a shit-kicking good time; nirvana for fans of martial arts cinema. I can't wait to see it again.

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"Underworld Awakening" begins with a tidy, three-minute wrap of the series' first two movies (the third, a 2009 prequel minus star Kate Beckinsale doesn't figure into the equation) before revealing the current grim state of affairs for its clashing vampires and werewolves.

Humans, at least those oblivious to the charms of the "Twilight" movies, have decided to stop killing each other and focus on eradicating creatures possessing fangs. Our vampire antiheroine Selene (Beckinsale) finds herself cryogenically frozen in a laboratory before someone (or something) mysteriously breaks the glass, facilitating her reemergence. Conveniently, her captors have left her spandex suit and knee-high black boots right next to her pod, though you'd think wiggling into that get-up after a dozen years of slumber would require a dexterity beyond even her extraordinary skills.

And make no mistake, those superhuman skills receive a workout in "Underworld Awakening," a brisk creature-feature that ditches the series' dreary mythology in favor of a more direct, action-oriented approach. The "Underworld" movies could never exactly be called "fun," but Swedish directing duo Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein manage to bring a bit of visual affair to the bloodletting along with another quality previously in short supply — competence.

That either makes "Awakening" the best movie in the burgeoning "Underworld" franchise or the worst, depending, I suppose, on how deeply you value the series' previous strained attempts at myth-making. Here, the four credited screenwriters have created a workable (though easily solved) mystery surrounding the 12-year-old girl (India Eisley, Shailene Woodley's little sister on the ABC Family series "The Secret Life of an American Teenager") who was frozen along with Selene, while wasting little time setting up a scenario that pits vampires against steroid-pumped werewolves (or Lycans, if you must) in numerous CGI-aided scenarios.

Beckinsale, playing Selene as a memory-swiped Jason Bourne, finally manages to perfect the monotone delivery she'd been honing for the series' first two entries. As if by explanation, she tells the girl at one point, "My heart's not cold. It's broken." At least she has all that spandex and leather to keep her warm.

One of the outright pleasures of the "Underworld" movies has always been watching fine British thespians — Michael Sheen, Bill Nighy, Derek Jacobi — chew scenery along with various other body parts. "Awakening" gives us two new additions: Stephen Rea playing a mad scientist with all the relish of a man about to go into a sensory deprivation tank and, on the other side of the spectrum, a campy Charles Dance as the pragmatic leader of one of the last remaining vampire covens.

As to whether either will be around for the fifth film that this movie's finale dutifully sets up, we can't say. But that's OK. Now that the "Harry Potter" movie franchise has come to a close, there are plenty of notable English actors available. Hopefully they can keep the costumes along with the paychecks.

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In Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, director Stephen Daldry makes it his job to get the audience to feel, to weep, to cry.  He does his job very well.

Too well, in fact. At times his film, based on Jonathan Safran Foer's novel about a family shattered by 9/11, seems to exist only to tug at the audience's heartstrings. It's manipulative as all get out, playing up the outstanding performance by newcomer Thomas Horn for maximum emotional payoff. Luckily Horn is so good -- as is Max von Sydow in a wordless role -- that the film resonates in spite of the tear-jerking strings Daldry pulls.

Nine-year-old Oskar Schell (Horn) is a curious, precocious and socially awkward boy living in New York City. (He might also have Asperger's syndrome; he says the test results were inconclusive.) Oskar is especially close to his father, Thomas (Tom Hanks), a jeweler who concocts elaborate puzzles and expeditions for Oskar to force him to interact with people, something he's not very good at.

Then one September day Oskar is sent home early from school after something happens (the students aren't told exactly what). Linda (Sandra Bullock),Oskar's mother, is at work, and Thomas is at a meeting. Oskar arrives at his empty apartment to find a series of answering-machine messages left by his father, who it turns out is trapped inside one of the Twin Towers. The date is Sept. 11, 2001.

