'Jack Reacher' and 'This is 40' add to holiday movie madness

Two more big presents are under the Christmas tree. Tom Cruise-led Jack Reacher and the comedy This is 40 will both unspool today, joining Wednesday releases The Guilt Trip and Monsters Inc. 3D.

"Action fans and Cruise junkies" will like Jack Reacher (3,352 theatres), predicts critic Daniel Eagan. The "superior genre film" is pleasing, but it also feels old-fashioned. I'm not saying I want
the handheld camerawork of the Bourne films, but the plotting is more pulpy and comforting than truly thrilling or challenging. Call me spoiled by the more realistic Zero Dark Thirty, which kicked off to a $25,000 per-screen average in five theatres on Wednesday.

Judd Apatow returns to the married couple from Knocked Up in This is 40 (2,912 theatres). Leslie Mann, his real-life wife, plays a version of herself, as do their two daughters, and Paul Rudd stands in for Apatow as their father. The "foolproof comic situations mixed with some genuine emotional moments" made Eagan a fan. Some in the industry are worried that the middle-age-centered
subject matter will alienate Apatow's younger fans, while others raise a eyebrow that those who aren't as well off or on the East Coast or West Coast will even care about the elitist problems of a bourgeois L.A. family. The New York Times' A.O. Scott notes that the main characters, "cushioned by comforts that most of their fellow citizens can scarcely
imagine, nonetheless feel as if things were starting to go
pear-shaped." The flawed, funny characters have been garnering the comedy mixed reviews. It's currently tracking a perfect split, 50% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Paramount is releasing Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away with just two showtimes a day in just 840 theatres. The idea is to make the movie feel more like the live events it's recording. Using techniques like "slo-mo, close-ups
and inventive camera angles [smooths] the transition from big top
to big screen," according to THR's Megan Lehmann.

A harrowing, true-life tale of a family separated by the tsunami in Thailand, The Impossible (15 theatres) was one of my picks for the top ten films of 2012. The "extraordinary visceral
experience," as described by Doris Toumarkine, features award-worthy performances from not only Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor, but also "beautifully nuanced performances" from the child actors, directed by Juan Antonio Bayona.

One of FJI editor Kevin Lally's top ten picks for 2012, Amour (3 theatres) is "grim but incredibly poignant," according to Toumarkine. The tale of an aging couple is depressing but accomplished enough that it's one of the finalists for Best Foreign Language Film.

A long-gestating adaptation of On the Road (4 theatres) finally accelerates into theatres. The "honorable, informed attempt
to transcribe an American classic and capture youthful frenzy" fails for critic Erica Abeel. She notes that the "period detail is perfect," but a "literal-minded approach" leads to its downfall.

Another look back at decades past, via an unsuccessful rock band started by a group of New Jersey teens, is Not Fade Away (3 theatres). Directed by David Chase ("The Sopranos"), the movie succeeds as an "engaging time capsule" of the '60s, according to Lally, offering "a vivid reminder of how thoroughly the ’60s shook up the
culture, reverberations that are still felt and remain unsettled
five decades later."

On Monday, we'll check in on the Wednesday and Friday releases and weigh in on the prospects of Les Misérables, Parental Guidance and Django Unchained, which will open on Christmas Day.