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Here are selected minireviews of films in theaters, listed alphabetically.
Some reviews originate at other newspapers that do not award star ratings.
“Baby Mama”
Baby comedy. **1/2. PG-13. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler amuse as Kate and Angie, a successfully “green” businesswoman and the urban hick she hires to carry her baby to term. Playing it straight, Sigourney Weaver is a hoot in writer-director Michael McCullers’ gentle, laugh-inducing movie as the head of a surrogacy agency in Philadelphia. Steve Martin should have taken note. Instead, he cures then smokes his role as Barry, Round Earth Organic Market founder and Kate’s boss. McCullers delivers a comedy in which class confusion get teased, not lambasted. “Baby Mama” makes fun of the methods, not the emotions, behind its characters’ desires. The appealing Fey and nutty Poehler (as well as nice-guy support from Greg Kinnear and Romany Malco) make sure “Baby Mama” dramas come with goofy comedy. (Kennedy) 99 minutes
“Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian”
Fantasy. ***1/2 PG. When the Pevensie children return to Narnia in director-cowriter Andrew Adamson’s second installment in C.S. Lewis’ series, it is 1300 years later and the enchanted realm is not as it was. The once animated trees have retreated deep into their barks. Many of the animals no longer talk. Those that do live in fear of the Telmarines and await the return of Aslan. And a young heir is on the run, chased by his uncle and his soldiers. Ben Barnes makes a good-looking if unformed Caspian. But it’s the quartet who play the four siblings — Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy — who earn audience allegiance. Beneath layers of make-up “Station Agent” star Peter Dinklage is winning as the the cantakerous Trumpkin. (Kennedy) 140 minutes
“The Edge of Heaven”
Drama. ****. Not Rated, intended for mature audiences. There is an old man named Ali in Bremen, Germany. He is from Turkey. One day he goes to visit a prostitute. This is a middle-age Turkish woman named Yeter. Yeter is heard speaking by a group of Turkish men, who assume she is Muslim, and tell her they will kill her unless she quits the business. Ali makes her an offer: He will pay her to move in with him on a permanent basis. She accepts. But Ali gets drunk, he hits her, she falls, she’s dead, he’s in prison. The director gives us three parents, a son and two daughters, all of whose lives are governed by the fact that some are Turks, some German. (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times) 122 minutes
“The Fall”
Fantasy/Drama. ***. R. A visual feast so rich it almost lets us forget that it’s served on the paper-plate thin plot of a fable, a tale told by a movie stuntman to the broken-armed child who shares his “accident” (she fell too) in a 1920s Los Angeles hospital. Alexandria is an immigrant child who tumbled while helping her family pick fruit. Roy is the handsome, friendly movie stuntman who takes an interest in her, or at least her mobility. He begins to tell her a story and when she complains that “I don’t like pirates,” he edits it. Every day, he spins more of the yarn, pulling Alexandria into a world of heroes. (Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel) 115 minutes
“The Foot Fist Way”
Comedy. ** 1/2. R. “The Foot Fist Way” suggests that everything we’ve always feared about strip-mall martial-arts teachers is true. Devoted but rotten TKD instructor Fred Simmons, may be an idiot but is usually good at what he does. This joker can neither fight very well nor live up to the philosophy he preaches. It follows a pretty predictable pattern, though, and that ultimately blunts its hilarity. Regardless, it’s probably destined to become as popular among guys who live in their parents’ basements. (Bob Strauss, Los Angeles Daily News) 87 minutes
“Get Smart”
TV redux. ** 1/2. PG-13. This return to the late ’60s spy-versus-spy series created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry isn’t perfect. But having Steve Carell in the role of Maxwell Smart, newbie CONTROL agent 86, makes it pleasing. Sometimes it’s downright touching. The sensibly handsome comedian plays an ace analyst but bumbling agent to Anne Hathaway’s kick-hiney Agent 99. Carell generously shares the screen with others. They include: Dwayne Johnson as Agent 23, Alan Arkin as The Chief. As gadget engineers, Masi Oka and Nate Torrence prove an affably geeky counterpoint to two agency bullies. Playing for team KAOS: Terence Stamp and Ken Davitian as Siegfried and Shtarker. There’s always been a teasing confusion to the title. Does it mean “nab that agent!” Or “Learn!”? Carell does a nimble job of keeping that tension alive. And Hathaway proves her mettle when she along with Carell deliver a moment that upends the busy pace of the action-comedy for the better. Writers Tom J. Astle and Matt Ember aren’t always in control of the brew of comedy and contemporary anxieties about terrorism. Still, by movie’s end, we can imagine spending some more time with Agents 86 and 99, and liking it. (Kennedy) 111 minutes