A year later Oskar, living with his mother, with whom his relationship is strained, worries he's losing his memories and links to his father. He discovers a key inside an envelope that says only "Black" on the outside. Oskar decides it is one last expedition planned by his father, and sets out to find out from all of the Blacks in Manhattan -- there are hundreds -- if they know what the key fits.

Thus begins Oskar's odyssey, walking all over the five boroughs (one of his fears is public transportation), showing up on the doorstep of everyone named Black. He packs for his trip as he might a hiking trip, and carries along a tambourine, which he shakes to calm his nerves. His first stop is the home of a couple literally in the middle of a breakup (Viola Davis and Jeffrey Wright). It's awkward, of course, but there is something about Oskar and his story that charms most (though not all) of the people he visits.

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It has been reported that there could still be another four year wait for the sequel to the 2009 record breaking movie Avatar. That means that we will not get to see Avatar 2 hit the big screen until 2016, a staggering seven years after the first Avatar movie. Avatar producer Jon Landau has claimed that the earliest possible date that an Avatar sequel will be released is in December 2015 and that would be without any problems between now and then, so is unlikely.

Everybody knows that Avatar has become James Cameron’s baby and that he will not release Avatar 2 until he is 100% happy with the outcome of it. However, it is unclear whether there would still be that same buzz around an Avatar sequel in four years time, as fans are already beginning to pick holes in the original Avatar movie.
 
It seems that James Cameron is biding his time and is waiting until he can deliver a technical masterpiece that could rival that of the first Avatar movie. Fortunately though, there will be less of a wait between Avatar 2 and Avatar 3, as they are planning to shoot them back to back, with Avatar 3 being released a year after Avatar 2.

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The film is an 'extreme' horror movie with a lot of blood and violence and the movie definitely isn't for kids, or so the director would like us to believe.  While that maybe so, the storyline is highly immature, with the handsome Vijay finding time to romance the beautiful Dr. Suhani, even managing to fly off to exotic locations to sing three songs, all in the midst of the very ugly and savage butchery that's being unleashed by a powerful ghost at the hospital. Shiney Ahuja looks like a newborn man in his comeback film, in the sense that he seems to have forgotten his basic acting lessons. However, Sayali Bhagat does a good job of saving him from suffering too much damage, as her own meager attempt at trying to act like she was acting makes him look so much better, even giving him  the credibility needed to approach the next producer.

Shiney Ahuja seemed like a young star with a promising career till some 'unfortunate incidents' derailed his career and his life, completely off track. 'Ghost' was touted as his comeback film. And now the actor must be wishing he had never even attempted a come back! 'Ghost' is amateurish, unimaginative, lacking in sense and horrible by any measure.

The film is written, directed and edited by Puja Jatinder Bedi and the lady should realise for the sake of the people - albiet very few – mentally tortured by having seen 'Ghost', that doing anything closely resembling movies in future would only result in further demeaning her life. 'Ghost' is set in a 'city hospital' which, in order to get the right sort of ambience I guess, is situated at the base of a remote hillock.

The music is by Sharib Sabri, Tosi Sabri and Raju Singh and these names better remain anonymous. The music they have given to 'Ghosts' in the form of songs and background score is a crime that could land them in some serious trouble with music lovers. However the good news is that no one would remember 'Ghost' and its music two weeks from today; so they could be back with their next film, barely arousing any suspicion. There are also obviously various other people involved in the making of the film, but there does not seem to be any specific need to evaluate any of their works - like that of the cinematographer or the art director - after you have seen an elderly woman on the operating table, having suffered third degree burns and yet somehow miraculously with her saree still spotless, except for some dust and soot.

Dr. Suhani (Sayali Bhagat) walks into the hospital on her first day - or rather night, since she is on the night shift – of the job and immediately becomes aware of the presence of some unnatural forces around her. Things take a more gruesome turn when Dr. Suhani happens to discover the disfigured body of a hospital nurse by accident. To save the reputation of the hospital, the case is sent to the Investigative Force and the Investigative Force sends in their best man Vijay Singh (Shiney Ahuja). Customary investigations follow. But soon Vijay Singh discovers that the mysterious happening at the City Hospital is not just a case for him, but something more and deeply personal...

