Think Spring: TROUBLE WITH THE CURVE / **½

Distributor: Warner Bros.
Release Date: September 21, 2012
Genre: Drama
Running Time: 111 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG-13

In 2011, Bennett Miller’s “Moneyball” presented a modern view of the game of baseball, as statistics and computer tracking ruled the day in determining player value.

General Manager Billy Beane (played by Brad Pitt) pioneered these tactics to deal with the handicaps of being a small market team in a big market game, eschewing the advice of long time scouts who spouted advice based on what the player looked like when he ran or how attractive his girlfriend was.

Robert Lorenz’s “Trouble with the Curve” functions almost as a retort to “Moneyball.” Clint Eastwood plays Gus, an aging scout for the Atlanta Braves still clinging to the old ways of the game. Gus is a curmudgeonly old coot that the organization wants to push out as soon as his contract expires, but he has one last recruiting trip to make before that happens.

LAWLESS / ***

Distributor: Weinstein Company
Release Date: August 29, 2012
Genre: Crime Drama
Running Time: 115 minutes
MPAA Rating: R

In 2006, one film took me by surprise and completely floored me and earned the number six spot on my best of the year list. The brutally bloody revenge saga “The Proposition,” written by Australian songwriter Nick Cave, is amongst my picks for overlooked gems of the last decade, and I immediately took note of debuting director John Hillcoat, so that I could watch for future films of his.

Hillcoat followed three years later with the much anticipated adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road,” which I thought was very well done but it failed to make the kind of impact with critics or audiences that was expected.

BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD / ****

Distributor: Fox Searchlight
Release Date: June 27, 2012
Genre: Drama
Running Time: 91 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG-13

Whoever is announcing the Oscar nominees on January 10 better learn how to pronounce the name Quvenzhané Wallis. The 9-year old actress (who was just 5 at the time of her audition, though she told filmmakers she was 6 to meet the minimum age requirement, and ended up beating about 4,000 other actors for the role) delivers a stunning performance and is the heart and soul of one of the year’s best films.

“Beasts” takes place in fictional region known as “The Bathtub,” on the other side of the levees in Louisiana. Though it is never explicitly stated, it can be inferred that the film takes place in a post-Katrina world, which is almost enough to be considered post-apocalyptic for the residents of the Bathtub.

PROMETHEUS / ***½

Distributor: Fox
Release Date: June 8, 2012
Genre: Sci-Fi Action
Running Time: 124 minutes
MPAA Rating: R

In 1979, Ridley Scott’s “Alien” let everyone know that in space, no one can hear you scream. Thirty-three years later, Scott returns to space with “Prometheus,” an ambitious and sprawling sci-fi horror epic that succeeds in many of the same ways “Alien” did. “Prometheus” is on par with Scott’s best work, and easily his best film in over a decade since “Black Hawk Down.”

“Prometheus” begins with two archaeologists, Elizabeth Shaw (the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) discovering ancient star maps in Scotland that they interpret it as an invitation to investigate the origins of humankind, which is no small matter.

THE CABIN IN THE WOODS / ***½

Distributor: Lionsgate
Release Date: April 13, 2012
Genre: Horror Comedy
Running Time: 95 minutes
MPAA Rating: R

Horror films have undergone an impressive resurgence in the last couple of years, as teenagers and college kids turn out in droves for the most mundane and repetitive horror clichés regurgitated on celluloid time and time again. If “new” ideas aren’t being trotted out, Hollywood is happy to remake every moderately successful horror film and amp up the gore.

With that being considered, what a gift “The Cabin in the Woods” is for filmgoers who ask for just a little bit more than the standard horror movie has to offer. Co-writer Joss Whedon and co-writer/director Drew Goddard completely turn the genre upside down with their wildly inventive screenplay that provides one delightful surprise after another on its way to a deliriously outrageous conclusion.

THE VOW / **½

Distributor: Sony / Screen Gems
Release Date: February 10, 2012
Genre: Drama
Running Time: 104 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG-13

Back in 2005, Rachel McAdams was really causing a stir. With four performances in films as varied as “Wedding Crashers” (comedy), “Red Eye,” (action/suspense), “The Family Stone” (drama) and “The Notebook” (one of the finest romances made in my lifetime), she seemed poised to become a top star for years to come. Unfortunately, it hasn’t exactly worked out that way. It’s been a smattering of hits (last year’s Best Picture nominee “Midnight in Paris” or “Sherlock Holmes”) and misses (“Morning Glory” or “The Lucky Ones”), and even several years off screen (nothing between “Stone” and the little-seen “Married Life in 2007). Young actresses don’t have the luxury of taking time off and still having their work as anticipated as it was before. Who do they think they are, Terrence Malick or Stanley Kubrick? But I digress.

CHRONICLE / ***½

Distributor: Fox
Release Date: February 3, 2012
Genre: Sci-Fi Action
Running Time: 83 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG-13

I didn’t know the kind of parties that are presented in “Chronicle” actually happen on a high school level. At least I was never invited to any parties like it. On that level, I can sympathize with Andrew Detmer (Dane DeHaan, who bears a striking resemblance to a young Leonardo DiCaprio). On another level, Detmer is a total outcast with a troubled home life, which admittedly I cannot relate to.