“Hancock”
Superhero action. ***1/2. PG-13. Played with finesse by Will Smith, damaged superhero Hancock shows scant signs of shaking off his bitter moods. The unkempt L.A. denizen is sleeping it off on a bench when a major freeway shootout transpires. Signs of Hancock’s disenchantment range from alcohol abuse to rank personal hygiene to sorry interpersonal skills with regular folk. His don’t-give-a-damn rejoinders tip the movie’s PG-13 rating toward R. A typically clumsy intervention by the super-gifted bum leads to an intervention of a different sort, and sends this action-FX ride in surprisingly humane directions. (Kennedy) 92 minutes
“The Happening”
Enviro-horror. ***. R. M. Night Shyamalan makes movies for scaredy-cats. Sentimentality, so suspect to many horror fans, permeates his films. “The Happening” is no exception but one of his more satisfying efforts. Mark Wahlberg and wide-eyed Zooey Deschanel star as Philly marrieds Elliot and Alma Moore. Like other pairs in a growing number of thrillers as couples therapy, they face the shadow of a marital crisis when something greater overtakes them. A neurotoxin hits New York City. It’s headed along the Eastern seaboard. Initially the “event” is pinned to terrorism. Like Shyamalan’s “The Village,” the tale grapples with 9/11 anxieties. Flawed (even silly at times) but also engaging, this enviro-thriller reminds us that there is always something at stake in Shyamalan’s films: humanism and connection. John Leguizamo and Ashlyn Sanchez are father and daughter separated by the disaster. Betty Buckley makes a nicely unhinged appearance as a woman cut off from society. (Kennedy) 99 minutes
“How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer”
X-chromosome drama. ***. R. The ladies in Georgina Garcia Riedel’s lovingly observed debut are hardly girls. They’re three generations of Garcia women. America Ferrera of “Ugly Betty” portrays Blanca, poised at a sexual tipping point. Lucy Gallardo’s is poignant and fiesty as Matriarch Doña Genoveva. Elizabeth Peña does tender work with the task of Lolita, the killjoy of the family. Gallardo and Jorge Cervera as Don Pedro have sweet chemistry as two oldsters discovering desire like teens. They’re so much wiser about taking their time, but hanker and fret just the same. And Riedel takes her time, too. There’s a lived and leisurely elegance in the pacing. Riedel and cinematographer Tobias Datum enjoy eyeing the town (Somerton, Ariz.) with its wrought-iron fences, its languid dogs, its cruising, rumbling pickup trucks. (Kennedy) 128 minutes
“I’m Through With White Girls”
Post-race romance. **. R. Jay is a poseur in the way only a 20-something can be. Except, sigh, he’s 30. In the hipster romantic comedy “I’m Through With White Girls (The Inevitable Undoing of Jay Brooks),” the women of the title are a conga line of smarties who appear in the credit sequence reading “Dear Jane” missives from Jay. He breaks up with each of them by scribbled letter. Jay’s life reveals a seldom-depicted but not absolutely rare find: the bohemian black guy. He spends a lot of time in the company of white folk, but still has roots in the community. The film has a fluid comfort with its brassy ideas about dating and race. And it’s clearly pitched at those moviegoers who aren’t thrown even a jot by the race-tweaking title.(Kennedy)90 minutes
“The Incredible Hulk”
Action-adventure. ***. PG-13. Edward Norton as scientist Bruce Banner in the more interesting era in Hulk history — his years on the run, on the road, an oddball odyssey for a man haunted by what happens when he loses his temper, hunted by the military that helped create him. It’s been five years since the “gamma ray poisoning” that turns Banner into the Hulk. He’s been on the run, living off the grid, e-mailing fellow scientists, trying out cures and staying out of the reach of the Army, which wants to clone him as a “super soldier.” The digital Hulk is shown in glimpses, in the dark. The Jekyll-to-Hyde transformation, when it comes, is a doozy. (Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel) 114 minutes
“Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”
Adventure. ** PG-13. Harrison Ford hits the right notes of arch delivery and still agile energy in the fourth installment of the Indiana Jones adventures, which began back in 1981 with “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” Too bad writer David Koepp couldn’t sustain the same fleet fun in a story that sends Indy and rebel with a cause Mutt (Shia LaBeouf) to Peru to retrieve a mysterious skull. There’s some charm in the reunion that returns fiesty Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) to the fold. Cate Blanchett plays nemesis the Cold War Soviet. (Kennedy) 122 minutes
“Iron Man”
Popcorn movie. ***1/2. PG-13. If you seek superheroics, find them in Robert Downey Jr.’s turn as Iron Man in the Jon Favreau-directed zing of a flick, based on a Marvel character originally drawn in the early 60s. Downey’s Tony Stark is a high-flying weapons-maker who wisecracks with soldiers and parries and thrusts with a Vanity Fair reporter. Held captive in the caves of Afghanistan, Stark creates a newfangled pacemarker, a suit of armor, and eventually a new persona for himself. Downey’s got super support in Jeff Bridges as his mentor and worse, Gwyneth Paltrow as his gal Friday and Terrence Howard as military liaison and best friend, Col. Rhodes. (Kennedy) 120 minutes
“Jellyfish”
Surreal drama. ***1/2. Not rated. A beautifully strange movie, “Jellyfish,” tracks the perambulations of three Tel Aviv women. Though they are unrelated, and their paths cross by chance, they share a common bond: a profound sense of disconnection: from family, from loved ones, from themselves. Fractured by failed friendships and bad childhoods, the women in “Jellyfish” set about mending themselves, each in their own way, in the light of the bright sun or in a sudden burst of rain. The memories are painful but the future holds promise — perhaps. (Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer) 78 minutes
“Kit Kittredge: An American Girl”
Kid drama. ***1/2. G. “Kit Kittredge: An American Girl” is rife with feisty, generous pleasures. Abigail Breslin stars as Kit, a 9-year-old living, observing and typing furiously during the early 1930s. This Cincinnati kid aches to become a reporter. She bursts into the offices of the The Register, articles in hand. The paper’s editor isn’t ready to hire a pint-size freelancer, even one with the instincts and energy of Rosalind Russell’s Hildy Johnson. And, in the spirit of “write what you know,” Kit hits the typewriter. Those familiar with Kit and the American Girl dolls and their well-researched tales should be pleased with this outing. (Kennedy) 100 minutes
“Kung Fu Panda”
Kicking animation. ***1/2. PG. Let us pause for a humble bow to the second “Best Summer Movie So Far.” (And better for the tween and younger set than “Iron Man.”) When “Kung Fu Panda,” starring the voice of Jack Black as Po, isn’t delighting us with CGI visions and lush 2D animation, it’s treating characters with tender affection. Po’s tale of unlikely heroism is at once familiar and fresh. Son of a goose known for his noodles, Po is a martial arts geek, a Kung Fu fan-da who knows all the lore and skills of “the Furious Five” fighters who occupy the temple atop the nearby mountain and train under Dustin Hoffman’s martial arts master Shifu and sage tortoise Oogway (Randall Duk Kim). Angelina Jolie voices Tigress, the most gifted of Shifu’s students, who along characters played by Lucy Liu, Jackie Chan, David Cross, and Seth Rogen) hope to fulfill the prophesy of the Dragon Warrior and save the valley from snow leopard Tai Lung (Ian McShane). Instead, an accident of timing in a movie in which “there are no accidents” turns Po into the foretold hero. With loads of laugh lines, “Kung Fu Panda” plays with the ying-yang tension of sincerity and irreverance. But it never shirks a popcorn tenet: kernels of wisdom must be tasty. (Kennedy) 94 minutes
“The Love Guru”
Broad comedy. * 1/2. PG-13. Mike Myers’ return to live-action is no “Shrek.” But the tale of Guru Pitka, an American-born, Indian-raised spiritual guide, isn’t quite the biased dreck one feared given the burbling Internet dissent. Or, at least it’s not supremely mediocre because of ethnic insensitivity. Myers still hasn’t figured out how to share the screen with others. Perhaps he thought playing a self-absorbed guru played to this weakness. Jessica Alba is Jane Bullard, owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Romany Malco (“Weeds”) plays star player Darren Roanoke, who’s in need of a love intervention. His wife (Meagan Good) has taken up with a French Canadian goalie for the L.A. Kings (Justin Timberlake). And headed into the Stanley Cup finals, Darren’s stick has grown cold. Myers love of hockey came through here but his grasp of spiritual satire is often as flat Zambonied ice. (Kennedy) 88 minutes
