In Theaters: Scrooge Goes Motion-Capture, And 'Collapse' Has Your Doom Covered

It has occurred to me that, depending on how you navigate around NPR, you may or may not stumble across the movie reviews that are written by NPR's movie critics, who specialize in ... you know, reviews, and not lists of Wolverine's worst jobs and whatnot. So it seems sensible to point to the new movie reviews that are bubbling about, in the event you're venturing out to the theater this weekend.

• Scott Tobias points out that Disney's A Christmas Carol is not terribly Dickensian, as Robert Zemeckis has "effectively turned London into a sleek diorama of pristine brick and cobblestone surfaces, and scrubbed the faces of the wretched as clean as porcelain dolls." Still, he allows that even with Scrooge riding an icicle at one point, it is better, as a Christmas Carol adaptation, than Ghost Of Girlfriends Past. Ouch.

• Ian Buckwalter reports that The Fourth Kind is the "cinematic version of a chain e-mail hoax," and is (perhaps unsurprisingly) not entirely convinced by its combination of "reenactments" and alleged documentary footage.

Mo'Nique and George Clooney (though not together) and more, after the jump.

 

• Bob Mondello joins the chorus of critics who have found much to like about Precious, including its affecting performances — including the unexpected one from comedian Mo'Nique.

• Kenneth Turan looks at The Men Who Stare At Goats, and seriously, I am currently The Blogger Who Stares At George Clooney's Hair In That Picture. As for the movie, he finds the story slight, but Clooney, Kevin Spacey, and Jeff Bridges very much worth watching.

• Mark Jenkins reviews the documentary Collapse, in which the central figure posits that we are all doomed. Jenkins sees some emulating of the documentaries of Errol Morris, and has some ideas about how the movie might improve your health.

• Jenkins also takes on the black comedy Turning Green, which he finds "more fresh than stale," even if its writers "may not be in the same league as the great Irish writers they briefly invoke."