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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.
“Australia”
Frontier Adventure. ***. PG-13. Aussies Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman star in director Baz Luhrmann’s romantic adventure set in the land Down Under on the eve of World War II. She plays English aristocrat Lady Sarah Ashley, traveling to Australia to find her husband, believing his return home has been for reasons other than selling their outback spread. Jackman plays The Drover, an expert cattle driver who collects her at the port of Darwin and will take her to Faraway Downs, then drive her cattle to market. Of course, we know long before Lady Ashley and The Drover do where they’re really headed. “Australia” is also a loving throwback to old-fashioned epics about power plays for resources. At two-and-a half hours, “Australia” is long. Indeed, it comes with a handful of endings. We cried at every one of them. (Kennedy) 155 minutes
“Ballast”
Drama. ****. Not Rated. This is the most significant feature about poor black life since Charles Burnett’s 1977 “Killer of Sheep.” Darius’s suicide draws together his twin, Lawrence, James, and James’s loving mother and Darius’s bitter ex, Marlee, a woman too busy making ends meet to save her son from himself. What these vividly imperfect people discover together — about each other and themselves — is hardly dramatic by conventional movie standards, but you can feel the earth move as they adjust the weight of the world on their shoulders. In “Ballast,” the goal of the form is to become so transparent that all we notice are bodies and faces. It’s an illusion, of course. But, boy, does it work. (Wesley Morris, Boston Globe) 96 minutes
“Bolt”
3-D Animation. ***. PG. This is a road comedy of girl and her “genetically altered” superdog TV star, a canine capable of leaping over black helicopters in a single bound, blowing up objects with his glower and flattening armies with his “super bark.” Whenever Penny is in danger, Bolt is there to save her. But Bolt isn’t in on the gag. The effects go off around him and he thinks he did it. He doesn’t seems to realize that he is not a real dog but just a TV star. (Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel) 95 minutes
“Cadillac Records”
Musical Biopic. **1/2. R. Given the lives of subjects Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Willie Dixon, Etta James, Chuck Berry, Howlin’ Wolf and Leonard Chess, “Cadillac Records” should be a slam dunk of a biopic — a film rife with drama and sadness, beauty and integrity. “Cadillac Records” certainly plays off the strengths of its story — the unwavering loyalty of label man Chess to his first signed artist, Muddy Waters, and Little Walter’s heartbreaking fall to alcoholism. But the film tries too hard, and its storytelling is sometimes clunky and awkward — and that just doesn’t fly with these cats, who are anything but so smooth. Once the connection is made with Leonard Chess — who is transitioning from the nightclub business to his very own record label, called Chess — the crux of the story is found. (Baca) 109 minutes
“Changeling”
Drama. ** 1/2. R. It’s a period piece, a true-crime mystery and a slice of history, vintage Clint Eastwood in many ways. Jolie plays Christine Collins, a single mom in 1928 Los Angeles. She has to leave her 9-year-old son home one Saturday. When she gets home, he’s missing. After many months police return another boy and try to convince her it’s her son. “Changeling” is a fascinating, high-minded and ambitious story, with twists and turns and implications far beyond the “true crime” origins of the tale. (Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel) 122 minutes
“Eagle Eye”
Action thriller. ***. PG-13. The fever-pitch paranoia of this terrorist thriller, the seizure-inducing editing, the dense layers slapped on a fairly simple plot, all point to a kind of overkill that only Hollywood money can buy. Jerry, checks his ATM and discovers hundreds of thousands of dollars in his account. He opens the door to his dump of an apartment to see military ordnance and the makings of an Oklahoma City bomb. His cellphone rings. “The FBI will be there in 30 seconds.” There’s no time for character development, barely a pause to catch our breath or consider how plausible all this is, because of the heart-racing pace of the piece. Which means that “Eagle Eye” isn’t a bad movie, it’s just too cluttered, too derivative. (Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel) 118 minutes
