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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.
“17 Again”
Comedy. * 1/2. PG-13. A guy wishes he’d taken a different road and gets that opportunity when he’s transported back to senior year of high school. Now Mike O’Donnell (Zac Efron) is a schoolmate to his kids and way too young to be hanging around his loved but estranged wife. The story is as familiar as it sounds. Director Burr Steers can’t calibrate the edge, which provide plenty of uncomfortable, not so funny moments. But he does capture star Efron’s quasar aura. Matthew Perry, Leslie Mann and Michelle Trachtenberg star. (Kennedy) 102 minutes
“Adventureland”
Comedy. **1/2. R. From the director of “Superbad” comes a pretty good comedy. Greg Mottola’s semi-autobiographical film proves he has a feel for the gentle as much as the base. Jesse Eisenberg is James Brennna, a college grad who finds himself working at an amusement park. There he meets misfit proprietors (goofballs Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig), minor celebs like resident hottie Lisa P. and handyman Connell (Ryan Reynolds). He also falls for the coworker he just might lose his virginity to, Em Levin (Kristen Stewart). Every generation has a version (or more) of this story. That said, Martin Starr quietly steals the show and tucks it in his satchel as Joel Schiffman. The sensitive observer sees all and knows much, gifts that do little to protect him from the wounds of bigotry. (Kennedy) 107 minutes
“Battle for Terra”
Animated. ** 1/2. PG. Aristomenis Tsirbas takes a classic sci-fi premise: A peaceful planet is invaded by aliens. Then the first-time feature director turns it on its noggin using gentle 3D wizardry: The aggressors are humans who’ve been wandering in space looking for a planet to call their own even if its someone else’s. Evan Rachel Wood gives voice to fiesty Terrian Mala. Luke Wilson provides the gruff assertions of a captured human pilot. (Kennedy) 86 minutes
“Earth”
Eco-doc. ***. G. If Disneynature’s first feature seems like a much abridged version of “Planet Earth,” that’s because there’s talent overlap with the celebrated BBC series, starting with directors Alastair Motherwell and Mark Linfield. “Earth” follows a year in the life of three animal families (polar bears, humpback whales and elephants). There are plenty of magnificent close-ups, aerials, slo-mo and time-lapsed footage of other animal kingdom denizens. James Earl Jones lends his rich baritone to the at-times overly didactic script. (Kennedy) 90 minutes
“Fast & Furious”
Auto Action. * 1/2. PG-13. You get your cars that are fast and your characters that are furious. This is an expertly made action film, with special effects are good and the acting is extremely basic. Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel) has been in the Dominican Republic for the past six years but now returns to America, where he is a wanted man. Probable charges: vehicular homicide, murder, smuggling, dating an FBI agent’s sister. Reason for return: Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), the girl he loved, has been killed. This provides a scaffolding on which to hang the movie, which involves a series of chase scenes, fights, explosions and sexy women who would like to make themselves available to Toretto, to no avail. He is single-minded. (Roger Ebert, Chicago Tribune) 107 minutes
“Fighting”
Drama. ***. PG-13. Guilt meet pleasure. Director-cowriter Dito Montiel’s popcorn nod to grittier ’70s films stars lovely brute Channing Tatum as a street fighter with heart and Terrence Howard as his hustler-mentor. Keep an eye open for Zulay Henao, who plays the love interest. Watch as Altagarcia Guzmán nearly steals the whole rough-and-tender show as a compact, straight-talking grandmother. (Kennedy) 104 minutes
“Ghosts of Girlfriends Past”
Romantic Comedy. ** 1/2. PG-13. “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past” with Matthew McConaughey as Connor Mead, a won’t-commit heel of a fashion photographer, who goes through supermodels the way banks go through stimulus money. He’s so oversexed and overbooked that he has to break up “in bulk” — three women dumped by conference call. But the wedding of his brother drags Connor Mead back to the family estate, back to where he learned his womanizing ways from his late Uncle Wayne, back to the girl he let get away. Jennifer Garner is perfectly cast as Connor’s first love, the one he fled because she’s on to him. (Roger Moore, Orlano Sentinel) 115 minutes
