Hugo (2011)

Leave it to Martin Scorsese to not just set a new high bar for children’s films, but all 3D movies. “Hugo” is a – superlative! -- masterpiece, a tale of an orphan boy (Asa Butterfield) in love with machines, cinema and stories, living in a Parisian train station as a clock master. Thid 3D gem glows with a boundless joy of movies and books beloved by Scorsese, making his best film in years, and his brightest, most wide-eyed adventure in ... forever. Hugo – this will upset Fox viewers – is poor, and steals food and drink to survive. (Call Newt!) That thievery puts him at odds with a short-fused toy shop owner named Georges Melies, who you well know if you know cinema. The plot kicks into glorious gear when Georges (Ben Kingsley) confiscates a notepad from Hugo, not knowing it once belonged to the boy’s dead father (Jude Law). I will say nothing more of the plot, watch and enjoy. Everything in “Hugo” – from the scenery and special effects to the actors and words -- is for proudly childish dreamers of all ages, all the ones who ever held a film camera or took pen to paper and thought, “What world can I create today?” Amazing from start to finish. A

From Paris with Love (2010)

At one point in “From Paris with Love,” John Travolta’s mad-dog CIA super assassin orders food from McDonalds, and he drops the three words that returned the actor to fame 16 long years ago. “Royale with cheese!” But this isn’t Tarantino. It’s Luc Besson, still floundering after a mid-1990s string of hip hits, on screenplay, and Pierre Morel in the director’s chair. These guys made “Taken,” with Liam Neeson as a mad-dog CIA hit man out for blood. Travolta’s Charlie Wax also is out for blood, but I can’t recall why. Drug runners. Assassins. Bad Chinese food. An uptight U.S. Embassy assistant (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) who yearns to be a famous CIA hit man. Whatever. As with “Taken,” we have a ridiculously high body count; proud and bloody anti-woman plot points; and a stink eye for anyone not, umm, European. A perfect entertainment for right-wing fanatics. “Pulp Fiction”? Non, monsieur. C-