Horror
Rod Lott
I swear, the luck o' the Irish: While moving from her condemned apartment building, a young, pretty and very pregnant woman (Amy Shiels, Veronica Guerin) is brutally attacked by three youths in hoodies while her husband, Tommy (Aneurin Barnard, Ironclad), watches helplessly from the elevator in which he's stuck.

Thriller
Rod Lott
At least All Superheroes Must Die isn't like every other comic book-inspired cinematic vision that currently serve as the buttered bread to Hollywood's rumbling stomach. That alone is not enough to make for a good movie, but it's a head start.

Comedy
Rod Lott
Nature Calls finds writer/director Todd Rohal attempting to shoehorn the wonderfully, outlandishly absurd humor of his previous film, 2011's The Catechism Cataclysm, into a vehicle more mainstream. While it doesn't generate ill will, it does not work, try though the cast might.

Thriller
Rod Lott
I'm a sucker for a good cop movie, and End of Watch is a great one. Had I seen it before its home-video release, it would have made my 2012 year-end list.

Thriller
Rod Lott
Pick a revenge movie. Any revenge movie.

Comedy
Rod Lott
Why Stop Now is a comedy that tries too hard to be a comedy. C’mon, you know the kind: Although grounded in reality, the film presents characters so quirky, they may as well come with signs around their neck to signal their stock roles, i.e. “Precocious Sibling” and “Black Sidekick.” Incidentally, this one fronts both of those examples.

Horror
Rod Lott
Brian Keene is a reliable horror author whose early-aughts novels The Rising and City of the Dead helped usher the current zombie resurgence across all media. As such, the man deserves a good adaptation of his work.

Horror
Rod Lott
One need not have seen 2006’s The Hamiltons before seeing its new sequel, The Thompsons. Heck, one need not even have heard of it, as I suspect many haven't.

Horror
Rod Lott
Certainly I’m not the only one who confused The Possession and The Apparition when they played theaters late this summer. After all, the two horror films not only had soundalike titles and shared similar premises, but opened within seven days of one another.

Thriller
Rod Lott
From 1971, Wake in Fright is a lost film recently and literally rescued from near-oblivion. While I can’t say I was familiar with it before its Drafthouse Films re-release, I’m glad it was saved. To have lost a work this good would have been a blow.

Sci-Fi
Rod Lott
At least at press time, Hansel & Gretel: Warriors of Witchcraft is the latest shameless coattails rider of the big-budget Jeremy Renner vehicle Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, which hits theaters next weekend. By contrast, this DVD premiere stars someone named Booboo Stewart, and that alone should tell you everything.

Comedy
Rod Lott
Bolo
8 p.m. Saturday
City Arts Center
3000 General Pershing
cityartscenter.org
951-0000
$5

Action
Rod Lott
Here's the first great Blu-ray surprise of 2013: Tai Chi Zero, a Hong Kong martial-arts spectacle that's inventive and invigorating.

Comedy
Rod Lott
If there's one thing I love more than a good Sherlock Holmes movie, it's a vintage Alan Arkin performance, and 1976's The Seven-Per-Cent Solution provides both. Widely acclaimed upon its release, the film has become somewhat forgotten — here's hoping Shout! Factory's Blu-ray/DVD combo release will help reverse that.

Comedy
Rod Lott
I'm drafting a new Movie Rule: If a seemingly innocuous word in a title turns out to double as a character's name, whether used ironically or not, then buyer (or renter) beware. Case in point: The Trouble with Bliss and its questionably named protagonist of Morris Bliss.