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The Back-up Plan / * (PG-13)
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"The Back-Up Plan" (PG-13, 104 minutes). sitcoms. Other movies are no better than third-rate sitcoms. "The Back-up Plan" doesn't deserve comparison with sitcoms. It plays like an unendurable TV commercial about beautiful people with great lifestyles and not a thought in their empty little heads. Jennifer Lopez plays a Manhattan pet shop owner who is artificially inseminated and, wouldn't you know, meets the perfect guy that same day. They quarrel and break up until time for the childbirth scene, which bails out after two "pushes!" One star
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The Losers / ***1/2 (PG-13)
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"The Losers" (PG-13, 98 minutes) Five very tough U.S. military guys rescue some kids during a raid on a Bolivian drug lord, only to see the kids' helicopter shoot down by a strike intended for the guys. Disgusted, they rip off their dog tags and seek vengeance against the mysterious ams dealer Max. Efficient and entertaining action thriller, no 3D, no hyperactivity, just getting the job done with style. Jeffrey Dean Morgan is the head of the losers, Zoe Saldana ("Avatar") is the mysterious woman who also wants Max, Jason Patic is Max, and the looter losers are Chris Evans, Idris Elba, Columbus Short and Óscar Jaenada. Three and a half stars
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The Secret in Their Eyes / **** (Unrated)
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"The Secret in Their Eyes" (Unrated, 127 minutes) was the 2010 Oscar winner as best foreign film. Moving between 1974 and 2000 in Buenos Aries, it completes the third acts stories, one involving a murder, the other a romance. Writer-director Juan Jose Campanella brings extraordinary care to his lovingly crafted film, and his actors are well cast for why he needs them. The kind of movie they literally don't make much anymore. Four stars
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That Evening Sun / ***1/2 (PG-13)
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"That Evening Sun" (PG-13, 110 minutes). Hal Holbrook in a rock-solid performance as an 80-something man who walks out of a retirement home andante the lives of the family now renting his farm. Not an old codger formula story, but one with bite and depth. Ray McKinnon is effective as the boozy husband of Carrie Preston and father of Mia Wasikowska, and Barry Corbin has fine scenes as the neighbor. A poignant performance by Holbrook's recently decades wife Dixie Carter as the old man's late wife. Three and a half stars
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The Girl on the Train / *** (Unrated)
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"The Girl on the Train" (Unrated, 102 minutes) Jeanne (Emilie Dequenne), sent by her mother Louise (Catherine Deneuve) to see an old friend, makes up a story about being assaulted on a train for being a Jew. The case becomes a national scandal, but the police aren't buying it. Three stars.
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Hubble 3D / *** (G)
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"Hubble 3D" (G, 45 minutes). The IMAX film offers two categories of images, both awesome. One involves footage filmed on board the Space Shuttle Atlantis during a mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope one last time. The other involves a 3D rendering of some of Hubble's photographs of the cosmos. The fact that these images exist at all are a reason to see the film. Three stars
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A Shine of Rainbows / **1/2 (G)
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"A Shine of Rainbows" (G, 101 minutes). An orphan is taken to live with new parents on an island off Ireland, and bonds with an orphaned baby seal. Rather sentimental as you might guess, but well-made for its target audience of seal lovers and their parents. With Aidan Quinn, Connie Nielsen, and young John Bell. Two and a half stars.
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