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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.
“Bedtime Stories”
Kids Comedy. **. PG. In “Bedtime Stories,” Sandler plays Skeeter, a hotel maintenance man who gets roped into watching his sister’s kids for a week. although he is ill-equipped for that chore. Skeeter feeds the young’uns junk and sends them to bed early with wildly implausible bedtime stories. The next day, however, Skeeter finds the stories coming true. It rains gumballs. Angry dwarfs kick him in the leg. Beautiful damsels require his chivalrous heroics. So, naturally, Skeeter tries to bend the stories to his benefit. (David Frese, McClatchy Newspapers) 95 minutes
“Confessions of a Shopaholic”
Comedy. ** 1/2. PG. Directed by P.J. Hogan of “My Best Friend’s Wedding,” this comedy owes a debt to Golden Age screwball jaunts in which ruses and misunderstandings rule. Thanks to Isla Fisher, the film makes an interest payment. There is something comedically right about the red-head. She takes a place alongside Téa Leoni in the much depleted ranks of pratfalling, pretty women. Daughter of thrifty, working-class parents, the credit-addled Rebecca Bloomwood becomes a personal finance columnist for a biz magazine. She’d hope to work at a high-fashion rag more suitable to her upscale hankerings. The joke is obvious and its just a matter of time before the jig is up and the debt collector snags her? Brit Hugh Dancy plays the Girl in the Green Scarf’s editor. Kristin Scott Thomas has bilingual sport as the fashion editor of “Alette.” But the movie is decidely slight. When it comes to its use of a homeless character, it’s downright cowardly. (Kennedy) 112 minutes.
“Coraline”
Animated tale. ** 1/2. PG. A film as painstakingly crafted as this one about a curious girl (Dakota Fanning) who travels through a tunnel and finds a parallel family should be cause for celebration. And the stop-motion animation is often mesmerizing. Visually, screenwriter-director Henry Selick’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s novel is a wonder. (Although the 3D seems over-hyped.) But an unpleasantness haunts the yarn. It’s not the “Other” parents Coraline discovers with their button eyes and dark intentions that create a problem in tone. It’s her real parents (Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman). They provide a disturbing portrait in parental disregard. Perhaps their harassed moods are supposed to ring true. Instead Coraline’s folks — especially Mom — are as sour as the food left spoiling in the fridge while they pursue their careers. (Kennedy) 100 minutes
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Magical Fable. ****. PG-13. David Fincher brings his visual gift and his ever deepening appreciation of storytelling to this wondrous tale of a man who ages backward. The film begins in early 20th Century New Orleans and ends in this century as a hurricane bares down on the Crescent City. Brad Pitt is Benjamin, a creation of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Orphaned, the ancient infant comes under the care of Queenie, a nursing-home attendant (Taraji P. Henson.) He grows up. He grows younger. Benjamin’s saga unfolds in a modern hospital room where a daughter learns about her aged mother’s great love. Cate Blanchett is Daisy and Julia Ormond plays Caroline. Much expanded from Fitzgerald’s short story, Eric Roth’s script has many similarites with his “Forrest Gump” screenplay. Benjamin is wiser, more tender. So, too, Fincher’s magical, mortal vision. (Kennedy) 156 minutes
“Defiance”
Holocaust drama. *** 1/2. R. It is not the true story but the conventional storytelling that renders director Edward Zwick’s film about little known heroes of Jewish Resistence during the Holocaust engaging but not enduring. Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber and Jamie Bell play the Bielski brothers. The trio fought the Nazis and built an encampment for Jews in the woods of Belarussia. A mournful score has rending strains of traditional Eastern European Jewish music, featuring violin solos by Joshua Bell. Cinematographer Eduardo Serra’s palette is rich. Zwick (“Blood Diamond”) has a gift for the contemporary message movie but comes to this fresh story with a few too many major motion picture tics. “Defiance” is nearly too lovely and familiar for its ugly subject matter and its uncovered tale of courage and community. (Kennedy) 137 minutes
“Doubt”
Moral Drama. ***. PG-13. It isn’t titans Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman who make the pained case for the wreckage wrought by suspicion in John Patrick Shanley’s “Doubt.” Instead, it’s Viola Davis’ character. Her runny nose and teary eyes seem the sole possessions of a mother who has learned that her son may — or may not — have been molested by a priest at a parochial school. Son Donald, is the first black child to attend St. The bearer of the jarring news is Sister Aloysius Beauvier. The principal of St. Nicholas School is played with stiff resolve by Streep. Hoffman is Father Brendan Flynn, the oft priest in question. Amy Adams plays Sister James, a hopeful novice who doesn’t want to believe her superior’s fears but acts as catalyst to Shanley’s moral duel. There’s lot of fire power for Shanley’s tale which doesn’t quite maneuver its own doubts as we might hope. Yet, in the midst of a cast that should have wowed more, in the midst of a film that could have rattled more, Davis’ sorrow remains indelible. (Kennedy) 104 minutes