So, if you are a fan of Shiney Ahuja and are glad that his luck has finally changed for the better, do not come and see this film as you might get a tad too depressed seeing the cruelty that fate seems to bestow upon the man's career. In the end, 'Ghost' is indeed a horror flick, but all it has managed to terrify is that section of the audience that still believes that movie making is a serious art, not to be treated as  child's play. If it hasn't been made obvious in this review till now, do not see 'Ghost' the film, even genuine ghosts would think of ending their own ‘lives’ after seeing 'Ghost'.  Poor ghosts!

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The 3D craze has not only encouraged Hollywood to make their new releases into third-dimensional spectacles but the trend has also been applied to older films. If you’ve been to the local cineplex within the past three months I’m pretty sure you’ve seen previews touting the theatrical re-releases of classic films such as Titanic (1997) and Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace (1999). Who knows how many more flicks will be retrieved from the vaults and shined up with a 3D gloss but Beauty & The Beast 3D was one of the chosen pieces I just had to check out.

I was 13 when Disney’s animated treatment of Beauty & The Beast debuted in 1991. At that time I was still a big Disney fanatic. After the marvelous production of The Little Mermaid (1989) my expectations were through the roof when Disney decided to put their magical spin on yet another timeless fairy tale. The short version of my initial experience with Beauty & The Beast was that I adored it so much I practically memorized every little detail of the film thanks to the VHS release. I nearly wore out the cassette tape copy of the soundtrack. And I made it a priority to stay up into the wee hours of a Sunday night and see if the nominated film would win the Best Picture award at the 64th Annual Academy Awards ceremony. I have no hate against Silence Of The Lambs (1991) for scoring the statue but I would’ve been much happier the next morning if Belle and Beast had gotten the Oscar. It would’ve added a nice touch to their massive library.

Though this isn’t the first theatrical re-release of Beauty & The Beast (there was an IMAX run of the film 2002 and a special sing-along edition hosted by Jordin Sparks in 2010) this is the first time it has been released in Disney 3D. Admittedly, there was a part of me that was skeptical about just how successful it would be to convert a 2D animated feature into a 3D film coupled with the cynicism that this was such a shameless attempt to squeeze more money out of an old commodity using a flashy gimmick as a selling point. Ultimately, I decided that I didn’t care if they dressed the ticket stub-ripper guy in a "Lumiere" costume. I absolutely loved Beauty & The Beast and I jumped at the chance to not only see it on the big screen again but to see it in 3D.

Just for the sake of the uninformed the general plot of this movie is that a selfish prince (Robbie Benson) is punished for his uncaring ways with an enchantment that turns him into a hairy beast and his subjects into household furniture. The only way to reverse the spell is for the beast to learn how to care for someone else and have that same person return that love back to him. If he can’t break the spell by his 21st birthday then the enchantment will hold forever.

Enter Belle (Paige O’Hara), a headstrong and clever woman who escapes her dull provincial life through books. Belle dreams of a life of adventure and gets more than she bargains for when her father (Rex Everhart) ends up imprisoned in Beast’s castle. Belle offers herself up to Beast so dad can be set free. The stage is then set for a possible solution to Beast’s enchantment problem. But Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither is a romantic relationship. The clock ticks and the magical rose’s petals fall as Beast tries to win Belle’s heart before his grizzly fate is sealed for eternity.

