It was fitting that the recent promotional screening of Safe House was preceded by a trailer for The Bourne Legacy as the style of this movie is in much the same vein as that franchise. In fact, pretty much everything about Safe House will remind audiences of other, better movies. The lack of originality is balanced out, however, by the likeability of the movie’s star.

What if no one saw him? That was the first question that came to mind as I settled in to watch the new thriller Man on a Ledge. It was only seconds after the man walked out onto the ledge high above the New York City streets that a woman down below looked up and screamed, alerting the entire block of his presence. It’s something the man was counting on, as he wants to leverage his possible suicide into proving his innocence and his plan relies a lot on timing. But what if that lady didn’t look up? Would he just sit there all day until somebody looked up? Would he whistle or yell to get their attention? These are exactly the kind of questions that can distract an audience from a movie like this, but if you are willing to let these things alone and just go with it, you are sure to be thoroughly entertained for a good hour and a half.

If I have learned anything from the movies in recent years, it is that you don’t mess with Liam Neeson. He’s filled the shoes that fifteen years ago belonged to Harrison Ford in movies like Air Force One. It seems there is one species that hasn’t gotten the message about the actor’s toughness, however, as the wolves of the Alaskan wilderness that make up the villains of The Grey don’t seem intimidated one bit.

Movies about the events of September 11, 2001 are tricky. Still, the impressive list of talents behind the latest effort to capture the terrible loss would lead anyone to believe that Loud and Close just may be able to pull it off. Based on a novel by Jonathan Safran Foer and adapted by Oscar-winning screenwriter Eric Roth, the movie is directed by Stephen Daldry, a man who has earned best director Oscar nominations for each of his previous three films. Add to that the fact that the adult leads are played by Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock, and you have yourself some legitimate Oscar bait. Ultimately, though, the movie’s success rests in the hands of an untested 12-year-old who steps into the challenging lead role.

Any thriller worth its salt will continue to up the stakes for its protagonist, thus increasing the level of tension. Contraband, the new smuggling thriller starring Mark Wahlberg, does just that. That is, it continually ups the stakes for its protagonist. Unfortunately, the level of tension does not increase along with the stakes as it should. This leaves Contraband to be rather dull—with the exception of one legitimately tense sequence near the end—despite all the crazy stuff going on with the plot.

When it was first announced that Steven Spielberg was going to be directing War Horse, a movie that featured young actors and a war-based story, the initial thought was “How could it go wrong?” After all, this is the same guy who won an Oscar for directing Saving Private Ryan, he produced Band of Brothers, and he worked with kids in everything from E.T. The Extra Terrestrial to this summer’s Super 8 (which he produced). Unfortunately, the end result, while not necessarily a bad movie, certainly fails to live up to its high expectations.

In 2006, the Mee family purchased the closed down Dartmoor Zoological Park in England, refurbished it, and reopened the zoo to the public in July 2007. It is a very nice story that has already inspired a four-part television documentary, and Benjamin Mee, a former journalist, wrote a book about how the experience changed their lives. Now, their story has inspired Cameron Crowe to return to the director’s chair for the first time since 2005’s Elizabethtown. The resulting film also makes for a nice story; nothing more, nothing less.

When he made Schindler’s List in 1993, Steven Spielberg was praised for having “grown up” as a filmmaker. As good as that movie was, the famed director is still at his best when he lets that kid inside of him come out to play. This winter is a perfect example of that as it sees releases from both the grown up Spielberg and the boy-who-wouldn’t-grow-up Spielberg, and The Adventures of Tintin certainly scores a win for the latter.

For all of its eye-popping visual effects and how much the trailer makes it look like it is trying to follow in the footsteps of the Bourne trilogy, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is actually a throwback of an action movie. It’s a throwback to the days when action heroes would get beat up for an entire movie and show not a single bruise or scratch (although hero Ethan Hunt does feature an ever-increasing limp throughout the movie) and it’s a throwback to the days when the hero would always send off the villain with a cheesy one-liner. In fact, this movie even starts off with one as the opening credits scroll following Ethan’s instructions to “light the fuse.”

Director Garry Marshall seems determined to make the American version of Love Actually, a multi-plotline romantic comedy that revolves around a particular holiday. Last year he tried to do it with Valentine’s Day, but that movie ended up getting lost amidst a sea of characters that we just didn’t care about. For New Year’s Eve, the action moves from Los Angeles to New York City so that an even more plentiful cast of characters that we only marginally care about can gather in Times Square and—hopefully—watch the ball drop.