Rock of Ages ***

The movie version of the Broadway musical "Rock of Ages," which follows the proverbial girl singer from a small town to Sunset Strip in the '80s, where she meets a city boy who has rock dreams of his own is fun, nicely staged, and populated by lots of great tunes from the era. Julianne Hough, yes the one from "Dancing with the Stars," brings looks and sparkle to the role of the girl, but Diego Boneta as the boy doesn't manage the same appeal.

Movie veterans Russel Brand and Alec Baldwin are hilarious as the club owners barely scraping by. Catherine Zeta-Jones hits all the right notes as the anti-rock crusader and wife of the philandering mayor. But it's Tom Cruise (in picture above) who really delivers the goods as wigged-out rocker Stacee Jaxx. Cruise buffed up for the role, took singing lessons, and held nothing back from this performance. It's as full-on and high-octane as his incredible take as Hollywood producer Les Grossman in "Tropic Thunder." Musicals are notoriously risky movies to make, but this one should do fine.

Moonrise Kingdom ****

A wry storybook-style take on two twelve-year-old classmates who decide to run away together on a storybook New England island in the early 'sixties. The formal staging and self-conscious dialogue keeps the audience at an ironic remove, but there's real emotion and passion there if you think about it. I found it entirely delightful, with a dream cast that includes Frances McDormand, Bill Murray, Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton and Harvey Keitel, not to mention the two outstanding youngsters, played by Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward.

Prometheus IMAX 3D ***

"Prometheus" is a mesmerizing mix of fabulous special effects creating a fully-realized other world, outstanding acting by principals Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender, and some intriguing ideas about human origins and our place in the universe. Rapace ("Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" original Swedish version) plays a tough, smart, tireless survivor in the mold of Sigourney Weaver's Ripley in the original "Alien," of which this is a prequel. Fassbender plays a smart android, David, with his own secrets and motives, slowly revealed. His character and performance are a triumph.

"Prometheus" is unfortunately marred by the runny mess of those half-baked intriguing ideas, some of which directly contradict evolution and the fossil record on earth. Other gaps include an explanation for why clues on earth point to a distant planet in the anthropological record when that planet's contribution was long before. And finally, there is an unforgivable pointlessly shocking return from the grave that neither makes sense nor adds to the story. And how did we get to interstellar travel in suspended animation just 70 years from now?

Terrence Malick raised similar big questions in "Tree of Life," but was much more successful in keeping the questions serious, rather than at a comic book level. Ridley Scott here has given us a picture of a beautiful technological future and an alien tragedy, with some deflationary ideas about our origins. It's too bad it wasn't given more thought.

Men In Black 3 IMAX 3D ***

Just as winning and entertaining as the first two, "Men in Black 3" presents a twist as Agent J (Will Smith) travels back in time to the 'sixties to change history involving his partner Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones). The young Agent K is played by Josh Brolin, who is uncanny in channeling Jones. All of the familiar elements are there: grotesque aliens masquerading as humans, comic book violence, sly humor, cliff-hanging suspense, and a wonderful rapport between the two agents. I found the time-travel device a good change, and the writers had a fun proposing and disposing of the conundrums it naturally produces, and added a character who lives simultaneously in multiple parallel times just to keep everyone on their toes. It's a worth addition to the MIB canon.

Snow White and the Huntsman ***

A gritty, greasy retelling of the Snow White story, with bountiful black magic icily delivered by Charlize Theron as the evil queen, "Snow White and the Huntsman" turns the huntsman hired to kill her into her protector and ally. I liked the look of it, the atmosphere, and the special effects, which had a medieval, organic feel to them. The script and acting were fine. I even loved the dirty fingernails on Snow White, because it added some realism to this unrealistic story.