The film itself is still a masterpiece. Oh, wow, from the stained glass prologue that explains the Beast’s origins to the wide shot of Belle strolling towards the village while singing the opening bars of the song that’s literally all about her to the harrowing woodland battle between Beast and some scary wolves and to the amusing argument between Belle and Beast after that scary situation. It’s all there and it is all still amazing and remarkable and darn that Angela Lansbury. Ooh, every time her voice came through “Mrs. Potts” (housekeeper turned teapot) I couldn’t help but get a big grin on my face and a little mist in my eyes. I had already predicted that Ms. Lansbury’s rendition of the title song would get to me but that’s an understatement. Once Belle came out in that golden gown (arguably the best Disney princess gown ever designed….ever!) and joined Beast in that exquisite ballroom I was destroyed. My lips were trembling, the eye mist had become a small waterfall, and all those childhood fantasies about storybook love that I had long sensed buried under mounds of disillusionment burst out from the soil and it was wearing a shimmering tuxedo.

As a fan it was an incredible experience to see Beauty & The Beast the same way I saw it in 1991. Well, except for the newly added 3D elements that I can best described as just another layer of sweet icing on an already fantastic cake. It was like watching an extremely enlarged projection from a Fisher-Price View-Master reel. There are lots of great moments of depth perception including the opening zoom-in through the woods to the Beast’s castle, the overhead views of both Belle and her father’s first entry into the massive lobby of the castle, and the infamous ballroom scene that was already impressive enough in 2D. Actually, the 3D tech is used quite effectively to give a grander scale to both the interiors and exteriors of the enchanted castle.The particle elements such as snow and rain seemed to benefit the most from the 3D conversion.

I was a lot more moved by this experience than I had anticipated. I thought seeing Beauty & The Beast 3D would be some trippy little nostalgia stunt for a lazy Sunday afternoon. Instead, I got a remarkable ride on the “wayback machine”. I had forgotten what a masterpiece Beauty & The Beast was. It was more than just a well-done animated film. This particular combination of voices, songs, designs and plot was the epitome of perfection. I think most people have at least one Disney movie that he/ she considers to be the premier Disney film that not only entertained but thoroughly amazed in every possible way. Beauty & The Beast is my ultimate Disney film experience and seeing it in 3D was incredible. Frankly, even if I saw it again in the 2D theater I probably still would’ve been emotionally floored.

My matinee ticket for Beauty & The Beast 3D cost me $10 dollars so this is a tough sell for the families out there especially the ones with a small army of children. Plus, the film is easily accessible on DVD, Blu Ray and instant streaming. As a fan with no kids it is pretty easy to tell the “tribes” that the extra cost is worth it but that’s something you’ll have to decide based on your calculations and your budget. My advice is to have the kids eat before the movie so you can pass on the popcorn and sodas. The film is barely 90 minutes and they’ll be so enraptured with the wonder of the pretty colors and catchy tunes that the last thing on their minds will be their tummies. Thankfully, there are some theaters that are running also running the 2D version so that might save you a few more cents, too.

Another bonus is the animated short Tangled Ever After that runs before the main feature. The short takes place during the wedding of Rapunzel (Mandy Moore) and Eugene (Zachary Levi) as their animal pals Pascal (chameleon) and Maximus (horse) lose the wedding rings. The duo endures a series of unfortunate (yet amusing) events in their quest to get the rings back for the ceremony.

As an avid filmgoer this re-release of Beauty & The Beast borders on historic. This is one of the finest films ever made with visuals that fill the screen to bursting with lush designs in exquisite color, a stirring plot that runs most of the gamut of human emotions and a soundtrack that is so incredible that it spawned a Broadway/stage incarnation that has delighted audiences from stages all over the globe. For fans of Beauty & The Beast this is a can’t-miss moment. Reliving the magic in the third dimension was totally worth it.

For those who haven’t seen it, well, this is probably the best opportunity to check the film out. Simply put, Beauty & The Beast is still an awesome chunk of cinema and the 3D only enhances what was already exquisite to begin with.

PS – Beauty & The Beast 3D uses the original version of the film so don’t expect to see any new scenes such as the “Human Again” musical number.