“Made of Honor”
Romantic comedy. *** PG-13. Dr. McDreamy? McNiceEnough was more like it to this viewer. But in this romantic comedy about best friends Tom and Hannah, Patrick Dempsey moves from cockiness to uncomfortable need with funny and melancholy appeal. On a work trip to Scotland, Hannah (Michelle Monaghan) meets and falls for Colin. Upended by the news, Tom nevertheless agrees to be Hannah’s maid of honor. Silliness and self-knowledge ensue as he plays his Trojan horse role. Directed by Paul Weiland, “Made of Honor” makes pleasing hay of Tom and Hannah’s friendship and where it leads once a rival arrives to bollix things up. For her part, Monaghan (“Gone Baby Gone”) pulls off Hannah’s own dance of awareness and confusion. (Kennedy) 101 minutes
“Mongol”
Historical drama. ** 1/2. R. Russian director Sergei Bodrov tries to rehabilitate the reputation of Genghis Khan in this big, sweeping biopic. Maybe because the great Mongol warlord’s real story wasn’t reliably recorded, this emphasizes the most impressive aspects of Khan’s — formerly known as Temudgin — early life: his superhuman devotion to the first wife he chose at age 9, enduring horrific abuse and soul-killing captivity, his inevitable clash with his best friend and ally. Meanwhile, they make up other, equally mythic incidents (his escape from a Tangut prison is particularly hokey). (Bob Strauss, Los Angeles Daily News) 126 minutes
“OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies”
Spy comedy. **. Not rated. Before James Bond ever fired a pistol, there was Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath, also known as OSS 117. This arch espionage comedy is never as amusing as it thinks it is. Starring the French comedian Jean Dujardin as OSS 117, the movie is a sketch stretched to tedious feature length. “Nest of Spies” is too busy correcting political incorrectness to achieve its own ribaldry. (Wesley Morris, Boston Globe) 99 minutes
“The Promotion”
Satire. ***. R. The modern job site captured here is a slave galley set on a sea of uncertainty, where you struggle to keep your sea legs as you “manage” lazy and incompetent bosses, dodge harassment claims and try to make plans for “the future” in an economy where you can’t plan anything. “The Promotion” tries to wring laughs out of awkward pauses that follow inappropriate remarks, tiny but thwarted ambitions, the back stabbing, petty, emasculating indignities and unspoken pressure to succeed from family and friends. It stings more often than it tickles. (Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel) 85 minutes
“Sangre de Mi Sangre (Blood of my Blood)”
Identity theft drama. ** 1/2. Not Rated. Juan and Pedro meet on in a crowded tractor trailer enroute from Mexico to New York. Pedro heads toward what he imagines a richer life. His mother told him his father Diego owns a restaurant. A frenetic chase at the outset of Christopher Zalla’s debut makes it clear Juan is no stranger to mayhem. After the truck pulls into New York, Pedro discovers Juan has stolen his money, his letter, his story. “Sangre” toggles between Pedro (Jorge Adrian Espindola) as he tries to regain his footing and Juan (Armando Hernandez) working hard to convince a suspicious Diego (Jesus Ochoa) he’s his son. Originally titled “Padre Nuestro” Zalla’s movie won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. It went on to screen at New York’s “New Directors/New Films” series. For good reason: While Zalla provides his characters with a overly constructed tragedy, his eye for city life and his gift with actors promises astute work to come. Keep an eye open too for cinematographer Igor Martinovic. Exclusively at Neighborhood Flix. (Kennedy) 111 minutes
“Sex and the City: The Movie”