“Four Christmases”
Yule Comedy. **. PG-13. This romantic comedy is pretty generic, though you might still be grateful for it. The jokes are old, but they hit as often as they miss. And while the free-spirited lovers at the film’s center succumb predictably to tradition, they also serve as an accurate send-up of today’s overly modern relationships. Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon convincingly play Brad and Kate, leisure-obsessed 30-somethings who are anti-marriage, anti-children and pro-themselves. For these two San Franciscans, even Christmas comes free of responsibility. When fog grounds their flight, Brad and Kate must visit their four divorced parents, all familiar characters. (Rafer Guzman, Newsday) 89 minutes
“Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa”
Animated. ***. PG. Emotionally, visually richer than its 2005 original, this animated feature follows lost zoo animals Alex, Marty, Gloria and Melman as well as Skipper and his crew as they make it all the way from the lemur-overrun island nation near the southeast coast of Africa to, well, mainland Africa. Directed once again by the tag team of Tom McGrath and Eric Darnell “Escape” reunites Alex (Ben Stiller) with his mother and father Zuba (Bernie Mac) on the African plains. Laughs come by way of Skipper, the gruff penguin in charge and lemur King Julien (Sacha Baron Cohen) who boards the doomed plane at the last minute with sidekick Maurice (Cedric the Entertainer) in tow. Alex’s issues with his dad’s pride — in both senses of the word — are just one of the throughlines. Hypochondriacal and lovesick Melman (David Schwimmer) pines for Gloria (Jada Pinkett Smith) who has turned the enormous head of a fine speciman of a hippo named Moto Moto (will.i.am). Marty (Chris Rock) is thrilled and thrown being a zebra among many. Requisite menace comes in the form of a smarmy lion named Makunga (Alec Baldwin) and a little old lady from Noo Yawk, who fends for herself in the wild and mild kingdom. (Kennedy) 79 minutes
“Milk”
Biopic. ****. R. Few biographicals movies about social justice heroes achieve the perfect tone in Gus Van Sant’s biographical film “Milk.” Sean Penn does arguably his finest turn as Harvey Milk, who in 1977 became the nation’s first gay male elected official when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of City Supervisors. Van Sant, so good at the intimate indie artwork (see “Last Days” “Paranoid Park”), brings his gift for hushed detail to a story that is larger than live and unequivocably in the main. (Keep an eye open for the director’s favorite shot: a bloodied whistle.) In “Milk” the heroic is captured not with cradle-to-grave grandiosity. Instead, writer Dustin Lance Black confines the action to New York-born Milk’s rise as a community galvanizer to his death. He and SF George Moscone were murdered by city supervisor Dan White on November 27, 1978. Josh Brolin plays the former fireman who snuck into City Hall and killed the men. (Kennedy) 128 minutes
“Nobel Son”
Comedy/Thriller. ***. R. Alan Rickman plays a brilliant chemist named Eli Michaelson, the kind of man who, when he wins the Nobel Prize, those who know him best exclaim, “$#!t!” His wife loves her work as a forensic pathologist, perhaps because when she is disassembling the victim of a run-in with an auto-crusher, she can imagine it is her husband. Eli belittles his son in all things. He considers his colleagues inferiors at best, insectoid at worst. In “Nobel Son,” just when Eli is preparing to fly to Sweden and favor the crown with his presence, his son, Barkley, is kidnapped. The ransom: His $2 million prize money. The plot is ingenious and the schemes are diabolical. (Roger Ebert) 102 minutes
“Punisher: War Zone”
Action. *. R. Ray Stevenson, the new Punisher, an ex-Special Forces instructor who slaughters bad guys to avenge the murder of his family, is Irish and isn’t allowed to speak a word for the first 30 minutes of “War Zone.” That speaks volumes. This Punisher stabs, blows heads off, impales and shoots maybe 244 or so villain-victims. Judge, jury and executioner with extreme prejudice, he locks and loads and locks and loads again. (Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel) 93 minutes
“Quantum of Solace”
