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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.
“American Teen”
Teen Docu-dramas. ** 1/2. PG-13. For 10 months director Nanette Burstein followed Warsaw Community High School seniors Megan, Hannah, Mitch, Jake and Colin. Or in the shorthand of cliques: the popular girl, an artsy chick, a sweet-hottie, a band geek and a basketball jock (this is Indiana after all). Burstein and her editor shaped her movie to have the tensions of teen flicks she remembered from her own adolescence (“Breakfast Club” for one). But Burstein’s desire and her subjects self-awareness make the film feel scripted and familiar. Megan’s mean-girl antics seem cruel but hardly unusual. Because college is expensive, the movie has gives interesting nods toward issues of class in this small Midwestern town. But ethnicity gets scant attention (although one of Colin’s buddies is African American). And in a movie with such an iconic title, that’s a shame. (Kennedy) 101 minutes
“Bottle Shock”
“Sideways” Dramedy. ***. PG-13. “Bottle Shock,” a crowd-pleasing dramedy, starts out as a Valentine to viticulture and viniculture but ends up as a story of American underdog triumph. Bring your red, white and blue spirit. Director Randall Miller uncorks this true story of the Napa Valley wine industry in the mid-1970s, a time when the words “American wine” and “Gallo” were considered synonymous, and every wine snob knew that French winemakers were the only ones capable of making fine wines. (Cathy Frisinger, McClatchy Newspapers) 106 minutes
“Brideshead Revisited”
Period drama. ** 1/2. PG-13. Emma Thompson steals the new film version of “Brideshead Revisited.” As Lady Marchmain, the genteel but fierce matriarch of Eveyln Waugh’s story, she projects so much intelligence, resolve and even a touch of malevolence that she towers over the pretty young things with whom she shares the screen. She’s so good that when her character vanishes halfway through, the movie never recovers. Working class Charles comes to visit Brideshead’s reigning son and falls in love with Lady Marchmain’s daughter, a love that endures long after she marries another. (Robert W. Butler, McClatchy Newspapers) 133 minutes
“The Dark Knight”
Superhero action. PG-13. ****. More than any other recent comic-book hero flick, Christopher Nolan’s tour de force sequel provides an enduring, unsettlingly bleak fable of our moment. The theme of the lawman’s reliance on those outside the law to take down those who know not the rule of law beats at the bruised heart of this flick. Christian Bale’s modulated presense as sour billionaire Bruce Wayne/Batman finds competetion in the performances of the late Heath Ledger and Aaron Eckhart as the Joker and D.A. Harvey Dent. Maggie Gyllenhaal proves a superior Rachel Dawes, Wayne’s beloved who’s fallen for Dent. Ledger’s portrayal of the scarred, face-painted arch-villain is uncanny and kitch-proof, even when he dons a dress. An evil clown has taken the sensitive actor’s place. He’s not a Bozo but an even creepier character than the E-Trade baby springs for. (Kennedy) 152 minutes
“Fly Me to the Moon”
Space cartoon. ***. G. “Fly Me to the Moon” is the last and least of the animations of summer, a good-looking, nostalgic but underanimated and thinly scripted child’s-eye view of that ancient history known as the Apollo program. The story: A group of young flies living on Cape Canaveral in the 1960s tries to join the Apollo 11 crew and fly to the moon. The kids concoct spacesuits, a plan to sneak into the capsule, an excuse to tell their parents. They think the flights last only a few minutes. Meanwhile, some sneaky Russian flies (Tim Curry does a voice) are out to foil the mission. (Roger Moore. Orlando Sentinel) 80 minutes
“Get Smart”
TV redux. PG-13. ** 1/2. 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. PG-13. ***1/2. 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
“Hell Ride”
Bad biker flick. *. R. “Hell Ride” is a biker exploitation picture, the sort of movie you’d have seen in a drive-in or “grind house” in the 1970s. It has lonesome highways and roadhouses, road-worn hogs and high-mileage actors riding them, guns and crossbows and long-neck beers and naked, nubile women offering themselves to the homely guys, talking dirty and wrestling in Wesson oil. (Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel) 83 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
“Henry Poole is Here”
