The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)

Jackson and his co-writers Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens are guilty of not only padding the story to gain enough material for three movies, but also for making connections from one franchise to the next. They’re unfairly forcing The Hobbit to act as a point-to-point prequel toThe Lord of the Rings. Read the full review here.

Out of the Furnace (2013)

Director Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart) has attempted to craft a modern version — or at least somewhat recent; it’s set in 2008 — of The Deer Hunter. He succeeds in the first half, which is as much an exquisite examination of masculinity as its inspiration. But Cooper, who co-wrote the screenplay with Brad Ingelsby, doesn’t allow the film to remain a character study; he insists that something must happen. Read the rest of the review here.

Philomena (2013)

In Philomena, unemployed journalist Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan) is desperate after an unfair firing following a scandal when he’s handed a poignant human-interest story. After 50 years, Philomena Lee (Judi Dench) wants to search for a son she’d been forced to surrender to the Sisters of the Sacred Heart at the Sean Ross Abbey in Ireland, one of the Magdalene Laundries. Together, Sixsmith and Lee travel to Ireland and then Washington, DC, tracking down leads to reveal the identity of her son who’d been adopted by rich American Catholics, and along the way forge an unlikely bond. Read the rest of the review here.

The Book Thief (2013)

Death reassures us that the wide-eyed protagonist will remain breathing throughout the course of the film, but he makes no promises about traumatic events. And friends and family are fair game. This is Nazi Germany, after all. But this doesn’t stop Percival from forcing feel-good scenes. Read the rest of the review here.

Oldboy (2013)

Director Spike Lee’s remake of Chan-wook Park’s 2003 cult Korean revenge flick doesn’t hold up well under scrutiny. Gaping holes and inconsistencies litter the screenplay, adapted for American audiences by writer Mark Protosevich (I Am Legend, The Cell). But the film, stuck in some nowhere land between camp and noir, isn’t any more fun to watch in the moment. Read the full review here.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)

So many elements of the first installment of The Hunger Games are back in its sequel, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. But the screenplay, adapted by Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine) and Simon Beaufoy (The Full Monty,Slumdog Millionaire) from the second novel in the YA series by Suzanne Collins, is much more complex and political. This time, Katniss isn’t fighting other children; she’s going head-to-head with President Snow and his advisor, the new head gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman). But Katniss can’t win. Her status makes her a pawn of the Capitol, and her unorthodox strategy during the games has turned her into a symbol of resurrection. It seems her only way out is to join the rebels, but she isn’t entirely convinced —yet. Read the full review on KCActive.com.

Dallas Buyers Club (2013)

Inspired by the activism of real-life Texan Ron Woodroof, Dallas Buyers Club risks dismissal as an “issues” movie.  But the screenplay by Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack takes enough liberties with the story to create an effective drama. They’ve invented characters — amalgamations of people from Woodroof’s actual world — that drive the story and also give the story a compelling narrative arc. Read the rest of the review on KCActive.com.

All Is Lost (2013)

The unnamed taciturn captain (Robert Redford) of a yacht damaged by an errant cargo container labors to keep his vessel afloat in the Indian Ocean. Further battered by sea and storm, the vessel is stripped of vital supplies in each successive crisis, and the lone sailor is forced to rely on dwindling rations and his ability to jury-rig items MacGyver-style for his very survival. Using an antique sextant, he methodically charts a course for the Sumatra Straits, where he hopes he’ll come to the attention of one of the many massive cargo ships ferrying their containers of goods to the Western world. Read the rest of the review here.

The Best Man Holiday (2013)

Almost 15 years after The Best Man, writer/director Malcolm D. Lee has reunited the original cast for its sequel. Through either luck or intuition, Lee included the talents of yet-unknown great actors such as Terrence Howard and Harold Perrineau in his 1999 hit, and, even more astounding, somehow convinced them to come back to star in something as corny as a holiday film. Read the rest of the review here.

Blue Is the Warmest Color (2013)

The American title of this film, Blue Is the Warmest Color, may be closer in tone to the original name of its source material — Julie Maroh's graphic novel Blue Angel — but it brings too literal a slant on director Abdellatif Kechiche's overt symbolic use of blue as a visual motif throughout the film.

In French, the movie is called La vie d'Adèle – Chapitres 1 et 2, which translates to The Life of Adèle: Chapters 1 & 2 and better describes this coming-of-age story. Read the full review here.

12 Years a Slave (2013)

British director Steve McQueen (Hunger, Shame) chooses hard subjects for his feature films. To different masters, his main characters are captive and often powerless. Although it's difficult to watch their struggles against cruelty and emptiness — even when self-inflicted — it's far from its own type of masochism. Yes, McQueen films with an unflinching eye, but he never fails to use his artistry to create a type of visual poetry out of misery and offering hope, if not redemption. Read the rest of the review here. 

About Time (2013)

Writer/director Richard Curtis, screenwriter of Four Weddings and a Funeral andNotting Hill, and director of Love Actually, has taken the teeth out of time travel. It’s not that the script should give in to the standard time traveler plots — historical wrongs to right, fortunes to amass or lives to save — but despite Curtis’ usual infusion of English charm, About Time is humdrum. Curtis screws around too long with inconsequential romantic comedy bits, wearing down both novelty and goodwill, and getting to the existential core too late. Read the rest of the review here.