Film Clips: This weekend’s movie openings December 22 2010

• 20th Century Fox
• “YOU LOOKED BIGGER IN ‘FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL:” Peter Segal and Jack Black in ‘Gulliver’s Travels’

OPENING WEDNESDAY
LITTLE FOCKERS HHH (PG-13) In the second sequel to Meet the Parents, Ben Stiller’s Gaylord Focker again clashes with his bullying father-in-law (Robert De Niro). Director Paul Weitz adds his own indie spin to the story. Weitz cleverly tempers the time between the series’ signature gags with intimate close-ups. The result is a perfect marriage of warmth and humor that sends a clear message about the complexities of family. — Edward Adams
TRUE GRIT HHH (PG-13) In this remake of John Wayne’s Oscar-winning Western, Haillee Steinfeld plays Mattie Ross, a 14 year-old girl out for revenge when a ranch hand (James Brolin) guns down her father. Ross enlists a boozy, one-eyed U.S. marshall (Jeff Bridges) to track the no-good varmint, and tolerates a preening Texas Ranger (Matt Damon) on the trail, leading to snappy repartee and suspenseful shoot-outs. The Coen Brothers’ remake improves on the original, particularly in its portrait of the harshness and cruelty of the frontier, but “new Grit” doesn’t achieve the greatness of the Coen’s modern classics. — Curt Holman

OPENING SATURDAY
GULLIVER’S TRAVELS (PG) Jack Black plays a mail room flunky who wins a travel-writing assignment to the Bermuda Triangle and discovers the tiny kingdom of Lilliput. Don’t expect many similarities to Jonathan Swift’s iconic satirical novel.
THE KING’S SPEECH HHHH (R ) Colin Firth should rehearse his King’s Best Actor Oscar acceptance speech for this light-hearted docudrama about the Duke of York’s struggles with his speech impediment on the eve of World War II. The film doesn’t touch on as many contemporary themes as such other Royal dramedies as The Queen or The Madness of King George, but offers an entertaining account of one man’s self-actualization, with Firth and Geoffrey Rush (as the king-to-be’s unconventional speech therapist) volleying the elegant dialogue back and forth like old pros. — Holman
RABBIT HOLE HHH (PG-13) Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart play mourning parents trying to move on with their lives eight months after their young son’s tragic death. Playwright David Lindsey-Abaire effectively opens up his Pulitzer Prize-winning play with awkwardly humorous scenes at a support group, while Miles Teller gives a particularly impressive, unselfconscious performance as a sensitive teenager. It’s not the tearjerker you might expect, but still offers a moving portrait of the grieving process. — Holman

DULY NOTED
THE ROOM (2003) 1 star (R ) This hilariously incompetent, sub-Skinemax-level romantic triangle has become a wildly entertaining monthly viewing party, a la The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Writer-director-star Tommy Wiseau strikes a freaky presence as a long-haired, heavy-lidded, thick-accented bank employee cuckolded by his vicious fiancée (Juliette Danielle). The film’s bizarre touches, like framed photographs of spoons, inspire audiences to throw plastic spoons at the screen, and more. Not to be missed. Tue., Dec. 28, 9:30 p.m. $8. Plaza Theatre, 1049 Ponce de Leon Ave. 404-873-1939. www.plazaatlanta.com.