Christian Bale

Ridley Scott’s spectacular retelling of the story of Moses, Exodus: Gods and Kings, opens just as Running Press is releasing a lavish new book about the man who single-handedly created the Hollywood Biblical Epic, Cecil B. DeMille.

Three blasts from the past and one wry look at our not-too-distant-future make this a particularly rich grownup movie weekend.

Just wait 'til next week, when Santa drops a sackfull of blockbusters on your local multiplex. In the meantime, the wonderful Inside Llewyn Davis (reviewed last week) moves from just a handful of theaters to a whole bunch of them...and one gritty new family/crime drama showcases some of the year's…

In the course of The Dark Knight Rises, Batman is nearly crippled with arthritis, he's imprisoned, his back is broken, he is betrayed in the most awful of ways, and his nemesis is a monstrous al-Qaeda-class mass murderer.