The Big Year: Three avid birders (Jack Black, Steve Martin, Owen Wilson) compete to identify the most individual bird species in North America over the course of a calendar year. The film lacks edge but has many satisfying comic moments.
The Thing: In this prequel to the 1982 film, a paleontologist (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) discovers an alien on a ship in the Antarctic. The subtext of mass paranoia gets little attention here, in favor of enjoyable creature-feature scares.
