An Iowa country girl with talent dreams of the big-time saves her pennies and makes the trip to the big city to take a shot at the prize of fame and fortune. We've seen this story a million times, and 'Burlesque,' with Christina Aguilera as the young aspirant and Cher as an aging mentor/club owner who gives the girl a chance, offers no new wrinkles. Grade: C-.  

'Fired Up' director Will Gluck hands his 'Scarlet Letter' high school update to Emma Stone and she delivers, making her hard sell pitch for promotion to the A-list look as easy as Sunday morning. Her good girl pretending to be bad has the one thing every smart 'Juno'-esque teen needs: parents in Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson who are hip and understanding. Grade: B-plus.  

Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan) narrates the story of ... what exactly? She tells us almost from the start that she died at 14 years old. And it's not simply that she died; she was murdered by a neighbor (Stanley Tucci), an evil serial molester, all the more sinister in skewed feverish angles. Unfortunately, Peter Jackson ('The Lord of the Rings' trilogy) just isn't in tune with the magic of female adolescence (and early teenage male longing) in the 1970s. Grade: B-.  

Meryl Streep continues to delight in an effervescent turn as cooking legend Julia Child, whose biography makes up half of this fact-based trifle from writer/director Nora Ephron. Her counterpart is Julie Powell (Amy Adams), a frustrated would-be novelist who turns to her avocation for cooking, opting to launch a blog in which she'll chronicle preparing all 524 recipes from Child's seminal cookbook 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking' in 365 days. Grade: C.