“Fanboys”
Nerd Road Trip. * 1/2. PG-13. “Fanboys” is an affectionate homage to “Star Wars” films and the feeding frenzy they fed. In 1998, The Force was coming back. That’s when “Episode 1, The Phantom Menace,” the first “Star Wars” prequel, would hit theaters. Geek-friends Windows, Linus and Hutch are counting the days. Their high school pals have all moved on, but they still wear the Storm Trooper gear, ride around in a customized van with a Chewbacca horn. The whole “Star Wars”/”Star Trek” nerd-feud should be epic but only earns a smirk or two. (Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel) 90 minutes
“Fired Up”
Teen Comedy. *1/2. PG-13. It’s “Wedding Crashers” with high school seniors and bras and panties. Two vaguely unsympathetic hot shots duck football camp in order to join the overwhelmingly female cheerleading squad. Cheer camp, they learn, is a rolling meadow of pliable teen nubility. (Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune) 94 minutes
“Friday the 13th”
Slasher redux. *. R. It slayed them at the box office opening weekend but that doesn’t mean director Marcus Nispel’s retread of the Jason Vorhees story should be celebrated. When his sister goes missing, Clay (Jared Padalecki) heads into the kill zone known as Camp Crystal Lake. In the woods, he finds a nememis in smug frat boy Trent and an ally in Jenna (Danielle Panabaker). As he gets closer to learning what happened to sis, the body count mounts. The movie is short on wit. (Exception: Aaron Yoo having fun as the stoned rube who goes into the shed — no, not the shed!) But then its lead, machete-weilding character Jason has always been short on personality. Gore aficianado Keith Garcia, program manager at the Denver Film Society and tag-team partner on the Denver Post review (see ) put it this way “I give it one star. For boring me to tears when it should have made me scream.” (Kennedy) 98 minutes.
“Gran Torino”
Racial drama. ***. R. The real muscle car here isn’t the sleek forest-green Ford of the title, it’s Clint Eastwood. The icon directed and stars as Walt Kowalski, a bigoted, growling retired autoworker whose routine shifts hard after a Hmong teen tries to steal his prized possession. In addition to race, faith and family are deep themes. A young priest hopes to get Walt into the confessional. Like “Million Dollar Baby,” Eastwood’s Oscar-winning movie, this film is a neo-melodrama. Emotions and antagonisms are heightened in ways that look over-simplified. Yet so much feels true and honorable. Eastwood’s flinty performance finds sweet chemistry with newcomers Bee Vang and Ahney Her, who play the Hmong neighbors Walt finds kinship with. (Kennedy) 116 minutes
“He’s Just Not That Into You”
Romantic comedy. ** 1/2. P-13. Gigi is so off about the guys she dates, she seems like a proto-stalker. Realist Alex (Justin Long) is the fella with the insights to cure her delusions. Expanded to other characters, this setup has its charms. There really are things men and women can reveal about the opposite gender’s playbook. If only Gigi’s delusions weren’t so wince-inducing. Director Ken Kwapis makes it far too easy to feel superior to Gigi (Ginnifer Goodwin) who acts as the film’s linch-pin. She’s not silly. She’s psycho. In gender parity, this star-driven comedy also does a disservice to Ben (handsome Bradley Cooper), the hubby who’s torn between knockout temptress Anna (Scarlett Johansson) and his knockout wife (Jennifer Connelly). Displaying chemistry worthy a better rom-com, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Aniston provide a respite from the rote unmarrieds seven years into a good thing before doubt set in. (Kennedy) 129 minutes
“Inkheart”
Adventure/Fantasy. *1/2. PG. Brendan Fraser stars as a bookbinder who drags his daughter through every dingy old bookstore of Europe, seeking a novel that swallowed his wife nine years before. He doesn’t tell daughter Maggie this, but she’s smart enough to recall that he hasn’t read her a bedtime story ever since Mom disappeared. Dad, it seems, is a Silvertongue, one of those characters described in the novel he seeks (titled “Inkheart”). In the act of reading a story aloud, he brings that story’s reality to his own. (Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel) 90 minutes
“The International”
Thriller. ***. R. Clive Owen brings scruffy, dogged energy to this globe-leaping thriller that’ll have you booking travel to Berlin, Milan and Istanbul. Louis Salinger is a former Scotland Yard man who’s never gotten used to being merely an investigator. When a colleague is killed in the midst of a case against a multi-national, many-tendrilled bank, his cop reflexes are roused. Naomi Watts gives a surprisingly stilted turn as Salinger’s partner in crime-busting, Manhattan assistant D.A. Eleanor Whitman. Evenso, Tom Tykwer directs this satisfying ride with taut vigor. Armin Mueller-Stahl does subtle work as Wilhelm Wexler, the bank’s fixer and the movie’s most interesting monster. One of his acheivments: making it very clear that the buttoned-down purveyors of debt and destruction are the worst sort of baddies. (Kennedy) 118 minutes
