“Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol”

★★★ 1⁄2 (out of four)

It’s an unapologetic, incredibly effective old-school thrill ride that puts lively twists on familiar genre conventions: the opening prison break, involving the constant opening and closing of doors and gates, is staged with the madcap comic rhythms of Charlie Chaplin and Jackie Chan; a second-act chase through the streets of Dubai turns into a game of cat and mouse as a sandstorm sweeps through the area; the climactic fight sequence satirizes the absurdity of climactic fight sequences, while at the same time indulging in that same ridiculousness to full, cheesy effect.

“THE DESCENDANTS”

★★★

The film’s premise is intriguing, and rife with potential to explore moral complexities. George Clooney stars as Matt King, a workaholic attorney and father of two girls, whose wife is injured in a boat race and rendered comatose. As Mike, a self-professed “backup parent,” is faced with the prospect of caring for his daughters alone, he is further disturbed by the revelation that his wife had been carrying on an affair in the months before her accident. Burdened by this knowledge, he sets out along with his oldest daughter (Shailene Woodley) and her stoner boyfriend (Nick Krause) to find and confront the man who was sleeping with his wife. In the midst of all this drama is a subplot involving Matt’s control over a pending land sale (he’s a direct descendant of King Kamehameha, and holds sway over the family trust that includes 25,000 acres of pristine Hawaiian land), and its troubling connections to the central conflict.

“HUGO”

★★★★

This is about as old-fashioned as old-fashioned family films get, telling the relatively simple story of a young boy in 1930s Paris struggling to find his natural place in the world around him — not quite what you would expect from the man who gave us the pen scene in “Casino.” But armed with a mastery of filmmaking technique and a keen sense of character development, Scorsese proves once and for all that he truly is capable of anything. “Hugo” shows us a different side of the filmmaker — a charming, whimsical, thoroughly magically side that permeates through the entire picture and makes “Hugo” the one film from his repertoire that is guaranteed to leave you with the warm fuzzies.

“THE MUPPETS”

★★★ 1⁄2

“The Muppets” marks the troupe’s first big-screen outing in 12 years (following the ill-conceived “Muppets from Space”), and takes a refreshingly postmodern look at the franchise, tackling head-on the perceived irrelevance of the Muppets in contemporary society. As the movie opens we are introduced to Walter, a puppet “born” to human parents in the late ’70s, when Muppet fever was sweeping the nation. Water and his human brother, Gary (Jason Segel, who also co-wrote the screenplay), are somewhat isolated in their ’50-inspired Smalltown, USA existence, and remain diehard Muppet fans through the decades even as the rest of the country forgets about them.