NEW IN TOWN

Beauty is Embarrassing ★★★ 1/2 14A

It’s a documentary about the artist Wayne White, who helped design the world of Pee-wee’s Playhouse, made innovative music videos, and then made humorous word paintings that established him as a real artist. Funny and innovative. (Jay Stone)

A Royal Affair ★★★★ 14A

Mads Mikkelsen stars as a real-life physician who usurped the throne of Denmark at the dawn of the Enlightenment and made progressive social reforms before being shut down by the church. A riveting and beautifully photographed period piece. Danish with English subtitles. (Katherine Monk)

Stand Up Guys ★★ 1/2 14A

Al Pacino and Christopher Walken play two con men of a certain age who reunite after one gets out of prison — but little does he know that his pal has been contracted to kill him. Alan Arkin rounds out the cast, but he’s not around quite often enough. (Melissa Hank)

Warm Bodies ★★★ PG

It’s a take on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, but with rotting flesh and stumbling zombies. Nicholas Hoult plays R, a zombie who falls for Julie (Teresa Palmer) after saving her from an attack. John Malkovich also stars as Grigio, the leader of a human settlement ravaged by plague. A well-paced postapocalyptic tale that has the sense not to take itself too seriously. (Melissa Hank)

STILL IN TOWN Anna Karenina ★★★ 1/2 14A

Joe Wright’s remounting of Leo Tolstoy’s story of infidelity is sumptuous, though its artificial theatricality removes us from the emotions. Keira Knightley is beautiful and gawky as the unhappily married Anna, but Aaron Taylor-Johnson seems too feckless for her lover Vronsky. (Jay Stone)

Argo ★★★★ 14A

Ben Affleck’s entertaining thriller revisits the 1979 rescue of American hostages in Iran. Affleck stars as a CIA agent who puts together a fake movie so he can smuggle the Americans out disguised as Canadian filmmakers. (Jay Stone)

Broken City ★★ 14A

Despite stars including Mark Wahlberg and Russell Crowe, the characters in Broken City never feel real. Everything is too complicated and spelledout in this film about a corrupt mayor, his cheating wife and the private eye caught in the deception. (Christy Lemire, The Associated Press)

Django Unchained ★★★★ 18A

Quentin Tarantino tells the story of American slavery as a spaghetti western. Jamie Foxx is Django, a slave-turnedbounty hunter who travels with his mentor to free his wife, a slave to a vicious plantation owner played by Leonardo DiCaprio. It’s a long and bloodsoaked trip. (Jay Stone)

Flight ★★★ 18A

This Robert Zemeckis feature offers a spectacular start to a survival story. Flight features Denzel Washington as a boozy commercial pilot struggling to come clean after a tragic crash, yet the script moves in circles. (Katherine Monk)

Flight of the Butterflies ★★★★ G A 3D

Imax film about the migration of monarch butterflies, this film shows the voyage with magical scenes of insects flying right off the screen and close-ups of a caterpillar transforming itself inside a chrysalis. (Jay Stone)

Gangster Squad ★★ 14A

Josh Brolin and Sean Penn star as cop and mobster, respectively, in this poorly written ode to postwar crimefighters. Overly violent and frequently vulgar. The saving grace is Ryan Gosling. (Katherine Monk) Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters: Not screened for critics 14A The Grimm brothers’ fairy tale has been turned into an action film with Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton as the siblings who don’t just visit the gingerbread house, they blow it apart. (Peter Glenn)

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey ★★★ 1/2 PG

The first in a trilogy of films based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel runs 169 minutes. It’s a long haul for a slim volume, but after a slow start director Peter Jackson fills the screen with imaginative creatures and exciting battles. (Jay Stone)

Hotel Transylvania ★★ 1/2 PG

Adam Sandler stars as a vampire monsters, who where runs he a hotel can keep for his the daughter 3D animation safe. seductive. Kids will find (Katherine Monk)

The Ewan Impossible McGregor and ★★★★ Naomi PG

Watts holiday star with as their a couple children on in Thailand tsunami of when 2004 the hits. Indian Based Ocean on and a sincere true story, with it’s honest intense and simple by seamless filmmaking special backed effects. up (Katherine Monk)

Jack Reacher ★★★ 14A

Tom Cruise stars as a drifter who solves crimes and rights wrongs while remaining a ghostly cipher. The implausibilities mount, but Cruise brings intensity to a violent revenge fantasy. (Jay Stone)

