"Arthur Christmas" * * *
This quirky animated British outing imagines that Santa Claus is a title passed along the Claus line like royalty. The current Santa is mostly a figurehead, however, because his son Steve (voice of Hugh Laurie) has created a high-tech solution to toy delivery that involves dropping elves, ninja-style, into every town in the world on Christmas Eve. When a problem with the new system arises, it's up to Santa's other son, the misfit Arthur (James McAvoy), to save the day by doing things the old-fashioned way. Rated PG; mild rude humor. 1 hour, 37 minutes. By Bill Goodykoontz, Gannett News Service.
"Happy Feet Two" * *
This lifeless sequel to 2006's "Happy Feet" plays like a cynical attempt to cash in on the delightful original by throwing a lot of half-baked ideas and far more characters at an elite animation team and expecting them to produce "Toy Story 2." They didn't. The original story is pretty much abandoned for a muddled sequel about trapped penguins and interspecies cooperation, all in the name of "adapt or die." Rated PG; rude humor, mild peril. 1 hour, 30 minutes. By Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel.
"Hugo" * * *
Even though it's too long and lacks a comic touch, director Martin Scorsese's adaptation of Brian Selznick's "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" is a stunning exercise in 3D. The central character is a boy named Hugo (Asa Butterfield) who lives in the bowels of a Paris train station between the world wars and services the station's clocks. Movie buffs will be transfixed by scenes in the movie's latter moments that focus on the art of filmmaking as it was being invented. Rated PG; mild mature themes, action, peril. 2 hours, 10 minutes. By Roger Moore.
"The Muppets" * * *
Do the old-fashioned Muppets still have a place in a computer-animated and mean-spirited world? That question is at the heart of James Bobin's film (cowritten by star and Muppets fan Jason Segel), and the answer is an enthusiastic yes. The plot involves a rich Texas oilman who plans to tear down the old studio that was once home to Kermit, Miss Piggy and company. The only hope for saving it involves getting the old gang back together for a fund-raising reunion. The song-and-dance numbers that follow are sweet and funny, which is an apt description of the whole movie. Writer-actor Segel clearly loves the Muppets, and he's done right by them. Rated PG; mild rude humor. 1 hour, 39 minutes. By Bill Goodykoontz.
"New Year's Eve" * *
Director Garry Marshall ruins another holiday with this star-studded rip-off of "Love Actually," which repeats the formula of interwoven vignettes from last year's "Valentine's Day." Delivering the cheap laughs and unearned sentimentality are A-listers including Jessica Biel, Jon Bon Jovi, Robert De Niro, Katherine Heigl, Ashton Kutcher, Sarah Jessica Parker and Hilary Swank. Rated PG-13; language including some sexual references. 1 hour, 58 minutes. By Kerry Lengel, Arizona Republic.
"The Sitter" * *
Jonah Hill shines, again, in David Gordon Green's film about a socially inept slacker who spends a night baby-sitting a trio of challenging children. Gleefully profane, ridiculous at heart, but Hill and Sam Rockwell (the bad guy here) are always worth watching. Rated R for crude and sexual content, pervasive language, drug material and some violence. By Bill Goodykoontz.
"The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn -- Part I" * *
"Breaking Dawn -- Part 1" does something that no previous "Twilight" movie achieved: It draws you close and keeps you there. As the movie opens, the long courtship between the teenage Bella (Kristen Stewart) and her vampire boyfriend Edward (Robert Pattinson) ends in their marriage, and they head for an island off Brazil so Bella can lose her virginity and partake of some vigorous sex. Things get complicated after she quickly becomes pregnant with a demon child that starts to grow inside her at an alarming rate. Rated PG-13; sexual situations, violence, a bloody birth scene, adult themes. 1 hour, 57 minutes. By Rene Rodriguez, McClatchy Newspapers.valentines flowers
"Young Goethe in Love" * *
This German drama drowns in swoony clichés that spoil capable performances from Alexander Fehling as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Miriam Stein as his muse, Lotte Buff. As it begins, Goethe, a struggling playwright and poet, encounters the raven-haired Lotte and they fall madly in love. But of course, there's a hitch. Will Lotte follow her heart or will she marry a priggish but wealthy counselor-at-law to ensure her family's future? The film has the makings of a potent romantic saga, but writer-director Philipp Stolzl and his cowriters have made a crucial mistake in tone. Instead of underplaying the story's escalating tempestuousness, they push it over the top. Not rated. 1 hour, 42 minutes. In German with English subtitles. By Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times.valentines flowers
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