Based on Yasmina Khadra’s international bestseller, The Attack is a patient, poetic glimmer of brilliance that serenely glides into the crashing tides of Middle Eastern terrorism. As small as one marriage and as sweeping as two countries relentlessly pitted against each other on the world stage, director Ziad Doueiri, originally from Beirut, Lebanon, maturely forgoes carnage for curiosity, slaughter for suspense, and rage for regret.

Since that fateful day in November 1963, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy has been remembered and regaled, dramatized and, every once in awhile by a real critic, demonized. What all of these biopics, dramas, and parodies share is that they are merely the works of individuals looking back and commenting years later. For the true experience of the President who inspired the world and called us to our highest angels, there is no better film to own than John F. Kennedy: Years of Lightning, Day of Drums. Produced by the United States Information Agency within two years of his death, the film captures an emotional, social, and environmental authenticity of the times that will never be replicated.

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s Rebootman! A mere seven years after the sputtering jalopy misfire that was Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns, Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen) takes the helm for the tonally divergent Man of Steel. Genre fans and geeks the world over regaled when, it seemed mere moments after the Bale Batman franchise ended with The Dark Knight Rises, it was announced that trilogy helmer Chris Nolan would shepherd the new Superman projects. Penned by Batman Begins scribe David S. Goyer, Snyder’s new tale of a Kryptonian son of Earth rising to his potential in a world afraid of him is, while undeniably entertaining, a real departure from the hero that represented America at its best.

Young lovers Jessica (Tessa Ferrer) and Dave (Trevor Morgan) are on a romantic getaway together when they are kidnapped by a mysterious group wearing hazmat suits and gas masks. They are locked in a cell together, occasionally taken away and returned with rows of stitches or puncture marks. At first, it seems they were targeted because of Jessica's father and his military connections, and maybe they will be returned to their families in exchange for a hefty ransom. When other young couples join them in their cell, however, it becomes clear that this is bigger than Jessica or Dave. Are their kidnappers members of a terrorist group, testing out new biological weapons? Is it the government trying to find the cure to a newly discovered disease and using them as guinea pigs? For that matter, are their kidnappers even human?

Kung Fu Panda 3 won't be hitting the big screen until 2015, so to keep interest in the franchise alive, DreamWorks Animation produced a Saturday morning cartoon based on the movies. Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness follows the adventures of Po and the Warriors Five after the events of the first movie. The Scorpion Sting is a DVD collection of seven episodes, some of which introduce a new villain Scorpion to the Kung Fu Panda cast of characters.

The crime epic (at least in film) has been on autopilot for a while now, so it’s hard to say why Ambushed, featuring Randy Couture and Vinnie Jones, is as distressing as it is (maybe because noted talking sandwich Dolph Lundgren easily turns in the strongest performance in the cast). In any case, there’s nothing here that you haven’t seen before (and in the case of most of you seen repeatedly), only done with less flair, less fun and less gravity than usual. It’s hard to imagine too many viewers will be clamoring for an earnest straight-to-video take on Scarface, but just in case, here it is.

Is there a softer target in all of comedy than sports parents? Maybe airline food and the things on the end of shoelaces (what are they? They don’t have a name), but rare is the class of people that inspires such a uniform mixture of resentment, anger, and pity (which usually translates into mockery). They’re probably so easy to mock that, even when it’s funny, Dealin’ With Idiots feels kind of lazy. You’re not likely to dislike Jeff Garlin’s film, but with the talent on board, it should be a whole lot funnier than it is.

So, there’s this History Channel show, right? No, it's not about anything remotely historical. No, there isn’t much in the way of reenactments. Nope, no aliens or Nazis or Nazi aliens. It’s a show featuring Stan Lee and Daniel Browning Smith about people from all over the world who have extraordinary abilities and gifts. Smith, who is one of, if not the most flexible man in the world, travels the globe talking to people who can conduct electricity through their bodies, high-dive into inches of water and other feats of ridiculousness that would otherwise kill mortal men and women.

Early films from the silent era can sometimes seem comical even when they are meant to be dramatic. Whether it be in the exaggerated way the performers emote, the jerky movements onscreen due to different film speed, the excessive use of irises to cut between scenes, and other now-extinct qualities, it is clear when watching any silent-era movie that the art and technology of filmmaking has come a long way in a little over a century. Because of this, it can be easy to forget that there are many ambitious films from the early twentieth century that stand out not only as great films of that era, but of all time.