“Last Chance Harvey”
Romantic Drama. ***. PG-13. The story nestled inside “Last Chance Harvey” is neither unfamiliar nor uncommon. Life is generally good, but the years chip away at onetime dreams; relationships fail or never quite happen; days are framed by a series of compromises, big and small. Dustin Hoffman is in danger of losing his job as a jingle writer and hurt when his daughter wants her step-father to give her away. Emma Thompson is a 40s, single, survey taker at Heathrow Airport. In between meandering conversations, love begins to bloom. The usually verbal Hoffman makes great use of silence and restraint, patient in unexpected moments, standing back to allow Kate time to feel. (Kennedy) 100 minutes
“Marley & Me”
Shaggy family tale. ****. PG. Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston are young marrieds John and Jen Grogan, early-career journalists who’ve relocated to West Palm Beach, Fla., from Michigan. John is encouraged by friend and fellow journalist Sebastian (Eric Dane of “Grey’s Anatomy”) to get a dog to assuage Jen’s baby yearning. How hard can it be? How hard, indeed. John Grogan’s memoir about a yellow Lab and the family he helped create brims with authentic insights about dogs and humans. But just as vibrantly, it revels in marriage and career and the constant dance of a couple’s hopes and dreams. (Kennedy) 115 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
“Moscow, Belgium”
Dramedy. ***1/2. Not Rated. Matty and Johnny defy the requirement of so many romances: they hardly meet cute. When the 41-year-old mother of three and the 29-year-old long-haul truck drive collide in a parking lot, it’s with ire, not fire. It’s no surprise each has an opinion about who’s to blame. And because the two are carrying the baggage of past hurts, it plays like a battle royal of the sexes. It’s a special love story that has us pulling for two lovers even as we feel they really may not be right for each other. Emotions run deep but are never overdone. (Kennedy) 102 minutes
“New in Town”
Romantic comedy. ***. PG. Minnesoooooota is always going to be the perfect setting for a frozen “fish-out-of-water” romantic comedy, which is a big reason why “New in Town,” the first genuinely funny film of 2009, works. It’s a formula as old as the hills. Send a cynical Miami city slicker (Renée Zellweger) to take over a dairy products plant in New Ulm, Minn., and lay off half its workforce. Hurl her against stubborn employees (J.K. Simmons) and chummy, too-helpful ladies who scrapbook (Siobhan Fallon). Let her make the worst possible impression with the hunky local “Bud-drinking redneck with a pickup truck” (Harry Connick Jr.) and let the chips fall where they may, where they always may. (Roger Moore, The Orlando Sentinel) 96 minutes
“Paul Blart: Mall Cop”
Family-friendly comedy. ** 1/2. PG. There is plenty that should make this Kevin James vehicle just another manufactured comedy headed for a predictable ending and decent box-office numbers. But James’ shtick conjures warm memories of time spent with Abbott and Costello flicks. James is all Lou Costello but with something unexpected and gently exploited: a goofy sex appeal. James is a single father and shopping mall security guard vet. “Mall Cop” isn’t pretty. It looks tackier than any of the stores anchoring the Jersey mall targeted by a skateboarding, BMX’ing crew of robbers. If it feels familiar, it’s because “Mall Cop” recasts “Die Hard,” putting a bumbler where John McClane once ruled. Still, in the midst of Oscar-contending dramas comes a fizzy tonic for families hankering for live-action, raunch-free comedy. (Kennedy) 87 minutes
“The Pink Panther 2”
Broad comedy. * 1/2. PG. Steve Martin is back as the bumbling French detective. He still hasn’t bothered to learn a faux French accent. The editing doesn’t hide that even the simplest stunts are now done by fellows in snow-white wigs. But this family-friendly farce plays lighter than the first Martin “Panther,” even if Martin himself still doesn’t “get” what made the character funny. The Magna Carta, the Shroud of Turin and a famous Japanese sword have been stolen by The Tornado. An international “dream team” — English (Alfred Molina), Italian (Andy Garcia, actually funny), Japanese (Yuki Matsuzaki) and Indian (Aishwarya Rai) — has been assembled to crack the case. (Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel) 89 minutes
“Push”