Rhymes With: The Lion King 3D (2011), The Little Mermaid (1989), Aladdin (1992), The Princess & The Frog (2009), Beastly (2011), Annie (1982), The Sound Of Music (1965)

Coming Soon
Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace 3D (2/10/12) - The Star Wars Saga is going 3D and Lucas is re-releasing the flicks in chronological order. First up is The Phantom Menace where Qui-Gon Jinn (Jedi Master) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Jedi Trainnee) strive to save the planet of Naboo from some sinister forces including a Sith warrior. Also includes the the first meeting of Queen Amidala and Anakin Skywalker, parents of future freedom fighters Luke and Leia Skywalker. Hanging with Jar Jar Binks again is a small consolation for seeing the outer space dog-fights, pod race sequence and underwater Gungan kingdom scenes in the third dimension.

Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax (3/2/12) – Yet another Seuss creation turned “CG toon feature”. This one seems to be about a town completely covered in plastic and other artificial materials. Since there is no more plant-life in their neighborhood two kids embark on a journey to find a real tree. Planned for 3D and 2D release.

The Pirates! - Band Of Misfits (3/30/12) – High sea hijinks about a quirky band of pirates and their misadventures. Brought to you from Sony Pictures and Aardman Animations (the company behind Wallace & Gromit). Planned for 3D and 2D release.

Brave (6/22/12) – Those Pixar geniuses set their sights on ancient Scotland to tell the story of a young girl who prefers shooting with a bow over wearing a bow in hair. Planned for 3D and 2D release.

Finding Nemo 3D (9/14/12) – One of Pixar’s most popular flicks is gearing up for a theatrical re-release in 3D. Relive the amazing and comical journey of Marlin and Dory as they search the seas for Marlin’s lost son, Nemo.

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Maybe it was the epic, old-fashioned storytelling, or the touching bond depicted between man and animal. Whatever the reason, Steven Spielberg’s War Horse worked its way into my heart and I enjoyed it purely as a simple, fulfilling story. Thinking back on it, I smile because this is the type of film many people of various ages and backgrounds can enjoy together. It has a universal appeal because it’s about universal feelings and themes, like caring for a child or pet you’ve nurtured and watched grow; seeing promises all the way through; and basic survival. You can categorize it as a war picture, sure, but it doesn’t necessarily takes sides and label one country good and another evil, nor does it see things from a single point of view. War in this case serves as a mechanism for us to see how any human being - English, French, German, man, woman, adult, child - can be linked to others through his or her humanity. In this case, their humanity stems from the way they care for and react to the title character.

The story has the kind of classic tone that resonated in films of the 1930s, free of cynicism and filled to the brim with underlying hope. In Devon, Ireland, just before World War I, a poor farmer named Ted Narracott (Peter Mullan) hastily (and drunkenly) bids on a horse in a local auction to spite his smug landlord (David Thewlis). But the horse is too skinny and jumpy to pull a plow, which is what Narracott needs it for, and so he ends up with a seemingly useless animal and an even greater line of debt. His wife (Emily Watson) gives him one month to train it; otherwise she vows to return the horse herself and beseech the landlord for forgiveness. But their son, Albert (Jeremy Irvine), who saw the young thoroughbred come into the world, sees a golden opportunity to raise it as his own.

Albert names the horse Joey and teaches him some basic commands, but the horse is only good to him if he can pull a plow, and so Albert puts himself out there and proves he’s willing to do the same things he asks of the horse, as if the two are equals. If he wants Joey to wear a strap around his neck, Albert will wear one too. Like most young people with a love for animals, Albert instinctually knows what to do so Joey doesn’t feel threatened, like when he feeds him oats for the first time and carefully avoids looking him in the eye.

Naturally, Albert and Joey form a bond, which might not have come across as strongly or touchingly had Spielberg and screenwriters Richard Hall and Richard Curtis, working from the novel by Michael Morpurgo, not taken the time to develop their friendship with patience and credible action. The film is anything but hasty in the way it shows the horse forming relationships with the human characters and we sense it learning and appreciating all that is being done for him. After all, this is really the horse’s story, a concept that comes across clearly and without irony, thus allowing us to identify with Joey and care for him deeply.