“Gigantic”
Indie Comedy. ** 1/2. R. A loser mattress salesman with a peculiar father meets a beautiful lost girl with an eccentric millionaire father, is attacked by a loony while trying to evade love and adopt a Chinese baby. (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times) 98 minutes
“Hannah Montana: The Movie”
‘Tween Musical. **. G. “Hannah Montana: The Movie” version of the Disney TV series is made for girls aged 6-14 and no one else. And they’re gonna love it. If you were a 10-year-old girl, you would of course want to be small-town sweetheart Miley Stewart and/or her secret pop-star alter ego, Hannah Montana. Miley Cyrus makes both characters so likably harmless and so attractively accessible, it’s hard not to be charmed. Just try to resist her endless supply of energy and moxie! Even when she gets a little petulant and carried away with her celebrity lifestyle in Los Angeles — which prompts a return to Tennessee for some hometown reprogramming. (Christy Lemire, Associated Press) 99 minutes
“The Haunting in Connecticut”
Horror. *1/2. PG-13. This latest film fright sinks or swims with the actors. Kyle Gallner makes a very convincing boy-about-to-die; Virginia Madsen is his properly stricken mom; and Martin Donovan, an underused leading man, plays the stressed, guilt-ridden dad well. The title is “Haunting,” not “Stabbing, Hatcheting or Butchered With a Machete in Connecticut,” so it won’t appeal to the hard-core gore crowd. But it has plenty of creep- you-out potential for kids just discovering big-screen horror. (Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel) 92 minutes
“I Love You, Man”
Bromantic comedy. ***. R. Poor Peter Klaven. The L.A. real estate agent didn’t know he was so friend deficient till he proposed to Zooey and discovered a dearth of Best Man candidates. Paul Rudd is sweet as the friendship dork who finds a male buddy and mentor — of sorts — in Sydney Fife. Jason Segel is winningly repellent and oddly appealing as the slacker dude who rescues Peter even as he puts his nuptials at risk. With lots of cheeky chatter director John Hamburg’s script deserves its R rating but also earns audiences’ laughter. (Kennedy) 95 minutes
“Knowing”
Sci-Fi Thriller. 1/2. PG-13. Cage plays John Koestler, an MIT astrophysicist whose son comes home with a slip of paper he took from a newly opened time capsule. It’s covered with numbers. And dad starts to see patterns in the number sequence 09112996. He breaks the code, sees other disasters in sync with other numbers. And then he finds the dates of disasters that haven’t happened yet. (Roger Moore, The Orlando Sentinel) 110 minutes
“Monsters vs. Aliens”
Re-animated B movie. ***. PG. So what if this animated homage to sci-fi, B-movies raids pop culture’s attic for stuff to wow the kids. What it lacks in originality, it nearly makes up for with winking asides and FX pleasures. From the opening scene, the movie’s 3D tricks inspire oohs, ahhs, and whoas. Reese Witherspoon voices bride-to-be Susan Murphy. Irradiated by meteor gunk, she grows just shy of 50 feet tall (wink). At a top secret facility, she meets fellow misfit monsters B.O.B, Missing Link, Dr. Cockroach Ph.D, and a beguiling grub named Insectosaurus. The battle of the title comes when alien Gallaxhar (and his clones) arrive to plunder Earth. The roster of clever voice talent includes Seth Rogen, Will Arnett, Hugh Laurie, Rainn Wilson and Stephen Colbert. (Kennedy) 94 minutes
“Observe and Report”
Comedy. *. R. Hankering for a film shot through with contempt for the working man — an anyone else? Writer-director Jody Hill’s unfunny tale of a mall security guard who plays at detective will fit the bill. Usually likeable Seth Rogen is borderline Ronnie Barnhardt. Often winning Anna Faris is a beastly cosmetics counter. Hill aimed to combine “Taxi Driver” with a comedy. He misses. He wounds. Also stars Ray Liotta and Michael Peña. (Kennedy) 82 minutes
“Paris 36”