Miracle movie. ** 1/2. PG-13. Consider it either the miracle of the stucco wall or the Rorschach of the water stain. Since, Henry Poole (Luke Wilson) has a problem with the M-word, he’s quick to rule out the miraculous when a kindly neighbor Esperanza (Adriana Barraza) sees God’s face in the water-damaged wall of his L.A. ranch home. Director Mark Pellington and writer Albert Torres aren’t nearly so hasty. They pursue the film’s mystery with an earnestness that might frustrate rationalists but charm those who believe the truth is out there, maybe even way out there. In this quirky parable of salvation and faith, it’s women who throw the depressed Henry, played with an appropriately flat pain and muted anger by Luke Wilson, a life line. Among them: supermarket check-out girl Patience (Rachel Seiferth) and single Mom Dawn (Radha Mitchell) and her daughter, Millie (Morgan Lily). The modest film never quite reaches the ecstatic. Musical interludes ladle meaning onto the already loaded tale. We know that Henry is lost, but playing the Eels’ lovely “Love of the Loveless” or Dylan’s “Not Dark Yet” doesn’t add much to our understanding. (Kennedy) 99 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
“Kabluey”
Humor/satire. *** 1/2. PG-13. A sad-sack slacker who moves in with his sour sister-in-law in Austin, Texas. He needs a place to stay. She needs someone to babysit her two horrendous sons. It’s a surprisingly moving story of life on the home front and in a recession. The reason Lisa Kudrow needs that day-care help is because she’s had to go back to work full time while her husband’s National Guard unit is in Iraq and it’s also a dreamily surreal story. But track it down. Or you’ll be missing not only a very funny film — and an actress’ terrific performance — but also an incredibly promising debut. (Stephen Whitty, Newark Star Ledger)90 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
“Mamma Mia!”
Musical redux. ** 1/2. PG-13. Fans of the ABBA musical will likely bring a happy sense memory of the play with them into the multiplex. That will be all they need to be off and humming along to this story of a daughter on the cusp of marriage, her mother and the three men who may be her father. Those hoping to be wowed by what is a tantalizing, grown-up cast — Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Christine Baranski — are in for choppier waters. But you can’t accuse Streep and Co. of not being super troupers. They sing. They dance. Only too often, it seems like exertion when play should be the thing. Instead theater director Phyllida Lloyd has made “the play the thing.” One of the three creators of the onstage smash, LLoyd has little sense of cinema’s less-is-more powers. Not to say she’s delivered a dud or a dirge. Far from it. It’s just that “Mamma Mia!” feels like a souvenir program: something to revive the feelings you had watching the stage performance. (Kennedy) 108 minutes
“Man Named Pearl”
Documentary. *** 1.2. G. In a segregated southern town Pearl was the first African-American to win the “Yard of the Month” award. With no formal training, this now-retired factory worker defied the expectations of expert horticulturists and turned his garden into a dreamscape of abstract topiary. Visitors arrive by the thousands each year to marvel at the bizarre shapes and swirls of Pearl’s living sculptures, the only tourist attraction in a sleepy town that Pearl almost single-handedly rescued from economic extinction. (Jeff Shannon, Seattle Times) 78 minutes
“Man on Wire”
High-wire Action. *** 1/2. PG-13. In retrospect it seems stingy: not giving four stars to director James Marsh’s trancendent, entertaining documentary about Philippe Petit’s walk between the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers in 1974. People stood 110 stories beneath his high-wire act. A bird soared a few feet above. Cops waited and waited on the roof top. When a movie is such a pleasure, you want, at times, to stay out of the way of people’s cinematic epiphanies. Marsh’s weaves interviews with Petit and his coconspirators with recreations of the young Frenchman and his crew dreaming, plotting and practicing the assault on the towering buildings. Of course, its very difficult not to think of a different assault while watching the film. Yet “Man on Wire” is profoundly restorative. It is a heist flick in which something isn’t stolen but returned a hundred fold to us all. (Kennedy) 94 minutes
“The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor”
Tomb Raider redux. **. PG-13. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,” the third installment in the kin-of-Indy franchise, finds the son of explorer Rick O’Connell (Brendan Fraser) on his own archaeological dig in China in search of the tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Alex (Luke Ford) is tempting a disaster in digging for him. If the emperor (Jet Li) is revived and his army of terra-cotta warriors called forth, well you know the action-fantasy drill. (Kennedy) 111 minutes
“Pineapple Express”
