Movie Reviews: Nick Cage as Animated Caveman

Editor's Note: All reviews and information aggregated from Moviefone and RottenTomatoes.

Want to catch a movie this weekend? Here's Patch's roundup of movies playing at the AMC Showplace Inver Grove 16.

New this weekend:

The Croods

One sentence plot: The Croods tells the story of the world's first family road trip: When their cave is destroyed, the Crood family must embark on a comedy adventure into strange and spectacular territory in search of a new home.

Rotten Tomatoes viewer score: 95

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 79

Reviews:

"Despite a few too many mother-in-law jokes, "The Croods" nicely makes it clear that even before they had fire, families understood how important it was to cherish and protect each other." Chicago Sun-Times Full Review

"'The Croods' is both brisk and beautiful, and should be sufficiently entertaining for family audiences for whom few such options exist these days." The Associated Press Full Review

"The familiarity of the characters and their dynamics do make the movie feel comfy. You'll probably go into the prehistoric animated comedy thinking you know what it's going to be, and you'll be right." The Pioneer Press Full Review

Admission

One sentence plot: Tina Fey (30 Rock) and Paul Rudd (This is 40) are paired for the first time on-screen in Admission, the new comedy/drama directed by Academy Award nominee Paul Weitz (About a Boy, In Good Company), about the surprising detours we encounter on the road to happiness.

Rotten Tomatoes viewer score: 96

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 36

Reviews:

"'Admission' has some sublime moments, most of them involving Fey and Rudd dancing around their inevitable romance. The problem is in the foundation." Chicago Sun-Times Full Review

"What should be a hilarious, long-overdue pairing of two hugely likable, superstar comedians ends up being a major disappointment with 'Admission.'" Associated Press Full Review

Other movies in theaters:

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone

One sentence plot: Superstar magicians Burt Wonderstone (Steve Carell) and Anton Marvelton (Steve Buscemi) have ruled the Las Vegas strip for years, raking in millions with illusions as big as Burt's growing ego. But lately the duo's greatest deception is their public friendship, while secretly they've grown to loathe each other.

Rotten Tomatoes viewer score: 98

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 41

Reviews:

"You watch it thinking that it should be smarter and funnier, but you have a pretty good time anyway." Seattle Times Full Review

"Is this really what the audience wants? A deliriously unhinged setup and larger-than-life characters, abruptly devolving into a mind-numbingly familiar story with a totalitarian happy ending?" Salon.com Full Review

"Welcome back, Hilarious Jim Carrey. We've missed you." Chicago Sun-Times Full Review

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Oz the Great and Powerful

One sentence plot: When Oscar Diggs (James Franco), a small-time circus magician with dubious ethics, is hurled away from dusty Kansas to the vibrant Land of Oz, he thinks he's hit the jackpot-fame and fortune are his for the taking-that is until he meets three witches, Theodora (Mila Kunis), Evanora (Rachel Weisz) and Glinda (Michelle Williams), who are not convinced he is the great wizard everyone's been expecting.

Rotten Tomatoes viewer score: 99

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 58

Reviews:

"Oz the Great and Powerful" isn't a masterpiece for the ages, but an agreeable family film that pleasantly reminds us of something greater - of a land that we heard of, once in a lullaby." Seattle Times Full Review

"The 3-D effects are plentiful - hats, lions, and baboons jump off the screen and into your lap - but the characters rarely lodge in the moviegoer's heart." Time Magazine Full Review 

"Though Oz has some of the same narrative issues and effects-heavy bloat as that highly personal fantasy film, every frame is infused with a deep-rooted, impassioned understanding of the cinema's magical power to captivate and inspire." Time Out New York Full Review

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Jack the Giant Slayer

One sentence plot: 'Jack the Giant Slayer' tells the story of an ancient war that is reignited when a young farmhand unwittingly opens a gateway between our world and a fearsome race of giants.