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An eloquent, haunting coming-of-age/ coming-out tale, Dee Rees' debut feature, "Pariah," focuses on a 17-year-old Brooklyn girl named Alike (Adepero Oduye) who has realized that she is a lesbian but doesn't know what to do with a newfound identity that's still unknown to her family. Coming home on the bus after a night at a lesbian nightclub, she changes her shirt to a more traditionally feminine one and puts on earrings — the better to pretend, to her critical mother, Audrey (Kim Wayans), that she's been having a very different kind of evening. Alone, Alike often looks like she might cry; as if the secret she's keeping is tying her into a painful knot that she can't imagine how to loosen.

Rees, who based "Pariah" on her award- winning 2007 short film of the same name, gets her camera up close into the faces of these characters: Audrey, who wants the best for her daughters but is fighting her own terrible loneliness and preconceived ideas; Arthur (Charles Parnell), Alike's loving but taciturn father, who has his own secrets; younger sister Sharonda (Sahra Mellesse), who silently crawls into bed with Alike as their parents fight, seemingly a longtime habit; Laura (Pernell Walker), a friend and out lesbian whose brash confidence disappears in a brief, vulnerable encounter with her own mother; Bima (Aasha Davis), a pretty classmate figuring out her own sexual identity. Moving between them all, hesitant yet brave, is Alike (pronounced "ah-lee-kay," and often called Lee), trying desperately to unite the disparate parts of her world.

It's not an easy journey for her, and "Pariah" has no textbook happy endings for us: Audrey, who thinks Alike's just going through a phase (referred to as "the whole tomboy thing she's been doing"), undergoes no magical transformation. But the joy of "Pariah" is watching both Alike's tentative, heartfelt emergence as an independent woman, and Oduye's performance, understated yet deeply moving. In the early scenes, we see Alike's fleeting, eager smile when talking to her writing teacher, or playing basketball with her father, but it too quickly disappears. Unable to share the truth, she's carrying a visibly heavy burden, wondering what will happen when she finally lays it down.

Rees tells the story economically, with dialogue that perpetually surprises us, telling much more than its words. ("I hope you know it doesn't matter to me," says Sharonda suddenly at one point, with no preamble.)

Near the film's end, Alike's finally able to quote one of her own poems: "I'm not running. I'm choosing." The sad-eyed girl has become a quiet tower of strength before our eyes; the bird has, finally, learned to soar.

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It's pretty clear what you'll get from a Mission: Impossible movie at this point. Ethan Hunt's (Tom Cruise) IMF team will get in trouble, they'll have to break into a place that's supposedly impossible to break into and there will be gadgets and explosions galore. So, the question essentially becomes: did they change things around enough to make it worth watching?

Fortunately, there's enough life in this franchise to keep it worth watching. The movie finds the IMF framed for the destruction of the Kremlin, raising international tensions. Of course, it's not their fault, but the work of a big baddie (Michael Nyquist) who wants to purge the world of... something.

With Cruise as Hunt, you know what you're getting — the character is something of a cypher, he's going to perform some athletic derring-do and will be running at some point. Hunt's team, though, features some legitimately good performances. Simon Pegg is a bright spot of the movie, working in the comic relief role he inhabits so well. Paula Patton works well in her role of an agent seeking revenge for a lost loved one, and Jeremy Renner hits the right notes as the haunted analyst, Brandt.

As usual, the action scenes are exciting, well-composed and spectacular — the stunts at a hotel in Dubai are particularly stunning. The scenes build tension appropriately, and avoid the camera trickery that turns so many modern movies incomprehensible.

The problem is it seems the team is fighting buildings and security systems more than the actual villain. The bad guy is introduced early, but then promptly disappears for much of the film's running time. Nyquist is a talented actor — it would have been nice if they gave him something with which to work.

Should you buy a ticket? Well, it depends on your personal preference. If you can accept that this movie won't re-invent the franchise, but rather re-arrange its furniture, there's fun to be had here. Those who can't, though, might not want to accept this mission.

