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Writer/director Chris Butler puts his experience working on Coraline and Tim Burton’s The Corpse Bride to good use in this charmingly morbid tale of an eccentric young hero facing supernatural forces that would make most grown-ups cower in fear. Eleven-year-old Norman Babcock (voice of Kodi Smit-McPhee) is a young misfit with a remarkable gift: He sees dead people. Although Norman’s clairvoyance allows him the unique opportunity to enjoy the company of his beloved grandmother (Elaine Stritch) long after she has ceased to be, it also drives his frustrated father Perry (Jeff Garlin) and popularity-obsessed sister Courtney (Anna Kendrick) up the wall at home and makes him the target of dim-witted bully Alvin (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) at school. His only friend is portly Neil (Tucker Albrizzi), who isn’t exactly a beacon of coolness. When Norman’s deceased uncle Prenderghast (John Goodman), a local pariah, warns the young boy that he must save their small town of Blithe Hollow from a witch’s curse that has plagued the area for centuries, the young creature-feature addict isn’t entirely sure how to respond — that is, until the sky turns red, the clouds start to swirl, and the dead rise up from their graves. Now, as a terrified…
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Awakening in a top-secret Umbrella facility as the T-virus threatens to wipe out the last remnants of humanity, Alice (Milla Jovovich) must battle her way through virtual simulations in order to break out of the complex and save the Earth in this fifth Resident Evil film. While the apocalyptic plague rages above ground, below the surface lies a massive base powered the evil supercomputer, the Red Queen, who will stop at nothing to contain humanity’s only biologically-enhanced hope that is Alice. While factions in the Umbrella Corporation strive to help Alice escape, the Red Queen unleashes zombies, monsters, and clones of her ex-comrades to stop her. Only when Alice stumbles across a young girl who’s been bred to think that she is her mother does the two-fisted heroine find a new reason to live. Sienna Guillory, Michelle Rodriguez, and Kevin Durand co-star. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi
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Inspired by Los Angeles Times writer Leslie Gornstein’s article “A Jinx in a Box,” this horror film from Ghost House Pictures and director Ole Bornedal (Nightwatch) tells the tale of a broken family that comes under attack from a malevolent supernatural entity of Jewish folklore. Shortly after her parents (Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Kyra Sedgwick) divorce, a young girl purchases an ornate antique box at a yard sale. In the weeks that follow, the young girl forms an intense fixation on the box, her behavior growing increasingly bizarre as she falls into the grip of a diabolical apparition. When the girl’s father discovers that the relic is in fact a holding cell for the disconnected soul of a deceased person who has been denied entry into the afterlife and needs a human host to inhabit, he fights to rid her of the evil that threatens to consume her body and soul. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
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Finding Nemo returns to the big screen for the first time ever in thrilling Disney Digital 3D™. In this stunning underwater adventure, with memorable characters, humor and heartfelt emotion, “Finding Nemo” follows the comedic and momentous journey of an overly protective clownfish named Marlin (voice by Albert Brooks) and his son Nemo (voice by Alexander Gould)––who become separated in the Great Barrier Reef when Nemo is unexpectedly taken far from his ocean home and dumped into a fish tank in a dentist’s office. Buoyed by the companionship of Dory (voice by Ellen DeGeneres), a friendly-but-forgetful Pacific regal blue tang, Marlin embarks on a dangerous trek and finds himself the unlikely hero of an epic effort to rescue his son––who hatches a few daring plans of his own to return safely home.
