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Here are selected minireviews of films in theaters, listed alphabetically. Ratings range from zero to four stars.
“Arthur and the Invisibles”
ANIMATED ADVENTURE|**|PG|A part-live-action/part-animated adventure tale from director Luc Besson, based on his own children’s book. Freddie Highmore stars as Arthur, who hunts for hidden treasure on his grandparents’ farm and finds the animated mini-kingdom of the Minimoys. But the story’s many disjointedly derivative elements make for a big mini-mess. (Teresa Budasi, Chicago Sun-Times)|94 minutes
“Because I Said So”
ROMANTIC COMEDY|*|PG-13 for sexual content, partial nudity and language|We are so over Diane Keaton. If you’re not yet, you may squeeze a few drops of enjoyment out of the mostly-awful “Because I Said So.” Keaton plays her usual screechy, ditzy, weepy aging woman, here acting as matchmaker for third daughter Milly (Mandy Moore). The film is full of romantic-comedy clichés, and has enough high-decible arguing to make you think your ear drums have just stomped on broken glass. Are women really like this? I’m still hoping not. (Michael Booth)|94 minutes
“Blood Diamond”
MUSCULAR MESSAGE MOVIE|***|R
|This movie about Africa’s illicit and brutal diamond trade is not a perfect gem, but it is an involving Hollywood treatment of a serious topic: the horrors of a civil war financed by “conflict diamonds.” It’s 1999, and Leonardo DiCaprio’s gem-smuggling, arms-dealing character tells Jennifer Connelly’s American journalist at a bar in Sierra Leone, “In America it’s bling-bling. Here it’s bling-bang.” Djimon Hounsou brings moral ballast as a father searching for his son, conscripted by rebel forces. The movie’s most haunting images are those of boys being turned into remorseless, rampaging soldiers. Director Edward Zwick has become heir to “message movie” great Stanley Kramer. DiCaprio and Hounsou’s characters feel like an update of the two in Kramer’s “The Defiant Ones.” Only these men are bound not by chains but by a colonial past. (Lisa Kennedy)|138 minutes
“The Bridge”
DOCUMENTARY|**|NR |Eric Steel’s documentary “The Bridge” was inspired by “Jumpers,” a 2003 article in The New Yorker magazine. Over the course of a year, Steel trained cameras on San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, site of a suicide attempt about every two weeks. Steel delves into mental illness and the mysteries of suicide with searing, sad and contemplative craft. “The Bridge” raises the vexing issues of what it means to witness and what it means to be complicit – or at least a voyeur – in these deaths. Through interviews with friends and family of jumpers, Steel reminds us that no matter how alone some of these people felt, they had people who loved them. It is a tender, powerful work. (Kennedy)|93 minutes
“Casino Royale”
JAMES BOND RETURNS|***|PG-13
|His name is Craig, ahem, Daniel Craig. And as promised, in director Martin Campbell’s movie based on the Ian Fleming novel that introduced the Brit agent, his Bond is a rougher bit of business than all but one of the 007s that came before him. Craig survived the slings and arrows of many a fan to inhabit this role – and dig in he does in this satisfying, globe-trotting story about a high-stakes game of Texas hold ’em played against terror-funding creep Le Chiffre (Mads Mikkelson). Eva Green plays Vesper Lynd, the accountant sent to keep an eye on the Treasury’s sizable stake. A chilly killer, Bond hasn’t a prayer where Vesper’s concerned. But you’d be a dope to imagine a happily-ever-after romp. After a particularly hard go of it, a bartender ask Bond if he wants his martini shaken or stirred. “Do I look like I give a damn?” he says. We don’t care that “Casino Royale” isn’t a brand new cocktail. We care only that it’s a very tasty one. (Kennedy)|125 minutes
“Catch and Release”