Action comedy. ***. R. This action comedy finds customer Dale (Seth Rogen) and toasted dealer Saul (James Franco) on the lam from a drug kingpin and his cop accomplice (Gary Cole and Rosie Perez). A process server with a bag of tricks and some odd costumes in the trunk of his car, Dale thought he was just going to deliver a subpoena. Instead he witnesses a gang murder. He panics, tosses his smoldering joint. It’s funny, sad, and very careless. It’s also got a strange joy to it. (Kennedy) 112 minutes
“The Rape of Europa”
WII documentary. ***. Not rated. We know the Nazis looted art from the nations they overran. But how many important paintings, sculptures and other artworks would you say the Nazis made off with? Hundreds? Thousands? “The Rape of Europa,” a startling documentary, puts the number rather higher: One- fifth of all the known significant works of art in Europe — millions. Hitler maintained shopping lists of art for every country he invaded, and dispatched troops to secure (i.e., plunder) the works and ship them back to Germany. (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times) 117 minutes
“The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants”
Young chick flick. ***. PG. The girls are linked by an usual pair of blue jeans. The embroidered, sequined denim fit each girl perfectly. Over the course of a summer, the pants are passed from character to character with powerful effect. This sequel finds the quartet half-heartedly committed to the ritual of the pants and pursuing new goals after their first year of college. Their are no slackers here: Tibby attends New York University, artist Lena goes to Rhode Island School of Design, Blake is studying at Brown and Carmen is a Yalie. But in a film that depends as much on chemistry as individual effort, the sisterhood of the pants remains strong. (Kennedy) 111 minutes
“Space Chimps”
Animated comedy. G. ***. “Chimps,” from the animation studio that gave us “Valiant,” is one of those cartoons parents won’t mind sitting through while little Miss or Mister 8-and-under chuckles at the cute talking primates. And chuckle they will. With adorable critters and icky monsters and oodles of potential toy accessories (to say nothing of a video game tie-in), this movie looks for that sweet spot in every 7-year-old’s heart for chimpanzees and movies about them. And the script manages the occasional wisecrack or movie lovers’ inside joke to keep the grown-ups awake, too. (Roger Moore, The Orlando Sentinel) 81 minutes.
“Star Wars: The Clone Wars”
Sci-fi Animation. ***. PG. This “Clone Wars” big-screen preview of the new fall TV series is actually better than expected. Jabba the Hutt’s slimy little larva (his son) has been larva-napped. And since he is the “all wise and powerful Jabba” who controls the trade routes to the outer rim of the galaxy “far far away,” both the Jedi and the Sith want to be the ones to rescue the kid. This well-financed rebellion is able to mount major space battles, enlist (or enslave) new star systems and stage planet- by-planet invasions, which the Republic and its Jedi generals fend off one by one. The combat animation here is vivid, and the animation in general is almost lifelike at times. (Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel) 98 minutes
“Stealing America: Vote by Vote”
Political documentary. * 1/2. Not rated. “Stealing America: Vote by Vote” might have been this year’s most alarming and patriotic documentary if it weren’t so shoddy and dull. A call to arms, then: Let us reform our glitch-ridden electoral system, and while we’re at it retire the cheesy computer effects, graceless rhetoric and preaching-to- the-choir irrelevancy of the awkward advocacy doc. (Nathan Lee, New York Times) 90 minutes
“Step Brothers”
Schtick. ** 1/2. R. There are some stoopid laughs to be had as Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly’s alter ids Brennan Huff and Dale Doback go at it in this Adam McKay-directed comedy. The two adult children are forced to live under one roof when their single parents fall in love and marry. A war of blue-language bickering and crude paybacks ensues. When Brennan’s insufferable younger brother (Adam Scott) visits, they finally bond. Turns out the only thing more destructive for their parents’ marriage than their fighting is their new alliance. The sharpest writing comes early when Nancy Huff and Dr. Robert Doback meet at a medical conference and Brennan and Dale get to know-hate each other. Mary Steenburgen and Richard Jenkins bring sweet and frisky energy to their roles as parents confounded by their manboys. What begins as a ridiculous but tenaciously executed conceit — that the comedically in-sync duo must be kin once removed — turns mean spirited. Pitched to the snickering sensibilities of the teen, the movie is rated R. (Kennedy) 95 minutes
“Swing Vote”
