1. Thor: The Dark World
A valuable mystical substance infects Jane (Natalie Portman), so Thor (Chris Hemsworth) brings her to Valhalla while dark elves conspire to retrieve the substance. Also starring Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, and Rene Russo. PG-13 (112 min.)
2. Bad Grandpa
Johnny Knoxville gets out the old-age make-up to play an 86-year-old man taking his 8-year-old grandson across the country. Their goal? To prank an unsuspecting populace, like a cross between Borat and Jackass. R (92 min.)
3. Free Birds
Just in time for Thanksgiving, two turkeys get the bright idea to travel back in time and prevent turkey from becoming a holiday staple in this cartoon. Voice cast includes Owen Wilson and Amy Poehler. PG (91 min.)
4. Last Vegas
Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Kevin Kline, and Morgan Freeman go to Las Vegas for a bachelor party in this fish-out-of-water comedy. Think The Hangover meets Grumpy Old Men.
5. Ender’s Game
The director of X-Men Origins: Wolverine condenses and regurgitates Orson Scott Card’s compelling young adult novel about a boy genius advancing through strategy school in order to destroy a potentially invading alien force. PG-13 (114 min.)
6. Gravity
In this revolutionary 3-D rollercoaster, a space mission gone awry forces astronauts Sandra Bullock and George Clooney to fend for themselves among various space stations and to get back home. PG-13 (90 min.)
7. 12 Years as a Slave
The Toronto Film Festival winner by chic arthouse director Steve McQueen chronicles the abduction of a free northern black man (Chiwetel Ejiofur) and his enslavement for 12 years on
southern plantations. R (133 min.)
8. Captain Phillips
Based on a true story, Tom Hanks stars as the captain of a U.S. ship transporting supplies to Kenya when his ship comes under attack by Somali pirates in this journalistic depiction of international institutions colliding. PG-13 (134 min.)
9. About Time
The latest English rom-com-drama from the writer-director of Love Actually is this story about a young man who learns he can time travel within his own life and the woman (Rachel McAdams) he falls in love with. R (123 min.)
10. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2
Our hero, Flint Lockwood, voiced by Bill Hader, leaves his job when he finds out the machine responsible for the original is still in operation, leading to another avalanche of foods crossed with animals. PG (95 min.)
11. Carrie
After getting picked on at school, a young outcast, Carrie, develops telekinetic superpowers. Then one of the girls feels guilty and gets her boyfriend to take Carrie to the prom; the rest is horror history. R (100 min.)
12. All Is Lost
Robert Redford plays “Our Man,” a survivor of a shipwreck that leaves him stranded on a life raft with diminishing resources as he tries to get home. Directed by JC Chandor (Margin Call). PG-13 (106 min.)
13. Escape Plan
In this high-concept action flick, Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger team up to escape from a dangerous, off-the-grid, maximum-security prison that puts all the prisoners in clear glass boxes on stilts. R (116 min.)
14. The Counselor
Michael Fassbender stars as a lawyer who gets involved in a cartel deal
that goes wrong in this hard-bitten, star-studded neo-noir. Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Brad Pitt, and Javier Bardem co-star. R (117 min.)
15. Dallas Buyers Club
Matthew McConaughey plays a reallife Texan who was diagnosed HIVpositive and begins a ring to fasttrack meds not yet approved by the FDA by importing them from Mexico for HIV-positive Americans. Costarring Jennifer Garner, Jared Leto. R (117 min.)
16. Enough Said
Julia Louis-Dreyfus befriends a hippie poet (Catherine Keener) and her exhusband James Gandolfini at the same party. Her relationships with each start to threaten each other. Her college-bound daughter only cranks up her emotions. PG-13 (93 min.)
17. Despicable Me 2
The heroic Anti-Villain League hires Steve Carell as a grumbling supervillain turned adoptive father to help fight a new supervillain. Featuring the voices of Kristen Wiig, Benjamin Bratt, and Russell Brand. PG (98 min.)
18. Blue is the Warmest Color
The most recent film to win the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival is this story of a French teenager named Adele who falls for a local college student named Emma. NC-17 (179 min.)
19. Planes
Disney goes Pixar with a Cars-style take on a world of sentient planes. Dane Cook as a cropduster dreams of competing in a race around the world.. Brad Garret, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and John Cleese co-star. PG (91 min.)
20. Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters
Percy Jackson and his friends must hunt down the Golden Fleece to defeat the rising tide of monsters and restore their sanctuary in this freewheeling Greek mythology/coming-ofage mash-up. PG (106 min.)
wacoweekly.com • November 13, 2013 • WACO WEEKLY • pg 15