Science fiction. * 1/2. PG-13. Dakota Fanning stars in this new comic-book-inspired thriller about mind readers and mind benders, people with telekinetic powers given to them by the government in some demented effort to create walking, talking human weapons. It’s a confusing mash-up of every movie or TV show you’ve ever seen about telekinesis. Fanning plays Cassie, a 13-year-old “watcher,” somebody who can see the future and sketch it out on her note pad. She shows up at the Hong Kong door of a “mover” played by Chris Evans. He’s been expecting her. His dad, a watcher, told him to look for her 10 years ago. And here she is, perky, punky and ready to bring down the bad guys. (Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel) 108 minutes
“Revolutionary Road”
Marital Drama. **1/2. R. Director Sam Mendes’ take on Richard Yates’ acclaimed novel set in the 1950s joins a list of prestige adaptations that never equal their originals. (“Doubt” and “Frost/Nixon”). Golden Globe-winner Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio are April and Frank Wheeler, a vivacious couple who move to the Connecticut suburbs, steadily shedding the dreams that attracted them to each other for pretty delusions that threaten to tear them down. When April suggests they up and move to Paris, light streams in. And neighbors and colleagues get nervous. Audiences have grown used to tales of 1950s constraint and suburban agonies. When Yates told the Wheeler’s tale in 1961 it was groundbreaking. His novel endures yet. But despite its delicate, intelligent craft, the drama (screenplay by Justin Haythe) feels false and familiar. (Kennedy) 119 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. The film won four Golden Globe Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Original Score.
“The Spirit”
Superhero Fantasy. **1/2. PG-13. This film version of Will Eisner’s ground-breaking comic series, “The Spirit” is a visual explosion ignited by at times campy acting and melodrama so thick it will hurt your teeth. It’s hard not to smile and grimace when one character tells a wounded partner: “Just shut up and bleed.” But the movie could not have been presented properly any other way. This film is about The Spirit’s (Gabriel Macht) unstoppable attempts to do good as he clashes with the never-ending evil of The Octopus (Samuel L. Jackson). (Rick Bentley, McClatchy Newspapers) 108 minutes
“Taken”
Action thriller. *1/2. PG-13. Former CIA operative Bryan Mills is a divorced father trying to rebuild a relationship with his teen daughter after years of clandestine absences. His daddy talents may be fledgling but not his more lethal skill set. So pity the Albanian fools that rouse them when they kidnap 17-year-old Kim, a virgin, for the underground sex trade. Directed by Pierre Morel, this thriller has none of the hyper-active charms of his rousing “District B13.” Instead, thanks to the handiwork of writers Luc Besson and Mark Kamen, “Taken” is an exploitation thriller. It seizes the worst the world has to offer (the sex-slave outrages that The New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof exposes so brilliantly) to bolster its utterly rote rhythms and payback conclusions. As Mills, Liam Neeson cuts a fine determined figure in a black leather jacket, but he’s decidely glum. And one gets the sense it isn’t merely because his daughter’s been snatched. (Kennedy) 94 minutes
“Waltz With Bashir”
Animated documentary. ****. R. Over beers in a Tel Aviv bar, a friend recounts a recurring dream of wartime. That night, Ari Folman, a 19-year-old soldier at the time of Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, has his first flashback. Folman is the central character in this powerfully rendered, animated documentary about wartime memories and guilt. He is also the writer-director of this personal reckoning with Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, the assassination of the Christian Phalangist President Bashir Gemayel and the subsequent massacres of Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. It’s worth noting Folman was the creator of the Israeli TV series about psychoanalysis “In Treatment,” which became the HBO series. Animation turns out to be a surprisingly profound way to recover memories and discover fresh meanings. The deserved front-runner in the race for the Oscar for Best Foreign picture, the film as vital an addition to our understanding of post-traumatic agonies as it is vibrant contribution to the artistry of animation. (Kennedy) 87 minutes
“The Wrestler”
Comeback drama. ***1/2. R. Headstrong director Darren Aronofsky delivers one of the finest pictures of the year, featuring one of the rawest performances of the year. Playing a man whose job description requires a physical fortitude that has waned, but who’s possessed of the will to go on, Golden Globe-winner Mickey Rourke rattles and touches core sympathies as pro-wrestler Randy “The Ram” Robinson. So, too, does Marisa Tomei as Cassidy, the stripper Randy flirts lovingly with. Neither career path may reflect our own, but their vulnerabilities are profoundly recognizable. Rachel Evan Wood plays the other woman in Randy’s life, estranged daughter Stephanie. “The Wrestler” has the intimacy of a fly-on-the-wall documentary and more than a few wince-inducing moments in the ring. But the tough-tender drama (written by Robert Siegel) makes for visceral art. Like its protagonist, it aims to endure. (Kennedy) 105 minutes
