Dracula (Adam Sandler), center, looks on nervously as his daughter Mavis (Selena Gomez) and the human boy Jonathan (Andy Samberg) share an intimate moment in “Hotel Transylvania,” an animated comedy from Sony Pictures Animation.
A number of new movies will hit theaters this week, including the following films opening in wide release:
Hotel Transylvania Genre: Comedy and animation Cast: Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez, Andy Samberg, Kevin James, Fran Drescher, Cee-Lo Green, David Spade, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon and Jon Lovitz Director: Genndy Tartakovsky Rated: PG
Welcome to Hotel Transylvania, Dracula’s lavish five-stake resort, where monsters and their families can live it up, free to be the monsters they are without humans to bother them.
On one special weekend, Dracula has invited some of his best friends – Frankenstein and his wife, the Mummy, the Invisible Man, the Werewolf family, and more – to celebrate his beloved daughter Mavis’s 118th birthday. For Drac, catering to all of these legendary monsters is no problem – but everything could change for the overprotective dad when one ordinary guy stumbles on the hotel and takes a shine to Mavis.
Looper Genre: Action and thriller Cast: Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Emily Blunt, Paul Dano, Noah Segan, Piper Perabo and Jeff Daniels Director: Rian Johnson Rated: R
In the futuristic action thriller Looper, time travel will be invented – but it will be illegal and only available on the black market.
When the mob wants to get rid of someone, they will send their target 30 years into the past, where a “looper” – a hired gun, like Joe (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) – is waiting to mop up. Joe is getting rich and life is good … until the day the mob decides to “close the loop,” sending back Joe’s future self (Bruce Willis) for assassination.
Won’t Back Down Genre: Drama Cast: Maggie Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis, Oscar Isaac, Holly Hunter, Rosie Perez, Lance Reddick and Emily Alyn Lind Director: Daniel Barnz Rated: PG
“Won’t Back Down” is a powerful story – inspired by true events – of parenthood, friendship, hope and courage.
Maggie Gyllenhaal and Viola Davis portray determined mothers who will stop at nothing to transform their children’s failing inner city school. Facing a powerful and entrenched bureaucracy and a system mired in traditional thinking, they risk everything to make a difference in the education and future of their children.
The story depicts a series of battles in which the lead roles are combatants waging war against a broken system. The weapons they employ are hope and action.
Audiences will identify with many of the struggles facing Jamie Fitzpatrick (Gyllenhaal) and Nona Alberts (Davis) as they fight for their children against a powerful bureaucracy. Theirs is a story that emboldens and enlightens, and posits that one person can make a difference.
The following will open in limited release. It may be several weeks before these films appear in local movie theaters.
The Barrens Genre: Horror and thriller Cast: Stephen Moyer, Mia Kirshner, Erick Knudsen and Allie MacDonald Director: Darren Bousman Rated: R
It’s known as the Jersey Devil, the winged beast spawned 400 years ago by Satan himself.
Some say this creature still inhabits the dense pine forests of southern New Jersey, where Richard Vineyard (Stephen Moyer) takes his family for a rustic weekend camping trip. As the Vineyard family ventures further into the woods in search of the perfect campsite, Richard teeters on the edge of sanity. And it seems that the blood-crazed demon called The Jersey Devil may no longer be just a myth.
The Hole Genre: Adventure, fantasy and thriller Cast: Chris Massoglia, Haley Bennett, Nathan Gamble, Bruce Dern and Teri Polo Director: Joe Dante Not rated
Susan and her sons Dane and Lucas Thompson move from Brooklyn to Bensonville, in the countryside.
Dane is upset with the constant changes of address and the family has lived in many cities. Lucas and Dane befriend their next door neighbor, the gorgeous Julie and the brothers find a bottomless hole in the basement of their house locked with several padlocks. They take the locks off and soon they are haunted by their darkest fears. Further, they believe that the hole might be a gateway to hell.
Solomon Kane Genre: Action, adventure and fantasy Cast: James Purefoy, Max von Sydow, Pete Postlethwaite, Rachel Hurd-Wood, Alice Krige and Mackenzie Crook Director: Michael J. Bassett Rated: R
Captain Solomon Kane is a brutally efficient 16th century killing machine.
Armed with his signature pistols, cutlass and rapier, he and his men unleash their bloodlust as they fight for England in war after war on all continents.
As the story opens, Kane and his men are carving a bloody path through hordes of defenders of a city in northern Africa. But when Kane decides to attack a mysterious nearby castle to plunder its rumored riches, things start to get strange.
It turns out that the castle is inhabited by evil demons but Kane and his men push on deeper into the keep, hell-bent for treasure. His men are picked off one by one and eventually Kane is left alone facing down a 10-foot beast ... the Reaper. The demon tells Kane that he’s come from Hell specifically to get him. Though Kane manages to escape the demon, he knows that he must redeem himself by renouncing violence and living a life of peace and purity.
It isn't long before his newfound spirituality is tested when he journeys across an England ravaged by diabolical human raiders who fight under the command of a terrifying, masked Overlord. When he fails to stop the slaughter of a family that has befriended him, Kane vows to free their daughter, who has been enslaved – even if it means putting his own soul in peril by renouncing his vow of peace. His search brings him face to face with the brother he thought dead and the evil sorcerer who has manipulated him for his own ends. In the process of saving the girl and defeating the magician, Kane learns that he has been saved from the Reaper in order to fulfill a new destiny – to defend the innocent and fight evil wherever it may occur.
![[Image]](/content_images/092412_lemovies-01.jpg)
![[Image]](/content_images/070312_pco-01z_front.jpg)
