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Four whimsically named orphan boys born in December—Maps (Daniel Radcliffe), Misty, Spit and Spark—are sent on holiday to the beach, where they meet a family who just happens to be looking to adopt. Based on Michael Noonan's novel, the movie finds Maps cozying up with a local blonde (Teresa Palmer) and Misty competing to be the chosen one for the parents-to-be.

Big question: Can Radcliffe deliver in his first non-Potter starring role on screen?

Skip it: With magic horses, fish and nuns, "December Boys" aims for too many fantastical elements when it would be better off fleshing out Spit and Spark, who barely register in a group in which all the characters claim to be best friends. That hurts the notion of these pals serving as their own surrogate family, though some emotional weight comes from the universal human need to belong and be loved.

Catch it: For Misty's hallucination of nuns doing cartwheels, which is, we can only assume, the first time you have seen women of the cloth twirling through the air.

Bottom line: A tween version of "Superbad" this certainly isn't, with a significant stench of familiarity covering rites of passage like peeing together and clamoring to see naked girls. Radcliffe proves he's much more than a boy wizard, but sentimental voiceover from a grown-up Misty fails to convince that this was really a summer to remember.

Bonus: Learn to be on the defensive when harassed by people like Shellback the Fisherman (Ralph Cotterill), who tells the boys that Henry, "king of the fishes" is "bigger and smarter than you will ever be." He may be bigger, but we'll challenge him to an intense round of Boggle any time, any place or body of water!

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