In this engrossing documentary, a number of breakdance crews come from around the world to compete in the world championship in Germany. Their backgrounds and home environments are explored in-depth. The audience is thrilled with astonishing acrobatic routines that require intricate choreography, incredible strength, unbelievable coordination, and focused practice.

Grade: A-.

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A young high school student decides, with no combat training or defense skills, to become a superhero. In the process, our hero gets beat up a lot and teams up with a plucky young girl who excels at dizzying martial arts moves. This fun action flick keeps the adrenaline high.

Grade: A.

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Michael is a reclusive novelist, afraid to leave the house. He reluctantly hires a young cancer survivor, Sarah, as a personal assistant. This extremely low budget, badly-acted movie with a clunky script explores the relationship between the two, as they try to get a grown man to live life.

Grade: D.

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Aliens arrive in Johannesberg, South Africa, in this gritty science fiction picture, and are confined and exploited in a ghetto called “District 9” after their technology fails to allow them to leave Earth. An inventive story, eye-popping visuals, and decent, realistic acting performances make this Apartheid analog worth watching.

Grade: A.

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Nicolas Cage leads a phenomenal cast, including Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, and Tilda Swinton, in this story about a screenwriter trying to adapt a non-fiction book about orchid poachers for film. A wonderful screenplay and incredible acting performances garnered multiple Oscar nominations and one win for best supporting actor.

Grade: A-.

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Barbara Sher delivers a practical guide about setting goals and creating a path to achieving them in this well-written, approachable book. She takes us through defining a target and breaking through the different types of resistance that stand between our present circumstance and the realization of our life’s passion.

Grade: A.

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Jason Robards, Jessica Lange, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Jennifer Jason Leigh play the Cook family in this reinterpretation of Shakespeare’s King Lear, set around a farm in Iowa. Strong acting performances and a unique script make this a decent rental, but most viewers won’t understand the Bard’s connection to this story.

Grade: C+.

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Jodie Foster is perfect in this adaptation of the Carl Sagan novel. She is Eleanor Arroway, an eccentric astrophysicist who discovers a powerful alien signal. With a perfect screenplay and a talented cast, including David Morse, Matthew McConaughey, James Woods, and John Hurt, this engrossing film is an unforgettable adventure.

Grade: A+.

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Nia Vardalos pens this romantic comedy about a frumpy Greek-American girl from a huge tight-knit family who falls for a non-Greek man. The outrageous antics in the preparation for their unlikely wedding and the highly caricatured family members make this culture shock character study a harmless distraction.

Grade: B.

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Mia Wasikowska is Alice, a plucky young girl who falls down a rabbit hole into Wonderland, in this cartoonish Tim Burton adaptation of the Lewis Carroll novel. Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Crispin Glover, and Anne Hathaway round out a talented cast, with beautiful special effects and off-kilter sets.

Grade: B.

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