Whether they admit it or not, the horror genre has a special place in the heart of most movie buffs. That affinity is usually traced back to childhood, a period during which we are far more open to spooky, supernatural occurrences; the terrifying possibility of a crazy guy in a mask wielding a chainsaw; or the likelihood of a maniacal, blood-thirsty leprechaun cracking jokes and skulls.  

Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Kal Penn) aim to save 3-D effects and Christmas in their latest adventure, but first they’ve got to unite after drifting apart. Cho and Penn have lost their stoner bromantic mojo.   

Filmmaker Steve James is apparently incapable of making an uninteresting documentary, even when his subject matter might presumably be thoroughly played out. James, who has already garnered enough film-festival awards to merit multiple mantelpieces, tackles Chicago's soaring crime rate, and in particular the work of CeaseFire, a community-based interventional program founded by epidemiologist Gary Slutkin.   

Fast paced and fluffy, Tower Heist is a spectacle-laden comedy with widespread appeal. Even Alan Alda's Bernie Madoff-styled antagonist gets a soft treatment so as not to offend the "1 percent" of potential audience members his evil character represents.  

Inevitable comparisons with J.J. Abrams’ similarly themed Super 8 favors writer/director Joe Cornish’s seemingly effortless ability to extract laughs and shocks from an alien invasion in urban London. Much of the movie’s success derives from the crackle of comedy that rolls off the Cockney-accented teen antihero thugs who dare to take on an army of pitch-black alien creatures attacking their estate housing tower.  

It is time to take Jessica Chastain seriously. Forget the offensive she has launched on theaters in 2011 — The Tree of Life, The Help, The Debt, Take Shelter, Coriolanus, Wilde Salome and Texas Killing Fields, the final three titles of which have been relegated to impending status for regional viewers, although I was able to catch Coriolanus and Take Shelter during the Toronto International Film Festival.  

Writer-director Andrew Niccol (Gattaca, Lord of War) knows his way around a tricky premise but with In Time ends up wasting his precious commodity on the action hijinks, which are not as inspired as we might expect and cannot beat the clock with the inherently rich human drama.  

Loosely based on Hunter S. Thompson’s early years as a journalist circa 1960, The Rum Diary casts Johnny Depp once again as Thompson’s surrogate, this time a young writer named Paul Kemp. Flailing in his attempts at completing a novel, Kemp accepts a job at an English-language newspaper in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where the atmosphere is considerably less than quietly professional.  

Having spent most of his career destroying the world in grand computer-generated fashion, German writer-producer-director Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow, 2012) apparently is ready to transition into a new filmmaking phase, as Emmerich sets his sights on ripping apart the notion that William Shakespeare was the actual author of the titles ascribed to his name.   

Spun off from the finally-adjourned Shrek franchise, Puss in Boots is a well-crafted DreamWorks animated movie that succeeds in spite of the aid of its extraneous 3-D treatment. Screenwriter Tom Wheeler deftly blends together nursery rhyme elements toward a comical fantasy that includes an enjoyable dose of cute animal realism.   

By now we should have learned that a sitcom needs at least a good half-season to find its legs. It’s easy to dismiss a new show early on in its run, yet history shows that even the greatest sitcoms had mundane starts. Raising Hope might be considered such a sitcom, but, in retrospect, its early episodes are pretty solid, and it has continued to get better.    

The Devil. Beelzebub. Mephistopheles. Baphomet. Scratch. Old Nick. Lucifer. SATAN. The supernatural being who tempts man’s soul to sin and ruin from his fiery underworld throne goes by many names (and if Jagger and Richards are to be believed, he wants us to guess them, too). He’s a creature — mythical or otherwise, depending upon where you fall ideologically — of many different faces, as well.   

Paul W.S. Anderson’s new retelling of Alexandre Dumas’ classic tale features his usual action-oriented antics — explosions galore and hi-tech freeze-frame combat sequences — as well as his muse, Milla Jovovich.
  

Nothing about this true story really feels organic and competently structured, but as it passes from moment to moment, the movie begins to score a few sentimental baskets and maybe it even starts to believe in itself enough to win a few hearts.  

The creator behind this horror phenomenon (Oren Peli) has been able to successfully pass it on to others, first to director Tod Williams, and now to Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman (of Catfish fame) with little or no negative return on the creative investment.