Drama. ** 1/2. PG-13. In Paris in the 1930s, an ancient music hall named the Chansonia wheezes along with performers who are past their sell-by dates. It’s a time of social upheaval in France; the Popular Front, a left-wing coalition, has taken power, and the rise of Hitler is stirring up French right-wingers. The Chansonia’s cast and crew are solidly socialist. The club’s fascist landlord has padlocked the doors for rent in arrears, Pigoil and his friends are all out of work. The movie advances somewhat creakily through its plot and contains mostly obligatory surprises. Still, it’s pleasant and amusing. In French with English subtitles. (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times) 120 minutes
“Sin Nombre”
Drama. ***1/2. R. Sayra is a young Honduran headed toward a hopeful if unknown future. Casper’s a Mexican gang member eluding a certain, brutal end. The powerful tale of their meeting atop a freight train making its way to the U.S. through Mexico announces the stirring debut of a gifted American filmmaker, Cary Fukunaga. Stars newcomer Edgar Flores, Paulina Gaitan, Kristyan Ferrer and Tenoch Huerta Mejía. In Spanish with English subtitles. Exclusively at the Esquire. (Kennedy) 96 minutes
“The Soloist”
Drama. *** 1/2. PG-13. This story of a story of a homeless musician and the Los Angeles Times reporter who writes a column, then another and another about their remarkable relationship is preceptive and engaging. As Nathaniel Anthony Ayers and Steve Lopez, dynamos Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr.’s deliver a series of duets that hit the high and sour notes of friendship. Catherine Keener stars plays Lopez’s (fictional) ex-wife and colleagues. Many of the film’s luminous extras came from organizations like the Lamp Community, which serve Skid Row’s often forgotten citizens. (Kennedy) 119 minutes
“State of Play”
Political Thriller. *** 1/2. PG-13. Forgive it the dull title. This conspiracy thriller comes at us like a bat out of hell and keeps up a brisk rhythm built for intelligence. Russell Crowe as Washington Globe reporter Cal McAffrey, Helen Mirren is his editor, and Rachel McAdams is a talented (and cost-effective) blogger. Early on, a thief, a bystander, and a pretty congressional aide wind up dead. Is there a connection? Puh-lease. Ben Affleck plays Rep. Stephen Collins. Robin Wright Penn is his wife. Jeff Daniels also stars. (Kennedy) 127 minutes
“Sugar”
Drama. *** 1/2. R. Newcomer Algenis Pérez Soto is quite the catch as Miguel “Sugar” Santos, a Dominican pitcher who goes from the ball-fields of his island nation to the corn fields of Iowa (with a stop in Arizona’s desert). This indie triple about the burden and pleasures of glittering baseball diamond dreams was written directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck with love of the game and empathy for immigrant sagas. (Kennedy) 114 minutes
“Sunshine Cleaning”
Family dramedy. **1/2. R. Yes, this quirky dramedy has much in common with a certain flick with the word “Sunshine” in its title. Evenso, Amy Adams and Emily Blunt are sweetly convincing as somewhat aimless sisters who begin to discover themselves once they launch a crime-scene cleaning business in Albuquerque. Alan Arkin stars as a grandfather of a oddster young’un in this touching journey. Mary Lynn Rajskub and Clifton Collins Jr. give lovely turns as the people the sisters Lorkowski take subtle shines to. (Kennedy) 92 minutes
“Tokyo”
Three Short Dramas. ***. Not Rated. A collection of three short films all set in Tokyo but directed by foreigners. “Tokyo!” finds xenophobes and freaks wandering the streets of Japan’s capital, grappling with alienation and ennui, horror and regret, toilet paper and pizza boxes. Without doubt the standout, Gondry’s “Interior Design” tracks a young couple as they hunt for an apartment, staying in the claustrophobic flat of a friend while seeking employment and a space they can afford. (Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer) 90 minutes
“X-Men Origins: Wolverine ”
Comic Book. **. PG-13. Hugh Jackman seems more than willing to make this prequel growl playing the most interesting of X-Men, cigar chomping Logan-Wolverine. Liev Schreiber is at the ready, too, as brother and nemesis, Victor. So what dulls Wolverine’s new “adamantium” claws? An unresolved tension. Like the best comic-book adaptations, the movie wants be taken seriously about issues of violence and ambivalence while relying on the facile tricks of lesser action flicks. (Kennedy) 117 minutes