Comedy. *** R. The gals are back. And Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda have made the leap from the small to the big screen without breaking a Manolo heel or losing their fab chemistry (though friendships are tested). Does that mean the movie is great cinema? TV critic Joanne Ostrow, who tagteamed the Post review and found the film too episodic put it this way: “Other than the fact that they looked fabulous there wasn’t enough story to keep it going. And what there was, was predictable. Tedious, even. Overall, I think the inanity worked better on television.” Post’s film critic thought: “King pushed all the buttons hit so expertly on the HBO series. There’s some terrifically deft dialogue. There’s the sense of New York as a place. And running alongside the movie’s couture splendor are some believable relationship hurdles….To borrow a favorite Carrie phrase “Me Likey.” (Kennedy) 145 minutes
“Speed Racer”
High-octane burnout. ** PG-13. Midway through the Wachowski brothers’ live-action- meets-CGI sugar rush you’d be right to bristle at the idea of Speed (Emile Hirsch) and his family fighting Royal Industries tycoon (Roger Allman) for the purity of the sport. Why take lessons about corporate smarminess from a movie so tainted by the lax ambitions of studio-driven flicks. Visually, the yarn is built for Speed Racer’s candy-hued grand prix and rallies. Often, though, it drags and sputters. Hirsch’s Speed is a character seemingly awaiting a sequel before doning a personality. Thank goodness for reliables, John Goodman and Susan Sarandon as Mom and Pops Racer. Christina Ricci stars as Trixie. Both Matthew Fox and Scott Porter give nice turns as Racer X and Rex Racer. (Kennedy) 128 minutes
“The Strangers”
Horror. *1/2 R. Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman are a couple terrorized by three masked assailants at his family’s vacation home. “The Strangers” starts with dramatic sobriety. James and Kristen are a young couple at a crossroad. He wants to get hitched, offers a big ring to prove it. She has doubts and applies the brakes. Then there’s a knock on the door… (Kennedy) 90 minutes
“Then She Found Me”
Comedy/drama. **1/2. R. To lose a parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose and find a mother in the same week looks downright irresponsible. But this is the predicament of April Epner, unassuming grade-school teacher, age 39. No sooner does April’s adoptive mother pass away than her bio-mom comes forward. Helen Hunt is a sympathetic director of actors, particularly Bette Midler, who delivers a fluent performance in this most episodic of films, and also Lynn Cohen as April’s pragmatic mom. (Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer) 100 minutes
“You Don’t Mess with Zohan”
Comedy. *1/2 PG-13. In this comedy that teases the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Adam Sandler plays Zohan Dvir. Zohan is the state’s best counter-terrorist. He’s so gifted, he’s choppered from his vacation to lead a precision strike against the Phantom (John Turturro.) As Zohan reminds his superiors too willing to exact collateral damage “he can get it done without the mess.” Fed up with conflict, Zohan fakes his death and heads for the land of milk-and-honey conditioners: Paul Mitchell’s salon in Manhattan. (Kennedy) 113 minutes
“WALL*E”
Animated. ***. G. “Finding Nemo” director Andrew Stanton returns with a vivid and rather dystopian fable set in the future. Little, curious Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class aka WALL*E stacks garbage skyscraper-high centuries after humans have departed for space. When sleek probe EVE arrives in search of vegetation, the lonesome bot falls, hard, then follows. On a cruise-style spaceship, hefty pampered humans could use some shaking up. After a bleak start that might have gotten sci-fi author Philip K. Dick’s seal of approval, “WALL*E” finds its rousing, hopeful groove without ever sacrificing its far-from artificial intelligence. (Kennedy) 97 minutes
“Wanted”
Frenetic action. **1/2. R. Russian-Kazakh director Timur Bekmambetov makes his English-language debut with guns a blazin’ and bullets a bending’ with this OTT (that means “over-the-top” and is mostly a compliment) action thriller that has more than a little “Matrix” pumping through its veins. Loser Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy) is loser no more when a gifted assassin named Fox tells him he’s the son of the greatest assassin (just killed) and recruits him for a centuries old society of weavers-assassins (ah those old-fangled hybrid careers) who hunt and dispatch targets whose names are woven by the Loom of Fate. Angelina Jolie’s embrace of her kick-hiney side and Bambetekov’s visual bravado are the draws in this adaptation of a graphic novel series. She’s mesmerizing and he’s not afraid to play with the more absurd gifts of cinema. Morgan Freeman stars as the Fraternity’s head. (Kennedy) 110 minutes
“War, Inc.”
