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In this film image released by Open Road Films, from left, Dallas Roberts, Dermot Mulroney, Liam Neeson, and Nonso Anozie are shown in a scene from "The Grey." (AP Photo/Open Road Films, Kimberley French)

Updated: January 28, 2012 2:15AM

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★★★★ Superior ★★★ Recommended ★★ OK ★ Time-waster
NR Not rated NA Not available

Contraband ★★1/2

“Contraband” features Mark Wahlberg as Chris Farraday, a one-time expert smuggler who’s now living a quiet life as a security consultant in the New Orleans suburbs with his hairstylist wife, Kate (Kate Beckinsale), and their two young sons. When Kate’s younger brother (Caleb Landry Jones) botches a run for a volatile local drug dealer (Giovanni Ribisi, tatted, high-pitched and squirrelly) while pulling into the Port of New Orleans, Chris must come out of retirement to make up the loss to this madman. (R, 109 min.)

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close ★★

Tom Hanks plays a dad killed in the World Trade Center attack, leaving behind a troubled young son (Thomas Horn) who sets out to unravel the secret of a mysterious key that his father left behind. The boy’s journey is supposed to be a healing one for him and the people around him (among them Bullock, Max von Sydow, Viola Davis and Jeffrey Wright). The film’s a class act for performances. And as everyone works through their pain, it all sounds so sweet and life-affirming. Yet it feels so extremely soppy and incredibly phony. (PG-13, 129 min.)

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo ★★★1/2

To put it bluntly, this movie kicks butt. Rooney Mara, who had a small role in Fincher’s “The Social Network,” gives a controlled detonation of a performance as traumatized victim-turned-avenger Lisbeth Salander. (R, 158 min.)

The Grey ★★

Liam Neeson, as the grizzled, morose sniper John Ottway, is among a roughneck band of Alaskan oil refinery workers who, while being shuttled by plane to Anchorage for vacation, crash violently in a storm, stranding them in the snowy tundra. Ottway, the alpha dog, takes charge among the seven survivors whose predicament severely worsens when a pack of wolves announce themselves by their eerie, glowing eyes on the dark fringes of their campfire. (R, 117 min.)

Joyful Noise ★1/2

Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton co-star as longtime enemies battling for control over a small-town Georgia church choir. Keke Palmer and Jeremy Jordan play teens sharing a forbidden love ... through song. Graff jumps around awkwardly among catfights, performances and surreptitious snuggle sessions between the two young stars. (PG-13, 118 min.)

Man on a Ledge ★1/2

Director Asger Leth’s film plods along with its trash-talking New York cops and its forensic evidence and its elaborate surveillance systems. At the center is a bland Sam Worthington, who stars as Nick Cassidy, a fugitive who insists he was wrongly imprisoned for stealing a $40 million diamond from Harris’ reptilian real-estate tycoon. As Nick teeters along a ledge on the 21st floor of the Roosevelt Hotel in midtown Manhattan, Nick’s brother and saucy Latina girlfriend Angie are trying to pull off a real burglary across the street. (PG-13, 102 min.)

War Horse ★★

The majestic Joey comes into the lives of a struggling British family just before World War I. The father (Peter Mullan) buys him at auction, even though he knows he cannot afford him; the mother (Emily Watson) insists he return him and get the family’s money back. But plucky teenager Albert (good-looking newcomer Jeremy Irvine) begs to keep him and promises to train him. (PG-13, 146 min.)