Contraband

• Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady A three-way horse race among the weekends new entries, along with several expansions for Golden Globes-nominated fare, should help keep overall domestic B.O. totals solid over the long Martin Luther King Jr.
(Variety)
• Like lost dogs, the most popular DVD rentals are often movies that were heartlessly neglected by theatergoing audiences.
(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
• The absurdity of the story in the largely thrill-free thriller "Contraband," its hairpin twists and outrageous coincidences, may keep even hungry action fans away. That's too bad because the story doesn't matter. (It rarely does.
(New York Times)
• Now that the holidays are over, welcome to the January dead zone. By now, most everyone has seen Tom Cruise in full Spider-Man mode; seen, too, that tattooed dragon girl and those — shudder — chipmunks. Now comes filler time.
(Seattle Times)
• Contraband, Joyful Noise and the 3D re-release of Beauty and the Beast will compete with holdovers including Mission: Impossible--Ghost Protocol and The Devil Inside. Hoping for a boost from the four-day Martin Luther King Jr.
(Hollywood Reporter)
• This week Jerrod Kingery and Kiko The CineSnob Martinez review Contraband, Joyful Noise, The Iron Lady, Carnage, and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Click here to read this story on www.woai.
(msnbc.com)
• LOS ANGELES - Warner Bros. musical comedy Joyful Noise, starring Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton, should come out singing this Martin Luther King holiday weekend, with a likely debut pushing $20 million by Monday night.
(Minneapolis Star Tribune)
• Trailer: A former smuggler is drawn back for one last job (1:49). Film Info: With Mark Wahlberg, Kate Beckinsale, Giovanni Ribisi. Director: Baltasar Kormakur. R: Violence, language. At area theaters.
(New York Daily News)
• The Bigger Picture: If you love it when a plan comes together, youll likely get a kick out of the way the plot here coalesces.
(Entertainment Online)