DRAMA/COMEDY|* 1/2|PG-13 |It’s a romantic comedy with almost no comedy, and so many long, slow pauses between dramatic developments that neither description seems adequate. Jennifer Garner stars as a woman whose fiancé dies just before their wedding. As she slowly learns more about his past that changes her view of her “perfect” man, she falls for the dead guy’s best friend Fritz (Timothy Olyphant, of “Deadwood.”) The slight comic relief is provided by Kevin Smith and Sam Jaeger as Garner’s best friends. There’s just not much to like here from writer-director Susannah Grant, who has helped pen worthy scripts for “Erin Brockovich” and “In Her Shoes.” Too little plot and too few laughs, in the end. (Booth)|105 minutes
“Charlotte’s Web”
CLASSIC PIG’S TALE|** 1/2|G|You’re not likely to walk out of the live-action version of E.B. White’s classic marveling “Some movie.” Though there are enough moments in director Gary Winick’s G-rated film to keep the kids smiling. Dakota Fanning plays Fern Arable, the farmgirl who saves a runty piglet from the ax. Julia Roberts provides the voice of Charlotte, the computer-generated gray spider who continues the task. But it’s
Dominic Scott Kay as the stuffy-nosed, impossibly dear voice of Wilbur that keeps you smiling. (Kennedy)|84 minutes
“Children of Men”
FUTURIST DRAMA|***|R|When African refugee Kee tells her protector that her pregnancy was a virgin one, Theo (Clive Owen) stops in his tracks. In 2027, it’s enough that Kee is the first pregnant woman in a world gone infertile more than 18 years earlier. This too? Kee may be joking. But “Children of Men” director Alfonso Cuarón is definitely winking. After all, the gifted filmmaker’s stunningly crafted tale of sacrifice, mayhem and miracles suggests there is more than one way to tell a nativity story. Like many a dystopian film (“Fahrenheit 451” comes to mind), “Children of Men” is permeated with sorrow and anger. It’s thoughtful but willfully anti-sentimental. Thank goodness then for Michael Caine’s turn as Jasper, Theo’s dearest friend. Oh his humanity. (Kennedy)|114 minutes
“Dreamgirls”
MUSICAL|***|PG-13|Is it as fabulous as it could have been? Not quite. Still, writer-director Bill Condon’s adaptation of the beloved Broadway hit about the rise and rivalries of an R&B girl group is candy. As Deena Jones, Beyoncé Knowles never finds what roils beneath her character’s crossover facade. (Too bad, given the woman who replaces the original lead of the Dreamettes is based on Diana Ross.) The double-edged complexity of Jamie Foxx’s car salesman-turned-music impresario also goes underexposed. But Jennifer Hudson’s breakout performance as Effie White sends “Dreamgirls” soaring. And Eddie Murphy has fun and gives it, playing a wild soul man. (Kennedy)|125 minutes
“Hannibal Rising”
HORROR|* 1/2|R |The latest in the series of back stories trying to explain how our favorite serial killer, Hannibal Lecter, got to be the amusing cannibal he is. Gaspard Ulliel stars as Hannibal in European medical school, slowly taking revenge against former Nazis for a horrible incident from his youth. There is some style to the gore, but too much silliness and graphic violence to recommend this addition to a tired franchise. (Booth)|105 minutes
“Happy Feet”
MUSICAL TOON|***|PG|It’s the lockstep of the penguins versus the soft- shoe of an outcast in “Happy Feet,” the hard-to-resist animated musical about Mumble, an emperor penguin who can’t carry the mating song, but can tap dance like the amazing Savion Glover. Elijiah Wood provides the voice of adolescent Mumble. Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman play his flustered folks. Director and co-writer George Miller – the man who brought us “Mad Max” but also Babe “the talking pig” – uses this tale of Mumble’s difference and his gift to craft a sweet, if incomplete, lesson about conformity, individuality and community. Robin William outdoes himself giving voice to both Ramon, one of the slang-tossing Adelie Amigos and the “preach it penguin, preach it” Lovelace. (Kennedy)|96 minutes
“The Messengers”
HORROR|* 1/2|PG-13|The Solomon Family (Dylan McDermott, Penelope Ann Miller) moves from the big city to a haunted farmhouse where teen-ager Jess (Kristin Stewart) pouts and toddler Benny (Evan Turner) sees ghosts. |84 minutes
“Night at the Museum”