Rotten Tomatoes viewer score: 95

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 62

Reviews:

"It's stuck in a big-budget-movie middle ground - not quite thrilling enough to be an action movie, not quite funny enough for a comedy - and, once you've pondered the impressive size of the beanstalk, there's not much else there." Seattle Times Full Review

"The action is a little too intense for very young children. But for everyone else, including cynical grown-up critics who didn't think they'd ever give a Fee, a Fi, a Fo or a Fum about this movie, it's a terrific adventure." Chicago Sun-Times Full Review

"By the time the giants have descended the beanstalk and laid siege to the king's castle, and the boiling oil comes out with the flaming arrows and the flying flaming trees, it's like: Enough already." Chicago Tribune Full Review

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Snitch

One sentence plot: In the fast-paced action thriller 'Snitch', Dwayne Johnson stars as a father whose teenage son is wrongly accused of a drug distribution crime and is looking at a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 10 years.

Rotten Tomatoes viewer score: 96

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 67

Reviews:

"'Snitch' is more of a dramatic thriller than an action movie, and director Ric Roman Waugh fills it with close-ups, dark interiors and tense faces." Seattle Times Full Review

"This movie executes two missions: A) to entertain us; and B) to put some big exclamation points on a couple of messages about certain drug laws in this country in need of a thorough re-examination." Chicago Sun-Times Full Review

"Unusual for this sort of thing, Snitch is a film for which you remember the characters and actors more than the big action moments." Hollywood Reporter Full Review

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Silver Linings Playbook

One sentence plot: Pat Solitano (Bradley Cooper) has lost everything—his house, his job, and his wife—and now finds himself living back with his mother (Jacki Weaver) and father (Robert DeNiro) after spending eight months in a state institution on a plea bargain.
Moviefone viewer score: 82
Moviefone critic score: 81
Reviews:
"Thankfully, this fractured fairy tale of mental illness, family drama, ragged romance and die-hard Philadelphia Eagles fandom has landed in the superbly capable hands of David O. Russell." Washington Post Full Review

"Silver Linings is consistently entertaining, with its scrappy, well-drawn characters, offbeat humor and indefatigable positive outlook." USA Today Full Review

"Everything comes together brilliantly in Silver Linings Playbook - for the film's crazed but uncrazy lovers; for the filmmaker, David O. Russell, and best of all for lucky us." Wall Street Journal Full Review

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Identity Thief

One sentence plot: Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy lead the cast of 'Identity Thief', an all-star comedy in which a regular guy is forced to extreme measures to clear his name.

Rotten Tomatoes viewer score: 97

Rotten Tomatoes critic score: 29

Reviews:

"The only thing Identity Thief steals is your time and your expectation of inventive comedy. The concept may be high, but the yield (in terms of laughs) is depressingly low." Huffington Post. Full review

"Gordon is lost, and his style of shooting - telescopic close-ups, which never give us enough space to appreciate the performers - feels wrong for comedy." Chicago Tribune. Full Review

"Of the many qualities I adore about Melissa McCarthy as a comedian and as a dramatic actor, the best is how fully she gives herself to every character she plays." Entertainment Weekly. Full Review

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Zero Dark Thirty

One sentence plot: The filmmaking duo behind The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal) takes on the hunt for -- and the killing of -- Osama bin Laden in this Annapurna Pictures production that tracks SEAL Team Six, the special-ops team who eventually brought down the terrorist leader.

Moviefone viewer score: 63
Moviefone critic score: 95

Reviews:
“Telling a nearly three-hour story with an ending everyone knows, Bigelow and Boal have managed to craft one of the most intense and intellectually challenging films of the year.” The Guardian Full Review.

“Like the fictional Clarice Starling in ‘The Silence of the Lambs,’ Maya is a consummate professional who brilliantly performs her job in an often hostile work environment.” New York Post Full Review.

“A monumental achievement that documents a coordinated and complicated response to a monumental tragedy.” Philadelphia Enquirer Full Review.

Do you plan on seeing any of these movies? Have you seen them already? Leave a review of the films with a comment below.