Martian Lands With a Thud

Apocalypse flick does $65M as 'Precious' cracks top 5

(NEWSER) - Apocalypse preview 2012 raked in $65 million domestically at the weekend box office, the high end of the prerelease estimate range, en route to a $225 million haul worldwide. The doomsday action flick handily beat A Christmas Carol, which performed strongly in its second weekend in release. A new entry in the top 10 was No. 4 Precious; the indie sensation did $6.1 million and will open in more locations next week, USA Today reports. The top five: More»

End-of-the-world epic is 'disaster porn' at its finest

(NEWSER) - Critics agree that world-destroying disaster epic 2012 boasts some stunning special effects, but they're split on whether that makes up for the cheesy script—and the run time of 2 hours, 38 minutes.

• Director Roland Emmerich's previous destruction-fests Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow "are nothing compared to the Vegas buffet of apocalyptic scenarios littering 2012," writes the Chicago Trib's Michael Phillips , who "quite enjoyed the experience, at least the first five or six hours of it."

But Nicolas Cage seems to get it: critics

(NEWSER) - Critics agree: Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is ridiculous. But they're divided over whether the silliness of the sequel, once again starring Nicolas Cage as the devilish superhero, is funny or just bad.

• In the Merced Sun-Star , Roger Moore calls the movie "a profoundly silly mash-up of comic book and quasi-religious 'prophecy' about a motorcyclist who sold his soul to the devil." It beats the original: "This time around, Cage and everybody else on board are in on the joke," and that makes it "almost a great bad movie."

Movie reviews: Rachel McAdams, Channing Tatum can't save amnesia romance

(NEWSER) - In The Vow, Rachel McAdams plays a woman who must learn to love her husband again after amnesia wipes her memory. It's no surprise it was released ahead of Valentine's Day: It's pure mushiness, critics say.

• In the New York Daily News , Elizabeth Weitzman calls the film a "down-the-middle, by-the-numbers fantasy, in which no one is too quirky or interesting or challenging in any way." Still, "there’s no shortage of viewers ready to embrace an old-fashioned, guilty-pleasure romance."

Daniel Radcliffe makes post-Hogwarts debut

(NEWSER) - The boy wizard is back—but this time, he's a 19th-century gentleman. Daniel Radcliffe is generally successful playing a spooked lawyer in The Woman in Black, a throwback haunted house thriller. What the critics are saying:

• The film "makes the most of its old-fashioned virtues," writes Manohla Dargis in the New York Times . It "isn’t especially scary, but it keeps you on edge, and without the usual vivisectionist imagery." For his part, Radcliffe "has the haunted eyes of the eternal mourner."