Norman (voiced by Kodi Smit-McPhee) really sees dead people and they happen to be his only friends in the world. The pre-teen years sure can be a drag, but when a return of the living dead threatens to take over an entire community, it’s up to Norman and a ragtag crew of friends and family to set things straight.  

Round two of the 1980s action hero retirement road show features full-on supporting roles for Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis, but Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham are still the least expendable players in the game.  

David Frankel (The Devil Wears Prada) reunites with Meryl Streep in Hope Springs, the story of a couple (Streep and Tommy Lee Jones), married for 30 years, who decide to attend a week-long marriage counseling program with a renowned therapist (Steve Carell) in order to renew their spark.   

The simple premise of this suburban comedy — about a group of dads who form a neighborhood watch group to patrol their block, but soon discover an extraterrestrial menace threat far beyond their control — feels like a lazy opportunity for Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn and Jonah Hill to hang out and crack wise on the studio dime.   

Terence Davies (screenwriter and director of The House of Mirth) once again takes on dual roles with this adaptation of Terence Rattigan’s play about the self-destructive love affair between the wife of a British judge and a pilot in the Royal Air Force.  

This time out, with director Scott Speer, another crew of anonymous dancers “step up” and out into the streets, flash mob-style, not just for the sake of wild abandon but also to protest the buyout of a low-income neighborhood for massive redevelopment.   

There are moments when the stars and planets are in near-perfect alignment as a comet crosses the night sky and the movie gods cast their smiles on the screen, and a film dares to come close to living up to the undeniable hype that has been heaped upon its frames. It would appear that Christopher Nolan has produced just such an occurrence with the finale to his Batman trilogy.