ACTION COMEDY|***|PG|It may seem a stretch to say a movie about mastodons and dinosaur skeletons marauding through Central Park has a gentle soul, but this film wins points for not going over the top at every chance. Ben Stiller plays a divorced dad who takes a museum security job to keep custody of his son; he soon learns a mummy’s curse brings all the museum exhibitions to life overnight. Dick Van Dyke has mischief up his sleeve, and meanwhile the feuding exhibits are driving Stiller batty. Some restrained lessons about the importance of history, and sticking to a tough job, help mellow the zany proceedings. It’s a good family movie to sit through if those happy penguin feet are driving you batty yourself. (Booth)|104 minutes
“Norbit”
FAT-SUIT COMEDY | 1/2|PG-13 |Read the small print at filmratings.com and you’ll learn that the woefully unfunny “Norbit” was re-edited to gain a PG-13 rating. That move to get a younger set no doubt helped Eddie Murphy’s taste crime about the an unhappily married man, his morbidly obese and just as mean wife, and his childhood love, to such a huge helping of opening weekend grosses. With the help of makeup and prosthetics, Murphy plays Norbit; abusive mate Rasputia; and Mr. Wong, the proprietor of the Golden Wonton Orphanage, where the hapless hero met his first love (Thandie Newton). With jokes that limbo beneath the lowest common denominator, “Norbit” is bad enough to have you rethinking talented Murphy’s Oscar run for “Dreamgirls.”(Kennedy) |102 minutes
“The Painted Veil”
PERIOD ROMANCE|** 1/2|PG-13|”Contempt in the Time of Cholera” could be another title for director John Curran’s adaptation of M. Somerset Maugham’s 1925 novel. When wife Kitty cheats on him, bacteriologist Walter Fane (Edward Norton) takes her from Shanghai to the Chinese outback as an epidemic rages. Suggestive of vintage adventure romances and literature that wasn’t particulary savvy about the lives of ethnic others, “The Painted Veil” has the appeal of a hothouse orchid. It’s lovely to look at. With Naomi Watts and Norton as the simmering couple, it’s well-acted. It is also somewhat precious. A student of Chinese history, Norton hoped to bring that nation into the foreground. But shooting on location and weaving in historical facts hasn’t diluted the material’s colonial odor or pulled the Chinese from the background. It’s just embroidered that background with finer details. (Kennedy)|125 minutes
“The Pursuit of Happyness”
UPLIFT DRAMA|***|PG-13|Will Smith digs deep and mines jagged moments as Chris Gardner, a devoted father whose plunge into homelessness coincides with the opportunity he’s dreamt of: a competitive (non-paying) internship at Dean Witter. Many will cheer Gardner storming the corporate ramparts. But it’s the other places Gardner and his 5-year-old son Chris (Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s son Jaden Christopher Syre Smith in a charming debut) take us – the shelters, the church services, the public spaces made private for economic circumstance – that make this journey so heart-provoking. (Kennedy)|117 minutes
“Smokin’ Aces”
DARK ACTION COMEDY|**|R|Las Vegas performer-turned-snitch Buddy “Aces” Israel (Jeremy Piven) decides to turn state’s evidence against mob boss Primo Sparazza and a host of bounty hunters, ex-cons and thugs-for-hire would like to make sure he doesn’t make it to court. Also stars Ray Liotta, Ben Affleck, Ryan Reynolds, Alicia Keys, Andy Garcia, Jason Bateman and Common. (Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel)|105 minutes
“Venus”
COMEDY/DRAMA|*** 1/2|R|Perhaps he’s not acting quite as much as we believe – recent public appearances show that Peter O’Toole is, indeed, an aging actor. No matter, for his performance in “Venus” is captivating and nearly heroic. Much has been sniggered over the dubious relationship between elderly Maurice and his friend’s young niece (Jodie Whittaker), and their dance of affection and revulsion is fascinating. But even more enlightening is the movie’s touching portrayal of aging male friends, their affection, bickering and accommodation to the approach of death. (Booth)|95 minutes
