RESERVATION ROAD 2 stars. Two fathers, one (Mark Ruffalo) the driver in a fatal hit-and-run, the other (Joaquin Phoenix) whose son was the victim. They meet ugly and often in Terry George's intense and melancholy thriller with fine performances and a perfunctory screenplay. 1 hr. 42 R (mature themes, profanity ) -- Carrie Rickey
SAW IV 2 stars. Tobin Bell returns as the torture guru in the fourth -- unnecessary, unwanted and tepid -- picture in the series. Whereas the first three films featured some very inventive killing machines and clever plot twists and even included a touch of Existentialism Lite, the latest flick is a boring, empty exercise. Its only reason for existing is that it CAN exist. Oh, and there's the gobs of money it will make. 1 hr. 48 R (gruesome images, violence, torture, profanity and cheap existentialism) -- Tirdad Derakhshani
SLEUTH 1 1/2 stars. All style and empty emoting, this re-do of the Anthony Shaffer play about a novelist and the guy who steals his wife stars Michael Caine and Jude Law. Caine played the Law role in the 1972 version (opposite Olivier). This new version is hollow and awful. 1 hr. 26 R (profanity, violence, adult themes) -- Steven Rea
SUPERBAD 3 stars. This intermittently hilarious and also interminable comedy is about codependent high school friends who throw a wild party before heading their seperate ways for colloge. Jonah Hill and Michael Cera star. 1 hr. 54 R (pervasive profanity, sexual candor, underage drinking, drugs) -- Carrie Rickey
THE TEN 2 1/2 stars. Moses' storied tablets get the sketch-comedy treatment in this hit-and-miss omnibus brought to blasphemous life by Jessica Alba, Adam Brody, Famke Janssen, Paul Rudd and Winona Ryder, among others. David Wain, late of the '90s troupe The State, directs. 1 hr. 33 No MPAA rating (profanity, nudity, crude humor, adult themes) -- Steven Rea
THEM 3 1/2 stars. A brilliant French quasi-slasher horror which manages to confound, terrify and totally push off-balance the audience without resorting to any screen violence, or providing explanations about the open can. A young couple French is inexplicably assaulted by unseen persons at their house in Romania. What do the assailants want? Why are they here? This is Hitschockian suspense pushed to new heights. 1 hr. 17 R (extreme terror, violence, adult situations) -- Tirdad Derakhshani
THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE 2 1/2 stars. Susanne Bier's study of a seemingly perfect family dealing imperfectly with tragedy stars Halle Berry as a grieving widow who invites her husband's junkie friend (Benicio Del Toro) to live in the garage. Del Toro's extraordinary emotional range makes Berry's work seem one-note. R (drugs, profamity) -- Carrie Rickey
30 DAYS OF NIGHT 3 stars. David Slade's followup to "Hard Candy" is a mesmerizing, terrifying hellride about a pack of vampires who savage a small Alaskan town which is plunged in darkness for a month. Danny Huston as the vampire leader is as menacing as Anthony Hopkins' Hannibal. 1 hr. 53 R (extreme violence, terrifying images, profanity) -- Tirdad Derakhshani
3:10 TO YUMA 3 1/2 stars. Director James Mangold's potent psychological showdown between a charismatic outlaw (Russell Crowe) and humorless family man (Christian Bale) is a riveting remake of the pretty terrific 1957 Western about open can, fatherhood and honor. 2 hrs. R (brutal gunfights, visceral surgical scenes, profanity) -- Carrie Rickey
TRADE 2 1/2 stars. A slick, engaging sex-trafficking thriller that aspires for the gritty realism of "Maria Full of Grace." Sometimes it gets there, other times it comes off like TV movie sensationalism, sidetracked by distracting back-stories and plot twists. With Kevin Kline and a pair of very strong young Mexican performers. 1 hr. 59 R (violence, sexual violence, profanity, drugs, adult themes) -- Steven Rea
VANAJA 3 1/2 stars. Feature debut about a low-caste girl from South India who dreams of becoming a traditional dancer. 1 hr. 51 No MPAA rating (implied sexual violence, sexual candor) -- Carrie Rickey
WE OWN THE NIGHT 2 1/2 stars. Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg star as brothers on opposite sides of the law in this suspenseful but oft-times hackneyed crime drama, set in the world of Russian mobsters and New York cops in the big-car, big-hair 1980s. With Robert Duvall and Eva Mendes. 1 hr. 57 R (violence, sex, nudity, drugs, profanity, adult themes) -- Steven Rea
