Previous movies about the country's recent economic recession, such as “Up in the Air” and the documentary “Inside Job,” have championed the regular folks who got shafted and heaped due scorn on the corporate moguls who benefited nonetheless. “The Company Men” asks us to feel some sympathy for the guys on top — the executives who've luxuriated in Porsches and private jets and $500 lunches, and are suffering the pain of having all those goodies taken away. It's a tough request from John Wells, the man behind “ER” and “The West Wing,” here making his feature writing and directing debut. The strength of the all-star cast — Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper, Tommy Lee Jones and Kevin Costner — makes “The Company Men” vaguely engaging, but even watching these veterans and heavyweights banter and bounce off each other can't convince us that the characters themselves are compelling. It's not that being privileged makes them boring; being two-dimensional does. Despite the massive life changes thrust upon the film's central figures, their arcs still feel predictable. “The Company Men” focuses on three men, specifically, hit by downsizing at a Boston-area manufacturing conglomerate. R for language and brief nudity. 113 minutes.

GRADE: * * ½ (out of 5).

Christy Lemire, The Associated Press

Mark Wahlberg produces and stars, David O. Russell directs, but supporting player Christian Bale owns this real-life tale about boxer Micky Ward, who rose from his blue-collar roots and overcame ugly family squabbles to earn a title shot in his mid-30s. Bales dominates the action, much as Heath Ledger's Joker took over “The Dark Knight” from its hero, Bale's Batman. The film itself is a strange stew, a raw, genuine portrait of working-class stiffs one moment, a shrill-bordering-on-caricatured comedy of family discord and vulgar people the next. Wahlberg as Ward, Melissa Leo as his mother and Amy Adams as his girlfriend are excellent. Yet Bale is truly extraordinary as Ward's older half-brother, Dicky Eklund, a flamboyant but self-destructive former boxer who trains his sibling to climb to heights he never reached himself as his life unraveled amid crack addiction. Gaunt, wiry, always moving, always talking, Bale casts aside the stoicism of so many of his roles and becomes a lovable wreck. As with Ledger's Joker, it's the stuff that Academy Awards wins are made of. R for language throughout, drug content, some violence and sexuality. Running time: 116 minutes.<B>GRADE: * * * (out of 5).</B><B><I>David Germain,The Associated Press</I></B>

A pedigreed cast, led by the formidable Helen Mirren and including David Strathairn, Chris Cooper, Djimon Hounsou and Alfred Molina, cannot save this misguided mess. It's just too weird. And it's a waste of one of Shakespeare's richest comedies, the play that's considered his last. You want to admire director Julie Taymor for taking such risks, for trying to do something different with a classic work. And in the wildly visual style that's become her trademark through stage productions like “The Lion King” and films like “Frida,” “Across the Universe” and a previous Shakespeare adaptation, “Titus,” she upends and reinvents the play on many levels. The sorcerer Prospero is now Prospera, whom Mirren plays with a growl and a refreshing lack of vanity; at 65, she goes makeup-free, an exciting display of her natural beauty. But while Mirren is always more than reliable — and she clearly knows her way around Shakespeare — the gender-bending of the lead role feels like a gimmick and provides no greater meaning to the text. Here, Prospera uses her mystical powers to force her enemies to shipwreck on the island where she's been in exile for years with her daughter, Miranda (Felicity Jones). Too often the visual effects look like something that would have seemed high-tech during the early days of MTV. PG-13 for some nudity, suggestive content and scary images. 110 minutes.<B>GRADE: * * ½</B>(out of 5).<B><I>Christy Lemire,The Associated Press</I></B>