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A feared urban cop takes on a vicious city drug dealer in a futuristic metropolis as director Pete Travis (Vantage Point) and screenwriter Alex Garland (28 Days Later, Sunshine) team to bring iconic 2000A.D. lawman Judge Dredd to the big screen. In the future, much of North America has been poisoned by radiation. The sprawling urban jungle Mega City One stretches from Boston to Washington D.C., and in order to keep the growing criminal element in check, police enforcers called “Judges” have been given the power of judge, jury, and executioner. Judge Dredd (Karl Urban) is the most feared of them all, delivering death sentences with impunity as he fights to rid the streets of “Slo-Mo” — a powerful new drug that alters its user’s perception of time. In the process of training psychic rookie Cassandra Anderson (Olivia Thirlby), Dredd receives a report of an incident in a sprawling criminal stronghold ruled by fearsome drug lord Ma-Ma (Lena Headey), and ventures in to investigate. Upon learning that one of her top men has been captured by Dredd shortly thereafter, an enraged Ma-Ma seizes control of her massive 200-story complex, launching an all-out war against the Judges as Dredd and Cassandra find…
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An aging baseball scout (Clint Eastwood) with failing sight hits the road with his estranged daughter (Amy Adams) to pursue a promising young ballplayer, and they learn just how much they have in common as they make their way from Georgia to North Carolina in this sports drama produced and directed by frequent Eastwood collaborator Robert Lorenz. For decades, Gus Lobel (Eastwood) has been one of the best scouts in Major League Baseball. But these days his eyes just aren’t what they used to be, and as a phenomenal young batter enters the draft, the owners of the Atlanta Braves cast a shadow of doubt over Gus’ judgment. Meanwhile, his daughter Mickey ( Adams) is an aspiring partner at a major Atlanta law firm. In the wake of his wife’s death, Gus sent Mickey away, and their relationship has been strained ever since. But she knows a thing or two about baseball, and recognizing that her father’s job is in jeopardy, she decides to help him — even at the risk of derailing her own career. Now, throwing caution to the wind (and ignoring her gruff father’s objections), Mickey joins Gus for a scouting trip that could keep him in the…
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Three rebellious, bootlegging brothers find the elusive American Dream within their reach, and fight to maintain their grip as powerful urban gangsters reap the rewards of their hard work in this sprawling Great Depression-era crime drama from director John Hillcoat (The Road, The Proposition). At the height of Prohibition, ambitious country boy Jack Bondurant dreams of becoming “Public Enemy #1” while reaping all the benefits that go with the gangster lifestyle. By expanding his family’s moonshining business, he plots to launch a vast criminal empire while winning the heart of beautiful Amish girl Bertha. With his older, intimidating brother Howard by his side, Jack has the brawn to get the job done, too. But they need a strong leader to guide them — a responsibility that falls on their eldest sibling Forrest. Stoic and stalwart, Forrest is the kind of man who holds his cards close, and places a high value on character. Meanwhile, as the three siblings rise to power while battling treachery on both sides of the law, a mysterious woman named Maggie appears out of nowhere, prompting the thoughtful Forrest to question the true price of his outlaw ways. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
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Young Los Angeles police officers Taylor and Zavala patrol the city’s meanest streets of south central Los Angeles. Giving the story a gripping, first-person immediacy, the action unfolds through footage from the handheld HD cameras of the police officers, gang members, surveillance cameras, and citizens caught in the line of fire to create a riveting portrait of the city’s most dangerous corners, the cops who risk their lives there every day, and the price they and their families are forced to pay.
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A teenager (Jennifer Lawrence) and her mother (Elisabeth Shue) move to a new town and make a gruesome discovery about the house next door in this tale of terror from Hush director Mark Tonderai. Shortly after learning that the neighboring house was recently the scene of a horrific double homicide, the curious teen forges a tender friendship with the boy who cheated death (Max Thieriot) on that fateful night. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
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Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master stars Joaquin Phoenix as a psychologically damaged war veteran who finds himself working for Lancaster Dodd (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a charismatic figure building his own religion. As the alcoholic, self-destructive former soldier becomes more deeply involved with the leader of this cult-like organization, his natural instincts keep him from embracing his new position as strongly as others in the group would hope. The Master screened at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
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Original: Movies.com Top 10 Box Office
