I have to admit, I mostly struggled to stay awake through this one. There are a few chilling moments but they didn’t happen often enough or with enough intensity to keep the adrenaline rush going. That and the frequent laughter from the audience made it hard to appreciate this as a horror movie. Sadly, the cast doesn’t really do themselves any favors either. Ultimately, I think Shutter commits the cardinal sin of failed horror films: it simply isn’t scary or gory enough to satisfy fans of the genre.

First, CJ7 isn’t just a rip-off of E.T. The setting of the story is entirely unique, and completely antithetical to Spielbergian suburbanality. Second, the character introductions are simply priceless. Third, there’s a light feeling to the tale that’s reminiscent of the innocent comedies produced by David Puttnam back in the 1980s—Michael Apted’s Kipperbang, in particular. Finally, the film reaches boldly for the same messianic strains as E.T.—and succeeds well there on its own terms, without merely going where aliens have gone before.

Snow Angels goes into limited release next week, and will be slowly expanding across the nation over the next couple of weeks. Due to the structure of the film, it’s no spoiler to tell you that the film is a quiet, meditative examination of relationships and situations gone horribly wrong. Glenn “becomes overwhelmed by the love he has for his daughter and the frustration that he has with trying to reconnect with his wife—and the new messages that are coming to him from outside organizations,” says director David Gordon Green. “In Glenn’s head, there’s a happy ending. There’s a religious recognition, there’s a reunited love with his wife in a rock-bottom time after he’s made some really poor, tragic decisions. He says, Hi. That’s his true rebirth.”

Part documentary, part animated recreation, Chicago 10, in significant detail, brings to the screen the demonstrations as well as the trial of the so called “Chicago Seven” who planned to storm the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Director Brett Morgen tries hard to draw, or, more accurately overtly establish, connections between the anti-war movements of the 60s and the anti-war movements of the current generation. It is a look back that implies that people today seem lackluster in their “outrage” over today’s war. What I found most interesting, however, was that the film showed less emphasis against the war than emphasis on themselves, for their own moment in the sun, and for their own skin.

A final post-football game fight, a digital camcorder, and the Internet are all that are needed to demolish Jake Tyler’s fresh start at a new high school next fall in director Jeff Wadlow’s Never Back Down. Instead, it brings him unwanted attention from a group of kids at his new school, led by local mixed martial arts champion Ryan McCarthy. Having seen his video, they want to see Jake fight, whether he wants to or not. All too soon, Jake is faced with having to decide how far he’ll go to protect his friends and family from Ryan who is driven to he is the best at any cost.

Sleepwalking is the directing debut for former special effects wrangler William Maher, and his inexperience shows. It takes a while for the audience to realize whose story it is we are watching. At first we suspect it’s Jolene’s, but then the focus seems to shift to Tara before finally settling on James, played by Nick Stahl. Supporting characters like Harrelson’s Randall seem more like distractions than support, and the ending is about as cheesy as you’ll get. I was intrigued by this film when I first saw the cast listing, but the result only proves that a good film requires more than just talented performers.

Technically, Horton Hears A Who is spectacular eye candy from the sharpest detail of the tiniest dandelion seed to the brilliant assault of the rich and luscious colors of the lands of Nool and Whoville. The animators have remained true to the conceptualization of Dr. Seuss’s characters and there are even a few times where flashbacks look like animated pages right out of his book. The people of Whoville are not stylized and embellished as characters were in The Grinch, and Horton does not destroy the work of a great children’s’ writer as was done with The Cat In The Hat. This team obviously believed that Dr. Seuss did not need to be improved!

You won’t find a plethora of sub-plots or complex twists and turns. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day is what it appears to be, a simple story about people trying to cope with their lives as the shadow of war looms over them. As Miss Pettigrew learns, the trappings of money, fame and power are no guarantee of happiness and love. Indeed, they can often serve as distractions from true happiness. It feels like a 1930s movie, and to his credit director Bharat Nalluri doesn’t try to interject modern sensibilities. The period vibe is critical to telling the story here and all aspects of the film—setting, costumes, cinematography, dialogue, and acting—successfully contribute to that goal.

One of the central themes of College Road Trip is the need that kids have for love and trust, a theme that had “better resonate with every parent,” says Donny Osmond, who plays one of the parents in the film. “I was watching Oprah last night, and Bill Cosby was on. It was such a great episode to wake parents up, because that’s what kids really need from their parents. It was either Bill or the guest host who said, ‘Parents, wake up!’ When you tell your kids that they’re stupid, they’ll believe it. How can they have any respect for themselves when you don’t have any respect for them?”

The Counterfeiters is about surviving and adaptation—interestingly, two elements found in Darwin’s theory of evolution, and two elements that can make for a dastardly way of living. This movie depicts surviving as meaningful only when there is a purposed existence in the end. These men resort to their base animal nature when purpose and dignity are taken from them, and then resort back to civility when they are given dignity and a job. As Braveheart’s William Wallace reminds us, “Every man dies; not every man really lives.” Life is more than existence, and human life is more than the will to survive and adapt. But those are much needed aspects when life has meaning.