Comedy. ***. PG-13. In “Swing Vote,” Joe Average has degenerated into Joe Sixpack. And if we fret about the state of the nation, it’s because guys like Ernie “Bud” Johnson either aren’t voting, or are so clueless when they do that they pick “the fella I’d like to sit and have a beer with.” Kevin Costner stars as Bud, a blue- collar loser who has spent his whole life in Texico, N.M. The one saving grace in his trailer-park life is his daughter, Molly, a bright 11-year-old who is the adult in the family. Bud can’t even be bothered to vote on Election Day, even when Molly needs his ballot receipt for a class project. And wouldn’t you know it, that happens to be the one botched ballot that will decide who will be president. But “Swing Vote” nicely boils down America’s political malaise to one man’s awakening from a Budweiser stupor and seeing the only thing that matters when you don’t pay attention and exercise the franchise on Election Day. You’re letting your kid down. (Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel) 110 minutes
“Tell No One”
French thriller. Not rated. *** 1/2. What a terrific pas de deux of withholding and revelation Guillaume Canet’s adaptation of Harlan Coben’s novel (co-written by Philippe Lefebvre) is. The thriller balances a story of upended love with a mystery that wields power till the very end. Eight years after the death of his wife, still-grieving pediatrician Alexandre Beck (Francois Cluzet) comes under suspicion when two bodies are unearthed near the site of wife Margot’s brutal murder. At the same time, Alex receives an anonymous email showing a woman who looks like his wife caught on a surveillance camera. What gives? Cluzet resembles a Gallic Dustin Hoffman circa “Marathon Man” — and not just because he leads the police on a fantastic foot chase. The dark-haired actor has a moving intensity. “Tell No One” is rich with intriguing characters: a thug who dotes on his hemophiliac toddker, a skeptical police shrink, a wealthy senator who employs Alex’s sister. Canet avoids the nighttime hours of noir. Better, he hasn’t much use for femmes fatales, though there is a chilling hitwoman. Marie-Josee Croze does her part to make us yearn for Margot. Kristin Scott-Thomas provides fine ballast as Alex best friend and sister in law. Helene. Nathalie Baye gives a nicely fierce turn as the lawyer Helene hires for Alex. (Kennedy) 125 minutes
“Tropic Thunder”
War flick parody. ** 1/2. R. The disaster-beset war flick within Ben Stiller’s action comedy is not the only bungle in the jungle taking place when five actors are stranded and believe the cameras are still rolling. No, those aren’t extras. They’re a drug gang. Stiller improbably stars as a has-been action hero Tugg Speedman. Jack Black overplays Jeff Portnoy whose chief complaint is the lack of illicit substances to abuse. As Aussie method actor Kirk Lazarus (who underwent a procedure to make him appear African American), Robert Downey Jr. seems to be working in a different, better movie. Stiller and cowriters Justin Theroux and Etan Cohen had the makings of a wry satire about the pampered insularity of Hollywood denizens. Instead they settled for an above par parody movie with some sub-par gags about disability. In spoofing war movies and their disconnect with real combat, “Tropic Thunder” seems even more clueless. Thanks to Downey and Tom Cruise, there are a few incandescently insane set-pieces: Lazaruz argues racial authenticity with Alpa Chino, an African American rapper-turned-actor. And Cruise’s performance is reminiscent of his chilling turn in “Magnolia.” He’s nearly unrecognizable beneath the balding-hairy guy get-up and yet… (Kennedy) 107 minutes
“Vicky Cristina Barcelona”
Romantic Travelogue. *** 1/2. PG-13. They are best friends and in matters of the heart like night and day. And Woody Allen teases their contrasts when he sends sensible Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and yearning Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) to Barcelona for a summer where they flirt with pleasure and minor disaster. Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz are vibrant as a painter and his volatile and talented ex-wife. They are catalysts in the women’s deeper if confounded appreciation of “Catalan Identity” (Vicky’s masters thesis). Agile and warmly sexy, Allen’s romp is a study in how a place and its denizens, familiar enough but distinctly different, upend what one knows about oneself. Patricia Clarkson adds texture as Judy, who along with her husband, puts the duo up for their adventure. An amused Allen adds to his wry treatise on character contrasts — American and Meditteranean, pragmatic and romantic — Vicky’s fiancé arrives shirt tucked in his khakis, laptop at the ready. (Kennedy)97 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
