MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL

A European nutjob wants to start nuclear apocalypse, and Ethan Hunt and his team want to stop him. That’s my condensation of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol’s needlessly complex plot in fewer than 20 words. Here’s a condensation of my feelings toward this third sequel in fewer than five: The movie kicks ass.

In a rather perverse bit of scheduling, at least for me, last weekend brought with it the area release of exactly zero debuting films, while this past weekend delivered six ... on the same weekend, I should add, that I had a lengthy road trip out of town and appeared in four performances of a local stage production. But I’m not one to complain. Onward!

ARTHUR CHRISTMAS

Of the three (count ’em!) family films that opened the day before Thanksgiving, the animated Arthur Christmas initially seemed the most ideal option for younger children, given the nostalgic, in-joke appeal of The Muppets and the melancholia and gravitas of Hugo. Who could have guessed, however, that this frisky, buoyant entertainment might actually be the least appropriate for the grade-school-and-under set? Sure, the bright colors and fast pace will keep the ankle-biters amused, but is there any way they’ll register just how freakin’ hysterical this thing is?

THE MUPPETS

I adored nearly every minute of the big-screen reunion The Muppets, the musical-comedy brainchild of screenwriters Jason Segel (who also co-stars) and Nicholas Stoller. But before commencing with the rave, I should probably offer a caveat, because I can barely imagine the conditions under which I wouldn’t have adored this movie.

THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN – PART 1

We’re now four films into the five-part series of Stephenie Meyer adaptations, and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 is the first one that I wouldn’t hesitate to call unpredictable. As someone who couldn’t care less about the tortured love triangle involving the human Bella (Kristen Stewart), the vampire Edward (Robert Pattinson), and the lycanthrope Jacob (Taylor Lautner), I was confident that this moody romance would perk up with an added dash of Rosemary’s Baby, once the now-married Bella found herself pregnant with Edward’s child. (So the undead have living sperm, then?) But how could I have guessed this would be the exact moment that, at least for me, the movie stopped being interesting?