“Night at the Museum”
***RATING
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.|PG| 104 minutes|Released today|Michael Booth
“The Queen”
****RATING
This masterful insight into a remarkable week in pop-culture history should make most short lists for best picture. Helen Mirren brings all her smart charms to the role of Queen Elizabeth II, in the week after the former princess of Wales, Diana, is killed in a Paris car crash. Newly elected prime minister Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) has the unenviable task of teaching the reclusive, out-of-touch royal family how the mourning British public wants to handle the tragedy. There’s plenty of comedy at the royals’ expense, but Stephen Frears makes everyone all too human. Why did we demand such a public beatification of Diana? “The Queen” will have you questioning your own headline habits.|PG-13| 101 minutes|Released today|Michael Booth
“10 Items or Less”
***RATING
Clocking in at less than 90 minutes, Brad Silberling’s “10 Items or Less” is a lovely antidote to the bloated, self- important movies that tend to dominate the season. This is a picture with not all that much to say, but its modesty and good humor make it hard to resist. Morgan Freeman plays a kind of parallel-universe version of himself. His character, who is never named, is a famous actor who hasn’t worked in a while. This actor seems somewhat adrift but not bitter or depressed. He loves to observe human behavior. The obligation to do so is what brings him to a shabby supermarket far from his home in Brentwood, Calif. His next role will involve playing a store manager and he hangs around to do research. And there he meets Scarlet (Paz Vega), who channels her frustration into her work at the express checkout line.|R| 81 minutes|Released today|A.O. Scott, The New York Times
“Dèjá Vu”
*1/2 RATING
Whether you get that nagging sensation that you’ve seen “Dèjá Vu” before, your brain will seriously hurt trying to figure out whether its central gimmick works. (It doesn’t.) There are the obligatory explosions and car chases, even a little tease of nudity, everything you’d expect in a big, mindless action movie. Only “Dèjá Vu” has its mind on far more ambitious, complicated subjects: The possibility of going back in time and saving hundreds of people from dying in the bombing of a New Orleans ferry. Denzel Washington plays Doug Carlin, the no-nonsense Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent investigating the attack. |PG-13| 125 minutes|Released today|Christy Lemire, Associated Press
