Culture

As someone who appreciates well-done romantic comedies, as well as any film with Natalie Portman and – gasp! – laughing out loud in movie theaters, I was eagerly anticipating No Strings Attached. After having seen Portman make out with Mila Kunis and dance her crazy heart out in Black Swan last month, we know she can do absolutely anything. No Strings Attached marks the actress' first foray into the romantic comedy genre while raising the question: Can this multi-dimensional actress get laughs?

The Way Back is a grueling, stunningly photographed story of a group of prisoners who escape a Siberian gulag and walk… yes that's right, walk, 4,000 miles through five hostile countries to freedom in India. This sometimes-riveting film is grand scale entertainment though the tediousness of the trek is often disconcerting. Six-time Oscar nominated director Peter Weir (Truman Show, Dead Poets Society) returns to the screen after a seven-year absence with an epic yet by-the-numbers film adaptation of Slavomir Rawicz’s novel, The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom. The veracity of Rawicz's story has been challenged, so Weir and co-writer Keith Clarke try to address the authenticity by giving us the straight story.

The Green Hornet arrived after a ton of negative buzz in the notorious mid-January cinematic dead zone and raked it in as the biggest box office moneymaker of the week. Based on the 1930s radio show and 60’s TV series of the same name, The Green Hornet features Seth Rogen as Britt Reid, playboy heir to the publishing empire built by his father (Tom Wilkinson sleep-walking through his mean-old-dad routine). After dad croaks, party animal Reid inherits the newspaper company, teaming up with late dad’s assistant and eventual sidekick Kato (Chinese pop star Jay Chou) to become a masked crime-fighting team. Their mission: to rid Los Angeles of a local crime czar (Christoph Waltz). Green Hornet is yet another tongue-in-cheek costumed crime-fighter, but neither Iron Man nor Hancock sunk as low as Rogen's tubby icon of idiocy.

Made in Dagenham is the kind of movie that makes most, if not all, women feel some degree of gratitude. Additionally, anyone who has ever had to, or wanted to, stand up for what they believe in will walk out of the theater inspired by this film, which is based on a true story.