Sequel. Bond Sequel. ** 1/2. PG-13. Not unlike the global economy, the Bond market takes a dip in this latest installment. Daniel Craig is not the problem. He is the calm in director Marc Forster’s imperfect storm of action, edits, stunts. Craig’s pursed lips and icy gaze insist on the updated franchise notion that Bond isn’t merely a superior agent but also gifted killer. In this sequel, which gives the shadowy international crime syndicate of “Casino Royale” the name Quantum, Bond’s lethal efficiency is at issue. And M (played once more by Judi Dench, full of frost herself) is concerned. Arriving to do the dirty work as cynical baddie Dominic Greene is Mathieu Amalric. He uses a green company as front for a more familiar money-green endeavor. Returning for the complicated good are Giancarlo Giannini and Jeffrey Wright as Bond allies. Eye candy though not much more is provided by Olga Kurylenko as the latest Bond girl. (Kennedy) 105 minutes
“Role Models”
Guy comedy. **. R. “Role Models” is one of those coming-of-age tales in which the protagonists are old enough to know better but don’t — yet. Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott play cranky Danny and bone-headed Wheeler, two energy-drink salesmen ordered to do community service as mentors or go to jail. They’re ill-prepared to be the go-to guys of the title. Enter Ronnie and Augie. Pint-size newcomer, Bobb’e J. Thompson plays Ronnie, a black child with a jailhouse vocabulary. The filmmakers’ insistence on his unrelenting bad-itude is the chief reason for the movie’s R rating. It also provides a lazy movie-long gag. Christopher Mintz-Plasse, the actor with the seemingly permanent stuffy nose in “Superbad” is Augie. Danny’s shy-guy ward comes into his own only when he’s involved in a medieval role-playing game that has participants dressed up in fiefdom couture, making alliances and slaying one another in battlefield contests. Jane Lynch is winning as the ex-coke fiend and ex-felon who runs the Sturdy Wings mentor program and has Danny’s and Wheeler’s numbers. Like most current guy comedy fare, “Role Models” plays with filth and sentimentality. And like many of the genre, the naughty bits overwhelm the funny. (Kennedy) 99 minutes
“Slumdog Millionaire”
Rags to Riches Wonder. ***1/2. R. It’s a bold salvo beginning a movie as vastly entertaining as “Slumdog Millionaire” with scenes of torture. Yet, Danny Boyle does just that. The director doesn’t turn away from the harsh realities of a poor child’s life in Mumbai, India. “Slumdog” captures the corrugated roofs of shantytowns, the mountains of garbage, the sick commerce of child prostitution and enforced begging. All of this could be overwhelming if not for the vibrant saga of Jamal Malik (Dev Patel), brother Salim (Madhur Mittal)and beloved Lakita (Freida Pinto). Jamal’s tale of triumphs and tragedies unfolds as he explains to a police inspector why he is poised to win “Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?” Patel and Anil Kapoor are terrific opposites as the guiless Jamal and the arrogant game-show host. That Jamal may escape his fate to pursue his destiny by answering a question on a goofy show is tricky. Still, we sit on the edge of our seats like the movie’s citizens to cheer Jamal on. (Kennedy) 121 minutes
“Synecdoche, New York”
Playful Play Within a Play. ***1/2. R. This play within a play is set in New York City, which is re-created with an army of actors on a life-sized set inside a vast warehouse. Then a second warehouse must be built inside the first, with more actors impersonating the original cast, and a performer must be hired to play the director of that production; soon we’re tumbling down a very convoluted rabbit hole. Caden (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is a pudgy, alienated, sexually insecure stand-in for all humankind, fussing over projects that come to nothing as time ticks away. The film opens with the buzzing of Caden’s alarm clock and ends with him drifting into unconsciousness again. Depending on how you read the film’s deftly smudged time scheme, either 50 years have passed, or five minutes. Caden has lived, or hallucinated, a sprawling lifetime. (Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune) 125 minutes
“Twilight”
Vampire Horror. **1/2. PG-13. Director Hardwicke tenderly builds the love story of the emotionally lost Bella and BVOC (Big Vampire On Campus) Edward, based on the very popular vampire books. Their relationship develops under cloudy skies. And eventually Edward overcomes his deep desire to drain her blood so they can be the ultimate star-crossed lovers. The action picks up in the last fourth of the book, when Bella becomes the blue-plate special for a group of vampires who prefer to dine from the human menu. (Rick Bentley, McClatchy Newspapers) 118 minutes
