We’re back from our whirlwind trip to New York, and diving directly into the working day. And look! Movies are opening!

“Friends with Kids“:  Jennifer Westfeldt, the screenwriter-star of “Kissing Jessica Stein”, switches up her rom-com screenplay from issues of sexuality to issues of biological clocks. Formulaic as hell, and Westfeldt isn’t nearly as appealing a comic presence as she thinks she is, but her script has some good ideas and she gets terrific performances from Adam Scott and Jon Hamm, so there’s that.

“John Carter“: Andrew Stanton, the Pixar MVP who directed “Finding Nemo” and “WALL*E”,  transitions to live-action with this sporadically thrilling Edgar Rice Burroughs adaptation. Not nearly as incomprehensible as the marketing makes it look … but neither is it the revolutionary SF actioner it needs to be.

“Salmon Fishing in the Yemen“:  Hey, look, Lasse Hallstrom made another half-assed middlebrow picture. Look, I love Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt and Kristin Scott Thomas, but this piddling romantic comedy with delusions of geopolitical relevance does none of them any favors.

“Silent House“: Chris Kentis and Laura Lau, the directors of the harrowing “Open Water”, challenge themselves by confining their new production to a single location — and a single take —  with this remake of a 2010 gimmick picture from Uruguay. And while Elizabeth Olsen holds the screen pretty damn well, she can’t fix the script’s huge problems.

“A Thousand Words”: Eddie Murphy is told that, due to a mystical whoopsie, he has only one thousand words left to speak, after which he will expire. Given that the screenwriter is Steve Koren, of “Bruce Almighty” and “Click”, I assume a lesson is in the offing. Glenn’s review should be up later today.

There, that’s everything. Now to dig my parka out of the closet, because apparently this town’s gone Arctic again …