Delivery Man [2013]

Canadian director Ken Scott remakes his 2011 independent film “Starbuck” for Vince Vaughn fans on date night. Vaughn plays another recovering fuck-up — one who has fathered 533 children through donations to a fertility clinic. It is a cloying, lame effort.

d: Ken Scott | imdb.com | trailer

12 Years a Slave [2013]

Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Solomon Northup, a free black man born in the North and sold into slavery in the South, and he is as painfully brilliant as the beatings he endures. Steve McQueen directs, and he is black, so there is no saccharine — just filmmaking.

d: Steve McQueen | imdb.com | trailer | Charlie Rose
What’d You Say to Pats? | Wesley Morris [Grantland]

The Counselor [2013]

Michael Fassbender plays the title role, Javier Bardem plays in designer clothes, and Cameron Diaz plays them both in this stylized drug thriller. Diaz writhes around on a car, makes confession sexy. She is a predatory animal, too feared to win an Oscar.

d: Ridley Scott | imdb.com | trailer | HBO: First Look
Truth has no temperature. | Rattling your cage