Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (2013)

The God Boy Wonder returns in “Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters,” a dead-in-the-water sequel to 2010’s “The Lightning Thief.” Directed by a fella named Thor Freudenthal -– how quaint -– “Percy” again strives to be “Harry Potter: The Second Coming.” It is not. That series popped with magic of the fantastic and discovery and love. Fake from the start, “Monsters” makes its cast of interchangeable hunks and babes shout crap like “This is so cool!” as if they were children in a flashy toy ad. Who are they trying to convince? Plot: Percy (Logan Lerman) and his two godly BFFs must find the Golden Fleece -- recalling “Jason and the Argonauts” -– to save their campground school, all against much nonsense about a mysterious Half Prince. (Can Harry Potter sue?) The crushing failure of “Sea”: The entire adult cast of the film one -– Pierce Brosnan and Sean Bean among them -– are gone. Did they smartly ditch? Were they dumped to save money? Poor Stanley Tucci appears, looking as if wondered in from “Hunger Games” by error. Look, if one wishes to rip-off a top-notch franchise, fine. But give it effort. Try. This is just laziness. D-

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)

Katniss Everdeen goes “Godfather III” in “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire”: “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.” That’s the story here: One year after the Appalachian teen (Jennifer Lawrence) and her maybe platonic pal Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) survived an Orwellian government’s “Most Dangerous Game” for Youth, she’s sucked back into the blood sport for Round 2, up against fellow veterans that include Hutcherson back as the Cub Scout kid, and Sam Claflin (that awful fourth “Pirates’ film”) as a swashbuckler stud with a secret. Donald Sutherland as the dictator of this FUBAR USA still sparkles evil winks, knowing he’s the Actor King on set. Even Philip Seymour Hoffman as a new Game Master bows to his greatness. This sequel -– like its own source –- digs darker as Katniss finds herself a hero/pawn in a far-too-real game that has soldiers executing old men in public. Lawrence owns this film. Post “Silver Linings Playbook” Oscar win, she could phone it in. She seems the real deal. Truly. Director Francis Lawrence (“I am Legend”) may not have the heart-breaker moments that scored the first installment, but the final shot pumps the blood for more Games. A-

The Way, Way Back (2013)

I got into “The Way, Way Back” fast. The title refers to those nerdy 1980s station wagons with the reverse seat in the far back that faced traffic, exile from all family interaction as you wondered if the truck in “front” of you crashed into the rear, would you survive? Not likely. Yes, I have mental issues. So does Duncan (Liam James), a 14-year-old stuck on a beach trip with his mother (Toni Collette) and her boyfriend (Steve Carell, against type and damn good), who riddles the boy with abuse. “You’re a three,” this dick chides the boy. Seat position is Duncan’s least worry. Seeking escape from boredom and his mother’s daftness, Duncan peddles a girl’s bike (too easy a joke) around the lazy town and finds himself at a cheapo water park run by a beach bum (Sam Rockwell, air quoting Bill Murray) who reaches out with friendship and a job. Duncan gets to drive. Directors/writers Jim Rash and Nat Faxon (“Descendants”) have crafted a great -– if overly familiar -- film about a kid who wants nothing more than to jump out that back window and run. I was him long ago. A-

Looper (2012)

In “Looper,” director/writer Rian Johnson (“Brick”) takes the worn idea of time travel and renews it, not just with vigor, wit, and head-turning suspense, but strong characters that act in ways never touched on before -– suicide. Well, not exactly suicide as we know it.

Joseph Gordon Levitt (“Inception” and also “Brick”) plays Joe, a hit man who kills mafia castoffs delivered from 30 years in the future where time travel is possible but illegal. Crazy? Don’t mind it. Joe is known as a Looper because, literally, one day he must execute himself, his older late-50s self. Close the loop. Get it?

The scratch in this time trick: Old Joe turns out to be a vengeance-seeking raging pissed-off man-of-action embodied by Bruce Willis in full “Die Hard” mode, ready to hunt and kill a mysterious young boy who decades later will become an evil Keyzor Soze-like crime boss that will ruin Joe’s — both Joes — life. (A day without referencing “The Usual Suspects” is a day wasted.)

This is trippy, shocking story-telling, and Johnson dares play his hand wide open by admitting onscreen that time travel is pure bunk, a mind screw that is best left unraveled, and then he stomps the gas hard for go, non-stop. He also goes “meta” by having Young Joe’s mafia boss (Jeff Daniels) sulk around as the world’s laziest mobster, opting for PJs over clothes, but able to pop off dark and violent when his underlings fail.

Best bits: Daniels as this mob boss denounces Young Joe’s motives as a hit man who has watched too many movies about hit men, and then Johnson goes onto practically film and his cast act out a full-on worship sequence of mafia hit man classic “Goodfellas.” Time is not just twisted here, but the world of movies, inside and out, is tweaked and turned on its head. Also up for debate grabs: The effects of child abuse, loveless parenting, and how we change — and in many ways remain stunted — as we age. Heavy, wonderful stuff all around.

Johnson scores a knockout, too, because his cast, writing, emotion, and the action are all stellar. Levitt -– under makeup -– makes a believable Willis. All the junk on his face is off-putting at first, but Levitt moves beyond it, and the story is so strong, such complaints fall by the way side. I’ll take occasional makeup mishaps any day over a plot-empty, CGI-drunk stinker such as “Battleship.” I thought “Brick” far too clever for its own good, setting a film noir mystery in a high school. It never earned the raves. This does, easily so.

Also, check out Paul Dano of “There Will be Blood,” playing a fellow hit man who meets a horrifying fate right out of the nastiest episode of “Twilight Zone” ever imagined, but never filmed. More so than even Levitt, Dano is an actor we’ll be talking about decades from now as the best of his generation, his and our time. A-

Attack the Block (2011)

“Attack the Block” is a short (88 minutes) B-grade flick shot with digital cameras, sporting no stars, and smelling of a 1970s–era sci-fi action piece that aired way late on crap cable channels when I was a child. I mean that as a compliment. It is what it is, silly, mildly scary fun. The Attackers are aliens that resemble wild wolves with glowing teeth. The Block is a massive cylinder monolith of low-income housing flats in South London. The heroes are young punks known as Hoodies, derived from their sweatshirt attire. The opening scene has the thugs (led by John Boyega as the aptly named Moses) robbing a young nurse (Jodie Whittaker) on the street. The crime is interrupted by a fetus-looking alien smashing into a car, and it’s off nonstop to the end credits. Joe Cornich is the writer and director, and like Quentin Tarantino before him, he uses every cliché of the genre he works in to new affect, including the myriad ways characters flee one another, only to end up together. It’s no “Reservoir Dogs,” but it is a great way to end an all-night movie marathon. Boyega is a star-to-be. B+