The Last Reef 3D ★★★★

STC An Imax film about the universe of the reef, where strange and colourful creatures — some swimming off the screen and floating in front of your face — live in symbiotic harmony. (Jay Stone)

The Last Stand ★★ 14A

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s return to movies is a violent oddity: a blood-soaked western that tries to be funny. He plays a small-time sheriff who has to stop an escaping drug lord, and Korean director Kim Jee-woon is seemingly in love with his arsenal of firearms. (Jay Stone)

Life of Pi ★★★ 1/2

PG Oscar winner Ang Lee adapts the like-named Yann Martel novel in high-def 3D. Though there are some stilted scenes and forced drama, Lee manages to conjure enough cinematic magic to pull off this heavy mix of soul-searching and actionsurvival. (Katherine Monk)

Lincoln ★★★ 1/2 PG

Daniel Day-Lewis is persuasive as The Great Emancipator in Steven Spielberg’s biopic about the last few months of the U.S. president’s life. There’s reverence even as Lincoln makes underhanded deals to free the slaves, and the political machinations give the film its intrigue. (Jay Stone)

Mama ★★★ 14A

Jessica Chastain stars as a bass player who’s an accidental caregiver to two girls orphaned after their father tore into a homicidal rage. When she realizes she may not be the only one mothering the kids, the stage is set for a showdown between human and ghostly moms. (Katherine Monk) Les Misérables ★★★★ PG

Tom Hooper brings Victor Hugo’s novel to the big screen with emotional success thanks to an Hugh Jackman and a tool chest full of cinematic goodies. (Katherine Monk)

Movie 43 ★ 18A

A complete disaster. A crop of famous movie stars — Halle Berry, Richard Gere, Hugh Jackman and more — mug their way through 12 crude shorts that strain to find humour in poop jokes and vagina references. It’s painful. (Jay Stone)

Parental Guidance ★★

G Billy Crystal and Bette Midler do the best they can in this so-called comedy about grandparents who look after three high-strung kids while the parents are away. (Chris Knight)

Parker ★★ 14A

Jason Statham stars as a thief looking to get even after being double-crossed by thugs. With Jennifer Lopez as a desperate real estate agent and Nick Nolte as the haggard mentor, this Taylor Hackford film feels mismatched — but Statham brings his own brand of mumble and grit. (Katherine Monk)

Quartet ★★★★ PG

A cranky and tender homage to old age. Maggie Smith, Billy Connolly, Tom Courtenay and Pauline Collins play retired opera singers at a home for exmusicians where grudges and romances realign themselves in the shadow of death. It’s Dustin Hoffman’s directorial debut. (Jay Stone)

Rise of the Guardians ★★★ G

Beneath this slick holiday fantasy is a message about personal responsibility. Jack Frost struggles with his duty as a Guardian — a force that cares for children in exchange for faith. (Katherine Monk)

Silver Linings Playbook ★★★ 14A

Bradley Cooper plays a man who returns from a mental hospital and tries to resume his life, yet his wife has a restraining order against him and he’s not entirely stable. Director David O. Russell sells the screwball and dramatic sides, but it’s awkward and uneven. (Katherine Monk)

Skyfall ★★★ 1/2 PG

When the names of embedded agents fall into the wrong hands, James Bond must destroy the vendor, who might be working on the inside. The film is entertaining, and Craig is compelling. (Katherine Monk) This is 40 ★★★ 14A

Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann reprise their roles from Knocked Up in this dramatic comedy that attempts to take the mickey out of middle age. . (Katherine Monk)

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn — Part 2 ★★★ PG

Bella (Kristen Stewart) learns how to be a vampire, while the evil Volturi threaten her half-immortal newborn. (Chris Knight)

Wreck-It Ralph ★★★ 1/2 PG A 3D animated film about a video game villain (voiced by John C. Reilly) who wants to be a hero. He migrates to another game and helps a little girl find herself. (Jay Stone)

Zero Dark Thirty ★★★★ 14A

Kathryn Bigelow’s extraordinary work — part movie, part investigative journalism — tells the story of the 10-year hunt to find and kill Osama bin Laden. Jessica Chastain is all grit as the CIA agent who leads the charge. (Jay Stone)