The Attack (2013)

An honored Arab surgeon, practicing and living in Tel Aviv, has his world rocked when his wife is killed in a terrorist attack. It gets even worse when the police suspect that his wife was actually the bomber, not a victim.

We are on his journey with him as he tries to figure out what happened -- if his wife is who he thought she was, someone completely different, or something in-between. My emotions were pulled along with his as I wrestled with how he was treated in his search for the truth.

It's a smart film about a difficult subject that doesn’t tie up with a pat answer.

B+

The Best Man Holiday (2013)

Watching this was a little like being at a low-key party where I don’t know anyone. This could be due to the fact that we hadn’t seen “The Best Man” so were unclear about how everyone related to each other (though kudos to the quick recap at the beginning -- at least we weren’t going in completely blind thanks to that).

I didn’t hate this, but the plot just kind of wandered around and gave no compelling reason for this to be a movie. It had more the vibe of a long-running series' “very special episode.”

C+

Focus (2015)

Will Smith is a con man who takes an inexperienced small-time grifter under his wing and falls in love… or does he?

This movie reminded me a lot of “Now You See Me.” There were loads of nifty tricks but not much heart and even less chemistry. It felt as though I was being jerked around just because and, as a result, I didn’t much care whether the people I was supposed to be rooting for got caught, killed or walked away with a bundle. I was just never invested nor was I having any fun.

D+

Remember the Night (1940)

Shoplifter gets arrested close to Christmas and the savvy prosecutor, eager to get on the road to his hometown, gets the case delayed til the new year. He feels bad, though, when he realizes that means the accused will have to spend the holidays in the clink. Since the crook’s Barbara Stanwyck and the lawyer’s Fred MacMurray, he bails her out and takes her home for the holidays.

There's only one surprise in this movie and it comes right at the end, but that’s fine. We knew what we were getting and that's exactly what we wanted.

B

A Christmas Carol (1938)

I was surprised to find out that I’d never seen this adaptation before, but honestly, I wasn't missing much. Gary immediately declared that this Scrooge was obviously the inspiration that gave us the Grinch & I'm pretty sure he nailed it.

The Cratchit family in this version was, possibly, the most marvelous ever, but Scrooge himself was just a caricature. I didn’t care much about him at all, even after his transformation.

C+

The Night Before (2015)

Three buddies have gotten together every Christmas eve for a decade and are doing it one last time as the demands of adulthood mean they can't keep it up.

There were some truly hilarious and heartwarming moments (see my favorite below), but the overall vibe was disjointed and, every so often, downright bizarre. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it definitely makes this a “seen it once & that’s enough” kind of movie rather than one that'll make it into the Christmas movie rotation.

C+

Night at the Museum (2006)

Although there's no getting around the fact that this is definitely a kids' movie, it's the kind of kids' movie that I'm OK with: silly but not at all dumb.

B-

About Elly (2015)

A group of friends -- three married couples and two singles who are being set up -- head to the shore for a weekend. When the single woman disappears, it throws everyone into fear, confusion, and suspicion.

This movie made me extremely uncomfortable, but in a masterful/interesting way. Although I felt a lot of frustration with the characters, the story and the people were ultimately believable. People are frustrating... why shouldn't people in movies be as well?

B

People Places Things (2015)

A recently-single father is kind of fumbling his way through his new reality. He’s facing a creative slump with the graphic novel he’s been working on, he doesn’t see his children as much as he’d like, and he hasn’t quite let his wife go -- which isn’t doing either of their love lives any favors.

It’s extremely low-key, but works quite well, probably due in no small part to the fact that the main character is played by Jemaine Clement.

B