Four Christmases
*** 1/2 ( 3 1/2 STARS)
$31.1
million
$46.1 million
1 1/2 weeks
Rated: PG-13
Running time: 82 minutes
What it's about: After years of leaving the country for Christmas, a couple are forced to spend the holiday with their families.
: Our take: Yet another "Holidays+Families=Hell" comedy, but this one's surprisingly funny. Vince Vaughn, as one-half of the trapped couple, is his usual boarish self, but Reese Witherspoon (above) explores her lighter side to great effect as the other half.
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Bolt
*** 1/2 ( 3 1/2 STARS)
$26.6
million
$66.8 million
2 weeks
Rated: PG
Running time: 121 minutes
What it's about: A dog who plays a superhero on TV thinks he is one in real life, which presents all sorts of problems when he finds himself in New York, a continent away from his beloved owner.
Our take: The script is smart, its conceit a heart-tugger, and it's the first Disney effort in way too long to be more concerned with being a movie than with being a breeding ground for product tie-ins.
Twilight
** ( 2 STARS)
$26.3
million
$119.7 million
2 weeks
Rated: PG-13
Running time: 121 minutes
What it's about: Good-guy vampire Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) and human Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart, above with Cam Gigandet as James) fall into a love that's immediate and absolute and not to be consummated - unless Edward decides to drink her blood.
Our take: This flesh-biter of a movie never turns into a nail-biter. The emphasis is on swooning, and the amorous thrills fade.
Quantum of Solace
** 1/2 ( 2 1/2 STARS)
$18.8
million
$141.4 million
3 weeks
Rated: PG-13
Running time: 106 minutes
What it's about: 007 avenges the death of his true love while obliterating a crooked international green-industry syndicate.
Our take: Daniel Craig (above), the most Byronic of all James Bonds, manages the astonishing task of rooting an outlandish yet sober-sided movie in reality and bringing it an air of wicked amusement, too.
Australia
* 1/2 ( 1 1/2 STARS)
$14.8
million
$20 million
1 1/2 weeks
Rated: PG-13
Running time: 165 minutes
What it's about: With a can-do Aussie spirit, English aristocrat Lady Sarah Ashley (Nicole Kidman, above) and her right-hand man and lover, the Drover, end up running the ranch her murdered husband left her.
Our take: This film is made up of bits and pieces of other movies, including The Wizard of Oz; and by the end it's just a more-than-you-can-eat buffet of colorful kitsch.
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
*** 1/2 ( 3 1/2 STARS)
$14.2
million
$159.1 million
4 weeks
Rated: G
Running time: 89 minutes
What it's about: Alex the dancing lion (Ben Stiller) and his fellow expatriates on the island of Madagascar head back to New York on Air Penguin but crash-land in another part of Africa.
Our take: This uproarious cartoon suggests what would happen if Comedy Central and Animal Planet co-produced Roots III. Menageries of characters trace loony curlicues in and around the narrative.
Transporter 3
*** ( 3 STARS)
$12.1
million
$18.2 million
1 1/2 weeks
Rated: PG-13
Running time: 100 minutes
What it's about: Frank Martin (Jason Statham, above), who offers super-swift automotive transport of goods or people for the right price, no questions asked, breaks his rules more flagrantly than ever for the sake of his latest package - a Ukrainian beauty named Valentina (Natalya Rudakova).
Our take: If you're addicted to action, the movie itself will put you in adrenaline-freak heaven.
Role Models
** 1/2 ( 2 1/2 STARS)
$5.3
million
$57.8 million
4 weeks
Rated: R
Running time: 99 minutes
What it's about: Paul Rudd (above) and Seann William Scott play energy-drink salesmen who become mentors in the Sturdy Wings program for maladjusted kids.
Our take: Rudd and Scott, Jane Lynch, Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Bobb'e J. Thompson give the movie plenty of pungent moments before it dissolves into a sea of goo.