(already subscribe? log in).

Movie stars: Movie capsules

THIS STORY APPEARED IN

January 03, 2012

Michael Fassbender as Carl Jung and Keira Knightley as Sabina Spielrein… (liam daniel/sony pictures…)

★ The Darkest Hour Four young Americans meet up at a bar in Moscow just in time for an alien invasion. Sean and Ben, played by Emile Hirsch and Max Minghella, have just been ripped off in an Internet business deal when they meet Natalie and Ann, played by Olivia Thirlby and Rachael Taylor. When all hell breaks loose, they hide out in a storage room, emerging days later into a post-apocalyptic wasteland. They find themselves fighting for survival in a yawn-inducing genre exercise. (89 min., PG-13) (Joel Brown)

Previously released

★★ ½The Adventures of Tintin Director Steven Spielberg and producer Peter Jackson bring the intrepid boy reporter of Hergé’s classic comic books into the digital new millennium with mixed results. The film’s a visual marvel that’s cold to the touch, with a chase-rinse-repeat story line that grows tiresome and motion-captured characters that lack the warmth of human beings. (107 min., PG) (Ty Burr)

★ Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked Young children may enjoy the third film in the series, bland as it is. Alvin and the other five singing chipmunks join their guardian Dave (Jason Lee) for a luxury cruise and end up stranded on an (almost) uninhabited tropical island where they learn to be more self-reliant. David Cross is also on hand, wearing a giant pelican suit, but even that’s not enough to make this fun for grown-ups over age 9. (85 min., G) (Joel Brown)

★★★★ The Artist Michael Hazanavicius’s silent, black-and-white love letter to classic movies isn’t perfect, but it’s close enough to make just about anyone who sees it ridiculously happy - and that includes children and grown-ups who’ve never come across a silent film. Jean Dujardin plays the charming Hollywood ham whose career goes south with the arrival of the talkies; Bérénice Bejo is his love interest. A crowd-pleaser and a joy. (100 min., PG-13) (Ty Burr)

★★★ ½ A Dangerous Method The insinuation in David Cronenberg’s sex drama is strong, the acting stronger. Adapted by Christopher Hampton from his play, the film focuses on the professional and emotional bond between the Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender), his mistress and assistant Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley), and Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen). With Cronenberg, devilishly, the sex proves more curative than the talking. (94 min., R) (Wesley Morris)