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There is far more softness than steel in "The Iron Lady," starring Meryl Streep as the iconic British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The film catches her long after she's left the public eye, and rather than an examination, or an assessment, of her politics, it instead offers up an affecting if not always satisfying portrait of the strong-willed leader humbled by age.

Director Phyllida Lloyd and screenwriter Abi Morgan have discarded most of the conventions of film biographies and chosen to construct more of a memory poem. It makes for a movie that is highly personal in every sense of the word. Even the political highs and lows that come to Thatcher in flashbacks are of a more private sort: how isolated she felt as a woman in a man's world. Why she was willing to lose the hat, but not the pearls, during a campaign media makeover.

Lloyd and Morgan's intention is telegraphed from the opening scenes, when a simple trip to the grocery store for a now-unsteady Thatcher becomes a confusing difficulty for her and a frightening surprise for her caretakers when they discover she's gone. The movie unfolds over just a few days plucked from the filmmakers' imaginations, looking in on Thatcher when she finally starts packing up her late husband's clothes. As happens in times like these, small things trigger memories, the distant past coming more easily to mind than the day's agenda. She finds herself frequently drifting back in time, which the director uses as a device to fill in the primary trajectory of her roughly 40-year political career — snapshots of various triumphs, her failures less so.

Back in present day reality, or the blurred version within which Thatcher now exists, she creeps around her house as if she were being watched. And when no one is looking, the former prime minister carries on conversations with her much-loved Denis. Jim Broadbent is wonderful as Thatcher's husband and confidant, with his amused smile and crisp common sense defining "devoted" quite succinctly. It all serves to humanize Thatcher's starched and stolid public face.

The notion of social class and the ways in which one transcends that, or tries to, is thrown into the mix but, as with too much else in the film, is never thoroughly tossed. Thatcher was a shopkeeper's daughter, watching her father work long hours to keep his business afloat. As the daughter of a small business owner, she had little patience with the labor unions that she felt were breaking the country's economic back. Though she never identified herself as a feminist, she always felt the outsider in a Parliament dominated by Britain's mostly male upper echelon. But the implications never hold the filmmakers' attentions for long.

Designer Marese Langan ("The Boy in the Striped Pajamas," "A Mighty Heart") does a remarkable job of taking away and putting years on Streep as she moves from Thatcher's late 30s to her 80s; makeup has gone a long way to help transform the actress (though the irregular teeth, complete with gap, are a bit disconcerting at first). But mostly, it is Streep's uncanny ability to disappear inside her characters that is striking here. (Alexandra Roach and Harry Lloyd enter the picture briefly, playing the Thatchers as a young couple.)

Because the film moves between so many time periods as it fills in the past, the task for production and costume crews, headed by Simon Elliott ("Bleak House") and Consolata Boyle ("Angela's Ashes," "Into the West") respectively, was substantial as well, and the effects do an excellent job at making the various eras distinct. Director of photography Elliot Davis ("Out of Sight," "Twilight") keeps the look throughout very clean. Together, they create the sense of a well-managed and carefully manicured life where nothing seems frivolous. Things are in their place. Even the children — or so you sense, when Thatcher's daughter Carol (Olivia Colman) drops by to check on Mum, keeping her frustration in check.

This is the director's second feature film and the second time she's had Streep as a star. While Thatcher is a far different woman than the hippie-expat-mom who favored ABBA and anchored 2008's fizzy musical "Mama Mia!," it suffers from some of the same meandering style. Perhaps because of Lloyd's theater background, both films feel like a series of loosely linked set pieces — plays in 15-or-so acts. That leaves the boat feeling rudderless, despite its very shiny brass battlements and beautifully waxed decks.

What helps elevate the film is the searing insight Streep brings to Thatcher's aging; she catches every one of the emotional crosscurrents that get to the truth of the matter. But if you come expecting keen insight into the intrigues of her very long political life, or even something as simple as why the Soviets dubbed her the Iron Lady, consider a trip to the library instead.

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