Other holiday releases

This Is 40

Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann reprise their characters from Knocked Up in director Judd Apatow’s comic portrait of modern American parenthood. “This Is 40 isn’t always hilarious,” said Entertainment Weekly. But “it’s ticklishly honest and droll,” and its spontaneous tone yields “some laugh-out-loud lines.”

Jack Reacher

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Playing the lone-wolf hero created by thriller-writer Lee Child, Tom Cruise hunts for the real culprit in a sniper shooting that seems to have only one suspect. The actor proves “too charismatic to play someone so cold-blooded,” said Variety. Still, this pulp workout “somewhat redeems its silliness” with solidly staged action.

The Impossible

Asia’s deadly 2004 tsunami is re-created in this true tale of a nightmare vacation. As parents whose young family is separated by the tidal wave, Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts seem “almost spiritually committed” to their roles, said The New York Observer. The result is “the most wrenching disaster movie in decades.”