Political satire. **. R. “War, Inc.” is a brave and ambitious but chaotic attempt at political satire. The targets: the war in Iraq and the shadowy role of Vice President Dick Cheney’s one-time corporate home, Halliburton, in the waging of the war. Dan Aykroyd plays an “ex-vice president,” unmistakably Cheney, issuing orders to CIA hit man Brand Hauser (John Cusack) to assassinate a Middle Eastern oil minister named Omar Sharif (not much of a joke), whose plans to build a pipeline in his country run counter to the schemes of the super-corporation Tamerlane. John Cusack deserves credit for trying to make something topical, controversial and uncompromised. The elements are all here but the parts never come together. (Roger Ebert) 90 minutes
“Water Lilies”
Teen hormones. ***1/2. Not rated. A sensitive study of budding adolescent desires, a pervert’s delight, plus synchronized swimming. Yes, “Water Lilies” will be many things to many people. The director remembers quite clearly what teenage fixations are like, and knows how to inform them with mature insight. All three young actresses are superbly convincing as guideless young girls (there are no adults to speak of in the movie) stumbling onto the emotional paths that will define the rest of their lives. (Bob Strauss, Los Angeles Daily News) 85 minutes
“What Happens in Vegas”
Comedy. * PG-13. …”Should stay on the storyboard,” might finish the sentiment of this sorry romantic comedy’s title. Affable pup Ashton Kutcher, comically winning Cameron Diaz play Jack and Joy, strangers who wind up (best friends in tow) in Sin City. They feel sorry for themselves, then begin feeling mighty fine and just frisky enough to get hitched. They regret it faster than you can sing “Viva Las Vegas” and plan to get a D-I-V-O-R-C-E. Fate, also known as a one-armed bandit, forces a compromise. Once back in New York City where he’s newly unemployed and she’s a trader, each wants their half of the winnings enough to endure a judge’s sentence of “six months hard marriage.” But sitting through this clumsily paced tale of Mars, Venus and Vegas is more than you should have to endure. Rob Corddry and Lake Blue are the battling best friends, hellbent on showing the nastier side of the gender wars. (Kennedy) 98 minutes
“When Did You Last See Your Father?”
Drama. **1/2. PG-13. You’d never think to pair Oscar winner Jim Broadbent and dashing leading man Colin Firth as father and son. But it works in “When Did You Last See Your Father?,” a modestly affecting coming-of-age, coming-to-grips-with-death drama about a son who tries to understand his insufferable dad as he sits by his father’s deathbed. The film, based on a memoir by poet Blake Morrison, is about a son who has spent his life annoyed that his father could never put together “two little words, ‘well’ and ‘done.'” The bookish intellectual Blake (Firth, doing a good “wounded and confused”) grew up feeling overshadowed and ill-used by his gregarious, blustery dad (Broadbent, terrific as always), who lived for “little scams,” ways of getting more than his share out of life. (Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel) 92 minutes
“Yella”
Thriller. ***. Not rated. Yella, the title character in this thriller, is leaving her sleepy town for a well-paying job in a city. She accepts a ride to the train station from her estranged husband, a borderline psycho who has a nasty habit of stalking her. “I love you, Yella,” he says, as he drives the car off a bridge and into the Elbe. The two emerge from the sunken car and crawl onto the riverbank. The scene recalls the 1962 cult thriller “Carnival of Souls,” which influenced the director, and viewers who have seen that black-and-white creeper will probably figure out what’s to come. (V.A. Musetto, New York Post) 89 minutes
