Now showing
Here are selected minireviews of films in theaters, listed alphabetically.
Some reviews originate at other newspapers that do not award star ratings.
“Brick Lane”
Drama. PG-13. ***1/2. “Brick Lane” begins with a young woman from Bangladesh, whose mother’s suicide causes her father to arrange her marriage with a man now living in London, older than her, whom she has never met. Nazneen is a stunning beauty, 17 when she marries Chanu, who is fat, balding and easily 20 years older. Chanu is not a hateful man. He is not a fountain of warmth and understanding and has few insights into his wife. Karim comes into her life — young, handsome, charming, the delivery man for the unfinished jeans she sews. They fall in love. “Brick Lane” is about characters who have depth and reality, who change and learn, who have genuine feelings. And it keeps on surprising us, right to the end. (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times)101 minutes
“Encounter at the End of the World”
Documentary. ****. G. Director Herzog has come to live for a while at the McMurdo Research Station, the largest habitation on Antarctica. They open a hole in the ice with a blasting device, then plunge in, collecting specimens, taking films, nosing around. They investigate an undersea world of horrifying carnage, inhabited by creatures so ferocious we are relieved they are too small to be seen. And also by enormous seals who sing to one another. Herzog is a romantic wanderer, drawn to the extremes. He makes as many documentaries as fiction films, is prolific in the chronicles of his curiosity, and here moseys about McMurdo chatting with people who have chosen to live here in eternal day or night. The underwater photography alone would make a film, but there is so much more.(Roger Ebert)99 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
“Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson”
Documentary. ***1/2. R. In all the memories gathered together in “Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson,” there was one subject conspicuously missing: the fact of the man’s misery. The film finds extraordinary access to the people in his life. This film gathers interviews from a wide and sometimes surprising variety of people (Pat Buchanan, Jimmy Carter, Hells Angel Sonny Barger). It has home movies, old photos, TV footage, voice recordings, excerpts from files about Thompson. It is narrated by Johnny Depp, mostly through readings from Thompson’s work. It is all you could wish for in a doc about the man. But it leaves you wondering: How was it that so many people liked this man who does not seem to have liked himself? (Roger Ebert)118 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
“Hellboy II: the Golden Army”
Comic Book action. ** 1/2. PG-13. What a great character Hellboy is. Comic book writer Mike Mignola created him. Gifted director Guillermo del Toro brought him to the screen in the winning 2004 original and now this sequel. Best of all, though the “Golden Army” script isn’t as perfectly honed, Ron Perlman continues to make the big demon hero (rescued as a kid by a kindly scientist working for the U.S. military) a great guy to spend time with. “The Golden Army” is a sturdy comic-book-inspired outing with a few very amusing asides, including a visit to a troll market. This time, HB, girlfriend Liz Sherman (Selma Blair) and Abe Sapien (Doug Jones) face the possibily of an all-out elf-human war when a truce is broken by Prince Nuada. He’s the one with the Edgar Winter hair and the chip on his shoulder toward humans. If succesfully summoned from the depths, the titular army will tilt the balance apocalyptically. Princess Nuala is the kinder, gentler soul and the fabulous Abe honestly falls for her. In the midst of action is some domestic tension, a sweet crush and, this being del Toro (who wrote the screenplay), a great many fantastical faeries and creatures for our freak heroes to take on. The PG-13 “Hellboy” is fun. And it’s unafraid to embrace the schmaltzy. (Kennedy)110 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
“Journey to the Center of the Earth”
Action/adventure. ** 1/2. PG. Essentially a three-character story, the movie casts Brendan Fraser as absent-minded geologist Trevor Anderson, who forgets his nephew Sean (Josh Hutcherson) is coming for a visit. Just as Sean arrives, Trevor stumbles on clues left by his brother that lead him to believe Jules Verne’s fantasy novel actually was based on a real journey to the Earth’s center. So he takes the boy along to Iceland to follow his brother’s footsteps to the center of the Earth. They are aided by Hannah, a Icelandic guide.(David Germain, Associated Press)93 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
“Savage Grace”
Drama. **1/2. R. This film is a true-crime tragedy charting an elite American family’s descent into hell. The film, spanning 1946 to 1972, unfolds in six increasingly sordid acts, drawing us ever deeper into a world of superficial elegance, debauchery and shattering violence. Brooks Baekeland (Stephen Dillane) inherited the fortune his grandfather amassed with Bakelite plastics. When he married gorgeous Barbara Daly (Julianne Moore), his friends all agreed that the former model and would-be starlet was socially inferior. Moore’s performance as the unsympathetic porcelain beauty Barbara is fearless, especially as the story climaxes in taboo-shattering catastrophe. If ever there was a film to extinguish any envy of the lifestyles of the rich and famous, “Savage Grace” is it. (Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star-Tribune) 94 minutes
“Up the Yangtze”
Documentary. ****. Not rated. In his masterful and haunting documentary “Up the Yangtze,” Yung Chang shows the old China drowning helplessly under the weight of the new. Looming over the film, physically and metaphorically, is the nearly complete Three Gorges Dam in the interior province of Hubei; begun in 1994 and scheduled for completion in 2011, it’s the largest hydroelectric project in history, and China’s most ambitious public-works effort since the Great Wall. Some 1.4 million residents have been relocated by the Chinese government to date, with the total number of those affected estimated at up to 4 million. “Up the Yangtze” shows us a handful of people desperately trying to adapt. Luxury ships take wealthy Western tourists up the Yangtze for a last look at the ghost towns and cliff faces before they disappear beneath the current. (Ty Burr, Boston Globe)93 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
